Forever is just the beginning to a Healthy New You! Baby Steps, baby steps, you can do it, the words of our support system. We have ended week 2 quitting smoking and thus far its been the best decision in our lives besides marrying each other. Aweeee… I know, I’m sweet that way! Have you… Read more
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Using Vinegar to Clean up your Budget!
By now if you are following how we designed our Budget Steps One, Two and Three you should start to see where your money is going every month. One item we noticed that cost us a bit of money was “cleaning supplies”. We asked ourselves whether it was necessary to spend over $20.00 a month out of our budget. Then it… Read more
How We Designed Our Budget Step 3-Tracking Receipts
COULD I PLEASE HAVE MY RECEIPT? You may think the task of asking for a receipt every time you shop will break you but it gets easier with practice. Tracking receipts has been one of the most successful ways we’ve been able to track our spending habits. Perhaps it’s been a bit of work to… Read more
Breaking the Budget: Coffee and Lunch Comparison of 2 Co-Workers
THIS IS HOW EASY YOU CAN BLOW MONEY WITHOUT KNOWING IT I’ve worked professionally for the past 4 years and faithfully bring my own 20 oz travel mug of coffee and a hot lunch to work daily. I wanted to compare the figures of what I bring to work to a buddy of mine… Read more
Can we stick to the Grocery Budget February 2012 Week 2?
We did pretty good last week considering it was our first week playing our Grocery Game. The Grocery Game is something we play to bring down the total out of pocket in our monthly Grocery Budget. We challenge ourselves to stick to a budget without giving in to temptation, although temptation sometimes gets the best… Read more
Top Ten Ways to Cut your Grocery Budget
Looking back at 2011, the first four months of our grocery budget was completely out of control, but that was our own fault. Although we were getting amazing deals, we never stuck to the budget because we were using coupons more than we needed to. We went from spending over $500 a month on groceries to our 2012… Read more
Kick the Smoking Habit Save Your Health and Budget Week 1 Update
Hi Folks, This is our Week 1 Health and Budget update since Quitting Smoking Sunday, January 29 at 9pm. 🙂 As previously discussed we decided to take part in the Driven To Quit Challenge advertised on Global TV. It’s a great motivator to achieve our goal of quitting smoking and balancing the budget. Last week we… Read more
The Ultimate Guide: How To Haggle the Best Deals with your Communication Providers
THERE’S ROOM TO NEGOTIATE WITH YOUR COMMUNICATION PROVIDERS Getting the best promotions for your cell phone, home phone, internet and cable from your communication providers helps keep monthly budget expenses low. I’m going to show you today how we score some great deals and how you too can get the BEST deals for your communications… Read more
Should Parents Teach their Children about Money?
I vividly recall when I was younger hearing my father say “one day you will understand” after throwing a fit because I couldn’t get the toy I wanted. Although my parents went on to teach us the value of money I feel learning about other aspects of finance would have been beneficial although some were not… Read more
January 2012 Canadian Budget Binder Net Worth Update
Welcome to the Canadian Budget Binders first Net Worth Update of 2012. I would like to have this posted by the end of each month or at the earliest the beginning of the following month. You can follow along by subscribing to my blog and get updates as I post them. I hope to have… Read more
Can we stick to the Grocery Budget? February 2012- Week 1
February is here and it’s time to put together our weekly grocery challenge. What we hope to accomplish is to stick to our budget as best we can. This year we are challenging ourselves to shop only 3 weeks out of the month to save money. Granted there are weeks where we find exceptional deals… Read more
January 2012 Monthly Budget
I know for me personally I like to see numbers when learning about how others budget. Since we are not financial gurus nor do we make substantial incomes I hope to attract others just like us and experts along the way. *For a detailed explanation on each category you can read “How we designed our… Read more
How We Designed Our Budget Step 2-Categories
If you haven’t read How we designed our Budget Step 1– Gathering the Information, it’s important to read before moving on to Step 2- Choosing Budget Categories. Now that you have the important information in front of you it’s time to put it to work. We worked as a team on this as it’s crucial for… Read more
The Cost of Smoking on your Health and Budget
There’s no surprise when hearing about deaths related to smoking or the various diseases caused by smoking but turn a blind eye. Is it really worth it to smoke? I’m sure you know the answer to this question but most smoker’s either choose to ignore it or struggle to give up this habit. Smoking is… Read more
Can you tell the difference? Brand vs No-Name
Years ago I remember being a hard-core Ketchup fanatic and I still am today. I could never dream of anything else but Heinz dripping from my hamburger or drenched on my French fries. I just loved the flavour and even enjoyed ketchup,mustard and relish on a warm pita. (Don’t knock it until you try it)… Read more
Fettuccine with Tomato,Garlic, Lemon, Basil Sauce
Fettuccine pasta is one of my favourite pasta recipes especially when I create a fresh tomato, lemon, basil sauce, which is an easy pasta sauce to make. When I’m not in the mood to cook a big meal for the evening or to get into anything too fancy I turn to this pasta dish. No… Read more
Our Goals 2012 and a look back at 2011!
As we look back in 2011 we can see many areas we could have saved more money but that’s what budgeting is all about, learning. Keep in mind we don’t make huge incomes so the frugal lifestyle we lead is imperative to our savings whilst still enjoying life. I don’t predict the same extra income… Read more
How We Designed Our Budget Step 1-Gathering All The Information
TAKING THE FIRST STEPS TO CREATE YOUR PERSONAL BUDGET You’ve made it this far so you must be curious how we went about designing our monthly budget that took us from debt to debt freedom. Don’t yawn, it truly can be a fun experience especially when you see your savings grow and your debt vanish…. Read more
Why the word Budget hurts our ears!
To some people even mentioning the word budget can cause them to go into a bull horned frenzy. If I mention saving money is about “budgeting” not “bargain basement” they stare at me like I’m talking a foreign language. Bargain basement meaning that just because you think you are saving by getting deals doesn’t… Read more
Our Canadian Budgeting Journey
Spending and saving money was simple, so we thought. It was in January 2011 when we finally decided to start a budget. With no budgeting experience we took it upon ourselves to design our own budget. I’ve read many financial resource books by Gail Vaz Oxlade and am currently reading ‘The Wealthy Barber Returns” by David… Read more
