Saving Up!

OK, so since I've started working, and after I've paid myself back for Christmas and my "21st", I've saved a grand total of $1725.84, plus the money I had saved up before that, but that I don't really want to touch because I'm kinda saving it for a car/moving out (yes, it'll happen someday!). I'm still a bit uncertain about whether I should go to Italy. While I have wanted to go since high school, I know it'll still be there in a few years, but hopefully the economic crisis won't be, and it'll probably be better to travel when things aren't so bad. Plus, Julian suggested I travel around Australia, so that if I am spending money, at least it'll go back into the Australia economy, rather than overseas. The only thing is, other than the Monopoly streets, there isn't really anything that I want to see on the other Australian states. It's not like they have lots and lots of pizza or anything... >_>

Since I'm not training full time any more, my roster is kinda all over the place, and I can't really rely on a set income now, so MrMan5.5 suggested I work out how much spending money I want to leave myself every week (or fortnight, since I get paid fortnightly), and move the rest into a savings account that I can't touch.

So I tried to work out what my spending habits are like, and this is what I came up with:

Lunch $5 x 5 = $25
Dinner $20 x 3 = $60
Movie $15 x .5 = $7.50
Baking $15 x .25 = $3.75
LAN $2.50 x 1.5 = $3.75


I figure I have lunch at uni every weekday, dinner weekends and usually one weekday, see a movie every couple of weeks, bake something at least once a month (chocolate is expensive T_T), LAN for a few hours every couple of weeks, and that works out to be a weekly cost of $100.

I get about $16 an hour after tax and other costs, so if I work the minimum of 2 shifts a week, 8 hours per shift, I'll be making $256 a week, that lets me save $156 a week.

Let's say I leave for Italy in Feb next year, so there are about 36 weeks to save money, leaving me $5616, plus the $1725.84 that I've already saved. I kinda thought I should leave about $1000 for presents and Christmas so I don't go into Christmas debt again this year, which leaves:

$6341.84

I figured it'd cost at least $10,000 for a trip overseas, maybe even more, so the decision to wait a bit before going to Italy is probably a good thing. Just looking at that, do people think that's reasonable? I really have no idea where my money goes, I just get paid, and all of a sudden, I'm broke again, although I have a sinking suspicion that most of it goes towards food, books and DVDs. =/

So thinking of ways to save money, I could probably eat at work, since they feed us food for free - but the more I eat there, the faster I think I'm going to die, so I really don't want to be eating there. T_T I've started using the library a lot more, and renting DVDs rather than buying them. I'm kinda glad MrMan5.5 isn't rich either, because it means neither of us really wants to go to some super fancy restaurant to eat food - and to be honest, most of our "dates" have been at Hungry Jacks or McDonald's, so it's not really like we're spending hundreds of dollars just to spend time with each other, which I really like (although, I don't think eating that food is really all that much better than eating the food at work >_>). Sharon and I have been talking about learning to ride a bike, because other than the initial cost of buying a bike, and possibly the pain of learning to ride it, it's something that's free to do.

I hope that even if I decide not to go to Italy, that I'll still have the motivation to save up money. >_<