Looking Forward - A Shopping Preflection

I was thinking about the upcoming month in terms of spending on my bus ride into work this morning. I know a lot of people set monthly spending goals ($1000 a month for everything above rent or something similar), but it's not something I really want to get into yet. I feel like my months are still quite variable in terms of spending, and I don't want to put off doing something because of an arbitrary figure I've chosen for myself. It's awesome if it works for everyone that's doing it, I just don't think I'm ready to hop on the bandwagon yet.

Especially not this month :s

Anyway, I was thinking about the spending because I realized that this was going to be a kind of expensive month for me. I need to get 3 things: A weedwacker, a bra, and moisturizer. It doesn't really sound expensive at first, but if I can't find cheaper alternatives it's going to set me back about $500 (minimum) for those 3 items.

The moisturizer is kind of a non-negotiable item for me. Some of you might remember back in December when I was struggling with the price of the stuff. Well, fast forward a few months and I can honestly say I'm not going back. My skin doesn't hurt when I wash my face anymore, and I don't have to avoid touching it for fear of rupturing something. The cyst I spent over a year trying to get rid of finally disappeared, and the scarring is slowly healing. The jar is almost empty, and I'm going to have to switch to the lotion as the cream is getting to be a bit too heavy as it gets warmer out. It's cheaper per ounce, but comes in a larger container. This is going to set me back at least $240. I'm going to try to time it to line up with a gift with purchase or something, because the stuff doesn't go on sale.

The bra is a bit of a contentious issue for me. You could say that I developed early as a kid. I started wearing a bra in grade 6 or 7, and by the grade 8 I was easily a C cup. That would have been fine and dandy if they had stopped growing then (and why not? That's when I stopped getting taller), but they didn't.

Above is a bra sizing chart. The areas outlined in green are approximately your standard bra sizes. That little red splotch over to the left? That's me. I don't even make it on to the chart. I spent much of my teenage and early adult bra shopping years crying in change rooms because nothing fit, and anything that came close looked like something your grandmother would wear. My mom has the same problem. A few years ago after I moved to Edmonton to go to University I found a bra shop that carried my size.

HALLELUJAH!

The shop specializes in bras and specialty sizes. They order their stock in from Europe, where you can actually get a wider range of sizes. Not only that, for the first time in my life I could get a pretty bra. I think I cried tears of joy in her fitting room. Unfortunately, they do come at a price, and the last time I bought bras there they were about $160 a piece. The exchange rate has gotten better, so they may have come down in price a little, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. Two of my current bras have underwires that are about to give out (trust me, they hurt when they're stabbing me), so I know this expense will be hitting me soon.

Last but not least is a weedwacker. This is the one where I should be able to get the most pricing wiggle room from. I've only checked 1 store so far, but they're sitting at around $150-$200 for a gas powered one. I'd like to find an electric one, but I'm not 100% set on that. I tried to get by without one last year after I bought my place, and I can tell you it's not going to happen this year. I bought my house during the winter, and come spring I realized I had bought "That house". You know, the one overflowing with weeds in the neighbourhood of pristine lawns. I spent a lot of time last year fighting the weeds, and I'll be doing it again this year. I need to keep the upper hand on them as they can get away from you REALLY quickly, and the city will fine you if you don't keep them under control. My lawnmower doesn't reach everything, so this year I need to get one. I'm going to check out Kijiji and Ebay as well for a used one. The snow is melting here quickly, so I need to get on it soon.

I'm glad payday is Thursday.

*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 :)

A Pain in the Gas

I've never been so happy to own a fuel sipping vehicle than I do right now looking at gas prices.

I'm even happier that, cold weather be damned, I started adjusting myself to using public transit months ago.

Apparently gas prices in Edmonton averaged $1.018/L as of February 22nd this year, which was the lowest out of 19 cities surveyed. The highest city surveyed was Vancouver, at $1.2430/L on average (my heart goes out to you guys). The country as a whole came in around $1.151/L

For you guys in the US, those I believe those prices translate to $3.853/gal, $4.705/gal and $4.357/gal respectively.

I know the prices are going up as a result of what's going on in the middle east, but you'll have to forgive me if I don't see it as a purely supply vs. demand issue causing this.

Conflict goes up - Prices go up

Conflict goes down -  Prices.... yeah.... about that....

I kind of wish it would warm up already so I could try riding my bike to work. 18km in little over an hour? That's doable. Just means I have to wake up early. That part may be a little less doable.

The guy I'm seeing drives a larger truck; it cost him about $90 a tank last week to fill his truck, and he goes through SEVERAL tanks a month. I try to keep mine under $20 every 2 weeks. Now that I remember what it costs to feed a truck, the recent price hikes mean a little more to me. Before, not so much.

I don't foresee the price of gas breaking us up, but the 40km between our respective homes sucks a little more now.

Have you guys noticed the price of fuel impacting your budgets lately? How are you dealing with it?

Waiting For Interest to Work In My Favour

My annual mortgage statement came in the mail last night. I'm glad, I was beginning to wonder where it had gotten off to. That was right about where the glad part ended. There is something rather unfortunate about paying almost $17,000 onto a loan and only seeing the balance improve by about $4,500. It's like having one of those payday loans, only it has a nicer name.

Hey you, yeah you Interest, I've got something to say to you: Bite Me.

I have the sudden urge to empty my wallet into my lump sum payment jar right now. In fact, I'll probably do that as soon as I'm done typing here.

The envelope wasn't entirely filled with suck though. Apparently my mortgage provider is starting a website where I can go to check my balance, review my statements, change my payment frequency or amount, or make lump sum payments. That last one makes me happy, it will make the process much easier come the end of the year.

Home sweet home. One day you'll be all mine.

Price Check Please?

For some reason my back and neck are really sore today. Massage is covered by my insurance (up to a certain dollar amount), so I figured I'd book an appointment on pay day (so I can pay cash).

I looked up one of the spas near my house online, checked their prices, and then called to book an appointment. This was the tail end of the conversation.

*booking appointment, inquired about price*

Spa: "That will be $110"

Me: "Your website says $55-$75"

Spa: "That's the American price, our spa isn't listed on there"

Me: "I looked you up on the Canadian site, and they have different services listed based on the locations so I know it's not standard pricing."

Spa: "But that is the American price. We're globally owned though, so after the exchange rate it comes out to the same price."

Me: "The dollar is at par"

*long pause*

Spa: "It is right now"

*It has been for, ummm, quite a while, and is projected to be for some time in the future*

Me: "Thank you for your time, but my insurance won't cover that cost."

I'm glad I double checked the price before I hung up the phone, that would have been a VERY unpleasant surprise if I hadn't. Needless to say, I'm irritated. Granted, that could also be due to my back being sore. Has anyone else run into this lately? If so, how did you handle it?

The Cost of a Guilty Pleasure

I know that taking a bath uses more water than taking a shower. I know this for a fact. Put the plug in while you're having a shower and note the water level when you're done, almost guaranteed the tub isn't even half full. From a green standpoint it's abhorrent that I prefer baths to showers, I know. However when I come inside after walking home from the bus stop in -35, a 5 minute lukewarm shower just doesn't get rid of the chill. It really doesn't. Enter long hot bath. I've been wondering for a little while what my baths are costing me though, seeing as during the middle of winter they happen much more frequently.

Excuse me while I geek out for a bit, I've been wanting to do this calculation for a while.

If you're looking for an easy metric unit reference sheet, I'd recommend using this: http://xkcd.com/526/ Geeky, somewhat tongue in cheek, and not necessarily 100% accurate. Perfect.

The temperature of cold tap water here is close to 10 degrees celsius. I wouldn't be surprised if it's colder than that right now, but I'm going to use this as my starting point. I like my baths somewhere around 43 degrees to start, which means the water has to be heated 33 degrees.

My tub, very crudely measured to bath water level, is approximately 40cm x 60cm x 135cm. I'm not going to take my body volume out of there, we'll just assume that I'm going to warm up the water at some point. This gives us a volume of approximately 0.32m3.

It takes 4.184 Joules of energy to warm up 1 gram of water by 1 degree celsius. 1 gram of water is approximately 1cm3. So, in order to warm up my bath water, I'm going to require: 

(0.32m3) x (1,000,000cm3/1m3) x (33C) x (4.184J) = 44,183,040J or 44.18 MJ

So now I know how much energy this is going to take. Kinda. This is assuming everything goes absolutely perfectly, and that every last bit of energy is converted into heat and goes directly into the water. As nice as that would be, it doesn't happen this way. My hot water tank is heated by natural gas, which isn't overly efficient. Lets assume my tank is 65% efficient.

44MJ / 0.65 = 67.69MJ

That's probably a little closer to what is actually being used to heat the water. My gas bill charges by the Gigajoule of energy. Not that they know the exact amount of energy I'm getting, they've just applied an average conversion factor to the volume of gas provided. Anyway, from my last set of utility bills:

$3.97/GJ for the gas itself
$0.53/GJ for the gas delivery
$0.23/GJ for the GST on the gas
$4.73/GJ for heat

$1.59/m3 for the water itself
$1.18/m3 to drain the water
$2.77/m3 for water

Apparently GST is charged on gas and electricity, but not water? Oh well. I'm only taking the variable charges on this, because I have to pay the fixed charges regardless of whether or not I take a bath. I'm also not taking the electricity for the bathroom fan into account, because I don't really feel like looking for the motor rating. That would mean actually finding the label! lol.

So my guilty pleasure is currently costing me:

(0.06769GJ x $4.73/GJ) + (0.32m3 x $2.77/m3) = $1.21

That's better than I was expecting. Cheaper than Starbucks, that's for sure. However, I can see how this would add up over time. Having a hot bath every day of the month rather than a quick shower? That's almost $40!

It's enough to make me think "I'll just have a shower tonight". Tomorrow, maybe not so much ;)

Round, Round, Get Around...

I get around... Get around OOOOEEEEOOOOOooooo....

Yeah, the Beach Boys don't really come out on the screen the way they do on the radio. Oh well.

I was thinking yesterday how much my cost of transportation is about to change. I've been making the shift over to public transit for about 8 months now. I've stopped relying on my car so much, and have started looking at the bus as my main mode of transportation. January last year I would have driven my car to work, parked at the office, and then drived to where ever I felt like going after work (usually not cheap.) After the stark realization of how much this was costing me, I bought a bus pass and started taking the bus to work. Much cheaper!

After talking to a couple coworkers, I found out our company had a (poorly advertised) bus pass subsidy program, where they pay for 25% of your pass if you sign up for at least 6 months. I signed up faster than they could point to the dotted line! That meant I had my pass delivered to the office 2 weeks in advance, rather than trying to find a place that still had some left the last day of the month. Very convenient.

Fast forward to this month and I now have a student bus pass, which is leaps and bounds cheaper than any of the aforementioned options. Work is supporting me in a decision to take some more classes, and is paying for them as well. The bus pass is actually included in the course fees, but for the purpose of this post I'll pretend they aren't and I'm paying for it seperately.

January 2010 - Monthly Cost of Driving

Car Payment: $400

Car Insurance: $95

Fuel: ~$80

Maintenance: ~$40

Tires: ~$40

Downtown Parking: $230

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Total: $885.00

January 2011 - Monthly Cost of Taking Bus

University Pass: $22.50

Car Payment: $400

Car Insurance: $110

Fuel: ~$25

Maintenance: ~$40

Tires: ~$20

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Total: $617.50

May 2011 - Monthly Cost of Taking Bus

Subsidized Bus Pass: $61.13

Possible Cab Rides: ~$40

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Total: $101.13

My only hesitation with switching back to public transit was the limited access to my house in the evenings. As far as I knew the last bus left the transit center at 9:45, meaning I had to leave downtown at 8:45 to get there. Kind of a wet blanket when you want to go out for the evening, even just going to a movie would have been difficult! I did a little digging and found out there is a different bus which leaves the transit center at 10:30 and 11:30 in the evenings, meaning I can still get home after visiting friends. After seeing that, I'm much more gung ho about selling my car!

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