I doubt anyone comes here anymore. But for anyone who is interessted, I've opened a new blog. This one wasn't working out for me for a number of reasons, but I've got a new one that seems promising. Here's the link:

Apples and Telephones

Check it out, if you'd like. I'll be transferring some of my favorite posts from this blog to my new one, then eventually, this one will be kaput.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh it's been so long!

And for that i'm sorry. Really. VERY sorry. Every time I log onto this computer I think about this blog and how much i've missed you all and reading your blogs, but for whatever reason I just don't write. I never really feel like I have anything to write...but, I will trudge along.

I hope you are all doing well. I'm doing pretty good. Still working, still earning...still saving..a little. I've been paying a lot of tuition lately so my bank accounts are sitting at a nice, even, 0$ (after this last tuition payment goes through). Other than that i'm doing good, now that tuition has been paid off I'll be back on track.

On the plus side, i've gotten organized! I know most of you live on your own and you're all grown up, but I am not! Hah, I still live at home and I finally, FINALLY cleaned/organized and sorted out everything in my room. It feels very good. It's a small step to take in a good directions. I always feel that the moment I get one hurdle out of my way, I can take on the rest of 'em. It's a nice feeling.

I've also re-taken up knitting. It's very exciting! I bought a book, "Stitch and Bitch" a long time ago and started knitting then, but never got to anything more advanced than scarfs. Buuuuut last night, for whatever reason, I dug the book off my bookshelf and started again. I even managed to master a couple stitches that I had previously been unable to do. So, I have set myself a new goal: to knit a sweater by Christmas. It's a big goal, but I think it's manageable.

I hope to be back - permanently now, so I look forward to catching up on all your blogs. On a side note, 3-things-about-money, if by any chance you read this, I noticed that your blog is now private...I don't know what reasons you had for doing that (although I know for sure you had reasons) but I would love to be invited to read it again, yours is one of my favs. :)

Take care everyone!

I approach everything the same...

...When I fall off the bandwagon, I don't ever seem to jump back on.

It's been a long time since I've posted here, and I appologize for that. I feel guilty when I don't post, and yet I feel guilty writing this post as I have not been an especially frugal lady these past weeks.

I bought a laptop. Yup. Brand new Toshiba Satellite A200 - whatever that means. My old laptop has finally kicked the bucket and every time I turn it on the process takes me 5 minutes and I end up worrying that it's going to explode and take all my information with it. I have started the slow process of transferring data between the two, and when I'm done, my old laptop is going to be scrap metal and working bits for the new one.

I spent $799 on the laptop. It was at the top of my range, but for the specs I was looking at, it was a very good price. Fortunatly, because of Canada Day, Future Shop was having a sale and I did save some money - the laptop was originally prices at $1045.

That was supposed to be my largest non-frugal purchase of the week...but one can never forsee one's cell phone dying as well. So, the unfortunate thing of having to replace one's cell phone is also never a cheap venture.

My phone still works, receives calls and txt messages, rings, etc. The only problem with it is that I can't hear anything when people call me or when I call people. I have a sneaking suspicion that the ear-phone peice has been damaged by all the times that I've dropped the phone. Either way, the baby has lasted me 2.5 years and it's done me good. However, it's time to upgrate.

So I visit Rogers and talk to them about upgrading the phone. (This is where I mention that I hate rogers). I'm trying to tell this salesperson that I want to buy a new phone but that I DON'T want to resign a contract. I've only got about 6 months left on this contract and don't want to renew. I'm prepared to buy a phone at the flat rate. He nods in agreement and asks what kind of phone I want. I say the Motorola Krzr (very pretty). He tells me that it's going to cost me $200 plus a $50 mail-in-rebate. I think that that's perfectly agreeable and agree. As he's putting through the sale, I casually say "So this is without renewing the contract" and he sais something like "Yeah, you'll have the same plan." So this is the point where I realize that he has no idea what I was telling him, and so I remind him that I DON'T want to renew the contract, I still want it to end in 6 months. So then...he goes "ooooh...". And explains that he's brand new and has no idea how to cancel this transaction and if I would mind comming back tomorrow to remedy this situation. I say "no" and suggest that he call someone to fix it. (BTW, without the contract, the phone would cost me over $400). He ends up calling someone and cancelling the upgrade and I walk out. Siiiigh. I would have been more pissed had he not been so obviously new and incompetent.

So, I left with my broken phone and promptly came home and searched both Ebay and Facebook. The cheapest Krzr I could find on Ebay was about $300. Fortunatly, I found a guy selling one in Calgary for only $150! He bought it, used it for 3 weeks, put a couple scratches in it and went back to his Blackberry. So, assuming that it works properly, I will have a new phone by the end of this week and no extended contract!

Stupid phone selling people... Grrr.

Aaanyways. I went down to the Stampede yesterday as well. For those who don't know what the Stampede is, it's basically an outdoor rodeo-amusement park-cheap games-creepy people-barnyard animals extravagansa. I went down with my dad, and had a generally good time. It's expensive to be at the Stampede, let's see how much I spent. $13 to get in, $1 for a slushie, $10.75 for food for me and my dad (gotta eat at Weadickville if you go, food is cheapest there!). I didn't go on rides or play and midway, which is where most of the money gets eaten up. I did go into the casino with my dad and watched some of the people there. We ended up gambling a quarter and walking away with $98.50! which was pretty sweet. My Dad's quarter, my pull - I figure I was the lucky componant of that deal, and made away with my half - $45.00! So, for the first time ever, my dad at Stampede was profitable.

Other than that things have been going okay. I've spend the last couple weeks with my very non-frugal friend, which has resulted in some less-than-frugal evenings and days, however she did drive me to and from work for a week straight (she works down the street) which saved on an entire week or bus tickets - about $20! However, she's now in Las Vegas for a week and I find myself spending most of my evenings at home, relaxing.

The bank accounts are currently sitting at:
TD Canada Trust: $813.96
VISA: $197.93
ING Savings: $457.40
ING Emergency Fund: $112.98
AmEx: $853.29

Total + $1271.36
Total - $1051.22
Total = +$183.28

So I'm still sitting in the positives. I get paid again on the 15th, so I will wait until I get paid before paying off the AmEx (which only has one purchase - the computer) on it. I will have to take some cash out to pay for the cell phone this week, which will also take a chunk out of the finances. After that we'll see about getting some more money into the savings.

Hope you are all doing well!

Slacker!

I feel like a slacker! I haven't posted in 8 days! Yeesh, i'd better get my act together.

This past week has not been a frugal one. I don't even want to think about the money I've spend. Why is it that you always have that one friend who you seem to just spend money with. I have that friend. She's the one in a lot of debt. Yep. I'm not in debt, but, if I were to spend a large amount of time with her I may just end up in debt.

We spent the whole weekend together, and a couple days since then. Friday her and I went shopping ($30 - laptop bag, $2.50 - mini donuts, $12.50 - shirt). We took a mini road trip on saturday to pick up a gift certificate from a fancy restaurant just outside of the city ($50 - gift certificate, $17- breakfast, $15 - dinner, $32 - gas and late night snacks) with a friend of ours. Sunday I slept in until 1:15 p.m. (yes, you read that right, i'm still not sure how it happened) and then went to the market with her to pick up some veggies ($3.50 - lunch) and then just watched a movie at her house. Yesterday she called and asked if I wanted to go out for lunch with her (we both work downtown) and I agreed ($10 - lunch).

I mean, don't get me wrong, I had a great weekend, but I spent a lot more money with her than I would have if I had been sitting at home on my bum all weekend. The only good part - money-wise - is that her and I spend last night at her father's home. He's getting remarried and getting rid of a lot of kitchen things (I looooove kitchen things) and I was able to get some. I ended up with a box of IKEA dishes (big plates, little plates, bowls and a platter and jug) which I may or may not keep. I'll keep them around for a bit and if I change my mind I may just donate them. (I'm not sure if it's worth hauling cheap dishes around for however many years it will be until I move out). But, on top of that, I got a really good quality bread knife, and a nice matching set of spatulas - those i'll be able to use right away.

I watch a lot of HGTV (for those of you not in Canada, it's our home decoration, interior design, handyman show) and I dream about how I will decorate my future home. I'd love to have the money to buy a nice, old, sturdy, well-built home and redesign the whole thing. I collect images and paint chips and magasine clippings of things and colors that inspire me. Mmmm dreaming.

Either way, all my reckless spending put a bit of a knock in the budget. I put more money on my VISA than I had in my chequing account and I had to take some money out of my emergency fund (bad, I know!). But, I got paid yesterday and that money is back in the fund. Yeesh. So, this paycheque, i've left in it's entirety in my chequing account to decide what I need to do with it.

Another bump in my budget is that my computer is about thisclose to dying. I'm working right now to get all the important files off of it and onto CD's and external storage because I have a feeling that one day I will try to turn on my computer and it will just explode. Not a good sign.

I've been looking around for a laptop and am confident that I will be able to find one for less than $800. I was looking at the Dell website (I am a girl of habit and like to stick with what I got) but nothing really jumped out at me. So this weekend I am going to drag my dad over to future shop and see what they have over there. I'd love to get the new sony laptop (the itty bitty tiny one - I love the portability of it, and I was planning to getting a large, flat, widescreen to mount on my wall for movie-watching), but i'm not paying $2,500.00 for it. Boo on that.

So, with a new laptop purchase in the works, I'm looking at this paycheque and maybe a bit of next month's paycheque to cover that. I was hoping to hold off until the fall to make that purchase, but it doesn't look like it will work out. Oh well.

Well, that's pretty much all the updating I have for you today. Hopefully you are all well!

How Honest are you?

I just went to Quizno's for lunch (I printed off a free coupon off their site!) and ordered a yummy sandwich. I paid via VISA (I'm only allowed 10 debit transactions for free a month) and promptly left. On the walk back to my office I realized that I never signed the Credit Card slip.

Now I know my VISA can be charged directly to my debit account, however, I didn't enter a PIN, so I know that didn't happen. The receipt I got shows that it was a VISA and the charge went through, but I don't know if they can put the payment through if I didn't sign the slip.

I'll have to wait and see if it shows up on the 'net.

This got me thinking - when it comes to company mistakes, how far will you go?

I've had situations where i've bought X number of things, and the cashier only rings in a portion of those by mistake. Do you tell them? I rarely do, if ever. Or if a cashier rings something in in an incorrect price - would you correct them? I don't.

Does that make me a bad person? I don't think so. I don't think that Zeller's suffers too badly for a couple mis-rung shirts or grocery products. However, that's the same thinking that shoplifters operate through. In my opinion, it's the cashier's mistake, not mine.

However, i've had friends who would correct them. I know someone who once left a store, went home, realized that she only got charged for one of her two purchased shirts and promptly drove back to the store to correct the salesperson and give them the additional money. I think that's crazy - very honest and good of them - but crazy!

I don't feel guilty when I tap into someone else's wireless internet connection or get a free chocolate bar because Safeway forgot to ring in the last one. To me, it's a faceless crime.

Is it really, though? Maybe that cashier at Quizno's has done that a lot lately, and maybe she'll get fired over it. Who knows? Would that, then make me a bad person?

When I worked at Subway I used to make mistakes like this sometimes. If I overcharged someone and didn't realize it until afterwards, I didn't track them down in the food court. I waited for them to realize and come back to me. Most of the time, they didn't come back at all.

Other times, when I undercharged someone, if they were still there I would correct them. However, if they had already left, I just let it go, knowing that the register would most likely even itself out over the course of the day. Sometimes people would come back and insist on paying, but I always thought it was weird. My boss didn't miss the extra dollar or so they were giving us.

What's your opinion? Would you walk away with a steal or would you correct them?

Losing Weight for Frugality's Sake

I am overweight. I'll be the first to admit it. It doesn't exceptionally bother me right now. It bothered me a lot when I was in that teenager awkward stage. I tried all sorts of stuff, and I used to stare at myself naked and just wonder why I was cursed. At the time I tried everything - cutting calories, excersizing like a crazy person (I hear they excersize a lot, them crazy people) and even comming close to being boderline anorexic.

Well, needless to say, it didn't work. I'm a reasonably healthy person. I eat well and excersize enough. However, I still find myself "obese".

While I was on vacation this year, I did a large amount of stairs. (Think 400+ a day - those old churches are taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!). Since i've been home, i've noticed that my knees are crunching. Yep, crunching. Not when i'm walking, but when i'm doing stairs. It's that kind of bone-crunching, joint-grinding crunchiness. It's a little bit worriesome. I know that it's correlated to my weight. There's no other reason, really.

Last week I was at work thinking about all this, I wondered to myself "Is it weird that I want to lose weight to save money, rather than to get healthy?"

Well, is it?

The thought of having to pay for a knee-replacement surgery or arthritis medicine makes me feel sick. Even though I have Health Care and it would be covered, I hate the idea of paying for it!

I think that makes me really weird - I care about finances just as much, if not more than health. Hmmmm. My priorities may, in fact, be a little but crooked.

Either way, for whatever goal, loosing weight/getting healthier is on the books. I think this fits in quite nicely with some of my other goals, including spending less on fast food by bringing food from home.

Hope you all are keeping well, I love reading all your journals!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day everyone!
This is a short post, I appologize for the lack of posting as of late. I have a lot of things that I want to post about and have been thinking about, but the more I put it off the larger the post becomes. And my posts are long enough!

I bought my dad a bunch of stuff from the Think Geek website. If you ever need to buy gadgets or geeky stuff for the nerd in your life, I couldn't recommend this site higher. You can find it here. Aaaanyways I bought a whole bunch of stuff of this site for my dad. It ended up totalling about $91 including shipping (sometimes I hate living in Canada - shipping is always so outrageous!). However, right before I 'checked out' I saw a little box for a promotion code. I didn't have a promotion code, but I figured a quick Google Search couldn't do me any wrong. I searched for "Think Geek Promotion Code" and came up with a bunch of sites claiming to have promotion codes. After maybe 2 or 3 minutes of searching and trial-and-error I found one that got me $10 off my purchase! That extra work was definitely worth the discount. I would recommend giving it a shot, no matter where you are doing your online purchasing.

Other than that, it's been a good week. I got paid again, however, most of that paycheque is paying back my mom and my sister. Which sucks a little bit, but at least after that I won't owe money to anyone anymore.

My old boss from Subway called too - they were having an issue with staffing yesterday (Saturday) and asked if I could come in for a couple of hours. I agreed, mainly because I miss seeing her, not because it was extra cash. I enjoyed myself for those 4 hours I was there, but it did remind me that I am glad that I am no longer there. It was worth getting those extra $40 or so.

Well, i'll be off now, I've got an action-packed Sunday awaiting me! Hope you all are keeping well.