about our debt. We've been getting back into old habits. Not thinking about how much debt we have. Spending money on things that aren't necessities. Like eating out. A lot.
When I first posted about our debt I just said that we had over $20,000 in consumer debt. I didn't give exact numbers, exact interest rates, exact anything. I think in order to keep myself accountable I'm going to start posting here at least once per month, in detail, about our debt.
This is the post for June. Our debt in detail:
Bank of Montreal Credit Card
Balance as of today: $7524.51
Interest Rate: 12.9% (fixed)
ING Direct Line of Credit #1
Balance as of today: $4857.17
Interest Rate: 6.7% (variable)
ING Direct Line of Credit #2
Balance as of today: $4836.50
Interest Rate: 4.2% (variable)
Total: $17218.18
What I normally do is pay the minimum amount on the two ING accounts since their interest rates are lower, and pay as much as possible towards the credit card. I also transfer any available money from those accounts after the minimum payments are made back into our chequing account and apply it to the credit card. So the lines of credit are pretty much always maxed out, but they have lower interest rates anyways and it's best to put all the money we can towards our highest interest rate to get it paid off quickly.
I also haven't been focusing on our budget properly so we probably have an abundance of money on our chequing account that can go towards debt repayment. I will be looking into that today and also creating our June budget, which I haven't done yet. We have a wedding to attend in Quebec at the beginning of August and that's definitely going to have an effect on our budget, so I want to get this all settled so that we're in the best position possible when the wedding comes around.
It's time to get serious about this again and we really need to keep ourselves accountable.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Food Gadget Review
One of my favourite food gadgets is The Nibbler by Nuby. I make Pierce's baby food so it's great for when he's teething because I can just pop a frozen cube inside, make sure it's fastened tightly and give it to him. Sometimes he gets a little confused and uses the handle to soothe his mouth, but usually he finds the mesh pocket with the frozen cube in it. It's a great way to soothe his painful gums without using medication. If your child hasn't started solids yet you can still use it - just put an ice cube inside. I've put ice cubes in it on really hot days when I wanted to ensure that Pierce was getting enough hydration.
It's also really easy to clean. I don't have a lot of time to spend cleaning something like this, so I love that it comes apart easily (though not so easily that Pierce has ever been able to undo it!), it's easy to rinse off, I throw it in the dishwasher, wash the mesh part by hand and let it air dry. I have heard that the mesh net can be difficult to clean if you put bananas in it, but we've never tried that because Pierce doesn't like bananas anyway.
Overall, I think The Nibbler is a pretty neat gadget. Pierce likes to use it, it's easy for him to use, it's easy for me to clean and it's safe.
The Nibbler is a product that was purchased for me at my baby shower and I have chosen to do this review myself. The above is my honest opinion and assessment of this product. I was not in any way compensated for this review.
It's also really easy to clean. I don't have a lot of time to spend cleaning something like this, so I love that it comes apart easily (though not so easily that Pierce has ever been able to undo it!), it's easy to rinse off, I throw it in the dishwasher, wash the mesh part by hand and let it air dry. I have heard that the mesh net can be difficult to clean if you put bananas in it, but we've never tried that because Pierce doesn't like bananas anyway.
Overall, I think The Nibbler is a pretty neat gadget. Pierce likes to use it, it's easy for him to use, it's easy for me to clean and it's safe.
The Nibbler is a product that was purchased for me at my baby shower and I have chosen to do this review myself. The above is my honest opinion and assessment of this product. I was not in any way compensated for this review.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Fun at the Fair!
On Saturday a friend of mine called to see if we wanted to go to the spring fair. She had four tickets that her husband had won from the radio, so it was a pretty sweet deal and we couldn't pass it up! Parking is ridiculous during the fair (and so is traffic!) so we parked pretty far away and walked to the fairgrounds. We ended up having a blast! It looked like it was going to rain but it ended up being a very nice day, I was just glad that we put sunscreen on Pierce before taking him out.
Our first stop? The petting zoo! They gave us an ice cream cone filled with food and let us into the goat pen where there were about 20 goats. I was afraid that Pierce would get too scared by being swarmed by the goats so I let Mr. B feed them and Pierce and I stood close. Pierce didn't get scared at all and even "pet" some of the goats. ("Pet" = whacked one in the head, after which I took his hand and showed him how to pet it properly.) The goats were so. freaking. cute, by the way, and I wanted to take one of them home with us.
Then we hit up the rides. There wasn't a lot that Pierce could go on so we did a lot of watching my friend's son, who is 18 months old. I did, however, take him on the carousel which he seemed to like. I was surprised that it went so fast - it was hard to stand there and hold on to him!
We had so much fun, but I have to admit that my knees and ankles are really sore already and I am worried about doing the 60km Weekend to End Women's Cancers in September. If I can't spend a day at the fair without my legs aching then how am I supposed to spend a weekend walking 60km? I think I need to start training sometime soon and maybe a trip to the doctor is in order!
Our first stop? The petting zoo! They gave us an ice cream cone filled with food and let us into the goat pen where there were about 20 goats. I was afraid that Pierce would get too scared by being swarmed by the goats so I let Mr. B feed them and Pierce and I stood close. Pierce didn't get scared at all and even "pet" some of the goats. ("Pet" = whacked one in the head, after which I took his hand and showed him how to pet it properly.) The goats were so. freaking. cute, by the way, and I wanted to take one of them home with us.
Then we hit up the rides. There wasn't a lot that Pierce could go on so we did a lot of watching my friend's son, who is 18 months old. I did, however, take him on the carousel which he seemed to like. I was surprised that it went so fast - it was hard to stand there and hold on to him!
We had so much fun, but I have to admit that my knees and ankles are really sore already and I am worried about doing the 60km Weekend to End Women's Cancers in September. If I can't spend a day at the fair without my legs aching then how am I supposed to spend a weekend walking 60km? I think I need to start training sometime soon and maybe a trip to the doctor is in order!
Monday, June 7, 2010
I just changed two poopie diapers in a row
in less than an hour.
Pierce hasn't pooped in forever. I guess the broccoli I gave him backed him up a bit? Or maybe it was the bananas that I gave him before the broccoli that did it. Either way, I should've known this was coming.
And as I'm writing this, he just pooped again. Excuse me while I go change the fourth diaper of the day. He's only been awake for two hours.
And I'm back. So anyways, he hasn't pooped in forever. In an attempt to get him to poop I've fed him oatmeal cereal for lunch and apples for dinner for the past two days.
I've never been so relieved to see so much poop in my life.
And now, of course, my bed sheets are in the wash. Because, when you change your baby on your bed and he requires 3 changings in 2 hours, you get a little poop in places where it doesn't belong!
Pierce hasn't pooped in forever. I guess the broccoli I gave him backed him up a bit? Or maybe it was the bananas that I gave him before the broccoli that did it. Either way, I should've known this was coming.
And as I'm writing this, he just pooped again. Excuse me while I go change the fourth diaper of the day. He's only been awake for two hours.
And I'm back. So anyways, he hasn't pooped in forever. In an attempt to get him to poop I've fed him oatmeal cereal for lunch and apples for dinner for the past two days.
I've never been so relieved to see so much poop in my life.
And now, of course, my bed sheets are in the wash. Because, when you change your baby on your bed and he requires 3 changings in 2 hours, you get a little poop in places where it doesn't belong!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Father's Day is just around the corner
Pierce is too young to make his Poppa a handmade Father's Day card this year, but that doesn't mean that my husband doesn't get a handmade card.
Kristin at Creations by Kristin makes cards for all occasions, crocheted hats and pacifier straps. I gave my mom and grandma some of her cards for Mother's Day this year (One each from me and Pierce.) and they were a big hit. And she gave me some beautiful thank you cards at my baby shower. Remember these from my shower post?
There's something so great about a handmade card. It says to the person you give it to, "I care about you so much that I'm not going to give you some generic, store bought card. I want the card you get to be an original, not something that 40,000 other daughters and sons gave their dad for Father's Day."
But...if you suck at making things like I do, your handmade card might say, "I ran out of time to get you a card and when I went to Hallmark this morning the line up was out the door and there were no cards left." No one likes to hear that on a special occasion, whether it is said or implied.
My Mom decided a while ago that she only wants handmade cards. So the Mother's Day before last I went to the scrapbooking store, picked out some nice paper and embellishments and lovingly made her a card that actually turned out pretty well. The first thing she said to me when she opened it was, "You didn't make this!" which to me is a compliment, but I can understand how to other people who are actually good at this sort of stuff it may not be. Then last year for her birthday, I was HUGELY pregnant, insanely uncomfortable and certain that if I didn't have a baby very soon, I would die. So I pulled a sheet of lined paper out of a notebook, folded it up and drew, with pen, two stick people, one of whom was pregnant with a stick baby in her belly, to represent my husband and I. She said she loved it. She lies.
So that none of you have to go through the shame of a lined paper card with stick people on it, Kristin has generously agreed to provide one of my readers with a handmade Father's Day card of their choice.
Here's how to enter:
1. Go to Kristin's blog and check out all of her cards then come back here and tell me which one is your favourite.
2. Join Kristin's Facebook group then come back here and leave a separate comment to tell me you did.
3. Follow me on twitter and tweet, "Give Dad a handmade Father's Day card without doing any of the work! Check out @piercesmomma's blog." And then leave me a comment telling me you did.
Each one is a separate entry, so if you do two, leave two different comments, if you do all three, leave three different comments. I'll use a random number generator to choose the winner. You have until 9pm EST on Thursday, June 10 to enter. The winner will be announced Friday morning and the card will be put in the mail for the winner no later than Monday so it'll have lots of time to get to you.
Good luck!
Kristin at Creations by Kristin makes cards for all occasions, crocheted hats and pacifier straps. I gave my mom and grandma some of her cards for Mother's Day this year (One each from me and Pierce.) and they were a big hit. And she gave me some beautiful thank you cards at my baby shower. Remember these from my shower post?
There's something so great about a handmade card. It says to the person you give it to, "I care about you so much that I'm not going to give you some generic, store bought card. I want the card you get to be an original, not something that 40,000 other daughters and sons gave their dad for Father's Day."But...if you suck at making things like I do, your handmade card might say, "I ran out of time to get you a card and when I went to Hallmark this morning the line up was out the door and there were no cards left." No one likes to hear that on a special occasion, whether it is said or implied.
My Mom decided a while ago that she only wants handmade cards. So the Mother's Day before last I went to the scrapbooking store, picked out some nice paper and embellishments and lovingly made her a card that actually turned out pretty well. The first thing she said to me when she opened it was, "You didn't make this!" which to me is a compliment, but I can understand how to other people who are actually good at this sort of stuff it may not be. Then last year for her birthday, I was HUGELY pregnant, insanely uncomfortable and certain that if I didn't have a baby very soon, I would die. So I pulled a sheet of lined paper out of a notebook, folded it up and drew, with pen, two stick people, one of whom was pregnant with a stick baby in her belly, to represent my husband and I. She said she loved it. She lies.
So that none of you have to go through the shame of a lined paper card with stick people on it, Kristin has generously agreed to provide one of my readers with a handmade Father's Day card of their choice.
Here's how to enter:
1. Go to Kristin's blog and check out all of her cards then come back here and tell me which one is your favourite.
2. Join Kristin's Facebook group then come back here and leave a separate comment to tell me you did.
3. Follow me on twitter and tweet, "Give Dad a handmade Father's Day card without doing any of the work! Check out @piercesmomma's blog." And then leave me a comment telling me you did.
Each one is a separate entry, so if you do two, leave two different comments, if you do all three, leave three different comments. I'll use a random number generator to choose the winner. You have until 9pm EST on Thursday, June 10 to enter. The winner will be announced Friday morning and the card will be put in the mail for the winner no later than Monday so it'll have lots of time to get to you.
Good luck!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
My morning coffee tastes better at 5:30 than at 7:30
I never knew that until this morning.
Up until just recently (as in, three days ago) Pierce has been swaddled to sleep. Yes, I swaddled my son until he was 8 months old. With pride. Okay, less with pride and more out of pure fear. He slept so well that I was afraid to mess with anything lest he turn into one of those babies that never sleeps and has his Momma walking into walls with exhaustion.
I agonized over how to rid him of the swaddle. Should we just go cold turkey? Wean him off of it? I was leaning more towards weaning, but that meant that it would be longer when he was finally sleeping without the swaddle, and I really wanted him to be able to sleep without us needing to bring the swaddling blankets with us if we were going to be out somewhere with him past bedtime. And I really didn't want to hear any more Judgey McJudgerson comments about the swaddle.
After months of doing nothing because I couldn't decide whether or not to go cold turkey, I decided to just take the plunge. Yes, I was scared, but he needed to learn to sleep without the swaddle at some point, and really he seemed to not want to be swaddled anymore when we went to put him to bed. I knew that he'd eventually learn to sleep and I wouldn't be so sleep deprived I couldn't function.
It's actually been going pretty well. I can't really complain. He doesn't sleep through the night, but he doesn't usually wake up too much, either. Last night he woke up a lot. The worst part of him waking up without being swaddled is that he's so much more difficult to get back to sleep. He has spent a lot of time sleeping in our bed with us when we can't get him to go to sleep. The first two days when he made it into our bed I just left him there, but last night when I woke up and he was fast asleep, I was able to successfully transfer him to his crib.
Despite the 5:30 wake-up calls this is going a lot better than I thought it would, so I'm happy, albeit a little tired!
Up until just recently (as in, three days ago) Pierce has been swaddled to sleep. Yes, I swaddled my son until he was 8 months old. With pride. Okay, less with pride and more out of pure fear. He slept so well that I was afraid to mess with anything lest he turn into one of those babies that never sleeps and has his Momma walking into walls with exhaustion.
I agonized over how to rid him of the swaddle. Should we just go cold turkey? Wean him off of it? I was leaning more towards weaning, but that meant that it would be longer when he was finally sleeping without the swaddle, and I really wanted him to be able to sleep without us needing to bring the swaddling blankets with us if we were going to be out somewhere with him past bedtime. And I really didn't want to hear any more Judgey McJudgerson comments about the swaddle.
After months of doing nothing because I couldn't decide whether or not to go cold turkey, I decided to just take the plunge. Yes, I was scared, but he needed to learn to sleep without the swaddle at some point, and really he seemed to not want to be swaddled anymore when we went to put him to bed. I knew that he'd eventually learn to sleep and I wouldn't be so sleep deprived I couldn't function.
It's actually been going pretty well. I can't really complain. He doesn't sleep through the night, but he doesn't usually wake up too much, either. Last night he woke up a lot. The worst part of him waking up without being swaddled is that he's so much more difficult to get back to sleep. He has spent a lot of time sleeping in our bed with us when we can't get him to go to sleep. The first two days when he made it into our bed I just left him there, but last night when I woke up and he was fast asleep, I was able to successfully transfer him to his crib.
Despite the 5:30 wake-up calls this is going a lot better than I thought it would, so I'm happy, albeit a little tired!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Eight Months
Dear Pierce,
I can't believe it's been eight months since you were born. I almost wrote that I can't believe that it's been eight months since we met, but you and I knew each other long before that fateful day in the hospital. I knew I loved you before you were born, and I told you that every day, but I could never have known how much my love for you would grow. We have that special connection that only a mother and child could share. I remember turning to my Mom soon after you were born and saying, "Mom, I just love him so much!" and she said, "I know - just wait until he gets older." Confused, I asked, "Will it lessen?" and she replied, "No, it will grow more." I didn't believe her then. I thought it was impossible to love someone more than how I loved you at that moment. But Pierce, your Grandma was right! I love you more and more each day. Sometimes I scare myself with how much I love you. I remember telling your Poppa that I didn't think I could love someone more than I loved him. I was so wrong, Pierce. And every day that I wake up I think that it can't be possible to love you more than I do that day, but then I wake up the next day.
You make me so proud of you every day. You can sit all by yourself now, and have been able to for some time. You are also showing interest in learning to crawl, although you haven't quite figured that out yet. Sometimes I try to help you figure it out, but other times I just sit there in awe, unable to believe that we are already here. We are already at the point where you are trying to crawl. It makes my heart not only swell with pride, but also sink a little to know that you are slowly becoming independent. But I know that I will always be an important part of your life, and you will always, always be an important part of mine.
Happy eight months, Pierce.
Love,
Momma
I can't believe it's been eight months since you were born. I almost wrote that I can't believe that it's been eight months since we met, but you and I knew each other long before that fateful day in the hospital. I knew I loved you before you were born, and I told you that every day, but I could never have known how much my love for you would grow. We have that special connection that only a mother and child could share. I remember turning to my Mom soon after you were born and saying, "Mom, I just love him so much!" and she said, "I know - just wait until he gets older." Confused, I asked, "Will it lessen?" and she replied, "No, it will grow more." I didn't believe her then. I thought it was impossible to love someone more than how I loved you at that moment. But Pierce, your Grandma was right! I love you more and more each day. Sometimes I scare myself with how much I love you. I remember telling your Poppa that I didn't think I could love someone more than I loved him. I was so wrong, Pierce. And every day that I wake up I think that it can't be possible to love you more than I do that day, but then I wake up the next day.
You make me so proud of you every day. You can sit all by yourself now, and have been able to for some time. You are also showing interest in learning to crawl, although you haven't quite figured that out yet. Sometimes I try to help you figure it out, but other times I just sit there in awe, unable to believe that we are already here. We are already at the point where you are trying to crawl. It makes my heart not only swell with pride, but also sink a little to know that you are slowly becoming independent. But I know that I will always be an important part of your life, and you will always, always be an important part of mine.
Happy eight months, Pierce.
Love,
Momma
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