Advise, Advise, Advise. . I NEED Advise!

As you know I have to replace my phone. Something I was hoping to put off until December to give me time to save and buy it out right. I am switching form my Blackberry to an iphone. This has been planed for a while but I had wanted to buy it outright from the apple store to get the benefit of my credit card’s Purchase Security and Extended Warranty. I even had a post in the works to explain the benefits of these two little insurances that most people don’t realize they have on their cards. The after buying it on my card I would have paid it off as soon as I got home. However as the old saying goes the best laid plans pave the way to hell. And now my phone needs to be replaced in September. The lucky part is that my contract with Rogers us up Sept 20^th of this month and I was planning on switching providers anyways. Not so happy with Rogers.

I have three options:

1) Go to virgin and apply for Super tab promotion get iphone4 for $99.  PRO: new phone, affordable price, cheaper plan then Rogers CON: hit to credit report, might not qualify since high debt low income ratio

2) Go to Rogers by sim card for 20$ and hock up BF’s old Blackberry to my number. PRO: old phone but small cost incurred CON: the promotional reductions in my phone bill I got a few months back will expire and my phone bill will go up, any changes made to my account to take advantage of the phone’s features will lock me into another 3 years contract with Rogers, BEING WITH ROGERS!!!

Option 3 BF suggested.

3) Got to the Apple store buy the phone on credit card. Than take it to Virgin and signing up with them on a month to month basis, no contract.  PRO: no contract, own the phone, visa warranty protection no need  to get Apple Care CON: visa debt and paying interest for a few months before paying it off.

I have to get the phone by tomorrow because I have a phone conference with a money coach and no way to get a hold of her to cancel it since I have no access to net, email or my contacts which were on my phone…. Also I have canceled on her 2 times last month because of other things going on.

ARG! I hate these kinds of decisions where they are rushed and f**k up my finances.  I hate being in DEBT,  I HATE BEING IN DEBT!!

Please Please let me know what you think!!

Bi-Weekly Finances and Funds

	Monthly Pay	1st Pay	2nd Pay	ActualBill
		1,027	1,084
Catigories	MFA	Amount	Amount
TD Line of Credit	907.55	407.55	500	113
OSAP	117.45	117.45	0	117.45
Visa Card	0	0	25
Retirment Fund	50	25	25	50
Emergancy Fund	50	25	25	50
Christmas Fund	80	40	40	80
Storage Unit	0	0	0	0
Cat Fund	100	0	100	100
Cat Food Fund	40	20	20	40
Condo Fund	0	0	0	0
Vacation Fund	0	0	0	0
What if... Fund	134.45	134.45	45*	134.45
Cell phone	100	50	50	79.38
Car Fund	100	120.28	179.44	299.72
Comp Stock	164.32	82.16	90.38	172.54
Transit
Spending Money	150	75	75	150

* Means that I put the money into my Xmas fund to help replenish it but was not originally mend for fund


I decided to write my post on blogspot but it didn’t save it… how upsetting is that! So I am going to try and recreate was I had written, I promise you my last post was whyter than this one...lol


You will notice that there is a discrepancy within my budgets. This is because my Company stock is taken off my pay before I get it, so even thought I budget for it and include it in my total cost my take home pay is the amount after the stock contribution has been added. I hope that makes sense.


The other thing you will notice is that with pay #2 my take home pay went up this is because of the 10% extra for taking the flex shift. However what they did was treat it as thought I got a 10% raise which resulted in an increase in my CPP, IE and Company stock contribution. This makes my actual difference in pay work out to be like $60.


You will also notice that I only put $500 in to my LoC and 25$ in to my visa. This is for the first installment to pay for my referring course that I put on my visa. The course cost $96.05. Thus $96.05-25= $71.05 is out standing on my visa. As well, I put $59.00 on my visa for the tank of gas. I have paid some of this off already 59.00-2.57-20.62= $35.81. Thus in total my current outstanding visa bill balance is 71.05+35.81= $106.86. I will reduce this amount by snowflaking and regular payments before the end of the month.
This month is a 3 pay month for me which is wonderful! I also plan to make up the difference of the $25 to my LoC next pay. I had hoped use the ‘extra’ month’s pay to put a large chunk on my LoC but that will likely not happen. My BP’s parents and I spit the cost of personalized license plates for him and that cost will come out of June’s 3^rd pay. I also need to top-up my car fund and put money aside for the car I will likely have to rent next month to get up to the camping trip.


I mentioned before that I need specific work items, mostly shoes but I need a black pencil skirt as well. I have a whole bunch of neat knee high stockings that I want to be able to wear but don’t have the right skirt for. I was waiting for the bus and I saw a girl wearing the perfect skirt. So I asked her were she got it. I don’t like mall shopping I am a purpose shopper; pick up what I need and leave. It was funny because the next Q that never left my lips was ‘how much?’ I looked it up on line and the skirt is under $25 which is perfect because the idea of spending more makes me ill. So I think I am going to pick up the skirt sometime this week, paid for out of my spending money form this pay.


Bills paid for the month:
Visa~ $48.19
Cell phone~ $79.38
OSAP~ $117.45
LoC~$1007.55

No to shabby considering that we are under a postal strike, though the only thing I haven’t got as of yet is my visa bill. And I talk to TD regularly so no biggy.
I have updated all the funds and side bars except for my Christmas fund. It will stay stagnant until the amount owing is back to zero.


I don’t know how to say this because “I noticed or I just realized” doesn’t sound quite right. But I still owe money to my retirement fund. I would hate to have the amount still outstanding being carried over into the New Year (2012), so I am going to slowly work on snowflaking that down to Zero, once I am done with my Xmas fund.


I think about explains everything. If you have any Q’s just drop me a line.

Happy About Paying bills?

I started writing a blog post while at work today. However I forgot to email it to myself so its currently siting on my desktop at work. oh well. Yesterday I got my Roger's bill in and I was every excited to get it. Last month when I called Roger's in an attempt to reduce my cell bill or to find out how much it would cost me to brake my contract. By the end of the conversation the agent was able to drop by bill by $15.50, so I excited to see that my bill this month is $75.45. Since I budget $100 every month for my phone that means that I have almost $25 I can snowflake into my LoC, how wonderful is that!! Also I got a cheque in the mail as well today, I didn't expect one until June, but what ever works for government. I am not sure what I will do with the cheque ideally, I would like to put it into my LoC. But we will see how everything goes.

Andrea over at So Over Debt blogged about wanting to buy an ipad, she has put the vote to her readers. I voted for her to put the money towards her credit card. The comment on her previous post mentioned a lady by the name of Suze Orman. I had never heard of her and didn't take much note of the name until I turned on the TV and by chance landed on CNBC and her show happened to be on. From what I saw it seamed very 'american' lots of flash and fast talking. I found some of her comments a bit extreme, I mean who needs $5,000 in income monthly when they are 'retired' with no debt!!  But that's my view at least. Any ways it was interesting to see the show and she had some valid points. 

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

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.

Weekly Spending Recap April 11-17, 2011

April 11 (Monday)
No Spend Day

April 12 (Tuesday)
No Sped Day

April 13 (Wednesday)
No Spend Day

April 14 (Thursday)
No Spend Day

April 15 (Friday)
$25.00 bus tickets

April 16 (Saturday)
No Spend Day

April 17 (Sunday)
$39.54 EB Games (friend's gift)

$4.17 Bday card @ Shoppers

$7.55 GO train ticket

~*~*~
I meant to write a post about this on Saturday but forgot and than I guess was lazy... I am not sure what happened. So I called Rogers to talk about my phone bill and how much it would cost me to buy myself out. As it turns out it would cost me $150 with taxes ($20 X # of months left in contract = cost to buy myself out of contract. I also looked at the cost of resigning and getting a new phone which i need if I am going to take advantage of even 1/2 the features that my plan offers. However I will not sign a 3 year contract and really its way to expensive to pay for it all up front. Basically I don't have $500 siting around to do any of the above things because I am not willing to lock myself in for 3 years. So I have decided to hold tight and wait until my contract comes up for renewal so at that point I can save up some money to by the phone that I want out right or at least a second hand phone out right and than just sign up for a 1 year plan.

The good news out of all this is that after talking to her the lady was very accommodating and agreed to nock $15. 50 off the rest of my bills until my contact comes up for renewal.  This will being my bill down from about $95.03 to roughly $78.89. I am so excited about this. The money I save I am going to roll in to my student debt. Every Cent Counts!!

Currently because I haven't written the cheques to my account and the charity I contribute I have a lot of money sitting in my chequing account! This always makes me nervous and I feel like I will spend it and not leave enough for the cheques to clear. So my goal tonight before I go to bed is to write them and post them. Hopefully the money will leave my account before Friday when pay day is or it will completely mess my banking and bills stuff up.

Bi-weekly Pay, Fund Allotment and Playing with Money

It was payday this last Thursday. I didn’t however move money around until yesterday.  As it turns out I was in over draft again by $0.11 and because I always have my Work Bank Account at zero they dipped into over draft again. What this all means is next month I will be paying over draft on overdraft… ARGGGG!!! I fell like such a (fill in blank). It bothers me because I have never had nor neared overdraft. In my mind when the bank balance says zero then that’s it. Money doesn’t grow on trees. Also in those rare occasions where I want on the read with Scotia I never got charged over draft interest. So I now have had to leave $2 in the account so as to stop these charges once and for all.

I made sure that I walked into the bank and withdraw the money that was left in my account AFTER ING had taken the money out. I use to do email money transfers as we are allowed 2 free, on one month billing cycle. I thought I had been ok that I hadn’t gone over the 2 transfers. However it has been indicated to me that I did which is how my account ended up in the negative.  Another reason I was given because I called in twice to find out how the charge happened; was that the ING stuff comes out of my account at 12am the day I picked and my pay comes in at 4ish in the morning. So hopefully by resetting my ING money to come out the day after I get paid this will stop the over draft interest as well.  Than on Fridays I will be whipping my account out at a branch and walking it over to Scotia. The hope is that all this will brake the gross cycle of over draft interest I have been paying. After all I worked hard for those 11 cents!!

My last month’s bill for Rogers was way over budget due to the stuff with Cuba, coming in at $155.83, thus $55.83 over. So I have had to play around with the numbers again. I had $28.00 left over from last pay. This was snowflaked into my bills account to help cover this cost. I had $25 (in cash) left over from the cost of my licence renewal that I was going to put into my car fund. This will go into my visa account and my allotted $25 from this pay for my visa will be rolled into my Rogers bill to cover the excess cost of the cell phone bill. This means that I will have $54.00 extra for this bill.

My Company Stock contribution was dropped .I would like in the future to make the full 10% which is $136.93. However I really can’t at this point, so I have dropped it down to 6% which is $82.16 a pay. My Bank only matches up to 50% of your contribution up to 6% which means that they will match 3% of my 6% contribution. You are allowed to put up to 10% but the Bank only matches up to 6%.

I have also added my Emergency fund to my direct withdrawals with ING. Starting this last pay ING will now take of $50 bi-weekly off my pay, $25 for my retirement fund and $25 for my emergency fund.

Last but not least, I have $7.28 that I am carrying around with me until I can get to a TD bank. This money will be snowflaked into my Line of credit.

Bi-weekly pay and fund allotment:

               Amount (after stock contribution): $1, 011.73

TD Line of Credit: $400

OSAP:  $0

Visa: $25

Retirement fund: $25

Emergency fund: $25

Christmas fund: $40

Storage Unit: $85

Vet bills Fund: $100 (50 for last pay and 50 from this pay)

Cell phone: $100 (50 for last pay and 50 from this pay)

Car Fund: $100.00

Spending money: $75

Bills paid to date for this month:

TD Line of credit: $700

OSAP: $300

Visa Card: $25.00

Cell phone: $155.83

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. 

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