The Ups And Downs Of Paycheques

Anyone who is paid by the hour and/or by commission knows that each paycheque is different. 

This is due to the number of hours/work days on your paycheque as well as the amount of commission/bonus that you have on that paycheque.

The amount of hours/work days is out of your control but the amount of bonus/commission may or may not be within your control.

As for me, the only control I have over my bonus is to do my job . . . as in process whatever orders comes in from our website.

I don’t talk to anyone, so there is no sales skills involved. I kinda like not having to talk to customers, though sometimes I do.

This next payday, as in the one on Feb 7 is going to be larger than budgetary minimum, but the next two after that will be decidedly not.

This is due to the number of days in February and how the workdays fall. I will be short hours on both the Feb 22nd paycheque and the March 7 paycheque.

That’s life. Even with my expected (targeted/hopeful) bonus I will fall short of budgetary minimum on both paycheques. 

This means that I will have to dip into my Holiday Pay (at work) in order to top up those paycheques. Either that or just accept less money on my paycheque.

Since I don’t take vacations, that holiday pay might as well do me some good when I need it. 

Sure I don’t have to have my paycheque make budgetary minimum but I refuse to make less than that. (Don’t get me started on no raises in five and a half years).

The point is that things are going to be tight, tighter if sales don’t pick up, and sales have been slow this month, slower than last year, and that is not a good start to the year.

One thing I do know is that I will somehow make it through and not only survive, but thrive.

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

Keeping Carrying On

The key to success in any endeavour is to find a way to keep going. Things happen and problems will arise, but you have to find a way to keep moving forward.

This is especially true when trying to eliminate debt or build savings. The process is slow (large windfall of cash notwithstanding).

You have to find little ways to keep yourself going. Find ways to keep reminding yourself of how far you have come, how well you really are doing. 

When you only get to make a payment or put cash into savings every two weeks or only twice a month, it can be very discouraging. 

Especially when that amount seems small when in comparison to your debt or target savings amount. 

Use the inertia of time to your advantage, just get yourself into a habit of paying a large chunk on your debts or putting what you can into savings. 

You will surprise yourself at how things will grow and progress . . . over time.

Have patience, perseverance and . . . 

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

I’m Doing Okay

Not much to say, just trundling along. It is hump day and so by noon today, the work week will be half over, so that’s good. 

All in all, the weather is okay, I am able to still do stuff around the house and I have what I need to live. 

So, all in all, everything is a-okay. Life could be better, but of course, it could always be worse. No matter how bad it seems, things could always get worse. 

So, I will do my darndest to keep that positive attitude as I make my way in this world. 

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

Feb-brrr-ary On The Way

So, with this respite of a warm-ish spell, I am getting kinda used to not freezing. I have been running the furnace to take the chill out of the air, and that is all nice.

With the advent and approach of this weekend, though, the cold weather is returning. Nothing like it was earlier (as in -30C) but cold, as in daily highs below zero.

Interestingly enough this is happening just as February rolls in. I also expect that this trend will continue all month and even edge into March.

It is that time of year, and me getting into Anti-Fall mode is a bit premature. I will always welcome the warm-ish weather and even grumblingly accept the not so cold weather.

I will always adapt what I do in order to get done what I need to get done. I always ask myself “what can I get away with in this temperature?” I act accordingly. 

So I will enjoy this week and tolerate next week. 

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

Won’t Get Stuck Again

(At least when it comes to a dead truck battery.) You see, I bought a new pair of Jumper Cables, an extra long pair, as long as 25 feet long.

   

The idea is that if I need to jump start the truck again, I can just jump start the truck from Wanda’s batteries. Don’t believe me? 

   

Now, it may not actually reach, or if it does it will be a bit of a stretch, however I know that I will be able to get this jump start done. 

How? Well, I still have my original pair of jumper cables and so I can do the dangerous thing of connecting one set of jumper cables to the other in order to reach both batteries.

I will have to be careful to ensure that the clips that would be on the ground don’t touch. As in the jumper cable ends that would clip onto each other. 

This is because those clips would be live with direct and unfused battery power. So wrapping one or both in something non-conductive to keep them from touching would be essential. 

I may end up buying another set of shorter jumper cables (that match these new ones) as they are 1 gauge wire and the others are . . . old and I’m pretty sure not as thick of wire.

Anyways, the idea with this purchase was to be self-contained and self-sufficient so that if I happen to be in a place where the tuck won’t start, I can just jump start myself.

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

Budget Many, Spend Once

One of the advantages (and mayhap disadvantages) of my Payperiod Budgeter is that I can see what can happen many paydays in advance.

This lets me see patterns and explore what would happen if I saved in this way or I saved in that way. 

I can see what impacts a certain “savings philosophy” or course of action would have on my bank accounts and my overall savings goal.

Moreover I get to see how much would accumulate in each of my bank accounts and how fast it would do so.

I also get to see how tight my budgets would have to be in order to make this or that savings targets.

It is through this practice that I get to spend my money in many different ways before I actually spend it.

I can leave my budgets in one way for a few days as I think over if I like the direction that my budgets are currently taking me in.

If I don’t I can easily change them to go in a different direction. 

This way I get to decide what is the best way forward for me as I reach for my overall goal of establishing my homestead. 

So, budget many, but spend once, as it were.

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

Wanda Almost Frost-Free

So, I have been wiping down various surfaces in my trailer. You see with the warm-up comes the melt-down. 

What that means is that all of the frost that accumulates during a cold spell has melted and turned to water on every surface. 

So I have been wiping down water where I see it, when I see it. I mean I have had frost on the cupboard doors, ceiling, floor, you name it, there has been frost on it.

It has been a frustrating experience, but one I go through each time it warms up after a cold spell. That’s just life in a trailer.

You learn to adapt and do the things that others don’t have to do. Again, this is because I don’t heat my trailer in a cold spell, I have found it to be a losing battle (which is also a costly one).

So I bundle up, and hibernate my way through a cold spell.

With things being warmer and dryer in my house I can start to do things in my house again, and that is nice.

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