Browsing tag: money

I have a slight obsession with money. I’m also very nosey. So when Well-Heeled brought CNN’s Super Savers series to my attention, I immediately clicked over. Seeing how others spend (or don’t spend) their dosh? Paradise.

Some of those featured managed to sock away some serious dough, whether it was 35 per cent or a whopping 60 per cent. But Nicole’s story was the one which really resonated with me.

Nicole is a master of the long wait. She regularly holds off for three to six months before buying anything that costs more than $100, and she never spends more than $30 without first checking with Mitch (he does the same). She once put off buying a $3.99 ringtone for her cell phone for weeks to see if she really wanted it. And when she saw a $195 pair of earrings she liked, she trimmed the grocery budget for five months to find the cash. “I usually mentally buy something before I actually do it.”

That one sentence pretty much sums up my entire money philosophy. Aside from, obviously, rent, bills and food, I don’t spend on very much else. (In my humble opinion. Yours may differ. I don’t usually go out to bars, movies or on shopping sprees. I have spent a ludicrous amount on concert tickets in the last three months, but a) I’ve never been to one before; b) I’m selling two of them, since I managed to snag better passes; and c) another two were purchased as birthday gifts for friends.

It’s very rare that I ever buy something I see in the stores the first time I see it. I browse other shops and check all my options, and think about whether I can picture the item fitting into my wardrobe/lifestyle. I think it all comes down to two things: I’m a planner, and a control freak. And to me, there’s not a lot that’s worse than buyer’s regret.

Thanks to Beating Broke for including me in the latest Carnival of Personal Finance! Check out Carnival #267 at Beating Broke.

I knew July was gonna be a big fat financial fail from day one. There was my birthday. My brother’s birthday. My buying my own present, as T still hadn’t found work. Our visit to the farmer’s market, which required getting out cash (THE DEVIL), from which I gave in and told him to just buy some damn Coronas already (This whole one-income thing is fraught with minefields. Why should he get to buy a $20 box of beers when I don’t even spend that much on myself in a regular week? On the other hand, it’s not fair to expect him to live without any luxuries).

ANYWAY. Then I bought tickets to Paramore – which were a steal at less than $100 – one for me and two for friends who I hadn’t been able to find birthday presents for to date. That will basically even out come September when I get my Metallica tickets and can onsell my spare two.

Then T’s clothing crisis came to a head – luckily, we found the perfect jacket for him, at $50 off ($150). His tax refund should just about cover that. And at the risk of sounding rude, please don’t lecture me about giving the government a loan – this isn’t the US, and our tax system is nothing like yours.

It’s all very well saving 20 per cent and more of my income, but not when I keep spending. Especially this month, when I’m certainly not going to make that threshold – at least it’s the first time I can say that since I set that goal.

We still desperately need to buy a couple of things for the house, the most expensive of which will be a new frying pan/wok. I’ve already pretty much written off this month in terms of savings – I’m still hoping to hit maybe $600.

Worst of all, I haven’t been keeping a close eye on the accounts. I have a vague idea of how much is on the Visa (and it won’t be anything unmanageable by any means; I am still budgeting) but it’s going to stay rough until all the transactions clear. I may have to go back to jotting down notes everytime I use it, because there’s nothing I hate more than feeling like I don’t have a grip on my money.

Dining and bars: Surprisingly low. Consider that almost half of that was a nice dinner out at Piko, the AUT restaurant (review coming up), plus a few evenings at the pub (at least half of which only involved BF; I wasn’t even there), I’m pretty happy.

Clothes and grooming: Haircuts for the both of us, and a new shaver for him.

Insurance: A  year’s worth of car insurance. With 30 per cent no claims bonus (first year! Woop woop).

Medical: Eye exam and related guff. I got $60 of that refunded, though, after the contact lens fiasco.

Vehicle: Paid for another three months of car registration (I swear this comes around more like every other month…) plus around $100 for my bus fares.

Entertainment: is massive, and virtually all of that was my purchase of two more Metallica tickets. Yes, I already bought passes, but those weren’t very good seats. And when I heard on Twitter that more were being released – and found some general admission ones still available – I made the decision to click through. Two of our friends are keen to buy my other tickets, so fingers crossed they all get mailed out promptly come September and there’s no drama there.

As always, savings noted here is on top of regular savings, so I put away close to $1000 in various accounts.

Overall, I feel like we’re chugging along steadily. Percentages all look vaguely in line, despite the whole one-income thing, and I’m on track to meet my goal of saving $10,000 (touch wood). Paying off the Visa on T’s behalf set me back, but not fatally.

(Before I forget…I netted $785 in additional income. That went towards a birthday gift, long term savings, and a little each to the bills account and general spending. I know. Tsk)

• Apparently we can expect our bills and utilities to increase pretty dramatically with the ETS coming into force. NOT happy! I’ll be keeping a close eye on this and reporting on how much this ends up affecting us. So far, my electricity provider advises that  prices will increase by 0.77 cents per kilowatt hour. For an average residential customer using 8000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year this would mean an increase of $5.20  (including GST and after a 10% prompt payment discount).
• I’m not sure why I only recently started hearing about this, but payroll giving is officially in force. Basically, you can donate straight from your paycheck and get the tax credit there and then. So if you donate $3, you get a credit of $1 (33 per cent). The charity gets the full amount, but it only costs you $2. My accountant mother thinks this is a huge pain in the ass for payroll, but from my POV, this is awesome! The only thing is, I don’t have a cause close to my heart; I like to give to a range of charities.
• I’ve finally put a buffer in our checking account – $100 seemed a nice round number. My graduate overdraft won’t last forever, and I need to pretend it doesn’t exist and stop using it as a fallback.
• I am seriously considering paying off the Visa and having T just pay me back when he can. It’ll save me a lot of peace of mind, and to the tune of $20 in interest. Now, following the PF rule that you shouldn’t lend what you can’t give – in the worst case scenario, yes, I would be able to forfeit $1300.
• According to Sorted, I should be saving nearly $200 a month for retirement. I’m clocking in at around $185 (plus a 50% employer match). The calculation was based on my current income, though, which is IMO inflated due to the shifts I work.

Late last year NZ introduced credit scoring for the first time. Before that, credit reports merely consisted of basic information about a person, along with listing credit enquiries and any defaults. Pretty boring stuff.

Like a total geek, I was itching to find out what mine was. And I have to admit, I was a little disappointed.

First, let me point you to the totally unhelpful Veda page, which attempts to explain the scoring system. (This is more or less what the informational brochure enclosed with our reports contained). The diagram almost implies that 600 is an average kind of score, although I’m not sure if that’s the message they meant to convey.

One thing to note on the report is the factors which affect scores.

• Defaults
• Insolvencies
• Individual credit shopping pattern
• Age of credit file
• Demographic stability

See that last one? Yeah, that one that has absolutely nothing to do with ME. I can understand lumping all drivers under the age of 21 into one group for insurance purposes, but for credit reporting?

Anyway. I am slightly annoyed that I come in at just under 600 on my Veda score (588 to be precise). I can only assume (aside from being classed in a young, risky age group)  this is due to the short length of my credit history, and perhaps the number of credit inquiries? I have nine all up: two from my internet providers, one work related one, one from another bank and the rest are all from my bank. Obviously they’ve been checking up on me without my knowledge.

I wonder if my available credit and use of overdraft also contribute to the score. It’s not very clear to me exactly what gets reported. I know that prior to the introduction of the score, hardly anything at all was reported unless you went into default on an account. You guys in the US have all kinds of crazy criteria for this with your available credit ratio at any given time, but I highly doubt we’ve advanced to that stage yet. According to this article, credit agencies can only collect information on credit defaults, judgements and bankruptcies – data considered to give only a “negative” picture of someone’s credit history.

As for T, his file is six months older than mine, he has slightly fewer enquiries and his one small default brings him in at 485 – just in the yellow zone, as opposed to the green.

1000 seems so far away. But realistically, I have no need for credit, and I believe a perfect score is unnecessary. I think scoring is a positive move; I guess I’m just peeved that I barely made it into the green zone on the spectrum, especially after seeing a commenter on Lady in the Red had a 900 plus!