Review of 2013 Goals

I love the end of a year and the promise of a new one. It does for my goals and my budget thoughts as spring does for my emotions and my connection with nature.

As I look back on my goals this year (and the ones from years before) I can see that I have made some good changes. I think about money differently. I plan ahead for events. I recognize more how finite the money source is and I recognize that I have to make compromises or sacrifices.

So how did I do??

Goal 1 - Pay off Line of Credit - PASS
I got this paid off by the end of May thanks to paying down extra every month, using my true income tax return and using the money they gave me and then wanted back in December. I made mini goals so that I could feel the momentum as I paid it down.   So good to have this LOC gone.

Goal 2 - Celebrations Goal - PASS
I got this off my to do list right at the start of 2013. I was so glad I had this money ready for the weddings and for DS1's prom and grad. It made those events far less stressful knowing I didn't have to fret over $

Goal 3 - Summer 2013 - PASS
I had this goal met just in the nick of time, at the end of June. It was great to have that money for our camping time and to give the boys $ for different summer activities.

Goal 4 - Vehicle Plates - PASS
With a total of 4 vehicles in the family now, planning to pay for the insurance is KEY.

Goal 5 - Back to School - PASS
This was a smaller goal this year since DS1 was graduated. It gave me more money for DS2 for clothes, and I bought some things for my class since I was teaching a brand new grade.

Goal 6 - Save for DS2's trip - Half and half
DS decided he would not go on the trip in spring of Grade 11 (this coming spring) and would wait for spring of Grade 12. He hopes that trip will be Europe based, preferably Italy or Greece. I saved $1140 thus far for his trip. He has his spending money ready to go.

Goal 7 - Christmas 2013 - PASS
It made for a stress free Christmas. I did not get a fresh tree this year, so I saved $ there. With 5 great nieces/nephews now I had to cut the amount I gave for them. Added up very fast.

Goal 8 - TFSA - PASS
It felt so good to finally add to this after 2 years hiatus. I can't let that happen again.

Goal 9 - RRSP - PASS
My little portfolio is slowly growing. I try not to think about how little it actually would help for monthly expenses once I am retired and will just focus on continuing to add to this.

Goal 10 - Lose 20 lbs - Fail
I started off great. Then quit and gained. Then kept going strong over summer and early fall. Then quit and gained. Overall I lost (as of this morning) 11 pounds this year.

Goal 11 - Reading - Fail

But I am ok with this. I read in the summer and it was great, but with 35ish kids in my class this year, I don't have a lot of brain cells left to read while school is on.

My final sentence on my 2013 goal page is worth mentioning. It said "I hope 2013 is a year of DOING, rather than a year of just wishing I were doing something...anything"

Looking back, and reading what others have done, I realize that I have not DONE enough. I have thought, and wished, and dreamed and planned, but the actualization of it was insufficient. I need to get moving and get living and get ENJOYING life more.

A Year of Snowflakes

I continue to be assured that little things definitely add up and can create positive (pardon the pun) change.

The money comes from a variety of sources - leftover weekly jar money, rolled change, bottle recycling, income tax refund, garage sales, and little bits of money I get here and there. On the weeks or months where I am diligent about using cash, I have more change. Usually any change I get, goes in the jar.  That can add up fast.

I put most of my snowflakes in the early part of the year towards my Line of Credit. I wanted that gone, diddily on! (ok I was watching a Simpsons rerun as I wrote this and channeled Ned)

After the LOC was paid off, it went towards things like my TFSA or the money I saved for DS2's trip.

In 2012 the snowflakes were $3136
In 2011 the snowflakes were $4350
In 2010 the snowflakes were $5070
In 2009 the snowflakes were $4295

And for this year, 2013, at first glance it looked like my yearly totals would be $4971.

THEN, I remembered that $1300 of that was the money Revenue Canada gave me, then took back last week.

So for 2013 it looks like my yearly total of snowflakes is $3671. A great number, to be sure, and very appreciated. I won't lie though....that loss of $1300 hurt.

I look forward to finding more snowflakes for next year.

2013 - a quick glance

The beauty of having blogged for so long is that one acquires access to personal data trends from across the years.  It helps me see what progress I have made and helps to formulate goals for the upcoming year.

For dates, I am using information from the start of December for each  year.

Debts
December 2009 - $70 771.99
December 2010 - $52 410.25 (down $18 361.74)
December 2011 - $40 055.29 (down $12 354.96)
December 2012 - $35 921.04 (down $4 134.25)
December 2013 - $25 925.49 (down $9 995.55)

Purely looking at the numbers one could say that I have put less of an effort at debt reduction as the years have progressed. It doesn't taken into account the fact that I have several different KINDS of debt in 2009 and now that I have reached 2013, I currently have only  my mortgage.

The numbers will probably be different for 2014. If DS1 does not qualify for student loans to offset his college fees then I will probably acquire more debt for a bit to help supplement this.

It will definitely be a learning process for all of us.

A year of change

As longtime readers know, I toss my change from my everyday purchases into a jar instead of hanging on to it and putting it back into my jars for groceries or gas or whatnot.

 Once a month I count it up and take the full rolls into the bank to put it towards whatever goal is the current target. My bank has the fancy machine that counts it up but I take great pleasure in doing it myself.  Each month I report on the change for the month. It is quite amazing how it adds up.

Here is a summary for the year's change:
January - $100
February - $80
March - $42
April - $100
May - $0
June - $118
July - $100
August -$125
September - $30
October - $100
November  - $85
December - $100

My year's total for 2013 was an impressive $980

In 2012 my year's total was $549.50

If I were able to shop effectively with my debit card rather than cash, a good percentage of that 'change' would have remained in those budget lines. I just never seem to shop well with only debit. I am much more careful when I shop with cash.

I am grateful for the change and able to use it for my different goals.

Discovering my roots

No no, I am not talking about my hair, although, now that you mention it, they are getting quite noticeable.

I have been interested in family history for years. I am probably the only one of my siblings who has that interest. I remember times of curling up and listening to stories of our family. Some of it I remember and some of it is gone.

I remember visiting my maternal grandfather and he was actually willing to share some stories (he was very reluctant to share details). My mom pulled me aside and said "Go listen! There will come a time when he isn't around and you will no longer have that chance."  How right she was. (sshhh don't read that so loud...she might hear you and know I admitted this :-)

My paternal grandmother had 'a book' done up by a genealogist on her husband's family. It traced roots back to Palentine Germany in the 1600s and followed their trail to the US and then up to Canada.  A couple years before she passed she gave the book to me to read. Boy am I glad she did. I may not have gotten it after she passed as my dad's brother seems to have...............errr.....................appropriated all the family pictures and such.  I am not letting this book out of my hands or I will never see it again.

We have a couple books done about the regions my parents grew up in and the families that lived there.

While my mom was in the hospital in early December, her words of long ago came back to me. "Go listen! There will come a time when you will no longer have that chance."

I started asking dad stories to distract him while she was in surgery.  He remembered some and I filled in some details with what I remembered. He said "we need to find  a way to get the rest of the information" and asked me about those ads he had seen on TV for ancestry.ca

Just seeing that little sparkle in his tired and sad eyes was enough for me. I pulled out my IPAD (from work) and my credit card, and subscribed for a  year right there and then.

We started searching and it was not hard to start with the details we had. He was really interested in what I was finding.

In the hours I sat by mom's bedside as she drifted in and out of sleep, I kept exploring. At one point I was looking at a census artifact for my dad's side, and found a few of my mom's on the same page. I laughed and she asked what I found. I mentioned a name and she started blabbing, "well he was married to so and so and their kids were....and they had his brother living with him."   I said 'yup, that's all here on this document.". She laughed and said "Well you didn't need to sign up then did you? I already know all that."

In my ever loving way I said "Look lady you were unconscious and quite unwilling to answer my questions...". She smiled.  

In the past couple weeks I have had great fun following the trees up and up. I have found an uncle of my mom's who we didn't know existed. They came over from Poland.....second marriage...etc etc. I found a granddaughter of another uncle my mom just barely remembers. There was some sort of a falling out and years later, my mom remembers a reunion between the brothers. I found a picture this  granddaughter posted and without even looking at the names, I knew which one he was. He looked just like grandpa.  I have now connected with this woman and we are starting to share.

I found the links for our pirate ancestor. I knew about him for years now but found the artifacts to back it up.

I found out that one of my dad's great great uncles was hung for killing his wife...strangled her to death. Lovely.

I am locked out of databases that are in the US or UK, but I am realizing that those trails are much easier to track than my mom's side where it links into villages in Poland and Russia and those varying boundaries back then.

My cost for the year is $119. Seeing the excitement in my parents' eyes makes it well worth it. We need to start going through pictures and beginning to add. My mom wants to go to the city in the spring and find her grandmother's grave...things like that.

I have shaved this money off my jars over the month of December. A bit from gas. A bit from groceries. A bit from entertainment.

For those of you who use it - I ask - at the end of the year when my membership expires, IF I chose not to continue to pay, what happens to my tree? Does it disappear? Or does it remain in some sort of stasis, waiting for me to pay again to see it again?

An impulse buy? yup. But I do recognize that the keepers to the stories behind all these names, have less time left on earth, rather than more.

Jammie Day and Calendars

Today is a quiet day...time to relax, sip coffee, read or watch TV and just .............appreciate.

We are not part of the Boxing Day madness sales out there. a) no money left. b) nothing we truly need.  It saves me gas, money and stress. All good things. AND they frown on you shopping in your jammies :-)

DH left by 8 AM to go ice fishing. The boys are still sleeping. The kitty is curled up beside me and all is well in the world.

The first thing I am doing is filling in my mom's calendar for the year: birthdates, anniversaries, the remainder of the DS1's hockey schedule, DS2's curling schedule and my weekly 'paydays'.  I have been using this calendar brand for a few years now and quite like it. Every year they tweak the calendar a bit and some parts I love, and some a bit less. I think they one they made last year was the best version.

(image courtesy of http://www.moretimemoms.ca/ )

 

I bought the one for this year a few months ago and it has been waiting, still in it's plastic wrap, in my closet. I opened it the other day and was a little disappointed. It is physically smaller than previous ones and the space for writing is a big part of why I love it. There are a few versions so I suspected I had bought the wrong version.  I really debated over whether I should use it or go back and get one that was like last year's. Ohhh the internal debate. Waste the money you spent on the first one just to go back and get a new one with bigger spaces??  or the other side - It's only about $11, so just go get it if it will make you happy. But it's still $11? think of how happy you are when you snowflake $11 in coins?

 

The internal debate reached the point where I gave myself permission to go get a different version of it just to shut my mind up :-) I had gone online to see which one I was looking for and off to the store I went. I was surprised to find that the version I had bought last year did not exist. There was an erasable one, a fridge magnet one with unconnected sheets (but the size of squares I love) or the coil bound version I already had.

 

End result - I went home and told myself to be satisfied with the one I had. Based on the kinds of stickers at the back, I really am not a 'new mom' and almost out of the mom calendar phase. How sad is that?

 

I am glad I went to look though. It quieted the voice in my head that was coveting a different kind :-)

 

I still like having a paper based calendar up where everyone can write their information and see what is coming up in the week/month.

 

Do you still even use a paper calendar anymore? or have you gone completely digital?

 



 

 

Christmas Celebrations - it's a wrap!

Well we are back home. The boys are downstairs with one of their cousins, playing Xbox. DH and I are upstairs here watching TV, AND the deer slowly wandering down our street. The snow is softly falling outside and it is just a smidge below 0.

How quickly the anticipation and the busy-ness of those two days has come and gone.  The overarching feeling this year was how happy we all were that mom was still here for the holiday, coupled with the reality that she is just so tired.

Originally the plan was to have Christmas eve supper at Sister 1's (the one with MS) and Christmas Day at mom's, who insisted she could still host it. After returning home from her last surgery, even she admitted that she could not do it. Sister 2 was gone to Alberta to have Christmas with her daughter and the grandkids. Sister 3 was just returning from Mexico and lives 2.5 hours north of here. And me...well my house is just too small to host anything (and that continues to bug me)


Sister 1 said that as long as she was hosting Eve supper she might as well do the Day supper as well. She just needed help with the prep, cooking and cleaning.

Christmas Eve I went over early to help prep. We were having appetizers (coconut shrimp, wings, ribs etc) followed by lasagne, Caesar salad and garlic bread. Her children and their families were there (2 beautiful little girls to hold/play with), along with our parents and my family. Sister 1 always cooks way too much. Hosting is her thing and having this darn disease that saps her energy and strength, is so hard emotionally on her. It was nice for mom and dad to be able to come over, share time for awhile, then head home when she needed to nap.  

After we finished there, DS1 headed off to his girlfriend's house and DS2 went to hang out with friends for an hour or so.

Christmas morning, we opened our gifts here. I have to say that we all really missed not having our tomcat here. Traditionally DS1 opened that kitty's stocking with him and DS2 opened the one with our maine coone.  It was hard not having him there and things just felt off without him. DS1 was particularly quiet.

We cut down a bit on presents this year (thank goodness) especially between DH and myself. I have been trying to get him to do that for years but he just fights it. Then he complains about spending money on gifts LOL. Sometimes there is no reasoning with him. DS1's gifts were clothes and sports items. One of his favourites was a fur hat like this -

 

 

You can snap up the sides to the top. Maybe now he'll stop stealing his brother's.

 

DS2's favourite gift was this quick little stove for his winter camps or canoe trips.

 

 

DH was mainly given 'dry wear' gear for his work outdoors. My list was short and I wouldn't have even made a list if they hadn't all asked. I told the boys all I wanted was a nice picture of the two of them together. DS1's girlfriend will take it and voila. They both agreed to it. DS2 hates pics like his mama.  I got some candles and towels, little things like that. I also got a gift certificate for a pedicure and one to put towards some art to hang on my living room walls. Seriously tired of having nothing on them.  I will have to pick something out and then save the rest of the cash.



After we opened our gifts we headed to mom and dad's where she insisted on doing brunch. Sister 3 and her family were there cooking when we got there. We don't get to see them much so it was fun to catch up and share a meal together.  The phone was busy there this holiday with more relatives making calls to talk to mom (and dad) than usual. We left so mom could rest for awhile.

Sister 3 headed over to Sister 1's house to get started on prep and I joined her there not long after. Another delicious meal. and lots of the kids to help clean up and do the dishes.  We played a couple of games, as usual. This year was Taboo and Catch Phrase. DS2 is coveted for these games as he is a quick thinker (much like his mother) and it is good to see him shine.  He even played on the Wii for awhile with his brother. He doesn't like to use the Wii as his tremors make it incredibly hard for him to hold his hands still for the games and he is so self conscious about that. Was good to see him kick his brother's ........ in archery, especially since DS1 is the jock of the family.

When the evening was finished about 7:30, mom and dad went home, Sister 3 took off for home with her crew, my boys headed off to join friends at the outdoor rink at my school and...... we fast forward to where I started this prairie tale.

We have not yet opened gifts at mom and dads. She likes to do that with one daughter and their family at a time and there just wasn't time yesterday. We can do that on Boxing Day or the next..whatever works.

Simple Christmas celebrations here. Sometimes I yearn for fancy but I know we don't have the kind of cash to make that sort of thing happen.

When it comes down to it, I got to be with my parents, and that is the best gift of all. I cherish those moments even more than ever now.

RRSP Goal Met

I can happily say today that the $1500 I had saved for my year's contribution to RRSPs has now been officially added to my little portfolio.    I tried a few times to book a meeting with my rep at the bank but we just couldn't make it work out with the business of my last few weeks. Since I was changing nothing and merely adding to the portfolio, she got the papers ready and left them at the front desk for me to sign.

I signed yesterday. Today I checked my account and the money has now been moved. So yippee! I could have spent it in so many different ways (good and bad). I am so glad I stayed true and didn't touch it.

My portfolio should now be at around $7600, give or take whatever ups and downs there may have been in the market.

Adventures of ...

Gary the Gift Card

Hi! I'm Gary the Gift Card. I was  a surprise for Jolie and her family for Christmas from the hockey organization. You see the families that take in boys from the team get $ each month for having a billet. DS stays at home so Jolie's family did not get one. For Christmas this year Jolie got a $300 grocery card as a thank you. What a big surprise for them all.

Jolie planned to take me shopping with her on the weekend and buy 'the big haul'....fill up the dwindling pantry and freezer, along with getting some things for the holiday season. She was so excited.


So Jolie and her DH headed off yesterday to get groceries in the 30 below weather. DH was excited as he rarely gets to go grocery shopping. He doesn't understand 'staying within the budget' and finds it ridiculously hard to only spend that amount. He is surprised at how expensive things are LOL

Jolie and DH's card was for a big grocery store attached to a small mall (think small town rural mall - no fountains, no food courts, no second story).  They went for lunch together at a cafeteria style place and then with full tummies, they headed off to the store. As they entered the store with the cart, Jolie stopped to make sure I was still in her purse.

I. WAS. GONE.

Jolie panicked. She checked her pockets. She checked her purse. She checked her wallet. I was missing.  Her heart sank as the thoughts of a heaping full cart were gone out the window.

She retraced her steps back down to where they ate, and through the cafeteria line to see if I had fallen out at lunch. No sign of me.

She walked back towards the grocery store with a heavy heart. She stopped about 10 steps outside of the store to call home. DS was there, minding the space heaters. She had him check her dresser, her counter, the kitchen floor and the path out to the truck. NO sign of me.

The feelings running inside her were many - sadness, disappointment, stupidity (I mean who loses a gift card).  She took a big breath and headed back to the store to let DH know. Three steps inside the grocery store, in plain sight of where everyone could see, and walked, there I lay...... face down on the floor, with my $300 written on me in big black sharpie.

The look on her face was something I will never forget. I mean really, how many people walked past me (including Jolie) and just left me there????  As she swept me up, I heard her whisper a 'thank you!!! guarding angel'.

There was definitely more spring in her step as she headed off to take me shopping.

Here is to keeping things organized, appreciating the gifts in your life and guardian angels

signed - Gary the Gift Card

C-C-C-Cold

Seems fitting with the temperatures we have been having in the -30C that the furnace would decide to join the rebellion.

We lost it around 9 PM last night. We called all the 'heating' companies in town on their after hours lines. Only one answered. He had a dozen calls ahead of us and said he wouldn't be here until today. We called our energy company and the man came within a half hour. He checked all the lines from the gas meter and that part is working well. It was nice of him to come so fast.


We got our two space heaters out and  borrowed 1 from my brother in law and one from DH's.  The main goal  is to keep our water pipes from freezing...and...well...us too LOL

We called the heating company again first thing this morning and he just came and left. We remain on space heaters until at least tomorrow as the main guy who works with our brand of furnace does not work until tomorrow. The heating company was kind enough to not charge us for this call out which I am told is around $500 ($500!! man I am in the wrong business. when I think of how many times I have had parents call in the evenings or on weekends or holidays saying their child has forgotten 'x' at school and could I please come so they could get it. I could be rich LOL)

So parts of my house are ok for heat and parts are 14C (57F)

Can't imagine what our electric bill will be with all these space  heaters, or the bills for the repairs.

murphy!!!!!!

The Big C

It has been rearing it's ugly head a great deal of late. It never ceases to amaze me how unfair it all seems.  In my work world, one of my colleagues at a sister school was diagnosed with cancer of the throat a few weeks ago. She has undergone some pretty radical surgery of late. The husband of one of my colleagues has had cancer for over a year now. It has gotten worse and what they wanted to operate on has now become inoperable. It is incredibly sad.  The mother of one of our school's youngest students had battled and won, we thought. It is back now, with a vengeance and she is about to undergo a radial treatment where she will be isolation for 6 months...away from her little ones. Today was their last day with us. very sad.

And now the personal touch. My mom's results came back a couple weeks ago. The cancer has spread. They were able to get her in very fast and we spent last week in the city while she had all her lymph nodes on one side, removed. Her face and neck are a hot mess of stitch after stitch. Watching my dad in there.....he was so sad. Broke our hearts. Mom is at home now under home care and very weak. Our next stop, regardless of the results of the tests, will be the Cancer Clinic.

All this from a mole.

Last week was the first time I verbalized "My mom has cancer."  It did me in. Even just typing this...I am breaking down.

She is so strong, but it just seems like a battle we can't win.

It is just not fair.

And the holiday begins

What a busy, swirling last week before Christmas break.

 There was Christmas concert this week where the older students were part of a play and the little groups popped on for their songs. There were 3 performances of this and then with a big sigh of relief, we could take the stage down and get back to having a gym again.

It's been bitter cold and the kids have been inside almost 100% of the time for noons and recesses rfor the past 3 weeks. They get so squirrely without that time to run around and get some fresh air, but with windchills into the -40C range and more, that's a little too much fresh air for safety.

My class had their annual potluck party. 35 kids eat a LOT of food. They had a great time though. I was surprised at how many had no potluck etiquette experience to draw upon. It was a great teaching moment showing them how to not touch every dish with their hands...how not to take heaping amounts until everyone had firsts, and then seconds.

I have had a student teacher with me once  a week for the past four months, then a few more days as he was done his  exams. The best part is that he is a former student of mine and a lot of the activities were things he remembered from being in my class, only this time he got to see them as the adult. There were a lot of  'so THAT is why you always....." comments :-)

We had pajama days and movies today. I popped popcorn yesterday after school and then again early this morning. We sang carols this afternoon and then we released them to their parents for the holidays.

It was a great feeling to be home and in my jammies by 4 PM. Such decadence!

DS2 left this morning for a winter camp weekend. Crazy kid...excited to be out and camping this weather. I am taking advantage of his being gone to strip down his bed and do laundry and get it tidied. I know...he should be doing this, but for some reason I just feel the need to surface tidy and clean.

I am curled up watching Season 2 of CSI New York, that I got from the library today. Tomorrow will be soon enough to do all the things I need to do, outside of the house.

F'ing taxes

I am mad. steaming mad.

Remember back HERE

where I got a larger than expected tax refund?

Remember I called Revenue Canada THAT day. THAT DAY!! to ask them to check over all my files as their number did not match mine?

Remember that I asked the man who answered AREYOU SURE this is correct???

He assured me it was.

Well today I got a statement saying that they reassessed and I now owe THEM $1300, with interest thank you very much you deadbeat citizen!

I called the number on my assessment and they have NO record I ever called. None

Merry F'ing Christmas

Where the money stands

as of December 8th

Debts
Mortgage - $25 925.49

Total Debt - $25 925.49

Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $3075
RESP - $15 800
RRSP - $6100 ($1500 more ready to be added in when I meet with bank)
xmas 2013 - $1400 (for the moment....beginning to dip out of this now for the holiday)
DS2's trip -$1030

I am happy to have added to DS2's trip fund. He won't be going until April of 2015 but a head start will make me a much happier woman. I want to be sure I have that money ready for his trip, as I did for his brother.

I have added a category I am planned spending for, which will probably not show up on this radar...college. I am tucking away money each month for the upcoming bills for DS1.  This will get tapped into as need be and right now I have no clue how that will unfold.  I suspect this will go on for 4 years at which point I hope/suspect both boys will be done.

Air Miles Credit Cards

Looking for a little input here from folks, particularly my Canadian readers.

I have a lot of flights in my future if I ever want to visit DS at college to see him play or fly him home at Christmas etc.

I bank with BMO and use their BMO air miles CC...the one with no fee. I get one reward mile for every $20 in purchases.   I am wondering if I should choose to get one of the other airmiles cards where there IS a yearly fee, but the ratio of dollars spent to miles earned is better.

I would be using it for flights down to the US and back and those days would be rather specific so I would not want to fight 'blackout' times.

I really haven't used my airmiles for much beyond some gift redemeptions.

Thoughts? suggestions?