You don’t miss $4.33

This really should be included in the “You Don’t Miss $20” section, but I considered that it really should have is own section because it is a whole new level of thinking.

The concept is simple and the same as the $20 concept – you don’t miss this money in your account.  So, after the $20 was sent over to my friends, I would check to see the amount I had left.  If it wasn’t an even number, then I would round it down and send that money to the student loans folks.  Honestly, I never see those extra digits.  They mean nothing to me.  If somebody said to you "What do you have saved for when you travel to Thailand?" you won't respond "$4,678.32" you will respond with "around $4,500".  Your mind likes to round down.  You want to be comfortable if you make an error, but you also just can't remember all those digits.  It isn't natural for most people.

So, every time I signed into my bank account, I would do the $20 trick to my student loans, I would make the required payments, and I would then look at my account balance.  $154.33? Perfect.  $4.33 into the student loans.  This was likely done three times a week, and probably averaged about $5 every time I did it.  Pennies, amiright?  Why on earth would I read this stupid blog with its stupid self-righteous voodoo on paying off loans.  It can't be done any faster than I am paying off my loans now, right?!

Wrong.

$5 x 3 x 52 = $780

In one year, doing this ridiculous round down function paid off to the tune of what is likely $780.  When you apply the same calculations, I was saving this much in interest:

$39

Hardly interesting, you might say.  But you are also paying off some of the principal.  Or, you are just paying off the interest and the rest of your $$$ will go to your principal.

Over five years, the savings on interest are closer to $200.  That means you are done paying off your student loans approximately 1 month earlier!  It seems like small potatoes but everything adds up.  Because $780 per year for five years means that you have paid off an additional $3,900 in your loans.  That means you have shaved almost TWENTY months off your student loans.  Yes.  That's right.  Suddenly you are debt free (or, student loan debt free) over a year earlier than anticipated.

I can’t emphasize this enough – it’s the small things as much as it is the big things, and its getting that money out your hands and into the hands of the person who will gladly suck at the teat of your interest payments if you let them.  If I walked up to you right now and said "give me $200" would you say yes?  Of course not.  But that's what you are saying to the student loan people (ie banks) every single time you pay interest when you could have avoided it.

My motto is always this – the best way to fight the banks is to pay them off.  They hate people who are debt free.

 

DIY - Reupholster Dining Room Chairs

We discovered we needed a new dining room table when E invited his whole family over for lunch in the not so distant future.  Doing the math with our seating options, I quickly discovered we did not have the space to seat more than six people, max.

I also desperately wanted a hutch to put in all of my Nana's gorgeous china.  From my quick review online, I realized that this was going to be expensive if we didn't do it on Kijiji.

I found the most amazing antique hutch in the world, that came with a nice dining room table with two extension leafs, and six chairs.  One of the chairs even had arms on it.  I was in love.



Original fabric - Salmon Tulips?

However.... the pattern on the chairs was a different story.  When we were looking at the set, the woman proudly told me that it had been recently re-upholstered. I could tell from looking around her very beautiful home that it was re-upholstered to her tastes, not mine.  Fortunately I still have one picture of the fabric... basically a salmon pink with weird little blue flowers on it.  We scooped up the set and I set to work researching how hard it was to re-upholster dining room chairs.

The answer?  It is shockingly easy to do!

I recommend watching some youtube videos, such as this one or that one. It was honestly so easy.  The only investment you'll likely need to make it a staple gun and some new fabric, depending on the quality of the stuffing in the chairs (because these had been re-upholstered recently, I didn't need new foam).



Using a "tool" to take out the staples

Basically, you start by popping out (or in my case, unscrewing) the fabric seats.  Then you flip them over and start taking out the staples.  This was a painful process as there was a LOT of staples.  From what I can tell, whoever re-upholstered these chairs was about as much of a professional as I was, and probably didn't bother to watch the aforementioned very helpful youtube videos.

I didn't take pictures of the whole process - at the time, I was really just obsessed with getting this done in time. The youtube videos will honestly show you the steps to follow. I will say that after I did it, I felt less nervous about the colour I chose because now I know that if I don't like it in five years I can just pop them off and change them!  It is quite liberating to know that I have that option.

The one thing I still have left to deal with is that bench...

 

 

You Don't Miss $20

One of the more unusual ways I found myself able to pay off my student loans was by paying $20 to my loans every time I signed into my online banking.  That was on average probably 3 times a week.  I figured that since I never seems to miss $20 after I had bought a big lunch, I probably wouldn’t miss it if I sent off $20 to the student loan every time I signed in.  Twenty bucks isn’t a lot these days, is it?  It's barely enough for a ramen bowl worth tip.  But let’s look at that number over time.

$20 x 3 (per week) x 52 = $3,120

That’s right.  By depositing $20 measly dollars when I was already signed in to my online banking, over three grand was paid off my student loans within a year.  But that’s not the only benefit.

Interest on your student loans is essentially charged “per day”.  I remember realizing that for every day I had my loans, I was being charged $6 in interest.  EVERY DAY.  I couldn’t believe it.  By paying $20 a day, you are paying off more of the principal of the loan.  So, for the $3,120 extra I deposited to my loan payments, I actually saved (assuming I paid on the last day of the year instead of the first because even though I like savings I don’t like math):

$3,120 x 1.05 = $3,276 ($156 minimum in interest saved!)

But, that’s just for that year.  Imagine if you paid only the minimum on your student loan for the next five years and that $3,120 is the last to be paid.  The savings actually look like this:

$156 x 5 = $780.

So, you have paid off your student loans approximately (if your minimum payments were anything close to my minimum payments) 4 months early. Further, the student loan folks don't penalize you for paying $20 a day.  It is basically FREE MONEY because you won't even notice its gone.  Sick people like me actually enjoy the hassle of knowing the transaction is taking place for so little money.

I am hoping I have gotten your attention on the interest savings alone, but let's look at the payment on the principal.

$20 x 3 x 52 = $3,120

That is a sweet chunk of change in one year.  That alone shaves 15 months off your loans.  But just imagine doing that for five years: $15,600.  I don't care who you are or where you went to school.  You have paid off a significant chunk of your loans by paying $20 to the man every time you signed in to bank.

If your wallet is getting a bit tight, you will find ways to cut back.  You won't buy that new shirt.  You will drink wine at home with your friend for $10 each instead of $25 each plus tip.  You will opt for the soup instead of the prime rib meal at lunch.  Just put the $20 to the student loan every single time you sign in.  You won't miss it (unless you have a family to feed in which case much of my advice can be ignored as you have a real family to budget for). 

The pride you will feel in knowing that for every $20 you are putting in you are saving $1 in the next year should keep you going.  See it as the reverse savings plan and watch that debt chip away.

IKEA hack - Kivik Sofa (DIY arm wrap and side table)

Of course, with one Ikea hack, you find another, and it wasn't long during my research on Ikea Kivik sofas that I discovered the "custom arm wrap" on Etsy.  There are a few artisans who make these glorious items, at a cost of approximately $200 each.  Since I knew I would want at least two, I realized it was going to cost about $400 (plus shipping) I obviously put off this expenditure.

It wasn't long before I was really thinking about these beautiful wooden arm wraps/side tables again.  My lovely dog assisted in this, as she had managed to chew/mangle the edges of the sofa when we weren't looking. (I know, I know, don't let the dog on the sofa...).  All lack of dog-parenting skills aside, I was humming and hawing about how to hide the marks, and remembered the arm wraps.

But, again, the cost held me back.  So, when I discovered this blog on how to do an arm wrap DIY, I was intrigued and immediately saved it to Pinterest.  But I was nervous.... I don't know how to cut wood! I didn't want to buy a saw and two saw horses!  These small thoughts held me back.  

I started telling a colleague (the same colleague who gave us our lovely dog) about how she chewed the couch and how I was considering these wooden arm wraps.  I showed the blog to her and mentioned my concerns, to which she basically responded "that is literally three pieces of wood glued and then screwed together - just get Home Depot to cut the wood to size for you, a three year old could do this project".  With that inspiration, I made the trek to Home Depot.

Now, in hindsight, I should have brought a tape measure to Home Depot.  I assumed that 10 inch wide wood would be 10 inches wide, when it, in fact, is more like 9.25 inches.  So, the first piece of wood I got cut was sort of a waste (although I am trying to make some sort of artsy project out of it...).  Overall, the materials cost about $75 but if I hadn't made that mistake it would have been more like $60 (although I already had lots of sandpaper).  I used a cheaper wood (pine).  I screwed the pieces together instead of using other recommended fancy wood putting together techniques.  But, in the end, I learned a lot:
1. When they tell you to sand with the grain, sand with the grain;
2. Bring a tape measure to Home Depot to make sure you buy the right sizes regardless of what is indicated on the sign;
3. You can save big bucks if you are prepared to live with something that doesn't look as good/finished as what you see on Easy (less than $40 per wrap was the total cost); and
4. Don't let yourself get discouraged - you are so much more capable than you give yourself credit for.

I am not going to give a step by step on how I. made it, as there are lots of blogs out there that you can find (Google: DIY couch arm wrap).  But to encourage you, I want to post pictures of the end result, which I especially like because I managed to stain them to be a near-match to the legs!

IKEA Hack - Kivik Sofa (New Legs)

After E and I bought our new home and before we moved into it, I spent literally weeks trying to decide what to do with the living room.  I wish I was kidding but it was almost a full time job pouring over blogs and Houzz to try and determine the answer to my many questions like:

-          What colour sofa should I get for white walls and light flooring

-          Is leather better than fabric?

-          What size of sofa should we get?

-          Should we do one long sofa and two arm chairs or one loveseat and two arm chairs or two matching armchairs?

This is just a sampling of the questions that really kept me up at night.  Hilariously, I had never taken an interest in house décor before this point in time, unless you could all the posters I bought at the college poster sales (back when buying posters off the internet was not a thing – I know, I am dating myself).

Anyhow, after much agony and deliberation I finally decided on two matching loveseats… but did you know how many sizes of loveseats there are?

Some are big.  Some are small.  I decided that as we were on a budget, we should go with a fabric sofa.

Enter my work colleague who rescued precious dogs from the Turks and Caicos and was looking for an owner.  Introduction – my allergies.  I had dogs growing up and knew first hand the importance of leather sofas and hardwood floors to my survival.  So, the beautiful fabric sofa from a brand name store I wanted?  No longer an option.

What is a girl to do?  I was back to square one spending hours researching my options.  Eventually I settled on (I am sure you have guessed it as I now realize the title gave it away) IKEA leather.  I then had to agonize over what type of sofas to get from IKEA.  Fortunately there is no shortage of reviews and opinions and DIY on IKEA sofas out there, so I recommend visiting HERE and HERE for more information.

We decided to go with the Kivik, after I determined that the measurements of the Kivik were absolutely mid way between a normal love seat and a sofa, which was exactly what we needed for our strange narrow space.  Plus, you could sit on the wide arm chairs and E of course did the “lay down and relax test” and he was happy with it, even though it was certainly smaller length wise than he would consider ideal. 

Hilariously, despite the fact you are getting an entire foot less of sofa, you only save 20$ on the loveseat over the sofa.  I mean, part of that made sense to me, but the part of me that wished we had a slightly wider house was pretty upset about the whole thing.

Now, the one thing I had found during my IKEA research was an IKEA hack – replacing your original IKEA legs (blocks of plastic sadness) with fancy new legs.  After a lot of research, I ended up caving and going with Uncle Bob’s Workshop, in the hopes that his design would ensure the stability of these precious $979 couches.  You can find the link HERE, but as a warning – he is usually several months behind on his orders due to his popularity and the fact Uncle Bob is really the only employee from what I can tell.

Once they arrived, months later, I re-agonized over the colour.  Did it make sense with our light flooring?  Would it look strange? In the end, my research (see a pattern here with me?) indicated the resounding conclusion to this concern is “Who cares it all looks like wood anyways and wood almost always matches” so I decided to try to put them on.

The process is smooth enough, although I highly recommend reading Uncle Bob’s instructions before attempting to install on your own.  That being said, clearly I did not do that, and I still got them on by myself.  One important thing to note is that the Kivik apparently has two sizes of adapters and I thought I had to buy the 2cm size – in the end I was the 1.8cm size.  What is a girl to do?  I had waited for months for the legs.  So, I got out the sandpaper and I and watched Netflix reruns while sanding down to the appropriate size.  How can one be both patient and impatient at the same time? I have done it.

The result? Not what I was expecting, sadly.  The Kivik sofa is a bit clunky.  After I put the legs on, I wished I had considered buying a wider, more blocky leg to match.  I could likely have returned them to Uncle Bob to get a different style, but I didn’t bother because I live in Canada and it costs approximately a million dollars to return things to America unless you conveniently live within 50 kilometres of the US border (I do not).  Plus it is possible that buying a thicker leg would have just made it look more clunky.

Side

Front
(Dog kennel is not a recommended design element on any blog)

What I will say is that the IKEA hack made the couches go from looking pretty low on the ground and IKEA like to a much more reasonable height and looking like I might have spent money on them.

I won’t be taking the legs off and as indicated on all the advice blogs, the natural light coming in from under the couches for this narrow living room truly make all the difference.  Blocking out that light in our tall ceiling narrow living room was not a good choice, so I am happy about this change.   The couches feel extremely sturdy and I was pleased with my handywoman efforts.  But my number one recommendation would be to actually measure the size leg you are considering buying on a piece of paper, cut it out, and putting it up against the sofa to see if the size makes sense.

Oh, and in terms of the leather choice- so great.  I was surprised that the leather felt nice and soft after a very short amount of time and the couch has held up great to the dog, who has taken to sleeping on it. 

 

-C

Soup Stock

I only started to hate buying chicken stock when I no longer had a car.  Hauling even 4 Litres of chicken or vegetable stock was a chore, and it meant I couldn't buy milk at the same time.  It also cost $10 for 4 litres of stock, which just seemed bizarre.

At some point, I decided there had to be a better way.  I turned to the internet for advice.

Chicken and vegetable stock, as it turns out, basically makes itself when you are making a chicken soup.  You boil the bones you were going to throw away, along with the parts of the vegetables you weren't going to use.  You toss it in a big pot with salt, a few spices, and boil it.  Then you strain it!

Here is a recipe for you: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_chicken_stock/

And another: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_chicken_stock/

This is generally how I do it:

• 1 roasted chicken carcass (Safeway chicken for $8.99)
• 1 large yellow onion cut up into chunks (no need to dice)
• 1 tablespoon of diced garlic (you could also just press your own)
• Leftover celery and carrot
• Salt and pepper
• Thyme (small amount)

Sometimes, I am missing carrots or celery, and I just do it up anyways.  If you aren't using the broth for chicken noodle soup, you can get away with it as the base for other soups.  I bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for a few hours before letting it cool and then straining it all out - by far the messiest part of the task.

Of course, I don't put my chicken stock in adorable little mason jars like the ones linked above.  I either make it into a soup right away, or I freeze it in Tupperware.  There are health benefits to making your own stock, and it definitely is less salty.  I can't imagine going back to the canned stuff and think of all the money you can save!

Here is a picture of the messy work!

Your Tax Return Does Not Belong to You

Isn’t it great?  You finish school and are finally making some money.  You are finally in a position where you make enough money to be taxed.  What a life.  Then you discover that you have all these education credits!  Unused!  You file your taxes at H&R Block like a champ and then greedily wait for that cheque to come in.  What are you going to do?  Take a nice vacation?  After all, you are working hard, you deserve a break!  Buy a new bedroom set? After all, you need to look like an adult at work!  Go to Hold Renfrew? I deserve this treat and I have been really eyeing these new sandals.

No.  None of the above.  THIS MONEY DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU.

“What?” you ask? “How can that be?  I worked hard.  I get the tax return cheque. The government puts no restrictions on what I do with this money, so why should you?  I hate reading this stupid blog.  You are stupid and pretentious and think you are so moral with your savings ways.  Get bent.”

A fair reaction.  I don’t blame you.  But I am telling you, the tax return doesn’t belong to you.  It belongs to the student loan.

How does one come to this conclusion?  It is actually alarmingly straight forward, but because the government likes us to make decisions for ourselves and most student loans are really private bank loans at a decent interest rate, we usually end up spending our tax return on hookers and blow, or whatever the going vice and associated drug is these days.  For the record, my friends seem to prefer Holts and wine, but its really all the same problem.

Do you remember when you took out that student loan?  What did it pay for?

Courses.  Fees.  If you were lucky, rent!

When you filed your tax returns when you were a student (if you did – otherwise, you have a lot of work to do) what did you get from the University/College to help fill in the forms?  A little T2202A that outlined what you had paid in fees that year.  You included that, as well as the credit for the months you were in school for (full time or part time) and you didn’t look at the forms ever again.  Because back then, you didn’t use your credits.

Fast forward to post-graduation when you are receiving a real paycheque.  All of a sudden Troung and H&R Block is telling you that $7,000 is coming your way.  Now for all that money you spent on post-secondary education, SOME of it is coming back to you.  I can’t emphasize this enough.  Even in the best case scenario, you are only using the credits to decrease your total income.  You don’t get the credits back dollar for dollar.  The $20,000 credits will decrease your income, and so those taxes you paid will be returned.  About 40% depending on your tax rate and salary.

So you already used this money.  You used it on COMS 201, LAWS 491, ENGG 345 – its been used.  You took out the loan for it.  Now, you got some credits for spending all that time and money back in the day.  So that money in the tax return isn’t yours.  It belongs to your student loans.  It belong to past, poor you, who if you had the money would have paid for school yourself.

Every time you get a tax return over $50 do this – treat yourself to keeping $100 for something. I am not an animal.  I am not unrealistic.  Its cruel asking for somebody to fork over all that cash when all your friends are stopping at Holts.  But take the $100 and the rest – it should all go to your loans.  The education credits were never yours in the first place.

Business Expenses = Free Points

Some companies make you sign up for a corporate credit card, and all credit card purchases must be made on that credit card.  This post will be entirely useless to you, so feel free to move on and check Facebook again!

Most of you however will work at a company that merely reimburses you for expenses.  You pile up the charges on your credit card, then submit the receipts later.  This is a fantastic thing.

The reason it is so great is because with the right card, you can rack up the points without ever spending a dime of your own money.  It important to do your research on your points card and choose what is right for you.  I am not here to re-invent the wheel, so you should really just check out these sites which compare credit cards for you so that you make sure you get the best deal for what you want, whether it is travel, gift cards, or cash back. 

http://www.moneysense.ca/debt/credit-cards/canadas-best-credit-cards-of-2015/

http://www.greedyrates.ca/blog/best-travel-credit-card-canada-2015/#.VeUr3ZVRHX4

No matter what, we can safely refer to these as "points".

Let's say you don't want to use credit cards - you always spend more than you have.  This will still work.  You get a credit card only for corporate purchases.  Keep it in your office desk drawer until you need it even.

Assuming you have that credit card, you are going to be making money off of doing your job.  For example, I had a Costco MasterCard which gives me cash back (to Costco).  It's 1% for most purchases, 2% for gas, and 3% for restaurants.  Let's say you work at a company that lets you take clients out for lunch, has a decent amount of travel, and also makes you plan (and pay for) the company family barbeque.

Restaurants - $2,400 per year
Gas - $600 per year
Groceries for BBQ - $1,500 per year

So, what's the grand total?
$72 + $12 + $15 = $99

Now, you need to make sure you are going to pay for the annual fee.  I used to have a RBC Rewards Visa card, and I took two university students to Oregon for a competition once.  This was the benefit (other than the great trip!):

Flights (3) return plus insurance - $3,000
Hotels (3 rooms for 2 nights) - $1,200
Meals - $600
Total = $3,800 = 3800 points

What can you get for 3800 points? A 25$ gift card to the Bay, which might be enough to stretch to buy gifts for a friends baby shower if you buy everything on sale.  Or you save up for a year, and have enough to buy presents for a wedding you have next year.  It all helps.