Debt Free Kid

My kid turned eight years old a couple of weeks ago. I booked him an amazing party at the local laser tag place for under $400. He invited eleven friends, and they all showed up! He got a lot of Lego, which he was thrilled with. I got him a new two-wheel bike, because his old one was getting too small. I also bought him new soccer cleats and shin guards, but I would have bought them regardless of his birthday. It was an expensive weekend! Spending on my kid now has its own category in my spreadsheet. I track all the expenses in their own categories (daycare/camps; sports; RESP; life insurance - something I would not purchase now but I bought the policy when I was less informed, and it is universal life, so I keep paying for it - only $24 a month; misc - includes birthday party and more frivolous expenses like tiny shopping sprees). I add up all the amounts and apply it against the amount of child support I get each month. If there are any funds leftover they go into his savings accou...

Some financial experts and amateurs tell us that it’s one of the worst things we can do for our budget: buy a brand-new car instead of one that is just gently used. And I myself have subscribed to that belief all along. Even my Partner (who is $1000s in the hole from neglecting his Line of Credit for years) told me just a few weeks ago, new cars are not worth the expense because they depreciate as soon as you drive them off the lot. If a financial emergency comes up and the car needs to be sold in the first year or two, you will not receive the amount that will still owe on the car. Maybe I am high on the new car smell from the cars that I have been test-driving. Tomorrow I am putting in a credit application for a brand-new car. Not a 2013 model. A 2014, brand-new car. I know, it is a risk. If my financial situation changes in the next year or so (it has only been getting better, so I hope that it continues to), I might be stuck with a debt that I cannot pay. And I am willing...

We finally got around to going through our CDs and DVDs and took them to the pawn shop for fun and profit. Partner made $240 and I made $60. He had a lot more than I did, since I de-cluttered in 2005 before heading to Thailand, in 2008 when my basement was leaking and no good for storage, and again in 2011 when I was readying to house-sit for the summer. As well, as I joked with the store people, most of my CDs were second-hand to begin with, and I was selling them back third-hand. Partner had a few video games and Blu-Rays, things I never bothered to purchase in the first place. Bean and I were still watching hand-me-down videotapes when we met Partner in 2011! Now we live in a house with a Playstation (which plays Blu-Rays), a new Smart TV, three laptops, several tablets, a DVD player, a VCR, and my old combo DVD/VCR player. Partner insisted on subscribing to a television service, and the compromise was satellite, but after about six months I managed to convince him that we were pa...

Each year I come up with a personal spending rule for myself, and my partner and I come up with a house rule. Last year my personal rule was to buy no new clothes. I am permitted new underwear and footwear (hopefully only on a replacement basis: one-in, one-out rule), but shirts, sweaters, skirts, dresses, pants, jeans, coats and jackets, are purchased second-hand only. I can't recall if I followed my personal rule perfectly in 2013, but I might have come very close, especially since a co-worker went on a few closet purges of her own and I became the lucky recipient! Prior personal rules were to cut out daily take-out coffee and limit take-out lunches. I did succeed with those, and now find the same $20 bill in my wallet for weeks. I now bring snacks and leftovers from home and use the department coffee maker each morning when I get in to the office. Our house rule for the first year of co-habitation was "no more Wal-mart." This rule became especially important to u...

So far in 2014 I have saved $1000. Go me! I have spent a little bit too: - a trip to Build-A-Bear with Bean (I gave him $40 in gift cards for xmas, and I had around $40 left over from January budgeting, so I let him pick a few extra things for his cute cute rainbow bear); - a trip to Sephora for me ($55 on a new foundation, plus another $60 on an exfoliant, from which I will use house-funds, and share the tube with my partner - see what I did there?); - and a trip to the Shoe Company for a pair of Pods (fake Bogs) which were 30% off and another $10 off when I used up my points with them (total was about $55 - but I used a credit card where the payment will not be due till end of Feb, thus using March funds - see what I did there?). I'm not paid to endorse any of the above shops. I have doubled my student loan payments in the hopes of having the bulk of them paid off in five years. I am still saving for a mortgage down payment, but I am getting discouraged by what is on t...

I already know the answer to this question. But now that I am not putting my money towards credit card debt, I am antsy to spend. I have been looking at autotrader.ca listings for a new (to me) car. My criteria are: low kms, manual transmission, and air conditioning. I don't care about the other features. My current automobile is the little Toyota I purchased from a graduate student in 2011. I am in a love/hate relationship with this car. First, last summer was unbearable, what with she having a black exterior and no air conditioning. We had only a couple of weeks of heat-wave, and I was miserable. This summer I hope to drive to NY state for a vacation and I'd really like air conditioning for the highway. Second, the driver's side lock is finicky, in such a way that sometimes I get locked in, and I have to climb over the stick and out the passenger side door. So frustrating! Slightly embarrassing! Other than those things, she's a great little car. If I cou...

I paid off the last bit of credit card debt (again!) in December. I owed about $500 on a low-interest card; I think it was left over from 2012's yoga teacher training or perhaps it was half of what I paid for 2013's meditation retreat. Either way, it is paid. I actually paid $900 for debt re-payment last month, since I accidentally sent a $500 payment to one of my student loans instead of to the credit card. Whoops!! I felt stupid when I caught the mistake, but realized it was ok because the student loans also have to be paid. I cashed out my savings for the first payment, and most of my mutual funds for the second payment. I also contributed $600 to my RRSP savings account, making up for the $50 a month that I used to save, but ceased when I began my debt-free journey back in 2009. In a couple of months I will contribute another $600 to cover the year ahead. Since I last posted, I took on a few more part-time hours at the university, which I believe has tipped me into th...