My Simple Financial Plan

DH just got paid and he is getting just over $100 a month extra due to his pay rise and also the recent tax cuts. Our financial plan will continue as it is, no major changes at all.

Expenses this month has been really good so far, most bills has been paid for. So hopefully no suprises will come up.

Just got info that DH will be getting a pay rise this month. Don't know exactly how much it will but we should find out sometime next month. It won't be much, probably only around $80 per month after tax and super. Better than nothing I guess, considering this wasn't on the cards for this year at all. Few months ago they were told that there won't be a pay rise this year. So this was a suprise. A nice little suprise.

This is a bit late, was going to update my sidebar last week but had some computer problem.

Well, we did goal #4 last month and even had $150 extra, which I put in the holiday fund. I want to put at least another $1,000 in the holiday fund before our holiday in few months time.

I don't think I will bother putting in any money into next year's christmas fund until Dec. Once I put in $1K into the holiday fund I will put in as much more into the Household fund. I want to do more house repair this year rather than waiting for next year.

Our $19K challenge is still doing well but the grocery and entertainment budget is still looking very bad. Overall, we are ahead of our challenge. So we are halfway there and so far so good.

I got my $900 stimulus cheque late yesterday. I deposited it right away this morning. It will all go towards the Car Fund. Cool. Now I'm happy.

Really haven't done much in the last week, I've done the painting job. I just can't be bothered at the moment.

I'm still waiting for my $900 stimulus payment from the our government. I don't think I will be able to get it this month, which means we won't be able to fully fund the Car fund.

That's all I got today.

Yesterday was NSD. I was very lazy yesterday, I didn't do much except make chicken stock and butter chicken for dinner. I will make soup today. I haven't done much this month at all, it's this cold weather all I want to do is keep warm. DH has been busy though, he spent most of yesterday doing work. He also went outside to do some composting and he also picked the last pumpkin from the garden. We didn't get to plant much winter crop this season, got too busy with house repairs early this year. DH did managed to plant some coriander (cilantro), which I used some for butter chicken last night.

I thought I'll make a to do list here to get me motivated to do some work around the house. These are boring stuff.

To do List (15-30 June):
[]Clothes Washing (Mon & Thurs)
[]Mopping (Mon & Thurs)
[]Ironing (Tues & Fri)
[]Dusting (Tues & Fri)
[]Vaccuming (Wed & Sat)
[]Bathroom (Sun)
[]Gardening (Sun)
[]Painting Spare Room
[]Wiping Kitchen Cupboard Doors.

Hope this will help me get my act together. I've got a load of washing on at the moment, now I just need to mop the floors.

DH a I spent pretty much the whole day shopping. We end up getting:

3 pairs of shoes (2 for me and 1 for DH). They were around 60-70% off, and they are really good quality shoes and very comfy.

Got a gift for a friend, for next weekend.

Then we went grocery shopping, mainly got vegies and 1 whole chicken. I will make chicken stock tomorrow for soup.

And we also got some multi-vitamins.

We also had to go to the post office to send my application for CC. And had lunch out. I'm not sure how much we spent all up yet, it will be a bit. I planned for his month to be extra frugal - that kind of went out the window.

We were out for about 5 hours, and DH had to have a nap when we got home (soft!).

Had problem logging on here yesterday.
Anyway, I got really lazy yesterday and didn't do much at all. I did managed to do some ironing (which I hate so much!). DH spent some money on gas and I also got him to get us some toilet paper.

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We have decided to go to the Whitsundays for our holiday this year. We are going in 3 months time. We currently have just less than 2 grand (saved last year) in the Holiday Fund. I will most likely start putting more money in it again in 2 months time. My budget for this trip will be around $2-$2.2K. The flight are reasonably cheap but the accommodations are not.

1. I managed to fixed the holes and cracks, I'm just waiting for it to dry and it will need sanding down. Got rid of all the wallpaper and have done some sanding on some areas.

Got some very interest mails yesterday:
2. One was from my stockbroker who wants me to sell my shares of this particular stock...hmmm I don't think so.

3. Another one was from our water company, they are giving us $25 credit because 2 months ago our street got flooded because of burst pipe down the road and they couldn't fix it within 4hours. We didn't even know that they have such rule. It was a nice suprise.

4. The last mail was for DH's credit card bill, with it was an application form for an additional card holder. They will give you $20 if you sign up (no annual fee for this card). I've been thinking about getting one. I've never had a credit card in my name (it's all in DH's name), nor do I really want one. But there has been times when I wish I had one in my name. Last month for example when our hot water broke, paying for the repair was a pain. I had to ring DH at work, who had to ring their office to pay for it and then had to ring me back to comfirm the payment to the repair guy. But other than that I really don't want one. DH thinks that we should sign up just to get the $20 and then close it off. Would you do it?

Today:
- I need to do a load of washing.
- Do more sanding and make sure everything is smooth for painting.
- Vaccuming

Again we got up relatively late yesterday. We did more cleaning in the garden, it is all done now. The rest of the day was spent:
- mopping the floors
- ironing while watching an Australian Football League (AFL) game
- and cooking.

It was a very relaxing day and we didn't spent a cent.

Today I am looking at getting one of the spare bedroom ready for painting. I need
- to fill up couple of holes
- fix the cracks
- stip off the wall paper
- washing and sanding the walls

hmmm... I got a lot to do, I better go get started.

After living it up Friday night and Saturday, Sunday was much more low key. We got up really late (after 10am, we had late night watching cricket). DH made pancakes and cafe latte for breakfast. Afterwards we went grocery shopping, hardly spent any money (just over $20), we didn't need to get any meat only fruits and vegies.

Our afternoon spent cleaning the garden, in particular trimming the trees. Our yearly green pick up is coming up next week. This is the time were you can put out as much green items (branches, grass clippings, big items that can't fit into our normal rubbish bin, etc).

After that we did a lot of cooking. I made roast capsicum and tomato soup, while DH made bread in the breadmaker. I also made chickpeas and vegies curry, while DH cooked some steam rice. I'm trying to make more vegetable dishes this winter.


Soup and Bread

Our night was then spent sipping red wine while watching CSI and tinkering with the computer. DH was looking at margin loans, he is seriously looking at getting it. We've been talking about this for a while now, and now might be the best time when the rate is very low and the prices are low. No final decision is made yet, we will see.

I was paying some bills online and I also did some stock research on my computer, I'm looking to get in but I don't think there will be an entry this week. I also check my current stocks and they are all doing well SO FAR (I try not to count my eggs...you know).

and its great.

Last night (Friday night), DH took me out to a nice Greek restaurant. Their antipasto and dips were so good. DH paid for it out of his own money (the money I gave him as a bonus for hardly spending his allowance last year - can you believe he still hasn't spent much). This was of course already been deducted as an expense last year. The man just doesn't know how to spend his money.

Today we got up late and decided to go for a day trip to the Yarra Valley wineries, it's about an hour away from our place. There are probably about 100 wineries in the area. First winery we went to was Domaine Chandon winery. Their facility is really nice, people can actually see where they make the wines.


Biggest cork I've ever seen.






We had lunch at a nice bakery (it is suppose to be Australia's best bakery - I'm not really sure about this claim, nice but not great). It was however a lot cheaper then having lunch at a winery restaurant. Overall we only spent $20, light lunches at the winery would have costs at least $17.00 per dish.

After lunch we went to another winery called De Bortoli. This one is pretty famous here is Australia, especially for their cheap wines. In this winery, they also had some nice cheeses. We got an $8 worth of cheese platter and crackers, and took it with us when we went wine tasting.


This place almost got distroyed in the recent summer bushfire. This is bad photo but if you look closely, those brown trees in the background actually got burnt in the fire.

Going home we took the back road and in some area one side of the road got burnt and the other side was lush green.

Also when we were driving home we drove through a small place called Kangaroo Grounds, I was jokingly complaining to DH about how it is called Kangaroo grounds and all I see are cows. About 2 mins later while driving through a winding road, we could see 2 kangaroos hopping towards the road. Knowing that they were most likely going to cross the road DH slowed right down. The car coming from the opposite direction from us hardly slowed down at all and almost hit the second kangaroo. We don't think he saw the second one at all, probably just assumed there was only one. Needless to say, we almost had kangaroo steak for dinner (just kidding!).

We had a great day and hardly spent any money. Apart from spending money on lunch and the cheese platter, the only other thing we got was a bottle of wine. We still got about 2 dozens at home so we didn't want to get too many, we are running out of place to put them.

Well that's my weekend so far, Monday is our Queen's birthday holiday...so it's a long weekend!

He has been away for work since Monday, so he has been away for 3 nights. This is the first time ever since we got married that we been apart. I'm really not used to it, and it's been so quiet at home alone.

Financially, while he has been away I haven't spent a cent, not even for bills. DH will get (reimburse) $50 a night for food spending, knowing him he probably hardly spent any. I won't know exactly until he gets home but I suspect he will come out ahead.

May was expensive month but thanks to tax refund we managed to fully fund the EF for the year (so Goal #3 is Done - few months ahead of schedule!). We now have have 6 months EF worth of living expenses (not including mortgage payment). I think this is enough EF for us for now, we will re-evaluate it again next year.

We have also started funding the Car Fund (Goal #4), I am really really really hoping to fully fund it in June. I think if we do well this month, that is be very good with our spending, we should be able to do it. Plus I should be getting the $900 stimulus payment, which should be enough to achieve goal #4. Things that we could cut down are: groceries, entertainment, allowances, no buying clothes and other useless stuff. Oh well, here's to hoping.

Eventhough we spend a lot in May we still had 10 NSDs. $19K challenge is still doing well, the only thing that I'm trying to pull back is the grocery spending. But I guess that's what the miscellanous buffer is for


BTW, I kind of noticed that not many people are blogging these days (esp some of the regulars). Is it because it's now summer in the US and people are out and about more and don't have much time for blogging? Or is it because we are in the middle of the year and people have kind of lost focus on their goals (I hope not)?

I for one got too busy in April to blog (was away and had people over) and I only really average about 2/3 blog entries a week, I live a pretty boring life.

Well I do hope that everyone are still working towards their goals for this year. Good luck to you all.

We got a lot of work done around the house on the weekend. Have put up couple of the doors up, did some sanding and painting and some yard work as well. Still got a lot to do though. My main goal this month was to clean the garage, well I did some of it but have now also put more junk/stuff in there again.

We also managed to go out and watched X-men:Wolverine, it was really good.

We just bought 3 new doors to replace the old ones. Also got new handles with it. I hope it's not too hard to put them up.

I will be doing some painting soon, so I will need to get some paint. We will also be getting some electrical and plumbing work done. I got a lot of work to do in the next week or so. And a lot of spending too (bad but necessary spending).

Been spending a lot lately for home repairs/improvements. It is all planned and necessary, our house is getting pretty old afterall. It's all coming out of the Household fund. We have spent few thousands already and now the household fund has been deflated to a very low level.

I'm thinking that we really need to put another few thousand dollars in the household fund this year to finish what we want done. Luckily, we got these extra income that have come up this month so I'm think after we achieve all our goals for this year we will put whatever we can in the household fund.

It is such a juggling act.

Having people over for 2+ weeks last month and having a couple of parties has now push our grocery budget for the year over by about $150. We really now need to pull it back, which means being creative with our meal planning.

Went grocery shopping yesterday and I hope we won't need to spend anymore (except for milk) for the rest of the month. From yesterday shopping we got:
a whole chicken (I've cut this up into different cuts and have made stock out of the bone/carcass)
4 cuts of steak (some can be cut into stirfry cuts)
a lot of fruits and vegies

Also DH picked one of the pumpkin from the garden yesterday. I will use some to make pumpkin soup and I will also make some minestrone soup out of the chicken stock today. Hearty soups like these are great to have for cold winter days (like we are now having).

I bought some yesterday, well actually the order was put in over two weeks ago. In the last week the Australian market has been going down and the stock I bought finally hit my price yesterday. It was for only ~$500 worth. I normally get around $2K parcels but this stock is a small cap (high risk), but it got great potential so I was only willing to commit 1/4 of normal investment capital. I'm planning to keep it for at least 5 years. Historically they pay pretty good dividend.

Now I just hope the market will start going back up. Although I think this recent run down could keep going until next week. Our market went up quite a bit from it's March low and now need to retrace.

Well the $500 will come out from my Sunny Day Savings.

We are finally getting our tax refund soon, so we will be getting $3K extra money this month. Also I should be getting the $900 stimulus package soon (DH doesn't qualify ). So by the end of this month we should be able to have a fully funded 6 mnths Emergency Fund (Goal #3). woohoo! Few months ahead in time.

Yesterday was our mother's day celebration, it got quite expensive but it was worthy.

Nothing much to really update these days. I bought a pj and track suit pant yesterday. This is the first time we spent money on clothing this year, so out of our $450 budget for the year we've only spent just over $50 so far.

I just checked my ING account, which has our xmas fund of $1,000 in it. I deposited that money back in January and it is now at $1,013.64. I anticipate to earn about $35- $40 by christmas, that should buy the ham or a gift for someone.

We actually achieved goal #2 at the end of last month, so we achieved that 1 month ahead of schedule. And we have also started goal #3. This was mainly thanks to DH bonus this year. It was a very small bonus but still it helps.

Our hot water wasn't working the other day so we had to get someone to have a look at it yesterday. The guy came in and replaced the controller, it took him not even 20 mins. Labour cost $110 and the rest was for the new part. Where can I get a job like that? Not bad at all.

Wow I haven't been here for over a month, we have been very busy. We had people over and then we went away for a while. I'm still trying to calculate what we have spent our money in the last month or so. I don't think it that bad but I think the grocery budget will be way over. Hopefully I will finished my caculation today.

Wow...I haven't been here for a while. i tried to read up other people's blog but I've missed a lot of entries. Been really busy lately, trying to make the most of the end of summer also been doing a lot of cleaning. I need to start planting for winter crop again, hopefully I will have some time this weekend. DH has planted some snow peas last week but not enough. Hopefully the winter crop will be better than the summer ones, this year's summer vegies didn't do so well with the extreme heat.

I need to update my side bar, desperately. Well before I move on to March goals - lol - I'm a bit late. Okay I think I will just concentrate on April. Basically I achieved all Feb goals except for items 2 &3, they are still continuing.

FEB Goals:
* Declutter Spare Bedroom (Started)
* Put junk into boxes in garage
* Do some painting
* $1K into Saving/Invest
* $900 into H/hold fund
* Grocery budget under $240 ($119.56 left)
* 10 NSD for the month (2)

I'm hoping to achieve the following in April:
* Gardening - plant winter vegies.
* Continue with the saving plan
* Have 7 NSD

Well I better go and update my sidebar.

We had our 2nd NSD for the month.

Just updating my sidebar. Not much else is happening around here. Mortgage interest payment was a lot lower than I expected. Nice!

Have a great day everyone





6 Feb - 9:30am

Well DH ended up getting some gas for the car, so it was not a NSD yesterday.

Mortgage payment should come out today, it would be around $950. Hopefully this will get down to around $850 next month (might even be lower b/c of the shorter month - Feb). I can't wait!

We are just waiting to see if the stimulus package will come through. The most I'm excited about it the proposed free insulation, I just hope we can get it since we are planning to get this done this year anyway. Less money for us to spend. I really think these type of scheme is better than just giving people cash. It provides jobs and it's good for the environment. I really think the best solution is to create more jobs, if people have job security then consumer confidence should go up. This should be the best time to up grade our really old infrastructure. Can you believe that there were over 1000 train cancelled during last week's heatwave b/c the tracks and the trains couldn't cope. What about solving our water problem? And other problems that should been solved 10 years ago.

Anyway that's enough about that for now. Have a nice day everyone.





4 Feb - 12:45pm

We had our first NSD for the month yesterday. I'm hoping for another NSD today but I think DH might get some fuel today. We probably only used half of the tank but he reckons the price will be going up soon so he wants to fill up before then. Good idea I say.

Mortgage and some bills will be due tomorrow. We should be getting another interest cut on our mortgage later today. The Reserve Bank of Australia will most likely cut another 1%. For us that would be another ~$100 p/m saving (depending on how much our bank will actually cut) on our mortgage interest rate. It should take affect next month.

I just got notice for my licence renewal, due late this month. This is one of those bill that I haven't thought about so it is not budgeted for. I can either get a 3yr licence for $34 or 10yr licence for $115.50. This is actually been discounted by 25% because my driving record is clean - cool! I think I will get the 10yr, I won't need to deal with it for another 10 years.

BTW the weather today is so much nicer.




3 Feb - 11:30am

I met all my financial goals last month but didn't make a dent on the other stuff. We spent $1,820 out of the $19K challenge. About $1,200 of it was for our annual car and home & content insurance. It was a very good month overall.

I am particularly very happy about our $100 grocery challenge for the month. I guess the most obvious goal for this month is to make sure we keep the grocery expense within our normal grocery budget (which is about $230p/m). BTW we did our first grocery shopping for the month today and spent just over $120. I tried not to get too much meat, just in case we get another blackout. We lost our power the other, luckily it was for just over an hour (unlike some households who didn't have power for 2-3 days in a 40+ deg celcius heat).

Another good thing that happened last month is I managed to put more than double what I expected to put in the Household fund. yea!

And 17 NSD for the month! A record for us.

Anyway, here's my goal for the month of Feb:
* Declutter Spare Bedroom (Started)
* Put junk into boxes in garage
* Do some painting
* $1K into Saving/Invest
* $900 into H/hold fund
* Grocery budget under $240 ($119.56 left)
* 10 NSD for the month

I really hope to be able to get some of these non financial goals done this month.




1 Feb - 5:30pm

Yesterday was almost a NSD but DH had to fill up the car. All up this month we've only spent less than $89 on fuel, that hasn't happened for awhile.

Can you believe that yesterday it got to 44.3 deg celcius at 4:43pm? ha! We got so hot that we finally put on the air conditioner at home for the first time this summer. We are trying so hard to conserve electricity but we just couldn't take it anymore yesterday. But we are the lucky ones actually, unfortunately there were households that didn't have power. There were people on the news that had to throw away everything in the fridge. What a waste of money. Some of the electric company just don't have enough juice to cope with the extra usage. That's why we are trying to conserve our electricity. I woke up this morning and felt like I haven't slept for a week. I can't wait for the change to come.

BTW the vegie garden is pretty much dead, I feel like crying about it. We can't water it much because there's water restriction in our area .

We will probably get takeaway food again tonight. Something light, it shouldn't cost too much. Just don't have the appetite at the moment.

It's really funny that I'm omplaining about the heat and most of you are saying that it's too cold.




30 Jan - 1:15pm

We are in the middle of those 1 in a century heatwave at the moment. 5 days in a row of ~40deg celcius temp, I am melting people! For those of you who follows the Australian Open tennis (held at my home town) would know what I'm talking about.

Last night we succumbed to the heat and got takeaway food, it was just so hot to do any cooking. So our no takeout run has come to an end. I decided today to cook dinner early this morning when it was a bit cooler, so we will atleast have food tonight.




29 Jan - 2:15pm