Quick Thursday Updates

I reached my goal of saving $1000 for my parents yesterday! I have it all neatly placed in an envelope so I will have to make a trip out to where they camp to put the deposit on their seasonal dues for next year.

Work has been busy, which is great! I need to make money this summer!

I went to bingo the other day with my mom. It was so much fun but we didn't win anything.

We had dinner at D's family's house on Sunday. My cousin and her boyfriend joined us there. We went boating, ah I love summer!

D has a family reunion on Sunday, I have the day off work so it should be a good time. Will be nice to see that side of his family again. I have to either bring a dessert or a salad to the party, not sure which one to bring. His family gets pretty fancy with their desserts and I won't have a ton of time to make something up to their par.

We had an apartment fly infestation!! There were so many of them flying around. They would keep me up at night and they were just a nuisance in general. I put up some of those disgusting sticky tape things to catch them....did they ever work well! I should post the picture I took of one of them COVERED with flies! EWW!!!

I did day one of Jillian Michael's 30 day shred, it nearly KILLED me!!! I am way more out of shape than I thought! The days after the video were harder than the video itself! Might try to do another one today. My cousin said she is going to do it too starting on Monday.

I want a pet so badly. It doesn't make sense to have one in our apartment though. Instead I visit my parents a lot, but mostly just to play with their dog :)

July Spending

July absolutely flew by. I worked a ton which was great! I got a settlement for my car which went into savings. I celebrated my 27th birthday! D bought me new snorkelling gear for scuba diving and took me on a dive. We saw the fireworks, watched Spiderman, went on a date to a restaurant in town we've been wanting to go to forever. We went boating several times, and swimming. We went to Ribfest and my cousin and I made a bunch of treats for D's golf weekend with the boys.


July was an awesome month income-wise. I included the settlement as income, as well as tips, wages, and the paycheques I received from teaching.

Rent (19%) ACTUAL: 4%
Hydro (3%) 1%
Internet (3%) 1% 
Laundry (2%) <1 nbsp="nbsp" span="span">
Car and Gas (11%) ACTUAL: 2%
Phone (3%) ACTUAL: 1%
Food (8%) ACTUAL: 1%
Restaurant (3%) ACTUAL: 1%
Personal/Medical (4%) ACTUAL 2% Dentist appointment - no cavities!
Clothing (5%) ACTUAL: 0%
Gifts (5%) ACTUAL <1 br="br">Education (2%) ACTUAL 0%
Entertainment (3%) ACTUAL 1%
Everything Else (5%) ACTUAL: 1% Shoe rack, SD card, yoga mat, weights

TOTAL (73%) ACTUAL 17% I am sooo happy with this amount! Way under budget! Definitely helps when your income is much higher than usual.

TFSA (15%) ACTUAL: 27% Started new "Future TFSA" since I have maxed out the other one
Christmas (3%) ACTUAL: 3% Fully funded now!
Camera (3%) ACTUAL: 0%
RRSP (5%) ACTUAL: 8%
Travel Fund (3%) ACTUAL: 0%

TOTAL (28%) ACTUAL 38% I also managed to save $550 toward a gift to my parents. I have been saving all my $50 and $100 bills from work and it goes toward that fund so it's not a big shock to my bank account taking it all out at once. So if we included that, my savings would actually have been 46%!


I think August will be another great month. I plan on working as much as I can but also hope to have some fun with friends and D. Hope your July went well! 

Future TFSA

I maxed out my TFSA this year so I have no more contribution room. I also withdrew $15,000 this year so it's pretty much depleted and I would like to get it back up and running for next year. 

I created a regular savings account through ING and called it "Future TFSA."

I could have put money into the chequing account but it's at 0.25%, whereas a regular savings account is at 1.35%. ALMOST what the regular TFSA gives in interest currently. So I might as well make a bit of interest! By having a separate account I will know exactly how much I want to transfer over in the new year as well. 

I put in $2000 today. 

Updates For This Week

D and I went boating on Sunday. He taught me how to drive the boat!! It's kind of fun but I definitely prefer to be a passenger. We anchored the boat and went swimming at a beach before I had to go to work.

Work has been going well. I've been getting about 5 days a week which is exactly what I want. A girl told me that she wants to make $10,000 by the end of September and that would work out to be $833 a week. She is trying to pick up as many shifts as she can, I wonder if she will be able to make that goal?

On Wednesday, D and I did a group dive. It was the SAME location as last year which we were hoping to avoid but we both had the day off so decided we might as well take advantage of it. It was D's birthday present to me, he also bought me new snorkeling gear. I can't believe how expensive a mask and snorkel are! So it was really generous of him to buy it for me.

I have Sunday off! I haven't had an entire weekend day off in a long time, so I hope we are able to get up to doing something fun! I hope you enjoy your weekend!! :)

RSPs

I added $600 to the RSPs, and $200 to the Christmas fund.

Both are at my goals for the year now. RSPs are now at $1500, and Christmas is at $600, but I had $200 leftover from last year I did not use so it's really at $800.

I might contribute some more to RSPs but Christmas is done. Woo!

I have to remember to keep putting money aside so that I can replenish my TFSA when 2013 gets here.

Settlement Money

When I was in the car accident we went through insurance and just the other day they decided on a settlement. $2500....wow the car was definitely not worth that much....I think I paid $1500 for it from my parents in 2007!! Anyway, $500 was taken off due to the deductible.

My mom is giving the money to me. 

I feel guilty about this. SHE originally bought the car, I paid less for it than she is giving me. 

I told her I don't need all of that money and she said it's mine. That woman can be stubborn sometimes. 

So what I think I am going to do is pay $1000 toward their seasonal dues at a campground resort they stay at every summer. The rest will go into savings. 

Insurance Companies....

I planned to buy the car last week. I had been into the dealership quite a few times to check out the car, ask questions and test drive it. I decided I wanted it and decided to go ahead with everything. I did not have insurance in my own name since I was under my parents name before.

So I started to call around. I started with my parent's company since I was on record with them for about 10 years. They quoted me at $360 a month!! Uhh no.

An employee at the local high school told me to call this particular company, saying they offer great rates etc. I try it out and they won't even talk to me since I have a careless driving ticket issued to me. Okay then....moving on.

I went online to check out the best rates and Belair Direct came up. I call them up to get a quote and they say $250. Ughh better but I was still hoping for better.

The two speeding tickets and that major ticket are really working against me!!

My brother mentions he is with Desjardins so I call them and they quote me at $224. I still had one more evening before I HAD to get insurance so I said I said I would call them the next day if I was going to go with them.

I taught the next day and a friend of mine tells me that she is with TD financial and they offer discounts to college/university graduates. Why not call them too, so I do so after work and they quote me at $189.08. SOLD!!

Wow really helps to shop around. If I had gone with the original insurance company I would be paying an additional $171 per month, or $2052 a year!!