January 2013 Goals: Recap

After my expensive month of December, I was hoping for a really frugal start to 2013. But, that didn’t happen and I e nded up $764.45 over budget this month. So maybe it’s a good thing my additional mortgage payments don’t end up going into effect until February. :)

Because this was a transition month for me (quit working for Moneyville & only got one pay cheque from the new job), I had to dip into my Emergency Fund to cover the damage to my windshield and to fix my computer. I will likely be able to get my EF back up to the $10,000 mark within a few months, and I’m just really grateful that I have cash to fall back on. If this were 5 years ago, I don’t know what I would have done. :|

Over Budget:

• Maintenance/Strata – I paid more this month for my natural gas fire place.

• Food – groceries were a little more than expected because I had to replace a lot of stuff in my fridge after coming back from Germany. We basically had to restock everything.

• Household – I bought a frying pan, slow cooker, and a few other miscellaneous cleaning supplies.

• Entertainment – We splurged on a couple of (expensive) nights out with friends since we hadn’t seen them in a year.

• Clothing – A silk blouse from J.Crew, purchased on eBay.

• Car & Transportation – I had to replace my car windshield.

• Miscellaneous – This was the cost of repairing the logic board on my Macbook Pro. :|

Net Worth Change: + $1,782 (+ 2.35%)

I’m happy that even though I had an expensive month, I was still able to raise my net worth. This was mostly because of contributions to my RRSP as well as a $725 payment on my braces (only one more payment to go!). Here’s hoping for an even better February! :)

January 2013 Goals:

• Run 50km outdoors. FAIL. You wanna know how many KMs I ran this month? ZERO. That’s right. I play field hockey 3x/week and now that I’m taking a spin class as well, I just don’t have anymore time to run. While I like the spin class, I’m looking forward to it ending (in 4 weeks) so that I can run that day instead. And once I get used to this 4x/week workout schedule, I can likely increase it to 5x/week and get a second run in during the week.

• Increase my mortgage payments. CHECK! I increased the payments back to accelerated bi-weekly with an extra 20% on top, but because of the billing cycle, it won’t become active until February. That should work out to an extra $222 onto my mortgage each month.

• Get back on track with my Retirement Portfolio. CHECK! I’m contributing $400/month into my RRSP, and $300 into my TFSA. It isn’t enough to get me to my goal of $16,000 for the year, but I’m getting there.

• Start contributing monthly to a charity. PASS. While I didn’t start contributing, I think I’ve found the charity I want to donate to. It’s a Canadian charity called WaterCan. They’re dedicated to helping people in third world countries gain access to clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education. Has anyone donated or done any work with them before?