October 2011 Goals
Well, like I mentioned in my September Goals Recap, I have two weekend trips planned for this month – Thanksgiving long weekend back in my hometown, and a weekend trip to Seattle with my boyfriend.
October also marks the last month of my 6-month Shaw Cable promo package. Right now I’m paying $80/month for internet/cable, and I believe it will go up to around $125/month in November. I’ve been debating whether to even keep my cable package, because I never watch TV anymore. But I know that as soon as I get rid of it, I’ll want to watch something. Especially because I do like watching baseball and hockey games in the background while I write. It’s a tough call. What I think I might do is call Telus to see if they have a good deal to offer, because Shaw’s regular pricing is just way too high for me to stomach.
October 2011 Goals:
- Make an additional $2,500 above and beyond my FT job. Even though last month, I was able to make over $4,300 in freelancing, I’m pretty sure that was a fluke. So I’m being realistic with myself this month.
- Contribute $800 towards my Retirement Portfolio. With my birthday coming up in a few weeks, I’m getting anxious about not saving enough towards my retirement. Not exactly normal for a 20-something to be thinking about, but I’d be lying if I said I’ve never lost sleep over it.
- Contribute $500 towards my Travel Fund. I’m not exactly sure what’s happening over the Christmas holidays. I’d like to go on a trip somewhere – anywhere – so I need to get some cash together.
- Go on a 10km run. You know you’re busy when, before typing out the goal, you have to go to your Google calendar to see if you actually have time to schedule in one run for the entire month. I don’t think I have time, but I’m going to try really hard. I hate running, but I miss the way it makes me feel.
- Go on a hike. There’s a short 3-hour hike up a mountain in my hometown that I’m thinking about doing if the weather is nice. I’ll be there over the long weekend, so I’m pretty sure I can schedule it in.
- Buy and create a scrapbook. Okay, so clearly I am a huge nerd if one of my goals is to buy a scrapbook for my articles that have actually appeared in print. Some PF writers have their articles published weekly – even daily – but not this girl. I am overcome with joy every time I’m told an article of mine has made it to the print version of the Toronto Star. Since I get each article sent to me, I might as well start saving them.
- Read 10 articles about investing. This is such a vague goal, but I really want to start learning more about investing and create some sort of plan of attack. I don’t know what kind of investing I want to read about, so I figure I’d just start with a general idea, and start to narrow down from there.
- Don’t mope on my birthday. I’ve had a serious problem with hating my birthday over the past 4 or 5 years. I never celebrate it, and all I really want to do is just hang out by myself and reflect on my failures and accomplishments. I usually get mopey because I don’t think I’ve accomplished enough. Turning 29 scares the crap out of me, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a fantastic year. Since my birthday falls on a Saturday, my goals are to 1) not work at all that day, 2) do something I’ve always wanted to do, and 3) have fun. :)
Ongoing 2011 Annual Goals:
- No buying lunch, snacks or coffee during the work week.
- No buying clothing, shoes or accessories until December 31, 2011.
- Work out at least 3x/week.
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Krystal — what sort of spreadsheet do you use for your tracking? Care to share it with your readers? :)
Hey Dan! Well I actually do all of my budgeting and calculations through Quicken, but for the sake of this blog, I import the numbers over to Excel (since that’s what I’ve always been doing). I do have an awesome budgeting spreadsheet (Excel) that you can download over at BankNerd.ca (it’s the first one on the list). That’s the spreadsheet I used for years. Hopefully you find it useful!
http://banknerd.ca/resources/templates/budget-templates/
Test
I was in the same situation as you are in, in that I live in a large city, watched a little TV and thought I would miss it once I canceled it.
Far from it. Now I have an HD TV with an antenna and get all the large networks (the office, parenting, etc.) in HD (the networks broadcast their signal and it’s better quality than over the wire) and together with hulu and the network’s shows on demand for free I don’t miss anything!
Check out this map for channel availability by putting in your address: http://www.antennaweb.org/
Get this for your laptop so that you can stream the online videos: http://www.amazon.com/Warpia-Wireless-Audio-Display-Adapter/dp/B002XISRJS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1317732219&sr=8-2
Get a VHF & UHF antenna so you can watch all the channels that you found on antennaweb.org : http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?field-keywords=UHF+and+VHF&url=search-alias%3Delectronics
Payback period for you would be just over a month!
We actually don’t get Hulu in Canada. Which is a huge bummer, and why I love traveling in the U.S.! :) I’ll check out different options for cable a lot more carefully over the next week or so. There has to be a better option than sticking with what I currently have. Thanks! :)
You can definitely get Hulu in Canada using a free proxy (Hotspot Shield). My wife and I watch Hulu everyday here at home.
I say you can definitely get rid of your cable. You can watch full length live and replay hockey game on CBC.ca now. You aren’t going to get every game, but I think you get most/all games that CBC airs (I don’t watch hockey so I can’t verify 100%).
Even if you don’t want to do the Hulu thing, you can still watch nearly everything for free and legally online in Canada. Check out my guide to free internet TV in Canada.
I haven’t paid for cable in a very long time. Actually, I’ve never paid for cable. When I moved out of my parents house in 2005 I never subscribed and instead either bought/sold DVDs or rented them by mail order. I watched complete seasons that way with no commercials for less than the cost of cable. Now it’s all free online anyway and there’s still less commercials (30 seconds instead of 3 minutes!) It’s like having your own PVR without having to buy one.
SavingMentor´s latest post —> Mortgage Life Insurance (…and why you should never, EVER get it.)
I don’t miss cable. I thought I would, but after two years without it I find it’s an easy thing to live without. If there’s a particularly exciting/important game, we’ll go to a bar and get an appetizer and a couple cheap beers for dinner. I also find I’m a lot more productive without the TV to bother me.
Maybe you could try going without cable for a set period of time; if you miss it that much, you can always re-add it to your package (and probably get a deal out of it too!)
graduate.living´s latest post —> It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
You may want to call Shaw earlier rather than later… sometimes there’s fine print on your offer that says you need to give 30-60 days notice – my parents got caught that way with Rogers.
They’ll probably offer you another promotion when you tell them to cut it.
jay´s latest post —> Relaunch: This is Why I’m Fat
Ohh thanks for the tip. I’ll call then ASAP. Thanks. :)
I don’t miss cable at all – but it is more of a challenge for sports fans.
Good luck this month!
SP´s latest post —> Travel Tuesday: St. Petersburg, Peter & Paul Fortress & Food
These are great goals. They’re kind of like mine, except I know that I could never make $2,500 in side income!
Michelle´s latest post —> Made more burgers the other night
Ooo, I love the read investing articles idea. I am going to do this. Thanks for the idea.
Niki´s latest post —> It’s Never Too Early For Fun & Frugal Halloween Decor
I’ve been a birthday moper for years too. For my 30th birthday last April, my boyfriend and I planned on going to an all-inclusive for a week. I was so proud that I was going to happily celebrate a “major” birthday. Then he and I broke up at the beginning of March. :( The days off had been booked although we hadn’t bought tickets yet (we work in the industry and were going to get a last minute deal) so I wasn’t out any money but once again, I didn’t want to celebrate my birthday. My sis ended up saving me by begging me to take her somewhere warm for her spring break. We just ended up going to Vegas (did it low key by laying by the pool, shopping outlets and just doing half-price shows…we’re not big gamblers/clubbers) for a few days but it was still nice to feel I had done “something” for my 30th.
I hope you manage to do something that you enjoy. And remember, you’re only going to be 29…not an “old lady” like me!! ;)
You could try looking for a “limited” or “basic” cable package. Companies don’t really advertise it, but it’s way cheaper and it gives you most of the major networks (i.e. NBC, ABC, CBC, CBS, and several others that I don’t pay attention to) even in HD. I’m paying $14/month for cable with Comcast, but the lowest advertised “promotional” price online is about $30/month. I’m not on a promotional price and though it seems to keep going up every few months or so, it’s still far cheaper than the other options.
Leigh´s latest post —> September update
Yeah I used to have their basic cable package, but it doesn’t have a lot of the sports channels that I watch. I know, such a dumb reason to upgrade cable packages. But even the basic cable package is about $40/month. I think in the U.S. there are a lot more options when it comes to cable.
Also, I’m extremely jealous of your utility amount. Is that $75 for everything including gas, water, electricity and so on? Because mine is around $400-$500 a month!
Michelle´s latest post —> October Goals
Well it’s basically just the hydro bill, and the last couple of bills I’ve gotten have averaged to about $20/month. Water gets paid once a year as a flat rate, and everything else is paid out of my monthly maintenance fee for the townhouse complex ($157/month). I think my mom says her utilities are around $300/month, but she owns a home. I just have a 700 sq. ft. townhouse!
So jealous, I hate my utility bills, but then again, I don’t have a maintenance fee, so it’s almost the same.
Michelle´s latest post —> Make Money
Great goals!
…Will put this one is my Thanksgiving roundup!
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Great goals on the 10k run. Not surprisingly, there’s an app for that. Check out an app called smartcoach, does a pretty neat job of setting up a program.
Hey, and congratulations on another mainstream media mention. You were mentioned in our local paper here in Ontario in an article by Ellen Roseman.
Thanks Glenn! I’ve never heard of that App before, but I’ll check it out. :)
Also, do you know what newspaper that was? Toronto Star?
One thing I’ve been wondering about with your budget: If you know the maintenance/strata is $157/month, why do you budget $160 and then always have $3 left over? Why don’t you just budget $157?
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Okay, maybe I’m insane, but I can’t stand creating budgets that don’t end in either a ’0′ or ’5′. It’s just easier to add and subtract and look at. That’s why with almost every budget I make, I will always round up. :)
Age is just a number! Don’t hate your day… It’s yours.. all yours.. turn back and look at the past year and celebrate all the things you have accomplished the past year! Celebrate away!
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[...] Krystal Yee provided everyone with her October goals. [...]
Urgh. Telus. No.
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I know how you feel about Telus, but… I might not have a choice. The pricing seems a lot better. Although, I don’t like having to sign a contract. So we’ll see.
You’re not alone in worrying about your retirement in your 20s. I’m 24 and I’ve had a pension plan since I started full time work at the age of 22. It’s important to think about these things, but the very fact you have a plan before your 30s works to your advantage (yey for cumulative interest). Don’t worry about the future, and just enjoy your birthday :)
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