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Browsing tag: money

  • July 2, 2012

    QR codes on vending machines. Say what?

    I happened to be at Startup Weekend last month, and while they didn’t win, team Open Sesame has lingered on in my mind since that Sunday evening.

    Basically, their business idea was to bring coin-operated vending machines into the 21st century by enabling mobile payments. There would be QR code stickers placed on the machines, which us 2.0ers would scan on our phones and use to pay via Paypal, credit card, Google Wallet, etc. (A little like this, this, or even this, but more seamless?)

    English: YoZone Vending machine

    This is genius. Also, potentially very dangerous to my wallet.

    See, I have never been a frequenter of vending machines. Their wares are expensive, and I’m a frugalite. But also, I hate cash. I never carry hard money on me, let alone heavy, bulky coinage.

    Back in high school, we had a vending machine in our common room/student lounge, where only the popular kids hung out. My friends would often stop in to grab snacks – particularly during the stressful exam periods – but I never did. I remember one conversation by the vending machine in particular, that went something like this:

    Friend: You’ll go to a psychic, but you won’t spend $2 on a brownie?

    My retort: I got PAID to go to the psychic. (Albeit, I had to wait for reimbursement, as you do. That was for a feature I was writing. Obvs.)

    Likewise, my former newsroom colleagues often practically subsisted on vending machine fare on long days, even though we were in the heart of the city with the widest possible range of food options all around us. It wasn’t unusual for someone to do the rounds of the desks, scrounging up spare change to buy a pack of chips or a chocolate bar. Again, I never did, not in all my years there.

    But remove the need for cash, and my iron will suddenly becomes more like pliable soldering wire. My willpower, when it comes to food, is pathetic. Sugar, in particular, is my Achilles heel. I won’t lie – there have been days that I would have given in and fed the vending machine downstairs if I had had coins on me.

    So while I love the concept, and hope it catches on – ie, that they take it beyond Startup Weekend – I kind of hope it won’t be coming to a vending machine near me.

    What do you think of the idea?

  • June 27, 2012

    The true cost of owning a car

    There’s a truly irritating ad that’s currently doing the rounds on TV here that bleats on about the true cost of owning a car. Basically, it’s a public service message urging us clueless consumers to factor in the cost of petrol, and to check fuel efficiency ratings to see how much car X might cost to run vs car Y.

    Automobile

    Automobile (Photo credit: A*A*R*O*N)

    You want to talk the real cost of car ownership? Fine.

    Registration

    There’s a good $430 gone, if you’re in New Zealand. Every year. More, if you have a larger car.

    Insurance

    Varies wildly, of course, by location, gender, vehicle, driving history. But that will account for another few hundred dollars, at least. For us, that’s $1000 every year.

    Maintenance

    Oil. Filters. Tyres. Other miscellaneous fluids. I know we generally have to replace our tyres every 12-18 months, and our filters are not only pricey but annoyingly fiddly to replace. Another few hundred a year.

    Repairs

    On top of the normal things that need topping up or replacing. Parts give out or break, over time. You misjudge the distance between your rear and that wall, and tear your bumper loose. Some asshole swipes your side mirror clean off while passing you on the road (it’s happened to us twice. Steer clear of other motorist on Hillsborough Rd, yo). And be sure to consider – especially when buying a car – whether parts are going to come cheap, or even be easily available. I know someone considering buying a BMW but the matter of parts is proving pause for thought.

    Plus we could always go into potential parking costs, driving fines, or even venture down the path of depreciation, assuming you plan to sell your car eventually. But these are the unavoidable, non-negotiable realities. (Excluding, of course, non-legit running of a car. I’m more than familiar with people owning absolute clunkers that haven’t been registered or warranted for months or years.)

    Have I missed anything?

  • June 25, 2012

    A case of the financial blahs

    First, my phone stopped charging. That was $100 to fix.

    I always stay up later than T, usually either reading or doing something online. I have a reading light with a switch on my side of the bed, so when I do decide to turn in, it’s just a matter of reaching up and flicking it. Sometimes I can’t be bothered getting up to put my laptop on the desk, so I plop it on the floor on my side of the bed. Last month, while coming around to kiss me goodbye in the dark, dark winter morning, he stepped on the edge of the laptop. $200 to replace the screen (momentary panic when someone I thought was reasonably web-savvy on Twitter told me it would be just as pricey to buy a new one, and my computer is starting to slow down a lot, but not enough to fork out for a replacement).

    T’s also motorbike needs some work. (He may  decide to sell it after that.) More moolah.

    Our annual car insurance bill arrived. The good news: the premium actually dropped, thanks at least in part to the no claims bonus increasing from 40 to 50 percent. I had planned to cancel full cover, but now that it’s decreased to less than $1000, I think we’ll keep it on. Even third-party, fire and theft alone is still something like $400-500. But that’s a hefty lump to pay all at once, nonetheless.

    Then the car itself. Oh, the car. We needed two new tyres and two lights fixed. We also needed a butt ton of wires fixed – some T melted ages ago while puttering around with the stereo. After all that, the ABS light was still on (which is stopping us getting a warrant) so a new ABS computer too. $1500. And after that, the light is STILL on. Now apparently there are more buggered wires in the back that need replacing. FML.

    And apparently I owe tax. Back in 2010 I pulled in a decent amount of side income through a freelance gig, and I think ended up owing less than $500 come 2011. That ended last year because I joined the company fulltime. However, my last couple of invoices fell within the 2012 tax year (and added up to about $2000). But add that to my normal income for the year and somehow I owe just over $1000 to the IRD. Grr. I personally can’t think of a fate worse than becoming an accountant (it’s just not up my alley) but I can see why they charge so much. Infernal taxes. To add to that, ACC seems to think I’m self-employed and has sent me a letter to confirm my cover. Goody – more dealings with government agencies to straighten that out. It was great being able to bank that extra $ at the time but the extra taxes and hassle almost negate the benefits.

    We splashed out on a bit of a staycation – a night at the Stamford, dinner out (with a voucher) and brunch the next day (plus parking, to the tune of $271. No regrets, and it was a much-needed break, but still a pretty penny.

    The government’s budget slashed funding for students. That’s put an end to one of my best friends planning to move in with us. I’m glad; I love living alone, just me and T, but the extra money would have been nice, and he’d be an ideal flatmate, a busy grad student rarely home. Our spare room is absolutely tiny and not worthy of being called a bedroom, but he was keen to move in nonetheless – he suggested it. OTOH, we’re technically not supposed to have any other flatmates, so we’d have to disguise the fact someone else was living here come quarterly property inspection time.

    Finally, my no clothing/beauty purchases ban is still going strong. But I may well need to replace two pairs of shoes very soon, and also, my handbag. I don’t believe in buying expensive ballet flats, because they wear out just as quickly on me. But I think it may be worth shelling out for a decent bag that won’t fall apart. What’s a reasonable amount to spend?

  • June 12, 2012

    Giving money away – do you do it?

    One thing I’ve been putting off is sorting out all my receipts so I can do my taxes and get a rebate on the charitable donations I made last year.

    T asked me if that was the only reason that I give to charity.

    Donations

    (Photo credit: Matthew Burpee)

    I was all “WHAT? That’s ridiculous!”

    Yeah, I get the tax back on those, but it’s only a small amount (33%?) I donate because it’s a GOOD THING TO DO.

    Or something.

    If everyone gave a little bit every month, think how that would add up.

    And yeah, giving also makes me feel good. You’ve probably experienced the same thing. (Studies show altruism is a good thing emotionally and, potentially, even health wise.)

    He sometimes teases me and says we can’t afford to give away money. But of course we can. Frankly, I don’t give a ton – sometimes only $5 or 10 a month. Occasionally enough to hurt – maybe $40. I don’t have any causes close to my heart, so it’s generally a new organisation every time. (I’ve actually run through my whole list now, so if you have any worthy suggestions, leave a comment.) And of course, when people I know are doing fundraisey things like growing moustaches and running races, that’s another avenue for my monthly pledge too.

    Anyway, time to stop procrastinating and print out those receipts. And maybe this year instead of saving that refund, I’ll donate that extra amount, too.

    Do you give to charity? How do you decide where your money goes?

     

  • June 5, 2012

    Motivation: Saving vs paying down debt

    It’s closing in on a year since T bought his motorbike.

    There were vague plans that once he got his restricted licence and was legally allowed to ride something bigger than a 250cc, he would eventually look to scale up to something with more grunt. Loud as his CBR is, and powerful for its size, he’s still a 120kg dude.

    But I think a bit of that shine, that novelty, has finally worn off. The weather is easing into another cold, wet winter. The bike is starting to require some work. That desire for an upgrade to a bigger bike is fading – and that’s patently obvious in the fact that he’s been eligible to sit his next licence for months but hasn’t got around to it.

    Now he’s got another plan in the crosshairs: another car. (You might recall we’re a one-car household.) Kind of a project car – not in the sense that it will sit in rusty pieces on the lawn for years – but it will be an older, restored vehicle that’s not for everyday errands.

    Bike, car, whatever. I would have obviously preferred his next big purchase to be paid for in cash. I wasn’t diametrically opposed to a loan – I was open to the idea – but saving for something major is my MO.

    He’s been frustrated with his savings progress, though, because at heart, he’s a spender. And so the other day he brought this up. He thinks going the loan route will encourage him to pay it down quickly – that he’ll set up big automatic repayments that won’t leave him with much to fritter away after also accounting for living expenses.

    This seems, on the face, absolutely ridiculous to me. Particularly as it pertains to T, as he has never shown any particular hurry to pay down debt before.

    But I also recognise that personal finance is individual and there’s a huge psychological factor.

    So what do you think? Have you ever found yourself more motivated to pay down debt than to save? Have you struggled with either?

  • May 26, 2012

    Link love (Powered by pancakes and playlists)

    Know what I hate? Smug posts about the two months where you get an “extra paycheck” and all the things you can do with that money.

    It so doesn’t apply to me – or most Kiwis.

    I pay rent weekly, as do the vast majority of people. I get the worst of both worlds – paying my biggest single expense weekly, while getting paid monthly. Thus, every so often – like in March – rent takes up an unusually big portion of our spending pie.

    (That said, at least this way I actually noticed our most recent tax cut – which amounted to something like $15 a month – whereas I probably wouldn’t have with a weekly or fortnightly paycheck.)

    It wasn’t always this way. Both pay day and rent used to happen weekly. Then that changed to income fortnightly/ rent weekly. Then it evened out to both being fortnightly (albeit on alternating cycles, which was hella annoying). And finally, to monthly/weekly.

    The higher up you get, the less frequently you get paid, AMIRIGHT?

    To the links, then…

    If you haven’t already seen this graduation speech by Neil Gaiman, watch.

    Is 8 really the peak age of US girls’ leadership ambitions?

    Kiwi Jack Tame ruminates on the shock of encountering the antiquated US financial system (limited Eftpos? Chequebooks? Five days to clear a transfer?)

    One kick-ass graduation pep talk, at Brazen Careerist.

    Krystal lists some signs that it might be time to look for a new job.

    A Big Life on jealousy – the thief of joy.

    Sense to Dollars on some extremely overhyped travel destinations.

    Daisy shares some simple ways to simplify.

    Obsessions of a Workaholic on the things that make her feel like a writer.

    Starting over isn’t so bad, says Shiftless and Lazy.

    Stephany Writes learns a few lessons about herself while on holiday.

    Cordelia is no longer whoring out her dream.

    Untemplater has a great interview with entrepreneur Ryan Ferrier.

    Emily Jane opens up about anxiety.

    Caitlin at Stratejoy blogs about perfectly imperfect marriage.

    As does Sheryl Paul at the Huffington Post in What Is Love?

  • May 25, 2012

    Friday Five: My worst financial decisions

    Y’know, I may not ever have gotten myself into proper debt, but I have made some less than choices moneywise. For example…

    Furniture hire

    My plan was to move into the student apartments once I got to uni. But in that interim year, I needed a bed. And hiring one seemed the easiest move at the time – it would get delivered, and I wouldn’t need to worry about getting rid of it at the end.

    That overdraft

    For about six months back in 07, I had a bunch of different accounts at various banks (when they throw themselves at you during O-week, it’s rude to say no, right? Student accounts FTW!). And for awhile, T used one of these because it was free and handy. Only this was right back when he was truly awful with money, and he ran up the (thankfully interest-free, although National Bank kept trying to charge, and I had to keep calling them to sort it out. Also, their internet banking was shitola. Avoid) overdraft on it.

    Not getting contents insurance earlier

    This, along with Kiwisaver, was one of those things I kept putting off because things were tight – I was studying full-time, T got laid off, things were not great on the financial front. Then we got burgled. Yep.

    Contents insurance is cheap, and protects renters in case you accidentally burn down the house or something. Do it. (We also got robbed a handful more times after that, so a good investment all round.)

    Being the head tenant

    All the headache, all the responsibility. The only good thing was rounding up everyone else’s share of the bills so I could pay a little less, which I considered my cut for all the rest of the crap I dealt with. Nightmare flatmate from that house still owes me nearly $1k.

    And … I’m out, actually. I can’t come up with a fifth. Maybe choosing a higher-paying industry? Nah. I’m not a proponent of starving for passion’s sake but neither do I believe in staying in a lucrative job that makes you miserable. What I do challenges, excites and interests me and pays decently enough. And that does me just fine right now. Yes, I’ve chosen a fairly flat industry with low starting salaries and a similarly modest long-term pay trajectory. No doubt I could find enjoyment and meaning elsewhere and make more money, but I know that would not make me happier.

    Got any financial regrets to share?

  • May 21, 2012

    Price no object

    A little while ago, we drove out to the Clevedon farmer’s market for the first time. (I highly recommend it if you haven’t been before. There were llamas. And donkeys, one of whom we christened Graham.)
    Llama at Clevedon market
    There was a pie stand. It’s darn hard to find a good pie these days; bakeries aren’t what they used to be. It was also close to lunch time. T wanted a pie, so it was settled. I marched on up to the counter and ordered without pause. I didn’t even ask how much it cost ($6, by the way). I never do that. But it was what he wanted; at most they couldn’t possibly have charged more than $8 or $9; and it didn’t matter because we were buying one anyway, and knowing the price wouldn’t have changed anything. (There was no sign with prices, obvs.)

    Then a few weeks ago, we made a rare outing to the cinema when The Avengers came out. I had movie vouchers in my Entertainment Book, but for a different cinema chain; we’d have to drive all the way to Sylvia Park to get the deal, when there’s another movie theatre less than 5 minutes’ drive from home. I decided the extra long drive didn’t warrant the savings, so scotched that idea, and we headed to our local and paid full price. We were in a rush to make the next screening, so again, I didn’t stop to actually confirm the price of a Saturday daytime ticket (which has gone up). In hindsight, it might have been worth it to make the drive …

    Have you ever bought something without knowing how much it cost? 

  • May 4, 2012

    Guest post: OTT weddings and cutting costs

    Today’s post is part of a Yakezie blog swap on the topic of weddings! You can read my post over at Fiscal Phoenix.

    Before we cut our cable, I enjoyed watching Say Yes to the Dress.I was continually fascinated by the women who would spend $10,000 to $20,000 on a dress. True, the dresses were often gorgeous “princess” dresses with elaborate detailing and beading and a gorgeous train. Yet, I could never imagine dropping so much money on a dress I would wear one time for one day. ONE DAY!

    American bride wearing a Contemporary Western ...

    (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    How We Cut Costs for Our Wedding

    When I got married 10 years ago, I just happened to fall in love with a wedding dress that cost a little over $100. After alterations, the final price tag was just a bit over $200.

    Because I come from a very large family (my dad was the youngest of 10 kids and my mom was the second youngest of 9 kids and I have over 40 cousins on my mom’s side alone), my husband and I knew we would have to keep things simple to be able to afford to invite over 250 guests. In the end, my husband and I made all of the table decorations, made our own flower arrangements and did much of the other prep work ourselves such as wrapping the silverware in a napkin with a bow around it and even making our own arch to walk through when we entered the reception.

    My aunt made our wedding cake, my cousin was the D.J., and my uncle took the wedding video. We had a hot buffet of food we had made the night before the wedding. Our wedding was DIY, and we only spent $6,000 for 250 guests. That price is not just for the reception, but for every single wedding expense.

    What I loved about our wedding was that there was no residual effect. We didn’t have to put any of the wedding expenses on credit. We weren’t still paying for our wedding years or months after it happened. What I disliked about our wedding was that we did so much ourselves, we were exhausted when it was over!

    Over the Top Weddings

    I have attended plenty of weddings where the bride and groom dropped a great deal of money and were paying the wedding off for several years. What I noticed about these weddings is that they had a lot of little things that people didn’t want.

    My friend had a wedding where they gave out flower bulbs so people could plant them and remember the wedding. This is a nice idea, but in reality, most people probably didn’t want plant bulbs, so they didn’t plant them. To me, that was wasted money. While the napkins that have the couple’s names and wedding date embossed on them are pretty to look at, at the end of the day, they are just napkins. People aren’t going to bring them home and cherish them; they are going to use them to wipe food off the corner of their mouth.

    I may not be the best person to ask about these issues because I am a bit of a minimalist when it comes to parties and decorating. However, considering fights about money are the number one cause of divorce and couples tend to fight more when they are saddled in debt, starting a marriage in debt because you had an expensive, over the top wedding doesn’t seem like the smartest relationship choice.

    Melissa blogs at Fiscal Phoenix and Mom’s Plans where she writes about finances, getting out of debt, food and family.

  • May 2, 2012

    Layby vs hire purchase

    I’ve been doing some higher-end mystery shops of late: jewellery, luxury fashion. They’ve been awesome experiences, actually. The staff know their stuff and when it comes to making suggestions for improvement, I really don’t have any ideas to offer. In fact, one of the surveys went so well I very, very nearly went through with the purchase (and if New Zealand had strong return policies I probably would have). This wasn’t one of those surveys that included purchase, or purchase followed by return. Just one of those teasy ones where you pull out at the very last minute.

    Luxury retail, SoHo

    Luxury retail, SoHo (Photo credit: La Citta Vita)

    One thing they always make a note of is to mention a layby option. I never really understood this until I got older and realised that some people spend hundreds of dollars on a single item of clothing. (Personally, the most I’ve ever spent is under $200, on a coat, and a pair of a boots respectively.) Since the big bad GFC, layby is apparently making a bit of a return to the retail scene.

    If you’re not familiar with the term, layby involves the shop putting aside the item for you. You pay weekly instalments toward the balance – usually interest-free – and once it’s paid for in full, that’s when you finally take it home.

    For those who can’t pay in full upfront, I think it’s a great option. It beats paying 20 percent interest on a credit card, that’s for sure. And I certainly am not going to argue with a system that promotes delayed gratification (something I think our generation lacks a little, myself included).

    Then there’s that other beast – hire purchase, offered on bigger-ticket items. Electronics. Appliances. They’re not such a good deal, in my view.

    I did consider taking out a hire purchase on one of my laptops. It was a lovely interest-free deal, and interest rates were high enough that I figured I might as well keep money sitting in my account as long as possible.

    But digging down into the fine print, I found upfront fees and annual charges that totally wiped out the interest-free carrot. And that’s why I whipped out my credit card, took the rewards points, and took the savings hit.

    I can see in some situations this might also be preferable to carrying a credit balance, depending on the specific numbers. But I don’t anticipate a hire purchase ever worming its way into my list of financial liabilities.

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