Back on the Wagon

It's time to bring this lengthy hiatus to an end!

Last month my laptop went sideways. It's been a frustrating affair as it's old and not easily fixed I take it, based on the length of time the laptop surgeons have had it. In fact, it's still not home and I'm questioning the qualifications of those jokers. All I really care about is my data and they promise me that's safe so *knock on wood* I hope they're right.

However, around the time that my laptop broke, I started planting the seed with my boss that I could work much more easily & effectively if I had a work laptop at home. So, thanks to my powers of persuasion and his generosity, today I was blessed with a tres petite new laptop. It is so handy, it fits right in my purse!

Being crazy busy at work these days and without a laptop at home, I became pretty disconnected with my blog and unfortunatley with my focus on personal finance. I mean I didn't go bananas with spending or anything but if you're not blogging about it almost daily, and creating budgets for each pay period, it's easy to lose site of your financial goals.

So far, I'm doing ok on my goals. Had I been disciplined enough to follow my original plan, I should have $500 more paid off on Visa #2. Even though I'm disappointed to be behind, I'm still happy that I've broken the $5k mark and I'm down to $4,900.00 owing. I also took a quick trip back to BC to see my family last weekend so there were some additional costs for that. Once home, I got my watch fixed and bought a shirt from American Eagle that I lusted over in my sisters closest. (The bonus of living so far apart, you can buy the same clothes as your sister/friends if you please).

Well, it's midnight now and I should head to bed. Good night!

I Can't Wait To Get Home!

On the May long weekend, I'm heading back to Vancouver to see my friends and family! I cannot wait. The last time I saw everyone was at Christmas time but I'm super close to everyone and missing them has been my biggest challenge in moving to Toronto. My ticket was $499.45 and my parents and S are both going to give me $100 each so I'm heading to Vancouver for about $300 which is an wonderful.

S is leaving for Europe for three weeks to finish his MBA at that time anyway, so since I'd just be at home missing him, this works out really well.

Unfortunately, I had to put this ticket on my Visa so it's now maxed again. But on the upside, I'm planning on dropping a large payment of $750 in my next pay period. Plus the $200 from my familia and it should be back down to a respectable amount very soon. I'm also going to make an effort to put some extra money on it.

It's actually a good thing that my Visa was maxed this morning because I was playing around online and ended up designing my own business cards on vistaprint.ca. They look great! And were only $50 including shipping but when I went to process the order my Visa got declined. Although I think it's a really, really good idea to have a personal business card and I will probably process them in future, this morning it definitely would have been a complete impulse buy.

Quebec Weekend Recap

Top Reasons I love Montreal:

1) They REALLY know how to make breakfast in that city. Delish.

2) The houses aren't crazy expensive so when you walk past the real estate window, the listings don't feel extraordinarily out of reach.

3) The cops are young and fit! (what a concept) and they wear fantastic camouflage pants. Yes, even the police are stylish.

4) Cobble stone streets in Old Montreal

5) Charming balcony and brownstone buildings on every street

6) Love how tout le monde parle Francais

7) People smile and say hello/bonjour on the streets

8) Four words: Bring Your Own Wine

Thanks to S, the weekend trip didn't blow my budget. In fact, I was only about $1.50 over, haha. What did put me over the top though was grocery shopping when I got home. I only had $100 budgeted but ended up spending $140. It should be ok though, since I'm inserting an extra no spend day today to make up the difference. Tomorrow is my regular no spend day so by Wednesday I should be back on track.

There are a couple things I need to think about this week - more vacation and my credit score. I was reading an entry on one of my fav pf blog's on credit scores and unfortunately, I have no idea what mine is. Next thing, more vacation! I have 9 vacation days left to use before September 1st, so I need to start planning when I'm going to take some days off.

Current Bank Account Balance: $158.81

Btw, does anyone else find the Highway signage in Ontario hilarious? There are all these attractions signs for the small towns trying to lure in some tourist $$... Everything from Jungle Cat Safari's to Granny's Homemade Honey HoneyBee Farm. So random, so priceless.

Montreal Weekend Trip

We are heading up to Montreal this weekend! I'm so excited, I love that city. It's the St. Patrick's Day parade weekend and apparently it's an absolute blast. I don't want to set expectations too high (we all know how that usually turns out) but I'm really looking forward to it. The hotel accomodation was a Christmas gift so it should be a realively low cost weekend, I hope.

Here's my trip budget,

Current bank account bal: $392.08

Less:
Sunday Groceries: ($100.00)
Sunday minimum bank account bal: ($198.09)

Total Montreal trip spending: $93.99

It doesn't seem like that much for a weekend away but I figure it will mostly go towards food & of course, a few drinks. Weekend trips are one of S & I's most favorite things to do and I'm so happy that Winter is over (Officially over today!!!) and we'll get to do more of them.

My favorite semi-local weekend trip destination is a little town called Grand Bend which is on Lake Ontario west of Toronto. There is a beautiful national park called The Pinery, which has incredible white sandbanks that trail off into blue water. The town has one main road which goes directly down to the water and Summer weekends there are straight out of footloose. I can't wait!