April Savings Challenge, Update 1

 (Source)

One of the things on my to do list is to research reducing my bills.  So this prompted a call to Rogers to see what they can do.

What I used to have was a 20% discount off my internet for a year.  Since the discount ended I now get the 12% bundled discount since I have every service Rogers offers.

Now that you are caught up let me recap the phone conversation.

CSR: Thank you for calling Rogers, my name is blah blah blah.  Please tell me your name, rank and serial number so I can verify you are the account holder.

Me: Sunny blah blah blah.

CSR: Ok, how can I help you?

Me: I used to have a 20% off discount that expired and what wondering if I could get it back.

CSR: Well ma’am, we no longer have that promotion.  Let me see what else is available.

Me: Alright.

CSR: Ok, what I can offer you is an upgrade on how much data you get.  So instead of 60 GBs you can get 80 GBs and at a faster download/upload speed of blah blah blah.  You can get a free modem upgrade for 1 year.  And a 15% discount.

Me: I don’t really need more GBs.  Plus at the end of the year what would that modem cost?

CSR: Well ma’am, it seems that you used 46 GBs this month, maybe you are watching how much data you are using, blah blah blah.

Me: And the cost after the year?

CSR: Only $8/month.

Me: Only huh?  Ok, well let me think about.

CSR: I can put through the work order and if you don’t go pick up the new modem in the next 5 days then it’s cancelled.

Me: I’ll think about it and call you back.

Is it just me or does this not seem worth my while?

I currently own my modem.  We don’t need 60 GBs of data so going to 80 doesn’t seem all that appealing to me.  At the end of a year this account change will save me $18.72.  I know it will be $18+ more than I had before but I am more afraid of the lifestyle creep.  Will I be able to use my old modem in a year or will the internet service plans no longer support it?

I’m going to pass on this “deal”.  In a week I will call Rogers again and see what is offered then.

Wish me luck.

April Savings Challenge

(Source)

Carla is inspiring me to get my money back under control this month.

Last month while I tracked every penny I spent, I did nothing with the information.  I saw that I was going over budget in some categories and did not change a thing about my spending.

This month I have made some changes to my budget.  These changes will hopefully make it easier to stay on budget.

My goals for this challenge are:

1. Cash only.  I will take out my spending allowance bi-weekly on pay-day and not take out anything else until next pay-day … 2 very long weeks from now.  Dust off my beautiful budget wallet and put it to good use this month. Hide my credit cards.  Hide my debit card.  This girl is going paper only!!
2. Investigate cutting some of my regular costs.  I’m pretty sure the discount on the internet part of my Rogers bill has expired.  Time to see if I can get another discount.
3. Get back to meal planning to use up what is already purchased.  My freezer is full.  The only thing I should be picking up from the store is perishables; milk, fruit and veggies.  Nothing else, if I want bread I need to get back in the habit of baking some.
4. Minimize eating out.  As I say this I realize I have a dinner tomorrow and a lunch on Saturday already lined up.  I will make a conscious effort on both occasions to eat as cheaply as possible.  I don’t want to isolate myself to save money; that doesn’t seem like a good trade-off.
5. 10 no spend days for the month.

I think that’s enough to try to focus on along with my other April goals.

 

March recap and April Goals

Oh March, you were an expensive month.

Firstly my March goals:

1. Carla is having an Easter Secret Sister Swap.  You know I had to join that, it was so much fun last time.  I need to finish putting my package together. Done
2. Stick to the budget (this is a given but since I didn’t write it in stone last month, madness ensued.) BAHAHAHAHAHAHA
3. Continue to work out at least 3 times a week Nope
4. Research new living room furniture. I bought new curtains yesterday and they let in so much light I can now see just how awful my couch really is. LOL I looked online so I am counting this as a win
5. Move my bookshelf Done
6. Start and finish my Steelers scarf Started but it is nowhere near finished
7. Read 4 books I read one
8. Finish my vision board Nope

3.5 out of 8.  Dang, I need to step up my game.

On the money front, I still track all my spending I just don’t post it here.  I’m leaning towards monthly updates, so let’s start with last month.

My girl Gail (I think she’s everyone’s girl) breaks down budgets like this:

housing	35%
transportation	15%
saving	10%
debt	15%
life	25%
	100%

March’s budget for me was supposed to look like this:

housing	34%
transportation	7%
saving	20%
debt	17%
life	21%
	100%

Instead my budget actually looked like this:

housing	31%
transportation	9%
saving	15%
debt	28%
life	30%
	112%

I think I double counted some things as I didn’t do my usual put the money on my credit card right after I charged it. I won’t be making that decision again any time soon.

Having said all that my savings increased, my debts decreased and my net worth increased by 3.5%.  Not as good as it could have been but I’ll take it.

Thankfully it’s a new month!!  And with it comes new opportunities to get it right.

April goals

1. Come up with a savings goal for Carla’s April savings challenge, post to come
2. Try something new; budget bi-weekly instead of weekly to coincide with my paycheck
3. Finish my scarf and post pictures
4. Finish my vision board (gotta get this done, it is way overdue)
5. Read 4 books
6. Work out 3 times a week
7. Do another cleanse
8. Wake up early every morning to read and/or workout
9. Figure out what to do with all my bank accounts

I have a lot of repeats from last month.  I am going to keep them on my goals list until they are part of my routine then I will come up with new goals.

Knocking it off my list

Since I have a 3 day week-end I need to do something productive with my time.

It is a sunny day today, I am going to use that time to clean/declutter my bedroom.  Something that was on my list last month and I ignored.

There will be no before or after pictures as really who wants to see all of that.  Mind you it’s not as bad as the dining room was.

I am debating moving around my furniture but we will see once I start to declutter how that goes.  For now all I want to do is remove and pack away what needs to stay and remove what has to go.

I’ll be back later to let you know how I did.

January Challenge recap

Yes I know I am late to the party, but I want to be accountable so here goes.

My goals were:

For the No/Low Spend part:

1. Cash only – no debit or credit Pass
2. Stick to my budget – I will be coming up with a weekly amount shortly Well … not when I add in the pairs of glasses bought.  I was good for 50% of the month
3. Start another ‘sealed pot’ and really seal it  While I didn’t dip into the last one, I can’t say for sure my kids didn’t help themselves  Done
4. One 7 day fiscal fast Not quite 7 days, I did I hit 5
5. 4 No Spend Days each week Not quite either, but I did have more no spend days that in recent months

For the Decluttering part:

1. Get my dining room back to serving its purpose, it is a hot mess – there will be photo evidence  Done
2. Shred the piles of paper around my home Done
3. Declutter my bedroom Not even close
4. Pare down my closet Forgot this was on the list

Well I did more than I would have had I had no goals.  Say that 3 times fast!! LOL

All in all I am glad I participated.  I could have done more but I am okay with what I accomplished.  I mean did you see what my dining room used to look like???  That alone was worth it’s weight in sweat.

 

Take that clutter!!

The before shots.

Nice huh?

I would like to put it out there that it didn’t always look like this.

 

The boxes in the above picture are from my move … 5+ years ago.  And yes those are dead plants on my dining room table.

My girls were great today.  The lure of going out for burgers was great motivation.  We blasted music by One Direction and vacuumed and dusted and cleaned and cleaned.

The after shots.

No more dead plants.

I can’t get over how good my crappy dining room furniture looks.

At the time of these pictures I still had a living room full of crap.  I forgot to take pictures.  But trust me it was bad.  I purposely put everything in the middle of my living room to force me to deal with it.  I can deal with clutter when it’s out of my way.  The living room is now clear.

I have a bag and a box to donate.  We recycled 4 bags of shredding and threw out 2 bags of garbage.

It feels good to get rid of all that stuff.  I still have more to do.  My bedroom is next, but that will have to wait until next week-end.  Tomorrow I bake!

WSR – 1/15/13

Jan 7 – $57 gas
+$22.50 credit from NSF
$4.36 groceries
+$2 lottery win (from when I was feeling lucky)
$6 bus fare

Jan 8 – $15 sushi lunch
$256 dentist

Jan 9 – No Spend Day

Jan 10 – $180 Diva’s grad trip (part 2 of 3)

Jan 11 – No Spend Day

Jan 12 – $10 lunch with friend
$3.98 lunch at Costco for Princess
$239.98 glasses for Princess (a portion of this will come back to me)
$104.54 groceries
$42.11 drug store

Jan 13 – No Spend Day

Grand Total: $918.97 – $24 = $894.97 NET
3 No Spend Days

Well there goes the no/low spending for last week.  I have not decluttered.  I am spending money like a “baller”.  I have taken my eye off the prize.

I was attempting to do 4 days of no spending in a row but then an old co-worker passed by and we went to lunch on Tuesday.  I semi-forgot about the latest instalment for Diva’s trip.  I knew that the next payment was due, but it wasn’t until Monday.  I decided to pay it early while I remembered.  I really want her to go on this trip.

As for the glasses … well Princess got a new prescription back in September.  When we went looking for glasses we did not find frames we both agreed on.  I bought her contacts at the time which she refuses to wear.  I mistakenly believed that my benefits were $200 each calendar year so I waited until January to get her glasses thinking that the coverage would start fresh.  It doesn’t.  It seems like it’s for each 12 month period.  So I will get money back just not the whole $200.

The saddest part for me right now is that $100+ for groceries did not include any meat. *silent tears*

I am going to take a minute and get back on track.  We will be eating out of the freezer and other than milk and produce I am going to try to stay out of Costco and the grocery stores.

As for the decluttering … during the week is not the greatest time for me.  By the time I come home, work out, fix up dinner then spend time with my kids … it’s relax time for me I have no interest in doing anything else.  So this week-end I am going to have to step up my game.

January Challenge – 1/5/13 Updated

Inspired by the mini challenge to declutter, with the help of my girls, we attacked the coffee table, hall table and the fridge.

Prepare to be amazed!

Coffee table before

Coffee table after

 

On the top are my library books.  Below, my magazine “collection”.  I got rid of a few, a very small few, but the majority are still in my house. But at least now it looks great!

Hall table before

 

Hall table after

 

Princess helped with the dusting and the decluttering

My fridge before

 

 

Fridge after

 

Diva did the cleaning of the fridge.  Everything that was expired is gone.

Now I just need to make a list of the groceries I need for the week and buy only what is on the list when I go to the store tomorrow.

January Challenge – 1/5/13

It’s a grey day here in T.O. and as such I should stay in and declutter.

I still have not done more than glanced at my dining room.  I keep hoping that the maid I wished for would show up and deal with it but so far no luck there.

Carla issued a mini challenge of making do on the financial side and decluttering some of the knick knacks/magazines etc that are taking over your home.

Financially, I’m doing pretty good.  I have used up a lot of the perishables in my fridge so as not to go grocery shopping or better yet throw out rotten food.  The amount of food waste in my home is horrible.  I have challenged my girls to use it up before it spoils.  They are aware of my “you are throwing out my time” lecture when it comes to food waste.  This time around I am getting more vigilant.  No more stock piling perishables with the hopes that we will use it up.  We are going to reduce our waste.  I was doing well with the no spending part and was at $3.18 before my NSF fiasco.

For me the magazines are a big one.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions and my intention is to read old magazines. *blush* I have piles of magazines through out my home and the intention to read them all.  Once I’ve read them then they go out the door.  Some are passed on to a neighbour, the others I drop off at the hospital.  I do keep one.  In fact I have every issue every printed of O.  I’m not sure what I am going to do with them all but I have them.

Today I am going to clean my fridge, coffee table and hallway table.

I’ll be back with pictures.

January Challenge

 (Source)

Carla has brought back the great January No/Low Spend & Decluttering Challenge.  The challenge is pretty self-explanatory.  You can participate in one or both.

Of course I will participate in both as who doesn’t need to declutter and spend less?

For the No/Low Spend part:

1. Cash only – no debit or credit
2. Stick to my budget – I will be coming up with a weekly amount shortly
3. Start another ‘sealed pot’ and really seal it While I didn’t dip into the last one, I can’t say for sure my kids didn’t help themselves
4. One 7 day fiscal fast
5. 4 No Spend Days each week

For the Decluttering part:

1. Get my dining room back to serving its purpose, it is a hot mess – there will be photo evidence
2. Shred the piles of paper around my home
3. Declutter my bedroom
4. Pare down my closet

I think that should be enough of a challenge for me.