Losing Steam

Lately I've been feeling like Australia may never happen. I always come up with big plans like this and they always fall through. I'm already wondering if moving to a new, smaller apartment (in a much less awesome area of town) is the right choice because the only reason we are doing it is to save more money and because we don't plan to be here for that much longer. If we don't end up doing our working holiday in Australia it would be really annoying that we moved away from an area I love for no reason. I talked to my husband a bit about how I just really hope we end up actually doing this. He hopes so too. He said if we, for some reason, don't end up going to Australia, at least we will have paid off all our debt. Then we can go somewhere else for a month or two. So at least if we don't go to Australia we will go somewhere. I'm probably just feeling discouraged because we have kind of flopped back into our ways of ordering take out every night and  I have been going to Starbucks a lot more again. I just need to get re-motivated. Maybe I will try to find some more travel books to read....

We Found It!

We were planning on finding a 3 bedroom apartment to share with my sister and her friend, we found one that I really loved, it was exactly what I was looking for! Unfortunately, not everyone agreed on it so my husband and I decided we would try our luck finding an apartment ourselves or just stay where we are. Luckily, in the same house as the 3 bedroom apartment, they had a one bedroom available for 900$! It is beautiful too, newly renovated, all new appliances, nobody has lived in it since it was renovated. We would have our own little patio too! We applied for it this weekend and just found out we were approved! We move in April 1! We will save almost 400$ a month, plus we will be closer to work so we will save on gas too. It is smaller than our place now which is kind of what I wanted because it will force us to get rid of our stuff faster.

The only problem is that we were supposed to give 60 days notice at our apartment now and we only gave 30 days notice so we will probably not get our "last month's rent" back. If they end up finding someone to move in for April they will give it back to us but that might be unlikely. I will call them tomorrow and ask if they will try to find someone and if I can help by posting an ad online and answering questions for people and stuff. I was thinking we could even just tell this building we are not leaving until April 30 and find someone ourselves to take the apartment for a month. We could even give it to them for 400$ cheaper. If we do have to forfeit our last month's rent, we will still end up saving money in the long run since this new place is so much cheaper.

I hate moving, but I am really excited to save more money! I am also excited that this will force me to go through my stuff and decide what I really need and what I can get rid of. I gave a few bags full of books, movies, and CDs to Goodwill this weekend, so I have started at least.

I paid off one of my credit cards yesterday! As soon as the payment goes through I am going to cancel the card completely. I only have a little more than 1000$ left to pay off on my other credit card. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to pay it off by the end of the month like I was planning. With this move we have to give first month's rent and last month's rent. The last month's rent was not in my budget at all so it kind of sucks. On top of that, my husband's birthday is at the beginning of April and I want to get him a good present this year since he paid for me to go to Jamaica for my birthday (and Christmas) present. I always seem to be not working when his birthday comes around so I feel like I never end up getting him anything, or at least not anything good. It's his first birthday since we have been married too so I want it to be awesome.

I'm getting better and better at drinking beer. It still takes me like 2 hours to finish one though, haha. I am currently drinking this one:

It's not bad. I got a 6 pack of this one instead of just one at a time like I have been doing with other beers. It's a wheat beer and it's a little bit citrus-y. I am actually drinking this one faster than usual, maybe I will have two of them tonight, haha. 

It almost tasted like a frappuccino, I LOVE frappuccinos!

I tried this dark beer the other night. Mill Street Vanilla Porter. 

At first it tasted really good! It was all chocolatey and sweet and a tiny bit coffee-ish. It reminded me of a frappuccino so I was really excited. It ended up being kind of heavy though. It was hard to drink very much of it so I didn't finish it. It's good to know that there are beers that I actually like the taste of though! 

In other, more exciting news, I booked a trip to Mexico! My favorite band in the universe (Hanson) is doing a Concert Event at a resort there. I went the past two years they have held this event, which they call "Back to the Island". I realize that Mexico is not an island but the event has been in Jamaica the past couple years and that is where they started it...and it is too late to change the name now, haha. They were unsure if they were going to have another event right away or take a year off. I was rooting for "take a year off" because I knew if they announced another one I would have to go and it is quite expensive. The fact that it is in a new place this year just makes it that much harder to say "no" to! I have never been to Mexico and I have always wanted to see Mayan ruins so it is happening. Now I wish that I would have put "see the Mayan ruins" on my 30 before 30 list, haha. Drats. 

I know it's expensive and that I should not spend my money on this if I want to go to Australia in a year but I can't say no! It is in January 2015. I almost didn't go to the January 2014 one, even though I wanted to more than anything. A couple months before it happened I decided there was no way I was missing it and ended up convincing my sister to come (which might be part of the reason she is obsessed with travelling now and will be coming to Mexico with me as well!). 

Hopefully, this year, I am not so wussy and I can actually go up to the band and talk to them. That way I can ask each of them to take a picture with me and I can cross that off my 30 Before 30 List! I already have a couple pictures of me with the entire band from a Meet and Greet (with a bunch of other people) and the past Back to the Island events. I am always so jealous of the people who have pictures with each of them alone, though! I have to do it!

Hanson and I at their first Back to the Island event - Jan. 2013

I decided that I would find another way to pay for this trip so that it doesn't come out of money that I would have used for paying off debts or going to Australia. That way I won't feel so bad about it. If my husband were coming I would feel less guilty, but he did not want to, and it doesn't seem fair that he will be putting all of his money toward debt and Australia and I will be spending so much on a 6 day trip to Mexico. I think I will try to find a second job to do one day a week on the weekend. It will be hard to work so much but this event is totally worth it. I have the time of my life when I go to these things! I think, for my flight there, I might look for a credit card with flight points, and apply for one that offers a big lump of points as a welcome bonus...

I am going to use this opportunity to cross something else of my list as well. I am going to try to learn Spanish! Now that I have a bit of a reason to do it, I think it might be a bit easier to do! Spanish is a good language to have anyway, plus I am sharing a room in Mexico with a girl I have never met before who, I think, speaks mostly Spanish. It would be cool if I could say some things to her in Spanish! I am so excited to go somewhere new!!  

Feeling pretty accomplished...even though I haven't accomplished anything yet...

I am sitting here eating my favorite food in the world (super spicy chicken biryani), drinking my favorite drink at the moment (Pepsi...out of a can...it doesn't taste as good in bottles...haha), and feeling pretty darn good about myself! I just filed my tax return and am going to be getting a lot more money back than I thought! I did the math and fixed my budget and I will have all of my credit cards paid off by the end of next month!!! Plus I will be able to save a bit of money after that, before my job ends, in case I am out of a job for a month or two after this one. My husband will have his credit card paid off by the end of the month as well and then we just have to start working on the line of credit! I am so pumped for life right now!! 

On top of that, last night I drank a whole beer and it wasn't bad at all! My friend suggested I start with Bud Light Lime because it's not as "beer-y" as other beers, and I actually drank it! I am excited to actually get used to drinking beer! I have a different one to try tonight. It's a darker beer, it has vanilla flavouring and apparently tastes chocolatey... I will report back here after it is done! 

Working again!

I started work on Wednesday finally! I don't like my job very much but I am so excited to be able to put a little bit of money towards my debt with this job. If I get a decent tax refund this year I should be able to pay off my bigger credit card by the time this job ends (or the time I think this job will end). I didn't think I would be able to, but I got a surprise cheque in the mail today for over 700$!! So that is going to help a lot! It's always awesome to get money you weren't expecting! I still have another credit card to pay off but then I can start helping my husband pay down his line of credit. Hopefully I end up getting another job right after this one...

We started looking for a new apartment so we can save money with rent. I was originally thinking we could find a bachelor apartment, maybe for 800$/month. That way we would save over $400 a month. My sister's friend just moved here so they are looking for a new apartment as well. We thought maybe all of us could get a 3 bedroom apartment together. It will be much easier to find a 3 bedroom apartment for $1600 (or less) than it will be to find a big enough bachelor apartment for $800 a month. Actually, I think a bachelor would make us miserable so we would probably have to find a small one bedroom, which would be next to impossible. We also wouldn't have to get rid of as much of our stuff if we moved into a 3 bedroom apartment, which would make it a bit easier. I hope we can get one!

I think I will try to go skating this weekend to cross something off my "Explore my city" list. I feel like I haven't really done anything. I haven't been playing guitar enough either because I was out of town for a week. I also changed my 365 project to just writing something I am thankful for instead of taking a picture. It was too difficult to take a picture of the things I was grateful for. My husband hates being in pictures so that makes it difficult, haha. The point of the project is the same though. It's to remember to be grateful for the things in my life and be more positive. I think if I look back even just at a little writing blurb of something I am thankful for it will be a nice reminder. Looking at pictures would be more fun but this will be good too! 

"What's the worst that could happen?"

I started reading The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss today. I was kind of afraid it would be stupid and I would hate it because after I had ordered it I checked out some reviews and a lot of people were saying bad things about it. I actually really like it so far though! I don't think it's going to be life changing (mostly since I have already decided to change my life, haha) but it is making me more excited to get away from how my life used to be and get into how my life is going to be. Maybe once I get further along in the book it will give me the perfect idea and I will make lots of money by barely working at all, but for now I am just enjoying the way it makes you think a bit differently. 

So far my favorite part is when he makes you think about what it is you want to do that you have been putting off, or that you don't think you can do, and basically ask yourself what the absolute worst case scenario would be if you just went for it. For me, I was thinking about just taking off for Australia right now, not paying off our debt first, not saving up money, just going. My worst case scenario looked a little like this:

 My already bad credit score would get a lot worse, and my husband's decent credit score would become terrible instead, because we couldn't afford to make payments on any of our debt. We would never be able to get a mortgage and probably not even be able to rent an apartment due to our terrible credit. Our car would sit around not driving while we tried to pay hundreds of dollars a month on the loan we used to buy the car. We wouldn't be able to get working holiday visas because you have to have 5000$ in your bank account (each) before they will grant you one...but I guess if we tried really hard we could find work under the table...and maybe we could work for accommodation too or at least stay somewhere really cheap, like a terrible hostel. Then maybe we could still afford the minimum payments on our credit cards and loans. But what about all of our stuff? I guess we could just throw it all away, or donate it, or put up signs in our apartment building for a moving sale...If we really couldn't make ends meet in Australia we could go somewhere cheaper to live, with more laid back laws about working holidays or working abroad. If we failed that too we could come back to Toronto and get jobs in our industry and make the money back pretty fast. If not, we could get jobs at Tim Hortons or McDonalds and live with the in-laws. Credit scores can get back to normal eventually.... 


It's just funny how you can give reasons that sound legitimate but all they really are is excuses. If we really wanted, we could leave now. I would feel a lot better if we paid our debt off first though, hahaha. If we leave all full of debt with no savings, we wouldn't be able to stay as long or feel as free I think. There I go making excuses again ;) but seriously, it's funny how you start to realize that everything is fixable and nothing that is going to happen is going to be the end of the world. Kind of fun to think about.

My First Second City Show

I went to my first Second City show tonight. It was awesome! I totally want to see another one now! I was literally crying I was laughing so hard for one of the sketches! We ended up sitting right at the front, like my feet were touching the stage. Our table was right up against it, it was a lot closer than I expected. This was the stage. I had to lean back to take this picture, haha. 

 It was exciting to cross my first item off of my "Explore My City" list (or any list...). I took away one of the items on the list as well. I used to have "Go to 10 new restaurants or bars". I just don't think this goes along with my bigger goal of paying off my debt and saving up enough money to get to Australia. I'm trying really hard to only eat at home and not waste money at restaurants. Having the excuse of needing to try ten new restaurants would just sabotage my efforts. 

I failed my 365 project. I am going to start it all over again today, haha. I think I might add a page to my blog for my 365 Project to keep me a bit more accountable...