Money

Originally posted on KickassOttawa April 7th, 2014 

Who doesn’t sometimes dream of winning the lottery? What would you do with all that money? I have so many plans of things I’d love to do…one of them being setting up a charity of my own.

Unfortunately, winning the lottery, especially since I don’t buy tickets very often, is not likely…AT ALL!!!

Reality instead isn’t as fun.

I’ve been in drowning in debt in the past. I was able to get myself out of it and buy myself a condo. You have no idea how proud I was to be able to buy my condo, furniture, appliances and everything else that comes with a new house, and not have any credit card debt.

I haven’t carried a credit card balance in years, but that doesn’t mean that I’m anywhere near stable in the financial department. So much so that I’ve been seriously contemplating getting a part time job to supplement my income and help me with the bills.

I am able to pay all my bills, but I am not saving anything. Sure, I’ll get a pretty good pension, but that’s not enough. Should I need to replace appliances or hot water tank etc…there would be no money to pay for that. I have a car but it’s 7 years old. It won’t last forever, and I have no money to buy a new one or pay for any major repairs. Have you noticed that all the costs seem to be going up by a lot these days too?

Being honest with myself, I’ve been spending a lot more than I should lately. I’ve bought things for myself thatg I don’t need, and I’ve bought things for others that I truly have no money for. I love giving to others, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of myself. I’ve gone out to the restaurants MUCH MORE OFTEN than I ever should have…I almost have my own table at Big Rig. (note: oh how I miss my fried pickles)

With that said, I am going to be using Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s Budget to set everything up…again, and start saving the money that I do need for that rainy day. If you haven’t done that yourself, you really should. It’s an amazing budget and was able to get me out of the insane mountain of debt I needed to climb over.

I really don’t want to stop my season tickets to the Sens, but unless I do find that second job to help out, I’m afraid next year might be my last.

Let’s get started with the Budget. Let’s get control of my financial life again!!

Julie / @Flip_4