I had a great time visiting my family in Edmonton over the holidays. The weather was great for skiing and very cold the rest of the time. It is the prairies so the cold was to be expected.

There were some unexpected costs that came up such as a fee to change our flights because we checked in 2 minuets too late... We also had to purchase some gifts that we did not budget for. Overall we should be okay financially but it still sucks when you end up having less than expected.

I am back in school today, yesterday was canceled due to snow. I will only be in five classes this semester so I should have some more time to blog and play with the new iPhoto and iMovie that are coming out at the end of the month.

How were your holidays?

I received a suggestion to do an update o my green energy stocks. I will get around to this in a couple of days. We are just getting settled back in to our routines and I will have an update on life early next week.

My Mom called yesterday and offered to fly us out to Edmonton. This is great news that will save us over 20 hours of driving! We fly out tomorrow morning at 7AM.
I am preparing myself for the minus 25 weather......
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Looks like it will be a fun drive to alberta... It snowed about half a foot yesterday and it is going to be cold for a couple of days so it will not be melting. I have to bike to work this afternoon, we will see if I survive.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

My wife and I made it a goal to not use any credit cards this year or if we do use them (for online purchases) we must put the money on immediately. This is making our budget very tight at the moment due to a fair bit of cash being spent on gifts. We will make it through this season without going into any more debt. We will not make it through with decreasing our debt.

I am looking forward to January when our VISA statement will not be any higher than it was this month and we can continue on our debt reduction process.

Have any of you readers decided to to the same?

We are leaving for Alberta friday morning so I am not sure how often I will be able to update next week with being on the road but the Blackberry should allow me to send some short updates.

Our contract with Rogers was up this weekend so we decided to get new phones! There are no deals for regular phones so we are now BlackBerry users. This means that I can now send regular updates to the blog. They may be short ones but it will still be fun.

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As of saturday ad 12 noon I was finished this semester. With the last ECON exam out of the way I now have time to sit back relax and get ready for Christmas. We are driving to Edmonton on Friday this week and will be there until Wednesday. From Edmonton we will be in Jasper skiing for a couple of days then back home. I am really looking forward to this time with my family.

On the money side of things we are well within our budget for Christmas. This is a good feeling as none of it is on Credit Cards, a big change from previous years. I also received a raise from the Bank! Yup, I got 0.48 an hour raise! I will be getting another one in January as I change positions and take on more responsibility. I also received a $60 bonus, this is very low compared to previous bonuses that my co-workers have received in the past. Gotta love the poor economy in the banking world.

It is finally done! I have received all of the information I need to complete the cash flow statement for november.  It is split into two parts for you to look at. Some things that my need to be explained are:

Bank Charges - This amount includes the insurance protection on all of my credit card products
Groceries - We went way over this month our budget is $100/ week plus $120 for a once a month US shopping spree. It should be less than $520...
Dining - This should be part of our general food budget but we spent allot extra here as well...






Any suggestions for December?

My first final exam is complete! The Economics Exam was easy, it is a first year class and I am in my third year of my degree... The ECON class I took in Alberta did not transfer so I needed to go back and take another two ECON classes. I now only have four to go. The next one will be tough, it is Intermediate accounting. This will be the hardest exam of the five and I really hope I do well.

I am still waiting for some bank statements to complete my financial position for last month. It looks like our new worth went up around $800-1000. December should will not be as good but every little bit on the road to being Credit Card Debt free helps!

The paper is done and handed in! I now have some time to myself before I need to start studying for examinations! I will use the time to write up our budget for next month. The month will be a costly one as it is the season to spend. We have been able to draw names for most of our families in order to reduce the number of gifts. This is great for the pocketbook. We will also be driving to Edmonton for a week. Because gas is now half as much as it was in summer the trip will not cost us much at all.

I will post our budget here so that you can see how we live and where we will be spending our money!

My goal next month will be to pay down our Credit Card another $500 thus reducing the interest cost by just over $8 a month.

I do not want to write this paper that is due tomorrow morning at 10AM...

I am now telling myself to suck it up.

This is the final week of classes and I only have one paper to go! I am really looking forward to the end of this term so I can have more time around the house and some extra hours at work. The extra money from work will help us with Christmas gifts as well as the drive out to Edmonton.

Last weekend I went a way on a retreat with some friends from church up to a cabin in the mountains. There were about 20 of us there and we all just relaxed and played games! The were not simple games like Monopoly but we all enjoy German board games. For those who do not know what I mean check out boardgamegeek.com to see some of the best games that are out there!

My wife and I have decided that we will only be spending $50 on each other. This is a great feeling as we really do not need anything and it will allow us to nock some money off of our credit card. For the month of November we should be able to put $500 on top of interest towards the card. We need to get this down as soon as possible because it is sucking so much money away from us!

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I am finally finished my last mid term! I know there are only two weeks of school left but my instructor thinks that this is a good way to examine his students. I am now on the home stretch with finals starting December 4th!

In my financial life I have been able to participate in two company savings plans. The first is a plan where there are no management fees on mutual funds. I have been putting $30 per pay into this. Sadly the funds are going down but that is to be expected. The second program is an employee ownership program. Here they will mach my contributions dollar for dollar up to $250 per year and then 50% after that. This is all in TD stock. I am putting $15 into this one.

I have also been able to pay down some credit card debt, not near as much as I have hoped but is tis some...

I went to the states the other day and picked up my video camera! It is a great little thing, the video quality is pretty good! The limitations of the digital only zoom and grainy video in low light are not as bad as I originally thought. Someday I will put some video up on the blog for you to see for yourself.

The reason go getting the camera is so that I can save some memories that will begin in April when my wife will give birth to our first child!

Winter is coming! It is not really a surprise. Our honda Fit is needing some tires that will let us drive in the winter months, especially since we are driving to Edmonton for the holidays. This will cost us $266 for 4 winter tires. We get a good deal because the father in law works at a garage. It could have been much worse...

When working in m just about any manual labour job a sturdy work boot is needed. The work boot is intended to protect your feet from being injured while on the job. In the Netherlands clogs are still an official work boot and they are still worn by many workers! In North America a person needs a certified boot.A website that provides a wide selection of work boots is Work Boots USA. Here you can find the steel toed work boot that you will need on the job. They have steel toed and waterproof boots that will fit just about any workers need. Be sure to check with your employer about company reimbursement programs for your required footwear. One of my previous employers had a program that reimbursed up to $150 per year to cover the cost of certified boots. All I needed to do was to bring the receipt for the boots to my manager and then the reimbursement would be added to my paycheck. I don't think I would get reimbursed for buying clogs...

This month I had my birthday and my parents kindly gave me some cash to buy a video camera. The $300 will allow me to purchase the new Zi6 from Kodak. It is released in the USA and should be released in Canada very soon. This is a pocket camera that shoots HD video and it is only $179USD! The camera does not have an image stabilizer or any other fancy features but hey it is only 179 bucks! With the cost of any other HD camera sitting at around $900 I think I will be very happy with my decision.

The one drawback is that I will need to buy an external Hard Drive to store all of this Video...

Back when I first started this blog I did a list of some of my favorite charities. I have recently come across another one that I found interesting. It is called DonorsChoose.org. The purpose of the charity is to help teachers in the United States to get some extra funding for their classroom. Check it out with the link below!




 

I will be taking today to do some much needed cleaning around the house as I have been neglecting everything around home to get ready for the mid terms. I work tomorrow for 8 hours and Saturday for 5 hours. Sunday will be a good old day of rest and then it is back to the daily grind...

My wife has not been working s much as expected so our debt repayment plan is not going as well as expected. We are also needing to buy some winter tires for our car that is going to set us back $200. Other than that we will nock $300 off the credit card this month and $1000 next month.

I have decided not to take 6 classes next semester as I am slowly killing myself. I will take 5 classes and keep my work the same at 15 hours a week. In the summer I will try to take three classes and find a job at an accounting firm to get some work experience as well as get my foot in the door. I am hearing that out here in the Fraser Valley many firm are not hiring. Many people are needing to go to Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton.

My exams are finished on wednesday this week so I should be back to regular posting soon. Here is a short vidoe on the Zenn Car to tide you over.




 

Here in Canada it is Thanksgiving!  That means I get a day off, and boy do I need it.  It has also given me some time to take a look at the stock market.  The US market is up today, let us hope that it lasts all day...

With the interest free status of my student loan in place I can focus all of my efforts on my stupid credit card debt. The $545/month that was going to the student loans will now be going to my visa. This along with any other money I have. I am hoping that on average I will be able to put $1500 every month towards the VISA. I will be able to do this for six months, or a total of $9000. Since my card is at a stupid high of $10,550 I will be a little short, this is where the tax return will come to my rescue! I am estimating a $2000 return this year due to my education credit and student loan interest deductions.


After paying off the VISA I will lower my credit limit from $17,000 to $5,000 (the minimum for my card). This will increase the amount the bank will give me for a mortgage. Many things are starting to fall into place for buying a home. The first is the gift from my grandparents for a large down payment. The second is the Bank of Canada lowered interest rates yesterday. The third is I get a lower staff rate on mortgages that I can lock in for five years even if I leave the company. The last reason is that house prices are starting to fall.

In a year when we are more out of debt we will be able to seriously look at buying a 2 to 3 bedroom condo!