2013 Financial Review

2013 Spending:

	2013 Budget
Category	Spent	Budgeted Amount	Balance
Rent	$10,920.00	$10,920.00	$0.00
Groceries	$4,412.39	$4,800.00	$387.61
Internet	$795.99	$720.00	-$75.99
Electricity	$896.57	$900.00	$3.43
Eating Out	$1,133.30	$1,800.00	$666.70
Charity	$497.80	$300.00	-$197.80
Cell phone	$372.38	$600.00	$227.62
Medical	$689.73	$1,500.00	$810.27
Misc	$4,901.71	$7,200.00	$2,298.29
Savings	$6,600.00	$7,200.00	$600.00
Total	$31,219.87	$35,940.00	$4,720.13

Income: $37,906.31 (salary cut to 80% in April; includes garage rent)

Rent: Luckily this is staying the same, though I'll have to start paying water now. 

Groceries: Underbudget, just because of my trips. I was gone almost all of August, all of September, and most of December. 

Internet: This was overbudget but that is now under control, as long as we don't go over 80 GB each month. This will be $42.50 for me each month.

Electricity: Right on target. 

Charity: Overbudget. But that is OK.

Cell phone: underbudget. Not sure why, maybe my Skype annual renewal didn't count.

Medical: Underbudget. 2014 will be more expensive.

Misc: Underbudget by quite a bit. This will have to change in 2014. I can't afford the luxuries I used to.

Savings: Under. I need to pump this up after December's overage is calculated.

$6,686 or so was saved throughout 2013 to various funds:

$2135 Leaving NZ Travel Fund

$794 to Sanity Fund

$3000 to 2014 US Trip Fund

2014 is going to be even harder, financially. I'm anticipating my 80% salary until April, and then another cut down to PhD salary mid-year. Not sure what happens between April and July...here is a potential budget if I a) do a PhD staring in July and b) my salary is not cut between April and July.

Budget stays the same as late 2013 until July (income approximately $2800/mo):

Category	Budgeted Amount
Rent	$840.00
Groceries	$400.00
Internet	$42.50
Electricity	$75.00
Eating Out	$125.00
Charity	$25.00
Cell phone	$50.00
Medical	$100.00
Misc	$275.00
Savings	$600.00
Total	$2,532.50

Budget post-July goes way, way down (income approximately $2155/mo):

Category	Spent	Budgeted Amount
Rent	$0.00	$912.50
Groceries	$0.00	$375.00
Internet	$0.00	$42.50
Electricity	$0.00	$85.00
Eating Out	$0.00	$100.00
Charity	$0.00	$25.00
Cell phone	$0.00	$45.00
Medical	$0.00	$90.00
Misc	$0.00	$240.00
Savings	$0.00	$240.00
Total	$0.00	$2,155.00

That might just have to do for now. I won't be able to afford to do much travelling, so I'm hoping I can stick close to home and explore even more spots in NZ, if I even have time to do so, that is!

This Globetrotter Is Settling Down

In 2013, my tentative plan was to move back to the US. I have networked like crazy, put in a million CVs and applications and begged anyone who'd listen to help me (and they did, plus a few more, quite unexpectedly!). I've saved up for a US move a few times over. I've made detailed plans about where I am going to live, where I am going to adopt a dog, which tennis lessons I'm going to take, and how I am going to make friends and meet guys when I move back. I just need to DO IT.

Yet...

Nothing has happened. Absolutely no firm leads. I am no closer to this dream than when I started, though I think maybe I have scared a few work contacts in the city I want to move to with my unbridled enthusiasm (read: desperation). 

While I am dead serious about moving back, I also refuse to move to a new city without a job offer in my hands that will allow me to continue on my beloved career path. I cannot give up the momentum and awesomeness of fulfilling my life's purpose, as I am doing in NZ. My job isn't just my job...it is why I exist. THAT is why I can't leave it. Not even for my family. It has taken a very long time for me to explain that to myself.

So. After all that, I might be deciding to give up the ghost and live in NZ forever. Really. I'm just. so. tired. of beating my head against a wall that doesn't ever seem to budge. Though I'm really happy at home, I also wonder how US reality would stack up given my expectations.

Suddenly I wonder what I've been missing in NZ. Realizing that I never really gave it a chance, a fair go.

I'm ready to settle down. I'm ready to make a huge commitment to a place. I've been so ready for so, so long, but hesitant to assign that place to New Zealand. But I think I have to try. I think it is just time. I can't be a transient anymore, in a temporary mindset, in a holding pattern til something better comes along. It is time to put down the roots and see what grows from it.

I want a dog. I want a house. I want a garden and a car and to feel at home. I don't want to dream of better opportunities or wish I were somewhere else. I want to want to be where I am. 

I want to live where I am.

So I'm done. Life is too short to keep struggling like this, to keep living in the future in the hopes that something will come through in my desired geographical location. I'm done trying and preparing for something that just doesn't seem to be in the cards. A dear friend's death and some serious thought even before that brought me to this inevitable conclusion.

Therefore, I am flipping the script in 2014.

2014 will be about making NZ my permanent home. It will be about change and commitment and sacrifice. It will be about making connections and long-term plans. It will be about living where I am. 

Surprisingly, I am happy about this. I am glad that I can stop putting off my life. It is sad to think that I will be giving up the idea of living in the US, getting to see my family often, getting paid what I am worth, and all the security and material items that accompany a lower cost of living. But on the whole, I'm happy, at peace. This is just what I have to do. I miss the US things a little less each year, and cope with doing without my favourite US things a little bit better each time I leave. Those things will continue to get better. 

NZ is my home now. And I need to make my financial and personal goals reflect that.

A Little Relief for December

While guy stuff is getting infinitely more complicated (but still no clear answers), my finances are getting a little bit easier and simpler. 

Our garage is rented, bringing in a cool $25/week for both me and my flatmate! That $100/mo just about covers most of my utilities (but not quite).

My flatmate has also arranged to get her friend to take my room for a few weeks while I'm away at my full rent ($210/week). She and I are splitting the income 50/50, I guess? 

Anyway, it's a win-win for December! I will feel less guilty having fun and spending oodles of money across the United States (I leave tomorrow!).

A November to top all Novembers

This past month has been crazy. Just like October, which was interesting and then ended in a horrible tragedy. Luckily, November has been crazy in a mostly good way. A lot happened! I bonded with my new flatmate, we were taken up in an airplane by a new friend for free (score!), she won several vouchers and had a few modeling offers at the Newmarket Festival (they were scouting for new faces for some magazine), and I was asked out several times in one week, which was an absolute first for me, ever.

I am not sure this is why I've had such good luck recently, but after changing my attitude slightly towards NZ, good things are happening. I was offered an opportunity to make a little bit more money on the side. I'm only at 80%, so that will really help. Also, I think we'll start having income from our garage soon, which will be a total relief. Our electricity bill has sky rocketed because my new flatmate doesn't have a job and is home all day--it really makes a difference! I'm still sort of scared to send her the bills because I think she will threaten to move out. :(

Also, I think that my flatmate is letting her friend stay in the apartment for the month I'm gone to the States for Xmas. That friend has offered to pay half of my rent while she's there.

That's really good, because I went way way over budget in November. So much so, that I decided to push the overage to December in hopes of catching up while I'm gone and not spending so much money (crossed fingers). $579.22 from November was applied to December. This will probably go on until January, which is a 3 PAYcheck month--if I don't go crazy and act super insanely social, I should be able to make up for the ground I lost in November.

I should be able to make it til the end of the month of December on budget, what with the garage rent, apartment rent, work paying for a week of food (in San Francisco, no less! I am SO EXCITED, work will basically pay for me to hang out with my best friends!), and my parents paying for most of my food afterward! :) My big expense will be gas for the car in the US, any social activities I do with people in the US, and a rental car/NYE event/food in Southern California for 4 days at the end of the month.

I definitely cannot make November spending a regular thing. I think it was the three rent checks that did me in. I was under budget in almost every other area. It's enough to make a big difference in my discretionary spending at 80% salary... Combined with a really social month, and bam! You get a very overbudget me.

	Nov 2013 Budget
Category	Spent	Budgeted Amount
Rent	$1,260.00	$1,260.00
Groceries	$452.77	$400.00
Internet	$50.24	$60.00
Electricity	$71.86	$75.00
Eating Out	$112.20	$125.00
Charity	$50.00	$25.00
Cell phone	$20.00	$50.00
Medical	$0.00	$100.00
Misc	$699.69	$275.00
Savings	$600.00	$600.00
Total	$3,316.76	$2,970.00

Income: $2756.54

Rent: WAY over. 

Groceries: Over by a bit...not too bad considering the Thanksgiving food that I bought

Internet: under

Electric: under

Eating out: under

Charity: over--but that is OK.

Cell phone: under

Medical: WAY under!

Misc: WAY over!

MISC
alcohol	$   136.50
entertainment	$    40.10
exercise	$    45.00
fees	$      5.50
gifts	$         $17
goods and wants	$   193.55
transportation	$   130.40
travel	$         -

Whoa, alcohol. I bought a bottle of vodka, and had several drinks with new friends

entertainment: I went to see Gravity as well as Hunger Games

For exercise, I bought new workout clothes, and bought an entry to a 10K I'm running in (new goal!)

Fees: I bought cookies for a work do

Gifts: I bought a friend cupcake mix and candles (made cupcakes, of course)

Goods and wants: Wowsers. My Halloween costume was expensive (but I got lots of compliments!), AAA batteries, business cards (work won't buy me any because I'm only 80%/not permanent staff), two rechargeable batteries, two picture frames (going to fill with pics from my flatmate's and my adventures and give to her for Xmas), Reese's halloween pumpkins (YUM), I sent my old flatmate her mail in Sydney, I spent a ton in the American store for Thanksgiving, and I bought day cream with SPF.

Transportation was big this month--I had a lot of funeral/memorial type stuff to go to that required transportation. There was no way I was missing any of it. I also took a cab from a friend's party, grabbed the cityhop car for a work do (bonus points for showing up, I HOPE), and got the cityhop car to go to Thanksgiving at a friend's house far away.

For December, I'm already behind the curve, but I'm hoping to catch up to it once I leave NZ. I shouldn't have to do any more grocery shopping--I'll eat from my cupboard from now til when my plane leaves. I have about $600 NZD to last me the rest of the month once my utilities are taken into account. Crossed fingers.