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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • June 26, 2011

    Link love (Powered by functional nights and goodie bags)

    I have had Buffy‘s last three seasons on DVD for about six months.I have only just finished one of those seasons. While my generous friend is very patient and polite, I feel he thinks I’m taking an unreasonable amount of time to get through them.

    What can I say? Clearly Buffy is not a priority for me as much as I want to finish the series. These are my first few actual weekends off, and they’re being spent catching up with friends, couple time, long overdue errands and general life/house keeping. I’ve still not yet been to the dentist (planning to wait till after our holiday, though this damn ash cloud is casting doubt over that!!!), the farmer’s market, made bread, or even picked up my guitar. I want to do everything. I also know that this is impossible. I think learning CSS will have to wait (I thought the new job was a perfect impetus to get going on that but if I have many more weeks like this, there just aren’t enough hours to do this properly) and photography will also have to go on the back burner for sure.

    However, I appreciate what I have. Despite having to listen to various interns talk about their six-week semester break, having also seen a couple of people lose their jobs recently (the reality is I could very well be made redundant at least once in this industry), I realise I would rather have too little free time than too much at this stage.

    Also, thanks to Stupid Cents for hosting this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance! Yours truly is in there with this cautionary tale explaning how your credit is like your virginity.

    MONEY

    Love this highly motivational post on reframing the way you think about money. “Look at it this way – there is someone in your field who makes ten to twenty times as much as you do, and she does this using skills that are better – but not actually ten to twenty times better – than yours. That woman was born a drooling, incontinent baby just like everyone else. So, there’s nothing she’s done that you can’t. But you won’t become her if you keep doing the same damn thing for the same damn amount of money all the damn time.” (I like how Jen also puts paid to the “finish your plate because there are starving kids in the world” argument.)

    Young and Thrifty ties in the Vancouver riots with her take on why she’d rather not grow up wealthy.

    Lessons learned from the NFL lockout, via You Have More Than You Think.

    New homeowner Tracey asks how long it took before your newly-mortgaged budget loosened up a little.

    A Lotta Lettuce kicks off her series on planning a wedding on a budget.

    WORK

    Amanda argues at some point, it’s time to settle down and pick a career path for practical reasons.

    What do you do when work invades your dreams? Also, see “how to manage your boss“.

    Yes, yes and yes! Just because it’s a hobby doesn’t make it a career path (via After Graduation).

    At Get Rich Slowly: Hourly or salary – which do you prefer?

    As someone who also sits at a desk for most of her working day, I enjoyed Funny About Money’s post on standing desks and slow death.

    LIFE

    Fellow lifelong readers, you should read Amanda’s loving homage to books – it really does sadden me to come across people who don’t enjoy reading at all.

    Jasmine and I apparently share many of the same problems which hinder us making new girlfriend bonds (Seriously, I think I could have written that post).

    Also see this from Amanda at Stratejoy on engineering your own happiness (which you might have seen me tweet about).

    FOOD

    Cate shares another vegetarian goodie: falafel patties! I just bought a food processor, so I’ll be trying this.

    From Iowa Girl Eats, a bright and colourful summer salad including bacon.

    Make your own curry powder with this Ten Ingredient Project recipe.

  • June 24, 2011

    What’s your holiday style?

    Aitutaki, Cook Islands

    Image via Wikipedia

    I’m starting to get excited about my upcoming tropical birthday trip. In my usual rather haphazard fashion, I think I will print out some info for possible bike hires/fishing charters etc – but not make any solid plans. The basic itinerary reads something like: relax. eat. walk. snorkel. sunbathe. drink from coconuts. sleep. Perhaps one bona fide activity every other day, leaving us with nothing to do but explore and laze around on the others.

    At the same time, I’m really nervous. So many things could go wrong! I’ve probably mentioned this before, but the last time I left the country was about 8 years ago. With my parents. So for the first time in nearly a decade, I will be boarding a plane as a grownup, just T and I. There are so many points at which we could trip up. Forgetting to pack something. Getting to the airport. Getting on the plane. The transfer to our resort. Feeding ourselves (it’s hard to tell but I think there are fresh markets every day). Overspending (although I don’t think we’ll be doing anything expensive. I reckon a $100 a day budget should do us). Some accident befalling us. Getting back to the airport. The flights home. Getting back to our place.

    What kind of holidaymaker are you – go with the flow or planned to the T?

  • June 23, 2011

    Stupid tax

    Talk about amateur hour. First time booking flights – and I manage to book a return flight on the wrong date.

    See, I’d been wanting to go back to Wellington since our March trip. So when Jetstar had a $37 fare sale, I jumped on it immediately. I even paid by bank deposit – not by Visa, despite my love of reward points – because airlines now charge extra fees for paying by credit card.

    When my payment cleared a couple of days earlier, my itinerary was emailed to me. And somehow, I’d managed in my Friday afternoon frenzy to overlook the fact that I’d booked our return flight a week after our departure, not a day later. This had to be an overnight trip. Crap. I know how it happened, too – I was scrolling back and forth between dates, trying to get the best flight times during the sale window, and the Jetstar interface isn’t the most responsive – but I just can’t believe I didn’t notice the date discrepancy while checking out.

    I managed to find $37 seats again, but I had to pay for them once more. Plus a booking fee of $8, because for some reason I couldn’t pay by bank deposit this time. Our cheap seats didn’t end up so cheap after all once that$80 was tacked on! Also, our homebound flight is now a morning one, meaning we arrive Saturday just before noon and check out right after breakfast. We weren’t planning to do tons down there but it would be nice not to be in a rush to leave. I thought our original 24-hour itinerary was nigh on perfect. I can’t help feeling like it’s almost not worth it, but since it’s now paid for, I guess we’re sticking to the plan.

    Paying “stupid taxes” hurts! (Both the wallet and the ego.) Tell me your tales of stupidity!

  • June 20, 2011

    100 in ’11: Lehane, Hosseini and Hannah

    Mystic River – Dennis Lehane

    Summary: Murder brings three old friends together in adulthood (tragedy also pulled them apart in childhood). A haunting, bleak tale of lost innocence in working-class Boston.

    I first watched Mystic River in high school for English. And when I watched it again recently, it left me wanting more. I had heard the book was much richer and more rounded, and I wasn’t disappointed. There is only so much you can fit into a film, and the novel goes a long way toward explaining the actions and motivations of Celeste, Jimmy, Annabeth, Sean and most of all, Dave. This novel made me grieve for his soul and the boy who never had a childhood, a good, but troubled and downtrodden man who never believed in himself. Lehane (apparently he also wrote Shutter Island, another movie I enjoyed) paints his city and characters with a familiar hand – the prose truly comes alive, even without the benefit of visuals.

    A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

    Summary: Two women of different generations are thrust into each other’s lives, and form an unlikely friendship. As tumultuous Afghanistan is thrown into war once again, they demonstrate how far one will go for the people they love.

    This book is brutal and depressing, and also somewhat educational (fiction set in foreign lands is fast becoming one of my favourite genres. Did you know there were once gigantic Buddha statues in Afghanistan? I didn’t. I wish I could have seen them before they were destroyed – during a time I was old enough to remember, even). It prompted me to find out how the Taleban differs from the al-Qaeda, why the Soviets were in Afghanistan…It enraged me, and reminded me how lucky I am to be a woman living in a liberal country. This is a proud testament to the human spirit, to the strength and independence of women in Afghanistan (and other similar places) who refuse to be cowed. And finally, it led me to wonder just how much the human race could achieve if we could stop killing each other, repressing females, and focus our energies on more productive tasks instead.

    Firefly Lane – Kristin Hannah

    Summary: Two best friends take entirely different paths in life – the girl with the troubled childhood becomes one of the biggest TV journalists/talk show hosts of all time, while her foil Kate (living somewhat in her shadow, even marrying a man who used to pine for Tully) chooses a quiet life as a suburban housewife.

    Let’s keep this short. Enjoyable – not particularly original, perhaps, but a pleasant, undemanding read. If you have super close female friends, or you lived through the 70s and 80s, perhaps it will resonate more with you. For me, what stuck most were the observations of life in journalism and the demands it makes on you – demands which Tully embraced and Kate shrunk from. Others have said it resembles a Lifetime move (“TV for stupid people!”) so take from that what you will.

  • June 18, 2011

    Link love (Powered by coffee cake and reconnections)

    Here’s a question for ya: What numbers do you know by heart? Your phone number, obviously (well, unless you are also known by the title of eemusings’ fiance). Your age. Your total of serious relationships. But do you know your bank account number? Your credit card number? Your IRD (or social security) number? You driver’s licence number?

    I have all of those, except the last, stowed away in my brain. They’re pretty handy to have on hand; I even used to know T’s bank details by heart, but haven’t had to bust that knowledge out for a while. I even used to know the number of my eftpos card, because it’s what’s used to verify you when you call up my bank on the phone, but I so rarely use phone banking and those cards are so flimsy that I’ve been through too many since high school to keep up. Heck, I used to call up the ASB line in my telemarketing days when I wanted to look busy but couldn’t deal with actually making a call. Yep, I was a model employee. And now I think back and realise they probably were monitoring our dialled numbers on a screen in the back office. Whoops.

    MONEY

    Bigger isn’t always better – Ninja lists a few instances when the opposite is true.

    Newlyweds on a Budget blogs about facing up to her own debt.

    Fabulously Broke shares the five stupid things she wastes money on.

    WORK

    Walk away if you want to love your job. Via MML.

    Kevin walks us through acing an interview by making the most of your seemingly unrelated experience.

    Rachel Hills on finding a mentor in the media industry.

    Cheryl Yeoh compares the SF and NY areas and explains why she chose not to base her startup in Silicon Valley.

    And a nice read on finding your path in publishing.

    LIFE

    YES. “There’s such a fine line between being happy with what you have and striving for continuous improvement.” Like me, Laura at Stratejoy has trouble toeing that line.

    Stephany recounts a darker side of high school.

    Couldn’t agree more. Donna Freedman reminds us why it pays to check your spam.

    When is it appropriate to lie to kids? At Perfectly Cursed Life.

    If you have any experience with PCOS, you should talk to Caroline, who just got diagnosed.

    FOOD

    It’s no secret that salads aren’t top of my list, but this Mediterranean version from Lisa is tempting my tastebuds.

    Zucchini lasagne, courtesy of Not Eating Out in NY, sounds intriguing.

    And finally, Cate shares a scrummy looking recipe for tomato parmesan risotto.

  • June 16, 2011

    What we spent: May 2011

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

    Clothes: Jeez. Well, T got a haircut, and I snapped up some $45 Dickies for him. The rest of it was me, all me. I admit, I did some shopping in anticipation of the new job – tops, skirts, a cardigan, and brown boots. I also got my old black boots resoled; I bought them secondhand, but the leather quality was amazing and I wasn’t ready to give them up.

    Dining: A record low. Enough said 😀

    Entertainment: Here’s how it went. Get a text offering only $2.99 for any new release movie/game at our local store. Snap up the offer. Realise we have $12 in late fees from previously. Ouch. (This is why we pay for Sky TV/movies…) Also included guitar strings, and pliers/wire cutter things to cut them off. And booze for a party.

    Groceries: Hmm. I think it was a five week month, but it’s still a little high. Prices just keep increasing :[ I might do another grocery challenge soon, or weekly shopping recaps.

    Home expenses: Bought a cheapie new cell phone to tide me over til I get my work phone (my old one died a sudden death).

    Insurance: Contents insurance for the quarter. I should really see if I can pay this yearly and get it aligned with our car insurance.

    T fun/lunch: S’okay, I suppose. I definitely feel our financial ship has not been running very tightly, as we actually hardly saw each other at all last month. That’s changed now; and our budgeting is going to get a bit stricter.

    Utilities: Pretty average, power was a little lower than usual as I was still partly in credit.

    Vehicle: Was actually about $100 higher than this, but it was paid on T’s own card due to eftpos issues at that petrol station. Right on target, ouchly.

    Work expenses: I can’t keep up with all the courses/training T has got lined up. Not that it’s a bad thing 🙂

    This month I made an extra $530, mostly from freelancing (should have been another $27 for a mystery shop, but error first on the assigning end, and then at my end, led to no payment. Here’s how it went: Asked for a survey at either one of two very close locations. Was assigned one of them, which I immediately put in my calendar. I was familiar with the retail chain, so only gave my survey a cursory glance before going in on the day. When I entered the results online, I noticed the heading listed the OTHER store location. Emailed the staffer who assigned me the survey, who replied it was fine and it was the same company. So I went ahead and finished filling it out. What do you know – a few days later I get a call about it. And a few days later, a call saying they can’t pay me. While I should have picked up the discrepancy earlier, I’m not at all impressed with the situation).

    How did your May go?

  • June 15, 2011

    Your credit is like your virginity

    Logo of the band Rejected

    Image via Wikipedia

    …easier to preserve than to rebuild.

    Kids, we all know you should never cosign on anything. You do not want your name on any account that you are not personally paying for.

    Well, some people learn lessons the hard way. Like when they finally talk their fiancee into letting them get an iPhone. And then get turned down for an unexplained mark on your credit record. Huh? Well, it could only be that internet account you put your name on at the request of your sister (remembering folks, that if such people had decent credit themselves, they wouldn’t need to ask such a thing of you).

    I just knew when he came home last year and told me what he’d done that it wouldn’t end well. But by then the decision had been made and I couldn’t do anything about it, and soon I had other things to worry about. I hope now that he’s made pretty much every mistake in the book, that the shame of that denial under the harsh fluoro store lights will be enough to make him remember to never never take responsibility for anyone else’s accounts in future. It baffles me how someone who has no problems putting his interests first in the business world cannot say no to his family. (Or that they don’t turn more often instead to his brother who has more cash, yet blows it all on cars.)

    Have you ever made the mistake of letting someone else use your good name? How did it work out?

  • June 14, 2011

    How not to roll out an integrated ticketing bus system

    Thought Hop was going to be the saviour of Auckland’s abysmal public transport? Yeah, I’d hoped so too. But it has proved in my experience an undeniable failure.

    First, Snapper came to Auckland. (I’m still not quite sure what the point of it is. I get that it powers the Hop bus card system, but as for using Snapper at shops? Don’t we already have eftpos and credit cards?) Then right on its heels, there came murmurs of something called Hop. Nobody knew what on earth it was. As posters went up,a vague YouTube video emerged and an almost equally vague news story was printed, we came to learn that it was the start of an integrated public transport system.

    Pity about the communication. What we really needed were some short, clear FAQs, not teasers. I believe their Comms person was quoted as saying there had been plenty of confusion on “message boards” and the team needed to clear it up. No shit. Pity, again, that it took them weeks to get on social media and rectify the damage that had already been done.

    Okay, so the launch was a disaster. What about the execution?

    Last weekend I went down to Britomart on my lunch break to do three things. A) Get my Hop card. B) Transfer my balance from my Go Rider card onto it. C) Top up my new Hop card at the same time.

    (Hint – I did not accomplish all of the above.)

    As soon as I reached the front of the line, their systems went down. Okay, I can kind of sympathise; I know what it’s like to work with slow, unreliable and outdated technology on a daily basis. But they have no idea when it’s going to be back? And there is NOWHERE ELSE in the CBD where we can get a balance transfer?

    Okay, fine. I only have one ride left to transfer anyway; I’ll eat the $1.50 cost. Just put my 10 new rides on and let me be done with it.

    What’s that? You don’t take Visa? What is this, 1911? I have always used my credit card to top up my bus card- this better not be a sign of things to come (suppose I’ll find out when I next top up my card). Off I trot to the ATM, where I have to withdraw $20 as I can’t take out $15.

    I march back up to the front of the line approximately three minutes later. She doesn’t give me my change. Turns out she put on $20 credit, instead of 10 rides at $15. Cue more delays as she sorts out the mess.

    I get back to the office and decide to check online where my nearest Hop retailer is so I can top up the following week. I am even more enraged, if possible, to read this:

    Note: Britomart, Newmarket and New Lynn Transport Centres now accept credit card payments.

    No, it effing well did not. DON’T LIE TO ME.

    And I’m pretty close to full on meltdown to find there is only one Hop agent anywhere near my house and it’s the opposite direction from my bus stop/new office.

    Later on it turns out it’s fine; there are plenty of Snapper retailers around that just aren’t listed on the Hop site yet.

    But that’s not the end of it. I went back to Britomart this weekend to top up. I did so using my Visa. But by today, that balance was still “pending”, leaving me with no choice but to pay cash to get to work. Also, when I attempted to put more rides on my card at St Lukes Lotto, I was told that rides can no longer be purchased at all, only e-money. Obviously Hop is not only failing to communicate with customers, but with retailers – but when you’re a monopoly, who cares about either? I’ve tried to communicate with Hop a few times on Twitter to clarify certain issues but have not found them particularly helpful or forthcoming. (As for why I’m sticking with rides, not e-money, it’s because all factors being equal, why would I use the method which charges me 25c for every topup?)

    What a clusterf***. Typical Auckland.

    UPDATE: Apparently only a certain booth at Britomart accepts CC payments. Oh, and you can’t have more than 20 rides on your Hop card at the time. More WTF-ery.

  • June 13, 2011

    May goal checkin

    A goal

    Image via Wikipedia

    • Save 40 per cent of income. Including the extra $530 I made ($20 for essay editing, the rest from my freelance-gig-turned-new-fulltime-gig), I saved 46 per cent last month. Whether this goal can remain realistic with my new slightly reduced income remains to be seen.
    • Keep eating out to $160 a month. Yes! $102 – possibly a new low. I can’t remember the last time T and I went out to eat together – any food purchases have been done separately. That’s what working all the time does to you. I have a feeling this will change – ie, go WAY up – now that we have the same days off.
    • Donate to charity every month. Yes!
    • Text one friend a week. Done, albeit mainly to organise meetups!
    • Learn to confidently use full manual settings on my dSLR. I did shoot some photos this month actually, but haven’t reviewed them properly.
    • Read 100 books. 5 books in May – the Master and Margarita in particular kept me going for quite a while.
    • Continue running at least once a week. I missed one or two weeks (definitely not in the week where I had no days off), but at least I went out twice last week.

    How did your goals go last month?

  • June 12, 2011

    Link love (Powered by fresh faces and leisurely lunches)

    This week, I really needed a dishwasher. And a dryer. After a brief welcome-to-winter heat spell, we reclaimed the title of rainiest city. (Perhaps it’s foolhardy not to fork out for a dryer, but it’s such a big expense and environmentally unfriendly.)

    And for those who asked, I was previously working at a news website (hence the shift work; although I will miss that buzz and the feeling of being part of something larger and more important than myself – the news waits for no one) and am now at a magazine publisher.

    FOOD

    An easy-peasy butter chicken recipe courtesy of Fru-girl.

    Mmmm. Vegetable deep dish pizza, at Lisa’s Foods on the Move.

    Wandering Food Lover presents a refreshing summer chicken salad.

    Someone please try Poor Girl Eat Well’s fruity ice cream and report back!

    Peanut butter and chocolate is one of my favourite combinations ever (think PB cups and buckeyes). And now, Iowa Girl’s crispy choc/PB cups.

    WORK/MONEY

    Some interesting thoughts on interviewing and how to get people to talk to you, at Business Journalism.

    We all have those moments of financial panic, writes After Graduation.

    Should Funny About Money buy a new car?

    Pretty Young Professional’s sage advice on choosing between job offers.

    LIFE

    Cordelia outlines her plan for her summer of “free Fridays”.

    Geek in Heels wonders if perhaps she peaked too early (I can certainly relate).

    Drug tests for beneficiaries – are you for or against? Via Serendipity Smalls.

    Pushing Thirtyy talks reunions and the roles we play in each other’s lives.

    Trashy family with hearts of gold, vs snobbish to-be-in-laws? Who is this doppelganger of mine? I knew I had to read this week’s APW Ask Team Practical.

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