New goals - JAPAN!

The good thing about goals is that they are flexible and ever changing. J & I seriously set down our goals in August of this year and the major one is to save up enough money for a home deposit so that we can get a mortgage by next year. Since August, we've saved up $8000 together. I've never been much of a saver so saving $4000 by myself in a short span of time (while still paying down debt) is an achievement for me. Now I know I can do it and I can do it easily.

Our goal to get a mortgage is still intact but there are other forces in play such as an impending wedding, paying down debt and travelling. Initially, we were going to save up 5% of our loan and get a mortgage immediately, now we've decided to save up a little bit more so that we would have more money to use for our mortgage. But that can change any minute as I'm quite impulsive.

J & I are going to have two weeks off for Christmas & New Years this year and we don't usually get to spend December holidays together because J has to work most NYE so we wanted to celebrate somewhere special. At first, we were planning on going for a 7-day road trip from Sydney to Queensland. I made a budget and it was going to be much expensive than I thought it would for an Australian holiday. And honestly, I don't think it was going to be worth it and I wasn't going to be happy with it in the long run. So we've decided to go to JAPAN!!! Yep, we're heading off to Japan for two weeks this December to celebrate Christmas and NYE in TOKYO! I'm so excited!!!

This will of course impact heavily on our savings. We already have $4000 each (plus J has an EF of $2500) saved up and we've decided NOT in any circumstances touch this money. So what we're going to save in the upcoming months from October to December will be our Japan money. I think it's definitely going to be worth it!

Free Money

While transferring contents from one bag to another this morning, I found $15 in one of my bag's pockets! And yes, I've spent all of it. Good thing it's pay day tomorrow! I don't have lunch for work tomorrow either. The dinner that I cooked tonight was loved and finished by all. Not a great start to September. My No Spend Day September challenge is still at a lovely 0! But with enough preparation, hopefully I would have 3 NSD next week!

Market Haul

J & I went to the markets in the city today since we're already headed there for lunch. Can you believe we bought all these vegetables for only $7.80? If we bought it at our local supermarket, it would probably be around $20! Avocadoes in our supermarket are on average $2.50 EACH! In the city markets, they're .60!!

The breakdown:

2 x pakchoy baby = $1
2 x avocado = $1.20
1 lettuce = $1
6 tomatoes = $.70
half pumpkin = $1
sweet potato = $1
2 x green capsicums = $1.20
1 x eggplant = $.70

We also got some cheap meat from the butchers ($24) that will probably last us a few days for dinner for three people and maybe some work lunches. We still don't know if it's worth it travelling to the city every week or every other week to go to the markets. The prices are 50% off and the vegetables and fruits are fresh however, we need to travel to go there. It's not very far but parking is already $10 on Sundays and a bus there would be $16 both ways for the both of us and $8 if I'm going by myself which I don't really want to because the haul is heavy! We need a strategy so we can shop there maybe every week - maybe I can do the shopping myself and J can pick me from a corner or on Saturdays we can pay $5 in parking but we have to do the shopping in an hour. We'll see but so far, we're very happy with what we got today and for a very cheap price.

Article: Things we've ditched since the financial crisis

According to this article, " AUSTRALIANS have taken the financial knife to dry cleaning, expensive dinners and donations to charities – and it’s all thanks to the global financial crisis."

Apparently, shoppers are shopping more in Target than high-end boutiques, they're ditching fine dining restaurants in favour of eating at home, taking domestic holidays rather than international ones, opting for cheaper brands of wine and are foregoing expensive dry-cleaning costs.

Here's my take on all of those (True or False):

1. I've always shopped at Target and K-mart. Although I can drop $300 for a dress, I'm not a shop snob. But now that I have a shopping budget, I'd probably go for more good quality items say a $50 top that I would wear for a year compared to three $15 tops that will probably disintegrate after 3 or more washes. FALSE

2. I don't think I've ever finely dined actually and I'm thinking of restaurants like Tetsuya's ($195 per person for a degustation meal), Aria, Pilu or Quay which would probably be around $150 per person for a three-course meal and not including the wine for which the cheapest bottle would be around $80. So no, I'm not a fine dining person.

J & I don't mind having a good meal out though for about $50-60 per person if there's a special occasion. Lately though, we have eating at home a lot. Just a year ago, we would probably eat out 3 or 4 times a week but that was probably because we didn't have a proper kitchen. We had 2 burners on top of a table where we also ate but now that we have a good kitchen, we cook more and eat out only once a week (around $25 each). TRUE-ish

3. Travelling in Australia is expensive! It's such a big country that is far remote from anywhere else. That being said, if I was going travelling for 2 or more weeks, I'd rather go to Asia or any of the other Pacific Islands. Three weeks in an Asian country (not Japan) would probably be comparable to one week of travelling in Australia. In other words, travelling here is a rip-off! And the service overseas is also a lot better. FALSE

4. We're not big wine drinkers and we only get a bottle when we're going out for dinner with friends or visiting someone else's house for dinner. We do have a friend that can give us a dozen wines for $30 and they are high quality wines worth $25+ each. He gets them from an auction site. FALSE

5. Coats and blazers and sometimes pants are the only things I take to the dry cleaners and that's probably a once a year occurence. After winter, I get all my coats drycleaned so I can store them for another year, that would probably cost around $50. FALSE

I guess we're not the average Australian then! Probably because the average Australian is broke!

Less than a week until payday

J & I get paid on the same day fortnightly (every two weeks) specifically on Thursday! At the moment, I have $125 until the next pay day with a looming weekend and 3 work days to go. I think I'll definitely make it without dipping into savings or using the Black card which I will now hand to J to hide away from me.

So far, I don't have any upcoming plans for the weekend. I was supposed to go out with a friend for lunch tomorrow and go half on a birthday present for a party we're going to next Saturday but those plans fell through. J is working tomorrow at 2pm so I'll probably just stay at home and watch a movie and do some reading.

On Sunday, J & I might go out somewhere for a walk and a cheap brunch. I might get out and get some groceries for my lunches for the next week as well and some bread for breakfast.

If I'm budgeting $40 for dinner tonight then I would only have $85 to spend on the weekend and my lunches and also one night of dinner before payday. It's going to be a tough challenge!

Put that Black card away!

The only way I can manage my finances is to do this daily:

$10.00 - breakfast (very naughty, I know but it's the first breakfast I've bought in the whole week at work. It was a work colleague's last day and our team went out for coffee and B&E rolls. So damn delicious!)
$2.00 - Freddo frogs
$13.60 - new notebook & paper from Eckersley's (black*)

Total: $25.60

*Black refers to my black Visa card which I'm trying to pay off and I should really NOT be using!