rainbowtatt

I know I swore I would keep track of all my spending, but… I didn’t.

I kept a mental list that I emailed to myself with the best of intentions… but even stopped doing that after a while.

I spent some money that I should’ve’ve. I was a LOT more conscious of what was coming out of my wallet, and what for.

And… drumroll please…

I saved…

I’m laughing as I put this post together, cause WTF? I didn’t think I did *that* much to change my spending habits in one pay cycle.

And now I’m fantasising about what I can buy myself with my savings. Ha, kinda defeats the purpose of #fubusave, doesn’t it?

I’m a bit of a nutjob for spreadsheets.

I don’t know why.

But I like having my budget all lined up, accounted for, colour coded and formulae inserted.

Here’s a pie chart of the basics of my budget:

And here’s an overview of my budget spreadsheet:

I have one personal credit card and another that is shared with the fiancé. We’ve found the shared credit card has made life so much easier when dealing with things like electricity bills, groceries, insurance, etc. We pay off equal amounts each fortnight. We manage our salaries independently, cause we’re independent like that! We still have a ‘family meeting’ if we want to buy something big (like a sewing machine, or a new bike), but that’s more out of courtesy than being on a short leash.

I’m in charge of paying off my car loan while Dan’s in charge of improving our house deposit and paying for our interwebs bill. I put away the equivalent fortnightly amounts for regular bills like electricity, car registration and servicing, prescriptions, vet bills, etc into my ING Direct account to hold until I need it.

I chose not to get private health cover before I hit 31, but I do put away the equivalent amount into a separate ING Direct account that I have specifically for glasses, podiatrist sessions and whatever-else-hasn’t-happened-to-me-yet. I’m incredibly lucky that I have Dr Joe as my GP; he’s got me on a health care plan that gets me free dental for another two years and five visits a year to Traci, my nutritionist.

I keep track of the difference between what I earn now and what I earned 3-4 years ago and use that difference as a guide for what I can comfortably save each fortnight. This year I’m trying to add a bit more to it, roughly the equivalent of my old personal loan repayment.

I give myself a supply for ‘entertainment’ purposes (read into that as you wish!) and a bit extra cash, because not everyone is capable of keeping to an exact budget, right?

The fortnight just finished was a bit tight for the first attempt at this new, tightened budget. But I did do things like get my hair coloured and buy papercraft supplies from Spotlight (all for a good cause, I promise!). Hopefully this fortnight will be a bit easier since I’ll be keeping a closer eye on how I spend my moola.

(I just realised that this doesn’t even cover my business finances. But in a nutshell, I don’t spend what I make until after I pay the tax bill and I pay for anything I need out of my normal funds and claim it against my ABN. Seemed to work last financial year, so am trying it again this year.)

I have a #febusave confession to make.

There’s been a lot of #febusave fluff showing how many people are giving up their takeaway coffee during #febusave. Or how many people aren’t driving their car to work. Or how many people aren’t expanding their shoe collection for a WHOLE MONTH.

Of the list of sacrifices on offer, there are the ones that have no relevance to me (I don’t buy coffee), and there are ones that are absolute no-go zones (no way am I giving up driving to work and doubling my travel time in my v. fuel efficient car!).

So I’ve been trying to work out what I can do for #febusave to make an impact on my spending habits. I already put away a chunk of money each fortnight and I’m working to pay off my car loan ahead of schedule.

But it’s occurred to me; that while I have a colourful spreadsheet that has been lovingly cared for, I don’t know if the amount I allocate to each of my little sections is a true representation of my actual spend.

So I’m going to track my cash flow like I’m running the office petty cash tin. I’m going to write down every dollar I spend/transfer/etc for my next pay run (which, luckily for my ADD-inclined head, starts tomorrow!)

I’ve got a pen and notepad in my handbag (they’re always in there, but) and I’m ready to go!

Oh god, this is going to be ugly, isn’t it?

Then

• When I was growing up, I wasn’t taught how to deal with money. Whatever money I earned by working, claiming Austudy or taking from mum’s wallet, I spent it
• Within about three months of working full-time (about two months after I finished the HSC), I got my first credit card
• The first thing I properly saved up for was in 2000 (when I was 22) when I saved up $300 to buy a stereo from Grace Bros
• In 2001 I managed to save a whole $3,500, motivated by Dan and I planning to move in together. But we moved into a $320/week house that was too expensive for our crappy income and we eventually moved in with his mum instead
• I ended up having THREE personal loans. One was the outstanding loan for my first car (which had since become a credit card consolidation loan), the second was my holiday loan (I’d saved for the flights, but not the rest), and the third loan was for my new car

Now

• If I spend up on my credit card, I’m better able to pay it off (though I do have lapses)
• I’ve got ING Direct accounts to get higher interest on my savings
• I’ve paid off two loans ahead of schedule (one so early that the bank tried to slug extra fees with my final repayment)
• I’m down to one loan that’s due to be paid off by the end of the year, though I’m saving up to pay it off sooner
• I chose not to get private health cover, so have a separate ING Direct account and save the equivalent amount each pay. I tend to spend it if I have a bigger than usual credit card bill, but I’m improving
• I have kept a budget (a very colourful one) for a good couple of years that I have taken up a notch for 2010 and #febusave

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that I’ve improved out of sight in the last few years. But I still find it too easy to stop my auto transfers and spend money. I also have a coke habit (the canned version) and can easily throw money away on useless crap.

For #febusave, my goal is to better control my spending, hone in on my budget and set definite goals for paying off my car, having a rainy day fund (like the ones mentioned in #febusave’s money confidence survey) and finally starting to contribute to our savings for our first mortgage.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of #febusave, ANZ’s campaign to help chicks be better savers and be more confident with the moola.

And I have to confess, when I heard about it all from Leigh, I felt like that the whole campaign was being put on especially to help ME out.

It’s true!

While I am SO. MUCH. BETTER. with money now than I was ten years ago, I’m still pretty shithouse.

In my first proper job after finishing school (as in, the one where I couldn’t wear jeans to the office), I was getting paid monthly and ended up opening a second transaction account to separate my pay into two halves. That’s how bad I was. And that’s when I was living at home and would scab money from the mothership.

So it goes without saying that I’ve joined the #febusave movement and proudly hung up the little button over there on my side bar. Being a “blog ambassador” sounds so official, I might get it on a business card.

Here’s some official tidbits provided by ANZ and their Women & Money Confidence Report; I can relate to each and every dot point, some from my past, some from RIGHT NOW ZOMG I HAVE NO MONEY SKILLZ:

• 52% of women claimed they know they should have a financial plan or budget in place but keep putting it off.
• Less than one third of women surveyed said they were very confident about managing everyday finances.
• Only one in ten women are very confident in managing their investments, financial planning and superannuation.
• 45% said they had saved less than they planned to over the previous 12 months.
• 2.76 million women (41%) are saving no regular amount monthly
• Top reasons were too many bills, not disciplined to follow a budget, too busy, so put it off
• More than half (58%) of adult women in Australia have less than $5,000 in savings with 33% having less than a $1,000
• 1 in 3 women believe they wouldn’t last longer than a month if they lost their job tomorrow
• 1 in 4 women are not at all confident about their future financial security, claiming they live pay to pay with little savings

Scary shite, huh? o.O

One of the kick-starts to #febusave was to pledge to give up driving to work/buying treats/buying coffee and well, I’m not exactly willing to give up my car/coke/v for an entire month. Reduction I could do, but going cold turkey? Nuh-uh.

BUT! For the last 4 months or so I’ve fallen right off my budget wagon, with no regular saving or anything like that.

So I’ve re-jigged my colour-coded budget spreadsheet in GoogleDocs for 2010 and re-started auto-transfers of funds to my various debts and savings accounts.

Let’s see where Feburary and #febusave takes us, shall we?