Sunday 1 March 2009

Que sera, sera!

If it can make Doris happy, then surely it can work for me, too!

I was messing around with my taxes last night and it seems that this year I owe. And owe a fairly substantial amount. Even with the Northern Living Allowance deduction and my RRSP contributions it’s still over $2K! :(

This is because of all the overtime I earned last year. When I first saw my T4 I was like “WTF?” My second thought was, as Gail would ask, “Where did it all go?!” Two steady jobs last year, a grand total of almost $65K and I STILL HAVE DEBT. *Shakes head in despair*. Obviously my finances need major work. But that’s also why I started to blog last year; to track my spending and find out where it all goes. I find my inspiration and motivation through YOU guys!

Still, despite this news, I am not in the same position I was last year, either. I now have savings accounts; RRSPs; some mutual funds; plans. Having to pay taxes is definitely a big step backwards, however, as I was hoping for a refund to apply to my debt. Now I’ll have to tighten my budget even more.

What can you do, eh?

The Gail-ism for the beginning of March is: “Crap happens. That’s life. It’s how you handle it that separates the winners from the losers. An Emergency Fund is the best tool for dealing with crap.”

Would this qualify as crap? If I took the money out of my emergency fund it would be $1350 less debt I’d have to sit on over the year. But that would also mean I have nothing left in my EF fund for any other emergencies that might crop up. Hmm. Thoughts? Should I dip into my EF to erase half the income tax debt? I’m certainly tempted.

Otherwise, I thought I’d best post some goals for March. I need some motivation and focus outside of work and school.

March goals:
1. Walk more (this shouldn’t be a problem)
2. Starting this month pay the minimum + 10% on my student loan and LOC (plump up vet, travel, car & EF fund, if I don’t drain it for income tax) for seven months
3. Continue saving & rolling change; put in gift fund or towards debt
4. Change my banking. I still have an account on Vancouver Island and it just grows ever more inconvenient (never mind that I’m not allowed access to it in PERSON…), so I am going to close it and move everything to my current Big Bank. This will include setting up an auto-deposit to my RRSP or one that I can manage myself. Or both.
5. Keep looking for my battery charger!!
6. Clean, tidy and de-clutter my apartment. It’s surprisingly tidy, but there’s still a ton of crap laying about that I can get rid of.
7. Keep an eye on this website for a reasonably priced car. This way I could get a visit in as well as a new vehicle. But this won't be for a few months yet. I've sent some questions, though, and I know they're on the up and up, so it's an option. But I want to see if I can save a decent amount in the meantime.

I also made a nice oatmeal in the crockpot overnight. I decided to keep my small one as well, and this was a recipe I got from my new book. It was actually very tasty (it includes cranberry juice & apples), albeit a bit runny as I added a little more water than was required. Still, crockpotting apparently takes a bit of trial & error, and this was definitely a new thing for me. But it saved me buying my breakfast this morning!

6 comments:

Canadian Saver said...

I am also one who'd be owing a lot on taxes if it weren't for my big RRSP contributions. My donations help too... I prefer to borrow from my savings and put it into RRSPs than owe taxes.

As for taking the money out of your EF to pay the tax bill, that's a personal decision. I've owed taxes in the past (2001-2002) and I took about 9 months to pay it off. I didn't find the interest to be THAT bad. Of course I didn't have any money in savings then that I could have borrowed from.

Good luck with your March goals!!

The Asian Pear said...

do you have a savings account you can use the money from? as in not your Emergency Fund? It'd be better to take from that. Especially if your savings account is only making 2.3% interest but the interest to pay off your taxes will be 6% or something like that.

Alternatively, you can use a bit of your EF and then slowly pay back the taxes too. Good luck in March! :)

Sharon S said...

Hi there-very best of luck with those March goals-regarding using the ef fund, thats a personal decision, I too agree with Canadian saver.

Anonymous said...

Good luck to you on your goals! I just did mine this morning.

Unknown said...

Dear Site Owner,
My name is Caren.
We would like to say that your blog is well-written and it contains lots of useful and up-to-date information.
We really got interested in your web resource northernlivingallowance.blogspot.com/
and we would like to cooperate with you in future.
Our website is devoted to credit cards and it's at the top 10 in Google for the keywords 'credit cards'.
It's a high traffic site with PR4 and it contains loads of useful financial information presented in news and articles
that highlight the most much-talked-of issues such as credit cards, debt solutions, financial crisis, ways out of it, and many more.
We believe this information can awake interest in your guests as well.
We would like to purchase some links at your site.
We thank in you in advance for your cooperation.
Best regards,
Caren.
caren@acclaimnetwork.com

Unknown said...

Dear Admin



I have been reading your site since a week. I greatly enjoyed looking through your site and found some informative pages on finance like debts, credit etc. I also have a finance related blogs and sites having more information regarding various finance related problems and its solutions. I think it might be of interest to your readers.

So, I think it would be beneficial for both of us if we join in a community together which will definitely help both of ours blog/site in getting more Google values. We would certainly appreciate your site. Please feel free to contact me with any questions at my email id.

If you want we can also write articles for each others site on any finance related topics. I have been writing articles for various finance related sites and blogs.


Waiting for your earliest response.



Thanks and regards



Betty Parker

web admin

(contactbettyparker@gmail.com)


n.b: If you are not the concerned person, then kindly forward this mail to the webmaster concerned.