November Numbers: New Budget

Good-bye October and HELLO November!

I experienced some belt-tightening in October due to the new car purchase which left me with a much smaller amount of Misc money for weekly spending. Knowing I couldn't play "fast and loose" with my funds I was way more careful with misc spending than I normally am! So...even on a reduced budget I managed to squirrel away more money than usual in my snowflake box! Yippee!!!

A number of factors helped me stash away extra snowflakes:

• I had set a gasoline budget of $80 for October. I didn't use any of that! When I bought the car the tank was full and I didn't buy any gas during the rest of September or October. When gas went down in price Nov. 1st I filled the tank for a cost of only $40! Looks like I won't be overspending on gas though I anticipate using more now that it is getting colder. If I can make it til the end of November without buying more gas I'll have another $40 to add to the snowflake box :)
• Both electricity and natural gas bills came in under the budgeted amount. It's been a mild fall so far and I haven't had to use the furnace much yet or the electric heater downstairs in the TV room. 
• I was very frugal with my grocery shopping this month. I'm still eating from the package of 5 chicken breasts that I bought: first I made fajitas (lasted 2 nights), then I used some in a pasta dish (1 dinner and Kazi took the rest the next day for her lunch); and then I made chicken vegetable soup with the remainder which I am still eating. (yes, chicken was frozen after being cooked!) I had $50 left in the grocery budget which went into the snowflake tin. 
• November will brings its own savings opportunities. I have switched to a cheaper internet package (more gigs at a lower cost!) I have been paying $93/month for 200g. I was browsing my internet company's website (Rogers.com) and saw a different, cheaper package so I switched. I don't know how much exactly my new bill will be what with taxes and so on but should be in the area of $60 for 250g.
• My share of car insurance is going down by $11/month - that's not a lot but it's money in my pocket instead of the insurance company's!
• I've also paid off $2,000 on my credit card: this was the maximum the car dealership would accept from using a credit card to pay for a car. As interest could accrue it was the first part of the car's cost that I paid off.
• I have made another purchase (a Yamaha keyboard-Merry Christmas to me!!) and paid most of it off (a different credit card). When I receive a GIC interest payment later this month it will go to pay off the rest owing on the credit card. By the end of November I will be 100% debt-free once again. 
• Now that one c/c is paid in full I have also repaid my savings in the amount of $500. Having no debt means that starting in December over $1,000 per month will re-build my savings to my pre-car purchase balance. If I didn't travel my savings accounts would be totally repaid in 10 months but as I have plans for a couple trips next year it will taken longer to rebuild my savings but that's ok. Can't be frugal all of the time! 
• Come January my pension will receive an extra bump up due to increased cost of living raise. When I first started receiving my pension not ALL of my pension received cost of living increases. That was due to the pension plan not doing as well back in the financial crisis of 2007-8. But now that the stock market has recovered my entire pension will receive the cost of living increase. I'm very happy about that! I know how much the gross amount will be but not what my net increase will be. 
• By the end of November my snowflake box should hold about $500.  Along with my PC points from using my President's Choice Mastercard for all purchases (currently around $100) I will have $600 saved for Christmas. I will also have an extra $300 from not having to pay property taxes in December or January (I pay my taxes on a 10 month plan)! That should cover any additional expenses during the very expensive month of December:) 

And there you have it - my spending adventure (car and keyboard) is over for now. Snowflakes are growing and by the time the real snow is on the ground I'll have Christmas expenses covered. Having a plan and sticking to it really helps. I must remember that as I plan my travelling for next year: Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and SCOTLAND! 

Got the Jitters

Grrrrr! Over the past couple of months I imagined that our wifi was slowing down.  I would unplug the modem, unplug the router etc and things would get a little bit better, or not! I tried calling my provider today but my phone couldn't connect either. No Netflix, no nothing on phone, i-Pad or i-Phone. HELP!!!

I went out for lunch with a friend and when I got home I was able to connect my laptop and my phone connected to the wifi also so I made a phone call and hurrah, got through. My daughter's boyfriend won't even use the internet when he's here as he finds it too slow - he gets irritated by that.

Being older, and having had experience using a telephone party line as a youngster SLOW internet is still FAST to me. But NO wifi is impossible to live with so a technician will be here in the morning. The fellow I was talking to was speaking in tongues - jitter, latency blah blah blah. Just make it work! And make it FAST!

*Yes, I know I don't need wifi to make a phonecall but the last two months I've received a message on my phone that the data is all used up. That's because the phone has not been able to connect to wifi at home so it's roaming around or something. All I know is it's increased my cell phone bill and that is not acceptable!

I wonder if I'll be able to type faster??

Internet Woes

Thank you my dear friends for your most supportive and helpful comments on my "reaching out" post from the other day. Staying connected is of vital importance I am finding. I have already implemented some of your suggestions but as I am using my iPad and have none of my photos on it I'll be posting about those things in another post hopefully in the not too distant future.

I really really really want things to get back to normal internet wise. But this is PEI!!  Normal in P E I is when the internet company shows up and "tests the site"!  Ok, admittedly I didn't really understand what that meant, now I do.  This particular company uses towers to transmit the internet signal (please forgive my lack of technical jargon) and proceeded to go up to my roof line in a cherry picker.  No signal.

It seems that my forest was blocking the signal! In this day and age they can't work around the trees? Nope, cut 'em down! Cut them all down! Actually their solution was to hire some guys to install a 35-40' tower at the edge of my property that might then allow a signal to reach little ol' me. Ummmmm no thanks.

So then on my cell phone I chat with an agent of Bell only to find out that wifi and "regular" internet are two different things and I can't afford wifi! The lovely agent said to try Bell Aliant and see if they provide service in the boonies.  To make a long story shorter I discover there is a Bell Aliant dealer in my local Home Hardware store so off I go. Well, I purchased a one year monthly contract (nothing seasonal available from Bell) but do not yet have an appt with them to come and hook things up. Sigh.....I'll call  THEM on Monday and see if I can get things moving, however I'll be away Tues. to Friday so things don't look too hopeful.

By the time I get things hooked up it'll be time to go back to London and I'll be providing free internet to the spiders and chipmunks over the winter months. Sheesh!

Sooooooo, today's post is brought to you courtesy of the only Starbucks on the island in Charlottetown. I'm headed to my sisters place so came early and had a spree at Indigo books as I had $120 left in gift cards. First thing I nabbed was The Globe and Mail newspaper-finally, news of the outside world! I also bought 5 bargain books (already on sale but if you buy five you get an additional 50% off!) I know how to work the system and get the most for my money. I also got a huge wicker basket for my overflow of books (50% off), a couple of books not on sale....GASP!, a blue glass pitcher with matching glasses, a passport holder, a monogrammed  keychain ($2.00), and I forget what else. One of the bargain books was the latest Reader's Digest of home repairs! Stay tuned for some DIY projects:)

So now I must head off into the wild blue yonder. I've been more positive the last couple of days thanks largely to you good folks. Oh, and exciting news! I met another blogger-"I am Sam!!  Many of you know her from her blog. She's wonderful and I'm so glad we finally met. One of these days I'll be coming to visit all of you! That road trip ideas is still in the back of my mind:)

Pitchfork Power

Mark  - I dare you to find a song with the word "pitchfork" in the title!!

Me, I got the pitchfork blues.....well, not really....I just bought my very first pitchfork!!  I'm so excited!!!  You can't live next to potato fields and not own a pitchfork.  Especially when the farmer has told us to help ourselves...take as many as you want he said!  We also needed a pitchfork for Sunset Grove - the space Michael created for watching the sunset - there were a number of bumps and dips that were a bit difficult to navigate at night - even with a flashlight! I imagined wandering out there one night and breaking an ankle or a leg so we decided to even out the area a little bit. Yup - need a pitchfork!

I'm sure you're all familiar with the famous painting by Grant Wood called "American Gothic"...it's iconic and wouldn't be  complete without the pitchfork!

I think a pitchfork must be mighty important to be included in such a famous painting, don't you?  It has so many uses for farm folk and country living folk in general: pitching hay (now I know why it's called "pitching"...the word "pitch" is descended from the Middle English word "pichen" which meant to THROW)!, digging up hills of potatoes and other root veggies, breaking up clods of earth, cleaning out a horse or other animal's stall, loosening up the compost pile etc etc...I'm pretty sure my mom kept one by the front door to get rid of those pesky door-to-door salesman who ignored her sign "NO SALESMEN PLEASE" posted next to our doorknocker....she meant business you know!!

 Not exactly dressed for digging potatoes, am I? But as we must photograph everything it had to do!

 And you know what? The pitchfork still worked even though I was wearing flip flops so my $50 investment was well worth it.....or maybe it was Michael's straw hat....

...which also came in handy for toting the potatoes into the house!

Alrighty, on to Sunset Grove where Michael had already been shoveling the dirt around to level things out.

 I did my best to create a "photo moment" but all the darn tree roots made the work harder than it needed to be! This area is going to be a future garden area - just flowers here I think.

Yup, Michael, you're going to have to get all the tree roots outa here before we can do much "pitching"!

Here, you try it....

Its' a little easier over here...

Who knew that this piece of farm machinery that we lounge in from time to time would also be the perfect holding spot for our tools?

 Other recent finds include this wheel rim which may be destined for the fire pit and...

a tire leaning up against its future home as a tire SWING!! Yay!

That's it for today folks!  I hope you're having an incredible summer and thank you for being patient with me and visiting me even though I can't visit you very often. My internet stick has run out of gigs unfortunately and I'm not shelling out another $113 when I have less than two weeks left here in PEI. YIKES! So I'll only be on the internet when I can visit a "hot spot" like the pub I'm in now. It's threatening rain today so that's why I'm inside. Those days have been far and few between this summer - it's only rained twice in the five weeks I've been here! It's dry as a desert here and although there have been some dark clouds today so far it hasn't rained one single drop!!

And.....Usain Bolt won the 100m!! Did you see that race??? Wow, WOW, WOW!!