Savings Summary

Here is a wee snapshot of my savings/targetted savings/planned spending each month. This is money I physically move to a certain account and keep track of the categories.

EF - $50
Christmas $75
Summer $75
RRSP - $125
RESP - $200
Membership - $50
Salon - $40
Total $615
EF will continue along until/unless something happens where I can no longer contribute. Where would I cap it, if I had to choose? Probably $10,000.

Christmas will just keep chugging along year to year. I loved knowing I had this money when Christmas 2009 came alone. I don't ever want to go back to not saving ahead for Christmas.

Summer is a new category. I have set $1000 for my target for summer 2010. I would use it for camping or travel, ideally. Right now, since summer 2010 is fully funded, I am combining this with the Christmas account. When I hit my Christmas 2010 goal, then I will split them apart and fund them independently and I should have the amounts I wish, when I wish them.

RRSP - this is relatively new. I am buying my first RRSP toute suite here so it is my baby step foray into this part of life. My goal for 2010 RRSPs will be $1500. If all goes well, I will up it to $2000 the year following, etc until I hit the point where I am contributing all I comfortably can.

RESP - this is new. Very new. As in the bubble wrap is still on it AND is not popped, as temping as popping bubble wrap is. First contribution is scheduled to come out the end of February. Ideally it should be much much more per month given how late I have started this. I will re-evaluate the amount this summer.

Membership - I tuck this aside in savings for things like my CAA Membership, Costco, the money I use to file income tax and my package policy on my vehicle. I currently pay monthly for my plates (basic insurance) on my vehicle. If I can manage to pay the whole amount for my plates in August, then I will transfer the $90 per month allocated to that to my membership so I can hopefully pay in full again the following year.

Salon - I am not totally high maintenance. Honest. I do go for cuts, perms and colour now and again. I just build this until I HAVE to get one of the above done.

I also tuck $300 a month into an activity account for the boys. Some months I use more and some I use less, but it helps avoid the 'oh crap I need $x for this actvity at school' moments.

I haven't included the money that comes off each month for my Work Retirement plan. Funny, I had never really thought of that as savings before. Do other folks include that in their 'savings' or in their 'net worth'....anywhere??? not at all????

Mid 80s

No no, not temperature (in F), though that would be lovely. It's been wicked cold and windy here.

In the Mid 80s...............percent......................paid off..............on my loan. I tell ya I smiled all day  yesterday when I read that. I put $400 down on the loan yesterday, and the day before, the regular payment came out, so almost a thousand dollars gone. $940 to be exact.

Assuming a $540 principal coming off,  I will now have this paid off by end of June (plus about $100 that I am sure I will snowflake by then). That will make it 9 months early.

I wonder, when one is done a loan, if one can request a 'hey I paid it off early. How much interest did I save?" paper? It will be interesting to see if that is possible.

I also booked my RESP appointment for Friday so hopefully I can set up those two accounts for the boys.

Now if the weather would warm up, if I had more energy as I recover from being sick, and if a laundry fairy would pop by, things would be great LOL

RESPs

I am so excited that as I get ready to open RESPs for my boys, that I have Gail Vaz Oxlade to enlighten me as to what they are, how they work and some advice on what I should do.

She wrote today about Kids' Educations  and also awhile ago on RESPs in particular.

I've learned so much from her, and from all the other blogs I have read on here. It's like having my own financial advisors!!

OUCH! darn CPP and EI

So yesterday was my first cheque since my September raise that was 'normal' ish. I had my CPP and EI full deductions back on so it was my first glimpse of how much of a net my raise was. Traditionally, it is about $100 to $125 a month, which is nice to have something match the cost of living.

I opened my paystub this morning (we didnt' get them yesterday) and was surprised to see how much those two deductions have increased. Painful. I don't have my Jan 2009 stub here at work but my 'raise' is about $75 a month, so quite a bit less than what I was expecting.

I currently take home 59% of my Gross Wage. That's right. 41% is deducted. Insane, isn't it?

Of my gross, 21% of my deductions are Federal and Provinical Sales Tax. 5% is for CPP. 9% is for Pension... Sure adds up.

If you feel like sharing....................how much of your Gross do you take  home?

menu monday

I hesitate to look but I suspect it was late November or early December that I last posted a menu for the week. It helps one feel organized. It helps minimize food purchases. It really is a good idea.  It is one of those things that makes you go "so you're not doing it because.....?"

There have been lots of reasons. Being sick. Being whirlwind busy. There were two weeks there before Christmas that at least two of us weren't home during normal supper hours due to activities. And then it was Christmas and I just...............relaxed.

Time to give sanity and organization another shot. This was mostly a  shop from my freezer kind of week, with the exception of the roast I purchased yesterday.  All too often I neglect my freezer. So here it is in all it's teeny glory.

Monday - Crockpot French "Beef" dip with cole slaw on the side.
Tuesday - Spaghetti and Meatballs
Wednesday - truly a left over day. I will have Mon and Tues plus a few things from Sunday.
Thursday - Chicken Stir Fry (need to buy the  veggies still)
Friday - Beef Stew

I don't plan for weekends. They are very unpredictable, particularly with hockey going into playoffs soon and we have no clue where and when we play til a couple days ahead.

Happy Monday everyone!

Additional Goal for 2010

I have been absolutely remiss as a parent regarding RESPs. When I first had kids, I had not yet found a permament teaching job and had zip for regular income. Then I started getting some part time, some temporary, but there still wasn't money go to around.

By the time I got full time, I was in debt and horrid habits. Getting RESPs was always one of those things I meant to do....I knew I had to do............I felt guilty because I had not done.....but I just never did it. Kinda like RRSPs.

I had been mulling over the ideas of getting my $SS in gear and getting started on those. I will have some money to play with once my consolidated loan is paid off. I was going to get one started during our Feb break here, when I have time to make an appointment at the bank without taking time off work. (closing at 4 pm is a real downer for those who work regular daytime hours).

My brother in law wandered over for a visit today and that sealed the deal for me. He's home from Ontario, visiting his father. My father in law is in his mid 80s, and while he doesn't particularly care for me, he does love the boys I produced. He is starting to make some decisions about his pockets of money. Brother in law convinced him (for now) to take some of that money and invest it in RESPS for the boys. For a late blooming account as I will be making, that will be a welcome addition to the RESP so it is absolutely on my list to do in the next three weeks.

On the mend and some thinking time

Well I am finally starting to feel semi human again. I made it to work Friday though I am still aching fiercely in my joints. Hit the hardest are my wrists, hands, fingers etc. I am still exhausted but the few days off work where I slept 24/7 almost, have helped. Typing is.......... a challenge, as is holding a pen, coffee cup etc lol

Thank you so much to everyone who replied on my last post and send kind thoughts to me. It was appreciated.

Reading over my last few posts, I can see how so many of them have focused on paying off the last bit of the loan. I am hoping that is a normal reaction as one nears the end of a long loan time period. I certainly have seen how little bits of money can add up and make some serious differences.

As it stands, with just basic payments I will be done this loan by end of July. However, I have spent time crunching numbers and with some snowflakes and perhaps a favourable income tax return, I could be finished with this loan by the end of April.... 11 months ahead of schedule. It's a very exciting prospect and probably why I have been so focused on this.

I have begun playing about what I will do with that $579 a month once the loan is paid. I have run up a few different scenarios, but I will save that for another day/another post.

Thanks for reading!!

Good Times

It all started last Wednesday. Odd rash on the torso. Spread. and spread. and spread. and this weekend the lovely massive joint pain began.

I have Fifths disease.

Good times.  I highly do NOT recommend it.

Belated gift

Over the course of the holidays, I had forgotten the scratch and win lottery tickets I had received as gifts. I pretty much never buy lottery tickets, and never scratch and win ones.

Having nothing on my to do list for the morning, I curled up with my coffee and my tickets and made a fine mess of the little scratch shreddies.

I have to say it was a very productive session. I scratched my way to $44 of prizes. woo hoo.

Being the good little girl I am, I slipped down to the local gas station, cashed them in, and dutifully stuck them in my snowflake jar, to be deposited the next time I go to the bank.

It is frightening to think about how much money people spend every week or every month on lottery tickets. I guess the same could be said for drinks, coffee, magazines, cigarettes. Most people have (or had) at least one of those vices along the journey.

a lil $250 gift of snow

My father in law often will give a cash gift to me for Christmas as he doesn't shop anymore. He had been in the hospital, very ill for over three week and recently improved enough to be sent home.

I had honestly forgotten about the $ as we were more concerned about his health.

What a lovely surprise last night when I got home, to see that on the table. Off I will go to the bank tomorrow to pop that down on my  loan.

A dry spell

Being back to work I have found far less time to blog and to read blogs than I would like....then I think, what the heck would I blog about? lol

I am mostly just riding out the rest of the month. My bills are all paid. Money went to savings and debt and I am just working off my jars for Week 3 and Week 4.

I managed to save a ton of money in Week 1 that went to snowflakes, but week 2 was a total bust. Just seemed like that was the week everything was running out. TP, Kleenex, Cat food, fruit, cleaners, conditioner...everything. My entire week's jar money trickled away bit by bit on all these little things.

I am hoping for a better Week 3, to get the snowflake juices going in me again.

Where the money stands

Where the money stands

as of January 5th, 2010


Debts


Mortgage - $37 986.75

Consolidated Loan - $3995.62

Vehicle Loan - $26 735.99

Total Debt - $68 718.36

Savings

RRSP 2009 - $1000

Efund - $1 200

Summer 2010 - $1000

RRSP 2010 - $75

Xmas 2010 - $70

Total Savings - $3 345

A good month, even with Christmas in there. I reduced my debt load by $2053.63. My savings increased only by $120.

A Fantastic Day

It was...it really was....and it's only 3:30 :-)

I hit the recycling as my previous blog said. I went to the gym and dutifully added a lil happy face sticker to my calendar. The boys and I had lunch.

I jetted off to Bank #1 and deposited $ there to cover my vehicle payment which come out tomorrow. I also put in money to my savings which officially bumped up my EF to $1200 and started my journey on Christmas 2010.

Then I jetted off to Bank #2. I just couldn't resist. I took in my snowflake money, my Christmas money and all the money I did not spend out of my jars last week, so that I could put it down on my loan and it is now UNDER $4000. I am so excited about this. I will have to watch my money carefully for the remaining three weeks of the month. I won't be running any more to the bank until after my next payday at the end of the month.  Not sure how much I will be able to set aside, but every little bit counts.

What this means is that in just regular payments alone based on $525 principal coming off a month....I will be done this bad boy by the end of August!!  I would still like to try for the end of June....Just cuz it would be nice to start the summer knowing that debt is gone.

Oh who would have ever thought paying off debt could be such an adrenaline rush.

Now to curl up with a coffee and a good book.

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!!