Saving Money for Something Big

For some people, saving money is the first step in making plans. They want to have X amount of money before they will start planning a trip, gathering ideas or commit to anything. I am the opposite. Having plans is my biggest motivator to actually save up.                                                                                                           
When I started planning my trip to Europe a few years back, I had enough money to book my flight and that was about it. I knew I wouldn’t be taking off for 10 months so I didn’t feel intimidated by my sad bank account. I was so excited to be going that I was willing to cut back on or cut out things that would get in the way of saving. I didn’t go out on the weekends half as much as I was before, I was working on my health and fitness at the time too so I wasn’t eating out or buying clothes that soon wouldn’t fit me anyway. Planning before saving was highly motivational for me.    

The method I used to plan my savings.

             
Don’t get me wrong, if you plan to fly to Europe next month and you only have enough to buy your airline ticket, you will be screwed. This method works best if you are planning farther ahead.

I have some plans – not set in stone – but very hopeful tentative plans that I’d like to make happen in about 10 months from now and I already feel that internal surge to make everything work out.

As you can see in the pictures above, for Europe I created a daily budget so I knew how much I would need to save in total. I took into account my daily expenditure for accommodation, food, transportation, shopping/events/entry and incidentals/emergency funds. All that plus my train ticket and flight prices told me just how much I guessed I would need. Having an "incidentals" amount added into my every day spending was the best thing I did. Also, guessing how much I would spend on sleeping and eating without actually knowing allowed me to spread the money around. If I spent less to eat for a while, I could sleep at a nicer hotel or do something I might have otherwise decided was to expensive.

Back to today, I would like to save $8000-10,000 in the next 10 months to make my secret plans happen and also make them as easy and enjoyable as possible. This may sound like a huge amount, or a very small amount to save in that amount of time, but I guess it would depend what your income and bills are like.

How I’ll make it happen:

Keeping bills, payments and spending to a minimum.

-I own my vehicle and make no payments on it. Insurance is reasonable and gas is minimal because I take the train to work every day.

-On that note, by taking the train to work instead of driving I save about $170 per month.

-I consider my cell phone to be my only “luxury” that I pay for consistently. I’m ok with it.

-Ryan and I have been working on lowering our grocery bill lately and have been doing very well. We have probably reduced by about $200 per month.

-TV, Internet, parking, laundry, heat and water are all included in our rent. All we pay for is electricity and it is very minimal.

-Since being vegetarian we eat out very rarely and since starting my capsule wardrobe I don’t really shop. Both are great ways to save money.
-For entertainment we like to bowl, play mini golf and go to movies. As these can be expensive we don’t go every week. We have found plenty to do around the area we live and really enjoy being outside, plus, its free!

With that being said, I am still hoping to be able to take a vacation this summer sometime and if it cuts back on the total amount I am able to save, so be it. That is something I'm willing to do.

Do you have any more money saving tips I could add? Let me know!

My First Published Post

For Victoria Day, instead of being out enjoying beautiful weather or camping or hiking, Ryan and I spent the day hiding inside away from the rain. We've been doing this for 3 days now actually and that doesn't give me much to write about. We took 1 walk in the drizzle, I made buttermilk pancakes and we spent an evening playing trivia with our friends.

Because that isn't very exciting, today's post can be found here instead:

http://www.familyfuncanada.com

It's my first piece of writing to be published somewhere other than my own website! I would love if you went to read it!

Scones on Sunday

I know I missed Thursday last week, but my life isn't always super exciting! Sometimes I spend all my free time watching TV! Not always though!


Ryan and I have somewhat of a routine that we go with on Sundays and I’m going to share it with you. I will also share a recipe with you because it’s been so darn long since I did that!

Almost every weekend on Friday or Saturday night, or sometimes both, we pull our mattress out of the bedroom and put it on the living room floor. It still feels just like those “camp outs” I had when I was little. Generally we will go get some snacks, pick a movie and watch it until we fall asleep. This weekend we watched That Thing You Do and Muppet Treasure Island.

I was wide awake at 5:58 on Sunday morning and Ryan was too. We hung out being lazy for a while before I couldn’t resist the call of the cereal any more. At some point while I was eating Ryan proclaimed his exhaustion and passed out again. I joined him for another 2 hours of snoozing before we had to get on with our day.


Once we get up Ryan drags the mattress back to its proper home and I get ready for my Sunday cleaning. Garbage and recycling go out, kitchen and bathroom get cleaned, floors are vacuumed, swept and mopped, dishes are put away, laundry gets washed and put away and all the sheets and towels get washed and changed out. Call me crazy, but I love doing this. Cleaning makes me feel refreshed and pleased.


Usually when we finish cleaning we go get our groceries for the week but we put that off until later this week.


We’ve been doing a little DIY table refinishing and wanted to finish it finally! The table has been living at Ryan’s sister’s house in her garage so we drove over there with our supplies and got to work. The table started out ugly and covered in paint, but in otherwise good condition, it wasn’t being used either making it perfect for us. We have spent the nearly 6 months in our apartment eating on the sofa and it’s getting old.

After 3 or 4 separate trips to sand the table down we were finally able to finish it. Our mutual decision was to leave the top in the nature tone we got from sanding and to use a matte varnish to seal it. The base and legs of the table are painted white. It looks very “farmhouse” style and I really like that.

We left the table behind to dry and went off to get our groceries.


At home we eat freezies, wrestle on the floor like children, watch a bit of TV and then I decide I should bake my scones that I’ve been thinking about all weekend.

Perfect Buttermilk Scones

Makes about 12 small-medium size scones

3 cups – flour

1/3 cup – Granulated sugar
1 tsp – Salt
2.5 tsp – Baking powder
½ tsp – Baking soda
¾ cup – Cold, cubed butter
1 cup – Buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400F

Lightly grease 1 large cookie sheet
Combine all dry ingredients
Using a fork or pastry cutter add the butter – mixture will be coarse
Make a well in the middle and add the buttermilk
Mix just until combined
(ADD FLAVORS HERE) (Choco chips, cheese, spice, etc..)
Turn dough out onto a flour surface and knead gently
Shape the dough into a round or rectangle and cut into equal sized pieces
(I like doing a rectangle and cutting it into wedges)
Space the wedges evenly apart on the pan and bake for 12-18 minutes
Serve warm!


This is the perfect base recipe for making scones. Really simple and basic, great as is or an awesome starting point to create whatever flavor you desire.

And that is all. We shared a warm scone while watching a few episodes of our current show, House, before bed. I think next time I’m going to make pumpkin and cheddar cheese scones, and probably eat them all before they even get a chance to cool..

Regrets and Clashing Desires

I've recently entered a stage in my life that has had me looking back on my past and also trying to plan for my future. Even though it doesn't do me a damn bit of good I have some regrets from days gone by.

My main and only really significant regret is that I barely put in any effort in high school. I planned to be a hairstylist for as long as I could remember and figured I didn’t need many courses or credits to achieve that. The thing is, I’m not doing that now and I don’t have what I need to be able to pursue any of the other careers I have considered over time.


In grade 7 I worked really hard, paid attention and got honors at the end of the year. I was so proud and told myself I would continue to get them. That did not happen.


By the time I was in grade 10 I was so distracted by anything and everything that I allowed my schooling to take a back seat. The important parts of school anyway. I still did well in my option classes; drama, foods and photography especially.

Fast forward again to grade 12 and I’m taking the bare minimum courses that I need to graduate. Science, math and gym are not required at the grade 12 level so I didn’t take any of them, options are just there to “fill in credits” and so I only felt the need to take just as many as required and a full day of classes wasn’t necessary either so I only took 3 classes every morning. Both semesters I would get to school, do the little bit that was required of me, do it half-assed might I add, and then go to work.


Pretty much all of what I just shared is one big regret. I had so many other careers that I considered and by not trying I put all of them seemingly out of reach for myself. I want to be an Egyptologist, a Marine Biologist or an Interior Designer. More recently I also have a strong interest in Nursing and Midwifery. Without science and math all of these careers are dead in the water.


I really wish I hadn’t wasted my time back then and that it didn’t take me so long to figure out now.


As I consider more and more what I would like my life to look like and what I want for myself I’m realizing that unless things get pushed off and done later my desires are clashing.


Let’s make it easy for you to see.


-I want to upgrade my high school courses and raise my average as much as possible, also take course that I never took in high school.


-After upgrading I want to go to university/college. I’m leaning on Biology or Nursing, possibly both.


-I want to move to Canada’s east coast. Everyone asks me why I want to be there and my answer is, Why not?!? I love it there and have had a desire to live there since I visited for the first time in 2010.

-I want to buy a house, the most perfect fairytale cottage with a huge garden. I want trees on 1 side and ocean on the other. I want Ivy growing up the front.

Images from Pinterest

-Nothing new here but I want to get married and start my family. I’ve wanted kids since before I can remember and that has never faltered.


-Travel the world. Obviously. I want to see everything, go everywhere and ignore all the “adult responsibilities” such as having a job (and everything else I’ve just stated that I want.)

Now, ideally I could have all these things and all at the same time but that seems really unlikely. As much as I have every intention of travelling with my children, seeing the world while pregnant or with a new born is unrealistic. Travelling while doing school online is certainly do-able but who the heck wants to be solving math problems while they could be exploring the history or Egypt or the beaches or New Zealand?


Gardening at my east coast house while doing evening school and travelling short distance on weekends seems ok, except I can’t afford a house yet, I live in Western Canada, I have an excellent job with so many benefits here already and a partners desires to consider as well.


The point is I am having a mid-20’s meltdown and I can’t figure myself out. Any life planners out there want to figure this out for me??


I’m really not sure why I’m even sharing all this, but it’s my website and I do what I want! Please do put in your 2 cents as well!



Ravine Exploration

Since the snow has melted Ryan and I have discovered that we have a great system of trails running through a ravine not far from our apartment. We've been walking, biking and geocaching through the area many times now and it's a blast. We discover new things all the time.

We recently found a few beaver dams and even got to see the occupants! I don't think I've ever seen a beaver before so spotting two in one day was pretty neat.

I think my favorite thing that we've discovered is a completely overgrown campground. Not only has nature taken over, but the city has grown around it as well. I imagine this space would have been a bit further from the hustle and bustle in it's day.

I particularly like this set of stairs that are being swallowed by growth and forgotten by people.

We've walked and ridden our bikes around these areas enough times now that I feel confident that I won't get lost. I know how to get places and then back home again, though we have been trapped within tangles of trees and unable to find geocaches along the way!

This whole area is a hot spot for families with young children to go geocaching. All the turns and bends in the path, undeveloped green space, trees and hills make this area perfect for hiding caches and easily accessible for the little ones. We've seen tons of groups out hunting for their treasures along our way.

We found one specific little man-made "lake" in the middle of a neighborhood and I fell in love with it. A perfect piece of nature within the city, even if it's fake. Every time we go through the area I can't help but listen to the Red-Wing Blackbirds that have made this their home, calling out to each other and filling the air with sweet songs.

Ryan likes to tell me that he will be a birdwatcher in his retirement.

I'm gathering that a lot of the people who have houses backing onto the ravine like to watch the different birds as well because there a sweet little bird houses in plenty of the trees along the path. Some of them even have names painted on.

I can't get enough of our little area and I'm always looking forward to going back out to explore further. Maybe once I've worked myself up to running that 10km I talked about I'll go around here, it sure beats sidewalks and traffic.

If you know of any other areas in Edmonton like this I would love to hear about them!

12km Hike

To celebrate the beautiful weather we've been having lately Ryan and I decided to spend our Sunday out hiking through nature. 12km of grassy, sun-soaked trails in +22C 



We weren't sure if we would actually go the whole 12km or if we'd end up turning back part-way. We are talking about doing a 5km run together in the summer though and I want to be able to run 10km by fall-time so long walks help a bit with the conditioning.

Ryan kept getting excited about noises in the trees, thinking we might see some animals, of course that didn't happen. I might start to think we repel all the animals.. We did spot one tiny frog though, before he hopped away.

The highlight, hands down, was the quicksand. I had no idea we even had quicksand in Alberta!! We were laughing about it and saying we both imagined it to only be in jungles.. I guess we were wrong. These particular pits of quicksand were completely dried up due to our lack or moisture. Just to say we did, the two of us walked confidently across them and didn't get sucked in. Not even close. If we ever get rain, enough to real soak everything, I might have to go back and check out these pits again.

Very near by we also found this little area of bones. They do look a bit like they were placed there, but I liked it anyways. Especially the jaw with teeth. Bison??

Being outside, getting my vitamin D, exercise and fresh air was great. When we walk Ryan and I always have great conversations, learn more about each other and make plans for future dates. The top conversation spot for this walk goes to video games though. We had lots of good laughs about the games we used to play and decided we should try to get our hands on them again now so we can have a face-off!


More adventures are coming soon!