A Kick Start to Accomplishing 2011 Goals

Today I decided to kick off the process of the 2011 New Years resolutions. The first thing that I did was create a tracker for my Christmas 2011 fund. The second thing I did was create another tracker for my extra 15,000.  On the 30th I called TD to ask what my line of credit balance was. The lady was unable to tell me as the interest was not to be added up till 4pm on the 30th. So at 4:10 on the 30th I called up and the next personal I talked to also was not able to give me an accurate figure for the same reason. Finally today I called and got an up to date figure. My line of credit stands at $32, 915.15. This number however does not take into consideration the $230 (200 normal instalment + 30 from snowflaking) I put into it on the 31st. As such the exact figure should be 32, 685.15. I won't update the tracker though until I get a statement in the mail.

In other news it looks like the cold has jumped from on kitty to the next. Max started with it and now it looks like it has made its way to Salem

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  of $150 for each cat, likely a lot more for Max because he is likely very out of date for his shots.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.

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.

Blog Enhancement

I am so excited I found a way to track my savings and debts visually on my blog. Don't laugh at me I know its basic and simple but I am not all that tech. savvy !!

Any ways I have Split my financial information up into 3 general sections:

1) Debts

2)General Savings

3) Special Funds

I've spent the last couple of hours trying to sort this out. I will likely change it but for now I am very happy with it.

I will explain my reason for the splits in another post when I blog about when "life gets in the way."

The first steps to payin' off debt

In my last post I mentioned that I have several sundry debts to friends. I recommend that they be the first things you tackle. Taking my own advise the first thing I did was pay off Jessica. I owed her money for the last of our shared phone bill a total of $117.56. The second one I started to work on was my debt to Dave. Now he's not fully paid off, but because he is the biggest I wanted a good chunk of it paid. I have given him $270 of the $332.80 that I owed him. So $332.80-$270= $62.80 that I still owe him. He would have been paid off last month but 'life got in the way.' So he was willing enough to let me delay for a month. The topic of 'life getting in the way' I will talk about in another post. The other debts that I took care of was the $27.05 that I owed Dan. I am also happy to report that as of last night I have also paid of John which was $120.00. This leaves me with the last amount I owe to Dave and the full amount of $130.00 I owe Miranda.

Original sundry debt amount: $727.41

Current amount paid back: $534.61

Amount Outstanding: 192.80