Weekly Snapshot of Expenses Brought to You by Spending Diary

My thanks go out again to my good friend Maureen who found this site - http://www.spendingdiary.com/. This chart shows my expenses for the first week of January. This is one example of the style of chart you can create in the "custom report" section of the website. Or, if you prefer more colourful representations check out the barchart:

You can also get a pie chart if you prefer. I like the colourful charts as it gives me a sense of where I'm spending the most and the least of my money - this week it happens to be savings which puts a smile on my face. And I'm glad to see I am getting my "entertainment" expenses back under control. The misc. category consists of my new prescription sunglasses.

Of course this is only a one week snapshot. Can't wait to see it at the end of the month! and the end of the year!

Weekly Wrap

http://moblog.net/view/183827/funky-wrapping-paper

Newsbeat:

You remember that $0 in my wallet?? Well, I looked in my wallet today and there was a $20 bill! Magic!! I'll let you in on my secret to "making something out of nothing" if YOU send ME just 3 monthly payments of $9.95 lol! Seriously though, Michael gave me $20 gas money - it just seemed miraculous to end the week with more than I started with:)

Nothing earth shattering on the financial side of things. I work, I get paid, I pay bills, I save..blah blah blah. Still waiting to see how LITTLE my paycheque is on the 15th. Right now I'm living on my pay from Dec. 31st. The good news is I have more than half of my grocery money left and almost all of my gas money (plus $20)so I consider myself blessed and highly favoured!

That's not to say I went totally without treats this week, oh no!
I spent my iTunes gift card (plus a bit more)this week on 4 Beatles albums and I just want to put it into print that this is the LAST format I am purchasing their music on: first it was 8-tracks (I'm dating myself:), then Lps and 45's, then cassettes, then CD's, now downloading to my iPod. Please God, don't let my iPod become obsolete anytime soon!

My heating bill came in at $91 for the month - $1 more than I budgeted for but my condo fee came in at $204 which was $1 less than budgeted for - marvellous how things work out sometimes isn't it? I put $650 into savings, paid for my glasses ($152 set aside) and that was my week.

Heartbeat:
My daughter left yesterday morning for her annual trip to Montreal with the Greek club from university. However, today she texted me around noon to tell me she was coming home early on the train (not supposed to come home til Sunday). I immediately texted her back asking if she was ok, does she want me to call her. No, she said, she's not ok but she's boarding the train & excited about doing it on her own, she's having boyfriend and female friend issues and can I get her at the train station at 7:20pm.

The long and the short of it is she feels stifled by her greek boyfriend and the greek girls in the club exclude her from all of their activities - one of them even called her "white trash"(THAT GIRL DOESN'T WANT TO CROSS MY PATH EVER!!) Kazi isn't greek, she isn't rich and pampered like them (she works and pays her way through university with some help from me while their rich daddies buy them condos to live in, cars to drive, pays their tuition and gives them large allowances) so they look down on her. So she has decided to break up with George (who is also from a rich family and only wants to hang out with his greek friends and doesn't want Kazi to do anything but hang out with him - he doesn't like her to see her other non-greek friends). A day of drama and decisions.

I am proud of the independent young woman she is becoming - working 20-30 hours a week as well as studying full-time at UWO - and I just want her to be true to herself. She's only 20 - she needs to live life to the fullest, have adventures, travel, meet new people and have FUN!

Will update sidebars tomorrow - time to go to bed!
P.S. The painting in the header was painted by my talented older sister Dale! I'm getting sick of winter colours (if you can call white and grey colours) so decided to provide a jolt of vibrant colour. C'mon spring!!

Cheap Night In

I am feeling pretty good about this week - I've had $0 in my wallet all week and STILL have $0 in my wallet lol! Other than bills out of my account I've spent nothing - I'll do my weekly wrap later today.

Last night I pedalled along Hwy. 401 another 20km. Witch is right that having a visual (map of Canada) to chart your progress is highly motivating. (See side bar for kms biked each day.) So far this week I've travelled 66km which took me through Ingersoll, through Woodstock and well on my way to Cambridge.

After dinner we watched a movie called "Amnesia" that we borrowed from the library. It was British and very good but then it ended in the middle of things and we realized it was a series. Of course now we're hooked! The second episode is on the DVD and I can only hope that the library has all episodes of this series. I was in bed, lights out, shortly after 10pm. Trying to get more sleep these days as part of looking after ME!

Today as I drove to school I heard the radio announcer talking about the Canada/Russia hockey game in which Canada blew a 3-0 lead and lost 5-3 to the Russians. He happened to say that most people have lost sight of the fact that while we didn't win gold we did win silver! And I realized that I was one of those people.  All I was thinking was that we LOST. Yes, well we lost gold, but we WON SILVER so woot woot to those wonderful young men who did their best and brought home silver medals. There is certainly no shame in that.

Why is it that we only value the top prize to the exclusion of all the other prizes?? Canada didn't lose gold, they won silver.  I'm going to keep saying that to myself all day.

See you later for my Weekly Wrap:)

Too Busy Watching Hockey History Being Made :) Hey, I'm Canadian - it's in our Blood!

Canada winning Gold in 2008

Gotta support our boys!! Right now they're winning 2-0 after one period:):):) Since the first period is over I have a few minutes to type.

Today was an exciting day - for the first time ever I own prescription sunglasses:) No more cheap clip-ons that don't fit your regular glasses even in your wildest imagination, no more squinting while driving on a sunny day so I'm happy happy happy! Cost? $152.00 with all the anti-glare and anti-scratch coatings galore. My benefits used to cover $200 every 24 months which with my progressive invisible bi-focals was a mere drop in the bucket but recently they upped that to $400 every 24 months. I had my eye exam in December (I passed) and my eyes hadn't changed. So I kept my regular glasses and put the $400 towards the sunglasses. 

Oh yes, AND my insurance company now covers the cost of the exam too so I saved the $94.00 I had put aside back in December's budget which helped me cover my shopping spree:)

Did anybody see Deepak Chopra on Dr. Oz today?? What do you think about him? Personally, I thought what he had to say was inspiring and relevant. I think I'm a fan.

Biking from London, ON to Alberton, PE (1902 kms)

Meet my bike. Well, my brand of bike but not MY bike, though I kind of wish it was because I am coveting the hardware on those cupboards! I wonder whose house it is?  Maybe I can wangle an invite...

Woops, back to the point. I've been reading a lot about setting goals lately, go figure, and I've decided to create some sort of goal for my recumbant exercise bike riding to give it some relevance by having a destination. So...I've decided I am going to ride my bike all the way to my new home near Alberton, Prince Edward Island!!  All 1902 kilometres although minus the slush, the snow and the traffic as I'll be staying cozy, safe and somewhat sweaty - in my bedroom at home.

I've calculated on my well-worn calculator that if I bike 15kms for 5 days a week I will reach my destination in PE by the end of June, just in time to actually DRIVE there for my summer vacation:)!!:) I've already biked 30kms in the past two days so already I'm down to 1872 kms. In the spring I prefer to get outside on my road bike so will figure out some way to measure the distances that I ride.

This is so exciting - I feel much more motivated now that I have somewhere to go! Even if it is just in my imagination....for now! I'll be sure to take some pictures along the way! But meanwhile you can check on my progress in the sidebar, just above my personal finance goals and weight loss goal:p

Back to Reality

http://www.churstongrammar.com/

Oh quit your whining!

Life is good. I've put in a full day's work, which wasn't too painful except for the getting up at 5:45am part, went grocery shopping to the tune of $108, rode my exercise bike for over an hour while watching Dr. Oz, wrote in my journal, balanced my books, and am now luxuriating in an episode of Princess which is followed by back to back episodes of Til Debt Do us Part (oh Gail, how do I love thee, let me count the ways...) inbetween watching our Canadian Jr. Hockey team beat the shin pads off the U.S. team!! OMG - make that 3-0 woo hoo!!  Going for GOLD!!!

Tell me, how could a Monday night be any better than this?

My only concern now that we are in the New Year is how much more I will be paying in payroll deductions as everything is going up, up, up this year. Which means my net pay will be going down, down, down. Well, we gotta pay for all of those bailouts somehow - spreading the pain. All those billions of dollars in make-work infrastructure projects the past two years to heat up the economy- it all has to be paid back sometime and I guess "sometime" just became NOW! I'll just grin and bear it I guess. Two things you can do nothing about - death and taxes.

Had a phonecall from Brent today - he's my student who was put into a group home in Petrolia a week before Christmas break because his dad had a breakdown. He's nervous because he has to start at a new highschool in Sarnia and has a meeting there tomorrow. He needed some reassurance. On the bright side he really likes the group home - says the girls are all over him! And he has a girlfriend (maybe more than one by the sounds of it lol)!

Also heard from the previous owner of my house in PEI. He keeps his eye on it for me and reported the loss of only one shingle after the past four storms - it's high and dry thankfully.

How is your week going so far??

First Post for 2011: THE MEANING OF LIFE!!

Random picture of icicles taken on a walk last week.

This seems to be the year of the icicles.  I really don't understand physics very well as I wonder how the weight of those icicles haven't caused them to fall crashing to the ground!  Don't you love the almost perfect circle made by the sagging icicles?

But I digress...on to the MEANING OF LIFE!! If you know what the MEANING OF LIFE is, please post answer in the comments section.

Just kidding...

I read a lot of blogs every day (see sidebar and this isn't even all of them) and there has been a similar thread over the past week - everyone is feeling very OPTIMISTIC about the coming year - 2011. It seems to be a somewhat magical number as Jolie pointed out today in her post.

I read a lot of daily motivational books and I think I have found the answer to the general feeling of OPTIMISM. Consider the following for January 2nd from Robin Sharma's book called "Daily Inspiration" - from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari:

"Purpose is the most valuable motivator in the world. The secret of passion is truly purpose."

Each of us is feeling such a sense of purpose for the coming year are we not? Whether it be paying off a debt such as a credit card like Niki or moving to a new home like Lisa every one of us is passionately driven to fulfill our goals in 2011. AND we are so excited about doing so.

Could this be the meaning of life? To have a sense of purpose and go about being purposeful in a passionate way?

Tell me, what do YOU feel passionate about?

P.S. Sharing the link love: please let me know if you have a blog and I haven't linked to it yet either by using the FOLLOW button or by adding you to my list of blogs I read daily. And please do the same for me - if you find yourself in my blog list please add me to yours or hit the FOLLOW button. Thank you for reading and giving such thoughtful comments to my posts. I try to post daily and I have learned soooo much from this exchange of ideas and experiences. I absolutely love to read AND write and having this blog fulfills something very powerfully in me - it's come to be a habit that I look forward to EVERY day! Love you guys!!