Coles Gift Card promotion

I received an email today telling me that I had accrued $3.51 as at the end of May. Provided my total exceeds $5.00 by the time the promotion ends on 31 July, I'll be sent a Coles gift-card for the amount accrued. When you spend over $30 in one transaction you receive 1c credit per dollar spent. There are also some 'Boost' products advertised around the store where you earn an extra $1 credit for buying them. I did buy one such product a few weeks ago, but I can't tell if I received the $1 bonus as the monthly gift card statement doesn't provide details of the individual transactions that accrued credits. It's a pity that this promotion ends next month - after that happens the QFF points available with the Woolworths loyalty program will entice me compared to the standard FlyBuys points available at Coles.

Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2008

Neighbour dispute starting to cost real money

As I previously posted my next-door neighbour wants to add a couple of feet of new retaining wall to the existing brick retaining wall, demolish, realign (our respective property identification surveys disagree on which side of the brick wall the boundary is), and replace the existing wood boundary fence (which has started to rot due to the earth he piled against it soon after he moved in). Initially he tried to sell me that this work would be an improvement that would "add value" to my property, and that he was only asking for half the cost of the new boundary fence - he would generously pay for the cost of increasing the height of the existing retaining wall.

Since I didn't agree with my neighbour's "generous" proposal (and in fact complained to council about his intended works, and told him to send future correspondence on this matter via my solicitor), he has now officially demanded payment for half the total cost of his intended building works along the boundary (around $4,500). It looks like this will end up going to the Land and Environment court, so today I had to give my solicitor the go-ahead to spend around $2,000 getting the boundary properly pegged by a surveyor and to get a report from a geotechnical expert on the current situation and what drainage problems my neighbour has already caused by his previous "landscaping" efforts. The black line on the picture below shows how high the earth has been piled against my neighbour's side of our boundary fence!



My solicitor is also going to send me a costs agreement, as his bill will most likely exceed $1,000 if this matter does proceed to court...

On a purely economic cost:benefit basis it may end up that I would have been better off just letting my neighbour do whatever he wanted - but I want to defend my rights and the amenity of my backyard, even if it costs me a several thousand dollars.

Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2008

Free Qantas Frequent Flyer membership

My wife got a free membership of the Qantas Frequent Flyer years ago when a program of another airline closed down in Australia. I never bothered joining QFF as the annual fee made membership a dubious benefit. However, the Woolworths EveryDayRewards program recently linked up with QFF and in future spending more than $30 in a single Woolworths transaction will earn you QFF points if your EveryDayRewards account is linked to a QFF account. What I just found out today is that EveryDayRewards members who don't already have a QFF account can join QFF for free via the Woolworths website (usual cost is around $90). I had a read through the QFF terms and conditions and I couldn't see anything about an annual fee in the Fees section, so maybe this QFF membership will be free for life, like my wife's membership. In any case, if there is a fee after the first year I can always cancel the QFF membership, so I joined up today. Fortunately QFF points don't expire, as it will take around five years for me to earn enough QFF points for a basic round trip fare to Auckland or Perth from Sydney, if I only earn QFF points from my grocery shopping at Woolworths! Still, the points appear to be in addition to the normal 4c/L fuel discount you get for each Woolworths transaction over $30, so it's an extra benefit at no cost. (Well, yes, the true cost will be hidden in the overall grocery pricing structure of Woolworths. But since the prices apply equally to shoppers who don't join the EveryDayRewards program or QFF, and also to transactions below $30 which aren't entitled to points, the benefit for members transactions over $30 should be greater than the resulting price hike - all other things being equal).

Anyhow, it gives me another rewards points balance to keep track of ;)

Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2008

Net Worth Update: May 2009

My net worth as at 31 May had decreased fractionally (down $507, or -0.08% for the month) to $643,673. My retirement account gained $7,732 (+3.00 %) to $265,071, but this was mostly offset by a drop in the estimated valuations of my half of our real estate assets (house and investment property - down $7,070 (-0.92%) to $757,837). But the preliminary sales figures indicate that this loss may have been reversed in June.

My leveraged stock portfolio ended slightly down for the month, -$1,792 to have a net value of -$16,158, but the market has risen enough in the past couple of days to bring that back into positive territory.

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