Bi-Weekly Finances and Funds

                                                          Total amount: $1262.49

Visa: $50
Cat fund: $50
Christmas: $40
TD Line of Credit: $400
Cell phone: $94.25
vacation fund: $250
Car fund: $50
10% fund (retirement): $ 126.25  100.00
Storage unit: $96.62
Spending money/ Ottawa: $131.62

If you remember in a past post I blogged about going to Ottawa with a friend of mine and trying to sort out how I was going to pay for it and put money in everything else. What I did was reduced my 10% fund.  So in stead of not putting money into it at all I just didn't put as much in it. I also added to my other funds and keep my TD line of credit payment at 400. What happened was after having my little freak out I realized I had $147 in USD funds sitting in my Big Ben tin. I always have a little kicking around because how close I am to the border. So I have decided to cash it in. Its a bad time to change money since I will likely lose some on the exchange.  But if the exchange still enables me to keep $140 in CAD I am hoping I will be ok. The round trip ticket is $168.37. So with 140.00 and 131.62 = $271.62... God willing it will be enough. 

Thanks for listening...

Yesterday I had a slight freak out over money. I confess I lost my cool. But I am better now after I wrote my post I had a light bulb go off and so I might be able to fit it all in. My friend has agreed that dinning on the cheep is cool and we are crashing on a friend's floor. This means that although the budget will be super tight I might just be able to squeak by unscathed, God willing of course. I will let you know when the final numbers are all crunched when pay day roles around. I just want to say thank you for listening.  I talked to my mom about it and her advice was live a little and only pay your min. on your line a credit if necessary.  Advice that I found not nearly as helpful as I am sure she meant it to be.

Also I have been thinking about reopening my Ally account or signing up for a ING account. I don't like the accessibly of my 'retirement fund'/ my 10% fund. On weak moments its hard to think about retirement when I am only 24 years old.  Its just very easy to consider using the money for other things. But I have not completely looked in to ING. Nor do I want to make another rash decision about it.


Lesson learned: Emergency fund of any size is necessary and will in future be worked into budget.

Frustrated, Stressed and its all my FULT!!

I am feeling frustrated to the MAX with myself and money right now. Last year a friend of mine and I agreed we would go up to Ottawa to skate on the Canal and watch Question Period while the House was in session. Both of use are major political junkies. Only last year it didn't happen because of schedules and such. This year she she asked if I was still interested I said yes of course, this was before I became more money wise. We were going to do the trip on the cheep, crash on a friend's floor so we didn't have to pay accommodations. I had hoped and truly thought that I would have a car by now. My boyfriend had offered to join us and because he has a car drive us. She would rather have a girl's weekend of it, I understand but now its going to cost $155 plus tax to take the train.

I did not budget, I DID not budget, I DID NOT budget, I DID NOT BUDGET!!!!!!

And I am STRESSED over where the money for this weekend is coming from. I don't even want to go, but at the same time I hate that I am allowing myself to not be able to not enjoy something that only last year I would have enjoyed!! All the while I could say well if I only pay 300 in to my Line of credit and not put anything into my 10% fund I would have it covered. But I don't want to do that I WANT to have my line of credit down to $32,000!!! And I WANT to put money into my 10% fund. I seam to have had to many excuses of late for why I am not putting money into it. I would also have to dip into it a little to cover the cost of the ticket.  I could maybe ask her if I could pay her the 100 now and the 55 + tax on the next play but at the same time I don't want to owe her any money. I WORKED SO HARD TO BE SUNDRY DEBY FREE!!

All the while I am still saving for this trip to Cuba which will enable me to complete my Duke of Ed one of my 2011 goals.

Add to all this my boyfriend earlier this week asked me how much I had in my car fund. I lead him to believe that it was up in the middle 2000's like 2700 or 2800 not 2500 which is what it currently is.  I feel like a smuck, a fraud, a lier and a variety of other low life things. So of course I want to put a little bit of money into my car fund so as to boost it a little bit.

I'm frustrated with myself six ways to Sunday and I have no one to blame but me.... being responsible is such a Witch.

New Savings Account

A couple of months ago I called up Ally and sighed up for a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account). Ally is very similar to ING in that it offers high interest Savings with no fees. The first cheque I sent them they sent back because something on it was wrong. Since then I haven't done much with the account. The other day I decided that it was stupid not to try and sent the cheque in a second time. So I called to make sure that I got it right this time and send it off today. Ally gives its client an interest rate of 2% which is calculated daily. Basically by not getting my act together I have lost out on some interest not much I'm sure but hey every little bit helps! The cheque I sent in was from my General fund which holds my 10% fund. The amount deposited was $425.05. I plan to keep my General Savings fund tracker the same as the amount is just split up into two different account at the moment. The plan is to eventually shift all of my 10% fund into my Ally account so it can collect the interest. Hopefully this time the cheque isn't returned because if it is I will start to get a complex.

On another note I am finalizing my 2011 goals and New Years resolutions still. So they won't be up until closer to the New Year.

Car Search/ Car Fund Update

For a while these last couple of weeks I was not sure if my mom would be willing to help me with a 0% loan for the rest of the funds for my car. So I made the decision to speed up the process in my car fund by taking the money form my 10% fund (paying my self first) and putting it into my car fund. I reasoned this based on the fact that in the end it would help me and my finances in the long run. As a car means I can get a second job. Now it looks like things are a little more on track and mom might still be able to help me which is great. Also I am having second thoughts about playing with my 10% fund. I mean if I can justify it for a car what else will I be able to justify. This is a trap I DO NOT want to fall into. At the same time it would get me to my goal of $2500.00 faster then thought. Actually it will exceed the original goal of $2000.00 by the end of this month. So I don't know I am still in two minds.... sigh....

As for the car search I found 2 cars this week that I thought would be perfect and when I wasn't sure about mom's financial ability, the place that was selling the cars was offering financing options. As it turns out both cars were in from end collisions and my boyfriend has axed them from the list. Rightfully so of course but I am disappointed. One was a 2005 red Toyota echo hatchback, automatic which is exactly what I am looking for!! Its my dream car, and to have it slip between your fingers is just heart crushing.

My BF and I have decided to put the serious search on hold for now since Christmas is around the corner. Though I am keeping my ears to the ground. If anyone hears of someone selling the above car in Ontario please, please drop me a line.

Payin' bills

As I mentioned my boyfriend has my wallet. So I asked him to send me my debt card number so I could at least pay the bills. After I had dished it all out I was left with $60 in my chequing account. As I was looking at my accounts I thought 'I am ready for the next pay day.'

Another thing that crossed my mind when I was moving money around was about my general savings fund. I average about $140-150 a pay into this category. But this month because I am getting 3 pays and my general savings is up around $700 the extra $300 from the next two pays would really boost my car fund. But at the same time the idea of that money is its my 10%. I counter this with the old saying 'ya gata spend some money to make some money' and if I am ever going to get that second job I really need the car... So I am stumped.

What do you think?

When Life Gets in the Way and Specific Funds Explanation

I have mentioned in a few of my last posts about "when life gets in the way" and that I would explain my reasons for splitting up my Savings into two different funds (general savings and Specific funds). I have also mentioned before about the importance of putting 10% your savings away or paying yourself first. You will also notice that I do not have an emergency fund.

The general savings fund is the place I put 10% of my income. Its strictly for savings or investing. That is I have not completely decided what to do with it. So until I make the decision, it will sit as my general savings fund, collecting 10% of my income every pay.

The first Specific fund is my car fund. Basically I spend up to 5h each day on buses and walking to and from work, were by car its 15-25 min. So I want a car so I can take the extra 4h I would save and put it towards time for a second job which is one of my goals for next year.

Now the Cat fund is a little bit more complex and has a story behind it. Two years ago this month a cat acquired me.

When I was going to university the lady who lived upstairs of me rescued animals. All animals she was not discriminating. But at the time she was focused on local stray cats. I worked while at university in the campus safety and student safety DPTM so I knew many of the first year Rez. kids. A couple first year friends of mine told me they had spotted a cat living in Chaplain North Quad which is one of the court yards that make up Chaplain College. My friends asked me if they were able to catch the cat would I be willing to foster it until they could find a home for it. I said of course and latter that week when they caught it they brought it to my place. I came back home for the Friday and Saturday to see a movie with a friend. While at home in Toronto I picked up a flee collar for the cat from a local pet store and when I got home I put it on him.

The next morning I woke up with large brown insects crawling across my chest. I had no idea what they were at the time and where they came from. But as I stripped my bed I found more crawling in and among my sheets. It didn't take long for me to isolate the source- the cat. It cost me $200 for the emergency vet on call visit, to fine out that the cat was covered in Ticks. By the time I had completely de-ticked him I had taken off over 500 ticks. I made the decision that day that if i was shelling out $200 then the cat was officially 'bought.' What followed was monthly vet visits for a variety of different things, to the point where I stated to joke about him being my thousand dollar kitty.

We surpassed the thousand dollar mark this last October when Salem (my cat) ate a piece of string and it got rapped around his tongue causing him to toss up anything he tried to eat or drink. He spent 2 nights in the vet hospital. The vet first quoted me at $1150 and it ended up coming to $750. I had $250 from the reimbursement of dental expenses I get back though my insurance and I slashed my budget to squeeze out another $250, my mom was nice enough to cover the rest. But I realized then that I needed to have a Cat Fund to make sure that if anything else like this again happened I was finically prepared. Especially now that I have another car Max and there are always yearly vet check ups.

So that's the story behind the Cat fund. I have it set for $2500 but basically I will just let it grow and grow until a situation arises where I need to dip into it. Every pay cheque I put in $50.

The 10 % Rule OR Paying Yourself First

When I first started to read books on personal finance, the one things every book I read had in common was the 10% rule. The 10% rule stipulates that 10% of everything you earn should be put in to some kind of savings. This is also known as paying yourself first. I decided that this was a good idea so I have started this process. Recently I read that you should be calculating 10% of your gross income not your net pay. Prior to reading this I had been putting in calculating based on my net pay. Which doesn't seam like a lot but over time the few extra dollars I'm sure would add up. Prior to last pay I had $425.05 in my 10% account. Last pay I put in another 140.91. This brings my total to $565.96.

10% fund has: $565.96 (425.05+149.01)

Putting the 10% aside was easy but deciding was to do with it has not been. I have had conflicting advice on what to do with it. So for now its just sitting in my money master account. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.