Give Me Back My Five Bucks

If you don't already visit Smart Canucks on a regular basis, go there now. There's a post with a link to an Empire Theatres coupon. Purchase one adult admission ticket & recieve a second admission ticket free!

Awesome! The new Will Ferrell movie, Step Brothers, is coming out at the end of this month. I'll probably use my coupon to go see it with J. There aren't many movies that I deem "theatre-worthy," but anything by Will Ferrell is kind of a given. The last movie I saw in theatres was Semi-Pro (and that was using a coupon as well). It's a good thing my BF has the same sense of humour as me. :)

Speaking of comedies, what's your all-time favourite comedy movie?

Mine is Anchorman. Without a doubt. Not only is it my favourite comedy, but it is the greatest movie ever made, and that's a scientific fact.

Today was a really relaxing day. J and I slept in late, and then he made me a yummy breakfast (lunch). In the afternoon, we went for a walk to Crystal Falls. It was really nice and I stuffed my face full of huckleberries and salmonberries that were growing along the trail. Then this evening, we came back to my house for dinner and a movie. We made a conscious effort not to dine out at all this weekend. I won't see him again until tomorrow evening, and I don't anticipate even leaving my house tomorrow, so I'm sure that we will both succeed.

I got 2 free tickets to go see Kid Rock tomorrow. I don't like Kid Rock at all (plus I have to work on my presentation for the interview on Monday), and nobody I know in Vancouver can (or wants) to go to the show. So I put them up for sale on Craigslist for $50/pair. I'm hoping that since tickets were $82/each after Ticketmaster charges, I will be able to sell them. Otherwise, oh well. They sold as soon as I posted the ad, so tomorrow morning I'm meeting the guy at a busy intersection by my house. Sweet!

Also, I'm forever in debt to J. He's letting me borrow his car (again) to go to my interview on Monday (which is maybe an hour's drive away). I don't like to be dependent on someone when I have a tough situation to get through, but I am very grateful that he is so willing to help me.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I'm going to go for a run tomorrow morning, and then spend the afternoon working on my presentation for Monday. :) I've been thinking of some good topics to bring up, so I just have to create some sort of PowerPoint presentation to illustrate my points.

So, how do I know it's officially summer? I'm spending a lot more than I would normally spend. And I seem to be traveling a lot more. Which isn't a problem ... I just need to be putting more $$ into my Travel Fund every month. Once I get my raise, I'm going to bump my savings up from $100/bi-weekly to $150-$200. And you can bet a portion of my retroactive pay is going into my Travel Fund as well (the rest of it will go into my EF)

I'm not only trying to save up to do things this summer, but I still want to be able to travel the world after the 2010 Olympics. I mean, by then I might not want to go anymore, but I want it to be an option. At the very least, I'll be going to China.

Next year one of my best friends wants to go to Vegas for a week. So. That isn't going to be cheap at all. And J is going to try to get more time off so that we can go on a vacation of our own sometime next spring. I doubt that will be expensive though. Well. I guess it depends where we go. And if we go at all.

Anyway, here's a breakdown of what my travel plans are in the next coming months:

• June 20-22 - the island for my dad's 60th birthday party.
• June 27-29 - hiking/camping with J.
• July 1 - Seattle with J for a baseball game. My friend and her dad are coming down too, but they'll already be there when we get there.
  
• July 4-5 - on one of the islands? I have no idea, but J said we would be going to watch his friend's band. Which sounds good to me. Bowen Island? Something like that.
• August 1-4 - driving to Edmonton with J.
• August 30-September 1 (tentative) - hiking/camping with Z. We've talked about it, but I need to confirm it with him.
  
• September 5-7 (tentative) - the Yankees are in Seattle, and I would love to see them play. I'm pretty sure my friend will want to come.
• September 19-21 - Nanaimo with J for my friend's wedding.

According to my calculations, this month I saved $825, which amounts to 35% of my net income. Ideally, I'd like to be saving closer to $1,000/month ... but I can't think of any other ways to cut my budget. I mean, there are the little things that I could cut - like getting rid of my cable (which I really don't want to do b/c I enjoy watching baseball and hockey throughout the year) ... but really, I'm careful with my groceries, I walk everywhere, don't own a car, don't have expensive hobbies, and I don't go out and drink/party all the time. The only time I go out to eat is when I'm with J, and I think we're pretty even in terms of money spent on restaurants. Although, I probably should be treating him more often, since we use his car (and his gas) whenever we're together, and I make more money than him.

What I do spend my money on is concerts ... but I really only go 3-4 times per year. I travel home once or twice a month, but usually that cost is off-set by working while I'm home. And since I've been here in Vancouver, I've only been home once during a weekend when I haven't had to work.

But without getting a PT job for the summer (my PT job at the arena will start up again in October ... provided my boss wants me back, since I can only work on Saturdays) ... the only other way I can make money (besides getting a PT job here in Vancouver) is through PPP opps. So far for June, I should be receiving just over $110 US ... which isn't bad for minimal effort.

Still. There must be another way. Next week I'm going to take a long, hard look at my budget and try to figure out if I can't find some way to increase how much I'm saving, without sacrificing my lifestyle.

Well, today was pay day. I'm getting paid less than usual from my FT job (I usually net $1,225), but that's b/c I'm now getting benefits at a 60/40 employer/employee split. I guess it's worth it if I utilize my extended health care ... but I will be happy once my raise kicks in.

Also, this will be the last time I get paid out for my PT job. I won't get work again until October, and even then, I might not go back to work for them.

Anyway, my sidebars and NetworthIQ are updated, so here's what I did with my money:

PT job: $88.44
FT job: $1,179.33

• $200 Retirement Portfolio
• $100 Travel Fund
• $200 Condo Down Payment Fund
• $200 Emergency Fund
• $25 Gift Fund

• $400 paid to Visa (note to self: no more Banana Republic!)
• $31.54 paid to MasterCard
• $65 paid to Rogers Wireless (cell phone)

And the remaining $50 or so will sit in my chequing account.

Today I spent about an hour browsing through Quicken. One of the graphs I pulled up showed me that this date last year, I still had a negative net worth. Just barely, but I was still in the red.

So in one year, I've been able to create a net worth of over $26k. Maybe it's not that great of an accomplishment ... but for a gal who isn't far removed from having an ugly -$20k net worth, being in the black is a wonderful feeling in itself.

Also, I was unemployed for 2.5 months over the past year, so to see my net worth grow to over $26k in less than 10 months ... it's such a wonderful feeling.

Penny by penny, I can see now that I will be able to achieve all of my financial goals.

And to celebrate this fact (and passing my 3-month probation), when I was at the mall today, I bought myself a fitted shirt and a pair of pants from Banana Republic. Both on sale, but as is the BR way, still fairly pricey. Paying for BR clothing is worth it though, because their petite section fits me perfectly. :)

Well, since I'm done my probation period, and since I've accepted the new salary offer and am staying in Vancouver ... I should probably change my cell phone number over.

My cell phone bills have been around $10-15 more per month due to LD charges. When I answer my phone here, I get charged 10 cents/min (billed by the second) ... but I can make local calls for free. It would be a lot easier if I just switched over to a Vancouver number. At the very least, I would be saving money.

It shouldn't change my current cell phone plan ... and if it does, then I'll have to think long and hard about switching my number. My plan right now is so sweet. And if I had to pay for everything that I get, it would cost me more per month than the LD charges I'm paying right now.

Isn't it funny, that something so trivial can make you feel connected to where you came from? I remember when I moved to Michigan to go to university, there was a 3 hr. time difference ... and for the first 4 months I was there, I refused to change the time on my watch. It made me feel connected to who I was, and where I came from. Even though having the wrong time confused the hell out of me, and every time someone asked what time it was, I must have looked like a moron just staring at my watch, trying to subtract 3 hours (and then when I finally switched my watch over, I still kept subtracting 3 hrs., which probably made me look even more like an idiot). For some reason, it was a huge deal for me to finally give in and switch it to the proper time zone. It's the same thing with my cell phone number. By switching area codes, I'm finally giving into the fact that I live somewhere else now, and I no longer live in my hometown.

So I'm going to add it to my May Monthly Goals ... to figure out my cell phone predicament.

I love the Entertainment Book. Every year I've gotten one for my hometown (they're $30) as a Christmas present. They are always worth it, but they sell out quickly. And since I've moved to Vancouver, I've refrained from buying one because the Vancouver edition is $43 plus shipping.

However, now all of the books are only $15 plus FREE shipping! The deal is for Canada and the USA. This is awesome! I bought one right away before they sold out, and I was tempted to buy one for Seattle too, because with that price, the book will pay for itself after using just one coupon. Especially with the city being as expensive as it is, I could use all the help I can get. But I ended up only getting the Vancouver book.

I'm excited about this. Because I'm new to living in Vancouver, I will be able to see all of the sights and do all of the things I want to do, without breaking the bank (they are usually 2-for-1 coupons).

It's no secret that my favourite band is Ryan Adams & The Cardinals.

Well, they just announced that they are going on a mini tour with Oasis, and one of the stops is at GM Place in Vancouver for August 27th.

The pre-sale was at 10am this morning.

I clicked through right at 10am in order to get the best seats ... and I got 2 tickets for Row 6! It came to $168 for the 2 tickets, all fees and charges included. Not bad! But then as I was on the last screen, filling in my credit card information, I got to thinking ... I hate Oasis. HATE the Gallagher brothers ... and the only reason I'd be going is to see my lovely Cardinals, who's just the opening act. Is it worth the $168? Probably, given my love for them ... but it'd be a much better deal to pay that kind of money to see just The Cardinals, and not some crappy headliner band like Oasis as well.

So did I close the window without buying those 6th row tickets? Yes. Yes I did.

Talk about will power beyond belief! I'm still in shock.

Yesterday after work, I decided to walk to the mall. Actually, I decided to walk to Winners beside the mall, because I wanted to get cookie cutters to bake white chocolate maccha shortbread cookies (they turned out delicious - I'll post a picture and recipe tonight!).

While I was in Winners, I casually started browsing, and before I knew it, I had a new umbrella and a silicone whisk in my hand, and I was headed to the shoe section. Then I stopped dead in my tracks. WHY AM I SHOPPING, AND WHERE ARE MY COOKIE CUTTERS!? What the heck was I doing with an umbrella and whisk? I already have an umbrella and a whisk. In fact, I was holding my very own umbrella in my other hand! Granted, it was one of those really cheap dollar-store ones (the tiny ones for little kids), and I've probably had it for a good 12 years. But it only flips inside out sometimes, and it's still big enough to cover my head and shoulders.

Horrified, I shoved the umbrella and whisk into a flower vase, and practically ran out of the store.

I can't believe how natural it feels just to aimlessly shop. And if I hadn't checked myself in the fake flower & candle aisle, I would have definitely walked out of there with a new umbrella and whisk ... and no cookie cutters - which was the only reason I was in there in the first place. Hmph!

Tomorrow I head back home for the weekend right after work. If I make the 7pm ferry, I'll get home around 9:30pm. So far I have nothing planned for Friday night.

Saturday I have 2 field hockey games (12pm & 3pm), work at the arena from 5-10pm, and then I'm going to see a late showing of Semi-Pro, the new Will Ferrell movie, with a friend. I have a 2-for-1 coupon thanks to the Entertainment Book I bought last fall, so it shouldn't cost more than $5 for my share. I'm kind of excited for this movie, but I know it's not going to be as great as Anchorman. Because, let's be honest here, no movie in the history of the world will ever beat the cinematic genius that is Anchorman. It's science.

Sunday I will have to continue to clean up my old basement suite, go for lunch with my grandma, and then head back to the mainland sometime during the afternoon.

It's kind of sad that my 1 shift at the arena will basically cover my expenses for coming home this weekend, and that's only if I get rides to and from the ferry terminal. I HATE taking public transportation to the Vancouver ferry terminal, so if I don't get driven out there, I always take the PCL bus. Even though it's about $10 more expensive (each way) than the regular bus, I feel like it's worth it. I'm more comfortable, less overwhelmed, less stressed and less annoyed. Although, now that I live in Vancouver, I should probably learn to take the bus. It'll save me a ton of money in travel costs back home if I do. Something to consider.

I just got an e-mail inviting me out for lunch on Friday with a bunch of the girls in the office. I wish I could go - it would be the perfect opportunity to get to know my co-workers a little better. But I can't go. It'd just be too weird to go to a restaurant and not order anything (maybe if I knew them a bit better, I'd try to pull it off). And I'm not about to bring my lunch with me.

But this is good - I'm glad that I'm not going. That'll be $10-15 I will save. :)

If I weren't holding myself accountable, and if I weren't really keeping up on packing my lunches every day, I would definitely be going out for lunch with them. So thanks everyone for keeping me motivated!

Friday was pay day, so here's what I did with my money:

• $300 saved for March rent (1/2 of rent - I'll get paid once more on the 29th)
  
• $150 into Condo Down Payment Fund
• $100 into Emergency Fund
• $50 into Travel Fund
• $35 cheque to J for our last Costco trip

In other money news, a few more people have used me as a referral for PayPerPost, so I now stand to earn $150 if all goes according to plan. Thank you all so much! :)

Whoops. Two days ago, I initiated a $200 transfer into my Condo Down Payment account. Usually, the transfer happens right away ... but for some reason, it didn't. I think it was because I did it pretty late at night and their systems might have been updating. So, not really thinking clearly, I initiated another $200 transfer. Well, both went through, and now I'm stuck with $20 in my chequing account until Friday. Crap.

It wouldn't really be that big of a deal, but J and I are going to Costco after work today, and it would take 1 business day to transfer the money back to my chequing account.

Oh well. At least I had enough $$ in my account to cover the double transfer, otherwise I'd be sitting in the red right now, and I would not be a happy camper.

Well, I updated the sidebars and my NetworthIQ. I'm not as bad off as I thought I was, but I know I've been spending a lot more than I should be spending. It's such an expensive pain in the butt, this whole moving thing. I'm glad it's over, so I can settle into some sort of financial routine.

After paying off my moving expenses on my credit card (and my new glasses), I was able to put $1,300 of my EI payout back into my EF (new total of $1,514.25), and then I just shoved $200 into my Condo Down Payment fund, just so it didn't look so sad.

I initiated direct deposits into my Travel Fund of $50 bi-weekly. I want to be able to contribute more, but at this time, I'm not sure I can afford to ... and I'm not exactly going to be taking vacation anytime soon, so I think I'm fine. The next trip I'm anticipating is a 2 or 3 night trip down to Seattle for Canada Day long weekend, but that's not until July ... and it's so much cheaper now that I don't have to take into consideration bus/ferry/bus costs just to get to the mainland.

Anyway, this Friday I will get my first full pay cheque from my new job, so I hope to be able to set up some sort of concrete budget I can stick to. Since I've moved here, my budget has been pretty loose. I am quite satisfied that I only spent $27 on groceries yesterday though. :)

Slowly but surely I'm getting back on the money bandwagon. It's hard after essentially having nothing to do with personal finance for the past 3 months, but I think I'm well on my way again.

Thanks everyone for all your helpful comments about the budget I made. To clear some things up and answer some questions, here's some more info about my situation:

• I do not plan on playing field hockey while I live in Vancouver. While I could think of nothing I'd like more than to play on a team, the league is structured so differently, and games are played all around the lower mainland during any given night of the week. It's going to be to hard to arrange a PT job, seeing J, making friends (and hanging out with said friends), and generally living life if games aren't on set days and times. Especially because I don't own a car. However, I do plan on keeping up with my running, and perhaps I'll join a gym. Haven't decided yet, but if I do join a gym, I will have to budget about $40/month. There's a gym that my boss goes to that's right by work ... which could be perfect for sucking up to him and getting a buff, hott bod at the same time.

• I forgot about renter's insurance. Maybe $10-20/month? Will have to look into how much that costs. Can't be that much.
  

• Clothing, dining out, etc. ... all of that is labeled under Entertainment/Misc.
  

• Forgot that I'll have to budget in personal care for about $30/month I would think. This includes any hair cuts/make-up/feminine products/toiletries, etc.
  

• Any sort of cab fare would be deducted out of my gas/public transportation money. But with Vancouver being so big, I won't be cabbing anywhere. At all. I'd rather not drink than have to pay for a cab ride.

So all in all, I wasn't too off on my budget - I just missed a few things here or there that would probably affect the amount I save by about $100/month. Not too shabby. And hopefully once I find a place to live, I can start looking for a PT job to keep me occupied and bring in a little extra cash every month.

It's going to be a huge challenge, but if I can scrimp and save for just one year, I'll have enough for a down payment on a condo. That's really exciting to me. And you know, maybe in one year my priorities might change, and I won't want to buy a condo ... but just knowing I have the ability to save that kind of money while being independent in a new city ... that really makes me feel good.

Speaking of finding a place to live, the woman whom I'm replacing at the FT job, she just told me that she's leaving her $600/month (all utilities included) basement suite at the end of the month, and the landlord hasn't shown anyone the place yet. I gave her my contact info to give to her landlord, so my fingers are definitely crossed. $600/month including utilities is a smokin' hot deal.

In other related news, J said I could just stay with him indefinitely if I wanted to - rent-free, and that if I didn't want to do that, he would want to pay for some of my rent since he'd be staying at my place a lot. I'm not really sure what to make of it, except to note that J's a pretty swell guy. While it would be so nice and so convenient to live with him, I can't do it. I need to prove to myself that I can do this on my own, so that if for some reason, things don't work out between us, I know that I'm capable of standing on my own two feet. I've been so far removed from "real life financial responsibility" that I need to make sure I still understand what it's all about.

And on that note, it doesn't really seem appropriate for him to pay a single cent of my rent, since I'd have to pay the full amount whether he comes around or not. From his point of view, I can see why he'd want to help, since he currently doesn't pay any rent ... but it still doesn't make it right.

Anyway what I think I'm going to do is keep the budget in mind for February, and try to hit those targets ... just see what happens. If it works, then great. If not, then I'll just adjust it for March and go from there.

I spent last night and some of this evening researching apartment prices in the area of Vancouver that I want to live in. Luckily, this area is a lot cheaper than most, but it's still pretty expensive considering I've been paying $150 rent for the past two years. The average 1 bedroom basement suite is going to run me around $650 including all utilities. Pretty cheap if I do say so myself ... so I'm kind of glad that this job isn't located in downtown Vancouver, otherwise that rent would easily double. And yes, I could save more money and have a roommate, but at this point in my life (I'm already 25 and have done the roommate thing many times before), I think I want to have my own space. If I find it's too much of a burden on my budget, then I will definitely try to find a cheaper place with a roommate. But for now, the plan is to live on my own.

This evening, I also constructed a loose budget based on my projected $40,000 income from the FT job for 2008. Provided I pass the probationary period, my salary will be bumped up (it's written in my offer letter) to the low-mid $40's. But I'm not going to count on that, so I've based my goals on what I'll be making at the present time.

• Projected monthly income (after taxes) from FT job: $2,200

• Rent & all utilities: $700 (added in some wiggle room in case some places don't come with internet/cable, or if there aren't laundry facilities.)
  
• Cell phone: $40 (usually around $30, but added in a bit for LD charges, since I'll be calling home every so often to chat.)
  
• Gas & public transportation: $50 (I would anticipate about $5/week for gas, and the rest would be bus/Skytrain expenses. Ideally, I would like to live close enough to work so that I could walk there ... but Vancouver is such a huge city, I doubt that will happen.)
  
• Groceries: $150
  
• Entertainment: $100 (I have a feeling this might be too low, since Vancouver is one expensive city ... but I'll try it out and see what happens.)
  
• Miscellaneous: $80
• Travel: $80
  

Have I missed anything?

If I haven't, that means I would be able to save $1,000 per month. Plus, I do plan on getting a second PT job - and if I only work 8-12 hrs/week (could be less, depending on wage), I could bring home an extra $400-500 per month, which I would save. If I find I can work more than that, then so be it ... but if it at all interferes with my FT job or I'm finding it too stressful, I'll scale back the hours. There is no way I'm going back to working as much as I was working last summer. That was just crazy. And I'm living in a new city! I want to have fun and take time out for myself. It's important to lead a balanced lifestyle.

So that means, potentially, I could save $12,000 (FT job) + $5,000 (PT job) + $4,500 (2007 tax refund) = $21,500 ... and if I end up saving $21k+, that would exceed the amount of $18k I set for myself when I made up my 2008 Annual Goals a few weeks ago based on an annual salary of $50k.

I must be missing something out of the budget.

Some people have set standards - they won't pick up change unless it's more than a quarter. Or a dollar. Others just won't pick up money at all.

I, on the other hand, clearly have no standards. I pick up money off the ground all the freaking time. Even pennies.

I'm not really sure why, or when it started. It's kind of embarrassing, but I seriously can't pass by change on the sidewalk without picking it up. And when I'm with people, I'm more than likely going to bend down and pretend I'm tying my shoelace, than admit to them that I just pocketed a dirty penny for no good reason.

Do you pick up change off the ground?

Before the ex-BF moved in with me about 1.5 years ago, I had only lived with one other guy before. This guy, we'll call him S for the purposes of the story - he was awful with money. And while I wasn't much better (my debt was piling up), I did have some limitations. When it came to managing the household money, S would just sign his pay cheques over to me every 2 weeks, and we would share my bank account & debit card.

This worked well because I could monitor how much money we had, since we were living paycheque-to-paycheque at the time. But it was also bad because neither of us were very good at managing money, I was just the lesser of two evils. Thinking back to that period of my life, I can't believe I used to live like that. We were living on the edge, and I bet at any given point, we never had more than $100 to our names, in cash or credit.

Fast forward to the present. When the ex-BF moved in, we decided to keep our finances separate. In order to share household expenses, we created a spreadsheet, installed Quicken on our computers, and would alternate buying groceries every week, carrying forward balances owing, and making sure we were completely even in money spent. At the beginning, I was still in college, so he paid for most of the household costs. But as I got my first job, and then started to make roughly the same amount as him, the costs became more even. That worked extremely well, and has helped me become more aware of my financial well-being.

Which leads me to my question ... if you currently live with someone, or have lived with someone in the past, how did you manage the household money? Did you have a joint account, or did you keep your finances separate?

I just bought my 2008 Entertainment Book, and I’m very excited. Even though I don’t dine out a lot, it’s going to cut my costs by 50% whenever I do go out, because most of the coupons in there are 2-for-1 (the BF and I split the cost of every receipt down the middle). There are also awesome coupons in there for entertainment (2-for-1 theatre visits, theme parks, zoo visits, touristy stuff, whale watching, etc.), which is great b/c there’s so much stuff I want to do in this city, but can never justify paying full price to do it.

Do you buy the Entertainment Book for your city?