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$21K Challenge - 2012

January 2nd, 2013 at 06:21 am

This was our 2012 spending (living spending):




Month by month breakdown:




UNDER by $277.60!
Grocery was pretty much spot on.
Utilities were awesome. I have adjusted it for 2013.
Fuel and Fare as predicted was over by a lot. I didn’t account for the potential increase in public transport tickets.
Health Insurance went up a lot more than I budgeted for. It’s getting very expensive.
Entertainment was good until this last 3 week, we went crazy going out. It’s a bit hard to say no to people you haven’t seen for months.
Personal/Medical, I always find hard to budget for this. I will try to get it right again next year.
Clothing is over because of this month’s spending. Don’t regret it though because it should save us a bit in the future.

So that was 2012. For 2013 (coming next entry), I’m hoping it will be as good as or better than 2012.

DECEMBER 2013

January 2nd, 2013 at 12:46 am

Grocery - $280.24 (under $80.24)
Utilities - $166.5 (under $133.50)
Rates - $141.54 (under $0.46)
Home Phone - $21.11 (under $48.89)
Mobile - $10.00 (under $10.00)
Internet - $55.00 (even)
Fuel & Fare - $177.72 (under $22.28)
Car Registration - $696.50 (even)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$359.7 (over $214.70)*wow this is what happens when I don’t keep an eye on our budget. We have been going out so much in the last 3 weeks.
Gifts -$47.60 (under $32.40)
Personal/Medical - $48.45 (under $11.55)
DH Allowance -$100.00 (even)
DW Allowance - $75.00 (even)
Miscellaneous - $21.64 (under $8.36)
*Clothing - $260.91 (over $260.91) Did not budget for this at all this month, but we ended up buying DH 3 suits and 3 business shirts.

TOTAL = $2,656.12 (over $287.62)


The good news is that even though we have gone over by a lot this month we are still under for the year. I will post our whole 2012 spending next.


We had 7 NSD for this month.
Put another $1000 into the holiday fund.
Went a bit over in the chirstmas fund by $82 so I put in extra in that.

Happy New Year!

December 31st, 2012 at 11:09 pm

We celebrated our NYE last night by having a picnic dinner with some friends around 6:30pm and then when it got darker around 9pm we came all came to my place to watch a movie and celebrate the new year.

I've copied and paste my side bar here because I will be deleting it later and putting my 2013 goals tonight. Don't have time right now we are about to go for a run and will be having lunch at my mum's. I tried to log on here earlier after everyone left but it would not let me in.

======================
2012 GOALS: Achieved all goals and exceeded some of them Smile

Goal 1: Get mortgage down to $120K (Bal. Dec 2011 = $149K)
Action Plan: Must put in $2,500 per month.
TTD: $29,309.15 (Sep 16)
Mortgage Bal: $119,690.85
DONE!!!!!

Goal 2: Put $5000 into the Holiday Fund.
Action Plan: Will put $500 until Oct.
TTD: $5,000 (Oct 31) DONE!!!

Goal 3: Save $2000 into the Xmas/Anniversary Fund.
Action Plan: To be fully funded by Dec.
TTD: $2,000 (Nov 30) DONE!!!

Goal 4: Add $7000 into the Household Fund for new windows, etc.
Action Plan: To be fully funded by Dec.
TTD: $7,000 (Nov 9) DONE!!!

Goal 5: Add $3000 into the EF - this will get us to a very tight 6 months living expenses.
Action Plan: Put any extra money towards this goal.
DONE (31 Mar)

DECEMBER 2012 SPENDING PLAN

December 3rd, 2012 at 12:20 am

Last one for 2012!

Grocery - $200.00
Utilities - $250.00
Rates - $142.00
Home Phone - $70.00
Mobile - $30.00
Internet - $55.00
Fuel & Fare - $200.00
Car Registration - $696.50 (This is annual fee, got the bill a week ago and it is due on the 15th of Dec. At the start of the year I budgeted $660 for this unfortunately it has gone up a lot more)
Health Insurance -$250.00
Entertainment -$145.00
Gifts -$80.00
Personal/Medical - $60.00
DH Allowance -$100.00
DW Allowance - $75.00
Miscellaneous - $30.00

TOTAL = $2,368.50

NOVEMBER 2012

November 30th, 2012 at 12:13 am

Today is our last day of the month, the property rate will be taken out of the account today. We are done with this month.

Grocery - $272.68 (over $52.68) *We were way under last month on this so we were low on some item this month.*
Utilities - $102.45 (under $97.55)
Rates - $142.00 (under $0.46)
Home Phone - $14.95 (under $55.05)
Mobile - $70.00 (over $20.00)
Internet - $55.00 (even)
Fuel & Fare - $199.84 (under $0.16)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$116.70 (over $6.70)
Gifts -$0.00 ($50.00)
Personal/Medical - $85.65 (over $25.65)
DH Allowance -$100.00 (even)
DW Allowance - $75.00 (even)
Miscellaneous - $65.55 (over $35.55)

TOTAL = $1,533.57 (under $63.43)

Had 9 NSDs – so $90 into my Sunny day saving fund.
Household fund and Xmas Fund is now fully funded.
Have also put in another $1,650 in to the Holiday Fund Smile .


Thinking about 2013

November 28th, 2012 at 03:44 am

I have been looking at our budget/spending (the 21K challenge) this year and also our potential spending plan for next year. By the end of this month we will have just under $3000 left for the month of December but according to the budget we could live off on $2,400-$2,500, so in the end of this year we will be under budget by around $500-600.

Next year we will most likely try to do the $21K challenge for the year again. The number will change in some categories. I know that utilities, health insurance and transportation costs will be higher than this year.

Also been making plans for a holiday that we will be taking in February next year. We have already booked the flights, my mum is going with us and we are paying for her too. We are budgeting $10K for this trip, by the end of the year we should have 75-80% already of it save so another ~$2K to go for next years budget.

I'm anticipating lower income next year but our goals and budget will be very similar to this year. Wash-rinse-repeat...

NOVEMBER 2012 Spending Plan

November 8th, 2012 at 06:12 am

Grocery - $220.00
Utilities - $200.00
Rates - $142.00
Home Phone - $70.00
Mobile - $50
Internet - $55.00
Fuel & Fare - $200.00
Health Insurance -$250.00
Entertainment -$110.00
Gifts -$50.00
Personal/Medical - $60.00
DH Allowance -$100.00
DW Allowance - $60.00
Miscellaneous - $30.00

TOTAL = $1,597.00

OCTOBER 2012

November 5th, 2012 at 05:12 am

Grocery - $95.48 (under $114.52)
Utilities - $189.36 (over $9.36)
Rates - $142.00 (under $0.46)
Home Phone - $14.95 (under $10.05)
Mobile - $15.00 (under $15.00)
Internet - $49.95 (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $222.61 (over $22.61)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$249.21 (over $59.45)
Gifts -$32.00 (under $68.00)
Personal/Medical - $29.95 (under $70.05)
DH Allowance -$100.00 (even)
DW Allowance - $75.00 (even)
Miscellaneous - $3.69 (under $26.31)

TOTAL = $1,448.19 (under $213.81)

Had 8 NSDs.
Put in more money into the mortgage.
Holiday Fund goal is now done.
Have also put a bit into the Household Fund.
We went away twice last month, at the start of the month and at the end.

OCTOBER 2012 Spending Plan

October 2nd, 2012 at 09:26 am

Grocery - $210.00
Utilities - $180.00
Rates - $142.00
Home Phone - $25.00
Mobile - $20.00
Internet - $50.00
Fuel & Fare - $200.00
Health Insurance -$250.00
Entertainment -$170.00
Gifts -$100.00
Personal/Medical - $100.00
DH Allowance -$100.00
DW Allowance - $75.00
Miscellaneous - $30.00

TOTAL = $1,662.00

SEPTEMBER 2012

October 1st, 2012 at 05:52 am

Grocery - $309.70 (over $99.70) *Hmmm I’m not happy with this one.
Utilities - $360.64 (over $210.64) *I forgot the water bill, thought it will be due next month.
Rates - $141.54 (under $3.46)
Home Phone - $14.95 (under $10.05)
Mobile - $10.00 (under $10.00)
Internet - $49.95 (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $193.24 (under $6.76)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$120.45 (over $10.45)
Gifts -$55.08 (over $5.08)
Personal/Medical - $186.87 (over $86.87) *we stocked up on some vitamins and meds there was a nice sale. This purchase should last for months, well into next year.
DH Allowance -$100.00 (even)
DW Allowance - $60.00 (even)
Miscellaneous - $32.95 (over $2.95)

TOTAL = $1,884.58 (OVER $384.58)


---------

Also got to put some money into various funds:
Holiday fund - $500
Household fund - $500
Xmas/Anniversary Fund - $652
(Anniversary weekend away - $100)
(Exercise Challenge - $52)
(Xmas Saving to be sent to family - $500)

Had 10 NSD for the month of September, so another $100 in my Sunny Day Saving

Also I will be sending $25 donation to the Cerebral Palsy Foundation for the Steptember challenge.

Forgot to budget

September 4th, 2012 at 08:14 am

When I was doing our September budget the other day I had a feeling that I was forgetting something. When I got home from lunch today there it was in the mail this quarter’s water bill, I totally forgot to put it in the budget this month. Oops… it is due September 21. It’s a big one too. Normally, our water bill is around $150-$160 per quarter but this one includes an annual waterways & drainage charge and annual parks charge worth about $87 (total bill $240.10). I think I might have miscounted the months and thought that it’s due next month. Oh well, over the budget already and it is only the start of the month.

Lunch was great. We had dumplings and honey chicken with rice. Then afterwards we went to a Japanese bakery for some sweet goodies and got a cup of coffee to share. All up it cost just over $25. DH was feeling rich and offered to take this out of his allowance money. He is feeling rich today because he won $51 yesterday. He got the jackpot in the footy tipping at work, it could have been more but he had to share it with another person. They both picked all the winning teams on the weekend (9/9), lucky too because that was the last week for the season. He paid $20 at the start of the season, so actual winning is really only $31.

September 2012 Spending Plan

September 2nd, 2012 at 05:54 am

Grocery - $210
Utilities - $150
Rates - $145.00 *
Home Phone - $25.00
Mobile - $20.00
Internet - $50.00
Fuel & Fare - $200.00
Health Insurance -$250.00
Entertainment -$110.00
Gifts -$50.00
Personal/Medical - $100.00
DH Allowance -$100.00
DW Allowance - $60.00
Miscellaneous - $30.00

TOTAL = $1,500.00

*Property Rate bill just came last week. We normally pay this quarterly (and this bill should have been due 1st of Oct) but now they have allowed a monthly direct debit payment for 10 months starting from Sept to Jun. So the yearly amount will be divided by ten, I know confusing. DH is currently filling out the form for the monthly direct debit payment this weekend.

August 2012

August 31st, 2012 at 02:43 am

This is a bit early it is only in the morning of the 31st of August here but I can’t wait anymore.

Grocery - $389 (over $149.78)*
Home Phone - $14.95 (under $10.05)
Mobile - $20 (under $20.00)
Internet - $49.95 (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $141.66 (under $58.34)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$185.60 (under $14.40)
Gifts -$120.47 (under $29.53)
Personal/Medical - $52.05 (over $22.05)
Clothing - $291.60 (over $251.60)*
DH Allowance -$100 (even)
DW Allowance - $60 (even)
Miscellaneous - $17.75 (under $12.25)

TOTAL = $1,673.02 (over $278.02)

*These are the culprits of the over spending this month. The grocery expense includes the $60 Costco membership fee. And the main over spending was in the clothing category. Basically we have used up our entire clothing budget for the year now. Overall, it is not too bad it just mean we can’t go clothing shopping anymore until next year.

Today should be a NSD, that makes it 10 for the month. So another $100 into my Sunny Day Fund.

I've added $500 into the Holiday Fund and $1400 into the Household Fund. Also saved in $200 for anniversary in October.

Bored

August 29th, 2012 at 03:27 am

I'm bored right now, just waiting for this month to end so I can finalise August numbers. Had NSDs on Monday and Tuesday.

I'm starting to plan for our annivesary, which is in October. We will probably stay overnight somewhere. I think we could do it for $300 for everything. We both don't want to do anything big this year, we just want to go somewhere in our state that we haven't been to and just relax for the weekend. I will be saving $200 for it this month and another $100 next month.

I don't think we really need $2000 for christmas/anniversary (Goal #3) this year I think we can get away with $1000-$1200. We would rather save it for our overseas holiday next year.



Clothes shopping

August 13th, 2012 at 09:34 am

Blow the budget yesterday…Yikes! In the end we spent almost $300 on clothes. We went out yesterday to see if we could find the empanada maker, no luck. I actually talked to my mum this morning and she said she will get her friend to get her one overseas instead. She won’t be able to get it until November though.

Anyway back to the crazy clothes shopping, we decide since we were going to be out near the factory outlets centre that we would stop by and see if we could find DH new jeans. Couple of his jeans have now got holes, I’ve fixed the holes but he won’t be able to wear them out, just at home jeans now. He only got 3 left, one is a tiny bit tight and the other one is fading fast. He wears jeans on Monday and Friday to work (their casual day) so he does wear them a lot and on the weekends too. I think it was two months ago we went shopping for one but could not find one we liked at reasonable price so went away with nothing then. For some reason the sales this time around was so much better, so we end up going a bit crazy. Basically we have now used up our entire clothing budget for the year.

We got:
From Adidas 3 pairs of running socks for DH and 1 pair knee high socks for me, I’ve always wanted one. They were only $5 a pair. I like this brand because I know from past purchase they last at least 10 years whereas the cheaper one only last a couple. Since the cheaper ones would have cost around this price it was definitely good value for money. We also got a cap each.

I also found a shoe shop that sale mainly sport shoes like hiking, climbing, etc. I finally found a really good hiking shoes, got it for only $35, it was initially worth $100+ was reduced to $70 and then they had 50% off that price.

Was not planning to get one now but I found a dress that I thought was nice. I hate shopping for dresses; it is not something that I would look for unless I really have to. I saw it on the mannequin and decided to try it on, it fit really well so I got it. A friend of mine is getting married early next year so I already got a dress for it. I got it for $49, it actually said $59 on it but the lady gave it to me for $49 I don’t know why. In the same store I also found a coat that will go well with the dress for only $39. Both of these items would have cost well over $100 each retail.

Then we finally got around to looking at jeans, we went to Levi Strauss store, luckily they were having 30% off on everything. DH got one for just over $60 and I found one for myself too. My one was definitely not necessary but I got it for a nice price for $34.

We also stopped at Gap and found another jean for DH for only $19, not as nice as the Levi’s but for $19 it’s good enough. And I also found him a shirt for also $19.

So yeah it was a long day shopping. No more clothing shopping for us until next year.

August 2012 Spending Plan

August 3rd, 2012 at 09:22 am

Grocery - $240
Home Phone - $25
Mobile - $20
Internet - $50
Fuel & Fare - $200
Health Insurance -$250
Entertainment -$200
Gifts -$150.00
Personal/Medical - $30
Clothing - $40
DH Allowance -$100
DW Allowance - $60
Miscellaneous - $30

TOTAL = $1,395

July 2012 Spending

August 2nd, 2012 at 12:23 pm

Grocery - $234.84 (over $4.84)
Utilities - $178.49 (under $1.55)
Home Phone - $21.57 (under $3.43)
Mobile - $20 (under $20.00)
Internet - $49.95 (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $143.76 (under $26.24)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$222.80 (over $52.80)
Gifts -$50.00 (even)
Personal/Medical - $44.80 (under $15.20)
Clothing - $15.00 (under $25.00)
DH Allowance -$100 (even)
DW Allowance - $75 (even)
Miscellaneous - $1.98 (under $28.02)

TOTAL = $1,387.40 (under $62.60)

We’ve had 3 months in a row under budget. The last two months have been a pretty low spend month which is great. And this month could be the lowest for the year since we won’t have any utilities bill due, although as usual the entertainment will be a lot since it is my mum’s birthday later this month. I will post the Aug budget later.

We had 12 NSDs in July so that will be $120 to my Sunny Day Savings.

$1,400 into the Holiday Fund

$1,490 into the Household Fund

The ugly bit was the Exercise/Xmas fund I only put in $15 for the whole month. We were both sick for almost 2 weeks so no energy to exercise.

July 2012 Budget

July 3rd, 2012 at 04:19 am

Grocery - $230
Utilities - $180
Home Phone - $25
Mobile - $20
Internet - $50
Fuel & Fare - $170
Health Insurance -$250
Entertainment -$170
Gifts -$50
Personal/Medical - $50
Clothing - $40
DH Allowance -$100
DW Allowance - $75
Miscellaneous - $30

TOTAL = $1,460

June 2012

July 2nd, 2012 at 02:02 pm


Grocery - $213.76 (under $6.24)
Utilities - $158.45 (under $21.55)
Home Phone - $14.95 (under $10.05)
Mobile - $20 (under $20.00)
Internet - $49.95 (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $266.12 (over $46.12)*
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$165.50 (over $15.50)
Gifts -$5.00 (under $45.00)
Personal/Medical - $31.86 (under $28.14)
Clothing - $15.00 (under $25.00)
DH Allowance -$100 (even)
DW Allowance - $60 (even)
Miscellaneous - $31.65 (under $3.35)

TOTAL = $1,361.45 (under $98.55)

*DH got a monthly train pass in the middle of the month; he wanted to see if it was better deal, not really. I think during winter it is better for him to get the monthly pass but when the weather gets warmer he can go to work early and get free pass for early bird. I’ve lowered this month’s budget for transport.

Electricity and Gas Bill

June 27th, 2012 at 07:10 am

I just got both of them and both are due on the 10th of July.

Gas = $103.88 for 2 months
Electricity = $74.61 for 3 months

First time we owe the electric company some money this year. We are in the middle of winter so we used more energy than we produced from our solar panels. But because we got a cheque from them for $86.97 during summer we are still ahead. Also our gas bill is almost 50% less compare to that of last winter’s bill. We use the electric heater more than the gas heater now. I think we are saving roughly $200-$230 per quarter. So I think another year and we should be able to break-even from the cost of the solar panels.

JUNE Budget 2012

June 1st, 2012 at 10:23 am

Here’s what we are aiming for this month.

Grocery - $220
Utilities - $180
Home Phone - $25
Mobile - $20
Internet - $50
Fuel & Fare - $220
Health Insurance -$250
Entertainment -$150
Gifts -$50
Personal/Medical - $60
Clothing - $40
DH Allowance -$100
DW Allowance - $60
Miscellaneous - $35

TOTAL = $1,460

May 2012

May 31st, 2012 at 10:25 am

We just made it under budget.

May 2012:
Grocery - $250 --- (over $12.69)
Utilities - $100 --- (under $8.05)
Rates - $340 --- (under $3.00)
Home Phone - $25 --- (under $8.00)
Mobile - $20 --- (under $5.00)
Internet - $50 --- (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $200 --- (under $2.80)
Health Insurance -$250 --- (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$200 --- (under $15.70)
Gifts -$200 --- (over $11.20)
Personal/Medical - $50 --- (over $39.38)
Clothing - $30 --- (under $18.52)
DH Allowance -$100 --- ($0)
DW Allowance - $60 --- ($0)
Miscellaneous - $25 --- (under $11.06)

TOTAL = $1,900 --- (under $9.70)

We had 10 NSDs so that’s $100 into the Sunny day savings.

May Budget

May 2nd, 2012 at 01:51 am

I forgot to mention yesterday that we had 10 NSDs in April. That’s $100 towards my Sunny Day Saving.

May Budget:
Grocery - $250
Utilities - $100
Rates - $340*
Home Phone - $25
Mobile - $20
Internet - $50
Fuel & Fare - $200
Health Insurance -$250
Entertainment -$200^
Gifts -$200**
Personal/Medical - $50
Clothing - $30
DH Allowance -$100
DW Allowance - $60
Miscellanous - $25

TOTAL = $1,900

*Our quarterly property rate should be due later this month.
**Will need to order that wedding gift this weekend.
^I’m not really sure how much to budget for entertainment this month. We already got two dinners out plan, so I’ve decided to budget more just in case something else will come up later in the month.

April 2012

May 1st, 2012 at 09:14 am


Grocery - $230.00 ---(over $1.07)
Utilities - $100.00 --- (under $100)
Home Phone - $20.00 --- (under $3.77)
Mobile Phone - $40.00 --- (under $10.00)
Internet - $50.00 --- (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $180.00 --- (over $48.15)*
Health Insurance - $250.00 --- (under $0.79)
Entertainment - $200.00 --- (over $19.19)
Gifts - $150.00 --- (over $63.50)**
Per/Med - $200.00 --- (under $30.19)
DH Allowance - $100.00 --- ($0)
My Allowance - $75.00 --- ($0)
Misc Items - $25.00 --- (over $11.65)

TOTAL = $1,670.00 --- (OVER $117.38)

Overall we went over by $117.38.
*Will have to be more realistic with my budget in our monthly transportation cost.
**Both some mother’s day gifts that I wasn’t planning to get until next month.

UPDATE...it's about time.

April 3rd, 2012 at 06:34 am

Well it's been over a month since I updated my blog. It is about time I update my side bar too.

Firstly, last month we went over our budget by over $68.45 - went over because of entertainment and transport costs. Feb was a lot better we were under by $243.16.

Now for our April budget.

Grocery - $230.00
Utilities - $100.00
Home Phone - $20.00
Mobile Phone - $40.00
Internet - $50.00
Fuel & Fare - $180.00
Health Insurance - $250.00 **
Entertainment - $200.00
Gifts - $150.00
Per/Med - $200.00
DH Allowance - $100.00
My Allowance - $75.00
Misc Items - $25.00

TOTAL = $1,670.00

**Health Insurance went up ~$18 p/m - crazy!

There was two payday in March, so we managed to put in more into the mortgage, it is now under $140K. Also topped up the Emergency Fund to $10K, Goal #5 is now done. I decided to put more money into here because there is some changes that is coming up in DH work and just in case we need it. The $10K is in various saving accounts that are easily accessible. Also managed to put a small amout of money to the household fund and holiday fund, this always makes me happy.

And before I foget to update this again, we put in $89 into the exercise challenge/xmas fund.

NSD: Feb = 10 and Mar = 8.
$180 towards my sunny day savings.

Week Review

February 12th, 2012 at 01:44 am

Spent a bit of money on grocery this week, we went to Costco and spend $44. Our Costco membership is actually expiring the end of this month, I thought it was suppose to end in Dec, anyway we probably won't be renewing the membership for a while. We also went to ALdi and at fruit shop. We only got $37 left in the grocery budget this month, i don't know if we can make it but will try, we shouldn't need to get anymore meat this month. Our Transport budget for the month is extremely low now only got $20 left in it, but we just filled up last night so will try. But I think my budget in this category is a bit low I for got to accout for the 10% increase in DH's train tickets and right now gas has increase a lot, apparently it's due to the cold snap that is happening in Europe.

We aslo went out for dinner last night and got a takeaway fish and chip earlier in the week.

I also spent a bit on personal/beauty products.

Overall we spent just over $255 for the week. Today should be a NSD, we are planning to stay home and watch a cricket game. We should have 3 NSD this week.

Our financial life is so simple these days that there is not much to report about. This morning I just paid the AMEX, I'm pretty sure that was our record low bill, it was for only $69.99. And next month's AMEX bill should also be pretty low. I know so far I've anly spent over $5 for an Amazon kindle book, I'm not sure if DH have used it much this month either.

The other CC bill will be average around $1,000 next month, I know the home insurance that we paid last month will in that bill and that was over $500.

February 2012 budget

February 5th, 2012 at 12:44 am

I am a bit slow with this but here's our Feb budget:

Grocery - $180.00
Utilities - $100.00
Rates - $340
Home Phone - $25.00
Mobile Phone - $30.00
Internet - $45.00
Fuel & Fare - $160.00
Health Insurance - $231.00
Entertainment - $120.00
Gifts - $80.00
Per/Med - $150.00
DH Allowance - $100.00
My Allowance - $60.00
Misc Items - $20.00

TOTAL = $1,691.00

We will try our best to stick to this budget.

--------------------------
We went to the market yesterday spent less than $50 on groceries so far this month.

Jan Update

January 31st, 2012 at 10:27 am

I haven't done much blogging because there hasn't been much happening here financially.


Grocery - $150.00 (under $4.35)
Utilities - $90.00 (under $12.67)
Home Phone - $25.00 (under 0.61)
Mobiles - $30.00 (under $15)
Internet - $45.00 (under 0.10)
Fuel & Fare - $170.00 (over $3.54)
Car Insurance - $477.95 (-)
Home & Content - $566.55 (-)
Health Insurance - $230.00 (over 0.69)
Entertainment - $80.00 (under $65.10)
Gifts - $40.00 (under $1.00)
Per/Med - $30.00 (over $18.90)
DH Allowance - $100.00 (-)
My Allowance - $75.00 (-)
Misc Items - $20.00 (over $7.80)

TOTAL = $2,129.50 (budget)
TOTAL = $2,061.60 (actual) (under $67.90)


We did really well with our living expenses budget this month. Hoping next month will be the same. But our overall expenses this month is $646.10 over than the income received. This Friday is payday so we should be able to pay it back from that.

Annual Bills

January 15th, 2012 at 03:43 am

Just paid both the car insurance and home and content insurance for the year. One is due today and the other is due tomorrow.

I'm glad these are out of the way for another year but because of it we are already way behind in our budget in terms of time versus spending for the year. Will try to reel it back in the next few months.

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I only managed to deposit $1 into the exercise challenge, I didn't get to do the exercise bike. I got too busy with helping DH to make tacos for dinner. I don't know why but after dinner I had a shower, totally forgot that I was meant to get on the bike. I didn't wanted to get all sweaty after that. DH haven't done any exercises in the last few days, so the contribution to the challenge have slowed down a bit.

January 2012

January 5th, 2012 at 05:11 am

I used to post my monthly budget here couple of years or so ago and I think it helped me a lot staying on course.

I will have a very tight budget this month. i find that if I start the year tight it does a lot for achieving the budget for the rest of the year. I find it very hard to pull back once we have already over spend. Some thing always comes up.

This month the key to achieving our $21K challenge/ spending plan for the year. This is the month our car and home and content insurance is due, so if we can keep this month (and maybe the next couple of months)as low as possible then we can breath a bit easier for the rest of the year. A little bit of sacrifice now for a better year.

This is what our budget for this month:

Grocery - $150.00
Utilities - $90.00
Home Phone - $25.00
Mobiles - $30.00
Internet - $45.00
Fuel & Fare - $170.00
Car Insurance - $477.95*
Home & Content - $566.55*
Health Insurance - $230.00
Entertainment - $80.00
Gifts - $40.00
Per/Med - $30.00
DH Allowance - $100.00
My Allowance - $75.00
Misc Items - $20.00

TOTAL = $2,129.50

(* Actual Amount Due - Annual bill)

Grocery and Entertainment are extra tight this month. So does income so it needs to be done.

In saying that we do have some fun things that we have already organise this month. We will be going to a cricket match this weekend. It will not cost us much, the tickets was what I gave DH for christmas. Will take some snacks with us so we won't be tempted to spend on those. Also we might use another 1 of our restaurant voucher to go out for dinner before the game or we might just eat at home first before going and use the restaurant voucher some other time. We still got 3 vouchers left and they are due in March, so we will need to use them up soon. One a month I reckon.