Christmas Planning

I loooove Christmas. I also happen to love planning and lists and such. The Organizing Junkie wrote a great post that included a review on an awesome app that I love! Christmas Gift List is a super easy way to keep track of gifts you need to buy, which ones you've already bought and what's already wrapped and you've forgotten about *raises hand*

You can even password it so it's safe from prying eyes ;)

This is now my 2nd year using this app. I even used it for birthday shopping!

Brianna's Moving Out (well, for pretend)

I was reading through one of my Secular Homeschooler group's and was reminded of this great idea I wanted to try when Brianna was older. Real life finances, without the real life hardships.

The basic idea was fairly simple. Start with a part time job, find a place to live, pay bills, etc....

So Brianna and I sat for a few hours last month setting it up. Because of all the time involved in setting it up, I went ultra basic. As the time goes on, there will be more details.

Here's what we did for September:

I had Brianna do some guestimating. I had her guess what she would be spending per month. Her answers - rent ($560), heat ($100), electric ($100), food ($100), extras ($250). Apparently I need to take her to the grocery store more often...

Brianna got a part time job at the local dollar store. Minimum wage at $11.60 per hour, 20 hours per week (for Sept, to keep it simple). I also explained the available gov tax credits that she would be entitled to for being low income (here, Trillium monthly and GST 4 times a year). We went over Lee's pay stub to learn about deductions. I set it up so she started "working" in August so that her Sept bills (rent, in particular) were paid on Sept 1st.

We did an actual house hunt with the local rental companies so she could see what legit rentals offered. She decided on a 1 bdrm apt about 6 blocks from home (and about 1.5 miles from work) that included fridge and stove (not all that common here) and heat. It cost $515 + electric.

We set her other bills at - electric ($40, based on current rates and what I paid almost 20 yrs ago for a 1 bdrm), cell ($45, her existing, real life bill), internet ($57, a real package from our cable company), bus fare ($55, as she currently does not want to walk to work).

She decided to "sell" her bar fridge that she for real owns as her apt came with a fridge so would rather the extra money. She otherwise furnished her appt with the furniture she for real owns (bed, dresser, desk & chair, wall unit, end tables, tv and laptop)

After all her bills we paid, she was left with $128 This month (Oct), we will add "grocery shopping" in detail to the lessons.