Month End - April 2011

Well, it's pretty safe to say that if I was still employed right now I'd be pretty darn happy about this month end update. While the debts only changed by about $400, most of that being my car payment, my assets increased by almost $3000. My last pay check, rather than being the typical 80 hours, was 64 hours of regular work time, 40 hours of severance, and however many vacation days I had left on the books (there was a few). It does NOT include my income tax return, or any EI payments. 

	31-Mar-10	31-Mar-11	30-Apr-11
Chequing	$116.66	$166.51	$2524.12
Savings 1	$0.24	$0.26	$1.26
Savings 2	$100.00	$0.90	$1.90
Savings 3	$500.00	$580.07	$1000.13
Investment	$2,189.67	$1,362.91	$1,538.46
TFSA	$0.00	$2,514.04	$2,494.42
RRSP 1	$1,525.96	$1,649.01	$1,678.23
RRSP 2	$3,868.08	$4,027.81	$4,050.77
RRSP 3	$0.00	$889.90	$889.90
ASSETS	$8,300.61	$11,191.41	$14,179.19
Car Loan	($13,138.27)	($8,665.84)	($8,299.58)
LOC	($10,000.00)	($10,950.00)	($10,950.00)
Credit Card	($5,155.65)	($4,030.33)	($3,990.50)
DEBTS	($28,293.92)	($23,646.17)	($23,240.08)
Net Worth	($19,993.31)	($12,454.76)	($9,060.89)

So, financially speaking, I did alright last month. I'll admit that there were a few slip ups in the cash only goal department, and I did an abhorrent job of tracking my spending at the end of the month. On the bright side I can report that there were a lot more no spend days in April!

But today I'm not going to spend too long looking over my finances. I've got lots of stuff to do keeping me busy! My $2 dinner party is tonight, and it looks as if I'll be able to do it with tonnes of wiggle room to spare! I'm currently sitting at $6.23 to make a meal for 4 people. If it wasn't for the fact that the weather just turned ugly I'd consider ducking out to the store to grab some yogurt to make raita. I may still do that, we'll see.

Have a good day everyone ;)

Fritter Fritter?

*sigh*

Wow. What can I say? I had a distinct lack of no spend days last month. I did add my online payment stuff into this month's calendar, but there are still far fewer no spend days in there than there should be. Here's how it went for the month of March:

A little legend for the calendar below:

Green = No Spend Day

Yellow = Spend Day

Red = Used Credit/Debit Card

March - All Spending
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
		$1.25	$68.71	$110.00	$16.80	$70.00
$19.05	$4.45	$0.00	$52.70	$280.84	$677.83	$14.25
$0.00	$2.50	$6.30	$46.25	$0.25	$14.51	$49.03
$9.61	$0.00	$105.81	$9.02	$11.39	$1,182.15	$16.26
$17.48	$433.38	$0.00	$24.96	$14.50

Before you jump at the red box that's over a thousand dollars, I'll point out that both my mortgage and utilities were paid on that day as well. In fact, any day that you see that's over $100 is due to either utility payments, debt payments, a car/insurance payment or a mortgage payment. Looking at the non-(semi)automated stuff, this is what I spent this month:

March - Cash & Card Spending
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
		$1.25	$68.71	$0.00	$16.80	$70.00
$19.05	$4.45	$0.00	$2.70	$60.84	$22.85	$14.25
$0.00	$2.50	$6.30	$46.25	$0.25	$14.51	$49.03
$9.61	$0.00	$34.07	$9.02	$11.39	$17.17	$16.26
$17.48	$0.00	$0.00	$24.96	$14.50

There is still a distinct lack of No Spend days here. Seriously, what's up with that? I took out the frivolous food purchases, and this is what I came up with:

March - Cash & Card Spending - Without Frivolous Food Purchases
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
		$0.00	$65.92	$0.00	$13.95	$70.00
$19.05	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$59.34	$20.00	$14.25
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$45.00	$0.25	$0.00	$46.71
$0.00	$0.00	$26.00	$7.52	$0.00	$15.67	$5.00
$10.48	$0.00	$0.00	$19.96	$0.00

That's more like it.

Not all of the eating out was taken out of that last one. If I was meeting friends for breakfast/lunch/dinner, then I counted it as socializing. If it was just me, it was frivolous. I know why I've been eating out so much, and I know it's within my control and I need to find a way to work around it. Usually I spend my Sunday afternoons cooking/cleaning and generally preparing for the week. This last month I've spent pretty much every weekend at The Boy's place, meaning I haven't been doing my food prep. Consequently, I've been running out the door in the mornings without a packed breakfast or lunch of any sort, and nothing really planned.

Oops.

So, I need to fix that. It's far too easy to spend money on food. Last month I spent $84.69 on groceries, and $235.46 on eating out. WAY too much!

The other thing that's been causing me to fritter is stress. Lately, I've been going down to the corner store in the building and picking up a chocolate bar as an afternoon pick me up. Seriously, since when do I buy chocolate bars at work?

Since this year I guess.

Anyway, that's how last month went. I'm going to try to do better this month. I acknowledge that will be a little difficult with exams towards the end of the month, but I'm going to try. This morning I brought my tea to class in a travel mug. That's one step in the right direction, now I just have to keep it up. Tomorrow I'll go over where the *RED* purchases occurred.