About Me

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Workin' Woman

I've been getting busier with work. I worked Monday and Tuesday. Then today I did a short shift at the rec centre. I will also be teaching Thursday and Friday. Will be teaching grade 7/8 those two days which is my least favourite grade to teach, but at least it's something. Another good thing about working so much now, is that October is a THREE paycheque month!! Yay!

October is generally a busy month. There is Thanksgiving, Halloween, and both of my brother's birthdays.

D and I were talking about Thanksgiving last night. His parents invited him to go to his grandparents house for Thanksgiving (3 hour drive). It will be a big family gathering and they plan to go for some wine tasting too. He would like to see his cousins but is not interested in the wine tasting. He said he might not even go. I said he should, it would be pretty boring here, and way less tasty.

My parents will be closing up their seasonal site so my family will not be doing anything for Thanksgiving. My best friend is coming up and her family's not doing anything either so we said we might go out for supper together. Some friends from elementary school are also planning a get-together on the Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend. It will be really nice to see those girls I haven't seen in a long time.

Things I want to do this October are to go on a hike and take some fall pictures before all the leaves fall. It's peak season right now and it's sooo beautiful. Maybe this weekend I can convince D to go on a walk with me if it's not raining. I also want to carve a pumpkin! What else is there to do in the fall? It won't be long before the you-know-what arrives, the dreaded s-word!!! Ahhhh!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Troubles

My computer had somehow caught a virus. I tried the free programs to get rid of it but they weren't working. I decided to reset my computer to out of box shape. I bought an external hard-drive from Staples for $90 and loaded my pictures, videos, music, and documents onto it. D helped me to erase everything and start fresh. It's working way better now. Still not as fast as I would like it but at least it's not acting weird anymore :)

I was also having car troubles. I took it in for an oil change and they said that I needed a new muffler and brake pads. So I took it in first thing on Friday. My mom went to pick it up later that day but they said they needed to order a part and it would be done by 1pm on Saturday. I called Saturday around 4 to see if I could pick it up and no answer. So D drove me over there on Sunday to pick it up and they said they STILL weren't done! I had a teaching job on Monday so that was tricky to arrange cars. My mom ended up picking it up on Monday after she finished work. It came to $543! They estimated $360 :( They should have given me a discount for them being so delayed! Ah well, car is working much better now too.

Yes I have been working a bit more. I actually babysat on the weekend for a few hours. Then today and yesterday I taught. Both days went well. Hopefully the calls keep coming! I also got my first paystub today and they moved up what I make by $6 daily so that is nice too!  Not a huge change, but every little bit helps!

I was pretty bored last night so around 9:30 I baked chocolate chip muffins. They were so easy and turned out really well. Only took one bowl to clean up too, that's what I like!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Cold Season

Things are getting sorted out with the bank. I have sent off my void cheques and the bank automatically set up my bill payments online. Things are looking better. Hopefully I get paid next Friday, that will be the real test since my employers use direct deposit.

It's also that time of the year...cold season. On Monday while doing all that bank stuff my ear was killing me. I also have a cold. After the bank I went to the doctor and she told me I had an ear infection an prescribed antibiotics. An ear infection, really? I've never had one before, they are not fun though. So I'm getting over that now.

I am working an 11 hour shift tomorrow at the rec centre. Hopefully I can make it!!

I made cupcakes with buttercream frosting as well as pizza yesterday. I made the pizza dough too and it turned out well. Thicker than I typically like (I prefer thin crust usually) but it was still good. D came over and he ate 6 slices. I had 1.5 and was beyond full. He was too full to even try a cupcake!

I have no weekend plans yet and I'm okay with that. A mom did ask me to possibly look after her girls for a few hours on Saturday morning. We will see what happens. Have a great weekend :)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Bank Account Fraud

Well yesterday was a long day. I went to the bank and spoke with a teller about what happened to my account. Money being taken out of my LOC and put into another account that I did not create in order to pay paypal and not my paypal account. She was really nice and helpful, we highlighted the transactions that were not mine and she froze all the accounts. Then she had to see her supervisor about what to do next to dispute the money paid to paypal.

The supervisor came over and questioned me about things, very accusingly and said she would be back once she talked to the head office. The teller and I chatted more just about things while we waited.

Finally she comes back and tells me what is going to happen but keeps saying I am the one that opened up the new account and that I am the one who transferred money from the LOC. When I told her it wasn't me that was doing that she started accusing me even more saying that I must have given out my SIN, my pin, my online password, and my driver's licence because they had it all otherwise they wouldn't have been able to do what they did. I kept saying I have never done that. My eyes were filling up with tears at this point from her tone and accusations.

The supervisor leaves and the teller tries to chit chat with me about something and I couldn't help but start crying. The teller gives me a tissue and takes me to the bathroom in the back and tells me to take my time and come out when I'm ready. Well that was embarrassing walking past all the customers and employers with tears running down.

I come back out and the teller takes me to another lady who was so much nicer and got things all figured out. She created a new bank account for me and closed all the other ones. She helped me fax equifax and looked into them herself and said that nothing weird looks like it has taken place. She got me a new debit card with a new pin. While she was doing this the teller and the supervisor were reversing what happened with that account I did not open to pay back my LOC and then add what was taken from paypal.

The supervisor came in several times when I was with the other lady and was super nice to me. I think the teller must have told her that she upset me or something because she was overly nice. Anyway it all seems to have worked out now. I cannot take out money today and I have to contact my employers who use direct deposit and send them a new void cheque for this new bank account. Also I will have to contact ING and tell them to link my account with them to this new bank account. Then I will also have to set up my bill payments online again.

It's a lot of work. The one lady also said that I should seriously consider applying for a new SIN number because it looks like my identity has been stolen. I am going to look into that soon too I guess.

Seems like the branch and the head office are both confused as to how this has happened. Which is not helpful to me since I have no idea what I did either to make this happen. I would really like to know if I did something wrong so that I can ensure this does not happen again.

The one bank lady told me that I should erase my history and cookies before and after I log into my banking website. I think I will start to do that now just in case. Might be good advice for the rest of you as well. I do not want this to ever happen again!!

Monday, September 20, 2010

I've Been Hacked!!!

My Friday really went from bad to worse.

First was the whole car has a lot of issues with it that are going to cost a lot :(

Then I go home and notice that some money has been moved around in my Scotiabank account. Then I look a little more into my accounts and notice that money ($12,500!!!!!) has been taken out of my Student Line of Credit and put into another account. I was able to view this other account. From this account almost $6000!!!!! has been spent on various paypal payments!!!

I have paypal but I haven't used it in many months! I call my bank who basically tell me I have been hacked (they were very sympathetic) and give me the number of the head security people at Scotiabank. I call them and he talked to his supervisor too and because my parents name is on the LOC they asked me to look into them taking money. It wouldn't be them!! They said everything has been done online. They suspended my online ability and told me that I would have to go to my local branch to fill out dispute forms. They also told me to call paypal to see if I could figure out what the money was being spent on and if there was a name attached to my account number.

I called paypal and they could not help me. They said there was no link to accounts with the account numbers I gave them. Grrrrr!!!

Apparently this person opened a paypal account on September 7th and then started slowly transferring money from my LOC to this new chequing account they created in my name and then made a purchase to paypal on the 9th of over $1000, and on the 16th of over $4000!! At least glad I was able to stop it before they were able to make even more purchases. Very sneaky of them!!

How does this happen??? I've heard of people hacking into credit card numbers, but how would someone hack my regular bank account!! I'm off to the bank shortly now to fill out a dispute form and figure out where to go from here. I really hope I do not have to pay anything because of this. Very frustrating!!!!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Car Issues

Had my car in for an oil change today. Total was $52 which is not too bad. However, he also told me that my brake pads need to be replaced and that my muffler has a hole in it. Blah! I asked what his estimate on those would be and he said approximately $200 for the brakes and $160 for the muffler. I made an appointment for next Friday. Ah cars are so expensive!!!

Still cheaper to get this car fixed than to buy a new one. However I'm not sure how much longer this one is going to last me. It's a 1999 Toyota and has a bit over 211,500km on it...

First Day of Work!

I worked at the child drop off centre twice this week and on Tuesday a mom of one of the kids asked me to babysit for her kids later that evening. I agreed and made a bit of extra money yay! Babysitting money is tax-free yay!

Last night I got my first call to teach. I taught today which was awesome! Hoping more calls will come in soon.

I was supposed to get my hair cut today but had to cancel because of the job. So I rescheduled for Monday morning. I am also going to get my car serviced tomorrow. Hopefully they don't find too many things wrong with it. Could be expensive, my car has been making loud sounds.

I've caught a few episodes of the Big Bang Theory, it's so funny!! I really like it. Any other fans? Sheldon is just way too cute.

D and I hung out yesterday. I made some chicken broccoli alfredo spaghetti and a ceasar salad and we watched an episode of Dexter and then just talked for several hours. It was really nice.

I developed a bunch of pictures yesterday and bought some groceries and gas. Total was $61. Hoping to have a relatively cheap weekend at the fall fair and with friends :)

Monday, September 13, 2010

Dense Bread? Good Weekend!

Friday I made lasagna and two loaves of bread. Lasagna turned out really well but the bread was a little dense (heavy on the inside) any tips??

Saturday I hung out with D for the morning. Then he went to the wedding and I went to the pig roast. It was sooo good! I ate so much food :) There was a dance afterward.

Sunday I went to my friend's going away party and two other girls we went to high school with were there. I used to be really good friends with these two girls in elementary and high school and then we kind of lost touch, so it was really nice to see them. One is actually moving into a house with her boyfriend at the end of this month on my street! So hopefully we will keep in better contact again.

Yesterday evening I went to D's house and brought the leftover lasagna and we shared it with his roommate's dad an watched Out of Time. It was a pretty relaxed weekend and I only spent $50 which was on groceries and bread pans.

I am hoping to go for a bike ride today and need to finish some sewing projects I've been putting off. Maybe today is the day. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Friday Musings

Last night D and I went out for a walk with the dog that he lives with. It was a long walk and then he came to my house where we chatted in my kitchen for a couple of hours. It was so nice and we talked about everything which was really good. A lot about what we want in our lives in the next year or so. Who knows if it will be independent or separate it was nice to talk about things on our minds.

I really think I want to do a volunteer trip somewhere to help a community in a developing nation. D did this a while ago and loved it. I told him I would be very interested in doing something like that for a couple of weeks and then take another week or so to return back home while doing some touring of other nations nearby. What an experience that would be! If not now when I am able to take time off to do something like this, then really when?

Today I have the day off :( I have been contacted by two people so far to ask if I would like to run a Sparks group in my town. However I would be the sole leader and I have never had any interaction with the program so I think I will tell them I would be willing to help out where needed but I don't want to be the only one doing the job.

It's been kind of a boring day so I think I am going to head to the grocery store soon to pick up some things to make a nice dinner tonight. I want to attempt to make bread in my kitchen aid and a lasagna mmmm. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Tomorrow D is going to another wedding and I am going to go to a pig roast with my family. Sunday a girl I went to high school with is having a goodbye party at her cottage because she is going to teach in England for a year. It will be nice to see some of those girls I haven't seen in a while. Those are my plans, hopefully you all have an exciting weekend. Enjoy the fall weather :)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Started The New Job

I have worked two days at the "new" job. It's a childcare drop off centre at the rec centre I sometimes work at. I did this job for a while last year and was an on-call person for them when their regular person needed time off. It's a job. I get to hang around babies while their mom's workout. When no kids are around I read. Today I only had one kid and only for an hour so I got an hour and a half of reading completed. Paid to read lol.

I am hoping that supply work picks up soon. I know it's only the second day of school but I am anxious to get back into the classroom. Hopefully at least a few days this September!!

Today I also contributed $500 to my TFSA. I was going to put it toward my RSP to fully fund my goal of $1000 for the year but my TFSA is lagging as well. Hopefully I can finish those financial goals this year! Will update sidebars soon.

The lost paycheque problem has been solved. There has just been a delay of two weeks with the paycheques and the paystubs we receive have incorrect dates on them. So I still have one more paycheque from the rec centre still to receive for summer work. That also means that I'm going to have to wait several weeks to be paid for this child care drop off work I am doing now.

I hung out with D this weekend but he is terribly sick. He has an ear infection and a bad cold. I feel bad for him, it was a pretty lousy long weekend. Hopefully he feels better soon. We had a really lazy weekend because of it just watching movies and he rested a lot. Last night we had corn on the cob with supper and it was corn from his boss' garden. I love corn on the cob season! Hope you had a great long weekend!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

September Goals

I have not done a goal post in a while. I want to keep them fairly simple this month.

Put $500 toward TFSA.
Finish at least one book.
Make at least one new dinner/recipe.
Get my car serviced. (hopefully not too expensive!)

If I have some extra money at the end of the month I'll put it toward the RSP.