My Simple Financial Plan

Nothing much going on here.
The only spending this week so far was for gas, $77.33 and the voip phone for $4.45

I have been keeping up with the exercise challange so far.
Tuesday I added $2 for 100 sit-ups and 30min bike.
Yesterday I added $1 for 50 sit-ups, 50 push ups and some lunges and squat exercises. I also did a bit of stretching, which what I really need to do more of. Also DH put in $1 yesterday for a session on the exersice bike.

That add up to $7 so far this week.

I've decided to do the exercise challenge too. I know there are few people that are doing it, I think this was started by Mary Ann.

I also got DH to go along with it. When he got home last night I told him that we have to exercise for christmas. He agreed that it could be a fun way to exercise, good motivator.

So last night:

$1 = for 50 sit ups
$1 = for half an hour on the exercise bike.
$1 = DH did 40mins on the exercise bike.

We don't have pennies here, our smallest coin is 5cent. I don't have much of those so I think I will keep note here how much we have every payday and start over again.

We did pretty good on the weekend. Apart from buying the 2 tyres we spent less than $100. The tyre cost only $238 thanks to a good sale. While out DH got some fuel for $30.

Saturday night we went to watch a cricket game, ticket was already paid for, it was my christmas present to DH. Parking was a bit expensive, always is in the city, that was $12 and then we did ended up buying coke and snacks but they will come out of our allowances. $4 for me for the snacks I got it at the shop before going to the game and $4.40 for Dh for the coke at the game. We normally would spend a lot more for food but we had dinner early at home and then brought extra snacks that we already had at home and water from home. We didn't have softdrinks at home that's why DH bought a bottle at the game. We should have bought at the shop it would have cost half the price.

The only spending that happened on Sunday was for grocery in Aldi. DH did will, I stayed home to do some cleaning instead but I give DH a list and a strict budget of $40. He only spent $37.20. That leave us $112.80 for the rest of the month. It is a good start but still going to be a tight budget.

at DH's pay or should I say the agency that deals with DH's pay.

DH came home yesterday and said that he got his payslip and that he also got another email from them with a list of dates of his pay period for the rest of the year. Well it seems like he will be back to the 4 week schedule again. I just don't understand why they did that pay 2 weeks ago. It is really stuffing up my budget for this month. His next schedule pay won't be until early next month. So now we are short this month in terms of income versus expenses. This is the worst month to do it to since it is the most expensive month because of annual bills being due.

The worst thing is because of the holidays, which Dh doesn't gets paid means he only got paid 8 days worth instead of 10 days. We have to try to live off 8 days worth of pay for a month, impossible! Specially with the extra high bill month we will be short about $1100, if we try our hardest to be extra tight this month.

Cash wise we will be okay. Thank goodness we don't live paycheck to paycheck. Knowing that DH pay differ almost every month I've always made sure that we have enough cash in various accounts to cover the next months CC bills and mortgage. Also, and I cannot believe I am even saying this, I'm kind of glad that we got that hole in our tyre 2 weeks ago because it made us stay home during the boxing day sales. I had planned to go out that day to buy DH new business shirts and beddings and would no doubt some other unnecessary stuff. All those things can wait for few months.

Because we mainly paid cash for christmas spending our CC bills this month has been ultra low. I just paid one the other day for just over $1,100 and the Amex is not due until next week and that is just a little over $500, and that is for the this month. The only other bill that needs cash right not is the mortgage and that is due aroun 3-5th of the month. DH next pay should be on the 3rd but just in case I will make sure we have enough cash for from this pay. All other bill we should be able to use CC for it and maybe just a bit of cash for groceries and allowance money.

My plan of paying extra on mortgage this month is now impossible. Everytime I mention here that I plan to pay extra on the mortgage something always happen that prevents it. lol

Our normal monthly mortgage payment was paid today.

Overall payment = $1218

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

Principal = $358.47

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

I used to post my monthly budget here couple of years or so ago and I think it helped me a lot staying on course.

I will have a very tight budget this month. i find that if I start the year tight it does a lot for achieving the budget for the rest of the year. I find it very hard to pull back once we have already over spend. Some thing always comes up.

This month the key to achieving our $21K challenge/ spending plan for the year. This is the month our car and home and content insurance is due, so if we can keep this month (and maybe the next couple of months)as low as possible then we can breath a bit easier for the rest of the year. A little bit of sacrifice now for a better year.

This is what our budget for this month:

Grocery - $150.00
Utilities - $90.00
Home Phone - $25.00
Mobiles - $30.00
Internet - $45.00
Fuel & Fare - $170.00
Car Insurance - $477.95*
Home & Content - $566.55*
Health Insurance - $230.00
Entertainment - $80.00
Gifts - $40.00
Per/Med - $30.00
DH Allowance - $100.00
My Allowance - $75.00
Misc Items - $20.00

TOTAL = $2,129.50

(* Actual Amount Due - Annual bill)

Grocery and Entertainment are extra tight this month. So does income so it needs to be done.

In saying that we do have some fun things that we have already organise this month. We will be going to a cricket match this weekend. It will not cost us much, the tickets was what I gave DH for christmas. Will take some snacks with us so we won't be tempted to spend on those. Also we might use another 1 of our restaurant voucher to go out for dinner before the game or we might just eat at home first before going and use the restaurant voucher some other time. We still got 3 vouchers left and they are due in March, so we will need to use them up soon. One a month I reckon.

I'm a bit late to the New Year party. I've just been so lazy. We've had a bit of heatwave here at the start of the year and I just couldn't bothered doing anything. All we managed to do on those few days was stay in side the airconditioned room and watch a lot of movies. I'm just thankful that we decided to get the air conditioner during winter.

It has cooled down a bit in the last two days. I created my 2012 spreadsheet yesterday, it is now all set up and ready to go. I had to do a bit of fiddling because I change from using Open office last year to the new Microsoft Office. I'm now happy with it and it will not take much effort to update it every now and then.

We've decide to up our living expenses this year to $21K from $20K last year. We were over $1,715 last year which is the worse we have done since I've started blogging and keeping records. The main problem was medical and entertainment. I think we should be able to keep it at $21K this year. I think I need to get back to making small monthly goals again. I think it will help a lot.

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Our tyre is now fix, free of charge. I gave my brother 1 of our restaurant voucher as a thank you gift. He also organised for us to get 2 of our worn out tyres to get replace this Saturday. He thinks we should really get it replace soon and that right now this place he sent us to go is having a sale. It will cost $238 for 2 new tyres. This will come out of the Car Fund, I'm glad I decided to put a bit extra in there last month.

Due getting some unexpected pay this month, I've had to make changes to my goals for next year. And I've now posted it on my sidebar.


2012 GOALS:

Goal 1: Get mortgage down to $120K (Bal. Dec 2011 = $149K)
Action Plan: Must put in $2,500 per month.

Goal 2: Put $5000 into the Holiday Fund.
Action Plan: Will put $500 until Oct.

Goal 3: Save $2000 into the Xmas/Anniversary Fund.
Action Plan: To be fully funded by Dec.

Goal 4: Add $7000 into the Household Fund for new windows, etc.
Action Plan: To be fully funded by Dec.

Goal 5: Add $3000 into the EF - this will get us to a very tight 6 months living expenses.
Action Plan: Put any extra money towards this goal.

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It has been a pretty quiet and feels really sloooow week. We had a bit of NSD this week because we couldn't go anywhere. I actually had plans to go shopping on Boxing day sales, I was hoping to get some christmas stuff for next year. I need to get more christmas wrapping paper and decorations and maybe even a new christmas tree.

The only spending this week was phone bill, less than $20, also the locknut key for $40 and yesterday DH bought an air pump thingy to pump the spare tyre and that only cost $20. DH wanted to have one in the car handy, only need to attach it to the cigarette lighter.

Tomorrow I will need to go grocery shopping and maybe have a look if there are any christmas wrapping left.

I need to finalise my Spending Plan for next year and hope to post it this weekend. We are now over $1500 this year, not good but some of the spending could not be helped. I am hoping to do better next year

We actually managed to have a white christmas here this year, well sort of. We got a massive storm on the afternoon of Christmas day and it there were hail almost the size of golf balls.





But our adventure actually started christmas eve. On that day DH and I did a bit of grocery shopping and then went to my mum's place to drop off the turkey, she decided to cook it at her place instead and I cooked the roast pork at my place. Anyway, on the way home DH and I talked about giving the car a wash that day, it really needed it. We got home around lunch time but decide to wash the car later that day when the sun is not as hot, it was another 30deg+ day. We decided to finally start washing it around 5pm. Half-way through washing DH found a bolt stuck to one of the back tyre (again! this happened to us few years ago, the same spot/tyre too). Again we suspect we got it from the road to/from my mum's place, there are few roadworks pretty much all the way to her place and there are a lot of crap around the road.

DH tried to replaced the tyre with the spare but he found out that the locknut key is totally worn out and will not grip. We could not do anything else that day but call my brother to ask him if he could drive us to mum for christmas lunch, it was not a problem for him since we are on the way for him.

When my brother came over he also had a look at the busted tyre he said it will only need to be patch up, which is good news since I was expecting that we might have to get a new one. My brother work for Bridgestone and know a bit about tyres. He said that if we could get it off then he will pick it up and get it fix for us at his work, which won't be until at least Wednesday since we have a 4 day weekend here for christmas and boxing day holiday (most businesses were closed except for department stores and shopping centres that are open for boxing day sales).

We had to borrow my mum's car to go and visit my friend after lunch. We wanted to just stop by to say hello to my other friend who was also visiting from the country that day. We planned to go there for couple of hours while my mum and brother had a nap, then we were going to come back for dinner at my mum again. Half an hour later when we got to my friends place the rain finally started, heavy storm was forecast and it has been threatning all morning but it never came until that afternoon. Because it has been very humid which is very unusual for us here, we normally just get a dry heat during summer, the rain actually brought with it some hail. It started with just small hail, about the size of corn kernel for about 5 mins and then it stopped for 5 mins and then it started again and now the hail is about the size of ping pong balls. I was freaking out about my mum's car, there was nothing we could do about it but watch it from the balcony, it was park on the street with no protection at all. There were about 20 other cars outside in my friend's neigbourhood. Everyone was having a christmas party some managed to cover their car with car mats.

It came and finished very quickly but did enough to make a bit of damage. My friend's kitchen started leaking and so did a couple of rooms upstairs. I found out the next day that their gutter actually came off from the weight of the ice. There was water everywhere, it got into their cabinets and appliances and on the floor.

I heard someone said that there were more bad weather coming, DH and I decided to leave right away, I wanted to put my mum's car back into her garage. Luckily, it only took us about 10-15mins to get back. When we got to my mum, it has not rain there at all. When I was telling her what happened she thought I was joking. Then 10mins later it started raining and again hail the size of ping pong, now my mum was freaking out coz it was so loud when it hit the tin roof. At this stage I was like I told you so!

Afterwards, we checked her car in the garage and there was only 1 ding that I could see and it wasn't that noticable. We were really lucky coz other people got major damage in thier car and some houses their ceiling caved in because it.

Back to our car, the next day, during Boxing Day we called for our roadside assitance company to see if they could get the locknut out, unfortunately he couldn't. He suggested that if we want he could come back on Wednesday, when car garages will be open, to pump up the tyre so DH can then drive it to get it fix. Other option DH got was to buy a new locknut key, which again we couldn't do until Wednesday. This was the better option, since we still need it if we ever need to get the other tyres out, which is very likely soon.

On Wednesday DH had to go back to work and had to walked to the train station, the closes one from our place is only 10 mins away but it is in a different zone to the one that DH normally catches the train on which cost him almost $5 more per day. The other train station would have taken half an hour walk but only few minutes to drive. Luckily it is very quiet at his work this week and had plenty of time to ring around for the locknut, the first place that DH called was closed until 3 of Jan. The second one was out of stock but they could order it but unfortunately that place is closed for business until 9 of Jan. Finally, the third one actually had the right serial number key in stock and luckily they are only few minutes from my mum's place. My mum went and bought one for us. They cost just under $33 but DH transfered $40 into my mum's bank account, I didn't have any cash with me at all.

After work yesterday, DH got the tyre off and my brother picked it up this afternoon after work, hopefully he will be able to get it fix tomorrow, they will only have half a day business tomorrow if it can't get done we will have to wait until next Tuesday coz again we have another 3 day long weekend. But at least we should be able to do some grocery shopping this Saturday once DH get the spare tyre pump up a bit, it is a bit flat at the moment. Luckily, we don't have a plan to go anywhere this NYE, again the weather is going to be very hot and I have opted to celebrate it at homw this year.

Last night we went to the rehearsal for the Christmas carol that is on tv right now. We took our picnic rag and had a little picnic while listening to them sing some great christmas songs. It is summer here at the moment and it is around our summer solstice so our day is so much longer. Right now the sun doesn't go down until after 9:30pm, so it was nice to sit at the park, listening to music while watching the city skyline with the sunset in the back ground.

Normally, it cost $50 to get in for the lawn area and the the reserve area can go as high as $140 but for the rehearsal it only cost $7.50 each. The main show gets so full early in the year that is why they have made the rehearsal show available and even that they now get thousand or so people come. And all proceeds from both goes to a charity for kids.

DH really liked it, it was his first time going to a carol. There were a lot of families with little children, they just love it. They had a lot of room to run around.

This is what it looked like when we got there around 5:30pm.

It was quite hot 30deg, everyone was in their shorts and t-shirts. It did cool down a bit once the sun went.

Then when it got darker around 9pm, they put the lights on.





MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Yesterday when DH got home he checked his email and was suprise to find a payslip, informing him that he got pay that day. He wasn't expecting this for another 2 weeks. Apparently, DH will get paid every two weeks now, instead of every 4 weeks. I've pretty much closed this year financially but my goals for next will need to be change.

Today DH put in another $1000 into the mortgage, so now we are under $150K to start the new year. Also with this extra money I can take 2012 goal number 2 off from my previous post because it is now fully funded. Cool, we achieved a goal before actually starting.

I think I'm gonna like getting DH's payday every 2 weeks, a lot less waiting.

1. Get the mortgage down to $120K.
I will put $2500 a month in here before putting any money into the other goals.

2. Put $2000 into the Car Fund.
This will take us to $15K Car Fund with a bit extra for car service /repair for next year.
I’m hoping our car will last another few years. Now that DH don’t drive to work anymore we haven’t needed much work on it (knock on wood), apart from fuel of course.

3. Put $5000 into the Holiday Fund.
I don’t know if this is enough but it will be close enough to what we will need for our next vacation.

4. Put $1500 into the Xmas/Anniversary Fund.
The same amount as this year, but I am hoping to spend less on our anniversary and more toward Christmas.

5. Put $6000 into the Household Fund.
The main thing we will need next year is a new oven and windows. I don’t know if this will be enough.

6. Put $3000 into the EF.
This will be worth a very tight 6 months living expenses.

It’s funny how in the past I’ve always just had the extra mortgage payment as the last goal. It was always whatever is leftover will go towards prepaying a bit to the mortgage but next year mortgage payment will be number one goal everything else will just have to wait.

Never been so excited to get this bill. For those who are not aware we installed solar panels earlier this year. We spent $2500 after government rebate. The best thing about it is that we actually get credit back if we put anything extra into the grid.

Anyway, because we are in the summer season now, we actually managed to put a bit of extra energy back to the grid. So the bill today got a Credit Balance of $86.94 (including a $21.86 balance brought forward from last bill, they couldn't get a proper ready the first time around so they had to estimate).

Its a great feeling getting a bill but they actually owe you money. We are hoping to get enough credit to pay for the winter season when the sun won't be shining as much. I think we can actually get cash if wanted to but I don't think we will bother with it at this time.

We actually got two letters from our electric company today, the other one was a letter letting us know that they will be increasing everyones rate. Yikes. I'm just so glad that we could afford to take advantage of the solar panel rebate. I know a lot of people would have love to get it but couldn't afford it. According to our calculation it will take us around 3 years to get our money back. We've save around $520 so far.

But at least I'm pretty much done with Christmas shopping. Only need to get DH's (another)present, we give each other a $30 limit, normally we don't even bother.

I actually got him something when we went to Costco on Saturday but since he was with me, he already know what it is, plus it is more for the house really than for him. I got a 99 pcs titanium coated drill bit set. We go through them quite a bit and they can be costly if you get them individually. Depending on the size they sell for $3-$10 each. I got this one with case for $27. Anyway, I will still wrap it so I can put it under the christmas tree, since it is looking pretty sad at the moment.

Costco was expensive, a lot of the item we got will not going to be use for months. We just wanted to stock up on items we can get from Costco for cheaper price. One item we saw that wasn't in the list but we got 2 bags of was quinoa. Both DH and I love eating it and it is hard to find, I only know 1 other place to get them and it is 20 mins away. Anyway, the price was cheaper than that other place so we got 2 bags of 1.8 kilo each for $10 a bag. This should last us for months.

I'm just glad I got it out of the way now and I won't have to go shopping again until after christmas, well maybe I have to get some milk and fruit and vegs. I gave my mum some money to go towards buying food for christmas. She won't need to get much, maybe just ham and some seafood (mainly prawns). We are keeping it low key. We will have lunch at my mum and then we will probably then go to a friend for dinner, she really wants us to stop by.

Costco was crazy, there was so many people and even going to Aldi was insane we had to park half a block away. I hate going shopping this time of the year.

Tomorrow I will go to the city to get DH his present and then I will meet up with him for lunch. I will be taking the train so I will not need to worry about parking.

Today is at least a NSD

There is a smoke alarm chirping every few minutes, I'm not really sure which one it is. I can't quite reach them with the small ladder, the big ladder is heavy and it is in the garage so basically it will have to wait for DH. It is starting to get really annoying and I feel like getting a stick and smashing it, but with my luck I will probably smash the wrong one!

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It rained all day on Saturday. I didn't even bother going grocery shopping.

We did go to a carnival/festival on Sunday afternoon. It was good to get out and get some sun.

We also got some groceries. All up we spend less than $100 for the whole weekend.

I just had a quick look at our networth and it seems like we just hit $400K. I can't wait to see 500K, if only the stock market would start going north too.

The increase is mostly due to our house going up in value. Our home equity is worth 65% of our networth.

Unfortunately, our retirement fund can't seem to get over the $100K mark. It has been stuck at the 90s for so long. At the start of the year I was pretty sure we would hit it late this year, but with the stock market taking a dive it has stagnated.

If everything stay about the same, we should get to $450K by the end of next year.

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

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

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

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

We spent almost $700 on the weekend - yikes!

Most of the money was spent buying 2 ceiling fans, and a fan for the toilet, light bulbs, and a flood light for the front door. We decided to get everything we need so we will only need to get the electrician once, I'm hoping it will be cheaper this way.

We probably won't be able to get it install until next month. We still need to finish the walls in the toilet. DH actually managed to get some work done on it on the weekend, however, he is complaining that his arm is sore today. Hopefully, nothing major, we've used up all our physio cover this year already so it will be costly. We will try to do a bit at the time so he won't hurt his arm too much.

DH also got a new garden trimmer, our old one doesn't work at all anymore, at least the 20+ old lawn mower still works.

We also got some meat and filled up the car. And we went out for dinner Saturday night, we used another one of our restaurant voucher.

We are now officially over our grocery budget for the year - another yikes!

Friday I meet up with a friend for lunch, then afterwards I stopped by at DH work and had coffee with him. He told me to stick around the city to have afterwork drinks with his workmate. It was only another hour and a half away so I said yes. I decided to get my mum's christmas gift while I wait.

After work drinks with DH's workmate was fun. It was good to finally meet them since I've heard so much about them. Afterwards we decided to stay in the city for dinner.

Saturday was suppose to be a relaxing day, nothing was planned but to go grocery shopping. As we were driving out of our driveway we saw a garage sale poster right outside our house on the light post, it was for a house a block away. We decided to check it out, I was hoping I could get some pot plants. This is probably only the second time I've been to a garage sale. The house has a for sale sign with the sold sticker on it already. Anyway I wasn't expecting much, and as we walked towards their garage I couldn't see anything worth buying. The only thing I could see in the garage I wanted was a picnic basket, it didn't have a price sticker on it so I ask how much, she said "I don't really know, maybe $10 ummm you can have it for $5 or $2. Yeah take it for $2" It was funny how she haggled for me. I got talking to her (the daughter of the owner) some more, apparently they sold the house for $425K, the family lived there for over 30 years but now only the mother is left and all her daughters are now living to the other side of the city so she wants to be closer to them. I asked the mother if she was selling any plants, she haven't thought about selling those and unfortunately most of the plants are in the ground and she wanted to take the pot plants with her. But there was one pot plant that I could have, it is not looking too good because it got attacked with some bugs but it is gone now and it should survive with a little TLC. I asked "how much?" She said "$1, oh heck take it for 50cents". At this stage we were ready to go, so I saw the daugther again to pay for the picnic basket and plant and for some reason she only charge me 10 cents for the plant.


The picnic basket got 2 compartments, I just need to replace the material in it.


And this is the plant. It is about 1 metre tall. The outside leaves are damage but the new leaves are fine.

As I was paying for my purchases the daughter said that they have more stuff for sale in the granny flat and in the house she asked if we wanted to look around. We didn't really have much money because we were on our way to get some before grocery shopping. We reluctanly said yes. As we walked into the granny flat we saw this:



It had a $100 sticker price on it! The only thing I wanted to know at this stage is if it actually works. It works perfectly. I have been wanting to get one of those massage pad for years but they are too expensive and could not justify spending $200 plus for those. But this came with the recliner chair and foot massager. I was sold right there. And I knew DH loved it coz I knew he was thinking that he won't be the massager anymore. We told her that we wanted it but we have to go to the bank to get some cash.

Then next door in the bedroom we also saw and bought a nice white bedside table and dresser with mirror for $30 for both. This is the bedside table. I couldn't take a photo of the dresser because we haven't had time to put it back together, it was safer to take the mirror out before transporting it. This will go nicely in one of our bedroom, it's about time we dress it up now that it has been renovated. We ended up giving her $20 deposit


(The dresser is twice as wide with four drawers with the mirror on top)

Unfortunately, we had to rent a ute (pick-up truck) cause we knew that the chair wouldn't fit in our car. They are only $25 for an hour so very reasonable but we couldn't borrow it until Sunday lunch time, when we are meant to be at my mum. Things had to be change with my mum.

We went back to pay and to tell them that we can't pick up the stuff until Sunday. It was no problem.
They asked us to have a look at more stuff in the house and in the shed. I asked if the lawnmower was for sale but no. It would have been a nice one, it's still fairly new and our 15-20 year old one will need to be replace one of these days.

And then I saw a red multi-colour granite table (without its original legs)they were using it as an outside table. They were selling it for $40 and they have it sitting on this table.


(They just give this to us for free in the end)

I asked what happened to the legs, the daugther didn't know. Then the mum pointed at the two pot plants in front of us. She used them as a pedestal to put 2 of her pot plants. Apparently, they found the table to be too high.




(sorry couldn't take photo of the top properly, it's in the garage but this is what the granite look like up close)

They were willing to give me everything for $40 and of course I bought it. The only problem is that the mum can't remember where the screws are but I'm sure we can get them easy.

And lastly, I got a pedestal stand that I can use for indoor plant made from solid wood, they had $10 price sticker on it but she gave it to me for $5 (again without me asking for discount).

In the end we spent just over $205 including ute/truck rental. They had more stuff that were nice. There was an entertainment unit they were selling for $35! but it was just too heavy and it didn't go with our stuff. I don't think they really knew what they were doing, their pricing was all over the place. Selling the nice solid dresser and bedside table for $30 but then they were selling some of their used kitchen stuff for about the same price. That's why I didn't bother haggling for anything of the stuff I got, they did it for me anyway. I guess they just want to get rid off as much stuff because she has to be out of the house by next weekend.

Sunday was obviously spent getting the stuff, luckily my brother came to help us because those granite and chair was heavy. I spent about half an hour cleaning the chair, vacuuming, wiping and spraying it with disinfectant. Then in the late afternoon we went to my mum's place, she feed us and also gave me about 4 kilos worth of chicken breast and thigh for free, she got them cheap on sale in this wholesale place near her work. Score!

Note: we have decided (actually DH's idea) to use our Sunny day saving money (see side bar) for those garage purchases. He thinks this saving fund best describe these purchases and I agree.

Two months ago I got a voucher from groupon or one of those online deals for a basket/box of mixed fruit and vegetables worth $35 for $19. Anyway, last week I ordered it to be delivered this weeks. It arrived today and this is what I got:





1 Cos lettuce
200g Mushrooms
1 big Cucumber
1 bunch Celery
1 bunch Asparagus
2 Zuchini
2kg Potatoes
1 big Yellow Capsicum
4 Onions
1kg Carrots
5 Tomatoes
4 Oranges
1 Avocado
4 Pears
4 Granny Smith Apples
1 Mango
3 Bananas
4 Pink Ladys

I really like how they deliver it right to my door. I'm seriously thinking of getting this on regular basis. If I get it on regular basis they waive the delivery fee of $2, so it will only be for $33. There is also a smaller size (couple pack), which will probably suit us better, the one we got today is what they call family pack. The smaller box is for $23, or we can get the bigger box every other week instead. At the moment we spend around $20 per week on fruits and vegetables, so it is about the same. This will also cut down on our grocery shopping time we won't need to go to the fruit shop.

There is no contracts and they only uses Australian produce. If I do go ahead with it I will probably start getting it on regular basis just before christmas. Even if I don't get it on regular basis I will definitely used them again in the future and just pay the $2 delivery fee.

I will see how we go with this box anyway, it's an experiment at this stage.

Yesterday I paid the gas bill $97.64.

I also put in $500 into the mortgage yesterday.

Today I deposited $400 into my trading account.

DH received our statement for our voip phone bill for the month and we used $1.60.

Friday night the mortgage got paid, regular payment of $1218, over $950 went to interest and only $267 went toward the principal. I can't wait until next month's regular payment, I'm hoping it will be under $900 interest by then. The big extra payment that we made late last month and the recent interest cut should take full affect next month. Also I should be able to make some extra payment by this weekend after DH get paid this Friday.

Our private health insurance also got paid, $230.69.

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we went to the beach. Had lunch there, fish and chip at the beach for $17.40. We also had to fill up the car, that was just over $48.

When we got home both of us agreed to go out for dinner, we used one of our deal voucher. $39 for a jug of sangria and a big platter of mixed tapas. It was very nice, it's a new restaurant, just opened 6 weeks ago so the restaurant was pretty empty. I even scored a free glass of coke, he would not let us pay for it.

Sunday was a NSD. Just did some cleaning and washing.

Just came home from a lunch date with DH. Spent $33.10. We had chinese, the food was nice but we felt hurried. They were very abrupt and they never smiled. We had Jasmine tea, everytime we took a sip (and I mean a sip, the cup is not even half empty) not long after someone would come in and fill up the cup, which was nice but after a few times it kind of got annoying because she has to reach over to the othe side of the table and we have to stop eat/talking everytime she did it. Being Friday there were people lining up by the door so I guess they want people in and out.

Just received our yearly car registration bill yesterday, it is not due until 15 of Dec. It has gone up $17.40 from last year, we are now paying $641.50 for the whole year.

I picked up my new glasses last night. I've been wearing them all day today, so far so good.

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

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

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

I know I said yesterday that we need to make sure that we don't spend unnecessary money in the next 3 days. Anyway, it seems that I lied...lol

I bit the bullet yesterday and bought new glasses, 2 of them. I was walking pass the optometrist yesterday while grocery shopping at Aldi, I thought I should check it out. Few months ago I got a letter from my private health insurance about a special deal they have with this optometrist (it's a chain). Basically, I got the frames for 2 for 1.

They had opening for me to see the optometrist so I got my eyes check (no cost, covered by Medicare). Apparently, my eyes are getting a bit better, ie my current glasses right now is stronger than I need, but my stigmatism (I really don't know what this means, something about the way the light hits my eye that cause me a headache) has gotten worst. This is way I have been getting a headache due to sore eyes.

My current pair is more than 5 years old, it is still good, in fact the optometrist said I could keep wearing them if I want but I'm hoping the new glasses will help stop the headaches and there are some small scratches on the lense so really the lenses will need change.

I asked how much to just replace my current lenses, it was about the same as getting 2 new ones.

In the end it cost me $149.40 out of pocket, it would have been $334 but my health insurance paid for the rest. One of the glasses will have a uv tint, so I will use this as a sunglasses, good time for summer for those days that I don't like to wear my contacts. The other one will be for my everyday use, it will all have all the extra crap on it.