Be Careful out There!

And by "out there" I mean the Cyber World; especially social media. I just went through a ten step program to make sure my laptop doesn't have a virus...so far so good. But I did change a bunch of passwords just in case anyone is trying to hack me - something I don't do nearly often enough.

The reason for this began at 5:30 this morning when my phone started sending me messages from Facebook Messenger ostensibly from my brother. A little hand waving in the air at me and messages saying (very briefly) "hello". Both of these are not behaviours that are usual for my brother, especially at 5:30am so I opened nothing and instead sent him an email letting him know what was going on and asking him why he was up so darned early as that isn't like him hee hee...and also I've never known him to limit himself to a one-word message LOL.... So far I haven't heard back from him (he probably really is still sleeping!)

Then I heard from my sister that they had received a message from my brother this morning asking for money from them to purchase I-tunes music for his niece!! My smart brother-in-law said what is your niece's name? Ummmm Clara? - nope, guess again :) Then "my brother" told my brother-in-law that he was on his way to Manila! That's news to me! Have a safe trip!!

So let this be a wee warning this Sunday morning....I've also had a couple other things happen online recently such as disgusting stuff in my spam folder! "SEND TO TRASH PEOPLE AND THEN EMPTY YOUR TRASH!" 

I also encountered a charity that I became suspicious of...always go with your gut - if something seems hinky it probably is! I researched the charity, made sure it was Canadian as I was planning to donate $25.00Cdn per month.  I do this with a couple of other charities and have had no issues. After taking the initial $25.00 they took an additional payment of $67.41. This was just a couple of days after taking the $25.00! I called them...you can imagine how that went. Right, not well. So I called Mastercard who is disputing it on my behalf. Fortunately I have a letter they sent through snail mail that referred to my monthly payment of $25.00 so will send that to Mastercard.

The final online problem I've encountered (yesterday) was when I was working on my Income Tax. I was informed on the Canadian federal government website that for the next few weeks certain parts of Cdn tax info (specifically "MY ACCOUNT" )won't be available online!! Come back in a couple of weeks everyone - like that won't bog down the system at all...groan..... I thought doing things online was supposed to be faster - I thought wrong! Sigh....

At least I haven't been hacked....yet!!

Bye Bye January!!

It looked like I was going to end up with money left over at the end of January's budget but, alas, I had to replace my laptop charger after a kitten who will rename nameless decided to give it a good chew! Woe is me.

Hard to believe that these precious munchkins love
to eat my cords!! Such dumplings!

 And, prior to that happening I had a little thrift shop splurge at Talize so I actually ended up spending about $5.00 more than I should have. Woe is me again.

Meh, no biggie. I'll just take that off my misc budget for the first week of February. Actually, I'll be ahead of the game as Kazi is paying me back today some money I loaned her for a car repair - that will go directly into savings.

Happily I also got a $30.00 monthly pension raise :) which along with a $5.00 weekly decrease in misc spending allows me to put $400.00 into savings monthly instead of the current $350.00. That puts a smile on my face!! When I look at my budget it seems like I spent a lot of money this month AND I managed to tuck a little extra into savings over and above the usual automatic transfer of $350.00.

Misc Spending:

• $120 for an eye exam
• $50 for charitable donation
• $38.19 Walmart (?) no memory of what I bought! Must have been really important!
• $14 - movie
• $11 Value Village ( a brand new area rug and a shelf for my treasures)
• $17 - Shoppers Drugmart (chapstick and lipstick)
• $8 to play volleyball
• $40 - wine and food show
• $8 - music from iTunes
• $58 - Michaels (yarn, 2 frames, rub-ons)
• $9 - pint at book club meeting
• $45 - new charger (that hurts!)
• $55 - thrifty splurge at Talize - a lovely black and white quilt (for $10!), brand new set of flannel sheets!, a gorgeous green/gold paisley throw that is backed with sheep skin!, 3 new tops (2@ 50% off) (will post photos once I take some!)

They look so innocent, don't they?

As I allow myself $150.00 weekly for misc spending these expenditures represent $473/$600 misc spending for January. The discrepancy is cash withdrawals (and a couple little transfers to savings) throughout the month which paid for a breakfast out with a friend, a lunch out with a friend, 2 movies that I saw last week, yoga fees, coffees, newspapers and so on. 

I came in under budget for gas (spent $67/$160) and food (spent $242/280) so that helped with extra amounts I put into savings. Also received some interest from an RSP that bumped savings up a bit.

At the end of 2015 I decided that I want to give a monthly charitable donation of at least $25.00. I exceeded that in January by donating $50.00. The other thing I want to do is buy one Christmas gift per month to lessen the sting in December. I accomplished that by purchasing a large piece of material for my friend Julie who creates banners for activism purposes. 

This fiscal year is off to a great start. My taxes are finished and ready to netfile on Feb. 15th. Due to decreased income and income tax paid thanks to now living on a pension I will only receive a refund of $200 (last year's was $1236) but I am thankful I don't owe any money to the tax dep't!!

Did you end up with money at the end of January or did you break even? 

Mid-Month Money

I was thinking yesterday, yes thinking, that I don't post that much about money anymore. There's only so much excitement one can wring out of an unchanging monthly pension. Before I retired, two years early, I had to meet a few goals: pay off all debt and increase savings to a level that felt comfortable. I had a Five Year plan and I worked away at it and was able to retire early, thankfully.

Now I still try to sock away some money every month into savings and most months I'm successful at doing that. My budget is very simple: take my net pension, subtract all variables and invariables (is that a word?) including savings, and the rest is my spending money. I divide the spending by 4 weeks so that every week I can put cash in my wallet. I've been following this plan since I retired in 2014 and it works for me. Occasionally I have to use long term savings for big purchases and travel but I rebuild month by month.

There IS a little bit of exciting money news though...

• I will receive a cost of living increase starting the end of January which increases my net pension by $30 a month. Not a lot but it covers increases in condo fees, insurance and increased utility bills (almost)
• I did my income tax online to see whether I would get a refund or not. I don't have any tax receipts yet but it was pretty easy to guestimate. I will receive a refund but nowhere near what I used to receive. Only about $200. But I don't have to PAY which is the important thing. I needed to know this because...
• I filled out my forms to start receiving my Canada Pension in June and they want to know how much income tax I want taken off. So I had to see what my income taxes look like before I could answer that question. Woo hoo!! Looking forward to that additional money every month and all the fun it will bring!

January's Budget - Am I on Track?

I would say that I am! My $150 weekly allowance seems to be multiplying somehow. I've paid $120 for an eye exam, $50 to charity, an extra $50 to savings, $38 to Walmart, $17 to Shoppers Drugmart, $14 for a movie and $11 at Value Village and $10 on yoga. My ticket for the Food and Wine Show ($32) will come out of next's weeks allowance. If you did the math you'd see that I've spent more than my $150(x two) weekly allowance. That is because I overestimated some of my bills. I estimated $75 for natural gas and the bill was only $47; electricity was $65 and I estimated $70 and so on. Those extra little snippets go into my misc budget which funds my allowance :) Aren't numbers fun??

I have $127/$160 in my gas budget and Dougie's tank is almost full and $158/$280 in the food budget. So far this month I've only had to put $33 in the gas tank (I see that oil dropped to below $30/barrel!!!) and have spent $122 on food. That's for two adults. I'm pretty good at stretching my food dollars - I got 3 meals out of 4 chicken breasts! And 4 meals out of 1 package of ground turkey!

So that's how it rolls for January so far...I hope I haven't jinxed myself by proclaiming that I've had a good month so far...!!

Eligible or Ineligible

First of all...SLUGGY IS HAVING ANOTHER GIVEAWAY!! Go HERE to get on board!! Someone has to win and it might as well be YOU!! It's a "PAMPER YOURSELF" basket of goodies and who doesn't need pampering at this time of year!! Go on...I know you want to!!

Feeling sluggish (no offence Sluggy!) This winter is killing my energy and motivation. I dragged my butt through vacuuming today and I did my taxes!! I also wasted a lot of time waiting for phone calls. Phooey.

Taxes: I made a mistake this year. I've been doing my own taxes for 40 years or more and have never had any issues...until now. I over-contributed to my RRSP.  Yessir, I did, I confess. Please don't use the handcuffs officer.....

The problem was the $5,000 early retirement incentive the school board gave me last June. I assumed, incorrectly as it turned out, based on what I read on the Canada Revenue Agency website, that I could put all of it into my RRSP, that it was eligible.  But when I got my T4 yesterday the whole amount was listed as ineligible. I was only allowed to put part of it into my RRSP. Well, I did my taxes anyway and sent them away. I'm still due a good-sized refund so if I owe CRA any money they can take it out of that.

Alternately, I'm also allowed to remove the excess out of my RRSP and pay the tax on it. OR (and I like this idea the best) I can send a letter to CRA explaining:

• why you made excess contributions and why this is a reasonable error; and
• what steps you are taking, or have taken, to eliminate the excess contributions.

As I'm planning to withdraw $5,000 after March 1st I may be covered. I'm going to give it the old college try anyway and mail off a letter in a couple of days begging that my stupidity be forgiven.

Have you ever had issues with Uncle Sam?

RRIFS or TFSAs

I am at the point now when I can no longer contribute to my RRSPs. For the first time since I was about 12 I have NO EARNED INCOME!! What a lazy a-- I've become eh? 

The last few days I've been going over my RRSP options. There are many different lines of thought and most have to do with whether to let my RRSPs sit and earn interest until I'm 71 at which time the RRSPs would convert to an RRIF and there would be a minimum amount withdrawn and added to my annual income....OR....withdraw so much a year NOW and add to my Tax Free Savings Account or Tax Free GICs. 

The crux of the matter is which option saves me the most in tax dollars? I'm leaning towards starting RRSP withdrawals NOW while my income is at its lowest. Right now I'm just living on my school pension with additional bump ups to my income coming when I start to receive Canada Pension and then Old Age Supplement. If I wait til I'm 71 to start taking money out of a RRIF then I will be pushed up into a higher tax bracket. For the rest of my LIFE!!

On the other hand if I can get my money out of my RRSPs over the next few years and tucked safely away into a TFSA my tax bracket will remain lower, thus paying less in taxes.  We Canadians are currently allowed to put $5,500 per year into a TFSA where it is tax-sheltered forever. I'd like to start removing $5,000 per year from my RRSPs and place it into my TFSA. Of course there is withholding tax when I remove $$ from my RSP which increases based on the amount withdrawn. The tax rate for $5,000 is 10%. So I would receive $4,500. However, at tax time I might see some of that withholding tax come back to me. 

I feel that this is the right way to go. The consensus is that it's best to withdraw RRSPs when your income is at its lowest. Which is now. 

Decisions, decisions...

And the decluttering continues at lightning speed!

Hello my friends! It's  good to see you again. This week has been a little rough so I am glad ecstatic that tomorrow is FRIDAY!! My group of EAs is warring against each other - well that's not completely accurate. There are 3 who feel superior to anyone and everyone and they are bullying the other 3. There has been an EA in tears every day this week, sometimes 2, like yesterday.

It's complete and utter bullshit. There are 3 nasty ones and 3 really and truly hard workers who volunteer, don't watch the clock, don't do a crossword puzzle when they take a student to an integrated class, are helpful, friendly, cheerful and positive. The other 3 take verbal potshots, play games, feed the kids junk food when I'm not around, do as little work as possible and poison the atmosphere. It's beyond belief. And what can I do? Nothing. It's up to the individual EA to speak to the principal or call their union. I can't intervene or who knows I'd end up with another grievance against me like last year. And I'm not going THERE again.

So I'm happy to be at home and talking to you! And keep repeating my mantra - 87days...86 days...

Anyhoo - the April challenge continues - decluttering my work space and bringing home the things I want to keep. Yesterday's selection encompasses 2 days since I haven't posted since Monday. I did bring home more yesterday and will post that tomorrow.

As you can see I am bringing home more than 3 things a day...but then who can wear just 3 shoes? These have been hanging around my office since the snow started up in November (what a craptastically long winter we have had!!) I'm looking forward to wearing shoes everyday from now on! (fingers crossed!) I haven't worn boots now for a few days...I'm such a risk taker!!

I brought home my last box of greeting cards plus many many pads of paper because I am in LOVE with paper, nice clean fresh unsullied paper for lists, ideas, drawings, songs I hear on the radio and want to hunt down on Youtube and a million and one other reasons. I can never have TOO much paper - in fact I get kind of anxious if I'm getting low! In addition, two, yes TWO books on "Hug Therapy" - I forget where I got these but they're filled with different examples of hugs and what they mean. I'll post a page or two sometime. Last but not least a vintage box of poker chips. Kind of an unusual thing to have at school no? There was an activity using poker chips I wanted to make at one time but never got around to it. Maybe I can start having poker parties in PEI? Who knows? I may not keep them but am undecided as of this minute so will let them hang around for a little while. I could probably get rid of them at my upcoming yard sale.

Well, that about wraps up this post. Oh, Kazi finally printed off her tuition slip so I'll be finishing our taxes on the weekend - YAY - I'm getting a refund but not sure exactly how much...somewhere in the vicinity of $1,000 give or take. Oh yes...I've finished DAY FOUR of another juice cleanse. I feel pretty determined to rid myself of what can no longer be referred to fondly as a "muffin top" but more accurately a hideous "spare tire"!! The more days I complete the stronger my resolve to rid myself of my stress-related eating.  I had a headache on Day 2 and a lessor one on Day 3 as my system gets used to NO CAFFEINE!! Today I feel great! No headache, no hunger pangs and I am allowing myself one little glass of wine nightly because I AIN'T PERFECT!! Three pounds down so far. If I am successful I might post a before and after picture - now THAT'S something to look forward to lol!

Ok, now it's really goodbye! Thanks for dropping by :)

March Break Begins...

in two more days!!  And I am preparing a list of things I want to get accomplished. For example, I plan to strip the old caulking from around the bathtub and re-caulk it. I'm going to clean the grout between the tiles in the bathroom with bleach. My daughter got a printer with her mactop and has never been able to hook it up to work wirelessly so yes, I'm going to solve that problem (maybe). I MUST get rolling on listing items for sale on Kijiji - that's only been on my TO DO List for a few months... ETC. ETC. I won't be twiddling my thumbs! If I get bored I have these to keep me occupied:

 Right now I'm reading a book on my Kindle AND I'm almost finished "The Introvert Advantage" (you can see my bookmark sticking out.  And Michael wants me to get started on "The Soul of Money" which a friend sent to him on his birthday - he's finished it and is raving about it. I'm really looking forward to being able to sit for a couple of hours and just read :)

Happily I am back on my bike and pedaling like MAD!! Only 120km from Philly (and no, I haven't forgotten about you Sluggy! I have a stubborn 3 pounds to lose to get to my 10 Pound Challenge goal and have (once again) renewed my efforts....sigh... Speaking of losing weight (not) I have my daughter's fave recipe baking away in the oven - it's called No Peeking Chicken (kind of a play on words of Peking Chicken just in case you didn't catch the reference!) It's the easiest recipe in the world!! You put a bunch of skinless chicken in the bottom of a roasting pan - I'm using thighs this time but any parts will do, and cover it with a mixture of a can of cream of celery soup, a can of mushroom soup, a can of water, some sour cream if you have it but that's optional (well, not optional for ME) and a cup full of either wild rice or brown rice. I had some celery stalks that were getting a little floppy so I cut them up and tossed them in too. Mushrooms are nice in this recipe too. Then sprinkle some onion soup mix on top. Put a lid on it and bake 2 hours in a 350 oven - and NO PEEKING because the steam needs to stay in the pot! Yum yum yum!! Course I'm having some chicken but only a teeny weeny bit of rice. Yeah, right!

Last night I worked on income tax as Kazi printed off the tuition forms from her university. I juggled numbers and got us both a very juicy refund. Hers will pay almost half of next year's tuition!! Plus she's mailed forms away for a tuition rebate from last year's tuition that our very in-debt gov't is offering (though probably not for long!) Mine will be put towards my line of credit though I might allow myself a new spring top as it was a robust 15c today with lots of sunshine. One of those days that are such a gift in early spring. So, tonight I file my taxes online and should see the $$ next week! Yippee!!

And finally - Today's Inspirational Moment:

Michael bought these flowers on Valentine's day and has gradually been removing the dead ones as they wilted, dried out and fell onto the table. Yesterday I took this other picture:

this is all that remains after 3 weeks. Michael's been going through a bit of a yucky time and we were inspired by how beautiful these perky little remnants looked floating around in a dish or water. They have no stems anymore and the petals are curling up but there is still a bit of life and loveliness left. Here is what we came up with after having a good long heart to heart talk:

"Even in the midst of our mess we can salvage something good." 


Whenever we go through a tough time we can ALWAYS take away something good. Whether is be a lesson learned, an inner discovery of our own strength or simply the satisfaction of knowing we did our best in a difficult situation there is always a silver lining if you look hard enough.

Here endeth the lesson.

Death and Taxes

They say that there are two sure things in life: death and taxes.

Yes, I am getting a refund. Probably around $1000. I love how we've been brainwashed to think we're getting money from the government. HAH! I paid almost $20,000 in income tax alone let alone all the other myriad forms of tax I pay like: property taxes, sales tax, harmonized tax (sounds nice doesn't it?), goods and services tax etc. So really what it amounts to is I OVERPAID my taxes so they're giving some of my own money back to me....without interest of course.

I'm still not done however. My daughter rummaged around in the two feet deep pile of clothing  and debris she calls a floor in her bedroom and found her T4s. Then she went online to get her tuition receipt but it wasn't ready yet. So another delay. If she doesn't need all of her tuition to bring her income down below the minimum income amount I'll be able to use the rest but I don't hold out much hope for that. In fact we just may carry any leftover tuition forward to next year in case she gets a high-paying job for the summer. One that pays more than minimum wage plus tips. She does have a big interview coming up for a job promoting her university over the summer. That would be very cool and would support her post graduate program next year in Corporate Communications and Public Relations which she was accepted into - yippeeeeeeeeeee!!

I'm coming down with a cold - yuck! Both Kazi and Michael had terrible colds so it was inevitable. What is it about one's family members that they want to drape themselves all over you when they're infested with germs?????  I did my best fending them off but to no avail. I'm going to drag myself into work tomorrow (it's CASUAL FRIDAY!!) and then have a quiet restful weekend.  Yes, Michael is going out of town. It will be a NO Spend, NO getting off the couch, NO getting dressed kind of weekend. As my decluttering is all done (grateful now I got my challenges done early!) I will get caught up on a few books from my overflowing "to be read" pile and entertain myself with a selection of Netflix movies. Sounds kind of heavenly! Now, if someone would just bring me over a pot full of chicken soup!

Toodles for now!

Taking a Night or Two OFF!

Howdy y'all. Just to let you know I'm taking a day or two off from the blog - I finally got the tax form I needed so I'm going to tackle my taxes tonight AND I have a novel to read for a novel study one of my students is going to be working on. If I don't get that all done tonight then guess what?, I'll be doing the same thing tomorrow night too!  Do I know how to have fun or what?!?

So until then, adieu!!

Hopefully I'll be doing the tax refund happy dance soon!

Weekly Wrap

Who wouldn't want a wrap like this?

Okey dokey, let's roll out the numbers for the past three weeks:

I've painted myself into a bit of a financial corner this month. The numbers all worked fine at the beginning of the month but I find that the $$ are quickly running out and that I'm going to have to pull a No Spend final 10 days of March. There is very little wiggle room.

We have spent all of our grocery money plus a little more
and that little more was all for ICECREAM - oh my poor thighs!!
(This month seems extremely loooooooong!)
I have a bit of gas money left but not a lot so trying not to do
any extraneous driving.
I have a grand total of $33 left in misc spending and that's all she wrote.
The rest of the $$ that is sitting in my account is earmarked:
$130 for bi-monthly PEI mortgage
$152 for property tax
$87 for heat/dryer (natural gas)
$56 for electricity
$70 transportation (gas & due for an oil change!)

If only I could get my hands on my daughter's T4 and get our income tax finished then we would have two hefty refund cheques in our
hot little hands and I could inject a few more dollars into the budget.
It was supposed to have been mailed a week ago in the same city...
do you suppose they forgot to put on a stamp???

Hmmmmm...am I being taught some sort of lesson here?
Well, if so I'll have to figure it out later.
I am starving and then I need to jump on my bike and race another
25km north/east on my trek to PEI.

How's your budget doing - will you make it to the end of the month before the end of your money??