Looking forward to 2009

As I mentioned previously, 2008 was a upgrading year in my world...home...body...mind. It was quasi successful. The most successful part was the upgrades at the home. I thought long and hard about what goals I wanted for 2009. I wanted them to be realistic and accomplishable. I wanted them to be enough of a push for me to grow and change. If they were things I'd accomplish already, then it is not so much a goal list as a to do list.

These are not completely financial related, but part of a whole to bettering my world and myself.

• Eliminate credit card debt and work the budget appropriately so I can use them, but NOT carry a balance.
  I do want to be able to use my Mastercard for my everyday purchses so that I can get the reward airmiles with it and perhaps GO somewhere with them. Assuming no surprises, the debt I aquired before Christmas should be paid in full by April 25th paycheck. I would like to see this paid off earlier and will throw all of my new snowflakes at it, to help along the way.

• Pay off the rest of my Bank of Mom loan.
  She bought a ton of things for us while we were doing renos and while she doesn't really care if I pay her back at all, I need to do this as part of my 'it's time to be as grownup' philosophy. If the Mastercard is paid off by end of April, the B o M loan will be paid off by end of May. woo hoo

• Increase Emergency Fund to $1500

I did well creating my first Efund starting in July and getting it to $1000 goal by Christmas. It's small, but a start. As soon as I get my Mastercard and my Bank of Mom loan paid off, I will redo my budget to allow for some to go to the Efund and the rest of the snowball to go towards my personal loan.

• Fully Fund $1000 Christmas 2009

I am excited about this goal. I've never had a savings account for Christmas before. Barring unforseen events, this fund will get $100 a month and be fully funded by end of October.

• Use the money jars faithfully for January, February and March

After this, I want to re-evaluate how this is working, practicality etc.

• Go to the gym 3 x a week

I am paying just under $50 a month for membership anyways and I KNOW how beneficial this is for me, mind, body and spirit, so this is a Must.

• Get back on Weight Watchers.

Face it, the program works when you DO the program.

• Get off the computer and spend more time with my children, my friends and taking care of myself and my home.

I 'think' that is it, in a nutshell.

Reflections on 2008

I am definitely one for reflection and sentimentality, particularly at the end of a year. 2008 was an interesting year for me...nothing monumental, but interesting nevertheless.

• I signed up for WW and did VERY well for half the year, then gained it all back the rest because I did not STICK WITH IT.
• I signed up for a circuit gym and was incredibly faithful for half a year, then let excuses pile up and not going often at all.
• Husband's debt load increased as he bought a 'new to him' truck and had a vehicle loan for about $20,000. Thanks to his father's gift, that truck was paid off in full yesterday. If not for the gift, husband would have been paying on that for something like 50 plus months.
• Husband's misuse of VISA once again brought him up over $4000 balance but that was cleared yesterday thanks to his father's gift. It will be interesting to see if he handles his 'extra' money now each month, now that he is debt free on that level. I doubt it. sad hey?
• I manged to get my first emergency fund set up. $1000 baby. Let's hope I don't have to use it and can build it up instead.
• I put a lot...a LOT on mr credit card this year. We did a huge amount of renos this year inside the house.

It was not a matter of 'hmm I don't like this carpet anymore'...or...'that paint colour is soooo passee'. It was more a matter of "the bathroom is literally falling apart and there is mold", "the carpet is worn beyond all help' etc. We ended up gutting the full bath, repairing the structure and putting in new walls, tub/shower, tub surround, vanity, toilet, ceramic tiles on floor etc. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate this bathroom.

We also gutted and redid the downstairs half bath. Same condition as the upstairs one. It's nice that the boys aren't embarrassed when their friends come over and have to go. The living room needed one wall replaced, we tore out the carpet and replaced it with laminate flooring and I bought the first new furniture we've had in 17 years.

The costs definitely added up. Part of it is the bank of mom loan. The rest went on my mastercard. A bit of that was paid off with my tax return. The hefty balance quickly was turned into a consolidation loan to clear off the Mastercard. The loan was combined with a pre-existing loan.

Beyond that, there were no fancy trips this year. There were no fancy gifts (at least for the adults).

Starting the blog in July was a good move for me. Reading OTHER blogs, was an even better move. I have gained so much information from other blogs; great ideas; other viewpoints on things.

2008 was a self, home and financial reno year.

2009 will be the year to finish things off and learn how to be ME.

The waning days of Christmas

Today begins settling things back into 'normal'. The tree will come down today, the decorations will be packed up and the furniture rearranged. Gifts will be put away instead of nestled under the tree. We have a very small house and I am trying to teach the boys that tidy = their mother's sanity.

The boys are very happy with their new Ipod nanos and have learned how to move music into itunes and onto their ipods. My younger one is ecstatic about his new fish tank and yesterday we picked up his three cold water fish and brought them home. The cats are very excited about the fish. The female mostly just likes watching them but the big orange tom has been caught on the top of the tank cover. I guess we will have to close his bedroom door while we are away or we'll come home to a wet, but full cat.

I got a lovely fuzzy blanket from my mom and dad...perfect to curl up with on these freezing winter days. I also got some much needed knives and glasses for the kitchen. Overall, I have become a huge fan of 'practical gifts rule'. I have little space to work with and I have zero room for knicknacks and things which take up space and need dusting.

I am a big fan of 'one in, one out'. When the boys get new clothes, we go through their drawers and closets and pack up things which are too small. We managed to get rid of many things in a spring garage sale and we will do the same thing again this coming spring. I almost feel like, the more extraneous things I can get rid of, the better. It will be interesting to see how long this phase lasts. Right now, eliminating clutter seems to be a huge psychological endorphin, and it also eases the cleaning burden.

I can tell, though, that the boys are getting older. This was the first year they did not put out the cookies and milk plate for Santa. This was the first year no shopping was done in the toy section of the stores, not counting the electronic toy section. They are definitely getting older. It's hard for mom to let go that way.

There is lovely snow falling this morning so I'm off to curl up with a cup of coffee and relax before the repacking of the day begins.

Jars locked and loaded

So on December 24th, after doing math about five times to be sure I had it right, I headed to the bank to withdraw 2 weeks worth of my jars' money. I spent some time yesterday getting the jars loaded and labelled. I was glad I had sat down to figure out how many 20s, how many 10s and how many 5s, so that I would have the right denominations for each jar.

• I admit I felt odd taking out that much money at once and seeing my account go zoooooooom down.
• I put one week of money in the jars and tucked the second week for all in an envelope.
• I also had to determine what I would call 'weeks' as only February is a true 4 x 7 month, so I set up dates of when each week started and stopped. That eliminates those grey days that don't quite fit into a perfect month.
• I will have to decide how to transport this when I want to go shopping, get gas etc so that I have it ready to go, but not ready to spend toooo easily.
• I have to decide where the leftover money each week/each month will go for each jar, knowing that some weeks/months are lighter and some are heavier.

I have more thinking to do on this. It is a work in progress, but I think it will be a fun and informative adventure.

My Christmas Expenditures

It's rather scary to pull all this together. It is necessary however, so I can better plan and better budget for next year. These really are guestimates so it is probably more. eep. I am pulling together receipts that I have to see how accurate I am so this will undoubtedly change.

Christmas wrapping, tags etc $15.00
Boys' teacher gifts $40
Gift exchange at work, student treat bags and contribution to class pot luck $100
Christmas mass offering $20
Christmas meal contribution $60
Gifts for spouse and boys and parents, including stockings $1400

Total: $1635

Too high? yup
Budgeted? nope
on Credit card? yup

do it this way again next year? Not a hope!!!

reality check....

• 1.5 x my mini emergency fund
• equal to about 3 of my personal loan payments

Some interesting Christmas news

My husband received interesting news for Christmas this year. His dad, who is elderly, sold his house in early summer to move into a senior's duplex facility. He has decided to divide the money into three between his children and he gifted it to them yesterday.

It is a hefty chunk of cash, enough to clear of his truck loan, his overburdened VISA, set some away for retirement and then some.

I am happy for him. truly. The thing is, our finances have been separate for the whole journey, at my behest, as I was in university when we first got together, and I NEEDED to know that the money for tuition, rent etc was going to be there. My husband is very poor with money management (yes I am too, but he is truly worse).

Not a penny of this will change my budget for bills. I truly doubt he will chip in any more. We also are at a point where we may split...and this would give him the financial safety to do so, which he lacked before.

It will be interesting indeed to see how this all comes out in the wash. At the very least, I will be able to make a fun update on my progress for January 1 and it will be down to just the mortgage and my personal debt. I have to admit I'm more than a little nervous.

An exciting goal reached

Today I ventured out in the bitter bitter -40C cold for a variety of errands, one of which being, going to the bank where I have my emergency savings account.

I had a cheque to cash of money that someone owed me, along with a refund cheque for Christmas gifts I had ordered which were backordered. I did not care for the replacement items so I had a refund come.

Together, those two lovely cheques brought me to my $1000 goal for a mini emergency fund. I'm so excited. I only started this quest in July and I am so pleased I was able to reach this goal......hell reach ANY goal and stick with it.

I now need to decide how to arrange my budget for Dec 25th pay cheque and decide on my goals for 2009.

I've never had a savings account before like this and I am excited about what I've done. It's only a wee drop in the bucket of what I should have, but it's a great mini goal done and accomplished. woo hoo me!

potential plan

I have mulled this over a great deal the past few days and did the math and scratch work I seem to need to make decisions.

I believe I am going to experiment with the money jars for Jan, Feb and March. I have been doing my own version of that with my account and invisible envelopes for online banking but I seem to lose momentum and don't stay true and honest in the last 10 days or so per month.

With the jars, perhaps this will keep me on track and give me honest readings of how much I spend per category per month.

I plan to have one for groceries, one for spending, one for household, one for fuel/gas and one for dining out.

I seem to do alright in the other categories through my money shifting. Those are the five whose lines and details get blurry.

I'll have to figure out how much $ I need to get out of the bank on payday. I rarely can get to the bank so I believe I will withdraw money every two weeks, tucking only one week's worth in each jar and the rest in a do not touch envelope which I believe I will be relatively successful in not touching. The jars will make it feel more like a game to me.

Here's hoping I last the whole three months without 'something' coming along to throw me off.

Whirling busy

It's been an absolutely insane month. It was mostly personal issues...my son's injury..things happening at his school etc but it keeps one's head so swirly that you can't stop to focus on other things.

Yesterday was the last day of school until January and I am so excited to just have a chance to sit back and regroup and breathe. My house needs tackling. My kids' clothes need to be gone through as they have grown, again. We give the clothes that are too small to a family of 6 kids who lives near my sister and have precious little money and a whole mess of hardships. They enjoy doing it.

I also need to get my butt back to the gym. I haven't been at all this month, nor have I been on my treadmill at home and aside from the wasted dollars going out the windows, I feel like crap.

We traditionally get paid on the 25th but are paid early at Christmas..the last day of work. I was a smart girl for a change and moved that all straight to my savings account UNTIL the 25th so I don't spend any of next month's budget early. It would be an even longer and harder wait to January 25th if I did not. Now I just have to remember to move it back into the chequing then or else my loan payment will not be able to go through LOL . That would be so something I would do.

I need to sit down and figure out how much I've spent on Christmas this year so I can set a reasonable budget for it for next year. I will have a bit of CC debt for it but this will be the last time Christmas does that to me. Next year, money will be set aside.

Time to go curl up with a cup of coffee and plan out the day and jot down what I've spent so far.

Envelopes/Jar Question

Ok I am mulling over using envelopes or jars for groceries, household, spending money etc. I would withdraw the month's money when I get paid and allocate. I know to document and to keep the receipts in whichever system I use.

My question is.... do you carry them with you?? do you leave them at home?? Most of my groceries or household items get purchased while I am out and about, after work or running at lunch so going home to get the $ isn't really feasible.

What do others who use this system do??

So I've learned...

...that in the 2009 budget starting the first month, I need to create a budget category for Christmas. I just can't do it otherwise. If I could go back in time, I would change how I celebrate Christmas gift-wise so that I wouldn't have wasted so much money on crap and I would have already had my boys trained that a couple gifts is WONDERFUL

I love Christmas but I hate the present part

Truly I do love it, from the decorations to the festivities...the baking to the liturgical services...and the music....especially the music.

I really intensely dislike the gift part of it. I never know what to get people. I always put things off to the end. The things they like and the things they'd actually use are beyond my reach. The number of things I've bought the boys over the years that I thought they would love I've been way off the mark on.

And then there's dent it puts in my bank account..........or rather the DEBT it puts. I have never saved up to pay for Christmas. Just haven't had myself organized enough to. While I started this blog in July, I had some serious CC debt that needing wiping out and that had to be the priority.

So here I sit three weeks before Christmas and I don't have an account where I can shop from. Maybe that would make me enjoy the gift giving part more? I am not sure.

I know that there will be accumulated debt over this that I will then have to work like a dog to pay off. again.

With the start of a new year I can definitely start tucking money away toute suite, but that will be for next year.

I guess I just have to get through this one. Boy don't I sound merry to be around. I;m really not that bad! honest LOL