Perception Problems

This is more about a problem that others have experienced, rather than a problem that has happened to me. 

People are used to a certain way that people are supposed to live. Everyone knows that you are supposed to get a job, give away most of that cash in order to just exist.

You are supposed to have a fixed address, a house or other dwelling. This is just what people do, ‘normal’ people anyways.

So when people first learn that someone lives in an RV parking on streets or in big-box store parking lots, they have a hard time understanding that.

This can lead to problems with people, specifically how they see you and how they interact with you. 

I stay away from any residential area, because people will get nervous and uncomfortable with someone living an RV which is parked outside their house.

Parking and living in an industrial area, however, also comes with problems. This is because of break-ins and people casting a suspicious eye your way.

There is the perception that only the poor and destitute would live in an RV. Even worse is the fact that the perception is that most of us out here are drug addicts.

This is where the perception becomes a problem. You see, in the evenings and weekends industrial areas are not exactly the hub of activity.

You could even say that they look abandoned, or even evacuated. This lack of people around in the wee hours of the night proves too tempting a target for thieves. 

There have been a number of break-ins in my area and the people who are doing these break ins are usually the actual drug addicts looking for cash or small stuff they can sell or trade for their next hit.

As yet, while I have been questioned if I have seen anything from a break in the night before, I have not had the hassles with the police or bylaw officers.

Part of my theory is to why this is, is that yes, that I move around twice a day, but also the fact that my truck and trailer are newer. 

This does not fit the preconceived notions of what a ‘desperate and destitute’ person would live in, and so I am not a ‘cop magnet.’

At least that is my personal theory, other than that, I have just been lucky, I guess. All that I or anyone else living this Urban Nomad Lifestyle wants is to be left alone to live our lives like we see fit.

I am doing this to get my debts eliminated and then build up my finances. Others do this lifestyle for the freedom of movement. All are attracted to the cheap cost of living.

More importantly, all are people who are just trying to get ahead in the world.

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

Cascading Success

So, I was able to pull my hiney out my personal overdraft and this set me up to do the same thing for the following budgets.

I also set a new record when it came to fuel . . . $32.97 . . . that is what I used for two weeks of driving and generator fuel. (An all time low.)

I am on track to stay on budget and on track for paying off Wanda on October the 22nd. This will mark a turning point for me and one that I am looking forward to.

For now, though I am taking the time to recognize and celebrate the small victories and use that to remind myself that I am making progress on this journey.

It is far too easy to just see the distant goals that seem so far away and get discouraged. 

It is at those times that one must stop, look behind you and see all of the other goals that you have met and moved on from.

Those are the mile markers of success on your journey of life. 

So, I now celebrate this accomplishment and use it to set myself up for further successes to come.

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

Budget Crunch

So, this weekend is a payday weekend, or specifically Sunday is Payday. This is also the payday that I pay Wanda’s Insurance up front.

This means that things are a bit tight and was one of the payday’s that I had planned to dip into my Mid-Term Savings in order to do this.

This is also the payday that I have vowed to get out of my Personal Overdraft, without dipping further into my Mid-Term Savings.

Things are looking grim and it looks as though as none of my regular Budgetary Alchemy will make this happen. 

As you can imagine, this will require me to dig deep into my bag of tricks and do some things I have not done in some time. 

In other words, I will have to resort to some desperate measures.

With the warmer weather upon us (last bout of the dead of winter notwithstanding) this means that I am using much less propane. 

This means that I can dip into my Utilities Wallet and transfer $40.00 of the $60.00 budget from that wallet and into my Groceries Wallet. 

I can then underfund the Groceries Wallet, only putting $20.00 or $40.00 into it and still manage to make it until the next payday. 

I will then have to keep up my budgeted $20.00 per payday that I have earmarked to go into the Utilities Wallet in order to slowly fund that Wallet back up to its budget of $60.00.

As I head into the last 5 months (and change) of this journey I am heading into a long, steady budget crunch. 

In order to become totally debt free by October 2nd, I will need to make every one of my budgetary targets from now until then, in order to make this happen. 

I need to make at least what I have targeted for my minimum amount of income. More importantly I need to somehow make all of my savings and expense targets.

So if my income is a little light during a given payperiod, I will need to cut back on less vital spending in order to make my key savings and expense targets.

I can do this, but as a result of the past few months, any and all wiggle room in my budgets are gone. 

October 22nd is still my drop dead, deadline date to become Totally Debt Free. I will make that day one way or another. 

This, of course, will require much more Budgetary Alchemy, to be sure. This is a place that I have been before, so I know what to do. 

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

I Don’t Like Working Without a Net

It’s funny, for most of my working life I have not had any kind of savings account. I have always been the paycheque to paycheque type. 

Now that I have had a taste of having a bit of a savings account building up, I like the thought of having that safety net, even for a short bit.

The past week or so at work has been a bit slow and since we are not a governmental organization and are a business, in fact a small business, this is not good.

One’s thoughts turn to what would happen if Boss decides, or has to, either downsize or shut the company down. While this is not likely, it is, of course, a possibility. 

With my current plan of handing most of my paycheque right to the bank, my cash reserves are quite low. 

If something were to happen now as in if I was “actively encouraged to seek other employment opportunities” even through no fault of my own, I would be in a tight bind.

So this is why I have decided to shift gears, I will still pay off the Wanda Loan by October the 22nd and pay my truck and trailer insurance up front.

What will change is that now I will put three quarters (¾) of what I was handing to the banks in my Long-Term Savings Account. I will put one quarter (¼) of that payment still directly onto the Wanda Loan.

A few days before October 22, I will drain the Long-Term Savings Account (along with my other fiscal reserves) and pay the Wanda Loan off. 

This will let me have a fiscal cushion and make large payments on the Wanda Loan. The best of both worlds as it were. I will not touch the money, but have it on hand, just in case.

This is a good balance and since the outstanding balance of the loan has been knocked down considerably, there is not much difference either way, with regards to the best way to pay off the loan.

I have modelled what will happen either way and noticed there was not much difference between the two, with regards to what it will cost me.

With that in mind I went with this and while it may end up costing me a few extra dollars (maybe a hundred, if that) it is worth it for my own piece of mind. 

That and this is the more prudent option. Life is always about constant revision, always tweaking what you are doing in order to make sure that what you are doing is the best possible option, given what you know now, and what the current situation is.

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

The Propane Bottle Heard Me Boast

As you might have guessed, when I got back to my trailer after work, the fridge trouble light was on. 

This always means one of two things, either Wanda’s batteries are too low, or the propane bottle is empty.

Since my radio was still lit up, it was doubtful, that the problem was with the electricity. So, all it took was a quick check of the propane regulator to confirm that the bottle was empty. 

You see, there is a valve that I flip back and forth to indicate which of the two bottles of propane that I will draw propane from. 

When and if the pressure in the currently selected bottle drops too low, a red flag will rise up in a small window to confirm that the bottle is empty.

So, I had to flip the switch and switch propane bottles (oh no). 

I will do what I had said I would yesterday and use the $15.00 of the grocery wallet to buy this bottle of propane.

This will save me the $20.00 that I would have to put back into the Utilities Wallet, if I cracked one of its twenties. 

On a side note, I have been BBQing this week, and hope to continue as it is a nice way to have dinner and it’s just fun. 

I am still on track to somehow get my hiney out of my Personal Overdraft come this next budget cycle (beginning on Sunday). 

I know that things are on track for finally being debt free come the end of October, but it just seems to take way too long and time is moving way too slow. 

This is just me anticipating and thinking about it, I know. Before long, October will come, and I will achieve this goal, like all of the others before it.

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

I Got a Plan

Okay, so yesterday I was grumbling about not achieving a balanced budget for the upcoming payperiod. I now have a plan to come close . . . though it is a long shot.

I won’t achieve balance, not really, as I have to pull money out of my Mid-Term Savings. This was planned, though, as I am paying for Wanda’s Insurance up front.

What I am trying to do is maintain my “always stay above $1k in my Main Account” policy to me, dropping below $1k, is dipping into my Personal Overdraft.

Why is this important? It is important because all of my future budgets are based on the assumption that I will be out of my Personal Overdraft by the end of the previous budget cycle. 

Failure to do this will have a cascading affect on future budgets and force me to scrimp and save down the line to correct the problem caused in this budget.

Staying out of my Personal Overdraft gives me option of dipping into that overdraft when I really need it, as in some dire fiscal emergency or large unforeseen expense.

I know that I will more than likely have to buy a bottle of propane this week. This is not all that unexpected because the last one I bought was on April 1 and it is still going (not bad).

If I use the $15.00 that I have left over in my Grocery Wallet for this, I can save the $20.00 I would have to put back into the Utilities Wallet if I used its money.

If I am super conservative with fuel and come in as low as I did last time, and if payday is even a few bucks more than expected, I just might do it . . . with like a dollar to spare. 

This is just another game that I play, in order to get things back on track and myself in a better mindset. 

The easy thing to do would be to just take more cash out of the Mid-Term Savings. That would then put my other further goals at risk and . . . be much less challenging and . . . let’s face it . . . less fun.

I know, Fun? Budgeting? For me, it is partially about how far I can push things and push myself. What can I do, if I really need to, if I really push myself?

We shall see how things turn out, but even if I am a few bucks short, I am still much closer to my goal and overall goals by at least trying. 

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

Deficits are Draining

Okay, so all in all it was a good weekend, as I was in my Western Home. That is always nice, as I get to put my stabilizer jacks down, and the slide-out out. 

This means a bit of space, and not being so cramped as well as not having yahoos zip by my house at high speed, two feet from my window (always fun).

For me, a weekend in a big-box store parking lot, is almost (almost) as good as a campground. I do make sure to buy my weekly groceries at said big-box store, as a thank you.

Speaking of which; with regards to the subject of Friday’s blog, I did end up cracking a twenty, two of them in fact. 

So, I have ended up doing something that I haven’t done in close to a year now . . . spending all of my grocery budget for a given payperiod *gasp*. 

While this doesn’t mean that I went over budget, but to a miser like me, it kinda does, as my target is $60.00 per pay period and I spent $100.00. 

(Okay, I technically have $15.00 and change left, but it is officially spent, as per my budgeting system.)

This is sorta a loss, for me, but I know that there are large items that you steadily use over time that you don’t buy every payday. 

When you have to buy them, you have to buy them, there really is no choice. That is what happened to me this weekend, but we’ve all been there. 

That is not what put me into a deficit budget for the third straight deficit budget (as in this upcoming one for the May 7 Payperiod.)

What really put me into this deficit budget situation were the shorter days in April; that kinda killed me on the income side. (Which results in me having less hours on these two paycheques.)

The fact that my laptop power supply died, and a few other unforeseen expenses didn’t help either.  

Again, that is life, and is why we, or I, have a Mid-Term Savings Account. This way I can run a deficit budget for a few payperiods and not be totally screwed. 

I am not a government, however, so I can’t live on deficit budgets, only obtaining balance in election years. I can’t just float a bond or tax someone to raise cash. 

(If I did that it would be called extortion, but that is the subject of a different blog altogether).

I should return to balance come the May 22 Payperiod, and with it (as timing would have it) I should also have running water in Wanda’s pipes. 

(A luxury I live without for about 7 months of the year.)

I am still on track for making my new Total Debt Freedom Day of October 22, 2017. I have marked this date down as my hard limit date; I will not push it any further unless it is absolutely necessary. 

As it stands, due to my current fiscal constraints, my planed vacation in August is on hold and may not be resurrected, unless I have a string of surplus budgets (doubtful).

This is what I must do in order to finally turn the page on debt and do something that many working stiffs never do . . . become totally debt free.

On an interesting side note, Friday’s blog entry was number 800, this is my 801th blog entry, and it is interesting how time flies by. 

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