Debt Free Kid

As of this morning (payday), Friday 27 May, 2011 I am credit card debt free. 30 months, $20 000, Paid. Off. Thank you to so many bloggers who inspired me back in November 2008 to start on this self-improvement project. In particular I would like to shout out to Fabulously Broke, Jolie, and Grace, who were with me from the beginning. Thanks as well to my ex-sweetheart who covered all my weekend fun expenses so I did not experience too much debt burnout. You can do this too! Stop Shopping! Seriously, Karissa

Last week was a crazy one. It was a quiet week at work after crazy the week prior, but my home life turned upside down. Literally. We had to be out of the apartment by Saturday, which was the same day of Bean's fifth birthday party, his first big birthday party ever. Up until this year I did not have the nerve or the cash to pay for a party for twelve kids, but this year I took a deep breath and went for it. The week started at the mechanics, where I forked over yet another $200 to have the alternater replaced. This was necessary, since I had already started loading up the car and taking loads to second-hand stores, the consignment shop, and the free market. I had a car-load of toys packed in, to go to Bean's dad's in the big city, when the car decided to die in an intersection not far from home. By mid-week the car was repaired, and I was shuttling loads of mostly toys to the house at which we are staying until end of July. By Friday the movers came and took all the bi...

We Canadians applaud ourselves for our universal health care system, like it is something we came up with and exceled at ourselves. As far as I know, the only thing I do to better our health care system is to remain employed and pay taxes into the greater system, as well as try to stay as healthy as I can so that I can avoid the health care system altogether. Today I could not avoid it. Thanks to some pesky symptoms of stress, my nurse practitioner wrote me up a requisition for an ECG and told me to go to a clinic in the other part of town where they "should" have the proper lab for the procedure. Because I did not have all day, and because ALL health care facilities charge for parking, I decided to call ahead to the clinic to see if 1) they could perform an ECG and 2) I could get it done sometime today. However I did not have the name and/or phone number for the place so instead from the comfort of my couch I got on the Google to get the basic information. I typed in a...

If you are child-free and on the fence about having a kid or two, and are easily upset by wasting food while people around the world are starving, I suggest you get a dog. I am a cat-person myself, but a dog will eat up all the uneaten food that you so lovingly and carefully prepare for your offspring, who may or may not (but probably will) eat two bites and then want to wander over to the television. And then complain about a hungry tummy later on. I do not know if an almost-five year old can comprehend the words, "I cannot afford to buy food only to have to throw it out when you do not eat it!" These words certainly do not encourage a healthy sense of abundance in the boy's psyche. And I am slowly growing out of all my second-hand clothes eating two dinners each night. It is a good thing I usually skip breakfast (which Bean has already noticed and commented on the other day. Oops). Take yesterday for example. Bean goes to kindergarten on Mondays, Wednesdays, a...

"A normal life is defined as graduating high school, getting a college degree, buying a car, buying a house, filling it with furniture, clothes, television sets, washing machines, and lawn mowers, and then spending the next forty years working 9-5 to pay it all off. This cycle of earning and spending is usually offered in forty different flavors of vanilla. You can have any flavor you want as long as it’s vanilla. People mistake this for choice, but it is just variations of one single choice; different choices are not considered. Fish don’t see the water in which they swim: it is an invisible part of their experience." From Early Retirement Extreme Seriously, Karissa

Jolie pointed out in my previous post that the income amount I calculated did not deduct taxes. I kind of did that purposefully, thinking that low-income people normally receive most of their taxes in refunds the following year. I also left out GST/HST refunds with the intention of saving or putting towards student loan repayments. So, with taxes deducted the new spending total would be: $1435.00 - 215.25 (15% Federal tax) - 72.47 (5.05% Provincial tax) = 1147.28 +  355.96 (Child Tax Credit) +  300.00 (Child Support) = 1803.24 Guessing that rent + utilities will be around $1000, I can see how this adjustment will be problematic. The student loan folks will probably want $400, so this will leave me with just over $400 for food, household, and car expenses. As long as I do not plan to spend ANY money on fun for the next little while this can be managed. In the background I will have my extra income (about $400), plus other government deposits to put towards emergency f...

Now that I have only $2000 left to pay off my credit card, I have been looking at all the things on which I would like to spend my freed-up money. The reality is that I will have to begin paying student loans soon so my dreams of a more extravagant lifestyle will have to wait a while longer :) So I have come up with a plan - which I am still tweaking - called the minimum wage budget, to help me stay organized and stay on track with my financial goals. It looks something like this: Minimum wage = $10.25 x 35 hours x 4 weeks = $1435.00 Child tax credit                                                     355.96 Child support                                                        300.00 (I am purposely leaving out the...