I was at work and I called a few places during my lunch break. The expensive place with the pool told me she was busy but would call me back within the hour so I kept my phone with me in the back room while I worked on stock (with approval from my manager). A couple hours passed with no call back. That’s the third time they told me that would call and never did so I was disappointed in them.

But then my phone rang, and it was the manager at the building that I really liked. He said he had another one bedroom open up on the top floor. I made an appointment to see it the next day and it was exactly the same as the first one, just had a deck facing a different direction. He said they just did a lot of work on the place before the current tenant moved in and she had only lived there for a couple months and now already has to move again. I reminded myself to look at a few things I forgot to check when I was there the first time (Dishwasher, check. Carpets, check. Concrete deck, check!). He asked me if I was still interested in it and I said yes and gave him a cheque for the security deposit.

I left very happy that I finally had a home to move in to. I started walking to work (15 min walk! YES!) and my phone rang. It was the manager again, he said that the apartment is actually not available until June. The whole time it sounded like it was ready for May, but I guess he was confused. Anyway, I told him June would be fine. There’s no way I was going to start looking again. I was done and this place was as close to perfect as I can probably find right now.

I still have to be out of my current place at the end of April though. So that means I will be moving twice in the next two months. For the month of May I will be living with my boyfriend. I’m not really sure how I feel about that haha. I’ve only been dating him for six months and told myself I never wanted to live with a boyfriend again unless we were engaged. But it’s only for a month so it will be fine. And it will show us if we are able to spend that much time together. I think this is a test from the universe to show me where this relationship is going. I will have to train him how to be nicer to the planet by saving power and water and maybe we will start recycling! One of the things I want to start doing again is taking my recyclables to the depot to get money back for them and this might be the perfect opportunity to show him how it’s done.

After viewing that one I walked across the road for my other viewing at the building I lived in before. It was the exact same as the one I lived in but with an opposite set up. I had forgotten how small the rooms were. And the price keeps going up. For the two bedroom the price is up to $1160 which I am really not comfortable spending on something that is so small.

So I walked back to the bus station telling myself that I really want the first apartment. I got home and had lunch and sat by my phone waiting to hear if I had a new home. 12 o’clock came and went. At 12:30 I was getting pretty anxious. The closer to 1pm it got the more dashed my dreams became. The manager finally called me around 1:30 to tell me that after a hard deliberation they went with someone else. I was disappointed for sure but to try and make myself feel better I kept focusing on the things I didn’t like about the place, while still hoping he would call back to say he has another unit available or that the person changed their mind about taking the place. Neither of these happened. My family on Facebook told me that it wasn’t meant to be. During this apartment search I have found myself talking to God a lot asking him to make everything work out for me. I still think he is working on something for me, but I am doing a horrible job of waiting for it.

In the meantime, I emailed the lady who showed me my old building to thank her for showing me the apartment but that I wasn’t comfortable spending that much right now. She said she will keep her eyes open for other units that might work for me and also put me on a waiting list for a 1 bedroom unit.

I spent the rest of my day looking online to see what other options I have. Everything would be so much simpler if I didn’t have to rely on the bus system. Where I work is extremely difficult to get to which makes finding my perfect home that much harder to find. I found another building that has a one bedroom available for over $1000. It’s expensive but I would have access to a pool and hot tub which would ease the pain of the price a little bit. I just hope the pool is better kept than the one I had access to in one of my old places. I have called and emailed them but am still waiting to hear back. I also left messages with a couple other buildings a few times now but they never return my calls.

At this point I’m really sick and tired of looking. I just want to throw away all my stuff and go live in a hole. I just have to remind myself that searching for an apartment always gets to this point, where I just want to give up. I really hope I find something soon because I don’t like when my stress level gets this high.

When I got to work I called the building that I lived in about a year ago. The location of that one is also perfect, but the price is more than I had planned on paying. I booked a viewing anyway which is set for Thursday at 11am.

When I was on my lunch break at work I checked my phone again and there was a message from the cheaper building that I was supposed to see but fell through. Someone else gave their notice to vacate a one bedroom. I called and booked a viewing for Thursday as well at 10:30am. The manager said he has a couple other people coming to look at it on Wednesday but that he will give me dibs on it. So my hope is once more restored. Now I just have to hope that it meets all my criteria that I’m looking for. Please everyone cross your fingers that I love the place and that it isn’t given away before I get to make my decision! I really want to get settled so I can stop putting the rest of my life on the back burner.

Moving is an exciting thing for me, but the process or actually finding a place to live SUCKS. I just wish that the next time I call, someone will have good news for me. I have my trust in god that he’s going to make everything work out in the end. But I am being very impatient right now. I don’t want May 1st to come along and have no where to go!

Do any of your have any tips on how to find an apartment? Or when the best time to call around looking is? A few places said that their current tenants have until April 1st to let them know if they’re leaving in May, so should I call that day or wait until April 2nd? I just wish I KNEW that everything was going to work out for me.

So on the first page of my spreadsheet I have my work schedule listed down the page. First column is the date, next is my starting time, my ending time, how many hours I am working that day, and finally I use an equation to calculate my wage for that day. I have the schedule in blocks for every two weeks that would encompass my pay period. When I get my pay stubs I compare it to my spreadsheet to make sure that the amount I expected to make adds up to the amount that I was actually paid. I think that is good practice for everyone because you can catch if you were over or under paid and bring it to your employers attention.

On the next page I have my projected monthly income and spending. I have posted below an example of what this page has listed for the last two months:

01-Jan-13 -$600.00 Rent
01-Jan-13 -$500.00 Loan
04-Jan-13 $801.00 Pay Check
18-Jan-13 $897.00 Pay Check
30-Jan-13 -$488.00 Credit Card
30-Jan-13 $1,581.00 Bank Account
30-Jan-13 -$100.00 Savings
01-Feb-13 -$600.00 Rent
01-Feb-13 -$1,000.00 Loan
01-Feb-13 $870.00 Pay Check
15-Feb-13 $1,083.00 Pay Check
28-Feb-13 -$328.00 Credit Card
28-Feb-13 -$200.00 Savings

So the first column shows the date of the payment or deposit, the next column shows the amount that is coming in or going out, and the last one shows the category. I usually have this projected two months into the future. Rent is a constant so I can put that in each month with certainty. My loan amount changes depending on much I feel I have available to spend. The pay checks are usually an estimate based on the first page but they are normally pretty close to accurate. The credit card again is an estimate based on my budget. I usually set the credit card at $500 just to be on the safe side. As I told you before I use my credit card to pay for everything so this amount includes my groceries, phone bill, etc. You will notice one category that says Bank Account. I put that in every couple months or so just to make sure that my totals are accurate. I use an equation to total each month to make sure I don’t end up spending more money that I am making. The savings category changes most months. The way I determine what I put into savings is, in my checking account I like to always have about $200. That is my cushion. $200 is my $0, meaning, some people will spend their money until their bank account is empty and have to wait until their next pay day to have money. That would scare me to death. By leaving $200 in my bank at all times it give me peace of mind knowing that if any emergency was to come up, I would still have money to cover it without having to dip into my savings. Anything above that $200 marks gets put into my savings.

On third page of my money spreadsheet I have my income totaled for each month. On the top row are the months of the year. Below each month I list the amount of money I receive on each pay check. Below all of that each pay check is added together to show me how much money I made that month. On the right hand side of the page I then have each month added together to give me the total I have made that year and then I take that numeber and divided it by the number of months that have passed that year already to give me an average that I make per month. I can compare the amounts that I make each month, but I can also compare what I make each month to the year before since I’ve been keeping track since 2009. I can really see how my wage has been increasing over the years. I’ve made about $400 a month more than the previous year, every year since 2009.

On page four I have the same thing set up as the last page except this page shows my expenses. I have spent about the same amount each month on average for the last three years which tells me that my spending hasn’t really been changing too much, which I think is a good thing. Especially when you consider that my income has been increasing. That means there’s more money in the bank (in theory, since all my money has been going to my loan and not to my bank). The expense page only shows my credit card payments, but it used to show my student loan payments as well. I haven’t been including my current loan payments because they are a personal loan to my ex, so this page may be a bit skewed at the moment.

The last pages are my loan pages to show the payments I have been making and how much I owe before it’s paid off. I made a graph to show the changes in my loan to my ex which I find interesting. I can’t believe how much money I owed him at the height of the loan and I also can’t believe how fast I’ve been able to pay it off once I moved out.

There are a lot of things I love about Microsoft Money. You can put in all your money accounts. I have one for the cash I have on hand, one for my checking account, one for my savings account, and one for my credit card. On the Accounts page I can see the totals of all my individual accounts as well as the total of all the accounts added together so I always know how much money I have. On the main page you can set up spending categories with a limit. Each category will have a bar that shows your spending in that category so far for the month and how close you are getting to the limit you have set. For example, I have a bar that shows me how much I’ve spent in total this month and how much I have allotted myself using the budget page. That bar is actually in the red this month for me but that’s because I paid more on my loan than I had budgeted which is actually a good thing. I also have a bar for Groceries and one for Dining Out because those are the two biggest expenses for me. Also on the main page it shows my upcoming bills and deposits.

There is a Bills and Deposits page that shows all the upcoming payments including calendars showing which days they are going to happen. There’s a Cash Flow page that shows your cash flow (duh). You choose the time line you want to see (mine is set for the Next 12 Months) and it will show your projected earnings based on your budget.

I keep talking about a budget. That may be one of the most useful things with this program. It allows you to make a budget. There are categories for everything and you can add your own if you don’t see one that fits what you want. You put in how much you plan on spending in that category. You can make it the total for one month, year, week, whatever you want. I usually make my budget for the amount I plan to spend each month. Certain things like clothes I will put in for every three or four months because I don’t buy them every month. In the Gifts category I customize it putting in values for certain months (like December for Christmas, and May for my birthday) because that’s when I usually get money as a gift.

Once you have your budget completed, the budget page will show you how much you’ve spent in each category so you can see if you are on budget or if you need to change your budget or change your spending. I usually have my budget to show me the current month so I can see how much money I have left to spend in a category before I go over.

One page I enjoy looking at is the Reports page. You can view how much you spend in each category, how much you spend to each payee, you can view your annual budget, etc. Pretty much anything you want to know about your spending, you will find here. The annual budget is probably one of my most favorite reports. It will show you much you’ve spent so far this year in each category and how much you have left allotted. You can scroll over and view each month individually. At the bottom it will show you how much you spent and how much you budgeted that you would spent and the difference. I enjoy looking at a previous year and seeing that I actually came out with more money that I had budgeted I would. It’s such a good feeling. It’s also interesting to see how money adds up over a year. For example, in 2012 I spent $1400 on groceries, almost $11,000 on rent (!), $750 on the bus, etc. It’s just sometimes crazy to see your money all added up like that. Another report I like is the one where you can compare your spending between two years. You can see where your spending has increased and where it has decreased.

Now I know a lot of people are scared of credit cards. I personally have never been afraid of them. Maybe it’s because I was taught very young about money. I was always taught to save my money and to only buy things that I needed, and not things that I merely want. And I only ever spend money on my credit card if I have the money in my bank to pay it back. I have never missed paying my credit card. I think that is the key to using a credit card. You have to make sure you pay it EVERY month.

The reason I handle my money the way I do has everything to do with my parents. My dad hates spending money. He never goes on trips, he never buys things he doesn’t need, etc. Now on the other hand, my mom loves spending money. She likes to have fun and knows that you can’t just save your money your whole life. She goes on trips (often without my dad), buys clothes, buys treats at the grocery store, etc. I am a mix of both of them. If I have a extra money I tend to get a little bit careless and buy things I want even if I don’t necessarily need them. But when money is tight, I don’t have a problem not spending money. I will buy the no name brands and, to be honest, I usually prefer them over the name brands. I will portion out my food so that it lasts me the week or month that I need it to last, I will only buy clothes when my old ones have holes in them, etc.

In my next blog post I will talk about the money program I use to monitor my spending.

I don’t think either of these statements are correct for me. It was a nice night, but I know I will have other memorable Valentine’s Days in the future. I don’t want to forget it asap because there was nothing bad about it either. As I mentioned before, Valentine’s Day is not a really big deal to me so it wasn’t anything crazy. Just a nice night to spend with my Valentine.

Cute, Sweet, Kind, Caring, Sexy

I love just looking at his brown eyes from across the table. He always looks great, especially when he has his hoodie on. I don’t know why his hood makes him look so cute, but it does. And he’s so good to me. Always tells me how much I mean to him and how lucky he is to have me in his life.