Weekly Check in Feb 18 - Feb 24

Fri Feb 18
$9.92 Shoppers - not sure what I bought actually...
$22.24 Dinner
$32.16 Total
Sat Feb 19
Sun Feb 20
Mon Feb 21

The Weekend in Ottawa cost me in total $80. This includes gas and a few meals out as well as a night out dancing. It would have been a lot more if my sister had not paid for my dinner on Sat night as my Birthday gift
Tues Feb 22
$52.02 Gas
$5.65 Lunch
$32.77 Lulu Lemon *
$39.54 Browns Shoes
$39.72 Grocery
$169.7 Total

Wed Feb 23

$55 Spa***

Thurs Feb 24
$40.32 Grocery
$20 Dinner
$20 Dealfind deal on 20 drop in classes for Hot yoga **
$80.32 Total

$407.26 Week Grand Total

* I was stuck at the mall for half hour on Tues and did a bit of damage. I found some great deals actually. I really needed a new sports bra and I found one at the lulu lemon clearance rack! Also, I finally found my Shiny Disco ball shoes, can't go wrong for $130 shoes for less than $30!
** This will be great to add to my workout schedule and it is $1 per class for the next 20 weeks!

*** Technically I am not sure if I should include this. I actually purchased $150 worth of gift certificates for $120 to the spa I go to for massages and beautification. When I was paying my bill it turned out I had $55 credit from before. My massages get reimbursed and thus I am not counting it.

Now to be honest looking at the week as a total of $407 actually hurts. I didn't think I spent that much until I added it up.

Weekly Check in Feb 11 - Feb 17

Fri Feb 11

$18 Lunch
$10 Volleball Drop In
$28 Total

Sat Feb 12
$53.89 Grocery
$100 Restock on all of my beauty/ hair supplies
$153.89 Total

Sun Feb 13

Money Free Day!

Mon Feb 14

Money Free Day!

Tues Feb 15

$4.15 Latte
$3.99 Milk
$8.14 Total

Wed Feb 16
$4.15 Latte
$21.70 Art Supplies
$25.85 Total


Thurs Feb 17

$5.59 Latte


$221.47 Weekly Grand Total

Overall, I am really proud of myself here, I spent a lot getting my toiletries in order, but I didn't spend on anything extra during the week.
As a side note, I really wanted to cut down on coffee but I have actually graduated to drinking Venti sized lattes. Major step back.

Very very true!

For your Sat night entertainment.

Source: Found on an online friend's Blog

Birthdays

Birthdays are expensive!



It’s not the ‘it’s my birthday so I will dance’ celebrations that get you but the unfortunate government related paperwork that goes with that special day. This by the way gets less and less special by the year.



1. Renew car sticker – there goes $75 and if your car is older and born on an odd year top it up with another $50 for an E-test. My car is a 2010, basically I spent $30K to save $50. Lets not talk about it.
2. Renew driver’s license… another $75 boom gone. Luckily it only happens once every 4 years.
3. Renew Health card – oh this is free! But the line ups are long enough to make you wish you paid and got to the front of the line faster
4. Of course, you cannot not (sorry for the double negative) buy yourself something really really nice. Perhaps two somethings. You can of course imagine that next week I will be indulging in the purchase of a pair of disco ball shiny shoes and nice long awaited visit to the Spa.
5. The party. There is always some kind of unexpected expense related to this. Not naming names or describing events to protect the innocent.



Happy Birthday my fellow Pisces!

Tax Time!

It’s that special time of year: Tax Time! NETFILE is open for business!
For many it is a dreaded time but for me it is time to start the tax refund dance!

Perhaps, if I did not have tuition credits, RRSP contribution and OSAP loan interest to deduct I may be dreading this as well.

This is also personal accountants most favourite and most hated time of the year. Many of us will walk, no run, to tax booths set up in malls much like during Christmas time gift wrapping booths are over crowded. Those smartie-pants accountants are going to be working long hours but also laughing all the way to the bank as they cash their hard earned cheques!

I am fortunate enough that thanks to my education, I can sincerely say that I know a bit about what I am doing and can handle my taxes thank- you- very- much!

I still choose to use a handy dandy software to help me along the way.

My choice for years now has been Turbo Tax Standard Canada, aka Quick tax.

Here is why?

1. I am lazy and I don’t want to have to look up my SIN and postal code(I actually know it, but typing it out involves too much work), I can easily transfer last year’s tax refund info to the new year. I click on a button and there it is, ready to go! Last year I used Quick Tax and their website assures me that Turbo will manage just fine to transfer my info.

2. Thanks to the twitter world, I found out that last week the software was on sale at Walmart and I picked it up for $28.99. My sister and I will share it and split the cost. Also, as we can file up to eight, >$25K income returns, we will try to share it with another friend or two to keep costs down.

3. It asks my simple questions and I answer them (well duh!). The guide is very simple to use and the questions are usually yes/no and multiple choice, allowing you to quickly navigate through the forms that apply to you. Have I mentioned, that I like easy?

4. I love the little chart in the corner showing my how my return is growing with every click. Now this applies to me right now, I will probably bear my teeth at it if it was going in the red.

5. RRSP optimizer! If you are prepared, and basically your employer sent you your T4 forms prior to the March 1st RRSP deadline, you can play with this tool to optimize your RRSP investment and tax return. This is a great tool if you are planning on taking out a short term RRSP loan to optimize your contribution. Again, it is a bit time sensitive depending on whether or not you have all of your ducks in a row early enough.

6. There are some audit guarantee and technical support options. If you need it, it is there. I haven’t personally used it, but it’s good to have the option.

7. The final check always finds one or two ways to optimize my return and makes sure I have filled out all of the forms. No thinking involved.

8. Three clicks and it is sent to the Tax man! I love the paperless and instant gratification of uploading my return. I don’t have to worry about it being lost in the mail and then waiting for it to be processed in Tax land. I also have the automatic deposit option and basically cash in my account in about two weeks. Bang Bang, thank you m’am!

One pet peeve, I can never find the form to input the rent I paid during the year. After a bit of searching it is generally easy to find.

Hopefully you are all finding an easy option to file your returns and are doing the happy-tax-refund dance with me!

How do you file? Paper and pen? Accountant? Software?


Ps. this is my personal opinion on the software of my choice.

The importance of an emergency fund...

or goodbye new TV...

This week, I learned a valuable lesson: An emergency fund is crucial to one's financial life. Basically, having $60 of forgotten money is not going to get you anywhere in an emergency. When did an emergency ever only cost $60?

I had a very bad week.
It started with a trip to the dentist, after which I found myself swollen like a chipmunk and holding a bill for $160.
My dental benefits failed me here.

Something about the dentist using a fancier filling?!.
My old company's benefits would have fully covered this. My new benefits may say 100% but they mean 70%. Next time, before they do any craziness in my mouth, everything will go through the insurance company first and if they have to use the normal, not fancy fillings, they will use those.

After this, I found myself in a bit of a medical emergency which resulted in a $45 ambulance bill, $15 hospital parking and then $400 scratch on my car.
After my hospital visit, I was not well enough to drive my car, but I did. I needed groceries and in the parking lot I miss judged my size vs. a tiny parking space and the scratch happened. In over 10 years of driving this is the first time I have done something like this. The scratch is minimal, but my brand new shiny car cannot stay like this. It is driving me crazy and I will get it fixed on Mar 2. I did some comparison shopping and the $400 is really the best offer.

I am hoping that the benefits, which by the way are making mad as they 'suck', will cover the ambulance bill. *Cross fingers*

And if you are counting this is $575 of expenses I have not budgeted for at all.

Ladies and gents, emergencies happen to the best of us and we have to budget for those.

I will pay the $400 from the money I have put aside to transfer over to my RRSP on Feb 18th. This means that I will miss the 2010 deadline for the $400. I am happy that because I was putting money away, I have the money to pay for the repair. If I had I moved them into an RRSP, I would not have it available. This is where, I scratch (ha scratch!) my plan to double my RRSP as my emergency fund.
Going forward I will start setting money aside for emergencies.

Also, my cheque for grading papers should come in the next 30 days and instead of going into the new TV fund, it will cover the other outstanding bills.

Good times, no!

Weekly Summary Fri Feb 4- Thurs Feb 10

Due to a bit of a medical problem/ crappy week I will not go back and recap the prior week. There was nothing of note that week. Moving forward!


Fri Feb 4

Knife Set $33.43*
Night out $30
Breakfast $4.35
Total$68

Sat Feb 5
Dentist $160**
Dinner $30
Total$190

Sun Feb 6
Parking $15

Mon Feb 7
Grocery $28.04
Drug Store $36.84
Total$64.88

Tues Feb 8

NO SPEND DAY!

Wed Feb 9
Gas $46.37

Thurs Feb 10

Grocery $37.77

Total Week$422

* I purchased a new knife set to replace the extremely bendy one I have. It was on sale close to 50% off and I had a $40 gift card.
** Turns out the 100% dental benefits are not really 100%

I started the part time job...

It seems that the same procrastination that applies to avoiding writing your assignments, applies to well... marking other people’s assignments.

I had a fine and dandy plan to mark 4 per day. There are only 12 to do anyway. Well, it is now day three and I have completed all of two.

These reports are headache inducing to read, provide commentary on, fill out assessment forms and more. I can really say I am not getting paid enough for this!

Today I am armed with Mocha crunch cake and wine, I can do this!!!

It's not all about money crunching.... A girl need a date from time to time.

When venturing into the world of online dating:

General points to watch out for:
• People easily misrepresent themselves when they are communicating online. They are comfortable being forward – Stand your ground and be weary of all people.
• Pictures almost never equal reality. They can be old, of a friend or people just don’t look like themselves. It’s always strange meeting someone as their pics are only a hint of what they really look like.
• Shy people can be more open, on a date it may be like pulling teeth to talk to them.
• Never give out personal information, be careful of adding strangers on FB or even BBM.
• Always be suspicious. It’s safer that way.
• If you feel uncomfortable, end the conversation and walk away. Always let someone know what you are doing and where you are.
• Always meet in a public place.
• You can tell a lot about a person by having a phone conversation with them.

Plenty of Fish – This is a mad house of man, man and than some more man. There are profiles everywhere and you can’t look away.
Also this is the home of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Features I like:
• You can see when someone has read your message.
• You can see when he is online.
• Preference can be set on age. I have no interest in anyone who is younger than I am.
• It’s free.
• Geographical filter, you will be amazed at the amount of singles in 10 mile radius of yourself.

Features I don’t like:
• Most people do not fill out their profiles fully.
• I don’t like the ‘looking for’ section. I don’t know what I am looking for, lets take it one step at a time. Really do you need to know if I just want you for one go around or a life time. What if I change my mind?
• There is no filter on the kind of men you will meet. It’s as random as it can be.

In my experience, communication quickly goes to MSN. I haven’t used MSN in years and it doesn’t hold any interest for me. After a few emails, I don’t mind getting a phone call or exchanging texts. It is a more current way of communication. Some dates have been really interesting, some extremely dry, some fun.
Fun for experimentation, if you are up for some ups and downs!

I know two couples who are either married or about to be that have met through this site.

I don’t recommend it if you are shy, or very inexperienced in dealing with men. If you are any of these things, you may fall for the immediate bombardment of emails of men telling you how hot you are. Remember, they are fishing!

eHarmony – the promise of the perfect relationship.

Features I like:

• Requires for you to have a relatively filled out profile.
• It does the searching and matching for you.
• It is not free; it keeps out the riff raft.
• Most men are university graduates. – very important for someone who has a higher education like me.


Features I don’t like:
• It’s not free. It is pricy, but I have been lucky to search out promo codes and with some patience save money.
• It has a few stages to communications that I find useless, such as the Likes/Dislikes. I just skip over his and forward mine.
• Introductory communication can take on weeks, depending on how often people check the site. It is very easy to just loose interest.

In my experience, this is great to find someone you can have a long conversation with over dinner. Most dates have been as if I was on a date with myself. Perfect match on several levels, to the point that my date had the same red car and was planning a vacation in Italy almost at the same time I was. But, tell me do you want to be on a date with yourself?
The men were a bit more mature and relaxed than on POF. The commercial is a perfect example of what your first date will most likely be, but the odds of wanting a second date with yourself are low.

I don’t know any couples who have met on this site, but I have heard of several friends of friends that have found The One.


I would comment on Lavalife but I haven’t used it in a few years. At that point I enjoyed the instant messenger, but the communication was limited for a free account. I don’t think I ever went on a date with someone from there.

In conclusion, put yourself out there and have fun. Don’t have high expectations, be cautious and most importantly enjoy.

You never know!!!