Bank of Mom loan - the end is in sight!

So I finally had a chance to get to the brick and mortar bank this week and get out this month's contribution to this loan. Right now the 'snowball' is at $400 so with what I had before, I am within $100 of the end. This is so exciting and such a milestone for me.

If I can manage to scrimp and snowball, I have the potential to pay this off before...that's BEFORE, next payday. I am SOOOOOOOOOO excited.

*crosses my fingers*

Battle between diet and budget

Ok so I used up all of my groceries jar by Thursday and the new week doesn't start until Monday. Did I spent my week's money wisely? naww probably not. Too many 'just grab this etc'.

So we are out of milk and the boys need it so I decide ok I have money from my 'dining out' for the week and food is food. After all, milk is more important than Chinese food take out. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm chinese food take out. *drools*

So off I go to Walmart this AM after I drop DS2 off at band practice. I have $10 for groceries and $10 for household (Kleenex...lots as it is cold season and I need some cheapie emory boards). Two milk bring me in around $8 before tax and the tissue and boards bring me to $9.

Hey, great job right? I stayed within the cash I had.

Problem is I am there going 'ohhh I am out of fiber 1 ceral for me.' 'oh I haven't tried those 100 calorie packs', 'ohhhh those yogurt look good'.

I swear to god if someone were walking beside me they would have phoned for the men in white coats. I was talking to myself constantly. "nooo jolie you can't have that. You spent your grocery money unwisely'. "yess jolie I am sure those new 100 c packs are tasty as hell but you need milk!!' Over and over. I even laughed outloud as I battled 'me'.

When it all came down I walked out with just the above mentioned items and a wee bit of jingle in the pocket'.

It is HARD to buy healthy for cheap. Especially when we're way up here and produce costs the earth.

Anyone else battling the balance between healthy and cheap?

Anyone else been hauled away for aruging with yourself in the store? lol

I'm on a great clutter cleaning binge today. Wheeeeeeeeeee. It's so much fun. Two big garbage bags full of containers etc that I NEVER use that will go off to the food bank who will use them happily.

Cleaning up the clutter

January's a great time for new routines and new self promises. One I've really been working on is cleaning out clutter. We have a wee 850 square foot house plus basement and with four of us in it (plus two cats), there just isn't the space for unnecessary things.

I used to be a packrat. Honest. I just couldn't stand to throw out anything and carefully kept it, never looking at many things, but feeling the items kept the memories alive.

So as part of a new me I have been working the past couple years on getting rid of the clutter. Just keeping up with the kids' clothes they've outgrown was a challenge in and of itself. I found a family who lives near my sister with 6 little ones younger than mine, so we joyfully pack up items about 3 times a year as we go through the closets and drawers and send it on up, knowing a family with limited funds is getting 'new to them' clothes. A good home.

I have gotten rid of my castoffs to the Canadian Diabetes Organization, who sends a van around every couple months.

House hold wise, I have had a garage sale every year and love it when I see things go off to a new home.

It's almost scary, the joy I get out of yet another garbage bag of something gone LOL

It makes me feel more in control I think and really.......who needs a bunch of things that are never used???

I am a big believer in the 'one in/one out' rule and while we may not practice it immediately, I think it's fair to say that we do a pretty good job of this. My spouse isn't a big fan of letting things go and gets right cranky when I even 'think' about going through his stuff so I have to leave it alone sadly. I mean really.........if you haven't fit that pair of jeans (x 20) since I met you 18 years ago...........it's pretty safe to say they are OUT of style and could benefit from a new home.

I found this great webpage the other day and there is some great stuff in there for the routine declutterers as well as the newbies.

http://organizedhome.com/

Dishing out for Weight Watchers

ok I admit it. I've overweight. Not one of those girls with four extra ounces on here, tossing her head back, back of hand to brow, crying out 'ohhhh I'm so fat'. no not that at all. I'm at the high end of the 'o' scale. Don't make me type that word. LOL

A few years ago I did WW on my own with FANTASTIC results. like 80 lbs. But then you stop the program and start the eating and whammo, you're back where you were. So last January I said "this is my year" and I joined WW MEETINGS and I was fabulous from Jan to end of May and lost about 40 lbs. Yeah me

Then I stopped and I am not really sure why. There is no real good reason. I tried valiantly in October/November 08 but things fell apart when my son was injured.

So here I am back again and after 'trying' to do it on my own I have given up and paid the $ . I had been putting money aside a bit each month so I did not go off budget on this one bit (yeah me) but the $ still hurt.

For registration week plus 8 weeks it was $140. That's just for the local meetings. A coupon for each of the 8 meetings. Now see I'm in Canada. When I got home and checked the ww pages for the US, that cost was HALF. You heard me HALF. crazy insane. AND in the US you get a monthly pass. You can go to as many meetings as you want or need to in the month AND you get access to the online tools.

Why, oh WHY WW Canada are you hosing the Canadians for the same program and services as you have in the US. Even with the wee bit of $ exchange, it's still incredibly unbalanced.

Sigh. just one example of how things cost more in Canada for the same darn thing as the US.

*grumble grumble grumble*

Anyways I went back and now I have a start on getting my sh*t together and get healthier.

Does the program work? yup, but you have to work the program.
Do other programs work? probably but I haven't been successeful with the ones I have tried.

I will continue to have a budget line to support my WW habit so I can't use $ as an excuse.

Happy Friday

My first month - Part 2

What I did:

• I went to the dollar store and got some lil plastic jars for $3 and labelled them with their category and how much went in each week. It made it feel more like the show Til Debt do Us Part.
• I sat down and figured out how many 20s, 10s and 5s I needed to get from the bank to fill for each week.
• I hit the brick and mortar bank in person more times than I can count, but for a variety of reasons.
• I withdrew the $ for 2 weeks, placing the first week in the jars, and the second in an envelope
• I used cash for every 'jar' purchase except twice (and then deducted that amount so it all would balance at home)
• I did eat at out at people's houses many times as it was the end of the Christmas season so that saved on groceries.
• I did cook out of my pantry and freezer quite a bit more
• I did find myself saying, NO to myself many times while I was shopping if what I wanted wasn't on the list or if I didn't take enough cash with me.
• I did doodle lots on how much I would need to pay off the Mastercard and where I could get it from, and it worked.
• I did pay off my Mastercard
• I did have money left over in the jars.
• I did move the leftover money each week into the identically labelled envelope so that at the end of the month I would know how much I spent/saved each week in each category.
• I did have a lot of snowflakes: christmas $, lots of rolled coins, bottles taken in etc. I recognize that isn't going to happen each time.
• I got reallllllly excited about paying off that Credit card and everything extra went to that.

What I did not:

• I did not carry $ with me except if I knew I was going to go to 'x' after work and then took the right amount from that jar.
• I did not have very many transaction lines on my bank statement. LOL Usually it takes up pages.
• I did not gain many airmiles points, which I get for using my BMO debit card and Mastercard, because I didn't really use them.
• I did not add to my credit card debt.
• I did not go once for my morning coffee to Tim Horton's on the way to work.
• I did not go out once for lunch during the work week.
• I did not buy any magazines or books
• I did not write down each thing I bought. I tried but even for me, that was micromanaging too much and I fell behind and stopped.

Month 1 of the Jars - Part I

Ok I did some math tonight. It was interesting to see how the month went with the jars and cash cash cash.

Here is what I have.

• Gas (Fuel) - I was able to save 54% of the money for gas this month. I had no out of town trips though, and that is rare, so for this category, I would say this month was not normal. Anything leftover goes in a lil envelope to be tucked away for insurance, licence plates and mechanical needs.

• Spending - I was able to save 29% of this. I use this money for my mad money, or pharmacy stuff, etc. This will get set aside in it's own envelope too as I didnt have to buy cosmetics this month, but it will come all in a whack in Feb LOL

• Household - I needed few things this month. We had lots of cleaners, TP, paper towel etc again, abnormal month. I was able to save 58% of this jar. This goes into it's own envelope for months where we need to stock up, or to buy something larger for the house.

• Dining Out - This is one of our worst categories. We are away often for hockey on 15 hour day trips or weekend trips and this just adds up and up. I was only able to save 20% of this. I have set this aside as February has me at a conference in the city for 2 days and my older son at a hockey camp for three and dining out will add up fast fast fast.

• Groceries - Ok we were spending a GIANT amount of money on groceries and this is the area I can make the most progress in. I was able to save 24% of it. I could have done far better if I had made better choices in the last week, but then again we ate very frugally the first two weeks so maybe it balances out.

All in all, I was able to save $500 in these jars. Perhaps that is mostly a reflection of my overspending in these categories but still...at the end of a 'normal' month I'd have less than $100 in my account AND I'd have added to the Credit card.

Of these five jars, only the grocery $ which is leftover is going towards debt. The rest are their own lil savings envelopes, which is something I've never had before.

I call this an interesting success and look forward to seeing what a far busier and costlier february will bring.

The next step

I'm playing with the numbers here and planning for what I "might" do when the bank of mom loan is done. I have about $400 to work with (so far) each month and there are just so many possibilities.

• Emergency Fund to $1500
• Pay off extra on my current Personal Loan
• Savings for a deposit on a new vehicle (mine won't last too much longer)
• No Education Funds for my children
• No RRSPs YET and I'm almost 40
• No vacation fund
• No Savings
• Finish off my Christmas Savings goal

Just hard to decide where I should go next. They all have their own merits.

Bye Bye Balance

It seems like just yesterday, or rather October, that I uttered these words: "I no longer have a credit card balance". October 25th to be precise. I celebrated. I rejoiced. Perhaps even a wee bit of gloating. And then the following month I had a five day away in the city for my son's hockey and BOOM it was on again.

But now... "I no longer have a credit card balance" . wheee

I am not going to be so cocky and arrogant this time as to think I am immune to a future balance. That is tempting fate far far too much in the face and she'll get me my pretty, and my lil dog too!!

I will stick to my cash for the next two months and see how that experiment goes.

The nice thing about it is I can whap anything left from my grocery jar onto my Bank of Mom Loan, and then all the money set aside for the snowball debt this month, goes onto this. ($400 I think. I still have to do the math).

It is a good feeling, but this budgeting is still new to me and there are many many hurdles, seen and unseen, coming at me this year.

Happy Friday

a bit of a Raise

Ok technically, I got my raise in September of 08, but it was hard to tell how much it truly was. You see my cheque is the same from January to June. During the summer, some of the deductions for work do not come off, as technically we are paid on a 10 month schedule. I just ask for it to be spread out over 12. So in July and August, my cheque is a couple hundred more. then in September, the deductions come off again, but we get our raise. So it makes it harder to tell what my 'new net' really is. Add to that, that by October, I max out on contributions to two lines on my pay stub, so that money is 'extra'. Clear as mud hey?

LOL
I wish I understood the money amounts better.

Bottom line is, that it is January and my cheque is normal and will be so until June unless I have to take days without pay.

Net different from January 2008 to January 2009 is............$150.

(boy that was a lot of explaining for $150 LOL)

As I have pledged to myself to keep to the budget I have created and spend cash only from my like jars of joy, I am not adding this new income to my budget. I need to see how well this current 3 month budget of mine is actually working.

This $150 is going towards my debt and for the April 2009 budget line, I will revise things and perhaps add a line or two to include clothing, gifts or vacation, which currently do not exist in my line.

While payday is actually not until Sunday, I think the $ goes into our account sometime tomorrow. I have some paperwork to do to see how much I spent out of each of my envelopes and plan for the next month.

It's always more exciting at payday than not. If only it came more than once a month :-)

Almost the end of the month psychology

I can certainly see how that 'last week of the month' changes my mindset. I see how much is left in each category and it really is hard not to just say 'screw it' and spend it all. After all my bills were paid on time, I paid a lot extra down on debt etc etc.

I can see this is going to be a big part of the growing experience for me. Twice in the past week I opted to use my debit card instead of going home for cash and that is how I got into this mess in the first place. Well partly. lol Both times after using it, I made myself go home and dip into the appropriate jar, take out the amount I debited and set it aside as part of 'next week's jar money'. It was hard to do though.

I spent the first..almost 3 week of this month in robotic hibernation. Work, home, the boys' activities and that was about it. It's easy to save this way. I go nowhere and nothing unexpected came up. It also isn't reality. Not even a close. :-)

So today and for the rest of this week (Jan 24 is the end of 'this month') it is more realistic. I have used up stores in my pantry and freezer and will have to shop more. I am out of town in an hour for a hockey road trip so that means gas, supper and incidentals. My school goes for their day of skiing/snowboarding this Friday and my older son, who goes to a different school but is the same age, will probably come along as he has no exams that day. So that will be about $50 for him to snowboard as he does not own any equipment or have a pass. Still I balance that with the concept of knowing he hasn't gone yet this year due to injury and may not go again.

It will be interesting, at the end of this month, to see what % of each jar category I spent.

On the bright note it is ZERO today, after a whole month of forty below! It feels like spring out there. I went outside *whispers* without my coat!!!

Happy Sunday everyone.

Gym Math

So I dragged my hiney off to the gym tonight for the first time since November. I waited to see my log in # and I was at 101. That means that during the whole of 2008, I went to the gym 100 times. Pretty neat how it worked out so evenly.

So 100 times divided by 52 weeks = 1.9 time per week. I was shooting for 3x a week.

( I went very faithfully from January to May then things fell apart)

The cost for the gym is $48/month which equals $576 for the year. (yes it sounds really really scary when one does the math that way.)

That means that each of those visits cost me $5.76.

Well that's less than a value meal at McDonalds but still pretty high. I started 2008 all gung ho and finished in a fizzle.

Here's hoping that 2009 brings me more visits for fewer $$ per visit!

Shoulda had cash!!

Ok so today I needed to stop at the store for a few things for supper, but didnt have my $$ on me as it's home safely tucked into jars. Yes I could have driven home, got it and gone to the store. It would have added a grand total of five minutes to my time. Intead I allowed myself to use my debit card, promising I would immediately take that amount of cash out of the jar for this week and hold it aside for next week. I would have, too. honest.

So I go through, swipe and put in my pin. After a long pause I get "unable to process, try again". So again we try. A total of three times. Each time it almost goes through then fails. The manager comes over with a sympathetic "I don't suppose you have cash??"

I just rolled my eyes to myself, smiled sweetly and left the groceries there to go home and rummage through my freezer for something for supper.

Perhaps it was karma's way of saying "hey girl!! you said cash only this month!!!"

LOL

I had to laugh.

I checked my account online and the same $37 had gone out and been recredited by the store THREE times. so maybe it DID go through and the lil machine was just reading it wrong. At least I'm not out any money.

Just thought it was funny and seriously ironic!

Halfway through the month

January is flying by. I can't believe it. I am two weeks into this new budget of 'mostly cash' and it seems to be going alright. When each week is done, I transfer any money left from the jar into a surplus envelope, knowing that things like groceries etc fluctutate from week to week and I may need more one week than another. I have jotted the amounts for each week down before sliding it into the envelope.

It feels very very odd to have that much cash around. In fact it just feels odd to have money left from the amounts I budgeted. I know I'm still in the honeymoon phase and things are new and fun. I've been doing a lot of cooking from pantry and freezer so my numbers are lower for groceries this week. That will balance off as I get a regular menu and shopping pattern down.

On the bright note, the Mastercard payment finally showed up online and if...IF I am a very good girl for the next two weeks, and really watch my expenses, I could conceivably have my Mastercard paid off before the next paycheque at the end of the month.

online payment vs brick and mortar

I made two different payments to my Mastercard this week. The first was by going in person to the bank and depositing some rolled change and some snowflake. The second was done when I made a $75 payment towards it online. Both dealt with the same banking institution.

The face to face deposit changed the balance of the MC immediately. I checked online as soon as I got back to work. The other, done early Friday morning, never did officially make it through to MC to change it yet.

I get that paying a bill online on weekend won't change it until weekday banking hours, but one on a Friday morning??

Not a big deal. Just something of interest I noted. If I were in a crunch and needed it to come off immediately, I'd have to go in person to the bank. Sadly, its hours are the same as my working hours, except for Fridays, so the only time I could go is if I had a free noon, or Friday after school.

Since starting with cash not debit since Christmas, I sure have been at the brick and mortar a lot more LOL

I will have to go tomorrow, to get the cash for my weeks' jars. Taking it out of the machine isn't quite as good as the machine only gives out $20s and I need 10s and a few 5s the way I have things divided.

I am finding I am spending WAY less by not using my debit card. I need to document a lil better though as I forgot to write a few things down this week. I am plan to put everything left from my grocery budget this month towards my Credit card or my Bank of Mom loan.

Wonderfully Interactive Budget Template!

For those of you who are Til Debt do us Part fans on Slice TV, or simply seeking try to set up your own monthly/weekly budget, a downloadable template is now available here at Gail's Blog http://gailvazoxlade.com/blog/archives/316 . You will need your gross and net incomes and there is a variety pack of categories you can choose from to fill it.

It's wonderful in that it does the calculations for you according to the % towards each category she has set up. Take a peek at the template if you're interested and make sure you read the FAQ, which should answer any hmmm?? you may have as you fill it in.

It's worth checking out. If you don't want to download it, you can simply play with the interactive template online to see how it matches up with yours, or what your budget could look like.

Field Trip

With schoolgirlish glee I am heading off to the bank at noon. I rolled up the remainder of my change at home and am taking that, along with some snowflake $$ to the bank to put it down on my Mastercard. I have to admit that getting this lil card paid off has become somewhat of an obsession. Perhaps because I am so close and can see some light.

It will be fun to come back after that and go online and see Mr. Mastercard drop down a couple hundred dollars. Wheeee. Little things really do add up.

If only money really DID grow on trees!! Just a lil bit each day, to pay things down.

The night before school starts

I' m curled up here at school taking a break from planning, not quite able to believe the holidays are over and we are back in action tomorrow morning. I've been quite spoiled staying up later and sleeping in but that's all history now. It wouldn't be quite so bad if it weren't forty plus below (-49C this morning counting wind chill) and dark in the morning when we leave and dark when we come home. The first week will be hard going, getting back into routine, for both the boys and I.

My van wouldn't start this morning so I had to nurse and coddle it and didn't get here to the school until almost three. I did manage to get some laundry done at home and sorted away the last of my 'please file these bills'.

I have to admit I'm nervous about being back out and about in public as with being out, means the potential to spend money...justified or uncontrolled. I want so badly to do this right, this year.

Mom called and reminded me that a couple years ago I had stored some rolled coins at her place. She found them in a spare closet while putting the Christmas items away. Those will go off to the bank on my lunch hour tomorrow and go straight to Mr. Mastercard. It IS conceivable, that I could have this paid off by the end of Feb instead of the end of April as originally thought. That prospect excites me a great deal as I can then snowball that amount over to my Bank of Mom and pay that off two months after the MC is clear. That would be very good news indeed as I could then reconfigure the budget to give some back to the emergency fund and the rest would go to paying lump sums off on my personal loan. I can't wait to see that one start to drop down more than the regular amount each week.

The husband is at home right now working on the bathroom. I hope when we open up the walls, we haven't opened up a whole can of worms and find one thing after another wrong. Hopefully this is easily fixed and he can accomplish a lot on his last day off tomorrow. I hate being out of a bathroom and trucking the boys over to mom's. I don't hold my breath too much though as he works quite slowly.

ok back to prepping for the kidlets tomorrow.

Selling my name

It took me awhile to figure it out. I guess I am a slow learner. I had been receiving pre-approved 'cheques' for $15 000 from Citi bank. First of all, we don't even have one of these financial institutions in our community. The closest one is just under 2 hours away in a small city I go to maybe once a year.

I ignored the first two cheques that came in the mail, shredding them and rather unnerved that my name is in the records of a bank I didn't really even know existed. When the third one came, I found the 'contact us' number on the form and called the bank asking to speak with customer service. 'We don't have customer service here', she replied. Ok, it was mean of me, but I giggled at this.

I explained to the nice lady who I was and why I was calling. I wanted to know how my name got on their list and what I had to do to get it off. She said that undoubtedly my name was acquired from a magazine company selling it to banking institutions and other companies. Ok I may live in small prairie town Canada but I did know they did such things. I just had never been targeted before.

She said the main branch who sends out the letters is in Baltimore, Maryland. Maryland!! I am in Western Canada for pete's sake.

I asked very nicely to have my name removed from the list and she said that she would click whatever buttons needed to be for that to stop.

Fast forward four more months. I am still getting those damn cheques. I called again just before Christmas and told my sad sad story once more and asked why I am still getting them. She said it takes 3 to 6 months to get my name off a list.

I may not be a software programmer or a computer engineer, but I do know that all it would take is to delete my name off the list or uncheck my box or something incredibly complicated like that.

I asked her for the contact number for this mysterious main branch in Maryland but she said they were not allowed to give out such information. I guess I could google every branch there and call them all, but that seems rather futile and moot, and expensive if they don't have a toll free number.

It's insane! I wonder how many people cash/activate those cheques?

When it rains, it pours...literally

I knew I had been too positive :-)

We redid our bathroom in February of 2008. We did it ourselves and with my father's help. Tonight a chunk of the wall caved in a bit. We opened up some baseboard and there is black mold behind it so obviously we have a leak in there somewhere. The leak itself is probably easy to fix. It is the damage getting TO it and repairing it after that will take time and cost $.

Thank god for the husband's windfall. He can pick up the tab on this and perhaps hire someone to get it fixed fast and properly. I am still paying off all the renos from before.

I just hope it's confined to relatively small area.

man!! my pretty new bathroom :(

This just reinforces that I need to do EVERTHING I can to get my Mastercard paid off, pay off my Bank of Mom loan and put every spare penny I can down on my consolidated loan. While I am not trying to jinx myself, my washer and dryer are 14 years old...my van is slowly breaking down...and our primary TV is 18 years old this June.

*insert dramatic, ominous music here*

A week of Jars

Yesterday began week 2 of the pay schedule so it was time to switch out the jars from Week 1 to Week 2 and see how things went.

I have to admit I was laughing my head off as there was SO much money left, however......Week 1 in no way reflects a regular week in my world.

• I am on holidays from work
• The boys are not at school
• The boys were not running about from one activity to another
• It's been -40 out so driving was minimal
• We've eaten meals at my mom's or my sister's several times
• It's the first week of a new plan = honeymoon!

So was there money left? oh yes. I used some of my gas money, most of my grocery money and a teeny bit of the dining out money. Nothing was touched in household or in my personal spending.

The true reflection of my success with the jars will come about at the end of January when I have gone a full month. I generally tend to lose steam towards the end of the month and attention to details and categories becomes blurred.

I went once for grocery shopping and forgot to get the money out of the jars. I laughed so hard. When I went again later, I was unsure whether to take the whole amount so I'd have enough, or just part etc. It certainly makes me look more at what I am buying.

I have not yet decided if I will keep some of each money with me in my wallet or if it is safe for me to leave things at home. I have $20 from last month tucked into my wallet as a Just in case for true emergencies.

It will be interesting to see how all this pans out when I am back in the swing of things with work and activities.

Putting things in perspective

Twice in the past week I have put on my blacks and headed off to funerals. Both for parents of my current/former students. One was a father, one a mother. Both under 50. Both deaths were unexpected and leave the kids behind in a far far different world than the one we were in when school got out before Christmas.

No matter how swirly my marriage is...no matter how much of a mess I've made of my finances, my physical shape and my mental shape, I can't match what they are going through.

It certainly makes me appreciate the reason why I am trying to improve my finances, health and body... to be a better mother for my boys. It reminds me even more to make sure, during this coming year, I actively work to spend quality time with my boys.

Food for thought. calorie and fat free.

Where the debt stands

As of January 1st, 2009

Mortgage - $43 957.91
My Consolidated Loan - $12 945.62
His VISA - Paid in Full thanks to windfall
His Truck Payment - Paid in full thanks to windfall
Bank of Mom - $700.00
My Mastercard - $850.00

Total Debt $58, 453.53

A snowy New Year's Day here

We had a lovely little blizzard fly through here last night dumping a lot of snow, so soon I shall have to bundle up and get out and shovel my little heart out. It will be a good bonding time with the boys.

I have a lot of hopes and dreams for 2009, but I'm at the age where I realize that if I want the dreams to come true, 'moi' needs to get off her butt and get at them.

I just wanted to thank all of you, whose blogs provided me with education, inspiration and companionship since last summer.

~~jolie~~