Happy June!

As I have mentioned before somewhere/time in my blog, I love new months. It's always a good opportunity to start anew cos it's not like you can always get a new year so often.. But yes. I think I have been neglecting those financial posts and goals. Well, I think it's time to start anew! I have spent so much just because I have gotten a lot of money... well, hopefully not this month. I am expecting about a grand from tax returns and tomorrow a nice big pay unlike my normal ones because I worked out of town and got petrol and accommodation pay too.

Though, after saying that, I am going to be going away in a couple of days (3 to be exact). It's going to be wonderful. I will also be the only attached friend there... that should be fun. But hopefully won't be spending too much, another friend, TS didn't really want to spend over $80. Could be done, accommodation split between us all is about $47, maybe cheaper if more people come. We'll see. Definitely keep you posted.

So. The goals:

June Goals

1. Read 2 books.
2. Watch 15(+) movies.
3. Work 15(+) hours/week.
4. Save 20%/$40 each week.
5. One "splurge"/purchase a week (if/when paid).
6. Weekly blogging (on both blogs) & (private) journaling.
7. Three meals a day/decent wake ups (to do this = food blog)

Spendings Round-up!

I find it so difficult to classify things. I'm not sure if it's the perfectionist/Virgo in me but I want the categories to be super detailed.... then I wonder does it really need to be that detailed? My current categories (that I have listed for June onwards) are:

• Dining+Bars (with friends)
• Dining BF (with boyfriend)
• Homewares
• Monthly (expenses such as mobile top up, magazine purchase and car insurance but that is filed under car costs... what do you think, should it be filed under monthly or car costs?)
• Car Costs (purchases retlated to my car such as most recently jump start cables, maintenance, WOF, registration etc)
• Clothes+Grooming (beauty, clothes and the like purchases)
• Gifts
• Savings
• Groceries (purchases from the supermarket to make dinner and other things such as snacks and such)
• Dairy buys (purchases from the dairy, usually when I require money for the bus.... or like recently water from the service station. Should this just be under a combined "food+groceries" category? Justification for this is that I want to target my spendings and know exactly where to cut back/where I am buying foods from.... hmm)
• Biscuit (purchases related to my pet guinea pig, usually just vegetables, pellets, hay, check ups etc)
• Transport (fuel purchases and bus/train tickets)
• Socializing (I contemplated having this under entertainment but in the past I have had magazine purchases and also book buys under the entertainment category... socialising is things like karaoke, pool etc. Hmm. Advice?)
• Holidays (thought I ought to have a 'holidays' category...)
• Meals Out (breakfast, lunch and dinners that are purchased/had outside of the home... or should that also go under a combined "food+groceries" category?)
• Debts (very unusual but yeah, self-explanatory)

So that is how things are categorized from now on for me and well, how I categorize.. May summary under the cut.

Transport: Filled up 5 times around $70 each time. I guess in accordance. There's 5 weeks in this month..

Miscellaneous: Bought a car phone charger (phone dies in a day if I txt constantly...), homewares such as blanket, pillows for when I forgot them when I went down to Hamilton as mentioned here and also coat hangers and hand towels for the house. Also, paid off a debt to FPA and had a new debit card fee.

Entertainment: A movie ($11) and half an hour internet time ($1.50)

Dining: Dined out with friends a couple of times and they averaged $10 each time so not too bad.

Dining BF: Dined out a few times more than usual this month with BF. One was $95 and another 2 $40ish.

Car Costs: Bought a jump start cable and also got a car check and changed ownership for my new car.

Clothes&Grooming: Way more than usual. Bought 5 lip glosses (lost one, I know a bit overboard!), a dress or two I think, a ring, pink flats, oh another 3 nailpolishes at $3.99 each, 2 x stockings and a set of small make up brushes all for $10. Yeah, spent a tad too much on myself this month! >_<

One gift, meals out averaging $5 - $10 each time, 2 semi- bigish grocery shop to make dinner which was about $20 each time..

I realized I didn't do April's so I will do that sometime.

Spending Like It's Going Out of Fashion

Since getting paid last week. I have been spending like there's no tomorrow... >_< I think since pay day, I've bought:

• Dress from Pagani ($40)
  
• L'Oreal Paris Glam Shine 6 hour lip gloss ($28)
• Mink Feel Blanket and 2x pillows from Warehouse - cos I forgot  blanket+pillow when going down to Hamilton.. ($37.98 - $8 for pillow)  
• Car charger ($8.90 + shipping) ~ not really a big spend..
• HP Multifunction Printer ($56)
• Coat hangers, hand towels and a pair of pink flats from Warehouse($18) 

I will post up pictures hopefully sometime this week. 

Last weekend was a pretty sweet weekend with friends. I went down to Hamilton for work and three of my friends spontaneously and randomly decided to come down and visit me, pretty much lol. This was the night that I realized that there isn't much to do in Hamilton... it was a fun night. Ended up eating leftover chocolate custard in the car with bananas. It's really nice. I really do like Fairtrade bananas! I also ended up selling out of all the stock that was in the store over 2 days, that was meant to be for 3 days? It was great.

Went back up to Auckland on Saturday night since I sold out of the stock and so couldn't work the next day and saw friends again, ended up going on a random mini road trip to Matakana. There's nothing there. But we just ended up going to Orewa beach. Good random times!

Lastly, Sunday night, dinner with friends at a Chinese restaurant after work followed by Hulu Cat - pearl milk tea. Good end to the night :)

Sadly, don't have any photos.. but I think it's pretty much summed up. Ah, start of a new month soon! How the first six months went by so, incredibly fast! Where did it all go? I still haven't found a job, I'm thinking going to try harder this month onwards and actually look everyday or couple of days... wish me luck. I applied for a job at my current work, something more, a step up from what I do now, kinda.

Messy Dinners and Paydays

Payday yesterday was amazing. I got paid a grand for 17.5 hours of work! O_O I hope I have this job for a little while longer because that means I will possibly be able to get the phone I want sooner then I think, I hope :)

And then onto other things such as the dinner I had tonight and the movie I saw yesterday...

Tonight, kind of in celebration of my being paid, a lot, BF and I went out to dinner at La Bocca restaurant in Parnell and dessert at The Chocolate Boutique (no photos from here unfortunately, but we had it to takeaway anyway). It was amazing! Hmmm.. okay maybe not amazing but the service from the waiter certainly was. Actually, it was quite amazing, really did enjoy the meal and the saffron risotto was good. So yeah a good night and dinner! :) That was followed by dessert at The Chocolate Boutique. It wasn't really amazing, but then I got to the bottom and it was amazing then. I really do like Chocolate Boutique! Had some really nice and yum looking chocolates but already had a few too many chocolates at home so resisted the temptation to buy any. Photos follow!

Gratin of pan fried king prawns with garlic, white wine, fresh and sun dried tomatoes on saffron risotto (source)

The end. Clean(ish) plate =)

And other photos from here and there. Speaking of photos, should really finish that photography course at Proud Photography! I think I'll save the movie review for another entry.

Cute little stuffed guinea pig toy! I want it :(

 AMAZING! Chocolate eclair from Phillipe's Chocolate and French Pasteries in Point Chev/Grey Lynn. They have such amazing stuff! Macroons! I want to get some. And oooh chocolates! This is what I have some mornings. Damn, it's good! >_<

 Dumplings I made one night. About 87 in total.

 A really nice and amazing cake from The Cheesecake Factory that someone bought in at work one day.

Wish You Were Here

The post in which I wonder about my employment future/a rant

My current job situation is like this: I am working part time/casual at a promotions company promoting mainly food products, I think this is called FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods)... but anyways, while also working part time at a educational union 5 days a week. Next week will be the week that I will have ever worked 7 days in a row and also on one day 8 hours... maybe I've done more than 8 hours once, but I guess since working at a bookshop about 5-6 years ago. Since then, I have not worked for more than 5 hours.

So, my dilemma is bundled with my wants of moving out into the city because to me it would just be so much more convenient but then at the same time would be costly, should I get just any job or should I be a bit more patient and put my wants aisde and only apply for jobs that are related to or in (i.e receptionist/administrator at a events company) my field of study (event management).

I've been having this dilemma for a while. There's a few jobs that I have seen that are not related to my field of study but is a job that "will do for now". So, yeah wondering if I should just get 'any' job for now... Although, on the other hand, I have seen this advertisement for a job in Wellington that is graduate/entry-level that I think will be perfect for me! So, I've definitely applied for that. Oh, on top of all that, I may be a Girl Guide Leader. I read up on the job description and seems that could really help in the future with securing an Events job, with the organizing and planning of activities. So, that would help, I think.

She Will Be Loved

(source)

Ok, I think it's time for an update. Last week was really fun. There was definitely a nice end to the week with celebratory drinks (and getting a little too tipsy from shots and a bar tab... :| ) with friends. Lovely end to the week. I also got called up last minute to work so it's even better that I will be getting paid in two week's time! ^^

As well as that, this week or more last week, scored a more stable job, if only on a temporary basis, doing menial tasks at an educational union. I like the work, not hard and getting paid, so not a lot to complain about and also it's half days so can do other stuff too like mystery shop :)

I also need to post and photograph outfits for my ThreeSixFiveWays blog.... and I also realized when I clicked on it, that the link was wrong :\ it's right now but I forgot one word in the link o_o I think I also need to finish it... :s I don't know if I will bother finishing it...

And then now I leave you with yummy photos of food and I hope other things too!

Bollero food. So goood >_<

GPK dinner. So good and worthwhile! 

 Easter gift and chocolates!

The best chocolate ever! <3 Guylian is so good!

Exciting and Fun Week!

This has been a fun week full of social outings and fun things such as graduation pictures with friends, getting a new car and celebratory drinks :)

I didn't mention this but I was in an accident (that wasn't my fault) a couple of weeks ago and my car was written off. I can't believe it and miss my car so much,  lol. But it's cos I've had it for so long and it was just so nice... but anyways, there was only like 80-90% damage to it to the front of the car (damaged tyre, front bumper completely damaged and front left hand side pretty much smashed ><) while the remaining was absolutely fine! That's why I'm so semi-emotional over it. And, also because I had *just* bought two new tyres for the car! =(


On the bright side, went to the Ellerslie Car Fair today and found a car that was really nice and I suppose fuel efficient and kind of small.. It was also really easy and smooth to drive when I went for a test drive! And also when I drove to dinner in it. Awesome car ^^

Oh, and thanks for the congratulations but it wasn't me gradauting last week, it was just all my friends. I didn't actually know how many there were that was graduating!

Graduation Week!

 Ooooh, an exciting and happy week for all graduates that are graduating and going to get their degree in the form of a piece of paper declaring their hard work of the past 3+ years! A week filled with graduation photos with friends that are graduating and also with friends and family for graduates! :)

Even though I'm not graduating and getting my official piece of paper till August! D: So far away! :( But anyways, this post isn't about me, it's a post congratulating the graduates for 2011!  Let the celebrations begin! I know I'll be at one come Friday~ ^^

Happy Graduating!~

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