No payment today, but I did have Coral and orientation at Walmart. And Katie made amazing supper, so a great icing on a rather bland Saturday. Oh and I updated our net-worth calculator and it's actually positive! Somewhere around $100. Time for prayer & prep for tomorrow! Money tip: balance the budget. When you have an added expense, like Christmas perhaps...increase your income to maintain momentum! It is difficult at times, but it will pay off when you are debt free and preparing to move into your own home with no consumer/student debt!

So no payment today, but there have been some new developments! So tutoring is lining up, and I did my testing this afternoon for the permanent EA posting. Oh and I have an interview tomorrow for the evening position at Walmart. And Katie has overtime this week! Interview Thursday which I'm prepping for as well! Money tip: new clothing is not a necessity. As a guy this is an easy way to save money, because I have very little desire to keep up with the latest trends. I have tons of clothes (and you probably do too). In fact I just hauled 2 garbage bags of clothing we no longer wear to Value Village. In fact when we have too many clothes we often forget about great clothes, and buy more to feel fashionable. You know what's really in vogue right now? A positive net worth! Katie & I are less than a month away from having one. How is your financial health? Comment below & add a question if you have any.

I made a $50 payment today thanks to a lawn client and a friend who paid me to use my mower for the day! Coral & raking work this morning, raking took longer than I estimated so I will be finishing that tomorrow afternoon & have to push one client back to be done on the PA day (Friday). We did some minor Christmas shopping and I walked the dog I am caring for this weekend. Now working on things for tomorrow, I am very excited as I know the messages I am working on are both timely and challenging. Money tip: many stores have 2 for $5 or some similar deal posted, trying to ensure that you will purchase 2 of said item. Many stores will sell you one item for $2.50 (in our example), and even if the one item is $3 on its own...if you only need one you are saving $2 by exerting a little self control. Or if it is a bag of chips (as in our example), have a little more self control and simply buy none (that is what we did).

Well no payments today, but tomorrow and Friday should fare much better! I received an email at 2:08 PM confirming that I have an interview next Thursday for a permanent EA position! The written portion will be done after school on Monday. So another interview to prepare for! I debriefed regarding the SSC interview and gained some pertinent insight. Oh and I will be speaking on Sunday when I am finished teaching the young adult class, so there is that to prep for! Busy, busy! :) Money tip: don't step over dollars for fractions of pennies. I was happy to see a coupon book in our mail today, I bring it into the apartment and it is simply to get "bonus air miles" on certain purchases. What a waste of time! Run around to collect points worth fractions of a cent...no thanks. Whatever happened to actual coupons which merely saved you money off the cost of an item? I have found some, but they are not very common! Want to know a better way to save money? Cold and flu season is upon us now, but about a month ago Katie and I spotted Buckley's cold & flu tablets on sale for 50% off one day at No Frills. Now by planning ahead we have the medicine for a fraction of what we would have spent running to shoppers when we urgently needed it!

Well I was able to make a $50 payment against student loans today! Progress is becoming maddeningly slow due to lawns winding down and sparse hours with Coral. So I am looking for a new source of supplemental income, I applied to Starbucks this evening and I am considering a couple of other options. Money tip: shop with a grocery list! Studies show that when you plan your trips in advance that you spend less, saving you hundreds of dollars in impulse spending over just a few months! Also, when you plan your trips in advance you can take advantage of price matching and even the occasional coupon.

So I made a $50 payment this morning! Chump change I know, but good to see a little movement in the numbers! Money tip: you learn so much about human behaviour working with kids. Because they do very similar things to adults for very similar reasons, but their actions and intentions are a little more obvious than those of adults. It is fascinating to see their little minds at work, problem solving so that they can get what they want from a given situation. But so often they think short term (which is a habit too seldom shaken off by adults), and what they pieced together to benefit themselves often has negative long-term effects they did not foresee. For example: a boy refuses to share any toys with other children. Short term he feels like a boss, he is large and in charge and no one can touch his stuff. Long term he wonders why the other children don't want to play with him...because selfishness backfires! How similar are simple little examples like this to our own lives and finances? So to sum up: 1. Think long-term. Months/years/eternity...not today or the weekend. 2. Be curious. Examine patterns in your life & be open to changing them. 3. Be generous, everyone loves when Scrooge had a change of heart.

So this morning I made a $300 payment against OSAP, glad to see more progress! I was able to get some great input and useful resources after my student left today so that I can prep for my interview on Monday! I considered just taking a half day off, but figured if being 100% focused gives me enough of an edge to do extraordinarily well in the interview...that extra half a day pays off in spades! So I will be spending the weekend reading up on educational documents, board policies and procedures and preparing my presentation for the interview! Oh and applying for the permanent EA posting as well! Money tip: it is far too common that people study hard in college to score well on exams which have no significant impact (individually at least) on their career...and then do not leverage that knowledge and the resources they have accrued in order to adequately prepare for an interview! If you are reading this and have an interview coming up, study for it! Be prepared; be confident; be professional and be yourself!