This week has been the first week on my new rate of pay, and I was hanging out to see what I would get paid for Job #2. I wasn't exactly sure - I thought I calculated it right at $18.47 per hour - I used the wageline website and added the 23% extra for casual rates... and I thought (and accepted) that it was possible my pay may be $17.75 per hour, because I remember seeing that somewhere before...

Anyway, long story short, I got into work today and tried to hold off looking at my payslip as long as I could... about three hours went by and I finally opened it.

$19.78 per hour!

That means my hourly rate has increased $3.62.

More than I expected, and actually pretty decent. It's lessened the blow of having to pay $190 a week in rent (not yet, but soon) - if just a little.


ooooh. Now I get to rework my spending categories/savings/budget! How exciting (in a nerdy way...)

My payrise starts today. I am still unaware how much I get at Job #2, because I am not sure if I calculated it correctly on the wageline website, but here's hoping! I could either get $17.71 p/h or $18.47...
But at job #1 I now get $18 per hour, starting today!

In good news, I recently asked BF to put two new holes in my belt because they were just about not keeping my jeans up, and I have just started fastening it on the second-last one. It's a good sign!

On the flipside, BF (and I) have noticed he's getting 'a little thick' around the middle. (well, as thick as a tradesman can be - I would say it's a very small pot belly - he's usually a mass of muscle of lean-ness) I would say it has something to do with oh... sausage rolls for breakfast, two minute noodles for lunch, potato crisps in the afternoon, dinner, then dessert...? I know he works physically hard for the entire day, but me thinks it's getting to a point where he's eating so much (and so much that is BAD!) that he's not burning it off. And that's really saying something! My boy works pretty damn hard. Eh.
He needs to start consistently (key word here) eating salads for lunch like he used to. (once a fortnight doesn't count, especially when it's combined with all the other stuff!)


I got some chocolates and a pepper grinder, more chocolates, some moleskine journals and a handmade bag for my birthday yesterday as well as the other presents i mentioned in my earlier post.

Went to the post office to check the mail for work and post some letters, but I wasn't allowed in because there was a bomb scare! There were police and firetrucks everywhere.

Well that's all my news for now....

It's my 21st on Tuesday, and I get a payrise! I decided I have put it off long enough, trying to not get myself too excited about the prospect of a boost to go to savings, but it is less than a week away now, so it's time to do the figures:

JOB 1:
Old Wage: ($16.16 p/h gross)
Net: $328.50

JOB 2:
Old Wage: $14.00 p/h gross)
Net: $175.00

Total: $503.50

and now, added with the *approximate* new wage:

JOB 1:
New Wage: ($18.47 p/h gross)
Net: $367.34

JOB 2:
New Wage: ($17.50 p/h gross)
Net: $214.50

Total: $581.84

That's an extra $78 a week I can put into savings. I also get $60 a fortnight from my dad, which means my income is bumped up to just over $600 a week.

i talked to my boss today about BF and I discussing (and agreeing) to talk to some banks/mortgage brokers/lenders about loans and property etc. my boss said he would talk to his wife if I wanted (his wife is a manager of a bank). I said yes, figuring (as she is pregnant) that it might take her a while to get some stuff together. Anyway, about an hour later she called me at work to ask some financial questions and said she would get back to me in a few days to tell me an idea of whether she thinks we can get a loan and what interest rate we will be offered.
HOW EXCITING!
It's not that we are actually going to DO anything just yet, but I am really interested to see how our finances stack up.
She also advised me (of which i was aware of anyway) to save as much as we could and for the time being make minimum payments or a bit more on my loan, as it would be better to have money saved and still have a small loan than have no money saved.

anyway. like i said, it's not that we are buying anything for a long time, but i guess you have to make the first step. i am just glad i have friends and people i can count on in areas like this so that i never have to do anything without being looked after. it takes a lot off my mind.

I thought I would just list my expenses for my holiday in detail:

Food: $72.55
Beverages: $61.50
Clothes: $77.95
Entertainment: $50 (Circus Oz ticket)
Magazines: $8.20
Books: $76.90
Misc: $12.30
Transport: $22.00
Total: $381.40

This is for three weeks. The reason my spending was so low is because I was staying with my dad, stepmum and little sister, so I had most homecooked meals and a lot of my dining out meals were paid for (even though I tried hard to pay for myself).

Now I am back into the swing of things again. I worked yesterday and today. (a rude shock to my system, my first day of work having started at 5.30am on a monday - quite a bit different from three weeks of waking up at around 9am!!!)

I am going to allow myself two weeks of leeway before I begin my challenge and stupid vault counting again. by this time I will have started to get full pays again and will have sorted out all my money!

It is now officially tax time, woohoo! I am currently writing up the group certificates for Work #1, and will be getting my Work #2 group certificate with my payslip on thursday.

Also apparently my boss and his wife at Work #2 handed out $25 coles-myer gift cards to all the staff with our group certificates for putting in a good effort over the year, which is lovely. (we also get $50 gift cards for christmas and a bottle of bubbles, and scratchies-cards for our birthdays...) Yes, it's a nice place to work.

I don't know how much I will get back from my tax return but I'm going to cross my fingers and hope for $700+.

While I was on holidays I also reached Goal # 1 on my Personal loan for $4250 balance. It is now at approximately $4190. I will update all of my savings and debt amounts later.

Well that will be all for now. Thankyou for reading but I have to get back to work now

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!!!!

but not for the same reasons as everyone else.

sure, i love a day off, and it is usually guaranteed if there's a public holiday (i am too expensive for my boss to hire on a public holiday, i think i earn about $42 an hour).

i love that i either get a day off, or earn a wad of extra cash, and i love that neither one is better or worse than the other.
i love that on public holidays, there are a lot of shops closed. if there are any open, a lot of the time you can't be certain that it's the one you want, so you can't be bothered going out at all.
i love that the only places usually open are movie theatres and bowling alleys etc.
i love this for the reason that those places are usually so expensive that you won't even consider going, and then you mentally add the 15% surcharge on that.
i love that you can then fondly think of all those people that have decided to go and cram themselves in a cinema seat like sardines in a tin, and then realise how nice your house/apartment/shack really is.
i love that occasionally some friends will have the day off too, and you can have a barbecue in a park, or at home.
i love that if you don't want to do anything, you don't have to.
i love that you can get up early or late.
i love that if you get up early, the day seems to go forever, and you can get so much done if you need to.