Give Me Back My Five Bucks

Well, I was going to wait to post photos. I wanted my place to be fully furnished and completely settled in. But I feel like it’s going to take months for me to finally be happy with how the place looks. So instead, you’re going to get partially furnished pictures, some boxes, and no photos/art/decorations on the walls. Oh, and ugly curtains. They will get replaced sometime soon. Just use your imagination. :) As for the renovations themselves, the total cost was $3,780 – way under my initial prediction/budget of $4,500. This included all new flooring throughout (removing ceramic tile, … Continue reading →

Monday 30th No Spend Day! Tuesday 31st No Spend Day! Wednesday 1st + $300 freelance/side income $0.99 iTunes Thursday 2nd $39.17 London Drugs (cleaning products) $18.98 Home Depot $23.95 Canadian Tire Friday 3rd No Spend Day! Saturday 4th $20 pizza Sunday 5th $1.95 tea $43.17 gas WEEKLY EXPENSES: - $148.21 WEEKLY SIDE INCOME*: + $300 TOTAL: + $151.79 Expensive week! I now have a small arsenal of tools that I’ve been putting to good use this past weekend, because I also finally bit the bullet and spent money on furniture. Those purchases don’t reflect in this spending recap because it was money … Continue reading →

Most of you probably saw a post from me this morning, but then I took it down. It was written really late last night, and when I re-read it this morning, I thought it sounded overly happy. Kind of made me want to barf a little. So down it came, and this post is its replacement. Basically the same content, just without the mega dose of crazy I was on yesterday. :) Upcoming travel plans Now that I’m back from vacation, I’ve already planned and (have somewhat) booked my next 3 trips: Las Vegas (work-related in July), San Francisco (trip … Continue reading →

Well as promised, here is my recap of my trip to Toronto/NYC/New Jersey. I’ll break it down into 2 posts (one detailing the money, and one recapping the trip). Let’s start first with the money breakdown. Flights & Rental Cars: $257.73 Vancouver-Toronto (flight) $48 Toronto-Niagara Falls-Buffalo (1 day rental car, including gas) $90 Buffalo-NYC (flight) $19 New Jersey (1 day rental car, including gas) $240.12 New Jersey-Vancouver (flight) TOTAL = $654.85 Accommodation: $208 Toronto (4 nights) $325 New York City (5 nights) $25 New Jersey (1 night) TOTAL =  $558 ($55.80/night) Shopping: $519.62 (seems like a lot, but considering I’ve … Continue reading →

Like I mentioned before, this should be a somewhat quiet month. I have a trip home planned, as well as a potential day trip down to Seattle to see a Mariners/Phillies game – but I think I’ll only go if Halladay is scheduled to pitch. Other than that, I want to put my head down and work my butt off for this month. I want to see what I can accomplish when I put 100% effort into my freelancing and writing. Well, 100% effort when I’m not working my full-time job, that is. :) June 2011 Goals: Make an additional … Continue reading →