8/20/2009

New Budget & Priorities

It is time, i beleive, to review my budget and go about updating it now that the credit card will be paid off in full in a few weeks.

A week, or so, ago, I posted my revisied 2009 goals. My first step should be to make sure I can reach these goals with said budget. These goals were:
  • pay off my credit card
Will be complete on September 4, 2009
  • have a debt free christmas
If I save $50 bi-weekly starting September 4th I will have $450 saved by Christmas, so I have set up this auto-debit already. I think this will work just fine. I will also make a few extra deposits into this account to plump it up for this years shopping. Next year, I'll have a big fat pile for Christmas! This is one fund that I intend to always put funds in, and always use. I think $50/bi-weekly is pretty reasonable - do you?
  • replenish e-fund to $1,000
I have also set this account to start bi-weekly deposits of $50. That will put me in the $600 range by the end of the year. This account will also need some extra help to reach my goal. Which again, I beleive I can do.
  • have minumum of $3,000 in RRSP accounts
I have set up my RRSP accounts to start auto-debiting $50/biweekly (see a trend?) and this will have me reach my goal by the end of the year! I will consider ramping up my RRSP savings next year, we'll see.
  • Start future fund, and save $500
At this time, I am going to nix the future fund before I've started it. I've been living super super strict the last little while, and i'd like to build some flexibility into my budget. The timeline for buying a home has potentially moved up to about two years from now rather then 4 or 5 years from now, so next year (which is only 4 months away!!!) I will likely ramp up savings in this area instead.

So...even though I budget bi-weekly, here is a monthly picture of how things will shake down:


You can see that there is an excess of about $300 each month. Some months this will be more and some months less (b/c I go bi-weekly which makes more sense for me). When I have larger surpluses I will siphon some to the Efund and some to the Christmas fund to bolster them for the end of the year.

I will likely spend some on a few upcoming things that I want/need such as:
  • a new cinch for my saddle
  • new riding boots
  • fancy supper for me and jordan to celebrate being debt free and to thank him for keeping me fed and happy while putting in all that overtime

I will be credit card debt free in 15 days!

6 comments:

  1. I think $50 biweekly for a holiday fund is great. I do $35 bi weekly and it amounts close to $1K by the year's end. Really is a savior!

    You have some great goals. I like them because they are realistic and achievable. Keep up the great work. :)

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  2. I am glad to see you're still working with the jars. It really can be a great viewpoint changing experience, once you get into the rhythm of it all. The auto deductions are an excellent choice. Those small bits are not so miss-able on a week to week basis but they sure do add up quickly.

    Questions - do you have separate accounts for each of those items (Efund, Xmas etc) or do you keep it all in one savings and mentally separate them?

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  3. @ Money Funk - Thanks so much! I had to change up some of my goals mid-way through the year to keep them achievable, but it was important not to set myself up to fail.

    @Jolie - The jars have been great, it helps keep focus on where the money is going and how much I have for what.

    I have a lot of separate accounts. I have different accounts for my Christmas fund, and my Emergency Fund. My tracking for company shares is actually taken out of my pay and held by the company at zero interest until there is enough to buy the shares.

    The house fund is again separate and is jointly held with Jordan who also puts in $150/bi weekly.

    I have three RRSP accounts two are in long term GICs and one is a daily RRSP account with ING. I keep track of these in one tracking bar.

    thanks for the questions!

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  4. Looks great!!! :)

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  5. Great goals! These aren't shorting you, but are allowing you to live well, save well and continue your debt repayment in a consistent way, which is really a huge part of the debt repayment - it really can get so frustrating sometimes! Congrats on managing it so well! :)

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  6. Great job! Although I don't want to think about Christmas yet--we're still enjoying the summer weather. But because of our home purchase, we'll definitely be budgeting less on Christmas gifts this year.

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