Ask, and ye shall receive

So I went home for lunch today and in my mailbox was a letter from MTS, our cell phone and internet provider. It was dated April 24 and said that my credit card transaction did not go through and that they would try again in 2 weeks. But, because of this, I would be charged a $30 service fee.

I knew right away why the transaction didn't go through. I got a new Mastercard because BMO suspected some fraudulent activity and automatically issued me a new card with a new number. So, on April 21, I phoned in to activate the new card (therefore cancelling the old card), and right away phoned all of the businesses that I have set up on automatic payments... MTS being one of them.

But, I phoned MTS at lunch today, talked to a very pleasant customer service rep and explained what happened to him. He looked into my file and saw that indeed I had changed the card number. But of course, communication on their end was lacking and the billing office didn't get the information in time or whatever, and they tried to charge the old card. But, because it was not my fault, he waived the $30 fee!

Morale of the story - always ask!

Even if there had been an issue with the card and it was my fault, I probably still would have called. I've been a loyal customer with MTS for 10+ years, so that alone gives me enough reason to call in and ask them to waive the fee for me. Always ask - it doesn't hurt. It took me less than 10 minutes and while doing this, I was making my lunch anyway!

Of course, when the bill does come, you better believe I'm double checking it! ;)

Weekly Money Check-Up

From My Pretty Pennies

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on a credit card payment to pay off the last of our trip to Hawaii. It was expensive and over budget, but soooo worth it!

2. Today I am thankful for the fact that this is my last full week of work before some time off and a quick trip to Ottawa!

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was go for a walk with an old friend who I haven't seen in a long time.

4. I will consider this week a success if I stay on top of my school work. (My mid-term is the Monday we get home from Ottawa, so I need to get a lot of prep work done prior). 

5. If I could redecorate one room, I would choose our master bedroom. The furniture is my bedroom suite that I got when I was in University, so we really need something more grown-up and "us". 

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!