Budgeting

We have a major #LifeReady moment we are starting to prepare for. It’s an idea of taking our kids on a world-wide trip. We want to teach them to be global citizens, help them understand and embrace all cultures and learn on the road.

The comforter is warm and cozy and as I wake up to the sweet sounds of the Cowboy Junkies I look over to see the angel faces of both my children snuggled up beside me.

My children.

There is so much love and so much responsibility that go with those words. I often wonder how I possibly have kids when at times I still feel like a kid myself. I remember growing up thinking how very much my parents had it together in how they planned for everything. Planning for a trip, planning house moves, planning for their retirement and for our future. My dad especially focused diligently on maxing out his investment opportunities every year to see it through that they were covered as they got older. As they are finally in that stage of life, it’s paying off. Large. They don’t have to sacrifice the world to sustain their living. He had set it up beautifully so that they had a quality life full of travel and opportunity when they got to this life stage.

Dreaming gave us this view of the Indian Ocean #LifeReady

It makes me nervous. Coming from a different generation and philosophy, we don’t concentrate nearly as much as they do on financial matters. We are in far more debt. Our house is more expensive. The impact of interest rates from credit cards don’t seem to create the same concern that I saw with my folks. We are doing ok for saving for retirement but by no means are we maxing out each year. (And we have NO end goal as to when that is).

We are doing well on RESP contributions and because of Autism in our world, we are also adding contributions to RDSP’s to ensure the care of our child when he’s older. But we also hold the philosophies of “Come Before Winter” and “Tomorrow can easily become never”, which continually drives us to travel, seek experiences and have adventures that will create amazing memories for us and the kids more so than feeling financially safe as we get older.

And this experience in Stonetown, Zanzibar #lifeReady

We have a major #LifeReady moment we are starting to prepare for. It’s an idea of taking our kids on a world-wide trip. We want to teach them to be global citizens, help them understand and embrace all cultures and learn on the road. I am a dreamer, a live life to the fullest kind of gal whereas my husband is the responsible, collected one of the two of us. The only way we can get to this moment is to bring down our debt and meet at an agreed upon a level of financial preparedness and risk for both of us to be comfortable to go.

Being #LifeReady took us to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro

And brought us this close to moments that took our breath away #LifeReady

We can't wait to explore more of what the world has to offer #LifeReady — We can’t wait to explore more of what the world has to offer #LifeReady

This program couldn’t have come at a better time in taking stock of where we are.

We want to explore so many more beautiful sunsets

I took the Manulife Readiness Quiz and discovered I am in the 45% of Canadians that feel we are on our way to being financially ready but we still have a ways to go.

Manulife Life Ready Quiz — My #LifeReady Quiz Results

Think about taking the Manulife Readiness Quiz to see how financially #LifeReady you are.

AND…Be sure to join us October 28 at 9pm EST for our @Manulife #LifeReady Twitter Party to talk financial preparedness and see what you dream of being #LifeReady for. Must RSVP to win over $2500 in Cash prizes!

RSVP BELOW

What you need to know about Chris and I is that we are firm believers of equity among all people and have a tremendous discomfort in being “class-ified.” As Canadians, being catered to or receiving privilege when others don’t, just doesn’t feel right in our world. So on our Mt. Kilimanjaro climb, it was important for us to get to know our guides leading us on the trip.

Thanks to Intrepid Travel we had an incredible group of professional guides on our team. Simon (our lead guide), Soster, Dismas and Joaquim were our saviours on the climb. They got us to the top and kept us going through the 6 day trek. As we walked, we talked about their families, their village, their way of life.

Our Kili crew — Our whole Intrepid Kili Crew

It was surreal for us discovering how high Tanzanian unemployment was, how grateful they were to pick up these treks up the mountain (Guiding Kilimanjaro expeditions being their only source of income), how essential it was to them to provide an education for their children and how for them, family was everything.

When we came home, we looked up and found the average annual salary in Tanzania was $1500 for the year.

FOR… THE… YEAR…

Take note the next time you think of hashtagging #FirstWorldProblems.

We have been working with The Intrepid Foundation to match any donations we raised with our #TeamPowell Kili Climb on a quest to support Kiliproject.org, (Village Education Project Kilimanjaro), which provides educational opportunities for boys & girls in Tanzania. This rings so true in our hearts.

So this easily became our goal for the @Manulife #CentsAbility Challenge.

To fund a year’s worth of salary for Kiliproject.org and help bring equity and education to an area that 100% needs our help.

Here is a rundown on how we changed it up for October to help create change.

1) We had a Garage Sale.

There is something other-worldly coming home to so much stuff when you meet children who have no bed. So we immediately set out to have a garage sale and get rid some of the “stuff” suffocating us here at our house.

Next time your kid whines about not getting something, talk to them about children their age having nothing… no clean water, no extra clothes, no bed, no school. Funny how that quiets them down.

Money Raised: $240

2) Changing up my “office”

Working as a mobile office, Starbucks tends to be my stop between meetings ,which I have to say is not good for my wallet or my waistline. I started actively seeking out libraries or common areas to head to to do my work as an alternative to the usual.

Library over Starbucks 15 Days/mth X average bill of $10/visit

Money saved this month: $150

(Cost Savings per year say at $100/mth = $1200)

3) Active couponing

I am not a great couponer but after I was introduced to the Flipp App at the Manulife #CentsAbility lunch at BlissDom Canada, I am feeling a lot more game to give it a try. The cool part of this app is that it collects all of your favourite shops in one location and provides you their weekly flyer. This gave us the ability to flag the coupons we wanted and add them to our shopping list so it was RIGHT where when we needed it. PERFECT. Over the last 4 weeks, the hubs and I have managed to save at least $20/week via smart coupon decisions.

We also have been accumulating cash on our PC Plus Card for Loblaws (a grocery store in Canada) which provides savings offers and a cash back on all your grocery purchases. Perfect time to redeem that accumulating cash on the card.

Money Saved this month: $ 80

(Cost Savings per year $ 960)

Using our PC Plus Rewards to redeem at Loblaws $30

4) Cancelling a number of our monthly auto pay subscriptions

Listen, if I was using them..no problem but when I realized that I had been paying for a Weight Watchers Subscription ($20/mth), a GoodLife Membership ($50/mth), a monthly magazine subscription ($10/mth), too many royalty free stock image sites to count ($20/mth) and we weren’t using any of, it was time to shut ‘er down.

Money Saved this month: $100

(Cost Savings per year $1200)

5) Changing up work habits

I do a lot of client meetings and find the best form of meeting is a casual one over a meal.

However, explaining what we were doing, I found common place with a number of clients who were tired of the usual lunch meetings and were game when I suggested we meet for exercise or a walk instead. Rather than spending an average bill of $35-50 taking them out for a meal, we got healthy AND I stuck to the #CentsAbility Challenge.

I also made the simple effort of switching lunch meetings to coffee meetings which greatly changed my daily work spend.

The last part was while travelling for business to Vancouver. I was introduced to the benefits of the Fairmont’s President’s Club (Many Thanks Rob!). As I was staying at two different ones for two conferences this couldn’t have been better advice. Signing up for the President’s Club provided free wifi, a host of value adds & because their customer service is so epic, they shuttled my luggage to the other hotel saving me the cost of a taxi to take over my stuff across town.

Hosting 2 meetings while suggesting exercising vs lunch $70/week

Money saved this month $ 280

(Cost Savings per year $ 3,360)

Switching 1 lunch meeting to coffee meeting $5 vs $35/week

Money Saved this month $ 120

(Cost Savings per year $ 1,440)

Fairmont’s President’s Club Benefits

Money Saved this month $55

So the month has come to end as has our #CentsAbility Challenge and we are SO very proud to say that with the efforts we put towards being financially conscious in October we managed to raise/save $1,055.

With the Intrepid Foundations match we will be sending $ 2,110 to help support this worthy cause!

It also showed us what saving money better could do for us on a yearly basis and help us strive for our next goal….

To go back to Africa with our kids.

I can’t thank Manulife enough for putting this out there as a goal for us to try to achieve. It has truly been life-changing.

Our Intrepid Guides - Simon, Soster and Joaquim — Our Intrepid Guides – Simon, Soster and Joaquim

For information on the @Manulife #CentsAbility Challenge .

Other #CentsAbility Challengers: CommonCentsMom , DaddyBlogger, MyDirt, CristaClips, Shasherslife, 3Chickensanda Boat

My #LifeReady Moment means the world

#CentsAbility Savings for a Month Gave a Salary for a Year