This month I celebrate two years of home ownership. It’s been an interesting (sometimes overwhelming) journey that required years of research and saving up to make sure I was ready.

Although home ownership has definitely not been easy, I feel like I made a smart, calculated decision that I’m still really happy about.

Here’s why:

My mortgage is comfortable

When I decided I was ready to stop renting and become a homeowner, I knew the bank would approve me for much more than I was comfortable spending. And when I was pre-approved for close to $300,000, I had already gone over my finances and decided that I wasn’t going to take on a mortgage of more than $250,000.

Related: Take this quick and easy quiz to see if you’re ready to become a homeowner!

No matter how stable you might think your life is, things can change. Case in point, eight months into my home ownership adventure, I was faced with the opportunity to live in Germany for what turned out to be almost 11 months. Because my townhouse complex does not allow rentals, if I had taken on a bigger mortgage, there’s no way I could have afforded to go.

I can still save for everything else in my life

I ended up taking out a mortgage of just over $238,000 – which meant my monthly mortgage payments are approximately $1,070/month. I decided to increase my payments by 20% and opted for a bi-weekly payment option in order to pay off my mortgage faster. Had I chosen a more expensive home, I wouldn’t have the wiggle room in my budget to save for retirement, travel frequently, and pay down my mortgage faster.

The place feels like a home

It can be so tempting to head to a home improvement store and go on a renovation and decorating spree. But if you haven’t set aside money in your home buying budget for improvements, it’s likely better to hold off until you can afford to pay for your purchases in cash.

Part of my strategy to becoming a first time homeowner was to be able to make renovations or buy furniture and decorations as soon as I moved in. I wanted it to feel like home – so I saved $4,500 and spent the entire amount on new floors, fresh paint, and furniture (which I purchased off Craigslist to save more money).

I have all my finances in order

Buying my first home was the biggest, most important financial decision of my life. Not only am I single (so the “household” only has one income to support the mortgage), I also had to take in to consideration many different things – including my work history, credit scores, and cash savings. I knew that the cleaner my overall financial history was, the better chance I would have at snagging the best interest rate possible for my mortgage.

I started thinking about becoming a homeowner six years before I closed on my townhouse. In that time, I eliminated all of my debt, increased my net worth by over $80,000, created an emergency fund, and tucked money aside for closing costs, moving expenses, renovations, and furniture.

Doing my research well beforehand, and making sure I had enough money to cover every detail of the purchase made my home buying experience a lot less stressful.

Disclaimer: This post content is sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada, however the views and opinions expressed herein represent my own and not those of Royal Bank of Canada or any other party and do not constitute financial, legal or other advice.

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Tuesday 14th
No Spend Day!

Wednesday 15th
$29.61 groceries

Thursday 16th
$16.22 dinner

Friday 17th
$23.70 lunch

Saturday 18th
$25 brunch at Graze Restaurant

Sunday 19th – Las Vegas, NV
$200 cash

Freelance Income: + $0 (+ $130.95 refund)
Expenses: - $303.44

TOTAL: - $172.49

This was a pretty stressful week at work, so as a result I didn’t bring in any freelance income (although I did bill out), and my dining out was a bit excessive. Granted, Friday was a team lunch with co-workers, and Saturday I met up with a former editor I used to work for.

On Sunday, I flew out to Las Vegas. Instead of trying to track every dollar I spend in cash (which is next to impossible in Vegas), I’m just going to lump it in as a cash sum. It doesn’t matter anyway, since all travel expenses will end up getting put into one category at the end of the month.

Here are a few pictures from this past week:

The post Spending Recap: May 13-19, 2013 appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

May 18th, 2013: My first stop was Target Canada, in the suburb of Coquitlam – approximately 32 km from downtown Vancouver.

May 19th, 2013: My second stop was Target USA at the Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham, WA – approximately 83km from downtown Vancouver.

For my trips, I decided to compare the prices of a few common household items. These figures below don’t take into account provincial or state tax, duties charged at the border, the extra cost in gas, or puts a dollar value on the time spent crossing the border (although with the Nexus pass, it didn’t take me that much longer to get to Bellingham than to Coquitlam). Instead, I’ve chosen to focus just on the price of the products – taking into an account an exchange rate of $0.97 on the Canadian dollar.

Ready? Let’s shop at Target!

We’ll head to the personal care and beauty section first, because that’s where I generally start my Target shopping trips. My go-to mascara is Maybelline’s Volum’Express (The Rocket).

Now to pick up some Aveeno body lotion, which is only slightly cheaper in the USA.

I can’t live without Burt’s Bees lip balm, and at any given time, I have 3 to 5 floating in between my purse, home, car, and desk at work.

When comparing a 24-pack of Durex condoms, I found out it was 32% cheaper to practice safe sex in America.

A major expense most men complain about is the cost of razor blades. I thought they would be significantly cheaper in Bellingham. Turns out the savings is barely worth mentioning.

If you’re sick of paying so much for disposable blades, perhaps an electric shaver system will be your next big purchase. Note the U.S. package also has a bonus of a few accessories (worth over $30) that the Canadian version doesn’t have.

This was a bit of a surprise to me. The regular price of a 20-pack of Energizer Max Alkaline batteries in the USA is $13.79, which is 23% more than the regular price in Canada.

I don’t know much about video games, but I do know that if I’m ever going to buy myself Call of Duty for Xbox, it’s going to be across the border.

If you’re in the mood to hate your life, I’d recommend picking up Windows 8 Pro in Bellingham.

I now know the best thing about living in Vancouver isn’t the ocean or the mountains or the abundance of delicious vegetarian restaurants – it’s the fact that Nutella is 17% cheaper in Canada.

The Magic Bullet in Canada isn’t pictured with all the accessories, but it’s the same 17-piece system that’s selling in the U.S.

I just read an article in MoneySense magazine about how generic baby diapers are just as good as the brand names. I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never changed a diaper in my life. But, if you must have brand name Pampers, they’re cheaper in America.

Note to self: Don’t buy Calphalon pots and pans in Canada.

Even the bonus Tide Pods attached to the detergent bottle can’t help out this price match.

I don’t have any pets, but it’d be cheaper to feed their faces with food from Target USA.

Well, there you have it! A short 15-product comparison of Target Canada vs. Target USA. What did we all learn from this? Buy your Nutella and batteries in Canada. The rest could be worth taking a trip across the border.

I personally never go across the border with the specific intention of shopping. It’s always an added stop to a pre-planned trip – to catch a flight from Bellingham, a baseball game or concert in Seattle, etc. That way, I’m already spending the time and gas to get across the border, and it makes my trip worth it. And as always, if you are going shopping across the border, it’s in your best interest to declare all purchases when you head back in to Canada.

Just as a side note, I came out of Target Canada (Coquitlam) empty-handed. But I left the Target in Bellingham $66.79 poorer.

Have you been to Target Canada yet? How do you find it compares to Target USA?

The post Target Canada or Target USA: which is cheaper? appeared first on Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

Fast forward to about a month ago when I was introduced to a really cool website called Can I Pay Less.

This is a unique website because it allows you to input how you spend your money and what rewards you’d like to receive – then the site performs an analysis against all credit cards available in Canada, and within seconds, you get to see the cash value of rewards based on your preferences. What I think the best feature of the site is that it can compare millions of credit card combinations to give you a personalized recommendation for the best credit cards for you to use in combination with each other.

For example, check out what happened when I inputted my data:

This tells me that by using my current Capital One Aspire Travel World Mastercard, based on my average monthly spending habits, I would earn around $390 in rewards. But if I added the Marriott Rewards Visa and used it for spending in restaurants, I could potentially earn a lot more in rewards each year.

If you click on the Card Details button, you will get an even further breakdown of how the rewards would work:

I’d still have to do some additional reading, but this is EXACTLY the tool I wish I had known about last year – or even years ago. It likely would have saved me hours of research when all I really wanted to know was what card was right for me, and whether my combination of cards was working for me.

What do you think of the Can I Pay Less website?

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Tuesday 7th
+ $20.45 Ebates
$68.25 accountant

Wednesday 8th
+ $300 freelance income
No Spend Day!

Thursday 9th
No Spend Day!

Friday 10th
+ $461.36 freelance income
$10.16 lunch
$97.66 Lucky Jeans
$15.13 MEC (bicycle lock)
$40.18 gas

Saturday 11th – Okanagan
$41.68 gas
$17.13 taxi
$105 Mission Hill Winery Tour (for 2)
$40.10 wine
$6.06 lunch
$25 hostel
$10.19 dinner

Sunday 12th – Okanagan
$36.89 gas
$9.78 lunch

Freelance Income: + $781.81
Expenses: - $523.21

TOTAL: + $258.60

This was a good week – not necessarily in terms of spending (as you can see from the totals above), but as you can tell from yesterday’s blog post, it was really nice to get out of the city for the weekend and just relax. Work has been somewhat stressful lately, and I think we both just needed a break. It was expensive, but I worked extra hard this week to bring in some additional freelance income. I also picked up a contract that will bring in a few thousand extra dollars this month, which will be nice.

Also I splurged on a pair of jeans. I’ve been struggling for years to find the perfect pair, and thought I found what I was looking for with Levis. However my pal over at Save Spend Splurge recommended Lucky Jeans to me, and once I tried them on, I fell in love. They are the perfect fit, and definitely worth the almost $100 price tag.

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