Weekly Spending Re-cap August 22-28 and Catchup

I just realized that I haven't blogged in 3 days.  It's been a crazy few days. On Friday night I lined up at 11pm to get tickets for Jack Layton's funeral. At 8:30 am on Saturday we got our wristbands and then advised to come back at 11:30m to get the actual tickets. The wrist band guaranteed 1 of 600 spots. I went to the funeral, it was very well done. By the time I got home my BF who came with me and I had been up for 36h straight. Then today I went to Fanexpo which was a lot of walking. My legs are killing me. I am super tired and I am actually having issues writing this blog. Any ways its because of all this that you haven't heard from me.

***next day**
Sorry I was to tired to write so I went to bed. My spending is out of whack again. I put something on my credit card. But I am not worried about it because its less then $100 and its the only thing on it. I was able to go to Fanexpo and not even spend the 10$ that I took. Its interesting how when you are trying to dig yourself out of debt your priorities change. Also I have no desire to acquire more stuff.  I paid the storage unit on Sat. for the last time. I don't expect that I will see any of the money back but knowing that I won't have to budget for it in September is a nice feeling. I have come to the realization that only giving myself 60$ for two weeks is not enough. So I am going to go back to $75 I never realized how much of a difference 15$ makes.

Any ways on to my spending recap.

August 22 (Friday)
$214.41 Insurance
$3.19 shoppers drug mart

August 23 (Thursday)
No Spend Day

 August 24 ( Wednesday)
No Spend Day

August 25 (Thursday)
No Spend Day

August 26 (Friday)
$68.00 - Walmart ~on visa

August 27 (Saturday)
10 on all day TTC pass
10.64 at Mcdonald's

August 28 (Sunday)
$8 at fanexpo on food and transportation

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. 

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

Letting Things Fall in to Place

For the last little while I have been musing over what to do with my GST cheque. Should I put it into my Christmas fund to get it finished off or into my visa account or into my LoC. I have decided to put it into my drum roll…. My Christmas fund. Little Lamb has consistently told me that I should focus on one thing at a time, instead of splitting my money a little bit at a time over lots of little things. And I think she is right. Also I called TD to see how I was coming with my Loc this month and I was pleasantly surprised. Last my over time will be on this week’s pay, so I have decided to take the over time minus the rest I need to finish my Christmas fund and put that into my visa card. It should bring it down at least by $150.00. I hate that I have to use my over time money for consumer debt but you do what you must. The next thing is that starting next month I have to decide if I will focus on my vet bills fund or my car fund. But that’s a discussion for another day.

On a side not as of today I have been working for the Bank exactly 1 year. Gosh how time flies.

Weekly Spending Re-cap August 15-21

August 15 (Monday)
$21.70 Old mill Pontiac to get paint for my car- on visa
$36.16 Wal-mart photo shop-on visa
$11.27 wal-mart plastic gas tank
$2.34 Tim's

August 16 (Tuesday)
$49.56 Gas in PTBO
$6.44 Railside  Restaurant

August 17 (Wednesday)
$7.32 Thai express
$2.63 David's Tea

August 18 (Thursday)
$23.82 Gas in PTBO to fill up extra tank because it is so much cheeper
$12.03 gas in PTBO

August 19 (Friday)
$149.00 TDSB French classes- on visa
$7.90 Cosco for chips for going a friend's moving party

August 20 (Saturday)
No Spend Day

August 21 (Sunday)
$3.19 shoppers for hamburger buns

All the eating out is because I was in PTBO for a few days to see my BF and I fell a little off the wagon.

Well this was an expensive week. But I knew it would be a little bit just not this much. The gas I put in visa will be paid off from next pay's gas money. And I have already paid for the paint from my car fund. As it stand's my visa will everything I put on it this week and for the cost of bailing my mom out with the storage unit and the Goupon I was stupid enough the let her put on my visa, my balance is drum role: $465.81. Which is not as bad as I thought it was, but not at the Zero I would rather see at the end of my statement.

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.

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

Please I Need Your Advice/ Opinion!

I got a bit of studying done yesterday but not nearly as much as I would have liked. I also did some number  crunching. Before I did my 'Own Up to my debt' post I had my student debt at a nice round number like $40,000.00. Well would you believe it was almost $10,000 more and at the time I wasn't including my visa card debt in that calculation. Also at that time I set myself the 3.5 year goal, I told every one that if it took 2 or 3 jobs I was prepared to do it. My BF at the time asked me not to fearing that it would sound the begging to the end of our relationship. So out of respect for him I didn't. I also thought I would get a job that started at $40,000 and guess what I didn't. Now this is no one's fault but my own. In my defence I took the first job offered and 10 days after I had handed in my last paper for my last course of my BA degree, I was sitting in training class. So maybe I could have stuck it out and waited for a 'better' job but no one was paying my bills that wasn't an option in my option.

But I digress, let me get back to the the original topic of this post. As I was saying I have been number crunching. With my visa debt my total debt worked out to be $49,058.75 so in order to get it paid off in 3.5 years I have to put $14, 016.78 in to my debt year 1,2,3 AND year 1/2. I have been musing over if I should make year 1 Sept. 2010-2011 or Jan 2011-Dec 2011, since you will notice (see 2011Goals) that one of my goals this year is to put $15,000 into my student debt. However I have now decided to count year 1 of debt reduction, Sept 30, 2010- Sept 30. 2011. Since I think I officially started this journey Sept 9, 2010. This means as of May 31 2011 I have paid off $10,122.48 in debt (sundry debt, visa debt and student debt). However this leaves me with $3,894.30 to go before Sept 30 2011. That means I would have to put at least $973.58 between now and the end of Sept each month in to my student debt, outside of min payments to reach my Year 1 target.  Given my current debt reduction rate the number is possible however by the end of this month/ early next month I will have a car. This will significantly reduce my ability to meet this target.

On top of this my plan is after I know what my minimum monthly payments are to shift focus from aggressively paying down my LoC to my OSAP, since it is both the smallest amount and has the highest interest. And of course in October I will be in debt reduction year #2.

Another piece of back ground before I present you with my dilemma. In Nov. of 2009 I took $1000 of my OSAP money and put it into a mutual fund, I wanted to invest it in stocks but was convinced at the bank to do a mutual find (that's a post for another day). Any ways this mutual fund has done crap all for me its was up to $1115 a few months back but as of May was down to $1110. Since its done crap all for me and its likely I have paid more in interest to OSAP than it has made, I am going to cash it out. I had thought to leave it until Nov. 2011 at which point it would have been sitting for 2 years and depositing back in to my OSAP. I am hoping to recoup the $1000 since there will likely be fees for cashing it out.

Now this is my dilemma should I cash it out early (in Sept) to help me meet my Year 1 debt target
                                                       OR
Should I leave it until Nov. and let it be part of debt reduction year #2 knowing I will likely not have met my debt reduction target for deb year #1

WHAT DO YOU THINK????  Please any guidance is greatly appreciated.

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

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

Weekly spend Recap March 21-27, 2011

March 21 (Monday)

 No Spend Day

March 22 (Tuesday)

 $2.50 cookie at Future Bakery 

March 23 (Wednesday)

 No Spend Day

March 24 (Thursday)

 No Spend Day

March 25 (Friday)

 $20.00 Korean BBQ

March 26 (Saturday)
$45.00 taxi ride to work (just found the receipt as it was put on visa :( 

$7.05 Tim's breakfast and lunch 

 $7.55 Go ticket to Whitby

$12.50 TTC tokens

March 27 (Sunday)

 No Spend Day


I ran to the bank on Saturday after work and snowflaked $8.53 and I deposited another $25.00 in to my visa bill. When my tax return comes in I am going to wipe out my visa debt!!! I am so excited about the prospect. when that happens I will redo my budget again so as to reassign the extra $50 I will have. I have the updated amount on my line of credit with out the $400 I put into it Friday night. So according to the bank my line of credit is currently $-31,275.25. I will update the side bar to reflect the number but not the green line. I only my green bars once a month. Only a couple of more days until  then but hopefully my $400 will show on there system by then. 

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

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.