Smarter Holiday Spending – My Trip to Fiji

25. Jan
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I recently took a 2 week trip to Fiji to visit my grandparents and take a break from the hustle and bustle of Sydney. Usually when I (and most people I know) go on trips abroad, I usually get money exchanged into the currency of the destination. Note – obligatory happy snaps ahead!

Malalo Island Resort

This trip I decided to do something a little different.

Options available

Let’s back track slightly and talk about the most common options available for spending overseas:

1. Foreign conversion of funds in the departing country
2. Foreign conversion of funds in the arriving country
3. Travellers cheques
4. VISA/MasterCard/AMEX

With 1 and 2 I have to carry around a large amount physical cash which I avoid. I also always feel I am always getting the short-end of the stick with exchange rates – especially if you do it at the airport just prior to leaving. With 3, again you have a physical object which needs to be carried around and looked after but you get the extra security.

Local kids hanging out at the markets

The other piece missing with these first 3 methods is that tracking your spending becomes difficult – during or post holiday. Who hasn’t gone over budget during holiday and had to pull out extra cash from the ATM – after all – it is a holiday! But still you’ld like to be somewhat in control. I’ll pick up on this aspect in a follow-up post – Part II (coming soon).

The beauty of cards

Which brings us to 4 – credit-cards. You get a lot by using credit-cards –
– security
– not having to carry physical objects
– ubiquitous around the world
– tracking!

Previously when I’ve used credit-cards – I would always get charged an overseas transaction fee on-top of the currency conversion that takes place. So I seldom used this method. However – recently I discovered a few cards which don’t charge these fees. The ‘goodness’ doesn’t end there – the exchange rate that is used by these providers is very close to the published exchange rates that you see on the news – which are much better than any exchange rate you will get at an currency exchange.

What I use

The two most common cards with these features are 28 Degrees (MasterCard) and Citibank Plus (Visa Debit Card) – you can see both of these here. For my trip I choose the Citibank Plus card since I didn’t require a credit card but still wanted the Visa benefits.

My grandmother hustling at the markets

So how did it go.

The majority of stores, resorts and restaurants have Eftpos and credit-card facilities – which was awesome because I didn’t have to worry about making sure I had enough cash on me.

When I arrived in Fiji I used the card to withdraw cash from the ATM – to get by for the ad-hoc things where cash was easier/faster or where they didn’t have credit facilities. Another added bonus of Citibank is that they have ATM’s globally and also don’t charge a foreign ATM fee – and since it’s a Visa Debit – it’s not an overdraft. I did this a couple of times during the trip – the added benefit of not having to worry about cash outweighs the relatively small local ATM fees that you get charged.

I would highly recommend anyone traveling abroad to get one of these cards if they don’t already have one – link. It is very much inline with our core philosophy here at Pocketbook – simplicity.

Where I live

I’ll continue this post in Part II of my trip to Fiji

Saving on weekly travel is easy

23. Jan
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Being frugal is pretty hard these days. Often there’s either too much information, or not enough – making it difficult to act.

Public transport in Australia is exactly this. Too much information on train platforms, ferry stops and websites, and not enough information for me to figure out exactly how I can cut down my $150+ regular monthly spend.

Why it’s worth the effort to investigate

I’ll use myself as an example. I travel from Wolli Creek (relatively inner surburb in Sydney) to Sydney CBD. A weekly train ticket sets me back $32. A quarterly saves me roughly $8 a week. That’s a huge 25% in savings which racks up to around $400 a year! – enough for a night in a hotel and flights to Fiji at sales time!

What to do?

1. Forget visiting department and transport company websites to figure this out.

2. Next time your buying your weekly ticket at the booth, ask for some prices for monthly, quarterly and even yearly tickets.

3. Write it down and work out how much you could save while you’re on your ferry or train.

4. Then reward yourself, go to Jetstar or Virgin Australia’s mobile website and book that cheap overseas holiday!

Bosco

Free Money for 6 Months

15. Jan
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Guest Post by Tim Robinson

I love a bargain. Who doesn’t?

What could be better than a bargain? Free Money!

Right now, I’m collecting free money almost every day. It’s not a lot, but it does add up. And I’m getting it just by buying my groceries, fuel, beer and other everyday necessities that comprise a decent proportion of my monthly expenses.

free money

Until the 30th of June 2013, ING Direct is giving me back 5% of every dollar by using my Orange Everyday Visa Debit card at any Paywave payment facility, on transaction under $100. So far I’ve accumulated over $50 in incremental rebates, and by June 30 I expect the total to have crept up to about $200.

That may not sound like a lot of money, but I’ll definite take it with a smile.

The Paywave merchant facilities that are needed to collect this rebate and becoming increasingly available. I’ve seen these at most Coles, Woolworths, Kmart, 7-11, Shell Coles Express and Caltex Woolworths service stations.

Let’s do some maths. This means you can save 5% on your groceries at Coles or Woolies, get a fuel discount docket, fill up on fuel at the appropriate servo, save your 4c a litre and then save another 5% off your fuel on top of that. Even if you don’t have a 4c/L off coupon, the 5% rebate alone equates to more than 6c a litre discount (assuming fuel cost is at least $1.20/L).

I’ve had the account for a while and some other benefits I’ve found include:
1) No monthly account keeping fees.
2) No currency conversion fees for foreign currency purchases.
3) Free access to every ATM in Australia if you withdraw $200 or more (ING will reimburse the ATM owners fee). If you have a home loan with them, they’ll cover the fees regardless of the amount withdrawn.

By the way, I don’t work for ING Direct and I’m not receiving any additional inducements or benefits for writing this post, I’m simply a satisfied customer who thinks you’d be crazy to not get on board this dead simple, effortless, free money train.

Tim

Want to know how much you could get free in the next 6 months, sign up to Pocketbook and let our auto-categorisation help you figure it out.

Tim Robinson is a Learning & Development executive at an Australian logistics company. He is a great friend of the Pocketbook team. He previously ran his own small business and knows what it’s like to work in a budget conscious environment. He is also extremely passionate about all things money management and is always on the lookout for a bargain.

Complete your financial picture with manual account setup

10. Jan
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You’ve been asking for it. Now it’s all yours!

To give you all the flexibility you need to compile the complete picture of your finances, we’ve created the manual account setup feature.

It’s really simple. For all the institutions we’ve yet to support with live feeds, you can now manually set these up in 3 steps.

Quick How-to

Step 1 – Go to the “Setup” page and find “ADD BANK” in the left bar. Then select “Manual Bank Account” in dropdown (at the bottom). You should see a little blue bank-building icon.

Step 2 – Enter a custom account name, account type (loan, savings etc), and the account balance.

Step 3 – Then use the “Import Transactions (OFX, QIF)” on the left bar of the “Setup” page (below ADD BANK) – to upload the QIF / OFX output from your financial institution to your created account.

That’s it! You now have all your finances in the same place!

Happy money managing.

Bosco

Helping myself with new years resolutions

27. Dec
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With Christmas now in the rear-view and new years eve right around the corner. I’m starting to think about resolutions for 2013.

I typically set myself 3 goals; one on health, one on finance and one on the other parts of my life. I’m usually very gung-ho for a couple of months, then the enthusiasm withers away. Come to think of it, I can’t even recall what I set myself in 2012.

The good news is that failed resolutions are common. University studies have shown that more than 85% fail. The bad news is that my 2013 goals probably won’t be hit.

So, I decided to Google for some tips to help myself. Here are some basic things I found:

Write goals down – Writing goals down as constant reminders is something I failed to do in previous years. This year, I’m putting in diary entries on the 1st of every month to remind myself to check back. I’m also putting the 3 points on my fridge with magnets so I see it everyday.

Translate goals to actions – I want to lose weight and get fit. So this means getting on p90x for the next 3 months religiously. My mind can translate the discipline of a daily routine better than x kilograms by y date.

Get tools to help – Like using iCalendar to give myself monthly reminders, there are plenty of websites and apps that can help me. Endomondo and Runkeeper can help track my fitness training. Fooducate (yet to be in Australia) can help inform me about healthy eating. And of course Pocketbook already helps me monitor my finances today!

So now hopefully with these 3 tips, I’ll be able to hit my 2013 resolutions in June!

Bosco

How successful are you with your resolutions?

Winning at Stocktake Sales in 3 steps

21. Dec
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With Christmas around the corner, Boxing Day and stocktake sales are no doubt on your mind. That TV or fridge you’re saving up for… or that new work outfit for 2013.

Though I don’t do it religiously myself, I have braved the crowds a few times. Often, I find that it is too easy to get carried away with big percentage markdowns, and hoarding activity of the crowds. I find it so hard at times to avoid buying anything I will never use.

So this year, I’ve set myself 3 things to do, and I’d like to share them with you.

1. Drafting a plan – Much like shopping for groceries, it’s a good idea to list the things that are absolute needs vs wants. Then figuring out a budget in total, budgets for each large item (tv, laptop), as well as on other categories (clothes). I put all this on my phone so I won’t forget it.

2. Be ready to research on the run – With mobile phones today, it’s so easy to check comparable prices across different online and offline stores. A program like eBay’s RedLaser can help me quickly do this without trying to juggle bags, hangers and my touchscreen keyboard all at the same time.

3. Understand returns policy – Ask every cashier girl / guy what the returns policy is as I am checking out. It’s always good to know whether or not I could act on my next day buyer’s remorse.

I hope those tips can help you.

Finally as always, Pocketbook can help you do some day-after analysis of what you’ve spent across retailers, regardless of which card you’ve used. So try it

Merry Christmas and best of luck at the sales!

Bosco

We say Merry Christmas with the new "Gift" tag

12. Dec
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We launched a cool new feature today just in time for the holidays.

We know you buy gifts across multiple categories of spending. But whether it’s clothing, airfares, electronic gadgets, you still want it tagged as a gift for future tracking. So we’ve created the red “Gift” tag to help you see exactly how generous you are over Christmas.

We announced this feature launch via the first ever Pocketbook Monthly newsletter – with heaps of links to things you may have missed. Blog posts, feature launches and some media coverage. Read it here

So an early Merry Christmas to all of our users. Thanks for all your support so far.

We’ll keep working to over the holiday season to make Pocketbook even better!

Bosco

Let's Play – Introducing Pocketbook Analyse

06. Dec
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This week we launched Pocketbook Analyse, and I wanted to take some time to explain some of its features.

We built the new Analyse tool based on your feedback. You told us you wanted to splice and dice historical transactions to better understand how you spend. This is a first step.

The Spending Wheel

As a centrepiece of Analyse, the Spending Wheel is a great way to get a snapshot of your spending habits. Now you can include and exclude categories and zoom in to understand more. My favourite is just watching the graph dance as you select and unselect things!

Include and exclude accounts

We have heard from many of you that you want to isolate certain accounts. Some of you also wanted to exclude money transferred between accounts. We’ve created these selection boxes to let you filter and get a more accurate picture.

Time period selector

Many of you suggested you wanted to look at spending in different time periods with even more customisations. We’ve included a calendar tool to help you zero in and build your Spending Wheel for different dates.

Credit vs debit over time

You have told us it’s important to compare week-to-week or month-to-month. This vibrant chart let’s you get a snapshot view which can immediately impact how you budget. Try it out with different categories and accounts.

Zooming in on categories

Again to help you zero in on super-categories, we’re showing you the related transactions all in the same place. This way, you can start to make some quick decisions about where to cut down.

Just a start
All this is just a start at Pocketbook. We’ll look to continue building features in a way that’s exactly what you’re looking for in a personal finance tool. Making managing your life figure-clickingly easy.

We encourage you to play with the new Pocketbook Analyse tool, and let us know what you think.

Bosco

PS, thanks to Eli for the tip on the graphing package!

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