It's a-happening!  The EF is going to experience contributions again.  The balance of which is $1.66 at this moment.


I set up 10 Automatic Transfers of $5 to come out every week starting January 20th.  It's small, but it's something.  And something is better then nothing.  We'll do the $5 for 10 weeks and then see about increasing the amount.

I certainly enjoyed having an EF before.  I remember knowing that we had money there if something went wrong.  I especially remember being able to pay for a new tire on the car and paying for a new washing machine with EF money.  But I can also remember us using the EF to 'cover' when we were short of money.  We did this a few times before our savings scheme completely fell apart last summer and drained all the money out of the savings.. 

Something else I need to remember is that while we saved all this money to go to the UK and saved money in our EF and saved money in House and Car funds, at the same time we accumulated more debt.  We filled up our LOC and our CC balances grew too.  What we saved in savings accounts was negated by consumer debt.  It happened slowly.  It's not like it happened overnight.  We didn't have to get a new furnace or fix the roof or anything like that. It was just dinners out, lunches out, the odd grocery trip, clothes, that kind of stuff.  We have nothing to show for it.  As usual.

So, while it's great that I'm starting to save again (yippee!) I also don't want to overextend our saving to the point where we are cash short and resort to using our CC/LOC.  I also don't want to trick myself into thinking that just because we are saving money that we have stopped spending as well.

Money Matters

• Build up our EF again. -- $500 in our EF by 2012.  That means we need to save $42 a month (or about $9 a week)  to have about $500 in 12 months.  I think that's doable.  Easily trackable with a sidebar!
• Develop a realistic plan with regards to paying down our CC debt/loan debt.-- I want to think more about this still and run numbers.  A good place to start is by not accruing any more debt.  This is my first goal in regards to debt!
• Build up our Holiday Savings again. -- Up first is saving for our February Weekend Getaway for Husbands Birthday.  Details to follow.  This also calls for a sidebar!
• Go Back on the Jars -This has begun!  Took the money out yesterday.  The big thing with this is PERSEVERANCE for us.  Even if we fall of the cash bandwagon, I want to get right back on it ASAP.  None of this, "Oh well, we have fallen off...best to forget about it".  Nuh - uh.  We are going to perservere on this one!

One year ago we were in the midst of refinancing our mortgage. It doesn't feel like it's been 1 year since rolling our car loan and some cc debt into the mortgage.

Has it been good? Well, it's been nice not having the crippling car payments every 2 weeks.

Was it the best thing for us? This question is secret code for have we racked up the debt again...and again the question, was it the best thing for us? Well, our cc's are sitting with some debt and that LOC is still there and we have not made any extra payments on the consolidation loan...

Did we learn? Did we break the rules? Did we do the right things?

I don't know. We did what we thought was right at the time. It helped ease the financial burden while we underwent job losses and financial uncertainty. For sure we didn't follow the rules. We acquired new debt. Do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks? I'm not sure. Sometimes I think we still have our heads buried in the sand.

Well, I would just like to say that for about 1 week our EF had over $1,000 in it. We achieved our initial goal of $1,000!!!!!!

Then the washing machine broke. Leaking on the underneath, cracked pipe. We talked about getting it fixed, but then we discovered that brand new that washer is under $250. It didn't seem worth it to try and fix it.

We purchased another one for altogether $532. I took $32 out of our House Fund (leaves $7) and the rest out of the EF. It's a Samsung front loader and it arrives Jan. 19. Until it arrives we are creatively doing laundry at the laundromat. We wash the clothes there and then bring them home to dry them in the dryer.

So we are now down $500 in our EF. In some ways I'm sad. It took so long to get it to 1K and now we've emptied it back to almost halfway.

BUT

It was wonderful and almost exciting to just go out and buy a new washing machine. There was no worry. There was no question about which cc to put it on. There was no panic about cost. There was no arguments. There was no lost sleep. There was no uncertainty.

It was just go out and buy what we needed. It was an awesome feeling.

I've started updating my side bars. It's slow going because...well...I'm slow at it. :P

EF is still plugging away. A few months ago we used some money out of the fund to help cover costs.

UK trip is trucking along nicely. I hope we save up lots!

My Christmas Jar is doing pretty good too.

I didn't make a saving tracker, but we have all our money saved up for our little trip to Calgary to stay with my aunt. Husband, child, dog, and me are going to drive up to Calgary for 10 days in November. I've got $500 earmarked.

The only sidebar I haven't updated yet is the LOC. I can't remember the log in to the bank account. lol.

Husband took our car in for servicing the other day. It needed an oil change and was making some noises while we idled. They tightened some belts and flushed the engine and did some other things. The total was $76.

In the past this would have meant scrambling and worrying and probably putting the $76 on a cc. However, because I have been saving $5 a week for the last 6 months we have that money saved up! All I did was set up a transfer to move the money from savings to our chequing and tada the cost is covered! I'm very proud of us. The best part is that there is still money left in the Car Fund!

I know it's not much, but it's something.

I really gotta update my side bars. They are so out of date. :P

I realized I hadn't updated my side bars in a very long while...so here's the new scoop:

89% towards our first goal of 1K!
14% towards our UK trip!
& $43 saved for Christmas!

I can't find the bank card to log into the LOC so I'm not too sure what the stats on that are.

We used some money in the house fund...for house stuff! It's sitting at $9 right now and we're building it back up. The car fund has $69 in it and Scouts fund is sitting at zero.

Kathy left a comment about how it would be easier or a better idea to have everything in one account and I agree that it would be easier and for some people it probably would work better, but I know me and I know that if I didn't separate everything I would spend it on things I shouldn't (ahem, as in dinners out and booze and nights hotels). Everything sits in one account, but I've got it all separated according to my different funds in my Excel Saving Sheet.

I've decided that After we hit the 1K in our EF I'm going to scale back the weekly savings in that account from $20 a week to $10 and put the $10 a week into my other funds somehow. It will be nice to have that $1K cushion, but it will also be nice to know that if the muffler on the car goes then we will have money to repair the car in the car fund instead of the EF (which should be for when we are absolutely destitute, y'know?)

With the arrival of Scout and Husband's holiday pay being disbursed on every pay cheque we need to re-evaluate our saving scheme. It feels like I spend quite a few many posts doing this. :P But that's okay, because life is always changing! Nothing in our financial plans should ever be set in stone.

The new plan for our savings program:

Currently saving $210 a month. Husbands holiday pay is about $80 a cheque (so $160 a month) and adding in money for Scouts fund.

380 a month into savings and planned spending to be distributed in this
way:

$80 - EF
$20 - Scout Fund (this is for trips to the vet, medications, unexpected things like that - her food and treats will come out of our general
spending)
$20 - House Fund
$20 - Car Fund
$240 - Holiday Fund

I know it seems like a lot to put towards the Holiday Fund but we really really really want to go to the UK next year for husbands friends wedding. Husband looked up plane tickets for the 3 of us to Manchester and it was 4K, so it is an expensive trip and we are hoping that his parents will help out with the costs seeing as how they won't be coming here that summer for a holiday.

Once the EF reaches 1K (our first goal) I was thinking of reducing our monthly contribution amount from $80 to $60 and redistributing that $20 a month into our planned spending. Yay or nay?

My husband is really enjoying his new job. He likes the people he works with, he likes the variety and he (we! Hah!) like the pay. This boss pays the vacation pay out on every cheque.

Now we need to decide what to do with this extra money. Before taxes it's about $80. With his last 2 paycheques we've just spent the money willy nilly but I'd like to do something responsible with this money.

I've been thinking about it and have come up with these 4 options:

1. Put the holiday pay into an account for when we do take holidays.

PRO: Holiday Fund would become quite large quite fast as we are already saving $110 a month towards UK 2010

CON: Well, not really a con but just that -- that we are already saving $110 a month and that perhaps the money should funnelled elsewhere (either planned spending or going towards improving cashflow)

2. Put the holiday pay towards paying off the LOC

PRO: It's always best to work hardest at becoming consumer debt free.

CON: There would be no 'pay cheque' if/when we actually take holidays, kwim?

3. Put the holiday money into planned spending accounts.

PRO: We could identify more areas to save for (ie. Paying house insurance in one shot instead of monthly) & have savings for a variety of fun stuff (ie. new tv, new car)

CON: Interest is still accruing on LOC, holiday fund not growing quickly.

4. Some crazy combination of all of the above.

As usual do things the wacky dinah way. A little of everything.

What's your vote?

I got paid today and saw my pay stub and I realized that I've gotten my yearly increment increase. Although I'm not entirely too sure why...I'm running with it. My increase has upped my pay by $5 so I'm implementing one of Gails ideas again.

Live on your pre-raise income. If you get a cost-of-living increase or a performance raise pretend you didn't and save the extra money you're bringing home each
pay.

I really like this way of saving. You don't feel like you're 'missing' out on anything because you never had the money in the first place. Your incoming money stays the same but your savings increases with virtually no hardship to you.

So, I've set up my 10 weeks of automatic transfers into our savings account for $45 a week. The distribution will be as follows:

$20 EF ($80 a month = $960 a year)
$20 Holiday Fund ($110 a month = $1320 a year)
$2 House Repair/Maintenance Fund ($8 a month = $96 a year)
$3 Car Repair/Maintenance Fund ($12 a month = $144 a year)
$45 a week = $210 a month = $2520 a year

Seeing the numbers out there in print makes everything so much more real and inspiring. :)

Okay, so I signed up for this thing called Swagbucks...

I'm not too sure how it works but I have been able to figure out that when you get 45 swagbucks you can get a $5 Amazon card. I have also figured out that I'm supposed to urge friends and family to sign up using my referral link...which is right HERE (Click Me!). I've never done anything like this before but a bunch of other personal finance bloggers have been raving about it so I figured I'd give it a go. I've got a handy little search bar in the top right corner of my monitor and I've been doing searches as I go along.

Any gift cards or items that I get from this are of course going to go towards my Christmas fund.

I did some updating of my sidebars.

The deets -

EF Part 1 - 79% there. I am so proud of us!
UK 2010 - 11% there. Good start. A real good start! (I'm just guesstimating 4K...it could be less...or more I suppose. I have to do some actual research about the trip)
Yurt Trip in Sept - 100% saved for! Woweeeeeeeeeee!
LOC - 31%...still. I guess my mathing was off last time I updated the side bars...because even though i've made $50 in payments I'm still below what I had before by a few cents? (math is not my strength...ever!)
Christmas Fund - $30.25

I don't have side bars but I'm pleased to report that our Car Fund has $56.00 and our House Fund has $50.00. No too shabby!

2 months, 2 weeks, & 6 days until until we go for our long weekend away in the Yurt.

I desperately want to take 1 weeks holidays in October or November and drive to Calgary to visit my aunt. But, I don't know where the money for that would come from...

I haven't been posting much about money lately. We are trucking along. We continue to save. We continue to pay things off slowly. We continue to pay our utility bills (mostly) on time. We continue on. I haven't updated my sidebars in a long time....I should get on that. & I should add a ticker for our September camping trip.

We haven't started anything new. & we haven't addressed some of our issues that have been ongoing for years and years (ie. spending too much money on eating out/take out). I am stumped on how to address this. The minute we make a limit for how much we will spend on eating out...it almost seems like we work harder at spending more. If we have 'no eat out' days...we will out twice that day almost just to spite what we had set forth. We (well, I) try to recreate restaurant meals and it's always fail. We're bad for the restaurants. Bad. Bad. Bad. Breakfasts and lunches and dinners. & snacks.

I know part of the problem is that eating meals in restaurants is how we (& I) have dealt with stress. The day I peed on the stick...we went for supper. When my OCD/phobia get bad...I don't cook and we eat out. Upset about work..go out for lunch. Don't want to make a menu/grocery shop/deal with life...order in food. Sometimes the act of eating out doesn't even end up being about the food. It is about being with other people and connecting and being out and about.

Anyways...any suggestions? How have others conquered the restaurant woes?

I've updated my side bars. Our EF savings is up to 73% of the first goal of 1K! Yay for us!

The LOC repayment is not happening as fast as I had initially planned as Husband needs to purchase some tools for his job so we are using my lump sum payment money for that. But it is being paid down and I am happy for that.

My Spare Change Challenge is up to $24.89. I'm quite pleased with that. It'll be good for when Christmas rolls around.

I've also increased our weekly saving from $39 to $40 a week. Infinitesimal I know...but we seem to work best with baby steps. Savings are going to look like this: $20 to EF, $18 to Holiday, $1 to House, $1 to Car. Sounds quite lame I know...but it's all about baby steps for us. Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby steps.

Anyways...it's taken me most of tonight to write this...so I'm going to hit post now. Have a great weekend everyone!

My lump sum payment came today. Phew. I'm glad it made it here safe and sound. I go back and forth between feeling guilty and lucky and happy and selfish about the money. *sigh*

Originally we were going to put 2K onto the LOC, but in the end we decided that we will put 1500K onto the LOC and the other $500 will go into the holiday fund because we REALLY want to go to the UK in June 2010.

I put $40 into the EF, and $30 each into the Car and House Fund.

I've updated the Side bars accordingly...I just need to make one for the UK 2010 trip.

It's official! The Lump Sum Payments are out! I should get mine in the mail tomorrow. Fingers are crossed and I'm saying prayers that I get it tomorrow and it doesn't get lost in bureaucracy land.

I've heard rumors that after taxes the checks are for $2,484. It's sad that it's taxed that much. I was budgeting to get $2500, but secretly hoping that it would be more like $3000 or $3500...but alas, I don't think that's going to happen. Anyways, free money is nothing to complain about.

This is the plan for the monies....

• 2K onto LOC (Yippee Skippee!!! -- this will bring our LOC total to $1,964)
  
• $20 to EF (slowly but surely)
  
• $20 to House Fund (baby steps)
  
• $20 to Car Fund (baby steps again)
  
• $40 to Holiday Fund (saving for long weekend in September)
  
• $100 ($50 each for spending on whatever we want)
• $150 for fantastic night out (cause we like to have fun)
• $134 to save for Andrew's birthday party and Andrew's birthday present (which is in 1 month)
  

I've been maintaining my Excel Savings Tracker for 2 months now. I love updating it every time money transfers into our saving account, or my payroll savings bond get taken off my pay, or I add change to my Christmas Spare Change Jar, or I get a check from PineCone Research. I'm also improving my skills with Excel, a program that I rarely get to use at work except for my little Excel Tracking Sheet that doesn't use any formula's.

According to my nerdy tracking in March we saved a total of $245.96. This includes everything: EF, Holiday Fund, Car Fund, House Fund, and Christmas Fund. Not too shabby! Seeing the numbers grow every week is an awesome feeling!

But wait! It gets even better! (excuse the exclamation points) In April we saved a total of $251.73!!!!!! $5.77 more. Small, but exciting to me.

I find it absolutely amazing and astonishing that all this started with $10 a week just over 1 year ago. Sometimes I get discouraged about the amount of debt we still carry (4K on the LOC and 14K on the Consolidation Loan and the mortgage) and I get upset at how slowly those numbers are going down. & it sounds silly to say this, but when I start feeling down about the money situation I open up my little Excel Savings Tracker and look at the amount of our total savings. That always makes me feel better.

Dinah is pleased.

I paid $100 onto the LOC this morning and now we are under 4K. yay for us! It's sad but it feels like a wonderful milestone.

:)

We have saved 100% for the camping trip at the end of May! A big ol' pat on the back of my back. :P

I've added a new widget to start saving for our little camping trip that is scheduled for September long weekend. I've estimated that the cost will most likely be about the same for this trip and we should easily save the $215 by September.

Husband also wants to start saving for a trip to the UK in June 2010. His very close friend is getting married and he wants to go. He also wants to go and visit his friends and family. He's not been there since Andrew was born...so over 4 years. The UK trip will be the next big saving scheme.

I have much to report today. It has been a busy time for us! In summary...

• I wrote the test. It was hard. Very hard. It seriously just focussed on asking questions regarding policy and legislation. There was also an essay question. I am confident that I passed...but I am not confident that I will be one of the top 10 test takers that they are going to interview (there were about 75 people taking the test). Even if I don't get an interview I am glad that I took the test. I learned a lot about the Public Service Employment Act and what happens surrounding appointments and what my rights are as an employee.
• The Dept I work for is making a ginormous pool for candidates for a higher up classification. I am going to apply for that I think.
• I have accepted a 'temp' position at my previous church. It is a very different position from the one I was doing before. This position is focusing on intergenerational worship for families. I have a fabulous relationship with the minister and I will be involved in the creation of the position. It's for 16 hours a month and at this point for about $175 a month. In the fall the position will be posted and I will need to apply for it (mostly to ensure that all qualified applicants get to apply & because my mother is the chair of council and my uncle is chair of M&P) but that's okay. I might find it too much to continue on with...or they might not like my style. I am pretty laid back. I feel much more at ease and excited about this project then I ever did at managing the Sunday School.
  
• I continue to take my anti-anxiety meds. It is helping. My OCD issues though are always constantly in the background waiting to spring back up. This is a bad time of year for me and my mental problems. It's always a struggle.
• We continue to save and I am enjoying it still.
• Husband went for a job interview today. It sounds like a good job and if he gets he will be ecstatic. If he doesn't get the job we have decided that we are going to try something a bit different. We have been tossing around the idea of husband staying home full time with Andrew and having me continue to work full-time. A big chunk of our budget is eaten up by daycare and a big chunk was devoted to debt repayment. We have eliminated quite a bit of our debt by re-financing the mortgage and if we could get rid of the $400/month daycare payment our budget is not short by that much. The idea would be that husband would work part time (1 or 2 shifts a week) to make up the difference. Anyways...we have asked daycare if we could pull Andrew for the summer months to do a 'trial run'. Basically see if it is something that we could feasibly carry-out. The trial run was husbands idea and I think it is brilliant!
• I am still working on my Round Ripple Afghan. It is getting to be HUGE! I really love the pattern and I love that I am using up yarn that I have had forever. When I finish this one I am going to make another one out of scraps for Andrew. He keeps asking where his blanket is.

That's about it for me. Busy and busy as per usual. I'm off to tuck Andrew into bed and watch Biggest Loser Australia now.

Cheers!

PS. Northern Living Allowance...I never connected with that reporter. I sent her an email...but she never responded. Oh well! Them's the breaks. I have been working on another post for Gails Success Blog...maybe I should finish it and send it off to her.