October in Review

October has not been the heady delight of that first month of managing my money, which is to be expected.

First of all let’s see how I did with my:

October Challenges

• Track every cent outgoing for the month of October - didn't happen
• No use of credit cards in October - didn't happen
• Pay 3 weeks rent each pay in October - DONE!
• Stash $200 extra each pay in October for living expenses during salary switch – didn't happen

Savings Identified and Actioned

Switched to staff broadband plan = $660 a year saving

Big Wins

No Big Wins this month, but some are not too far away

Little Wins

• Actually opened my superannuation statement for the first time in years and discovered it’s performing well, and I’m further along than I thought
• Added 1% of my pre-tax salary to the 9% government contribution to boost it to an even 10% ongoing
• Found AUS$165 in foreign currency in my travel wallet to put towards credit card debts
• Started a new job on the 22nd that comes with a substantial pay rise
• Created a new budget to take into November
• Set some smart short and long term goals for my finances, with an initial focus on September 1st 2008
• Identified I have too much stuff and need to throw/give away or sell a large amount of it

Hurdles and Dips

Paid over $1000 to get my house in order – literally (and needed to put most of that on credit cards)

Money Quote For The Day

There are people who have money and people who are rich. ~ Coco Chanel

I think I'd like to be both if that's OK Coco?

New Budget Strategy – Actually Having One!

The thing that I’ve always struggled with when trying to budget is having set amounts aside for all these tiny sections of a ‘traditional’ budget. Then I came cross this post on Get Rich Slowly, called Budgeting for Non-Budgeters: The 60% Solution. It links to an article on MSN Money where Richard Jenkins explains the concept in some detail.

As November is a magical month with 3 pay periods I feel it’s a good time to test this out and tweak it to suit my situation, especially before I move over to monthly pay in December.

Tax is taken out of my pay before I get it, and my superannuation (a total of 10% now I added the extra 1% due to the pay rise) is pre-tax. I’ve fashioned my new budget on net salary for this reason rather than gross as outlined in the article.

Part 1

My budget breaks down like so:

• Superannuation - 10% of my gross salary
• Tax - 28% of what’s left after that

This gives me my 100% take home pay, which is broken down into:

Everyday Expenses

• Rent
• Electricity
• Car, Contents & Health Insurance
• Phone
• Petrol
• Public Transport
• Debt Minimum Payments
• Food
• Charity

These total 75% of my take home pay

Long Term Saving/Debt Reduction

• Debt Snowball
• Baby Emergency Fund

These total 18%

Short Term Savings

• Holidays, Gifts etc

This is 2%

Fun Money

• This is for me to spend on whatever I like, such as getting my nails done, haircuts, going out, general fun stuff

This is 5% for a total of 100%

Part 2

Further to this I’ll be using the envelope method for:

• Petrol
• Public Transport,
• Food,
• Eating Out, and
• Personal

I even found a pack of envelopes in my spare room so there’s no cost to try this out!

Does Daylight Saving = Cost Savings?

Are you a fan of daylight savings? I certainly am, and not just because there’s a ‘savings’ in there! :-)

It’s been a long time coming this year and for the last 3-4 weeks it’s been getting light so early that Angus has been waking me up as early as 4am!

So sleeping in until what is now 7am this morning felt like quite the luxury, even with the clocks going forward so we'd actually ‘lost’ an hour.

Getting a good night’s sleep again will help me be more alert and focused when I get to work, which can only be a good thing in a new job. In the last week everyone in the team was a bit 'off' and we’re all convinced it was the sun being up too early in the morning.

The other advantage of daylight savings is it will be light when I’m coming home from work, so I’ll feel a lot happier walking home, which will save bus fare at least a few times a week.

If I walk home 10 times a month, that’s one less $13.60 TravelTen I need to buy. Walk home 20 times a month (basically every work day) and that’s 2 I don’t need, for a saving of $27.20 a month, plus some free exercise. Bargain!

It’s something for me to consider, maybe every second day to start with, then see how I go…

Ouch! October Is Not Shaping Up Well At All

Just started running some of my numbers for what October is going to look like (for my Ugly Truth post on November 1) and I think I may have in fact INCREASED my debt this month, putting me back higher than when I first started on September 1!

Not good at all.

I know that November will be a good month, with the extra pay period, and the salary increase to top things up, but I never thought I’d see my numbers go up, and my first months effort get completely wiped out.

November is going to have to be a very focused, frugal 30 days to maximise those opportunities I do have to come out ahead over all.