Going on a budget

I've never really had to worry about my spending. I've always made enough money to cover my expenses. But since I've moved out to Ontario I've noticed that my expenses have sky rocketed. A big part of that is living on my own. If I had a roomate to share the Rent/TV/Internet with it would make a big difference in my excess income.  But now I'm going to have to watch my spending.

So I've figured that my budget is about $30 per day excluding rent, internet and phone. That means I've got to eat for under $30 per day too. I plan to keep track of how much I spend each day and keep a cumulative balance to see how I'm faring. This will allow me to "save up" for big purchases like shoes and clothes.

I know there are some great websites out there to help with personal finance. Do you use any? What would you recommend to keep me on my budget?

What a week

Honestly this has been a crazy week. Work has been busy, so busy that I've barely felt like I had time to breathe. So busy that even though it's Sunday I have to get some work done. I'm not really sure about my job. Am I doing a goo enough job? I'm working hard for the 7 1/2 hrs I'm there per day, but maybe I'm not working on the right stuff or maybe there is a better way of doing things. Either way I'm feeling overwhelmed but the amount of work that's being thrown at me and how much I'm not managing to get done during the work week.

On Tuesday I found out that my friend --- okay more than friend, let's say almost boyfriend, who was set to visit in 2 weeks won't be coming. There are some family things that he needs to take care of. So we're in a period of postponement. I just hope that it doesn't turn into cancellation.  So that's been very stressful and disappointing. I kind of feel like I've just barely been keeping it together because I knew that he was coming and things would start to get better after that. Now I'm not so sure.

Yesterday I went shopping for the last of my furniture. I needed a chair and a kitchen table. Well I found them, at Walmart, but since we didn't have a truck I need to go back another day and pick them up. I also found a bedroom suite. I had originally intended to only pick up a dresser and maybe a night stand but this was a good deal and it was really nice. So it's being delivered next Saturday.

And my couch and bed should be arriving today. Which is good because I accidentally left my laptop on my blowup mattress yesterday while I was out and came back to find the whole thing deflated. I guess the heat melted it or something. So I'll have to buy a new blow up bed before my parents arrive in 3 weeks.

I've got a new home

I finally moved into my new place. Right now it's pretty bare. Just an air mattress. But I get my new bed and my new couch on Sunday. And hopefully I'll be able to buy some other stuff this weekend. I still need a table and chairs, a coffee table and at least one armchair. I'd also like to get some end table since my mom sent my favorite lamp from her house to me.

As for how it's going, well I just can't adjust to being an Easterner. First the people complaining about the weather. Seriously -10C is nothing to complain about. It's barely even cold.   And then there is the fact that no one seems to know where anything is. I've gotten a little lost at least three times now in my travels and neither the bus drivers nor the people I stopped on the street could tell me where to find the places I was looking for. In Winnipeg it seems like if one person doesn't know where something is at least the next person that comes along does. Especially if you're in the right general area. And then there is the cost of everything. Everything is so much more expensive.

I'm still trying to give it a chance, but I really want to go home.

More Things are Falling Into Place

Wowie. The last couple of months have been everything that I could have asked for. New job when I was just barely looking, place to stay while I looked for an apartment, an amazing guy in my life who is planning a visit in just over a month, and now I have an apartment to call my own.

Well technically I don't get possession until the 7th but still it's pretty much everything I had hoped for. Close to work? check. Walking distance to shopping? Check. Allows pets? Check. Also it has air conditioning, a balcony, an indoor pool, a weight room and laundry facilities in the building.

It's a little pricier than I had originally intended. But I can live without a car for a while. And since heat and electricity are included I only really have to worry about TV & internet and food of course. Now to furnish it.

Need a new car

So I've talked about the move a little bit and that's going to happen. Besides finding a place to live the most important item on my list of things to do (other than go to work and make money) is to buy a new car, since my current car wouldn't even make it to southern Ontario. So I've been pricing things a bit. Oddly enough the Ford Focus, the Chevy Cobalt and the Honda Civic all work out to about the same price so assuming I would get the same financing regardless of what I choose (which I realize isn't exactly realistic because companies offer different financing at different times of the year) I have no idea what to get.

I haven't test driven any of them, so that's the next obvious step. But does anyone have any comments on these vehicles or any advice on other things I should consider? This will be the first car I've bought so it's kind of a big deal.

Want of the Week

I've started doing my Christmas gift shopping (sort of), right now I'm in the price comparison stage. I'm also going to Minneapolis in a couple of weeks so I'll probably do a lot of my shopping there.



But I've come up for another thing that I want:


For those of you that don't know Civ is a computer game, possibly the most awesome strategy gaming franchise ever. It allows me to fulfil my life's dream of taking over the world.

Want of the Week

Since I'm trying to save money for school I won't be able to buy all the things that I want so I'm starting a series of posts to keep track of things I want so that I can ask for them for Christmas. Either that or buy them when I start making money again.

So this week's want of the week comes from NFLshop.com

And this is why you need to have a backup credit card

So my mom called today to tell me that I had a call from CIBC fraud services. I didn't think it was a big deal just that maybe they were checking on my recent trip to the US. So I called. Then they started asking me all sorts of questions about my account "to verify" they said. Well I'm no dummy and the number I called wasn't the number on the back of the card so I called that number and started all over.

Well as it turns out my card was compromised, that is one of the stores at which I purchased something had their information stolen so my card number was made public. So they voided my card and they are going to send me a new one.

Thank goodness I have two credit cards (one for just such an emergency) and also thankfully CIBC was looking out for me.

Post Vacay let down

You know that feeling you have when you come back from vacation and you just want to go back? Well I'm experiencing that now. I needed a couple days at home to get myself back in order again but now I'm ready for the next vacation. Lucky for me I already sort of have plans. Although they aren't exactly finalized.

I can't believe how much shopping we did. Seriously it was mostly eat, shop, drive, shop, sleep. I'd like to see the sites and do some stuff the next time and not just shop all the time. But we'll see what happens.

It was a nice trip though. But I'm glad to be back. It felt so good to sleep in my own bed.

Have you every experienced post vacay let down? Where are you planning to go next?

Vacay time

Everyone needs a little summer vacation. So my brother and I are taking ours this weekend in Fargo/Minneapolis. We're mostly going to shop but also there will be food and resting. And a whole whack of driving. Follow along here if you'd like.

Construction, Construction, Oil Spill, Parking Ticket

Today has been a bad day for me and driving. Luckily no actual injury to the car but some definite frustration.

First of all this morning I decided I'd go to the mall to pick up some casual clothes at Old Navy. I like Old Navy because there stuff is comfortable. I got stuck in a construction zone for almost half an hour. That sucked. Then on the way back even more construction.

Then I had a nice hour and a half break to watch soccer , before I had to drive to the hospital for a treatment. A stretch of my usual path to the hospital was closed due to an oil spill so I had to detour. The traffic was so incredibly heavy on the detour that I was very nearly late for my treatment so I parked in the first available spot with an open meter, paid and ran inside. Sadly this spot was handicapped parking only but I was in such a rush and distraught from the terrible drive I didn't read the sign properly. So now I've got a $150 fine to pay.

So next time I take the bus.

What I want this week

I have been known to be impulsive from time to time. I've also been known to become obsessed with things that I want but don't yet have. The sad this is that it's not that I can't afford these things but just that I know that I don't need them, so I try not to buy them until they are all I can think about.

Take my new purse for example. I went to visit it in the store on a Friday. Then spent the whole weekend stalking it via the Guess website until I couldn't take it anymore and broke down and bought it.

This week's new obsession is these earrings. I found them yesterday while I was digging around the NCAA store. It's not the greatest picture in that you can barely make out the Musketeer in the middle of them, but that's what it is. It's the mascot of the Xavier Musketeers. I have absolutely no connection to Xavier University, hell I don't even know anyone from the state of Ohio but I love these earrings. The closest I come to a connection with Xavier is picking them to go one round too far in the NCAA tournament every year and cheering for them simply because thier mascot is D'Artagnan. This makes so much more sense once you know that my favorite book is The Three Musketeers. There was a similar pair for Purdue, which would make so much more sense given that I still harbour a dream of going there for grad school but they didn't have the Musketeer awesomeness. They aren't terribly expensive either it's just a matter of convincing myself that it's okay to spend $12 on shipping for a pair of earrings that only coss $16.

Handbags for all

I've needed a new purse for a while now. I broke the last one by shoving 3 pairs of shoes in it and then attempting to close the zipper. Oops. I went back to using an old one that I don't really like and isn't' exactly wintery. So I've been on the look out for a new one.

Here's the thing though, I'm sick of buying cheap purses only to have them break on me. Granted the last one was totally my fault but still. So I'm looking at Guess purses, I found one that I really like but I just can't wrap my head around spending that kind of money. So right now I'm in a holding pattern. I want it but I'm going to wait it out and see if it's just an impulse thing or if I still want it in a week.

Is there anything that you want but haven't bought yet because it's too expensive?

Online Shopping is the Devil

Today I decided that I was going to do something nice for myself, so I decided that I would go shopping. But by 11:30 I had decided that I also didn't really want to leave the house. I certainly didn't want to go to the mall just to find out that what I really wanted wasn't in stock. So I looked at BestBuy.ca to find out if they had what I wanted in stock at either of the stores in the city, they did not. So I turned to online shopping.

20 minutes and $300 later I had ordered the complete series box set of Gilmore Girls from Amazon and all 4 "series" of Canada A People's History from the CBC store. These are sure to bring me hours of entertainment once the Olympics are over. Now I just hope that they get to me alright.

Soothing Words

Has anyone seen the movie Sidney White? No well it's a kind of modernized version of Snow White. It stars Amanda Bynes where instead of 7 Dwarfs (dwarves?) there are 7 Dorks (which I would be reminded actually means whale penis) and the mirror is a Hot or Not page. It's kind of amusing in a fluffy trying to kill time kind of way.

Why am I giving you a movie review instead of doing a blog post, you ask? Well see the Witch in the movie (Rachel Witchburn) has soothing words like Gucchi and Prada. And after today I had to come up with a few of my own soothing words.

Jay Cutler's Pouty face:

Shoe Shopping:

Starbucks Coffee... or anything really. And meeting friends for coffee or lunch. Now mind you this is not in anyway a comprehensive list. It's just a few random items to keep me going until the next time.

In the Christmas spirit... in October

I know it's still over 2 months away and it's not even Halloween but I can't stop thinking about Christmas. I love Christmas. The lights, the smell of spruce trees, the turkey, wrapping presents. I love it all. I especially love shopping for gifts for everyone else. Well that and it's the only time that my whole family gets together anymore.

I am commencing Christmas shopping next week and hope to be done by the end of October. Now I don't expect anyone else to have started their Christmas shopping yet, but have you started thinking about what you want to receive? Or who you might shop for this year that wasn't on you list last year?

You might say it's too early, I say bring it on.

New boots for all

Okay well maybe not all, but definitely me. See I was having a rough day so I went to visit my brother's girlfriend just to hang out for a while. But she happens to work in a shoe store. So I may have purchased the boots below. Did I need 2 pairs of boots? no. Did I need even one pair of boots? Probably not. And yet some how I ended up with them both. Sometimes you just have to do something nice for yourself even if your feet don't agree that it's nice.

9 Pm London Time

Yesterday we were in Portree in the Isle of Skye. We took a drive around the island and then returned to the hotel. I'm now done all of my gift shopping so anything else I buy should be just for me. Today we're just outside of Fort William at a B&B. Fort William is an outdoor town.. It's right on a lack and the highest mountain peak in the UK is right here. I of course hate the outdoors so this is not my kind of town.

Also our traveling companions are starting to get on my last nerve. I don't want to stereotype Americans because I do know a lot of really nice ones but these ones are obnoxious. For example we left the Isle of Skye early this morning and hopped on the ferry back to the mainland (or at least as much of a main land as you can consider a larger island). Anyway we arrived at the B&B an hour before check in which I knew would happen because we left so early. So we drove all the way back to Fort William for an hour of shopping but only an hour because our driver was tired. And he wanted to come back and unpack the van and then maybe we could drive back to Fort William. It turned out okay though because daddy and me took a little nap before supper and mom did some reading.

For supper we took a ferry to a little restaurant/inn. It was really nice and I got to see most of the Andy Roddick/Lleyton Hewitt match on the TV in the bar. Roddick of course won. I can't believe I'm in Britain during Wimbledon and I'm not there.

In search of Nessie.

5:39 PM London time

Today was probably the best day of our trip so far. it started off a little shaky, I got up really early, unnecessarily. And then we got out of the hotel too early and nothing was open which meant a lot of useless walking around. I should be used to this walking around by now. My mother loves to just walk around. Personally I'm not a huge fan AND the blisters on my feet were screaming at me to stop. Then we got on a Jacobite tour of Loch Ness. First we bussed from Inverness to the Loch. Then we jumped on a boat to go to Urquhart Castle which is really just the ruins of an old castle but that's what you see in a lot of pictures of Loch Ness. Anyway then we hit up the visitors centre there before getting back on the bus again to get to the Loch Ness exhibition centre. It was really interesting. I'm rather convinced now that the Loch Ness monster is a giant sturgeon.

Then we came back to Inverness on the bus and found a used book store where I picked up some book including a history of Scotland. I love books stores. I also love museums which is what we did before returning to our hotel.

Our vacation Act II

8:31 London Time

For those of you who have been trying to follow my trip each day I do apologize for the sparseness of my blogging. I have only had free WiFi at one hotel that we've stayed at and well frankly I don't want to spend the money for the ridiculous internet rate over here. So that's what's been happening. That's also why you'll see some backdated entries.

Okay now on with the vacation update. Today we drove from Edinburgh to Inverness. The day started off kind of disastrous. We didn't get as big of a vehicle as we thought we would and we weren't sure if we could fit all the people and luggage into the van (there are 6 of us traveling in a 7 passenger van). But we packed it in there pretty tight and just barely made it.

The people we're traveling with are kind of difficult. Although this trip has been pretty difficult for me since I was the only person under 50 on the first part of the tour. One of the people that we're traveling with makes me particularly uneasy. And given such close quarters it's difficult to avoid him.

Tonight we actually went for supper at a restaurant owned by the cousins of one of the farmers we went to see on the earlier portion of our trip. It was very good. Funny story we ran into a tour guide outside the visitor's centre and told him where we wanted to eat and he laughed. He said he'd never been asked where that particular restaurant was and asked who recommended it. Then we had a nice little chat and we might go on one of his tours tomorrow. We'll see how we feel.

Tomorrow we're going to try to get on a boar cruise of Loch Ness. Of course I'll be keeping an eye out for Nessie. I'm almost done all of my shopping for this trip, at least the souvenirs for other people part. The rest of it I haven't quite decided.