Month challenge update

I was looking add $400 to the Emergency fund this month, to hit the $1000 goal. It seems that I may have been able to accomplish this in less time than expected. Let me explain.

As I stated in my Monthly Challenge post, I was able to contribute our regular monthly amount of $100 and carved $50 out of a 0% interest credit card payment. There were several other areas that I was looking at to find the other $250 needed. I found it in the least likely place, one of our fixed expenses...our rent!

The rent on our modest 3 bedroom apartment was slated for another rent increase at the beginning of October, from $976.26 to $996.25 per month. We were given the appropriate amount of notice. But I had questions. The lady in the rental office was as confused as I was as to why my rent was higher than others, and going up again. After some investigation, she found it was because we had failed to renew our lease.

B and I had a quick discussion, and agreed to sign another 12 month lease, with the rent being decreased from the current amount down to $959/month, which was what we paid when we first moved in two years ago. Yay us! A monthly difference of $37.25 per month than what we had budgeted to pay. That calculates into a 'savings' of $298 over the next 8 months. I budget yearly from June to May due to my contract. The only thing I need to do is to transfer the $250 from one account to the E-fund account, which is scheduled to happen in the next couple of days.

I will have achieved my monthly challenge goal in under 15 days! The additional $48 dollars from the rent budget will be left in the rent account to earn interest with the rest of the rent.

Cutting back in other expense areas hasn't gone as well as I had hoped, so there is no money being transferred to savings from there. I am still saving $5 bills and pocket change to roll at the end of the month. I'm hoping for $100 from this action. Contract work has come in, to the tune of about $400. To get ahead on the next goal of increasing the Xmas fund account to the $1100 goal, I will put 25% into that. Another 25% will go into the biz saving account (for things like taxes and new equipment). The last 50% will go into the household account for October's expenses.

It looks like I will have to work on 2 goals next month anyway, so getting a head start on them isn't such a bad idea.

Are you prepared for the holidays?

There are only 106 shopping days left until Christmas. Can you believe it? This year has flown by much faster than I could have ever imagined. I'm still trying to get my Xmas fund account up to where I would like it to be. So far, I've only saved $450 of the $1100 goal, but that is $450 more than I've saved up in advance in any of my previous years. I'm hoping to be able to add some money from contract jobs over the next couple of months, however I will work with whatever I've got. This will be our first Xmas without any sort of credit or loan whatsoever, and I'm very proud of that fact!

I start thinking about the holidays sometime in June, shortly after my MIL's birthday. This year, I had a conversation with DD1 about not 'buying' anything for B & I, instead I would prefer something that involves her spending time with us. Her holiday budget is going to extremely tight this year, with the baby coming and all.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm going to be a grandma for the first time. DD1 is expecting, and the baby's due date is December 26th, which also happens to be B's birthday. The gift of making me a grandparent is greater than any thrift store find she could ever come up with, so I've told her there is no need to 'give' me anything this year.

There are gifts that I planned to make last year, and ran out of time to make them, so they got bumped to this year's gift list. Here we are into September, and I still haven't started any of those projects. Good grief, I really should get started on them.

What are your thoughts about the upcoming holidays? Have you saved money for the extra expenses? Have you planned gifts to buy and make? Share your ideas with me, please.

Volunteering

I have agreed to volunteer for for the next two Saturday evenings, during the Western Fair, for three hours each evening with a charity call "Keeping Kids Warm". These fine folks knit various items for children of all ages within our community.
http://www.keepingkidswarm.ca/

I wanted to volunteer for a group who has similar interests and ideals as my own, and Keeping Kids Warm seems to be a good fit. I have yet to meet the lady who heads this cause, but I am sure that I will find this experience a good one. I am looking forward to helping out during the fair at the booth, and knitting some things for them.

I used to volunteer a lot of my time with organizations, but lately haven't done so. I would like to improve that.

Do you volunteer, and how much of your time do you devote to the service of others?

I love the library

The closest branch of the public library is a mere 5 minute drive from our apartment. It is situated within the community centre in our part of the city, and is across the street from a major shopping mall, within walking distance from G-ma's apartment, and backs onto the property of the public school where DD2 attends.

This library has a children's area with great reading material for babies to teens, some toys for DS to play with while I browse, and even computers for kids to play learning games on.

For the grown-ups, there are aisles of books, CD's, DVD's, newspapers and magazines available for borrowing. There are computers to use for job searching, and general use, as well as ones specific for searching the database of books available within the sity-wide library system. I can put my name on a list to borrow a book that was just put into circulation, as well as find books that have been recommended to me, usually by one of the librarians whose reading interests are close to mine.

Inside the community centre, there are free or low-cost programs available for mostly everyone, in addition to the ones that the library offers. This is where I can take the little guy four mornings per week, to the drop-in program. For two glorious hours, he can play with wonderful toys, meet other children, hear a story and a song, and get a nutritious snack, while I can knit, and chat with other parents and/or caregivers. This is one of the many free programs available to us.

There is also a food cupboard and baby food bank available, an Ontario Works satellite office, a preschool half-day program, a senior citizen meeting group, a young parents program, a Women's group weekly meeting (facilitated in Arabic), and probably dozens of other programs and groups who meet there that I don't even know about. It is truly a central area for finding out what is going on in our suburb of the city.

When I need to find something free to do with the family, or need direction on how to find a resource that could be of use to frugal families like ours, they have always been there to help guide the way.