A number of my friends are on social assistance for one reason or another. I use to pity them, or rather feel sorry for them because this should mean they can afford less than a working person. On closer observation I noticed they actually are able to afford a lot of little things that I am unable to afford.

I asked my one friend to share with me what money they get each month. They get their rent covered by social assistance and housing supplement which comes to $850 a month. They get child tax credit for 2 children which is $900 a month. These two items alone add up to more than I get paid each month at a full time job. Plus social assistance pays their utility bills. Since utilities are paid for by others water useage is not something they worry about in the summer, the paddling pool is filled and emptied every day. They use normal 60 watt bulbs, and there is a number of lights in the house that are on 24 hours a day. Because their income from social assistance is low they qualify for food bank, which gives you approximately 2 days worth of food, twice a month(so 4 days worth of food), still this is approximately $60 to $80 dollars worth of food a month(2 to 3 large grocery bags each time).

All of the benefits they get add up to more than I make from a full time job that pays a couple dollars an hour more than minimum wage, plus the income that I make from renting out one of the rooms in my house so that I can pay my bills each month. I really should consider finding away to just get onto social assistance, just kidding, I would rather work and know I earned the money than sit at home.

Sorry if I offend anyone by letting my thoughts be known. I was just shocked to realize that what I consider to be the poor people in my life that I help by running around in my car to get groceries and pay bills, give food to because they have run out, are actually bringing in more money per month than I am.

Latest Items that have seen Progress.

-I got the last of the new windows installed yesterday. This is completely paid for, nothing owing.
-Decided to payoff an extra little bit of my mortgage yesterday. Reduced by 4 more weeks. Now have 16y37w left.

Now for future planning. I just might be abandoning my idea of having my house paid off 5 years or so from now.

My friends back home, the ones that I have served as a helper to in the past, are partitioning for me to move back there. I truly do want to get back there, which you all already know.

I still don't know whether I will move back in the near future. I am planning to set myself up such that I will be able to do so, when the time comes that I feel I need to. I am going to put paying down my mortgage on hold for the next few months and rebuild my emergency fund. I used up a big chunk of my emergency reserve paying for the new windows.

My friends contacted me after I had already made the decision to make the extra payment on my mortgage yesterday. Pretty sure I would have made that particular payment anyways.

I slept less than 3 hours last night, due to the stress of thinking about when I possibly should move back home, and what I should do to make this possible. Sorry if this whole post is a little disjointed, lack of sleep is bound to have messed up my thought process.

How am I going to go about finding myself work back home?(Just starting to plan this one out, sure that I have a decent plan, so scared that I will not find work, when I move home) Hey I can survive on minimum wage, just prefer not to.


Why give up the excellent job I currently have, that has allowed me to pay off 3 years worth of my mortgage in less than 1 year? I love this family so much that I am willing to sacrifice everything for them, if needed.

I am thinking I will move back home sometime late this summer. I will base this decision on what I feel is the true need. Yes, I do believe there is a true need for me to move back to help these people. Also there is a piece of this that is due to my heart desire to be with these people. Plus I am getting so annoyed at some of the inconveniences that come with living in a different country.(My Mom has been kind to me and handled the problems back home that are caused by me not being able to do things personally.)

Yesterday, discovered that because I do not live in my house my current home insurance company is unable to continue to cover me. If I at least lived in the same country as my home, they would have been able to continue to insure my house. So I have to find a different company to insure my house. We may have already found a company to insure my house, but it is quite a bit more expensive. The other issue is that some of the wiring in my house is Aluminum, so the new company says there is a chance that when the underwriter reviews my application there is a possibility that they may decide they are not willing to insure it(therefore I may not be able to get my house insured). Another reason that I did not sleep very well last night.

Thank you for listening to my silly rambling.

My house mate is in the midst of looking for a different job. Truth is I don't blame him, the company he is working for is extremely under paying him. The companies he has interviews with currently are willing to pay him almost 2 times what he is currently making to do the same type of work as he currently does.

So how does this affect me? Well he is going to be moving out. The house is currently rented by him, I have been paying around half of the monthly expenses. I will be able to take over renting the house when he moves out, if I chose to do so. When he moves out my expenses will go up something incredible. This increase will set back my debt payback schedule by a large amount, not sure I am willing to let this happen. I will be delaying my debt payback by a month more each month that I do not share the housing expense.

Choices:
Find a new person to share the house with. I am incredibly shy about this idea, it is really hard to find a good person to share with. Not saying not possible, I just hate the search process. I am not a shy person, I am scared about trying to sell my own stuff though, including trying to find someone to share my living space.

The other option is to go homeless. This option would have the benefit of increasing the amount that I could be putting towards paying off my house back home.

It is almost summer. Put all my possessions into a storage unit, Minimal cost. I could sleep on the ground during the rain free nights, sleep in my car when it rains. Colder nights(well I have lots of blankets). Troubles with idea: Have to find a fake home for when parents come(so that they don't realize I don't have a home, I will ask one of the people at church if they would play this role), this is only a few times a year. Yes, winter could be a major problem, it gets fairly cold here(still lots of blankets, and could maybe sneak my way into sleeping under my desk at work at night).

Yes, the second idea is really me being funny. Though I am seriously thinking about the idea, as I hate the idea of letting go of the budget plan I have to get rid of debt. You see the debt I have is killing me slowly. I only slept a few hours last night, because I realized I might be delayed by as much as 3 years or more on paying off my house, if I am unable to find a way to keep my expenses at the what I currently have. There is no way that I want to be away from my home for longer than I possibly need to be.

Yes, the debt is a mortgage on a house that I do not live in. Why not sell it? If I sold that house I would be debt free. If I was not having to pay for that house, I would be quitting this job and going home to be with family. See the only reason that I stay here is to pay off the debt I still owe on that house. I would be able to buy a decent house in a small town back home for the amount I have already invested in my house. Sounds nice, but really love that home and want to eventually have it paid off so that I have a nice place to live.

Short term I am sacrificing comfort, so in the future I am in a position of being able to completely relax.

I am set up to make good progress financially this month.

-I will be getting a good size tax return. I know a number of people say try not to do this, but I kinda like it. Plus due to new job I really had no idea what deductions would be made. I plan to put 100% of this towards paying off debt(Mortgage). -This a doing good item.

-I just got a raise at work(Annual job review). They really like the work I have been doing. I normally do not look to see what I was paid when I get my first pay check of the month, this time I did, once I was told I had gotten a raise. The raise was a decent amount. The reason I don't look at my pay check right away is my expenses are all at the end of the month or very beginning and so this is the point where I balance my check book. -This a doing good item.

Actually formal job review yet to come, but I was given the heads up by one of my bosses that they had given me this raise, and that it was because they were impressed by the good job I have been doing. In fact I guess they kinda view me as the department head of sorts(from what he was saying), this is weird because there is someone else that has been there for 25 years(me less than 1 year) that my other coworker and I definitely defer to on most things. -Positively this is a doing good item.

Officially there is no department head. The reason I am viewed as being department head is that I tend to take charge and make sure things are flowing smoothly as possible, I definitely am known to keep on top of making sure things are getting done.-Doing Good
There is still a bunch I need to learn. I have forgotten a couple times lately to do a small task or two related to some projects, fortunately not things that caused big problems.(Still this is one of the things that I feel bad about.)

-I have just put another small amount of money down on my Mortgage. One extra payments worth, which reduced it by 3 weeks. I paid off 12 extra weeks worth of my Mortgage this month. -Doing Good Item.

Due to taking a trip to visit friends, 6 months worth of car insurance, renters insurance, and buying things I wanted for myself- I have spent way more money than usual this month, more than double what I normally spend on discretionary spending. Oh well, most of this stuff was needed. Maybe not trip to see friends(sure was nice to relax though).I bought close to $50 dollars worth of things for myself, no real excuse for this, still none of it was a total waste of money(or so I tell myself, lol) -The feeling bad item.

Some of the information below is part of a forum post I made, once I started writing I decided I wanted to make it a blog post. I also am adding more information here to expand on Budget part of this post.

I use 3 checks a month. One to pay Rent, one to transfer money from one account to another(Due to technical reasons this can not be done electronically), the last cheque is used to pay my tithe.

The really funny thing is that I have very limited access to cash(My bank account is in a bank that I do not have physical bank or ATM access-without fees), so I use my credit card for just about everything.

Funny thing is the suggestion from "Dave Ramsey" to use cash, it hurts more, therefore spend less. This would not really work with my brain, or it might. Once the money is no longer in my bank account I sort of view it as spent, therefore I tend to spend it until it is gone. Using credit card is my way of seeing exactly what I spend in the month, long term tracking as well. It hurts way more to have to give up $400(this is my average monthly spending) all at one time, rather then in small pieces.

$400 dollar average spending does not include Utilities, Utilities come directly out of my checking account. I budget approximately $100 for food and $100 for gas for my car. In other words I am over spending by $200 per month, but I really have no intentions of cutting back.(Oh just realized there is $100 for my cell phone that is also included in my $400, so really only spending $100 extra somewhere). Took a look at actual spending for the month. Spent $225 at walmart(about $75 to $100 on buying a few videos and some supplies to start quilting-a log cabin quilt), $75 on gas. Still I did spend exactly $400 this month.

Yes I could likely cut back cell phone plan, just don't feel like cutting the convenience of what I have. There is a certain amount of freedom of not worrying about minutes spent on phone, Data is set at a reasonable level(admit this is needed only when do not have wifi always avaliable). Have unlimited long distance, not much local calls made.

My Utilities cost me $250 per month. I can not change this number, #1 it is for home base(house currently being rented by guys). $100 for electricity, $100 for Gas, $50 for water-Sewage-Garbage. Weird enough Gas and Electricity average out to $100 each per month, not on equalized payments.

Rent for me is $400 per month.

A certain amount is donated to a Bible Camp that I help financially support.

I then put half of what is not spent from paycheck towards prepaying my Mortgage. The other half of what is leftover goes towards savings. Yes, there will be certain months where I vary the percent sent to mortgage versus savings.

I have no intention of telling you the amount I give to camp, or what I am saving per month.