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.