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.