No-Spend Day Goal

So, I won't make my goal. If I had a "spend as many times in one week as you can" goal, I would definitely win that this week! BUT 9 days in one month is not a bad start and serves as a benchmark for next month to be surpassed.

Tomorrow A and I are going to Sparwood BC. His cousin is graduating high school and his nan flew down from Newfoundland for the event. I am excited to meet his nan. :)

My G-ma is still in the hospital. She went from stable to rapid decline earlier this week. Turns out she has ulcers that are causing her to bleed and the heart medicine was not helping that at all! There was one pretty scary night when the entire family was told they should make their way down to the hospital. Even G-ma said things couldn't be good if her brother came from BC. BUT G-ma is strong and a fighter and pulled through and stabilized again. Yesterday there was some sort of event and the doctors had to shock her heart to get it beating regularly. The doctors keep telling us how strong she is. All I can do is have faith that what is supposed to happen will happen. When I see her, we laugh and giggle and joke. Those are the memories I will keep forever.

Request accepted...

...from the bank. They allowed me my extra payment of $110 (right towards the principle amount) and now my loan is 78% paid off. :)

Loan Payment Request

I just sent in an additional loan payment request to the bank for $110. In two business days they should approve it and put it towards my loan. I am a little confused as to why you would need to request to make an extra payment and why they need to approve this. I can't see the bank not approving this request or any reason why they wouldn't approve. I guess maybe because the quicker something is paid off, the less interest they make...

But anyway, my plan is to pay an extra $100 this month, and June. And then with my "extra" pay cheque in July to pay the darned thing right off.

In other news, A and I met with the bank on Saturday to see about pre-approvals for mortgages. Things look good and we are going to start looking and seeing if we can find anything. my dad is going to help with the down payment and I can start building my equity rather than contributing to the landlord's.

No-spending streak this week...

...is reset to zero. My department collected money for the lottery and I invested $5. If we do win, I wouldn't want to be the only person here because I was determined to have a no-spend day! Tomorrow I am meeting my old boss for drinks, so no-spend will have to start again on Friday.

I finished Vanity Fair last night. It was long, super drawn out, and I really didn't care about any of the characters. I am pretty happy its over, yet today I find myself thinking about Becky Sharp-Crawley and her manipulative ways. She may have impacted my life after all.

Long Weekend

I am hella tired this morning and I didn't even get up to much this weekend. My g-ma had a heart attack over the weekend and is in the hospital. I think she is going to be okay and I went to visit her yesterday, but not sure. They said if she continues the way she was, she would "graduate" to the floor upstairs and they would get her moving around again. My grandma is in her 80s and has been a smoker for at least 60 years of her life. I had a horrible dream Sunday night about teeth falling out (which is supposedly forecasting the death of a relative!), but after visiting her I feel a bit better.
I made it 6 days in a row of not spending any money. And then on Saturday I needed cat food and stopped to browse at the shoe company where I bought two cute shift dresses ($20 each). I didn't spend any money Sunday and Monday.

I get paid on Thursday and I have automatic transfers and a loan payment -- does that count as spending? Or if I don't buy anything, will I get another no-spend day?

My goal was 15 no-spend-days this month and I have 8 so far. I am very sure that I can achieve this goal.

Five and Counting...

I have had five consecutive no-spend days and now I want to see how long I can keep going. Being as it is the long weekend, my streak is probably not going to last much longer. May Long usually means some alcohol consumption will be taking place....
I have 46 days left to complete my communications course. I need to go hard for the rest of this month and I am hoping to utilize this weekend for that purpose.

Hope everyone has a great (and safe) long weekend. Also, please don't rip apart nature with your toys (quads, trucks, etc.).

3 no-spend days in a row...

...AND today I thought I wanted a chocolate bar. I walked to the vending machine. I looked into the vending machine. I held the toonie in my hand and thought about it. And then I thought about having another no-spend day and that I really didn't need the chocolate or the calories. I walked away with my money still in hand! My goal is 15 no-spend days this month and there is 3 weeks left of the month. An average of 5 days a week and I think I can do it. Sundays I like to stay in and watch TV (or recover from Saturday nights) and then during the week, as long as I bring lunch and practice willpower (like today!) then I can do it :)

PS. Isn't it weird that we don't spell toonie with the word two in it?

Pay Day!

I paid $197.06 to my VISA and transferred $100 to my emergency fund. Tomorrow my loan payment comes out as well as my RRSP transfer. Working on a plan to see how quickly I could pay off my loan. I have been playing with numbers for the last two days and wondering what the bare minimum entertainment money I could live off of for the next couple of months in order to wipe my loan completely out of my life...
I also paid my utilities, cell and Internet bills today (total of $248.86 --roaming cell phone charges from NYC hit my cell bill! OUCH!).

UPDATE: Transferred the $52 from bluecross to my VISA as well.

Put $70...

...towards my VISA as it was just sitting in my account and I get paid at midnight tomorrow. I also received $52 from blue cross (portion they cover for the re-cementing of my crown) which I will deposit tomorrow and transfer over to my VISA as well. AND like I mentioned I get paid at midnight tomorrow so looking forward to taking care of business again! I have had a money draining beginning to my year and my first quarter results are not very positive. Here's to quarter two being an improvement :)

So....

My crown fell out. I don't think it was supposed to, but it did and so I had to have it put back in (because I am not ready to set the trend of screws instead of teeth!). This happened Monday morning, my new dentist put it back in Tuesday afternoon. Except Thursday at lunch it fell out again! My new dentist decided to make a filling inside of it so that it would be more snug against the abutment. This happened this morning and so far, so good. But I may have to deal with this the rest of my life because of a number of factors: the length of the abutment, the angle the implant sits at, God hating me, etc. etc. (just kidding, I am sure deep down, God does not hate me).
I am happy that I have dental coverage with my job. I still had to pay $216.54 (I also had my teeth cleaned while I was there...might as well!) for all of this, BUT it was less then I could have paid and my HSA will send it back my way. Of course this had to happen when it was rent week and I don't have much of an emergency fund right now, so this cost was charged :(
This afternoon when I looked at my accounts, to my pleasant surprise the government had deposited the loan I gave them last year (income tax return!). I was able to transfer that $216.54 right back on my VISA! I also paid back my EF fund and my DP savings as I borrowed from them earlier this week to make sure my rent would be covered. AND I will be able to buy a bus pass this evening without juggling money again.
I don't know what happened. For awhile I felt really in control of my money. But recently it feels like I keep borrowing from my emergency fund to pay bills and groceries and nights out. Today is the beginning of the month and I vow to be as fiscally responsible as I can this month. A lot of my goals this month have to do with school and hopefully that will keep me busy and not spending money. I also want to see my EF at $300 by the end of May, my DP at $300 as well AND I want to have 15 no-spend days. Last month Canadian Saver was able to get 21 no-spend days! I am inspired.
I have not bought anything in the cafeteria at work since Ash Wednesday (February 25, 2009). I gave up the cafeteria for Lent and I haven't felt the need to go back. This month I am going to bring my lunch every work day (20 days) as well.

Long post to wrap up the week. Thanks for sticking around.