January 1st Net Worth

Very bummed to see such a big red number.  I expected to lose money this month since it was Christmas and our first month with the baby, however I was not expecting to have so much trouble getting a hold of my Record of Employment to get my Maternity benefits.  I should be getting it tomorrow.  I got my vacation pay with my last paycheck and Kyle signed for his since he was taking 2 weeks off after Willow was born.  From now on we will not be including vacation pay in our net worth.

December Budget Review

Another expensive month, unfortunately this time we didn't have much income.  I STILL don't have my maternity leave.  We both received our vacation pays which were equivalent to our average paychecks, however we had been including them in our net worth so I did not record them in our budget since it was technically not income.

December 1st Net Worth

Our net worth is not increasing like it used to, but that was to be expected.  The green column is the status of the accounts and the numbers to the right of the green columns are how much those accounts increased or decreased compared to the previous month.  I love having a zero in the liabilities. :)  My bank account was the only thing that didn't go up, although we did not lose money.  We don't bother splitting expenses 50/50 and I usually pay for the majority of misc purchases including groceries.  Regardless, not a bad month considering we spent so much on Christmas and Willow.

November Budget Review

A solid month late but better late than never I guess.

Very surprised that we set any money aside at all after all the extra spending going on with Christmas AND a baby on the way.
Hydro - Unfortunately I had not realized on our first bill that it was not for a full 2 months so I was very dissapointed to open this month's bill and see how big it was.  And this is without the electric heat being turned on yet!
Other - We needed new bedsheets for winter, a vaccum, plastic to insulate all the windows, and gas as we had my mom's car for quite a while.  At least we found the sheets and vaccum on sale.
Misc Income - I got an HST cheque for $99, and I definately cannot remember what the $10 is from.  But for the last year all of our spare change, and any change that came with our tipouts has gone into our Christmas Change Jar.  We counted it up and rolled it and had $245 :)  And still have at least $45 in change left in it that we couldn't roll because we didnt have enough of each coin.  We also got a ton of cash and gift cards from the baby shower, but it was too much to keep track of so I did not include it. (To keep things consistent I took off whatever was spent with this money from our expenses).

Misc Spending - Spent a ton on gifts, but I will make a post specifically for our Christmas shopping.  Misc Christmas shopping was for decorations (we need to start working on that now that we have our own family holidays to start).  We bought Christmas lights and I started making cross-stitch stockings for Kyle and Willow, like my mom had done for our family when we were kids.  Despite the massive amounts of baby supplies and clothes we received at the baby shower (and in the weeks that followed) there were still a few things we needed to pick up like bottles, moniters, and a dresser.

And after all that we set aside $170 :)  However I'm sure I lost track of some money with everything from the baby shower because our net worth and bank accounts show that we set aside more than our budget says.  So it's not a bad thing.

Welcome To The World, Willow!

It's a little late but I would like to announce the arrival of my very healthy and beautiful baby girl!  Willow Elizabeth is finally here and doing very well.  Of course, this is why I have not posted in, what, a month?  She's definately keeping us busy, but soon we will be getting into a schedule.  I can't believe she is 3 weeks old today!  I will be catching up on the main posts I've missed and will hopefully find time to come back and post every couple of days.  A lot has happened, especially financially, so I have plenty to write about.

Weekly Work Recap (Nov. 21 - Nov. 27)

So I am officially on maternity leave now.  Just waiting for my record of employment to come in so I can actually apply for my mat leave paycheck.  Last week was my last week at work at being so, as well as having a huge list of things to do to prepare for baby, all enthusiasm for work went out the door.

MondayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 4:50 - 9:40  4.33 hours

TuesdayScheduled: 5:30 Dinner
Worked: 5:30 - 8:00  2.5 hours

WednesdayScheduled: 5:30 Dinner
Worked: 5:30 - 9:30  4 hours

ThursdayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 5:00 - 9:30  4.5 hours

FridayScheduled: 5:30 Dinner
Worked: 5:30 - 8:30  3 hours

Saturday - SundayOfficially on maternity leave!
Estimated Hours:  16.5 Hours
Hours Worked:  18.33 Hours
I feel like a bum.  Oh well, I am done now, and considering I have been off for 5 days now I have been very busy!  Still lots to do before baby's arrival, and at our appointment yesterday the doctor said she will definately be early, if not right on time.  Any day now!

Weekly Work Recap (Nov. 14 - Nov. 20)

This week was exhausting!  Including last SUnday I worked 6 Late shifts in a row, not necessarily long shifts, just a lot of work involved.  Then my 7th shift in a row was just a dinner shift but we got slammed and it ended up being my ongest shift of the week. Go figure.

Anyways, finally a day off today, Baby Shower!  5 more shifts then as of Friday evening I am officially done work :)

MondayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 4:30 - 9:00  4.5 hours

TuesdayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 4:30 - 9:10  4.66 hours

WednesdayScheduled: 5:30 Dinner
Worked: 4:40 - 10:00  5.33 hoursPicked up the Late shift
ThursdayScheduled: Day Off
Worked: 5:30 - 8:40  3.17 hoursPicked up a 5:30 Dinner shift.  Kyle was the actual late but I did it for him, then he stayed late, which was really only 20 minutes longer than I was there.
FridayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 5:00 - 10:40  5.66 hours

SaturdayScheduled: 5:00 Dinner
Worked: 5:00 - 10:50  5.83 hours

SundayScheduled: Day Off
Baby Shower!
Estimated Hours:  19 Hours
Actual Hours:  29.15

Weekly Work Recap (Nov. 7 - Nov. 13)

Shifts are officially sucking at work, but I only have 2 weeks left.

MondayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 4:30 - 9:40  5.17 hours

TuesdayScheduled: Day Off

WednesdayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 4:50 - 10:10  5.33 hours

ThursdayScheduled: Day Off
Worked: 5:10 - 9:12  4.03 hoursSwitched my Saturday shift for Thursday.

FridayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 4:50 - 10:15  5.42 hours

SaturdayScheduled: 5:30 Dinner
Worked: Day Off
Switched this shift for Thursday's because the family baby shower was today.
SundayScheduled: 5:30 Dinner
Worked: 5:30 - 9:10  3.17 hoursPicked up the late shift, however it was extremely dead and didn't add much time to my shift.
Estimated Hours:  20 hours
Actual Hours:  23.12 hours
All I have to say about that is 'boo'!

Mini Update

So I haven't posted much lately due to busyness and lack of inspiration. I'm still here though!  I've almost finished the work for my financial accounting class so I can schedule an early exam, as it's supposed to be right around my due date.

I have several plans for posts but can't post them yet since they're not quite done.  Just finished most of our Christmas shopping the other day, but still a couple things to get so I will wait until it's all done to post a summary.  Also had our pre baby shower yesterday with my family, the big one is next Sunday, then we will know what we still need to buy.  Based on what we already got yesterday, it won't be much. :)

Kyle and I will be discussing our 5 year plan soon, I already have a spreadsheet made up to organize it (of course).  We are also thinking of visiting my parents and step brother in Vancouver in January/February, since now they can't come until May.

So I have a lot of budgeting coming up, just need to organize it all then I will have more posts.  I apologize for how boring I've been!

Weekly Work Recap (Oct. 31 - Nov. 6)

This week was okay, I was scheduled 6 shifts and picked up a shift on the day I was off.  I was excited when my manager told me last week he scheduled for for 6 days, until he added 'they're not long shifts though since your maternity leave depends on what you work before you leave'.  How does this make sense?  Giving me crappy short shifts benefits me in no way, especially stretching them out over 6 days instead of 5, that's a day I could have just enjoyed at home.  Oh well, I made the most of it.

MondayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 4:40 - 9:00  4.33 hours

TuesdayScheduled: 12:00 Lunch
Worked: 11:30 - 2:00  2.5 hours

WednesdayScheduled: 5:00 Late
Worked: 4:45 - 10:50  6.08 hours

ThursdayScheduled: 5:30 Dinner
Worked: 5:30 - 8:30  3 hours

FridayScheduled: 5 Late
Worked: 5:00 - 10:40  5.66 hours

SaturdayScheduled: 5:30 Dinner
Worked: 5:30 - 10:00  4.5 hours

SundayScheduled: Day Off
Worked: 4:30 - 9:40  5.17 hoursPicked up the 5:00 Late
Estimated Hours: 21 Hours
Hours Worked: 31.24 Hours
Wow, that's very dissapointing to add up 7 straight days of work and only have worked 31 hours.  That's only one hour more than the bare minimum I have to work in a week.  I'm really getting a lot of crappy shifts where I can barely get 3 hours in.  It almost makes me wonder if I'd be better off going on maternity leave early.