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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • November 25, 2012

    Link love (Powered by honey and lemon)

    Thanks to a systems failure, T was off work for two days this week. Being hourly, that meant no pay. Boo. Overtime brought that up to more or less normal levels, though.

    Meanwhile, I spent two days working from home, having been struck down by the latest bug that’s going around. Yes, in November, just as we’re heading into summer. I kid you not.

    About two weeks ago a couple of coworkers complained of sore throats. I started feeling that scratch late last week, took it easy last weekend, but finally had to admit defeat come Monday. On Tuesday, I was feeling pretty chipper to start with, but by the time I finished breakfast, I decided to give myself another day of working in bed. I always optimistically head back to work a little too soon; not this time.

    You know, I can’t count how many days I’ve wasted this year in that vein – the kind of days where you’re not completely out of action, but you’re not operating at full capacity, either. Anytime anything goes around, I inevitably catch it, and no matter how well I take care of myself, I end up succumbing. More than a  week on, I still haven’t shaken the cold – I’m still hacking up globules of phlegm in the morning.

    I do, however, recognise that I’m lucky to be otherwise healthy and pain-free when many others aren’t. /end whinge.

    To the links!

    Bridget’s unfrugal confessions made me laugh.

    The ever-fabulous Jen at Bullish dispenses some spot-on advice about relationships that are proving a bit of a career roadblock.

    Life of a Salesman (old, but new to me) is a beautiful piece of writing and an example, IMO, of why it’s important to put your financial wellbeing ahead of helping family.

    She Wears A Red Sox Cap reflects on the things she believed in high school (that turned out not to be true).

    Over at Adulting, ways to support your loved ones when they are ill (as in, serious medical issues, not the man flu).

    Cal Newport at Study Hacks argues that knowledge workers are failing on the productivity front.

    A guest poster on the Urban Muse shares a few tips on safely using public wi-fi.

    Death to form letters. Bring on real, human communication. Via Redhead Writing

    Warren and Betsy from Married with Luggage contemplate the cultural differences they’ve noticed on their travels – particularly the American relationship with food.

    Pauline has an excellent guest post up at Budget and the Beach on funding a nomadic lifestyle.

    How to make more money: sell your soul. But seriously, this post was fascinating because pro hustler Susannah Breslin outlines all the ways she’s made money, from copywriting to “online outreach”. Yep.

  • November 24, 2012

    Guest post: The day after the big one – what spouses should expect from each other

    Goldie Spivey is a full time staffer at a wedding invitations company and a freelance bridal make-up artist.

    Today, flash mob weddings are becoming more and more common among couples. They say that this type of expression is one of the grandest ways to tell the world how people love each other. One of the most famous and memorable flash mob wedding proposals happened on April 21, 2012, in Westlake, Seattle, where almost 1000 flash mobbers gathered to celebrate the third
    Annual Glee Flash Mob. It was the biggest Glee fan event in the US and spectators were surprised when, in the middle of the mob, there was a marriage proposal.

    The show lasted for 7 minutes and 30 seconds where the guy, Tim, proposed to Emily, his girlfriend during the half part of the show. Everyone was quite happy and inspired with the event as it depicts affection and diversity as the couple announced their love with people from different parts of the world.

    Most people think that the proposal itself is the happy ending. What they fail to realise is that real life happens after the big day. After the wedding, a couple is no longer how they were before. They have to go through several changes and adapt to different scenarios in life. There are things that people should keep in mind when getting married. Expectations should be established prior to tying the knot as most marriages fail when they set the wrong expectations.

    First of all, marriage is not a magic pill that can resolve anyone’s problems in life. When you marry someone, you need to face the odds and other things that may happen in the future. This includes tough times such as losing a job or incurring an illness. It is not about thinking negative thoughts about the relationship but rather being emotionally prepared as a couple.

    Another important thing to keep in mind is that change is constant. Many things can change through time and this includes sex life, career, health condition, and other things that are subject to age. It is vital to understand that changes can happen through time and as a couple, you are expected to accept your partner’s vagaries when certain situations arise.

    Marrying someone can be something that most many dream of as people are naturally moved by love and romance. On the other hand, what people should focus on are the responsibilities that lie ahead after the ceremony such as the likelihood of being parents, the ups and downs and everything else that can happen as a couple.

    Overall, what spouses should expect from their partners is very simple. For instance, if you want your partner to be a responsible person, you should ask yourself if you are the same. Always set realistic goals so you are not frustrated with the things that you want to see in your partner. If you cannot be the type of person that you want your partner to be, then it is not healthy to expect him or her to be that ideal person.

    Have you ever struggled with mismatched expectations in a relationship? What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever experienced as part of a couple?

  • November 23, 2012

    Friday Five: New-to-me Auckland cheap eats

    Moustache milk and cookie bar in Auckland - NZ Muse

    Moustache Milk and Cookie Bar

    When I first learned there was a new place in Auckland that sold only milk and cookies (plus ice cream and coffee, etc), I knew I had to check it out.

    Verdict? Quite honestly, I wouldn’t go back again. I’m not in the city very often, and while I know the prices are high at Moustache due to the amazing ingredients they use, they’re too rich for my blood.

    That said, the fresh baked cookies are out of this world, and the whole aesthetic of this place is too cute.

    Flavoured milks, $1.50. Cookies (I think) $3.50.

    moustache.co.nz

    review my kitchen dominion road auckland food

    My Kitchen

    A reasonably new addition to the Chinese stretch of Dominion Road, My Kitchen is a Taiwanese cafe that also draws on Korean, Japanese and Chinese influences. The long and narrow staircase up to My Kitchen may put you off. Persevere, though, and it will pay off.

    It’s an adorable little space, where you’re expected to pour your own water and tea, collect your own cutlery, and concoct your own mix of soy and chili sauces/oils from the service station. The drinks menu at My Kitchen could rival Momo Tea’s, and are massive (some come in bottles rather than glasses). Choose from the vast range of sides and smaller dishes – soups, dumplings, etc – or the larger set meals, which also come with small bowls of soup, sides of veggies and fruit.

    Dishes $10-20

    menumania.co.nz/restaurants/my-kitchen-express-auckland

    mamak chancery auckland restaurant review

    Mamak

    The loveliest, most gregarious and friendly taxi driver I’ve ever encountered posed a series of questions to me as he drove me home from a recent dinner event (one at Okahu, which I’ll talk more about below). Among them was this gem: “Do you feel like you are home when you’re in Malaysia?” I don’t even have to think about it. I may have been born there but New Zealand is my home. Though Malay food is damn hard to beat, and if you’re in the mood for it, you could do worse than visit Mamak.

    Murtabak, laksa, kuay teow, nasi lemak – you’ll find all those classics on the menu at Mamak. As my Instagrammed photo suggests, I opted for a scorching curry (my mouth is watering and palms are sweating just recalling it) served up with fluffy rice and a side of sauteed cabbage. Delightful.

    Dishes $10-20

    facebook.com/mamakinchancery

    Lump rice at Siri Sri Lanka in Sandringham, Auckland

    Siri Sri Lanka

    I didn’t really know what to expect from Sri Lankan food. Turns out it’s not that far off Malaysian/Indonesian cuisine. The lump rice was recommended, consisting of rice, curries, fried chicken, a hardboiled egg, and a strange but tasty dry coconutty mixture for topping (that’s my best attempt at describing it) all wrapped up in banana leaves. Aside from the dry and slightly bland chicken drumstick, it was a great introduction to the country’s cuisine.

    Dishes $10-20

    dineout.co.nz/restaurant.php?rest=11611

    ora king salmon the wharf

    The Wharf

    I think it’s safe to say The Wharf in Northcote is probably not a cheap eat by any stretch of the imagination, but all the same, I did eat here for nothing thanks to a product launch.

    Situated just over the North Shore, out on a little head by the bridge, it enjoys unparalleled views of Auckland Harbour. In all the years I’ve lived here, I’ve never been to Northcote Point, and wow, I’ve been missing out.

    So, while I didn’t dine at The Wharf, exactly, I did attend a four-course lunch hosted there. The menu was created by Nicholas Watt, a big deal chef, brought on board to design a special menu for the launch of Ora King salmon. It kicked off with sesame crusted salmon paired with a divine smoked eggplant puree, followed by teriyaki salmon belly (I was not a fan of the caviar or the barely poached egg that were served with it) and finally, roast salmon accompanied by miso ruby grapefruit and chili pickled cucumber, which was probably my favourite dish.

    thewharf.co.nz

    Special mention also to Okahu, where I attended another event recently. I actually enjoyed the pork belly served up to us (I’m not a pork fan at all, and definitely not of belly) and could have cried at the sumptuous, creamy sauce that was lavished upon the cod main (it was that good, I even overlooked the heavy-handed mint garnish). I would have licked my plate if I had not been in public. Unfortunately, my phone died, robbing me of the opportunity to capture the beautiful dinner forever.

    For now, I’m still working my way through some restaurants that have been on my to-do list forever. This may or may not be helped along by the recent release of the new Metro Eats app. It collates info on the magazine’s 50 best restaurants list, and, more importantly, its top 50 cheap eats (which I’m pretty sure includes most of the places in this blog post). And TheInsider, another new app marketing tactic that directs you toward local happy hours and meal deals, has also found its way onto my phone, though I’ve yet to use any of the offers on it.

    How do you decide where to eat out? Do you like trying new places or stick to the tried and true?

  • November 22, 2012

    Work lunches: bring your own, save money

    Bring lunch to work and save moneyYou might have noticed a distinct lack of monthly spending recaps on this ole blog of late. I’ll admit, I’ve been less than upfront about our spending recently.

    Things have been out of whack, with our holiday (which I did recap financially in this post) putting money into T’s bike, and as I mentioned yesterday, a month of lost income.

    That doesn’t mean I’ve been entirely ignoring our financials. Reviewing the last couple of months made it clear we’d been paying for convenience too often, and that T had been nickel and diming us to death with purchases here and there (aside from his regular fun money, which is $80-100 a week, about half of which goes on lunches, $20 on poker night twice a week, and the rest of random snacks/golf/the rare night out, etc. To a tightwad like me, who hardly spends anything in a normal week, it’s insanely extravagant – but I can also see how fast that can go given how much things actually cost).

    We’re trying out a reduced allowance for him, in tandem with him starting to bring his own lunches to work. I used to make his lunches, but eventually I gave up as half the time he didn’t eat them and in all honesty, it’s enough of a grind organising my own. Now it’s all on him.

    The first week he managed to forget to bring his lunch one day, and on another I volunteered to make it because he was feeling sick in the evening. My gut feeling is this probably isn’t going to last all that long, and not for 5 days a week, every week. (I usually batch my lunches in two lots, cutting down prep time, but he’s more into sandwiches made daily.) The thing is, this is an area with definite potential for savings, and he really doesn’t make enough to justify buying food every day – I just don’t know if he’s cut out to put in the effort on this count.

    How does your household manage work lunches?

  • November 21, 2012

    A month of reduced income (and the risk that comes with trading time for money)

    The risks of trading time for money

    While I’m usually all for writing about what’s going on in my life, for some reason I didn’t really want to write about what happened last month while it was going on.

    A couple of days before we headed off on our two-week campervan trip, T strained his arm at work and got sent home. If you’ve got an elephantine memory, you might recall he sustained some nerve damage in a mosh pit over New Year’s. This was a flareup of the same thing.

    He had to have all sorts of scans, which obviously had to wait until our return. (Thanks to public healthcare, we only had to pay $37 for one of the tests.) It took a few weeks to get all those appointments done and dusted, only to return with no conclusive results.

    A month of no income

    When all was said and done, he’d been off work for a solid month; they wouldn’t take him back till he was cleared as his job involves heavy lifting. I covered all our expenses, meaning no savings for October. (Embarrassingly, even though keeping an eye on our money was more important than ever at the time, I avoided it as much as possible. My slacking off led to a slide into overdraft at one point – and yes, the sting of accompanying fees.)

    In the end, the doctors’ findings were inconclusive. And while ACC is meant to cover your lost income, up to 80%, as we found out, ACC won’t fork out without a defined cause.

    Back at work, T’s boss was MIA to start with, due to his own health concerns. It took a few weeks, but eventually HR got up to speed with the situation. At this stage, the gist of it is: the company won’t pay him for the time off. (And in terms of both legislated sick leave and annual leave, T is currently running on empty anyway.) They will back him up against ACC, however, and will go in to bat for him. Fighting ACC is not something I could be bothered with, quite honestly (if you’re in New Zealand, you’ve probably lost track of all the awful ACC stories that’ve been in the news this year), but if the company is going to spearhead it, we’ll go along for the ride.

    So at this stage, will we see any money for October? Quite possibly not. I’m not counting on anything. Always be prepared for the worst case.

    And while we’re on that note, the IRD owes him $500 odd as a tax refund. We got the notice a couple of months ago, but no cash has eventuated (and two online queries have gone unanswered). Anybody else still waiting on their tax refund for the 2011-2012 year?

    Protecting your income

    That got me thinking: even for the well-insured, severe or chronic health problems can really impede you, especially taking a longer-term view. (Funnily enough, T’s bank called him up, concerned about the distinct lack of money coming into his account. They also tried to pitch him on their income insurance policy, which apparently offered 50%.)

    For example, another friend (our heinous ex flatmate) recently had knee surgery and basically can’t work for a year. It’s not just you who’s affected. Your family, spouse, kids are all impacted if you’re off work for some time, both financially and in terms of other kinds of support that you might need. Your skills can stagnate and time out means missing out on retirement savings and puts you on the back foot for future pay rises.

    T’s job is somewhat physical, but by the same stroke, he’d hate to have a desk job. He’s a big guy but his body is way older than it should be. A 24-year-old should not have so many aches and pains, but I suppose years of sports take their toll.

    As much as the trades are necessary and even lucrative industries, there’s so much risk involved. You’d really need good income protection insurance to feel secure.

    If I sprained my ankle or broke my leg, I could still work. Maybe not so much if I broke my arm (I’d be very much slowed down, if not more or less out of action) but as a desk jockey/knowledge worker I am not automatically excluded from work until I fully recover.

    The thing about trading time for money, as most of us do, is that if you can’t work, you can’t earn money.

  • November 20, 2012

    Self promotion WITHOUT crossing the line into douchebaggery

    Self promotion without being a douchebag

    It’s a fine line, isn’t it?

    The topic cropped up at work the other day – how some people successfully build a profile without coming across as total asshats. Figures who seem to do it naturally and almost effortlessly. Who are almost universally liked and seem genuinely lovely.

    I have a few thoughts on this:

    Twitter is where it’s at

    Seriously. You cannot deny the power of Twitter in the age of brand-building. Funnily enough, many of the earlier adopters and self-style social media gurus (at least from an NZ perspective) have now more or less disappeared from Twitter entirely.

    More shallowly, that TV confers legitimacy

    TV is still sort of the lowest common denominator. And there’s the glamour factor. Everybody I know who has appeared on telly can tell you that everyone comments on it. TV, so freely and widely accessible, reaches people you wouldn’t expect.

    Very rarely does anyone ever say they saw something I wrote online. On the other hand, dear biddies such as my mother’s friends have seen my byline in the newspaper and taken notice. And when a news camera once panned over a media scrum, a crowd of which I was part of, amazingly, an acquaintance of mine noticed my split second of fame and immediately sent me a message about it.

    Selflessness, humility and humour goes a long way

    Being good at self-promotion, without being a douchebag, inherently involves conversing with others and generally being a good bugger about it. Having a personality that shines through, consistently. Doing it the right way means building high awareness without hitting oversaturation. Being in relevant media, yet not quoted everywhere you look.

    Being articulate, and ideally, quick off the mark

    Twitter is great for those who can come up with witty quips. There’s a lot to be said for being concise and quick of tongue (and typing fingers). But being able to write well in longer form is invaluable. There’s a lot of money (and profile building) to be had in speaking/MCing at events, but cultivating your own content today is so easy to do, you’d be foolish not to, be it regular columns, reviews, or your own blogs or books.

    On that note, I’m constantly dismayed at how many businesses in New Zealand fail at content marketing. Intellectually, I get it. They’re corporates. They don’t understand editorial.

    Ask yourself: Would I want to read this? Are we only ever talking about ourselves on [insert any social network of your choice] ? Does every blog post end with a sales pitch?

    If the answer to any of the above is no, then pass Go, do not collect $200, and start again.

    On another, slightly related tangent, the new Advertising Standard Authority rules here are interesting, particularly the guideline that people who are paid to tweet should mark their tweets with the hashtag #ad.

    I’ve done some sponsored tweets through Mylikes in the past on my blog Twitter account – tweets where you are paid per click, sometimes based on location.

    When that first began, those tweets (sent directly from their site using their Twitter interface system) used to be unmarked, but today I think they are automatically appended with (spon) at the end, and you don’t have the option to remove it.

    But what about tweets that are not strictly paid for? As part of my job I go to my fair share of PR events. At a recent lunch I instagrammed and tweeted pics of the lunch, and used their designated hashtag. I wasn’t compensated for that. I did it because the food was amazing and I wanted to share it of my own accord, and as they were sufficiently up with the play to have organised a hashtag, it was no trouble to use it. I would do the same if I was eating out on my own dime (I’m one of THOSE annoying instagram users), and I’d usually make the effort to @ the restaurant if they’re on Twitter.

    Or for example at TedX Auckland recently, I queued up for my free drink at the coffee stall, which was sponsored by Kordia. I tweeted a pic of my cup (complete with logo), because I was genuinely impressed with the freebie hot chocolate. Plus, events live and die by sponsorship and I figured I’d do my bit by helping plug one of the supporting companies.

    What’s your take on the commercialising of social media? Who do you admire for building a public profile from the ground up, and why?

  • November 19, 2012

    It’s official: Just call me a Caitlin Moran groupie (or, Moranthology rocks my socks)

    Regular readers may well recall my professed love for Caitlin Moran. Incredibly hilarious, with a too-extreme-to-be-true life story, with a Tumblr devoted to her utterings…  she is funnier, sharper, sassier and all around awesomer than I could ever wish to be. I would be the sidekick best friend to her wild-haired heroine, if that.

    When I realised there was a copy of her new book, Moranthology, in the office, I was prepared to arm wrestle my editor for first rights. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that. I called second dibs, and shortly after – just as I was about to tweet about the whole saga – she came up behind me and placed the hallowed tome on my desk. MY BOSS > YOUR BOSS.

    moranthology book reviewMoranthology (see the wordplay there?) is a collection of her published writing. To date, I’ve read very few of Moran’s columns, essays and interviews. This is because most of them (if not all?) are for The Times, which does NOT put its content online for free, and this fact warrants an entire column, which is included within Moranthology. However, I think it’s safe to say hers is writing I would pay to read. Moranthology well and truly cemented my inkling that I can only hope to one day be as witty and insightful as this lady.

    Her interviews with celebrities are both amusing and touching (Gaga, Keith Richards, and a guy I’d never heard of before who deep down thinks if he does well enough, his dead mother will come back). Her TV and pop culture columns are delightfully snarky, without resorting to outright bitchery. And she’s also surprisingly deft at tackling serious issues with compassion. Mental illness. Poverty. (Both of which she has first hand experience of.)

    I loved this passage from Frozen Planet: A world of fatal ice cream (a review of David Attenborough’s show):

    “[Frozen Planet] shows us what we will lose in terms of the awe and beauty of these places – the magic of being on a planet topped and tailed with these outrageous landscapes; white like teeth and cloud and pearl; wild like ecstasy, or the Moon. Heaped, blown, billowing snow: a world of fatal ice cream, punctuated by volcanoes and aqua melt-lakes, and penguins leaping out of wave-foam like girls out of a cake.”

    But I’d argue that Moran is at her best when tackling what you’d call pink issues. (Female issues, obvs. Women’s talk [said in stiff-lipped British male voice].) Burqas and abortion get the Moran treatment with the usual dose of levity, but she also manages to genuinely argue her point at the same time. Making light of something in a light-hearted manner while simultaneously getting across a serious message is MUCH easier said than done, I can tell you. I especially appreciate her brand of what I’d call working-class feminism. It is accessible and sensible. Academic feminism is wonderful – but let’s face it, very few of us care for it.

    And just when you think she can’t get any better, she busts out something like MTV Hoes:

    “When I was a teenager, all my pop heroes were Britpop, and grunge – unisex jeans and sneakers for all. I was raised with the expectation that, if I wanted to, I could sell twenty million albums with my upper arms covered at all times.

    My daughters, on the other hand, are being raised inthe Era of the Pop Ho. This is a time where the lower slopes of Britney Spears’ leotard-clad pubis mons are more recognisable than – although oddly redolent of – David Cameron’s face, and pop videos for female artists have become so predictable, I can run you through what will happen in 90 per cent of them…”

    She proceeds to describe the generic pop video outline:

    • Self-groping which begins with a lascivious sweep across the collarbone, and devolves into breast, belly and booty rubbing (“I know up to nine women, and none of them has ever had to excuse themselves from the table, saying “Sorry – just going to feel myself up in the coat cupboard.”)
    • Sex with an invisible ghost (“Sooner or later, every modern popstress is going to have to vibrate in a squatting position, in order to pleasure the Ghost of Christmas Horny.”)
    • Making your booty touch the ground (“You never see the boys doing it – despite them having legs that are anatomically identical to women’s, and rocking the considerable advantage of not being in six-inch heels.”)
    • Having some manner of liquid land on your face, then licking it off lasciviously (“In no other field of human experience does someone busily engaged in their work – in this case, miming to their latest single – have something land on their face, and react with anything other than a cry of ‘WHAT? WHAT IS GOING ON?'”)

    / I die.

    And of course, the usual Random House press release comes tucked into the book cover, sticking out and annoying the hell out of me. Upon skimming the release date and RRP and all that other guff, however, I spy the line that proclaims Caitlin is available for interviews.

    I could interview Caitlin Moran! If only I actually had a legit reason to do so … and any clue what I could possibly say to her.

  • November 17, 2012

    Link love (Powered by sugar cookies and new faces)

    It’s slightly strange being on the opposite side of the fence from everyone in the northern hemisphere. You’ve all just switched your clocks around – we changed ours over a month ago (while we were on our road trip, actually. I wasn’t sure when it was all happening, but when we arrived in Queenstown and walked into the centre, the town clock displayed one time on side and another time on the other, so we figured it was all on from that night forward).

    I have to say, I’m loving the long daylight hours. I went for a post-work run the other day for the first time in months (it’s dark by the time I get home through winter). I’ve blogged before about running being the one thing I do. Getting back to it was painful, but it always is.

    And in another boost to my exercise/fitness routine, I’m finally back in the game. T only recently went back to work – a story for another post – and was off for weeks after returning from our trip. Weekday mornings, therefore, were for long lazy cuddles, rather than stretches and situps. Now, he’s gone by the time I wake up.

    This week’s links:

    Ashley has turned A Story of Debt into an e-book. Hurrah!

    Budget and the Beach guest posts at Making Sense of Cents about how being in a rush costs you money.

    The Joy of Caking has some ideas on making gifts to give.

    Athena writes about what it’s really like working for a nonprofit.

    A sappy but excellent post about blogging by Stephany.

    Musings of an Inappropriate Woman sums up things I didn’t even know I felt about writing in the first person professionally, vs writing in the first person on my blog.

    Finally, thanks to Marissa for hosting the latest carnival of personal finance and including my post on dealing with the rising cost of living.

    Happy weekends!

  • November 14, 2012

    The importance of being yourself (or, every blogger’s biggest asset)

     

    Think about it. What is the one thing that makes your blog unique?

    (It’s you.)

    Since JD Roth and Richard MacManus (a Kiwi, incidentally) fully stepped away from Get Rich Slowly and ReadWriteWeb (now ReadWrite) respectively, the difference has been noticeable. Both are watered down, and the former seems to be really pushing internal linking to old posts. Bleh.

    Likewise, the first non-FB posts on Fabulously Broke were also a substantial departure from her distinctive style. As her pre-scheduled posts are now further and further apart, I can more or less tell simply from the headline whether a post is by her or not.

    There’ve been a few times where I’ve been reading a post on a blog in my RSS reader and become increasingly baffled as I plow through it. I thought she was single? WHO is this person? Am I somehow on the wrong blog? I get to the end only to see that it was a guest post, with the disclaimer at the bottom rather than the start. Blogs with staff writers usually add their regular contributors as authors, and if you’re going to regularly host guest posts from different people, I like how Briana does it on her blog: posts not written by her are named as being by ‘How’s Married Life Guests’.

    It’s not as obvious in journalism (bylines are really just there to feed our egos – that, and so punters know who to write in to with abuse, complaints … and the occasional compliment), but when it comes to blogging, voice is everything. I don’t know if I’m particularly sensitive to this – maybe you find that too, or maybe you don’t really take any note of such nuances. But if I’ve been reading your blog for awhile, odds are I’m pretty familiar with how you write, and any deviance is immediately noticeable.

  • November 13, 2012

    How I’m saving money this Christmas

    How I'm saving money this Christmas

    It sucked growing up and not getting birthday or Christmas presents.

    But now that I’m an adult, I’m really glad my family plays it that way.

    Now that I don’t work public holidays, and will therefore be seeing them on Christmas day, I’ll bring something along – but it won’t be anything major. Baking. Books, maybe – we’ll see what freebies come my way at work within the next month (!!!).

    For T’s side, I’m planning to redeem a bunch of online survey points for various vouchers. I know a lot of people are vehemently opposed to vouchers, or worse, cash, but I’m a big fan of letting people spend as they wish, and I don’t think they will mind.

    As for T himself? I’m still not sure. He hates that I never want anything (seriously, the best gift anyone could ever give me is cash, which I would save), but honestly, he doesn’t make a whole lot anyway. My Scrooginess does not extend to him, so I hope he won’t want anything too extravagant or outrageous. I’m pretty sure I bought him a new release Xbox game last Christmas. My Scrooginess, however, does extend to a preference that we go shopping for our presents on Boxing Day when the sales are on, if we’re doing gifts.

    Have you started your Christmas shopping? Do you save or splurge when it comes to presents?

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