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So, my first financial help thread was a bit poo poo. I got a couple bits of advice, got a few things heading in the right direction and promptly stopped posting because I wanted to spend money on dumb things and not be told they're dumb. Here's attempt number two, in which I have increased the number of dependants I have to 2, started studying, and my partner has done the same. I manage to not save anything, not pay off anything, and take on more (student loan) debt than I had before. So, I'll start with incomes At present I get the following incomes; Working For Families tax credits : 157 p/w Student allownace + accomodation supplement: 380 p/w (this has 20ish coming out before I touch it) so 361 p/w in hand Carpoolers I take to course: between 15 and 80p/w. I get 5 dollars per carpooler per one-way trip. Usually ends up being around 55 p/w Our definite expenses, being expenses I know to be regular and never changing are; Gas, covering polytech travel and around town stuff each week: 120 p/w Mobile phones (both of our phones): 82 p/month Phone and internet contributions: 50 p/m Partner's netball fees: 120 p/year (paid until next march) IRD repayment: 20 p/w Road fines repayment: 10p/w (finishes June 10) Our debts are currently; 1600 on a maxed out credit card at 12.9% interest 2000 on a maxed out overdraft at 16.9% interest 13000 student loan (with another 32000 coming from both of us over the course of both our bachelors to come) at 0% interest, repayments only required after income reaches a certain threshold after study is completed. So you may be wondering how we are living with no accommodation costs to speak of, and to answer that, we are living with my parents in a seperate double bedroom unit on property for the duration of our studies. Our costs are only food that we want that isnt essentials, (takeaways, treats, fancy foods etc) half the internet and phone and the rest we give in household upkeep and cooking. (we cook all meals, do all cleaning, yardwork etc) we also pay for all food thats required for my daughter who has a restrictive diet regimen, including 25p/w on specialist formula. It should be noticed we are also wanting to save around 3-4000 by december for our wedding in january. We were kindly gifted by grandparents 5000 dollars towards a wedding budget, and what we've got planned so far has put us at the 8000 dollar mark with everything included. That 3000 shortfall was sort of the catalyst for getting me back into being not-bad-with-money. Also, future costs of travel may double as my study will be changing to clinical placements starting next semester, and my partner will still be on campus studying, so we will be needing to take both cars. That coupled with the potential loss of carpoolers (if they dont want to travel with my partner instead) means our travel is going to skyrocket. So... the rest of whatever money is there is spent on games, takeaways (lunches etc) and energy drinks. Help? Advice? Plan of action? Is 3000 feasible by december?
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May 27, 2015 03:03
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Formatted for better readability: Income: Working For Families tax credits : 628 Student allownace + accomodation supplement: 1440 Carpoolers I take to course: 220 Total: 2200 (rounded down from 2288) Fixed Expenses Gas, covering polytech travel and around town stuff each week: 480 Mobile phones (both of our phones): 82 Phone and internet contributions: 50 IRD repayment: 80 Total: 700 (round up from 692) Income Minus Fixed Expenses: 1500 (not counting debt repayment) Other Fixed Expenses: Entertainment/Restaurants Health/Car Insurance Baby Care: 100? What about other supplies, do your parents pay for that too? One-time Expense: Road fines repayment: 30? (total by June 10) Debt: 1600 on a maxed out credit card at 12.9% interest 2000 on a maxed out overdraft at 16.9% interest 13000 student loan at 0% interest, repayments only required after income reaches a certain threshold after study is completed 32000 more student loans Minimum Payments: ?????
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May 27, 2015 04:16
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Horking Delight posted:Formatted for better readability: Entertainment costs vary greatly. Some months we do nothing, others we'll spend 150 on a big weekend. I honestly couldnt estimate an accurate weekly figure but I'd guess we spend 50 a week on outings. That may be horribly underestimated though. Baby care is covered by the govt's ECE hours and subsidies, so no extra cost there. Car insurance is 635 p/year, and health insurance for all 4 of us is 270 p/m but paid by my parents once again while studying. Minimum payments on loans... well, they end up around 75 per month for my credit card, but we always load that on and then end up using it, so it is basically just the interest rate we are paying. Same goes for the overdraft. There is no minimum payment on the overdraft so it is just maintaining interest at the moment (+ 120 p/year straight fees) I just realised that the overdraft is part of a student account that my partner opened when she was studying a few years back, and we will most likely be able to put her back on a student account with no fees and no interested for duration of studying. I'll get her to call the bank about that tomorrow in fact. Also, thank you for tidying it up a bit.
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May 27, 2015 06:01
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Spiteski posted:Entertainment costs vary greatly. Some months we do nothing, others we'll spend 150 on a big weekend. I honestly couldnt estimate an accurate weekly figure but I'd guess we spend 50 a week on outings. That may be horribly underestimated though. For American readability sure, lets look at this in kiwi speak: Weekly Incomings: $517 - govt/student related income (less IRD payment) $15-80 - variable carpool income Weekly Outgoings: $120 Petrol $20.5 - Phones $12.5 - Internet $25 - Baby Chow $18.5 - Minimum credit card payments TOTAL: $196.50 per week (ignoring netball fees because that's not due until after your wedding, road fines because that's $20 total until it's over and your IRD payments are $20/week - whats that for? Child support? You're under the threshold for repaying your loan yet arent you? Also ignoring the student loan in general as you're not going to be stung for that until you finish studying and get a job i.e. unrelated to wedding expenses) Even ignoring your variable carpool income, your minimum weekly outgoings are 38% of your total income. Given you only need to save $125/week for the $3k target or $166/week for the $4k target of course it's bloody doable. I'm surprised your parents haven't given you a smack around the head for spending your money on poo poo and maxing out both a credit card and overdraft while they have let your entire family live with them for no cost. If they are anything like my mum they are probably also doing a lot of grandparental babysitting and buying your kids most of their clothes/whatever because they don't want you financially stressing. I'm glad you realised you're being a moron because you are - they gave you a great opportunity to study without incurring even more debt (actually you couldn't have studied without them because your income wouldn't cover rent/household expenses) and you're repaying them by making GBS threads around. So. After taking out your weekly outgoings you're left with a slush of $320/week of fixed income. $166 toward wedding savings (which would probably be worth "saving" for by paying off your overdraft to stop the interest being charged) $150 toward weekly pocket money for you and your partner to blow on entertainment, lunches, takeaways, whatever (would strongly suggest you curtail spending and try to squeeze some of this into loan repayments) $4 + whatever variable income goes toward paying the principal off your loans If that's too tight, aim for $3k and drop the weekly saving amount to $125, freeing up another $41/week. After the wedding, the weekly saving toward wedding goes into travel and loan repayments. E: Yes I am unnecessarily rude about this because my sister did basically the same thing. Tamarillo fucked around with this message at 08:06 on May 27, 2015 |
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May 27, 2015 07:53
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Tamarillo posted:For American readability sure, lets look at this in kiwi speak: Dont apologise, I am not going to try and defend pissing around on this whole thing. I will only point out I didnt rack up the debt during the time we've lived with them, that was incurred when I was working and we were living by ourselves. The debt was originally higher by a 2100 Q card which we paid off with my final pay when we got offered the chance to study. I have just been shithouse at keeping up with getting debt free and basically blowing poo poo every week on junk food and video games. I was thinking about what you mean in terms of "saving" by paying off the overdraft, and then just using the overdraft/CC for wedding stuff as it arises, so I'll definitely have another look at doing that seeing as it can't be as dumb as I thought. 3k for the wedding might be ok, but I'll definitely aim for saving enough to get the 4k so we dont have to make cuts we would want not to. We've already reduced guest count by around 40 people (down to 60 total) because our mains costs are in catering. That 20 a week to IRD was paying back a WFF overpayment when I forgot to change my work hours down when I started studying so they had overpaid me by 74 a week for a few months. As for having 150 a week for us to spend, I'm more worried about the increased cost of two of us having to travel separately each day to MIT. Public transport is a non-option as buses run only twice a day from my town to the nearest train station, and both are 6 o-clock (am and pm) which would be impossible to do when we cant drop the kids at daycare until after 7am and pickup is latest at 6pm. This is the main drawback to our living arrangement (please dont take this as me complaining about living rent free!) as we are basically forced to use personal cars. Even if my carpoolers end up continuing with my partner, it will only go so far when the gas is around 120 per week per car. Leaving only 30 per week spending is something I can see us blowing through incredibly easily. One takeaway meal for all four of us is 5 dollars more than that already. edit: I will add my parents are repeatedly smacking me round the proverbial head about my spending. I tend to just make excuses and brush it off or claim I am making progress etc but no one believes that poo poo, least of all myself.
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May 27, 2015 09:30
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Spiteski posted:As for having 150 a week for us to spend, I'm more worried about the increased cost of two of us having to travel separately each day to MIT. Public transport is a non-option as buses run only twice a day from my town to the nearest train station, and both are 6 o-clock (am and pm) which would be impossible to do when we cant drop the kids at daycare until after 7am and pickup is latest at 6pm. This is the main drawback to our living arrangement (please dont take this as me complaining about living rent free!) as we are basically forced to use personal cars. Doh, that's me being dumb, I forgot that it's still semester 1 and that by 'next semester' you mean July onwards. Okay yeah that is going to bork your finances a bit, and public transport in Auckland is a joke so no argument there. Is there any reason why you can't drop the kids off at daycare, her off at MIT and then go on to wherever your clinical placements are? It may get her to school way too early but she can use that downtime for studying/assignments etc. Paying for two cars is crippling if you're also trying to save for the wedding AND pay off debt. Now, assuming you can get by on one car and accepting that carpool $ is not a goer, lets look at that debt. Even though "saving" by paying off the overdraft will lessen any interest being charged on it you will end up overdrawing again because all that money has to come off again to pay for the wedding. A way around this could be to look at it like you have $6.6k of debt: 3k for wedding 2k for the overdraft 1.6k for the credit card It would take 52 weeks of $125/week to pay back $6.6k (or 40 weeks of $166/week). You would need to commit (seriously, COMMIT) to a plan of saving $125/week (or $166/week) for that period. Starting mid June until the end of December - 28 weeks - you would have put away $3500 (or $4848) which would pay off the overdrawn amount AND the credit card balance, leaving you debt free but with a further $3k of new debt about to be incurred for the wedding. You would continue saving $125 week for a further 24 weeks (or 12 weeks @ $166) to pay that off. I'm unsure of the wisdom of recommending this as I find it very easy to commit to long term saving plans without falling into bad habits, you may find it harder to stick to - maybe other posters will have suggestions on alternative ways for you to have all the things. If at all possible I would try to manage the $166/week because it's going to pinch no matter what you do but it will at least lessen the duration by 12 weeks. Also you would need to rely on your parents if poo poo hit the fan bill-wise like if your car exploded. Also re: your personal spend, $30 is too low to cover lunches + whatever, you will blast through it even with the best of intentions. You might be able to suck in the spending to $100/week instead of $150 though. But I think you need to accept the fact that takeaways are things that happen to other people right now if you want to have nice things like weddings. E: If you have a dessert course included in your catering costs, can it. We fed everyone our wedding cake instead. Saved us like $800 for the number of people we had, no one complained, almost everyone was stuffed anyway. Tamarillo fucked around with this message at 10:48 on May 27, 2015 |
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May 27, 2015 10:34
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I like the idea of dropping dessert to reduce costs. We'll talk to our caterers and see what they say. Just going to share a little annoyance I have found out today. I rang the bank to ask about the interest free and feeless overdraft account for students for myself, and asked if they would transfer the balance of my credit card onto the overdraft and then close the credit card account. They told me I can't do that be cause for the period of a few minutes where the overdraft and credit card coexist I would be over the 2000 debt limit for the student account. To do it I would need to open a 400 dollar overdraft and swap 400 from one to the other then apply to lower and raise each limit each time. What a joke. Going to ring another bank today and see about a student account and tell my current bank that I'll close the acc if they can't sort it.
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May 27, 2015 21:08
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Spiteski posted:Just going to share a little annoyance I have found out today. I rang the bank to ask about the interest free and feeless overdraft account for students for myself, and asked if they would transfer the balance of my credit card onto the overdraft and then close the credit card account. They told me I can't do that be cause for the period of a few minutes where the overdraft and credit card coexist I would be over the 2000 debt limit for the student account. To do it I would need to open a 400 dollar overdraft and swap 400 from one to the other then apply to lower and raise each limit each time. What a joke. Going to ring another bank today and see about a student account and tell my current bank that I'll close the acc if they can't sort it. This is blowing my mind. I've never heard of a specific overdraft account before. Every overdraft system I've seen offloads to checking/savings/presonal-credit-line/credit-card. In those cases you are using your own money or an interest accruing account to pay the difference.
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May 27, 2015 21:14
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Spiteski posted:So... the rest of whatever money is there is spent on games, takeaways (lunches etc) and energy drinks. Dude. You have 2 kids, and are living at your parent's house. Are games, takeaways, energy drinks and $8,000 parties really the biggest priorities you have?
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May 27, 2015 21:44
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ufsteph posted:Dude. You have 2 kids, and are living at your parent's house. Are games, takeaways, energy drinks and $8,000 parties really the biggest priorities you have? No. But being able to study is. Moving out of parents removes the possibility of studying as both me and my partner would need to take poo poo paying dead end jobs to afford living anywhere near family or friends. We've done that for the first 4 years of our oldest kids life. Studying is the only way we're gonna get out of that cycle. Even if we were debt free and spent nothing on games food or anything other than bare necessities more than one of our total incomes would be gone just on rent. Let alone utilities.
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May 27, 2015 21:50
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Spiteski posted:No. But being able to study is. Moving out of parents removes the possibility of studying as both me and my partner would need to take poo poo paying dead end jobs to afford living anywhere near family or friends. We've done that for the first 4 years of our oldest kids life. Studying is the only way we're gonna get out of that cycle. I think you're missing the point. You don't need to spend your spare money on games, food and parties in order to study. Studying is a way to help increase your future income, but to get out of the cycle of debt you need to change your mindset.
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May 27, 2015 22:02
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You're living rent free, are you even eligible for the accommodation supplement? You are in debt and broke, you don't get $8000 parties.
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May 27, 2015 22:57
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Saros posted:You're living rent free, are you even eligible for the accommodation supplement? The accom supp I get is because I live in an area that's so far from where I study. Accommodation and Travel expenses. It only makes up around 30 of the total amount I think. We've been gifted 5000 for the wedding, if we don't spend it on the wedding we don't get to spend it on other things. ufsteph posted:I think you're missing the point. You don't need to spend your spare money on games, food and parties in order to study. Yea I definitely understand that. I acknowledge my spending needs to change. Hence asking for budget help so I can stop finding excuses and work to something concrete.
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May 27, 2015 23:51
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Spiteski posted:We've been gifted 5000 for the wedding, if we don't spend it on the wedding we don't get to spend it on other things. Fine, spend $5,000 then, and don't add $3,000 that you don't have. What are your long term goals for your family? It helps to plan out the future expenses (your own place sometime in the future, emergency savings) as a guide for sticking to a budget.
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May 28, 2015 00:01
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ufsteph posted:Fine, spend $5,000 then, and don't add $3,000 that you don't have. At the moment, the long term plan is to save money for a wedding in January, and then continue saving to get debt free by the end of my study period (3 years from this July) Our own place. If the rate at which we are saving for the wedding is sustainable for the length of time I am studying then any money we save will go towards our own house at the end of study/start of work,
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May 28, 2015 00:08
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Spiteski posted:At the moment, the long term plan is to save money for a wedding in January, and then continue saving to get debt free by the end of my study period (3 years from this July) Our own place. If the rate at which we are saving for the wedding is sustainable for the length of time I am studying then any money we save will go towards our own house at the end of study/start of work, If spending $3,000 on a party when you have two kids and a current net worth of -$48,600 sounds like a good plan, I'm not sure how much this thread will be able to help you.
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May 28, 2015 00:20
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ufsteph posted:If spending $3,000 on a party when you have two kids and a current net worth of -$48,600 sounds like a good plan, I'm not sure how much this thread will be able to help you. As noted, The majority of this debt is in (not even accrued yet) student loan. The student loan does not accrue interest, and only requires paying when working and earning above a threshold, so I am not going to lose my hair about paying off student debt when I am A) still studying and accruing it, and B) not earning enough to require paying it. The debt that is an issue is the overdraft and the credit card which is -$3600 which, if I can pay off by December, gets me the same as saving that much and starting again from here but with the wedding going ahead. Meaning that same amount would again be paid off within next year and saved again three times over before studying finishes. While yes, a wedding is just a party it is also very important to both myself and my partner. Despite you thinking that I am beyond this threads help, I've already had feedback and target margins to save/cut spending to to achieve close to what I am asking for.
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May 28, 2015 00:28
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Spiteski posted:While yes, a wedding is just a party it is also very important to both myself and my partner. I've never been to New Zealand, but I am pretty sure that it doesn't cost $8,000 to get married. You can still have a pretty great party to celebrate for $5,000. The fact that you have two children and no emergency savings is really irresponsible. What would you do if any kind of major expense came up? Ask mom and dad for (more) money?
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May 28, 2015 00:39
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ufsteph posted:I've never been to New Zealand, but I am pretty sure that it doesn't cost $8,000 to get married. You can still have a pretty great party to celebrate for $5,000. Yes, we have two children and are very young. I've not ever had income that has allowed for saving above and beyond day to day living, so no emergency savings to speak of. I was a school leaver that worked for slightly over minimum wage (550 a week cash in hand) paying for a house that was 410p/week to rent, and then supporting my partner who was having the children at home and then working part time when they started daycare. It's not like I've gone through 20 years of working life with no savings. I left school at 17, had my first kid at 19 and have worked hand-to-mouth since then (24 now). So yes, when my parents offered to support us during the study period that also covered emergency situations I already pay for my, myself and my partner leapt at the opportunity to get some proper education in a sought-after role we were passionate about. Outside of healthcare which we have insurance for and a good public health system as is, car damage/theft which we also have insurance for, or home damage/loss which we also have insurance for or death, which we are both insured for, there isn't much beyond car maintenance 8000 NZD is around 5800 USD. Catering for 60 people is 1500 alone, venue is 800 for reception and 600 for the ceremony. Which is incredibly cheap. Factor in a dress that's below 300 dollars, suits hire, and 5 days of staying in a cheap hotel for a honeymoon, rings, and decoration and cake and a photographer. 8000 is sweet gently caress all for a wedding. Our options from here are having no bridal party, or cutting guests even further (60 is already a small wedding, very few non family close friends as it is)
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May 28, 2015 00:53
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Spiteski posted:I've not ever had income that has allowed for saving above and beyond day to day living, so no emergency savings to speak of. Yes you have, you just wanted to spend money on fun things like games, takeaways and energy drinks. You're spending money on dumb things but don't want to be told they're dumb. Sorry, saving money and being an adult are boring.
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May 28, 2015 01:04
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^^^This You'll always find more things to spend your money on, there will always be something like the wedding. You've been blowing $320/week since you moved in with the parents. You can't afford three thousand dollars for the wedding. Saros fucked around with this message at 01:14 on May 28, 2015 |
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May 28, 2015 01:08
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ufsteph posted:Yes you have, you just wanted to spend money on fun things like games, takeaways and energy drinks. You're spending money on dumb things but don't want to be told they're dumb. Sorry, saving money and being an adult are boring. Yea I have since we've been here at my parents studying. Which has been since this year. Sorry I haven't saved 20 grand in 5month? I don't know why you're so angry. I've laid out clearly that I am aware my spending while living here is poo poo, asked for help setting some spending guidelines for achieving a goal yet you've said nothing of value except restate what I've already admitted to but angrily.
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May 28, 2015 01:11
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Spiteski posted:Yea I have since we've been here at my parents studying. Which has been since this year. Sorry I haven't saved 20 grand in 5month? I don't know why you're so angry. I've laid out clearly that I am aware my spending while living here is poo poo, asked for help setting some spending guidelines for achieving a goal yet you've said nothing of value except restate what I've already admitted to but angrily. You're right. Instead of telling you to cut back on unnecessary expenses and put money in the bank, I will tell you the One Weird Trick to save money! You know what you need to do. You just don't want to do it because it kinda sucks, and there isn't an easy shortcut.
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May 28, 2015 01:13
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Tamarillo already gave you the answers you just don't like them. Also why do you have health insurance it's not worth the cost in your situation even though that cost is currently on your parents.
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May 28, 2015 01:21
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Where did I say I don't want to do it? I got told numbers I needed to meet. I asked more questions about what it would mean when my other costs go up. Not once did I say "no I can't do that I want to eat energy drinks too much". I am still unsure why you're trying so hard to 'convince me' that my spending habits are poo poo. I am aware they are poo poo. I'm asking for help to slap together concrete targets to meet while being realistic. Yes, being realistic means I cut out poo poo spending but the point of getting help is to see by how much. To see what we can still work with. To come up with other ideas to cut costs or think of things I hadn't thought of. Surely by now you understand that I HAVE thought of spending less on takeaways and games.
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May 28, 2015 01:31
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Saros posted:Tamarillo already gave you the answers you just don't like them. The health insurance was left over from when I had it through work. With my medical history and that of my family we wouldn't get it back if we took it off and tried to resign up later. We've already used it for thousands worth of operations and doctors visits including with the kids so it is definitely worthwhile at this point.
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May 28, 2015 01:33
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Spiteski posted:Surely by now you understand that I HAVE thought of spending less on takeaways and games. Now that you've thought about it, you need to do it. Put the money in the bank instead. Voilą!
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May 28, 2015 01:36
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Ah okay understandable in that case, I'm obviously not familiar with your medical history. Look at your phone's, you can get basic prepay packs for $19/20 month, that's half your current rate. There's no easy way around the increase in transport costs, you're going to simply have to stop spending it on your other discretionary/fun things while maintaining the wedding savings. You already have basically no expenses so just stop with the wasting. No coffees, no energy drinks, no takeout, no restaurants, no going out drinking, no other poo poo. It's not fun but without more money coming in thats how it is.
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May 28, 2015 01:41
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Can you actually manage on the one car thing? I didn't see an answer to that and it's kind of the cornerstone for you being able to save. When does your nearly-wife finish her study, and what is she studying? I saw in your old thread she has already been studying for like 2 years, surely that will finish soonish? Also even after you finish studying you may need to consider moving to Hamilton. As a nurse/paramedic you can work anywhere (I hope nearly-wife has a similarly transferable degree) and Auckland, as you know, is comically overpriced, moreso on a nurse/paramedic salary. Hamilton keeps you within easy distance of grandparents (esp. if South Auckland based), is fuckloads cheaper and commute time is hardly anything, plus good schools for the kids.
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May 28, 2015 02:03
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Tamarillo posted:Can you actually manage on the one car thing? I didn't see an answer to that and it's kind of the cornerstone for you being able to save. Yea we've been talking about the car thing and for at least most of the time it won't be an issue for us to just go up early together and share. The biggest problem will arise when placements start and they are shift work so times may vary largely. I think that only starts next year though but will have to wait until time tables and schedules are confirmed. So that may be possible at least for a while. As for her studying; her original study was a terrible choice we've since discovered. So this time she is starting again doing bachelor of health Science in midwifery. Yes, studying the first time for a lovely trade was not smart. But nothing we can do about that now except make up for it. so her study finishes around the same time as mine. This is good though in that we should be able to both get work reasonably fast and get our own place much more quickly and be in a more stable position than one working while the other still studies for some time. In regards to moving areas we have been looking at Hamilton funnily enough. It is roughly the same travel time from where we live to Auckland as it is to Hamilton thanks to traffic so like you said it's a great compromise on living closer to the potential work area and staying within visiting range of friends and family. We've also thought about wellington as a potential option but that is more just a passing thought than anything. No idea on what living down there costs in comparison to up north.
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May 28, 2015 02:28
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I'm confused what you want to do with setting your goals in your situation. Are you trying to reach a specific point? Reduce debt by X amount by Y date, save 3000 dollars for wedding by this point, or is it to be financially responsible? A lot of people in this thread are going to teach you how to be financially responsible, and although that's the best thing to work toward, unless you're on board with achieving your goals you're not going to get really far into this process. I recommend coming up with reasonable and feasible goals in concordance with the thread before bickering back and forth over what you or anyone finds acceptable. Set your goals, then work on adjusting them, then use the thread as a resource to plan your actions in reaching your goals.
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May 28, 2015 04:55
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Spiteski posted:In regards to moving areas we have been looking at Hamilton funnily enough. It is roughly the same travel time from where we live to Auckland as it is to Hamilton thanks to traffic so like you said it's a great compromise on living closer to the potential work area and staying within visiting range of friends and family. We've also thought about wellington as a potential option but that is more just a passing thought than anything. No idea on what living down there costs in comparison to up north. As someone who lives in Wellington I would say Hamilton is cheaper, and significantly closer to your parents. Wellington commutes are a bit poo poo too. Ehh about the midwife thing, gutted she wasted all that time and money on the old degree but we are chronically short of midwives so at least you both should be able to get jobs wherever (I.e not Auckland) you want. IF you can get through your stupid spending habits and not bunk out of uni anyway. E: it IS nice, I love Wellington even though it's loving cold right now. It's just more expensive and not near your family. Tamarillo fucked around with this message at 07:50 on May 28, 2015 |
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May 28, 2015 05:57
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Tamarillo posted:As someone who lives in Wellington I would say Hamilton is cheaper, and significantly closer to your parents. Wellington commutes are a bit poo poo too. Good to know, it's a shame because we always love visiting my grandparents in Welly, it's always so nice from a visitors point of view. I should be able to stick out the Bachelors, I'm doing extremely well and thoroughly enjoying studying now I'm not a 17yrold, and I'm studying something I actually really want to do, so fingers crossed it stays that way. Veskit posted:I'm confused what you want to do with setting your goals in your situation. Are you trying to reach a specific point? Reduce debt by X amount by Y date, save 3000 dollars for wedding by this point, or is it to be financially responsible? Yea fair enough, I guess that's on me for being ambiguous. Or at least seeming like I just want to save money then continue being bad with it after January. I guess the best thing I would hope for from going forwards is to set some weekly saving goals, reduce erroneous spending by a huge amount, and make the target of paying the extra money for the wedding and reducing non-student-loan debt completely by the end of next year. If I can stick to that then the remaining two years of study should yield a decent savings to help with moving costs or interim costs when starting post-degree work.
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May 28, 2015 07:44
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Spiteski posted:Yea fair enough, I guess that's on me for being ambiguous. Or at least seeming like I just want to save money then continue being bad with it after January. You're still being vague about what you want to accomplish, and the goals you want to set for yourself. Take a step back and think about what specifically you want to accomplish not how you want to accomplish it. Setting weekly savings goals is a procedure, along with "the extra money". What is the extra money, how much is that, what does it look like? Reducing non student loan debt completely is a goal. You said something specific, you gave a timeline that you want to hit it by, and it's measurable. So we'll write that down. Goal number 1: Have zero non-student-loan debt by 12/31/2016 Over that amount of time that's about 4300 dollars so you'll have to pay about 250 a month toward your card, which brings you down to an average of 88 dollars a week toward your extras. If your goal is that and 3 grand for the wedding it's probably not happening especially if you want to reduce student loan payments or be responsible and save money. If my math is off let me know.
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May 28, 2015 17:32
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There's no reason to pay off his student loan, it's interest free as long as he lives in NZ and is deducted from his pay at a rate of 12% of everything he earns over about $20k per year.
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May 28, 2015 18:16
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That still gives him 4300 of high-interest credit card debt he should clear out before spending 3k on a wedding though.
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May 29, 2015 03:02
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Horking Delight posted:That still gives him 4300 of high-interest credit card debt he should clear out before spending 3k on a wedding though. Is 4300 the 3600+ interest until the end of next year?
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May 29, 2015 08:04
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Spiteski posted:Is 4300 the 3600+ interest until the end of next year? Yes it's a rough calculation of principal and interest
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May 29, 2015 14:56
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Hellooooo! It's Accountability O'Clock! What did you decide to do re: your budget?
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Jun 3, 2015 06:45
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Tamarillo posted:Hellooooo! It's Accountability O'Clock! What did you decide to do re: your budget? Hey, sorry haven't posted but I've been stopping spending on takeaways as a first (and major) step. So far have bought one lunch since starting the thread and thats because I had a late start and didnt have time to put one together. Kept the cost under 6 dollars, as opposed to the usual 10-15 too so not a total blow. I guess I can keep updating every week or so on saved money, and progress towards the not spending on poo poo.
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Jun 3, 2015 09:17
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