Saving: Best Habit Ever

Got paid last Friday; was happy to transfer ~$900 to my 2010 US travel fund. My friend has planned a wedding in August so I'll definitely have to go back during that time...if I'm still invited. A few of my friends have randomly decided to elope or hold impromptu ceremonies that I unfortunately wasn't able to attend.

That makes about $1500 in savings this month. Saving a lot has become a happy habit. It seems like I'm saving a lot lately but it never gets old! And now with my new strategy of short- and long-term savings, I feel like I'm making headway on many of my goals, and taking care of my needs in both the near and far off future.

Once the weather (finally?) warms up I'll be saving less. I want to make the most of the good weather while it's here, and that will include (hopefully) lots of traveling around, festivals, social activities outside, and time away from home, where it's easy to NOT spend money.

Trip To Otago

Pics from my trip over the blog hiatus soon! but first up: a budget roundup.

Total cost of Friday afternoon to Sunday evening trip to the Otago Peninsula with 3 other people: $188.80

I budgeted $300 but since the others were students we were doing some pretty cheap sight-seeing. No $50 tours for us!

Budget:

Food: $80 Actual: $60.53
Accomodation: $75 Actual: $57
Admission/Souvenirs: $80 Actual: $10
Car: $37.50 Actual: $42.86
Gas: $30 Actual: $18.41

Total: $188.80

We saw the blue penguins (no pics; they're sensitive to the flash and we only saw them at dusk), albatrosses, sea lions, and gorgeous coast lines. It was FREEZING, though! Lots of antarctic winds and cold temperatures on top of it--luckily we had very little rain.

We went for some pretty amazing walks around the area, too. Since work paid for the flights, this was a pretty cheap way to see New Zealand! Very happy I went but I'm now totally exhausted from the conference last week and then the crazy traveling over the weekend.

Fun Spending

I expect to spend the $2500 of my US travel, and $3000 for traveling around NZ this summer in the next 4 to 5 months. I'll be updating this list as I spend that money.



$2500 NZD travel to US in 2009 Fund; to be spent on other items--$1753 left:

• $145 for new glasses
• $68.50 for Sister's Christmas present
• $181.04 on presents for myself (they are all career-related items, though...)
• $173 NZD ($123 USD) for a 3-in-1 jacket; I now have a new down jacket AND a GoreTex rain jacket. I've wanted one for about 10 years now. Regular price, $450 NZD/$280 USD. I found this jacket 'on sale' in an outdoors shop in NZ for $300, marked down from $450 smackeroonies! The Small in the store fit me perfectly, so I put it on hold with Bivouac so I could check prices on line before I laid down $300 NZD. Altrec.com was having a sale on this exact jacket, but only in size small, and only in the color I wanted (crystal/blue jay)! Plus Free Shipping! I also think that that was the LAST jacket for that price, because when I went back to the website after ordering my jacket, it didn't offer that jacket for less than $180 USD, and only in size large and in a different color. I'm also getting 1% back on my cc, and 6% back from FatWallet on this purchase! Woo hoo, a $280 USD jacket for $114 USD. :) Again, I can use this for my work and play. I work outside a lot so this will be an awesome addition to my outdoor gear. And I'm planning to spend a lot of time outdoors this summer; I'll need that rain gear!
• new contacts, $179. Getting a contact lens fitting would cost muchos of $$, and plus my insurance here is awful in terms of dental + optometry costs--basically 0 coverage. So I ordered contacts from a Canadian company online.

$3000 NZ travel; $1772 left:

• $300 Dunedin trip at the end of Nov. Rental car already booked; $44 is my share. I'm also expecting to pay less than $60 total for accommodation, and the rest will be food and entry fees and souvenirs. Since I'm tacking this trip on the end of a conference, work paid for my flights (they were the same amount whether I left on Friday or Sunday). Actual cost: $188.80. Underage: $111. 20 (Added back into the pot)

• $240 flight to/from Dunedin next February when my friend comes to visit. This trip will have a different itinerary than the first trip to Dunedin. You can never get sick of seeing penguins (at least, I can't!). Rental car should be less than $130 for my portion, and we'll be sleeping at hostels.
  

• Trip to Vanuatu!!! next Feb. Flights + 4 nights accomodation are $799 NZD. We'll also need food and $$ for souvenirs and activities (snorkeling, volcano tour, partying). I'll spend roughly $600 more for a volcano tour to Mt Yasur. Hilariously, 1 'Vatu' is worth 0.014 NZD. However, inflation must have hit pretty hard because I'm seeing prices like '$42,000 Vatu." Eeeks!
  

• traveling with my friend in Dec., if she comes? Budget unknown...
  

The Excitement is Not Contagious.

I signed up for the KiwiSaver last week, and finally heard back from HR about it yesterday--I had to send in proof that I was a resident. I did that and they are processing it now!

Last night, I told my roommate about my new exciting investment opportunity with a certain amount of glee and happiness, and got a 'meh' response, like she was waiting to hear the punchline. I think I then dug the nerd hole deeper by explaining the rad 2% match and free $$ kick-start from the government, because even that didn't elicit any sort of reaction.

Pretty funny! But man, it would be nice to have some PF nerds around to talk to sometimes. :)

Conference Round Up

Just got back from my second conference in NZ. I went to this same conference last year in November, but this year was much better. A) I have more of a handle on the subject, having done some work in it this past year, and B) there were more young people at the conference compared to last year. Additionally, I had many friends as coworkers to hang out with last year, and so we didn't mingle with the older crowd as much, and just enjoyed ourselves by drinking together, out on the company. That was before I learned my Great Big Lesson to be careful about hanging out with co-workers. :)

This year, I didn't know any of my coworkers that went that well. I've distanced myself from the new people that come into my company, and these were the people that went. They are all very nice, but my aversion to get too close to coworkers forced me to mingle outside of familiar faces, and really, that is what conferences are all about.

As a consequence, I was offered a job in Germany, with 50 days of vacation a year! Wow, you Germans really know what's up. :) I made several contacts with companies in Australia, Japan, Chile, Kenya, Iceland, and other parts of NZ. Also, I think I have a potential friend date to go rock climbing with a guy from an Auckland-based company. I've also become involved in a sort of mentoring-type situation with a very awesome Maori girl that is trying to put together her master's project.

All in all, the conference was a rousing success. I had a lot of fun meeting new people. I thought I'd forgotten how to do that.

And I'm very happy that I kept my distance from my coworkers. I was friendly, but kept the conversation very gossip-free. As much as I love gossip, I think it is horribly damaging to people's reputations in the workplace. I really don't care if someone is having an affair, just as long as they do a good job and don't keep me from doing my work. ;) Instead of gossiping with co-workers, I come home and talk with my roommate about all of it--she'll never meet these people and can't do any damage.

Speaking of rumors, I've heard a pretty awful one from one of my bosses...she says that the CEO of my company told her to really think hard about seeking a University position, as the HR people were going to restructure my company very soon. I knew the gravy train was going to end sooner or later! My company spends ridiculous amounts of money on very unnecessary items.

I have a two year contract, so I think I'm safe, plus my other supervisor gets money from outside sources so that half of my job is incredibly secure for the next 5 years. At worst, I would have to take a pay cut and possibly go part time.

Do you Kiwis know how the contract situation works? Can I still get laid off while on one if I haven't done anything wrong?

Catch Up Weekly Spending

I forgot to do my weekly spending report the past few weeks, due to my packing and running around and the process of getting my October spending report up!


So, so belatedly that this could almost double for a monthly report, here's my spending thus far:

Groceries: $252.29, $20 of which was just on cheese. I really should do a post on that. :)
Eating out: $19.70 yummy thai and a sausage at The Great Ape Race
Cell phone: $55, for a skype top up and a V8 card topup
Misc: $223.02

Misc spending breakdown: $19 transportation (bus fare, taxis), $23 to see a play, $25 entry fee for the Ape Race (also could be considered a charity donation, but it was fun and I got to see the Auckland Zoo so it was also entertainment!), $15 for drinks with some people, $2.82 for tissues when I had a cold out in the field, $25.33 for TV to laptop cables, $47.88 for a webcam, and $64.99 for 3 pairs of shoes for my conference in the past week.

Total spending in Nov.: $1390.01
Total saved in Nov.: $509 ($200 to Roth, $70 to House downpayment, $70 to Europe fund, $169 to 2010 US travel)

Next week I'm going to another conference, so work should cover my meal costs. I'm traveling around afterward, but that $300 I budgeted for the weekend trip has already been deducted from my travel fund.

I still need to spend money on some groceries for the four days that I'm in town before the conference, and on some conference clothes and shoes for next week. I got the feeling that I didn't dress well enough for the conference this past week...even though a good portion of the conference goers dressed much more casually than I did.

My goal is to spend less than $200 for the rest of the month (not counting that travel budget), so I can save $1000 more to my 2010 travel fund.

Capital One Showdown

Yup, I called Capital One Saturday. Not at 9 am on the dot (3 am my time), but later, once I woke up.

I was calm but oh so annoyed for the entire phone call. I complained and vented and got it all out of my system about how I could be trying to use this card to find a place to sleep or to get out of a jam. Then the agent said, "It takes a while for it to register that you're in a foreign country, they should stop flagging the account after a while." At which point, MY HEAD EXPLODED. I have been here for a YEAR AND A HALF. They have flagged my account no fewer than twelve times. How long does it take?? She answered, "Oh...well...sorry. I'll write a note in your account with your email address and phone number so that they can contact you if they have questions about a transaction, instead of freezing your card."

Sigh...another note on my account. I threatened to cut up my card if this happened again.

The thing is, I don't even get why they'd freeze my account NOW. They let the whopper, the $1600 transaction, through, and all the other smaller Christmas purchases that I have made in the past month. Why now?

I am annoyed that they are trying to protect me against myself here. Why can't they just rely on me to check my account and flag any transactions that are incorrect? I think the Kiwi self-reliance and personal responsibility factor is spoiling me a bit--now I want more freedom!

Flying Off the Handle

My American banks are pissing me off!!!!! First, HSBC double transfers my money, causing a $10 overdraft fee and a balance of less than $5 in my BoA checking account. My credit card payment (for the full balance) to Capital One was scheduled to go out from my BoA account a few days later, but of course, HSBC was dragging their feet getting my money back in the proper place, so I had to downgrade my payment to just the minimum--and I barely scraped that together. I think I had 3 cents in my bank account after that cleared.

Of course, not paying my cc in full will cause me to incur interest with Capital One. So I still have to follow that up and get HSBC to agree to pay me whatever that is. I paid the remainder 2 days after the bill was due, but man...it's such a stupid thing and not my fault and it's WASTING MY TIME. I mean, I waste time all the time, but I choose to do so. The companies who have my money should be bending over backwards to keep me happy; they shouldn't be the ones wasting my time.

I am SO UNHAPPY with them. They maintain that they sent me an email notifying me about this error; I maintain that I never received one. There is no chance it was sent to my spam filter; all my settings are set up properly. HSBC has the correct email address for me. Who's the liar?

So, today, when Capital One froze my credit card account for the fifteenth time, I SNAPPED. I also had a particularly trying day at work, and all this frustration just boiled over. I charged me and my friend's trip to Vanuatu next February to Capital One today. It was the last day to get the special fare deal (my friend waited to get back to me until today). $1529 for return flights and accommodation for 4 nights in Vanuatu for 2 people--that's a good deal! Anyway, I got home and checked Capital One to see if the charge had gone through, and to see if the interest I owed due to the HSBC debacle had shown up in my account--and they have frozen my card. AGAIN. After reminding them TWELVE times that I am in NZ indefinitely and that both American and NZ activity is completely normal. I waited on the phone once while I made the customer service agent type it into my account.

When I saw that my card had been frozen, possibly causing us to lose this deal, I was extremely angry. I don't get angry very often; mostly, I just take things as they come and try to deal, but today was different. It was time to fight.

I fired up Skype to call their number, navigated through all of their stupid telephone systems, and found out that they have NO customer service agents available to fix this problem. What? I am pretty sure that most companies have 24 hour service nowadays, yes? What if I was trying to find a place to sleep? What if I needed medical care? I've told them repeatedly that I'm in NZ and not to flag transactions here. There is just no excuse.

I ended up writing an angry, annoyed email instead of calling them. But it didn't help.

I'm just so fed up. So much so that I want to stay up until 3 am here and call exactly at 9 am on the dot.

Stop testing me, banks. My best friend is an excellent corporate lawyer. This is your warning. (Don't kid yourself if you think I won't break that out in my phone call at 9 am tomorrow!)

Loving Payday.

Paid today; $609 more saved.

Why the odd amount? Well, after my mandatory monthly long-term goal saving of $340 was met, I wanted to push my US 2010 Travel savings fund over the halfway mark. $169 went to that goal from the first paycheck of the month, and to even it out to a beautiful $2650. 53% of the way there!