This is the beginning of a new year and I am hoping that it just keeps getting better from here. IF any of you are new to this site let me tell you a bit about me.
I am a mother of two boys and a wife to a lovely man. We currently live in a two bedroom apartment in a small town in Ontario, Canada. I work part-time and I like to blog about everything and anything. My blog has mainly consisted of subscription boxes ( list and review), my journey to a healthier me and now my journey to living frugaly and hopefully be better off financially at the end of this year.
Now that I am back in my own home, in my own bed my head filled with a hundred more great memories and pictures it is time for me to think about my biggest goal for the year. The one I really want to tackle.
My biggest goal this year is to get rid of debt. That was actually one of my tips in this post that I wrote at the end of 2014. Getting rid of debt is one of the most important things to do on my list but also the hardest especially on a tight budget. I am hoping to pay my two debts off ( 1,300$) in order to be a little less stressed out when it comes to the time of year when I need to pay off three life insurance policies and the insurance that we have on the content of the apartment. Those are my biggest financial drains in the year and they all come out at the same time every year. When I made a bit more money it was fine because I was able to save money and put it aside but not so much in the recent years. I have used up all the money I had set aside for emergencies and I am now starting at zero.
With all that said I am hoping to pay off debt with the new lifestyle. I think it might be hard for me because I have always been a bit of spender and I am doing this alone. I love my husband and he loves me but he doesn't want to join me in the frugal living and that is ok. It might not be for him and who knows at the end of the year it may not be for me or he will change his mind and decided that this kind of living is for him. To save money I have decided to go on a spending freeze. That means buying only what you need and nothing else. I found this idea while browsing on Pinterest and noticed that many people were trying it and I decided why not? I found this little article on wise bread on how to do a freeze. If you are interested check it out it helped me know where to start and how to survive.
The first step was to make a budget. I made one with what I spend now and what I should be spending on my needs.
Category
|
What I used to spend
|
What I need to spend
|
Bank
|
245$ ( loan, RSP, RESP)
|
245$ ( loan, RSP,RESP)
|
Phone
|
50$
|
50$ ( will see if there is a cheaper plan)
|
Groceries
|
600+
|
300-500$ ( depends if it’s diaper week)
|
Daycare
|
450$ ( if they go for 16 days)
|
450$ (if they go for 16 days)
|
Other ( credit card)
|
150$ ( I spend 100 and, pay off 50$)
|
50$ ( pay off)
|
Total
|
1, 495$ ( this is often times more then I make)
|
1,295$ ( this is within my
budget, if not still more then I can afford)
|
I decided to go at this alone in the sense I am not recruiting anyone in my family or friends because many of them already know what I am doing but I am encouraging you to join me in this if you would like. At the end of the month I will be writing a summary of my spending to see what I saved. I am planning on doing this for the month of January and then we will see how much longer I will continue.
I now have to decide what I am going to do with the money that I save. I am hoping to keep half of it in my account for savings to pay off the 4 insurances that I have ( 2 kids, mine and content). The other I am hoping on using to pay of my credit card and then my bank debt.
Other things that I have done and probably mentioned already. I have cleaned out my room, one of the things about living frugaly was to de-clutter and organize. I organized my bedroom ( I had gotten rid of several towels but my hubby decided he wanted to keep them, I tried reasoning with him that we didn't need that much when he didn't want to budge I just said ok. So I will have to find a place for the dish towels to go). I still have the pantry which is at the entrance of my bedroom to go through as well as the rest of the apartment which will probably take me a little while to go through all of it. In my bedroom alone though I have gotten rid of two garbage bags and 3 boxes of stuff. I have also found a lot of opened products that I can still use. I have put all those products together and working slowly on using them all up. The products range from hair care ( 2 hair spray can, 3 mousse cans, several anti-frizz products), Skin care ( creams, soaps), Make-up ( I threw out mascaras that I no longer used, several eye-liners, eye shadows), I also found several toothbrushes, pads, band-aid and polysporin tubes.
I will be giving the boxes away along with some of the kids toys that they no longer use that take up a lot of space. I could probably sell them and yes have a bit more money in my pockets but I prefer to donate things to people that have less then me.
I have also tried to make brown bread a miserably failed but that is ok I will try and make bread later on.
I am hoping to continue with this blog and have more followers this year and inspire people. Once my debt is paid off I will then think about reaching saving goals and buying a few things once I meet those goals but I will do that later once my debt is paid off.
Happy New years,
ME
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