How to Save Money

Hey everyone. So today I thought I would make a post on how to effectively save money. These days I think way too many young people have no idea how to save their money. I have way too many friends and know too many people who are always complaining that they only have $20 left in their accounts and "can not wait until their next pay so they can go and spend their money". I'll give you a brief overview of my working life & savings habits and then share some of my best money saving tips I have! 

Working Life Overview

• Pre-working life (under 14 years old): 
• Typically got money off my mum every now and then when I asked to go to the movies or something
• Other than that the money I got came from birthdays, christmas and doing chores for my mum or my aunty. 
• I used to always try and go by the "save half and spend half" rule
• First job (14-15 years old):
• Worked at McDonald's
• Wasn't very good at saving lots of money
• Would save for short term goals, i.e. concert tickets
• Mum used to make me save at least $20 each week from my pay into a savings account
• Having a key card was a bad idea: I didn't pay attention to what I would spend
• 16-17-start of being 18/the remainder of high school
• Didn't do 'formal' work
• Money came from babysitting over the years
• Saved all of that money to spend at schoolies (didn't spend it all- bonus)
• Post-high school/uni student life
• Became a workaholic
• Focused on the future
• Saves more money than I spend
• Got a job straight from school and have worked there ever since
• Each summer holidays I get an extra job (e.g. Christmas casual job and a seasonal theme park job)
• Work as much as possible during all holiday breaks so I can ease off a bit during uni time to study and focus on the uni work

So that (in very basic terms) sums up my life to do revolving around working and saving habits!

Easter 2015

Hey everyone. It's been a little bit since my last post because nothing overly cool or fun has happened and I haven't been inspired. Today I thought I would take a moment out of the day to wish everyone a Happy Easter and that everyone (who celebrates) had an amazing weekend just like I did!

Honestly, I would have been over the moon with this as an Easter present. I love bunnies and I want another one (I have one currently)

Good Friday

Long weekends are my favourite. Not that they mean much to me because I don't work full time and get them as holidays, but because the people I love get the break they deserve and I can spend time with them. Friday was a lazy day to start. Kieran and I slept in until around 11am, I made breakfast and we watched the Simpsons. Best part of our day was going and watching Fast and Furious 7 (no spoilers here because I would have cried if I read spoilers before I watched it) but I loved it and I did cry. 100% recommend everyone to go and watch this movie! 

Afterwards we went and hung out at one of Kieran's friends houses and it was nice. Nothing fancy, just pizza (for them) and talking. Then I'm pretty sure we came home and went to bed #oldpeople

Easter Saturday

What a great day to go shopping- for everyone else. Bonus: holiday pay for us retail workers. I started work at 8am and worked a few hours. Then came home and watched movies with Kieran (who had only just woken up when I got back). Then I had another shift in the afternoon (split shifts kill my life, but it was a public holiday sooo who would turn down the money???).

Night time, my bestfriend was having an 'Easter' party. Whatever it was, it was fun. I cheated at Kings Cup (fake drinking) and laughed at everyone being drunken messes. 

Fun facts from Saturday night:

1. if you drink anything from a red cup, people will assume it is alcohol (I don't/can't drink anymore and I knew people would question it if they knew, so hey why not make some fun out of it by cheating at a drinking game, FYI I would say I won because I got the best laughs out of it)

2. Don't mess with Dani and her music, she will get angry

3. Apparently matching tracksuits are cool??

4. Kieran's biggest wish when he is drunk and hungry at 1am will be a steak, chips and gravy

5. He will give up on that and ask for Maccas instead

6. He will tell you that you are the best wife for getting him Maccas and paying for it

7. There is nothing better than going home to your own bed and being able to drive home because you haven't consumed any alcohol

Easter Sunday

Ugh. I am not religious. I respect it all and everything, but I don't want to hear about it. Or have it shoved in my face. And that's what Easter seems to be. People bragging about going to church and people going on about God (please see Easter Monday for more about this). I get that to many people it is a religious holiday, but to me it is literally a bunch of days that some people get off work and that other people (aka. me) get paid a lot of extra $$$ to work. Oh and you spend time with family. And most people eat a lot of chocolate (once again, not me). Easter just annoys me. That's all.

Today we went to an Easter lunch with Kieran's family. Hmm, not the most fun thing I have ever done. But hey, it makes the grown ups happy we pretend to care about Easter and spend time with them. It probably wasn't that bad, I was just super tired, hungry and felt sick all day. Night time wasn't much better, we came home to my house and watched a movie and went to bed at 9:30pm. It was a long day.

Before Easter lunch with Kieran and his family

Easter Monday

Another fun day for shopping- while I'm working. Started at 8am again but this time got to work straight until 2pm. It was alright for the first few hours, then it was insane. Why do people go crazy when the shops are shut for a day? I don't understand. Other than work, I was pretty lazy. The weather was awful today and it made me sad and reminded me how sick I feel. Kieran and I took a trip this afternoon to N2 Extreme Gelato and it was amazing (I didn't get a photo because we were both literally too keen to eat it). The night is ending (it's currently 8:46pm) with me searching for the new Grey's Anatomy episode & Teen Mom OG to watch, listening to workout playlists (without actually working out), writing this post and probably about to drink a cup of tea. I feel crappy but I think it's a hormone thing right now.

Thanks for reading about my Easter (if you managed to get to the end). I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend and I will be back with another post soon!

On a side note- it is uni holidays and I am so happy.

Stelle xx

Spontaneous

I'm not quite sure why (but then again who ever knows why they make spontaneous decisions) but I have been making a few 'spur of the moment' decisions lately. Whether it was in anger, sadness or drunkess or simply 'just because I can' I've done a few things recently that I though I would like to share. 

1. The belly piercing
2. The plane ticket to Cambodia
3. The random trip to the beach by myself
4. The "lets get my life together right now"
5. Let's buy anything (and everything) I want that I see in the shop 

Well. I'm sure some of you will look at that list and be like 'pfft no big deal' or have the other view 'umm are you crazy'. But the way I am choosing to look at it is living. Life is too short (although ironically it is the longest thing we will ever experience) to go through it worried about everything. Normally I am a very rational person and I will not make a rushed or hasty decision. Everything is well thought out (for the most part) and the most extreme thing I will normally ever do is decide I want to eat some bad food and go and get it.

I have quite literally wanted my belly button pierced since I was about 14 years old. I turn 20 this year. One morning last week I simply woke up and said to my friends, "let's go and get my belly pierced today". After 2 years of waiting to be old enough to get my belly pierced by myself (legal age is 16 without parental consent where I live) and then another 3 years of being too scared to do it, I finally did it. Yes it hurt and yes it was probably a dumb thing to do but I am happy I did it. 

The second one is a funny story. I have been wanting to go on an overseas holiday for quite some time. I have been saving up a lot of money but I am very cautious about what I spend it on. I don't know many other people my age who even think about "what about when I want to buy a house I need savings" but... that's just me. So when my bestfriend's dad asked me (when we were all slightly tipsy) if I want a ticket to Cambodia with them next year I simply said "what the hell, yes just do it". That's pretty much the whole story of how I got the ticket to Cambodia. Another decision I am quite happy with. Have to be young and reckless at some point.

Feeling lonely and sad definitely warranted a beach trip by myself. I don't think that one had much thought process other than "do I need petrol right now? No, good let's go". It was peaceful, it was nice and I got to clear my head and be alone for a while. 

I thought I was happy with my life but I have been growing tired of some aspects. My working aspect has become dull and I need a challenge in my life. More will be on this later but this is what I am working on right now (not sure if this is classified as a spontaneous decision, but I did decide I wasn't content with things so I am making a drastic change???)

Now last but not least, I am all for spoiling yourself. Just normally I wait until I have an extra large pay week before I can justify going out and spending maybe $100 or so on things for myself that are wants. But this time, no. Let's just literally buy everything that I can see that I want. And I did. And I didn't feel guilty. And I didn't check my bank balance afterwards to see how much I spent. Because it was spontaneous and I am happy.

On the most positive note I am happy to say that my spontaneous decision making is helping me to achieve things I actually want to cross off my bucket list for the Summer. I am proud of myself.

Thanks for reading,

Stelle xx

Being an adult is exhausting

I think my title is pretty self-explanatory, being an adult is exhausting. But today for some reason, after I've woken up from a nap on my couch due to the background noise from watching Man vs Wild (before I fell asleep) I think I am going expand on the phrase "being an adult is exhausting".

My mum and sister have left me for a large chunk of Summer to enjoy the usual holiday by the beach. I, of course, was invited but alas the duties of being an adult stood in my way of having a holiday for more than 5 days (where as they get to enjoy 3 full weeks of it). I have been left to carry out all the mundane adult activities that everyone experiences when they grow up and move out of home. I'll give you a little description of everything I find utterly boring to do, yet for some reason seems to take the life out of me each day.

1. Working- probably the most important thing on this list. Because clearly how can one survive without money? Which essentially we all have to work for in some way or another. Working every single day, switching it up between two jobs (and sometimes both jobs in one day) has left me completely exhausted when I get home from the day of working. It sucks, but everyone does it (sort of) so I'll leave this one here...
2.  Grocery Shopping- I used to enjoy grocery shopping for the family. But I've now come to realise that was only because my mum gave me her credit card, told me to buy whatever was necessary and just try not to spend too much money doing so. Now it's a different story. Feeding myself for over two weeks is a lot harder than it sounds. I have a tight budget and can't enjoy all the luxury foods I love so much (mum you give me an easy life when it comes to food and for that I thank you and I am sorry for every time I have ever complained you cooked something for dinner that I didn't like- which brings me to my next point)
3. Cooking- I enjoy cooking. On occasion. When I have energy. I don't know how my mum comes home from work and sometimes the gym most days and cooks dinner. I have discovered this is literally the last thing I want to do when I come home because I am just so tired. And even worse than this is actually thinking of meals that I can cook myself. Some nights I have had to previously meal prep because I had to work the nigh shift and needed to take dinner with me. This ties in largely with the grocery shopping on a budget and not being able to enjoy the steaks and wonderful stir-frys I otherwise love (because umm hello, vegetables and meat are so expensive????) I have taken mum's advice and eaten everything left in the cupboards and freezer first (yes again mum you were right, there is always food in the house)
4. Doing the washing- ugh. So time consuming, it rains every time I need to wash and I always forget I need clean work shirts until an hour before I want to go to bed the night before (and no I don't have a dryer so it makes life so much harder to get my clothes dry). Folding the washing is more irritating than doing it and I have a mountain to still get through (remains of washed clothes from my holidays I still haven't touched)
5. Doing the dishes- Can. not. stand. I have tried to put literally everything I can in he dishwasher and I will wash up the pots and pans when it is absolutely necessary. Which also means I have been using the bare minimum when it comes to cooking because I just don't want to clean up my mess. 
6. Cleaning the house- why oh why do things have to get so dirty? And who has time for housework? Why do I need to vacuum the floor and dust things and clean the bathrooms? Why can't everything just remain clean without any effort. This is the part of being an adult that I despise the most
7. Not wasting money on everything I want because there are actually necessities- But I wanted to go out for dinner and go bowling, but oops I can't because I have to work or I have to save my money for stuff I would rather not pay for (phone bill anyone??)
8. Lonely- This was something I never expected. It doesn't really tie into the list but I think I needed to mention it. Right now it has been really hard for me and I have bee feeling quite lonely. My go to friends are on holidays (my best friend is even out of the country for 3 weeks) and my boyfriend works in the days like me and when I work both days and nights sometimes I don't speak to anyone (that I want to talk to). I drove to my family's holiday destination last night because I genuinely missed talking to my mum and sister. That surprised me above everything. 

I have come to the conclusion that if I were to live by myself full time I would probably spend all my evenings at home so my mum can cook me food (I am so lazy) and then go hang out with either them or my friends because I need people to speak to. Living with my boyfriend with help me with being lonely but not much else (sorry babe you only take the rubbish out without me asking and unpack the dishwasher when I nag). I am a pretty shitty adult but hey, I am still soldering on. Definitely have a new found respect for how much my mother actually does (okay I already new this, but I am appreciating it more and more everyday.)

Thanks for reading,
Stelle xx