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!!

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.

Goals for 2011

http://www.executivesbranding.com/1745/setting-career-branding-goals-for-2011/
Anyone interested in setting career goals should follow this link!

So I want to set some SMART goals for 2011. I'll try to be serious for a while as I figure out what my goals will be.  My first assumption is that for a goal to be a goal it has to take you somewhere other than where you are right now AND that is should be an improvement on current circumstances. Goals should be attainable (so no pie in the sky), measurable (oh no, more math), and have an ending point...ie. one day, one month, one year, when hell freezes over... (Oops, my serious hat fell off, just let me get it back on...be back in a sec...

There. Ok, here goes...

Financial Goals:

I'll start with the goals that are easy to measure (with a calculator in hand).

• Save another $5000 for my TFSA (at $650 savings/month this should by attained by August, 2010)
• Save $2400 for RRSP contribution (at $200/month beginning March 1st this goal will be reached in time for next year's taxes (Feb.29/12)
• Save $2250 to add to my Emergency fund bringing it to a total of $3000 by year's end
• save $1500 for Christmas by Dec. 2011
• Pay a total of $17,400 towards debt by Dec. 31/2011 (this includes $1200/month on Line of Credit and $250/month on PEI mortgage
• maintain $100/month to World Food Program (now on automatic withdrawal so I won't miss a month due to forgetfullness!), and make six NEW Kiva loans this year ($150) in addition to reloaning the $$ that is repaid to me from previous loans
• TRY to spend a maximum of $225 twice a month on groceries
• TRY to spend a maximum of $100 twice a month on gas (this will work out til the end of June and then will have to adjust due to doing a ton more driving in the summer - like to PEI!!! My Crofters Lane jar will help to cover summer driving.
• Through a variety of methods (snowflakes, budget leftovers etc) increase amount in Crofters Lane jar from $360 to a minimum of $650 by June 30

Personal Goals:

• ride stationary bike 3-4 times per week and record mileage in sidebar
• lose 10lbs by 2nd anniversary (April 18)
• list books I read in my sidebar & read one non-fiction book for every five non-fiction books I read (increase learning)
• plant 50 trees at Crofters Lane this summer
• declutter the basement by June
• organize my cajillions of digital photos by the end of January
• make at least one person laugh each and every day
• use http://www.spendingdiary.com/ daily to track my spending
• get out into nature a minimum of once per week

Nothing too earth-shattering, I am keeping "attainability" in mind so that hopefully I won't give up. Also some goals are achievable sooner than the end of the year which is tooooooooo loooonnng of a time to stay motivated for EVERYTHING.

* I also reserve the right to make adjustments throughout the year depending on circumstances - both positive and negative...for ex. I fall and break my leg thereby not being able to ride my bike...or...someone dies and leaves me a cajillion dollars...or...I get fired...well...you get the picture:)

I Didn't Want to Do It!! (But now glad I did!)

Christmas is Over!

No, you can't make me...noooooooooooooooooooo!

You know when you are watching a scary movie and you know something intense is about to happen and you squeeze your eyes almost shut or hold a pillow up to your face and just sneak a peek every once in a while??

Well, that's how I  feel about looking at my December 2010 monthly spends - I just want to take a quick sneak peek, or maybe just keep my eyes tightly shut and pretend it never happened.

But I know I must face the music, the sooner the better, like removing a bandaid with one quick painful RRRRRRIIIIIIIIIPPPPP!!!

So, I opened up http://www.spendingdiary.com/ (thanks Maureen for this site!) and entered my last few spends.

The results are in so may I have the envelope please.....cue drum roll.......

• overspending on groceries wasn't too too bad - spent $517.04 and budgeted $450 so over by $67.04
• entertainment - a whopping $526.01 - this included $73 for tickets to the ROM, restaurant meals, movies, popcorn, coffees, parking in Toronto, books from Chapters, LCBO, a couple of lunches - didn't really budget for any of this!
• gifts - $697.92 which includes the clothing purchased in Toronto - had $800 saved so did ok there so the extra $100 helped out with my high entertainment costs
• On the plus side I reduced debt by $1171.00 and saved a total of $1050 (includes TFSA, RSP & Emergency Svgs)

So I will start planning NOW for next Christmas so I am in control of my spending (I had to take some $$ out of savings as I didn't set nearly enough aside) so will start saving $100/month in Jan. I don't pay property tax in Nov. and Dec. so always add that into my Christmas account so I will have a total of $1500 for next year's Christmas. I am also going to cut down in some areas and use any leftover to pay down debt.

You know - it could have been a lot worse. In the past I have thrown caution to the wind and spent much much more - I was more restrained in gift buying this year and spent with more awareness but there is definitely room for improvement...isn't there always??

Weekly Wrap

http://www.barnespaper.com/

News Beat:   Did I have any no spend days this week?? Hmmmmm...yes, I think I had a couple, this week has been a blur so my memory is a little hazy...that's not a good thing...bad things can happen in a haze...like...overspending...yikes!!

The good news: our breakfast went off without a hitch! but almost with a stitch! or two! Sigh...I was doing EVERYTHING in a hurry today as I wanted to get to school even earlier than my usual 6:45am so here's one thing NOT to do when you are in a hurry: trim the hair around your ears with a sharp pair of scissors:( Do you folks know how much ears bleed when you give them a little snip??  Oh my.  So picture this - me with a huge hunk of gauze embracing my ear with my glasses sitting on the outside of it so that no blood drips while I  crack 60 eggs. Not an easy feat but I did it. Luckily I was all alone so no one had to witness my weirdness. After what seemed an imterminable length of time it finally congealed enough to remove the gauze. When my EAs started to arrive I let them take over cooking the eggs.

By 8:10 everyone had arrived, we said grace and sat down to scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages, hashbrown casserole, croissants and orange juice. We had a few leftovers that we managed to get rid of at lunchtime and what with tins of cookies and homemade peanut brittle that students brought in we were stuffed to the gills!

The bad news: I'm stuffed to the gills...no that's not it...I'm pretty sure I won't make it to the end of the month before the end of my money. So...do I make a transfer now from my savings or wait til the end of the month, calculate the damages and then make a transfer. If I transfer $$ now will that just encourage me to spend more resulting in possibly yet another transfer of $$?? Hmmm...I think I'll wait and be very CONSCIOUS of my spending...I'm not going to throw caution to the wind. Boy, December is very challenging isn't it? I felt the old pull of bad thoughts a few times this week: have I bought enough, should I spend more, oh oh sounds like Michael spent more than me, should I buy him another gift? what about Kazi...will she be satisfied with just 3 or 4 gifts this year instead of 10 or 12? I think it will take a few more Christmases before I get used to this downsizing. I'm willing to do the work.

Heartbeat:  Tomorrow morning Kazi and I leave for our trip to Toronto. Yesterday she drove for only the second time.  She needed to pick up her contact lenses so I went with her. She had to turn left at a major intersection and got really stressed out - after she made the turn we pulled into the optometrist's parking lot and she had a few tears. This is not going to be easy.

This photo of an ice-covered lighthouse was taken by the Associated Press and is making the rounds on the internet. It was taken December the 10th at the mouth of the Cleveland (Ohio) harbour.

It reminds me of the Kremlin.

Isn't it eerily beautiful?

Johnny Depp & the End of November

What do Johnny Depp and and the month of November have in common?

To find out the answer to this deeply mystifying question, if indeed you care at all, you will have to wait until the end of this post to find out!

Month End Report:  (I am feeling slightly intimidated by this heading!)

My first pay for December will be in my account as of midnight tonight so financially November is ovah! Yay! November will be remembered as the month of the accident - the month my baby girl realized that yes, driving can be dangerous, that other drivers don't always drive the way you think they should. A rude awakening indeed. She's doing well - she's in good spirits, busy with exams, essays and work and looking forward to about a 3 week break from school. Our trip to Toronto is all booked and this Saturday we are going on a Christmas Tree Adventure (a surprise organized by Michael)- for the first time we are going to chop down our own tree! Usually we put up a fake tree as we generally travel to see relatives but this year we are staying home so we will celebrate with a real tree just this once.

Oh yeah...the financials, got a little sidetracked there: I ended up making a profit on the replacement car and applied it to my line of credit which made me smile. I was overbudget by $16 on groceries but under budget on gasoline, hydro, natural gas and cell phone. I met my savings targets and exceeded my debt repayment target so all in all there is light at the end of Dark November.

For December: I reduced my savings goals for December thereby increasing my misc. spending from $288 to $750 - hopefully that will be enough to see me through a busy month of entertaining and being entertained. I am really hopeful that I won't spend all $750 but better to be prepared as I am rapidly finding out! 

OK - if you hung out with til now in hopes of finding out what Johnny Depp and November have in common here it is - the answer - the culmination of an amazing post - here goes - wait for it - NOTHING!! Absolutely nothing, except that Johnny certainly brightens up an otherwise dark and gloomy month...much better than looking at say... this calendar instead..

Boring, right??
Yes, thank you - I knew you'd agree:) And therefore I have a reward for you:
On December 10th "The Tourist" starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie opens "in theatres everywhere" and here is a trailer just for you:

P.S. A couple of months ago I tried to downloand a free songlist courtesy of the National Post. It didn't seem to work at the time but when I was re-syncing my iPod a few minutes ago there it was - 13 free songs! So now I'm listening to my NEW FREE music and enjoying it immensely!

What is your latest freebie??

Making Your Own Firepit

As I sit here by the fake fireplace at Starbucks my thoughts turn to Crofters Lane and the firepit Michael built there in August.  The house wasn't "officially" ours yet but the owners allowed us to "camp out" in the house until we signed papers at the lawyers in a few days. Michael had some very definite ideas about what he wanted to accomplish during the week we spent at our new home - first was the firepit, then he wanted to transplant some spruce seedlings from our forest to build a wind break to the north of the house.

It was an interesting week - we had a small bar fridge and ate a LOT of sandwiches. We had an old table in the diningroom and a couple of mismatched chairs. Upstairs we had a king-sized air mattress, some towels and toiletries. Although the owner loaned us a TV we had brought our own source of entertainment - a six-inch black and white TV with AM/FM radio. We found K-Rock 105.5 and turned it up high. This was one place where we'd be able to play our music as loud as we wanted to!

And then, Michael got busy!

 We used rocks from our driveway which had recently been levelled. There were literally hundreds of rocks in the culverts on each side of our .4km driveway to choose from and Michael spent a good while hauling them up in a wheelbarrow.  He picked the perfect spot for the pit and started digging.

 We didn't have a lot of tools but we had enough. Michael worked up a good sweat digging the firepit hole in the distinctive red PEI soil. Me - I was cleaning all of the woodwork inside...hence the yellow rubber gloves:)

 A spot was carefully dug for each rock and each rock chosen for its particular shape and size. Nothing left to chance.  Gradually the firepit began to take shape.

 Michael really gets "into" his work:) However, I would suggest that next time he pick a different coloured T-shirt...perhaps reddish brown??

Certain flat stones were chosen to be "set in" for seating or as small tables for holding candles and/or drinks:)

Looking good Michael but I think it's starting to get dark! The sun is starting to dip down behind the forest.

 Let's put out some candles - it gets REALLY dark around here at night - it's nothing like the city!!

Michael brought up a lot of extra rocks - he's thinking about expanding the "lip" of the firepit, or he might save them for another DIY project.

                                                                             It works!!

                                                                  All cleaned up.

And this is how you cook when you don't have a stove or a BBQ! A couple of good sturdy sticks long enough to reach across the top of the firepit and a small metal rack to hold our food.

There's a well-seasoned chicken inside that foil - we felt a bit like pioneers:)

Except I don't suppose they had tinfoil.

It was scrumptious!

Working hard.

Isn't it beautiful??

Functional AND mesmermizing!

We burned up a lot of stuff - two musty old dressers that were left behind, we broke them into pieces and fed them into the fire.

There's enough fallen limbs in the forest to keep the fire going for a long time.

If you're driving down Butcher Road next summer and you see a glow from a campfire, drive on up our laneway and sit a spell by the fire.

You'll always be made welcome:)



Weekly Wrap & ME

Hi everybody!

Heart Beat:

I'm a day late with my Weekly Wrap because I was over at a girlfriend's house last night having some much-needed "girl time".  I don't know about you but my deepest belly laughs and my deepest thoughts are those shared with my beloved girlfriends. Over glasses of wine, cups of tea, and homemade pizzas we hugged and giggled and laughed uproariously while creating works of art for an upcoming environmental artshow concerning oceans. My friend Jules (Julie) is a local artist that I've known for almost 30 years since we were both poor art students together at university. She is a devoted tree-hugger and always getting involved in artistic endeavors that have a "green" theme. So together with another very special friend, Troy, we chased beautiful watercolour washes around watercolour paper with straws, sprinkled on some salt in strategic locations and printed linocuts of fish and prehistoric-looking sea creatures onto the painted backdrop.

Mine isn't finished yet as I began to see interesting sea creatures in my paint drips so once totally dry I am going to outline the shapes in a permanent black felt tip marker. I'll share it here when it's totally finished.

COST: $12 for a bottle of wine. VALUE: priceless!

The other gift I gave to myself this week was ordering a new cell phone! Through my school board I can get a new cell phone every 3 years (FREE) on a corporate plan. I get a ton of minutes and unlimited texting for under $30 a month - a very good deal:) So I am happy happy happy!

News Beat:
The financial news is good too!  Over the first two weeks of November I managed to squeeze another $200 out of my food, gas and misc. envelopes. I put $50 into emergency savings, $100 into Christmas savings and made an extra $50 payment into my RSP account.  My Union Gas bill came in $25 under budget (probably the last month that will happen now til the spring) and I got reimbursed finally for school supplies that I bought back in August so my credit card is PAID IN FULL!!  

I spent more $$ this week than last week, but still very much within reason. Yesterday was a PD day and we were given 2 hours for lunch and travel time. I ate lunch with a couple of the educational assistants who work closely with me in my classroom so it was a real treat to a) eat in a restaurant and b) share time with the people who are such an integral part of my program. It was time and money well spent.

So between beer after volleyball on Wed. night, lunch out yesterday and a bottle of wine for last night's "girl time" I spent a total of $35.00. I can live with that:)

My goals for the rest of November:

• save at least another $50 from my misc. spending budget ($136 currently left in it)
• not spend more this week than the $18 left in my wallet
• save another $50 from food/gas budget (that may be difficult with the price of gas these days but I will try my best)
• start my Christmas shopping by buying gifts for Kazi's stocking

What are your goals this week?

Weekly Wrap

Heart Beat:

Dear Daughter continues to improve. She had a friend over today and they worked on school assignments all day. Now she is relaxing with yet another Harry Potter book.  The pain is more manageable and she is sleeping better: she said to me yesterday that all she can do is keep telling the truth to whoever asks about the accident. While waiting is hard it's not nearly as hard when we're doing it together.

Financial Beat:

It's a wrap! The end of another loooonnnng week and for me, the end of the month. I get paid on the last day of the month and if it falls on the weekend then I get paid on the Friday prior making today - PAYDAY! Gee, it seems like it just was payday last week but it's been two weeks! Wow, time flies even when you're NOT spending money - what a concept!

I met my goals for this month - I paid down the line of credit by $1000 (plus the interest) and saved almost 30% of my income - $1400 (split between TFSA, Emergency and RSPs).  My Christmas/Birthday account doesn't get a weekly/monthly deposit as it was an afterthought and didn't make it into my original budget so it is the recipient of any extra money I can squeeze out of my misc., food and gas budgets. The past two weeks I didn't use any of my gas budget ($150) as DD and DP (dear partner) fed the car so that $$ went into the Christmas account.  I also slip spare change and whatever else I can wring out of an already squeezed dry budget into the Crofters Lane Jar as well as any snowflakes that come my way.

Today I spent just $88 of my next $250 for food as we are very well stocked and spent only $15 on gas for the rental. I'm not going to put much gas in it at a time as I don't know when I'll be returning it. No more news from the insurance company so the state of limbo continues. I'm a lot calmer about it all today - it's out of my control for now so will just have faith that it will all unfold as it should. I have appreciated the support and advice from you all.

November will be a "mystery month" for now as we wait to hear about the car. It will have some sort of impact on the budget and I will likely have to rework the numbers somewhat. To what extent remains a "mystery"! Just one more challenge to meet with humour and perseverence:)  The good news is that I don't pay property tax in Nov. and Dec. being on a ten month payment plan so that will be another $304 going into the Christmas fund which will almost bring me to my goal so YAY! for Christmas:) Other goal for November - start my 10 lb. weight loss goal - GO ME!

Woops

Right around when this picture was taken (May 2010) I was at my lowest weight for the past few years. I had been following the Calcium Diet and it had been going quite well. And yes, I was going to a highschool reunion in June:)

What I just realized today when I was getting fall/winter pants washed and pressed for the upcoming cold season (yuck) and hence my post title "Woops" is that I gave away all of my "fat pants"!!!

Hmmmmm...didn't think about that when I made the decision to not buy any clothing for a year.  The reason I gave away all of my "fat pants" (you know you all have them so don't judge me lol) was to give me motivation to stay at the lower, more desirable weight. In retrospect I wonder how I could have been so stupid!

Winter is coming, I need to store up some fat to see me through the cold and flu season (see how useful juicy rationalizations are?) but now I have no cushion, no extra stretchy pants with slightly looser waistbands and baggier butts! What was I thinking? I am sitting on the horns of a dilemma.... either that or I am sitting on a large bag of popcorn from the movies last night after a big bowl full of delicious pad thai a la Michael!!  Not to mention a box of Smarties!!

Big sigh...

So now I not only have a budget to stick to but will need to drop a few pounds so I can stay in my current size-restricted winter wardrobe.

Another big sigh....

Perhaps those two goals can work together: eat less food --> save $$ on the food budget. This is going to be tough people - anyone want to drop a few pounds with me and keep me motivated?

Weekly Wrap

Oh how I love to "wrap" up another week. October is almost finished and so far I'm still in the black.  This has been a very low spend week and I don't mind a bit.

To summarize: our food budget is empty but as Michael just showed me there isn't any room in the freezer to store any more food. I replenished our milk supply, bought green onions for tonight's pad thai, and splurged on two 2-liter bottles of pop: Jamaican Ginger Beer for guess who and Fresca for me. We seldom buy pop but since we're having a guest for dinner I thought having a couple of different drinks on hand could classify as being "hospitable" and hey - we all need a few juicy rationalizations to get us through the week:)  There is $1.81 left in the food budget til next Friday. Unless we suddenly go on an eating binge (it has been known to happen) we should be ok. Anyhoo, I could stand to lose 5-10 pounds.

On the bright side (and isn't there always a bright side?) we have used NONE of our gas budget as other family members have kindly gassed up the car so that extra $$ will get funneled into Christmas & birthdays which is currently looking rather dejected:(

We are still coming under budget for hydro (though not for long) - this month by $12 so I added that to my misc. spending which now stands at $90 until next Friday. I'll have to buy some Halloween candy with that and a couple of items at the pharmacy but should still have something leftover by next payday (Fri. Oct. 29). Barring any unforeseen Halloween candy eating binges that is...

P.S. the photo in my header was taken on Cascumpec Rd. just a few miles south of Alberton, PEI.  In the few seconds that I stepped out of the car and onto the bridge to take the picture I fended off at least 8,000 giant-sized mosquitoes:) I WON!

Money Madness

I reluctantly had to part with some cash...well, truth be told it wasn't all necessary spending, in fact, I caved and bought myself a wig.

I had to spend $6.99 to get a prescription renewed, and I just happened to walk down the "seasonal" aisle at the drugstore and noticed they had their Halloween wigs on sale.....

If you've noticed how short I wear my wiry silver hair you will understand Michael's wish to see me in a wig once or twice a year. Last year I borrowed a wig for Halloween from a friend and he thought he'd died and gone to heaven - he got to spend the night with a NEW and MYSTERIOUS woman:)

So I decided to fork over $10 of my misc. spending money and will build my costume around my long black hair...I could be a witch, Pocahontus, Frankenstein's bride etc etc

P.S. Pictures to follow ha ha hee hee ha ha .....

P.P.S. Left in misc spending til Oct. 31st - $80

P.P.P.S. See, I should just stay OUT of stores altogether...

The Year I Didn't Buy Any New Clothing

My "New" Alfred Sung Sweater



On Sept. 22nd I declared this "The Year I Didn't Buy Any New Clothing" and almost a month has gone by without making a purchase. That's not to say the thought never crossed my mind - it did and still does almost everyday.

It's been an interesting process so far. I saw some really nice winter coats at Costco - great for hiking in the snow, making snow angels, skating outside at Victoria Park and so on. Then I said to myself - "self, you can continue to wear your daughter's lovely castoff she gave you last winter when she bought herself a new coat - you don't NEED a new coat, you just WANT a new coat."

Whew! Made it over that hurdle.

As the weather started to get colder I thought about new gloves and new boots. Then I thought I could stitch up the hole in last year's gloves and start polishing up my collection of boots. Yes, there is the odd scuff here and there but they can certainly get me through another Canadian winter. Suck it up Jane...and I did.

Now Halloween is looming and we've been invited to a party.  Ideas of costumes started running through my head and I envisioned myself out shopping at the local Talize but then I wised up and decided I would rummage through the house and be "creative" instead.

Betcha thought I'd forgot about that picture up there of me (squinting into the sun) with my NEW black Alfred Sung silk/cotton sweater on that absolutely fits me to a TTTTT! I love it and it's just what my wardrobe needed. And it didn't cost me a penny.  I found it.  In my condo complex parking lot. I had walked by it once or twice and just thought it was a rag. Then I picked it up to see what it was (luckily it wasn't a dead skunk!) and saw it was a sweater. So thinking that it was perhaps my daughter's and she had dropped it getting out of a car I brought it inside and washed it.

Well, turns out it wasn't hers so I was faced with the dilemma of going door to door to ask everyone in my neighbourhood if they'd lost a sweater or I could just keep it as a reward for my discard rescue efforts.

I tried it on and of course decided to....keep it! Yay me!

Weekly Wrap & Crofters Lane

Crofters Lane

Today MCM of TO asked me what is Crofters Lane? So glad you asked! Crofters Lane is a magnificent little acreage near Alberton on PEI - it is home. It is the culmination of a years long search for "just the right place" to retire to...an early retirement I hope.  I've spent the past few years scouring the MLS listings, finding many an idyllic home/acreage just to watch it get sold to someone else. This past summer when I saw the homes for offer I impulsively decided to drive the 1626km. there to check them out in person. 
(This was kind of  out of the norm behavior for me - I don't usually do things that spontaneously though I had the foresight to slow down and get pre-approved for a mortgage before I left for PEI! You know, just in case :)

Even though I got the pre-approval I really didn't plan on buying anything, I wanted to check out the island, see if I wanted to live there and have a nice summer holiday. HAH!

View from front porch

Check out August's archived posts for my journey around the island looking at four other properties before finding that house #5 was the one for me. Within hours of arriving at Crofters Lane I was signing an Offer to Purchase.


View looking east from front porch

 My partner and I tossed around a number of names for our new home and we finally decided upon Crofters Lane. I wanted to recognize our .4km laneway which we walked up and down every day while we stayed there, coffee in hand, birds constantly flitting back and forth between the red berry laden trees, and acknowledge the scottish "crofting" way of life that we plan to emulate- a lifestyle that is environmentally friendly, thrifty and sustainable: a few chickens, a few goats,  a large vegetable garden, some fruit trees, a wood stove & some tilley lamps.



The "Lane" part of Crofters Lane all .4km of it

 Until I actually retire I need to be extra-frugal as I carry a mortgage and maintain my condo and my trailer. If I can keep my costs low now and in the future then I plan to take a reduced pension and retire two years early.  So Crofters Lane is my motivation and the reason I squeeze the life out of every penny that I make. Oh no, wait, that's my scottish blood!


View from the lane

 Weekly Wrap:  I made it til Friday without spending the last $20 in my account so that goes into the Crofters Lane Jar. We did really well with spending over the last two weeks and actually had a surplus of $154.69 (didn't spend all of the $ allotted to food and gas) AND I had set aside $50 for my cell phone and the bill was only $33!! So I tucked another $120 into my Christmas fund raising it to $200 and left a bit extra in my misc. spending as I need to cover a $60 bill for winterizing my trailer (forgot about that!)

Two huge raspberry patches behind the house & backed by our forest

My final pay for October is in my account and every cent has a place to go except for $131 in misc. spending for the next two weeks. There's also a good chance that I won't need all of the $80 ear-marked for natural gas as I haven't had the furnace on yet and I usually come in under the $80 I set aside for London Hydro so barring any other forgotten bills I should make it through October in the black!

And that's a wrap!

Oh Money - Where Did You Go??

Last Friday I once again took $40 out of my misc. account leaving me with a mere $22 to see me through until payday next Friday.  No problem, I thought, I won't spend it all. 

Hah!

It slipped through my fingers faster than water.  I had loaned myself $10 out of our Crofters Lane Jar because I was going out to breakfast with some girlfriends and didn't have time to go to the bank. So the first thing I did was repay to jar. OK, down to $30.

Later in the day when we arrived at the trailer we found that the hydro was off. It seems that someone who had perhaps closed their trailer for the season had flipped off the wrong switch. Easy problem to solve but everything in the fridge was spoiled. It wasn't much - nothing in the freezer and mainly condiments and drinks in the fridge. We needed cream for coffee in the morning so off I went to the variety store as the grocery store had just closed. So a measly little pint of cream and a newspaper was about $6.00.

Then I spent close to $20 on a nice bottle of wine to drink around the campfire. See how quickly my $40 disappears?? Nothing but loose change left.

This morning I decided to treat everyone to a coffee from Tim Horton's as we lazed around the house.  Loose change?  Gone!

So now I face the remainder of the week (4 days til Friday) with only $22 left in misc. spending. $10 of that is earmarked for my volleyball game Wed. night. So looks like I'll have to have a couple of "no spend" days between now and Friday.  Can I do it??

I sure hope so!

Weekly Wrap

everystockphoto.com

All in all not too bad of a week, though I have a confession to make...

When I was summing up my spends the other day I forgot to take into account something I bought on the internet.  I joined a website called TeamBuy.ca which is a "groupon" type site where something is offered for sale at a reduced price and if enough people commit to buy it then a coupon is provided for up to 50% off.

First of all the offer of a free cupcake at the best bakery in town suckered me into signing up to receive emails about the offers in my city. (God I'm easy aren't I??)  Then if that wasn't bad enough there was an offer from my absolute favourite restaurant owned by friends of mine and where my partner actually works a few shifts each week. It seemed meant to be. $50 worth of scrumptious food and drinks for $25.  Yes, I thought - this will save me money! I haven't eaten there for so long because I am saving my money for Crofters Lane. (Of course I now realize that if you have to SPEND money in order to SAVE money then you haven't really SAVED anything)!!

So I am going to bite the bullet right now and make a payment on my credit card instead of waiting for the bill. So knock off another $25 from the misc. spending total. I did take out $20 on Wed. so I could buy a beer after volleyball and with the $12 I had left I bought a glass of wine at the event I went to last night (Ecolivinglondon), put $2.25 in the Crofters Lane jar and have $5 left in my wallet.

I got a few freebies this past week that somewhat helps to compensate for my indulgence. Actually a lot of freebies now that I think about it. Said restaurant gave us a huge and I mean huge bag of frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower as well as a big pile of Jamaican patties they had leftover from selling out front of their restaurant downtown on car-free Sunday. Then Michael (my partner) happened to be at a Starbucks on Tuesday night when they were closing and he knew one of the people working there and they gave him all their leftover food - sandwiches, wraps and a couple of oatfudge bars. Yummy! And today I brought home some leftover food from a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch my staff and I made for our students: huge dish of mashed potatoes, gravy, salad and a GIGANTIC pumpkin pie from Costco. There - I feel better now.

everystockphoto.com

I love FREEBIES!!

So to tally up - I spent $12.63 at the grocery store today (yogurt, juice, more salad, bread) and have $50.74 left til Oct. 15th - that's enough I think. And after deducting $25 for my "dinner out" coupon I have $62 left in misc. spending. The gas account is at $107.00 because Michael put gas in the car and so did my daughter so I didn't need to fill it up til today's $43.00. So far so good (she said crossing her fingers...)

So what do you think - should I cancel my membership to Teambuy.ca?? Also - lesson learned on the lure of credit card buying - it seems like you're not really spending anything until you get the bill in the MAIL!!

Time to Make a Withdrawal

Since my $40.00 blowout last Friday night I haven't spent ANY money. On Monday I spent $6.37 from my food budget at the grocery store and still have $70.00 left for groceries until October 15th (have already bought a turkey for Thanksgiving this weekend) so feel confident that I won't overspend on groceries.

(I HAD to buy Liquid Plumber as my upstairs bathroom sink was clogged!)

Well the clog is fixed and I've had 4 No Spend days. Today I'll have to take $20 out of the bank as I play volleyball tonight and we always go out for a drink afterwards - my pint of Stella costs $8.00 including tip. That will leave $87 in my misc. spending jar which should (along with the $12.00 in my wallet) last until I get paid on Oct. 15th.

You know, I'm getting to like this challenge!!

One Woman's Junk is Another Woman's Contribution to the CL Jar!!

I have seen the term "snowflaking" referred to on other blogs but wasn't entirely sure what it meant. I thought perhaps it was a different spin on "snowballing" a strategy Gail Vaz-Oxlade uses in paying down debt. Pick the debt with the highest interest to pay down first while maintaining minimum payments on the other debts. When the highest interest debt is paid off combine, or "snowball", that payment into the next highest interest debt and get it paid off, then add that payment...well you get the picture.

So I googled "snowflaking" and came across a post by Matt at One Million and Beyond that explained the concept.

"The idea of snowflaking is pretty straightforward in that any extra money that you save or make is applied to a financial goal right away regardless of the amount."

Well I am proud to say that today we "snowflaked" (can I use it as a verb??) A few days ago my partner brought home 2 boxes of old LPs that a friend of his was going to give to Goodwill and today he exchanged them for $70.00!!!  We immediately socked the money away in the Crofter's Lane Jar. We hope to...or should I say we PLAN to have enough money for gas and motel to and from PEI next summer for which we would need approximately $500-$600.

Stay tuned....

Have: $209.20              Need: $600.00

So over 1/3 of the way there!!
P.S. can anyone tell me the secret to making those financial goal bar graphy things in their sidebars??

Financial Goals for 2010-2011

Having joined a challenge to "Spend Consciously" for an entire year (yikes) I thought I should set out some goals so I could remind myself what I am doing this for.  It's fairly obvious that I need to maintain a balanced budget which is stretched to the max due to purchasing a retirement property while still living in my condo which I won't be selling until I retire and also while maintaining my trailer in Bayfield. Whew! What am I, nuts? Hopefully not. (rebuttals anyone??)

So getting down to specifics here goes:

• save $1000 a month, $5000 of which will go into my slightly depleted TFSA and the rest to use next summer to: replace old septic system at my new old home in PEI and purchase appliances for it
• save $90 a month for my RRSP (max allowable due to my teacher's defined pension plan)
• save $100 a month for the Emergency Account
• pay down my line of credit $1000 monthly plus interest
• pay off Visa (balance is only around $70)
• save enough for Christmas - guessing around $750
• contribute "creatively" to Crofter's Lane savings jar every month (this month I have 2 HUGE boxes of LPs that a friend was going to THROW out which we will take to a dealer who exchanges them for cash; also partner is going to put his tips into the jar)
• donate $100 to charity monthly
• cut down on gas and mileage of shared vehicle: use bikes more, daughter to contribute to HER share of the gas; co-ordinate rides to use the least amount of gas possible
• cut down on electric and natural gas bill (switched my natural gas to a different and much cheaper provider - second year I've done this and it made quite a difference), power down computers
• cut down on entertainment expenses by borrowing movies and books from the library instead of renting movies and buying books; eat out less
• buy coffee at Tim Hortons (or make at home) instead of expensive Starbucks Lattes)
• cut down on grocery bill by eating less meat (Meatless Monday every week) and using up leftovers in soups and stews; planning a list by using store flyers
• write all purchases down on my newly minted monthly budget form; stick to alloted amounts for groceries and gas

And finally, feel good about making an effort to live and spend consciously with the support of fellow bloggers Sam, Sharon and Maureen.  (I'm sure there are others I'm not aware of - if so, please let me know!)