week eight report and month two wrap up

Looking back at month two I have just one question for myself: why haven't I been doing this for longer?

Month two I took to heart the comments I had heard from a few people about just paying off the line of credit rather than trying to balance debt payments and savings. I have an automatic deposit set up for a contribution to my TFSA every other week (just $50) which still happened, but other than that, every extra penny that came in got dumped into debt repayment.

Month two was also cool because it was the first month that I got a money diet style credit card bill; a small one. Rather than relying on extra income to have enough money to pay the bill, I paid it off with my mid month paycheque AND had surplus to put into debt repayment. That felt so freaking good!

In month two I added $100 to my TFSA, paid off $450 on my line of credit. I also paid an $850 deposit on my wedding dress which isn't so money diet friendly, but in a money diet style victory, I did it without relying on credit. Sha-zam!

When I started the money diet in January, I was hopeful I would have my line of credit paid off by the time I left my job at the end of June. Now I'm quite confident I can have it paid off in full by the end of March, a full THREE MONTHS ahead of schedule. Look at me go!!! Now that wouldn't be possible if I hadn't booked this series of CPR and First Aid courses through February and March, but pre money diet I would have put some of that extra income towards debt repayment and spent most of it gluttonously. Three cheers for the money diet!!!

Week eight was a good one. I spent nothing until the weekend and then spent all but $5 in one shot. We had a fun Saturday afternoon riding our bikes around and picking up some ingredients for dinner. We decided we were in a weekend food rut - though we're committed to our weekday food routine, on the weekends when we like to make gourmet treat dinners we realized there were only six thing we made: pizza, risotto, cheesey baked pasta, potato thing, green rice (which can also liaise as a weekday dinner sometimes), and since the advent of my pasta rollers, a tasty fresh pasta dish. Of course there are infinite variations on the above six dishes, and they are fantastically tasty, but we were craving change. So we busted into some of the many cookbooks on our shelves, and tried some new things. And drank some great wine.

And now I feel like I need to go on a cleanse.