Automation and Money

I have a confession. I have been neglecting my snowflaking account. I know I know... you all though I was going to say I racked up debt!! Trust, I'd very upset if that was the case. I just thought I would shame myself to get back on track. Because I know I have let the money slip off my accounting system.

 Another thing was unknowingly happening over the summer and I just didn't realize it. My base income went up over the summer and it went down and it went up and then it went down... yup you heard that right, 5 different base pay amounts.  All though my take home pay never went down enough for me to realize it. Which basically means that a couple hundred dollars was spend and not completely accounted for. I say that because I can account for it in my budget when I go back and see but I wish I had been more on top of it. For example I got a raise at work for getting my license I thought that I wouldn't get it on my pay until all of them had come in so not for another month. Turns out they added it in August. basically it works out to be about 50 dollars extra on my pay. Now because my base pay has gone up so has amount I get taken off to buy company stock. I want to make sure that the automatic savings got a boost too but since I don't know how everything will be effected I didn't boost it up to much. ING use to take out 50$ each pay, 25$ for retirement and 25$ for my emergency fund. Starting next pay they will be taking $60 off. $30 for my retirement fund and $30 for my emergency fund. Which works out to be an extra $20 off each month. I think with this and my stock increase I won't even notice that I am not 'spending' the pay increase. 

I think that's the best way to make savings painless. If you get a yearly raise, raise your automatic deductions. 

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.

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 

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.

bi-weekly finances, funds and relationship issues

As promised I am going to post my bi-weekly funds allocation. And just as I was about to write the first word I realized there was still a lot of money sitting in my checking account because I haven't actually moved any money around since I got home. The last few hours I have been going through a roller coaster of emotions and now I am just emotional zapped and don't even feel like talking about it or blogging, let alone doing any banking. However I have responsibilities so I just did the transfers. When I got home I was so ready to just rant about everything that had happened but my sister was home so she became my sound board. Now I am just drained and mellow.  Also for some reason when I last called in to ING to switch around the date my automatic withdrawals were to come out of my account they skipped the automatic withdrawal for this pay. So as a result I just cleared my Company Account and didn't even realize until I finished trans the money around and still have $119.00 left in my account instead of the $75 I was expecting.  A quick call to ING to find out what was going on and after trans of amounts to my back up Fund accounts and the issue has been sorted out. Only somehow I short changed my Retirement Fund by $6.00. And I have no idea how I did it!! So I have reduced my spending money by $5 to help make up the short fall, I will put the other $1 back at the end of the pay cycle.

                                                                 Pay: $1,098.89
TD line of credit~ $382.55
OSAP~ $117.45*
Visa~ $25*
Retirement fund~ $24
Emergency Fund~ $25
Christmas fund~ $40
Storage unit~$85*
Cat fund~ $50
Cat food fund~$20
Condo fund~ $5
Cell phone~ $50*
Company stock~$82.16
Spending money~ $70

* = money siting in bill account until the time comes to pay the bill.

On a side note my GST cheque came in for $62.50, so when I am next at the bank I will deposit it into my line of credit.

UPDATE: I didn't feel like finishing the post last night so I went to bed. Sorry for the tartyness.

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/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.

Thanks for listening...

Yesterday I had a slight freak out over money. I confess I lost my cool. But I am better now after I wrote my post I had a light bulb go off and so I might be able to fit it all in. My friend has agreed that dinning on the cheep is cool and we are crashing on a friend's floor. This means that although the budget will be super tight I might just be able to squeak by unscathed, God willing of course. I will let you know when the final numbers are all crunched when pay day roles around. I just want to say thank you for listening.  I talked to my mom about it and her advice was live a little and only pay your min. on your line a credit if necessary.  Advice that I found not nearly as helpful as I am sure she meant it to be.

Also I have been thinking about reopening my Ally account or signing up for a ING account. I don't like the accessibly of my 'retirement fund'/ my 10% fund. On weak moments its hard to think about retirement when I am only 24 years old.  Its just very easy to consider using the money for other things. But I have not completely looked in to ING. Nor do I want to make another rash decision about it.


Lesson learned: Emergency fund of any size is necessary and will in future be worked into budget.

When Life Gets in the Way and Specific Funds Explanation

I have mentioned in a few of my last posts about "when life gets in the way" and that I would explain my reasons for splitting up my Savings into two different funds (general savings and Specific funds). I have also mentioned before about the importance of putting 10% your savings away or paying yourself first. You will also notice that I do not have an emergency fund.

The general savings fund is the place I put 10% of my income. Its strictly for savings or investing. That is I have not completely decided what to do with it. So until I make the decision, it will sit as my general savings fund, collecting 10% of my income every pay.

The first Specific fund is my car fund. Basically I spend up to 5h each day on buses and walking to and from work, were by car its 15-25 min. So I want a car so I can take the extra 4h I would save and put it towards time for a second job which is one of my goals for next year.

Now the Cat fund is a little bit more complex and has a story behind it. Two years ago this month a cat acquired me.

When I was going to university the lady who lived upstairs of me rescued animals. All animals she was not discriminating. But at the time she was focused on local stray cats. I worked while at university in the campus safety and student safety DPTM so I knew many of the first year Rez. kids. A couple first year friends of mine told me they had spotted a cat living in Chaplain North Quad which is one of the court yards that make up Chaplain College. My friends asked me if they were able to catch the cat would I be willing to foster it until they could find a home for it. I said of course and latter that week when they caught it they brought it to my place. I came back home for the Friday and Saturday to see a movie with a friend. While at home in Toronto I picked up a flee collar for the cat from a local pet store and when I got home I put it on him.

The next morning I woke up with large brown insects crawling across my chest. I had no idea what they were at the time and where they came from. But as I stripped my bed I found more crawling in and among my sheets. It didn't take long for me to isolate the source- the cat. It cost me $200 for the emergency vet on call visit, to fine out that the cat was covered in Ticks. By the time I had completely de-ticked him I had taken off over 500 ticks. I made the decision that day that if i was shelling out $200 then the cat was officially 'bought.' What followed was monthly vet visits for a variety of different things, to the point where I stated to joke about him being my thousand dollar kitty.

We surpassed the thousand dollar mark this last October when Salem (my cat) ate a piece of string and it got rapped around his tongue causing him to toss up anything he tried to eat or drink. He spent 2 nights in the vet hospital. The vet first quoted me at $1150 and it ended up coming to $750. I had $250 from the reimbursement of dental expenses I get back though my insurance and I slashed my budget to squeeze out another $250, my mom was nice enough to cover the rest. But I realized then that I needed to have a Cat Fund to make sure that if anything else like this again happened I was finically prepared. Especially now that I have another car Max and there are always yearly vet check ups.

So that's the story behind the Cat fund. I have it set for $2500 but basically I will just let it grow and grow until a situation arises where I need to dip into it. Every pay cheque I put in $50.