April Summary

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

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

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

May for me is about 4 things:

1. Studying
2. Working
3. Losing weight
4. 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

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

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

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.