2020 frugal finance goals

This year I have two goals for my finances:

1. Pay off my creditcard
2. Have at least $5000 savings.

These are largely the same goals I have every year with an important difference in that last year I actually paid off my personal loan which I had had for nearly 7yrs. This gave me the motivation to get the credit card knocked over also. I can do this!

Being a single parent I'm on one income as of about 2yrs ago. I do get childsupport which at the moment only just covers half of Rue's childcare costs so although its a big help its not going to anything terribly productive. As of next week however he is out of childcare and into big school. Yes I have before and after school care but this is a fraction of the price of daycare ($30 a day vs $130) and is still subsidized by the Australian Government.

Another change this year is that I will be doing two courses a semester at uni rather than one. I'm not sure yet if this will change the rate I pay it back at as its a HELP debt not HECS (HECS in Australia is paid back based on your income, once you earn over a certain amount its automatically taken out of your pay at a certain percentage). I have a feeling the HELP debt needs to be paid back in full each semester in equal payments out of your pay...but we will see.

For now these are my main outgoing expenses a fortnight.

Rent
$120  HELP debt (university)
$350 childcare
$150 parking
$150 food
$150 petrol
$80 electricity (I get a 25% discount for paying each fortnight)

Monthly:
$69 phone
$88 internet
$40 car insurance
$120 a year contents insurance

What ever is left I either put into savings or onto my creditcard. Sadly alot of the time something crops up and my savings goes down. My hope this year is with the creditcard gone that money and the interest I'm saving can go to boosting my savings to a level where I don't have to live payday to payday.

I also follow, loosely, The Barefoot Investor, method of allowing yourself 10% of your income to 'splurge'. This means i can spend it on what ever i want. I don't always get the chance to do this as other expenses crop up but having savings will allow me to follow this more closely. Barefoot recommends having $2000 in case of emergencies. Given last weeks massive hail storm in Canberra where many people lost skylights and cars (including me) this is exactly what that $2000 is for. Hire cars, insurance excess,  replacing a fridge that shorts etc.

If my budget is correct I should have the creditcard paid off by June. This gives me an extra $300 a fortnight to put into savings most pays. It also allows me to move to a lower paying job if I want to. This might sound counter productive but as I said in my earlier post about a new job, I'm paying $3000 a year for parking at my current job and that's an expense I can do without.

So this year is about simplifying and down sizing to fit into a more laidback and enjoyable frame of living.

For more frugal living tips I recommend the following blogs:

Frugalwoods
Down to earth
Frugal and thriving