Spending Being Corrected

So, I am one of those people who watch my finances like a hawk. 

I do this so I know exactly where I stand as well as watch out for any odd transactions that happen on any of my accounts or credit cards. 

Since I am now in the mode to pay off my Low-Interest Credit Card, after funding my Mid-Term Account half-way to my target I have decided to stop using it (makes sense, right?)

I have to make another batch of my Mealstarter this weekend yet I have no extra cash in the bank to cover this (without dipping into my Personal Overdraft).

The usual thing that I do is to just charge it on the card and pay it off when I get paid. This way my Main Account stays above zero yet I still get what I need.

So what to do this time? Do I push off making my Mealstarter? Do I dip into my Personal Overdraft?

What I will do is blow my Grocery Budget (as in spend everything left in it) and dip into my Contingency Fund, to top it up, in order to buy what I need to buy.

This way I can still get what I need to get, yet keep that Low Interest Credit Card turned off (as it should stay until it is totally paid off again).

I can also keep my Main Account out of my Personal Overdraft. 

It is a bit of a dance, but I can still do what I need to do while keeping my fiscal plans moving forward.

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

To Camp and Cook, or to Annoy my Western Home

It is that time again, time to cook another batch of my Mealstarter. This means that I will need to cook in my trailer, for a few hours.

Since I don’t feel like wasting that much propane (as I cook for about 3 – 4 hours) this means that I will want to use electricity and use my hotplate.

If I do that, and I am not at a campground, I will then have to run my generator. This is where the annoying my parking lot neighbours comes in.

You see, while it is a nice generator, my new generator is louder than the previous one. This is to be expected, as the engine in it is about double the size of the previous one I have had.

So, this means either I annoy my neighbours and have comfort of being in my Western Home, or I stay in my Eastern Home all weekend and annoy nobody.

I am too cheap to go to a campground, not yet anyways, even one in town, as the nearest one would save me gas, but cost me more to stay there.

One thing is for sure, I will be cooking my Mealstarter, as this is the stuff that gives me the nutrition I need yet allows me to spend so little on groceries.

It is not a fancy lifestyle, but it is effective in getting me ahead in this world. (Yet in doing so, I try not to be a jerk to my fellow ‘Hew-mons.’

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

Heat On, Heat Off

It was hot for the past few days, as in bordering on 30C. This means that in my trailer it got a bit warmer. 

So, like always, I just found ways to deal with it, mostly by wearing less and opening up the windows and door so as to let the breeze blow through. 

Yet today, the temperature dropped in half, and it looks like it will hover between 15 – 22C for the next while. 

This is the prairies, so, as they say, if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. So, change in the weather is always a constant. 

It is nice to have a break from the heat while not freezing my tuchus off. 

Yet, no matter what comes my way, I will roll with it and adapt. It’s what I do.

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

The Plan Is Tweaked

Okay, so I have always maintained that it is best to keep evaluating the plan you are working in order to reach your goals. In so doing, feel free to change your plan, if need be.

Never blindly, go forth on a plan that is not doing what you want. Or even, continue down a path that at one point felt like the right thing to do, yet now no longer does.

I have made a change in one of my targets, and in so doing altered my plan. Let me elaborate. 

As I have said before, I keep $1000.00 in my Main Account at all times. That is my Personal Overdraft. I am not changing that.

My Mid-Term Account is my Personal Line Of Credit, and in there I want to keep 2 Years Worth of Living Expenses.

This is the Target Amount that I have increased. I have increased this by a third so as to add a bit of extra cushioning and make the number a nice round number (why not).

In doing this, I am now about half-way to that new goal (or will be, come the payday on the 7th). 

So, I have decided that since I have at least something in my Mid-Term Account, I can relax just a bit and focus on paying off that Low-Interest Credit Card, the one that I have been racking up.

After that is paid off (estimated to be done by July 22) I will then resume working towards putting my newly increased target amount into my Mid-Term Savings Account.

After that I will start on the long trek to putting my target amount into my Long-Term Account.  

Somewhere in the last quarter of this year I will put the last of the money that I have to into my RRSP *spit*.

I do prefer to be totally debt free, but I wanted to have at least a bit of a cushion, and I now do. I can now get back to what feels natural and right to me, being debt free as I build up my savings.

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

The Batteries Seem To Be Okay

So, one of the things that I was checking when I went to my Mountain Home was to see just how healthy my batteries are, and if they do, in fact, need to be replaced.

I was plugged in from the time that I got to the campsite, late Friday afternoon, until when I was rolling out of there at 4:15 Tuesday morning. 

That was a nice long charge at full power (120 VAC/30A) and that seemed to be what they needed.

As it stands now a few days after that charge the batteries still have a healthy charge in them and not the almost empty charge that they typically would have.

So, all in all, I will stick with these batteries and just make sure to give them a good charging once in a while, as in, on each long weekend. 

So, the next large charge will be on the Canada Day Long Weekend (July 1st). 

It is good to see that the batteries are still usable, as replacing them is not an expense that I want to incur, if I don’t have to.

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

Stretching The Grocery Budget

This payperiod is a longer one than normal. It is also made more challenging by the fact that they way the paydays land, it is the better part of three workweeks on this one paycheque.

This means that out of the current Grocery Budget, I must feed myself for three weeks. So my frugal ways will come in handy for this upcoming stretch.

The nice thing about this particular pay period and how it lands is that with all of those workdays on one paycheque, I actually started this pay period above Budgetary Minimum. (I honestly can’t remember the last time that has hasn’t happened).

So, while it is a longer stretch, there is a payoff at the end of it. If I can keep being frugal, I may just possibly be able to put all of my budgetary minimum into my Mid-Term Savings this payday too.

So, while I will eat, I won’t go crazy. After all I have a number of extra days to feed myself for.

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

The “Hope Not Package” Has Been Deployed

Okay, so yesterday was payday, and so that meant I did my payday running around. This centres around going to the bank and depositing my paycheque, of course.

While there, I got a Safety Deposit Box at my favourite bank branch. In there I put copies of everything that I need to legally prove that I am me.

This is because while I do have a fire safe box in Wanda, the thing is that everything I own is in fact in one convenient carry case . . . Wanda!

Any number of things could happen to my truck and trailer to make them go bye-bye.

Apart from starting over and being truly homeless, I would have the arduous task of trying to legally prove that I am me, (in the absolute worst case) without a single piece of ID or other necessary documents.

I have no valuables to speak of, as I don’t collect shiny things, I am just focussed on building my savings and moving forward towards my goal of buying that land and starting that town. 

On the front of my building my savings plan while carrying debt, things are on track and in fact I am slightly ahead of schedule. 

It looks as though I will have my Mid-Term Account fully funded and begin paying down that debt on the July 22 payday (4 paydays from now, not including yesterday).

All in all, things are looking up, as I try to be realistic and pragmatic while still working towards my goals and dreams!

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