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Archive for March, 2008

We're back...

March 26th, 2008 at 11:24 pm

We just got back from our holiday, visiting families. I didn't have time to blog before we left last week. Our holiday was great, we just went interstate to New South Wales (near Sydney). All up we spent just over $220, this is including the airfare which was paid last year. I will take the costs out of our holiday fund, which should still leave us about $600 in there.

Well, I got to catch up reading everyones blog so catch up with you guys later.

Homemade Pizza was nicer than the Restaurant Burger

March 16th, 2008 at 02:06 am

Well we made our pizza for lunch yesterday. DH made the dough and I made the sauce and prepared all the toppings. We made two, one had the lot (with all toppings on it) the other one was half tomato and basil toppings and the other half had salami, grilled capsicum and chillies (DH loves chillies). Costs wise, I have estimated:
Dough ~ 55cents
Sauce ~ 30cents
Toppings ~ $1.65 (apart from salami, anchovies & olives and the rest were produce from the garden - grilled eggplant, tomatoes, basils, and chillies).
Cheese ~ $1.00 (I bought the cheese for $4.30 and used less than 1/4 of it)

Both DH and I like our pizza extra thin and not too many toppings, so we didn't really have to use up much. All up the 2 pizzas cost us about $3.50. We had about half of it for lunch.

About 1/2 an hour after lunch my mum stopped by for a visit and had some of the pizza. She like the one with the lot, not so much the one with chillies, a bit too hot for her.

The rest of the pizza we ate just before we went out for dinner for a friend's birthday.

At last night's dinner I only had soup, I was still too full and couldn't even finish it. I did also have a little bit of DH's burger and fries. I thought the burger wasn't that good and DH actually mentioned it this morning that he didn't enjoy it that much. It didn't have sauce and the patty was not very good at all. Oh well, we went there for the company not for the food.

No Pizza Tonight.

March 14th, 2008 at 10:49 am

The weather today was 40 degrees Celcius (about 105 deg F.), so it was a stinker. I had a massive headache all day. It was really hard to concentrate at work, I thought I was going to throw up a few times. I had to go to the bathroom and wash my face with some cold water and took couple of tablets. I was probably dehydrated, even though I keep drinking water it was still not enough.

After work we had to go get some milk and other stuff. It was such a relief being inside the shops where it was so much cooler. We do have an air conditioner at work but it's not working properly, if we put it too low it gets really icy cold, especially for the girl that sits right under the vent. Anyway, so DH and I decided to stay in the shops until it cooled down outside (a late change was forecast). Since we were there we decided to get some needed clothing for DH and some not so needed ones for me. Luckily everyone seems to be having a sale. DH really needed some running socks and work pants. All up we spent just over $83, and with it we got:
5 pairs of socks - $9.45
2 business pants - $25.00
2 long sleeves tops - $19.00
2 sweaters - $30.00

While shopping we started talking about making pizza for dinner, we both agreed to not bother. DH was still really full from his big lunch at work (they went to an all you can eat place), and I wasn't that hungry either. So, we decided to postpone the pizza until lunch tomorrow (we will be going out tomorrow night) and just shared something light which cost $8.50 including a can of drink.

By the time we got out it ws already 8:30pm and the weather has cool down to about 30deg (86degF). This is very typical of our weather here, a shift in the wind direction can change the temp quite dramatically.

When we got home it was already 9pm but the house was still hot, so we had to open the doors and windows to let the cool air in. 9pm is just too late to start making pizza, not too mention it was too hot, so eating out wasn't such a bad idea under these circumstances.

More adventure in the garden

March 13th, 2008 at 11:12 am

Well tonight, I was able to harvest a leek, capsicum, some chillies, more tomatoes and eggplants. Also got some more basil and parsley. DH was also able to get 2 figs from our fig tree.

Tonight's dinner was chicken with leek and figs cooked in a dash of balsamic vinegar, a little bit of chicken stock and a dollop of cream, then garnish with parsley. Only used about 200g of chicken breast. The chicken stock and cream were leftovers and did to finish it off before it goes off. All up this dish probably only cost about $2.50.

To go with it was spaghetti pasta with home made basil pesto, which I made a few weeks ago and have just put in the freezer. This probably cost about 70cents. There are some left overs which I will have for lunch tomorrow at work.

Also made some more tomato and basil salad. Maybe 10cents for the extra virgin olive oil! ha!

Tonight's dinner all up cost about $3.40 ($1.70 p/person). This also includes my lunch tomorrow. DH will be going out for lunch tomorrow, he is invited to a farewell lunch. He will have pay for his own food though.

Oh tomorrow night's dinner will be pizza. I will be using the eggplant and capsicum, which I've already grilled tonight. I will write more about it tomorrow.

Tonight's Dinner

March 12th, 2008 at 10:27 am

We came home from work tonight and before I even came inside the house, I went to look at our vegetable garden ( which I tend to do most days). I just love coming home and seeing what new things has grown in the garden.

We didn't have anything organised for dinner, so I decide dinner will be what ever we've got in the garden. I didn't want to spent too much time cooking tonight, I wanted something healthy, light and quick to cook.

Well, I ended up making 3 small dishes. I was able to pick some eggplants, few ripe tomatoes (2 different kinds), basil and parsley. Oh and DH was able to pick 2 small strawberries lol.. they are really out of season now here.

Out of those I made:

Tomato and Basil with olives Salad - I thinly sliced the tomatoes, spread on a plate and then spread a hand-torn basil on top with a handful of olives. Drizzled with olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. There is something about tomatoes and basil they just go so well together.

Eggplant with Scrambled Eggs - I cooked the eggplant over open flame (with skin on). The charred/burnt flavour is really nice. Once soft, peel off the burnt skin and flatten eggplant with fork gently. I scrambled 4 eggs just with salt and pepper. I also put some of the basil and parsley in the eggs. Dip the eggplant into the eggs and then pan fried.

Diced Tomatoes with Scrambled eggs - with the left over eggs I cooked it with diced tomatoes, garlic, spring onions, the left over basil and parsley.

Had all of this with steamed rice. All up it took about 25mins from picking the vegies to our first delicious bite.

Financially our dinner only cost about:
4 eggs = 65cents
rice = 10cents
olives = 35cents
garlic & spring onions = 20cents
salt & pepper = 2cents
oil = 15cents
Water & Gas = 3cents
tomatoes = free
Eggplants = free
Basil = free
Parsley = free

TOTAL ~ $1.50 (which is 75cents per person)
hahaha .. I'm just being silly now! but it's really interesting.

Now what to do with those 2 small strawberries (which are about the size of a couple of peas!).

Today

March 10th, 2008 at 11:07 pm

Hoping today will be a NSD.
Every bit helps.
So far this month we've already spent over $6,000! We are not even half way the month yet! Oh my!
The biggest items are tuition, surgery, and mortgage. These items alone adds up to about over $5,800.
I did have $1,500 in the funds to cover some of the tuition and surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery was twice as much as I budgeted it to be. I decided to go for a more experience expert surgeon, I didn't want to risk it. Overall, I'm glad I did, no regrets at all. I should be able to get some money back (rebate) from my insurance, maybe about $350-$400 back.

Bloody hell another 0.25%

March 4th, 2008 at 08:49 am

Well, the reserve bank has increase our official rate again!! WHY?? Another quarter of percent, which means another $35-$40 per month for us. ARGHHH!!!
Somebody stop the bleeding. This is the 12th consecutive rate increase. And there's talks of more to come this year.

FEB 2008

March 1st, 2008 at 07:26 am

There was something wrong with my spreadsheet last month, I miscalculated our saving. Oh well, it is fix now and we have now caught up to where I want us to be.

Our Feb's numbers for our 20K challenge.




We saved 14.5% of our income this month.
We spent of our fun money (allowances and entertainment) this month. Hopefully, March will be better.