Woohoo! $1,622!

I put $622 into my "fun money" account, and divided the rest as follows:

Household Maintenance Account: $100
Emergency Fund: $450
Mortgage Prepayment Fund: $450

Of course, my ex has not yet given me the child support cheque yet, but that should be coming soon too.

And I had budgeted $10 to take the puppy to the vet in a cab, but decided to walk him instead this morning, and so I saved that money.


Also, recently I've become aware of something else that seems normal to me and weird to many others. I get paid once a month and I am always amazed at the number of people who are in awe that I manage to live that way. I didn't realize I had such self-control.

1. Milk will be my only grocery purchase.
2. I will not eat out this week.
3. I will "smuggle" some money from my chequing account into my Mortgage Prepayment Account. I will try for at least $50.

I've decided that I can pay my mortgage off in ten years even though I'm working parttime. I will make it into a game.

I plan to do more of my own cooking, and less eating out.

And then, as a 50th birthday present to myself in a little over 12 years, I will buy a cottage on the water. I can do it.

I'm just a tad late with this but am assuming the site was down for a while on the weekend. So glad that it's back!

Okay. Last week I submitted my income tax return and I'm getting $1600 back! Hooray. I will divide it between my emergency fund and my mortgage prepayment fund.

I was good about my goals for last week except for the RESP one. I'll have to wait and do that next week now.

For this week I will save money by buying my groceries on Friday instead of Wednesday. I will "make do" for two days. I can do it. Too often I let food go bad while I've been buying more.

1. Other than milk and bread, I will not spend any money on groceries or eating out. Oh and I have to pick up a strudel for my son's social studies project. (He needs to bring in some food that represents his cultural background. The fact that my German grandfather spoke worse German than I did and prefered store bought cookies to strudel is not really relevant. lol) Really my family and his father's family has been here so long we don't know very much about our cultural background. I could just say, "You're Canadian" and send him in with donuts and back bacon and beer.

2. I will finally submit the information to get the Canadian government to kick in 20% toward my daughter's Registered Education Savings Plan. I have been putting this off for too long.

3. I will send away for the last of the information I need in order to do my taxes. This includes contacting Queens University for my education and tuition deduction for a course I took last summer, and contacting the Ontario College of Teachers to see what I paid in membership fees last year. Then I will complete and send in my income tax return. I am estimating my return to be about $1000 (which I will add to my emergency fund).

4. I will try to see if I can afford to increase my mortgage payment by 20% each month. If it seems a little tight, then I will review it again in 6 months. It may make more sense to put more money into my emergency fund for now. Thankfully, I am able to pay off my credit card debt every month.

I don't know why I've been procrastinating about numbers 2 and 3. Just laziness, I guess.

I can and will do this!!!

I haven't spent any money in four days, but today will be a biggy.

So, here is my budget for today:

1. Grocery order will be delivered: $92 + $4 tip. I used to cringe at the thought of using an online grocery store, but since I don't have a car and there isn't a discount grocery store near where I live yet, I figure that I'm actually saving money.

I used to spend the same amount of money or more at our local grocery store, and then have to pay for a cab home. That cost an extra $14 each time.

2. $100 for a birthday present for my sister.

3. Check out the prices for backpacks (since my son needs a new one) and running shoes for both my son and myself. I've learned the hard way that better quality shoes are worth the investment when it comes to my son: they last longer and don't start to stink.

If the prices are reasonable (ie