Another Personal Finance Blog

Tax

2009-08-27T20:13:00.004+10:00

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.

Goodbye for a little while

2009-08-22T14:41:00.002+10:00

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.

Update - finances, work etc

2009-08-06T21:37:00.003+10:00

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!

Brief update

2009-07-27T19:47:00.002+10:00

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.

Back from a very short "break"

2009-07-21T08:20:00.004+10:00

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!

Third of Aussies would not survive on savings if they lost their job

2009-07-15T07:57:00.002+10:00

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.

June Update

2009-07-12T09:27:00.003+10:00

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.

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.

Ski trip

2009-07-09T16:34:00.005+10:00

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.

Hairdressers

2009-07-09T16:27:00.003+10:00

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!

Blog update

2009-07-07T10:09:00.002+10:00

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!

Weekend

2009-07-04T13:29:00.003+10:00

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.

Happy New Year

2009-07-01T00:21:00.003+10:00

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.

New Year's Eve! :)

2009-06-30T07:37:00.002+10:00

Financial Year Eve that is.

Tomorrow is the 1st of July, start of the 09-10 financial year. Just writing that seems weird - 2010 always seemed like such a long way off (I know there are still six months to go).

I'm going back home in 2 and a half weeks and I'll have to make sure I get all the paperwork I need to do my tax.

I should be due a large refund this year - I co-own a rental property which means deductions (although when you take into account the rental income we get it's actually not much - it's in a popular area so we get good rental returns). However, I also have a lot of educational expenses. I was in a job for half the year where I was on a higher income and they were taking out tax on the basis that I would be on that income for the entire year, then switched to a lower-paying job; and had 6 weeks without work.

So overall I'm hoping to be able to pay a large chunck of debt off once I get a refund.

Doing more overtime this week, so will be looking forward to my next couple of pay cheques.

Dinner last night

2009-06-27T11:02:00.003+10:00

My friend paid for dinner last night which was nice of him. He insisted of getting a bottle of wine - (I'm not a big drinker and would have been happy with water). $60 - sorry, tasted no better than a $10/$20 bottle.

I did pay to get a taxi home when I could have gotten a train and a bus, but it was getting late and I was tired. There are times when I am willing to pay for convenience.

Weekend of work ahead

2009-06-26T14:58:00.003+10:00

I've finished my exams for my Masters this semester, which means I don't have to study this weekend.

However, I think I will be pretty much working all weekend, marking exams for other courses. It's all extra income, which is great, but I'm looking forward to having a weekend off at some point!

I'm seeing a friend for dinner tonight - and it sounds like it is an expensive restaurant. However, he doesn't live in Sydney, he lives a couple of hours drive away, and is just here for the night before going overseas. I haven't seen him for over a year so it will be good to catch up.

Pay from extra jobs

2009-06-23T10:39:00.002+10:00

I mentioned a week or so ago that I had lodged my timesheets for all the extra work I had done. (And this weekend I will be doing some more.)

They have been approved but at least in one case, I think the payment will come through after the end of financial year (Australia has a 1 July - 30 June financial year). Not so concerned about having to wait for the extra salary, but what is annoying is that I know a ton of tax will be taken out, which I will then have to wait another year to get back!

I'm popping back home mid-July - it's my Mum's birthday, my Autn's birthday (they are twins), and my best friend's birthday, all within a couple of days. It will be a quick trip, but I got cheap flights and apart from the various birthdays, I will be able to collect various bits and pieces I need to do my tax. (I still have a lot of stuff stored at my Mum's place).

Weekend spending

2009-06-22T09:37:00.003+10:00

I had thought to myself Friday night that I wouldn't need to spend any money over the weekend.

What did I actually end up spending?
Saturday: $96.10 at the chemist.
$66.35 on prescriptions
$12.95 on a pair of gloves
$11.50 on over the counter medicine
$5.30 on a hot water bottle

Sunday: $12.50 at the gas station on groceries.
NEVER BUY GROCERIES AT THE GAS STATION!! My own stupid fault because I couldn't be bothered going to the grocery store.
$5.00 Loaf of bread
$5.00 1.25 Ltr Btle of Diet Coke
$2.50 Chocolate Bar.

If I had been to the grocery store, it probably would have been around $6.00.

On the one hand basically everything I bought I needed:
The prescriptions and chemist medicine - definitely
The gloves and hot water bottle - could have put off but had been thinking of buying for a while.
Groceries - well I should have gone to the grocery shop, but then with the cost of bus fares the savings wouldn't have amounted to much.

But on the other hand - spending close to $110 when I thought I wouldn't be spending anything isn't exactly great!

Feeling sick

2009-06-20T05:10:00.003+10:00

It's 5am and I'm awake with a sore throat.

I used to get up at 5am before moving and changing jobs, but not anymore! I love the fact I live so close to work. I actually got up at 8:40am yesterday and was in at work by 9:05 (5 minutes late but no one else was there anyway!)

Oh, and it's Saturday.

Think I'll be making a trip to the chemist later today. I have an exam next week (my last one for the semester), and the last thing I need is to be sick.

Food - best before dates

2009-06-19T10:18:00.002+10:00

I've previously posted about wasting food.

One thing I tend to waste a lot of is Yoghurt and similar - buy it and then never eat it before the best before date. Anyway, yesterday I ate a Fruche which had a best before date of 2 weeks ago. It was fine - still tasted as good as ever. I've always been one of those people that as soon as something is at the best before date I throw it out - without even looking to see if it is still good.

Addicted to plastic

2009-06-18T09:31:00.003+10:00

There is a show on Australian ABC tonight called "Addicted to Plastic" - I thought it would be a look at the extent of credit card usage, but upon reading the description .... no, it's actually about Plastic!"

This is the description:
"An eye-opening documentary that investigates what's really known about plastic - the material of a thousand uses - and why there's so much of it. This film tells of a worldwide waste and toxic legacy, and introduces the men and women dedicated to cleaning up the global mess caused by plastic. Filmed over three years in 12 countries on five continents, including two trips to the middle of the Pacific Ocean where plastic debris accumulates, this documentary looks at solutions to plastic pollution. Addicted To Plastic details plastic's path over the last 100 years and includes expert interviews on practical and cutting edge solutions to recycling, toxicity and biodegradability. These solutions provide a hopeful perspective about our future with plastic".

I think I'll watch Medium or Private Practice instead! (I have an exam today so giving myself a night off from study afterwards).

How Gen-Xers became has-beens

2009-06-16T19:32:00.003+10:00

The title of my post is the title of an Article that appeared in The Daily Telegraph (a Sydney paper) today, and online.

The article starts with: "MEET a young Gen-Xer with three university degrees who represents the new unemployed - over-qualified professionals".

The rest of the article can be read here.

There have been a lot of comments on the article, some very supportive/some very critical, and I'm sure some of what I say below will have already been said in comments.

1. The article calls this the "new unemployed". What about in the lat 80s/early 90s recession? Surely the same situation happened then. Anytime there is a recession/economic crisis, unemployment will rise, and it will include people who are well-qualified and previously had no problems getting jobs. I really don't see how this is considered "new".

2. Considering my level of debt, I shouldn't be one to comment on the fact he says he only has $3 left to the end of the week, but I would hope by the time I'm his age all my debt is gone and I have an emergency fund which would last me a year. I think we have all (well, most of us - me included!) lived beyond our means for so long - as soon as something happens like job loss, we are, to put it bluntly, screwed.

3. He states: "Along with many of my friends, I never paid much mind to the idea that one day I might be unemployed. For my generation, who are used to a permanently strong economy, it was just never going to happen. " Although his age is not specified, he is Generation X, which means he is at least older than me (Generation Y). I was quite young during the late 80s/early 90s recession, but I remember it clearly (partly because my Dad was out of work and we nearly lost our house). But I would think this would have been the time the author of the article was in high school/at university - and would have been well aware of the poor job market.

4. He talks about having to fight to use a computer at Centrelink - surely he would have a computer at home? I can't imagine anyone these days (particularly as he has, until recently, been working), not having a computer.

5. As a number of comments pointed out, he was a marketing manager. Market yourself! If he is applying for a job where he thinks he will be overqualified, leave the MBA off.

6. He says: "Don't get me wrong. Australia has a fantastic system that provides benefits and assistance to those in need. It is not, however, designed to cope with highly qualified individuals who have found themselves out of work". He doesn't explain what he means by this. How does he want the system to be designed? Centrelink's website says: "Centrelink is an Australian Government Statutory Agency, assisting people to become self-sufficient and supporting those in need". Helping the unemployed is just one part of Centrelink, and honestly, what does he expect them to do? I have only had contact with Centrelink when I was a student, but I thought in terms of unemployed, the assistance Centrelink provided (apart from monetary) was providing access to computers to look for jobs, providing some courses in terms of resume writing etc. I don't see how he thinks the system is designed to cope with "un-qualified" individuals and not "highly qualified" individuals.

7. On that note, he also says that: "Regardless of our background, how much we studied, how privileged we may have been, we are all the same at the Centrelink". Well I'm sorry - but why should you be treated differently to any other job seeker? If anything, the argument can be made that you had years of work (on probably a very good salary), you should have been able to save (once again, I realise how hypocritical that is coming from a girl in enormous debt), and shouldn't need assistance from Centrelink in terms of resume writing etc.

8. Having raised my criticisms, one comment that really made me feel sorry for him was: "For myself and the rest of the Generation Xers who grew up in a time where work was plentiful, this experience is one that crushes one's sense of self-worth and leads to an every day battle to maintain hope and keep up the momentum of searching for work". (Although I don't think it applies to only Gen X's). I think the longer you are unemployed the more depressed you will get, which in turn probably makes it harder to find a job.

(And as a final point - a lot of comments on the article said he should lower his standards and get a job at Woolies - (which is an Australian supermarket chain). Someone I can't see them employing a 35 year old with no retail experience, when they can employ a 15 year old with no retail experience for a lot less money).

Extra income

2009-06-10T08:54:00.002+10:00

I've just lodged my timesheets for some extra work I've been doing (marking). I do some through the university I work at full-time and some for another university. Before tax, it should work out to be almost $1,500.

I should get some more work in a couple of weeks (marking exams). First I have to get my own exams out the way though!

The extra income is a definite help this month - I'm going on a weekend trip in August which is $440. Not budgeted for, but I will be going to the snow - which... I have never seen! Having said that however, it's meant to be between 7-14 degrees Celsius in Sydney today, I'm in my office and freezing! So I don't know how well I will handle the cold!

May Expense Update

2009-06-08T15:05:00.003+10:00

An approximation of my May expenses are below. So much for saving money this month. May was very expensive! Although just over 33% of that was to purchase my laptop.

I was also terrible at keeping track at my expenses this month. So I don't know how close the below is. Some things are certain (e.g. rent), and I went through all my bank statements/credits cards to catch anything I paid via debit/credit. Cash I basically looked at what I had at the start of the month, what I withdrew from my bank account, and what I had at the end of the month - and figured it was all spent on food and/or entertainment (as basically everything else is paid for via debit or credit).

The important thing though is that I am back on track for June. In the past if I had stopped keeping track during a month I would have just given up all together.

Income for May was $3,465.86
Expenses were: $3,818.71

So I spent more than I earned, but as I mentioned the laptop was a huge expense, and I had saved up money for that.

Queen's Birthday Weekend

2009-06-05T17:34:00.002+10:00

It is a public holiday here on Monday. It is now Friday 5:34pm so officially the long weekend :)

This week just gone has also been a four day week for me, I took Monday as annual leave and went back home.

Not much planned for this weekend. Tonight I have to iron as I have no clothes in my wardrobe (slight exaggeration, but really all the clothes left in my wardrobe are shorts/t-shirts - it is now officially winter here).

I'm going to see Angels and Demons tomorrow night with my brother and Dad. Last time we went to the movies I used movie money and also bought the popcorn/drinks - so I'm hoping this time my Dad will offer to pay. But it's always weird with him and money, if he does pay (in the sense that he pulls out his wallet first etc), you never know whether to offer to chip in or not. It seems if you do he refuses to take the money, but if you don't he thinks you should have.

Rest of the weekend will be work and study. I'm doing some extra work (marking) (which I have been doing for the past few weeks - it should add up to a nice little extra sum in my pay). And on a positive note - it looks like my comments "Do not use Wikipedia - it is not a scholarly source) has been heard by the students. I'm the first to admit I use Wikipedia sometimes for general knowledge - but not for postgraduate tax assignments!

Final exams are coming up (at least all my assignments are finished), and I have a conference paper to write which I'm starting to slightly panic about. I'm second author, but I'm basically taking the reins.

Credit card update May/June

2009-06-05T17:31:00.002+10:00

It's going down!!!

On 1 May, I owed $22,016.77

On 1 June, I owed $20,690.52

I have completely paid off Card 1, which is the first card I've gotten rid of without any balance transfers. It was my smallest card, but it also had the highest interest rate.

Next challenge is to Tackle Card 2, it actually has the lowest rate but only until about September (it was a six-month balance transfer off), I need to check the exact date it will expire. I would love to be able to pay it off just through my salary, but if worst comes to worst I should hae a tax refund by then (in Australia our financial year runs from July-June each year).

Quick May round-up

2009-06-02T09:19:00.002+10:00

How can it already be June??? The year has flown by.

My goals/plans for May were to study, lose weight, and save money.

STUDY
I completed my 7 assignments and 2 exams. Haven't gotten the marks back for a lot of them yet but I think most of them went well.

LOSE WEIGHT
That didn't really happen. As the weather has gotten colder I've been eating badly, and with the amount of study I had I didn't get to the gym much. Surprisingly though, I went back to Queensland for the weekend and everyone said I looked like I had lost a ton of weight. I know I had lost quite a bit since moving down in January, but everyone saw me just before Easter, and I really didn't think I had lost much (if any) between then and now.

SAVE MONEY
Update to follow. I can say that one more credit card is paid off in full. But I was absolutely terrible at keeping track of my money for May. During this week I'm going to try to reconcile it. I know how much money I had on 1st May, and how much I have now, so it shouldn't be too difficult. Pretty much anything I spend cash on is junk food or entertainment. But my expenses are going to be pretty high for the month - after all, I bought a laptop, but that came from savings so not too concerned.

Another fun weekend planned

2009-05-23T11:00:00.003+10:00

Another fun weekend of study in front of me. I mentioned back at the start of the month that I had 7 assignments and 2 exams in May. I've completed both exams and have handed in 4 of the 7 assignments. Have two more assignments due Monday and my final one on Wednesday. Then, have 3 weeks of freedom from assessments before having 2 final exams in mid to late June.

The only good thing about having to spend the weekend studying is that it means I'm not out spending money - as long as I can resist fast food. (Which I seem to eat an awful lot of when studying). Going to cook a bit stir fry tonight which should do for a lot of the week.

2009-05-21T21:39:00.003+10:00

Warning: This post will be a bit of a rant!

I mentioned back in March that I wanted to study a Masters of Tax in the US, and that doing so would cost about $100K AU. Well, after spending the last hour trying to decipher some US Tax Regulations, I'm realising that maybe studying tax in the US wouldn't be as fun as just going on holidays there!

I'm sure in reality US tax is no more confusing that Australian tax, but when it's almost 10pm at night; there is no one I can talk to about it (and even if it wasn't almost 10pm at night there is really no one I work with who is a specialist in US tax law); and the US tax textbooks I have are pretty useless (note to self, never buy US tax textbooks again unless I can look at them first!), I wonder why on earth I had a desire to study it!

I'm working on a very annoying research paper comparing certain provisions of Australian and American tax law. I would prefer to be at home, but considering it's due Monday I really need to keep working on it!

Rant over.

Free entertainment on the web

2009-05-21T14:39:00.003+10:00

One of the most important things to do if you are trying to save money is work out ways to have fun for free.

I have mixed feelings on the internet in general. On the one hand it's a wonderful invention, allowing people to access abundant masses of knowledge from the comfort of their own home, but on the other hand there is a lot of crap out there. I for one know I waste a whole lot of time on the net.

But it is great in terms of free entertainment - there are a lot of sites I visit to give me a laugh.

One of my favourite sites is The Daily Puppy. I love dogs (and cats, and bunnies, and pretty much anything fluffy). I have actually never had a dog, where I live at the moment I can't have one, and considering the costs associated with them that's probably a good thing. But I love visiting this site to see the "puppy of the day". They are so cute! :) So if you are a dog lover who hasn't seen this site before - enjoy. If you don't like dogs - well, there isn't really much point in you visiting.

Credit card increases & status

2009-05-19T10:37:00.002+10:00

I received another offer to increase one of my credit card limits. So much for the credit crunch. So far this year I've recevied:

An offer to increase a $12,500 credit card to $19,000
An offer to increase a $10,000 credit card to $13,000

In addition, a couple of months ago I received an offer to ugrade to a gold credit card (no increase in credit limit). Let's look at the Pros and Cons of the gold credit card, compared to the one I did have with the bank:

Pros

It was "Gold"
Balance transfer offer of 3.9%

Cons

Higher standard interest rate
High annual fee

I did accept the offer for the Gold card because I made use of the 3.9% balance transfer offer. But if I hadn't needed/wanted the balance transfer offer, the only advantage would be that it was "gold" and this got me thinking about credit card "colours" and status.

Is a gold card really any superior to a normal/standard card? I actually have a "platinum" card, and I certainly don't have a platinum level of income!

Now I'm aware that some cards, such as the Centurion Card (aka a Black Amex), provide exclusive benefits, and that probably is a card where if you use it people go "whoa". (But with an AU $4,300 annual fee it would want to provide exclusive benefits!) But in terms of Gold/Platinum cards, they seem to be more and more common. I certainly don't think I'm served any differently if I use a Gold Card.

Extra salary / salary sacrificing etc

2009-05-18T16:47:00.002+10:00

I mentioned a while ago that I had spent most of a weekend doing some extra work - marking assignments (such a joyful job!) I got paid for it last week - came in with my normal salary.

Basically, I did an extra 13 or so hours extra work, for $488.74, which is great. However, 45.9% was taken out for tax, so the extra cash I received in my pay was $264.74. Obviously I'm still happy for the extra pay, but I will be looking forward to doing my tax this year because I think I will be due a large refund.

I looked up the salary sacrifice policy for laptops, filled out the form and sent off my receipt, so hopefully that will be processed and I will get the money refunded in my next pay or so. I have enough in my short-term savings to pay for the laptop I bought (well, all bar $50), but it would be nice to be able to pay for my laptop, keep some in short-term savings and be able to put the rest to a credit card.

I think the next couple of months will be better financially - I'm continuing to do extra marking, and it looks like my work will pay for part of my Masters, so should get $2,000 mid year. (But until it is actually in my bank account I'm not counting on it!) Then hopefully I'll get my tax refund around August.

House valuation

2009-05-18T14:01:00.002+10:00

As I've mentioned previously, I own an investment property with my brother, which we purchased in March 2007. We had a valuer come today to re-value it. Even those recently house prices seem to have dropped, they still look like they have increased a lot since we we bought the property.

We aren't planning on selling/refinancing anytime soon, but it would be nice knowing we had more equity in the house.

When we bought it, it had been originally listed for $449K, dropped to $429K and we ended up paying $420K. I'm hoping that at a minimum, the valuation comes back above $450K.

Completely random post

2009-05-14T19:42:00.002+10:00

1. I'm using my new laptop! :) Loving the laptop, hating Microsoft Vista. As much as I hate 2007 Office. What was wrong with XP and Office 2003?

2. I'm very short - usually don't mind too much, but my light bulb blew in my room on the weekend. Even standing on a chair, neither my flatmate (who is only slightly taller than me) or I can reach to change the stupid thing! My brother was meant to come over last night to fix it but was busy, and now he is sick (called me today and he sounded terrible, and obviously his health is more important than a light globe, but it's still annoying!) Maybe I should start making friends with some tall neighbours? (I live in an apartment building).

3. I'm hungry, and the orange poppyseed cake I have in the oven isn't exactly a suitable dinner! (Taking it in to work tomorrow). In one of those, "I just won't eat because I don't know what I want and can't be bothered cooking anything" moods.

Keeping track of things

2009-05-14T19:35:00.003+10:00

When I posted my April summary, a reader asked how I kept such good track of my expenses etc.

Well to be honest, this month I've been incredibly slack with keeping track of what I'm been spending.

But in terms of what I try to do:

I keep a separate diary for keeping track of money - instead of writing appointments etc each day I write expenses/income. I keep all my receipts - I just put them in a plastic container until the end of the month.

At the end of the month I go through my receipts and check off all of them to make sure I put them in my money diary. I then go online and look at my bank statements etc to keep track of interest, bank fees, any direct debits, and will ocassionally pick something up I used EFTPOS for but didn't have a receipt.

Then I put it all into Excel and voila!

The problem is when I spend cash (usually on junk food!) that I don't keep track of. So I'm the first to admit that my monthly summaries will not always been to the cent accurate. I sometimes will put in a round figure if I remember buying something but can't remember exactly what.

I generally try to pay for things with EFTPOS, and even if I pay with cash try to get a receipt.

I have an accounting degree, in theory I should be able to reconcile everything each month so I know what is missing (or at least the amount), but I'd probably end up tearing my hair out! This way, it may not always be 100% accurate, but it's pretty close, and I'm more likely to keep doing it.

A very big spending day

2009-05-11T08:30:00.002+10:00

Surprisingly, weekends for me are often my "better" spending days (ie. I spend less). A lot of the time during the week I waste a lot of money on buying lunches, snacks, etc. Obviously there are times when I have plans for the weekend, but often I am at home studying. (Dreaming of what my life will be like when I have finished my post-grad courses and have weekends to myself!)

This weekend wasn't one of them. Saturday was fine, I bought a loaf of bread but that was it, but yesterday.....
I BOUGHT A NEW LAPTOP!

I've mentioned quite a few times on my blog that I needed a new computer. As much as I loved my old one, he turns seven next month - which is above and beyond the life expectancy of a laptop!

With the $900 bonus from the government, I had $1,200 in a "short-term" savings account which I had allocated in my head to a new laptop.

I saw what I thought was a decent one, my brother (who is much more computer savvy than me) agreed, so I bit the bullet and bought it.

It was $1,297 - aToshiba Satellite L300/0WC Notebook, and came with bonus Microsoft Home and Student 2007.

I'm still using my old computer to write this, I had so many assignments to do over the weekend, and spent a couple of hours going to buy the computer, so didn't have time to start playing with it.

I'm personally not a fan of Vista or Office 2007 - I prefer XP and Office 2003 - but I guess I need to keep up with the times.

So it was about what I was looking at spending, and when I get into work today (which I should be leaving for in about 7 minutes), I'm going to look at the salary sacrifice plan - apparently you can just fill in a form, take your receipt for the computer in, and they will refund the amount and then start deducting it from your salary. If I can't do that it's not a big deal because I had saved the money up, but if I could do it, it will be nice to still have money in my savings account!

Progress Bars

2009-05-04T20:15:00.002+10:00

I've started making progress bars for my blog. It is great to visually see how much you have paid off/saved. EG: I've been thinking I've barely made a dent in my credit card debt, but I have paid off almost 14%. That isn't to be sneezed at.

A huge thanks to Stacking Pennies, who posted a blog entry on how to make the progress bars. (I'm pretty incompetent when it comes to html!)

Swine flu

2009-05-04T20:11:00.002+10:00

Unless you been living under a rock for the last week, you will have heard of Swine Flu, which from what I understand from watching Sixty Minutes last night, it is combination of a pig (swine) virus; a bird virus; has been passed from pigs to humans and now can be passed from human to human.

It is officially known as Influenza A(H1N1) and more information can be found on the World Health Organisation website.

Obviously any new disease is a concern, particularly when there is no vaccine. But this is a time when I think the news is doing more harm than good in terms of causing panic.

According to the WHO, as at 06:00GMT 4 May 2009, 20 countries have reported 985 cases. There have been 25 deaths, all in Mexico. There haven’t been any deaths in any other countries.

Obviously it’s upsetting that people have died, but in the grand scheme of things – and this will sound callous - but 25 people really isn't that many. My hearts go out to the families of the people who have died, but the way it is being discussed on the news/current affairs, you would think there are people lying dead in the streets worldwide.

In 2006 there was Bird Flu; and in 2004 there was SARS – and yet we have survived.

In the last week signs have gone up in all the toilets at the uni I work at, saying protect yourself from Flu by covering your mouth when you cough; using tissues; disposing of tissues properly; and washing your hands. Shouldn’t people be doing that anyway? I mean, I work at a university – if people are university students and don’t know to wash their hands and to use tissues – heaven help us.

So far the WHO hasn’t released any information on the economic impact of Swine Flu, but with the economy the way it is, and even just the flu season in general, I think people will be going to
work even when they are sick.

If you are a casual employee and take a sick day, you don’t get any pay, I’ve already heard of a lot of casuals getting their hours reduced so they won’t want to lose any more.

Even if you get sick leave, if you are concerned about redundancies, you may not want to take any sick days in case your boss thinks you are just “chucking a sickie”.

April Summary

2009-05-03T12:36:00.003+10:00

My credit card debt as at 1 May is $22,016.77, meaning I paid off $540.29 in April.

My bank accounts/savings as at 1 May are $5,790.02, an increase of $274.53.

My income for the month was: $4,341.57 (primarily salary, and also the $900 bonus).

My expenses for the month were $2,954.41, consisting of:

Day is getting worse

2009-05-02T12:59:00.003+10:00

Well after neglecting my blog for a bit I'm posting up a storm. Of course, most of it is rants!!

I mentioned the Dylan Moran concert tonight in an earlier post. Well, my brother just called and said he can't go because of a work event. I'm p*ssed off, because I bought the tickets a while ago, and he did mention about a month ago that a work event had changed dates and was now on the same night of the concert, but he was not going to go to the work event.

It annoys me, because he's the type of person who when I said what was happening with my study expenses and work, he said, "just demand they pay for it or you will quit". And I'm doing a lecture this week which I'm not getting paid extra for because it's in work hours, even though it's outside my job description, and he said "that's not your job, demand you get paid extra". Yet with something like this, he told work he had a pre-existing engagement (after all, it was his work that changed the date), and now he's turned around, the day of the concert and said to me, "comments were made that I wasn't going and I'm expected to go".

Now I'm the first person to put work ahead of all else. (I'm not saying that's a good thing, and probably do it less now, but in my old job, work was my life). If I had plans and then something came up at work, work would come first. But everyone of my friends and family knew this about me. (Once again, not saying it's a good thing, I certainly neglected friends). But my brother is such a hypocrite. He is so gung-ho about "demanding" this and "demanding" that, and at the end of the day he's as bad as me!!

Textbook frustration

2009-05-02T12:41:00.002+10:00

Back at the end of March, I posted about how I spent $311.95US on U.S. Tax Textbooks.

Well now I'm p*ssed off. I bought two books - essentially a "Basic Principles" and a "Comprehensive Topics" book. Well, it turns out that all bar two chapters of the Basic Principles Book (and not two chapters I need) are reproduced EXACTLY in the Comprehensive Topics book. So buying the Basic Principles book was completely unnecessary and a complete waste of money.

And although I work at a university and there is a big market for second hand textbooks, there really isn't a market for U.S. Tax Textbooks.

Very frustrating.

Goals for May

2009-05-02T11:10:00.002+10:00

May for me is about 4 things:

Studying
Working
Losing weight
Saving money

Studying

With my Masters & Grad Dip, May is a very busy month. I have 7 assignments and 2 exams. Eep!!

Working

We are putting out an issue of the Journal I am production editor off. First one I have worked on, so I think it is going to be a steep learning curve.
I will also have more marking to do (in good news, I put in my time sheet for the other marking I did, is about $470 before tax. Yay! :)
I have a conference paper to write
And my normal other 50 million duties!

Losing weight

This week I went to the gym 3 times, which for me is pretty good! But I haven't been losing weight as often as I would have liked because I keep having bad days in between good days.
I want to keep up the gym, keep on with the healthy eating and hopefully I will lose around 5 kilos.

Saving money

I haven't done my April summary yet, but I know it wasn't a good month. I realise that although my finances are in a better state than last year, I'm keeping track of everything I'm spending, paying my credit cards off (slowly!), I'm really not living frugally or living like I'm on a budget. That has to change.
With May being all about study, work and losing weight - I really shouldn't have much of a chance to spend money!

Weekend things to do

2009-05-02T10:53:00.002+10:00

I have a fun-filled weekend of work, study and household chores. Actually, that's a lie, I am going to see a Dylan Moran concert tonight. Love his work. I bought the tickets back in January for myself and a birthday present for my brother, so already paid for. I'm getting a bus to where the show is, and I already have a prepaid 10-trip bus ticket. The concert doesn't start until 8pm so will eat before I go... overall cost should be $0.

But seriously, I have so much to do this weekend.... making a list ....

Study
Prep for trust accounting exam
Sit trust accounting exam (online - must complete between Sunday 9am and Monday 9pm - aim to do it Sunday night)
Catch-up on reading for Commerical Law Practice
Work on Tax Course 1 assignment - mainly reading
Work on Tax Course 2 assignment - reading/notes
Reading for Tax course 2

Work
Prep for lecture next week (my first one ever!!!)

Houshold
Washing/ironing - I hadn't ironed for about 2 weeks. Did a basket this morning but have a load of washing on which will also need ironing.
Quick apartment clean - mop/vaccum/wipe surfaces (shouldn't take too long - times like this I like living in a smallish apartment!)

Other
Gym - body pump class
Dylan Moran concert

Financial
List a minimum of 4 things on Ebay (some things I already have photos for so hopefully won't take too long)
Update blog with April summary/expenses

I think that's it! Don't think I'm going to get through all of it but will see how I go.

Bad day - work study funding

2009-04-30T16:38:00.002+10:00

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m studying a Masters degree and a Graduate Diploma as well as working.

My Masters degree is directly related to my job, and was directly related to my past job.

It is 8 subjects, with a cost of $2,010 per subject (total cost $16,080).

In my old job:

I would pay for a subject (actually I would put it on HELP - Higher Education Loan Program);
I would pass the subject;
Work would pay for the subject 100%;
They would pay for all subjects, but if I left the firm within 12 months of paying for a subject I had to pay them back.

I started my Masters in 2008, and left my old job in December 2008. As such, my old work had only paid for my first semester of study, which I had to pay back.

When I started my new job, I was told they would pay 50% of my remaining subjects. I have four left, so it will cost $8,040 – of which work was going to pay half. Now, I have found out that this may not happen.

I’m annoyed for so many reasons:

I took approximately a $10,000 pay cut when I came here.
My study expenses (having to pay back my old job, and my new job only paying 50% of my remaining subjects), was effectively another $12,060 I was losing.
My new job told me they would pay for it, but it’s not in my contract, which makes me annoyed at myself, because I have a law degree! I know to get everything in writing! I think I was just so happy to be leaving my old job that I didn’t focus too much on the details of my new contract.

So really, there is nothing I can do if my work refuses to pay the $4,010. Quitting in this economy isn’t really an option, and even if I found another job, I doubt they would pay for any study expenses (and even if they did, by the time I started I would only have two subjects left). And at the end of the day I do like my job.

But when I went back to Queensland a few weekends ago, I caught up with some old people from my work, and I realised how much I missed working with them. I miss Queensland, I miss my friends, I miss my Mum. I knew financially I was taking a big hit by taking this job. Pay is less and Sydney is more expensive to live than Queensland.

But one of things I loved about my new job was that they really seemed to appreciate me, whereas in my old job it was very much about how many billable hours I had. Things like this happening (not paying for study when they said they would), reminds me of my old job – and at least they did pay for my study (although it did take a lot of ‘discussions’ to finally get the money out of them).

I hope my current job does end up paying for my study – at the end of the day it’s not the money so much as the principle.

$900 Stimulus payment

2009-04-27T10:05:00.002+10:00

Well I received my $900 at the end of last week (part of Kevin Rudd's stimulus package) (See information from the ATO).

Now the aim of this stimulus package is that people receive the money, spend it, hence "stimulating" the economy. On principle I disagree with the stimulus package - $42Billion - how long will it take for Australia to get out of budget deficit? And I planned to put my $900 straight on my credit cards.

But I think I might have mentioned previously, I have been needing a new computer for a long time. It does still work, but it is an 7 year old laptop, and it has been on it's last legs for a while. Now the internet is playing up on it.

I do have a computer at work (what I'm using now actually - some personal use is allowed), but I don't really like the idea of using my work computer for personal stuff. I am going to try to hold out for a bit longer - would like to get some of my other income from marking etc through, and am going to list some things on Ebay this coming week/weekend.

I do want to look around and compare prices/brands etc. I always refer to myself as "computer illiterate" when it comes to working out what I should actually buy. Have no idea about things like processor speeed/RAM etc. Luckily my brother has a PhD in information technology (and yet he still couldn't fix my computer!) so he can help me work out what to get.

I'm tempted to buy a desktop to start with, and then once I have saved up some more money buy a mini laptop.

Weekend summary

2009-04-20T08:21:00.003+10:00

I had a good weekend money wise. I didn't spend anything except for buying some panadol last night, which was a necessity because I had a killer headache and was all out. However, because it was Sunday night I had to buy it at a gas station, so it cost $5.60, when I think from the supermarket it's about $3.00.

I spent about 7 hours marking assignments, which should earn me over $200 (I'm not sure of the actual rate). (I also did about 5 hours last weekend). Of course, tax will be taken out, but the year is flying by and before I know it, it will be tax time again.

On the note of tax, my brother finally did his tax return over the weekend (it was due October 31 2008). We co-own a rental property, and it turns out that I had underclaimed the depreciation in my tax return. Oops! (That's what I get for doing my tax return in a rush). Anyway, I will lodge an amendment request, and I should hopefully get back almost $500.

So it was quite a profitable weekend!

Extra work/income

2009-04-18T12:12:00.001+10:00

Has it been almost a week since I last posted? (Well, 5 days). Time flies when you are having fun .... or should I say time flies when you are working.

However this week I did have "fun", went to the movies Wednesday night and caught up with a friend from Qld for dinner on Thursday.

It is now Saturday and I'm spending most of the day marking assignments. Fun :) But it is extra income, (I'm paid as a casual teaching assistant in addition to my regular research assistant pay), so I can't complain. (Except when you don't give students a choice of topics, reading about the same thing over and over and over and over gets pretty boring after a while!)

Belated March Summary

2009-04-13T16:36:00.003+10:00

Two weeks late, but here is my March summary and details of my March expenses.

Summary:
Income: $4,713.72 (salary (net of tax) + a small amount of interest).
Expenses: $3.398.06
Credit card debt: $22,557.06
Cash/savings: $5,514.89

Amazing... my income was more than my expenses for once! BUT: Due to my pay dates, I was paid 3 times this month rather than 2. So my monthly income won't usually be that high.

Details of my March expenses:

Slack slack slack

2009-04-13T10:18:00.003+10:00

I've been very slack with my blog lately. It was one of my things to do this long weekend and it's already Monday! Back to work tomorrow.

The long weekend has gone far too quickly. I still have most of today, but I have study to do, going to force myself to go to the gym as well.

Work is getting busy, I went in and did a bit of stuff on Friday even though it was a public holiday. I look back and how many hours I was working last year, and the 3 hours travelling I was doing a day and wonder how I did it? But it wasn't exactly good healthwise.

I work at the one place but have taken on some extra work to try to get some extra income (marking assignments - joyful task!) So add that to the two post-grad degrees I'm doing and things get pretty busy! I made up a schedule a couple of weeks ago ... yeah, that hasn't really been followed.

Anyway, no matter how busy I am, this recent Dilbert joke puts things in perspective!

Transport costs

2009-04-06T17:27:00.004+10:00

Back from my weekend back home. It was great to catch up with people, although feeling tired now. I flew back this morning and came straight to work.

I love that airlines such as Virgin Blue & Jetstar have cheap fares, my flights this time from Sydney to Brisbane were $55 each way. However ... my taxi and train fares associated with my trip were more than the flights themselves!

Taxi fare to Sydney airport: $17 (I should have stuck to my plan of getting the bus)
Air train from Brisbane airport to Gold Coast: $22.60
Train from Gold Coast to Brisbane City: $7
Taxi from friend's place in Taringa (Brisbane) to Brisbane airport: $50!!! (I was shocked it was this much, but with the time my flight left this morning I couldn't get public transport and get to the airport in time)
Taxi from Sydney airport to work: $30

Total taxi fares: $97
Total train fares: $29.60

So the cost of my flights (travelling around 2,000km): $110
Cost of taxis and trains (travelling less than 250km): $126.60

Anyone else think that is a bit odd?

March update - credit cards + savings

2009-04-03T17:50:00.003+11:00

This will be a very brief update, I still need to finalise my March expenses.

But in terms of my credit card debt vs. cash/bank accounts etc.

My credit card debt as at 1 April 2009 is $22,557.06, meaning I paid off $1,251.04 in March.
My cash/bank accounts as at 1 April 2009 is $5,514.49, an increase of $800.68 from March.

Just an explanation of my bank accounts etc:
My transaction accounts are what I use for day to day banking. As at 1 April they had over $2,600. This was due to getting paid just before the end of the month, I don't usually keep this much money in them.
My short-term savings is saving up for things like a new computer (which I desperately need), but basically any large purchases which I am going to make.
My long-term savings are just that - saving for longer term goals.
My emergency fund is only to be touched if someone is dying or I lose my job.

My main priority at the moment is to pay off my debt, but I'm trying to put a bit of money into each of my savings accounts & emergency fund each pay-day.

I'm very disheartened at the moment over my credit card debt. It's going down, but it still just seems like so much money. I posted a while ago that the Australian government was going to give most taxpayers a bonus. This was challenged in the High Court as to whether it was constitutionally valid. It's been determined it is, so I should get a $900 bonus this month, which will go straight to my credit cards.

Weekend/updates

2009-04-03T14:37:00.002+11:00

I still haven't updated my figures for March. Tuesday night I have lectures, Wednesday night my internet was playing up, and last night I worked late and then was busy doing housework etc so didn't get a chance. Will try to update tonight.

I'm going away for the weekend, back to Queensland. It's probably not a good time to go. One, the weather has been awful up there, but I've been feeling homesick of late, so on the one hand it will be great to see family and friends, but on the other hand, I quite likely to not want to come back Monday morning!

My plans for the weekend are:

Saturday
Leave insanely early tomorrow morning. Catching a bus to the aiport and I already have a bus pass so won't cost be anything.
Get the airtrain from the airport to home: think that is a bit less than $20
Meet a friend for coffee/brunch/chat: less than $15 even if I get food
Tomorrow night hopefully go to another friend's for BBQ, she has just bought a house so can't wait to see it. Depends on the weather though. I will take some drinks which I will need to buy: $15?

Sunday
Meet friend for breakfast: $20
Dinner in Brisbane with people from my old work: Train: $10/Dinner: $50 (I'm allowing a fair bit for dinner as I expect there will be some cocktails involved!)
Staying with a friend Sunday night.

Monday
Taxi to airport: $30? (Honestly don't know how much it will be from my friend's place. I should see if I can get public transport).
Hopefully bus back to work on Monday morning from Sydney airport which will be free (well - already paid for bus pass!)

All that comes to $160. I'm going to try to keep it under $150. Much more expensive weekend than usual. However I haven't seen these friends for 3 months so would prefer to spend the money seeing them than wasting it on something else!

Dentist bill

2009-03-30T20:35:00.003+11:00

Last week I chipped a tooth, so today I had the fun visit to the dentist. Even with my private health insurance paying some, it still cost me just over $200 (that was for getting the tooth fixed, and a check-up/clean).

At the end of the day I know it is money well spent, the tooth needed fixing, but still, not a fun way to spend money.

Am definitely going to have to stop getting massages to get my medical budget back in line.

Another fortnightly update

2009-03-30T12:24:00.003+11:00

The 2nd half of March didn't go as well as the first. I really didn't expect to be over my budget by so much.

There are still a couple of days left in March, so will post a monthly summary and update my credit card list etc later this week, but this is a update for the previous fortnight (up to Saturday 28th March).

Rent: As expected.

Household: Over because I bought a $49.99 TV. Still consider this a good deal so not too concerned.

Food: I think reducing my food bills is going to be an ongoing challenge this year. At least I had a bit of money left over from my first fortnight in March, but will still be over for the month. I still throw out food and buy too many snacks.

Medical: If I keep getting massages I may need to increase this category. Maybe I should just stop getting massages!

Public transport: Over, but this includes 2 x 10 trip savers bought last week which I haven't started using, so they will last me for a while.

Mobile phone: Bill not due until next month.

Clothes: Shouldn't have bought that dress from the markets, particularly as I need to buy winter clothes

Study expenses: This put the largest dent in my budget, and this doesn't include the textbooks from Amazon I bought yesterday. Hopefully won't have many more expenses for the rest of semester.

Gifts: Under, this was an Easter egg for my Mum.

Miscellaneous: I bought a $3.00 Scratchie.

Spending: Over by a little bit, but was under last fortnight.

I'm a geek

2009-03-29T11:57:00.003+11:00

I just spent $311.95 US (think it will be around $450AU) at Amazon. And they weren't even fun books! (Sigh, how many "fun" books could I have gotten for $312US? A lot!)

I just spent $311.95 US buying two textbooks on US Federal Income Tax.

I'm a geek.

If any of my friends ever say "I've spent too much money", it's usually followed by "I shouldn't have bought another pair of shoes", or "I shouldn't have bought that bag", or "I really need to stop going out so much". Me, I just blew my budget on tax textbooks!

At least they are tax deductible!

I have some hard-core saving to do

2009-03-28T09:17:00.003+11:00

Obviously my first financial priority is to pay off my debt. But after that, I have some hard core saving to do.

It's a dream of mine to study tax in the U.S. - there is an international tax program at NYU; and an LLM with a tax specialisation at Harvard.

This is from the Harvard website:
"A year in Harvard Law School's LL.M. program is expensive. Tuition for 2007-2008 is $39,325; in addition, the costs of dormitory housing, food, medical fees, books and supplies, activity fee, and personal and travel expenses for a single student come to at least $23,097, for a total of at least $62,422".

And that's US dollars! I feel so depressed about it, it is something I really want to do, and although I will be trying for a scholarship, it seems like unless I get one (and they are extremely competitive) I will never get there. I'm expecting to take until the end of next year (2010) to pay off my debt, and that was "only" $25K. (Yes, I know it is still an incredibly high amount but compared to approx $100K AU which the program + living expenses would be, it isn't much!)

Unless there is a kind reader with almost $100K AU reading this who feels like helping me out?? ;)

Amazon

2009-03-26T20:16:00.002+11:00

When you are on a budget, and like books, Amazon is evil. I think the best thing to do in a situation like this is just avoid the site all together. There are always so many things I find on there which I want.

I've enquired about joining my local library. The problem is you need two forms of ID with your current address. All my photo ID has my old address on it; and all my current mail is sent to a PO Box, not my home address. Hopefully I will still be able to join up.

Regardless though, I have books at the moment I haven't read, so I certainly should get through those before even thinking about buying any more. And, head dropped in shame, I did buy some books last week at a discount book store (ended up being $37.95 for 5 books, one of which was Lauren Weisberger "Chasing Harry Winston" which have I have been wanting for ages.

Medical/Dental costs

2009-03-26T20:11:00.003+11:00

I have been sick for about a week and a half. Not fun. Went to the doctor's on the weekend and got some antibiotics, which obviously has a cost.

And, I have managed to chip a tooth. Well, it is either a chip or a hole, but it is not painful at all, so I think it's a chip. But I don't know how I did it, it wasn't like I bit down on something and felt the tooth break. It is at the back of a tooth, so luckily not obvious, but I can see it the missing bit when I hold a mirror in my mouth. So I have a dentist's appointment next Monday. I don't have a big problem with dentists, I always make sure I go every six months for a clean/checkup (my Mum spent enough on my teeth when I was a teenager that I want to take care of them!); but it still isn't exactly on my list of Top 10 fun things to do.

I'm concerned about the cost, my private health cover will cover some of it, so I'm hoping it's not too expensive. But I would prefer to get it dealt with now rather than wait in case it gets worse.

Credit cards, interest rates, plan of attack

2009-03-25T11:15:00.004+11:00

My credit card interest rates are as follows:

I haven't updated my list of credit card debt as I usually only do it at the end of the month. But essentially:

I received a 6 month balance transfer promotional rate offer (3.99%) for Card 2. As Card 2 only had about $1,500 available, last month I transferred that balance to Card 3 to free up the credit.
Card 5 was my highest credit rate, so I transferred part of that to Card 3 last month and paid some off.
I have now transferred the rest of Card 5's balance to Card 2, so have reduced the rate from 15.49% to 3.99% - but I HAVE to pay it off in 6 months.

So when I next update my credit card list, Card 5 will have a balance of $0 (I know this is mainly due to balance transfers, but since it has been sitting around $9K for some time it is a nice feeling to get rid of it!) and Card 2 will have a balance of close to $5K.

My plan of attack is:

Pay off Card 1 (now down to about $1,500) - smallest balance and highest interest rate
Pay off Card 2 - need to pay off within 6 months or the interest rate will increase dramatically. I first about tackling it first but I should be able to pay both Card 1 and Card 2 off within 6 months - and if worst comes to worst I am expecting my tax refund before the 6 months expires.
Pay off Card 3
Pay off Card 4 - low(er) interest rate for the life of the balance so out of my credit cards, this is my lowest priority.

Blogger time settings

2009-03-24T14:39:00.000+11:00

On a completely random note, I need to work out how to change the time on Blogger - it is currently Tuesday afternoon in Sydney, but in Blogger world it is still Monday....

Grocery shopping

2009-03-24T14:34:00.000+11:00

I really need to go grocery shopping - I made my lunch today and as I made it realised I have nothing left for the rest of the week for lunch. Pain in the you-know-what as I have a lecture tonight so won't have time to go shopping.

However - fate intervened and there was a lunchtime seminar at work today which I had forgotten about until I got into work and checked my calendar. This meant .... free lunch! So I can eat the lunch I brought today tomorrow, and can go grocery shopping tomorrow night so will have lunch on Thursday and Friday.

I really need to organise my life. I didn't go grocery shopping on the weekend because I was sick, and because I still have food in the house for dinners (frozen vegies, meat etc), I thought - oh, I'll be fine for the week.

Monthly challenge - bought lunches

2009-03-23T11:41:00.000+11:00

I’ve been spending too much money on lunches/snacks etc. (I really need to go grocery shopping again).

Krystal (one of my favourite PF Bloggers: Give Me Back My Five Bucks), has in the past had “monthly challenges”, one of which was go for a month without buying lunch/snacks etc.
Today is the 23rd March, and I want to start the challenge now, so my challenge is to get through March and April without buying any lunch or snacks while at work. I live so close to work I don’t have to leave very early, so there is really no excuse for me not making lunch in the mornings.

I do have one exception – my work isn’t really a “let’s go out to lunch together” place. I’ve been here 7 weeks, and my boss has asked me to lunch once. If that happens again I will go, because last time it was her and some other “higher-ups” so in terms of the benefits for networking and my career outweigh the downside of paying for lunch.

Weekend

2009-03-23T11:38:00.000+11:00

I had been expecting a reasonably expensive weekend. I had planned to go out to dinner Friday night with some friends from uni; get my eyebrows and eyelashes tinted on Saturday (an extravagance I know!); and then catch up with some friends which were down from Queensland on Sunday. I was expecting we would spend the whole day together so probably would have lunch and dinner.

I was quite sick all weekend, so Friday night I didn’t go out to dinner, just had a quiet night at home. Saturday I cancelled my beauty appointment but ended up going to the doctors to get antibiotics, so had the expense of that. I also bought a few groceries. Sunday I did meet my friends but because I was still sick, only for a couple of hours (and in that couple of hours managed to get sunburnt, so I’m now still feeling sick and in pain!). Lunch was fairly cheap, but I ended up spending $55 at some markets on a dress and a bangle. And now I have buyer’s remorse. I fell in love with the dress, it’s a bit hard to describe but I loved the colours, but looking at it again this morning, I just don’t think I will wear it much. The only clothing I “need” at the moment are some more jumpers for winter, so I really I should have been saving my ‘clothing’ money for that.

Balance Transfers

2009-03-19T13:56:00.000+11:00

Why does it feel like banks are out to get you for everything you have?

I have recently put through a balance transfer from Card 5 to Card 2 (haven't updated my credit card list yet). The amount is now listed as owing on Card 2, but is still listed as being outstanding on Card 5! This has happened with other balance transfers before, it seems that it stays on both cards for a day or so. Very frustrating … as I’m sure I’m being charged interest on both amounts!

Pay break-down + gym fees

2009-03-17T14:33:00.000+11:00

I get paid again on Thursday, but my pay slip is available online now. This is the first pay where my gym fees have been taken out (I salary sacrifice them) and I was interested to see the impact it would have on my pay.

The gym fees taken out were $19.82 for the fornight. Considering at my last gym my fees were $37.50 a fortnight, that's a big discount already. My tax has also gone down $8 as a result. So essentially, the "cash" cost of my gym fees are $11.82 per fortnight - much cheaper than I originally expected.

In my budget, I had listed my anticipated pay as $1,550, but it will be $1,567. Every little bit extra helps!

Weekend spending

2009-03-17T07:35:00.000+11:00

Saturday was a no-spend day. Yay :)

Sunday I went to a Star Wars exhibition at the Power House Museum with my brother and Dad. We are all science fiction fans and it was nice to find something that we were all interested in doing.

The exhibit was $24 - if you like Star Wars it was interesting, but I'm not sure if it was worth the $24. It is probably better if you take some kids to it - there were a lot of things for them to do.

We went to lunch afterwards, then my brother took me shopping - Coles (supermarket) had 34cm TVs for $49.99! Now I know this was a want rather than a need, but I had been thinking of getting a TV in my room for a while, and $50 is a great price. Also bought a few groceries.

So the cost of Sunday was:
Exhibit: $24.00
Lunch: $13.10
TV: $49.99
Groceries: $27.15

Actual versus budget

2009-03-14T18:40:00.000+11:00

It's now been two weeks since I posted my budget. I get paid fortnightly and my budget is fortnightly. So in the past fortnight, how did I go?

Considering I spent $243 on airfares, which I hadn't budgeted, I'm surprised I'm on $41 over my budget for the fortnight.

Rent: right on target, no surprise
Household: over budget. This included some monthly bills I paid with my rent this week, so should be be under budget by the end of the month.
Food/groceries: Under budget for once! Still not entirely happy as I didn't go grocery shopping this week, but still managed to spend almost $20 on snacks/junk food.
Medical: A little left over and considering I had prescriptions filled I am happy with this.
Public transport: Under. This was one train fare. In January I bought some ten-trip savers which I have been using on buses, so I expect this to be quite low until I use them up.
Mobile phone: I have to check this. My bill for the month showed my account was $2 in credit, and I paid $100 last month rather than $50. I thought I had only paid $50, but will need to go back through my bank statements.
Clothes: Under, but as I need to buy a few winter clothes I doubt it will stay this way for long!
Study expenses: Nil but I need to buy a textbook next week which will be way over my budget!
Gifts/miscellaneous and entertainment: all under.
Airfares: Need to work out how to budget for these. They are airfares to visit home (two different weekend trips) but maybe I should be considering these holidays and budgeting money into a holiday fund.

Weekly update

2009-03-14T18:26:00.000+11:00

Well it's Saturday night and I don't have plans to go out. Had two exams today so am glad just to have a night in. But since I'm not going out there will be no spending tonight, so thought I would do a weekly update slightly early.

Like most of my weeks, it has been a bit good and a bit bad.

As I already posted during the week, my goals to only pay my rent and pay for a massage didn't happen. However, I put my massage off for a week which saved some money, and my expenses were a lot less than last week (because I didn't buy plane tickets this week!) However, am annoyed that there was still frivolous spending - too many snacks and food out.

Weekly expenses this week were as follows:

Rent: $220
Household: $51
Food: $19.65
Entertainment: $17.50
Gifts: $7.45

Total: $315.60

Forbes rich list

2009-03-12T20:59:00.000+11:00

I'm obviously not happy with my financial situation at the moment (however I realise I have no one to blame but myself). But, I'm trying to look on the bright side. Not having much money means I can't lose that much money!

What has prompted this is Forbes releasing their annual "rich list". Not surprising, Bill Gates is the world's richest man - with a net worth of $40bn. However, he has lost $18bn in the last year. That is a staggering 31% drop.

I may never be a billionaire - but it also means I will never lose a billion!

Goals for week: Big FAIL already!

2009-03-10T16:40:00.000+11:00

I posted on Sunday about my goals for the week (or at least Monday to Friday) which involved spending no money except paying my rent and for a remedial massage.

Well, it's already Tuesday and I have already failed....
Monday: Having bad day at work, ending up buying far too many snacks (some of which I still have): $7.05
Today: Boss and some of "higher ups" at work invited me to lunch so I said yes. Good part is the lunch I was going to have was in the work freezer, so I can have it tomorrow, it won't go to waste. I spent $5.00 on rice paper rolls (trying to be healthy).

I have exams at the end of this week for one of my post-grad courses, so I have pushed my massage back until next week, which will save me some money this week.

Frequent Flyer Points

2009-03-09T21:00:00.001+11:00

I found out today that I have enough frequent flyer points to get a one way flight from Sydney to L.A. - this would however leave me with basically zero points to get a return flight.

Wonder how long I can stay in L.A. before I am kicked out by US immigration?

Monday-itis

2009-03-09T20:43:00.000+11:00

I had a bad day today. I really don't know why. I'm just cranky today.

It started off well - actually it started off being a rainy day and me wishing I could stay in bed rather than go to work - but once I actually got to work it was ok. As I mentioned in my post "career path", there is some potential restructuring happening at work. I can't say too much about it, but there was a big meeting on Friday which became a bit of a mud slinging match. Nothing that was directed at me, but everyone in our department was a bit down. I didn't think I was any more down than anyone else, but my boss actually called me this morning to reassure me that my job would be safe and to talk about further opportunities next year. I thought that was really nice of her, and I started to cheer up.

Then for some reason I just got really pissed off as the day went on. I had a headache and it wasn't helped by the fact that I work at a uni - today was the first day of classes so there were students everywhere (now, still being a student myself, I have nothing against them per se - but please DO NOT STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STAIR WELL TO HAVE A CHAT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!! I was almost tempted to yell out "FIRE" to get them to move).

Home now working on an assignment which is due tomorrow for one of my post-grad courses but am going to treat myself to a bubble bath tonight before going to bed - a nice cheap way to relax.

ELMO!!!

2009-03-08T16:45:00.000+11:00

You'll notice I said in my post Weekly Expense Update that I spent $7.99 on clothes. So what did I buy?

ELMO SLIPPER SOCKS!!!

I admit it, I am a big kid at heart, and love anything cute. As I have mentioned (probably a few times), I moved from the Gold Coast to Sydney at the start of the year, and even though when I moved it was insanely hot in Sydney; generally speaking, Sydney has a lot colder weather. I seem to always have cold feet (wear socks to bed even in summer), so I know when winter comes I am going to have cold tootsies. Enter .... the slipper sock.

Thicker than socks but still in the "sock" rather than "shoe" category, when I saw the slipper socks while grocery shopping on Wednesday night I couldn't resist (I'm starting to sound like an infomercial for slipper socks!)

Aren't they cute?

Below are the tags - you will notice the tag shows they are size 9-12; and on the back it says size 9-12 is for children aged 5-8. Yet they are my feet shown in the first photo. I used to think having small feet was cute .... I'm starting to think it's actually a bit weird when I can fit into sock designed for children 20 years younger than me. But hey, it's a lot easier to find cute socks when you are looking at ones designed for children!

Goals for the coming week

2009-03-08T14:57:00.000+11:00

My goals for Monday to Friday are:

No spending except.... (yes there had to be a but):

Rent (I pay rent weekly)
Massage (I have been having some remedial massages, but the one this week should be the last one I have for a while)

I bought some food today, but it was a whole $3.20 (2 tomoatos and a lettuce).

Saturday and Sunday I will be going out. Saturday probably doing something with some friends from uni; Sunday I'm going to a Star Wars exhibition with my brother and Dad.

Weekly expense update

2009-03-08T08:57:00.000+11:00

From 1 March 2009 - 7 March 2009

Airfares: $243.00
Rent: $220.00
Medical: $93.29
Food: $73.21
Household: $22.85
Entertainment: $11.90
Clothes: $7.99
Public transport: $3.20
Total: $675.44

Medical included 2 x prescriptions which I won't need for another month.
Airfares was obviously the big one - and essentially the amount I should be putting on my debt each week. As I mentioned in my earlier post about the week, I need to include "travel" in my budget. I'm not planning any extravagent holidays but will be having some trips home during the year.

Lazy lazy lazy

2009-03-07T14:36:00.001+11:00

I have been so lazy today. I really need to get into a routine. Ever since I started my new job down here, I've been indulging in the luxury of being able to sleep late. (Don't start until 9 and live 10 minutes walk from work). But I'm starting to get concerned at the amount I'm sleeping. I was meant to get up early this morning, put in a solid day studying and then meet a friend for dinner who is up from Canberra for the weekend. What have I done? Slept late, did a tiny bit of study, had a nap, and am now meeting the friend for a late afternoon tea (although in financial terms that will be cheaper!) I will have to study tonight when I get back from afternoon tea. Sad way to be spending Saturday night.

Career path

2009-03-07T10:06:00.000+11:00

When I left my corporate job in December last year, it was to accept a one-year contract position. It is likely it will be extended, but it’s not guaranteed. I’ve been at m y new job just over 4 weeks, and I’m already starting to get concerned about what I will do next year if it isn’t renewed.

I still think I made the right decision leaving my old job – they have begun retrenching people – and although I think I would have been kept on (I’m not saying that to big note myself, but I did work insane hours and they were disappointed when I left), it would have been a very stressful environment to keep working in.

I guess I’m feeling a bit “meh” at the moment. I’m loving some aspects of my new job, but I’m meant to be a research assistant and at the moment am spending a lot of my day doing things which are really more administrative assistance. And although it’s sometimes nice to be able to switch off and do some tedious tasks (particularly on a Friday afternoon!), I’m not really sure if I want to stay in this position next year, even if my contract is renewed. There also looks like there will be some restructuring happening at work, which is depressing me. I don’t feel like I can complain because the restructuring won’t cause me to lose my job (it is likely it won’t happen until January 2010 anyway), but it’s another factor that is making me think I don’t want to stay where I am long term.

Of course it is the question of what do I do instead? The industry I’m in has been affected by the financial crisis, and although I’m still seeing jobs in my field advertised, there certainly aren’t as many as there used to be and I suspect there are a lot more applicants.

I think part of the problem is I don’t know exactly what I want to be doing. I usually like the field I work in, but I’m feeling like I have lost my career track a bit. At my old job, (assuming I hadn’t been retrenched), there was a clear career progression – although having said that, it was part of what caused me to leave, I started to think where I would be if I stayed there a few more years and realised that was definitely not what I wanted.
I know in this day and age people change careers a lot, and in the grand scheme of things I’m still relatively new to the professional world. But as I am now closer to 30 than 20, I feel like I should have my whole career plan mapped out. I don’t have a significant other, I don’t have kids, my life has pretty much always been university or work. I do have a tendency to define myself by my job. Without work, who am I?

Quick review of week

2009-03-07T10:00:00.000+11:00

I'll update with exact figures tomorrow, but this week has been good and bad in terms of spending.

Good

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were no spend days.

Bad

Bought fast food for dinner last night as I was depressed (see the post on my Diet blog). Didn't cost a lot but was unncessary spending.

Bought 2 x return plane fares to visit home.

One at start of April and one at end of May. I got a good deal but it still means I spent over $200 on travel this week. I need to work out a way to budget for this. Sad to say considering I'm in my mid twenties, but it's the first time I've lived more than driving distance away from "home" for any extended period of time. I'm missing my Mum and all my friends. It's a bit over a hour flight home and there are usually good deals, but they still add up!

Depressing times

2009-03-04T21:55:00.000+11:00

One of the regular blogs I read is My Open Wallet by Madame X. Recently she posted: "These are difficult days to be blogging about money. There's lots to talk about, as the economy is front and center in the news, but sometimes it just gets depressing." See full post here.

It does seem that everyday there is more bad news about the economy. Yesterday Wall Street hit a 12 year low. Today, Australia's growth figures for the December 2008 quarter were revealed - negative growth of 0.5 percent. This is the first time in 8 years that the economy has had negative growth in a quarter. http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,25138213-462,00.html

It is rather depressing, but as trainer Shannon has said on the Australian version of The Biggest Loser (yes I admit to watching it quite regularly of late!) - control the controllable and let the rest work itself out. (Or something along those lines).

All I can do is keep going to work and try to pay off my debt as fast as possible.

Interest rates

2009-03-04T08:04:00.000+11:00

Yesterday the RBA decided not to lower interest rates.

I'm getting a bit annoyed with some articles acting like this is terrible news.

For example: http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,28323,25132946-5016110,00.html, which in the first paragraph says:

"OH, so close. The Reserve Bank denied homeowners a rare moment of good news amid all the economic doom and gloom today, leaving the official interest rate steady at 3.25 per cent."

I don't mean to sound callous, because I know in the current economy, with job losses and threats of more job losses, some people are struggling. But interest rates have dropped 4 percent in 1 year! I looked at the historical cash rate on the Reserve Bank site. The figures go back to January 1990 - so over 19 years ago. Interest rates are lower than they have ever been in that 19 years.

I was a child in the late 80s/early 90s recession, but I remember my parents struggling with a 17% mortgage. 17%!

I'm going to be blunt - if you can't afford a mortgage on current interest rates, you shouldn't have a mortgage.

Budget

2009-03-01T15:27:00.000+11:00

I think part of my problem in January and February was that I didn't have a budget to stick too. Since I'm now getting paid regularly, that is going to change.

This is my fortnightly budget. Not that as my first pay was for 2 and a half weeks of work, I still don't know precisely what I will get after tax each fortnight. I'm also sacrificing membership fees at the university gym, which will come out of my pre-tax salary.

But basically, my budget each fortnight will be:

Now comes the hard part. Sticking to it!

February Expenses

2009-03-01T15:20:00.000+11:00

These are the details of my February expenses:

I'm so disappointed with myself - apart from my rent and mobile, I basically spent more than I should have in every single category. Might come back later today and go through these in more detail ... but right at the moment that feels too much like putting salt in the wound!

February Summary

2009-03-01T15:11:00.000+11:00

As at 1 March 2009:

Credit card debt: $23,808.10
Cash/bank accounts: $4,714.81
Net deficiency: 19,093.29

February Income: $2,638.99
February Expenses: $3,461.72
(Note that income is after tax)

Another terrible month. I still spent more than I earned (in part because my income was 1 pay check + some Ebay sales, and I had some unexpected expenses like car repairs). I paid off some of my credit cards but this was from savings.

What am I doing? Since starting this blog my financial situation has worsened. I knew January and February would be tough, January with no pay and February with not much, but I'm stil spending far too much money.

Another month gone

2009-03-01T08:51:00.000+11:00

February seemed to zoom by. I know it was a short month, but I also started my new job which I think helped.

Finance wise, I didn't have a good month - I added up all my expenses yesterday and it was terrible! Some were unexpected (like car repairs), some were standard like rent, but I definitely need to cut back on things. Now I'm actually getting paid again I have to make sure I actually stick to a budget.

I think part of the problem is that while I've been keeping track of what I spend, I only add it all up each month. From now on I am going to do it weekly.

Will post updates later today in regards to my expenses/credit cards. I left a credit card bill at work which I need to pick up.

In other news, I have started another blog: Another Diet Blog, which will chronicle my attempts to lose some weight. I have lost some weight this year, but I am still considered overweight by my BMI, and definitely still feel too heavy and too unfit. Hopefully being on a diet will also help me cut back on money I spend on snacks!

Sleepy

2009-02-26T13:12:00.000+11:00

Feeling a bit down today. Not sure why. I've been very tired lately. I'm lucky that I live so close to work that I can sleep in, but I really need to start making an effort to get up earlier in the morning so I can stop running around with a chicken with my head cut off each morning!

Did you know Koala's sleep up to 20 hours a day? Most Australians probably do know that, but I went to Taronga Zoo one last night week for a function, and I saw a poster saying they sleep that much because of the low energy in Eucalyptas leaves. Well I've had a terrible diet this week, but I've been eating more calories than normal - so shouldn't I have more energy?

Oh to be a Koala :) Sleep 20 hours a day and look awfully cute doing so!

Weekend update

2009-02-23T21:14:00.001+11:00

I had a good and bad weekend. In good news, yesterday (Sunday) and today have been no spend days.

Saturday was not so good. I went to the movies with my brother, but thought the day would be less than $20. Movie ticket: $13.50 + a bit for food (I don't usually buy movie snacks as they are ridiculoulsy overpriced!).

What the day ended up being:
Lunch: $3.90 (McDonald's seared chicken wrap + small diet coke)
Snacks: $7.40 (a small bag of Cadbury Easter eggs - which I still have some of, I only ate a couple in the movies; and a bottle of diet coke - yes I drink too much diet coke!)
Groceries: $13.50 - (some fruit, vegies and eggs)
Cake tin: $14.96 - (expensive but it's one of those silicone ones, and they are a lot more user-friendly!)
Raffle tickets: $10.00 - (my brother was selling them for Rotary)
Movie tickets: $80.00!! (The cinema had a special of 10 tickets for $100. I do like going to the movies, and this was a saving of 35%. My brother gave me $20 - his ticket for Saturday + 1 more ticket to be used in the future).

So total for the day: $129.76 ... my entertainment spending will have to drop next month.

The International

2009-02-22T12:51:00.000+11:00

I went and saw "The International" yesterday. There was a line in the movie that really struck me. I'm not getting it exactly right, and it didn't make the memorable quotes section in IMDB, but it was basically: "The bank's goal is for everyone, whether a nation or an individual, to be slaves to debt".

News on my car

2009-02-20T09:23:00.001+11:00

Our mechanic came to look at my car yesterday. Overall it is good news. I need a new alternator, which will be between $300-$500 (btw, all the figures I use are always AUD), then a bit for his labour, but because he's been fixing our cars for years and has become a friend of the family, he always gives us a good price.

So I'm hoping that the extra I got in my pay packet yesterday will almost cover it.

Still not a great thing to happen, but at least it happened at I time when I had just received an unexpectedly high pay.

Good things come in threes....

2009-02-19T11:24:00.000+11:00

I know the saying is that bad things come in threes, but I'm trying to be positive and saying that good things come in threes.

My two good things so far:
1) Payday!!!! *doing a little happy dance here* - I usually wouldn't be so exciting but this is the first pay I'm gotten in almost 2 months. Because of when I started, I actually got paid for 2 and a half weeks rather than the standard 2, meaning my pay (this time!) is quite a bit more than I was budgeting. (About $400 more). That will be set aside for car repairs.
2) I had a no spend day yesterday. I know this isn't a big achievement, but they seem to be few and far between for me ... hopefully they will start becoming more frequent.

I'm hoping that the 3rd good thing is my car. A mechanic is coming to look at it this afternoon, and I'm hoping it isn't as bad as I think.

Car Repairs

2009-02-18T12:57:00.000+11:00

I’ll apologise in advance for the long post!

I thought things were going to start looking up. I was pretty depressed about my financial situation - I had so many expenses in January due to moving and having to buy furniture; and have gone almost 2 months without a pay cheque – all this has eaten significantly into the savings I had when I left my last job. I expected these expenses, but it was still depressing to see my savings going down and my credit card debt staying the same.

But then in the last week I had started to feel a bit better – I finally get paid tomorrow, my pay (at least my first pay) is more than I expected because it covers 2 and a half rather than 2 weeks, and I’ve had a balance transfer offer from one of my credit cards – so am going to be doing a bit of reshuffling to reduce the interest I’m paying.

Then last night just before I left work my Mum called me to say “I think I’ve blown your car up”. Let me back track for a minute. I have a 1999 Holden Barina. When I moved from Queensland to Sydney, I didn’t bring my car with me. A few reasons for this:

The thought of driving in Sydney when I don’t know any of the roads scares me!
I didn’t know whether I would be able to find a place to live where I had a car space (as it turns out I have an undercover car space which remains empty)
I live a 10 minute walk from work, and live in an area where there is lots of public transport – with the cost of parking in Sydney and the price of petrol, even if I had a car here I would use public transport as much as possible
My Mum’s car is approaching 20 years old – still running surprisingly well for it’s age, but obviously won’t be around too much longer. My Mum is turning 65 this year and lives on the Gold Coast – where public transport is pretty pitiful. So I wanted to leave my car back “home” for her to use. Actually her first comment when I said I was taking a job in Sydney was “What will I do for a car?” (Um… thanks Mum ...)

Now, I should say is that my Mum has a tendency to exaggerate when she’s upset. When I heard the phrase “blown up”, I envisioned the engine being on fire. Really, all we know so far is that the car was running fine, it has stopped running, and lights came on which Mum wasn’t aware of. Now, I’m the first to say that my Mum knows a lot more about cars than I do, but seriously, this could be anything – yes it could need major repairs but it could also be something fairly simple. We have a family mechanic who hopefully will be able to come and look at it in the next few days.

I know my Mum is going to want me to pay to get it fixed regardless of the cost. She is convinced her car is going to die, but she says she has only been using my car about once a week. Two things are going through my mind:

My car was running well before this, but it is 10 years old and a small car - it really is no longer worth much. If the repairs cost too much, it really isn’t worth getting it fixed, it would be better for me to put that money up towards a new car.
I know my Mum’s car is old, but it still works! If she has been using my car a lot I don’t really care, but when she says that she has only been using my car occasionally, I really don’t understand why she is now saying that if she is has to use her car all the time it won’t last much longer.

Anyway, I guess until we find out what is wrong I can’t make any decision about what to do regarding the repairs.

What this does show though is the importance of having an emergency fund. For a lot of people, a car is an absolute necessity, and car repairs would certainly count as an emergency. I will be using some of what is left in my savings to pay some off my credit cards, but I do plan to keep an emergency fund and a savings account and slowly add to them – even though the interest rates on my credit cards will obviously be more than any interest I get on my savings. You never know what is going to happen, and I don’t want to be in the situation of having to use my credit cards.

Credit card limits

2009-02-14T12:18:00.000+11:00

The amount of credit card debt I have is scary. What is scarier is the amount of my credit card limits - i.e., the amount of debt I would have if I maxed out all my credit cards.

$54,900!!!!

(I don't include my AMEX in my list of debts because it is paid off in full each month).

Who knows about your debt?

2009-02-14T11:57:00.000+11:00

I was watching an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" the other night. It was Season 3, Episode 7 "Dowisetrepla", where Lily and Marshall are trying to get a home loan. The home loan they are offered is at a ridiculously high interst rate, and the reason being that Lily has a mountain of credit card debt.

We had found out in the previous episode "I'm not that guy" about the debt, where Lily showed her best friend Robin her "box of shame" which is a pink shoe box filled with credit cards. She hadn't told her husband Marshall, and in fact the first Marshall finds out about it is when they go for the loan.

It got me thinking, if you are in debt, who knows about it, and if they do know, do they know the extent of it?

I have no significant other, and although I'm not exactly going to reveal my financial situation on a first date, I definitely think that in a serious relationship you need to be honest with each other. But I wonder if that is the reality. In a way I don't want to be involved with anyone seriously until I get my finances in order, and I know that's partly because I don't want to have to tell anyone the extent of my debt.

My Mum and brother both know I have credit card debt, but they have no idea how much. My friends all seem to think I have my finances together because I own a house (well in reality the bank owns most if it!)

I think that's part of the reason I started a blog, (not that I have too many readers yet!) But at least I feel like I'm telling someone and getting it off my chest.

And back to How I Met Your Mother - if you haven't watched it before, I strongly recommend it - it is hilarious! (Season 4 is currently showing in Australia on Channel 7 Monday nights).

Wasted money

2009-02-12T14:09:00.001+11:00

What do you waste money on? And I don't even mean things you spend too much money on, but actual waste.

I spend a few minutes cleaning out my fridge this morning, and threw out:

Full punnet of strawberries
1/2 loaf of bread
2 peaches
Salad I made last week (lettuce, tomato, carrot)
A carrot
A few green beans (kept most of them but a few were too far gone)
Yoghurt

With food prices the way they are these days, this is over $10 worth of food - completely wasted.

I'm not alone in this, according to www.savefoodstopwaste.com, Australian's waste 3 million tonnes of food each year, at a cost of $5 billion.

So what can we do? Well there are a lot of tips of the Save Food Stop Waste website, but here are the ones I'm going to try to follow:

1. Plan ahead - plan my meals each week so I am only buying what I need, and make sure I'm go to the supermarket with a list!

2. Freeze more food - this one is a bit hard for me as I live with a flatmate and we have a small fridge, our freezer is usually pretty full. But I'm sure I could have squeezed in some of the bread.

3. Be wary of "specials" that require you to buy in bulk - buying in bulk is a great way to save money - if you are actually going to use the food! Lately I've noticed a lot more specials where you have to buy 2 or 3 of the item to get the saving. Particuarly if you only are cooking for one (like I am) - you may end up throwing these "specials" away - it would have been cheaper to only buy 1, even at the "regular price"

Benefits of being sick

2009-02-11T08:11:00.001+11:00

I felt pretty awful most of yesterday. However, I discovered one benefit - not spending money! I went to work (it's only my 2nd week so it's a bit too early to be taking sick days!) but left at the dot of 5, came home (10 minute walk) and went straight to bed! I even saved money on food because the only thing I ate yesterday was a slice of toast.

I did spend $13.90 on posting my Ebay parcel, but that doesn't really count as it was paid for.

Firebugs responsible for mass murder

2009-02-09T14:05:00.000+11:00

As you may gather from my first post about Rudd's 42b rescue plan, I don't always agree with him, but I completely stand with him on his comment about the Victorian bushfires:

"A clearly shaken Kevin Rudd has told the Nine Network that if firebugs lit some of the bushfires then they are responsible for "mass murder".
"What do you say about anyone like that — there are no words to describe it other than mass murder.""

From:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/744864/at-least-93-dead-in-victorian-bushfires

I encourage everyone to donate to the bushfire appeals - I still couldn't get online to the Red Cross, but through www.bendigobank.com.au I was able to donate to the bushfire appeal and the North Qld flood appeal. (Australia really has been having crazy weather lately). Certainly the best money I've spent in a while.

Ebay sales

2009-02-09T08:10:00.000+11:00

I sold an item on Ebay last week for $355 .... and like Homer Simpson once said "Now we play the waiting game". In my case, that is waiting to get paid for it. Sigh. I say people have 7 days to pay, which takes it to this Wednesday, so I can't do anything as yet, but I'm impatient dammit!

Victorian Bushfire Appeal

2009-02-08T22:28:00.000+11:00

I'm watching Channel 9 news. The death toll from the Victorian Bushfires is now up to 84, expected to go to over 100.

The Red Cross is having an appeal in conjunction with the Victorian government - you can donate at www.redcross.org.au or call 1800 811 700. I can't actually get onto the web site at the moment, which may be because of the enormous support they are receiving. The phone line will be open all week if you can't get through straight away.

You can also donate through Bendigo Bank - www.bendigobank.com.au

Bushfire deaths

2009-02-08T14:09:00.003+11:00

Completely non-finance related, but please pray for everyone affected by the bushfires in Victoria (Australia).

So far 35 people have died and this is expected to rise.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/744864/worst-day-in-history-vic-fires-kill-14

New South Wales is also experiencing bushfires, but thankfully there have been no deaths.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/744906/nearly-60-bushfires-burning-across-nsw

I've been complaining no end about the heat, but this really puts things into perspective.

Dieting

2009-02-08T08:09:00.001+11:00

Apart from trying to get my finances in order this year, I'm also trying to get fitter and lose some weight. In the 3 years at my previous job, I put on 15kg. (That is a lot when you are only 150cm tall!) There were two simple reasons for this: 1) I was eating crap; 2) I wasn't exercising.

It took me an hour and a half to get from my front door to my desk (and the same going home). I was working long hours so I would usually leave home ridiculously early without eating breakfast, buy something evil on the way to work, buy lunch because I hadn't packed anything, and often if I was leaving work late buying something to eat for dinner (which more often than not ended up being the McDonalds at Central Station as it was the only thing open).

I shudder to think what I was spending on food every week.

Madame X (the author of http://www.myopenwallet.net/ - I highly recommend visiting), posted a link on her site to the article: Dieting? Put Your Money Where Your Fat Is - about people making bets to see who can lose the most weight in a certain time period - and how such bets are encouraging people to lose weight.

In my case, saving money and losing weight should go hand in hand anyway. It is so much cheaper to cook at home and bring your own luch to work, not to mention healthier. By stopping eating fast food, I should be saving money and losing weight!

(PS - I left my job in late December and have lost 6kg - not bad considering there was Christmas in the way!)

Goals

2009-02-06T16:42:00.000+11:00

I realised that as yet I haven't outlined my goals in terms of my debt apart from saying "I want to pay it off".

One thing I learnt in my old job was all about SMART goals. That is: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. (Check out http://www.topachievement.com/smart.html for some more info on each on the letters).

SMART goals can be applied to basically anything. A non-monetary example would be losing weight ... it is all well and good to say "I want to lose weight" (which by the way, I do!) but if you put it in smart terms (eg: I will lose 7kg by the end of March 2009), it becomes much clearer what you need to do and how you are progressing.

I have 2 main debt goals:
1) To have my credit card debt down to $10,000 by the end of 2009.
2) To have my credit card debt paid off by the end of 2010.

The new job I took (and moved interstate for) is a one year contract. There is a strong possibility of an extension, but obviously funding (I now work at a uni) is going to come into play, so I am concerned with the impact the failing economy will have. Having said that, considering the industry I was previously in, there is every likelihood that my old firm will start making people redundant if the economy doesn't improve.

Rudd's Cash Bonus - what will you get?

2009-02-06T16:40:00.000+11:00

From the looks of it, Rudd's 42B "rescue plan" will be going ahead.

This is a good article from Money magazine showing how much (if anything) you will get: http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=740413

I should receive $950, and I'm telling you now, I certainly won't be spending it to stimulate the economy - I have done more than enough of that over the past few years. It will be going straight to my credit cards.