If I'm Lucky

If I'm lucky, my trip home will be approved tomorrow and I can snag another free trip to the East Coast!

After that, I'm out of airmiles, though--it is getting harder and harder to find credit cards with bonuses large enough and easy enough to get on my meager salary.

I'm just happy I've been able to go home for free for the past few years. I can't imagine paying $3K NZD every year now. Guess I'm going to have to though, unless my PhD pays for my flight through the US somehow. Crossed fingers!!

*I just remembered I have 100K British Airway miles in my account...hope I get to go to Prague next year--definitely going to use those bad boys for inter-continental travel if I do.

New Tenant!

Whew. New tenant has signed the lease and is moving in this weekend. Just in the nick of time. I thought I might have to cover the rent by myself for a little while til I found someone decent.

I've agreed to live with a couple to save some $$. I ran out of options and they were the best I could come up with over the busy Easter period--unfortunate timing as almost everyone left town!!

New tenants are lawyers and tough negotiators, even though they barely speak English. I agreed to a price of $325 per week including power, water, and internet. I should have held out for power or something, I regret not negotiating harder. My rent then goes down to $115 per week, but my bills double, plus I have to pay for water. We haven't gotten a bill for that yet so I have no idea what that will be. In the US, they were always quite small, though, maybe about $30.

We have a garage renter that brings in $50 per week. I agreed to pay the utilities in exchange for getting to keep all of the garage rent. Last month utilities and garage rent were basically equal. It was too hard to explain to the barely-English speaking new tenant that the garage rent covered most of the extra bills we have to pay. I tried about 5 times, but she couldn't understand. Plus, that is when I assumed that our garage renter would continue to use the spot indefinitely--she hasn't indicated that she doesn't want the spot anymore, so...??? I just figured it would be easier if a) I kept all the garage rent, b) paid the utilities myself, no calculating and sending out a bill to my flatmate, and c) paid an extra $5 - $20 a month in utilities to get in a couple that would save me nearly $400 in rent each month.

But now the garage renter is quite late on her payment. I don't know if she is going to continue to use the spot. Plus, our new landlord moved in some construction equipment into our spot for his own uses for the next 2 weeks and I'm not sure what my rights are. The garage spot comes with the apartment, but since we don't own a car, I guess he doesn't care about our garage renter. ?? He just said casually, oh, if the renter needs the spot, I'll move my car and they can have my spot. But the garage renter should have access to the spot WHENEVER, unfettered, meaning at any time of day or night, without having to call my landlord to move the car. I don't know what to do...I want to tell him that that spot is to be clear at all times for my garage renter, but then he could kick us out or just say, I own everything and that spot is mine now or you can't rent out the garage anymore...and I'd be screwed! I'm already going to have to refund my garage renter her money for those two weeks because I feel so guilty that she can't park there without lots of trouble...

So if I lose the garage rental income of $50/week, I'm on the hook for all of the utilities without that extra income to cover it. I really got myself in a pickle.

Note to self: THINK THROUGH before trying to be nice in negotiations from now on. From here out, the room is $305 (minimum) to a couple without bills included. Apparently, I care too much about what other people think of me, and just offer extra stuff because I want them to think I'm nice. :(

The Old Quandary

Quandary: do you go with your gut and choose to live with the people who feel right but don't save you money, or the people who would save you a ton of money but you feel sort of iffy about?

I've kind of gone for the middle ground this time: save some money, and feel more right than the ones that save a ton of money.

This happens EVERY SINGLE TIME I interview for flatmates. in my experience, they segregate into three groups: 

1) There are the people that flat out do not work, and you know instantly. They rarely make it through my special email filter anymore, so honed is my gut. DELETE!

2) The people that you could live with if pressed. They are nice enough, and would be respectful flatmates. You can't put your finger on it, but you know you will never be friends/there are some complicating factors that will slightly interfere with your lifestyle. Not enough problems to eliminate them entirely, as they usually have some sort of redeeming feature, like they can move in exactly when you need someone, or they have a huge flat screen TV and sound system, or love to cook and clean for other people (yes, they exist).

3) The people who you just click with instantly, and you know in your gut that they'd be good flatmates, and maybe fun. You might even be friends, and they'd definitely be a benefit to your life rather than make it awkward to come out of your room and chance-encounter them.

I have had #3 this whole time. I always choose my gut. I haven't been wrong yet! I've lived with an English girl, a gay German guy, another English girl, a Kiwi/Indian girl, and a French girl. They've all been fantastic, and we've had a ton of fun together. I love getting to learn about other countries and hear all their travel stories, and keep up with most of them on Facebook now. I wouldn't say we are close--I am crazy busy and keep people at a distance even when I live with them--but we are definitely friends, or friendly, and all would give me rave reviews as a flatmate (or so they tell me).

This time it is even more complicated because I want to save money...no, I need to save money. My salary will decrease by a lot next year because of the PhD. I have to save up for that occurrence, and save money wherever I can. So I've been interviewing couples as well as singletons. 

There are at least two singletons that would be AMAZING to live with--just super fun girls that I have a ton in common with. But they would not decrease my rent, so...they are in second place.

I started by asking for $330 per week in my ad for couples, exclusive of parking and bills. I got a LOT of pushback from that, and ended up negotiating a few couples to $305 per week. One was including bills, one excluding. The couple I liked the most, of course, was including bills because I really wanted them. The other couple would work better for my landlord, have permanent jobs, will barely be home, love to cook and clean for other people, etc. All the good things. But they are older, married, and I just have this gut feeling that my apartment wouldn't be mine anymore if they moved in. I would be an accessory.

So I guess I have decided to go the middle ground and go with the couple I feel most #3 about. It's up to my landlord whether he will let them move in. If not, I have to go with one of the cool girls and not save any money this year, or wait another week to see who turns up. We shall see!!

Apartment Viewings

I've checked with my new landlord, and as long as he gets his $440 per week, he is happy for me to negotiate the rent with my new flatmate(s).

I have a few couples coming to see the place this weekend. I'm also interviewing singles just to see if anyone amazing shows up, but I'm really getting excited about saving a ton of money during my PhD. The possibility of paying so much less for my place--and only giving up a little space/privacy--is proving to be very tempting. I've already made a revised budget and started planning how much I can save. It will be so nice to have a large cushion in my budget again...and to have the freedom to pay for convenience when I am terribly stressed out during my PhD.

Halfway to my first Europe trip!!

My long-term Europe fund is coming along nicely--my goal was to save $13K NZD because I estimated that I'd need about $10K USD and the conversion rate was pretty bad when I made my estimate.

By saving a little bit each month towards this goal, I'm now halfway there! Hurrah. :)

My plan was to complete this goal by the time I was 40 and then go on a long trip with my Mom. I probably will still do that at some stage (post-PhD celebratory trip??), but I'm going to try to finagle my way to Europe during my PhD sooner than that.

There is a conference in Prague that I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go to. My ancestry is in the Czech Republic, and to be able to visit that area on work's dime would be simply amazing. I've already told my supervisors that I was willing to give up conferences to Mexico and Indonesia this year in order to get to Europe next year. Also, one of my supervisors will be in Europe all of next year, and I really want to go visit her (for 'work,' of course!). I just have to have something presentable, work-wise, in order to get to go. I would use that as my carrot to motivate myself!

So maybe next year: Czech Republic, Spain?, or Germany? I'd also love to tack on a trip to see one of my best friends in London, and a side trip to Italy (of course) if I can swing the time off. Work would be paying for my long-haul flights, plus maybe half of my accommodation. Food would be on me. At least now I have a fund to pay for any sight seeing and fun while hanging out in Europe!!

I have to make this happen!

Save money, live with a couple?

I'll be starting the PhD soon. My salary for this year should not change much, because I'll be making enough part-time and enough with the part-time PhD salary that it'll equal about what I'm making now at 80% of full-time work. (I'll be working THREE TIMES as much, though--yikes!!)

So I just found out that my flatmate is moving out. I'd never considered living with a couple before, because it can be messy, and because my flat is perfect for 2 people but just about too crowded with 3. However, I'll barely be home once I start the PhD. I also need to figure out how to save more money, and prepare for Year 2 of the PhD, where I'll drop down to about 25% full time work and be making much less.

Sooo...live with a couple? If they were cool, I think that would be a great compromise. a) I wouldn't have to move. b) I could save money. Plus I'd be splitting utilities 3 ways, saving even more! Whew.

But I'm struggling with figuring out what is fair. My place rents for $440 per week. It is in the CBD and pretty awesome. Split evenly, that is $220 each. What should a couple pay? I was thinking 1.5 times what I currently pay ($330), but that seems like a lot because I'd only pay $110 pw in that case! That is a humongous savings for me! They would have the master bedroom, which is slightly bigger than my room. I could throw in a parking space too--normally it rents out for $25 pw. What do you think?

If this worked out, eventually I'll save up enough that I can move out and get a dog and my own place!

March Madness

	Mar Budget 2014
Category	Spent	Budgeted Amount	Balance
Rent	$840.00	$840.00	$0.00
Groceries	$555.23	$400.00	-$155.23
Internet	$49.50	$50.00	$0.50
Electricity	$55.78	$75.00	$19.22
Eating Out	$225.40	$125.00	-$100.40
Charity	$0.00	$25.00	$25.00
Cell phone	$40.00	$50.00	$10.00
Medical	$60.00	$100.00	$40.00
Misc	$345.15	$275.00	-$70.15
Savings	$600.00	$600.00	$0.00
Total	$2,771.06	$2,540.00	-$231.06

Income: $3,072.12

Spent: $2,794.06

Difference: $301.06
Interest earned: $106.98

Way over in groceries and eating out! Guess I ate a lot of food this month...

Over in Misc slightly too:
Alcohol: $53
Entertainment: $18
Exercise: $94.97
Fees: $29.40
Gifts: $5.50
Goods and wants: $95.78
Transportation: $48.50

Extra savings go to my Mental Health Fund. It's up to $1,351.47 now.