Back at it again.

I've been getting some complaints/rants regarding the fact that I haven't updated my blog since the beginning of the summer. Well back I come with my tail between my legs, begging for forgiveness...mostly because I fell off my budgeting wagon.

I have found myself back to where I was a year ago (minus the owing collections agencies a ton of money). I spent the summer throwing money around, went on a lengthy vacation that was supposed to be the cheaper route to go and ended up costing much more than expected and here I sit on a Monday afternoon with $2.47 in my bank account and 4 days til I get paid again.

I had a friend ask not too long ago what was the best thing I did when I was budgeting my money. I will say this again and again and again....the envelopes. Having something tangible in my hand that I can use to trade for something that I want/need. I thought that if I did the envelopes for long enough that I would just get the hang of it and be able to take a look at my bank account on a semi-daily basis and be able to control my spending. NO SUCH LUCK.

So, starting on Thursday when I get paid, I am going back to my envelope method of living.

In the meantime, send me your stories of success and I will post them on my blog. Also, my promise to you is that I will update my blog on a weekly basis from now on.

Need ideas!

Hi everyone,

I've just been told that I'm not updating my blog enough and that people will stop reading. Problem being is what to say these days. I've been sticking to my budget; having some extra income coming in is helping with my savings, and having an automatic savings amount come out every paycheque is also helping.

So....what can I write about?
I was told about this website a few weeks ago: groupon.com
The premise is that you are emailed a coupon every day that pertains to your demographic (the area that you're in, your age, interests etc.). Today my groupon is "$12 for $25 worth of fare at The Teahouse in Stanley Park". This isn't too shabby at all. I went on the Tea House website and you can actually get a nice meal for $25 (you're only paying $12). The catch being is that the coupon is only good for that day so you need to be a fly by the seat of your pants type of person.
The other day Glen received a groupon for 1 month unlimited bootcamp, regularly $140 on for $30.

I also saved money this week by listening to the Vancouver Folk Festival from the beach instead of inside. For anyone that finds the Folk Festival too expensive (believe me, it's a great event, but sometimes it's just not in your budget; like me this year), walk down to Jericho and you'll find yourself at the secondary Folk Festival. I couldn't get over the amount of people that came down with their picnics to sit on the beach and listen to the music (which you could hear perfectly).

I'll try to write more and think of new topics to write about. If anyone has any ideas, please shoot them my way.

I didn't fall off the wagon....

I haven't posted in awhile, mostly because there hasn't been much to report.

As I said in my last post, I had one pay cheque where I didn't use the envelope method and it screwed me up big time. I realize now the importance of sticking with this method for at least 6 months.

I've been writing for an online company for the past few months and had to write an article on debt counsellors in Canada (how appropriate). I thought for awhile that these counsellors were a sham, but after researching the qualifications to become one and exactly what they do, I would highly recommend getting in touch with one. There is a site called nomoredebt.org that is based out of Vancouver and is a non profit organization. If you are in a crunch, I highly recommend contacting them for some advise. These counsellors can walk you through how to properly set up a budget, what to expect the first few months (I should have paid attention to that one) and how to start to pay off your debt and still save.

I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that I make a decent salary, but yet am struggling to stay afloat. I want to hit the point where I have money saved and it doesn't matter if I have a car expense (which I do right now) or a camping trip to plan for; at one point in time I hope that I won't be stressing about how to afford these things.


Keep saving and send me your comments. I promise to write more.

A sad, sad update

After weeks of being on top of my budget I have fallen off track. I don't know where I went wrong or really, what happened.
I did use my debit card to get food one day - I didn't have money in my envelope, but to be fair, I was hungry and I needed food. I get paid tomorrow and I do still have money in my grocery envelope, but these next two weeks are going to be interesting.
I decided to enroll the dog in private lessons and this has messed up my budget significantly. With this added expense I now have $50 to last me for everything over the next couple of weeks.
On a positive note I was accepted as a freelance writer for a website. The pay is by article and is only $15 per article, but I figure that if I can write 10 articles a week, I can add another $600 a month to my savings.
Wish me luck, although the next time you see me I may be gaunt from not eating for two weeks!

New Article

I feel that I'm not being honest with myself this time around about how well I'm doing with my budgeting. After last weekend my booze envelope is empty, my toiletries envelope is empty (and I didn't use that money for toiletries); luckily I have money in my grocery envelope so I can eat, the animals have full bags of food and my dine out envelope is still full (and by full, I mean it has $20 in it, so I won't be going to fancy places). I think that having a partner that is so generous makes this process tougher; I want to become financially stable and be able to take care of myself in case something ever happens, but my significant other keeps on insisting on paying for things.
On the weekend we went to the casino (that's where my toiletry money went) and he won quite a bit of money so has been paying for dinner and drinks all week. I feel a sense of guilt about this because he shouldn't have to 'pay' because he's good with money and I'm not.
Those are my thoughts for the week.

I've included a link to an article I read today. It's US based, but I believe could still be applicable to Canadians. The question being posed is can you save money by taking public transit vs. driving? Let me know your thoughts.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/blog/page.aspx?post=1771236

One small note

I got a lot of questions regarding getting your credit checked yesterday.
There are many sites that will give you your credit report for a fee, but I have included a link and download (Equifax free credit) where you can get your credit report for free if you mail your info or fax your info in. I just did this and am now waiting for my report. Will let you know how it goes.

Interesting article in the Vancouver Province

I came across a great article in The Province yesterday entitled "Rejig those debt loads". I have included a brief synopsis of the points that Terry McBride makes regarding debts and your best way to pay them off. If you'd like a copy of the whole article, let me know and I can scan it and email it to you (girlfriday1080@gmail.com).

Consolidation

- one of the most popular debt management strategies which enables you to combine various loans into your mortgage or a line of credit.
- the great thing about doing this is that you then only have one interest payment to pay off as opposed to numerous interest payments.

* I consolidated my credit cards, line of credit and car a few years back and it made a HUGE difference in my ability to pay this off. I tended to only pay the minimums on my credit card (which I know a lot of people do) and was getting nowhere. Now, I pay a bit more a month (which I have factored into my budget) and am paying everything off at the same time. Just go into your bank and ask to speak with someone regarding a consolidation - the planner will walk you through your best options (long term vs. short term payment options), will run an employment check and you'll be good to go.

Amortization

Amortization is how long you are scheduled to repay an installment of a loan. If interest rates rise, consider stretching the repayment period on an installment loan to reduce the size of your monthly payments.
A negative to this is that if you continue to make smaller payments over a long period of time you will eventually pay much more interest in the long run.

Debt snowball
A strategy for cutting down your overall debt:

- Make a list of debts and note how much you pay on each loan
- Pick the smallest debt to tackle first. Pay the minimum on all debts except your target debt (this could be included in your budgeting...putting more money aside for paying off this debt than the rest)
- Continue with this debt strategy by then choosing the next debt on your list. Pay that off. And so on and so on.

Emergency Fund

Instead of borrowing money when there is an emergency (car problems, emergency flights home etc), build into your budget an emergency fund.
A great way to increase your money is to open a high interest, tax-free savings account (ING is a great one that I have) that you cannot access by debit or credit.

They keep trying to take me down....but I won't let 'em.

After another bump on my road to financial stability on Friday, I realize now the importance of checking your credit score. I highly advise you all (especially if you're in trouble financially right now) to get your credit rating and see who you owe money to.
If I would have checked mine I would have found out that I'm still being charged for my gym membership that I cancelled 3 years ago (I'm sure most of you are thinking "well, wouldn't you know if you're getting charged. No, because they were charging a credit card that I cancelled years ago".). I will keep you posted on my progress, but I may now need to add an envelope for a lawyer.

Other than this, things are still going well. I almost used my debit card on the weekend, but didn't and am happy to say that after a weekend full of friends and drinking, I still have money. The one thing I do regret doing is bringing money to the casino. I'll admit that I was under the spell of 'but I could turn this 20 into $500 just like that, and then I can buy myself a pony to ride to work'. Needless to say I rode the dog to work today instead.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Safe and Sound

Sorry for the delay this week in writing.

Well it's official, it's been one full pay period (2 weeks) and I haven't used my plastic and have stuck to my budget. I can say that I only have $2 left in one of the envelopes, but I think that just shows that it IS possible to properly budget your money.

I have to say that it felt really good not to be worried every day (or every hour) whether or not I could afford that coffee, or that soup at lunch and just waiting for the debit machine to say 'Insufficient Funds'. Amazing feeling.

The second week was definitely harder than the first, but I think this time around it will be easier because I'll have the experience of the second week.

Anyway, quick column today. Will write more over the weekend.

I look forward to more comments and suggestions from you all. Please read the comments that people are making as everyone seems to have other great ideas on saving money.

Until next time, take care.

Have a great weekend!

Hey everyone,

I've been getting a lot of great responses and feedback from everyone and it's really making me happy that I started this blog. I just wanted to thank you all for reading and supporting my journey. Please pass the link onto your poor friends (unless they're too poor to have the interweb) and people that you know that are in a crunch.

A friend of mine was telling me last night that the minimums for credit card payments is going up in Canada (from $10 to $100 in some cases) which could pose a lot of problems for those already having a tough time paying their minimums. Over the weekend I'm going to look into this and see if I can find any additional info for you all.

Until next week! Have a great weekend.

Kristy.

It's only been one week?

I'm not going to lie, it feels like I should be getting paid this week.
What can I say to you about my first week of budgeting? It's been a learning experience.

The following envelopes are empty as of last night:

1) Harmer and Coconut (my dog and cat if you do not know)
This could pose problems come this weekend when my 65 lb German Shepard runs out of food and starts eating my leg while I sleep. I may have to dip into next weeks funds to save a limb or two.

2) Groceries
This isn't as bad as it seems. As I stated last Thursday, I made myself a grocery list for the first time ever and sure enough, the groceries lasted until yesterday (with some spill over). So yesterday during some downtime at work I went to http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com and made myself a menu for everyday until pay day. I, once again made a grocery list and was able to fill up a basket and have meals for lunch and dinner for the following week for $15.50. Last night I made a delicious chickpea curry from scratch which came in at under $3.00 (and I have leftovers for lunch). It's possible to eat healthy for next to nothing.

3) Booze
This envelope isn't empty, but has $10 remaining. I figure that I can buy myself a bottle of Marcus James for the weekend and then have another drink free week (it's doing wonders for my figure!).

I do have to say that keeping these envelopes is making me VERY aware of how much I'm spending and on what. I still have most of my coffee money left; there's $40 a month that I can throw into my camera fund. Also the dining out envelope is still full. After spending a week of making delicious meals from scratch I realize that there isn't any point in ordering in pizza (made pizza from scratch on Friday and it was much, much better than ordering in), chinese food (made vegetarian ginger chicken on Thursday).

It can be done, but it is tough.

Hope everyone is having a great week. Keep your comments and questions coming.

What to do when you pay a collections agency and they don't let anyone know...

This is the predicament I'm in right now. After paying close to $1,000 to Telus 3 weeks ago, I find out that the collections agency that was so diligent in getting a hold of me, isn't being so diligent in letting Telus know that I have paid my outstanding bill.

I'm frustrated....I'm beyond frustrated, but am so upset right now that I can't even think of another word for how I'm feeling.

I'm frustrated that after trying to get my $hit together there is still someone holding me back, and I'm frustrated because I found a way to save even more money. Currently I pay $70 for basic cable and basic internet (not even wireless) with Shaw, but if I bundle the two together with Telus, I can save myself $10/month. That doesn't seem like a lot, but that's $120 a year I could be putting towards my camera.

Now my only option is to sit back and wait another few weeks and see if I get a letter from Telus unless someone has another suggestion.

Lesson of the day: collections agencies really are the spawn of the devil.

1st weekend on a budget = hard, very hard.

As the title states, this weekend was hard. During the week it was easy to avoid temptation, make cheap food & limit the amount of booze I was drinking. The only saving grace for my budget this weekend was that our plans included plenty of cheap beer.

I was successful in some aspects of my budgeting this weekend.

As lots of people (can I call you fans now???) have stated, setting a goal for yourself will help with the saving. After a lot of research I finally found the DSLR I want to buy and strive to save for. I have created a new envelope called 'Camera Fund', not extra money, not carry over money, but an envelope that I will fill with $1,000 for my new camera. We have $15 in this envelope right now as we returned all of our empties. I think it's really easy to just throw your empties in the recycling bin and contribute to your local canners income, but after spending an hour gathering all of the cans and taking them to the return it depot we realized that this is a quick way to get some extra cash.

I am now 5 days into my enveloping and budgeting and am doing fairly well. The envelope for the animals food is empty so they may be eating dry pasta with me every night, but other than that I properly budgeted my groceries, dining out envelope and booze.

I posted a link to another blog that I found that is dedicated to cheap & healthy meals. I highly recommend that you check it out. We have made two meals from this blog, both were tasty and inexpensive.

Happy Monday.

Day one was successful, but that might be because all of my envelopes are still stuffed!

I had a minor panic attack when I put my plastic to rest yesterday; I even stood in line at the bank to take money out instead of accumulating bank fees.

After my initial 'oh my, I only can spend this much on food and booze for the next two weeks', I remembered why I was doing this and how I never, ever want to hit rock bottom again the way I did a month ago.

For the first time ever I actually wrote out a grocery list. I have budgeted myself $50 for this pay period for groceries. Instead of just walking around the grocery store randomly grabbing things that looked good, I compared prices and stuck to my list. My grocery bill for the week came out at $20.55. Pretty good so far.

Today I decided to take out money from my coffee fund and have a coffee this morning. In this envelope I've limited myself to $20 per pay period. Keep in mind that I was spending, on average $25 in coffee from Monday to Friday and usually the same amount on weekends (when I factored into buying Glen coffee). Needless to say this will be one of the tough ones.

Next challenge will be the weekend. We have already agreed not to go out for dinner, but a show tonight (= booze) + poker + more drinks with friends. This will be hard. I also didn't budget for poker, but hey, I could win and be on top! Oh, that's not the way I should look at things, right?

Have a great weekend and keep the comments coming!

Dooms Day

I got paid today which means that today I start my envelopes.

I was really excited about this last week, but realized over the weekend how hard this is really going to be and how diligent I need to be with my money. I used my "plastic" about 20 times this weekend for various things, and continued to use my favorite phrase "no, I'll take care of this" another 20. Today that stops....and I know it's going to be hard.

Thanks for all of your emails and comments. I've had a lot of great responses.
A few great ideas that I personally loved are:

1) Any money that's left over at the end of your pay period, put in a savings account for something that you really want; this will help you be better with your money if there is something you want at the end of it all.

2) Leave the plastic at home

3) Take a look at bills from Shaw/Telus and see if there is anywhere that you can save money. You no longer need a contract with Telus so it's easy to swap companies.

Keep sending your comments and I'll keep posting!

Restaurant of the day: House of Dosa's (Monday is half price dosa night).
Corner of Kingsway and Knight

Problem with posting comments

I've received a bunch of emails the past few days regarding people trying to post comments and not having any luck.
I'll try and get this problem fixed over the weekend as I really would love input from you all.
Have a great weekend!

Budgies burritos sounds much better than a budget!

Budgies Burritos? A great, inexpensive vegetarian burrito joint at Main and Broadway in Vancouver, BC.


Step #1 to starting this process was to set up my budget. My friend Sarah sent me a great link to http://getfinanciallynaked.com/get-financially-naked after a lengthy conversation one night about being financially stupid (me, not her).

I downloaded the budget template and started from there (you can find this budget template on the righthand side of the screen - if you go to the link you can download this for yourself)!

I figured that my best first step was to give myself a taste of reality. Instead of starting off with how much I want to spend each month on each given thing, I decided to use that column to guess how much money I spend on everything each month.

From there I went to my online banking and downloaded the last 3 months statements, printed them off and with highlighter in hand went through and tallied up how much money I had spent at the grocery store, liquor store, gas etc. The only problem here were the withdrawals I made and having no idea where that money went. I am guessing that that money should be calculated as part of the "entertainment" section.

This was a real eye opener. An example - I guessed that I spend $60/month on groceries. After I added up the little things I got here and there, going to the grocery store every day, I was almost triple that amount.

Lesson of the day: shop for the week/pay period, not for the day.

Now what am I going to do?

So a few weeks after bouncing my rent cheque I decide that enough is enough and I"m going to take action. Taking action included actually answering the phone when the credit agency called and dealing with the unpaid phone bill I'd been avoiding for a year. Feeling empowered by the thought of finally getting my stuff together, I picked up the phone only to find out that the amount I owed last year was accumulating 25% a day. Needless to say I was once again beside myself and once again had to rely on someone else to help me out of this jam for now.

So as of today I have a clean slate. Pay day is in a week and I have a plan.
This blog is set up to document my journey and hopefully help other women be empowered to get control of their finances. I'd appreciate comments, articles...anything you can contribute.

My plan so far includes:

A budget - I've completed my budget and allotted a certain amount of money to everything and anything I spend money on.
I'm the QUEEN of debit. I LOVE my debit card, but I don't pay attention to the amount of money I have (or don't have) in my account. So as of my next pay day the debit card stays at home. I've put together envelopes for everything and I am going to stick to my budget.

Will let you know how that goes!

How did I get here?

I woke up on the morning of May 3rd, 2010 and thought to myself 'Oh my god, my rent cheque is going to bounce this month, how is that possible?'. My heart was beating out of my chest and I was thinking to myself 'if only I could explain to my landlord that I....'; what? That I make the same amount of money as most double income families living in this city? That I don't know where my money went, but wherever it is I hope it's having more fun than me right now?

After borrowing money off my boyfriend (for the umpteenth time over the course of our 2 year relationship) I felt a bit better and decided that today was going to be the day to get my head above water.

Little did I know that I was going to be hit with another "biggie" that would just dig me deeper. This is where it all began and this is the beginning of my journey to get out of debt and be able to stand on my own two feet!