Last Years Budget and Spending

Well I tracked my spending last year for 10 and a half months. I stopped in November when Excel no longer let me input numbers. I purchased Excel and have the CD but no longer have the product number so the CDs were useless.

Anyway, this is what 10.5 months looked like for me:

I spent approximately $2800 on my car!! Eeek, hopefully less this year. No major car repairs *crosses fingers*

I spent just over $600 on eating out. Most of this was spent in the summer months when D and I went on more dates.

I spent a little over $300 on food. Most of this in the summer and early fall when I did a lot more baking.

I spent about $1000 on CLOTHES?!? Eeek this cannot happen again. I did buy some shoes, and a couple of coats last year but I can't even REMEMBER any other big ticket items! That is just sad.

I spent just under $200 on Education which includes my membership fee, applications, etc.

I spent about $1000 on Personal/Medical which includes prescriptions, dental, make-up, hair. I don't think this will change for 2011.

My phone was about $550. This will likely go up for 2011 if anything if I decide to get a new phone and I added text messaging to my plan last summer.

I spent about $800 on GIFTS. Eeek that seems high too. But I include when I take someone out for lunch or dinner. Also had birthdays, special occasions and a close friend's wedding.

The worst one was $1500 on what I labelled "Everything Else." I cannot even tell you everything that this contained. It was mostly entertainment though (books, going out, drinks, wii and board games, gym, fabric, crafts, toys, movies). Definitely too high. I need to track this one better this year.

I paid off $5000 in debt!

I made the most money in April (income tax!) and least amount in January.

I spent the most money in May. I saved the most money in April and the least amount in January and June (tied).

Hopefully I can do better in 2011!!

Avoiding Unnecessary Spending At The Mall

The mall is a fun and social place where you can meet up with your friends. It is a place to mingle, shop, and eat. Although the mall is an enjoyable place, some people get lost in spending and tend to waste their money on unnecessary merchandise. When in the mall, it is important to be aware of what you buy and the total amount of money you spend.

Priorities are something everyone needs to have in check. If you are the type of person that doesn't have a strong grip on your priorities then you should stay away from the mall altogether. For example, if you are in serious debt, drowning in payday loans that you need to pay off, or are saving up for something important like a car or a house, then the mall is not the place for you to be.

Using cash is one way you can save money at the mall. Instead of using a card set aside a specific amount of money that you are willing to spend on your trip to the mall. Once your cash runs out, you know it is time to stop spending. This little trick gives you a benchmark of how much you are willing to spend at the mall whereas credit cards tend to cause people to be unaware of their spending.

Another thing to do before you go to the mall is to make a list. Before you go to the mall have a list of the things you need. If you are looking for a particular shirt, go to the mall for the sole purpose of getting that shirt. Pretend it’s a mission and you must get that shirt without wasting time buying other unnecessary things. If you know exactly what you want to purchase at the mall it makes putting aside the right amount of cash easier. For example, you know you want to purchase a graphic tee from your favorite store and that the shirt runs for approximately $20. If you know this information you can bring enough money give or take a couple dollars to buy this shirt. Once you buy the shirt you have no more money to spend, which means shopping for that day has come to an end.

Keeping these tips in mind will help you save money and not get lost in the abundance of unimportant things that fill the mall. As long as you have your priorities in check and you go to the mall for a specific purpose, you can avoid overspending in the mall and ultimately save money for more important things.

Just Call Me Steve Jobs...

Okay, maybe Bill Gates since I have a PC.

But today I heard a rattling sound in my laptop's fan and then all of a sudden my fan stopped working. Not good when you have a laptop.

When I was in university, I had to get my laptop's fan replaced after 4 years and it cost about $150. So I was not looking forward to paying that again after only having this laptop for a year and a half.

Instead I decided to take out my toolkit I got for Christmas while in university (you would be surprised how many times I've used that thing!). I took out the battery and unscrewed some pieces in the back. Nope can't get to the fan that way. So I pulled off the keyboard and was able to get to the fan. Then I saw it....a screw was jamming the fan from moving. I wiggled it around and eventually tipped my computer upside down and it with the screwdriver was able to wedge it loose. It came out and I put everything back together and it works like a charm again.

Well not exactly perfect....this is Windows Vista we are talking about ;)

Little by little...

Debt: I added $300 to my family loan. I'm now at 50% woohoo!

Savings: I added $100 to Travel Fund, $250 to TFSA (planned spending/EF), and $60 to Christmas/Gifts.

I want to try to up the amount I give to Travel and Gifts next month (depending on how much work I get this month). This is because I want to be able to give about $500 to BF's family to help contribute, and about $150 or so in spending money. But I only have 4 months left to do it. *Moved the progress goal to $500 instead of $300 since we are going on a bigger trip than previously expected*

I want to also up the Gift savings account because I have a wedding to go to the day after we get back and would like to make a gift basket or something to say thank you to BFs family for taking me on vacation, all will be in July. I also will have no income coming in for July ahh!

Now to update those progress bars, yay!

Did you get your GST cheque yet?

I got mine today woohoo. $74! I was counting on it this month!! I have big plans for it, I am going to put it toward an ASL winter retreat. It's a weekend in February and they lodge you and feed you AND teach you ASL all for the low low price of $150. So I thought it was a pretty good deal to brush up and learn some more ASL.

I am going to sign up for it on Monday since all weekend and tomorrow evening I will be at a different ASL course. Once the end of February hits I'll be done that new years goal of completing TWO ASL courses! At the end of Feb, I think if some more come up and they are reasonably priced that I'll likely do more than just the two I had as my goal.

Oh yes, also going to update status bars now, I like that some are no longer going to be at 0!!

What are you going to do with your GST cheque if you get one?

Potential 2010 Budget

So I have been thinking about this for a while (well past couple of weeks at least).

I want to have a variable budget with regards to LIFE expenses. However with semi-fixed expenses/savings this is what I want to try to have each month:

$100 for Transportation
$600 to my Family Loan
$200 to TFSA
$50 for Gifts
$50 to E-fund

Transportation would cover gas and hopefully small repairs.
Family Loan is the loan my family gave after I graduated to help reduce interest costs. Contributing at this amount would take me to about June to get it paid off. Anything left over would also go here.
TFSA was started this month and would be "planned spending" but for something at a much later date (i.e. wedding, car)
Gifts is for birthdays and Christmas throughout the year
E-fund is low right now because I live at home and have relatively little expenses so an emergency is not very likely to occur but I still want to get one started to help for when I do move out.

You may be thinking that I should be contributing to an RRSP as well. I have thought about this, and I think for me it's more important to pay off my debt before contributing to retirement. Especially since I have a low income. I will start contributing to an RRSP once I get the family loan paid off. I have a budget for this as well. After loan is paid off I was thinking: $400 to TFSA, $250 to RRSP, $50 to gifts and $100 to E-fund.

*Also I should mention this is for typical paycheque months, some months I will not even make this amount and I will try to cut personal expenses as much as I can to make these payments but may not always happen. Other months I will try to go above these goals as well when I have better paycheque months :)

Any advice is welcome!! What do you think?

Starting to Save!

I have changed my budget around and what I want to do is start saving. I recently started a new ING account. I now have $100 in savings in a TFSA, and they gave me a free $25 for a regular savings account. Woohoo! My Orange Key is 34362383S1 in case anyone would like to sign up (means $25 for you and me for free)! You just need to have a minimum of $100 deposit. More info here.

I feel like I'm late to this savings game and don't know very much about it (particularly the RRSP savings). I realize it can make a big difference to your future though. If anyone can give me some advice on how to set up RRSPs that would be great!!

My original goal of paying back the $5000 to my family by the end of February is going to be delayed (they are fine with this, said to take all the time I need/want). I would like to give them $3000 by the end of February and then the remaining $2000 by the end of May or so. All the while putting some extra money into savings (will go more into detail about what this means later, after some more research as well). I'm glad I am going to start doing this because there is a lot to save for!!

Check This Out

Browsing through some sites the other day I came upon this site talking about unemployment rates in the United States. I'm sure it's similar to Canada's. It's quite interesting to see especially for visual learners :)

In other news, I got paid today yay! It was a good paycheque as I worked almost full-time during that pay period. My next pay day will be quite small as I only got one full day of teaching in the past two weeks, however I did work a day and a half at the local rec centre as well.

I was also reading a lot of blogs yesterday and think that my original goal to payback my family by the end of February may not be the best use of my money especially since they have told me many times that they don't care when I pay them back. I asked them if it was okay if I paid them $3000 by the end of Feb and then the rest in the near future and they said  of course. So I was thinking it would be more beneficial if I started putting at least SOME money into savings, as I have none. By the way have a look at Jason's post here about the difference saving early can make on your retirement. Quite amazing, although so are return interest rates of 10%, but still it gets the point across quite clearly.

I am going to make a 2010 budget plan soon that is going to have to change from my current plan which is basically 80-90% goes toward debt. It was my priority and I'm glad I finished my OSAP that way, but I think now with only my family loan left, that it is important to start saving as well.

Connection Between Health and Wealth

The Biggest Loser is one of my favourite shows, makes me happy and cry at the same time. Suze Orman (the Gail Vaz-Oxlade of the United States) was on tonight. She talked to the contestants individually about the connection they have between health and wealth.

"Usually we spend more than, when we feel like less" is one thing she mentioned to a contestant. Isn't this true? I know when I feel low I want to go to a store and browse around for a pick-me-up. Whether it be comfort food or a new toy or clothing.

She mentioned that you can look into your credit score and report as often as you like. It will not affect your score. It's if the creditors are looking into your credit score a lot that means that you are applying for credit a lot which is not a good thing.

They then played a multiple choice game on the treadmill and these were the results of their game:

• Obese employees earn about $7000 less than their co-workers (you are sick more and cost employers more).
  
• If a family of four swaps one meal out for a meal at home everyday for a year you can save $8750. This is approximately $24 a day.
  
• Americans spend approximately $4.4 billion on gastric bypass surgery each year. 220,000 Americans get this surgery each year at $20,000 per surgery.
  
• Americans spend $147 billion on obesity-related health issues each year. They spend $90 billion on cancer related issues. That's $57 billion more spent on obesity.

Sorry I missed the last statistic. It was how much you save each year from going from obese to your ideal weight. They went through that last one too fast for me to catch it! It was either $10,000 or $100,000. If you caught it let me know!

It's pretty amazing how staying in shape and eating well can actually SAVE you money!