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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • December 4, 2010

    Link love (Powered by late nights and jungle pad thai)

    Big Sur, California

    California (among many, many other states) dreaming. Image by the_tahoe_guy via Flickr

    A decision has been made.

    Fact: Whatever my next career move, it will almost certainly involve a pay cut. (My working hours may suck sometimes but I’m decently compensated, and my resume is the better for it).

    So while I’m able to save at this rate, I want to focus not on a South Island road trip, although if that pans out great – but the big ticket. The major, expensive, eye-opening trip.

    Which means one of two possibilities:

    The US.

    Europe.

    Either of which will be extremely exciting, and which I want to undertake before the house and kids and all that jazz!

    Which means… you can look forward to upcoming posts seeking advice!

    In the meantime, feast on these:

    MONEY

    JD Roth has lost some weight through some effective diet tablets and is asking: How do you build a wardrobe on a budget? (Plenty of posts on that for women have been done, but I don’t know about a male perspective.)

    Cate offers some suggestions for simple homemade Christmas gifts.

    Jane on the price of pet love: brave girl admits that the threshold is different for each of her pooches.

    Jacqueline, one in a long line of money hoarders, is trying to break the cycle with her son.

    According to Punch Debt, he and I are peanut butter (yum!) Our better halves are jelly. But we make it work. Although, what you call jelly is actually jam. So he’s jam. Which, incidentally, he really likes.

    Oh, and he asked how much you would put down on a house. Funny thing is, I was just discussing that with a friend (she literally had no idea, even though her family has investment property as well as their own home.) As much as I can, is what I say. Realistically, we’d need anywhere from $50-$100k.

    Kevin at Thousandaire gets his outrage on after overhearing the reason a girl at the next table turned down a promotion. Eavesdropping never did anyone good! Not that that stops me, of course…

    My Pretty Pennies has said yes to a wedding dress! Read all about it here.

    Amber at Blonde and Balanced reflects on what she learned from being in debt.

    WORK

    Ahhh, content mills. How does a writer move up from them? Carol Tice offers seven detailed suggestions.

    I’ve had a lot of jobs, but none of them were all that weird. Marian can’t say the same.

    Ask a Manager explains what to do when you know your organisation is running out of money.

    The Indie Travel Podcast offers advice on making money and achieving location independence. (Not something I’m aiming for, but a great read nonetheless)

    Meanwhile, Financial Samurai blogs about how to finish the year strong, for those of us who work for Da Man.

    FOOD

    Dudes, I live in New Zealand. But thanks to blogging and social media, I’m hearing all about Jewish holidays and even better, Jewish food. And latkes sound fanfrigging amazing. Who wants to host me when T and I hit the States? Hmmmmm?

    Also, NOM. The Joy of Caking is my new fave blog, and this amazing chocolate tart is next on my list to tackle when I have an afternoon off.

    Something else that will take up an afternoon is this rich minestrone via DALS.

    I’m always thrown by the mention of ‘zucchini’, but then I remember that they’re just a humble courgette. Pair em with mushrooms and you’ve got a healthy enchilada.

    If like me bolognaise is a regular goto meal for you, try mixing it up with homemade meatballs.

    Not a recipe, but…Stacface shares the details of her no-meat experiment.

    LIFE

    So I’ve only been inspired enough to participate in one of the #Reverb10 prompts so far (bring on tomorrow’s!) but I really enjoyed reading Hannah, Just Breathe’s account of a moment where she felt alive, and her birthday reflections on the things she has carried.

    Wanna know how many chemicals you put on every day? Thankfully, I use less than half of those products.

    Sarah at Yes and Yes shares some thoughts on beggars and making a difference in one person’s life.

    Heather Rae admits to having regrets, and actually regretting them (something that goes against, you know, that whole no-regrets philosophy). I can think of one big thing I’d’ve done differently, and it’s to do with family…but to be honest, it doesn’t bother me very much; I’ve put it behind me.

    Luckily, prices here prohibit me from joining the smartphone revolution. Here are the stages of smartphone withdrawal….

    Cordelia may have failed NaNoWriMo but it doesn’t mean she didn’t learn anything from it.

    Simple, but beautiful: Nicole and Maggie on cultural differences and household chores.

    Like me, Dana is a control freak, and here she explains why it’s not all a bad thing.

    Penelope Trunk argues you should stop trying to be happy. As someone who believes true balance is basically impossible…I can’t quite bring myself to agree. You can’t expect to be happy  ALL OF THE TIME, and if somewhere you were, you wouldn’t be able to appreciate it. I actively try to achieve a semblance of balance in life, and I am, generally, content.

    Phew! Have a lovely, wondrous, fabulous weekend. I’ll be at work 🙂

    PS – Last chance to enter my Christmas giveaway – $60 worth of gift codes to spend on yourself or someone else!

  • December 2, 2010

    Reverb 10: One word

    I’m taking part in Reverb 10, an annual event and online initiative to reflect on the year and manifest what’s next. Feel free to sign up and take part, too.

    Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word.

    Learning

    In all areas – finances, career, health. I am a happier, healthier, more content and more rounded person than I could have imagined a year ago. It wasn’t something I specifically set out to accomplish, but I’ll take it.

    Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

    Achievement

    I want to do more. I want to keep progressing with blogging, with work, with my hobbies – music, cooking, running  – and LIVING. I want to spend more time with my friends, go to concerts, go to shows, and most importantly, start travelling.

    World map nations

    Image via Wikipedia

  • December 1, 2010

    November goal checkin

    Save 20 per cent of my income. Clocked in at 44 per cent plus extra income which I put straight toward the travel fund (as yet untallied). Of course, savings took a big dent with the new car purchase, but the awesome thing is, my net worth didn’t decrease all that much. As for my November goal of living on a $2500 budget and tracking EVERYTHING including T’s spending, I’ll have an update in the next week or so.

    Try one new (to me) dinner recipe each week. Managed three dinner recipes, plus another three baking recipes. Special shoutout to the buckeyes which were a huge hit and made far more than anticipated!

    Run once a week. I hit my stride with three runs per week, but have been busier lately and only managing one or two. On the plus side, those are much longer runs, closer to 10k than 2.

    Donate to charity. I’d been wanting to donate to Movember, but nobody I knew was taking part…until a colleague set up a donation page for him and his mates and tweeted about it. Ah, social media.

    ** Don’t forget to enter my Christmas giveaway, if you haven’t already! **

  • November 30, 2010

    Adventures in car buying: Insurance

    Okay, so New Car brings with it New Insurance Costs.

    If you’re just tuning in, this wasn’t a case of lifestyle creep; it was a case of knowing when to let go of the last in a string of beaters, and upgrading in the hopes of getting something more reliable and efficient with a bigger initial outlay. (Also, you may recall that every single one of our other cars died before we got the chance to replace them. I figured we should try and beat that this time around.) I’d never call a car an investment, but the idea is we are investing in terms of, theoretically, coming out ahead by reducing the cost and headache of ongoing maintenance and repairs.  Our $1500 hatch was a steal (I’ve got a nostalgic post brewing) but the constant upkeep…ouch.

    Nicer cars also mean higher insurance premiums. According to this Liz Pulliam article on MSN Money, 10 per cent is the most you should pay for full coverage.

    Problem: That doesn’t work for us. Full cover is about $1200 annually – way more than 10 per cent.

    Meanwhile, third party, fire and theft cover is  only $500 (it was $300 on our old car).

    That’s a difference of $700, or just over double. And yet, is that really all that much extra for total peace of mind? I don’t mind a few dings and scratches, but what I am afraid of is a total wreck. After all, you can’t control the actions of others, and it’s not inconceivable that it could be totalled through no fault of our own. That would mean putting away $23 a week for insurance, as opposed to $6.

    In the worst case, I could afford to replace it, even now…but that would put a massive dent in my savings.

    So, it’s a gamble. Pay that $700 (our excess payable on claims is $500, by the way), or attempt to self-insure? It wasn’t even an option previously; none of our cars were ever worth the cost of full cover. Not even debatable.

    But this is a car we want – need, even – to last years.

    What would you do?

  • November 29, 2010

    Adventures in car buying

    Familia wagon

    The same model, courtesy of a Google search

    You know what they say…the best laid plans of mice and men…

    But circumstances forced our hand. Our old  car had its registration paid up till March, which I was loath to give up, but  was a lot less than what it would have cost to get it up to warrantable standard – and we didn’t want to go through the expense and hassle of getting the damn thing fixed, especially since we were planning for a possible replacement so soon. This really was the tipping point – know when to cut your losses. Urgency arrived in the form of a cop who pulled T over on his way to work one morning for not having any rear lights, and warned him that the next time he wouldn’t get away with it.

    We’d had a few cars on our watchlist but in the end we only ended up seeing and test driving one. Result? We basically have the same car – a Familia – but in a five door wagon not a three door hatch, and nearly a decade younger. Guys, we’re talking 1998 – at only 12 years old it is by far the newest car we’ve ever owned! It’s also the most solid – that’s something you can definitely feel about it.

    You know what else this means (especially in a wagon)? Yay road trips! (This solves the question of whether we’ll drive or rent a campervan when we do the South Island). And I’ll be able to help ease the driving load. (Ironically, I’d finally come around to the idea of getting a manual  – better odds of gearbox not crapping out, and finally learning to drive manual in a decent car – but it wasn’t to be.)

    Actually, I’m not so sure about those long trips; BF has already filled up the boot with a sound system (sigh) which means even groceries go in the backseat. Careful shopping plus his work discount meant we got a lot of bang for our buck; still, it was difficult for me to bite my tongue. $600 on car audio???!!! But it’s his money and if that’s what he gets pleasure out of, fine.

    And the main thing is, we came in under the $5000 budget, sounds excluded, even after buying and getting an alarm and immobiliser installed.

    The one spanner in the works: insurance. Apparently this model/year is a high theft risk. And that sets the stage for the next post: the insurance dilemma…

  • November 28, 2010

    Mining, media and personal boundaries

    Panorama of Greymouth, New Zealand.

    Greymouth on the West Coast of the South Island. Image via Wikipedia

    You may have seen it trending on Twitter. #PikeRiver. It’s rare an event from little old New Zealand achieves such a feat. We tried it on the night the final of Outrageous Fortune screened. Unfortunately, we never decided what the official term should be, and tweets fractured into #outrageous, #OF, #outrageousfortune and more.

    But this was different. It really is a national tragedy.

    You may have heard about it. You may not. Essentially, 29 men – one as young as 17 on his first day, one who’d finished for the day but decided to log some overtime, men with children and wives and families – were trapped underground following an explosion in the coal mine last Friday. Odds are they died right away, but if not, then the second blast on Wednesday would have. It’s a story that’s gripped the country for over a week, everyone holding their breath to see if by some miracle those men might, like the Chilean miners, emerge alive.

    Someone – a random Tweeter from abroad – jumped into the stream on the day the second “unsurvivable” blast occurred. “Where the fuck is Pike River?” she asked. Oh, the responses she got. She quickly backtracked and voiced her sorrow for the tragedy.

    CNN, the BBC, al Jazeera and many more global outlets ran with the story. The blast at the Pike River coal mine in Greymouth didn’t just take Kiwis, there were Aussies, Scots, South Africans.

    Now I have a question for you. When a disaster like this strikes, what do you want to read about? Do you want to know about the men who died? What they were like? Who did they leave behind? In short, their life stories, in celebration and remembrance?

    If not, what do you want to see the media cover? Do you just want the dry facts? What caused the blast? What inquiries will be held? When the funerals are?

    I won’t ask you whether you think media should back off and leave grieving families alone – I already know the answer. I’m just grateful I’m not one of the journalists on the ground tasked with that painful job. (Because that’s what they’re doing – their job, like it or not.) So let’s not veer off onto that topic. I’m only interested in finding out what kind of coverage you are interested in. If the process of obtaining that information requires inappropriate or intrusive action, well…

    I’m sure your answers will give plenty of food for thought. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this tweet:

    * @fiatracer So many twitter hypocrites attacking media for getting in there, while desperately consuming the news they report. Get over it #pikeriver

    * and this blog post from a journalist who covered the disaster.

    “Covering a story like Greymouth is all about the faces. Those average, normal people being torn apart by fate.

    It could be any of us at any time.

    As a journalist you do your best to cover the event with as much compassion as you can and try to do your little bit to help if you can. To bring a smile, a hug, a kind word.

    When the worst happens your heart breaks for them. Their anguish, their anger, their tears.

    They say you have to remain dispassionate when covering events like Greymouth. You do your best but you’re only human.”

  • November 27, 2010

    Link love (Powered by a pinch of fatigue and a whole lot of teamwork)

    This post from Geek in Heels made me laugh. Hey, I’ll be the first one to agree that yes, Asians all look alike, and I’ll only be partially joking.

    One of the reasons I dislike watching martial arts movies is when all the actors are Asian, I literally cannot tell them apart. (It might be easier at the cinema on a proper theatre sized-screen, but those aren’t the kinds of films I feel the need to pay $15 to see.)

    I already have a terrible memory for faces. This has led to many an awkward moment in the past, let me tell you. This is only exaggerated when all those faces share the same eye colour, hair colour and, often, general bone structure. May I just say how unfair it is that Caucasians enjoy so much variety? Red, blonde, brown hair…blue, green, grey, hazel, brown eyes…But I digress

    Straight up. I’m Asian and I am an embarrassment to my race. But in my defence, I can sometimes tell which country someone is from. I have nothing on the pros, though.

    But there are plenty of other links that caught my eye this week…

    WORK

    We often assume working a 40-hour week is the only way. But is it? This post from Dinks Finance offers an insight into another way of living.

    At Dollars and Deadlines, what freelances can learn from a side job at Trader Joe’s.

    MONEY

    Check out Aloysa’s post Stop Being Frugal and Get a Life for a laugh!

    Jackie at Money Crush saved some serious coin by simply saying “no” (yet still, in the end, making a purchase).

    Little House on the three kinds of savings accounts everyone should have.

    LIFE

    Parenting really IS fraught with minefields. What does one do when their child progresses faster or slower than his or her peers? Nicole and Maggie have come up with a diplomatic answer.

    Stephany’s doing a Christmas card exchange! (I won’t burden her with international postage, but sign up here if you’re keen.)

    How often do you actually put yourself first? DC Princess reminds why it’s important to be selfish from time to time.

    ?

    It’s a scary thought: the possible dawn of social media castes. Where would you fall on the scale?

    Small Budget Big Style lists her favourite books of 2010.

    FOOD

    Food blogs were all over Thanksgiving this week. But a) it’s over now and b) I don’t even really like pumpkin. So pickings were slim…

    So last week I said no way was I going to attempt a baked cheesecake, but a four-ingredient one? Hells yeah! Minimalist cooking win.

    Maybe your S.O. loves pork buns as much as I do. Why not try making them at home?

    Cooking when you’re really broke sucks. Here are some tips to ease that pain and stretch the dollar.

    Sunchokes. What? Nevermind, this German salad looks interesting and all the other ingredients are pretty basic.

  • November 26, 2010

    Christmas goodies (aka, GIVEAWAY!)

    Following on from yesterday’s slightly Grinch-esque ramblings on Christmas, here’s a slightly more cheery thought.

    What are you angling for this year?

    Just call me your fairy godmother, at least if you’re in the UK, Germany or North America. Cause I’ve got a little something up my sleeve for ya.

    The lovely team at CSN Stores have offered me another $60 gift code to give away. It can be converted into Pounds or Euros as needed (see previous paragraph). I don’t care what you do with it. Spend it on yourself. Spend it on someone else. The choice is yours.

    Entries got a little crazed last time round, so let’s keep it relatively simple.

    There are two ways to enter:

    Comment – tell me what you want to see under the tree, if you’re buying into the whole tree thing, that is;

    Like me – that’s right, on my brand new Facebook page!

    (If I reach 25 fans, I can throw off that unwieldy URL and get a custom username. Just saying.)

    Entries close at noon – NZ time – on December 5. I’ll draw a winner randomly and CSN will be in touch with your unique code. Good luck!

  • November 25, 2010

    And so this is Christmas…

    A Danish Christmas tree illuminated with burni...

    Image via Wikipedia

    So, it’s Christmas. In a month. How did that creep up on me?

    Some people LOVE the festivities. The tree. The trimmings. The presents. The ham. The terrible, terrible seasonal jingles that shops like Bond and Bond have been playing for weeks already, which I can hear from all the way across the road.

    My family barely celebrated birthdays, let alone Christmas, so I’m a bit jaded about the whole thing. Excuse me.

    (I do, however, have ‘celebrate a white Christmas’ on my life list. It seems ridiculous to me that all the Christmas cards for sale here are of the snow variety – they must come from the Northern Hemisphere. December 25 here is prime barbecue, beach time.)

    I’m actually happy to be working Christmas Day; I had it off last year, so that was my family-gathering fix for the decade. The year before I went in to the office for half a day and powered through all my work in doubletime. (Maybe that’s a bit harsh. But certainly, alternating years provides me with more than enough whanau time. If it’s not blindingly obvious, I love my relatives, but we’re not all that close.)

    Working Christmas means, well, probably plenty of blog surfing, double (or triple, I can’t remember) pay, and minimal forced conversation. Hey, when you’re young and childless, there’s no better day of the year to milk the benefits. Hopefully I’ll be able to stop by for some of T’s mum’s famous potato salad first, or if not, he’ll bring me home a plate.

    Bonus: Technically, I can get away with not buying presents for my side. Or at least, not for the extended family, which consists of my aunt, her husband and two sons.

    That leaves us with three “groups” to shop for: my immediate family (parents and brother); T’s mother and co (including the two younger brothers) and his sister’s family (two adults, four kids). At least, that’s how I’ve mocked it up in my mind. When I asked him to kindly compile a list of who we needed to purchase gifts for, he stared at me for a moment before saying: “Me. That’s all I care about.” And no, I don’t know what I’ll get him – possibly an Xbox game, or a GPS. Or a golf club, but I’m not willing to pay for the kind of driver he’s got an eye on.

    At worst, we’ll buy three lots of gift vouchers and they can all go shopping on Boxing Day.

    Have you started gift shopping yet? Do you save up all year for Christmas, or are your obligations small enough (like ours) that you can work it into the December budget?

  • November 24, 2010

    Running: My method of choice

    Two female joggers on foggy Morro Strand State...

    Image by mikebaird via Flickr

    When I first decided it was time to knock my wheezing body into shape, pounding the pavement seemed the most logical move.

    I stopped taking PE, well, as soon as I was allowed to. Year 11, I believe, was the last year I did. Like all the other nerds in the accelerated stream, I took seven classes instead of six, opting to take an early-morning PE class which I hardly ever showed up to – dragging my ass out of bed in time to catch the 7.45 bus? If only. My laziness, by the way, led to me losing out on the easiest credits ever: the attendance credits. Pretty shameful.

    Although I still did tons of walking – up to an hour a day – I started to languish, physically. Nobody would ever have made the mistake of calling me sporty, or even coordinated, but I’d been reasonably fit up until then. I was almost always the last girl left standing in the beep test in PE class (12 or 13 I think was my maximum); I was a semi-decent sprinter and usually made the top 10 (females) in the annual cross-country run – although given how seriously some of the girls took it, that isn’t saying very much.

    To put it bluntly: There just aren’t that many sports that I like. I hate netball with a passion; in any given school you can count the number of girls who don’t play Saturday morning netball on one hand, and that was me. (T reckons that’s why I have a good basketball shooting style; I don’t have years of netball training behind me). Cricket, ugh. Hockey, worse. Like a good Asian, I like badminton, but hate the scoring system. Tennis is also good fun, although I am slightly scarred from years of thrashings by far superior players from other schools. Tell you what though, if anyone actually played touch beyond primary school, I’d be the first to sign up.

    As for gyms? They appeal to me about as much as tofu or a Brazilian wax. Rooms where everyone goes to, er, sweat? No thanks. Even when I had access to a free gym, I never went. I detest exercising around others – yes, I know they’re busy focusing on their own workouts and aren’t watching me – but it’s a HUGE mental block. And call me picky, but there just aren’t any machines I like using!

    Running suits me – it’s perfect for loners, you go at your own speed, you breathe fresh air and feel the sun on your face…and all you need is your shoes. (I used to run barefoot in school, but that was when we had nice soft fields; it’s a lot less comfortable on hot pavement.) Unlike many, I don’t get bored. Where I live, there are tons of fabulous houses to gawp at, for one (or the picturesque, sprawling grounds of Cornwall Park). For another, there’s also lots of slopes in the mix. Getting into a good breathing pattern takes me a while at first, and by the time I settle in, I’ve usually got a hill to throw me off. I hate treadmills with a passion! Outdoors is the only way to go. When I want to give in, I set myself milestones: just past that tree. To the corner. Up to the next traffic light. It’s a constant challenge.

    And that’s pretty much my workout – one long run on a day off and a couple shorter ones in the morning before work, with a few crunches and tricep squats (er, I don’t know the proper term for them!) thrown in.

    Which camp are you in – gym or anti-gym? Love or loathe running?

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