Sleepy

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

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

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

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....

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

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:

1. The thought of driving in Sydney when I don’t know any of the roads scares me!
2. 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)
3. 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
4. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

Rudd's Stimulus Package

Rudd has done it again.... another stimulus package to boost the economy - $42B.

I love a picture www.news.com.au with the title: "So long to surpluses as Rudd borrows billions: Here we owe again".

As Malcolm Turnball said yesterday, once Labor goes into deficit they stay in deficit, then when the Liberals get into power and make tough decisions to get the Country back into surplus - they are the world's worst.

My apologies - I don't want to make this blog too political - but the above will show where my political allegiances lie.

Interest rates have also dropped. Doesn't help me in terms of my homeloan as my mortgage is fixed, but I will be interested to see if any of my credit card interest rates drop.

A bit more background

You will note on the right side of the screen I have "net deficiency" - this is the difference between the cash I have and the amount I owe.

I do own assets, however the point of the figure is not to show my net worth.

I own a car, which I have left with my Mum before I moved as her car is 20 years old and won't be lasting much longer! I walk to work and am in an area where there are quite a lot of buses.

I also own a house with my brother which we rent out to uni students. It is mortgaged, but the amount of rent more than covers the mortgage (just!) but pretty much any extra goes on other house expenses.

My superannuation is about $10,000 .... got a lot of years of work left in me!

January Expenses

So I had a very expensive January.

Expenses for the month of January were a total of $4,174, comprising of:
Homewares: $1,031.31
Rent: $679.95
Clothing etc: $428.53
Entertainment: $365.51
Medical: $365.19
Food: $316.28
Bank fees + interest: $265.59
Stationary + Printing: $228.54
Travel: $193.39
Presents: $113.50
Household: $81.06
Miscellaneous: $55.16
Mobile Phone: $50.00

Some notes:

Homewares: Homewares obviously was the main one, and included furniture. Should be nil for February.

Rent: My rent is $220 per week, before I moved in I had paid 2 weeks in advance (first 2 weeks of January) so it will increase in February.

Clothing: Must cut down! I went to an outlet mall (DFO to Australian readers!) with a friend and bought some shoes. I have tiny feet and it is very hard for me to find shoes that fit, but obviously I can't be spending this amount of money. Also bought a couple of things for work.

Entertainment: Includes dining out with friends, movies, concert tickets, books, magazines, DVDs etc. This month it included a farewell dinner with friends in Queensland before I moved, a ticket to see Dylan Moran (who I love and is comnig to Sydney in April/May), and a few other items. Will be less in February.

Medical: Includes prescriptions, over the counter medicine, private health cover and for January a pair of prescription sunglasses ($85 after my health fund paid some). I have recently reduced my health cover (my level was quite excessive considering my age), so this will drop.

Food: includes groceries and snacks (not included in entertainment which I leave for dining with friends). I spent too much on fast food, partly because for one week of the month I was out of town. Aim to reduce this to less than $200 for February.

Bank fees + interest: $249.69 was interest on my debts! Say it with me: Credit card debt is evil!

Stationary + printing: I am studying two postgraduate degrees so spend a lot on photocopying and printing. It was higher this month because of some extra research work I was doing which I will be paid back for.

Travel: Included pre-paid bus tickets, one air fare, petrol when I drove interstate with my brother (because of moving), and one taxi fare. Will be less in February.

Presents: A 2nd Dylan Moran ticket for my brother's birthday.

Household: Things like cleaning supplies. Didn't bring any with me when I moved, but have now stocked up.

Miscelleaneous: Whatever I couldn't be bothered further categorising!

Mobile phone: Is basically a set $50 per month.

Tip of the day

Check receipts! I was going through all my receipts yesterday. I had been to the chemist during the week and had bought 4 x $1.00 toothbrushes and a tube of toothpaste for $3.50. Well, it turned out I was charged for 1 toothbrush and 4 tubes of toothpaste! So I was charged $15 rather than $7.50. Because I also had some prescriptions and bought some vitamins, I didn't notice the discrepancy, and now it's too late to go back and complain.

So TIP - Check your receipts as soon as you get them.

January Summary

As at 1 February:

Credit card debt: $25,773.85
Cash/bank accounts: $8,543.86
Net deficiency: $17,229.99

January Income: $636.88
January Expenses: $4,174.00

So overall January wasn't a good month.

My credit card debt actually increased in January. This is the interest that has been charged. I made my January payments at the end of December, and am yet to make the February payments.

My cash has gone down because I've been living on my savings as I have been without pay. I've also had expenses of furniture (I used to live in a fully furnished place).

I will be making my February payments soon and as I'm starting my job tomorrow I'll start to get paid soon!

Introduction

I'm a 20-something girl living in Sydney, Australia, who is in far too much credit card debt.
I have no excuse for being in this much debt. I'm an intelligent person who actually has a law degree and an ACCOUNTING degree!

I graduated from university at the end of 2005 without about $5K in credit card debt - which I said to myself I would pay off when I was in my first "professional" job (which ironically was at an accounting firm). But sadly, as my income increased, so did the offers of credit cards, and so did my credit card debt.

I left my job in December 2008 - I had been there almost 3 years and hadn't enjoyed it for over 2 of them. I made sure I had another job before I left, but because of the Christmas holidays, holidays my old boss was taking over January and the date they wanted me at my new job, I had six weeks without pay. I actually start my new job tomorrow.

I also had to move interstate.

So now, I'm on approximately $10,000 less than I was at my old job and living in a more expensive city. BUT - I'm still glad I am doing this because I really needed a change. However, I realise it is going to be even more challenging to pay off my debt.

I called this blog "Another Personal Finance Blog" because I know there are tons out there, and with the economy going the way it is I'm sure there are going to be a lot more in the future. I don't expect mine will be anything special - it's more to make me accountable to myself.