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.

*slide*

And now, for last month's slips. Needless to say, it was a little rough for me this month, especially around the middle. I'm not going to beat around this one, I slipped into an old, very bad, habit this month. I used shopping to beat stress.

I seriously deserve a beat down for this one.

After what was the hardest day I've had at work in well over a year, I went shopping. I didn't use cash. I did set myself a limit, I wasn't allowed to spend any more than 50% of my extra payments this month. That way by the end of the month I was still digging myself out, it was just slower than anticipated. Still, it's a habit I need to break.

After reading on Hi That's My Bike that the jeans I had been after were on sale at Anthropologie, I trotted down there and picked a pair up. Originally almost $220, they were marked down to $80.  While I was there I noticed the sweater I had been fawning over the weeks leading up to Christmas was marked down to $40 from $120, so I picked up the last one in my size as well. Tack on a couple small gifts for people, and a tube of mascara to replace mine (it was time), and I was done. Part of what limited the shopping (other than the fact that the mall was closing), wasn't so much the fact that it would mean my debt would take longer to pay off, but the fact that I'd have to write about it on here. Let's face it, admitting to this stuff is embarassing. So, thank you all.
Credit Card Damage: $184.64

I love music. I know what I should do here is delete my credit card information off iTunes, go out and buy an iTunes gift card with cash, and then use that. As of yet I haven't done it. Chalk this up to laziness, I'll buy one next time I'm out getting groceries.
Credit Card Damage: $3.57

As many of you probably saw earlier in the month, I signed up for the Ride to Conquer Cancer. Unfortunately there was a sizable registration cost associated with signing up for it.

That's right, I paid money to raise money for someone else.

I don't feel too bad about the cost of the registration because they feed us and provide us with a place to sleep that weekend. I'm basically paying for a weekend out now rather than in June. They only took either credit card or cheque for the registration costs, and I didn't have any cheques on me, so it ended up going on my credit card. That's the problem with having your card number memorized, its still usable even when it's frozen in a block of ice. My only saving grace on that is that while I have the loooooong number on the front memorized, the short one on the back I don't. That means I usually can't use it online. I put extra money on my card the following payday, but it would have been nice if that money went towards paying the balance down rather than just maintaining it.
Credit Card Damage: $75

That's $263.21 in non-cash spending during the month of February.

*facepalm*

That sucks.

Amazingly enough though I didn't use my debit card all month, other than to take money out of the bank machine every payday. I did however write down and track my spending all month, which was one of my other goals for February. I'll post the results of that tomorrow :)

Month End - February 2011

I had some fun at the company curling bonspiel this weekend. For those of you who don't know, curling is quite possibly the only sport in the world where house cleaning experience comes in handy. Hehehe. They call it sweeping, but it's really more of a mopping motion. I'm a little sore from sliding those chunks of granite around now.

I realized something earlier this month. I've been contributing money to my RRSPs through work, but I never actually took the money into account when I was doing my month ends. Oops. Looks like I have about $600 more in assets than I thought I had :)

Sweet.

Anyway, here's how the month panned out:

	31-Mar-10	31-Jan-11	28-Feb-11
Chequing	$116.66	$149.68	$661.78
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	$1,154.89	$1,256.02
TFSA	$0.00	$2,423.86	$2,522.19
RRSP 1	$1,525.96	$1,632.31	$1,642.74
RRSP 2	$3,868.08	$4,016.41	$4,038.05
RRSP 3	$0.00	$444.94	$667.42
ASSETS	$8,300.61	$9,823.32	$10,789.43
Car Loan	($13,138.27)	($9,397.49)	($9,034.03)
LOC	($10,000.00)	($11,000.00)	($11,000.00)
Credit Card	($5,155.65)	($4,433.32)	($4,301.76)
DEBTS	($28,293.92)	($24,830.81)	($24,335.79)
Net Worth	($19,993.31)	($15,007.49)	($13,546.36)

While I didn't backslide anywhere, I didn't exactly pay anything off by leaps and bounds. It's disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. I'll go into more detail on where the money went in tomorrow's post, because it would make for far too long of a post if I put it in today's. I'm utterly miffed by how small the change in my credit card was, but it's my own fault.

I really need to consolidate my RRSP accounts, I don't need to have 3 of them. I've been meaning to do that for about 6 months now, I just... haven't. It's right up there with writing a will and buying more life insurance. I know better. I'll probably do it when I get all of my tax slips in, that way I'll have all the information I need to switch things around. I'll set that as a goal for April. The will and life insurance will probably be goals for May and June.

How did you guys fare this past month?

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?

Mmmmm Payday

I'm happy that since starting my cash only year I've been much less concerned about when payday actually occurs. While some of my envelopes tend to run out rather quickly (I'm looking at you Food and Entertainment), its soothing to know that I have cash sitting in the other envelopes for when I need something. It also feels like the 2 weeks between paydays go by much faster now. Rather than sitting impatiently waiting for the money to come in again (MUST SPEND MONEY! RAWR!!!), I'm a little more content. Scratch that, a lot more content.

That doesn't mean the internal shopping beast doesn't occasionally try to manifest itself, it's just that I'm getting a little better at beating it into submission.

Along with the lower spending comes higher debt payments :) I love dumping a decent size chunk of change onto the totals. I feel like I'm sticking it to the credit card companies every time I do it (not nice, no, but if it's keeping me going...). I've also gotten better at writing my spending down in my day planner! So far I'm up to date with my February mini goal. I'm not blogging the result of that weekly, though I plan to do it all in a more visual form at the end of the month. I know you like the visuals FB ;)

I'm also a little excited about this payday, because I have a new way to track my money now :) One of my friends read that I have problems writing things down, so we met for coffee and she showed me how she tracks hers. She also gave me one of her little note pads, which was/is SO appreciated (Thanks M!), and I plan to start using it today as soon as I take my cash out for the next 2 weeks :)

On a side note, apparently Tim Horton's is trying to rebrand some of their products again. Their danishes and croissants are now European Style danishes, and European Style croissants. Really? Last I checked they haven't changed at all. Yay marketing?

Anyway, that's it for today. I hope you're all doing great ;)

Epic Impact Day

For those of you who don't know (I know some of you already do), I've signed up for the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer. It's a 200km bike ride with the goal of raising money for cancer research. This ride takes place in 4 Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. I will be participating in the Alberta ride, travelling through the rocky mountain foothills.

The money I raise goes directly to the Alberta Cancer Foundation. That's not to say that the money only benefits those of us living in Alberta. The money goes towards cancer research and education, which benefits everyone worldwide. A lot of research goes on in Alberta, and I'd like to see us move forward with more break throughs.

In order to even participate in the ride, each rider must raise a minimum of $2,500. I've set myself a lofty goal of raising $10,000. Will it be difficult? Well, yeah. Haha. However raising the money will be easier than the bike ride, and the bike ride is hands down easier than what people have to go through when battling cancer. I just hope that my little drop in the bucket will help someone out there who needs it.

If you couldn't tell from my post title and the picture at the top of the page, today is Epic Impact Day. The goal of today is to have every rider get at least one donation. This is to prove that small contributions, when done on a large scale, can add up to make a huge difference. There is somewhere around 2000 riders in Alberta alone. If there are similar numbers in the other provinces, and everyone manages to raise $25-$50, that's $200,000-$400,000 raised in one day alone. That's huge!

I know a lot of people who read this blog are concerned about their personal finances. I completely understand that. However, I'm asking that if you personally know anyone who is riding to please donate to them. If you don't know anyone who is riding, please donate to me ;) When you donate online, they will e-mail you a tax reciept for any donations over $10. If you want to donate, but funds are tight, you have the option of spreading smaller amounts over several months. Every little bit helps.

I'm not a huge fan of shameless self promotion, but there are some causes that are worth it. In my opinion, this is one of them. I hope you guys don't mind. Have an epic day :)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!! Welcome to 2011!!! Woo Hoo!!!!

A little too much enthusiasm for the hung over folks this morning? Maybe just a teensy bit....

I’ve never been one for partying personally, not hard anyway. The year I turned legal to drink I was home by 10pm on my birthday and my dad looked at me like I was nuts. What’s kind of funny about that scenario is that my dad doesn’t drink either.

So, I’m actually feeling pretty good this morning :) Reasonably ready to meet the new year. It’s great, because last year I DEFINITELY wasn’t ready. I wasn’t hung over last year either, instead I was trying to bring myself down off a bad case of anxiety and depression as a result of my last job (which I had just quit), and gear myself up for my new job (which I’m still at). I’ll go into that further another day, for now I’ll just say that I feel much better prepared to greet 2011 than I was 2010.

I spent part of yesterday doing prep work for my goal of going cash only this year.  I had a stack of Christmas cards I bought on sale a while back which had apparently gotten damp. The cards themselves were fine, but the envelopes had all sealed themselves shut. Rather than chuck them out and get different envelopes for my budgeting, I sliced the tops open with a paring knife. There was exactly as many sealed envelopes left as I had categories, it’s like it was meant to be. Rather than using my canning jars for the “Oh Shit!” and “Mortgage Extras” categories, I repurposed a couple containers headed for the recycling. “Oh Shit” is now housed in a mayonnaise jar, and “Mortgage Extras” is in a 4L milk jug. Not pretty, but to be fair they never really had to be. I’ll probably get bored one day and decorate them anyway.

I went around the house gathering up everything money related: a gift card here, a stack of change there, a whole whack of grocery cards... It really is amazing how much change can hide in the bottom of a purse. This compounds when you have more than one. Between my existing change jar and the coins I rounded up, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s $15 - $20 in the “Mortgage Extras” jug already. All of the other envelopes (and the mayonnaise jar) got $5 - $10 worth of seed money to start the year with. I put the gift cards (Starbucks/Aveda/Sephora/Holts/Save-On-Foods) in their respective categories. I think I may actually put their points cards in the envelopes too; no point in hauling them around when the money I’d be spending is sitting at home.

That reminds me, I should check to see if there is a cheaper chequing account option for my new spending patterns. I want to cut down on unnecessary fees.

I feel like I’m putting the right foot forward this year, I’m looking forward to meeting my goals. How about you guys? What steps are you going to take to make your goals reality this year?

  

Stuffing Envelopes

I mentioned recently that one of my goals for the New Year was to use a cash envelope system for budgeting. I’ve used the system before, with great results. MP Dunleavey wrote an article about living on cash rather than credit back in March 2009. I quite enjoyed the article, though it can be summed up in a few short words:

If you don’t have the money you can’t spend it.

I’d still recommend it as a good starter for going back to cash after a plastic addiction, as it talks about expectations and adjusting our mind set.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/CreditCardSmarts/3-steps-back-to-the-sanity-of-cash.aspx

When I was waiting tables in my early university days I’d save my pay checks in my bank account, and live off my tips. I didn’t have nearly the expenses to look after that I do now (housing, utilities and phone were all paid for, I only looked after food, fuel, etc… ), but I never had to worry about going over budget or into debt. I’m a very visual person, and having that stash of cash in an envelope showed me quite tangibly how much money I had to spend, and whether or not I needed to tighten my belt.

Quite simply: It worked.

For some reason or another I quit using the system when I stopped waiting tables. I picked it up again for short periods of time here and there, but sadly I never did it as faithfully as I did before. So, I’m going to change that.

Through the year of 2011, I am going to use cash. Just cash. Bills that are deducted automatically (mortgage, car, insurance) or paid online (power, water, credit card) will continue being paid that way. Everything else (food, fuel, clothing, gifts, etc…) will be paid for using cold hard cash. This is how I’m going to break it down:

Food

This is exactly what it sounds like; if I ingest it (with the exception of medication), it gets paid for here. Food, Alcohol, Eating Out, etc…

Personal Care

Largely toiletries, with a few extras. Feminine products, soap, shampoo, makeup, hair cuts, massages, etc… The massages are reimbursable through work, so some of the money that gets spent in this category will be coming back and can be used again.

House

I’m fixing my place up, and sadly that’s not free. Home care and renovation supplies will come out of this category. Flooring, mortar, lighting, paint rollers, gardening, etc…

Gas

Thankfully quite a small category. Fuel for my car. It’s been averaging under $50 a month if I don’t drive somewhere out of the city, such as too my parent’s house.

Medical

I’m a little ticked that this category has gotten large enough to warrant its own envelope, but it is what it is. Acne medications, antihistamines, asthma medication, etc… Again, some of the items in here are reimbursable through work, so the money will return to the category and can be reused.

Clothing

A largely self explanatory category: clothes, shoes and accessories. Do I need more clothes? No. My body is covered, and the level of coverage can be varied depending on the weather. That being said, this category also provides a certain level of personal enjoyment. I really enjoy fashion. I read about it with great interest, and put a lot of effort into finding things that fit me well. I’m working on building a work wardrobe, and if it’s properly budgeted it won’t contribute to my debt levels.

Gifts

Christmas, birthdays, work gatherings… All require gifts, usually aren’t budgeted. I’m also going to throw Thank You cards in this category, because I’ve been sending them out to people as of late as well.

Entertainment

Books, magazines, movies, sports, dating… You get the idea.

Oh Shit!

Literally anything that would make you say that. Blown tire, roof leak, broken window…

Mortgage Extras

This is all of the spare change I’m going to collect to put towards my mortgage.

Money will be separated into the various envelopes on pay day. If I find myself running short in one category I can pinch some from another category, but it means that category is now smaller. All of the categories are going to be stuffed in labeled envelopes with the exception of “Oh Shit!” and “Mortgage Extras”. As I mentioned above, I’m a very visual person, I do not want to see the money in these categories. I want to pretend it doesn’t exist so it just builds up in there while I remain oblivious to it. The holding containers for these will be a little different; I’m going to take old jars, paint the insides so they’re opaque, and then glue their lids on so that all I can do is put money in the slot at the top.

 Basically, it’s a cheap piggy bank that you have to break to get the money out. I’m not very often inclined to break things, so this should work well.

So, that’s the plan for goal number 1. Does anyone else out there use the money envelope system for their day to day finances? If so, how do you break it down? Do you do anything differently? I’d love to hear it!