Thursday, August 27, 2009

Tax

Well I'm back.

Not a very long hiatus, but I finished my tax!

I'm getting a higher refund than I expected, I had a lot of deductions this year, so it's nice to get it in and get it finished. I also finally got around to lodging an amendment for last year's return as I realised I had made a mistake, which should mean I get an extra refund of about $500.

So things are finally looking up finacially. Next week I should get my regular pay, plus payment for half my tuition from first semester, which will be $2,000, and some extra pay for lecturing.

Hopefully I should get my tax refund in about 2 weeks, and that will pay off my largest credit card plus a bit extra. On the one hand it's great, but on the other hand I'm annoyed with myself, because if I hadn't racked up so much credit card debt, the tax refund could be used for so many other things (or for long-term savings). Live and learn I guess.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Goodbye for a little while

My blog is going on a little hiatus.

I have been struggling to keep up with things of late - nothing is wrong, but with work and an enormous amount of study, keeping posting unforunately isn't at the high end of my priorities.

At the moment, I work 35 hours a week, and with the number of courses I'm doing, I "meant" to study a crazy 60 hours a week. In about 2 weeks, that will drop back to 36 hours a week as some of my courses are finishing, but with full-time work it's still a struggle. I don't actually study 60 hours per week, but particularly as I took a weekend "off" last week to go away, my life for the last few weeks has been work until 5ish, go home, and work on assignments until anywhere from midnight to 4am because not having studied the amount I should be, I have left them to the last minute.

I'm not closing my blog and hopefully once study cuts down a bit I'll have more time.

I'm still keeping track of my spending, but with my insane hours of late I have been buying too many "little luxuries" - i.e. fast food/magazines etc.

I haven't even updated July figures yet, but a quick overall picture:

I currently have 3 credits cards, owing around $19,000.

Next pay I will get my regular pay plus $2,000 for study costs, so I will be paying off Credit Card 2.

When my tax refund comes through, (i.e. when I finally finish my tax), that should be almost $10K. So I'll pay off Credit Card 3.

Then, it is just Credit Card 4, which has a balance transfer rate.

My aim will be to start the new year with less than $5,000K debt, which is more than achievable.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Update - finances, work etc

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I posted. Work and study have been flat out, although I'm finally starting to get over my flu/virus/chest infection/whatever I had.

Finance wise, things are looking up. I spoke to my boss about tuition fees, and it's all good - put in my expense claim today, although I don't know how long it will take to come through. But when it does it will be $2,100.

I've been doing some lecturing which I didn't think I was going to get paid extra for - I was workin gon the "it's a good experience and will help on my resume", but my boss came and spoke to me last night and said she will pay be as a casual for any lecturing I do because is so far outside my job description. Which it is - I'm meant to be a research assistant and I'm taking 3 hour lectures on tax law. They are at an introductory level, but still!

Still have to finish my tax - it's on a very long list of things I have to do for study and work.

But once I get my tax refund etc, I'm hoping that I'll only have one CC left with an amount owing - one where I am on a lifetime balance transfer rate, so although I want to get it paid off, I'm not as stressed about it as my other ones.

In bad news, my flatmate (whose parent's own our flat) has put my rent up. Good news - only by $5 a week. :) And I love living here so much that that doesn't bother me. Our clothes dryer is also broken, which in summer I wouldn't care about, but since it's winter in Australia, it's been a hassle drying off clothes. We are getting someone to come and look at it on the weekend, but I'm thinking it won't be cheap getting it fixed.

Back to the study - have an assignemnt due tomorrow as well as stuff to do for work. I think it will be a late one!