Give Me Back My Five Bucks

NIUicepricess from Life and Debt in Chicago has just tagged me for the Frugal Living Meme. My first tag ever! This gal is moving up in the PF blogging world! :)

The meme is to write a post about one thing you do well, and one thing you do poorly with respect to saving and spending money.

What I do well: I’m super organized when it comes to managing my money, and making sure everything gets paid on time. Quicken has become my best friend for the past year, and I’ve also developed Excel spreadsheets to track my daily mutual fund growth, grocery expenses, and gas consumption. I basically know where every single penny of my money goes.

What I don’t do so well: I like high quality things. When I buy something, I end up buying the more expensive one, or the trusted name brand item, because I feel like it’ll last longer. It’ll be like an investment. That goes for everything – clothes, shoes, appliances, make-up, dishes, food, flowers, electronics, etc. Everything. I got this habit from my mom, and I’m trying to control it. Sometimes it’s good to buy the more expensive item if the quality is there, but I need to learn how to scrimp, and buy the less expensive thing more often than not.

So now I’m going to tag:
Matt’s Money Blog
Well-Heeled: twentysomething life & money
(although I don’t know if either of those two read my blog on a regular basis … the only 2 that are regular visitors here have already been tagged!)

Meme Rules:

• Write a blog post based on this meme’s theme. See above.
• At the top of your post please link to this post and mention that you are participating in the Frugal Living meme.
• Feel free to add a comment.
• Also, please link back to the person that tagged you for this meme, if anyone did, in order to return the favor of their tag link to you. It’s not necessary to be tagged in order to participate.
• Tag some other bloggers to get them to write about their own spending habits. It’s certainly okay to participate even if you are new at blogging and are not yet comfortable tagging anyone. I think just about everyone has good and bad monetary habits, so this meme should not be limited to only frugality bloggers.

I borrowed Save Karyn from the library this weekend, and read it in one sitting. It was a pretty cute book, and much like the Shopaholic books I secretly love so much (speaking of which, I’m on the hold list to borrow the newest Shopaholic & Baby book from the library … but the last time I checked I was hold number 187 of 325, so I doubt I’ll be reading it anytime soon!). I saw it on sale at Costco for around $17.50, and was tempted to buy it, because at Chapters it was $34.99 or something like that … but it’s not a life or death situation. I will live if I don’t fill my Becky Bloomwood addiction right away. :)

They decided to jack up bus fare starting back on April 1st, which angers me a lot. It’s only 25 cents, but now I’m paying $2.75 for a one-way ticket, and that’s just ridiculous! I remember back in the day, it was only a dollar. A dollar! God I’m old.

I was cleaning out a drawer in the washroom last night, when I uncovered a huge stash of (unopened) beauty products that I got for free when I was a beauty advisor while going to school. I found a $45 tube of Dermaglow hand cream (the best stuff in the world), Lancome face self-tanner and the body self tanner, Biotherm waterproof eye make-up remover, and some random Avene creams (including a sunscreen). Do you think they’re still good to use?

My boss just told me that he’d like me to attend a one-day marketing seminar in Vancouver next month. Awesome! 1) I’ve never been away “on business” before, and 2) since the seminar is on a Thursday, and I get Friday-Saturdays off, I’m just going to stay and spend some time with friends and family on the mainland. Going to Vancouver can get pretty expensive, which is why I rarely ever go. But since it’s for business, I would get to use my company credit card to reimburse me for the ferry, and transportation to and from the ferry. I also think I get a meal allowance for the day of the seminar as well, but I’ll look into that. Anyway, the trip isn’t confirmed yet, but I hope I get to go!

In other news, I applied for a job in Alberta with a hockey team. It’s for the exact same position my boss has at the arena, except that it’s with an NHL team. I don’t have any expectations, and I don’t even expect to get an interview, but still … I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this one! They want 3 years experience, and I only have 2, and they probably already have somebody in mind, so we’ll see.

Got my quarterly GST cheque today for $74.45! I also qualify to receive it again this fiscal year, except I’m not sure how much it’ll be. I’ll deposit it on Friday when I get paid, and it’ll go straight towards my debt.

Last night the BF and I decided to go see Blades of Glory with a friend of mine who was in town for the long weekend. It was a great movie, but definitely didn’t even come close to touching Anchorman, which is clearly the greatest movie in the history of the world. It’s gotten so bad, that my friends and I will have Anchorman quote battles, to see who can recite the most lines in a row without messing up. Blades of Glory had some good quotes too, and it was nice to see Jon Heder in another movie. All in all, I’d say it ranks pretty close to even with Talladega Nights.

We had a free movie pass from a cereal box, as well as a $5 gift certificate, so the total for the both of us was $4.95. Which is the same price we would have to pay to rent the movie from Rogers or Blockbuster when it got released. Pretty good for a night out!

Jimmy: I see you got fat!
Chazz: I see you still look like a 15-year-old girl, but not hot.

Also, today I went shopping at the mall with my mom. We went into RW&Co because she had a $100 gift certificate. While we were there, I made the mistaken of trying on a really nice short sleeve blouse for $45. I hadn’t bought any clothes this year so far, and most of my clothes don’t fit me anymore since I’ve lost some weight, so I know I’ll have to buy some spring/summer clothes for work sooner or later. I was just hoping for later. Anyway, I wasn’t going to buy it, but my mom only ended up spending some of her certificate, and she let me have the rest of it! So after taxes, the blouse was only $12.44! Score!