Unfortunately, I’m now going to have to figure it out for myself. Which is actually okay because she would only tell me what she tells everyone else.
That combined with reading My Pretty Pennie's Blog who reminded me that the year was half over, I wanted to make a plan that I will finally stick with.
I started with noting that I have 14 pay periods left for this year, and I would like to achieve some of my goals THIS YEAR. So I’ve given myself a Timeline.
I then decided what my ‘non-negotiable’ are. For me these are things that unless I lose my job, I will continue working towards at the current rate I have set aside. These are the following:
I then looked at the items that I was saving towards and saw that I was putting away $135/bi-weekly. I decided that I would combine my emergency fund as well as my annual savings fund (too many accounts is stressing me out). Because of that, I increased the amount I was putting away to $50 b/w. I decreased my RRSP’s to $10 b/w and increased my Christmas fund to 75 b/w. 
*oh - on a side note, I didn't include my increased share purchase fund, because this is actually done through my pay.
IF I follow through with this and don’t touch it, the following will happen:
- My credit card will be paid off in 8 pay periods (or sooner when I get paid out from banked OT)
- I will have $1000 saved for Christmas in 12 pay periods (perfect timing for shopping in December)
That will mean that I will have an additional $250 b/w for the last 6 pay periods of this year. With this $1500. I will be able to bring my Emergency/Annual Fund to $3211 by the end of December!
Come January I will review my goals and decide how much money I will need to put into my RRSP’s (this will depend heavily on if I can convince my employer to let me start my pension in October of this year, rather then October of next year) & how much I will need to put into my Emergency/Annual Fund – to keep up with annual expenses (right now I’m guessing about $25/b-w)
To summarize, this is what I did:
Step 1. Figured out my time line
Step 2. Determined my non-negotiables?
Step 3. Determined how much I had left bi-weekly to play with.
Step 4.Made a plan
Step 5. Sticking with it - (this is always hardest for me and only time will tell)
Phew! So, what do you think?
As you say, you just have to stick with it! You can do it. And relax and go fishing!
ReplyDeletethe key is to have a plan, implement it, and keep re-evaluating. i'm very good at steps a and b and fall down at step c. are you the same way? maybe decide right now how often you will revisit the plan to make sure you're on track?
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that I re-evaluate too often... I'm perpetually looking at my finances. It will be a miracle if let this plan go until Christmas. I always *think* that I have found a better idea, or a more effecient way to accomplish things - but I really need to relax and let time happen....
ReplyDeleteI think you have a point though. Perhaps If I decided now that I would only re-visit the plan once every month, or once every two months that would help....
Maybe you could go back to your list of free things to do and pick one when you are tempted to play with your budget yet again. If you were having more fun, you might be better able to relax.
ReplyDelete