The weather this weekend was almost perfect, we should have picked this weekend to go camping, oh well can't predict the weather.

Saturday we decided to go and watched my brother play footy, his team had a fantastic game they won by over 200 points (248 - 13), that rarely happens. while there we shared a sausage roll (haven't had one of those for years) and a cup of coffee each, was for only $5. Their game was held near a trash and treasure market place so decided to stopped by to see if I could get a case for my new mobile phone, found one for $10. We got there late in the afternoon so we didn't have to pay to enter which would have been $1 each. Also got a wheel that we can use to fix our gate, $2. And spent another $2 for a dog leash for my mum's dog. Afterwards we went grocery shopping, all up spent $65.39 on grocery this weekend. Went home, made Paella and opened a bottle of wine with it, read a book while doing a bit of crocheting.

Sunday we went out to get a new washer for a tap outside. Then we went back to the shoes store that we got DH's new shoes last weekend to get it replaced because there was something wrong with it that I didn't see until we got home. When we got there we found out that they are now on sale, it was almost 65% off, from $49.95 down to $18. So instead of exchanging it we got a refund and just purchased two pair of shoes (different style) for $36. Then we stopped by at another store nearby and got a jumper for DH, underwear, bra, toothpastes, hand towels and DH's favourite bar soap. All up we spent $27 there. Then lastly, we went to Big W to get leg bands they were also on sale from $15 down to $10. Total spending for the weekend = $163.55.

When we got home DH fixed the tap while I made roast pork and then we watched our footy team play on TV, we lost. Had dinner. Relaxed watching more TV and finished reading my book. End of weekend.

Living Expenses- $1,932.34
Mortgage Repayments = $6,818.00
(Interest = $112.17)
(Principal = $1105.83)
(Extra Repayment =$5,600.00)
Other Expenses = $1,220.48 - big chunk of this was for my Samsung Note. Also spent a bit on house repairs, gardening, new BBQ and Rubber mats.

I don't know how I feel about that big extra repayment to the mortgage that we paid last month now, maybe we shouldn't have done since DH quit his job (but we didn't that was going to happen - not so soon) it would have been good to have more liquid cash in hand, but at the same time because of that repayment we will most likely be paying less than $100 of interest every month from now on.

Changes in our Goals this year:

The biggest one is that we will most likely NOT be able to pay off the mortgage this year, unless of course DH find another job fairly quickly. We could however cash in some investments to pay it off but really we want to keep cash or assets we can easily cash in if we need to. Also all extra repayments we have made to the mortgage is in what they call "Redraw Account" that technically we can redraw if we want to. But we will not be doing that unless something catastrophic were to happen. The other reason that I'm not as bothered by it is that our interest rate here (which I guess is similar in the US) is at it's all time low. So putting off pre-paying it for now is not so bad and even if we don't ever make any extra payment the whole thing will be paid off in less than 20 months. Unfortunately here in Australia we done get any tax incentives in delaying paying our mortgage off that's why all this time I have been very determined to pay it off as soon as possible. Anyway, at this time our plan is just being delayed, definitely not abandoned.

It goes without saying that another change we will have to do while DH is not working is to stay within our budget as much as possible and even try to tighten it. We can definitely save some money in some categories, especially under transportation cost - DH won't need to buy train pass.

Mortgage = $1218

Living Expenses = $1527.82 (Not too bad)

Other = $802.41 (A bit too much here)

About $220 of this was for Mitre Saw compound ($148), sledge hammer and some MDF material. About $180 for gardening materials – soil, manure, seedlings, plants (both indoor and outdoor), a big bottle of weed killer, weed mat cover and small gardening tools. The other $170 was for quilt, quilt cover and comforter. We also spent about $35 on office supplies, mainly on a box of suspension files. The rest was for batteries for smoke alarms, brushes, etc. (too many rubbish to mention) and DH got a new fishing rod.

Total = $3,548.23


Veggie Garden

The red cabbage and cauliflower are doing well so far. Some goes with the lemongrass and Vietnamese mint. But the coriander is not looking too good. DH scattered some coriander seeds in the garden the other day maybe that will be better than the seedlings we planted. Today I saw 4 of the snow peas already poking through and I'm pretty sure there are a couple of the kales as well. Just been spraying the seeds we planted in the egg cartons on the weekend, I don't know how well they will go, time will tell.

January

January is normally the most expensive month for us because our annual car insurance and home and content insurance is due. This year it was 1,288.45 in total. We had to change car insurer because the old one went up too much. We also almost change the home and content too but when we called them they said that they have been sending clients the wrong quotes and reduced ours to a more reasonable amount (by over $100). Dodgy bugger! I have a feeling they would have never changed it if we didn’t call them. And for some reason this year they sent the quotes really late, we only had a week to pay for it, normally in the past they would sent it over a month earlier. I wonder how many people they screwed over.

January spending looked like this:

Mortgage - $1,218

Living Expenses (including the above insurance expenses) - $2,495.29

DH did a certification study (including materials and online exam) - $332.52

Other - $288.48 (Office supplies, camping items, plants, exercise tubes, 1 year fishing licenses for both of us and other small household items).

TOTAL = $4,334.29

February

Normally February is one of the lower spending month.

Mortgage - $1,218

Living Expenses - $1,128.02

We bought a New Mattress - $287.99 (got this online and was very surprise at the price because we been looking around in the shops and the cheapest we could find for the same kind was $800).

We went away for a weekend of camping and fishing - $65.80 (this included the fee for the camping site, food and bait for fishing – such an inexpensive weekend away and we caught a fish).

Other - $169.85
The 'other' expenses includes getting a laminator, 3 sets of cooking pots, garden supplies – pot plants and soil, and eco clothes washer from Aldi. The washer was about half the price than getting it at a camping store. DH and I has been talking about going away camping for few weeks, the washer would come handy.

TOTAL = $2,869.66