Crazy binge shopping

After being stuck in a shopping rut, I finally made up for it this month!! I must have single handedly propped up our economy with my binge shopping >.> 

* Waterproof ski pants; Bought the Burton 2011 Season herringbone for $224. They were originally $280 but the shop had a 20% sale promotion. If I had bought them direct from the United States, they would only cost $150. But I spent about one hour trying on the different pants and $74 for one hour of mucking up their rack and not having to wait for shipment is a fair price to pay.

* Books; Ryde Library just opened and now I have tons of books and magazines to choose from. Black Glass, by Meg Mundell was on my to-buy list at $32.95. I found the book at the library so it's off my to-buy list.

* Pots for gardening; I built a glasshouse on the weekend using a scrap clothes line that I scavenged and scrap plastic so that I could do some cuttings and propagations instead of spending so much on buying plants. As you can see, my hibiscus cutting is flourishing and I can't wait until the purple blooms appear.

I spent WAY too much on plants and pots the other weekend and that's why I needed to build the glasshouse so that I could propagate my own plants. I've yet to try propagating the three toned hibiscus that I saw in Wollongong a few weeks ago:


* Bike gear; Since my huge stack on the bike, I needed a new helmet so I bought an Avanti helmet, padding for my bike seat and lights so that I could go riding at night for some exercise.

There's not much else that I need or want to buy at the moment which is a good thing since I plan to make a lump sum payment on my student debt next week. The Government dropped the lump sum payment discount from 10% to 5% (which sucks) so I plan to make a larger lump sum payment than what I previously planned for to take advantage of the higher discount before it gets cut to 5%.

Next year - my five figure HECS/HELP student loan will FINALLY be paid off :)

Further reading:

1. Stuck in a nothing to spend on rut                   
2. Wish lists and gift giving

When a bottle of milk is cheaper than a bottle of water

How does milk end up on the shelves at shops?

Each cow produces roughly 20 litres of milk daily. The milk is then sold to the Processors who buy from farmers, processes and packages the milk which is then sold to retailers. According to Ken Henrick, the chief executive of the National Association of Retail Grocers of Australia, the retailers share of the dairy industry's gross profit is around 80%. Farmers earn varying rates, from as little as 17 cents per litre to 35 cents per litre.

Many are just breaking even and treading water with inability to expand herd numbers or invest in plant and equipment, forced to defer their capital improvements.

If you live in Australia, you would be well aware of the battle between the dairy farmers versus our two supermarket monopolies, Woolworths and Coles. Our Australian dairy industry produces 9 billion litres of milk annually.

Unfortunately for our diary farmers, they have battled with rising supply costs(feed, diesel, transport, labour) whilst also battling with shrinking margins due to the major supermarkets cutting the sale price of their home branded milk to $1 per litre. Consumers now reach for the home brand milk that costs $1 per litre instead of buying the independent milk labels at $2.40 to $3 per litre. So you're probably thinking, "Who cares as long as I can buy cheap milk".

The problems associated with cheap milk

A 600ml bottle of water costs $1.30 but a 1L bottle of milk costs only $1. That's where the ridiculousness lies. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the production costs of producing one litre of milk exceeds the production costs of producing one litre of bottled water.

As dairy farmers exit the industry, there will be decreasing numbers of dairy farms. Falling supply will push up prices. Secondly, as the independent milk suppliers, farms and processors shrink in numbers, their bargaining power against retailers will diminish and they will inevitably be price takers.

There is also the question of whether the major supermarkets will increase milk prices back to pre-discounting era prices and retain the profit margins for themselves without passing any profit increases to dairy farmers who have been rendered powerless.

Although I have shares in a major supermarket and possibly a conflict of interest as well due to my history with one of them, I would never want to see the destruction of our dairy farming industry. As a shareholder, an increasing dividend is good but not if it comes at the cost of other farmers and suppliers' misery. I'm happy to accept less dividend growth if it will prevent the implosion of our dairy farming industry.

The problem is, which bottle of milk will Australian shoppers reach for when they contemplate the shelves full of independently labelled milk and the cheaper, generic milk? One that is cheaper today, or one that is more likely to ensure the viability of our local dairy farmers for the future and therefore, cheaper prices in the long run?

Crying poor on a family income of $150,000

The latest Australian budget has been rather hardcore in terms of slashing benefits to middle income threshold families. $150,000 as a family income threshold isn't rich and it isn't poor either in Sydney. It's middle income and middle of the road.

When the budget information was unleashed, suddenly the comments section on mainstream news sites were inundated with unhappy people writing in about how they can't survive on a family income of $150,000 and that they NEED the Government subsidies that were slashed(Baby Bonus, Family Tax Benefits and Paid Parental Leave). It was a very harsh budget for middle income families.

Can you survive on $150,000 per annum?

My question to families that will be affected: If there are families out there that can survive on less, then why can't your family survive on less too?

There are families living in metro and greater Sydney that are earning minimum income(around $30,000pa) or a family income significantly less than $150,000 per annum and if they can survive on $80,000 for example, then why can't the family on $150,000?

At the end of the day, the Government isn't there to subsidise anybody's lifestyle. If a family decides to live near the beach, harbourside or at inner city suburbs or to enrol their children at Private Schools with school fees of $20,000 per child each year, is that a really good reason as to why the Government should subsidise those choices? Should the Government be subsidising families that are going on annual vacations overseas or on skiing holidays?

If you think that the middle to upper class is getting the raw end of the stick, the latest budget is also bringing the stick out to lower income earners, the unemployed who will have to try harder to qualify for their unemployment money, the single parents and the disabled. Or the kids who are earning 'unearned' income.

As long as they don't dabble with Capital Gains Tax(CGT) concessions and Negative Gearing, then I don't care how many subsidies they cut.

A lot of the business owners and wealthier families who have plenty of investment assets have been keeping rather quiet on this budget. They have plenty of investment assets and as long as the budget or tax changes don't meddle with CGT or Negative Gearing, they probably won't care too much about the cut subsidies either. Sure, there's going to be a sense of regret because who doesn't want to get 'free money'(which technically isn't free because you paid taxes) from the Government?

Rule One: Never Lose Money

"Rule One: Never Lose Money. Rule Two: Never Forget Rule One."
Warren Buffet

A more classic take on not losing money would be the old proverb, 'A fool and his money are soon parted'. If you don't treat your capital with care and consideration, then expect your capital to be lost or diminished over time.

Over the recent years, I've had many opportunities presented to me in the form of business ideas, ventures, partnership and pretty much anything where particular friends have been short of funds but think that they've got a good venture to offer to me.

The only time I've ever asked for capital was several years ago when interest rates for savings account were at 1% to 4%pa and I didn't want to risk 100% of my savings in the stockmarket until I'd saved a bit more. Inbetween low yield savings account and the high risk stockmarket, was the bond market. Corporate Bonds. They were offered by the major banks in Australia and probably by other investment banks but I didn't look at the investment bank offerings.

To invest in Corporate Bonds, the minimum capital requirement was $100,000 and I didn't have that capital so I had to try and raise some funds.

The yield was about 5%-7% and it was better than the interest returns we were earning individually on our savings account. Anyway, I could only rustle up an aggregate $80k so it wasn't sufficient. I was accepting all the risks and said that I would re-imburse any losses whatsoever and split all the gains with no accounting for the risks that I was accepting on everyone's behalf, simply because I wanted to experiment with other investment options. 

The risks of default on the Corporate Bond depended on who the Corporate Bond holder was and I was only going to invest in a Blue Chip company bond. Typically, the higher the risk of bond default, the higher the yield. However, my goal wasn't to maximise the yield. It was only to earn more than the low interest rate on savings account available at that time and yet not expose myself to the higher risks of the stock market.

Anyway, fast forward to now, I haven't asked for capital since and I don't need anyones capital anymore to enter into any investments that interests me. I have my own capital for doing whatever I want.

Because of that, over the years, I have had many business ventures proposed to me. Seeking venture capital or partnerships for cafes, restaurants, take aways etc. On average, the typical amount that I've been asked to lend ranged from $50k to $100k. That's a lot of money when the venture has multiple partners and multiple interested parties.

The problem with diluted ownership in ventures with multiple partners is that you lose control in terms of decision making. It becomes more the case of 'majority rules' and because of that, it means you risk subjecting your capital to greater risk of loss. For me, that's a huge detraction. I'm not interested in investing in any venture where I can't control the outcome directly but can only influence the outcome to some extent.

A friend of mine has recently asked me if I wanted to invest $50k with a partnership of four(total investment capital $200k) into a cafe with her uncle as the chef. So what was the problem with her proposal?

• Firstly, her uncle would not be injecting any capital.
• Secondly, the business' success will depend on mainly his performance.
• Thirdly, I knew her and trusted her, but I did not know her uncle and I had no idea about how professional and dedicated he was to the food industry or how much I could trust him

If her uncle decided to throw in the towel and quit, what is going to stop him from walking away? He's not risking any of his money so what's going to stop him from quitting at an inopportune moment? Even if you reinforce his employment with a contract, if he wants out, he could burn all the food or give poor service, leaving you no choice but to terminate the contract. What if the business was built around him and he decided to leave?

There have been friends in the past who invested and lost, telling me that I was lucky not to have thrown my capital in with them. A the end of the day, it's not a question of luck. It's a question of judgement and analysing your risks and deciding what happens in various scenarios and what the possible outcomes could be. And if the potential scenarios aren't great, then having the gumption to say that you're not interested in investing.

Increasing utility bills changes behaviour

Unused appliances are switched off
Turn off chest freezer and equipment not being used
Install solar powered hot water system
Ensure house is well insulated against heat and cold
Have rainwater drain off the roof to tubs so it can be used to water the plants

These are all actions that my parents have taken.

After having the chest freezer and fridge operating simultaneously for over a decade now, my parents finally turned the chest freezer off, citing high energy prices and the horrendous electricity bills. It's always such a waste to see higher bills when something could have been done about it.

Because they operate a commercial business, there's a lot of electronic equipment and power being used. They are always looking for greener ways to minimise power and water usage. They've already implemented a solar hot water system and were keen on installing solar panels until the Government recently reduced the rebate on offer.

How can this Government in power try to pass themselves off as pro-green and try to implement the CT (Carbon Tax) on one hand but on the other hand, they reduce the rebates and incentives that lure householders and businesses to pursue greener practices?

The price of fuel has increased dramatically and this is a worldwide issue and problem. I suspect that more and more people are eyeing the public transport routes and facilities in their area so that they can plan the alternative for when fuel becomes relatively unaffordable or starts to bite into the budget.

Spending: Books and more books

Reading too much too fast can be bad

Since I've been catching public transport to work for the past few weeks, I've been burning through my reading materials. I often panic if I can't find reading material for the travel to work.

I wonder if anyone else feels that panic sensation if they don't have anything to read while transiting?

 Unlike a lot of travellers, I've never suffered travel sickness of any type and infact, find that I can concentrate very well while travelling. Unfortunately I read too fast and often find myself flying through the books that I've got and have had to buy more. Visited the local Red Cross store to stock up on some more books as you can see in the photo above. Six books for $12 which is not too bad.

I'll read anything, across all the genres. Fantasy, horror, murder mysteries, classics, futuristic, technical texts, romance novels etc Until our local library opens up, I'll be either buying or reading ebooks.

Kindle and ebooks

My friend is lending a Kindle to me. If I really like it then I'll contemplate buying one. Once the Kindle is loaded with ebooks, I'll have a good supply of reading materials so that there's no more panic moments over having nothing to read while travelling.

Recent books read:

• Patricia Cornwell - Post Mortem (This book is thoroughly chilling)
• Patricia Cornwell - The Body Farm (Classic story about Munchausen Syndrome)
• Patricia Cornwell - Body of Evidence (You'll never want to live alone after reading this)
• The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (A sad story that jerks the heartstrings)
• Johanna Lindsey - Joining (Historical romance involving Earls, Knights and consipiracy)

Further reading:

1. Crazy binge shopping

Facebook: Spams, malware, viruses etc

Cleaning the spam out of inbox really is the pits. No matter how many spam/rule filters that I create, the spammers always find a way to bypass these rules with creativity.

The latest spams that are so annoying have been the wave of spam purporting to be from Facebook. How stupid do these spammers think we are?

Unfortunately they probably claim some victims every now and then, otherwise they would have quitted by now.

What do Facebook email scams look like?

 I'll post a few screenshots up so that anyone who isn't tech or internet savvy can have a point of reference. I love the idea of foiling those stupid scammers by posting this up. Anyway, if you get any of these, do NOT click on them. Delete them immediately.

If you really feel the urge to check your Facebook due to these 'fake' reminders, type "http://www.facebook.com" directly into your browser instead of clicking on the 'link' provided. Here are some fake Facebook spams and scams, bon appetit:

Facebook scam clickily.ws
Do yourself a favour and don't click on it, don't 'like' the page, don't add the application and don't add the java script to your address bar or else the spam will be sent to all your friends. If you have already become a victim, you NEED to REMOVE the application from your privacy settings in Facebook. Clickily.ws is a malware and may also possibly be a virus too so don't forget to run your virus and spyware applications.

Hover the mouse over the hyperlinked word "1 messages" and you will see where the landing page is> as you can see in this scam email, it alleges to be from Facebook yet the hyperlink takes the user to http://climbershub(dot)com/single(dot)html and this is dodgy

Hover the mouse over the hyperlinked section "To login to Facebook" and you will see where the landing page is> as you can see in this scam email, it alleges to be from Facebook yet the hyperlink takes the user to http://climbershub(dot)com/single(dot)html and this is dodgy

Do NOT open the attachments - it is most likely a virus/malware/spyware or something malicious.

 How can you identify between a real email and a fake one?

It's getting hard to determine between a real one and a scam because the spammers and scammers are getting intelligent.

• Don't open up attachments that are from unknown source.
• Delete emails from anyone that you don't recognise or you're not expecting.
• If there's a link that's embedded in the email, hover your mouse over the link (do NOT click on it!) and you'll see whether the link that is on your email is the same or differs from the link that is actually embedded (see the images that I've provided).

The same goes for all those fake 'job' emails and fake 'bank password' alert emails. The latest scam that even almost had me caught was when a virus alert popped up on the screen that looked like an authentic Microsoft or Nortons virus checking alert that says you must click on it immediately to stop the 'virus' from infecting your computer.

It compels the user to click quickly to 'activate' the virus checker but instead this activates the virus/malware. I find that if that happens, I kill the pop up and run the virus checking software immediately from the task bar section of the PC (the virus checking icon is usually near your clock on the bottom, right hand side corner of your screen).

The best way to save is by learning how to cook

Knom Bujok - It's a traditional Cambodian dish which consists of a lot of fresh(raw!) vegies and can be accompanied by steamed pork belly sliced thinly or shredded chicken, all wrapped up in the lettuce and dipped into the dipping sauce

 Watch Masterchef and be inspired in the kitchen

The TV show Masterchef, is crowned with the title of introducing the kitchen to a lot of Australians who previously did not cook often. By learning how to cook proper meals, you'll enjoy your food more and it's usually more nutricious because you can use quality oil and quality ingredients.

Last night, I had a marathon session in the kitchen where I prepared a simple fresh, raw vegetable dinner with steamed chicken and also prepared a huge pot of pasta because we haven't eaten pasta for a few months now.

Just don't be like me and stockpile your groceries or else you'll end up throwing out some ingredients.

$32.40 worth of groceries bought=14 servings=$2.32 per serving

0.99 bean sprouts
1.29 mint
1.59 for 815g of apples
1.45 for 1kg of carrots
1.59 for 1kg of tomatoes
1.59 for 1kg of zucchinis
1.29 iceberg lettuce
4.17 for 464g of beef mince
6.83 herbed Italian sausages
7.60 for roasted garlic pasta sauce
3.98 for 6 chicken drumsticks

Despite the media repeatedly publishing articles about how groceries are so expensive and unaffordable, healthy ingredients such as fresh fruit and vegetables are cheap, particularly when they are in season.

It's not the fresh unprocessed food that is unaffordable, it's the processed junk, chips, lollies, snacks and meat that have gone up in price drastically over the years and have become relatively unaffordable. After reading about the pain of animals being slaughtered, I've been decreasing my meat consumption. Cooking with less meat, more vegetables and eating vegetarian meals more frequently.



$2.32 per serving

It never ceases to amaze me whenever I check to see whether the proponents of takeaway food are right in their belief that buying takeaway is cheaper than cooking at home. Everytime, the numbers for cooking at home trumps the takeaway option.

If instead, I decided to buy 14 takeaway meals, assuming I even chose the local Chinese $10/meal option, then it would cost $140 to $150 instead. If I were to dine at popular restaurants at $30/meal then it would be on average $420 for 14 meals.

Benefits of home cooked meals

* You can use better quality ingredients and oil than what the restaurants and takeaway shops usually use
* You can omit any vegetable or ingredient that you dislike
* If you use more vegetables and eat more fruit then it's great for weight control
* Better health means less trips to the doctor and less medical problems further down the track
* It's definitely cheaper than buying takeaway or dining out
* You may find the process of cooking relaxing and a stress reliever
* You can learn to appreciate quality meals and may find dining out a lot more pleasurable since you've cut back on dining out often

Further reading:

1. Stockpiling food is such a waste
2. Buying lunches and dining out
3. Update on progress bars and interest income

Alexa Ranking: Visitors and pageviews for April 2011

This blog is now ranked at 4,121,485. Last time I wrote about my Alexa Ranking, it was at 6,031,033 

Would ya have a gander at that... the ranking has improved by over 1.9 million spots(1,909,548) to be exact. I like the idea of having trumped over 1.9 million other sites in terms of traffic however, at the end of the day, the traffic is still pretty lame until it grows to Facebook proportion ^_~ but I'll take what I can get!!

Adding to my list of what works and doesn't work in terms of traffic and Alexa Ranking:

* Post regularly and weekly - hard for me to comply with since I can't always find the time to blog inbetween events happening in real life as opposed to digital life
* Have a section on the bottom of your blog with a 'Related Posts' tag and links to previous other posts of yours that may cover similar topics to the current post
* Always use some type of image/photo/graph - looks more professional and breaks down the monotone appearance of a page full of only words
* Writing more content - so when readers click on your labels, they have other material to read which means you can entice them to hang around longer or to subscribe - I'm still working on more articles so that readers won't be disappointed when they click on the labels and see only one article
* Googlers like food related posts - my food posts are rather popular which did surprise me but maybe pf folks like reading and looking at food

Stuck in a 'nothing to spend on rut'

Trying to think of something edible to buy

Last night, I tried really hard to find something to think of what I craved to eat and what I could buy for myself. My mind was blank. I didn't crave anything.

It wasn't because I wasn't hungry. Just that I've eaten out so much over these last few years that I'd just about annihilated the list of food that I loved to eat and snack on. Recently, I find that eating my own cooking is more enjoyable than dining out at most places. I barely crave lollies or chocolate or anything else these days. I was uninspired. It was a shocking realisation.

There's a lot that I should buy

There's a list of things that I should be buying(new waterproof ski pants for our forthcoming snow trip, camera lens and tripod, camera flash, books to read, pots for gardening etc) but I'm not really fond of shopping at all. It's enjoyable when it's spontaneous but if I have to plan and research what to buy then it's not exciting. Most of my recent excitement arises from the possible imminent purchase into another investment asset that may happen this year or next year :) 

Goodbye materialism

Not that I was ever materialistic in the first place...

There have been plenty of friends who upgraded their lifestyle to include luxury brand names ever since they've been earning a salary post Uni(Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, D&G, Chanel, Miu Miu etc) but I live my life relatively without luxury clothing brands with the exception of what I received as gifts from my parents. Although Burberry has just opened up a store at the new Westfields shopping centre in the city and their coats are tempting...

Did the past influence the present?

My parents' house almost burnt down in a bush fire several years ago and we had contended with the idea of losing everything we owned. I saw all the 'stuff' in my room that was close to going up in flames and realised that everything was replaceable and only photos and my hard disk drive were the only thing that I couldn't bear to lose. Fortunately, brave local fire fighters saved our area and doused the bush fires and we lost nothing.

From that moment on, I realised the futility of owning 'stuff' and have not accumulated more 'stuff' ever since. I look at trinkets and think, 'would I be rushing to save these items if I had to evacuate quickly due to fire or flood?' and if the answer is 'no' then I don't buy it.

There's nothing to buy on Ebay

I thought I should set up my Ebay account so that I could build my 'reputation' but after a few months of trying to find something that I wanted to buy on Ebay that I couldn't just buy at our local stores, I've given up. I couldn't find anything I could bother to try bidding for.

Saving 65% of my April income

Despite this post sounding despondent about being stuck in a shopping rut, there is a silver lining... the average Aussie is currently saving 7-10% of their income, but yours truly saved 65% last month.

April is my lowest spending month for a long time since I surprisingly didn't have any major bills to pay. Although June always makes up for it with swags of bills that are due in June. And I'm planning on making a lump sum extra repayment on my HECS/HELP student loan near the end of this month.

Discretionary expenditure for April 

* A beautiful handmade, decorative necklace that I bought from an art store in Kangaroo Valley for $80. I always try to support small towns because life can be tough in small towns.

 * At Berry, another small town we passed through, I bought scone cutters from the homeware store so that I could bake high rise scones and the store owner looked desperate for a sale to justify why he spent Easter holidays opening up the store. I also bought a crank and turn music box which plays 'Santa Claus is coming to town' because it reminded me of fun Christmas holidays and the owner looked just as desperate for a sale.

* Red Cross Charity Store; The volunteers working in my local Red Cross store are 80 year old, fragile looking ladies. It always looks so vacant and sorry looking so I bought a few books and an antique Bone China bowl for $22 and also gave them a $50 donation. I acquired three Patricia Cornwell books for $6 which was cheap reading materials for my train trips to work.

Further reading:

1. Crazy binge shopping