Added To The Funds

Today I put $150 to the Christmas/Gift Fund which brings me up to 87%. However I am going to withdraw about $200 shortly to purchase a wedding gift for my university roommate.

I also put $175 toward the Travel Fund which brings me up to 90%. I want to bring more than $500 though since I am beginning to think that may be a low number for a 3 week vacation. I am going to aim for at LEAST $700. If I come back with money that will be great to keep in the travel fund, but if I spend more than $500 I at least know I am covered.

My dad also did my income tax today and he said that I should be getting a pretty good return. He did not give me exact numbers so I'm not exactly sure what that means right now but I'm hoping it will help me contribute to the debt and funds! I'm just glad I don't OWE money!!

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!

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?