Our EF is currently sitting at $432.05 (43% of our first goal of 1K). I upped our weekly contribution by $1 to $21 a week. I know it's not much, but it's something and every little bit counts, right? $1 a week is $52 in a year. We're going to do $21 a week for 10 weeks and then re-evaluate.

My pay was also adjusted to match the new pay scale (finally!) and so I get a bit more on each cheque now. Because of this I've upped our "Planned Spending" contribution as well from $10 a week to $18. We are still continuing with the $15 that gets deducted right off my paycheck and goes into a Payroll Savings Bond. Right now this account is for saving for our camping trip in May. After the camping trip goal is reached we will begin saving for a trip to England in 2010. S's friend is getting married and he wants to be there....so we are going to try to get all 3 of us there. This savings account is moving from the original idea of saving for house/car/stuff and is soley becoming the HOLIDAY fund.

The next step in the savings plan is to open a savings account for house repair/maintenance, car repair/maintenance and miscellaneous items that might need purchasing that are 'big' ticket items. Like all things we do, we are going to start small and then slowly increase the amount every 10 weeks. We seem to have the most success this way. Start small, watch it grow, then make it a little more as the weeks and months go by. Hopefully we will make it to a PC pavilion this Saturday morning and we will be able to set a savings account up to get started.

I got my yearly increment on my paycheque today. My cheque was for 22 dollars more then normal. I've set up automatic transfers to put 20 dollars every cheque into our mini-holiday fund. We are planning to get away in The second week of February so that will add $140 dollars to the fund! Currently I am transferring $7 a week into this newly created fund and my pinecone cheques are going into that account (usually $10 a month) and any profits I make from my crafty business are going into that account. Right now the balance is $115.94!

I have never saved for a vacation or a night away before. In the past everything has gone onto a credit card or LOC and then we've never dealt with paying it off. It feels so good to anticipate the trip by saving and seeing the funds grow and picking where we want to go by seeing how much money we have and figuring out other ways to get money into the account (ie. deposting pinecone cheques as well).

After the holiday that account is going to become the general saving account for things like christmas, birthdays, house repairs, car repairs, that kind of thing. By February I hope to be putting about $40 dollars a week into that account which would equal $2,080 dollars in a year. Not bad at all I say!

In other work related news it seems that my union might have finally settled our contract. It has to be ratified by the members but I'm pleased with it. Heck it involves a raise and no strike. What more could a girl ask for? By the time it goes through we will be getting nearly 2 years worth of back pay. That is pretty sweet as well. SWEET! I'm guessing it will be the Spring before I see any of that money, but it's also nice to anticipate.

Cheers!

PS. The Spell checker tells me that paycheque is not paycheque but rather paycheck. However, I'm sticking with my Canadian Guns on this one and leaving it QUE instead of CK.

I get my yearly raise from the government on my next paycheque (November 26). I desperately want to implement Gail's simple idea to live on your pre-raise income. It's such a simple idea that it is absolutely brilliant and a must to follow through with.

From what I can gather it will be an extra 20 dollars a cheque...so 40 dollars a month. Now, I know that Gail & others would advocate that we use it to pay down debt or improve our emergency fund...but i have a different plan for this money. Steve and I are planning on taking a little mini holiday in February (nothing exciting--just a few nights away from it all in Gimli or Brandon or a cabin--in honour of Christmas/Valentines/Steve's Birthday) and while I have already started saving for this holiday I am going to apply my raise money towards it as well. It should add about 150 dollars to the holiday fund. Pretty Sweet!

I'll blog more about the trip when I know more.

Cheers!

"there is one path for all, but each must walk it in their way"

for years i've had problems with goals. i used to be very good at ignoring my lack of follow through. recently, my quasi-add has really become more noticeable and has begun (i think) to affect my future.

the advent of my blog(s) has made me recognize my shortcomings in this area of personal development. we worked on goals in the portfolio course and of course it was a tough thing for me to work on and elucidate. i'm all over the place. one minute i want to go back to school and take my master's degree. another minute i want to work in a funeral home (long story). or i want to stay at home with andrew and work on my crafting business. it goes on and on for me. sometimes it feels like if i make a goal (ie. to make a post on my blog every day or exercise so many minutes a day) then it's the very next day that it all falls apart. how do i stop this? are my goals too vague? too specific? too unrealistic? too random? too everything?

i have worked on some stuff, and i thought i'd share it.

Craft Corner

In six months to 1 year I will have opened an Etsy Shop and created and launched a website for my business. I will also have researched owning a small business.

In 1 to 2 years I will have achieved 100 sales and instructed classes on how to make the plarn bags and frog a sweater. I will have also written a business plan for success!

As a long term goal (5 years plus) I will be on the road to doing this as my full time business.

In The Now Career

In six months to 1 year I will have completed my portfolio and identified which areas I am interested to pursue as full time employment (this includes recognizing any education or training I might need, any practical experience that I will need to gain, and a plan on how to go about the achieving the above).

At this point I am hesitant to make any more goals until I really know what I want to do. I wish to pray and meditate more on this subject. I want to ask God how I should be discerning.

Money Matters

In six months to 1 year we will have completely eliminated the need to use the overdraft. We will have well established our emergency fund and will have well established a fund to be used for big ticket items (ie. car repairs and house repairs.) We will not use credit anymore.

In 3-4 years well will be consumer debt free. We will have paid off our credit cards, car loan, and consolidation loans. We will also have begun an aggressive Retirement savings plan for Steve as well as myself.

Gail talks a lot about being financially fit--and in this area this is my long term goal--to be truly financially fit. We will maintain our lifestyle of not having or incurring debt, by being prepared with savings that will cover a variety of issues. We will be on a plan to pay off our mortgage quite early (20 years vs. 40 years).

Healthy Living Bandwagon

This is probably the hardest section to write. I make promises to myself all the time. Every minute of every day I am waging a war with my insides about what to eat and how to move and when to weigh myself.

In six months to 1 year exercise will become a part of my daily routine. Just as I surf the internet and watch tv, taking a walk or doing aerobics will become like that.

In 1 to 2 years I will run a 5KM race. I will have learned to run and will be healthy enough to run that distance for that length of time.

As a long term goal I will run a half marathon.

These goals need to be re-evaluated every month I think. I need to stay focused, I need to be checking in to ensure I am still on track and breaking large goals down into smaller, more manageable ones. If I accomplish a goal early, I also need to remember to set another goal to fill it's place! I don't want to not have a path to walk.

I need to recognize and appreciate the fact that things will change and my goals might change as well. Life is fluid. Nothing is set in stone.

Jehovah Shalom.

we are back on the jars. i went today and got our cash out for the week. i've got the money in the jars and our allowances in our wallets. we're even going to put 10 dollars a week into an emergency fund (being caught like that last time really sucked big donkey balls)

i've got my ticker back and we are going to stay OUT OF THE OVERDRAFT!

The ticker is indeed gone. You weren't imagining the disappearance.

Right now the goal is just to survive. Yep, that's right. The goal is no goal.

I'm in love with Gail. She's changing our lives. She's changing the way we think. She's brought us the jars. She's become almost idyllic to me.


We just finished Week 1 of 'Changing Our Lives For The better'. It's been tough. It's been easy. It's required quite a bit of talking....about money. That's right. We talked about money (and not just how to spend it).


We've made some financial goals. They're pretty general. They include not using the credit cards, not going into the overdraft, increasing our saving, paying each utility bill in full each month, and increasing our debt repayment. They're doable. this first week went well. We stuck to the jars and didn't go over on groceries or entertainment.


I did get my tax return late last week. But instead of blowing it on food and booze and smokes I made large payments on our utility bills which had beco me quite large as I have this wonderful talent of only paying a portion each month so that we have more money for dining out, booze and smokes.

Being a Grown Up is quite hard.