It is halfway through the year, and my 2009 goals are complete (see side bar). I have 4 days left in the month, and about $30 of income left over for the month after I transferred $1430 to fill my NZ Car Fund. I have $680 in my bank account to last me the next two weeks, even after transferring the above mentioned $1430. The only thing still coming out of that account will be electricity, and I've accounted for that in my calculations.
To review, my 2009 goals were:
1) $5K in a Travel Fund, to be used to pay for airfare to the US to visit my family, once in the summer and once for Christmas. I've transferred 2.5K NZD to my US bank account to pay for my ticket home next month, therefore I have 2.5K NZD left to spend on my ticket home this December (if I decide to go there and not, say...Australia!).
2) $1.1K in a New Laptop Fund. Just in case. There aren't many signs that my laptop will die on me anytime soon, but it's going to be 2 years old this August. Awww. Maybe I'll have a birthday party for it. :) I may have to use some of the money to upgrade my hard drive capacity; it only has 5 GB left and is running in the red, even after defragging. 80 GB isn't enough, apparently! I could just take off all the pictures and music...but then I'll never ever listen to music or look at those pics.
3) $3K Car Fund, for renting or leasing a car this summer (Nov-Mar) to travel around NZ. If both my friend and I stay around here another year, we were thinking of splitting the cost of leasing a car from a rental company for 6 months (the minimum lease period). Another option would be a guaranteed buy-back sort of situation. So many tourists come to NZ that these sort of agreements are common. I'd have to investigate paying for: insurance, WOF, registration, maintenance, parking... My friend would be doing a PhD here, and so the car would mainly be for trips to her field site, and would be partially funded through her research. On weekends and holidays, however, I'd be riding along to whatever fun place we decided to go that particular week! And so I'd be partially defraying the cost of the car for those trips.
Leasing for 6 months would cost, probably, $500 per month NZD (I'd pay half). But--I wouldn't have to worry about the WOF, registration, maintanence, and in some (all?) cases, insurance.
If it turns out that I have to leave in August, I'll use the travel and car money to take a trip. I still haven't heard about my contract renewal! I am putting together an itinerary to experience the rest of NZ and a large part of Australia. I can't leave the SoHemi without doing that. It's too bad that the trip will be in the middle of their winter here!
2 comments:
Awesome job!!!
As for the computer, what about getting an external hard drive for the music & pics? You can still link it to your computer easily so that you can use them, but it would free up the computer's hard drive. They only cost about $100 here - pick one up while you are home :)
yeah--i have two external hard drives (I was scared if I only bought one that it'd would get corrupted on me and I'd be SOL); however, i never plug it in except to back it up a couple of times a year. and i'm honestly too lazy to plug it in every time i want to see some fotos or listen to music...
but you are right; i should quit being lazy. a new internal HD & install will cost about $120!
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