Happy Civic Holiday

Whether you're getting out of town, taking in some local festivities, or just relaxing around the house, have a great long weekend. Be safe, and have fun.

I'll see you Tuesday.

Happy Independence Day to our neighbours to the south

To those of you south of the border, I hope you enjoy your nation's birthday. Today the American markets and blogging community will be taking the day off, just like we did up here on Tuesday. There are only a handful of days during the year when the Canadian and American financial systems find themselves at odds with each other, and it's always interesting to see how one market moves when the other is closed for business.

Light up the sky, enjoy time with family and friends, and don't let any bloody-minded Canadians get to you with their stubborn insistence on spelling neighbor with a "u".

Happy Fourth Of July.

Happy Canada Day!

Unlike last year's rather tardy Canada Day greeting (which also happened to be the first echo of my "Hello World" post), this year I thought I'd offer my wishes for the nation's birthday in a timely fashion.

Happy Canada Day, everyone. Be safe, have fun, and I'll see you back at work on Wednesday.

Oh right, the blog!

Well hello there, loyal readers. I'm finally back after my Easter weekend hiatus. I hope you enjoyed your time off work. I wouldn't exactly call our own weekend relaxing, considering we had somewhere to be each of the past four days, but it was nice to have some time off, and to catch up with some relatives I haven't seen in a few months.

We managed to get through the weekend without breaking the bank, and now it's time to get my head back in the game. I've barely thought about either finances, my blog, or my day job during the past four days, so I have some catching up to do.

It was nice to see some upward movement in the markets yesterday, even if it has thrown my freshly rebalanced portfolio out of whack again. If I have to choose, I'll take positive growth over to-the-penny asset allocation, but I'm still shaking my head that I hemmed and hawed last week over the exact amount of each index fund to buy, only to have everything shift over the next few days.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Whether you're already nursing a hangover from St. Patrick's Eve, or simply working on tomorrow's hangover, be safe and try to use as much common sense as a day like today will allow.

Besides Christmas, I've often found St. Patrick's Day to be the single most difficult day of the year to maintain any sort of budget sense. Last year, for example, with the holiday falling on a Saturday (which will happen again in 2012), Ms. Loonie and I marched into our neighbourhood pub with a couple of friends at 11:30 in the morning, and finally relinquished our table and headed home just after midnight. As you can imagine, my MasterCard bill for the day was in the hundreds.

I don't know about you, but I'm glad that sort of thing only happens every 5-6 years.

Monday is "Family Day"

In Ontario, the third Monday in February is now known as Family Day, a new statutory holiday instituted last fall. It was one of the first changes announced by the Ontario Liberals upon their 2007 re-election, and on the one hand, it seems like a shallow, "touchy-feely" gesture. However, I have to admit that a February long weekend is more than welcome.

Ms. Loonie and I are visiting friends in western Ontario this weekend, so having Monday off will let us enjoy our Saturday and Sunday travels without the pressure of getting back to the grind as soon as we get home. It's not glamourous to spend the holiday getting caught up with regular Sunday chores, but it'll be nice not to have this stuff hanging over our heads on the weekend proper.

Does your employer recognize Family Day? If so, how are you planning to spend your day off?

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy February 14^th to all of you.

Ms. Loonie and I aren't big on celebrating Valentine's Day, beyond exchanging cards and spending some time together, but here's some Valentine's reading for you:

• Nine tactics for a frugal Valentine's Day (courtesy of The Simple Dollar)


• My Frugal Valentine: Cheap ways to say "I love you" (courtesy of Get Rich Slowly)


• Five ways to save money on Valentine's Day (courtesy of Sound Money Matters)


• Frugal tips for Valentine's Day (courtesy of Million Dollar Journey)


• Understand the five love languages (courtesy of Blueprint for Financial Prosperity)

Happy New Year

Well, that's it for December and 2007, so I hope everyone enjoys their New Year's celebrations tonight and tomorrow, and I'll see you all in 2008, with lots of updates, goals, and other bloggy goodness.

Happy New Year!

The aftermath

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and we are now deep in the madness of "Boxing Week". For those who don't know what I'm talking about, Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, and is observed in several countries (including Canada but not the U.S.) as a statutory holiday. Being the day after Christmas, it also kicks off a period of major discounts at most retailers. There's always extensive news coverage of how many people are storming the malls for Boxing Week sales, and just how much they're spending. Ms. Loonie and I are taking it easy, as neither of us is too keen on braving the crowds or spending much more money this month.

Santa was good to the Loonie household this year, and we gave some gifts that really went over well. Ms. Loonie's parents got the Canon PowerShot A460, and just loved it. I spent a good deal of time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day teaching Ms. Loonie's mother the basics of the camera. We have a couple of gift cards and cheques left to use to fill out our wardrobe and media collection, but basically we had a wonderful few days visiting with family and enjoying good food.

I've updated my goal bars and NCN Network chart with the effects of yesterday's paycheque. Thanks to this month's advertising income, it looks like I'm in good shape for my financial goals for the month. Most significant is the fact that all my gift purchases are paid in full, with no new debt. The blogging goals have gone less well, but I'll have a thorough post-mortem on December's goals next Wednesday.

Merry Christmas

Well, we're one sleep away from the big day, so I just wanted to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas.

We kicked off our visits and celebrations this past weekend, with visits my parents and Ms. Loonie's parents, and we'll continue by visiting Ms. Loonie's extended family tonight, and my extended family tomorrow. Then it's back home on Wednesday for a Boxing Day collapse.

If you're driving over the holidays, please be careful, and be sure to enjoy your time with loved ones.

Has anyone noticed that December is a busy time?

Apologies to everyone for the lack of posts recently. I've been a bit occupied with Christmas preparations, both at work, trying to wrap up projects before the holidays, and at home, trying to balance gift shopping and visit scheduling. I'm doing all right, but the blog has suffered a bit of late, and for that I'm sorry.

Astute readers will have noticed the text link ad at the bottom of the sidebar. Yes, that's right, Loonies And Sense has its first advertiser. That little bit of income was a nice early Christmas present, which will go straight to my line of credit.

In other news, Canadian Dream is running a series of interviews with PF bloggers, and he has included me in the series. I am a big fan of his blog, which has daily posts that are always entertaining and informative. He's also got a great, ambitious goal, namely to retire by the age of 45. We should all be so lucky.

I'm running behind on all my blog-related goals for December, with only 14 of 25 posts to date, and no posts on productivity or Getting Things Done. Will a Christmas miracle help me meet my goals? We'll have to wait and see.

'Tis the season for cash flow slip-ups

I'm trying very hard to keep this a "cash-only" Christmas. I've written about this before, but basically I'm trying not to create any new debt with this year's Christmas purchases. So far, I've been managing this well. I've been using my Freedom Account, and diligently tracking my holiday spending. I think I'll pretty much break even.

As a result of this "spotlight" that I've placed on my holiday finances, I've been moving cash between my accounts pretty much constantly. I've mentioned before that I use my line of credit as a sort of money merge account; every time I make a purchase with my credit card, I make a payment in the same amount to my line of credit, reducing the interest-bearing balance on that account, and then I pay my credit card in full using my line of credit at the end of the month. I've been making very good use of this system for the past few weeks.

In addition to my two chequing accounts, online savings accounts, line of credit, and credit cards, I have a savings account with my primary bank. In order to avoid the wait times involved with moving funds between my chequing and online savings accounts, I decided last week that I would use this "extra" savings account as a holding area for my holiday funds in between purchases. This account earns next to no interest, but it's convenient because it's at the same institution as my chequing and line of credit, so transfers are instantaneous.

Yesterday afternoon, as I made my third transfer in as many days from this savings account to my line of credit, I suddenly remembered the fee structure for this account. The account comes with two free debit transactions per month (including transfers to other accounts at the same institution), with additional debits costing $1.25 per transaction. My cash flow shenanigans had just cost me $1.25.

On the one hand, it's only $1.25, and I did catch on before I made more than one non-free transaction. However, it really rankles me that, when I thought I was being so clever and attentive to my finances, I could make a dumb mistake like this. It's entirely my fault, as I have known about this $1.25 cost since I opened the account; it just slipped my mind (mainly because it's been so long since I used the account).

Let's hope that I've learned my lesson, and this will be the last "stupidity tax" I see this season.

Credit card rewards can really pay off

I use a Mosaik MasterCard as my primary credit card. The Mosaik card is a "modular" product: you apply for the basic credit card, and you then select a card design and add features (like a rewards plan) à la carte. For my card, I have selected the "Gold" Air Miles reward plan, which gives me one Air Mile for every $15 that I spend on the card. Air Miles are redeemable for a wide variety of rewards, from travel purchases, to gift certificates, to electronics and kitchen gadgets. One Air Mile typically has a value of $0.12-$0.14, so with the Gold plan, this works out to the equivalent of about 0.9% cash back.

The rewards don't end there, however. With the Air Miles program, I also receive a free Air Miles collector card, which I present when I shop at Air Miles sponsors (including supermarkets, liquor stores, gas stations and several online merchants) to earn additional rewards. This earns me an additional Air Mile for every $20 that I spend at an Air Miles sponsor. By using my Air Miles MasterCard at an Air Miles sponsor, I'm actually "double-dipping" my rewards.

I was surprised to see how much these rewards actually add up. This year alone, I've redeemed Air Miles for the following rewards:

• $50 Chapters gift card


• $50 RONA gift card


• $300 in HBC gift cards


• $50 in Banana Republic gift cards

Obviously, Air Miles isn't the only reward program out there; there are several cards that offer cash back rewards. The point is that I've managed to use my rewards to purchase $350 in gifts ($150 of that for Christmas gifts), where I otherwise would have been out-of-pocket for this amount. If you're careful about how you use the card, and don't get caught up in the "I'm-getting-points-so-spend-spend-spend" mentality, then you can really make out like a bandit.

December surprises

I've written a couple of times about planning for holiday spending. In previous years, I always "planned" my holiday spending by working out how much my year-end bonus would come to after taxes, and ensuring that my total spending did not exceed this amount. While this approach technically adheres to the "spend less than you earn" commandment of personal finance, it isn't exactly the best way to stay in control of your finances.

This year, I've been saving up funds specifically earmarked for the holidays, with the goal of not needing my bonus to pay for any of my holiday expenses. If all goes according to plan, my holiday purchases will all be bought and paid for before my bonus even hits my chequing account. We've done a good chunk of our holiday shopping this weekend, and we look to be on track to keep things under budget this year. That is a great feeling.

This afternoon, we were at a birthday party for a friend's 1-year-old, and we were talking with one of Ms. Loonie's closest friends and her husband. After a little while, the subject suddenly turned to New Year's plans, and what we are planning for ringing in the new year.

When it comes to New Year's celebrations, Ms. Loonie and I generally have a nice dinner with friends (usually at a friend's house), and spend the evening chatting and listening to music. It's pretty low-key, but it can be a lot of fun. Well, Ms. Loonie's friend suddenly decided today that we should all go away somewhere for New Year's. The current proposal is Mont Tremblant (a ski resort in Québec).

Now, our plans for the holiday season have not made any allowances for taking a ski trip to Québec. We simply haven't budgeted for this, and we really can't afford it at this point. It's frustrating that this is being brought up now; if we had known a few months in advance, we might have been able to save up for it, but with less than a month's notice, there's not much we can do.

I think we'll be passing on the ski trip, unless we find a really spectacular deal that will let us do this on the cheap.

It's funny how full of surprises the holiday season always turns out to be.

Avoiding a financial free-for-all

Since I started this blog, Ms. Loonie and I have taken three vacations. One was a week-long trip to visit friends in Illinois, the second was a week spent at our family cottage, and the last was a long weekend spent in a small town in northern Michigan. For each of these trips, we tried to keep things as cost-effective as possible. We drove to Illinois, and stayed in our friends' parents' condo. At the cottage, we shared food costs with my parents and extended family. We also drove to Michigan, although we ended up staying in an historic hotel.

However frugal we tried to be on these trips, we still seemed to fall into the "I'm on holidays" mental trap, and found ourselves splurging, whether on dining out, buying beer and wine, or stocking up on souvenirs to give to friends and family when we got home. I'm sure we're not alone in this vacation mindset, but it's frustrating to watch months' worth of savings evaporate during a week away from home.

As we head into the holiday season, I'm trying to avoid falling into the same trap. One thing I have going for me is that I've been socking money away in my Freedom Account to cover Christmas gift purchases; I should be in good shape to pay cash for most of my holiday shopping. The main thing I'm keeping an eye on, though, is the little Loonie devil that sits on my shoulder and whispers, "you can afford it... it's the holidays!" That guy is trouble.

The key here is to have an enjoyable and memorable holiday season without undermining my financial goals. I think I've got a plan that will work, but the next several weeks will determine whether I actually succeed.

30 days to go...

Christmas Day is exactly one month away. This weekend, Ms. Loonie and I decorated our condo for the holidays. This involved putting up our (fake) tree and assorted (fake) pine boughs, and a whole lot of snowman figurines. Ms. Loonie is a bit of a snowman junkie, and the consequences can be seen all over our living space.

Have you sorted out how you'll be handling the holiday season? From parties, to shopping, to general schedule management and deciding who you're going to visit when, there's a lot to get straight before the second half of December hits.

I've got my Freedom Account humming along, absorbing the impact of the few gifts that I've bought so far, and at the risk of sounding hopelessly naïve, I think I might just be able to manage this without incurring any new consumer debt. The December update that I post on January 2 will tell the tale, but for now, I'm just doing everything I can to prepare.

What are you doing to prepare for the holidays?

'Tis the season...

It's that time of year again: stores everywhere are putting up their Christmas decorations. In many cases, this started even before Hallowe'en had come and gone. In downtown Toronto, the Bay already has its animated windows set up, with "seasonal" tableaus in all their animatronic glory.

I'm as much a fan of the Christmas season as the next guy, but it's always a shock just how early the retail season begins. Anyway, with the onset of holiday advertising, what better time to post some tips for enjoying the holidays without breaking the bank?

First off, if you haven't already done so, it's time to start saving for holiday gift shopping. Figure out how much you plan on spending on gifts, and split this amount into chunks that you will save up between now and Christmas. You have exactly seven weeks left between now and the big day, so that's some time to prepare. Ramit at I Will Teach You To Be Rich underlines this point in his post on planning for Christmas:

“But Ramit,” you might say, “It’s already November! I can’t do this now!” This is the Shrug Effect ... Would starting last month have been better? Yes. But starting now is better than not starting at all.

I contribute an amount from every paycheque to the gift compartment in my Freedom Account, and although I started late this year (I only started the account in May), I'm certainly better off than I would be if I were just hoping to have enough to buy gifts.

Grad Money Matters also recommends that you use a credit card for your purchases. The two advantages of doing this are

• easy record-keeping
• credit card rewards (cash-back, points, etc.)

Obviously, only follow this particular advice if you are paying your card balance in full every month; paying interest on your purchase would negate either of these benefits.

Finally, for those looking for ideas, Trent at The Simple Dollar posts a list of Consumer Reports' gift recommendations for 2007. It's a great list, and I am personally planning on giving the Canon PowerShot as a gift this year.