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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • March 13, 2011

    The ultimate in lazy blogging

    Three random thoughts – my version of Fig’s infamous “bits and pieces” posts. I’m totally wiped out, but refrain from rants about how no, editorial have ZERO control over ad placement, no matter how inappropriate or distasteful you find a particular campaign. In fact, we hate advertising as much as you do. And yes, like everyone else, we are overworked and understaffed, so when our site lags under heavy traffic or other news falls somewhat by the wayside, pause before firing off hate mail.

    • Is there anything more traumatic than getting a passport photo taken? In comparison, I look like bloody Elle Macpherson on my driver’s licence. And seeing as the kindly old Chinese lady was able to edit my photo to give me perfect skin with a tweak of the lighting levels after the fact, I don’t see why she had to ask me to blot my face before snapping the picture. (In my teens I had super oily, shiny skin. Now I have desert-dry skin that I have to moisturise like a mofo: end result, I still shine like an oil slick. NO FAIR).
    • I don’t understand how T’s work shirts always get so dirty. It’s not like he works with steel anymore; he works with brand new, packaged products. I don’t believe in laundry products, beyond basic powder and fabric softener, but I think I may have to suck it up and buy some Napisan.
    • Totally not looking forward to the meeting of families. I had kind of figured this would wait until we eventually organised some kind of engagement party, but apparently I thought wrong. I figure it can’t be too bad; I’ve already been threatened with exclusion from the will, and had to listen to hateful rants about solo mothers, and that was years ago. What more can happen? I guess T’s afraid of any foot-in-mouth statements on his side, and I’m afraid of getting some righteous lecture via email the next day about marrying into white trash. Which side would you rather be on – the judgey side, or the other side?
  • March 11, 2011

    Tallying up the weekend

    Photo taken from Wellington Botanic Garden loo...

    Image via Wikipedia

    The total damage for Wellington?

    $1120.

    That’s $470 spent over four days, plus $200 for concert tickets and $450 for accommodation, both paid for last month.

    Whew! We spent a lot. For one, petrol was up to $2.10 a litre when we left, and we drove back not a moment too soon ($2.15 by the evening we got back to Auckland.)  I swear, everytime I leave Auckland the drive gets longer. City sprawl! It felt like it took an hour from the CBD to the outskirts of the Bombays – on the motorway, with hardly any traffic. Then again, my perception of time isn’t the most reliable. (ETA: Just asked Google Maps, and the trip can apparently take anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour. BOOYAH).

    So that was $240, rather than $200, on gas.

    Then there was expensive chocolate, sushi lunch, groceries while we were down there, and some drinks and food while socialising. Yep, I definitely underestimated our food costs. Aside from that, all our entertainment was free, except for $12 for two return rides on the Wellington cable car.

    TOTALLY WORTH IT.

    For Rarotonga, I want to have an almost entirely cash budget (probably also a good idea as I imagine a lot of places on the island won’t take Eftpos). I have no idea how much we’ll want to spend over there, but that’s a post for later!

  • March 10, 2011

    Totally random thoughts on weddings

    I can honestly say that I have never given any thought to a “dream wedding”. To be honest, I don’t really understand what it is that apparently drives little girls to do so; I must have missed out on whatever gene it is, or whatever outside influences (advertising?) that encourages us to plan “our big day”. Or maybe it’s because I hate being the centre of attention. Maybe that’s it.

    Despite that, I’ve always planned to get married. Even though I could never imagine kissing somebody in front of my parents (and it’s still hard to fathom.) I’d consider myself pretty liberal, but marriage is something that’s important to me, and there is a certain order to three big milestones in my mind: 1. Marriage. 2. House buying. 3. Kids. This is just a personal thing, mind you – I have zero problems with others doing it differently.

    Until lately. I started questioning the whole thing. Do I want to spend thousands on one day? (You know me; I’d want to spend something like $5k max, but that’s still a chunk of change). If I’m gonna get married, I’m gonna make an effort for it, not just go to the courthouse. And while I only care about three things: having decent photos, a pretty (but frugal) dress and tasty food, they are going to cost something. The good thing about never having been to a wedding is I have no preconceptions and know nothing of what is “expected”.

    Do I really have a problem with having kids outside of marriage? No. Do I want to deal with the meeting and mingling of our vastly different families (they are as far apart as you could imagine)? NO. Am I going to change my mind on changing my name? No, so that’s an issue we’d have to spend some time bashing out.

    But there is the legal stuff to consider, and it would be nice to have our friends together, to have photos to look back at, to dance and be merry (compiling a playlist is probably what would excite me most).

    I don’t really have close girlfriends to help me plan (and trust me, planning and organising events is right up there with public speaking for me. HATE IT.)

    I am seriously tempted to elope.

    Whatever, either way, a wedding is still a couple of years away. I have at least one big trip to plan and pay for first. (Backpacking across Europe/driving across America are not appropriate honeymoon plans in my view.) I’m still way too young to even consider calling myself a married woman (if things go as planned, I’ll be at least 25. Assuming we set a date in, say, a year at earliest and planning takes at least another year). And this way we have a couple of years to stumble across an amazing venue that won’t cost the earth (you hear me, universe?) I’m not down with the backyard BBQ, but neither am I keen for a super formal sitdown thing. Financials aside, I’m just not ready to dive into all the stress and drama of wedding planning anytime this year. Hopefully people can respect that.

    Also, there are already texts from extended family wanting to know “when the pissup is”. Yeah.  Exactly. I’m going to have them probably poking fun at my uptight Asian parents and they’ll be horrified at the uncouth bogans and it will NOT be like My Big Fat Greek Wedding where everyone downs shots and gets merry together because mine don’t drink at all, ever.

    It’s a shame, because so many of you just got hitched, or are about to, so now really would be ideal for starting to plan. Never mind, I’ll soak it up as I go and store it for later. Revanche, we can still totally talk hypothetical budgets (!!)

    (Also, what on earth do we do about engagement photos? Do we do them at all? We’re two of the most camera-shy, least photogenic people ever. I love the idea of a beautiful shoot, but the odds of it going well are very low, and our friend with the most photography chops recently relocated to western Australia. Asshat.)

    Yes, a few years will be good.

  • March 9, 2011

    You asked for it

    So, apparently I skipped over the “key part” of my last post. (Um, sorry? I guess I find it easier to gush about sightseeing and sushi than lifetime commitments.) I’m not really sure what to say! Was I surprised? Not entirely; he said he had a surprise for me, and we’d been talking a bit more about marriage in the last few months than usual.

    We were about to settle into a nice spa bath to relax after the drive down; I was already in when he ducked back into the room, shutting the door behind him (that’s weird, I thought) and before I knew it there he was back in front of me, pulling out a ring.

    Then we had a soak, wandered down Cuba St, and met up with the boys at the Macs Steamship bar where they hummed Here Comes The Bride as we approached.

    What can I say? We’re both pretty down to earth people. I didn’t realise just how blase I was about the whole thing until I was asked “Did you cry?” (the thought never crossed my mind) by one of his mates’ girlfriends outside Te Papa (I’m not generally a fan of museums but Te Papa is a goodie. I particularly enjoyed the refugee stories project, the Brian Brake photography exhibition and the “Guess the Decade” game in the Kiwiana section.)

    I’ve only told three people so far myself; thankfully the guys understand. Example: J took one look at us and said “Long engagement?” Dude gets it. Not so much the girls. For them, it’s more “so why even bother getting engaged now?”

    Apparently we’re the only people in the world who see engagement as a commitment to have a wedding (eventually) rather than the impetus to start dress shopping and designing invites. ARGH. I think Red said it best a while ago something like “Ah, you see it as another step in your relationship, not a short sprint to marriage.” Precisely.

    I refuse to make the announcement via updating my Facebook relationship status. Or by text. People are gonna hear when they see me, or via word of mouth. (I’m actually not sure when an appropriate time to do the Facebook thing will be. I’ll figure it out.) Uh, also, I have yet to tell my parents, which is probably the scariest part. Almost as scary as when I told them about getting my period.

    And I haven’t even got around to any wedding talk, but I can assure you there will not be an avalanche of wedding posts anytime soon. More on that soonish…

    And finally, nope, no obligatory ring photo. They all look basically the same, so we’ll skip all that, shall we? – even though this one doesn’t because it’s about 100 years old and was his grandmother’s. I have tiny fingers and the ring design means it can’t go down any more sizes, so we’ll have to figure something out on that front.

  • March 8, 2011

    Sushi trains, waterfront venues and a proposal

    I have a new favourite city. I’ve been to Wellington once before. I was about 11. And I was on a school trip. This time around it was eleventy billion times better.

    Seriously. I love my big city, but in comparison it is grey and soulless. (Although all I have to compare it to is Singapore, KL, and, er, Hamilton?!) Wellington is SO walkable. Everything in the central city is amazingly flat. Check this out for a footpath:

    There is a skate park in the CBD. There are murals. Countless cinemas. Galleries and museums, all free or dirt-cheap.  Even the scaffolding on construction sites are arted up. Everything is so buzzy and colourful and inspiring.

    And OMG a sushi place with conveyor belt (Anyone know of an equivalent place in Auckland???):

    T loved it too, mainly because it was so cold. I eventually got used to the wind, although the first night everytime the windows rattled I thought it was an earthquake, and by the end of the weekend, my chin was so dry and chapped no amount of cream applied continuously could save it. And I was very grateful to have brought jeans, because walking along the harbour from arena to arena was not the warmest of undertakings. Thankfully, it turned out the arena was set up literally five minutes from our lodge.

    The gig

    The one good thing about having each stage at a totally separate venue was that at least you weren’t forced to buy snacks and drinks there. You could go for a wander into town and get anything your heart desired, or in my case, back to our hotel to eat our own food.

    But seriously. My first stop was TSB Arena for Midnight Youth. Homegrown specifically said we could bring in as much food as we wanted. And what did they do at TSB? CONFISCATE MY DAMN LUNCH, the venue making its own rules. “Can I get it back after?” I asked. No. They told me it would probably go to the “needy”. Bullshit. Y’all will get first pickings, then it will go into the bin. And I was already late for the act at that point, not to mention still full from our big breakfast, so I wasn’t going to stand there and stuff all my food down my gullet. I let it go. And of course, at NONE of the other stages did they care, and when we returned to TSB at the end of the night for Blindspott, they didn’t even check bags, let alone our wristbands.

    And, as I should have guessed, Blindspott played Phlex as the second-to-last song, and dedicated it to all the Christchurch people in the crowd.

    There’s no reason yet
    why they took your friends
    there’ s no reason at all.

    For me, all the two-minute silences in the world could not compare to that one song, originally written after the loss of one of their friends.

    Not one day that you are here on this earth
    Has been promised to you
    So make the most of every day as if it was your last
    And every breath, as if it was the same.

    I spent almost all of the day on my own, as the bands I wanted to see (Phoenix Foundation, Kids of 88 – as below) weren’t remotely interesting to him or his mates. (Nor did I have any interest, really, in attempting to tag along with their girlfriends.) There is really something to be said for going it alone. No compromises!

    The road

    The drive down was long. We left at 5am, just so we could go down with another carload of T’s friends. In fact, we spent more time with them on Friday and Saturday than I bargained for, and more money (all they ever do is drink, basically, and spend without thinking twice). Driving down the Desert Rd was particularly scary; we hit a random storm and at high altitudes with big trucks roaring past and blinding you with spray, well, it toes the line between exhilarating and terrifying.

    And we were in a borrowed car – a Rover, no less – that did NOT like to take corners. Also, the indicators were on the left of the steering wheel, not right, so he was constantly flicking on the wipers when changing lanes.

    I don’t like leather seats or wood panelling. But those blind-spot mini-mirrors on the wing mirrors are nothing short of genius. Why do all cars not come standard with them??

    I quite enjoy long drives. It gives me time to think. For example, I decided that I’m against mining (we should focus on thinking up more sustainable ways to make money) and that if only we could all telecommute, and we got fast broadband, people could live ANYWHERE and maybe property prices would start to go down. (Probably wishful thinking.)

    And I get to marvel at tiny little towns and wonder how impossible it must be to get a good curry paste when you live somewhere like that. But seriously, some of the produce prices towards the lower North Island…50c lettuce, 50c pumpkins, 99c a kg for apples! Unbelievable. I wish we’d picked some up on the way back.

    Last thoughts

    I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in one of the places I was most excited to go to. Schoc Chocolaterie had an amazing selection, although most of the flavours were too out there for me (strawberry and cracked pepper?). I bought their lemon white chocolate, and don’t regret it, but for $13 (750g) I won’t be back, I don’t think.

    I’m already planning our return. I still have to visit the famed Bordeaux bakery, and I missed out on hitting the clubs; although just from walking around at night, I could already see why their nightlife kicks ass.

    And Wellington will have a special place in my heart from now, I guess, as it’s where T proposed. I was in the spa bath. He did good. Lucky I decided to go with a nice place and not an el cheapo backpackers, eh? (We stayed at the Halswell; I can’t speak for the motel rooms but the lodge building is nice and oozing Victorian charm, if a little small.)

    (That’s my new hair, by the way, Young and Thrifty!)

    Wellington, I’ll be back.

  • March 5, 2011

    Link love (Powered by the good oil and slavish labour)

    (I’m writing this on Wednesday and scheduling it for the weekend. When you read this I’ll be in the windy city, aka, our great capital.)

    For the last few months I was (irregularly) taking a women’s multivitamin, including primrose and fish oils. I mainly did this for my skin. I never really noticed any effects, though.

    Then I started on proper fish oils. And right away, my energy levels shot up. Seriously. It has done wonders for me, and just in time for the busiest work week in a long time. I’ve always needed 8-10 hours a night, and even then, I’d still be yawning throughout the day. Not anymore! In fact I’m even occasionally waking up before my alarm. Even when I took iron pill in my teens, I never experienced anything like this – it didn’t last long though as those little red tablets were seriously foul and made me drowsy.

    I’m sure I don’t need to explain the slavish labour part – y’all have heard about the mighty earthquake.

    Anyway, it’s a bumper issue catching up on two weeks’ worth! Enjoy

    LIFE

    Another fabulous guest post on Yes and Yes from Lady Smaggle on why aging isn’t scary (I pretty much had my growing-up learning curve done by 19, but the principles still apply)

    Shawanda at Your Have More Than You Think shares some uncommon advice to change your life.

    But change doesn’t happen overnight. Matt at Life Without Pants explains the problem with idealism.

    Jane tackles a topic I have wondered about – taking toddlers out to eat (who hasn’t lost their patience with children in a cafe or restaurant?)

    On the family topic, Nicole and Maggie pose a great question – how do you know if the time’s right for kid #2?

    Grace at Small Hands, Big Ideas reminds us how communication can be lost in translation.

    Listen. To. This. Song. Now. (Props to Tall Brunette)

    Meg at World of Wealth writes about why the scales favour men in the dating game.

    Personally, I think honorifics should be banned. But yes, worst of all is INCONSISTENT USAGE.

    Sometimes you just need to do your best and leave the rest, says Amy.

    Similarly, Jess at Makeunder My Life pledges to schedule in more time with herself.

    Mainly just for the title. And the photo of the tattoo. Jokes! Emily Jane writes about finding and committing to her life’s direction (“Every day I choose to spend updating someone else’s spreadsheets is another day I haven’t followed my dreams”).

    A nice roundup of how to make all the basic household cleaners, naturally and cheaply, at Funny about Money

    Hey, that’s neat. Have you heard of Formulists? I sure hadn’t, but Carrie Actually explains what it’s all about.

    Fabulously Broke asks: Would you let your parents move in with you?

    FOOD

    LOVE this post at Musings of an Inappropriate Woman on food as fuel (even as someone who’s always thinking about her next meal – sometimes even while eating! this was a good read.)

    Jules at Stonesoup on the simplest way to meal plan, plus scrumptious recipes.

    Oh man, I love rice bubble bars! Haven’t had them in years (via $120 Food Challenge).

    Kevin is tempting me to to try making risotto that’s not in a box.

    Spaghetti with lemon and olive oil. Sounds simple but extravagant.

    WORK/CAREER

    In an age where it seems everyone prides themselves on coming up with great brainwaves, Write Around it All’s admission that she’s not an ideas person is a refreshing read.

    From Red Lips and Academics (my newest discovery), the harsh reality of the side hustle.

    Some practical marketing advice for online stores at Makeunder My Life.

    Ms Career Girl has a guest post by Norma Tassy on the three types of people who should be in your network

    Want to gain respect and make professional connections? Read this post at Dumb Little Man.

    MONEY

    I think we’ve all felt this way at one time or another. I wish there was a magical money fairy, says Fig.

    Red argues that student loans are not the enemy. (Of course they’re not. They’re loans! Like credit cards, they are not inherently good or evil…they’re just a tool. It’s up to you how you use them.)

    Couldn’t agree more – Well Heeled says small purchases can be the biggest pick-me-ups.

    Get Rich Slowly asks: What are the best non-US personal finance sites? Also, a guest post on balancing price, location and quality when househunting.

    Fabulously Frugal shares her tips for travelling frugally, but not cheaply.

    Financial Samurai reckons diverse interests = diverse income streams.

    And to round it off, some tough love as Aloysa launches her Talk it Out column.

  • March 4, 2011

    Friday Five: These are my confessions

    these are my confessions

    • I don’t care for the arts. I like rock music and photography and movies. I don’t care much for art, sculpture, theatre, museums. Buffy is probably my favourite telly show ever. If given the choice between a free orchestral concert in the park or staying in with my guitar and YouTube, the latter would win every time. Call me a Philistine.
    • I know feminism is about choice. I believe choosing homemaking is just as valid as choosing a career. But a tiny part of me is disappointed when I hear you changed your name after marriage. (Logical or not!) Which is every single person I know who is a newly-wed or newly-engaged or heck, even just in a LT relationship but already planning the wedding – most recently, a coworker who had a really cool surname, but no longer.
    • I don’t actually know how to clean a toilet or an oven. These strike me as vital adult skills to have, but I’ve always just made it up as I go along.
    • I know I should spend my free time – and my downtime at work – reading about my industry, furthering my education, bettering myself. But I don’t. And I don’t really want to. I read personal blogs and novels, learn 80s and 90s rock songs, bake artery-clogging munchies and watch movies.
    • I have a bit of an obsession with food. I need to have my lunches mapped out for days and little things like forgetting to take the chicken out of the freezer to defrost before dinner completely mess with my day. I’m pretty sure I spend as much time thinking about food as men apparently think about sex. And when it comes to things like salsa flavoured cornchips, I cannot stop until the bag is empty. Gluttony is my biggest weakness.

    Your turn…?

  • March 2, 2011

    February goal checkin

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    February wasn’t so bad. I made my Shape Up for March goals (holla Serendipity!) running twice a week and a $500 grocery budget for two.

    Save 40 per cent of income. Done.

    Keep eating out to $160 a month. Done

    Donate to charity every month. Errr…fail.

    Text one friend a week. Done, although again, not all instigated by me, I must admit.

    Learn to confidently use full manual settings on my dSLR. Went out one morning to shoot for fun (or was it two mornings?) Anyway, baby steps. I’m not allowing myself to use the P mode at all – it’s either full manual or at the very least, aperture or shutter priority.

    Progress on goal of reading 100 books. I’ve read 10 so far. That leaves 90 in 10 months…

    Continue running at least once a week, and run a 10k. Yep. Although I haven’t been doing so well – I’ve been getting strange pains, cramps (I think that was due to not eating enough beforehand) and nearly passing out (dehydration, oops.) I haven’t run more than a couple of ks since, er, last year? I’m hoping to do a 10k late this month – it’ll be my last chance. If I can’t do it in under an hour, well, what’s the point?

  • March 1, 2011

    February roundup


    (Click here for an overview of how I track expenses and what’s included.)

    Clothes/grooming: Razors for him, three tops from the thrift store for me. (I’m thinking we need to go back to an electric shaver…)

    Debt: To me…

    Dining: Whee! Another month under $160. We’ve been busy, what can I say. Busy can sometimes lead to buying more food, but it’s generally cheaper food rather than proper going out and sitting down in a restaurant type meals. This included a lunch catchup with a friend, $20 spent at the food stalls at the CNY Lantern festival, our Valentine’s dinner at the cheap but AMAZING Angie’s Kitchen, and a splashy dinner at Lone Star (had a coupon. Meals were big, although not quite as massive I was led to believe.)

    Entertainment: Bowling, golfing.

    Fees: Six monthly Visa fees, which I didn’t actually pay out of pocket, thanks to rewards dollars.

    Groceries: Managed to keep it low and come in under $500, so I’m ecstatic! Now, to stock up on spices again and get some baking noms…

    Apparently even the prices we pay for produce at cheap greengrocers’ are expensive, according to you guys. I guess receipts don’t lie… Fabulously Broke, that was not $0.79 a kg! That was actually $1.99 a kg (the 0.79 referred to the weight of the bananas.) And that’s CHEAP AS CHIPS, girl. No joke.

    As I told SF Ordinary Girl, sure we have to import a lot of stuff. But we also grow a lot of produce here, and we’re a nation of nothing if not sheep and cows, so red meat and dairy should NOT be this expensive. (To be fair, we don’t have to pay for health insurance, so maybe it all evens out)

    Okay, I’m done talking about groceries. Like, for the next ten years.

    Holidays: Booked our hotel for Wellington this weekend, and my birthday trip to Raro. Also bought two high-end sleeping bags from Kathmandu at the Travel Expo for dirt cheap. Travel is going to feature more in our lives, so it’s an investment.

    Home: Standing fan. It was needed.

    Medical: New contacts, plus cream for my eczema-ravaged skin. It’s calmed down now, touch wood.

    Mystery shopping: A free lunch, plus cute stationery I’m going to give to a friend for her birthday (she loves Kikki.K)

    Savings: See below for the accurate count, as usual

    T fun: We handled this from the main account this month rather than his, at his request.

    Utilities: A little higher than usual. We’re using more power as he constantly has the fan on (the joys of being unnaturally huge, I suppose)

    Vehicle: A niggly little vibration in the left wheel started recently. T took it to three places. The first two found nothing wrong. But he persisted, and the third did – and they went the extra mile to fix it (result: new transmission, as it was cheaper than fixing the one part.) But now it’s back, so back to the mechanic we go. FML. We have the worst luck with cars. So there went $1500 this month, plus tons on gas because the crappy courtesy car we got chewed petrol like nobody’s business.

    Work expenses: A lot of his courses/clothing is subsidised, but not wholly.

    Extra income: I made an extra $141 this month. $100 was from my dad for Chinese New Year (ridiculously generous of him, but he’s a Rabbit and it’s the year of the Rabbit…guess he’s more sentimental than I thought). The rest was from mystery shops.

    Savings… I didn’t keep a sharp eye on this but it looks like I put away 43% (not bad considering I didn’t get any freelance income this month.) But that was in turn all wiped out by the car repairs. LAME.

    How was your February?

  • February 27, 2011

    Grocery challenge: The end!

    Darlings. Please, I love you all. But for the last time, THIS IS WHAT FOOD COSTS! I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. See last post and the numbers in the Otago uni study. One commenter wondered on my last post if melons were out of season; no, it’s summer here, they don’t get much more seasonal than that. Trust me when I say I don’t buy produce out of season, and that we really do spend as little as humanly possible on groceries – although we do sometimes buy too many snacks. From what I can tell from your blogs, we pay more relatively for EVERYTHING than you guys do in North America and elsewhere – on fruit, on vegetables, on flour and sugar, meat, dairy, toilet paper.

    And with that, I bring you the final week of February’s grocery challenge. Amazingly, we came in at $89.95 (I also made an emergency stop for flour mid-week.) Why so low? Well, we already had quite a few staples at home. But mainly, I think it’s because – stupidly – I kind of forgot about lunches. T hasn’t been eating much at work, so we decided not to plan for his lunches. Consequently, I neglected to think about my own, so I guess it’s peanut butter or egg sandwiches all week. Also, it’s a shorter week than usual, as we’re off to Wellington for four days.

    And that means we’re $25 under our $500 target for February. Amazing! Three cheers for short months.

    (Apologies for crappy photos. I’m a bit short on time at the moment)

    I’ve got heaps of great posts starred in Google Reader to share, but I don’t know when I’ll get time to do a link roundup. I’m halfway through a 9-day stretch of work, with no breaks, thanks to the earthquake. Busy busy busy!

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