Merry Merry Month of May

The numbers for April are in and they're pretty good:

• the budget line for gasoline was $60 but I only spent $45 😁 yippee yahoo! Still have about a half tank of gas left. 
• the budget line for food was set at the usual $280 but I only spent $212 😁
• Utilities came in under budget by $35 😁
• Savings per month has risen to $1200 from $1000 which will shorten the amount of time needed to replenish money spent on new car😁 This means a smaller amount of misc spending money but so far so good. 
• Misc $$ was spent on: two movies- "Game Night" (fairly funny) and "A Quiet Place" (EXCELLENT!!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!); two albums purchased from iTunes; a Scotland guidebook downloaded to my Kindle App; $55 spent on fundraising dinner; a pair of gloves used in grooming Luna and Lily ($15 on Amazon - they work really well!); a six-pack of craft beer; a couple of pints after volleyball; $65 spent on a spring tuneup and new rear brakes for my bike; $25 spent at Dollarama (but I don't remember what I bought!); $26 for dinner with family at Morrissey House (it was 15% off for women to make up for gender equity issues!); $15 at Walmart for cat food; $25 to The Red Cross
• Internet bill has risen from $79 to $88  😡
• Paid income tax 😡

Looking ahead at expenses for May:

• As it's my birthday month I get to pay the gov't $120 for a new license sticker for my car 😡
• I will want to purchase flowers for my patio and for the front garden - I'm hoping I can keep my purchases to a reasonable amount - HAH!! That almost NEVER happens - I usually overspend on flowers! 💚

• I will need to keep misc spending to roughly $90 per week so that I can move $1200 to savings. Done  By the end of 2018 my savings accounts will be back to their pre-car purchase amounts!! 😁 I see several trips in 2019!!!

I have budgeted $45 for gas but I hope to spend ZERO now that I have my bike ready as my main source of transportation in the coming months 😁 Also hoping I can keep grocery spending to a minimum.  In aid of that I received and used a $25.00 gift card from Loblaw's to make up for their bread price fixing scandal. That should get me through to the weekend!! I also have $40 in points that I can use for groceries if need be.

Was April kind or nasty to your monthly budget??

November Numbers: New Budget

Good-bye October and HELLO November!

I experienced some belt-tightening in October due to the new car purchase which left me with a much smaller amount of Misc money for weekly spending. Knowing I couldn't play "fast and loose" with my funds I was way more careful with misc spending than I normally am! So...even on a reduced budget I managed to squirrel away more money than usual in my snowflake box! Yippee!!!

A number of factors helped me stash away extra snowflakes:

• I had set a gasoline budget of $80 for October. I didn't use any of that! When I bought the car the tank was full and I didn't buy any gas during the rest of September or October. When gas went down in price Nov. 1st I filled the tank for a cost of only $40! Looks like I won't be overspending on gas though I anticipate using more now that it is getting colder. If I can make it til the end of November without buying more gas I'll have another $40 to add to the snowflake box :)
• Both electricity and natural gas bills came in under the budgeted amount. It's been a mild fall so far and I haven't had to use the furnace much yet or the electric heater downstairs in the TV room. 
• I was very frugal with my grocery shopping this month. I'm still eating from the package of 5 chicken breasts that I bought: first I made fajitas (lasted 2 nights), then I used some in a pasta dish (1 dinner and Kazi took the rest the next day for her lunch); and then I made chicken vegetable soup with the remainder which I am still eating. (yes, chicken was frozen after being cooked!) I had $50 left in the grocery budget which went into the snowflake tin. 
• November will brings its own savings opportunities. I have switched to a cheaper internet package (more gigs at a lower cost!) I have been paying $93/month for 200g. I was browsing my internet company's website (Rogers.com) and saw a different, cheaper package so I switched. I don't know how much exactly my new bill will be what with taxes and so on but should be in the area of $60 for 250g.
• My share of car insurance is going down by $11/month - that's not a lot but it's money in my pocket instead of the insurance company's!
• I've also paid off $2,000 on my credit card: this was the maximum the car dealership would accept from using a credit card to pay for a car. As interest could accrue it was the first part of the car's cost that I paid off.
• I have made another purchase (a Yamaha keyboard-Merry Christmas to me!!) and paid most of it off (a different credit card). When I receive a GIC interest payment later this month it will go to pay off the rest owing on the credit card. By the end of November I will be 100% debt-free once again. 
• Now that one c/c is paid in full I have also repaid my savings in the amount of $500. Having no debt means that starting in December over $1,000 per month will re-build my savings to my pre-car purchase balance. If I didn't travel my savings accounts would be totally repaid in 10 months but as I have plans for a couple trips next year it will taken longer to rebuild my savings but that's ok. Can't be frugal all of the time! 
• Come January my pension will receive an extra bump up due to increased cost of living raise. When I first started receiving my pension not ALL of my pension received cost of living increases. That was due to the pension plan not doing as well back in the financial crisis of 2007-8. But now that the stock market has recovered my entire pension will receive the cost of living increase. I'm very happy about that! I know how much the gross amount will be but not what my net increase will be. 
• By the end of November my snowflake box should hold about $500.  Along with my PC points from using my President's Choice Mastercard for all purchases (currently around $100) I will have $600 saved for Christmas. I will also have an extra $300 from not having to pay property taxes in December or January (I pay my taxes on a 10 month plan)! That should cover any additional expenses during the very expensive month of December:) 

And there you have it - my spending adventure (car and keyboard) is over for now. Snowflakes are growing and by the time the real snow is on the ground I'll have Christmas expenses covered. Having a plan and sticking to it really helps. I must remember that as I plan my travelling for next year: Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and SCOTLAND! 

By the Numbers

I'm pretty satisfied with the numbers this month. August ended (can you believe it???!) with a surplus of $284 (in addition to putting $350 into savings). YEAH BABY!! Riding my bike everywhere is really saving me money. Other savings included utilities: natural gas was a low $32 and electricity was $42!! We've run the A/C a little bit but mostly our house stays pretty cool as it is protected by two huge maple trees and a locust tree. The patio only gets about an hour of direct sun per day and a couple hours of filtered sunlight. I can't complain. It was sweltering and humid today but the A/C only kicked in a couple of times.  I keep it set at 25c.

I went over a little bit in the food budget because it was cherry season and I gorged myself. Not even kidding! Cherries are my favourite fruit and no time to be frugal!! I bought quite a few bags at an average cost of about $13+/bag. But I more than made up that overage by NOT having to put much gas in the truck. And recently our gas prices have dropped making the gas budget even smaller.

So what did I waste spend my money on this month?

• went to the movies twice (The Minions and Shaun the Sheep Movie :)
• two albums downloaded from iTunes
• bought several books; a couple new but the rest were second hand
• beer
• yoga x 4
• Yogathon - $25 donation
• played progressive euchre twice plus dinner
• $20 UPS delivery fee for the maps/guide for upcoming trip
• renewed my hiking membership $25.00
• paid for travel insurance
• paid for train x 2 while away
• extra google storage - $2.71
• Hallmark membership
• hiking: food/entrance fee into provincial park
• dinner/beer at the Jazz Fest yesterday
• food/icecream at Rib Fest
• Dairy Queen x 2, 3, 4 times?? But who's counting right?

Some freebies: 

• loaned my truck to my brother and he treated me to dinner at The Waltzing Weasel
• Kazi worked the Beer Festival downtown and treated me to several samples and gave me a T-shirt from her workplace - Toboggan; (there was a long line up to get into the Beer Fest so she threw me a T-shirt over the fence and I put it on and walked right in as if I was working there lol!) Then I benefited from her "beer" expertise (beertise?) and tried a number of yummy samples (I wasn't driving!!)

This was my favourite! Scotch Ale.....

• also free - weekly meditation, weekly visits with my brother, pot luck dinner & MORE!!

All in all a pretty awesome month!! And not just the numbers...!

Bye Bye July Budget!

New month = new budget.

Surprisingly I came in under budget for July. I'm sure you're just as stunned as I am with that news!! (Stunned in the nicest of ways of course!) I reined in my expenses big time because I knew it was going to be a "spendy" kind of month. With a long weekend devoted to partying with my old and I mean OLD, high school friends (40th anniversary of our high school graduation - EEK!!); and constantly stuffing my face at expensive restaurants I tried to keep other expenses at a minimum.

And I did!! I am excited to report that the month ended before the money ran out! My frugality resulted in having $135.00 left to add to August's budget! And yet, I feel like I really "lived it up" in July! I ate out multiple times, bought 2 yoga tops, went to the beach 4 or 5 times and had Kazi's boyfriend stay with us for several days.

So where did I save money?? Low utility bills (thank you summer!) - my natural gas bill was only $32 and my electric bill was only $44. (My next electric bill will be higher due to putting on the A/C during a hot and humid spell of weather) Also I came in under budget somehow in the gas and food lines. I guess all of the eating out saved money on my grocery bill! Who knew?? And I've been doing almost all of my errands either by walking or riding my bike. Friends who went to the beach with me chipped in for gas and I cut back on yoga classes going only once weekly (for now).

Another $40 was saved by changing my internet plan with Rogers though that's only for 3 months - but it helps. I used my Misc budget line to cover my eating out and entertainment for the month (beer and wine :) and other than the 2 clearance priced yoga tops I bought ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!

IT CAN BE DONE!

But not forever...I have a list of things I need to purchase though none is urgent. Yesterday I transferred money from savings to pay for the rest of my September trip to England and I also used savings to purchase some new patio furniture. My old furniture was just that - OLD! (and ratty and uncomfortable and ugly!!) Since I love to be outside I decided sprucing up my patio was a necessary expenditure. And I'm really pleased with how it has come together - I found a "conversation" set of furniture on sale at the local Jysk store and it was delivered for free! 

One end of the patio is for "conversation" (reading, drinking...) and the other end...

is for lounging (reading, drinking...).  BBQ is to the right behind the geraniums.

How did your budget do in July? Is summer more expensive than other times of the year?

Budget Boogaloo

February is quickly coming to a close - now if it would only take the brutally cold air with it!! One of the thousands of things I like better about spring are the reduced utility bills. With this February shaping up to be THE COLDEST ON RECORD then my heating bill is likely to be THE HIGHEST ON RECORD!!

The Lowlights and Highlights of February's Budget:

• Lowlights - I underestimated my heating bill and electricity bill by $24; considering how cold it's been that's hardly surprising. I took the extra out of my misc budget and sucked it up!
• a few things have gotten more expensive: my monthly internet bill increased by $3, the hot water tank rental increased by $1, property taxes are increasing by approx. 2.5% but I don't have the new amount yet. That's it for lowlights - nothing broke down, nothing had to be fixed, we stayed warm, ate well and indulged in lots of wine and chocolate!!
• Highlights - I stayed on budget!! AND I had leftover money in all three variable budgets (gas, food and misc)
• a decrease in car/home insurance means that the little increases in other bills were mostly covered
• I have $24 left in the food budget :) ... $85 left in the gas budget :)...and $53 left in the misc budget!! so.....I made an extra payment on my mastercard towards my trip in Sept. and put a little extra into savings to round up the numbers. I'm leaving the $53 in my account to cover gong out to breakfast, going out for coffee, a purchase at Home Depot etc.
• Savings increased by $664 this month!! $350 of that is from my pension and the rest is from interest payments from accounts and RRSPs. 
• Misc purchases this month included: 2 little trips to the thrift shop, some new music for my iPod, a guidebook for a possible trip in 2016, a yoga app, new camera batteries, a new toaster, a special Valentine's party for me and 2 girlfriends, a book for my iPad (or two), a new charge cord for my laptop; ...I went to a movie or two, went out for lunch, breakfast and multiple coffees and I went to the Bryan Adams concert!! Which was fabulous!! (and actually paid out of January's misc budget). 

February's budget was a great success! But then it was only a 28 day month! March will be slightly more challenging I'm sure. Having a trip to work towards does help me squeeze my pennies though - it really helps to have a goal. 

Re Gofundme - I think it only makes sense that you really check out what you're contributing towards. Since Nate was Kazi's friend I had no qualms about donating money towards bringing him back to Canada. I would never donate to someone's "sad story" unless I checked into it and made sure it was REAL. 

You Better Shop Around uh huh

So I got my renewal form yesterday from Superior Energy. My one year contract ends soon and either I renew with them at a fixed rate or go back to Union Gas whose rate is variable and can change every 3 months. What to do, what to do...


My dilemma is now compounded by the fact that Superior's lowest rate is higher than the current Union Gas rate by 3 cents per cubic meter. 

Sorry for the crappy photo, I was too lazy to get up and walk to the scanner. This shows the current Union Gas rate and a bill based on the usage of 217 cubic m. for a total of $44.07. (Superior sent me this info)


Superior's fixed rate would see the same bill amount to $57.48, a difference of almost $13.00.  


So do I lock in for another year knowing there will be no surprise rate hikes or go back to Union Gas in hopes that natural gas prices will stay low and I may save a few bucks? 


Hmmmmmm, that's a toughie.


Do you shop around for utilities?