A few additions to link love

just a few I am adding to my list before I jet out the door to my year end staff party. I can almost smell the steak :-)

Check out the following


1) Middle Class Mom in Toronto

2) Milestones

3) Morgaine and Money

Enjoy!!

New budget - the savings/planned spending

Not a whole lot has changed on this end, but some, so I will just update it on here. Very little of what is here is long term 'never touch it' savings. Most has a designated target.

Monthly Contributions
Boys Expense Account - $300
RRSP - $125
RESP - $200
Emergency Fund - $100
Christmas/Summer - $140

The boys' expense account goes towards things like their school fees, school pics, registration fees for things, camp etc. Honestly with the price of DS1's higher level hockey fees and his equipment, this amount doesn't cover it but it does help.

The RRSP is growing, slowly. I am just glad I have one finally, even if it is late.

RESP - ditto above.

Emergency Fund - I am honestly not sure how big I want this to get. or how big I NEED it to get. For now I will just keep on contributing.

Xmas/Summer - I put all the money in this category towards one, then when it is full, I put it towards the other. Stays constant that way.

Now all of those are set amounts and I have been pretty faithful about each amount goes towards each category. However being close to finishing off Christmas, I may just take the EF, XMAS and RRSP money, throw it all towards one category each month so I can finish them off for the 2010 year. Example - when I get to the bank this Friday (if it is open) I will toss it $220 of it at Xmas to finish off that goal and the rest at EF. All the money next month will go to EF. When that one is done I will finish off my RRSP. I will still get to where I need to go ahead of schedule. I just felt like varying it up for the summer.

The new budget - the jars

Well technically my budget week/month started last Friday but it's never too late to get the facts out there.

I've tinkered it a bit in terms of the jars and savings but a lot of the bills and such remain the same. Darn bills only change for the worse.

For those who are newer to my world, I'm in smalltown Saskatchewan. There are four of us in our home: 2 adults and 2 teenage boys who eat like horses.

I have 5 categories for my jars:

1) Food and Household - $680 a month ($170 a week)
2) Spending Money - $80 a month ($20 a week)
3) Gas/Transportation - $200 a month ($50 a week)
4) Entertainment - $160 a month ($40 a week)
5) Clothing and Gifts - $100 a month ($25 a week)

I still need to make up new labels for the jars. I have got my budget binder all ready to go and I will give recording every expense (almost)  another shot.

Food and Household - This is everything from Groceries to Take out, cat food and toiletries to household cleaning supplies. This one will need some saving up if money is leftover because I like to buy in bulk at Costco if I am in the city. Those kinds of trips cost more

Spending Money - I technically don't keep this in a jar and I won't keep track of this. It will live in my wallet for whatever lil things come across my path: A cup of Tim Hortons coffee, the odd lunch out. Whatever works.

Gas/Transportation - Right now I spend about $40 a week on gas running back and forth to work and running the boys here and there. If I head out of town it will cost more. This actually will live in a special spot in my vehicle so it's there when I need it. There isn't enough leftover that I have to worry about leaving money in the car.

Entertainment - We don't do a whole lot entertainment-wise. In winter this might serve for entry fee to hockey games or the odd rink fries. In summer it may be a trip to get icecream. If we save it up and we're in the city we use it there, and it goes fast.

Clothing and Gifts - This is new and honestly, woefully underfunded. But it's what I choose to put in there for right now. I could always reallocate money in my extra debt repayment for the clothing category if I feel it really needs it. We shall see how it goes. I will withdraw the whole $100 at the beginning of the month. Just more logical this way.

I will try these amounts for July through to September. The summer is really a hard time to judge as spending is different. September will help balance what a 'regular' month is like.

I have internet again!!!

We had a storm Friday night and I woke up Saturday morning to find I had no internet. gasp!! panic!!

I called the help line and they took me through a few tests but nope, no internet. They sent me to the phone company to get a new jack and line to see if that was it. nope. They put me on a list to get a service call today. Sunday!!

The serviceman called this morning just after 8 AMA to say he was on his way and I was first on his list.

It was just a router, which I could have got yesterday too. Seems odd they didn't tell me to swap that one out.

anyways.... I'm back

Now to stop the DDT twitching LOL

Whew a big week over (and week 12 on the jars)

Well I made it through this week. Thank you to all of you for your messages of support. Mucho appreciato.

I literally ran all week from school activity to activity. I felt a bit like I neglected my kids to be honest. I hate that. My house is also a disaster. The school work is not yet over. Still have report cards and awards to get through but so far, *knock on wood* things are going smoothly.

Thank goodness for my mom. She did a bunch of cooking for me for my class trip as well as keeping DS2 at her house one night since I was gone with my class for two days. I really appreciate her and have told her so repeatedly.

It is nice to just curl up with a glass of wine tonight. let my fan blow coolish air across me and enjoy some BC cherries from the fruit truck (while watching the NHL hockey draft)

It is fantastic to have a weekend to get things done around home and at school. Already we are cleaning there and tidying and planning for next year.

As for the jars..I spent every cent this past week. Crazy expensive. I also spent the little bit I had leftover last week. I am literally starting a new month of a new budget with $0.

Have a great Friday night!!

Crazy busy week

It's the last full week of school. Then we just have next Monday and Wed is report card hand out.

What that means is that this week is a week from hell as we run from activity to exam and back again. Add in my class 2 day over night field trip, marking and report cards and we have some crazy 18 hour days.

I probably won't be around much this week nor will there be menus.

Here is to the 'home stretch'

Happy Father's Day

Thanks everyone for all your lovely comments on my blog. It just felt like time for  a change, though I do love my butterflies. So many great templates out there to snatch. I envy those who just whip one up completely on their own. such skills.

Well since we spent Mother's Day building mom and dad's roof at the house, it seems only fitting that we spend Father's day at the farm putting a new plastic roof on dad's green house. The old roof (and most of the structure) was damaged about a month ago in a massive wind storm we had. We've been out there a few timse to clean up the structure and redo the walls. Mom and dad have gone out a few times themselves but hey he's 74 so even though he's worked hard his whole life, he just can't do as much as he used to.

Wishing all of you a fantastic day, whether you celebrate Father's day or just enjoy the day.

How I learned I can save money

Yesterday I was with a friend while she was running errands. One of her stops was CAA travel (AAA in the US). While she was busy with one of the agents, I perused the shiny books showing destinations of fun and excitement. I could only look for so long before pangs of "man I wish I could take my kids and go to X" surfaced so I frantically searched for other things to occupy my mind.

My eyes fell upon a large poster with CAA and Cineplex Odeon on it. Interesting, I thought. Now we do have a single theater here in my town. It's not in the best shape and personally I think the owners need to be smacked for letting it go to ruin. It used to be quite lovely and just degraded over owner change after owner change. I don't go there often as it's often full of students I teach/have taught. It's hard to resist the urge to  playfully shush them, given that we know one another. We don't go to the movies often (maybe three times a year) and I would rather kick back where I don't know a soul.

Now in the city about an hour or so away, they have several theaters, but they cost the earth to go to.

For a family of four it costs us $40.96 plus tax to get in the door. After DS2 has his next birthday it will be $43.96. IF we choose to get snacks it can be up to $40 if I have saved up enough money. $100 for a movie seems a bit ridiculous.

So back to CAA. The sign proclaims the following:
*************************************************************
Save up to 20% on movie ticket products. Tickets are valid at any Cineplex Entertainment theatre in Canada including Famous Players, Cineplex Odeon and Galaxy Cinemas.

CINEPLEX ADMIT ONE One Adult Admission - $8.00 (incl. GST)

CINEPLEX NIGHT OUT Two Adult Admissions  - $24.30
One Regular Popcorn
Two Regular Soft Drinks

CINEPLEX CHILD NIGHT OUT One Child Admission (13 years and younger)  - $10.16 (inc GST)
One Kid's Popcorn Tray Combo (includes kid's popcorn, kid's drink and treat)
************************************************************

Ok now that is a great deal. Instead of $11.99 x 3 PLUS tax for adults I can pay $8 x 3 including tax. Ok right there I have saved $9+

The movie webpage doesn't show the food prices but Adult admission plus tax would equal the $24.30 for the NIGHT OUT option. Those two drinks and the popcorn would be at least $10 so that would be $10 saved.

Now we would have to purchase these before we left, knowing we were going to hit a movie, or else find a CAA in the city if we made an impromptu decision. Still. it's quite do-able for the few times a year we hit the movies.

I pay $105 a year for my CAA membership. I have used my CAA membership for towing and for booking a few trips a long while ago but beyond that, it's really just that conditional 'if something happens they are there' insurance policy.

I need to start exploring some of the other perks that come with this membership to take better advantage of it.

PS - I just realized that DS1 will be getting his licence. If he ends up playing hockey out of town then I will need to get him a membership as well. Saskatchewan highways and winters are not that forgiving. Kids getting old is scary LOL

So what else can I save on???

• Purchasing Provincial Park passes - drat I just did this last weekend
• Purchasing a National Park pass
• Fancy things like Six Flags or Orlando Theme parks
• Saskatchewan Science Center
• Hotel Accomodations (K I have used this too, or my SK Gov't Card)
• Car Rentals

Very interesting. Are you maximizing your benefits when you belong to something like CAA/AAA ?

Week 11 on the jars.

I did a lot of thinking this week about my jars...how much I put in them, and what I have leftover. I have been using that ' Need to have snowflakes at the end of the week' as a rush....an addiction almost.

I worked on spending more of the jar money this week (wisely) and the panic of how much will I have left over?' did ease. That was a good feeling and far less stressful.

Next week marks the end of this budget and the metamorphosis of it into a new one. That plan has been in the works for months but I am having one more look at my numbers. After all, I still have to finalize where I am putting the $80 I have removed from the 'other' category in my jars. I have a pretty good idea what I want to to but I will still curl up this weekend with a cuppa and make a firm decision.

As usual, the bulk of my money went towards food and groceries, though I did use some to go towards  a couple things on my mammoth list of special expenses this month.

One more week left and the month's budget is over, and the school year will be close to being over.

I was doing my usual PF blog reading this morning with coffee and stumbled upon an interesting link at  Gail's Blog . She does not give links all willy  nilly so I knew it must be of value.

It directed you to a site that shows you their budget app, which was interesting, but even more so was a tool I found on the site. It allowed you to plug in your loan/mortgage info and see how much faster you could pay it off with different extra amounts.

It's here at Dough . It shows  a double spreadsheet...one side with your regular payments only and one with what it would be if you accelerated your loan.

It was bang on, on the regular payment side, letting me know I have 46 payments to go, how much interest/principal for each one etc.

My new budget has $400 set aside each month for additional payments on the principal. By plugging this new information in I was able to see that I have 26 months left and save a nice chunk of interest. $1700 to be exact. Now that is lovely news!!!

I further plugged in $600, which is what I consider a full month lump sum payment, I would be done in 21 months.

$400 a month extra would mean I would be done paying my loan in August of 2012 instead of April of 2014.

Sounds very exciting for me.

I know life happens and things change but for now I am going to work on that $400 a month and see how long I can sustain that before life changes and I need to retinker with my budget.

Try the app if you don't already have one like this. (It is right on the webpage so no downloading required. No log in or fee either!)

Happy Tuesday.

Expensive Month

Ok June is going to do me in. Really LOL

Here are all the fun things I need to dish out money for.

• Shower gift 1 - $25 (done)
• Shower gift 2 - $25
• Birthday gift - $40 (done)
• DS2s year end trip - $120 (done)
• Teacher year end gift - $15 (done)
• Coach year end gift - $10 (done)
• Husband's birthday - $50 (done)
• Father's Day - $50
• Parent's Anniversary - $50
• Year end Gifts to my students ( I do a slideshow presentation for them and buy the DVD blanks and cases) - $45
• Year end Staff party supper - $20
• Wedding Gift donation 1 - $20 (done)
• Wedding Gift donation 2 - $20 (done)
• Retiree Gift donation - $20 (done)

Total $510

Does not include my anniversary as we do not exchange for that.

Celebratory Sunday

This is a busy day in the money tree house. It is a good friend from High School's 41st bday today. It is my cousin's 50th Bday today. DS1 and I have to finish building a catapult for his Social Studies Class. DS2 and I are working on a Career Fair display board.

To top it off, we are having a surpise 50th for my oldest sister at the lake today. Her birthday is acutally next weekend, but everyone is gone everywhere then. This way too, it's a surprise for her.

the glorious weather is holding so it should be a lovely BBQ at the lake.

DS1 caught a 9 lb and an 8lb Walleye yesterday. His biggest fish. He was very excited. And exhausted. They got home about 10 PM and he came in and went straight to bed. LOL

I will dip into the first of my summer 2010 money to purchase my season pass for the provincial park. I'm not quite sure how much they cost. I guess I will find out shortly. I need to remember to keep track of where and how I spend my summer money so I can see how much I need for next year.

A glorious Saturday!

Well it was an early morning in the MoneyTree household. DS1 and his father left by 5 AM to go fishing up north with my nephew. They haven't been in ages. DS2 had to be with his Scouting group at 6:30 AM to go clean up luminaries and such at the Relay for Life Event. They do this every year. He also played with his band there last night for two hours. He'd never been to a RFL opening ceremoney and survivor walk and said it was a very emotional experience.

With the first blue skies we've had in days and days, I popped that first load of laundry in at 6 AM and had it on the clothesline outside by 7. I love the feeling of saving dryer energy on things like towels and jeans and such.

I have a wedding shower to go to this afternoon. My gift isn't nearly as clever as Girl Makes Cents . I wish I were more creative. They have been living together for two years and have a far fancier house than I fully furnished with new furniture (and debt, I am sure) so it's harder to buy for.

Aside from getting in a walk in this great weather, my focus today/tonight is marking and working on report cards. Tis the season and the more I can get done today, the less stress I will have next week at school and I can just enjoy the students and our learning for the next 11 days.

Add to that some much needed housecleaning and laundry and I have a full, albeit rather boring, day.

A second month off the end of the loan

Yesterday I skipped happily to the bank and plopped down $600 to whap one more month off the end of my loan. I have now obliterated May and June of 2014.

Where did this money come from?

• $250 came from money targetted for the loan
• $75 came from extra money earned last month
• $50 came from rolled coins
• $225 came from snowflakes, of which there will be fewer, soon.

I am on Year 2 of the loan and I hope to keep knocking it down, bit by bit.

If this works, I have attached below the spreadsheet of the loan from last year. Thanks to Morgaine and Jessie for their help with how to do this.

so my tale of 253 (x 100) payments is now a tale of 233. Down by 20 x 100 or 2000 lovely dollars. w heee

Disappointed, but a bit of a relief

Tonight I was supposed to go golfing with a bunch of girls from work. I haven't golfed in two years and I am terrible. Still, it was a social outing for me, of which I get very few without the kids, so I was excited to go.

It's been pouring since 7 PM last night so golf is out. While I am disappointed that I don't get the outing and don't get to go, the other part of me is somewhat relieved. I have now 'saved' $40 for the  fee/cart/supper, about $10 in gas to get out there, and about $10 in drinks. I had the money saved up, so I will just tuck it away and maybe another opportunity to spoil me will come along.

Week 10 on the jars and a question.

It feels like lately, money has just been flying out of the jars. Most of it is grocery based, but there is also household supplies, shampoo, make up etc.  I have become so focused on having lots left over each week to use as snowflake for debt and when there is not lots left, I become disappointed. I have had to have some big talks with myself this week. The money I budget for the jars is designed for the things the  house needs....and if I am only spending pieces of it, then either my budget is out of whack or we are really not buying enough basic items to keep the house running smoothly.

I have 9% left from the jars this week. It was just enough for a target I will share with you tomorrow.

I'm also trying to figure out how to take an excel document and put it on here like I see many of you folks do. do you just upload from your documents, or do you need to have it online somewhere like google docs????

help please?

Menus

Ok they are late but they were done for Sunday so I am still counting them :P

Sunday - BBQ Steak, new potatoes, mushrooms
Monday - Chili
Tuesday- Chicken Burgers, Salad
Wednesday - Taco Salad
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - unsure. we are running from 4 PM til 9 PM so it may be on the fly.

Where the money stands

as of June 5th

Debts

Mortgage- $ 36 929.40
Vehicle Loan - $23 995.31

Total Debt - $60 924.71

Savings

Summer 2010 - $1000
EF - $1450
Xmas 2010 - $780
RRSP - $700

Total Savings - $3930

Special Savings
RESP - $1069
RRSP  Portfolio - $1000

So my debt is down by $1141.70 and is sitting just a bit over $60 000. It should be into the 50s next month so that is good to see.

I will probably take my Summer 2010 off the list soon as it will be time to start allocating that to different kinds of enjoyment.

Confuzzlement

So I was excited to see what my principal/interest ratio would be when this month's vehicle loan went through. It did today and to my surprise, there was only 50 cents of interest saved this month compared to last month.

I paid $500 extra on the principal amount this past month and I thought the interest would show a big difference.

That's how it worked on my last loan.

How sad that it did not.

and how odd.

Dilemma for menu planning

I truly enjoyed having my menu planned out for us last week. It simplified the shopping, it simplified the preparation and it eliminated the stress.

DS2 particularly enjoys having that menu card posted on the fridge for the week and knowing what is to come. DS1 just wants food and lots of it LOL

This week poses a bit of a scheduling problem as DS1 begins working out with his trainer this week. It's a must if he wants to have a chance of moving up a level in his hockey. The problem is that his sessions begin at 5 PM and two nights a week he goes straight from there to hockey. There has to be something ready that is premade or sitting in our friend, the crockpot. Time is of the essence for us in that regard.

I'd better go curl up and figure out what I can feed the children that is time efficient, edible and not fast food.

Top Referrers for May

Here's just a snapshot of where some of my visitors come from. I'm grateful for all readers, whether I am linked on their blog, or just a snippet on their bookmarks :-) It's always exciting to see visitors from all over Canada, the US, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and more. Thank you for linking me, bookmarking me and visiting me.

1) Saving for Later  (Eastern Canada)

2) Jessie's Money  (Western Canada)

3) No More Spending  (Out of the UK)

4) It's me. Sam (Maritimes, Canada)

5) Girl Makes Cents (Ontario, Canada)

Updated Blogroll

Just a bit of housekeeping on this gloomy (again) Friday morning. I tidied up a few expired blogs. I added a few blogs I've been reading for awhile.

And JP Kitty: Won't go down without a fight

where are you? I miss reading you.



Out of Money Experience - a lovely Canadian blog

Home Owner by 30 - a fellow educator's blog from Long Beach California

Milestones - I've been a secret reader for quite some time :P

Alright, so about that $80

As discussed a couple days ago, I have $80 allocated for my 'other' jar, when I change up my budget as of the end of June. This is following Gail's magic jar method. Many of the things the other jar is used for, I already have covered in different areas of my budget: bank fees, boys' activities, pet food etc.

so what to do? what to do ? with that money.

I could:
a) whap it on my debt (that's where everything extra currently goes and maybe I AM obsessing a bit too much.
b) add it to my montly EF deposit, which would bring that up to $90 a month
c) add it to the $ I put aside for the boys' activities. I currently put $300 a month in there but I haven't upped that amount in 5 years and costs keep going up.
d) add it to the money I put aside for xmas/summer goals. I currently put in $140 a month so that would up it to $220
e) I could up the boys RESP by $40 each a month
f) I could up my RRSP contribution by $40 a month to bring it up to $165 a month
g) I could add it to the newly formed 'clothing' jar which would bring that up to $180 a month
h) I could leave it where it is, and if it's not used, snowflake it.

so so many choices. I love having choices but they all are justifiable.

Thoughts??????

Week 9 on the jars

Perhaps I am becoming  more focused (obsessed) with paying down debt as I was disappointed that only 10% of my jar money remained on a week when I didn't buy any personal care items or anything for the house. The groceries ate up their share and a bit more. I think my husband's comments triggered that. I didn't go hog wild or anything but I made sure we had everything we needed for the weekly menu. Also I  bought  extras of some of the staples we use to fill up some of those empty spaces in the cupboards. I probably willl do this for awhile until the sting of his words goes away.

I need to be buying more fruit and veggies. I just feel rotten lately. Totally exhausted. I come home  and start supper, then flop down on the couch and nap. I fall asleep instantly, which is something I never used to do. I'm in bed by 10 and exhausted then too, only to wake up tired and with a headache over one eye. Yanno you can only do that for so long before it starts to take it's toll on you.

The 10% left will go towards debt. I am working on the second $600 lump sum that will knock another month off my loan.

Last Month of School

Well June 1 is finally here and though I really try not to, the countdown is on. One month of school left and so so much to do. This is the point where all the units  are needing to get wrapped up. Time to get ready for year end field trips and year end awards program. Time to be working on report cards and thinking about next year. It really makes your head whirl.

I have to be smart and use my time well so I am not overwhelmed and get behind. THAT is a horrible feeling and causes way too much stress.

Best plan of attack? Writing it all out on a calendar and getting the to do list ready. Being prepared is the only way to survive.

Today is the first day in about 2 weeks the sun has shone and I think, the first that it won't rain. Here's hoping as we have had quite enough of the wet stuff.

Happy Tuesday everyone and Happy First Day of June