Weekly Money Checkup

Here's a weekly money checkup from My Pretty Pennies that you can participate in. She posts 5 questions that have fill in the blanks for you to answer and post. It is a time for you to reflect and think about your relationship with your finances. Go ahead, try it.  I did and I'm glad I did - I just found out I need to track my cash expenditures more carefully!



1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on...I'm not really sure.  I just checked my budget and I withdrew $40 cash last week and for the life of me I can't remember what I spent it on.  Hmmm...hope I had fun!



2. Today I feel...ambivalent towards money, a sort of love/hate relationship I guess. Love to receive it, hate to part with it lol!


3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free/inexpensive thing I did last week that made me happy was ....hanging out at the Starbucks at our local Chapters bookstore with Michael.  I had one of those free drink coupons they give you they make a mistake in your order and I had been saving it until they were selling pumpkin spice lattes again. We took our laptops and used the free wireless internet, browsed through the bookshelves and enjoyed each other's company. 


4. I will consider this week a success if...I don't spend the $20.00 that is currently in my wallet.


5. If I could grow one thing, it would be ...wait for it...my HAIR. I used to have long wavy auburn hair, if you imagine that, but as it turned grey it became rather wiry hence the very short "do".

October Budget: Pad Thai Fiasco Saved by Natural Gas

It could have been a disaster story along the lines of "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" or at the very least a tragedy reminiscent of Octomom's recent yard sale.

October - a fresh new month with new paydays. A sudden influx of money into the empty bank account. A sigh of relief that we got through September with $80 leftover and immediately socked away in a spanking brand new Gifts account at ING Direct. The euphoria derived from a 4 digit bank balance and a clean and tidy budget spreadsheet.

I'm rich!! ...or so I thought... even after I filled in my budget sheet and found myself with $176 for miscellaneous spending until October 15th I felt confident in my ability to make it last. After all, I had just spent over a week successfully stretching out a measly $40! But over the course of a few hours I watched in horror as my $176 dwindled away:

• my service charges were $2 higher due to using a non-TDCanada Trust ATM - down to $174
• oops - my Line of Credit interest was higher than my projections - now down to $146
• paid $27 off on my $97 Visa balance - yikes, now down to $119
• withdrew $40 cash as my wallet was totally empty (spent my last $10 on supporting the Run for the Cure) - now down to a precariously low $79 but sure that the $40 would last me for at least a week so still feeling smug
• paid $8 to see a movie with a friend; afterall I should get a little pleasure from my freshly deposited paycheque (oh yes, and $6 for popcorn but $0 for a drink as I brought my own water) - feeling like I've handled things well so far
• went to Jambalaya after the movie to pick up partner who was working there over the dinner hour & succumbed to a huge helping of the best pad thai in town washed down with a Sleeman's Cream Ale
• CRAP - my share of the bill came to $26 - exactly what I had left in my wallet - there goes my $40
• now I have $0 in my wallet again and only $79 for the next two weeks.....oh dear.
• got my natural gas bill today and it was $28 less than what I had budgeted for it (thank God I haven't turned on the furnace yet!) so now my misc. money is up to a more respectable $107...sigh

Today I have spent $0 so far. I have relied on my partner to buy me coffee at Starbucks and a newspaper, not to mention a chocolate and caramel covered pretzyl:) Had the leftover pad thai for supper (so very thrifty of me). Going out dancing tonight but hoping that since my wallet is empty and will remain so for as long as possible that my partner will cover the cover charge ($5) and buy me a drink.  If not I'll be drinking water!

Whew!!! OR...Making it to the End of the Month before the End of the Money

Photo: Everystockphoto.com

A balanced budget is like a well-balanced meal - it's good for you and you feel sooooo much better because you didn't over do it. 

This month, while only the first month of my new FOUR YEAR PLAN budget, found us getting to the end of the month before the end of our money.  This is an axiom I have taken to heart after faithfully watching every episode of "Til Debt do us Part" (some of them twice) starring famous Canadian money maven Gail Vaz-Oxlade. 

But it's not the end of the month you say.  True; however, even an unforeseen emergency won't sidetrack my budget - after all - that's what my emergency account is for, isn't it?

The best part is that we have a small surplus. You know, Gail is right - when you track your money every single day it makes you so much more aware of where it's going and then you're better able to control it.

And I do feel better just like I would if I ever ate a well-balanced meal (I'll just have to take that as a given:).  In fact, I feel ECSTATIC knowing I can sock away at least an extra $80.00 into the Crofter's Lane savings jar.

Payday is two days away, the food in the fridge will take us beyond that thanks to my soup-making, stew-creating partner, my daughter put gas in the car (bless her!) and I still have $20.00 in my wallet and an extra $10 in my chequing account. Woo hoo! 

Dairy Queen beckons, but no, that would knock my well-balanced supper all askew, boo hoo....