Weekly Spending Re-Cap July 18-24

I am not looking forward to this Weekly Spending Re-cap. I was so happy last week because I was able to get back on track with my spending. This week was so off track, but mostly because of the car.


July 18 (Monday)
No Spend Day 

July 19 (Tuesday)
$25.00 Bus tickets


July 20 (Wednesday)
$20.00 MTO Used Vehicle report
$1.25 2L jug of water 


July 21 (Thursday)
$2.05 Aramark Lunch


July 22 (Friday)
$3,000.00 cost of car
$321.00 MTO registration (car stuff)
$46.27 Petro V Plus gas (first tank of many…)


July 23 (Saturday)
$22.59 Canadian Tire (car stuff)
$38.22 Wal-mart (car stuff)
$8.73 Canadian Tire car stuff 
$204.17 Wal-mart Car Stuff
$14.44 Shopper’s Drug mart
$13.88 Macdonald’s for 2
$8.73 Chips for movie


July 24 (Sunday)
No Spend Day


WOW… I didn’t realize how much I have spent this week. It’s depressing to look at it all. Next week I have to get back on track.


 I also forgot to mention that on top of all the stuff that we did to the car we also put in this stuff to flush the engine. I used a product called STP that’s designed to unclog dirty fuel injectors in just one treatment. I don’t think the car has ever been done. So it seamed like the right thing to do.


I called my dad’s mechanic to book an appointment for him to look at the car. It has to pass safety and I don’t know what that will cost me.

I Own A Money Pit A.K.A. A Car

As it turns out I might have been a bit hasty. Turns out she had her phone stolen, which makes sense since her voice message was changed back to the default message.  She called me late last night but I was sleeping so she left a voice mail. I called her back this morning. I got my insurance sorted out,  went up to see her gave the money to her and together we went to Service Ontario to get the registration of the the car transferred over.  On the right you will notice that I got rid of my Car Fund tracker, and have added what's left of my car fund down at the bottom under Other Funds. So I am now the owner of a 2005 Pontiac Wave, burnt orange in colour.  

Brake down of cost:

Cost to by car: $3,000
Taxes: 286.00
To buy plates: $10.00
To buy temp. plates:$25.00
Map and wipes: $27.61
First tank of gas: $46.27
My monthly Insurance 2X: $428.90 to be taken out August 3 (not paid yet)
Insurance payment: $214.41 to be taken out August 22 ( not paid yet)

current spent to date: $3394.88

Since the car was sold as is. I have to still get it certified but before I can do that the brakes have to be changed and the car has to be e-tested. Now the girl I bought it off says that she had it e-tested but doesn't have the paper work since she submitted it to the MTO, so I have to get that sorted out as well.

My insurance is the bare bones, because there is nothing that's going though it. Unless the car is 110% right off I will not put anything though insurance. Its just not worth it the car is not worth that much.

I now need to figure out how far I can get on one take of gas so I can budget for how much I will be spending on gas. I will also have to budget for insurance coming out of my account. Back to the drawing board with my budget.

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!

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

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.   

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 3^rd 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.

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.