YAY!!!!!! My emergency fund is at $2000!
If you've been reading my blog for awhile you may recall that back in the beginning of April I started saving for my emergency fund. I had nothing in savings and had to use my credit card for something that came up. That brought on OP Emergency Fund and my mission to save $2000.00 as quickly as possible. Well I am thrilled to say that 3 months later I have that in my saving account!
Next: credit card debt - You're going down!!!!
HAPPY CANADA DAY to all my Canadian Friends! (in case I don't post again before then)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Something new and "mint"y and a great wedding gift!
(I am not being paid to advertise for any products mentioned here. Just my experiences/opinions)
I decided to try Mint for my budgeting. I typically just use an excel spreadsheet that I created and keep revamping from time to time. It's very basic and suits my needs just fine.
However, recently, I had been looking at a number of budgeting tools and did the trial of You Need A Budget. I just couldn't bring myself to pay the price they were asking. In fact, I really didn't want to pay any price at all. I know, sounds cheap, but even with a 7 day trial period I didn't think I could really tell if I liked it and would use it. I also tried a few others but didn't really like any of them. Some I found overly complicated, some were not able to be tailored to how I wanted to use them.
Mint.com is free. I like free! I also like that it has an iPhone app so that I can check remaining amounts in each of my budget categories. I have been using the jars for quite sometime but with my recent switch to ING Thrive chequing I would like to see how I do with using my debit card. I'm not 100% sure I can be trusted to not make impulse purchases. I decided to give it a one pay trial period and see how I do. If I make impulse purchases I go back to the jars.
The things that concern me are the little things. Normally if I go for coffee with a friend I take what the coffee will cost. With a debit card if I get a craving for a piece of lemon cake while ordering I have money to order it. Will I be able to say no? Or if I go over a little on the groceries I pick up will I put something back? I think I will be good but I'm a little worried if I can be trusted. So I'll give it a shot and see how it works out.
On to the wedding gift. I had asked you all for some ideas on a great gift to get my friend. babybluewater at Head Over Heels... In Debt! said how much she loves Shutterfly and suggest perhaps a photo book or canvas print which would suit my friend fabulously! There were also other great suggestions and another one I really liked was from Makky's Mom at Milestones. I got a $115 coupon for Photobook America (hope they are good). I'm so excited because I think that they will really like it and its something I am happy to give as a gift.
How do you do your budget? Excel? Good old pen and paper? Or a fancy program? Have you tried Mint or any other programs?
I decided to try Mint for my budgeting. I typically just use an excel spreadsheet that I created and keep revamping from time to time. It's very basic and suits my needs just fine.
However, recently, I had been looking at a number of budgeting tools and did the trial of You Need A Budget. I just couldn't bring myself to pay the price they were asking. In fact, I really didn't want to pay any price at all. I know, sounds cheap, but even with a 7 day trial period I didn't think I could really tell if I liked it and would use it. I also tried a few others but didn't really like any of them. Some I found overly complicated, some were not able to be tailored to how I wanted to use them.
Mint.com is free. I like free! I also like that it has an iPhone app so that I can check remaining amounts in each of my budget categories. I have been using the jars for quite sometime but with my recent switch to ING Thrive chequing I would like to see how I do with using my debit card. I'm not 100% sure I can be trusted to not make impulse purchases. I decided to give it a one pay trial period and see how I do. If I make impulse purchases I go back to the jars.
The things that concern me are the little things. Normally if I go for coffee with a friend I take what the coffee will cost. With a debit card if I get a craving for a piece of lemon cake while ordering I have money to order it. Will I be able to say no? Or if I go over a little on the groceries I pick up will I put something back? I think I will be good but I'm a little worried if I can be trusted. So I'll give it a shot and see how it works out.
On to the wedding gift. I had asked you all for some ideas on a great gift to get my friend. babybluewater at Head Over Heels... In Debt! said how much she loves Shutterfly and suggest perhaps a photo book or canvas print which would suit my friend fabulously! There were also other great suggestions and another one I really liked was from Makky's Mom at Milestones. I got a $115 coupon for Photobook America (hope they are good). I'm so excited because I think that they will really like it and its something I am happy to give as a gift.
How do you do your budget? Excel? Good old pen and paper? Or a fancy program? Have you tried Mint or any other programs?
Saturday, June 25, 2011
GTA/Southern Ontario PF Blogger Get Together
Anyone up for a little blogger get together sometime? I think there are a few of us who are "fairly" close together (I'm about 1 1/2hrs outside of Toronto).
We could see where the most central location to the majority is (I'm thinking TO?) and pick a date, time and place. I think it would be lots of fun.
What are you thoughts? Makky's mom over at Milestones said to count her in. Anyone else?
Make sure to send along the invite to all the Ontario Bloggers! :)
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wedding gift help needed!
Hi PF Blogger Friends!
I really need some help to come up with a thoughtful gift for a good friend of mine and her new husband. They were married yesterday in a destination wedding in Fiji!!! They said their vows in a private setting at a lovely resort. They will be flying in to Toronto to have a celebration dinner with some of the brides family (and me) shortly after they return to their home in Chicago.
Now the tricky part for me, the gift. They have been living together for a bit now and don't need any of the "typical" wedding gifts. They are only here on a short trip so don't have room for much, I assume. She has been a long time (back to junior high school) friend of mine. Also since they live in the States if I were to give a gift card I'm not sure it would even be usable across the boarder? I don't really know much about their hobbies except that she really enjoys photography and they love to travel. They are animal lovers and often foster for local shelters.
Can you help me figure out a great gift? Or throw out some ideas? I'm totally stumped!
THANKS!!!
I really need some help to come up with a thoughtful gift for a good friend of mine and her new husband. They were married yesterday in a destination wedding in Fiji!!! They said their vows in a private setting at a lovely resort. They will be flying in to Toronto to have a celebration dinner with some of the brides family (and me) shortly after they return to their home in Chicago.
The brides flowers... so beautiful!
Now the tricky part for me, the gift. They have been living together for a bit now and don't need any of the "typical" wedding gifts. They are only here on a short trip so don't have room for much, I assume. She has been a long time (back to junior high school) friend of mine. Also since they live in the States if I were to give a gift card I'm not sure it would even be usable across the boarder? I don't really know much about their hobbies except that she really enjoys photography and they love to travel. They are animal lovers and often foster for local shelters.
Can you help me figure out a great gift? Or throw out some ideas? I'm totally stumped!
THANKS!!!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
This is hard work!
I knew this wasn't going to be easy when I started. I'm certainly not giving up, I want this too bad! But some days are just tough!
Today is another pay day. I was able to put another chunk towards my efund which is currently just above $1800. Almost to my goal! But this doesn't come easily and some other line items in the budget are squeezed to the max. I honestly don't really budget enough for some things but I feel I can "make it work" for now. I know its not a long term thing and I just have to keep reminding myself of this. By not long term I am thinking until mid-July and I should be able to add more to groceries and fun/entertainment and hopefully gas as well.
My goal will be to put an extra $400 a month towards debt and at this point I have tweeked the budget to allow me to put an extra $100 towards the animals. This will hopefully mean that when I need to pick up those items that I don't buy all the time I will have the money in the account for it.
I added a new tab called "Blessings". I feel like I am just being blessed all the time and I would like to share those blessings and be able to keep track. I got my cell bill the other day and when I opened it I was shocked! It was $50 less than it should have been. For some reason there is a one time credit on my account! Yay! I took the extra and added it to my efund.
So the ticker is almost there for my efund. Those other status bars are moving, albeit, very slowly. But they are moving in the right direction and that's what counts. This is hard work but I know it will be worth it!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Spending Spree!
Oh man! This has been a crazy few days and my bank card which only leaves the house 2 days a month is probably still hot from all the swiping I've been doing. Here's the break down:
- Took the dog to the vet for her annual check up. I had saved $200.00 for this and thought I was good to go. Well when I went to pay the grand total was just under $316.00. Ouch! (OVER $116)
- Purchased air conditioner to put in the living room as discussed in previous post. I actually found one for $88 plus taxes. While purchasing this I picked up a few grocery items as well. Total cost was $107.00. I had saved my $100.00 HST cheque for this. Also was out of bunny food earlier than expected at $18 a bag. (OVER $25)
- I needed a few items from the vet for one of my bunnies. I had them ship it last time (from Toronto) and it ended up costing almost $40 for shipping! I can drive there for cheaper than that. So I took a trip there and the break down on that was gas $50 (to fill the car but didn't use it all), misc medical items $15 and vet items $52. Total cost was $117. I also got to visit with my brother and his family so that was great. Eating out cost $8 (OVER $125).
Total over spending $266.00. Sigh
Well the good thing about this is that the purchased items were needed and I was able to pay cash for each and every one of them. No credit card!!! So my efund (even though not truly an emergency) was used. I will recover the money, some from the budgeted money for the animals and some from what I would have to put towards my debt snowball at the end of the month. No biggie. I'm not going to stress about it. I'll eventually get ahead with the budget so this doesn't happen anymore.
I need to figure out what I can recover this coming pay and then I will update my ticker to reflect the current amount in my efund.
- Took the dog to the vet for her annual check up. I had saved $200.00 for this and thought I was good to go. Well when I went to pay the grand total was just under $316.00. Ouch! (OVER $116)
- Purchased air conditioner to put in the living room as discussed in previous post. I actually found one for $88 plus taxes. While purchasing this I picked up a few grocery items as well. Total cost was $107.00. I had saved my $100.00 HST cheque for this. Also was out of bunny food earlier than expected at $18 a bag. (OVER $25)
- I needed a few items from the vet for one of my bunnies. I had them ship it last time (from Toronto) and it ended up costing almost $40 for shipping! I can drive there for cheaper than that. So I took a trip there and the break down on that was gas $50 (to fill the car but didn't use it all), misc medical items $15 and vet items $52. Total cost was $117. I also got to visit with my brother and his family so that was great. Eating out cost $8 (OVER $125).
Total over spending $266.00. Sigh
Well the good thing about this is that the purchased items were needed and I was able to pay cash for each and every one of them. No credit card!!! So my efund (even though not truly an emergency) was used. I will recover the money, some from the budgeted money for the animals and some from what I would have to put towards my debt snowball at the end of the month. No biggie. I'm not going to stress about it. I'll eventually get ahead with the budget so this doesn't happen anymore.
I need to figure out what I can recover this coming pay and then I will update my ticker to reflect the current amount in my efund.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Financial Blessings
I have many, many blessings in my life so I decided to title this post financial blessings so I could speak specifically about them. Actually just a few recent ones.
In the past few days:
- I signed up for an ING Thrive chequing account which currently has a $100.00 incentive if you have your payroll deposited into your account. I switched my pay over and expect I should see the extra $100 in July.
- I received the final $100.00 HST payout from the Ontario Government
- I was the recipient of a very kind, thoughtful and heartfelt gift
These are just within the past few days. I am so thankful and so blessed.
I need to purchase another air conditioner. I've done some research and the cheapest one that I can find will cost about $115.00 (taxes in). I have an air conditioner for each of the two rooms where my bunnies live so they are able to stay cool. I will be purchasing the new one to put in the living room for my dog. We made it through last year without one but the two room ones don't produce enough cold air to make the living room comfortable for her. She is getting older and this summer is supposed to be much warmer. She needs to be able to be comfortable too. With these extra blessings I will be able to get the new air conditioner and not have to take away from anything. Again, so thankful!
Have you had any recent or "worth-talking-about" financial blessings?
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Feeling the pinch.... and not liking it...
In order to get my efund to my target goal I have kept my budget really tight. Probably too tight in some areas but I feel like I have been managing well... until now.
This pay just feels like there is so much money to be spent but I have no idea where it's going to come from. Most of it is from "entertainment" that I feel like I can't avoid.
I have also kept my grocery budget pretty tight. I include personal care items in my grocery budget. I needed to purchases some conditioner and face wash this pay so that takes a pretty good chunk ($17.00 (from $75 budget) for 1 litre of conditioner at $9.99 and face wash at clearance at $5.00 plus tax). I picked up only a few items for groceries and now I have $20 to last me for another week and 1/2.
On top of all of this I will be doing more than normal trips to the next town over for various reasons and I'm not sure I can stretch my tank of gas until next pay.
So I am feeling the pinch and I am not liking it at all. It feels stressful and reminds me again why I am so set on getting rid of the debt! I am hoping to top off my efund with my next pay and then I will feel more comfortable loosening the belt a little but not too much since I want the debt gone ASAP!
Any advice? Words of wisdom? Are you feeling the pinch too?
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