Overall we were under budget



Had 11 NSDs for the month and put in $560 into Goal #4. Also paid some extra into the mortgage.

Yesterday and the day before were both NSDs.

Today I decided to pay an extra $2000 int the mortgage.

Nothing much is happening here, I'm just trying to recover from a cold.

I was just checking my personal finance spreadsheet this morning and I just realised that we've had 4 NSD in the last 5 days. It just happened.

Monday and Tuesday were NSDs.
Wednesday paid the gas bill ($71.15).
Thursday and Friday were again NSDs.

I've been having lower back problem all week so I haven't been anywhere. Also DH haven't had to top up his train pass this week. So, it has been a great week except for the sore back thing, which doesn't help with the running goal. I think I went a bit too hard with the running, I need to slow down a bit.

Today we need to get some groceries and will be going out for dinner. We got coupon for this dinner so it shouldn't be too much.

Today is our last day of the month, the property rate will be taken out of the account today. We are done with this month.

Grocery - $272.68 (over $52.68) *We were way under last month on this so we were low on some item this month.*
Utilities - $102.45 (under $97.55)
Rates - $142.00 (under $0.46)
Home Phone - $14.95 (under $55.05)
Mobile - $70.00 (over $20.00)
Internet - $55.00 (even)
Fuel & Fare - $199.84 (under $0.16)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$116.70 (over $6.70)
Gifts -$0.00 ($50.00)
Personal/Medical - $85.65 (over $25.65)
DH Allowance -$100.00 (even)
DW Allowance - $75.00 (even)
Miscellaneous - $65.55 (over $35.55)

TOTAL = $1,533.57 (under $63.43)

Had 9 NSDs – so $90 into my Sunny day saving fund.
Household fund and Xmas Fund is now fully funded.
Have also put in another $1,650 in to the Holiday Fund .

Grocery - $95.48 (under $114.52)
Utilities - $189.36 (over $9.36)
Rates - $142.00 (under $0.46)
Home Phone - $14.95 (under $10.05)
Mobile - $15.00 (under $15.00)
Internet - $49.95 (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $222.61 (over $22.61)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$249.21 (over $59.45)
Gifts -$32.00 (under $68.00)
Personal/Medical - $29.95 (under $70.05)
DH Allowance -$100.00 (even)
DW Allowance - $75.00 (even)
Miscellaneous - $3.69 (under $26.31)

TOTAL = $1,448.19 (under $213.81)

Had 8 NSDs.
Put in more money into the mortgage.
Holiday Fund goal is now done.
Have also put a bit into the Household Fund.
We went away twice last month, at the start of the month and at the end.

I want one of this:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/love-to-ride-your-bicycle-try-this-paper-giant/story-e6frfrnr-1226473443447


Today should make it 3 NSDs in a row.


--------------

18 Sept: 10,884 steps
19 Sept: 11,226 steps (DH did the last 500, he decided to put the pedometer on while I was in the shower).

This is a bit early it is only in the morning of the 31st of August here but I can’t wait anymore.

Grocery - $389 (over $149.78)*
Home Phone - $14.95 (under $10.05)
Mobile - $20 (under $20.00)
Internet - $49.95 (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $141.66 (under $58.34)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$185.60 (under $14.40)
Gifts -$120.47 (under $29.53)
Personal/Medical - $52.05 (over $22.05)
Clothing - $291.60 (over $251.60)*
DH Allowance -$100 (even)
DW Allowance - $60 (even)
Miscellaneous - $17.75 (under $12.25)

TOTAL = $1,673.02 (over $278.02)

*These are the culprits of the over spending this month. The grocery expense includes the $60 Costco membership fee. And the main over spending was in the clothing category. Basically we have used up our entire clothing budget for the year now. Overall, it is not too bad it just mean we can’t go clothing shopping anymore until next year.

Today should be a NSD, that makes it 10 for the month. So another $100 into my Sunny Day Fund.

I've added $500 into the Holiday Fund and $1400 into the Household Fund. Also saved in $200 for anniversary in October.

I'm bored right now, just waiting for this month to end so I can finalise August numbers. Had NSDs on Monday and Tuesday.

I'm starting to plan for our annivesary, which is in October. We will probably stay overnight somewhere. I think we could do it for $300 for everything. We both don't want to do anything big this year, we just want to go somewhere in our state that we haven't been to and just relax for the weekend. I will be saving $200 for it this month and another $100 next month.

I don't think we really need $2000 for christmas/anniversary (Goal #3) this year I think we can get away with $1000-$1200. We would rather save it for our overseas holiday next year.

Yesterday was NSD.

I'm currently reading The Millionaire Next Door. I caved and bought it for my kindle. I've always wanted to read it but could never find it in the library and did not want to pay $20+ for it. It's a lot cheaper in kindle now, last time I checked it was worth over $12 but last week it was down to $7.46 (AUD). I was happy to pay for that. I'm almost half through reading it so far so good. It is confirming that we are heading the right direction.

Yesterday’s spending:
Groceries - $8.95
Train Pass - $50

DH came home pretty happy tonight. The company finally signed the contracts (only 6 weeks due) of his workmates. And they are now working on DH’s contract and others whose contract is expiring mid next month. The contract will be for 2 years. We are trying not to celebrate too early but this is a very good sign for DH.

Today was a NSD

NSD yesterday - 6th for the month.

Today DH will have to get milk after work.

It's now after midnight and we just got home not long ago from my DH's workmate's house. We were invited to their new house for a low key housewarming party. There were only another 5 people (3 people from DH’s work and spouses). It was a nice dinner, we got to taste some yummy Indian dishes. They are originally from India so we got introduced to some new dishes that we have never tried or couldn't get from a typical Indian restaurant. It was very nice, I'm sure they made sure they didn't m it too hot. It was definitely at my maximum heat level. DH however just loved it and actually could go hotter. He loves hot food.

We also got to watch a bit of a Bollywood movie, without subtitles, it made for a good viewing. It was a comedy so it was pretty funny, unfortunately we couldn’t stay to finish watching it, it got too late by then. It was a very good night in the end the wife gave me a pouch/bag (made from a very colourful material). I didn’t open it until we got home and it had an apple and a little gold flower trinket (don’t really know how to describe it…lol). I just google this and I think it should have been us giving this gift as a housewarming present. Few days ago I told DH to ask his work friend if we could bring something and all he told DH was “just your wife”. Anyway, we just brought a bottle of wine from our collection. We at least know that he drinks.

It was a great night. It’s good to meet new people, the spouses, I’ve actually have meet DH’s workmates before.

On another news, today (or should that be yesterday) was a NSD. We will do the grocery shopping tomorrow if we can actually get up. We are staying up late to watch the Olympics (sailing and hockey is on at the moment).

Had two NSDs in a row, yesterday and today.

Nothing else happened today. the weather was terrible, total opposite to that of yesterday. I kept myself warm today by jumping on the exercise bike.

Finally feeling better.

Had 3 NSD this week.

Last night DH went to Aldi after work. No more grocery money in the budget, I think we went over about $5. Not too bad we wouldn't need anything until next month.

Tonight we are going out for dinner, teppanyaki, I got a good deal from groupon but it will still be pricey. This will push us way over the entertainment budget this month, I think over $50.

Had 3 NSDs in a row – yeah!

On Monday DH and I went to the Eye Hospital, we thought he will finally get his surgery done but the doctor suggested for him to try compression in the next two months first. I think because his eyes are normal and the cyst is a lot smaller than what it used to be, and also 50% of the time doing the compression helps. And it will hurt getting it out. If it doesn’t go away after two months the doctor suggested going to a private hospital instead, that way we won’t need to wait another year to make an appointment. It might cost some money though.

Yesterday was a NSD. We will need a lot of these this month.

I think after this month we will need to keep as much cash in hand. DH’s contract is finishing in two months’ time. At this stage he is not sure yet whether it will get renewed. He works for the state government and last week they just announce around 35% job cuts in permanent positions. There is also a lot of restructuring going on at the moment, at least the new structure chart they got recently still show that DH’s position is still required. Some people in his team whose contract expired last month is working at the moment without a signed contract this is after they were interviewed and asked to take a pay cut, it is really crazy at the moment. Some have left because it is getting really frustrating waiting for the government to make a decision. This job cuts and changes were announced at the start of the year but the details have been very last minute and to this date still not clear. At this stage, DH is just taking it one day at the time.

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.

Yep, yesterday was NSD.

It has finally stopped raining this morning. It has been non-stop raining for two days. Last night it took DH over 2 hours to get home (it normally only takes about 30-40mins). The train signal was not working something to do with flooding in the subway. So he had to walk in the rain to the other train station, his umbrella was useless because the wind was just blowing it away. He came in soaking wet and freezing cold. Straight into the shower he went and then afterwards I feed him the steaming hot Pho soup. He was so glad to be having that soup with a lot of ginger and extra chillies (which he loves).

Edit: Oops yesterday was not a NSD. I totally forgot about the mortgage! My bad. lol Oh well, I hope today will be a NSD.

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.

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.

was another NSD. I did more cleaning today I want to do a bit each day until I get it all done. I shredded six months’ worth (paper basket full) of paper. The study is not too bad. We are pretty good with filing papers away. When we get a mail we straight away either file it, throw it away into the shredder basket or general rubbish bin. I also gave the range hood filter a really good clean. I normally do this at least once or twice a month. It gets cleaned every day when I clean the stove top. But sometimes it just needs to be taken down and given a good soak with hot water, it just helps melt all that fat/grease away. I’m currently watching this new show here called Hoarding: Buried Alive and it is giving more motivation to keep cleaning.

Nothing! Another NSD - 5th one for this month.


Spent over an hour cleaning the bathroom today; I scrubbed and polish every tile, cleaned the walls with sugar soap, washed the glass doors. There is no more soap scum, it’s now sparkling clean.

I’m thinking of cleaning the study tomorrow. Nothing else to report...boring.

We ended up with a NSD today. We decided to not bother with grocery shopping. We can do it tomorrow on the way home from my mum’s place. There is a nice fruit and vegetable shop near her place that we can go to and there is an Aldi store in the same shopping complex. The weather was not great today so we both did not want to go outside.

For dinner tonight we had homemade pizza, we haven’t made one for more than a year. DH tried out a new pizza base recipe I think it was the best one we have tried so far. The cheese we got from the market last weekend was really good in it.

We had few tomatoes that needed to be used (actually had to throw one out) so I made it into a sauce. I just put garlic, oregano and anchovy. It turned out really well. DH normally doesn’t like anchovies but it pretty much melted in the sauce so he didn’t notice.

Yesterday was a NSD.

Planning to do a small grocery shopping today. We only really need milk for the week. But I might also get some more eggs, fruits and vegetables. That's it.

We are going to my mum tomorrow for mother's day.

DH went straight to his doctor’s appointment at 7pm last night. He managed to get a back to back appointment so he won’t need to go back tonight. They cancelled his Friday appointment earlier this week because the doctor will not be in. According to the admin lady he was not supposed to do that, some problem with processing Medicare twice in one day. Anyway, one of the doctors said it was fine. In the end it didn’t cost a thing and DH’s uvula is almost better and the moles on his back are all normal. The doctor checked about a dozen of them. I’ve been telling him to see a doctor about his moles for months, now I can relax about that. Living in Australia mole check is one of those things that we need to care about.

We didn’t have dinner until DH got home around 8:30pm, a lot later than normal for us. We both didn’t have much to eat.

Also last night I paid the gas bill and AMEX. I’m not looking forward to paying next month’s credit cards. it is going to be a lot more than the last few months. The car service bill would be in it.

Today should be NSD.

I said yesterday was a NSD, well that was very late in the afternoon here and by then there was no way that we would be going out to spend any money. I was wrong.

After dinner I got thinking about mother's day, which is in 3 weeks time. DH's mum is hard to shop for and to top it off she lives in another state. I thought maybe a gift basket it can be delivered straight to her. No luck, she won't like most of it. She doesn't drink and she has a very strict diet. The only thing that might work is the chocolate basket but $50 worth of it is a bit much.

After that I decided to look at Groupon and other sites like it. I was thinking of maybe a weekend getaway but it can't be too far from their place, she don't fly so it must be driving distance. Nothing at the moment, I will keep trying.

Anyway, while going through the Groupon website I found a handheld steamer for $49 each or $90 for two. Unfortunately, MIL already got one. I asked her about it and apparently it is not bad. I'm willing to give it a try for this price. MIL one cost her over $200 but it came with the vacuum cleaner. I got 2, I will give the other one to my mum as part of her Mother's day gift. I used my birthday money for my one, MIL actually suggested it.

So to recap, I officially spent $45 last night for Mother's day gift for next month. And I've taken $45 out of my allowance for my steamer.

Yesterday was a NSD, maybe today would be too if DH don't need to fill up the car. I'm pretty sure it is due for a fill up, I don't drive so I never really know when it needs it but it seems like it has been a while since he went to the petrol station. He might also need to top up his train pass.

Just been looking at the stock market last night and there are a couple stocks that I want to get. DH got some cash in his retirement fund to get some or he could get some in his margin loan account. I think his retirement account might be better, he said he got $10K cash just seating in it ready to buy. We won't need to pay interest if we use that instead of the margin loan.

Speaking of the stock market, my trading is doing alright but not as well as I hoped it to be. The market is pretty much just been going side ways. I think since I started trading in Nov 2011 it has only been up 3-4%, but at least my trade has gone up around 10%. It was up around 20% at the start but I have given some of it back a bit lately. I will do a final analysis of my trades once I've closed off 20 trades.

We went to mum's place today to drop off our bread maker. She's borrowing it to help her mix the dough/pastry for her empanadas. She's been making a lot of those lately, few of her friends have been asking her to make it for them lately. I think she sells them for $1 each, not bad and she loves to cook, it's a hobby for her that and gardening.

It is impossible to go to mum's without getting served some food. Today we had lunch, she had to quickly make fried chickens and spring rolls (she just got home from church so she didn't have anything prepared). I helped her with the dough using the bread maker. She already made the filling early this morning before church.

While there we did more work on fixing couple of cracks on her ceiling. Finally finished one of them, painted and all. Should be able to finish the other one next time. DH and I also cleaned up afterwards, vacuuming all the floors.

We came home with some empanadas and the leftover fried chickens (she always make extra for us to take home), more than enough for dinner.

Today was another NSD. And dinner is done

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.

I finally finish putting up the christmas tree, it only took me 3 days (and it is not a big tree), I keep getting distracted. Actually it is more like I can't really be bother with it. I been too busy doing work, I'm really motivated with it at the moment. Anyway, I went for silver and purple colour scheme christmas tree this year.

Financially, I haven't spend much for christmas at all this year. We decided to just give cash to our nephews and nieces, they are in another state so it is easier that way and actually prefer it because they get so much toys and clothes already. ANd the rest would just get gift cards. And I already got my mum something last month. So I will get the gift cards this weekend and send them next week.

I got plans to finally venture out to go shopping this Saturday. I plan to go to Costco, I think our membership expire this month (but I'm not 100% sure) and I don't think we will renew it anytime soon. We haven't been there for few months now and I don't think it is worth renewing it right now. So this weekend in my shopping list is gift cards and another gift for my brother's birthday this weekend.

We will be having lunch at my mum's place for my brother's birthday this Sunday. Also christmas will be held at my mum's because our little convection oven will not be big enough to cook everything we want. Everything is plan and the beauty is I don't have to do much but I will give my mum some money to go towards buying for the food. My mum loves to cook and she is an amazing cook so she loves this plan.

I already have a frozen turkey, I will either give it to mum to cook or I will cook it here, I think it will just fit in the little oven, so maybe I will still do that.

ANd ohh we've had 4 NSD in the row here and today could be the fifth if I can just hold off my pizza craving at the moment. This and with low spending in the last couple of weekend has been really good. Although I'm pretty sure this coming weekend is going to be costly.