General Goals 1) to be debt free in 3.5 years 2) save lots of money
Showing posts with label snowflake jar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snowflake jar. Show all posts

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Its Pay Day Today!

Pay Day is one of these strange creatures, where your never quite sure if your getting a head or catching up. Are you paying the bills that are due this month and thus catching up or are you paying for next month as I do with my basic cell phone plan.

One of the things about Pay Day is that I get to pay my funds money. Theoretically I am paying myself but I don't look at it that way. For example last night a friend asked if I wanted to go out grab a bit to eat. I explained that I had $3.00 left in my account, which is true. Three dollars was all that was left over from my allocated spending money. What I neglected to mention was that I had three to four grand saved up between my different funds. You see he wouldn't understand that, that money is for rainy days. I could lay out the "aren't I a better saver than him" because I know his financial  situation. In fact I will be creating his budget for him in an attempt to get him on a 'savings track'.  What I will say is if I had his cash flow my debt would be half to three quarters gone.

I could be in a worse situation. A lady at work this morning had just finished paying her bills and by the time she had done she had over drafted her account by more than $1700. I stopped over to say good morning to her and she mentioned it to me. I confess all I said to her was "well I guess its time to budget." Not the most considerate of things.

The point of this post incase you were wondering was to remind myself and you (if you need it) that everyone is in different places financially. But that you have to be humble and thankful for what you have accomplished and done thus far.


note: 3.00 snowflaked jar at: $520.16

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Changing Directions

September was my last month of interest only on my Line of Credit . I have now entered the principle + interest zone. I am not going to lie the idea freaks me out. As per my original plan once out of the interest only phase,  my LoC payment will be locked at the minimum payment. I am now focusing on my OSAP. Currently my OSAP is at $9,462.71. I want this sucker gone by MAY 2012 which gives me 8 months to get rid of it. I want OSAP gone so badly, you have no idea. 


Line of Credit Up Date for September :


August's balance on LoC: $-25,436.72


September 8: $290.14
September 8: $0.83 (snowflake)
September 22: $472


Total paid: $762.97

Amount paid after interested added: $  762.97 -92.73 = $670.24
Daily interest for the month of September $2.99
Total  monthly interest: $ 92.73

Current outstanding balance on LoC: $-24,766.48

Current $15,000 extra fund stands at $
7,619.86 + 670.24 =$8,290.10

Snow flaking Jar stands at: $493.13 +0.83+17.40+4.17+1.63=$517.16


PS: Did I hit my $14,016.78 of debt repayment in 1 year? coming tomorrow!
PSS: At Jane's request I will blog about my scissors exercise.  

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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. 

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Pay Day

I got paid today... and so did my funds, debt and bills.

 I paid my visa off completely all $465.81 of it. Made up from the $200 I put in from my second job and the $265.81 I paid today from my left over time and such. I am now consumer debt free again. It was a bit touch and go while I was figuring it out but it all worked out in the end. After I paid the rest of my visa I had $1.50 which was snowflaked into my Christmas fund. I didn't get it to $800 as I had hoped but its close. Also I paid my phone bill. I budgeted $100 and it was $74.24, so I snowflaked the $25.76 into my LoC. In my budget notes was reminder to pay off the cost of gas I put on my visa from my gas fund. But since I paid the visa I snowflaked that money into my LoC, $23.82. I also found 10 cents in my bag and one cent on the floor at the bank so I snow flaked that into my LoC$ 0.11.

As for bills, I have paid my visa, cell, LoC, car insurance and OSAP. The only thing left out standing is the storage until and I have to call on that tomorrow.

Total snowflakes for this pay 1.50 + 25.76+ 23.82+ 0.11 = $51.19+441.94 = $493.13 (total in snowflake jar)

I have updated my side bars.

I was feeling so rich, now I feel poor again... oh well such is life. 

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Day Before Pay Day Sorta

Today is the day before pay day for my regular job, however today I got paid my last pay from my part time job. In total it was $235.49. I really wanted to put all of it into my LoC but that's not really responsible of me so instead I put $200.00 into my visa card and $35.49 into my LoC. Now if you are wondering why I didn't put the full amount in, it's because will the extra money I will have left over form my pay and the $200 I will clear off my visa. How?? Well you see when I got my statement for this month my balance was $299.49. In reality when I called in and asked  it was $465.81 but that extra $166.32 that makes up the difference I spent this month and will be on next month's statement. So while I want next month's statement to come in at Zero balance, I will not be charged interest on that only on the $299.49. And like I said between the $200 and the extra pay I will put into my visa tomorrow I will clear that $299.49 off. Have I lost you yet? Now what did I put the $35.49 in to the LoC, this one is easy, I pay interest in this daily!! Gross!! and every time I add a little to pay down the amount it recalculates the interest. This is why it actually makes more sense to put in many small payments than to do one large one at the end of the month.  This explanation might have been a bit more complicated then it needed to be but such is life.

As I will not be spending any money today I have snowflaked what was left in my chequing account which was a grand total of $6.98  into my LoC.

$434.69 +6.98= $441.94


Sunday, July 31, 2011

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

Thursday, July 28, 2011

The night before pay day

To day is the night before pay day and I had $13.37 left in my chequing account. So I have snow flaked that into my retirement fund to try and reduce what I owe the fund.

Owing $376.95-13.37=363.58 still owing

snowflake jar 411.32 +13.37= 424.69 new balance.

Friday, July 1, 2011

June Line of Credit Update

May's LoC outstanding balance: $-29,089.81

June 2~ $407.55 (pay 1)
June 2~ $4.24 (snowflake)
June 2~ $1.68 (storage snowflake)
June 13~ $100 HST deposit
June 21~ $500.00 (pay 2)
June 30~$325.00 (pay 3 extra payment)

Total paid $1,338.47
Amount paid after interest added $1,338.47-105.24 =1233.23
Daily interest for the month of June:$ 3.508
Total monthly interest: $105.24

Current outstanding balance in LoC: $27,856.58

Snowflake jar: $5.00 into Christmas fund from last pay. $4.24+$1.68= $5.92+ $370.01= $375.93



Note: I can't remember the last time I added to my $15,000 extra fund, currently it stands at $3967.07. So 3967.07+1233.23= $5200.00 extra. Will have to update my bar now. 

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Weekly Spending Re-Cap


June 13 (Monday)

No Spend Day
 June 14 (Tuesday)
$6.78 Dolleramma for Bday/ father’s day card and candy 

$17.90 Shoppers drug mart


June 15 (Wednesday)
$ 59.00 First tank of gas for road trip (this is cheep Canada style lol) 

$1.49 Lucky charm bar (snack)
$3.50 drinks
$20.00 dinner at cracker barrel (with out tip)

June 16 (Thursday) 
$6.00 USB charger
$25.00 Breakfast at Bob Evens (with trip)
$1.01 Penny flattener
$1.01 Penny flattener
$20.15 Personal Finance book
$4.46~ 267 inner-state toll road
$53.00 gas and drink

June 17 (Friday) 
$25.00 breakfast at Cracker barrel (with tip)
$3.17 peg game
$0.44 stamp for postcard 
$22.25 gas in  Ohio
$25.00 Ihop dinner (with tip)
$19.00 Woodheaven Gift Shop

June 18 (Saturday)
No Spend Day


June 19 (Sunday)
No Spend Day


I snow flaked $2.57 that was left over from last pay into my visa card. 2.57+ 341.82 = $344.39 in snowflakes. Cell bill paid 100-79.38= 20.62 added to visa bill 344.39+ 20.62= $365.01 in snowflake jar.


visa bill~ $59.00-2.57-20.62= $35.81 left outstanding on visa bill still to be paid off.

If you get the chance read this article its really interesting: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/19/neuroeconomics-women-city-financial-crash

Sunday, June 5, 2011

To Toss/ Donate Or to do a Garage Sale, That is the Question

Today while I was trying to study Mom came home form church and basically screamed. She was frustrated that Em had no do the things she had promised mom she would do yesterday. One was clean up the mess she made in the living room over the last week putting together a project. EM of course decided not to do it yesterday and had a friend over instead. Mom had been out and I was at work so no one was around to monitor it getting done, now my sister is 17 1/2 and really should NOT NEED to have some monitor her ability to get stuff done, but that's not the reality. I understand Mom's frustration with Em I agree she should have done it yesterday and while we all hate the screaming it does seam to be the only way to get Em to do things.

When mom walked though the door she had a picture and a metal shelf unit in her hand I groaned more shit  my world for stuff). In the back of the car are light pumpkin things for Halloween. She had stopped off at content sale and also picked up another rug. Mom is frustrated because our house and garage is over flowing with crap and I am just as frustrated. Earlier this week mom and I had a fight over the state of the garage. I wanted to toss most of the stuff out she thinks we should sell it. I don't know when she thinks that's going to happen. The garage is full of furniture what she wants to keep. She says she's keeping because she wants to take it up north to her other place, however NOTHING has made it up north and most of it is broken or was bought will good intentions and never used.

Besides that 2 years ago when my Aunt died we cleared out her apartment and all the boxes are down stars (a few are in the storage unit). Than in March 2010 my Aunt Carm moved in with use for a couple of months and lots of her stuff came but didn't leave with her. Than in the end of April 2010 I moved home.

In our garage we have: 1 full sized kitchen table, 1 broken dinning room table, 8 dinning room chairs, 2 random chairs form a dinning room set we don't have, an elliptical machine, a stationary bike, a coat rack, a side table, a base of a table but no top to it. Boxes of shoes, a set of 3 end tables, 2 lamps, 1 lamp shade, 4 winter tires that were form her old car, a printer that doesn't work, left over laminate flooring boxes, an old solid wood (read: weights 150 pounds) secretary desk, a computer cupboard, 2 sets of golf clubs (only mom plays), a rocking chair, my aunt's recliner sitting/ smoking chair, a full set of 12 dishes never opened and these are only the things I can actually see. We have so much furniture we could furnish a 4th house. There is a multitude of shit that is on the second level shelves that are boxes that I can't even get too.

I currently rent a storage unit to store the stuff I came on with from university because we can't fit it into our garage at $180 a month. Which also has two full sized fining cabinets that are Mom's and a full double bed, sold wood bed room set which I want to get rid of.

Don't even get me started on the china we have in our basement!! We have 4 full tea sets, please tell me why someone needs 4 tea sets!!

She is frustrated with the clutter and so am I, last week we had a fight over the state of the house which is full and the garage. I begged her to let me get rid of stuff, she wants to do a garage sale I want to put it out at the front of the house and let it go. She refused and stormed off in a huff after threatening to kick me out. I was so up set with her I put my Aunt's recliner sitting/ smoking chair out on the front of the house and I put two under the bed draws (from the garage), a fountain that came with my Aunt Carm's house and never left, two pictures and a stain glass window my X-bf's mom gave me. I never like it, gave me bad vibes. My sister claimed one of the pictures and I put out an old computer chair.

Than Terry a friend of Mom's stopped by (just now) to drop off 'collectables for up north', I grounded again. I flat out told Terry that she was NOT to bring anything else!! We already have Terry's Aunt's blanket book in our spare bedroom. Now I can hear her telling Terry and another friend  how overwhelmed she is with it all and in the next breath talking about buying something else for the house, furniture wise. What bother's me the most about it all is she has made no attempt to sort and toss. AND every time I try,  I get "no, no we can sell it in a garage sale OR no, I am want to take it up north."

After our fight today I once again begged her to let me toss crap out of the garage. She had finally relented  on specific items.***I am HOLDING HER TO IT*** I know that if we put some of the things on Creg's list we might get some money for it, specifically the secretary's desk. However its barred under the 8 dining room chairs, the busted dinning room table and the full sized kitchen table. I am just not interested in the excuses any more. I think I am at a point were I will take all the screaming and yelling AFTER I have tossed the crap out.

Today while I was popper scooping I kept repeating to myself "I will cut my crap by 50%." I never want to have my house look like mom's (over furnished and lots of china and 'collectables'), we have two full china cabinets. I want to add to my 2011 Goal to reduce my crap by 50% but I have quite a few other goals that I am afraid I am over doing it. I think I will add it and see how much progress I make on it, than add it to next years goals.

Last Thursday mom told she put her self down on a wait list of a 3 bedroom apartment in an adult living
complex. I was not happy with her about this. Because she often yells at me that I make plans and don't 'consult her about them' and I think this is one hell of a plan that should have required a family pow wow. She tried to justify it to me by saying that it took 2 years for the last one to come on the market, but that doesn't mean another one will take 2 years. When I asked her why she wanted a 3 bedroom place if she expected to be the only one moving in to it she said 1) to sleep 2) office 3) guest bedroom. She also thinks that I will have paid everything off by than and be in my 'own' place.  Trust me I would love this to be the case!! But I know having it paid off in 3.5 is a lofty goal, there is no way that it will happen in 2. Unless I change jobs and get a better paying one. Which if I don't pass this exam I might just be looking for.

I was suppose to be studying all day but its 5: 30 pm and I haven't even been able to crack the books... the last 5 1/2 h have been spend dealing with the house and mom. And now this post, I need to get this off my chest.

Thanks for listening. I hope your Sunday has been a less frustrating compared to mine!

On a side note: I snow flaked 2.05+0.45 into house fund, snowflake jar at: $341.82.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

LoC Update and Debt Musings



Cat note: Salem cat #1 would like you to know that he is discouraging blogging at 6 in the morning and instead is incurring petting and sleeping since he is lying across my one of of my hands and trying to occupy the other one.

I decided not to post my first budget for this month as I don't think I will have it sorted out in time for this month. Have you ever noticed that most people refer to getting out of debt as "digging out of a hole." I think I take this metaphor to literal because it never really made any sense to me. In stead I think of debt and no debt more in the sense of 'filling' a hole and building a ladder. Let me explain:

Picture yourself standing on the ground and in front of you is a hole and a ladder. Now the hole is were you need to plant your ladder for it to have a sold foundation. If you plant it in the hole you will only reach the ground (zero net worth). So in order to build financial and life assets IE: home, kids, retirement savings, travel savings and so on you need to fill in the hole. If you find yourself with assets and a hole 'debt' its likely that your ladder is on shaky ground and you'd like to shore it up before progressing further. Or you have got only part way up the ladder and despite all your heard work have found that your at a stand still, stagnant. Thus the only way to progress further is to climb down and shore up the foundation. I would like to think of myself as being in the second of these categories. Don't get me wrong I am still staring down a large black whole, but I have a few 'assets' and now I want to make sure that MY ladder is on sold foundation so I am climbing down and putting more towards filling the whole than building up the 'ladder.' I hope my analogy makes sense to someone else besides me.

Where am I going with this? Well one of my holes got a little smaller this past month. This month I put in:

May 5~ $407.55
May 6 ~ $3.46 (Snow flake)
May 6~ $4.25 (snow flake)
May 19~$525
May 24~ $24.61(Cell phone snow flake)
May 24~ $125.54 (Easter over time pay)
May 31~ $1.68 (storage snowflake)

Total paid: $1,092.09

Daily Interest for the month of May: $3.63
Total monthly interest: $112.55
Total without interest paid in April on LoC: $979.54

Current outstanding balance on LoC: $-29,088.13

$1.68 already added to snow flake jar standing at $331.82, 4.25+3.25= $7.50, pumps jar up to $339.32

Friday, May 20, 2011

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 

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

I have GOOD NEWS!!!

Today I went to the TD bank to finally deposit my GST cheque in to my line of credit, a whopping $62.50.  This is not my good news per say thought at the end of the month when I find out how much I have been able to put on to my line of credit it will definitely boost the number. NO the good news is I also asked what my balance was on my credit card. Guess what the number was... wait for it... ZERO!!!

That's right I am now CONSUMER DEBT FREE!!!!!!!

YAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

***jump up and down***

I am so excited, my friend drove me to the bank and I told him first. But besides him you my friends  are the second people I have told.

I haven't bothered to tell my mom or my BF... I want to saver the moment with people who will understand  how I feel. This means that there will be extra money this month I can put into my line of credit!! Snowball here I come!!




I had so much more I wanted to blog about today but I am to excited so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Monday, February 28, 2011

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.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Night Before Pay Day

I just got back from Salsa and had a blast! I had one drink my friend bought me and I'm tipsy... talk about a cheep date! Any ways I am about to jump in to bed but before I do I snowflasked the last of my paycheque. I total I put in $17.07. This brings my snowflake jar up to $80.60 and my extra 15,000 fund up to $143.10.

Tomorrow is the day of reckoning, God I hope my budget will balance out... wish me luck.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

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.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Weekly Spending Recap Jan. 1-8th 2010

January 1
No Spend Day

January 2
No Spend Day

January 3
No Spend Day

January 4
No Spend Day

January 5
20.00 Duke of Ed fees (budgeted for 30.00)
6.78 Carlson Cards

January 6
No Spend Day

January 7
No Spend Day

January 8
$7.65 Taco Bell  ( I know a guilty pleasure that I haven't had in a long time)
Deposited $35 into TD line of Credit (25 xmas money + 10 from Duke of Ed budget)

My First Snowflake of the year!!!!  I am so excited, though when I added it to my 15,000 goal tracker it didn't even register... that was depressing. Still I have it written underneath my snowflake jar.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Bi-weekly finances and funds



Today is pay day. Pay days are fun because well you get paid ;P
I walked in to my bank and the Ally cheque hasn't gone through. I'm telling you its so frustrating. I almost wish I hadn't sent the cheque in. I think the Gods were stickin it to me today. I told you it would be boring and quiet at work today and I was wrong. It was so busy today that it wasn't until 10 min. before lunch did I realize that I needed to sort out my budget to take money out of my account.

With out any further ado:

TD Line of credit: 200.00
General Savings: 117.26
Cat fund: 50.00
Vacation Fund: 150.00
Car Fund: 425.00
Transit: 48.00 (2 sheets of tickets)
Duke of Ed fees: 30.00
Spending money: 80.00

My friend gave me back 50.00 he owed me from a while back. I have decided to put the money into my car fund.

I snowflaked 30.00 from my last pay into my TD line of credit.  I am not sure if this is an exact figure of what was left from my last pay but I think it is about right.

I have decided to move the general savings into my car fund. I haven't deposited the amount form my friend yet so I am not including it into my updated fund tracker.


Money in Money out….

Friday, December 3, 2010

The Woes of Good Intentions and Bank Fees

In my last post I mentioned that was going to start a snowflake jar. So knowing that I had about $24 in my account by the 30th I strove to not spend anything till the end if the day. Or the next day (the 1st) because I knew I would be paid on the 2nd of December. So imagine my surprise after work on the 31st when my account went from $24 to $ -92.89 over night. I immediately called the bank and told the lady who answered the phone straight up I was up sent and pissed off. The lady was very professional and by the end over 1.5h call things were completely sorted out.

Your likely wondering how does one go from being in the black to being in the red over night. Trust me I wanted to know the same thing.

This is what happened: on my bank account plan I was only 'allowed' up to 15 transactions a month. However I thought this was at the bank/bank machine transactions. Well apparently it also includes online transactions. Needless to say I ALWAYS go over that number. Last month I did 55 transactions between moving money around to paying bills. This number is average for me, but because I was a student I never got charged the extra $0.65 for each additional transaction because on top of my 'everyday account' I had the 'student plan' except this expired at the end of this past month and I did not go into renew it because I am no longer a student. As a result I was changed $14.35 plus $2.00 passbook update. Had it only been $16.35 I might not have been as upset but $24-16.35 does not = $ -92.89 and that is a lot of money to be in the red!! As it turns out the night before (Dec. 29th) I was doing mobile banking and I was transferring money out of my chequeing account that I had put in for a 'just incase' but really belonged in my general savings fund. What we concluded was that there was a glitch in the system and on two separate instances it transferred out $100.00 . So between the bank fees and the extra $100 being taken out of my checking account I definitely ended up in the red.

The lady at the bank reversed everything and gave me back the $16.35 and in the process I signed up for a new bank account plan which gives me 200 transactions a month for $9.95. I know some people might think its money wasted. But I have 8 accounts with them and like I said I am always moving money around or paying bills. One of the ways I curb impulse buying is I never keep money in my chequing account. When I need to spend money I move it from my 'holding account.' The down side to all this stuff is that she said it would take a few days for the bank to approve the return of money and to reset the system online.

Now that a couple of days have passed I am able to start making official snowflake deposits.

What did I learn from this: Always keep an eye on your finances and know the amount of money in your accounts.


Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Monthly TD Line of Credit

It is the end of the month and time to find out what my student debt is at. This month I put in 150.00 +65.00 +200.00 = 415.00.
In total this month I put in 415.00. This brings my total line of credit down to $33,189.37. This means that in total I have put in $1,191.44. I am very proud of this number. I know that its not massive but it is a start.

Math:
34,380.81 - 1,191.44= $33,189.37


$415.00 is not enough to meet my debt repayment goals so how do I increase this amount. I have bee reading a lot of other blogs to get ideas. One of the blogs that I was reading had a 'snowflake jar' which puzzled me. So I googled it and came across another idea to help pay down my debt. The idea of snowflake finance is to put what ever is left over even it its only 25 cents in to your debt. So I am going to try this method. Actually I already did with my lay 2 pays ago. The money that was left over before last pay was almost enough to completely pay off the remanning debt to Dave. This made me feel really great! So I am completely on board with this idea. I hope that the $24 will be the first to go into my 'snowflake fund' aka my Student Debt.


What about you? Will you start a snowflake jar?