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Archive for July, 2009

Some money into the Holiday Fund

July 31st, 2009 at 03:30 pm

I decided to put everything extra into the Holiday Fund, which was $1260. There should be enough money in it now for our upcoming holiday.

Anything extra in the next 3 months will all go towards the Household Fund, that is quite deflated at the moment and there are a lot of work we need done this summer.

July recap:
* Had 10 NSD.
* Spent a bit too much on junk/miscellanous stuff.
* Utilities (Gas & Electricity) were through the roof.
* Everything else were not too bad - just a typical month.

- Just updated my sidebar -

Had 2 NSD in a row..

July 30th, 2009 at 10:27 am

We needed it. This weekend day trip will be pricey. But we really need to get away and try to enjoy ourselves. DH has been working so hard lately and really need to enjoy life a bit.

Mortgage vs Shares - an analysis a year later

July 29th, 2009 at 05:29 am

A year ago, when the share market was sliding down and our mortgage interest rate was being reduce month after month, DH and I decide to stop putting extra money into the mortgage and start buying individual shares instead. So, 12 months ago I opened a trading account with a low cost online brokerage fee. It's under my name for tax purposes.

Well it has been a year and I thought I should analyse the result so far. Our mortgage interest rate at the moment is at around 5.5% (for some reason I can't find the latest statement, I don't know where DH put it - found it and its actually 5.04%). Overall, I end up buying 5 different stocks, some of which I average in and some was bought because the company did capital raising scheme and some was also increase because of DRP. The last shares I bought was back in early May. I just check the account and it is currently up 27%, not including about ~$100 cash (some of our stocks don't do DRP) received in dividends.

So overall, it was a pretty good decision in our part to divert cash to equity instead of paying extra to the mortgage. The year or so before that when our mortgage was almost 9% (and when the share market was too expensive for us), we put as much money into it. And we will probably start doing that again when the interest rate start going up again, there's been some talk of interest rate going up in the media already.

NB: We are very aware that this "decision" could have gone the opposite way too. And who knows what the market will do tomorrow or next month.

*Here in Australia the situation is a bit different to that in the US.*

Expensive Weekend

July 27th, 2009 at 02:44 am

We spent a bit of money this weekend. We bought some clothes and eat out a lot. The eating out was bad, we really didn't need to do that much eating out... regrets, regrets.

Early Saturday morning I got woken up by the beeping of our security alarm. It needed a new battery, that cost us $40. While out getting the new battery we also got some noodles for dinner. We didn't feel like cooking at all this weekend. The only thing I cooked this weekend was the carrot cake. It was such a naughty weekend. I'm sure having regrets right now. Oh well live and learn.

The only good news was I managed to only spend $32 on grocery this week.




3 NSD

July 24th, 2009 at 04:13 am

We've had 3 NSD in the row, I didn't even realised it until today. Today should be a spend day though. I asked DH to get some stuff for me today and I'm pretty sure he will need to fill up the car again today. Tomorrow we will need to go to the market to get some meat and fresh produce. I also want to go shopping for some stuff for our get away.

Christmas in July

July 22nd, 2009 at 03:47 am

It is almost the end of July and it is time to start thinking about Christmas. Yes...that's right! I said Christmas. It is only just around the corner, so I am starting to think about it now. Luckily we have the funds set a side for it and all have to do now is make a list of what to get people and what to make. And also whether we will be spending it at home or somewhere else.



Planning a get away

July 21st, 2009 at 03:53 am

DH earned some extra money this month (couple hundred dollars on overtime) and we are thinking of spending it on a day trip.

The trip will probably cost a bit more than couple hundred dollars so we might have to take some out from our allowances or holiday fund.

There is nothing really to update here. I'm still trying to save as much from our grocery budget. It is slowly getting better but I think we might to have a challenge next month to only spend $150-$180 on grocery. It will require a lot of planning but I think it can be done. It would mean doing menu planning again.

Over $100 extra a month

July 16th, 2009 at 02:30 am

DH just got paid and he is getting just over $100 a month extra due to his pay rise and also the recent tax cuts. Our financial plan will continue as it is, no major changes at all.

Expenses this month has been really good so far, most bills has been paid for. So hopefully no suprises will come up.

Pay rise

July 10th, 2009 at 09:34 am

Just got info that DH will be getting a pay rise this month. Don't know exactly how much it will but we should find out sometime next month. It won't be much, probably only around $80 per month after tax and super. Better than nothing I guess, considering this wasn't on the cards for this year at all. Few months ago they were told that there won't be a pay rise this year. So this was a suprise. A nice little suprise.

June Update

July 7th, 2009 at 06:31 am

This is a bit late, was going to update my sidebar last week but had some computer problem.

Well, we did goal #4 last month and even had $150 extra, which I put in the holiday fund. I want to put at least another $1,000 in the holiday fund before our holiday in few months time.

I don't think I will bother putting in any money into next year's christmas fund until Dec. Once I put in $1K into the holiday fund I will put in as much more into the Household fund. I want to do more house repair this year rather than waiting for next year.

Our $19K challenge is still doing well but the grocery and entertainment budget is still looking very bad. Overall, we are ahead of our challenge. So we are halfway there and so far so good.