My Simple Financial Plan

Just had a nice hot shower and it was great, no more sponge bath. We got our hot water unit fixed early this morning. The gas fitter/plumber came at 7 am this morning and he was done an hour later. All up we paid $1400, the labour was $270.

DH and I spent about 5 hours yesterday shopping for the unit and before that DH spent the day and night before researching and calculating (lol) about it. In the end we decided to go for the same the hot water storage and the same brand (Aquamax) as the old one but a newer model (the old one doesn’t exist anymore, according to the plumber they got rid of them 10 years ago). We also opted for the stainless steel panel instead of the vitreous enamel. The stainless steel has double the warranty for 10 years, although the rest of the parts have only got 1 year warranty but that is standard. Price wise there wasn’t that much about $150. Everyone we talked to says they are better. It was easier to transport it, with the vitreous enamel it had to standing up so the anode thingy wouldn’t get damage.

Initially we were leaning towards the getting the continuous flow system because they are more energy efficient than the storage ones. The first sales lady we talked to said she has one at her new home and its heaven she just punch in the temperature on the controller and can have different temp in the shower to that in the kitchen. The one that we were looking at would have cost $1500. Then we found out that labour would cost at least $900, maybe more. It would not have been just an easy swap because we have an old house the pipes would need to be replace because they require different size and in some cases the gas meter will need to be replace too. Also we would have had to get an electrician to get an outlet for the electric ignitor, so if there is no power you won’t get any hot water. There were other also other issues that other people have told us about. DH calculated that it would only save us $70 per year, not enough really.

We managed to find a plumber through a sales person in one of the hardware store that we went to. He was highly recommended by him. After DH spoke to him we knew we didn’t need to bother ringing around. He was very helpful and helped us decide to just get the same storage system. We knew his price was reasonable since another sales person that we spoke to (from a different whitegoods store) told us that his mother got one replaced recently and got quotes from plumbers ranging from $230 (could not do it for a while) to $500 and that we should expect around $300 for labour.

So after driving around for 5 hours we decided to get the unit late yesterday so that the plumber can install it early this morning. The darn thing ruined our weekend but at least it is now fix and hopefully we would not have to deal with it for many years to come.

I had a shower this morning and it was freaking cold. Yikes! DH had to go out in the freezing cold to see if he could fix it. Not good, the pilot light is off and he couldn't light it up anymore. It might be time to get it replaced, it is about 15 years old, we have had it fixed/replaced a part about 6-7 years ago and some area have corroded and it's leaking. We both think that it might be better to just get a new system. I think last time we got the termostat replaced, it cost almost $400 for both parts and labour. I just had a quick google for a new one and we can get the cheapest one for just over $1000 fully installed. I think the one that we might want to get will be around $1500-$2000, it will be so much more efficient than our current one. The household fund will have to take a hit this month.

Yes!

Paid $2000 into the mortgage.
Current Balance = $125,255.25

Close to being under $125K

This only comes twice a year. I love getting either the cheques or the statements in the mail it’s like getting Christmas cards. Got the first statement yesterday for over $300 dollar, it was re-invested and got 54 more shares for it. I expect to get more of these statements in the next month or so.

Nothing else is happening here financially. I am just waiting for tomorrow, it will be PAYDAY! I’m looking forward to putting some money into the mortgage.

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.

Blow the budget yesterday…Yikes! In the end we spent almost $300 on clothes. We went out yesterday to see if we could find the empanada maker, no luck. I actually talked to my mum this morning and she said she will get her friend to get her one overseas instead. She won’t be able to get it until November though.

Anyway back to the crazy clothes shopping, we decide since we were going to be out near the factory outlets centre that we would stop by and see if we could find DH new jeans. Couple of his jeans have now got holes, I’ve fixed the holes but he won’t be able to wear them out, just at home jeans now. He only got 3 left, one is a tiny bit tight and the other one is fading fast. He wears jeans on Monday and Friday to work (their casual day) so he does wear them a lot and on the weekends too. I think it was two months ago we went shopping for one but could not find one we liked at reasonable price so went away with nothing then. For some reason the sales this time around was so much better, so we end up going a bit crazy. Basically we have now used up our entire clothing budget for the year.

We got:
From Adidas 3 pairs of running socks for DH and 1 pair knee high socks for me, I’ve always wanted one. They were only $5 a pair. I like this brand because I know from past purchase they last at least 10 years whereas the cheaper one only last a couple. Since the cheaper ones would have cost around this price it was definitely good value for money. We also got a cap each.

I also found a shoe shop that sale mainly sport shoes like hiking, climbing, etc. I finally found a really good hiking shoes, got it for only $35, it was initially worth $100+ was reduced to $70 and then they had 50% off that price.

Was not planning to get one now but I found a dress that I thought was nice. I hate shopping for dresses; it is not something that I would look for unless I really have to. I saw it on the mannequin and decided to try it on, it fit really well so I got it. A friend of mine is getting married early next year so I already got a dress for it. I got it for $49, it actually said $59 on it but the lady gave it to me for $49 I don’t know why. In the same store I also found a coat that will go well with the dress for only $39. Both of these items would have cost well over $100 each retail.

Then we finally got around to looking at jeans, we went to Levi Strauss store, luckily they were having 30% off on everything. DH got one for just over $60 and I found one for myself too. My one was definitely not necessary but I got it for a nice price for $34.

We also stopped at Gap and found another jean for DH for only $19, not as nice as the Levi’s but for $19 it’s good enough. And I also found him a shirt for also $19.

So yeah it was a long day shopping. No more clothing shopping for us until next year.

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).

We went to my mum’s place again last night. She called me while I was making dinner. I’ve asked her to get me something from her work to give as a birthday present to a friend. Her birthday is not until next month but I’m not sure I will see her next month so I will be giving it to her tonight, it just happened we’ve organised a get together few weeks ago, so it came just in time. I gave my mum $10 for it.

While there I helped my mum make some more empanadas, she is getting more and more orders now. She is actually finding it hard to keep up. Last night she was trying to make 120, one order. She got a friend who does cake decorations of some sort and has an online business for it. Anyway she asked my mum if she wants to put her empanada on her website, my mum actually said no because she is afraid that she won’t be able to do it. I’m actually thinking of getting her an empanada maker, I’m not sure where to get it or if it is even available here in Australia. It will be a good birthday/Christmas present for her. The bread maker has help her make the dough but she still needs to roll it out. I’ve actually got her to try the pasta maker but she didn’t like it because it’s too thin. And our pasta maker is hopeless you pretty much need two people to use it. It’s alright for making small amount of pasta but I think it will get tiresome if you need to make a lot of it.

Also she asked me if I wanted some instant coffee, this was one thing that I wanted to get at Costco, we are half way to our last jar. So I said yes! She got a box of 6/200g jars of Nescafe Gold Blend. She got all of them for $40 so less than $7 a jar. I just looked on-line and they are around $16-18 a jar at the supermarket. At Costco a similar type would probably be around $13-14. She got them from another friend who works for Nestle. Apparently the customer/s didn’t like them because of the jar design; I think they got consumers complaining about it. I can see why from just looking at it the jar is too top heavy and would be hard to grip (esp for small hands like mine) when opening it. I got two. The jar don’t bother me I will just put it into my coffee canister once I open it. Also score a bag of powdered milk, also from Nestle, DH use powdered milk all the time for making yogurt. I will give her $20 for all of them next time I see her. It will come out of the grocery budget.

I’m starting to think about getting a Costco membership again, ours expired 6 months ago. We are running out of things that we stocked up 6 months ago so I think it is time to go there again. It cost $60 p/a for a membership here. We are doing well with our grocery budget this year so I should be able to get the money out from that budget.

Not quite a NSD today because I asked DH to get me some strepsile lollies. I run out last night. They help with my coughing fit that seems to come on at night. I’ve been getting this itchy throat lately (it has been a week now) and they help to numb it.

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.

DH stopped by at ALdi last night to get milk, muesli, can of tomatoes, chickpeas and other pantry items. All up he spent $27.60.

I forgot to mention here that I received my handheld steam cleaner that I bought online few weeks ago now. I got two and I will give one to my mum as part of her birthday present later this month. I used it today to clean the filter of the range hood (exhaust fan above the stove). It worked really well the grease just got blasted off. I used to have to boil water to clean it and took a bit of time scrubbing. It really cut down the cleaning time and I think I can get away only cleaning it twice a month instead of every few days. Cleaning it every few days helped cut down on the build-up because once there are a bit of grease build up it took a lot more effort to clean it but I think with the steam cleaner it cut through it so much easier.

Anyway, hoping today will be a NSD. Just doing a bit of cleaning today, nice weather outside so I might do a bit more gardening later, I did a bit yesterday too.

Our monthly mortgage payment went through today.
Paid = $1218.00
Interest =$666.00 (yikes!)
Principal = $552.00
Current Balance = $127,255.25

DH got me up around 4:30am this morning to watch the 100m semis. This is his favourite event because he used to compete nationally in it when he was younger. Afterwards we went back to bed for an hour and got up again around 6:40 to watch the final, thank goodness the event only takes 10 seconds. The showboating however took so much longer. After that DH just went straight to work, I on the other hand went back to sleep and didn’t get up until after 10am, oh my

The rib eye steak for dinner last night was so good. It was more than an inch thick that I had to finish cooking it in the oven. It was cook to a perfect medium well. The garlic and mushroom sauce worked really well. DH was glad he didn’t have to go out to get the chips and it saved us $3.50.

Today we went to my mum’s place to pick up some sausage rolls, a friend of my mum works for a big bakery company. They actually supply bread to Aldi around here. I think they get the rejects/left over and for some reason she gives a lot to my mum and in turn since my mum can’t eat it all and don’t really like sausage rolls she gives it to us. She also takes some to her church and work. She also gets a lot of bread. Last week I managed to score a whole fruit loaf, I think it got rejected because it was slightly squash.

We also end up having lunch there, it is very rare that we go to my mum and that she won’t have anything for us to eat, she is always cooking. And after lunch my mum was cooking empanadas, someone was picking up an order of 30 empanadas. This makes me laugh, apparently this guy has been ordering 30 empanadas every week for the last month, I think he is addicted. There were some rejects that split a bit that we got to eat. She also cooked some extra for us to take home. And we got more take away food from our lunch leftover that DH can take to work tomorrow.

Tonight I’m thinking of making risotto with mushrooms, I want to use them up because they don’t last long.

Oh, today should be a NSD, I just realised. We were actually planning to go for a jog after lunch we actually had our running gear on but the weather got really bad this afternoon so we just came straight home. We also planned to stop at Aldi for milk but it can wait until tomorrow, lucky we did because DH just had enough time to mow the lawn before it started raining, I didn’t think he was going to make it.

So, we only spent just over $100 this weekend, nice start to the month.

We went grocery shopping today.

Spent $66.95 at the market, bought mainly meat at the market and some deli items, also got some apples, pears and lemons for only 99cents a kilo. We should have enough meat for the next 3 weeks. Got a really good deal on really nice cuts of eye fillets, was normally $22 a kilo but was reduced to $10 a kilo. We end up getting the last two pieces for just over $8. Will cook one tonight for dinner, DH and I will share one because they are too big I don’t think I could finish one all by myself. We like meat and eat it most days but we try to not eat too much, big portion. DH wants to have it with some potato chips but I forgot to get some potatoes. He’s thinking of going to get some cooked ones at the fish and chip shops but I think I will try to convince him to just have it with roasted pumpkin and steam carrots and peas. And I can make gravy with garlic and mushrooms and to make DH happy will put some chillies in it. Let’s see if I can convince him to not bother getting the hot chips.

We also went to the Asian shop, got lots of vegetables; couple different variety of mushrooms, okra, baby eggplants, ginger, and a lot of greens. We also stocked up on some essentials like sushi rice, nori, coconut milk, egg noodles, etc. All up we spent $35.17.

Grocery - $240
Home Phone - $25
Mobile - $20
Internet - $50
Fuel & Fare - $200
Health Insurance -$250
Entertainment -$200
Gifts -$150.00
Personal/Medical - $30
Clothing - $40
DH Allowance -$100
DW Allowance - $60
Miscellaneous - $30

TOTAL = $1,395

Grocery - $234.84 (over $4.84)
Utilities - $178.49 (under $1.55)
Home Phone - $21.57 (under $3.43)
Mobile - $20 (under $20.00)
Internet - $49.95 (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $143.76 (under $26.24)
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$222.80 (over $52.80)
Gifts -$50.00 (even)
Personal/Medical - $44.80 (under $15.20)
Clothing - $15.00 (under $25.00)
DH Allowance -$100 (even)
DW Allowance - $75 (even)
Miscellaneous - $1.98 (under $28.02)

TOTAL = $1,387.40 (under $62.60)

We’ve had 3 months in a row under budget. The last two months have been a pretty low spend month which is great. And this month could be the lowest for the year since we won’t have any utilities bill due, although as usual the entertainment will be a lot since it is my mum’s birthday later this month. I will post the Aug budget later.

We had 12 NSDs in July so that will be $120 to my Sunny Day Savings.

$1,400 into the Holiday Fund

$1,490 into the Household Fund

The ugly bit was the Exercise/Xmas fund I only put in $15 for the whole month. We were both sick for almost 2 weeks so no energy to exercise.

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.

I haven’t done much lately. I still got this annoying head cold. I stayed home all weekend. DH did the grocery shopping and all up only spent just over $33 on the weekend. The only positive thing about being sick I don’t have the energy to spend money.

I asked DH to get me Vicks VapoRub and he ended up getting it for free because it register the wrong price at the check-out and it is their policy that if they charge you the wrong price you get the item for free, so that was $6 in saving.

Still no news at DH’s work it has been 3 weeks and some of DH’s workmates are working without a signed contract. Apparently, they are waiting for the boss (who will make the final decision) to come back from his holiday. Hopefully they have sorted this out for the next round of contract negotiation which DH will be part of.

Yesterday was payday.

DH paid $1500 into the mortgage. A lot less than the $2500 that I hope to pay extra a month but we should be able to achieve Goal#1 even if we only put this much per month. Hopefully we can catch up a bit towards the end of the year. I will probably put about the same amount of money towards the holiday and household fund. We are not going on a big holiday this year so if we need to get cash for emergency we will raid the holiday fund first before touching the actual EF.

Current Mortgage Balance = $127,807.25

I'm not feeling too great at the moment so not much plan for spending this weekend. DH and I both agree to just take it easy he is trying to make sure he doesn't get it.

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.

As of the start of this month the government is now charging carbon tax to those company that emit carbon. Inevitably it will be passed on to us consumers. The other day we just received a letter from our Electric and Gas Company letting us know that prices will go up again this time it is due to the new carbon tax. It will go up on average around $8 a week, over $5 for electricity and around $3 for gas. The government when campaigning about this new tax promised that it will only increase living expense by about $9 per week and that a lot will be compensated by decreasing income tax and will be giving cash to low income and family with children. For DH and me it means we get nothing. I think the estimated $9 p/week was a big joke when electricity and gas alone accounts for $8 already. Again I am so glad that we got the solar panels last year.

We went for a another run yesterday. And then we came home had showers and went out for dinner near where we went for a run (25mins away from home). We didn't plan it very well yesterday. We had a voucher for this place it was for $29 but parking cost $10, actually more than in the CBD. I haven't been to this area for almost ten years. It's nice area, by the beach there are lots of nice restaurants but parking is crazy.

Today we might go grocery shopping, we need to get some meat.

In the last few days I have been sewing holes from DH's socks. There were about half a dozen that had small holes in them, I don't know how he does it holes in exactly the same spot. They are still relatively new, normally I would just throw them away. This is my first time trying to fix holes in socks, they turned out well and I'm glad I took the time to fix them now we won't need to buy new ones for a while yet.

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.

Mortgage got paid yesterday.

$669.10 = Interest
$548.90 = Principal

Current Balance = $129,307.25

Grocery - $230
Utilities - $180
Home Phone - $25
Mobile - $20
Internet - $50
Fuel & Fare - $170
Health Insurance -$250
Entertainment -$170
Gifts -$50
Personal/Medical - $50
Clothing - $40
DH Allowance -$100
DW Allowance - $75
Miscellaneous - $30

TOTAL = $1,460

Grocery - $213.76 (under $6.24)
Utilities - $158.45 (under $21.55)
Home Phone - $14.95 (under $10.05)
Mobile - $20 (under $20.00)
Internet - $49.95 (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $266.12 (over $46.12)*
Health Insurance -$249.21 (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$165.50 (over $15.50)
Gifts -$5.00 (under $45.00)
Personal/Medical - $31.86 (under $28.14)
Clothing - $15.00 (under $25.00)
DH Allowance -$100 (even)
DW Allowance - $60 (even)
Miscellaneous - $31.65 (under $3.35)

TOTAL = $1,361.45 (under $98.55)

*DH got a monthly train pass in the middle of the month; he wanted to see if it was better deal, not really. I think during winter it is better for him to get the monthly pass but when the weather gets warmer he can go to work early and get free pass for early bird. I’ve lowered this month’s budget for transport.

I just got both of them and both are due on the 10th of July.

Gas = $103.88 for 2 months
Electricity = $74.61 for 3 months

First time we owe the electric company some money this year. We are in the middle of winter so we used more energy than we produced from our solar panels. But because we got a cheque from them for $86.97 during summer we are still ahead. Also our gas bill is almost 50% less compare to that of last winter’s bill. We use the electric heater more than the gas heater now. I think we are saving roughly $200-$230 per quarter. So I think another year and we should be able to break-even from the cost of the solar panels.

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.

We decided that we will get a roof rack put on our car. Since we converted our car into LPG we lost a bit of space in our boot. We need to pick up a bookshelf that we bought from a charity store on the weekend. So instead of renting a pick-up truck for a cost of around $60 we decided to just get the roof racks done, in the long run it should save us a bit. I think it will get use a bit in the next few months; we already have plans to get doors for our wardrobe and maybe a new tallboy chest. The roof rack that DH wants to get will cost $340 (including installation). The other option would cost $310 but the more expensive one can be used to 90% of other type car, so we could move it to another if need to. Was not planning to get a roof rack until we get a new car, but I’m hoping that our current car can last few more years, since we need one now, I think this is the best solution.

I have been doing some redecorating in the last two weeks. I got great deals on some nice framed prints, got 4 for only $60. I got them at a store that sells furniture and decoration used from ex-display homes. Couple of them are perfect to go in our bedroom it will go very well with another couple drawings that I should get next week created by my artist friend. The other two got some scratches on them but should be able to fix them.

The other day I emptied out a cabinet in the family room. This is a built in cabinet that we just put junk in. I found about 100 candles in there, different sizes, some scented, most of them I got as a gift. So I think it’s about time I start using them. There were also a lot of old light bulbs that we don’t use anymore, I will take them to Ikea next time because they have recycle bin for them, also got boxes full of old tapes and another with games. I decided to paint it yesterday because it was looking very shabby. I also decided to trim some of the shelves thinner, so it will be even and will be able to put the ironing board in there. I already put the iron and other ironing items in there already. I don’t like putting them in the laundry because it is all the way to the back of the house just too far to lug around since I like to do my ironing in the side of the house where the tv is.