About Me

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

This And That

The weekend before last my school board had a CPR/First Aid training session. I was going to take one anyway in town for about $120 with D but then the school board advertised that it was offering a free training session (with the same company) so I decided to do that one instead. It was two full days in a city an hour away but we got paid for mileage and that was deposited today, $149.

So not only did I not have to pay the $120 to take the course, but I was PAID mileage. It probably only cost me $40 in gas to get there and back twice that weekend. I actually made money on a course!

Last night D, his friend and I went to a sportsbar for dinner. We all got burgers. I had a $50 gift card so I paid with that. It was a fun time.

Today I am working for a few hours at the aerial park (I haven't been there in over 2 weeks!) and then D, maybe his friend and I are going to see Green Lantern. Ryan Reynolds, how can you go wrong?

Yesterday I had a test at the restaurant. I thought it was going to be pretty easy and instead it was 200 marks, it took almost an hour and a half to write and it was challenging!! We needed to get 90% in order to pass and be allowed to work alone, no one felt confident leaving there yesterday, I'm nervous. I will probably find out what my mark was on Friday if I get called in. Hope I passed so that I can start making some money there!

A mom stopped by my house yesterday, I sometimes babysit for her kids and asked me to watch her kids tomorrow night overnight and that she would pay me $80. Not a lot but to pretty much put the kids to bed, sleep, and then give them breakfast in the morning and play until their grandparents show up, it's a pretty easy tax-free $80.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Looked At Two Apartments

Friday I met with this woman who showed me two apartments in town. One was on a side street close to town. It was the basement of a house but with big windows. It was a two bedroom, with open concept kitchen and living room. The living room had a fireplace! The place had a private entrance and parking and access to use the backyard. It was $800 plus hydro, came with cable. No laundry though.

The second place I looked at was an apartment above commercial stores. It was right in town and had parking which would be about a 5 minute walk from the door. It was another small two bedroom apartment. It had a small kitchen, and dining room but no living room. Apparently the man that lived there before used the larger bedroom as a living room. It was $800 plus all utilities. I didn't like it as much even though the location was better. It also did not have laundry

I called the place I was most interested in based on pictures and it was already taken. The place that was $650 was also taken. So for now the search will continue. D and I aren't in any rush to move into an apartment, and I think there may even be more pickings once the summer has ended and the tourists have gone home. For now I'll keep looking though.

This weekend D and I went to a concert in Toronto after work on Friday. It was at the Sound Academy, was really good. We stayed at D's sister's house after. I worked on Saturday and Sunday before work we went to the driving range. Golf is such a hard sport, I hardly even made contact with the ball! Last night I had a reverse shadow shift. Waitressing is harder than I thought it would be, it's definitely going to take some getting used to! My first shift is an on-call on Friday, which is Canada day! My first potential REAL shift is going to be a busy busy day! Ah! I wish they would give me a shift on Tuesday or Wednesday instead before throwing me in the pit for Friday and Saturday of a long weekend in cottage country!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Looking For Apartments

Little known fact about me, I love looking at apartments and real estate websites. I am not alone here, I mentioned this to one of my friends while out for coffee and she does the exact same!

Anyway, I was looking at apartments the other day at D's house and showed him one that is in town. He said he liked it and wants us to check it out. He said he would be up for moving in there if I was.

We also started talking about me teaching overseas and him finding a job in the same community I would be located in. He seems really up for the idea and mentioned that it might be good to live together here before we move overseas together.

So today I am working a split shift at the restaurant and once I know my schedule I am going to call the apartment he thinks is best as well as a couple others that I like (that are actually less expensive). The one he likes is IN TOWN, like main street downtown. It's $840 plus utilities a month for two bedrooms. I was thinking if we get that one we might even be able to find a roommate to rent with us for $300 a month to save some money. Another one I saw was $775 plus utilities for a one bedroom. This one LOOKS really nice in the pictures, open concept, bright, balcony, and somewhat more modern. This ons is walking distance to downtown. However the funny thing about this apartment is that it's in the SAME building as my brother and his girlfriend. The third one I think I will call about today is $650 plus utilities for a one bedroom, walking distance to town. This one doesn't have any pictures though but I know it's in a low-rise apartment complex. So we will see! I'm excited to call and check some places out.

Maybe nothing will come of it, but it's still fun to check out! 

Happy Summer!

It's been a busy June. I actually got a call to work a half-day ECE job today but I held out hoping a teaching posting would come up. And nothing did. So I have the day off, ugh.

I think I am going to take the ECE jobs off my qualifications next year just because the pay is pretty low, it's a 40 minute drive each way and they are generally half-days. I think after taxes I earn less than what I would babysitting which is less than minimum wage.

Anyway, I worked Friday at the restaurant. I followed around two male waiters. The first guy was a great teacher and let me do quite a bit. The other pretty much just had me follow him around and ocassionally let me do things. My next day of training is not until Thursday where I will be running food and doing expo (not too sure what that is yet). So far the people seem pretty nice though and it will be better once I get the hang of things more.

This weekend I took a CPR/First Aid course. So I am now certified again. My last certification actually expires TODAY so it was perfect timing. They changed a couple rules to make it simple.

While at the CPR course I started talking to this girl who is also a supply teacher. She and her fiance (also a supply teacher) have grown kind of tired of the system and not being able to get a job within our board and are moving to Kuwait for two years starting in August. I've read about this and started looking into international teaching positions again. I should have got her e-mail to find out what it's actually like teaching there.

I am also still working on my boater's exam. They made the course way harder and added more questions. There is a total of 7 modules and I need to complete the last one before I can do the exam. Each module also has 10 practice questions and you need to get 80% on those in order to move onto the next module or you have to redo it.

I taught yesterday for an amazing grade three class. I hope I have the teaching skills that teacher does to one day have my class behave that well. Such a pleasure teaching in classes like that!

My university roommate had her baby on Wednesday!! A little girl, I made the diaper cake, and the taggy. I'm going to make another taggy and I bought her a baby girl John Deere onsie, dress, and hat. Very cute!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Money Wasters Poster

Interesting! It mostly deals with Austrailian $ but I think North America can relate.

Started Server Training....

I started training at the restaurant I'll be working at on Monday. It was interesting. There were all these cute young blondes in for training too. Only one girl (that I know of) was older than me. Also of the 12 or so girls in for training all but two of us had restaurant serving experience.

The trainer was kind of like a boot camp sargeant telling us what to wear and how to do the job. I guess you have to be like that though. Anyway the thing I was surprised about is that we are not allowed to wear pants, only shorts (and they should be short) or skirts. She also told us our hair needs to be down, and if we wear it in a messy bun or something she will tell us, "your hair is ugly, I hope you brought a straightener." Another thing is that she brought out the uniforms and shows us a medium shirt. It looked small! I asked for a medium, pretty much all of us did saying it looked small. But nope, me and another girl had to get extra-smalls, most girls got a small and only about 1 or 2 were able to get that medium.

I went shopping on Wednesday for black shorts and black shoes. It's already been an expensive job! Especially for making under minimum wage! Almost $2 under minimum!

I went again yesterday for more training, we learned about wine, etc. Was actually feeling it a little bit after all that wine and it was before noon! But one of the things she talked about in the afternoon was tip-outs. Apparently the way it looks to me, is that we owe 2.5% of total food sales to the kitchen and hostess staff, and we owe 5% of alcohol sales to the bartenders. That's more than I was expecting. So if a person doesn't tip we still owe and that would mean I'd be making way under minimum wage. So I hope people tip there!

I am going back today for a split shift to shadow a couple of waiters. I live 30 minutes from this restaurant so it doesn't make sense for me to come home for my break in between shifts so I will have to find something to do while in that town. Good thing I have a book to read and they have some nice beaches.

Monday, June 13, 2011

The Good Thing About Working On Weekends....

is that you are less likely to spend money on weekends. It's far less tempting because I'm just busy. When I'm done work sometimes I have the urge to stop somewhere for something to eat because I'm tired and don't want to cook myself, but I've resisted that knowing I have food at home.

I worked 9 hours on Saturday and a short 3.5 hour shift on Sunday. It was pretty fun working this weekend. I start training for the restaurant position this evening! I haven't heard from them in about 6 weeks so it's going to be a little weird going in there tonight. I hope other people are being trained at the same time.

I received an e-mail from the respite position coordinator where I will be working this summer. She just gave me the days and told me a little more information about the kids. I am going to meet with the moms soon enough! I already know one of the kids from working at the rec centre, and I've volunteered in his class a couple of years ago. Hopefully I can meet with the moms really soon!

This weekend D and I had supper together on Friday and watched the hockey game. Woo, common Vancouver tonight! We went out for breakfast before I had to work on Saturday. Then D, his friend and I watched Watchmen last night.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Uh Oh, Might Have ANOTHER Job!

So I applied for a lot of jobs for this summer and now I'm getting them. Eeek! I thought it would be a lot more difficult to actually get a summer job so I applied to several.

On Friday I had an interview with Community Living for a respite position. The woman called me on Thursday to ask me to come in for an interview and mentioned that she already had someone in mind for me to work with.

The interview went really well. The social worker told me a little about the two boys she would like me to work with this summer. It would be with a 6 year old boy on Mondays and Fridays all day in a day camp setting for $100 a day. Then I could also work with a 10 year old boy Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for at least 3 hours each day for $12.43 an hour. However both are ONLY for 6 weeks (until mid-August).

It sounds more teaching related than waitressing and the aerial park. However now I think if I do get this one for sure that I will have too much on my plate this summer. I don't want to run myself into the ground working this summer. Not really sure what to do though.

I don't really want to keep the aerial job because they have poor management and organization. However I do really like the job and people there, and I would feel bad quitting after only being there for a month. I WANT to keep the waitressing job I haven't even started yet just because I think it will be something different for me and I think it could help me get a waitressing position in my own town for the school year (since this restaurant is only open for the summer season). I WANT to do the community living job since it sounds interesting and would actually ADD to my teaching resume. Hmmm decisions!

For now though I am going to keep working at the aerial park. I worked Saturday and Sunday, and have shifts for next weekend as well. I don't want to do anything until I know I have the community living job for sure, and I won't know until June 24th at the latest. But I will have to decide what to do soon enough.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Sewing Project with Pictures

 My university roommate is having a baby. The baby is actually due TODAY! However she is a known procrastinator, so I wouldn't be surprised if the baby doesn't come for a few more days.

Anyway, she and her husband grew up on farms so I decided to make their baby a John Deere taggy. Most babies love tags on toys so why not give them something that's all about tags, with different textures and sizes. It didn't take me long to make. I will make a pink one too if she has a girl.

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BTW, If someone knows how to rotate pictures, let me know!



Saturday, June 4, 2011

May Spending

I've had better months than May financially-wise. I bought a few things, I had some car stuff to deal with, I bought a new phone, I started working at the aerial park and was hired for a waitressing position. It was also a lower than normal paycheque month :( Overall I did not do very well in May. I'm quite embarrassed to mention it at all but here we go.

Car and Gas (15%) ACTUAL: 18% Eeek!! had an oil change, a brake light fixed, my trunk latch fixed, along with a lot of gas.
Phone (4%) ACTUAL: 9% Eeek again! I bought a new phone and had to pay the bill for BOTH companies.
Food (4%) ACTUAL: 5%
Restaurant (4%) ACTUAL: 5%
Personal/Medical (6%) ACTUAL 5% Prescription and eyebrow waxing
Clothing (5%) ACTUAL: 3% Bought sweat pants, gloves for work, and a scarf
Gifts (2%) ACTUAL 7% Fabric and ribbons, gift card, book, shipping cost
Education (2%) ACTUAL 2% Boat Licence Exam
Entertainment (4%) ACTUAL 2% Thor, and beer
Everything Else (3%) ACTUAL: 7% Eeek! Phone case, ipod charger, dog collar, makeup, perfume, nail polish

TOTAL (48%) ACTUAL 63% MAJOR FAIL!!
Now let's look at the SAVINGS I thankfully managed to get to this month!

TFSA (35%) ACTUAL: 21%
Christmas (5%) ACTUAL: 0% Done with this category now
Computer (3%) 13%
RRSP (6%) ACTUAL: 0%
Travel Fund (3%) ACTUAL: 3%
TOTAL (52%) ACTUAL 37%
Well May wasn't a very good month for me. Major issues being low paycheque month, and spending lots on gas, gifts and phone. HOPEFULLY June will be a better month! I really need to get things in order! My main focus will continue to be the TFSA with a little going to travel, computer and rrsp.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Updates, I've been a bad blogger

Sorry for the lack of posts. It's been a busy time.

On the long weekend D helped his parent's friend put in her dock. Afterward we had a celebratory dinner at his parent's house for his sister being accepted as an intern for a job in dance. We had a nice bon fire afterward, it was really nice.

I've been working about every other day. However I had my first shifts at the aerial park last weekend. Saturday was great, and Sunday I do not know if I was paid for it. This job is fun but the management is just awful. The man really likes to hear himself speak. He does not pay us for training, is that even legal? He is making us pay for our own uniform shirts. It's really run like a business and I think he is going to lose employees since about half of them have come up to me at one time or another complaining about how the company is run, it's very disorganized. I was really upset about the whole thing on Sunday, I've put in about 25 hours of volunteer working/climbing/training. I really don't mind doing SOME, but I do eventually want to be paid for this job as well, which by the way is a minimum wage one. Anyway, Sunday evening we had a night climb there which was just for staff and was a fun time.

The trunk to my car wouldn't close for some reason one night so I had to take it in and it was a $60 bill to get fixed. Not too bad I suppose.

I took the dog to get all her shots, etc. It was a $400 bill and they say she is going to need some dental work which will likely be another $400. Luckily my parents paid for it. My mom thinks it's going to work out to be about $200 for every pound she weighs hehe.

I only have about 3 weeks left with my tutoring. I am going to end it at the end of the school year and if she would like to continue next year I am going to give her a reference of a friend I have that is a teacher that is interested in tutoring and lives a lot closer to her. I would like to continue but it's a 30 minute drive each way and I only charge $20 for the hour. Hopefully I can find some students that live closer for next school year.

I handed in my completed police check for the respite care position I applied for. One of my references said that they have contacted them so now I guess I just wait for the interview process to begin.

I added $400 to my TFSA last week. That brings my total contributed this year to $3600 and my total overall to just over $10,000 with interest. Woo! I have another $5000 of contribution room and will try to get as close to that as I can, but I don't imagine I will be able to reach that before the end of the year.

I was looking at cars online last week when I was having car issues. There were a few I liked including the Nissan Versa. I always thought I would go with a Toyota again but there are a lot of things I like about the Versa. I actually found a guy online who was doing a private sale of his Versa. Has anyone done a private sale of a car before? Any additional risks compared to buying a used car through a dealership?

I watched game 1 of the stanley cup finals last night. Vancouver only needs three more wins! I think it would be really nice for them to win.

I finished one of my taggies. I know I was supposed to post a picture, I took a picture, does that count? I will post it for tomorrow. I still have to actually make another one!

My university roommate is due to have her baby any day now! I'm pretty excited to see if it's a girl or boy.

Today there is still no call for a job and none posted online. So I think I will do my boater's licence online, summer is coming fast! I will take the dog in for her heartworm/flea medicine. I am hoping a friend will come out for lunch with me since he has been having some tough times and I want him to just get away from things for a bit. A friend called me yesterday to see if we wanted to walk our dogs together but I was working so maybe we can have a raindate today too. Anyway I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather!