Grocery - $32.45, we only needed some stuff.


Second-hand Store – We checked out this store near this Aldi we went to on the week (not our normal Aldi), they were selling CD’s for $1 and I found a little Spanish/English dictionary for $2 and another book. We end up spending $14 there.

It was a quiet weekend.

On the weekend we were starting to have the same problem with our sewage pipes as couple of months ago. The plumber did warn me when he unblocked the pipes that the problem might be bigger than blockage. He wouldn’t know though unless he put a camera in there (he didn’t have one with him and it would cost more) but when he was unblocking it he said it didn’t feel right. He thinks it might be a problem at the intersection where our pipes meet the main pipes. DH was going to try to call either the council and/or the water company to find out where that intersection might be located in our property. The plumber tried to look for it but he couldn’t find one, and when he asked me about it I had no I idea there is such a thing. Apparently, there should have been a pipe or a vent that sticks out from the ground, and that sometimes they can collapse and cause blockage. We have lived here for almost 20 years I’ve never seen one, neither has DH. So both DH and I were anticipating that if this is cracked/collapsed pipes then it will cost thousands. Few days later it was getting worst.

Yesterday DH called the water company instead of the plumber, he was fully expecting for them to say ‘to call the plumber’ but they were actually very helpful and came over an hour after the call, he actually got here before DH (DH left work early so he could be home for it). I explained to him what happened and what the plumber has said to me. He mentioned that some houses especially houses built at certain time, which ours falls under, might not have the vent pipe. And he also said that plumbers are only allowed to go a certain distance, so maybe he couldn’t go too far with his machine. This guy got so much better machines, it only took him less than 10 minutes and he had a camera, we got to see what was inside our pipes, it looked really squeaky clean and he also pointed out the intersection, according to him it looks good. Hopefully that is the end of it and we won’t have to deal with it for another 10 years.

He was really helpful and just before he left he suggested that next time it happens to call them first instead of the plumber; it won’t cost us for them to come to assess the problem instead of the other way around. Next time we will for sure. I’m just thankful it only cost us $250 for the plumber and we didn’t need to do any digging up and replacing pipes. We were so relieved.

Grocery – $97.40, we did a big shop but we are still under for the month.

Dog Food – Bought a 10 kilo bag of dog food and that was $64.

New Clothesline – DH calls it wind and solar powered clothes dryer, what a nerd! So we bought one and spent few hours installing it, that was $56.90

Allowance Money – We went to the Salvation Army and bought some books and CDs. All up we spent a whopping $38.70. I found 2 John Grisham newer books (2016 and 2017 copyrights) I have not read these yet. I think DH end up getting about a dozen CDs. And on top of those Grisham books I also bought another 3. I used up cash I got from last year’s birthday present and then the rest we took off from our allowance money. We hardly been spending our allocated ‘allowance money’ in the last couple of years. This year I allocated $800 for both of us for it and so far we’ve only spent under $150. DH has been really good at saying no to most of the eating out and drinking out invites with co-workers. The thing is that his company actually provide them with snacks and beer every Friday night so he does not feel left out. There are also the occasional lunches and dinners that the company organises and sometimes he gets taken out by suppliers for ‘meeting’.
So he is very selective to when he say yes to these invites and there are plenty at least one to two times a week. Last week for example he said yes to beer after work on Thursday because it was with his old boss that he doesn’t get to converse much anymore, due to restructuring in the company. That 1 beer by the way cost him $10, so yeah it get pretty pricey very quickly if he goes to every single one of them and most of the time they involve getting food. Sometimes he feels bad that he says no but then he also doesn’t want to drink too much during workdays, he wants to come home on time and get an early night sleep for the next day. So it is not just about the money.

Christmas Spending – We had a very low key Christmas, I used the $30 gift card and $100 EFTPOS card to buy groceries for Christmas celebration. It was more than enough I think in the end there was still few dollars left. So it was perfect. For few days after Christmas day we’ve been eating the leftovers, and we finally finish the last bit of the glazed ham for lunch today. As for gifts we mainly sent gift cards (online) and cash to our relatives. All up $820.05 spent on Christmas this year.

Credit Card Rewards – Last month DH signed up for a credit card to get a cashback reward of $300 (spending $1000). DH used it to pay our annual car registration ($800.80) and the recent water bill ($247.62). The other day they already credited the $300 into the account. They have also taken out $59 for the annual card fee. And I think paying off those bills with the credit card accrued less than 2% fee. So really we are getting around $220 cash reward.

Tassie Holiday – We already spent some of that cash reward. The other night we bought 2 returned airfares to Tasmania. The airline was having a nice Boxing Day sale. All up it only cost us $156, the last time it cost us $436, so it was a very nice saving. We won’t be going until early May; they weren’t any sales fare before that. I was thinking of making this as my birthday celebration since it will only be two weeks after my actual birthday. We are finally going to Cradle Mountain this time and then I can use that gift card I got from my brother from my last birthday.

New Mobile Phone – I got a new mobile phone, it won’t actually get here for another month but DH ordered one for me the other night. Before buying that phone we hardly spent money on our phones this year. We budgeted $360 for the year but we’ve only spent $120 so we decide to get me a new phone because my current phone is old and I can’t upgrade anything or put on any apps any it, there is just no room. The new phone cost $210 it is probably the only excessive spending this year really, well maybe apart from my 40th birthday celebration. No regrets though.

DH got notice that he will be getting a pay raise, it is only for 2.5% so just in line with CPI. He has given up getting a pay raise this year so I guess this was unexpected. Not much really but every bit helps.


Grocery - This week we spent $74.02. One more week left for the month and we’ve only spent $185, which left us $115. I have plan to stock up some things this coming weekend.


Fitness Tracker – Someone at DH work gave him 2 brand new fitness trackers. The guy bought that it for himself and his wife but it never showed up so he decided to cancel it and bought it somewhere else and now long after he got his money refunded they showed up in the mail. It seems like everyone at his team already have them except for DH so he offered it to him for a beer or something small of value just to cover the credit card fee that he incured for international purchased. DH was happy to do it. He bought him some chocolates since he loves them, not even $5 worth. And next time they go out for drinks DH will shout him a beer or two.

Grocery – We bought mainly staples, fruits and vegetables this weekend. All up it totaled $61.45. We actually end up buying a couple of whole chickens because they were really cheap at Aldi, it was only $3 a kilo, for two chickens we paid $9.76. We also got a big block of cheese (1kg) for $6.


Weekend – We occupied the rest of the weekend mostly reading, listening to music (mainly myself) and podcasts. DH is currently obsessed with podcasts, personal finance in particular. Since we paid off the house and most of our money is now put into investments/savings he has really taken interests. It is more fun than paying off debt. It has now become a new hobby for him, he is reading a lot of personal finance books too. He even went to the library on Sunday afternoon to borrow PF books, it really is amazing.


New Headphone – DH bought a new headphone on ebay for $25.30. His current one is broken from listening to too much podcasts, he is currently using an old crappy one in the main time.

Groceries – We will definitely be over our monthly budget this month it will be mainly because this month has 5 Saturdays. I’m trying to see if we can get away with just buying the most minimum items that we need. The basic staples like milk and eggs. We got a couple of dishes in the freezer; bolonese sauce and pulled pork.


Annual rubbish collection – Currently we have our local council annual rubbish collection, this when we can throw out big items like and old fridge or old TVs. We throw out a really old computer monitor, an old trolley and some old broken items that we could fit in the usual weekly rubbish bin that we got.



Batch cooking – We are trying to do more batch cooking in the last couple of months, so far so good. That’s way we got the beef bolonese sauce and the pulled pork.


Netflix – We decided to turn it off for the month of August. I haven’t really been watching as much been busy with reading and listening podcast these days. I’m sure we will put it on again for Sept and Oct and then probably have a break again in Nov when we will most likely be away.

Not much else is really going on here.

Holiday Destination – I was asked about our holiday in my previous blog entry. Our holiday plans have changed a lot since we planned about it last year. We initially thought about going to Mauritius and South Africa and we thought this year might be a good time to do it. Mauritius was our (really mainly mine) honeymoon destination but we couldn’t afford it 10 years or so ago so we kind of made this promise to do it when the house is paid off. Well I guess things you plan to do 10 years ago can change, it kind of doesn’t have that much appeal to me anymore, I mean I would still love to go one day but just not as eager. The problem is twofold; if we go we want to do for at least 3 weeks or more to make it worthwhile but right now DH can only really take off work for a week or so and the other reason is we don’t want to leave our for that long. The last time we went overseas we went for about a month and we really missed her and she really missed us (according to my mom). So anyway we are forgoing Mauritius and South Africa for the moment, maybe in another 10 years.

But we still really wanted to get away this winter, somewhere warm. So we thought about going to maybe New Caledonia or Vanuatu, a lot closer from home so we will not need to spend 18+ hours just travelling to get there. We came up with this idea just before Easter, this destination would have been a lot cheaper than Mauritius and SA and gave us time and money to do the NSW/Sydney holiday during Easter break. But for some reason it has taken us a lot longer to get new passports that we decided to just forgo the idea of going overseas at all this year.

Side note: I don’t know why I’m learning basic Spanish? I just realised I should probably learn basic French since both Mauritius and New Caledonia are French speaking countries. Maybe one day. It will be an incentive to learn French and then visits these countries.

The idea of going somewhere warm was still really appealing to us since we are in the middle of our winter so last month DH actually mentioned that maybe we should just head up north to Cairns for a week in late July to early Aug. We started looking into it until my brother came for a visit two weeks ago.

Back story about my brother since I have not mentioned it here before, he moved to Tasmania last year to be with his girlfriend. They were doing long distant thing for over a year and since it is easier for him to move and she owns a house there and she can’t move because of her work he made the move last years. Not long after, just few months after he moved there they got pregnant and the baby is due mid-September. We planned to visit them and see the new baby early Nov when we have a public holiday in the first Tues of Nov (Melbourne cup day), just for 3 to 4 days. But when my brother came he give me a gift voucher as my belated birthday present, it is for this place called Cradle Mountain about 4 hours away from Hobart where they live. I’ve never been to Tasmania and this place is a must see destination in Tassie. So, now our plans have changed yet again. So now DH is going to take the rest of that week off and it should give us 8-9 days to visit Tassie. I think instead of flying we are going to take our car and take the Spirit of Tasmania boat instead. We are just starting to look into planning it. I’m really looking forward to it but it just means we can’t really get away this winter, oh well another 7 weeks and it will be the start of our spring season.

Security Deposit Box – This was another question I got in my previous blog. We got this box about 2 years ago now. We decided to get one when DH got that job overseas so we didn’t have to take some important stuff with us. Anyway, even though DH had to eventually quit that job we decided to keep the box for now. It’s a small box don’t really remember the exact size of it. The box is kept in a private company instead of in the bank, we could get one from the bank they have a really long waiting list apparently. The ones at the bank would have been cheaper probably 40% less but anyway we got one for now and I don’t know we will always keep it but it’s not really too bad price wise (got to remember this is in Australian dollar, we tend to always pay for more here). Maybe we will try to sign up with the bank again, something we will look into next year.

Gas Bill – got the recent gas bill for $89.03 this is for two months’ worth.

Netflix – Just got noticed from them that the prices will be going up starting early August. The one we get will increase from $11.99 to $13.99 per month.

We are away at the moment and I got limited internet connection. I will finalise holiday spending when we get home.

Last weekend we didn't really do much, grocery shopping was under $50 (can't remember exact amount).

Found really cheap work shoes for DH so we could pass up on that, one is for suit and the other boat shoes that he can wear with jeans for Friday casual days. Total $30.

After shopping we splurged and got some Vietnamese, $26.50. I used my allowance money, I hardly use my allowance money these days the only thing I use it for is on books and I haven't spend much.

Not much is happening here.

Grocery – Spent just under $100 ($98.26) bought some special stuff for Valentine ’s Day dinner; steaks, fancy cheeses, oysters, and some other yummy stuff that we don’t normally get. We prefer to have nice dinner at home instead of going out to restaurant for Valentine’s Day.

Takeaway – At the market where we did our grocery shopping this weekend we got a couple of dim sims and croissants to take to the nearby park where we walked the dog. There’s a café at the park where we bought a cup of coffee to share to go with the croissants.

Fuel – got some fuel, it was for $55.80.

Other - we got some fabrics to use to cover the couch, $44.00. Also spent some money for the garden just under $40.

ARggh I lost my post earlier today I pressed Save as Draft and it disappeared.

DH just gave his 4 weeks notice, after May he will not be working anymore. DH just had enough and I don't blame him and I fully support his decision. I'm actually surprise it took him this long. He almost quit back in Dec and again in Jan.

2 years ago there were new bunch of upper management that got hired and I guess they were told to get rid of people. 2 years ago their team used to have 12 people in it and now there are only 3 left and 1 of them has been taken to do something else (he is complaining about it but there is not much he can do). Being the team leader a lot of the stuff falls on DH. 2 years ago they used to have a Business Analyst, a couple of Data Managers, few testers and few developers (including DH). They used to have a boss that looked after them but he left in October and still haven't been replaced, he didn't get along with his new boss DB (which now DH has to deal with, he is horrible to say the least). The BA and data managers and some of the developers and testers had been let go over a year ago. The 2 testers that were left quit this year (actually 1 got another job and the other decided to retired early instead).

The other developer has already told DH that she will not renew her employment if they get extended after June. That's if they actually get extended, they say they will but 2 months to go and there hasn't been any actions to show it yet. DH had been lied to few times now and he just can't trust them. DH had to step up a lot especially since his old boss left but they wouldn't acknowledge it.

Couple months ago they finally got approval to hire DH old boss position, the one that left in October. DH wasn't really interested in applying for it but at the same time thought may as well since he has been doing this job for months now and also the lady that said she will be living in June said that she would stay if DH gets the job. But ultimately DH just want them to hire someone so he can just concentrate in doing his role that he was hired to do. Anyway, he got interviewed for it and at the end DB said that this the last interview and that he will find out in the next 48 hours. 2 weeks later still nothing and in the meantime DH found out that they actually interviewed 2 more people after that. So on Friday DH asked him if he could talk to him but he said he is busy and would like to discuss it later on that day he will call DH then. Anyway 4:45 that afternoon DH still haven't heard from him. He tends to do this he just ignored things that he doesn't want to deal with, like not answer emails for weeks. DH contacted him to ask if he could talk to him, he said can we do it on Monday but DH really wanted to deal with it then he didn't want another weekend to pass. Lucky he did because DB was actually away on Monday and Tuesday. DH thinks he likes to delay stuff in a hope that people will just forget about it he has done it few times before to DH. In Dec last year DH emailed him something and he didn't respond to it a month later and actually told DH off for not ringing him about it instead. WTF. Apparently, a lot have got caught out with it were they email him stuff that he wanted but never get a respond and down the line they get told off for not ringing him about it. Things that are important to him cannot just be emailed to him they must contact him via phone but the problem is people don't always know what he consider important. He is in a major power trip. Anyway, he told DH that he didn't get the job which is fair enough apparently other applicants had a lot more managerial experience. DH understands and wanted to know when the new person will be starting? Well apparently he will not be hiring anyone he wants to post the job again through a job agency this time. Another WTF. That means it would take at least another 2 months in the meantime DH still has to deal with everything. No thank you! He has been so stress out about work lately and hasn't been sleeping well from constantly thinking about work, he just can't deal with it anymore. So we decided that he should just resign now even without another job to go to. He can have a rest while looking for another job. A quick calculation we should have enough cash in hand to last for the rest of the year. I will look into it more this weekend.

Our goals will have to change this year but hopefully only for short time.

It started on Monday. I can't wait to check it out.

These streaming services has just really come to Australia this year. There are 2 that has been advertising a lot in the last couple of months, Presto and Stan. Last week we signed up for a 30-day free trial with Stan and have been watching Breaking Bad, we are half-way through Season 2. Once this expires we will try Netflix, they also have the 30 day free trail.

There is a reason why I don't like talking/writing about things until they actually happens. I don't like jinxing myself. Last post, I wrote about getting our tax refund soon, well good news is that it is coming very soon; we just got the papers to sign. The bad news is it is a lot less than I anticipated. I based my estimated amount from the past which has been very consistent until now. It looks like we will only get around $1,200 after accountant fee. It seems that we had to pay a bit on Capital Gains Tax. It is good that we are making a bit on our trading to now have to pay CGT but it sucks that we are not getting much back.


So we will mostly like be about 1 grand short to getting $20K mortgage by my birthday next month. I was really looking forward to get to that amount. It would have been a good time to celebrate it. In the scheme of things it is really not that big deal but I have become very obsess about it. It has been few months now since we put any extra payment into the mortgage and I just want my fix. It can be addictive paying down debt, or maybe it is just me being weird. And I get very excited (high) when it reaches a significant amount. Right now I feel like just taking some money out of that savings to get there. I don't think DH would be too keen though. Patience is never my best quality.


Health Insurance-
Just got notice for an increase in our health insurance, it happens every year and it always starts 1st of April. It is an April fool's joke that the insurance company plays on everyone. This time it is going up $12.20 per month (about 5%). It will now be $236.84 per month. I'm just glad it is not as bad as last year, that one was a stinker of a joke.


Special K-
One of the positive things about DH catching the train to/from work is he gets a lot of free samples at the train stations. One of the best one he got last year was Chapsticks, he ended up getting 5. I am still using them until now. Yesterday he came home with a box of Special K Biscuit Moments – blueberry flavour. It is very nice but my goodness it is so sweet, it is like eating sugar cubes. So not for me, not that we ever buy those stuff anyway.

So yesterday I went to the city to pick up my new eye glasses. I ordered it couple of weeks ago. It cost $50, the actual glasses was free because of my private insurance but I decided to get an anti-glare on it which cost the $50.

While in the city I had lunch with DH. We went to an India restaurant that he has been meaning to take me for about a year now. A lot of his Indian co-worker friends like this place and DH has been there few times with them.

We got shared Chicken Biryani and a Plain Dosa (Indian pancake). Massive pancake.

So much food for only $19.90.


Afterwards, DH went back to work while I went shoes shopping. I got this $50 gift card for Christmas, I thought it was about time I spent it. It was for Myer (a big department store here), I knew they would be having a sale for the end of financial year. I managed to get a pair of boots for only $49.

While walking around Melbourne I took some of these photos. It was icy cold so I decided to walk through laneways and arcades. It's amazing how they can squeeze in cafe's, cake stores, etc. in those little laneways. I was drooling over those cakes and I wasn't the only one, there was a line up of people trying to get in, it must be good.



I wasn't in a hurry so I took my time trying on shoes and just window shopping. I then went back to the other side of the city where DH works. I got coffee just across his office and watch a bit of soccer, They put up a massive screen just for the world cup. Australia have got no chance but we are sport nuts here in Melbourne.

The after work drink didn't happen yesterday, mainly because of the weather. The girl that got married recently doesn't work in the city anymore so it was not very easy for her to come. It was a bit last minute so they will try to organise it again next week. Anyway DH and decided to use one of our Groupon voucher, it was for a Korean place. We got 2 Japanese beer and a plate of fried chicken for only $15.40. It was enough that we didn't bother having dinner.

Then we went home and did Yoga.

DH forgot his lunch today. Normally when this happens he would end up spending around $15 for lunch. Today he was gonna go to Nando's to get chicken and chips instead he went to nearby supermarket and got this 1/4 roast chicken for only $3.25. He took it back to his office and had it with oats and milk. He is so much more frugal than me. Even better for me I won't have to cook dinner tonight because we will have enough leftover, DH can have his packed lunch tonight. Maybe I will just make a quick salad or steam vegies.



I think he didn't want to spend too much today because we already had plan to meet up for lunch tomorrow and maybe even a get together with his current co-workers and old co-workers after work tomorrow. An old co-worker he had just got back from her wedding in Sri Lanka, can't wait to catch up with her and see some of her wedding photos.

I'm going to the city tomorrow to pick up my new glasses that I ordered 2 weeks ago. And since I'm going to be there I will have lunch with DH and then go for the after work drinks.

These spams are driving me crazy!
Go away!

Today is payday. Happy! happy! joy! joy!

We are having fish and chip tonight.

The weather is terrible and it doesn't look like it will get any better for the rest of the weekend. There's prediction of hail and storm, not looking good for running again this weekend. I'm hoping we can still go for a run.

The door is done, I'm just waiting for it to dry before I can hang it. I also painted another door that's right next to the study door.

Just got back from the doctor to get my alergy test results. It's been confirmed that I am not allergic to most foods (eggs, peanuts, kiwi, etc) and pine trees (which means can again have fresh christmas tree next year, yeah!) BUT I am highly allergic to prawns, shrimps and crabs (and ohh moderately allergic to lobsters). WHY? One of my favourite food in the world and I'm now allergic to it. Just cruel!

Lastnight, DH and I went to a greek restaurant, we had a voucher for a 4 course set menu, it included garlic prawns. I was drooling at it while DH had it all.

Anyway, I'm having a pity party. We are off to go for a run now, I don't know how it will go we are both a bit injured/sore.

testing

What's going on with this blog???

We woke up 2 hours earlier than normal for a Saturday yesterday.

By 7:30 we were lining up at the pathology office to get my blood drawn. I had to get tested for my allergies. I should get the result in a few days time, so another doctors appointment for me, yay. Between DH and I we have had about half a dozen doctors visits in the last month.

The pathology only took 10 minutes as we were the 3rd person in line. It was my first time ever getting a blood test, and wasn't too bad. A lot better than going to the dentist!

Speaking of which, we went to the dentist a couple of hours later. I'm a glutton for punishment! Our dentist is in the city, we were lucky we were able to find free parking. Normally it would have cost about 5-10 dollars for a couple of hours parking. The dentist was happy and no need for fillings or further treatment. Just cleaning for myself but DH also had two x-rays taken as it was due. I will be getting mind next visit. My dentist visit cost $142.60, but it was 100% covered by our health insurance so I didn't have to pay anything. DH cost $211.60, the health insurance covered $187.45 so we had to pay $24.15. The extra was for the x-rays.

So far the morning was good, we hardly spent any money but then we went a bit crazy. As we were walking back to our car we saw a sale for 50% off on some shoes. DH badly needed walking/casual shoes as he goes through them so quickly. We decided to buy two pair an the price tag showed $70 each, so 50% off made it $70 for the two pair. However when we went to pay, they came out to be $12.50 each, so $25 for the two pair. Since DH goes through shoes so quickly, and these were so cheap we decided to stock up and bought another 3 pair for $62.40. All up we spent $87.40 for 5 pairs of shoes. I really don't know how DH ruins his shoes so quickly, it's different causes so it's not one issue. It doesn't matter whether we get him the $200 shoes they last as long as the $50-$100 ones. Our clothing budget this month was suppose to be only $30 so we are again now over. Why do I buy clothing in bulk? Because DH and I actually hates clothes shopping, so when we see something worth getting we buy multiples. Especially DH he hates trying things on. Anyway, I hope these will last at least 2 years.

Afterwards, DH took me to a new Mexican restaurant that he tried last month. It was really good. Spent $24.30 for 3 tacos, burrito and a drink.

On the way home, we went to Aldi to get some groceries and stopped at a discount warehouse store for more groceries, including cleaning products.

Then we went to the video store to return a couple of DVD's and then we borrowed another 6 weekly for $7.95. We tend to borrow DVD's this time of the year when there are hardly anything on tv and it's a getting to do indoor when it is very hot outside.

Today we are just relaxing and I hope to go for a run tonight when the weather will be cooler. I decided not to go for a run yesterday, I was really tired after all that stuff that we did yesterday.

Our social calendar have been very full lately. Just a typical summer and holiday time. Yesterday we travelled just over an hour to the other side of the city to visit a friend. She bought a house over there earlier this year and we finally made it to her place. We had lunch there, hamburger and a bit of sweets.

Afterwards, DH and I went into the city to watch Samsara, they finally released it here in Australia. It is on limited release so we had to watch it on a small cinema. I've never been to this place before, I really liked it only seats about 35 people. Great movie.

Then we had dinner and few drinks at the casino afterwards, we parked there because it is free, well not really since we lost. Oh well, we go there 2-3 times a year not too bad and we had fun. We did get home until after midnight.

Today we are going grocery shopping for tomorrow night's (NYE) picnic with some friends. I'm planning to make quinoa salad, I'm following Jamie Oliver's recipe, I got his 15 minute cookbook for christmas.
I'm planning to make something from the cookbook once a week, I will try anyway.

I'm halfway to putting away the christmas tree. Hopefully this afternoon I will still have energy to go for a run.

Christmas day I decided to gift our mortgage holder bank $500.

Current balance = $111,799.98 (we should get this under $110K next month)


Our christmas was really good, nice and quiet just the way I like it. Still trying to get through the ham, we managed to finish the turkey last night.

Christmas eve we almost called the ambulance because I had a really bad reaction to some prawns. It was the worst I felt, so now I can't eat it at all anymore. I will be making an appointment to see my doctor and to get a referral to see a specialist.

Boxing day (26th of Dec) we decided not to bother going shopping (at the start of the month I was planning to go), we got so much stuff that we needed and wanted before christmas that we really don't need/want anything right now. Boxing day was almost a NSD until I saw and ad on tv about airfare sales. We decided to go get 2 returned tickets for mid-Jun, it will be a long weekend for us, Queen's birthday public holiday. We will be visiting DH's family again.

Today, Dh went back to work . I'm at home watching the cricket game. Few days ago, while getting cash out of the ATM DH found out that he got paid in advance again. The same thing that happened last year when they paid him just before christmas. The pay was for 3 weeks worth, he will most likely get paid again next Friday for 1 week's worth but in this case only 2 days becuase of the holidays. I've decided to put this pay in the January book, I don't want to deal with shortage/negative month again like last time. January is the worst month for it because of couple of annual bill that we have to pay. It's not really a big deal I just hated seeing the negative amount at the end of the month, then have to rectify it in February.

Last night BIL came over for dinner. He is in town for work, only here for 2 days and will be flying back home this afternoon. I made roast chicken and cooked some spring rolls I made the other to have while we waited for the chicken to cook. He came with a nice bottle of Shiraz to have for dinner.

As he was leaving DH gave him $100 to give to his kids for christmas, there are 4 of them so $25 each. We saw them just over a month ago and had given them some money then, so we weren't planning to give them anything until next time we see them. Just not keen on sending cash over the mail. But since he was over it was easier to just give it to him.

DH called earlier happy that he got free lunch (burrito) from a new Mexican restaurant. They were giving free burritos today and giving $1 to charity, they are trying to break some record. He decided to get a can of pepsi to go with his burrito, even better it was only $1. DH actually took leftover roast chicken this morning, he will have to bring it back. He can't have it tomorrow because he will be going out with his co-workers for their christmas lunch, it's their last day tomorrow before the christmas break.

Just got a phone call and apparently my new glasses are ready, they said it won't be ready until after christmas so I wasn't expecting it until then. I don't have time to pick it up until Saturday, we will go to ALdi while we are there.

1. Christmas card from my auntie and family. First one for the year, not many really send christmas card via the mail anymore, except for this auntie, without fail she send us one every year. The only other one that might send us one via mail is my MIL. Everyone else sends texts/facebook/etc.

2. DH's margin loan statement for the month of November. Total market value has gone up so does the total amount owing because he bought more shares last month in this account. They took $26.10 for interest in November. Normally DH pre-pay interest at the end of financial year (June for us here)to get some tax benefit. Sometimes he buys some shares throughout the year and has to pay interest on it every month throughout the year.

3. A letter from our accountant saying that they have now been acquired by a new company. There shouldn't really be any changes, some of the personnel have been retain. I just hope the fees are not going up too much.

4. A dividend statement from one of DH's stock for $119.94. Their dividend reinvestment plan is currently suspended so he will get cash instead directly deposited into his account that is connected to his margin loan account. This will help pay for interest.

5. Electric bill - normally this would have been due some time next month but we this time around we have a credit balance of $47.75 (thanks to the sun!).

6. Almost forgot the big one, Credit card statement, this included the car registration and a bit of christmas spending and the other usual spending of fuel, eating out, mobile phone... All up it's for $1,185.89, not due until next month 7th of Jan.

Yesterday mid-morning DH went to the doctor to get his blood test done. He didn’t get home until around midday, when he could finally have his breakfast. For late lunch I decided to take him out (as a reward) to one of our favourite Vietnamese/Asian restaurant. DH loves their massive bowl of Beef Laksa for only $8.90. I love to get the rice vermicelli with spring rolls and grilled pork, it’s full of fresh and some pickled vegetables with some peanuts on top for only $9. And DH can’t go there without having his favourite Avocado smoothie (“mock tail”). Only $21.90 for everything, it was my treat so it came out of my allowance money.

On the way home I decided to check out a place I saw on TV to get some picture frames. I got 7 different sizes for only $16, I was very happy with that. Nearby was another store with an advertisement outside their store for suits for sale from $59.00. I wasn’t expecting much but decided to check it out anyway. We’ve had plans to get DH another suit next year (I was hoping to get a reasonable price overseas), so for only $59 why not check it out but at this stage I was fully expecting shitty ones. I was not expecting for most of them to be made in 100% fine Australian wool! Most of them didn’t fit DH but we managed to find few that were in his size and fits really nicely on him, he tried 4 of them and decided to get 3 (2 were 100% wool and 1 is 97% wool and 3% polyester). We are very happy to get 3 for 1 that I was fully expecting to get next year for around the same price. As long as DH keeps his weight/size (we are both pretty good at having consistent weight) we shouldn’t need to get him another suit for another 5 years. It's funny how things work out, have been thinking a lot about this and the oppotunity just came up. Last night we were discussing whether we should take this spending out of the sunny day saving, there is a case for it, we only really thought about it because we are now over budget for clothing. Since we are under our overall budget this year it's not really an issue. I think I will decrease our clothing budget next year by $100 and will put in more in the transportation expense because train tickets are agiain going up next month.

In the same store I found my favourite brand of bra for only $6, they are normally around $20-30. And DH got just under $38 worth of knickknacks to give away to his co-workers for Christmas. He has 11 people in mind so average of $3.45 per person. I got to gift wrap them today; each will have a box of shortbread biscuits in Christmas shapes, a sachet of moccona frappe latte, a bar of chocolate and couple of lollies, just a nice little package to have for an afternoon tea. And I will have some leftovers for me

I got up early today to get my eyes checked. I'm running out of contact lenses, I thought I might need new prescription for them but apparently eventhough my glasses have slightly changed (yet again), my contact lenses are alright. Unfortunately I couldn't buy them from them they have to get them ordered or I can get them online for cheaper, the buy showed me how to order them online. I also didn't bother getting a new glasses today, I will probably go back on the weekend to order them I was in a hurry and I want to go there with DH so I can get his opinion.

I could actually get away with my current glasses. I wasn't really due for new glasses for another year but since we are doing really well with our budget this year, it might be good to get them now before the year end and before our health insurance reset for the new year.

Both DH and I have been looking to do this for years now. ALmost got to do it couple of years ago but it never happened, the friend who was supposed to organise it kept cancelling. Last night while going through online deals (similar to groupon) I came across a deal for a whole day first aid course for only $49 (normally $150). We both got one, so even for two it only cost us $98. Great deal and they have 4 location to select, one of which is only about 10-15 minutes away from us. We got until mid next year to enrol for one of the scheduled time. Very happy about this deal.

I was meant to blog about our weekend yesterday. It was a very spendy weekend but most of it was for christmas and also got my brother a gift for his birthday this weekend.

For the first time ever we got a fresh christmas tree, we decided last year that we would get a fresh christmas tree this year, just to try it. I was expecting to get it for around $100 but found one by accident while driving to the factory outlet for only $45. We checked it out on the way home, they look so much better than the fake ones. The roof rack came in handy, it save us on delivery cost.

I spent last night decorating it, we also discovered that DH might be a bit allergic to it but as long as he doesn't go too close to it he is alright. I love the smell of it. I think we need to get more decorations though, just a bit extra.

I also spent time yesterday gift wrapping the gifts that we got on the weekend. I run out of ribbons, so I will need to also get some more of those. We are about 90% done with christmas shopping, not including food.

DH forgot his lunch in the fridge this morning, silly boy. He called me around 10 this morning to let me know and to ask if we could used a restaurant voucher we got 2 months ago. The voucher is lunch for two to the value of $45, we bought it for just $19. I was happy to come along, it was a beautiful day today so it was nice to go out for lunch in the city. I got cajun chicken salad with a bottle of coke and DH got wagyu burger with salad, fries and bottle of lemon and lime drink. Not bad value when normally the burger with salad and fries is worth $19 itself.

It was a really nice unplanned day out.

I want one of this:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/love-to-ride-your-bicycle-try-this-paper-giant/story-e6frfrnr-1226473443447


Today should make it 3 NSDs in a row.


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18 Sept: 10,884 steps
19 Sept: 11,226 steps (DH did the last 500, he decided to put the pedometer on while I was in the shower).