When life hands you lemons, decide eat a fresh croissant in Paris.

And so I run into another setback, this time instead of a $400 setback it is a close to $8,000.

As you may recall, I was to make an extra $6K or so as side income in the upcoming months. This will now be replaced by a trip to Europe to see my baby brother get married. Estimated trip cost $2,000. Total damage to my condo / dept repayment plan $8,000. Estimated set back to achieving dream of home ownership and going back to school: one year and two years respectively.

The good news, as I have been very diligent with my spending and saving, I will be able to go on this trip without borrowing. Of course, this uses up my $1,000 traveling fund + $300 of the money I was supposed to save this month. Not to mention that I will need another $700 or so for 3 nights hotel in Paris (  ) and spending money + wedding gift.
Since this is a complete surprise and the wedding is June 4th, I will not be able to give my brother a fantastic wedding gift worthy of a little brother, but it will be something of a more last-minute-I-don’t-approve-of-this- and –don’t-have-cash size. To be determined.

I am choosing to see this as a good thing.

1. Since the lay over for the flights is in Paris, my sister and I will spend 4 days there on the way back. I have never been to Paris, and it is on my list of 50 places to visit this lifetime. So far I have only been to 4/50. Since Paris is the city of love, a part of me wanted to save it for a romantic trip, but it looks like my sis and I will once again be going on our honeymoons together. Last year we visited Italy, and decided we were on our honeymoons as Italy is the top honeymooner choice.

2. I need a break. Correction, I am in a desperate need of a break. Perhaps this is a divine intervention to show me that I should in fact take a break and not work 12 hour days for 2 weeks on my vacation. This is the only way I could possibly go on vacation this year feeling guilt free.

After two days of deep deep anger I have finally come out of it and feel happy for the kid and excited to see Paris!

Ps. I will have to redo my budget for the next 2 years. But it goes to show you, you can plan and plan and still end up somewhere completely differently than you ever imagined. Ie in Paris drinking a cappuccino and eating a freshly baked croissant. Things can be worse.

Spending recap - Fri March 4 - Thurs March 10

Fri Mar 4

$40 Hair Cut
$80 Massage - will be reimbursed
$120 Grocery
Total $240 without Massage $160

Sat Mar 5

Money Free Day!

Sun Mar 6

Money Free Day!

Mon Mar 7

$6.53 Light bulbs and a chocolate bar

Tues Mar 8

Money Free Day!

Wed Mar 9

$7.90 Dinner
$15 - Raptors game Ice cream and GO bus
Total $22.90

Thurs Mar 10

$4.15 Starbucks

Grand Total 193.58

Another week under budget!!!
I am not counting the massage.
I went to my first sporting event, the Raptors game, on Wednesday. My company had a platinum box and after paying $6.50 for an ice cream we found out that we can get it for free. And we got another cone and popcorn and beer and M&Ms.
I need to work on my grocery bill, for a single person I spend a lot. This week it included a $30 cast iron pan, but still it is high.

Weekly Check -in Feb 25- Mar 4

Fri Feb 25
Money Free Day!

Sat Feb 26

$15 Night out for my Birthday

Sun Feb 27
$6.98 Post Office
$35.63 Groceries
Total $42.61

Mon Feb 28

Money Free Day!

Tues Mar 1

$11.08 Mac Blush (+$20 from a Xmas gift card)
$55.70 Gas
Total $66.78


Wed Mar 2

$4.56 Tim Hortons
$19.90 Wine
Total $24.46

Thurs Mar 3

$400 Car Scratch repair - Money from savings ;(

Grand Total $148.85
Grand Total with car $548.85

Overall, without the car repair, this was a below budget week!

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!

Shoes, I want new shoes.

I feel like a junkie in the need of a fix (Not that I know how that really feels.)
Shoes. I need to buy SHOOES.

I don’t know what has come over me today but my heart races in the thoughts of sparkly disco ball mile high stilettos. I just want to slip my feet into a brand new pair, twirl around in the store surrounded by even more shoes and bring out that credit card so that they can come home with me. They will surely make friends with all of the other shoes in my closet.

Oh the joy that will be!

I haven’t stepped in a mall since Boxing day, even then I was limited to my list of purchases. Oh, I went cold turkey and now 1 month later, all I can think of is a pair of shiny disco ball stilettos.

How wonderful the brand new shoe will feel against my foot. How tall they will make me. I will be the girl with the shiny shoes. The shiny- turn- heads –they- are –so- beautiful shoes.

How will I be able to restrain myself? I have the feeling that if I get into the car it will drive me to the mall instead of home. If I go on the internet my fingers will simply search out the perfect pair.

Focus.

Think of anything else, perhaps work… SHOES.

*le sigh*

*le very deep sigh*