(Re)Moving the Goal Posts

I've never been one for zero-sum budgeting. I like to see how little I can get by on, then tailor my budget to that number. The rest is sent to savings. I just love having that cushion!

But I have to come up with a plan since my allowance doesn't seem to be working. No matter how much I save, it won't be enough for me. I'd love to continue what I was doing before my paycut, which was saving $600 to long term funds, and saving the leftover each month into short-term funds. It worked beautifully for me because I met both of my needs of immediate and delayed satisfaction. I always had $500-$700+ to put towards short term goals each month...now my leftovers would be about $200, and that's WITH a smaller budget for most categories. Eh. :/ It'd take FOREVER to save up $3K, a sum I'm used to knocking out in 4 months or less.

Also, I know this about myself: when I have a short-term goal fund, I look forward to knocking it out, and it causes me to spend less. That is just how I work. It never felt like I was depriving myself of anything when I had those goals, but I did notice that when I didn't have a short term goal, my spending went up like crazy. It's like having that goal in mind kept my impulse spending at bay, and freed my mind to only spend on what I truly wanted and needed. It was the perfect filter.

Unfortunately, that need to fill my short term goals quickly trumps my other wants and needs in times of scarcity. I don't spend my allowance on the same things I used to deem most important, like health. That filter is on overdrive right now. One idea to combat it and rebalance my life:

1. Knock mandatory long-term savings down to $350 from $600, or $175 each to two long-term fund goals. 
2. Instead of saving "extra" or "leftover" money at the end of the month to short-term goals, have a set amount to save each month. Possibly the $250 from the normal $600 that I used to save to long term goals? So the new goal is to save $1750 in my short-term goal fund by the end of the year. 
3. That should still leave a cushion of about $250 each month if I stick to my budget. Now that all of my financial goals are completed for 2013, renew my interest in personal goals and start knocking those out with the leftover money.
4. Make personal goals list.

I'll start this in June. I'm crossing my fingers this works! If not, oh, well...back to the drawing board. It just goes to show that even veteran savings and money bloggers have to constantly reinvent and tweak their techniques as life changes. If one tactic doesn't work, try another, until something sticks!

An Allowance Doesn't Work For Me!

I've thought a lot about the different strategies to control my budget. It's astonishing that I haven't figured this out before on the blog, really. However, I had about one payment left on my debt when I started this blog in 2006, and other than a 2-3 month period after I first moved to NZ, I haven't carried debt since. Since 2006, then, it's all been about what I want and how much I can spend while balancing my need for savings. Cutting back really hasn't been an issue. I did go back to school and worked part-time during 2007-2008, but I don't remember it being difficult to balance my budget.

Now, however, as you know, I have undergone a 20% paycut. Trying to work out my budget has been a nightmare. I gave myself an allowance of about $180. $90 for groceries every week; $68 for Misc items, and $22 for eating out. I went overboard and overspent the first week, then just decided I didn't trust myself. I've been just not doing anything at all ever since. I mean, I did get take out the other night, but it's my fourth week, technically, and I've only spent 60% of my allowance for those 4 weeks. I don't exactly feel deprived, but I have had to make tough decisions and had to deny myself things that are part of my normal habits. For example, I haven't rented my cityhop car at all this month, something that I used to do every week. I also have skipped most of the Friday night work drinks dos this month in the name of saving money.

Instead of spending to the limit each week, I've been looking at the amount of money leftover from all spending--right now it is $1050 or so--and thinking to myself how awesome it'd be if I could get to the end of the month with $1000 left. I have about 1 week left of the month and still need to get groceries this weekend...if I can just only spend $50, I'm home free! No other spending seems to be on the horizon.

But that is no way to live. Sigh. I have worked so hard the past few years to make myself realize what my priorities are, the things that are worth spending on, only to throw it all away when money gets tight. My priorities shouldn't change just because I'm making less. But they have.

For now, deprivation is where it's at. For May, I'll do my best to have $1K left over. I want to put $175 to each of my long-term fund goals--house downpayment and Europe trip. The rest (~$650) will be placed into my $3K travel fund, to be used when I leave NZ for good (hopefully soon!). Hope to visit Cambodia, Perth (Australia), and possibly Indonesia/Maldives/Bora Bora before I go home.

For my notes

I often have trouble remembering why or when I've updated my sidebar totals, so this post will just be about that. Mostly for my own notes!

• I transferred the $2K from checking BACK to savings. It doesn't look like I'll need that cushion this month as I still have over $1K in checking. I get paid this Thursday and have to pay rent again next week, and have already paid my electricity bill, so that should keep me going til June. :)
• I transferred $146.01 from my savings to checking to cover my hotel costs for Japan. Five nights in Japan, taken care of! Hurrah!
• I have $198.94 leftover from last month and from CD interest earned. That needs to be transferred to savings.

Looking at my budget right now, I have less than two weeks to go, and if I REALLY restrict myself and only spend $80 or less more (on groceries next weekend), I could save a cool $1000 on my first month with my new, lower salary! At the very least, I want to be able to save $175 to each of my two long-term funds, plus have a little to save to my travel fund. I don't think I want to restrict myself, though...

Learning How To Budget Again

May 1 marked the first day of my new, lower salary. I've spent the past few weeks trying to regain the carefully-honed equilibrium I established the first 5 years here in NZ, when my salary only went UP, giving me more freedom and room to play each year. I've written before about how I don't have to constantly check in with my budget anymore. I keep one, but only because I want to know how much I can save at the end of each month--it still gives me a thrill to see my dreams come true over on the sidebar in the 'Funds' area.

It really is all about dreams. I have accomplished more than I thought possible when I started this blog journey in 2006. Back then, I thought about and made a list of everything that I HAD to pay for, and things that I WANTED to save up for, and was completely daunted. I thought, "I'll never save that much. It's impossible!" Now, I know that it isn't. Thank goodness I kept on trying even though it felt totally unrealistic. Now, I have nearly run out of things that I want to save for. It is time to think up new goals and new adventures for myself. That feels amazing, that I can dig deeper than the simple things that I want.

But to do that, to continue on the journey, I have to figure out a way to keep saving with a lower salary. Unfortunately, I now have to go backwards. It requires stopping and regrouping and some experimenting to regain my sense of control. I am used to not even thinking about my budget. Somehow I've developed a sixth sense that stops me from spending too much. But that is calibrated to my old, 20% higher salary.

I put myself on a weekly budget. I have $X for groceries, eating out, and misc each week. The first weekend, I overspent due to a friend's birthday--she only wanted to spend it with me, and she wanted to do some things that costed money, like go to the movies and out to dinner. It wasn't a lot of money but it put me way over my weekly budget. The second week, I think I got so spooked by how much I spent the first week that I majorly restricted myself from going out socially and spending money, but the one time I did, I found myself thinking, "I have $X to spend, what do I spend it on?" instead of just buying what I needed and really really wanted. I kind of felt like I had to spend that money, simply because it was in my weekly budget. The good news is that I stopped myself from acting on that impulse, and ended  the week with about half of my weekly allowance left. Both of those mindsets--complete restriction and spending money just because it is there--are terrible. For now, I'll only spend what is necessary as spending money just because it is there seems like a worse way to go.  

And so I struggle and think about money constantly now. It is like when I was paying off my debt. I hate it! I don't like that I can't trust myself to know when is too much. And so I don't do anything. I turned down most social activities that cost money. I turn down shopping trips. I suggest free activities to do instead. When I do go out, I drink water, or allow others to buy all of my drinks and food. It feels weird.

Part of me knows it's not a big deal to depend on others, as I have done way more than my fair share of treating in the past, but a) you're not supposed to keep score like that when you are treating and b) this can't continue or else I'll be a mooch. For now, while I'm figuring it out, I figure it's OK. I'm giving myself a deadline on getting treated. After May is over, I have to either not go out or figure out a way to pull my own weight.

So, for now, I track every penny and turn down most opportunities to socialize. It can't last long. I need to learn to trust myself again, but I think it will take a while, and I might slip up on occasion...

Should I just let go and see what happens for a month? Maybe in June? I don't want to restrict myself completely and then go crazy later. I do have savings to fall back on, but I don't want to have to use it. I need to cut back majorly with careful splashing out once in a while. It will just take some planning.

Easiest $50 I've Ever Gotten

Today I was walking along from home, as I do, in the dark from work. I routinely look down at the ground while walking to think. There's leaves everywhere on the sidewalk, as it's fall. Then, I spot two interesting looking rectangular pieces of leaf on the ground. Nope, those aren't leaves! I look around, waiting for someone to pick them up, but people pass them by obliviously. It's dark, so perhaps they don't see them. But to me, it's quite obvious. It's cash.

When the last group of people have walked by, I go over and pick them up. A $20 and a $10! Amazing! I look around, waiting for the Gotcha! cameras, or the cameras studying how people act around money. No one comes out. Then I wonder, what if someone is looking for this right now? So I wander around for about ten minutes, looking for someone who looks lost or worried. No one does. I ponder my other options. There's no way to know who lost it, and none of the shops are open to ask if anyone had been asking about some lost money. Then I spot another bill underneath a leaf, and go and pick that up, too. Another $20!

By this point, I'm more than paranoid and distraught about what to do. Who loses $50 cash?? I finally concede defeat and stop looking for the person who dropped it, and head home.

I feel horrible for the person that dropped $50! I don't think I can knowingly profit from their misfortune. I am thinking of giving this money to charity. What would you do??

Isn't it weird? If it had been just $20, I'd have kept it. $20 is a lot, but I wouldn't cry over it if I lost it. It wouldn't be a big deal. $50? I would feel HORRIBLE and beat myself up over it like crazy!

Yes, I know I am a very lucky girl. :)

Whew. One Crisis Averted

In the midst of my new contract signing (why is it ALWAYS at the last minute?!), my boss mentioned off-handedly that I may not get paid during the first pay cycle. My new contract started May 1, and tomorrow is when the first paycheck is due. We always get paid the day before, though, so I've been watching my bank account like a hawk tonight. It came through!!

I got paid $1,439.30. (It includes the last 3 days of my full salary, so it is more than I'll get paid next time.) What a relief!

I should make about $2,800 in May. I aim to spend $2,370 total. Since it is a 3 rent check month, I'm not allocating anything to automatic long-term savings in May. If there is any left over--and there should be--I'll send $175 each to my long-term funds, if there's any more left, it'll go to the Down Under Tour (the first stop may be Perth in July!).

So May is saved. I don't have to be so crazy about money. I can resume following my new budget, and return the $2K that I borrowed from myself in case I didn't make it (ummm...I'll wait til the end of the month to do that, though...I'm still skittish!).

Whew.

Asia Trip Budget and Destination

I've mentioned my trip to Asia a few times now. It's for work, and afterward, my friends and I will travel around the country. We are going to Japan!

NZ-->SOUTH JAPAN (WORK)-->OSAKA-->KYOTO-->NARA-->HAKONE-->TOKYO-->NZ

I've worked out a rough budget based on what I think everything will cost, and what I've saved up so far ($1200). Flights were booked long before I knew my job was getting decimated, so things are set in stone, unless I pay the money to get the flights changed. I expect to have money left over from this budget as it's very generous (I think). Japan is a very expensive country, but I don't think I'll spend this much:

	Japan Budget
Category	Actual	Budgeted
Hotels	146.01	150
Food		300	60	per day
Transport	386	400
Entries		150
Misc and Souvenirs		200
Total		1200

Transport is easily the most expensive item on the list. It is about $340 NZD for the 7 day Japan Rail pass. Driving around in a rental car would be ridiculous as we don't understand Japanese and the roads are apparently extremely confusing. I certainly don't want to be driving around Tokyo. We'll also spend about $50 on a Hakone Free Pass.

We've booked our hotels already, so know that cost. We have two nights in Kyoto and one in Hakone. Two more nights will be spent about an hour south of Tokyo, where we're staying with a friend. That really saved us a bunch of money. We're not staying in hostels as my friend said that Japanese hostels are terrible: friends of hers were robbed, assaulted, and got bed bugs in them, one after the other, without fail. Hopefully staying in hotels will not expose us to the same issues. We may have to pay a few more fees at the hotels--it really isn't clear what is included and what isn't.

Food should definitely be covered by $60 a day. There are apparently cheap noodle shops everywhere. I'll treat my friend out to a nice meal for putting us up, so that will cost a bit, but I'll make up for it by eating cheaply and getting convenience store foods for breakfast and snacks and lunches on other days.

Entries are for things like temples, onsen, and nature parks. I'm not a temple person, but my friends are. I'll tag along. I expect this to be less than $100, actually.

Misc and Souvenirs will definitely be less than $200! That amount is just for contingency purposes. I won't have any room for many souvenirs in the tiny suitcase I'm bringing (rail travel doesn't allow for large suitcases!). I think a few magnets for my mom (she collects them), postcards and stamps, and maybe one really nice item for myself (tapestry?), plus some green tea, should suffice.

Any travel tips from anyone who has been to Japan? I'm pretty excited about it!!

Cutting Back and Scaling Down

Oh man. Life isn't going to be fun for a while.

I'm going to have to revert to my debt days, when I watched every penny like a hawk and never spent anything without an intense inner debate. I don't miss those days...

I'm not sure what to do about May. I may only get paid once. I don't even know if they'll give me back pay on the date that the one paycheck is scheduled to go out. I'll have to pay $420 extra in rent this month, too.

I've called an emergency meeting with my bank accounts, and we've come up with the following solution:

1) I'll borrow $2K from my slush fund to float myself through May. I don't have overdraft, so it's possible that my rent check will bounce if I didn't do this. I'm really not used to not having enough in my bank account. Usually I can drift through the month just fine on my salary, and have plenty left over at the end of the month to transfer to savings.

2) I'll continue with my regularly scheduled new budget. I've tossed around some ideas and I'll just have to see what works. I struggle with trying to keep my savings amounts the same as usual versus making drastic, major lifestyle changes, which we all know leads to spending binges. Right now, it looks like this:

Category	Spent	Budgeted Amount
Rent	$1,260.00	$1,260.00
Groceries	$0.50	$400.00
Internet	$0.00	$60.00
Electricity	$0.00	$75.00
Eating Out	$9.00	$125.00
Charity	$0.00	$25.00
Cell phone	$0.00	$50.00
Medical	$0.00	$100.00
Misc	$21.69	$275.00
Savings	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$1,291.19	$2,370.00

I've cancelled my heart association lotto tix for $25, so $25 is free to donate as I wish to a worthy cause. They aren't really charity, anyway. I'll operate on a weekly system where I have X dollars of spending money for each category of eating out, groceries, and misc. In May, my auto savings for my house down payment and Europe travel funds will be skipped due to the three rent checks. Regular, $175/mo savings to each fund will start up again in June.

*I have $400 total for groceries. Divided by 31 and times 7, that means I have $90.32 per week. Luckily, there are 4 Saturdays in May, so this should be doable.
*I have $125 per week for eating out. This is $28.23 per week.
*I have $275 per week for Misc. $62.10 per week. Includes all alcohol, gifts, fees, transportation, goods and wants like toilet paper and contact solution, etc. I've sort of budgeted one drink ($10) and 1 hour of cityhop ($15) in there per week, with about $37 left over each week for necessary items and other incidentals. Oof, that seems low!

I feel like these totals are actually quite generous, though. I don't know how many people with similar salaries (or lower) do it! Absolutely no overages for any reason. It sucks, and I'm going to be making a lot of excuses to friends, I know. It has already started...I've turned down a birthday dinner for an acquaintance to stay home alone tonight, and not had any drinks or anything at a get together at a bar last night. I feel ever so impolite, not even ordering a drink!!

It won't be hard to keep track of how much I have left in each category as I track my spending each day, anyway.

If all goes well, I'll have about $500 each month to save in my random short term funds (mostly going to travell!!) after all spending is done.

We'll see how this goes!!

April 2013 Budget. The last of the good life

April represents the last month of my good salary for 2013. I went a little crazy as I knew it was the last one, and I have savings.

	April 2013  Budget
Category	Spent	Budgeted Amount
Rent	$840.00	$840.00
Groceries	$487.03	$450.00
Internet	$58.50	$60.00
Electricity	$83.68	$75.00
Eating Out	$117.60	$150.00
Charity	$25.00	$75.00
Cell phone	$40.00	$50.00
Medical	$138.00	$150.00
Misc	$645.13	$600.00
Savings	$600.00	$600.00
Total	$3,034.94	$3,050.00

Earned: $3,409.94

Spent: $3,034.64

Difference to save: $374.70

Rent: $840 as usual

Groceries: A whopping $487. Nearly $40 over budget. I went a little overboard to stock up on items I could use in May.

Internet: Right on target

Electricity: Over by about $8. Winter looms.

Eating out: Under by about $40

Charity: Under by $25

Cell phone: Under by $10

Medical: Under by $12

Misc: Over by $45. Alcohol: $34.20. Better than last month's $200! Entertainment: $18 on gas for a car ride out to Piha and an entrance to a museum. Fees: $80 dues for a work organisation. Gifts: $22.50 on a friend's  grad gift plus a random shout for a friend who is down on his luck. $285 for goods and wants. $120 on 3 mugs, TP, tablecloth, walking pole, canvas, eye drops, gaiters, wipes, bandanna. 

transportation (cityhop)

Savings: $600 as usual.

The leftover will go straight to May spending. I can't afford to save it in my savings account to any goals this month.

The Spanner in the Works

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm so happy, blah blah blah. There has to be a catch somewhere, right?

Yep. The whole reason this blog exists. Money.

I spent all of April dreading the budget cuts, and allowed myself to have a few freedoms before they all ended. I ended April with extra cash (as usual), but May is already proving to be a challenge.

1. Boss told me that my first paycheck after contract renewal may get skipped due to the tight deadlines. So May is a one-paycheck month.
2. May is also a three-rent-check month. That takes up ALL of my one paycheck, right there.
3. I haven't adjusted my spending habits to reflect my new found poor. 
4. There are oodles of birthdays, going aways, celebrations, etc. in May.

Perhaps I shouldn't have let myself stick my head in the sand... I think if I'd have known about the budget cuts longer than a few weeks, I would have buckled down a bit more.

Going down to 4 days a week hasn't changed my schedule at all. If anything, I'm busier than I was, doing cool stuff I want to do. So there isn't 'extra time' to cook, coupon, hunt down deals, seek free entertainment, etc.

Just tonight I struggled with myself about getting takeout. To pizza or not to pizza? I wondered, standing at the streetlight. I could turn left and go home to the dinner I've eaten every night this week, OR I could cross the street to go get pizza. Just as I was about to turn left, the walk light came on. And I caved.

In my new, cut budget, I am allowed to spend $20/week on take out. That's twice a week for cheap takeaways, or once for a semi-nice meal. On Sunday, I have to go out for a friend's birthday meal. I've already blown $9 of my $20 eating out allowance. Sigh.

I am allowed to have one drink per week at $10 each. That will probably take place on Friday afternoons, as I usually join my colleagues at the campus bar. Last night a friend bought me my drink plus some chips. I didn't feel as bad as I probably should have about taking it. I have a feeling I'm going to be relying on my better-employed friends a lot more for this kindness.

Getting used to not doing what I want, continuing an equilibrium I've attained over the past 5 or so years, is going to be a capital-c Challenge.

Le Glow

So, work is going really, really well. People keep complimenting me and telling me that I'm glowing. I AM extremely happy right now. It seems like I'm getting most of what I've always wanted, and more and more awesome opportunities and people keep popping up.

Surprisingly, the job I've always thought was non-existent/impossible, namely moving back home and studying what I love, may actually exist. It is mind-boggling because that really shouldn't ever happen, due to, well, nature's laws. That in no way, shape, or form means that there actually will be a job opening, nor that I'll get it, but...it exists! Miracle!

I'll be writing to the people back home who are working on that miracle project, and I will be pitching myself to them, as I am more than perfect to work on it with them. Literally everything they want to do and have just gotten funding to do? I have done, and done really well, here in NZ. It's like NZ has primed me for their project. Now I just need to talk my way into them giving me funding to help them out. Right?! CV revision marathon time (won't take long, I just did it a month or two ago).

Also, a new coworker seems to be another avenue on the road back home. He has oodles of connections, right where I want to be, and is the most helpful person I've ever met. I do have to impress him, though. Right now I'm not, I don't think. There also seems to be a way to get what I want out of a PhD if I do it with him. He all but offered one to me yesterday. We'll see.

I'm extremely lucky. I don't know how all this is happening right now, actually. I don't think I'm doing anything much differently than I was before. I AM taking a few more high-stakes risks, but none of the above good stuff has anything whatsoever to do with those risks. They are completely unrelated and seemingly random--the miracle project and the new coworker moving to Auckland, who just happens to be interested in a tiny project I was already doing--how could they at all be related to me doing an extra public talk here or there?! It's not. So I don't know what is happening with my karma or whatever this is down to, but I'm putting it out there--I'm extremely grateful.