November Change

I headed off to the bank today with my change for November. I had almost forgotten about it, in the craziness of the last month.

I had:

• 1 roll of toonies - $50
• 1 roll of loonies - $25
• 1 roll of quarters - $10

for a total of $85

I had $15 I hadn't spent from my  grocery budget so I added that too and put the money towards DS2's trip fund.

Catching up

Yes I have been a bad blogger. Perhaps my mojo is fading. More likely is the busyness of the month left me drained.

So....what's new?

Well with mom, her surgery is over. She had to have 3 lymph nodes removed from her neck and almost 4 weeks later we are still waiting  to find out if there is more cancer. It is a rough time waiting longer than the 2 weeks promised for this kind of news. She also had to have part of her ear removed as there were cancer cells there, below the mole she had had removed. Makes me see Skin Cancer in a whole new light. She has been very brave through this, but is still scared.  We are trying to fashion scarves so she can go out without folks staring.

With sister, her MS is getting worse. She has also had some serious issues with her gall bladder and is weak weak weak. Any meds she takes for it reacts with the symptoms of her MS and gives her massive hives, the size of golf balls. She is very sad a lot. She can't get out to do anything and doesn't even have the energy to do things around the house. Another of my sisters is semi retired so she is coming home to help decorate for Christmas.

With school, it has been insanely busy. With a completely new marking system (1-4) instead of percentages or A, B, C, it means a whole new style of teaching and assessment. Along with teaching the students and parents what it all means, we are learning it ourselves. There is  a lot of resistance and confusion about it. Added to that was a whole new computer system for marking that has had at it all many glitches. Interviews were different as well. What it all translated to was time....outside of classtime, to learn a whole new grade curriculum in 7 subjects and to do and to meet. In November I was spending approximately 20 hours a week doing school work in the evenings and weekends. I am hoping I will become more efficient as the year progresses. It's a lot of time I am giving up away from my family. We have had a few staff in our district leave the profession this year - they are amazing teachers and do great things in the classroom, but weighed the pros and cons of the time they lose with their little ones every night and weekend, and family won.

With DS1, we have decided on a college. We had form after form to fill in and ship off to the States. He is very excited about going down to play his beloved game, but we have yet to pick his classes lol. It was not a full scholarship. Those are less common than apparently they were a few years ago. I am stressed about how much money I will need to find over four years to meet the rest of the commitment, as we as the basics of what he will need there. We will figure out the first year and after that I am afraid he needs to start exploring student loans. I feel very guilty about having  a 'personal finance blog' and knowing these monstrous costs coming.

I have decided to keep the money in the RESP for DS2. It's a family plan so we can shift it back and forth between kids as far as I know. While it's great there is $15 000 there, it won't go far if I used it for US college tuition. I want to be sure I have money to give DS2.

Winter is here with a vengeance. It started right after Halloween with a super freezing rain storm covered up by a big snow dump.  I hope this winter is not as long as last year. I can't do another almost 7 month winter (October 16 to May 6th last year)

And that's my world. :-)

I laugh as I put "unplanned expenses" as a label here. It isn't like I didn't know my kids would be going to College. I simply didn't start saving soon enough. When they were first born I had no job and DH's job was low paying and I couldn't, but even, say 10 years ago, if I had understood budgets and planning, I COULD have started.    Lesson to be learned for new folks out there - really think about money and what it can do for you, in the present and in the possible future.

RRSP Update

My new statement came yesterday, updating my RRSO portfolio.

At my last update, I had $6110.79 in my portfolio divided between NEI Canadian Bonds and Ethical Equity. The balance had dropped about $60.

My balance currently stands at $6376.13.

It's nice to see it has gained a little bit over $260 in that time.  It's divided 65% equity and 35% bonds.

I have my 2013 RRSP money saved ($1500). I just need to find time to book an appointment with my bank to get the new money added in. That's not going to happen until after report cards and interviews this month.

My first goal of $10 000 gets closer, albeit slowly.

Where the money stands

as of November 2, 2013

Debts
Mortgage - $26 206.59

Total Debt - $26 206.59

Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $3065
RESP - $15 450
RRSP - $6100 ($1500 more ready to be added in when I meet with bank)
Plates - $0 - insurance was due this month so bye bye planned spending
xmas 2013 - $1400
DS2's trip -$400