Overboard

Man Overboard!! 

Where do I begin? Lately I feel like I’m springing off of a diving board and while I’m midair realizing that my head is going right into the shallow end, and the pool isn’t filled with water, but rather a huge pile of $hit. On the other hand, I feel like I am the first one sprinting out of the heat and right on track to having the new record for getting all of my debt paid off on time. Part of me keeps hoping that Gail is going to pop up and surprise me to either tell me that I am doing really well and give me a cheque for $5,000 or that she is going to tell me to get my $hit together and stop spending like an idiot. I think it’s going to be the latter in this case. Either way, I would get to meet Gail Vaz-Oxlade!

Now Gail would be on my case because starting out the week, I took out my $140 that I was going to use for spending money on life (food mainly), and I ended up spending $110 in a matter of 2 days! This is why carrying cash is so important, because you see right away that you’ve spent all the money you have and get a harsh wake-up call that you don’t have as much control of your cash as you think you do. The mistakes I made were beyond obvious to me, but yet I still went out and effed it all up! The first thing I did when I got my cheque was go out to a goodbye lunch for a colleague who I worked with for maybe 3 weeks. I’d see her around the office, but I didn’t really know her and quite frankly I don’t think she would have given 2 $hits if I were there or not, but yet I still went – and ORGANIZED the freaking lunch. It kind of goes with the territory for my new job, but still, it seems so pointless to spend money on a lunch out with someone who I don’t really know. That lunch cost me $29; that doesn’t seem like much at all doesn’t it? But look at my budget after one lunch, now I only have $101 to get me through the week for food and any other random expense that comes up.

We all make mstakes

My new job is going well, but it’s making me recognize challenges that I forgot that I faced in a busy office environment – spending! When you have little time for yourself to take breaks, you go for what is convenient; whether it’s the $1.40 that I spend on a coffee every afternoon or the $8.00 I spend on lunch pretty much every day or even the $5.00 I spend on breakfast every morning, it all adds up! If I were able to stick to my guns and only spend money like that at lunch time, then I would still be on budget, but when I get home, I order a pizza, or something like that instead of just going to the grocery store and making myself something to eat from scratch I end up going overboard. I increased my spending limit for the week and yet every week for the past month, I have been going well over the limit for spending. It’s not just the weekly stuff that I am spending too much on either, my phone bill has been over $100 for the last couple months and as much as I love my iPhone, I really feel like Rogers has me bent over the counter each and every month with this extravagant expense.

The key for me and anyone else on a budget is that when you overboard, you need to identify why you are making the mistakes that you are making and figure out you’re going to get back on the boat and sailing toward your goal again. When I am off track, I can’t help but notice where I am making mistakes in my life. The number one thing that has got me concerned lately is my health. When I am stressed out, I eat garbage foods that don’t benefit me in the least and my waistline reflects that. I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to go out and buy new clothes with my budget, and there’s nothing more stupid to me than having to buy new clothes because you’ve been eating nothing but unhealthy foods. For me, my expanding waistline is a sign that something is not going well right now. Some of you are thinking, “Oh shut up John, you’re the last person who should be thinking about your weight” but it’s not about my weight, it’s about the fact that I am not doing enough lately to manage my stress and take care of my health.

Stress also influences my spending – if I want something to make me feel better, I go for something that makes me feel better about myself, but it’s always only temporary. Take yesterday for example, I was dropped off at a bus station next to a mall for me to get home after a day with friends, but I ended up going to buy a pot at Winners, and then walking out with the pot and two yoga towels instead of just getting on the bus and going home. I don’t need any of this stuff, but it’s been on the “want” list for a while. I felt good about the purchases because they were really cheap (the pot was only $7 and the towels were $20 each and they normally cost $40-50) but then later I felt like a$$ because that’s $50 toward my debt that I could have paid off.

Danielle For the Win!!

A key problem to my financial failure in the past couple weeks has been my demanding schedule. I’m putting in 12 hours of French classes every week on top of a 40 hour work week and then add in my 4 hour yoga volunteering and my time is stretched pretty thin. It’s not necessarily that I am finding this to be impossible to do, but I have found that I have not been in the mood to come home and cook something when I put in 11 hour days. I would rather just sit back and turn my brain off while watching Big Brother – seriously, I am in love with that show, it’s a guilty pleasure for sure – go Dani! My schedule has gotten to the point where it is taking away time from doing yoga. I used to do yoga 4 times a week and now I am lucky if I can get in more than 2 times. Yoga has been instrumental in helping me stay focused on my goals because it gives me the time where I can take a pause from my busy day, relax, and reflect on all the good work that I have been doing for the past 10½ months. I really am not taking advantage of the free yoga deal I have and I really think that that has been a major influence in why I am losing my focus.

August has added further complications to my spending because I am receiving three paychecks. Yes, it is wonderful that I have all this income coming in, but it has enabled me to keep in the back of my mind that little voice telling me “don’t worry John, you have 1.5 times more money than usual, so go ahead and indulge in some extra spending this month.” That attitude does not get my debt paid off any faster. It’s funny that when you have more, you want to spend more! It’s no wonder that you hear about all these lottery winners who end up broke after a year. That would be the ultimate fail for me. If I won the lottery I would like to think that I wouldn’t be broke for the rest of my life!

Alright now, I am being pretty harsh on myself though considering the excellent progress I have made on my debt repayment. I have now hit the 30% mark ($11,390.56 – OMG) and my goal of paying off 33% in 12 months is definitely going to happen if I can keep this pace up – and that is so exciting! Now I am going to buckle down and focus, focus, focus. This can continue to be possible as long as I remember that I am the one who got me into this mess, and no one else. Thanks for still following my blog, even if it has been pretty lackluster lately. I’m getting so close to getting my MasterCard paid off and when I do, there will be quite the party!!  

Attitude Adjustment

Mittens pees in everything

You know when you get in one of those $hitty moods where the people around you start thinking that you woke up to someone peeing in your corn flakes? Well that’s sort of the way that I am feeling today. I know, I know, how does Mr. Smileypants get into a funk on a perfect sunny long weekend with no clouds in site? Honestly, I think it might be due to the fun overload I have had over the past couple days! It was Canada Day on Friday and there is no other day that is more fun than this day here in the nation’s capital. I got to sleep in, wake up late, and get out and enjoy all the festivities with my friends while keeping my budget in check! I can’t believe I only spent $40 on Canada Day, especially when the drinks were $6.50 for crappy domestic beer! I guess it helps that I was working the merch table for my friends’ band for the day so it kept me away from other more pricey items! The next day I got to spend an amazing day with my friend’s family at their pool, playing ping pong and croquet, eating delicious food and feeling incredibly spoiled by some of the kindest people I know. I think that’s what my little funk is about, it made me miss my family and all the wonderful times I have with them; that and maybe the sunburn that I got from 6 hours in the sun despite the SPF 45! I’m telling you, I went from snow white to lobster red! All my freckles (or melanoma) are out in full force now!

Open wide indeed!

Those of you who read my blog regularly may have noticed that I really try to stay focused on my goals and don’t really spend much time complaining about the things that I have the power to fix. Lately I am finding that I am just complaining for the sake of complaining about the most insignificant things like a lousy coworker or general frustrations, but what is that helping other than spreading my negativity and wearing my friends out with incessant whining? Just going back and reading my first paragraph, I can’t help but notice that I really don’t have any reason to be upset about anything, but yet here I am in a stupid mood wasting time feeling like an a$$hole and for what? This blog entry was going to be about how I was managing my money after having to pay over $500 at the dentist this week after a surprise triple filling (which was supposed to be one filling and $170) but I think that blog entry would be kind of a cop out. Most of you know that I would resort to my savings account to help cover the shortfall then reevaluate my budget to get myself back on track. So, instead of weighing you down with a Complainy Complainerpants blog, I really feel that it’s important to highlight how the right attitude can really make or break you when working toward a goal.

Obtaining success with any major goal, i.e. saving up for your wedding, taking better care of your health, or paying off debt, you need to give yourself a little pat on the back for your hard work and remember that not everyone is going to constantly praise you for everything little thing you do. They might not even notice that you’re even doing it (and that’s okay). It’s imperative that you remember to thank yourself for all the hard work that you put in and not beat yourself up for the times when you feel like you have let yourself down. For example, in my goal to pay off debt, it took a lot of mental preparation and a ton of will power to keep me from spending my money on things that I didn’t need, but really wanted. I remember one day when I went shopping with one of my friends and there were all these great clothes that fit me so well on sale. After trying on a stack of clothes, I set them down on at that cash register and said I didn’t want any of them (because I knew I couldn’t afford them). My friend was really impressed with my transformation, and so was I, so I gave myself a little mental affirmation that I had done something positive toward achieving my goal. My ability to say no had left me with $200 more toward my debt repayment, so I took that money and put it all on my credit card. It felt amazing; kind of like a big F.U. to MasterCard. It feels good to be able to celebrate small victories so make sure that you do!

Now there will come a time when you will screw up and you’re going to want to kick yourself and get upset about losing focus on your goal; you’ve been on track for weeks and all of a sudden you muck up. I have done this on more than one occasion since I started the debt repayment process. At first I feel bad about spending money where I shouldn’t have but the important part is what I do next. I get in a mode where my brain punishes me for a small mistake, but this is where I focus on changing the way I think. It is entirely possible to do. When you make a mistake, start off by recognizing the error and then identify the reasons that you steered off course. For me, it’s usually because I was drunk, or brought too much money with me so I end up spending more than I wanted. Other times it’s simply because I entered a situation where I know that I am weak when it comes to spending like my favorite store, the pizza parlor, a prophylactics sale, you know, the usual stuff people are tempted by. Once I have identified what triggered my counteractive behaviour, I make a promise to myself that next time, I’ll put down the whatchamawhozit, and back my sweet a$$ out of there! When I actually do this, I feel really good about myself and give myself a reward of more me time, or a special treat at the grocery store.

Change your attitude, change your life

Getting to the point where you achieve your goals really does take a positive outlook. I’ve worked really hard to get to the point in my life where things are looking up, and my positive attitude has been instrumental in getting there. Teach yourself to find the positive things in your life. For example, I acknowledge that  my negative mood is just that – mine, and no one else’s. So I look ahead at the positive things that will keep me going forward.  I’m now only 2 weeks away from starting my new job, and another 4 weeks away from my vacation and seeing my family! And let’s not forget that I will be receiving 3 paychecks in August and more of my friends will be moving back here again, so things are looking on the up and up! Do you see how easy that is? If you can’t find anything positive, then make an active decision to do something about it. There’s one piece of advice that my friend told me years ago that I have never forgot and have kept with me ever since. If you don’t like something in your life, CHANGE IT. You hate your city? Move. You don’t like your school? Find another one. You can’t stand your job? Get a new one. YOU are the only one who can decide what is best for you.