Monthly Update – January 2012

I don’t know if it’s because last month was a 3 pay check month, but this month felt kind of lacklustre until a few days ago.

	31-Jan-11	31-Dec-11	31-Jan-12
Chequing	$149.68	$592.71	$426.29
Savings 1	$0.26	$1.26	$1.26
Savings 2	$0.90	$30.87	$30.99
Savings 3	$0.07	$613.86	$813.86
Investment	$1,154.89	$80.00	$87.20
TFSA	$2,423.86	$3.00	$3.00
RRSP 1	$1,632.31	$1,763.21	$1,782.33
RRSP 2	$4,016.41	$5,768.84	$6,537.72
RRSP 3	$444.94	$1,142.25	$1,143.66
ASSETS	$9,823.32	$9,996.00	$10,826.31
Car Loan	($9,397.49)	$0.00	$0.00
LOC	($11,000.00)	($7,034.90)	($5,900.45)
Credit Card	($4,433.32)	$0.00	$0.00
DEBTS	($24,830.81)	($7,034.90)	($5,900.45)
Net Worth	($15,007.49)	$2,961.10	$4,925.86
Percent Improvement (Month)			66.35%
Percent Improvement (Year)			132.82%

It wasn’t a bad month by any means. I think I was just used to getting paid at the beginning and middle of every month, and now it’s shifted to the middle and end of every month. Consequentially I go through the month feeling like I’m not making any progress, because it always feels like I’m missing a beginning of the month payment after my update. *shrug*

The being said, I’m still on the upswing. I’ve been getting ready to tighten my belt even further in anticipation of Carla’s Low/No Spend February and Decluttering project. I’ve been working on putting together a bunch of meal ideas that I won’t need to buy anything for, including some sweet snacks so I have something to tame the sugar beast when she periodically appears. I’m actually making a 1/2 batch of rice crispie squares tonight for that purpose. I’m going to try to buy as few groceries as possible this month, unless I’m legitimately running out of something or it’s on sale/I have a coupon. I have a 1/2 off coupon for laundry detergent, so I’m going to pick some of that up tomorrow.

My goal this month, for those of you who haven’t seen it already, it to get my line of credit balance down to below $4,500 by the end of the month. I have 3 bags of pop bottles ready to be returned this week to start out my snowflake payments, and I’m going to take in my massage receipts for reimbursement to put on there as well. I’m still looking for other places to dig up a few bucks here and there for it, I may post some stuff for sale on Kijiji or e-bay during my decluttering. We’ll see.

How did your month pan out financially? Still making progress post holiday season?

Recommended Reading: My First Month of Living Alone Again.

I’ve Come To Terms With Him Paying

Some days I don’t know why I get worked up over stuff that I really should just be grateful for. Case in point: The Boy paying for stuff that I would normally be paying for. In the last month or so, on top of what ever dating expenses we’ve had, he’s paid for some of my groceries, a handful of toiletries and a pair of shoes. I haven’t asked him to pay for any of this. I haven’t hinted at it. I haven’t so much as batted my eyes. In fact I usually put up a little resistance, to which I get a “what’s wrong with you” type expression from him.

I can do it, really I can!

I’ll be honest about it, this apprehension about other people paying for me wasn’t always there. Years ago I was in a relationship with another guy who paid for most things when we were together. It’s just the way it was. Then when the relationship started to take a turn for the worse, he’d snap and chastise me for not offering to pay for things evenly – even though we had never split anything that way before. It was very Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde behaviour. Since then I’ve been very uncomfortable about letting people pay for me, because I don’t want to get caught in that situation again. It makes me nervous.

Which means in a way I’m punishing The Boy for my previous relationship experiences. That’s not fair to him either, though it’s probably saved him some money when I’ve feigned disinterest in something when we’re out shopping together.

The problem is that in my head, the scales weren’t evenly balanced. I always felt indebted to him, because he kept paying for things for me. It seemed like I wasn’t doing anything for him that would warrant him doing this for me, and so the discomfort level remained.

I realized this weekend that I do in fact do things for him, I just don’t attach a monetary value to them. In fact, I do things for him that he protests about. I randomly bake for him (okay, he doesn’t protest about that). I clean his house. I do his laundry. I clean out his fridge. I don’t do it when he’s looking though, I do it when he’s occupied doing something else so he can’t protest the fact that I’m doing it for him. As I’m writing this he’s upstairs with his dad, and still has no idea that I cleaned out the fridge. I might sneak in a load of laundry next.

It’s obviously a very stereotypical gender role that we’ve fallen into. If we were married 50 years ago, that’s pretty much what our roles would be. He’d make the money and I’d keep the home maintained. We’ve just assumed these roles in our dating life. Is this fair? Well, in my opinion, yes it is. Fair is what is mutually agreed upon by the two parties involved. I don’t want him to feel like he has to pay for things for me, but he does it because he wants to do it. He doesn’t want me to feel obligated to do things for him, but I like looking after him. It’s balanced. We both protest, and, well, we both pretty much ignore each other’s protests about stuff like this. It just took me a while to recognize that there was value in the things I do for him.

Obviously this doesn’t mean the next time we’re out I’m going to be pointing at things and saying “buy that for me!” That’s not the point, and that’s not me at all. It just means the next time he takes something out of my hands and puts it on his pile of stuff when he’s ready to pay, I’m going to stress a little less about it.

A little less.

Om.

Recommended Reading: Sunday Morning Insecurities.

Budget Attempt January 27 to February 9

I’m not mad about any overages this pay period. I’m just not. I’m also under budget on my other category this time!!

	Budgeted	Actual	Difference
Mortgage w/ Taxes	$610.00	$609.40	$0.60
RRSP	$100.00	$100.00	$0.00
RPP	$65.00	$66.63	-$1.63
Utilities	$200.00	$182.59	$17.41
LOC	$200.00	$200.00	$0.00
LOC Interest	$60.00	$51.83	$8.17
Fuel	$50.00	$43.96	$6.04
Food In	$70.00	$61.49	$8.51
Food Out	$30.00	$27.02	$2.98
Anniversary	$50.00	$74.15	-$24.15
Shoes	$75.00	$0.00	$75.00
Donation	$40.00	$40.00	$0.00
Other	$100.00	$82.83	$17.17

The fuel and shoes categories should be higher than they are, but this shows what I paid for. I ended up getting shoes around the $40 mark at Payless, which The Boy put on his bill as he was picking up some polish and laces for his shoes. That really should have been the other way around, I should have been the one buying his stuff because his bill was smaller. I think he gets a sense of pride out of paying for things, because he knows full well he doesn’t have to do it.

Part of me also wonders if he’s been reading my blog when he pays for the stuff?

I just need to go back to doing my shopping alone during the week.

The only overage I have is the Anniversary category, which turned into the Anniversary/Birthday category. The gift I planned on getting him for our anniversary turned out to be much cheaper than I thought it was, and when I took it to the till I found out it was marked down by another 1/2 off. Score The overage happened 2 days later on his birthday. I didn’t find out until the day of what the plan was, and he didn’t know until then either. We ended up going to the pub to watch the hockey game – Oilers vs. Canucks, our feuding teams (Go Canucks Go!) We were there all evening, and his buddies semi-tried to get him drunk. It was during the week, so they didn’t push too hard.

When the bill came I picked up part of it, and he wasn’t allowed to pay for ANY of it. He didn’t agree with this one bit. One of his friends had to hold him down in his chair while he protested and I peeled the crumpled the bill out of his fingers… but in the end the birthday boy didn’t pay. As he shouldn’t have. I’m at peace with this overage.

This next budget is going to suck though…

	Budgeted	Actual	Difference
Mortgage w/ Taxes	$610.00	$0.00	$610.00
RRSP	$100.00	$0.00	$100.00
RPP	$65.00	$0.00	$65.00
House Insurance	$40.00	$0.00	$40.00
Car Insurance	$35.00	$0.00	$35.00
LOC	$400.00	$0.00	$400.00
Utilities	$150.00	$0.00	$150.00
Internet	$65.00	$0.00	$65.00
Phone	$100.00	$0.00	$100.00
Fuel	$50.00	$0.00	$50.00
Food In	$70.00	$0.00	$70.00
Food Out	$10.00	$0.00	$10.00
Bank Fee	$15.00	$0.00	$15.00
Other	$30.00	$0.00	$30.00

Being as I set myself a stretch goal of getting my line of credit below $4500 by the end of February for the Low/No Spend Challenge, I needed to trim the budget fat. I’m planning out a bunch of meals and snacks that incorporate a lot of things I already have in my pantry without going out to buy much. The difficult category, as always, will be “Other”. I need to refill my prescription, and my car needs an oil change. Normally I’d go to The Boy’s and we’d change the oil in his (heated!) garage, but he has a new project car parked in there right now. I’m keeping my eyes peeled for a Groupon. *fingers crossed*

How are your budgets doing? Have you joined Carla’s Low/No Spend and Decluttering challenge yet?

Recommended Reading: Interview with Lilliana Vazquez – Part 2.

Procrastination Thursday – January 26, 2012

I have 3 more pay periods before the cut off for RRSPs for the 2011 tax year. I’ve been diligently saving $100 every two weeks for the last few months to make sure I pay back the minimum I need on my New Home Buyer’s Plan (HBP). Basically the HBP is a loan to yourself that you take out of your RRSPs for the purpose of buying a home. The government gives you a time frame in which you must pay yourself back; if you don’t pay yourself back in time the missed payment gets added to your income come tax time. This year is my first repayment year, which for me means I have to put at least $1000 into my RRSPs. I have little over $700 in my savings account currently, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

Though you’ll notice I said savings account, not RRSP…

For whatever reason, when I set up my account the ability to transfer money from my savings account to my RRSP account wasn’t set up. I can transfer into my investment accounts and TFSA, but not the RRSP. The RRSP account I have is completely self-directed online, so it doesn’t make sense that I should have to make an appointment at the bank to transfer money from one account to another.

I’ve known for a little while that I needed to talk to someone about it…. I just haven’t.

So, this is my Thursday kick in the butt. Today I need to phone the bank and get my savings account connected to my RRSP account so I can make sure the money is put in there on time. My taxes depend on it!

What are getting off your plate this week? Have you made your retirement contributions yet?

If you do participate in Procrastination Thursday please credit Digging Out And Up and link back here. Thanks a lot!

Recommended Reading: The Importance of Sleep.

February is Double Challenge Month!

A lot of you are probably already quite aware that Carla is hosting a double challenge month for the month of February: Low/No Spending, and Decluttering!

Fancy that, I could use a heaping serving of both in my life right now.

I didn’t officially jump on board for the January Low/No spend month, even though reading all of your posts about it helped keep me in check, but I’m right on board for this one. These are my targets for the month of February:

*Financial Goal*

My financial goal for the month of February will be getting my Line of Credit balance below $4,500. This is a little bit of a stretch goal, seeing as it’s sitting over $6,500 as I’m writing this. It’s going to be ridiculously hard. I’m going to have to slash my budget, ramp up my payments, take in the pop bottles, get stuff up on Etsy, you name it. Now that my sewing machine is fixed that last one is a little more feasible. I’ll be doing my usual biweekly budgetting, but I’ll also be tracking my no spend days and updating everyone on it during the month. The only thing I can see popping up is Valentine’s Day, in which case I’ll appeal to The Boy’s stomach by baking stuff for him out of my pantry.

*Decluttering Goal*

My decluttering goals for the month are as follows:

1. Personal Space – Getting my room/closet completely decluttered and back in order.
2. Family Space – Turn my living room back into a functional decluttered living room rather than a living room/sewing room/office/mail drop zone.
3. Productivity Challenge – I’m really going to have to think about this one. What would make me most productive is unplugging the internet, but that kind of conflicts with maintaining a blog :s Any suggestions?
4. The “Dreaded” Challenge – Finish unpacking the boxes in my basement. *gulp* It’s been over 2 years, and they have slowly been getting emptied, but I still have a pile left to go.

I’m seriously not looking forward to posting my before photos for the world to see. Carla, Judy, and the rest of the moms out there are going to be scolding me and sending me to my room house to clean. The purging of 29 objects should be easy for me. I already have a couple items set aside to go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill, I have a stash of magazines that I’m going to get rid of, and a good portion of the stuff in the basement will be going buh-bye. 29 might become 290 at that rate.

Are you guys all on board for the low spend/decluttering challenge? What would you suggest for a productivity goal?

Random side question: Is anyone else randomly having problems posting comments on blogger based blogs? I’ve tried posting on 2 different sites recently, and my verification codes get rejected despite being correct. I even tried the audio code without luck. Thoughts?

Recommended Reading: Needs vs. Wants: The Gray Area.