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Home > Archive: July, 2008

Archive for July, 2008

Last Week...

July 21st, 2008 at 11:16 am

was another very expensive week. Both DH and I went to see the dentist last week. I will have to go back next month for some fillings. DH had to also see the doctor twice. Not to mention the car service was very expensive. The rest was spent on groceries, take-away and gas, and also some snacks. Apparently, the accommodation that we booked last week will not actually be paid until we go on our holiday so I will take that amount out. I guess if we decide not to go we won't have to pay, that's good.

We only got 1 NSD last week. Hopefully we will have a bit more than that this week and to start the week today was a NSD Smile

I got a massive headache right now so I'm off to bed early.

Another Car Expense

July 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

Well today we got our car service and it come to almost $700, ouch! I'm hoping this it for a while for car expenses. There was a lot of work done to it, I guess since we are using the car a lot more these days we need to get it service more often.

This month has already been very spendy, lucky we are getting a bit of tax refund back. Easy come, easy go I guess.

Short Update

July 15th, 2008 at 02:03 am

We haven't had a NSD for over a week. Spent a bit of money last week. I bought some gifts, food, fuel, snacks and of course the tyre repair.

The other day we booked and paid for our accommodation for our up coming holiday. Not too bad i guess.

Tyre, Tax and Shares

July 10th, 2008 at 11:05 am

We didn't need a new tyre after all, they just had to plug the hole. It only cost $25 in total. So now it's as good as new, according to the repairer guy. It should be our tyre are pretty new, not even two years old.

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DH just got his tax return form, he should be getting $2,000. This is great news, we didn't expect anything. The most maybe couple hundred dollars. Our tax system is a lot diffent to the US, we don't do the witholding thing. Most of these money will go towards funding the household fund. Just in time really because we need a lot of work done around the house. Our dishwasher will definitely need replacing soon, I'm hoping not until next year. We also need some electrical work done. The front garden could also do some work. Oh man the list could go on. Really 2 grand is not enough for what we need done to the house. We are just prioritizing at the moment. Important things will have to come first.

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I finally bought some shares today, I've been waiting to get in for 2 weeks now. Today it finally hit my price. There's another stock that I want to get, just waiting for my right price.



That's all folks!


We need new tyre :(

July 9th, 2008 at 01:29 pm

We got a screw/bolt stuck in the tyre on the way home tonight. Either we drove over it or someone put it in there. What a pain! I think we will need to get a new one. We managed to get home okay. We just left it in for now. We are scared to take it out, it might deflate quicker if we do. DH will take it to the shop tomorrow morning.

First week of July

July 6th, 2008 at 07:51 am

Most our major expenses are due at the beginning of the month. For the first week of this month we already spent $2,000 in total mainly because of the mortgage. Yesterday we also paid the Gas and Electricity bill and the credit card bill. Also did a big grocery shopping, and put some credit into my mobile phone. The rest was for little expenses like coffee, take away and bus pass. Oh and also my account was direct debited for my managed funds.

Today was a NSD, had 2 NSD so far for this month.

Today and Free Coffee

July 4th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

The soon to be new cafe near work offered free coffee to everyone in our building. The place is actually not opening for another week, but they are trying out their new coffee machine and wanted to get feedback on there coffee. It was very nice.

Did some shopping for gifts today, everyone here is having a sale at the moment because of end of financial year.

Also today I got my payment summary from work, which what we need to file for our tax. I just need to get my other financial information together this weekend and hopefully next week I should be able to send the info to my accountant. I should be getting over $1,000 back. Hopefully, I can get it by mid-next month.

Baby Fund is fully funded for now...

July 3rd, 2008 at 06:03 am

I say for now because I really don't know how much I should be saving for this. I will probably put more money in this fund at the end of the year when I should have extra cash to throw around.

Funds Snowball

We managed to have $2,222 this month togo towards funding our funds. As usual, I'm paying myself first by putting $500 into saving ($100 of which will go towards "Sunny Day Saving"). Most of it went to tuition (due the end of this month), since the decision to do 2 subjects instead 1 was made we had to put money into this category first instead. Only put $100 into the holiday fund. We got over $1,800 balance in the holiday account now, we won't need much of it this year maybe next year. As for the household fund, in total I put in $500 although $155.50 was spent on things we need/want for the house and the left over $344.50 is what's put in the fund. We have to definitely start beefing this up more since we will probably use all the money in the fund hopefully this month or next month. Depending on when the repairer can come to do the house repairs.

Star Bucks is closing 600 stores in USA

July 3rd, 2008 at 02:18 am

Wow...definite sign that the US economy is slowing down.

June’s $20K Challenge & First 6mnth analysis

July 2nd, 2008 at 11:57 pm

Overall, June’s expenses were not too bad. The biggest expense was for our quarterly property rate/tax. The big increase in fuel consumption is due the changes in the way we are travelling to work. We are now driving more than taking public transport, it is actually about the same maybe even a bit cheaper (now that we converted our car to gas). Also the biggest advantage is it cuts our travel time, we get to go home almost an hour earlier. We are spending more fuel but have cut down on our public transport expense.

The usual suspect for over spending were quite good this month; grocery exp was reasonable and our entertainment spending was not bad (especially compare to last month).

First 6 Month Analysis:
We are at the half way point of our challenge so I thought I should analyse our progress thus far. Well the biggest worry is the Entertainment category - we are WAAAAAYYYY over, bloody hell we are over. We spent $720 in the last 6 months, which only leaves us less than $280 for the rest of the year. That’s $46 per month! It will be mission impossible to get this category under budget. Good thing we got our Allowances to fall back on. We are way under in these, especially DH’s side. I should have been worrying about our entertainment budget more than the grocery budget. But it is just so hard when friends got a get together, it is impossible to avoid spending. We can’t just sit there and watch everyone eat, could we? Plus there are two of us, so it doubles the expense. Ultimately I don’t regret the time we spend with our friends and really the experience is worth more than any money in the world. But in saying that I hate being this much over our budget, maybe the budget was too low to start with. Last year we spent $1,750 on entertainment, so maybe I was just too unrealistic. Or I’m I just trying to justify our over spending? Argh...

The other categories are very reasonable most things that are over are only over by few dollars. The mobile phone budget is way over but I’m not that worried about it, our usage (for 2 mobile phones) is ridiculously low compare to most people. In the old days I used to spend $150 in a month on my mobile phone! My how I’ve changed my ways – I guess I was very young and stupid then. Even our grocery bill is only $20 over, which I’m very happy about. Overall, we are under by $600+! I can’t wait until the end of the year.







Edit: Opps! Clothing is actually over.

So here's to the second half of 2008. cheers!