Last month Richard received another $15,000 bonus from work, which came out to just over $9,400 after taxes (damn you, Tax Man!). After a bit of extra money left over from last month we ended up with $9997.71 which we plan to spend like so:

Car = $5,988.48 – This is what is left owing on Richard’s car, so we will write the final cheque and then we are officially DEBT FREE!!!!

Florida = $1,000.00 – Our stupid flights ended up costing us twice what we thought we were going to have to pay so we needed a bit more money for our Florida trip in October.

Camera = $1,000.00 – My lovely camera is slowly dying what I imagine to be a very painful death. I have had this camera for almost 6 years and have taken tens of thousands of photos on it, however now my photos all look like junk. It’s time to upgrade! I’m not sure if I need a new lens as well, I will have to take my current one in and get it checked out (it should be fine). The replacement for the Nikon D90 should be coming out in the next few weeks so I’m waiting to see how good that one will be. If I don’t end up liking it, or the price is outrageous, I will be getting the D90.

Clothing = $710.61 – We had a budget of $850 for clothing last month but spend under $200 so I carried forward what was left. I’m just waiting for some crazy clearance deals on summer clothing so I can stock up. Richard and I also need some essentials like shoes, sweaters and Richard & Elliott also need winter jackets.

House Stuff = $500.00 – There are a few things that we need right now like a new coffee table (the one we have now is way too big and has sharp edges – not good when Elliott is running around), new bed linens and a new crib (Elliott’s is falling apart already, WTF?!).

Dinner = $80.00 – With every bonus Richard gets, we go out to eat one fancy meal where we are able to indulge in appetizers, desserts and drinks (we usually just order water).

House Fund = $715.00 – HOUSE FUND HOUSE FUND!!!! It’s still unreal that we actually have a house fund now. It felt like we were going to be in debt forever!

So, that’s how we are going to spend our money! I’m so thankful that Richard is able to get these quarterly bonuses, we have been able to do so much with them. Is it bad that I’m already planning how to spend the next bonus in my head? Probably. I try to forget about the bonuses and then just get caught by surprise when the money shows up in our bank account. It’s a bad idea to count on that money, since it is not guaranteed. I need to remember that.

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HangOn2Summer20

Enjoy!

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Ready to check out my new partner in crime?

INCOME:
Work: 3376.16
Extra: 11482.12
Total = 14858.28

EXPENSES:
Rent = 1500/1500
Hydro = 152.08/65 (over 87.08)
Water/Sewage = 34.63/34 (over .63)
House Gas = 80.17/81 (under .83)
Tv, Phone, Net = 95.36/96 (under .64)
Groceries = 304.67/250 (over 54.67)
R. Allowance = 15/25 (under 10.00)
C. Allowance = 47.54/25 (over 22.54)
Entertainment = 598.92/600 (under 1.08)
R. Car Insurance = 119/119
C. Car Insurance = 125.63/125.63
Car Gas = 35.01/140 (under 104.99)
R. Go Train = 190/190
Misc. = 358.23/355 (over 3.23)
R. Dry Cleaning = 0/0
Bank Account = 12.95/12.95
C. Host = 62.51/65 (under 2.49)
Investment Account = 100/100
RRSP = 150/150
RESP = 50/50
Clothing = 139.39/850 (under 710.61)
House Fund = 300/300
Yearly Expenses (Savings Accnt.) = 222/222 (over 1.24)

Total Budgeted = 5355.48
Total Spent = 4693.09
UNDER By = 662.39

GRAND TOTAL MADE = 14858.28
GRAND TOTAL SPENT = 4693.09
UNDER BY = 10165.19

*NOTE: Remember last month when we were over by a whopping $382.72? Well, this month, in addition to the extra income we made, I also sold things and made an extra $215.27 to go towards that amount. So with the money that is left over at the end of THIS month, $167.45 of it will go towards last months overage.

Leaving us with $9997.71 LEFT OVER! Yahoooooooooooo!

Clothing: I know we budgeted alot this month. We knew we’d be getting a minimum of $1200 in extra money and all three of us need many clothing items. I know that this time of year there are sales like crazy so I wanted to set aside enough money to stock up on all the clearance finds. Unfortunetely, there haven’t been too many yet, so I am hoping to have better luck next month. The money that we did not spend will get pushed forward to next month.

Car Gas: Did we honestly only fill up with gas just once this month? That is CRAZY if we did, but I can’t find any more receipts and the credit card bills only show the one transaction. Richard better not have a big pile of gas receipts stashed away in his pants pockets or something!

House Fund: OMG, WE HAVE A HOUSE FUND. OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!

Oh, and are you wondering where that $11,000 in extra money came from this month? Richard got another one of his quarterly bonuses for just over $9,400!!! He also got a cheque for over $1,200 for a project he did. Stay tuned for how we spend this extra moolah!

Ingredients:
- 2 Large Bananas (ripe)
- 8-10 Medium Size Strawberries (stems removed)
- 6 ice cubes
- 1 cup orange juice

Instructions:
1. Add all ingredients to your blender and blend.

2.Serve and enjoy!

Serves 2.

Dear Elliott,
Today you turn thirteen months old. You are learning more and more every day. You are becoming much more vocal. Your new favourite things to say are MEMEMEMEMEMEME, which means you are unhappy – and GOODGOODGOODGOODGOODGOOD, which means you are happy. I can’t wait until I can have actual conversations with you, it’s going to be so exciting. I just hope you aren’t paying attention when I let out the occasional SHIT or FUCK, and then go blabbing to your teacher about how mommy doesn’t give a ____. I hope you don’t have a potty mouth like your parents.

You now have two teeth on the bottom of your mouth that are finally in. Man, those teeth seem to have been the most painful for you because you cried like crazy ALL THE TIME and the only thing that made you calm down was sucking on a wet facecloth. Speaking of your teeth, have I mentioned how much you love your toothpaste? Every night when we brush your teeth, you get really excited to see us squirt some toothpaste on to your toothbrush and then when we try to actually brush your teeth you suck the toothpase right off of the brush. I must admit that your toothpaste smells like candy and it probably tastes delicious. I should try some. Maybe I will slather it on a piece of toast. Yes!

As far as your eating habits go, everything is pretty much the same. You still hate carrots and you still love your yogurt. We have also introduced red grapes, roasted potatoes and canned peas and you loved all of those. You have a love/hate relationship with broccoli and sometimes we have to sneakily make you eat it by hiding a piece in a mouthful of mashed potatoes. Ha! Tricked you!

This month was your dad’s 27th birthday and we celebrated by going out to eat at The Keg. You loved my garlic mashed potatoes and the warm bread that they give each table for free. We tried to feed you our vegetables as well but you were not having any of that nonsense. So guess what we did? HAHA! Tricked you again! You did enjoy the delicious piece of cake we had at the end of dinner, that piece of cake that went directly to my giant behind. Damn it!

Your dad and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary this month by going away for the weekend. As much as we love being around you, we needed some alone time! Bow chicka wow wowwwww. It was so hard to leave you on Friday night, even though I know you were in good hands. Grandma Ruth came to spend the weekend with you and that allowed us time away. I wrote her 3 pages worth of junk pertaining to the care of you, my precious baby, and the 5 animals. She probably didn’t even read it, but it made me feel good to write it all out. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit of a control freak.

You are walking all over the place now, albeit a bit on the drunk side. But you’re WALKING! It’s the cutest thing ever – seeing you toddle your way around the house. Sometimes I will put on your shoes just so I can take you outside and watch you walk down the street. CUTENESS OVERLOAD! You hardly ever crawl now, I guess things just seem more exciting when you’re walking.

I am so happy when I look at you meeting all of these awesome milestones. I am so proud to be your mommy.

Love, Mama

Weddings can be extremely expensive. When Richard and I got engaged, we knew right away that we would have a small, frugal wedding because that’s just the type of people we are. Even if we had lots of money, I still think we would have had a small wedding.

LOCATION:
For our wedding ceremony, we rented a small park for a few hours. It cost us under $200! For the reception, we held it underneath a bowling alley, which sounds totally ghetto but it was actually a nice space (and no, we couldn’t hear people bowling above our heads!). This also cost us under $200 for the night, if you can believe it.

If you want to save money on your wedding location(s), try the following:
- Backyard. If you have a really big, beautiful backyard (or know someone else who does), why not host your wedding here? Rent some big white tents and enjoy the wonderful weather.
- Rent A Park. Yes, you really can rent parks! For a few hours at a time, many parks will allow you to rent small portions of their parks for small or large gatherings such as weddings. The cost is usually extremely low.

FOOD:
The main expense for a wedding is usually the food. Having a small wedding helps (we had about 40 people), but even if you don’t have a small wedding, there are many ways you can save money on food:

- Make It Yourself (or have friends/family do this chore as a wedding gift to you). Sure, this is pretty dang time consuming, but it might be worth it if you can save a boatload of money!
- Serve Food Buffet Style. Serving your guests at their table, instead of having everyong line up and get their own food is going to be WAY more expensive. I honestly think that a buffet style is better anyway, so people can only choose things that they actually want to eat.
- Offer A Lunch Instead Of Dinner. Having your ceremony in the morning and then serving a nice lunch to your guests is much cheaper than having an afternoon ceremony and serving a dinner.
- Have A Barbecue! If you’re having an outdoor wedding, a barbecue is the perfect way to serve your meal (either lunch of dinner). Some nice juicy burgers, hotdogs, steaks and chicken – add some corn on the cob, potatoes and a nice big salad and you’ve got yourself an awesome meal for an awesome price!

INVITATIONS:
If you are having a large wedding, invitations can be another big expense. Here are some ways to save money on them:

- Make Them Yourself. All you need to buy is some cardstock and ribbon and/or other decorations to make a great invite. There are many free templates online that are available for you to use.
- Don’t Include RSVP Envelopes. Instead of including a self addressed stamped envelope in with your wedding invitation, have your guests send you an email or give you a call to let you know if they can attend the wedding. This way you don’t have to spend money on all of that return postage!

WEDDING DRESS:
To many women, the dress is a huge part of their big day. To me, it was not. I mean, I wanted a nice dress. I wanted to look smokin’ hot for my soon to be husband. I just wasn’t willing to fork over the money for something extravagant. So I went to a bridal shop that sold used wedding dress and with alterations included, I paid just over $300 for my dress.

You can save money on your wedding dress by doing the following:

Buy Second Hand. I know there are some people that are terribly squeemish when it comes to used wedding dresses, but they can honestly save you SO MUCH MONEY. I don’t understand why some women want to buy a BRAND NEW dress, wear it for one day, and then let it hang in their closet until the day they die. If you think your daughter might wear it when you eventually have a kid and she is that age – think again. She won’t want it. There will be so many new styles out by then. Let her pick out her own dress.
Shop Sample Sales. Many stores have sample sales about once a year. These dresses are only used for women to sample in the store, so they won’t be as USED as a.. well.. USED dress would be. Call some bridal shops in your city and ask if and when they have sample sales.
Rent Your Dress. Just like a man can rent a suit for his wedding, a woman can rent her dress as well. This could potentially save you THOUSANDS of dollars. Thousands of dollars you can put towards something else – like an awesome honeymoon!

FLOWERS:
We didn’t have any flowers at our ceremony location because we had so many beautiful trees and a pond to look at. For our reception site, we only had a few vases of flowers on the tables that had our food, photo signing mat and our money box. I’m not a huge fan of flowers, because I always tend to kill them, so I didn’t want to waste a bunch of money on something I was not a huge fan of.

If you love flowers more than me, here are some ways you can save money on them:

- Use Silk Flowers. Silk flowers can look lovely (and real!) if displayed properly. They cost MUCH less than real flowers and you can reuse them!
- Shop Wholesale Warehouses. These places sell flowers in bulk and if you’re willing to put in some time making the flower arrangements (or get friends/family to help!), you can save mucho deniro on your flower costs.
- Use Something Other Than Flowers For Your Centerpieces. We used a large glass bowl with floating candles a few rose petals. It cost less than $10 per centerpiece! You can also use a cupcake stand with some cupcakes as your centerpiece. Or maybe use a tall table number, some small votive candles and a photo of the couple. These are very cheap, but adorable ways to do a centerpiece. You don’t HAVE to use flowers!

WEDDING CAKE:
Mmmm, the wedding cake. Who doesn’t love a good wedding cake? These delicious wedding staples can be crazy expensive. Instead of paying an arm and a leg for a wedding cake, try the following instead:

- Cupcakes! Everyone knows I loves me some cupcakes. We had these at our wedding and everyone said they were perfect – just pick it up and eat it, no cutlery required! Cupcakes are all the rage right now and lots of bakeries are offering them at a much deeper discount than a traditional wedding cake.
- Make It Yourself. Cakes will obviously be much more inexpensive if you make them yourself. Enlist a bunch of family members or friends and have them help you. Make it a girls night (or a guys night, I guess!).
- Have A Sheet Cake. Sheet cakes can look very nice when done right and are significantly cheaper than the tiered variety. And guess what – they taste the same!

Remember, that this day only comes once in your lifetime (hopefully!), so try not to be too Scrooge-like. Just because you want to have a beautiful wedding, doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune on it! Spend wisely and enjoy your special day.

Total Paid = $6.13
Total Saved = $16.95

Metro:
2x Lean Ground Beef @ $7.84 and $7.64 = $15.48 (saved = approx. $15.48)
1x Grapes @ $3.01 (saved = approx. $2.00)

Total Paid = $18.49
Total Savd = $17.48

GRAND TOTAL PAID = $24.62
GRAND TOTAL SAVED = $34.43

Total Paid = $24.06
Total Saved = $59.38

Walmart:
1x Strawberries @ $1.67 (price matched Fresh Co.) (saved = $2.30)
1x Raspberries @ $1.37 (price matched No Frills) (saved = $1.42)
2x Special K @ $3.97 each = $7.94 – 2/FREE coupons from cereal boxes = FREE! (saved = $7.94)
1x Basil @ $1.47
1x Tomatoes @ $1.56
1x Lemon @ .33
1x Bananas @ $1.53
1x Apples @ $1.38
1x Potatoes @ .92
1x Carrots @ $1.27
1x Lettuce @ .77 (saved = .52)
2x Cauliflower @ $1.00 each = $2.00 (saved = approx. $1.94)
1x Ricotta @ $3.00
2x Fresh Mozarella @ $5.47 each = $10.94
1x Eggs @ $3.81
3x Buns @ .40 each = $1.20

Total Paid = $39.95
Total Saved = $14.12

When you enter Mexx’s contest to win your very ownlaptop computer OR an MP3 player, you will receive a coupon for $10 off a $50 (or more, before taxes) coupon for Mexx Kids!

They have some super adorable kids clothes so I will definetely be using this coupon to get some cute outfits for Elliott!

Click here to enter the contest and get your coupon for $10 off $50 at Mexx Kids!

In my opinion, these are the best deals that you can use coupons with this week:

Food Basics:
- Cavendish French Fries @ $1.49 – use $1.00 coupon from the company.
- Nature Valley Granola Bars @ $2.00 – use $1.00 coupon from here (NO LONGER AVAILABLE).
- Ziploc Sandwhich Bags @ $2.00 – use $5.00 WUB3 coupon from here (you have to register and log in).

Rexall:
- Dove Hair Conditioner @ $2.99 – use $1.50 coupon from here

Price Chopper:
- Primo Soup @ $1.00 – use $1.00 coupon from the company.
- Marc Angelo Skewers @ $1.00 – use $1.00 coupon from the company.
- Nature Valley Granola Bars @ $2.00 – use $1.00 coupon from here (NO LONGER AVAILABLE).

No Frills:
- Jakes Bake House Bread @ $1.00 – use $1.00 or .75 coupon found in coupon booklets in stores.
- Mark Angelo Pork Souvlaki @ .95 – use $1.00 coupons from the manufacturer.
- Colgate Total @ $1.59 – use $1.50 coupons from your dentist.

Loblaws:
- Banana Nut Cheerios @ $2.49 – use $1.00 coupon from here.
- Hunts Snack Pack @ $1.25 – use .50 coupon from save.ca (NO LONGER AVAILABLE).
- Oasis Juice 1.75mL @ $2.99 – use $2.00 coupon from Today’s Parent magazine.
- Nature Valley Granola Bars @ $1.99 – use $1.00 coupon from here (NO LONGER AVAILABLE).
- Clover Leaf Tuna @ $2.00 – use $1.00 WUB2 coupon from tearpads in stores.
- Primo Soup @ $1.00 – use $1.00 coupon from the company.

Real Canadian Superstore:
- Oasis Juice 1.75mL @ $3.00 – use $2.00 coupon from Today’s Parent magazine.
- Ziploc Sandwhich Bags @ .99 – use $5WUB3 coupon from here (you have to register and log in).

We went to the Waterfront Festival where we walked around and saw animals and DORA!

We took lots of long walks around the neighbourhood.

Had a picnic in the park with Erica.

Celebrated Canada Day.

Elliott went on his first ever boat ride (and it was awesome!).

We went to the beach.

Visited Grandma for her birthday.

Celebrated Elliott’s 1st birthday with an awesome party!

Elliott started walking!

There were lots of birthdays this summer, including Richard’s!

We went on our first weekend getaway without Elliott.

It’s been an awesome summer. I’m sad to think that soon there will be snow on the ground. I HATE SNOW.

I hope next summer is just as good as this one… and I have a good feeling it will be.

This coupon is only valid on Saturday, August 28th, 2010 and only 1 coupon per customer is allowed.

Click here to print your coupon for a FREE Thomas & Friends Wooden Engine!