The main thing on todays to do list was to write out everything that needed fixing with my home. This was somewhat difficult to complete as I went to my parents place to complete the list. My mom didn’t want to come to me, so I went to her. In the end we managed to type up most of the issues thanks to me making a rather confusing list last minute. That took most of today to complete.

Prior to arriving at my parents, I finished setting up my Home Management Binder. I still need to input some information and fill out a few papers, but I’m still waiting for the bills to come, so in time that will be filled out.

This evening I’m just going to chill and watch some TV shows. Hopefully I can get back into some sort of routine.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on my mortgage. The first payment came out of my bank account and I must say I was pretty nervous about it. I was told it would be coming out on a specific date and in fact it came out on a different date so that threw me off a bit.

2. Today I am thankful for Family Day! Day off from work. Hopefully my dad wants to help decorate my house for me. I really need some laundry lines hung up in the basement and my bathroom medical cabinet put up.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was spend time with Cassie and her son Elliott. It was a great weekend.

4. I will consider this week a success if I pay the rest of my bills once I get paid and actually figure out where I want stuff hung. It’s time to start making this house my home even thought I still refer to my parents house as my home. That’s going to take some getting use to.

5. The last thing I ate was dipping eggs and toast. I would probably throw up if I didn’t have anything to eat in the morning

Weekly Money Check-Up is a fill-in-the blank post once a week. The first four questions are always the same each week and the fifth is always different. Care to participate? Fill in the blanks in the comments section or post it on your blog and link back to My Pretty Pennies!

Monday February 13th
No Spend Day

Tuesday February 14th
$488.21 First Mortgage Payment
$37.19 First Insurance Payment

Wednesday February 15th
No Spend Day

Thursday February 16th
$38.75 Gas
$20.00 Work Lotto
$4.66 Personal Care Items

Friday February 17th
$90.40 Bathroom Cabinet

Saturday February 18th
No Spend Day

Sunday February 19th
No Spend Day

Income: + $0
Expenses: - $679.21

Total: - $679.21

Apparently my State Farm Insurance agents secretary fucked up big time and I’m the one who’s going to be thrown under the bus for it. She forgot to change my address on all my policy’s (car, house, life) so my car insurance policy has been issuing me credits, because it still looks like I’m living at home and I would have overpaid my insurance. (My rates went up when I moved out of my parents house)

I received 1 credit back in Jan that I cashed and I received another credit just a few days ago. Thankfully I did not cash the second credit. Instead I called to inquire how much my State Farm car insurance would be and that’s when I was informed that I should never have been issued the credits in the first place. Sorry was all she said to me. I was fuming.

So, not only do I owe all the money back, but I owe it back pretty damn quickly. It’s not like they are giving me some time to get this money together, oh no, they want it back pronto because they realized that they made a mistake. Too bad they didn’t contact me when they realized this mistake.

Now I’m left to scrabble to get this money together and you can bet I will be leaving State Farm because of this issue. There’s no reason for me to stay there anymore, only reason I was with them was because of the discount I received while living at home. Sure I receive a credit for having a life, car and house policy with them but I’m sure I can get a discount anywhere if I move all 3 of them and that’s just what I plan to do.

The next few weeks are going to be filled with so many headaches.

Have I mentioned I’m starting to hate owning a house.
2012 has been a shit year and it’s only Feb.

My first mortgage payment came out yesterday as well as my critical illness and disability insurance and boy are those automatic withdraws going to totally mess with the schedule I’ve got made for bill payments. I’m a little OCD when it comes to my money, and how I pay my bills. Instead of the withdraw being 1 every 2 weeks (like I thought), they are 2 separate transactions, so now I have 4 automatic withdrawals a month; instead of 2. This would all be well and good if I didn’t have a limit as to how many withdrawals I’m allowed before being charged, but I do. So needless to say this has somewhat annoyed me. I spent the better part of last night trying to figure out how to work around my 10 withdrawals a month. I still need to call the bank and find out if a transfer counts against my 10 because I do 2 transfers a month. 1 to my savings account and 1 to my yearly account and if they do count I’m going to have to put all my bills onto my credit card which is not something I really wanted to do.

Cogeco is still causing me issues. I called them back the other day after stopping into their little hole in the wall at the local mall. I want some sort of paper that states I have a credit on my account and what it’s for because I have this gut feeling that something is going to get messed up. I was unsuccessful at obtaining a copy of anything, however I was able to see my account so I know that I have my 2 months free of cable and phone, it’s just the credit I’m worried about. Currently it shows up as a $30 credit and I requested a credit for my cable, so I’ve been told I have to wait till I actually receive a bill in order to know how much the credit should be. This just sounds totally ridiculous to me so I’m pretty frustrated with it all.

In other house news, I still have yet to decorate. I’ve got a bunch of stuff laid out on the floor in the spare bedroom but I haven’t really figured out where I want things to go, other then in my office. That will probably be the first room to get done since I spend at least an hr and a half every night in here. My goal is to get my cork board and desk calendar hung before the end of the month. It’s really frustrating not being able to use them.

Oh, Please excuse the question, but What is a funded proposal? Sorry! A girls gotta make some extra cash any way she can.

Wednesday February 1st
$112 February/March’s Townhouse fees
$45 Gym

Thursday February 2nd
Gift Card for Gas

Friday February 3rd
Walmart (House Items) $163.60

Saturday February 4th
$65.78 Groceries
$7.00 Soap for the bathrooms

Sunday February 5th
No Spend Day

Monday February 6th
$110.74 Knife Block

Tuesday February 7th
$79.09 Cant remember what this was spent on. I don’t have a recipe, but it’s written down..oops?

Wednesday February 8th
No Spend Day

Thursday February 9th
$1,032.07 Income
$20 Gas

Friday February 10th
No Spend Day

Saturday February 11th
$67.73 Cute Pokadot Plates

Sunday February 13th
No Spend Day

Income: + $1,032.07
Expenses: - $670.94

Total: - $361.13

On my move in day I had Bell come to install my wireless internet. Everything with that went smoothly and I was impressed at how prompt and early the installer was. I was given a 12-5pm window of time and the installer was done by 1pm. I then had Cogeco come to install my 2 months free cable and phone that came as an incentive from my builder. The window time for that was 2-5pm. That’s when things started to go downhill.

First of all the installer arrived at 5:15pm. I received no call letting me know that the installer would be late and I was just on my way out of the door so I was pretty annoyed, however I let the installer in. I basically let the installer work while I unpacked some things. It took him about an hr and a half to do whatever it he had to do and then he left. After he left I noticed mud on my off white wall and white baseboards. My mom and I tried to clean it off and then I noticed that the carpet near my basement door was pretty dirty. I’m left to assume that the installer wore his boots into my basements after he arrived therefore tracking some dirt onto my carpet.

The next evening while my father and brother were moving some of my items over I noticed that the internet would not work on my iphone. I thought that maybe I had just entered in the wrong password so I checked on my macbook. The internet wouldn’t work there either but it was too late to call technically support. The following evening (wednesday) I tried again with the internet. This time I called technically support. On their end they ran multiple line tests and they couldn’t find anything wrong, so I requested that I tech be sent out. The earliest one would be able to come I was told was Friday anywhere from 6-9pm. Thankfully the tech arrived at 6:30pm on friday evening.

It took him about 10 mins to figure out why my Bell internet would not work. Turns out that the Cogeco installer had cut the bell splitter lines therefore preventing my internet from working. At this point I was confused, so the Bell tech showed me the splitter and sure enough the lines were cut.

On the following Saturday I went to the mall to speak with someone about putting in a complained against the tech whom cut my Bell wires. I spoke with a very nice lady whom took down my cell phone number and assured me that someone would be contacting me within 48 hours. Within 4 hrs I received a call letting me know that the matter would be looked into first thing Monday morning and I should receive a call on Tuesday. Well tuesday came and went and no call. On Wednesday I spoke with my mom and was informed that she had received the call from Cogeco. So instead of them contacting me at the number I left they contacted me at the number on file, which is my parents phone number. This annoyed me. A call back number was left so I called them back today. I spoke with a very nice lady whom informed me that the matter was being looked into.

This evening I received a phone call on my cell phone asking me to clarify my complaint. I quickly did and asked how I would be compensated for the loss of service. Since my cable and phone services are free at the moment the tech was unsure as to how I would be compensated. He asked me if I watch movies on demand and I said no. I then explained that I would like my compensation to be an additional free month added to the free months that I already have. He said he would look into this and surprisingly called me back within 10 mins letting me know that it was done.

So, if all works out correctly, I should have free cable and phone till the end of April. Obviously I am going to double check that this is the case as I have a very bad feeling that I will be charged for the month of April thus resulting in me having to fight to not have to pay for the service.

Sometimes I just wish things could go smoothly.

Construction started promptly at 7am this morning, since there are still a ton of units being worked on. Thankfully I’m off to work now, but I suspect that it will get pretty annoying on the weekends.

Tonight I have 1 of 3 blind companies coming to measure and give me prices on different options. Hopefully before they come I can clean up my office a bit and grab a shower.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on items I purchased for my new house. I didn’t get my spending recap up this past weekend because the receipts are all at the new house, and I’m at my parents place till this evening. I’m planning on moving the last of my stuff over after work. Then maybe picking up some groceries since I have next to nothing to eat.

2. Today I am thankful that in a few months I could have a part time job. I’m dropping off a resume today and it looks to be pretty promising.

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was show my new place to my Nonna. I took her grocery shopping on Saturday and we stopped in so I could drop off some items I had picked up.

4. I will consider this week a success if I don’t fall apart due to stress. I’ve been dealing with an issue and I’m waiting to hear back from the company, so it’s causing me some stress.

5. 5. I can’t start my day without breakfast. I would probably throw up if I didn’t have anything to eat in the morning

Weekly Money Check-Up is a fill-in-the blank post once a week. The first four questions are always the same each week and the fifth is always different. Care to participate? Fill in the blanks in the comments section or post it on your blog and link back to My Pretty Pennies!

Financial:

• Put $100 aside each month to start an emergency fund. The money is sitting in my paypal account so when I do a mass withdrawal of it then I will transfer the funds over to which ever account I’ve decided to set up as my emergency fund.
• Keep my bank account above $1,500 (as to avoid being charged the service fee). This has been done, and should be rather easy to maintain. If I get anywhere below $2,000 in my account I might start to freak out.
• Decorate my new house for under $3,000. So far everything that is inside my new house is items that I already own or have been gifted to me. I’ll keep track of whatever I buy. I suspect that this won’t be for a while as cash is pretty tight.

Personal:

• Lose 50 pounds by December 31st 2012. To date I am down 14.4 pounds.
• Take some photography classes // use my Camera more often. I attended 4 camera classes during the month and they were okay. I got them on sale, so I’m glad I did not have to pay full price. I did learn some things. I haven’t actually used my camera other then to take house photos.
• Cook at least 5 new meals a month and blog about it. I only cooked 3 meals this month and 2 I blogged about. I made Garlic Brushetta Bread, Gnocchi and cooked Vegetables.
• Set up a Household Management Binder and actively use my Day Planner and Calendar.  I’m still in the process of completing the Binder. Most of the papers are inserted and my day planner is with me all the time.
• Visit my grandparents at least twice a month, or invite them over to my place. I’ve seen my Nonna (moms mother // she’s not included in this goal as I see her daily) often, and I saw my grandparents (dad’s parents) once in January.