Mortgage got paid yesterday.

$669.10 = Interest
$548.90 = Principal

Current Balance = $129,307.25

Today is payday! I am planning to pay another $1000 into the mortgage. This will put the balance under $130K. Less than $10K to go and this goal will be done. We should have about $1000 left by the end of this month. I will put half/half to holiday and household fund.

Yesterday was NSD, that makes it 2 this week.

Today, I just put another $1,200 into the mortgage. Extra payment into the mortgage so far this month is $1,700. I'm hoping to make it to put $2.5K extra this month. Next Friday is payday I should be able to put more then. Starting on the 18th of June our interest in the mortgage will go down another 0.21%. I think that should be a reduction of $15-20 per month. Can't wait to see next month's regular payment, I'm pretty sure the principal payment side should be more than $500. something to celebrate about but not too much because the interest side would still be around $700. I be definitely celebrating more when the principal payment is greater than the interest payment.

It's Saturday, normally it's our grocery shopping day. We don't really need anything, not even milk (I only just opened the new bottle yesterday but DH wants to get more so he can make some yogurt. I actually need to start using up the produce soon, we got too much stuff in the last two shopping trip. Last night, I made ratatouille just to use up some of the tomato and capsicum, we got too much.
I cooked a whole fish last night not knowing that DH ordered a sushi platter for tonight’s dinner. So we are having more fish today. The platter will cost $29, it normally cost $65 but we got a coupon deal.

I decided to put $500 into the mortgage today. Current balance is $132,056.15.

Good news for our mortgage is that the interest rate should go down further this month. The reserve bank reduced the official rates another 25 basis points, which makes our rate now down to 3.5%. If our bank fully reduces our mortgage rate down another quarter per cent then we might be able to save another $20-25 per month off the interest.

And yesterday was the first NSD for the month, finally!

Our normal monthly mortgage payment hit today.

Monthly Payment = $1,218
Interest = $730.47
Principal = $487.53

Current Balance = $132,556.15

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.

Yesterday was a NSD. Today DH put $60 into his train pass.

I got bored of waiting until payday (next Friday) that I decided to put another $1000 into the mortgage tonight. Current balance is $133,943.68.

Not much is happening here. I’m in the mood to deep clean the house. Today I changeover our summer clothes in the wardrobe with our winter clothes. The summer clothes are now put away into plastic containers. Found about a dozen clothes to giveaway. Also emptied and cleaned 1 of the utensil drawer in the kitchen. Tomorrow I’m planning to give the ensuite bathroom a good scrub.

Just checked online our mortgage and the May payment went through yesterday.

Interest Paid = $765.51
Principal Payment = $461.49

And I just decided to put in an extra $600 payment.

Current Balance = $134.943.68

So now we are below $135K

Yesterday afternoon the Australian reserve bank lowered the cash rate by 50 basis points (half a per cent). The official cash rate right now is down to 3.75%. They are anticipating tough times ahead; the unemployment rate will sure increase in the near future and property sales have slowed down considerably.

This is good news for us mortgage holders but not so great for the in-laws who rely on the interest of their savings to live on. Everyone in the media believes that the bank will not fully pass on this cut, actually almost but one has not made a decision to cut rate yet. They will take their sweet time about it. Every day could mean millions saving for them.

Even a cut of quarter per cent I will be happy. Hoping to find out in the next few days about how much cut we will get.


For the first time in my life I am making cheesecake, so far so good. I’ve been craving it since the weekend when I saw some at a cake shop. I got DH to get the ingredients last night it cost just under $10, the one in the store were $8.50 per slice. Although I did not realise that will have to wait for hours for it to cool down/chill in the fridge. I was hoping to have some for afternoon tea. I might have to wait to have it for dessert after dinner tonight instead.

Friday was payday.

On paydays I finalise the exercise challenge. It was pathetic, only $19 in 4 weeks. DH was sick for about 3 weeks so he didn't get to do much exercise at all and I got a bit lazy, ok a lot.

As mentioned earlier, I put in another $1000 into the mortgage. That brings it down to (almost) $136K. This make it $3000 extra payment for April. We are slightly ahead in this for the year, it will have to slow down now so that we can put a bit more money into our other financial goal for the year.

According to my spreadsheet, even if we just put $1500 a month from now until the end of the year we should be able to meet goal #1 with no problem, barring the bank don't increase interest rate. The good news is that most economist has predicted a decrease in interest rate by the reserve bank in the next month or so (fingers crossed that the banks will follow).

About to go to mum's for lunch so I just wanna quickly update my side bar. Decided to put $2K into the mortgage, I just couldn't wait until Friday's payday. I will probably put a bit more in it again on Friday, I just don't know how much yet.

Well, off to mum we go...

Yesterday was a NSD. I think today should be too, unless DH decide to get car fuel on the way home tonight.

Tonight is footy night, we will be having meat pie and sausage rolls (these I got from my mum on the weekend)for dinner...easy.

2 more weeks until payday, it feels like it has been forever. That $5.17 at the end of the mortgage balance is annoying me. I should be able to put in another $2500 (or should I say $2,505.17) extra to it this month. Anything more than that will be gravy, especially since this month's pay will be a lot less than normal becuase of the easter holiday.

Mortgage got paid the other day.

$389.41 went towards the principal and
$828.59 for interest.

Current balance = $139,005.17

There's talk that interest rate might go down next month, I've got my fingers crossed for it.

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.

The regular monthly mortgage payment went through Friday $383.53 went towards the principal. Interest is less than $840 now.

Also on Friday, which DH payday he paid an extra $1600 to the mortgage. I hoping to be able to put more into it in 2 weeks time.

Mortgage is now down to $146,658.

Our normal monthly mortgage payment was paid today.

Overall payment = $1218

Interest = $859.53 (I was hoping this to be $850 this month, most likely next month)

Principal = $358.47

I should be able to put another $1000 this weekend after DH get paid again this Friday, that is if he gets paid this Friday. We think he will now get paid every 2 weeks but there has not been any communications about it. I'm hoping to put $1000 to the mortgage every 2 weeks (again if he will be getting it every 2 weeks). I will try anyway, his pay is not always the same amount but $1K is a good aim.

Yeaaah, our bank cut our mortgage rate late yesterday. This means our rate will go down to 6.61%. Now I'm happy and will stop ranting about it. It will cut about 7-8 months in the term of our loan.

On another financial news, DH got paid today and I put exactly $2,491.33 into the mortgage so I can get our mortgage exactly down to $150K. I just wanted to start the new year in that amount.

This also means that I've achieved all my financial goals this year. Now I need to finalise and post my goals for next year. I might do that next week.

and the 4 big banks (one of which is our bank) still have not decrease their interest rates. Only 2 smaller banks have lower it in full. The government are unhappy but can't do anything about it. All 4 banks makes record breaking profit all the time but apparently if they do decrease it could "break the bank". Major BS of course. If it was the other way around, you can bet they will increase rate within minutes of the RBA announcement.

It might be time to change banks, but the thing is the big banks eventually just takes over/buy out the smaller once. There is very little competition here and that's why they can get away with it. We used to have our mortgage with the smaller institute but couple of years or so ago one of the big bought it out. It's really annoying. This is another reason why I want to get rid of the debt so badly, so we don't have to be slave to the banks.

Tomorrow is DH's payday, and first thing I will do is pay the mortgage. It should be down to $150K by then. Which means all my 2011 goals will be done then

well I hope so anyway. It will all depends whether our bank actually follow the Aust reserve bank (RBA)and lower our mortgage rate.

Today the RBA lowered the interest rate another 25 basis points. This is now 2 months in a row that they have lowered the rate. This decision is mainly because of all the drama in Europe and also some talk about higher unemployment next year.

If our bank does cut our rate in full it will bring our mortgage rate down to 6.61 percent. I have my fingers crossed that they will follow the RBA. They don't always do it because they can get a bit greedy, typical of banks!

It was again a low spend weekend, less than $100 again. The only thing we got was groceries and $40 ink for the printer. It was a good deal too, they included the black ink for free (with the 4 colour ink) and then it was for sell for $40 for 2, I'm not sure how much it would have been to only get 1 pack because DH bought it.

On another good news, the mortgage got paid today. The interest was only $865.10, down $85 from last month (although this period only had 30 days), I was hoping for the interest to go under $900 but this is better than expected. Everyone with a mortgage here, including me is hoping that there would be another interest rate cut tomorrow when the Aust reserve bank meet tomorrow. I can only hope.

$352.90 went towards the principal. I still need to put $2,491 to get our mortgage to $150K. This is my main goal for this month. I should be able to put it on Friday when DH gets paid.

Sunday was a NSD, I was too busy doing work on my trading. Since I have been out of work (by choice) for a year now I have really decided that in the next year I will concentrate on working on trading full time. It is both scary and exciting. I've been doing this on and off for 10 years now and to actually do it full time will require hard work (that I hope will pay off in the long run). This is the best time to do this, we are financially comfortable with just DH income right now. Our main goal is still to pay off the mortgage asap, hopefully before DH turn 40. The plan is set and all we have to do is follow it.

After calculating our weekend spending yesterday, I decided to put another $500 into the mortgage. I think I was feeling abit guilty about all those spending eventhough most it was necessary.

I still need to put in another $1,780 to achieve Goal #5 this year. And another $2,500 or so to get us to $150K mortgage. Then I will be happy to start next year with only $150K mortgage. I then hope to get our mortgage to under $120K by the end of next year. It is a bit ambitious but it is something to aim at.

We still need $2000 to get our Car Fund to $15K, I don't think we will be able to get there by the end of the year but it should get fully funded by end of March 2012, when DH gets paid twice that month.

I've almost finalise next year's budget. I hope we can do better next year. After accounting for our car registration next month we are officially over our budget this year. I'm anticipating we will be over by around $800-$1000. The medical expenses and entertainment did it. I'm making adjustments for next year.

Our mortgage interest rate is going down .25 percent. I think this will be around $25-30 decrease on our interest payment per month. Every bit helps.

The weather is suppose to be really nice this weekend, so we are thinking of going to the beach. Hope to do a bit of snorkling. The one that we will be going is about an hour away. We should really be doing some more renovation but I guess it can wait another week.

Nothing much is going on here financially, as usual just waiting for payday - another 8 more days to go.

Last night DH put all his "special pay" into the mortgage and added few hundred dollar to make this month's principal mortgage payment to $5000!
Just need another ~3,700 for the year.

And since there are only 3 more days left in the month we should have enough money left to get the Car fund to 13K. Just need to minimise spending in this last 3 days.

I'm getting really excited!

I meant to do a financial update last week but got too busy.

DH pay came while we were on our holiday, and again they forgot to pay him that 1 week that they missed last month. It's starting to get really annoying. Lucky we are not living paycheck to paycheck. DH had to again chase it up, he doesn't have time to waste with these things, especially he had so much to catch up on last week. Anyway, according to DH they will "look into it" (again!)and might have to do a special payment. I hope so.

I paid an extra $2,500 into the mortgage on the weekend. Just got the AMEX bill (not due til mid next month couple days after next payday) and we actually don't owe much. Only really used the CC in the resort, most of the time we either paid cash or used the Pre-paid Visa that we got as a rebate for our airconditioner last month. We used that for DH's suit and other stuff. I think there's still around $20 left on it.

We might even be able to put more into the mortgage if I wait to pay the AMEX on the last day. And will definitely put more if the "special pay" comes. I am really getting excited to get our mortgage under 150,000 and I'm hoping to get there this year. At the moment we still got over 6,300 to get there. $500 - 600 will come from regular payments in the last two months. So I need to come up with another $5,800 to make it.

Another crazy goal that I have right now it to fully fund the car fund this year. We have almost 12K in it and our ultimate goal for this is 15K. We should be able to get 5K for our current car, so 20K for a new car is more than enough. I probably should explain here that some of this 12K is actually in our mortgage redraw account (it helps lower interest rate pay) and some I bought some shares about 4 years ago. It has made a bit of money due to increase in price and DRIP, but I'm not including that profit as part of the car fund.

First priority at the moment is the mortgage. The car fund will definitely be fully funded by early next year, if not this year.

Tomorrow is payday!!!

Also tax refund has arrived, DH already cashed in his cheque the other day. I will go to the city tomorrow to do the same. And while I'm in the city DH and I will have our monthly lunch date.

After paying off the accountant fee we got $1841.70. I already decided last month that $1000 will go straight to the mortgage. I'm hoping to put another $1500-2000 on top of that. $500 from the tax refund will go into my trading account. I've decided to do some trading after we get back from our holiday, now that I don't have much to do I should get back to doing that for the rest of the year. The other $340 I'm thinking of put it in the car fund.

We have been spending a lot in the last 2 days!
I feel bad so I decided to put another $500 into the mortgage this month. Best to put it in there before we end up spending it.

Yesterday was DH's payday. Decided to put $1000 into the mortgage last night.

We are going out tonight but it has been paid for already, couple months ago we bought a voucher for 2 for the price of 1 dinner. It will include 4 courses with a bottle of wine included.

Last night we spent a bit of money, $6.95 to rent 6 weekly bluray/DVDs. I think we will do something like this on payday.

Friday was DH's payday. We decided to pay another $1500 into the principal of the mortgage.

Put in another $1K into the mortgage today. Yea!
DH is getting paid next week so we should be able to put a bit more again. I'm aiming to put $2K extra a month for the rest of the year.

Spent a bit of money in the last few days, we had relatives came and stayed with us. Grocery bill was a lot higher than normally, they are picky eaters. Also took them out for dinner, it was someones birthday and ended up spending close to $200. I'm glad this doesn't happen often.

We received a wedding invite last week, to be held in Vietnam in the same month we are planning to go to Thailand. At this stage we are hoping to do Thailand and Vietnam at the same time.

I was about to make roast chicken last night when I couldn't get the oven to work. DH tried it but it was no use. The chicken was all seasoned and everything already. I had to put it back in the fridge. The chicken is now in the slow cooker, and I just hope that it turns out alright.

We've had problems with this oven for over a year now, first the door wouldn't shut tight anymore, then the igniter stopped working. For a year now we had to put it on manually. Now it won't light up anymore. I think getting it fix will cost a bit, although we haven't looked into it. I'm not that keen on getting a new one yet either because the stove part still works just fine. I think we could get away not using the oven for a while. I want to spend sometime looking into my options rather than buying one right away.

Life is funny sometimes. Last month we had a really good run in terms of good news, I guess now its for some negativity. Just the way life is.

Well unto some good news, I paid $1000 into the mortgage today.