Covering All Bases

So there is a distinct possibility I MAY have a second roommate moving in. Maybe. I'm kind of excited about this to be quite honest with all of you.

Anyway, it's laundry day week for me. And by that I mean I've pretty much neglected washing my clothes for weeks and I'm working through the stuff I don't normally wear anymore. Given the fact that I take the more European approach to clothes (wear them more than once if they aren't actually dirty), this means I haven't done laundry in a while (save a load of undergarments 2 weeks ago).

Most of you probably already read FB's blog Fabulously Broke, but if you haven't sauntered over to her other blog The Everyday Minimalist I'd suggest you check it out. She did a post a couple days ago about how people dry their clothes around the world that got me waxing nostalgic about my university days. When I moved into my apartment I bought one of those folding drying racks from IKEA to hang my delicates to dry on. It was under $20 at the time, and was one of the smartest purchases I made during that timeframe.

Now, I grew up in a rural area, on an acreage, where you get dirty looking after the animals/gardening. My dad is a mechanic, so you can be sure he gets pretty dirty too. We had one of those extra large washers that advertised it would wash 20 pairs of jeans at once, along with the matching dryer. You could do a lot of laundry in my parent's washer. Imagine my horror at realizing that my apartment only had 1 tiny washer and dryer per floor (Shall we say 3-4 pairs of jeans?), and that it would cost me $2.50 a load to wash, and $2 a load for ~25 minutes in the dryer (plus more for extra drying time).

W...T...F...

It didn't take much mental math to figure out that I wasn't going to be using that washer and dryer. I just flat out refused, both for the sake of my wallet and out of principle.

I spent my entire 3rd year of university washing my clothes in my bath tub, and hanging them to dry on every surface I could find in my apartment. I lived alone, so I really didn't really have to worry about pissing off my roommates doing that. The only thing that caused me grief was my bedding, which I periodically took down to the laundry mat. I stuffed as much clothing into those industrial washers as possible to save myself the tub washing, but that only happened when I had a load of sheets to wash.

By 4th year I did pay to use the apartment machines occasionally for convenience sake; senior design projects sure do know how to take the wind out of you. But, I still tub washed a lot of my clothes.

Fast forward a few more years and I'm now paying to have clothes dry cleaned. Why? Because I bought a tonne of clothes for work that were dry clean only.

That was smart. S-M-R-T....

I had been cursing the cost of cleaning my clothes, when I looked down at my jeans and realized they also had a dry clean only tag.

Seriously???? It's 98% cotton and 2% lycra! Since when is cotton dry clean only?!?

Seeing as my jeans had already been unceremoniously thrown in the washer and *gasp* didn't shrink, it got me thinking about my other clothes. Why are they dry clean only? What are they made of?

Cotton. Wool. Lycra. Cashmere. Polyester.

Funny, none of those fabrics in and of themselves are dry clean only materials. Cold water hand wash sure, but dry clean? Nah. From what I understand cashmere actually does worse at the dry cleaner's than it does in hand washing.

My wallet hurts thinking about the fact that it's been duped.

I have one dress that I bought in Paris which reads "Special Dry Clean Only". From what I gathered (googled) that meant it was to be sent to "trusted" dry cleaners only. That dress will continue to be dry cleaned.

The rest? You guys have a date with my tub, ASAP. Enjoy the cold bath.

Month End - March 2011

An interesting thing happened while I was at work yesterday. As those of you who were reading back in February know, I signed up for the Ride to Conquer Cancer, a 200km bike ride fundraising money for cancer research. I was in a meeting yesterday with my coworkers/coparticipants, working on fundraising ideas. The discussion of team jerseys came up, and their cost. A minimum order is 12 jerseys, and there aren't that many of us riding, so we'd each have to order 2 in order to get them. Their (discounted) price is $65 a piece, or $130 a person. All around the table was a chorus of "Oh, that's a lot of money", "I don't know if I have that kind of money right now", "I'm maxed out".


I'm impressed.


I'm not impressed that $130 is financially tight for most of us, but I'm impressed that they're willing to say that rather than just putting it on credit. Some of the other places I've worked you would be looked down upon for saying that, like you were being cheap. It's much easier when you're working with a group that is receptive to hearing your concerns.


So thank you PF community for being the receptive ear (eye?) for me to talk to about my financial worries. I really appreciate it.


Anyway, welcome to the March edition of how the financial ball is bouncing:

	31-Mar-10	28-Feb-11	31-Mar-11
Chequing	$116.66	$661.78	$166.51
Savings 1	$0.24	$0.26	$0.26
Savings 2	$100.00	$0.90	$0.90
Savings 3	$500.00	$0.07	$580.07
Investment	$2,189.67	$1,256.02	$1,362.91
TFSA	$0.00	$2,522.19	$2,514.04
RRSP 1	$1,525.96	$1,642.74	$1,649.01
RRSP 2	$3,868.08	$4,038.05	$4,027.81
RRSP 3	$0.00	$667.42	$889.90
ASSETS	$8,300.61	$10,789.43	$11,191.41
Car Loan	($13,138.27)	($9,034.03)	($8,665.84)
LOC	($10,000.00)	($11,000.00)	($10,950.00)
Credit Card	($5,155.65)	($4,301.76)	($4,030.33)
DEBTS	($28,293.92)	($24,335.79)	($23,646.17)
Net Worth	($19,993.31)	($13,546.36)	($12,454.76)

One thing you might notice is that my starting tally is officially 1 year old today. In that time frame I've improved my net worth by little over $7500. It seems like a bit of a measly sum for a year's worth of work, but it's also because my net worth went down further last year before it started coming back up. I've got a set of posts mostly written for next week explaining how/why I got into debt in the first place. To be completely honest, it was stressful writing them, and quite embarrassing. It will probably turn into a 3 post set, because I'm thinking I want to talk about what I learned as a result of it.


Anyway, the big winner in the account department last month was my Emergency Savings account which went from $0.07, to $580.07. It could have been sitting at $800, but I decided at the last minute to put some extra money towards my credit card. I didn't follow the game plan I set out last month to a T, but it's still a move in a positive direction. *shovels money*


It feels good knowing I've at least gotten somewhere in the last year.

I'm Dreaming

Because the last couple days have been a little stressful, I really wanted to do something light and fluffy. Something fun and semi-useless. I say semi-useless instead of useless, because this exercise can give you real insight into where your priorities actually lie. Sometimes that's just as useful as money. So, inspired by Money Rabbit's What I Would Do With $100,000, and Krystal at Give Me Back My Five Bucks' What I Would Do If I Won $1,000,000: 4 Years Later, here is what I would do if I had $100,000:
Credit Card - $4,300 ($95,700 left)

So long sucker. Like a bad ex-boyfriend, I won't miss you when you're gone.

LOC - $11,000 ($84,700 left)

This is like the annoying kid brother to the aforementioned bad ex-boyfriend. Less directly spiteful, but I'll be happy to not have to deal with it again either.

Car - $9000 ($75,700 left)

I still plan to sell my silvery little lemon, but in the mean time I'd rather not have the monthly payments or inflated insurance on it either. Hello extra $450 a month...

Mortgage - $48,000 ($27,700 left)

My mortgage, while it is fixed, has multiple pre-payment options including one allowing me to put up to 20% of the total mortgage down on the balance every year. That chunk right there takes my mortgage out of the oh please don't let the rates get too high category into the *breathe* category. Ah the things you learn when you're young and dumb.

New Homebuyer's Repayment - $15,000 ($12,700 left)

Because when I put money into RRSPs, I want my tax money back dammit.

Emergency Fund - $5,300 ($7,400 left)

I'd plunk the money for my goal of $4000 in there, along with a little extra just for good measure. That puts my combined cash savings and investments between $9,000 and $10,000. I'd feel pretty good about that for the time being, as that gives me several months living expenses should I need it. Or a new furnace in January. You never know.

Renovations - $5,000 ($2,400 left)

I need to finish the flooring on my staircase, and the tile in the kitchen. After that, I should have enough money left to put up the other half of the fence in my back yard.

Pantry Restock - $400 ($2,000 left)

Assorted dried/canned odds and ends, as well as 1/2 a lamb from a farming friend of mine up north. Some containers to hold dried goods in an orderly fashion would be nice too.

Grandfather's Birthday Present - $250 ($1,750 left)

Because he deserves it. I don't know yet what the exact gift would be, but I can assure you it likely includes a large Tim Horton's gift card.

Grandmother's Birthday - $750 ($1,000 left)

It's my grandmother's 80th birthday this year, and the family is all getting together in BC to celebrate. That means flights and accommodation, along with a gift for my grandmother.

Wardrobe Restock - $995 ($5)

Right now the thing I'm most in need of are a pair of gum boots (rain boots, wellies, whatever you call them). The snow is melting around my place, and the water on the sidewalks gets quite deep in some places. Other than that, some good quality work clothes to kick a couple items off my list would be great.

Starbucks Chai Latte - $5 (I'm Out!)

Because, you know, I want one.

;)


*Missed a couple several others - Oops*
Paying Myself
Finance Say What
Debt Free Kid
Fabulously Frugirl
Little Miss Money Bags
Figuring Money Out
Hi That's My Bike

Dry Run

NA NA Na Na na na Na Na NA NA Na Na na na Na Na Tax Man!

Why I have that modified batman ditty stuck in my head, I don't know.

I've been wanting to do a dry run of my taxes for quite some time now, but I either a) didn't have the forms, or b) didn't have the time. I wanted to make sure I did it with enough time to spare so that I could set aside enough money to pay the taxes if it turned out I owed the government this year.

It looks like I don't :)

In fact it looks like I'll get almost $2000 back.

I'm ecstatically happy about this. That right there gets me half way to my emergency fund goal! By the time I get it I'll be sitting around 75% of my savings goal.

*happy dance*

This time last year, I wasn't even remotely close to being a happy camper. At. ALL.

I was working for a different company for my last set of taxes, and for whatever reason they didn't take enough taxes off of my pay cheque. Not even close! April rolled around and I was expecting quite a healthy refund. I had put THOUSANDS of dollars into RRSPs, I had the new homebuyer tax credit, I had last year's home renovation tax credit, you name it. But, even with all of that, I still owed the government money.

You did NOT want to be in the room with me when I worked that out.

Come to think of it, my face was about the same shade of purple as the sweater I'm wearing right now. Interesting.

Either way, it looks like this year won't be as painful. I really needed that. THANK YOU accounting department.

What Would You Do?

I had one of those "That will never happen twice" strokes of luck last night. At least I think I did, because I'm not sure whether or not I should have handled it differently.

I asked The Boy last night if he wanted to do anything, and he said a friend of his wanted to do a casino night at one of the big casinos in town. I'm not one for gambling, and I told The Boy that, but I said I'd tag along and hang out anyway.

We got there, and one of the friends sat down at the roulette table to play. He had a "fool proof strategy" for winning money in roulette. While the method he used does work, albeit slowly, you have to have a LOT of money to back you up. He didn't have enough. It was painful to watch, because he was betting on red, and it came up consistently black again and again.

After leaving the table, The Boy and I decided to go back and see how long it took before the roulette table hit red again. We got there, and the wheel kept turning up black. I looked down and noticed a bunch of money laying on the floor behind the chair where our friend had been sitting, so I picked it up. It was really busy, but I looked around to see if anyone was fiddling with their wallets and could have possibly dropped it. Everyone was facing tables concentrating on their games. It wasn't near any of the dealers, so I didn't think it was house money. I looked at The Boy, and he told me I better put it in my pocket.

We walked over and told the people we were with what happened. They were stunned, but nobody actually claimed the money as theirs.

The Boy and I wandered around while the friends played $5 black jack and nickel slots, then headed out for the night.

Neither The Boy or I placed a single bet at the casino, but I walked out with almost $200 cash in my pocket.

He says he's bringing me to the casino more often.

Some of the money is going towards a girls night out tonight, but the majority of it is currently sitting snugly in my emergency savings account. It was the little kick start that account needed.

However, I have that needling little bit of guilt in the back of my head. I know that holding it up and saying "did anyone drop this?" would get me swamped, but does anyone know if there is a proper protocol for found money in a casino? Just curious.

My Two Cents

I never expected anyone would ever read my blog, let alone go out of their way to tell other people about it! Yet it's happened a couple times this week. Thank you to The Asian Pear and Saving for Travel, I appreciate the shout outs. I feel all warm and fuzzy now :)

I picked up a couple pennies at the LRT station. One last night, one this morning. You can't actually buy anything with a penny anymore, I'm pretty sure that even penny candy is all five cents and up now (can you still get candy for a nickel?) Those of you in Canada probably remember the announcement back in December that the Bank of Canada is considering abolishing the penny due to the fact that inflation has eroded it's buying power to the point that it's nearly worthless. It costs more to produce them than their face value.

So why am I picking up a couple dirty coins on my way to the train? Other than because I always have?

Future value.

No, I'm not holding on to them in the hopes that they become rare items and make me a millionaire. They're going in my coin box, the one that goes towards my extra mortgage payment. Those two pennies will save me seven pennies over the life of my mortgage, and that's just assuming that my interest rate doesn't go up. If my rate after renewal went up to 6% and stayed there for the rest of the mortgage, those two pennies would save me about eleven cents. That's eleven cents I don't have to fritter away on my own.

Is seven, or even eleven, cents really going to make a difference on a two hundred and forty some-odd thousand dollar loan? Not really. But if I do it enough times it will. These pennies are my little snowflakes.

Hence the coin jar.

It doesn't take any time, and it doesn't cost anything, so why not?

Employment Uneasiness

So apparently someone at work doesn't like me.

That was news to me, especially seeing as I get along with everyone. No one acts even remotely off towards me at work. But, they're there.

And they're after my job.

I very rarely work with this person directly, it's more like we work on the same floor and some aspects of our jobs overlap on occasion. They're higher up the chain too. Most of my interaction with them involves seemingly pleasant lunchroom conversation about what we're making for dinner tonight and what our weekend plans are. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Behind closed doors though, they're arguing for my dismissal. Until about 8am yesterday morning, my head was on the chopping block for a round of layoffs for corporate restructuring. The higher ups that I do work for directly argued on my behalf and managed to get me taken off the list. I found this out from my manager at lunch time. Can you say blindsided? I asked if there was a problem with my work, if I had done something to piss them off, what I could have done differently.... nothing. There wasn't even any way for me to have seen this coming, because it's happening at a much higher level that I don't get to see. It would have literally have been good one day, gone the next.

Gee, think I feel secure right now?

It's sneaky and underhanded, and apparently this isn't the first time this person has done this. If they like you, it doesn't matter how poor your work is they'll argue for you to stay. If they decide they don't like you, they'll try to get rid of you. It's very political, and you'll see from the about me on the side that I hate politics.

*grumble*

They've been trying to do it to do the same thing to another person at work, based on her appearance. She works in a creative field, and her appearance reflects that. It doesn't fly with Mr. Not-Our-Direct-Manager though, and it doesn't matter that her work is freaking awesome, she was on the list too.

But I still don't know why they has a problem with me.

&%*^%$#!!!

I hate pettiness...

But anyway, it's making me rethink my debt repayment schedule again. Right now my plan was to hit my credit card hard, and knock the debts off one by one by the highest interest rate before I moved on to anything else. Now I'm thinking I should consider bulking up my emergency savings. I currently have about a month and a half worth of savings in investment form, which might not be enough if I didn't find a job right away. Our job market is improving, but I really don't want to be banking on that.

What would you guys do in this situation? Would you keep attacking the debts, build up the savings cushion, or both? And if savings, how much? I could use a little clarity in a bit of a stressful time.

Winterization

Welcome to Edmonton!

As you can probably tell, it's been a little chilly here lately. Actually, it's been really chilly, but it's going to be quite a bit warmer for the next couple days. There are some advantages to living in a place where the temperature can change by 20+ degrees overnight. (~35 degrees if you're in fahrenheit)

There are some distinct financial advantages to living in a frigid winter climate. Do you honestly think anyone wants to pop over to the grocery store because they have a craving for something? Or do you think you're going to go to the mall "just to look around"? Not a chance. Walking to the grocery store on Sunday(2km round trip) was an exercise in bundling. My car was buried under half a meter of snow this past week, and I haven't yet had the energy to dig a path to it and dig it out. Saves on fuel consumption to say the least.

However, it's not always a good thing. This kind of cold is BRUTAL on the energy bills. If your house isn't buttoned up tight, heat seeps out at every crack. My house was built during a building boom, and lets just say the attention to detail isn't really there. I've been making changes and adjustments as I find problems, but there is a long way to go.

The first thing I did when I moved in was change the old mercury tube thermostat (which was hanging off the wall when I moved in, yay foreclosures!) to a programmable one. I'm pretty sure that thing is getting pretty close to paying for itself by now, if it hasn't already. I can assure you that in the mornings I am too groggy and disoriented to remember to turn down the heat before I leave the house, and I'm usually running to catch my bus! It's programmed to turn the heat right down during the day while I'm gone, turn it back up when I get home from work, turn it down again as I'm heading to bed, and then turn it back up when I'm getting up in the morning. Why use less gas than I have to?

Cost: $50         Time: 45 minutes

The next thing I tried to do was insulate my hot water pipes, which are run using lots of small plastic tubing rather than copper or (thankfully) lead. I shook my head when I saw the builders had bundled all of the hot and cold water lines together. You're going to seperate the water, heat up the hot water side, then bundle it all back together with the cold water lines so they can lose heat faster? Brilliant. *facepalm* I've been a little less successful in this one because they had intertangled the piping so badly that I need to take apart all of the waterlines and untangle them to fix this. That means turning off the water to the house. It will have to wait a bit. The sections I did manage to untangle I wrapped in reflective insulation to prevent heat loss. The stuff looks like bubblewrap covered in tinfoil because, well, that's essentially what it is. If you can get to your hot water pipes, definitely wrap them. The less heat you lose this way, they less hot water you'll need to use because it won't cool down as much. That and the water will stay warmer longer.

Cost: $30          Time: Ongoing, but if I had copper pipes about an hour.

I first looked at the house in October while it was still nice out, then I moved in the week before we got hit with the first real cold snap of the year. My kitchen was an ice box! I had no idea why, I was seriously thinking they had forgotten to insulate a wall. It was drafty too. I figured out at least part of the problem this past summer, I could see daylight through the back door! I hadn't noticed it during the winter because it was always dark when I was home! The sun comes up around 8:45 and goes down around 4:15 during December; I was never home during daylight hours during the week, and was quite busy on weekends. Turns out they didn't square the door properly, and the weatherstripping was essentially useless. I grabbed another roll, took the existing stuff off, and positioned it so that it would block the air flow. Not a permanent fix, because I need to fix the door somehow, but it works. Note, the directions tell you to clean your door jam with acetone. If you have conventional nail polish remover, that's essentially the same stuff. Save yourself a couple bucks and use it.

Cost: $13          Time: 45 minutes

The other ice box in my house has been my basement. The only time I had a basement growing up my parents built a commercial kitchen in it. It's kind of hard to be cold standing beside a large pizza oven! So when I noticed my basement was cold, I kind of assumed it was partly due to the lack of heat. It was a bit warmer beside the furnace and hot water heater, but that was about it. There was one window downstairs that I had been wanting to storm seal, but all of the moving boxes had been in the way. I finally got over near the window recently and noticed a definite draft. I had run out of the clear plastic sheeting, so I decided to make a temporary cover out of a garbage bag and packing tape. Boy am I glad I did! The garbage bag was fluttering when I taped up the top, and by the time I had the window sealed it was puffed out like a balloon! No wonder it was so cold downstairs! I'd be willing to bet my clothes will dry faster on the rack now that the draft has stopped. I've noticed a difference in the temperature already.

Cost: $10 (properly) or $1(mine)          Time: 10 minutes

I have the materials to insulate my light switch plates and electrical outlets. It's a quick job, I just need to actually get around to doing it! Pre-punched insulation sheets come in bags of 10 (varied sizing), and all you need is a screw driver. This is seriously the easiest one on the list, and it hasn't been done out of sheer laziness. *slaps hand*

Cost: $5/bag          Time: 2 minutes/outlet

This summer I'm planning to do some caulking around the windows and floor boards as well. I'm hoping that will help some of the other drafts. What have you done to your homes to help with your utility bills? Any tips?

What If You Weren't Allowed to Pay Down Your Debts?

I was cruising the frugal and money blog circuit when I came across a post by Kelly over at Almost Frugal about saving money when theres nothing left in the budget to save.

http://almostfrugal.com/2009/01/14/saving-money/

What struck me about the post wasn't the solution, but her comment that in France it's incredibly hard to make extra debt payments. I froze when I read that, not because I think it will become my reality, but at the thought of it. I've always paid off debts very aggressively; what if my credit card was like a mortgage? What if I was restricted in my ability to make extra payments? I could have been chipping away at my student debt 20 years, rather than the year and 2 months I actually spent paying it off. What if my credit card forced me to make minimum payments only? I remember opening my credit card statement a little while back and reading their calculation of how long it would take to pay off the balance making only minimum payments:

Almost 30 YEARS.

That's a mortgage in itself. By the time it was paid off I'd have paid for the balance several times in interest alone. That's a scary concept, and unfortunately it's one that people live with all too frequently. I've been to France a couple times, and I love the French lifestyle, but I would not be okay with paying off my debt like the French. At. All.

So why would someone restrict your ability to pay them back? Wouldn't they want their money back as soon as possible? The answer is quite simple really, I've already alluded to it above: they make more money by lending it to you than they do by keeping it in their own pocket. How much interest do you make on your savings account? 1%? How much are you paying on your debt? 20%? You and I quite frankly, are high interest savings accounts to the lenders of the world. How does it feel? I know if I was a lender I'd want to lock that rate in and get as much for my money as I could.

I'm unfortunately painfully aware of how much my debt is costing me in interest every month, and I don't want this albatross hanging around my neck for the rest of my life. I'm going to pay this sucker off as fast as I can. Kelly, I wish you the best of luck, and I hope you can convince them to let you pay a little extra when you can.

And the next time I go to France, I'm paying cash.


The Wealthy Barber: The Common Sense Guide to Successful Financial Planning
Debt Free For Life: The Finish Rich Plan for Financial Freedom
Debt-Free Forever: Take Control of Your Money and Your Life

The Savings Solution!

I figured out what I’m going to do with my 3% raise! I am so stoked about this one. When I started with the company I’m working for right now, there was no contribution matching for money you put into the company RRSP accounts. They used to have it, but it was discontinued when the economy took a face first nose dive off a cliff a couple years back. The company I left had a very generous plan. They automatically gave you 4%, and matched dollar for dollar up to 6% of your own contributions. That meant that in order to put in the maximum 18% allowable savings every year, you only had to put in 8% of your own money. Losing that, plus taking a pay cut when I left there, severely hampered my savings ability.

The matching is back! It’s not fully reinstated yet, but given the fact that the economy appears to be stabilizing the company directors have reinstated part of the contribution matching program. If I put my 3% in, the company will match me with another 2%-3%. That’s an automatic 67%-100% increase in my savings! I’d love to see a savings account with that rate of return. Heck, I’d love to see a savings account with a 10^th of that rate of return.  Then come tax time it goes against what I owe (or towards what they owe me). There’s another 20-25%. So just by putting it in this account (which stands a solid chance of growing), I’ll be getting a return of 87%-125% without lifting a finger. I can’t argue with that.

Oh yeah, and the university head honchos gave me permission to take two courses at the same time which I otherwise wouldn’t be allowed to do. I wish all Wednesdays were this good J

Up and down and up and down…

While my paycheck did come with an unexpected downfall in the form of overtime paid out as straight time, I completely missed something else on it. I got a raise. It wasn’t earth shattering, but I’m certainly not going to turn my nose up at another 3% annually. The last time I got a raise, I pledged to save it and not adjust my standard of living to include it. All was going well until my property taxes were adjusted for the year, and my mortgage (which includes the property taxes) went up another $50 every paycheck. Good bye raise savings. It’s time to institute the raise savings again.

The beef came in cheaper than expected, but the groceries and dry cleaning came in over. My coupon that would have saved me $10 on the dry cleaning (bringing me under the budgeted amount) expired 3 weeks ago, but I found 540ml cans of tomatoes on sale at the grocery store for $1 a piece (60% off!). So far over all I’m still under budget on this pay check.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. I had an unexpected expense related to work that I may be able to get them to pay for. I’m applying to the university to take a couple courses which will increase my usefulness to the company. All going well they’ll pay for it. If not, it will just increase my raise potential and hopefully get me some more interesting work to do. The application fee was $75, which went on my credit card. It didn’t wipe out the entire payment I put on it this pay check, but pretty close. Hopefully work will decide to cover that.