Debt Free Kid

A couple of weeks ago I decided to pilfer my TFSA in 2010, and apply the $1130 or so to my $3500 credit card balance. I want this card paid OFF, ASAP. I know I'll be losing out on compound interest but I think I'm making the right decision. I will continue to snowflake back into it with each paycheque, but I probably won't get it back up to $1000 by the end of 2010. That's ok, because I desperately want to have the CC and LOC paid off in 2011. I have my 2010 budget spreadsheet all ready to go, with all the modifications I could think of based on spending in 2009. Reaching the final column of the 2009 spreadsheet has been a relief, and a real achievement, because I made through the entire year tracking my expenses and debt payments. Here's a bit of a postmortem: After-tax income, including pay, child tax credit, child support, GST rebates, and gifts and miscellaneous sales $35 841 Rent and Food $11 496 Debt re-payments, including interest charges $8209 Car, including...

I was driving myself and my son to the big city on the 23rd to begin our christmas festivities. It was cold and the roads were ok, but as I was driving on the highway I was thinking about my spectacular snow tires. When I started this blog I had a "Car Fund" to save money for car repairs, oil changes and hopefully snow tires. Then I had over a thousand dollars worth of car repairs from which the car fund never recovered. Back in September I was talking to a grad student where I work who is knowledgeable with all things car related. Thinking about my lack of savings and the pending cold season, I asked him if snow tires were really worth it. I had never had them before and was thinking maybe I could get through another winter without them. The grad student was adamant about the necessity of snow tires, and I decided to take his word for it. A couple months later I get an email from the student, telling me that he found a set of snow tires for me at the wreckers, and would char...

DECEMBER 2009 TIGER PREDICTIONS You deserve a truckload of credit for having done so well this past year. If all went as planned, you ought to have accumulated a hefty stash of cash. The one thing you must not do, is spend it on private extravagances or luxurious Christmas gifts. In the stringent Rat year 2008, you took on some private debt. Of course your friend or family member who loaned it to you, said, ""Oh just pay it back when you can." Tigers however are unwilling debtors. You don't like to be constrained. Debt is a definite hamper and obliges one to guilt. So in December, you Tigers must take advantage of the fact that you have some disposable capital and pay down your debt. This way, you will enter the occidental new year smelling like a rose. The holiday season this year will not be lavish. The world is cutting down on the use of energy. Join the effort by limiting the number of energy-sapping baubles and electric lights you drape on your house. Instead of...

I am at war with Telus. I have been a faithful client for almost four years and have always paid my bill on time. I had one year left of my contract and due to some blundering at three different corporate stores I called customer service to complain and let them know that I WILL NOT be renewing my contract in 2010. Of course they were willing to bend over backwards to keep me and I let myself be suckered into another three-year contract (oooh, shiny new phone!). Stupid me. I really liked my old phone, and the kickass data plan we set up in 2007, but it's all gone now. I ended up with a crappy phone that never worked properly and returned it four days after purchase. It's now two and a half weeks later and I still don't have my new phone. Yet the $344 charge for phone and accessories is still sitting on my credit card account, waiting to be paid. I hate Telus now. I am going to spend the next three years convincing everyone I know to switch to Rogers or Bell. Hopefully by 20...

It's such a graphic term, but lately I feel like I am hemorrhaging money. The Bean's daycare has a United Way campaign that has nickle and dimed me to the tune of about $60 in the past couple of weeks. The battery on my cell finally gave up and a replacement was $90. I bought two pairs of shoes (one was $71 and the other was $389 - orthopedic!!) but returned them both because they just didn't feel right. I'm still wearing the same orthopedic sandals that I overspent $269 on back in August. You know you're a mom when you don't care anymore if you wear socks and sandals. I bought two pairs of "skinny" jeans because I have gone up a size and am bloating out of my old pants. I paid $26 for the two pairs, but another $22 or so on alterations (I am way short for them). I've been invited to a wedding for this Saturday, and so far I have spent $8 on a second-hand dress. The alterations will be another $12 or so. Total spent on alterations will be just over...

The Bean and I are going into our tenth month of apartment living, after a year and a half renting a house that was way out of our price range. We had to give up a lot of space (and a lot of stuff), including our own bedrooms and a gigantic backyard. We also gave up a second bathroom, laundry facilities, and a basement for storage. It's been great though. We acquired a bunk bed on Kijiji for $25 right after we moved into the apartment. I no longer have to mow a gigantic lawn, or shovel a long long driveway. I have only one bathroom to clean. Laundry is right down the hall ($1.50 wash and dry, each) and if I stay organized everything gets washed once a week. We have a storage closet that is pretty full and I hope to make the time to clean it out and organize it over the next couple of months. What I have saved in nine months: Rent: $2745 Hydro: $2340 (avg) Cable: $510 (approx) TOTAL: $5595 I have managed to reduce my debt by almost $6000 in 2009. I received a notice from the propert...

Hi there, remember me? I have been keeping up with everyone's blogs in Google Reader on my smartphone, but I am unable to comment on them. It's such a weird voyeuristic feeling to keep an eye on everyone else while not being able to offer up anything in return. I learned I am able to post from my phone to livejournal, but I can't figure out how to phone-post to Blogger. The month of September has so far been spent recovering from another car repair bill, to the tune of $740 or so for new brakes and a mend to part of the exhaust pipe. The car has been running great since but sometimes I wonder why I just don't take the bus. I guess it's just too easy to take my son and myself up to the university in seven minutes or so rather than the twenty minute bus ride and five minute walk to the stop. It's better than taking the bus to and from the grocery store (although I'm ashamed to admit that those trips haven't been as frequent since I raided a huge chunk of m...