General Goals 1) to be debt free in 3.5 years 2) save lots of money
Showing posts with label 2011 goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011 goals. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Final Evaluation on 2011 Goals


    2011 Goals/ New Years Resolutions    
                   
                                          Financial 

1) Pay off $15,000 of Student debt (not including minimum payments). I set this goal with no real plan in mind on how I was going to get it accomplished. I just set it and thought I’ll make it happen. In total I paid off $12,665.74 and bought a car and than paid $1300 to fix the car, so I am happy with my progress given the fact I had no real plan at the beginning of the year. ACOMPLISHED

2) Get a second job (preferably by March) [second job started in June ended in August]  Since June I have had 3 jobs (Stats Can, Elections Canada and now I am refereeing. So I would say this goal was ACCOMPLISHED

3) Invest 6% of my income into company stock (6%= $2,142 roughly) I have contributed since Feb. $1,890.29 and my Company has contributed $919.66. In total I have $2,809.95 invested in Company stock.  ACCOMPLISHED

4) Create and fund Christmas fund 2011 to the amount of $800 (Done sept.8th) ACCOMPLISHED

5) Cut cell phone bill in half (preferably by the end of January.) This goal has been on hold until I buy a new phone outright. I won't sign a three year contract just to cut down the cost of my bill.  ON HOLD

6) Order my credit score ACCOMPLISHED IN JULY 

                                            Personal

1) Read 50 books I already own. The reason for this goal was to stop my book buying and increase my book reading. While at Uni. I had a heard time reading for pleasure but my book buying never slowed down and I realized I owned more books I hadn’t read then I had read. In total I read 42 books last year of one form or another. Some weren’t mine but they were books that I didn’t buy.  Since I bought so few books last year and read way more I think this goal was ACCOMPLISHED

2) Get my Gold Duke of Ed Award ACCOMPLISHED IN DECEMBER 

3) Catalogue and count books June 9th, 976 books (few on loan might still need to be added to count). This goal I thought was completed but than I found 5 boxes of books in the garage that I had forgotten about. Some of those books I donated and others I kept. Of the ones I have kept I still have 3 book shelves that have not been cataloged, because I have been lazy. IN PROGRESS

4) Finish/ start Europe/UK scrap book I started the scrapbook but have not finished it. I do it at work at my desk while doing my 2-12am shifts. I have done all of Scotland and currently I am working on England.  IN PROGRESS 

5) Find a way to put $100 into Shirli's visa card.   I wasn’t able to put the money directly into her visa card because of privacy. So I settled on having a draft written up in her name. The draft has been made the letter written and dropped in the mail.  ACCOMPLISHED

6) Get my knee sorted out
 FAIL, BIG TIME FAIL!

7) Reduce ownership of Crap by 50% AND try to remove one full row of shelving in room, to reduce space for more stuff. I have gone though a lot of stuff (china dolls, books, cloths ect.) and donated most of it.  But more can always be done.  IN PROGRESS


 Total: 13
Accomplished: 8
In Progress: 3
On Hold: 1
Fail: 1

Over all I am happy with the success. Now that its 2012 time to update the goals page and get busy on my new goals.

What do you think??

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

24 in 2012, a Year's worth of Goals

I have decided that since I don't have all my numbers yet to go over my 2011 Goals I would just post my 2012 goals. When I was doing my 2011 goals I remember thinking that maybe 13 goals was to many. But in stead of stream lining it I assigned myself 24. Travel is a new subsection for me. I would like now that I have a car to start doing small weekend or day trips. Also it's the bicentennial anniversary of the War of 1812 between Canada and the USA. So I want to go see lots of re-enactment's.


Financial
1) Pay back money owed to Retirement fund $353.58
2) Pay off ALL OSAP by May 2012
3) Get cat fund up to $1,500 and keep it there for as long as possible
4) Save $700 in Christmas fund
5) Pay off $15,000 of Student debt (not including minimum payments)
6) Sort out cell phone
-buy cell phone out right
-change cell providers
-get cheeper plan
7) Start stock portfolio

Personal
8) Get braces in January and pay for them in full in cash
9) Reduce ownership of Crap by 50%
10) Write will and living will
11) Sort out American citizenship before April 2012
12) Read 12 books from Canada or Ontario History section of my Library
13) Decide if Accounting is for me
14) Change jobs for better pay within Company
15) Expand and dedicate more time to blog
- Finish blog converstion and change sites (No later then August)
-Network more with other bloggers (friends)
-Attend Canadian Personal Fiance Conferance 2012
16) No Macdonald's Fast food for 2012 (drinks excluded) [This is a joint venture with my BF]
17) Finish 2007 trip scrapbook
18) Renew sponsorship

Travel
19) Go to Salem Massachusetts with sister
20) Go to Fort York with BF
21) Go to Fort Erie with BF
22) Go to Niagara with BF
23) Go to Denver for Financial Blogging Conv. (I think)
24) Take an unplanned trip

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Monthly Goals Update and New Goals

Well I really have dropped the ball on this one and haven’t done my goals update. 
July goals: 

1)pass pre qualifier for A&S PASS
 2) get Rez project for Duke of Ed filled out PASS          
-write letter for prof to rejig PASS
-mail book to prof to fill out(signed in person) PASS

 3)Get vol section for Duke of Ed signed KIND OF DONE         
 -fill out vol section PARTLY COMPLETE          
 -hand to TM to fill out PASS 
4)buy car PASS     
 -find car PASS         
 -buy car PASS          
-sort out insurance PASS
 4) Order credit score  PASS 
5) get ride of out standing credit card debt ($65) PASS 



Well all in all not a bad month for getting stuff done. 


August goals:
1) Empty storage unit 



2) Find a home for my piano


 3) Submit Duke of ED
 -finish vol section and get it signed 
- get physical section signed 
-do write up of expadtion trip 
-do write up of rez. Project and print out pictures



4) copy Funeral CD and give it to Charles 

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Weekly Spending Re-Cap July 25-31

July 25 (Monday)
no Spend day

July 26 (Tuesday)
No Spend day

July 27 (Wednesday)
No Spend day

July 28 (Thursday)
$192.87  Wal-mart Second set of new tires for car 

July 29 (Friday)
$151.36 Mike Pazak for safety inspection and e-test for car

July 30 (Saturday)
$86.35 for plate sticker for car
$11.05 Canadian Tire  glass cleaner to clean windows in car
$51.04 to fill up gas tank
$ 18.06 Cosco 2 boxes of cat litter
$11.95 monthly Bank Service fees

July 31 (Sunday)
$2.25 sponges
$17.61 Gas top-up 


Well I was at first kinda back on track with my spending. But man did I fall of  the band wagon so to speak.  But the good news is I got all my weekly goals done. My car is now legal for the road, my BF has got some stuff moved in and we have one coat painted in his room. I am going to do the second one today. I finally met up with my prof and got my Duke of Ed book signed by him and his letter came in the mail.

 My car fund is no longer at the $1,000 mark and after first and last month's insurance bill it will drop again. But I am ok with that, as long as I still have a few hundred in the account left to start building it back up I'll be happy. Despite how much I have paid out for the car I still got a decent car for under $4800 and its mine 100%. No car payments just gas and insurance, things that I can tweak as I learn more about the cost of a car.

I need a little bit of advice. I made a large payment to my LoC on July 28 but TD has not got it. SO when I called them up to get my updated figures this month they do not include my last payment of the month. Should I update my LoC with out the July 28th payment  and include it on August or should I weight for a couple of days until the payment shows on their system which will be after this long weekend and then include it in my LoC update. In the past that's what I have always done because in my  mind it's part of  say July's budget not August's budget. But what you think???

Snowflaked $10 left over from paying cell phone bill into retirement fund. Jar at 424.69 + 10 = $434.69
Retirement fund owing 363.58-10= 353.58

Monday, July 25, 2011

Weekly Money Check-Up

Your going to think me pathetic but I am so excited to be writing this post. Things have been really crazy these past couple of weeks that I haven't had time to do one, and I confess I missed it. This time last week I was studying for my A&S exam that was last Wednesday. Well I am happy to report that I passed first time around.  Now that the work stuff is finally out of the way, I can focus on getting my personal goals completed.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a Car, the starting cost was $3,000.  

2. Today I am thankful  having a full time job. I know I have said that several times but, I am glad especially with it no longer hanging over my head. I have the luxury of knowing that I will have a steady pay coming in during these strange economic times.

 
3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was Learning and changing my car's oil and filter. I got burnt as SH**  and I am suffering from it now, but let me tell you its very empowering to know that I can change my own oil! 



4. I will consider this week a success if I  get my Duke of ED book signed by my Prof. this weekend, getting my BF moved in his new place and my car passing safety with out any major issues. Lofty goals I know.

5. A good friend is some you are completely conferrable around.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

I am Melting....

I was trying to write this post in my head while I was doing stuff for job #2.  And to be honest I wasn't come out right. I am upset with myself the car slipped though my fingers. It turned out it was a great car in great shape and I complicated it.  I haven't found anything else yet. And time is running out, its getting desperate. I mentioned a while back that I pulled my credit score finally. Well its not so hot, its in the low 600's. I can't say I expected it to be any place else. I just wish it wasn't that low. I also know with out a doubt that even if I could afford to finance a car of any sort, I wouldn't get the financing. I have spent the last 24h being upset with myself and my situation. But its time to pick myself up and get on with life. I am brain storming other car types. I am trying to brain storm other car models that might be in my budget.  Basically I would like a car that's a hatch back because I play hockey and is good on gas. If you come up with any ideas let me know.

We are under extreme heat warnings, and when it gets hot I don't eat.  I just don't feel like eating. I am sure that the lack of food hasn't really helped my mood either.

I paid my Christmas fund back.

$35.39 snowflaked +375.93 = $411.32 current value of snowflake jar


I hope everyone is staying cool!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Bits and Bites of My Life

Hi, Hi…
I know I said I have been busy but I really have been. I am still reading everyone’s blogs. I haven’t been commenting because I do it while at work and I can only creep the blog not post on it. On Thursday I went to see Harry Potter #7 part 2. What a great movie, it was amazing! Best one of the lot! But it’s a 3h movie and so by the time I got home it was 3am. I didn’t end up going to bed until 4. I had to be up on Friday to see a car. A great car at a great price, but when I ran the vin # it had been flagged with “void warrantee.”  Talk about being crushed. I still have to decide if I am willing to take the risk or not.
After that I went to the bank and then to my dad’s to help him learn Skype. When I got home I started out again and did 5.5h of my second job. I didn’t get home until 10pm. At which point I walked the dogs, watered the plants, made dinner/ today’s lunch and had dinner before going to bed at 12am. A 14h day yesterday was. As I type this I am currently at work. 

I got paid on Thursday from Job#1 and I got my first pay form job #2. The budget is a bit messed up this week. I have played around with the numbers so as to boost my car fund. It makes me cry though.  Had I not done that, by the end of this month I would have had my LoC down under $26,000. That’s only $1,000 off from $25,000. I would be over the moon happy to reach $25,000 by September. Sadly I really don’t think that will happen…
You know what’s crazy, on Thursday and Friday I went to Scotia to do banking and both times I have forgot to take the change I have to snowflake into my Christmas Fund. I think I have enough to completely replenish it. On Wednesday night I snowflaked $4.99 into it. I motivated  to get that fund back up to where it was. I also took $10.00 from job#2 pay to pay back the Christmas fund.

Replenish Christmas fund: $10+$10+$4.99= $35.01 outstanding. 

Yesterday my friend Megan paid me back the $40 of which $25 was put back into my Emergency fund and $15 was put into my LoC. Also I deposited my GST/HST cheque into my LoC, total of $91.63. Last but not least I paid off my visa in full 83.71 which includes that gas and the cost of pulling my credit score. I am now credit card debt free again! lol

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Car Men are Funny Folk

‘Car  Men’ are funny creatures. Like Upendilife I am car shopping. I will by the end of this week be just under my $5,000 goal and I have hit the saving fatigue wall. I am sick of saving money for something that I don’t feel is worth it in comparison to my LoC… cars are a diminishing asset after all. Any ways my BF who likes to consider himself a ‘Car Man’ was not happy that my search was only focused around the Toyota Echo hatch back. He complained that I wasn’t giving myself enough options and that I should consider the Pontiac Wave and the Suzuki Swift as well.

A while back, I did a bit of research and found that while the Wave was a lot cheaper it also did not have stellar reviews. I did try to express this but it was lost on def ears with both by Bf and my mom. And to be fair I am sure I didn’t scream loud enough, because there was a bit a lot of bias towards the echo on my part. So, on his advice I shifted focus to the Wave; since I had given up hope on the Echo ever being in my price range. Today I dropped my BF a few links on the wave that I have looked in to. I think he has clued in that I am serious about the shopping since before it was a half ass attempt on my part, I am sure that frustrated him in the beginning. As it turns out I got a text back form him that I should stop looking into the Wave’s because they have terrible used car reviews in his words “don’t bother with the Wave. It has much worse used car ratings than the Hyundi accent.” I feel like I could have told him this, not that it was worse then the Accent because I didn’t know that. But that the Wave had not so good reviews as a used car.

I am now back to square one. Time is running out for me. Mom goes up to the cottage for the month of August and I have to have a car by then or getting to work is going to be a challenge. I am dreading the thought that I might have to pay dealer prices and then finance a used car. It seams that my ‘worst case scenario’ might just become my ‘best and only option.’

I have learned one thing from this experience. I need to learn manual! A manual car is significantly cheaper than an automatic one.

On a side note, I called TransUnion today to get my credit score. If I am going to go into a financing option I want to know how bad it’s going to be…. Sigh. I haven't really got the heart to talk about my score tonight.   

Saturday, July 2, 2011

June Goals Assessed, July Goals set, Yearly Goals Reviewed

If you didn't pick it up in the title its: Goal review time!!


June Goals:
1)     Pass LLQP re qualifying exam with at least 60% Fail
2)     Get vol. section of Duke of ED filled out and signed Fail
3)     Get Rez Project section of duke of ED signed Fail
4)     Get LoC under $28,000.00 Pass
5)     Get car fund up to $4000.00 Pass

Well there isn't much to confess. Although I seam to have a much better time completing financial goals. I think this is because I budgeted for them. As for my Duke of Ed stuff I need to get my butt in to high gear because it needs to be submitted Sept 1 at the latest. As for my test we continue to work at it. 

July goals:
1)pass pre qualifier for A&S
2) get Rez project for Duke of Ed filled out 
          -write letter for prof to rejig 
          -mail book to prof to fill out
3)Get vol section for Duke of Ed signed
          -fill out vol section
          -hand to TM to fill out
4)buy car
         -find car
         -buy car
         -sort out insurance
4)Order credit score 
5) get ride of out standing credit card debt ($65)

So there you have it, my July goals!

As for my 2011Goals, I am on track with some but not will all of them.

My progress with my financial:

1) I am currently at $5,200.30, not as far along as I would like but not bad.
2) I have now got a second job. I haven't been paid yet, so its not crossed off until the cheque is in the mail, so to speak.
3) 6% of my income works out to be $2,142, I currently have have $1002.30 invested.
4)My Christmas fund goal of 800 is currently at $520.13 and I no longer owe this fund money
5)cell phone bill cutting is on hold until Sept when my current contract runs out and I look into switching prover and phones
6) on the list for this month #4

The personal goals are going a lot slower than I would like.

Personal:
1) reading books are on hold until this test stuff is out of the way
2) need to pick up the pace on my Duke of Ed's
3) this is the most interesting one of them all, In the process of cleaning out the garage I 'found' 5 more boxes of books... So I now have to go through them and make room for the books... that's still to be done
4) haven't started yet hopefully in Oct   
5) haven't done this yet
6) have made 1/2 ass attempt still more to do
7) On going project



Saturday, June 18, 2011

I'm Back!


I got home last night at 2:30am and dragged myself out of bed to work today 10-6pm. I have finally caught up on all your blogs but have not commented since I am at work. I am also caught up on the news as best as possible. There have been some interesting things happening. If you’re not familiar with hockey and Vancouver you will likely have missed the news about riots after Van. lost the Stanley Cup to Boston. Two nights ago while driving though Ohio I stopped at a small gas station and asked the attended if he knew how had won the Cup, he looked at me blankly when I asked him if he knew what hockey was. So I will forgive you for not knowing as well. Any ways it’s with much sadness that I tell you that I am ashamed of the behaviour of my age group (25 and under) who were clearly the majority of hooligans out that night as they destroyed, looted and burned down town Vancouver.


My min-vacation was suppose to include shopping in buffalo (I desperately need work appropriate cloths), this didn’t happen. Instead we crossed the USA-CAN border at Kingston and driver thought New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, went to Washington DC, Ohio, Michigan and back up through Ontario home. I made a conscious effort to make sure that we spit the cost as best as possible. My BF often pays for most things when it comes to our relationship. I only took $390 down with me he took $900, it is often difficult to compete against those numbers. I made sure that I paid for things like gas and meals and souvenirs. The big expense was motel/hotel which worked out to be about $200, my BF covered.


 Everything else in the USA was cheep! We would go out to eat and what would normally cost us easily $35 with out tip would come to $25 with tip in the USA. And Gas! OMG my BF’s tank normally costs $65 + to fill here in Ontario in the USA it was $40-45. With everything being so cheep and no shopping I came home with $140.58 US in my pocket. My BF came home with a little over $400 still in his pocket. It was a good trip.


 I still need work cloths but I am glad that when I exchange the money back into CAN dollars I will be able to replenish my Christmas Fund faster. The down side is I will likely have a little bit if debt left over from this trip at the end of the month depending on how things pan out. I paid for the first tank of gas on my visa ($65+) and didn’t factor it in that cost of the trip. Hopefully I am able to play around with the numbers and snowflake a few dollars to bring that cost down. All in all it was worth it, I am existed but it was a great couple of days.


In other news, you might remember that I had in the past spend a LOT of money buying books and that one of my 2011Goals was to read 50 books I already owned. Well, while on this trip I bought my first book in 6 months. Times sure have changed thought; the book I bought was “The Idiot’s Guide to Personal Finance for 20 and 30 Year Olds.” The Idiot’s Guide Book Serious is American so I couldn’t get it in Canada unless I bought it on line. Thus using my visa, which I was not willing to do. I bought this one in cash something else I am happy about. My BF laughed and told me it was like watching a lapsing crack addict. I bought 2 other books but they were second hand and cost me $3 and one is for my dad. 


I got paid last Thursday but because I was away I haven’t paid any bills or moved anything around. I will do that Monday when the banks are open and blog about it than.


I hope everyone had a good couple of days. I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Catch Up

I hope everyone has had a great couple of days… I am a bit out of the loop, I confess. On Thursday I got a call from the Gov of Can. Do you remember way back in March I applied for a job with Stats Canada to help with The Censes? Any ways I never head back from them until Thursday.  Thursday morning I booked my test for my refereeing course so that I can be certified to ref hockey games. I have already been offered the option if I am certified to ref games for my old house league. I think ref’s only make like $20 a game but that’s $20 more I can put into my OSAP.

Stat Can. asked me to come in on Friday to write a test. So I did that on Friday. Also I spent the day helping my mom prepare her stuff for the tax man. Sorting out bills and putting them into order. Turns out she pays astronomical fees on her accounts, I’m taking for 1 of her 3 accounts she has already paid $143.80 in fees, in 5 months!! So I told her that she had to change her account type because she had the wrong account for her needs.

I work today 4-12 and Sunday 4-12. Today before work I got up and walked the dogs, a nice long walk. As I was out walking the dogs my BF called to say that he had tracked down a car he was going to check out for me after he is done work at 7pm. So if this works out I might have a car by the end of the month. It’s only a 2 door but it’s a 2005 Toyota echo hatchback, automatic. It’s not a bad price for the car and if I can get it for under 5,000.00 well I am laughing. I guess I can sacrifice 2 doors.
After we walked the dogs I went to the bank once to deposit by HST cheque for $100 in to my LoC and than back with mom to get her accounts sorted out. At the time I only thought she had 2 accounts, I discovered that she has 3. So one account we have changed to unlimited transactions for a flat fee, one we have left the way it is and the other one I am going to have to go back over the statements. Because she is paying gross fees on it as well, but I want to know how much. It wasn’t until I added up the fees and told her the dollar amount that she was willing to change the first account. This is what I will have to do to the 3rd account to get her to change it over as well.

Oh and I finished cataloging my books. I have about 15 I haven’t done (some my sister has and some my BF has).  Can you guess how many I have… I’ll given you a hint: a few years ago I did the first count at just under 500, I only had 3 book cases than… I now have 4 ½ book cases.

This is what I have been up to for the last couple of days.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Please I Need Your Advice/ Opinion!

I got a bit of studying done yesterday but not nearly as much as I would have liked. I also did some number  crunching. Before I did my 'Own Up to my debt' post I had my student debt at a nice round number like $40,000.00. Well would you believe it was almost $10,000 more and at the time I wasn't including my visa card debt in that calculation. Also at that time I set myself the 3.5 year goal, I told every one that if it took 2 or 3 jobs I was prepared to do it. My BF at the time asked me not to fearing that it would sound the begging to the end of our relationship. So out of respect for him I didn't. I also thought I would get a job that started at $40,000 and guess what I didn't. Now this is no one's fault but my own. In my defence I took the first job offered and 10 days after I had handed in my last paper for my last course of my BA degree, I was sitting in training class. So maybe I could have stuck it out and waited for a 'better' job but no one was paying my bills that wasn't an option in my option.

But I digress, let me get back to the the original topic of this post. As I was saying I have been number crunching. With my visa debt my total debt worked out to be $49,058.75 so in order to get it paid off in 3.5 years I have to put $14, 016.78 in to my debt year 1,2,3 AND year 1/2. I have been musing over if I should make year 1 Sept. 2010-2011 or Jan 2011-Dec 2011, since you will notice (see 2011Goals) that one of my goals this year is to put $15,000 into my student debt. However I have now decided to count year 1 of debt reduction, Sept 30, 2010- Sept 30. 2011. Since I think I officially started this journey Sept 9, 2010. This means as of May 31 2011 I have paid off $10,122.48 in debt (sundry debt, visa debt and student debt). However this leaves me with $3,894.30 to go before Sept 30 2011. That means I would have to put at least $973.58 between now and the end of Sept each month in to my student debt, outside of min payments to reach my Year 1 target.  Given my current debt reduction rate the number is possible however by the end of this month/ early next month I will have a car. This will significantly reduce my ability to meet this target.

On top of this my plan is after I know what my minimum monthly payments are to shift focus from aggressively paying down my LoC to my OSAP, since it is both the smallest amount and has the highest interest. And of course in October I will be in debt reduction year #2.

Another piece of back ground before I present you with my dilemma. In Nov. of 2009 I took $1000 of my OSAP money and put it into a mutual fund, I wanted to invest it in stocks but was convinced at the bank to do a mutual find (that's a post for another day). Any ways this mutual fund has done crap all for me its was up to $1115 a few months back but as of May was down to $1110. Since its done crap all for me and its likely I have paid more in interest to OSAP than it has made, I am going to cash it out. I had thought to leave it until Nov. 2011 at which point it would have been sitting for 2 years and depositing back in to my OSAP. I am hoping to recoup the $1000 since there will likely be fees for cashing it out.

Now this is my dilemma should I cash it out early (in Sept) to help me meet my Year 1 debt target
                                                       OR
Should I leave it until Nov. and let it be part of debt reduction year #2 knowing I will likely not have met my debt reduction target for deb year #1

WHAT DO YOU THINK????  Please any guidance is greatly appreciated.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

To Toss/ Donate Or to do a Garage Sale, That is the Question

Today while I was trying to study Mom came home form church and basically screamed. She was frustrated that Em had no do the things she had promised mom she would do yesterday. One was clean up the mess she made in the living room over the last week putting together a project. EM of course decided not to do it yesterday and had a friend over instead. Mom had been out and I was at work so no one was around to monitor it getting done, now my sister is 17 1/2 and really should NOT NEED to have some monitor her ability to get stuff done, but that's not the reality. I understand Mom's frustration with Em I agree she should have done it yesterday and while we all hate the screaming it does seam to be the only way to get Em to do things.

When mom walked though the door she had a picture and a metal shelf unit in her hand I groaned more shit  my world for stuff). In the back of the car are light pumpkin things for Halloween. She had stopped off at content sale and also picked up another rug. Mom is frustrated because our house and garage is over flowing with crap and I am just as frustrated. Earlier this week mom and I had a fight over the state of the garage. I wanted to toss most of the stuff out she thinks we should sell it. I don't know when she thinks that's going to happen. The garage is full of furniture what she wants to keep. She says she's keeping because she wants to take it up north to her other place, however NOTHING has made it up north and most of it is broken or was bought will good intentions and never used.

Besides that 2 years ago when my Aunt died we cleared out her apartment and all the boxes are down stars (a few are in the storage unit). Than in March 2010 my Aunt Carm moved in with use for a couple of months and lots of her stuff came but didn't leave with her. Than in the end of April 2010 I moved home.

In our garage we have: 1 full sized kitchen table, 1 broken dinning room table, 8 dinning room chairs, 2 random chairs form a dinning room set we don't have, an elliptical machine, a stationary bike, a coat rack, a side table, a base of a table but no top to it. Boxes of shoes, a set of 3 end tables, 2 lamps, 1 lamp shade, 4 winter tires that were form her old car, a printer that doesn't work, left over laminate flooring boxes, an old solid wood (read: weights 150 pounds) secretary desk, a computer cupboard, 2 sets of golf clubs (only mom plays), a rocking chair, my aunt's recliner sitting/ smoking chair, a full set of 12 dishes never opened and these are only the things I can actually see. We have so much furniture we could furnish a 4th house. There is a multitude of shit that is on the second level shelves that are boxes that I can't even get too.

I currently rent a storage unit to store the stuff I came on with from university because we can't fit it into our garage at $180 a month. Which also has two full sized fining cabinets that are Mom's and a full double bed, sold wood bed room set which I want to get rid of.

Don't even get me started on the china we have in our basement!! We have 4 full tea sets, please tell me why someone needs 4 tea sets!!

She is frustrated with the clutter and so am I, last week we had a fight over the state of the house which is full and the garage. I begged her to let me get rid of stuff, she wants to do a garage sale I want to put it out at the front of the house and let it go. She refused and stormed off in a huff after threatening to kick me out. I was so up set with her I put my Aunt's recliner sitting/ smoking chair out on the front of the house and I put two under the bed draws (from the garage), a fountain that came with my Aunt Carm's house and never left, two pictures and a stain glass window my X-bf's mom gave me. I never like it, gave me bad vibes. My sister claimed one of the pictures and I put out an old computer chair.

Than Terry a friend of Mom's stopped by (just now) to drop off 'collectables for up north', I grounded again. I flat out told Terry that she was NOT to bring anything else!! We already have Terry's Aunt's blanket book in our spare bedroom. Now I can hear her telling Terry and another friend  how overwhelmed she is with it all and in the next breath talking about buying something else for the house, furniture wise. What bother's me the most about it all is she has made no attempt to sort and toss. AND every time I try,  I get "no, no we can sell it in a garage sale OR no, I am want to take it up north."

After our fight today I once again begged her to let me toss crap out of the garage. She had finally relented  on specific items.***I am HOLDING HER TO IT*** I know that if we put some of the things on Creg's list we might get some money for it, specifically the secretary's desk. However its barred under the 8 dining room chairs, the busted dinning room table and the full sized kitchen table. I am just not interested in the excuses any more. I think I am at a point were I will take all the screaming and yelling AFTER I have tossed the crap out.

Today while I was popper scooping I kept repeating to myself "I will cut my crap by 50%." I never want to have my house look like mom's (over furnished and lots of china and 'collectables'), we have two full china cabinets. I want to add to my 2011 Goal to reduce my crap by 50% but I have quite a few other goals that I am afraid I am over doing it. I think I will add it and see how much progress I make on it, than add it to next years goals.

Last Thursday mom told she put her self down on a wait list of a 3 bedroom apartment in an adult living
complex. I was not happy with her about this. Because she often yells at me that I make plans and don't 'consult her about them' and I think this is one hell of a plan that should have required a family pow wow. She tried to justify it to me by saying that it took 2 years for the last one to come on the market, but that doesn't mean another one will take 2 years. When I asked her why she wanted a 3 bedroom place if she expected to be the only one moving in to it she said 1) to sleep 2) office 3) guest bedroom. She also thinks that I will have paid everything off by than and be in my 'own' place.  Trust me I would love this to be the case!! But I know having it paid off in 3.5 is a lofty goal, there is no way that it will happen in 2. Unless I change jobs and get a better paying one. Which if I don't pass this exam I might just be looking for.

I was suppose to be studying all day but its 5: 30 pm and I haven't even been able to crack the books... the last 5 1/2 h have been spend dealing with the house and mom. And now this post, I need to get this off my chest.

Thanks for listening. I hope your Sunday has been a less frustrating compared to mine!

On a side note: I snow flaked 2.05+0.45 into house fund, snowflake jar at: $341.82.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Night Before Pay Day

I just got back from Salsa and had a blast! I had one drink my friend bought me and I'm tipsy... talk about a cheep date! Any ways I am about to jump in to bed but before I do I snowflasked the last of my paycheque. I total I put in $17.07. This brings my snowflake jar up to $80.60 and my extra 15,000 fund up to $143.10.

Tomorrow is the day of reckoning, God I hope my budget will balance out... wish me luck.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

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.

Friday, January 21, 2011

February No spend Month and Good Bye Chapters

Maureen at Towards Retirement with Debt asked me if I would be joining her and midlifemombusings on their no spend February. I have decided that I am not going to for a few reasons. 1) I have my trip coming up and while it will be with in budget hopefully less I still will be spending more than I would in a normal month. 2) I am going to put myself on a no new book buying month. In the past books have been the only thing that I have had no problem spending money on. This is because one of my life goals is to have 25,000 books to my name of which 97% will have been read in full. Its the 'in full' part that I need to work on. Thus the reason one of my 2011 goals is to read 50 books I already own. 

You will notice that I didn't put a ban on second hand book shopping. Let me explain: I have a dear friend I have been trying to get together with for the past 6 months to go second hand books shopping with. We finally thought it would be this Saturday but I cancelled on her, since I am going to help my mom move into her new office. And truthfully I have no money left now any ways. She is the only one that I will be going second hand book shopping with in the near future. I am hoping that we might be able to get together in February but the changes are slim and its looking like March. I don't want to place a second hand book shopping ban on myself if it impedes my ability to get together with my friend. At the same time if we are not able to get together in February well then I will be on a 'unofficial' second hand book buying ban. 

Good bye Chapters!! My membership card comes up for renewal this month and I am not going to renew it! I have decided to just take it out of my wallet all together. I wonder if I will miss it. I guess is easy to say now that I won't but lets be honest I am sure I will. In the coming months if I need to get a book I will get it from an independent  seller or while I am with a friend who has one, so I can use there's. But not in February. 

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

TD Line of Credit and shopping bans

Yesterday when I deposited my GST cheque I asked for an updated balance. My current balance is $-32,259.01. Assuming that the interest is roughly the same as last month (126.12) and I put another 300 next pay my balance will be 32,085.02. Only $85.02  away form having it at 32,000.00!! So I am going to up my amount to 400, this way I will definitely be at or under the 32,000.00.  I'm not sure how the numbers will work out but I am sure I can make it happen!! I am so excited about the idea!!!

Recently I have been mussing about getting rid of my Chapter's Member's Card it costs about $20-30 and gets you money off every time you buy books. The catch is you have to buy a lot of books to make it worth the money. In the past I have always just paid the fee. Justifying it with, "I always buy lots of books, its worth it." In the past I have bought a lot of books from there. But one of my goals for 2011 is to read 50 books I already own. So paying the money to buy more books would be kinda counter productive. I told my BF that I was planning to give up buying books and he thought I was joking. It is true I am a book-holic, I admit my weakness. He doesn't think I can do it. And I admit there are 2 books that Chapters has that I want to get.

I wonder if after Feb 1 (since that's when the 2nd book comes out) I should put myself on a book buying ban, like the cloths shopping ban that other bloggers, go on. What do you think...

I have to decide though... if I will only include new books or second handbooks a well. The thing with second hand books is that when you are trying to complete a series that has been out of date for over 20 years you have to grab it when you see it.  Or does that defeat the purpose of ___ buying ban? I am new to this I have never deprived myself of doing something I enjoy for the sake of finances. Actually maybe before I do decide to do a book buying ban I should find out how much I have spend on books in the past.

Any thoughts...

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Ally, Rogers bill, 2011 Goals

Today I called Ally again to make sure that my account has been officially cancelled. As it stands I'm done with them. It has been cancelled for good, good bye!!!!!!

One of my 2011 Goals was to get cut my phone bill in 1/2 preferably by January. Now my monthly bill with taxes in and no long distance charge is $93.85,  that means that my bill has to be dropped to $46.93 a month.  Today I called Rogers and the 'best' package that they could give me was the Student 40+  this is what it includes:

                   ~200 weekday minutes
                   ~100 MB
                   ~My 10  Canada wide
                   TOTAL: $47.94  taxes and fees included

Now this does not include unlimited incoming minutes which is an extra $10.00 a month. If I added this feature my TOTAL would become: $ 59.24 taxes and fees included

However if I did this I would not be under $46.93. The other MAJOR down side is that they want me to resign a 3 year contract. This makes me feel completely uncomfortable. My current contract ends at the latest October 2011 and  I contract free, this is something that I would ideally like. The reality is that I want to be able to look at other options and if I lock myself in for another 3 years as of Jan 2011 I will be stuck until Jan 2014 with Rogers. The other down side is that I want to go away to Japan in a few years for a year or more beings unable to get out of a contract would be very problematic.

If I don't change my plan though I will be pay assuming no long distance charges until October 2011 my overall phone cost will be $938.50 ($93.85 x 10 months).

The other option is to buy myself out of my contract at $20.00 x the number of months left in my contract which would be 10, thus $200. I can't afford to do this until March because I don't have the spare cash. So at that point it would be $160 + (93.85 x 2)=  $347.70.

I just don't know what to pick or what to do. This is why I am posting, I need your help, I need your advice. Any suggestions???? Please....