DEBT-FREE

WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

Wow, this day has finally come. It took me a long time but it's here. I procrastinated the last bit too in order to start some savings. I finaly paid off that pesky family loan ;) I also paid off my credit card and phone bill today so I'm literally debt-free. However I also have very few assets. An education, a bit of savings, an old car, and a few personal items.

So now what??

With very little work this summer I think I will try to keep the spending to a minimum. But I also want to enjoy myself this summer but I won't go overboard. I think want to focus on the TFSA and start RRSPs. Any other suggestions??

Always An Upside

The upside of a break-up. There are some really!!

I've lost 4lbs, well it's only 3 now that I am getting back to normal. But what perfect timing for swim suit season. The heat makes me not feel as hungry as well, either that or I just don't feel like cooking anything.

I am also getting out more. I've been seeing and talking to friends a lot. Including some friends from back in elementary and high school! I went for a walk with a friend last night, and the night before went swimming and had a campfire :)

I've had a lot of time. I have looked into jobs a bit more, had time to apply to a lot of them. I am also thinking more about what I want in life. Still thinking about that one.

I have also had more time to play games, listen to music, read etc. I think I might start some sewing again soon and I have a book list with some books I would like to read this summer.

Tomorrow I am working at the rec centre and am looking forward to doing something a bit different. Getting out seeing old co-workers will be good.

I also put another $300 to my TFSA which brings me to over $2000 now yay!

Tomorrow I will stop by the bank on my way home from work and pay off my family loan. Which will make me debt-free. I will then be able to sock away a bit more in savings. Although the summer will be quite tight with the lack of income.

My old roommate is having her Bachelorette this Saturday and there is a concert on the lake on Sunday that I would like to go to. I'm glad summer is such a busy season! Any other cheap summer ideas??

Back in the Swing of Things

Wow a week ago I was a total mess. Today I am feeling great! I definitely know I made the right decision. I still am unsure what I want in life exactly but this break has made me realize I have a ton of options.

I applied to several jobs within my school board but I did the same last year and never heard back so I'm expecting the same response. So I have been thinking about applying to teach overseas perhaps or in another province, maybe a developing country. I really don't know where I will be in a year.

I was talking to a friend last night and he asked me what was on my bucket list. Do you have one? What's on it??  I have a lot of goals in life, i.e. to learn more sign language, to have a career in teaching, to get married, to have kids, to do something important. That one stuck out between the both of us. He also wants to do something important, leave something behind that will make the world a bit better for another person.

He has been to Nicaragua and helped to build a community centre. He thought the experience was great and wants to do something else similar like that. I think that is a great thing to do, what an amazing experience that would be! My cousin does something like that every year in Peru so I might look into that as well, although I would be particularly fond of going to an African country. Lots of options!

I still have not paid off my family loan. It's been so hot I have been keeping cool at home and not going out. But tomorrow is supposed to rain so I might get down to the bank then. I also called my employers at the rec centre and told them my plans have changed and I will be around for the summer if they needed someone at any time. They already have work for me on Friday! Also I may be working for the month of August but we will see.

Things are really looking up. However, XBF has texted me twice and emailed me twice as well. I responded to one of the emails just saying that I did get his messages (he asked if I was receiving them) and that I was glad the Netherlands won in soccer. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything, I don't know the rules of a breakup.

Hope everyone is keeping cool :)

June!! This and That

It's June already!! Can you believe it?

That mean's only a few potential school days left. One month until my 25th birthday!! One month until we leave for Holland! One month until Summer!

There is a lot to do before July. I need to pack for our trip. I also need to at least get some things organized for moving in with BF for the rest of the summer. My parents have a storage unit that they have been wanting to get rid of for a while but my brother's and my STUFF is in there too so they have kept it. I want to go through that stuff and hopefully clear it out. Save my parents some money each month.

I also want to start working out again. It's been so hot and I've been tired so I haven't done ANYTHING in a while...too long. I want to start doing pushups and situps everyday. Maybe while I'm watching a show or at least during the commercials I'll get a few in. It's almost bathing suit season!

I want to pay off my family loan this month. But it REALLY depends on how much work I get this month. So if I am able to only owe them $300 I will be satisfied. I'll get the rest done after summer.

I want to do some summer clothes shopping. I spent a bit this month with all the times I went to Toronto, but I am still lacking a few things. Maybe another dress, one more pair of shorts, and a couple nice t-shirts. I am lacking teaching summer clothes too.

I'm going to transfer my travel fund into my regular bank account so it's easier access. I've also already spent $660 of it. I'm going to keep the rest in my bank account and take it out overseas if it's needed.

I need to get my hair cut too. It's really long right now. I was thinking about growing it really long and then donating it, but I don't know if I have the patience for it anymore. It's so nice to have shorter hair in the summer. Has anyone donated their hair before? My roommate did and she needed 10 inches, but I thought some places took 6-8 inches. And what if it has been coloured??

I need to get my roommate a birthday present. I'm seeing her twice this month so I'm going to give it to her in person instead of mailing it which will save some money, or give me a little bit more to spend on her. I'm thinking a teacher gift basket since she just completed her first full-year at a private school or a cooking gift basket since she is teaching her new boyfriend how to cook.

A Little This, A Little That

I went on my volunteer trip this weekend. It was freezing cold! But the girls had a lot of fun. I didn't get a lot of sleep because another leader was snoring!! Ahhh, I really hope my future husband does not snore!! My favourite part was getting to pet a lemur and a baby tiger! SO CUTE! I now want a lemur, Kirstie Alley has a few!

I am working at LEAST 4 days this week (woohoo). As of right now I do not have anything booked for tomorrow, hopefully something comes up though!! So I am going to get another big chunk of my family loan paid off at the end of this month when the next paycheque comes in. Can't wait!!! Do you also get super excited knowing you are going to pay off debt?

I am also reading this new book I received. It's called Money $mart Mom. I'm on chapter 4 and it's really interesting, and I'm not even a mom! The author (Sara Deveau) is Canadian and she is a Gail Vaz-Oxlade fan too. I love her writing, she is very practical and down-to-earth. I plan on doing a book review sometime later this month.

I was sent an e-mail yesterday regarding retired teachers supplying. They changed the rule and now instead of retired teachers being limited to work 95 days a school year for the first three years and then 20 days every year after that, they are now being limited to 50 days a school year for as long as they would like to supply. I'm not sure if I like this better or not. Hopefully it will create more jobs for supply teachers (at least later in the school year). Time will tell.

My shows The Biggest Loser and Parenthood are on tonight. Anyone else watch those shows? I want Sunshine to win TBL, she is just very sweet, we are the same age, and she deserves it. Parenthood I have watched from the beginning, it's a very cool show! I like how it focuses on the different families and incorporates special needs (autism and giftedness), financial issues (dad made poor decisions on some property), life issues, relationship issues, and of course parenting issues, etc.

Hockey is also on. Common Vancouver!! Any hockey fans, who are you cheering for? I'm cheering for one of the Canadian teams (Vancouver or Montreal), or Pittsburgh (Sid the Kid) to win.

*While writing this post I received another call to work tomorrow, yayyyyyy! A full week of work.

Income Tax In!!

I got the mail today and I received my new mastercard. It includes the pay pass and the chip. It's pretty cool haha. Also in the mail was my income tax cheque!

Grand total of $2037!!!! How sweet is that? So I went to the bank to deposit the cheque. I was hoping the bank would still be open so that I could withdraw a large chunk of that cheque but it was closed so I had to go to the machine and they would only let me withdraw $1000.

That money is going toward my E-fund. If I have time tomorrow I will withdraw another $500 and totally fund it. I also transferred another $75 to Christmas/Gifts, $100 to TFSA, and $250 to Travel. I also want to take BF for supper this weekend. He has paid for a lot of dates lately. Annnnnd that will pretty much take care of my entire income tax return. Sure easy to get rid of money, but I feel it's going to responsible places. April has been a great month so far!

Now to update those side bars!

My Family Loan Plan

My plan is to pay off my family loan. Then I want to save up $2000 in my regular bank account. That way I have the required $1500 to avoid bank fees, and I have a bit of leeway room in case. I also like to transfer my savings money a few days before paydays because it takes a few days to transfer to ING. I also have $2000 which will serve as my emergency fund if I need it. I am not ready to get rid of my regular bank account so I think this works out well. Hopefully I will get the family loan paid off and the regular bank account up to $2000 by New Years. $500 more went to the Family Loan tonight. YAY!

Therefore, my TFSA that I'm working on will no longer need to serve as my emergency fund and will instead be a planned spending account. I'm thinking car, wedding, house. My car hit 200,000km yesterday and as much as I hope to see it hit 300,000km I will try to prepare for not making it.

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

I mentioned before that a teacher thought of me when he knew he would be going on a trip in May. He spoke to me, he spoke to his two principals requesting me, they approved. However today it fell through. He is no longer going. It was still nice of him to consider me, and hopefully something else will come up. It would have been 6 straight days.

I have been busy working lately and am enjoying it! I think I will be able to put at least $1000 toward debt this month AND next month, and hopefully more if the work continues to come in. I have nothing else booked at the moment! I keep redoing my monthly budget by adding more to debt and savings depending on how many days I work.

My GST cheque also came in today. I will deposit that tomorrow. I am also trying to save up for a dentist appointment next month, AND two all-season tires. May will be an expensive month.

If I don't work tomorrow I am going to drive to BF's by noon. Otherwise I will just leave after work. I THINK that we are going to see "The Last Song." It's a Nicholas Sparks book made into movie. Has anyone seen it? We also have his prom to go to on Saturday night. I need to pick out what shoes I'm going to wear tonight. I'm looking forward to it. Hope he saves a dance for me :)

Merry Christmas!!

April Fools! It's not Christmas. Did I get ya?? Okay my April Fools jokes are pretty lame. My mom did trick me this morning. She asked if I was working, and when I said no she said, "Well if you do get work today make sure you wear something warm because it snowed again." It was early and I believed her for about 2.2 seconds then said, "Haha April Fools." She did get me though. Then I texted my BF and roommate who are both coming up this weekend and told them the same thing, that we have snow again. My roommate believed me! BF hasn't texted me back yet, but I'm sure he won't be fooled.

Today was also a payday! Early payday because tomorrow is a holiday! So I paid off my MC and paid $300 to my TFSA. Side bars are updated. I also threw an extra $40 to my Family Loan just to make it an even number.

Some April goals are to pay $1000 to my family loan. I'm hoping I get enough work in the next two weeks to be able to do this!! I want to put at least $150 toward the Holland fund, and another $150 toward my roommates wedding fund. We are buying them a wii. I think I will end up buying the gift (if I can FIND one available somewhere!!) and BF will pay for the hotel. Ideas of where to buy a wii?? Has anyone seen one available in Ontario somewhere?!? They have been sold out for the past two months I have been looking!

Cause of Car Problems

It was the brake line. Apparently there was a leak and so I ran out of brake fluid, Jason you were right! The one line had a visible hole in it, and the other was wet meaning it likely had a small not visible leak. So it was a bit of a process to get it fixed. My dad went to get it checked but now it's done and working again. Yay! They also fixed the holes in the exhaust. Total damage is $300. I know my dad won't ask for the money, he wouldn't even tell me what it was. I had to get it out of my mom today. I will pay him back soon. Instead of taking it out of my TFSA (E-fund) which is very minimal already, I'm going to make a smaller contribution to my family loan next month.

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!

Updated Progress Bars

I've added new progress bars that reflect my 2010 goals. Right now they are kind of sad. Most at 0%, but that will change in time. I did not add the retirement goal because I know I won't even start contributing to that one until the family loan is paid off. Next paycheque I will be able to add some money to those goals and up the percentages.

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!!

Change of Budgets...

Yesterday was payday and I am going to put $1000 toward my family loan. I will update my progress bars to reflect this change. My original goal was to put all my effort into debt-repayment before starting any sort of savings plan. However I spoke with my family yesterday about this and they said that it's okay if I want to take my time paying them back. I will aim for $3000 by the end of February and hopefully the rest by July.

I think what I will do is send in a cheque to ING and open up an account there. Then start contributing some money each month to start a TFSA with ING. I also think that I am going to change my budget, as it is not really working that well for me. I often end up overspending in certain areas and underspending in others depending on the month. So I think that I will take an approach that Jessie has taken and plan my budget dependent on each paycheque. This will also be helpful because I have such a variable income.

Birthdays, Christmas, Spending...

Tomorrow is my dad's birthday the big 56! I am going to get his gift today and also withdraw the money that I owe for the snowtires etc. Novemeber is an expensive month, I am wayyy over my budget already. If I do not include Christmas and tires then I am doing fine. But because of tires I could only contribute $300 this past paycheque toward the family loan.

This week I have also not received any supply calls. I am thinking that my goal of having the family loan paid off by the end of February might be more difficult than the original difficulty level I thought it was going to be! I am not going to change it though, I will just have to be very careful and get as many additional hours working at the rec centre as I can over Christmas break.

On the bright side, with the time off I have been able to get in some more sewing! Some of which I am going to turn into Christmas gifts for friends if it turns out :)

Onto the Next Loan...

My family loan is $5000 with interest included. So from now until the end of February (the goal I have for myself), I need to save $1250 each month in order to pay it off in time. I hope this is doable. This payday I will save $500 toward it, and next payday for this month I will try to save at least $800.

Right now I have been busy working most days but in December I think that I will be getting less supply calls, and also the kids are on holidays for two weeks, so hopefully I can work at the rec centre for at least one week during Christmas break to still have some income to help meet my goal.

Lump Sums

Today was payday. I got paid $480. And for one of the first times I didn't make a lump sum payment toward OSAP. Pretty much every payday since July 2008 I have been making extra payments on my student loan based on what I could afford until next payday. But now I am going to be watching my account grow until I have $5000 to give to my family. They gave it to be at the end of Feb 2009, so my goal is to have it paid back at the end of Feb 2010, giving just over $100 in interest. They said no interest, but it's a small way to say thank you. I'll likely have a debt-free party then too and take them out to dinner.