IKEA Heaven

The new IKEA catalogue has landed! A new IKEA catalogue is as exciting to me as a new Apple product launch would be for other people. I just love their stuff and daydreaming about my perfect apartment set up.

I show restraint though and don't actually go into the store unless I have a very specific item to pick up, as it's completely set up for the impulse buyer. It's an incredibly clever marketing and sales strategy really, which I have to appreciate!

My current goal fund for new bedroom furniture will be spent almost entirely at IKEA, and I've now worked out I'll need just under $2,000 to realise my goal. It's a complete refit of my bedroom, with queen bed and latex mattress, bedsides, lamps, a chest of drawers, new pillows, doona (quilt/duvet/comforter) & linen.

Yes it's a lot of money, but the ensemble I'm sleeping on is well over 15 years old, so it's worth spending decent money on something you'll spend a third of your life in. A good night’s sleep helps you in so many ways, from protecting your health to being more focused at work and with your family and friends; it should be invested in wisely.

This weekend will be dedicated to drooling and daydreaming. I may even take the catalogue down to the Posh Garden Centre to enjoy with this month's my free coffee! The weather here is just glorious at the moment, when it's not pouring with rain of course.

Work and study have been so full on the last few weeks; it’s going to be nice to just think about lovely new things for a change.

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A Great Night Out

I seem to have fallen into a new routine. Once a fortnight, I head to my favourite library to return books I've borrowed. I then stock up on new books to read and take myself out to dinner.

I keep a running list of the books I come across in reviews, best seller lists, on Amazon, books of my interest of the moment (currently it’s the devaluing of luxury brands due to mass consumer access to them, or at least fakes of them), then print it out on library night.

In a previous life I would have bought a lot of these books, so it’s saving me a fortune!

My favourite library? I call it that as my closest one isn't that great. It’s an annex of the main library, which also isn't that great. My favourite one is much larger and always seems to have a much better book selection (their interlibrary group is much better than my local too if they don’t have something I’m after).

The food court upstairs from the library (it's in a shopping mall - classy!) is open until late as there’s a cinema complex on the level above that. It doesn't have chain fast food places in it, it’s full of excellent and cheap Chinese, Malaysian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Lebanese and Indian options, plus one of the best yum cha places in Sydney. The local area has a huge Hong Kong Chinese expat community and the food court is always buzzing, so I see that as an indication of the quality of the food on offer.

My regular haunt seems to be the Malaysian. They make great Laksas for only $8, and the lady who works the counter greets me like an old friend. So I sit myself down, enjoy my Laksa, crack open one of my new books, and take in the ‘atmosphere’.

So you can have your fancy dining experiences (which of course have their place in the dining spectrum). I’m always amused but no longer surprised that I can get such good food in a place where the tables are bolted to the tiled floor.

Note: It occurred to me that not everyone would know what a Laksa is, so I've included some recipes!

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Is Private Health Insurance Still Worth It?

As part of the the recent Federal budget here in Australia, the income level that tax penalties kick in if you don't have private health insurance increased from $50,000 to $100,000 for singles; and from $100,000 to $150,000 for couples.

So if your income and situation fall below these levels, the decision to get health insurance is now up to you. There’s no tax incentive (more a stick than a carrot as far as incentives go in my mind) to sign up.

You still get the existing 30 per cent tax rebate. And every year over the age of 30 that you delay taking up private health insurance, your premiums will still go up by 2 per cent.

I’m one of those singles who is no longer impacted by the tax penalty.

An exodus of younger, largely healthy fund members (like me, well at least healthy if not younger these days!) between 485,000 and 750,000 are expected to leave the private health care system. This could of course increase costs to those members who are left behind.

Times are tough, interest rates are going up, petrol costs a fortune, it’s tempting to ditch that monthly charge to save some money.

For me though, the bottom line is not that I can't afford private cover but that I can't afford not to have it. I’m keeping my health insurance. It’s an investment in myself - just in case.

Why? If I happen to be diagnosed with something serious, the blowout in public hospital waiting lists means I might not get the treatment in time and I couldn't afford private treatment out of my own savings.

It’s not a fear thing, it’s just that I insure my car and my home contents against disaster, and don’t expect anything catastrophic to happen, why would I not apply the same reasoning to my own health and wellbeing. It’s got to be worth as much to me as my ‘stuff’.

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Washer + My Personal MacGyver = Car Fixed

My car is all fixed! Car Guy came over the other night, took one look at it and said he would be able to fix it himself.

We were in need of a washer to bolt the bumper bar back onto the front of the car, and of course being a girl/renter I didn't have one in the garage. If only you could fix a car with cases of red wine, I'd be all set!

He then spied an ingenious and frugal solution. I had an old lamp with a broken shade stored in the back of the garage. Its shade was glass and had smashed during my move in January, and I wasn't able to get a replacement one. It happened to have a washer type bit on the bottom near the cord. To get to it we had to cut the power cord though so the lamp itself is toast.

I also thought the bulb had gone on the Speedometer, but he suspected I'd just turned the dimmer down accidentally (my car has a dimmer, who knew?) and sure enough that was the problem.

So rather than my expected smash repair expenses, I have a fully functional car again and it only cost me a tall cold glass of Coke Zero and a nice catch up chat with my personal MacGyver afterwards. Bargain!

I don't know what I'd do without my very own MacGyver, spend hundreds of dollars unnecessarily no doubt…

Note: wine was purchased before my debt diet commenced.

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Ongoing Moving Issues

My old real estate agent is claiming $297 in cleaning costs, $132 for general cleaning and $165 for carpet cleaning. Quite reasonable, until you realised I’d paid an end of lease cleaners $345 to do those things the day I moved out!

I moved out on the 4th January remember, and this has only come up as I’d initiated getting my bond (secuiry deposit for the non Aussies) back 10 days ago as they’d done nothing about it.

So I’ve got the cleaner sending me a receipt (I didn’t get one at the time), and the old real estate sending me the end of lease inspection report outlining all their issues with the place so I can go from there.

One of his comments was interesting, he claims he couldn’t see the lines in the carpet from the carpet cleaner, but I saw the guy actually doing the carpets. So it’s the marks they look for, not that they’re actually cleaned?

It’s most likely going to mean I need to pay the old real estate the $297 so I can get my bond back, and then chase the cleaners for compensation or a refund. Seems I might have been better off not getting it cleaned at all and then just paying the agent to have it cleaned by his people. What a waste of money.

Something to note for future reference though, get the real estates preferred cleaner to do the work next time so they’ll be happy with the results.

So that’s money that won’t be going to pay down debt or fund my emergency account this month…

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Yet Another Reason Why An Emergency Fund Is A Good Idea

Tempt the fates with a bold statement for the New Year's financial plans and they mock you.

My car had started making a really loud and weird noise last week, so I took it in to the mechanic and they called to say they've found the problem. It’s the air compressor in the air conditioning unit. They can disable the air conditioning for me in the short term and use a new belt to work around it so the alternator will still charge the battery (I think I got that right?)

This will only cost around $35 including labour; however when they were testing it to locate the noise, they found the rear brakes were locking up. Further investigation found that one of the rear brake pads was installed backwards, which caused a high spot on the drum, so they need to machine the drum to correct it. So that’s an extra $70. Still OK so far.

Unfortunately the front shocks are very spongy (I had noticed this myself I confess), so they will need to be replaced which is $550.

So all up I’m looking at $655 to get it all fixed. I’m not prepared to mess about with this sort of repair and put my safety (and potentially others) at risk, so the snowball for January will be going on that, plus the $45 a month I’ve budgeted for car repairs and servicing which should just about cover it.

I’m so pleased I am able to pay in cash, it’s only a tiny thing in the scheme of things, but every time I don’t have to use a card is a step toward being free of them forever. Even if it means they only get minimum payments this month.

I've rebooked the car in for the service I'd actually taken it in for in the first place for next month, as that’s $220 and I don’t have it without relying on credit.

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I’m Back! So Are My Bills And Debts…

Well I’m all moved in to my new apartment, even though I’m still surrounded by boxes and the week long issues with phone and broadband connections have only just been resolved.

The move cost me an absolute fortune, and I’m glad it’s behind me so I can refocus on eliminating my seemingly ever increasing debt load.

The movers cost twice as much as I expected, pushing the total costs of the move up over the $2500 mark. One of the joys of being single with no family in the city to assist with the moving process. It’s amazing how your friends disappear into the woodwork when the moving word gets mentioned.

Unfortunately, due to lack of emergency funds almost all of this had to go on the credit cards so I've started the New Year more in debt than ever.

That said, I have a shiny new budget in hand, my envelopes at the ready and payday is today, so it’s time to focus on moving my finances to a better location, now I’m all moved myself.

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How Do You Pay Your Bills?

I pay all of mine by Bpay, on payday. I don’t have that many recurring bills:

• Electricity
• Home Phone
• Car Insurance
• Contents Insurance
• Heath Insurance

The Electricity and Home Phone are actually quarterly bills, but I divided the last bill by the number of pay periods before the next one and pay that amount each month. Then once the bill comes I just pay any extra that might be due before the due date and it’s all good.

The insurance bills are the same amount each month, and my car/contents don’t cost any extra to pay by the month which is handy.

The annual bills sneak up though, like my NRMA coverage which I've just paid. So I've now divided that by 12 and will pay that much each month into my new ‘bills’ account (renamed my ‘future car’ account for now) so I’ll be covered for next year.

I also need to work out my registration, green and pink slip amounts too so I can start putting money aside for them as they’ll come up again in May. I’ll obviously need to divide those by the remaining months between now and then so it doesn't hurt too much at the time!

I don’t know why, but I’m fascinated by how people manage their bills. There have been some great posts out there lately that I really enjoyed:

• JD at Get Rich Slowly has two posts outlining why you should or shouldn't prepay your bills.
• TV Girl and Money covers making all your bills ‘monthly’ regardless of how often they actually fall. It’s a great post about creating a budget all round really.
• Paid Twice had a nice surprise recently when she opened a bill and found (after the initial shock wore off) that the amount was a credit, not owing. Wouldn't that be nice?

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New Budget Mid Month Update

I've just started my second fortnight of the new budget I started in November. It’s worked a treat! I’m so proud of myself for sticking with it and being realistic enough with the numbers when I worked it all out in the first place.

There was a minor tweak to make ongoing though, not in the amounts but in the timings of regular automatic bill payments. As I’m moving to monthly pay in December, I really noticed the bills that are currently falling due before the 15th of the month and have arranged to have them all moved to the 16th or later to ensure I’ll always be paying them on time, and from my savings account.

As for my envelopes, they are fantastic. I have them to cover the irregular expenses that need cash over an automatic payment: Petrol, Public Transport, Food, Eating Out, and Personal. I ‘restocked’ them on Friday, and found that:

• Petrol - was untouched (but the car does need filling now)
• Public Transport, - all used and within budget
• Food – had $50 left over as have been away for work and have been very frugal the last 2 weeks). Also no big ticket grocery items, like shampoo etc.
• Eating Out – all used and Personal dipped into to supplement - need to watch this one more closely
• Personal – all used up

I loved that I could buy a few bottles of wine from the winery we visited on Friday (as part of my business trip last week - stunning place McLaren Vale) with no guilt as it was from my personal money to spend as I please.

I've transferred the 'leftover' money into my emergency fund instead of snowballing it off a credit card in light of the upcoming move.

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