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!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
September Goals Review
Financial Goals:
1. Savings of $1000 in personal ING account - DONE!
2. Pay off $292 in university debts (to tax office) - DONE!
3. 10 NSD Challenge - FAIL! I only had 4 No Spend Days in September. How sad is that?
4. Don't use the credit card - FAIL! Yes, it was used. Again and again.
5. Fill out green form and send it off to work's Financial Services so my HECS debt can be automatically taken off my tax pay each year - FAIL! Completely forgot to do this.
6. Record every spending for the entire month - FAIL! I'm pretty sure I may have missed (or omitted) a few days or items here and there.
Other Goals:
1. No Sweets Month - EPIC FAIL! This is not ever going to be a goal again because it's just not possible.
2. Exercise 3 times a week including PT session - FAIL-ish! Sometimes we went for 3, sometimes 2 or none at all. Must do better in October.
3. Drink alcohol only 2 nights a week - DONE! I probably only had 2-3 drinking days in September!
Next month I am going to have more greens!
1. Savings of $1000 in personal ING account - DONE!
2. Pay off $292 in university debts (to tax office) - DONE!
3. 10 NSD Challenge - FAIL! I only had 4 No Spend Days in September. How sad is that?
4. Don't use the credit card - FAIL! Yes, it was used. Again and again.
5. Fill out green form and send it off to work's Financial Services so my HECS debt can be automatically taken off my tax pay each year - FAIL! Completely forgot to do this.
6. Record every spending for the entire month - FAIL! I'm pretty sure I may have missed (or omitted) a few days or items here and there.
Other Goals:
1. No Sweets Month - EPIC FAIL! This is not ever going to be a goal again because it's just not possible.
2. Exercise 3 times a week including PT session - FAIL-ish! Sometimes we went for 3, sometimes 2 or none at all. Must do better in October.
3. Drink alcohol only 2 nights a week - DONE! I probably only had 2-3 drinking days in September!
Next month I am going to have more greens!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Eating out is awesome
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
0
but expensive - very expensive!
I've ate out a lot in the last week, probably more than I was expecting which really didn't help the budget (and even though J paid more for it anyway). In the past week, we've eaten at:
(1) Siam Square Thai - one of our local Thai restaurants. The restaurant itself is cosy and the service is always excellent. That is, if you're actually at the restaurant. We've tried their delivery service once and ended up waiting for almost 2 hours. It was a marvel that we still came back but their food is hard to beat. I especially like Mussuman Beef & their satay prawns are to die for. It's pretty cheap as well and it's BYO. For an entree & lots of main to share, expect to pay around $20 each.
(2) Sushi Samurai - J's sister & I had a dinner/movie night on Friday because J was at work all night. We had dinner at my fave Japanese restaurants. I ordered some karaage chicken to share and a chicken & avocado inside out roll and some green tea. The serves are generous and the price is a little bit more expensive than a typical Japanese restaurant. All that I ordered came to exactly $20!
(3) Ichiban Boshi - the best budget Japanese restaurant in Sydney, hands down! J & I have been going here ever since we started dating and that was more than 5 years ago. Since then, the prices have probably gone up less than a dollar but the quality has never wavered. We try and go here at least once every fortnight. On Sunday, we watched An Education (for free and it was a good movie!) and had lunch here. We both had drinks (Calpis water), had an entree to share (gyoza), had mains (karaage cheese curry for me & Aburi Chasu-men for J) and the bill came to less than $35.
I foresee no eating out until maybe this weekend. We're trying to rein it in as we impulsively planned a holiday in December (post on this later!). October is going to be an expensive month as it is because it's my birthday month. I don't have a birthday - I have a birthmonth. I actually celebrate for the whole month because I love birthdays and funnily enough, I actually welcome getting older now. November is going to be a tight-ass month for sure and half of December is too. I don't even want to think about Christmas presents yet!
I've ate out a lot in the last week, probably more than I was expecting which really didn't help the budget (and even though J paid more for it anyway). In the past week, we've eaten at:
(1) Siam Square Thai - one of our local Thai restaurants. The restaurant itself is cosy and the service is always excellent. That is, if you're actually at the restaurant. We've tried their delivery service once and ended up waiting for almost 2 hours. It was a marvel that we still came back but their food is hard to beat. I especially like Mussuman Beef & their satay prawns are to die for. It's pretty cheap as well and it's BYO. For an entree & lots of main to share, expect to pay around $20 each.
(2) Sushi Samurai - J's sister & I had a dinner/movie night on Friday because J was at work all night. We had dinner at my fave Japanese restaurants. I ordered some karaage chicken to share and a chicken & avocado inside out roll and some green tea. The serves are generous and the price is a little bit more expensive than a typical Japanese restaurant. All that I ordered came to exactly $20!
(3) Ichiban Boshi - the best budget Japanese restaurant in Sydney, hands down! J & I have been going here ever since we started dating and that was more than 5 years ago. Since then, the prices have probably gone up less than a dollar but the quality has never wavered. We try and go here at least once every fortnight. On Sunday, we watched An Education (for free and it was a good movie!) and had lunch here. We both had drinks (Calpis water), had an entree to share (gyoza), had mains (karaage cheese curry for me & Aburi Chasu-men for J) and the bill came to less than $35.
I foresee no eating out until maybe this weekend. We're trying to rein it in as we impulsively planned a holiday in December (post on this later!). October is going to be an expensive month as it is because it's my birthday month. I don't have a birthday - I have a birthmonth. I actually celebrate for the whole month because I love birthdays and funnily enough, I actually welcome getting older now. November is going to be a tight-ass month for sure and half of December is too. I don't even want to think about Christmas presents yet!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
sydney is in mars
Saturday, September 26, 2009
0
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!]
Friday, September 25, 2009
End of the week
Friday, September 25, 2009
0
I can't believe I haven't posted anything since Monday night - this week has been such a blur of bad sleep & work.
Remember in my previous competitions post, I joined a magazine competition to win a free pass to a wedding expo. Well, I won and we went. And it wasn't anything special. I'm just so glad I didn't pay for it since the tickets cost $95 each.
Someone called me on Monday to say that I've won (yay!), I left work early on Wed and met up with J's sister in the city and we headed straight to the expo. This is our second wedding expo together and the first one was $10 and was tackorama all the way with a fashion lingerie show (in nurse's outfits!) but this one was held at the Tea Rooms in QVB which is a very expensive and popular wedding venue. The exhibitors were very good brands but I think it's just the whole wedding business that puts me off especially when I see the prices ($8000 for a one-day photography and video package?!) and the whole hoopla on just one day. It's just not me at all but anyway, they're good fun while you're there and you end up with a free wedding magazine or two and about 10,000 brochures and calling cards that goes straight to the bin once you get home.
On the money front, there have been no major dramas or purchases but I have been really lazy and haven't been preparing my breakfast for work. Here are the misses of the week:
Tuesday (22nd Sept)
$5 - breakfast usually consisting of a small coffee & huge slices of raisin toast
$32.50 - Groceries
$48 - ok, so there have been a major purchase. A friend of mine went to China on a holiday and is kindly bringing me back some DVD's - this is for 6 boxed sets.
Wed (23rd Sept)
$4 - yummy chocolate-covered coffee beans
$11.40 - expensive lunch at QVB in the city. This got me a spinach & feta filo with salad (which means 3 lettuce leaves) and a small coffee. Ah! The price we pay for living in Sydney. J, his sister and I went to an awesome Thai dinner though and J paid (thanks love!)
Thurs (24th Sept)
$5 - Breakfast
$6.50 - Lunch (the best chicken, avocado, sun dried tomatoes and other goodies on a huge brown roll)
Fri (25th Sept)
$5 - Breakfast - this time a bacon & egg roll
$32 - I treated J to lunch in a fancy cafe near work
$20 - Dinner with J's sister at Sushi Samurai (the best Japanese place in our area!)
$3 - my share for the ice cream which turned out to be really bad. How can someone mess up chocolate ice cream?
Total: $172.40
Remember in my previous competitions post, I joined a magazine competition to win a free pass to a wedding expo. Well, I won and we went. And it wasn't anything special. I'm just so glad I didn't pay for it since the tickets cost $95 each.
Someone called me on Monday to say that I've won (yay!), I left work early on Wed and met up with J's sister in the city and we headed straight to the expo. This is our second wedding expo together and the first one was $10 and was tackorama all the way with a fashion lingerie show (in nurse's outfits!) but this one was held at the Tea Rooms in QVB which is a very expensive and popular wedding venue. The exhibitors were very good brands but I think it's just the whole wedding business that puts me off especially when I see the prices ($8000 for a one-day photography and video package?!) and the whole hoopla on just one day. It's just not me at all but anyway, they're good fun while you're there and you end up with a free wedding magazine or two and about 10,000 brochures and calling cards that goes straight to the bin once you get home.
On the money front, there have been no major dramas or purchases but I have been really lazy and haven't been preparing my breakfast for work. Here are the misses of the week:
Tuesday (22nd Sept)
$5 - breakfast usually consisting of a small coffee & huge slices of raisin toast
$32.50 - Groceries
$48 - ok, so there have been a major purchase. A friend of mine went to China on a holiday and is kindly bringing me back some DVD's - this is for 6 boxed sets.
Wed (23rd Sept)
$4 - yummy chocolate-covered coffee beans
$11.40 - expensive lunch at QVB in the city. This got me a spinach & feta filo with salad (which means 3 lettuce leaves) and a small coffee. Ah! The price we pay for living in Sydney. J, his sister and I went to an awesome Thai dinner though and J paid (thanks love!)
Thurs (24th Sept)
$5 - Breakfast
$6.50 - Lunch (the best chicken, avocado, sun dried tomatoes and other goodies on a huge brown roll)
Fri (25th Sept)
$5 - Breakfast - this time a bacon & egg roll
$32 - I treated J to lunch in a fancy cafe near work
$20 - Dinner with J's sister at Sushi Samurai (the best Japanese place in our area!)
$3 - my share for the ice cream which turned out to be really bad. How can someone mess up chocolate ice cream?
Total: $172.40
Monday, September 21, 2009
Budget Update : Sept 21
Monday, September 21, 2009
2
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.
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.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Cheap & Easy: Penne with Meatballs
Saturday, September 19, 2009
2
The ultimate cheap and easy meal is pasta - get a few grams of meat, a pasta sauce and you're set. Or if you have pasta, some olive oil, herbs, spices and some vegetables, toss it together and it makes a simple healthy meal.
J & I love our pasta. We try and not have it often (due to high carbs!) but it's definitely one of our fail safe meals. Tonight, I'm cooking a simple penne pasta with meatballs. The recipe called for frozen meatballs but I made my own tonight for the first time. The frozen meatballs are usually around $6-7, the home made ones are less than that and yummier. I usually get mince when they're on sale for around $2.50 per half a kilo. Most of the other ingredients you should have in your cupboard.
Meatballs
1/2 kilo pork mince
1 egg
breadcrumbs
1.5 cup tasty cheese
salt & pepper to taste
fresh herbs
Mix these ingredients together and roll them up into little meatballs.
Then fry them. Once they're cooked, add mushrooms and the pasta sauce of your choice. In a sauce pan, bring water to a boil and put your penne in. Mix together. Sprinkle with some more fresh herbs.
Eat with gusto and a glass of wine!
J & I love our pasta. We try and not have it often (due to high carbs!) but it's definitely one of our fail safe meals. Tonight, I'm cooking a simple penne pasta with meatballs. The recipe called for frozen meatballs but I made my own tonight for the first time. The frozen meatballs are usually around $6-7, the home made ones are less than that and yummier. I usually get mince when they're on sale for around $2.50 per half a kilo. Most of the other ingredients you should have in your cupboard.
Meatballs
1/2 kilo pork mince
1 egg
breadcrumbs
1.5 cup tasty cheese
salt & pepper to taste
fresh herbs
Mix these ingredients together and roll them up into little meatballs.
Then fry them. Once they're cooked, add mushrooms and the pasta sauce of your choice. In a sauce pan, bring water to a boil and put your penne in. Mix together. Sprinkle with some more fresh herbs.
Eat with gusto and a glass of wine!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Free... All Free!!
Friday, September 18, 2009
0
FREE MOVIE!
I scored two free movie tickets today to see An Education at Dendy Opera Quays cinema. It was from a ladies fashion company that I'm a member of (thank you David Lawrence!). The movie stars Peter Sarsgaard (who's brilliant in everything he's in!) and it won the Audience Choice award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Can't wait. I'm taking J of course since it's on a Sunday and it's his day off. We might as well make a day of it and have a nice lunch afterwards.
FREE MOO CARDS!
Moo, the cute printing company that sells business cards, post cards, mini cards, sticker cards, etc are giving away a free 50-pack of business cards. You only have to pay for postage which in my case was about $6 (From the UK to Sydney). I've ordered from them before and I was very happy with the over all quality of the cards and their efficiency. This time, I had some picture of J&I printed with a Love Always message at the back. I'm planning on using them for Christmas gift cards.
Free stuff is awesome!
I scored two free movie tickets today to see An Education at Dendy Opera Quays cinema. It was from a ladies fashion company that I'm a member of (thank you David Lawrence!). The movie stars Peter Sarsgaard (who's brilliant in everything he's in!) and it won the Audience Choice award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Can't wait. I'm taking J of course since it's on a Sunday and it's his day off. We might as well make a day of it and have a nice lunch afterwards.
FREE MOO CARDS!
Moo, the cute printing company that sells business cards, post cards, mini cards, sticker cards, etc are giving away a free 50-pack of business cards. You only have to pay for postage which in my case was about $6 (From the UK to Sydney). I've ordered from them before and I was very happy with the over all quality of the cards and their efficiency. This time, I had some picture of J&I printed with a Love Always message at the back. I'm planning on using them for Christmas gift cards.
Free stuff is awesome!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
$4964
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
0
New Networth updated on the right side bar! Yippeee... That's another $530 added in the last two weeks.
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.
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.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Free books & magazines
Sunday, September 13, 2009
0
A trip to the library got me these 12 books for free for three weeks! I should probably finish half of these by three weeks and the rest, I just renew which is another three weeks (also for free). I'm a really fast reader though so I don't have too many renewals.
Our check-out lady from the supermarket also gave me these for free - two cookbooks! The big one usually retails for around $12.95 so I'm really happy with that. Free stuff is awesome!
Yikes : Groceries!
J & I went to our local supermarket, Woolworths today to get some groceries for the week. The bill came to $95.57! Definitely more than what we've budgeted for, I thought it was going to be around $60. It's ok since we should have dinner until Thursday and this also include lunches and snacks. This will help me have a couple of NSD's next week, especially Monday and Tuesday!
We don't have a set budget yet for groceries but at our next pay which is this Thursday, we're going to start putting money in a kitty just for grocery shopping. We'll probably start with $50 each a week and see how we go.
Here's some of what we bought that made a big dent in the total price:
$10 - 10 tins of tuna (good for salad lunches, we bought some springwater and some flavoured ones)
$7 - 5 tubs of yoghurt (they're bigger than a normal pot-sized so this should be a good snack to bring to work)
$5.99 - extra virgin olive oil
$8.94 - 1 kilo chicken breast fillets (should be good for a few meals and left over lunches)
We're having a BBQ party at our place on Sunday with about 6-8 people coming over. They're bringing their own drinks and a plate to share but I still want to have everything pretty much covered. I'm going to come up with a summery menu later on this week.
We don't have a set budget yet for groceries but at our next pay which is this Thursday, we're going to start putting money in a kitty just for grocery shopping. We'll probably start with $50 each a week and see how we go.
Here's some of what we bought that made a big dent in the total price:
$10 - 10 tins of tuna (good for salad lunches, we bought some springwater and some flavoured ones)
$7 - 5 tubs of yoghurt (they're bigger than a normal pot-sized so this should be a good snack to bring to work)
$5.99 - extra virgin olive oil
$8.94 - 1 kilo chicken breast fillets (should be good for a few meals and left over lunches)
We're having a BBQ party at our place on Sunday with about 6-8 people coming over. They're bringing their own drinks and a plate to share but I still want to have everything pretty much covered. I'm going to come up with a summery menu later on this week.
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