Giving Aldi another go

With all the praises Aldi are getting from many of the Australian PF bloggers, we decide to give them another go. We tried their products about 1.5 years ago but we did not really like their products. I guess that we mainly tried their food, veg tables and fruit. This time, we are going to start with the groceries such as their cleaning products and other household items.

One of the methods we are using to measure how long it takes to finish the product. For example, we bought a bottle of Aldi's equivalent version of Spray'n'Wipe. The previous brand that we purchased was from Pine'o'Clean, and it usually cost around the $4.50 mark and comes in a 500ml bottle. Aldi's version cost $1.89 and comes in a larger 750ml bottle.

My wife got a permanent marker and wrote today's date on it. When it is finish, we can look at the date and calculate how long it took to finish the bottle, under normal usage conditions. The original bottle took about 6 weeks to finish.

We also wrote the date on the other consumables like dish washing liquid, washing machine powder etc.

After my wife finished the shopping this morning at Aldi, she was very surprise how much cheaper it is. We estimated that to purchase the equivalent products at either Coles or Safeway/Woolworths, it would cost at least $35. At Aldi, it cost just a touch less than $15. That's a $20 saving in just one shopping trip. Over a period of a year, the savings are very significant.

renting your stuff out

While I was browsing GDay World today, I came across an article about an internet startup call rentoid.com. The idea behind it is that it provides a forum it connects the people who have stuff to rents and people who are looking to rent stuff.

For example, I have a lawn mower sitting in the shed that is gathering dust because the drought in Australia is so bad that all my grass has died and I don't have any grass to cut. Now, what if I could rent the lawn mower out to someone that actually has grass to cut. I would advertise this fact on rentoid.com. Some wanting to rent a lawn mower would go to rentoid.com, sees that I have a lawn mower for rent. The connection is made and his grass is nice and tidy!

rentoid.com puts a new spin on an alternative income stream. For someone who may have a lot of things laying around gathering dust, this website may provide an alternative income stream from those items.

Please sure that some of the supporting infrastructure such as insurance for your items, public liability insurance and maintenance are in place before launching yourself into this.

rentoid.com makes it money by taking a percentage of the rental fee, so it is a win-win-win situation for all parties involve.

I am uncertain how successful this venture will be for rentoid.com and for the people with things to rent out, but it is one of the more original ideas that I have come across on the internet.

which GTD system to use?

In my quest for getting a GTD system up and going, I came across many different types of GTD system, it ranges from a simple todo list using a manilla folder and post-it notes to an elaborate system using a Moleskine notebook.

I started out using an online system backpackit but it doesn't help much if I am not at my computer. with internet access. It is excellent for the lists of items that can be done form a computer, ie sending an email to Jim for this weekend's BBQ or wirte that article on the blog.

I then moved onto to my Palm T3 PDA. I have had a PDA of one sort or another for almost 8 years now but have only really used it for calendaring and address list. I am starting to using the todo list application on it, and coupled it with something like Outlook, it forms a productive tool. However, I have found that the battery life on those things really suck. I take it away over the holidays period and the battery power was down to almost zero after 10 days. I guess the backup todo list is still the pen and paper until I can recharge the battery when I get back to my desk at work.

I am starting to favour some of the Moleskine hacks around for a GTD systems. They look that they should work OK provided I form a habit of consulting it frequently and make note in it frequently. I think that I like about the Moleskine GTD hacks is the it is accessible all the time and it only relies on having a pen/pencil with it to make a note.

Peter at Getting (Some) Things Done has an interesting spin on the why the Moleskine notebooks. Peter noted that he chose them as then cost a bit more and, psychologically, we will take care of it a bit more because it DOES cost a bit more.

The PigPogPDA is also another popular Moleskine GTD Hack, and it also looks promising.

Converting an Annual Leave Day to Sick Day

I just returned from work today, and was exchanging my holiday stories with my colleagues. I told them that I got a bout of gastro over the Christmas holidays and was not able to do much over a couple days. He suggested that I get a doctor's certificate for the days that I was sick and submit them to the HR department, essentially converting my Annual Leave Days to Sick Days.

I came home today and though about his suggestion. It does have some merit.

1. Sick days are stricter to obtained, and needs to be backed up with some documentation like a doctor's certificate.
2. You have the freedom to do whatever you want on your Annual Leave Days, but on your Sick Days, you are only allow to recover from your illness.
3. When you depart from your job, your Annual Leave Days are worth more and than your Sick Days, so it is worth more in your pocket.

However, during the days that I was sick, I didn't visit the doctor, so I can't claim or get a doctor's certificate. Maybe next time.

Goals for 2008

Well, this is the third day into year 2008. After feasting on the ever increasing meals that occur over the festive season, we are at home and just enjoying the last few days of the holidays before returning to normal house life.

In betweens the fits of laughter with my incredibly active son and lovely wife, I had some time to reflect on some of the goals to aim for in 2008. We all have the same goals year in year out, the ones such as trying to attain a happy life or achieve financial independence. These are all well and good, but I think if I focus on some smaller achievable goals, it may help me make some headway. The goals that I am aiming for small goals but has a large impact on my life (hopefully!).

1. Get a GTD system going and tweak it so that it works. If the system allows me to achieve 85% of the weekly tasks, than I would consider that a working system. Currently, I am using the todo list on my Palm Pilot organiser. It is working so far. Getting a GTD system working will also stop me from making mistakes, delaying things, missing bills etc and it should save me some money along the way. My goal is to complete 85% of all the tasks for the week.
   
2. Ensure that the emergency fund is at correctly level. The emergency fund is one area that I have be neglecting in 2007. This year, with all the credit card biils paid off, I want to maintain a good level of emergency fund. My goal is to determine what our emergency fund level needs to be and maintain it at this level.
   
3. Seriously starting making a dent into the mortgage. Louise at My Journey to eliminate debt is doing a marvelous job reducing her debt, especially her mortgage. She gives me inspiration, and hopefully I can be as passionate about mortgage reduction as her. My goal is to reduce our mortgage to 10% of what it is today.
   
4. Crank out some articles for this blog. I started this blog as a way of exploring some of the financial decisions that I have the make. I know that the number of articles has reduced to a trickle over the last few weeks. My goal is to have 2 articles per week.
   

As with any new year goals or resolutions, it is largely dependent upon the personal situation and may change as the personal situation changes.

If you have made some goals for 2008, I wish you every positive luck in meeting them.

Christmas 2007

The holiday season is just around the corner with a few days left to go.

First of all, I wish to thank all the regular readers and to those who have left comments, contributing the on-going discussion of personal finance.

Second of all, I must apologise to the same regular readers for the lack for articles over the last 6 or so weeks. My life getting complicated and blogging must take a back seat for the time being. However, a couple of updates.

1. We have change over to a new car, purchased on a novated leased agreement. The procees from the sale  of our previous car went to paying off all of our credit card debts (~$12K). The remainder was put into an online high interest bearing account.
2. Reduce our credit card liability by cutting the credit limit on the cards to $1000.
   
3. One of the complications was things are not being done, so I am trying to embrace the GTD or similar philosophy . Shall let you know how I go.
4. Start to think about schooling for our son, so expenses for these are sure to mount up.

Third of all, if you are able to spend some time with your love ones, please do so as they are the things that money can't provide.

Merry Christmas!

How to calculate how much of the house you own?

The other day, I wrote an article on visualising how much of your house you own. I am currently trying to work this out. The simplest method is take price you paid for the house, minus the mortgage you took from the bank to help you buy the house.

% house own = ( house price - mortgage ) / house price

If I am going to do this correctly, it will tracked over a long period of time, probably in terms of years, so we need to factor two major affects into the calculations.

1. Appreciation of the house price
2. The movement of the interest rate on your mortgage.

The appreciation of the house price should be adjusted on a yearly basis. However, if the area of your house changes considerably, like it did in the inner suburbs of Melbourne about 5 years ago when it changed by 20% per year, the adjustment period may need to be smaller, like every 6 months.