End of March Review

March Goals:
-No money spent on clothes - NOPE $16.99 on a top $45.18 on accessories
-No money spent on jewelry supplies - NOPE $20.60 ($17 of this I'm getting back from the person buying the jewelry!)
-No money spent on credit!!! - Well, kind of - See below
-Stay on budget in every category - NOPE In fact, I've decided to make some changes to my budget. More on that later.

So, basically I broke ALL of my March Goals. BUT I did pay off my Visa! Well, kind of. I put $111.17 on it for my mother's day gift - ticketmaster only takes credit cards. This will be added to my April gift budget and paid off in April accordingly. I just wanted to make sure I got good (cheap) seats.

Here's how I did for the last two weeks in March, not awesome, but certainly not as bad as the first two weeks of March!

Only over in Personal Care/Household (one category being changed in April) and Clothes, since I budgeted zero for this category, technically I'm not over if I had put my 'normal' clothing budget.

Here's the full month of March:

So, again over in every category except clothes and other. I have some serious re-jigging to do!

I will post again tomorrow with April's budget and goals.

TTFN, Morgaine.

$5000 off my consolidation loan?

Next month, since it is a 3 paycheque month, I have scheduled myself to pay $1300 off my consolidation loan.

1st paycheque $300 regular payment + $200 (what normally would go to Mastercard) = $500
2nd paycheque $300 regular payment
3rd paycheque $200 snowball + bonus (this month is will be high, around $3-400!!!) = $500
=$1300 (maybe more depending on bonus)

From May on, the "regular payment" will be around $600 - may fluctuate slightly because of my bonus, but hopefully not much.

April $1300
May $600
June $600
July $600
Aug $600
Sept $1300 - another 3 paycheque month. Even if my bonus isn't as high that month, I will add from the planned spending acct.

Total $5000!!!

Of course, that's not coming completly off the top, there's interest on the loan that I didn't calculate for - too complicated for my blood! But that should be a huge help in becoming debt free!

If my next job doesn't include a bonus, it has to bring me at least $200 more net a month in order to maintain my current payments - hopefully more! :)

TTFN, Morgaine.

Non-Spendy Weekend

As I thought, this weekend was not spendy at all! All I've purchased was a salad spinner (finally!) and for $12! I think I will be going to Kitchen Stuff Plus for most of my kitchen needs from now on, they are actually very reasonably priced!

The bf buys groceries so even though we had guests over and I made dinner and desert for 4 people it didn't cost me anything. Today I'm staying home, cleaning up and relaxing - I need it!

Here's a picture of the desert I made yesterday - Boston Cream Cupcakes! So yummy :)

I will post again on Thursday - Payday! Or before if I have something to post.

TTFN, Morgaine.

March - Week 3

So far, so good.

The clothes column includes the sweater I bought last Friday and an umbrella (last one went inside out in a particularly nasty storm a while ago) and an insulated lunch bag - so not really "clothes" per se, but I thought it to be the best category to put it in.

The only plans for the weekend so far are having some friends over on Saturday (making dinner) and going to see my Mom on Sunday, so it shouldn't be a spendy weekend. Here's hoping!

TTFN, Morgaine.

Somewhat Spendy Weekend

Well, this weekend was less spendy than last weekend, but its definitely where I would like to be in terms of spending.

Friday: $20 for dinner, $16.99 for sweater
Saturday: $30 for dinner and drinks
Sunday: $10 for dinner, $15.50 movie
Total: $92.49

So, just under $100 in one weekend! At least next weekend will be a lot quieter!

So much for "No Clothing March"

On Friday I went to Sears to buy a salad spinner (Asian Pear http://theasianpear.blogspot.com/ made me think about how I wanted one for a while) but instead I bought a sweater! In my defense, its totally me (and cute), I can wear it to work, and it was $14.99 (on clearance from $29.99).

Here it is!

I'm not trying to justify my purchase, but its hard getting over a clothing/shopping addiction! :S

For the rest of the weekend, the bf and I went out to an Irish pub yesterday with some friends (came to about $30 bucks for dinner and drinks) and we're going to see Alice in Wonderland tonight (probably another $20).

I will try and post on Monday how expensive this weekend is, I hope I don't do too much more damage!!!

TTFN, Morgaine.

2 Down, 2 to go!

Ok, Visa is officially paid off today! So, I have the biggest debts left: consolidation loan and Mastercard. Next, I am concentrating on the consolidation loan. Mostly because it has the higher interest rate, but also since I want to learn how to live within my means, it is too tempting to put the high amount of payment on the MC and then just spend it when I'm "short" on funds or I really want something. Once the consolidation loan is paid off, I'm hoping to have decent emergency and planned spending accounts established so I don't run to the credit card every time I want something. Also, I'm hoping by that point my commitment to being debt-free-forever will be extremely strong so I won't want to go back in the hole ever again (other than a mortgage)!

Maybe also, I will be over my shopping "addiction". I did something potentially very dangerous yesterday - I went shopping! I went into 2 shoes stores, 4 clothing stores, and 1 bead store. But, get this, I didn't buy ANYTHING!!! I was there to look for a particular bead for someone for their wedding, which is close to a strip mall. So of course, I start thinking about all the things I want (new shoes, coat, etc) but I didn't find anything I loved for a good price ($60 for a raincoat!). And, I didn't find the bead either. I was tempted by other beads, but I held out!!! And, since its "No Clothing March" I didn't buy a shirt that I really liked - if in April its on sale, I may consider it, but I may make it a "No Clothing April" as well, we'll see.

BTW, the reason my consolidation loan isn't on the progress bars on the bottom is because I have to call in to find out the balance (during business hours) and since I'm lazy I don't do it very frequently. However, with the new payment ($600-700/mth depending on how high my bonus is) I will try and get an update at least every couple of months to make sure its going well.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend! TTFN, Morgaine.