My Simple Financial Plan

We have been spending a bit lately.All weekend we were out and about, except for breakfast we ate out 3 out of the 4 meal. The only time we were more to eat was on Satuday night but even then we got takeaway sushi. On a good note we found a nice Mexican restaurant and I guess I could argue that our grocery bill was really low. All up it cost $98 for 4 meals, definitely not frugal.

No more eating out until next month. There is more money in the budget for it, actually we are already over in our entertainment budget. Anymore eating out or activities it will have to come out of our individual allowance money.

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.

We finished the toilet renovation on Sunday. We painted behind the cistern tank in the morning and left it to dry while we went out shopping. I actually found the window blinds on sale we will put it up this weekend.

Taking out the old door.


New door with the new light/fan switch.


New studs (not talking about DH haha)and new plasterboards.


Coming together.




The built in shelf.




I'm not too sure how much it all cost, I'd say around $200-$250. The most expensive cost was getting the electrician to move the light/fan switch to the other side and the window blinds cost just over $40 and we spend less than $50 on materials. Most materials we used we already had, a leftover from the ensuite renovation. Oh I forgot the new toilet cost $95, we got it last year, it was 50% off.

Today we got up very late. I got breakfast in bed , nothing special just oats and coffee but it was still nice to stay in the nice warm bed.

Even though it was a very gloomy and it showered on and off all day we decided to go for a run. We went to a park about 25 mins away. We decided to go to this park which is a bit further than the one we been going to because I wanted to go shopping near there afterwards. We run around the man-made lake for almost an hour, we were pretty lucky because it stopped raining just before and didn’t start again very lightly, just 5 mins before we finished.

After our run we drove to a market 2 blocks away and had lunch at our favourite Spanish restaurant, we both had a plate of paella each and shared a cup of chilli hot chocolate, it was so good.

Spent $6.50 at the market for fruits and vegetables, we got some bananas, capsicum, bok choy and potatoes. We then went to a store across the road to get a ladle, meat tenderiser and a sifter. I love this store they have everything you need for the kitchen, they actually cater for restaurants (I think they get discounts for buying bulk) but the general public can also come in.

Then just another block away is an Aldi, we only spend $16.61 on grocery and DH got a pipe drain cleaner hose for only $6.99. Just in time because he will need to clean the bathroom drain tomorrow. We won’t need to go to the hardware store to get one.

The last stop was to a fabric/ household item type store. I wanted to go there because they are having some sale, this was the main reason why I wanted to go to this place. I wanted to get a window blind for the small window in the toilet. Unfortunately, the one that I wanted (which is the same to what we already got in the other rooms) is not on sale. I will wait because they usually have a sale every couple of months. The trip however wasn’t a waste because I found a good sale on flannelette sheets set. We got a set earlier this year, both DH and I really like it so we wanted to get another set. Was not planning to get it today thought but it was on sale. Also got more knitting yarn, I need another one to finish DH’s scarf that I started last month, he wanted a longer one and got another big yarn that should be good to make into a throw rug/blanket. The knitting stuff will come out of my allowance money, my little hobby.

I experimented last night and made coconut pudding. I bought a whole coconut on the weekend at the Asian shop and I decided to use that instead of opening a can. We got this coconut grinder 2 years ago in Fiji and this is our first time using it.





We had to sit on it. We put it on our step so it was easier to put a bowl under it to catch the coconut meat. I then put it into a cheese cloth then DH wringed it to get the coconut cream/milk out. A lot more work than opening a can of coconut but it was not bad. It was actually fun to do.

The coconut pudding is already half gone. DH took some for his morning tea. I will definitely make that again and will take a photo next time (I forgot this time).

Last week DH and I discussed about maybe going away this weekend since it is a 3-day weekend (it’s the Queen’s birthday holiday on Monday). We thought about maybe going to a place called Lakes Entrance (about 3 hours away from our place), we haven’t been there since our honeymoon visit. I thought about maybe going there for an overnight stay (Sunday night) then coming home Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, with all the rain we have been having the whole area is flooded. Some town has been evacuated and a lot of the roads are closed. So I think we will just stay home and we will make it a footy weekend, i.e. we will be watching footy all weekend. It will be a stay-cation instead.

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!

It was not a No spend day either. DH decided to get milk at Aldi last night (we will be running out of it today). He used most of it on Sunday making yogurt. He thought of getting it last night just in case he will be coming home very late tonight. Since he was near his favourite petrol station he decided to fill up the car too. So that was all of yesterday’s spending.

Also yesterday I finally finish the renovation, well my part anyway. DH will have to move the cistern so we can paint behind it. We could just leave it as it is but I know it will annoy me knowing that it wasn’t done. He will do it on the weekend.

Last night our home phone and internet was off for about 6 hours. I suspect it was because of the storm. I didn't even know about it until my mum tried to call me at home. Luckily our mobile phone is with a different provider and that was working.

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.

Our normal monthly mortgage payment hit today.

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

Current Balance = $132,556.15

Only spending yesterday was $7.80 for coal that we need for our barbeque. We had skewer pork bbq for lunch; it was really good I marinated it the night before. DH really liked it and he keeps telling me that we should really make it again. The weather was not the best for bbq, it was cold and raining (it is winter after all), but we managed.

In the afternoon I made chicken stock that I used to make chicken and mushroom risotto. I think it was the best risotto I’ve ever made. I used oyster mushroom instead of the boring button mushroom, it has more flavour. I got them from the Asian shop, a lot cheaper, and they have more variety of mushrooms than at the supermarket. I also used few different cheeses (that I got from the market) when cooking it. Then I sprinkled it with parmesan cheese at the end. I got some leftover for lunch… I’m looking forward to that

Tonight I will use up the leftover stock I might make some soup maybe Vietnamese Pho I got some Vietnamese mint. And I’m thinking of making some noodles, to use up the leftover mushroom (they have a very short use by date).

Last night DH took me out for dinner. He was really determined that we go out he even picked out the restaurant, I’m normally the one that plan this stuff. He has wanted to take me to this Mexican restaurant that he has been to before (over 10 years ago). Well I think they’ve change management since then and while the food was nice I think it was too pricey for what we got.

DH feels bad that I’ve been doing the renovation by myself all week and that’s why he wanted to take me out. He wanted to use his allowance money for but I insist that we have enough in the entertainment money for it.

Speak of renovation, we only got a bit of tiling to do, hopefully we will get it done today, and then just painting. It has been really slow waiting for the plaster to dry. It needs to dry before I can sand it properly, sanding it while wet just clogs up the sandpaper. It should really be done by tomorrow.

I said I was planning to only spend $70 on groceries today, well was I wrong. All up it ended up to be $107. Spent $21.29 at the Asian shop, $9.36 at Woolworths (we didn't bother going to Aldi, it's out of the way and we didn't need to get much stuff from there) and the rest was spent at the market. Decided to get about a month's worth of meat, all up we spent almost $54. It was cheaper to get 2kilos worth of stuff than just a kilo that's why we got more than I was planning. I didn't mind, I prefer we only go to the market once a month instead of twice because of the crazy parking. We also got $18 worth of cheeses (got 5 different types of cheese) and salami at the deli.

So we only got $113 left in the budget for the month (about $28-30 p/week). I think it is doable.

DH got coupons for Hungry Jack's (also known as Burger King in the US), he came home last night with two whopper burgers and two small fries. It only cost him $4 for the lot, normally just one whopper burger is around $4.25(?). So he was really keen to get them for dinner, the problem however is that you are only allowed one coupon per visit so ended up going to two places. He got one from the one near the train station where he leaves the car and he then drove up to the one near our place (it's couple minutes out of the way). I guess DH really want to have them for dinner, I didn't mind, I didn't have to cook.

Here’s what we are aiming for this month.

Grocery - $220
Utilities - $180
Home Phone - $25
Mobile - $20
Internet - $50
Fuel & Fare - $220
Health Insurance -$250
Entertainment -$150
Gifts -$50
Personal/Medical - $60
Clothing - $40
DH Allowance -$100
DW Allowance - $60
Miscellaneous - $35

TOTAL = $1,460

Planning to do a big grocery shopping tomorrow, I just wrote a shopping list and it is rather long. We will have to go to the market to get meat, cheeses (Gouda and mozzarella), salami, bread, fruits and vegetables. Then to the Asian shop for soy sauce, noodles, etc. We will also need to go to Aldi for milk, marmalade, butter and eggs. I’m hoping to spend under $70.

We just made it under budget.

May 2012:
Grocery - $250 --- (over $12.69)
Utilities - $100 --- (under $8.05)
Rates - $340 --- (under $3.00)
Home Phone - $25 --- (under $8.00)
Mobile - $20 --- (under $5.00)
Internet - $50 --- (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $200 --- (under $2.80)
Health Insurance -$250 --- (under $0.79)
Entertainment -$200 --- (under $15.70)
Gifts -$200 --- (over $11.20)
Personal/Medical - $50 --- (over $39.38)
Clothing - $30 --- (under $18.52)
DH Allowance -$100 --- ($0)
DW Allowance - $60 --- ($0)
Miscellaneous - $25 --- (under $11.06)

TOTAL = $1,900 --- (under $9.70)

We had 10 NSDs so that’s $100 into the Sunny day savings.

Just paid the property rate for this quarter, $337.
That's it for the month, I can now finalise May. And the will come up with the June budget. Next month should less expensive than this month.

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.

Again, I've been busy renovating. It is taking a while, I've been doing it by myself in the last two days. DH had to go to work, he can only do a bit after work because firstly he is already tired and we are not allowed to use power tools after 8pm.

I decided to make a built in shelf into the wall so that is also taking a bit of my time, it is a bit fiddly to make.

Spending today was only for DH train pass $20 and yesterday was $14.05 at the hardware store. Tomorrow should be a NSD which would make it 10 for the month. I can pretty much finalise this month, the only spending left is for property tax due on the 31st.

DH managed to fix it last nigh, it took him almost two days to figure it out. First thing I did was to gather my receipts that we collected on the weekend and then updated my spreadsheet.

I'm planning to do a little bit of plastering today. DH will need to go back to the hardware store tonight to get something else, the hardware store is near the train station where he park the car so it is convenient.

Too tired to cook tonight, so we got some pizza. Spent $17.50 for two large size, plenty of left over for lunch for tomorrow.

We finished building the wall today. We had to go to the hardware store to get some more supply that we couldn't get yesterday (I think we spent about $30, I left the receipt in the car). The store yesterday didn't have what we needed. There are still a bit to do, we still need to do plastering, put up the cornice, a bit of tiling and painting. I'm hoping to finish it by next weekend.

Both DH and I are a bit sore today. I actually decided to put some money into the exercise challenge, with all the hammering and sawing that we did today it feel like we have been exercising. (I forgot to mention that I deposited $31 on Friday into the xmas fund/exercise challenge, its 4 weeks worth of exercise).

I accidently hit my thumb when I was trying to hammer a nail and a blood blister developed. I pricked it because I don't like looking at it. It was tiny and it didn't really hurt.

I also forgot to mentioned yesterday that we went to Aldi yesterday for grocery shopping, got more than what we need for this week. We are now about $10 over on our grocery for this month, it's not too bad.

Yesterday, I got another nasty virus in my computer, it happened while I was reading some blog (not SA). DH is fixing it right now, hope to get it back soon. I got few spending to record in my spreadsheet which is in that computer. Luckily, I've backed up about a week ago, so if DH can't get it back it will not be hard to update my spreadsheet.

I bought a couple of pomegranate last Sunday at the fruit shop. It is something that we don't find here that often, so I don't really know what to do with it except eat it as it is. Few days ago I Google it and found a nice recipe that I can use it with. I found a simple recipe for a quinoa and pomegranate salad. I haven't had time to make it until tonight. Tonight was the best time to have it because we were too busy removing the old door in the toilet and building a new wall to close it off. Now that the light switch has been moved next to the new door we can finally do this. We should be able to put up the new plasterboard tomorrow.

Anyway the salad was really good and it took no time to make.

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.

We now have a ceiling fan in the bedroom. And the toilet got a new fan and light. All up it took the electrician almost 3 hours. He had to get up in the attic, which is cramp and dusty. He had to provide some of the stuff like light switches and light batten. I thought for sure he would ask for more money than what he quoted. Even though it took him a lot longer to put the fan (it’s a new kind that he has never seen before), it was a lot fiddlier.

So in the end I gave him $300 cash. Unfortunately there was a bigger hole in the ceiling, which couldn’t be covered by the fan so I had to patch it up. I’m just waiting for it to dry and then I will paint it. I also had to do the same in the wardrobe area where it had some holes from the old screws from the old light fitting.

I’m just working on emptying the bedroom to get it ready for the electrician to install the ceiling fan tomorrow. I want to empty it because I don’t want dust and worst insulation dust getting on our stuff. The electrician is coming at 9am tomorrow so DH and I have to move the bed before then, he will have to go to work a little bit later tomorrow.

The electrician will also be moving the light switch in the toilet next to the new door and he will be changing the light fitting near the wardrobe. All up he quoted $300 but it could be more, I hope not.

After this all we really need to do in the main bedroom is to put in a proper wardrobe. At the moment we just have an Ikea wardrobe without any doors, that’s why I have to move all our clothes in the spare bedroom. I would love to get an inbuilt one, maybe next year.

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.

I got a lot to do today. My legs are 100% better so I can actually move around now.

Things I need to do today:
I need to finish my ironing - I started last night, got tired so I went to bed. It’s half-way done.
Need to vacuum the house.
Put up the towel rail in the bathroom.

Spending:
21/5 = NSD
22/5 = DH got a haircut. This was not in the budget for this month but he needed it and he had some free time yesterday afternoon to do it, which is rare for him. He also bought some vitamins that have run out.
23/5 = Today the home phone is due.

Okay better get started on those to do list.

The avocadoes are ready for eating. DH use one last night, he made a banana and avocado smoothie, it was really good. I want to try it with just avocado. There are still 6 left we got to eat them quickly because they don’t last long, I don’t want to waste them.

So today I’m making some avocado and cucumber sushi, I got some sushi rice and I bought a packet of seaweed when we went to the Asian shop earlier this month, so I’m all set to go. I’m not going to make too much, we are already planning to go to a Japanese restaurant this Friday night. We’ve been having a lot of Japanese food lately, not that I’m complaining I love it.

Even though I wasn’t feeling well I decided that we really got to paint the bedroom ceiling now before the ceiling fan get installed later this week. I think it would be more of a pain to paint it after the ceiling fan is in. When we got home after our run/lunch I spent about half an hour preparing the room while DH did the mowing. I had to put the plastic drop sheets all around the walls, floor and furniture. It didn’t take long to paint; I used the paint brush around the side while DH used the paint roller. It only needed a coat, we are just refreshing it really. We were finish by 6pm, including cleaning up.

We bought the plastic drop sheets earlier yesterday, I was surprise to find out the price is so much cheaper now. I buy them all the time and they were always $1.50 each but yesterday it was for only 0.98 cents (it is not a sale price either), that’s 30% less than what it used to be. Since a new hardware store opened up down the road last year prices in this old hardware store has been a lot more competitive. I guess they have to lower prices because they have a policy that if you find an item cheaper somewhere else they will match it with % discount (I think it used to be 10%).

Another expense yesterday that was totally avoidable was the Thai takeaway. I was craving it and just did want to have hamburger for 3 nights in a row. And I just got lazy to cook anything else after doing the painting. I opted to pay half of it out of my allowance money, serves me right.