The last things.

Tying up loose ends around here….three weeks to departure!


Good news – on Tuesday (payday from one of my jobs) I will have all the money I need for my trip ready to go in my savings account! YES!!! That’s going to be a good day. And luckily I still have a couple paycheques coming so I can have a bit “extra”…I still have a few things to buy and as I’ve mentioned before, this budget is the bare minimum and I’m sure other things will pop up while I’m there. So saving a bit more will make me feel better, and I already have an emergency $700 stashed away in a tax-free savings account that I can’t access unless I transfer money out of it (so no chance to spend it at an Anthropologie sale!) so I feel better knowing I have that in there.


Here’s the budget today:

You can see things have changed a bit on the budget since the last one I posted. I changed the expenses side around a bit to reflect the different categories, and I also found ways to get rid of almost every expense in Vancouver while I am away so I don’t have to worry about paying stuff at home every month. You can see from this one that I have managed to get rid of paying for my cell phone while I’m gone (hopefully) – I called the company to find out what I can do and their suggestion was to transfer the contract to someone else. You just pay a $25 transfer fee and then someone else takes over your contract! Brilliant! So I have mine listed on Craigslist and have had a few bites, really hoping one pans out. I have offered to give $50 to whoever takes it over as an incentive (and that’s still way cheaper than me paying for it while I’m away). Please keep your fingers crossed for me on this one as it’s a huge expense that I need to not have! I also have gotten rid of the bank fees – I had an appointment with a bank representative to find out how to minimize fees while I’m away…I get dinged about $5-8 extra every time I use an ATM in Roatan, plus I was paying $11/month for regular bank fees. I’m switching to a 10 transaction per month plan as I will hardly ever be using my debit card there, and that plan costs $4.95/month but because I have a debit card, credit card, RRSP and TFSA with that bank they are going to waive the monthly fee! Every little bit counts.


You might also notice the income side has changed a lot as I’m selling a lot more than I anticipated. I have about 8 people coming by tonight to look at/buy stuff so the prices in the far right column are what I anticipate getting for them, I haven’t actually sold them yet but hopefully tomorrow I will have cash in hand. Some of them I sold to the girl who is moving into my apartment but she hasn’t paid me yet so that’s also in the upcoming income column.


I have to move out of my apartment next Friday which means several things:


1. I have to have all my bags packed for Roatan and not be missing anything because the rest of my belonging will be going to pod storage, which means I can’t access them.
2. I have to pack my entire apartment up in one week…after work…in the three evenings I have off from the gelato shop next week.
3. I have to fit the contents of my apartment into a 7′ x 8′ x 6′ box. Wow.
4. I have to keep out only what I need from the day after I move (July 28) to the day before I leave (August 10) in a big tupperware tote that will be getting sent home to my mom on the bus the day before I fly out.
5. I have to find somewhere to stay from July 28-August 10.


So, might be a stressful week. Damn.

All in all I’m pretty impressed that I’m going to hit this target in such a short timeframe. It’s insane to think that I returned from my first trip to Roatan exactly 5 months ago today with a mission to  make as much money as possible, quit my jobs, totally change my life direction and get back there by June September August. I’ve never worked so hard in my life and I’m not going to lie, it hasn’t been that fun or easy (minus my random quick Roatan trip in May). I’m worn-out physically and mentally but now this departure date is coming so soon and I can hardly believe that I DID IT. I can be all talk a lot of the time and this time I followed through and no matter what happens in Roatan, I will always be proud of myself for having the grit and the guts to work hard and take a chance…this opportunity swung by me and I grabbed onto it as tight as I could, and now it’s time to close my eyes and jump!