About Me

Monday, May 31, 2010

Weekend Wrap-Up

Went to T.O. again. I'm actually going to miss it when BF is done his placement. He was so much closer being in Toronto and there was always a ton to do! This weekend we went out to a bar on Friday for drinks. We were seated and given menus, and waited for a waitress to come. TWO other groups of people came in AFTER us and both had their orders taken and were served before us! I thought it was ridiculous so I told BF we were leaving. We went to another bar a little bit further down Bloor St. It was great! We were seated quickly and our food and drinks were delivered fast. They also had a live band that pointed us out when we came in and made us sing a part to one of their songs. It was a lot of fun, I'm glad we decided to leave the first place.

Saturday we went shopping at Yorkdale. That mall is huuuuugee! Is it bigger than the Eaton's Centre? I forgot my hairbrush and have relatively long hair so could not go without one. I got that along with some flip flops from Ardene's ($16 for 3 pairs), and a dress from Fairweather ($15) BF bought me the hairbrush yay! That evening we hung out with his roommates and then went out for supper at a place off Yonge St.

Today we packed a picnic and went to The Beaches again. The weather was perfect and I wore my new dress and sandals. As soon as we got off the bus there were girls giving away free cokes. Sweet!! So we walked around and sipped on those and then sat in the shade and ate our lunch. We felt the water and then went home. We made a stirfry for supper and then I left.

We only have one more weekend in Toronto. We are actually going to make it a long-weekend. We are both going to take next Monday off work and go to Canada's Wonderland. BF has never been there!! My roommate also wants to meet up and maybe go to a mysteriously yours dinner theatre. Has anyone gone to one of these dinner and a murder events??

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Where is the Best Place to Buy Prescriptions?

I need to get a prescription filled soon. Where is the cheapest place to get them refilled? I have been going to Shoppers forever but I've heard Costco is cheaper.

I cannot go to Costco as it's an hour away and I don't have a membership card. What about Walmart or Pharmaplus? Any other places that you know of that have a cheaper fee to have prescriptions filled?

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Shorts for Free?? What Would You Do?

BF and I went shopping on Saturday at Vaughan Mills. I bought some shoes and some clothes.

At one store (Bluenotes) I bought two pairs of jeans, two pairs of shorts, a pair of capris and a membership card. Buying the card actually saved me $15! Looking at the receipt now I noticed that they did not charge me for one pair of shorts. They were $14.50.

I do not plan on going back to this mall anytime soon. I do pass the mall on my way home from BFs house but it's usually closed by the time I'm going home and during the day it's SUPER busy. Should I just consider this a free item? Has this happened to you before? Did you go back and pay for the item or keep it since it was a mistake by the store. I'm leaning toward keeping it, I really don't want to go back to that mall to pay MORE money. What would you do?

Monday, May 24, 2010

Here Comes the Sun

What a nice day it was today!! BF and I were in Toronto and we took a subway to the Beaches. Neither of us had been there before and it was really nice. It was soooo busy there though! We only stayed a couple of hours because I needed to get home. They have a HUGE boardwalk there and a huge beach. We are going to go again more prepared (pack a picnic and bring towels and sandals).

This weekend we visited my roommate and her boyfriend and had sushi. She also gave me a sewing book as an early birthday present. :) I should get back into sewing.

BF and I also went to Gretzky's restaurant and then to Second City. The food was good, we were stuffed! The show was sooo funny. It was not like I expected. It was called Second City for Mayor and I thought it was going to be one long play about politics, but it was a bunch of skits about random things. BF also got picked on AGAIN by one of the characters. It was really funny, and the improv was VERY well done!!

We did some shopping at Vaughan Mills. I bought some shoes and some summer clothes. In my budget for next month, not this one. Oops, so will have to do some rearranging to accommodate for that!

Hope you had a fantastic LONG WEEKEND!! What did you do??

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Spend Day

I've spent a lot today! Too much?!??!

I woke up and took my car in to get an oil change. It was a dirty old garage so instead of waiting and reading my book I took a walk. To a local coffee shop and bought a sandwich. There goes $5.20

I get back and my car is done. However I needed a new oil filter so that along with the oil change came to $76

Then I wanted to pick up BF a few things because he has been bored at his apartment with no cable, or internet and limited phone use. So I headed off to wal-mart. I bought him some movies and snacks and some cereal for myself that came with a free Adidas soccer t-shirt (soooo cute! I ordered them online today and it comes with free shipping!). That trip totalled $21. But I'm happy with that because I got a number of items and two soccer t-shirts coming. I ordered the one regular one and one blue one, it's cute!

I come home and start eating my sandwich and my mom calls and invites me to meet her at a local restaurant for lunch. We go and I have a delicious chicken salad. She paid, score!!

As I am leaving I pass the Pharmaplus and remember I have some coupons to redeem and I heard they were having some good sales this week. So I head there. I picked up 4 boxes of girl stuff (geeze that stuff is expensive), 2 deodorants for BF, a bodywash for BF, and a shampoo for myself all for $23. I saved $19 either by coupons or sales. I NEEDED one item, and the rest were just extras...bad GMC. Do you use coupons? I don't usually but I went to this site save.ca and you can pick the coupons you like and they will send them to you in the mail.

Thennnn I head to the bank. The EURO has hit a new 4 year low and so I decide to get $500 worth of EUROs. This cost me $660.20 CAD. It's a pretty good exchange rate compared to what it was a few months ago. It still could go down more but at least now I am set for the trip.

I then went to the clinic to renew a perscription but it turns out I forgot my health card at home, so went home and then back to the clinic. I waited for 40 minutes and then I had to go to my dentist's appointment. So yay I avoided another costly item, but boo I need to go back soon to get it and I wasted 40 minutes reading Oprah magazines.

I get to the dentist 15 minutes EARLY. They come and take me 10 minutes LATE. Does that annoy you? They said I have not had the big 360 x-ray thing done in 7 years so I need to do it along with my regular check up. Yay no cavities! Then I go to pay and it's $217. Yikes. I then go home and my mom asks me if I showed up late to my dentist appointment? I said no and that I was early. She said that they called at 4:03 asking where I was on the answering machine. Grrrr now THAT is annoying! I also didn't get a proper receipt, I just got a receipt saying my payment went through so I am going to have to go back to get a REAL receipt. I hope they didn't charge me a late fee or anything!!

All together I spent $1002.40 today EEEEK!! I hope your day was easier on the wallet than mine!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Where To Buy Euros??

I have a feeling I've asked this before but I can't find the answer. Maybe I just searched for it myself and forget the answer.

Anyway, the EURO dropped to a new low. The lowest it has been in four years. I like this because I am heading to Europe in a little over 6 weeks. Where is the best place to purchase EUROs? Is it here in Canada at a bank? Or at one of those currency things you see at malls? Or should I just wait and do it when I actually get to Europe??

I seem to think the last option was the most economical. However, who knows what the EURO will be worth in 6 more weeks. Any suggestions???

In other news, I've added more money to my funds! I added $200 to the Family Loan, I also added $250 to TFSA, $140 to Christmas/Gift Fund, and $100 to Travel Fund. The travel fund is just $50 short of meeting my revised goal ($1000). I should be able to complete that by the end of June right before we leave. Off to update status bars!!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Calling In Sick

I'm sick. I felt it coming on yesterday and then this morning when I woke up it was not good. I was not going to be able to teach today. I waited about 15 minutes and then at 6:30 I called in sick. Hopefully they were able to find another supply teacher. I felt bad, I HATE calling in sick. But as a teacher I think it's good when the teacher calls in sick to avoid other kids and teachers also catching the cold.

It's also too bad because now I have lost out on a day of work. You work, you get paid. You don't work, you don't get paid. I slept for another 5 hours and then had some lunch. I'm feeling A LOT better now and hopefully will be able to work tomorrow. I can definitely use the money especially because next week is already cut short with the long weekend!

Do you get paid sick days? Do you call in sick often?

Life in Toronto....Tickets Suck

It's fun! Every weekend I visit BF is like a mini-vacation. There is a lot to do and see in T.O.

This weekend we went to his sister's apartment which is close to Ryerson. We had supper and drinks with her, her boyfriend, and BF's brother and his GF. It was a lot of fun. We took the subway home.

Saturday BF made me brunch and then we walked around the Annex area. We decided to go out for sushi for supper. It was an all-you-can-eat place. It wasn't the best sushi I've ever had but the price was decent. We then bought a subway day pass and headed up Yonge St. We headed up to Absolute Comedy. We went too early though so we strolled Yonge St for a while. The show was good, the host was the funniest. We sat near the front and the host asked us how long we had been dating for. BF answered and he told us we were a cute couple and made fun of us for dating for so long and looking young. He said that BF must have asked me out while we were playing on a slide. The comedians were funny and our faces hurt from smiling by the end of the show.

This morning we leave to go out for breakfast and notice that I got a parking ticket. Darn. I knew it would happen eventually. It was $30. There is no parking around so I decided to risk it and park on the street without a permit. The by-law came by at 2:11am and gave me a ticket on my windshield. I paid it tonight and have now purchased a permit for next weekend. The permits are $19.32 for a week. So I'll be getting those for the next 3 weekends he has left to live there, I don't like paying for parking!! On the bright side breakfast was delicious. Then we went to High Park again. This time we took the subway which was wayyyy easier than driving and finding parking. We saw the animals and walked around for a while. It was so nice out! We then went back and got some food for supper and made it together and ate on his front steps.

I had a nice weekend. I'm looking forward to going back. We are thinking about checking out another park, and maybe the cinema on bloor. Maybe even Canada's Wonderland one weekend. BF has NEVER been there!!!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Lack of Sleep

I haven't been sleeping well lately. I blame the playoffs. Darn those late-night hockey games. Then after hockey I'm usually still wide-awake and decide to watch late night....usually Jay Leno and a bit of David Letterman. Those shows are so funny! I usually set my TV to sleep and then fall asleep watching them which is typically around midnight. Then I need to get up at 7am to work the next day.

7 hours of sleep is not enough. I think I may make "get more sleep" a goal of mine for the rest of this month. I am very awake once I get up, but getting up is hard to do!! I always regret not going to bed early when my alarm is beeping at me, but then the very next night I don't want to go to bed early. It's a vicious, vicious cycle!

How about you, how much sleep do you get an average night? Are you a night or morning person? Are you able to function 100% without a good night's sleep?

I was reading about "sleep debt." Yep just like money debt we have sleep debt where we need to "pay back" our bodies the sleep we deprived it of. So THAT'S why I sleep in on Saturdays!! The average adult needs 8 hours per night! I need to work on that! Kids (6-10) need 10-11 hours of sleep! Wow that's a lot of sleeping!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

A Little This, A Little That

I went on my volunteer trip this weekend. It was freezing cold! But the girls had a lot of fun. I didn't get a lot of sleep because another leader was snoring!! Ahhh, I really hope my future husband does not snore!! My favourite part was getting to pet a lemur and a baby tiger! SO CUTE! I now want a lemur, Kirstie Alley has a few!

I am working at LEAST 4 days this week (woohoo). As of right now I do not have anything booked for tomorrow, hopefully something comes up though!! So I am going to get another big chunk of my family loan paid off at the end of this month when the next paycheque comes in. Can't wait!!! Do you also get super excited knowing you are going to pay off debt?

I am also reading this new book I received. It's called Money $mart Mom. I'm on chapter 4 and it's really interesting, and I'm not even a mom! The author (Sara Deveau) is Canadian and she is a Gail Vaz-Oxlade fan too. I love her writing, she is very practical and down-to-earth. I plan on doing a book review sometime later this month.

I was sent an e-mail yesterday regarding retired teachers supplying. They changed the rule and now instead of retired teachers being limited to work 95 days a school year for the first three years and then 20 days every year after that, they are now being limited to 50 days a school year for as long as they would like to supply. I'm not sure if I like this better or not. Hopefully it will create more jobs for supply teachers (at least later in the school year). Time will tell.

My shows The Biggest Loser and Parenthood are on tonight. Anyone else watch those shows? I want Sunshine to win TBL, she is just very sweet, we are the same age, and she deserves it. Parenthood I have watched from the beginning, it's a very cool show! I like how it focuses on the different families and incorporates special needs (autism and giftedness), financial issues (dad made poor decisions on some property), life issues, relationship issues, and of course parenting issues, etc.

Hockey is also on. Common Vancouver!! Any hockey fans, who are you cheering for? I'm cheering for one of the Canadian teams (Vancouver or Montreal), or Pittsburgh (Sid the Kid) to win.

*While writing this post I received another call to work tomorrow, yayyyyyy! A full week of work.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

E-Fund Funded

Another sidebar at 100%!!!!!

Today I was able to put another $500 toward the E-Fund.

My E-fund is actually my regular bank account. So I am going to keep a minimum of $1500 in there at all times. I'm actually going to aim for $2000 (which I am at right now) and that way if I go under $2000 it's okay. If I go under $1500 though I am charged bank fees, BLAH!

So now I will have a little bit of leeway room. $500 of leeway.

Next paycheque money will go toward the family loan now that this E-fund is topped up. Glad it's done with, and I am excited to see that family loan bar increase some more!!

I think $1500 is fine for me right now. It's easy access money being in my regular bank account (no holds), and I always have my TFSA if I need extra (hopefully I won't ever even have to use that E-fund). It's nice knowing it is there though, just in case.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms! Thanks for all you do.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Friday, May 7, 2010

How Much Cashola Do You Carry?

My cousin and I had a conversation the other day about her boyfriend and the fact that he is cheap.

He NEVER carries cash. Nothing.

They go out and often the bill comes to under $20. He thinks it's a waste to use his debit card on something so small and she ends up footing the bill. She gets mad at him that she is always paying for everything and he never carries around any cash. She said she likes to keep at least $100 in her wallet at all times.

I said I'm lucky to have $20 in there. She was surprised.

Right now I have $24.76 in my wallet. That is only because my brother gave me $20 for gas last night.

I started wondering what most people do. How much cash do you typically carry with you daily?

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Semi-Bad Volunteering Experience

As some of you may know I am a Brownie Leader (younger than Girl Guides). This is my second year (every week for 2 hours, for 10 months). I love it but dislike it at the same time.

I love....the kids! They are a hilarious group! They have a lot of fun and enjoy the programming. There are also a few girls in the group who see this as a getaway once a week from their life. It's great to see them smiling, encouraging one another, and making new friends.

What I don't love....the other leaders. Blahhhh. They do program with me but they chat about other random things (mostly themselves) far too much and it's extremely frustrating. I have better things to do and we could be way more productive with our planning time. They are also not very involved with the kids, I end up leading most activities while they do the paperwork, they hardly smile and the kids come to me for EVERYTHING (if they have something to share, if they have something to ask, etc). Kids gravitate to those that give them structure and are friendly. I wish we worked better as a team. There are so many things I could tell you about this one leader I work with that I won't even get into.

Another thing that I don't like is that I end up paying to volunteer. Grrrr. A minor issue but still it's annoying. I had to pay money to take an online course. I also had to transport myself and take another face-to-face course which was 5 hours and very political. Things I did not need to know. Also I have to pay to go on the camping activities. It is at a reduced rate, but still I am paying $25 to volunteer 30 hours of my time this weekend. I don't think that is right. Minor, but I think the dues the kids pay each week, plus the cost of their registration and cookie money should be able to more than cover the cost for leaders and even reduce the rate of their own trip.

I don't know if I will do it next year, I may look into volunteering with a different Brownie or Spark group. I need new leaders. It's a great program for the kids and I really do enjoy volunteering! Have you ever had this sort of issue? Ever have a poor co-worker? Am I being cheap with the paying to volunteer thing?

What sort of volunteering do you do?

Monday, May 3, 2010

Full Day Turned Half

My alarm went off today, I got dressed to work and was eating breakfast and starting to make my lunch when the principal of the school I was to work at today calls. He said there was an error and that my full day was only a half day afternoon. Darn. I said that was okay and I'd see him at noon.

I spent the morning straightening my hair, making a lunch, organizing and cleaning my room. At least it was a productive morning. I also called the payroll department of my school board because I did a half day EA supply day back in March and still have not been paid for it. The woman I talked to said she would sort it out and I would be paid next pay period (which is the 14th).

On my way to work today I saw two Canadian geese leading 3 baby ones to the lake, they were very cute! Then a little further I saw a wild turkey, a nature filled day!

Off to volunteer now, hope you had a marvelous Monday!

Also, in case anyone is interested, today P&G have a new brand sampler package. http://brandsampler.ca/en_CA/home.php You sign up there and they send you a bunch of free samples! Some Pantene shampoo and conditioner, a Venus razor, some Crest floss, sample of Crest Whitestrips, etc. This is my first time doing it but I know the samples run out quickly. It also took me several tries on the website to totally complete everything since the site was so busy.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Weekend In Toronto

or Tronno as the locals call it ;)

After I got lost twice I met BF at his new apartment (a main floor of a house). Toronto is so crazy. Driving in TO is not fun, it stressed me out! Once I got to his house I also had to park on the street because the houses on his road didn't have driveways! I parallel parked which took me two tries (I'm not used to parallel parking at all). He gave me the grand tour, let's just say it's a shoes-on house (the tenants before were not the cleanest). There is a cleaning service coming in on Tuesday so hopefully they can get it cleaned up and freshened up. It's a small place but doable for the 6 weeks he is there. The part I like best is that BF has a bright purple room, lol.

We decided to hop on the subway and we got a day pass for $10 for both of us! I was starving so we went to a place on Yonge St. that had sushi. It was soooo good, really hit the spot. It was pretty much right across from this Church of Scientology which was interesting to see. Don't see those too often.

We then headed back on the subway and went to the Eaton's Centre. It is HUGE, we went into a few stores and I bought a new bathing suit, pair of flip flops and a hoodie. BF got some sandals and a collared shirt. We also went to this place called Lush and got a few bath soaps. Smelled so good!

We then hopped back on the subway and went back to his apartment to drop everything off. I'm so impressed we were able to navigate the subways so easy. Later that night we decided to have a couple drinks and then go walk to Bloor St. We did so and went to a place called The Pump to watch the hockey highlights, had a drink and some nachos. Mmmmm nachos.

Today we got up and walked back to Bloor St. We went to this place to have breakfast which I wouldn't go to again. The wooden tables were sticky, we ordered the exact same thing but BF got 3 eggs and I got 2, and I got about 5 pieces of bacon and BF got 2. After breakfast we went to Honest Eds where BF got some cleaning supplies and a curtain for his window. That store is HUGE! I don't even think we saw half of it!! They have an East and West wing and about 5 floors on each side. Crazy!

It started to clear up after that so we drove down to High Park. Thanks for the recommendations to go there! It was very nice, what a big park in the middle of Toronto. A nice getaway. We drove for about 10 minutes trying to find a parking spot. While we were looking for a parking spot we saw where the animals were, we both said we want to go there once we find a spot to park. We walked through the park for a while and NEVER found them! We are going to try again another weekend, it was a very nice and scenic walk. The trees are very pretty with their blooms right now.

We drove back and stopped at a grocery store so he has some food for lunches and we made supper together. It was a lot of fun this weekend. I spent about $150 including a tank of gas and clothing. Well worth it. I'm excited to visit again. I'll be going to TO again next weekend but won't be seeing BF, I'm going to Jungle Cat World with my Brownie group. I will be going back to visit BF in TO again the weekend after, already excited!