I’m pretty sure I’m reaching my quarter life crisis early!
This past week I have become increasingly agitated with the fact that I haven’t gone out and done a long (i.e. more than a few months) trip around the world – something I have always wanted to do but never had the money or the time to fit it in.
I have gone through so many different plans of what I am going to do but never really got my A into G! I’ve been just going with the flow of life, taking some short trips here and there (I don’t regret anything I’ve done or seen but I just know there is so much more out there!).
So I am making some new money goals for next year!
Save $15k for long term travel
Save $9k for a house deposit (& cheap car if my car dies in this time)
Both are completely do-able as I am going to begin this saving once we get back from Singapore so to make life easier I will say the saving is going from October 2011 – Beginning December 2012 which I count as 14 months to save.
I already have $3k in my house account (Adds up fast doesn’t’ it – I didn’t start the AP that long ago!) so that one will pretty much be covered by my fortnightly AP of $200 and when I sell some old stock from Gondwana Heels it ends up in this account.
The Long term travel should be relatively easy even though it is a large amount as I put more than this in my savings but end up taking $100 out here and there which reduces it dramatically. This equates to approx $250 per week. I will get here by a fortnightly AP that I will set up fortnightly (I already set up a $200 a fortnight payment here but will increase it), half of my end of year bonus will go here as well (No clue how much that will be but every little bit helps!). And I will attempt to make up the difference by selling stuff I no longer need and getting rid of things I pay for that I don’t really need. – Uh $69 per month ($828 per year) for the gym has just been cut out so that’s a good start! I’ve also slowed down the number of magazines I was getting a month and will be asking for a magazine subscription renewal for my birthday in March so I don’t have to pay for it. I’m also doing little things like extending out my hair colour – I tend to go 9-10 weeks but my next one is going to be 13 weeks as I didn’t want to have to do two more before the end of the year – saving over $100!
Both of these accounts have been set up at a separate bank to my normal bank so I hardly ever see the money so I can’t easily transfer it if I think I need funds.
I have another two savings a/cs at my main bank – 1 of them gets $50 a fortnight and get’s used for WOF/Rego for my car, any small car repairs and gifts throughout the year including Christmas presents. The other was formally my travel savings a/c but I always poached funds from it so now it will be my short term travel / savings a/c for trips around NZ or when we want to go out for dinner etc.
Do you have any tips to help save or cut costs? Have you set yourself a monetary goal for the upcoming year?