really?

Sadly, my last post dealt with summer, but then two days ago it snowed like a beast:

It was a random foot of snowfall in the middle of May. That kind of thing is hard on the spirits, but you may be happy to know that within two days the snow was all gone again!

But you'd probably less happy to know that during the crazy snowstorm there were probably dozens, if not hundreds of little tiny birds that were killed.

What happened was they were sitting on the side of the road and then flying into cars that passed. Kinda sad. I talked to a Fish and Wildlife Officer about it. He told me that because of the snow, the cute little birds had nowhere to sit that was dry so they sat on the road. How ironic.

This is what the little birds looked like. I was walking back to my office and I almost stepped on him. He didn't do anything, so i nudged him. Still nothing. So I took a picture of him.

I was late for something so I nudged him to the side of the sidewalk so as to not get trampled. About ten minutes later he was gone. I assume he was eaten because the crows here try to eat other animals. I thought I posted a picture but I didn't. It was a crow chasing a mouse that I saw. I was amazed.

Pictures and saving...

So it approaced summer like qualities in Athabasca this last week, though it has now dipped back to sub artic temperatures with an expectation of snow. Thankfully that's pretty much it and when it gets hot it gets hot.

Here's a picture of the other day. It was 20 degrees. Though most trees are still dormant, you can see little tinges of green if you look close enough.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and I took four good pictures that I will endeavour to make a long enough post for them all the be present.

So, in my saving-for-the-trip efforts I've been following, almost religiously Get Rich Slowly. It is possibly the best collection of practical advice about money management on the web. It's also been growing in popularity so now they're benefitting from guest posts from a plethora of other knowledgable staff.

So I've adopted many of the practices outlined on the website. It should be noted that I didn't blindly decided I'd follow these. I already had the raw ideas in my head, and this website just helped solidify them.

Anyway, here are somethings I've done to increase my savings, because my girlfriend and I are planning on a world trip.

- I have drastically reduced general spending. This includes trying to eat out as little as possible and thereby buying more raw ingredients and cooking them. It should be noted that it is not a equal substitute to go from restaurants to portioned, frozen food. You need to buy the raw vegetables, meats and grains and make cool things out of them. I just made like 200 meatballs and it cost me $26. 200 meatballs is like 12 meals for me and girlfriend and we just do whatever to make it different for every meal: curries, stirfries, pastas – it works for everything.

I've also reduced how much I use my car, and therefore gas by purchasing a bike. I've outline this before. The bike cost me $100. If i manage to use if for a month or so, I will have paid itself off in gas savings, and from there on, now that it's summer will save me an extra $600 or so for the trip. Sweet.

- I've gone to things that cost nothing. I moved from my CIBC chequing account to a PC Financial Chequing account. The former cost me between 5 and 20 dollars a month with all the service chargs, the latter is free, always for everything, forever. Sure, that's not a lot of money, but, why should I pay for my own money? And as an added bonus, I get PC points, which is essentially just free groceries once it adds it.

More importantly, I've paid off my credit card. That was probably the biggest drain on my money. Even though I have a small limit, I was often just carrying a balance because I didn't have enough money to just pay it off in one go.

Sure that's fine, but I was paying about $20/month just to do that and I've had that card for 3 years. You do the math.

- I've automated everything. Right now when I get a paycheque, it gets directly deposited into my accounted, is automatically directed so savings and RRSPs and all my bills, including my phone and my credit card are paid off, in full automatically. It saves time and though. No all I have to do is monitor my accounts, watch my money stack up and sit back and do my job.

- I've moved in with my girlfriend. Of course, this wasn't directly associated with money, though it was a big factor for both of us. My moving in cut her rent in half, and I no longer have to pay utilities, which means I save another $100 dollars a month. Plus we can split on food, cook larger meals and reap the benefits of our pooled resources (she has a costco card). Also I love her so hey, it's win-win.

- I've quit smoking. It's not rocket science. I was essentially paying money to get cancer, lose teeth be addicted and have no lung capacity. It's probably healthier (and in some ways cooler) to just burn a ten dollar bill every couple of days.

- I've used my work's benefits. This may seem obvious to adults out there, but I'm young. I didn't know how these things work. I've got my wisdom teeth removed and had associated perscriptions that would have otherwise cost me more than $2200. Now I get 80 per cent of that back, because I mailed some forms in. Sweet.

- I did my own taxes. I don't think this has as much to do with my doing them as it did having things to claim. I claimed, moving expenses (which was a hell of a lot moving to alberta), education costs ( I was still a student last year) bus passes from living toronto and RRSP contributions. I received more than $2000 back! Sweet. Because of that I've been putting more in RRSPs and applied to Athabasca University. That may cost money upfront, but at the end of the day I'll make more money from having a degree, and in the immediate (read: next year) future, I'll get more money back on taxes.

- I got a library card. Since I got hard into libraries, I've taken out 20 or so books and some movies. It cost me nothing, I have more friends (librarians) and I have access to knowledge, arguably worth more than money anyway. Plus I never have to buy books again essentially.

All these things have helped me attain a huge savings milestone of 60 per cent of total earnings. A full 60 per cent, into savings, piling up earning interest, while at the same time, I eat, read, exercise, and am generally happy. It's sweet.

And, the most important part is that I plan on taking a world trip! That will make it all worth it, and the attitudes and practices I'm developing will make me able to travel longer and, when I come back, live just as easy. I mean, I've already saved $2000 for when I get back. That means when I'm tired of travelling the world, I've got a few months before I have to care again. And really, at the end of the day, I'm not cutting out anything important. I can miss a few meals, skip out on a couple of bar nights and take slightly longer to get places all for that if you ask me.

Once again, I'm sorry to bore you with this, but hey, I'm just given'r. I promise to sooner or later have more interesting things.

Anyway that's it. About the pictures. That's a bridge that goes over the Athabasca River in town. It's sort of the landmark structure in the area.

More attempts at saving

Today I bought a bicycle. It's a CCM Nitro XT aka the cheapest bike Canadian Tire had. But actually, it wasn't. I went online to find the cheapest bike I could find, and was satisfied with a $99.99 from Canadian Tire.

As I'm figuring out about the bike, the website tells me that they have them at the (new) Athabasca one. I take the trek down there and they don't have any on the racks.

So I look around and find the back storage area, which curiously enough, wasn't blocked off in anyway from the public.

Using my iPhone, I determine the bikes product number to try to find it on the shelves, unassembled myself.

Eventually of course I just gave up, and asked customer service to help me. They get the bike and spend 45 minutes putting it together, only to find out it has a kink in the wiring for the gears.

So the manager tells me he'll give me any bike at its sale price. So I pick the next least expensive bike at $129.99 that I had already tried a little and he gives it to me for $99. Sweet.

ANYWAY, the point of me buying a bike is three-fold. First fold: I won't have to spend money on gas. Last month I spent $80 on gas (about $60 is still in my tank) and that to me is just too much. So my plan is to keep my car parked near my work, move it every few days and then just bike back and forth, which leads to the second fold.

Second fold: Health. I live up a big ass hill from my work. There's decent benefits to that. One is that commuting to work takes nothing but rolling down it. It may actually take less time to just roll down the hill and taking all the bikable shortcuts then just driving.

Anyway, it seems counterintuitive to try to save money by buying something, but the benefits are obvious. I essentially only drive to work so i'll save the gas that way, and by parking by my work if I do need it when it's important I just run out of my office. Further, if I'm at home and need it, I just roll down the hill, quick and easy.

Anyway, other than that, I'm moving in my girlfriend, therefore paying less rent and not having to pay for utilities, so I'm saving $600 a paycheque. That's a full 60 per cent!

At this rate I'll have the goal of $10,000 in the bank for the trip. As well, I've established a side goal of having $2000 in an emergency fund/when I get back fund, and now I'm just right on the way.