Cars+ repairs= spending money

When I bought my car it was a little beaten up that is, the girl I bought it form was not very general with the paint. There were several scratches where shopping carts had hit the car. Nothing detrimental to the car itself it just didn’t look ‘pretty.’ One of the first things I did was buy matching paint form the dealer’s to touch the car up. I was advised that the car has to be washed first before application. I have had the car for over a month and all of August I said to myself  I would get it done. The other morning I noticed when I left for work dew on the car and I realized fall had finally come I was running out of time if I wanted to get the painting done before winter.

Yesterday I took the car for a carwash and to vacuum it out another thing I have been meaning to do since I got the car. As I was vacuuming I noticed that was bits of glass on the floor and that the inside of my trunk was wet. As it turns out it had been constantly wet enough to have mold growing on the bottom of my trunk interior. It’s hard to explain but when you lift the carpet of my trunk underneath is a spare tire and it’s the carpet that is on top of the spare tire that is wet. So I have emptied the trunk and I am now trying to dry out the wet carpet and plywood board. In the mean time I now need to find out how much it will cost to get the window resealed since I think that’s where the water is coming in. I will say this when it rains it pores. And I don’t think I will ever own a car without a car fund, though its being diminished faster than I can build it up.

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

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 am Bleeding Money...

Did I mention cars are a money pit. Today I bled more money. I decided that since the car was new to me I wanted to have an oil change done. I also picked up an air freshener, funnels, windshield fluid and plate bolds.  My BF knows how to change the oil so we got the stuff to do it ourselves. The car also had a squeaking noise it was making every time it braked so we thought the brake pads needed to be replaced. The girl I bought it from had just had the  rotors changed but not the brake pads. So she had those in the back of her car, I got them for free. Turns out the brakes don't need to be changed. But the from two tires were so bald, there is no way the car would pass safety and they needed to be rotated. We thought we might be able to get a way with just the rotation for now. We got half way though the tire rotation and the pressure gun stopped working. Since I work tomorrow there is no way I could drive home and then to work with a tire rotation 50% done. So we called Canadian Tire but they were booked. So we called Wal-mart and they were free. Since we were going down there any ways it made sense to get the 2 tires replaced. So I did that as well. We discovered in the process of changing the tires that they were really low on air, I am talking one tire only had 1/3 the amount of air in it that it should have had. So now that the airs have the right amount of air my fuel economy should go up! Yahoo for that!

The good news is, I can change my own oil, the brakes didn't need to be changed, the tires have been rotated and I have 2 new tires. The bad news is I have bled more money today. The other bad news is that because we were out in the sun. I now have the grossest sun burn between where my jeans stopped and my tank top was riding up while getting underneath the car.

Canadian tire $22. 59 (oil)
Wal-mart 38.22 (filter 2x, washer fluid, air fresher)
Canadian tire $8.73 (funnels)
Wal-mart $204.17 ( new tires and rotation)
Shoppers Drug Mart $14.44 (Aloe gel and drinks)

Total spent today: $289.15

Next up is to see the mechanic so it can pass safety inspection, sort out the e-testing stuff and buying a real plate sticker for the year. I also have to pay for my insurance another $600+ in August.

Forget the freedom stuff... given me the bus and my money back. Actually the whole 2.5h on 2 buses and walking just to get home when its 30 min by car, maybe the car is worth it. I just hope it passes inspection, that's my next major thing.

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.

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.

Pay Day

By now I am sure that most people are aware that I like love books. I have often thought about going through my old LoC and visa statements and tallying how much I have spend on books in the past. One of my goals this year was to read 50 books I already owned. Partly to help achieve on of my life goals (to have read 97% of books I own). But also because I am sure that I currently own more books that I have NOT read than read. Second I put myself on book buying ban in February and never really stopped. I am proud to say that I have not bough a single book this year. This is might not seam like a big deal but for those who are shopaholics, or love buying shoes this is like you giving up shoe or clothing shopping for 5 months. To help keep me away from the temptation I have avoided going into book stores. 


Work always seams to have a ‘market place’ set up every pay week in the lobby of our office building. Most of the time the stuff sold is bags, clothes, jewellery and trinkets, so I don’t have any issues with resisting spending money. However this past pay week we had a full on book sale! It’s like my Company wants me to spend my pay before it’s even in my account. I decided that I do have $75 that I can spend so I decided to look around. There was only one book that was interesting partly because it was so heavily discounted for what it was. The book was Peterson’s field Guide to Eastern Trees, normally $20-30, only $7.99. So it was a great deal. However I didn’t buy it because I am sure we have a copy at the cottage and because I currently have no use for the book. Also the sale down stairs was set up by the company that run’s Blowout Books which is basically heavily discounted books that are the end of a print or books that didn’t sell well in normal book stores like Chapters. The end result was I walked back to my desk empty handed. 


Any ways with out ado, the budget:


                              Pay (OT included): $1,152.68
                                   Easter over time: $125.54
TD LoC: $525
OSAP: $0
Visa: $0
Retirement: $25
Emerg fund: $25
Xmas fund: $40
Vet bills: $50
Cat food: $20
What if fund: $84
cell phone: $50
Car fund: $142.14
Company Stock: $82.16
Over Time money ($125.54) put into LoC


Included in the Car fund amount is $9.00 left over form last pay that was snowflaked into car fund.


Bills Paid to date:
Cell bill: $75.39 ($24.61 snowflaked into LoC)
OSAP:  $117.45


Total snowflakes: 9 + 24.61= $33.61 

It's Friday

It’s Friday! A week has gone by and somehow I haven’t even blinked, yet! I work tomorrow so my weekend doesn’t start just yet. Sorry for being MIA. I spend Wednesday night with my BF who came down to see me yesterday I didn’t do anything exciting but catch up on blogs I had missed reading from the day before. I tried to post yesterday but Blogger must have been down, oh well.  My reading has been going slow as I have done very little all week. However I WILL get to page 360 by the end of the night even if it kills me! I had my first physio appointment this week. It was just the consultation it cost me $85.00 and was put on my visa card. When my reimbursement from my benefits comes in my outstanding balance on my visa will be $8.50. I have yet to sort out were the money is coming from but I’ll just have to adjust the budget a bit, no biggy. Frankly this is a long time coming and really should have been done months ago. What this means though is that its very likely I am not going to get a visa bill this month with a zero balance printed on it; because of the delay between putting the money on it and paying it off in full. This is the most depressing part.


Mom has been bringing up the issue of a car again. Now she is saying that she is willing to ‘top-up’ the amount that I save to cover the difference in the price of the car I buy. I have managed to delay her until the end of June; this will give me more time to save for the car. Also providing I don’t get fired for not passing my LLQP test at the end of this month, June is a 3 pay month for me. After paying my normal funds, buying my BF a B-day gift since it’s his birthday in June, what ever is left is going into my LoC. I have rough numbers of what my LoC will be by the end of June but nothing really concrete. What I do know is that if I have to add insurance on to my July budget the extra June pay will go a long way towards my end goals. Once I had insurance to my monthly budget I will not be able to put as much into my LoC. Sigh.

Today was Pay Day!

With everything going on I hadn't had much chance to think about it. As it turns out I didn't get any stat pay I was due on this pay cheque. So I have to talk to my manager about it, however I haven't seen him at all this week. He's been MIA at work the days that I have been at work.

                                                            Pay: $1,027.08

TD LoC: $407.55
OSAP: $117.45*
Visa card: $0
Retirement fund: $25
Emergency fund: $25
Xmas fund: $40
Storage unit: $0
Cat food: $20
Vet bills: $50
Vacation fund: $0
What if... fund: $84
Company Stock: $82.16
Car fund: $128.75
Cell phone: $50*
Spending money: $73
Left in account: $2

*= money put in holding account until bill is due

Rejigging the Budget for May and June

Yesterday My BF came across town to see me. We had a wonderful time and it was lovely to see him; since we haven’t seen much of each in the last 2 weeks. At one point as we were kissing I was thinking about budgets. Does that make me pathetic or what! In my defense it’s been on my mind for a while now. With April almost over and May upon us its time to structure May’s budget. 


May, will be the first month for a lot of things including changes to my budget structure. Even more so when June comes.  In June I will be on flex hours and we also have a 3 pay month. My BF’s b-day is also in June so I will need to do some budgeting for his gift. He doesn’t know it yet but I plan to get his parent’s involved. This coming Monday the cats go in for their annual checkups. Depending on how that turns out, it will dictate further changes to the budget. Last but not least Anime North is coming happening in May and I have financial obligations for the hotel cost that was booked last May, as well as food and other convention costs. Having a hard time following… so I am I. All these things have been bouncing around in my head and I haven’t managed to sort them out into a concrete budget for May or June as result. I am going to try and lay it all out a little better for you and for me.


This past week I have been aggressively snowflaking trying to get my LoC down to $30,000.00. I had an account set a side as a bill slush fund. After paying the storage until I decided to see how much was left in the account. I decided to leave $170 in the account to cover the cost of the storage until for next month and I left $12.00 to cover any bank fees, more of a slush fund really. What was left over was rolled in to my LoC. However now that the money has been put aside I don’t need to budget for the unit next month. This gives me $170 flexibility to role into my What if… fund for Anime North.


May will be the first month that I don’t have to ‘officially’ make a visa payment *yahoo*. I have rolled this money since last pay into my LoC, and will continue to do so in May and June.


I mentioned the cats are going in. If after there appointment I still have money left over in my cat fund I am debating about reducing my monthly contribution from $100 to $50 and diverting the other $50 into a house/condo/triplex fund. I am hoping that I will have enough money in my What If …fund that I won’t need to divert the money to cover my Anime North expenses. So I can start contributing to a condo fund.


In relation to June I have decided to role the 10% shift premiums into my car fund. I think this is the right thing to do. Since I am doing this, does it make sense to snowflake the left over pay from #3 into my line of credit or into my car fund as well? I think it will be about $300. Ideally I would like to put it into my line of credit because I think it will drop it to about $28,000.00 at that point. However it might just push my car fund to the finish line.


Do you see what I mean about having lots of things rolling round in my mind? The fact that until some things -happen like the vet appointment- I can’t finalize the budget is driving me nuts! Normally this stuff is sorted out the week before pay day #1.


PS: I just got off the phone with OSAP and I got my updated balance. My outstanding balance is $-9,838.14 that's a decrease of $572.  If I wasn't so focused on my LoC, I could easily have it paid off. But come September my LoC payments are going to jump through the roof!! Next year I am going to make it my New Years resolution to have it paid off by the end of the year. I am going to update my side bar now!

Dilemma Dilemma

Yesterday was a really busy day for me. I had an alumni hockey game last night which was wonderful, except I am really really out of shape! Also at work we started our shift biding. Basically every 3 months our shifts change. This new shift bid comes into effect in June and goes till the end of August (the whole of summer). What I was looking for was something that had weekends off and was done before 8pm. The options were all late shifts ending 11, 11:30 or 12am. And you didn’t even get a weekend off. So it would be random days like Tuesday and Sunday off or Wedsnday and Friday off. The only shift that sorta met my desired criteria was a shift that was 12-8pm but you had Tuesday and Sunday off. Instead I opted for what is called ‘flex’ The idea is that you do what ever needs to be filled, the shift constantly changes every 2 weeks and it could be day shifts, afternoon shifts, night shifts or weekend shifts. However there is the change of getting weekends off. Also by taking a flex shift you get an extra 10% pay premium. This really works out to be a couple hundred bucks a month. But will be roughly an extra $600 during those 3 months. Now this is the dilemma. Do I take that extra money and put it into my LoC or do I put it into my car fund. I really want to put it into my Line of Credit. But I think I am going to have to put it into my car fund. I have been neglecting it for quit a while to focus on my LoC. But my mom really can’t continue to drive me and come August she spends most of the month at the cottage anyways, so we won’t be able to drive me to work. If I end up with 6 am shifts one week I need to have away to get to work as public transit doesn't start that early were I am.


What do you think? LoC or car fund?

Oh To Be Debt Free

Today I paid my cell phone bill at $95.03, I budgeted $100 so the $4.97 was snowflaked into my line of credit. I have also snowflaked $25 which was originally allotted for my visa card.

 I think I made a mistake today. I told my mom I was no longer in consumer debt aka I had paid of my visa, she was surprised but she wasn't happy for me. No if you can believe it, she was resentful!! And I know that in one of our many arguments she will toss it at me. I made sure that when I told her a friend was around so that she couldn't make snide comments, though it didn't really stop her form one or two. I don't know what divorce does to woman (yes generalized I know) but she feels my sister and I are balls rapped around her neck holding her back. Last night she told Em (my sister) and I that she was kicking us out. I already know she resents the fact I went to university, I have already had that tossed at me. One of the reason's I am working so  hard to get out of debt is so that I can move out. I no longer want to be her excuse for why she hasn't got her life in order.

Any ways on to happier news, yesterday was pay day. The following is how I broke it up.

LoC~ $525
OSAP~$ 0
Visa~ $0
Retirement fund~ $25
Emergency fund~ $25
Christmas fund~ $40
Storage until~ $85*
Vet bills fund~ $50
Cat food~ $20
Condo fund~ $5
Cell phone~ $50
Company Stock~ $82.16
Car fund~ $117.73

* = currently sitting in holding account until I pay the bill

I have decided after the cats have gone to the vet's and I know how much it cost and what's left in my vet bills account I am going to play with the numbers again. I want to start putting $50 a month into my condo fund. I know its not a lot but anything is better than nothing.

Tax Return and Visa Card Update

I have noticed that I don't have very exciting titles for my posts.  But to be honest I really can't come up with anything exciting. I will endeavour to change this. Any ways I deposited my Tax return today and walked the $850.20 over to TD to pay off my visa card. Or I thought I was paying it off in full. Turns out I was $14.95 short. So when I got home today I made a bill payment from Scotia to TD visa for $14.95. As such I can't say I am consumer debt free yet... sigh how depressing. In the mean time I am actually going to go through my old visa bills to find out when the last time my bill would have come in with a Zero balance. I don't think I have ever had one; it would be interesting to see.

I moved $450 into my car fund which brings it up to $3,361.80. I also moved $50.00 into my retirement fund, I have no idea what it's at. Last I moved $98.73 into my What if... fund, which brings it up to $108.73. I may have to dip into it to get my friend a bday gift and card. I'm not so happy about this but I can't not show up to her place empty handed. And this is what the fund is for in the end. Example: What if... [INSERT FRIENDS NAME] birth day comes up and I have no spare cash.

After I finish this post and updating my side bars, I have to sit down and start writing cheques out to my account and to the charity I sponsor a child from.

I have been mulling over stuff with my line of credit and I think it is going to be really tight this month. I really want to get it under $30,000.00 but I don't know if I can do it or not. Cross fingers!!! It will depend on what's left in my bills account after I pay all my bills this month. Last month I had it all predicted so when I was updating my net worth before the bill came in there was no surprises. This month is going to be different.  

Tax Return, GST and Banking Woes

I have become a bad case of what not have happen when dealing with Banks, Gail would be so disappointed in me. Today after work I went to the ATM to see if my $50 deposit had gone through OK, only to find my account was in the negatives again. If screaming in a work environment was considered OK, trust me my friends in Australia would have heard me!! Any ways I walked in to the bank branch before it closed to talk to a teller about this. I explained that I had already talked to ING about over drafting my account but that I had deposited $50 into the account to being it back up to a balance of $2. She told me that for every overdraft transaction the bank charged me $5 because my account was 'mistakenly' not treated as a staff account. I don't know why this is the case... I haven't been fired... and trust me when I leave the Company Bank this account with be Closed, CLOSED. The Teller told me she should reverse the charges tomorrow, since it was the end of the day. Now I will have to go down tomorrow at lunch to make sure the charges have been reversed, so that I don't have further issues with over draft charges. Honestly this is becoming one bad nightmare!!!

My GST cheque came in the mail last week ($62.50) it will go to my Line of Credit, when I get to the bank hopefully tomorrow.

My tax return finally came in on Monday. The total came to $2,178.23.

This is how I have decided to brake the money down.

$852.20 to wipe out my Consumer debt (Visa card debt)
$490 for Child Sponsorship renewal
$237.30 to my accountant for doing my taxes
$450.00 towards my Car Fund
$50.00 towards Retirement Fund
$98.73 towards What if ...Fund which will go towards my Anime North 2011 weekend

So tell me what do you think?? Any suggestions?? I am not going to get to the bank until after work tomorrow so any feedback is welcome!

weekly Spending Recap March 7-March 13, 2011

Yesterday was a busy day for me and as you can tell I am still up. I renewed my licence which cost me $75, I had budgeted for $100, so I have 25 left. I was going to snowflake it into my car fund but something has come up. I was at the accountant today and I should be getting back about $1800, hopefully more. Trust me hopefully more. My phone bill came in today, for $189. I argued this charge down because Rogers has messed up I bought a travelling  package that wasn't added on until March 1, long after I got back and as a result I paid premium. My bill is not down to $155 and this is where my extra $25 will now go... sigh.

March 7 (Monday)
$16.16 Whistle Stop restaurant

March 8 (Tuesday)
No Spend day

March 9 (Wednesday)
No Spend Day


March 10 (Thursday)
No Spend Day

March 11 (Friday)
No Spend Day

March 12 (Saturday)
$24.00 bus tickets

March 13 (Sunday)
$3.38 Shoppers Drug Mart

bi-Weekly Finances/Funds and New Developments at Work

As I write this post I am watching the very first episodes of Till Deb Do Us Part. It my guilty pleasure and its now free on www.slice.ca :D

I have mentioned that my March budget had hit several different bumps and we are only about 1/3 through the month. The first one was the reality check of my income which is $1,027.08 not what I thought/budgeted. The second reality check came when I finally got my enrolment into my company stock started. The first thing was I didn't know the amount came off the gross income and not the net. This reduced by take home pay and also affected my budget. The other thing is that I didn't have a place in my budget for this added category -I can hear Gail saying 'HELLO'- and she would be right. So the next question is what category do I 'steal' from to cover this unbudgeted expense. I have decided to take it out of my car fund. However I will be adjusting my stock contribution from 10% to 6% as I still get the most out of the fund with my company's contribution but will not completely affect my budget. In an attempt to try and reduce the damage on my car fund goals last night I decided to snowflake the $18.37 left over into my car fund. This brings my fund to $2631.77.

As for work, my DPTM is going through restricting. What this means is that I will be refocusing my skill sets and required to get my insurance licence before June 6th other wise "we will be reevaluating your continued employment in your current role" or so the letter says.  So that means its back to bank school to get my licence. I will explain the rest in more detail in a later post.  Without any further delay here is my budget:
    
                                                                         Amount: $1,052.79
                                                      After stock taken off: $956.96

Line of credit: $300
OSAP: $200
Visa: $25
Retirement Fund: $25
Emergency Fund: $25
Christmas Fund: $40
Storage unit: $85
Vet bills fund: $50
Cat Food Fund: $20
Cell phone: $50
Car Fund: $61.96
Spending money: $75

Up Dating Funds and End of Month debt Reduction Tally

Despite saving for Cuba I still was able to put in $449.83 extra into student debt repayment. This includes my $300.00 I paid into my line of credit, $82.55 extra into my OSAP, $65.00 GST cheque that went into my Line of credit and $2.28 that was snowflaked into my line of credit. This brings my extra debt repayment up to 1,169.03.

Also at the end of this month my different funds sit at:

Car fund~ $2,613.11
Cat bill fund~ $239.92
Emergancy fund~ $25.00
The What If...Fund~$10.00
My snowflake total is $94.52

This evening I had a really interesting conversation with my stepmom about money. Its really strange because there are things about my her and my dad's finances that I have never 'known' but sorta knew.  And this conversation reaffirmed it.

I finally got my tuition forms from Trent. But I am missing my T4 form and a couple of other things. So I will have to call them tomorrow. OSAP have been trying to get a hold of me all week and because I have been away they had been getting more persistent. I called them today to find out what it was that they wanted. Normally they only call when they are looking to get money from you and because I knew I had paid them I was worried that something had gone wrong with my payment. Turns out they wanted to know if I had received the letter they sent me in December. Truthfully I likely did and in December made the necessary arrangements and than left it at that. Once the issue is dealt with I tend to not dwell on it. So when she asked I really wasn't sure of the answer until we started chatting about the content of the letter, which jogged my memory. The end result is they got the payment and she told me that my OSAP rate is floating at 5.5% and the repayment period is 9.5 years... yuck!!!!!

I think next year I will be focusing on getting ride of OSAP by the end of the year, like I am working on my line of credit this year.

Back to Reality

Yesterday I got back from Cuba. I had a lovely time and I came back with money in my pocket, which makes me very HAPPY!! After getting off the plane I got back to reality. I went to the bank traded money around, paid bills and picked up my BF at the airport who spend the past 10 days in Newfoundland.  I also have just set up my 'The What if...Fund'. This fund is basically designed to be an in between fund for things that come up that are just A) oops forgot to put money aside for this or B) money has not been budgeted for this but I want it/need it or C) something needs to get fixed. Option C is currently in effect as my sewing machine is in repair.

Bi-Weekly Budget

                                               Amount: $1,093.89

                                               Amount after ING: $1,043.82 ($-25)

Retirement fund: $50.00

Storage unit $75.00

TD Line of credit: $300.00

Xmas Fund: $80.00

Cat fund: $100.00

Cell phone: $94.86

Car Fund: $50.00

Visa: $50.00

Cat food fund: $10.00

Emergency Fund: $25.00

The What If… fund: $10.00

Licensing fee: $50.00

OSAP: $82.55

Spending money: $67.00

Two Week Spending Recap Feb 14-27, 2011

February 14 (Monday)

$-17.91 Cineplex

February 15 (Tuesday)

$-24.00 for Transit Tickets

February 16 (Wednesday)

No Spend Day

February 17 (Thursday)

No Spend Day

February 18 (Friday)

No Spend Day

February 19 (Saturday)

$-168.37 self store fee for march

February 20 (Sunday)

 $23 budgeted, $13 spent

February 21 (Monday)

$70 budgeted, $30 spent

February 22 (Tuesday)

$60 budgeted, $29 spent

February 23 (Wednesday)

 $60 budgeted, $23 spent 

February 24 (Thursday)

$80 budgeted, $69 spent

$25.00 to retirement fund

February 25 (Friday)

$80 budgeted, no idea who much was left over/ spent

$-2.00 for a tea at the airport

February 26 (Saturday)

$-94.64 Roger’s bill

$-50.00 for visa bill

February 27 (Sunday)

$-7.55 Go train ticket from Whitby to Toronto 

I took $500 cash as my spending money for Cuba. After converting it I got $457.35 CUC back. Through out the week I budgeted $23, $60, $70 and $80 depending on the day. I never once spent the full amount on any given day. As such after paying my exit tax ($25.00) and converting my money back from CUC to Canadian dollars I had left Cuba with $205.00 in my pocket. I debated what to do with it. In the end I have decided to use it to pay for the repairs on my sewing machine and for my Anime North ticket. This way I can 1) finish my Halloween costume for reuse at Anime North and 2) pay for my ticket with out affecting my March 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.

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.