86% Equals $1564.75

The disappearing decoration!  :)

I have paid off 86% of my consumer debt y'all!!!  I know I'm not from Texas but y'all is too fitting!!!  This means I have $1564.75 to repay (plus my car loan, of course).

I took another day off today because I have a number of days I need to use up before the end of the fiscal year.  So today I am making some more bread in my mixer.  I LOVE it!!!  This loaf will be going to friends and I am hoping to get another made for me.  It takes just over 4hrs for one loaf so it's a little time consuming but I don't have to do anything other than add the ingredients!

I'd also like to get a rough draft of my taxes done with a guess of my numbers.  I haven't received any paperwork in the mail yet so I don't have the actual numbers to work with. **Rough Draft showed a return of $1056.  That would be nice!

I have to do a bit of tidying up in the kitchen and sort my jar money but I think I might sit down with my Bible for a bit this afternoon and perhaps read a few more chapters in the Wealthy Barber Returns. 


Bella and I have already been outside and shoveled our driveway and our neighbours so she is having a nap and here are my boys... just because they are so cute.  :)

Chloe enjoying some hay after breakfast this morning.

Dallen stretched out relaxing after breakfast this morning.

And a very cool bunny video if you have time to watch a little bit of it.
Champis the bunny, is a sheepherder!!!!

Edit:  I did a little extra decluttering today as well.  I was filing my bills for the past month and noticed my file was getting a little thick.  So I went through and took out the ones that were more than a year old.  I like to keep a years worth on file and the rest can be shredded.

 

Free Tax Program

I have a question for my Canadian readers...

Have you ever used or heard reports on the free online tax software, Studio Tax?  Or is there another free program?

It is my intention to use Studio Tax for filing my taxes this year and am just looking for some feedback.

Thanks!

More Decluttering

Since I started with the decluttering yesterday and today was snowing quite a bit I thought I would stay in and do some more.

Cupboard in the bathroom

Linen Closet

 I used to be a product junkie!  I'll work my way through using most of this stuff.... eventually.....

Start of the organization

At least I know what's in there now...

After...

more organized

items not returning to the closet

I didn't take a before picture but the empty hangers weren't empty at the start

Clothes for donation.  More than 29 items just with this stuff!

 

So I managed to get rid of over 29 items between yesterday and today.  I even added a few more things to this pile after I took the picture.  There are three of the area's I planned to declutter for February.  Now I just have to tackled that dreaded basement.... but only part of it.  Looking forward to Carla's additional challenges.


And now for some more snow pictures for you...

Before it started collecting too much.

Very heavy snow to shovel today!!!

Bella was having fun running around in the snow.

Chloe discovered a handsome bun in the mirror.

My Day in Photos

I had the day off today and I wanted to be productive... so I started by sleeping in!  How productive is that?!

Ok once I got up and moving I was quite productive though.  I needed to return a box of hay that I bought for the bunnies ($90) and it was all dust!  Thankfully they were great about returning it.  I also picked up a few items from bulk barn so I could do some baking. 

My dad gave me a bread maker a number of years ago and I had never used it!   So I picked up everything I needed for only $3.78 (with some left overs for next time) and put it all in the machine and let it go to work.

YUMMY!!!

While the bread was baking, I figured I would get a headstart on the Februrary Challenge because I now needed somewhere to store the bread machine.  Here's the before and after pictures.

My unopened slow cooker.... that has been sitting there since Christmas!!!

I can't believe I'm posting this picture.....

What a MESS!

My just out of the box slow cooker.... I'll have to try this next

Here's a nice little spot for the bread maker.

The basket on top of my microwave.  With my empty "Magic Jars"

Much better!

My little kitchen

This is all the baking area I have.... it's so small but it is cozy.

Garbage and recycling from the declutter

We had freezing rain over night which was followed by some snow... it's pretty out there.

My Bella!  She's so pretty.

My boys were chilling today...

This is Dallen. 

This is their room.  Can you see them? 

This is Chloe (but he's a boy).

And last but certainly not least.  The other day I received a parcel in the mail.  It was from Debby at Nanny's Place.

She sent me a BEAUTIFUL mug rug and some yummy hot chocolate!

Plus this BEAUTIFUL handmade card!

Thank you so much Debby!!!!

February Challenge

Well Carla (My 1/2 Dozen Daily) did it again.  Another challenge.  I'm only signing up for the Declutter challenge since the no(low) spend is basically how I have been living to pay off my debt anyway. 

Here's what she said:


Here’s how the Decluttering challenge will work:
1. There will be 4 main challenges for the month. I pick the theme, you pick the challenge!

• Week One: Personal Space Challenge
• Week Two: Family Space Challenge
• Week Three: Productivity Challenge
• Week Four: The “Dreaded” Challenge

2. Bonus Challenges!
- I will be giving you 4 *bonus* mini challenges throughout the month! Fast & easy to accomplish!
3. Purging!!
- Toss, sell, or donate 29 items! One item for every day of the month in February… Easy as pie!  

Ok so for me this is how it will look

 - week one:  my bedroom and I am thinking more specifically going through my clothes.
 - week two:  the linen closet and bathroom
 - week three: the kitchen (the plastic storage cupboard!)
 - week four: a portion of my basement

Ok I hope I can get things cleaned up around here and tidied up a bit!  And get rid of a few things in the process.

Thanks for another kick in the butt Carla!  ;) 

Sunday Night Chit Chat

Joining in on the Chit Chat tonight.  Thanks Carla

Missing my handsome boy, Gideon.

Reading?

I've been reading the Wealthy Barber Returns.  So far so good.  I like Dave Chilton. He's funny. 

Watching?
My weight!  LOL 

Listening to?

I've been enjoying the song "We Are" by Kari Jobe

Cooking/Baking?

I'm not....

Happy you accomplished this week?
I'm happy I got back out running this week.  I missed 2 runs last week because I was sick with a cold.

Looking forward to next week?
Tomorrow is my dad's birthday!  Happy Birthday Dad!  Love you lots!

 

Thankful for today?
That I live in a country where I can go to church and worship in freedom.  God bless the many who are persecuted for their faith.  

A Couple of Updates

I signed up to take part in Carla's no (low) spend January.  Although I haven't been posting my updates I wanted to let you all know that I am doing really well.  I have even cut WAY back on my Timmies (Canada coffee shop).  I haven't totally eliminated it because my running group gets together there and sometimes at work I really enjoy a hot drink.  I have not bought any unnecessary items and have cut back in what I have bought in general.

I also signed up for Newlyweds on a Budget 10lb Challenge.  When I signed up on 5 Jan my weight was 135.6lbs.  My starting weight for the challenge yesterday was 130lbs.  I hope I can keep up the weight loss.  I will need to get to 120lbs by 9 April and will mean that my total weight loss will be 15lbs.

And in other personal news, I am meeting with my career manager tomorrow morning to see if I will be staying where I am this year or moving to a new place come the summer.   No matter what I will be moving to a new job.  I don't always deal well with change....

I paid the $60 I earned from babysitting on my LOC bring the total owing to 1664.29.

And if you haven't signed up the Debt Free Dash, come on.  Get off your butt and do it!!!  It's the new black!

It Pays to Know Your Prices

I have a drippy, runny nose along with sneezing and I'm feeling kind of miserable!  I went out to a local store to buy some tissues.  I was only going to pick up a box or two because I didn't feel the need to stock pile.  Well I found that for the prices of the tissue that doesn't leave you feeling like you used sandpaper it was much cheaper to buy in bulk.  So I grab a pack of 9 boxes of tissues that said it was $7.98.  I picked up a few other things and headed to the check out.  When she scanned the tissues the price came up as $10.96.  I thought maybe they had been on the wrong place on the shelf and they probably were $10.96 but it figured it didn't hurt to ask.  The cashier said she would call for a price check.

 It was very busy in the store and my cashier was more concerned that her shift was ending in a few minutes then getting me the correct price.  I told her I would pay and wait until someone check the price and if it was cheaper they could just give me a refund.  So I paid and waited.  No one called or came to do a price check.  A supervisor was walking by so she asked her about it since she was anxious to get me out of her way.  The supervisor took my paid for pack of tissue and ran off.  Then she passed it along to someone else.  I asked the cashier what she was doing since I had already paid and just wanted the price checked.  The cashier was pretty frustrated at this point and yelled to the supervisor and then went over to get my tissues back.  Well then they left me standing there with no one willing to do a price check.  I was in a bit of a hurry since I was heading over to babysit for a friend.  I just took my stuff and told her I would go and check the price myself and find a manager to take care of this.

The price in fact was $7.98 and I took the tag and headed to customer service because the store I was at abides by the Scanning Code of Practice (this is for Canada, I'm not sure about other countries) and I knew that the tissues would be free.  The SCOP states that if a item valued under $10 scans up at the wrong price the customer is entitled to that item for free.  If you are purchasing more than 1 of that item you are entitled to one of them for free and the others at the correct price.  If the item is more than $10 you are entitled to $10 off the item. 

So I got 9 boxes of tissues for free today!!!  I paid $12.39 and that was refunded.  The total cost would have been $9.02 if they had of scanned correctly.  Score for the budget!  I think I might put that $10.00 towards my LOC since I was willing to pay it out anyway.