July Monthly Goals

It’s unfortunate that July doesn’t really seem like a budget-friendly month. I’m blaming it on the summer.

July 2007 goals:

• Pay more attention at work. Have you ever noticed when you’re looking for a new job, or you’ve found one and you’re about to leave … that you end up slacking a lot more at the office? I’ve noticed that about myself over the past few weeks, and that’s totally not cool. Until I go out those doors for the last time, I have a job to do, and people are counting on me to get the job done.
• Find a permanent, full-time job in my career field. I’ve been going on so many darn interviews lately, I need to get my act together and really ace my interviews. As you know, my current contract is going to be up in just over FOUR months. Ideally, I’d be looking for full benefits, some form of tuition reimbursement, and a starting salary at or above what I’m making right now.
• Make $175 in PPP earnings. Every little bit counts!
• $100 towards RRSP.
• $500 towards Emergency Fund.
• $1000 towards Condo Down Payment Fund. Currently, I have $475 on auto-debit from my chequing account every pay cheque ($950/month). This money goes into my non-registered mutual fund account … anything else I can scrounge up goes into my 4% savings account.
• $150 for my trip to Vancouver for the Ryan Adams concert. Since my accommodation and ticket is already paid for, I really don’t see what else I need to spend money on. So I budgeted $50 for merch, $60 for travel costs ($30 each way), and $40 for food. Considering I’m only going for one night, I don’t think it’ll be a problem. Although, I do know someone going to the concert as well, and she’s going alone too … so we might end up going out before or after the concert.
• STOP SPENDING MONEY. Seriously. I’m spending money left and right. And it may not seem like that much to most people – a dinner out here or there, maybe a new shirt or pair of shoes I don’t really need. Just because I’m out of debt doesn’t mean I don’t have financial goals I want to achieve. Granted, I know I’m not exactly being the most frugal person right now, but I don’t want to fall back into my old habits. I must be strong! :) Which brings me to my next few goal …
• Wait 48 hrs. before purchasing anything that is considered a want. Of course, that doesn’t really apply to going out for tea, or whatnot … it’s more for clothing, impulse mall purchases, electronics, etc.
• Bring back the $30 dining out budget. Oh that’s right baby, this budget is back on track! Of course, July 1-2 is excluded because I’ll be in Seattle and that trip was already taken into account in my June budget. Also, July 28-29 is excluded because it’s included in the $150 concert budget.

As you can tell, this monthly goals list is a lot more extensive than previous months. This is due to the fact that I’m mega stressed out right now about the job situation (and the chance that I could be unemployed come November), and because I’ve been too slack on myself lately. It’s great to take time off from the constraints of a budget and enjoy myself, but I have goals that I want to achieve, and I’m not going to get there by spending money at Jacob all the livelong day.