My one year low-buy

Because I heart my birthday, I'm going to start it now.

I have allowed a bit of wiggle room. I think I'll continue my Hello Waffle and Glamour Doll Eyes subscription until December before cancelling, and I will be keeping one of my subscription boxes (either Birchbox or Topbox and they both renew in December). I may try to get another Glamour Doll Eyes OTM, but I'm not sure about this.

What I will stop buying as of Today (October 17th) for the next year is:
-Make-up (except for replacements of unique categories like foundation, primer, mascara)
-Nail Polish
-Clothes
-Shoes
-Kitchen items
-Books
-Any of the other millions of temptations I have

I will not intentionally stop buying planner stickers for the entire year, but I do intend on waiting until march before I select more. I am writing this in advance and assuming a certain shop I follow sticks to the release schedule posted I will make one more planner sticker purchase today, and if the Femme Fatale goosebumps part II collection is out, that will make its way to me. I am going to continue to spend the next couple of months monitoring my spending before establishing a formal budget. I also expect there will be slip-ups but I hope not for a while. I think if I reduce my exposure to social media and when I do use it to come with a feeling on contentment with what I have that I can change my feeling of "gimmie!" to one of appreciation without brain altering desire lust.


What is allowed?
-a new planner or two for the next year
-replacement make-up listed above
-reasonably timed haircuts as I forgot how nice this feels
-reasonable replacements for things like shampoo and soap
-savings for a vacation next year
-currently coffee and takeout food but this may change after my couple months of monitoring. I'm currently quite good a limiting my intake and use of these sources
-Two race entries
-Activities for the kids, presents for the kids, and reasonable clothes for the kids


Why?
I want to realign my finances with my values, build an emergency fund, set a good example for my children and force myself to see some areas where I might lean towards hoarding *cough cough indie eyeshadows cough cough*. I also want to be better to the earth, more mindful with my shopping and consumption and build myself back up from the start. I also want to enjoy what I have, and I think that might come from having less. I want gain control of my spending. I want to get my old habits back of exercise, eating healthy, work/life balance and financial responsibility. I want to be the mom my kids are proud of. I am hitting restart. I want to me.

If this sounds nuts to you, and to me it sounds a bit crazy to be internet posting it (doesn't everyone do this sometime?) here's a recent article on how to choose your own financial adventure. In the context f that post this could be my re-declaration of option one as I hope to out of debt by the end. Assuming I get out of debt I'll essentially be renaming my debt repayment plan budgets to low-buy in order to start the saving train. I'm looking forward to it.

2015 goals - Part 1

I had written these down on a sticky note that my toddler took away and hid. I've been thinking about these goals since, well, mid last year so I should have them down pat. Side note, it's nice to be over the flu. *fingers crossed*

1. Pay off student loan. $11,000 to go. I'm hoping to put $1050 on this monthly (over half my current pay) and my tax refund.
2. Pay $5000 back on my personal loan.
3. Have $6000 ready to pay back my pension.
4. Put $800 in my GIC RRSP, $600 in my mutual fund RRSP
5. Contribute to my emergency fund. Not sure of target numbers yet.

I've got a couple of personal goals - mostly running
1. Run a 10 km in May
2. Run a half marathon in August
3. I want to lose 30 more lbs by October
4. Decide if we will have baby #3 or not

I want to set work goals but I'm not sure. I don't know *if* I'll have a job soon (HR says I will - but I've learned to no trust HR) and I don't know if I want return. I don't know if I want to look for a job prior to. I don't know if I want to continue trying to get into a new field like I was. I'm full of the "I don't know" and I'm sure baby-brain does not help. I have some part-time jobs I want to apply for but the cost of childcare may make these meaningless. I have some additional ideas once I have a direction set.

Back to the financial. My focus is or at least was going to be goal #1 - results in my student loans being destroyed. I know these are "good debt" but I'm just getting sick of carrying them around, and I don't think the very minor tax credit I receive on the interest portion is worth the icky feeling they coat my soul in. I'm hoping to put $1050 on this monthly (over half my current pay) and my tax refund. However, my husband equivalent has thrown us a challenge. We're engaged! Now that I'm a bit over just being annoyed he wants to side track me from these goals, I've been planning a shopping ban and selling spree (I have the draft posts to prove this) and I'm so worried once the spending doors open, there will be no way to shut them. Our primarily budget is $5000 which partially adds to my "why didn't we just go to the courthouse and get it done there prior to our baby being born" frustration. I was very clear I wanted this, but relationships involve some compromise, and I guess he just had to do it this way. Despite all this, I am starting to get excited.  I have no idea what this is going to do to these goals, but I'm going to leave January for tracking spending after the birth of the second baby, and February to analysis the results and.. build a wedding budget after we set a date? Or do you book a place first? Or find the person who will complete it?

What are your goals? Has life already thrown you some curve balls? Did you forget to post your yearly goal recap before posting your new goals too?

The cost of subscription boxes

As the new year approaches, and I start to set my goals, I wondered how much has my subscription box habit grown? And then I promptly cancelled a few boxes.

I'm going to be on Maternity leave as long as I can - hopefully for the full year. There is some chance I may return to work a few months early, and some uncertainty that my position will remain. Academic restructuring is awesome. Not. I was lucky to have a job where I received some maternity benefit top-up for 12 weeks. Now, I'm looking for ways to get the most out of my EI pay.

As of December 1st, I had these boxes:

Beauty:
monthly
Ipsy $10 plus $4.95 shipping (US)
Beauty Box 5 $12 plus $3 shipping (US)
Top Box $12 plus taxes
Glamour Doll Eyes OTM $6 plus $8 shipping (US)
Birch Box $14.95
Indulge Me $20
Julep Maven $24.99 (US)

quarterly
Luxe Box box $26
Fortune Cookie Soap Box $20 plus $8 shipping (US)

Life Style:
monthly
Panty by Post $22
Indie Gift Box $24.99 plus $12 shipping

quarterly
Fab Fit Fun VIP Box $49.95 plus $8 shipping


I count 12 boxes total, some automatically renewing, some not. Many of these I paid for upfront which reduced the cost for a few of them, but also allowed me to forget about it in my budget. Much nicer than getting bills each month for all these.

Monthly total $141 (!!)
Yearly (Monthly only) $1692

Quarterly total $105
Yearly (Quarterly only) $420

Yearly total $2112 (!!)

Wowza.

If I added this to my student loan payment, in 5 years it would all be paid off. Not cool me, not cool.

I've cancelled a few of the ones that bill monthly, and I'm going to work on reducing or terminating completely the rest. GDE's OTM I really want to get again, but seems unlikely with the popularity of this subscription. It sells out in minutes, or seconds!

I love getting these boxes, and they were a way to help push me to blog again. So far, I've knocked 5 off the list. Even I miss them, I'll  just remind myself staying home with the new baby (and working on minimalism despite having kids) is important for me. Oh, and debt-free would be lovely!

Do you have any subscription boxes or a small purchase that got out of hand? How you decide it was time to stop or which ones to keep?

6 month follow-up

Around April, when my pregnancy was beginning to get real, and all the legalities from the sale of my house had settled, I was able to total my debts. I was also starting to find some stable ground to stand on. Because I now had a tiny ticking time bomb inside me, I wanted to create a road map to get where I wanted to be to help the beautiful person-to-be inside me enter a more stable home. I love, love, LOVED my house, but it had become an anchor pulling me into financial terrority I did not want to be in. In addition to the value of my home dropping over 30%, I was losing money each month that it was rented out. I still feel confident that I had the capital to ride it out, in 7, 10 or 18 years the value of home would have risen, and the investment would have paid off well. Yet, at the time, I was struggling with credit card debt, lines of credit, and not making enough money to have a positive balance at the end of the month. At this point in time, I no longer had my home, and instead owed other people over $65,000.

My goals in May, 2014 were:

1. Pay off my $10,500 credit card balance transfer, at $4101 in May PASS - Paid in full :D
2. Pay $1800 of my line of credit  FAIL - only paid off $1000
3. Pay $600 on student loan #1 PASS - Paid in full :D
4. Pay $300 on student loan #2 PASS - Paid $575
5. Pay $1500 on personal loan PASS - Paid $1500
6. Save $1000 for maternity leave PASS - saved $1500
7. Save 5750 as an emergency fund PASS - saved $750

May:
Total Debt: $58,425
Total Savings $5

October:
Total Debt: $46.000
Total Savings: $2250

Total debt reduction: $12,425

There were broken down month by month and pay by pay. I had to alter these goals in August (I may write a blog post about this) as it was becoming clearer that I would be induced prior to the end of October, and I had some financial targets I wanted to hit to feel "ready" for the baby. I highly recommend this for both long and short term goals. It's a great way to see if your goal is realistic, and how hard it may be to obtain. In my case, I was incredibly hard to stick to my debt repayment/savings budget but being 1) short term 2) a upcoming huge life event and 3) just prior to pay reduction (taking maternity leave) a good choice for me.

Between March and the end of October I've reduced my overall debt about $19,000 and increased my savings by around $2000 (which I will be using until I receive my EI and can complete another budget). I've had a lot of demons but .... that's none too shabby.

August goal updates

I was worried that I was going to go off the spending deep end in August. I had a bunch of factors that usually lead to emotional spending and I was planning a vacation to the center of my biggest spending temptation - Lululemon. More on Seawheeze 2014 and beautiful British Columbia later!

From my last goal post: 

August:
1. Pay off smaller student loan - Done! I have posted my "your loan is now paid in full" letter on my fridge for inspiration. 
2. Bring savings to $1000 - I can't believe but knew I had to do this before I left on vacation. I did dip into this the second week in September, but I've since been able to top it up.
3. Find $500 for vacation - Yup! I even stuck to my total budget of under $1000. Amazing (and probably less than it would be if I wasn't pregnant and knew what size would fit but still a win).
4. List a few more eBay items to achieve above goals then take a break - Currently on a break from ebay and feeling overly guilty about it.
5. Go on vacation! De-stress! - Loved it! 


September:
1. EF to $750 - yup!
2. Pay back $1000-$2000 on line of credit -... I don't think I'll be able to do this due to health circumstances
3. Feel prepared for maternity leave - ... not yet. 
4. Set up baby's room, see if any needs are missing - this week's goal.
5. Save up for daycare costs in case the baby arrives early - :/ 
6. Keep emotional/impulse shopping in check - I'm trying really really hard on this. 

I'm very happy to have the $1000 in my emergency fund now. It seems to be helping to keep me focused on make smart financial decisions, and to stall my emotional "what's the point, I can't afford anything anyway" shopping. Or I could be starting to be terrified the baby is almost here! As such, I'll have to wait until I start getting EI to make my budgets. I'm hoping to be able to clear my line of credit ($10,000) in the next year, and I want to start doubling some of my other debt payments. I'll also have to make it through a few gauntlets of expensive baby purchases. 

How was your August? How does your September look? Have you ever had to budget for a time where your pay was uncertain?.... Although most bloggers are free-lancers and that must be what they (and now me too) do every day...

The Stranger Test

I've had this come up so many of the PF bloggers I read, I don't know who I would even link back to. Just to let you know, this wasn't my idea.

Let's say you're grocery shopping, or looking for a gift for a loved one when something amazing catches your eye. You tried to walk away and forget about it but you find yourself back in front of it. You can think of 5 immediate reasons why you need it. Heck, if you knew about it, you would already have it! As you reach for it, the stranger test is to image a stranger offering you the item or "free money" for the value of the item. Which will you pick?

The key points are to use a stranger - people you know come with emotional attachments. Your shop-aholic friend will tell you to go for it. Your MBA friend will tell you to take the "free" money. It has to free money to help weigh how important this item is to you. When you think of your own money, it's easier to let go. And it has to be a person, not an object.

I've put some on my unplanned purchases to this test. Almost all of them, I would take the item. There were the fries before a dinner invite - great because they hadn't even started cooking when we showed up and I was starving! A Tim Horton's sandwich meal on a day I ate my whole lunch by 10 am. A $1 drink on a hot day while working outside. A Christmas present for my sister, something I think she'll love. Tums for my constant heartburn. Actually... I can't think of any purchases this week where I would take the money over the item.

Maybe it's time to up my food budget?

Christmas Budgeting

My budgets are pretty tight as I've set some goals for debt payment and I want to get my savings to $1000 and my EF to $750 before October. One of these accounts is at $0, the other at a very modest $200.

Why have I set October as my deadline?

I'm due to have a baby sometime that month. And while I live in a country that amazing provides unemployment during most of the first year, I still have to prepare for it. As with all EI claims, there is a two week waiting period. There is also an estimated one month processing time. I believe payment also occurs two weeks after the time on EI. i.e. if you started EI on the 15th of a month, the end of that month would be your two week no-payment waiting periods. Then you serve the first weeks you could receive EI payment. I believe the EI office then processes your claim, and you get paid two weeks later, or the end of the month after you first started your EI claim. Meaning for me, if the baby comes near the end of October, or even early November, I might not receive any EI until mid-December. I'm hoping I'll have enough to pay my minimums, I know I'll be running more calculations closer to the date, but most of that pay will be allocated to bills. Not Christmas.

I've always been big on buying Christmas presents early, usually starting in the fall. This helps out spread out the budget, and allow for the ton of unexpected expenses that always occur. This year, I think I'll have to find a way to squeeze all my Christmas shopping in before October. I'll have to revisit the budget I posted, and see if I can find another $20-50 a month to put towards my most important people. I'm sure those who love me will understand. I hope it doesn't come to that ;) I also wanted to go on a short vacation in August that I haven't decided how to fund, or if I can go.

I guess it's a good thing I won't be working in December as I think that understandably cuts about a dozen out of my "must buy for" list.

How do you budget for Christmas (or other holiday events) through the year? w much do you spend on gifts each year?

Budget for July

I've planned out how my paychecks will go for the next three months. If  WHEN I stick to it, I'll be in pretty good shape:

Here's what I would like am going to do: 

DEBT REPAYMENT	Budgeted	Actual	Leftover
Credit Card	$100.00		$100.00
Personal loan	$250.00		$250.00
Student loan #1	$125.00		$125.00
Student loan #2	$775.00		$775.00
Line of Credit	$230.00		$230.00
SAVINGS	Budgeted	Actual	Leftover
Emergency	$170.00		$170.00
Savings	$350.00		$350.00
Retirement	$10.00		$10.00
FOOD	Budgeted	Actual	Leftover
Groceries	$90.00		$90.00
Dining out	$20.00		$20.00
LIFE, ETC.	Budgeted	Actual	Leftover
Daycare	$400.00		$400.00
Health Care	$15.00		$15.00
Personal Care	$15.00		$15.00
Gas	$175.00		$175.00
Entertainment	$25.00		$25.00
Baby Supplies	$60.00		$60.00
Phone	$80.00		$80.00
Misc./Cash	$20.00		$20.00
			$0.00
TOTALS	$2,910.00	$0.00	$2,910.00

I'm estimating on a few of these categories and hopefully not over-estimating my pay. I know some categories are low, but working hard pays for itself in the end, right?

Okay, that was scary!

Gas Money

Driving home from work one night last week, I heard that gas prices were about to jump up 6 cents. Although I had passed (and checked the prices - still "normal" at 122 cents/litre) the first two stations, not far past home was a third station. I detoured there, filled 30 L, and felt good that I had "saved" $1.80.

Or did I?

It took about 0.3 L to return to my house, or around 0.6 L total for my detour meaning my total savings for beating the price hike was about  $1.06 (Total saved minus 0.6 L x current gas price of $1.229). I suspect trying to beat gas price increases won't have a big overall affect on my gas budget, especially if I have to drive a fair distance out of my way. But, as I was going to get gas that evening anyway, and I was driving across town where the price changes had already been recorded, I"m going to call it a good move.

I've been doing some other calculations as my fuel gauge has broken on my vehicle and I need to check the gas consumption regularly to prevent running on empty. Calculations completed using $1.249/L

Cost to get to work: Appears to be 2 L each direction, or $5.00 per day.
Meaning my cost on gas to drive to work each month (~22 days per month) is $110
Cost of a monthly parking pass is $95 (I was delighted this was so cheap!)
Cost of insurance yearly is about $900, so monthly around $75
Yearly registration $85 plus taxes, estimated monthly $7.50

The cost of just to getting to work (and given the hours of operation from my daycare and the bus schedule, I have to drive) is at least $287.50. This is just shy of 10% of my income!

And it doesn't include personal use:
Cost to visit a family member (8 L), $10
Cost to go to the park (~6.5L), $8.11
Cost to the closest grocery store (~1.5L), $1.87

Or maintenance.
Some current problems are my gas gauge not working, a loose ball joint, the odometer has ceased to light up, only half the windows roll down, the heater motor is totally broken, the AC no longer works. But, knock on wood, it starts every day. That's what I need, and that's why I love my car.

I've tried to cut the gas part of my budget, and this totally explains why I go over every month. I've tried carpool.ca, posting ads and asking around to carpool. I was biking a couple days a week (and starting to love it) but I can't do that right now, not in the winter. I have to drive, and 10% of my income is the price I pay to access the other 90%. I felt both like a winner for saving $1.06 on gas, and a sucker because for the foreseeable future, I'm going to pay the price at the pump.