First to 2011 / My Goals

Spurred on by how organized everyone seems to be about their 2011 Goals I am adding mine. My Goals are financial only, if I can get a handle on them then a lot of my other issues will seem less important and all consuming, leaving me to perhaps implement some personal goals later in the year, this is baby steps year coming up for me.

1. Pay off Debt 1 by August 5th, I would love to pay this off quicker at least before the end of June.
2. Pay down Debt 2 by at least $2000 making a sizeable deduction to this my last remaining debt.
3. Emergency Fund adding $40 per week into this fund to bring it up to over $1,000
4. Holiday Fund adding $40 per week into this fund, this will be ongoing as I want a couple of holidays booked in 2011
5. Retirement Savings as well as the extra money which I put into Superannuation, I want to save an extra $50 a week, this money will not be touched for any reason.
6. Household budget $300 per week will be kept in my main account for food, electricity,phone, mobile, petrol, and insurances.
7. I will have a Misc. Fund of $50 per week to cover anything extra that pops up
8. This is an entertainment fund of $50 per week, if not used I will roll it over into debt
   

Any overtime, tax returns, sales from ebay leftovers from entertainment and misc. will be counted as snowflakes and every 3 months will be rolled over into debt.

So what do you think ?? A pipedream or a reality ???

Today sees me pay off the last of last years bills and I will be starting first pay check of January implementing my budget and goals.


It is 2.00pm on New Years Eve so it wont be long now until we start to celebrate 2011 and the end of 2010. This last year will always be remembered by my family as the year of
" The Wedding "
And yes indeed for us all it was a time of celebration, of seeing my family all come together from all ends of this vast land to help make this the joyous occasion that it was.
But for me one of the most important decisions I made was to start my blog up again, I had decided to close it down as I had not been blogging for a good 8 months. But I could not for the life of me work out how to shut it down. So instead of closing it I reread my old posts and some of my blogging friends posts, and decided to give it another go. So from the bottom of my heart I want to shout out.
THANK YOU

Honestly I couldent do this without you behind me, so to everyone who has commented on my posts or just popped by quickly I want to wish you all

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Freezer Hints, Recipes and Techniques

One of the places I believe that I could save money on is food, I think our household averages around $150 a week for Groceries. That is for 3 adults and 1 cat. So I will be starting the year off with an empty upright Freezer similar to the one above.
So friends I would love to have some of your filling a freezer hints and recipes, how do you cope with leftovers, how do you best store things and in what kind of containers, how long do you keep them in there.
I was given this Freezer and at first I thought it was a white Elephant as it kept tripping the circuit and defrosting anything I had inside, so I stopped using it. While having a huge Garage clearout a couple of weeks ago we moved it to a different power point and low and behold a working freezer. So now I want to use it to it,s full potential, and hopefully save some money.

So please help me get the best use out of what has been up to now a large empty white box.

Today was almost a no spend day, until I decided to apply for my credit report, so I have sent off all my details and $36.95 to an Agency which will post me out a report. My credit rating has been in tatters for a few years now, and although I cheerfully boast about not having a CC the simple truth is that I have been declined by my bank and I want to know who has black marked me. I,m hoping it is one of the two Debts I am paying off, but if it should be someone else then I will have to make arrangements to also start making payments. I don,t want credit at all but I don,t like the idea of this hanging over my head either.
Clean slate for the New Year, no more Ostrich tactics for me.

Only 11 hours until I return to work after the Christmas break, but it,s a short week and then another 3 day break, love all these days off.

Returning to normal, and counting up the costs

At last Santa gets to have a well earned rest and things in our house return to normal. I started to count up the costs of Christmas over the last three weeks, and it came to a terrifying $800.00 well actually it came to $796.93 but I rounded it up. This total included all gifts, all food, all booze, and stamps. Normally I spend on average $200 for each of my Grandchildren, so progress and cutbacks have been made, and when I start budgeting for Christmas 2011, I will have an idea of how much I will have to put aside to cover the expenses.
My budget is completed and will be posted before New Years Eve, but till then here is last weeks spends in all their glory.


Spends from 19th Dec.- 25th Dec. 2010

CAR EXPENSES
2010-12-19	Petrol	$25.00
2010-12-21	Petrol	$30.00
TOTAL FOR CAR EXPENSES		$55.00
CHRISTMAS 2010
2010-12-24	Entertainment	$100.00
2010-12-24	Gifts	$206.87
TOTAL FOR CHRISTMAS 2010		$306.87
DEBT
2010-12-24	Lion Finance	$25.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$25.00
ENTERTAINMENT
2010-12-23	Night Out	$40.00
2010-12-24	Alcohol	$34.00
2010-12-24	Coffees and Cakes	$14.00
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT		$88.00
GROCERIES
2010-12-19	Aldi	$68.65
2010-12-24	Woolworths	$70.56
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$139.21
HOUSEHOLD
2010-12-24	Telephone Bill	$100.00
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD		$100.00
SPENDLESS YEAR
2010-12-20	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2010-12-22	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2010-12-25	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
TOTAL		$714.08

Boxing Day Sales No Way

Do Retailers think we are totally brainless ???? I went into Target about 1 hour before closing on Christmas Eve and they were already set up for this mornings Sales. A lot of clothing was still under huge white cotton covers, but the majority of Sale items had a notice on them warning customers that the ticketed price would not be available until 26th December. So am I really going to buy that item on Christmas Eve when I could buy it on Boxing Day 40/50% cheaper, I would need to have a screw loose. I had gone back into Target because I had left a parcel behind after my earlier visit. Now I wish I had,nt gone as I,m sitting fretting about Target doing me out of my hard earned cash on Christmas Eve. So just in case I am right I will not be doing any Sale shopping. There is nothing I want and nothing I need, so I,m giving Sales a body swerve. I normaly give them a miss because I have spent all my money now I,m giving them a miss because I can !!!!!!!

We had a great day yesterday, stuffing ourselves with Prawns and a Kilpatrick Oyster Entree, followed by a traditional Christmas Main course and after we had Trifle and Meringue nests with cream and fresh berries. Too much Champagne and some Kahlua. And it looks as if todays meal will be more of the same, but without the Alcohol.

Chilling out today big time as I am wiped out after my extremely busy week at work, so today my feet will be up and I,ll veg in front of the TV and probably watch a load of old sloppy movies.

On the financial front this will be a no spend day as was yesterday. And the good news is I have had my Carers Allowance Application accepted, and my first payment went into the Bank on Christmas Eve, so this should be a fortnightly payment of $112. I did up my budget without this extra payment so I am not sure if I should redo my budget or keep it the way it is and put all of the extra money into debt. I,ll have a bit of a think about that while I,m sitting with my feet up.

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas, I hope Santa was good to you, and I hope for Health Wealth and Happiness for you all.

364 SLEEPS TO GO ( LOL )

It,s 4.30pm Christmas Eve

I have just returned from our local shopping center and at last I can say that my shopping is over, at least for another year. I am exhausted but very happy with my spending and an unheard of thing I still have cash in my wallet and money in my bank account. So mission accomplished.

I know some of you are doing it tough weatherwise, so keep yourselves warm and dry or cool and damp depending on which hemisphere your in. I will be back on Boxing Day to fess up to what I spent today ( although by my example it,s a lot less than usual )

My 2 bottles of Champagne are chilling, my prawns are refridgerated and my Turkey is waiting to be stuffed. But till then Hubby is taking us out to Dinner for Christmas Eve.

So this happy blogger wishes you and yours a very Merry Christmas xxxx


1 SLEEP TO GO

A Follow Up To Yesterdays Rant

After rereading my last blog post and your follow up comments, I decided I had overreacted. That is until after work today when I came home to find my PIN number had arrived. But had been damaged in the mail and was completely illegible, and so now I am waiting for another one to be sent out, which could take another week. I also received a $400 Electricity account and a $230 Telephone account. I must say Santa you have a very strange sense of humour.

On the plus side my Son phoned and he is getting excited about our Christmas Dinner, so I obviously got that one wrong. Maybe a good nights sleep tonight will fix everything.

All I Wanted Was Some Bleeding Petrol

Well it,s getting nearer and nearer to Christmas Day and I am still not feeling that seasonal rush I normally get. My Son phoned last night, and was a bit hedgy about what we should do for Christmas Dinner as there are only going to be his family and ours. I got the feeling that Lunch at our place which is the current plan, was not going to be interesting enough for my Granddaughter as her Cousins are not going to be there, and she will have nobody to play with. But if we went to my son,s house she would have neighbourhood kids to keep her occupied. I can see where they are coming from, but I can,t help but feel slighted, and don,t know if I am happy about changing all my arrangements mid-stream. If I dont watch what I,m doing here I could have a very lonely Christmas.
Part of the reason for me feeling this way is work, we are just so busy that we will be lucky to get out the place alive any time before midnight Christmas Eve. Add to that the fact that I have extremely sore knees just now, I have a little Osteoarthritis and think it may have gone into my knee joints, and the pain is really bad and nothing seems to be working, so I,m getting little relieve and almost no sleep.

My Aussie picture needs no explanation, it is pretty stereo typically Aussie. There is a Christmas song out just now about the Kangaroos who pull Santas sledge, but for me I prefer The Reindeer.
The Scottish picture reminds me of the nights when Mum and Dad would take us into Glasgow to see the lights, in those days in Scotland nobody decorated the outsides of their houses, and so we relied on our Capitol cities to put on a light show. And what an occasion to get all rugged up and taken into Town, if we were well behaved we would get taken into a tearoom and get to pick a special cake, from the tiered cake plate.
I wish life was so simple again.

What a B****y carry on to get petrol into my car last night.
Firstly I checked my bank account online to make sure I had the necessary funds to put petrol into my car. My new ATM card had arrived in the mail on Monday, and after transffering my money out of this account so I could use my Visa Debit card over the weekend, I transferred $30 back into it again for fuel. So of course the inevitable happened and my card had not been activated and I couldent pay for the fuel, I was mortified, filled out a whole lot of paperwork just so I could drive away from the pumps and went on to plan B.
Plan B meant driving home and back onto Internet banking and double checking that the account attached to my Visa debit card had the necessary funds in it to cover my fuel, then driving back to the Garage and attempting to pay yet again. This time they wanted a PIN number with my debit card. I have never had a PIN number and had been told by my bank that a signature would be sufficient, but the Lady behind the counter went on at great length to tell me that the bank had mislead me, and we went on to plan C.
Plan C was cash, now in this modern day and age with cards coming out of every orifice, who would have thought that cash would be the obvious way to go, and as cash was the one thing I couldent get out of my bank with my ATM or VISA card I had to borrow it from my MIL, so now I am in debt to the tune of $30 which I cant pay back until my PIN number arrives.
Is your head spinning because mine certainly is. ????


ONLY 3 SLEEPS TO GO

Insomnia Over Money Plans

Yesterday I managed to trace a long lost Cousin through Facebook, he is now almost Seventy years old and quite unrecognizable to me. The last time I saw him was in 1972, when he came over from Ireland to Scotland to spend some time with this not long married Cousin. At the time he was Tutoring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton,s children while they were making a movie in the UK, I still have an autographed photo of them which says " To Maureen from Richard and Liz " it,s one of my most treasured possessions. He is a published Author and as far as I know he is unmarried.
It is really hard to feel close to someone I barely know, he is my Mother,s Sister,s Son, still it will be interesting to learn a little more of my family from America. My Mother was born in the States to Scottish parents, we are a far traveled family, itchy feet I think !!!

My Australian Christmas theme is of course the beach, lots of Aussie families spend Christmas Day on the beach, for a picnic lunch and a good game of cricket, followed by a sleep and a swim once Dinner goes down.
My little Scottish decoration reminded me of one my Mum and Dads tree had on it, it seemed there was a story behind every ornament on the tree, as they were collected with love over their married life, many of them are still going strong, as are my parents after 65 years of marriage. Happy memories.


I hardly slept a wink last night, my head was full of ideas and plans for my finances in 2011. I feel as if I have been writing about saving for months and in fact have managed to save absolutely nothing. But then I thought, we have just had a Wedding funded by cash and now it,s Christmas funded in the same way. We have no overdue bills and plans are in place for making sure 2011 is a saving and debt repayment year. So why the sleepless night ??? Excitement I guess, I just can,t wait to get on with it.

Many of you girls asked about my Weekly spending tracker, and I added a footnote to my comments. However for those of you that missed it. I track my daily spends in www.spendingdiary.com it is a very basic straightforward easy to understand website. And at the end of the week, which runs from a Sunday to Saturday , you click on reports and then onto this week or last week depending on which day you are blogging. then you just cut and paste your information straight onto your blog. I put my own heading in and miss out the pie chart. But it gives me a nice clear understanding of exactly where my money is going, as you can name your own categories, go in and have a look there are a couple of us using it now and it really makes tracking easy.

On a personal level a very dear friend of mine has just discovered this week that her 18 year old Daughter has a very aggressive form of Leukemia, they found out on Wednesday and by Friday they had started her chemo, they are hoping to have caught it early enough to give her a really good chance of survival. However they never had enough time to harvest her eggs, and as a result even if she makes it through she will never be able to conceive, what a sentence to give a young girl. So could you please include her and her parents in your prayers this Christmas


ONLY 5 SLEEPS TO GO

Weekly Spending Report / Working on Next Years Budget

The top picture is a typical Australian holiday picture, and the one below is typically Scottish, I feel really torn at this time of the year between a cold and a hot Christmas. Both have distinct advantages, and disadvantages. And for this week I will be celebrating the differences in photographs.

I have finally managed to get my budget down on paper, the savings and debt repayments are going to be a little lower than I would have liked, but my money in jars and wallet is higher, hopefully making me feel as if I am making great strides while budgeting. I also updated my sidebars, and very little progress has been made to pay off my debts, as I am only paying a minimum amount. So I have upped the anti on those repayments. and will post my new updated budget on 1st January 2011


Weekly spends From 12th to 18th December

CAR EXPENSES
2010-12-12	Petrol	$10.00
2010-12-15	Petrol	$10.00
2010-12-18	Toll Charges	$24.24
TOTAL FOR CAR EXPENSES		$44.24
CHRISTMAS 2010
2010-12-12	Gifts	$20.70
2010-12-18	Gifts	$233.00
TOTAL FOR CHRISTMAS 2010		$253.70
DEBT
2010-12-18	Transpacific	$50.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$50.00
ENTERTAINMENT
2010-12-12	Coffees and Cakes	$11.00
2010-12-18	Coffees and Cakes	$3.50
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT		$14.50
GIFTS
2010-12-17	Wine	$28.00
TOTAL FOR GIFTS		$28.00
GROCERIES
2010-12-12	Coles	$6.10
2010-12-18	Woolworths	$30.00
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$36.10
HAIR AND BEAUTY
2010-12-18	Nails filled	$30.00
TOTAL FOR HAIR AND BEAUTY		$30.00
HOUSEHOLD
2010-12-12	Crazy Clarkes	$11.98
2010-12-18	Phone/Internet/Cable	$132.02
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD		$144.00
MISC.
2010-12-18	Photo Developing	$23.58
TOTAL FOR MISC.		$23.58
SPENDLESS YEAR
2010-12-13	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2010-12-14	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2010-12-16	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
SUNCORP
2010-12-18	Lost Card Charges	$12.00
TOTAL FOR SUNCORP		$12.00
TOTAL		$636.12

ONLY 6 SLEEPS TO GO

My Guilty Conscience at my Uber Expensive Saturday

I have just had the most expensive day, for months, as I have had very limited funds and my spending has been kept to a minimal. So this is the big push to pay everything off to give me a clean slate for January 2011. I will post a proper breakdown at the end of the week but till then here is a bit of a breakdown.

• $50.00 towards my debt this is paid fortnightly.
• $132.02 part 1 of a 2 part payment for Phone/Internet/Cable
• $23.58 Needed a few prints to send to parents from The Wedding
• $12.00 Bank fee to replace lost ATM card
• $24.24 This was a fine as I went through a toll point without a current toll token on my car.
• $233.00 Christmas 2010 gifts, cards, stamps, wrapping paper, gift tags.
• $30.00 Spent getting my french nails filled my only personal expense and so worth it.
• $30.00 Groceries but I,m not through yet, more to come tomorrow.
• $3.50 a Latte to take into the nail shop, while I waited in a loooong queue.

$538.34 My biggest blowout in ages, and it was all budgeted for and accounted for. I went with a list and an amount for each category and I stuck to it. So feeling pretty chuffed. So why the guilty conscience ???

My Daughter and her family came over today and we exchanged gifts and had an early Christmas Meal, it will be 2011 before we catch up again, and I,m going to miss having them with us for Christmas.
I have mentioned on many occasions that it would be Grandchildren only for gifts this year, however one of the lads I work with his Wife, has just given up her online shop, and she was selling off her stock at $10 per item, so I bought a handbag for MIL a handbag for DIL a broad brown leather belt for DD and 2 bags for little old me. $50 is all this little treasure trove cost me, and I have costed it into today,s Christmas Gift money. I gave my SonIL a nice bottle of red I had been keeping for just such an occasion, and I have between now and Christmas Eve to think of something for my Son. I am so pleased that I was able to manage to give them all a gift. And it was all because of a lucky break and some overtime.

ONLY 7 SLEEPS TO GO

Lightening Strikes Stopped Blogging

I was going to write a long chatty post last night but instead I had to turn off the PC, In fact I turned off all the power switches and had an early night, as we experienced the most horrendous thunder and Lightning storms, one of the worst we have had and we also had Hailstones. Yes this is Australia and yes we are in summer, but what the !!!!!!!
I have stopped worrying about the change in weather patterns as it is no longer a worry ( the wedding is over ) still this is not what we are used to and it seems there is more rain on the way. By the way the lightning photo is of my City, and I think she looks beautiful no matter the weather.
I am having a few financial problems since I lost my ATM card, I am now left with a Visa Debit card linked to my account which I can use, but not to make any cash withdrawals, because I can,t remember my pin number. So I had to go to the bank in my lunch break today in order to have enough cash for all my cash payments. I stopped short at telling the counter Assistant about my jars and seperate accounts, I have the feeling she just wouldent get it LOL

Tomorrow is going to be a big spend day for me as I have to finish all my christmas shopping, and do a big Grocery shop for my family as we are having an early Christmas Dinner at my house before they head off on holiday.

Today was almost a no spend day but I had to buy bottles of wine as gifts for a couple of workmates who were good enough to lend me their expertise when I needed some things for my Daughters Wedding. So spends today were $28.00

Working and Babysitting

After working a 10 hour shift today, I came acros to my Daughters house for Dinner and to start my next job. That of Babysitter to the 8 and 4 year olds, these two are now at the stage where they don,t need me to keep them entertained, so while they sit at one end of the table drawing, I am at the other writing my blog.

Not that I have a great deal to blog about, as I am still struggling with my budget for next year. I have made it so tight, that if I sneeze I won,t be able to afford a box of tissues. And that is definitely not going to work. I don,t want to make things so tight that I fall at the first hurdle, and yet as a low paid worker who wants to see savings and debt repayment as priorities in 2011 there are some things I,m going to have to do without. So it,s back to the drawing board, maybe I,ll put my priorities into a hat and see which I pull out first !!!!

A no spend day today and another two hours of overtime worked. My Boss told me that overtime was available all week if we wanted it, don,t know if I,ll work back every day but it,s nice to have the option.

Working Hard But Benefiting Financially

I worked back tonight, after making sure Hubby would be home with MIL, I took the opportunity to earn a little extra cash, so this weeks total of extra hours worked is 6 and at time and a half that,s 9 extra hours pay. If I get the chance I,ll do another couple tomorrow and that will give me the total of an extra $201.36 before Tax, this will be paid to me on Friday and it will mean that all presents will be bought and all bills will be cleared. We are really busy at the moment and it may be necessary to work even more hours in the lead up to Christmas, by the time the holidays get here I will certainly need the break.






This is the online website I use to earn a little extra dollars by reading emails, doing surveys as well as going through them to shop. I used most of my points up a couple of months ago to buy a Gold Membership, I figured it was their money anyway so why not. Since becoming a gold member my points are accumulating even quicker and this morning I received a $30 cheque from points Ive accrued lately. So I,m proudly heading for the bank tomorrow to deposit a free $30.

I had a no spend day today plus I earned so today was a real bonus.

There are Umbrellas and then there are Umbrellas

It is still raining would you believe it !!!! I have had the most rotten day today. I decided not to give into my Hubby,s bad behaviour and he has,nt spoken to me since. I had to phone him from the Pharmacy to let him know that his prescription was,nt available to him as it had finished. And he did,nt answer the phone, so I took the initiative to get the script with the instructions that he had to go to his doctors some time during the week and I blasted him for being too lazy to answer the phone. He retaliated and before we knew it war had broken out. I could probably have handled it better, but so could he, so it,s stalemate.


Today I started on next years budget and it,s tight, I,m not ready to post it yet as it probably needs a bit of tweaking, but I would love to stick with this one as I will make an amazing amount of financial progress if I could just stick to it. The only thing is that in order to slice up my wages the way I would like to I would have to have 4 bank accounts, some jars and a wallet.

1. Bank Account 1) To put my wages into and pay off weekly amounts as well as leaving standing orders in.
2. Bank Account 2) Emergency Fund
3. Bank Account 3) Holiday Savings
4. Bank Account 4) Life Savings.
5. Jar 1) Food Money
6. Jar 2) Petrol Money
7. Wallet ) For anything that,s left.
   

Maybe one or two of these could go under the same Umbrella what do you think ????

Spent $50 today, $10 on petrol, $20 on clothes for Grandson,s Christmas present, $6 for 2 coffees and $14 for my prescription at the Pharmacy,s, this was all budgeted for even the coffee,s

End of my Financial Week / Garage Sale Finds

Today is the last day of my Financial week and at 3.30pm on Saturday afternoon I now know that I won,t be spending any more money. The Christmas Party that we had arranged with the girls I work beside has been rained off, not just rained off but poured off. It is now a matter of some urgency to get the Ark finished.

Total spend for 05 Dec 2010 - 11 Dec 2010: $510.00

CHRISTMAS 2010
2010-12-10	Gifts	$132.00
TOTAL FOR CHRISTMAS 2010		$132.00
CLOTHES
2010-12-10	Millars Clothing	$13.00
TOTAL FOR CLOTHES		$13.00
COFFEE WITH ROSE
2010-12-10	Coffees	$12.00
TOTAL FOR COFFEE WITH ROSE		$12.00
DEBT
2010-12-10	Lion Finance	$25.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$25.00
ENTERTAINMENT
2010-12-07	Christmas Night Out	$40.00
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT		$40.00
FOOD TREATS
2010-12-10	Christmas Lunch Out	$56.00
TOTAL FOR FOOD TREATS		$56.00
GARAGE SALE
2010-12-11	Bird Feeder Jugs and Lights	$8.00
TOTAL FOR GARAGE SALE		$8.00
GROCERIES
2010-12-10	Aldi	$162.00
2010-12-11	Morning Rolls	$6.00
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$168.00
MOBILE PHONE
2010-12-10	3 mobile	$56.00
TOTAL FOR MOBILE PHONE		$56.00
SPENDLESS YEAR
2010-12-05	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2010-12-06	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2010-12-08	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2010-12-09	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
TOTAL		$510.00

As you can see I have had 4 no spend days this week, so I,m happy about that. What I am not so happy about is that I bought a new piece of clothing, a really light cotton top, which I really wanted and needed in a nice shade of denim blue, still it was marked down very heavily from $39.99 to $13.00.

You might notice that I bought at a Garage Sale, that happened this morning my Kids and Grandkids had come over to have a family breakfast with us and had noticed a Garage Sale just around the corner from our house. So off we all trotted and we were so glad we did, the Bird Feeder I bought was $1 I looked it up online and it retailed for $50 and it was still boxed. I bought heavy duty lights for outside in our patio area for $4 and because he had a set without a plug on he threw them in as well, and last but not least 2 gorgeous little glass milk jugs for $1 each. They will be perfect on my Dinner table. I have added a photo of the exact Bird Feeder, now all I need are the Sunflower Seeds to attract our native birds. I can see me getting a lot of enjoyment out of it.

My Weekly Spends.......Christmas Gifts

Christmas shopping started in earnest today, and I have now got my youngest Grandaughter a talking teapot, plastic food items for playing shops. A pack of knickers, she is just starting her toilet training, two pairs of shorts 1 Aqua 1 pink and 2 tops to go with the shorts. I also bought a Secret Santa gift voucher to the value of $50 for one of the girls in work. I also bought the cutest largest size gift bag with Mickey Mouse in a Santa hat on it, to put my Grandaughter,s gifts into. I also made a start on my oldest Grandaughter,s gift but she is so hard to buy for.

An expensive pay day today here is the breakdown.

spend	category	value	delete
Christmas Party Food	Food Treats	$56.00
Lion Finance	Debt	$25.00
Gifts	Christmas 2010	$132.00
Millars	Clothes	$13.00
Aldi	Groceries	$162.00
3 mobile	Mobile Phone	$56.00
Coffees	Coffee With Rose	$12.00
	total today:	$456.00

On the plus side I had 4 no spend days this week, and I still have money in the bank, all round a good week.

We Have Oprahitis Over Here

In case anyone in the free world is not aware of this Oprah has landed down under. In fact she is almost at my back door ( hope she doesent mind a bit of rain ) I have always been a bit of an Oprah fan I find her TV shows interesting and thought provoking.

But we do have other things happening here at the moment not that the media seem to be aware of this as 8 of the headline stories this morning were about Oprah. this was followed up at dinner time by yet another interview. Quite frankly I,m all Oprahed out, still it is all in the name of Tourism.

I have just been into my bank account to see if my wages were in ( sadly they were not ) and discovered that my financial institution has an online Budgeting Tool, sounds as if that might be something I,d be interested in, so I may have a prowl through it after it has taken around 72 hours to upload my last three months banking history.

I managed to work 2 hours overtime today, through the week is the best time for me to work any extra hours as Hubby is home with Mum, this will go into next weeks wage. Pay day tomorrow. will post my spends then.

Another no spend day today.

Aged Care Allowance Perhaps

Today I got all my paperwork in order and waited in the longest queue at our local Centrelink Office to lodge my application for a Carers allowance for my aged Mother-In-Law who lives with us. Over the last year she has been needing more and more of our time and attention, in order to do some of the most simple tasks. I have decided that as she is getting more dependent on us I will have to take back some of the household duties that she has been responsible for, and cut back on my working hours, so little or no overtime depending on if she is going to be left home alone. ( these were duties which she insisted on doing to pay her way, as we are both out working )

The Allowance is for only $56 a week but it is non taxable and so added to my normal wage it should cover some of the expenses of driving her around. It is always touch and go when you lodge a claim to see if you qualify, so fingers crossed for us, although it is going to be the beginning of next year before we hear if we have been successful.

Another no spend day for me the 4th this week, but really I could be doing with Grocery shopping, as butter, milk and chocolate biscuits are running low. Still it won,t be long now until payday.

My Whinge Fest.............Sorry !!!!!

I spent no money again today, and with only another three days to go until payday and enough food in the house to last until then it looks as if I might make it through. Hubby gets paid tomorrow and he will be taking care of our rent, and outstanding phone bill, putting money onto his credit card, and doing God knows what with the rest. He is definitely the weak link in this financial chain, and the situation is getting really dire, as I don,t feel as if I can rely on him at all.

I heard someone make the statement that " If life kicks you make sure it kicks you forward " and I am going to take that on board I feel as if I play the victim. I write a post about how awful my finances/ workmates/ Hubby/situation is and everyone rallies round and tells me everything is going to be fine, stick with it, you can do it, and I walk away post accomplished. I have probably done it again with this post. I don,t come across as a strong Woman who is taking control of her life, and I have no idea where this needy person came from. Have I been kicked so often that I can,t get up, or are things not really as black as I think, after all I own a car and all my bills are paid, I have a job, and a roof over my head.

When I started to write this post I was only going to mention that I had another no spend day. And somehow that became this, a whinge fest. Got to get a positive thought out of all this.

POSITIVE THOUGHT

Today we were told officially that we would not be having a works Christmas Party this year, so what,s positive about that I hear you ask. It means that I will have a free day to get myself and my home into the festive spirit. It means that the leg of ham we can expect from our work as a Chrissie present will find it,s way straight into my fridge instead of lying in work, going off, while we enjoy ourselves having lunch, free drinks, and a laugh........ What more could an employee ask for.

At long last Some Wedding Photos/ Worth Waiting For

The Happy Couple I thought they were like something from Gone With The Wind

My Handsome Grandson acting as his Dad,s Best Man

My Beautiful if nervous Granddaughter, she was the only Bridesmaid

I went over to my Daughter,s last night to babysit and while I was there I stole these photos and emailed them to myself, so I would have them in a form I could use in blogger, I,m not sure if I like the sepia tones of the children,s photos, as the red and white of the little ones dress does,nt show up particularly well. But she has got such a lovely face I don,t think anyone noticed her dress.

One of these days I will post some pictures of The Marquee decorations I made.

Spends for today $20.00 for Groceries, I,m now well and truly skint !!!!!!!!!

Weekly Spending Tracking

Today is payday and I had a few payments to make including the last of the two rent payments I made to help out hubby, so all up a pretty expensive day. Hubby is paid on Tuesday and he is going to be covering the phone bill which is usually paid by me, this means that my load has been lightened a little. You might notice that I have managed to make a payment of $150 into my debt, I had fallen a little behind during the Month but I am now back up to date again. Unfortunately I had forgotten that my drivers license was due to expire this week, and not having put anything aside to pay for emergencies etc. the payment had to come out of my Grocery money. Hopefully the food in my freezer and pantry, will last till next Friday,s pay.


Rent $365.00
Debt $150.00
Woolworths Groceries $19.00
Morning Tea $10.00
Drivers licence $52.45
Petrol $20.00
Entertainment $26.00
Total today: $642.45

I havent budgeted for December as I,m going to have to pay out almost every cent I earn in order to start fresh in January, however I will do a weekly account of where the money is getting spent.This is this weeks, and as you can see almost 50% of the money spent this week was on Rent.

2010-11-29 Petrol $10.00
2010-12-03 Drivers licence $52.45
2010-12-03 Petrol $20.00
TOTAL FOR CAR EXPENSES $82.45
CLOTHES
2010-11-30 Red Cross Clothing $18.00
TOTAL FOR CLOTHES $18.00
DEBT
2010-12-03 Transpacific $150.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT $150.00
ENTERTAINMENT
2010-12-03 Morning Tea $10.00
2010-12-03 Pictures $26.00
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT $36.00
GROCERIES
2010-11-28 Fruit and Veg $10.00
2010-12-03 Woolworths $19.00
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES $29.00
HOUSEHOLD
2010-11-28 Curtains $10.00
2010-12-03 Rent $365.00
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD $375.00
NO SPEND DAY
2010-12-01 Nothing $0.00
TOTAL FOR NO SPEND DAY $0.00
SPENDLESS YEAR
2010-12-02 Spend Less Day $0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR $0.00
XMAS 2010
2010-11-30 Xmas Cards $33.80
TOTAL FOR XMAS 2010 $33.80
TOTAL $724.25
I copied these figures straight from spendingdiary.com which I am loving using.

A No Spend Day My First In December

My purse stayed well and truly closed today, even although I had a day off of work and a Doctor,s Appointment. However it won,t last as tomorrow is payday, the first one of the month, and after paying all I am due there will be very little left over. Will post all my outgoings tomorrow.

I made a start on writing my Christmas Cards today, I have 4 categories.

Overseas Mail
Local Mail.
Hand delivered mail
E-cards
So far I have written out all the cards which are going overseas, and tomorrow I will buy the stamps and post them.

I have finished filling in the application form for the carers allowance for my MIL and will present it to our Centrelink Office tomorrow ( Social Security ) hopefully I have dotted the I,s and crossed the T,s but if not I would rather find out straight away instead of posting it in and then finding out I have missed something they needed.


Positive thoughts

I have been immensely cheered by the support I have been offered by my blogging friends, I thought after making such a mess of my finances during November that I would take some criticism. Instead everyone has been supportive and most think I will be back on track by the end of the year. And so to prove them right I will be back on track. Thanks xx