Debt Free Kid

I finalized all the tracking for my January spending, and I'm pleased to report that I am right on target. I way overspent in a couple of categories, but made up for it with spending shortfalls in other categories. Here's a brief: Rent $0 (paid first and last in December) Food/House (budgeted $200) $150.68 Apt./Car insurance $96 (on target) Car gas/oil (budgeted $70) $152.31 - way over, due to an oil change and two trips to the big city (an extra 600 kms) Phone (budgeted $90) $121.05 - way over, because I wasn't watching my daytime minutes over the xmas holidays RESP (budgeted $40) $39.20 (on target) Life insurance (budgeted $49) $48.73 (on target) Misc. spending (budgeted $100) $310.10 (sickeningly over budget, but the Kiva loan is in there) Line of credit (budgeted $500) $500 Credit card (budgeted $100) $48.57 - under budget, but I used $47 to top up my RRSP account Emergency Fund TFSA (budgeted $800 from rent not spent) $1000 - proudly over budget! Total spent...

One of my goals for 2009 is to save at least $2000 and take 10% of it to make a donation to one or two charities. This is my variation on titheing. I have my mind on Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. Last night I decided that I needed something to be excited about sooner, so today I am going to take $25* from my paycheque and donate it to Kiva.org . It's not really a donation, it's actually a loan negotiated through a microfinance NGO in a developing country to an individual who will invest it in a self-employment venture. Examples are a woman who will buy produce for resale in a village market, a man who will open a small mechanical shop, or a woman who will put it towards her textile business. I feel so fortunate to have been born in a developed country, to have my education and my union job at the university. Some of the big financial advisors may tell me that I should put my $25 towards debt reduction, but some of them also say that we need small rewards for incentive. My con...