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…

My 95 year old Grandma has been moved to an assisted living home as she is no longer able to fully care for herself on her own. This has been devastating for her as she has always had so much pride in her independence and I think so much of her identity has been wrapped up in being the woman who lived in the big house. Let's talk about her house for a moment... my Grandfather and her custom built a 2500 square foot bungalow with a fully finished basement (so 5000 square feet of living space). I guess that number doesn't even include the indoor pool in the backyard nor the tunnel from the basement to it.

It really was a spectacular home in the late 70s and fills my childhood memories as all summer long we'd have family pool parties and BBQs there. The pool was shut down about 10 years ago when the costs to heat and maintain it became to great. My Grandma couldn't afford a new liner that was needed so it was drained and has sat empty since. 
My Mom and her siblings have …

I tested the newest pattern for Jalie last week, making a pair for a friend of mine. The Marie-Josée pattern is extra special as 100% of the profits will go to a Quebec Charity called Centre Philou. A non-profit organization that provides specialized services to children with multiple diabilities and supports to their families.
The description on the website reads:
Briefs for women. The waist is finished with wide foldover elastic or wide lingerie band elastic. Leg openings are finished with encased elastic.
A: Regular briefs, front lined with shaper mesh for a tummy-tuck effectB: Ostomy underwear with a scooped front lining that creates a pocket that supports the bag and keeps it away from the skin.You can use this pattern for bikini bottoms, using swimwear fabric.
The ostomy option pocket can also be used to hold a hand warmer to help with cramping, passport or some money when travelling too! I hadn't thought of using the ostomy pocket option for traveling! Definitely a useful i…

Or click bait title - How I saved $475 with this road trip meal plan!

We recently got back from a 8 day trip to the Okanagan with a stop in Kamloops for a wedding. My food planning goal was to eat well and avoid fast food dining and focus our eating out budget to eating at a couple nice restaurants. It's still vacation after all and eating out is a fun part of that. We just wanted to focus that enjoyment to local restaurants.  Overall we did pretty well, only stopping once for Tim Horton's coffee, once to McDonald's for lunch and final dinner at Boston Pizza on the last leg of our journey. So some of the old stand-bys did win out while travelling. I keep hoping to have fun picnics in beautiful parks, but our travel days recently have either been smoke filled or rainy!

Total Restaurant Spending:$292

Tim Hortons : $4 (coffee)
McDonalds: $10 (ice cream)
Lunch at Canada Day: $40
Jammery: $78 (Breakfast)
The Train Station: $88 (Dinner)
McDonalds: $40 (lunch)
Boston Pizza: $32 (…

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…