A small windfall before the holidays

This month I am blessed with a third paycheck!  YAY!  On top of this third paycheck, I also have an expense report, over time and mileage reports that will garner me some extra cash.  Also, I was able to actually accomplish something pretty major at work and put it to rest on Friday.  I managed to figure out an very large outstanding account with a business that we no longer do work for.  The account had been outstanding since June of this year.  They had undergone a few personnel changes and we found out on October that the person to whom the invoices had been sent had "shredded" them.  Fun.  Basically it has taken the better part of 2 months from the time of the initial finding of the problem to get this account taken care of.  On Friday we received a call that a cheque was ready for us and we could send someone to pick it up.  We had all though it was just for a chunk of the outstanding invoices and we'd have to ask about a potential payment schedule for the rest.  

A wonderful surprise came when we picked up the cheque and found it for the entire outstanding amount!  To those out there this may not seem like a major thing, but when that outstanding amount is more than $100K it's quite the nice little surprise!   And helps the bottom line for this year out immensely.  As a thank you from the company they sent my boyfriend and I out for a lovely dinner, paid for by them!  A very nice Christmas present indeed!

After scrolling through the personal finances blogs I followed, I happened to see a new post from Girl Makes Cents and happened to pop over to the site she suggested to check for unclaimed monies.  I typed in my last name (there aren't many of us in this country) and Voila!  a Hit!!  Not for me mind you, but something my mom has unclaimed for a little while ago.  So while I've made some extra cash this month, I've also found some extra cash for my mom!  Merry Christmas!!

I gave her a call and she asks me if there's a finders fee for this windfall of hers.  I say no mom there isn't, it took 2 seconds to find, and you'll have to spend 2 months waiting for it, but it's yours.  Enjoy it!!  She says "Are you sure?"  To which I reply, well actually yes there is a finders fee....you have to spend the money on something you've always wanted.  HA!  

For my mother this is a new things she's just recently been able to try out.  Now that both of her children are out of the house and all of her money is her own (in that there is no borrowing of funds for school related things and no repayment schedules to worry about), she has recently been slowly turning her room and her house into something she's always wanted.  Spare bedrooms, library, her own basement free of miscellaneous stored items from her kids, and vacations to actually relax.  For the longest time our vacations have been planned around the city the baseball tournament has been in.  For her 50th she took herself to Cuba, plunked herself on the beach with some books, the sun, and the blue/green waters, and enjoyed herself.  This year she's redone both of our bedrooms into the spare rooms she's covetted, had the roof done, the bathroom done, her bedroom furniture replaced by luxurious dark wooded items of her designer dreams, replaced flooring, furnaces, redone the driveway and I don't know what else.

It's nice to see her do things for herself.  I love that she chastises herself for spending money - she's been on a budget for so long she didn't know how to spend on herself at all.  And since she's able to do all the things she's once only dreamed about she's much more relaxed, her health is better than ever, and she actually looks happier with life!  Plus she loves that she's able to truly enjoy everything now, and not have to worry about  money every minute of every day and be a little frivolous with things.  Having no kids, no debt (she's been mortgage free for nearly 5 years now and doesn't keep a balance on her credit card), she can be free - so she says.  She still makes sure the bills are paid before she decides on her spending for the month, and still makes sure she is putting a healthy chunk away for her retirement, but she's not so worried about the pennies anymore.  

So this money, I know she'll put away until she finds something she truly wants, and end up with a bunch of interest on it in the mean time.  Truly, I have gotten many of my good money habits from her.  I still have a few bad ones (we'll both say are from my Dad), but for the most part she's the role model I've had in terms of my money.  My grandparents have been there too - save for what you want, and enjoy life because of it (they are travellers).  I love seeing that all the hard work will get me to a place I'll love with everything I'll want.

It's nearly Christmas - I am off until the new year - and the last thing I have to do for this year is sit down with my money, debts and myself and get going on the plan for next year.  I'm still mulling over this balance transfer thing.  I'll probably run the numbers again after my last cheque(s) is deposited and most of the extra goes towards knocking down this debt.  Then I'll sit down and really see if this balance transfer is going to be as good as I'd like it to be.  Truthfully I may get to the same goal just as fast keeping the balance on one card and only having to pay one debt related bill off per month.  I'll check it out again on my holidays and make sure before I switch it over.

It's nice to know I have some extra money to put towards the debt, use as a buffer for next year, and pay for some kickbox time for the new year.  I'll be able to write out my 2010 Goals and get the plan in place where it's visible in my place so I can keep the reminders going, the affirmations going and the drive up to get there.  This year has finished off very nicely I'd say!  I'll also recap my 2009 Goals and the progress I made on completing them.  I'll have some time between the 23rd and the 31st to hopefully get the smaller ones I've forgotten about over to the completed column.  I'm looking forward to seeing where this new year will take me, and seeing where I've come from this year!  

Only 1/2 day to go before holidays begin!!

Working towards a Debt Free Date!

I had high hopes of posting a few things between now and last week, but didn't have a clear path through my thoughts and research to articulately make a point.

Alas - it is two weeks until the end of the year.  Wait. WHAT?!?!?  Well, sheesh, when did this happen?

Anyways - I have effectively completed some of my yearly goals.  I'm on the jars.  I have been using cash.  I have been paying down my debt - though not as fast as I had thought, but that's possibly because of a decision I made to balance transfer some of this horrible debt for a large interest relief.  Incidently, for those who were following, I have an opportunity I'm not sure I'm going to take yet.  2.99% Interest balance transfer is available on this card I signed up for specifically because of the 1.99% original balance transfer offer.  I've saved a bunch in interest on my debt, but have basically slowed down my debt repayments from the bulk of the total because the amount I have allotted is now split between two cards.    I sat down and made a plan that looks like it will ultimately save me $1000 (or more) of interest on the total if I transfer $4500 to this card and continue to split my payments.

Here is the only problem I have with doing this splitting.  My debt repayment is now going to two places instead of one.  While one is basically charging me $134.55 of interest on the whole amount of transfer (obviously it is less than this because I"ll be making hefty payments to drop this total), the other is charging me $3500 interest over the repayment time.  So my $1100 in debt repayment will be split like this $500 to balance transfer card (balance paid off in 9 months), $600 to original debt.

Ya know what - I'll just post what I've done on the study and let you all see if you can follow me through this.  I haven't transferred anything yet, and since there's an extra paycheque this month, I'll be applying a chuck to the debt to drop it before year end.  So here it is.

Original Balance $23,122.56         11.50%

Balance      Int. Rate      Interest      Bal + Int.      Payment      Mon. Year

$23,122.56      0.00959        $221.75        $23,344.31      $1,100.00     JAN 2010

$22,244.31      0.00959        $213.32        $22,457.63      $1,100.00     FEB 2010

$21,357.63      0.00959        $204.82        $21,562.45      $1,100.00     MAR 2010

$20,462.45      0.00959        $196.23        $20,658.68      $1,100.00     APR 2010

$19,558.68      0.00959        $187.57        $19,746.25      $1,100.00     MAY 2010

$18,646.25      0.00959        $178.82        $18,825.07      $1,100.00     JUNE 2010

$17,725.07      0.00959        $169.98        $17,895.05      $2,100.00     JULY 2010

$15,795.05      0.00959        $151.47        $15,946.53      $1,100.00     AUG 2010

$14,846.53      0.00959        $142.38        $14,988.90      $1,100.00     SEPT 2010

$13,888.90      0.00959        $133.19        $14,022.10      $1,100.00     OCT 2010

$12,922.10      0.00959        $123.92        $13,046.02      $1,100.00     NOV 2010

$11,946.02      0.00959        $114.56        $12,060.58      $2,100.00     DEC 2010

$9,960.58        0.00959        $95.52          $10,056.11      $1,100.00      JAN 2011

$8,956.11        0.00959        $85.89          $9,042.00        $1,100.00     FEB 2011

$7,942.00        0.00959        $76.16          $8,018.16        $1,100.00     MAR 2011

$6,918.16        0.00959        $66.35          $6,984.50        $1,100.00     APR 2011

$5,884.50        0.00959        $56.43          $5,940.94        $1,100.00     MAY 2011

$4,840.94        0.00959        $46.42          $4,887.36        $2,100.00     JUNE 2011

$2,787.36        0.00959        $26.73          $2,814.09        $1,100.00     JULY 2011

$1,714.09        0.00959        $16.44          $1,730.53        $1,100.00     AUG 2011

$630.53           0.00959        $6.05            $636.58           $636.58        SEPT 2011

TOTAL INTEREST PAID  $3,486.60

Transfer amount $4,500.00           2.99%

New Starting Balance $18,622.56   11.50%

Balance      Int. Rate      Interest      Bal + Int.      Payment      Mon.      Year

$18,622.56  0.00959      $178.59      $18,801.15      $600.00      Jan      2010

$18,201.15  0.00959      $174.55      $18,375.70      $600.00      Feb      2010

$17,775.70  0.00959      $170.47      $17,946.17      $600.00      Mar      2010

$17,346.17  0.00959      $166.35      $17,512.52      $600.00      Apr      2010

$16,912.52  0.00959      $162.19      $17,074.71      $600.00      May     2010

$16,474.71  0.00959      $157.99      $16,632.70      $600.00      June    2010

$16,032.70  0.00959      $153.75      $16,186.46      $1,600.00   July      2010

$14,586.46  0.00959      $139.88      $14,726.34      $600.00      Aug      2010

$14,126.34  0.00959      $135.47      $14,261.81      $600.00      Sept     2010

$13,661.81  0.00959      $131.02      $13,792.83      $1,100.00    Oct      2010

$12,692.83  0.00959      $121.72      $12,814.55      $1,100.00    Nov      2010

$11,714.55  0.00959      $112.34      $11,826.89      $2,100.00    Dec      2010

$9,726.89    0.00959      $93.28       $9,820.18        $1,100.00   Jan       2011

$8,720.18    0.00959      $83.63       $8,803.80        $1,100.00   Feb       2011

$7,703.80    0.00959      $73.88       $7,777.68        $1,100.00   Mar       2011

$6,677.68    0.00959      $64.04       $6,741.72        $1,100.00   April      2011

$5,641.72    0.00959      $54.10       $5,695.82        $1,100.00   May      2011

$4,595.82    0.00959      $44.07       $4,639.90        $2,100.00   June     2011

$2,539.90    0.00959      $24.36       $2,564.26        $1,100.00   July      2011

$1,464.26    0.00959      $14.04       $1,478.30        $1,100.00   Aug      2011

$378.30      0.00959      $3.63         $381.93           $381.93     Sept     2011

($0.00)       0.00959     ($0.00)       ($0.00)           $0.00        Oct       2011

$0.00         0.00959      $0.00         $0.00                             Nov

TOTAL INTEREST PAID $2,259.37

$4,500.00    0.0025      $11.25       $4,511.25          500      Jan 2010

$4,011.25    0.0025      $10.03       $4,021.28          500      Feb 2010

$3,521.28    0.0025      $8.80        $3,530.08           500      Mar 2010

$3,030.08    0.0025      $7.58        $3,037.66           500      Apr 2010

$2,537.66    0.0025      $6.34        $2,544.00           500      May 2010

$2,044.00    0.0025      $5.11        $2,049.11           500      June 2010

$1,549.11    0.0025      $3.87        $1,552.98           500      July 2010

$1,052.98    0.0025      $2.63        $1,055.62           500      Aug 2010

$555.62       0.0025      $1.39        $557.00             557      Sept 2010

$0.00         0.0025       $0.00        $0.00                   0      Oct

TOTAL INTEREST PAID $57.00

COMBINED INTEREST $2,316.37

INT. w/o balance trans. $3,486.60

$1,170.23 interest not paid back on the split payment option!!!!

Alright so as we can see this second option means I pay less interest in the end, and still get done at the same time of the non-split option.  (Previously I had thought there was a months difference).

Please note that while I'm allotting $1100 per month to debt repayment, I also have $100 per month going to RRSP, $100 going to my planned spending account, and $200 going to the emergency fund.  That's a total of $400 I'm saving each month or 13.5% of my income per month to savings.

Debt Repayment ($1100 per month) represents 37% of my income - higher than the 15% Gail says, but what I need to do to get out of debt and get to a position where I can cut it back to 15%.

Rent, Cable/Internet/Phone ($457.50+175=$632.50 per month) represents 21% of my income.
Transportation ($180+$140 per month) is 10.8% (insurance, plus gas, plus repairs, plus license)
Life is then, 100 - (10.8+21+13.5+37) = 17.7% of my monthly income.  This includes everything from Entertainment to Food to Clothing & Gifts to Medical to Sports Fees to Life Insurance to Other.

Here's how I break down according to Gail:

Housing  s/b 35%             21%
Transportation s/b 15%    10.8%
Life s/b 25%                     17.7%
Debt s/b 15%                    37%
Savings s/b 10%               13.5%

Total 100%                    

From the above, I have room to increase my housing, and my life categories, once I've completed my debt repayment.  I am happy with the budget I have for transportation and savings.  Though I'd like to increase savings for a while, to start maxing out my RSP contribution and my TFSA.  It would be nice to have this opportunity again.  For now I'm pretty happy with my totals.

So based on the above, does anyone see a problem with me transferring that balance to the card with a 2.99% interest rate until October 2010?
              

Christmas Craft Ideas

Ok - after having posted the last one I came up with an idea for things that have helped with traditions in my house...so this is the Christmas Craft addition!!

My Grandmother and mother spent a lot of time get us to think about things in different ways.  I grew up in a household where most of my clothes were made for me - knitted sweaters, smocked dresses, hand-sewn skirts and shirts.  In keeping with that, I didn't notice until recently that these were all ways of saving money and using the creativity of my mother and grandmother to make what was needed without spending tons of money.

That being said, we were always baking and crafting on weekends - to help keep us away from the T.V. and fill in some time when the rains and snows were beating the ground.

so - What do you get when you add egg cartons, coloured tin foil (from the poinsettas) and red yarn together?  Why Christmas Bells of course!!  Cut the egg cartons into individual sections, wrap in the coloursed tin foil of choice.  Cut lengths of coloured yarn (red, green, something festive) in varying sizes.  Poke a hole with a pencil into the top of the egg carton shell.  Knot one end of the yarn and thread through the egg carton.  Hold up and gather a bunch together to make a bell bunch and hang somewhere in the house!  Instant decoration!!

Next craft - coloured construction paper, crayons or pencil crayons (depending on age) and pipe cleaners.  Ask the child to cut out their favourite shapes (or do it with them)  in their favourite colours.  Draw something on them - or simply colour in their favourite colours.  Use a hole punch to punch a hole in them and slide a pipe cleaner through (can substitute for ribbon or string, but this will need to be tied in a knot instead of simply twisted)  Hang whereever is desired!  (My grandmother still has the little tree we added ours to when we were 5 - and yes they are still hanging on it!)

Next Craft!  Tissue paper, crayons/pencil crayons, Angel drawn on two pieces of paper and stapled together.  Moms/dad draw an angel - font and back on two pieces of paper.  Let the child use kid-friendly scissors and cut out the shape - or if too young cut for them.  Ask the child to colour the angel in their favourite colours and pick our a colour of tissue paper for the bottom of her dress.  (Or his robe).  Staple the front and back together and staple to the tissue paper to form the robe/skirt.  This is nice as a tree topper, or table top decoration.

So far - everything in this were items in my house that were just laying about.  Except the pipe cleaners now a days I suppose!  These were things Gramma had to help clean little glass vases and chachkies in the house.

Of course there is always the old standby of making snow flakes out of coloured paper!  Popcorn and cranberries on a string, or snowmen for windows.

Take a look at your house and see what things are there that you can turn into other things.  The last was always the cover the can with something nice and make flowers out of tissue paper and tissues with pipe cleaner stems to fill it!

In case you were looking for something fun to do that is seriously inexpensive!  Happy Crafting!!

A Green Christmas

I've been reading a lot lately about environmentally friendly ideas for the holidays, how to be frugal this season, how to stay on budget for the holidays and many similar items.  I thought today I'd share traditions my family started back when I was an 8-year-old Environmental Activist!

When I was young  my mom used to get my sister and I subscriptions to OWL and CHICKADEE magazine - the best kids magazines I've seen.  One year there was something in the OWL about what you could do for the environment.  You had to write in and tell them about it.  At the time my Public School didn't have a recycling program to speak of really so I thought, hey let's get this thing off the ground.  Myself and two friends began the journey to find bins and get pickups for paper and blue box.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of work.  We each had a younger sibling that took over the program when we graduated, then the staff and volunteer students after that picked it up and it's been running well ever since.

That year I discovered how much tree damage we did during holiday seasons by using wrapping paper.  Beautifully coloured, lovely designs and what not were printed on this paper using dyes and inks that weren't overly safe for us, and we ate up forest after forest of trees simply to rip the stuff off and stuff it into a landfill.  Because of the glossy covering that often gets coated onto this paper, not all of it can be recycled.

So, with my family's help, my mom, sister, grandmother and I sat down at the sewing machines will Christmas fabrics we picked up on Boxing Day sales and made Christmas bags in all sizes for the next year.  For those with young children who are looking for a project to do with them to teach them sewing basics, this is a good one!
The next year at Christmas we used the Christmas bags we had made to "wrap" our presents in for the family.  For outgoing gifts we used the last of the wrapping paper up until it was gone and then began using other kinds of packaging - boxes, tins, baskets, bags - to give gifts away.

This year my mom gave my sister and I a set of Christmas bags each for our gifts for family members and those who will return the bags to be filled again next year.  These bags are fabric, have draw strings and can be washed if soiled by hands or gifts or pets or children.  The keep well in a closet flat and waiting for next year, or a draw out of sight.

Other things we do to help the environment is if we are given a wrapped gift, we peel the wrap off carefully and save it for something else.  We keep tissue paper to fill gifts with at a later time.  We give edibles to those we want to give something to but aren't in the family, close friend category.  We reuse our tree each year, make decorations for each other instead of purchasing them all the time, try to watch how much packaging is involved in the gifts we give and reuse gift tags year and year and year.  yep that's right, we grab the gift tags off the packages and put them in a box for next year - that we we don't make new ones every year unless one is missing or it has reached it's end life.

We keep the picture portion of cards to use as tags again in the future.

Each Christmas we go through our wardrobes to find the stuff that hasn't been worn in a long time, the stuff that doesn't fit, the stuff that is raggedy and worn out and pull it all out.  Yep every Christmas we do this.  The raggedy worn out stuff gets put in the rag cupboard downstairs, where it either gets used as rags for around the house stuff or cut into squares to make quilts.  The rest of the stuff gets donated to a charity each year.

We watch White Christmas, play Rumoli, cook up a storm Christmas Day afternoon, make Christmas cakes, shortbread, and an array of Christmas cookies for the holidays.  We make our own cranberry sauce, earlier in the year and freeze it for use year-round.  We go for a walk to see the Christmas lights, visit neighbours, and until recently joined the caroling of the local Public School for the night.  And each year, as is tradition, we do a puzzle.  Usually we spend the entire Christmas holiday working on as many puzzles as we can - the whole family plugs away at them until they are done.  We've become so good at them that even the borderless double sided ones are becoming easier to figure out - and those without actual pictures are getting easier as well.

It's amazing the number of traditions we still keep up with.  And how little money actually goes into the holiday season.  For the longest time, since we were kids without much money of our own, we made all the gifts we gave.  It cuts way back on the money doled out by parents for extra gifts, and gives a greater sense of pride and joy to the givers and receivers of the gifts.  Supplies cost a bit, but often were a better alternative than buying each gift.  $50 spread over 6 gifts is much more cost effective (frugal) than $50 multiplied by 6 gifts.

The best part about our Christmas was when my beau started having Christmas with us, he completely appreciated the lengths we went to save as much as we could, and use re-usable things as much as we could.  He is a tree-hugger and loved that we used fabric bags four our gifts.  he was over the moon when my mom gave us the Christmas bags this year.  It was nice to have someone who will appreciate the more frugal choices I make, understanding that needless wasting items only harms our world more, and that you really don't have to have everything you see everyone else with - since you probably won't use the items anyways.  

What do you do to help the environment, be frugal, and have a more meaningful holiday season?  Can you come up with ways to reduce your environmental impact, remove some of the consumeritis and set traditions with your family and friends?  Is there something you can make instead of purchasing a gift for someone that would mean more to them than any money?  Have you thought of simply giving them the money you wanted to spend and ask them to use it towards something they want to accomplish in their life?  School, decorating a room in a new house, saving for retirement, adding some business savvy attire to their wardrobe, even to pamper themselves with a hair cut or spa visit?

Changing my comments section

Hi all!

This is just a warning to my readers that my comments section has changed.  

I've been receiving quite a bit of spam lately thusly I've switched to a comment moderating strategy, and changed how things look a little to hopefully stop this.

I know most of you had this in place already, I suppose it's my own fault for not having something here.  Alas, now you have to jump some hoops. 

Thanks for reading and offering your thoughts and concerns to everything thus far.  I truly appreciate the feedback!

All the best!

Something fun - I needed a break!

K so this comes from Frugal Dreamer and Saving4Later

Last Movie I Saw In A Movie Theater? Oh gosh - I think Transformers 2
What Book Are You Reading? Vision in White
Favorite Board Game? Balderdash!
Favorite Magazine? Chatelaine (which I borrow from my Family since they have a subscription)
Favorite Smells? Warm Chocolate, and my man after a shower - clean and clean shaven! 
Favorite Sounds? Laughter 
Worst Feeling In The World? Losing someone you love
First Thing You Think of When You Wake? I guess I'll get up now.
Favorite Fast Food Place? Subway
Future Child’s Name? Boy: Graydon Alexander  Girl: Aurora Lee
Finish This Statement—“If I Had a Lot of Money,” I'd be out of debt and have a nice retirement nest egg!!
Do You Drive Fast? I like to, but I set the cruise control now so I don't get any speeding tickets.
Do You Sleep With a Stuffed Animal? Not any more. 
Storms—cool or scary? Both!  I always get scared until I'm home - then they get to be cool. 
What Was Your First Car? Mercury Topaz
Favorite Drink? Water
Finish This Statement—“If I Had the Time, I Would…” travel the world.
Do You Eat the Stems on Broccoli? Yep sure do! 
If You could Dye your Hair Any Other Color, What Would It Be? A deep auburn red.  
Favorite Sport to Watch? Curling!
What’s Under Your Bed? That would be the bed frame, then the leaf for the dining table, my slippers, the Christmas Wreath, a carpet and C's shirt.
Would You Like to Be Born As Yourself Again? Yes!
Morning Person or Night Owl? a bit of both I think - In a perfect world I'd get up at 9am and be in bed by 11pm  
Over Easy or Sunny Side Up? Huh.  I thought this was the same thing!!
Favorite Place to Relax? In the bath.
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor? Maui Brownie Madness


Alrighty - just a little something to divert my attention for 5 minutes.  

The Balance Transfer Talk - reviewed

I've had three people get back to me on their thoughts about this balance transfer thing.  I have an excel spread sheet set up for my credit card payments and balance information.  I've set up another sheet for the balance transfer scenario and what not.  I'll puzzle out how I got to where I'm thinking this might be a good idea below:

First Credit card - CIBC - current balance, not including today's payment $23,710.99.
Second Credit Card - MBNA - current balance $988.88 - only used to transfer balance from CIBC to use 1.99% interest rate until Jan. 2010.

My current payment schedule is this - $550 + last three digits of bill from first paycheck each month (more than the minimum required) - interest rate is 11.5% per annum
$500 flat to MBNA to pay off balance before offer runs out and interest switches to 19.99% per annum (YUCK!)
After my payment on the next pay check of $500, and the extra $138.88 I'll be moving to this card on this pay check, I'll owe these guys $350.  I will be taking this $350 from the last paycheck this month to clear up this balance transfer amount before I start again with the new rate of 2.99%.

As long as I pay off the transfered balance before the offer runs out, I'll be able to save myself paying back about $1,000 of interest from the current horrible amount on the card.  I will be making more than minimum payments on the MBNA leaving it at an even $500 each and every month, and I will be making more than minimum payments on the CIBC card.

I've been in this habit all along so there is no behaviour change to make.  I like getting bills in the mail.  I get excited over it, because I know that each time I get it and I open that bill up the balance will be less than last month, and I will be one step closer to not having that bill again.  Now, this excitement is really big when I make a payment on my credit card, and slightly less when I receive my cell phone or my cable/internet/telephone bundle bill.  Those I'm excited to pay so I can mark that as done in my budget spreadsheet and feel great about the fact that I have the money sitting there to make the payment and that it is not being overspent on something stupid/frivilous.  My minimum balance keeps creeping downwards, and my balance owing keeps getting smaller on my credit card mess.

These cards are kept in a card holder in my house, filed alphabetically, that I don't look in hardly ever.  On each card I have a small sticky note with the balance of the card that i update quarterly, so when I'm tempted I don't see the card I see the debt and I simply close that folder and be done with it.  I don't want to add tot he amount owing at all so it's a nice thing not to see the credit card but to see only the sticky with the debt on it.

I have had 6 consecutive bills now where there hasn't been a purchase show up, because I've finally got myself on a repayment plan that is working, and a budget that is working for me.  I have enough to have my fun.  I don't feel strapped for cash or tight in the belt, unless I've been careless with my jar money.  My debit card sits in a ziploc hidden on our goal board and is only in my wallet when I am traveling or when it is pay day - so I can deposit the money at the teller and make my payments.  (it comes traveling as a just in case measure.  Note it isn't my credit card that comes with me.)

What this means is that I've read the comments from Liz, Bobby, and The Financial Catastrophizer  on my transfer dilemma, and have run the numbers about 50 times just to make sure - by hand, and by computer.  I have the schedule set up with a place to put the payment date a lovely green DONE beside the payments that have been made.  The only thing I know I've been a little generous on is the calculation for the interest.  I took the annual rate, divided it my 12 and rounded up so I only use three significant figures.  What this means is, my bills actually show a lower balance than my spread sheet does, and every three months I make the adjustment in the spread sheet to reflect the true amount.  My spreadsheet is actually slightly heavy on the interest calculation, so in the end I'll be saving more than the $1,000 I've got in my spread sheet now.  and by saving I really mean, I'll be paying that much less back!!

When I balance transfer I'll be moving $4,500 to the MBNA and paying $500 per month to this card.  From now until Oct 2010 billing cycle, the interest rate will be 2.99% per annum.  paying $500 per month for 9 months will equal the original balance transfer amount.  This leaves me with just the interest to worry about in the tenth month (a payment of just under $134.55)  if I had of left this $4,500 on the CIBC card at 11.5% I would have paid just under $517.50 just for the $4,500 portion of the balance)  I've already saved $382.95 just for that portion of the balance - it actually results in quite a large savings on the whole balance when you work it all out.

Thank you to those who commented.  I have taken your comments and concerns seriously and have run the numbers and spoken to C about this.  I think this is doable for me.  I can handle the payments on both cards, and have been able to stick to my plan - often uping the amounts to CIBC each month, using any money left over in the budget.  It has been working out for me and I am drivenly dedicated to my debt free date of November 2011.  I want this mess I made gone for good.  I want to be able to save for a house, up my RRSP contribution and max out the room in TFSA each year.  I want to know that I'm in a position to marry C without debt and feel good about myself for bailing myself out of my own mess - no outside help at all!

Well off to the bank I go to get this in and moved around!  Then I can curl my game tonight without any financial stress what so ever.  Tomorrow is Friday!!  Which means new episode of Gail for reinforcement, and a bunch of reruns to affirm my journey and my path!  One more month down, only 23 months left!!  Woo hoo!!!

1st of 3 pay days this month!

Ah pay day!  One of my favourite days!!  This payday is extra special.  Our company has given out the Christmas Bonus checks!!  I have an additional $750 to decide what to do with.  Since I've used expense cheques to bolster my Christmas shopping thus far, and I only have 2 gifts left to get (but just in case I'll leave a bit extra in the fund until closer to the day).

So today I have nearly $1,000 of extra money to put down onto my debts.  The first I'll pay for is the course I'm taking next semester.   I'll keep $300 for Christmas just in case, and use what's left over to put down on the debt I have.

And since the taxes have been paid for this year (except federal) I've got a bit of extra money on my paycheck even!  So here's how things will break down:

CIBC will be getting a payment of $610.99 (minimum is $497, regular allotment is $550), $60.95 more than my regular payment.
WESTERN will receive $554.45 for the course for next semester.
MBNA will receive $138.88 plus my regular allotment of $500 to pay them off completely (this was the first balance transfer at a rate of 1.99% per annum.).

I will call MBNA to transfer another $4,500 to this card at a rate of 2.99% and help knock $1,000 from the repayment of my debt!  This is a nice offer to be given on a card I do not ever use, and only opened because of the 1.99% balance transfer offer.  Their regular card rates are an astronomical 19.99%, and I stopped carrying my credit cards at the beginning of this year.  They are hidden in my apartment in something I don't ever look in (according to C), so there's no chance of me using them to throw off my hard work at getting to debt free!

Today was a nice day - regular paycheck that was more than usual, mileage check, and Christmas bonus.    Still to come this month is my overtime hours worked cheque, that I will be adding to again this week.  The extra money I made last month was used to update my asthma prescriptions since they were past expiry and I need them to help with this silly cough that just keeps hanging on.  Also, with the weather getting colder I will have days when I will need the help breathing (cold weather triggers things for me).

I'm having a great day so far.  last night I witnessed some road justice.  I travel to London, ontario every Wednesday night for night courses.  In the steady rain, on highways with lots of standing water, and most people doing their best to drive safely to their destinations, I noticed as I entered the highway to travel home again (about 10:30pm) that there looked to be a truck in the left fast lane.  I thought to myself, weird, why would they be out there?  I kept driving, watching these headlights get ever closer as I went.  He finally passed me in the fast lane and kept going.  There got to a point where he had slowed down quite a bit and I ended up passing him.  Apparently this was intolerable to him and thus passed me again, only this time I ended up sandwiched between him in the left most lane, and a truck in the right most lane - me in the middle.  I can tell you when you have the spray off of two trucks, one on either side, it is next to impossible to see anything even two feet in front of your face.  I basically took my foot off the gas and waited until they were both by me again and lefty was well well in front of both of us.  I passed the truck on the right again, using the left most lane so as to avoid the rain spray from righty truck.  Took a quick look in my mirrors as I changed lanes back and noticed this vehicle high tailing it in the left hand lane.  Now I'm thinking ah geez, it's too bad out here and too late at night to be speeding that badly...

As it passed me I realized it was a pitch-black SUV vehicle that effectively drove striahgt up the butt of the lefty truck - now in the middle lane far ahead of me.  At this point I'm thinking you better be an undercover cop to be that close to his butt...and I noticed it's actually driving in between the left and center lanes....Now I'm praying *please, please, please, please, please*....LIGHTS START FLASHING BLUE AND RED!!!

*Cheers erupt from me, happy giggling begins and carries me all the way home!*

Finally!!  The one time I've wanted there to be a cop around to handle this maniac in an eighteen wheeler there actually is one.  Funniest part was that the other trucks on the road who had witnessed it started flashing their lights as if to say YA! Finally something happens to these hot-dogs making bad names for us.

Needless to say I was so very happy I was traveling at a safe distance, properly using the lanes of the highway to get myself home and respecting the size of the other vehicles on the road by giving the really big ones two lanes of space as I passed.  This also helped me see things properly since I didn't have spray issues from them.

So for those who have wondered, it does happen, these speedy eighteen wheeler guys do get caught!

Well - almost time to head tot he bank, take out the jar money for the month and make the transfers I need to make.  It's nice to have additional money to complete some of the things needed for this month.  the last paycheck, will be used to create my buffer so i can begin using last months money for next month, instead of this cheque to cheque stuff I'm doing now.  The buffer will go a long way to getting me on the road to Debt Free Forever!  I'll use a portion of it for jar money for January, and leave the January cheques alone.  I love that I'll have this ability!!

I did think that it would be nice to use a bit of it as another debt repayment also.  I'll have to think a little more about this though, and figure out which will work better for me in the long run!

To Balance Transfer or to Not Balance Transfer, That is the question!

Okie dokie - first of all I have to say MBNA needs to discuss with their sales callers the art of properly explaining the product.

Last evening I received a call from MBNA about an offer they'd like to make me.  Ok - however it took the person a full minute and a half to say hello even.  I knew it was them since I have call display on the phone (part of my phone package), so I waited for this person to do their job.  The conversation lasted 2 minutes and 3 seconds total, so I can tell you they didn't do a good job at all.  I called MBNA back to discuss this with them, the wonderful lady found the phone conversation I had and marked it for review with supervisors after I explained what had happened.  She took the time to explain that I'm being offered a chance to balance transfer from my current CC card to this one (which by the way I only signed up for because of the 1.99% interest rate on balance transfers, and only transferred an amount I knew I could get paid off before the offer expired.)  I'll be paid off in December.  The new offer is 2.99% until October 2010.  This offer expires March 2010.

The question is, do I transfer another amount I can pay off before October 2010 from my current credit card to this one to save the money on the interest, or do I leave it where it is and pay 11.5% per annum on the balance?

Ok if I leave everything the way it is it will take me until Oct 2011 to be debt free.  If I transfer $4500 to the MBNA card at 2.99%, and make $500 a month payments on this card, it'll take me until  Nov 2011 to be debt free and I"ll save $1000 in interest in the process. One month more but saving $1000 in interest seems like a good thing.

So my question to the personal finance bloggers out there is this, if you had this opportunity for the next 10 months would you take it?

December Goals

Separate from coming under budget in all categories again this month, I have a few goals I'd like to complete before the end of the month.  Also, since I have the week off between Christmas and New Years, I have a bunch of extra time to set up goals and accomplish extra things this month.  I love taking that week off - if it snows enough I can hit the slopes for an afternoon.  I can play in the year-end curling bonspiel.  I can visit with my family and have them over to the new place without too much stress.  I can sleep in, stay in my pj's and read to my heart's content!

So last month I read 4 books, studied for my exam and got half-way through  my craft project.

December, I'd like to finish 2 fiction novels, and at least one Finance book I have in a pile to read.  I will finish my craft project.  I will bake for Christmas and gifts.  I would like to start and finish another craft project (refinishing my dining room chairs so they have comfortable padding again).  Perhaps I'll ask C for the material for Christmas so I can get it done and be happy with it - fabric and foam.  I'll need to take a seat apart to see how to get it back together and how it was finished in the first place.

Other than that I would like to find a few more moments of pure joy in this month.  The kind that spring upon you when you aren't looking that give you pause and make you smile, laugh out loud, be thankful for the blessings and that you'll remember and write about in a blog or gush to someone about.

Those are my goals for December.

I am a video game junky? Really?

Oh boy =S

I looked at my numbers for November.  Everything in the jars looked great - I had money left in every category!!  *happy dance*  The trouble was when I went to my bank account I found a few very unpleasant things I had done to myself.  I have no one to blame but me...

First I didn't accurately handle the money I was going to need for my sister's Stag and Doe at the early part of the month.  Second, I can do better in the Food category and got lucky that C picked up groceries a couple of times when I was too ill to move.  Third, I way way over spent in the online game category of my budget.  Usually this costs me about $10.90 per month.  This month I spent a whopping $190!!  (WHAT?!?!?)  Wow I'm a dumbass!

On the bright side - I had enough money left in my jars to put back into my account to cover most of this problem.  In the end, with a 407 bill I'd forgotten about, and the bank fees I'd forgotten about, I am in the red by $40.  Not overly bad but honestly not a great effort.

On the bright side this month I've proven my budget is exactly right and I just need to be more on top of things to keep it that way - no will become my best friend.  I've even been able to purchase Christmas presents that will help me complete this year's shopping.

I have a bake to do for the in-laws since we've officially received the (yearly tradition) we-have-no-money-for-Christmas call we get every year.  I've been with C for three and a half now, it's been that long.  He told me the other day he's been hearing the same speech since he was about 11 years old.  Wait WHAT?!?!?  Ugh!  Makes me angry.  so when he said that I said fine with me - I'll give them all a little bit of the baking I'm doing for holidays and that's it.  I've had enough of hearing that speech and there is no reason for this.  Being tight at Christmas is like you forget it happens every year and don't plan at all for the rest of the year.  (It's also something else but that's a long long story that I will not explain because it gives me a stress headache every time I do.)

So, in terms of Christmas, I'm down to just needing something for C, and something for my best friend and her husband.  2 people left!!  YAY!!  And C will be adding something small for my family to go with the joint gift we are getting them between my sister and her fiance and C and I.  Then all he has left is moi!

In the end this month, I did really well with jar money, not so good with my online games, and I know that I can't spend anymore than the one month subscription to the game I play.

As another aside, I've already made $40 in overtime money and will be adding nicely to that total this week, once my exam is out of the way and last class is complete.  Thursday, Friday, Saturday will see some overtime hours added, to increase this total.  This will help nicely for funding the two last Christmas presents I have to get, and go a long way to adding a nice extra payment to the debt.

Oh ya, my other overages this month were in the Car Insurance category - changed my address and it increased the amount by $25 for the last three payments.  And in debt repayment - I budgeted $1050 and I paid $1080.86.  so even with my $40 overspent because of the gaming thing, I would have easily come under budget all the way around!!

December here I come!!