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! 

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... 

Hence Number 16.

A couple nights ago, I decided to make some dinner. Mostly because I am trying to save money by not eating out everyday. Although, I also feel like I should learn how to cook because it's a pretty necessary skill to have. So I decided to make tacos. That's right, this is a story about how I failed at making tacos. The kind that comes in a kit and lists the step by step instructions.... I thought I was doing okay at first, except the ground beef felt really rubbery because I overcooked it I guess. I had placed the hard and soft taco shells on a cookie sheet in the oven to warm them up. I took them out of the oven after 5 minutes and peeled the tin foil off of the soft taco shells. Then I grabbed the cookie sheet with my bare hands to move it out of the way. For some reason I forgot that hot things burn you. My one finger got it pretty badly and even developed a bit of a blister.  

After I iced my finger for a while, I set up everything proudly, ready to display my masterpiece. My husband asked me where the cheese was. I completely forgot about it. Not a huge deal, but pretty ridiculous because, well, duh. I take the block of cheese out of the fridge in a hurry, grab a plate out of the cupboard, and accidentally whip it onto the floor, where it proceeds to smash into pieces. It might be helpful to note here that I smashed a wine glass the day before when I was trying to put it away. It occurred to me that I should start breaking them when they're dirty instead of clean. At least that way I would get out of doing a couple of dishes! 

My husband cleaned up the glass while I grated cheese onto a new, non-broken plate. The tacos were okay. Definitely not worth the trouble I went through to make them. Hence number 16. I really need to learn to cook. This is pretty pathetic. I am taking baby steps...maybe making tacos was too big of a step up. I should stick to chicken fingers, french fries, and plain pasta, haha. Tonight I will be boiling up some frozen perogies and smokies. That seems more my level right now...hahaha. Once I can make macaroni and cheese without screwing up I will try my hand at some recipes. For now I am just focusing on making stuff so I don't have to order food and can save money. 

Last night I made my first attempt at starting to like beer. The reason this is even on my list at all is because I've wanted to be able to drink beer since I first started drinking. It's generally the most convenient and cheapest thing to drink. If I am going to eventually be travelling to a few different places, I think it would be cool to be able to try different types of beer from all kinds of different places. I hate the taste of beer, so I think this will be kind of hard. There was a time when I felt the same way about wine though, and now I love wine! I think if I just keep trying and maybe work my way up from less bitter beers I should be able to do this. My husband brought me home one beer that I liked because it was actually 60% juice and only 40% beer hahaha. It was pretty good. He also bought me a wheat beer which are supposed to be more sweet. I didn't get through very much of that one. It was icky. I will have to try a few different ones, maybe I will find one I actually like. I'm sure I can acquire the taste eventually! 

I know it's only been a few days...

...but I'm getting pretty good at this whole "not spending money" thing! It's literally been less than a week...but, I was severely addicted to Starbucks and it has actually been not that hard to give up! All I have to do is think about Australia. Today I was worried because I actually walked somewhere, and my neighborhood is littered  with Starbucks (Starbuckses?). I ended up coming home with more money than I left with, haha. I brought a backpack stuffed with books to the used bookstore...they only wanted 6 or 7 of them. They gave me 12$. Better than nothing! When I was thinking about getting a delicious skinny peppermint mocha from Starbucks, I just thought about how I will probably have to sell 2 or 3 of my old books to make up for that. Not worth it!

I used to only order my food or go to restaurants. My husband and I never made dinner, I literally can't remember the last time we made dinner before this week. We have spend 0$ on eating out this week so far! I actually went grocery shopping! I know, pretty amazing, it's like I'm an adult or something!

I think this is the first time EVER that I've actually been serious about being good with my money. I am the worst with money. I get paid pretty well at my job, and we get paid weekly, but somehow my money would always be gone by the time I got my next cheque. I have nothing to show for it either. I don't buy expensive clothes, jewellery (I can't even spell it, that's how often I buy it), ANYTHING. I have no idea where my money goes. It's like I have multiple personalities and one of them is a drug addict and my other, semi-regular personality knows nothing about it. Anyway, I am excited that I am taking this seriously. My husband didn't think I would be responsible enough to actually pull off this Australia plan, but it's happening. I will not let it fail. I am determined to save up enough in a year. I do not want it to take longer than that!

I brought up the idea that we should, maybe, sell our crappy Ikea furniture (we might get a little bit out of it), get rid of all of our books, movies, games, random crap, and clothes that we don't really need, and move into a cheap bachelor apartment so we can save a few hundred dollars a month on rent. Hubby said maybe. I think he is confused at how seriously I am taking this, haha.

I did splurge on something this week but it was before I made my budget and realized how frugal I have to become. I bought tickets to see a Second City show this weekend. If it was after I had made my budget I would have waited for some sort of deal or something, but oh well. At least I will be able to cross something off of my "Explore My City" list!

I read that selling used books on Amazon was a great way to get some extra cash but I tried to put one of my books up and just before I posted it, I looked at the Canada Post website to see how much it would cost me to ship it. It came to about 13$ for me to ship it. Amazon was only putting shipping at $6.50. I put the book up for $5.50. Amazon was also taking a cut of $2.50 when/if my book sold...so I would just lose a lot of money. It's stupid. I made one big ad on Kijiji instead. I doubt any of them will sell that way but I figured it was worth a shot. The bookstore probably won't want many of these ones either.

There's a clothing store down the street that buys clothes but they only want nice clothes and they only buy for certain seasons at a time. I am going to go through my clothes soon and see if they will take any of it. The way I am looking at it now is, we are going to have to get rid of practically ALL of our stuff before we go to Australia, so we might as well start now. Especially since I am unemployed for now, haha. I hope this motivation lasts!

Reality Check

Yesterday, I wrote about how I could finally start making up a budget because I found out when I will be starting my next job. Well, today I started making one...and then I cried. My pay cheques do not go as far as I somehow originally assumed they would. It was a super depressing activity. 

I thought that my husband and I would pay off all of our debt and save up enough to leave for Australia by next February. That was a little too optimistic. By May I will have hopefully paid off one of my credit cards...that's almost halfway through the year. Altogether we have 3 credit cards, a very large line of credit, and a new car loan. (We also have small student loans but the payments on those are so small that they're kind of off the radar right now). On top of that, to do a working holiday in Australia, we each need 5000$ in our bank account so that they know we can afford to live there for a little bit. It's also very expensive to even get to Australia. It doesn't help that this job is only for, maybe, 7 weeks and then I have no idea when my next one will be after that. Basically, it's going to take us longer to get to Australia than I originally thought.

It made me feel a little bit better when I realized that we could for sure have the line of credit paid off by the end of the year, probably a lot sooner actually, now that I am doing the math. That's assuming we are both working almost non-stop for the rest of the year, which is definitely not guaranteed...or even all that likely. I'm getting depressed again. 

I wish we had things we could sell. All of our furniture is Ikea so it's practically worthless. We have a car but we owe more money on it than it is even worth. We'd have to make a LOT of extra payments on it just to break even when we sell it...BAH!!

Maybe we shouldn't do our working holiday in Australia. There are other cool places. My sister found this program for working holidays in the UK. They will put us together in jobs at a hotel and you're provided with free or very cheap accommodations at the hotel you are working at. It's cheaper to fly to the UK and you don't need to have as much money in your bank account to apply. I don't really care where I go as long as it's somewhere different and somewhere I eventually want to go anyway. If I had to pick only one place to do the working holiday, I would choose Australia...but maybe I don't have to pick one...

List for Exploring My City

I have come up with (the beginnings of) a list for what I plan to do in order to cross "Explore my city" off of my 30 Before 30 list. My research (aka googling) didn't go exactly as planned. I was hoping it would be easier to find the best/coolest restaurants, bars, and cafes in Toronto, but it was surprisingly difficult. I actually didn't even try to look up the best bars or cafes because I got too annoyed just trying to find the best restaurants...There are just so many options. It is too hard to find a list of, let's say, 10 that I should go to. Especially because I don't want to go to the best of last year, or the most expensive ones, or the ones with the fanciest (or weirdest) food. I am super picky about food. I have this thing with textures and if it sounds icky I don't want to try it, haha. I think instead of finding the top restaurants, I will just go to 10 restaurants that I have never been to before. If I end up hearing about a great restaurant that I just have to try I will definitely try to go there, but for now it will just stay as 10 that I have never been to. I feel like that's a really small number (especially because my 30th birthday isn't for almost 4 years hahaha) but as I said in an earlier post, I am trying to save and stop spending money as much as possible this year so I can afford to go away. (And then after this year I might not even be in Toronto again before I turn 30).

My list looks like this so far:

1) Skate at Nathan Phillips Square
2) Explore the Royal Ontario Museum
3) Take a ferry to Toronto Island (and take a picture of the TO city skyline)
4) Visit Casa Loma
5) Attend a Second City show
6) See the BATA Show Museum
7) Tour the Steam Whistle Brewery
8) Rock out to an indie concert
9) Watch a TIFF movie
10) Wander around the distillery district
11) Shop at St. Lawrence Market
12) Eat/Drink at 10 restaurants/bars I've never been to

I have already done a lot of the must-do things in Toronto. I've gone to the CN Tower (during the day and at night), went to Niagara Falls, seen a Leafs game, a Raptors game, a Blue Jays game, I've walked (and gone for a run) on the boardwalk at the beach, been to the Art Gallery of Ontario, shopped at Kensington Market, etc. I actually have already seen a very small indie kind of concert at a bar but the band just played covers so I am not going to count it....Plus it's a cool thing to do a few times, haha. 

I'm going to post this list on the side of my blog underneath my 30 Before 30 List and cross things off as I go through them! 

In other news, I have not been playing guitar very much. I am getting really bored of playing the same two chords over and over but I really want to follow the lessons I am doing. I think it will be better for my playing in the long run if I stick with these online lessons. As bored as I am of the two chords, I am still not even good at playing them, so I should shut up and keep it up. I need a capo for the next song I'm supposed to learn as well so I have to go out and get one of those tomorrow. It will get better once I get past this boring song I'm supposed to be learning. 

I started reading my first non-fiction book of the year! It is called "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. I started reading it a few years ago and then just stopped for some reason and never finished it. I started it all over again, it's really cool! I also went to the bookstore and bought a couple other non-fiction books. I'm really excited to read them! As soon as I finish the first one I am going to make a list on the side of the blog to keep track of how many I have read. 

Today I found out when I will be starting my next job, which means I can start making a budget for paying off debt and saving! I won't be making as much money with this one as I was hoping. It's difficult to find work over the winter though so I am grateful for anything at this point. I don't start till closer to the end of February so I get a few weeks off! Hopefully I use that time wisely! 

Already changing things.

I'm already changing one of the things on my list...the one about getting clear skin shouldn't really be a 30 Before 30 item, it should just be something I do anyway, haha. I am changing it to "Explore my city". I saw it on this guy's awesome blog. I've lived in Toronto for a few years now and I still don't know what's what. Friends come to visit me and I have no idea where to take them! The only problem with this item is that I was hoping to radically reduce the amount of times I actually go out and spend money this year, since I am supposed to pay off all my debt and save up for my working holiday. Maybe I will try to come up with a way to make extra spending money specifically for these things...or just try to do mostly free things. We will see how this goes...

List Update

I updated my list and posted it on the side of the blog so it's easier to find. I changed the "read a book every week" one. I just put it up at first because I saw it on lots of people's lists and I love reading so I thought it would be cool. Then I started realizing something like this should be on someone's list who doesn't spend a lot of time reading and wants incentive to read more. That is not me. BUT, all I read are fiction/fantasy books (plus they're generally between 700 and 1000 pages long, so reading one a week is a bit difficult when I need to spend time working on the other items on my list). I decided it might be good for me to start reading some non-fiction books. That way I could actually learn a few things when I read instead of just pretending I live in a magical world where I have powers and fight dragons or something. I guess I'm pretty behind in that one now. At least I had one fiction book under my belt this year haha. I ordered a few travel books from Amazon so I will start reading those as soon as I get them! Oooh and this gives me an excuse to go to the bookstore! I will do that this weekend! 

I've been practicing guitar everyday but still can't practice for very long before my fingers start hurting too much. Luckily, I will be unemployed for a few weeks after today so I will have LOTS of time to practice and build up my callouses, haha. I've moved on from the Buffalo Springfield song to a new song that only uses the exact same two chords, except it has more strumming and you play the chords for two beats each instead of one. It is Silence is Easy by Starsailor, I actually like it!

Hopefully I can move beyond the E and A chords soon...that will be my goal for after this weekend I guess. 

I was looking into last minute cruise deals yesterday just to see what kind of deals there were. The World cruises are still way out of my price range, and the ones that are a bit cheaper just don't seem worth it because they don't go to enough places that I actually want to go to. The travel books I bought are about traveling all around the world so I might have a better plan once I read through those. I did notice that you can sometimes find decently priced cruises from North America to Australia. Since flights there are expensive and SO LONG I thought this would be so much nicer. I think mostly it's a repositioning cruise so you don't stop at a lot of places on the way, but I would take a 20 day cruise over a 22 hour flight any day! It's not like we have a deadline to leave home or get to Australia. I'll definitely be looking into this more. 

I might be finding out about a new job over the next couple of days so then I will be able to make up a budget for paying off debt and saving up some money! As much as I hate my job and don't want to work, I am excited to start a new job just so I can start saving up for Australia! It'll be much more bearable knowing I am working towards something like that. 

My 365 Project is not going as great as I would like it to. I keep almost forgetting about it and then end up taking a last minute picture for my gratitude instagram. Most of my pictures are actually screenshots...which shouldn't count. They are things that I was grateful for though, like I was grateful I could do my wedding thank you cards online because it's so much easier and I could get it done so much faster, so I took a picture of the design online on my phone. It's a lot of stuff like that. From now on I am not going to allow screenshots or pictures of my computer. I think it will be a lot better in the end if I stop doing those kinds of pictures. 

I think that's about everything I have updates for. My guitar playing is going to get way better over the next week or so, maybe I will even post a video ;) 

30 Before 30 Instead...

I've decided my bucket list will actually be a 30 before 30 list. I feel like I will be more likely to do the things on the list if there is a time limit on them. So I have almost 4 years to complete this list! I think that is pretty doable...other than the cost of some of this traveling...But that's Future Sam's problem. I might end up changing some things but, for now, here it is:

1) Learn to surf for real (I took a surf lesson in Hawaii but the instructor always had to push me onto the wave instead of me just paddling super fast)
2) Live and work in a new country
3) Go on “Around the World” cruise or just travel around the world
4) Write a novel
5) Travel to Iceland
6) Learn a new language
7) Play guitar (and/or other musical instrument)
8) Go scuba diving
9) Go inside a volcano
10) See lava flowing or a volcanic eruption
11) Travel to New Zealand
12) Complete a 365 project
13) Get a separate picture with each Hanson band member
14) Write a song
15) Start a blog
16) Learn to cook
17) Learn to dance/take a dance class
18) Get a nice camera and take a photography course
19) Get Debt Free
20) Travel Europe/The UK
21) Get decent at skiing or snowboarding
22) Swim with wild dolphins
23) Start liking beer (this probably seems weird but I don't care haha)
24) Go storm chasing 
25) Read a book/novel a week for a year (or 52 books in a year)
26) Do an unexpected nice thing for a stranger (pay it forward, tip 100%, pay for someone's meal, etc)
27) Finish a fitness program (Insanity, T25, P90X, Yoga challenge, Bodyrock challenge, etc) 
28) Find a routine that finally gives me clear skin

29) Travel to Australia
30) See the pyramids 


I have plans for some of these and have started working on some already! This year my husband and I are going to work hard, pay off all of our debt (#19), and save for a yearlong working holiday in Australia (#2 and #29). I have already started learning guitar (#7), started this blog (#15), I usually read quite a bit so I think #25 won't be too difficult, I decided a few years ago that I was going to learn to speak Icelandic (#6) so I have a book and a CD to help me learn I just have to stick with it, and I started my 365 project a few days ago (#12), I am doing the 365 Grateful project on instagram, taking a photo of something I am grateful for everyday. I tried to pick a decent amount of things that I didn't have to travel for so the year I am taking to pay off debt and save money isn't super boring and uneventful haha. I think I am off to an okay start...