I think money could buy me happiness, or at least a little peace of mind.

I’m broke…. and I mean BROKE. Don’t get me wrong, all the bills are always paid and we always have groceries etc but there’s basically nothing left when we’re done. I’m trying to get my credits cards paid off right now so a big chunk of my disposable income (and there isn’t much of it to begin with) is going towards my credits cards every pay. This isn’t going to stop anytime soon because the way I have it figured out, my credits cards won’t be paid off for 8 months or more. Not to mention that my car needs some work ASAP that will have to go on my credit cards because I can’t afford to pay for it outright so that means that the 8 months will be extended even longer, depending on how much it all costs (breaks, oil change, belt replacement).
To top that off, I’m about to go into more debt for school. I thought I was going to be able to use some of my RSP’s to pay for school, but because I am only going part time, I don’t quality for that particular program, so I’m going to have to get a line of credit.

We need to put a roof on the house, so that will have to be financed too. Our lawn-mower broke, so I’m crossing my fingers that whatever is wrong with it is covered under warranty (it’s not even a year old) because I can’t afford to buy a new one and our vacuum broke and needs to be replaced! GOD! The list just keeps piling up and up. I’m freaking out! This is not to mention all the stuff that we want to do (to the house, this summer etc). Just the “must-do” list is overwhelming never mind the “We want to love our house and life” list. I didn’t ever finish getting plants for my garden, the paint in our bedroom still needs to be fixed…. and so on.

I’ve decided to go through our finances with a fine tooth comb and see where I can make some cuts.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about so far.

-We both take a lunch to work every day (and have been doing that for years)
-We hardly ever go out for dinner (maybe once per month, if at all, and it’s always somewhere reasonably priced) because DH is an awesome cook and loves to do it
-I have recently stopped going to Tim Horton’s for breakfast and my afternoon tea (this alone saves about $20/week).
-We currently have mortgage insurance and I think we could get life insurance for less $$ per month, so I’m going to look in to that
-I’m going to see if it would be cheaper to move our car, home and life insurance to one place (perhaps the same bank or institution that I get my student line of credit from). Right now we’re getting a good deal on car insurance at the current place, but maybe it would be better if we rolled it all into one?
-Our phone, satellite and internet are on one bill…. But I need to review to see if we can make any cuts anywhere (this is one of our largest bills)

I need some money saving tips (good websites for coupons and deals etc etc etc. Any words of wisdom, advice, thoughts?

I have a job interview tomorrow afternoon. It’s for basically exactly what I do now except on a management level, it’s more $$ and less hours (about 5k more a year with 37.5 hours /week as opposed to 40) and the location is awesome because it’s not even 5 minutes from our house which means I could start taking public transit or walking again (this means our car doesn’t get used on weekdays as Bub walks or bikes to work. The only problem is that it’s only a 1 year mat-leave contract. I’m torn because I really don’t think my current job will exist for much longer but I don’t know that for sure. I’m bored to tears here too so it would be really nice to have something challenging again. I guess I just feel strange giving up something that supposedly “permanent” (so they say) for something temporary. I don’t know what to do. I’m just going to go to the interview and see what happens I guess. No point in worrying about it now.