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    Showing posts with label TGIF. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label TGIF. Show all posts
  1. Well, I have FINALLY gotten into the Christmas spirit. It's only taken me two weeks longer than usual. I've been feeling under the weather lately, plus Ian hasn't been around (we always put up the tree together) so we didn't get a chance to put the tree up last night. If you follow me on Instagram and Facebook you'll know that we recently adopted a new kitty - or, he adopted us. So we've only put up with lights and tree without the decorations to see if he's going to be nice or not.



    Saturday morning before Ian goes to work we'll put up the rest of the decorations and whatnot. I'm excited to get our home back into the Kitschmas spirit!

    Low of my week: Honestly, this has been a grand week. I suppose the low would be how exhausted I was on Wednesday, but that was due to a positive - swimming 750m & then doing a 45 minute deep-water fitness class. Maybe it was Archie's little accident last night - we put him in the bathroom so he wouldn't attack the tree, but I would have rather cleaned up a down tree compared to what I did have to clean up :( poor little guy...

     High of my week: I've had a damn good week, so there's going to be a few here.
    Entertainment: going to the Vinyl Cafe Christmas show with Ian. We went last year and loved it, so we decided to make it an annual tradition. We got much better seats, and one of my favourite bands The Good Lovelies were the musical guests. It really got me into the Christmas spirit.

    Financal: Well this is more of a month-so-far versus week, but I was elated when I  realized that I put a HUUUUGE dent into my  financial plan, and I'm only halfway through the month. I worked a 12-hour day in November, meaning that I got a pretty big bonus, plus I (finally) cashed a cheque from a freelance project I did. Both of those meant I was able to put $1,200 on my credit card after paying bills, tucking away $600 for Christmas shopping & the wedding. Putting away $1,200 versus the $400 I had budgeted for meant I jumped all the way to my April goal for paying off my credit card debt. Merry Christmas to me!
    I'll let my chart speak for itself here. Check out that last column and compare December to November! 
    I just noticed that the Chequing Balance for December is wrong. Oops.

    A blog post I loved:  Well this is YouTube versus a blog post, but it's how to do vintage curls with a hot iron by PinUpDollAshleyMarie. I don't use heat well (I have lots of burn scars to prove it) but I can't believe how gorgeous her set turned out! 

     Best money I spent:  $70 on getting my hair cut! I love my salon, Mousy Browns - they always treat me so nicely, my stylist Paige is great (friendly without being too nosey) and can cut a great middy! Plus it's close to home and they always send me packing with a few goodies to tide me over the next 6 weeks. 

     Weekend Plans: Finishing up my Christmas shopping, giving my bestie Heather a vintage makeover and taking her to the Jivin' Belles concert! 

     Hope y'all have a good weekend and a fabulous December! 

    Posted by Laurie Callsen at 11:19 AM | Labels: | 1 comments | |

  2. TGIF: Bring on the free time

    Saturday, October 19, 2013

    Remember a few weeks ago when I talked about how I have to schedule time for fun or I won't do it at all?

    That totally got thrown by the wayside when I picked up a temporary side gig doing some data entry. It was awesome - I'm not going to complain about extra money - but was really draining to come home from work, have a quick supper and then work another 4 hours. To everyone who works two jobs, I salute you! I am very excited to get back into a somewhat normal routine that balances life and work, but that doesn't mean I won't rule out evening work in the future to get my potential business off the ground.

    I think this double working was also the reason that I took Thursday off work to wallow at home with cold medication and the Anne of Green Gables movie series. In the past when I take on too much and have very little me time, I always get sick when it's over and this was no exception.
    I started feeling crappy Wednesday around noon and when I woke up Thursday I knew that if I went to work, I would be unproductive, and just make this cold last longer. It sucks to be sick, but it's actually nicer to be sick at home than at work!

    Other than that, my week was great! I got to hang out with one my bridesmaids twice (once during brunch and on Wednesday when we went to an election rally), had a blast in Calgary with my sister  & brother-in-law to be, and got to spend quality time with Ian, which mostly included him making his poor, sick fiancé supper.

    Low of my week: Being sick. I turn into a really big baby when I'm sick.
    High of my week:  Toss up between hanging out with Heather on Saturday and spending time in Calgary over the weekend.  
    A blog post I loved:  The Guy Who Shrunk His 1950s Hometown - this is some amazing trick photography! 
    Best money I spent:  ~$30 on fast food during our road trip to Calgary (again, it was pretty much all I bought last week!)
    Weekend Plans: Sleeping in, knitting and cleaning my disgusting house!

    Posted by Laurie Callsen at 10:30 AM | Labels: | 1 comments | |

  3. Folks, be prepared for some more changes coming to this blog. In addition to talking about Edmonton and Alberta's history and vintage fashion, I'm also going to start exploring some personal finance blogging to document my journey of being debt free. 

    Credit
    Of course, they'll be lots of vintage-flavour injected into this - I won't start talking like an accountant (not that there's anything wrong with that, of course).

    Credit
    My debt

     I would say that I have some "normal" debt for someone my age  - specifically a car payment and student loan. I have 903 days (or 2.5 years) left until my car is paid off, and about 7 years left on my student loan, though I hope to pay it off quicker after the wedding and my credit card debt is paid off.

    Now my credit card debt is my "bad" debt, obviously, because that is gaining interest like a mofo. I owe about $4,000 - which was built up after I split up with G and I was paying all the rent on my own, during my unemployment as well as vacation. It also doesn't help that my MasterCard balance comes out of my chequings account automatically, because it wipes the balance on my chequing, so if I have to buy something (groceries, gas, etc) I have to use my MasterCard, which just adds on to my balance and more interest. Hooray. Not.

    That's a brief overview of how I got myself into this mess - no one's fault but my own! So, what am I doing to change it? Let me tell you...



    Cash spending
    Being a millennial and all I kind of forgot that there's this thing called physical cash that you can take out and trade for goods and services. Crazy, right?! So I'm going to start taking out money the day I get paid - about $200 a pay check should be more than enough - to cover groceries and other essentials.

    No new clothing/accessories
    Yeah, this one sucks. But the reason I thrift is because I would rather pay less for beautiful clothes than pay full price. The last three items that I bought new* at full price for myself were:
    • my athletic bathing suit (because being broke is also stressful, so I got an alumni gym membership so I can get some meditative swimming time in)  September 27 
    • fabric for my next sewing project (this technically counts as clothing) September 23
    • my wedding shoes (wedding expense, so I'm not sure that really counts, but I'll put it in anyway) August 29
    I guess I am doing pretty good for October, although I did make a $6 purchase at Value Village 2 weeks ago, but that was because I had a $50 gift card and $56 worth of stuff. I wouldn't have gone VV shopping if I didn't have that gift card.

    I'm also going to be cutting back on eating out,  driving places I can walk (I don't actually do that much driving if I don't have to), and so on. It's not going to be fun, but I'll be so relieved to pull myself out of this hole.

    So the TGIF part of this post is inspired by Blonde on A Budget, a Canadian personal finance blogger from BC. I love her weekly wrap ups, and I thought there is no better time to start doing my own TGIF posts than the Friday of the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend! So here it goes:

    Low of my week: Coming into work an hour early for a meeting that I didn't know was cancelled.
    High of my week: Toss up between going to aquasize with Bailey and going to Camrose with Bee to sell some stuff to Imagine and stuff our faces at East-Side Mario's.
    A blog post I loved: Jessica's blog post on why she wears 80s-does clothing.
    Best money I spent: I guess I will have to say the $100 I took out for cash spending, because that's really the only thing I spent money on since last Friday!
    Weekend Plans: spend two whole days with my fiancé in Calgary for Thanksgiving at my sister-and-brother-in-laws-to-be's house! Ian and I have both picked up some odd jobs for extra wedding cash, plus he's been working nights, so I haven't spent more than 30 minutes (when one of us is half asleep) with him in over a week.

    What are you thankful for this weekend?

    Posted by Laurie Callsen at 10:59 PM | Labels: | 4 comments | |