Fall Catchup

 I realize I have been away for the better part of six months. There was nothing cataclysmic keeping me away....just life being busy and no brain energy left to give much else but work and exisisting.

We started the fall here back in person at school. All masks, all the time. 

I have to say that the kids I have this year did really well with this adaptation. There was no pushback. With the group I had last year, it would have been a much different, far more stressful story.

The biggest challenges were that pretty much everything we used to do, was no longer allowed with covid. Working in groups. Challenge stations. Pass and share etc. We are also not a 1 to 1 school for devices so that required some creativity as well.

It took the better part of September to start to feel comfortable in the new routines. Thankfully it was glorious weather so we did a lot of work outside and took a lot of walks on the campus, which could be mask free provided there was distancing. That great weather lasted until Remembrance Day weekend.

It was a blessing.

Remembrance Day weekend brought a snow dump unlike anything we have seen in a long time. We actually had a snow day, which never happens here. In reality, the snowday was more of a 'we don't have enough staff who can make it into work, and we can't combine classes' thing. But it was glorious and a little gleeful.

Towards the end of November we hit Level 3 with Covid protocols. This meant that we had to split the kids. Half one day, half at home. and then switch. The good news is I wasn't required to teach the  in class and at home at the same time. So for their in class day we did a lot of front loading and practice, and then for their at home they worked on deeper level work on the same topics.

The tough part comes with keeping the two groups balanced in terms of work load, finding time to get caught up on the online marking, and planning when to load each assignment online. It generally is taking two hours a day outside of school time to stay on top of all of this.

Really hoping the after effects of Christmas do not change us to purely online. That is even harder to do and with the disastrous decision making by the provincial govt in spring about online being optional then, some bad habits have been set.

I guess we shall see what the new year brings for school.

A quiet Christmas

 

It's our second Christmas in our new (mom and dad's old house). 

The tree it tilting because I snapped this just after I pulled the orange cat out of it :-). It's their second Christmas with us and their first with a real tree.

It definitely was a quiet Christmas.  With Sask COVID rules only those living in the house could be at the house for Christmas. Technically until January 15th or whenever the rules change again.

DS2 and his gf stayed at their place a couple hours north of here. DS1 and his gf did their own at our old house.

I can remember this house being absolutely jammed with people for Christmas celebrations. Those memories were a gentle haunting here on Christmas Day. 

We will save our big turkey meal for when we can join together in the house. 

The day was spent in front of the fire, watching movies and doing a new jigsaw puzzle, along with a few virtual visits.

That being said, I cannot complain. We have a comfortable home, food to eat and most of us are in decent health. That is more than so many more folk I know.

I hope however you celebrated the day found ways of making you smile.

RRSP update

This quarter's statement showed a drop of 2.16%. Despite that my balance is $19 197, which is up from the March statement. Down still a bit from December of 2019.

I definitely need to check that March statement to see if I was reading it correctly. The math doesn't make sense.

What does make sense is the drop,  unpleasant as it is. Watching the US market drop this morning, whose ripple effect will undoubtedly continue here in Canada.

Of course I like the income tax benefits I get from even my small RRSP contribution.

I wonder, however, if it is not better long term served to put whatever dibbles I have in TFSA.

Ahhh how I wish all those numbers were bigger.

Changing my money jar amount

Since the start of this journey, I used the money jar (Gail Vaz Oxlade) ,method to help me stay in control of how much I was spending on variable expenses.

At the start I had actual jars with the categories

• groceries (and household)
• gas
• spending money
• entertainment

I went to the bank and took out a week's worth (or two, depending on how often I wanted to go to the brick and mortar), came home and filled up my neatly labelled jars.

Once the money was gone, the spending for that category was gone. 

Some people use a spreadsheet. Some use envelopes. This worked for me. So well!

I went to the brick and mortar because my ATM only gave out $20s and I needed other denominations for the budgeted amount.

After awhile and a budget tweak, I would go weekly to the ATM to get my $, and come home to divide.

At the time I only got paid once a month, so I balanced the calendar to create 3 fake paydays to go along with my real one. I found that dividing my variable spending into four weeks allowed me to be much more successful than one large amount for the month. Hey whatever it takes to make it work.

I don't use the physical jars anymore for these categories.

The last time I see I did a $ amount was here in 2015.

Before that, it was here in 2014

I believe I have been using $280 a week since the 2015 date.

$180 groceries

$20 spending

$20 entertainment

$60 gas.

Some weeks I was hyper vigilant and keep 100% faithful to the amount.

Some weeks I was less so.

But I have kept to my weekly withdrawls for 'jar money'  for over a decade now. It has been one of  the critical pieces to whatever successes I have had.

It is time for a bit of a tweak.

Even though gas prices have gone up ( and down and up and down and up), I am not driving nearly as much. No kids to run around. Significantly less driving since Covid. That will change in the fall. I hope.

As for entertainment...we really don't do a whole lot. The past two years I did almost nothing, taking care of my parents. That amount usually just got funneled into groceries.

Groceries - well I am doing a lot more bulk shopping than I used to. Which really should be the way it is done anyways. Once  a month when I am in the city for my infusion, I hit Costso.  I had never really budgeted for that so it always threw things off and I was scrambling to cover.

So I have taken out the $20 each for spending and entertainment.

I have lowered my gas $ for each week

I have juggled things to make a Costco line that will balance out what I buy there in bulk with what I buy elsewhere.

I guess we shall see if it works.

What I am reading

I finished The Queen's Secret late last week. It was ok. Definitely not as good as her other books.

I also finished Who is the Dalai Lama and Who is George Lucas, both from the Who is /where is series.

Today I just started The Engineer's Wife, by Tracey Enerson Wood. It's based on a true story of the wife of the Engineer who designed the Brooklyn Bridge. I am hoping it's good.

I am also starting two more from the Who is Where is Series. This week..... Malala and Area 51.

T - 24 until no more landline

I know. I am probably light years behind the rest of you on this.

I will throw DH under the bus for this. He was the holdout. I have been wanting to do this for a few years.

Now the only people who call the landline are DH's sister (why she doesn't use his cell phone I have no idea), and spam callers.

I may have to consider getting voice mail on my cell phone as I do not have that currently. We shall see.

My net savings on the removal of the landline is about $24.00

The customer sales representative said cheekily "What will you do with your windfall?"

My also cheeky answer "Put it in my travel fund since everyone is travelling these days :-)

There is a bit of awwwww at cancelling a number I have had since 1991.

Not nearly so much as it hurt to cancel my mom and dad's landline last fall after 48 years of that number existing. I cried during that cancellation.

quite the phones we had over the years from a partyline at the farm to cells.

Summer Goals

With the first full week of summer, it seems appropriate that I get some summer goals down before I find myself with a summer over and nothing done.

I suspect it has been a couple years since I have set summer goals. The past two, I have just been …….surviving.

They are not lofty goals. They are not travelling goals. They are more 'making the best use of the time I have' goals.

• determine new budget with LOC paid off. a planned spending focus on slowly repairing and replacing things here at the new house that were mom and dad's
• get estimates on a new furnace (current one is 1982) and a first time AC for this house. It will require a new breaker box. It's going to be expensive. I will be using the last of the bit of $ I got from the estate for this so it's already saved. Make a decision and install or not.
• decide what to do with my vehicle. It was new 2009 and the past three years had required work to wearing parts. Getting more expensive to keep it than not. Not really looking for a new vehicle loan so a lot of thinking will go into this.
• put up garden shed we bought. Our old house had 2. Can't move them without tearing down a mostly new fence so we got a little one for here.
• bring over everything from old house garage. It's full of tools and camping gear etc. DH hasn't really wanted to move anything since our Dec move to this house. It's time.
• bring over everything from under the stairs at the old house. A big storage spot with things we need to make a decision on.
• Unpack and find a place for everything we moved over
• Get up to visit my niece. She is one of the few who keep in regular contact with me. Would be nice to see her and the kids
• Read 5 personal books
• Lose 10 lbs

Work

• Read 10 school novels
• Read 2 professional books
• Get the online Professional Development done (about 20 hours left)
• Unpack my classroom and have it ready to go before the end of July. That gives me August to figure out this back to school Covid crisis stuff.

What I am reading

I am slowly getting back into reading again. I am the queen at time wasting on my phone or having the TV on and not really watching. Time to get a little more productive with a bit of that time.

Personally I am reading The Queen's Secret, by Karen Harper.  It's about The Queen Mother and most of it takes place during WW2. I admit to knowing very little about her.

I have always been a fan of English monarchy and the stories that go with it. I started The Crown on Netflix earlier this Covid, and I ran across this title while pausing the series and exploring online.

I am 3/4 through and honestly, it's not as good as the other two books I read by her. I really really enjoyed those.

Professionally, I am reading a few YA books I stumbled across this past year. If you have younger teens or reluctant readers, these are quite interesting.

The books focus on Who is? Who was? Who were? Where is? Where was? etc

They are easy to read but still feel like you are learning about the topic. I will be using them for a Biography Unit. They are $6.99 on amazon, but at a bookstore in the city, they rotate a few of them into the discount bin at $3.99.

I just finished

and now I am starting

Here is the weblink if you want to check out what kind of books they have.

Who is? Where is?

Happy 12th Blogoversary to me

wow. 12 years. 

When I started this little guy off I didn't know what would be come of it or where it would lead me. 

Let's face it...I can be a little commitment flakey. 

This blog was the catalyst for so many great things in my life

I made a budget that actually worked...and stuck to me most of the time.

I thought ahead to my money needs instead of reacting on the fly. What Christmas again? Didn't we just have one of those last year?

I was able to use the solid base of a plan to help flex through the life changes I had. 

This got me through my kids in school, through their college and beyond.

This blog gave my stability when so many other areas of my life were going to sh*t.

This blog gave me the freedom to plan and see those plans through, and flexibility when plans went awry.

This blog let me meet people of like minds who inspired me through the sharing of their worlds. 

Thank you to all of you, long time readers and newer, for caring.

Where the money stands

as of July 3

Debt

Mortgage - $0 

College LOC - $0

Total Debt - Zero. Still feels weird to write it. Don't want to say it too loudly or Murphy will find me

Planned Savings

TFSA - $9900

RRSP - $14 262

TFSA 2020 - $600

Back to School - $500

Summer 2020 - $300 - 

Christmas 2020 - $500

I usually save $1000 for Summer fun money but I honestly don't think I will go past the $300 I have right now. Fewer places to go is part of it.

Honestly I think there are so many little jobs to do around the house this year. This will be my first summer since 2017 where I didn't have caregiver duties.  And I have a lot of work on me.

I need to get that TFSA done, Christmas, and start RRSP 2020 before I find it December.

Lies I told myself

As of today I am done teaching for the summer.

Don't get me wrong...the work is not done.

 I have about 20 hours left of an online course they mandated in the last week. The focus is blending the learning between in person and online. While they say we are all back in the classroom in the fall, I don't have great faith that it will stay that way.

I also need to go in and unpack my classroom as soon as they are done waxing the floors. Last year we had to move classrooms and with dad's passing I never did unpack properly. I do not want to experience that 'Hmmm I wonder where that is' again.


so back to the lies.

When we started this 'stay at home' crisis, part of me thought 'yes!!!!" Time to do all those things I wished I had the time to do at home AND still get paid.

Silly me, I had no clue how steep the learning curve was ahead of me with this online platform.

Lie #1
If I were at home I would be able to read so many books off my 'novels my kids read at school list' . honestly there are so many good  YA books out there, I could read one a day like a vitamin and never catch up. But I thought this was a chance to make a good dent. Didn't happen

Lie #2
If I were at home I would be able to get my hiney on the treadmill every day, multiple times. Boy the shape I would be in. I could do one in the morning before I go to 'work'. One to break things up in the afternoon. One in the evening. Truth - I was so scattered and hit and miss on this. I lost 3 months of time to get a new habit.

Lie #3
If I were at home I would unpack all the stuff I have brought from the other house and move more over. Untrue. Though I did work my way through some of it, I still have boxes and tubs that need a home

Lie #4
If I were at home I would be able to menu plan and have meals ready for supper each day. I did this a bit but certainly not on a regular basis. I found my appetite off (yet still gained weight) and had no desire to cook a good chunk of the time.

I feel like I wasted a 3 month opportunity to get these things going and of course, now, I am sad I did not do more

Change this month

I haven't been able to go to the bank in person since I signed off our mortgage papers in early April.

I also didn't spend a lot via cash and didn't have a lot of change to take care of.

Today I deposited

• 1 roll toonies
• 1 roll loonies
• 1 roll quarters
• 3 rolls of dimes

The $100 will go towards my TFSA savings. Time to get back at my other goals now that the LOC is done.

Debt Free Day

I'm not even sure what to write.

It's here.

This day has never happened before in my adult life.

No. Debt.

No mortgage.

No loans.

No car payments.

No credit card debt.

No line of credit balance.

Just regular everyday life bills. And boy don't they add up? :-)

Grateful for perseverance that kept me going these past years. Even with highs and lows.

Grateful to all the blogs out there who showed me the way.

Grateful to all of you who have cheered me along the way.

ooooooooooo oooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Well folks, today is the day!

D Day!!

Can you guess what this is??????

Almost the last day of school

I am hanging out on the covered part of my patio, providing sustenance to the hoards of mosquitos that hatched this week. I have spray on and a citronella candle and they are still just a buzzing.

I hate to have this lovely yard and not be outside enjoying it. The winters here are long enough where we are indoors.

We officially were done teaching on the 16th. It was a nice zoom wrap up with the kids who had been participating and a few who stopped by to say hi.

Since then we have been given a huge Professional development course we need to complete, ideally by June 30 but I am behind so I may have to keep on after official let out.

Today our graduation video was launched. Students and their parents had scheduled times earlier in June to come in to tape their stage crossing and tassel switching. The production crew then put it all together along with a voice over introductions and the awards they received. Included in it were the valedictorian speeches, greetings from all kinds of important people (not me) and their slideshow.

It was really well done and the best it could be for  the situation here. We are just too large a school to meet any kind of guidelines set out by the province.

DS2 came home Wed and Thurs on his days off from the campground he manages. He is dealing with all the phase changes and it's super frustrating for him as well. Fingers crossed his mental health stays strong.

DS1 and his gf have been working for my sister, who is planting a ton of plants - the harvest will be for sale as things come ready. Rhubarb anyone? It's good to go. They are learning a lot about gardening and enjoying setting up house together in our old house.

They still haven't decided if they are going to go to the US to play hockey this fall.
a) they have to wait for things to calm down and open up and Florida is a hot mess these days.
b) if it does open up, getting her a VISA may be tough and
c) he won't go back without her. This is year 6 for them and they agreed they would not be apart anymore. Which is fair

so that means he may be done his hockey career, which is sad.

I am looking forward to the weekend, and making my summer list of to dos. It may not be extravagant as there aren't a ton of places to go, but that is ok. There is a lot of quality that can be had being near or at home.

This will be the first summer in 3 years I haven't been parent caregiving, and I need to make sure it counts. in lots of little ways. Life is just too darn short.

Covid coffees

I have had quite a few covid coffees outside at our house, now that restrictions have eased a bit.

It's nice to have a house and a yard where I can invite people to.

I open the big garage door so no one has to touch any handles. Everyone brings their own chair and beverage. Distance between us.

It's been much needed for sanity for all of us. It's mostly been work people. I have the patio space and another space that is open but covered. A couple times it has been chilly and raining but they have brought their beverages and blankets and we are good to go.

After the first couple I whispered a 'thank you' to mom and dad for the space to do this.

Where the money stands

as of June 2

I seem to have missed a couple of these.

And I miss going to the bank to drop off my change. They are now closed except for emergencies.

Not a lot of progress here, except for the mortgage being gone gone gone.

Debt

Mortgage - $0 baby

College LOC - $1500.00

Total Debt - $1500

Planned Savings

TFSA - $9900

RRSP - $14 262

TFSA 2020 - $500

Back to School - $500

Summer 2020 - $300

Christmas 2020 - $500

I am definitely behind on my savings. I have been working off the LOC instead.

We are getting close to that being gone too.