Our FI Nest

Our spending re-caps for the months will focus only on our variable spending and include the following categories:
Family (includes all the stuff we spend on the kids such as activities anything we buy them and their education savings. Any graphs I may post with include daycare, but the numbers will not)Home Expenses (anything we spend on the house for the maintenance, taxes and insurance. I'm not including mortgage payments or interest as that will not be included in our final FI number so I want to be able to track what life costs without that. Keep in mind graphs will include the mortgage, but not in the numbers)Transportation (all car related expenses such as gas, maintenance, insurance)Utilities (heat, water, electricity, Internet, phone and cell phones)Health Spending (Life insurance, dentist other health related costs. This is pretty low because we live in Canada)Enjoyment (Gifts, Entertainment, Vacations, Hobbies, Restaurants, Alcohol, etc.)Routine Expenses (Groceries, Clot…

I've always enjoyed making gifts for people to show them how much I care. I will admit I dislike spending money on a gift when it feels like a gift is required. There are definite exceptions when I find the perfect thing for someone, but I'd rather take some time and use my talents to make something they will love (hopefully). If I can save some money on what I'd typically spend on a gift, while providing something I they appreciate, that doubles down on my gift giving joy.

Two kids in school means a lot of gifts at the end of the year. This year we had 4 pre-school teachers, 1 teacher for my son, the bus driver, school secretary and principal. They are all amazing and I want to give them a little something to say thank you for all they have done for my kids over the year, but man does it add up to buy for 8 people. At $10-20/person this could reach $100-200 easily. And well, let's be honest, this was my main justification for buying my cricut machine. I wanted it to d…

There are lots of pages out there that talk about the different systems of cloth diapers but thought I'd share what worked best for us. I'll start by going over what I have and what I like/dislike about them after 3 kids (and roughly 6 years cloth diapering) and what I would actually purchase if I was starting over again.

The main two systems I've used are flats and prefolds with covers and Pocket diapers.

Here are the flats (or prefolds) and covers , (there are a few videos on this site and this is the system I inherited for a friend for my 3rd. I had bought some second hand ones from a diaper service but the fell apart by the 2nd child and have become cleaning rags).

I had 23 pre-folds and about 14 covers. You can reuse the covers if only pee. Simply rinse and let dry out then use again. If poop throw the diaper into your wetbag. The main advantage of this is it is the easiest laundry method as you don't need to stuff any diapers. Simply wash, sort and you're go…

Our spending re-caps for the months will focus only on our variable spending and include the following categories:
Family (includes all the stuff we spend on the kids such as activities anything we buy them and their education savings. Any graphs I may post with include daycare, but the numbers will not)Home Expenses (anything we spend on the house for the maintenance, taxes and insurance. I'm not including mortgage payments or interest as that will not be included in our final FI number so I want to be able to track what life costs without that. Keep in mind graphs will include the mortgage, but not in the numbers)Transportation (all car related expenses such as gas, maintenance, insurance)Utilities (heat, water, electricity, Internet, phone and cell phones)Health Spending (Life insurance, dentist other health related costs. This is pretty low because we live in Canada)Enjoyment (Gifts, Entertainment, Vacations, Hobbies, Restaurants, Alcohol, etc.)Routine Expenses (Groceries, Clot…

I've been off work since my contract ended at the end of 2018 and unfortunately the job that I assumed was a sure thing fell through leaving me currently job hunting and hoping something will come up soon.

Job hunting, when unemployed, is always a bit demoralizing as you put yourself out there and wait for responses. Hope someone likes what you have to offer and that you can make a good impression. One thing that I'm extremely grateful though is for our financial position in that I don't need to work, but rather choose to. This gives me the freedom to not stress financially while hunting. However that doesn't take away the feelings of depression that creep in while waiting in limbo for the next next opportunity to start.

I was honestly fine for the first few months, got two verbal offers shortly after starting my search, I decided to go for one of them, however for reasons out of the hiring department's control, everything has been put on hold for the foreseeable f…

My current limbo has been dragging me down a bit. I'm trying to stay positive and keep myself productive so I can feel like I'm accomplishing something with my days and not wasting my time checking and rechecking various social media. Bonus most of these things are some frugal wins...
Planted my garden this weekend. Hoping that these tiny plants will provide lots of fresh produce over the summer. Less frugal was having to buy some fencing to go around them as the bunnies have been eating all my plants. Spent $80 on the netting and stakes but should be able to use it again over the next couple years. 

Planted lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce, green beans, carrots and beets. I did go out and buy a few few seedlings ($30) after the plants I grew were looking pretty sad and wind battered.

Getting creative with our leftovers instead of succumbing to the desire to get take out. Had some leftover spaghetti sauce and pulled chicken I'd made earlier in the week so tr…