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.

Just paid the property rate for this quarter, $337.
That's it for the month, I can now finalise May. And the will come up with the June budget. Next month should less expensive than this month.

NSD today...yeah!

DH went to see the doctor tonight he got a blood test for his kidney he will have to go back next week for the result. He also got his eye looked at, he will need to go the the eye hospital to see a specialist about a cyst (chalazion). The hospital final contacted him about it, it's only been 8 months since his doctor requested the hospital to see him. Oh well the cyst is actually really small now, it is not noticeable anymore but the doctor still want him to see the specialist just in case. She wants him to get it taken out. We don't know if it will cost us any money, it might be cover by medicare. I guess DH will find out when he go see them.

Again, I've been busy renovating. It is taking a while, I've been doing it by myself in the last two days. DH had to go to work, he can only do a bit after work because firstly he is already tired and we are not allowed to use power tools after 8pm.

I decided to make a built in shelf into the wall so that is also taking a bit of my time, it is a bit fiddly to make.

Spending today was only for DH train pass $20 and yesterday was $14.05 at the hardware store. Tomorrow should be a NSD which would make it 10 for the month. I can pretty much finalise this month, the only spending left is for property tax due on the 31st.

DH managed to fix it last nigh, it took him almost two days to figure it out. First thing I did was to gather my receipts that we collected on the weekend and then updated my spreadsheet.

I'm planning to do a little bit of plastering today. DH will need to go back to the hardware store tonight to get something else, the hardware store is near the train station where he park the car so it is convenient.

Too tired to cook tonight, so we got some pizza. Spent $17.50 for two large size, plenty of left over for lunch for tomorrow.

We finished building the wall today. We had to go to the hardware store to get some more supply that we couldn't get yesterday (I think we spent about $30, I left the receipt in the car). The store yesterday didn't have what we needed. There are still a bit to do, we still need to do plastering, put up the cornice, a bit of tiling and painting. I'm hoping to finish it by next weekend.

Both DH and I are a bit sore today. I actually decided to put some money into the exercise challenge, with all the hammering and sawing that we did today it feel like we have been exercising. (I forgot to mention that I deposited $31 on Friday into the xmas fund/exercise challenge, its 4 weeks worth of exercise).

I accidently hit my thumb when I was trying to hammer a nail and a blood blister developed. I pricked it because I don't like looking at it. It was tiny and it didn't really hurt.

I also forgot to mentioned yesterday that we went to Aldi yesterday for grocery shopping, got more than what we need for this week. We are now about $10 over on our grocery for this month, it's not too bad.

Yesterday, I got another nasty virus in my computer, it happened while I was reading some blog (not SA). DH is fixing it right now, hope to get it back soon. I got few spending to record in my spreadsheet which is in that computer. Luckily, I've backed up about a week ago, so if DH can't get it back it will not be hard to update my spreadsheet.

I bought a couple of pomegranate last Sunday at the fruit shop. It is something that we don't find here that often, so I don't really know what to do with it except eat it as it is. Few days ago I Google it and found a nice recipe that I can use it with. I found a simple recipe for a quinoa and pomegranate salad. I haven't had time to make it until tonight. Tonight was the best time to have it because we were too busy removing the old door in the toilet and building a new wall to close it off. Now that the light switch has been moved next to the new door we can finally do this. We should be able to put up the new plasterboard tomorrow.

Anyway the salad was really good and it took no time to make.

I managed to finish the painting just before we had to go out for dinner at 8pm. It is extremely cold here today so it took forever for the plaster to dry; I resorted to using the hair dryer just to hurry it along a bit.

I left the paint to dry while we were out, left all the windows and door open to get rid of the paint smell. It is now after midnight and we just finish putting the bed back so we can sleep in there again tonight.

Today was payday and have put in another $900 into the mortgage - that makes it $2500 extra for this month. We should have around $1000 left by the end of the month to go towards household and holiday fund. I will probably just go 50/50 to each saving fund.

Alright, I’m exhausted I need to go to bed now.

We now have a ceiling fan in the bedroom. And the toilet got a new fan and light. All up it took the electrician almost 3 hours. He had to get up in the attic, which is cramp and dusty. He had to provide some of the stuff like light switches and light batten. I thought for sure he would ask for more money than what he quoted. Even though it took him a lot longer to put the fan (it’s a new kind that he has never seen before), it was a lot fiddlier.

So in the end I gave him $300 cash. Unfortunately there was a bigger hole in the ceiling, which couldn’t be covered by the fan so I had to patch it up. I’m just waiting for it to dry and then I will paint it. I also had to do the same in the wardrobe area where it had some holes from the old screws from the old light fitting.

I’m just working on emptying the bedroom to get it ready for the electrician to install the ceiling fan tomorrow. I want to empty it because I don’t want dust and worst insulation dust getting on our stuff. The electrician is coming at 9am tomorrow so DH and I have to move the bed before then, he will have to go to work a little bit later tomorrow.

The electrician will also be moving the light switch in the toilet next to the new door and he will be changing the light fitting near the wardrobe. All up he quoted $300 but it could be more, I hope not.

After this all we really need to do in the main bedroom is to put in a proper wardrobe. At the moment we just have an Ikea wardrobe without any doors, that’s why I have to move all our clothes in the spare bedroom. I would love to get an inbuilt one, maybe next year.

The home phone bill is actually not due until tomorrow, it gets directly taken out of our bank account.

So we actually did not spend any money today.

I didn't get to put the towel rail up, I will need DH's help so we will have to do it on the weekend. But I did managed to put up the hand towel holder.

I really liked the avocado and cucumber sushi roll yesterday that I made some more today.

I got a lot to do today. My legs are 100% better so I can actually move around now.

Things I need to do today:
I need to finish my ironing - I started last night, got tired so I went to bed. It’s half-way done.
Need to vacuum the house.
Put up the towel rail in the bathroom.

Spending:
21/5 = NSD
22/5 = DH got a haircut. This was not in the budget for this month but he needed it and he had some free time yesterday afternoon to do it, which is rare for him. He also bought some vitamins that have run out.
23/5 = Today the home phone is due.

Okay better get started on those to do list.

The avocadoes are ready for eating. DH use one last night, he made a banana and avocado smoothie, it was really good. I want to try it with just avocado. There are still 6 left we got to eat them quickly because they don’t last long, I don’t want to waste them.

So today I’m making some avocado and cucumber sushi, I got some sushi rice and I bought a packet of seaweed when we went to the Asian shop earlier this month, so I’m all set to go. I’m not going to make too much, we are already planning to go to a Japanese restaurant this Friday night. We’ve been having a lot of Japanese food lately, not that I’m complaining I love it.

Even though I wasn’t feeling well I decided that we really got to paint the bedroom ceiling now before the ceiling fan get installed later this week. I think it would be more of a pain to paint it after the ceiling fan is in. When we got home after our run/lunch I spent about half an hour preparing the room while DH did the mowing. I had to put the plastic drop sheets all around the walls, floor and furniture. It didn’t take long to paint; I used the paint brush around the side while DH used the paint roller. It only needed a coat, we are just refreshing it really. We were finish by 6pm, including cleaning up.

We bought the plastic drop sheets earlier yesterday, I was surprise to find out the price is so much cheaper now. I buy them all the time and they were always $1.50 each but yesterday it was for only 0.98 cents (it is not a sale price either), that’s 30% less than what it used to be. Since a new hardware store opened up down the road last year prices in this old hardware store has been a lot more competitive. I guess they have to lower prices because they have a policy that if you find an item cheaper somewhere else they will match it with % discount (I think it used to be 10%).

Another expense yesterday that was totally avoidable was the Thai takeaway. I was craving it and just did want to have hamburger for 3 nights in a row. And I just got lazy to cook anything else after doing the painting. I opted to pay half of it out of my allowance money, serves me right.

So we went running again yesterday, the same place that we went to 2 weeks ago. I did better this time around, there was no side stitch (I did more side stretches this time around) and I definitely did more running than walking. I managed to keep up with DH, although to be fair he was going slow because his leg was a bit sore and he stopped a bit to stretch. I felt good right after running but I got a headache and was nauseous on the drive home. My legs are tight and sore today but it is not as bad as last time. Last time it took me 4 days to recover. I’m trying to stretch my legs today.

Afterwards we went to a nearby café for lunch. DH got a 20% coupon from his friend for this place. It still ends up being a bit pricey but it is one of our favourite places to go. We could have really skipped the lunch out and just brought our lunch with us just like last time.

I put a bit more money into the exercise challenge

Yesterday DH took some of his suit to the dry cleaners.

Also bought couple of ceramic pots, they were 50% off. I will use them for my orchids that need re-planting. We also got some towel rack and hand towel holder for 30% off. I will put them in the ensuite bathroom.

Today I’m planning to paint the bedroom ceiling we should have done it last year when we renovated it. Oh well, it wouldn’t take long. I want to get it done this weekend because I got the electrician to coming next week to install a ceiling fan. We need to get some plastic sheeting to cover the furniture.

We are getting ready to go for a run and will get the plastic sheeting on the way home and then paint the ceiling this afternoon.