I’m sorry in advance for my tirade, but this story makes my blood boil, but I’m not on the side of the ‘full-time homemaker’. I’m not anti stay at home mums, or mums, or full time homemakers, I’m anti these two particular women for being so stupid and making all women look ridiculous by association.
“I couldn't believe it. It was like being back in the '50s. “
Honey, you don’t have a job, that’s why you didn't get the phone contract. You have no proof of income, as your husband is paying the bills (yes, even if you are the one who physically pays them), so what did you expect the poor rep in the store to do?
"Being a mum is a full-time job and it's a very hard job - the hardest job you can have - because if you get it wrong, the ramifications for everyone are enormous," Ms Fair said.
Being a full time Mum is hard, blah blah blah we all know that, but it doesn't demonstrate any financial capacity to pay off a 24mth phone contract if you have no income.
As for you Ms. Eva Cox of the Women's Electoral Lobby, the company should not be ashamed. Calling for a boycott of Vodafone is ridiculous.
To give you some perspective on why this has made me so mad, I don't work for Vodafone, in fact I work for a competitor.
We have to do Trade Practices Act - Consumer Protection compliance training every single year (even those in non customer facing roles) specifically to ensure we do not sell/develop/market dodgy products to customers or make them sign up for things they couldn’t reasonably be expected to understand (selling to persons who are mentally disabled, or deliberately misleading customers with Marketing offers, or not ensuring customers capacity to pay at point of sale).
It’s just as likely that we’d see this same woman on ACA or Today Tonight wailing we had sold her a phone and we’re the big meanies because we’re expecting her to actually pay her bills and she’s just a stay at home Mum.
You know you've seen those stories before.
As an independent woman this sort of thing infuriates me, the sense of righteous indignation for something that is completely unreasonable is what sends us back to the ‘50s, not Vodafone.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Stupid Woman Rant
Monday, 15 December 2008
How Did I Go with My 2008 Financial Goals?
It’s getting to that time of year, when I look back and see how I went with the goals I set myself this time last year.
4 of my 7 Credit Card balances paid off in full
Not quite done, but I do now only have 3 cards to pay off, not 7.
Half marks? +0.5
Personal Loan under $20,000
Done and by a fair amount, as of today the balance is $18,135 (interest for the month still to hit this before January 1st though).
A full mark is warranted here +1
Emergency Fund funded to $1,000
Done and doubled actually, I've got $2000 in my starter emergency fund. I've also set up travel, goals & car funds.
Another full mark +1
Retirement Savings at 3% personal contributions (on top of the 9% Superannuation guarantee)
Done, and just quietly could I have picked a worse year to do this? *lol*
Or maybe it was a good year as I’m getting extra units at bargain prices? I've contributed over $10K to my retirement account this year and the total balance went down $50K – Ouch!
+1 as I didn't stop contributing even though the share prices tanked. I learnt my personal risk profile is exactly as I thought it was which was surprising.
Total outstanding debt under $35,000
Move along, nothing to see here *whistles while looking away from you all*
No marks a big fat 0.
So all up I've given myself 3.5 out of 5 or 70%, which I’m pretty happy with.
Progress not perfection is the name of the game.
Thursday, 11 December 2008
I Have No Words…
I just received an email from my best friend in the UK:
I can't wrap this up any other way, so here it is in an email.
Your combined Christmas and 40th birthday present is your flight to the UK.
Happy birthday and Christmas!
So you'll need to get me dates so I can book, or I can transfer the money to you.
It’s a very green gift because no trees died to make wrapping paper to wrap it. :-)
I’m just so stunned I just had to tell someone!
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Buying Gift Cards – With Gift Cards!
I realised the other day that I had a heap of small denomination (we’re talking $950 worth) Coles Myer gift cards that are due to expire at the end of December. I got them from work for various things and from Flybuys and hadn't got around to using them.
They’re a pain to use as they are all $10 or $15 denominations, so I've been using them to pay for groceries mainly, and I really didn't want them to expire, they’re effectively free money after all.
So I took them all into my local Coles and asked if I could use them all to buy a one new large value card, and they said yes!
I now have a $600 Coles Myer card and a $350 card that I can also use at Coles Express petrol stations too, both with a 2 year expiry date.
Just in time for Christmas shopping as they’re also valid in Myer, Target and Kmart, plus Vintage Cellars for the booze, hurrah! They should last me for at least a few months food and petrol wise, so that’s a bonus for saving more money from my trip and paying down more debt.
The thing that made me laugh was the guy at the counter didn’t bat an eyelid, all he asked was ‘did you win these at bingo?’
Monday, 1 December 2008
The Ugly Truth – Day 458
Debts
- Personal Loan: -$19,136
- Credit Card 1: -$5,681
- Credit Card 2: -$6,147
- Credit Card 3: (transferred to Card 4)
- Credit Card 4: -$15,719
- Credit Card 5: (paid in full)
- Credit Card 6: (paid in full)
- Credit Card 7: (paid in full)
- Credit Card 8: -$4,750
Savings
- Emergency Fund: +$2,000
- Car Fund (Maintenance & Registration): +0
- Short Term Goal Fund: +$1,250 (Current goal is new bedroom furniture)
- Home Deposit Fund ($60,000 Goal): +$1,000
- UK Tour Fund ($10,000 Goal): +$1250
Total: -$51,433
Debt reduced from last month: +$321
Debt reduced from Sep 2007: +$5,339
Another tiny change downward this month, as I had to get the car serviced and it cost heaps, plus pay the NRMA membership.
I need to make more of a dent in those balances down though, it’s driving me mad.
I’ll be tracking my spending more tightly over the next few months to see where it’s all going.
I did manage to add another $250 to my travel fund and also my short term goal fund though so that’s cool.
My goal for this month is to finally crack through the $50K barrier, it’s been far too long coming.
Roll on payday.
