Weekly Spending Recap - Nov 14 to Nov 20

The numbers are higher than I would've like and actually caught me by surprise.  I definitely need to be more aware of what we're spending our money on.

Monday, Nov 14

Gas - $49.00

Headphones (for iPod) - $11.19

Groceries - $11.58

Tuesday, Nov 15

bills/mortgage - $1151.82

Wednesday, Nov 16

Life ins - $300.00

Thursday, Nov 17

Cell phone/Car loan - $550.82

Friday, Nov 18

Saturday, Nov 19

Family allowance - $152.52

Eating out w/ kids - $12.62

Christmas gifts - $69.09

Birthday gift and dinner - $78.12

Sunday, Nov20

Groceries - $55.54

Cash - $60.00

We went out on Saturday for a friend's birthday dinner.  The restaurant she had chosen unfortunately did not take reservations but she assured me on Friday that she would be at the restaurant early so that she could get her name on the wait list.  Turns out she was running late and we showed up at the restaurant at the same time and the wait was 1.5 hrs!  It wasn't fun waiting but we were at least able to sit in the lounge and enjoy a drink and snacks.  Luckily by the time we were seated and ready to order, I wasn't very hungry so I ordered a soup and salad.  DH ordered chicken and ribs and I had his baked potato.  So our bill came to approx $48 (including tip).  Unfortunately this birthday dinner and gift wasn't in the budget, so I didn't have any money set aside.

We also started our Christmas shopping this past weekend and actually wrote down our Christmas shopping list.  I have to admit, the list is much longer than I thought it would've been.  So that has me a little worried in terms of the amount of money we will need to purchase all these gifts.  I may need to use our credit card to pay for some gifts.  Possibly.. I will try to avoid it as much as I can.

This week I need to stay on top of making dinner and lunches.  No eating out for the family this week or next week.  Pay day is still 9 days away!

Going back to the beginning...

Every now and then, I look at our financial numbers and ask myself "How did I get here?"  These are the answers I come up with:

2005:

I was just coming out of a relationship of 6 years.  During that relationship, I was too trusting and generous and allowed my BF to have supplementary credit cards under my name.  The last few years were long distance and although I tried to control the BFs spending, he managed to rack up his credit cards over $5000.  Unfortunately he had no honor and wasn't a real man, so he didn't feel the need to pay me back after we had broken up.  Coming out of the relationship I had close to $20,000 in consumer debt.  No mortgage or car payments.  

2006:
I worked on paying off the debt but I wasn't making much progress.  Met DH and we had a great first year together.  We were always out and about, always watching movies, going out to eat and just being slightly irresponsible with our money.  We traveled to Minneapolis and Las Vegas this year.  Later in 2006 we found out that we were pregnant.  At the request of my parents, we decided to get married before the baby arrived.

2007:
This was a huge year for us.  We got married, bought a brand new house, furnished the entire house, bought a brand new vehicle and had a baby.  And just before baby arrived, we traveled to Toronto.

2008:
I was sent to London, England for work and DH and T came out to stay with me for 10 days.  Although my accommodations were paid for and I had a food allowance, we still had to pay for their flight and some extra food.  And of course there was money spent when we would go sight-seeing and shopping.  We also found out we were pregnant with our second child.  We also went to Las Vegas when we came across an incredible flight and hotel package deal.  

2009:
We had baby #2 and I traveled to Vancouver twice (once with the family and the second time with friends).

2010:
There were some family-related emergencies that required us to use our line of credit.  Then there was the trip to Saskatoon.  We also traveled overseas for a 1 month vacation.

2011:
Not much travel this year, just one trip to Minneapolis.  This was the year that I really wanted to start paying off our debt.  The past 4 years have been incredibly busy and the kids, the wedding, the house, the vehicle, none of that was planned for.  So there were no savings funds for any of it.  

So I know why we're in the financial situation that we're currently in.  And I should be fortunate to say that we're in this financial situation because we chose to splurge.  We spent money like it was going out of style.  I'm lucky to say that there weren't a number of unfortunate events that put us in debt.  It was our reckless spending.


It has been without a doubt, an amazing 4 years.  And because we were able to do so much, I know that I can re-think our spending now and be more responsible. 

He finally won..

DH finally got his new jacket and new t-shirt.  Total cost $117.  I was against both purchases and voiced my objections each time he brought up the topic of making the purchases.  Last month both DH and I started decluttering our closet and selling on eBay.  For me, the extra cash was meant to go into savings and towards debt.  For DH, it was about selling enough so that he could purchase new clothing.  I guess if that is what he decides to do with his earnings, then I can't argue with that can I?  It's tough because DH isn't very involved with our household finances, he not even aware of the amount of debt we currently have.  And it's partially my fault for not getting him more involved.  He trusts that I'm taking care of our household finances and the bills are getting paid.  And to some extent, I am taking care of things.  But it's hard to get him to understand why his purchases are so unnecessary when he's not aware of our current financial situation.

Because DH is not very involved in our finances, I feel that it's completely my fault that we're in the situation that we're in.  I made the mistakes and didn't manage our money very well and when DH asks for new things, a part of me feels that he should get to buy things because it wasn't his fault we're in as much debt as we are in.  And although I was able to convince him the past few weeks to not make the purchases, this past weekend he finally got to me.  I couldn't listen to him talk about the new clothes anymore.  So I sent him into the stores and told him to just buy it.

Good news is that we paid cash for the clothing.  Bad news, the money I transferred from Pay Pal into our chequing account is pretty much all spent.  No money into savings and no extra debt payments.  We went out to eat a few times this weekend, bought lotto tickets and just spent money we really didn't need to.

I'm a little frustrated because I haven't been focused on not spending money.  I can't go on like this.  Christmas is just around the corner and I need to make sure we're not overspending on gifts and I'm determined to not use any credit cards for Christmas gift purchases.

I think I need to get better at posting more often, I find that when I'm blogging I'm more aware of our financial situation and the importance of keeping on track with this journey to becoming debt free.