Hopefully this week (or next week, depending on how much interest is added on the 8th) my personal loan should be at UNDER $4000. How exciting. I am then roughly $300 off Goal # 2.

$730.28 away from Goal # 3 for my House Deposit/Uni Savings.

$94.79 away from Goal # 1 for my Emergency Fund.

$205.51 away from Goal # 2 for my Gifts & Holidays Fund.

Unfortunately however the Gifts & Holidays Fund will have some setbacks this month. I will be taking $50 out for a wedding gift, and also $113.12 out as I am taking a Friday off for the wedding, and that's how much I would have earnt for the day.

It's a setback, but that's the whole point of it being there, so in a way it's kind of exciting to use it for what it's meant to be used for!

In other news, I think I might start the $20 challenge again this week. I will be adding the extra money to my House & Uni Fund, for anything positive that I do financially or health-wise.

I will also be adding to my debt any small purchase amounts like takeaway coffee (for example) that could have been avoided, so essentially when I make a stupid purchase I will be paying for it twice

Well, it's 5am here and I have to run for work now. Take care everyone!

tomorrow my plane leaves at around 10am, and I won't be blogging for around 3 weeks. I am so happy to finally be going on a holiday, and am going to make sure I enjoy every minute of it as it will probably be my last holiday for quite some time. atleast, my last holiday where I don't have to fret about how much everything is costing me!

in other news, i have decided to go to the parklife festival this year. artists include:
plump djs
ajax
van she
peaches
dizzee rascal
goldfrapp

and heaps of others. it is $99 for the early bird tickets, I am going to try and make sure I get them because they are $109 afterwards. (i'll add the savings to my challenge money )

Today I paid the remaining $84.67 on my CC # 2 and now I officially have NO BALANCES on ANY of my CC's.
Which means my only debt is my personal loan. Technically I never actually had CC 'debt', as I always paid the full amount at the end of the cycle, but I always had a balance. So it's a very freeing feeling. I like transfering the money as soon as I spend it, I think I will keep doing it, it makes me feel on top of things.
I have set up a $60 transfer into my bills account for the next three weeks, as I probably won't have much access to the internet over my holiday. On Monday night I am going to adjust my automatic transfers for my online savings accounts as well, and transfer ALL of my holiday savings into my main account. I have worked hard for these savings, so I am not going to feel guilty for whichever way I decide to spend the money.
I am already a low spender type of person. I wouldn't say I'm especially frugal, and I like to have fun (sometimes a bit TOO much) however I am not the type of person to blow a paycheck on shoes or clothes, nor my holiday savings on a bunch of crap I won't use. I know if I have any money left over I will put it to good use as well.
Last holiday, I was with a friend who tried to convince me to buy something from a Country Road store, even though I wasn't really that interested, I only said I liked some of their clothes. Her reasoning? "you work hard, you deserve it."
deserve what? a piece of overpriced clothing that i only sort of like?
sheesh.

I am looking forward to seeing the SATC movie, haven't seen it yet. I was waiting to see it with my step-mum. She has already seen it but would like to see it again.
Oooh, can't wait! Only five more days to go!

In other news:
I got some bread rolls from work today (FREE!) so we are having burgers tonight for dinner:
Homemade beef rissoles, lettuce, tomato, cheese, cucumber, pineapple and beetroot.
Yum!
Bread rolls are normally 70c each, so I am adding 70c to my challenge, as well as $1 for a NSD today. New balance: $77.98

Last night we went out for dinner and I spent $2.20 on a drink and $12.50 on a pasta dish. It was delicious; a garlic, chicken and mushroom fettucine pasta. I think I did quite well for the night.

That's all my news for now!

BF just finished doing a floor for a lady in her house, and when he finished she gave him and the other worker $50 cash (ontop of the $5000+ for the floor) for doing such a good job!
i thought that was very nice of her.

With the money Bf treated me and him to a movie 'date' and dinner, which was nice. We haven't been on a 'date' for over a month, and then before then it would have been about 6 months... The movie was $8 a ticket (saved $6.80 each by using a club card) and our meal came to $38.60 and we had a drink to take in to the movies (mine was $2.40 and BF's was $2.90). I gave BF $10 for the extra money. (It came to $59.90).

I am adding $6.80 to my challenge money for using our cinebuzz club card and getting a discount on the movie ticket. I am also adding 78c for buying an extra bottle of tomato passata sauce when it was on special saving 33c, and the ricotta cheese was on special from $4.09 to $3.64 saving 45c. Also my automatic payment to my Uni/House Fund went through yesterday, so that is another $20 to my challenge fund!

New Challenge Total: $56.28

I am also adding $5.44 to the Stupid Vault as BF and I did not really need to buy desserts for the week but we bought some gourmet icecream and some others. Although we saved around $1.50 as they were both on special! It is still going to the Stupid Vault though!!!

New Stupid Vault Balance: $9.24

Well today I completely cleared the balance of CC1, so I won't have to worry about that for awhile. I paid some off CC2 (anz) and have $121.20 to go. Once that is cleared I will be making sure that everything I charge to that card is paid pretty much straight away (I use it for the rewards scheme, but it has a 20% interest rate). CC1 (Virgin) has a lower rate of 14% and is my favourite card (I know it's terrible to have a favourite credit card - but I do!). It is mainly the excellent customer service I get from the company and the flexibility they have, and basically how everything always goes so smoothly - there are never any hickups. Does anyone else have a 'favourite' CC?

Well today I spent $4 on a coffee with a friend, $3.25 on a recipe magazine, and $4 on Vitamin E Cream (it is what I use as moisturiser - best I've ever used). I also went to the library and picked up four books, so they should keep me busy for awhile.

Unfortunately for my savings (or debt) I don't regard any of those purchases as stupid enough for the Stupid Vault (see previous entry if you have no idea what I'm talking about). My reasoning is that a magazine I would normally buy (but have not been lately) is around $8, and my buying a recipe magazine is a closer step toward saving as it advocates cooking for yourself, and is more than half the price of a regular fashion magazine. The coffee, while sort of avoidable, is a small price to pay for catching up with a friend (ok, we might work together... but still).

I am adding the savings of buying the recipe magazine instead of the fashion magazine to my $20 challenge ($4.70 saving), as well as 50c for drinking 1.5L of water today. That brings my total up to $28.20

I was naughty and bought a muffin for morning tea. That will teach me for not putting something healthy in my bag this morning! $3.80 - gone!

I have decided to copy Amber (www.veronak.savingadvice.com) and add the same amount to my debt (only it will be my personal loan, not my credit card debt).

From now on, any stupid purchases (yes, I said stupid) will be added to my Personal Loan. I'm going to try and keep a running tally, like the $20 Challenge, only I will call it the Stupid Vault.
Any pro-activ choices, purchases etc will be added to the Challenge money.

It makes more sense really:

Challenge Money = Savings = Good
Stupid-ness = Debt = Bad

Challenge Balance: $23.00
Stupid Vault: $3.80

Now only if the rest of our lives where that simple to work out, eh?!

Yesterday I only spent money on petrol ($23) and milk ($2.39L) so I am adding 50c to my challenge money as I see it as a partial NSD - as in I only spent money on neccesities.

A friend of mine took me and my little brother and sister to a resort near our house where her friend works, and we snuck in and had a go on the resort lagoon's catamarans (we actually got stuck in the middle of the lagoon as there was no wind and then the friend had to come out in her boat and push us back in), fed some fish, and then jumped on this giant trampoline in the middle of the lagoon. It was heaps of fun, and FREE!

well, today I am starting my $20 challenge officially.

i am having a virtual NSD - i have to buy milk, but that will be the only thing. because it is not an ACTUAL NSD i am only adding 50c.
i am going to walk to the shop to get it instead of driving, so i am adding $1 for that.

i am also adding a health and fitness part to the challenge. i am adding 50c for my morning walk and 50c for drinking over 1.5 litres of water today.

so that brings my challenge money to $22.50


this is fun!

I have decided to start my own $20 Challenge.
This is mainly because I have started my new blog and I wanted to do something different.
I also think it will be a good constant reminder and motivator to save.

I want to lay out some ground rules, but will probably make some up along the way as well.

- The money will start with the initial $20 deposited automatically into my House Deposit/Uni Fund.
- Additional monies will be added on a daily basis to my bills account, and then transfered to the main Challenge savings account either fortnightly or monthly.
- I will attempt to keep this blog updated of the daily challenge amounts.
- As for the amounts for each 'thing' i do to save money, I think $1 is a good starting amount and will keep things simple.
- However, if I do something that is only a very small money saving action, I will add 50c to the challenge.
- On the same note, if I earn extra money or make a large change in my spending habits, I will add either the whole amount saved/earnt, or $5 (depending on the scale).

I figured I will not miss $1 here or $1 there. I may also employ the 'rounding up' method, as it is basically the way I saved for my first car.

Anyway, wish me luck in my $20 challenge journey.