Meh, It Snowed

I went to bed with green grass that was slightly wet out my door and woke up to a healthy blanket of snow. 

  

Again, not that big of a deal in the city where I live but would shut down Vancouver (couldn’t resist). 

Sure, we grumble and complain and all that, and there is the trouble of keeping the roads clean when the snow keeps coming down.

But we just deal with it and life rolls along, albeit a bit slower and a bit more slippery, but life rolls (or slides) along.

I am happy that I was still parked in my place near work and so I just had to break out my snow boots and clomp on to work, as per usual.

I’m counting on a nice warming spell sometime soon to get rid of this white stuff.

I still have my site booked for Banff this weekend, and had intended to get away to the mountains for the long weekend. 

With the dumping of snow they (and the highway to them) are getting and continue to get I am wondering about cancelling my weekend away plans.

I will make a call tomorrow and either decide to go or no go then. 

Things will be okay, and I will continue to just clomp on ahead and just deal with whatever comes my way. 

While I keep trying to delude myself each and every spring that winter will never ever come again, I know that it does and will do so, shockingly soon.

Yet, this is where I am and this is what I have to deal with in order to get ahead. I am dedicated to my goals. 

I know that if I can just tough it out for four more years (massive crowdfunding campaign notwithstanding) that I can and will build up my savings to my savings target.

Then I can actual go forth and start that town that I want to start (the town for science) in very meagre and very humble beginnings, but at least it would be started. 

So what does a couple of (real) snowflakes think they can do to stop me? Bring all of your (real) little snowflake buddies and pile up outside my door. I will still clomp on ahead.

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

First Blast of Brisk

Okay, so it got a bit chilly over the weekend, nothing serious, but at least enough to remind me of what cold is like, as well as what is to come.

I actually had to pull my black coat out of the closet due to necessity. This is always a true sign of the chilly weather hath come. 

It is not too bad, as I can still keep water liquid and I can still do what I need to do. all in all it is nothing I haven’t seen before, and after living through -30C in my trailer, nothing scares me.

I did go to the winterizing special that the RV Dealership that I bought Wanda from and had her winterized. 

It was interesting to look at the newer models of trailers and I could evaluate how practical this one or that one would be to live in. 

Again, my life and mantra is to make do with what I have and live as cheaply as I can so I can move on to the next phase of my life (homesteading).

A little cold does not scare me, as I know how to adapt in order to not only survive but thrive in whatever comes my way. 

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

Bye-Bye Running Water

So, this is it. This is my last full day that I have running water in Wanda’s pipes, until spring. Again, it is something that happens each year and each year it hits me less and less.

I have no running water for most of the year (From October till April-May) so I just get used to living without it.

So, having running water is a treat that I rarely use because I still have to pack my water in on my back, so wasting water is not really a smart thing to do.

Still, it is a sad time when I have to Winterize Wanda. I Winterize Wanda when the RV Dealership has its one day Drive Through Winterizing special.

For me it is a bit of insurance as they do it right and I am assured that I will not ruin my plumbing if I do it and muck it up.

So, tomorrow morning I will be saying goodbye to my running water for another winter. Ah well, life move on.

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

Year End, Home Stretch Worries

So, it is that time of year when finally the Taxman figures that he has taken enough of my lunch money and that I can keep a little more of it (it’s Christmas and all that).

This means that my paycheques are larger this time of year because fewer taxes are taken off.  Conversely, in January they are brutal as more taxes are taken off.

So, couple this with the fact that it is the end of the year, and so I have grand goals in order to finish the year off with a bag (savings wise) and you have grand expectations.

I am still not sure if it will all come together but I would like to get to 17% before the year lets out. 

Again, we shall see but with how things are shaping up, I am not sure if that will happen. 

Sales have not been all that great and the great push we had hoped for has not materialized, as of yet.

I keep reminding myself that all I really have is this paycheque in hand and the one that I am working on. 

All I can do is be frugal with what I have now and take that one step forward towards my goals each and every payday.

I will get to where I want to go, it will just take time, and even if I don’t make 17% (of my savings target) by the end of the year, any progress is good.

After all, we are talking about me building up my savings and so any dollar in there is a win. 

Targets are nice but even if you miss them you are still further ahead, just by shooting for them. I will get to 17%, (and eventually 100%) but it will just take time.

Time is something I cannot control, my finances and cash in hand those are something that I cannot control.

Patience is a virtue when it comes to the slow prodding progress towards grand goals.

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

Priming The Coin Purse

Okay, so I have said, I now have a central coin-purse that is the catch all for all of the coins generated from any and all of the other wallets. 

I have another coin purse for my laundry, this one is just for spending. 

This way I have one coin pure shush-fund to help prevent unnecessarily cracking of bills in each of the wallets. It also prevents me from having pockets of coins in each wallet.

This way, there is one place where all of my coins gather and I can raid it if I want to in order to prevent spending in any one of the wallets (for small purchases).

This is what it looks like on its own.

  

I decided that in order to help get it going I would put a roll of quarters and a roll of loonies in there, just to get it going as a viable slush fund.

Here is what it looks like now, after top up.

    

I don’t plan on doing this often, if ever again, as any time any coins are generated, they go in here. 

It should pay for the odd cup of coffee or that loaf of bread which will help me stay on budget and not crack another bill in each respective wallet.

The plan is to help keep my spending down, yet still be able to function. 

So far, it is working rather well and doing its job.

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

More Than Just A Real Estate Revolt

Real Estate Revolt . . . I wish I had coined that term, but that was coined by a reporter in the video that I will link to later in this blog. 

The video is a news report about a bunch of working people who are living in RV’s and other vehicles while working in a mountain resort town.

There are houses available, but like elsewhere, they are stupidly expensive. So, in order to get ahead, they have opted for the “Urban Nomad” lifestyle. 

Yet, this is not a localized phenomena, nor is it a new thing, yet it has been growing in size and prevalence for a number of years now. 

(As in being an Urban Nomad AKA: Living in an RV or trailer full time yet keeping a job.) 

It did not start with me, as others have done this before I started in December of 2013. 

I have always said that part of why I am doing what I am doing and blogging so publicly about it is as a protest and to draw attention to the unacceptable direction of the general cost of living. 

The problem is not just with rent, it is with all of the things that people need to exist in a traditional lifestyle: 

• Rent/Mortgage

• Taxes

• Utilities (water, heat, power)

• Gasoline

• Food

The list goes on but you get the idea, it is not just the cost of a home but the cost of also maintaining that home and yes a life. 

It comes down to the basic problem that we all have known about for years, yet fail to, or are incapable of doing anything about the spread between wages and the cost of living. 

The cost of living keeps going up at a much faster rate than most people’s wages. I don’t think that I have ever gotten a “Cost of living increase.”

This cannot go on or there really will be “Economic Refugee Camps” in the middle of every major city in our country. 

As in people who have been forced out of their homes due to economic factors. So they band together in a conspicuous place to be seen and demand that all levels of government do something to rectify the situation. 

And they will . . . 

Send in the police and club everyone back to the shadows.

Yet, there are those who smugly say there is little that government can do to fix the situation that it is just the “Market Forces” at work. 

I will still remind both camps that things cannot go on for much longer without some serious problems coming our way.

I for one am tired of being told that if I (as an average person) can’t rent a place and get ahead that I am a looser and it is all my own fault.

Likewise I am tired of looking somewhat enlightened for doing what I am doing (being an Urban Nomad) for why should anyone have to live like I do to get ahead?

Anyways, with this rant over, here is the news report video. 

https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1493670

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

Grand Savings Update

Okay, so it is that time again, when I update how my progress is going on my “Grand Savings Plan!”

Okay, so let’s see how I did . . .
 

 

For review, here is how things looked from last payday . . .
   

Yep, that was 7.8% of my Target Saved.

And this is how things look like, after the dust settled on this payday’s budget . . .
   

That’s right it went up to 8.7% of my savings target. That actually means that I put less than 1% of my savings target away so, I lost ground, sorta.

My target is to put at least 1% of my total Savings Target away each and every payday (truck insurance payday notwithstanding).

I will chose to look at this as I still moved the number forward and still crossed off a box, as I went from 7% to 8%.

The less than a percentage points matter in me “stealing a box” meaning when I get to cross off two boxes due to those little bits extra adding up.

You know as in going from say 9.9% to 11.0% due to the way the numbers fall. Again, I will get there but I am just still getting into the rhythm of the savings.

As I have said, any cash put into savings is doubly-earned. You earned it once when you worked for it, but you earned it again by finding a way to put it aside.

In this economy and with ever increasing costs of living, it will continue to be ever harder to save and just break even while living in a fixed address.

I continue to do what I am doing so I can get ahead and I can start that town.

I will get there, one payday, one savings contribution at a time.

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