Give Me Back My Five Bucks

Today I leave for my trip to Toronto/NYC! :) I’m still not fully packed and my place isn’t clean yet, so excuse the disjointed blog post. I have a pretty packed schedule while in Toronto. I’m meeting up with my editor at Moneyville, blogger friends Asian Pear and Ginger, high school friends, a few people from Twitter, and a dear friend from my college days in Michigan is driving up for a visit. :) I’m also extremely excited to watch my first (3) Blue Jays games at SkyDome. We got good seats for one game (already paid for), and plan … Continue reading →

Last week, my first $600 mortgage payment came out of my bank account. $217 went to interest, and $383 went to the principal. That got me thinking about the different mortgage payment schedules, and how that will affect me in the future. Because I’m a natural planner, and obsessed with numbers, I decided to break it down by using the VanCity Mortgage Payoff Calculator. Take a look at the following 4 scenarios based on my mortgage: I bought my one-bedroom townhouse in Vancouver for $259,000, and am carrying a mortgage amount of $238,288. I took a 5-year fixed rate at … Continue reading →

Monday 9th + $150 freelance/side income $8.95 A&W Tuesday 10th No Spend Day! Wednesday 11th No Spend Day! Thursday 12th No Spend Day! Friday 13th + $450 freelance/side income $25 Cactus Club (dinner & drinks w/work people) Saturday 14th $3.75 Starbucks $2.79 Tim Horton’s Sunday 15th $14.35 Petland (3x goldfish vacation feeders) $29.98 groceries $43.86 prescription WEEKLY EXPENSES: - $125.68 WEEKLY SIDE INCOME*: + $600 TOTAL: + $474.32 This was a relatively good week of spending for me. I had a great time hanging out with the girls from work on Friday night, and spent Saturday afternoon with an old friend. Sunday I … Continue reading →

It’s been a few weeks since I had the time to write out a Sunday Link Love post, but now that I’m somewhat settled into my new place, I have time to bring it back. At least for this week. :) Carrie Bradshaw Math In the show Sex and the City, I never got how Carrie was able to support her fabulous New York lifestyle on the salary from the one newspaper column she wrote. And apparently at the-frenemy.com, they couldn’t figure it out either. I love how the author totally breaks down the numbers and reveals how much it … Continue reading →

I have been mulling over this post for the past few days, based on ridiculously mean comments on Jennifer Stewart’s first article for Moneyville, as well as a post I wrote on Monday, How repaying my $20,000 debt set me free. It was an article I felt was important and close to my heart, because this week four years ago, I became debt-free. :) As a general rule, I try not to read the comments on my posts because they tend to be quite mean. But I did this time. Based on the comments received, I have three questions that … Continue reading →