by Elizabeth S.
Hello from a very snowy Nova Scotia! My flight was indeed canceled, which was briefly devastating (until I looked at my work schedule and realized I could shift my vacation a day). Air Canada has been experiencing issues with their new booking system and I was in the thick of that mess. I tried to change my flight well before the storm (and before my flight was canceled) but never got through. Ditto after cancelation. However, I was able to find a new flight myself (no thanks to Air Canada) and I am finally here. Snowfall accumulation is 30 inches (!!!) of snow at my mother’s house. It all came down on Wednesday.
I’m planning on not spending money. We’re about 20 minutes from town here, so it will be home-cooked meals and quiet nights.
Financial updates:
I didn’t yet find out what my compensation will be for 2020, which is disappointing. We’ve been waiting for an eternity for department budget approvals at work this year. In the meantime, I’m still working on my personal budget. I feel torn between two ways of handling things:
- The envelope/jar method: take out cash, put in envelopes, don’t go over.
- Using all cards and tracking everything by viewing and categorizing each transaction.
Either way, I’ll have my budget spreadsheet going. I’m fairly averse to envelopes/jars of cash, but I also haven’t given this method a chance. I do like the protection and convenience of cards. Cash can be lost or stolen! I’m curious if there is a possible hybrid method here, too. Jars for categories I need special attention paid to. If I’m being serious though, I need help in all categories.
I remember first hearing about jars watching a Canadian tv show called Til Debt Do Us Part hosted by Gail Vaz Oxlade (who has recently been in trouble for choice words on Twitter). It looks like it aired in the US as well. A lot of people really swear by this method! But I have questions, like: Where do you keep the envelopes of cash? Do you actually withdraw all of your spending money each paycheck? How does this work with e-commerce being so prevalent in 2020?
I’d really love to hear from readers about this because I am beginning one of these two methods next week.
Next big financial goal
My next big goal is to reduce my monthly fixed expenses. They are out of control. Granted, I am automatically paying more than I need to for a number of expenses, such as my student loan and line of credit. But I also have a number of subscriptions, memberships, and revolving expenses I would like to examine and ultimately limit.
I’m spending today breaking down my budget into categories and I will share the new numbers in my next post, completely transparently. I know I’m getting a decent raise this year, and I plan on keeping the same standard of living I have today. I’ll automatically divert any extra funds to debt or my employer-matched retirement account (which is already being matched to the max at 3%, but I’d like to contribute more).
I know that I need to be disciplined financially or I will never be a homeowner. I’m doing mediocre at best right now. I’m chipping away at debt, not adding any debt, saving regularly. I still contribute to three savings piles each month. But you, the readers, have front row seats to the gratuitous frivolity that also exists in my financial life. I could be paying off debt considerably faster.
I read your comments, and I am really thinking hard about how to apply your feedback. Thank you for reading and commenting while I sort this out!
Elizabeth is a single woman in her early 30s, working as a manager at a software company and living in the most expensive city in Canada. She hopes to blog about her journey to eliminate debt and build savings for home ownership someday. Whenever she has taken two financial steps forward, she’s always taken a step back with a bad credit card purchase (we’re looking at you, unnecessary iPhone of May 2019). Elizabeth lives alone with her fur kids, a dog and cat, and when she’s not in front of the computer, she enjoys running, camping, reading, and baseball.
