Pay Day 1 October 2013

So my monthly pay check is in for a total of $3,598.39.  No extra money came in this month, though my work has agreed to pay for my Association fees which will be $372 that will not be coming out of my own pocket. 

Housing 40% - $1,439.35

Mortgage - $646.62

House Maintenance - $315.00

Housing Taxes - $192.00

House Insurance - $72.00

Utilities – $213.73

Total – $1,439.35

Savings 10% - $359.83 – All going to my RRSP

Debt 10% - $359.83

Transportation 15% - $539.75

Bus Pass – $0

Train - $15

Other - $0

Car Savings – $0

Total - $15

Leftover - $524.75

Life 25% - $899.63

Food - $160

Cell – $30

Internet - $50

Health Insurance – $23.52

Clothes - $10

Gifts - $10

Misc - $10

Big Ticket Item - $100

Entertainment - $10

Social/Sports - $0

Financial Planning - $14

Slush – $482.11

Total - $899.63

Goal Review End September

I was kind of curious to see how my goals list was going since I started my Masters. 

Financial

- Set up RRSP investments with my return of value pension from the military and contribute $359 a month for the year, along with any tax refunds. CHECK [I’ve started thinking about strategies for optimizing investments in my TFSA and RRSP when the new year rolls around.]

- Pay off house in 5 years.  I should be able to accomplish this by doubling up every payment and paying a 10% lump sum every year.  CHECK [Not sure what my hours are going to look like especially in the winter semester so this may slow down. On the other hand the second half of the 5 year period is post masters so I may see a pay raise for the second half.]

Educational

-Start Masters of Science / Masters of Science in Nursing in the fall.  CHECK [I’m having lots of fun, and the concepts aren’t too hard.]

Social

-Join two new clubs in the local area.  CHECK [I’m actually up to two writers groups plus quilting.] 

Other

-Have my novel accepted to be published.  I plan to have it ready by the end of the month (January), so I can start sending it out. CHECK [I have once again launched my book to two agents, one ha said no, I’m still waiting on the other.]

-Become a respite foster parent. CHECK [I’ve got my rooms ready (finally) and have spoken to my worker about possibilities for weekend placements.]

-Finish my current crafting projects.  NOPE [Well I’ve done some stuff. The only thing is that I can’t sew in 15 min intervals. I need to know that I’ll have at least an hour uninterrupted. This will slow down until my next school break.] 

A respectable 86%. For October I’m not going to worry about the crafting or where my novel is. I will be concentrating on my studies and on getting started with foster care.  

Home Remedies

As a nurse by profession I have an interesting relationship with home remedies. On one hand I want scientific proof that they work before my patients start messing with them (which few remedies have been studied.) That said the active chemical in aspirin comes from willow bark which was used in the old days for pain and fever. So it's not all snake's oil.

Last Monday though I was coming down with a sore throat and cold. Being a nurse I have seen many a patient with my symptoms and when they come to me there's not much I can do. Get lots of sleep, drink lots of water, etc. None the less I didn't want my cold to put me out of it for several days since that would put me behind in school work. So I was a bit desperate. What did I do? Salt water, lemon and honey tea.

1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp honey, 1 cup boiling water
(It tastes really good despite it's suspect appearance)

Salt water gargle is actually backed up by some science, and anyone who's had as many teeth pulled as I have knows it well. A lot of bacteria that invade our bodies can't survive salt water. While you may not want to literally rub salt in your wound (please don't it will really, really hurt, your better off with traditional antibiotics) it's perfectly good for cleaning out your mouth and the back of your throat.

Lemon and honey tea. I have no idea how bacteria react to lemons, but most bacteria aren't big on acidic environments. Add to that the fact that honey has some antibiotic properties (and tasted good) and you've got about as good a cold fighting tea as you'll get. Not to mention that warm liquids tend to sooth the back of the throat when it get's irritated.

The end results was a 2 day cold which I pushed through with only minor inconviniences.  Of course
correlation does not infer causation as we say in my stats class . . . but it helped me get through it.

My from scratch goes fuzzy

One of the (few) disadvantages of cooking from scratch is that there is no best before date. Generally this means that the first time you find out that what you made won't last that long in the fridge is when it goes fuzzy.  As evidenced by my refried beans below.

I've tried to come up with a strategy for minimizing this but the reality is I cooking in batches so that I don't have to cook every night and at some point I'm going to end up wasting some food in order to learn it's best before.

The other thing that got wasted this week was some spinach. Despite my best intentions I just didn't get around to my greens. I think that part of the problem is that they sit in an air tight plastic container with their own moisture.

Next time I get spinach I'll try moving them to a bag with a bit of paper towel to cut down on moisture.

September Mid Month Checkup

Bills/Savings Paid

Mortgage - Successfully doubled-up

Retirement Savings - On Track

Housing Taxes/Insurance – Taxes have been increased based on my predictions for next year’s bill.  Insurance is on Track

Health Insurance – Spent – but need to claim of meds in progress

Financial Planning - $1.64 left over.

Bills waiting to be paid

Cell Phone/Internet - Bills have not yet arrived, $46.89 and $50.68 respectively

Utilities – $383.86 I’m looking into price of wood for my fireplace which will take a bite out of this.

Others

House Maintenance - Savings are up to $2,385.27.

Big Ticket Items - $588.53 in savings. 

Train - $66.71 still there.  

Other Transportation - $77.72 set aside.

Food - $240.27 left.  I could throw a party! 

Miscellaneous - $28.98. 

Entertainment - $22.87. With all the time I spend studying there isn’t much time to spend.  

Social/Sports - $40, but I should need to pay a $30 club fee soon.

Clothes - $90

Gifts - $68.40.   

The perpetual Todo list

I one of those people that need to write things down. Failing to do so will have them fly out of my head. It will eventually fly back into my head, usually at an inopportune moment, normally right before I need to have the thing done. Of course there are the things that have no time line that I only remember when I don't have time to do them. So they never actually get done.

Enter my perpetual todo list. Most people find a list that never gets finished a bit depressing. I'm finding it quite useful. The perpetual Todo list rides around in my backpack and can be added to the moment that something comes up. Having it all in one place keeps track of every little thing that is going on in every little aspect of my life. What's more, because it travels around with me (opposed to sitting on my fridge) it is constantly being looked at and the things on it will actually get done. When sitting and having lunch at work I'll normally pull it out to see if there are any phone calls or e-mails that need to be done. One task per lunch hour keeps a lot of the little appointment making and getting back to people up to date.

It's also how I look at the list. I never look at it in its entirety. I don't care how long it will take me to do the whole list. Instead I take it item by item, which usually don't take a lot of time by themselves. In fact I'm regularly surprised when the dreaded phone call I have to make to the insurance company only takes 3 min to resolve.

For bigger tasks I break them down. Instead of "Claim XYZ through insurance" it will be, "Assemble insurance paperwork," "Set up insurance account login," "Fill out insurance paperwork," and "Mail insurance paperwork." That way instead of having a task drag on for a week and becoming discouraged because it never seems to go anywhere I can cross something off whenever I make even a little bit of progress which keeps me motivated. And ultimately, things get done.

No food waste, fruit tree payback

I once again am proud to announce 0 food waste. Though it was a tad close. I'm sure everyone knows at least one recipe that tastes absolutely wonderful . . . but makes terrible left overs.  One of my experiments turned out to be one of these recipes and though I will do it again I'm certainly going to half the recipe so that I don't have as many leftovers.

My lovely plum tree has finally run out of plums for me to devour so I thought I'd do a rough estimate of how much fruit I got off the tree, and then convert that to a dollar amount.

I didn't keep an accurate count of how many plums I ate but I estimate that it was four buckets full (I use a 4L ice cream bucket for my plum picking.) The bucket holds roughly 27 plums at a time which means that I consumed approximately 108 plums in four weeks. : )  (I was a bit surprised at first, but looking back I was munching on them constantly.)

Thought I'd add a picture of my plum tree in the spring so
that you could admire it!

At my local the cost for 3 plums is $1.27. Which is $0.42 per plum (1.27/3 = 0.42). Since I ate 108 of them that's $45.72 worth of plums (0.42*108).

My tree came with the house, but when it comes to buying a new plum tree the standard cost that I've found online is $20-$30. In other words a plum tree will more than pay for itself over a single season once it's mature. Not to mention the beauty of the tree, the shade that it provides and the biodiversity that it helps to promote. I would most certainly say that a plum tree is a good return on investment.