recycling

As the last days of my break tick away, my to do list grows by leaps and bounds. And it's not just like I sat on my behind the whole time I was off. I guess all those little things and errands and such just keep growing while the chaos of work and kids goes on.

I took some time last night and sorted and de-capped my bottles, cans etc. It really does slow things down there when they are not presorted or a kajillion lids have to come off. Let me tell you I fair froze my hands and self in my wee lil non heated garage doing it and I can't even blame wind chill.

Off I went this morning hoping to avoid the rush of folks that tend to go this first week of January. The parking lot wasn't too bad, but it's rather amusing as people pull in and frantically get their bags out of their vehicles to beat the seventeen other folks doing the same darn thing. I admit I was one of them. How fortunate then it was that one of my garbage bags somehow developed a slit down the length of it. bottles everywhere! you have to laugh. You'll go insane if you don't.

They were surprisingly quick in there and I exited with $28.88 which can become snowflakes for the month. Gotta love it!

a good year for change

One of the great ways of getting snowflakes in my world is rolling change. I prefer to do it  the old fashion way.....counting and rolling it allll by myself.

One roll of each  of the coin denominations will net me $92.50 to be precise. So I am shooting for $100 in coins rolled for the end of February. I will then take that  snowflake$ and plop it down as lump sum on my loan. simple as ABC

Why February? you ask? I have NO clue LOL Just sounds good :P

The challenge will be to NOT precount and roll as I go so it can be a surprise.

Happy Rolling.

My Goals for 2010

Financial Goals

a) Boost Emergency Fund to $2000
It's currently at $1200 so that means $800 for the year. I am making a regular $50 contribution to this, which means that would put me at $1800 by end of December 2010. A balance of $200 would have to be snowflaked in.

b) RRSP 2010 of $1500
I managed to save $1000 this past year for my first RRSP, so this year I will strive for 1/3 more. That means a contribution of $125 a month, which I believe I can maintain.

c) Xmas 2010 $1000
Ok I went over this amount this past year, but I will strive to do better this year. In theory I need $85 a month, but since my Summer 2010 is already maxed out, I can put both those amounts towards Xmas until it's time to start saving for Summer 2011.

d) Summer 2011 of $1000
I will start this one when I have Christmas 2010 is full.

e) Pay off Consolidated Loan
I am unbelievably excited about this one. As it stands right now, I will have it paid off in September 2010 at the latest.

f) Pay $1500 extra on my Vehicle Loan
This one won't start until I get the consolidated loan finished. It's a guess on how much I THINK I could do. I will be excited to see this loan grow smaller. Thank god I finally learned to put money towards paying loans down earlier.

Personal Goals

a) Go to the gym at least 101 times this year.
I know, seems like an odd number. But last year I went a sad 32 times and the year before that was 100 times...so I wanted to one up the more successful year. Even so that is on average less than 3 times a week.....all year long. THAT is the key silly Jolie..........all.............year........................long. hehe

b) Read 50 books
I read a lot. Lots of times it is re-reading books I have read before. Those won't count. I will try to limit my 'one step up from harlequin' smut habit and expand on my professional reading and reading the novels my students should be reading, so I have a better grasp on what they read and like.

c) Try 25 new recipes
I am so bad at sticking to tried and true and when one is searching for healthier low fat choices, new recipes are a must.

d) Cook more with my children
They need to be more involved in meal prep so they can better appreciate the meals, the work that goes into them, and it's about darn time they learn to cook.

e) Lose 40 lbs.
That's less than a pound a week. No worries, I have plenty of pounds on my body so this isn't a (pardon the pun) HUGE challenge.

Those are my plans. Ideally, I'd love to update these once a month to make it more current, but we shall see. NY Day is full of all kinds of optimism LOL

New Link Love

Hey all.....just wanted to give a shout out mention to some new blogs I have added to my list. I have been reading them for awhile and just never got around to moving them over. If they are unfamiliar to you, have a peek and see.

Tales of a Blended Family
I love the teamwork aspect of this unique family. They work together with so much respect and positivity to make their family work and give their kids a great life.

My Pretty Pennies
There is just something infectious about her attitude on life.

TeacHer Finance
While I love reading blogs of fellow educators, hers is far more than just teacher focused.

Small Steps for Big Change
She is proof that paying attention to all the details of your life and tinkering with them can make a huge difference in your life and your outlook on life.

Thank you to all four of these blogs for some great reads!

My New Year's Eve

It was a lovely N Y Eve in the Moneytree household. After a trip to the gym, the boys got haircuts and then we had lunch. Then DS1 and I went to Staples. I had a coupon for $45 (from my dividends purchases) that expired and I so we wandered about seeing what we could buy. It wasn't enough for good stuff like toner or elecrtronics so we decided to see how far we could stretch it. DS1 needed more mechanical pencils for school and a couple pens. DS2 needed a new hand pencil sharpener. These t hings disappear like magician's assistants, man. I got a great deal of Christmas letter paper (you know the kind you write how your year went and send those letters to your cousins you never see anymore).

Remembering my need to encourage myself to go to the gym more, I got some lovely stickers to plop on my calendar when I go....lil shimmery happy face ones. I do love my stickers. Some white out and index cards and a big set of colourful whiteboard markers for my classroom finished off our shopping spree.

By that time it was time to head over to my mom and dad's for supper. They were ordering Chinese food and who am I to say no to companionship and free food. The Chinese food has been a long tradition for us, back to when my Grandparents were alive and we would go over there to share it. It was delicious.

We finished eating with perfect timing! The World JR hockey Canada VS US game was on so we all snuggled in to watch that. Ok DS2 watched something else downstairs as he really has no interest in hockey. It was a great game and though we were massively outplayed, we won in a Shootout.

Home through the cold to curl up and watch some Corner Gas together. I was lucky enough to find my best friend online (who lives 7 hours away) and we had a wonderful chat and rang in the New Year together.

Happy New Year Everyone!!