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Archive for December, 2018

WEEK 50

December 21st, 2018 at 05:17 am



I’m so busy at the moment but I want to record this.

Grocery = $76.96
Gift Card = DH won a $150 worth of gift card at his Christmas lunch at work. He was one of I think about 30 people that won a door price. We are glad that he won the gift card instead of the other prices that we don’t really need or want. The gift card is for one of the main supermarket chain here (called Coles). We decided to put $50 of it towards the “Challenge” and the rest for Christmas food.

Garden = It has been raining a lot here lately so we haven’t done anymore concreting between the rocks. But I have been so busy with something anyway. Probably won’t have another time to do it until after the holidays.



WEEK 49

December 12th, 2018 at 05:05 am



I’m currently fixated with gardening, in particular trying to grow carrots. I’ve been spending too much time watching gardening videos on Youtube.

We are still doing the cementing thing in one of the garden bed, when it is done I will post a photo. We are trying to do one bag a day but sometimes when the weather is either too hot or raining we can’t. I tried to do it by myself but it was hard to try and get it done before the mix gets dry. We are so much in a hurry now that the rocks are back on its place. For few days we had to roll them off to the lawn area and that made the lawn yellow. They are still a bit yellow now but I’m hoping with some rain coming our way in the next few days it will be green again.

Grocery - We went to another market this one was the best so far. Overall, grocery spending for the week was $74.85.

Lunch out – We had lunch out to get together with friends to celebrate Christmas ($44.50).

WEEK 48

December 6th, 2018 at 06:39 am



Was meant to post this yesterday but my internet wasn’t working properly when I had time to do it. Anyways…

Grocery = $72.46. We went to another farmer’s market on Saturday. This was better than last weekend but they had a $2 per person entrance fee, although it went to the Rotary Club so I didn’t mind too much.

Electricity bill – We got the last one for the year and it was a credit for $49.46. so I’m happy about that.

Cements = We had to buy 6 bags of 20kg of cements to put between big rocks that border the back garden. It has been a lot of work, we have been at it since the weekend. We took the rocks off, they are heavy - some of them are about 40-50 kilos in weight. Then we had to make sure to get rid of weeds and grass roots that have gone under the concrete that is between these rocks and the lawns. And now we are putting it back together again and also making sure to put cements between the gaps. We are only half way and I think we will need another 6 bags of cements.

NOVEMBER 2018

December 4th, 2018 at 12:06 am

Total for the month of November is $2,490.82.

We mainly spent it on:

Grocery = we were under budget, spent $236.29. I’ve decided to put $20 in the challenge because we are under this month.

Household Expenses = $500.87, it was mainly for the Skip Hire.

Transport Related = $290.96, DH hasn't been taking the early train and this also includes fuel and the registration for the camper trailer.

Entertainment total = $184.93

Gifts = was high this month because of my cousin’s wedding, that was $300 for the month.

Holiday (November portion) = $269.49

Christmas = $253.51, started getting stuff for Christmas. This year and for the past few years I budgeted $1,200 for our birthdays, anniversary and Christmas, we didn’t spend much for our birthdays and anniversary this year so we got a bit of money still in this category. We still got over $800 in it available for the rest of the year. I don’t intent to spend this much for Christmas though, hoping to only spend half.

**CHALLENGE** we had 10 NSDs in November so $30 to the Challenge Fund plus the $20 from the being under in grocery, so $50 for the month. I still need to set up an actual bank account for this. For now it is just written down in my spreadsheet.



Financials-

*Put as much money we possibly can into Investments (at least $45K). === DONE!!!===

*Save $4K for Holiday money. = We have now spent $4,754.63 under this category because of the camper trailer.

*Save $5K for future House Repairs/Future Remodel. = We will most likely end up spending around $1K under this category this year, not too bad.


Other –

*Read 70 books.
160. The Scandal - Fredrik Backman (3 Nov)
161. The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa (9 Nov)
162. Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty (10 Nov) - Audio
163. Zealot - Reza Aslan (13 Nov)
164. Started Early, Took my Dog - Kate Atkinson (14 Nov) - Audio
165. Smiling Mind - James Tutton & Jane Martino (15 Nov) - Audio
166. The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion (17Nov) - Audio
167. #NOW: The Suprising Truth About the Power of Now - Dr. Max McKeown (17 Nov) - Audio
168. The Brain that Changes Itself - Norman Doidge, MD (18 Nov) - Audio
169. The Hidden Life of Trees - Peter Wohlleben (20 Nov) - Audio
170. Aristotle's Way - Edith Hall (21 Nov)
171. Revenge - Andrew Holmes & James Patterson (22 Nov) - Audio
172. The Lion Tamer who Lost - Louise Beech (25 Nov)
173. The Brain's Way of Healing - Norman Doidge (27 Nov) - Audio
174. The Science of Getting Rich - Wallace D. Wattles (28 Nov) - Audio
175. Dark Emu - Bruce Pascoe (30 Nov) - Audio

In the last couple of weeks I’ve spent a lot of time in the garden, didn’t have as much time actually reading but I been loving listening to audiobooks while gardening.



*Learn Spanish. = Still going everyday

*Workout 3/4 times a week. = failed but I been doing so much physical work in the garden that I been going to bed dog tired.

*Try new recipes every other week.
Made lemon tart and tomato chutney for the first time.

*Blogging once per week. = I missed one when we were away

*Continue Garden/Landscaping. = We did a lot and still going.

*Wake-up early (before 7am) = yes

*Continue Decluttering. = YES!