I Hath Returned

I apologise to any loyal readers I have for my long hiatus. It wasn't planned, life just seemed to get in the way.

However, I have had a realisation recently that life is always going to happen. Life doesn't stop for anything. If I want to have a blog, I have to make a commitment to it and work on it regularly.

So, my dear readers (if I have any), I am pledging to you now that I am going to be a better blogger! I am committing to three posts a week. I plan to post Monday, Wednesday and Friday (Australian time). Hopefully this will increase my readership and also keep all those faithfuls around!

So if there are any readers out there, I'd love to hear from you. Do you have any suggestions on how I could improve the blog? What will make you want to stick around? Any topic suggestions? This is foremost meant to be a personal finance blog, but I am open to branching into other topics.

First post of the new blog will be tomorrow, be sure to tune in!

Silly Mistake Leads to Cost

On Thursday, I am flying to the other side of the country, Perth to be exact. On Wednesday night, I am staying at my brother's house as he lives nice and close to the airport and I can leave my car at his place free of charge.

I seemed to have forgotten about my big trip when I went grocery shopping on Sunday. I was only stocking up on fresh produce... and it's now all going to go bad while I'm away.

I will probably take it to my brother's house for him to eat, but still, seems like a waste and definitely a waste of money. So if I was a little more on the ball, I would be even further under budget.

Oh well, we live and learn.

Budget Update

This month, I decided to track my spending, every last cent I spent!

My bills and savings are automatically deducted from my pay cheque so I don't even see it. After that, I have three budget categories.

Groceries - $150

Petrol - $150

Other/Fun - $100

So how did I go this month?

Groceries - $116.20

Petrol - $137.40

Other/Fun - $102.17

Not too bad. Though I went over my Other/Fun budget by $2.17, I was well under in my other two categories.

My grocery budget includes toiletries. I like to stock up when things are on sale. So when tinned tomatoes are on sale and I only need one can that week, I might buy five and put them in the cupboard. This fortnight, I bought ten tubes of toothpaste because the price was so good.

So while my grocery budget may seem a little high for just one person, it is so large so that I can stock up when I want to.

Any thoughts on my budget? Too high, too low?

Update: This is my fortnightly budget, not monthly. Apologies for the confusion.

My Net Worth

I decided to calculate my net worth, after seeing it on so many other blogs.

Assets:

House- $390 000

Car- $30 000 (very conservative estimate, is probably actually worth more)

Shares- $6000

Superannuation- $35 000 (approximate)

Cash- $10 000

Total Assests: $471 000

Liabilities:

Mortgage- $281 000

Total Liabilities: $281 000

Therefore, my Net Worth is $190 000.

Not too bad for a 23 year old! This is also not taking into account my one third ownership of an investment property, as I have no idea what it is worth or what the mortgage on it is.

Does this seem alright to everyone?

Worth It

A little while ago, I posted that I had gotten a Woolworths Frequent Flyer Credit Card. Well, that has more than paid for itself. By just putting my regular purchases on that card and never carrying a balance, I booked a flight to Perth (usually around $350) with my points and still have a bunch left.

Glad to save a bit of money for basically doing nothing!

Saving Isn't Always the Answer

I get paid tomorrow. Usually, the night before pay day, I put any leftover money from the previous fortnight's budget into my savings account.

However, at the moment, my city is going through a serious heat wave. I have been sleeping downstairs on a thin mattress because it is just too hot to even be upstairs, let alone sleep. And as a result, my air con has been getting quite the workout.

Therefore, anticipating the higher than usual electricity bill, I am paying that extra money straight to the electricity company. Hopefully that will lessen the blow when the bill comes.

It Seems to Work

Usually when I get up in the morning, I come downstairs and open all of the doors and windows to let some air in. Pretty soon, it is boiling hot and I often have to put the air con on.

Today though, I came down and noticed the place was actually quite cool, despite being very warm outside with the sun shining. I kept everything closed up and two hours later, it is still quite cool.

This seems very strange to me but could it be the answer to staying cool in the summer? Don't let the sun penetrate into the house?

Thoughts would be appreciated :)