ShanShan's Diary - Debt Free Gonna-be!

ShanShan_2

Hey guys,

Not much to report today. Still no pay negotiation as apparently head office are taking their sweet time finalising my offer/agreement/whatever. Hopefully it will finally happen on Monday.

My car loan appeared in my internet banking this morning so as of today I owe $10,259.15 (the $259.15) is bank fees. I have the 3k from selling my old car ready to put straight into it I am just transferring it from my other bank account. On Thursday I will go into the bank and have my direct debit for the loan set up to come out on pay day.

Also I filled the car up (3/4 tank) which cost me just under $60 and I used a grocery store fuel discount for 4c off per litre. Very MSE of me.

Anyways I must go and get ready for work now. Working 12-8:30 today.

ShanShan_2

Well finally some news on the salary/promotion. My offer is $40k a year or $34892 per year once you take out the tax plus $3700 employer-contributed superannuation . I was really hoping for a little bit more than that but I've always known that my company pays crap and it was pretty much what I was expecting so I suppose I am okay with it. No real room for negotiation unfortunately as it wasn't really a negotiable offer, more of a 'take it or leave it' offer. On one hand I am really pleased because I feel really good about my job as I really enjoy it and I am moving ahead very fast but at the same time I am a little annoyed because the pay kind of sucks.

Oh well, overall I am pretty happy with the way my life is going so I am determined to remain positive. Manager says that everyone starts out on crap money and as long as the company has enough money and your performance is good you can expect a nice pay rise every year. Hopefully he is telling the truth and not just bullish*tting me to shut me up lol.

ShanShan_2

Well I sat up last night and crunched the numbers. I am definitely better off financially than I currently am but not that much better off if you know what I mean.

I've decided that I am definitely not getting an iPad until my car is paid off. I've had to come to accept the fact that by working in this industry (retail) although the work may be fun and easy, the pay sucks and you do have to make the appropriate sacrifices as a result of that. So no iPad for now. A new car is enough excitement for now. After all, the iPad I wanted to get is $850 which is 8.5% of my car loan!

ShanShan_2

Well I had a pretty good day today even though I was soo unbelievably tired. I celebrated my birthday early (it's not actually until Saturday) but we had it today because I am working on Saturday. Got some lovely gifts. From my mum I got a Pandora bracelet with 3 charms and a little fighting fish who I've decided to name Fred. From my sister I got a Pandora charm and a little owl ornament which is very cute. And my step dad got me a $100 voucher for the hairdressers where I get my hair done so that will be really helpful.

I was going to go to the bank today to get a direct debit for my car payment set up but was too tired so decided to put it off til tomorrow. Well I got a letter in the mail today informing me that I actually don't need a direct debit and that I can just transfer money to the loan via internet banking so I think I will just do that instead.

Have also decided to wait to get a new iPhone until at least after July 2014. My current phone is doing fine so I just can't justify the extra expense. Am determined not to become one of those people who allows their expenses to rise with their pay increases and let all the extra money get eaten up by random crap.

Anyways I'd better head off now as I am extremely tired and I have a heap of errands to do tomorrow.

Fred sends his love.

ShanShan_2

Hey kids, sorry for the lack of posts, I've been very busy with work and christmas, as well as being sick and uninspired in general.

On Wednesday I got my first pay cheque since being promoted. Not sure if they made a mistake or if it's just better than I thought it was but I seem to be getting paid about $30 more per week than I had calculated, which is fine by me.

Anyways, thought I would post a 2014 budget/money breakdown whatsy.

So here we go. As you can see every cent is accounted for. I am being so MSE right now, lol. :j

Weekly income = $708.93

Expenses (weekly) including annual expenses such as car rego/insurance.

Food/groceries = $70
Petrol/entertainment/clothing/etc = $150 **
Phone = $15
Board (living with my parents) = $50
Car insurance/rego = $50
Car payment = $150
(actual car payment is around $85 but I put in $150 as a permanent overpayment)
**whatever is left in this every week gets saved for if I need to do clothes shopping or go on a trip or want to buy something nice for myself. I don't spend that much every week on random crap and petrol, I promise.

Total = $485

Now we have my various "savings" accounts

"Main savings" (house deposit) = $158.93
"Moving Out fund" = $30
Christmas Fund = $15
Emergency Fund = $20

Total = $223.93

My "Main Savings" is pretty self explanatory. I am saving for a house deposit. With my "Moving Out Fund" I am saving for if I ever need/want to move out of my parents and rent I can use this money for furniture and whatnot instead of having to dip into my house deposit savings. I can't foresee myself moving out any time soon but I would like to get this to $5,000 just for peace of mind. Christmas fund also self explanatory, I put a little away every week so that I have money for Christmas gifts as well as for a little gift for myself as my b'day is at Christmas time. My emergency fund is pretty well funded at the moment but I still like to add a little every week so that it keeps on growing.

Just for fun and more for me to look back on I will share the current balances of my loan and my savings accounts. I might add these to my signature too.

Car Loan = -$6,867.06

Main Savings = $10,699.96
Moving Out Fund = $1,362.55
Emergency Fund = $1,343.41

Superannuation (government/employer funded) = $5,226.01

And last but not least my goals for 2014 are:

Pay off my car loan
Save at least $8,000 more towards a house deposit
(Once car is paid off) start a retirement savings account for myself and contribute a little to that per week. Basically just a regular savings account completely separate to anything superannuation related. If you are from Aus you will know that there is a lot of uncertainty around whether people will ever actually see their superannuation money as the government keeps raising the retirement age.

ShanShan_2

I am on holidays at the beach at the moment. It is definitely very relaxing but I feel a bit bored like I want to clean and organise something.

Not much to report other than that.

My mum got an iPad for Christmas and it is making me want one even more maybe after tax time.

Also I sold some nail polishes on eBay and made $6 so have transferred that to car loan. According to my calculations as long as I continue with my regular $150 weekly payments towards the loan it will be paid off in 45 weeks. Not a bad effort.

ShanShan_2

Happy New Year everyone. I didn't do much at all to celebrate (as is my habit).

Anyways yesterday was payday so that meant another $158.95 went into savings and $150 + $5.18 that I made in I interest from an account went into the car loan. Have updated signature.

ShanShan_2

I am back from my holiday now. It was very relaxing but at the same time very boring as I am not used to sitting around reading and whatnot all day. I spent a bit more money than I had planned but that's okay I suppose.

I've made myself some fettacine alfredo pasta for dinner with stuff that we already had in the cupboards. How MSE of me!

ShanShan_2

Sunday got off to a bit of a crazy start. Somehow managed to sleep through/miss my alarms and woke up at 6:10am for a 6:30am shift. Whoops. Miraculously managed to make it to work on time although I did arrive looking a little disheveled. The rest of my day was pretty good, work day went very quickly.

My MSE effort of the day was listing some shoes on eBay. Hopefully they will sell.

Had a productive night/afternoon. Did 20 minutes on the exercise bike and then did an arm weights video on YouTube. Also cleaned out and organised one of my dresser drawers, the make-up drawer. Hopefully some more de-cluttering will happen in the next few days.

Not much else to report I'm afraid. Should probably head off to bed. It's very stormy here at the moment.

ShanShan_2

Have got today and tomorrow off. Was planning to get so much stuff done today and I hardly managed to do any of it thanks to laziness and lack of motivation. Oh well, not to worry, I suppose I will just have to do it tomorrow.

Tuesday was payday so I put my usual $150 into savings and $150 into the car loan.

The new balances for this week are:

Main savings/house deposit = $11,009.03 (Hit 11k! yay!)

Car loan = -$6,555.88

I've also started a retirement savings fund which I am putting $8.93 in every week or there are abouts. (This is a random little amount that is left over due to my weekly pay being $708.93)

Current balance of retirement fund = $12.12

Went shopping today and spent a royal fortune on food. $116.34 to be precise. Hopefully this will last me a while. Probably bought way too many chocolates but hey what else is new.