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January roundup

Clothes and grooming: $12 of this was for a new bottle of face wash, and the rest got me two jackets and a pair of shoes! Bless you, Trademe (it seriously is the best place to score quality shoes in mint condition. As long as you know your size and stick to known brands). More below.

Debt: Slowly knocking down T’s car loan, with nearly an extra $100 more than usual going towards it.

Dining: Still way too many fast food purchases, mostly of T’s doing. (His penchant for Wendy’s is second to none). Includes just over $60 of reimbursable meals. With that taken into account, we’re spending just over $50 a week on eating out. And considering that’s our main entertainment spending, I don’t think it’s too bad – but again, I’m trying to go for QUALITY here, and we kind of failed this month. BUT, we did discover the gem that is Jai Jalaram Khaman on Sandringham Rd – affordable, tasty Indian food. Aside from that, we had Chinese on New Year’s, and again a couple of weeks ago, but nothing memorable.

Entertainment: Snorkelling, our monthly Fatso subscription, and stuff associated with T’s weekend away this week (including buying a fishing rod. Slightly costly, but healthier than hanging out with our loser flatmates who have nothing in their lives except smoking and drinking, at least. Hey, I live with them, but I don’t have to like em!)

Holidays: From New Year’s. T was meant to pay for this out of the money he made on New Year’s…only he STILL hasn’t been paid. Instead, I took it out of my travel/holiday fund. I’m about to book our Waiheke getaway package that I’ve been looking forward to for months before summer ends, so hoping that comes through ASAP! If not, we should be okay, as my side job is due to pay me before then anyway.

Groceries: is really high, there’s no getting around it. I did cheat a bit and count our post-New Year’s picnic food as groceries rather than eating out, but still. Ideally this should be more like $500, or $550 max.

Savings: doesn’t take into account approximately $300 towards LT savings, but mostly consists of my extra payment towards Kiwisaver (because I was a dumbass and messed up).

Vehicle and transport: is lower than I thought. Just over $135 of that is for my bus passes! So our gas expenditure is pretty low. I did have a $50 petrol voucher which we used, however.

Utilities: is a little higher than usual, because our quarterly water bill was due. I’m also continuing to classify our cellphone costs here, because that makes a hell of a lot more sense than under entertainment.

You know what’s frustrating! As I’m going back through transactions, I ALWAYS find mistakes. Always. It’s way too easy to miscategorise something, and then that screws up my whole graph. I’ll get better at this…maybe.

For February, getting back on an even keel after New Year’s, I really want to track everything by hand. It’ll give me a more realistic picture, and I’ll be able to decide if our categories are on the right track proportionally. Gotta watch the food spending, and aim to save $100 a week into the bills account (so we’re not scrambling come time to pay the car insurance). I doubt that will happen, but even if we can regularly do $80 or $90, that would be awesome.

NEW WARDROBE PURCHASES

Blazer: $5 plus $4 postage. Basically wanted to replace my brown military jacket, because the colour is horrendous on me – not to mention a couple of the buttons have gone AWOL.

Shoes: $10 plus $6 shipping. Score! They’re real leather, are virtually pristine and would retail at Hannahs for $80-100. (Why are expensive shoes always so narrow?) Compare with my old flats, which are literally RAVAGED.

Jacket: $15 (plus, I think, $6 for postage?) Am not thrilled about this. It’s real leather, and a great colour. BUT, the fit and sizing leaves something to be desired. Compare with the photo from the listing, on the bottom – we are obviously not quite the same size. It’s my fault for leaping at the bargain without checking the measurements.

3 thoughts on “January roundup

  • Reply The Asian Pear February 5, 2010 at 02:51

    haha. you wore your old shoe completely through. I have a pair of those that’s slowly becoming like that too sadly. ^__^;

  • Reply Stephany February 6, 2010 at 11:54

    I’m sorry but I BURST OUT LAUGHING when I saw you in the jacket. Oh, man. That’s just way too funny. 🙂

  • Reply Online shopping: a New Zealand perspective | NZ Muse November 6, 2012 at 19:01

    […] To date, my only real damp squib remains picking up a genuine leather jacket off TradeMe that was never, ever going to fit me. […]

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