Home Equity Line of Credit - GOOD OR BAD?

Recently I read the good news in the National Post that Canadians were averaging less money owed on their credit cards.  Hurrah I thought - people are finally getting it, they're paying off their credit cards and charging less, reducing debts - yay!  Credit crisis averted!

Then I read the bad news...people weren't really paying off their credit cards, no, instead they were transferring their credit card balances to their Home Equity Line of Credit!! Now, if they'd just stopped there things might not have been so bad because the interest rate on HELOCs is usually much lower than the interest payable on credit cards. BUT, and there's always a BUT isn't there, once people had cleared the balances off their credit cards they just went right back to using them again.  So in reality people's homes, the equity in their homes, was paying for dinners out, tanks of gas, several new outfits and the million other sundry items people regularly put on their credit cards.

I've had a HELOC for the past seven years. It worked really well for me and the interest rate varied from a low of 2.25 % to 3.5%.  I used my HELOC to buy my trailer.  I also used it to buy a car three years ago. The best rate I could get on a car loan was 7.99%.  I NEVER EVER transferred any credit card balances to it or used it for anything foolish. In April I paid off my HELOC and I went to the bank yesterday to close it as well as my chequing account. I now bank only with ING.  What I didn't realize though was that I would have to pay lawyer's fees to have the HELOC discharged. So now I need to somehow squeeze $272.00 out of May's budget which has already been squeezed dry. Perhaps I could put that fee on a credit card hahahahaha!

March Break + Summer Weather =

no posting by this happy vacationer!  My list of "things to do inside" over March break turned into a list of "things to do OUTSIDE" instead due to sunshine and temperatures in the low 20's celsius (70+F)! We spent another day at the trailer on Wed. and on the way there explored a thrift store in Ailsa Craig & bought 4 bags of firewood. Does that sound like we bought the wood at the thrift store?? Oops...see, I can't remember how to write!!  We spent some time walking on the beach - BARE FEET!! - but Lake Huron water is still FRIGID!!

 The crocuses are in bloom!

 On our walk down to the beach.

I really need a pedicure!

Looks inviting but almost as cold as ice still!

 Just listening to the waves.

Oops, shoulda turned this one - sneaky little beggar was out to pinch me!

I like to play with fire: )

On Tuesday we spent the afternoon exploring the new Goodwill store in downtown London and scored some great deals - Michael spent WAY MORE than me but now has all new clothes for summer. I found 3 new long skirts, 3 long dresses and a long nightie plus two pairs of pj pants. LONG is part of my new strategy for fighting back against mosquitoes and flies this summer!! Clever huh? So glad the MAXI length is back in style! Next I need to look for a few light coloured long sleeve shirts to wear when I'm outside digging in the dirt.

My favourite purchase - a large canvas Gap bag - it's huge! Packed all my stuff for a day at the trailer in it!

March Break + Summer Weather = sore thighs and butt!! I got my real bike out from under its plastic wrapping, walked it over to the nearest gas station to pump up the tires a bit and then went  for long bike rides on Friday and Saturday - hence the sore thighs and butt! Which just goes to show me that my stationary bike is not as good of a workout as the real deal.

Me and my bike in Victoria Park.

We also cleaned up our patio area, set up the table and lawn chairs and fired up the BBQ. Thursday evening we had our first meal out in the back yard. BBQ'd pork chops - YUM!!

Bon appetit!


I did accomplish one inside job, yes, just one, and it wasn't even one that was on my list!! Bad Jane! However, since it will result in saving me $240 a year I count that as a major success. A while back I had opened a Thrive chequing account with ING that has NO fees. So I finally got busy this week changing my banking info with all of the companies that automatically debit my account: London Hydro, Union Gas, the city of London for my property taxes, insurance company, Rogers, condo corp for my condo fees, etc etc. It feels really good to get that done finally. Once those all start to be debited from ING I can close the other account and.....NO MORE FEES!!


On another financial note I received my tax refund yesterday :p  I made an extra payment of $500 on my line of credit, put $300 into one of my savings accounts and left the rest in my chequing account til the end of this month. If I have money left over at the end of the month I'll tuck it into my Sealed Pot!


So that about sums up my week - last night we celebrated St. Patrick's day with a few friends. We managed to stay away from the huge crowds of university and college students who took over the downtown area - the police closed the main street to cars as thousands of kids were running amok. My poor bar tender of a daughter put in a 15 hour shift at Jacks starting at 1:30 in the afternoon. Jacks is right smack dab in the middle of the bar area of Richmond Row. I don't imagine I'll see her emerge from her room til mid afternoon!

And no spring summer break would be complete without a visit to Merla Mae's icecream store: raspberry frozen yogurt for me and that's Michael's maple walnut icecream cone slightly out of focus there. So that's me caught up - now I need to catch up with you!

Sarah McLachlan in Concert!! Well worth the Wait!!

Great concert last night. Here's a video clip that I uploaded to Youtube then embedded here on  blogger because blogger wouldn't just let me upload it straight from my file, so I had to get wily, like wily coyote:)  The song is called "World on Fire" and is one of Michael's favourites.  I don't think his feet are back down on the ground yet - he so loves Sarah:) (He actually had a couple of teary moments but don't tell him I told ya!)  I'm sure the sound quality sucks but just play along with me and tell me what a great videographer I am:)

Blogger seems to be pissing off a LOT of people I know lately...what gives? I haven't been able to change my header picture for awhile because blogger kept saying I had used up all my photo storage...huh?  However, for a mere $5 a year I could purchase another 20G of storage, so like the impatient silly wench that I am, I went for it. Tada!  New header photo! This is a picture of the sunrise we watched as we wearily traversed around the track to raise money for cancer research.  This would have been around 6am after 11 hours of walking (and running like some silly people did! who shall remain nameless!)

So I also changed my profile picture after getting my new gigs of photo space. I couldn't just leave my photo as a pair of amazingly spiffy wellies now could I? You'd all forget what I look like! Hmmmm, note to self...this might actually be a good plan...10 years from now I'll still look the same in my readers' memories.....hmmmmm.....must rethink strategy...

Money news: nothing too earth-shattering going on in Jane's World of High Finance. I sent forms away to have my payroll deposit switched to my new FEE FREE ING Thrive chequing account as they are paying me $100 to do so.  I can't sneeze at 100 free bucks! Then I will gradually switch all of my automatic payments over and then I can close my TD account and be SERVICE CHARGE FREE too! That'll save me another $192 per year.  I'm a little peeved right now as I reconciled my account today because I seem to be short $60 and I CAN'T find it!! Me...a former head teller who used to be able to balance hundreds of thousands of dollars on a daily basis with her eyes closed and using her left hand on the adding machine!!  I hate it when I can't figure out my discrepancies. I'm sure it'll all work out in the end, it usually does, but until then PRAY for me....I need divine guidance.

Stupid money...

Yowzers! June is Half Gone! (kinda like me!)

The end is near, it is in sight, there is a light at the end of the school hallway! Oh, that's the fire alarm flashing....(those graduating students get up to the craziest antics, I tell you!)...and it is beckoning me, closer and closer to FREEDOM, one long day at a time. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful to have a stable job in these days of high unemployment, but the last couple of months I have been more stressed out than a one-armed wallpaper hanger with a bad rash! 

Really though, the days are flying by, almost too quickly! It's getting difficult to enjoy each day as so much time is spent thinking about and making preparations for PEI travel day only 2 1/2 weeks away! Not to mention report cards, classroom cleanup, prep for next year...

How are the finances doing? So glad you asked!  Let's have a look see at the first two weeks of June, shall we?  Today is payday, and I've made lots of payments...easy come, easy go! Now you see it, now you don't!

Already I realize I forgot to post a bill to my spendingdiary.com.  We just got the car checked over from stem to stern and shelled out $167 and change for an oil change and a link assembly kit (?)...darn potholes!! I was quietly relieved....             

....because I thought for sure we'd need brake work and perhaps some new tires. But we've been given the green light to drive Cora Cobalt out east adding at least another 5,000km to her odometer. 

What else...oh I paid an extra $100 on my line of credit bringing it to an even $41,000. When I get the rest of the $$ owed on the trailer I'll knock off a few more grand. For now that's $15,000 paid off since last September!! I'm hoping to reach $20,000 paid off by September. Interest rates will soon be going up so it's becoming increasingly important to get debt PAID DOWN!!

Food is on track for the month though I'll be buying a No Frills grocery card for Kazi so she can buy what she needs while we're away (and hopefully remember to feed the cat too!)  Housing is much higher than usual as I paid over $500 on my PEI property taxes (with another payment due the end of August and November (though not for that much).  

Misc is higher than usual as I splurged at a thrift store for some summer duds to take east - I now have EVERYTHING I need clothing-wise except for a hat to keep my nose from looking like a boiled lobster!  Oops, too late....

Savings are up-to-date and I've transferred what remained in my trailer fee account to the PEI property tax account as I won't have to pay that HUGE fee anymore!!  I am going to rename the Trailer Fee account the Maintenance account and start saving the recommended 3% annually for PEI house repairs. I was just about to say I have "everything covered" but that would just be tempting Murphy and Lord knows I don't want to do THAT!!

I'm happy to report that since NAGGING my family about electricity useage our bill dropped by almost $20 from last month; HOWEVER, our minimal but necessary use of central air isn't reflected on THIS bill, that will show up on July's bill, with no doubt lots more added to it! 

We've also tried to be more "thoughtful" when using Cora for driving to work and to do errands by combining several trips into one to reduce the cost of gas and we're doing really well on that, so thanks Michael and Kazi!! I think we're doing awesomely well sharing one car between three adults with their 5, yes FIVE, jobs!! Oh, and Cora thanks you too!

Well, that about wraps it up for today. Oh yeah, I printed off the forms I need to have my payroll deposit switched to ING where I opened up a fee-free chequing account. They are going to give me $100 for the switch.  Then I'll have to gradually switch all of my automatic bill payments over, some other day though, not today...I've done enough for one day...so ....see ya...

Weekly Wrap - Last Week of NO Spend February!!

Here we are heading into the last week of NO Spend February - that's one way to make quite possibly THE WORST month of the year speed by! I hope this last week also zips by superfast as the
money is running OUT!!
I have a grand total of $135.00 left to cover groceries, gas and misc. and I really hope I can make it to Feb. 28 without spending more than that (or...magically...any of that..) 
Only six more days, groceries have been purchased and I have
nothing left but a few fixed expenses.
I'd like to sound more confident but I'm afraid of invoking the power
of Murphy's Law!! I've seen the power of the dreaded Murphy
affect some of my fellow No Spenders so am trying to lay really really low...shhhh..

My thanks go out to Sharon who led us on this fearless quest. And
thanks also to my fellow bloggers/readers who were either involved
in the No Spend month or who cheered us on from the sidelines.
February is my lowest income month of the year
so it was the perfect time for this goal
and already I've been able to pay a bit extra on my line of credit....so YIPPEE! AND I was able to leave the extra $150 in my savings
that I mistakenly deposited at the beginning of the month.
Those are huge accomplishments for this, my "poorest" month:)
I would have been satisfied to "break even" so I am THRILLED with
the results!! Consider also that I spent $$ on Valentine's Day for both Kazi and Michael, never used the restaurant gift card or probably the BIGGEST accomplishment of all - I didn't spend ONE PENNY at Starbucks - woot woot!!

(Hmmmmmm I am seeing some possible future savings for EVERY month...)



Since I created these charts on http://www.spendingdiary.com/ a couple of days ago another $52.00 was spent on food but I'm too lazy to make the change
right now
so you'll just have to trust me on that one..heh heh heh:)
I also opened up another two, yes two, new savings accounts
with ING and put a whopping $10 in each of them.
I've decided to bite the bullet NOW and start saving for
my trailer rental fee (for 2012) and for the home insurance and
property tax for my property in PEI. This year's trailer
rental fee will come from my expected tax refund.

I think that I now have ALL of my weekly/monthly/annual expenses
covered, at least I sure hope so....is there a limit to how many
savings accounts one can have with ING???

On another entirely unrelated topic I'd like to thank some newer readers for stopping by and taking the time to read what I have to say.
It really means a lot to me when someone not only reads my posts but leaves a comment. Some folks, however, don't have a google
profile/blog so I can't thank them more personally so I
hope you are reading THIS post so you know that I'm grateful for
your readership.
So, thank you to Mena, anonymous, psych sarah, mary, christy, julie and bev and anyone else who has taken the time to pause for a moment and read.
Thank you - you brighten my day!