No Spend Days

Unfortunately I fell off the wagon with my no spend days over the past few months. I was doing so good too!

Anyway, I had to revise my 2009 goal from 80 no spend days to 50.

My plan to accomplish this is to return to my no spend Tuesdays & Thursdays for the rest of the year. There are enough of them left to achieve my goal and I'm hoping to throw in a few extra no spend days in there to surpass it.

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!!

Job Hunting Safari

I had my first interview yesterday!!!

Job hunting seems to be one of those 'love it or hate it' kind of activities and for some reason, I love it. Whenever I revamp my resume, I feel like I'm moving on to a new chapter, and it's a good opportunity to reflect on what I enjoyed and despised about past jobs. It also seems to be the time that I get the biggest raises... why is that? The largest raise I've ever had from a current employer was $4k/year but whenever I change jobs I seem to be able to negotiate a higher rate of return. My last salary increase between companies was $7k.

In my last position I was making $50k and in my new one, I'm aiming for the $65k range. Even though 30% may seem like a big jump, I felt pretty underpaid in my last position given the amount of work and the fact that it had a certain level of prestige. I'm hoping to leverage that prestige into a more appropriate salary range. Besides, if I don't try, it's definitely not going to happen so I might as well give it a shot!

The interview yesterday went well and I am beyond excited about the prospective position!! (well, trying not to get too excited but can't help it) My correspondence with this company actually started when I was back in Toronto. S & I had decided that we were definitely moving to Edmonton so I started to scan the job sites for something interesting here. I found a position I thought would be great and submitted my application. After a few days I hadn't heard anything and never received one of those "yes, we got your resume" emails so I called. I was transferred to the Director of Operations and we corresponded briefly which included me sending him my resume direct. Unfortunately, at that time they were already quite deep in the process (already going into third round interviews) and I never heard back.

So, when I got settled in Edmonton, I sent the Director a quick note and asked if we could keep in touch via LinkedIn. He agreed and said that he still had my resume and if anything came up that he thought might be a fit, he'd 'ping' me. Low and behold, one week later I had an e-intro from him to the Director of Development and she asked me to meet for coffee.

The coffee date was yesterday and I think things went really well. She took the copy of the CV I brought with me and said that she'd like to show it to a few people who's opinions she respects. At the end of the meeting, she said that she would be in touch early next week (probably Wed because of the long weekend) with some next steps.

From the sounds of it, the position would be more or less a dream job and would definitely be a step forward career-wise. The best part is she said that rather than having to write an official job description, post a posting, review resumes and go through interviews, it would be so great if this worked out and we could develop the position organically. Happy Days!!! Arms, fingers, legs, toes, tongues (jk!) crossed.

We didn't speak about salary expectations yet but I'm really hoping it's in the range I'm looking for.

A New Appreciation for EI

Whenever I'd get a regular pay cheque, a nominal amount was deducted off the top for Employment Insurance (EI). I never really thought much about it and just accepted it as part of the tax I have to pay for living in Canada. The only time it ever crossed my mind was when I maxed out my EI contribution for the year and they stopped deducting, at which point I'd think "yahoo" an extra $20 (or whatever it is) into my account instead of the governments.

As of this morning, when EI depositted $802.00 into my account, I have a whole new appreciation. It turns out that since I was "forced" to quit my job and move because my spouse had to relocate for work, I am eligible to receive EI. In Toronto, I was making $50k annually which works out to the maximum weekly benefit of $447 less $46 for income tax - $401.00 every week. They were a week behind in processing my claim so that's why I got $802.00 this morning.

I'm hoping not to be on EI for that long though. It's not that I'm adverse to using the system (I do pay into it afterall) but I'm starting to get bored! Last week I applied for four jobs and there's one in particular that I'm pretty excited about. The managing director of that position doesn't return from vacation until next Monday. So, next Monday I'm going to go in and submit a paper copy of my application along with some letters of reference.

Now that I know that I have a regular stream of income - $401 per week until I find a job - I feel comfortable getting my budget reset. S is going to pay our rent & groceries and I'll be responsible for the following monthly expenses:

*elecricity

*internet

*my mobile

*MS society donation

*paying off Visa #2

*making minimum payment on my LOC

*national student loan payment

This should give me some flexibility to pay off my Visa at a quicker pace. Today I put down $206.92 plus $150 from my line of credit bringing my balance down to $5,350.00. I can't wait to be back at $4,900.00 which is where I was before I fell off the wagon.

Current bank account balance: $889.24

Big Gulp - hold the sugar, Sugar

There's no point in delaying this any further since the worst person to be dishonest with is yourself! I need to get a new handle on where I stand financially. As I'm writing this the Edmonton wind is whipping through our open windows and feels pretty ominous.

Current Income: $0 - unemployed!

Current Liabilities
1) Visa #2 - $5,805.58
2) LOC - $6,940.02
3) Student Loan - $6,189.70

Total debt - $18,935.30 ........drat.

Since I last calculated my total debt on May 23, 2009 I've increased from $18,239.98 by $695.32 to $18,935.30. To be honest, that's not as bad as I thought it was going to be but when you consider all the funds that I should have been applying to my debt during that time period, it's pretty bad. My goal of paying off Visa #2 by the end of September is definitley out the window.

Current bank account balance: $235.30
Final expense cheque pending - approx $300.00 (supposedly in the mail)

So basically my plan of action is to spend as little as possible and find a job. I should mention that S has a good job so it's not like I'm going to be out on the street or anything. Still, I really want to pay off my debt on my own before we totally integrate our finances.

Allie in the NEW City

What an unbelievable few months. Since my last post, my world has up and done an unexpected 180 degree turn. Allie in the "city" is no longer a Toronto girl but an EDMONTON one... heehaw! Although Edmonton seems like a bit of a small town compared to T.O., there are over 1.1 million people living in the Edmonton metro area so it is still a city which means I don't have to change my URL!

My last few months in a nutshell....

My job in T.O. was project-based and the huge project I'd been working on all year was coming to actualization in mid-June. During my Toronto tenure, this time of year was easily my busiest and most exciting. It was also all-consuming and totally threw off all the great routines I'd gotten myself and S into. Thankfully, all the hard work paid off and the project was a big success!!

Come July... I'm doing wrap-up at work and generally trying to get my personal life back on track. S and I had been talking broadly about how this summer brought with it the two year guideline that we'd set in place for our time in Toronto. Although we both enjoyed the city and had lots of great friends, we both felt that the workaholic daily grind which TO is famous for was aging us. We're both laid back west coasters at heart.

Then as if the universe opened up and smiled S was offered a great new position here in Edmonton. They flew us both out so I could check out the city and S could meet with the exec's and within 3 weeks we'd both quit our jobs in Toronto and moved into our new home in Edmonton. I can't say that I've EVER thought of myself as an Edmonton girl but now that we're here, I really like it so far. There are tons of festivals and it's definitely a more relaxed vibe.

Financially speaking, I am now jobless. Committing all time and energy into my T.O. project also came at a price as I'm sad to say that I'm pretty much back to where I started in terms of debt. It's interesting that once I got out of the routine of checking my finances daily, I really didn't know where I stood financially. I think it was that lack of knowledge that led me back down this path. If I was looking at something, I would generally tend to assume I could afford it even if that wasn't the case. I also purchased 3 plane tickets in that time frame which didn't help either. I haven't figured out exactly where I stand financially yet but now that we're settled, getting myself back on track financially will become one of my top priorities.

Blew My No Spend Day

Boourns. I blew my no spend day today. Even though I forgot my lunch this morning - ok, rushed out of the house in a late panic is a better description - I ended up being treated by a business associate and internally was thrilled that I didn't have to buy food (my pet peeve!).

However, the $14.00 that I did end up spending later this evening was sooooo worth it. I'm totally lonely right now because S is in Europe for two weeks for some lectures for his MBA. He's doing it by correspondence but he is required to take one trip to the university during his program and that time is now. Wow, it's only been a week but it feels like FOREVER and I miss him constantly. I consider myself a pretty independent woman but this sucks. This really sucks. This really, really sucks. Did I mention that this sucks? Anyway, the $14 that I spent was on some Skype credit since I missed his calls earlier. It was so good to speak to him, I love that man!

Skype, btw, is something I'm going to start using more of. Right now I have a long distance plan that gives me unlimited calls in Canada for $6.77/month (Comwave). It costs just under 3 cents/minute to call within Canada on Skype so that's equivalent to 225 minutes on Comwave or 3.76 hours per month. I'm not a big phone talker to be honest so I'd probably save money if I switched to Skype. The Comwave fee is automatically charged to my Visa every month and that irritates me anyway since I'm trying hard to pay it off.

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!