Investigative Blogging: money and Other People

I know lots of interesting people (so lucky), and most of these people have and spend money in a completely different way to me. In an effort to keep me and other peeps enthused, I've started interviewing people about their attitudes towards money and how it is that they are able to keep doing the awesome things that they do!

This is an interview with my lovely Natalie, who I've known since we were both tiny school girls with too-big bags. Nat returned to University to study two years ago, after living an exotic big city life in London town for about seven years. I interviewed her at Hashigozake over fine and tasty beer. (Much later, I tried to transcribe the whole thing, which turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. So, any weirdness in this is totally due to my transcription inexperience and not to do with Nat. Nat is awesome.)

 

I’ve had savings accounts on and off since I was a kid, but until relatively recently I’ve been pretty crap at keeping on top of it. How about you - do you have a savings account? When did you first start saving?
I do have a savings account, I didn't have one as a child but when I left home I started one up. I generally save towards things, rather than generally saving. When I first got one I was saving to go to the UK and when I was in the UK I was saving to go travelling, and when I came back to New Zealand I was saving for the purpose of going to University. That's how I use it at the moment [paying for Uni]; I have a direct debit set up between my current account and savings account that goes through every month. That's the thing with savings accounts, I always find it easier if I'm saving towards something.

At the moment I have a budget because I'm a student and I don't have a lot of money. I direct debit $300 each month, and then anything I have left over at the end of the month I put in the savings account as well. I think it's a really good idea to have a direct debit with a minimum amount that you can save and then the months that you have money left over put that into the account as well.

I've only ever been a Saver For Things, I haven't had the luxury of just putting money away for a rainy day or for my "investment plans".

Do you have a credit card at the moment?
At the moment, no.

But you've had a credit card in the past?
I sure have.

How did you use it (i.e. as oppose to a debit card, hardly at all and pay back immediately, or, like me, max it out and spend three years paying it back?)
I never used it like a credit card, I pretty much just put stuff on it when I have to, like if I buy something off the internet. Even in the UK it was the same, when I had the most sustained living I've ever had, I paid the card off every month. I used it like a Diners Card.

The thing with credit cards is that I never felt like it was my money, and I think the trap is that people think it is their money. I've always been really careful, the bank must hate me because I pay it off every month.

You’re in your second year of university study, after working full time since you’d left high school. How are you finding the change in circumstances - any suggestions for other people returning to study?

Find a boyfriend who can support you (laughs). I'm really lucky in that I do have a boyfriend that supports me. I give him money every month for stuff, but it really doesn't cover where we live and all the expenses that we have, so it must be heaps harder for him. I've gone from having quite a good wage to having a really minimal one. So although I live in the same place, my day to day living has changed quite dramatically. I get out a set amount per week from my account, say $50, and that pays for anything I want during the week; things like drinks and coffees and yoga. You just have to stick to that, and if you have no money left on Friday, well that's it. I don't like Mark [Nat's boyf] paying for stuff I need.

How would you characterise your attitude towards money - would you describe yourself as a saver or a spender? And on the day to day - are you a hard core budgeter, or do you just take the money as it comes?
I kind of meet in the middle somewhere there. I'm not a hard core spender, although I have been in the past, andI try and always live within my means. Sometimes you end up spending a bit more than your weekly allowed budget, sometimes you end up taking money out of your savings account, but I think it's important not to rely on things like credit cards and loans, you don't want to get into that kind of trap. I'm kind of in the middle - I'm a spender sometimes and a saver at others, but when I'm really determined and have a goal I can put other stuff aside. I'm very sensible with my money. I don't make rash decisions, I really have to think about big purchases. But at the same time, I don't want to deny myself things.

I like my little things, there are some things I would still spend money on, but then there are some things that you have leave behind. You think it's going to be the end of the world, but it's not, you get used to it and you start realising "what the hell did I spend all my money on?"

Finally, do you have anything that you want to add in terms of HOTT money tips?
Don't get a credit card! Use a Visa Debit.

Nat my love, thanks for taking the time to drink beer and chat with me about money. Good luck with everything at Uni (not that you need it, swotty clever person xx).

Investigative Blogging: money and Other People

I know lots of interesting people (so lucky), and most of these people have and spend money in a completely different way to me. In an effort to keep me and other peeps enthused, I've started interviewing people about their attitudes towards money and how it is that they are able to keep doing the awesome things that they do!

This is my second interview, this time with Lake of Urban Tramper. Urban Tramper have just finished their most recent tour around Europe which sounds like the most fun ever (Eli has documented lots of it on their blog).

Image from the Urban Tramper blog - Lake is in the middle.
(L-R) Ben, Lake and Eli

I’ve had savings accounts on and off since I was a kid, but until relatively recently I’ve been pretty crap at keeping on top of it. How about you - do you have a savings account? When did you first start saving?

I have two accounts. One is for band stuff and the other is for general spending. I've never really had a separate account for saving. I've often thought it would be a good idea and have also considered a term deposit kind of thing.

I do save my coins though - ever since I can remember. It began with Easter eggs. My brothers and I would get one big chocolate egg every Easter. It was a huge treat and we would want it to last as long as possible. Sometimes my younger brother would still have some left - days after mine was long gone. Oh the pain of knowing I could still have some left if I hadn't scoffed mine.

I don't really care for chocolate these days (it gives me sore teeth), but Easter taught me that there is joy to be had by saving something for the future, even if it means depriving  oneself in the present.

What about a credit card? If yes, how do you use it (i.e. as oppose to a debit card, hardly at all and pay back immediately, or, like me, max it out and spend three years paying it back?)

I got my first credit card in 2008 prior to going to England to live for a year. Receiving the card was actually quite exciting, then I just worried about losing it. I used it reasonably frequently to buy stuff online. Mainly bus/train/plane tickets. I've never really been in debt* and don't like the idea. I always pay the card back the same day. I don't know if it's well founded, but I always thought I'd be charged large sums of money very quickly for missing payments.

I actually think credit cards fuel excess production by encouraging over consumption. One then has to work long hours at a shitty job to pay back this debt. Working 40 hours/wk at a boring job, or even a sweet as job, leaves little time for reflection, creativity, community participation, relaxation, family etc...  Thus, the discontent that follows is often buried under a pile of new purchases that are bought on a salary which is also paying off old purchases... Hence, a cycle of debt and discontent ensues. I think debit cards are better idea.

Having said that, I often imagine what I could do if I went mad and maxed out my credit card.

At the moment, you’re traveling throughout Europe and wowing people with your music. If it’s not too personal, how are you managing this?

Yes we've just finished a 7 week tour and now I'm de-toxing in the Pyrenees making hay as a wwoofer.** I worked part time for about 9 months to save the coin to be able to afford the mission. We don't get paid enough to cover costs (flights, rental car, petrol, tolls, food, etc) but we managed to do the tour quite cheaply. We only paid for accommodation once over the past 7 weeks (two nights at a camp ground) and I think this is normally a great cost in traveling. We utilised the kindness of friends and www.couchsurfing.org to great effect. People are often happy to have visitors for a couple of nights. We ate a lot of bread, cheese and tomatoes and only ate out once or twice the whole trip (apart from numerous felafel kebabs in Germany and 2.10 euro pizza in Berlin).

You have a pretty cool attitude to the distribution of your music online. Can you describe your philosophy on this?

I'm still in the process of working out the best way to earn a little money from music. Distributing music online is the best way to get more music to more people quickly and cheaply. We would hope that our music can help people in certain situations, or bring them joy in some way. I also think it's important that music, which is an integral part of our culture, is available to everyone. Because of this I'm trying to make all our music available on our website for no set fee. I'm trying to steer people away from our Myspace page and towards our website as we have more control over the advertisements on this page. Myspace, and other intermediate sites, have done a great job of making money off musicians without paying them. I do admit that they can be a great tool, I just think it's a shame that these 'music' sites (iTunes, Myspace, lastfm) are made by entrepreneurs who exploit musicians that “just care about the music”. At the moment on our website we offer free mp3 downloads and give people the opportunity to donate to our cause, a 'pay what you want scheme' if you will. Most people who obtain CDs (including myself) burn them straight to their mp3 collections and forget about them, hence the CDs become disposable and wasteful.

Some people still want something to hold. Therefore I think good quality downloads combined with some sort of artwork/clothing is great option (I think www.alowhum.com was doing this at some stage) and I will try and make less CDs and more art for my next release.

I wrote an extended rant on these themes for a sociology paper I was taking. Here it is: http://urbantramper.blogspot.com/2009/06/goal-is-not-only-better-living.html 

How would you characterise your attitude towards money - would you describe yourself as a saver or a spender? And on the day to day - are you a hard core budgeter, or do you just take the money as it comes?

I basically try and minimise the time I spend working a dull job for someone else. This means I earn less money and, hence, have to be more careful with it. I have an aversion towards spending and 'shopping' in general. I cannot buy new clothes/new shoes at all. I just wait until my stuff is completely worn out and then hope I can inherit something from a friend/relative, or find something at an opshop. Thus, I don't really budget. My first question at any establishment is “what is the cheapest …... you have?”. This approach has changed somewhat as I try and make more ethical purchases. I'm trying to bring myself to part with more money so I can purchase things that last longer, and are ethically produced.  In short, I'm a saver by necessity. I'm scared of debt and hate to work too much, therefore I spend less. Now and then I blow out and spend $100 in a weekend, usually on booze and hangover food, but the shame is enough to prevent those episodes occurring regularly.

Instead of keeping to a budget, and thus feeling restricted and sometimes missing out, I try and exploit life's less expensive pleasures. It pains me to see waste and the vast amounts of useless stuff that is produced, and later becomes waste. I'm all about re-using and borrowing/lending. If my friend has one, do I really need one too? If have a perfectly OK microphone, do I really need another/better one? Making lots of stuff affects the environment and this stuff has got go somewhere when it stops being useful. It's also good to remember that the way we spend/save our money is a political act - whether we like or not. It sucks to think that me buying a certain good/service contributes to the fortunes of the already super-rich. I consider all these issues when I buy goods and services, hence, it's easier to cut down my options and buy second hand/ethically produced, or not at all.

Finally, do you have anything that you want to add in terms of HOTT money tips, maybe in terms of travel?

These sites were key to the success of our mission:
http://www.wwoof.org
http://www.couchsurfing.org/
ride sharing in France: http://www.covoiturage.fr/, Germany: http://mitfahrergelegenheit.de/
and the UK: http://www.mylifts.com/

I also recommend the following to save one's coin:
kebabs
vegetarianism
dumpster diving
hitchhiking (it's possible throughout Europe)


*apart from a student loan. I think mass disobedience is necessary when it comes to these. We all have them, let's all not pay them back.
**working for a few hours a day on organic farms in exhange for food and accomodation.

Thanks Lake! I hope the rest of your travels go super well, and I can't wait to hear more about them. See you next year! x

Investigative Blogging: money and Other People

I know lots of interesting people (so lucky), and most of these people have and spend money in a completely different way to me. In an effort to keep me and other peeps enthused, I've started interviewing people about their attitudes towards money and how it is that they are able to keep doing the awesome things that they do!

Lizzie (L) and Me, extreme-close-up-and-three-years-ago Edition. 

This is an interview with the Lovely Lizzie, who I've known since high school (oh those days!). Amongst the other fascinating things that makes up her loveliness, Liz runs a second hand stall at Camden Passage in Angel, London, on Saturdays, and is planning to open a shop soon. If you're in London you should visit and benefit from her Amazing Eye for such things.

Liz has always impressed me with her ability to be apparently so relaxed with money - she's inspirational in that she Lives Within her Means. Also she's very funny.


Ginger: I’ve had savings accounts on and off since I was a kid, but until relatively recently I’ve been pretty crap at keeping on top of it. How about you - do you have a savings account? When did you first start saving?

Lizzie: Am also very very very bad at saving. The only times I’ve ever been able to do it is when I’m saving for something v specific, over a short and determined period of time. That said, extreme poverty upon arrival in London did force me into a quite nifty savings/current account arrangement. When I get paid I put all of my money immediately into a savings account. I then transfer a weekly budget each Monday. This seems to be the only way that I can resist spending my entire pay cheque in the first fortnight of a monthly (!) pay cycle. Although it has the downside of making me feel a bit like a ten year old with pocket money. Now that I’ve written that, maybe the pocket money thing is more of an upside.

What about a credit card? If yes, how do you use it (i.e. as oppose to a debit card, hardly at all and pay back immediately, or, like me, max it out and spend three years paying it back?)

No credit card at the moment – my bank won’t let me! But I generally have a large fear of credit. I used to have one with the BNZ. Started out at a $3000 limit which they arbitrarily extended to $10 000. This caused me to lie awake at night wondering if my card had been swiped from my purse without me noticing. I am pretty good with credit cards though – tended to only use it to buy things online and had such a deep dread of interest that I would pay it off within the month.

You run what I have no doubt at all is a pretty awesome second hand stall. How did you come up with the capital you needed to get it going? How are you finding managing the money and accounting side of your business? 

This question made me laugh with great joy. My stall is amazing, but its money and accounting sides are somewhat akin to a giant mock tudor mansion standing on stilt legs in the middle of a lake. Basically, when we started the stall we each put in around £100 to buy stock with. Since then, it’s been entirely self-funding but pays us pretty much nothing (aside from wine and salami sandwiches). We keep all of our money in a fetching black leatherette bumbag and don’t keep track of either out or ingoings. We know that we have had one too many free pub lunches when the bumbag runs dry, what follows is usually a couple of slightly desperate weeks when we actively sell things to people rather than just sitting a couple of metres away gossiping and drinking tea.

Despite this somewhat precarious financial situation, we are hoping to open a shop. This may sound rash. [In fact, writing it makes my heart race in an uncomfortable manner that has little to do with the four cups of coffee I’ve had this morning.] But our plans are essentially dependant on finding a shop with very cheap rent; being prepared to sell everything we own even the most cherished of secondhand possessions; both continuing to work essentially full-time at other places and each being alone in the shop for a couple of days a week [happy offshoot to this lone selling: a shop dog for company]; plus we have grand and exciting plans to use said shop’s windows as an exhibition space for funny designers. And, we would borrow around £3000 to get us started.

Exciting but exhausting. Will let you know how it goes.

How would you characterise your attitude towards money - would you describe yourself as a saver or a spender? And on the day to day - are you a hard core budgeter, or do you just take the money as it comes?

Definitely a spender. That said, relocation to England and student-based poverty has made me realise am not as much of a frivolous spender as I had previously imagined. I still buy lots of things that I don’t need, but most of my non-essential money is spent on having a fun life – going out for meals, drinks, buying coffees. [Also, I have an almost obsessive need to always have a bottle of wine and flowers in my house. This seems ridiculous, but no budgeting can ever make me stop.] What I haven’t done at all since moving here and being struck down with financial lack, is buy things. I haven’t bought any new clothes for about two years, and I never buy books or things for my house [only exception to this recently is an AMAZING 1930s children’s tea-set. It was irresistible to me].

Basically, I am excellent at spending all of the money that I have, but not living outside my means. This is generally a pretty good way to be, I think, apart from the brief moments of panic when I think about wanting to buy a house and the deep deep distance that my frittering of any penny puts me away from that point.

Finally, do you have anything that you want to add in terms of HOTT money tips?

Nope, not really. Except maybe that there is a whole world of wonder that can reached with a bag of potatoes in times of acute financial crisis?

Thanks Lizzie my love, I shall see you soon I hope. Good luck with everything!