MandM's Personal Finance Blog

My bf and i have been trying to decide on a wedding date. We both cant pick a date. we were debating on the long weekend in august. i wanted to know what anyone thought about having a wedding on a long weekend. Good idea or bad?

Today i paid off $50 principal on the computer credit card so it goes from $586.39 to $536.39. I also paid what i owed my mom $35.

I figure every little bit helps and that i'm better then where i was a week ago!.. friday i get my cheque so that can go to more debt !

On sunday my bf and i ended up getting my engagement ring and wedding band. they were on sale reg. $899 down to $720. then last nite i ended up getting a wedding dress reg $870 marked down to $199. I'm excited about the price for the wedding dress .. even though we havent set a date yet. now i'm shopping online trying to figure out how much everything is going to cost and the cheapest way to do everything. so if anyone has any ideas or comments pls let me know. is there nething that you did that you thought was a great idea? is there anything that you wouldnt have done if you were to redo it? i look forward to reading your replies.

I started working another job on the weekend at a restaurant .. i worked 5.5 hours on sat. and almost 13 hours on sun.
in tips i made $95.00

I figure the way i am going to split the money is this way:
wages go towards paying debt until it is paid off
tips go to savings
and governement cheques go into my account so that i can use that money to spend. ($200) a month that i get for baby bonus and supplement.

So with the money i had :
cheque from job 1 : 219.97
~ 70.53 computer
~ 20.00 mom .
tips: 95.00
~$40 ef
~$55 mortgage prepayment

and i am waiting till i get my wages from the restaurant to use the rest on my credit card because i want to put my restaurant wages on my card too!

Yesterday started out to be a crappy day. I woke up to notice that we had two new messages on the answering machine. It was only 7am!... I listened to them and it was my bf. I guess the reason that the phone didnt ring was because the phone was dead.. much like the car my bf was driving. He ended up having to pull to the side of the road and get a tow truck driver. $80 later and $40 for parts the car is working (so far) which makes me madder at our financial situation. so i start trying to show my bf where all our money goes saying we spent so much for gas so far this month and so much for misc .. trying to make him realize that we need to start saving money!.. i'm hoping he'll realize it someday.. and in the mean time i hope i find a job

we just put a different car on the road and took the old one off, only to find that the insurance company wanted us to pay $242 a month for car insurance. Needluss to say " i flipped." considering the only car we have is a 95 neon. I thought that was outrageous!.. i mean my bf is driving farther to work but that is still insane! no wonder insurance companies have such huge profits. so today i went to the local insurance company and did a quote only to find that they would only charge us $171 a month... thats $875 saved over an entire year! so anyone that is reading this , check your insurance rates every year!

Yesterday i went shopping with my older sis..... we both had to get dresses for the weddings we have to go to.... i needed 2 dresses .. one for a bridesmaid dress one for just attending.... both the dresses i got were reg. $99 each. i got both for $40 each.. i also got high heeled shoes reg. $40 i got them for $20. i also bought myself a pair of shorts for $10 reg $16.99 and a top for $10. I bought some other necessities. Total cost for yesterday $172.00

Savings:
Dresses saved $60 each = $120
Shorts=6.99
shoes=20

Savings =146.99

attached is the pic of the bridesmaid dress i got

I haven’t written for the past few days so here is an update of what’s been going on.
Our savings account is now at $1400! Yay . Thanks to the $200 I put in there from savings so far this month, I also added a cheque we had received and the rolls of change we had. I went out and spent $65 on a mop/vac for the kitchen floor ( one of the Bissell ones) turns out I have to take it back because it leaks the cleaning solution when it is not in use… I saw a video for it that said you can just leave the solution in it when u put it away making it easier for when you go to use it next time. I felt guilty spending the money but we had no mop so I decided that this one would be great because I usually have to sweep twice just to get all the dog hair and it would be easier to vacuum it up. All well we will just exchange it. We paid $110 + interest off on the computer, so now it sits at an even $600.. and I plan to pay $100 + interest every month, so I can get it paid off before Christmas! Oh ya I forgot the best part, I went grocery shopping with a budget of $150 and only spent $70!.. but then I saved $13.00 on meat. My bf also worked a side job on Sat roofing so I’m not sure what I will do with that money yet……

How we save money iss. 1

I think the main way that my bf and I save money is on food. With our son being only 8 months old we really don't like going out to eat, as we are afraid he might act up plus neither one of us can bare spending the money: when we can make it at home so much cheaper. We both feel guilty after eating out. Once in a while we do go for breakfast, but that only ends up costing us maybe $10. We also save money by not drinking pop, (neither one of us likes the taste). We also don't smoke or drink. Therefore prob saving tons on not buying it, and medical bills. But most importantly by saving our lungs.

Yay today was my bf's payday!... He had an extra $50 on it ... therefore that is going in my savings account that i just opened yesterday with the 4%interest rate. along with it is the money we have saved so far:

Gas heat: $28
Bell: $4.45
Gas for the truck: $35
Rogers: $1.19
Water & sewage: $22.23
Hydro: $33.84 ( for 2 months)
Baby Expenses : $40

Plus bf's extra pay from last weekend: $30

TOTAL SO FAR: $194.71 Lets round that to $200 even.( i like round numbers)

I hope that we will have more to put into savings by the end of the month

Today's achievement..

Well today i went to school, I am trying to get my ged. Today was free sub day so i ended up getting a free sub for lunch .. which more than makes up for the $1.25 i spent at the candy machine. Then i offered to help clean up and I ended up getting another one to take home. ( I might just give that one to my bf, if hes nice lol).. i figure on going home and putting $ 200 on the car parts bill .. thats now totally just over $400 until we take some parts back and get a refund. Vehicles cost so much money!!

Money spent on wants : $1.25
Money spent on bills : $200
Money saved : Subs @ $6.00 each = $12

Todays achievement ..

I spent no money today .. and i opened up a new savings account with a 4% interest rate, and no fee associated with it!
well no fees that i will use. I will just use this account to save money and transfer between my other account at the same bank.

We have some money saved up, what should we do with it?? Should we :

a.) put it on the mortgage to pay it down quicker?

b.) put it on the credit line with a 6% interest rate?

c.) Give it to family member for owed money? no interest rate

d.) put it into rrsp?

e.) put it into resp?

f.) pay off computer? 19.5% interest rate

which ones do u think and if more than one then what percent should go to each??

THANKS FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS!

I started this blog to get me more motivated to save and easily see where we stand financially!.. I would love any comments or opinions that you may have.. First let me explain how we ended up where we are now. My bf and i were dateing for awhile and then found out i was pregnant. At the time we were living with my mom in an apartment. We decided to get a house before the baby was born because we thought it would be hard to save up for one afterwards. We had to borrow money to get the downpayment. ($7000 on the credit line and $2000 from a family member.) Our house cost us $109000. We started paying on the mortgage on sept 1 2006. We moved in on july 5 and our son was born in Aug. We now pay $137.22 Weekly for the mortgage. My bf gets paid weekly so it just makes it easier. The months where there are 4 weeks we pay less then the monthly payment would be .. but the months where there are 5 weeks we pay more, but my bf also makes more. We have 3 weddings to go to .. 2 of which my bf is in the wedding party and one of which i am also a part of the wedding party. the $170 is for gifts.. we have already bought the bridal shower gift and the wedding gift for one, so that is not included. I am curious as to how well we can do! ..And the journey begins!