GST cheque!

My GST cheque came in the mail today! An extra $75 woohoo! I love "free" money! I think I will put it in my bank account and use it toward my shopping in the states fund.

I also worked two half days this week so far (approximately $150 net). I am working at the rec centre on Friday and I worked a half day there yesterday (approximately $130 net). My goal is now to finish the rest of my student loan by the end of November. I just paid off my credit card, and I have about $1000 to spend on my shopping trip (budgeted), but I doubt I will spend that much! Hope the jobs keep coming and this goal will actually happen, so I can move onto the next debt...wow life is expensive!

These are a few of my favourite things...

I love weekends
cartoons
my boyfriend
my best friend
making lists
photographs
my family
pink, blue and green
flip flops
swimming in lakes
my hometown
country music
books
stickers
chocolate
chick flicks
watching hockey (go leafs go)
fresh sheets
board games

I love weekends. I had a great weekend  with the boyfriend. We went to a football game, and out dancing. We played some games at home and hung out with his family and some friends which was a lot of fun. He also gave me $250 american for my shopping trip! Wow, he really is amazing! Very generous of him. My mom also gave me the same amount in american dollars for my shopping trip. So I have $500 american in free money!! I cannot wait. After being careful not to spend too much it's going to be weird to do so much shopping/spending! But I am sooo looking forward to it!

I also paid $600 to OSAP today! Updated the progress bar to reflect this! I owe under $1200 now! Could I have it finished by the end of November??

October Goals

Where did September even go? It's already October, which means the snow is going to be coming soon :(

Now for my first set of monthly goals!

1. Go to the gym at least twice a week
I bought a 6 month gym membership through this online auction. Great deal and I have not been in to start it up yet so today is the day! My goal here is to go twice a week minimum, and hopefully tone up a bit. I am not really into the equipment at a gym but I have always enjoyed fitness classes, so we will find out today what they have to offer in that regard. Hopefully they offer spin classes too!

2. Complete half of my Christmas shopping
Yep that's right, Christmas! It's coming up fast and I am usually a giant procrastinator so now is the time to start. I am also going on a shopping trip in the States on Thanksgiving so it gives me the chance to complete a lot of my shopping that needs to be done.

3. Start volunteering at schools
I called the other board in my area to see if they were hiring. They said they were not but the best chance I  have of getting on their supply list is to start volunteering in their schools. My goal is to do about two days a week, but if I get called in to supply teach then I will obviously take that over volunteering that day. I did this last year and although nothing came of it, it was still a good learning experience. I am also volunteering one night a week as a Girl Guide's leader.

4. Advertise as a tutor
I ordered some magnetic business cards online for tutoring services and some flyers. I hope to put them up around town (mailboxes, rec centre, library) and see if anything comes of it. If I am able to tutor one or a couple of kids it would be great, it would be good experience and I would earn a little extra revenue.

5. Read a new book
I just finished a book, and I am trying to get back into reading. I have time during the day when I am not called in to work. I prefer the chick-lit books (authors like Sophie Kinsella and Meg Cabot). Any recommendations??

I finally figured out how to make progress bars! I just love them! So hopefully they will keep me motivated to fill them up! I like seeing the bar move...

In other news, I started babysitting this new family and made $30 on Tuesday. Now that I am no longer working at the rec centre this will help to have a bit of extra income. Although it may not be very often that I am called to babysit. I also made my minimum payment on my student loan today and will change the progress bars to reflect that, yay!

Student Loans....

Oh how I wish this was gone! It's been 16 months since I have graduated. My original loan amount was $31,000 (well $24 short of that). That is 5 years of school (4 undergrad, 1 teacher's college). I also had a bank loan my first two years of school.

I have paid $1246 in interest on my OSAP loan SO FAR!! Wow the price of education. No full-time job yet, but I still think it was worth it!

I now owe $1975 to osap 16 months after graduation. I should have it paid off by new years. I owe family an additional $5000 (goal is end of February for this).

I think I have done quite well so far. I wish it was gone now but I'm close! Some friends I know are only making the minimum payments which means that it will take them 10 years to pay off their student loans. I would have been 33 by the time my student loans were paid off if I had done that! I will be done at 24.

My education was paid for almost entirely by me. My parents gave me approximately $3000 over the course of 5 years. The rest I received from OSAP or working during the summers and part-time during the school years. I think this is a good thing too, I feel more accomplished knowing I paid for my own education. I knew people who had their way paid for them and went out all the time and didn't care as much about their studies. My boyfriend has also offered to pay the rest of my loan off, but I won't let him. I don't want help with that either.

However, what I did not know graduating is that my uncle and my mom had set up education funds for me when I was a kid, and together they gave me $5500 when I graduated. That went straight toward a lump sum OSAP payment. Decreased my interest accured daily by a lot!

A great tool that I LOVE is the CanLearn website has a loan repayment calculator (http://tools.canlearn.ca/cslgs-scpse/cln-cln/40/crp-lrc/af.nlindex-eng.do). I look at this often and input the amount I owe, the interest rate I have and then how many months I would like to repay it in. It calculates what my monthly payments would have to be, and the total amount of interest I would be paying. Very interesting to see how making some extra payments can take off months or even YEARS of paying off the loan and how much you are saving in interest.

I have always been fairly wise with my money in high school I set up my own RESPs. But I think I learned a lot more when I went to school. Cost of living! I had never before paid any bill! Internet, phone! We decided against cable in my first year, and set up some bunny ears, talk about lifestyle deflation! I had also never paid for groceries before my first year of university! I quickly learned to stock up on non-perishables during sales, and that meat was very expensive. I often went without it in my diet due to cost. For Christmas my wishlist consisted of needs like laundry soap, toilet paper, and groceries! It made me almost as excited to open a set of oven mitts as it did a new movie I had been wanting. Priorities change.

Is Shopping Glamorized?

I like to shop as much as the next guy. But has it become so glamorized that people are willing to go shopping just for the status and not worry about the consequences? Reading books like Shopaholic, and watching movies that seem to glamorize shopping and brand name clothes I wonder where do these people get their money? Now Becky Bloomwood faces the consequences of her actions, do the others? Is shopping so glamorized that people are willing to go into major debt just to show their "status?"

I was talking to my friend tonight and she was talking about her shopping trip and as she told me what she bought she mentioned all the brand names. I don't know why, but for some reason it kind of annoyed me. Was it envy?? I'm not too sure. I have a few brand name items, mostly gifts though. I actually prefer the non brand-name clothing. I like when you cannot tell what type of shirt it is, where the brand name is not plastered all over it. I think GT Boutique (Giant Tiger) has the best teacher pants for $11. Can't go wrong there!

When I go shopping I look for what I like, if I really like it then I ask myself is it worth the price? Based on quality and affordability. If it's not then I'll move on. If I keep thinking about it later then I might go back and decide to get it but sacrifice some other things. No eating out for the month, do something free for the weekend instead of going out with friends. Or what usually happens is I go in with a mission to get something. A few weeks ago I went shopping with the mission to buy new running shoes, I looked at a few and liked a pair that were $80, I bought them, and that's it. Of course I looked at all the nice clothes in the stores as I passed by, but I only had money to buy shoes and that is all I did. Takes some willpower from me to not even windowshop in the other stores.

Plans for the week

I am working today. Only an afternoon, and tomorrow I'm only working a morning. Although I have to travel 45 minutes each way to get to the job. It is still worth it! Hope I receive a few more jobs this week! I get paid mid-October for these jobs, which will again help! Cannot wait! Pay day comes three times in October, but the first one will be extremely small! The next two I am hoping will be slightly more, as I have picked up a full-day at the rec centre next week and hope to continue getting supply work.

In other news, my best friend and I (as well as 3 members of her family) are going on a trip to the States next week. Don't worry, I have planned for this and have saved in order to do some Christmas spending and fun shopping there! I have not gone clothes shopping in a really long time, sometimes that is an advantage of living in a small town (there is not temptation). My boyfriend is also giving me some shopping money as he says I deserve it (what a sweetie). I think I'll end up spending quite it on anniversary and Christmas gifts for him anyway though!

I'm going to visit my boyfriend this weekend, he lives 4 hours away which is always a killer in gas. But we usually go out one night and do some free/inexpensive activities at home and around the city the rest of the time, so it doesn't end up being too expensive seeing him. Looking forward to it, have a great week everyone!

TFSA vs. RRSP

Alright, I've been thinking about these two for a while now. I've talked to several people and I think I understand the difference a bit more.

With regards to retirement, the key variable is how the tax rate at the time of withdrawal compares to the tax rate at the time of the contribution. Here are 3 scenarios, and how they may affect your choice of account:

• If the two rates are identical, the TFSA and the RRSP are equally effective tax-savings alternatives. You get the same amount at the end.
  
• If the tax rate at the time of withdrawal is lower than at the time of contribution, the RRSP is the better choice. Especially because with an RRSP you get a tax break at income tax time. Meaning you won't owe as much to the government at income tax time because you contributed to an RRSP
• If the tax rate at the time of withdrawal is higher than at the time of contribution, the advantage goes to the TFSA. But remember that you can only invest $5000 each year.

Of course if you can afford it, the best thing to do would be to contribute to both! 

What I was interested in knowing though, is what would be best to invest my money in for short-term (under 5 years) savings. Would it be best to put it into a TFSA or just keep it in my high interest bank account? It's not a good idea to put it into an RRSP for short-term goals because you are taxed when you withdraw it. So a TSFA is great for short-term goals. Also, when you withdraw money from a TFSA you have to wait until the next year to re-invest it but you can put it all back in.

For those who will be receiving pensions when they retire, they are limited in what they are able to contribute to their RRSPs, so a TFSA is a great way to add more to their retirement fund. Max of $5000 per year, but that can definitely add up over the years!

My goal for 2010 is to start a TFSA. In 2011 I'll also try to max out my TSFA and if there is anything extra I will put it toward an RRSP. Now to only find permanent work. Life would be so much easier with a full-time job!