If you're wondering how come I am writing this post before noon on May 1st, and not on the weekend, it's because I took the day off from both my jobs. March and April have been a two month-long orgy of work, work, and more work, and I knew this going into these months, so I planned a day off to reward myself, and I am taking it. I'm going to work tomorrow, which was unplanned: this was supposed to be a long weekend off but circumstances beyond my control threw a serious monkey wrench into that part of the plan. However, that is no reason not to enjoy today, so here I am.
I started the day off a little early: last night I ate about half the pint of Haagen Dazs ice-cream I had been saving for this day. It made for a great dinner, if I do say so myself. Today's meals will consist largely of the rest of that ice-cream, and chips and salsa of the Tostitos brand, but only the "Medium" salsa and not the "Hot" one because after nearly three years of scouring every place in E.L. that has food for sale to the public, I have come to the conclusion that either none of the stores stock it because no-one buys it, or everyone buys it so there never is any when I look. My money is on the first alternative. I've eaten about a third of the jar by now, and have a somewhat interesting tingle on the sides of my tongue, but that's about the extent of the "spicy" factor in a "Medium". Oh, well.
Looking at my day book, I would say April went well, indeed. I wrote 7 goals and 2 notes, and, of the 9 items, 8 were actionable in April. The ninth item requires some budget adjustments starting in May, so it will be carried forward to this month.
I planned to save for the April weeks from the 52 Week Money Challenge ($15+$16+$17+18=$66) by setting aside $22 from 3 each of the weekly paycheques from my seasonal position, and did exactly that. If you're wondering why I didn't save each week's amount from a cheque in each week, it's because I wanted to have this particular item accomplished well before the end of the month.
Three other goals for this month were also financial, namely, to keep paying down the balance of one of our two low limit credit cards, to pay both off once I received my income tax refund for 2014, and then to snowball the payments I made monthly on the lower limit cards to the card with the next higher limit (multiple credit cards is the bane of the modern North American's financial existence, if you ask me!). My return was duly assessed, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) agreed with my figures, and refunded the excess income tax deducted. Both smaller cards now have a nil balance, and I have quite the sense of accomplishment in keeping both at nil. I was able to make a second payment on the next-higher limit card in April, and the plan for May is to put a little from each pay towards it.
One goal and two of the notes involved writing: I wanted to write my April blog post over the Easter weekend, which I did, and the second goal and note involved reading then writing "take-away" points from a book I borrowed from the Library at Job #1. Since last year, I have been reading through the Self Development and Personal Awareness list compiled by that library, and each time I borrow a book on the list I try to write a summary of what I read that really resonated with me. April's book was "Smart Women Finish Rich" by David Bach, which was so popular I had to wait 3 weeks on a waiting list before I could take a turn reading it.
I would recommend the book as reading material for any woman, no matter where she is in life financially. It is solidly grounded in the reality women face in dealing with finances, and written on the premise that any woman can hold the reins of her financial life and do just fine at it with some guidance under her belt. Bonus: the book was originally written with American women in mind, but the version I read was specifically targeted to Canadian women, and contained some eye-opening facts and information about my financial future as a female Canadian resident.
My carried forward goal actually relates to something I learned from reading "Smart Women Finish Rich", which was to figure out where you stand financially and where you want to go (Chapter 3). After doing my figuring, I decided to "max out" my Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) contribution room for Job #1, and after doing the calculations demonstrated by the book, I realised I was only contributing about half of what I need to in order to make that a reality. (RRSP contribution room is set by the CRA, currently the figure is 18% of earned income for the previous year, up to a set maximum limit of $23,820.) In composing my Goals & Notes for May, I now need to state my plan for making it happen, and get it done.
One goal was related to G's business, namely, doing the bookkeeping for January through March of this year. In 2014, I tried to do the bookkeeping on a monthly basis as much as possible, chiefly because I had to the bookkeeping for all of his first year (8 months in 2013) in four or five days in a rush to get his information ready for having our taxes done. I would learn later on from our tax preparer that had I not done the bookkeeping myself, his fee would have been considerably higher than the sum I paid. This year I fell behind because I have been working every weekend since mid-February, but with winter 2014/15 as slow as it was for him, I was able to do the first quarter over the course of a day in April. Hopefully, I can go back to the two hours or so each month now that my weekends are soon to be mine again.
To wrap up April on a high note, my seasonal employer has asked me to continue on throughout the summer on an ad hoc basis, whereby she will turn over to me some of the work she usually does herself in that business, so she can focus on another that she co-owns. I will not have as many hours as I did from January to April, but even a smaller income stream is better than no extra income at all. I will have access to additional training resources and information, which means I can also upgrade my skills to be of even more worth when the next season rolls around. I am very excited about this opportunity, and need to do some forward planning to make sure I take full advantage and give the best possible service.
It's a beautiful day out there, I think I have rambled enough for today. It's time to get some air and sunshine!
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