Saturday 1 May 2010

April goes out with a bang!

It must be contagious in the blogosphere this month - spending, I mean. Take a look at what I spent just yesterday!

$100.56 - Wal-Mart (my principles sell for $20, apparently)
$12.59 - Canadian Tire
$7.10 - cat milk
$9.00 - movie (and a BAD one at that!)
$16.00 - dinner (Chinese - lemon chicken)

I would like to state for the record, however, that it was all in cash. After a morning of finding various cat stuff around the place (vomit, butt-cleaning marks on the carpet), I decided that what I needed (wanted?) was a mini-steam cleaner, so I went online and checked out a couple of places. I decided on this particular model.

Sears - $109.99
Can Tire - $99.99
Wal-Mart - $79.99

Have I mentioned how much I hate Wally World? I was totally prepared to buy the machine at Can Tire, but went to Wally World, just to see. A $20 difference is significant and I wouldn't have changed my mind for $10, so I picked it up. Along with two packages of new undies, which I desperately need (all my favourite ones are full of holes or rips and the elastic is coming through). *Sigh* I did make myself feel better by buying the detergent for the cleaner at Can Tire because IT WAS CHEAPER. So there.

The dinner and movie was with friends. We went to see "Gunless," as a friend of mine L-O-V-E-S Paul Gross. It was opening night for it and there were perhaps a dozen of us in the theatre. Not promising. And while I loved "Due South," this was...bad. Really bad. And not in the good way - the bad way.

However, on the flip side, I have managed to save myself money in other areas, which I'm quite pleased about:

  • New cell phone plan! I cut my current package in half, so will now be paying only $30 a month instead of $60. This will start May 22. Savings: $360 p/yr!

  • I got an RRSP form from the investment group I have a plan with, but didn't get it until well after I had already filed & paid my income tax. I forgot to change my address with them. Anyway, with this added to my income tax, it means I actually get some money back for a change! Only $63 or so, but hurrah! :) Adjustment form filled out and mailed on Thursday.

  • I switched my car insurance over to a cheaper insurer on Thursday and will save myself $150 a year! I had to pay $54 for a safety inspection and $10 for a copy of my driving abstract from the DMV, but it's worth it to pay $337 a year for insurance. I could even save an extra $24 a year if I chose to remove "fire, theft, vandalism" from the policy. I will think about it for next year.

Despite the good news, I am once again very frustrated with myself for this spending spree. To the point that I am close to paying off the CC in full with part of my emergency fund as well as putting some of it onto my LOC. I'd leave $1K in the Efund as I auto-save $50 per month, so it would build up again without a problem. I can also move some money from my car account, my planned spends and empty my gift fund to cover some of the CC balance, so it's likely I won't need to use as much as I think from the Efund. This would leave me with a comfortable cushion in case something does come up, a clear CC, and a slightly lower LOC.

I like this scenario better than completely emptying my Efund and leaving myself vulnerable. Has anyone else done this?

**UPDATE: I've just listed 11 items on Amazon.ca! Wish me luck selling them!!**

2 comments:

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

Good luck on the amazon items!

And as for the spending spree, it doesn't sound so bad. I mean, it was a lot, but it was ONE day.. right?

(watch me justify my own spending :P)

The Asian Pear said...

yay. good luck with amazon.

and I agree with FB, it's not all that bad! i've done much worse. ^__^;