There's Been a Murder!

Savings Murdered!

Everyone, it is with a heavy heart that I have share this tragic news here on my blog. There has been a murder, yes, it's true, my savings account has been murdered. It happened Friday night around 8:00 pm and it was a slow and agonizing process, that caught me completely off guard. I sat down at my computer just like any other day and began planning an upcoming trip to Montreal for my 4 year anniversary. I searched for hours for the best deals on car rentals, hotels, and things to do in "the most European city in North America" and the next thing I knew, like water oozing out of a freshly cut watermelon, my savings were depleted and my bank account laid lifeless and cold out there in cyberspace.  I went into my trip planning with the intention to keep things as cheap as I could, but then I remembered that my partner and I have been together for 4 freaking years and this is something to truly celebrate, so I caved and stabbed my savings right in the heart! It looks like Montreal officially brings out my alter ego - Spendy Spenderson.  

NEMESIS!

Without giving away all the details here on my blog (I'm trying to keep things a little bit of a surprise) I really did a pretty good job on keeping the costs down for the car rental and that's about it. I picked a hotel that has a location that cannot be beat, but I am getting what I'm paying for which is what I think should be the point when spoiling someone you love (which is not something I get to do as often as I used to). The good thing about the hotel though is that I have a friend who used to work for that hotel chain (Derek) who pulled a few strings for me and got me the hook-up! In addition to that, I found a show to take my partner to that will knock his socks off and that will guarantee me kisses for weeks! I cannot help but feel a little guilty devastating my savings account, but at the same time I'm kind of proud to say that I am not having to rely on credit to bail me out and pay for everything again like I would have done in the past and then told myself some lie that I would pay it back as soon as I got my next paycheck (bull$hit).  Lately I really have been starting to get a taste of what financial freedom is all about - the freedom to make choices that won't leave you broke and scrambling to pay the bills!

I don't know how often everyone looks at my saving statistics when they read my blog, but  I do try pretty hard to keep putting 10-15% of my income into savings every paycheck. The main thinking behind this is not that I am trying to save for anything in particular at the moment, but I really want to be able to have money to spend on emergency trips home or when I have a burning desire to spend on myself or others, I don't have to pull out the credit card and smack it down on the counter with a 12.9% interest charge every time. Admittedly, this recent dipping into my savings has also made me a little bit annoyed at myself for taking away from my ultimate goal of hitting $5,000 in savings by November. I am not the kind of guy who can completely neglect my goals so when I do things that are counterproductive, the frustration begins to mount (and usually from behind).

Looks like Greece will have to wait!

There are going to be other things that will hinder that in the future as well. I have planned to take 2 more trips to Saskatchewan this year and my sisters are coming to visit me in May and June. Not only that, there is a chance that I may have to come up with an extra $200 per month to cover rent this summer which is essentially how much money I am putting away into my savings account every month. Now I have also been making some wise decisions such as turning down a vacation to Greece and a trip to Halifax, but I still really would love to go and do both of those things. These types of situations motivate me even more to get on track with getting my debt paid off and having a vacation fund as well as a fund for a purchasing a home and increasing my net worth.

Now the big challenge is going to be trying to get that savings number boosted back up for October when I will be planning my next trip back to Saskatchewan! I think it's going to be possible since after May, I will have only 2 debts left to pay! I think I am proving a lot of people wrong and I can get my debt under control while still making sure to enjoy myself and live a full and happy life!

Surviving the Summer!

DFA made all my dreams come true

This entry is going to be a bit all over the place, and I apologize in advance if you lose track of what’s going on, but I just have so much to update you on! The first thing worth mentioning is that I survived Bluesfest. No, not because the main stage collapsed and nearly killed some people, but because I made it through financially! Normally, I easily spend about $500 on this summer music festival and this year I spent well under $100 total. The festival is a 2 week affair and I managed to only go on two days (the best 2 of course) and only buy 2 beers and one bag of the best freaking popcorn EVER.  The tickets are normally $40 each if you don’t buy them in advance, but I was so lucky to have some friends who kept their ears open for me and I got each ticket for $20 and $25 dollars respectively! It was practically two for the price of one! The beers on the other hand, well they were a bit pricey at $6.50 each (I think, I honestly don’t really remember since I was drinking before the show too) and the popcorn was a steal of a deal at $5 for a bag (I’m telling you, this popcorn is un-freaking-believable) – total comparable savings (this year to last year): $437 – WOW! I realize that I did pretty darn well in saving this money, but I think that it’s safe to say that the one thing I miss most from my past spending habits is the amount of concerts I used to go to. I really love music and I especially like to support independent artists so I really try to stay out of the loop when bands come into town. The major aspect I miss about not going to shows is that now I see some of my friends a little less as a result, but they understand and now that I have proven myself with my frugality, they seem to get it. I did get to see the Black Keys, DFA 1979, and Mother Mother with my friends, so I think I got a heck of a deal for what I ended up paying overall!

Apparently this is what a cakewalk is...

In other exciting news, I just got back from my first day at my new job and let me tell you – I think I’m going to do really well! I’m definitely feeling optimistic about how this new job is going to work out for me. I’m extra excited to see what my new paycheck is going to look like, i.e. how much faster can I get this debt paid off! There are always so many deductions and now I’ll be in a new income tax bracket, so I’ll just have to wait and see what happens I guess. Truth be told, the money is nice, but I will miss my old job; the team that I worked with really got my sarcastic sense of humour and they were just all around smart, friendly, and attractive group of people. It’s tough when you find a job you love but you plateau because there are no other opportunities available in your office; but I definitely feel lucky to have opportunities present themselves to me instead of having to go out and look for a job like so many others in this $hitty economy. Although, right now is just the honeymoon phase of my new job, so I am still a bit apprehensive about getting into the mindset that it will be a cakewalk. If it doesn’t go well, you know you will hear me bit¢h about it on this blog!

In case you have been wondering what has been happening with my whole lost/stolen wallet fiasco, I am happy to report that I finally have all my cards back. The police called me last week to tell me that since the amount of money that was actually stolen from my wallet and the actual cost of the contents of my wallet was so insignificant that they were closing my case – which I totally agree with. There really was no reason to keep the case going and waste police resources, but I’m still glad I filed a report in the event that someone did eventually get caught with my precious deer wallet and $2 bill! I learned a couple more interesting things about the loss of my credit card though. The first was that it takes forever for them to send a replacement card. I got my credit card weeks later than my health card and drivers license. The second thing I learned was that you can still make payments to your MasterCard using the number of the old account; they just keep a linkage to all of your past numbers and the payments go through like magic. However, there is no way to purchase anything with your credit card until you receive a physical copy in the mail. This is obviously a smart idea otherwise some jacka$$ could call in and jot down your number and start spending away all willy nilly. Oh, and remember that special ‘limited time offer’ that they gave me to increase my credit limit? Well they made the same offer again. It was really annoying! I can’t wait for when I get to call them back and have the amount lowered to $5,000!

My debt doesn't wear pants.

Now there’s a bit of crappy news. My savings account has been decimated! Since I was unable to access my credit and it took forever for my boss to approve my vacation, I had to spend over $700 on a return flight for my brother’s wedding. Let’s just say the service better be excellent and freaking sexy. My savings has plummeted down to a pathetic $400, but my new action plan to boost it back up seems to be right on track. Instead of the measly 10% I contributed before, I now have 15% to play around with, and it certainly makes a difference. I also forgot to mention that I still haven’t even filed for my medical costs and I have three paychecks coming in August! That could really be a kick in the pants for both my savings and my debt repayment. Alright, I am now sitting at 26.83% of my debt paid off and I only have 6.17% to go before I have 33% paid off! My goal was to be at that percentage by the end of October, but I think I am about ready to blow that figure out of the water! Wish me luck! 

The Mother of All Days

If you’re able to read this, odds are that you are a human being and you have a mother. This may come as a surprise to some of you but, I too, have a mother. It’s true; I am a human being and not just some internet wunderkind blog-writing machine. The year was 1982 when I arrived in this world with a mission to become the incredible blogging wizard that I am today, little did I know that it would be due to the fact that I had managed to accumulate nearly $40,000 worth of debt at the tender age of 28. Did you know that my Mom is actually a writer as well? The big difference though is that she writes plays and novels and I write a sassy blog on the internets for nerds to read. Check out her first novel The Preacher. If you want a copy, let me know and I’ll hook you up!

My mom's first published book!

In case you forgot or haven’t got the hint from all the mom references, today is Mother’s Day (call your mom!), so what better day to talk about my Mom and how she has helped me over the past 28 ½ years! My Mom has always been a great teacher when it comes to money. I grew up in a small town with my Mom and Dad and 4 siblings. It was a busy house with lots of mouths to feed and a frenzy of activity happening all the time. To this day I don’t know how they managed to keep us all fed, pay the bills, and cover all of our school trips and other activities while on a single income. I had a great childhood, but I certainly remember the days when we really were scraping by and eating lots of macaroni and cheese (or sometimes macaroni and bread crumbs). What was most important is that we never went to bed hungry and we always had a roof over our heads. My parents also have a great sense of humour, which made life back home all the more fun for 5 children. Growing up with little really taught me a lot and I can go on for days with stories about how we scraped by, but the point is that you can still have a great life with little cash and a good budget.

I guess one of the most memorable ways that my mom helped save money was with our garden. Every year we would plant rows of delicious vegetables and the savings were incredible. Yes we all really hated weeding the garden. I think that of all the stupid chores that my mom would make us do weeding was one of the worst. The garden wasn’t always a source of frustration (because sometimes you just wanted to dump a gallon of herbicide on the thing and watch them all go!), my Mom would make things fun and loved to do silly things like plant a petunia in the onion patch just so that she could sing that stupid song that went along with it. The amazing thing about the garden was the amount of delicious vegetables that you could get from it and how inexpensive it is. There is nothing like grabbing a fresh carrot out of the ground and tasting how freaking yummy it is! We didn’t just benefit from our garden either, my mom voluntold us to go and pick apples at neighbor’s yards but the pay-off was totally worth it! At the end of the year Mom would make apple juice, pickles, and other preserves and have delicious food to eat for the entire winter. It was amazing. You don’t realize how much work goes into it and how awesome it was until you grow up and leave home! If you’re one of those lucky people who have a yard, you should consider starting a garden. It’s really easy and the rewards are fantastic!

My Mom is not like other Moms – she does not like shopping. I think my mom would rather weed the garden than have to spend more than 30 minutes in a mall. Yes, my mom is a country girl through and through. She liked to get into the store and get out of there as soon as possible. She and I were quite the team when we would go grocery shopping. The important lessons that she taught me were to read the flyers to see what the best deals were. She showed me how certain brands would go on sale and the sales would rotate every week. We almost never paid full price for anything. If the name brand stuff wasn’t on sale, we would buy the store brand. I learned quickly that when you’re cooking things from scratch anyway, it didn’t matter if you used name brand baking ingredients because the no-name stuff produced the same result anyway. We also never went shopping without a grocery list. When you’re trying to feed a family of seven, you always need to plan ahead for what you need and you have to assess what you already have so that you don’t run out of the staples like milk, eggs, flour, butter, and so on. I remember that we used to buy 5-6 4-litre jugs of milk every time that we went into the city for groceries. It was nuts!

Mom and Me!

I don’t remember my Mom ever talking about using her credit card, but I do remember that we had a line of credit. She taught me that the interest rates were much lower and when I needed to borrow money, Mom would use her line of credit and then outline the amount of money that I would have to give her in order to pay more than the minimum payment and get the debt paid off quickly. I was always the best with money in the family so I paid off a $3,000 loan with my mom in a matter of months. I think that actually boosted her credit rating thanks to me – you’re welcome Mom! Now my Mom is the co-signer for the Student-Line-of-Credit that I have, and I am definitely grateful for that since my interest rate on that is actually lower than the federal government’s student loan program. She’s saving me tons of money on interest!  

Creativity is a wonderful weapon when it comes to enjoying your life and living on the cheap. There is nothing that my Mom couldn’t think up that wouldn’t entertain the heck out of us! My mom used to make play-dough out of flour, salt, and water with a few pinches of food colouring – fun for hours! We even had oomalik which was just corn starch and water. If you haven’t tried this yet, you really should – it’s tons of fun! She sacrificed having her own fancy yard and instead filled half of our backyard with sand so that we could dig it up and make dinosaur trails or build sandcastles with the neighbourhood kids. Our yard quickly became the best place for kids to come play and have a blast because my Mom would rather us have a fun place to play rather than a pristine lawn. My Mom did all sorts of creative cost-saving things like sew our Halloween costumes. I remember one year a friend of mine didn’t have a costume so she literally took a couple garbage bags and shredded them up to make him into the “swamp thing.” It really is amazing all the great things she would do with her creative mind to save money.

Mom - just hanging out in the clouds! 

So my message to you all is this, instead of looking to your Mom (or Dad) to pay for things for you, look for advice from you Mother. Usually the women of the house are the ones balancing the books at the end of the month, so when you talk to your mom, see if she has some ideas to help support your journey to financial freedom without it being monetary. Thank you Mom for all the love and support over the years and for reminding me that a creative mind can achieve anything – as long as you’re a little patient along the way!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Love,

John