Survived Prom

Well it was definitely a different experience for prom with DS1 than DS2 for prom, but we are through to the other side.

DS1 was definitely a social butterfly and considered 'popular', for those who find that classification important.

DS2 has a small group of friends, but is definitely not popular and considered weird and different by the 'popular' crew.

DS2 seems to be ok with who he is, and has no patience for dramatic and superficial people but there are a few things he says here and there that make me wonder how he feels about where he fell into the social groupings.

I was somewhere in the middle, in high school. I think.

DS2 wasn't going to go to prom but a friend had broken up with her boyfriend and asked him to be her escort. It was good for both of them. She got  her escort without worrying about dating and all that goes with it, and he got to be a white knight.

Don't get me wrong. He could have cheerfully missed the whole thing and been seemingly content with it all.

He stayed until about 12:30 AM (It goes until 3 AM). He did the pre prom pics with his escort, the grand march, danced with her, with his mama and a few in the middle where his escort and another girl dragged him up. He hung out with his friends and won one of the prizes (hello toaster oven) and then they were ready to go.

Then we came home, he changed and went to meet his friends at a house (with parents home) and they had a fire and enjoyed each other's company.

He looked great in his suit. I am sure glad I didn't have a girl. Listening to some of the other moms talking about the dress cost, alterations, shoes, practice hair sesson, picture hair session, prom hair session, make up, gel nails, TOE gel nails,  pics... it was staggering. More than one mom quoted numbers in the $1800 to $2000 range as I .......overlistened to conversations. And these are not kids of doctors or lawyers or those kinds of big income jobs. Sheesh. DS can wear his suit again for weddings or funerals. Those girls will never wear their dresses again.

We are just nicely back from the facility where we cleaned up and took down decorations and such.  The next big event is at the end of June for the actual graduation. Cap and gown.

May change

It was a lean month for change here.

A few rolls to go to the bank with some $ I had snowflaked off grocery and gas.

1 roll of quarters - $10
1 roll of dimes - $5
2 rolls nickels - $4
2 rolls of pennies - $1

The pennies were waiting for a 'just need a dollar more to make things even' month.

Total $20

I also did four half periods of noon supervision which netted me $5.50 for each half period. That gives me another $21.


This $40 got me enough to meet me $200 mini goal. I took it to the bank  yesterday and I now have met my $2000 goal for TFSA for 2015.  I will formally apply it to my TFSA  in July when I have time to go in and do the paperwork.

Yeah mini goal.

What I am reading

I have had this book on my list for quite some time and yesterday was a good day to start it. Fortunately the library had it. It is a biography of Wallis Simpson.


 I enjoyed two hours last night sitting out in my yard, appreciating the breeze in the holy cow summer is here 28C temps.

My younger cat, decided to wake me up before 7 AM this morning. I missed his breakfast time and he was concerned I had slept in :-)

I spent a glorious, self indulgent early morning outside reading it, with my coffee.

I will admit to skimming a few of the society who's who portions. I don't know who a lot of those folk are and it reminds me of the begats in the Bible :-)  I prefer the story parts.

Happy Saturday everyone!

RRSP contribution limit

I realized that I  happily greeted the cheque portion of my income tax return, but never looked at the Notice of Assessment (summary) that came with it.

Among other things it has the RRSP contribution limit that I have left should I find a windfall and decide to dump a ton of cash into it.

I have over $50 000 worth of room left to contribute. HA!

I have no illusions that I will max out my RRSP. I started too late and have too many other places my money has to go.

I am grateful for the $10 000 ish I have in my RRSP portfolio and the money I have in my pension. I am becoming more and more aware that I am on the downward slope of the years I have left to work.  I definitely have a lot to learn.

Long weekend wrap up

It's been a very peaceful long weekend for me, complete with a bonus day of today.

I didn't hit the lake like DH and DS or like most of my friends and staff, but I feel like I got things done, and relaxed too.

Eating out of pantry and freezer: success

I found lots of little bits, which I paired with rice or a little bit of salad (colitis still has a hate on for veggies and fruits) and I didn't feel deprived. Friday night I used frozen ground beef and made a little taco salad for myself ( ok mostly meat and cheese and such, so I use the word 'salad' loosely). Saturday I had poached eggs on toast for lunch. I found some turkey chili in the freezer and some of my mom's home made buns, so supper was good to go.  Sunday morning I made myself a couple pancakes and paired it with a few strawberries. Sunday lunch I had a bowl of turkey noodle soup from some containers in the fridge freezer. For supper I found some M and M meatshop pulled pork, and put that with some coleslaw and another of my mom's buns.   Cost out of pocket for all this? $0

School work: success

But I say that with the caveat that it is never finished. I put in 3 hours on Saturday, 3 hours on Sunday and 5 hours today marking projects and exams. No prep work got done and there is still a pile of marking, but I feel good about what was done. Most people take their marking home now to do, but I just am so much more successful going to the school, spreading out without TV (or nap) distractions, and being able to sort and tidy and search while I work, instead of hauling home tons of things, only to find I am missing stuff.

Free to a good home: busted

I had put a few things out on the edge of the lawn that wouldn't be worth anything to put up on a buy and sell page, but that we had no need of anymore and were just sitting in the garage taking up space.  DH came home to find one large piece of luggage still there. Mine. He got mad and hauled it back in. I didn't tell him about the other things. They were all mine and none of them were gifts from him, but it still would have ticked him off. He would rather hoard things and not use them, ever, and complain about them being in the way.

House cleaning: success

Like school work, it's never done, but many of those little things got checked off the list. Probably nothing anyone else would ever notice, but I do. So there.

Walking: fail

It just was not colitis safe, unless I didn't eat or drink anything for hours before I wanted to go.

Summer college tuition: fail

I went to the bank Saturday to get the draft to send down to the States. They have (again) changed how they do US drafts, and it has to be done 'upstairs'. Of course, "upstairs' is not open on the weekend so I have to go back tomorrow after work.


Errands: success

I returned a book, two magazines and a CSI New York DVD to the library (curse you sad Canadian version of Netflix which has so few choices).  The book and magazines appeased my need to want to buy something new.

I went to the bank to get my Week 4 jar money.

I filled up on gas for the week. I didn't use much last week so I didn't need much, even with the jump in the prices. My weekly budget is $60 and in the winter, I use that much.  I got away with $25 needed to fill up. $15 went into my 'gas' wallet. I save bits here and there to go towards  oil changes or extra gas money should I want to go out of  town and need more $. The remaining $20 went into my 'snowflake goal' wallet, which brings my total thus far to $70/$200

I went to Walmart to pick up a few things. I used $80 of my weekly $180. Half of it went towards household things like laundry soap, toilet paper, kleenex and catfood.


Fresh air time: success

I got the lawn cut. I sat outside and enjoyed sunshine and breeze. It was chilly and windy here but there were patches of good moments. It frozen each night here - to give you an idea of how chilly.

So today while I was at work, DH tried to fix our laminate flooring. It was starting to separate at some of the seams. Quite a bit. He spent four hours trying to do four boards. I am glad I wasn't here to witness it :-)  I still have crap laying in my hallway, not put away from his handiwork.

Supper was just the two of us. Home made BBQ burgers and Caesar salad. Tres simple. I had four questionable apples in the fridge that I turned into an apple crisp. My I do love the smell of apple crisp baking in the oven. Can someone tell me why I have FOUR jars of cinnamon?? sheesh

Now I am just puttering with dishes while the hockey game is on. When the dishes are done, it will be time to enjoy THIS:

Not all of it. Just a glass :-)

A new mini snowflake goal

I am pleased with the success of my last snowflake goal of $180. The best part was this renewed focus and a bit of zip in my step. It was badly needed in the wake of all the unplanned expenses for DS2's car and the ' I don't even want to think about college money' mind phase.

My next goal is for $200 in snowflakes. Goal deadline is before the end of June.

At the end of May I will have $1800 set aside for my TFSA (EF). My goal for 2015 was $2000.

Each month I (try) to put $250 towards this goal.  I know that if I didn't make a mini goal, my money at the end of June paycheque would get me there.

There is just something, though, that wants me to try to get there before.

I know there are tons of other expenses, known to me and unknown, that will come my way in the next 7 weeks. I can't control those.

This little tiny mini, I can.

And I seem to need to feel like I have a bit of money control these days.

So mini goal it is :-)

Tomorrow is jar filling day, as I 'create' four paydays each month when I really only get paid once a month. Unless something comes up between now and tomorrow morning, or I lose total will power, I will have $50 in grocery snowflakes to go to that goal.

Let it snow! (figuratively, please.)

77 Snowflakes

DS2 texted this morning "oh yeah...check my jeans pocket. There's a cheque for you in there"

Sure enough, there was one for $77 from his school.

77 beautiful little snowflakes that will make a great addition to my quest for $180 this month.

It was a refund from the school for part of his tour. I had forgotten about the one tour I had prepaid for, which had been cancelled due to very high wind gusts. 

Santorini is one of the most beautiful spots on their cruise. The tour fee was the most most expensive too.

I will happily take those $77 

I went to the bank today. With the money I had gleaned from my variable spending, plus this, plus the $20 I got taking in bottles to the recycling depot today, I made my goal ( a week early).

$180 went down on it today. Didn't seem to want to keep that money in the house. Too easy to just 'use a bit' for something and then it would be gone.

Thanks everyone who rooted me on. It felt good to have a mini goal AND achieve it.

Eat it up!

Ok so I have set a goal for myself this weekend, since I am alone.

Eat what I have in the house. The fridge is lean looking but that's ok because I want to clean it. I have tons in the pantry and in the freezer. I have set aside $10 for a milk and a loaf of bread, and I have set aside $10 if I want to get a coffee or something for the hours I will put in at the school.

I can get pretty loosey goosey when I am home alone when it comes to eating. Buy things that no one in my family likes to devour. Most of them unhealthy. Those costs add up. Fast.

So let's see if I can make some creative little meals with what's on hand.


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My (newish) cat got me up early this morning. 6:30. I guess he thought it was a school day and I was late. He wanted breakfast.  We had a bit of a scare last night. See, he's mostly an inside cat. I made that decision when I brought him home last Halloween. I lost my last orange cat two summers ago and still grieve deeply, and look for him. So this one stays in, or goes out on a leash.

Somehow he got out last night. Probably when I was looking to let my Calico in, who came to me an outside cat many years ago.

I found him about 30 min after I noticed he was gone, down at the end of the block. Scared and shaking, but he did come to me when I called him.

If you don't like cats, the reaction won't really resonate with you, but for me it caused a wee bit of PTSD from losing my last one. I texted DS1, who actually answered me on a Friday night :-)  He was really good to me and talked me through it. It was nice to see him thinking of someone else for a change :-)

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Anyways, I got an early start on the morning. Laundry is hanging on the line. I had coffee outside and fully took in the softness of the morning, the sun, the fresh air, the birds. The kitten watching the birds.

I hope it's a beautiful day for you.

May Long

Well it's the start of a beautiful May long here in SK. The weather is great; sun with a gentle breeze. The highways are busy with folk heading out to the lake, where the ice may or may not be off. There will be lots of campfires and laughter.

DH and DS are gone up to their scouting camp. Groups are coming in this weekend. So it's just me, again. Well, and the cats.

I have no firm plans. Friends and family are mostly away.  Part of me is feeling that "This is what it's going to be like when DS2 is gone this fall" but I am fighting that. Frame this positive to get positive.  I went to the library and grabbed a couple books.

I made myself a nice to do list. some musts. some would be nice. I know I have lots to do at the school. Books to read for our last reading circles for the end of the year. I should spend some time outside, maybe at my little patio set, to fully appreciate the blessings of the moment. I would love to go for a walk if my body will permit.

DS1's summer tuition came up on his account page. $2200 USD. (did I say this already? lol)   I will have to send that money out Tuesday to get there before next Friday.

I ran to the bank after school and deposited my $2000 income tax and morphed it into US dollars to get that ready to go. That $2200 turned into $1650 USD. That's a $550 disappearing act. Ouch.

Happy May long everyone

packing

I am on a sad countdown.

7 weeks.

Not just 7 weeks until the end of the school year, but 7 weeks until I am done at my school.

I have been there since DS2 started Kindergarten.

I am being moved to a different school in the fall as part of a shuffling of grades and such and joining a large staff.

It is a bittersweet move. I love my school and my staff and kids. I know every nook and cranny. I feel comfortable there and very confident. The kids know me. The parents know me. It's a great place to work.

I am really nervous about moving to a new place. really nervous.

Anyways, I have slowly started to pack. The end of the year will be far too busy with all our school activities plus my son's graduation and a family wedding.

Boy I have a lot of stuff. I look around my room and shudder to think about lifting and carrying each one of these to a truck, and then out of the truck at the new school and up flights of stairs.

I am packing slowly and methodically. I have to look at everything and decide if it is something I am ever going to use again. If not, it can't go.   To make it fun for my class, I had them all guess how many boxes I would have when it's all said and done. Just like the Price of Right, the person who guesses the closest without going over wins a $10 ITunes card.

I made a master sheet so I can quickly jot down what goes in each box so as I hunt and search and go to unpack, I can find things.

I already have 15 boxes and I have packed almost nothing.  I gave away about 4 boxes of books to lower grade teachers. Ones I know really won't work in my new setting and haven't been read by my kids over the years. The new class has jumped on them and is devouring them so I know I made a good choice. I don't even want to think about how much money I spent on books over the years, even if they were Scholastic.

I was thinking of my cleaning at home and the using up of stuff. Same could definitely be said about my classroom. I mean, in one drawer alone, I had 24 highlighters that are in various stages of use. 24!  craziness.  So I pulled one out and will use it (I use them for marking things like essays) and use it until it's done or fat and fuzzy, then bam! onto the next one.

Perhaps I am the a only one, but my, do I have a problem with the accumulation of stuff. I am glad I started packing early.

Income Tax arrived

It took a lot longer to process this time, it feels like.

Maybe it feels like this every year :-)

No worries though. It's just going into the bank while I figure out what comes next for bills and such.

And they will come.

Oh yes, they will come :-)

For now, I will just enjoy that $2000 and the possibilities.

What I am reading

We have a book swap cart at our school for parents and staff who want to share the literary wealth and last week I found this one.

For those outside of Canada, Rick Mercer is sort of like the Canadian version of Jon Stewart. Political satire and comedy. He also goes out and meets with folk across the nation and spends time in their lives: people like scientists, military folk, athletes etc.

I have enjoyed Rick for years and was happy to find a book of his Rants - transcripts of his 2 min commentary which appear on the Rick Mercer show.

Loved this book.

The Car. Again. update

So we got DS2's car back yesterday from his millionth trip to the dealer/repair.

They replaced the transmission with a refurbished one from SGI (sask govt insurance). It comes with a lower price and a year's warranty.

They replaced the rear lower control arms again. Less than two months after they did it the first time. Zero charge for that.

The total for the bill was just over $3700.

The policy covered all but $300. (deductible plus some things like transmission fluids etc)

I certainly have gotten my value out of that policy that I regretted buying. This car has cost more than it's purchase price now, in 13 months.  A good part of it from not being fixed properly when we take it in and our concerns not being taken seriously.

I have zero confidence in the sales staff who assured us this car was in mint condition, and the repair staff who aren't able to fix things properly. 

I know that I will never buy another vehicle from this dealer again, or one that needs to go them for repairs.

DS left for the weekend to his scout camp so hopefully when he actually gets home and drives it, it is all as it should be. properly. 

The $300 comes out of my backpay.

I am sure glad I have it.

The power of little things

Towards the end of my time off work when I started to have moments of feeling good, I started to go through some of my drawers and such. I actually was looking for a paper I didn't find, but it was a catalyst for that simple act of remembering the little things.

It started with finding the pile of hotel shampoos, conditioners, soaps and lotions. Between DH's taking DS down to the US last year, my driving down in Aug to get him settled and our visit down, there was a whack of 'hotel stuff'. I brought it home in my luggage yet there it sat, taking up space and unused. So the good shampoos went into a basket to be used for my hair, the lotions went into a basket I could use in the mornings on my legs before I went to school, and the iffy shampoos and conditioners could be used as body wash. Soap...well...as soap.

There was a month's worth of supplies there!  Now I certainly am not planning early retirement on the 'savings' from not buying these products for a month. At best I 'saved' $20 I am guessing. But it reminded me that little things have power and apparently every few months I need this kind of reminder.

It led me to go through the freezer in my fridge to see what little things were in there; frozen bananas, very small packs of frozen ground beef or a pork chop, a chicken breast; bags with a dibble of frozen peas or carrots or perogies. Things like that.  Am I going to use them or just keep those little bits in there until one day I clean and find them all freezer burnt?  So I used them up. Stew, chicken fried rice or a chicken breast in pasta, banana bread. etc.  Lots of little meals where I didn't need to buy something and use 'almost' all of it, only to freeze a bit more.

So off to the freezer in the garage. So many containers of frozen soups and stews, buns from my mom, mozza sticks....all kinds of stuff.

I either need to learn to shop for 3 people (soon to be 2), or else I need to keep a list so I know what's in there, so I use it.

Which led to the cleaning and yard products. Four bottles of fantastic with a splash in the bottom? Ditto toilet bowl cleaner or stain remover.  DH had four bottles of ant killer in the garage. Did you know those things have a lock built into the cap so no one can accidentally dump it? So I couldn't combine those into one bottle, but we now have them lined up so DH can use one and then recycle it. The number of different containers of OFF? holy wow. They are all lined up ready on  shelf in order of least left in the can to most.   And on and on it went.

In the busy-ness (or laziness) of life, these things get shoved aside and forgotten and not used.

It was a good reminder for me that even when I think I don't have a lot in my life, I have a lot of little things, and they each have a little bit of power to enrich or sustain my life if I remember they exist.

Where the money stands

as of May 5th


Debt
Mortgage - $21 010.74
**Total Debt - $21 010.74


Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $5100
TFSA in waiting to be added - $1560
RESP - $16 500 (dropped!!)
RRSP - $10 186 
Grad 2015 - $800
Summer 2015 - $1000
**does not include the College  LOC which is in constant flux (up and down) but below $10 000

RESP has sure been interesting to watch this month. I see the balance when I log in to BMO each day. In just this past month it has gone as high as $17 200 and as low as $16 500. Something is definitely happening to make those bonds and dividends bounce up and down like that.

Assuming all goes according to plan I will go in to the bank in July to move the TFSA money from it's holding account to the actual TFSA account. Takes them a bit to do the paperwork.  Would be lovely to just take my income tax return and do my RRSP as well but I get the feeling that DS2's upcoming car repairs and goodness knows what else Murphy is giving me, will eat that away.

The mortgage of our little 2 bedroom (plus a tiny one in the basement) 860 square ft  house is on schedule to be under $20 000 for the first of September. I know so many of you are excited about this. I am too. I just wish it were for a house that wasn't so small.  My kids missed out on a lot not having anywhere to dine as a family.

Finding $180

I went to the bank this past weekend and put down the monthly amount I have budgeted towards the College LOC.  When I got home I dutifully opened up my spreadsheet and wrote that amount in.

Some quick math told me that at the end of May when I apply the monthly amount again, I am $180 away from bringing the total down under the next 'thousand'.  Now we all know there is not much of a difference between buying something at $9.99 or at $10.00, but psychologically, that $9.99 just feels so much better :-)   I find it's the same thing with my mortgage or my LOC.

So the quest for the rest of this month is to 'find' $180 so that I can make that possible.

Now I could take $180 out of my backpay and make it happen. Or I could take it out of my tax return when it comes. Or I could reduce the amount I tuck away each month for the boys for College, or my next savings goal....well you get the idea.

I don't want to do that.

Rather, I want to challenge myself to find that money to make it happen. I need that mental mind game to be a catalyst to getting that balance down, like I did with my vehicle loan or previous LOC amounts.

If  I don't touch those amounts, then the only spot I can really make this happen is in my variable spending aka The Jars, and any change I may acquire.

Gas. Groceries. Entertainment. Spending.

I have 3 weeks to do it before next pay period.

The whole thing may go out the window with a murphy visit. DS1 is also taking spring session at College while he is down there for spring training and I have no idea what that is going to cost. Money may end up GOING  on the loc.  He also has to move out of his dorm and into the house he and his fellow freshman are renting. That is all new territory for me and I have no clue about potential costs.

So all of these well laid plans could change and be moot.

But for right now I am living in the spirit of optimism and will hope for the best.

To start this off, I had $30 left from groceries last week and $10 left from spending money, so I have $40 in the kitty.

 $140 to go

A good weekend

I have to say that on Friday, I was giddy. Giddy that it was the weekend. It wasn't a bad week at school. I didn't have anything super exciting that was happening I was looking forward to.  Nevertheless, I was giddy.

It was just so good to know that I had 48 hours to do as I pleased and relax and just breathe.

What did I do? I put my jammies on as soon as I got home Friday. Such decadence.

I did laundry and watched hockey. I cleaned and read blogs. I went to the bank and put money into my 'high' interest savings and balanced my spreadsheets at home. I sat in my yard and just enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air.  I planned for the coming week (house wise). I did about 7 hours of marking for school.   I had supper at mom and dad's. I baked some cookies. And I netflixed.

Not high stress at all. Yet I got things done.

Am I ready for the school week? I don't think I ever am. Just so many details to balance and prep for.

But am I stressed for Monday?  No.

And as Martha Stewart said....It's a good thing.

Now I am curled up watching The Good Wife, with a glass of wine, and a cinnamon candle burning.

Thank you weekend, for all you have given me.

Passing on what you know

Anyone who has read me the past year has learned that I have had a steep learning curve with DS1 down in the US for hockey and college. Most of what I learned, I did through multiple costly phone calls (where are the 1 800 numbers??), often with conflicting information.

I had a couple people I could ask questions of, but most of it was learned on our own.

I was surprised Friday (and again today) to get a phone call from some folks we used to play hockey with a few years ago. I saw at lunch that the dad had called my cell four times between 9 and noon. When I called him back he said "you didn't answer your phone?"   Hello...I am teaching and don't have my phone on then, like many of you at work. Always surprises me how many people don't think of this.

Anyways, their son has been asked to join a Div 3 hockey team in Wisconsin and they had a boatload of questions about the whole process.

I can't tell you how good it felt to actually know answers and be able to pass on what we have learned, often the hard way.  Their main questions were about finances, choosing classes, health care and how do they know if the fit is the right fit.

My best advice for them  was to get a small notebook so they could document who all they talk to, their direct phone numbers and what they have learned.  I said the learning curve is a tough one that first year but after that it should be much smoother sailing. 

It felt GOOD to know some of the answers. Knowledge is empowering :-)

Much the same way I feel when I read your blogs or you comment on mine. I always learn more or new things, or a different perspective. I can then take that info and figure out how it applies to me.

Thanks everyone, for being part of my journey.

One third of the way through 2015

Hard to believe it's already May. It never ceases to amaze me how fast the months (or years) seem to fly by as one gets older.

The first third of the year has gone by and I would have to say that it has had a lot of rough patches. I thought I would do a quick glance at how things have gone.

Health

Well it could be worse, but it definitely hasn't been great. I finished off 2014 recovering from a big cold and flu and went pretty much straight into my neck being out and locked, which threw off about 2 weeks of my January.  Chiro visit and two ER visits.  I had about a month of decent health before my colitis symptoms started coming back until it hit full flare. This past week marked 2 months of my flare in all it's glory. I was off work for almost a month (including one week of non school over Easter). The steroids are reversing/keeping the symptoms at bay, but the side effects of the steroids are not fun: dry mouth, numb lips, chest pains, increasing bruising, tight joints and muscles, esp the knees, swollen /puffy face and feet and super dry skin. Oh and increased appetite. Good times :-)

I am hoping for a much better spring. It's finally nice outside and I want to be out walking and doing things.

Murphy and money

Murphy  has been a royal pain the ass this year, especially around vehicles. Oh the things I could have done with the cash I have had to put out for vehicles and mechanic inspections. At least I can say I am getting the value back on the warranty I was kicking myself for buying.

College costs continue to stress me out. Aside from going back in time and putting more money away, there isn't much that can be done but keep on keepin' on. I really wish DS1 had been eligible for Canada student loans, even to help out a bit. I have three years left with DS1 and 2-4 with DS2 so I need to find my stride and figure things out and keep myself as stress free as I can to avoid bringing Mr. Colitis back.

The backpay and income tax refund will definitely help. I appreciate those two amounts so much.

It could be worse. I could have never saw the light with budgeting and money and been up to my tonsils in stress and debt.

Family
Being sick has kept me from a few family functions. I don't like that, especially on missed moments with my great nieces and nephews. They are super fun and I would like to be doing things with them.

I am glad I gave DS2 that trip. I just see so much more maturity and confidence in him and that makes me smile to my soul. I miss DS1 so darn much. By the time he gets home in June, it will be 6 months since I've seen him. That is far far too long. I need to plan a trip down to him next Feb or March to break that up a bit. He needs it and so do I. He is really homesick at this point, especially with hockey done.

Goals

I have a couple of my 2015 goals in progress. My TFSA goal of $2000 is getting closer. I have the grad money saved and have started doling it out for a few things.  My summer planned spending money is close as well.  Still, a lot of goals not started.

It will be interesting to see what my second part of the year shows at the end of August.