Don’t Pay Too Much For Your Greenslip

It’s that time of year again. Car registration.

I don’t know what I was thinking buying a car so close to my birthday, but I did and now I have to live with that.

Greenslips or Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance is a form of car insurance that protects vehicle owners and drivers from legal liability for personal injury to any other party in the event of a personal injury claim. CTP Greenslip insurance does not cover damage to property or other vehicles. It is compulsory and is a condition of motor vehicle registration in NSW, Australia.

CTP insurance is provided by a 7 insurers (AAMI, Allianz, CIC Allianz, GIO, NRMA, QBE, and Zurich) who set their prices in a competitive market.

They take factors into account such as:

• Your driving record
• The age of all regular drivers of your car
• The age of your car
• The type of car you have
• What other kinds of insurance you have (comprehensive or third party property insurance for example)
• How you use your car (private, business or a combination of both eg: pizza delivery on weekends)
• Whether or not it’s a renewal or a new green slip

How this weighs out for each insurer is a reflection of the risk profile associated with those factors for each company.

I received a renewal offer from the NRMA this week with a quote of $614.43. Now I know I can do better than that.

The NSW Motor Accident Authority provides a free Green Slip price comparison service on its website which will quote the price from all 7 insurers in less than 5 minutes based on your details.

So I entered all my details and received a quote from QBE for exactly the same coverage for only $337.85! That a saving of $276.58 for only a few minutes filling out an online form!

Not too shabby.

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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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A Festive Frugal Moment

I've done most of my Christmas shopping now, which is a relief. The best part is I've been able to use my Coles Myer vouchers for almost all of it, so I’m not out of pocket at all so far. Yay!

I was in Target last night and felt the familiar pang of wanting to buy a new book. I managed to resist, after spending a good half an hour in the book section reading that backs of many options.

I was getting my shopping out of the car when I got home and noticed a bag under my passenger side seat which wasn't part of my shopping, and when I pulled it out, lo and behold it was a book I’d bought months ago & had forgotten to take out of the car (pre debt diet naturally).

I was quite spun out actually. In case you’re wondering, it was Chart Throb by Ben Elton.

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Financial Goals For 2008

I’d set some goals to achieve by September 2008 (the anniversary of my starting my debt diet):

• 4 of my 7 Credit Card balances paid off in full
• Personal Loan under $20,000
• Emergency Fund funded to $1,000
• Retirement Savings at 3% personal contributions
• Total outstanding debt under $35,000

I've realised now that these are pretty ambitious targets for September 2008, what with moving expenses etc, but a girl has to have a goal, and if I can nail all of these by December 2008, I’ll be thrilled.

I’m also looking at that retirement savings line. I already contribute 1%, but that extra 2 % may actually go into a managed fund instead of Super, or into a First Home Saver Account if the government kicks the scheme off this year instead.

From January 2008, I’m also going to start tracking and reporting (in my Ugly Truth posts) the amount of debt interest I’m paying out. I've avoided seeing the real cost of my financial choices to date, and it’s time I face up to the impact.

If I’m sticking to my plan, the number will go down every month as the balances go down, which will provide extra motivation.

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Someone Is Planning a Big Christmas Party…

Now there are ways to save money at Christmas, and ways to save money at Christmas.

Stealing 16 tonnes of ham and bacon from a Sydney warehouse, leaving the message ‘Thanks, Merry Christmas’ daubed on a wall, is impressive in itself.

Combining it with the 450 kegs of beer and stout stolen from the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, just makes it appear there's a party about to happen somewhere in my book.

I have no clue as to what they intend to do with that much pork product (I've got a pretty good idea about the Guinness though) but I sincerely hope;

1. they get caught and,
2. it doesn't go to waste.

I also hope the poor owners of the businesses are insured, it’s hardly the spirit of Christmas to rob people of that sort of thing at this time of year, any time actually.

In my world, my family are all adults now except my nephew; so we've all agreed that no one family group should have to foot the bill or do all the work at Christmas. We’re all allocated something to bring for the 12 of us (I’m on fancy salads this year) to spread the load.

How are you planning (legally of course!) to save money on your Christmas meals?

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Free Ikea! – Well For Me Anyway

Had a great score at work this morning.

The group that sits next to mine had a delivery of about 40 of these Benjamin stools from Ikea. Turns out they thought the PR company they use had hired them for a recent event, but in fact they’d bought them, then sent them to the office after the event.

So they decided to offer them to anyone who wanted to take them. I’d actually been eyeing these off in the catalogue for ages but had never got around to buying them, They would make great casual side tables, plus extra seating for visitors if you’re having a party or BBQ.

So I snaffled 4 of them. Then, one of the girls in my team who took 2 for herself decided she didn't want them after all, so I now have 6, in exactly the colour I would have bought anyway, and saved myself $174!

Bargain.

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Be Smart This Christmas And "Yule'' Have Reason To Celebrate

Sorry, couldn't resist! It’s officially the festive season for me as I've received the annual ‘keep yourself nice and don’t grope people at work functions' email from the HR department. It was sent to the whole company by the way, not just me!

I use it as my e-Christmas card to all my ex-company colleagues who are now working elsewhere. Saves money on cards and postage!

My tips for spending less at Christmas:

• Unless you’re a card person and have been doing them for years and love them, I'd skip the whole process. I read and hear so many people feeling guilty about not getting their cards out.
• Do you need to buy presents for that many people? Cull your list of non-essential gifts. Do you really have to get something for your dry cleaner and dentist?
• Buy one decent present instead of lots of gifts for people that you do want to buy for. Even go so far as to ask them what they might like if it’s appropriate.
• Alternatively, can you give the gift of your time and/or expertise?

I've really culled my Christmas spending over the last few years. My sister and I pushed for the extended family to adopt the ‘Secret Santa’ concept for the adults a couple of years ago and it’s working well. Before that, as the only single I was buying twice as many presents as everyone else!

Now my nephew pulls the names out of a hat in November each year and my sister emails everyone (or calls Nan/Great Aunt) with their person. There’s a $50 limit, so everyone gets something nice, but it’s no strain to anyone (I've put it out on the family grapevine that I’d love a SodaStream).

My nephew, being the only kid in the family at the moment (before he came along the youngest person at the ‘kids table’ was 26!) is excluded from this of course, so everyone buys for him. My sister has got him into the family tradition of the ‘Christmas list’, and he's still young enough to think 'How did we know?' when he gets something from the list that wasn't from his Mum or Dad.

Apparently he’s been cutting out pictures from catalogues for a while now, and if he sees something he particularly likes he’s turned to my sister and said “we’ll have to tell Aunty Debtdieter about this one”. I know I shouldn't laugh, but I think it’s hilarious.

My sister and I used to joke that when he was a baby we should take a photo of him every year on my knee holding one of my credit cards instead of one with Santa.

That doesn't seem quite so amusing these days…

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New First Home Owners' Policy

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) swept to power in the Federal election last night, and it will be interesting to see if their housing and broadband policies manifest. I have a particular interest in both (both personally, and one professionally). I’ll focus on the housing policy in this post though.

It seems that owning a home in Australia is becoming more an more difficult. According to the Bureau Of Statistics:

• The average home now costs seven times the average annual wage - up from four times the average annual wage just ten years ago;
• Nationally, first home buyers are now spending 31.7 per cent of their total income on mortgage repayments – up from 17.9 per cent in 1996;
• The proportion of homes being bought by first home owners declined from 21.8 percent in June 1996 to 17.1 percent today.

If you are buying your first home, you may be eligible for benefits under the First Home Owners Grant Scheme here in Australia. The Scheme was established to assist eligible first home buyers to purchase their first home by offering a $7000 grant.

The First Home Plus Scheme (which varies from state to state) also provides generous exemptions or concessions on transfer duty and mortgage duty for eligible first home buyers.

For example, if you buy a property valued up to $500,000 in NSW, 100% of the duty will be waived. If I was looking to buy a property with a purchase price of say $350,000, that’s a saving of $11,240 in duties.

Unfortunately these schemes have become been part of the reason housing prices have got so expensive, especially in major cities.

The ALP want to introduce an additional scheme called the First Home Saver Account.

Essentially, people will be allowed to make pre-tax contributions from their salary up to $50,000; which will be taxed at 15% and then invested in a superannuation style account. From what I've read on the flyer, couples will be allowed to combine their respective savings!

Deposits do have to be saved over a 4 year period (which may rule out some people, possibly even me), and of course while returns may be greater than an online savings account (plus the benefits of pretax investing); it is also possible returns could be lower too as with any investment.

I think this policy for first home owners is just stunning. It is such an incredible idea for promoting homeownership and getting people investing their money to benefit from management and compounding interest, without simply throwing money at people and artificially inflating home prices.

Anything to increase financial literacy in this country can only be a good thing. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

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Should I Try And Move My Personal Loan?

I was looking at my HR site for more work benefits to take advantage of, and I've found one that I really think I should investigate further.

We have offers from Citibank called 'Citibank At Work' where we get discounted rates over and above those available to the general public. This one caught my attention:

Citibank Personal Credit

Consolidate your debts with a low 5.9% for life on balances you transfer and a great 12.99% p.a. ongoing interest on purchases and cash advances.

• $0 Transaction fees and ongoing fees
• 5.9% for life on balance transfers
• Low 12.99% p.a. ongoing
• Annual fee of $69

If I compare this to my current personal loan it seems like a really good deal, one that could save me over $3000 interest over the course of paying it off.

Current Loan

• $9 monthly ongoing fee = $108 per year
• 13.45% p.a. (variable)

I would of course actually have to get approved for the full remaining amount of my personal loan, and I have no idea how tough Citibank are, but I think it’s definitely something to look at.

It’s my largest single balance and will be the last debt I pay off, so if I can save interest accumulating along the way then that’s a good thing right?

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Favourite ‘Frugal Friendly’ Fast Food

Made at home naturally! I made this last night and froze the other 3 serves for lunches or home made ‘ready meals for later in the week.

Pasta 'Bolognaise' – 4-5 Generous Serves

• 500g Packet Pasta $0.49
• 500g Beef Mince $2.50
• 500g Jar Pasta Sauce $1.89
• 1 Decent Sized Onion $0.62
• ½ Pack Grated Fresh Parmesan $2.09

I’m sure most folk would know what to do with these ingredients, but just in case:

1. Put a pot of water on to boil for the pasta.
2. Chop and sauté the onion in approx 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
3. Add the mince and brown, breaking up any lumps as you go.
4. Add the pasta sauce. I also add a splash of water into the sauce jar and give it a shake to get the extra sauce out and add that in too.
5. Once the water is boiling, add the pasta and cook to directions, usually 11-13 minutes.
6. Drain the pasta when ready, pop it back into the pot and pour the sauce over the pasta
7. Mix it all together, dish up into serves and add grated parmesan.
8. Eat with gusto!

Total Cost = $7.59 or $1.90 (4) - $1.52 (5) per serve. Bargain!

What I love about this one is it’s so quick, yet so comforting and satisfying. Not to mention easy on the food budget!

This in no way resembles the proper Spaghetti Bolognaise my Mum makes of course. That was from scratch and took hours, and was/is truly awesome.

Do you have a favourite frugal meal you make regularly? I'd love to hear about it!

Do You Get What You Pay For?

I've been fascinated by generic or home brand items for some time now, but haven’t been buying them nearly enough. Coffee with my work colleagues last week sparked a lively discussion about buying generic items. Interestingly enough we all do, and are all quite proud of ourselves for doing it!

As the conversation went through what we would or wouldn't buy, we were debating whether or not the fact we’re in marketing means we’re able to see through the hoopla & branding and able to just buy what suits our needs. I think this is true, but I also feel that frugal is the new ‘black’, to borrow from the fashion vernacular.

Rising interest rates, high petrol prices, and ever increasing consumer debt means more and more people are looking for ways to cut back on expenses. Throw in climate change and living ‘green’ into the mainstream consciousness and we’re about to hit critical mass. Look at the proliferation of PF blogs out there for example (this one included!).

If the 80’s were all about ‘Greed Is Good’ then I think the second half of the ‘Noughties’ is shaping up to be all about ‘Frugal is Fab’ ;-)

As for my own story, before I started on my ‘debt diet’ I was aware of and used certain generic items, but I certainly didn't use them to stick to a budget or for anything remotely resembling frugality. I've always thought it was silly to buy name brand soda water for some reason; it’s just fizzy water after all.

To this day I think of chocolate biscuits as being a status symbol of sorts, as we never had them growing up, while my friends in the next street always did (my first ‘Jones’ perhaps?). I have a friend who feels the same way about frozen meat pies!

I still have a barrier with certain things at this point, such as shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, make up and deodorant, but I’m at least cutting back to cheaper brands or keeping my eye out for specials.

The top 10 things I now almost always buy generic (unless the name brands are cheaper) are:

• Milk
• Sugar
• Water Crackers
• Paracetamol/Ibuprofen
• Laundry Soaker
• Washing Powder
• Fabric Softener
• Scourer Sponges
• Plain/Chocolate Biscuits – strangely enough I don’t buy chocolate ones that often!
• Soda/Mineral/Tonic Waters

I’ve tried all of these over the last few months and I genuinely don’t notice any difference, and in some cases they’re actually better than the brand name ones!

Something to watch out for though are ‘fancy’ store brands, they’re not always the cheapest option (yes, I’m looking at you Woolworths Select, taunting me with your delicious white chocolate and macadamia biscuits).

Louise at My Journey To Eliminate Debt has a great post about milk that relates to this, (I personally can’t stand powdered milk and refuse to drink it under any circumstances), but if it works for you and your family you can save a fortune!

Are you a ‘generic’ shopper? Are you like me where there’s a limit and certain things you would never buy generic? Or can you just not bring yourself to buy the stuff at all?

Getting Rid Of Over Limit/Late Fees For Good

One of the ways I’m still throwing good money after bad is through bank account and credit card fees. Especially those mind-blowingly expensive late and over limit charges.

For October 2007 alone I paid out $55 in over limit fees, plus $12 in transaction fees.

This is all on top of the $400+ in interest payments of course, and those charges will incur even more interest until I can get these cards paid off for good. This is a ridiculous and completely preventable situation for me to still be dealing with.

I’m making sure this ends now by getting all my cards back under their limits with my first pay yesterday, having all minimum payments, plus the $10 extra per month I pay on each, paid into them on or before November 16. Then the last pay on November 30 will work as a buffer going into December.

Blueprint For Financial Prosperity says I shouldn't be paying any fees on transaction accounts at all, so I’m also going to consider shopping around for a new everyday account. I need something with unlimited free online transactions though, as that’s how my payments and budget distributions are set up.

No Credit Needed has an excellent series on 33 Days and 33 Ways to Save Money and Reduce Debt, which got me thinking about how I too could work Eliminating Fees, which is day 1 of 33.

A Fantastic Reminder And A Reward!

Got home last night to find two things in the post that made me happy, especially after having to post those October numbers.

First, I received my final statement from that first credit card I'd paid off in September, showing the account closed and a $0 balance. Nice!

Second, I opened an otherwise unassuming envelope and found that Flybuys had sent me a free $20 gift voucher simply for shopping at Coles over the last couple of months. I hadn't had to use any points for it, it was just a offer they had running that I'd forgotten about. Nicer!

I'll pop that aside for Christmas methinks.

I'm on a work offsite today, so other than train fare into the city and back it's all paid for. Hurrah!

November Challenges

Well I’m 2 months into my ‘debt diet’ and not unlike a weight loss diet I've come up against challenges that threatened to derail my efforts. That said, it’s simply a matter of picking myself up, dusting myself off and keep moving forward one dollar at a time.

Now that my monthly pay doesn't kick in until December, there’s 3 pay periods this month; which should really assist in getting that debt snowball rolling again and gathering some momentum before the end of the year. Not to mention the pay rise kicks in from now too!
I’m two weeks ahead in the rent from last month, so will use my first November pay to really get a good head start on that snowball.

I’m also kicking off my new simplified budget, which I’m excited about using in real life.
Last months unplanned expenses really showed me the need for at the very least a starter emergency fund of $1000, so I’m looking to get that underway too.

I've got two weekends away, a work trip, and my companies Christmas party this month too, which should all throw some challenges (or at least opportunities to make some good decisions) my way.

November in a nutshell:

• Maximise debt snowball payments this month
• Live to new budget
• Stash $300 into starter emergency fund
• Send off 'find my super' paperwork and consolidate all my superannuation into one account

Ugly truth post to come…

Financial Goals

These are my top 5 financial goals for the next 3-5 years

• All Credit Card balances paid off in full


• Personal Loan paid off in full


• Emergency Fund fully funded (my goal is $25,000)


• Retirement Savings 9% personal contributions to match company contributions


• Deposit for a House/Unit at least 10-15% (at this point my goal is $35,000)
  

For September 1, 2008, I’m aiming for the following milestones

• 4 of my 7 Credit Card balances paid off in full


• Personal Loan under $20,000


• Emergency Fund funded to $1,000


• Retirement Savings at 3% personal contributions


• Total outstanding debt under $35,000

Work Perks - Wishlist Points

At work we have an internal rewards and recognition programme. You can nominate people for displaying one of the company values within your division, and if approved by their manager they receive Wishlist points to redeem for anything from BBQ’s and trips to the Great Barrier Reef, through to books or a silicon case for your iPod.

I seem to do quite well out of this scheme, as I work on multiple projects at any one time, so have many interactions with people all over the business. I guess I’m also do something right too!

I want to make the best use of my points to help me meet my debt reduction goals, but still have some fun with them too. So if I use them to buy ‘luxuries’ such as magazine subscriptions and things like that, so I can enjoy them and not spend a cent! I’m lucky that the two magazines I actually buy (Real Living and Delicious) are both available on the scheme.

This will save me (or at least avoid me spending) $71.50 for the Real Living & $76.45 a year for the Delicious off their cover prices.

The other bonus is I can use these points to start my Christmas shopping, plus my sister’s birthday which is coming up soon too.

Bargain!

September In Review

Savings Identified And Actioned

• Cancelled Fitness First gym membership = $900 a year saving
  
• Cancelled QuickFlix membership = $443 a year saving
  
• Cancelled VideoEzy Unlimited membership = $360 a year saving
  
• Started brown bagging breakfast = $1230 a year saving
  
• Started brown bagging lunch = $1645 a year saving
  
• Started using public transport to get to work = $3970 a year saving

Big Wins

• Paid off credit card number 5 on the 22nd September
  
• Got a new job that pays 10.6% more than my current salary! Starts on the 22nd October.

I will now snowball payments onto credit card number 7 from October. I'm on my way, Woohoo!

Taking Advantage Of Work Benefits - Mobile Phone

I'm really lucky that as part of my job I get my mobile phone charges paid for. This saves me a fortune as you would expect. I haven't even seen a bill in years.

I work for a telecommunications company so have a good understanding of how people in Australia use their phones and the benefits available if you know what to look for.

When you sign up to a mobile phone provider (or signing up to a new one if you’re changing companies), it's really important that you read and understand what you're signing up for, before signing anything! It's a contract the same as any other contract, so please read the details.

Make sure you understand what you get for your commitment, flag falls, rates, cancellation fees, the total cost of the contact etc. If you don't understand or are unsure about something, don't sign anything until you've had your question answered to your satisfaction.

Before you use your phone to enter competitions, download ring tones, send photos or SMS people, make sure you understand what you'll be paying. Premium services attract premium charges. This particularly applies to using your mobile to access data service or send emails (if you have a newer handset with these capabilities).

There are also a number of ways you can save money on your mobile bills. Find out who you call that are with the same phone company. Most companies offer same network discount rates or even free calls on the same network at certain times of the day. An important thing to note is some of the smaller providers actually lease their network from the big companies (Telstra and Optus) so the benefits may even extend past your specific company.

If your bills are still too high, it might be that you're on the wrong plan. Call the customer service department and get them to check if you might be better off on another plan. Plans change all the time and if your current plan no longer suits, see what’s available to meet your new needs. A word of warning on this one though, make you’re your usage patterns has changed for a good 3 months, if it's just a one month blip, you may want to stay where you are as often if you switch to a new plan you may not be able to go back to the old plan if your usage pattern changes back.

Remember, if you do happen to receive an unexpectedly high mobile bill, you should always contact your service provider in the first instance. They really want to keep your business if at all possible, so why not take advantage of it!

To recap:

• Read everything and understand it before signing anything
• Ensure you know what you paying before you use your phone
• Take full advantage of same network call rates and free call times
• Make sure your phone plan still meets your ongoing usage patterns by reviewing every 3 months
• Always call your current providers customer service call centre before cancelling
• If you have a very high bill you can't pay, call them straight away to make payment arrangements
  

Brown Bagging Update

Today's shop was a personal best to date, only $18.13 for the whole weeks lunch fixings, bargain! Granted there were some leftovers from last week, and I'm pretty much stocked for butter and condiments these days, I was still chuffed though. My deli meats for my rolls came to less than $2 for the whole week!

There were people in the kitchen today actually watching us make up today's lunch, asking us questions about our routine, while admiring our lunches and being shocked at how little it all cost. I think we're becoming quite famous, well on our floor at least.

One girl said we should get our own cooking show!

Gift Cards To The Rescue!

I was in Coles yesterday doing my weekly shop, standing in the checkout queue and a thought stuck me 'I wonder if I can pay for my shopping with gift vouchers?'

So I whipped out all the gift cards I had in my wallet. I seem to accumulate a lot of these somehow, mainly through work rewards and incentives, but I've also got in the habit of claiming them back from my credit card reward schemes whenever I've got enough points.

Sure enough, my shopping came to just under $50 and 3 x $20 Coles Myer vouchers later, I walked out with cash in my wallet and my credit cards untouched. Sweet!

My mission this week is to locate all the gift cards I can find around my work desk, at home and in my handbag and see what I've actually got to play with.

I think I'd always 'saved' them to buy 'nice things' or 'treat myself' but didn't get around to actually using them, so now I can use them to buy things I actually need, and save my hard earned cash for paying off extra debt!

I really don't need any more stuff, so I think this is a far more effective use for them. What do you think?