I know that this has served me well over the years, because it has kept me from taking out students loans, but I have started to see that this is not the healthiest way to live my life in the long-term.  I have set goals that I am happy with, and I will work hard to achieve those goals, but after that I need to start to have some more balance in my life.

As a reminder, my savings goals for the remainder of law school are as follows:

• Now-End September: $7,000 (law school)
• Mid-August-May 2013: $10,000 (EF)
• May 2013-August 2013: $10,000 (down payment)
• August 2013- May 2014: $10,000 (down payment)

Note that the first two goals overlap because the $7,000 was thrown in later.  If I finish it sometime in August or September, I will move straight on to my EF.

If I get ahead of this schedule, I don’t want to just move forward to the next goal full throttle as I have in the past.  Instead I want to take a break and start saving (and spending!) on “fun things”.  This can be travel, it can be extra clothes, it can be more entertainment money, whatever, but it has to be dedicated to something that is not law school or down payment-related.

Now, I know myself better than to just all of a sudden direct all of my earning to the fun stuff in life, so I will actually move onto the next goal, but I promise to take a certain percentage, could be 50%, 25%, but I’m going to say minimum 10% and spend it on other stuff.

If I get there, this will be a huge step for me, although I’m fully aware that this must sound ridiculous to some people.  I just know that I needed to actually write it down to ensure that I will actually stick to this plan when and if the time comes.  And if I don’t, someone please point me back in the direction of this post!

If America runs on Dunkin, then Canada definitely runs on Tim Horton’s.  Every year Tim Horton’s runs a contest called “roll up the rim to win”.  You just roll up the rim of your coffee or other hot beverage and it will say either that you’ve won something or please play again.

I would say that most Canadians are pretty loyal to “Timmies” especially outside of the big cities, and so they go pretty wild for the contest.  I think the big prize is usually a car, and you can also win some other stuff like camping gear, bikes and tvs, but the vast, vast majority of prizes are donuts or free coffees.  The odds of winning are actually pretty good- I think about 1 in 6.

It becomes a constant source of talk in my social circles as to what peoples stats are.  Amazingly, some people I know will buy 30 drinks and still not win once, whereas others will be 10 for 10.

I have always prided myself on never playing the lottery or getting sucked into contests and competitions, but this year I found myself really spending money at Tim Horton’s that I know I would not have spent had the contest not been on.  I’m not super proud of that, but I wasn’t actually spending any money since I got a gift card for Christmas.

I was pretty surprised to find myself susceptible to an advertising scheme like that.  I always thought that I was smart enough to be more immune to simple tricks like that, but I became wrapped up and enamoured with the idea of sinning a drink for free.

Have you ever found yourself making a purchase because of a prize associated with it?

For the record, I was 6 for 6 at one point!

So where do I stand now?  Well, I have three months until fall term starts (although I will be in summer school for most of that time), and I will try to make as much progress as I can towards my goal of saving up $7,000 towards my final law school expenses.  I estimate that I will be able to pull in $3,000 in that time, but I always estimate conservatively, so I am hoping to surpass that goal by a bit.  I should be able to make up the remaining $4,000 by the end of September, when I will move on to saving up for a nice cushy emergency fund.

I want to plow through this $7,000 because there isn’t a lot of emotional attachment in this for me, and I really want to get to the emergency fun savings.  To me, nothing feels better than tucking away money for a rainy day because I know that I am doing something proactive to improve my future and ensure that unforeseeable problems won’t sink me.

My annual fee is $39, and I receive 1% back on all purchases, which means that I have charged almost $4000 on my VISA since November, which is not great.  However, I am happy that now that I have broken even, all of the money I make from using my VISA from now to November will be pure profit to put in my emergency fund (it only gets deposited once per year in November).

I should still get another $15-20, mostly from purchasing my train tickets for the year.  Some people make hundreds of dollars on their credits cards every year, but I’m happy to break even and just make a little bit of money on it each year.  I do watch anxiously until I hit this crossover point because I would hate to actually PAY for the privilege to have a credit card.

I consider myself a fairly experienced and savvy traveler.  I have taken cars, boats, buses and trains, and I make a 10 hour weekly commute when I’m in school, so I’m used to delays and a wide spectrum of great to awful service.  But the one thing I’ve never done is travel first class.

There is a small airline called Porter that started in Canada a couple of years ago and created quite a buzz because it flies out of Billy Bishop Airport, which is sort of on a little island right off of downtown Toronto.  It also caters to business travelers, and they say that every seat is first class.  I have lots of friends who have flown Porter, so I was absolutely looking for any opportunity to fly with them, but this whole law school things has kept me out of the skies and counting my pennies instead.

My expectations were high, but were far surpassed.  It was so nice to be pampered, I can definitely see why people choose to fly first class.  They have a free shuttle that runs to Union Station every ten minutes, and then you have to take the world’s shortest ferry ride to get to the island itself.  All free, quick and pleasant.

Check-in itself was also great because it’s such a small airport, so there were no lines at all and no walking for ages to get to the right gate. 

Then you get to the lounge itself, which is awesome.  I was so thrilled by all of the free stuff in the lounge that I had two lattes and a coke before takeoff.  They also had these fantastic shortbread cookies.

On the plane itself, I had another drink, they gave me a water bottle and I had some yummy vegetable chips and then we landed super quickly.  The flight attendants were easily the most helpful I have ever seen.  And the drinks are served to everyone in real glasses!

Porter had only just started flying to Washington DC very shortly before I traveled, but they were already pros all along the route.

Very fun and I already can’t wait to fly with them again (though it will be a good long while!).

The hardest part was actually packing because I haven’t saved up for my professional wardrobe yet.  I patched together pieces from my own wardrobe and then borrowed heavily from my mom and I made it through.  I’m glad that I didn’t buckle and just buy myself a suit because I would have been in a rush and not paying attention to sales and coupons and I’m certain that I would already regret it.

The main expenses I was worried about were food.  There was free continental breakfast available in the mornings, and I certainly took advantage of it.  Most people ate a $30 breakfast at their hotel and then grabbed a latte at Starbucks on the way to the conference, so there was always plenty of food at the continental breakfast.  I was so shocked at this at first, until I realized that their firms cover all of their expenses, so why not have the breakfast they want.

I would also tuck away a yogurt, a piece of fruit and a juice for later, and snack away on that until dinner.  For dinners, I embraced the free parties and dinners that were being thrown left and right.

I was also so lucky because DC is a fantastic city where there is so much to for free.  I could walk anywhere I needed to go, and was lucky to be able to explore several Smithsonian museums, art galleries and gardens for free.  If I had been required to pay for those attractions, I would have spent my free time in the hotel room instead.

The convention enrollment wasn’t cheap, but it didn’t break the bank because they have a fantastic price for law students.

As a law student this was a fantastic experience, I definitely learned a lot and plan to go to more conventions in the future, but at the same time I am aware that I have to be careful about where I go because that money can slip through your fingers fast.

Originally when I figured out that I would have to save an additional $7,000 to pay for law school I freaked out because it seemed like an insurmountable challenge and it threw my big plan off track.  I’m only a little bit embarrassed to admit that I shed some tears over it.  But I’m trying to not get so bogged down in feeling negative about money and depriving myself of things, so I picked myself back up and set about making a plan.

As you may or may not remember, my big goal for the summer was to meet my Summer Savings Goal of $4550 by mid-August, and then my big goal for the academic year of mid-August to May was to build a $10,000 Emergency Fund.  I have decided to sandwich this $7000 in between my Summer Savings and my Emergency Fund.

It will probably be fairly slow-going because work is slow and I’m not bringing in a ton of money right now, so I expect that it will take me into September, and possibly longer, to meet that goal, but I’m still confident that I will be able to be caught up by the end of the upcoming school year.

I hate being thrown off of my goals, but in the long-term this isn’t really going to hurt me, so I have nothing to complain about.  I will be able to post a real update after I get all of these numbers sorted out and know exactly where I stand.

When I lived with roommates we all kind of just brought what we had.  So I brought three beds and a dining room set.  Another girl had a couch and chairs and one roommate had every fancy kitchen gadget you can imagine.

My needs were not confined to the kitchen either.  I needed a shower curtain and rings, plunger and toilet brush for the bathroom.  I had a kettle, some plastic plates, two mugs, a can opener, a few mason jars and some mismatched cutlery, so I was pretty much starting from ground zero.

I knew that my kitchen was going to be very basic and not one will all of the bells and whistles.  I’d rather start small and grow.  If there’s something I notice I’m always missing, I can always get it later.  My strategy from the beginning was to throw out the idea of what my kitchen should have, and focus on what kitchen tools I actually use on a regular basis.  So, a rolling pin became essential because I love to make pizza from scratch and I need it to roll out the dough.  But I never actually use a strainer when I have one available, so why spend my money on one.

My parents hang onto things for a long time, which is sometimes annoying when they tease you about the Christmas Wishlist you wrote when you were six, but sometimes comes in quite handy.  I also have the benefit of an aunt and uncle who downsized to a condo over a decade ago, and a grandmother who moved in with us before she passed away.  This is my secret weapon, because sometimes there is just extra stuff hanging around the house that I can just have for free.

I basically started with a big list of everything I wanted and then worked my way through starting with the cheapest, up to the most expensive option.  I crossed off shower curtain, saucepan, cookie sheet, muffin tin and much more, which was awesome.  I am also going to get to bring an old hand mixer with me, which is awesome because I love to bake, but didn’t think it would be possible to afford something like that.

My next stop was Goodwill.  I went to two different locations just to make sure that I had my bases covered.  I should also say that I don’t think I’ve ever been in a Goodwill before.  I’ve definitely donated lots before, but you just drop it off at the side door.  I will say that kitchen stuff does not seem to be their strong suit.  They have far more clothes and videos and books and toys.  The two stores had completely different stuff, so I’m glad I went to two.  At one, I found a frying pan and flat spatula, and at the other I found two pieces of tupperware and an ice cube tray.  My total for these items was $9.06 and would have been much, much higher, had I bought them new.

My next stop was Canadian Tire, where I spent the most money.  I bought a toaster, which is an appliance I use almost every day, and a coffeemaker.  I never used to be a big coffee drinker, but last term I said almost daily that I wished I had one because I was so exhausted all of the time.  I also bought a plunger for the toilet because I’d rather be safe than sorry.  My total was $66.74.

Then I went to Zellers where I got a utility knife, a brush for washing dishes and a brush for cleaning the toilet.  Thanks to a gift card, I only owed $5.22.

My final stop was Kitchen Stuff Plus, which I knew would have everything, but I also saved for last because I knew it would be the most expensive.  All I had left on my list were measuring cups and spoons, a rolling pin, and either oven mitts or pot holders.  I got everything except for over mitts/pot holders because they were more expensive than I was willing to pay.  I shelled out $36.13 at the store, which was more than I had hoped to, but all of the items I got there were of a very high quality, and I know I will still be using them in a decade.

My total all in is $117.15, which I am certainly happy with because it is much less than the $300 I had budgeted.  I may still remember more things that I need.  I think that all of my floors are carpet, and I don’t have a vacuum cleaner, so that may be where the extra money goes, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Right now, I’m working just a couple of days per week (only 3 hours/day), and I’m making the same as or even less than I was when I was just commuting home on the weekends.  I knew that this was coming, and it wasn’t a surprise at all, but I have still not been feeling great about it.  I hate that my progress toward my financial goals has been so slow, especially since I’m not in school right now.

It’s been on my mind a lot, but I just keep reminding myself that I am ahead of schedule on my goals anyways, and that I am blessed to be in a situation where so few hours at work does not negatively impact my quality of life.

All I can do is control my own attitude, and stay available to pick up as many shifts as I am able to.

Taxes- $300

Wedding- $600

Furniture- $350

Kitchen Stuff- $300

Target/Walmart- $300

Moving Fund- $500

Birthday Gift- $200

Float- $1000

Professional Wardrobe- $1000

As I have starting researching and spending money, I have found that some things are a lot more expensive than I expected.  For example, moving vans are easily more than double what I expected them to be.  On the flip side, some things are quite a bit less expensive than I expected them to be.  My kitchen stuff would fall into this category.

Instead of being stressed about keeping each category in line with the budget, I’ve decided instead to just treat it as one big category.  My hope is that the places where I need extra money will be able to get extra money from the places that don’t need it as much, and that everything will work out in the end.

Of course, I will still have to keep the rough outline in my mind to avoid spending all of the money on clothes!  I think I will have almost all of this money spent by the middle of June, with the exception of my professional wardrobe, which will happen in August.