Bear Mode Engaged

Okay, so I find myself hibernating this cold snap away. Oddly enough it has been saving me on resources . . . so there is that.

Essentially what I have been doing is just not heating the house during the week . . . in this sub -20C cold snap. Here’s why.

Everything in the house is not just frozen but in a deep freeze, so at least none of my food will spoil J

Anyways, what I have been doing is chaining in and out of my cold weather getup at work. That way I change in a warm environment and not in the frozen house.

I will move the house to my evening parking spot, have my dinner, relax for a bit with a cup of herbal tea as I listen to a bit of radio.

After that, I just turn in, as in tuck into my sleeping bag. I can still do some stuff or even listen to the radio if I want (I have a remote.) All from the warmth of my sleeping bag.

In the mornings I don’t get up when I used to, nope, I stay in bed until I have to get up to get my morning rolling. Other than that I am hibernating this cold snap away.

In the end, all I really need to do is heat me, myself, my body and not the rest of the house. So far it is working and I will see how things go in the future.

I will admit that I am taking a cold-snap break by running away from the cold for the weekend by going to the hills and my Very-Western Home (Banff.)

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

Wanda Loan Update

So, last night was a regularly scheduled Wanda Payment. That means that I logged in this morning to see just how accurate my estimations were. 

Well, wouldn’t you know it that the pattern held true and so my estimations were right on track. In fact the amount taken off of the principle of the loan increased by $0.10. 

Furthermore I was able to accurately predict the balance amount, to the penny! So this means that it is possible to predict what is going to come on these loans.

This is important so that I can see and establish a regular pattern if I do nothing out of the ordinary (control) and compare that to what happens when I make my various payments (experiment).

So, things will get quite interesting over the next few months on the Wanda Loan front. As I will study what effects my various payments have on the loan.

This is so I can predict going forward what is going to happen on this loan and estimate when it actually should be paid off.

That way I can tweak and adjust what I am doing in order to ensure that I pay the Wanda Loan off on that glorious day, known as Total Debt Freedom Day! (Nov, 7, 2017).

With as much fuss and fanfare I have made about that day (that I have picked) I had bloody-well better make that day!

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

Back to Mother Nature’s Deep Freeze

I am not talking about the weather, although it is cold, sure. I am talking about my fridge and freezer, as in I can’t run them when the weather gets this cold.

Without going into details about modern refrigeration, the back of your fridge is not only supposed to get warm, it needs to get warm, in order to keep the insides cool.

Since the back of my fridge hangs its butt out in -20C weather these days, it is safe to say that it is as warm as I am. 

That means that if I run the fridge now, I risk damaging it. So what do I do? I do the most counter-intuitive thing anything could imagine: I leave the doors open.

  

Yep, since the weather is actual deep freeze temperature the best thing for me to do is to let that cold air into the house and further into the fridge and freezer.

The fridge came with these plastic attachments to prop the fridge and freezer doors open when you are storing the trailer. I simply use them to prop the doors open, while I am at work, in order to keep my stuff frozen.

It works, a little too well as it happens, but at least nothing is going to spoil. Water is another issue for another blog entry, but at least I know how to keep my fridge cold even when I can’t run it.

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

PS: I was interviewed by Bill Macfarlane from CTV News Calgary, in case you are interested, here you are: 

http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/just-decide-to-do-it-calgary-man-becomes-urban-nomad-to-become-debt-free-1.3192966

I Cuddled my Laptop Last Night

I do like my laptop, but not that much. After all, it is a cheap laptop, but it does get the job done and I don’t have any payments on it.

The reason I was “cuddling” my laptop is an old trick that I had to get back into the practice of: sleeping with my electronics.

What happens is that when the temperatures drop into the definite deep freeze overnight your electronic devices: laptops, smart phones, tablet computers, etc need to be kept warm. 

Trust me, your electronics do not react well to being frozen. There is a serious risk of damage, or at the very least them just shutting down or acting screwy. 

So, the simplest solution to this problem is to take them into your sleeping bag with you to allow your body heat to keep them warm all night long.

What about in the morning? The electronics I am not using I just leave them in the still warm sleeping bag. (It’s better that way.) Why?

Well, when I am up and about in the morning the heater is going so the place warms up, somewhat, as in near zero. 

(Near zero being the operative word . . . Zero is the target to get up to.)

What do I do during the day? I cheat by taking my electronics with me to work to let them stay warm during the day.

For the evening, I put my electronics that I am not using in the sleeping bag with a hot water bottle. That does the trick of warming my sleeping bag for me and keeping those electronic devices from freezing up.

This may seem silly, but trust me you don’t want to push it with your fancy electronic devices. 

The real problem isn’t in the freezing them . . . it’s in the turning them on and using them when they are frozen (trust me.)

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

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Okay, so it is that time of year again, it is exactly three years since I started this journey of being an Urban Nomad and yes started this blog.

It has been a long three years filled mostly with me figuring things out as I went. I most certainly did not have all of the answers, and I certainly don’t now. 

Life is a process of constantly revising and honing what you do, of constant improvement. 

Last year I set out five goals for myself let’s see how I did?

1. I will put and keep $1000.00 in my main account at all times.

Okay, this one I have been very successful at and indeed have expanded this policy to all three of my accounts. 

I now vow to have at least $1000.00 in all of my accounts: Main, Mid-Term Savings and Long-Term Savings. 

(So, count this one done!)

2. I will consolidate my truck and trailer loan, and configure it to pay it off in 3 – 4 years.

Okay, this one did not pan out, as it didn’t seem possible, but I did pay off the truck loan (October) and I do have a plan to pay the trailer loan off by Nov 7, 2017. 

So all in all I will be ahead of schedule. In fact even earlier than my most generous estimates (As in both paid off in 2 years rather than 3 to 4) 

(Count this one as half done and in fact on track to being done.) 

3. I will buy myself that new laptop that I want (and have earned).

This one is done, sorta. I did get a new laptop, but nowhere near as nifty or advanced as the one that I had hoped for. 

Fiscal prudence won out and I got what I needed, not what I wanted. This seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life.

(Regardless, count this one done.)

4. I will save $10,000.00 in my contingency fund (with incremental goals of $2000.00.

Seriously not even close, and I won’t even start on this one for a year. Even then it will be trickle savings as I build up the Homestead Fund. 

(Count this one . . . delayed . . . seriously delayed.) 

5. I will pay off my Truck and Trailer Loan

As I said before the truck is paid off and the trailer loan is the current focus of my fiscal efforts. 

(Count this one as half done and in fact on track to being done.) 

So, what are my goals for the next year? 

1. I will, at all times, maintain a balance of at least $1000.00 in each of my accounts: Main, Mid-Term Savings and Long-Term Savings.

2. I will pay off the trailer loan (Wand Loan) before the end of next year with a target paid off date of Nov, 7, 2017.

3. I will maintain all of my credit cards at a $0.00 balance, paying them off in full each and every payday.

Those are big ones and so that is all of my goals for next year. This will be the year that I claw my way to total debt freedom. 

Beyond that, I will work towards getting my own place and paying cash for it. That is next year, though as I have my work cut out for me if I am to do keep all of my three goals all year long. 

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

In Training

So, the cold weather cometh, thus I must be prepared. I am not talking about breaking out the winter clothes or the -40C rated sleeping bag (that’s the easy part.)

No, I am talking about getting myself prepared, and re-adjusting what I deem an acceptable interior temperature. These days that is a balmy 5C . . . inside the house.

The lowest setting on the thermostat is 4C but I find 5C to be okay and I can handle it. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am bundled up in my winter clothes, complete with gloves and sleeping toque, but I am okay.

These days I could push the interior temperature to 10C or perhaps up to 15C. Warmer is nicer, so why not do that while I can, right?

The trouble with doing that is that the higher you go, the more the furnace runs. The more the furnace runs the more propane it burns and the more electricity it uses. (Thus warmer = more expensive.)

It can also mean that come morning (when I reeeeeealy want to run that furnace to take the bite out of the air) the batteries are dead and the furnace won’t run.  

The other reason is that when the really cold weather arrives (and stays) I will need to be ready and in full “Polar Bear Mode” to not just handle it, but take it in stride.

This is more for my mental and emotional well-being than anything else. In order to be in a well-balanced and non-agitated state of mind all winter long, I need to just accept the new norm.

I know from winters past that I will never have over 20C temperature in my house unless I find some place to plug in (as in to the electric grid). Thus a weekend camping is a nice retreat to warmth with a view.)

I will have a cold house and that is that, there is little I can do about that fact. I can, however, change my attitude towards it.

This winter I am determined to just change my expectations of what a “warm” house is and in so doing, improve my winter.

This is my life and the lifestyle that I have chosen, so I had best make the best of it. Once again, this is not forever just for now, say three years? 

I will have a warm and cosy home again, just not for the time being. I will, however, have a greatly improved cash flow, and that is something worth bundling up for.

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

Christmas Break Still Unsettled

So here we are, December the 1st and the deep freeze is upon us, or rather it should be fully entrenched come Sunday Morning. 

It has been dancing above and below zero for the last little while, but that is supposed to come to an end come Saturday night. 

For once it cools off Saturday night the temperature will not poke its head above zero for some a few months (Chinook notwithstanding). 

This is neither here nor there and certainly nothing I haven’t seen before or can’t handle. Don’t get me wrong, I am not enthused that the deep freeze is nigh, but I can deal with it.

Since it is the 1st of December, I had hoped that what the man at my favourite campground in Banff was true in that at least a few campsites would be up on the reservation system today.

This is not the case, and while I will check daily, it looks ever increasingly like I will be driving to the mountains with blind faith and trusting in dumb luck that a spot will be available. 

That is something I hate doing, as I will be driving after work and the last thing I want is to find out that nothing is available or that the park is closed for whatever reason. 

I have been assured that it will be up and running, but you never really know and when it comes to my Christmas break, I don’t want to leave anything to chance. 

Ah well, there is little else I can do, as I don’t want to go anywhere else, that is my mountain retreat. No matter what happens, I will be okay, and I will deal with it, I always do.

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