Overtime - time off versus pay out

I don't do a ton of overtime with my job. That's one of the advantages/disadvantages (depending on how you look at it) of working for the government. However, OT hours do come up every now and then and I always struggle with how to use them. I can either take time off in lieu or get paid out. Both are given at 1.5 times what you worked.

What typically happens is that for small bits of overtime (an hour here or there), I get it paid out, as it seems silly to just leave work an hour early. And OT happens so rarely that it wouldn't add up quickly enough to a full day off. Last week we had a minor emergency, so I did an hour and a half of OT. I put this one down for a pay out and I figure I might see $50 from it (after taxes come off). Nothing to complain about!

But, with larger chunks of time (i.e. when I'm on a video shoot after hours or we do focus group testing, which always occur in the evenings), I take the time off in lieu. A few evenings of work in one week equals 2 or 3 days off! And I love me some vacation days!

But does that make financial sense? Wouldn't a big pay out be better? Yes and no. Sure the money would be nice - a big chunk added to my normal pay cheque. But unless we're absolutely strapped for cash, to me it doesn't make sense to pay all the taxes that would come off. When I take time off in lieu (versus a pay out), I'm essentially getting paid and the government doesn't get to steal time from me.

What is your preference?

Hawaiian Honeymoon

We leave for our Hawaiian honeymoon in just over a month now! I'm so excited, but I also have that practical PF part of me that keeps thinking about the budget, so I thought it would be a good time to go over the costs.

Cruise - $4,429 (includes cruise, 2 nights hotel pre-cruise and a tour in Honolulu)
Flights - $404 (we used air miles, so this is just the taxes)
Excursions - $1,048 (we have 5 excursions planned, including a volcano hike, waterfall and rainforest hike and a luau. We figure we're only going to do this once, so we should make the most of it).
Hotel - $371 (this is for 2 nights post-cruise)
Passports - $174

Total to date: $6,426

Other costs to come: food (pre and post-cruise), spending money, and extras on-board, such as alcohol.
I want to keep the total cost under $7,000, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I'm guessing it'll wind up being closer to $7,500.

But I am very proud that we've been able to pay for everything so far in "cash" (charged to credit card for the air miles and then paid off immediately).

Adding up this trip and our first honeymoon (trip to Montreal and Quebec right after the wedding), we'll have spent about $10,000 on travel. To me, this was so much better than putting that $10K towards the wedding. We still had an awesome wedding for $13,000, but we also get two trips that we can enjoy as a couple.

2012 Goals

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Such a cliched statement, but it's very true of me today as the final loan payment comes out and I will have paid off the nasty debt in our life! We still have our car loan that we're working on (just got the car in October), but this other debt was stupid spending from my early/mid-20s. Now, we can have a fresh start - be smarter about our spending, save more money, and set more realistic goals. With that in mind, I wanted to outline my 2012 goals. I did an earlier post on my '12 goals, but this expands on that.

Financial

1. Save $15,000 for a down payment.
2. Build up emergency fund to $2,500.
3. Implement the electronic jar system.
4. Start a baby fund (see #4 in Personal/Health goals).

Personal/Health

1. Work out 3 to 4x a week.
2. Start doing pilates again.
3. Stop drinking Diet Pepsi.
4. Get pregnant. (I know this isn't something I can necessarily control, but hopefully this works out in 2012!)

Professional

1. Finish my certificate in management.
2. Build up freelance.
3. Network more.
4. Gain some management experience.

Electronic jar system

I love credit cards. I know that in the PF blogging world, cash is often king, but I think if used responsibly, credit cards can offer many more advantages. My personal reason for using card versus cash is to get Air Miles. If I can get a free flight because I've used a credit card to buy things I would have purchased anyway, why not! So what that means is I never have/use cash.

But, I also love what Gail Vax-Oxlade advocates - the jar system, which uses cash. For anyone who doesn't know what this is, basically Gail tells you to have jars for each variable budget category - groceries, entertainment, transportation, clothing/gifts and misc. You put your budgeted cash in each jar and then whatever is left over at the end of the week/month, carries over to the next.

So what I think I'm going to do from here on out is to use something like the jar system, but an electronic one. Right now, if we have $250 budgeted for groceries, but only spend $195, that $55 sits in the chequing account and usually gets spent here and here without even realizing it. So then a week later when we want to go stock up on milk, fruit and bread, we are scrambling to find money. So, instead, I'm going to transfer that $55 into a separate account. And that way, in the future, if we run over budget for groceries, we will have that extra money sitting there waiting.

I'm going to do this for groceries, gas, entertainment, clothing/gifts and misc. I'm not sure what we'll do with the money if it hits a certain point. Like if we are under budget on a continual basis, we'll obviously wind up having a nice chunk of money sitting there. When it comes to clothing/gifts, entertainment and misc, I think we will have some money build up and then we spend it when birthdays come up, we want to do a big date night or one of us needs new clothes.

But our groceries and gas will build up over time and never need to be used because we'll never need to stock up on THAT much on food or gas. So I'm not sure what we'll do with it... something to think about. 

I did it!

I've been hemming and hawing over what to do with our savings/personal loan. We had the money to pay the loan off in full, but I've been uncertain over what to do. I love seeing that money in the savings account, but I know that whatever little bit of interest I get from it is not enough to make up the interest on the loan (as low as that is).

Well finally today, I gave myself an early Christmas present and I put a big chunk of money on the personal loan! The balance previously was $3100 and I put $2685 on it. That means the next payment, which comes out on December 29th, will be it! Only $415 to go. Now that it's done, I feel sooooo good about it! That frees up $850 a month, so now we can start 2012 debt-free (other than the car loan) and we can begin to put money aside for a down payment. We will put that loan payment towards savings, increase the car loan payment to get it paid down faster, and just relax a bit and enjoy ourselves more. Leading up to the wedding, we weren't spending much on ourselves at all, so this will be a nice change.

I can't believe that in just over a week that loan will be gone! That means no more debt from school and stupid spending!

No Spend Challenge - December 10 - 18

I think we did pretty well with the no spend challenge this past week and a bit. 4 out of 9 days were no spend. Not quite half, but with Christmas right around the corner and my mom's birthday on Saturday, some things were a must. Others (re: muffins) were not. I really have to get a handle on that! No only for the wallet, but it's just not healthy!

I couldn't put the total dollar figures though, as husband put my Christmas present on the Mastercard and the minute I look at the online statement, I'll probably be able to guess what it is. So I promised him I wouldn't log on to it from now until Christmas. It's tough as I always always check the balance at least once a day (okay, sometimes 2 or 3), but there's less than a week to go!

December 10

Christmas shopping

December 11th

No spend!

December 12

Lunch out (I was at a seminar all day)

December 13
$3.05 - muffin (I must must must stop buying muffins for breakfast. Expensive and not healthy!)
$5.22 - Diet Pepsi (we ran out - it's a necessity in our house, so I picked up some from the store in our building)

December 14

$3.05 - muffin (seriously must be stopped... I should stop bringing my debit/credit cards to work)
Dinner at food court with hubby
Christmas shopping

December 15

No spend!

December 16

No spend!

December 17

$75 - dinner for my mom's birthday (husband and I paid for ourselves and we split my mom's meal with my sister)

December 18

No spend!

Christmas goals

I thought with all the Christmas hoopla, it would be nice to set up some goals and see how I do after the holidays!

1. No eating out!
2. Wrap all gifts.
3. Clean out kitchen drawers.
4. Get Christmas baking done.
5. Enjoy the holidays!

I may add to these next week!

TGIF