Hello lovely readers!
Well one month is gone already! You can see how it went here. Before I expand on our life project changes... let me start with challenges for February.
February challenges.
This month challenge is to read 8 books cover to cover... I knitted a lot in January and I will give a break to my hands. I will work my brain this month.
I took all those books (in the above picture) from the library in January in preparation for this month. There are 12 on the picture and 1 more I am currently reading (which I forgot to add to the pile prior to taking the picture). I started it yesterday. From those 13 books, I have to read 8 of them at a minimum. I am hoping I can do more than that... it will mean less knitting of course but also less Netflix. I can knit while watching Netflix but not so much read! They are anything from biographies, self development and novel... old and new! At the end of the month, I will share the list I completed with you.
Also, as I mentioned in my last post, I have a remaining amount on my credit card which I wish to pay ASAP. I think I can do it by the end of the month.
Obviously keep working on my savings and put at least 10$ in my Emergency fund (EF) account just to get it started!
I am also hoping to decrease my coffee shop budget just for this month. This saved money would go into my EF. And catch up on my food budget which was a lot more than expected in January. My tracking and trending of prices and frequencies of buying a given item will allow me to come up with an annual food budget rather than a monthly as it tends to vary a lot, so it seems, season to season.
And now, the bulk of this post...
New life project and it's impact on our authorized expenses list.
As you may or may not know, my husband and I had a goal for in 3 years. This was the reason why we came up with this year's project - basically a non-spend year.
I never clearly mentioned what it was as we had to dig further and look into the feasibility of it. As it turns out, we realized around mid January, that the way we had planned on doing it was ''illegal'' in Canada. We wanted to get rid of everything and live in a van to tour North and possibly South America. That simple. And would we be south of the border, we could do it. Not here.
In Canada, as per the laws, to keep your Medicare and pension plan you have to have a fix address (it can be a house, an apartment, a room or a camping site) that you pay for a year to live in/at. You have to actually live there 5-7 months out of the year, depending on which province you choose. Now, this would add to our cost of living. Even if we choose to only take a room somewhere, the cost would be around 300$ minimum and living in a room both of us would not be so much fun... so we'd have to go for a camping site or an apartment - in both cases, a yearly lease, comes up to around 700$ per month! To live in 5 months!!! It adds up quite fast. We wanted to do this to save on living expenses... not to increase living expenses. As a result we have to find an alternative to travelling.
The only thing we came up with that would be acceptable to both of us would be to remain in an apartment - not quite sure where yet. Possibly change from province to province as we cover more territory... details are irrelevant at this point as it is too far away.
This made us realize that if we are to remain in our apartment, we need to improve it on a very minor level... which had an incidence on our budget. We decided that we needed a couch. For 5 years we haven't had a proper couch (except for a 6 months period but that is a long story!). Recently, we have been using my son's futon. There is nothing less comfortable. I actually rather sit on the floor. Which I do a lot, even when we do have a couch! I am a huge fan of sitting on the floor. Always have been. But sometimes, a comfy couch is quite nice to relax in. As a result, we have revised our "Authorised expenses list".
Authorized expenses list revision (yes, again!).
The main reason is the fact that our life project is changing but also after a month of extreme frugality, we both realize that we love that. And the authorized expenses we had left a little too wide open just in case need it (or freak out) has to be tighten a little more. So you will see that even though I am adding a couch in there, I am also making it more strict in so many other ways.
Here is the list as it stands now.
For the last revision, if you want to have a look at it, click here. It was becoming complicated to keep all 3 versions of it for the sake of clarity.
1) Budgeted life expenses like rents, utilities, food, toiletries, coffee shop, car related expenses.
Yes, we have a coffee shop budget - it is important to us and aside from walking in nature and reading books from the library, this is another hobby we have and the only one that cost us money.
2) Usable stuff
a) candles, incense and essential oils
b) notebooks to replace filled ones - reading books from the library, I do take notes. Lots of them.
3) Razor for my husband - looking for one more sustainable and ecological to replace an old one.
4) Love seat.
5) Camping /Hiking
After working on what we actually need to make this happen the way we want to, we made lists my husband and I of what our ideal camping/hiking trips would need. There are quite a few items to be added to our current gears as we are new to those activities but we listed 7 items we absolutely need for this upcoming season. We started shopping for them to look into prices and sales.
- bigger tent for camping : this is actually a replacement of our current one but I wish to list it still
- new sleeping pad for myself - the one I have is way too bulky and useless...
- bear keg to store food while hiking overnight
- quick dry towels
- pillow for myself - I bring my home pillow but it keeps moisture/humidity and stinks
- walking sticks for my husband hiking/backpacking trips
- cooler - to store food while camping
6) tattoos - one each - we have been planning those for a while...
7) tanning bed - essential for me with MS as it is the best source of Vitamin D in the winter when you live up north like I do. - I really do not go that much and only 3 months per year ( February to April) and once or twice a week.
8) Knitting and embroidery material - I have no "stack" to use up as I buy as I need and when I post my monthly challenges, you will see why I need to allow this.
9) Outings - we are allowed to
a) go to restaurants for celebration, when on a day trip or special occasions
b) go camping - as much as we want and can afford to! This is our dream life!!!
10) We can buy gifts for other people and accept gifts. However, between each other, we cannot buy gifts for any reason - that is something I could see us doing! We can only buy gifts for each other on our birthdays, Valentine's day, mother/father's day, our anniversary and for Christmas. And there again, keeping in mind that any money spend on that that is not "perfect life goal oriented" will slow us down...
11) Finally, because our house is already filled with barely the minimum, aside for clothes for me, we can replace what brakes down if we can't do without. This of course, will be a judgment call.
Clothes for me are still off limit!!! NO worries.
Hopefully, there will be no more changes to our plan and I am done revising this list...
As a side note, I would like to say that this challenge, and the preparation for it which started in December, actually is bringing my husband and I even closer! It is awesome to see what having to communicate better and work as a team can do!!! 💜💙💚
How did your first month go? Anything needs to be adjusted for the remainder of the year?
If you liked what you read, please share.
Chloe 💜&✌
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