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Archive for June, 2009

Finally

June 27th, 2009 at 04:55 am

I got my $900 stimulus cheque late yesterday. I deposited it right away this morning. It will all go towards the Car Fund. Cool. Now I'm happy.

Nothing to update

June 25th, 2009 at 01:40 am

Really haven't done much in the last week, I've done the painting job. I just can't be bothered at the moment.

I'm still waiting for my $900 stimulus payment from the our government. I don't think I will be able to get it this month, which means we won't be able to fully fund the Car fund.

That's all I got today.

NSD and To Do List

June 15th, 2009 at 04:10 am

Yesterday was NSD. I was very lazy yesterday, I didn't do much except make chicken stock and butter chicken for dinner. I will make soup today. I haven't done much this month at all, it's this cold weather all I want to do is keep warm. DH has been busy though, he spent most of yesterday doing work. He also went outside to do some composting and he also picked the last pumpkin from the garden. We didn't get to plant much winter crop this season, got too busy with house repairs early this year. DH did managed to plant some coriander (cilantro), which I used some for butter chicken last night.

I thought I'll make a to do list here to get me motivated to do some work around the house. These are boring stuff.

To do List (15-30 June):
[]Clothes Washing (Mon & Thurs)
[]Mopping (Mon & Thurs)
[]Ironing (Tues & Fri)
[]Dusting (Tues & Fri)
[]Vaccuming (Wed & Sat)
[]Bathroom (Sun)
[]Gardening (Sun)
[]Painting Spare Room
[]Wiping Kitchen Cupboard Doors.

Hope this will help me get my act together. I've got a load of washing on at the moment, now I just need to mop the floors.

Spendy Day

June 13th, 2009 at 12:08 pm

DH a I spent pretty much the whole day shopping. We end up getting:

3 pairs of shoes (2 for me and 1 for DH). They were around 60-70% off, and they are really good quality shoes and very comfy.

Got a gift for a friend, for next weekend.

Then we went grocery shopping, mainly got vegies and 1 whole chicken. I will make chicken stock tomorrow for soup.

And we also got some multi-vitamins.

We also had to go to the post office to send my application for CC. And had lunch out. I'm not sure how much we spent all up yet, it will be a bit. I planned for his month to be extra frugal - that kind of went out the window.

We were out for about 5 hours, and DH had to have a nap when we got home (soft!).


Update and Holiday Planning

June 12th, 2009 at 03:06 am

Had problem logging on here yesterday.
Anyway, I got really lazy yesterday and didn't do much at all. I did managed to do some ironing (which I hate so much!). DH spent some money on gas and I also got him to get us some toilet paper.

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We have decided to go to the Whitsundays for our holiday this year. We are going in 3 months time. We currently have just less than 2 grand (saved last year) in the Holiday Fund. I will most likely start putting more money in it again in 2 months time. My budget for this trip will be around $2-$2.2K. The flight are reasonably cheap but the accommodations are not.


Tidbits from yesterday

June 10th, 2009 at 01:56 am

1. I managed to fixed the holes and cracks, I'm just waiting for it to dry and it will need sanding down. Got rid of all the wallpaper and have done some sanding on some areas.

Got some very interest mails yesterday:
2. One was from my stockbroker who wants me to sell my shares of this particular stock...hmmm I don't think so.

3. Another one was from our water company, they are giving us $25 credit because 2 months ago our street got flooded because of burst pipe down the road and they couldn't fix it within 4hours. We didn't even know that they have such rule. It was a nice suprise.

4. The last mail was for DH's credit card bill, with it was an application form for an additional card holder. They will give you $20 if you sign up (no annual fee for this card). I've been thinking about getting one. I've never had a credit card in my name (it's all in DH's name), nor do I really want one. But there has been times when I wish I had one in my name. Last month for example when our hot water broke, paying for the repair was a pain. I had to ring DH at work, who had to ring their office to pay for it and then had to ring me back to comfirm the payment to the repair guy. But other than that I really don't want one. DH thinks that we should sign up just to get the $20 and then close it off. Would you do it?

Today:
- I need to do a load of washing.
- Do more sanding and make sure everything is smooth for painting.
- Vaccuming

Monday was NSD

June 9th, 2009 at 02:59 am

Again we got up relatively late yesterday. We did more cleaning in the garden, it is all done now. The rest of the day was spent:
- mopping the floors
- ironing while watching an Australian Football League (AFL) game
- and cooking.

It was a very relaxing day and we didn't spent a cent.

Today I am looking at getting one of the spare bedroom ready for painting. I need
- to fill up couple of holes
- fix the cracks
- stip off the wall paper
- washing and sanding the walls

hmmm... I got a lot to do, I better go get started.

Weekend Update

June 8th, 2009 at 02:09 am

After living it up Friday night and Saturday, Sunday was much more low key. We got up really late (after 10am, we had late night watching cricket). DH made pancakes and cafe latte for breakfast. Afterwards we went grocery shopping, hardly spent any money (just over $20), we didn't need to get any meat only fruits and vegies.

Our afternoon spent cleaning the garden, in particular trimming the trees. Our yearly green pick up is coming up next week. This is the time were you can put out as much green items (branches, grass clippings, big items that can't fit into our normal rubbish bin, etc).

After that we did a lot of cooking. I made roast capsicum and tomato soup, while DH made bread in the breadmaker. I also made chickpeas and vegies curry, while DH cooked some steam rice. I'm trying to make more vegetable dishes this winter.


Soup and Bread

Our night was then spent sipping red wine while watching CSI and tinkering with the computer. DH was looking at margin loans, he is seriously looking at getting it. We've been talking about this for a while now, and now might be the best time when the rate is very low and the prices are low. No final decision is made yet, we will see.

I was paying some bills online and I also did some stock research on my computer, I'm looking to get in but I don't think there will be an entry this week. I also check my current stocks and they are all doing well SO FAR (I try not to count my eggs...you know).





Living it up this weekend...

June 6th, 2009 at 12:58 pm

and its great.

Last night (Friday night), DH took me out to a nice Greek restaurant. Their antipasto and dips were so good. DH paid for it out of his own money (the money I gave him as a bonus for hardly spending his allowance last year - can you believe he still hasn't spent much). This was of course already been deducted as an expense last year. The man just doesn't know how to spend his money.

Today we got up late and decided to go for a day trip to the Yarra Valley wineries, it's about an hour away from our place. There are probably about 100 wineries in the area. First winery we went to was Domaine Chandon winery. Their facility is really nice, people can actually see where they make the wines.


Biggest cork I've ever seen.






We had lunch at a nice bakery (it is suppose to be Australia's best bakery - I'm not really sure about this claim, nice but not great). It was however a lot cheaper then having lunch at a winery restaurant. Overall we only spent $20, light lunches at the winery would have costs at least $17.00 per dish.

After lunch we went to another winery called De Bortoli. This one is pretty famous here is Australia, especially for their cheap wines. In this winery, they also had some nice cheeses. We got an $8 worth of cheese platter and crackers, and took it with us when we went wine tasting.


This place almost got distroyed in the recent summer bushfire. This is bad photo but if you look closely, those brown trees in the background actually got burnt in the fire.

Going home we took the back road and in some area one side of the road got burnt and the other side was lush green.

Also when we were driving home we drove through a small place called Kangaroo Grounds, I was jokingly complaining to DH about how it is called Kangaroo grounds and all I see are cows. About 2 mins later while driving through a winding road, we could see 2 kangaroos hopping towards the road. Knowing that they were most likely going to cross the road DH slowed right down. The car coming from the opposite direction from us hardly slowed down at all and almost hit the second kangaroo. We don't think he saw the second one at all, probably just assumed there was only one. Needless to say, we almost had kangaroo steak for dinner (just kidding!).

We had a great day and hardly spent any money. Apart from spending money on lunch and the cheese platter, the only other thing we got was a bottle of wine. We still got about 2 dozens at home so we didn't want to get too many, we are running out of place to put them.

Well that's my weekend so far, Monday is our Queen's birthday holiday...so it's a long weekend!

DH is finally coming home tonight

June 4th, 2009 at 06:01 am

He has been away for work since Monday, so he has been away for 3 nights. This is the first time ever since we got married that we been apart. I'm really not used to it, and it's been so quiet at home alone.

Financially, while he has been away I haven't spent a cent, not even for bills. DH will get (reimburse) $50 a night for food spending, knowing him he probably hardly spent any. I won't know exactly until he gets home but I suspect he will come out ahead.

May 2009: EF fully funded for the year

June 1st, 2009 at 07:47 am

May was expensive month but thanks to tax refund we managed to fully fund the EF for the year (so Goal #3 is Done - few months ahead of schedule!). We now have have 6 months EF worth of living expenses (not including mortgage payment). I think this is enough EF for us for now, we will re-evaluate it again next year.

We have also started funding the Car Fund (Goal #4), I am really really really hoping to fully fund it in June. I think if we do well this month, that is be very good with our spending, we should be able to do it. Plus I should be getting the $900 stimulus payment, which should be enough to achieve goal #4. Things that we could cut down are: groceries, entertainment, allowances, no buying clothes and other useless stuff. Oh well, here's to hoping.

Eventhough we spend a lot in May we still had 10 NSDs. $19K challenge is still doing well, the only thing that I'm trying to pull back is the grocery spending. But I guess that's what the miscellanous buffer is for


BTW, I kind of noticed that not many people are blogging these days (esp some of the regulars). Is it because it's now summer in the US and people are out and about more and don't have much time for blogging? Or is it because we are in the middle of the year and people have kind of lost focus on their goals (I hope not)?

I for one got too busy in April to blog (was away and had people over) and I only really average about 2/3 blog entries a week, I live a pretty boring life.

Well I do hope that everyone are still working towards their goals for this year. Good luck to you all.