Is it realistic to expect same budget/different home?

**MomToTwoBoys** · 04-10-2011, 11:44 AM

DH and I purchased the home in mid-January. It's 938 sq/ft but 95% of it is finished. The old house was 1186 sq/ft but only 70% of it was finished. The 1186 was counting two floors and not the basement. The 938 is counting two levels and not the other two. One house was a two-story and the other is a four-level split. Basically, we have the same sized house but it's constructed differently.

Anywho, the mortgage payment on this one is larger than the other. It's $320 more per month with regular payments. The old house has a biweekly mortgage and we had a couple extra payments a year on it. This house has a semi-monthly mortgage, so we pay twice a month regardless.

Our utilities bill for here has been larger than when we lived in Calgary. I'm going to attribute that to the harsh winter (it didn't get above -15C for most of January and it was -45C at night here for a few nights in a row). The windows are original in this house. We replaced the windows in the other house. The appliances here are also older than in the other house, which means more energy is being used to do the things we normally do.

So is it realistic for me to use the same budget here as I did in Calgary?

We eat out less here. We ate out more there. However, we're spending what we'd have used for eating out and short trips to the store to pay for the rest of the mortgage. We just went grocery shopping yesterday and went over on food. And, that's what got me thinking; Should we be using the same budget here? I've been trying to keep costs down and I've cut back in some spots. However, others have gone up drastically.

Mortgage here > mortgage in old house
School expenses here > school expenses in Calgary
Gas here > gas in Calgary
Groceries here > groceries in Calgary
Utilities here > utilities in Calgary

We don't have any debt here, which is something we did have in Calgary. I think that's the one thing that's beneficial to us.

So is it time to re-work the budget and add some more wiggle room?

**kita** · 04-10-2011, 11:43 PM

Everything changes when you move. When I moved to Portland I was thrilled that my housing was so much cheaper but it took me a while to learn how to buy food without always having double coupons for example. It will get better but it took me almost a year...

**Libby** · 04-11-2011, 12:39 PM

Are you running your budget into the red? If so, then yes allow more wiggle room. Otherwise, I'd still try to use the same Calgary budget for another month or so until you're sure its not gonna work. You're still getting settled and really aren't into the full swing of things yet right?

Is the cost of living higher overall up in Edmonton vs Calgary?

**nuisance26** · 04-11-2011, 02:06 PM

~It's a realistic starting point since the home sizes are similar. But as you've learned it's not a perfect match.
Now that you've been in your new home 3 months you should have enough data to rework the budget for new house. In fact, I'd do it every three months for the first year you live there to get your numbers as reliable as possible.~

**MomToTwoBoys** · 04-11-2011, 02:10 PM

I feel like the spending has gone up but it's getting really close to being in the red for me. Utilities went up a whole lot. In Calgary, it'd be $280 when the weather got insanely cold. Here, it's $400. In Calgary and here, the cable/internet is the same price so that's nothing new. Gas is more expensive up here (and ironically, we're living in the refinery heaven) because DH is putting more into his tank. (We've discussed a newer vehicle that's more gas friendly in our future.)

Groceries have definitely gone up. We aren't going to Superstore anymore (which is, in part, due to it being way too crowded for our liking) so we're spending more.

I don't want to wait for it to go into the red to make the changes. I'd rather intervene now while we have the cash to stay above water. I think it's harder for us too because the mortgage is on a different schedule and we have a few added expenses that we didn't have in Calgary.

**Emjo** · 04-11-2011, 02:57 PM

Get ye back to Superstore, woman!

I avoid that place like the plague on Saturdays, but I usually go during the week around 6:30 or so and it's not bad. If you're feeling really energetic the absolute best time to go is 7am...it's dead in there and lots of marked down meat!

**mom2three** · 04-11-2011, 04:23 PM

Here, Superstore is very quiet on Friday evening after 7 and Monday morning. Saturdays are crazy busy.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 04-11-2011, 05:44 PM

The only way I can get to Superstore for 7am is if I take a cab there, take the bus or walk. Blech. I'd love to go Friday evenings, but DH gets off work and comes home then doesn't want to do anything else that night. Trying to get up and go early on the weekends is a no go around the house; That's our sleeping in time!

I guess I can try Saturday nights at like 7 because the kids have bed at 8. I'd love to go during the week but I am without a vehicle and the only way I could do it is if I took the taxi. Taxis are pretty expensive here, so I'll have to figure out something else.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 04-13-2011, 08:33 PM

So I have been doing some thinking and I re-did the budget. I wrote down everything and with most costs going up, I think it's time to ditch some things that I thought would work and bring in some things that will work.

DH got a 32 cent raise per hour today, which is about 20 dollars per cheque. With the dollar being subpar in the US at the moment and me losing money, we sit about $20 a month ahead.

I've already axed the extras on my cell phone. That's $15 savings. I'm cancelling the mortgage protection plan and that's another $63 saved each month. I'm just really, really concerned about how things have been financially. I don't want to dig a bigger hole that got me to where I was when I came to FV. I am just really hoping utilities was a fluke this month with the colder weather.

I'm keeping my laptop unplugged when I don't need to charge it. When the battery gets to about 10%, then I'll plug it in until it charges again.

With the weather hopefully getting nicer, we won't be inside as much as the heater won't have to be on.

Part of me thinks that last month was a fluke and part of me is concerned that it'll stay that way.

**Momof4cats** · 04-14-2011, 01:12 PM

Is there any way you can contact the utility company and get a month-to-month breakdown for the past 12 months, to give you an idea what the utility useage has been? I know it wouldn't be perfect-families have different useage patterns-but it would at least let you see when the low months are and when the higher ones occur. Now that it's getting warm where I am (mid-South US) the last utility bill was >$40; coldest part of winter it was +$300.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 04-30-2011, 12:21 PM

I'll give it a shot and see because the last utility bill I received, it was $100 less than before. The gas and electric bill that I receive separately was still high and we're trying to figure out what could be causing that. We have to replace the hot water heater before the end of June for insurance purposes, but I'm certain that it's not costing us $120 per month to keep that thing running.

I cut back on the use of the dishwasher (because I'm certain that thing is sucking up a lot of cash) and the fridge is the first appliance to be replaced because the freezer door keeps getting stuck. I think the seal on it might be busted and that's probably causing the fridge to run electricity more than usual.

DH and I are having a budget discussion soon because things have really been concerning me lately. We can't do anything about the fixed expenses, so that's not on my list of things to change. However, the variable expenses are really costing us. Groceries was better last week (we spent $198 but some of that was for Easter) and hopefully, it'll be better for now on as well. I'm still able to tuck money into savings (baby EF is half funded) and I have money to pay the fixed expenses from my account, but the variable expenses are getting nuts. I had to put the cable bill on the CC and we're a month behind on gas/electric. I have to admit that I've really been slacking at paying bills for the last few months.

I told DH the other night that I'd buy this house was if he quit smoking and if we stopped paying back his parents. We've been here since mid-January and neither has happened. He tells me that he's ceasing the parental payback because his taxes will be coming back soon and we can pay off the huge $9300 loan that his parents gave us. However, the smoking is still an issue. I haven't told him this, but the real reason I want him to quit is because my father passed away a few years ago from lung cancer. I don't want that happening to him.

So for now, the budget's in limbo. DH is going to his bank and having the deposit halted. Once the tax return comes back, we'll figure out the amount left over to give to his parents and close that loan all together. Also once DH moves his bank account from TD to Scotiabank, we'll cut out the other CC, the hospitalization coverage and change the life insurance. I'd rather that he have the life insurance anyways and hopefully, he can net a lower interest rate with the CC (because he and I have one CC a piece for EXTREME emergencies that the baby EF cannot cover). We'll also be combing over the cable package and seeing if there is anything at all that we can get rid of. I've already taken out $15 off of the cell phone bill for the international texting because I don't really need that after all.

I'm still trying to figure out how we went from having $900 free per month to struggling to keep out of overdraft. It's not easy when I don't feel comfortable enough to talk to DH about it, but that's what I need to work on too.