Next fortnight, I may be getting a small pay increase and backpay for a few weeks (we have small annual increases as well as the main raise you need to apply for). It’s not much, about $10 a week, but every little bit helps. And the backpay may be just enough to get my EF to $1500, IF I make my frugal fortnight into a frugal month! I’ll give it a go.

Today was payday, and after paying bills and contributing to savings, I have $35 left. That should easily cover milk, tea bags and cat food which is all I need. All my food for the next fortnight will come from the cupboards (and freezer, and fridge, and even the ground – potatoes!).

I have high hopes for the next fortnight. If I’m REALLY strict with myself, I MIGHT be able to get my EF up to $1000. That would be awesome.

I’m hoping to boost my EF to around $900 with the savings. I’m also going to put $50 aside into my “credit card” account and see how my idea works. At least it should stop me dipping into my savings proper and stop those guilty feelings when I do. When I do dip in, it’s usually $50 that I take out.

Before these came up, I was thinking about using an easily-accessible savings account as a sort of credit-card-stand-in. So I’d put a designated amount in there (say $100-$200 or so) which would be my “credit limit” and would need to be kept at that level every month – treated like an actually credit card, with myself acting as the “bank”. However, I’m not sure about my willpower. I think if I knew the money was there, I would give in to temptation too often. Does anyone else do this or something similar? It would be handy to have money I could call on at the last minute – like if my car broke down and I needed to call AA or a locksmith or something who you have to pay on the spot. My Emergency Fund is in a savings account at an online bank, so it takes one working day to access the money.

What do you think?

2012 GOALS

Financial:

1. Save $5000 in emergency fund – ideally within the next 3-4 months.
2. Save $2500 for home expenses – bedroom curtains (done), second lot of gutters and replacement fencing.
3. Get mortgage down to $180,000 – if I just paid the minimum, it would sit at $187,284 at the end of the year, so this goal requires an extra $7000+ in early repayments.
4. Increase retirement savings to $15,000 – this is cheating a little, as technically all I have to do is keep making my current payments and hope the financial crisis doesn’t worsen.
5. Get student loan below $9000 – this means paying an extra $800-ish. As this loan is interest free, it doesn’t make sense to pay it off too early (even with a 10% early payment bonus), but I’d like to at least do a little something to speed it up.

Personal:

1. Stop biting my nails! A terrible habit that I’ve had since childhood.
2. No gambling of any kind – this includes lotto, scratch cards, pokie machines etc. A full emergency fund will help stop this I think, as I tend to only buy scratchies etc when I’m feeling broke/financially insecure (a REALLY stupid time to waste money then!).
3. Get my weight under 60kg (from 64.8 now) – I’d like to get down to the early-mid 50s, but as I’ve never really been on a weight loss plan before, I don’t want to push myself too hard. BTW, in case anyone thinks this is a really low number, I’m only 5’1 (155cm) so early 50s is a healthy weight.
4. Read 12 Classics books (average 1 per month) – ideally written by Greek or Roman authors, but as I don’t think I own 12 (and they can be tough to find at the library) re-reading textbooks will do. I’m currently reading The Odyssey of Homer, translation by Richmond Lattimore.

If I can accomplish these goals, I’ll be in a really good position for 2013 when I’d like to take a month off to visit the UK. It will be a VERY expensive trip (minimum $3000 just for flights!).

1. Opt in to Fletchers’ for them to repair my home and they’ll repair any further damage they find (I don’t want to do this as I want to hear what they say BEFORE I commit to them and I can’t find any info on what happens, plus a lot of people aren’t happy with the repairs).

OR

2. Get an independent engineer’s report and send it to them. This will cost around $1000 from what I can find online (double the price 6 months ago!) and there’s no guarantee EQC will accept the report anyway.

So what should I do? I put in another claim last week for the December earthquake and noted the foundations so hopefully they will send out another assessment team (though I have no confidence in them after the last lot). I’m thinking of waiting until this is done, but who knows how long that will take? I don’t have the money for an engineer right now, so I think I’m going to have to set that up as a new goal, though that may mean I won’t meet the others. *Sigh*.

Any other Christchurch residents having similar issues?

Anyway, hopefully it will still drain properly or else I’ll be back to square one and I’ll have to put up with it leaking until the foundations are fixed (IF they can be fixed. I hate the uncertainty). If it works, I’ll be replacing the gutters on the front side of my house myself. Though apparently if the quakes keep coming there will be further water restrictions, so I’ll probably wait until mid-Autumn to replace them and put a water-butt under the leaks to harness all that free water for the garden.

Speaking of, I love my garden. It’s growing so well and I received a bunch of new herbs to plant from my Dad for Christmas (most of them were already going to seed or on death’s door, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him! I’ve managed to revive most of them and will be happily collecting seeds from the rest once they dry out). I’m still trying to decide whether or not to dig up my whole front “yard” (strip of grass, around 30 m2 area in total?) to grow more veggies, herbs and a few fruits (mainly lemons and berries though I may be able to fit in the odd dwarf fruit tree with careful planning). I could always re-sow the grass when I sell in around 5 years time. I can’t wait to get a new fence, it will look so good and be SO much more private!

Anywho, that’s about it from me. Off to swim with the dolphins tomorrow – yippee!

But the major disruption in my life right now is the damage to my workplace, which has caused further stress to everyone, and we have all been moved to temporary office space with the future uncertain. I can’t go into the details without possibly revealing where I work (and I’m not ready for that!). I’m just glad to still have a job.

My finances have stagnated over Christmas. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks doing a bit of DIY and updating – things that either won’t be affected by Fletcher’s repairs (unless the house is unrepairable of course) or that can be taken with me – decor stuff mainly. I removed the moldy, disgusting PVC shower door, replaced the silicone and put up a shower curtain. While I was at it, I also bought a can of white paint to repaint the wooden frame of the shower and used the rest to paint the inside of my wardrobe (I hated looking at it) and my kitchen cupboards. I put up a roller blind on my high bedroom window (60% off!), and I’m now saving for a pair of curtains to go on the main window (my current curtains don’t block out the light and it is difficult to get to sleep at night). I also bought a bedside table (usually $200, down to $80 with $40 worth of vouchers = $40 out of pocket. Score!), a duvet cover (my sister gave me new bedding for Christmas) and a few gardening supplies in the boxing day sales. As you can imagine, this all cost a fair whack of money, especially when you add in all the little things like wall fixings, paint brushes, drop cloth etc etc. Luckily I received cash for Christmas! I hate that I spent so much and wasn’t able to save it, however I don’t regret any of my purchases.

I have my dolphin swim next week, and I’m really looking forward to it. As I’ve already paid for it, I only need to cover gas and lunch while we’re there. I’ll be able to start saving in earnest again. I really want my EF up and have set a goal for $5000 within six months. I also want to get my home loan down to $180,000 and save for a new fence and replacement of the second lot of gutters (first lot due to be replaced on Tuesday).

Oh, and today I received a cheque for $67 for doing surveys. Nice

So I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year, and I’ll definitely be getting back on the blogging bandwagon. Promise!