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Hoping to increase the cash flow April 29, 2007

Posted by gmbmfb in : design business, saving money , 1 comment so far

I have been speaking with someone who might hire me to do some contract work on an on-going basis. It will pay $25/hr, and I’d basically be creating book layouts in Adobe InDesign for offset printing, or digital print-on-demand. The pay isn’t that great as far as contract work goes, but a few of my friends work full-time for a publishing company doing book layouts, and they only make $12-14/hr. Plus, I’m just getting started. Fingers crossed that I get the job!

Last night, I made Texas chicken pizza for dinner. There’s just something about rolling out my own pizza crust that is just so satisfying. I’d much rather spend the time to make my own pizza than get one delivered. It’s not only healthier when I make it at home, but it’s also a lot cheaper.

Today, the BF is going fly fishing while I’m here at work. Hopefully he’ll land a nice fish for us to eat for dinner. We used go to every lake imaginable to fly fish last summer, but I still haven’t bought my fishing license for the year, and I’m not sure if I’m going to. Both the fresh water and salt water licenses aren’t that expensive, and I have all my own gear, but it’s the gas that’s the killer. We love going exploring into the logging roads, and reaching remote fishing/camping locations … but after we buy food, and spend the money on gas, it can get pretty expensive. I’ll leave the fishing to the BF if it means it’ll save me a few hundred dollars in gas this summer.


It’s not what you think, I swear April 28, 2007

Posted by gmbmfb in : health care, spending , 1 comment so far

I bought sunglasses today for $239.45, and I’m going to pay for it out of my Emergency Fund.

Before you go and think I’ve fallen off the frugal wagon, it’s not what you think. I can justify my purchase! I wear glasses pretty much 24/7, so when it gets too sunny out, I’ve been having to wear regular sunglasses … and I’m getting really dizzy and sick walking around with blurry vision. No, I didn’t have to get the fancy Ralph Lauren glasses, but $200 of the cost will be covered by my medical plan, so I figured I might as well get the ones I look best in. Plus, they were 50% off! Once I get the $200 reimbursement, I’ll stick it right back in the EF, and I’ll throw in another $40 just so I’m not cheating myself out of my EF money. And let’s face it, $40 is cheap for a pair of sunglasses as it is, never mind prescription sunglasses.

The BF and I had a coupon for two free lunches, so we hit that up today, and then afterwards we went and watched two IMAX films for free with our annual pass. We had a pretty good Saturday, and the only money we spent was for my sunglasses … well, and for groceries. But that only came to $22 for my share for the week.

It’s so nice out today, so I’m about to go for a walk with my sister, and then come back to watch some NHL playoff action. I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend as well!


May Monthly Goals April 27, 2007

Posted by gmbmfb in : monthly goals , 1 comment so far

This will be a tough month because my part-time job with the hockey team has ended for the season. Today I’m submitting my application for an usher at the arena, but I doubt it’ll bring in the $250-300/month I was making with the hockey team. Granted, that’s not a lot of money either, but it’s more than the $100-$150 I plan to pull in with the ushering job. I still make a comfortable amount with my full-time job to not really need a part-time job when it comes down to it, but every dollar counts!

May 2007 goals:


April Goals: My Review April 27, 2007

Posted by gmbmfb in : monthly goals , add a comment

Today was pay day, so I updated the sidebar. I put $800 towards my line of credit (almost have that paid off!), $150 for rent, $50 into my RRSP, $150 into the Emergency Fund, and $175 into the Condo Down Payment Fund. I also had to pay my cell phone bill of $42.

The rest of my money went to pay off the charges on the credit card that I’ve spent over the last two weeks, but that was only $158.05 – and that was ALL of my spending for two whole weeks, including groceries. I think that’s pretty good! Anyway, I’m one of those people who charges everything to a credit card, and then I pay the balance off every 2 weeks. With my Visa, I get 1% back on all my purchases, and my Mastercard I get 10 points for every $1 I spend. Once I get 10,000 points, I get $10 worth of groceries. They also give you points for paying bills online, getting pay cheques automatically deposited into your account with them, etc. The BF has the same bank, so we end up combining points. We find that every 3-4 months, we can get $40 worth of groceries. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it sure feels nice to get a free week’s worth of groceries once in a while just for spending money we would have spent regardless.

Without further ado, my monthly review …

April Goals (end of month review):


A post about nothing, really April 26, 2007

Posted by gmbmfb in : miscellaneous , add a comment

Today’s goal at work: get rid of all the clutter piled up on my desk! It’s amazing how disgusting my office got in just a week of intense work on a project. Now that I’m finished, it’s time to de-clutter and organize … then get working on all the crap I’ve been ignoring!

Tomorrow, I’m going for coffee with a good friend that I’ve blogged about before. I have a sneaking suspicion she’s living off of her credit cards, and transferring balances around to make minimum payments, but I hope I’m wrong. When I see her, I’m not going to try and make her see differently (because that isn’t working anymore), I’m just going to be her friend and hopefully she’ll turn things around on her own.


Photography Contest April 25, 2007

Posted by gmbmfb in : miscellaneous , add a comment

Hoorah! About a month ago, I entered a photography contest with a photo I took while the BF and I were on a fishing/camping trip up at the north end of the island. It has the river, mountains, forest, and really pretty hues of blue – and it even has a bald eagle soaring through the air in it. When I showed it to the BF after the trip, he said it looked just like something you’d see on a postcard, or in a travel magazine. And to be fair, it does. But it’s not exciting. Nothing’s happening, except for the eagle. I don’t even know why I submitted it. It wasn’t even the best photo I took on that trip.

Anyway, I just got a letter in the mail today saying I was selected as a semi-finalist! :) The grand prize is $10,000, and there are a bunch of smaller prizes. I don’t expect to win anything, I just think it’s cool that they thought my photo was good enough. (Although, the $10k would be nice!)

Pay day is on Friday, so I’ll be updating the sidebar, reviewing my April monthly goals, and setting new goals for May! Stay tuned.


From a scooterist to a motorist April 25, 2007

Posted by gmbmfb in : scooter , add a comment

An open letter to the asshole in the maroon SUV on W. Saanich Rd. yesterday @ 4:10pm:

Thanks for endangering not only my life, but the lives of everyone around you because you’re an arrogant prick who thinks he owns the road just because you drive a gas guzzling SUV.

It is NOT okay to ride my back wheel in order to pressure me to go faster. How do I go faster when there’s another car in front of me?

It is NOT okay to try to pass me ON MY LEFT-HAND SIDE IN SINGLE LANE TRAFFIC by straddling the double solid yellow line, with cars going by in both directions, then cutting me off (causing me to almost run off the road and into a ditch), and squeezing your fat SUV ass into the tiny space between me and the next car. All the while, cars going in the opposite direction are honking and screaming at you because they have to slow down and move over to accommodate the fact that you’ve invaded their lane.

And then when I honk at you for cutting me off and almost killing me, it is NOT okay to roll down your window, tell me to “F-off” and “get in the bicycle lane.” Then when the car in front of you turns off the road, it is not okay to speed off just to prove your point that your SUV is indeed more powerful than my scooter.

First of all, scooters are considered motor vehicles, and it is illegal for a motor vehicle to be in the bicycle lane. So F U. Second of all, I wasn’t even slowing down traffic at all. I was going 55 km/hr in a 50 km/hr speed zone. When a scooter can go 62 km/hr, it has every right to be in a traffic lane.

I could have understood if I was completely slowing traffic down, and going less than the speed limit. But I was in the middle of traffic, going above the speed limit, and the douche has the audacity to nearly kill me, then tell me to fuck off? I hate drivers like that!

Arggg now I’m all angry again after typing all of that out. Time to sit and fume in my office for the next few minutes.


This prank call was not funny April 24, 2007

Posted by gmbmfb in : miscellaneous , add a comment

As a very proud Asian-Canadian, it really gets my blood boiling to read things like this.

I’ve been a victim of racism before, so I know what it feels like. It’s fine to poke fun of ethnicity in a harmless way, like Russell Peters does in his stand-up comedy act (which I find hilarious), but to do it at someone’s expense when they don’t even know that you’re making fun of them, and to that degree, is derogatory, demeaning, and just plain cruel.

I hope both of them get fired, and find out what it feels like to be on the receiving end of their “shock jock” tactics.