Progress and Success

My regularly scheduled blog entry had been pre-empted by this cause to pause and reflect on past successes and look forward to future ones.

Tomorrow is Payday and that means that it was a year ago tomorrow that I paid off the last of my large and looming credit cards.

In the year since then I have saved up and paid off my truck (two years early). Not bad when you think about it.

I am now working on paying my trailer (the last and largest debt that I have) in another year. 

It will be tight and I sincerely hope that I can get it done by Nov 7, 2017, but in reality as long as it is paid off . . . period, that is a win. The sooner the better.

I look forward to not only saving up for that property but starting to settle it. I can see myself puttering around and trying to make it a place where people would want to come.

In any event, it will be a place where I want to go, that is for sure, and with any luck, not to mention determination, I will remain debt free. 

For now though, I need to steel myself for the cold weather to come. I just need to get back into polar bear mode, after all, this bit we’re in, it’s the warm part. 

I will, as always, survive and thrive, and in so doing, come out the other side stronger and all the better for it.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward!

Getting Ahead of Myself

Again, one of my greatest strengths and weaknesses is my ability to envision and plan for the future. 

It is this ability that tends to lead to frustration and aggravation these days. Why?  

Well, I keep thinking and planning as if the Wanda Loan is already paid off, that it is a done deal. 

Again, why is this bad, since in the realm of goal setting this is good thing, right?

One of the best ways to stay motivated and ensure that you will succeed at your chosen goal is to envision it already achieved. So, why not be happy about this?

The trouble is that I already find myself thinking about “what next?” What happens after the Wanda Loan is paid off? 

I think about saving most of my take home income for myself, sure. I think about saving up for a property, sure. 

The most aggravating thing is the thought of starting to settle that property, of starting the research and construction of my various “off the grid” type contraptions.

I pause and wonder about renting a small space, in town, even a garage or something of the like. 

A place where I can start to play with car alternators in order to design better power generation equipment, all based on the humble car alternator. 

Or even Water Filtration, waste processing and yes water reclamation from sewage. You know, to find ways to recycle everything and waste nothing.  

That, to me, is fun, that kind of clomping on forward, type of research with a practical end is fun for me.

Yet, I have a year to go before even considering renting such a space, or setting aside any kind of research budget let alone getting a research space. Reading books is pointless unless I can try something out. 

No, for now it is all “stay the course” keep up my miserly ways in order to close out this phase of my life, one that has been with me far too long: the one of never-ending debt.

I will make it, I will pay the Wanda Loan off, and I will get that little workshop, just not yet, as I can’t spare a thin dime out of my budget and still make Total Debt Freedom Day (Nov, 7, 2017)

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward!

Deficit or Underfund?

Okay, so, I am facing another fiscal dilemma, one which requires some pondering and fiscal dancing. 

This all started a few weeks ago when the on button on the radio in Wanda broke, sorta. 

The plastic button that you push broke from its moorings and twisted so that it wasn’t pressing the actual electric button underneath. 

What I did was take the radio apart and just removed the plastic button, leaving a hole in the face of the radio. 

For the last few weeks I have been turning the radio on and off by poking through the hole on an angle with an old stylus (a pen-sized stick with a rubber end). 

This worked until I poked that electrical button off of the circuit board . . . with the radio still turned on.

This meant that I couldn’t turn it on (or off rather) without me yanking the main wiring harness connector behind. 

Knowing that parts for this radio (as in the plastic button that started all of my problems) were non-existent (as in they wouldn’t sell me it), I knew that I needed a new radio.

I did a bit of research and was going to buy a better radio (since I had to replace this one anyways). Why not, since I was buying a new radio anyways, right?

I found out that the newer model was a power pig and the last thing I need is a radio that drains Wanda’s batteries faster, but does pretty much the same thing. (Yet still with no satellite radio.)

So, I ended up ordering the same model radio that I have from a Canadian company. Don’t get me started about trying to buy stuff from the states. 

It was after ordering the radio that I remembered that I had a remote control which I could just use that to turn the radio on and off . . . *smacks head*

I then decided that I wanted the properly working radio for Wanda and the broke one would be the shop radio . . .

As in the radio for the workshop that I will have on the property that I will buy . . . in the summer of 2019 (large cash windfall or crowdfunding effort notwithstanding). 

How this affects my current fiscal plans is the rule that I have that all credit cards are to be paid off completely each and every payday.

This means that this radio will put a sizable (yet not stupidly-sizable) hole in my budget. Up until this I was able to complete the task of putting $1K in each of my 3 accounts.

This will mean that one of the three (Main, Mid-Term Savings , or Long Term Savings) accounts will not make that mark, the question is, which one.

The other option, that I have rejected is to just carry the balance for a payday or two. This will lead to me just tossing a few other items now and again (I know me) onto that card and its balance will grow.

While, technically I should underfund the Long-Term Savings, as that one is the lowest priority, it is also the last account that I touch when I need something. So the cash in there would be left alone for a monsoon day.

I should underfund the Mid-Term Savings as that is what it is for. Yet I set a goal to put $1K in each of those accounts by this next payday and I meet my goals.

I will most likely dip into my Personal Overdraft as a way to punish myself for this spend, and ensure that it will be back up to “zero” of $1K in that account as soon as possible.

It may seem silly, but cash is still tight as starting next payday I start that Pilot Project with regards to the Wanda Loan.

That is the little experiment that I am running to see if regularly making extra payments will decimate the amount of interest that I pay on that loan. 

(Stay tuned to find out.) 

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward!

Winter Nature Necessities

It was mentioned that I should “Get a bucket” rather than dart outside. To that I will say that I do have a bucket to poop into. 

I tend to know where the public restrooms are and do my business there, when they are open. I save the poop bucket for late night emergencies.

As for what it looks like here it is: 

   

 

I have blogged about it and how to build it here: 

No Plumbing

In a nutshell it is a five gallon bucket with a kitchen sized garbage bag lining it, with a bit of pipe insulation around the rim to hold the bag in place and give a bit of cushioning. 

To pee, most times I use a regular washroom, however, when they are closed I just find a forlorn tree or fencepost and “water” it.

I do have a pee jar, which is just a pickle jar (sans-pickles) as it has a wide mouth and a secure lid. (Trust me, you don’t want to spill your pee jar.)

The theory is that you can pee (into the jar) without going outside into the biting cold. The next morning you then pour out the contents of that jar at the base of some tree or bush.

I only break the pee jar out when the weather is south of minus twenty Celsius. Warmer than that I just get up, go outside to pee.  

If the pee freezes in the jar before morning (it has happened) then either put the jar in front of the furnace or heater to warm it up, or heat it up on the stove.

How you safely heat it up on a stove is to put the pee jar in pot half-full of water and boil the water. That boiling water will indirectly heat the jar up without breaking it. 

Then once the pee is melted enough to pour out, go find that thirsty tree and “water” it.

Again, this is not a glamorous subject but one that is necessary to cover. Trust me, the time to think about this is not in the middle of the night when you can’t use your toilet and all of the public washrooms around you are closed.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward!

Changing Seasons, Changing Habits

With the change into Winter Mode, a few things have changed and I have to constantly remind myself to do things differently. 

Such as not pouring the last of the coffee down the sink, or washing my hands in the bathroom sink, and yes, not using the toilet. It is this last one that has caused me minor troubles.

You see, when I sleep I typically prefer to sleep, shall we say, without pyjamas. I find that not only is it more comfortable, but it also, the less you wear in bed, the warmer your bed is.

What happens is that by wearing less, your body heat can radiate quicker to the bed and heat it up. So while I am a bit cold (and complaining) getting into bed, soon enough I am warm.

The trouble comes in the middle of the night when one of the joys of getting older kicks in . . . that urge to pee in the middle of the night (oh joy).

So there I am, all snugly warm in my bed and my house is now a fridge (at best) and a freezer (at worst). Then the inner debate comes . . . how badly do I really need to pee?

I know what needs to happen, now that the weather has turned colder and now that getting out of bed to pee means going outside to find a forlorn tree or fencepost; clothes are needed.

So, I need to wear my warm clothes to bed, thereby meaning I will already be wearing warm clothes when I emerge to dart outside to take care of business.

This is yet another sign of the changing seasons and thus one more way that I need to adapt what I do in order to not only survive in this Urban Nomad Lifestyle, but thrive.

After all I have eleven months and three weeks until total debt freedom, and that is worth getting a little chilly for.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Final Fun of Fall

Winter is coming and it apparently made an appointment this year. 

As it turns out that it was a good thing that I went to Banff this last weekend as things are finally going to take a turn for the sub-zero.

So, sure I did go out to Banff and I made sure to BBQ while I was out there, partially for the tasty food, but also for the novelty of being able to do so (sans-parka) in November. 

I have been watching the weather forecast like a hawk recently, looking for that time when the weather will finally dip below zero and stay there. That day is Wednesday.

What that means is that I am now in Full-Blow Winter Mode. What that means is that I can’t use any of my tanks meaning I can’t use my sinks or toilet. 

This is a big shift for me, as now I can’t do my dishes in my sink or even have a jug shower standing in my bathtub. 

Why? Because that water would go down to my Grey Water Tank just like any business that I do in the toilet goes down to the Black Water Tank.

Again, why is this an issue, after all I have been doing this all this time since I winterized, right? 

Well, with the weather now about to dip below zero and stay there (as in the daytime highs will also be below zero) this means that my tanks and sewer connection will freeze.

When this happens, at best I can’t open the valves to drain the tanks, but at worst that water backed up there will crack the pipes, connection or rupture the tank.

In my books, that is not worth the risk so I drain my tanks just before it freezes and then not use those tanks until Spring. As in when the daytime high is consistently above zero.

Sure there are heat tape, skirting and other measures that you can take to minimize this freeze-up risk, but none of those work if you are mobile, as I am.

So, with that in mind I made sure to drain and flush my tanks, making sure that they are all clean, dry and ready for winter (as in totally empty).

I made sure to do this during the day yesterday, so sure I had to move and setup camp again, but it was worth it. 

By draining and flushing yesterday afternoon I was able to take my time, and do so during daylight. When I dump at camp, I typically do so on my way out of the campground on my way to work.

This time I was able to flush it out and let it drain completely, as there was no line-up waiting to use the dup station. 

I didn’t use the built in flushing nozzles that Wanda has, as I wasn’t sure how well or completely those lines would drain before the freeze-up. 

So, what I did was use that spray nozzle, wand-thing that I bought to spray and wash the inside of the tank. 

With the clear straight pipe that I attach to the sewer connection I can easily see when the process is done. 

How is that? Well, when the water flows clean, clear and without chunks or floaties. Hey this is not a glamorous job, but a necessary one. 

So, all in all it was a good weekend, and the best of all is that my favourite section of the campground should be open by the end of November. 

Even better is that it should be available to be reserved online in early December. This means that I may be able to pay for and more importantly secure my spot for my Christmas break.

I hate going out there and not knowing that I have a spot, I much prefer to not only know that I have a spot but be able to pick it ahead of time.

Ah well, winter may be coming, but this is nothing that I haven’t seen before.

On a happier note, here are some pictures that I took this last weekend: 

  

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!

Wanda Loan Study Update

Okay, so today is Thursday, not just any Thursday but a Wanda Payment Thursday (that and I get to run to the hills tonight after work . . . yay!)

This means that since a Wanda Payment went through last night (at midnight) that this morning I get to see what the new balance of the loan is. 

This allows me to see just how that payment affected the overall balance and even drill down into it to determine some sort of pattern. 

By doing this, this month, my “Control Month” I get to see just what happens when I just make the regular payments on the loan.

This will be important when I start to make large payments on that loan along with the extra payments on the Off-Thursday (Non-Wanda Payment Thursdays).

I need to see just what effect any of my efforts are going to have on the loan so I can tweak and tune my plans so as to have the maximum effect on that loan. 

As it stands my last payment was 64.80% interest yet this payment was 64.72% interest, a drop of .08% from one payment to the other. 

I will see if this trend holds or if it is just an anomaly. Again, this is the point of this part of the study, to see what happens if I do nothing (other than what I have to).

I have one more payment this month (on the 24th) before my first “Odd Payment” oddly enough it falls on December the 1st. I eagerly await to see what affect that extra odd payment makes on the loan. 

By doing this, by measuring what happens now and what happens when I make my changes, I can better model and predict what the loan will look like in the future.

By being able to do that, I can more accurately predict just when this loan will finally be paid off. This is vital to make sure that I stay on track and on schedule.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive, and keep moving forward!