Archive | April, 2016

The Car Is Mine

28 Apr

Anybody remember that song “The Boy Is Mine”?…anybody? No? Ok, well, go YouTube it to remind you of the beat because every time I think “the car is mine!” my brain thinks it to the beat of that song and it is driving me a tad nutty lol

Today, officially, was my final payment on my suv! Yay! I am so freakin happy about this! Now sure, for most people finishing your vehicle payments probably isn’t such a huuuge massive deal, just one more thing you can check off the list or something but to me, well, lemme tell ya, these payments being over is going to save me financially.

Sound overly dramatic? Well trust me when I say I am telling it like it is. 😛 When I bought this suv I had a roomie and way cheaper rent, oh and I was earning a bit more money than I am now. So while the payments were a bit tight they did fit in my budget. However, life changes, the company I worked at went under, I got a job with a higher hourly wage but fewer weekly hours, oh and I moved and my rent went up so all of a sudden my finances blew up.

Blew. Up.

Now though I have an extra $200 bi-weekly to spend on something other than my suv payment. One less bill. Extra $400 a month.

The possibilities are endless!

Well, not endless cause I still have other bills to pay and normal expenses to cover and I’d like to create some sort of savings plan but it sure feels like the possibilities are endless because the screws are not being turned quite as tight as they were only yesterday. 🙂

Tomorrow will be my first payday in years and years and years that won’t have a suv payment coming out of it…I can’t wait!

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Happy dance time!

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Hiking Pics

28 Apr

I’ve been hiking a handful of times since the weather got nice and each time there have been some definite kodak moments…some of which I actually pulled my phone out and took pics of. Look at me, remembering to take pictures of things so I can share them with you, go me go! lol 😉

Well ok, I remembered to take pictures twice and one of those hikes I’ve already shared the pics of but if my Drop Box will ever finish uploading the newest pics from my phone then I will post some of them here…

Let’s all wait together shall we?

-Insert Jeopardy music here-

Aha! Finally! 🙂

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This was taken from around the halfway point on the staircase. I hate stairs. Stairs are evil. Having said that, when I got to the top I realized they weren’t as bad as I anticipated. Lesson learned! Always try something you think is gonna be hard, it might turn out to not be that bad… 🙂

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A lovely little spot where people go swimming in the summer. Despite how warm we had gotten from our hike it was definitely nowhere near warm enough in the water to dip a toe in. You can’t tell from this pic but to the right the water gets deeper and extends quite a ways up until it meets with a waterfall. There is a ledge where people jump in to the water from that currently has a tribute on it because someone jumped about 3 weeks or so ago and died.

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This is a man made lake that sorta just appears when you’re on a certain trail. It is super calm and relaxing and I could sit on the bench and enjoy the spot for hours. Well, except that just behind you is the trail so you hear people going past. A bench that is a bit off the trail and more secluded would be nice, only, how would people know about it? Oh the dilemmas! lol Apparently there are fish in the lake and people go fishing here, I didn’t see any but maybe they are deeper in the water where it is warmer.

I feel a little bad about the fish, I mean, c’mon, people make a lake and stock it with fish then let people fish there. It is kinda mean. The fish have no way to escape, they didn’t choose to be there and you are almost guaranteeing they get killed…just doesn’t seem right to me. If people want to fish I think they should fish somewhere the fish have a bit better odds of not dying, but that is just my opinion, shrug.

All in all, lovely hikes. 🙂 Lisa and I go every Sunday after work and we are upping that to also going every Monday after work, so guaranteed two hikes a week, yay! They aren’t crazy intense hikes or anything but they are still nice. I’ll leave the crazy intense hikes for a day off so I have more time and energy to enjoy them and go farther in to the back country…bears here I come! 😉

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Abbotsford Tulip Festival

27 Apr

The other week a friend and I went to the Abbotsford Tulip Festival. I wouldn’t say it really qualifies for the title “festival” since the only thing there is a really big field full of different types and colours of tulips…don’t festivals usually have rides? And food on a stick?

Despite not having the opportunity to buy some form of food on a stick and twirl around a little bit too fast on a sketchy ride we had a good time. 🙂 It was an almost hour ride from where we were to the tulips and who doesn’t like a good car ride?

It was a lovely hot day so sunscreen was of course my best friend, I maaaay have forgotten to put sunscreen on my scalp and I didn’t want to wear a hat so yeah, sunburned scalp, ugh, but not the worst burn I’ve ever had, not even close! Heck, the burn didn’t even peel so not even ranked in the top 20! 😛

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A little zen moment amongst the flowers.

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See the bee?

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Almost endless flowers…

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So obviously I’m not a wonder at photography but I think the flowers look pretty despite my lack of skill…

This next picture amuses me, it is an entire row of decapitated tulips…who would do such a thing?

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Poor decapitated flowers…

 

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LV Costs What??

21 Apr

I have this totally awesome friend (who is awesome even though she doesn’t read my blog 😛 ) who is getting me a freakin amazing birthday / Christmas present this year. My birthday is Dec 23rd and she never ever gets me combo presents but this one is above and beyond and in reality should be her present to me for two or three years, not just one. She talked to me about it before going ahead with it, which is how I know about it so far in advance, and I was completely blown away.

Well obviously I want to get her something totally beyond anything I have gotten her in the past, because even though it won’t compare with what she is getting me I have to do my best on my smaller budget.

She really loves designer purses and shoes and I had this oh so brilliant idea to get her a designer purse. Now, I don’t know a whole hell of a lot about designer purse brands except that I can’t afford them normally but for this, well, I’ll save, and it’ll be worth it, and really, just how much could they possibly be?

Ha! What silly naive thoughts I had!

I watched a bunch of YouTube videos of people talking about their various designer purses to get an idea of which were good and which were found to be lacking and it seemed Louis Vuitton was super popular and almost never disappointed people. I also learned women collect LV stuff like it is going out of style, or like it is some sort of investment or something which has led me to believe that some people have way too much money and if any of them read this feel free to donate to the cause of moi! 😉 lol

After getting it in to my head that I’d get her a LV clutch or something similar I went to the LV website and almost had a heart attack as soon as the page for wallets loaded. The first wallet that popped up was this one…

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Want to know how much this wallet costs? Go on, guess, I dare you!

This, the Sarah Wallet is $1030.00, Canadian.

Seriously? For a wallet?!

After the shock dimmed a bit I skimmed through some more of the website and kept blinking in disbelief as I saw the prices scroll by.

I feel so poor now lol

And yeah, I may love my friend to bits and pieces but no way I am getting her a LV anything cuz there is nothing on that site that is a price I can ever afford.

So now I am back to square one for what to get her, I have a couple months so I’m sure I’ll think of something but wow, what an eye opener for how the other half live. 😛

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$18 Jug of Milk

8 Apr

Do you ever do that thing where you go in to the store for one item and come out with a bagful?

That was me this evening, so my intended $2 and change purchase of milk turned in to $18 and change for milk plus some other stuff. *rolls eyes*

This doesn’t happen to me when I go actual grocery shopping, then I go with a list and I get just what is on the list…ok so sure I also sometimes end up with a treat or I buy something I know I’ll need soon that is on sale now but in general, I follow the list.

When I go to buy one or two items though it is like all hell breaks loose with my willpower over choosing what I pick up and next thing you know I’m spending $20 when all I intended to purchase was a bunch of bananas, or like this time, milk.

What’s with that?

My mom does the same thing, so maybe it is genetic? 😉 lol

This time I justified some of the items because I didn’t have cash on me and no way was I using my debit card for such a small purchase so I figured hey, buy one or two other things just to make the purchase amount less pathetic but those one or two other things turned in to about 6 things and next thing I know I’m unpacking croissants and cereal and turkey pepperoni and milk and a couple other things on to my stove (I don’t have a kitchen counter) and wondering what the hell I was thinking.

I’d love to say all the items are essentials but who am I kidding? Froot Loops are not essentials…well, essential to my sugar levels and happiness but nutritionally? Not quite! lol Though if I thought on it long enough I’m sure I could find a way to justify them…it is a fortified cereal after all… 😉

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First Time This Year

3 Apr

Get your mind out of the gutter – not thaaaaat kind of “first time”! lol

I’m talking about my first hike of the year…or I guess I could word that as first hike of the season…either is accurate, shrug.

A friend and I went for a walk last Friday before I went to work and decided we enjoyed it so much that we made plans to go for a walk / hike Sunday afternoon when I was off work. I oh so responsibly packed a bag the night before (cause nooooo way would I remember at 5am to pack a bag with hiking appropriate clothes in it) and once I was at work texted her asking if she wanted to come walk the trails near my work or go to the trails near her or if we should go somewhere completely different. I had to be sneaky because we have an unfortunate habit of saying we are going to go for a walk or a hike or to a fitness class or whatever and instead we either (1) cancel completely or (2) go for tea and sit and gab.

Yup, we are enablers of each others laziness.

So I figured if I worded the text to her today as if I assumed we were still going it’d be harder for her to bail.

Turns out I was wrong. lol She wrote back saying she was way behind for the stuff she had to do today because of things happening in her townhouse complex (loooong complicated story that and not really essential to my story, which is of course the important one 😉 ) and basically she couldn’t make it.

I, in a non-bitchy way, said no worries but since I’d brought my change of clothes with me I was still gonna go. At this point I still had some energy left so I meant it when I said it.

Well, by the end of my work day I was tired and had almost completely decided to not go for a walk or a hike and instead go home. Before I could though my friend calls, turns out by my saying I was still going to go it got her thinking that she really should find time in her day to do something active and good for her so she once again decided to join me.

I couldn’t very well tell her that I’d decided to bail *rolls eyes*…and that is how we ended up here…

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The shots of the water were all taken from the suspension bridge. If it wasn’t for other people being there I could easily stand on that bridge for hours watching and listening to the water.

As for the hollow trunk picture, I thought it’d be fun but in actually I look like I have no neck lol silly shadows. 😛 And before anyone who is thinking about my eyes freaks out (which really that would only be my mom) I only took my sunglasses off for the picture, otherwise they are always on when I am outside – I am following all my eye care rules, honest! 🙂

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