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Archive for November, 2011

Quiet Weekend

November 28th, 2011 at 04:20 am

It rained all day on Saturday. I didn't even bother going grocery shopping.

We did go to a carnival/festival on Sunday afternoon. It was good to get out and get some sun.

We also got some groceries. All up we spend less than $100 for the whole weekend.

Networth

November 23rd, 2011 at 03:22 am

I just had a quick look at our networth and it seems like we just hit $400K. I can't wait to see 500K, if only the stock market would start going north too.

The increase is mostly due to our house going up in value. Our home equity is worth 65% of our networth.

Unfortunately, our retirement fund can't seem to get over the $100K mark. It has been stuck at the 90s for so long. At the start of the year I was pretty sure we would hit it late this year, but with the stock market taking a dive it has stagnated.

If everything stay about the same, we should get to $450K by the end of next year.


Mortgage and budget

November 22nd, 2011 at 01:00 am

After calculating our weekend spending yesterday, I decided to put another $500 into the mortgage. I think I was feeling abit guilty about all those spending eventhough most it was necessary.

I still need to put in another $1,780 to achieve Goal #5 this year. And another $2,500 or so to get us to $150K mortgage. Then I will be happy to start next year with only $150K mortgage. I then hope to get our mortgage to under $120K by the end of next year. It is a bit ambitious but it is something to aim at.

We still need $2000 to get our Car Fund to $15K, I don't think we will be able to get there by the end of the year but it should get fully funded by end of March 2012, when DH gets paid twice that month.

I've almost finalise next year's budget. I hope we can do better next year. After accounting for our car registration next month we are officially over our budget this year. I'm anticipating we will be over by around $800-$1000. The medical expenses and entertainment did it. I'm making adjustments for next year.

Another Spendy Weekend

November 21st, 2011 at 03:58 am

We spent almost $700 on the weekend - yikes!

Most of the money was spent buying 2 ceiling fans, and a fan for the toilet, light bulbs, and a flood light for the front door. We decided to get everything we need so we will only need to get the electrician once, I'm hoping it will be cheaper this way.

We probably won't be able to get it install until next month. We still need to finish the walls in the toilet. DH actually managed to get some work done on it on the weekend, however, he is complaining that his arm is sore today. Hopefully, nothing major, we've used up all our physio cover this year already so it will be costly. We will try to do a bit at the time so he won't hurt his arm too much.

DH also got a new garden trimmer, our old one doesn't work at all anymore, at least the 20+ old lawn mower still works.

We also got some meat and filled up the car. And we went out for dinner Saturday night, we used another one of our restaurant voucher.

We are now officially over our grocery budget for the year - another yikes!

Interesting Weekend: Spendy but at the same time a bargain

November 14th, 2011 at 06:58 am

Friday I meet up with a friend for lunch, then afterwards I stopped by at DH work and had coffee with him. He told me to stick around the city to have afterwork drinks with his workmate. It was only another hour and a half away so I said yes. I decided to get my mum's christmas gift while I wait.

After work drinks with DH's workmate was fun. It was good to finally meet them since I've heard so much about them. Afterwards we decided to stay in the city for dinner.

Saturday was suppose to be a relaxing day, nothing was planned but to go grocery shopping. As we were driving out of our driveway we saw a garage sale poster right outside our house on the light post, it was for a house a block away. We decided to check it out, I was hoping I could get some pot plants. This is probably only the second time I've been to a garage sale. The house has a for sale sign with the sold sticker on it already. Anyway I wasn't expecting much, and as we walked towards their garage I couldn't see anything worth buying. The only thing I could see in the garage I wanted was a picnic basket, it didn't have a price sticker on it so I ask how much, she said "I don't really know, maybe $10 ummm you can have it for $5 or $2. Yeah take it for $2" It was funny how she haggled for me. I got talking to her (the daughter of the owner) some more, apparently they sold the house for $425K, the family lived there for over 30 years but now only the mother is left and all her daughters are now living to the other side of the city so she wants to be closer to them. I asked the mother if she was selling any plants, she haven't thought about selling those and unfortunately most of the plants are in the ground and she wanted to take the pot plants with her. But there was one pot plant that I could have, it is not looking too good because it got attacked with some bugs but it is gone now and it should survive with a little TLC. I asked "how much?" She said "$1, oh heck take it for 50cents". At this stage we were ready to go, so I saw the daugther again to pay for the picnic basket and plant and for some reason she only charge me 10 cents for the plant.


The picnic basket got 2 compartments, I just need to replace the material in it.


And this is the plant. It is about 1 metre tall. The outside leaves are damage but the new leaves are fine.

As I was paying for my purchases the daughter said that they have more stuff for sale in the granny flat and in the house she asked if we wanted to look around. We didn't really have much money because we were on our way to get some before grocery shopping. We reluctanly said yes. As we walked into the granny flat we saw this:



It had a $100 sticker price on it! The only thing I wanted to know at this stage is if it actually works. It works perfectly. I have been wanting to get one of those massage pad for years but they are too expensive and could not justify spending $200 plus for those. But this came with the recliner chair and foot massager. I was sold right there. And I knew DH loved it coz I knew he was thinking that he won't be the massager anymore. We told her that we wanted it but we have to go to the bank to get some cash.

Then next door in the bedroom we also saw and bought a nice white bedside table and dresser with mirror for $30 for both. This is the bedside table. I couldn't take a photo of the dresser because we haven't had time to put it back together, it was safer to take the mirror out before transporting it. This will go nicely in one of our bedroom, it's about time we dress it up now that it has been renovated. We ended up giving her $20 deposit


(The dresser is twice as wide with four drawers with the mirror on top)

Unfortunately, we had to rent a ute (pick-up truck) cause we knew that the chair wouldn't fit in our car. They are only $25 for an hour so very reasonable but we couldn't borrow it until Sunday lunch time, when we are meant to be at my mum. Things had to be change with my mum.

We went back to pay and to tell them that we can't pick up the stuff until Sunday. It was no problem.
They asked us to have a look at more stuff in the house and in the shed. I asked if the lawnmower was for sale but no. It would have been a nice one, it's still fairly new and our 15-20 year old one will need to be replace one of these days.

And then I saw a red multi-colour granite table (without its original legs)they were using it as an outside table. They were selling it for $40 and they have it sitting on this table.


(They just give this to us for free in the end)

I asked what happened to the legs, the daugther didn't know. Then the mum pointed at the two pot plants in front of us. She used them as a pedestal to put 2 of her pot plants. Apparently, they found the table to be too high.




(sorry couldn't take photo of the top properly, it's in the garage but this is what the granite look like up close)

They were willing to give me everything for $40 and of course I bought it. The only problem is that the mum can't remember where the screws are but I'm sure we can get them easy.

And lastly, I got a pedestal stand that I can use for indoor plant made from solid wood, they had $10 price sticker on it but she gave it to me for $5 (again without me asking for discount).

In the end we spent just over $205 including ute/truck rental. They had more stuff that were nice. There was an entertainment unit they were selling for $35! but it was just too heavy and it didn't go with our stuff. I don't think they really knew what they were doing, their pricing was all over the place. Selling the nice solid dresser and bedside table for $30 but then they were selling some of their used kitchen stuff for about the same price. That's why I didn't bother haggling for anything of the stuff I got, they did it for me anyway. I guess they just want to get rid off as much stuff because she has to be out of the house by next weekend.

Sunday was obviously spent getting the stuff, luckily my brother came to help us because those granite and chair was heavy. I spent about half an hour cleaning the chair, vacuuming, wiping and spraying it with disinfectant. Then in the late afternoon we went to my mum's place, she feed us and also gave me about 4 kilos worth of chicken breast and thigh for free, she got them cheap on sale in this wholesale place near her work. Score!

Note: we have decided (actually DH's idea) to use our Sunny day saving money (see side bar) for those garage purchases. He thinks this saving fund best describe these purchases and I agree.

Fruit/Veg Basket

November 10th, 2011 at 11:44 am

Two months ago I got a voucher from groupon or one of those online deals for a basket/box of mixed fruit and vegetables worth $35 for $19. Anyway, last week I ordered it to be delivered this weeks. It arrived today and this is what I got:





1 Cos lettuce
200g Mushrooms
1 big Cucumber
1 bunch Celery
1 bunch Asparagus
2 Zuchini
2kg Potatoes
1 big Yellow Capsicum
4 Onions
1kg Carrots
5 Tomatoes
4 Oranges
1 Avocado
4 Pears
4 Granny Smith Apples
1 Mango
3 Bananas
4 Pink Ladys

I really like how they deliver it right to my door. I'm seriously thinking of getting this on regular basis. If I get it on regular basis they waive the delivery fee of $2, so it will only be for $33. There is also a smaller size (couple pack), which will probably suit us better, the one we got today is what they call family pack. The smaller box is for $23, or we can get the bigger box every other week instead. At the moment we spend around $20 per week on fruits and vegetables, so it is about the same. This will also cut down on our grocery shopping time we won't need to go to the fruit shop.

There is no contracts and they only uses Australian produce. If I do go ahead with it I will probably start getting it on regular basis just before christmas. Even if I don't get it on regular basis I will definitely used them again in the future and just pay the $2 delivery fee.

I will see how we go with this box anyway, it's an experiment at this stage.

Spending Update

November 9th, 2011 at 03:51 am

Yesterday I paid the gas bill $97.64.

I also put in $500 into the mortgage yesterday.

Today I deposited $400 into my trading account.

DH received our statement for our voip phone bill for the month and we used $1.60.

Weekend Financial Update

November 7th, 2011 at 03:58 am

Friday night the mortgage got paid, regular payment of $1218, over $950 went to interest and only $267 went toward the principal. I can't wait until next month's regular payment, I'm hoping it will be under $900 interest by then. The big extra payment that we made late last month and the recent interest cut should take full affect next month. Also I should be able to make some extra payment by this weekend after DH get paid this Friday.

Our private health insurance also got paid, $230.69.

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we went to the beach. Had lunch there, fish and chip at the beach for $17.40. We also had to fill up the car, that was just over $48.

When we got home both of us agreed to go out for dinner, we used one of our deal voucher. $39 for a jug of sangria and a big platter of mixed tapas. It was very nice, it's a new restaurant, just opened 6 weeks ago so the restaurant was pretty empty. I even scored a free glass of coke, he would not let us pay for it.

Sunday was a NSD. Just did some cleaning and washing.

Lunch Date

November 4th, 2011 at 05:24 am

Just came home from a lunch date with DH. Spent $33.10. We had chinese, the food was nice but we felt hurried. They were very abrupt and they never smiled. We had Jasmine tea, everytime we took a sip (and I mean a sip, the cup is not even half empty) not long after someone would come in and fill up the cup, which was nice but after a few times it kind of got annoying because she has to reach over to the othe side of the table and we have to stop eat/talking everytime she did it. Being Friday there were people lining up by the door so I guess they want people in and out.

Just received our yearly car registration bill yesterday, it is not due until 15 of Dec. It has gone up $17.40 from last year, we are now paying $641.50 for the whole year.

I picked up my new glasses last night. I've been wearing them all day today, so far so good.

Interest going down

November 3rd, 2011 at 04:43 am

Our mortgage interest rate is going down .25 percent. I think this will be around $25-30 decrease on our interest payment per month. Every bit helps.

The weather is suppose to be really nice this weekend, so we are thinking of going to the beach. Hope to do a bit of snorkling. The one that we will be going is about an hour away. We should really be doing some more renovation but I guess it can wait another week.

Nothing much is going on here financially, as usual just waiting for payday - another 8 more days to go.