It seems as if money ( thankyou Kevin Rudd )and things are coming my way just now, I think it must be the power of positive thinking.
For ages now I've wanted a freezer, I actually have quite a large freezer compartment on the top of my fridge,
but as I am going to be growing my own veg this Winter, and buying in bulk to save a dollar or two, I thought that a freezer would be
a very handy thing to own. I was'nt interested in buying a fancy dancy high tech expensive one, I was looking for a cheapy
on Ebay or even a freebie, so I put it out there and ended up with two. The first one is an upright 15 year old Kelvinator that
was being given away by a girl I work beside, she put up a notice on our pegboard at work and I was first to see it, and she
was going to deliver it, how awesome is that ??? The second one was brought round to the house by my Daughter, who had
just gone out that day and treated herself to a new fridge freezer combo. This one is a chest freezer of indeterminable age,
but in perfect working order. So I will give them both a tryout and the best man will win. I remember reading The Secret and
it said to order what you wanted from the Universe and it will align itself to give you what you want. Well as usual my eyes
are bigger than my belly ( my Mum's expression not mine ) and I got two.


On the financial front I am broke, in terms of having available cash as all my money has been accounted for from last week's pay,
and as expected my bills have started to arrive, both my Mobile and Landline accounts came in today and Foxtel is due soon.
At the moment my bills come to $169.00 and as I worked a little overtime last week I will be able to meet them easily and still
manage to stick to my budget. My spends for this week all went on socialing over the weekend as we had friends come to stay
with us. In fact between buying extra Groceries and going out for meals and drinks I never got to put any money into my Emergency
Fund or my Savings. This was a big disappointment as I seem to have fallen at the first hurdle. Still this weekend will be a quiet
one and hopefully give me a chance to put my savings by.


I have a bank at home it is in the shape of a very rotund Lady and across her ample chest is written Wine Money. I have been
throwing my coins into her and she is getting quite heavy still I'm resisting the temptation to count it out. I wonder how many
bottles of wine I will be able to buy when she is full.

My Budget for 2009

Well the bills I have been waiting for all week have still not arrived, and so if I pay the phone bill before the post arrives tomorrow morning then in effect I will be bill free, that does,nt mean debt free just bill free. I can't remember ever being that organised before, so the plan will be to put away bill money weekly and always be in front. I have finally drawn up a budget and have put it onto a spreadsheet where I will be able to see at a glance how I am doing.

Firstly I found all my old bills for the items in the house I pay and then added them up over 1 month and then broke them down into a weekly amount.

Foxtel $59.00
Mobile $30.00
Phone $140.00
Electricity $90.00
Food $600.00
Petrol $100.00
These are my monthly figures so weekly for all household bills I will need to put aside $255.00 I should be able to cut back on my food bill by being a little more frugal,and also my mobile plan is actually $20.00 a Month but I thought I should over compensate, the same applies to my petrol.

My debts are a little harder to break down into a weekly amount as one of them is paid weekly and the other fortnightly, and in a couple of months if I am a good little vegemite and pay them regularly then I will be asked to increase that amount, I would love to pay them off quicker but I am on such a restrictively low wage. These are my monthly payments figures

Debt 1 $200.00
Debt 2 $60.00

I hav'nt worked out how long it will take to clear these debts but I think 3 years at the longest, paying this amount of $65.00 weekly to cover them.

I would like to have an Emergency fund of $2,000.00 this would be for car repairs, emergency air fares as my elderly parents live interstate and anything else life throws at me. I can only afford to put $62.50 a week into this account, although if I get any overtime money, tax rebates etc. this will be where I will put it first, as I would love to have a decent safety net.

Savings account, this would be including Christmas Club savings and I already have $125.00 put away in that, again I have allocated $62.50, this is a wish for account and is not at the moment as important to me as the Emergency Fund.

After all of these deductions from my wages I am left with $55.00 a week to spend on everything else including my beloved Grandchildren. I may have to tweak this budget if I find it does.nt work for me, but I think and pray it is manageable.

There are a few ways I've been thinking of getting extra income throughout the year such as Overtime - Selling onE - Bay - Birthday Presents - Gambling - Tax Rebate And if any come my way I will use them to where most needed.

Well it's done and now I'm committed, so from tomorrow which is Payday, Bill paying day and Grocery shopping day my budget starts, got to do something to get that Grocery bill down. The figures in red make up my weekly wage of $500.00

I nearly missed out again

Years ago my Girlfriend jokingly told everyone that I could write a book about my financial disasters, I was always the one who would come home to find my electricity cut off even after the bill had been paid, or the bank would bounce a cheque of mine for no reason at all. I just seemed to go from one stuffup to another. Lately I get the feeling that the stars have aligned to keep me poor.
So imagine my surprise and delight that after finally getting my debts under control, the Australian Government were going to give me a little cash reward, I have never qualified for anything in my life and it seemed the only way I was ever going to get any money was to work for it. So I had devised all sorts of schemes for using this money firstly I decided to spilit it up between my Debts my Savings and my Emergency fund. but I really badly need new glasses I am currently wearing the $10.00 variety from the Pharmacist, and I am getting a lot of headaches from eye strain, so OK new glasses and the rest divided up evenly.

And then the bottom dropped out of my world when one of my work mates informed me that the money would only be given to Australian Citizens and not Residents like me, Oh well you don't miss what you don't have, and so I resigned myself to not getting my new glasses, but when I came home from work I phoned the help line and guess what I do qualify!!!! Yippee at last I will have some cash to start my new savings plan, plus of course my new glasses.

I am still paying around with my new budget, my household bills are only standing at $150.00 at the moment but I am waiting for 3 more bills averaging around $200.00 to arrive this week, so if I pay them the money will not be there for my savings etc. Plus I have to pick up my layby which are the things I had put away for my new Granddaughter, as well as having visitors this weekend. These are the things I want to have an Emergency Account for.

Maybe I should have married Donald Trump when I had the chance LOL

It's time to come clean

I don't blog, I'm the lurker, I have just spent the last few weeks reading as many blogs as I can in my quest to get my finances in order. And yes I have found them very helpful but I think tracking my own progress and goals will be even more helpful. Now I am not computer savvy and I am not particularly well read or educated so there will be no fancy long drawn out and long winded blogs, just my finances and the reason for them explained as simply as I can.

I used to own a home and due to some very wrong choices, made individually and as a couple, we lost everything, and then due to illness ( my husbands not mine ) we went down to one wage for three years, that wage was mine and it is a very minimum wage. Fortunately that is behind us as from this week and that is the reason why I now feel able to start getting on top of these debts.

My debts are all now in the hands of recovery agencies and so there is no interest going onto them now, I have already been slugged a fortune in interest, and what should have been debts of around $5.700 are now over $7000. The fact that they have accepted a payment plan from me without any added interest means in effect that I could take ages to pay them off but they hang over my head, and cause me a lot of shame.

I have also joined a couple of frugal living websites and I now know exactly where every cent I earn is going, this journey is mine alone as my Husband has no idea of the lack of self esteem I feel and so he will not be mentioned again in any of my blogging. He takes to do with all of our rent and a couple of large debts connected to his failed business. So my budget which I will get to later, is what I have to pay out of my pittance of a wage.

I will set some goals for myself later and do up a budget which I will hopefully be able to follow religiously. WISH ME LUCK.