Monthly Budget Update - February 2011

So, I went over in every category and about $250 overall. Ouch! I didn't "technically" overspend, any amounts put on credit were repaid. I met my savings goal of $500 BUT I didn't pay the $1000 towards my debt = FAIL! I actually only put the minimum payments on my debts. The good news is that as of yesterday I got my raise! :) From my preliminary projections, it looks like I will be able to actually pay the amounts I want to savings and debt AND be more realistic with my variable spending. I tried really hard to reign in the spending the last few months, but it just didn't happen. Mostly, I ate out too much and my new hobby cost me quite a bit in start up costs.

Here's to more money! :)

TTFN, Morgaine

Spending Report: Feb 21-27

21:  $20.74 (debit - dinner for 2) + 25.50 (debit - movie for 2) = $46.24
22: No Spend!
23: No Spend!
24: No Spend!
25: $1.40 (cash - Tim Horton's breakfast and free coffee!) + $40.00 (cash - food and drinks after work) = $41.40
26: $20 (cash - lunch) + $4.92 (debit - birthday card) = $24.92
27: $3.45 (cash - $2.32 gift wrap and plastic sandwich box $1.13) + $10.09 (cash - Timmie's breakfast for me and T) + $10.00 (cash - dinner) + $6.20 (debit - pet food) = $29.74
Total $142.30

Not too bad, I'm pretty happy about the 3 no spend days. Monday was a holiday and we went out for dinner and a movie. Friday went out for drinks and apps after work, $40 was a bit expensive but it was nice to unwind and celebrate the new job with my co-workers. Saturday I went to an "Ice Festival" with ice carvings. I've seen them in pictures but never in person before. They were neat! Pictures below. Sunday it was a friend's birthday: we went to Denny's for dinner (I've never been before, had chicken fingers as I'm not much of a breakfast person) and glow-in-the-dark mini-golfing. That was fun, but we definitely ate out too much this week, hopefully this week will be better.

Tomorrow, February's monthly numbers :|


TTFN, Morgaine

New Job :)

I start the new job tomorrow! I can't wait to update my budget with my new numbers :) It seems from my February weekly spending reports that $150/wk seems to be a more realistic amount of what I spend on a weekly basis so hopefully I can be a bit more realistic with my budget with the new salary. I won't get paid on the new rate until March 17th. I will get one more weekly cheque at the old rate on the 4th so I won't have to go too long without money, but I will get 3 weeks of pay on the 17th, which is nice :)

Ok, time to get to bed, gotta be fresh for my new role tomorrow :)

TTFN, Morgaine

New Blog: 10K Wedding

I started a new blog to document my journey to my wedding in 2012 for $10K or less :)

I have some post scheduled once a week for the next few weeks, I hope to blog on that site more as it gets closer to the wedding and I start to actual plan and book/buy things.

Check it out and let me know what you think: 10K Wedding

TTFN, Morgaine

Cash vs Debit

Debt Ninja at Punch Debt in the Face had a very interesting post that put into words something that I have thought about myself for quite some time. Contrary to what a lot of pf experts (Gail Vaz-Oxlade, Dave Ramsey, etc) think, I find I spend less when I spend using debit or credit than with cash.

I will, with out a doubt, spend $200 in cash faster than with my debit card. I'm not 100% sure why I'm wired this way. I do remember my Mom saying that cash "burns a hole in my pocket" I certainly have memories of going out and spending cash given to me as a child as fast as possible before it went away or was stolen by my younger brother.

I think it may be that I am more conscious of when I have cash then the fact that I have money in my bank account. Don't get me wrong, I know exactly how much I have in my bank account right now ($127.45 - without checking!) but I'm not as conscious of it because it isn't physically there. I am a visual person. I need to see something in front of me to know that its there (or to understand a concept I've never learned before) so that may be a part of the reason too.

Also, when I don't have cash I don't make as many small frivolous purchases. One of the reasons why I've had a lot more no spend days recently is that I don't have cash to go to the convenience store (I refuse to pay a surcharge to use debit at a convenience store!) so no little purchases that would make the difference between a no spend day and a $1.50 or $2.00 spent day. Those little purchases add up!

I also track my purchases more effectively and have more of an idea of when I need to "stop" spending because my bank account is low or I've already spend X amount of dollars on stuff this month. I've only recently started tracking cash spending too and since I don't want to track a lot of purchases, spending no cash most days appeals to my lazy side ;)

I think what we all have to do is find out what works best for us and perfect this method by tracking and budgeting. I think this is what works best for me, despite what others may say.

How about you, do you spend more when you're using cash vs debit/credit? Do you think that in general people spend more when they use plastic?

TTFN, Morgaine.

Savings Goals - Realistic Edition

I'm the type of person who makes up a lot of goals, but rarely follows through on them. Most of the time it is because I don't have enough motivation (i.e. losing weight without a vacation to look good for) or because I don't have a concrete plan. With my weight loss I now have a motivation (wedding) and a concrete plan (weight watchers plus 3 days/week at the gym). With my money goals I definitely have a motivation - debt free! but I didn't always have concrete plans on how to get there. This blog has certainly helped me with tracking and trying better to control my spending :)

I have been doing pretty good with savings as well (especially in the wedding fund - see, motivation!) but again I didn't have a concrete plan for a lot of savings, it was just for when I needed the funds and I didn't have an idea of when I would have enough saved for a particular goal of mine. So, I decided to create a new sheet on my budget spreadsheet to track my savings goals on at least a semi-yearly (hoping for quarterly) basis. I am a bit behind having started in February, but its the thought that counts.

Anyways, here's my new Savings Goals spreadsheet:

So, in March I will be starting my Honeymoon and laser eye surgery funds and I will increase my RSP contributions. For the wedding fund, its actually the fiance that needs to increase his portion of this savings goal but he wants to wait until his debt is paid off (as soon as he gets his tax refund). I may need to increase my portion too depending on how much he is willing to put in and what that would mean to reaching our goal in time. I can't wait until I start the new job (Monday) and get my raise, I'm really looking forward to the dents I can put towards my debt and savings goals with the extra money :)

TTFN, Morgaine

BTW, what does everyone think of the new banner? I'm planning on making a few more changes to the design of this blog to make it more personal to me. Can you guess I like fairies?

Updated Blog Roll

Just a quick note that I just updated my blog roll. There are a lot of blogs that I have been reading through my blog list on blogger but I didn't add them to my blog roll. So, now its all updated with the blogs that I read regularly and I've taken off some that I don't read or they don't post anymore :(

Today was a no spend day, here's to 3 more this week :)

TTFN, Morgaine