Today I learned...

...That I hate both whiners/complainers and braggers.

You know what I also learned? That K can be all of these in a single day. Yikes.

I was in the middle of a rant about K again when I figured that I wouldn't give it the time of day. I shouldn't let it bother me. It's her problems, it's her debt. I don't think that going back to an old job is going to solve problems, but we'll see.

On that same note, I made a new excel budget spreadsheet. I think that I enjoy making new spreadsheets almost as much as I enjoy punching in all my numbers and making my budget work.

I also opened a new ING Direct Savings Account under the name "VISA Fund". This is not VISA as in the credit card, but rather the passport stamp I need to work in the UK - that kind of VISA. It'll run me about $470, plus a trip to Edmonton to get my fingerprints scanned and such. I had enough left from last month in my chequing account to pump this account to $500 - $100 short of my goal.

I also have a London Calling! Savings account that I currently have $2,400 in it. The goal for this one is $10,000, and this is meant to cushion the blow of temporarily relocating overseas. My last savings account is for the plane trip - I'm saving $1,200, but I'm hoping to use less than half of that actually getting there.

So far the cheapest way that I can find to get from here (Western Canada) to London (UK) is to take the greyhound bus ($137) from here to Toronto (a 2 day bus ride - which won't be that bad I'm thinking, I'll get to see the rest of Canada and I really do love road trips) and then take a plane from Toronto to London. So far, given the time of year I want to fly, I'm looking at around $600 for the flight there, but I'm hoping for a sale. Either way I'm overbudgeting since I need to make sure I can prove without a doubt to the VISA people that i'll be fine on my own in the UK.

On another unrelated note, my boss, for my birthday, gave me an adorable purse from lug. You can see it right here. It's that orange color too- which I was unsure about at the beginning but am starting to really like it. Problem is, within 6 hours of owning it I broke a seam (the elastic pulled out of the damn fabric!) and noticed a couple of areas showing really wear and tear. So all I can conclude is that she didn't check it out before she bought it (most likely) or she's had it for a while - unlikely, since the tags were still intact.

Now, I didn't want to bother her with demaning a new gift or asking her for the receipt. I just don't like making people feel bad and I doubt that she'd even have the receipt anymore. So, today, while I was out shopping with K (yes, the broke one, it was her idea!) I noticed a store that had the same purse (color/design, everything) for sale. So I bought one. The plan is to return the old one, hoping that they won't notice the seam and I'll keep the new one.

The new one is a slightly newer model - all the seams are intact and everything works just fine! Now, of course, the one glitch could be that they won't take back the old bag, in which case i'm not sure what I'm going to do. But, I'm still feeling midly guilty, but my rational mind doesn't seem to understand why.

What do you think? Should I have done it? Should I have just kept the old one? Should I have told her? I'm curious to know...