Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA)

When I had heard about the TFSA which is in play now, my little heart skipped a beat. Why? Well I don't do RRSPs. Bad me! But after some research, it didn't seem like the best idea at this point in my life. I am in a low income tax bracket & would get taxed more when I take it out. So I've been saving what little money in a PC Financial savings account & investing via Questrade.

So I just transferred $5000 into a newly created TFSA at PC Financial. They are currently my main banking providers so it made sense for me to go with them. Their competitive interest rate of 3.75% helped aswell.

For me, I want this money to be liquid so it made sense for me to go with a savings account as opposed to GIC or investments. At this point, I have ~$7000 saved in liquid cash. To suddenly put over 70% in something that was locked didn't make sense. Even though I don't foresee myself having to take anything out in 2009, I like to think of it as emergency money IF for some reason something happens. Hey maybe I'll get hitched & have a big wedding soon. Yeah right! but you never know what will happen.

I wondering what everybody else is doing with their TFSA for 2009.

Doh!

So that gift I was supposed to get for $30 easily escalated into a gift for $56! eek, I suck but @least it's something I know the person will enjoy. & she is at the end of the day an awesome person so @least it's not like it's going to a jerk or something.

We also went out to dinner & the bill when split evenly came out to $35! There's a huge dent into the 'Eating Out' budget. I hate when we end up splitting evenly! Sucks especially since I am vegetarian & always end up w/ the cheapest meal & I generally don't like getting drinks. I should really try to speak up for separate bills. Perhaps it can be part of a resolution for the up coming year.

Also I was at Sephora today & was looking @ Philosophys Purity Made Simple cleansers. It has been voted as a 'Best of Sephora' winner for 2008 & it's gotten good reviews. Normally I'd have jumped the gun but I just realized I had made a $30 budget for clothes & beauty. The thought of maxing out the Clothes & Beauty budget with one purchase made me think twice (*yay, look ma I can do it!*). I still have half a bottle of cleanser to get through so I can wait patiently.

I also looked @ how my stocks have been doing. I only started investing a few months ago. I bought stocks @ what I thought was an all time low. Only 52 week lows kept coming even after I had purchased them. I have faith that eventually the stocks will pick up so I've left my money in there. Right now I am @ -25% on the stocks.

Gifts

Went to the mall & pretty much left right away. The malls are still insanely packed. I am assuming w/ people looking for post-boxing day sales. Kids screaming & scarce parking was enough to have me leave. However I need to brave the crowds tomorrow to pick up a gift for a friend.

What's a good generic gift for a girl you have no idea what to get? Besides off course the basket of body lotions or candles which by the way I think is just as impersonal as a gift card. With that being said, I am still thinking of perhaps getting a gift certificate to Sephora. What girl doesn't like Sephora? & my budget is ~$30 since I've got 2 other small things to give to this person already.

I also realized I have not factored gifts into the budget I created yesterday. It's hard because it varies by person. Some people...I plan on spending ~$100 and others I plan on spending $20 & off course there's ranges in between. But there's only 5 yearly recurring gifts I buy. So perhaps I could create a yearly number and then divide by 12.

Even though it's technically not January yet, I've decided to start tracking my purchases. i.e. gas has been updated to reflect my $26 gas purchase. Yup $26 to completely fill the tank which was almost empty.

2009 Budget

So I decided that I need to up the beauty budget to $10. Why? Because a haircut would easily have me waiting months before I could save up for it, if I stayed at the $5 budget. I know I'll also have to buy some sunscreen @ some point. I buy a more expensive one for my face. ~$29. So yeah if I kept it @ $5, I'd go over the yearly budget really quick. So a combined beauty and clothes budget of $30 seems reasonable. Phew, this budget doesn't give me the hives like the previous $20 for clothes & $5 for beauty budget. & combining the two makes sense. I know that there will be months where I won't buy clothes but will want a pedicure (beauty), so with a combined $30, I could work with that.

I decided I'll try & track my monthly budget on the right hand side. So I am all ready for Jan 2009.

The rest of budget works out like this.
Eating out: $100. Ugh, ugh, ugh. This is my Achilles heel if you will. I am good about brown bagging my lunch to work. I think I can count the number of times I've actually had to go out & buy my lunch for 2008 in one hand. Pretty good right? YES! but going out for dinner is another story. Going out to a restaurant for drinks or dinner w/ the bf happens @least once a week & that's where I fall down.

Entertainment: $50. I think this is more then enough. I don't go out as much as I used to so that's reasonable. Plus I think I'll roll this over so I can save up for extravagant months where I am a party animal ;)

Misc: $50. You never know right?

Gas: $150. This is hard to budget as it depends on gas prices & I have no say in it. Sure I could take the bus again but right now I drive to work & I think that's staying as is (knock on wood).

Groceries: Perhaps I should group this with eating out but a budget of $100 here. I am happy with this area and don't mind spending the $100. I almost always brown bag & am vegetarian so sometimes pay premium for things like veggie burgers & whatnot.

Above is everything I see as being variable for the month. Here are my fixed costs for the month: Rent: $800, Cell phone Bill: $40, Membership fees: $60. I think that's it @ a whopping $900!

So to recap that is

• $30 - Clothes & Beauty
• $100 - Eating out
• $50 - Entertainment
• $50 - Misc
• $150 - Gas
• $100 - Groceries
  
• $720 - Rent
• $40 - Cell phone bill
• $60 - Membership fees
• $1300 - Total

That's not too bad actually. That's a little over half of what I take home monthly. So it should leave me around the same amount to save. The thing is I know over the past year I have not been saving over a 1000 per month. Perhaps as I keep tracking this on a monthly basis I'll see areas where I am faltering & will be able to correct it.

Progress bars

Trying to decide what I should add on the progress bar on the right hand side. Perhaps a monthly budget tracking tool but I might get annoyed with having to change it monthly.

Perhaps I should track savings instead. Not sure it's the best idea when I don't have a good savings method in place. i.e. right now I just have a savings account & some cash in stocks.

Also I couldn't find a widget on blogger that allowed me to track progress so I had to google how to do progress bars in HTML and add it myself. Perhaps another reason why I am not so keen on having to update it monthly.

Starting on budgetting for 2009

OK so yesterday I had a realization. I really have enough clothes for 2009. My style has evolved to something more classic? Not sure if classic is the word but I do try to ask myself 'Will I actually wear this for years to come?'. 'Is this just a one hit wonder?' So w/ that, I've spent the extra cash on items I plan on owning for years: Jeans, jackets, work clothes, shoes, etc. W/ that said, there is really no reason for me to spend much on clothes next year. Looking back on 2008, I think clothes & eating out are the two areas I can cut back on.

With that in mind, I've decided that $20/month on clothes is a reasonable budget. Basically this allows me to get one nice top on sale a month or a jean over 2-4 months. That means $240 for all of 2009!! Not sure if that is realistic since I can easily spend $100 on a nice pair of boots & there goes half of the 2009 budget. But I figure I'll try this for the next few months & see if I have to revisit it half way through the year. Off course, I am allowing myself to carry over anything that's not used in that month & also adding in the stipulation that if for some reason I am at the Outlets again, going a little over the budget is acceptable. I think going to thrift stores really will contribute to me staying w/in this budget. I only started thrift store shopping last summer but I cannot stop. I can't count the number of unique things I have purchased & also items w/ tags on them.

Also decided that $5/month on beauty products is a reasonable budget. I know, am I crazy or what? Crazy: Yes. Wanting to save money: YES. I mean I don't really buy beauty products much anymore. I've enmassed enough eye shadows & such to last me for years to come. I am no where near hitting the pan on any of my shadows.

I think I'd like to try setting up some monthly tally on the right hand side tool bar so I can see it and remind myself of how I am doing.

Boxing Day Shopping

So who went shopping?

I go just about every year for clothes. I am a girl after all. I have the patience to sift through clothes & wait in lines for great deals. At least for a few hours. So I went this year again. What's the damage? $120 on clothes & $30 on a makeup brush set from costco. So $150 in total. I am also debating returning about $30 worth of clothes back as I am not sure I will actually wear it. Pretty good if I do say so myself.

The brush set at costco as seen below is an awesome deal. I started getting into makeup a little over a year ago. I have a pretty decent eyeshadow collection and brushes are key to a good application. I am willing to pay the extra buck for a quality soft brush that will last the test of washing & other abuse. This set has gotten great reviews at makeupalley.com & I trust the girls on there. A decent makeup brush goes for $10+. MAC easily has brushes that go up to $40 and that is something I am not willing to pay yet. So to get 10 brushes plus a makeup roll for $30 is an amazing deal.