Looking back on April

Alright, here it is, my glorious monthly summary. Now, usually I would show you all my budget categories and how much I went over/under each. But I can't do that. Mainly beacuse I stopped keeping track sometime last week. I don't think I could put it all together, even if I wanted too.

However, I do have a networth increase:

My networth is now $12,570. It was previously $10,407. Not too shabby. I accomplished all my savings goals, sort of. I haven't actually depositied the cash from my chequing account over to my ING Direct accounts, because I had previously used up all my free debits for the month. I will be doing that today, and therefore the charts will be a bit more realistic. But, in the meantime, here they are:

This it the balance of my savings account. I still owe that account $1,400 from my chequing account, so it really should be on part with the chart. But, it looks like I'm well on my way to acheiving this goal. This is the balance of my "Fun Fund". I'm actually progressing faster than expected on this one. I still owe this account $785 from last month. So, by the end of this month, I should have accomplished my goal! I'll most likely be extending this goal, I'm thinking to around $7,000. We'll see how it comes together.

And finally, my Plane/VISA Fund:

The little dip is, of course, the $446 I had to take out to pay for my VISA. I should've taken out some more money to cover a couple other costs, like the costs of getting to Edmonton, as well as the passport photos I took, but I had the money to cover them, so I didn't.

Overall, while it wasn't the best end to the month, what with me being so stressed and all, I'm impressed that I accomplished all my savings goals, even if I did overspend.

I'm tweaking my budget for May. I'm planning on spending $200, and that's it. This is for food, stuff, toiletries (which I don't need and am not going to buy unless it's toothpaste or something), and clothing. I don't need more things. I have a lot of things.

Some of my goals for May include:

• To not spend more than $200 on non-essentials.
• To pack up 5 boxes worth of goods that are staying here.
• To get 75% of the stuff I need together for the garage sale.
• Don't stress myself over the VISA.

Whoof. Sounds possible. I gotta get some sleep first. Thank god I'm working nights at office job next week so I can at least sleep in. Yes.

Catch up!

Oh. My. God. What a week. Yikes. This week has got to be one of the most stressful weeks I've had. Ever. Okay, maybe not while I was in college, but that's a different stress. Research paper deadline stress is one thing, but this week has been anxiety attack, panic-ridden life stress. Thank god I'm not a high-strung person (usually), because I sure as hell can't do this all the time.

Okay, so, when was the last time I updated? Looks like the last time I really wrote was Sunday. Sunday was a nice day. I think. I can't really remember what I did. Monday I was at work, looking at the pile of shat I had to do. I've been leaving things in the office because I've been so focused on getting my VISA paperwork ready for Edmonton on Tuesday. I checked and checked and re-checked all night and all morning to make sure I had all my paperwork with me. I'm a little neurotic it seems. We got into Edmonton with about an hour to spare (I like being super early for things like this) and found the building and got me into the office about 1/2 before my appointment.

Turns out that appointments really aren't necesary, since I was let in pretty much right away. Whatever, worked for me. The guy wasn't very helpful, but he wasn't allowed to be, which sucked. They are basically the middle men. They are there to take your photo, your fingerprints, all your paperwork, and put them into a 'tamper proof' envelope and give it back to you. Yep, give it back to me. Sigh. I was then responsible to mailing it to Ottawa. I didn't really want it back, since having it with me made me just as anxious. I was worried I was going to lose it or bend the 'tamper proof' envelope and then I'd be in trouble.

The rest of the day in Edmonton was kinda fun. I ate and shopped with my sister and dad. Good times. The ride home was fun, too. I should've brought my camera, but I didn't necesarily want to worry about it and all my paperwork.

Wednesday I went back to work here in the office and just sat. I was tired and emotional and exhausted. I pretty much sat most of yesterday, too. Didn't help that I had this asshole call yesterday and I had to argue with him for, like, 1/2 an hour. Guys like him make me hate an ordinarily good job. (He called back again today... douchebag).

Overall, it's been a bad week. I want so bad for this VISA to happen, and I just worry deep down that it won't. I know it probably will, but I still worry. I also found out that when I'm this stressed, I shop. A lot. Well, not a lot, but more than I have been. I bought a couple things while in Edmonton, as well as some things on Wednesday when I was out with K. Stuff I really didn't need, but I wanted. It's been a rough end-of-the-month, budget-wise. I can't even tell you how good/bad I did, since I stopped keeping track. Yep, that's bad.

On a good note, I did buy an external hard-drive last night. It's 320 gigs and I think it should be plenty for storing photos and movies and music. Nothing too impressive. It's nice and tiny, and it doesn't require being plugged into an outlet, which will help when I am in London.

I wish I didn't work every day this weekend, because all I really need is one day off to sit in my jammies and recoup. And sleep. And eat.

My monthly summary and goals for May to follow.

I'm so sorry. It's been an absolutely crazy-stressful couple of days and I want so bad to update you all, but all I want to do is sleep my life away. I need to go to bed and get some crap sorted out. I promise I will update soon. Right now, though, I need to get sleep before work tomorrow.

ZZZZzzZzzzzzZZzzzzZZzzZZZzzzZZ...

Operation: Deep Clean!

Man, do I ever have a lot of junk. And not just physical junk, digital junk!! I've been slowly going through my computer and deleting old programs and files I don't use anymore. Right now my 100 gig hard drive is pretty much full. Yep. Full. Of crap. A lot of that is music, but much much more is photos. 28 gigs of photos to be exact. Yep, I'm "that guy" who takes tons and tons of photos.

Well, I have found one (okay, two) solutions! I was at a scrapbooking party last night (sounds so.... momish of me haha), which was hosted by a woman working for a company called Creative Memories, and while right now I'm not big on the actual process of scrapbooking, I am big on some of the software that they offer. While I was tempted to buy many (soooo many) things, I ended up buying software called "Memory Manager 2.0" from the company. It works basically like a database where you can store, tag, search for and basically sort your pictures. It does some other fun things as well, like add stories to pictures and make mock-scrapbook pages, but it was the database part that really interessted me.

The thing for me, is that I have all my photos into folders. They are named things like "Camping trip 2006" or "Europe 2007" or even "Nikon Testing Photos April 12, 2008". But, for example, I'll have photos of the Eiffel Tower in "Europe Trip 07" as well as "Europe Trip 08", so if I wanted to look at all my Eiffel Tower Photos, I would have to manually sort through all the pictures. With this software, I can digitally put photos in several different "drop-boxes", so for example, all the photos of the Eiffel Tower would be in a box called Eiffel Tower, but most likely, also in boxes labelled "Paris", "France", and "Vacations". I am very much looking forward to this.

Right now, I just have one obstacle in my way: the massive amount of photos I have.

So, for right now, I'm sorting photos. So. Many. Photos. I tend to keep every photo I take, which isn't neccesary. For example, I was hanging out in my room on Tuesday and I saw a bunch of robins outside my window on the front lawn. I pushed open my window, grabbed my camera and shot some pictures. 98 pictures later.... and I still have them all. There is probably only 5 - 10 worth keeping, and that's my bad for not sorting them out.

So, ladies and gentlement, it's sorting time!

So much cleaning!

So this afternoon, after much lounging about, I went down to the basement and organized 6 boxes of my junk. After much deliberation I only kept 2 boxes worth of stuff. Go me!

I am really proud of all the decisions I've been making. I need to keep on a roll!

Umbrella

So I went luggage shopping with my mom a couple days ago to see if I can possibly get a peice of luggage that would be tall enough for my tripod (28' high) and my umbrella (34' high). Well, I have come to the conclusion that most luggage will fit my tripod just fine, I cannot find luggage that will fit my umbrella. Won't happen. I picked up some of the biggest peices of luggage I could find (the kind that I laugh at in the airport thinking 'who needs all that space?!'), and my umbrella still can't fit in, even diagonally.

So, I have a dilemna. I love the umbrella. I bought it in London. It's made by an old school umbrella-making company and it's the old-style long ones. It has a rosewood handle and is black. It also cost me a pretty penny: £49.95 to be exact. I'd hate to leave it here, only to have to buy another one there - it certainly rains in London!

Now, Air Canada used to allow umbrellas on-board, exclusive of your carry on items (purse and luggage), but taking a quick peek at their website, doesn't look like they do that anymore:

I'm not sure if umbrellas fall into the 'outer garments' section. I doubt it, knowing airlines. My umbrella could be used as a weapon. I suppose. It's kinda pointy.

So, then, I have a problem. I could pack it in a box and check it, but that means that I'll only be able to bring 1 checked item, otherwise I'll be charged for having a 3rd peice.

If I knew someone was comming to visit me soon, I could get them to bring it - but no one I know is comming here directly.

Well, that'll be something I have to think about. I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world to buy a new umbrella - but I was just talking about buying things I don't need/ already have!

Hmmm.

Bumming hard...

.. So, I was going through my shelf of toiletries and started taking things out of their bins/baskets and placing them into boxes in order to clean/sort/throw out some of the stuff. I mean, I can't take it all with me.

But man, I had no idea I had so much junk. Like, so much. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself:

To get an idea for size, those boxes are subway bread boxes. They hold 70 sticks of uncooked bread. There are four of them, and they are sitting on my bed.

That's a lot of toiletries. I was going through them and the amount of stuff I purchased (or others bought for me) that was completely unused was a bit horrendous. I was actually ashamed of it all. I hate wasting things, and all this waste was just staring at me in the face. I even contemplated taking some of the unwrapped things back and seeing if I could even get a gift card or something, but I dunno.

It's just horribly depressing how much money I waste on things I don't even use. It actually makes me mad. Once I throw it all out I'll feel better, but for now, it's sitting in my room, taunting me.

I don't know what it is about toiletries. I will always go out and buy a new face-cleaner, or new lotion, or fancy eye-shadow, only to never use it. I really need to remind myself that no matter what type of fancy lip-balm I will buy, I always fall back on two things: vaseline or burt's bees. I do have some lip stick and lip glosses that I use for fancy occasions, but I don't dress up that often. I rarely clean my face (I know, it's bad), and I need to stop buying hand and body lotions because I don't use those either. Siiiigh.

That's it, next month's toiletries budget is $15. I refuse to waste more money on things I don't need.

(On a side note, it's too bad my sister is leaving the same time as I am, otherwise I'm sure I could dump all this stuff on her and she'd love it.... haha)

I hate Air Canada...

... and their stupid fares. I wish someone could explain to me why flying one-way is more expensive than flying round trip?!

Okay, so, look at this:

Here is me, trying to book a one-way flight from Toronto to London:

Grand total: $1145.00! That's insane. In. Sane. Now, take a look at this:

Here I am, booking a round-trip flight (with the same outgoing flight might I add):

It's only $780.00!! That's a difference of $365!! Yeeeeeesh. I just don't understand it.

You may notice that the "Fare Types" are different. On the one-way flight I have to fly the more expensive 'Latitude Plus" fare, seeing as they don't offer the "Tourist" or "Leisure" classes on a one-way flight.

Usually, when booking a round-trip flight, you will see the following fare choices:

(And another thought, why have they broken down Executive class again? I remember when there were only two classes: first and coach. I think paying $3214 for a flight is crazay unless you have so much money you don't know what to do with it.)

But, when you select "one-way" flight and go to choose your flights, all you get is this:

So, somehow they have eliminated the "Tourist" class, and the only thing available is "Latitude Plus" and first class. The little dash under "Leisure" makes you think that may it is just sold out, but no, you can book it "Tourist" or "Leisure" with a round-trip flight, but not with the one-way.

That, right there, is bull crap. I just don't get it. Basically what they are telling me is that they would rather I book a round-trip flight and just not show for the second one? By not showing (and maybe not even calling to tell them I'm not comming, just to be a pain), I would be potentially delaying a plane, and costing them money. I would much rather just book the one-way ticket and save everyone the trouble, but, Air Canada, it looks like you're going to make this difficult.

And, if you're wondering, I know there are cheaper flights and companied out there, but right now I'm just sticking to what I know. As well, Air Canada has some new planes with slightly wider seats at 18.5", and I would enjoy that extra space. It's a big jump up from 17.1".

Anyone had similar experiences trying to book one-way flights??

I got Interviewed!

FB from Fabulously Broke in the City interviewed me for her blog, and you should go check it out! You can find it here.

I have also been tagged for a 5 thing Meme by Debt fighter, so just in case you didn't already know oh so much about me, here goes!

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people, posts their names, and then leaves a comment on their blogs, letting them know they've been tagged.

What was I doing 5 years ago?
Hmmm, in 2003. I was graduating high school, taking the summer off (and enjoying staying up until 4 a.m. every night and sleeping in until 3 p.m. every day). That fall I got my job at Subway (have been there ever since) and started saving money and thinking about what I wanted to go to college for.

Five things on my to-do list today ( or things I did today):
1. Empty my 'to-do' folders at work.
2. Clean my desk
3. Finish updating the training manual so I can give it to my boss this afternoon.
4. Update my budget.
5. Continue to work on the budget spreadsheet I am (slowly!) making for Leigh Ann.

Five snacks I love:
1. Ruffles Sour Cream and Onion potato chips
2. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
3. Mandarin Oranges
4. Nachos
5. Water (yes, it's true, I am a water fiend. I don't drink anything else hah)

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Find myself a damn good financial advisor
2. Get my parents out of debt and buy them a killer retirement home in Nova Scotia and a nice vacation home for my mom on some wind-swept part of England.
3. Invest/Save enough to live comfortably the rest of my life.
4. Buy myself a wicked apartment here in Calgary (like a top-floor loft!)
5. Share the wealth and shop!

Five bad habits I have:
1. Spending money on things I know I don't need but still want.
2. Not returning things I really should return.
3. Being sloppy and unorganized.
4. Eating out when I should just learn how to cook.
5. Lecturing others about finance...

Five places I have lived:
1. Calgary
2. Edmonton
3. Come this fall... London!
4.
5.

Five jobs I've had:
1. Subway Sandwich Artist Extraordinaire!
2. Civilian Coordinator for Police Service
3. ... is it sad that those are the only jobs I've held?
4.
5.

Well there you have it. You want to do this? Then you're tagged! :)

Oh dear...

I might actually be in the red this month. That's scary. Well, it is a lie, since all I'll do is only transfer $1,000 of my $1,400 due to my savings account and use that $400 as a buffer and throw $1,800 into savings next month, but it is a scary thought. What is pushing me over the limit is the $500 some odd dollars I paid to the dentist this month for a cleaning and an emergency toothache healing. Now, I might be getting 80% of that back, which would be nice, but this is why you need an emergency fund people!

Now, to slap myself a little bit, I don't technically have an emergency fund. I have three seperate savings funds that I could've dug into, no problem. But that's not the point. I don't have any fund dedicated specifically for emergencies, and that's a lesson to me. Note to self: While in London, an emergency fund is a must.

Speaking of London, I also learned a couple things from my friendly neighborhood TD CanadaTrust representative. It's going to cost me $5 to take out any amount of money from any bank in the UK (not including the fee that they will charge me and the fee that TD charges me to exchange funds.... doi), but, I can take out up to $1,200 canadian dollars each time. It's not cheap moving places!