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Browsing tag: money

  • April 10, 2009

    Just got back from hospital….

    BF’s nephew is sick and they suspect meningococcal.

    I haven’t had the meningitis  shot but didn’t touch him and didn’t go too near him…BF’s sis has to shower before she gets home and goes anywhere near her kids…

    It’s very sad and worrying.

    I’m glad I budgeted this week. We were in the black.

    But instead of putting money to the car fund, it has gone toward gas and food (getting to hospital, and then eating there).

    Honestly, I admit I was annoyed because bf didn’t get around to calling any job leads today because of that.

    It didn’t help that once we got the call to drive over, BF was frantically rushing round, turning the house upside down trying to find his keys. They were LOCKED in his tool box. Yeah, don’t even go there. He decimated it to try and get them out….tried to prise it open by whacking it, burning/melting it, etc.

    Here it is.

    p4080218

    Silly boy.

    the_union_for_st_john_ambulance_officers_says_sing_2776043194

    We tried to follow the ambulance from the one hospital to the other. We kept up for awhile..it had its lights and sirens on and was RACING like nobody’s business. We sped down the roads behind it, running a couple of lights, but it was doing 90 in a 50 zone and once we began approaching the motorway onramps the ambulance flew down the wrong side of the road and we knew it was time to quit. Don’t know how much faster it got there than us but I’d wager it was there within 5-10 minutes, and we took about 15. I never knew ambulances could go that fast!!

    * * *

    UPDATE: next day.

    I’m really grateful to Starship Hospital, they do such a fantastic job and I wish I could do something. They have a campaign going on getting people to donate their old cellphones. My cellphone is pretty old but I’m holding on to it until it dies. I might write in a letter or something…it almost inspires me to  want to work for a non-profit.

    They provide rooms at the Ronald McDonald house for kids’ parents, subsidise parking ($10 max – BF’s mum borrowed the car to go there, and put $30 gas in..we ended up paying for her parking but it was only $10 so we’re still ahead thanks to  her). They also provided phone credit so the family could ring the doctors/nurses rather than just texting.

    We scootered into town to pick up the car and leave the scooter there for them. It was…an experience. It was COLD. But invigorating. I thought it was freezing just walking home from the bus stop…try going 60k/h while exposed to the elements. And a little scary, being among all the cars on the road and having nothing between you. I am definitely not a scooter person. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun! I just wouldn’t want ot do it all the time. I’d rather drive. The trip took an age, mainly the first half getting through all the suburbs and all the stopping and starting and turning into streets. Once we got onto the main roads it was sweet, although realistically scooters don’t go that fast, especially with two people on them! The bus is probably just as fast, if not as flexible.

    Also, we definitely are no longer in the black for this week. I ran out of face cleanser, and also, we bought a garage coupon deal. Basically, it’s a big sheet with a bunch of services (like warrants, brake stuff, service, labour etc). You pay $40 and it’s about $400 worth of services. We took it for $20. Too good to pass up, and at the worst we can easily onsell it!

  • April 8, 2009

    That four wheeled thing…

    that gets you around.

    Is there any bigger money sinker than these damn vehicles?

    I reckon when it comes to cars it’s better to buy a cheapie in cash for a few hundred, then when the inevitable repairs come up you aren’t paying on the car as well as paying for the work.

    I was discussing this with BF –  how much we’ve spent on the car, in terms of work done.
    He said it was not that much and started rattling off various repairs (to be far we have had some wicked lucky deals), but he’d left out the most recent stuff we had done like the new clutch. So we added those up…

    The numbers were getting REALLY high and I really didn’t want to know, so I went off to brush my teeth and left him to it.

    It irks me that he spent 3k on a car and has spent probably not far off that amount again in work. To be fair, the car itself is fine. Most of that is due to his accidents, the repairs and the insurance excesses. Really i can only think of
    one or two major things that needed doing that weren’t caused by one of the crashes.

    It’s nothing like this…

    green-basics-electric-car-zap-alias

    but more like this 😀

    1984-toyota-corolla-levin-gt-apex-ae86

    But it’s a bit of a Rudolph, and I mean, he’s got a red nose.

    Is there anything more hoary looking than a white car with a red bumper?

    ANYWAY.

    It may not be good for your ego to drive a total junker, but it sure will be better for your wallet….

  • April 7, 2009

    Dwindling savings

    Gosh, my savings has really taken a beating as of late. I’m definitely grateful for my parent’s offer…and that I accepted.

    Where’d it all go?

    Well, there was my eye stuff…new frames and lenses, and contacts. I did however get most of this reimbursed, but not for awhile.

    Uni stuff. Fees were about 650, plus a little more for books and stationery, and my Dictaphone (which I haven’t used much but it has proved very useful)

    My new laptop and camera after the burglary.

    Insurance.

    And BF’s Christmas present….and I lent him $400 for car repairs.

    It’s all a bit depressing, but hopefully I’ll be working full time after graduation and can rebuild!

  • April 5, 2009

    Should you get govt. assistance if you have money in the bank?

    I was just browsing through the TradeMe message boards, in particular one thread wondering about how savings affect your eligibility for assistance.

    People were jumping all over the poor OP for scamming the system and ‘swapping tips’ on how to milk the govt, etc, etc.

    I think people have VERY different definitions of what constitutes savings.

    What’s a significant amount of savings? Should someone with $500 to their name be denied help? $1000? $2000?

    Even a few grand really doesn’t go very far. Bond for a new place, car repairs, school fees, emergency dental, visual or medical stuff.

    If we’re talking more like closer to the five figures, then that’s a bit different. And that’s why the asset limit for help with accommodation is $8000. It could probably even be lower IMO. But that seems fair to me.

    Posters on that thread also went on about getting off your ass and working, how there’s tons of jobs out there to be had if people would only take them.

    Uh, HELLO? Unemployment is rising. Most companies aren’t planning to hire, and instead are tightening their belts.

    Out of touch much? Whoever they are, they must have a steady job. Or be retired. Or something. They obviously aren’t out there jobhunting themselves.

    BF is going into Work and Income tomorrow. He’ll have to show what he’s got banked, but I hope they are not too short sighted to realise how quickly that will run out. I’m anticipating they’ll need more info, which will delay everything. They also want income details for the last year. Not really possible, and I wonder how many people actually manage that? I don’t have every single one of his payslips; at worst we’ll just bring in a year of bank statements. I also don’t get payslips at work. We sign into a site online, so I guess I’ll print some out. But again, I see no point in having a year’s work of info, as I obviously make much less during the academic year and don’t see how my extra income over the summer should have any bearing on the situation.

    Will let you know how it goes.

  • April 4, 2009

    Getting organised

    Sometimes I think my system is just too complicated. I’m planning to set up an extra savings account, for irregulars like insurance, our water bills, etc. BF has a separate account used entirely for car stuff (warrants/registration/repairs) in his name, which never really has enough in there to cover costs but is SOMETHING nonetheless.

    At the moment I save every week for my monthly bus pass, for our phone/internet bill and power bill. This just goes into my one savings account and is withdrawn as needed. (Water is quarterly and sadly I just work the budget to accommodate it when it’s due. Have just bought contents insurance, which will be quarterly as well but will always be $83. BF’s car insurance is paid annually and is due in May. But I have NO idea what to expect given his driving history this year. He does get his full licence soon so hopefully that will mitigate things). It usually works out except sometimes I get confused as to whether I have, say, 3 weeks of bills saved in there or 4 – depends on when the bills come due and what kind of a month it is. Some have 5 weeks, after all!

    Also, our power bills have been soaring so I need to rethink that $35 a week and maybe up it to $45 or $50.

    I’m wondering whether I use this new savings account for ALL these things, including the regular monthly bills. Or do I just use it for the irregular ones and keep doing things the way they were? Or maybe I combine the two approaches, and set up TWO more accounts. One for the regulars and one for the irregulars. Then I don’t have anything mixed in with my actual, longer term savings, which I’ve never liked.

    This week’s micromanaging was especially complicated.

    First, I finally got paid for some mystery shopping earlier this month (I say finally – it’s only been a few weeks but feels like forever. I like this organisation because they pay you the same month – assignments are usually done early in the month and payments made at the end of the month. Although they seem to have pushed it back a few days to the start of the next month….it’s still better than the ones which pay you on the 15th of the FOLLOWING month, which can leave you waiting up to six weeks).

    Some of this I put straight onto the Visa to reimburse items bought on assignment. BF got a small cut for helping me on another shop, for which I needed a male. The rest went towards pharmacy stuff – nasal spray, eye drops and a facial scrub – and I plan to use some on a top I’ve been eyeing which is now on sale.

    I had to transfer over the month’s money saved for my bus pass, which I used my Visa to pay for, and the month’s money for our Telecom bill which I paid today (sadly on my eftpos card as you can’t pay bills over the counter by credit). I had to save half of my wages (I’m paid fortnightly) for next week. I then had to put $25 in to savings to kickstart another month of bus money, and then allocate the rest to various things. Here’s a rough budget I worked out just now and will finalise when I get home to my trusty SimpleDBudget.

    Groceries – 120

    Gas – 20

    Lunches (BF) -20

    Portmans top – 30

    Trademe -10 (Need to topup my account, have heaps of stuff I’m trying to sell)

    Now I’m at 120 left…

    Alcohol and fun money – 50 (Friend’s 21st tomorrow!)

    Visa – 25

    Car fund – 15

    Travel – 20

    Leaves me at 10.

  • April 4, 2009

    Oh, poor me…

    Here’s a little gem of a story about unemployment in the Herald.

    “One person who was a high-flier marketer two years ago on huge money, $200,000, is looking at $130,000-$150,000 roles. It’s a domino effect,” she said.

    Awwww. Pardon me for not empathising with that person! It’s about living within your means. By that time you are probably somewhat established in your career and yes, you might have huge student loans, but you don’t need to lease a car or buy a $600,000 house.

    I recall reading an article (perhaps on MSN? Or maybe not) about a couple whose husband had to take up a pizza delivery job.

    Yet their kids went to private school and they WOULDN’T COMPROMISE on that. Some kind soul donated their school fees. THAT DISGUSTED ME.

    Why should someone else pay for your kids’ education????

    How could you accept that?

    If you are down to the breadline, you CUT all costs.

    Private school is a luxury, not a necessity.

    I understand especially in LA state schools are not the best. But when times are tough, you gotta do what you gotta do. And at the worst, the wife (who I don’t think worked) could always homeschool the kids.

    Back to this story….Even $130,000 is a lot more than the median income in NZ. It’s not like this person’s income has been halved, either.

    Going from $25 to $13 is much more of a hit.

    And that’s why it irks me a little that low income earners aren’t getting a tax cut.

    Like it’s been said many times, low income earners would DEFINITELY spend their tax cuts, because they don’t have a choice….the cost of living is so high, and in many cases outgoings are equal to or exceed incomings, so they don’t have the option of saving that extra money.

  • March 31, 2009

    Things you know but just don’t do.

    You know what I mean. Things you know you should do, but don’t. Like recycling everything that’s recyclable, composting food scraps, using your bank’s ATMs only and turning things off at the wall.

    I’m terrible at all those kinds of things (although I am fanatic about never using other bank machines or taking cash advances; the fees are just outrageous!). I’m also thinking specifically about two big things: job hunting and budgeting.

    Job hunting

    It’s one of those mantras you hear over and over. Tailor your resume. Tailor your resume. Tailor your resume. And for God’s sake, tailor your cover letter.

    I haven’t had to jobhunt for myself for a VERY long time. But I sure do remember those days. Mass CV drops and more or less stock covering letter with each. I read all the relevant advice. I saw it, and registered it in my brain, and thought “yeah, sure that’s what I’m already doing”. But I wasn’t! I was maybe changing a verb or two here, a couple of words there, maybe adding an extra line – something generic like “happy to work weekends and evenings”. KWIM? Somehow, I thought that was being clever and tailoring a cover letter.

    When lo and behold, one day it really sunk into me that each letter really had to be THOUGHT about and made really individual, I totally reaped the benefits. I was getting replies from most jobs. I was maybe applying to slightly fewer as applications took longer, but I was getting interview offers. I never used to get responses before that – it was really amazing.

    Instead of taking my generic cover letter template, I was starting afresh every time. This made sure no two were the same and I really had to think about every single sentence. I really read job descriptions and looked out for key words, and tried to address every single skill and quality mentioned in my letters.

    I’ve been doing the same with BF. That’s why each application takes so long. I’m starting with more or less a blank sheet every time. And with him, I’m also tailoring CVs according the jobs. He’s applying for ALL KINDS of jobs, so it’s vital. Jobs in which he has experience in, I’m playing up every single relevant skill he’s got. Entry level job? Reduce his work experience and only briefly mention his duties. Add in his education details. Random jobs, well we take those one at a time and bring any relevant experience or strengths to the front. Me, I’d only ever applied for retail/customer service/hospo type jobs so my resumes were pretty much all the same. My first admin job I emailed in and don’t believe I even sent a resume, nor was one even asked for. That was a lucky break indeed.

    Budgeting

    I was thinking of a budget as a set thing. Heaps of people and books reinforce this mindset with big huge spreadsheets, with monthly or even ANNUAL budgets. That’s too big for me. We’re just beginners. I need to look at the smaller picture – get the day to day stuff under control before worrying about irregulars like insurance or car crap. Our payments are weekly and we get paid weekly, so that’s how I now do it.

    I used to think, but our income varies CONSTANTLY! This is impossible! I tried to make it work. I went off of what  a normal 40 hour week would bring in. I drew up a beautiful plan with amounts for groceries and bills and whatnot. But it just never worked out. I gave up.

    One day it sort of came to me. Budgets need to be flexible. Why hadn’t it worked for me? Why the hell didn’t I just tweak the budget EVERY TIME we got paid, to the exact amount that we had in our account? Instead of moaning about the fact that BF had had one half day and we were short by however much and this screwed up everything?

    Earth shattering stuff I know. But it’s what made all the difference. One of those things I just don’t know why I didn’t figure out/ do before.

  • March 29, 2009

    Windfall

    I finished paying off my bed last month. It was paid by direct debit, so you would think they would stop taking money once the full amount was settled.

    Apparently not!

    Got a letter from the company informing me my account was $60 something in credit.

    Now, is that a bit dodgy or what? They know exactly how much I owed and should not have taken any more than that. It’s not like I was facilitating payments and made an extra couple by mistake.

    In fact, $60 is almost an extra month of payments.

    It doesn’t make sense. According to my payment schedule, payments would finish in February. This is the amortised schedule which shows exactly how much in principal and how much in interest you’re paying every week.

    It sounds scammy to me. I reckon I’ll go to all the effort of going out to Henderson to give them my account details for the refund and they’ll tell me there was some loophole or mistake and I’m actually not getting that money back after all.

    Because looking over the letter totally disgusted me. If there was ever a company trying to trick people out of theiy money and locking them into a cycle of payments, it’s these guys.

    They make it look so tempting to roll the credit over into a new hire purchase. Like an LG plasma tv. Or any other offer. Because, they’ll match you dollar for dollar! So instead of a $60 down payment you’ll now have a $120 credit!

    It goes on and on in this vein. I was beginning to think they actually had no intention of giving me back MY MONEY as I couldn’t see a plain vanilla option for, you know, just REFUNDING me the cash.

    It was buried right down the bottom. If you’re not interested in this wonderful offer, bladibla, come instore with a deposit slip.

    Easier said than done, as they are all the way out west and not open late. I figured we would go on a Saturday morning and do some shopping at the PaknSave out there.

    Let’s be honest, a lot of people just don’t read everything. Most would just give up and think it was their best/only option to use the money towards a new purchase.

    I think I’ll go in with my payment schedule and ask just why the hell they managed to put my account “in credit”, ie, stole from me.

  • March 24, 2009

    Standing on my own two feet

    I’ll admit I often go on about having received no parental help (financially) in my adult life. I started out with a guitar and amp, my clothes, and $2000 – which may sound like a decent amount, but consider the costs of securing somewhere to live and the bare essentials  for someone starting from scratch – then made my own way from there. It’s both a point of pride and a point of bitterness, I guess. No money, no car, etc, apart from small birthday gifts.

    But at the same time I owe them nothing.  I can do what I want and live my own life completely my way. Whereas friends of mine have free accommodation, food, cars and sometimes more, but most of them (not all though) pay for it by having to live by the rules. There’s less freedom and a fair bit more living under the parental thumb.

    I think that I just like to be able to say that I’m self made, but accepting help means I won’t be able to say that anymore.

    Where is the line?

    I think I’ve already started down that slippery slope. First, accepting help with replacing my stolen stuff (half of the cost of my laptop/camera – they would’ve paid for it all but I just couldn’t do that). Now an offer of cash to start up a Rabo account to be eligible for a free $100 opening cash credit.

    So tempting. I don’t NEED the money. You know, it’s not money I would have to use towards rent or bills. But let’s be honest, it sure would help, especially given that I don’t have all that much saved. (Another thing I struggle with. Everyone I know either has WAY more saved than I do…think  tons more, like closer to 5 figures; or virtually nothing at all.)

    Maybe it’s my turn, maybe I deserve it, maybe they’re trying to even it up considering they are giving my brother so much. Maybe it’s a present for not dropping out of uni so far.

    Would they be offended if I refuse? Would they keep trying, under different guises? It’s the only way they can offer me any help realistically, aside from bringing over food occasionally or taking me out to dinner.

  • March 23, 2009

    According to BF’s first payslip, he is on slightly above the minimum wage.

    I told him to get in touch with the co. and find out what’s happening with holiday pay. As a “temp” he should be receiving 8% holiday pay and if not then accruing leave. Neither is showing on his payslip.

    Funny how debate over the minimum wage never concerned me until now. I was far above it. So was he. I guess it’s pretty easy to slip back down. We really need to work out a path for him. In the long term he really needs to get qualified, whether it’s in his last field or something completely new. That’s our best shot long term. Sure he could stay here and work his way up, but he’s starting from so low down, and they seem pretty dodge in wanting to keep all their fulltimers on temp contracts. And his skills would only be specific to this co. which is NOT a recipe for success.

    I was thinking, it’s hard to drop down $4 an hour – even more considering the short contract gig he had in between. But expenses should also be lower. Less gas. Less wear and tear. And less travelling time. Lunches are cheaper because of the area (lots more choice, cheaper, local lunch bars, dairies, other food outlets). And he is not paying for tools or other gear out of his paycheck. For most of his time at the old co. he was paying something or other off, reducing his takehome.

    I guess we’ll see, the budget is gonna have to be pretty fluid this year, considering the time I will have to take off work for my internship and other things.

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