by Kristine | May 11, 2015 | Finance Matters
Lately, I’ve read a lot about the interest rate going down & who the real winners & losers are. It makes pretty interesting fodder during my lunch break.
I thought I’d share a bit about the my savings habits throughout the years, which I think might help out. Please read this with a pinch of salt, what works for me, might not necessarily work for you & bear in mind that I am not a licensed financial planner or do I even work in finance. Now with all the legalities out of the way, here’s my tips on building some savings.
1. Write down your earnings & spending
Do this how ever you are comfortable with – pen & paper, app or even a wall chart. I started out documenting it all in a simple notebook when I first moved to Perth & it’s evolved since, but now I use an app to quantify things. Being able to see what I spend my money on is usually the first step in constructing a functional budget.
2. Save at least 10% of your earnings
This might sound hard, but trust me it is possible. I worked 2 days a week during uni & saved 10% then, which was quite a big portion as a student. Having that 10% in a high interest savings account & term deposits (back then it was almost 7%), made my meagre savings work for me. I have a modified version of that savings plan currently. All my excess money sits in my mortgage offset account, making my money work for me again.
3. Work out a functional budget
When I say functional, I mean don’t tie yourself down with being rigid about everything you spend each week/month, but be flexible & allow yourself some leeway to buy things or services you might want every now & then. For example, I lobbed my hair off over the weekend, which isn’t normally in my budget but I allow a small amount of money to be able to do stuff with. A girl’s gotta live ya know!
Hope these tips help somewhat in sorting out your finances!
by Kristine | May 11, 2015 | Personal
If you’ve been following me on Twitter for a while, you’ll know I’ve been pretty annoyed at my long hair & have been talking about lobbing it all off. I’ve talked myself into chopping it off, but never made it to the hairdressers till this weekend.
I felt ready to make the big chop & walked into the salon to get it chopped off & my hair washed as a bit of a treat to myself. I should’ve done this earlier, but am glad I got it all chopped off. Now, I get to grow it all out again & have my natural hair colour again.
It feels like a big weight off my shoulders, quite literally. I am pretty pleased with it, but am waiting till it grows out a bit more so I can lob more layers into it 🙂
by Kristine | May 3, 2015 | Eternal Student
It has been quite the weird week this week & I’m glad it is almost over. The Sunday is half gone so far & this is my view for the next few hours:
I’ve got an assignment due on Friday & I’m not looking forward to it at all. It’s going to be a busy few weeks for me with things to go to, assignments to submit & potential jobs to apply for. I really need something like 35 hours a day to be able to do all the things I need to do.
I’ve got another stye starting to grow on my right lower eyelid, this will be the 2nd one this year & I cannot afford to call in sick for work any more with the whole casual situation. For long term followers, you will know that this was supposed to be a temp job, but has become a rolling contract which isn’t great due to the money situation. I’ve been applying for jobs since around the September mark & it’s really taking a toll as I keep getting rejection after rejection, plus not getting anywhere with it. Really needing to get past the next few weeks before taking time to apply for things more consistently as I need an out from my current situation. You would think having 2 degrees & working on a 3rd one, I’d be able to get something decent paying, but that’s hardly the case at all. I’ll have to compile the stats of jobs I’ve applied for in another post & have a look back to see how it all went.
Just need to keep breathing & keep calm for the next few weeks before I can have a bit of a rest before hitting the job application circuit again. If only I could strike the lotto, I’ll be able to do all the stuff I want to if I had the money. Enough ranting for the day, I just needed to have a bit of a breather before concentrating again. Have a good weekend!
by Kristine | May 1, 2015 | Eternal Student, Fashion, Friday Matters, Working Woman
I’ve decided to come up with hopefully a weekly series of Friday musings. It’s the day of the week I generally look forward to the most, given that I usually head over to Matt’s for the weekend & not have to worry about work for at least 2 whole days.
This Friday is slightly different as I’m at mine for the weekend due to an assignment which is due at midnight which I haven’t quite done much for. It’s a bad habit I have, leaving assignments till the last minute, but I find that I work the best under pressure. There’s a difference between pressure & tiredness & unfortunate these 2 nearly always intersect when I’m writing the assignment. No matter, I’ve got a plan to finish my assignment tonight as I’ve done a few bits & pieces. Also helps that the unit is a first year unit which is modified slightly for postgraduates. For that, I’m grateful.
The other night I tried my hand at some overnight curls for the 2nd time & it didn’t end very well. As my hair is very long & slightly dry, the curls stuck too much & I couldn’t separate them for then to look presentable. Instead, I looked like someone who had a bad day with an electric socket. I’ll spare you that picture, but he’s what I did to get those stubborn curls.
When I woke up, I found all my bobby pins stored on my bedside table which was so weird. I must’ve taken it off in the middle of the night without realising it. Heh. Lesson learned from this experiment, don’t twist but curl & don’t put it all in a high pony tail to sleep.
Also an update on my flu shot arm, it’s gotten better & I’m only left with a slight discoloured ring on my arm & it’s not sore any more. Not bad I say.
Needing to get through work today & that assignment before the weekend here it’s Borderlands time! Also time to work on the next assignment which is due next Friday. I’m betting I’ll leave it all till the last minute again 😂
Anything exciting happen during the week? Let me know in the comment s
by Kristine | Apr 29, 2015 | Health, Kristine Moments
I had my flu shot over the weekend & it’s resulted in this giant lump yesterday. It’s about as big as a standard size mug bottom. The ring around it was done by my colleague who wanted to make sure it didn’t grow any bigger.
I was not a happy camper at all. My boss has the theory that it’s a reaction indicative of how bad a flu I would have caught had I not got the injection. Old wives tale or partial truth? You be the judge to that.
by Kristine | Apr 28, 2015 | Green Thumbs, Reviews, Technology
I’m a pretty keen amateur gardener & was using the good old fashion pen & paper when it came to recording the progress of my garden or what I’ve planted where. I’ve been following the website Gardenate to have a bit of an idea on what to plant when. I have been waiting for the app to finally come to Android, and forgot all about it till recently. I’ve been building up quite a bit of credit on the Google Play Store by doing the surveys & decided that I needed to spend it soon before they expire. I might do another post at a later date explaining about the surveys for people who might be interested as I found it quite a nifty way to make some money on Google to purchase stuff. Good win-win advertising on Google’s behalf.
Anyway, I digress. I started using the Gardenate app in February or March & have found it pretty good so far.
This is the landing page you get to when you open the app. There are a few tabs on the top & they are rather self explanatory. I like the simplistic design of it all, making it rather easy to navigate around. I haven’t used the wish list yet, just cause I’ve been pretty well stocked in terms of seeds at the moment, maybe in about a year or so when my supply dwindles, I’ll try it out.
The Planting Now tab features the types of plants that can be planted according to what month it is. I take this tab with a grain of salt as I also go according to the specific seed packet as well as the present weather conditions.
This tab features the things I’ve planted & the locations. Kind of like a digital map of my veggies. And good news is that the app is available on iOS as well as Android OS.
There’s also the All Plants & Diary tabs which are pretty helpful in identifying any plants that you might consider planting & it gives details of suitable planting conditions & tips.
All in all, I quite like the app as I can always refer back to what I’ve planted when & replant stuff if they aren’t successful. They even feature a plant again button so that you can press it & it’ll document that you’ve planted something on that day.
I find it very handy to know when I can roughly expect my veggies to be harvested. The app is able to link to your calender to insert a reminder when things can be harvested. Good to know as I’ve planted some things for the first time & have no idea how long it takes.
All in all, I really like this app in all its simplicity & for all the information provided in it. I bought the app for $2.58 I think, from memory & it’s one of the better ones I’ve spent my money on. Do you use any gardening apps? Let me know in the comments below!
by Kristine | Apr 22, 2015 | Reviews, Technology
It’s without a doubt that I spend a lot of my time on my phone (my trusty Samsung Galaxy Note 4) each day, reading stuff on blogs, going on social media, as well as making phone calls. I figured, that given that the majority of you will own a smartphone, I’d review a few of my favourite apps for the Android OS. Sorry iPhone users, I don’t use one anymore & can’t review any!
I tweeted this week about the money tracker app that I recently purchased, Monefy. I tried the free version for a while & liked it & decided to fork over the money for the full version (AUD$2.58). I’ve been doing Google surveys & have earned quite a nice sum in the Play store, hence the decision to buy it was a pretty easy one.
The full version has the ability to password lock, sync to Dropbox & a few other features. I particularly like the visual display & the pastel colours of the app. I’m a bit of a visual person, and being able to see the percentage of my money being allocated to certain categories is really handy.
Please forgive the stickers, I’d rather keep my actual balance sheet private. The balance at the bottom shows you how much is left after you spend stuff. The ability to categorise spending works well for the librarian in me, there isn’t a shortage of categories to choose from either – going from house, bills, eating out, groceries, right to entertainment, taxis, toiletries & clothes. Now if you’re not like Becky Brandon (nee Bloomwood) & makes excuses to categorise dining tables from a trip away as essential items, I think you’ll survive.
You can view your spending in daily, weekly, monthly or yearly modes & even go into a budget mode where every dollar is allocated to something – including savings. I’m by no mean a financial expert but I love dealing with figures & coming up with ways to challenge myself to save more & pay off my mortgage sooner. That would be another post for another day.
The ability to be able to enter purchases or bills in advance is really handy if you’re short on time or forget to account for recurring expenditure or bills. I’ve entered my mortgage payments in a few times & also my utilities. It’s been a pretty good visual representation of how each dollar is spent. You can also enter if you paid cash or card for certain things. Helpful if you need to keep track of how much plastic gets used in planning for potential credit card spend control.
There are many more features to this app & I’ll be playing around with it some more & might report back at a later date. So far, I’d give it a 4.5/5. Just cause I can’t set recurring expenses like mortgage payments to occur. Other than that, a fantastic app!
What’s your favourite money tracker app? Let me know!
by Kristine | Apr 17, 2015 | Green Thumbs
The cold has just started to set in properly, the mercury dipped down to a chilly 11 degrees last night! The days are getting shorter & it is certainly getting harder to crawl out of bed in the dark each morning & drag myself to work.
I’ve planted my winter veggies in their mini greenhouse – kale, Brussel sprouts, purple broccoli & green broccoli. They look like they’re taking a while to make an appearance & are slowly growing in the shade.
My Mila radishes are almost ready to eat, my basil has almost stopped producing & my butter beans & snake beans are giving out the last of their wares. The peas that I’ve put in last month are making a steady appearance with the cold. I’ve created a decent amount of pesto from my basil, given that I was late in planting them out this season. I must say, I’m pretty proud of the pesto. It’s the first time I’ve made it from home grown basil.
I’ve also put in a fresh crop of silverbeet & rainbow chard as my current plants have been going for a good 5 months or so. I figured it was time to remove the old, revitalise the soil & put in some more. They were one of my better producing crops, with very little maintenance required apart from keeping the bugs away!
Being verge collection in the neighbouring council, we managed to get some nice big pots & I have made a start on more planting with them. I’ve put in the long white icicle radish & have plans for a few more items like leeks & onions just to make use of the portable space afforded with the pots.
I’ve got many other things growing in the garden too at the moment – chillis (Devil’s Brew, jalepenos & 2 other unknown types), capsicum, sweet potato, carrots, broad beans & chives to name a few. It’s going to be a pretty good growing season ahead!
What have you got in your garden this month?
by Kristine | Apr 16, 2015 | Personal
It’s been one of those weeks post public holidays that is a 5 day week but feels shorter. Anyone else with me? It’s just weird.
It hasn’t been a particularly exciting week, mainly cause things at work has been very quiet & I’m waiting to hear back on the job hunting front. The problem with having a job while looking for another is the ability to take time off work to attend interviews. I haven’t dared to apply for as many positions as I would’ve liked because of this, but the ones I’m picking & choosing are my better picks in a sense. Better to hedge my bets at this point than lose my job completely.
Here’s my week in pictures!
I found a plant growing in a drain in St Georges Terrace while walking to work one day. Someone on Instagram pointed out that things just grow where they want sometimes, which reminded me of tenacity & when there’s a will, there’s a way. Was good motivation to keep me perky in my job hunting.
Matt & I were chatting about playing Borderlands 2 this weekend when this typo came about. Haha luckily I knew what was going on, but I haven’t seen him type so many messages so quick in a while!
I’ve got a few things on my list of things to do this weekend which include:
– Studying
– Fixing some broken plugins on my blog
– Sorting out my phone data sharing issues
– Sorting out my TV warranty & repair
What have you got planned for your weekend? Anything remotely exciting? Comment below!
by Kristine | Apr 14, 2015 | Working Woman
I recently got the adult colouring book, Secret Garden & some colour pencils to give it a try. I’ve spent about 15 mins the past 2 nights colouring in & it’s been a great stress relief.
I’m forecasting hours of Zen like colouring in. The book itself is made of really think, high quality paper & there more than enough pages to last me a year or so of colouring. There are some pages which allow for you to colour in & solve some puzzles which is a great way to blow off steam. There’s just something about doing the simple act of focussing & colouring within the lines! Brings me back to my childhood days, where things were much simpler.
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