New Pay Period Budgeter

With my Vacation over, the next phase in this journey is to buckle down and get to some serious savings. 

To help accomplish this I have tweaked my Pay Period Budgeter Spreadsheet that I use to budget and keep my savings plan on track.

I have not only updated the link that always remains on the left side of this blog but also will include it in this blog entry. 

The changes I have made will allow me to monitor the impact of the current budget on my three different bank accounts. 

As in I want to see how much they go up or down as a result of what I do during this current pay period. 

Once again all of the boxes encased in a purple border are for you to input information in and all others are calculated for you. 

If you do download this spreadsheet for your own use (which I encourage you to do) keep an untouched backup copy before you tweak it to suit your particular fiscal needs. 

After that, before using it I recommend “Protecting” the sheet so that you don’t inadvertently type over a formula or otherwise damage the sheet.

Here is an overview of the Pay Period Budgeter. 

The sheet is broken down into 6 sections: 

1. Liquid Asset: As in my bank accounts.

2. Income: As in where am I getting money from during this pay period.

3. Debts: These are the bills that I pay, where there is an obligation to pay. (Credit card, Cell bill, etc.)

4. Expenses: These are things you spend money on, but there is no obligation to pay. (Groceries, Fuel, etc.)

5. Savings: This is what I will be putting into each of my savings account each pay period (Hint: The end goal of all of this fiscal restraint is to be able to actually do this.)

6. Final Summary: This is the area that sums up just what you spent in what area and how you did. (This is a handy tool for budgeting.)

Here are some screenshots of the spreadsheet. 

   

Once again, the purpose of this blog is not to brag or even to be mere entertainment, but to inspire. 

I want other people to see that it is possible to get out from under crushing debt by primarily “Downgrading your lifestyle so you can upgrade your finances.”

Not only that, but by showing people what I am doing and the results thereof, people can (hopefully) learn from my mistakes. 

I never claim to be an expert, just a regular guy clomping about figuring out what works and what doesn’t as I go. 

If anyone has any questions or just needs a nudge to get started on your own journey, drop me a line via the contact form on the upper left

Without further fuss, here is the link for the revised Pay Period Budgeter.

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

Well That Sucked

Okay, so you all know that I had been using my Mid-Term Savings Account as my personal Credit Card. I had also used it to spend out of when I was on my vacation.

I did this because I didn’t want to affect the budgeting of my Main Account. After my vacation I decided to spend out of this account when I wanted to nudge things along or otherwise cheat a bit on my budget. 

This was because I wanted to show myself how my spending was directly stealing money from my savings account. Well, this is where things get interesting when I looked at my account this weekend.

I do this on a regular basis to not only ensure that my regular payments when through okay, but also to see if there was any funny or fraudulent transactions which went through.

Well, there was a chunk taken out of my Mid-Term Savings account to the tune of $96.00! I thought that this was a fraud of some sort, and in a way it was.

My bank charges me $2.00 for every withdrawal but they give me one free one per month (how generous). That means I was dinged $2.00 each time I spent out of that account. 

As a “Hail Mary/Long Shot” I called my bank to see if anything could be done about this. Again, my expectations were very low because this is a bank we are dealing with.

The customer service rep explained the debit dinging thing that I just told you and that due to the nature of this account that I couldn’t add a package to cover withdrawals from this account.

They were nice enough to put $75.00 back into the account, as they did have a bit of discretion with regards to what they could do.

This goes to show never take your anger and frustration on the customer service representative that you are dealing with. 

They are not the problem and don’t deserve to be yelled at or otherwise put up with your bad attitude.  If you get a snarky or inept customer service rep, hang up and try again. 

There are times when you are dealing with what I term as “hubots” and in such a case, you are pretty much hooped. 

These people are given such stringent and rigid limitations as to what they can say or do, that they are practically robots. (Again, not their fault.) 

This is the company’s way of keeping strict control over the interaction with their customers, and to actively encourage you to just shut up and go away. 

So, as a result of this debit dinging thing, I will go back to charging up my budget cheating on Card #2. I will pay it back down to zero each and every payday, thereby not paying any interest at all.

I was asked about what happened with regards to the business that offered to let me stay there. I thought it over and I haven’t talked to them at all and most likely won’t. 

This may seem silly, particularly when winter is coming and a steady plugin does sound nice and all, but I have a few reasons for declining their offer. 

 For one, I like the thought and feeling of being mobile, of being home wherever I go. I can drive where I want, when I want and always have my home and everything I own with me. I am truly a Nomad and I like that.

For another, I don’t like feeling responsible for the security of that or any business. I know me and if I were to stay there I would feel bad if there was a break in while I was sleeping there and I had nothing useful to report the next morning.

Finally, I don’t like the thought of being that much on display, the hermit in the corner of the lot, so to speak. Imagine if everyone who worked there saw me coming, going and milling about their large lot.

 Sure, I am somewhat on display now, as most of the people in the area know who I am or see me parking in my regular places. That is not the same; I am on a public street and nobody’s guest.

I will manage, and I will make it through another winter and on towards total debt freedom. I will do so on my own terms, beholden to nobody. As Frank said, when it is all said and done I can say . . . “I did it myyyyy way!”

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

The Shampoo Bottle Curse

One of the necessities that we all share, no matter our living arrangements is that we all need to see to personal hygiene.

 

This includes washing or some form of showering and yes, will include the use of shampoo. I am no different. No matter what form of bath I use: shower, jug shower, or bachelor’s bath, I will use shampoo.

 

One of the challenges of this lifestyle is that since I drag my house around behind me wherever I go, that things in cupboards tend to shift in transit.

 

This in and of itself is not really a problem but what is the problem is things falling out at you when you open that cupboard. This happened last night, prompting a reminiscent situation.

 

I opened my bathroom upper cupboard and out fell my shampoo bottle, aiming for my head. It bounced off of me and hit a sharp corner of my bathroom sink counter.

 

This poked a hole in the bottle, near the bottom of the bottle, of course. Oddly, enough this was not the first time that this had happened to me.

  

 

This has happened before and about a year ago, when I bought my last bottle of shampoo (I don’t have that much hair) the pump in it was cracked.

 

I thought about returning it to the store, but given the fact that the store would write off the bottle and toss it out, I didn’t.

 

That seemed like a waste as the shampoo was fine, just the bottle itself was damaged. Knowing that all I needed was a new bottle, a sturdier bottle, I got to thinking.

 

I realized that a good bottle was a plastic soda bottle. Since my shampoo bottle was one litre in size all I had to do was buy a one litre bottle of soda and drink its contents.

 

After doing that, and washing the bottle out I ended up with something looking like this.

  

 

That tasty looking concoction is my shampoo poured into that same soda bottle. I got exactly two showers out of the actual proper shampoo bottle before having to go back to this one.

 

Ah well, it works, it is sturdy and as I said before, there is nothing wrong with the shampoo itself, just the shampoo bottle.

 

This is yet another example of the creative solutions that I am forced to find to situations that most people don’t come across.

 

If you do find yourself with a damaged bottle of something, don’t toss it out, just find a new container.

 

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

Slow and Steady Should Win the Race

This is a blog entry to encourage people who are reading this while still mired in debt, feeling that they will never ever be able to be out from under it to just start tackling it!

Slow and steady really does win the race. No change, no large change, happens overnight. It would be more accurate to say that that change should not happen overnight.

If you get a large sum of money dropped into your lap, you will not know how to handle it. 

Most likely, and I’m speaking from experience here, you will find ways to fritter it away, because you are not used to having it.

It will take time to change your fiscal habits and attitudes towards money and cash flow.

Once you have done that then you will be in a position to better handle larger sums of money when you do get it.

Paying off Debt is not easy, nor is it quick; but that’s okay, you need the time to learn. 

It will take time to unlearn the bad habits that have been taught to us in order to keep us perpetually indebted. Just ask me about my “Trickle-Up Theory of Economics.”

I have said this before and I will say it again: being constantly mired in debt is not normal! This is not something to just throw up your hands and accept.

Find a way, make a plan, devise some (legal and ethical) way to get out of debt! 

Clean debt, such as a mortgage is fine. Buying a car is okay too, but constantly buying a new one just to always have a new one? Why?

There are many ways to squeak out a bit of cash from your budget and put that towards your debt. You can do this, you got this.

If you are like I was and awash in debt, please do something about it. If you need an encouraging word or perhaps a bit of advice, message me and I will be happy to help. 

For clarification and legal reasons, I am not a financial planner or other financial professional and I do not claim to be one. I am just an average guy who has figured out how to get my debt gone.

A good place to start would be to download the spreadsheets that are in the column to the left and play with your budget. 

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

  

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

Back in The Black!

Due to an oddity, I actually have my next paycheque in my hands now . . . early . . . as in 12 days early. 

Why? Because my boss is going on vacation and won’t be back till after the aforementioned payday. 

Add to that that he’s not a jerk who would make us wait (yay Boss) and you have all of us with our next payday in our hot little hands even as he is away. (Talk about trust.) 

Not that this does me much good, as it is dated for the actual payday and minor trickery aside, I won’t cash it, even if I could. 

I am not due that money until that date so I will not even attempt to deposit it until that date. 

Besides, then I would have an even longer period to wait until the paycheque after that . . . and a pissed off boss (or ex-boss).

What this does allow me to do is put my budget in place for my next payday cycle, while just starting this one. 

Since I am able to budget and stick to it, I can predict to the penny what I will have left in the bank at the end of this payday cycle. 

This is a big deal when it comes to budgeting what to do and what I have to work with at the beginning of the next payday cycle. 

What this all means is that, due to the boss dipping a bit more into my well-stocked holiday pay fund, this upcoming payday is also generous. 

With a bit of scrimping, saving and budgetary magic on my part, I will be able to fully fund (back to the minimum acceptable levels) my Mid-Term Savings Account. 

This is huge, as it means that I can start to focus on paying back that IOU I have to my Long-Term Savings Account that must be paid (so sayeth the me) before the end of this year.

I will admit that I am not enthused to be back to having drivers buzz my house at +60KMH or going back to my other miserly ways.

It is good to remind myself that things are moving forward, that my situation is steadily, if incrementally. 

Again, the key to this is to have those small, achievable and measurable goals sprinkled along the path towards your larger goals. 

For no reason whatsoever, here is your sunrise shot.

  

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

My Own Credit Card

Okay, so first of all, yesterday was Payday for me, so that meant running around and ending up in my Western Home. 

With the help of a bit of budgetary trickery I was able to put some cash into my Mid-Term Savings Account. This was my depleted “Vacation Fund.” 

I am hoping that by the end of next month, to have that sucker back up to its “minimum acceptable level of $1000.00. 

Just before going on my vacation I talked to the bank and “activated” the savings button. 

As in, I had them point the “Savings” button on any of those Debit payment machines to point to my Mid-Term Savings Account.

What this meant was that I was able to go on vacation and still keep my main account and regularly scheduled budgeting on track and not be obliterated.

Coming back, what this means is that I can spend cash directly out of that account. So, in effect, what I have done is made my own personal credit card. 

I was shopping yesterday, after buying my groceries I realized that there were a few household items that I needed, so across the parking lot I went to buy them from my host store.

As I neared the cash register, I was going to put it on the credit card, and pay it off when I get paid again. 

It has been a game where I steal from the next payday cycle for stuff that I want now. I decided to break that cycle and just buy these items out of my Mid-Term Savings Account. 

The idea is to bring back the real pain of the spend and cause me to really wonder if I need to buy this item or that. 

It worked as I was not pleased to see that account diminished, even by the $30.00 of this transaction. 

A healthy portion of it was office supplies that I stock up on during the “Back to school sales.” 

One such item are the simple and plain zip up pencil cases that are great for storing cables, chargers and other small items in. 

So, I will continue to do this and do my darndest to only spend online purchases on the credit card. I hope to keep this card down to zero, and never carry a balance. 

I thought that I would share this little trick and see if it could help others.

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

Vacation in Review

Okay, so I was able to make it back safe and sound and in good time yesterday. I was also able to make it from the eastern edge of Kamloops back home (with fumes to spare) on one tank of gas.

Today is payday, or rather Friday actually was, so there should be a paycheque waiting for me when I get to work. 

So this is back to the grindstone for me, and well timed as I have a fresh paycycle to help me adjust back to the regular work routine.

Already as I blog this I have Monday morning traffic buzzing by my trailer all eager to get to work and seemingly to see how close they can drive to my trailer.

It was good to get away and it was good to see family, some I have not seen in years. It was not long enough, but perhaps enough for me to remind them that I am alive and perhaps not who they remembered that I was.

Likewise I could see them as they are now and not as they were. Time and life move on and those small ones grow up and have families of their own. Those bundles of joy that my brother had have grown up and are all but ready to leave the nest.

As it always does, it throws my life, or rather lack of family life into sharp contrast. Again this is always something that happens.

I have made my choices and I still continue to make them. I am not a victim of life or any conspiracy. If I am a victim of anything, it is of the choices that I have made: the ghosts of the road not taken.

I will keep going, keep endeavouring to look forward towards a brighter future. I know not what exactly this way comes, but I know that the future is of my own design.

Remember kids: the future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one.

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