Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Be Open to New Possibilities

Okay, so I did sit down on Sunday and got my bookkeeping up to date . . . sorta. You see, banks don’t update their online entries until Monday . . . or a perhaps Tuesday. So there were a few receipts from the weekend that I couldn’t process. 

The trouble with that is that I couldn’t make sure that my books were up to the second accurate. This, of course, is the whole point of doing these books every week. So I have decided to make Wednesday night the new night that I sit down and do my books. 

This way I will have had three weekdays since the weekend for things to clear. I should be able to get my books up to date accurate. As always this is a learning and process of constant refinement. I shall see how this goes.

You see, I do most of my shopping on the weekends and spent almost nothing during the week. This is because during the week I am far away from stores and on the weekend in their parking lot. So I buy supplies when I am “in town” and just manage when I am “out of civilization.” As in, the barren retail landscape that an industrial park is.

This morning I was a bit reflective so I started to jot a few things down about my past and my life’s journeys. Events and what have you that have helped shape me into being who I have become. I have the feeling that a heavily edited version of this meandering rambling may end up as the opening of the book about this journey towards Debt Freedom. 

As far as exactly what I will do once I am credit card debt free (Nov 22) and with the loans refinanced (mid Jan), I still don’t know. I will focus on Savings and paying the Wanda and Trea Debts off equally and see what happens after that. 

There are too many options open to me; too many paths that I can choose. I feel not unlike a prisoner who has just been released from prison and is a bit “institutionalized.” You get so used to not having any choices and that all of your money is all allocated that when that suddenly isn’t the case, you don’t really know what to do.

What I will do is carry on and leave myself open to new possibilities. The fun thing is that once the debts are refinanced, I will have more leeway in what things I can do. I can start to think about what I really want to do with my life. 

Hmm, there is no rush to make drastic changes, but change will come eventually. After all, the only constant in life is change.  Those who survive and thrive are not necessarily the: best, brightest or strongest, but those most adept at adapting to change.

I still want to put down roots somewhere, perhaps a nice mountain cabin by a lake. Hmm . . . being as self-sufficient as possible while surrounded by nature also sounds good. A wife, kids, grandkids pets, and more, sounds nice too. Then again having a massive home filled with all manner of family and friends sounds nice too.

The point to take away from this is that anything is possible. As I have said before: dream for the future, plan for the mid-term and work for the now. I can dream about what would be nice, but I must keep my focus on the mid-term goals I have set for myself:

1)  Pay off all credit cards by Nov 22
2)  Refinance and hopefully consolidate Wanda and Trea loans into one (Mid-January).

After that I can focus on saving and paying down those debts equally. I will see how things go and what opportunities come my way. If I save as much as I can not only will I have a cash cushion for eventualities, but I could possibly pay the consolidated loan off early (penalty or no).

I really don’t know what will happen, but I will still work my plan and see what comes my way. You know . . . be open to new possibilities.

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Winter is Nigh (Le Sigh)

The weather is starting to change, if a bit, and I must change with it. I have started to wear my thermal undies to bed and warm clothes in the evening. Yes, the water conserving methods are in effect. I had a rousing bachelor’s bath in my bathtub . . . a daily ritual for the next six months (groan).

The first realization each year that winter is coming has always hit me hard while out here on the prairies. This year it is accompanied by another deeper groan. I know what is coming and what lays in store for me. I will do it, and I will make it through winter. I just don’t like it. Even when living in a house I hated winter. I am not one to frolic and play in the snow . . . nope . . . not me.

This has turned my thoughts to how much easier it would be if I even just had a place to park Wanda. This then sparked thoughts of home ownership and what form that might take. I have looked at a few different options and mused over each one. 

There are many possibilities and I am still not sure, what, if any I should do. An intriguing thought is to somehow accomplish this without a mortgage. 

There is also the possibility that the increased payments on Wanda will kill any thought of savings. Once again, I will not know this until I sit down with the bank in January. My initial numbers do look scary, unless I can somehow extend the term of the loan to lower those payments.

Such thoughts of my future are not helpful at this time and will only serve to confuse and depress me. I will keep my mind focussed on what I need to do now, and the next goal that I have set for myself. I will remain focussed on preparing for winter and paying off my credit cards.

Then the savings phase will begin, and Christmas and then the talk with the bank, in January. Then and only then will I know how bad the refinanced Wanda loan will be. Spending too much time thinking about things in the future does not help me now. 

That is then, this is now. I need to do a few things before I can get to that place. Leave the past in the past and the future in the future. Plan for it, but work for and in the now.

Monday, 28 September 2015

The Blizzard of September 26, 2015!

It was brutal, it was bitterly cold, and the snow fell in historic proportions. It is the most sudden, intense and unimaginably cold blizzard to ever hit the city of Calgary. Snow fell and piled up with fifteen feet of snow and the temperature dropped to -50C! 
 

Life and hearts stopped in this city on the prairie . . . or so my local gas station must have thought. (Okay, I’ll admit it, that pic was a photo I grabbed off the internet.)

In fact it was a nice day with a high of 14.7C, a might chilly but still T-shirt and shorts weather. Yet my local gas station, the one that I dump at and fill up my fresh water tank at, has turned the water off. If you ask them they always say “It’s winter” and they don’t want their pipes to freeze. 

What this means for me is that I am now in winter water management mode, meaning the only water that I have is the one in my jug with a hand pump. So I will have to buy my water from the local grocery store at $3.00 for five gallons.

Yet it is not sooo cold that I can’t dump, I mean the cold weather hasn’t hit us yet, and most likely won’t for a week or two. What this means is that I can still use my black and grey water tanks. 

With that in mind I have created a new contraption, this is for me to wash my hands with and also let me flush my toilet. Even when I have to stop using the black and grey water tanks I plan to still use this to wash my hands. 
 



I had some left over clear tubing so I used that and attacked it to the collapsible water jug and then attached a simple tap on the other end. This way I can just trickle the water out to get my hands wet, turn it off, lather my hands up and turn it on again to rinse them. This even will store in my closet nicely. 

I am glad that I had my five gallon jug of reserve water, so I don’t have to start buying my water right away. I now have about a week before I have to buy more water. I got into the habit of having that extra jug of water for just this possibility. 

This also answers another dilemma for me: to winterize or not to winterize? My RV dealership sent me a promotional email flyer telling me of a winterizing special. I won’t even have to unhook or leave the RV there. For one low price they will winterize it on the spot, while I wait. I was wondering if I should or shouldn’t do this. 

Well, with no ready access to drinking water, there is no point in not winterizing. So I will say goodbye to indoor running water for the next six months. In about two weeks I will dump for the last time in six months also. I am not looking forward to pooping in a bucket again, or resurrecting my pee jar. 

I froze myself and endured winter in Wanda last year to pay the banks. This year I will endure the same for myself. I will be paying myself and working towards home ownership, and actually owning something. I have rented for the last time, so when I move to a fixed address, it will be into a place that I own, a place that I will have earned.

Friday, 25 September 2015

Not Going to be Oliver

I forced myself to finish the chapter that I started this week. Sure, it needs to be edited and tweaked a bit, but the important thing is that progress was made. I sometimes take a day off, and I know that I need to force myself to get back into the groove lest I lapse my writing for more than a few days. 

The other thing that seems never far from my thoughts is the fact that I have only four paydays to go until I am credit card debt free. I keep pondering what I will do after the glorious ‘Liberation Day’ which is the 22nd of November, 2015. 

I will most likely wait until January before talking to the bank to refinance my car and truck loans. Why? Because it takes about a month before what happens to your card to hit your credit score. 

I want my credit report to show that I am credit card debt free and have my credit score to be as high as possible before I talk to the bank. I actually want to enjoy this talk and not feel like Oliver asking for more porridge.

Then my thoughts turned towards actually buying something . . . as in a house or land or a condo. Hmm . . . how can I sneak into home ownership without a down payment and what avenue is best for me? 

Buy a plot in a nearby hamlet to park Wanda on? Buy an acreage? Perhaps buy a condo to get my feet into the home ownership market. Hmm . . . decisions, decisions, decisions.

For me, this is a lot like what you do after you buy that lotto ticket yet before the draw. You sit there and wonder what you will do with your newfound fortunes. For me, I wonder what I will do with my newfound disposable income. 

Once again, for no reason whatsoever, here is your sunrise shot.
  

Thursday, 24 September 2015

Lights Out

Okay, I was able to disable the lights on the front of Wanda last night, so there will be no draining of my batteries unless I do it myself. There are two lights, one on the hitch post and the other on the front of Wanda. 

Both of these lights are activated by a switch on them, thus the problem. With my porch light that is turned on and off by a switch inside Wanda. With these two though, anyone can walk by and flip a switch. I wouldn’t mid it if it was someone who used the light for a few seconds, but to turn them on and walk away, is just wrong.

As I suspected, the light on the post was in fact three LED’s on a PCB. I was able to disable this light by disconnecting a ground wire. Thankfully there were two ground wires going to the same screw. One ground wire was for the motor and the other was for the light. By just disconnecting the ground wire and wrapping it in electrical tape, I disabled the light but also allowed myself to be able to reattach it later. 

With one on the wall it was much simpler . . . I just took out the bulb. I made sure to put a small label in there telling you the type of bulb it takes. Just in case I lose the bulb and want to reactivate this light in the future. 

By doing this I have prevented anyone from turning my lights on and walking away. This was the simplest and less confrontational method to accomplish this. Sure I could have stayed up at night or rigged up some sort of alarm to alert me if someone flipped on a switch. 

All that would accomplish would setup a confrontation with whoever was doing it. This is not an issue I see a need to confront anyone on, I just don’t want my batteries drained by some jerk.

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Happily Broke!

Payday has come and gone and I spent almost all of it yesterday. The important thing to remember is that I budgeted it out beforehand, as I always do these days. 

Furthermore, I will be pay the only automatic payment which is due to come out and still stay out of the overdraft. Something that I am proud to say has been the norm for months, quite a change from the past where lived in the overdraft for years at a stretch.

So not only did I get everything done that I had planned to do, there was also an added bonus. I budget $150.00 per payday for fuel, as that is the maximum that the gas pump will let me preauthorize for. That and that is the most that I feel like spending per payday. Usually I am somewhere between $60.00 and $100.00. 

With this trip to Golden and back taking up almost a whole tank, I was worried. By the time I got back I even had the truck nagging me to fill up. I had figured that it would be more than my budgeted $150.00. I had already decided that I would fill the tank up to the max of $150.00 and then just fill up more next payday. I was happily surprised when it “only” came out to $136.56, leaving a bit of cash in my pocket.

Since it was payday and that means a trip to my bank and Costco gas (seriously the cheapest gas in the city) I ended up in my Western Home. I got settled and had a fine evening, even doing a bit of grocery shopping. 

When I got up this morning I found something which has happened before and is quite irksome (not to mention wasteful). I found that the light that is attached to my hitch foot stand was on. 

There is a post attached to the front of Wanda which I can lower down a foot to support the weight of the hitch for hitching and unhitching the trailer. Well there is a light to help you see the hitch at night. What it actually does is spotlight the license plate on my truck perfectly. 

I figured that it was on and was most likely on all night, as my batteries were drained but not dangerously low. I have looked and it looks like it is an LED and I can’t quite figure out how to disable it. If it were a regular fixture I could just pull the bulb out.  I will look again tonight to prevent this. After all, I have flashlights if I need to see the hitch at night.

I have had security types do this to me when they are doing their rounds. It is one thing to write down my license plate if I am on you property, it is another to needlessly drain my battery. I will find a way to prevent this from happening and not give in to the impulse to bash the head in of whoever did this. I don’t need the trouble nor wish to stand before a judge and explain myself.

So . . . I am back to my usual routine, and writing away, starting to make progress on Book Two. I pretty much finished off a chapter in two days, all I need to do is to add a scene at the end of it and this one is done. It is another funny one which was easy to write, I hope the rest of the book goes this easy. 

The break did me good and I aim to have this book finished before starting on the book about my journey to paydown these debts, which will most likely be my next book.

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Momentous Payday and The Snowball Theory!

Okay, so I am excited, as today is payday, but not just any payday, this payday is special. Today is the first payday that I actually put that full end of month payment on the dreaded and dastardly (that which cannot be named) Card #3!

I loathe this card not only because it had the largest balance but because it symbolizes the whole of my struggle against credit card debt. This thing has been turned off, (just because I missed a payment and moved) since 2011 but they have been charging me like it was turned on ever since, and even sneaking in a few extra charges along the way. Trust me I will dance when it is finally paid off and I never have to deal with that organization again! . . . But I digress (into a rant . . . sorry).

So you can at least understand my joy, when today I will take the first large bite out of this card. Not only that but this makes September the first month that all of my credit card budget goes to one card! This is big and plays into my “Snowball Theory” of debt elimination.

What is the Snowball Theory of debt elimination? Well, when you look at your debts, don’t bother to look at the interest rate, just accept that you’re getting screwed and move on.  The only exception would be that if the current balance on two or more cards/debts are the same, then chose the one with the highest interest rate, then the next highest and so on down the line. 

So, first pay off the smallest debt, then move on to the next highest debt, and keep going until you are out of debt. This way the money that you were spending on the “minimum payments” on the smaller debts can be added in to paying down the higher debts. This way your momentum increases as your resources snowballs and grows bigger (as does your confidence) as you go.

It is because of this that the balance on Card #3 will fall quickly and take just shy of two more months to pay off. Okay it will take two more months to pay off but that last payment will be much less than the full credit card payment budget. 

Then that money, that entire budget will be mine, mine to do with as I please. Then, I will finally have control over my own paycheque and life. Truck and trailer payments are one thing, for there is a fixed amount and an end date, credit card debt is a never ending debt that keeps on taking. 

The only thing worse than credit card debt is payday loans. Trust me, stay away from them and if you are on that cycle do whatever (legally and ethically) you have to in order to get break that cycle and get away from them.

As for me, I will focus on the happy thought that the final stage of my credit card paydown quest has begun in earnest.