Browsing Category: "budget"
The Spending Trend Continues!
budget, frugal, shopping November 26th, 2009
I found myself in a place I said I would never go again.
A shopping mall.
I went back today because it has a Walmart and I wanted to get this cheapo pair of flat boots that would fit my wide calf (as seen in the Fatshionista! community). Lucky for me it wasn’t the zoo it was on the weekend. Note to self: do your shopping on a weird day!
I ended up taking several detours, slowly accumulating bags and purchases like it was my business! (Luckily I had my trusty reusable bags with me to help carry everything, including my My Bag! You can win one from me too, you know! To help you with your shopping! Just click here to enter!)
I just finished jotting down a list of all the people/events I must provide a gift for, and it breaks down like this:
7 (minimum) xmas gifts
4 birthdays
1 housewarming
That is TWELVE gifts that I have to come up with! For me that is a simply staggering amount! I am doing everything as frugally as possible, and I vacillate between being ridiculously proud of myself and crying in the corner because I still spent so much money.
So far I have about 6 of the gifts covered, and am well on my way to finishing up the remainder.
For my friends I’m trying to be uber-frugal, but in the end I wonder how much everything is going to cost. All the little pieces, sunk costs and miscellaneous bits that need to come together for these gifts could end up being quite the investment. For wrapping, I’ve been using the little that I have on hand, and have also visited a dollar store for some interesting items. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m going to be baking/making little bags of goodies for everyone as the finishing piece to their gifts.
Here’s a photo of some of the things I’m giving away that I have ready to go:
Homemade apple butter & vanilla extract
I made and canned a batch of apple butter in the summer, and also made my own vanilla extract, both of which you can see in this photo.
I’m actually going to be including more stuff in each gift basket for my friends, but I don’t have it all in one place yet. Each friend is roughly going to get:
- A jar of canned fruit I grew, picked & canned myself in the summer (pears or plums)
- a jar of apple butter
- and/or homemade pickles I made at the same time
- and/or a bottle of vanilla
- a bag or two of sweets
- a pretty little basket or bag to hold it all in!
Once I’ve got it all together I’ll be sure to take some photos–if everything works out they should be pretty good-looking gifts! (Not gonna lie… when I try I am very talented at wrapping & presentation! You can see my mom’s gift in the background 
)
Even though I bitch and complain about putting these gifts together, I really enjoy doing it. If I had more or unlimited money I would do so much more! But I’d still probably include something handmade, and I like all my gifts to be as thoughtful as possible.
I just wish money wasn’t such a big concern for me right now. I don’t want to think about it, and I haven’t tallied anything up yet, but I have an inkling that these “frugal gifts” are actually costing me a lot more than I anticipated. Everything from the cost of the jars & wrapping supplies and the ingredients to make the goodies will eventually add up.
The question is–do I really want to know?
No Spend Days!
blog, budget, money, organization, travel March 27th, 2009
There is a PF blogger that I really admire, Canadian Saver over at Saving4Later. She’s really good at keeping track of her daily expenses, budgeting and instituting No Spend and No Driving days.
I’ve been trying to incorporate a few of her methods into my own life recently, especially as I try to frantically save up for my trip to Las Vegas in April (Short timing, I know!).
I can’t be as vigilant as she is, but I’ve given it a shot and have been able to track most of my expenditures over the past couple of weeks and have even succeeded at having a few No Spend days!
I’m a spender, plain and simple. Yes I save and have no debt, but I still am surprised to see all my extra money slowly bleed away every month, and I wondered where it was all going. Turns out I’ve been spending over $100 per week on food. That is a simply ridiculous number for a single girl!
But I did the math and the tracking… I had been spending around $10 every weekday for lunch, and sometimes more if I bought dinner or went out with people as well. With occasional grocery shops (my mis-guided attempts to “save money” by “cooking my own food”) that were $30+ I can see now how the number got so high.
Some weeks were even higher when I included the recent clothing purchases I had made (like a super-cute custom-made cherry sundress). I can’t return the dress but I might return some other tops I just bought to free up some more cash for my trip. I can’t touch the money in my EF or my Wedding Fund because that would just be weak of me.
Anyway, long story short: By doing this tracking I was able to see where my money was going, and then start to see where and if I could cut back. My lifestyle is just not conducive to having many No Spend days every week, so I am focusing instead on simply trying to reduce spending through packing occasional lunches, forcing myself to eat dinner at home, and trying not to buy frivolous things in the meantime. It helps to have the Vegas goal in mind.
I am happy to report that for the past two weeks I have been able to do a total of 3 No Spend days! It doesn’t seem like much but for me it’s great!
I think I may try and buckle down a little more in the coming weeks and see how many No Spend days I can accumulate because frankly, I just can’t afford not to at this point. I want to make sure all my credit cards are at a $0 balance before I leave on my trip but it’s going to be tough to clear my PC card of $400 in the time left to me. I’ve got rent and my TTC pass coming out of my account with this next paycheque and that leaves me with very little left over for the credit card, and general living expenses.
I do get paid once more before I leave on my trip, but it is literally the day before I leave. Hmm, I guess I’ll just have to see how this all plays out. I really just want to travel the right way with nothing on my credit cards and a generous mad money cushion so I can have a good time in Vegas.
Car Follow-Up
budget, finance, personal March 19th, 2009
Well, I went home and visited my folks last night.
I started to discuss the idea of taking the car with my dad and boy oh boy did he start throwing out the reasons I should NOT take it.
I think we spent an hour going back and forth, discussing the pros and cons of having a car at this stage in my life. My dad really thinks it’s a bad idea but would still sell it to me for a song if I was insistent.
Just for the record, I was under the impression that they wanted me to take the car off their hands. Oops, looks like mom did some gum-flapping without consulting dad first. I’ll bet you they had a little talk after I left last night. Mom later mentioned that she regretted telling me about the car being for sale. I was kind of upset that she told me too since it got my hopes up.
My dad and I both had some convincing arguments, but ultimately I have to side with reason on this and have decided not to take the car. Reason being is that it truly is a bad time in the economy right now, and there’s still a chance that I may lose my job in the next few years.
Do I really want to be saddled with an old beater of a car if I lose my job? I didn’t get a raise due to a salary freeze and therefore will not have additional income to cover the insurance payments, gas and maintenance. The average cost of owning a car is just too high for me right now; especially if I want to do other things like travel, take courses and have fun in general.
Just because I CAN, doesn’t mean I SHOULD, right? It would just be too much strain and risk to take on when I really don’t NEED a car. It was really just a WANT. Toronto Transit is pretty awesome for getting around the city, especially since I work and live right by multiple TTC lines, so I really don’t have a defined need for a car, other than additional convenience and status.
I really wish I had one though. Or at least a Vespa. *sigh* maybe in a few more years…
At least in the meantime it means I can purchase a few smaller things I’ve had my eyes on. Instant gratification and all that.
Should I Buy The Car?
budget, finance, personal March 18th, 2009
I got some news yesterday in a call from my mom.
Turns out they’ve taken my Granny’s license away (The whole Granny situation is another story… *sigh*), so mom and dad now have her car plus their other two. My Granny has a nice new car, so my parents are going to keep that and have told me they want me to buy the little Nissan Sentra from them.
Ever since I brought up the fact that I want a vehicle, (A Vespa scooter is what I had my sights set on) my dad has been pushing for me to “just buy a real car, Ginger. It’s safer and will be more useful. I don’t want to see you driving around on a little moped.”
I would argue back that with a scooter the insurance, gas and maintenance costs are reasonable, parking is free in the city and the vehicle itself was affordable, whereas a car is SO much more expensive.
It was sort of a moot point though, when I looked at my savings and realized that I couldn’t even afford (a cash payment on) a scooter this year, anyway 
I had given up the idea of being able to afford my own method of transportation until this fell into my lap. I didn’t really see it coming—I figured my brother would get the car if one of us did.
So now I’ve got lots to think about. I really would like to have the car since my parents would sell it to me cheap (around $2000 is what mom said) and said that I could “just pay us back whenever you can”. It would be great for laundry, groceries, visiting friends and other errands.
Actually, I think I’ll do a pros and cons list for this!
PROS
- Reliable personal transportation
- Convenience
- Ability to carry stuff and people
- Can get home for visits easier, no need for train tickets anymore
- Already have a private parking spot at my apartment
- Cheap purchase price
- Cheap maintenance, well-maintained over the years, dad would help me maintain
- Low gas cost since I won’t be using it a ton
- Helping out my parents
- No more cab fares! (except when drinking)
CONS
- Have to pay for it
- Insurance costs! OMG
- Though small, maintenance costs still suck
- Gas prices suck
- Would not drive it to work
- Parking in the city is waaaayy too expensive
- Possible abuse by friends
So far the pros are outweighing the cons. I did a quick estimate of costs in my head and I think that if I were to cut back in other areas of my life I could afford to keep it; but the question is: just how much do I have to cut back on? And is it worth it?
As I was writing this I sat back and did some thinking. Insurance will cost me about $120/mo, so where in my budget can I find that? I’ve got a couple of options.
- I could reduce contributions to my savings
- I could cut back on eating out all the time (which would be easier since I would be able to grocery shop properly!)
- I could cut back on unnecessary purchases
I’m not going to stop saving, that would just be foolish. So I think I might try a combination of 2 & 3 and see how that works. I don’t want to sacrifice everything I love just so I can have a vehicle. I guess if everything goes sour I can just sell the car, right?
I still have to factor in gassing it up and maintenance costs which I will talk to my dad about. I would obviously need some sort of car fund to fall back on if something went wrong. But I might also just let the car sit until I can afford to pay a repair bill since I won’t be dependent on it.
I guess I still have a lot to think about. This is a big decision!
Cutting Back
budget March 9th, 2009
So, I’m going to Vegas. Which costs a lot. Which means that I need to save in other areas to be able to afford this trip.
I signed up for some clay pottery classes a while ago that are due to start at the end of March. I’ve given them my CC# but haven’t been charged yet.
I was thinking of cancelling out of this class and saving the $185 it would cost me. I would be missing a class while I was in Vegas anyway.
The challenges:
1. I actually do want to take this class
2. They would charge a $25 admin fee if I cancel
I wonder if I can afford the $185 for classes, on top of my Vegas trip? (Yes I realize there was some poor planning involved in this. I’m only human!)
What would you do in this situation? Pretend it’s a class you would actually like if you’re not into pottery.
I’ll be thinking this over in the meantime.
I know I’ve been complaining about the money situation lately and this seems a little counterintuitive, but
I’m going to Las Vegas!!! 
My friend C and I had originally planned to travel somewhere warm together in February, but our schedules and budgets and stuff never really synched up so we didn’t go at that time.
We still wanted to travel together though (she lives in Ottawa and we don’t see each other much), and now that the economy in the States is so poor, we thought we’d check out the deals for Las Vegas. Everyone should go to Vegas when they’re young, right?
So last night we took the plunge and booked our trip!
We spent all day yesterday online scouring the online deals and found lots of good hotel ones, but the flights were insanely expensive! Originally we were going to go at the end of April, but it would just cost too much, so we opted for the week following Easter to head over. We saved a bundle and found a bunch of great deals.
Our budget was $1000 CAD and had to cover flight, hotel and two major activities. We decided we wanted to take a daytrip to the Grand Canyon and also take in the Cirque du Soleil show O. My entertainment fund plus my tax return and any additional savings I can keep will fund this trip for me.
So how did we net out?
Thanks to Expedia.ca, we found a great deal that included all of the above! We’ll be staying at Treasure Island (OMG pirate love!) for 5 nights and scooped airfare, shuttle from the airport, the Grand Canyon trip and the best seats in the house for O for $955.55 each after taxes!!!
I think that’s a pretty great deal, all things considered! (btw, don’t tell me if it’s not! I don’t wanna hear it!)
Of course there will still be other expenses involved in this trip, mainly food, transportation and incidentals, but they’re a little easier to scale back on versus the hotel costs, etc. We will just have to moderate ourselves while we’re there. I think food will be easy– the American portions are huge so we’ve decided to share entrees if possible.
I’m good at the food budgeting while travelling; when I was in Europe it could get really expensive eating out so I learned the best ways to do it, including picking things up at a grocery store and eating lots of samples!
So I’m pretty excited about this trip, can you tell??? I’ve travelled all over Europe and parts of Canada, but haven’t done much travelling in the US on my own, so this should be fun and easy! I love that I will speak the language, understand the money and fit in by all appearances
So, let me ask anyone who has been to Las Vegas to share any fun and cheap activities that they enjoyed! Since we’re on a budget we can’t afford to do much of the fancy schmancy stuff, but I’m sure there’s lots of other things we can do…right?
Financial Update
budget, finance, goals, money, organization, saving January 14th, 2009
I’ve just updated my tracking bars on the side and have also decided to make a few changes.
Primarily, I’ve decided that right now is just not a good time to buy a Vespa, what with the economy the way it is and the chance that I might lose my job. It would involve large upfront and ongoing costs. I could handle it in a good economy, but not this one.
The decision was difficult, but I’m switching all the money I saved for travel and the scooter into my emergency fund, and my old emergency fund into my fun & travel fund.
Got that?
I feel better now, knowing that I’ve got at least two grand to fall back on. Now I just need to moderate my spending. I’m also going to try and do what everyone else in the PF world seems able to do: actually sock the money away.
I want to actually reach my EF goal, and then move onto the next one, I suppose. I will continue to simultaneously contribute to all of my accounts, but anything extra I receive will go into the EF from now on. I will also try and use it less!
The next change I made was swap the Wedding Fund account into a TFSA. We’ll see how that works out.
I also updated my networth through NetworthIQ. I am SO happy to see it starting to go up again. My RRSP’s have gone up since the huge drop in October, and my credit cards owing has also gone down, increasing my networth overall.
Thank goodness!
This year seems to be off to a good start. Now I’ve got to keep it going that way!
*Don’t forget to enter the draw for my give-away of 3 FUZE prize packs!
Birthday Money
budget, goals, money, shopping January 11th, 2009
So this week is my birthday, but I went home to see my family this weekend so we could do the family birthday thing.
I also got to open some presents and cards that family sent over. Now that I’m older I don’t expect or get very much for my birthdays, but my grandparents still send me a little bit of money which is really great– While I make enough money to pay my bills and live comfortably, I don’t really have enough to buy a lot of fun and frivolous stuff.
This year, my grandparents (combined) and the GST cheque I just received (yay!) netted me just over $200. I decided to take that money plus some Christmas money and use it the way it is intended: to purchase myself something I would enjoy.
Sure, I could have thrown it at my savings account, paid a bill or put it in my RRSP, but I felt that since it was meant to be a gift (and since I’m still able to pay all my bills on my own) that I should get something cool with it.
So I bought a new iPod 
I figured that it would be ok for me to get this since I’ve been planning on getting one for a while, they were on sale, and it would fit the gift intent of my grandparents.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to buy a Vespa scooter this year (which I have been saving for and really really wanted!) with the way the economy is, so I opted for something smaller that does not involve ongoing spending. *sigh* I really wish I could have gotten the Vespa though, but I just can’t risk it.
Hopefully I made the right choice. Now I’ve got an iPod and a pretty fat savings account for something else.
I guess I’ll have to update my sidebars soon, but I don’t know what I should call the old Vespa goal now!
Oh, and if you’re looking to save some money, don’t forget to enter my draw for 3 free cases of FUZE!
Holiday Fashion – Ginger Style
beauty, budget, fashion November 30th, 2008
So I mentioned the holiday party I’m hosting with my roommate. I looked through my closet and realized that I have very little that would be appropriate for a soiree of that nature, since I’ve decided I won’t wear a black top.
“But Ginger!” You say. “You look fantastic in black! It is by far your best colour!”
I agree with you on that one, but sometimes I need to think outside of the Little Black Box and expand my wardrobe horizons.
So the only Canadian plus-size retailer that also sells online was doing free shipping, so I took a peek and decided on this:
I figure gold is always a safe holiday choice, it matches my hair and I can wear it to my office Christmas party as well. I’d say I just killed 2 birds with one stone! I plan to pair it with black pants and the black flower fascinator I bought on Etsy.
It’s a little more expensive ($49.99) than I would have hoped, but my choices were limited and I did talk myself out of purchasing anything else. Plus, I can return it if it turns out to be a really bad choice.
I hope it’s not, though. I really want to look awesome in it
I’ve decided to stop doing Jenny Craig for a while. There are 2 reasons for this:
- The food sucks
- I simply cannot afford to particiapte anymore, at $50-65/week minimum.
I don’t know where all my money seems to be going these days, but it’s becoming obvious that I need to cut back in some areas. And JC is one of those areas.
If doing this doesn’t help me as much as I need, I am also considering cutting out my gym membership ($70/mo) too. Needless to say I have already made an attempt to cut back on how much I spend going out on weekends.
Spending a lot on weekends was a new thing for me, and I think it caused the most damage. I had been going out with MR regularly and spending oodles with her, which I had never done before. I think we’re settling down now though. We cook together and enjoy our company that way!
Since I’ve made this decision to quit JC, it means this will be my first week where I attempt to cook for myself. I want to try and continue my weightloss, and I think cooking my own food and dividing it into portion-controlled meals will help me lose weight and save cash.
For this week I have tacos, taco soup, taco salad, pumpkin pie and omelettes planned. Lots of taco-related stuff! But it’s because I can re-use the base ingredients and save money and food wastage. For example I don’t normally make omelettes, but I will need eggs for the pumpkin pie, so why not use up the rest of them? I can also throw in the leftover veggies from tacos and taco soup.
Hopefully next week I’ll have some leftovers from Thanksgiving I can use to tide me over, and I’ll also have to investigate some other meal options.
Does anyone have some advice or suggestions for me? I’ve only got myself to feed, so it can be difficult making things in single batches, or finding a big dish (like taco soup) that I like enough to eat over and over.
