August Change

Time to roll change again. A good, soothing way to meditate before I head back with the kids on Tuesday.

I rolled $125 this time. Paying with cash garnered a lot of change.

1 roll of toonies $50
2 rolls of loonies $50
2 rolls of quarters $20
1 roll of dimes $5

This money will go as a snowflake towards my EF/TFSA goal of $1000 this year. I am getting closer.

Got my car back

Ahhhhh it's nice to be driving her again. I went after work today and dropped off my rental, caught a ride with DS to get my vehicle and it all feels normal again.

Total cost for repairs? just over $5200. The estimate had been just under 4. Glad insurance was covering in and not me.

Very glad the rental was under the insurance of the other woman as well.

That could have been very costly if I had had to pay it all outright from my pocket.

Feels good to drive my own again.

Back to Work

Well today was my first day back at work. It felt like summer went so very fast. It always does.

Summers start off full of promise and time and whoosh, before you know it, they are gone.

We have a week of meetings and Professional Development, which is new for us. Usually the kids in our area start before the long weekend. It was kind of nice as you had a chance to get them back, get your numbers of students, get them settled and unpacked and then we had the long weekend to relax.

This year all of SK's students start back after the long weekend as per the government's ruling. That should be interesting for years where the Sept long weekend is later (because of how the Mondays fall)

I dropped my vehicle off at the bodyshop at 8 AM and they drove me over to get my rental. For the week, or however long it takes, I am driving a Hyundai Santa Fe.  The first thing I noticed is that the seats are much higher than in my SUV. So much so that when I swung myself in to the driver's seat, I cracked my head  on the vehicle.  Lovely way to start back to work...with a headache.

Apparently this model does not have seats that raise or lower.  Forward or back to my heart's content. I can tilt til the cows come home. But no up and down.

Based on that alone I would not buy this particular model and vehicle. Not worth the weird angles trying to get in the drivers seat or the mild concussions :-)

I am tired today. It is going to take a bit to get back into work mode.

Vehicle Inspection and planning

So that was interesting taking my vehicle in.

First he started off by taking pictures from all different angles. I had already done the same for my own records so it was fun for me to see if I took all the same angles needed by the expert. I got most of them.

After uploading the pics to my file he then brought out his ipad and started inspecting and tap tap tapping. The drop down options make it quite efficient. It must have taken them forever back when you had to write it all down then go and look it all up.

The whole process took about 20 minutes. He printed off a copy for me so I could take it to a bodyshop and get the repair process started.

Total estimated damage $3800. Because it was all the other person's fault. I am told I do not have to pay anything, even the deductible. Great news.

Off I went to the bodyshop. This is one I hadn't tried before. Our usual one is always overbooked and he works..........slowly. I would like to get this wrapped up as fast as possible.  The one I tried is close to the dealership where I bought my vehicle.

The owner came out to have a look at the damage and my sheet. We discussed when he could get me in and about how long it would take. I felt very comfortable talking with him and didn't get that slimy oozy feeling I sometimes get when talking car stuff with folks who talk down to females.  (This isn't a male bashing comment....I just have had more than a few "ohh you couldn't possibly understand 'x' because you're a woman. would your husband/father like to come in and talk to us?" 

The parts are being ordered and it is booked to go in this coming Monday, so I need to get a rental booked as well.  A first for me.

CRASH!!

There I was....innocently shopping with DS1 as he needed new elbow pads. We were coming out of the store and a woman was coming in, swearing up a blue streak. DS and I looked at each other with that 'glad she's not mad at me' look.

 As we continued out towards the vehicle, something looked wrong. I took a few more steps and thought "hmmm did I park on an angle???"  Then I put 2 and 2 together and realized I had been hit.

The woman had been heading into the store to find the owner and I think she heard my shout of anguish and turned around and came back out.  DS said I did fairly well. A couple of expletives (in general) at the start and then we proceeded to take pictures, exchange information and call the RCMP.  They just said to go to the insurance since both vehicles were driveable. I was surprised to find that my hands were shaking as I was writing things down. Surprising, considering I didn't cause the accident and wasn't even in the vehicle when it happened.

It was distracted driving. She was pulling in too fast turning to the right but looking back over her shoulder at something parked the other way.

Mine was hit across the rear driver tire and all the way across the back. Hers was on the front drivers side above her wheel well.

I snapped a pic of her drivers licence and then wrote down the number. It was a good thing I did that as the snapped pic had a glare and I couldn't see the number

When I went to go file the claim, I was pleased to see that the other woman filed before me and the process was started. Since she was at fault, even if I filed...and she hadn't...the process would have taken soooo much longer.

In the big picture, it has gone as well as possible when a person is hit.

I take my vehicle in tomorrow to get the damage appraised and we can start the repairing process.

Given how I have been less perky and positive the past few months, I am quite pleased to see that I handled this fairly positively. I hope that is a sign of things to come.

This piece is pulled away about 6 inches from where it's supposed to be on the back left wheel well.

Home from camping

Another successful family camping trip is under our belts. Our family is growing in size and spreading apart and we all love our August holiday to get together and just hang out. With new girlfriends or boyfriends,  and new babies, the numbers keep growing. All together there are 33 of us. 31 were able to make it (not my niece or her premature baby)

We didn't all make it there for the whole time. There was a lot of shifts of coming and going to accommodate work schedules and such.  Four of the five grandbabies were there. Its hard to believe that the 'kids' now have kids.

Some have fifth wheels, some have trailers, some tent, and this year DH and I rented a wee 2 bedroom cabin on the water (out of my summer $). There wasn't another camping spot or place for  a tent left. One of the nights we shared the cabin with my oldest sister (with MS) as she came for a day and a night and didn't want to move her trailer which was at a different lake.


Here is a shot of our cabin. We are the downstairs unit. It was really quite roomy with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen/dining/sitting are and the bathroom. Patio doors led to a sitting area where you could watch the lake.

One of my nieces set up a menu again this year so we all knew what we were having each day for the meals. We all brought our own meat and then we were responsible for specific items to fill out the meals and snacks. She did a great job of it. We had ribs and chicken one night, we had steak another night. One great night my brother in law brought his fryer and we had 'popcorn' fish  made from the fresh catch for the day. yum! another nephew in law brought a fresh salmon from BC.

The days were spent out on the water for most everyone, babies and all. A parade of boats pulling tubes, seadoos and my sister's new pontoon boat headed out to the far side of the lake where there is a little island.  That was basecamp for the day while folks enjoyed their time on the water.

In the morning, there is nothing better than the freshness of the air, a coffee with baileys and looking out over the water at this....

 

As we grow, it gets harder and harder to get us all together for moments like this.  I am so glad it happened again this year. Family is so important.

Free to a good home

No no, I didn't put my kids or my husband out on the curb, although some days..... :-) (I'm sure they want to do that with me as well)


With 2 new chairs in the house I was adamant that I would not ADD to the used up space in my house.  DH said 'When I have a chance I will pack them up and haul them to the dump. That often takes months to happen and I wanted to get rid of them fast. Plus, it costs $$$ to add things like that to the landfill

I promptly hauled the two broken down chairs from my computer room out to the end of my driveway and wrote out 'Free to a good home' on a paper and stuck it to them. I had done this last year with a shelf and a couple 2 drawer filing cabinets and had success.

I resisted the urge to peek out between my blinds to see if they were gone like a reverse peeping Tom.

As I puttered about cleaning, I realized that I had another chair in the garage. It was one from my classroom I had bought several years ago. The hydrolic was gone on it. I am told you can replace those but I never could seem to find the right one to fit. With joyful glee I wheeled that bad boy out to the curb with his friends.

On a get rid of it rush,  I searched the clutter in my 1 car garage and found a shelving unit we had bought for our tiny basement 2 piece bath about 6 years ago. We had diligently put it together than realized I had grossly overestimated how tiny the bathroom was and how massive the shelf was. You could be in the bathroom to pee or the shelf could be in there. And the shelf didn't seem willing to take turns.

Off it went to the end of the drive with a joyful plop and a 'never used/ I can't measure properly' sign on it.

Back I went to the laundry and went out to the backyard to hang clothes on the line. About a half hour later I took out a bag of garbage for a legitimate reason to check out the driveway.

Woot woot!! All four of my friends were gone, happily, off to a better life, and NOT in the landfill!
$$ saved.

First purchase out of the 'home improvement' budget

As I said a couple posts ago, I tweaked my budget to allow for $200 / month for home improvement. I can spend it on something on my list, or save it for a bigger ticket item. This is letting me appreciate life more in the now, rather than everything going to my mortgage or retirement or planned spending for  big events. Not that those things aren't important!! They are. I've just been.....not appreciating or living in the NOW, lately, and that is not fun at all.

I decided that I would replace the computer room chair. There are two currently in there. One has lost it's suspension and sits low low low. The other was a cast off from DH's former work. The base had broken so there was plywood underneath to support the seat. The chair itself was probably a very costly one to start with. It had tears in the leather when we got it and they have gotten quite bad. 

Seeing the chairs made me feel very.........poor.  Were they functional? sort of.  Was replacing them a NEED? no.  It was a quality of life WANT. Having this as part of the budget line helped.

So DS and I went off to look for chairs. There are three places in town where you can get office sorts of chairs. Four if you count Walmart, who did not have any in stock aside from 'utility' chair - those basic plastic ones with the teeny seat that break far too easily.

 Store 1 was an Aaron's. I had honestly never been in it. I had thought it was office furniture and such. Much to my disappointment it was home furniture.....most of it dinged or damaged. No chairs there so exit, stage left.

Store 2 was an office type store. I went to the section with the chairs and almost had a stroke. Sticker shock stroke. $500 chairs. $700 chairs. an $899 chair. good lord...for a chair!! Who can afford that.

I pulled out the ones that were $200. There were 3 of them. Actually one of the three was $229. DS sat in them all...tested out the arms...the lean back etc. We narrowed it down to the $229 for comfort. I snapped a pic of it and put it aside. DS played in the $899 chair for a few minutes, trying to decide why it cost so much. Then off we went.

Our final stop was Staples. The upside was that there were lots of different kinds. The downside was that you would have to assemble your own chair if you bought it.

We again pulled out the ones in our price range. There were more in the <$200 range. DS dutifully tired them all out.  DS's eyes kept going to one that was marked $249. He said it felt soooo much more comfortable. Right. Of course it did. I reminded him of my budget.

Along comes a sales associate. A former student of mine. I asked about the chairs we had pulled out. He gave me what info there was then motioned to the chair DS was sitting in. Turns out the $249 chair was on clearance for $89. Old stock or something.  I was able to replace BOTH of my computer room chairs with new  ones that were semi fancy, ON budget. including tax.

And we didn't have to assemble them!!! bonus.

This is like the ones I bought. Every pic  I tried taking downstairs was coming out with flash glare and spots.

Fall is coming quickly

As always July feels luxuriously  long and full of promise and potential. As soon as the August long weekend is over, it feels like summer is over.  Nature was quick to support this theory tonight.

I've been gifting myself with lots of walks lately. It is almost as though I want to squeeze in as much fresh air and sunshine before work starts again and winter is upon us. There is something very 'rich' about having time to walk.

I made my way down to the campground where DS works. We had just been here not long ago for a picnic for supper and it felt..........like summer.

As I rounded a corner, what I saw brought me to a dead stop.

Leaves.

Yellow leaves.

Already fallen.

Laying on the ground.

I do love fall but not this soon.

Rejigging the main budget

In the waning days of summer I have been going over my budget to see if any adjustments need to be made before school starts up and I don't have time to think rationally.

My satellite bill has gone up another $3 (Shaw) and I needed to add to that budget line. It is now $91 a month for a Gold package. Gold is a couple up from the basic and a few down from the ultimate package.  We really do not have a stable wireless line to benefit from streaming online. It just cuts in and out far too much. It's a bill I swallow as we don't go out a lot for entertainment, go to concerts etc. I have been tracking it since 2008 and it was $72.08 then.  So $20 increase in 5 years.

I got DS1 Netflix Canada after he graduated.  I figure the $8 a month is better than us running to the video store and risking late returns. I do have to say that Netflix Canada is ridiculously limited when compared to the US version. What's up with that Netflix????

I would really like to get rid of our landline and its $90 monthly bill. DH is dead against it. Vehemently. The only calls we really get on there are from my mom, telemarketers and some scouting phone calls.

I have noticed that my budget falls into two main categories: things for basic living now, and planning for future expenses.   I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I am probably never going to get out of this too small of a house. Do we really want to take on a whopping mortgage at this stage of our lives to get me a kitchen/dining area where people actually can eat?    sigh. probably not.   But there are a lot of things in this house that need updating, or retouching. I don't even want to bring up the living room walls that have been totally bare now for the FIVE years since I painted it all. DH flips out everytime I suggest hanging things up to make the room feel complete.  Our basement windows are 50 years old I think, and hardly energy efficient and the casings are warping.  Just a lot of things to do.

So.....I have taken $200 out of the 'plan for the distant future' budget and moved it to what I call home improvement. I can either use that $200 a month to work at slowly replacing things or save it towards a bigger priced item ( like the windows).  Maybe the knowledge that there is money monthly will put some sparkle in what has become 'same old same old/nothing changes'.

It's worth a try. If it falls apart I will morph it back into the main budget line.

Other than that, right now, there isn't much in the main budget that needs to be changed for the foreseeable future.

Now to come up with a list of  quick fix items and bigger cost items for the home improvements so I can start to envision what this can /can't do.

Do you have a spot in your budget for things like repairing windows/floors, replacing pieces of furniture, etc?

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Update:  My vehicle basic insurance (Plates) statement came in today. While it went UP $10 last year to just under $97, it looks like it went down $3 this year to just under $94. That should balance out the increase to Shaw LOL

RRSP Update

At my last update I had $6174 in my portfolio, divided between NEI Canadian Bonds and NEI Ethical Dividends.

Today I received my latest update and see that I am down about $60.

My balance today stands at $6 110.79

It looks like the Bonds are the culprit as they are sitting with a net loss this update.

I need to get started saving for my RRSP 2013 goal. An additional $1500 would put me $7600. I look forward to see it at $10 000 and higher. I need to make some changes if I wish that to happen sooner, rather than later.

Book Suggestion needed

There is an episode on Friends where Joey laments about not having enough time to be alone with his thoughts. After finding time, he sums it up with "I figured I'd have, like, time alone with my thoughts, but, you know, it turns out I don't have as many thoughts as you'd think"


I am heading towards empty nest. Technically, DS1 should be gone as he is graduated, but he will be around potentially for the next 2 years if he stays with this team. He doesn't want a whole lot to do with me and he is not making some very responsible choices.  DS2 has been, and will be gone, most of the summer for his camps.  DH is working and, let's face it, he and I don't have a whole lot in common anymore.

I've hit that phase of my life where I am kind of alone and...........I don't like it. It reminds me that I don't have a lot in the definition of Jolie, that isn't wrapped up in  terms of 'I am a teacher" or "I am a mother".

My parents are closer to the ends of their lives and health issues are starting.

I am 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through my life on earth.

This isn't a poor me post. I do recognize, however, that I need to start finding happiness and satisfaction in being me...or figuring out who I am...or..... redefining me.

I have been very sad this summer and actually, throughout the winter/spring as well.

So.............on that bright and sunshiny note :-),  I am looking for book suggestions that may help me figure a few things out. I am not really looking for one with a religious tone to it as though are so personal and what fits  you may not fit me.

I have scoured online and there are a boat load of books out there and its hard to weed through what is going to be helpful and what may not. (yes I recognize the irony of asking for help finding a self help book lol)

So I turn it over to you..................any suggestions from blogland????

Where the money stands

as of August 6th

Debts
Mortgage - $27 038.78

Total Debt - $27 038.78

Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $2062
(set aside waiting for full $1000 to formally add to TFSA - $600)
RESP - $14 550
RRSP - $6100
Plates - $1200
Summer - $0 - I have withdrawn this money and used a chunk of it for our long weekend at the lake. The rest has plans, thus the $0 ranking.
Back to School - $1200 (finally! I felt like I was so far behind getting this money ready)

So the RESP previously was 14 050. I had thought it should be $200 more as that is what is added each month. It stayed on that $14 050 forever. When I checked it today for the new month is was $400 more.  I guess that makes my two months worth.

Next goal - Xmas 2013 of $1400