Weekly Money Check-Up 16/8/11

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1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a visit to the spa. My indulgence and vanity.

2. Today I am thankful that my sister's one month post opp was a success.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was take a long walk with my new man friend.

4. I will consider this week a success if I I follow my running schedule and run 30K.

5. If I had today off I will dream up a way to have every day off.

Weekly Spending Summary Fri July 29 - Thurs Aug 4

Fri July 29
$4.15 Starbucks
$25 Indian Buffet
Total: $30

Sat July 30
$51 Grocery

Sun July 31
$39 WagJag Rock climbing Deal

Mon Aug 1
$6.86 Second Cup
$60 Match.com renewal - I forgot to cancel it
$10.50 Harry Potter Part 7b
$10 R&W Tank
Total: $88

Tues Aug 2

$10.62 Starbucks

Wed Aug 3
Thurs Aug 4
NYC Trip!


Weekly Total: $220


I am a bit mad that I did not catch the Match.com membership before it renewed. I didn't have any intention of renewing it at all. And I would have been under budget.
Oh, well everything happens for a reason, right?

NYC trip Expenses

My quick and cheap road trip to NYC was fantastic apart from the horrid flight back.

My plane was at 7pm from JFK, at 5pm I was still at my friends place on 116th and Broadway. I decided to be hard core and spend $15 on Subway/Air train.

After a 10min walk to the first subway train and 10min wait for the train and 10min ride to 42nd street, I made to the E train that was to take me across Queens to JFK.

After 15 mins of waiting, I noticed a small sign saying E train is not running on this date. A small ripped sign! We checked and sure enough it wasn't. I asked two Spanish women if they wanted to share a cab to the airport. They agreed and we found a cabbie that would take us for $65. Of course now I only have 1hour to get to my plane.

At 6:40pm I was at the airport, this was after a mad 150km/hr drive through Manhattan and Queens, while the driver kept looking back at me and called my "baby".

I was ushered to the slowest typing woman who after 10mins told me she didn't feel comfortable printing a boarding pass for me even if she could. She could rebook me for the next day, I couldn't believe it. She asked what city was close to me, Montreal? I said NO my car is at Buffalo airport. I think at this point she realized that I had no harmful intentions and after another few minutes of agonizingly slow typing gave me a 'special business boarding pass'. I got the the security and almost wasn't allowed to go through but they allowed me given that I was on 'special business'.

I almost forgot to remove my backpack prior to going through the metal detectors. I was very frazzled. I took my shoes off and passed, the security guy smiled and waved at me and said "come though, Bella". I was wearing my Ciao Bella shirt from Italy.

I did a mad run to the gate, where there was a line up as the flight was overbooked. Thankfully I had already selected my seat and they just printed a boarding pass there. At this point I was sweating bullets.

I made it on the plane, they separated from the gate and proceeded to wait for 40mins on the runway before take off.

Thankfully, there was no line up at the border on my ride home and I saw fireworks over Niagara!

Flight from Buffalo: $110
4 days of Parking at BUF: $40/2 =20
Rental Car +Gas= $200+ $60= $260/2=130
Cheapo Motel in Jersey=$70/2= $35
Tolls: $20/2= $10
Food $100
MET, gifts, running capris =$50
MAD drive to JFK $40

Grand Total:$504
(would have been cheaper if there were 3 of us, just sayin' ;) )
After a 5hour wait I saw the Alexander McQueen exhibit. The regular MET price is $25 but the girl asked me if I was a student anywhere and gave me the student rate of $12. Did I mention it was a 5 hour wait!

I am not sure if I have ever mentioned that if it was up to me I would move to NYC in an instant. I can't tell you where to find things in Toronto, but I know exactly where everything is in NYC. Home.

August Goal Keeper Update

Goal Keeper update!!! Woooohoooo time!

+720 Side income
+200 Savings for school

I have a giant long distance bill looming over me, and I mean it will be about 300 mins of long distance big...... This is why I am not putting any money in my EF or Travel fund. I am waiting to get the bill and pay it.

The New York trip was paid from the Travel fund $120 + $400 from side income.
The rest went to debt repayment.

August is a triple pay month for me and with some luck I will be putting a nice chunk of change towards the debt repayment.

I really want to take a photo class this fall, but for this I will need to buy a $1K camera and I am going to do my best and close my eyes and do the right thing by repaying some debt instead of spending the money. Not going to be easy not to yield to temptation.


August 11th EDIT: Phone bill came in and from the $300 I budgeted it was only $210!!!
The difference goes to this weekend's unexpected hotel expense. The price you pay for traveling +1 :P

A little too much...

I have always said and believed that my ambition will be the end of me.
Case and point: signing up to run 1/2 marathon after only running for 3 weeks. Why did I not listed and do something sensible like sign up for a 5K run or even 10K. That's what a normal beginner should do, even 10K would be pushing it. No! I had to go for the 21.1K.

I was doing really well until about 2.5 weeks ago. I was running every other day at my own pace, adding about 1K a week to my runs. I was running all long runs with 7:1 intervals.

I decided to follow the tried, tested and true Running Room Schedule and ever since then I have been struggling as I jumped to 10:1 intervals.

Today I tried to run my tempo speed and did about 1.6K in one interval and after that my stomach turned to rock and I wanted to cry in pain. I tried to run again but my legs refused. I ran total 2.5K out of the 4K, and walked the rest as I was already 2K away from home.

I kept thinking, what am I doing this for? Why the fudge am I dedicating so much time and energy to this? What do I have to prove and most importantly to whom?

Well me. Nothing ever is good enough, nothing ever is achieved, there is always something bigger, better, shinier out there, that I have to go for and get.

Right now I am ready to give up and just hide.
But here is the thing, in order to ensure that I don't back out of things when my true laziness takes over, I employ a little strategy... I tell everyone what I am planning on achieving. This way I can't back down. I cannot be the girl that gives up, this will be complete shame for me and so I build in this little back up plan in everything I do.

And thus, as much as I don't want to and as much as I just want to hide, tomorrow I start again. Tomorrow rain or shine (rain =treadmill run)I will do the 4K scheduled. But I am not going to follow their schedule fully. I am going to go back to 7:1 intervals at my own speed. I am going to cancel my 14K group run with friends in 2 weeks as I will not be able to keep up with them, I will do the run by myself.

I will do this, on my own terms. I am also going to think twice before throwing myself into the deep end again.

Weekly Money Check-Up: 8/1

Photo Credit

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a water belt for running. An absolute necessity for longer and longer runs.

2. Today I am thankful that I survived a 12K run on Sunday. I was ready to collapse after 8K and somehow body over mind made to the end!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was sit in my hammock on my balcony and read a book.


4. I will consider this week a success if I make to NYC and back in one piece.
5. I dream about traveling the world. Seeing, smelling, tasting everything that the world has to offer. Big on my dream list right now are Africa and India.

Weekly Spending Summary Fri July 22 - Thurs July 28

Fri July 22
$13 - Quiznos lunch for my sis and I
$15 - Road trip snacks
Total $28

Sat July 23

$11 Groceries
$44 Groceries
$11 Wine
Total $66

Sun July 24
$12 StitchIt to hem my pants


Mon July 25
$4.25 Starbucks
$22 Girls night at Milestones
Total $26

Tues July 26
$3 Parking
$40 Allergy Meds and random stuff at the Drug Store
Total $43

Wed July 27
$54 Gas


Thurs July 28
$37 Groceries
$47 Running Room Water Belt (after $10 discount for signing up for 1/2 Marathon)
Total $84

Weekly Total $313

Yep another epic fail in the budgeting department :(
If you are counting that now over $300 spent on running. The water belt was an extreme necessity, which proved to be very useful in my first 12K run this past Sunday.
I don't think that there is anything else that I have to buy for running. It is a very expensive venture!

In other news I am off on my road trip to NYC tomorrow and the forecast is all rain ;(. Send some positive juju my way that the bad weather blows away.