Why I Chose to Finance

People have asked me why I didn't pay cash for my RV when I had the money to do so.

Here's the simplified answer.

My investments are currently netting an average return of 7.5%.

The financing will be 6.99%

By financing, my money will keep working for me and I'll still be ahead .51% at the end of the year.

Even more succinctly: I'd lose money by paying cash.

I'm sure there's nuances to that, but that's the short of it according to my financial adviser. Had my financing been at the 8% I was first offered, then paying cash would have been a better option.

Thoughts No Longer Silly

I wrote the following post on March 1st of this year, but felt the thoughts were too brazen, too self-assured, too unwavering in their conviction. I didn't want anyone to read those words and look back at them four months down the road and laugh at me for failing, yet again, to live up to the big things I want for my life. I've bolded the two sentences I wrote that night which made me realise that I really, really, really should not post this entry. While my current plans don't completely concord with my March 1st musings, I'd say that where I'm heading is a refinement of the thoughts running through my head then, not a tangent.

So...

I don't know how many times in my life I've dreamt of some external force sweeping through my house and divesting me of all my worldly possessions. I dreamt of mobility, but put too much attention on things. I resented my ball and chain, but felt I couldn't live without it.

Yet, through all my dreaming of a house and how I would decorate and furnish it, there lay a stronger dream within me. This dream belonged to the 'real' me, the one who doesn't try to conform, who leads a fantasy life of her own designing, who knows that who she is is perfectly okay even if the rest of the world rolls her eyes at her.

This real me screamed at me yesterday. She made me take a good hard look at how I've lived and the patterns I always fall back into. She firmly advised me that I'll fall back into them in Manitoba. Once I started to listen to her, her screaming became the voice of reason.

I'm freaked out about my move to Manitoba. It's so overwhelming to think about packing and then figuring out how to get all my stuff from here to there and then tying myself down to a rental or worse buying a house right away. There's no doubt I'm moving there, none in the least, but all the scenarios I crunched brought more hassle and expense.

Then, everything came together. I posted to a blog about a different matter and that person posted a comment here. She led me to a forum where I began to ask questions and read. I Googled, I mused, I dreamt, I faced reality, and then I began to make plans. Last night, I took a slow walk through my house and said goodbye to everything. There is nothing in it worth my freedom, worth my peace of mind, worth my dream of seeing this continent.

So, I am in the process of researching motorhomes. As it turns out, there is an RV show in town and I will be spending the day there tomorrow researching possible models. What I am about to undertake, RVing in Manitoba in winter isn't going to seem like a sensible option, but I believe in my heart of hearts that it is the right thing for me. I have no idea how easy it will be to find a place to spend the winter as parks seem to be closed October to April, but I will find a way.

I want to rent a motorhome this summer to try life in one and to see how they handle. At summer's end, I will make my purchase and place in it only the few possessions worth taking to my new life. Then, without any hassle, without having to spend more money flying back and forth to Manitoba to find a place to live, I will, at the appointed hour, hitch my car to my home, embark with my cats, and head west. I will have all of October to find a job, if I haven't already done, so and a home for the six months following. I will be able to take just about any job anywhere.

So, that's where my journey of decluttering and purging which began almost five years ago has taken me. I cannot imagine my future other than in the context of my current life so I will not be making plans at this point. I will focus on meeting with my financial adviser to reevaluate my five year plan, picking the right RV, job hunting, and thinking about every purchase I make since I will no longer be hauling it from Quebec to Manitoba, but hauling it for the rest of my life. At this point, I am envisioning purchasing the motorhome in the very late summer or very early fall to give myself time to outfit it and then hold the rummage sale of all rummage sales.

The Fun of Importing

I just got off the phone with the SAAQ (Quebec 'DMV'). In order to bring the motorhome into Quebec, I need to have another safety inspection done. They will, of course, find things wrong with the vehicle even though Ontario didn't, because this is Quebec and Quebec believes in nickel and dimeing its over taxed citizenry.

Once I meet the safety requirements, I can get a licence plate that will officially put the vehicle in my name. In order to do so, I need to pay the QST (Quebec sales tax). If I lived in Ontario, I could just give the guy a cheque and that would be that. But because I'm in another province, I need to pay 7.5% more than our agreed upon sales price.

Once I've ponied up that money (which will be at least a grand), I can then pay for the licence plate. The amount I was quoted was suspiciously low (482$ for a year, 326$ due now till February). If I only have to pay 500$ a year for plates for this thing, you will need to scrape me off the floor.

It's too late now to make more calls, but tomorrow I will be calling the safety check places to find out how much that will cost, then an insurance company.

That done, I will investigate a 'proper' RV finance loan. I don't technically need one, but I'd rather keep my other funds if I can.

Why I've Been So Quiet

I've been building a business.

My financial adviser finally drilled it into my head that I need to focus on making more money, not saving more money. So, I bit the bullet and spent the money for a SBI! site.

A couple of weeks in, I can already tell that, if I keep on following their hand-holding process, I'll be making my money back, and maybe even more.

I've had a lot of ideas for making money with a website and/or blog for some time now, but no notion of how to go about it. SBI! does all the techie stuff for you. It truly works with mathematical precision.

Of course, I did a lot of research on this system before buying into the hype.

I know that organizing is too broad a niche for me to corner the market and retire on the proceeds of a website. But it's a topic that interests me and for which there is a lot to write about. I wanted to cut my proverbial teeth with SBI! on a subject that I knew would give me back my initial investment if I put time and energy into it. Once I've mastered the basics and manage to actually monetize this site, I'll reinvest the proceeds into a tighter niche.

Another reason that I picked organizing is that I've had an idea for an e-book and had absolutely no idea how to market it. I knew this blog would give me only minimal opportunity. The SBI! site is going to provide me with the perfect vehicle.

I'm ultra focussed on this project because I want to start monetizing the website by June so that I can know by the end of the summer if I can count on any revenue from it for my fall projects. I'm in a time crunch to put together my motorhome plan, but this actually works in my favour. The more rushed I am, the more focussed I am. I do wish I'd begun months ago since postponing the move isn't an option. At any rate, I'll see how it goes.

Financial Advice

I met with my financial planner yesterday. It was our first meeting in six months. I just wanted to reevaluate where things stood and discuss a few options I'm looking at. When I pulled out my hairbrained idea and asked him what he thought of it, he shrugged and said "Why not?"

He then continued with words that just about gobsmacked me:

"You have no dependents and your financial future is assured. Why, then, would it matter if you piss away everything else you make doing things or buying things that make you happy?"

He brought up the following points:

-there's no point in depriving myself today so that I can live super well tomorrow. Instead, I should be puting money aside to live well tomorrow so that I can live well today;
-I don't realise it, but I'm one of his best off clients. Yes, my portfolio is worth very little today, but I'm starting at a young age, understand the magic of compound interest, and already know how to pay myself first and then live within my means with whatever's left over.

The only reason he said that I should be tracking every penny is to ensure that I have a good balance in my life between consumables (food, clothes) and durables (life experience like trips and entertainment). He's the only other person besides me I've ever seen sort expenses that way.

I am under strict orders to reach a certain salary level within the next five years. My eyes must have bugged out when he told me the figure and he smiled. "It'll be easier than you think now that you know you're free to take the necessary risks."

I've never had such amazing financial advice that is perfectly tailored to my lifestyle, values, dreams, and goals. Last night confirmed that he is the perfect financial planner for me at this time of my life and he assured me that he'll be there as I take the first steps into my new and very unpredictable life, providing me with at least one measure of security and stability.

Little Things That Irk Me

(very little)

1) Unexplained Mini-Windfalls

There was a small deposit made into my chequing account two days ago. It's described as a 'branch deposit.' I wasn't expecting anything payments for anything, so I have no idea where this money comes from or even if the deposit was made in error. The bank was of no help ("According to our files, ma'am, that entry was a branch deposit." (Ma'am?!)) How long am I expected to leave that money in my account before I can do something with it, like move it to my high interest savings account? Money appearing from nowhere might sound great in theory, but it's annoying for someone who tracks such matters. I won't get into what happened the last time this happened, other than to say that the bank (not the bank I'm currently with) charged me interest for a five figure deposit they accidentally made into my account....

2) Changed Packaging

Like many eaters of tofu, I have a favourite brand because one curdled soy bean is not the same as another. I've been eating this brand for about fifteen years. I can't even tell you the name of it!!! I just grab the beige package for a full-sized brick, or the pink box for half a brick. Well, now they put their flavoured varieties (YUCK) in the same-colour packaging!!!!!!!!!! It wasn't until I'd ripped open the pink box today that I realised that I was holding herb-flavoured tofu that is normally sold in yellow packaging! Thankfully, this wasn't dramatic for the meal I was preparing and worked out fine, but what if I hadn't been planning to make something savoury with it (thyme tofu uncheese cake anyone)? Very, very annoying. If a gal can't count on her tofu, what, if anything, in the universe can she count on? There was also an announcement on the box for new 'feta-flavoured' tofu. Oh, brother. Let me guess, they're going to jack up the price, too?

*takes a deep breath*

I love my life!!! I mean, these (and having a hard time getting out of my parking spot because of the snow) are the most annoying things that happen in it!!!!

Musing, Dreaming, Scheming, and Planning

My big move is coming up in about seven months and I keep on imagining potential scenarios and numbers to go with those scenarios. There are just so many 'whatifs' when you're planning a cross-country move with no guarantee of finding a job before you go. Ah, I do so love adventures!

At any rate, I finished my taxes yesterday and am doing some research today and finally, finally am beginning to really understand the retirement plan my financial adviser came up with. It all has to do with the power of an RRSP.

One tidbit of financial advice I'd held onto since starting my career as a civil servant is that RRSPs are not the best savings vehicle for us since we have an amazing pension plan. That changes, though, when you're a civil servant who wants to retire before her 30 years are up.

So, my planner had me take all my money out of my emergency fund and put it into an RRSP. I balked, but ponied up the money. Then, I did my tax return. Where I discovered that my RRSP contribution meant a refund of just about the same amount. Waitaminute. I put money in an RRSP and the government pays me for it? Okay, the catch is that I have to pay taxes at withdrawal but until that day, the government is giving me money for my retirement.

Yes, that's probably a bit oversimplified, but it's not insignificant. The obvious thing to do with my refund is add it to my RRSP for next year. And so on. Until I reach the one million dollar mark my adviser says is realistically within my reach in the timeframe I'm looking at and which I'll be able to combine with my partial pension to have enough to live without working full time.

I'm going back to my move, hold your horses.

So, I finally understand why savvy people move heaven and earth to max out their RRSP contributions every year.

Okay, how can I do that myself?

I've come to the conclusion that housing is the expense I need to drastically reduce for a few years. Sure, I could buy a house cheaply in Manitoba, but when I factor in repairs and whatnot, owning a house is not cheap. I can't wait to own a house again, but I'm beginning to accept that doing so at this stage of my life would be a mistake for more than just financial reasons.

You see, I haven't been 'free' in ten years. I've been encumbered with a household and debt and studies and work and whatnot since the end of my teens. I never had/took the chance to do something cool like travel around the world for a year. Wouldn't it be nice for just a few years to be in a position to 'just go' whenever I want?

So, why not take this move as an opportunity for a fairly radical, but temporary, downsize?

My cats make some potential scenarios tricky and unlikely, but I am exploring all options. One that I really like for its whimsy is to rent a room with kitchen privileges for the winter months and then tent-camp all summer. I'm sure my cats would have a blast. :-)

But the more serious idea I'm entertaining is to move this fall to a room with kitchen privileges so that I can research two purchases in the spring: a small piece of land on which I could later build my dream home and a gently used motorhome (both paid for with cash).

My expenses when 'at home' would be land taxes and propane (or whatever I use to heat and power the RV). I have yet to explore the centre and north western halves of this continent and could do so in my own home with my own cats at my leisure.

I'm learning that I can have everything I want, but not at the same time, and not if I order them incorrectly.

Brr

I'm sitting here looking at my almost 170$ gas bill for the past month which I received this morning (and promptly paid in full, thank you kindly).

The bill is 50$ more than last month. We've had a proper winter with lots of deep colds.

I decided this year that I wasn't going to cheap out on heat. I've had it with that. I vowed that I would never again go through winter having to wear a coat and mitts indoors.

While the upper floor of the house remains positively chilly and uninviting, I've managed to be comfortable on the main floor, provided I wear thick socks and a warm sweater, all of which is quite reasonable. I've been cranking the heat up to 19 or even 20 some evenings. It's still chilly in here, though, and I have to hike the temp up even higher when I have guests, as well as run a space heater upstairs. So I'm guessing that I'm not being completely unreasonable.

The furnace has a programmable thermostat, so at least I'm only heating when I'm home, and that only when I'm awake. I've also programmed it to go up a few degrees before I get home or rise in the morning so that I don't end up cranking it up from 15 or 16 degrees straight to 20. At night, the temperature goes down to 17, which is just perfect for my outfit of flannel pjs with thick socks and a bed dressed with flannel sheets, a thick blanket, and a down comforter. I tried 16 for a while and that didn't work; I'd wake up in the middle of the night because I was too cold to sleep. It's amazing the difference a degree makes.

So far for the year, my heating bills average out to 50$ per month if I were to spread them out over 12 equal payments. Add to that the 50$ hydro is costing me thanks to the price hike and energy costs for this house average out to about 100$ per month. That's fifty dollars less per month than I was paying at my old house and could explain why I've been positively non-frugal about using electricity and gas here. Run the dishwasher? Sure! Have a fifteen minute boiling hot shower? Why not!

Eventually, I will return to more frugal and energy-wise ways, but that won't be for a while yet since I still associate those things with poverty. I can't wait to associate them with a new, energy-efficient, off-the-grid house of my very own. :-)

THAT Time of Year is Here Again

Tax time, that is.

My accountant has left the province, so I decided that this year, I would do my taxes myself once again. Picked a good year for it, too, she adds sarcastically, as I have to deal with investments and RRSPs for the first time. The latter are particularly confusecating.

When I do my own taxes, I like to start early and then add information as the T-slips and other paperwork comes trickling in. Whenever I get discouraged, I look at US tax filing information to remind myself that Canadians have it pretty easy when it comes to tax time (except for the amount of money we have to shell out, of course).

Next year should be another interesting year for filing since I'll have to do a federal return and a Quebec return, as well as figure out the Manitoban system. I'll probably get professional help, like I did when I lived in Ontario, but filed in Quebec. That was fun, especially the audit. CRA flagged me for living in Ontario, going to school in Ontario, filing in Quebec, and working in the US, Quebec, and Ontario. It was really nice to confuse them for once, but it all got sorted out. Then, the MRQ (Minister of Revenue for Quebec) got their nose into everything and started to recrunch numbers only to find out that they owed me several hundred dollars. Ha, ha, ha!!!

I've always received a refund and I imagine that this is going to be my last year of getting one since I've paid off my student loan. At least, I'll no longer be living in Quebec when the perks of being indebted run out.

Anyone (from any country) have any scary tax stories to share?

Some People Just Don't Get It...

I'm very close to two of my colleagues, so I told them about my new car. One replied: "Wow, you must be rich!" and the other "You make no sense. You won't buy a 10$ top or a 1$ coffee, but you'll buy a new car."

The first gal doesn't realise that being debt free really increases your buying power. I asked my dealership what the price of the car would be if I paid cash vs. financing it and was told it was the same thing. Whether I paid cash today or gave them 60 equal payments at 0%, I would not save one penny. Why not finance and keep my cash in my investments where it's making money? Since I have no debt, getting approval for financing wasn't an issue. I'm not rich, but I have financial flexibility.

The other gal doesn't get that little purchases add up, that by not buying the top or the coffee I'm keeping my monthly spending at a low enough limit to live within my means and afford luxury items like cars.

But that wasn't my favourite bit of financial cluelessness for the day.

I treated myself to lunch on Friday as I normally do and decided to splurge since there was a lot of really nice fresh fruit being offered. My total was 7.10$. I gave the teller 20.10$. She gave me back 17.00$ I told her she'd made a mistake and was about to hand her back the money when she said, and I quote: "I don't make mistakes, the cash [register] tells me what to give back." Then, seeing that I was about to protest, "I'm too busy to deal with this, go see the manager if we owe you anything."

Yeah....

New Wheels

I bought a new car today.

The decision was made at 7:30 last night although it had been hemmed and hawed at for months. I went in at 3 today for a test drive and by 4 the whole thing was buttoned up. Had I decided to not be picky about colour this time around, I could have literally driven home with my new car.

I'm not going to get into all the details, but will only say that it made perfect financial sense and except for the fact that I quadrupled my current debt (something that sounds scarier than it is in reality) this transaction was definitely in my financial favour.

I bought the current year model of my old car and got the deal of a lifetime. I could not have bought a used car, not even for cash, and gotten all the financial advantages that this new car is giving me.

One of the things that helped was my excellent relationship with and loyalty to my dealership. They gave me more for my current car than I could have had anywhere else. My car is not even four years old but it has the mileage of a car that is about six. I've maintained it perfectly and the cosmetic shape is good. The dealership knew that they could give me a bit more for it to motivate me to trade up. Makes sense.

I went in today with all my numbers crunched and I came up with the absolute lowest figure that I could hope to pay for this car, as well as a more realistic figure to talk the dealership down to. Well, the dealership crunched its own numbers... and arrived at the same low number I did. Then, as I sat there stonefaced (jumping up and down in my head) they asked me what goodies they could add to sweeten the pot....

The way I see it is this: I've been an excellent customer for 4 years, but they know I'm savvy and always looking elsewhere for a better deal; I never take anything they say at face value. They want my continued business, so it's in their best interest to just straight up tell me what's the best deal they can give me. No haggling, no condescension, no gypping, no bs. It's refreshing.

I can't wait for my road trip next month. :-)

Spending Plan

My January spending was not bad. My two concrete goals were:

1) to not step foot in Reitmans, not even 'just to look' for 31 days;
2) to spend less than 200$ total on food for the month.

I succeeded on both counts!

Food totals for January: 160.44$! It definitely takes off some of the bite from last month's obscene figure.

I'm finally admitting to myself how hard it is to make a real spending plan that does not amount to more than I actually bring in. It's especially difficult to concede that I cannot afford to spend what I've been spending on average on food. This is why the penny tracking thing is so important. I'm discovering some alarming patterns to my spending. I think it could take a full year of tracking before I get myself completely on the right track. Never mind that by the fall, I'll be embarking on a new life and mucking it all up again!

February is going to be a mess and March won't be much better. April will even things up again since I'll have three pays. I've noticed that the two months leading up to the three-pay month are always the most precarious. I think I'm finally learning how to balance things out so that I don't end up in such a situation again in October....

I'm taking a trip in April and as the planning stage creeps towards the realisation stage (ie. reservations being booked) I'm reminded of just why I decided to get my finances in order. Being able to go on a cool trip twice a year or so rocks.

Of course, I swore up and down that I would not be going to the US again for a while, but I am. :-) What can I say, Americans are so much friendlier in general (just avoid NYC) than Canadians and with the current exchange rate being just at par, there's no reason not to indulge in a little jaunt down the east coast. Where I'm going will remain a mystery for now. :-)

January Food Expenditures So Far

I'm doing really well this month, only 110$ spent so far on groceries and restauranting. I'm trying to not go grocery shopping this month, beyond perhaps another jaunt to GT, and will probably get lunch once or twice at the food court to get some fresh veggies and fruit.

One thing I'm going to try in February is to set up a schedule for grocery shopping. My current system is to eat up everything in the house and then go shopping. I'd like to make it a habit of going to get groceries once a week, say on Thursday night (or whenever) and get whatever's on special that week that fits onto my master pantry list. This way, I'll have a clear idea of how long something absolutely has to last me.

The food pickings this week seemed really slim, but I just pulled off two awesome dinners with leftovers for lunch. Last night, I made a basic white sauce to which I added a can of tomato soup and some dried basil to make a really yummy (albeit lumpy) rosée sauce. I have tons of parmesan left in the fridge, so I added a bit to the sauce before serving it over pasta. Tonight, I used one of the spelt pastry crusts in the freezer to make a rice pie, which will give me lunch tomorrow and a quickie dinner since I'll be going out and won't have time to cook.

Good Service is NOT a Thing of the Past!

For several months now, I've subscribed to something called 'Credit Alert' which provides added insurance for my credit card as well as credit report monitoring services. It's a fantastic service, but not cheap--16$/month. I finally called at the beginning of the month, after the charge appeared on my card account, to cancel.

This morning, I went to make sure my credit card balance was still 0 (I'm silly that way) and it wasn't. Credit Alert refunded me my payment for January!

Slight Overbudget....

December Food Budget: 250$
December Food Expenditures: 340$...

That said, I've noticed a trend that I go grocery shopping twice a month, beginning and late middle of the month, spending about 75$ each time. For December, I pushed the late middle one all the way to December 29th and I won't need to go get a ton of groceries again until early mid-January. So I can probably take that last 120$ of groceries and split it 50/50 between January and December, putting my actual December food expenditure at 280$. I also restocked a bunch of staples.

At least, my restaurant expenses were way down this month compared to the last two months and I buy very little junk food.

Ah, whatever helps me sleep at night. :-)

Ouch

I very slowly came to a realisation in the past two weeks: the way I've been tracking my spending is not working. By tracking how much tax I was spending, I wasn't painting a full portrait of my spending in each category. In some, it wasn't a huge deal, in others, like gas, it was. So, I've cut that out and am now counting my tax in with whatever purchase I paid it on.

Here's the ouch factor. Being the insane person that I am, I went back all the way to the beginning and fixed all my transactions in Buddi to correctly adjust the amounts. It took me more than an hour, but I'm glad I did it.

At least now it'll take me less time to enter each pay cheque.

I'm almost three months into tracking my expenses. Go, Raven, go!

A realisation

At the last minute, I decided to sign up for another course, starting in January. I'd planned to skip a semester, but finally conceded that delaying the completion of my programme wouldn't be a good idea no matter how tired I am. So, I signed up and, since I was at the last minute, I had to pay immediately, by credit card. I'd already reallocated tuition money on other things this fall and didn't immediately have the cash to pay off my card. Rather than carry 600$ over on my card at 18.5% (plenty of motivation to always pay off my card in full!), I was able to 'refinance' myself by transferring the balance to my line of credit at 8.25% percent. This balance will be paid off by the end of January at the latest.

When I did this transfer, I realised that I'm no longer 'poor' because I have options open to me that I could never have dreamt of just a few months ago. Another solution would have been to cash in some investments to pay off the card, but those investments are making more money than I'll end up paying in interest. Instead of being stuck again in credit cards at 18.5%, student loans at 11.5%, or personal loans at 9.5%, the latter of which would have meant requesting new credit, I could use existing credit. Most importantly, I'm choosing to carry some credit for a few weeks.

This isn't true financial freedom, not yet, but compared to where I was this time last year, it feels pretty good.

Tracking My Spending Update

I've now been tracking my spending for just over two months. I honestly cannot imagine not doing this anymore. It's amazing!

I tried to set up a 'budget' before completing the three month exercise, and now I'm seeing how absolutely pointless that would have been. At least, now I have a real portrait of how I spend.

My biggest potential tweak is food.

October

Groceries: 201.28 (this was my 'build up a pantry' month)
Restaurant: 82.93
Total: 284.21

November

Groceries: 121.18
Restaurant: 114.49
Total: 235.67

November's totals do not include restaurant and food purchases in Halifax which were part of the trip budget.

I've noticed that I now go to the grocery store once every two weeks, but that in the days before going grocery shopping, I tend to do a bit more restauranting.

I'm laughing at an earlier post I made where I said that I wanted to go down to a 100$ per month food budget. Right now, that's completely unrealistic. I think I'll aim for 250$ for December, which will need to include at least two restaurant meals.

Personally, I don't care if I hit my budget with groceries or restauranting. I tend to eat a lot at the foodcourt at work and always get something healthy that I couldn't have made at home for that price. This is especially common in the winter when I hit the salad bar where they have better produce than I can find in grocery stores. I know that for a family, restauranting cannot possibly make financial sense over pantry-cooking, but when you're single, it can. My dad made the same analysis. So, I'm not going to obsess over how much I go to the restaurant. Instead, I'll pull out 250$ for this month and see how much month is left before I'm forced to eat the chickpeas at the back of the pantry. :-)

Huh huh

My financial adviser suggested that I try to have the interest rate lowered on my line of credit. So, I finally called the bank this afternoon to ask. I was told that my rate was automatically lowered by .25% per cent last week and that they couldn't go any lower unless I doubled my limit. I refused. When it's time to buy a house (hopefully in the next 18-24 mos), I'll ask my financial adviser if I'm better off having 7.5 or 12.5K of 'available credit' (combining LoC and credit card) when I start mortgage shopping.

Right now, my line of credit serves as my emergency fund because I'm making really good interest on my 'real' money and the only real emergency that could happen right now is my car going kablooey and even that isn't really an emergency since I don't really need my car. So, I really don't need much of an emergency fund, or have much need for one. Its only real purpose right now is for any credit card spillover; if I need an extra week or two to fully pay off my credit card in a given month because the pays don't line up, I take the excess from the line of credit (which has 10% less interest than the card). I pay on average 55 cents in interest when I do this; which I can more than live with even if it seems like bizarre financial planning. That 55 cents usually guarantees me a 25$ Amazon gift certificate which I use on stuff I'd be buying anyway, so I figure that I'm ahead.

Travel 'damage'

Whee! I had a great trip! Whenever I 'budget' for a trip, I always add 20% for contingencies to come up with my 'real' budget. Taking that into account, I only went 60$ over budget on this trip!

It took me about 45 minutes tonight to update everything in Buddi, including entering the info for my last pay cheque, planning the next two weeks' expenditures, paying bills, and moving money. I can't believe how easy it was... and how lost I felt this weekend without Buddi at my fingertips!

I thought that doing my 'accounting' for the trip would be a nightmare. Nah! I had receipts for all my credit and debit purchases, as well as most of my cash ones. When it came time to balance, the first two did so to the penny. Cash was missing 60$, but I could account for every single penny of it--parking, shuttle transport, two coffees, one dinner, etc.

I'm so pleased with myself for keeping on top of things on my trip, having fun (ie. not worrying about money, but being mindful), and not mucking up my budget.