Month End - January 2011

Every once in a while I have to sit back, look at my finances, and go wtf?


This is one of those months

	31-Mar-10	31-Dec-10	31-Jan-11
Chequing	$116.66	$1,140.22	$149.68
Savings 1	$0.24	$0.26	$0.26
Savings 2	$100.00	$0.90	$0.90
Savings 3	$500.00	$0.07	$0.07
Investment	$2,189.67	$1,182.81	$1,154.89
TFSA	$0.00	$2,463.64	$2,423.86
RRSP 1	$1,525.96	$1,594.74	$1,632.31
RRSP 2	$3,868.08	$4,016.84	$4,016.41
ASSETS	$8,300.61	$10,399.48	$9,378.38
Car Loan	($13,138.27)	($9,760.77)	($9,397.49)
LOC	($10,000.00)	($11,100.00)	($11,000.00)
Credit Card	($5,155.65)	($4,978.23)	($4,433.32)
DEBTS	($28,293.92)	($25,839.00)	($24,830.81)
Net Worth	($19,993.31)	($15,439.52)	($15,452.43)

It's more a question of where my money went, so I guess I should be saying WDMMG, rather than WTF.

I know I finished off the last month with an extra pay cheque, which skewed my assets higher and mostly went to a mortgage payment, but I'm not entirely sure where the money went. My net worth changed by $13 in the wrong direction? I'm shaking my head at this one. 

I've tried writing down every penny I spend before, and unfortunately it's failed miserably in the past. I had been thinking about making it a mini goal to write down everything I spend in the month of February. This post seems to be heavily encouraging that - coincidence?

Tomorrow I'll be taking a look at my slip ups in the cash only department in January, maybe I'll be able to shed a little light on this situation? I hope so.

Suck it in...

The advantage to being tight on money is that it forces you to make a budget (and stick to it!). It’s been helpful in teaching me a skill I had all but forgotten how to do. I had to tighten my previous budget for this pay period when I got a less than pleasant pay check surprise. 8 hours of my overtime were paid out as straight time rather than time and a half. This was likely due to the fact that I had taken a 1 day vacation when my mom came down to visit. That day was a paid vacation (straight time), but for some reason my straight time now encompasses work I did on the weekend as well. That leaves my check about $100 smaller than I expected it to be. Tack that onto the fact that my shoe just broke while I was walking around in the office this afternoon (not the heel, the actual shoe), and you have one unhappy little panda. Insert my frowning face here.

The belt being sold out took a decent chunk out of my expected expenditures, but not quite enough. Rather than picking up my dry cleaning today I’m going to hunt down that coupon I found in the mail a few weeks back. Hopefully it’s still good? I’ll put off a couple non-essential grocery items (bleach, mouthwash, cheese) until next payday. With any luck I’ll be able to keep my gasoline consumption down too. Tighten that imaginary belt!

I still put $100 on the credit card and $50 on the LOC though. Go little snowball go.