Budgeting.

Lately I seem to love creating random rules for myself and then seeing if I can follow them. In the last couple months I made up a freakishly long Lent to do list that I had to finish before Easter (a success, besides the major case of OCD it gave me) and am quitting the internet for awhile. Which is seriously refreshing. My way of life must be catching, because Kent is now doing it for himself too. He’s giving up a few things this month and I made him a calendar where he gets a smiley face sticker every day he succeeds (which he informed me will be every day.)  Every night he says to me, “Somebody deserves a sticker!” and I have to put one on for him.

This month, we’ve also decided to budget. On the first day of the month we took out a certain amount of money that we think we can live off of for the month, and that’s what we have for the month for everything besides all of our bills. It includes groceries, subway tokens, gas, and all of those extra things that always add up like crazy. We can’t use any credit cards or debit cards whatsoever. It will be interesting to see if we can do it or not… although the amount we gave ourselves is definitely not sustainable because it doesn’t leave us room for very many extra, fun things that cost money. Next month we’ll have to take that into account.

In a way this feels like a game more than anything (but a game that we take seriously!) We aren’t anything like the couples on Til Debt Do Us Part who are ridiculously in debt with huge spending addictions, and if we fail we will not be out on the streets. Which is good, really, because the jar system they use on that show would confuse the heck out of me. I think it’s just a good way for us to learn to manage our money as a team and think about each other and our long term goals first and foremost and save as much as we can.  Neither of us  have bad spending habits in the first place, really.

Do you budget, either as an individual or as a couple? If so let me know what your plan is. And if you feel like answering this, how much would you give yourself to spend per month if you were using our system?

Saving her mulah.

Recently I have moved from contemplation to action in my budgeting goal. I gotta tell ya, it feels amazing. The feeling of being in control of where my money is going rather than worrying about how much of it I do (or don’t) have is amazing. For example, I gave myself $100 spending money per week (this means mini grocery shops, movies, beers, ice cream, etc.) and I take it out in cash at the beginning of the week and I don’t use my debit card at all. Wow, I did not even realize how big of a difference it makes.

Recently, my wife best friend Nat wrote this and offered to lend it to the blog which of course I am because it is wonderful. These are Nat’s thinking outside the box tips to budgeting. (It’s lengthy but amusing and worth your time!)

Recession or no recession, what 24-year old girl who lives on her own in one of the most expensive cities in the country doesn’t need to save money? I forgot to mention that I am in social work a.k.a. one of the most underpaid fields in my opinion.
Recently me and one of my besties have become obsessed with saving/not spending money. Here’s some of my suggestions on how to be frugal on a daily basis:

1) Rent movies at the library for free instead of at Blockbuster.

2) Sit at the bar instead of at a table when you are out with your girlfriends. It increases the likelihood of getting free drinks. (Note: This works. Trust.)

3) Save your Canadian Tire Money. So far I have got garbage bags and Swiffer refills for free. Now I’m saving for a Slow Cooker.

4) Pack your lunch every day. Even if you go out for lunch twice a week for a $10 meal, that’s $1,040 a year!

5) Instead of donating your unwanted clothing, use consignment shops and get money for them. In Calgary: Trends Fashion in Kensington. In Guelph: Wild Rose.

6) Buy your meat at Costco. But use your friends’ memberships.

7) Have board game nights with friends. They don’t (necessarily) require alcohol and they are SO! MUCH! FUN!

8 ) If you see a shirt you have to have RIGHTNOW don’t buy it. Wait a few days to see if you still feel incomplete without it.

9) Do you reeeeeeeally need a data plan? (Note: Yes I do)

10) If you have 10,000 prescriptions like me, shop around for the pharmacy with the cheapest dispensing fee. Hint: It’s not Shoppers Drug Mart.

11) If you hair is its natural colour, you don’t have to get your roots done every six weeks. You’re prettier au naturale anyways.

12) Eat your leftovers.

13) Buy a coffee mug and take your coffee with you each morning. One large coffee before work every day is $8.20/week, $32/month, or $1,700/year.

14) Buy your beer at the Superstore Liqourstore.

15) Babysitting is not just for 15-year-olds!

16) Have potluck dinners with your friends rather than going out for supper.

17) Use kijiji. My friend gets clothes from there and my dad bought a pontoon boat. I made a profit selling a pair of snowboard boots.

18) Who said PB&J sandwiches were only for kids?

19) Have a baby shower to go to? Buy children’s books at the dollar store. Babies don’t know the difference.

20) Steal pens and post-its from your office.

21) When you need (errr..want) something new to wear, raid your friend’s closet.

22) Wearing Lancome/Clinique/Chanel eyeshadow is unnecessary. Covergirl works just fine.

23) Call your credit card company and find low interest cards. My interest rate is only 9% versus the usual 19%. Having said that, pay off your credit card in full each month.

24) Use incentive cards: optimum, Esso, Petro, Safeway. They work.

And the things I will always spend too much money on:

1) Tea

2) Yoga/Spinning/Kickboxing classes

3) Acupuncture

4) Haircuts

5) Spoiling my niece and nephews

Thanks for hanging out with the Fiveblondes today, Nat! Great ideas.

January, I hate you.

I hate January.  I really do.  I promised myself today that I will never have a child born in January, I will just put a plug in it and tell that child to wait.  Momma hasn’t gotten out of bed in 30 days.  January is the longest month of the year for some reason, and this year it dragged and dragged.  I don’t even know if I am going to last another week.  January is the month keeping me from having visitors from home.  January is the month I got credit card fraud, and my bank decided I didn’t need to know until my card was declined and I had to call them – “Oh, it looks here like we cut your card off because of fraud.”  What the eff, is it not important that I know this?  January is the month my debit card failed the same week my credit card did, and my boyfriend left for Panorama, BC that day leaving me with no access to my funds at all.  January is the month I sucked at my job.  January is the month Tim didn’t work any day shifts leaving us an hour during lunch to see each other.  January is the month that I tried to make new friends that didn’t want to be made back.  January is the month I fell really hard and hurt my elbows (okay, that one was just whining).
For the duration of the month of January, you may find me going about my duties with a hoodie on, hood up, with the strings pulled real tight so no one can look in.
I’m sorry for this negative, whiny post but I needed to let it out.  The pit in my stomach is growing by the second.  My plan is to go to bed in my favourite pyjamas, with a glass of wine and a good book, in my super comfy bed and wake up tomorrow and take a big breath and tell the world that it’s showtime.

What are you whining about lately? Let it out.

I’m a Winner!

This morning mom called my office within the first five minutes of me getting at work.

Mom: “I checked my email this morning and there was an email from your prof Owen, want me to read it to you?”

Kate: “Sure, I guess” (thinking that this will be about a course that mom was interested in and wondering why she would want to read the email to me)

Mom reading the email: “I have some good news, and because I don’t have Katelyn’s email address I’m contacting you hoping you will pass this on to her. Katelyn’s
“Dairy Days” video won a bronze award ($100) in the Canadian Farm Writers Federation annual writing and broadcasting awards last weekend”

Kate: “Woo Hoo $100!”

Well I guess the rest of the conversation doesn’t matter because woo hoo I won!

The Canadian Farm Writers Federation (CFWF) is a group of ag journalists, which includes reporters, editors and broadcasters in business and government, specializing in agricultural communications. The CFWF represents over 350 members who belong to organizations all over Canada. In conjunction with their daily reporting, they put on a competition annually, which includes categories such as “television, radio, and daily, monthly and weekly press reporting; media release; press column; press editorial and press feature.”

I won the bronze award in Television News Reporting. I made the video in my Agricultural Communications course at Guelph in my last semester there, it was one of the assignments that we had to complete. The topic assigned to me was ‘Dairy Days’, which is a program put on for Oxford County students in grade 4 to get a first hand look at dairy farming. I did research before the event (there was not very much information!), contacted people to interview, attended the event with our production team who get footage of the event and edit the video, interviewed people at the event, put together a script, taped voice overs (my fave part!), and then got to watch the final video.

My prof entered a bunch of videos from the class and amazingly enough our classes work came in 1st 2nd and 3rd! The must make him feel good as the prof.

So I’m guessing you want to see the video now right? Ok no laughing, I do look kind of silly… but here you go! And feel free to take a look around at other videos on Youtube added by “AgriComm” that our class produced, I do have another video on the site, see if you can find my other one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hNbBYT_Oig]

If that does not work please go here DAIRY DAYS

Furniture Shopping

I believe, in the near future, that furniture shopping will be the death of me (and my money).

Scott and I went furniture shopping last night to browse and get an idea of what’s out there and how much it will cost. We went to 5 stores (!!) in 1.5 hours. We call it speed furniture shopping, see how much you can see in a small amount of time. We hit up Bad Boy, Leons, The Brick, Sears Home Store and Teppermans.

We learned that we don’t like any couches out there and that couches are actually pretty expensive. For couches we found the best deals at Teppermans, and found some pretty reasonable prices in the clearance section. Sadly this was our last store and we did not have enough time to look at everything and they even started turning lights off while we were there.

We learned that we both like dark coloured wood for furniture. For example see this kitchen table that we liked, which is on sale for $498 for the table (including a leaf you can add in, ) and I think 4 chairs.

For bedroom furniture we also found a few that we could tolerate, which were dark wood. We also don’t like bulky sets, which is good because it is not practical for us, as we are renting a house for the first bit of married life, and we will expect to move a few times until we settle down. The set below costs $1299 for 6 pieces (headboard, footboard, rails, nightstand, mirror and dresser). The price is in the lower price range, basically the only one we could afford if we bought a full set.

Don’t even get me started on mattresses. We got nowhere with those. I seriously have no idea how to decide what to get, because I know I will have no idea if I will like it or not, unless I am sleeping on it.

Lucky for us the house we are renting has a fridge, stove, dishwasher, washer and dryer. If we had to buy those we would be so poor. Oh wait, we already are..

On the To-Do List: Just Keep Up

I’ve been quiet lately.  For good reason: I’m both exceedingly tired and exceedingly busy!

Last week marked the beginning of my last ever school year. Well, school half-year. Or, technically, half of a half school year.  Anyway, I’m taking 3 evening classes (each worth a half-credit) so I can finally get that darn piece of paper indicating that I am a university graduate.  I survived.

Unfortunately, these evening classes coupled with work are draining my reserves.   My week starts out like this:

10-6 work; 7-10 class.

This is my Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday schedule until December.

When you think about it, December really isn’t that far away.  This means that I’ll only have the time from now until December to keep up with an increasing workload, reading for 3 classes, assignments for said classes, and study for various tests and exams.  Not to mention the other things going on, such as my dwindling social life, and the fact that the new seasons of Grey’s Anatomy and The Office start next week.  Thankfully, on Thursdays.

Look out world here they come!

stamp.jpg

Wedding Update: The wedding invitations are in the mail! Last night I sat myself down, printed labels out, stamped (those are our stamps above, so cute right?!) and sealed them! I think the invitations look pretty good and I hope that others agree. I’m very excited to get the reply cards back!

In total we are inviting around 216 people, hoping that only 200 can come, since that is the amount of people who can fit in the hall. We have a great mixture of Scott and my friends, my relatives, Scott’s relatives and a few of our parents friends. Most of the people coming are from Ontario, but we do have family coming from Alberta and hopefully a friend from Vancouver if she can take time off of school and make it down!

On Saturday is our Stag and Doe. A Stag and Doe (aka: Jack and Jill. Buck and Doe) is a party held by the bridal party, which is, I guess, a kind of fund raiser for the bride and groom. But in reality it is an excuse for family and friends to get together before the wedding to have a great big party! Stag and Does are very common in our area, and may sound weird to the rest of the world but they are so fun! Ours will be held in the driveshed on the farm and we are having a live band play and roasting a pig. We have the driveshed all cleaned out, and cemented the last part that needed to be cemented. Scott and his dad are buying beer today and we still need to go out and get all the rest of the alcohol.

Dress Update: Yesterday my Oma and my mom spend some time attaching the lace to my dress. I was excited to see it and even more excited to try it on! Sadly it is a bit short so mom will have to add a few more lace pieces to the top of the dress to lengthen the bottom. But overall it looks great, but wow it is hot! It is a good think the wedding is in October because I don’t think I could stand to be in the dress in the heat. I would be a sweaty mess, yes that is a nice image isn’t it. No dress pictures until October but if you check out my mom’s blog she does updates about the dress once and a while.

Making your emotional relationship financial: 5 rules to consider

images.jpgMoney.

Such a huge aspect of life, whether you want it to be or not!

If you’ve ever discussed combining finances with your husband/ wife/finance/fiancee/partner/significant other, you’re not alone.

Throughout the 18 months we’ve been living together, I’ve suggested several times that perhaps D & I should get a joint bank account and/or credit card. I looked up the information, grabbed brochures, and pointed out (first casually, lately insistently) that the money he has in his checking account would be much better held in a savings account where he would earn interest. In addition, seeing as we’re buying furniture and groceries together, why don’t we get a credit card together (preferably one with rewards) and split everything down the middle?

Yesterday he finally cracked (perhaps due to the prospect of planning a wedding?) and I arrived home to have him tell me that we were leaving to go to the bank and set up a joint chequing account and credit card.

With that (and many other things) in mind, I’ve developed my own short list of “rules” to consider before making your emotional relationship…financial.

  1. Know your partner’s spending habits! Hopefully this goes without saying, but if you don’t know where the money is going, that’s not good. Alternately, if your partner always has new clothes, ‘toys’ (ie. video games), or is always eating out or spending lots of money at bars, this should be a concern as well.
  2. Know your partner’s financial goals. Is your significant other saving up for a house…or a trip to the Caribbean? If you don’t know…find out! Why save money together is you’ll just argue about how to spend it?
  3. Discuss all purchases. D is currently lusting after a big screen TV – if I got home tomorrow and found that he had purchased one on our credit card…let’s just say that it wouldn’t be pretty. He would be upset if I bought a new snowboard – it works both ways.
  4. Agree on how much to contribute to a shared account. This will depend mainly on individual incomes. If there is a wide discrepancy between your incomes, agree on how much each of you would contribute (for example, an equal percentage of your paycheque).
  5. Ensure that you can make payments on time. Along with knowing spending habits, know payment habits as well. Does your significant other have a good payment history with creditors? Do you know if he or she has any creditors? What’s their credit score? For that matter, what’s *your* credit score??

Wow. That last one almost got away from me there! Don’t forget, these 5 “rules” are only a few things you should consider before making your emotional relationship financial. Above all, make sure that you are comfortable with the prospect. Talk to someone else about it if you need to. Talk to your banker! Someone working in the financial industry has likely seen this a multitude of times and may have considerations you haven’t even thought of. Don’t be bullied into it, and if you don’t feel ready – just say no!

** DISCLAIMER **

I am not a financial advisor. I’m just sharing my thoughts with the world.

/disclaimer
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