Goals

September Goal Update

Good day everyone! I would have posted this on Sunday, however I was feeling a little under the weather with a migraine, so I’m just getting to this now.

Last month I blogged about three goals I wanted to accomplish during September. I even updated you on how I had finished off one of those goals in this post.

I’m happy to report that I managed to knock off two of the three. I dropped off the phones I sold to a friend of mine for another snowflake of $25 a couple of weekends ago. I completely forgot to update the post though, but it’s done! Still didn’t get around to taking those old comic books to a store to sell them, so I’ll be carrying over that goal to this month. I’m still trying to figure out another couple of goals for October, so stay tuned for another post later this week as I come up with them.

One Goal Down, Two to Go

Last week I wrote about three goals I wanted to accomplish for the month of September. I’m happy to report that I’ve completed one of them already! Yes. I was able to transfer one of my credit card balances to another card so that I eliminate having to split up my payments. Makes my life much easier throughout the month.

AND, I was even able to get an upgrade on the card at no extra cost to a gold card, which I was planning on doing once I paid off the card.

AND because this card’s with the bank I work for, I was able to take advantage of their employee banking offers and got 50% off the annual fee and 50% off the interest rate on the card. Double yippie!

Gotta love it when things come together on the first day of a short week. Yeah baby.

Goals for September

One of the PF blogs I read does a monthly goal list, in which she outlines what she hopes to accomplish that month, and then she lets us all know how she’s done the following month (unfortunately I can’t remember which one it is, so I apologize for that!) I thought it might  be nice if I did up some goals too, and see how I do at sticking to them. Without further ado:

• Move my RBC Visa debt to my CIBC Visa card. (since my balance transfer deal expires this month, there’s no point in leaving the balance on there, and I like the idea of consolidating my payments to make life easier). DONE – Sep. 8
• Earn $75 extra dollars (a snowflake!) I’m already 25% there as I made $25 by selling two of my unused cordless phones to a friend.
• Take my brother in law’s old comics to the comic book store and sell them. While I won’t earn any money on that as I’m selling them for him, it’ll at least get the damned things out of my house so I won’t have to look at them any more.

There, I think I’ll start with just three and work my way up to a more robust list.

A Major Sign of a Bad Economy

A mall absolutely jam-packed full of people actually buying stuff? I popped into my local Canadian Tire store today to take advantage of a sale on folding chairs, which I actually need as I’m having some friends over for lunch tomorrow and I don’t have enough seating. The parking lot was jammed, so I had to park out in the hinterlands. I wasn’t upset at that, as I don’t mind walking, but wow, I’ve never parked that far at this store before. Then I walked in, and it was a ZOO! I mean, people were wheeling around carts that were just stuffed with items, and I mean, like 5-8 different items, not just one big one that was too awkward to carry around. They were grabbing things off shelves like it was the end of the world. And the line-up at the cash was incredible! I managed to snag one of the self-serve scanners and was out in a jiffy, but wow, was that ever impressive.

Now I know that the economic situation isn’t as bad here in Canada as the US, but still, you’d think people would be a little more frugal given how tenuous things are, you know? A study done a few years ago (I forget exactly what year, so forgive me if this is old and out dated information) says that the average Canadian has around $8,000 worth of consumer debt each, not including any mortgages, loans, etc. So we should be trying to be as frugal as we possibly can all the time, not just now that the economy’s on a downturn. My friend M likes to call me Frugal J, because I’m all about cutting costs where I can. This is an attitude that we should all have all the time, not just when we’re trying to pay down debt or save money, you know? These last few years has really taught me that lesson, that it’s important to be frugal all the time, not just when times are tough. If you are, then you’ll be okay even when times to get tough. Take for example, my emergency fund. Working in the IT sector, I’m acutely aware of how things can change, so I want to be prepared if and when they do. Now it’s not at the level that I want it to be at, a level where I feel “comfortable” with it, but it’s a good start. Most people don’t have anything saved up at all. As I stated the other day in a previous post about my 2009 goals, I want to get that up to $5000. That’s lower than my initial goal of $7500, but I feel it’s an achievable goal in the short-term. If I can get it up higher, then that’s even better. But for starters, I need to add another $2000 next year.

So save your pennies, your loonies & toonies, and try to be more frugal this holiday season!