How did we go in the 2nd quarter of 2014?



DH went to his interview Friday, it went fine. He had to change in the car though. Also on Friday, everyone in his team at work got to sign their new employment contract. As of today, they are now fixed full-time employees for the next 12 months.

On the weekend we hit the half-way mark of our workout program. We went crazy and rewarded ourselves by buying a PVR and 3D Blu-ray combo. For years now the in-laws have been telling us that we should get one. Every time we went out to see how much they were we always thought they were too pricey. But with technologies these days if you just wait long enough you should be able to afford it. Plus because it June 30 is our end of the financial year, every stores have their massive sales. We got one for $318.40 (down from $466). The first time the in-laws suggested that we should get one they were around $800+. Even at the price we bought it at we were still not too sure about it. We went to 4 stores until we decided to go for it.

So every year I set up our spending plan (budget)for our living expenses. Below is this year's spending plan and the 1st quarter's actual spending.



*FUEL and FARE - Fuel in particular LPG (gas) is normally higher here during summer because of high demand for it in Europe's winter and because of the holidays they normally increase the prices too. We also do a bit more driving during summer when the weather is great and tend to hibernate in winter so I'm anticipating this to go down next quarter.

*HEALTH INSURANCE - DH changed our policy last week. Every 1st of April the prices go up but they go up at different rate. Ours was going to go up around 16%! By changing our policy our monthly payment will be going down instead from $273.89 to $224.64 (I think that's around 17%?). DH haven't had time to look at other insurance company yet so maybe this will change again in the future but for now this will do.


*GIFT - Not much celebrating going on during Jan to Mar, there's really only Valentine's day. DH got me more gifts but wouldn't tell me how much it cost, he took it out of his allowance.