Gear grinding, dead microwaves and the one finger salute.
November 1st 2008 06:55
This week has been so much fun for me. That would be a big fat NOT. My car has decided that it no longer wants to function in society and is sulking in the corner of my carpark all covered in leaves and cobwebs. I could of course take her out for a spin. I can’t tell you how much joy it is to be in heavy traffic and have to stop and turn your car off and on just so you can change gears. It’s definitely an attention getter, so many lovely people have tooted their horns at me, it’s such a friendly city that everyone just wants to say hi so I just give them a wave and so I don’t strain myself too much it’s usually only with one finger and restart my car and off I go, praying that the next light will be red so that I can have an actual reason to stop the car. I often get the same wave back so it’s nice to see we’re all conserving our energy.
My microwave, after 14 years of faithful service, also passed away this week. May it RIP. I got home from a hard day at work, threw my leftovers in and turned it on. It lit up and spun its little heart out as usual and I went about my usual routine only to find that shock, horror, my food was still stone cold after 10 minutes. Now I have to resort to the very messy heating things up on the stove until I go and get a new one (I’ll keep you updated on how I get the best price on that one). It was just a bother and not a tragedy until this morning when I went to make my coffee with my little stovetop espresso maker and went to microwave my milk. Damn it! I had to do that on the stove too. Grr. I’m not happy before my coffee.
The great and final straw this week was coming home to find that my phone (and subsequently my internet) was disconnected. After much foaming at the mouth and dissing my bank for not putting through my payment my phone provider reconnected pretty quickly. Then I discovered that it wasn’t the bank’s error but the phone company’s and now I have paid them twice and I’m armed with the receipts to prove it. I just cannot afford to be forking out twice in one month so someone is going to feel my tiny boot in their backside when I call them on Monday and demand a refund of my double payment. The shoe maybe small but the kick will be like a mule (I always seem to make an ass of myself).
Now I have a few posts almost finished to add to this blog and hope to post at least once if not twice per week but I need your help. I’ll be posting on various money saving tips from reading, to eating out, buying clothes, furniture, finding great credit card deals etc , but to make this site the best source of information I want to know what YOU want.
Are there particular topics you want covered such as how to save on mortgage repayments, going on holidays, anything at all? Plus, it does not have to be Australia-centric. I am happy to research topics for you if you live overseas.
Not every topic I write about is going to be of interest to everyone. Some of you might be just leaving school or at uni and trying to find ways to make your dollars stretch so that you can buy a new PS3 or find a way to rent or share a place successfully. Some of you may be hit hard by what is happening with the world economy and want to know about refinancing home loans or how to take your family fun places without taking a hammer to little Johnny’s piggy bank.
This is a blog where I hope to get you guys involved and be a bit of a forum for sharing info and although I have lots up my tiny sleeves, I’m sure many of you all have found brilliant ways of keeping the moths out of your wallets without resorting to the old Mortein. I love how so many people joined in on my Mr Myagi post and gave tips on saving and shaving
The next few posts are going to cover things like entertainment, holidays (or vacations for you Yanks out there) and freebies for your computer.
Stay tuned too for the first giveaway which will happen in the not too distant future.
And please leave requests in the comments...
...so tell me what you want what you really, really want and I’ll attempt to zigazig ha. And can someone tell me what the lyrics to that Spice Girls song mean?! What the hell is a zigazig ha? Now how many of you have are going to have that shocker of a song going around in your head now? Whoops, my bad
My microwave, after 14 years of faithful service, also passed away this week. May it RIP. I got home from a hard day at work, threw my leftovers in and turned it on. It lit up and spun its little heart out as usual and I went about my usual routine only to find that shock, horror, my food was still stone cold after 10 minutes. Now I have to resort to the very messy heating things up on the stove until I go and get a new one (I’ll keep you updated on how I get the best price on that one). It was just a bother and not a tragedy until this morning when I went to make my coffee with my little stovetop espresso maker and went to microwave my milk. Damn it! I had to do that on the stove too. Grr. I’m not happy before my coffee.
The great and final straw this week was coming home to find that my phone (and subsequently my internet) was disconnected. After much foaming at the mouth and dissing my bank for not putting through my payment my phone provider reconnected pretty quickly. Then I discovered that it wasn’t the bank’s error but the phone company’s and now I have paid them twice and I’m armed with the receipts to prove it. I just cannot afford to be forking out twice in one month so someone is going to feel my tiny boot in their backside when I call them on Monday and demand a refund of my double payment. The shoe maybe small but the kick will be like a mule (I always seem to make an ass of myself).
Now I have a few posts almost finished to add to this blog and hope to post at least once if not twice per week but I need your help. I’ll be posting on various money saving tips from reading, to eating out, buying clothes, furniture, finding great credit card deals etc , but to make this site the best source of information I want to know what YOU want.
Are there particular topics you want covered such as how to save on mortgage repayments, going on holidays, anything at all? Plus, it does not have to be Australia-centric. I am happy to research topics for you if you live overseas.
Not every topic I write about is going to be of interest to everyone. Some of you might be just leaving school or at uni and trying to find ways to make your dollars stretch so that you can buy a new PS3 or find a way to rent or share a place successfully. Some of you may be hit hard by what is happening with the world economy and want to know about refinancing home loans or how to take your family fun places without taking a hammer to little Johnny’s piggy bank.
This is a blog where I hope to get you guys involved and be a bit of a forum for sharing info and although I have lots up my tiny sleeves, I’m sure many of you all have found brilliant ways of keeping the moths out of your wallets without resorting to the old Mortein. I love how so many people joined in on my Mr Myagi post and gave tips on saving and shaving
The next few posts are going to cover things like entertainment, holidays (or vacations for you Yanks out there) and freebies for your computer.
Stay tuned too for the first giveaway which will happen in the not too distant future.
And please leave requests in the comments...
...so tell me what you want what you really, really want and I’ll attempt to zigazig ha. And can someone tell me what the lyrics to that Spice Girls song mean?! What the hell is a zigazig ha? Now how many of you have are going to have that shocker of a song going around in your head now? Whoops, my bad
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Comment by Johnny Come Lately
Jack's Back
Is that your microwave? You didn't dump it on the roadside did you? lol That's littering!
Comment by Cheryl J
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No that isn't my microwave haha...but it will be when I get someone who can carry mine outside for me
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
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maybe cheap brand name make-up?
id be interested in affordable dining out in Sydney
oh and maybe cheap art supplies!
oh oh oh AND maybe competitive mobile phones and plans etc
Comment by Cheryl J
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Keep 'em coming! Thanks.
Comment by Lady Henrietta Muddling
Potter in a Harry
I guess the point I'm making is, if you have a friend who is good with electronics/mechanics, sometimes they can fix something in next-to-no-time rather than you having to throw it out.
Making friends with these types and going for the barter system works too. One of my friends is a computer nerd. He fixes my pc whenever anything goes wrong. I do his writing for him (job applications, anything). My sister did the bookwork for one of these types in exchange for pc service. She racked up $2000 worth, so whenever anything went wrong, he'd come around and fix it.
It's a very interesting blog this one, considering the financial climate.
The two cost-saving exercises I'm most familair with are, Op-Shopping for clothing, and how to furnish houses/properties from hard-rubbish collections. It pays to live near or in wealthy suburbs. Brighton in Melbourne was fantastic. But you had to compete against a lot of second-hand furniture shop owners. You learn tricks like going to the local Council websites and finding out when the hard rubbish collection starts, and going out on the first day. Etc.
The eating/dining out one Johnny mentioned is a good one. I'll look forward to that one. You could end up with an entire directory, which would make for a very popular blog, if people are generous with their info. It may pay you to give a bit of thought to Categories, and categorise the posts beforehand. Looking at the categories a publication like The Trading Post has would be a good starting place as a guide. If they sue you? Tell em they're dreaming.
Comment by Hatchy
my Firefox Bookmarks list is littered with cheap online geeky electronics and computer stores that could come in handy in future, Cheryl.
I like this blog.
Comment by Cheryl J
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the barter system is great. As you said it always pays to have friends who are able to do things for you and in return you can do things for them.
I have loads of categories but they aren't showing on my page and they also aren't all coming up and allowing me to select them when I'm posting, I'll have a chat to Jon about that.
I'll also keep in mind the directory for eateries. That's a good one and one where other people's assistance will come in handy. I'm located in Sydney so I would need people to tell me about places they have found in their cities or towns.
Thanks for the great response.
Comment by Cheryl J
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Credit cards seem to be a bit of a bugbear for people and after some investigating I've found that some are not as good as they sound. There will definitely be a post on this.
Send all your links my way. Would love them!
I'm glad you're liking the blog. I guess with everything that's happening in the world right now it's timely. Everyone is being hit in one way or another.
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
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Another site you should ALL check out and sign up for weekly letters is www.simplesavings.com.au
They send out awesome weekly tips on savings!!
Comment by Cheryl J
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I will send James Bond over to help you hide from the AMEX people. He has lots of gadgets coming out the wazoo. It looks like we are on the same disaster path. I say we hide under our respective doonas until it blows over. I still defy you to beat breaking down on the on ramp to the Harbour bridge and the same night having my bus from the airport break down followed two days later by the cab I was in breaking down on the way out!
Is it me? Oh crap, nobody get into any moving vehicles with me, they won't be moving for long. mwahahahaha!
Comment by The Rusty Can
Everything
Rusty.
Comment by Cheryl J
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Thanks for dropping by