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It has been a pretty crazy month for me, from arriving back from Europe and trying to get settled into my new hotel digs.

INCOME: $15,300

• All gross, not net and I still have to pay taxes on it (about 20%) so it’s really $12,240
• Then you have to factor in how much I am paying for business expenses as well

Update: This is for 3 weeks of work, I was on vacation for one.

EXPENSES: $4878.58 *cries*

• Business: $3940.60

• Personal: $937.98

Update: I should redo these numbers but I won’t.

I actually double-counted my rent and my hotel, and my very basic expenses (hotel, food, parking, gas, food) should really be around $2000 a month, but I am pre-paying for September as well as paying for August, which doubles my expenses.

BUSINESS EXPENSES: $3940.60

• Hotel is for all of August up until almost the end of September (YES!!)
• Had to switch hotels halfway through the month, that helped me save a lot of money in the end
• Have to think of the big picture: it’s cheaper than paying for a 12-month lease for something similar

PERSONAL EXPENSES: $937.98

• I have to calculate part of my “personal” living as my rent for my taxes
• Spent a little on self grooming this month
• Very difficult to calculate groceries in this case, as it’s included in my business expenses

NET WORTH: $112,230.05

15% increase or by $11,267.91

• Cash: $30.35
• Savings: $5076.96
• Emergency Fund: $25,649.15
• Retirement: $36,041.72
• Business: $45,431.87
• Emergency Fund: $25,649

Note: Still have taxes left to pay, so my net worth will drop next month.

Came across this interesting visual on the web, as part of the article: The Fading Glory of the Television and Telephone.

Via but props go out to Musings of an Adbstract Aucklander for leading me to Living Well on Less.

Go to my blog and take the survey at the top!

I think a lot of people get necessity and luxury confused.

Necessity, if you want to be really technical about it, is: basic shelter, clothing, food & water and warmth.

Everything else, is a necessity, even if we don’t think it is.

That being said, here are my answers:

• Green & Bold = Necessity
• Red = Unnecessary
• Blue = On the Fence

Here we go!

• Home Computer = I suppose I could do without, but I rather enjoy having my own laptop
  
• Microwave = I could use the oven instead, but that’s just an inefficient use of energy
• High-Speed Internet = Goes with the computer. Alternative would be to go to the library
  
• Car = Only for now, because I can’t get to the client site otherwise, unless I pay a cab to & fro
• Cellphone = Could always move to Skype/Google Voice and stick to email instead
  
• Landline Phone = I have a cellphone instead
• Clothes Dryer = Definitely unnecessary for me. I wash everything & then let it dry on its own
• Air Conditioning = Uncomfortable, but unnecessary for me. I don’t live in Florida
• Dishwasher = Not necessary, but BF would like one if possible, as he hates doing dishes
• Cable/Satellite TV = Again, too many channels and choices, not enough content I want to watch
• TV Set = Have a hotel TV now & I have to THINK to turn it on, and then I get frustrated trying to find a show
• Flatscreen TV = Same as above, I have it in the hotel, I just don’t use it

Well that wasn’t so bad.

I only consider my computer, high-speed internet and microwave as “necessities”, but even I am sure that I could do without them, by going to internet cafes or using the library.

I could even get rid of the car if I could find clients that had bus stops and subway stops near them!

I know I could always bike to work instead, but it’s quite a trek, and I am not comfortable with in-city biking, because I’ve seen the way cars treat bikes on the road.

If they had dedicated bike lanes, I’d bike for 50% of the year, and take public transport during wintertime (which can typically be 6 months, here).

What do you think? Could you do without?

Go to my blog and take the survey at the top!

A woman called into the radio the other day, and made me think about her situation for pretty much the rest of the day because of all the different perspectives this could be viewed from.

Basically, she said she was laid off in March, and even though she had 9 years of experience in a particular industry she had been searching since March and still hadn’t found a job.

It got to the point where she started to give up on the search, and felt like staying at home with her 3-year old son was a lot better use of her time.

She also mentioned that her husband was getting impatient (frustrated?) with her, and she just didn’t feel like looking for a job any longer.

She also asked if it would hurt her career-wise to take off 2-3 years to be with her son, and then try to re-enter the workforce.

FROM HER PERSPECTIVE:

9 years of solid experience and no one is hiring her? Wow, that is a serious blow to your career and not to mention your ego.

I really feel bad for her, because it seems like no one values her experience. I can see where you can get despondent and just give up on searching for a job.

Her husband getting mad at her is not helping, because it’s only been 5 months, and we are just starting to turn the economy around.

When you can’t find something — you simply cannot work. Heck, I went through a good chunk of 2009 without any income at all. I know how it is.

FROM THE HUSBAND’S PERSPECTIVE:

I’d be pretty angry and scared. I mean, I understand that since March, there’s been nothing for her. Zip, zilch, nada… but now everything is dependent on his income alone.

He now has to shoulder the burden and stress of being the sole-income provider, they probably have a mortgage, a car to pay and some consumer debt to cover, and she’s basically giving up after only 5 months?

If I were the husband, I’d encourage her to look into other industries, but I’d probably be pretty annoyed if she tried to say she didn’t want to do anything else, and she was just giving up.

Sometimes we have to do what we don’t want to do, just to get some money on the table and pay the bills.

To put it in another way, if it was the husband and not the wife who hadn’t found anything since March, and the wife was working full-time, would you feel differently about the situation?

I think we might be inclined to call him a lazy bum. I know it isn’t fair, but I think that’s what would first pop into people’s minds.

I really feel that her husband is reacting out of fear, basically worried that HE might be laid off next, and/or they just aren’t making by on what’s he’s earning, and they really need her income as well.

FROM A CAREER PERSPECTIVE:

Perhaps this is a positive thing, and if she can find a job in another industry, maybe the experience will be more enriching than trying to stay in an industry that doesn’t seem to be hiring.

I’d give a new career a shot, and if that didn’t pan out, try something else.

Being flexible and open to change, while not trying to let rejection get you down is kind of a must-have in today’s new world order.

I also think that if she took 3-5 years off to watch her 3-year old son, (I don’t think they’re planning on any more kids), it is definitely going to hurt her career-wise.

One year, maybe two.. fine.

But 3-5? It’s really too big of a gap for employers to wrap their heads around, and everyone who has been working for those 3-5 years will get the jobs first, and she might have to even start at the bottom again, which is really painful.

IN SUMMARY

My suggestion would be to look in another industry and perhaps take on a part-time job in the interim to help take the financial stress off of her husband.

I understand there are exceptions, but it doesn’t seem like this is one of those situations.

I am really the type of person who feels everyone should carry their own financial weight if they can, and I’m pretty sure I’d go crazy staying home with my kids without working or having any other outside adult interaction.

That being said, she has to broach this subject with her husband, and make sure that they are both in sync, they both agree to and understand the plan, and that no one feels resentful.

I really think that this is the type of situation that starts the seed of divorce proceedings, and if they don’t work out a plan together and compromise, they are going to be in deep trouble.

I am all for either parent wanting to stay at home and raise their child, in fact, I think it’s a great idea because of the personal touch that comes from doing that…. but if there are other options that may not be as rosy, but are better for the family from a financial standpoint, sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do it.

I know we are missing a lot of facts, and we haven’t heard all the sides of the story firsthand, but this is an interesting real-life situation.

What do you think?

Do you see another solution that might be a better compromise?

If you are online as much as I am, you tend to start shopping online just because things tend to be cheaper than if you were to buy it in store, or if you are Canadian and are always paying a 20% -30% premium just because you live in Canada, you can save even more if you shop online if you manage to catch the dollar at a low point.

That being said, there’s no sense in spending more than you have to, even online.

Enter: Coupons and Cash backs!

Who doesn’t love a free discount that requires very minimal work?

The one site I found for this is Coupon Cactus.

Not only is it also open to Canadians, but it works a lot like Retailmenot whereby it has coupons and codes for thousands of stores, and you can even get cash back for almost all of them.

Me, I’d much prefer cash in my pocket over any other kind of points or discount program

You just have to sign up for Coupon Cactus (free and easy), and you can earn extra cash if your friends refer to — up to 10% of the cash back that they earn, and it’s at no cost to them!

So if your friend bought something for $100, and they received a cash back of $3 (3% cash back), then you’d earn $0.30 on that.

It may not seem like a lot of money, but it adds up without you having to do any of the work.

The stores I’m interested in browsing right now are:

Benefit — 3% cash back — because I’ve been eying their liquid blush for some time now, and Sony Style Canada — 1.5% cash back but no coupon — I’ve been eying their laptops for a while now. My Dell is about to die, I can feel her wheezing and totally blacking out without notice, and it might be time for an upgrade.

Coupon Cactus — give a shot if you are in the market to buy something anyway, why not get a deal?