My Simple Financial Plan

So we went running again yesterday, the same place that we went to 2 weeks ago. I did better this time around, there was no side stitch (I did more side stretches this time around) and I definitely did more running than walking. I managed to keep up with DH, although to be fair he was going slow because his leg was a bit sore and he stopped a bit to stretch. I felt good right after running but I got a headache and was nauseous on the drive home. My legs are tight and sore today but it is not as bad as last time. Last time it took me 4 days to recover. I’m trying to stretch my legs today.

Afterwards we went to a nearby café for lunch. DH got a 20% coupon from his friend for this place. It still ends up being a bit pricey but it is one of our favourite places to go. We could have really skipped the lunch out and just brought our lunch with us just like last time.

I put a bit more money into the exercise challenge

Yesterday DH took some of his suit to the dry cleaners.

Also bought couple of ceramic pots, they were 50% off. I will use them for my orchids that need re-planting. We also got some towel rack and hand towel holder for 30% off. I will put them in the ensuite bathroom.

Today I’m planning to paint the bedroom ceiling we should have done it last year when we renovated it. Oh well, it wouldn’t take long. I want to get it done this weekend because I got the electrician to coming next week to install a ceiling fan. We need to get some plastic sheeting to cover the furniture.

We are getting ready to go for a run and will get the plastic sheeting on the way home and then paint the ceiling this afternoon.

DH went to Aldi Friday night to get some hamburger buns for dinner, he also some other items that we needed. All up he spent $13.21.

Today we got some fruits and vegetables, $12.45. And we also got a big pack of toilet paper. I didn't get any chicken because we didn't go to the market.

We only got $15.16 left in the grocery budget for the month. We will definitely need to buy more milk next weekend. We got more than enough meat to last the month. Apart from milk I don't know what else we will need, I guess I will see next weekend.

Tonight our football team is playing against the team that beat us in the grand final last season. DH and I are really looking forward to watching it live on tv tonight. I thought it would be a good time to have sausage roll and homemade hamburger. Good food to eat in front of the tv.

DH will have to stop by at Aldi tonight to get burger buns, milk and other things we will need to get from Aldi. This will save us a trip there tomorrow. We will only need to go to the market tomorrow for fruits, vegetables and maybe some chicken if it is good price.

I didn’t do much cleaning today just cleaned all the cabinet doors in the kitchen and also cleaned the microwave, it only took a quick wipe it was pretty clean to start with.

I spent a bit of time knitting today I decided to bring out my knitting basket. I’m about to finish one that I started last year. I tend to get excited starting one but fizzle out towards the end. But it is good hobby to do while I watch the stock market take a dive 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.

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.

On the way home yesterday we went to Aldi we got everything we needed there that we didn’t bother going to the fruit/vegetable shop. We only got milk, a dozen eggs, bananas, bunch of spring onions, asparagus and a bag (1 kilo) of avocado. It only cost $11.35.

The avocados are not ready for eating yet hopefully in few days DH can make smoothie out of them. DH is still making a batch of yogurt every week. Most of it he uses to make smoothie normally with banana and honey. Last night we tried pineapple, we had leftover pineapple when I opened a can the other night to use for our homemade pizza. So I can’t wait to try the avocado.

We got to my mum’s place as she was leaving to go to church. We spent the next 3 hours changing her kitchen tap to a new one that we got her for mother’s day. For the last two years she has been telling me how she wanted to get a higher/taller tap so that she can wash her big pots easier. The one she had was a really low profile which was a pain to wash anything tall, plus her sinks are quiet small so anything big like pots are hassle to wash. And in the last few months she has been complaining about it needing a new washing. The dripping has been getting worst every time we go over there.

It would not have taken as long but the one we got her was way too big for her sink, it looked ridiculous. I don’t know what I was thinking when I got it last week. I didn’t realised how much smaller her sink is, it’s only half the size of our one. So DH and I had to go back to a hardware store to get another one. The one we got her didn’t have the vegetable sprayer part so it turnout to be almost half the price. My brother was meant to put in some money for it, I told him to just give mum the cash which he did. In the end mum was very happy.

Now we got a spare tap, we can either return it or put it in our kitchen. DH wouldn’t mind changing our current one. I don’t mind keeping it either. Our current one is getting old and there is always a paddle of water around the base of it, so there is a leak somewhere. Anyway, it is something we will think about in the next few days.

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 went to the city to have lunch with DH and 3 of his co-workers today. We went to an all you can eat buffet for $29 each. Wow…the place was massive and had so much food to choose from. It had an area for antipasto and salads, soups, Chinese food (yum cha style), curries and roasts (pork, chicken and duck). It also had an area they called Japanese kitchen where they make fresh sushi and sashimi. And in the other side you can get the chef to cook a dish, just pick the vegetables, noodles, sauce, etc. and they will cook it for you. And then there was the massive selection of desserts. I didn’t bother with the soups, even though they look really good. I think if the weather was cold I would have. I did get any noodles either, had to have room for the yummy desserts. The crème brule was so good, one of DH co-worker had two.

While out at lunch I got a message from my friend letting me know that they got the wedding gift and that it is really lovely. I’m glad it got to them in time.

Last night’s Moroccan soup was good, although it was a bit too sweet for me (that’s what you get when you put sweet potato in it…Duh!), but DH absolutely love it, he had extra. I used some of the Turkish bread in the freezer as croutons. I have no idea what to cook for dinner tonight, after eating so much for lunch I really don’t want to think about it right now (it is 5:10pm at the moment so I will have to decide soon). We do have left over soup. I might be able to get away with no cooking tonight. I could make salad to go with the soup.

I cooked the Singaporean noodles for dinner last night. I also made a key lime pie. I found a really simple recipe yesterday. DH and I both agree it was nice but too sweet for us and we both preferred the cheesecake that I made last week.

On the weekend I bought a lot of sweet potatoes at the market, it was for only 69cents a kilo. I found another recipe yesterday that sound yummy it is for a Moroccan sweet potato, carrot and chick pea soup. I’ll make this for dinner tonight. I already started soaking the chickpea last night.
It must be the colder weather that I’m really in the mood for cooking.

There is no plan to spend money today. I might go out for lunch tomorrow with DH and his co-workers/friends. We want to try this new all you can eat place near DH’s work.

This morning I saw an ad on TV for an airfare sale, its buy one get another seat for free. Unfortunately, it’s only on Oct to early Dec and for limited number of flights. I called DH at work and we decided to visit his parents in late October. We will only go for a weekend, so only an overnight stay. Actually found an $89 (for two) for an early Saturday morning flight. But we have to pay $89 each for a Sunday night flight home. This was the best value we could find in peak time. Normally these days it will be at least $120 each 1-way. The total cost in the end is $283 (including a $16 fee to pick your on seats). DH thought it was necessary, he wanted us to seat together. I couldn’t care much for it because it is only an hour flight, but DH wanted it and it is nice to have DH seating next to me when I have ear pressure problem while flying, it can be very stressful and he helps me relax.
I’m budgeting $500 for this trip. Will need about $60-70 for taxi back and forth to the airport, the in-laws will pick up/drop us off from their end. We will give $100 to the little kiddies as belated/early birthday gifts. This will leave us around $50 for spending, just in case we will need to buy food.

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Update
Last night I finally got around to ordering the wedding gift basket, it has a bottle of nice sparkling, two champagne glasses, champagne bucket and chocolates. It should be delivered this afternoon, just got an email from them this morning telling me that they are about to dispatch it. I like their customer service. It cost $115, including $15 for delivery.
The pilaf turned out really well last night, it is a very good one pot meal. Tonight I’m planning to make Singaporean noodles but without prawns. Don’t have any and I’m allergic (but I still eat them coz I love them).

Today my legs are killing me. It was painful trying to get out of bed this morning. I can't believe that jog yesterday was going to be this painful. I actually didn't even jog all the way through. I walked some parts of it, while DH jogged ahead and would came back to me. I'm not a runner that's for sure. I get bad stitch after 5 minutes of running. DH used to compete nationally when he was younger, as a sprinter and hurdler. I think he gets bored coz I'm too slow. I've spend the day icing and heating it, and also I've jump on the exercise bike for few minutes doing it very slowly. It is feeling a lot better this afternoon.

I’m thinking of making rice pilaf for dinner tonight. I've not made this before but always wanted to try it. I got a little bit of chorizo that I think would be nice in it.

6 months ago I decided to have a go at trading full time. Since I quit my work mid last year, it was a good opportunity to do what I’ve always wanted. I’m starting very small; my main aim is to just work on my trading strategies and plan.

My goal in this first year of trading is to survive and if possible do the following:
1.Keep my capital
2.Outperform the XAO (Australian Index) = 3-5% during trade period
3.Outperform the Online Savings interest rate = ~ 6%
4.Outperform our Mortgage interest rate = ~ 7%

I’ve decided to analyse my trade every 20 trades, I think it is just enough number to have a comprehensive statistics.

Trade Period = 6 months
Total Number of Trades = 20
Total Number of Winning Trades = 8 (40%)
Total Number of Losing Trades = 12 (60%)
Average Win to Loss Ratio = 2.7
Average Trade Hold Time = 31.7 days
Average Winning Trade Hold Time = 51 days
Average Losing Trade Hold Time = 18.6 days
Percentage Return on Capital Outlay = 53%
Percentage Return on Total Capital = 15%

Trading is hard work but it can be very satisfying. I like the lifestyle, I love working from home and I can do it anytime I want.

15% is not that bad considering the Australian market has pretty much gone sideways in the last 6 months. There is definitely room for improvement (hopefully).

Today was a great day. We slept in. The weather was pretty good so we decided to go for a jog. On the way to jogging we stop by at a store to buy a new iron. Our 15 year old iron (which was handed down to us 11 years ago by MIL) has not been working that well in the last couple of months, so it was time to get a new one. We looked at 2 stores and second one was slightly cheaper and was giving us a further $5 dollars off. We went for another Philips, I was looking at two models one was the cheap one for $50 and the one that we got was for $95 (this was more powerful and had an auto shut off). After we decided to get the more expensive one we found out that there is $20 cash back for this model (but none for the cheaper one). So it will end up being only $75. The sales person was of course trying to sell us the $300-400 once. Those ones claim to cut your ironing in half. Well if it cost 4 times as much I expect it to cut my ironing time to a quarter. I used the iron tonight and it was fantastic, I might actually start to like ironing - Not!

We went jogging for an hour along the river, and afterwards had little picnic. We brought sandwiches with us. We did well considering we went jogging pass one of our favourite café who make really yummy cakes. For 1 hour of jogging I put in $6 worth in the exercise challenge (xmas fund).

Afterward we came home and planted the kaffir lime, passion fruit and the strawberries that I got yesterday. I’m not too sure how the strawberries will go planting it in autumn. I hope it will survive the winter. I planted in a big bag so that I can move it around. It is an experiment; if it works I’ll be enjoying some strawberries in spring.


The bag only cost $2 and the seedlings was $2.95 and probably used about $5 worth of soil/manure/sugar cane.

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

We pretty much spent the whole day out shopping. The weather was terrible; the sun never came out, non-stop shower and was freezing cold. First stop was the Asian shop, spent $79.61, $38.00 was for a big bag of Jasmine rice. We definitely got more out of money, for example coriander and Vietnamese mint were only 65cent for a bunch - normally it will be $2 a bunch at the supermarket. Then we went to the market, we got a whole chicken, over 3 kilos of pork (different cuts), a kilo of fish, 2 different kinds of cheeses, more fruits and vegetables.

We came home for lunch, just had some leftover. DH put the washing in the dryer and put on another load of washing is machine. While he did that I decided to make chicken stock to use for dinner.

We then decided to go to hardware/nursery store. We end up getting 4 bags of potting mix, strawberry seedlings and 2 metres of share cloth. We also decided to get my mum another gift, it cost just over $150. I called my brother to see if he wanted to go in with us, he will give me $50. I could have got her the cheaper version but I think this one is nicer and my brother was very happy to just put in money for it. I will just give her the steamer for her birthday in few months’ time. I don’t think I will receive it for another month anyway. So now mother’s day is sorted.

Then after the hardware store, we stop at Aldi which was next door. We got milk, bacon, honey, breakfast items eggs and paper towel.

We got home around 4:30pm. I decided to make my chicken stock into Vietnamese Pho soup for dinner … so good in this weather.

We got our car back today. In the end it cost $720. DH is really happy with the work, I think we finally found a good mechanic and the best thing is the shop is actually really close to us. The shop is only a block away from a train station which makes it so much easier for DH to go to work after dropping it off and pick up. They were very thorough with the car service and I like how they itemised everything in the invoice. They actually fixed the shaking problem that we’ve had for the last 2 years. The other places have never been able to fix it. I won’t mind going for drives again now.

I just created a big grocery shopping list. I’m planning to go to the market for meat, seafood, vegetables and fruits. I’m also planning to go to the Asian shop, not far from the market, to get a big bag of rice and other Asian goodies. And if we can swing it maybe also go to ALdi.

DH got told by the mechanic that they will have to keep the car for another day. He’s been told that there are 3 things wrong with it (all I recognise is that it needs a new brake pad). It will cost around $460 not including labour. DH will find out tomorrow, I’m afraid it will probably cost around $800 maybe more. Yikes! It will be a big hit to our Car Fund. At the moment we currently have $15,202 balance in the car fund. I really like it be at $15K balance, which means I will have to again put more money into it. I will hold it off until towards the end of the year when hopefully we have achieved all our financial goals for this year. I’m just hoping that we will have a bit of extra money to go toward this.

I vacuumed the ducted heater, all 5 outlets. I took out the filters and washed it. I also put few drops of eucalyptus oil in the duct, now the whole house smell like eucalyptus. I’m pretty sure if a koala where to walk by it will want to come in. Since the vac was out I decided to just vacuum the whole house, it was in my to-do list for tomorrow.

The cheesecake was really good, it did not crack at all, and that was my biggest worry about it. We had some after dinner. DH took another slice to work today. He was really happy coz I rarely make sweets and he loves them. He always claims that he has two stomachs, one is just for dessert. We only tend to have them when we are having a party or eating out.

Good news this morning our mortgage will be going down 40 basis points (0.4%) effective 11 of May. Not as good as 0.5% but not as bad as another bank who only lower it 0.32%, and some still haven’t made any announcement. They all want to keep some for themselves. And of course they lower the saving rate by the full 0.5%. They don’t want to leave anyone out, got to screw everyone right? And just to make it worst one of the bank that have not made a move yet just posted yet another record profit yesterday, we are talking billions. Even as a shareholder I don’t like it. Okay, enough of my ranting.

DH dropped off the car at the shop today, DH doesn’t have a clue how much it will cost. I think they will give him a call about it later.

For the first time this year I put on the ducted gas heater this morning and it smell a bit and there were dusts coming out in every outlet. I turned it off right away. I will need to vacuum the filters in it but I’m procrastinating.

DH left work early today to go see a doctor about his uvula. They have been sore since our dentist visit on Saturday. He said that the dentist accidently hit it and now it's swollen. He tried gargling with salt water last night it helped but decided to still see the GP. The doctor visit is free but the medicine cost him $12.99. And he will have to go back next week for a follow up.

While at the doctor he also asked the doctor to have a look his moles. She suggested to him to see another doctor in the same clinic who specialise on it. He has some sort of machine that he uses. He will now have to go back to the clinic twice next week. He couldn't book the same day but he managed to book for 7pm for both so he won't need to leave work early.

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.

I forgot to mention yesterday that we had 10 NSDs in April. That’s $100 towards my Sunny Day Saving.

May Budget:
Grocery - $250
Utilities - $100
Rates - $340*
Home Phone - $25
Mobile - $20
Internet - $50
Fuel & Fare - $200
Health Insurance -$250
Entertainment -$200^
Gifts -$200**
Personal/Medical - $50
Clothing - $30
DH Allowance -$100
DW Allowance - $60
Miscellanous - $25

TOTAL = $1,900

*Our quarterly property rate should be due later this month.
**Will need to order that wedding gift this weekend.
^I’m not really sure how much to budget for entertainment this month. We already got two dinners out plan, so I’ve decided to budget more just in case something else will come up later in the month.

Grocery - $230.00 ---(over $1.07)
Utilities - $100.00 --- (under $100)
Home Phone - $20.00 --- (under $3.77)
Mobile Phone - $40.00 --- (under $10.00)
Internet - $50.00 --- (under $0.05)
Fuel & Fare - $180.00 --- (over $48.15)*
Health Insurance - $250.00 --- (under $0.79)
Entertainment - $200.00 --- (over $19.19)
Gifts - $150.00 --- (over $63.50)**
Per/Med - $200.00 --- (under $30.19)
DH Allowance - $100.00 --- ($0)
My Allowance - $75.00 --- ($0)
Misc Items - $25.00 --- (over $11.65)

TOTAL = $1,670.00 --- (OVER $117.38)

Overall we went over by $117.38.
*Will have to be more realistic with my budget in our monthly transportation cost.
**Both some mother’s day gifts that I wasn’t planning to get until next month.

When we got home late Saturday afternoon we found the light bulb in fish tank flickering like crazy and all the fish was so stress out.

DH got a new light bulb yesterday, normally it would have been $22.95 but he had some credit from the aquarium store due to selling them some of the baby fish few months ago. In the end it only cost him $9.95.

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Received the gas bill for $91.95 and AMEX over $750 (a lot of it is all the dining out that we been doing, oh my...). Both are due middle of the month.

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).

3rd time go at typing this, I don't know what is going on. I've decided to now use Notepad and will just cut and paste.

Just a quick update on what I've been doing in the last few day. Been a bit busy.

Tuesday night DH went to ALdi to get some groceries.
He spent $19.55 which left us with $7 in the grocery budget for the month. Will get sausages for lunch, should just have enough. Also bought a small mother's day gift for DH's mum. Will still have to think of something else to get for her. I'm running out of ideas.

Wednesday was our public holiday. Spent the morning helping mum buy a car. In the afternoon we stayed home to watch the footy game. We got pizza for dinner.

Thursday DH put in another $50 into his train pass, we are now over our transport budget.

Friday we decided to put another $1000 into the mortgage, apart from this it could have been a NSD.

Saturday we finally went to the dentist, our health insurance covered for it this time except for the $8 for a special toothpaste for DH. Also $12 for the day parking. After the dentist we decided to stay in the city, we thought may as well make good use of our parking. It was such a nice day to just hang out. There were a lot of street performance that kept us entertain. We stayed for lunch and coffee in the afternoon. We decided to use our allowances for this expenses. It was such a lovely day, was not planned especially the spending but worth it. Loved sitting by the riverside with coffee just people watching and listening to this couple basking/singing. Afterwards, on our way home we decided to stopped by the factory outlet place. Ended up spending $154 for 3 tops for me (I wanted more winter tops) and 2 t-shirts for DH and 1 business shirt for him.

Ralph Lauren was having 70% storewide, we got DH's business shirt from there and one of my top. DH should have enough work shirts now. I actually only really budgeted $50 for clothing this month, this is one of those things that I could never budget well.
Most months we don't buy clothing. But looking at our yearly budget we still got $300 in the clothing budget. This purchases now push as over by almost $100 for the month. The month ends tomorrow so it is not too bad.