Company Christmas Party

So last Friday was my company’s annual Christmas party. Great food, drinks, good company and loads of dancing.

All in all a good evening, that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. :)  I didn’t get home to bed until around 8:30 in the morning. So it was a fun night, definitely. :)

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 29–December 5, 2010)

This is a weekly review of my spending habits for the week of Nov.29 - Dec. 5, 2010.

Date	Amount
Monday Nov. 29	330.30 kr. ($60)
Tuesday Nov. 30	233.95 + 193.20 + 44 = 471,15 kr. ($42.50 + $35.20 + $8 = $85.70)
Wednesday Dec. 1	342.45 kr. ($62.30)
Thursday Dec. 2	160.90 + 200 = 360.90 kr. ($29.25 + $36.40 = $65.60)
Friday Dec. 3	280.95 + 625 = 905.95 kr. ($51.10 + $113.70 = $164.80)
Saturday Dec. 4	0 kr. ($0)
Sunday Dec. 5	0 kr. ($0)

TOTAL: 2410.75 kr. ($438.40)

So there you have it. A tally of what I’ve spent during the course of the week. I’ve split things up with plus’es (+) because I wanted to differentiate between my actual spending habits and bills. So the first amount is my actual “spending habits” (this is mostly food and some toiletries) while everything after the first amount are bills.

So there you go. An overview of my spending habits for said week.

If you’re interested in reading my posts for the previous weeks, you can take a look at them here:

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 8-14, 2010) 

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 15-21, 2010)

Spending Habits: How much money I have spent this week (November 22-28, 2010)

This is week 4 of my expense tracking:

On Week 1 I spent $80.

On Week 2 I spent $189.

On Week 3 I spent $143.50.

On Week 4 I spent $438.40. (Because it’s the 1st of the month, and all my bills come in at this time.)

To Do List: Dec. 5

I have some things that need to be done today, so I thought I’d post them on here on this blog. I was inspired by Beachgirl’s Budget Blog, who has often had to-do-list posts on her blog. So to help inspire me and to track my progress on my efforts, I’m giving you a to-do-list post as well.

Photo: lifehack.org

TO DO LIST:

• Write and send a job application (completed!)
• Write and send another job application (completed!)
• Note your sent applications in your progress tracker (completed!)
• Fill out the important questionnaire (completed!)

So this is my to do list for today. As you can see I’ve already gotten ahead of myself and completed some the tasks today already. Perhaps that’s why I needed to write this blog post. Since I didn’t really feel motivated to write and send the 2nd job application. But I have to. I just got to get myself together. And just get it done. I’ll be reporting back later on. When the task is completed. And then cross it off my list! : )

 

UPDATE: All done! Phew, it took a while. But I managed to even send an extra job application! So I’ve sent 3 all in all today! I ‘m really happy. There’s no better feeling than a job well done! So, now it’s 9:30 p.m. local time, and now I can relax the rest of this Sunday evening! : )

Architectural Digital Rendering

While I was browsing around DeviantArt I found this great artist who does architectural-digital rendering. He’s a young architectural designer  & 3D digital artist from Malaysia that goes by the name Artzen03, and you can visit his profile here.

In the meantime enjoy a few examples of his works.

Pay Day

So it was pay day on Tuesday. Hence I’m writing this post today to give myself a better overview of my money situation.

Income after taxes: 10,768.46 kr. ($1,957.90)

Amount left after the fixed bills are paid (not including electricity, phone bill, public transportation, et.al.):  4,229.56 kr. ($769)

Snowflaking toward debt: 500 kr. ($90)

Snowflaking toward savings: 500 kr. ($90)

Budgeting for presents this Christmas: 850 kr. ($154.50)

Buffer: 300 kr. ($54.50)

Week 1: 400 kr. ($72)

Week 2: 400 kr. ($72)

Week 3: 400 kr. ($72)

Week 4: 400 kr. ($72)

Week 5: 400 kr. ($72)

This post probably makes more sense to me than to any of my readers. But I really needed to break it down in the above manner. For my own sake. This probably isn’t the most exciting post, so feel free to browse around my sidebar and my archives for more informative posts. This post was, admittedly, solely for me and my overview. And for my peace of mind.

30 Easy Ways To Save Money - Day 3: Brown-Bagging Lunch

So over a year ago I started this blogging series called 30 Easy Ways To Save Money – Am I Doing All Of Them???, that tackled Dumb Little Man’s blog post 30 Easy Ways to Save Money (and No, you are not doing them all!) and the 30 different savings tips that were presented there. I’m a huge fan of serial posts, so I wanted to dedicate a blog post for each individual entry on the list. The time has come for no. 3 – or Day 3, as I happened to call it back then. I had it in my head that I wanted to do this over a 30 day period. Obviously, *ahem* it’s been a little longer than that ;) But anyways, I’ll go ahead and continue this blogging series, as I think they are immensely fun.

A few notes before we begin:

• The original and first post 30 Easy Ways To Save Money – Am I Doing All Of Them??? was written on April 21, 2009.
• The second post entitled 30 Easy Ways To Save Money - Day 2: Coffee was written, as far as I can see on my blogger dashboard, on April 22, 2009.

 

So the logic behind the Day 1 and Day 2 was pretty much there at the beginning :)

 

I’m however going to disappoint you people who are expecting a daily posting on this series, as I am not of yet, a daily blogger. Due to time constraints I currently only blog 1-2 times a week. This blog is, of yet, just for pleasure, not for pay, so I’m taking my time and taking it easy with all my postings. I’m thoroughly stressed out enough in my real life as it is, I don’t want my blog to contribute in any way to that as well. So don’t expect Speedy Gonzales when it comes to this blogging series. It’ll probably take a while :) But anyways, I’m happy. And I’m enjoying it. So that’s the most important part.

 

On we go.

 

This is Day 3 on my series “30 Easy Ways To Save Money – Am I Doing All Of Them??? based on Dumb Littles Man’s list of 30 different ways to save money.

 

• 3. “Brown bag lunch at least a few days a week: Lunch times are great opportunities to network and make connections that could improve your career growth. So unless there is a common eating area for brown baggers, you may choose to limit brown bagging lunch to three days each week. Find a balance between saving some money and making the connection. In my case, I take my lunch with me 2-3 times a week and eat out the rest of the time.”

Quoted from original post at: Dumb Little Man, Photo: brown bagging.

No one knows this, but I actually brown-bagged my lunch for a while at first when I began my new job. I eventually reverted, because of the very reason that was stated in the above. Lunch for us at my job was centered around the in-house cafeteria. A lot of socializing and networking and old-fashioned cameraderie would take place revolving around the in-house cafeteria, and for a young just-out-of-university newly hired employee who was ambitious and driven, this was unfortunately too good of an opportunity to pass up. BUT!!! I consiously have made this decision, so I am well aware of the fact, that I have to make up for it in another area of my life – so I only eat bread for dinner. My daily hot meal is eaten at lunch at the cafeteria, and when I get home in the evenings I eat bread with some meat slice or spread. That’s my dinner. So I’m completely aware of the fact that, if you have to choose one thing and make that a priority (for your career), then something else must go. Which I’m fine with.

 

So there you have it my thoughts in this particular saving tip. This wasn’t actually how I wanted this blog post to go, as I would rather have taken the specific saving tip to heart, and tried it out in my real life, so that I could save. However, on this particular post, I ‘ve had to put my foot down, and state that I’ve already done this, but that it however was not the right way for me to go in this particular stage in my life. I however have made compensations in another area of my life - to even out the fact.

 

So there you go, my Day 3 on this blogging series of mine. I look forward to the next time :) See you there.