Holiday Update

We went on the driving holiday to Yellowstone National Park and it looks like it came in for costs right around the $2,000 mark so right on our budget in the end.  Not only did it come in on budget is also scored well on the fun holiday quota.  What could be better?

As to how the plan from above worked, one thing that really helped us was that whenever we spent something I would write it down in a notebook.   About every page of spending I added it up.  This helped us to know where our spending was and if we could afford to splurge or if we needed to cut back.  In our case, it enabled us to splurge and not feel like we couldn't afford it.

Specifics on the plan:

Meals:

For breakfasts we bought muffins from the grocery store when we purchased our dinner food.  

Lunch was a sandwich out or a sandwich from the grocery store.  

For snacks we often did items we had picked up from the grocery store; fruit, cheese strings, cookies or granola bars. 

Dinner was a frozen dinner that could be cooked in a frying pan, deli food (fried chicken, etc), or pre-seasoned meat and vegetables.  We had very little trouble finding reasonably healthy, yummy dinner food when we had a whole grocery store to pick from and a camp stove.  We also borrowed a cooler that had a fan to keep the food cool when you plugged it into a cigarette lighter.

We enjoyed the food and felt we had variety, etc. 

Pre-Trip Library Sign Outs:

We took Lonely Planet USA and Lonely Planet Yellowstone (both of which I signed out from the library).  Both of those helped us to plan our trip (since we didn't go on the trip with a detailed plan (just a destination)) to see the cities/towns we felt would be interesting, to find good value places for lunch, to know what we were seeing in Yellowstone, to know what to expect, etc.  In the end, those two books enhanced our trip and, therefore, saved us money.

We also signed out from the library several books on CD.  We only ended up listening to Charlotte's Web but in the end it helped to make some of the long hot drives more bearable and enjoyable.

Places to Sleep:

We had no problem finding campsites.  We did have a bit of a problem finding campsites that weren't next to train tracks or the highway or, yes, BOTH.  We also found some great campsites with swimming pools, free showers, or other amenities.  So, I guess we took the good with the bad. 

One thing that helped us to enjoy almost two weeks in a tent was that we bought a $75 air mattress that pumped up using the cigarette lighter in our car.  It paid for itself several times over. 

We also got one hotel before Yellowstone and one hotel on the way home.   Both were a nice break from the tent. 

For costs, our cheapest tent site was $10 and our most expensive campsite was $40 to give you an idea on actuals.  Also, one thing that helped us a bit was we stayed at a KOA campsite one night and there we got a free book on all the KOA campsites.  This helped us for peace of mind and finding a campsite one night.

Summary:

In the end our holiday was lots of fun, very relaxing, etc.  Exactly what a holiday should be.  Here's a couple of pictures to prove it.

The 6 man tent we borrowed for the trip.

 Me cooking dinner in Yellowstone. This dinner was pre-seasoned chicken, rice-a-roni, a package of prefrozen asparagus and milk to drink.

 The token picture of Old Faithful.  Yellowstone is so much more...

Blender and Stove Update

I mentioned a while ago that we bought a new part for our blender rather than buying a new blender.  Well, the part did not work and it looks like we have to buy a new blender.  It was a $20 part including shipping so not that bad for something that did not end up working.

Also, our new stove has arrived and it works great.

Holiday Costs

So, I know this post is probably a little late in the year as most of you have probably gone on holidays but as we have not yet, here is how I expect the money to work on our holidays.

I wanted to go a big holiday this year but not too major and not too expensive.  My husband was more on the not too expensive side but he also definitely wanted to go on a holiday. 

The first possibility that  both my husband and I wanted to do was a 7 night cruise out of New York, to Halifax, NS, and St. Johns, NB and a couple other stops.  Sounds fun.  I thought so, but here are the costs.

$1,300 – Cruise

$1,100 – Flights out of Seattle

$80 – 2 tanks of gas to get us to Seattle and back

$50 – Hotel in Seattle (which would have included parking for the car)

$100 – Meals not on the cruise (2 days worth)

$75 – Dog Sitting for our dog

$300 – Estimated for trip insurance

$3,005 TOTAL

Now that was very close to our total budget for the trip and did not include any optional excursions or spending.  So, we went back to the drawing board.

Our second idea was to go to Yellowstone National Park for two weeks.  It would be a driving holiday where we tented.  It is quite a long drive for us but being that we are taking two weeks it is doable.  Here are the costs.

$450 – 9 tanks of gas

$350 – 14 nights of camping

$70 – 14 days of Breakfasts

$140 – 14 days of Lunches

$210 – 14 days of dinners

(Our plan to keep the cost of meals down is to pack granola bars, etc for breakfasts, stop at grocery stores for sandwiches for lunches and while we are there get food to put in our cooler that can be cooked on a campstove for dinner.)

$140 – 14 days of dog sitting

$1,360 TOTAL

Now that cost does not include spending or admission into attractions but since our budget was less than $3,000 and ideally less than $2,000, that still gives us lots of room to stay in a hotel a night or two if we get tired of sleeping in the tent, do fun excursions, etc... 

So, since this holiday better matched the budget this is the holiday we have picked to go on and we are leaving in less than two weeks,

So, there is our holiday plans, hopefully yours were/are going to be just as fun and within budget.

Appliances

Remember that post about the unexpected bills.  Well, we are having one of those take place.  In the last month our stove has started coming up with an error message.  When we looked it up on the internet it meant that the control panel was going.  This error message isn't that bad except that it makes the stove beep and that you can't turn on the oven when the error message is up.  OK, so maybe it is bad... 

According to the internet a replacement control panel would cost about $150.  When we took off the back of the stove to check things out, we discovered we would also need to hire a repair person to replace the control panel.  Considering the fact that our stove is six years old and appliances are expected to have a 7 – 10 year life these days, we decided to replace our stove.

So, two weeks ago we went looking at new stoves.  We found one we like in town at a price that was decent but decided not to buy it yet and see how often the error message was actually going to happen.

Well, last week we decided the stove was not going to get better on its own so we went back to that store to buy the stove, they were having an even better sale and when it actually came down to ordering the one we wanted we saved about $90 off the original sale price.  Happy for us. 

So, our new stove is on order and yesterday I made gingersnaps in the toaster oven...

More on Renovations

Today I was getting quotes on a renovation project that we are probably going to do and I was thinking that when I was working that we wouldn't have a time to do this.  So, in this short little post, my advice is do your internet research and get your quotes.  You could save a lot of money.

Ex: $20 for a new blender part vs. $50plus for a new blender....  or getting a $200 cheaper quote for a nicer front door....

Yes, those are two recent examples that I have been looking up.

Home Renovation - Edited to fix percentages

Those who know me know that I like to upgrade our house...  Well, obviously that's a bit harder to do on one income than it is on two. 

My first piece of advice comes from Gail Vaz-Oxlade (I like her advice for the most part) who has said that you should plan to put about 8% - 10% of your home's value into it every year.   So, take the value of your house, divide it by 10% (because it's easy), then divide it by 12.   (I was watching her show the other day and it's actually 3% - 5%,  (OOOPS!) so divide your 10% amount by two.  ) There's your monthly budget.  I like this advice because my husband is at the stage in his career where we could be moving within the next “however-many” years.  So, that 10% will keep our house looking decently updated and therefore if we do have to sell, it should sell for it's appropriate value and if we don't have to sell, well, then we have a nice looking house.  Also, that 10% should pay for the regular maintenance on our house.  

Just because you have figured out a monthly budget doesn't mean you have to spend it every month...  You may spend 3 months budget in one month and nothing the next 2 months... If you want to spend something the next 2 months, it should be absolutely necessary, not an “I want” item.

My second piece of advice is one that I have learned/am learning the hard way....  That is when you decide to do a renovation project, you (and, especially I, as the writer of these steps) should follow these steps:

Step 1.  Prioritize if you have more than one project that you want to do.  One project at a time here.

Step 2.  Figure out the cost of what you want and write it down. This is where you go dreaming to the store with a notepad...  Try not to buy anything this trip.  It's also a good idea to bring measurements.  If you are going to change it, measure it and, preferably draw a sketch to go with the measurements.  That way if you are lost you can show it to the sales person and they can figure out the details you didn't know you were supposed to measure/know.

Step 3.  Write all the costs you have collected down so you can see how long it will take to save up for this project – Hint – Include taxes and a contigency for the random little supplies.  This is also the time to start thinking what can I do without, downgrade/upgrade, etc.

Step 4.  Wait for things to go on sale and buy them at that point in time -  The first three steps but especially this step is where my husband and I have gone wrong in the past.  We decide we want to do a project so we go out and buy all the supplies.  BAD IDEA!  I have estimated we have spend 10%, maybe more, extra money on a project for not thinking and planning. 

Step 5.  Start and complete the project.   The complete is the big thing....  Don't start it until you know you have time to complete the project.

Now let me tell you how we are putting these steps into process.  We have decided that we want to replace our tub in our main bathroom, and, also renovate our downstairs bathroom.  So, two projects.  First we prioritized.  We want to do our main bathroom tub first.  But what about the horrible downstairs bathroom and that we have a temporary boarder coming to live with us...  Well, we took some upstairs bathroom paint (from a previous renovation project) and painted, changed some lightbulbs, took a spare shower curtain and rug and put it in.  Ta da.  A facelift for zero dollars...  No not permanent, but it will work.

So, back to the main bathroom and following the steps (or not). 

Step 2: We decided we wanted a white tub (rather than the beige that is there now).  Did you know that tubs come in porcelain and enamel?  I didn't before but while doing research I learned that and the price difference between the two.  We decided to tile the tub surround, rather than put in a new 5 piece insert.    So, what kind of tiles...  If you ever look at photos of bathrooms you know the options are many.  After looking and comparing prices we decided on big white ones with a small accent border. 

Step 3:  You know that temporary boarder I mentioned.  Well, that is what is paying for the renovation, so now we have a way to afford it outside of the 10% yearly home renovation money I mentioned. Also, we decided not to replace the tub faucet, lever, and shower head.  It seems like a lot of money for very little benefit, especially when they seem to work fine.  This is also where the contingency could come in if it turns out we do have to replace them(but apparently I don't follow my own advice and we don't have a contingency...). 

Step 4:  Just recently there was a sale on tubs, so I spoke to my parents who assured us that it was a good price, so we bought the tub.  Again, I spoke to my parents about the tile (which I know doesn't really go on sale) and they knew a place that had good priced tile so we went there and got the tile and only 2 expensive accent tiles.  This is where the calculations/measurements come in handy, as those two tiles will do one border 3 tiles wide around our tub.  We purchased these tiles on the looking trip when we probably would have been wiser to wait a month or two until we had the money in hand.  It turned out fine but still not wise.

Step 5:  This project is not even started yet as we will not have time, nor do we want to take the time to do it until the fall.

Hopefully, those steps will help make your renovation dreaming come to life.

Fruits

So, this post is actually going to include some prices which is rare for me but I think these are useful.  They are Canadian and I think they're fairly good for across western Canada.  So anyway...  A good general rule, that I have found, is less than  $1/lb for most fruit, but for berries less than $2/lb.  Fruit is best when it's cheapest and in season, which I think is super great.

Here is what I see is good prices for specific fruits:

Cherries (in season about now) - 1.99/lb
Peaches/Apricots/Plums (in season later in the summer) - the closer to .99/lb the better, if you can get them for less even better
Apples (fall) - less than $.99/lb, but the closer to $.49/lb you can get the better price they are
Grapefruits (in season in winter) - $.49/lb
Oranges  - Same as grapefruit
Strawberries (just out of season) - 1.49/lb at their cheapest, but I start buying them at $1.99/lb

Now, I know that isn't every fruit but that should give you a good starting point.

Also, last year cherries came closer to .99/lb.  It doesn't happen every year but last year, I'm pretty sure, was a bumper crop so they were in the stores longer and were cheaper than they usually are.

So, enjoy your healthy (cheap) fruit.