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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • May 14, 2010

    The skill of paying bills

    I am not an agent of change. In fact, I’m quite set in my ways. But I made a radical move last month and switched entirely to online billing… doing my bit to save the planet.

    It didn’t start off too well. Something went wrong along the way and I nearly got locked out on my first attempt to log in to Contact Energy. But aside from that, I think online billing and me are gonna get along juuuust fine.

    Up until a month ago, I used to pay my paper bills on or just before the due date. They would sit in a pile on my desk for a couple of weeks, then I’d trot down to the post office on my lunch break to pay them over the counter. I really don’t know why – reluctance to fork over my money? Wanting it to earn a tiny bit of interest in the bank over the rest of the month?

    But now I pay them as soon as I get them. It’s just too easy to forget about an emailed invoice, and I’m paranoid about internet banking and possible payment delays.

    Do you pay your bills when they arrive, or on the due date? Why?

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  • May 14, 2010

    Voice from the past

    Some of you may know I lived and went to school in Kuala Lumpur till I was eight. I don’t have a lot of memories from those years, to be honest. I do, however, remember my best friend from primary school – a friend who tracked me down on Facebook this month and followed up with a phone call.

    Let me tell you, that was one of the strangest conversations I’ve had. So much time, so many years gone by. I vaguely recall phoning her when we flew back to visit my grandmother when I was maybe 15, and hearing a cold, strange, harsh voice. Her mother said she was being sulky…rebellious…going through a rough patch. I didn’t visit her. That makes it 13 years since we last saw each other.

    It’s funny to get a glimpse into a culture you’ve left behind. To see how much parental influence was in her life, to hear the kind of career options they deem suitable for you, and to let that shape the decisions you make. And it’s funny, too, to hear how things are the same the world over – that itch to get out, to travel, to see the world beyond what you know of it.

    When I think back, I  remember a photo of us in uniforms, outside school, grinning at the camera. I also remember a photo of us on culture day, when we both wore cheongsam(s?) to school – she looked entirely at home in hers, while mine – borrowed, of course – hung awkwardly. I’ve always hated the fact that being of an ethnicity other than the dominant one automatically qualifies you to others as having “culture” and with it, all the trappings of customs, dress and language. But I digress.

    Anyway, that’s probably about it, along with a couple of other brief memories. I couldn’t even remember if she had siblings, whether they were older or younger, or anything at all. She, on the other hand, asked about my parents and my family like we’d never left. Which made me feel bad. What kind of a friend was I? Compounded of course, by the fact that she started a conversation on Facebook chat later in the week mentioning how much she missed me (coming on a little strong perhaps? We only went to school together for less than two years…then again, maybe I’m a cold hard bitch with a terrible memory).

    Is it strange that I remember so little from my childhood?


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  • May 12, 2010

    The plight of the journalism graduate

    Everyone assumes that as a journalism grad, I must want to be a reporter, and wonders why I’m not pursuing relevant positions.

    But I’m not cut out for hardnosed reporting. I want to be a journalist, just not a reporter. I love subbing, editing, layout. I take great joy in untangling a mangled sentence. In writing captions, blurbs, headlines. And if I had more creative and technical bent, I might have gone into design.

    My goal in life is not to bring down tobacco corps or expose dirty politicians. Those are noble causes – just not causes close to my heart. I work alongside reporters and have nothing but admiration for what they do (most of the time).

    There is more to the field than ambulance chasing. It doesn’t mean I should go straight into PR or marketing, as one friend – a fellow journo, even! – has said to me (I don’t think I’d necessarily enjoy the commercial aspect of marketing, or all the liasing with various parties I’d have to do as a publicist).

    Granted, sub-editing has traditionally been reserved for those with more experience. But that’s changing, with the centralisation of subbing operations and shrinking budgets – fellow grads have gone straight into fulltime subs work – and of course, the advent of online, where traditional hierarchies don’t apply so much.

    Don’t get me wrong, I get a kick out of writing too. On that side of things, I’d probably want to pursue roles as a community reporter or entertainment writer. But I feel my heart is in online and that it’s a growth industry – which is why although aforementioned friend is pushing me towards a community arts reporting gig that’s up for the taking, I’m not applying.

    In fact, I don’t think a lot of my fellow grads even understand online and what opportunities there are. To me, there’s the opportunity to move up faster, probably more money and certainly prestige, and fun bits on the side like graphic design, HTML, and social media. Although I’ve always thought I’d like to try a stint as a print sub – doing layouts and spreads – I am positive that I’d feel very limited back on the print side of things.

    For now, I blog here, freelance at my side job, and mostly sub to my heart’s content at work. (I may not have the title or corresponding pay, but that is the job I’m doing nonetheless). It’s an ideal mix – maybe why I’m not getting the itch to write more?


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  • May 11, 2010

    I want it all; I want it now

    You hear it a lot: Young people just don’t have any patience. They have an entitlement attitude.  You have to work your way up and earn your place.

    Sometimes I feel like I’ve been here forever, and surely by now that should be recognised? Then I kick myself and think that I’m glad to have a job.  I’m still a fresh grad with plenty to learn and skills to hone. Sometimes I am irritated that my title and income bracket are still the same although I’m doing work beyond that. And then I remind myself that I have to be patient. Good things take time.

    It’s funny how I am making what my mum made 6, 7 years ago as an accountant and now think it’s peanuts.  How fast things change. I’m definitely suffering from that 20-something I want it all and I want it now attitude.

    I know that I’ve been proving I can handle more responsibility. I have to make my accomplishments more visible – blow my own horn, learn to schmooze.  I tend to just work quietly and prefer to get on with the job but am trying to be more visible…which given my hours isn’t always easy. As per Revanche’s advice, I’m cultivating rapport with those I work alongside. And I know that most everyone knows how awesome I am – the people around me and just above me, at least.

    But I don’t want to end up like this friend of mine, and I may need to jump ship at some point to get ahead. I’ve been keeping one eye on the job market for months. Now one has come up and I’m hesitating. Why? Normally I would be the first to say, what’s the harm in testing the waters? I really don’t know. It’s all familiar – maybe I’m too settled? I like the environment, I like the people I work with. And I’m reluctant to risk giving that up.

    However, that’s just not good enough a reason – so I’m biting the bullet. And maybe nothing will come of it. But there’s nothing to lose either way, right?


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  • May 10, 2010

    A film I’m actually psyched to see

    I am officially swearing off going to the city cinema on cheap Tuesdays. Odds are, you’re not going to get a seat, because everything fills up so fast. And the lines are insane. And you’re likely to have a breakdown halfway down the queue because the show you wanted to go to is now blinking FULL, as is the one after it and the one after it. And you will be allocated seats in the very front row, making for a very uncomfortable two hours. Instead, we’re going to the Newmarket branch instead, which is just up the road. The branch that we had planned to go to, had the car not randomly died on the street and forced us to bus to the city instead for a later screening.

    But I digress. (Iron Man 2 was pretty good, by the way). Among the trailers was a teaser for Tomorrow, When the War Began!!!!!!!!!

    Yes, this news deserves multiple exclamation marks. I’m totally excited for this. And, surprisingly, so is the boy. (He’s not a reader AT ALL, and this is one of the few books he’s actually finished.)

    For those who don’t know what I’m on about, Tomorrow is the first of a seven-book series. It was originally meant to be a trilogy – and you can tell; the third is so long and jam packed with action, it had me tensed up from start to finish – then the next four books kind of drift downhill. In it, John Marsden tells the story of a group of teenagers who go out camping (I think? Don’t quote me on that) and while they’re out in the bush, some unnamed enemy invades their country. It takes all their wits and resources to stay on the run and elude capture, and even more so when they get all guerilla soldier like and start fighting back. It’s not the most realistic of plots, but I tell you, these books were a bloody good read back in the day.

    Who is John Marsden, you ask? He was (is?) an Australian author who wrote a lot of young adult fiction. Personally, I think Marden’s best work was Letters from the Inside – a tale of two penpals, one of whomturns out not to be quite who she says she is. It ends on the most heartwrenching, cliffhangerly note. I’ve never forgotten it.

    Anyway. Australian accents aside, this should be a ripper! I can’t wait. According to IMDB, it’s due out in September and stars that achingly beautiful girl who played Wendy in Peter Pan.


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  • May 10, 2010

    GST. Taxes. *facepalm*

    Bless my mum. An accountant to the core, she’s encouraging me to get GST registered so I can claim expenses and depreciation and whatnot for when I work from home.

    It all sounds way too complicated for my liking and I’m tempted to put it in the too-hard basket. But apparently I can list things like part of my rent, phone bill, depreciation on my laptop, computer paper and who knows what else. As I understand it, I charge GST, then claim it back somehow…and I assume, sometimes end up paying taxes, and maybe sometimes not, if it evens out?

    March saw me doing some extra freelancing, which cost me some phone calls on my own time (anyone in NZ will know how outrageous mobile call pricing here is. And some of it didn’t even end up making it to print – there wasn’t enough room. Ah, how spoilt we are in the infinite world of online. At least I got paid for it all nonetheless). And it’s possible I may be doing some more of that in the future.

    So setting up as a GST contractor could be quite handy. I’m looking into it…but not making any promises. Having my taxes all taken care of for me before I see it is just so easy, you know?

    Anyone have any experience with this kind of stuff?


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  • May 8, 2010

    April roundup

    Ridiculous amounts in the car category, thanks to a new warrant and associated parts that needed replacing to get it up to scratch. I don’t think there are any of my commuting costs in here, as I bought a month of bus fare at the end of March – cheap student fares, before my ID card expired.

    Even more ridiculous amounts in the utilities area. I had to pay a ridiculous bond $150 to my power company as well as a aig phone/internet bill for the first month (month in advance plus part charge to catch up with their billing cycle). And although I topped up my cellphone, a crap locking system and carelessness saw me waste $10 (half of the amount I put on it) on random phone calls to random people. I’m still hoping to make it to my next recharge date without having to top up further. One week to go…

    I also paid a quarter’s worth of contents insurance. Otherwise everything doesn’t look too bad – dining out especially is half of what we spent last month! I’m kind of surprised. It’s all out of necessity, though – I’m the only steady earner right now.

    In other news…

    I made $733 in additional income – $40 from mystery shopping and the rest from two months of my side job. $250 went to my travel fund and the rest to my EF, although some of it will pay for an eye test and new contacts soon…and maybe a haircut. I badly need one, but don’t really want shorter hair going into winter! Speaking of which, that $40 bought me a shiny new pair of  boots. Flat, semi-slouchy, pointed REAL leather boots (another almost brand-new secondhand score!) Unlike every other pair I’ve ever had, they are not the nearly-knee high kind. Instead, they come to about mid-calf, which I think is actually more flattering to my legs. Now I need some roundtoed brown boots and some black ballet flats!

  • May 6, 2010

    How big is your online footprint?

    Should I ever go missing or die a grisly death, the media will not have a field day with me. They won’t be able to use my Facebook photos as is so commonly done – especially with camera-happy teenagers – as every single one of them is now private. (Although that being said, plenty of my friends also work in the media, so maybe some of them would be kind enough to choose some flattering shots to splash with).

    See, I was recently intrigued to find out our company had relaunched a shiny new intranet. I was even more surprised to browse it and see a photo of me on the beach from an outing months ago…that I’d never submitted. The photo I’d given our office manager was small and of dubious dpi measurement, but it had been good enough for the old database. This one boasted MASSIVE photos against our names and my old one obviously hadn’t made the cut.

    But how could this photo have ended up there? My profile settings were set to friends only. And I didn’t think any of my very few work friends would have been dispatched to scout for new pictures for this. It’s not that it’s a bad photo. I actually quite like it. It’s just not the photo I would’ve chosen to represent me in this instance. Ya know?

    Anyway, the mystery was solved a few weeks later when I was reorganising my profile in the wake of all Facebook’s messing around with profile linking and whatnot. (How annoying is that? You can’t list an interest without having it link to the activity/fan page?!) Some of my individual photo albums were set to “Everybody can see this”, a command which must override the account settings. Lesson learned.

    I’m pretty confident that nothing untoward will happen to me. But as we were discussing at work, maybe it’s not a bad idea to set up a “just in case” folder with pictures the way we’d like to be remembered on the front page of our local daily. (Joking. Kind of.)


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  • May 5, 2010

    April goals

    Save 20 per cent of my income. Done, with the additional help of some invoices which came in!

    Try one new (to me) dinner recipe each week. I think this goal has completely fallen by the wayside. T is back on cooking duties. He usually manages to whip up at least one dish with a new twist, however.

    Run once a week. Oy. I think I missed one run this month. Laziness + bad weather and crazy rain = demotivation.

    Make an upwards career move. Day job going well. Covered for a weekday shift this week, which was good for my profile. Usually I’m stuck in more of a support role during the week, while taking the reins during my weekend shifts. But staff shortages saw me called in to man the ship, which was exciting. Side job chugging along.

    Donate to charity. I contributed to the Red Cross cyclone fund, in wake of the Pacific Island storms. (And we put a coupla coins down charitable wishing well…the kind you get outside supermarkets and whatnot.)

    I also managed to accomplish my April goal of baking something new every week – chocolate slice, raspberry slice, peanut cookies and scones (okay, so the latter was a bit of a failure, but still exceedingly tasty with cream and jam).


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  • May 4, 2010

    Inching closer to the dream budget?

    Aaaaaages and aaaaaaaaaages ago I wrote about those dreaded PITA irregular expenditures.

    And for months now I’ve had this post sitting in drafts. We’ve gotten ohsoclose to the dream budget, veered away from it, and so on. It frustrates me. It is unbelievably irritating. But I think I have to accept that an easy life, for now, remains a pipe dream. What I wouldn’t give to be able to go to concerts! Movies! Restaurants! To buy fish and chicken and olive oil and ice cream on our grocery shops every single week!

    It hurts me to think how much money we wasted in the past, either by just not knowing where our money was going, or spending too much on, well, crap. I think the fact that the amount of discretionary income T had when he was working FT, compared to after being laid off, barely changed (ie, hardly anything at all) says a lot.

    So here’s my current dream budget, which I’m finally going to post as a kind of motivator – or something.

    • Rent – $250
    • Groceries – $130
    • Gas – $30
    • Bills account – $110
      – Power $20
      – Bus $25
      – Phone and internet $20
      – Sky TV $15
      – Insurance $15
      – Car stuff $15
    • Saving – $100 (me) – $50 (him)
    • Debt (him) $50
    • And perhaps another $100 for everything else…fun, clothes, medicine, whatever. (Hardcore budgeting doesn’t really work for me. As long as the essentials get paid, whatever’s left over is fair game.)

    Total: $920

    This is a pretty conservative ‘dream’ budget – more like a ‘cover it all’ budget. Obviously it would be nice to have more – especially in those last three categories. Right now, my take-home each week after tax and Kiwisaver is around $560 or so (I’m paid fortnightly but budget weekly.  I’ve never understood people whooping about 3-paycheck months – but I guess if all your bills are monthly then it makes sense!) – so we’re a long way from managing on one income, even without play money or repaying debt.


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