Zoebird
9-22-12, 7:37pm
It's been a while since I've been on the boards, and I'm not exactly "back" -- though I read sometimes -- because being off message boards has really changed my life for the better. I'm so much more productive!
But, I thought I would give you some updates about my finances, since we talked a lot about it. So lets get started!
First, we paid off our credit card! I did a very successful workshop in Australia (and I'm set to do a few more next year on functional anatomy), and we used that income to pay off the debt completely. It was just the remainder of our plane tickets to get here, but it was great.
Second, the student loan -- as you know, this is the big one in my life emotionally and otherwise. We are on great footing there! I have 2 years of payments (auto withdraw), and a steady income stream that just goes straight into that account -- so it's creating the buffer that I want. Right now, it's a bit of a trickle, but I haven't yet marketed the service that I've ear-marked to fund this particular side of things. I'm back on track to meet my "pay off by 40" goal (that's 4 years from now).
Third, the business overall -- it's going great. We are profitable! This not only is great in general, but it also helps us immigrate! The only snag in that is that immigration raised it's fees. If we'd filed in June (very early), we would have paid $790 to lodge our application, but as of July 1, it went up to. . . get this. . . $3200.
They know we are over a barrel, so they have us. LOL Luckily, we had some money put by (that we'd planned to reinvest in the business), that we can use to pay for the application. It upsets me though, having to pay 4x more!
But, the paperwork will be lodged in November, and we will hear back before our visa's expire in Feb! It takes 90 days, but you have to not-count a whole month dec/jan when the government is on holiday.
Next, even though we are profitable, doing well, and growing in a lot ways -- and set to grow more as we go -- we are still living very simply because our income isn't massive. Here are some things that we did on the home-front to save money!
We talked to our landlady about reducing the rent -- which we based on the fact that she hasn't made certain repairs over the last year, as well as the improvements that we had made. I was able to negotiate the rent down $25/wk! That's a $1300 savings per year!
We changed our power company to a new one that's been great. They just have the best rates all around. We'd switched the business to them, and then we discovered that they could do home, too. We were able to save *a lot* this winter. Last winter we paid about $80-100/month, and this winter we paid only $60-80! And right now, the bill is below $60, becuase we've headed into spring!
Our car had some troubles, but due to some "mates rates" and some trades (massages/car work), we were able to pay a very low rate for those repairs. We also did the math and driving to/from work and parking cost less than taking public transportation, and we discovered from our accountant that the parking could be paid by our business. That was excellent, and it actually is saving us $12/day Mon-Fri!
As many of you may remember, food prices here in NZ are astronomical. I have been able to drop our food bill by $100/wk! Here is what I did:
first, on the gardening front, I was terrible. A friend of mine helped me select *herbs* that are hardy and that I can learn to grow without killing. I've done well with lavender, so he set me up with several that he is sure won't confuse me like the lot I had last year. So, we're planning to keep it more "contained" so that I can learn and not waste money on plants that I kill simply because I'm inexperienced. DH is loving using our fresh herbs!
second, we were able to save money on meat. I found the best prices, and we also started to go for really cheap cuts. DH learned how to cook them in the slow-cooker (so it's not just reliant on me, and I've been working 50 hr work weeks since June, so someone had to cook!), and it's been fabulous. the cooking has to be simple for DH, and the recipes that he found are simple, primal, and "set it and forget it" in the crock pot. :)
with this, we started making bone broths more religiously and using them daily. according to the science on them, bone broths contain a *LOT* of nutrition and increase protein up-take, which means you don't need to eat as much meat. It also contains protein (and a lot of other goodies), and we discovered that we could not only eat cheaper cuts of meat, but we could also therefore eat less meat! By being able to consume less meat, we've actually saved a lot of money.
likewise, i started making quiches for breakfast with seasonal veggies and sides of salads with the microgreens that my friend's were growing all winter long. It's a project that DS and his girlfriend started with my friend (who sits for us one day a week), and there were so many lettuces that we got to bring some home. I gave them money for seeds.
The cool thing about this is that we actually used less eggs per week than before (moving from using 6 dozen to 5) which saved us $6 in eggs/wk alone! We already got the milk through our cow-share, which only DS was drinking and we kept having to turn into kefir or give away, so this gave us a method of using the milk more effectively.
We continued on with seasonal veggies, too, and were able to find a bulk spice store that sells the organics that we like/need (which of course only gets purchased now and again).
The savings have been so great for us, that we've been about to be more neighborly. Our friends who watch DS once a week are not well off. They refuse to take money for the child care, and so we've been able to do a lot of nice things for them. For example, we did buy the starter seeds for the lettuces, because they simply couldn't afford more veggies, but they had the spot to grow, but they also didn't have seed money. We also bought her medications a few times, because they simply couldn't afford them that month. And, we have been able to give them fermented salsa and cabbage, as well as some bone broths. We also have some young friends (20 somethings) who lost their dream of staying here and had to go back to the US. We've been able to send them care packages of some goodies from here in NZ every now and again, which brings them some comfort. We skype with them regularly to help keep up their spirits, and they are working on moving back to NZ by revitalizing an existing business (like we did), so we are providing a lot of support for them emotionally and otherwise. It's important.
I know it seems a strange thing overall to just start giving away the money that we are saving, btu since we are now saving probably $400-600/month, we have been able to do a few things around the house, put money into our savings here, put money into some great high-interest CDs (we were able to get one 4.25% one) which we hold for DS as well as for ourselves.
Finally, my ILs are coming over for christmas. We talked about having a "stay-cation" with them, and they like the idea. It's mostly because the money i'd saved for our christmas holiday gets spent on immigration fees. LOL So, they completely understand, and we set up a good holiday with two 4-night out-of-town trips that are affordable for us (each trip is $300 all inclusive for us, and $300 for them, so that's sweet). And everything in-town is discounted because we've been collecting coupons (other things are free).
Skyping has been going better, though we have reduced the frequency to every-other week. It's freed up our weekends for more family time and fun, as well as made our time with them more pleasant. We've discovered more and more "safe topics" and also strategies to relate. DH has been holding a lot of boundaries really well, and after the fiasco several months ago over FB, we haven't had any scrapes of a similar kind. Overall, we're doing better at ignoring certain baiting techniques, too, so that's helpful.
End of the day, things are going *really* well, and we are very happy with our progress financially and otherwise!
And, I like reading what you guys are up to, so. . . yeah. :)
But, I thought I would give you some updates about my finances, since we talked a lot about it. So lets get started!
First, we paid off our credit card! I did a very successful workshop in Australia (and I'm set to do a few more next year on functional anatomy), and we used that income to pay off the debt completely. It was just the remainder of our plane tickets to get here, but it was great.
Second, the student loan -- as you know, this is the big one in my life emotionally and otherwise. We are on great footing there! I have 2 years of payments (auto withdraw), and a steady income stream that just goes straight into that account -- so it's creating the buffer that I want. Right now, it's a bit of a trickle, but I haven't yet marketed the service that I've ear-marked to fund this particular side of things. I'm back on track to meet my "pay off by 40" goal (that's 4 years from now).
Third, the business overall -- it's going great. We are profitable! This not only is great in general, but it also helps us immigrate! The only snag in that is that immigration raised it's fees. If we'd filed in June (very early), we would have paid $790 to lodge our application, but as of July 1, it went up to. . . get this. . . $3200.
They know we are over a barrel, so they have us. LOL Luckily, we had some money put by (that we'd planned to reinvest in the business), that we can use to pay for the application. It upsets me though, having to pay 4x more!
But, the paperwork will be lodged in November, and we will hear back before our visa's expire in Feb! It takes 90 days, but you have to not-count a whole month dec/jan when the government is on holiday.
Next, even though we are profitable, doing well, and growing in a lot ways -- and set to grow more as we go -- we are still living very simply because our income isn't massive. Here are some things that we did on the home-front to save money!
We talked to our landlady about reducing the rent -- which we based on the fact that she hasn't made certain repairs over the last year, as well as the improvements that we had made. I was able to negotiate the rent down $25/wk! That's a $1300 savings per year!
We changed our power company to a new one that's been great. They just have the best rates all around. We'd switched the business to them, and then we discovered that they could do home, too. We were able to save *a lot* this winter. Last winter we paid about $80-100/month, and this winter we paid only $60-80! And right now, the bill is below $60, becuase we've headed into spring!
Our car had some troubles, but due to some "mates rates" and some trades (massages/car work), we were able to pay a very low rate for those repairs. We also did the math and driving to/from work and parking cost less than taking public transportation, and we discovered from our accountant that the parking could be paid by our business. That was excellent, and it actually is saving us $12/day Mon-Fri!
As many of you may remember, food prices here in NZ are astronomical. I have been able to drop our food bill by $100/wk! Here is what I did:
first, on the gardening front, I was terrible. A friend of mine helped me select *herbs* that are hardy and that I can learn to grow without killing. I've done well with lavender, so he set me up with several that he is sure won't confuse me like the lot I had last year. So, we're planning to keep it more "contained" so that I can learn and not waste money on plants that I kill simply because I'm inexperienced. DH is loving using our fresh herbs!
second, we were able to save money on meat. I found the best prices, and we also started to go for really cheap cuts. DH learned how to cook them in the slow-cooker (so it's not just reliant on me, and I've been working 50 hr work weeks since June, so someone had to cook!), and it's been fabulous. the cooking has to be simple for DH, and the recipes that he found are simple, primal, and "set it and forget it" in the crock pot. :)
with this, we started making bone broths more religiously and using them daily. according to the science on them, bone broths contain a *LOT* of nutrition and increase protein up-take, which means you don't need to eat as much meat. It also contains protein (and a lot of other goodies), and we discovered that we could not only eat cheaper cuts of meat, but we could also therefore eat less meat! By being able to consume less meat, we've actually saved a lot of money.
likewise, i started making quiches for breakfast with seasonal veggies and sides of salads with the microgreens that my friend's were growing all winter long. It's a project that DS and his girlfriend started with my friend (who sits for us one day a week), and there were so many lettuces that we got to bring some home. I gave them money for seeds.
The cool thing about this is that we actually used less eggs per week than before (moving from using 6 dozen to 5) which saved us $6 in eggs/wk alone! We already got the milk through our cow-share, which only DS was drinking and we kept having to turn into kefir or give away, so this gave us a method of using the milk more effectively.
We continued on with seasonal veggies, too, and were able to find a bulk spice store that sells the organics that we like/need (which of course only gets purchased now and again).
The savings have been so great for us, that we've been about to be more neighborly. Our friends who watch DS once a week are not well off. They refuse to take money for the child care, and so we've been able to do a lot of nice things for them. For example, we did buy the starter seeds for the lettuces, because they simply couldn't afford more veggies, but they had the spot to grow, but they also didn't have seed money. We also bought her medications a few times, because they simply couldn't afford them that month. And, we have been able to give them fermented salsa and cabbage, as well as some bone broths. We also have some young friends (20 somethings) who lost their dream of staying here and had to go back to the US. We've been able to send them care packages of some goodies from here in NZ every now and again, which brings them some comfort. We skype with them regularly to help keep up their spirits, and they are working on moving back to NZ by revitalizing an existing business (like we did), so we are providing a lot of support for them emotionally and otherwise. It's important.
I know it seems a strange thing overall to just start giving away the money that we are saving, btu since we are now saving probably $400-600/month, we have been able to do a few things around the house, put money into our savings here, put money into some great high-interest CDs (we were able to get one 4.25% one) which we hold for DS as well as for ourselves.
Finally, my ILs are coming over for christmas. We talked about having a "stay-cation" with them, and they like the idea. It's mostly because the money i'd saved for our christmas holiday gets spent on immigration fees. LOL So, they completely understand, and we set up a good holiday with two 4-night out-of-town trips that are affordable for us (each trip is $300 all inclusive for us, and $300 for them, so that's sweet). And everything in-town is discounted because we've been collecting coupons (other things are free).
Skyping has been going better, though we have reduced the frequency to every-other week. It's freed up our weekends for more family time and fun, as well as made our time with them more pleasant. We've discovered more and more "safe topics" and also strategies to relate. DH has been holding a lot of boundaries really well, and after the fiasco several months ago over FB, we haven't had any scrapes of a similar kind. Overall, we're doing better at ignoring certain baiting techniques, too, so that's helpful.
End of the day, things are going *really* well, and we are very happy with our progress financially and otherwise!
And, I like reading what you guys are up to, so. . . yeah. :)