Debt Free Kid

Near the end of 2008 I finally figured out that my spending was out of control. I was 34 years old and I was going to end up bankrupt. My lifestyle was inflated compared to my earnings, and all I wanted was what everyone else wants: a home, a car, some stuff. My car at the time was an old beater on its last wheels, but my home was a rental house that I couldn't afford. I had a huge student debt at the time which began in 1996 and looked like it was going nowhere. My credit card debt was almost as huge, and I still couldn't stop shopping. I gave notice on the house and moved myself and then 2.5 year old son into a one-bedroom apartment. I went car-free periodically whenever the beaters left us stranded. I stopped buying daily coffee and meals out. I stopped pick-me-up treatments for my hair and toenails. I still made stupid spending mistakes, but I managed to pay off the credit card debt in 2.5 years in 2011. At the end of 2014 I cashed in my small retirement savings account...

It took me half a year to figure out that I might run out of money before year-end. According to my spreadsheet, overspending and indulging has left me with only $1300 to cover groceries, gas, and spending money for the next five months (Aug - Dec). It shocked me to see this, since I don't feel like I live an extravagant lifestyle at all. I haven't bought any new clothes or shoes for myself in 2016, and I last had a cheap haircut in August 2015. I still haven't called the plumber in to fix the leak in the bathtub / kitchen sink either. I did move $1000 from a savings account onto the car loan back in April. And I plan to do so again in August. I really want to get rid of the car loan. Some expenses have gone up, such as house and car insurance, property taxes, and hydro but heating gas has gone down by half to make up for it. I have my 2017 spreadsheet all set up and if I stick with it properly, everything will be covered, including savings goals AND I will st...

In three years I will be 44. Bean will be 13. In three years our car will be paid off. As soon as Bean's legs are long enough, I will teach him to drive it, and we will share it until it no longer runs. I don't plan to buy another car. In three years I will owe less than $10 000 on my student loans. In three years I will owe just over $110 000 on the mortgage. In three years I will either be working full-time, or I will take the leap and reduce my work hours and practice living minimally and mindfully. In three years we will be thinking about which high school Bean will attend. Will he go into the international baccalaureate program at our local school, or will he commute to the other end of town to continue French Immersion? We will have another year to decide. In three years I will have hopefully reached my savings goal. In three years I will have struck another couple of items off my bucket list in the sidebar.

It took a few months for me to figure out that the theme for 2016 is "Make Do." Because I have compulsive spending habits (that got me into over $20 000 in credit card debt), I have to be very careful with my idle time. If I am on a computer I have to avoid online shopping, and if I have a few free hours on the weekend I have to avoid the shops. It is not made easy when my newest credit card allows me to designate three shopping categories to receive my 2% cash back each month. Since January, one of my self-selected categories is "Drug Store." I have been out of my nice face serum since late 2015, and it has been so tempting to go into the drug store and purchase another $50 bottle, knowing I will get $1 back for the purchase. But I have avoided the drug store and saved the money, and I am instead using up a jar of $50 cream that I purchased last year. Making do with what I already have. I am similarly avoiding Sephora, since I have at least 10 lipsticks and liner...

This week I turn 40 years old. Last week I became a house owner. I am sore, grumpy, and slightly overwhelmed, but I am also proud and ecstatic. I had two goals to reach by my 40th birthday: 1) to get married; 2) to buy a house. I reached goal # 2 with a week to spare. I have modified goal # 1 to read: 1) to find a suitable life partner in my 40s; 2) or not. So, Partner (ex) informed me that he found another place to live about a week into September. I realized quickly that I had three choices: 1) Keep our rental house and sublet one of the bedrooms (Rent = $1250 + $320 utilities + $57 internet); 2) Move into another rental, hopefully in the same neighbourhood; 3) Cash in $8500 RRSP account and buy a house of our own. First I went to Kijiji and searched the "room wanted" ads. There were a few single women who had teaching contracts who were looking for a room. I thought this would be ideal; but since Partner (ex) dropped the bomb a week into September, thes...

All the Personal Finance blogs tell us not to buy a new car. I never planned to myself, but when I could not find what I wanted used, I took the plunge and made the splurge. I bought a 2014 Hyundai Accent in April 2014. Not only do I feel safe and secure in my new car, after years of driving hazardous beaters, but I am also in the best financial shape I have ever been, ever. Before I bought the car I scrutinized my budget spreadsheet for weeks. If you know how often I do this (at least once a day), you would know that this is a big deal, since I had the spreadsheet open for hours each day, moving numbers around. The only way I could afford the payment was to be radical with each category, to make room for the new purchase. Once I became comfortable with the changes, I bought the car. Since my intention was to pay it off in 3.5 years instead of 7, I stopped spending everywhere else. I still put money in the grocery account, and the gift account (for christmas and birthdays), but I...

Time seems to speed up when you have a kid, and even more so during the summer. I am already solidifying plans for the first week of September when the students arrive back at the university. We took our holidays right away, leaving for New York state two days after grade two ended for Bean. I had paid for the retreat with my income tax refund back in March, so we needed U.S. cash only for gas and meals along the way. We decided to leave a day early and break the trip up into two parts, with the first night spent in a pretty cheap motel across the border. I think that was Bean's favourite part of the trip, because he loves hotel swimming pools! I was quite impressed with the scenery along the way south: what a beautiful part of the country! Once we arrived at our retreat, we parked the car for the entire week. Meals were covered, and were deliciously vegan. We have decided to go vegetarian since our return, which coincides with the need to bring our grocery bill down to $75 a w...

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...

The light at the end of the debt tunnel is beautiful and warm. Just in time for a well-deserved thaw, I will be credit-card debt-free. With my income tax refund I paid off the line of credit. With the child tax credit I will put $200 on the credit card, bringing it down to $3000. The good news is that I was asked to house-sit for three months!! Without having to pay rent (or bills) this spring and summer I will be able to pay the debt off in full, several months before my self-imposed deadline. Then in the fall I can begin to pay my student loans. I am trying to come up with a strategy to get around the consolidation agreement that stretches out the payments over 14 years, doubling the amount borrowed. So, that is my good news. In other news I am grateful to have a little bit of savings into which I can tap to make a donation to MSF . Seriously, Karissa

I mentioned  in my previous post that I won a gift certificate from Squirrelers' Thanksgiving contest. It was for $20 at Amazon.com. I normally order from Amazon.ca but xmas was arriving quickly and I thought I'd redeem it for something for someone I love. I had a harder time than I thought I would. Shipping from the U.S. is expensive and since I had left it so late, nothing I chose would be here in time for xmas. A couple of toys I had picked out for my son would not ship to Canada at all. I finally chose a backpack for my bro-friend but before I hit the switch I decided to check locally. I found the same pack for the same price at a shop in town and avoided shipping altogether. Last week I decided to buy a book with it. The book cost $10 and the shipping was $11! I couldn't bear to spend more on postage than on the book itself, so I went with my original plan and offered the gift certificate to a friend in the U.S. Since I had carelessly applied it to my own account ...

Jolie wanted to know how the cash jars are going so here's an update. We're going into week four with the cash jars. So far I think I'm getting used to it. One problem I can see so far is with gas money. For the past three months I have spent around $80 on gas for the car, so for this month I budgeted $100. The whole amount was spent a week ago. I suspect it's because I am using a full-serve station now and maybe they aren't very honest at the pump. I can't think of another option because my son is usually in the car when we fill up and I used to rely on pay-at-the-pump with my credit card. I'm thinking of going back to that. For groceries the cash only seems to be working though, and we still have $60 out of $200 remaining with just over a week to go. I don't have any of my $100 personal spending money left but that's to be expected. I sold my sister my crappy cell phone and all its accessories for $50 and I still have $40 left from that. In...

April was a little too spendy for my liking (two impulse shops + one trip to the Capital + one trip to have my snow tires removed + Bean's fourth birthday = $500) so for May I have switched to cash only. I withdrew $400 cash ($200 for food & household, $100 for car-gas, $100 spending money) and divided it into a couple of old spagetti sauce jars. So far, I hate this system. I am just not used to cash. I like cards. I don't know if I'll get used to it. I'm going to try my hardest, because I can't rely on the security of my line of credit anymore, since I transferred the balance of my debt onto a low-interest master card (0.99% for ten months). Previously I was depositing my monthly paycheque into the LOC account and removing a weekly amount for expenses (usually $100 a week or $200 when car insurance was due). This system seemed to work really well for me: I was paying the balance down and feeling secure about access to my funds. Now that my debt is sitting...

Received my T4 at the end of February and immediately filed online. Received my income tax refund by direct deposit today and PAID OFF MY MASTERCARD. Looky at the pretty sidebars. I moved up the debt bar because I'm so proud. People have been asking me how I cleared $11 000 worth of debt in 15 months and to be honest, I'm not quite sure how I did it. I'm making a mental list and hope to type it out and post it soon. Hope you're having a great weekend. Mine just got that much better :) Seriously, Karissa

I'm proud. Hell, I'm bragging. In fifteen months I have paid off 50% of my credit card debt. Over ten thousand dollars. I don't know how I did it. I didn't take a second job and I didn't sell anything online. I still have a social life and a car. I even paid off a huge car repair bill ($1400+) and bought two pairs of orthopedic shoes ($500). I bought a crappy new cell phone ($300 with all the bells and whistles). And still, I managed to pay HALF my debt in just over a year. I'm psyched I tell ya. If I can keep this up, I'll be paying off my student loans in no time, and then I can start saving up for a bigger and better life for my son and I. Seriously, Karissa

A couple of weeks ago I decided to pilfer my TFSA in 2010, and apply the $1130 or so to my $3500 credit card balance. I want this card paid OFF, ASAP. I know I'll be losing out on compound interest but I think I'm making the right decision. I will continue to snowflake back into it with each paycheque, but I probably won't get it back up to $1000 by the end of 2010. That's ok, because I desperately want to have the CC and LOC paid off in 2011. I have my 2010 budget spreadsheet all ready to go, with all the modifications I could think of based on spending in 2009. Reaching the final column of the 2009 spreadsheet has been a relief, and a real achievement, because I made through the entire year tracking my expenses and debt payments. Here's a bit of a postmortem: After-tax income, including pay, child tax credit, child support, GST rebates, and gifts and miscellaneous sales $35 841 Rent and Food $11 496 Debt re-payments, including interest charges $8209 Car, including...

I was driving myself and my son to the big city on the 23rd to begin our christmas festivities. It was cold and the roads were ok, but as I was driving on the highway I was thinking about my spectacular snow tires. When I started this blog I had a "Car Fund" to save money for car repairs, oil changes and hopefully snow tires. Then I had over a thousand dollars worth of car repairs from which the car fund never recovered. Back in September I was talking to a grad student where I work who is knowledgeable with all things car related. Thinking about my lack of savings and the pending cold season, I asked him if snow tires were really worth it. I had never had them before and was thinking maybe I could get through another winter without them. The grad student was adamant about the necessity of snow tires, and I decided to take his word for it. A couple months later I get an email from the student, telling me that he found a set of snow tires for me at the wreckers, and would char...

The Bean and I are going into our tenth month of apartment living, after a year and a half renting a house that was way out of our price range. We had to give up a lot of space (and a lot of stuff), including our own bedrooms and a gigantic backyard. We also gave up a second bathroom, laundry facilities, and a basement for storage. It's been great though. We acquired a bunk bed on Kijiji for $25 right after we moved into the apartment. I no longer have to mow a gigantic lawn, or shovel a long long driveway. I have only one bathroom to clean. Laundry is right down the hall ($1.50 wash and dry, each) and if I stay organized everything gets washed once a week. We have a storage closet that is pretty full and I hope to make the time to clean it out and organize it over the next couple of months. What I have saved in nine months: Rent: $2745 Hydro: $2340 (avg) Cable: $510 (approx) TOTAL: $5595 I have managed to reduce my debt by almost $6000 in 2009. I received a notice from the propert...

I have three savings accounts with PCF. I allocated one as "Car Fund," where I would save up funds for gas, maintenance (oil changes) and repairs, and optimistically a six-month chunk for the insurance company, so that I could get out of paying month-to-month - adding another $100 to my monthly income. I just can't seem to keep more than $400 in that account, so I've deleted the tracking from my sidebar. Ideally I need at least $800 for my goal, more if I want to add snow tires to the roster. I'm thinking again of getting a part-time job. I'm a Telus customer, and I was thinking of putting my resume in to the store at the big mall. The main setback is that I have only weekends to work, but there are occasional weekends that Bean's dad does not take him. Also, if I make too much money my daycare subsidy decreases, increasing cost of daycare. This won't be an issue once Bean starts kindergarten in 2010. As well the student loan goons might not be as frie...

This week I will be visiting Rexall (Pharma Plus) drug store for the third time in two weeks to purchase Huggies. We use the diapers for night time and the Pull Ups at daycare. The Huggies Pull Ups are far superior to Pampers or store brands (this is not a sponsored post). Both the diapers and the Pull Ups are in the flyer for $14.99 until this Friday. Plus, I am armed with $2.00 coupons for the diapers that I found in the blue box in my building, and $2.50 coupons that were on the shelf of Price Choppers - I have been taking one each time I go into the grocery store to buy food. So the diapers are only $12.99 and the Pull Ups are $12.49. Much better than $17 or even $19.99 for a little pack of 40! So, I may go over-budget by about $100 this month, but we should be stocked up on diapers and Pull Ups for the most of the summer. Hopefully Bean potty-learns by September :) Seriously, Karissa

I no longer have access to someone's wireless connection at home, and I've been WAY too busy at work to blog from there. And I have lost my focus. I have to remember why I started this blog in the first place. Before I started here I enjoyed reading three kinds of blogs: self-help, single moms, and personal finance. The plethora of these blogs got me through some seriously dark days and some really lonely weekends. When I found myself ready and willing to start posting my own, I wanted to come up with a combination of the three. With a fourth element, the Canadian bias. Mostly, I was tired of trying to find inspiration in PF blogs written by one half of a couple. I don't have a problem with couples, but I can't tell you how many told me in their blogs, "WE paid off a $20 000 debt in just TWO years!" I'm on my own here, and no one is going to help me pay off my debt. As well I can't work more for extra income because I'm a single mom to a three-year...