Overtime Update

I managed to bank an extra 5.25 hours this past week - slowly but surely I'm getting the...

Savings Snowball Update

It's Friday!! Love Fridays! I've updated my side bars and am pleased to say that I'm right on track. Below is an image I've taken from my savings snowball tracking spreadsheet (from late September on).  Today I transfered about $50 from my Christmas fund (b/c I already hit that goal) to my emergency...

Joint Bank Account

Recently I mentioned that Jordan and I would be opening a joint bank account for rent and utilities.  Well, we've opened the account and I've sent away all the notifications to each biller to have the automatic withdrawals changed. Each biller said it would take about two weeks to process, and I'm just now receiving October's bills.  So, in theory, by the time we get...

Landlord & Rent Update! Wow!!

I don't say this often, but I am absolutely impressed with myself right now! Over the last while I've been in negotiations with my landlord.  It was most recently left off with people encouraging me to just pay the $1500/month and never mind the rest b/c being in a month to month lease was worth it.  Well it turns out we're getting a rent decrease, with no other changes...

Bi-Weekly Budget - Tomorrow is Payday

It's that time again, my how the weeks fly by. Below is how things are shaping up for the next couple of weeks.  I have a bit of a heavy current balance that is being carried forward from last pay - this is for two reasons.  One, I had expected to have rent of $750, which I don't because...

Overtime Update

Phew - it's been a crazy week, both on the work front and the home front - and it's only Wednesday! I've just hit the 40 hour mark today (including 7.5 hrs for both Thurs/Friday).  So any time I work above and beyond my normals hours for the last two days of the week will go towards my OT count.  It defn. won't move as much as last week, but I'm hoping for at least 2.5 hours each d...

Benefits Reimbursement

So not too long ago I mentioned that I had bought some glasses but had to wait for my benefits to reimburse me. Well they finally did.  I received $126.  It was deposited directly into my account yesterday, how fantastic! I was actually confused for a good 20 minutes trying to figure out where the money came from, but was pleasantly surprised once I figured it o...

2010 Monthly Budget - Looking Ahead

Have you starting thinking about your 2010 budget? I have, off and on, for the last few months.  My Mom and Jordan have been encouraging me to just get through the rest of this year before worrying about it - but there are seriously only two months left!! It's hard to figure out what I really want to do.  Do I want to eliminate my student loan debt, reach $10,000 in the house...

Slow OT start this week...

When I commit to putting in some serious OT at work, I like to get the first 2.5 hours out of the way on Monday.  That way, the rest of the week is all banked time.  Unfortunatly, Jordan and I slept in this morning and I only worked an extra .50 hours.  So tomorrow, I'm going to go for a loonng day to try to catch ...

Weekend Update

Phew! What a busy, busy weekend we had! Samantha finally finished moving on Friday (October, 23) which was a full two weeks later then she said she would be. Nelson and Lindsay have nearly finished moving as well.  They did the bulk of their things on Saturday, and then came on Sunday to do a little cleaning and do one more car load.  They still have quite a pile of things to move, but...

Kindness pays double time...

So my supervisor/boss-lady at work was sick for half the week and in all day meetings for the half of the week.  On Tuesday she dumped a pile of work to get done (some of which I hadn't done before) - and I managed to get it all taken care of for her.  She gave me a gift card for The Keg for $50, when I combine that with the one we got earlier in the week - that means we're going to have...

what to do about cell phones...

My cell phone is crapping out. I actually used to work for Bell for a couple of years when I was going to school, when I graduated and got my real job, I left the cell phone world.  At that time the best plan I could get was with Solo Mobile, a subsidiary of Bell's. Unfortunately, my solo hardware (LG Rumour) is dieing.  I'm getting these white screens of death, when it's not...

Joint Bank Accounts

Jordan and I have taken the next step towards joining our finances and our budgets.We have been talking for a quite a while about this possibility, and I've written about it before as well. Our joint account is going to be, strictly, a bill paying account.  We will pay our rent and our three household bills from this account (shaw, bell and enmax).  This is going to achieve a...

Bill Reduction

Not too long ago I reviewed some cost saving options on our phone/internet plan.  When I did that assessment, we had five people living in the house.  Now that we're down to three - I called our phone/internet provider to see how much we could save if Jordan and I eliminated our house phone. During the conversation, I found out that this company has a Student Plan.  WHAT?! A student...

Kindness really does pay...

The week before last I briefly mentioned that Jordan and I would be house sitting for a co-worker of mine from the 10th to the 17th.  We agreed to for a couple of different reasons, but mostly - it's nice to be nice.   When I got to my desk this morning I saw a little blue envelope with my name written on it and inside was a delightful little thank you card and a $50 gift certificate...

Worried for Nothing?

I was pretty worried about things settling down around the house & with the landlord when I wrote the last two posts, I'm pleased to say that I took some of your advise combined with Jordan's/Mom's and am calmer for it. I called Service Canada and spoke to a representative about the Alberta Residential Tenancy Act.  As it turns out once an annual lease is over, if a new lease is...

Negotiations with the Landlord - The Continuation

Yesterday I wrote about finding a new roommate, this will seriously alleviate some of the financial stresses we thought we were about to encounter.  That said, we are still in the middle of a lease/rent negotiation with our landlord.  Further to yesterday's post, this is another reason not to re-do my budget just yet.  We may be faced with a rental decrease, she...

Overtime Project II

A few months ago, I embarked on an overtime project.  My goal was to 'make more money' to help pay down my credit card debt.  Another filling project has come up at work (oh joy) and one of my October goals is to start on this project. This time, I would like to use the extra money to go towards paying down my student loan debt, of which I currently have $8,584.94 owing. Currently, my goal...

New Roommate - We Have One!

When we got notice from Samantha that she would be moving out right along side my brother and his girlfriend, we put out a few 'feeler' advertisements to see if there was any interest and to see if we had priced the room appropriately ($500/month plus a 1/3 split of the utilities). Thursday evening we had a person come by the view the space, and he actually seemed like a pretty cool guy. ...

It's Payday!

Today is payday!  Here is my budget for the next two weeks: If the item is highlighted in green the transaction has already happened, most of my accounts are set up on auto debits/credits so by the time I wake up in the morning everything has happened already - I love that! You'll notice that...

Hobbies - Our Fish

I've written a bit about the fish tanks that Jordan and I have, and they are currently a bone of contention with our landlord - so I thought I would share a little bit more about them. When I moved into this place a little more then three years ago, my roommate at that time had a pet iguana. ...

Got My New Paystub Today!

My employer issues pay stubs the day before we are paid.  So today, I received my first paystub after I got notice of my raise. wahoo!  It was pretty neat to see that bigger number.  I had guessed it would be about $50 more then usual - it wound up being $47.11 more. Edit: To clarify -  I meant that the raise was $47.11 more then I used to get paid. I thought it would be $50....

Ask the Readers: A New Look?

Jordan suggested that because of all the recent, exciting, changes in my life - particularly getting that credit card paid off, I should change my blog template.  He figured a fresh start is what I've given myself and that's what my blog should get to.  I've read on few sites that changing your template too often can distract readers, I've also read that most readers use a 'reader' of...

My Glasses are Here!

Hurrah!  I can see again. I wrote about purchasing some new glasses last week and was able to pick them up today! I got two pairs, one prescription sun glasses and the other prescription regular glasses.  I did return the extra warranty that I got suckered into and so...

Clothing Fund

I've decided to open a 'clothing fund'. In my bi-weekly budget, I 'budget' spending between $20-$50 on my clothing & gifts category depending on what else is going on.  That money never winds up going to clothing, however often goes to gifts or 'other' stuff that might come up (*cough Halloween decorations). I think that if I open an account for this category and not take the...

Spending Summary

Over the last week Jordan and I purchased quite a few items!  Here is our 'spending summary' So, we each owe our house fund $666.41.  That's not to shabby at all.  We have a plan in place to have this paid back by January (this is when we anticipate re-starting our house fund as well)....

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Thanksgiving D...

New Couch & Last Purchase

Within the last month I paid off my credit card, got notice of a raise, we got informed that three of our roommates would be moving out, and we have yet to renew our lease with our landlord.  All of this brought us to the point where we realized we would have to do some investing...

a little free apartment therapy

I've written a lot in the last couple of days about all the money we've been spending in efforts to get ready for when we have no roommates.  Some of these things have been wants, some have been needs (although we went for higher quality then we necessarily needed). Last night - I did a little free 'apartment therapy'.  I re-arranged the living room. At first I didn't think...

Speaking of Spending...

Below is a list of some of the cook ware sets that we are were considering: Paderno® 'Artistry' 9-Piece Cookware Set Paderno 11-pc. 'Flair' Cookware Set Oneida® 10-Piece Stainless-steel Cookware Set Lagostina® 'Windsor' 11-Piece Stainless Steel Cookware Set Kenmore®/MD 14-piece Sainless Steel Cookware...

We've been spending, spending, spending....

With all of the roommate changes and going from a 5 person household to a 2 person household there will be a few household items that we will be missing in short order. I talked a little bit about this yesterday with some of the smaller purchases we've made at Ikea. This past weekend we...

Apartment Therapy?

One of my favorite bloggers over at Small Steps for Big Change has been going through apartment therapy.  Each week she goes through a different part of her apartment to clean/update/simplify and otherwise make her home a happy place. Although I'm not doing that exactly, I've been loving reading along and with all of our roommmates moving out - Jordan and I thought it would be nice to update...

New Glasses!

This past weekend, I actually spent some money that was above and beyond my $300/bi-weekly variable spending (jar money). I broke down and FINALLY bought myself some new prescription glasses.  The ones I am currently wearing are three or four years old and are the wrong prescription for me.  My eyes are different already by a full point, so this has been increases the frequencey and...

My Mom's Bread Recipe

Krystal and Frugal Dreamer were chatting about bread making on Twitter the other day and it got me thinking about my mom's amazing bread.  My brother's been making it for a while now, but now that he's moving out, I have an even larger reason to try to learn how to make it myself.  I think that I'm going to learn how to do it this winter... we could have a bread bake off, if that's even...

I love the GST Tax Credit

Woohoo! I just got $94.50 deposited into my bank account from the Government.  Thanks tax man. Now...what to do with this unbudgeted pile of mon...

My Jars - an Update

Jason from Canadian Savings  asked me a couple of great questions on my recent payday post that relate to how I use the jar system. Question One: How long do the jar amounts have to last you? I budget bi-weekly. So the $300 that I allocate for my variable expenses are for two weeks. Question Two: Do you track your spending? I have found that tracking wasn't as important for me as...

October Goals

I've seen quite a few folks posting monthly goals, so I thought I'd have a go at it too! Meet Christmas 2009 Goals of saving $500 Woohoo! this is already done with my first paycheque in October! Turn Sam's (old roommates) room into a spare room/office Right now, I have a pseudo spare room in the unfinished basement. I want to take this opportunity to make it a little warmer/friendlier....

It's Payday!

Hurrah, it's payday.  Here's a breakdown for the next two weeks. As mentioned last week, Jordan and I decided to but our house fund on hold for a month or two until things settle down with our housing situation.  Jordan also increased is truck repayment plan, and wanted to see how that...

Roommates - We Have None!!

So, it would seem that my gut instinct to transfer rent money over from one account to another was a good one.  Jordan and I got home this late this evening and there was a note on the fridge with my name on it. This is what it said: Dear Jessie, School has been hectic, I don't usually leave until 10pm on most nights, so my aplogies for my absence. I am writing this letter to inform you that...