wheeeeeeeeeeeee I did it!!

As of Friday, May 29th, I reached my $580 snowflakes through some wicked evil tightening that probably can't be recreated again for awhile.

I now have the $2500 downpayment for a new vehicle that I was working towards.

It feels all lovely to have that smiling away at me from my bank balance. Is it enough for a downpayment? heck no. But at least I know that should it become necessary for me to get a new vehicle as mine dies, I have that money there. I've never had a downpayment for a vehicle before. It's always been a part of the loan. Now I won't feel quite so much the peasant when I go in LOL

I will update my sidebar as soon as I can.

Happy Sunday all!!!

snowflakes a fallin'

Ok at the beginning of this month I decided that I would need $580 snowflakes to combine with my snowball money for end of May paycheck and I would have reached my current savings target.

Yes that is correct...IF I can be a good girl and a smart girl, I will have the $2500 I decided to set aside for a vehicle downpayment BEFORE my end of June paycheck. How exciting that I can actually set my mind to something and actually see it through to accomplishment.

I am so glad I decided to put both parts of my spare money towards this one goal. It has not helped interest wise on my loan but the momentum and dedication towards my goal is so intense!!

I hit the bank yesterday and deposited $195 of flakes. There will be some more to come on Monday, when it is actually payday and I'll update then how much more I need to 'find' before the end June paycheck.

This is very exciting!!

Dratted Gas prices!

They were down at about 88.9/L then went up about a month ago to 95.9/L. Today it jumped up to $105.9 / L . It's so disheartening. And should be a crime. Even on the news the Minister of something......said there was no reason right now for such a huge jump.

I hope this is not the beginning of summer car jacking by the pumps.

Money Jars - Month 4

whoops. totally forgot to do this. This was for March/April

My budget lines for Groceries, Gas and Dining out were reduced before starting this month so I knew in advance that my snowflakes would be lesser.

Gas -I was able to save $95 of the $200 budget line, which means I saved 48% of this jar. woo hoo.

Groceries - Ohhh groceries...the bane of my budgetary existance. I struggle to cut down on this. There are tons of steps I could take but do I? nooooo. No one to blame but me. I saved $74 of this budget so that means 11.5% saved. That went to snowflake.

Spending - $50 of $120 so this allowed me to top off my $200 cap on savings surplus. That means that any surplus this month goes straight as snowflake. woo hoo. That's 42% saved.

Dining Out - always a tough one. I only had $20 of $160 left so that means I saved 12.5%

Household - I saved $35 of $120 as it was a big month for restocking personal toiletries. That means 29% is saved.

A very spendy weekend/how long do you keep your big purchases?

At Christmas my husband received an early inheritance from his father. He used a big part to pay off his truck and a fairly hefty balance on his Visa. The rest he tucked away. Separate accounts means it's his to do with as he wishes, and yes there are tons of viewpoints on this situation.

He actually decided Thursday he was going to use some of his money for things around the house. I was quite blown away as this is a rare event. All the renos done in the past four years have been paid for by Moi and yes I was more than a bit bitter about that. (yes a whole different set of issues :P)

Anyhoo he decided he was going to buy a microwave/range hood vent thingie combo to fill in the hole in the wall (which is 3 years old) where a plain range hood used to live. The microwave we use currently lives on top of the fridge as we've used it for.............oh.........about 21 years. You heard me. 21 YEARS.

The combo he bought was about $399 (his original microwave was about $700 methinks when their prices were through the roof). That is getting installed today.

Secondly, he bought a new boxspring/mattress combo. No headboard/footoboard thingie yet. We'll have to decide on that later. The current bed we have is an oversize mattress put in an old waterbed frame (you heard me :P). I LOVED my waterbed. I did. I was allll warm in it. When I got pregnant with my first child the husband decided waterbeds were bad for babies and I came home one day to find it gone and this mattress in it's place. That was..........16 years ago this summer. The mattress is in awful shape and he has a bad back so shopping he went.

Not being a couple to agree on many things, I left the choice pretty much up to him as he would be the one complaining if 'my' choice was not a good one for his back. That will come in, in about a week and that cost him $1250.

Whilst shopping for said bed, his eyes wandered to the flatscreen TVs. He has wanted one forever and wanted me to buy it. I didn't have the cash and refused the 'no money down' trap as recently as last May. I know zero about TVs and electronics so again I left that up to him and only gave a wee bit of input when the stand he wanted to buy to put it on looked like my grandmother's old metal TV trays. Cost of TV and stand (which came with a new HD satellite receiver) was $1600. Our old tv and stand (big solid oak hutch) was bought when we married in 1991 so that is 17 years this summer.

Scary hey?

I have to say I really stayed out of this as he sees it as ' his' money. I let him make the choices. I guess I will have to find $ now for a new sheet/comforter set. It was time to get new sheets.

So his total for the weekend was about $3200. It has gone on his VISA for the weekend, to be paid off in cash when he gets to the brick and mortar bank next week to transfer $ out of that special account of his.


A few thoughts then:
First: be sure the person you marry is $ compatible with you. We are not and yes it is disfunctional in that way and I do know it.

Second: work into your budget money for replacement costs of items. Our biggest purchases, the ones just mentioned and the ones I made last year, were to replace very old predecessors. I really wish I had been saving regularly over the years so that a new item wouldn't be such a huge hardship as the purchases I made last year were.

Ok today is installing of hood/microwave so off I go to clean. Have a great day!

woo hoo I'm in the money :P

My random pick for Survivor is in the final four so I am guaranteed at least my $5 back *grins*

Airmiles change

So with my 'use your Credit card carefully' scheme, I have used it for groceries, household supplies and gas mostly. As soon as I get home, I pay it off so there is no balance.

I went from 18 airmiles in a month on my Mastercard to 56. Interesting hypothesis. I will continue to try this as long as I continue to pay off the charges TOUTE SUITE

and the magic number this time is 580

My current target focus is $2500 for a downpayment to a new vehicle. I currently have $1220 in that account and after I add the $700 at the end of May, I will have $1920. That leaves me with $580 to top it up. Now yes, of course, I will have $700 at the end of June and that will bring me there, but wouldn't it be ever so much fun if I could snowflake that bad boy before then, and the June $ could go to a NEW target????

Granted $580 is a heck of a lot of money to snowflake for only a 2 month time frame. It may not be d0-able but I am going to work towards that.

I have a little paper in my drawer with the $580 on it and with every snowflake I get, I am reducing that number. It's rather fun to think of ways I can add to it here and there to make it get smaller. Always good to have something to look forward to.

Envy

Ok, I admit it. I'm envious. One of my colleagues and her husband are buying a new house. Brand spanking new. They have two sons in lower elementary school and have lived in an older bungalow they bought a few years ago. They were at the point of either updating the 1970s style house or putting that money to a new one and they went with the second option.

They have a gorgeous new home, all beautifully finished that they will move into this summer. 1350 square feet, finished basement. two car garage. Will they have a big mortgage? yes. Do they have other debt? student loans I think. They don't horribly mismanage their money.

I wish I could have a nice house with 3 bedrooms on one level...with a kitchen big enough for all of us to eat in at once....with more than one full bathroom.

I am very happy for them. I just wish that I could be there too. I have had house envy for a long time. Not of McMansions. I get that is not going to happen. Just a decent sized house for us.

New Experiment

I am on Month 5 of jars now and getting into a bit of a routine and pattern with it. Still room to fine tune and improve though. I have noticed, that obviously, the AirMiles I received with my BMO Mastercard have dwindled to nothing and that is something that I'd like to regain.

I am trying a short term experiment to see if this works for me. I will still pull out the cash each week for gas, spending, household, groceries and dining out, but I will put as many purchases as possible on the credit card, always keeping in mind how much I have in the jar for the week.

When I get home, I transfer the $ from the appropriate jar into a new jar labelled MasterCard and then at the end of each week, I pay it off so that the balance remains zero. If there isnt' enough in the jar to 'buy' something, it does NOT go on the credit card.

I can hear anti CC folk frothing as we speak and that is completely fair. This would NOT work if the balance could not be paid off weekly.

It's a few more steps of work each week so I may not enjoy that. We shall see.

Monthly Progress

Where the money stands - May 1st

Debts
Mortgage - $39,445.66
Consolidated Loan - $10,661.42
Total Debt - $50,107.08

Savings
Christmas Savings - $1000
Emergency Fund - $1000
New Van Downpayment - $1220.00

Woo hoo Spring!!!

FINALLY a nice day out!! It's been such a cold spring so far. Still below zero at night. But it's a balmy 10 C out with a 'gentle' wind (instead of gusts) and you know what that means............

.... It's clothesline time!!!!

Finally I can hang out some of the things that would have had to go in the dryer, or the shirts I hang up in the basement. I can give my dryer, my energy bill and the environment a break.

I've never been so excited to do laundry in such a long time.

very sad I know LOL but every little bit helps!