The Mindful Wallet

I thought I had deleted this blog...

2012-01-18T10:57:00.002-05:00

but apparently my blog-fu skills are even worse than I thought and I simply let it go inactive. *sigh* I'm in a transition period of my life right now and although I'm still frugal, I feel like I'm in a rut. I have no fantastic tips or methods to share with anyone online and the people I know IRL aren't much interested in my "crazy frugal ways". I haven't done much shopping lately simply because I don't really need much and a busy schedule filled with 2 jobs and a correspondence course (which I should actually be working on right now!!) leaves little time for recreational shopping. So yes, I've been frugal but because its been a passive frugality, I feel like I'm not doing enough.

The house is...house-y. The roof was replaced in the fall and most of the windows had their trim repainted (there were a few windows I was unable to reach before the winter came). I'm holding off on painting inside until warmer weather so I can open the windows for fresh air instead of breathing in VOC's. For a brief period I had 2 tenants, "The Chef" and "LilGirl". The Chef remains, living in my finished basement and sharing the main floor with me. Although we have little in common, we get along and in exchange for a reduced rent rate, he helps with maintenance tasks and keeps the cats alive when I'm off flying. LilGirl was a young friend of mine (not literally a little girl!!) who needed a temporary place to stay and ended up renting out my guest bedroom. Although she and I get along really well, this living arrangement definitely caused me some stress...mostly because of her puppy (who had a habit of peeing in my bedroom and "stealing" some of my things). She has since found another place to stay, closer to her university, which is a much better arrangement for her anyway (she had a NASTY commute from my place to school).

Financially, I'm doing well (although my friends would shudder if they compared my income to theirs). I'm rebuilding my emergency fund (which was partially used to re-roof my house), I still spend very little and I've put money aside for a vacation when I find the time. I haven't been able to make any major attacks on my mortgage amount but I am planning to make a "double up" payment sometime soon. Besides, I think I need to work on actually SPENDING more instead of constantly denying myself experiences in order to save money.

My personal challenges for 2012 were to join The Compact (I feel like I'm failing but I suspect that not needing to buy anything actually means I'm ahead of the game), to try and produce less waste and, once again, to try and live a little more.

Why am I posting all this?? I guess I'm just thinking aloud...

No time to breathe

2011-06-15T10:06:00.002-04:00

June has been an incredibly busy month so far. I managed to mess up my flying schedule so I'm working more days with the airline than I usually do. My coworkers at the bar have booked off more days than expected so my boss is turning to me to try and ensure there's coverage. I'm volunteering at a 5K race this upcoming weekend. I'm spending hours online and on the phone taking care of items related to the house I bought.

I could really use a break!! Luckily, I have a few days off coming up that I will refuse to schedule anything on. I'll probably end up spending the days sleeping but at least I won't be running around!

As far as my June goals, I'm doing pretty well on most of them. I've done a good job of sticking to my budget but it hasn't really been a challenge...I've been either flying or working at the bar almost every day so there really hasn't been the option of going out and spending money. I've found some boxes and have started packing up my possessions. (The biggest issue there is that one of my cats likes to chew cardboard...he's in kitty heaven with all these boxes sitting around!!) I've continued to put things aside for my garage sale.

My biggest failing has been on the final goal, to make sure I take time for myself and physical activity. It's not as if I'm sitting around all the time being a slug, but the only "running around" I've been doing has been at work, I haven't really worked out or done any yoga lately. I'm disappointed with this but I also feel like I need to take advantage of the shifts offered to me now as I'll appreciate the extra money in savings when I have mortgage payments to worry about. I don't think I'll be working as much in July and August since I'll need time off to deal with house stuff so I just have to get through this over-scheduled month. I can do it, I'm already at the half-way point and I have days off coming up!

I bought a house!!

2011-06-05T09:12:00.002-04:00

It was so funny to sign into my blogger account and see that on May 16th I had posted about starting the house shopping process after meeting with a mortgage broker. I hadn't seen much that was worthwhile in my price range the first time out and while looking at listings until a new property popped up and I swooped in. As of July 8th I will be the happy occupant of a cute little townhouse in a small town about 30 mins away from Bolton, where I currently live. I'm thrilled but its bizarre to think that I had mentally prepared myself for a long drawn out search due to the quality issues found in most homes in my price range (many of the homes were older, with aluminum wiring and extremely worn out floors, kitchens and bathrooms) and then, on May 27 was sitting in my realtor's car, negotiating the purchase of a house. The entire process just raced by!

My life has become very busy and just a little stressful lately as I scheduled meetings with my broker, the home inspection and finding a lawyer around my flying schedule (which, this month, is unfortunately busy due to some mistakes I made on my schedule request form). I'm trying to otherwise take it easy so as to not wear myself out.

The spending challenge has started and although I wish I could pat myself on the back for a job well done thus far...I'm really only 5 days in and most of those days I was off flying. Worse yet, I did manage to spend half of this week's $20 "entertainment/recreation" budget when I ate at the bar...and the meal and time spent there chatting with my friend (who was working) wasn't really worth it. It would have been wiser to eat at home, wait for the lunch rush to subside and then pop in for a drink.

To keep myself accountable and hopefully keep myself on track, I'm listing my goals for June.

Keep track of spending and adhere to spending challenge rules. I want to say this will be easy but now that I have a house, any and all house-related items I see are tempting my wallet.
Pack out of season and lesser-used items in preparation for July's move. This one shouldn't be too bad as it will also help me decide what items are "excess" and can be sold in my upcoming garage sale. I just need to start by finding boxes!!
Continue accumulating and preparing items for the garage sale. I feel like I have tons of stuff I don't need but the stuff I've put aside doesn't seem like its quite enough for a garage sale.
Create a list (with timeline and cost estimates) of home repairs/upgrades that need to be done after taking possession of my townhouse. There are important fixes (fixing roof, refinishing window frames) as well as cosmetic ones (paint walls, replace dining area light fixture) and I need to prioritize them according to my skill and budget.
Fit physical activities and "me time" into my schedule. It's a very busy month and I don't want to become stressed out or have my health suffer. I need to remember to take care of myself!

I'm so excited!!

Blogger Failure

2011-05-16T11:14:00.003-04:00

Wow, so it's *only* been 5 months??? Sorry, a lot has happened. Romeo and I broke up...in the hellfire and brimstone way. There was nothing amicable about it and I was left in pretty bad emotional shape. I spent a lot of time trying to make things work with him and due to the stuff he's going through in his own life, he spent no time trying to make things work between us. Everyone is telling me that's its great I finally have him out of my life but, deep down inside, I miss him terribly even though its been over for a couple of months now. He's one of those good people who just has a lot to work through before he's ready to be in a relationship...I only wish I had seen that when we first met.

I've been seeing a therapist since January (starting seeing her when Romeo and I were still together) and will probably continue seeing her for awhile, until I really feel like I'm getting to where I want to be in my own life. That's had an impact on my budget since, although I do get some money back from my benefits provider, they don't cover the full cost of visits. Its completely worth it though!!

Some exciting and positive news is that, on a whim, I met with a mortgage broker to find out how far I was from qualifying for a mortgage and discovered I could actually get a big enough loan to buy a place!!! Now, since it's just me (as opposed to me and Romeo, which had been the plan at one time) the budget does not allow for the purchase of a McMansion or a glamorous Toronto condo but it WOULD definitely get me something modest to call home. I've interviewed some real estate agents, made my decision and will be meeting with him soon to start figuring out how to focus our search. It's pretty overwhelming but in a good way (at least for now!).

I'm still tracking my monthly spending although I kinda lost track in April and May, although its been tracked has been filled with a lot of extra spending. I've had a lot of days off and that has turned into meeting up with a lot of different friends for drinks and meals out. I'm not tapping my down payment savings fund but I'm definitely spending more than I should be. I haven't been spending much on material goods but that's not going to save me if I eat out every day. Since I'm officially at the half-way point for the month and I've already used up my monthly "entertainment" allotment, I'm in trouble. Luckily, I have my "roll-over" account which had some savings accumulated in that category...that just means that money won't be available for more interesting entertainment, like a trip.

Since boredom has probably played a role in the loosening of my purse strings, I'm going to kick things up a notch. I'm initiating a no-spend challenge (well..."very limited spend challenge") that will hopefully last until August 31st. That's only 3 months but I'm actually worried I won't last that long. That being said, I can't really think of anything that I would need to buy in that time period. I should be fine for summer clothes unless I end up losing dramatic amounts of weight and I have a generous stash of health and beauty supplies (I *might* need to get toothpaste, it hasn't been going on sale lately so my stash has been used up). Groceries are allowed so that's not an issue. My major concern is the amount of "recreation/entertainment" spending that will happen. My friends seem to spend a lot of time eating out and drinking on patios so I'll have a bit of a challenge on my hands to encourage them to do other things. I'm also going to keep my eyes open for special promotions/coupons that would allow me to eat out and stick to my budget.

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-06T12:55:00.003-05:00

...only a little late.

I haven't really written most of my goals in the SMART format but I still want to get them posted so that I'll feel accountable. While trying to come up with some goals, I realized that I feel as if my life is a bit lacking. I think I had become so focused on being frugal to work towards my goal of saving to buy a home, I was depriving myself of worthwhile experiences. I don't want to be a miser or a hermit. I'm not quite sure how to phrase it but for 2011, I'd like to "live more" by spending more time with my friends, trying new things and devoting more time to non-work activities (ex. classes, volunteering, yoga, etc).

My other goals for the new year include:

Re-committing myself to fitness and yoga (this has been a big goal of mine that I, unfortunately, keep putting off)
Move-out/buy a home (I've marked "by the end of summer" as a preferred time but will have to evaluate if that will be realistic)
Avoid lifestyle inflation as my income increases.
Continue making conscious decisions regarding the consumption of goods and attempt to tread lightly on the planet.
Create an investment plan.
Have a retirement portfolio of $15,500 by year end.
Earn $7000 above and beyond my flying pay (so doing extra flights won't count towards this!!)

I have a little monthly agenda that I will be using to try and keep myself on task. I've always been a list-maker and in the past have found that having a central spot where I track my progress has helped me. For January, I have the following things written down on the To Do list:

go on a winter hike/snowshoe
visit a friend out west
visit a spa or do a "spa day" at home
go on an actual date with Romeo (between our schedules we spend a lot of time "hanging out" at his place or mine, or spending time doing whatever his son feels like doing...not exactly exciting stuff when it comes to maintaining a relationship)
meet up with a friend
get an investment strategy in place
take my daily vitamins (a variety of supplements/vitamins that have been recommended by various health professionals in my life as helpful but not require...I tend to be lax on taking them)
try something new (I'm not sure how "new" this something has to be...if I managed to do something I haven't done in AGES, I'd probably go ahead and check this item off)
read a book (this seems lame goal-wise but I used to LOVE reading and more or less fell out of the habit)
spend some time thinking some positive thoughts each and every day (I'm trying to retrain my brain to see the more positive things in life instead of focusing on negatives or problems).

Not spending money is easy...

2010-12-15T10:44:00.003-05:00

when you're either too depressed or too sick to get out of bed!! *rolls eyes* My moods are getting better and more under control now that I'm having fewer problems sleeping. I'm still spending too much time alone in my apartment but part of that is because the weather has gotten really cold (duh, it's winter) and I'd rather just stay in my cozy little home. Also, Romeo has recently gotten sick and although things haven't been smooth for us in the past little while, I'm not about to abandon him when he's not well (I told him I was merely keeping him alive so I could continue yelling at him later). I'm not sure if I was already sick with whatever he has and it just took longer to hit me but upon waking this morning, I thought "Yes, my throat is definitely sore" and I will probably be stuck in bed myself as of tomorrow.

On the bright side, all this staying close to home means I haven't really spent much money so far this month (and most of the money I did spend was on meds/supplies for Romeo!!).

I'll be working an extra flight this evening, which wasn't a wise choice on my part. If you're having problems with your sleeping patterns volunteering to work a red-eye is pretty much the dumbest thing you can do...I REALLY didn't think that one through!

The rest of the month will be busy as I'll be doing most of my month's flying from the 23rd onwards. I also have some social visits, my own family's Christmas dinner to help out with and some baking to do to give to friends. It shouldn't be too stressful though as I've finished most of my gift shopping so I can avoid the craziness at the malls. :)

2010-12-12T09:10:00.003-05:00

I've been having some mood issues recently (I've had depression problems in the past) and this has contributed to the complete loss of any sort of sleep pattern and an emotional disposition that makes thinking things through logically and calmly almost impossible.

I've seen my doctor and I've started seeing a therapist (first appointment was this past Friday) who specializes in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, which worked miracles for me last time. At the moment, I'm focusing on the tasks they have given me to help me get well and I'm not so worried about paperwork, no-spend days and hosting social gatherings (although it would still be really nice to have some people over for coffee...). I do have to get working on that physical activity but that is one of the assignments I've been given. I know that lying in bed all day and avoiding the world doesn't really make me feel better but when I'm depressed, that's often all I feel capable of doing. I've been told I have to force myself out of bed and do something active each day to try and get back to my normal self. I don't actually know if I *have* any readers but if anyone is wondering what's going on (and why I haven't been posting regularly for quite some time now), that's the situation and I appreciate your understand and patience with me while I battle this out.

All that being said, one of the things that makes me an oddball is that I actually ENJOY the personal finance tasks I do. I've still been tracking my spending and my no-spend days. My spending this month has been pretty limited. I've bought gas, food while away on layover, underwear, multi-vitamins (recommended by my doctor since my eating habits are a bit shameful right now), cat food and I had to pay for parking at my doctors office (they now have pay parking?!?!). These items have only contributed to my having 3 spend days and if I had properly organized my errands, it would have been 2 spend days. Remember, I don't count the layover expenditures in my spend day quota because there's little choice, I either eat restaurant food/food from the grocer's or I don't eat at all. I'm hoping to work on improving that by bidding more layovers in hotels that provide fridges so I can pack more food instead of just snacks.

December Goals

2010-12-02T09:07:00.001-05:00

Get back to a regular fitness and yoga schedule. I'm going to try this one again, sticking with the same "baby goal" of twice weekly workouts and twice weekly yoga sessions. I'm pretty embarrassed that I couldn't manage this last month.
Finish organizing my paperwork. I also had this as a goal last month and although I did eventually get most of it done, my pay stubs from my main job are still a mess. We get two "regular" pay stubs a month plus we get a monthly flight summary (often about 2-3 pages). These are a mess right now and I'd like to have them in chronological order soon.
Host a social gathering. I'm not intending to have a dinner or big Christmas party but I would like to have a low key evening where I could invite some of my girlfriends over to catch up during this hectic time.
Have at least 12 no-spend days. I wish I could say this is an easy one but my impulse control has dropped AND it's the holiday season. I'm really hoping I can do this. I'll allow meal expenditures on the days I'm flying but only within reason. If I'm ordering lavish meals...the no-spend status is gone.

December Budget

2010-12-01T19:45:00.002-05:00

(based on $2720 net)
rent to MnD $300
RSP $300
DP fund $1000
utilities $45
groceries $100
car - insur $180
car - gas $100
car - repair $100
clothing $40
health $10
personal $115
recreation $100
gifts $70
cats $70
W & T funds ($5 each) $10
L/O expenses $180

Since November, I've made a few changes. The "car - extra insurance" category has been removed. That money was just being put into savings anyways as I wanted to get used to not having that money available to spend (in case I moved out and my insurance rates went up). I just don't list those savings separately now. I have also lowered my total savings amount by $50 and increased the grocery, recreation and personal categories. I feel that I was always very stressed about my expenses in those areas and I really shouldn't be...those expenses equal LIVING!! I may actually change those amounts again next month depending on how things go.

Also, I want to point out that my monthly earnings vary and I based my budget on the minimum I should have each month. Generally, any earnings above and beyond this amount go into the down payment fund although I do occasionally use small amounts to treat myself to a tea (or beer) with friends.

Orange Oatmeal Muffins

2010-12-01T19:22:00.002-05:00

This recipe is from the Company's Coming Low Fat Cooking cookbook by Jean Pare (there should be an accent on "e" in Pare but I can't figure out how to do it with this keyboard). I bought this book back in 1998 (when I was 17, oy) and have enjoyed every recipe I've tried. I haven't been using the book much recently because I haven't been using ANY of my cookbooks recently.

I chose this recipe because I had all the ingredients on hand and, out of the recipes I had been considering, it seemed the healthiest. I'll admit, I didn't bother making the topping but I still found the muffins yummy. The cookbook states these muffins are "best served warm". I always toast my muffins at breakfast so I can't comment on what they're like cold.

Orange Oatmeal Muffins:

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp grated orange peel
1 cup 1% buttermilk (I used the ol' milk and lemon juice trick instead of buying buttermilk)
2 tbsp canola oil
1 large egg, fork beaten

Topping:

1 tbsp quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp grated orange peel

Combine the first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Stir. Make a well in center. Combine buttermilk, oil and egg in small bowl. Pour into well of dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened. Divide among 12 lightly greased muffin cups. Topping: Combine all 3 ingredients. Sprinkle over each muffin. Bake in 350 F oven for 15 minutes until wooden pick inserted in muffin comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes. Remove muffins to wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!!

Note: The cookbook title is linked to the Amazon listing. I'm not an Amazon affiliate so I don't make anything off of you buying the book through the link. Also, I'm not entirely sure what the rules are when it comes to sharing recipes from cookbooks. This is not my recipe and if the publishers would like me to remove it, please contact me and I will do so. (I'm not sure if I've covered my butt here...hope so!)

Started on the papers!!

2010-11-30T19:50:00.004-05:00

Well, I didn't finish organizing all my paperwork but I did manage to go through a significant part of it today. It was a last minute effort to do SOMETHING towards that goal. Those old bills, tax info and random papers were so intimidating because there was so much to go through. When I started going through it, I found tons and tons of stuff I just didn't need. Phone bills for the apartment I lived in while at university?!? Yeah, those went in the shred bin. Pay stubs that were 12 years old? I don't need those either.

I haven't finished organizing everything but I'm much less afraid to tackle the remainder.

The rest of my day was spent tidying up and cleaning some semi-formal dresses. They had both been sitting in my closet since they were worn last. I might consign them as they are in nearly new condition and I'm unlikely to need them. I'll have to look into consignment options in my area.

Tomorrow's excitement is probably going to involve grocery shopping since I have my car back (my brother took it to work today to work on the brakes...gotta love having a brother who's a mechanic).

November Goal Review

2010-11-29T20:17:00.002-05:00

Well, the month is pretty much over and I haven't done nearly enough on my goals. I set goals that were possible to achieve and yet, due to a rough emotional situation, got very little done. Let's review:

Get back to a regular yoga and fitness schedule. I *was* aiming to work out and do yoga twice a week (each) and increase the amount of physical activity in my life. I started the month off really well but after an 11-day stretch of flying long days, I fell off the wagon. So, I still have to work on working out and doing yoga. On the positive side, I have been doing a lot of walking to local stores so I've increased my physical activity that way as well as cutting back on the amount of gas I use!!
De-clutter and organize closet and dressers. I did this!! It's nice to have my summer clothes put away and my fall/winter clothes organized. I also mended 2 pairs of work pants (for my part-time job), fixed the seam on a pair of yoga pants, darned a pair of work socks and fixed a pocket on my fall/winter jacket before putting it away. I'm pretty good at putting mending off until the clothes end up being replaced out of desperation/need so this is an improvement for me.
Get my paperwork (bills, tax papers, important documents, etc) in order. *looks around sheepishly* I haven't done this. I don't have any excuses.
Try two new frugal and healthy recipes. I tried an Orange Oatmeal Muffin recipe from my Company's Coming: Low Fat Cooking Cookbook. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. These muffins didn't require any unusual ingredients and got most of their flavour from orange zest. I'll be posting the recipe soon. I didn't try any other actual recipes but I did end up doing a lot of tinkering. I made some baked pasta. It was just cooked pasta, cottage cheese, some ground beef, cooked lentils (to stretch the beef), some leftover baked butternut squash, green peppers and pasta sauce mixed together, topped with shredded cheese and baked but it was SOOO good! I actually didn't even get to eat much of it because my mom came by the day I baked it and hadn't eaten yet, and my boyfriend polished off the rest the next day. I've done a lot of cooking, nothing super exciting but I've definitely been enjoying my time in the kitchen.

2010-11-09T11:55:00.002-05:00

I've been doing pretty well on keeping up with my goals so far. The replacement washer arrived this past Saturday so after plowing through hundreds of loads of accumulated laundry, I sorted through my dresser contents and put stuff away neatly. I was pleased to see that there was very little to actually get rid of...it seems my wardrobe consists of things I *actually* wear on a fairly regularly basis. That's fantastic because it means I'm not buying clothes that end up hanging in my closet unused. There are some dressier items that get very little use (how often do I attend semi-formal events??) but I'm holding onto them in case they're needed. The only things I needed to dispose of were a few t-shirts that had really bad underarm stains and some underwear whose elastic had died (I found them buried at the bottom of the drawer...it's not like I've been wearing them in that condition).

My summer clothes (tanks, shorts and mini-skirts that definitely won't be used during the Canadian winter) have been moved into "storage" so there's more space for my fall/winter clothing in my dresser. I was *kinda* hoping there might be some things I needed to buy but my warm clothing selection seems to be pretty decent. It wouldn't be bad to pick up a pair of warm-ish pants that aren't jeans and I could probably do with some more warm socks but honestly, I don't need them that badly.

I've been working out about every other day and I've attended two yoga classes. I haven't been flying recently so I've had tons of time...it will be interesting to see how I manage to keep this up once I am back to flying AND working at the bar part-time. At the moment, I'm super sore. It's not "bad" pain but I can definitely feel that my body isn't used to doing physical activity anymore. I've also been trying to eat healthier foods. My success in that area has been hit or miss, depending on how often I'm in my parent's kitchen, stocked as it is with cookies and leftover Halloween goodies.

I still have my paperwork to organize...I'm procrastinating on that one. :(

November Goals

2010-11-03T11:14:00.005-04:00

I'm hoping if I post my goals and have them clear in my mind it will be easier to work towards achieving them.

Get back to a regular yoga and fitness schedule. This has really fallen to the wayside, partly because I spent so much time away during the summer but mostly because I haven't been making my own physical health enough of a priority. For my well-being, this has to change! I'm aiming to do dedicated physical exercise 2x/week, yoga 2x/week and generally, just increase my physical activity. This is NOTHING compared to what I used to do (work out 4-5x/week, yoga 3-4x/week) so I really have no excuses if I can't manage this.
De-clutter and organize closet and dressers. I've been really frustrated trying to get outfits together recently and I suspect its due to the fact that I've allowed my dresser and closet to get really, really messy. Going through my wardrobe, getting rid of items that are worn out/no longer worn and putting everything away neatly shouldn't take that much time.
Get my paperwork (bills, tax papers, important documents, etc) in order. I really don't want to do this one...I have a filing cabinet (minus the file racks so everything kinda flops over) but I hate sitting down and having to sort through this all. I'm aiming to break this down into a few smaller sessions and then have one bigger, final session to make sure its all been put together properly. This is the goal I'm least optimistic about getting done.
Try two new frugal and healthy recipes. I've gotten lazy in the kitchen and hope trying new recipes might jump start my interest in cooking again. This is a really small goal but I'm trying to work through my kitchen stockpile again so I want to avoid having to buy much in the way of new groceries.

I'll keep you updated!

November budget

2010-11-03T10:53:00.002-04:00

Well, I really thought after disappearing over the summer I would be posting more regulary now that fall was here. Now it's nearly winter and I'm still not posting as much as I'd like to. I feel like I'm in a bit of a rut. I've continued to visit all the forums I'm a member of and read all the blogs I follow but I've been lurking...silently catching up on everything but not feeling like I have anything worthwhile to add. Ugh.

I've also fallen off the budgeting bandwagon recently. I still save a significant amount each month for my down payment and my bills are getting paid but I haven't really been tracking where the money goes. I know I've been spending more on groceries (Romeo has been spending more time at my place with his son so I'm no longer just feeding myself) and on items for Romeo's son (clothing and toys to keep at my place - all second hand naturally!!). Although I haven't been spending excessively, I still need to have an idea of where my money is going.

November's budget (based on $2720 net)
rent to MnD $300
RSP $300
DP fund $950
utilities $45
groceries $90
car - insur $180
car - gas $100
car - repair $100
car - extra insur $100
clothing $32
health $10
personal $85
recreation $90
gifts $70
cats $70
W&T funds ($5 each) $10
L/O expenses $180

I'm vaguely concerned about the grocery and recreation amounts. I seem to have burned through those amounts quickly in the past few months so need to watch what's going on there. I also had to pay off my credit card at the beginning of this month. The bill wasn't large but I rarely let multiple purchases pile up so there is confusion about what month and what category the money should have come out of. Not exactly the way I wanted to start the month. :(

It's been a hectic summer.

2010-09-20T09:43:00.003-04:00

Okay, okay...I suck at keeping this blog updated. I want to try and come up with some fantastic excuses but really, the truth is, I was busy doing other things and didn't make finding an internet connection (that I could use long enough to write a post) a priority.

Here is a short list of what I've been up to since you heard from me last:
-travelled to Arizona with Romeo to visit my ailing grandparents
-attended the wedding of one of Romeo's cousins
-attended Romeo's family reunion
-worked right up to the maximum flight hours allowed (each month except September for a good reason, see below)
-started working part-time at the sports bar again
-did some garage sale shopping (yay!)
-started working on re-organizing and de-cluttering my apartment
-fell down the stairs and sprained my foot (last week, meaning I can't work extra hours this month since I can't work at all right now)
-spent a lot of time with Romeo up at his parent's place (they live right on a lake...it's a gorgeous, relaxing place to be)

I reached my goal of saving $10,000 this year. I've actually passed that amount for my down payment fund and, in addition, I have a decent amount in my "rollover account" which is where I keep the budgeted amounts for car repairs, utility bills, cat expenses, etc. I'm feeling pretty good about the financial end of things in my life. I haven't been able to work many shifts at my part-time job yet and they've ended up being slow nights so I haven't been making as much money there as I was expecting but I had another pay bump this summer (I reached my 3 year flying anniversary!) so I've been able to increase the amount I was putting into savings.

I had been hoping to have made it onto the in-charge flight attendant list by now (its a position with my airline that involves more responsibility and a higher pay rate) but its seniority based and hasn't hit my number yet. As a result, I'm going to have to keep working a high number of hours each month to keep hitting my savings goals which isn't impossible but IS tiring.

So, that's an update on some of what I've been doing in the past little while. I'll try to post more regularly again...hopefully.

July Budget

2010-06-30T22:51:00.007-04:00

I'm going to post my planned budget at the beginning of each month and how everything actually turned out at the end of each month. To outline my situation quickly, I work full time as a flight attendant (low wages!) and live alone in a basement apartment owned by my parents ("token" rent!). I have 2 high-maintenance cats (they've been taken off the diet food, by me, due to lack of results), only have a cellphone (phone bill can sometimes be a bit high), work in uniform (don't need to spend much on clothes), don't mind cooking from scratch (lower food bill) and am generally pretty easily entertained (no expensive hobbies here!)

I'll be editing my budget "intro" due to some positive changes in my financial situation. :) First, the flight attendants at my airline get a significant "pay bump" after 3 years of working with the company. I just had my 3 year anniversary so starting in August, when I get my paycheque for July's flying, I'll be earning a nicer wage!! In my department, the 3 year bump is known to be when you start getting a paid a "living wage" and since I've learned to manage fairly well on my existing pay, I'm hoping to avoid lifestyle inflation and increase my payments to my down payment savings fund. I'll also be going back to work part-time at the sports bar I worked at earlier. I won't be taking on many shifts since I have my full-time job, a boyfriend, yoga and other things going on in my life now that I didn't before but the extra money will be helpful. I've managed to keep my cellphone bill at an acceptable level for the past few months so I'm removing the tidbit about my phone. Finally, I'm not going to post a detailed analysis of how things went each month. I'll do a quick summary and an analysis of any really glaring issues but that should be sufficient since I don't think anybody is really THAT interested.

*sigh* So, I've reworked my budget to factor in the expense money I actually use while on layover. I'm still going to try and spend as little money on eating out as possible while on layovers by bringing my own food (a much healthier option) and then put whatever expense money is left over towards my down payment fund. The budget for July is a bit tighter in a few areas to allow for the $250 I've allocated to use during layovers but, as I mentioned earlier, in August my paycheques will increase so my budget will have to be reworked again. Without further ado;

July Budget (based on $2455 net)

rent to MND $200
RSP $250
"rent" $740
utilities $50
groceries $90 (tightened)
car - insur $180
car - gas $110 (tightened)
car - repair $100
car - extra insur $100
clothing $40
health $15
personal $90 (tightened)
recreation $120 (tightened)
gifts $60 (tightened)
cats $60 (tightened)
layover expenses $250 (new category)

No rollover amounts have been shown here because my insane spending in June (due to shopping and my car needing repairs) have done a good job of using up the money in the "rollover" account. I hate seeing that the money is gone but love that I *had* the money and didn't need to put items on my credit card and have them accumulate interest until I could pay the cards off. I think that's what I love the most about having a budget...finally having control over my money and not having to stress about it all the time. Sure, I tinker with my budget all the time and wish my down payment fund would grow faster but I don't worry about money anymore.

Money Mistakes, Car Breakdowns and Stressing

2010-06-24T22:30:00.003-04:00

Ugh. In the past day and a half I've had two financial setbacks. One of them is entirely my fault and I'm kicking myself repeatedly in the butt for not clearly thinking through my budget when I went back to flying. The other was beyond my control.

My mistake: Okay, so, if you've read any of the budget posts you might remember that I base my budget on a monthly income of $2455 net. That was the income I received while doing my ground assignment and my biggest worry when going back to flying was that my income would drop and that I would have to adjust my budget. When I got my first paycheque after returning to flying, I breathed a sigh of relief. My income and my expense money together meant my monthly income would remain unchanged and I opted not to adjust my budget. Great, right? WRONG! When I'm away on layover, I need that expense money to cover off any meals that I eat out (I usually pack and bring my own food) but I had included it in my budget so it was being used to pay bills, add to my savings, cover my variable expenses. Then, while on layover, I would "use my expense money" to pay for my meals. I was spending the money twice!!! *falls to floor in a dead faint* WHY DID IT TAKE ME SO LONG TO REALIZE WHAT I WAS DOING?? I've been really, really lucky that I don't like to eat out while on the road and have, for the most part, been packing all my own food. If I had been hitting restaurants at every meal time, the damage to my budget would be much more significant. As it is, I feel like an absolute idiot for not realizing what I had doing when I looked at my "new" income of flying pay and expenses.

The other ugly situation started yesterday evening when I left the airport after a brutal 4 days of flying. (I should actually say the situation "began" yesterday evening since nothing actually "started" last night, as it were) I was driving home, utterly exhausted, when I noticed I was very low on gas. I pulled into a gas station, stopped my car, filled up and hopped back in to leave. I put the key in the ignition, turned it and...nothing. All the warning lights on my dash lit up but the car didn't start. It wasn't even making that clicking noise that sometimes happens if the battery is dying. I sat there, thinking "Okay Kris. You're extremely tired and have probably done something wrong while attempting to perform a very simple and straightforward action. Try it again and this time, turn the key all the way." I took a deep breath, embarrassed at how brain-dead I become when tired, and turned the key again. Still nothing except a scary light show on my dash.

Crap.

I then did the first thing that I always do when I run into car trouble now that I no longer have a roadside assistance membership. I called, in this specific order, my father, my brother (the auto mechanic) and Romeo (the uber-handy guy, called him last because he was at work). My father was closest to my location and started driving over. My brother was further away, told me to call him if Dad couldn't figure it out and to have the car towed to his shop if nothing else could be done (the shop was already closed for the day). Romeo seemed a little hurt that he was the last one to be called but understood when I explained that my father had been nearby and um, Romeo hadn't even been able to take my call and had contacted me after getting the message I left. Once my father arrived, he got in the driver's seat and tried the key. My ego was thankful that nothing happened as if it had started for him, I would have felt like a fool. He then played with the gear shifter, knocked it into neutral and was able to start the car at that point. He followed me as I drove the car home and after consulting with my brother, they decided that the car hadn't locked properly into the "park" gear and therefore, wasn't starting. We all assumed it was a one-off thing and I happily crashed into bed.

This morning, on my one day off, I got out of bed as early as I could manage to run the million errands I had as well as to head to my yoga class. Packed up all my stuff, carted it to the car, hopped in, turned the key and...nothing. I can assure you, "crap" was not the word I muttered at that point. I popped the car into neutral as I had seen my father do the previous day, started it up and slowly, carefully drove to the shop where my brother works. Once I got there, he took a quick peek at it but told me, unfortunately, he was super busy and wasn't going to be able to actually take it apart to figure out what was going on for a few days. (I'm not upset about this...my brother has already done so much work on my car without charging for labour, his not being able to work on it *this time* because he had PAYING jobs doesn't bother me one bit!) I asked where I should try and he said I could try the dealership (had a bad experience there and its the main reason why my brother has, up to this point, done all the work on my car) or an independent mechanic shop. I asked if he knew anyone trustworthy with a shop and he dug up the info of a guy he used to work with who now owned his own shop. My car is now safely in his hands, waiting to have a new shift cable installed tomorrow. I'm having to pay parts and labour this time round (which makes my budget sad) but I'm happy that I now have a "back-up" mechanic who I can trust when my brother is unavailable.

Dealing with the car issue today didn't do my exhaustion level any favours and I ended up being pretty stressed out by the end of the day. I was tired, worried about all the things I didn't get done, and, physically, generally feeling pretty gross. I have to admit, I booked off from my next flying assignment (a very busy two day assignment starting tomorrow) despite the fact that I am not in bed, hacking up blood or worse. I feel very strongly about those who abuse their sick day privileges at my airline but I really don't think I would have been in good enough shape tomorrow, before 6am, to be responsible for the safety of over a hundred passengers (and I suspect they will appreciate me not monopolizing an aircraft lavatory in order to deal with the unpleasant physical aspects of my stress).

I should have been in bed awhile ago but I've been running on adrenaline for most of the day and have just now, started to not feel "wired". I'm going to tuck myself in now, get a decent night's sleep and tackle these issues another time when I have a clearer head.

I'm hemorrhaging money (and savings update!)

2010-06-20T12:10:00.002-04:00

*low moan* I spent so much money last week. I haven't even actually tallied it all up and added it to my budget/expense tracker because I don't really want to think about it. I'm going to take all my receipts and add them to my binder tonight when I find a few minutes of break time at work (or during a layover). It started off innocently enough, I went by the thrift store and picked up a few games (Game of Life, Jenga, set of Dominoes) for 50 cents each. Score, right? I had to get a Father's Day gift for Romeo and opted to print a few pics I had of him and his son and put one in a frame to give to him (honestly, after printing a few pics and getting the frame that still only cost me about $8.50). While frame shopping at Winners (the Canadian version of TJ Maxx), I found some great deals on some lingerie/bras (which I needed since my bras are all a bit too big now) and then fell in love with a pair of shoes (which I am debating taking back since I really don't need them, as lovely as they are). I also picked up a new shower liner to replace the one that disintegrated as I was cleaning it. Then, because I decided I wanted to keep one of the photos of Romeo and his son, I headed back to the thrift store to see if I could find a frame that I liked (they hadn't had any that were in good enough shape to give as gifts but there were plenty I wouldn't mind for myself).

Romeo and I had been planning on hanging out on Friday and by the time we figured out our plans, I was starving. I needed food quickly and seeing as how Romeo has eaten me out of house and home during the few times he came over during the challenge...I didn't really have enough of anything to make that would take care of his massive appetite and still have food left for me. I ended up picking some food up (and spending more than I like in order to make sure Romeo got enough to eat).

I should mention Romeo is a 6'3" beanpole...I have no idea how he can pack away so much food and not have an ounce of it stick to him!!!

I kept a general tally in my head and although I've probably decimated the remainder of my month's budget and eaten up my accumulated "roll over" amounts for the corresponding categories, I'm pretty sure I didn't eat into money that was earmarked for my savings account. On that note, on my most recent payday I transferred some more money into my down payment fund. *smile* I'm getting there...I may have spent money this month that could have put into my savings account instead but I'm still making progress!!

Sorry for the disappearance!

2010-06-16T20:11:00.003-04:00

I've been away for work between Saturday morning (at 6am...boo) and yesterday evening. Before that, I had out-of-town family visiting (which was a surprise to me as my immediate family never informed me anyone was coming). Thursday evening involved getting my place ready and helping my parents get their place ready. Having visitors affected my June Food Stamp Challenge because I ended up being invited to my parent's place twice for dinner and was given leftovers to take home because too much food was prepared. Yay for leftovers! I haven't done any grocery shopping so whatever meals I've were from items already in my kitchen.

Friday was a whirlwind of visiting and helping my parents get things prepared for that evening's barbecue. After that, I was up late packing my suitcase and preparing food to bring with me on my four day flying assignment (back and forth across Canada, over and over again). Packing food to bring with me means that I eat healthier food while away from home (instead of always eating at restaurants) AND I get to save my leftover expense money. For lunches and dinners, I packed some of the frozen meals I had in my freezer as well as some quiche I had made to use up some aging veggies and most of my deli ham. It turned out really well! Breakfasts were instant oatmeal and a piece of fruit (eaten in my hotel room while getting ready). I spent only $27.00 during the 4 days I was away and part of that was a meal where I treated myself to an appetizer, entree and dessert. The restaurant I went to gives air crew with my airline a 50% discount so it was a great opportunity for me to have a 3 course meal and still not spend much.

I'm happy to report that my calculations comparing my flying pay and my special assignment pay ended up being correct and my budget will continue to work. I received an HST cheque from the government this month but have put it aside to use for a trip to visit my ailing grandfather instead of putting it in my down payment savings fund. I haven't been able to plan much of the trip (since I don't have my July schedule yet) and while I will attempt to do the trip frugally, visiting my grandfather is important and I won't stress too much over the cost.

Monthly variable spending thus far: $148.94 + $27.00 in L/O expenses
Spend days (goal is 12), 4/30

June Food Stamp Challenge Day 9

2010-06-09T15:49:00.003-04:00

Getting the June Food Stamp Challenge business out of the way. Katy, the Non-Consumer Advocate, posted about judging the food choices of others. It was timely for me since I've been so apprehensive about posting what I eat in my blog. I have to admit, I've been tempted to lie to make my diet seem healthier but realized that defeated the purpose of the challenge and chose to remain honest and display my eating habits (the admirable and the not so healthy) to the world. Yesterday's meals/snacks included:

peanut butter toast with cottage cheese on the side, HUGE mug of tea with milk/sugar
ham and cheese omelette (2 eggs), glass of milk
beef stirfry (strips of marinating steak, broccoli, onions, carrots) on mung bean vermicelli, water to drink
peanut butter oatmeal cookies (lots and lots of cookies)

Today's meals/snacks:

Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Hot Cereal (I forgot how much I loved this stuff...definitely going to be eating it more now that I've finished my loaf of bread) with a handful of blackberries, a banana and a glass of water
leftover beef stirfry on mung bean vermicelli plus half a grilled ham and cheese sandwich (It rarely happens but sometimes, I don't have enough leftovers from one cooking episode to make a second full meal. The tiny bit of stirfry wasn't enough so I used the last slice of bread to make a hot sandwich.)
dinner will be either roast chicken with *cough* Stovetop dressing *cough* (if the chicken I considered roasting yesterday has finally finished thawing) or pasta with balsamic pesto sauce, with the last bit of broccoli and possibly a green salad
peanut butter oatmeal cookies (again, lots and lots of cookies)

Today, inspired by Ruthie, I stepped on the scale and weighed myself. I wouldn't say I'm anywhere near being concerned about my weight but I was a little annoyed to see that the numbers have gone up a few pounds. I have nobody to blame but myself, I've spent far too much time baking cookies, brownies and mini-cheesecakes and not nearly enough time working out. I'll hoping to get my eating habits back under control and that means I'll have to turn to a hobby besides baking to occupy my free time.

My brother worked on my car yesterday and did the scheduled oil change. (Have I told you how much I love having a brother who's a mechanic???) I owe him some money now but he told me he wasn't quite sure what it cost as he hadn't paid too much attention to the cost of the oil and filter. Hopefully he'll get back to me soon so I can pay that off and be done with it. I also had to get gas today and luckily for me, I remembered to fill up at the gas station near my yoga studio. It is always just a little bit cheaper than the station near me but I have a tendency to drive right past it in a totally zen state, only realizing I could have used the fuel after hitting the highway.

Monthly variable spending thus far: $140.03 (!!!)
Spend days (goal is 12), 4/30

June Food Stamp Challenge Meal Update

2010-06-07T22:07:00.004-04:00

I did an extra shift today bringing my flying hours up to my legal limit (including my scheduled flights later this month). I packed a lunch because I hate airline food (it literally makes me sick). Today, my meals/snacks consisted of:

Peanut butter toast with a glass of milk
lunch/snacks on plane; cheese and crackers, granola bar, iced tea, brownie, jelly beans (a gift from a friend, left in my mailbox at work), salad (lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, cheese and deli ham with french dressing), banana, yogurt
whole wheat pasta with spinach-beef tomato sauce (finally, FINALLY it's all eaten up!)
last dregs of mint chocolate chip ice cream

As mentioned in an earlier post, I've destroyed my grocery budget so I will have to be creative and just use whatever I have in my kitchen. I'm not really worried about having enough food...I'm worried about running out of fresh produce and having to survive on frozen/canned veggies and fruits. :(

Grocery budget destruction

2010-06-06T19:12:00.005-04:00

I went grocery shopping today and spent $37.01 which leaves me with 10.31 for the rest of the month. The items I bought for more immediate consumption are the bananas, nectarines, marinating steaks, deli ham (NOT frugal but I haven't had deli meat in about a year), eggs, mayo and alfredo sauce. The jam, 2 jars of peanut butter, butter, crackers and giant box of baking soda are for my stockpile. The two bags of chips are for a BBQ I hope to have later this month. I paid the $4 for the chips out of my entertainment budget because hosting the BBQ is an entertainment thing for me and I don't eat chips (okay, I eat nacho chips very occasionally) so they wouldn't have made it into my house if I wasn't having friends over. If you'd rather consider them as part of my grocery expenses, that leaves me with $6.31 for the rest of the month.

For the information of those following the June Food Stamp Challenge, these are my meals/snacks for yesterday (since I didn't post) and today:

bowl of Shreddies, tea
lunch/dinner/snacks while working flight; carrots & caesar dressing as dip, frozen Stouffer's meal, PB&J sandwich on homemade bread, apple, bottle of OJ, 2 yogurt cups, banana-bran muffin (baked by Romeo)
2 slices toast with peanut butter, tea
snack while out grocery shopping: granola bar, brownie, bottle of water (not "bottled water")
ham sandwich (cheese, lettuce, tomatoes on sandwich)
whole wheat pasta with leftover spinach-beef tomato sauce, caesar salad

I've had pieces of brownie as snacks whenever it strikes my fancy but I haven't really kept track of when I've been eating them. That's the problem with having baked goods in my kitchen, I enjoy eating goodies way too much. I'm doing another extra flight tomorrow which brings me very close to maxing out my allowable work hours for the month (including my scheduled flying later in the month). I'll be packing a lunch and some snacks so I haven't adjusted the pro-rated amount for my grocery budget.

I also picked up some personal care items while out shopping. I went a little crazy and I let myself splurge on the brands (still on sale and with coupons of course). Other than with my bath soaps, I'm not brand loyal (and even with my soaps, I'm going to lose the snobbery once I get through my current stash of Rocky Mountain Soap Company and O'Canada Soapworks delights). Today, to distract myself from my rut, I let myself buy brands that cost $2 after the coupon instead of sticking to the deals that cost $1 or less after the coupon. Yes, it was money I didn't need to "waste" on a brand but darn it, I actually really enjoyed the time I spent checking out the various products my coupons were good for instead of just figuring out which was the cheapest and choosing that.

Monthly variable spending thus far: $105.85 (!!!)
Spend days (goal is 12), 3/30

Food Waste Friday

2010-06-04T22:13:00.003-04:00

I've been inspired by Kristen to post pictures of my food waste to encourage me to waste as little food as possible.

This week, there was a bit of scalloped potatoes that didn't last long enough for me to get around to eating (I tried, valiantly, to get through the giant dish of potatoes I had made) and something I found in my freezer and decided to toss when I was not 100% sure of its identity. I think it was chicken fat (it smelled strongly of rosemary which I often use when roasting chicken) but for the life of me, I can't remember any reason why I would save the chicken fat skimmed off my gravy. To be honest, I think this may have been a case of skimming the fat off the gravy into a container so I could dispose of it and then, while rushing to clean up my dishes and the mess that occurs when I make a big meal...I think I saw the container, slapped a lid on it and froze it without actually investigating what was in the container.

There was also a batch of apple muffins I had made awhile ago that did not turn out. After having one, and being utterly disgusted by it (the texture was gummy...) I had thrown the rest of the batch in the freezer, hoping to find a use for them. I debated attempting a sort of bread pudding with them but ultimately decided trying to salvage these muffins somehow would probably just result in me wasting other perfectly good ingredients. I tossed them out mid week and didn't bother to take a picture.

For those following the June Food Stamp Challenge, my meals/snacks for the day were:

a bowl of Shreddies cereal topped with a handful of blackberries and served with skim milk (mixed from powder), cup of jasmine green tea.
I had a very late lunch/early dinner out with Romeo today. We went for all-you-can-eat sushi which I deducted from my entertainment budget. After, we went for ice cream (his treat).
I didn't end up eating dinner because we had eaten vast quantities of sushi but once I got home, I had a piece of brownie (baked yesterday) and some roiboos tea before crashing into bed. I really should not have eaten the brownie but basically, I saw them when I opened my fridge and couldn't say no to the chocolateyness (I'm pretty sure that's a word despite what Blogger's spell check is telling me...lol).

I have managed to pick up an extra shift and will be flying to and from Barbados tomorrow (it's a painfully long work day). I don't receive any expenses for this flight and because I'm unable to eat the crew meals provided for us on-board the aircraft, I have to bring some food. Since I'll be "brown bagging it" tomorrow, I have not adjusted my grocery budget for the month. I probably won't be posting tomorrow but I'll record what I take in my lunch for my next update.

As far as my day with Romeo, it went really well. We got to the sushi restaurant later than we had planned but I guess it worked out better since the lunch crowd had left by that point and the service was faster for us. Afterward, we weren't quite sure what to do...we just wanted to walk around but were in a fairly industrial part of town. As we were driving to a park in the city he lives in (which is where I grew up), I detoured and took him on "The Official Historical Tour of Kristyn's Childhood". I spent 95% of my childhood in one neighbourhood, so we parked at my senior elementary school and walked from there, through the area I grew up in, around my elementary school and then back to the car. I pointed out all sorts of spots that had meaning to me as a child (the lilac bushes I used to go and build a fort amongst when I "ran away" from home, a creek near my school and the willow tree there I used to read beneath, the corner where I got my very. first. kiss, etc.). The area has ~~kinda~~ really gone downhill, which was sad to see, and I started to feel really silly about this random excursion until he told me how much he was enjoying the walk. I don't talk about my childhood often so experiencing this sudden deluge of stories was a new thing for him. We both enjoyed ourselves (I think he really just liked seeing me get all misty-eyed over my childhood) and the part of the day that actually cost money (lunch and ice cream), we could have easily replaced with a packed picnic lunch if we had thought ahead to plan one.

:)

No, this isn't Budget Confessions...

2010-06-03T19:49:00.002-04:00

I was just really bored of my Blogger template, changed it to one that has a wider layout and then realized my blog looks very similar to Cate's (only my blog is much less organized!). I can't really help it, Blogger doesn't have many clean-looking templates and my HTML-fu is weak so, at this moment, I don't know how to alter templates to my specifications. (Sorry Cate! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery???)

I've been in a bit of a rut lately due to all this time off. Yes, I realize I have a To Do list but after a certain amount of time going through my domestic errands and chores, one really does begin to crave something more exciting. It's not that I don't enjoy interacting with my fellow bloggers (I'm constantly amazed by the ingenuity of Frugal/Green Bloggers) but I really miss spending time with people, you know, in person. That's one of the difficulties with this job, I have the weirdest schedule imaginable and tend to be gone on weekends when my non-FA friends are free. My FA friends and I have such conflicting schedules it becomes a game of "see you in passing at XYZ airport" unless we arrange a meeting time a month in advance when we bid for the next month's schedules. And Romeo? He also works in the airline industry (although in a ground position) so he's scheduled to work a 6 on - 3 off cycle which he manipulates (doing double shifts or switching work days) so he can take care of the son who he shares joint custody of. Finding time to see him will be interesting...

Ahem, back to the topic at hand. I'm in a rut because I'm lonely and when I get in these moods, I really want to shake things up and make some drastic changes. I feel like moving out of this parent-owned (and highly "subsidized") basement apartment OR completely renovating OR redecorating...the list goes on. None of those things makes me less lonely but I still get the urge to spend money simply to make things new, interesting and ultimately, distracting. My challenge will be to keep that spending urge under control. Romeo has free time tomorrow (not quite sure how it happened but I won't question it) so we're hoping to spend the day together. I'll also continue begging for an extra shift at work (waiting to be called if they have anything) to eat into some of this free time I end up spending alone at home, being tempted. Comments, questions, advice??

For those following the June Food Stamp Challenge, my meals/snacks for the day were:

slice of toasted homemade bread with marmalade, a yogurt cup, half a banana and OJ for breakfast. I had breakfast waaaay too early in the morning which led to low blood sugar at noon and lunch being:
a lean cuisine grilled panini, half a banana, a big glass of OJ and lots and lots of water (um, heh, I almost passed out in my noon yoga class today so once I got home it was "eat something RIGHT NOW, you do not have time to cook!" hence the lean cuisine meal)
whole wheat linguine with a tomato sauce chock full of spinach and some ground beef, a cesar salad and another glass of OJ (mixed 2/3 juice, 1/3 water)
about 1/4 cup of milk chocolate chunks (a formerly frozen Easter bunny, crushed up and destined to be used for chocolate chip cookies)

Some frugal food related things I did:

prepared a jug of iced green tea since it looks like I'll finally be through with the OJ tomorrow
baked up a batch of brownies. I used a mix that cost $1 after using a coupon. I had intentionally picked up the low fat version but decided to mix in some peanut pieces (I'm all out of walnuts) and milk chocolate pieces. This will make them extra yummy and completely negate any low-fat qualities they had. ;)
packed up most of the leftover pasta and sauce as a "freezer meal" that I can microwave some time when I'm too lazy to cook.

Nothing too exciting but at the moment, that's just how life is.

Cheers! :)

Bake-y, Bake-y!

2010-06-02T20:03:00.003-04:00

This morning I woke up feeling more human than I have in almost a week. I'm not at 100% but I definitely feel like the worst of this stupid sinus-blocking cold is behind me. I didn't get out of bed as early as I usually do but once up, I had a quick breakfast and started making some bread. I just mixed the ingredients together, kneaded it and left it to rise in my oven (unheated of course, it's just a cat-proof place to leave the dough) before dashing off to my yoga class. After yoga, I had to clean the studio (which I do in exchange for free classes). By the time I got home the dough had risen nicely. I'm always a bit of a sweaty mess after hot yoga so I jumped in the shower before finishing up with the bread.

It started pouring outside so I spent the rest of the day relaxing indoors. Remember, I've been off work since May 24th and don't have a regularly scheduled flight until almost two weeks into the month so...I've been spending lots of time at home, trying to stay out of stores and out of trouble. Frankly, I'm a bit bored.

For those of you interested in the June Food Stamp Challenge, my meals/snacks today were:

whole wheat pancakes (leftovers) topped with a pear-cranberry-blackberry "compote". I wasn't trying to be fancy, I just had a pear and some blackberries that weren't looking too great so I stewed them down with a tiny bit of sugar, cinnamon and tossed in some dried cranberries (mostly because I was getting carried away at this point...lol). I had water to drink (tea would have been too dehydrating before a hot yoga class).
another serving of scalloped potatoes and jerk salmon with a glass of milk. I also had half of one of the giant bananas I bought the other day.
about 2 cups of popcorn (kernals popped in a pot on the stovetop, not microwave popcorn) as an afternoon snack while watching a borrowed DVD
a peanut butter and banana sandwich (on yummy homebaked bread!) with cherry tomatoes, baby-cut carrots and broccoli on the side with french dressing to dip in. I had about 1/3 cup of Haagen Daz mint-chocolate chip ice cream for dessert (I had gotten the tub for free awhile ago with a coupon). Once again, just water to drink.

I guess I should mention that, as a general rule, I only drink water, milk (which I mix from powdered milk) and tea/iced tea. I do occasionally have juice (99% of the time it's made from concentrate) but usually only if I'm expecting guests (who tend to balk at my regular drink selection). My beverage choices are limited for health reasons, not because of financial concerns.

In not-at-all-related-to-frugality news; Romeo and I appear to be back "on". He's an amazing guy who I love spending time with and feel incredibly connected to so, although some of my friends will be worried, I'm very happy that we're going to give it another try. His situation is less-than-ideal which is why my friends have urged me to move on ("Why settle for someone with drama in his life?!?") but I'm not comfortable with the idea of discounting people because of things beyond their control. Ultimately, only time will tell how this plays out.

Food Stamp Challenge

2010-06-01T20:18:00.003-04:00

Well, I've made my first grocery purchase of the month and it wasn't a particularly frugal one. This cold is really kicking my butt and after yet another night of not sleeping well (I had to go and buy stronger decongestants because the "extra strength" ones I had weren't doing anything!), I really was in no mood to comparison shop or drive out of town to hit the cheaper grocery stores. I went to the grocery store nearest me (I drove, I'm dying here people!) and picked up yogurt, 2 apples, 3 bananas and some cottage cheese. That tiny bit of food cost $9.91!! *faints* The yogurt was "on sale" for $5 but I don't usually spend more than $3.50 for the same amount when I'm watching the sales and grocery shopping at several stores. The cottage cheese wasn't too bad, I can *sometimes* find it $0.50 cheaper than what I paid but not often. The apples weren't cheap ($1.30 for 2 apples?!?) but the produce department didn't have any good sales so the apples and bananas were the cheapest fruit available. So of the 57.23 I started with, I've got $47.32 left.

What did I eat today? Well, I didn't really eat very well today but not because there is a shortage of healthy food. There was just a serious lack of energy so for "breakfast", when the idea of consuming anything turned my stomach, I ended up nibbling on the last piece of cheesecake I had left from a recent baking episode. Yes, you read that correctly, I had a cupcake sized piece of cheesecake at ten in the morning. (I'm single and live on my own. Every so often, I just eat something with absolutely no regard to how healthy or hour-appropriate it is. *shrugs* We all have off days!). For lunch, when I felt a bit more rested, I had some leftover scalloped potatoes and baked salmon. You'll note there wasn't a fruit or veg in that meal...there was however jerk sauce on the salmon since I learned I don't really like salmon and am slowly eating through the salmon I bought awhile ago, drenched in various spicy sauces to hide the taste. Dinner was probably the closest to a balanced meal. I had a small portion of whole wheat pasta in a pesto sauce, a large cesar salad, some OJ, and, for dessert, an apple (not one of the ones I bought today) with peanut butter.

I know I have weird dietary habits but usually my meals are more balanced than this. Its tricky right now because I don't want to thaw out some meat I have in the freezer (it'll take about 2-3 days to thaw) because I might be doing an extra shift if I feel better soon and then the meat would go bad before I can cook it. I would say the timing of my flight assignments is the biggest frustration I have when attempting to plan meals.

Anyways, it's only 8:40pm but I'm exhausted. I'm headed to bed!!

June's Budget

2010-06-01T15:02:00.002-04:00

I'm going to post my planned budget at the beginning of each month and how everything actually turned out at the end of each month. To outline my situation quickly, I work full time as a flight attendant (low wages!) and live alone in a basement apartment owned by my parents ("token" rent!). I have 2 high-maintenance cats (they've been taken off the diet food, by me, due to lack of results), only have a cellphone (phone bill can sometimes be a bit high), work in uniform (don't need to spend much on clothes), don't mind cooking from scratch (lower food bill) and am generally pretty easily entertained (no expensive hobbies here!)

The difficulty with this month's budget is that I'm not 100% sure what size my paycheque will be. Up to this point my budget has been based on the income I received while working my special assignment. When I had originally compared my two incomes, there was little difference between the two. This month, I'll actually find out if my calculations were accurate or if I'm going to have to drastically adjust my budget. My budgeted amounts for my variable expenses are already so tight that if my budgeted amount is much different, it will be the amount transferred to the down payment fund that will have to change. This possible budget shortage, and the corresponding setbacks in my savings, doesn't worry me too much...I'll be getting my next pay "bump" at the end of June so my paycheques will be higher again soon.

June Budget (plus "rollover" amounts to use if needed)

rent to MND $200
RSP $250
"rent" $925
utilities $50 (+ $10.45)
groceries $57.23 (as per the June Food Stamp Challenge, +$54.57 but that would defeat the purpose of the challenge)
car - insur $180
car - gas $120 (+ $144, had been saving it for gas expenses on a trip...which may not happen for awhile)
car - repair $100 (+$100)
car - extra insur $100
clothing $40 (+22.85)
health $15 (+1.50)
personal $95 (+5.53)
recreation $130 (+33.73)
gifts $75 (+75)
cats $75 (+43.63)

The only unusual expense I'm expecting for June is my car's oil change. The car maintenance is budgeted for, I just consider it an unusual expense because its not something that happens every month. I had been hoping to also get my bike repaired but upon further inspection, think my bike might be beyond repair...its rusted pretty solid and I'm not sure if the cost of the repair would make repairing it worthwhile (vs. replacing it). A bike isn't a need for me so its waaaay at the bottom of the priority list.

For those of you, bored enough to pay close attention to my budget figures, you might notice that my past spending in the personal and recreation categories doesn't match the amount being rolled over. I've got two minor savings goals on the go right now so I sometimes use saved money from those two categories to contribute to my travel or *cough*wedding*cough* funds. (No, I'm not engaged...its not even very clear to me exactly what my status is as things with Romeo have become a bit more complicated...I just want to save for a wedding instead of going into debt for it when it eventually happens) Saving for a down payment is my main goal but if I have some extra money because of careful spending, I'm allowing myself to allocate it to those other smaller goals.

Today is the first day of the June Food Stamp Challenge. I will be headed into the world today (as much as this horrible sinus cold makes me want to stay in bed) to pick up a few produce items and will post again later today to list what I've picked up and hopefully provide a menu plan for a few days if I can think straight.

ARGH! Stupid Sinus Congestion!!

2010-05-31T15:35:00.002-04:00

I said in my earlier post today I would come back and post menu plans for the upcoming week (and first week of the Katy's June Food Stamp Challenge)! Well, I'm telling you now, I think I'm going to make a liar of myself. This cold is a serious impediment to my usual cheerful, wannabe-homemaker attitude. Right now, all I want to do is being able to breath through my nose again. I did go and pick up some cold medication (and sunblock to prevent another sunburn) but I usually try to only take it at night. The frustrating thing is that my sinuses will clear out and I'll think "Oh, maybe my body is already fighting it off and clearing everything out! I guess it's a good thing I didn't take that decongestant" and 20 mins later, I'll be fully congested again.

So...accept that you're not going to get a detailed menu plan for this week (at least not today). Just thinking about what I have available in my kitchen, you can expect to see a lot of my protein coming from salmon, tuna, chicken, eggs and dried beans. I am completely out of bread/tortillas so I will have to find enough energy to get some baking done tomorrow. (See? SEE? I don't normally dread baking. This cold is really getting to me). I have rice and whole wheat pasta, both of which will be making appearances throughout the month. The veggie and fruit side of things is a little more desolate. I will definitely need to get myself some produce sometime soon. I will warn you, you WILL see some processed foods pop into my menus. I rarely eat frozen pre-packaged meals but I keep a few of them on hand (purchased on sale, never more than $1.50 each) for those days when I'm too exhausted to cook. I have a strong suspicion that I will be having a few of those days quite soon if my head doesn't clear.

Some of the reasons this challenge doesn't phase me:

I used to love eating but I ate too much of the wrong stuff and not enough of the good stuff (and it showed!!). My attitudes towards food have changed. I see food as fuel now so if you notice meals that don't seem too appetizing, it's quite possible they aren't but I'm trying to use up leftovers in unusual pairings to prevent food waste.
I live alone. I don't have to worry about anyone else's opinion of the food I cook. Burnt? Unless it's charcoal, I'm still likely to eat it. Bland? Yep, I'll still eat it.
My food budget is already tight. It used to be $120/mth and then I realized I was buying a lot of things that ended up going to waste. Last month, in an attempt to put a dent in my stockpile, I dropped my budget to $60 for the month and had NO issues (in fact, I actually ended up doing some pantry re-stocking).
I'm gone for about half the month, each month. I'm a flight attendant, we're glam like that. *snort* Ha! That was nowhere near convincing enough to have anyone think we lead exciting lives but yes, I am gone half the month and provided with a per-diem to cover my meal expenses with while I'm away. (I've reached the point where I don't actually like eating out and I try to bring at least some food with me)

In order to reflect the amount of time I'm gone from my home, I'm pro-rating my challenge's budget amount to $57.23. If most of the participants are using their pantries/stockpiles and I feel like I can do so without feeling guilty, I will probably not use the full $57.23. I have been investigating how the other participants are handling the pantry/stockpile issue and haven't seen much posted on it yet.

Updated May variable expenditures to reflect today's spending:
groceries $59.28 (found some tuna on sale!)
car - gas $93.09
clothing $12.15
health $13.50 (stupid cold!)
personal $59.47
recreation $39.56
cats $51.37

Total $328.42

Monthly Wrap-Up

2010-05-31T10:10:00.003-04:00

May was a much better month for me than April. I realized that because of the money I spend on layover (usually put on a credit card and paid off as soon as I get home), my savings amount is going to vary each month because I'm paid for my expenses a month late. That is, even though I pay off the expenses on my credit card with money from this month's budget, I only get reimbursed for my expenses on the paycheque that comes halfway through June. I'm not sweating it too much as I am really tightfisted with my expenses and I would rather pay off my credit card than have the expenditures sit on my card for a month until I get paid back for them.

May Variable Expenditures

groceries $55.43
car - gas $93.09
clothing $12.15
personal $54.33
recreation $39.56 (why don't my friends let me pay for my own dinners?!!? I HAVE the money!! I budgeted $130 for rec this month!!)
cats $51.37

Total $305.93

That's a really low amount for monthly variable expenditures (for me, maybe there are people elsewhere who spend less than this on a regular basis). I think there are a few reasons its so low. I was challenging myself to spend less than $60 on groceries (a challenge I'll basically end up repeating thanks to Katy's June Food Stamp Challenge), I went out once for dinner and once for coffee and both times, my friends ended up covering my part of the bill (I don't think I minded my friend springing for the coffee but I'm going to have to convince Ninja to stop paying for me all the time) and finally, my gas expenses are down because I'm not doing my commute back and forth to the airport 6 days out of 9 anymore. I'm not trying to shrink any of my variable categories anymore as I want there to be a tiny bit of leftover each month that accumulates and can be put towards larger expenditures. For example, I've started a "travel fund" and am contributing a portion of my leftover recreation budget to it. It's growing incredibly slowly but at least a savings fund exists for it and hopefully, by the time I have my next vacation slot, I will have some money set aside for a modest visit somewhere.

I'm going to take off in search of cold medication and sunblock (it's practically a crime that I need both of those products at the same time!!). I'll do another tiny post later on with some menu planning for this upcoming week. :)

I'm giving container gardening a try!!

2010-05-29T19:43:00.003-04:00

Please welcome my new "dependents" (uh, ignore the container of flowers...those aren't mine)!! :) I've heard so many good things about gardening in the frugal/green blogosphere. It gives you access to cheap food and provides you with food that is as local as it gets. I'm going to give it a try using containers since the backyard where I live is in shade for most of the day (although once my pots were full I opted to plant two tomato plants out in the back anyways...they have been known to grow there, just not abundantly). These containers will be left out front to soak up the sun and hopefully provide me with at least some food. I've planted some tomatoes (1 is the "Big Boy" variety and the other is...likely Roma, the tag fell out when I left the nursery and I can't remember which of the two tomato plants I was deciding between I ended up getting). I'm also planting some peppers. I've got one red and one green bell pepper plant and some jalapeno plants. The plants and two of the pots cost me $16.27 (which probably isn't all that great a price but I'm new to this and a bit dazzled by the world of gardening). My parents gave me the remaining pots as well as planting soil they still had from last year. I'm keeping all my fingers crossed (including my decidedly un-green thumbs) that there is at least some success in this venture. Years ago I had tried to start gardening from seeds...it was much cheaper but a horrible failure so I thought purchasing vegetable plants, although less frugal, would give me a better chance at success and not bruise my gardening ego nearly as much.

In other news, I'm joining Katy's June Food Stamp Challenge. Its a challenge to live on the amount that participants in the American Food Stamp program receive. Katy will be donating the difference between her regular grocery budget and her "food stamp" budget to a food bank. I will probably not be doing that because *pause* apparently, I already live on the average amount of $101/month, received by a single person living on food stamps. At least this is confirmation that my grocery budget is probably just about as tight as it can go!! I realized that I have an unfair advantage over the other participants because when I'm off flying for work, I'm given meals or a meal allowance. In order to offset that, I've pro-rated the amount I'm going to use as my grocery budget for June to $57.23 for the 17 days I'll be home (as always I'll work some extra hours but I don't know yet just how many more days I'll be gone because of the overtime). When I first did the calculations I was unimpressed with that figure...I mean, I just finished a month on that grocery amount! The reality of the situation is that at the beginning of May, I still had a lot of food in my pantry and freezer. I'm not Mrs.-Hubbard-of-the-Bare-Cupboard quite yet but I don't have quite the stockpile I had a month and a half ago. I'm debating subtracting the value of the items I have stockpiled from my grocery budget as I use them to more accurately show how I would live off the provided food stamp amount. I've posted a comment on her blog to see how other participants will deal with that ($57 is no challenge if I can live off the remainder of my stockpile...I have tons of dry milk, oatmeal, flour and a decent amount of protein sources left).

Also, I picked up that lettuce I had mentioned yesterday but at a different store so the price wasn't as good, $1.49. At least I can have salad now!!

Monthly variable expenditures thus far: $274.95 + $178.19 in l/o expenses
Spend days (goal: 12 or less) 12/31

Food Waste Fridays

2010-05-28T16:35:00.004-04:00

This week, since I actually did have to toss food out, I'm posting a picture of the waste, following in the footsteps of Kristen and many of her fellow bloggers.

Some time ago, I had purchased a large bag of potatoes. Seeing as how I was the only one eating through this bounty of carbohydrates, it was slow-going. Today I was inspired by the warm weather to make some potato salad. What you see here is one of the potatoes that was no longer edible. It was really soft in some parts and kinda crunchy in others...I was tempted to cut it open to see what it looked like on the inside but that probably would have been messy so I just tossed it. My potato salad idea also had to go once I took a look at my salad dressing. Gross! The potatoes had to become scalloped potatoes instead.

I've spent the day cleaning the apartment, doing laundry and moping since I've come down with a cold. Physically, I'm really not doing THAT badly (just a bit of a headache and congestion that feels sort of like I've got a brick lodged behind my nose) but I'm whiny since feeling a bit worn out means I don't want to run around and enjoy the sunny weather outside.

I've been working through the books on my bookshelf in an effort to figure out which ones are worth keeping. I just finished Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje. It wasn't bad but I really wasn't enthralled by it (into the donation box it goes!!). I think the next book on the list will be "En attendant Godot" by Beckett (yes, that's "Waiting for Godot" but in French...had to read it years ago in a university literature class, thought I'd give it another whirl before deciding if its meaningful enough to me to keep a place on my bookshelf.). I had a habit of picking up multiple books at thrift stores but I never got around to reading them...now that I've started to read them, I realize that they really aren't the kind of books I would read again. My plan is to stop buying books until I've gotten through most, if not all, of what I already have and then really, really try to use the library instead. If I fall in love with a book, I can always buy it to add to my collection but I want to cut down on the amount of meaningless stuff in my life.

Chugging away at the To Do list!

2010-05-27T21:45:00.005-04:00

The past two days have been pretty productive. I'm going to credit that to my waking up and, here's the key part, actually getting out of bed, early in the day. Yesterday, I got up early, ate breakfast and then tucked myself back in bed to sort through photos until I had to get ready to leave for yoga. While de-cluttering/re-organizing, I had found a photo box I had purchased years ago that was empty so I culled the photo population enough that it would fit in there. Ultimately, I'll transfer the pictures to photo albums but until I'm able to find nice albums at really nice prices (heh, I do hate to pay retail), I'll content myself with at least having edited the photo collection.

I've done my required two visits to the yoga studio although I'm not sure I'll be able to put in "extra" classes. After yoga yesterday, I managed to wipe out and fall on one of my knees. (I slipped in someones sweat puddle on the studio floor...eww!) I banged my knee up pretty nicely and, although it was a bit bruised, I tried to be a trooper and went to my class today. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting (we didn't do many poses that put pressure on the front of the knee cap) but my knee definitely looks worse now than it did before the class. I'm admitting defeat and will take it easy until my knee has had a chance to heal up a bit. I'm hoping it doesn't take too long!!

I've also managed to meet up with two friends so far on my days off. One friend, a buddy since high school (Hi Ninja!) met me for sushi. Today, I met up with a friend for coffee (originally supposed to be dessert but we were both full). Both friends ended up paying for my part of the bill so I'm feeling a bit like a charity case. Ninja paid because he always pays (I think I've only managed to swipe the bill out of his hands once) and my other friend insisted she pay because she has had to cancel our plans, oh, 5 times now?? She said she felt guilty and it was the least she could do after cancelling so many times. I always feel a bit weird when friends pick up the tab (seriously, I HAVE the money for these expenses!! If I didn't, I would have suggested we do something else!) but I'm just going to swallow my pride for now and try to repay the favour another time.

Today, I combined two items off my list by going for a walk and picking up some items at the grocery store. I spent $9.81 on two packs of blackberries, a box of graham crackers (these two items will be put towards a cheesecake), some cherry tomatoes and a 4L jug of vinegar (I use it for cleaning and in my laundry so I go through it quickly). Lettuce goes on sale tomorrow so I'll head over again to pick some up. The lettuce and tomatoes are so I can make tacos with the leftover beef and tortillas I have on hand. There are limits to how many times I can eat a particular type of leftover but for some reason, if you slap some cheese and salsa on something and call it tex-mex, I'll eat it for weeks on end without complaint. I guess I'm just a girl of simple tastes!! ;)

Finished work for the month!!

2010-05-25T11:01:00.005-04:00

With my return to YYZ last night, I finished my work hours for the month of May. I'm hoping in the next week I'll be able to catch up on lost sleep and get some items crossed off my To Do list. While eating breakfast this morning I made a rough plan of my meals for the week, I've given up on aiming for specific meals on specific days and now just try to have enough options thought up to cover the week's meals. This week is fairly beef heavy as I'm still working through the roast beef I made last week and froze in small portions.

Meals May 25 - 31

Breakfasts:

cereal (I'm working on finishing up the last bits of two boxes)
protein shake (still working on using up the protein powder)
pancakes with sausage

Meals:

beef & broccoli stirfry (2x + 1 made to freeze)
roast beef, veggies & scalloped potatoes (2x + 1 made to freeze)
soup & scalloped potatoes (2x)
soup & beef quesadilla (1x)
tuna salad wraps & popcorn (2x)
beef burritos (1x)
leftover/eating out (4x) -- I always seem to make more food than I mean to, regardless of how hard I try so leaving slots open means I have a chance to use up those leftovers. I'm also planning to go for a sushi dinner with a friend sometime this week so I left a meal open for that.

My To Do list for the week isn't too long (so far!) and consists of the following:

Yoga at the studio (my 2 required days and hopefully some extra)
working out (at least 3 times)
cleaning my apartment (even though *I've* been away, my cats have done a bang up job of messing it up again)
working through my paper clutter (I'm aiming to do at least 3 hrs of this...that won't finish it off but it'll make a dent)
take the items I've been going through in my apartment and the basement to the community thrift store (my area is a no-garage sale zone and I'm gone weekends anyways so donating it is my easiest option)
go through a large box of photos I found (sort, put in albums, toss blurry photos, etc)
go on at least 2 walks this week
look into getting the cats their rabies shots at the local rabies clinic instead of at the vets
go for dinner with a friend
meet up with a friend for dessert
make a cheesecake or cupcakes (to be used for dessert with friend and the rest frozen for later use)
practice a knitting stitch for a project I've attempted and aborted several times due to frustration over mistakes. I'm going to try and figure out the pattern enough to make a washcloth before attempting the project again.
hunt for a cast iron frying pan at thrift stores

I'm trying to keep myself busy but avoid the stores. When I was picking up items last week, I stopped into a Winners and started lusting after all sorts of things that I really do not need. I don't need new sheets when I barely have space for the sheets sets I already have. I don't need to buy pretty new reusable water bottles if I already have 5 bottles (unfortunately, not nearly as pretty) in rotation. I saw a pretty enameled iron pan that I'd loved to have for when my own Teflon pan gives up the ghost (which is why I'm allowing myself to look for a secondhand cast iron pan). I have to stay focused on my goals (saving for a down payment, living within my means) and if I feel terribly distracted when I drop into stores, I need to spend less time shopping.

Monthly variable expenditures thus far: $247.38 + $178.19 in l/o expenses
Spend days (goal: 12 or less) 10/31

I'm running out of "spend days"!

2010-05-20T22:01:00.004-04:00

I have a goal of only 12 spend days (meals while on layover don't count) for the month of May and as of today, I've used up 9 of them. There are still 11 days left in the month so I'm worried I might end up going over my allotment of spend days although I'm calmer about my budget amounts. At least that part of my finances seems under control.

My ever-so-exciting purchases were some toothpaste (on sale with a coupon), a bottle of nail polish (50% off) and some HBA items to put in the Christmas stocking bin I'm starting, as of today (purchased on sale with a coupon for .99$...it's a great price and I have to go back again tomorrow to pick up another one). My shopping total for the day was $7.56. Actually looking at the amount makes me want to laugh, I had felt so guilty buying these things as they aren't "immediate needs". The nail polish was trickiest as I rarely do my nails but had planned to do at-home pedicures/manicures as a fun thing to do when I'm bored. Problem was, all of my nail polishes were so old they had dried out. I hemmed and hawed at the drugstore and eventually found the cheapest "decent" brand and a colour that I liked because its neutral enough to go with everything. It cost me $1.99 plus tax but it took me forever to finally decide I could splurge on this!! It's nice to know that I'm critical of all my expenses but I need to find balance as well so that I don't feel so guilty when I'm spending money on things that aren't needs. I also had an appointment with my hairdresser today. If I had a different cut, these visits wouldn't need to be as frequent but with the cut I have now, regular trims are absolutely necessary. I'm contemplating transitioning to an easier style but for now, I really love my hair the way it is and don't mind spending the $25 to get it done.

Yesterday, I didn't manage to post an update on my activities because I was too busy with said activities. I made a pot roast yesterday (which will last me for quite some time) and decided late in the day that instead of having pot roast for dinner, I would make tex mex with the cooked beef. I didn't have any tortillas on hand but had seen recipes, thought they seemed pretty easy to make and opted to make my own instead of walking to the store to buy some.

That was my first mistake.

Making homemade tortillas isn't hard. The recipe involves simple ingredients and an easy enough process. When looking up a recipe online however, I neglected to look at how many tortillas the recipe made.

That was my second mistake.

I picked a recipe that makes 50-60 tortillas!! My wrists, arms and shoulders were aching by the time I had rolled out 20 tortillas and I had only used up half the dough. Throwing the remaining dough out was NOT an option (too wasteful) so I carried on until I finally had a little over 40 unusually shaped tortillas. Did I mention that I apparently have no skills when it comes to rolling things out?? The tortillas taste quite nice actually but making that many tortillas by myself took hours and frankly, I was muttering some angry things to myself while preparing the last few. Unless I'm really trying to keep my grocery costs down, I think I'll choose to just shell out the $2 for a package of tortillas next time OR research a recipe that makes a smaller batch!!

Monthly variable expenditures thus far: $241.36 + $70.61 in l/o expenses
Spend days (goal: 12 or less) 9/31

I'm exhausted!!

2010-05-18T22:24:00.003-04:00

I just came home from a 4-day pairing. Flying across the continent and ending up in a different time zone each night was brutal!! On the bright side, needing to nap all the time means I'm not out spending money while on layover. ;)

I did pack some food to bring with me although I did end up eating out a few times. I was surprised though, for 4 days, I only spent $43.20 in total...that's my meals out AND my tips to the crew shuttle drivers. If only all pairings were that cheap!!

I transferred some of the money in my budget to my savings account already. I just haven't been spending much money this month and I felt that moving it out of my chequing account would help me save it for rolling-over. I don't "see" it this way. My chequing account amount seems a tad high, I'm waiting for all my transfers/bills to clear and then I'll try again to figure out what's going on.

Other random, day to day living stuff: picked up gas today, had Harvey's recently as a treat (what a lame treat, my taste for fast food has pretty much disappeared), have NOT been working out nearly enough yet have increased food consumption approximately 400%. Nothing exciting has been going on, just relaxing pretty much.

Monthly variable expenditures thus far: $208.80 + $70.61 in l/o expenses
Spend days (goal: 12 or less) 8/31

Breaking the Grocery Freeze (again)

2010-05-13T18:19:00.007-04:00

For the second time, I broke down and bought groceries (the first time being to buy eggs to make cookies for Mother's Day...I don't think it should count!). I still have lots of meat, pasta, rice and other ingredients necessary to make meals but I was a little tired of my vegetable and fruit servings consisting of old apples, canned applesauce or mandarins and frozen green beans. I just really wanted some fresh produce!

I spent $36.95 in total which is somewhat embarrassing because it doesn't look like I got very much (there was also a 12 pk of club soda and a Twix bar which I forgot to put in the photo).
Here's the breakdown:

Food Basics $2.85, (2 bananas, 3 tiny pears and 1 "bunch" of broccoli)
Sobey's $7.38, (3 frozen meals purchased w/coupon, 12 pk of club soda)
Walmart $10.95, (2 lg packs of cheese, baby carrots, twix bar-free w/coupon)
Zehr's $15.77, (1 pkg 2-serving frozen meal, strawberries, Hagen Daz ice cream, toothpaste, 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner, whole wheat flour)

I don't often buy frozen pre-packaged meals but I do keep a few on hand for those times when I'm tempted to pick up fast food instead of cooking because I'm tired or hungry. I had coupons for everything I bought except the fresh produce, the club soda and the cheese which helped bring the cost down by $9.50. The Hagen Daz was free with the purchase of the "Saute Sensations" and by using a coupon (you didn't think I would actually pay for Hagen Daz, did you??).

I'm going to try and re-instate the Grocery Freeze until June but I'll let myself buy produce if and when I need it. Again, I need to stick with my budget (I only have $15.87 left for May's grocery budget) and I need to try and not fall in the habit of over-buying pantry items, even when its a fantastic price.

Monthly expenditures thus far: $165.93 + $27.41 in l/o expenses
Spend days (goal: 12 or less) 6/31

Consigning unwanted stuff

2010-05-11T15:17:00.003-04:00

I forgot to mention that last Friday, I had consigned two items at Play it Again Sports, a secondhand sports equipment retailer. While in university, I decided to try my hand at various athletic pursuits. Rollerblading was one of them, lacrosse (the sport my boyfriend at the time played) was another. Well, I never acquired enough coordination to rollerblade without fearing for my life and the girls lacrosse team disbanded shortly after ordering our equipment. I had held onto these pieces of sports equipment, feeling guilty about how little use they got (if any!). Finally, while reading a post over at Budget Confessions, I realized I could try to turn these unwanted items into money without having to go through the trouble of a garage sale or making appointments to meet potential buyers found through Craigslist.

I took the items to the Play it Again Sports in the nearest city after having called and being told they would probably only offer me store credit. Once the employee saw the items, he explained the 3 options available to me; consignment, trade-in or cash value. As the lacrosse stick and rollerblades were in such good condition, he recommended consigning them which will get me the most money once the items sell ($55 if both items sell). If I had taken the cash outright, I would have only gotten $30. It's a significant difference for the inconvenience of waiting a bit and since I don't need the money right away, it is well worth it for me to call every so often to check if my items have sold. If I opted to sell these items privately, I *may* have been able to get more money but this is a much, much easier option for me (these things have been in my basement for years waiting for me to "get around to posting them on Craigslist", now they are as good as gone!).

I've found out that there is a consignment shop for women's clothing in a town nearby. I'm hoping to consign two party dresses I no longer wear at that store. I've offered the use of these dresses to a friend first (she's intending to lose weight and hopes to fit into them for some weddings she has to attend this summer) so until she has decided whether or not she will borrow them, I won't get rid of them. Yes, I suppose holding onto these items might cost me some money but the possibility of helping my friend is definitely worth more. I need to investigate whether the consignment store takes shoes too as I could probably find a nice pair or two that I have only worn once (if at all!) and no longer need.

I know there are many other items I could sell if I was desperate for money but other than the few items I've mentioned already, I have very few things that I would consider getting rid of. I have a CD system I rarely use but the value I would get from selling it would not cover the cost of an adequate replacement (and I do need *something*). I could probably consign my "home gym" equipment, but then how would I work out without getting a gym membership?? I guess I should be happy that I have so few unnecessary material possessions in my life!!

Quick Re-cap and then, bedtime!

2010-05-10T21:22:00.003-04:00

I am exhausted! I had two very long days of flying on Saturday and Sunday and then opted to do an extra flight today to finish off my legal flying hours. I still have more scheduled flying to do but I can't work any more "overtime" for the month. That means I capped out my work hours in 14 days. Not bad, eh?

I've racked up 2 spend days, in a short period of time. On Friday, I happened to find sockettes at Winners. With tax, it came to $7.90 for 6 pairs. I didn't really need 6 pairs but I haven't seen smaller packages with as reasonable a unit price...the 2 packs I've seen were $4 or $5. I guess this just means I won't have to worry about buying them again for awhile (as long as I don't lose them!!). Today, after work, instead of driving home and eating dinner there, I ate the food I had packed with me for work and ate with Romeo who was on his break at work. The problem was I didn't have my water bottle with me so I couldn't just fill it with tap water AND I was dehydrated from not drinking enough while working so I had to shell out $1.67 to get a drink. It's really not much to pay considering I got to hang out with a friend for awhile and catch up but it still irks me because I know if I had packed my water bottle, I would have saved that money (and the spend day!!). I need to learn to be more forgiving of myself sometimes!

On Saturday night, instead of heading out into the rainy night to find dinner, I "splurged" and ordered room service. I'm given a flat rate per-diem by my employer so it was covered (and therefore not included as a spend day) but I can usually save more of my per-diem by leaving the hotel in search of food. What can I say? It was late, cold, rainy and my period had started early. I was in NO mood to head off on a walk to find a restaurant that would have reasonably priced food!

And now, I bid you adieu so I can curl up in bed for a bit with the book I'm currently reading, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (now that I've finally finished Les Miserables by Victor Hugo!).

Monthly expenditures thus far: $128.98 + $27.41 in l/o expenses
Spend days (goal: 12 or less) 5/31

Whoa, big spend day today!

2010-05-06T21:14:00.003-04:00

I had to pick up eggs today and decided, since it was going to be a spend day, I may as well pick up the other items that were hanging out on my shopping list. In total, I spent $64.49.

I spent $1.13 on the green frisbee (okay it's technically a "flying disc", please don't sue me Frisbee trademark people!) at the dollar store. I've decided that playing frisbee was something I would try to do with my friends that is fun, easy, frugal and lets us enjoy nice summer weather. Problem was, I didn't seem to have a frisbee anymore. This frisbee is slightly bigger than I would have liked but the smaller ones all had cartoon characters on them and I thought I'd get less teasing about my slightly large frisbee than a Disney Princess frisbee. This money was taken from my recreation budget but I think it'll end up being a really worthwhile purchase.

At Liquidation World, I spent $31.30 on the 4 previously enjoyed DVDs, the two packages of Nair Cire Divine and two pairs of pantyhose in my required uniform shade. None of these purchases was immediately necessary but Liquidation World's stock changes often and I didn't want to wait too long to pick these items up. The DVD's are a bit of a splurge, I don't watch movies that often but when I do, I cringe at paying rental fees. I felt that at $2.50 each, these DVDs were cheaper than renting and I can pass them on to friends, resell them or donate them when I'm done. Yes, I know I can borrow movies for free at the library and I have done that before. That's why I said the DVD's were a splurge.

The pantyhose are "emergency supplies" for when I'm working. I usually wear compression or support hose that are covered through my health benefit plan. The specialty hosiery lasts for a really long time but when they do snag, run or otherwise become completely unserviceable while I'm wearing them...it's pretty tricky to don another pair while using an airplane lavatory or airport restroom (you need rubber gloves, there's all sorts of weird contortions involved...trust me, it's complicated). These regular pantyhose are only meant to be used if I find myself in ruined hosiery and needing an immediate change. I misread the sign and thought they were $1.50 each but they were actually $1.88 each. Still a good deal!

The Nair Cire Divine was an amazing price...I'm tempted to go back and buy more. I wax my own underarms and bikini line. I know what you're thinking and yes, it hurts but shaving my bikini line has only ever caused more issues for me (painful, painful ingrown hairs) and I'm waaay too cheap to pay someone else to put me in pain by ripping out body hair. The cheapest I've been able to find this wax before was for about $12 so to see packages on sale for just under $7 each was fantastic. Wax doesn't go bad so I don't mind adding this to my HBA stash.

At Zehr's, I picked up a dozen eggs and a package of grilling sausages. I have officially broken the grocery freeze by doing this but I needed the eggs to make cookies for my mother for Mother's Day. The sausages were an impulse buy but I like to have a BBQ every summer and the price was really good, $4.99 for the package (I usually end up spending $6-7 for a smaller package). I'm not having the BBQ for awhile so the sausages are going to spend some time in my freezer.

Finally, I noticed the price of gas had gone down so I opted to fill up my tank (I still had just under half a tank) in case the price jumped back up again. The gas cost me $24.88. I suspect the price will go up again for the weekend although, now that I've filled up, it will probably continue to drop!!

Monthly expenditures thus far: $119.41 + $4 in l/o expenses
Spend days (goal: 12 or less) 3/31

Procrastination...the one art I've mastered.

2010-05-06T09:30:00.003-04:00

Ugh. My apartment is a mess!! It still needs to be vacuumed (my dad took a look at the "broken" vacuum, couldn't see anything wrong with it and successfully cleaned their entire house with it), I have enough laundry accumulated that I can now throw in full loads (as opposed to having wastefully small loads) and a general tidying-up is in order. Case in point, there are rags all over my bedroom floor. Boston had brought all the dirty dishrags and dish towels from the kitchen to my bed last night. He tends to bring me "gifts" on a regular basis and as much as I get annoyed by finding all sorts of items on and around my bed, I should count myself lucky that he doesn't go outside...I'd hate for him to start bringing me dead mice and birds!!

My apartment could also use an airing out. It's so stuffy in this basement but I can only leave the windows open when I'm home. Unfortunately, my cats are pretty...fragrant. When I'm off flying (or otherwise have busy days and am unable to be home for any significant time), the apartment definitely acquires a smell. Romeo and I hung out for a bit yesterday when he brought his son to the park in my area. When it became overcast, we came back to my place so Romeo Jr. could play with the cats and dogs for a bit. Upon entering the apartment, Romeo Jr. declared it was "stinky". Romeo was embarrassed but, hey, the kid was telling the truth...one of the cats had used the litter box and as a result, my apartment DID smell. Despite the rain pouring down outside, I opened the windows. They weren't open long though before I had to close them again as Romeo decided the little guy needed to eat and I was invited to join them at a local fish and chips place (which was fantastic, by the way!!).

Today, after yoga, I'm going to get down to cleaning this place!! I've got a small box of items that I've put aside to donate to the ReUse Store after doing some de-cluttering. Its a bit too heavy for me to carry over on foot (it'd be about a 30 min walk one way) but its not so full of stuff that a car trip would be worthwhile. I'm going to try and do some more de-cluttering and see if I can find stuff to add to the box.

Sometime during the day I'm also going to head out for a walk to enjoy the sun. I may take advantage of the weather and walk over to the store to pick up a few items I've been considering. I don't need the items right this minute but the store is a liquidator so once an item sells out, you've lost your chance.

Monthly expenditures thus far: $54.92 + $4 in l/o expenses
Spend days (goal: 12 or less) 2/31

How I stay fit without breaking the bank

2010-05-05T21:22:00.006-04:00

Today's post on Almost Frugal was on the topic of Frugal & Fit. The poster commented "I don’t know about you, but I always seem to stick with a fitness routine longer when I have a gym to go to, a place where I’m accountable to myself and where I know I’m paying for the privilege."

I can certainly identify with that but I also know that when I inevitably fell off my gym rat bandwagon, it was weeks (okay, sometimes months) before I got back into religiously visiting the gym and that ended up just being too much wasted money for me to be able to stomach. As much as I would love to have a gym membership, there are other things higher on the priority list for me (ie, my lovely, if still small, Down Payment Fund). I have to use more frugal ways to stay fit.

If you look at the picture at the beginning of this post, you can see most of my fitness equipment. There are other items not pictured which include another weighted ball, more exercise DVDs (I have about 14 in total), some other yoga mats and several other pairs of running shoes but basically, you're looking at my "gym". My fitness regime is fairly fluid as my work schedule would make following a rigid program way too difficult.

The cardio part of my regime is in the process of changing back to what it had been before my ground assignment. Before I went back to flying, I spent 8 hours walking around the airport checking on flights, each and every day I was at work (6 days on, 3 days off) so that on its own kept me pretty trim. I wasn't doing any regular weight or toning workouts so I lost a lot of muscle strength but my weight was kept in check. Now that I'm back to flying, I'm hoping to get back to running a few times a week. I have a bit of a wonky knee so I'll never be one of those hard-core long distance runners but I do enjoy going out for a nice jog. Walking is also a pretty big part of my life although its done mostly to avoid wasting gas on short errands or to occupy myself when I'm bored. Regardless of the reason, all that walking adds up and contributes to burning off some extra calories. I do often have the chance to use the fitness rooms or gyms at the hotels where I layover. The facilities aren't always fantastic but I still try to make use of them whenever possible so that I can do a bit of cross training by using an elliptical trainer, stationary bike, stair climber or treadmill (which is handy because I can ramp up the incline to change the intensity). Many of the hotels also have smaller pools that aren't really meant for lap swimming but, if and when I do find a hotel with a decent pool, I'd like to throw swimming in the mix too!! Finally, I do have a few exercise DVDs that are cardio based which I use on the days at home where I should be working out but the weather outside makes running or walking less than enjoyable.

Weight training and toning exercises are another important part of any well rounded fitness program but most people are stumped when it comes to strengthening their muscles without using those fancy machines found at health clubs. I am a HUGE fan of Jari Love and her "Get Ripped" series of DVD's. If you've ever done (or heard of) "Body Pump" type classes at the gym, that's what you get from her series. I don't need a huge space to follow the DVDs and the only equipment needed were dumbbells, a mat for the ab work and push-ups (I use an old yoga mat that my cats used as a scratching post and save my "good" mat for using out in public) and a Step which I use as a weight bench (I bought it years ago at the thrift store, it was $24 but it was "50% off sports equipment" day so it only cost me $12...I was THRILLED with my find!). Beyond the DVDs I stick with the basic yet effective calisthenics. If you're unsure of what those are, just think of those common gym exercises that use your body weight for resistance; squats, jumping jacks, push-ups, etc. They're not fun but they work!!

Yoga is the final piece of my healthy lifestyle puzzle. I only started seriously getting into yoga last year but it made such a huge difference in my well-being that it quickly cemented its importance in my mind. Yoga increases flexibility, helps many people recover from injuries more quickly and generally lowers stress levels. Yoga, like all other forms of exercise, can cause injuries if not practiced properly. For me, being able to attend classes instead of just following a DVD (which cannot offer adjustments or advice if you're not doing the pose correctly) was pretty important but the cost of yoga classes, like a gym membership, were beyond my budget. I was lucky enough to learn about a program that many yoga studios offer and which has allowed me to practice yoga in a studio setting. "Karma yoga" or "energy exchange" programs are common at most yoga studios. In exchange for working a few hours at the studio (often spent cleaning or staffing the reception desk), participants are given a certain number of free classes. The program at my studio is generous and in exchange for 2 sessions of studio cleaning each week, I receive unlimited classes. This is an amazing opportunity for me as my flying schedule leaves me with far more time than money...spending a few hours every week cleaning is definitely worth being able to go to yoga classes every day I'm home.

Running/walking, doing some "light" weight training and practicing yoga are the only things I really do in order to stay in shape. Obviously, if I don't eat sensibly, my program won't be enough to help me maintain my weight (I'm about 135 lbs and 5'8") but that is a whole different topic for another blog post!

Some other websites to check out for fitness and weight loss information (I've used them all at various points but don't receive any sort of compensation from any of the brands/sites mentioned here):

Sparkpeople --free meal plans and exercise programs designed according to your goals and specifications!!
Peertrainer -- start a group with friends to keep each motivated!
Livestrong -- has all sorts of resources on various health topics

What are your thoughts on my frugal fitness? Can you not give up your gym membership or do you manage just fine without one?

On Airsickness and Being a Flight Attendant

2010-05-03T10:34:00.005-04:00

Wow, my first pairing back was rougher than I would have liked! My crew was great and both days were long but productive but I've lost whatever the aviation equivalent of "sea legs" would be. I wasn't falling down in the aisle but I was definitely less steady on my feet during turbulence than I used to be. The turbulence was a recurring theme on my flights too. I was ashamed at how nauseous I was during our descent into Vegas yesterday...I had an airsickness bag at the ready and was dreading having to lose my lunch while seating in my jumpseat, in full view of the passengers. It wasn't just me though, the flight attendant sitting next to me confided that he had been close to throwing up too and he was panicked because he didn't have anything to puke in!! There was a passenger who did succumb to the spin-cycle like motions we were dealing with and really, I'd like to thank her for handing me her vomit-filled airsickness bag at the end of the flight. Maybe next time she could roll the bag shut and seal it instead of just handing it to me open...I don't care to look too closely at the food we sell onboard, I certainly don't want to see it when its been partially digested!!! EWWW!

I've also become weaker...flight attendants may not look ripped but our job can be very physical (stowing bags, pushing and pulling trolleys, loading carriers into overhead stowage spots). I hadn't packed much into my suitcase as I was only doing a two day pairing but man, was that thing ever a pain to put in the overhead bin!! I will certainly have to incorporate more overhead presses into my workouts!!

Beyond that, it was great to be back in the skies. As I've mentioned before, my regular schedule only involves 11 work days although I've opted to do an extra pairing today to make some extra money. I might not get paid a lot now but my hourly wage jumps quite a bit in the next few years and to work as little as I do, well, it's the best darn "part-time" job I've ever had!

My menu plan for the week has to change to accommodate my extra pairing. While at home I was planning to eat onion soup with scalloped potatoes, baked potatoes with chili and the chicken/veggie/mushroom sauce on rice concoction I made to use up my leftover chicken. I have two meals today I need to worry about along with packed meals for tomorrow. I'll be back home for Wed-Fri. I had already taken the broth out of the freezer to thaw so the onion soup is still a go. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what else will remain on the menu but I will have to have something to go with my soup (my loaf of bread is frozen so I won't be thawing it out in time to make a sandwich) so it will be figured out later today.

I have to be back at the airport at 19:00 but the rest of my day is going to include a quick workout, some cooking, some laundry and repacking. I had been intending to drop by a Liquidation World store to pick up some items I saw while browsing last week but I might just go a bit longer before adding another "spend day" to my month.

Monthly expenditures thus far: $51.37 (my "cheat" shop, on cat food)
Spend days (goal: 12 or less) 1/31

May's Budget

2010-05-01T09:00:00.001-04:00

I'm going to post my planned budget at the beginning of each month and how everything actually turned out at the end of each month. To outline my situation quickly, I work full time as a flight attendant (low wages!) and live alone in a basement apartment owned by my parents ("token" rent!). I have 2 high-maintenance cats (expensive diet food), only have a cellphone (phone bill can sometimes be a bit high), work in uniform (don't need to spend much on clothes), don't mind cooking from scratch (lower food bill) and am generally pretty easily entertained (no expensive hobbies here!).

Well, saying April was a bit of a rough month would be a significant financial understatement. I busted in most categories and ate into the amount that was earmarked to be put into savings. I wasn't expecting it to be a great month though as I was travelling and hadn't had time to put money aside for that purpose. That just means that this month, I'm going to work much harder at keeping everything on track. Below are my re-jigged budget amounts. I'm actually going to attempt to spend even less but I'm not going to post the "goal" amounts until later as it's more of a personal challenge than my set-in-stone May budget.

May Budget

rent to MND $200
RSP $250
"rent" $870
utilities $70 ($55 + $25 from April = $80, cap is $70 so $10 goes to savings)
groceries $110 (due to the freeze May's grocery budget is actually $60, remainder will roll over)
car - insur $180
car - gas $160
car - repair $100
car - extra insur $100
clothing $40
health $15
personal $95
recreation $130
gifts $75
cats $110 ($75 + $35 from April)

May will be another interesting month as it's my first month back in the air. I've finished my special contract with the airline and I'm returning full-time to my Flight Attendant position which means I'll have the weirdest work schedule imaginable and I'll have to worry about controlling my spending when I'm bored and in a city far from home. I'll also need to pay special attention to how I spend my meal expense money to ensure I'm not spending more than the amount the company has allotted to pay me. Heh, it's almost sounds like I'm speaking from experience on that last one, eh?

I've increased my recreation budget because as much as I know the summer season is filled with cheap or free entertainment ideas, I also know my friends and I will probably manage to miss out on those. I've increased my "rent" amount as saving for a down payment is a big priority for me. To compensate for those increases, I've had to decrease spending in several areas. I've decreased my utilities budget because I haven't managed to hit the high amounts I used to and hope that with careful phone use, I won't ever hit those highs again. My grocery budget has also been decreased and I'll continue to decrease it little by little each coming month. It'll be hard to adjust to but I think I was spending $120 each month because I knew I had $120 to spend. My pantry is stocked to overflowing and I need to better control how I manage my pantry along with my grocery spending. What's the point of stocking up on sale-priced pasta if I never end up eating that pasta?? Finally, I've lowered my clothing budget as I should be pretty much stocked for the spring/summer and will hopefully still have a tidy amount accumulated by the time I need to pick more items up.

I'll be carefully monitoring my gas spending. Normally, when I'm flying but not doing much else, I can get through a month with 2-2.5 tanks of gas. I'm not boasting that I have incredible driving techniques, it's just easy to save on gas when you drive to work and only drive home again after a four day absence. I have no idea what my flying schedule will be like for the next few months and I'm hoping to get back to doing yoga again (the studio I go to is a bit of a drive from my house) so I'm not even going to hazard a guess as to what I will end up spending to get myself around this month.

My new Lunapads arrived!

2010-04-30T18:38:00.006-04:00

I'm so excited that my new Lunapads arrived...it's actually pretty sad to think that the arrival of reusable feminine hygiene products can make my day. ;) I already have a few that I use when I don't feel like using my DivaCup but ordered more as I *may* have accidentally throw some out when I was travelling. (For the record, due to the hormones coursing through my body, I actually broke into tears when I realized I had thrown the reusable pads out in the hotel garbage. It was a sad day in frugality and eco-friendliness!) In the picture you can see one each of their maxipad, minipad, mini pantyliner and teeny pantyliner as well as liners to go with the pads (tucked behind the pads and two liners on their own in the far right). Now, as much as I adore my Lunapads, the DivaCup is my go-to feminine product of choice simply because I was a hardcore tampon user before making the switch to reusable products. Once you get the hang of it, insertion is super easy, the DivaCup is comfortable (you won't feel it, I promise!) and because you can leave it in longer than a tampon, dealing with your period becomes a much less stressful and time-consuming experience. There are some days when I don't bother using the DivaCup (generally because I'm too tired to sterilize it or I've misplaced it...that happens when you have to move your belongings between a suitcase and your home every few days!!). and that's when I break out my lovely lunapads. Lunapads are reusable menstrual pads made of soft cotton. My biggest issue with Lunapads is that because they're so comfortable, I often forget I'm wearing them and will have one of those "Oh no, did I forget to put a pad in my underwear this morning?!?" moments. What? You don't have those moments??? That's probably because you can feel your plastic maxi pad crinkling when you walk!! ;)

I don't get any kind of compensation from theDivaCup or Lunapads companies for raving about their products but I do love and stand by them. When being frugal and green is this easy, it's hard not to shout it from the mountaintops!!

I cheated a tiny bit today when it comes to my budget. Although it's April 30th, I got May's pay advance today (if the advance's payment date falls on a weekend or holiday, they pay it out on the previous business day). So, because I had a coupon to save money at the pet store, even though it's still April, I bought the food and marked it down as a May purchase. The coupon expires tomorrow and I'll be flying all day so this was my only opportunity to take advantage of the deal. The coupon was $15 off a purchase of $60 or more so the cat food (and some catnip toys to encourage Boston the Fatty Cat to play) came to $51.37. I won't have to open this package for a little while yet but it was a good price.

The next few days are likely to be quiet around here as I'll be working and out of town. I'll have access to the internet but I'll probably opt to work out at the hotel gym and catch up on my reading instead of spending more time online. I have set up a post to publish automatically with May's budget though so you won't be completely ignored. Cheers!

Monthly Wrap-Up

2010-04-29T19:18:00.002-04:00

It has been a very tough month for me, both financially and emotionally. I've been feeling quite down which makes it harder to follow a frugal lifestyle. We're conditioned to like new things and mindlessly consume goods in order to maintain the feeling of novelty. It's superficial but it is distracting. When I'm having a hard time emotionally, it's hard to avoid falling back into the habit of distracting myself with meaningless shopping. I've been trying to focus on reading through the books I've accumulated instead. I haven't read them so they are a novelty but they don't involve spending money so I still stay on track with my budget.

Theoretically, if I had been working and not on vacation, this month should have been bang-on. Instead, I've busted in most categories and ate into the money allocated for my down payment fund. As a result, May will be another tight month as there are no funds rolling over to help augment certain categories. Due to my travelling and the currency exchange that occurred, I'm a little confused on my numbers for this month. I did use my credit card but it was always paid off as soon as the charges were posted.

I received some additional funds this month in the form of a birthday cheque, my tax refund and a GST/HST credit (about $340 in total). That money was all put into my down payment fund. The problem I've discovered is that somehow, a huge chunk of my savings have gone "missing". When I added up all my savings and compared to last month's savings ticker, it looks like I only put in an extra $54. That's not right. I have been shifting my money around and I know I put extra money in my RSP before filing my taxes to get a better refund. I'm wondering if that's why the amount on the ticker seems so drastically off. I'm incredibly frustrated right now because my numbers don't seem to match and I can't figure out where I messed up. Grrrr. All I can say is that I'm definitely going to be obsessed with my budget next month to make up for the tracking errors this month.

April Wrap-Up

rent to MND $200
RSP $250
"rent" $647 (not including tax refund/credit and birthday cheque)
utilities $39.55 ($25 leftover)
groceries - busted! (*this just means I used up the full category amount)
car -insur $175.79 ($4 to savings)
car -gas $36.29 ($98 leftover, this puts me over my "gas cap" but I'm exempting it as I'll be driving a lot in AZ when I do eventually go down)
car -repair -busted! (used to buy tires, brakes ended up not needing to be done...yet!)
car -extra insur - busted! (also used to buy tires)
clothing - busted!
health - busted! (used to buy more lunapads along with money from personal category)
personal - busted!
recreation - busted!
gifts - busted!
cats - $39.61 ($35 leftover)

Some changes I'd like to eventually make to my budget are:

a stricter grocery budget (I'm only one person...how am I spending so much on food when I'm not picky enough to be a foodie?!?)
create a travel savings fund so that future trips are better planned for (from a financial perspective at least!)
*sigh* I realize I'm single but I'd still like to *looks around nervously* start putting money aside for my wedding. *fidgets with hands* Someone will want to marry me eventually...
I'd like to move out. I realize I have a great set up living where I am and it allows me to save tons of money each month but, I'm 29! I don't want to be dependant on my parents!!
I'm going to tighten the cat budget as I'm switching them off of their expensive vet-prescribed diet food. I'm not paying $50 a month for them to eat diet food if they aren't going to lose any weight!!

Menu Plan and Ramblings

2010-04-28T17:47:00.011-04:00

Let me get the chocolate-related news out of the way. Save.ca has a coupon for a free Mars candy bar. That'll be a nice little treat for me once the coupon arrives. :)

Now, down to business...

I'm doing quite well on breaking my habit of driving to the local plaza. Today, I had a few articles to drop off at the thrift store and headed over on foot, followed by a walk through town. It helps that the weather is nice but regardless of the weather, when I used to leave my house carrying something, the next stop was always my car.

*sigh* Menu planning is going to be a special form of torture now that I'm going back to flying. It seems like it should be easy enough, plan meals for the days when I'm flying and eat out/crew meals on the days when I'm gone. If that was the situation, it wouldn't be too bad but nooooo, I have to go and complicate things. I do know my set flying schedule but in order to increase my income, I put myself on the list for extra flying and only get notice the day before I receive an extra flight (sometimes not even that much, they have been known to call a few hours before the flight they need crewed). That means, that even though I should be home 5 days next week, it could change. To add another layer of complexity to meal planning, I often bring along most of the food I consume during my pairings (flight assignments) because I've gotten very, very tired of airline and restaurant food. When you have to eat out all the time, the novelty wears off and not only does the food all start to taste the same, you start to really resent having to pay outrageous prices for it.

Menu Plan May 1- May 7

Breakfasts: protein shakes (I really need to use up that powder!), hot or cold cereal
Snacks: apples, muffins (homemade), popcorn (popped on the stove), cereal-marshmallow bars (homemade), whatever leftovers I can scrounge up

I'll need meals/snacks for two days of flying and then there are 10 "at-home" meals that need to be covered assuming I don't do any extra flying or eat out with friends. I've changed the format of my menu plan since just counting up meals is easier than assigning a day and time to eat everything (unless a specific order is required).

While I'm on the road, I'll tote around: granola bars (1), apple muffins (2), cereal-marshmallow bar (1), applesauce cup (1, can't take fresh fruit as transiting through the US), popcorn (2 pks), instant oatmeal (1 pk), tea bags (3-4), PB&J sandwich (1), crackers & flavoured tuna (1), frozen meal (1, not sure yet if it'll be a prepackaged frozen meal or one I've frozen myself), OJ (1 btl, packaged at home)

At home, I'll feed myself with the following:

homemade onion soup with scalloped potatoes on the side (3 meals)
baked potato with canned chili (3 meals)
chicken & veggies in a creamy mushroom sauce on rice (2 meals to eat +1 meal to freeze)

I know that only adds up to 8 meals but I'm sure I'll end up with too much food. It's like the parable of the bread and fish...for some reason, in my kitchen, what looks like it will only be enough leftovers for one meal, turns into enough food to feed a crowd. If I do extra flying, I will need to rearrange things so I can pack meals if I overnight somewhere. As always, I'll keep you updated!

Frugal Tip: Sharpening Razors

2010-04-27T19:29:00.005-04:00

I saw this the other day on The Frugal Village and had to share it. Whether I'm using a disposable razor or a razor that uses cartridges, I'm always trying to make those blades last as long as possible. What can I say? Razors (well, the multi-blade kind) aren't cheap and the cheaper disposables just create too much waste. I had a blade that was nearing the end of its life cycle and tried this technique. To be honest, I didn't notice a huge difference but it did seem better so I'm going to keep doing it and see if I lessen the number of cartridges I go through.

I'm still chugging away at eating up my leftovers. That's a downside to being single I suppose, even when I freeze part of what I cook, there ends up being very little variety in my menus until I manage to get through what I've accumulated. Today for dinner I had the rest of that dry chicken but I reheated it in a sauce made from some condensed cream of mushroom soup (diluted with a little bit of milk), corn and green beans. I served the sauce on a portion of rice I had thawed out. Happily, the meal tasted quite good. After dinner, I heated up some tomato sauce, added frozen spinach and the last portions of cream corn (blech!) and lentils that were in my fridge. It made two servings (the rest of the tomato sauce was put in the freezer immediately...I'm getting weary of pasta!), one of which was put with pasta noodles leftover from last night. That meal will be frozen and used sometime when I'm flying.

I should be thankful that I have so much food and that I am able to feed myself well without having to spend money. It's proof that keeping a stockpile helps savvy shoppers through lean times but at the moment...I really want a burger.

Oh, also, I didn't get very far in cleaning my apartment today as the central vac seems to have died. My dad will take a look at it sometime and see if he can get it running again. I hope that happens soon, my carpets are getting scary.

Lack of Motivation Monday

2010-04-26T16:32:00.002-04:00

Argh. When I'm busy, it seems I am able to manage my time to get everything done but when I have all the free time in the world...I can't get anything accomplished.

I stayed in bed late today (again!) although last night I was actually able to sleep well and for the first time in a few weeks, I woke up without a sore back, cramps in my shoulders and a tense jaw from clenching/grinding my teeth all night. Needless to say, I haven't been taking my breakup with Romeo (um, not his real name) well but last night he dropped by to talk. He's been worried about me and during the talk we came to some understandings. I can't say I'm thrilled with the situation as it stands now, but after talking to him last night, I'm less depressed and generally feel a lot better about everything. I don't think either of us had meant for the situation to become what it was but when things are emotionally charged, it can be hard to communicate effectively and clarify things properly.

When I finally did get out of bed and got dressed, I started to tidy my place up. Staying in bed all day and letting the cats drag things around the floor are not activities that lend themselves to keeping a clean apartment!! I changed my linens and tossed a few loads of laundry. Despite the sun and breeze, I've only put out my rags and tea towels to dry outside because *sigh* I don't have a clothesline. I do take my drying rack outside but it has been known to tip (and can't really support heavier items anyways) so most of my laundry does end up going through the dryer. I'd really like to change that one day but seeing as how its not an option here, and will likely not be an option in any of the other apartments I'm considering moving to in the future, its an environmental act I'll have to put off for now. :(

My flight schedule for next month has been posted and I'm really happy with it. I'm not picky about where I fly or layover, I'd rather work as few days as possible. Since I'm so easy going about my schedule, I only have to work 11 days in May. I will be doing an extra flight shift or two to bring me up to my legal limit of flying hours but that will probably only end up being an extra 4 or 5 days so I'm still doing well in the time off department. I'm intending to go back to working part time again in order to keep socking away money for my down payment, but I hopefully won't be working as much as I used to. My first summer working at the bar, between my two jobs, I had maybe 5 or 6 days completely off over the span of 4 months. It was exhausting and although I was managing to cover my bills, the summer came and went without me so much as noticing the sun. I don't want to make that mistake again.

At the moment, I'm munching on an apple and some cottage cheese (yum!) before packing up my stuff and heading to yoga to meet a friend. Tomorrow, I have to, have to, have to get out of bed at a decent time, get in a workout, finish tidying up my apartment and hopefully de-clutter a bit, donating the items at my community thrift store. When I'm working, I always complain I don't have the time to get anything done and here I am, not taking advantage of the loads of time I've been given!!

Oh, before I forget, my bad habit of driving to the nearby plaza instead of walking is slowly being broken down. I had to pick up my rent money at the bank and opted to walk there instead of driving, even though it was raining. Good thing I'm a fast walker, the whole trip took me less than 20 minutes!

Vacation Review

2010-04-24T17:14:00.004-04:00

I haven't really gone over the cost of my trips on the blog for one very specific reason...I haven't really gone over the cost of my trips, period.

Calgary wasn't too bad. I did shop but I shopped at thrift stores and managed to pick up items I needed for this spring/summer while keeping within my clothing budget. I have to say, I've been very lucky with my thrift store adventures lately. When I was younger, it seems I could never find anything but now I almost always find something I love. I think this might have something to do with my being a smaller size (size 6-8 vs a large 14) but also my mindset, I go looking for items in a certain category and not a specific item.

Anyways, I'm drifting! The only other purchase I made while in Calgary was when my sister and I went grocery shopping and I covered the cost. Whenever I stay with family or friends, I either contribute to groceries or offer a gift to my host. I'm saving so much money by not staying in a hotel and these people are graciously offering space in their homes so it's the least I can do.

Canmore was also a low-key affair as my friend was ill for most of my visit. I did treat my sister and friend to dinner at the Grizzly Paw, a great brew-pub in Canmore, on Sunday night after my sister drove me there from Calgary. I wandered through the shops in Canmore, stopping by Victory Thrift Store at #3 Industrial Place, but other than a soap I purchased for a friend at the Rocky Mountain Soap Co. (I got a soap for free too as it was near my birthday and I'm a member of their frequent buyer club!), I didn't really spend anything. The one day my friend felt well enough, we hiked up to Grassi Lakes (named after a person, not a misspelled version of "grassy"). The picture above shows the crazy colours of the water. The hike was beautiful and an absolutely wonderful way to kill some time for free. I purchased a travel guide as a gift for my friend as she will headed on a trip soon which is really the only other shopping expense incurred as a result of this trip.

Florida is a bit trickier. I paid for a cab to and from my accommodations, which were self-catering and therefore required some groceries. My first day and a half there were spent cursing the Floridian rain and I spent my time indoors, or browsing at the mall. While in Florida, I bought some perfume (from Bath & Body Works so its at least inexpensive perfume), a new bikini, picked up my free birthday gift from Sephora (I'm a member of their Beauty Insiders club), a board game (don't ask) and two souvenir FLL shirts. I didn't need any of this stuff and although, at $80 worth of goods to declare at the border, it didn't exactly break the bank, it really shows how easily I fall back into old habits. I was lucky the sun finally decided to shine on my second and third days there as it meant I could go and relax on the beach all day (there's a picture of me doing just that in a previous post).

My airfare to these two destinations isn't worth mentioning as it will just make everyone working outside of the airline industry insanely jealous. Let's just say I was still in the double digits after both tickets were paid for. See? Now you're jealous.

In my post-vacation life there is very little of note to mention. My baking efforts yesterday resulted in two good loaves of good bread as opposed to my usual bricks. Kristen at The Frugal Girl is responsible for the bread breakthrough as her comment about how little flour it takes to make bread is what helped the most. I was using WAY too much flour in previous attempts. The experimental bread pudding can also be more accurately described as a delightful Banana-Cranberry Bread Pudding. Today, to keep myself out of trouble, I made onion soup (to replace the corn-lentil soup on the menu plan since my corn-lentil soup last time was a grievous failure and really shouldn't have made it back on the menu) and some refried beans (for freezing and to replace the chili for the baked potatoes...not really sure how a bean, cheese and salsa topped baked potato will taste but I'll find out soon enough). I've been feeling a bit worn out lately (I'm sure it's related to my breakup with Romeo) and didn't feel like leaving the house but tomorrow I will force myself to do something, anything, out in the real world.

The formatting issues are NOT my fault!

2010-04-23T20:28:00.003-04:00

I apologize for the weird spacing going on in some of my blog posts. ~~I don't know Html.~~ I know very little Html and my ability to bold, italicize or strike-through text doesn't help me when it comes to fixing the coding responsible for skipped lines or text not lining up properly next to photos.

I tried to use blogger's new post editor and it just made things worse so for now, I'll try to keep my posts fairly simple so the spacing issues hopefully don't come up again. Also, for what it's worth, I'm trying to better understand Html so I can fix these things in the future.

Back from vacation, back to the grindstone!

2010-04-23T12:05:00.004-04:00

That's me, before I had to leave the beach and head home. Spending a few days doing nothing but relaxing reminded me that I need to take it easy more often. I don't have the money to take off and head to FL all the time but I need to find ways to relax while I'm home (or at least local).

Although I haven't gone back to work yet, I've had to postpone my PHX trip so I'm back to my frugal ways full-time. I started making some bread this morning (it's been set aside to rise) and have some cookie dough hanging out in the fridge until the oven is free. I hadn't been planning on being home this week so I'm having to think about my menu for the next little while. I'm also on the grocery freeze so I'm having to make meals based on what I already have in my pantry, fridge and freezer. It's a good thing I'm not a picky eater!!.

Since my menu plan for the rest of this week is going to be changed (since I'm not flying out tomorrow morning for PHX), I'm going to go ahead and post the remainder of this week and next week's menus now. This is going to be a rough guide and I'm going to leave a blank spot to allow for the leftovers that will inevitably pile up and meals out that may occur.

Menu plan Apr 23-Apr 30

Breakfasts will consist of: hot cereal/oatmeal, toast, protein shakes or cold cereal.
Snacks can be fruit, cheese/peanut butter & crackers, granola bars, popcorn or bits of leftovers.
Beverages can be milk, tea, hot chocolate, juice (diluted) or iced tea.
Dessert can be cookies or the experimental bread pudding I will attempt.

Fri Apr 23: L- Mac & cheese with leftover tuna and veggies
D- "breakfast for dinner"! Scrambled eggs, hash browns w fried onions, bacon.

Sat Apr 24: L- leftover mac & cheese
D- leftover chicken, mashed potatoes & veggies

Sun Apr 25: L- lentil & corn soup, toast/grilled cheese
D - baked potato w/chili

Mon Apr 26: L- lentil & corn soup, toast
D-leftover chicken & balsamic pesto pasta

Tues Apr 27: L- baked potato w/chili
D- salmon, potato salad & veggies

Wed Apr 28: L- Fridge clean-up meal!
D- sandwich (tuna/egg salad) & potato salad

Thur Apr 29: L- pizza & potato salad/popcorn
D- leftover lasagna & veggies

Fri Apr 30: L- leftover lasagna & veggies
D- leftover pizza & popcorn/potato salad

I'm not really looking forward to these meals. The menu is heavy on carbs (Hello, Potatoes and Pasta!) and frozen veggies (which actually aren't unhealthy...just not very interesting). Just looking at the meal plan makes me really want a green salad but I need to work through what I have and even this menu leaves me with tons of food left in the pantry (mostly pasta, rice entrees, soups, dried beans). My freezer still has a few packs of ground beef, a roast for the slow cooker, a whole chicken, some salmon fillets and a package of breakfast sausages (they're brown sugar flavoured so can't be used with pasta), chicken broth, some pizzas and frozen veggies. I have one grapefruit and a bunch of apples left that, although edible, will soon be past eating but after they're gone I can head to the grocer's to buy some more fruit. Just to remind you, although my grocery freeze is on until May 14th, I AM able to pick up fresh produce if needed.

I'm feeling a bit cranky right now and want to sarcastically add that I'm glad that my frugality doesn't always make my life so glamorous.

Food Waste Fridays

2010-04-16T12:23:00.003-04:00

I've been ~~obsessively~~ following the blog of another frugalista, aka Kristen at http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/, and every Friday she shows a photo of whatever food is being wasted because it went bad before being used. I've been pretty good about not wasting food most of my life, mostly due to growing up with a father who felt you could usually just cut the fuzzy parts off of whatever had gone bad and the rest would be okay to eat (this is a slight exaggeration but not by much). In keeping with my father's traditions, I did drink some leftover milk last night when I got back that probably should have been tossed...it wasn't chunky and didn't smell off but after gulping it down, I realized it hadn't tasted all that great. I wasn't sick so no harm done but I'll be sure to take a test sip the next time I'm unsure of the state of my milk.

I'm not sure if I really should even be posting on my no-waste Friday because I've been out of town for most of the week but I think I'm okay since I didn't waste any food last week either, packaging it instead to be consumed on the few days I'd be home between trips. At left is my mostly empty fridge but notice the two square food containers with leftovers from last week (thawing out so all I have to do is pop them in the microwave), the leftover rice and bread that will be eaten with some canned chili and the itty bitty beverage container that holds the reconstituted dry milk I'll be using for the next two days. (I love dry milk by the way. Yes, it tastes a bit different but it has saved me so much money because when I'm only home for a few days I can just mix up a small batch instead of running to the store and buying an exorbitantly priced 1L carton.)

I'd also like to point out the remainder of a bottle of Valpolicella that I've ever so artfully sealed with plastic wrap. THAT my friends, is what happens when a cork and I don't see eye to eye on its coming out of the bottle in one piece. As my guest and I didn't consume the whole bottle when she came over for dinner, I'm going to freeze the cup or so that's left and use it for cooking later on.

What else is going on in my life, beyond the fridge? Well, I'm back from Alberta and in a few days will be flying to Fort Lauderdale with a friend to spend some time at on the beach. I'm super excited about this trip because I've been dying to go someplace sunny for awhile and this trip won't be expensive if I manage my spending impulses. I'm not sure about my friend's plans but I would be totally okay with just vegging out on the beach for a few days and that doesn't usually cost anything.

Grocery Spending Freeze

2010-04-12T11:59:00.003-04:00

I plan to post a (rough) meal plan for each week. This doesn't make much sense when I'm travelling and staying with friends/family as my meals are pretty much decided by what they have in their kitchens and whether or not they want to eat out BUT I am home for part of this week so felt I should put something down. If everything goes as planned, I'll be returning home late Thursday evening but I will be leaving again on Sunday for Florida. My planned meals are as follows:

Breakfasts will be protein shakes (if my milk is still good) and fruit. If the milk has gone bad, I'll have hot cereal and fruit.

Thurs 15th - snack upon arrival home -->apple, crackers and cheese

Fri 16th -
L - chili (canned) on rice (frozen)
D - pasta with spinach sauce (frozen leftovers)

Sat 17th -
L- chicken, potatoes & veg (frozen leftovers)
D- leftover chili on rice

Sun 18th -
- pack snacks for the plane!!

Recently, as I swung by two grocery stores to pick up some sale items I could match with coupons , I started to think about the amount of food I have in my pantry and freezer that I need to eat through. It was comforting to know that I've spent so little money and accumulated a decent amount of food but then I realized I wasn't really controlling my spending anymore. I have enough food yet I continue to buy more. This is self-defeating as I'm not lowering my grocery costs, I'm just finding new things to add to my stockpile and I'm getting to the point where it will take me forever to eat through everything I have. I'm going to challenge myself to freeze my grocery spending until May 14th and cut May's grocery budget to $60 (the remaining $60 will be put into savings). Lowering my budget amount forces me to stick to the freeze or face running out of grocery money before running out of month.

*I will end up spending the rest of this month's grocery budget but it'll be on groceries while I'm travelling. I'm staying with friends/family at most of my destinations and I chip in on groceries to help out while I'm there.
**I'll allow myself to buy some fresh fruit during the freeze if I need it...I'm not sure how long the fruit in my fridge will last but I doubt it'll be until mid-May.

I'm currently in Canmore, Alberta visiting a close friend. I just got here yesterday evening and my sister, my friend and I all went for dinner at a local brew-pub. I've been to Canmore multiple times so there isn't anything in town for me to see that's new but my friend and I are hoping to go for a hike (or two) if the weather is nice enough. We plan for that every time I visit and every time there are road closures due to extreme winter weather or accidents and we can't make it to the trails. Hopefully we'll have better luck this time!

What is there to do in Calgary?!?

2010-04-11T13:02:00.002-04:00

Well, my sister and I managed to keep ourselves busy today but unfortunately, I wasn't able to teach her much in the way of frugality. I had been unable to find any information for free events so out of force of habit, we hit shopping plazas. I offered to buy her a lunch box when we were at HomeSense to use for packing her lunch, she declined as she has access to a fridge at work. I was surprised but she said she didn't want me to buy something she didn't need. We didn't manage to find anything we wanted to buy at the first stores we hit and I asked my sister if she would take me to a thrift store in the area. It was CRAZY busy at Value Village! I have to remember not to go to thrift stores on Saturdays! I found a cute sundress (yay!), a white wrap cardigan and two summery skirts for $26.21. Across the street was a thrift store called Urban Thrift (20-3434 34 Ave NE, Calgary). It was definitely a pricier thrift store, and much smaller, but what it had going for it was that every article of clothing on the rack was in great shape and of a very recent style. I didn't have to sort through piles of rags to find something I would actually wear. I bought a maxi dress for $16.79. I have been searching for that style of dress and am so happy that I found one in a great colour AND in my size. For a used piece of clothing, it was not an insanely good price but I would not have been able to find a new one for less than twice what I paid so I'm still smiling from ear to ear.

I hadn't really intended for my trip to Calgary to turn into a shopping extravaganza and had actually kinda hoped that my sister would have been intrigued by the items I was able to find second hand and would have perused the racks herself. No luck, she was unimpressed and almost sullen while we were at the thrift stores. After we stopped for an ice cream treat (her idea, I wasn't exactly hungry) we went home and changed and headed to the gym.

Grocery shopping in the evening was an incredibly frustrating experience for me. Her shopping style is completely different from mine. She doesn't seem to understand the concept of having a stockpile to carry you through times when no good deals are available. She makes a list of things she wants to eat and then looks for the least pricey option at the store. I work in the opposite direction, I look at what's on sale and cheap and then decide what I want to eat. If she was open to changing those habits I would offer advice but I can't push her, only let her move at her own pace. I did pay for the groceries as a thank you for letting me stay with her (and hey, I have money in my grocery budget that isn't going to be used since I'm gone all month...lol).

Tonight we're headed to Canmore for the evening. We'll have dinner with my friend (and former university roommate) and then my sister will head back to Calgary while I'll spend a few days catching up with my buddy.

April's Travels begin!

2010-04-10T00:23:00.003-04:00

I am now in Calgary, staying with my little sister for the weekend before heading to my friend's place in the Rockies. Travel for me is less expensive because I'm a flight attendant and get certain travel privileges with my airline. I don't fly for free but I do pay very little to fly standby (which is all our travel passes entitle us to). I do have to worry about being able to afford to stay wherever I fly... meaning I spend a lot of time visiting friends and family when I travel instead of exploring new corners of the planet. So far, I haven't spent much this trip, I packed a TON of snacks which raised a few eyebrows at the airport security screening point in Toronto but when I got stuck at the Calgary airport for 7 hrs I was able to get by with purchasing only a small meal. My sleep-addled brain did manage to forget to pack enough socks so we had to swing by Walmart on the way home to pick some up. That wasn't exactly a expensive mistake but I'm a bit annoyed to have to spend money on athletic socks when I already have more than enough socks at home. Grrr...

I've been hoping to help my sister set up a budget and start getting her financial situation under control. Financial education was never a big priority for my family so all three of us kids have had our own financial struggles. I'm the oldest so went through it all first and out of sheer necessity, swung to a frugal lifestyle, desperately absorbing any and all information I could find. It took me awhile (and heck, I still live in an apartment owned by my parents so really, I'm not doing that well!) but I've learned to budget and more or less have a handle on that side of personal finance. My sister and I hammered out a budget tonight, working with some less than ideal figures, and have come up with some future plans to improve her situation (ie, when her lease is up she will most likely to move to an apartment with lower rent). I feel bad because there is little I can do to help her but hopefully, once she gets the hang of living with a budget, things will become less stressful for her.

Tomorrow, she and I will go grocery shopping. I think she was hoping I would teach her some tricks but really, frugal grocery shopping is not something that can be taught in one shopping trip. I'm a fan of hitting different stores to stock up on loss leaders and other really low priced deals, and have given up on being a picky eater so that I no longer pass up on certain deals because of brand loyalty or a preference for certain cuts of meat. It might take her some time to get to that point!

2010-04-07T12:04:00.003-04:00

Ugh...it's one of those grey, rainy days where you just want to stay in bed. (Okay, okay, I haven't yet managed to change out of my PJ's but I AM on vacation, folks...let me be lazy if I feel like it!) I've been reviewing my budget, looking over my blog posts, making notes and thinking about the future and I'm feeling very, very discouraged. One of my biggest problems is that I'm impatient. I've been doing okay with the budget but I'm disappointed because I don't see the big numbers in my savings account yet. Hello?? Earth to Kris?? Those big numbers require multiple paycheques to reach so it's going to take some time!

I've also been debating picking up a second job again. I know that if I want to start working at the bar again, I'm welcome there and they're great about working around my flying schedule. I'm just afraid that I will fall back into the habit of working WAAAY too much and not spending enough time actually enjoying life. I'm holding off on making the decision until I see what my flying schedule for May looks like. If my flying schedule leaves me with a fairly open month, I'll probably try to pick up a shift a week. I won't make a ton of extra money (servers make less than minimum wage and this bar isn't known for great tips) but if I stick to my budget, that extra money can go straight into my RSP and down payment fund. I'm actually not sure what the server wage is now but if I figure it's $8.50/hr and I plan on working a 4hr shift each week, that's $136.00 in wages each month. It would definitely help me see more growth in my savings...which would help keep me motivated. The awards for May flying only come out in the last week of April so I have plenty of time to ponder this subject more before speaking with my old boss.

Touching on the spring/summer clothing topic once more (yes I'm flogging a dead horse!!), I actually forced myself to try on my current selection of bathing suits and discovered, to my surprise, that the bikini I was worried about fitting into...actually fits, as does an even older bikini I had bought years ago to use as an incentive to lose weight and which is horribly mislabeled. It says it's a size 12 but I only fit into now and I'm somewhere between a size 6 and 8. My required clothing list is now down to sockettes, a sundress (or two if I find a really good deal!) and some belts (to keep some of my looser pants/shorts up!). As happy as I am to know that I don't need to buy as much as I thought I needed, it also means I've lost those excuses to shop. I really need to find some more hobbies and keep myself occupied. If I'm sincere in my attempts to climb off the consumerism bandwagon, I can't view shopping and spending money as acceptable ways to pass time.

Bad Habits (and more!)

2010-04-06T15:52:00.004-04:00

I'm starting a new feature!! “Bad Habits” is going to show up every so often and will feature a habit that I'm hoping to break. I know that I have quite a few bad habits (mostly focusing on keeping things easy which really just means I'm lazy!) but I also know that you can't kill multiple bad habits at once, you need to focus on them one at a time in order to change them effectively.

My first bad habit to be attacked is my, er, willingness to head out in my car to do certain errands when those errands could easily be done on foot. I live within walking distance to grocery stores, discount department stores, my dry cleaners, a thrift store, my bank and hardware stores. Its not always a quick walk, the distances range from 10-30 minutes one way but if I plan my days better...I could easily accommodate the extra time needed to walk instead of driving. Walking is a better option for a few reasons. It allows me to fit more physical activity in my day, it saves on gas (unlike my car, I need fuel whether or not I go anywhere...may as well put some of my “fuel” to good use!) and its kinder to the environment. I'm going to focus on breaking my driving habit now that the weather has improved...it would be MUCH harder to make walking my first choice in the dead of winter!!

Switching to walking won't require much extra work. I'll need to plan my day better. Often, I have to drive to pick something up because I haven't left myself with enough time to walk there and back so no more procrastinating!! I won't be able to pick up more than a certain number of things at the grocery store (walking would become a horrible chore if I loaded myself down like a pack mule) but I rarely buy tons of groceries in one trip. If I suspect I'll have a “big” grocery trip to do, I'll try to group it in with other errands that require driving. I'll also need to keep an eye on weather forecasts and be prepared for what Mother Nature may throw at me.

Today I had good intentions and meant to walk to the hairdressers, LCBO and grocery store. I wore a light jacket to ward off the cool air, packed an umbrella and set off on my voyage. I was halfway to the hairdressers when I realized I had forgotten the coupon I was going to use (and which was the reason I was even going to the discount hairdressers!). I was next to the grocery store so I stopped in and picked up the items on my list and headed back home. Then, because at this point I was running out of time, I had to drive over to the hairdressers and LCBO. I didn't really break the habit on this first attempt but at least it was a step in the right direction!!

The frugal things I DID manage to do correctly today were to pick up some chocolate bunnies that were on clearance (at $0.54 a bunny, once smashed up, its a super cheap alternative to chocolate chips) and powdered milk (see my grocery pic below). I went to a discount hairdressers (aprx $16.00 incl tax & tip) instead of going to my regular stylist (still cheap at $25 incl tax & tip). I'm also going to have a friend over for dinner instead of the two of us going out. I'm not really convinced I came out ahead on the dinner since I had to buy some wine, salad, croutons and a roll for garlic bread, totalling $17.48. I probably would have managed to keep my meal around that if I was eating out but I guess this way, I will have leftover lasagna and enough croutons for future salads.

Thrift store success!!

2010-04-05T20:09:00.005-04:00

I went on a thrift store adventure today to see if I could pick up any summer clothes since I'll need them for my trips to Arizona and Florida (if I DO end up going to Florida). I wasn't sure what I would find but I was hopeful about finding a sundress. Despite trying on about a thousand dresses, I had no luck as they were all either the wrong size or damaged.

I was lucky enough to find the khaki shorts (Banana Republic, 3.75 incl tax) at my first stop, the local thrift store, Chez Thrift. Next, I stopped by Value Village and found two tank tops (3.99 each), skirt (Jacob, 5.99), casual flats (Privo, 6.99!!!) and a plate (0.49, I'll explain some other time). In total, I spent $26.93 from my clothing budget which leaves me with $73.07 for the other items on my list (sockettes, bikini and sundress). I realized today that I may have to add a belt to the list...unless I can find my old belts!

On the topic of yesterday's meal plan...the plan is already shot! I forgot to take into account how many leftovers I would have after my birthday/Easter dinner and my pancake breakfast. For breakfast, I'm going to focus on eating the pancakes and grapefruit to use them up. Things are easier for lunch and dinner, I won't need to worry about making ANY new food...just eating through what's already made.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get my butt out of bed early enough to get in a workout and walk up and down the hill (my nemesis!). The last time I did the hill I noticed there were a lot of beer bottles and cans that people had thrown on the ground. If I do go for a walk, I'm going to take a bag and pick up whatever bottles I see lying around to return for the deposit. Every penny counts, right??

Apparently, I DON'T really need new clothes!

2010-04-03T13:06:00.000-04:00

In my last post I mentioned I was avoiding the task of flipping my wardrobe over for spring and summer because I didn't want to have to spend a lot of money to get more clothing. I hauled out my clothing from last spring/summer and was surprised at how much stuff I had forgotten I even had. I am more than okay for the basics (jeans, tshirts, "cute" tanks, etc) that I tend to live in each summer seeing as how I work in uniform and usually avoid shorts.

The only things I would need to think about buying are:

a sundress (which I don't even NEED but would like to have for BBQ's, summer parties, etc)
some more plain tank tops (again, don't really need since I have so many tshirts but they're great for hotter days)
a new bikini (um, I still think I'm a bit big for my old bikini)
sockettes to wear with flats (I know most people go barefoot in ballet flats...I get blisters if I do that)
casual sandals that AREN'T flip flops
a pair, maybe two, of shorts or capris
some casual flats to wear with jeans (I have some brown sketchers that will probably do for most of spring but once the summer is here I'd like something "cuter")

Since my list is smaller than expected I'm going to revise my plan for picking these items up. First off, I should have clarified yesterday that there are certain things I don't buy secondhand. I don't buy used bathing suits or hosiery so those items will be purchased new. I don't often have much luck looking for used shoes either so I will probably resort to buying those new as well. As for the sundress, tank tops and shorts/capris...I'm tempted to go straight to the thrift store step of the procurement ladder since Freecycle would involve either getting nothing or many items that might not be suitable at all. What can I say? I'm lazy and don't want to have to drive all over the place to pick up items that I might just have to take to Goodwill. We'll see...

April 3rd -10th Menu Plan

Breakfasts will be any of the following: hot cereal/oatmeal, bran cereal, grapefruit with cottage cheese, protein shake, scrambled egg and toast.
Snacks will be fruit (apples, pears, grapefruit) or popcorn.

3rd-
L- bubble & squeak (leftovers!) and tomato salad
D- corn-lentil soup & bread

4th *Michelle's over
L- Frozen pizza/whole wheat pasta/baked potatoes with chili
D- Birthday dinner at Mom and Dad's!!

5th
L-bubble & squeak and tomato salad
D-chicken, potatoes and veggies (frozen leftovers)

6th *hanging out with Nicole at night
L- pasta with spinach and lentil sauce (frozen leftovers)
D- have Nicole over for lasagna??

7th
L- burritos with chicken, rice and refried beans?
D- kraft dinner

8th
L & D - whatever I have lying around that needs to be eaten or something I can make that won't leave leftovers

9th-10th - headed to Calgary!!

Do I REALLY need more clothes?

2010-04-02T09:24:00.000-04:00

The weather here in the G.T.A. is really starting to warm up and I'm being forced to acknowledge that I won't be able to simply throw on jeans and a sweater for much longer. I'm dreading the wardrobe rotation because I don't want to have to go and buy a bunch of new clothes, especially since I've tightened my wardrobe budget so significantly. I have money, but the issue is I don't want to spend all of it on updating my wardrobe for the warmer seasons simply so I can stay in style. I will probably need more clothes but for frugality reasons, and to avoid over-consuming/overusing resources, I'm hoping to buy the minimum necessary.

Here's the plan:

Go through existing wardrobe and pull out items that are spring/summer appropriate. That means the lighter weight materials, short sleeves/sleeveless items and lighter/brighter colours will make the cut. Pieces like my black dress pants will also be kept out since, heck, they are good standbys to have ready. Figure out what is good "as is" and what will need a bit of help (if a pair of pants are too loose, will they be okay with a belt...do I have a belt that will do the job?).
Make a list of what I have and what I need to create a reasonable wardrobe for the season. When trying to think about what I need, stick with the philosophy that "less is more". I tend to always wear the same few outfits in a rotation anyways.
Acquire the necessary items in as mindful a way as possible. The places I will check are (in this specific order); Freecycle/friends, Chez Thrift/"local" thrift stores, Value Village, clearance racks at Smart Set/Old Navy/Jacob/Winners, regular priced retail stores. Hopefully, by the time I have resorted to new regular priced items, very little will be left on the list to get.

I've been trying to think about what fall/winter clothing I have that will carry over and wondering what my weight fluctuations will mean for last year's summer clothing but honestly, have not done anything concrete yet. In order to keep myself accountable, I will post my progress as I work through my plan. That way I can't just run to the store and buy everything new. For the record, my clothing budget for April has accumulated to $100. I will be traveling for most of April so I may not get very far in the plan this month...that ends up working in my favour anyways as my accumulated budget will be more in May and more stores will be bringing out their spring/summer items (and starting to mark them down!!).

April's Budget

2010-04-01T09:30:00.000-04:00

I'm going to post my planned budget at the beginning of each month and how everything actually turned out at the end of each month. To outline my situation quickly, I work full time as a flight attendant (low wages!) and live alone in a basement apartment owned by my parents ("token" rent!). I have 2 high-maintenance cats (expensive diet food), only have a cellphone (phone bill can sometimes be a bit high), work in uniform (don't need to spend much on clothes), don't mind cooking from scratch (lower food bill) and am generally pretty easily entertained (no expensive hobbies here!).

Without further ado, here is my planned budget for April followed by some comments on why I think April's budget will be a complete failure.

April

rent to MND $200
RSP $250
"rent" $850
utilities $65
groceries $120
car -insur $180
car - gas $174 ($160 + $14 from March)
car - repair $200 ($100 + $100 from March)
car - extra insur $200 ($100 + $100 from March)
clothing - $100 ($50 + $50 from March)
health - $20 ($15 + $5 from March)
personal - $102 ($95 + $7 from March)
recreation - $120
gifts - $75
cats - $75

Normally I would think the changes I made to March's budget for April would mean this would be a successful spending plan but unfortunately, this month is special. I work only two days because I'm leaving a contract position at the airline and have to use up my vacation days before May. I have to travel as I need to visit my ailing grandparents (in the US) and my sister who moved out on her own (out west) - this means travel expenses which I haven't been able to save up for. If I can do it frugally, I'd like to take another trip, somewhere that I *want* to go, not somewhere I have to go because someone is expecting a visit. Let me point out that although I didn't earmark any savings for traveling, my trips won't be putting me into debt...they will just be eating into the savings I had earmarked for a down payment (the "rent" category above is actually all put into savings...I call it rent because if I moved out of this apartment, that category amount would be enough to pay for an apartment and would be used for that purpose).

Another fun thing about April is that my car needs new all-season tires and new front brakes. Luckily, my brother is a mechanic and hooks me up with cheap parts/free labour but because I just started really controlling my spending this year (and January and February were, uh...interesting learning experiences) I don't have much accumulated in the repair category. I will also use the funds in the "extra insurance" category (money I force myself to put aside as, if I move out, my insurance will go up by about $100 each month). That only gives me $400 though, and I'm expecting the work on my car to be about $1000. I hate having to dip into my savings...but at least I don't have to put everything on a credit card.

I track all my spending in a notebook. I'm pretty good about it although I do sometimes lose track of drinks from coffee shops and I have to fudge the numbers there ("I think my tea was $2..."). In the past few months I've also gone over my monthly budgeted amount of $2455 because of not having appropriate categories (ie, I didn't budget in spending on my cats) or stolen money from one category to cover off another. I haven't considered those horrible sins though as my actual income is slightly higher than $2455 (but varies so I use $2455 as my set amount for budgeting) and frankly, if I want to use my recreation budget to buy groceries and my personal budget to buy clothes...I can. It will mean I have less money for movies and hair cuts but the recreation and personal categories are the categories where I can spend the money on whatever I want (okay, within reason!).

I'll keep you updated throughout the month if anything super exciting happens and at month-end, there will be a more thorough review.

*I'm going to post this ticker along with my budget info now and then again at the end of each month.*

Goals - The Biggies

2010-03-30T12:56:00.000-04:00

I've tried blogging before...and failed miserably. I didn't think I had anything worth saying to the world. I still don't think I really have anything all that important to share, but thought I'd give it another try to see if at least feeling like the world is watching keeps me more accountable to my goals.

Here are the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2010 (in no particular order of importance:

Run a 5K.
Be moved out by April 2010.
Be in a relationship by May 2010.
Have $10,000 in my Down Payment fund by year's end (ultimate goal is $25,000).
Prepare for a Yoga Teacher Training course.
Increase my monthly salary/Make at least $2700 net each month.

These goals have to be adjusted already. For instance, I HAD met someone and WAS in a relationship until just recently so I had happily crossed that goal off my list. It looks like it has to be added back on after a bit of "me" time has passed. Moving out by April seems unlikely as its already March 30th and I'm still quite settled in my little basement abode. Running a 5K and taking a Yoga Teacher Training course seemed like reasonable goals until I fell off both the running AND the yoga bandwagons...now I just want to get back to those habits.

I've done pretty well so far on the savings goal...but will be taking a hit in April as I have some travelling I need to do as well as needing new tires AND brakes for my beloved vehicle.

This blog will be a place for me to post frugal strategies, updates on my goals and more generally, just reflect on the life I'm trying to make for myself.