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!

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.

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.