As I type this, I’m laying on the bed in Roomie’s spare bedroom – the room that only a few months ago was still home for me in Toronto. It’s shortly after 10pm on Sunday night and I am laying on the bed, versus in the bed, because the humidity in this city is… well, it makes Toronto feel like a tropical destination, in comparison to anything you experience in BC. Honestly, I shouldn’t complain because it’s only 22°C tonight, but 88% humidity is just sticky! This is about as warm as it gets in Victoria ever, haha.

What I can complain about is how quickly my trip seems to be flying by! It’s already Day 5 of my 10-day trip to Toronto. Every part of it has been great so far, but I know that my Saturday afternoon flight home is going to creep up fast. In case you don’t see me on here or on Twitter much this week, this is what I’ve been up to and where I’ll be:

Day 1 – Stayed up until 1am catching up with Roomie. Then jetlag kept me up until 4:30am.

Day 2 – My 7am alarm hurt. Three shots of espresso helped. I went into the office and spent most of the day in meetings with everyone. After work, Roomie, her bro and I had dinner at a pub in her neighbourhood (I almost said “our” neighbourhood). Passed out cold around 11pm.

Day 3 – Slept in until almost 10:30am. Roomie and I met two of my co-workers for brunch at l’ouvrier then spent the afternoon shopping along Queen Street. One of Roomie’s friends had us over for dinner. After dinner, we all walked over to another friend’s new place for her housewarming. Passed out around 1:30am.

Day 4 – Slept in until 9:30am and woke up to heavy rain. Put my sore, swollen feet in sandals and walked in it to Starbucks; that probably sounds weird but it felt amazing on my right foot. Spent most of the day on the couch with Roomie, finishing a TV series we had started together back in March. It was a perfect, lazy Sunday.

Day 5 (Today) – Today, I’m working in the office then meeting two friends for dinner. After that, I need to come back to Roomie’s and pack for Days 6-9.

Days 6-9 – After work, the team is heading out of the city for an offsite retreat at a cottage. I am so excited to spend some quality time with everyone (and to soak up a little sun, in the process).

Days 9-10 – We’ll be back in the city sometime Friday afternoon. Depending on the weather, I’m going to do EdgeWalk at the CN Tower on either Friday evening or first thing Saturday morning! Then I’ll spend the rest of my time with Roomie, before flying back to Vancouver on Saturday afternoon.

And then I’ll be home. For a few days, anyway.

What are you up to this week?

Flickr: drbethsnow

Today, I want to introduce you to Cassie. Cassie used to write a blog called Digging Out and Up but then, after a mini hiatus, started a new project. Tales from the Trenches is now one of my favourite Canadian personal finance blogs to read because Cassie is so good with numbers. I mean, ridiculously good. Her monthly net worth updates put the rest of us to shame! Read her answers to my questions and you’ll know why I love her blog so much…

When and why did you start a personal finance blog?

October 2010. In all honesty, I never thought it would last as long as it did. I had tried starting up blogs before, but I usually quit after 3 or 4 posts. Apparently, I just wasn’t writing about the right subject.

2010 was an incredibly turbulent (and expensive!) year for me. I was deep in debt, I knew I needed to make some serious changes, but I barely knew where to start. I was maxed out. I started out blogging like it was my online diary; it was a way to keep a record of my mental state that I could refer back to later. At the time, I had no idea there was a whole community of bloggers dedicated to personal finance.

How often do you think about money?

Oh geez, daily. If I’m not thinking about savings and debt repayment, I’m reading the financial news online, comparing prices in the grocery store, making spreadsheets to figure out how much money it would take to make me a millionaire (geeking out!), or talking to my sister or friends about their own financial journeys.

What’s the first thing you do on payday?

If I haven’t done it yet, I make a budget. There isn’t much point for me to log into my bank account and start dreaming about all of the clothes I could buy if there are actual NEEDS that need to be taken care of first this pay period. Once that’s done, I log in, pay all of my bills for that pay period, and log back out. Later in the day, I’ll actually go into the bank and take out money to put into accounts I have with other banks. I’ve seen a lot of places recommend that you keep your accounts with one bank so it’s easy to track, but I like my system. It makes it harder to blow through my money in one fell swoop, which when you’re an impulsive shopper is a plus.

Do you budget? If so, how often (monthly, bi-weekly, weekly)? Why does this work for you?

Yep! I get paid every two weeks, and my mortgage comes out of my account every two weeks, so for me it makes the most sense to do a budget every two weeks. It also makes it a little easier for me because I’m more likely to plan meeting up with friends a week or two out rather than a month out, so doing a budget more frequently allows me to see how much money I actually have to work with. It also forces me to pay attention to when my bills are due. Since February is the only month that is exactly 4 weeks long (75% of the time), the number of bills that come in per pay day is constantly shuffling. I have to actually think about what I have coming up, which forces me to know when my bills are actually due.

What’s the biggest/craziest/most important thing you’ve done to better your financial situation?

I sold my 3-year-old car and bought a 16-year-old beater to drive. My issue, as I found out, was that I had cash flow problems, not net worth problems. My ~$400 monthly car payment and ~$120 insurance payment were strangling my budget. My fixed expenses were so high that I didn’t have a lot of variable areas to cut from to make a big difference. I was the classic house poor/car poor young professional. Since I wasn’t ready to sell my (mid-renovation) house yet, that left the car. Friends of mine were preparing for their first child, and needed a vehicle that would better accommodate their needs. I sold my car, paid off the loan, and spent the next 13 months driving their old $50 beater with no power steering, no AC, and a slew of other issues. You want to crack the façade of “has it all together”? That’ll do it. I needed it too, because it forced me to wake up and stop placing so much value on what others thought about my possessions. It was the best decision I ever made.

Give one piece of financial advice (or a lesson you’ve learned) that you think everyone should know.

Just start. Nobody says you have to get everything right or do everything perfectly the first time. You want to pay off your debt? Throw an extra $5 at it. Roll your spare change and put that on it. Sell a pair of pants online and put that money towards it. No one expects you to be able to pay everything off in one fell swoop, and those little bits of extra money here and there are going to add up quickly. The only thing that’s harder than paying off debt is making the decision to get started, so just do it already!

What is your biggest financial goal this year?

The biggest one for me this year? To finish up my renovations and pay for it in cash. I did up an estimate a couple weeks ago that put the number right around $3,700. It should be doable, now I just need to get it done. After that, I also want to get my savings accounts built up again. If I could have a fully finished home, at least $2,500 in savings and $2,500 in investments by the end of December, I’ll be a happy girl. That’s not an end goal for the savings, but I figure it’s a reasonable goal for this year.

Who or what keeps you motivated to reach your goals?

I hate to say it, but right now fear is a bit of a motivating factor for me. I’m not in what I would call a “safe” position at the moment. My savings are low and my expenses are still quite high, so I’m very much dependent on my job for my wellbeing. Having been laid off once before, and having gone through a similar scare recently, I know how quickly circumstances can change. One of the reasons why I’m completing renovations while saving, rather than just saving heavily, is that it gives me the option of putting my house up for sale sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t say my house is in a sale ready state at the moment.

Who do you write for? (For yourself, to help others, both, etc.)

A little of column A, a little of column B. Writing is very much an emotional outlet for me. I find it’s better (for me) than working out, soaking in a bath or any other form of stress relief. Once the words are down on paper (or screen), they become the holder of my concerns instead of my head. I actually find I do my best writing when I’m going through a period of stress or emotional upheaval. I know I’m far from the only person to ever experience this, and there is a certain sense of relief that comes from knowing that you’re not the only one going through something. I hope that my blog does this for people. I hope that people who are struggling will stumble across my blog and go “it does get better!”, because it really does.

That answer couldn’t have come as more of a surprise to anyone than it did to me. In October 2009, I gave up eating meat after watching documentary after documentary, and reading book after book, and article after article about all of the things involved in the farming factory process. My eyes were finally opened to where my food was coming from, and how many animals had probably suffered for me to eat, so I knew I had to make a change. A surprising bonus was the fact that my new vegetarian diet seemed to cure the severe anemia I had been suffering with for four years – as proven by blood tests showing a level of iron I had literally never seen on any of my quarterly blood tests. I’ve been a vegetarian for the last three-and-a-half years and have felt both happy with my decision and healthier as a result.

So what changed? The short answer is this: I think my body was craving it. Why was I craving it? The slightly longer answer is that during the six weeks where I was bouncing back and forth between Vancouver and Victoria, looking for an apartment, staying with various friends, etc. I wasn’t eating a proper vegetarian diet. A proper vegetarian diet is one that includes grains, nuts and seeds, as well as fresh fruits and veggies. I wasn’t even eating enough eggs or cheese, which is never a problem for me! Instead, I was eating a lot of takeout, minimal amounts of anything fresh, and after six weeks… well, I just felt like shhh. My body wasn’t getting the protein that it needed.

Why didn’t I just eat a few eggs, munch on a handful of almonds or suck back a vegan protein shake!? That, I can’t really answer. I love all of those things! But that’s not what I wanted, in the moment. On May 8th, I gave in to one of the weirdest and most irrational cravings – so weird that it left my friends wondering if I was pregnant. After going back and forth on what I wanted to order for breakfast, internally questioning myself about why I was even considering meat, I caved and ordered something with a side of breakfast sausages. Seriously, how gross is that? Of all the meats I could eat again, I ate the one that is full of… who even knows what.

But it was so freaking good. I’ve heard stories about vegetarians who say they could literally feel their bodies change, with just a few bites of meat in their systems. I’m sure it’s some kind of hormone or disgusting additive that causes that feeling… but I felt it. And it was good – minus the fact that the breakfast sausages were probably full of more sodium and fat than my body had consumed in one sitting, for quite some time, and that I could only finish 2 of the 3 sausages on my plate because of it. I will admit that I felt a little gross after, as my stomach tried to digest something it hasn’t had to for years. But, overall, fulfilling the craving did make me feel a little bit better.

Now, five weeks later, I’m still eating meat – and on a more regular basis than I thought I would. Seriously, I went from saying WTF did I just do!? on May 8th to ordering a pizza with chicken from Panago just a few weeks later. I haven’t eaten all types of meat yet. So far, I’ve had chicken, a little bit of pork and a piece of fresh halibut that Dad brought back from sea. No red meat yet… for some reason, it really doesn’t interest me. And I haven’t bought any raw meat at the grocery store to cook for myself either. The only time I’ve eaten meat so far is when it’s been prepared for me, either at a restaurant or at my parents’ house. It’s all been delicious… but I’m stuck in this weird place where I’m trying to understand how I feel about it.

The emotional side of me doesn’t feel good. I still strongly believe in animal rights and hate the negative effects factory farming has on our environment. But then there’s this other side of me that just wants to consume, consume, consume. (Seriously, could meat be my new drug of choice?) For anyone who’s curious, I can say that the physical effects it’s had on my body so far include: gaining a few pounds, feeling heavier in general, and noticing zits pop up on my face and back (I’m one of those jerks who never gets zits, so they stress me out). I’m also more dehydrated, maybe because of the added sodium? I could be making that up! But I do know that I have energy again… and, I hate saying this, but it’s just nice to have it back in my diet.

Going forward, I know I’ll need to make a decision about whether or not I want to continue eating meat, how much I want to consume, where I will purchase it from, etc. I’d love to find a meat shop that sells only local meats from animals who are raised and slaughtered humanely – that is something I have never been against. For now, I’m just hanging out in limbo – eating meat and wondering why.

I’d be curious to know if any of you have switched between a vegetarian diet and a meat-eating diet before. What made you change? How did it feel, physically and emotionally, to make the switch?

Flickr: tambako

Finances
My first financial goal for this year was to become debt-free, which I accomplished just a few weeks ago. Since then, money has been flying out of my hands. Most of it has been cash I had saved up in my Weddings account, but I’ve also quickly realized that a month of travelling = a month of dining out. While I can’t do much to change that, I can get down to business and look at what I want to accomplish next with my finances. I could (and will) dedicate an entire post to some of the discoveries I’ve made about my savings patterns recently, but for now I will say this: I am ready to start putting huge chunks of cash into savings. I want a minimum of $5,000 in an Emergency Fund, by the end of this year, and I need to start contributing to my RRSPs again. More on this later this month.

Career
In January, I decided to take a breather from freelancing on the side, because my schedule (and life) just couldn’t handle it. Since being back on the West Coast, I have been writing and editing more than ever – mostly just for myself, but I feel more inspired here than I have in a long time. I can’t say I’m ready to pick up the amount of work I was doing before, but I am looking at a couple of new sites and publications to contribute to. Aside from that, life as a remote worker is… well, amazing. I can see why it wouldn’t work for everyone, and I can’t deny that I miss the team in Toronto, but the flexibility helps me enjoy my personal life more while the responsibility keeps me moving forward. No changes to be made here.

Travel
My three travel goals for 2013 were to: 1) save up and pay for all the weddings I am going to, 2) go to San Francisco, and 3) go to #FinCon13. It’s all happening and being paid for with cash. I also went to Tofino last month and want to try to make it down to Portland in October.

Health
If I had to say that one area of my life was at the top of my priorities these days, it would be my health. Again, some of this is deserving of separate blog posts (like my major diet change last month)… but my half marathon training is over, so it’s time to switch gears. I didn’t want to set any type of weight loss goal for 2013, because last year was so successful on its own, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a magic number I wanted to reach. So, when my foot is better, it’s back to the gym 4-5 days/week for me! I didn’t have to push myself too hard last year, to lose the weight that I did… I just had to get moving! So no crazy diets or anything like that… I just want to slim down and tone up. Cardio, yoga and weights will do that!

Blog
I’ve had all kinds of ideas re: maintaining and expanding my blog this year but, honestly, I’ve come to the decision that Blonde on a Budget is just another space for me to write. I won’t stop – which is something I had considered earlier this year – but I don’t want to expand either. So no e-books, no products, nothing like that… I’m just a person writing about trying to live a more balanced life – one without debt. Now, I’d say that the writing I’m doing privately for myself has become more important. There are journal entries, there are stories, there are characters. It’s fun and creative and honest… and I’m loving it.

Did you set any goals for 2013? How’s your progress so far?

Image: The Fresh Exchange

If we’re friends on Facebook or you follow me on Twitter, you may already know this, but last weekend pretty much put an end to my goal of working out 15x this month (yes, two days into the month). After hiking the Chief in Squamish on Saturday and doing 14K through the trails of Fort Langley on Sunday, I somehow ended up with a stress fracture in my right foot…

But let’s backtrack. To start this post, I have to say that last weekend I was more active and had more fun than I have been in a long time. One of my promises to myself, in deciding to move to the Lower Mainland, was that I would take full advantage of all that it had to offer – beaches, mountains, running routes, hikes, etc. I’ve been researching trails and making a list of everything I want to do and see this summer. And with last weekend being the only weekend I’m in Greater Vancouver for all of June, I decided to take the opportunity to cross a couple things off.

On Saturday morning, I picked up a friend who also recently moved here (and only a few blocks away from me!) and we drove for an hour out to Squamish. A few days before, we had decided to cancel our Saturday lunch plans and instead hike the Stawamus Chief. I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t really look into what the hike entailed; I’d simply heard about it before and, after seeing this picture on my friend Ashly’s blog, knew I wanted to see the same views firsthand. So, up we went.

These waterfalls are, surprisingly, at the bottom of the hike.

The majority of the hike was a mix of steep steps made out of either rock or wood.

Oh, and ladders. There are a couple ladders and some chains, right towards the top.

And then there’s the view – worth every second of our 3.5-hour hike.

On Sunday, I woke up a little sore and stiff, but I was excited to see one of my girlfriends and explore the trails of Fort Langley together. When we first started going, I felt fine. Again, I was obviously stiff from the day before, but nothing hurt. Then we went up the slightest, teeniest, tiniest hill and I could feel some pain in my right foot. About 10K into our 14K route, I knew something was wrong. Not seriously wrong, but I was beginning to slow down and even my walking pace started to feel shameful.

By the time I got home that afternoon, I was limping. I immediately put together a bag full of ice for my foot and put my leg up for a few hours. I had to ice it off and on all evening, to both ease the pain and make walking around the apartment a little easier. But after tossing and turning all night, I woke up Monday morning and knew I should see a doctor. His verdict: a stress fracture – something I had never even heard of before – caused by the “sudden increase” in my high-impact activity.

It’s now Wednesday night and, unfortunately, I think the doc’s verdict was accurate. There has been zero change in how I feel: I’m still sore, still limping and still having to ice my foot. The limping part doesn’t bug me, other than feeling like I look like a crazy person when I walk down the street… what I’m more upset about is the fact that the doc said it would probably take 4-6 weeks to heal. That means no more hiking. No more running. And no more half marathon training.

I’ll be honest and say I’m not heartbroken over the idea of not running a half this summer. The race is only 65 days away and I am nowhere near where I should be in my training, anyway. But that doesn’t mean I won’t miss going for short runs, for the next while. And I am definitely going to miss hiking. I guess it couldn’t have come at a better time (per se), since I’m only going to be in Vancouver for six more days throughout the rest of this month, anyway… but I don’t think anyone likes being injured.

Ahhh well. At least I got to see some of the views that I did, to get where I am.

Have you ever injured yourself from running or hiking? How long did it take for you to heal?