Good Bye Vacation Fund and Line of Credit Update

If you look to your right you will notice that I no longer have a vacation fund bar graph. I used up all the money in the account and shamefully dipped into my retirement fund account to cover the rest of the trip cost. This is  one of the reasons I decided to change the name of my general savings account to retirement fund so that it would no longer be used for 'general use.' Any ways since I have for the most part paid and this is the last major trip I will being taking in a while I have decided to get ride of the fund for now. 

I am  a little behind on my updates, I am sorry about that. I have great news I had planed to have my line of credit down to $-32,000.00. I have accomplished this, my line of credit is currently standing at $-31,965.95 which is LOWER than 32,000.00. How wonderful is this!!!

Recap of amounts put in:
Dec.31  LoC balance: -32,915.15
Jan 4 deposit: +30.00 (Dec. 2011, snowflake)
Jan 4 deposit: +200.00 (Dec. 31 pay day deposit)
Jan 10 deposit: +35.00 (Xmas money)
Jan 14 deposit:+28.64 (snowflake)
Jan 14 deposit: +300.00 (Jan pay day deposit)
Jan17 deposit: + 62.50 (GST cheque)
Jan 28 deposit: + 17.07 (Snowflake)
Jan 31 deposit: +400.00 (Jan pay day deposit)
Jan 31 interest: -124.01

END BALANCE: $ -31,965.95

The exciting thing is that I paid $2.11 less in interest as December's interest was $126.12 every cent counts! To the best of my knowledge the interest rate between the two months stayed the same. But until the paper work comes in from the bank I won't know for sure. The bank isn't able to tell me this stuff over the phone... sigh.

Oh and incase you'd like to know last month I put in $719.90 beyond my min. line of credit payment.

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. 

Why I went Prepaid with Bank of Montréal

I have mentioned before that I am looking to take a trip to Cuba. The purpose of this trip is two fold 1) to attend an academic conference 2) to complete the residential portion of my Duke of Ed award. Thus completing another aspect of my Duke of Ed Award requirements. 

I want this trip to be the first one I will completely pay for in cash. However I came a cross a snag in the plans, the company I want to book with do not do debt… sigh. So I have been looking around for other options on how to pay for this trip.  I have been kicking around a couple of options

1)      Put it on my credit card. I currently carry a balance on my card, so I would use the money to pay off the balance and then rack it up with the trip. This is an option that several people have suggested to me (friends and family). I think this is a bit of a counter productive option and would not given me any satisfaction. Swapping one debt for another does not make it any better them having travel debt in the first place.

2)      Sign up for a new credit card. Once again the purpose of paying in cash is not to acquire more debt. Second why would I want to increase my debt to income ratio? O.o?? And despite what people tell you having more credit cards does not give you more benefits (see my post on Plastic Crazy).

3)      Gift Cards. Not an option with this travel agency.

4)      Pre-paid Credit Cards. The befits of a credit card including Purchase Security and Extended Warranty with out any of the downsides like interest rates (depending on the provider).

I chose option number 4. After making this decision I then had to choose the pre-paid card that worked best for me. In Canada there are two different banks that I know about that offer Pre-paid credit cards: Bank of Montréal (BMO) and The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

I decided to make a chart to compare the two bank pre-paid credit cards

Bank/card type	fees	Interest rate	features	What kind of card is it?
BMO/MasterCard	$9.95 purchase fee (valid for 3 years),	0%	The card is prepaid and reloadable – your limit is the amount you’ve loaded on the card. Load your card as a bill payment from any bank account at most financial institutions. Extended Warranty & Purchase Protection	This is a pre-paid MasterCard. Treated the same way as a regular  master card would be used
RBC/Visa card	One time fee of $3.95 charged to the person purchasing the card. No maintenance fees charged for the first 6 months after the Card is purchased. After this time, a monthly $1.50 will be charged until the balance on the Card reaches $0. Upon the expiry of the Card, a fee will be charged equal to the value of the balance remaining on the Card.	0%	Because RBC Visa Gift Cards are non-reloadable, cards cannot be used make recurring payments.	This is a pr-paid gift card treated the same way as a store gift card but with the flexibility to buy at any store not at a specific store. “RBC Visa Gift Cards are not credit cards, there are some fees in place to cover the cost of providing certain services.”

Based on the above, I decided that getting the BMO Pre-paid MasterCard would be the best idea. Thus I have applied for it. What do you think?

PS: please let me know of you can read my chart... I posted this while at work and my work version of my blog doesn't show the chart all that well. It should have 5 collums ( bank/card, fees, intrest, features and what kind of card is it?)

Weekly Spending Recap Jan. 9-16th 2010

January 9 (Sunday)
No Spend day
January 10 (Monday)
$3.26~ Aramark (company caff)
$24~ bus tickets

January 11 (Tuesday)
No Spend day

January 12 (Wednesday)
No Spend day


January 13 (Thursday)
$28.64 TD line of credit
$300 ~ TD line of credit
$450~ vacation fund
$153.40~ general savings
$100~ storage unit
$40~ Xmas fund
$50~ cat fund
$34.69~ Avon

January 14 (Friday)
No Spend day

January 15 (Saturday)
No Spend day

January 16 (Sunday)
$8.37~ Tim Horton's

Bi-Weekly Finances and Funds

Today is pay day! last night I moved the last of last pays money into my line of credit YAH! for snowflakes. A grand amount of $28.64 which brings my jar to $63.53. All in my line of credit *big smile* the faster I can get that principle down the happier I will be.

I mentioned in a earlier post in December that I was increasing my TD line of credit payment to $300 starting in Jan. I had thought it might be a tight budget because I had anticipated having a car by now. But that hasn't happened and its not likely to happen until maybe March or April... sigh. That fund is on hold until my vacation fund catches up because I have a conference in Cuba in Feb. that I am going to and haven't even booked it yet. *EKKK* I want to pay it all in cash, truthfully there isn't any other option any ways, since I have no available credit., which is not a bad thing really.

I have applied for a part time job. Stats Canada is hiring part time staff between early March - end of July. The hourly pay is $14.72-18.04 (for supervisors). I really hope I get the job.  This will be a great way to add extra money to my line of credit. As all the money I get from a second job will be allocated to debt repayment.

With out any further ado:                       net pay:  $1,178.98

TD line of credit: 300.00
Cat fund: 50.00
Vacation fund: 450.00
Xmas fund: 40.00
Storage unit: 100.00
10% fund (general savings): 153.40
Spending money: 85.58

Transactions have been done I will endeavour to update my trackers. I no longer pay my visa bill on the first pay of the month because of what happened last time. So it will get paid next pay along with my cell bill.

Net Worth and Cat Fund Story

Recently a lot of PF bloggers have been posting there updated net worth. At first I thought there was no point in even tracking mine. As there is no hope of finding myself miraculously  out of the red. But I thought and thought about it, until I caved. So here it is:

Net worth as of December 2010 from August 2010

Debts(D)/savings(S)	August 2010	December 2010
OSAP (D)	-13,058.00	-10, 058.00
TD Line of Credit (D)	-34,380.01	-32,685.15
Sundry Debt (D)	-727.41	0
General Savings (S)	0	727.99
Cat fund (S)	0	39.91
Car fund (S)	0	2512.79
Vacation fund (S)	0	461.57
Christmas fund (S)	0	0
Mutual funds (S)	1,011.29	1,086.48
Chequings account	0	40.64
TOTAL:	-46,832.12	-37,873.77
Difference:		8,958.35

Not too shabby I would say, actually the numbers shocked me a bit.

I worked today. I got he strangest question over the phone. A client called and said that her and her husband had been away on a ski trip and while the were a way they had paid to have there cat bored at a Country Cat Spa. As it turned out they picked the cat up and it was very sick with something that they had used on the cat, an allergic reaction to the shampoo for instance. Now she had not paid for the Cat Spa on her visa card. But what she wanted to know was did her visa card medical insurance cover them for the vet bills!!  I explained that no her visa travel medical insurance would not cover the vet bills. I told her it might be worth taking the cat Spa to small claims court. But What I really wanted to say was "maybe its about time to start a Cat Fund!!!" I bit my tongue ;P

Weekly Spending Recap Dec 26-31 2010

December 26
No Spend Day

December 27
No Spend Day


December 28
No Spend Day

December 29
No Spend Day

December 30
$20. 34 (dry cleaning my coat a waitress decorated with guacamole *grumble, grumble*)
$200 TD Student loan
$117.26 General Saving (sent to car fund)
$50 Cat fund
$150 vacation fund
$425 Car fund

December 31
$1.32 change from last weeks cat food put into Cat fund
$50 from friend put into car fund


I meant to blog about an encounter I had at the bank yesterday but forgot, so here it is:

Yesterday at lunch I went down to the bank to take money out to pay my Duke of Ed fees and to pay for bus tickets when I next run out. The teller said to me "why don't you have a visa card with us." I was completely shocked I felt like I was being told off for not taking on debt!!  I told her because I didn't want one, but I said it in a question-like and defensive tone. She then launched in to how "as an employee I get preferred rates and 50% off annual fees."  I felt guilted into telling her that I would think about it.  Before I tossed my stuff into my bag and speed walked back to my desk.

First off  NO I WILL NOT THINK ABOUT IT!!! She is right I would get discounted rates at 11.99% and the annual fees are 50% off but my goal is to reduce debt not acquire more. While she was not to know that, what really bothered me was the way she asked me. The delivery was the same accusing, snotty- look down your noise attitude you would use when judging a person as being beneath you or telling someone to pick up after their dog. Also if it wasn't for the fact i am not by nature a pushover and I acutely aware of my financial situation I would have likely caved under her glare. Maybe in the past this process has worked for her but what a shitty thing for a bank to do to a customer: "welcome to our bank, let me help you get into debt!!"

Bi-weekly finances and funds

Today is pay day. Pay days are fun because well you get paid ;P

I walked in to my bank and the Ally cheque hasn't gone through. I'm telling you its so frustrating. I almost wish I hadn't sent the cheque in. I think the Gods were stickin it to me today. I told you it would be boring and quiet at work today and I was wrong. It was so busy today that it wasn't until 10 min. before lunch did I realize that I needed to sort out my budget to take money out of my account.

With out any further ado:

TD Line of credit: 200.00

General Savings: 117.26

Cat fund: 50.00

Vacation Fund: 150.00

Car Fund: 425.00

Transit: 48.00 (2 sheets of tickets)

Duke of Ed fees: 30.00

Spending money: 80.00

My friend gave me back 50.00 he owed me from a while back. I have decided to put the money into my car fund.

I snowflaked 30.00 from my last pay into my TD line of credit.  I am not sure if this is an exact figure of what was left from my last pay but I think it is about right.

I have decided to move the general savings into my car fund. I haven't deposited the amount form my friend yet so I am not including it into my updated fund tracker.

Money in Money out….

When Life Gets in the Way Episode II

On Christmas eve I noticed that Max (cat #2) was sneezing a lot. I don't know if you have ever seen a cat sneeze but it is really cute. However when boxing day evening rolled around he had become a lot worse and he was being very ani-social. That night we decided that he had to go to the vets. So first thing we did on the 27th was take him into the vet's office. You will notice that my Cat fund has dropped to $53. This is because the vet bill cost me $146.92. I am so glad that I started this fund, though I wish I had had more of a buffer within it.  In March both cats are going in for annual physicals. This will be min.  of $150 for each cat, likely a lot more for Max because he is likely very out of date for his shots.

To night since Christmas is completely over and I do not need to get anymore gifts I transferred the $100 from my Christmas fund into my vacation fund. My vacation fund now sits at $311.52.

I checked my chequeings account and it is currently at $455.13 which means that Ally have not taken out the cheque that I wrote them. This is a problem for me as tomorrow is pay day and I have no idea how much will be left in my account to snowflake the money. I am going to have to call them tomorrow as having money in this account completely messes up the system.

Pay Day and Bi-weekly Spending

I got paid today and I got my company bonus. In total my net pay was $1094.84 and bonus was 303.70. Don't ask about my gross pay the discrepancy is depressing. Any ways the following is a brake down of how it was allocated:

TD line of credit: $200.00

Savings: $150.00 (currently in holding account until I decide if it is going into car fund or not)

Vacation Fund: $75.00

Cat Fund: $50.00

Visa bill: $50.00

Cell phone: $93.85

Car Fund: 250.00

Transit: $24.00

Christmas fund: $100.00 (currently in holding until I decide if i have missed anyone off my list if not its going into Vacation fund)

Cat food: $50.00

Pay back mom: $20.00

Spending money for next 2 weeks: $31.99

Bonus money ($303.70):

Car fund: $300.00

Vacation fund: $3.70

I have updated the following fund trackers: Car Fund, Cat Fund, Vacation Fund

SO there it is, money in... money out

HST Cheque and Dilemma Solved

Today I deposited my HST cheque in to my TD line of credit. As such it currently stand at $-32,989.02. This number will be old in another 24h. I'm a little frustrated with work. Normally we get out pay stubs about 1 to 1 1/2 weeks before pay day. Only this time we won't get them until tomorrow which is pay day. The problem is with out exact figures my ability to budget it hindered. I know that I will know by tomorrow but I always like to know way before pay day. Another thing I was thinking about was that many PF bloggers post their bi-weekly budget. I haven't done that yet but I have been debating about doing it. Also many PF bloogers post there weekly spending and no spending days. I haven't done this because most of my days are no spend days. I don't have the same kind of over heads that come with having families. But I have been thinking that it might be good to start doing it for accountability. We'll have to see with this coming pay.

I have also decided what do do about my dilemma from yesterday. Because the amount that is going to be transferred from my chequeings account into my TD line of credit and because I put the $100 HST cheque into it today, I am just going to transfer the money left over into my vacation fund.

Since tomorrow is pay day I have made the transactions that said I would earlier this week.The following is a mount transferred in to the respective funds.

Car fund: $20.09

Vacation fund: $37.98

TD line of credit: $100.00

HST/GST Cheque and Vacation Fund

Today I came home from work to find a letter in the mail. It came in a nondescript grey envelope with Revenue Canada as the return address. It turns out the Government is sending out Christmas bonuses as well this year as they sent me a cheque for $100. Getting 'free' money in the mail is always good however the dilemma is what does one do with it now... sigh

So yesterday I said I would put what was left over from my chequing account into my TD line of credit. Now though with this cheque (which is definitely going into my line of credit) maybe I should use the extra money for my vacation fund; which needs major work.

Oh I have great news I got the vacation I wanted so besides being able afford it and booking it I am all set to go to Cuba for my academic conference. I am so excited!!!

decisions decisions...

This is such a pain I had it all mapped out yesterday. I was feeling really happy about it all the bases (car fund, vacation fund, student debt) were all getting a little something, something. Now its all off balance.

Who ever thought that having something would be more complicated then having nothing.

Any advice?

Updates: Christmas Spending, General Savings Fund, Cat Fund, Car Fund, Christmas bonus and Rasis

I finally got around to updating my General Savings Fund, my Cat Fund and my Car Fund trackers on my blog.

General savings fund: $712.09

Cat Fund: $150.01

Car fund: $1,200.25

These numbers will be out of date as of this coming Thursday which is pay day.

I went Christmas shopping last weekend and got almost everyone covered. I still have my sister left and maybe stocking stuffers. I had a budget of $300 and I have $57.42 left. I had budgeted another $100 from this weeks pay but I don't think I am going to need it. So I will likely transfer that $100 in to my vacation fund. What ever is left over from my Christmas shopping will go into my car fund. Also as you might remember my Boyfriend had my wallet for over a week so as a result I still have over $40.00 left in my checkings account. So what ever is left of that will go into my TD Line of Credit for the snowflake finance. I had originally budgeted for next years Christmas fund around $1,000 but given that I will have everyone covered for around $300 (this year) I don't think I will need that much. Thus I will double the amount and then give myself a cushion of $200, this will being the number up to $800 that has to be saved for next year's Christmas Fund.

I have other news, the other day everyone in my department got letters stating our Christmas bonus and the raises we will be getting. So I will be getting a raise of $700 over the course of the year and a bonus of just over $380. Now I was surprised to find out that I am actually making 1,000 less then I thought I was. But since I have not actually worked a full year at the Bank I can't say I have felt the difference. In case you were wondering what I was going to do with the bonus money I have decided to put $300 in to my car fund and the rest after taxes in my vacation fund. It would have been more ideal to put it into my student debt but in the short term I need a car. Today it was -8C and with wind chill it felt like -13C, standing around for a bus sucked.