Save $10,000

i was recently made redundant so for now my brilliant auto-debiting scheme is cancelled. still, i made it to $8240.81 which is pretty close. and after i get my pay out, i am aiming to get a new job before i spend it all, so can hopefully put a chunk of my redundancy pay into my savings and reach (or even exceed!) this goal.

i just hit the $8,000.00 mark which is pretty exciting. i dont think i will reach this goal this year, but i will reach it soon. and ive decided i want to spend it on film for sure. im so lucky that my dad is happy to pay for me to go travelling with my family this christmas, especially so because were going somewhere ive wanted to go for ages that relates to my career – LA!!
i dont think ill ever afford property with the salary im on, so luckily i dont intend on having this job forever. spending my savings on film is an investment in my future – both my career and my earning potential. im relieved to have made this decision and be happy about it.

Ive taken a bit of money out of my savings which sounds naughty but i have kept track of it and plan to repay with my tax. and the point of saving was to reward myself. The things I bought were presents for myself which I feel I deserved after working hard and being stressed out and heartbroken, as well as essential winter clothing. All up Ive spent 600 from my savings and also have a holiday/retreat planned which will be 620. sounds like alot but that’s it for the year apart from making my short and maybe covering Christmas presents.

to be honest aiming for this goal has had its drawbacks. after Christmas i was really in debt, and have been there more or less ever since. nothing major, only a few hundred dollars but i cant seem to get out – vet fees, psych and doctor bills, birthdays, phone bills etc. But ive been 100% strong willed and havent dipped into my savings. ive actually really started to try to be sensible, and only buy stuff i think i need, and waited till im with my parents for things like clothes. and tried to be smarter about eating cheaply and healthily. i should be out in a month or so, i have a huge phone bill coming up but after that no more injections for my cat and have cut down to once a month with my psych. and my pact to call my friend every day for a month has now finished so yeah. should be on track soon.

Im so happy and proud! I just calculated that to reach this goal by the end of the year i need to save 116 per week. it seemed like a magic number so i decided to committ to this goal and set up automatic transfers from my salary to my savings every week! yippee! i would so rather live a little below my means and have something to show for all the time i spend at work rather than fritter it away and feel happy in the short term but be limited if there was a crisis or i wanted to do something big like fund a film or travel or put down a deposit on property. i think the latter is probably where it will end up going as i am lucky enough to have a father who usually takes us travelling once a year, and should be able to scrape together funding and equipment for film. Yay! Stability is more important to me the older I get, so planning now for buying and apartment or a house feels really reassuring. Lets hope I get paid more in future otherwise i may never get there!!

Im almost at $4000, I aim to get there by my birthday in 3 weeks. Its taken me like a year to get this far…hopefully it wont take another year to get the rest of the way!