How hard can making a savings plan be?

Pretty hard, it turns out.

I played with so many scenarios in my head, I got dizzy. It took a few weeks, but I finally decided.

My priorities for this year are the trip to Russia and the scooter, so I have an account for each.

The trip to Russia being committed, it's getting 75% of my savings. The scooter is getting the rest (25%).

That took 3 weeks to decide? Not really. The delay was in opening the accounts. I just took forever! Too many things going on at once.

Take right now, for example. It's Sunday, and here's what I've got to do today, in no particular order.

• figure out how to download Photoshop (blame Vista. I'm so sick of fighting with it to download software!)


• return empty bottles


• do at least 2 laundry loads


• plan and prepare meals for the week


• collect tax receipts and figure out what I'm missing


• plan workweek


• go for walk while the weather's nice


• take recycling out


• mend my beautiful cardigan that's unravelling

And I could go on. It seems it's always like this, and I have no kids! How do parents do it, I don't know. (Could it be that there's 2 of them? Humm, that's food for thought.)

Well, nothing like the present! Let's get started....

How many savings goals is too many?

I drafted up a list of things I want to save for:

1. trip to Russia in August -- $8,000
2. bathroom reno -- $12,000 (I'm planning a big reno... total revamp!)
3. 3-wheel scooter - $3,000
4. Weaving loom - $850
5. Sun blinds for living/craft room: $6,000 (my windows are huge.. 14' x 9')
6. Sofa -- $2,000
7. Bedroom upgrade: furniture & closet organizer system -- $10,000
8. Craft room set up -- $3,500

Total: Slightly over $45,000

Yikes! Clearly I've got to prioritize.

Well, the trip to Russia is committed, and I've saved a bit more than 1/2 the money I need (plus I've already paid $1,000), so that's priority 1.

Next is the 3-wheel scooter. As I lose mobility, I need a scooter just to maintain a degree of independance and lessen my taxi costs. These are so high now, the scooter will repay itself in a year.

That's about all I'll be able to save for this year, but I'm glad I've got that figured out.

Next, I've decided to focus on comfort: so the sun blinds will priority #3. My windows are huge and face south, so the temperature in here gets as high as 40 C on sunny winter days. The AC only works in the summer. Good quality sunshades will make this place much more livable, and as I spend more time here, comfort going to be more and more important.

Next will be the sofa. My sofa has been torn to shreds by the cats, it's lumpy, and more. Again, as I spend more time here, and a lot of that is sitting on the sofa, a comfortable one is important.

Then will come the craft room set up. I probably spend at least as much time here as I do on the sofa, and it's definitely not functional for my current needs. Not enough desk space, no filing cabinets and storage, uncomfortable desk chair. Need I say more? At this point, I can buy my loom. it will make sense to buy it once I have the right place for it.

So, we're down to the last 2 pieces: my bath and bedroom reno. I've got a super comfortable bed that I bought last year, so that's taken care of. Now, I need to take care of my clothes. So cramped in a crappy closet, I can't figure what I have, and half end up on the floor through lack of shelves for sweaters and such. The closet should be next. I'm planning to take some bedroom space to create a walk in closet.

So, I guess my bathroom is last. How sad. I was looking forward to a walk-in shower.

Next post, I figure out my savings plan. To start saving for everything at once, or 2-3 items at a time? Or even only 1? Gotta get me a plan.

net worth sucks

I updated my net worth tonight. Needless to say, it's not a pretty picture.

The problem is, I don't feel it represents anything real. I've made my views of net worth known in the past, but in these wonky economic times, I think the problem with net worth is particularly evident:

This number is worthless unless I'm planning to sell or cash in something now. Which I'm not.

My condo is down about 20%, but I'm planning to be here another 10 years at least or until I die, whichever comes first. My portfolio is nicely balanced and will only appreciate once this recession is over. My dividend yield average is orgasmic and several of the stocks I have have increased dividends these past few months. Plus, as the first quarter results come in, all but one of the stocks I hold (who have released their Q1 results) have declared an increase in profits vs. 1 year ago. (Can I pick 'em or what!) My cash flow is flowin', my job is secure for at least another year -- and how many people can say that these days -- and I'm reducing my debt steadily.

From where I sit, everything is peachy keen. Yet my net worth doesn't come close to reflecting that. I hope I remember this lesson when boom times come back. Net worth is pretty much worthless unless you're applying for a loan!

Totally unrelated: I have the next 4 days off, so I'm going to visit my family and friends in Montreal. The luxury of 4 days where my biggest obligation is to make my bed in the morning. You gotta love it!

Lastly, remember there are always people worse off than you. Check out Kiva (button on top right hand) and do what you can.

From red ink to black ink...

Slowly, very slowly, I'm crawling my way back to black.

I still can't quite believe how difficult it is to live within my means. I have resisted many opportunities to fall back into my old habits, and so far, so good. But man oh man, it's hard!

Just tonight, I came home exhausted, and with nothing prepared dinner-wise (oven on the blink again, wouldn't you know!). My first, second and third reflex was to order in. I even started filling in the online order form. Then reason got the better of me, and I cooked some pasta with broccoli. Actually much better than anything I could have ordered (and more healthy too!).

This is not the first time in the past few weeks that I go through this see-saw -- yes, I'm buying it, no I'm not, yes I am, not I'm not -- until eventually, no I'm not wins.

Kind of cool, really. And it reminds me of how I finally quit smoking: I just got tired of trying, and decided to finish it once and for all.

Here's to a successful and frugal 2 weeks, and to many more to come!

January update

I plan to give an update on my 3 goals at the end of each month. Without further ado, my January report:

Goal 1: Cholesterol

I don't know what my level is, I will only get it checked in 3 months, but I do know that I've lost a few pounds and I have more energy. The weirdest thing is, the more I eat well, the more I want to eat well. I get cravings for apples instead of fries. How strange!

Goal 2: Lower my credit card debt

Well, I've set up 2 automatic payment schedules, 1 for each card. I will finish paying card 1 in August, at which time I will transfer the balance to card 2 and start reducing that one more agressively. I am making regular payments to card 2 as well, but much smaller ones, so right now, I'm looking at paying it off in 2010. Hopefully, once I transfer the other payments, it'll go faster.

Just as importantly, I have used my card once in the past few weeks and transferred the exact amount from my checking the same day.

I am being very, very frugal, so my cash flow is improving. Once I'm in the clear, I'll see if I can increase my payments a bit more.

Goal 3: decluttering

I'm falling behind on that one. I have decluttered a bit every week, but not nearly as much as I could/should have. Not 3 hours a week for sure. Gotta do some catching up here!

On another unrelated subject, my financial planner is not impressing me. She's recommending switching from buying equity funds to bond funds. Uh, aren't bond funds kind of high, right now? And stocks dirt cheap? Isn't it buy high sell low?

I think I need to ask more questions.

Our stimulus budget

Not bad, but not good enough either. That's my personal take on the budget.

I like:

• most of the infrastructure spending, particularly that earmarked for post-secondary schools, the environment and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.
• (an aside on the environment... it's definitely not enough, but for this government? A huge step.)
• the workforce retraining budgets
• At last, people on welfare don't get penalized if they find a job, thanks to the doubling of doubling the Working Income Tax Benefit.
• All the business tax measures. Business success is what creates jobs. They need all the breaks they can get.
• Anything that helps the First Nations on the road to respect and self-sufficiency gets my vote

But I'm very disappointed in most of the personal tax cuts, with the attending expectation that we're going to spend more. A few hundred dollars more in my pocket every year will not affect my spending, so that money would have been so better off on more tangible activities, like schools, housing, etc.

But overall, not bad. They get a B minus from me.

Goal #1: reducing cholesterol

Well, it too a bit more than a week, but I have finally gotten over the fact that I've been fooling myself all this time.

Don't get me wrong: I knew I was using overdraft. Somehow, I just forgot that overdraft is debt. Whenever I start thinking I've really got it together, reality slaps me back down again. Enough, I'm moving on.

My # 1 goal for this year is to reduce my cholesterol levels, and to this end, I've joined a UofT study called the Healthy Diet Study.

Last week, I received my first delivery of free food. It was an amazingly large amount of food. I gave some away, and I still had quite a bit left when I got my 2nd order yesterday.

The study asks that I try everything they deliver, so I did. I got a bag of oatmeal: I made oatmeal bread and have been having that as my breakfast grain all week. I got canned beans: I made meatless tamale pie. I got winter tomatoes (yuck), I chopped them and threw them into a sauce for my chicken. I had to go and do a grocery to go with all this free food and I didn't plan it well (plus, I went to Whole Foods!) so my spend for the week including groceries was over $200.

I got the hang of it this week: I spent more time planning my menu once I saw what was in the box, and my grocery bill came to $65. Based on last week, that means that my spend for next week will be about $75.

But the goal was never about the savings. That's just a bonus. This is part of my plan to lower my cholesterol and I've got to give it to them, I'm eating much healthier meals and, with the literature they provided (plus my friend the world wide web), I'm also learning a lot about nutrition.

The only drawback is I have to cook everything over the weekend 'cos I have no energy after work. This weekend, I'm cooking: turkey breast stuffed with spinach, eggplant-spinach bake, barley-chorizo skillet pie, kasha & zucchini salad, and some kind of oatbran muffin. I might also try some stuffed peppers one night. Haven't done those in eons. Veg-wise, I've got carrots, mushrooms and broccoli and I've got clementines, applies and pears for fruit.

This will take care of breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next week, and provide snacks as well. Should be pretty thrifty week.