February Change

Well after a January of 'not a whole roll to roll', it was good to see what February brought.  It met my mini goal of $100 snowflaked. It also helped me to get my first planned savings goal met purely on snowflaked change and cash.   Happy to say that my 'back to school' goal of $500 is met.

• 1 roll of toonies - $50
• 1 roll of loonies - $25
• 2 rolls of quarters - $20
• 1 roll of dimes - $5

total of $100

Now I need to figure out what goal I want to use as a target for my next snowflakes. I think I have an idea.

Feb mini goals wrap up

 A little early, but I have time today. Not my best month. 

Snowflake - $100. This money I will put towards my Back to School goal of $500 - Success

track my WW iffy

Maintain previous loss and lose 3 more lbs - Maintain? yes, lose more? no

Treadmill 5 out of 7 days per week  - three. sigh

Read 1 fiction and 1 non fiction book

File taxes for all four of us. Deadline for receiving documents from employers and schools is end of month  and I am still waiting on three documents.

 Make an appointment to get my hair permed (yes I still do a loose perm) and a cut - Did not do

Do one outside the box thing this month, maybe during our Feb break from school - nope

Try 1 new recipe - tried 2 different coffee cake recipes. delicious.

Send one snail mail letter - Success! I sent a letter to my 98 year old great uncle in BC

Regrets

After two different 2 day tournaments with my curling teams, I am feeling nostalgic for my kids to be young again.

And, I an feeling regret for the things I didn't do, or did not do enough.

I didn't use my time well.

I was lazy and we spent too much time watching tv, or I did and they did video games.

I was unhealthy.

I know, life is too short for regrets, but they popped in anyways.

I wish I had learned about money before they were born, or at the very least, when they were still little so we would have made wiser choices with what we had.

I wish I had baked more and cooked more meals (too much take out), as well as had healthier things on hand.

I wish I had been able to get to more of my kids' activities. I texted DS2 and told him I was sorry I hadn't gotten to his district curling meets to watch him. He said not to worry, but I felt badly about it.

I wish I had been the mom who had came with the Tupperware container of healthy things for them to snack on  at hockey or soccer or curling.

I wish I had read with them more.

I wish that I had done more physically active things with them. Of course being super overweight, I didn't have the energy or the dexterity. Vicious circle.

I wish.......... I had a do over.

Top 10 thoughts as I wander through Costco

I had my latest Entyvio infusion in the city today, for my colitis, and my mom tagged along.  She seems to enjoy the outing, though today her wait time was most interesting.

My clinic shares space with a doctor's office and his clientele is always interesting. Today was more so. Usually mom waits in the main waiting room until my IV is in, then joins me. There is no separate waiting room for the clinic, and  mom hates watching me get IVs because I have stupid twisty rolling veins, and it hurts.

Today the main nurse pops into our little clinic portion and says "I'm just going to bring your mom in here. It's a bit rough out there today"   Apparently this doctor is one who takes care of those who are...errr... in need of methadone, and today was a visiting day. Mom got to learn about which jail cells three clients had all shared in common and the brother of one of them who did something to tick someone off in jail as they call him 'Willie one-..' err .well you get the idea.

Anyways, mom either wants to stop at Costco or at Wholesale on the way home. Today was Costco. 

I have had a membership there for years, but get there rarely these days.

So in no particular order, here were my thoughts:

10)  I know why "I" am not at work. This parking lot is full and it's 1 PM. Doesn't anyone work anymore?? We can't all be on break.  I honestly was at the far end of the lot, almost on the highway.

9) Parking lot rage. ok there are already 3 people waiting for this young mom to unload her very full cart into her vehicle, whilst juggling 2 little ones. She's going to be awhile. A fourth vehicle pulls around the corner and also puts his signal light on to 'claim the space'. Like you're really going to get it??? Cmon dude. Be real. Do you see me walking from a 1/2 mile away? Try there.

8) I cook really, really boring meals. Discounting the prepacked stuff, there are so many food choices out there and I cook the same 6 things over and over and over again. I have to get more creative with my meals.

7) Those chilled veggie nooks really come in handy when you are having a hot flash. Off went the coat and in and I went to.....look closely at a bag of sugar snap peas.

6) Avoid the intersections with the free food. People get jammed up in there for ages. Take your sample, and MOVE. you can come back to ask the nice lady some questions if you want, but seriously.....move!

5) If you see something unusual or interesting that you like, get it  THAT trip. It will not be there the next time you go, even if it's just a few days later.

4) The way people drive in there is a great justification for why we need rules of the road on the highways. People on the wrong side. People stopping in the middle of a main aisle for no reason. People with their carts on angles blocking traffic both ways.

3) There needs to be a 'meeting spot' when you go shopping with someone who wanders off.  I must have waited a good 10 min for my mom, who went looking for cucumbers. I was ready to ditch her and just take another mother home with me.

2) Do the receipt checkers really look at the list? at the items in my cart?  I have gone through with my sister a few times and there have been a lot of items on that list. At least 50. The receipt checker lady was almost belligerent in her desire to see the receipt and then spent less than five seconds looking at it and the cart. yeah I counted. I was curious lol

and last but not least
1) I question whether I even need a Costco membership anymore. With just two of us at home, we don't need bulk of many things anymore. TP and laundry pods would be about it. Oh, and Timmy K cups :-)

RRSP Update

When last we met, my balance was at $10 976, after the dollar starting its playing around and spiraling down and down.

I had to admit I was more than a little worried about this statement, given how mr dollar has continued to drop and drop.


So where are we now?

My statement reads $10 946.62

a drop of $30

oddly enough I am relieved.

I thought it was going to be much much worse.