February change

Paying all cash for things like groceries definitely means there is a lot more changne in my world. I rolled it up last week and found myself with....

• 1 roll of toonies $50
• 1 roll of loonies $25
• 1 roll of nickles $2
• 6 rolls of pennies $3

Grand total of $80

I took it into the bank on Wednesday and put it all down as a principal payment  against my Line of Credit. 

Given that I haven't been given a penny as change since Canada said bye bye, I am guessing penny rolls will be a rarity these days.

Very happy for the snowflake money to go towards my debt.

Forgotten bank account?? oh boy!!!

I've seen the ads on TV and on the net. Log into places like 'unclaimed bank accounts' and search your  name and  you find some hits. Pay some $$ and unlock the details of this mystery accounts. Millions of dollars waiting, that no one has claimed. Waiting for you!!

Actually if anyone has a story about one of these I'd love to hear it.  I will confess to dreaming now and again about one of these being mine -  or a long lost relative leaving me money. Now don't get me wrong....I do believe that relative exists. She just hasn't found me yet :P

So when I got the mail on Thursday and found a letter from BMO about an account that hasn't been used in 24 months, it peaked my interest. The letter and envelope looked legit. There was an account number and a contact us or visit your local branch.

Now I am a skeptic from wayyyy back and I know that anyone can make a fake letter or a fake phone number, but it DID say go to your local branch.  I check my accounts list and that number is not on it. I check my last credit check and that account isn't listed on there. hmm. I go to the boys' old bank accounts I established when they were babies (and then later closed when they got their own accounts) and it wasn't one of them. hmmmmm

The letter is only in my name and not a joint one so it isn't one DH and I would have let lapse over the years. hmmmm

With modest visions of a few hundred dollars in them  and what I could do with the money, I headed off to the bank on Friday. I dutifully show them my paper and admit I have no idea what the account is. The teller checks and it is legit. An abandoned bank account. Just waiting for me to claim it. And the balance..........................$7 :-)

You ARE richer than you think. heh

It was rather anticlimactic but, honestly, quite anticipated. I had them transfer it to my chequing account, signed the papers and headed off.


But it does show that even a poor lass like me can have a bank account she doesn't remember.

My mysterious windfall is still out there, somewhere.....I just know it :-)

Family Day doings

So yesterday was Family Day and it was the first day all four of us have had off with no committments in months (excluding Christmas Day and NY Day). My plan was to head to the city. DS2 had a couple things on his list to buy for his winter camping, that he could buy with his own hard earned money. DS2 was looking at shoes for spring/summer to tuck aside. He has weird mutant feet and it's hard to find shoes that accomodate this. We were going to have a nice meal together and head to the cinema to see The Hobbit, which all four of us have been wanting to see.

Notice I said 'my plan was..'

DH was the first to jamtart out. He wanted to go ice fishing instead. Really??? He goes every weekend. Sometimes they catch something, sometimes not. DS1 is gradumacating soon and who knows when we will have this chance again. But no, he won't go. I was greatly annoyed and with the limitations of my hexing power, I wished that he would catch NO fish.

So the boys and I head off to the city and I am beyond grateful for this time with them. We are laughing. We are having conversations. It's great. As we pull into the city DS1 gets a call from his buddy. Buddy is coming into the city too with a spare ticket to the WHL Game and wants to know if DS can go. I give him my but mommy loves you look. He gives me his but my games are always on the same time as the WHL games are so I never get to see one look. He throws down his top card of 'well you won't have to pay for me to go to the show AND Buddy's dad is giving me the $20 hockey ticket for free'

sigh

I let him go

Our party of four is down to 2. I rarely get time with DS2 in the city anyways so we pledge to enjoy ourselves and head off to the Hobbit. It was good and I am glad we went. DS2 and I had a great time on the way home as he answered all my Hobbit/LOTR questions.  He did not know the answer to my question "so how do Orcs procreate??? Cuz I never see any female Orcs out there"......sooooooooooo if any of you know the answer to that, please fill me in.

The cost was not massive. Gas to the city and back was about $45. The movie was $24 for the boy and I. He bought his snack out of his money and I had a frozen yogurt for $3.  I used my 'entertainment money' from this week and last so nothing went on the CC.

The temps dropped riduculously low last night after we had had a few precious days in the -3C to +2C range.

We are back to -22C with massive winds today bringing it to -39C windchill.

oh...and my hex.....it worked :P   I guess that makes me a bad person. lol

Sunday Night Chit Chat

For more Sunday night chit see, please visit Carla.

What am I:

Reading
I have to admit I have never read an O magazine. Picked up Jan and Feb 2012 at the library on Friday.

Listening to:

I am listening to DS's game on the radio tonight. Hoping for a good effort from the boys. Have to admit - still rather cool to hear his name on the radio. Mama's pride

Watching:

I watched a bit of the Scottie's Tournament of Hearts, earlier and later will watch The Good Wife.

Cooking/Baking

It's cook from the freezer week, since I am home. Time to inventory and use up the dibbles of this and the dibbles of that. There are a whack of frozen banans waiting for me.

Happy you accomplished this week:
I have a boatload of cleaning, tidying and sorting that needs to be done in my classroom, along with the traditional marking and prep work. I have learned that due to restructuring of the district, I will no longer be at my current school next year. I have been here over 10 years and work with the best people ever and I am very sad about this change. Right now I don't know where I will be placed or what I will be teaching and that is stressful. As I look around my room I see insane amounts of things that have to be packed up and moved. I started this weekend. Nice and slow. Drawer by drawer. Tub by tub. Some things are recycled. Some are on a 'take me home with you' table by the photocopier.  Some is trash.  The equivalent of 15 large garbage bags have been moved out. I've done about 5% of the purging LOL

I often end a break wishing I had spent more time in my classroom and this time, I know I am off to a good start of saying 'I DID use my time well'.

Looking forward to next week
My week off sounds boring compared to the staff and students who are currently in much warmer spots, having fun. That isnt in the cards for  me but I can enjoy not waking up to the alarm, getting things off my to do list, reading and baking. I just wish it weren't so snowy and icy out there and I could go for a walk outside.

Thankful for today
I am thankful for time to do as I please. It's a good feeling knowing everything I am doing I CHOOSE to do. Not often we can have that for large chunks at a time.

Thanks Jeremy

Just wanted to send a shoutout to Jeremy, thanking him for including me in his list of Top Canadian Finance Blogs. Aside from the great reads on Jeremy's site, there are a lot of great blogs over there to check out.  There's something for everyone's interests and tastes.

I have had a few new readers follow his link to me  and visited the Money Tree. I hope you enjoyed your visit.

If you haven't gone over there  yet to vote, check it out!


Thanks Jeremy!

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

What a wonderful evening. Today was our last day before break. Everyone needs some downtime...young and old alike. I found myself full of energy.

I came home and ordered pizza for supper. While we waited for it to come, I started laundry and made a to do list. DS2 has been reluctant unwilling to do go through his drawers and closets to get rid of things. He's had a growth spurt. He's had new clothing gifted at Christmas. He has no room in the inn.  Logic would dictate he would want to go through things. Teenagers are not logical though LOL

We agreed today that he would do a few drawers and the dress shirts in his closet. DS1 passed down a LOT of dress shirts since he has had to wear them for hockey for  a few years yet. DS2 doesn't have the opportunity to wear them much so we haven't gone through them.  Today we had success. Two large garbage bags full of things ready to donate to the diabetes foundation when their truck comes through our community again. DS2 isnt' done but boy we had a great start! It was awesome.

DS1 was outdoors today with his team at a charity event. For all that he is an athlete in fantastic condition, fresh air sure is tough on a boy. I found him at 7:30, curled up in his bed, wrapped in his blankets (ok in my head I am saying blankies :-). Not often he lets his mother tuck him in and kiss his forehead goodnight.  Of course it was much easier since he was unconscious. heh

I have gotten five loads of laundry  done tonight, ironing, dishes and at 9:20 I am still full of energy. I love it.

I just hope this isn't a big high only to be followed by a 'do nothing' crash for the rest of the break :-)

Now I am curled up with a glass of wine, watching Bones, Season 2 from the library, and plotting my next mini job to do.

wow

I am overwhelmed and humbled by the number of responses and the positivity from my last post.

You have all been such a good ego booster to me.  I appreciate all your comments. I am going to investigate which program to purchase but I think I am leaning towards turbo tax. We have our winter break next week (I know most of you have yours in March).

I will gather up my T4s and such to make sure I have everything and start to plunk in the information.

I hope I don't prove you all wrong.

Thank you again.

Am I smart enough???

serious question folks

I always have H and R Block do my taxes. This year there will be four of them to do...mine, DH, DS1 and DS2. 

The boys just have one T4 from their dish washing.

I will have a T4 and a T4A - one for my RRSP thingie, and a teeny amount of receipts for donations.

To go to H and R block is going to cost between $250 and $350 for the four of us.

I do not want to pay that if I can help it.

DH will have a T4, perhaps an RRSP one though I am not sure and a few from his GIC or whatever the heck he got when he last job closed and he had to invest the money.

Don't tell anyone but I am not really all that money wise. I bank online but I don't have the accounts linked to thinks like Quicken for spreadsheets.

There are no business expenses or those kinds of deductions I would have to figure out.

There might be some health ones for the cost of my travel and stay for Mr Colonoscopy in the city.

I smile and nod about my statements from my RRSPs but I don't really 'get ' all the pieces of it and such.

Am I smart enough to operate a home tax program and email whatever has to go, to whoever it has to go to...without messing it up badly or ending up in jail for tax evasion/fraud?????

Is there an 'are you smart enough to do your own taxes' survey??

And a more specific question to those in Canada....which program would you recommend for my needs and about how much might such a  program cost?

It's on my bucket list to successfully file my own taxes. Is it possible I can cross this off the list?

Top Canadian Finance blogs - you get to vote!

Just want to send a big shout out to Jeremy and Modest Money. He has once again compiled an amazing list of blogs from Canada and is looking for your input on your favourites.  Head on over, read some great content and vote for your favourites.

Jeremy has kindly placed me there along with many of my favourites!  Go check it out.

Where the money stands

as of February 4th

Debts
Mortgage - $28 687 .92
LOC - $4799.49

Total Debt -  $33487.41

Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $2045
RESP - $12 800
RRSP - $5700
Celebrations Goal - $1500
Plates - $155

This was a good start to the year. I  made a great debt in my LOC bringing it down over $1000. I did this with some snowflakes and some money in my budget line. I don't know that Feb will be quite as successful but it can't hurt to shoot for it again. Over all my debt came down $1311.13. The mortgage was dropped by $268 and change. Only 50% of what we pay comes off the principal. I look forward to the day when that number will be higher.

I managed to reach my first savings goal - Celebrations. That didn't come a moment too soon as those bills will soon start coming in. Next comes the $ I am saving for the insurance/plates for the boys' cars. I will pay part and they will pay part. The first car will be ready for renewal around April 1 so I need to keep moving on that.

Snuggly morning and snowflakes

It's the tail end of yet another snowfall here and  the flakes are very pretty. They will be less pretty when I have to go shovel them later, but for now I will enjoy them.

I am curled up with Disk 3 of Bones, Season 1 and a big cup of coffee. I just love being able to go to the library, check it out and enjoy it. Best yet, it costs me nothing (unless I return it late) and there is no clutter added to the house!

It's a laundry catch up day and homemade stew day with a hockey game tonight.

So....the snowflakes..... right after Christmas I upgraded DS1's  phone. We signed up for a new plan which involves some free long distance and unlimited minutes for those with our phone company. I know there ar ealways strings attached and frankly, they never go in our favour as consumers, do they?

 I have been waiting, anxiously for the new phone bill, wondering if I am going to have to change my budget to accomodate a larger bill. It came Thursday, and I opened it with great trepidation.  Imagine my surprise when I saw the total of the bill was $23.42!  I scanned the details more and saw a $100 credit for the month. I had forgotten the $100 credit we got when I got the new phone. 

It was such a great surprise!! snowflakes!!!!  I took the $100 I had 'saved' out of my account and waited anxiously all day to head to the bank where my LOC is. It was such a giddy feeling plopping that unexpected cash down on my debt and hacking it down by $100.

Since I made the payment on Feb 1st, I shall call it my first snowflake of February.

Based on the math of the bill,  my bill should actually BE lower than previously, as the customer rep promised. I guess at the end of Feb I should know for sure.