I have also updated them on my side bar, but these are my new balances:

Debt:
CC1: $0
CC2: $0
Personal Loan: $3836.74

Savings:
Everyday Account: $178.79
Bills Account: $226.64
Holiday/Gift Account: $100.13
Emergency Fund: $196.00
Home Loan Deposit Fund: $1518.91

I have $178.79 until next payday (Tuesday and Wednesday) plus $64 that BF owes me.
I have to get:
groceries
a couple of singlets
maybe a book (on sale - not full price!)
plus lunch with a friend today

Should be absolutely fine! And any remaining I think I will put into my home loan account.

I have completely cleared the CC's. I am only using the CC2 for the points anyway so I don't mind if I transfer the money before the actual due date. I know it works well (to buy everything on credit and put the money in an interest earning account until the due date) BUT it stresses me out a little. If it's paid, it's paid, and I don't have to worry about it, and I know my money is MY money.

I (finally) got my car serviced yesterday. (It has done 219 000km and was supposed to have a service at 210 000km).
I stressed for the entire morning wondering how much it would be, and whether I had enough cash in my Bills Account for the service, and whether or not he would find anything horribly wrong with it. I got a call at 2pm telling me it was ready, and that the only thing that needed fixing in the next six months was the brake pads, to relieve the shudder in the steering wheel (whew! i thought it might have been the cv joints!).
So, I get there, and whip out the CC to pay for the minor service, expecting over $200. How much? $116!!!
I was so happy.
Of course, the quote for the brake pads and rotors is $352.00, however now I am aware of that I will have enough money for it.

After that, I went into town with the intent on looking for some kind of jacket so wear to the hens night this saturday. Target were having a sale and I bought a polka dot satin shirt, a navy cardigan and another short sleeve jacket, for $56.00 all up. Would you like to know the best thing about all this? I got it entirely for FREE because I used up three gift cards I had in my wallet. One was a christmas bonus, one was a survey reward card, and one was a credit card reward gift card. I still have $4.91 left on one of the cards!

I thought that my day went fantastically well. The only bad bit was that I spent $6.30 on lunch, $28.05 on petrol and a whopping $3.99 on a drink that I didn't bother to check the price on before I bought it. That'll teach me. So I am putting $10.30 onto my debt for those two.

from my tax return, which I just completed online. woohoo! i love doing my tax straight away. of course, i am sure had I OWED money I wouldn't have done it as quickly...
I am putting $350 in my savings and $350 on my loan, and the spare change is going on my credit card payment.

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!

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 am trying to really get on top of my credit card usage. While I've never actually not paid the whole balance by the due date, it's usually a rude shock to see my CC balance at the end of the month and I find myself scrambling around to pay it. So I have been trying to transfer the money onto it from my main bank as soon as I charge something to it (like a visa debit card i guess). While some people will say this is silly as I'm missing out on interest accruing, it's a small price to pay for peace of mind, and the main reason I use the CC is for the reward scheme.
So today I charged a 2gb USB Flashdrive stick for $14.95 and an Invoice & Statement Book ($5.29) for my contract-cleaning job. Yesterday I charged the petrol ($23.17) and milk ($2.39) expense to my CC, and last week I paid for the electricity bill ($277.07 shared by 3).
I transfered $230 to the CC today, and will transfer another $93 when my BF transfers his portion of the electricity bill to my account.

Whew! It's hard being organised sometimes, but worth it all the same.

Does anyone else do this, or am I just insane?

Last week I did some cleaning work and am charging out at $36.60 per hour. I did 6 hours of work so that means I earnt $219.60 for the day. Doing the cleaning work means I missed out on a day of my office work, where I earn around $105 per day less tax. So in the end I earnt extra:

cleaning: $219.60 less GST of $19.96 = $199.64 for the day
officework: $105 less payg tax $17.00 = $88 for the day

199.64 less 88 = $111.64 extra earnt.

In normal circumstances I would endeavour to put all of the extra earnings into my new challenge money, but as I still have an outstanding amount on my CC for my dentist visit I will be putting all the money on that.


EDIT NOTE: I redid some calculations and will actually be charging $40 per hour, so it is an extra $130.19, not $111.64

EVEN BETTER!!!!

Short Term:
- Track my loan payment progress in $250 goal increments
- Track all expenditure and endeavour to stick to or under my budget.
- Get my car serviced.
- Completely pay off all cc balances.
- Start my $20 challenge
- Start transfering money to my cc as soon as I make the purchase, so I don't get a nasty shock at the end of the month.
- Eat less meat and make my boyfriend enjoy meatless meals more.
- Start cooking healthy meals and then freezing them in bulk lots.
- Exercise 6 days a week.
- Make an appointment with my parents' naturopath/homeopath

Long Term:
- Completely pay off my loan.
- Reach my target amount for my Emergency Fund ($1200).
- Maintain a gifts/holidays account where money is drawn out of for days off & gifts purchased for others.
- Save a lump sum for university (current goal: $10 000) by January 2010.