Planned Spending

Okay, so yesterday we looked at our day to day spending to see if that was in alignment.  Today I thought we would look at our planned spending.  

On average we spent about $1,770 each month that we had planned for (or had intended to plan for).  Again, I went through the categories generally last week, and I don't mean to re-hash it, the idea here is just to see what we need to be doing to be ready for 2016.  Remember, this isn't spent every month - we might have months of spending nothing and then need to replace a windshield for example.  The idea is that we're saving each month so that when something does come up, we've got the cash ready.

So, the reality is that we just cannot spend like this in 2016.

My employer paid top up is almost done, and we only have EI for the rest of the year.  I have no idea what I'll be doing for work come 2017 so we need to be modest.

I think though, we can start with what we have currently saved and match that up against what we would need if we DID spend like we did in 2016 and see what the gaps are.

We already know that we're not intending to spend the money that we still have in the baby fund, and that there's no foreseeable reason to spend like that in 2016 - Little Man only needs on crib after all.  We're 100% here anyways, so we don't need to worry about money for him.

Vacation and Christmas/Gifts has just been depleted.  Christmas this year was about $2,500, there would have been a big chunk in July and then the rest spread out throughout the year.  So - we won't be able to be as generous with each other or with our friends/family this year...well, generous in terms of cash spent, we can still be generous with our time and our love of course.  

I think that Emergency/Vehicle should be saved for - we're just about there anyways, and with two vehicles, this is pretty accurate year over year in terms of the cash availability we need to have.

Maintenance is the other biggy.  There's already enough for my annual professional designation membership and some for clothes but nothing for the physical maintenance of our home....good thing we're selling it lol.  I often draw from this account for big pantry stock-up Costco runs.  So, we might need to re-think how we do those, or doing them at all.

Are there any big cuts that you're making to your budget for 2016?

I haven't done a 2016 budget post outside of updating the Current Budget tab at the top because we're so in flux that I'm doing lump sum savings rather than automatic, but I think this post really helps cement what we have money for and what we don't.

Draft 2014 Budget

Since Jordan receiving his raise, I've been spending some time working on the 2014 budget.  I thought I would put it out to all of you for some feedback before we finalise things.  I've also assigned budget percents and added them up in Gails Life Pie Categories.  We don't line up perfectly - but I'm happy we've got really good balance here.

On to the breakdown...

In December we will be look at our cell phones and trying to get a good plan in place for the both of us - I'm also crossing my fingers that Jordan's work will start paying for half the bill.

I'm currently shopping for Auto Insurance - but it looks like we're already getting pretty stellar rates.

Monthly spending includes gas, groceries, entertainment, pets, haircuts, clothes etc.  - it's everything and is currently $300/week which is down from $375 since getting the new car we expect to save a lot on gas.

As I have a pension, we contribute less to RRSP for me and more for Jordan.

The Baby Fund TSFA is counted as savings right now but the intent for this is income replacement when I'm eventually on maternity leave (no, not preggo, just planning ahead).

We've broken the LOC debt into two parts.  One is for the purchase of shares which is considered savings as it's a long term investment. The other is debt we expect to carry forward from the backyard project.  We anticipated being able to pay more of this off then we were.

Also planning on saving more for emergencies/vehicle repair (winter tires for the new car), Christmas/gifts and vacation - we always spend it, so want to plan on saving more (this is included in the life part of our pie).

Questions?  Thoughts? Suggestions?

These draft leaves us with about $2,000 left over.

Doing it All?

It's hard to believe that I haven't written since Monday as I sure have been doing a lot of talking about money.  Most notably was a conversation I had with Jordan which started out as one about my vehicle crapping out and turned into one about how we manage our money and communicate that with each other.

There are a lot of things that we want...a wedding...a house...a new vehicle.  We also want peace of mind.  Can we have all of those things, do you?  I think that we can, I'm just not sure that we can all at the same time.

Let's start with the peace of mind.

We have recently depleted our emergency fund and are down to a measly $75.  As we have so many plans right now - I can't see where we can get the money to fund this up to say, $2,500.  A number that Jordan and I are both comfortable with.

My suggestion is that we use any Christmas bonus' (approx $500-750), Jordan's GIC ($500) and any tax returns to fund it.  That in conjunction with continuing to put away $100/month - should have it back to respectable levels within the first few months of the new year.

Next, is our vehicles.

You may have noticed that we don't/haven't budgeted for vehicle maintenance/expenses as a category of its own.  This is paid for from our 'other' category. We are finding from the tracking of our spending, that we're actually spending about $115/month on repairs - every month!  That seems a bit ridiculous.  To compound that my car and Jordan's truck need more work.  My steering is acting up and I think i'm burning oil - apparently expensive things to fix.  Jordan's check engine light is on - (has over 400,000km) and so may need some big work as well.

Our thought is to purchase a new vehicle (2010 so has better discounts than the 2011's coming up).  We're looking at either a Ford Escape or a Ford F150 which would work for our lifestyle.  Buying another small, used car that won't last - won't work.  We need something safe for me and a couple of kids and something that we'll work for camping and moving my horse (towing capacity) and potentially a camping trailer 5 or 6 years down the road. I expect our new vehicle to last upwards of 10 years, if not longer - so that means spending a bit more money now.

So, the next big things are a wedding and a house.

Jordan said that he's willing to put off the house to keep everything else on track and keep me in safe ride.  I think that maybe we could look at a Condo instead of a house - so we can be on our own without roommates, and keep costs down.  While condo fee's will be a factor there are condo's for sale at about the $200K mark in this city of ours.

If the numbers I'm guessing to the left are accurate, we could still save about $500/month for the wedding.  We would have $10,000 come bill paying time - which granted is about $5-7,000 short of what we need - we could certainly look at doing a bit of trimming.

Jordan did also say that he would be happy to shave some of our 'planned spending' down and our allowance to order to make this work.  My mom felt that we still need our allowance to have a bit of independence, but we could certainly cut our spending some.

So, all of this....the thought of doing it all....is what has my head spinning - and why I've been so quiet.  We've been thinking and talking a lot about what our next move is going to be.  We're both wanting to take a leap - but it's certainly a bit scary!

I'd love comments, questions...support ;) If you have any to give.

Student Loan Plan of Attack....

One of my goals for 2010 is to completely pay off my student loans.  Now that we're into the swing of things for 2010, I thought I'd review my plan to get it paid off.

The combined balances (after today's deposit) are standing at $8,007.  The Alberta loan is sitting at $5,342 and the Canada loan is sitting at $2,665.  Here's a visual of my plan:

As mentioned in my goals post, I'll need to come up with about $2,500 extra (plus a couple hundred for interest).  I haven't got a chance to do my taxes yet, but once I get my paperwork in, in a few weeks, I'll be sorting that out.  I'm hoping that I can get a solid $2,000 from taxes to put towards my student loans - otherwise... i'm going to have to figure out how to make more money.  Although April is when we get raises at work - it's hard to say what will happen this year.

It's pretty sweet that I'll get my Canada student loan paid off within a week of Jordan paying off his truck!  July will be a month for celebration!!

I am now an owner!

One of the unique and awesome things about the company I work for is that it is 100% employee owned, in an industry where that is pretty rare (from my understanding of it). All salaried employees can join the share purchase program and put however much away each pay day towards their purchase. You can purchase shares twice a year (end of June and end of December). I’m sure some of you saw the budget line and tracking bar I had, working towards my first share purchase.

This past December the minimum purchase was 20 shares (and then you can buy in increments of 5), thanks to a stellar interest rate when they set the prices, I was able to buy 25 shares!

I feel pretty excellent about that!

It’s confidential information, so I can’t share exactly the structure/dividends pay – but it’s pretty good.

The shares are more than a financial investment, it’s an investment in my career. For me to be able to reach lofty heights in this company – I need to reach a certain….status….we’ll call it. The minimum number of shares for this status, is around 1,700…. So I certainly have a way to go – and owning the shares isn’t the only thing I need to do to reach this status, but it is one of the core requirements. I figure if I buy them up now, it’s less I have to buy in a lump sum fashion 10 or 15 years down the road. It also helps my management team see that I have an ownership mentality, and plan on making something of myself here.  

denied... no CHRP for me in 2010.

I recently wrote about my desire to achieve my CHRP designation and my application to receive an award through work that would pay for it.

Unfortunately, I wasn't selected as a recipient. I was right at the cut off line :(

Dear Jessie,

On behalf of the Regional Directors and the Continued Learning Awards Review Panel, we would like to inform you that your application has not been retained for a Continued Learning Award for 2010. Thank you for your interest and we appreciate the efforts put into your application preparation. We also wish you the best in the continuation of your program.

You will receive an announcement letter in the mail in the next week. If you have any questions, please contact the CLA Review Panel member for your region.

Unless I come up with $1,500 on my own, it's not in the cards this year.

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 income is $2,690.45 (this assumes bi-weekly contributions of $10 into my share fund, not $50 as I have been doing).

• What our house fund contribution would look like
• How much I could commit to my student loans
• What savings funds I wanted
• Specific goals I wanted to achieve

The largest goal we have coming up is the possible opportunity to buy my great aunts home next year.  Due to that, our largest goals are getting my student loans paid off, getting Jordan's truck loan paid off, and accumulating money in the house fund.

A few notes

• Everything that has a * next to it represents an amount that will be divided in two and contributed to bi-weekly.  
• The total left over is my everything else/other/entertainment money.  After a great conversation with Jordan and discussing the psychological benefits of it - I've decided not to put this in a physical 'jar' but leave it in my account.  I will have a notebook that i can track my spending in next year.
• I will keep the Food/Transportation jars and Jordan will continue to contribute to the Food jar.
• My horse board actually varies between $90-$165/month
• The joint account represents rent, utilities, phone, internet, and TV.  Jordan contributes the same amount bi-weekly
• I will continue to post and stick to, bi-weekly budgets, this is just 'big picture'
• I will look at getting rid of bank fees, but I have them now - so I budget for them now

Okay - here it is:

According to Gail Vaz-Oxlade's budgeting system, here is how i measure up:

It looks like I'm doing okay - what do you think?  Do you have any questions, would you recommend any changes?

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 fund or max out my RRSPs.  I don't have unlimited funds - I can probably either do one of these things really well or all of these things half-a$$ed.

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 money out in cash every two-weeks it will be easier to accumulate so that I can actually buy some new clothes.

New clothes?!  Is that a need?

Actually, it is.  I work in a professional industry where presentation (self presentation and the presentation of my work) is very important.  Currently, my professional wardrobe is seriously lacking.  Plus I'm down to one good bra.  The girls need some support and one bra just isn't going to cut it!!  I am, we'll say, well developed in this front (ha-ha) and the two for $39.99 at La Senza (or wherever you smaller chested ladies shop) just isn't going to work it for me.

On my next pay I'm going to give this fund a bit of a jump start with $200 (which MIGHT by me two bras).  Following that I'm thinking $20/bi-weekly to this fund.

I'm wondering how much cash I'll have to stash before heading out to the stores.  Is $20/bi-weekly enough?  I have no clue what my goal should be.

I would so love advise on this one!

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 Set

This WAS going to be a post asking for help in deciding which cookware set to go with, but we took the plunge and bought the Paderno 11-pc 'Flair' Cookware set.

The set is made from solid stainless steel and has a 25 year warranty.  It's oven and dishwasher safe as well.  The Flair set that we picked up includes a 1L, 2L, 3L, and a 4L saucepan a 5L dutch oven and a 24cm non-stick fry pan.  It also comes with five lids.

You can see that the list price was $700.00, we first found it at sears.ca for $300 and thought that was a steal!  On the advise of mom, we checked out the Paderno website, and were able to buy the set we liked best for an additional savings of $60.90 when comparing the price with the sears.ca 'sears day' sales!

We spent a total of $254.09 after shipping and taxes.


We ordered it on Monday night and it should be here by October 16th.

Planning For the Future - Episode Two

Yesterday I wrote about making a plan with the funds I'll have 'left over' each pay period, and I briefly mentioned that the money could go towards my student loans.  I'm actually quite surprised that folks didn't put a larger emphasis and paying down this debt. Perhaps it is because student loans are traditionally looked as as 'good debt'

Part of the conversation my mom and I had was about aligning my student loan debt repayment plan to reflect our goal of having all of our debts paid of prior to buying a home in a few years.  With Jordan ramping up his truck loan payments, I think I should increase my payments as well.

So, below I present two cases.  One is to apply this years 'left over' $1,300 towards my debt AND re structure my payments to have them paid off in two years.  The other is to assume the lump sum goes somewhere else and JUST re structure the payments to have them paid off in two years.

As of August, 2009 I owe the following:

Alberta Student Loan Owing: $ 5,593.78

Canada Student Loan Owing: $ 3,118.16 

Scenario One: Use the $1,300 towards student loan debt.


I would of course use that money towards the debt with the highest interest, which happens to be the debt with the lowest principal owing which would bring my balances to the following:

Alberta Student Loan Owing: $ 5,593

Canada Student Loan Owing: $ 1,818

If I continued my current payment ($75) as a minimum payment on the AB loan and had a payment of $375, it would take me approximately 5 months to pay off the Cnd loan.  After that I would have a full $450 to pay down the remainder of the AB loan.  In those five months, my AB loan would be brought down to (with the $75/month payment) $5,218.  It would take me about 12 months to pay this amount off with payments of $450/month. For a total debt reduction timeline of 17 months.


Scenario Two: Use the $1,300 towards something else entirely.


If I had a minimum payment of $75 on the AB loan and had a payment of $375, it would take me approximately  9 months to pay off the Cnd loan.  After that I would have a full $450 to pay down the remainder of the AB loan.  In those nine months, my AB loan would be brought down to (with the $75/month payment) $4,918.  It would take me about 11 months to pay this amount off with payments of $450/month.  For a total debt reduction timeline of 20 months.

So using scenario one will only actually save me about 3 months if I choose to increase the money dedicated to paying off my student loans by $300/month AND use an extra $1,300 to help pay them down.

That's not actually a very big difference between the two.  Of course, I would actually have to be able to come up with $300/month for this to work as well, which should be doable because I did have $500/month going towards my credit card debt.

With that in mind, I don't think I'll use the $1,300 for my loan - but I do think I'll look at increasing my payments again.

Planning For the Future

I had a great conversation with my mom last week and thought I would share some of it.  I told her that with my new saving plan in place I would be able to reach my 2009 goals by the end of the year and still have about $1,300 left over.  I was panicking because this money wasn't allotted - it doesn't have a plan!  We talked about increasing my entertainment/clothes jar allotment, putting it in my emergency fund, putting it in an RRSP, or using it to help pay down my student loans.

Mom thinks I should increase my entertainment fund a bit, and use the rest in RRSP's or my Emerg fund.  I'm wondering what you all think?  What would you do with it?

Here are some exciting excel spreadsheets to help illustrate my options.

This shows the 'left over' money I'll have for each pay period until the end of the year including the money I'll use to help reach my goals.  Right now I'll have about $1,300.

As you can see it's not very consistent and has huge ups and downs.

I should also mention that my bi-weekly budget for variable expenses continues to be $300.

Here is my current savings snowball plan to reach my 2009 goals:

So... what should I do with that extra money?!  I know it's not a lot, but I'd really like to figure out a plan for it.  After this weekend, I'm leaning towards increasing my entertainment fund - but I'd love to hear what you folks think.

My Horse!

No, this is not my horse; however, she might have one that looks just like this little guy!

Thats right, she might be pregnant.

As it turns out where she was located in April, a Stud broke through two fences to get to her. This stud (some say stallion) spent 6 days with Star and another mare.....

The gestation period for a horse is 10-12 months... So come next Spring I might have a foal to contend with.

But for now, we shall explore the costs of just bringing Starlight home. I have estimated high for some of these items, but I think It will be pretty accurate. I have already paid the deposit for key (for access to the pasture), and I do not NEED to do a pregnancy test - so that can wait a few months or longer. I will have to do vaccinations and pay for her first months board. I would like to offer my cousin, who is driving her to calgary, $50 for his trouble.

He is coming to Calgary anways - but in hauling a trailor with a 1500lbs animal, he decreases his fuel economy some. Im also assuming that I will start spending at least $30 more a month to visit Star. She is only about a 20 minute drive from the house, but if I go out often, which I intend to do, Ill have to pay for it in gas.

I do need to buy some new tack, but It may cost as little as $75 - I will need some brushes, bug spray, wd40, vaseline, gloves, new boots - oh wait, new boots. I will need about $200 for new tack.

Okay - so, now I have to come up with about $700. Great.


That was a little pessimistic... Realistically, I have to come up with about $500.


Hmmm.... How do I find $500 extra in my already very tight, tight budget....

Camping Costs!

Jordan and are planning a camping trip from Friday (June 26) to Wednesday (July 1) - I have been so wrapped up thinking and planning for this trip I haven't had too many brilliant ideas for posting.

Jordan suggested I write about how much it costs to go camping!

Over the last two years, it has cost a lot - and I couldn't tell you exactly how much. Between buying coolers, tents, all manner of cooking supplies, bedding, spare tents, ect - it's a lot. That said, all of those supplies will last us a lifetime (if not the next 7 years or more).

This trip, we just have to buy food and booze for ourselves and Jordan's little brother. Right now I'm thinking it will cost about $100/liquor and $150/food. Though, there will also be gas which will be maybe $150?? We are driving about 12 hours to and from the campground from where we live. This of course will be split between J and myself - so we'll see how it all shakes down.

I have already paid $200 for the camping spots, which I'm supposed to get $$ back from our friends - but somehow I doubt that it will happen.

There's got to be a way to do it cheaper - but I'm just sure how. Suggestions?

My EI Budget

I dediced to mock up a budget in case I were to get laid off. I'm assuming a few things:

1. I would qualify for EI


2. I would get at least 2 weeks severance ($1700 less taxes)


3. My severance would pay off my credit card entirely (which it would if you include the banked OT I have and vacation time owed to me).


4. I would get about $380/week after taxes in EI payments or $1500/month (see below)


5. I would have enough in my emergecny fund to get me through the first month. I'm almost there, I would need another $400.

There are some things that just wouldn't change. My Rent, utilities, car insurance, cell phone and student loan debt. However; I could probably lower my student loan payments.

If i could manage, I would not want to stop putting money away into savings - however; it would be significantly less (expect my house fund, I beleive I mentioned before that's non-negotiable for me at this point).

I would have about $300/month or $75/week for food, personal & other. Could be doable.

I think it would be alright to survive on that because I know that Jordan would help out wherever he could.

Do you have an EI budget? Do you think mine is realisitc?

Unemployment Insurance - Would I qualify?

Regarding the ‘fear’ of unemployment post the other day – I decided one way to combat that, is to know what would happen should I lose my job. If I already have a plan, a budget, and know what’s going to happen – then I will be more prepared and more calm.

I didn’t realize when I started writing that this post was so long.

So to be eligible for regular benefits (EI) I must show that:

• you have been without work and without pay for at least 7 consecutive days
• in the last 52 weeks or since your last claim ( called the qualifying period), you have worked for the required number of insurable hours

Okay, so what is the required number of insurable hours. Apparently, in Canada, this depends on what ‘economic region’ I am in.

When you show that you have at least 490 hours related to employment in the labour force during the labour force attachment period (the year prior to the qualifying period) you will need between 420 and 700 insurable hours (depending on my economic region – see below) to qualify for regular benefits. Otherwise, you will need a minimum of 910 hours to qualify regular benefits.

The Required number of hours for my region if I have worked at least 490 hours related to employment during the labour force attachment period is 665 hours.

Now, thankfully, in my case, I have worked full time for the last 52 weeks – which means I have about 1900 of employment hours. If I were to lose my job at this point – I wouldn’t have to worry about the labour force attachment period. That said; I would probably meet the minimum hours requirement of the labour force attachment period – although I was a student so it could be sketchy.

Okay – so I’ve learned that If I lose my job, I need to be unemployed and without pay for 7 consecutive days, and I know that I have worked enough hours to qualify for EI.

Next thing I learned was that:

• You must serve a 2-week unpaid waiting period before your EI benefits begin to be paid. Generally, this period is the first 2 weeks of your claim. This is like a deductible for any kind of insurance.


• If you have provided all the required information and if you can be paid EI benefits, your payment will be issued usually within 28 days from the date of filing your claim. If you cannot be paid, we will notify you of the decision made on your claim.

What that means is that you have to wait about a month to SEE ANY MONEY, and it will only be about two weeks worth of pay as you lose the first two weeks in the unpaid waiting period.

Okay.

So I would have to have one month’s expenses (at a minimum) to hold me over. Which I do! That’s great ($1000 in my E-fund currently).

But how much money would I get and for how long? Well you can receive EI in my economic region for 20 to 43 weeks!

They have a weekly benefit rate, which have a lot of different rules if you are low income or have children. For me the following would apply:

The basic benefit rate is 55% of your average GROSS insured earnings up to a yearly maximum insurable amount of $42,300. This means you can receive a maximum payment of $447 per week. Your EI payment is a taxable income, meaning federal and provincial or territorial, if it applies, taxes will be deducted.

This is how the payout is calculated *Note they always use the gross amounts*

1. We look at the total earnings you have been paid in the last 26 weeks ending with your last day of work.


2. We take into consideration the number of weeks in which you have worked in the last 26 weeks.


3. We determine the unemployment rate in your region and the minimum divisor that applies at that unemployment rate.


4. We determine your average weekly insured earnings by dividing your total earnings in the last 26 weeks by the greater of: a) the number of weeks you have worked in the last 26 weeks; orb) the minimum divisor number.Important: The divisor cannot be less than 14 or greater than 26.


5. We then multiply the result by 55% to obtain your weekly benefit.

Using my after tax income this is my calculation:

1. Total GROSS earnings in last 26 weeks = $22,500
2. Number of weeks worked in the last 26 weeks = 26
3. Current minimum divisor that applies (see above image of a spreadsheet) = 21
4. Determine average weekly insured earnings
a. $22,500/26 = $865.38
5. $865.38 X 55% = $475.96

So on the surface, my weekly benefit would be $475.96 However, I’ve already said that there is a maximum benefit of $447/week. So that’s what I would have to budget with.

Weekly Benefit = $447 (less taxes)

Which according to an online calculator would be about $380 after tax/week.

Do you know if you would qualify for EI Benefits, how much would you get?

Note:
I got most of this information from the Service Canada website.

Priorities

So – Gayle didn’t answer my question.

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?

Bi-Weekly Budgets

I'm curious how other people budget.

I currently have a monthly budget set up, where I assume two payperiods a month. This would work if my bills and savings plans were also based on two pay periods a month, but every so often (twice in fact) there are three pay periods a month. For me that is May and October & all of my savings/debt paymetns are bi-weekly. I've read about this elusive 'extra' pay cheque - but that just doesn't work for me b/c of how my funds are structured.

Which brings me to the realization that monthly budget for a bi-weekly gal, just isn't going to work.

I would like to have a budget that isn't different every two weeks, but this may be the best course of action. Does anyone else have this problem? The fear I have with a bi-weekly budget is that there may be monies from the first two weeks, that I need for the second two weeks bills...

Below is an image of what my May 29 - June 11 budget would looke like.

On the left there is this weeks pay (no deductions this week, woohoo!), plus my current balance (which contains Jordan's portion of the rent). After the two 'pluses' I have all off the debits that will occur within the next few days. These are all of my 'fixed' expenses. The utilities is a guess, but it will be about that.

After alllll of that.. I'm left with $388.73. My car needs a tank of gas, and I think it's my turn to buy groceries. I usually budget $200/month for groceries. Assuming I spend that, I will have $138.73.

$138.73 - That's Lame!

Yes, yes it is lame - but it's my fault that it's lame. Who's Visa payment is eating up a big part of what could be my discretionary spending? That would be my Visa.

Sigh.

So, what should I do with this $138.73?

• Do I hold on to it for 'in case I want something'?
• Do I put it on my visa to accrue that much less interest?
• Do I put it in planned spending/Christmas fund?
• Do I put it in my emergency fund?
• Or... is there something I'm forgetting...

hmm...

What would you do?

Not your typical "Jars"

I went home for Easter and spent some time walking & talking with my mom. I was feeling very overwhelmed with money and needed to vent. Above and beyond all my other ins and outs in terms of cash flow I'm also the point of money flow for myself and my three other roomates. So I get three rent checks a month and three utilites checks a month. Rent comes on generally in the first week but our landlord doesn't always deposit the rent money on the first and utilies are spread out throughout the month. So I basically have these huge influxes of money coming in and out. And although the utilities come out very regularly (everything is on automatic withdrawls) it's not always the same date - so hard to plan for.

I told my mom that I have about $150/week for my variable expenses (groceries, some planned spending categories, restaurants, and personal items). I'm not comfortable carrying that much cash around in my pocket, and with so many roomates I don't want jars of money laying around. On top of that - i've been getting zinged with bank fees (that were not planned for).

So after all that - we came up with a plan. I called ING and opened another savings account with them, but one that has a debit card (which I am currently waiting to receive). Every pay period I will automatically 'pay myself first' and $300 goes into that account. This way, I can use this new account for all of my day to day, variable, ins and outs. I will write it down and track it so I know where the $$ is going.

This will resolve my almost nerotic (my boyfriend J would say 100% nerotic) behaviour of checing my banking information every day at least twice a day - doing math in my head trying to figure out how much money I have, how much is already allocated somewhere else (like rent or utilties) and how much is mine.

So. I have one 'magic jar' (any gail fans will know what i'm taking about) which will be a no-fee savings account with debit card access. I should be able to carve up my credit card and debit card for my primary accounts where I have huge in's and outs. I'm going to give it 4 weeks before I do that - just in case I missed something.

This is my new plan. I hope it works.

Next Steps....

Yesterday I owned up to my debt and my savings goals, the good and the bad.

I think that the next step to becoming debt free is making a plan to dig myself out. I have set out to develop a budget myself. I have built in a buffer in that I make a little more than what my total expenses add up to. This way, if I over spend in one category, I don't go into my overdraft or have to use a credit card. I have essentially given myself an overdraft of my own income (this is an idea I got from reading Gail Vaz Oxlade's blog).

My Budget: