10 Days...

without posting? I feel a little slack! But the good news is that I have religiously kept up my February Excel budget at home and it's looking pretty good - I also haven't been taking my credit card with me so if I have anything I want to get, I couldn't which is good because I'm a star when it comes to impulse spending!

February and the start of March is still way way too tight for me so I should really be careful regarding my expenses. I also have a dentist appointment on Wednesday and even though I should get 75% of the cost back due to my private health fund, that's still going to eat into my finances. So I'm dreading it...

And still no call from that job that I applied for and it's been three weeks. I know government positions take ages to call but should I give them a courtesy call just to ask them what's going on with my application? I think it's just rude for them not to call every applicant even just to tell them that they weren't successful.

Another bad news: I'm gaining weight again. I gained half a kilo in last week's WW. Granted though, I've been pretty bad when it comes to junk food so I really have no one to blame but myself for this!

So much bad news right?

But there's still a couple of GOOD NEWS in the horizon...

1. I'm really enjoying my boxing class and I'm going again tonight. It's one and a half hour of punching, skipping, running, squats, push-ups, sit-ups, etc

2. I've also been doing a lot of exercising and walking on the side.

3. I've taken out pasta/rice/biscuits/chocolate on my diet for a while. I'm really focusing on vegetables and fruits and just really healthy eating especially at night. No more desserts for a while. Basically, everything in moderation and I'm eating 5-6 little meals instead of 3 massive ones.

4. I'm eating healthy lunches and not buying any more lunches. Today I had a tuna sandwich and another can of tuna with some crackers. And yoghurt for a snack.

5. I'm still optimistic about everything - in the money front, on the job front and on the health front. It's hard but I really have to be right?

*sigh* February is just way tooo tight!

I can't wait for the next month to begin so I can start anew! I got paid Wednesday and paid off the necessary stuff, family, rent, paid another $200 to the credit card and put in $300 into my savings. I still have $300 to freely spend on my own until the next pay day. Whatever I don't spend in that, I will put in my CC payment.

I did put in another $200 in my CC but I used it to enroll in a fitness (boxing) class today anyway. It costs $125 for 8 weeks and as long as I don't miss a class, I know it's going to be worth it as I really need to get in shape.

The disappointing news is that I paid $17.95 to go to a WW meeting on Wed afternoon only to be told that I've gained 1.1 kgs, the weight that I lost two weeks ago. So I really need to get back on track, count my points again religiously and start moving moving moving. When I went to Melbourne, we did walk a lot (in one day, I walked for 4 hours) but then as a result of that walk, my ankle was sprained and I couldn't exercise. So I feel blah and unmotivated! At least my bf is doing well in the exercise part, he's been running and skipping a lot and he's also been motivating me to to more exercise. And another good news is that, we've both created Excel daily budgets. We fire it up every night before we go to bed and write down what we spent in a whole day. It's a great way to track where the money is going!

On a shopping ban until March!

So I'm back from Melbourne a little bit relaxed and a little bit poorer. I've shopped heaps and I'm on a no-shopping ban again until maybe the end of March (we'll see how we go with that). I bought a pair of flat black shoes (for work), 3 formal work shirts and a couple of casual tops. My credit card debt went up to $1150 and I have to work and get that down to what it was before I left for my little holidays!

I'm still on track to save $650 this month so that's good (pay day is on Wed) and there's going to be a lot of no-spend days this month as well as stay-in weekends which would save me about $60 per weekend of not going out. I'm also having a lot of sandwiches and salads for lunches at work and dinners so that saves a lot of money.

Still no word on the job interview and I'm getting quite impatient but it's only been a week and they said that they usually contact people after two weeks or so so fingers crossed again that I have a call by next week and an interview by the next. I'm so ready to move on to a new environment where I can actually benefit more from my skills rather than being at the crossroads with a job that I'm not happy with anymore.

My Networth Goals for Feb

Currently my networth is -$3369 = horrible!

Assets:

Savings $3000
Retirement $7796

Debts:

Student Loans $13,507
CC $658

(This doesn't include the cash I have which I'm saving for my Melbourne trip)

My goals for the end of February includes:

$650 - towards my savings
$250 - pay towards CC
which means apart from my Melbourne trip, Feb is going to be a personal frugal month for me. I have to bring my own lunches to work everyday - have cheap weekends and limit eating out. Exciting times!

Feb 4 and 5 MD

A grand total of $0 for both days. wheee...

I'm going straight home from work today and pack for my trip tomorrow!

So far this February:

Grand Total so far in February (only minor expenses, rent not included):$70.10

Breakdown:

Food groceries: $37.80
Fun: $32.30

Ebay... oh how much I love you...

I've been selling a lot of my boxed set DVD's on Ebay just to get a bit of a kick in my bank account for this month.

So far, I've made $45 just last week for only two DVD boxed sets.

I usually buy them on sale, watch them once and then immediately sell them on Ebay. Sometimes I get more in Ebay than what I've originally paid for when I first bought it brand-new.

I'm planning on selling some more DVD's and books this month to get at least $100 from Ebay this February.

February so far...

I've been spending a lot of money on food lately. Blah! I don't want to list it down because I don't want to face the truth (aren't I dramatic?). And since it's been raining here for the last week, we've been spending a lot of time at home eating and watching DVD's. Bliss!

Well here we go...

Feb 1 Friday MD

$0 - woohoo!

Feb 2 - Saturday

$5.80 - a boysenberry fruit flo
$13.00 - groceries - dinner for me and bf
$2.00 - DVD

Feb 3 - Sunday

$10.80 - butcher - dinner for Monday night and lunch for me on Tuesday
$14.00 - my share of groceries
$20.00 - ticket for two to see Juno (a must-see)
$4.50 - Valentines card for bf

Feb 4 - Monday

$0 - there is no way I'm spending any money today. I already have lunch and we're all set for dinner!

Grand Total so far in February:

$70.10 - in two days!

Breakdown:

Food groceries: $37.80
Fun: $32.30

Notice that I haven't yet made my budget for February. Because of our impromptu little holiday in Melbourne, I don't want to make any strict budgets knowing that I'll just break it anyway. For my last pay in January (30), I didn't even put anything in my savings (after taking off the savings that I've put in for January). But I still have two paychecks coming in February so my aim is still to save $600 this month and put it in my ING. So I'm still on the right track, I'm just really gonna pull the purse strings tighter for the rest of February.

There are also quite a few birthdays, occasions this coming Feb:

Dad's Bday - sent extra money
My little niece's birthday - she's overseas so I'll also send a bit of money
Valentine's Day - my bf is not very big on pressies so I just got him a card and I'll take him out to dinner sometime at the end of the month when the VDay craziness dies down.

Hopefully March will be a little quieter!!

Also, good news! I've sent in a job application for a job that I really liked. It only took me about a week to finish the application because the selection criteria is so long. In fact, the whole thing is about 11 pages long. It's for a government job so they're pretty strict. I hope they'll call me in for an interview in two weeks time. I'm excited and hopeful. The job is very demanding which is just the way I like it and the pay is almost 10K more than I'm getting now!
*Fingers crossed*