# Falling off the wagon a bit, maybe holding on but slipping



## CumWhatMay (Sep 22, 2018)

My husband and I are in our mid 40's. We have two young children, own our own house that generates us a nice income each month (with a large mortgage though), two separate rental properties and an additional property that is "technically" my brothers house but we are on title as we loaned him some money (therefore we have equity in the house).

We have $300,000 in self directed investments (TFSA's, RRSP's and Cash), of which is approximately $40,000 in RESP's for our two children.

I have a modest income (disability) of $12,000/yr that is taxable, plus I operate and manage the rental properties that generate around $9,000/yr net. We also airbnb an apartment in our house that has so far this year brought in $14,000 gross (I could only guess the net right now but will know better once I get things ready for 2018 tax year) I am able to claim the rental as my income (not employment income, rental income) because I own the two rental properties and I do all the work for the airbnb (although I have to double check with my husband owning the airbnb property (which is an apartment attached to our primary residence) we may have to split this portion regardless if I do all the work). My husband makes around $67,000 a year but due to a regular business loss (approved by CRA due to his circumstances which I will not elaborate on) and so his net income is around $43,000/yr. He is able to claim the disability tax credit I receive which I think is around $8000 something a year currently.

Our income is here and there, but considering we live in a small city, it's pretty decent I think. We own two vehicles, a pig on gas van that my husband rarely drives but needs for his business occasionally, and an electric car which my husband drives regularly. I usually walk everywhere or occasionally take a taxi or bus. So we are frugal in some ways.

We are doing major renovations on our house in order to put in a few more bedrooms to rent to students and also as our children get older they will want their own bedrooms (they currently share a really huge bedroom and its' okay, for now). The pay back on the renovations is six years and will add a lovely family room and extra bathroom to our home for our use.

My issue is I've stopped tracking what we spend on regular things like groceries, simply because I'm overwhelmed with the money going in and out the door for the renovations. I'm trying to give myself some slack (I'm also in University fulltime, distance) because I don't want to stress myself out too much, but I also need to do something to check-in on the budget. I am able to make sure all payments go through and make sure there's enough money in the bank so no NSF fees etc but I need to do better than just that.

Keeping in mind I can't maintain all the details all the time, and being so insanely busy meal times are not from scratch like they were when I had more time to cook, so I feel our food budget is higher because we are buying more preprepared foods. Also, school isn't cheap. I have applied for OSAP but we are waiting to file our 2017 taxes (book keeper needed clarification on things and we didn't file on time because my husband was away for six months for work), so until then I don't know how much if any OSAP grants I will get to help pay for school. Sorry, I tend to babble when I'm tired and it's 1 am where I am. Keeping these thoughts in mind, do you have any suggestions for me to start feeling comfortable again with tracking our spending? Would you go back to money jars for a while, or concentrate on looking at what I spend on certain things a month to see if there truly is a crazy over-budget spending pattern?


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## moderator2 (Sep 20, 2017)

Maybe someone can offer some thoughts.

To help get back to monitoring your spending, maybe you could focus on just one item (e.g. food) just to get back in the habit of it, without overwhelming yourself with having to track everything.


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## OnlyMyOpinion (Sep 1, 2013)

CWM, I'm wondering what less overwhelming 'tracking' options might exist for you.
Also, whether you have a spending budget laid out for the renos?

How do you make purchases - cash or credit card? It doesn't sound like you are 'abusers' of credit (i.e. you pay off the card every month?). 

Personally, we put everything on our single credit card. It is then very easy to download the statement details, load them into a spreadsheet and see how much was spent at 'Safeway', or 'Home Depot' in the last week, 2weeks, month, etc. If you have a target/budget or at least know how much you can spend each month, that would easily tell you if you overspent and where, and allow you to be more careful next month. 

Obviously the card balance is paid off each month, and this is not a good method if there is any chance you will overspend with a credit card or not pay it off each month.


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## lonewolf :) (Sep 13, 2016)

I would track money spent on school plus lost wages from not working by spending time in school. 40,000 in RESP's might set your kids on the wrong path to financial ruin. School is great if you want waist a lot of money to fill your mind with a junk heap of useless theories such as political correctness & global warming. CWM there are a lot of things your doing I really like. There are so many people that waist time, energy & money on a school system that is not efficient.


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