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Month: August 2011

  • August 14, 2011

    Link love (Powered by sorbet and technical difficulties)

    Week two of the lean grocery budget is going well! We spent $80 this week, and managed to get in and out of the supermarket pretty fast. I’m liking this stockpiling thing! It happened by accident, so if we can serendipitously repeat it, I could definitely live with that.

    We also visited the La Cigale market for the first time – can’t believe we haven’t done that before! And what a great place for photography – so many DSLRs. I might just have to bring mine along next time.

    Here’s a few links I enjoyed this week:

    Fabulously Broke on the aspirations and dreams parents have for their offspring – rightly or wrongly.

    Why real food is awesome, via Makeunder My Life.

    Serendipity reminds us that more money = more choice, at Stacking Pennies.

    Study Hacks argues for transforming – not quitting – your day job, and coins a great phrase, the ‘career craftsman’.

     

     

  • August 12, 2011

    Friday Five: Eye candy

    Warning: wholly shallow, gratuitous post ahead. If you don’t want to perve on hotties, check back tomorrow for regular programming

    Thomas Jane (of Hung and The Punisher)

    Bradley Cooper (you know him…)

    Bradley Cooper

    James Franco (ditto)

    James Franco

    Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

    David Boreanaz (Bones. Or Angel/Buffy, depending on your age)

  • August 7, 2011

    Link love (Powered by curves of learning)

    And thus begins our month of frugality Luckily,we already had lots of stuff at home – some veggies, some meat, and especially supermarket items like oils, rice, pasta, oats…so not only did we come in at budget, but got enough meat for the fortnight as well! Meat is from the Mad Butcher, groceries from Pak n Save and produce from a little grocer outside the supermarket.

    $55 got us two meals worth of diced beef and chicken each, a bunch of franks and bread rolls, a puny half-chicken, and a $25 variety meat pack.

    $40 at the supermarket for a 575g tomato sauce refill, canned beans and tomatoes (score at a for $2), Mountain Dew, 10 eggs, a pack of sea salt, rice wine vinegar, a packet of Chana Masala, hot and spicy noodles, basmati/jasmine mix rice, a jar of peanut butter, 500g of brown sugar, six litres of milk and a container of sour cream and cream cheese each ($2 and $3 on special. Makes my wallet ache).

    And for $12 we got a cauliflower, a small bag of mushrooms, a bunch of potatoes, a bunch of silverbeet, and some kiwifruit.

    Overall, pretty pleased.

    Anyway. Onto a short and sweet linkfest:

    At Salon, the tale of a reluctant loafer. I think I’ve come to accept that this probably describes my nature.

    One great productivity tip from ZenHabits.

    How to bitchslap performance anxiety.

    Matt at Life Without Pants thanks the boss who never bothered to learn his name.

    Food for thought at Get Rich Slowly: When is your financial situation beyond your control?

    Case studies/advertorial can be a cash cow. Via Make a Living Writing.

    Lacey muses on the nature of friendships.

    Great stuff – Kyla talks image sourcing for bloggers.

    And lastly, Suburban Sweetheart perfectly sums up all the reasons massages are weird.

  • August 6, 2011

    100 in ’11: Sittenfeld, Ishiguro and van Draanen

    American Wife – Curtis Sittenfeld

    Summary: Opposites attract. A tale of class, gender and political politics (er, couldn’t think of a more eloquent way to phrase that) and the discrepancies between the image we project and the inner reality.

    We all know this is a thinly veiled fictional account of what George W and Laura Bush’s relationship might be like. So it perturbs me that I could relate so closely to it. I love that Laura is such a fully-fleshed out character and that Sittenfeld seems fundamentally interested, not unlike myself, in matters of race, class and human relations. While there are interesting episodes in Laura’s early life, it’s not until she marries and is ingratiated into her husband’s clan – and these were the chapters I most enjoyed. I was enthralled but simultaneously revulsed by the trappings of upper-class wealth, and the nature of living inside a political bubble. It definitely drove home the fact that I could never be involved in politics in any way; I could never be with a politician, nor could I jump the fence and become a spin doctor. That said, there were plenty of unnecessary descriptions of outfits and decor, and the entire novel loses momentum in the final section. (But if you give up, I urge you to turn to the last page for a great twist.)

    Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

    Summary: Creepy somewhat sci-fi tale of a dystopic England that’s ultimately a reflection on human nature, our relations to others, and life on earth itself.

    Warning: I’m going to be a little spoiler-y here. What starts off as an idyllic recounting of life at boarding school quickly takes on darker undertones as the characters come to realise their destiny. I was left wondering: why did they choose the kinds of people they did? What did the organ harvests involve, exactly? But the way Ishiguro frames the narrative is really not about those details atall. Rather, it’s a beautiful, if, bleak, story of dignity, acceptance, forgiveness, belonging, and pure human decency. It’s haunting but somewhat hollow, not unlike the lives of the clones.

    Flipped – Wendelin van Draanen

    Summary: Cute tale of adolescent love told from alternating viewpoints.

    A fun, light-hearted read that reminds us of the need for second chances and that appearances can be deceiving. Juli falls for Bryce the moment she sees him, but he wants nothing more than to shake her off. By the time he comes to realise her worth, she’s wondering if he’s all he’s cracked up to be. And his own family could do with a bit of redemption; Juli’s lot might be broke, but it’s for a good reason – Bryce’s side cast judgement from across the street without ever bothering to dig deeper.

     

  • August 5, 2011

    July goal checkin

    ONGOING

    • Save 40 per cent of income. Definite fail this month – closer to 20 percent.
    • Keep eating out to $160 a month. Failed again by about $50…
    • Donate to charity every month. Check!
    • Text one friend a week. Check!
    • Learn to confidently use full manual settings on my dSLR. I actually did bring it out for a little while – to my first and only ever wrestling show. (Oh, all the things I could do in those four hours instead!) Must go through the images.
    • Read 100 books I’m a tad overdue for some reading recaps. It’s been slow going with the Grapes of Wrath, but I’ve been mixing up the light and heavy reading pretty regularly.
    • Continue running at least once a week. Missed my holiday week, but I’m pretty sure I went on all the others. This last week was a good un – lots of uphills which had me aching for days afterward. Seriously, my thighs were screaming with every movement.

    As to my one-off goals, I did indeed go somewhere warm on my birthday! A travel writing assignment is not going to happen with my new job, however, so I should scratch that off the list.

  • August 4, 2011

    July 2011: What we spent

    ** Click here for more info on my monthly spending roundups.**

    Clothes – T needed shorts and shirts for Rarotonga (also, the gym – see below). I bought a dress and cardigan.

    Dining – A little higher than budgeted; we tried one restaurant off my list, and again some eating out with friends, but it was definitely a case of the little things adding up this month.

    Groceries – Whoa – they’re low because we were away for a week, and because my Visa grocery transaction on the 31st didn’t clear until the next day.

    Entertainment – $22 for one Food Show ticket (my media pass was free). $22 for two Harry Potter tickets. $280 for Foo Fighters tickets. $178 for Guitar Hero (x2). Yikes.

    Health – T  joined a gym! That $89 is for a 3-month special on GrabOne.

    Holidays – I took out $500 spending cash. But we ended up spending $800 in total, with $140 for our lagoon cruise, $97 on meals and drinks at the resort and another $60 on food. Add to that $110 for departure tax (something I failed to research), $43 for the taxi home at 4am and $62 on duty free whiskey.

    Insurance – Contents for the quarter.

    Rent – A three-fortnight month. Plus a rent increase. Boo.

    Savings – may in fact have been marginally higher.  But probably not very much. See entertainment expenditure above…

    T fun – Almost 200 more than usual thanks to a couple of game purchases and other electronics guff.

    In July I was also gifted $230 in birthday money and made $855 in side income, all of which I saved. Huzzah. And a bloody good thing, seeing as anything I saved from my regular income last month was negligible.

    So, to August! We’re tightening up ship around here, with groceries and dining out and I’m hoping to make August a bare-bones month, our Wellington trip aside. Let’s see how that goes.

  • August 3, 2011

    How do you fit in exercise?

    The Tulip Stairs and lantern at the Queen's Ho...

    Stairs are your friend! Image via Wikipedia

    It’s easy to slack off in winter. Now that it’s not pitch black when I leave work, I’m hopeful soon I can start jogging home a couple of times a week. I’m not sure how much higher my odds are of being a victim of crime in the dark…but I just don’t like the dark, full stop. Nor the cold.

    It was definitely easier finding time to run when I didn’t work 9-5. Here are three ways I’m trying to get more movement into my life”

    At home: I used to do crunches religiously in high school at one point while watching TV. Nowadays I’m more likely to lounge in bed while watching movies or Bones, cuddling with T. Really, I could be using *some* of that time to practice either finger exercises or doing situps. I’ve also started doing them first thing in the morning, mainly to warm myself up in the chilly air (a flatter stomach will just be a bonus).

    At work: At first it annoyed me how far away my desk is from the kitchen and bathroom. Now I see it as a pro. Also, there are stairs in between. Do you have stairs? Take them! Faster! (Okay, it’s probably easier if you’re a child at heart and like to leap up them; it’s also hard to take three steps at a time if you’re in heels). I’m also really restless, so if you’re a fidgeter too, perhaps it’s not a bad thing – even if it annoys everybody else.

    In between: I walk to work when I can, and go out for walks at lunch sometimes. Not everyday, sadly.

    How about you? Any sneaky tips?

  • August 2, 2011

    Is there anything more disheartening than jobhunting? Oh right, househunting

    Inertia. How often does that dictate the course of your life? It is easier to stay put than to make a change, so you do.

    T has been wanting to move for a while. I haven’t. But now that our rent is going up, I’ve told him I will be happy to move when we find the perfect place. Because quite frankly, we have it pretty sweet here.

    $280 (or $560 a fortnight, as we pay it) is not a huge number, I suppose, but it’s still pretty significant. The thing is, we already had a ridiculously great deal – even at the new price, I’m not sure we’ll find a better rental. We don’t have neighbours surrounding us on all sides, we have off-street parking, and are close to everything.   Househunting in Auckland is also practically a full-time job in itself; it takes dedication and LOTS of time if you want a shot at anywhere half decent. It’s why LLs can get away with never renovating, having showings at 3pm on a work day, and not posting photos or addresses on listings. I shudder thinking about how religiously I checked TradeMe over the months it took to find our home before this one.

    Anyway. I just can’t bring myself to take that on just yet. If I magically stumble across the one, great, or if T does, even better (though it’s doubtful – he doesn’t have the obsessiveness it takes). Dabbling in real estate listings has already got me down.

    Here are a few examples of what we would get for our rent

    $280 a week  (T, excitedly: They’ve done up everything but the kitchen and bathroom! Me: So…they haven’t actually done up anything at all. A yard’s no good to me if there aren’t mixer taps)

    $265 a week (Cheaper, but again, ancient facilities. Also stipulating one tenant only).

    $290 a week (Cinderblock!!!)

    Here’s my dream housing situation for now: a standalone one-bedroom with garage, gate, deck and full pantry.

    More realistic: a one-bedroom that’s part of a house, or at the end of a block, with carport (maybe).

    I will admit – our place is tiny, but I don’t need a lot of space. I would like a bigger kitchen (one that’s not the same size as the bathroom), and a lockup garage would be nice (dream on!). I guess an actual living room would be handy too, although we wouldn’t have much to put in it.

    To find somewhere that ticks all the boxes, including being close to my work and bus routes (remember I don’t drive) just won’t happen. If we increased our budget, possibly, but I’d rather funnel money into my Europe/US fund than into more carpet to vacuum. And with the Rugby World Cup in full swing, it’d be insanity to go househunting for the next couple of months; we are, after all, right in the middle of it all, jacked-up rents and all.

    There’s also the matter of agent fees. A week’s rent plus GST, because landlords these days don’t want to do their own dirty work. I’ve never paid an agent fee before and I’d like to keep it that way if at all possible – that’s a fair chunk down the drain.

  • August 1, 2011

    Slash and burn: Cost-cutting

    I’ve been thinking about minimum living costs lately. As in, that threshold below which it’s very hard to cut costs any further. (If I made $60k a year, I could easily save half of that; if I made $40k, I’d be lucky to save 10 percent, because beyond a certain point, it’s impossible to escape the realities of rent, transport costs, food and the other necessities.) For us, a realistic threshold is $2500 – but that number is about to go up.

    That’s right. Rent is going up! Boo. It’s increasing from $250 to $280 a week, to be precise. (Gosh, we’ve been here 18 months already!) That means $560 a fortnight, and with my income slightly down, we really should tighten the belt.

    Our power bill is also way up, and that’s because our usage is up compared to the same months last year. It’s certainly not due to heating because this winter has been one of the mildest in a long time. I’m guessing it’s down to a) gadgets being plugged in all the time – MySky, computer, etc and b) cooking and baking more, including use of the oven and crockpot. I can’t, or won’t, do much about the latter, but I’m definitely cracking down on turning switches off at the wall. That includes our outdoor sensor light, even though it’s nice to get home and not have to fiddle with the lock in the pitch dark; T puts it on when he leaves at 5am and I turn it off when I leave after 8am.

    Our phone bill is down, thanks to a new internet package. On the other hand, while my cellphone is now paid for by work, T’s smartphone plan costs more than his prepaid one, so it probably evens out.

    Could we give up Sky TV? I guess we could, at least once our 12-month contract is up. T loves it almost as much as he loves me, though, and it’s also relatively cheap entertainment. I can’t tell you how much we used to waste on late DVD fees (and no, we don’t have Netflix or the like here). In dire straits, I’d cut this without a thought, but we aren’t there yet.

    Where I reckon I could further cut costs is clothing. I really don’t need anything else, and the good thing is that I don’t walk past clothing shops (including my favourite secondhand store) everyday anymore. I mean, you’ve probably noticed I wasn’t big into retail therapy anyway, so removing the temptation has hardly fazed me. So unless I come across a charcoal cardi, or tops in deep purple or red, the plan is to not buy any clothes until next year (Fabulously Broke and Krystal have done shopping bans; so can I!)

    And we can get stricter about our eating out and grocery budgets; while I still budget weekly, looking at our monthly spending is a better way to gauge how we’re doing, and my online banking makes that really easy to do. And I might reinstate weekly grocery recaps to help keep us under budget. (I’ll try to make them somewhat interesting…maybe menu plans to accompany them? I don’t know if I can manage to photograph our haul all beautifully stacked like some of you do, though; once we bring the bags in from the car, it’s a matter of getting the unpleasant task of stowing it all away done as quickly as possible.)

    I also think it’s time to repeat November’s challenge, although I’ll have to set aside travel expenses in August because we’re off to Wellington for a weekend.

    What’s your living threshold number, or when was your last rent hike?

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