so....I lost my phone

...in the Vancouver International Airport.

So sad.

I've contacted the lost and found and as of about 2pm on Tuesday afternoon, it hadn't shown up.  I would have left it there between 11:00am and 1:00pm on Friday. 

So - I have a few options.

1. Just buy a phone from Solo Mobile (my carrier).  This will cost about $100 for a very basic unit.
2. I could cancel with Solo which would cost $260 plus 30 days notice.
   2a. Jordan and I could change his plan to a family plan and we could try to get a wicked unlimited talking to each other for cheaper plan and get a new cell phone for $0
   2b. I could find my own right fit plan and get a new cell phone for $0 and try to get some sort of fab five plan and still have unlimited talking to Jordan.

hmm

so... to cancel, or not to cancel?

Shopping in Palm Springs

...was pretty fantastic!

The whole trip was fantastic actually.  I had four glorious days in the sun.  We lounged, we shopped, we swam, we walked, we explored! It was a good time!

Above is a picture of some of the clothes/shoes I picked up.

In total, I spent about $430 on:

• 
  
  9 new work shirts
• 
  
  1 new pair of work pants
• 
  
  2 pairs of work shoes
• 
  
  2 new purses

We shopped in outlet stores - so my shoes for example were regularly $120 (naturalizer) and I got them for $30.  Most of the deals I found were like that - just rediculous low price for very high quality.

I'm pleased!

The (eventual) Demise of My Alberta Student Loan

You read earlier this week about paying off my Canada Student Loan this April - it's a pretty exciting time.  There isn't anything more exciting right now, then the eventual demise of my Alberta Student Loan and becoming debt free.

As of May 1, 2010 my remaining debt will be $5,064.01.  My regular $75 bi-weekly repayments over the rest of the year total $600 - which will leave me with $4,464.01 remaining.  So that little number divided by the 17 pay days I'll have left as of May 1, 2010 is $262.58 bi-weekly. 

This is totally do-able.

It's hard to beleive, but it's actually possible.  I will be 100% debt free in 2010.

Financial Priorities

My recent raise and the prospect of paying off on of my student Loans in April, prompted me to re-evaluate the financial priorties I had established at the beginning of the year.  I spent a couple hours talking about it with my mom - and when I asked well how does this look (pointing to an excel spreadsheet) she would say, well what's important?

hmm...what's important?

well, at the beginning of the year my goals (other then paying off debt) were to reach some saving milestones.  They included:

• Saving $12,500 (in combination with Jordan) towards a house down payment
• Saving $2,000 in my RRSPs
• Saving $1,000 into a Christmas/Gift fund
• Saving $500 for clothing

I beleive that I now have some different priorities.

1. Saving $12,500 (with Jordan) towards a house down payment
• we're actually trending to $11,200 and change.  This goal will continue to go up in increments until we are at 20% off $300,000 or $60,000.
2. Saving $500 for professional/work clothes
• I had almost acheived this and am now using the money to go to Palm Springs.  I'm going to start by saving $100/bi-weekly until I'm to $500 and then I will keep it maintained by contributing $25/bi-weekly
3. Starting a new/used vehicle fund
• My car will eventually crap out so bad that I need to spend significant $$ on repairs or need to just buy new/used - I have no end goal for this, I just want to start being more prepared for vehicle expenses. 
4. Continuing to contribute to my Christmas Fund for all the other gift giving oppotunities that come up every year
5. Continuing to contribute to my Emergency Fund until I have 3 months of essential expenses saved up.
• I currently have $1,100 saved and I think I need about $2,800
6. Starting a travel fund
• This might be flights to visit my Best Friend in Vancouver, or it could be gas to go camping - but either way I need to start putting money away for this.  It's important to the people in my life so it's important to me. 

Starting in May, you'll see the above categories represented in my bi-weekly budgets.

April's a Big Month

Not only do I get a raise this month and a third pay cheque.  I'll also have 96 hours of overtime paid out.  I'm going to make some huge strides towards some of my goals and be able to re-evaulate my current goals.

The following bi-weekly budgets (April 16th and April 30th) have some pretty big assumptions about what my new pay will look like and how much my overtime is worth - but I'm hopefully that I've done the math right.

They key things to notice are the gift fund categories and the CSL Lump Sum Pay.

What the above means, is that come the end of April I will have paid off my Alberta Student Loan and reached my Christmas savings goals!!!

That's prety darn incredible if I do say so myself.

Bi-Weekly Budget - there isn't one

Me not being organised combined with going to Palm Springs combined with the Easter weekend means there's all sorts of un-rest in my bank....
That said my credit card is paid off and I have $154 American and $260 Canadian to get me to Palm Springs and back.  I'm leaving $50 behind for groceries for Jordan (to fill up the fridge while I'm away) so we're all sorted.  I'll be chipping in $100 to go towards accomodation in PS's and I'll chip in whatever seems fair for food after the weeks through - but I figure that will be around $50-$75.  So I will have between $250 for other......

What does other mean?  Well, I'm not really sure.

I hope to do a bit of tourist-y stuff...would like to do some shopping - or at least see what shopping is like in the states.  We'll see how it goes. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

11.32%

11.32% could mean a lot of things.

Would you like to know what it means to me, today?

i got a raise!!!!!

yea. that's right. a big freaking raise. 

Effective April 3, 2010 my new annual salary will be $53,000 (it's currently $47,000). Whoa! 

After running some numbers - I'm guessing that will be about $160 more each pay.  Though, I now pay for parking on a bi-weekly basis (comes right of my pay) - so it will be an effective increase of about $145/pay.  There are a few things I could do with that money:

• Pay off student loans faster
• Increase my discretionary bi-weekly spending (entertainment, food etc)
• Increase the amount I save to spend (my 'funds' ie. house fund, christmas fund ect)
• Save more (RRSPs or Emergency Fund)

Given that I will join my company's pension plan this October (means automatic 5% deductions and 5% match to retirement savings) - I think I can wait on increasing my retirement savings - but other than that, I'm not sure what to do.

What do you think?

My mom suggested put 1/3 bi-weekly into my discretionary spending - to enjoy the fruits of my labour and to put 2/3s towards my student loans.

I asked Jordan and he immediately said pay off the debt.  I was surprised and said so - b/c he usually says that I save too much.  He said that he really wants to see me in a newer/safer vehicle and to do that, we both need to get our debts paid off.  He's love for me to spend more (discretionary spending) - but knows that it's unlikely I would put all the money towards it - so he'd rather see me pay the debt off.

interesting....

so - what do you think?