Day 26
Breakfast: black coffee with no sugar, natural yoghurt with blueberries and cinnamon.
Location: bed
Mood: bliss
Yesterday (today is Wednesday) I worked another double shift after sleeping only two hours the night before, having messed up my sleep with that five hour nap the day before that. But I schlepped through it all in a rather comfortable, slowish, one-task-at-a-time pace. Sometimes I have admitted that I feel like a Timelord because time works out for me. For example, yesterday I was SHIT TIRED, like I could not get any tireder, I was so tired that I stumbled out of bed blurry-eyed and bumped into almost everything that could be bumped into as if I was drunk, and I drove down the expressway in a zig-zag way, jerking the steering wheel, losing focus at times, and generally giving off a vibe of being drunk or a really bad Learner Graduate with big tits.
However, when I got to work I repeated in my head, 'yes I just KNEW you would spill all over my pants god DAMMIT, but this won't change the fact that today I will do everything in a sequence pattern, slowly, properly, and with flow so that I get everything donE without fuss'. And it worked.
I am not bragging when I say that I cut the Lemon Delicious cake into perfect 40 squares. I could not joke about that even if I wanted to because I don't know any lemon delicious jokes. I just typed Lemon Delicious Jokes into google and I came to a whole page of religious jokes that are actually a bit hilarious.
http://www.immaculateheartofmary.com.au/jokes.html
Anyway!
Those who have ever cut an entire tray of lemon delicious pudding will know just how hard it can be and to say that I am now filled with a god-like power is a true understatement.
Also, slicing things into exact squares is so soothing and puts all my jagged/jaded/uneven pieces back together.
I stared off into the distance with the long knife in my hand, just pondering my new-found power.
My co-worker came in and we agreed that I was magnificent and should, actually, in the best interest of every sing person out there, be in charge of slicing lemon puddings everywhere for everyone from now on.
As such with a double shift, there is no time to spend and I looked at the once-sexy vending machine without an emotion at all. I thought 'Have I moved on? Is there now something better than those brightly colourful and promising snackeroos? Do I know what this new thing is?'
Yes. It is the satisfaction of seeing a savings amount grow.
A vague background of my financials:
~ Firstly, you should watch Burn After Reading. That movie has everything a good movie could ever want. It is the bomb, the sex, the masterpiece, and it has mostly all of my favourite actors in it- the most important being Tilda Swinton
~ I have never owned a credit card
~ I have never taken out a personal loan, although I have thought about it now that I have mortgage, but only to do house stuff that would improve the house and make the occupants lives better because life is short and sometimes building an additional room is like five years of my pay in total
~ I own my car outright because I paid 6,000 for it about 7 years ago, and I LOVE IT, even though I treat him really badly he still manages to take me wherever I want to go without complaint but with an odd clicking sound in the engine that I need to get fixed
~ I have not and do not rent to own. NEVER DO THIS. It is money down the drain, I cannot think of a worse avenue for your money to travel. I don't watch TV- one, because it's all dumbed down rubbish that kills my brain cells, and two, because I can't get the two channels I actually want to watch, them being ABC and SBS with all the interesting documentaries, British tv shows, Arthouse movies, children's cartoons, etc, and sometimes the 74 or house/home improvement channel
~ I have spent most of my life going without things. I don't buy clothes every week or month, I don't own a stereo system, my laptop is about ten years old and failing all the time, but I had it fixed for free a while ago even though it didn't help too much with some of the issues. I hardly go out to drink or clubbing, I bought the cheapest mobile phone outright there is that came with internet and a screen big enough for me to see the internet pages and just pay for credit as I go.
~ I have ten dollars in coins that I keep for a literal emergency grocery shop, which is enough to get me bread and maybe milk or eggs to last me until my next pay
~ My main goal financially is to pay off my mortgage as soon as possible and that means going without again for a long time to come
Tips of the financial kind:
~ Educate yourself
~ Have you looked at your Super? Do you know what Super is? Are you sure you have Super? DO NOT DELAY. The earlier you organise your Superannuation the easier it becomes, the better you feel, and the more you will have in your account
--A NOTE ON SUPER
- You should make fortnightly contributions. 10, 20, 50, 100, it doesn't matter how much, but every bit counts and starting early is the KEY.
- Do the calculations. Get a table, make a really strong coffee, grab some chocolate things or crunchy chips, sit down and work out how much your contributions will add up to in 40 or 60 years. Then do the math backwards to find out how much you will likely have to live on each fortnight or month. Are you comfortable with that amount?
- Look into your account/s and track which investments you're following. Can you talk to someone about changing them to better performing investments?
- Can you salary sacrifice into your super? Ask your employer. Salary sacrifice is money that does not get taxed and is put straight into your super account, which is pretty darn cool!
~ Borrow financial books from the library and read them all
~ Buy financial magazines
~ Set up a direct deposit system where you pay yourself immediately after paying bills/mortgage/rent. You don't miss money that you didn't realise you had.
~ Research shares, take note of your country's economy, browse websites, write everything down in a notebook so you can refer back to it later and it's all in one place. Buy some folders with plastic sleeves and organise your shiz into easy to read sections.
~ You may be on a real low income and think 'What the F? How can I do any of this?' You can start by saving one or two dollars, or copy that single mother with small children who managed to save every five dollar note she ever received. She slipped them into the back of her wallet and forgot about them while out, then came home and put them a case. Then she went to the bank with 4,000 to put into her account. Two dollars a week equals 104 dollars at the end of the year, and that's something amazing!
~ Remember everything worthwhile takes time and patience.
Three more days left! Gosh, where has the time gone!
You can do it Cerri! Smash out this challenge!
^__^
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