Since I’ve fallen so behind here I thought I’d do a full 6 month summary before I go back to monthly Net Worth posts. 2022 is following our trend of heavy spending & low saving due to us becoming home owners in mid-2021 and deciding to embark on some renovations as well as make purchases for things like furniture and baby items. With the addition of a big dog and a baby to our lives, our expenses are trending much higher than the past couple of years.
After all of that spending, it was nice to see our cash position remain so healthy. This was actually mostly thanks to a large tax refund we both received because we maxed out our RRSPs in 2021. The change column is comparing the balances at the end of June with the balances at the end of December 2021. Retirement funds are down so much due to the market, not due to any draws on our end – also the reasoning for the dip in Retirement Assets when compared to December 2021. The difference between Retirement Assets and Net Worth is just the equity in our home. I don’t count this towards our Retirement Assets because we will always need a place to live, so even when the mortgage is paid off, it will make up our entire Net Worth but it won’t provide any value to us in terms of assets we can actually draw from.
How did we spend our $$…
I know… is this even a FIRE blog? Ha! Sometimes plans get a bit derailed. However we are still committed to early retirement, just perhaps taking a hiatus from heavily saving for a bit while we set up our new home and settle into this new life.
Home Improvement: Renos, renos, renos. We had two bathrooms renovated for a steep price and also replaced all the original 1980s windows in our home.
Home Maintenance & Other: Maintenance includes anything like lightbulbs, repairing a dryer, irrigation maintenance etc. Also included in this category are property taxes, water bills, gas/electricity and internet.
Food: This category includes ALL food costs – restaurants, groceries, coffee shops, alcohol. Groceries accounts for about 62% of this total while restaurants make up about 27%, and our alcohol spend (which is really just the last 2 months) makes up about 6%.
Baby: Babies don’t have to be expensive – but they can be. This category includes all the things we needed to get set up for baby life like a stroller, changing pad, bottles, clothing, sheets, monitor, sound machine, daycare applications etc.
Dog: Much like babies, dogs don’t have to be expensive, but they can be. We choose to pay for a higher end dog food because we have a breed prone to all kinds of health issues. Who knows if this will actually make a difference but I am obsessed with this dog and hope she lives a long life with us. Along with higher-end dog food we also pay for pet insurance. We didn’t originally plan on doing this and instead were going to self-insure but after falling so in love with her we decided we didn’t ever want to have to make that awful decision if something major were to happen to her. She was also spayed early in the year which was a big cost in 2022.
Transportation: This includes all of our vehicle costs – fuel, insurance, maintenance, new tires etc.
Health: Yes, health care in Canada is free – I didn’t pay a dime to have my baby in a hospital surrounded by my midwife, an OB, nurses, a pediatrician on standby and an anesthesiologist. But not EVERYTHING in Canada is free. Some of the costs that make up this section include counseling, vitamins, drugs, certain blood tests, acupuncture etc.
Gym: We currently pay approximately $25 CAD for Obe Fitness and do at home workouts.
Other: Other is made up of a hodge podge of expenses such as gifts, donations, salon, makeup, professional fees etc.
Hopefully the second half of the year is much cheaper. I’m currently on maternity leave until early next year. I received a partial salary top-up from my company that lasted until the end of June so our income is about to be drastically reduced until I return to work.
