For the very first time in our very young married life, J and I had a financial row.
I think I was able to express in this blog how different we are in our financial values. According to him, I have lived a sheltered life and have ethos about what is financially sound. He grew up poor and that's that.
I don't really want to describe his financial life, apart from saying that he grew up poor, because I don't know 99% of it. I think knowing that he was poor is just 1% of it all.
Anyway, we had the argument because our 5-month old MacBook fell from our couch's arm rest. It still looks like a laptop, no dents or cracks, but the monitor does not display anything except for an ink-looking crack. The monitor has no crack that you can feel, it just looks like it. I can't describe it perfectly because I have no technical knowledge of monitors and LCDs.
We have home content insurance that has a deductible of $200. Apple is not gonna cover it because it was not a defect. He said that he'll cover it using his allowance. I always worry that insurance people won't cover accidents caused by negligence. Anyway, I got upset because I have been telling him not to put that laptop on the arm rest because it is not flat, it's curved. So when the laptop is on it, it's like see-sawing itself.
I felt bad because he could have used his allowance for other things that will benefit him. I also needed to vent about his attitude towards the fair wear and tear of things. I'm generally accepting that things get old and perform worse eventually, but I also think that we could delay the "perform worse" part if we just take care of our things. We can afford $200 but it's still money we could have used to pay debt or for something beneficial. Ok, after saying that last sentence I conclude that we can't afford it.
We recently bought a bigger car on loan. More debt. That's another post to come. We are also going to sell our small car to pay it off and pay roughly 45% of our new car loan. Hopefully it all works out. More new debt to come because we are going to spend Christmas in my hometown and also have our baby's christening there. It never ends!
I do have ethos but having a family is new to me, hence I'm learning a new take on financial life. I don't have it all worked out yet but I'm proud to have a budget and have our finances sorted out. I aim for my family to live better than what we are living on now. I want to be debt-free as soon as possible and I think I owe that to my family.
Jun 19, 2008
Jun 11, 2008
When the focus shifts
I'm glad that I'm back working because it shifts my focus from dwelling on debt reduction to being productive. I read somewhere about a PF blogger who needed a break from constantly thinking of ways to reduce debt. I share his sentiment.
During my maternity leave, if I weren't taking care of my baby, I was staring at our budget. Literally. It seemed as though I were trying to manipulate it to magically make our debt disappear. J was laughing at the thought that I could and would stare at the budget if I had the
time for it.
So now I have no time for that. I only have minutes every day to update it with that day's spending (and sometimes saving). Having my focus shifted has also allowed me to see the progress of our net worth. It's true that when you see one thing all the time it doesn't
appeal as good as it should be. It also makes days go by faster. I can't believe I've been busy working for 6 weeks now!
Every day is debt reduction day. At this time I'm just better at handling the idea of it. Before it was every day is debt reduction day is stressful day. That last bit is not entirely gone, but it's not as terrible.
During my maternity leave, if I weren't taking care of my baby, I was staring at our budget. Literally. It seemed as though I were trying to manipulate it to magically make our debt disappear. J was laughing at the thought that I could and would stare at the budget if I had the
time for it.
So now I have no time for that. I only have minutes every day to update it with that day's spending (and sometimes saving). Having my focus shifted has also allowed me to see the progress of our net worth. It's true that when you see one thing all the time it doesn't
appeal as good as it should be. It also makes days go by faster. I can't believe I've been busy working for 6 weeks now!
Every day is debt reduction day. At this time I'm just better at handling the idea of it. Before it was every day is debt reduction day is stressful day. That last bit is not entirely gone, but it's not as terrible.
Jun 7, 2008
Weekly review: 2-6 June
I almost forgot to post this weekend! I was busy polishing our budget spreadsheet because there are a few unplanned changes that had to fit in the budget.
Car registration
Received a notification from Land Transport NZ that our car's registration is due end of the month. Unfortunately, our 2nd half of the month is our bill-paying half, I had to sit down and make the necessary adjustments to our budget. I ended up paying it this period. Goodbye, $183.
Dog registration
This was already budgeted for but, unfortunately, will fall in the half end of the month. Next pay period is gonna be tight.
Childcare
The baby is starting daycare on the 23rd. We changed our caregivers because at the last minute, the one nearest to us had called and we just had to grab that spot. We paid our bond of $212 this week. It will cost us $19 more a fortnight but considering the rising price of petrol these days, we think it's just wise to choose the one closest to home. $424 starts next budget period. By the end of the year, we'll have paid around $6,600! Imagine that! Can't wait for his free ECE when he turns 3.
Debt reduction
It's moving slowly, especially with the addition of childcare it's not gonna go away anytime soon. If anything, we'll probably still have bits of it by Christmas. Hope not! I'm still not enjoying my allowance. It still gets snowflaked towards debt.
Kiwisaver
Our baby's retirement had started. We committed $50/month to that for, well, until further notice. I don't plan on putting money in it for a long time because he has to learn to save for his own retirement! We are still saving money for his education too, so we're ensuring that we save more for our retirement.
Car registration
Received a notification from Land Transport NZ that our car's registration is due end of the month. Unfortunately, our 2nd half of the month is our bill-paying half, I had to sit down and make the necessary adjustments to our budget. I ended up paying it this period. Goodbye, $183.
Dog registration
This was already budgeted for but, unfortunately, will fall in the half end of the month. Next pay period is gonna be tight.
Childcare
The baby is starting daycare on the 23rd. We changed our caregivers because at the last minute, the one nearest to us had called and we just had to grab that spot. We paid our bond of $212 this week. It will cost us $19 more a fortnight but considering the rising price of petrol these days, we think it's just wise to choose the one closest to home. $424 starts next budget period. By the end of the year, we'll have paid around $6,600! Imagine that! Can't wait for his free ECE when he turns 3.
Debt reduction
It's moving slowly, especially with the addition of childcare it's not gonna go away anytime soon. If anything, we'll probably still have bits of it by Christmas. Hope not! I'm still not enjoying my allowance. It still gets snowflaked towards debt.
Kiwisaver
Our baby's retirement had started. We committed $50/month to that for, well, until further notice. I don't plan on putting money in it for a long time because he has to learn to save for his own retirement! We are still saving money for his education too, so we're ensuring that we save more for our retirement.
Jun 1, 2008
Weekly Review: 26-30 May
I wish I could make more updates on this blog but I'm living a new life and it doesn't give much spare time. If it did, I'd rather use the time for catching up on rest.
Snowballing my allowance
I'm still good at snowballing my daily $10 allowance towards debt and I do so everyday! It's usually the only transaction my checking account makes on a daily basis.
Bigger car
Our dear Sirion has to go because the baby capsule can barely fit in it. In a few months, we'll switch to a car seat that's even bigger! We're not in a hurry but this is definitely going to be one of our big goals this winter. It might even prove challenging due to the economy at the moment and rising petrol prices.
Grocery
I participated at Give Me Back My Five Bucks's May Grocery Challenge but I still didn't meet my target. I thought I almost did, until today. I was a bit surprised when I saw that we overdrafted because I really thought I had everything under control. We even forgot to get dog food as planned, so we'll have to overdraft further tomorrow. Unless we want our dog to starve until pay day... just kidding! I find it a challenge to set a limit to grocery shopping because I'm not so good about being frugal about food for my family. I'm trying though. I know there is something there that needs some bettering.
Pet care
I gave our dog a bath this week. No hair cuts though, but still saved us money!
The digits
Sense to Dollars asked me if I could possibly post digits of my family's spending. Well, of course! I'm just not doing it because I'm not sure if that's interesting to people, but since there's one who'd want to know... here goes.
Unless otherwise stated, these are paid out fortnightly.
I'm still quite pleased that our net worth went up this month! :)
Snowballing my allowance
I'm still good at snowballing my daily $10 allowance towards debt and I do so everyday! It's usually the only transaction my checking account makes on a daily basis.
Bigger car
Our dear Sirion has to go because the baby capsule can barely fit in it. In a few months, we'll switch to a car seat that's even bigger! We're not in a hurry but this is definitely going to be one of our big goals this winter. It might even prove challenging due to the economy at the moment and rising petrol prices.
Grocery
I participated at Give Me Back My Five Bucks's May Grocery Challenge but I still didn't meet my target. I thought I almost did, until today. I was a bit surprised when I saw that we overdrafted because I really thought I had everything under control. We even forgot to get dog food as planned, so we'll have to overdraft further tomorrow. Unless we want our dog to starve until pay day... just kidding! I find it a challenge to set a limit to grocery shopping because I'm not so good about being frugal about food for my family. I'm trying though. I know there is something there that needs some bettering.
Pet care
I gave our dog a bath this week. No hair cuts though, but still saved us money!
The digits
Sense to Dollars asked me if I could possibly post digits of my family's spending. Well, of course! I'm just not doing it because I'm not sure if that's interesting to people, but since there's one who'd want to know... here goes.
Unless otherwise stated, these are paid out fortnightly.
- Rent - $800
- Electricity - $160/mo (usually lower, $100 or less, in the summer)
- Satellite TV - $67.48/mo
- Phone + internet - $104.90/mo
- Savings - $500 (at least, so this varies fortnightly)
- Daycare - $424 (as of 23 June)
- Car loan payments - $108.47 (but we add a few more dollars to it)
- Home/car insurance - $39.72
- Health insurance - $36
- Bus tickets - $40 (once J's back to work this is gone)
- Debt payments - $350 (minimum)
- J's student loan payments - ~$295 (this varies depending on USD:NZD exchange)
- J's retirement - $97
- My retirement - $102
- J's allowance - $100
- My allowance - $100
- Petrol - $50 (if J is back to work that is)
- Hire purchases payments - $265 (this will be gone in 3 months time! Yee!)
- Mobile phone top-ups - $20 (but this is mostly once a month because I've not been a heavy mobile phone user since moving to NZ)
- Pet food - $20-$30/mo (depends on how much our dog eats)
I'm still quite pleased that our net worth went up this month! :)
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