There is a non-zero possibility that I may end up there with you. 8 days left in the month. Can I spend nothing and make more than we expect to in the next 8 days? Doubtful.
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Fly in the ointment on the savings front: I have been sent another hecking scary and detailed form to fill in, in order to continue to get the disability payments I have been stuffing into savings (and using for other things, like decent ingredients for cooking, or my beloved heated blanket). So that’s a bummer.
Time to again try and frame for complete strangers how good days vs bad days go, and how many of either I have. Unfortunately, I still do not feel up to working. At all. But my disability is largely invisible, unless someone happens to see me having a meltdown. The PTSD has been kicking my backside this end of the week after therapy for example, and I’m quite proud I’ve been managing to cook despite that. Unfortunately, the evidence that I can cook sometimes now, could be taken as evidence I can work… which is simply not the case. There’s still too much I’m struggling with.
It would have been nice to have been left alone to get better for a while longer, and thereby also to save more for contingencies (this is mainly why I’m eating mostly free food, so I can save), but you know, governments and such. I am proud of my progress, yes. But there’s a ways to go before I am ready to work. Basically, I really don’t want my hard-earned progress to be taken as evidence against me. Being disabled is so contrarian like this. Of course I want to get better, but I’m not there yet! And it takes time. sigh. Oh well. Hopefully I can fill this in okay…
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End of January:
Mortgage Principal: 1026.97
OMERS Employee portion: 774.39
J2 RESP: $2500 (maxed out for the year)
Star TFSA: $2000
Total for January: 6301.36.
I finally filled out that paperwork for reimbursement of J1’s ASD expenses end of Dec, and received the cheque mid-Jan, making this a high month.
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Oh my goodness I just worked out who you are. Hello! I’m off to catch up on another journal! 
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Oops I missed the check in date because I was away.
January- $3478.
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Belated January checkin for me:
Mortgage principal: 568
Student loan repayment: 350
Cash savings: 1000
Total: 1918
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I also forgot to check in. We managed to put away $2824 in the account I’m tracking, but…it’s cheating because I didn’t note what that account had in it at the beginning of the year. The truth is probably somewhere around $2000, but I’m going to roll with $2824. Next month will be less to make up for it.
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I got a new job so I’m joining this! YTD my savings is only $160, but I should be able to hit this based on the salary from my new job!
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January check in:
End of month cash left over: $2273
Retirement: $900
Other investments:$150
Yearly total: $3323
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We saved either $987 or $1206 in January depending on whether I include my contributions to my defined benefit pension.
And that might be more savings than we can afford! I’m going to keep up here but I think I have a better chance at 23%… and even that is a long shot… we are just in a low-income phase of life right now (we have an infant and no paid childcare).
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Trying for the $ amount challenge again! I need to build back up my emergency fund savings so we’ll see if I’m able to hit the goal again this year- might be a stretch.
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uhh i screwed that up! here’s my goals again:
ooh i’m in! i am planning to save $30k in my 401k + $30k outside of it 
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Whoops, forgot my checkin at the end of January! So, we are probably (definitely?) going for just the $20,230 overall rather than that much apiece because we got a quote for paving the driveway at a little over $21K - so the second person is buying pavement! But if it ever stops raining, we’re getting a major upgrade!
January savings:
Mine:
- HSA: $347.50
- HSA employer contrib: $347.50
- 457Roth: $1,000.00
- Pension: $383.75
His:
- HSA: $347.50
- HSA employer contrib: $347.50
- 457Roth: $3,227.46
- Pension: $300.00
January total: $6,301.21
We are actually dropping my 457 contribution again this month (Feb) for a while. We will spend quite literally all our cash savings on the paving and cable install (we’re finally getting broadband!) So we want to build back up, plus we’re likely to need a vehicle soon as my transmission is slipping. We’re thinking of going ahead and getting one fuel efficient vehicle once the paving is done so that we don’t have to have 4-wheel drive to reach the house.
Edit: oh, yeah, and we have to save back up for summer since we don’t get paid then.
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After doing some thinking 20230 is the target, 23000 is the stretch goal
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I’m up for this challenge! But for me it will be from Feb 15, 2023 to Feb 15, 2024. Doing another challenge in this same time period - $500 max annual discretionary spend, but aiming for $0.
Glad you allow mortgage principle which will help me out as I pay over $250 per month on principle.
I am also going to try and cut my monthly grocery bill from $588 per month down to $400 per month.
If I accomplish all this my savings rate will be 48%. We are low income so this $20,230 will be a real challenge for us.
Edit: the rules are, in other words, increase your net worth by $20,230 in 2023?
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Active direct saving, so if your net worth goes down due to market losses that’s not counted against you.
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Okay so this makes sense. Don’t include an unrealized capital losses. I assume this also goes for unrealized capital gains?
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Yes, true. Otherwise a bunch of us would’ve hit our annual goal in January 2021 without doing anything 
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This is cool, in my Profit & Loss report in Gnucash double entry bookkeeping software – which I use for tracking personal finance – it doesn’t take into consideration unrealized gains, because my unrealized gains sub-accounts only offset the equity account 
So while my net worth might go up or down based on these unrealized gains/losses, my Profit & Loss statement gives me the numbers I need for this challenge. It just subtracts all expenses from income and I have the net profit for that time period
EDIT: Hrm, my monthly interest from money market account is realized gains and counts as income in my profit & loss statement. Do I get to include this in my income in this report? Guessing not lol.
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End of February:
Mortgage Principal: 1028.53
OMERS employee portion: 774.39
Year to date savings: 8104.28
We got a letter the other day outlining what we can put into J1s RDSP this year and receive grant money on, I thought it was going to be $2000, apparently, it is zero. I am perplexed, his Disability Tax Credit expires this year, so I do need to call his psychologist and get all the paperwork filled out again, so that’s why no allotment for this year, but I still should have been able to contribute the $1000 from last year.
In all likelihood, we’ll finish the DTC application etc, and then next year’s allotment will be $3000
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