Laceshawl's Personal Finance Blog

I have been a black belt tightwad this week - only spending money on groceries and busfare. I saw a couple nice tops I wanted to buy, but desisted and put the money into my travel account. Now I have the return plane fare saved up, everything I can save will be for spending money when I go to Britain next July. So instead of buying anything now I will buy it when I get to London.

This blog may become very boring - how many times can you boast of a NSD before people get fed up.

My umbrella, that is, which I paid $15 for last month. It was leaking already too.

What to do? Buy another cheapie on the theory that if it goes at least it wasn't an expensive one. How do you know before trying it that it's a good quality one? Goes off to search for consumer reports on umbrella makes...

I was waiting at the intersection going home, when I saw just down the road a young man trying to cross regardless of blaring horns and screeching brakes. He miraculously got across in one piece and went directly to - the ATM. Now come on laddie. The two minutes it would have taken you to walk to the crossing and wait for the light to change were surely well taken and better than risking life and limb for a few dollars in your pocket immediately. Noone ever died because they were without cash for 5 minutes.

Now all you writers out there, what is the story behind the young man and his desperate desire for dollars. I'll start.

His girlfriend had just walked out on him and he had to get flowers for her before she went back to her ex. He arrived at the florist 2 minutes before closing time and then remembered his wallet was empty. Hence the desperate dash.

Moral: always carry a credit card.

Well, no, that's not the message I want to promote on this blog. I'm sure somebody can do it better. Waht are your ideas?

Sorry to have been MIA so long, but I had a bad fall and am slowly recovering. Medical costs have been quite high, and I had to cut back work hours, but I am happy to report that my 2010 goals are progressing nicely. I now have saved up $5,000 for my FFEF, am putting aside 8% of my pay into Kiwisaver, and am working on the travel to Britain fund.

This month's frugality has worked out well - I had a surplus of nz$500. I put $100 in the house maintenance account and $400 in the EF - and spent $2 on a packet of cookies to celebrate.

feels like this week has rushed by. On Wednesday we all got such a surprised when the shop manager announced she was quitting next week to go to University. She has been getting a lot of grief from head office so I'm not really surprised she's leaving, but I don't know that rushing into a big student loan is the best long run decision for a single mom with three kids. But perhaps she'll get a high paying job and it will all work out. She's a nice person, just stressed out from all the hassles, and I wish her all the best.

Now, I have been asked to consider whether I want to take over the manager's job. In many ways it is a nice job and offers the right hours, but having seen how the company can treat its staff, plus the pay offered is pretty low, I'm looking to move on myself.

It's a great thing to have money saved up. It means I can take my time looking for the right position and not have to rush into something regrettable because I need the money.

All the students are coming back into town and the businesses are lined up to offer them freebies. As I was coming back home across the campus a young chap offered me a free bottle of ginger beer. So now I'm going to put my feet up and relax with a drink.

trying to interfere with my resolution to save. Today I had to buy a new watch battery nz$15.90.

Still squeezing those dollars and not buying anything I don't have to, but today I bought some reduced price raspberry buns for nz$2.80 and a top at the Presbyterian opp shop for $1. Was tempted to buy a new raincoat for $139, but I will put it off until next month. And I found 10 cents by the parking meter.

I have been talking to my dr and as I handled the extra hours over New Year well, he agrees I can start looking for 30 hours a week again. This is officially a full time job, so I am now transferred from the sickness benefit to the unemployment benefit. No change in financial circumstances as the amount paid is the same, but to say I'm unemployed implies a temporary situation whereas when I'm sick I get very depressed thinking I'm going to stuck like this. Anyway, I met with a work broker today to discuss a work plan, It won't be easy with so many still out of work, but I have an advantage in that I am already doing 2 pt jobs. I think I will look for retail work instead of going back to office work as I really enjoy working in the wool shop.

I have over nz$1,000 in my bill paying account. I like to keep the balance at around $500 so I always have at least one month's buffer. I estimate this month's bills will come to $320. Can't wait for them to be paid and the end of the month to come so I can transfer the surplus to my EF. How weird is that - impatiently waiting for bills to arrive.

Last week I started back at my afterschool care cleaning job. Guess what - there is an outbreak of head lice in the little darlings. My poor scalp started tingling, so I hied me to the pharmacist who assured me nits love clean hair and sold me a natural louse killer for nz$22.50. Yikes! I need a lawyer so I can sue for mental stress, public loss of face and anything else that stands a chance of getting me my money back

One of the girls who works there has dreadlocks. Poor thing, she is going to have to cut them off.

Here's an idea I read about ages ago. Since this is the shortest month make it one where you spend as little as possible. We're talking basics here; only groceries, utiliities, transport and health care. Keep the eating out and movie going till later in the year after you have saved up a comfortable cushion. I reckon I should be able to save 50% of my income this Feb. This is where the scrooge genes I inherited from grandma come into play.

I earned $300 more than I spent last month, so went to transfer the savings into my EF. I realised I has earned nz$5.47 in interest on that account. Yay.

It's nowhere Financial Independence yet, but I get the feeling my money is working for me rather than just me working for money.

The cornmeal curse continued last night with me boiling dry the beans, but didn't burn the pot too badly.

I went to the art center where I remembered I still owed them some money for jewellry materials. Noone could figure out the exact amount so I gave them nz$9. Now I can say truly I don't owe nuttin' to nobody.

They played a movie at lunchtime and provided food to eat, club sandwiches and sausage rolls. Very filling so I didn't eat much for dinner, just a couple salad bananas for 30 cents. Now I have 60 cents left in my purse and don't intend to take out any more till Wednesday.

I have some cornmeal which has been sitting in my pantry for a while so decided to use it. Yesterday I made polenta but when I tried to then fry it I hadn't made it thick enough and it turned into a big mess in the skillet.

So this mornign I tried making cornmeal pancakes but discovered I had run out of baking powder so my pancakes were flat and stodgy instead of light and fluffy.

Never mind persevere. I'll try tortillas next, with vege chilli as it's a cool damp day.

Check out this website

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/

I guess it's possible to retire in 5 years if you live a bare essentials existence and have a $80,000 income, but when your earnings are much more average and you want some of the things that make life a little more pleasant you're looking at a longer working life.

Still, it got me thinking. If living a minimalist existance for 5 years would guarantee I'd never have to work again, how much would I be prepared to give up?

No car? Don't have one anyway.

Shop in thrift stores forever after? Fine by me.

Never eat icecream and cake again? I guess so.

Give up drinking tea? Umm, I may have to think about this.

Spend the rest of my life knitting from my stash? Noooo you can't do this to me. I defend my right to buy more wool even if I'm working in Mcd's at 90.

How far are you prepared to go?

I borrowed a book from the library last month called The Armchair Economist by Steven Landsburg. I was so diligently perusing it trying to educate myself I forget to return it on time and it cost me 30 cents. Still beats signing up for a semester study on the subject.

I have decided the problem with economists, financial policy advisors and others of that ilk is they are all doing better than average so support whatever system enables them to do well. If economists earned minimum wage I bet we'd see some very different economic theories.

On my way to work this mornig I found 10 cents. When I got back tonite there were three letters in my mailbox - all from the IRD.

The first said my student loan, which was supposed to have been paid in full in 2002, actually had a balance of $5.13, but they are writing this off so I now officially owe nothing.

The second said I had qualified for an interest write off in 2002 which hadn't been credited, so they would be shortly sending me a refund.

The third contained my refund check - for $14.24.

I was left wondering how much it cost them to process all that little lot and considering how to spend my windfall. The wool sale is now safely over so I quess it will have to go in my EF.

Oo it's hard to be working in the January sales. People all around you snapping up bargains and you wonder if there'll be any left for you. Plus there's that staff discount. All too easy to pull out the debit card and there's one purchase of nz$51.90 and another of 119.70 and I'm carrying home my winter wardrobe to be knitted. I justify it by telling myself I can wear my jerseys at work, but really, I don't think I'd have bought so much wool if I'd had to pull a wad of notes out of my wallet. So I'm going to go to a cash basis and see if the pain of parting with the greens makes me spend less.

I've been listeneing to Dave Ramsey online and I like what he has to say about getting focused on one goal at a time. At the moment I'm putting a little bit here and a little bit there for half a dozen things, and I feel like I'm not making any progress. Getting one goal acheived before going on to the next strikes me as a good idea.

So today I took the nz$800 I'd saved in my travel account and added it to my EF, bringing the total to $2500. When that is completed I will increase my contribution to Kiwisaver, and after that focus on the trip saving.

I wonder why it seems so much harder to save money than pay off debt. With the money sitting in the bank, there's always something to spend it on and it grows so slooooowly.

I haven't totalled up the exact amount of dollars and cents, but I'm pretty certain I'm better off than I was 12 months ago. So my New Year resolution is to keep going as I am. By December 31st 2010 I should have:

nz$5,000 in fully funded emergancy fund

be saving 8% of gross income into Kiwisaver for retirement

have saved nz$2,000 for airplane tickets to Britain

pretty grown up for the teenage decade.

So the pet shop down the road has baby alpacas for sale. They are so cool. I could have yarn for spinning while they are taking care of my overgrown grass.

Anyone got a spare nz$350?

If you're trying to cut out sugar so you can lose weight and someone gives you rhubarb which you love so you go and have to buy sugar, did you save any money? And since rhubarb is very good for you, will eating it stewed ruin your diet?

I'm haveing rhubarb crumble anyway.

Today I took nz$2,285.11 and paid off the last of my loan at the credit union. From today I am officially debt free! Hallelujah!

I have st aside $6,000 for house painting next year, and I'm still left with $2,199.96 in my emergency fund. I shall be earning extra money in the January sales, so aim to get it up to $5,000. Then I shall reward myself with a trip to Britain.

This morning I switched to a new package from my phone company. By combing my phone and ISP in the same deal I get twice as much Broadband, with no overage charges, and cheap calling rates to NZ and Australia any time of the day or night. Plus I'll be saving nz$1.30 a month. I decided to get rid of the call waiting feature too as I never use it - I think it's rude to ask someone to hang on while you talk to someone else - so that is another .50 cents a month saved. Yippee, 22.60 a year.

So on Saturday I saw an ad for some nice cotton tops, only $14. Gee I wanted one, even though I didn't need it, but I wasn't going to make a special trip to town to buy one. I figured if it was meant to be there'd be one left for me. Today I made my usual trip and looked in the store, but... they had sold out. Phew, money saved. I'm quite happy about it, maybe because today has been quite cold and wet, definitely not cotton top weather.

The greengrocers on the corner has a good deal, 4 avocadoes for nz$2. Alas I cannot eat 4 whole avocado all by my little self so I must pay .59 cnets for a single one. If I buy one a week that adds up to an extra $4.68 a year. I protest!

Seriously ,There are all manner of politicians promising all manner of sweet deals for families - how about some rebates for us single people. You know, us ones who don't keep having kids we can't afford to bring up without govt help.

if you feed the hungry. At this morning's service we had an infant dedication followed by morning tea with andwiches and all manner of goodies. Then this evening we had a baptism followed by supper with samosas, savories and all manner of goodies. I didn't need to cook at all today. Don't understand why more people don't come to church

today the 13th was a lucky day for me. I found .30 cents.

No I wasn't sick tese last couple of weeks, but I've decided my life is too boring. So I signed up for

nanowrimo.org and decided to write a novel. It might even make me some money if it was good enough.

well, 22,000 words into the thing and i'm suffering major writers block and the whole thing stinks. so i'm going to kill off all my characters in wwI , since yesterday was Armistice Day. At least they won't have to worry about dealing with their finances then.

Oh, but I could have a judgment day, couldn't I? in which they're called to account for how they spent their money while alive. Hmm, goes off to hopefully write another few hundred words.