A big purchase...almost!

We almost bought our condo. Yup, we just moved in here less than six months ago and we have been happily renting our unit from some great landlords, but then one day the phone rang...

Our Landlords were thinking about buying another unit in the building, a unit that was on a higher floor (ironically the unit right below my best friend who lives in the building as well). Well, we were given the option of either buying our current unit from them or moving in and renting the new unit once it was fixed up.

The thing was the new unit needed a huge amount of work done to it. It was completely trashed and smelling of urine. An older couple had lived there for many years and nothing had ever been maintained or upgraded within the unit.

When they told me the news over the telephone, I was stunned. I never thought this was possible and certainly not five and a half months after moved in!

We prayed about it, talked endlessly and eventually decided to contact our local branch location to see what option we may have. Unfortunately, the representative at the bank was rude, pushy and didn't have a clue what an "annuity" was nor how they operate.

Chris just happened to mention to our accountant what we were looking into and she mentioned that their company also has a mortgage brokerage component to the business and yes, of course, they knew more about my finances than anyone on the planet -- other than myself!

We ran the numbers and it all looked great! Actually, better than I thought it would. Yay!

Then, the bad news: Our landlords didn't get the higher floor condo! Another offer was accepted! Boo! So the money we had begun to save for closing costs will be saved for another purchase.

For now, we will continue to rent since we're still in our lease until November, technically. But if another option to buy comes up they'll let us know. Otherwise, we plan to buy in the near future within the building.

I gotta say, going through the process actually did me good. It made me realize that had we had this kind of opportunity two years ago, Chris and I would've failed miserably wanting to buy but being financially unable to. When all this came about we were still in debt, but just at the end of it (and we had no idea, literally four days later we'd be debt-free). This debt-free sprint we've been on has been worth it. It gives us the option to buy and buy soon if we so choose to.

It's amazing the opportunities The Lord continues to provide for us. So, even though we didn't get to buy this wonderful two-bedroom, two bath 1153 square foot condo that we've fallen in love with, we've learned a lot about ourselves in this process of number-crunching. All that hard work for 25 months, has paid off. The future looks bright and we have so many options!

Chris loves this building, the location and the condo itself. His more married to this place than even I am. (I still get nostalgic and want an actual house with a yard every other week!)

I must say though, if I had to live in a condo (which is more practical for us long-term) this would be the one I'd want to live in. I even get a little craft/office corner in the solarium.

Thankfully, every unit in this building is the same type of layout so it's not like we're completely out of luck for our future.

Thanks be to God for how far we've come and how far we still have to go. Every trial and tribulation in this life is for our benefit.

Debt Paid off before Forty!!!

Chris keeps calling me "Mrs Debt-Free" and kissing me afterwards every single time. It's the cutest thing!

Over the weekend, something completely unexpected happened. We received a tax return in my name. Uhm..... what??? This was NOT supposed to happen.

Our accountant for the last two years has told us how much our taxes will now be with the annuity renegotiated since May 2016. We have planned for that amount in taxes every year and now we have a tax return... Yeah... completely unexpected!

We think this is Heavenly Father at work because we were set to pay off debt much later than this. We thought our debt was more and that it wouldn't be paid off until February. Well, the numbers were wrong and here we are! Debt paid off and feeling quite giddy!

I'm 39 years old and 11 months and just barely squeezed this in before my 40th birthday! Here I thought I'd have a low-key birthday but not anymore! I'm celebrating, Baby!

Chris is supposed to pay something towards CRA for previous taxes owed. We don't have the numbers for what that amount is yet. (They're still working on that on their end.) So, in the meantime, we're saving up some money between now and the fall so that if he is given a bill to pay we'll have money for it. After October we'll be able to start saving for a larger emergency fund, car and adoption. We've already looked at those numbers as well.

We still have a plan and just because we're done paying off debt doesn't mean we're not going to work this plan. It's important to still have goals and a direction. Everything we're doing is done with a prayer and humble heart.

We feel in awe of what has been done to allow this day to come in this timing. On Saturday, when we received the news about the tax return, I sat here dumbfounded for over twenty minutes just unable to speak full sentences. Chris did start giggling at me... I must have been a funny sight to see!

Today we slogged through the rain and cold wind to haul our butts by bus all the way to the dental office. We arrived there soaked to the bone so that we could pay off the remaining dental debt for my implant procedure. This was to be paid with instalments until October, but this was the last debt and I wasn't willing to just pay it off in smaller instalments anymore. The two receptionists who were present when we arrived were shocked by our dedication to pay it off early. Not only that, when they heard what we were doing, paying off almost $48,000 in 25 months they had so many questions for us! The main question was, "HOW?!" I have no idea if they'll remember this day, but I know we will. It felt awesome to leave their office -- still soaking wet -- and grab a celebration ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins before heading off to finish our errands. That ice cream never tasted so sweet!

We can now look forward, to a brighter future and a more obtainable hope of a family... Maybe just maybe this will lead us to another step towards our son or daughter.

Every step on this journey is not taken alone. We know we walk with Jesus Christ, our Saviour through it all. We're so thankful and feel quite in awe this evening. No words can describe just how sweet this victory is. All for His glory and His timing...

Dancing like a goofy fool

As we approach the end of the month of May typically I reflect back on our month's progress. Instead, I received some amazing news today that made me celebrate someone else's moment of happiness in their debt-free journey.

A friend of mine contacted me to let me know they had paid off another debt! They have been dedicated and consistent in their journey and another step of progress was reached. We did a happy dance of celebration together, even though we were not actually together for the dancing. It was a goofy crazy moment of dancing all alone in our separate locations, but the shared joy was palpable and felt.

I'm thrilled to dance with another person on this journey. Every moment of absolute success spurs me on to press forward and give this thing a renewed burst of energy to just keep trying.

We cannot forget the little successes along the way, for the little moments of success build one atop another until they become a vision of success that can inspire you and others.

Lead by example and you will become your own example -- even for yourself!

In that vein, Chris and I will be doing a "half-spending freeze" for the month of June. We have surmised we have more than enough groceries to get us through the next month. So we've only put aside $50 for grocery money (fresh milk, fruit and eggs) but our remaining grocery budget money of $250 will go straight towards savings. (I'll tell you what large item we may be saving for in a future post!)

Normally I'd throw that extra money at debt and we thought we were going to, but something has come up on our radar, something entirely unexpected and potentially exciting! More happy dancing ensues!

In the meantime, I'll leave you all in suspense and just say celebrate those little victories. Anytime you make a budgeting plan and stick to it -- celebrate that! Eventually that goofy once a month success dancing will be a debt pay off dance -- like my dear friend! So exciting!

Choosing the Hard Right

I was a big blubbery mess. I mean I was beyond consolable. It feels almost silly now to talk about it but at that moment I wanted to just throw up my hands and stomp my feet with stubborn defiance. The answer was a definite, "NO!" from me.

I was not going to pay a tithe. I wasn't doing it while we were in debt. I didn't think it was fair or right or.... well.... darn it I was just so close to getting all the debt pay off, so no I wasn't going to do it!

Then I realized what the real issue behind the tantrum was. Fear. I was afraid; afraid to let go of a small amount of money and give it back to God because our entire income and controlling it gave me a sense of security. Y'see financial security is very important to me. For so long I didn't have that kind of security. I lived month to month just waiting for another letter from CRA in the mail telling me I needed to give up thousands of dollars to our government. (I will admit CRA mail always gives me that kind of anxiety, even now.) My palms sweat and my heart will race a bit more but I don't have a choice, do I? I always have to pay whatever it is they say I owe.

So, Heavenly Father asking for 10% of our income in tithing was like another authority figure saying, "You don't have a choice. Hand it over now, or else!" I resented that commandment and stubbornly held on to the knowledge that I needed to get out of debt before we talked about tithing.

Then something happened and I realized I didn't have enough faith in Heavenly Father to still guide us through this time of debt pay off while tithing. Trusting in His plan more than my own. You see, I had it all worked out. We had crunched the numbers to death; so much so that we knew down to the exact day when we would be debt-free. I trusted the numbers more than I trusted in The Lord.

So, I was reading through the scriptures and came across these passages in Proverbs chapter three, which I know the majority of us are at least somewhat familiar with, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. " (v. 5,6 & 9)

I don't know why these verses resonated with me so clearly at that moment. I've read those passages many times before, but this time I felt a stirring in my heart about my struggle at hand. I prayed on it and didn't dismiss the prompting but decided to ruminate on it overnight just a little longer.

The next morning, Chris and I sat down for our morning scripture reading on the couch. We read through a few things and then turned to read the Proverbs scripture for the day. It was the same Proverbs from the night before!  I told Chris what had transpired last night and felt we needed to revisit the tithing subject immediately after finishing our reading. He agreed and together we knew we were making a financial change to tithe but the bigger change was trusting God with what this change meant for our future.

So what does it mean, you're wondering. Well, it will mean we're a few months further out in our debt pay off journey than we initially bargained for. The debt we'll be paid off by February 2019 now, instead of December -- which is fine and not the end of the world. Not the date I wanted but....still....okay fine...

The bigger thing to give up was the idea that this sets our entire journey back significantly after debts are paid off. Since we are now a tithing family that will mean more money will not be going towards things like the fully-funded emergency fund, the future family vehicle or the very hopeful....private adoption...

We've given up on the private adoption dream.... and I'll go into that more another time but Chris and I have come to realize it's just not going to happen for us -- maybe we'll still be able to think about public adoption, but not private.... deep breath in, deep breath out... and that's okay. Really, it is...

It was a dream we had to give up and move on to other dreams; other hopes for our future and family. We actually feel our burden has been made light with this new decision. We are a family that is willing to steward our money well and to us, that will mean tithing; giving back to others without direct benefit to ourselves. It's an important lesson to learn and it took us awhile to get there, but I'm glad we did.

I hope those out there reading this may consider giving in there own ways, even while you're going through the debt pay off journey. If you don't tithe consider praying on the subject, as I did. God will meet you where you and help you through the difficult subject. It's not an easy road to walk, but it's always the right road when we choose to follow Him.

Our Favourite Day of the Month has Arrived!!!

In our home, we love the first day of every month. It's like Christmas all over again! We get to sit down and take action on the budget we've set up for this current month. Chris and I will go through the bills, pay them and set aside money in our sinking funds for things we're saving for in the near future. I know it sounds odd, but it's just such a great high to see things getting paid in a timely manner!

We always have to wait for about the 5th of the month to pay the line of credit as that's the day the bill comes out, but thankfully it's not too long to wait for that one.

Also, I always take a moment and look back on the previous month's budget and see how we faired. I LOVED the month of April! Chris and I were able to make even more sacrifices than usual and put a larger portion of money towards our debt pay off. $1,710.01!!! Yay!!! It felt amazing!!! Like a real big accomplishment.

So, what did we sacrifice? Well, things like, miscellaneous money, a bit of my fun pocket money and we got a credit back on an Airbnb that fell through on the owners' end when Chris went down to visit his dad for his birthday in April.  The majority of that went towards debt as well. 

We are now officially in the $5,000s for our line of credit and our $600 payments are really knocking out the dental debt quickly, too.

Chris and I are staying humble and thankful but we are also really proud of ourselves, too. Every effort and stride forward we make is making a difference. We all have setbacks and things that come up that are completely unexpected but if we just get back up and keep trying again eventually we'll get there. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for the blessings we have to do this and the progress we've made.

I know paying off debt isn't easy, guys. Sometimes it gets overwhelming and it's just easier to enjoy the moment. You're tired, you've had a long day at work, another bill has arrived for you to pay and you still have to make dinner for you and the husband. Who gives a flying crap about paying off debt! Who cares, because the debt will NEVER go away, right? We'll always have some sort of debt. Well, look at us. We're doing it and we're sacrificing some major stuff in order to do it. I'm not saying we're perfect at it, and we may be doing it faster then some and slower than other people out there, but we are doing it. Don't compare yourself too much to others and who you do decide to compare yourself too, make sure that person or couple has great morals and ethics to emulate. It's not about who has the nicer stuff, or the prettier house. Heck, it's not about the vacation you can't afford to take or the car you drive. No, it's about if you're really living the life you're meant to live or you're wasting your time here on earth. 

Don't waste that time paying the debt for the rest of your life. Pay it off, save a little, and by that car or vacation you need with CASH! It'll feel different, trust me it really and truly will. 

I'll admit it, I get a high when I pay off my debt every month. Every cent I can put towards it just make me want to shout with absolute joy and thankfulness. I never thought we'd get here. I never thought I would get here. I can see the future; y'know that debt-free future. I want it so bad; more than anything else right now I'm able to do with my life. There are so many more possibilities with debt-freedom. Can you imagine what our life would be like if we didn't have debt at all? Wow, now that's something to think on! 

Pork, the other white meat

Last week Chris saw an amazing sale at Loblaws grocery store on pork. Remember when he did that a few years ago? Yup, well it happened again!

The best way for us to save money on groceries is to hunt through the flyers and buy what's on sale. So, if there is an amazing deal on pork, we buy it -- and buy a lot! Thankfully we have a five cubic foot freezer where we can stock up on meat and other things to freeze and so that sure helps our savings, but I gotta tell you, what we paid for the darn freezer wasn't a great savings!

We were stupid once, too y'know. Chris and I didn't know about the whole Dave Ramsey plan back and in the day, and so we saw one of those rent to own furniture places and thought we could buy a freezer through them. Well, yeah we could buy a freezer at their store, but it turned out we spent three times more money buying this darn freezer than if we had just saved up the money ourselves! Never again! Nope, nuh uh....!

Thankfully, we've moved on from such dumb mistakes, and we're utilizing this very expensive little freezer to its fullest by saving up big time when it comes to freezing food in the darn thing.

Last time we saw a sale like this we bought pork shoulders. Humongous pork shoulders! I remember that meat just lasted forever and this time is really no different with this pork. It might not be the shoulder of the pig but we still have some amazing top quality meat.

When Chris was cutting the pork chops down to size he really examined the quality of the meat and said it was a really good cut. Nothing cheap and at only $2/lbs (CDN) it was SO worth it! Yes, we got $70 worth of meat, but it'll last us at least a year with 109 pork chops! (That's 35 lbs of meat! That Chris carried home in his backpack on the bus! What a trooper that guy is!)

So, my challenge to you is to search those flyers and be willing to use a little of your food budget for the latest great sale. If it's something you know you or your family will eat, don't hesitate to stock up and freeze it.

Chris and I have decided that once we're debt-free we plan to put $20 extra aside every month just for food sales like these. Eventually having an extra $100 once or twice a year to buy an exceptional sale will save us a ton of money!

Taxes are paid!

Well, our taxes were filed two weeks ago. It was nice to get it all done in time. This year was our first full year just having our annuity income as the only source of income at all, so it was a guessing game about just how much taxes we would have to pay.

We had been paying our taxes every month, as I made an estimate as to what they would be based on discussions with our accountant and her boss. Our estimates were pretty spot on. We ended up paying, $8,573.66. You're thinking, "Holy cow that's a lot of money, Rosie!" Actually, it's not, really. I used to have to pay more than double that with the way the annuity was set up. When we renegotiated the annuity they were able to bring up our income and bring down the income taxes I'd have to pay.

Although annuities now are no longer taxable, thanks to a law change, my annuity isn't included in that law change that happened more than 25 years ago. It's very frustrating that I'm taxed, but I feel that solving the annuity is a greater blessing and so I don't complain much about the tax. It's better to count your blessings than to complain.

So, here government of Canada, take your money and I know you're not going to spend it the way I see fit. *shrugs* Hahaha...

I do hope everyone else was able to file their taxes on time. Spring is always a time for eternal renewal and hope, but yes, tax season is part of it as well. I'm not always pleased about that part and I hear many other people grumble about it as well. Just be thankful for the country we live in and that the majority of us get a tax return. Enjoy those tax returns for me! :D Hey, why don't you put your return towards debt this year? Make some big payment towards your debt and do the debt pay off dance for me!