Does that really say POSITIVE?!!!

I haven't written in a week or so and saying I was otherwise engaged would be an understatement. Last weekend I found out I'm PREGNANT!! S and I are absolutely ecstatic and although I'm ready emotionally and physically, financially is another story based on my current net worth. That being said, S and I both have good jobs now and I'm sure by the time the baby comes, we'll be in much better shape.

I'm about 6 weeks in right now and although we're only telling our immediate family and a few close friends, I decided to include the news in my blog since this is anonymous and because it will have such an impact on my personal finance goals.

Yes, I did just start my new job on Monday (oops, haha) but I'm not going to fess up until it's more or less obvious. Right now I'm feeling great except that I am HUNGRY all the time! We definitely need to increase our food budget.

On the financial front, I started my new job last Monday and will be submitting my payroll forms this coming Monday. I'm not sure when my first pay cheque will be issued but since I haven't had a real one in over two months, I'm really looking forward to that. I'm anticipating that it should be roughly $1,750.00 for two weeks. Plus my non-profit contract came through and they've hired me to work 8 hours/week at $25/hour so that another $400 every two weeks to add to my gross.

I was suprised the non-profit agreed to the $25/hour price point since I was expecting to come to an agreement at $20/hour. But, they didn't negotiate and just offered me what I asked for which is great luck. This will add another $10k to my income over the year putting me around the $70k give or take some mat leave!

New Job #1 - Part Time

Part of my thinking when we moved to Edmonton was that when we arrived, I could re-institute a reasonable work/life balance. S and I celebrated our 1-year anniversary over the summer and we'd both been working non-stop, a la T-dot. It was hard to believe that a year had passed already.

When we moved here, I started looking for a job and on the 'life' side of things, I wanted to do a little karmic investing by giving back to the Earth. In Toronto I had spent some time coordinating with colleagues that operate an environmental charitable organization and as luck would have it, they have recently been approved to start a branch here in Edmonton. I'm extremely passionate about the initiatives and they've asked me to help them get it up and running. It will be one day per week which could work out perfectly as I'm still looking for a f/t job. I've asked for $25/hour plus expenses on a contract basis but that rate hasn't been finalized yet. If it was a regular job, I would have asked for a higher hourly rate but since I'm thrilled to help out the organization, this seems reasonable. Originally I was just planning on doing some volunteering but this is a more serious role.

S has been working crazy hours since we arrived (poor angel), so even if I was working full time, I'd still have plenty of time to build this organization. I'm super excited!!

Visa Vie? Mais Non!

There's only a drop life left in my 19.5% Visa - I've almost slayed it. Only $84.85 left to pay off!

Well, I did slay it actually - now not only is it frozen in a block of ice in the back of my freezer, it's also cut in half. Over kill? No way! I don't think so. I wonder how much interest I've paid on it over the years... Thinking about the 19.5% interest makes me nauseous.

Next step is getting the auto-debit accounts (iTunes, cheap long distance, etc) linked to this card unlinked.

Has anyone heard that it's a mistake to cancel your credit cards once you pay them off? I heard Suze Orman say it once and it surprised me. I guess it improves your credit rating to have the credit and not use it. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

*Pay Day Friday Today!* After dropping $1,150.00 on my top level debt, my bank account stands at $936.31.

I Love My Graphs

Just a quick one from me this morning, I am late for work! I have a meeting this morning with the moody head of my company and was trying to get in early to prepare but this 'Spring forward' business is killing me. *Yawn*

There was some good and some unachieved yesterday. Firstly, my Visa with the 19.5% interest rate has found a new home in a block of ice in the back of my freezer. She's a little cold but she'll adjust. Second, being that yesterday was Tuesday, I didn't spend a dime. No spend day #2 is finito.

In the morning, I transfered the $750 I had available in my lower interest line of credit to my 19.5% Visa. I may keep making an extra effort not to spend this week because this Friday is *Pay Day* (woot, woot!) and I want to transfer as much left over $$$ to my Visa as possible.

I did prepare my benefits form for the massage and am dropping it in the mail this morning; However, am still waiting to hear from S as to where I should submit the old receipts. The company that we get our benefits from changed recently so I'm not sure where to send them.

I didn't get a chance to do my work expenses yesterday but I will try to get them this afternoon - I want that money back in my account!

Check out my new graphs! They are so pretty! Many thanks goes out to Krystalatwork for solving that piece of the blog puzzle for me.

Bank account balance: $424.34

Check Baby 1, 2, 3, 4

No Spend Day #1 was a success! Not a penny spent and I managed to cross all 4 things off my list. The most difficult was definitely #4 on not buying lunch or tea. The lunch part was fine as I brought it but the tea was surprisingly harder since I did get a few cravings for my venti China green tips tea from Starbucks. They are obviously Stars at getting my bucks and are awfully cheeky for putting it directly in their name like that. Yesterday I prevailed.

Must celebrate the small victories.

So, there was an exciting update yesterday when I called about my student loan. I was thinking I owed around $7,500 - $7,100. Nope! It's at $6,653.49. So that's great news because it moves me below $20k debt line. I feel like I'm improving already.

I also went through and figured out what percentage of interest was being charged on each of my debts and it breaks down like this,

CIBC Visa - $1,936.44 @ 19.5%
TD Visa - $6,150.56 @ 9.4% (P + 6.9%)
Line of Credit: $6,208.11 @ 8.25% interest (P + 5.75%)
Student Loan - $6,653.49 @ 5% (P + 2.5%)

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My Plan of Attack

1) Start at the top first. Reduce everything down to a minimum payment and funnel all the extra cash to the top level debt. As that gets paid off, move down to debt #2, etc.

2) Aim for 2 no-spend days per week (Tuesday's & Thursday's). If I have plans and can't do it on a day that starts with T I must substitute it for another day that week. I am able to plan ahead and "bank" no spend days if I need to but not the other way around.

3) Continue to buy my groceries every week and bring my lunch to work.

4) Set-up all my debt & bill payments to take place automatically.

5) Leave my credit cards at home and use debit.

6) Monitor my bank account to make sure it stays in the black.

7) Live pay cheque to pay cheque. That means at the end of every pay period, transfer any $$ I have left over to my top level debt and start fresh with my new pay cheque. If there is an emergency or unanticipated urgent expense, I can use my credit card if I must.

8) Transfer the $700.00 or so dollars free on my line of credit to my top level debt. As I make the minimum payment on this and the balance decreases, continue to transfer the balance up the debt chain until I reach the point when I start paying this loc debt back.
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I think it's an achievable plan, reasonable and not overly extreme. My goals for today are,

* Send in the old expense claim form for S that been sitting in our kitchen cupboard since summertime.

*Submit the benefit form for the massage I had yesterday.

* Do my expenses at work.

* Bring lunch and snacks to work.

Today's bank account balance: $424.34

J. Money & Krystalatwork, thanks so much for the warm welcome and encouragement! I was so happy when I saw your notes and really appreciate the support. Go team.

Monday, Monday

Alright my first week of saving has begun. I think fitting to start it with a No Spend Day, a concept I learned about while reading other pf blogs. Great idea! I am scheduled to get a massage this evening but that's 100% covered by benefits so I'm not counting it.

A few goals for today -

1) Have No Spend Day #1
2) Find out how much is owing on my National student loan and the interest rate being charged.
3) Get a new bank card. I think I dropped mine in the parking lot leaving the grocery store yesterday.
4) Bring lunch and snacks to work and don't even think about buying any lunch or tea.

New mantra: I respect my money and my money respects me.

I get paid on Friday so I'm interested to see how much $ I still have in my bank account at the end of this week. Today I'm at $503.09.

Sexy World, Here I Come!

I'm so excited about this new project. It all started when...

I was reading the National Post last week and began leafing through their Financial Post Magazine. I came across a section called Trend Spotting which completely caught my attention. In it was an article called 'Their Money, Their Life' about a 26-year old marketing coordinator, Krystal, who was steeped in debt and managed to turn it around and grow her net worth to over $30k - all the while blogging about her journey and getting support from her friends in the personal finance blog community.

This article jarred me. I mean, there are so many things about it that I just hadn't considered before. Mainly,

1) Sharing personal FINANCIAL information online with strangers (and telling the truth about it?!)

2) The possibility of being 'debt-free' - ok, I had considered this before but literally not in years.

When I used to think about being debt free is was more of a 'when I grow up' type dream, along with marrying Leonardo Dicaprio and winning best actress at the oscars. I also thought about it in different terms... Not in terms of debt free necessarily but I wanted the financial freedom to travel and live the life I wanted. Now I understand that my debt is hand-cuffing me and I'm not free. My Dad was the one who coined the term Financial Freedom for me and when I think about this, it's pretty intense for a 14-year old.

Fast-forward 14 more years. I have a great job which I sincerely enjoy and in theory pays decently, however I do feel under paid because I work so hard. My financial portfolio includes, 2 Visa's with about an $8,000 balance combined, 1 Line of Credit with about a $6,000 balance, 1 student loan - no idea how much I owe on that.. around $7,500 maybe? I better find that out.

It hasn't all be for not though.. post high school I've also earned a 2-year diploma in accounting, completed a third year of business school, travelled all over the world, completed a successful cross country move, sharpened my saw as a business woman, paid off a BC student loan & a large MSP debt and launched an engaging career I'm excited about. I've also been married (oops), married again (wonderful) and live a happy and comfortable life.

But I still have compiled a whole wack of debt which is holding me back and weighing me down.

The point is, I can completely relate to and am inspired by a 20-something year old blogger who's managed to get her financial goals back on track. The subtitle of her blog is One woman's journey out of debt and into the sexy world of financial independence...

I want to be part of that sexy world too.