ING - Do you have your account?

I've noticed lately that a few bloggers I read have not yet opened an ING account.  I find ING one of the easiest ways to automate and track my savings goals.  Once your account is openend you can open as many (or as few) savings accounts as you like.  You can create trackers and automatic transactions (if you like) - and it's all free!! I have my emergency fund, Christmas fund, clothes...

November Top Referers

This is just a short thank you to my top referrers in November: Saving 4 Later Frugal Dreamer Canadian Savings Shaking The Money Tree Girl Makes Cents Give Me Back My Five Bucks Financial Catastrophizer Gail Vaz-Oxlade's Blog Small Steps for Big Change Punch Debt in The Face Thanks everyone!  I love the Love - you're some of my top reads as wel...

Bi-Weekly Budget - Tomorrow is Payday

I got my paystub this morning for tomorrow's pay, so I thought I would post my bi-weekly budget. My current balance is a little higher then usual as I transfered over the rest of my Christmas fund into my main account to pay my mom back from some shopping she helped me out with.  I...

Making More Money

Jordan has discovered a great way to make more money! Okay - well he probably didn't 'discover it' but he introduced it to me. On Monday night we participated in a two hour research panel and each made $75!  Not too shabby!  It was a group of 8 people (plus a facilitator) and he just guided th conversation around the topic at hand.  There were people behind a two-way mirror,...

Joy - Parking Rates Go Up...

Here's the e-mail I received this morning: Dear Parker, As you may already be aware, effective December 1, 2009 the monthly parking rate will be increased to $57.50 per month and for those customers who pay quarterly (every 3 months) the rate will be $170. Please note these rates include GST. For example, those customers who have paid for a 3 month period which includes December, the next billing...

Overtime Update

By the end of today I will have 26.75 hours of banked time - that's 35.67% of my goal of 75 hours before January 1, 2009.  I actually had another 7.50 hours, but I used that when my family was in town. So.. what does that mean?  Well, to reach my goal - I'll need to bank another 48.25 hours.  I have 4 full weeks left prior to the end of the month, and two short week when Christmas...

...an update on my recent raise

Last month I wrote about the raise I received which was effective on October 3, 2009. I guessed at what my income would be, and even shared what my first new pay cheque looked like, but now that I have had a few, I thought I would share what my income looks like now. My benefit premiums are split over two pay periods each month, dental comes off of each and my Long Term Disability premiums come off...

2010 Monthly Budget - Draft

I've been humming and hawing for the last month or so about what my 2010 budget will look like.  Before I could post it, we had to figure out a few things. What my salary would be in 2010 Tomorrow I'm giving a full update of my monthly salary, but for the purposes of my 2010 budget, my monthly...

My Canadian Credit Score

Your credit score is a judgment about your financial health, at a specific point in time. It indicates the risk you represent for lenders, compared with other consumers. In Canada, there are two credit reporting agencies: Equifax and TransUnion. You can receive either just your credit report via mail, or you can receive your credit report and your credit score if you pay a fee and order them...

Tracking Bar Updates

I have updated all of my tracking bars, and am pleased with the progress.  Here is a summary: Emergency Fund I'm exactly $75 short of reaching my $1,000 goal for 2009!  As I don't plan on changing my bi-weekly contributions - but the time January 1, 2010 roles around - I will have reached this goal! Shares Each pay $50 comes straight off my pay cheque and goes into an account managed by...

Payday!

Below is an image of my bi-weekly budget for the next couple of weeks.  You'll see that my first joint account payment is set to go, and last months utilities.  Jordan and my utilities will be held in the joint account and my past roommates will be held in my account - because so far, only...

What an uplifting experience....

this is a post for the girls... I love bra shopping! I breifly mentioned on an earlier post that I went bra shopping with my mom, aunts, and grandmother this past weekend.  We were all blessed, and cursed, with the same.....affliction body type. We are all in the range of 36G through to 42H (or higher - I'm guessing) - yeah, it goes up that high (and we're allll natural). These lovlies need...

Christmas Spending Update

When I first made a budget for Christmas, I just sort of guessed that $500 would work - well, it turns out that, that, is not a very realistic number.  I have a great many people in my life!  Not only that, so does Jordan.  Jordan had a great idea of giving gifts as a couple rather then gifts from each of us.  This will allow us to do one great gift intstead of two smaller ones...

I'll Never Forget

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Buying a Home of Our Own

As some of you know, Jordan and I are planning on buying my great aunts home in a few years when she is ready to move into an assisted living home.  We brought up buying her home about a year ago when she mentioned she was thinking she might move, that's when we started the house fund.  She was more then happy with the suggestion and we often talk about different things that we...

Overtime Update

Last week I was able to accumulate 8 hours of overtime, which was fantastic! As my family was in town this weekend, I had booked Monday off to spend a little extra time with them.  I used 7.5 hours of last weeks OT (instead of a vacation day) and so only increased my tracking bar by 0.50 hours.  This week, I hope to plug in a few more hours - and should be able ...

Weekend Update

I had an amazing weekend! I was actually pretty sick for most of it with an awful cold, but my mom, two aunts, and grandmother were in town for our annual Christmas Shopping Trip, and how could I complain about a cold in such great company.  I'm pretty sure I stayed on budget - but i'll check my receipts and do up a post on that later on. Not only did I accomplish a lot of Christmas shopping,...

It's here, it's here!!

Our couch has finally arrived!! Jordan and I are sitting, enjoying a hot cup of coffee before joining our family for Christmas shopping.  my aunt and jordan both think the room is screaming 'throw rug' - what do you thi...

House Fund Update

A while back, Jordan and I went on a bit of a spending spree and aquired some household things that we would need given the changes to the household. We bought a couch, a chair, a tv stand, a souround sound system, new pots and pans, some home decor, and a few kitchen odds and ends (popcorn popper, gravey boat, cups, mugs)...i think that about coveres it. Right before we did this, we had broken...

Household Bills Are In.

On the 5th of each month, I receive the final bill (of three) for the household for the previous month.  I don't know that I've posted this before, but I'm going to start so that I can keep track. Enmax $235.55 Bell $75.98 Shaw $41.39 Total = $352.92 what a fantastic number!  I've written about it before, but I will mention that I'm pleased with these numbers because over the last few months...

Common-Law

I've recently had to fill out some paperwork at work where I had to identify my relationship status.  After a few conversations with family and Jordan, we decided that we are very likely common law. As it turns out the law varies province to province and even federally. According to Wikipedia In Canada, the legal definition and regulation of common-law marriage fall under...

Getting Married

What does it cost? (ha-ha you thought Jordan proposed didn't you - don't worry, he hasn't) Jordan and I did have a conversation a weekend or two ago about what we thought a wedding would look like if it happened in the next year or two.  We even got as far as making a guest list. Jordan Dream: Jordan really wants to have a wedding/reception in a fancy hotel where we can eat/sleep/wed ect all...

Debt Update

I don't believe that I posted an update on my total debt for a while, though I think that most of you know it is down to just student loans.  As my student loan payments just went through, I thought I would post an update. I am 38.91% towards my goal of being 100% debt free.  Slowly...

November Goals

Writing out my goals for October seemed to work pretty well, so I thought I'd have another go of it for the month of November. Clean up Halloween decorations within the first couple of days Resist decorating for Christmas until the last weekend of November Start Christmas shopping Have a fabulous time visiting my mom How about some financial Goals as well: Reach 2009 goal of $1,000 in my emergency...

October Goals - Recap

Last month I tried posting monthly goals for the first time, here's the results: Meet Christmas 2009 Goals of saving $500 Turn Sam's (old roommates) room into a spare room/office Decorate the house and my workstation for Halloween Learn how to make apple cider Incomplete Start second phase of overtime/filing project at work.  There we have, I met 4 out of 5 goals.  I didn't get a chance...

Joint Cheques Arrive

This past Friday, our joint cheques arrived!  It was pretty amazing to see both of our names at the top of the cheques, with our address. We dropped of six months worth of rent cheques to landlord (November through to April) - we've just got to remember to put a reminde rin our calander's that we'll need to write a few more come May.  When we were writing out the cheques, we actually took...