August Change and snowflakes

August was not a huge change month, really.

However, when I cleaned earlier today, I found bits and pieces of change everywhere. Doesn't speak well for my cleaning or organizational skills lol

Mostly I found little change. But little bits add up. I also added the US currency change I had accumulated.

This month I rolled:
3 rolls of quarters  - $30
4 rolls of dimes - $20

for a grand total of $50

I will be taking that to the bank Saturday to put down against the college LOC

A sneezy Saturday

I ended up waking early yesterday..7:30 and it was a little sad to remember my mornings of leisurely coffee are done again for awhile. Weekends are back to tackle the list to catch up from the work week and get ready for the week again. Still, routine can be comforting in many ways.

It started out with my dumping the pile of papers, bill etc out on my bed to get them sorted and put away. I had my coffee in there and put Netflix on my ipad to keep me company while I did it.  This led to a complete gutting and reorganizing of my handy dandy bill/document box. I never get things put away properly it seems and that is crucial to that peace of mind only organization can bring.

Lots of papers for shredding.

Then I decided to put away the new clothes I had bought down in the US, for back to school. Well you can't put away new without getting rid of old..... one in-one out. This led to a close examination of the dressers, and that was when I really noticed the dust. Everywhere. Sigh

So yesterday everything was moved and I vacuumed behind and under, and washed all the walls in the bedroom. As each piece of furniture was put back, each shelf and drawer was gone through. And I purged, and I purged. To donate. To recycle. And far far too much that needed to be tossed. A shocking amount.

I also took the summer's newspapers that DH reads to the recycling bin in town. He is the only one who reads them, but never takes them.

I also found a picture that DS1 had bought me in Italy. I found a frame in my house and put it up in the living room.

As I curled up with a glass of wine last night, I thought. "wow I am going to have the best sleep ever in this totally cleaned and decluttered room.'

Wrong

All that dust that was kicked up has made me incredibly sick. I've gone through four allergy pills and 3 big boxes of Kleenex. My, I miss nasal breathing.

Changing my jar amounts

I was looking back to try to find the last time I changed the amount in my 'magic' jars and couldn't find it, so it must have been quite awhile ago. Since one of my big eaters is no longer in the house, I thought I would take advantage of this to tweak the jars.

Up til now my jar contents per week were:
Gas - $60
Entertainment - $40
Spending money - $20
Grocery and house hold items - $220

for a total of $340 a week

The only thing I tweaked was my grocery jar, reducing it by $40 a week, to $180. If this works and this is the right amount of money for the cost of grocery items here for three people. This $40 a week (or $160 a month) is being funnelled into the account that makes its way to the US for DSs groceries there.

We shall see if this works. I took my first week's money out earlier this week.

College Bound road trip...

....by the numbers

Well DS2 and I are home from going down with DS1 to get him settled in his dorm for college. It was an emotional trip in many ways, and costly.

• 35 hours driving round trip
• 11 hours driving in pouring rain on the way home. Big storm front!
• 55 minutes at the US border to find out we needed one more document for him to enter as a student.
• $200 US to pay for said document that should work for his entire college years provided he does not change colleges or majors
• 4 nights in hotels of varying costs. One night was a plain jane room but OMG what a view in the morning
• 3 roommates in DS's dorm/apartment. He shared a room with 1
• 17 dead skunks on the road as we drove by...and 1 turtle, walking very slowly across the highway. Helloooo Steinbeck
• 76% savings on the door crasher sale at the department store where we bought his Extra long sheets to fit his dorm bed, mattress cover and quilt
• $1.... $1 to park for 2 hours and walk the beautiful downtown district and peek in some of the shops
• $115 spent on 2 of his textbooks. 1 new and 1 used. Hope he sells them back when he is done
• $175 to buy some basic things he needed for his apartment kitchen and groceries, as well as toiletries etc. I went to Target thinking it would be a heck of a deal. Some things were even more than our Canadian prices. Found  a Walmart in the next town and bought the rest there.
• $3.34 to $3.54 were the varying gas prices in the US. Up here we are at $1.259 per litre. Anyone want to figure that out in Gallon price for me?
• $20 per night extra charged for the early check into the dorm. Housing is annoyed that the team required the boys to be here but wouldn't pay for the extra days.
• $$ with question marks as we wait to see how much tuition, room and board and fees are after the scholarship is deducted
• 1 sad mama who hasn't heard from her son since we left. I feel like I am missing out on so much. What was the coaches meeting like? How did fitness testing go? What was it like skating in that huge arena? Who are you on  a line with? How much money are you spending?

And back to work I go. Farewell summer

Simple Things

Well this is kind of the end of summer for me. My last Saturday at home before I go back to work. Next Saturday we are gone to the US to take DS1 down for college.  Seemed appropriate to be thankful for simple things. They are often the most valuable.

• I was so excited that DS2 came home last night. Since June 30, he has been home a total of 3 days. He was up running his camp and then spent the last week on the Churchill River system canoeing 90 KM. I am super proud of his independence, but boy I sure miss him when he is gone.
• DS1 was able to connect with many of his hockey buddies yesterday for the team's annual golf tournament. A few of the incoming players were there and he got to meet them.
• Thankful for a spare couch or two in my tiny little house. I woke up to 2 extra bodies: one of the old players and one of the incoming, crashing on my couch. The new one seemed very nice.
• Thankful for fresh bounty from mom and dad's garden. We went there for supper last night and had fresh potatoes, peas, carrots, yellow beans and cucumbers as part of our meal. Nothing beats the taste of fresh
• Thankful for cooler temps today. It's been far too hot and humid for a house with no AC. Was cooler outside than inside last night LOL
• Thankful for a great staff. We went for drinks and a fire the other night to reconnect with many of our staff, and catch up on summer.
• Watched fireworks last night from my front lawn. Right between the trees was a great view of them from the fairgrounds.
• Thankful for a great neighbour for almost  20 years. Her funeral was yesterday. She was 83. I've really known her most of my life as my grandmother lived beside her for years as well. She didn't appreciate my cats, but she sure was great to have around and chat with and always asked about the boys. I never had to worry someone was going to walk out of my house with my TV or something.

Wow! fees

We got access to DS's online account for college listing his balance owing. The numbers are definitely freaking me out.  I am not even really sure what some of them are for, but I am working on taking deep breaths as I process this mentally and financially.

Now I know the health plan is per semester. I am not sure if the other charges are for the year or for the semester.

a) Health Plan (required. no opting out allowed for international students) - $1050
b) Collegiate Fee - $306
c) International Student Fee - $150
d) Student services fee - $306
e) International Student Academic Fee - $125
f) Computer Lab fee - $72
g) Capital Improvement Fee - $15
h)Transportational Sustainability Fee - $10

That's $2034 in fees for what I think is one semester. That's more than I paid for my tuition and fees for a semester when I went to University. Of course that is 20 years ago..... lol

Equalized, part deux

I wanted to thank everyone for their input on my last post regarding equalized payments. It is so important to hear from voices who have gone through this before and love it or do not, and why.

I debated long and hard about what path to take. If it were me personally paying this bill I would go with setting a monthly budget for the bill, calling in the actual readings, and setting aside any credits, to dip into during the heavier months. I know I could 'not touch' that set aside money to keep for later.

DH, however, would not do that. Any extra money would disappear and then the heavier months would be a surprise and he'd be short cash.

With his blessing and surprising approval, I have put both natural gas and electricity on equalized payments with July being our annual balancing month. To further this, my plan is to attempt to call in actual readings to both on the 15th of each month. The electricity one should be interesting in the deep of winter when I can barely get into our back yard, but I shall try. This will give us truly accurate month to month bills and we will know if we are ahead or behind the game.

As DH said, "I often hold my breath when I open that bill, scared of what the amount is going to be inside." That's a whole lotta stress.

So those are now set up. I am still amused/offended each time I call there and I have to practically give my DNA to get access to the account. Both our names are on it but originally, when we bought the house, DH was the one who went in to set up the account and is listed as the primary. He can phone in and doesn't have to answer any skill testing questions about who he is, but I have to answer about 5, every single time.

A male friend of mine said they had the same problem. The companies suggested that she (the wife) set up a verbal password when she called in. Her husband needed no password, but she did. He grabbed the phone from her and said her password would be 'bullshit'.  The startled agent asked why they would choose that. He  replied that it was bullshit that he didn't have to give ID and a password and she did when it was set up in both their names.  The agent laughed, apologized for the rules she has to follow and to this day, their password is bullshit.

Next, I am off to explore whether the town has equalized payments for the water/sewer bill.

And then, another call to Workman's Comp. It is now day 51 of them saying that  we are just caught up in a computer glitch from them switching computer systems.

Again, thank you everyone for your comments. They all really helped and made me think.

Where the money stands

as of August 7th

Debts

Mortgage - $23 651.93LOC - $0

Total Debt - $23 651.93

Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $5000
RESP - $18 100
RRSP - $8000 
DS2's trip -$1180
Plates 2014 - $1200
College Savings - $3050  ($2650ish)

Ok so first...wow that was a long month. It feels like forever ago that I put up the July numbers. Since then I have paid off the remaining bits of LOC for DS2's car.

I paid $1000 on DS2's trip, so I have a bit less of a balance there.

The College savings...I have morphed into a US$ account here in Canada. $3000 Canadian got me just a bit over $2650 US

I am not sure how or if I will be logging on here the College stuff. It will be a number very much in flux. I have to think on that.

Equalized payments...thoughts?

So after the massive Natural Gas bill last month, it is clear something needs to be done. Surpise high bills are not fun.

Here are the options I have come up with:
1) Calling in an actual reading each month. Usually there are four actual readings each year, and the rest are estimates.  For some reason, the actuals DH called in for January and April did not get into the system. He spoke to a person, not a machine and gave the numbers, but they never made it in. That contributed to the scary bill. The company has no explanation for why the numbers never got in the system.  So I could call in each month on the 17th and each bill would become an actual bill. This would eliminate surprises  every three months. The amount owing would always be different though as we would use a different amount each month. So each month would be a mini surprise.

2) Setting up equalized payments. When I talked to a rep this morning, we could start equalized payments immediately. Based on our yearly use, they suggested $75 which does not seem out of line with my spreadsheet. At the end of a year, if it was too low a payment, they would increase our monthly equalized. If it was too high...decrease. There would not a balloon payment at the end of the year if they estimate was way off.

I honestly am leaning towards equalized. It is a set amount each month and would force encourage DH to budget and make it ever so much easier. On the months the gas is low, say $35, he doesn't 'save' anything for the months he KNOWS are going to be higher. We have six months of winter here usually. Then those winter bills come and he is suddenly surprised, and doesn't have all the extra cash to pay it and struggles and stresses.

Anyone have experience with equalized and want to weigh in on my options here?

Up goes the vehicle insurance

My vehicle insurance starts a new cycle at the end of each July. I was watching for the letter in the mail and it arrived on July 30. That is really annoying given that the 30th is my renewal date. It usually comes a week or so earlier as the reminder.

I was dismayed to see, that like everything else, this bill has gone up. It was previously just under $94 a month and now it has gone up to just under $100 a month. A $6 monthly increase or $72 for the year. This is the basic policy required by all registered vehicles in SK. This doesn't include the extended package policy I get that has more comprehensive coverage and a smaller deductible.

Looking back to my 2012 entry, it jacked up almost $10 a month then.

I will have a lot of rejigging to do on the budget once I get DS down to college and I figure out the actual numbers for my monthly budget. It is causing me anticipatory stress to be sure.

August long

With the way the $ things are going I had wondered if we were going to be able to go on our annual August long family camping trip.  Not being able to spend time with the family would have been a big loss. The cabin was prepaid. The groceries were pretty much already bought. It really was a matter of just the gas getting there, so we pulled from here and there to make it happen..

I am glad we did. We have been doing this trip for a long while. I found it interesting to read my past entries for August long to see how our family has grown since then. Many of the nieces and nephews have a significant other now, and there are 5 little ones, with a surprise announcement that my niece is expecting twins in January.

32 of 34 of us were there for this August long.

DS2 had one of the little ones in awe because he is an expert in wood chopping and fire building. The little guy just sat on a chair and watched, then ran with the chopped  logs to the pile.

This was the first time our little family brought an extra. DS1 brought his girlfriend to meet the family. She had met a few of them before, but there were a lot of new faces for her. The little ones loved her. One of the nephews attached himself to DS1 and one of the nieces attached herself to his gf. It was amusing to watch them wander about with kids in tow most of the time. Good birth control :-)  She did very well and got to meet the cousins who are in the city at the same University she is going to.

It was a wonderful time of fresh air and sunshine, loons calling and waves moving against the shore, and campfires. The kids had a great time on their uncles' pontoon boats and hanging out together. We ate too much and had a great time playing Kaiser.

The more our family grows, the more I realize how challenging it is to get that many of us together, and I realize how lucky we are to have my parents still with us.

I am grateful for my sisters and their lake toys, which give my kids a chance to play. 

We will freezer and pantry eat this week and syphon the camping gas $ from this week's groceries.

Now onto the pile of campfire scented laundry.