This n That

It's been a whirly week, with a whole lotta rain and wind. I am hoping my life hasn't become more boring (yes I know some already feel it is LOL), with my having paid off a big debt. I still have more debt. things will happen.

I hope to get to the bank tomorrow after work. I have $200 pretty dollars wanting to go to down as a lump sum on the vehicle loan and I will more than willing to oblige it. This loan feels a long long way from being paid off so I will have to find ways to make it more fun for me and get motivated.

Both boys started soccer this week, one for school and one for the developmental team. With the second we'll have three out of town tournaments so the $ will add on there.

This weekend is the MS walk. My sister was diagnosed last year, just after the walk, so this is the first year we can participate. A lot of my nieces and nephews and their signficant others are coming home to participate. It will be the first time my boys will have participated in something like this. It will be exciting.

We were supposed to redo my parents' roof last Thanksgiving but mother nature was not co-operative and we had snow. So since we're all home this weekend anyways, we thought we'd toss in a 'build a new roof for Grandma and Grandpa'

Here's hoping the rain will stop!!

Updated sidebars

nothing fancy. Just a bit of updating on my sidebars for my savings.

Running behind so gotta dash

bucket lists

Tonight I stumbled across the blog of another SK girl called Something Under the Sky. As I perused her entries I saw her bucket list. I've seen a lot of those lately and have been figuring I should dig out the one I wrote about fifteen years ago. It's somewhere downstairs in a box.

I was visiting with a friend  yesterday who is four years shy of 50. She started to say 'It makes me think..." and I said "don't say it!!!" I knew what she meant. She was going to say that she really didn't have much to show for herself for someone who is almost 50. In fact she did say it.

I commiserated with her, thinking that I haven't really done anything fantastic with my life either. School, university, married, kids, job.

Anyways, I thought about the hopes and dreams one has for a bucket list. Places to go. Experiences to have. Memories to keep. Things one can look back on and say "ha! I did this".

I scanned her list and saw her hopes and dreams and wishes. there were some I could agree with. Some that I will add to my list. Others that really aren't for me, and that's ok. What made me happy was that there were 22 items on her list that I've done. Now granted I am probably double her age (and size) and have had more time to have these experiences. but it made me think that even though my life hasn't been OMG !!! every minute of the day, I've done a few of the things that others hope to. Maybe I'm not such of a boring person after all.

so thank you, mysterious stranger from SK who knows what spitz are, for giving me some much needed pats on the back tonight. I know that when you reach my venerable age, you will have a great many of these crossed off your list.

Here were the items on her list that I could cross off mine (if they were on mine, and if I can find mine)

My Already done Bucket List

1. Own a house

2. Send someone flowers

3. Take silly pictures in a photo booth

4. Walk on a glacier

5. Watch the sunrise on a beach.

6. Have a picnic.

7. Make snowangels.

8. Travel alone.

9. Go camping.

10. Learn how to change a tire.

11. Go canoeing.

12. Make homemade jam.

13. Learn a new language.

14. See a broadway play.

15. Fill up my spare change jar (ok it was a Texas Mickey)

16. Get my Tarot Cards read.

17. Zipline.

18. Participate in relay for life.

19.  Give my mom flowers for her birthday and for mother’s day.

20. Sing karaoke.

21. Watch a movie at a drive in theatre.

Week 4/Month 1

Alright so week 4 wasn't the best of weeks. I didn't go over but it definitely was a more spendy week than the others. Actually that makes sense in the big picture as some weeks are more frugal and some weeks are more spendy.

• We ate out a bit more this week as we were running constantly Mon through Thursday from afterschool til 9 PM. (we need an icon for flying money on here heh)
• I totally needed a full tank of gas this week instead of just topping up due to the running around.
• There was a few items on case lot sale so I picked them up to add to the pantry.
• The cheque fee of $35 was unbudgeted so I took it out of 'groceries and house'.
• It was time to buy TP, Kleenex and paper towel.
• There was something else too but it honestly escapes me right now, so I will edit it in later if I remember.

There was only about 5% left this week.

So yesterday, I emptied out all my jars. I dumped all the change, loonies and toonies into the change jars and counted what was left. $215. So in one month I had a resevoir of $215 after my expenses. Now that could mean that I way overbudgeted for jars. Perhaps. I have been using this amount for 18 months or so. It could just mean I kept saying 'no' an awful lot and bought only what was on sale an awful lot. nah I gave in now and again for things I wanted not things I needed. Like mozza sticks and chicken wings at M & Ms.

Since some weeks I need all that money and some weeks I don't quite, I am going to keep it this way for now. I am retinkering the jars for end of June anyways.

Now I understand that jars are supposed to build up and keep growing. for example, transportation will also mean an oil change or a car wash. But I do like to keep things interesting and I like to compare things...weeks, months etc.

So I have decided to put $100 of the $215 away as an incase. In case I need an oil change. In case I head to the city and have an extra tank of gas in one week. Those kinds of things. I'd also like to in case a pedicure as it is open feet season and I'd reallllly like to not have hideous feet.

The other $115 I am combining with the $80 budgeted in my cheque, and a $35 snowflake, to create a $200 lump sum on the vehicle loan. I will run that in sometime next week. This will allow me to see what lump sums do to the principal/interest when the loan comes out on the 5th.

So for today I need to head to the ATM and get my jar money for the week. I need to restart my budget binder pages for Month 2. I need to plan meals for the week and perhaps pick up some meat. There are teeny tiny snowflakes coming down today. blargh. It's been moving in from Alberta (Thanks so much) It was 26C here Thursday and now it's snowing again. Crazy!!! Since DS1 is gone for  his last weekend of hockey with his father and it's just DS2 and myself, we'll be having homemade soup, bread from the machine and......whatever else we have in the fridge LOL

Happy Sunday

$35!!

I know, in the picture of my last post, $35 is nothing but this one irks me. I really must be penny wise pound foolish LOL

I use cheques regularly for the boys fees, activities and fundraisers. They are just a part of my life right now and I accept that.

I was nearly out of cheques when I went in to pay off my loan so I ordered a new batch. Just regular ones. No fancy designs. No duplicates underneath. No hologram that looks like  a bunny one way and Brad Pitt the other.

This is at BMO and I just have  a regular performance plan there.

While the cheques did not arrive yet, the fee did, on my online statement. $35.47!! At first I thought, what the heck is that place where I spent money I don't remember. The name was just gobblydigook and initials. Then I figured out the scroll and was flooored. For cheques. It's been a heck of a long time....2 or 3 years, since I ordered cheques and I have $15 stuck in my head for some reason.

I thought perhaps it was an error and they had charged me for fancy cheques. I scoured the webpage and was unable to find the basic cost of plain cheques, so when I had to go to the bank Thursday, I asked them. No that was the regular price for plain jane cheques.

Back in December I posted about cheque usage and got a lot of great answers.

Lesson learned I guess. Check prices before you order so you can make an informed decision, or at least not be shocked.  I have also learned I need to try to reduce the number of cheques I write so they will last longer. For example, when I move money from Bank A to Bank B and have some to put in chequing and some to put in savings, I will write ONE check now and transfer  rather than write two.

A tale of 253

For good or for bad, I bought a new vehicle last year. Not just new to me, but new new. This was a first (and probably only) for me. My old vehicle was costing between $1000 and $2000 a year in repairs (and was worth only $1400  in trade in value). It was not economical or safe to keep it any longer.

After long deliberation I bought a new  new vehicle with a just under $30,000 tag after cash back, trade in etc. I will never own anything this expensive again aside from my house, I am sure.

It is a five year loan at 7.6% interest. That means 60 months. We had done the math out when I was buying it and the 0% for three years ended up being more expensive than the 7.6% with big cash back so that is the route we took.

I accept that I could have bought a new to me vehicle for less. After years of breaking down on highways and in storms and paying through the nose, the idea of a 5 year extended warrantee made me feel very happy.

I could have bought a less expensive new new vehicle but finding one that met our height needs, our storage needs etc was tricky. I did not want another van. I was really just not ready for a car yet and the storage in it was iffy. We already have a truck so that was out. So mid sized SUV it is.

The way this 5 year loan plays out, I would be done paying it when my son finishes his first year of university. Let's face it. When he's in university, I am going to need that $591 a month :-) So obviously, I need to cut at least one year off that loan by paying lump sums as often as I can. Not only do I save a year, I'll save INTEREST for that year and lil bits of interest each month that I pay a lump sum.

After the success of my lump sums and my consolidated loan, I am excited to tackle this vehicle loan the same way.

As of my end of June paycheck, I will regularly be able to whap down $279 + $80 = $359 on this loan. I have it all prettily budgeted in. It will be great fun to see how this affects the amount of interest they charge me each month and how quickly I can make those months remaining cut down.

As of now I have 50 months remaining. Scary. Yesterday I took down a snowflake of $100 to do the very first lump sum payment on this loan. The teller was very experienced ( I know her) yet she said she's probably only done lump sums about 4 times in her years of banking. That says a lot about how many folk just pay the monthly and don't work to get it done early.  She asked another teller and they figured it out. wheeee

I was excited about the $100 but then I realized that with $25 300ish left on my loan, that would mean I would have to do this 253 times. Now obviously, more will come off with my regular payments, and more will come off with the regular extra payments starting in June, but boy, 253 is a lot of $100 payments.

On my goal page for this year, I expressed a desire to pay down $1500 extra on this. I feel quite comfortable I can reach this and then some, barring unforseen circumstances.

why I am liking my Credit Union

My primary accounts are with BMO. Have been since I was....probably 9. That is where the loan I just paid off, was.

My 'savings' bank is the Credit Union. I started that account several years ago when I realized I needed to start putting money aside each month for the boys' activities. It expanded to a plain jane savings account the following year.

Now, it's a busier bank for me.

The Savings holds the following target savings: EF, Xmas, Summer, RRSP

The Chequing is still for the boys' activities, but it's also where I transfer money into, to pay my vehicle loan each month.

I have to say, in terms of the paper statements that come each month, my CU rules. In particular I like the breakdown of the loans. At BMO there was just a line saying 'loan = $balance'. With the CU account, I get the breakdown of my last payment - principal and interest.  I love/hate seeing how much actually was sucked into the great banking system in the sky for interest. It's a motivator to get it paid off faster. It also has the number of payments left and how much the final one is. This is going to be a great little tool as I begin lump sum payments on this loan as I will see how much more principal/less interest is paid each month with the extra payments going in. ( instead of figuring it out by hand).  I will also get to see how many payments are left, without guestmating.

Do your banks give you break downs like that?? I do love that feature.

Next goal

It's a short term one, but one I am excited about. My goal is to save $1000 for my yearly  vehicle plates (insurance). This will pay for a full year instead of having to pay $89 a month, or so.  Saving up this way will allow me to save a bit of money as you get it cheaper if you pay all in one shot. It also will make me feel like there is one less creditor taking a monthly bite out of my money, which is a great feeling.

Currently I have just under $200 in this savings account. I will have $379 extra from my April paycheck (thanks to paying off my loan) to put towards this as well as my usual $50 towards annual fees that I currently have in the budget. I will do this for both April and May cheques and this goal is complete. Voila.

It will also let me start tucking anything extra I may come across as a snowflake for my final loan, the Vehicle Loan. I am very excited about this. w heeeeeee

sunday night this and that

gorgeous day


curled up on the front step in the fading light. sunset off to my right. two cats curled up beside, me, ecstatic i am out here with them. beautiful breeze. no bugs.

The lawn was all rotoraked and then raked by hand .


DS2 finished homework. yeah


DS1 finished massive essay, and slideshow presentation and just working on persuasive paragraph, though I can hear hockey game on through the screen door so his focus isn't 100%


laundry done and in from hanging on my beloved laundry line


kitchen cleaned and ready for morning


had a good long call with my best friend


life is pretty darn good.


night all

Week 3 on the jars

Things have been going along swimmingly. The beauty of doing the jars over a period of weeks lets you see  that some weeks are just spendier than others. Sometimes you need to restock the home supplies like TP and some weeks you are surviving quite nicely on what is in stock.

Overall, I was able to save  27% of my jar money. Oddly until I just did the math, I didn't think it was that high as at least three of the jars showed that almost all the week's money was used. Interesting.

One thing I've realized today is that if I go to the ATM and withdraw week 3's money, there will be nothing left in the account. I operate on a zero based budget with all money targeted somewhere. Since I have leftover money in the jars that has accumulated over the three weeks, I think I will just withdraw the grocery money and operate off of what I have in the other jars. Then at the end of this week, with a new payday coming, I can safely take out the rest so the accuracy of the system remains constant.

I will have to work on saving little bits so can I keep an elevated 'zero' balance in there of say...$100  or $500 if I could. It would be nice to have a bit of a backup.

Happy Sunday everyone!!

Where to go from here

It's been a heck of a high this week, I have to admit. The overwhelming number of visitors and your kind and supportive comments really meant so much to me. It's always been so exciting for me to read on other blogs of people's successes and in many ways it is still rather surreal that I finally had one to share.

So where to go from here?

Well some things never change. The budget marches on, with it's army of magic jars, budget binder and saying 'no' a whole lot.

I have noticed a shift in my mindset in regards to shopping. There is a whole lot more of 'do you reallly need that??' in my self talk. I refuse to buy things that clutter up my home, and there isn't a whole lot that is really needed for my house.

My weakness is still groceries. It is far too easy to spend more than i want. I still need to work on planning out meals which generally means better organizing my life.

I know where I am going 'goal wise'.  I started this big goal with the consolidated loan when there was 2 years left on the loan, which I cut down to one. My next goal has  a four  year lifespan which I obviously want to reduce down. It's still a long journey and I worry that I will lose momentum with such a long time period.

I understand there will be bumps along the way and the budget will need to keep changing to reflect those.

So in the meantime, life goes on. It's a gorgeous day here on the prairies and it's supposed to get to 20 C today which is glorious in and of itself. The added bonus is how we were in a blizzard this time last week.

Off to go help with the Scouts annual spring bottle drive. Have a great day everyone!

Happy Dances of Joy!!

I have to admit, I've logged on twice to my bank account since dinner time. It is incredibly odd to go on there and see 'you have no loans' where the big ole loan used to be. It's gone. Poof. Farewell. I had them tap in to figure out how much the accrued interest would be since last payment, so that there would be no $30 dollar surprises at the end of the month. It's all good.

I was grinning a happy little grin when I left.

For those of you who follow Survivor, you are familiar with how the last episode goes. There are four contestants left. As they venture towards their final challenges they go past items that are meant to remind them of all the contestants who left the show before them.

So here is the memorial walk through this consolidated loan.

It all began in June of 2002.  I was finishing my first full time year of teaching and in a brand new school and my vehicle completely broke down. It was going to cost a fortune to repair and wasn't worth the money to do so. So off to the car lots I went to find a 'new to me' vehicle. With two young kids and a boatload of equipment to haul around, the minivan seemed the perfect choice. I believe the original loan was for about $12 000 but I honestly have no clue and I can't find the papers on it. Sad. very sad.

I was excited to learn though that even though this was my first personal loan ever, I did not need a cosigner. What a great feeling. I was in for, I believe, four years, though I honestly don't know. I signed that baby on my own and the first of my 26th of the month payments, began.

I dutifully paid each month as it was automatically withdrawn from my account. While I knew next to nothing about money and loans, I was smart enough to have this automatic withdrawl come out right after I got paid so there would never be a money mistake.

I did not know a blesssed thing about paying lump sums so I paid merely the loan amount while the interest ate away and my principle.

Things progressed nicely until the fall of 2004 when DS1 had the opportunity to go play hockey in Europe for two weeks in the spring of 2005. We were really excited about this and decided to make a family trip out of this. I needed the money to pay for the packages for myself and my boys. (Their father did not contribute  one tiny cent to that, and had HIS father pay for his trip over. Long story. Not commenting beyond I'm not bitter. honest. lol right)

I went back to the bank. I was just under $10 000 on this loan at this point. Putting the trip on this (all expenses were included) bumped the loan up considerably. But Europe!!! I'd never been and may never again. It really was a trip of a lifetime and I can't say enough about how this experience meant to me.

I also added on the $1000 for the new energy efficient fridge we bought. Our old one (very old) had completely died). It was so exciting to have a real functioning fridge that had room to store more than 1 milk!

Suddenly my loan was up to (I think) $22 000. The payments were stretched out over 5 years and I kept on diligently paying things down.

In 2008 I learned I was going to be having an exchange student staying at my house. My tiny tiny, house. My rundown and embarrassing house. The carpets were torn and stained. The bathroom had serious mold issues. My loan was down to about $9000. I bit the bullet (and I glad I did) and went back to the bank for a reconsolidation of my loan. The renos and new items to replace 20 year old items brought me back up to $18 000.

So the bathroom was completely gutted.

The living room carpet was torn up, laminate (sadly not hardwood) was laid by my husband, walls were repainted and furniture bought to replace the furniture with springs dangerously coming out. (That furniture is downstairs now, still 20 years old and still begging to be replaced down there too).  I added a kitchen table as we were using an old one from a garage sale with tearing chairs. Not a fancy table. Just laminate covered. But clean and new.

(As you can see, the pictures dont' really match what I bought, but it was all I could find in short notice :-)

So as of March 2008, my loan was for $18 000. A three year loan. Six months into it, I discovered Gail Vax-Oxlade and started to watch her shows and started to learn a few things about money. Things just started to click. I found personal finance blogs online and started to read other peoples' stories. I started blogging myself that summer and started making plans. In  January of 2009 I started aggressively paying down my loan, determined to pay it off early.

And early I did. I paid it off 11 and a half months early. I saved 'about' $1000 in interest, but that is  merely a guess.

It is so exciting to finally, yes I say FINALLY, have this 3rd generation consolidated loan gone. I feel like a grown up. I have learned things about money and will now put those lessons to work as I tackle the vehicle loan.

I appreciate all the blog support I have had. The readers, the commenters, the cheerleaders. Keeping this blog absolutely helped me stay on track and achieve this first goal!!

Oh Happy Day!!!!

It's here! It's totally here! I am glad I waited but man!! waiting is hard.

I will jet off to the bank at noon today and with my refund and the bit I have tucked away, look for 100% paid in full on that sidebar later today, as well as a longer post when I get the chance to do one.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

waiting

Right now I'm in a period of waiting. The final portion of the insurance came in so that is all back to normal. I am waiting on the Income Tax return so I can pay off my consolidated loan and move on in this money game.

Other than running with the kids to hockey, soccer, badminton, scouts and band, going to work, and doing house stuff....not a whole lot is new.

Where the money stands

Debts

Mortgage - $37 436.26
Consolidated Loan - $25 434.61
Vehicle Loan - $870.29

Total Debts - $63 741.16

Savings

EF - $1350
Summer 2010 - $1000
RRSP 2010 - $450
Xmas 2010 - $500

Total Savings - $3300

Special Savings
RRSP Portfolio - $1000
RESP - $625

Things are trucking along.  Debt was reduced by $1300. By next reporting period, the consolidated loan will be gone. happy happy joy joy. After that it will be just normal for about 2  months and then I can start heaping things on the Vehicle Loan. I will be very excited when I reach that point and can watch that debt go down faster than it is now.

Week 2 on the jars

Well this blizzard rages on. There have been all sorts of fender benders and a few slamming into lightposts, bringing the light standards down across the road. My friend brought her son in for hockey camp. She lives just a few KM outside of town. She hit the ditch twice on the way home. Safe and sound thank goodness.

DS1 is back at a different hockey camp (same was friend's son) than he was the previous two days. DS2 is home from an overnighter at a friend's house.

I was mock domestic goddess today, baking bread (machine), made muffins and cookies and did a bit of batch cooking for a few meals in the weeks to come.

Tonight marks the end of Week 2 on the jars. I had a fairly money quiet week; surprising given I was offwork and the money seems to slip out faster on those weeks. if I count purely the money I popped into the jars for Week 2 (and not anything leftover last week), I managed to save 32% of the jar money this week!

I am building a nice lil carryover amount in the jars, which is great because I know things will come along to eat away at that money. Literally eat away as my pantry and freezer stores slowly go down and I will need to buy some meat and produce for the coming week.

The past 9 months or so, I often would take the leftover weeky jar money and call it a snowflake and whap it down on a savings or debt target. I am holding back on that this time, though it's very tempting indeed to take it and go to the bank. I am not sure how much of a carryover I will let myself keep, if that trend continues. The budget gets modified again in June as I should be ready at that point to begin lump sum payments on the vehicle loan.

Well Happy Friday to you all, no matter what your weather may be.

Only in Saskatchewan

Ok, and Alberta too, can it go from 20 C yesterday, bright sun and dry ground to a blizzard warning last night. Was it merely a warning? Heck no. Can barely see out my front window for the very very wet snow that is pummeling down. The wind gusts are up to 70K so the snow mis pretty much barreling down horizontally. Who wants to do weather in a traditional vertical fashion.

Arrggghhh darn spring teaser.

A day to hopefully spend inside, perhaps bake a bit and get my $ss at my school work prep as the off time is ovahhhh

Just a regular day

Budget, blogging and personal finance can take as much time or as little as you like.

Similarly, if one is eating better/dieting/exercising, that part of your life can take as much or as little as you like (I have a different blog for this part of my life)

I don't expect any cheques in the mail yet. I am waiting on one more piece of information before I do my 'where the money stands' for the month.

My jars are organized and my budget binder is up to date. Similarly, my fridge has my healthy foods in it and my food log is up to date as well.

I've curled up and read my growing list of favourite blogs.

In between all of those budget and diet moments, comes life. And that is what today is....just a regular day.

I'm grateful to be off work. I have bread in the machine baking. I made up stock yesterday and have turkey noodle soup on the stove for dinner. I made banana muffins yesterday. Today is a mom day. DS2 has a scouts activity later today. DS1 has a hockey camp today and  tomorrow here in town so I will be running with him. Soccer tryouts are also on so hopefully the timing can work for this.

It's a bright sunny day though not terribly warm and if I get my hiney in gear, I can kick in a walk before it's time to  head to the rink.

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Ok, I admit it, I'm glad

Back in March I posted on how I was tempted to dip into my regular cash flow and pay off my loan, knowing I am waiting for my income tax return to top it back up again. It just would have been so nice to cross that off my list, not to mention the huge adrenaline rush.

After much hemming and hawing, and tempering what I reallllly reallly wanted, with what I knew would be the safe path to go, I opted not to.

I'm glad I waited. I am still waiting for my full insurance refund. I am still waiting for income tax. I have to pay $320 Thursday for my vehicle package policy. And I am down to less than $1000 in my regular cash flow account with 19 more days til pay day. All of my bills are paid so I am just working on 2 weeks of jar money and some of the targetted savings in my account.

I guess after 10 years of having one version of this loan, I can be patient for a couple more weeks til all my safety ducks are in a row. I wouldn't want to be short short and have to dip onto Credit Card.

LOL I guess patience really is a virtue.

Gail's post today

On Gail's blog today, she asked the questions

Another woman in the group responded, “Hey, I like the game. I love seeing how much I can save each month. It feels like a win!” So which camp do you fall into?
a) I don’t even want to think about it,
b) I love the game,
c) I have no choice.

I am frugal by no means. I admit to that. Here was my repsonse to her questions.

I spent many a year in the ‘I don’t want to think about it” category. Far, far too long. The stress that would eat at me during money need moments was horrid. Even then I did not stop and TRY to do something about the money I had flowing through my fingers like water. crazy woman.

Now I am in the ‘aware’ and ‘careful’ group with my money. I know where all my dollars go. I am beginning to understand how I can make money work to my advantage on loans/interests. I WANT money leftover each month. There is a let down if there is not. I have goals and plans for the money..to save…to eliminate debt.

There are times though when I get frantic. The to do list of what I should have been doing all along grows exponentially. RESPs, RRSPs, Saving for a new auto, Saving for house repairs. Savings for new appliances. Emergency Savings. Mortgage. loans. Lions, tigers and bears, OH MY.

Those moments cause me stress and I have to step back and know that right now, I am doing the best that I can. I cannot change the past 39 years of my life. I just can’t. I can guilt myself and regret myself to death but it won’t change those years. I am working on finding contentment with what I know now, and what I continue to learn, thank in no small part, to the catalytic impacst of Gail in my life.

It was a good, thought provoking question. Where do you fit?

for those who celebrate.....Happy Easter

Well the bunny arrived. He was a more frugal bunny this year which is only fitting with growing older boys. It's 9AM here and I am curled up on the couch, sipping a cup of coffee and watching a FRIENDS rerun. It's a glorious partly sunny morning here in SK and when I let the cat out this morning, I heard the first bird chirping of springtime. I love that sound. I truly do.

No one else is awake right now. The boys are both still sleeping, as is their father, who has a variety pack of cats sharing the bed with him. hmmm we need more cats LOL

As I gained full consciousness I realized that with having Easter supper on Friday, I didn't plan for today when everyone was home. The grocery stores are all closed today so I will need to prepare something from whatever I have in the freezers. A good money saving day anyways.

I am anticipating the mail this week...hoping for the arrival of the second part of that insurance cheque, which should come.....and perhaps, just perhaps, later in the week, the income tax cheque, which MAY come.

I have to go this week to pay the package policy on my vehicle. This is the first full year I've paid on it. It will cost me $317. I have  a replacement policy since it's a brand new vehicle. This is above and beyond the basid insurance/plates for the vehicle.

I also need to figure out the boys' summer camp stuff this week. That will be another cheque or two. DS1 would like to go. He's been asked to go as a Leader in Training, but that is a 3 week committment and I am not sure we have three full weeks in a row between developmental soccer and hockey camps. We will have to play it by ear, but I hate trying to 'guess' what time we will have free. It causes me stress.

I need to be a good lil teacher and get some schoolwork done this week off as well. There is a ton of prep work to do and the time until the end of the year just fliesssssssss.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate, and Happy Sunday, to those who don't.

*****************************************************************************

UPDATE

My oldest sister (the one who was diagnosed with MS last year) just called and invited us over for supper. She is serving up BBQ Prime Rib. mmmm mmmmm mmmmmmm

Best of us, she doesn't want us to bring a darn thing but ourselves. She dearly loves to hostess and to prepare meals and is verrrry good at it.

This 'n' That - the Saturday Edition

While it's not the 28C that some of southern Ontario is getting, it's still lovely weather for this Easter weekend. It's a very breezy 13C here and I am very appreciative for it. So often on our long weekends, we get bizarre weather. I once went camping on a May long weekend where it went from about 15C to a tornado, then snow and then pouring rain. Thank god for Baileys!!

It's still just me and DS2 here. DS1 is doing very well at his hockey camp and they won't be home until late tonight. I am glad he's doing well but if he does 'very' well it could mean he lives elsewhere this coming school year while he plays. Not sure mama can handle the separation :-)

We had a fantastic supper at my mom and dad's last night. Turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, baked ham, marinated salad, caesar salad, homemade buns and homemade pies for dessert. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm bloating :-)  I went over and picked up some leftovers today and DS2 and I feasted again. There were 13 of us for supper which may seem like a lot, but with 8 missing, it did feel a bit odd. I'm grateful for those I got to see, particulary my niece, who is expecting her first. ahhhhh the sweet ignorance of a first timer lol

I forgot about getting Easter candy, or adding that to the budget. I slipped off this morning to pick up a few things. At 15 and 13, my children are a little over the Easter Bunny, but I still like to get them a lil something. It had to come out of the grocery budget so I will have to watch spending this week.

I have to smile. Our next door neighbour is a bit of an.................outdoor decorator you might say. Always has tons of flowers in the summer, decorates to the max at XMAS etc. Makes our lil wee house look sad in comparison. She has a massive inflatable Easter Bunny and Egg outside. I can't tell you how many folks have stopped....who walk by with their kids so they can see it. Right now there is an older gentleman out on the street taking a picture. It may seem a bit corny or cheesy to have a 15 foot inflatable bunny out there, and it scares the crap out of my cats.....but it sure gives people of all ages a little smile.

Time to figure out what DS2 wants for supper.  It's nice to prepare things that he likes that perhaps brother and father do not.

Top Referrers and a thank you

I just wanted to give a week shout out of thanks to those who come, visit, read, linklove and comment. I started this blog as a different way for me to try to keep track of things and express my thoughts, but I have to admit, knowing others read is it's own wee rush. Thank you so much.

1) Saving4Later
2) AlwaysthePlanner
3) FrugalDreamer 
4) Jessie'sMoney
5) AnOstrichNamedSam

There was another cluster of five great blogs not far below this list. While the blogosphere is a small world sometimes, perhaps one of these is new to you. Feel free to check these blogs out, or any of the links on my bloglist for great reads.

A great first week back on 'official magic jars'

It's been a long while since I have worked the jar system in it's truest form. I started again last week complete with jars and a little black book budget binder to mark things in. I am hoping to stay on this until the end of summer, just to re-experience what jars can do for me.

My budget will be changing as of June 25, when I tinker with it and settle in, to what I hope, is a relatively firm budget for a couple years.

I have to admit that it was with childish glee that I dug them out of my drawer and lined them up. I hit the ATM and withdrew my money and dutifully slotted it all into the appropriate jars. I created a leger for each of my jar categories and entered the Week 1 deposit into them.

• I am keeping some of my transportation money in my vehicle as a just in case, so that it is there if I need it. I have stuck a sticky note in my binder so I don't forget to include it in the balance and deduct it when it is time
• having the debit card was needed twice this week, but I immediately came home and withdrew that amount from the appropriate jar, tucked it in the 'next week' jar and wrote that in my budget binder
• I HATE writing things down  and seeing that balance grow smaller LOL It really makes me think about what I buy because I know it is going to be in my face in black and white when I check the budget binder
• I often would stop and say 'nooooo! to myself. do you think that if you buy that is better than the amount that would be left in the jar if you did NOT buy it?
• it is borderline aphrodesiacal (is that even a word???) to see money left over in the jars and carried over to the next week.
• when you pay in cash, you get a lot of change. Particularly in Canada with toonies and loonies. I could put them in their jar again or I could write them off as 'snowflake' and toss them in my coin jar to roll and pay down debt in July. Will be interesting to see how I work this.

So after one week on jars, I have 22% of my money left. There is some in the food/household jar. There is a bit in my personal 'allowance' jar. There is quite a bit left in the transportation jar. There is zippity doo dah left in the entertainment jar. I used it for ordering pizza one night and boy does that money go fast. It is definitely the 'jar to watch'.

So today I will slip down and get my money for the next week. Let the games begin.

Ahhhh Holidays

Well after a crazy busy week it's finally over. Now we get a lovely week off and it's a great feeling. The staff needed it. The students needed it. My kids needed it.

I came home to see DS1 off to a hockey camp with his father so it's just DS2 and I for a few days. Still running on a bit of a high, I have been puttering and moving. I stripped DS1's bed before he was out of the drive. No better time to get his sheets washed and changed. I started DS2 on a few of his drawers. Easter is one of our traditional times to go through the clothes and weed out what is too small. We give those away to a family in need who lives near my sister. It gives us a better idea too of what we need to see the boys through the upcoming spring and summer.

As I continue to putter about, I think I shall pour a nice glass of wine, which I rarely allow myself, and curl up during shows (and putter during commercials) and watch a bit of Survivor, The Mentalist, CSI etc

Happy 'kinda' Friday night everyone