Okay, how can I create a list of goals for 2010 when I haven't dealt with the whole issue of my goals for 2009 yet? You see, I made a very short goal list for 2009 and Haven't. Completed. A. Single. One. Of course, it's only the beginning of December and I did clue into this back in October. I even came up with a bit of a plan then. I started implementing that but then I never quite finished.
So I feel like the preliminary step is to work the plan that pertains to the current goals before I write up some fancy list of things I'd like to do next year. Make sense?
Let's see. Where am I? My basic steps to take were:
1. Set aside $106 for Home Depot every payday until the beginning of January when the first lump sum comes due.
2. Start depositing $5/week into my ING Emergency Fund.
3. Set up a set aside account and put $10/week into it.
4. Get current on my bills and pay my grown daughter back the $100 she lent me.
And here's what I've done:
1. Done. Except that I had originally intended on putting the money into ING and then transferring it just before the due date. In the end I've been paying Home Depot that money every payday. Now I don't have to remember to transfer the money out of ING a few days before I want to make the payment. The outstanding amount will just be gone by the time I need it to be gone.
2. Haven't done it yet because I haven't had even $5/week to spare up until now. In December I plan to start this up again, starting with my next payday (this coming Wednesday).
3. Haven't done it for the same reason as above. Instead of a set aside account I think I'm going to try just depositing it to my rural credit union account, since that's where all my rural bills come out of and because I really never touch that account except for that purpose.
4. I think I've gotten current on all the major bills and paid my daughter back $60. Yes, I still owe her $40.
Next, I'll take care of #2 and #3 on Wednesday. And I'll be paying my daughter $40. After that I can start thinking about what to do next year. One thing, though. I need some way to keep myself accountable or I'll get 3/4 of the way through the year again without achieving any of my goals.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Miscellaneous Day Here at the Blog
Wow, has it really been over a week since I posted? I've been commenting here and there on other people's blogs but I keep falling asleep about the time I usually start writing my own posts. I also had a flareup of a chronic back problem on Tuesday. I ended up taking a T3 around 11 pm, which meant there was definitely no blogging that night! I'm the sort of person that, if drowsiness is a possible side effect of a drug, I'll be out cold. It was still acting up in the morning, so I took 2 Advil at that point. Luckily, it's better now.
I do have a variety of things to mention. First of all, another one of my comments was featured in this week's Monday Mailbag on The Simple Dollar!
I've won a Starbucks card from Betty at Bouncing Back from Bankruptcy and I'm thrilled about that! I can already taste my decaf white chocolate mocha with extra whip!
And I commented on Give Me Back My Five Bucks that Krystal should do one of her December Goals (to come up with her goals for 2010) as one of her famous challenges since all of us PF bloggers are probably planning a similar post sometime between now and New Years. She said it was a great idea and that the post would go up soon but the post that appeared was her 2010 goals! Now she's off to Vegas and I'm not sure if she's planning to do a challenge post or if I should do one. I certainly can't post my goals for next year yet because I'm still working on them.
The next little while is going to be very busy. I have lots of evenings coming up with parties or other events I need to attend. I don't normally go out much in the evenings, unless I have to go back to the office or occasionally to attend a class for an hour or so, once a week. And, a couple of times when I'm not going out, I'll be babysitting my granddaughters because Eldest Daughter also has parties to go to.
We have to seriously think about whether we're going to go to the house during winter break but we have to co-ordinate dates with ED, S-in-L and the girls too. They'll be away or off part of the time but there are also days when people have to work. Plus, going is contingent on getting 2 new winter tires because winter tires (and carrying chains) is mandatory through the Hope-Princeton all winter. I'm still not quite sure how all the money is working out. We did get the fuel oil delivered yesterday and I paid them via telephone banking this morning, once I'd confirmed the exact amount. So, that's a relief. I've also called and left a message for my next-door neighbour, asking him to check to make sure the furnace is going on. If we had already run dry the reset button has to be hit in order to get the furnace running again. And it would probably also mean another clogged sensor (with the gunk from the bottom of the tank) and another furnace servicing. I really hope it's okay but I'm trying to focus on the fact that we have a year's supply of fuel oil now. If we have to service the furnace I'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Actually, in the last couple of days I've started to worry about the car again. It's been making a kind of groaning noise when you back out of a parking spot and it's progressed to sometimes making a noise as you start or stop. It sort of sounds like a transmission issue and I'm so not dying to have to drop more money on the car at this point. I'm still pretty touchy about the $2,600 or so we've spent over the past couple of months. Son-in-Law will probably take it in to the place he goes to one of the days that he drives it next week.
Too tired to write any more now. Goodnight!
I do have a variety of things to mention. First of all, another one of my comments was featured in this week's Monday Mailbag on The Simple Dollar!
I've won a Starbucks card from Betty at Bouncing Back from Bankruptcy and I'm thrilled about that! I can already taste my decaf white chocolate mocha with extra whip!
And I commented on Give Me Back My Five Bucks that Krystal should do one of her December Goals (to come up with her goals for 2010) as one of her famous challenges since all of us PF bloggers are probably planning a similar post sometime between now and New Years. She said it was a great idea and that the post would go up soon but the post that appeared was her 2010 goals! Now she's off to Vegas and I'm not sure if she's planning to do a challenge post or if I should do one. I certainly can't post my goals for next year yet because I'm still working on them.
The next little while is going to be very busy. I have lots of evenings coming up with parties or other events I need to attend. I don't normally go out much in the evenings, unless I have to go back to the office or occasionally to attend a class for an hour or so, once a week. And, a couple of times when I'm not going out, I'll be babysitting my granddaughters because Eldest Daughter also has parties to go to.
We have to seriously think about whether we're going to go to the house during winter break but we have to co-ordinate dates with ED, S-in-L and the girls too. They'll be away or off part of the time but there are also days when people have to work. Plus, going is contingent on getting 2 new winter tires because winter tires (and carrying chains) is mandatory through the Hope-Princeton all winter. I'm still not quite sure how all the money is working out. We did get the fuel oil delivered yesterday and I paid them via telephone banking this morning, once I'd confirmed the exact amount. So, that's a relief. I've also called and left a message for my next-door neighbour, asking him to check to make sure the furnace is going on. If we had already run dry the reset button has to be hit in order to get the furnace running again. And it would probably also mean another clogged sensor (with the gunk from the bottom of the tank) and another furnace servicing. I really hope it's okay but I'm trying to focus on the fact that we have a year's supply of fuel oil now. If we have to service the furnace I'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Actually, in the last couple of days I've started to worry about the car again. It's been making a kind of groaning noise when you back out of a parking spot and it's progressed to sometimes making a noise as you start or stop. It sort of sounds like a transmission issue and I'm so not dying to have to drop more money on the car at this point. I'm still pretty touchy about the $2,600 or so we've spent over the past couple of months. Son-in-Law will probably take it in to the place he goes to one of the days that he drives it next week.
Too tired to write any more now. Goodnight!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
How to Spend Money
What's that you say? You don't have any problem spending money? Well, neither do I. Sometimes I spend it intelligently; sometimes not so much.
Today was a good day, moneywise. I got paid and promptly turned around and paid a whole bunch of bills. I paid my cell, water, internet and IKEA in full and am totally current on those. The IKEA card is closed now because they switched providers and I haven't filled out another application. I paid $90 to MasterCard, which covers the interest with a dollar and change left over and I'll keep paying them $90 every payday. (My big problem with them has been that I've only been paying once a month when money has been tight and, at that rate, I should have the card paid off in 500 years or so!) And I paid Home Depot $106, right on track to have the first of two purchase plans paid off just before it comes due at the beginning of January.
There's a few things that come out automatically, either as pre-authorized charges or as post-dated cheques and the money is in place for all but one of those. My hubby will have to transfer money into my old bank account when he gets paid at the end of the month and that will cover the service charges and that pre-authorized payment.
Then I went out after everybody got home and bought $50 worth of groceries to last us until Monday and $25 worth of gas. I'm pretty much broke again but it feels really good to have taken care of all the important things. I feel today was a success.
Today was a good day, moneywise. I got paid and promptly turned around and paid a whole bunch of bills. I paid my cell, water, internet and IKEA in full and am totally current on those. The IKEA card is closed now because they switched providers and I haven't filled out another application. I paid $90 to MasterCard, which covers the interest with a dollar and change left over and I'll keep paying them $90 every payday. (My big problem with them has been that I've only been paying once a month when money has been tight and, at that rate, I should have the card paid off in 500 years or so!) And I paid Home Depot $106, right on track to have the first of two purchase plans paid off just before it comes due at the beginning of January.
There's a few things that come out automatically, either as pre-authorized charges or as post-dated cheques and the money is in place for all but one of those. My hubby will have to transfer money into my old bank account when he gets paid at the end of the month and that will cover the service charges and that pre-authorized payment.
Then I went out after everybody got home and bought $50 worth of groceries to last us until Monday and $25 worth of gas. I'm pretty much broke again but it feels really good to have taken care of all the important things. I feel today was a success.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Debit Card Woes
My debit card was skimmed the other day and the credit union called me to tell me they were mailing me a new card. If I needed one faster I could go in to my branch for a temporary one. Friday was such a short day that I didn't have time to go in and they were closed for the remainder of the weekend by the time Shabbos was over.
This kind of messed me up in a couple of ways. First, I was supposed to transfer some money from that credit union to the one in the Interior that I pay bills for the house out of. No card, no way to withdraw cash (and I wanted cash rather than a cheque because I think the hold comes off faster for cash than a cheque). Second, I couldn't get any groceries, even essential ones without a card.
Anyway, I went in today. They gave me a new card, a copy of my statement for the past month (no money missing, Thank G-d), I withdrew money from my city credit union, deposited cash and a small cheque (really small, like about $13) into the rural credit union, then went to the grocery store on my way home from work. I only bought the bare necessities: a protein drink, sour cream, a minestrone soup mix, a box of 6 year old approved cereal, a bag of chips and a bag of cookies (the last two for use in Dear Child's lunches this week).
We had latkes with sour cream for dinner and tomorrow will be minestrone soup. I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, so that's all for now.
This kind of messed me up in a couple of ways. First, I was supposed to transfer some money from that credit union to the one in the Interior that I pay bills for the house out of. No card, no way to withdraw cash (and I wanted cash rather than a cheque because I think the hold comes off faster for cash than a cheque). Second, I couldn't get any groceries, even essential ones without a card.
Anyway, I went in today. They gave me a new card, a copy of my statement for the past month (no money missing, Thank G-d), I withdrew money from my city credit union, deposited cash and a small cheque (really small, like about $13) into the rural credit union, then went to the grocery store on my way home from work. I only bought the bare necessities: a protein drink, sour cream, a minestrone soup mix, a box of 6 year old approved cereal, a bag of chips and a bag of cookies (the last two for use in Dear Child's lunches this week).
We had latkes with sour cream for dinner and tomorrow will be minestrone soup. I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, so that's all for now.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Still Trying to Fix the Blog Feed!
So far, I've asked for help from Google and haven't heard anything useful. The only response was from someone else who is having a similar problem and also wants to contact someone at Google but couldn't figure out how!
I tried deleting the feedburner feed and redoing it, then deleting my subscription at Google Reader and resubscribing. It showed me the same thing as before and said that I hadn't yet subscribed, did I want to? I clicked on "List" (which shows the list of posts instead of the posts themselves) and FINALLY my 2 latest posts appeared at the top and showed as unread. However, I have no clue how to get rid of those 25 or 30 posts that aren't mine and no way to be sure that more of those fake posts won't appear!
In other words, I still need help! I can't just contact the person whose blog is attached to mine because when you try to open it you see a home page for a few seconds then get redirected to something called blogpop that says the domain name expired back in October. Yet all those spammy posts were from as recently as November 15th. I'm so confused and frustrated.
Sooner or later I'll actually get back to blogging about personal finance and my life. Depending on how crazy things are around here (my Eldest Daughter is out of town again for a week) it may not be until Wednesday, which will also be payday. I'm very grateful that this will be a normal cheque but I still probably have more things to pay than money! The biggest thing I'm worried about right now is the fuel oil situation at the house (and how I'll pay for it, of course). I was down to 7 or 8 inches of fuel in the tank the last time we were there and it's been pretty cold at night ever since. Even though the heat there is set at 10 Celsius (and I shrinkwrapped the drafty window) I know the heat has been on a lot.
I tried deleting the feedburner feed and redoing it, then deleting my subscription at Google Reader and resubscribing. It showed me the same thing as before and said that I hadn't yet subscribed, did I want to? I clicked on "List" (which shows the list of posts instead of the posts themselves) and FINALLY my 2 latest posts appeared at the top and showed as unread. However, I have no clue how to get rid of those 25 or 30 posts that aren't mine and no way to be sure that more of those fake posts won't appear!
In other words, I still need help! I can't just contact the person whose blog is attached to mine because when you try to open it you see a home page for a few seconds then get redirected to something called blogpop that says the domain name expired back in October. Yet all those spammy posts were from as recently as November 15th. I'm so confused and frustrated.
Sooner or later I'll actually get back to blogging about personal finance and my life. Depending on how crazy things are around here (my Eldest Daughter is out of town again for a week) it may not be until Wednesday, which will also be payday. I'm very grateful that this will be a normal cheque but I still probably have more things to pay than money! The biggest thing I'm worried about right now is the fuel oil situation at the house (and how I'll pay for it, of course). I was down to 7 or 8 inches of fuel in the tank the last time we were there and it's been pretty cold at night ever since. Even though the heat there is set at 10 Celsius (and I shrinkwrapped the drafty window) I know the heat has been on a lot.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Insurance Chat
Yesterday wasn't payday, so I didn't have any money to throw at bills. I'm just hanging on and waiting for next Wednesday.
Today after work, Hubby and I went to meet with someone at our Life Insurance company. They called him and asked for the meeting and it's good to go occasionally because he also has RRSP stuff with them. So the big reason for the meeting was that this guy wanted to sell us on switching from term to permanent.
Yeah. My premiums only change every 20 years. I'm very happy with the $32 I'm paying per month, thanks. Not so interested in changing to a $141 premium, especially since I'd have to live to be 76 just to get my premiums back. Here's a tip: buy term, invest the difference!
It's even better (ha, ha) for My Husband the Smoker! His premiums go up every 10 years, but even at the point where his term premium would go up to around $200 switching to permanent would double that! That's insane. We don't have that kind of money to spend and, if we did, I'd far rather put it into an RRSP so we could enjoy our retirement a little more.
It was nice to get a printout of the RRSPs though, with their interest rates and when they mature. The rates are actually very competitive, so that's good.
And the other item he talked about was critical illness insurance. Now, that's something that might possibly make sense for Hubby, depending on how much it costs. At least there it doesn't count against you if you smoke. Strange, but true. He gave us some material on it. I'll look it over and see if it's worthwhile or not. This isn't medical insurance, we pay our $108 MSP premium every month and that covers all medical expenses. This is a lump sum payment if you're diagnosed (and survive for the specified time period!) with one of the illnesses on their list (things like coma, dementia, stroke, multiple sclerosis, etc.). Presumably it's because then you or a family member taking care of you can't work and this gives you money to live on. Apparently cancer is the big one they pay out on the most and Hubby has a 1 in 2 chance of dying of cancer. I could hope all this might push him towards quitting (again) but I didn't see any sign of that so far.
Anyway, as far as I can see, the whole reason for this meeting is that the guys at the insurance company aren't making enough money and wanted to see if they could open up a whole new commission for themselves. I've read that the commissions on permanent insurance are great for the agent who sells you the policy. No thanks. I have other uses for my money right now. They include paying bills and buying food.
Today after work, Hubby and I went to meet with someone at our Life Insurance company. They called him and asked for the meeting and it's good to go occasionally because he also has RRSP stuff with them. So the big reason for the meeting was that this guy wanted to sell us on switching from term to permanent.
Yeah. My premiums only change every 20 years. I'm very happy with the $32 I'm paying per month, thanks. Not so interested in changing to a $141 premium, especially since I'd have to live to be 76 just to get my premiums back. Here's a tip: buy term, invest the difference!
It's even better (ha, ha) for My Husband the Smoker! His premiums go up every 10 years, but even at the point where his term premium would go up to around $200 switching to permanent would double that! That's insane. We don't have that kind of money to spend and, if we did, I'd far rather put it into an RRSP so we could enjoy our retirement a little more.
It was nice to get a printout of the RRSPs though, with their interest rates and when they mature. The rates are actually very competitive, so that's good.
And the other item he talked about was critical illness insurance. Now, that's something that might possibly make sense for Hubby, depending on how much it costs. At least there it doesn't count against you if you smoke. Strange, but true. He gave us some material on it. I'll look it over and see if it's worthwhile or not. This isn't medical insurance, we pay our $108 MSP premium every month and that covers all medical expenses. This is a lump sum payment if you're diagnosed (and survive for the specified time period!) with one of the illnesses on their list (things like coma, dementia, stroke, multiple sclerosis, etc.). Presumably it's because then you or a family member taking care of you can't work and this gives you money to live on. Apparently cancer is the big one they pay out on the most and Hubby has a 1 in 2 chance of dying of cancer. I could hope all this might push him towards quitting (again) but I didn't see any sign of that so far.
Anyway, as far as I can see, the whole reason for this meeting is that the guys at the insurance company aren't making enough money and wanted to see if they could open up a whole new commission for themselves. I've read that the commissions on permanent insurance are great for the agent who sells you the policy. No thanks. I have other uses for my money right now. They include paying bills and buying food.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Help!
Okay, I'm having some trouble with my blog, specifically with the feed. I set it up through Feedburner about a year ago and I think it's been wonky since then although I didn't realize it for quite some time. People have complained that they couldn't see any more recent posts than what must have been the last one I did before I set up Feedburner. I had noticed that when I commented on sites that have Comment Luv enabled it always pointed to that same old post.
Finally I spent a bunch of time playing around with it last night and it looked as though I had it working. It was a pretty basic error. I wasn't pointing it at the right URL, which was supposed to be the one Feedburner specified. I fixed that and it looked fine. Better still, all my posts appeared in Google Reader. I went to bed happy.
Sigh. Then today I tried to comment on a post made by someone who uses Comment Luv. It pulled up a post okay, but it wasn't my post! It refers back to a blog called Beckhans Blog and worse, when I clicked on the link it redirected me from there to something that I think was called Blogpop. It all looked really spammy and I couldn't figure out what was going on. Now, a reader has informed me that this (bleep) is showing up in Google Reader along with all my missing posts. I checked and, yes it is. It's what shows up first and, if you scroll past it all, you finally get to my stuff.
I'm definitely in over my head here. I don't know what's wrong and I'm looking for advice from my fellow bloggers. Has my feed been hacked somehow? Did I set it up wrong? How can I get rid of this junk so it doesn't appear with either Google Reader or Comment Luv? At least the spammy posts don't appear when I just open my blog directly! But I'm really, really frustrated and I can't seem to find an answer.
Hence, my cry for help.
Finally I spent a bunch of time playing around with it last night and it looked as though I had it working. It was a pretty basic error. I wasn't pointing it at the right URL, which was supposed to be the one Feedburner specified. I fixed that and it looked fine. Better still, all my posts appeared in Google Reader. I went to bed happy.
Sigh. Then today I tried to comment on a post made by someone who uses Comment Luv. It pulled up a post okay, but it wasn't my post! It refers back to a blog called Beckhans Blog and worse, when I clicked on the link it redirected me from there to something that I think was called Blogpop. It all looked really spammy and I couldn't figure out what was going on. Now, a reader has informed me that this (bleep) is showing up in Google Reader along with all my missing posts. I checked and, yes it is. It's what shows up first and, if you scroll past it all, you finally get to my stuff.
I'm definitely in over my head here. I don't know what's wrong and I'm looking for advice from my fellow bloggers. Has my feed been hacked somehow? Did I set it up wrong? How can I get rid of this junk so it doesn't appear with either Google Reader or Comment Luv? At least the spammy posts don't appear when I just open my blog directly! But I'm really, really frustrated and I can't seem to find an answer.
Hence, my cry for help.
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