Look for the "Win", in Everything

     Okay it is hard to imagine how time has flown by, I am approaching one month in my new little place.  I just got paid my end of the month paycheque and that means that rent is due. 

     More than rent to be sure, but it is the main bill which I pay at this time of the month. Well, that and my phone bill. 

     This month has not turned out the way I had hoped. I had hoped to pay down a thousand dollars on my first credit card but all I have done is pay the minimum payments on them. 

     This month has been one of taking care of assorted bills and one unforeseen expense (which I will not go into) that I have had to take care of.

     On the positive side I have stayed out of the overdraft all month and it looks like I will get out of this month, still to the positive. I guess that is the “win” that I will take out of this month. 

      I am re-teaching myself that zero means zero and that the Overdraft does not exist. There are still tempting things to buy but what will be the point of paying down a credit card if I will simply run it up again. 

Living on a Budget is Not Easy

     Okay I have been in my little place a bit over two weeks now. I have had one paycheque and this Friday I will have another one. I have settled into a bit of a routine; albeit a bit of a dull one.  

     I get up early, play a bit of Lord of The Rings Online, then do some sort of writing or website work for my TV show. Then I get ready and go to work. After work I come home and relax while watching TV. I try to do some work but I just seem to veg out. 

     As I have said before, if you don’t have any cash it is easy to stay on budget. You literally can’t spend what you don’t have. 

     The trick is to not spend money when you have it available to you. That is the problem that I am now dealing with. I still have the impulse to spend and buy some large ticket item, just because I can.  . . . I am working on this. 

     I have noticed that I do tend to cheat the system a bit and buy little things here and there. A fast food lunch here, a small household item there. 

     These are not large purchases and they are not that frequent. As well I am still above Zero in the bank account but I am still spending when I should not. 

    I am on track to get these bill s paid down but it is frustrating not seeing any real progress. I simply made minimum payments this month and won’t make a large payment till a month from now. 

     I do hope to make a larger than usual payment on the seventh but it won’t be until March 22 that I will be able to make a serious dent in the first credit card. On a spread sheet the months just fly by but in real life they trickle by. 

     I am trying to curb my spending habits but so far I have not succeeded. I am at least slowing down my spending, and that is some measure of progress.  

Zero Actually Means Zero

Okay, 

I got paid on Friday and I am already tapped out. The important thing to remember is that my bills are paid and I am still above Zero in my account.

I had a few leftover expenses from the townhouse which need to be taken care of. I had hoped to put half of my rent aside this paycheque and half of my rent aside next paycheque. 

Well that was not possible without going into my overdraft and I have already sworn that I will not do that unless it is an emergency. I will admit that there is still the temptation to dip into my overdraft. 

I have been living in my overdraft for so long that it almost feels like it is my money. It has started to feel that I have fifteen hundred bucks in my account when I have zero in the account. This is something I have to retrain myself, that zero actually means zero. 

The thing to take away from all of this is that the savings are not immediate. While I am in my new place and this means that my living expenses are lower, not all of my bills are lower. 

I just filled up my truck (I do this once a paycheque) the amount of driving that I have done since I last got paid is more than usual. This means that it was bit more than I was used to, or rather more than I had been paying at the Townhouse. I won’t see any savings in fuel consumption until next paycheque. 

Likewise I expect to pay off another bill from the Townhouse with my next paycheque. What this means is that I won’t pay down any credit cards until next month. This will delay my plans but only by a month. 

There is always a transitional period with these types of life changes. Don’t expect to be immediately relieved of the financial pressure just because you have moved. It takes time to relieve the financial pressure, but it will get better, trust me.

I Made It! The Move Is Complete!

As I sit here and write this entry, I am in my new home and I have officially made it. Despite all of the challenges that I have faced over the past two months, I am not only now in my new little place, but I have also achieved my first financial objective: I have paid off my overdraft.

I have made it out of the month of January, done all that I wanted to do, and am still a few dollars in the positive. Albeit $20.94 to the positive but it doesn’t matter that $20.95 is mine and not borrowed from the bank. I will grow my finances from here and simply not spend anything until I get paid on Friday (I hope).

After the last of the things were loaded into my little room or into storage, I treated myself. I went to the nearest fitness centre and no I did not work out, I parked my butt in a hot tub and soaked for a few hours . . . yep I was a prune when I came out, but I was a more relaxed and happier prune.

Living here is a bit of an adjustment but not unlike the time that I lived in residence at Film School. I lived in my little room and shared the kitchen and bathroom before, I can do so again.  . . . I can do this.

February will be a bit of a slow financial start for me, as I will not pay down any cards nor will I make any radical expenditures. This month will see me grow my minimum balance of my bank account to at least $500.00 once all bills are paid as well as pay off some lingering bills from the old place. I got my power/gas bill just as I was leaving.

It doesn’t matter, I am getting ahead just being here, so it won’t be until March that my first major paydown on my credit cards will begin, but it will begin.

The one thing that I have learned is that there is always some unforeseen expense that will come up. I see now that planning for a 10% Contingency Fund for any such endeavour would be a good idea, just a small amount set aside for these unforeseen expenses, such as “pay per view movies” that the roommate charged or that small thing you need to get, etc.

At any rate, I am here, my home for the next two years, yet not home. This is but a waypoint on my journey to Financial Independence and credit card freedom. With no further ado, here is my little place . . .

The Last Roommate Ever

As I write this,  I am sitting in an almost empty townhouse.  All of my stuff.  (Save for a few odds and ends) have been moved out either to storage or to my new place.  A few items have yet to find their way to the dumpster outside.

Yesterday morning I reminded the roommate about two things,  to give him a heads up as it were. 1) that our stuff should be out tonight but had to be gone but morning and 2) that I would be returning the Cable/Internet equipment today to the cable company.  He nodded and agreed casually.

I loaded up the stuff which was to go to my new house in the truck and off I went.  On my way I decided to first drop off the cable equipment.

There I got the surprise bill of $64.95 for "pay per view movies" (adult movies to be precise) All charged last Friday  (a week ago).

Naturally when I got home after dropping my stuff off to my new  home (at about 5:30 pm) and returning here to do last minute cleaning and what have you,  you cabin guess what I found.

All of the stuff that Roommate cared about was gone and the bulky crappy he didn't want (and assorted garage) was left behind. 

Now,  I had not intended to stay in touch with roommate,  and in these final days of his tenure here he has changed his phone number twice. I never bothered to keep track of it. Besides,  if he is willing to do this to me, a phone call won't make Jim pay.

I swear this.  He is the last Roommate I will ever have. He is the last person who's bills I will be responsible for. At least with a wife/girlfriend 1) you both share the responsibility and failing that 2) at least I am getting a little somein'-somein along the way.

But now to focus on the happy things like closing out the townhouse and turning in the keys this morning.

The Last Weekend Before the Big (Arguably Little) Move

Okay,  this weekend was productive, yet I felt that it could have been more productive.  I have packed up the living room and the lower floor. I have moved just about everything that I want to keep in storage (yet I am not still using).

I packed up my television and the lower cable box and was about to pack up the cable modem  (internet) but I paused . . . . I realized that I like the internet  . . . . I reeeeeealy like the internet.  So why punish myself when roommate has already told me that he plans to be out by Tuesday?

I remembered to take a few pictures of how the storage unit looks now, so here goes . . .

The house is looking more and more forlorn with less and less stuff in it. There is lots of space in my room as I have almost nothing in there. I have piled up a small amount of stuff that I want to keep and possibly put into storage.

I met the couple who are moving in to my place once I am out. They came over and bought my table from me as well as a few odds and ends which I didn’t want to take with me. So yay less stuff to go to charity (or if I get frustrated, the dumpster outside my door).

I still have the couch and loveseat to get rid of but at least the roommate said he will take them (for free) but at least that means  that I don’t have to find a home for them or what have you. So everything is set. I am now beginning the final stretch (of the beginning).

Cash Budgeting Made Simple

Okay, I got paid yesterday and that means I had to make a few choices on how I was going to proceed.

First of all, thanks to my bank’s new policy I had to line up with paycheque in hand to deposit my paycheck. Didn’t we invent ATM’s so we wouldn’t have to do this? I then decided to pull out the cash I needed for:  Groceries, Rent and Personal Spends.

I went to the dollar store and bought three cheap wallets. I made sure to buy the ones with a coin pocket in them. Then I put a put a label on each of these wallets:  Rent, Groceries and Contingency.

I put the rent money in the Rent Wallet and the grocery money in the Grocery Wallet. I put the personal spends money in my main wallet. The Contingency Wallet I left empty, for now.

I have decided to put small amounts of money in the Contingency Wallet when I can. If people pay me gas money or what have you. In short when possible I will put small amounts into it so I will have a bit of a fund for a rainy day. I don’t intend to keep too much in it but a few hundred would be nice, just in case.

I have also decided to put half of the monthly budget into each wallet each paycheque, that way it is not a large hit on one paycheque.  As well it will mean I can make smaller and more regular payments to each credit card. This way there is less time between payments and (I think) less interest accrues. In any event the goal is to even out the demands on each paycheque.

This Saturday I will return the Cable/Internet equipment to the cable company and then curse myself for doing so. I know that I need to get busy on moving stuff out and I don’t want the house to be comfortable for either roommate or me. Cable and internet does make it more convenient to sit around and not do much . . . productive.

I have put up an add for my Table and Chairs and Couch and Loveseat on Kijiji. Next week, on the 29th and 30th I will be moving my stuff into storage and cleaning up my place. On the morning of the 31st I will then turn in my keys and for that one night I will be homeless (but probably will move into the room a day early.

Hard to believe this is coming  down to the wire, or rather this is not the end, far from it, it is only the ending of the beginning, the real challenge will come next month when I start paying down my credit cards.