Rent Increase - Boo!

Our rent at the moment is $450 weekly. In June this year, we've received a letter from the real estate agent offering us another contract,

I note from our records that your Tenancy Agreement is due to expire shortly. The landlord has instructed me to offer you a further Agreement for 12 months under the same terms and conditions.

I have pleasure in advising you that the rent is not to be increased.

The other day, J & I received this in the mail,

I have been instructed by the Landlord of the above property to increase your rent by $10 per week from $450 to $460 per week... The rent is being increased to this level taking into account factors such as the current demand for rental accommodation in the area and the length of time you have lived in the property. I believe the increased rent to be in line with current rental market value and fair to both parties.

So they're planning on changing it on the 5th of December. And we have until before then to make up our minds on whether to accept it or not. J said that he's going to write them a letter. One of the reasons we decided to stay in this place is because they said they're not going to increase the rent and we understood that to be for the whole lease period which is one year. Our next lease ends in September and although J and I want to move to a cheaper 1-bedroom place late next year, we still want to stay here until our lease ends.

Streetcar Named Desire

Budget for this week: $150 (period from Oct 01 to Oct 07)

When setting up my weekly budget, I usually have a look at my calendar to see what my plans are for the week. Here is a play by play of what I have planned until Wed (of course, this could change at any minute).

Oct 01 (Thurs) - Work, stay at home for dinner as J is working night-shift

Oct 02 (Fri) - 10 hours of work today, straight home after a long week, J is working again

Oct 03 (Sat) - PT session in the morning, no plans for the afternoon, probably chill at home and watch a few DVD's, J is working night again

Oct 04 (Sun) - absolutely no plans - might go out for a quick brunch with J once he wakes up.

Oct 05 (Mon) - public holiday today. My friend has invited J & I to her new apartment for lunch. Her mom is also newly arrived from China and this lady cooks the best dumplings! I will bring some wine for my friend and a box of chocolates for her mom (she gave me a box a few Christmases ago). I'm budgeting $25 for this.

Oct 06 (Tue) - back to work, very very busy day - another 10 hours, hopefully J will cook me dinner so I can go straight to bed

Oct 07 (Wed) - I took a day off today because my gfs and I have booked a Cate Blanchett play back in January of this year - it's Streetcar Named Desire at the Sydney Theatre Company. The seats have already sold out in January so we could only get a 1pm showing and that's why I have to take the whole day off. My friends & I might have coffee afterwards but I definitely want to be back home for dinner. Budget for the day: $30 (Tickets already paid for)

You might have noticed how pedantic I am about planning my days. I live for my 30 Boxes and check it all the time. I used to over book before but now I'm starting to like being a homebody for a while. Let's see if I can make it through the week with $150.

sydney is in mars

I woke up on Wednesday morning and the sky was bright orange. I thought the summer bushfires has started and that it was nearer to our place than usual. It turns out that it's just a big roll of dust from the country. The sky was tinged orange until the middle of the day. During the night, I went to the city and there was dust everywhere.

[photos from sydney photographer tomhide - visit his flickr!]

Budget Update : Sept 21

This weekend has been heavy on the budget due to us hosting a BBQ at our place. I always over prepare for these situations. I shop too much and prepare too much and at the end of the day, there are a lot of leftovers. This time, there weren't so many and J & I are having what is left for lunch. I think that's the last BBQ we're hosting for the year at our place. October through to December are busy times and I'm still not sure if we're hosting a Christmas dinner/BBQ at our place this year since they all usually happen at J's parent's place.

Here's how I did starting

Thursday:

$7 - breakfast (I was not at work on Thursday, I was doing a course and I only had 4 hours sleep because I woke up at 3am for some reason and I couldn't get back to sleep so I had a very large double-shot coffee and a cake of some sort hoping that the sugar buzz will get me through the morning)
$3.50 - another coffee boost

Friday:

$14 - cake tin & A Long Kiss Goodnight DVD from Target
$11 - 1 kilo lamb mince
$20.75 - 2 kilos chicken breast
$28 - Groceries
$24 - 2 huge bottles of champagne & beer

Saturday:

$12 - Blockbuster
$5.60 - Groceries

Sunday:

$15 - Groceries
$7 - muffins
$10 - groceries from IGA (what a rip-off!)
$3.60 - bag of mixed salad leaves

Total: $161.45

That means I have $28.55 until Wednesday! Today is another day off and it's looking good to be another No Spend Day. I'm not going out unless it's going for a run tonight.

Leaking Money & New Budget

My CC debt went up from $387 to $620 in the last week. Yikes! We were short while paying for the groceries so I had to pay using the black CC. J sent me $50 by direct debit for his share but silly me, spent the money instead. Oh well, my savings are still intact and I'm putting more on my CC for this pay.

J also had an unexpected expense this week. He wears monthly contact lenses and on April this year, he got an ulcer in his eye from a cut possibly from his contacts. So he had to go to his optometrist then to the eye hospital to get eye drops. Last night, he came home and his right eye was really red and looked infected so he had to go through the same process again this time. The eye drops and the consultation are expensive but hopefully he can get some of it back on Medicare (public health system) and on NIB (our private health). Contact lenses are a bitch and he's planning on getting LASIK next year. I got my eyes done in 2005 and it was the best thing I've ever done! More on this later...

Payday tomorrow so here's the budget for the next two weeks. I thought I was going to be short of my goal to save $1000 this month as I had to send extra money overseas to family but it turns out that I got paid a bit more than anticipated.

Income (next two weeks): $1965

Rent: $400
Family: $359
Personal Training: $87.55
Uni Loan Payment: $146
Credit Card: $175
Home Deposit: $450
Week 1 Budget: $190
Week 2 Budget: $150

Week 1: Sept 17 to Sept 23
Week 2: Sept 24 to Sept 30

My week 1 budget is about $40 more because we're having a party at our place on Sunday. J & I are going halves so our budget is going to be around $60 for food & drinks but I budgeted extra anyway, just in case.

P.S. That black card is going to be locked away again! It's just too dangerous to be around.

Our Living Situation

At the moment, J & I are living in a 2-bedroom apartment with J's brother. He's moved in with us in February 09 but he's moving out again in September 09. J & I moved in this apartment at the end of June 08.

At the moment, J & I are paying $125 a week each which is $250 per fornight. And J's brother is paying $200 a week. This is fair because we pay the electricity and the internet and J's brother also has the use of our garage. Also, he doesn't like cleaning that much (that's another long blog vent in itself).

When J's brother moves at the first week of September, we're going back to paying $450 each per fortnight. Of course, this is going to impact on our savings but I think it's going to be worth it in the long run. Am I willing to pay another $200 for our privacy and my sanity? Yes!!

Another option would be is to move to a smaller 1-bedroom apartment whilst we're saving for our home deposit. We've thought about doing this but decided on just staying at our current apartment which we love for the following reasons:

1. It's a great area, it's only 7 minutes approximately to Sydney CBD (Central Business District). There are lots of cafes, restaurants and supermarkets within walking distance. Our local supermarket is actually just 3 mins walk away.

2. It's a safe and friendly area. I know literally every crime, every accident and every incident that happens in this area. Just call it perks of the job.

3. I can walk to work. My work is approximately 20-25 minutes walk and it's a very good walk through the park and the main road. This is handy because I don't have a car (because I can't drive, yet). J has a car and his work is around 25-30 mins drive away, less when not in peak time.

4. We really like this apartment. It's cosy and it's comfortable and we've arranged it around to suit us because we're more homebodies than extroverted party-goers.

If we move out to a smaller 1-bedroom unit in this area, our rent would not be reduced as much because the minimum rent for a 1-bedder is now around $330. Then there are the hassles of the moving, the lease-breaking, the actual looking for an apartment, etc.

We've paid off $450 before without any hassles before J's brother moves in, we'll just budget better than before and have a few more stay-ins instead of night-outs.