I've been very slack in posting as of late.
I'm still sick :( which makes it 3 and a half weeks now. Went back to the doctor's last week and they weren't much help. I don't have swine flu, just another virus and there isn't much they can do for it. I ended up taking some time off work at the end of last week, but I still had study which had to be done.
Only good thing about being sick is that I stayed at home and didn't spend money! Makes me realise how much money I often waste when I go out (such as to work). Just little bits here and there that add up. But nothing I actually need.
Not too much happening - work, study, sleep.
Have completed a rough tax estimate and I should get back a very nice refund. Hopefully will finish it off this coming weekend and will have my refund by end of August. Any refund will go directly into my bank account and then I will send it straight off to one of my credit cards.
My job is meant to be paying for half my tuition fees once I successfully complete subjects in my Masters degree. I successfully completed two last semester (2 more this semester and then I will be finished!) so they should be giving me $2010 (each subject is $2010). My boss is currently overseas but will have to talk to her about it once she gets back. I know from my last job that there is a big difference between saying they will pay for it and actually getting it in your bank account! In my last job, I really pushed the issue and was ready to quit over it, but I like my current job, I know finances are tight, and I really want them to renew my contract this year. So I'm not sure how hard to push if they are resisting paying it.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Back from a very short "break"
I went back home to the Gold Coast (Queensland) over the weekend. Took yesterday off work, and didn't have to take it as annual leave because I had been working some longer hours. My current job is so much more relaxed than my old one!
Unfortunately, as I'm also studying I spent a lot of the weekend working on assignments. But I still got to catch up with friends and my family (it was my Mum and Aunts birthday last week).
It was a spending weekend because I had dinner with a friend on Saturday night for her birthday, and breakfast with another friend Sunday morning. But overall not too bad. Dinner and drinks on Saturday night was $38 (I had steak, expensive but very nice!) and breakfast was $20.
Also collect further information I needed to do my tax, so I will be working on that over the coming weeks.
Back home this morning and about to head off for work - how is it that I can get up, be driven 45 minutes to the airport, take an 1hour and a half flight, collect my baggage and get a 15/20 minute tax trip home, and be back home before I would normally get up?? I mean, it was a very early alarm for me this morning, but it shows I should be getting up earlier!
Unfortunately, as I'm also studying I spent a lot of the weekend working on assignments. But I still got to catch up with friends and my family (it was my Mum and Aunts birthday last week).
It was a spending weekend because I had dinner with a friend on Saturday night for her birthday, and breakfast with another friend Sunday morning. But overall not too bad. Dinner and drinks on Saturday night was $38 (I had steak, expensive but very nice!) and breakfast was $20.
Also collect further information I needed to do my tax, so I will be working on that over the coming weeks.
Back home this morning and about to head off for work - how is it that I can get up, be driven 45 minutes to the airport, take an 1hour and a half flight, collect my baggage and get a 15/20 minute tax trip home, and be back home before I would normally get up?? I mean, it was a very early alarm for me this morning, but it shows I should be getting up earlier!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Third of Aussies would not survive on savings if they lost their job
I read this artice online this morning:
Third of Aussies would not survive on savings if they lost their job
http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,28323,25784706-5017313,00.html
"MORE than a third of Australians would not survive on their savings for more than a month if they lost their jobs. Debt collection agency Dun and Bradstreet's latest consumer credit survey found many Australians were unprepared for financial hardships associated with redundancies and sackings. The survey examined plans for savings, credit use, spending and debt in the coming three months, the Herald Sun reports.Four in 10 people said their savings would last only 30 days if they lost their job, while 38 per cent said they would have to use credit cards to cover household bills and other essential expenses. D&B chief executive Christine Christian said the people struggling most were households earning $30,000 to $60,000 a year and aged between 18 and 49. "There is a very large demographic of people who are first home buyers who have taken advantage of the government's first home owners scheme and many of them are feeling quite pressured at the moment," Ms Christian said.
"They're OK at managing their mortgage repayments in these unusually low interest rate times, but if they were to lose their job, that would be dire for many." Social researcher David Chalke said the results were not surprising. "Many people in the younger demographics have not built up any liquid assets," Mr Chalke said. "They either put their cash into superannuation or bricks and mortar and you cannot cash either of them in." Mr Chalke said younger people had buffers against running out of cash. "About a third of 18 to 34-year-olds live at home and another third could move home if money became really tight," he said. Ms Christian said people should look at preparing a budget, changing insurance payments so they were more frequent and smaller and paying close attention to bills."
This doesn't surprise me. A lot of people live paycheck to paycheck, and until the global financial crisis, job loss probably wasn't a possibility for a lot of people. On the one hand, I'm prepared for the fact that my contract may not be renewed in February '10; but on the other hand, my emergency fund at the moment won't exactly last long! I'm in the category of 18-34 year olds mentioned in the article that could move back home if I really had to, but I would have a lot more chance of getting another job in the state I'm in now rather the state my Mum lives in.
Third of Aussies would not survive on savings if they lost their job
http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,28323,25784706-5017313,00.html
"MORE than a third of Australians would not survive on their savings for more than a month if they lost their jobs. Debt collection agency Dun and Bradstreet's latest consumer credit survey found many Australians were unprepared for financial hardships associated with redundancies and sackings. The survey examined plans for savings, credit use, spending and debt in the coming three months, the Herald Sun reports.Four in 10 people said their savings would last only 30 days if they lost their job, while 38 per cent said they would have to use credit cards to cover household bills and other essential expenses. D&B chief executive Christine Christian said the people struggling most were households earning $30,000 to $60,000 a year and aged between 18 and 49. "There is a very large demographic of people who are first home buyers who have taken advantage of the government's first home owners scheme and many of them are feeling quite pressured at the moment," Ms Christian said.
"They're OK at managing their mortgage repayments in these unusually low interest rate times, but if they were to lose their job, that would be dire for many." Social researcher David Chalke said the results were not surprising. "Many people in the younger demographics have not built up any liquid assets," Mr Chalke said. "They either put their cash into superannuation or bricks and mortar and you cannot cash either of them in." Mr Chalke said younger people had buffers against running out of cash. "About a third of 18 to 34-year-olds live at home and another third could move home if money became really tight," he said. Ms Christian said people should look at preparing a budget, changing insurance payments so they were more frequent and smaller and paying close attention to bills."
This doesn't surprise me. A lot of people live paycheck to paycheck, and until the global financial crisis, job loss probably wasn't a possibility for a lot of people. On the one hand, I'm prepared for the fact that my contract may not be renewed in February '10; but on the other hand, my emergency fund at the moment won't exactly last long! I'm in the category of 18-34 year olds mentioned in the article that could move back home if I really had to, but I would have a lot more chance of getting another job in the state I'm in now rather the state my Mum lives in.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
June Update
Finally sorted out all my expenses/income for June.
I've updated my sidebars, although I left a credit card statement at work, so I estimated, it is slightly less than I'm showing now. In good news: UNDER $20,000! Still a horrible amount of debt, but I'm slowly getting there.
My income for June was: $3,734.15
Expenses, not including credit card interest, (will update once I get my other credit card statement back from work), were: $2,450.28.
I've updated my sidebars, although I left a credit card statement at work, so I estimated, it is slightly less than I'm showing now. In good news: UNDER $20,000! Still a horrible amount of debt, but I'm slowly getting there.
My income for June was: $3,734.15
Expenses, not including credit card interest, (will update once I get my other credit card statement back from work), were: $2,450.28.
Emergency fund is slowly going up. Savings have taken a hit due to me buying a laptop, so have to start working on those again. It's a new financial year, I've had a horrible start due to being sick, (and still am sick), but need to get much more organised in terms of budgeting/goals etc.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Ski trip
Finally got paid for all my overtime I did a while ago in this week's pay. Once again, the tax they took out was ridiculous. I earnt an extra $1,009, and of that $444 tax was taken out. Meaning "cash in hand" I received an extra $565. $440 of that went to pay for my ski trip I had previously mentioned. I'm not regretting agreeing to go, because as I've mentioned I've never seen snow, and have the opportunity to go with a good friend. Considering most of my friends are in long-term relationships and/or married and/or have kids, I wouldn't usually have the chnace to go on a holiday with just a girl friend. But still - there was more than a moment of guilt as I was sending the payment off.
I think I will put the remaining $125 from my extra pay up towards the holiday - I need to get from Sydney to Canberra (which I will do by coach - about 3 and a half hours each way) for $20 each way. Food/accommodation is all included in the trip, and I have bought some ski gear quite cheaply off ebay, so although I will need to hire skis, I won't need to hire any other gear. So I don't really have any other "expected" expenses, but I'm sure there will be a couple of things popping up - e.g. spending a night in Canberra with my friend before we go, as she is letting me stay with her free of charge, I will pay for us to go out to dinner; things like that.
In good news, I worked an extra 32 hours over the weekend and last week before I got sick (probably explains why I got sick, I was working until about midnight every night and still working my regular job) for another university which I should get paid for next week.
I think I will put the remaining $125 from my extra pay up towards the holiday - I need to get from Sydney to Canberra (which I will do by coach - about 3 and a half hours each way) for $20 each way. Food/accommodation is all included in the trip, and I have bought some ski gear quite cheaply off ebay, so although I will need to hire skis, I won't need to hire any other gear. So I don't really have any other "expected" expenses, but I'm sure there will be a couple of things popping up - e.g. spending a night in Canberra with my friend before we go, as she is letting me stay with her free of charge, I will pay for us to go out to dinner; things like that.
In good news, I worked an extra 32 hours over the weekend and last week before I got sick (probably explains why I got sick, I was working until about midnight every night and still working my regular job) for another university which I should get paid for next week.
Hairdressers
I've booked a hair dresser's appointment for the weekend.
I'm just getting a cut, so it shouldn't be too expensive, but I haven't been to the hairdressers in over a year. I have long hair which basically lives in a pony tail, so have just been letting it grow. But it is getting a bit ratty, and I have a conference I'm presenting a paper at next week (on Asian Double Tax Agreements - such an exciting topic (although sadly I actually find it very interesting!)), so need to look respectable; and having been sick I need a bit of cheering up. I always feel better after going to the hairdressers or beautician - not too sure if it's because I look better, or because of the pampering aspect.
A problem with hairdressers though (money wise) is even if you go in for "just a cut", they always try to convince you to buy treatments and their products. I actually did buy a shampoo recommended by my last hairdresser once - I loved it, best one I've ever used for my hair (I have very oily hair), but it was $30 for a bottle about half the size of the brand I buy at the supermarket for $4. Yes, it was good - but not that good!
I'm just getting a cut, so it shouldn't be too expensive, but I haven't been to the hairdressers in over a year. I have long hair which basically lives in a pony tail, so have just been letting it grow. But it is getting a bit ratty, and I have a conference I'm presenting a paper at next week (on Asian Double Tax Agreements - such an exciting topic (although sadly I actually find it very interesting!)), so need to look respectable; and having been sick I need a bit of cheering up. I always feel better after going to the hairdressers or beautician - not too sure if it's because I look better, or because of the pampering aspect.
A problem with hairdressers though (money wise) is even if you go in for "just a cut", they always try to convince you to buy treatments and their products. I actually did buy a shampoo recommended by my last hairdresser once - I loved it, best one I've ever used for my hair (I have very oily hair), but it was $30 for a bottle about half the size of the brand I buy at the supermarket for $4. Yes, it was good - but not that good!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Blog update
Very behind in updates. Still sick, actually took a sick day yesterday, my first one since being at this job (although I did still do some work from home).
Back at work today but still not 100%.
Literally spent almost the entire weekend in bed, (apart from bathroom breaks and occassionally getting food).
There are a lot of things I want to do this financial year, including more regular updates to my blog and get some more readers/commenters. I've never aimed to have my blog make me any money; one of the reasons I've never set up adsense or anything, but I would still like to know some people are reading. There is a book I've seem on Amazon about Blogger, but am going to try to save the money and see if I can just get some tips online and through trial and error!
Back at work today but still not 100%.
Literally spent almost the entire weekend in bed, (apart from bathroom breaks and occassionally getting food).
There are a lot of things I want to do this financial year, including more regular updates to my blog and get some more readers/commenters. I've never aimed to have my blog make me any money; one of the reasons I've never set up adsense or anything, but I would still like to know some people are reading. There is a book I've seem on Amazon about Blogger, but am going to try to save the money and see if I can just get some tips online and through trial and error!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Weekend
This is the first weekend since I have been in Sydney when I don't have to work or study ... and, Murphy's law - I'm sick. I did a lot of extra part-time work this week - (30 hours), so I had a number of very late nights. I think maybe my body is now telling me to rest! I felt pretty yuck yesterday but thought it was just a cold, but when I finally woke up this morning (after about 14 hours of sleep!) my back was killing me (which I guess explains the dream I was having that someone was literally stabbing my back).
I'm meant to go out tonight but even the thought of getting out of bed at the moment seems like too much of an effort. I'll see how I feel in a couple of hours.
If I'm feeling better tomorrow I will summarise June - and then the first six months of the year.
I'm meant to go out tonight but even the thought of getting out of bed at the moment seems like too much of an effort. I'll see how I feel in a couple of hours.
If I'm feeling better tomorrow I will summarise June - and then the first six months of the year.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Happy New Year
Well, it is now officially the start of the new financial year (once an accounting geek, always an accounting geek!) :)
Sadly, it's almost 12:30am and I'm still at work. Will certainly be looking forward to my overtime pay in the next few weeks! Just packing up to go home, I've been at work 17 hours which is more than enough!
End of financial year always seems to be a busy time for me at work - when I worked at an accounting firm it was obviously busy, and now at the uni the semester has just finished, so I have hundreds of exam papers to mark.
Sadly, it's almost 12:30am and I'm still at work. Will certainly be looking forward to my overtime pay in the next few weeks! Just packing up to go home, I've been at work 17 hours which is more than enough!
End of financial year always seems to be a busy time for me at work - when I worked at an accounting firm it was obviously busy, and now at the uni the semester has just finished, so I have hundreds of exam papers to mark.
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