I,m Super Excited My First Award

I,m super excited because today Denise at http://budgetconfidential.blogspot.com paid me the honor of a stylish blog award, so thank you thank you. Just glance to the right and it,s there for all to see.

Here are the rules to the award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 15 other bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award

No 1) This year is my Ruby Wedding Anniversary
2) I am Scottish by birth currently living in Queensland
3) My Mother-in-Law lives with us, not too sure how I got talked into that one
4) I have 2 children 36 and 33 years old and 3 Grandchildren 8,5,2 years old
5) I have one very old black cat called Scotty
6) When I was 16 I met The Beatles
7) I love love love The Rolling Stones ( and not The Beatles )

I follow and love all of my blogging friends, so I am going to do what Laura at http://www.nomorespending.net
has done and award this to all my special blogging followers, enjoy.

Can,t A Woman Change Her Mind ???

Thats Me Indecisive

It.s only a couple of days now until I start No Spend February, and try as hard as I might my zero based budget allows me little or no manouvere, so instead of achieving high savings numbers I am only going to be able to save another $200, and yet the competative side of me wants to do more. So I have swayed back and forward between changing my whole budget or making do with saving only a little.
And ( drumroll please ) I have decided to change nothing, zipp, nada, zilch. So here is where I can hopefully save a few more Dollars.

Groceries normal budget $100 weekly ...new budget $70
Petrol normal budget $20 weekly...........new budget $15
Mad Money budget $50 weekly..............new budget $20
Savings in 28 days = $260

I will post this months spends on Monday and then it,s all systems go.

I am really pleased with the way my snowflakes are mounting up, they now consist of 2 overtime hours. Leave loading from 2 days Annual leave and change left over from Mad Money and Groceries. This figure is going to soar on Friday as I have just worked an extra 10.5 hrs in this next pay period. Thats 9hrs at double time and 1.5hrs at time and a half, yippee

Yes I am computer Illiterate

Dismal Blogging Failure !!

Yes I admit it when I start to play around with my blog, it,s all trial and error. I really havent got a clue what I,m doing. Anyway after me asking the question about my blog header I decided to take out the photo of the money. It dident cover the whole header as some of you pointed out, and others couldent even see it, now that was really strange. So now that it,s gone at first glance this doesent resemble a PF blog at all. Still the fact that I have managed to come this far never fails to amaze me. Wish blogger had some money themes.


On the financial front tomorrow is pay day, the last one before No Spend February. My plans are in place and I.m ready to go. I don.t expect to save very much money as my zero based budget already covers all of my wage, but maybe I can make more cutbacks to my Grocery bill, my Petrol allowance and of course my mad money cut back from $50 to $20 for the month of February.
Good luck to all challengers, please help to keep me motivated with plenty of posts and budget saving ideas.

I,m Flying The Flag On Australia Day

No post today as my I have nothing financial to report. It,s a public holiday today all over Australia. so a chance to sit back and reflect on the move we made 25 years ago with two young children, all the way across the world.
This has resulted in a better way of life for us all, a fabulous Son and Daughter-in-law and three of the cutest Grandchildren a Granny could have.
So I just want to say

THANK YOU AUSTRALIA

I JUST QUICKLY WANT TO ASK CAN YOU SEE THE NAME OF MY BLOG ON MY HEADER PLUS A PICTURE OF MONEY, WHEN I CHECKED MY BLOG AT MY DAUGHTERS THEY WERENT THERE BUT ON MY PC THEY ARE. STRANGE

Waiting For The Rules 1 Week To Go

My Rules For No Spend February.

While waiting for Sharon to post the rules for our next challenge, I decided to employ a couple of tactics to help me reach the end of the month, without spending too much. Firstly I only have 1 Birthday in February and that,s my Granddaughter,s she will be two on the 3rd. So I will buy her present with Friday,s wage and her card.

Valentines Day is going to be the day we spend the gift voucher for a swanky meal which my DD gave us at Christmas time, this is in an area with off road parking so no parking fees, we have got $60 each to spend on food and booze, too easy.

I have been saving up my free coffee vouchers from our local coffee shop and as they have no dates on them I will use them in Feb.

I am cutting my mad money down from $50 to $20, I did this for the last challenge and actually managed better than I thought I would.

I am going to shop with a list and make up weekly menus, and these will be linked to weekly specials.

So what are your tactics going to be for this Challenge. I also want some hints from others who are perhaps not joining us.

Dealing With My Debt In 2011

Debt Repayment Versus Savings ?

Yesterday I said that I would write a post about how I intend to cope with my debts in 2011. I have mentioned in the past that I am paying no interest on my debts as they are both in the hands of debt collection agencies. So already the damage has been done, the interest has already been slapped onto the accounts, and I still have both of these bad debts recorded on my credit record.
So am I in a huge hurry to pay these debts off, from a financial point of view NO, but I do want rid of them ASAP. But do I want to save some money YES, and when do I want to start these savings ASAP.
So therein lies my dilemma, I want, need and must have an Emergency Fund, a Holiday Fund and a long Term Savings Fund, and if all my money is going into debt repayment then I can,t have them. so here is my plan.

I have a personal debt I want to have paid off first so $100 a week is being put aside for this and I expect to have it paid off by the 25th of March, at the same time as I am paying of the personal debt I will be upping my Debt 2) repayment to $70 a fortnight and expect to be clear of this debt by 17th June. After my personal debt is paid off I am opening up a Car Fund into which I will put the weekly $100 payment and after Debt 2) is finished I will roll over the money from there onto Debt 1) and for the rest of the year I will pay $100 a week off of this debt reducing it greatly.
During the time I am doing this I will be putting.
$40 a week into my Emergency Fund.
$40 a week into my holiday Fund
$50 a week into my Long Term Savings fund.
$100 a week into a New Car Fund.

My end of year figures will look something like this.

Debt Repayments

Personal Debt $1,000 PAID
Debt 2 ) started year at $822.86 PAID
Debt 1) started year at $5,672 reduced to $2,672
Total debt paid in 2011 = $3,822.86

Savings

Holiday fund $2,080
Emergency Fund $1,000 ( may revise this figure )
Long Term Savings $2,500
Car Savings Fund $4,100

I will also have gotten my credit rating back by the end of April, so I,m happy with where I will be by 31st December 2011

My Weekly Spending Report Jan 22nd

Where are my finances this week ?

Exactly where I want them to be, no bills came out of my account this week, my Groceries are where I want them and my mad money was used to get my nails done. Hubby gave me the $20 to cover the contribution to work for the flood victim. tomorrow I am going to write about where I an going with my debt repayments this year,but till then it,s all about this last weeks spends. But before that I have to tell you about the fantastic bargain I got today.
I was in my local Kmart when the staff brought out a trolley full of packets of candy canes, there were 10 canes to a packet and they were selling them off for 10 cents for 10 packets, that,s right 100 candy canes for 10 cents. I could,nt resist them and my grandchildren will love them. Has anyone got any ideas what other things I can do with them ???

Total spend for 16 Jan 2011 - 22 Jan 2011: $201.87

CAR EXPENSES
2011-01-19	Petrol	$10.00
TOTAL FOR CAR EXPENSES		$10.00
CHARITY
2011-01-21	Flood Donation	$20.00
TOTAL FOR CHARITY		$20.00
DEBT
2011-01-21	Lion Finance	$25.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$25.00
ENTERTAINMENT
2011-01-22	Alcohol	$13.00
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT		$13.00
GROCERIES
2011-01-22	Aldi	$66.10
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$66.10
HAIR AND BEAUTY
2011-01-22	Nails filled	$50.00
2011-01-22	Shampoo	$4.67
TOTAL FOR HAIR AND BEAUTY		$54.67
HEALTH
2011-01-22	Prescription	$13.00
TOTAL FOR HEALTH		$13.00
SPECIAL BARGAINS
2011-01-22	K mart	$0.10
TOTAL FOR SPECIAL BARGAINS		$0.10
SPENDLESS YEAR
2011-01-16	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-17	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-18	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-20	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
TOTAL		$201.87

OOps I forgot some things

This zero based budget thing is all well and good but how do you find the money if you forgot something ??

Today is payday, so I stopped off at the bank on my way to work to take out my cash for the week, Grocery, petrol, my money and a personal loan repayment. I had already paid some debt and allocated my savings into a couple of other accounts. All I had left in my main account was money to cover my future bills, electricity phone etc.

I was feeling on top of the world this budgeting thing is an absolute breeze I thought, Ive really got a handle on this I thought, wonder what made me think it would be difficult I thought.

Well you know the old saying that pride comes before a fall, almost the moment I stepped into work I was handed a card and asked to sign it and if I wanted to I could contribute some money to one of my workmates who had lost everything in the Queensland floods. His Insurance did,nt cover him for flood damage and the poor soul had lost everything, as well as which he is recovering from major surgery from bowel cancer.

So of course I wanted to help out and I put $20 into the envelope, a drop in the ocean in comparison to his needs, but hopefully it will help.

But where do I take this money from as it is all spoken for right down to the last cent. I have only allocated myself $20 for petrol so I can,t take it out of there. $100 for Groceries and with 3 adults and a cat to buy for it will be hard to take it from there. I was not about to take it out of a debt repayment, thats way to important. So my only choice was to take it out of my mad money for this week, so with that decision made, what should I do in future.

Do I have to rewrite my whole years budget to accommodate a gift and charity category ? I had intended to fund any gift buying with Snowflakes, should I leave it like that. What would you have done ????

Zero Based Budget And I Didnt Even Know

As the world of PF is all new to me, I am not familiar with the terminology , especially as the banking systems around the world are so different to one another. But as we are all putting in our plan,s goals and budgets for 2011, I have heard the expression Zero Based Budget used by a large number of bloggers.
Always on the lookout for new ideas and systems I googled it and guess what I found, I think you may have guessed by now, I am a Zero Based Budgeter. If I was to think about it logically then I would probably have been able to work it out for myself, but I am a google junkie.
I love that all of my wages have been neatly put into compartments, but I am now worrying that I may have been to tight with my budget as I have left absolutely no room for error. Still if it doesent work I can always change it.

Be aware that this is the first time I have ever added a link to my blog, so please let me know if it works or not.

Getting excited about Sharon at http://midlifemommusings.blogspot.com no spend challenge for February, I,m joining anyone else interested.

A Very Successful Weeks Report

The little arrow on the success signpost should be pointing towards me, yes me it,s all starting to come together.
I am going to be posting my weekly spending but firstly I want to tell you all what I got up to last night. I have always been a big fan of writing things down, yes I keep a spreadsheet and yes I follow a budget planner on my banks website. But nothing does it for me like a pen and paper. so I sat and entered all in my incomings and outgoings from now until 1st July. It is now documented weekly how much each savings category has in it, how much is standing on each individual debt, and how much is sitting in my household bills account. This latter one was a lot harder to estimate for Electricity and phone, so I have estimated them at 10% higher than the same time last year.
I have worked my figures on a basic wage and my carers allowance which comes in fortnightly. So anything over and above that ( snowflakes ) will be allocated to debt.

Total spend for 09 Jan 2011 - 15 Jan 2011: $569.60

DEBT
2011-01-14	Transpacific	$72.86
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$72.86
ENTERTAINMENT
2011-01-15	Coffees and Cakes	$11.00
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT		$11.00
GROCERIES
2011-01-11	Coles	$9.00
2011-01-11	Woolworths	$10.00
2011-01-12	Aldi	$53.95
2011-01-15	Aldi	$56.05
2011-01-15	Woolworths	$15.35
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$144.35
HAIR AND BEAUTY
2011-01-14	Hair Dye	$13.00
2011-01-14	Nails filled	$30.00
TOTAL FOR HAIR AND BEAUTY		$43.00
HOUSEHOLD
2011-01-14	Electricity	$298.39
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD		$298.39
SPENDLESS YEAR
2011-01-09	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-10	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-13	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
TOTAL		$569.6

I am really pleased at the amount spent this week on Groceries as I made an extra trip to Aldi,s to stock up on some emergency supplies. Electricity was a little higher than usual as prices have gone up so much this year, $100 was paid off of this account last week to break it up a little. All bills now being paid on the due dates, and all up to date. Yippeeeeeeeee

Finances Right On Track I,m Winning This One

This week saw me at last being exactly where I want to be, the hardest part of putting money aside for bills is the fact that you are very often behind so in effect two payments are having to come out of your budget, one for current bills and another to have enough in your account to cover the next accounts coming in. Well it,s been tough for me to get to this stage but I am never ever going to have to worry about paying another bill as my budget is now right on track.
I got a phone call from the company that I pay Debt 2) too, they wanted me to add a little more to the fortnightly amount I already pay, when they rang I got out my debt book looked at how much I owed, when my next payment was due ( which was yesterday ) and asked her to ring back later in the week while I did a little number crunching to see if this was possible. I felt so empowered that I had all this knowledge at my fingertips, so after looking a little closer at my budget, I decided to pay an extra $20 fortnightly. I was happy the company was happy and the debt will be paid off earlier. So win win win all round.

Tomorrow I will post my spending figures for the week, my Grocery bill is going to be way over my budget amount, but it was an emergency to get more food into the house in case of shortages, also I paid the remainder of my power bill, and my mobile bill was also paid.

I put money into my emergency fund, my Savings Fund and my holiday fund, and I have updated all my sidebars, I love the visuals of seeing those colored lines getting longer, can,t wait to see them one solid color.
My snowflakes are sitting at a healthy $82.00 this was because I had a few annual leave days off this week, so I got an extra 17% leave loading.

I Am Heartbroken. / More Sad Photos

This is Eagle Street pier and walkways most of which are now underwater, this is a favourite place to come to on a Sunday because of The Markets, and the many bars and Restaurants, it is normally a beautiful serene part of Brisbane.

This devastating picture is of Southbank my favourite place on earth, when I came to live in my beautiful adopted city, this was one of the first of Brisbanes attractions that I visited, built originally for Expo, it is an exciting vibrant place filed with life. In among all that water there was a man made beach, which was usually busy all Summer long, and if you stayed until after dark you could watch a Movie while sitting on the sand or swimming in the man made sea. When I first arrived here in 1995 they had just finished building a long Arbour and had just planted climbing flowering shrubs to grow over it, they were about 6 ins tall when I first saw them, and everytime Hubby and I would go there we would admire these tall strong beautiful plants which now covered the walkway.
It,s all gone now swept away by the river it was built on, the rage of the Brisbane River has destroyed so much beauty and left me heartbroken.

Yes I have so much to be thankful for we are all well and safe, but my heart is still breaking.

Jane the inland Sunami which you asked me about happened on Monday afternoon and was what made Queensland aware that we were in for bad times ahead, we got notice, these poor people got none. Stores are now quickly running out of fresh produce or are limiting the amount which customers can buy, some of the smaller places which were hardest hit, have been without power, water and food for several days now.
People from all over the world have volunteered to come and help, evacuation centers have been opened Brisbane wide, and the one nearest me slept 700 people last night and more are expected today as the power is going off all over.
So I am very lucky, and I count my blessings every day. Thanks for all your thoughts, will be back tomorrow with a financial post as it is payday and life must go on.

Back As Promised Power Still On.

The center of Brisbane is under water in some areas. My Son works on the Riverside and he and most of the rest of the city were evacuated around lunchtime yesterday. The streets which are on his bus route home were closed and so he found himself heading in the opposite direction from where he usually parks his car, no sign at this time of him being able to return to work. Also Hubby got a phone call last night telling him not to come in today. Most of Brisbane has come to a standstill.

This is the Wivenhoe Dam which is situated between Brisbane and Toowoomba, it is now at 190% capacity, they have opened up the gates and let some of the water spill out into the Brisbane River adding to the problem, however this is so they can regulate flow as once it reaches 200% it will overflow anyway. So by doing this they hope to minimise the damage, however at 3pm today we will also be hit with a King tide which will force it,s way up the river to meet with all the water coming down. This is obviously going to add to the current problems.

What you are seeing is Suncorp Stadium home of one of our great sporting teams and the venue for some of our large outdoor Concerts. U2 were here not too long ago. As you know Australia loves it,s sports, so this for some would be a devastating photo.

This last photo is of a Suburban back yard already under water, the River is expected to peak tomorrow morning at 3am and many many people are going to find themselves homeless with many thousands more with a massive clean-up job on their hands.


We were told today by a relative who drives the huge trucks Interstate, laden with produce, that we are soon going to notice a lot of items disappearing from out Supermarket shelves. As it is going to get harder to get in and out of this area. So this morning I went down to our local Aldi to stock up on bread and milk, and was confronted by a full car park and people panic buying. So I got my share and a couple of extra items and came back home.
We are all safe and dry, and likely to stay that way, however we have been told not to use our mobile phones more than need be and to be aware that we may experience power cuts. But so far so good.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and please keep them coming, we have 10 confirmed deaths and 80 missing. So a lot of families are in dire straits, and need those prayers.

Queensland is Under Water

The photographs I am posting today were both taken yesterday, in Toowoomba about 1 1/2hrs away from where we live, and both views were taken right in the heart of this beautiful town. Toowoomba is a very pretty tourist spot where they hold an annual flower festival, and many many people visit, to admire the scenery, enjoy the picnic areas and the walking tracks.
It is also where my son-in-Law,s family all stay, and at the moment because all connection has been cut it,s been very difficult to speak with them and make sure they are all well. Although they do seem to be. The scary thing about this flooding is that this area is 700mt above sea level and has never flooded before, this event has been likened to an inland Sunami, and it is now making it,s way down towards the Brisbane River. firstly sweeping through the area where we were visiting with family on Sunday, the roads in and out of this area are now all closed.

google for for news if you are interested.

More storms are expected today and Brisbane is on full alert, especially those suburbs near the river which is expected to start to rise within a couple of hours. I have been doing a bit of complaining over the Summer about the amount of rain we have been having, and how frustrating it,s been not to have weather we could rely on, but we just never saw this coming. And over on the other side of this vast land, they are battling bushfires.
Off now to make sure everything in the yard is tied down or put away, be back with more news tomorrow.

My Credit Report / Last Question Regarding Snowflakes

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had sent for my credit report, well it arrived last week and I forgot to mention it in my blog. so here it is in all it,s embarrassing glory.
First let me set the scene, I first got into trouble with not paying back my debts when Hubby got really sick and all of a sudden I became the chief breadwinner, on my low paying wage. I had maxed out my CC to the tune of $4,500 and had a GE loan for a new fridge. so after avoiding these payments to my cost my CC debt with interest stood at $6,222.06 and my GE loan of $1,200 with interest was sitting at $1,772.86 so almost $2,000 was interest alone. By this time I was scared to open the door, answer the phone and I was frightened out of my mind about hubbies health. Forward a couple of years and both of these debts had been bought out by collection firms and now they were chasing me, but Hubby was better after major heart surgery, and I decided to come clean to both of these agencies. So I have been paying off the minimum amounts just to prevent court cases and weekly phone calls.
I should add that the last thing I want is more debt, but I made the decision to apply for a CC in order to find out how my credit rating stood, naturally it was declined and I was advised to ask for My Credit Report to find out why. So because I now feel confident that I can handle the news and I have passed the head in the sand way of looking at my finances I applied. So here it is.

Optus Financial Services ( telephone company )
Overdue $157.00
Amended 14/10/2007
Account never finalized
This entry will be automatically removed from your file on 11th April 2011

ANZ bank cards ( my CC debt )
Overdue $5,742
Amended 2/4/2006 ( more interest has been added since then )
Account never finalized
This entry will be automatically removed from your file on 2nd April 2011

GE finance Australia
Overdue $1,772
Amended 2/5/2006
Account never finalized
This entry will be automatically removed from your file on 31st January 2011

The fact that there are 3 defaults is news to me, and not good news. I never even realized that I owed a telephone account, I can only presume that we moved house and it got forgotten about in the move, but I always leave a forwarding address so they obviously never looked for me. And for such a paltry amount of money they added me to the default list. Still it is what it is, so I will be contacting them soon to get this monkey off my back. I will also be contacting Veda the firm I got my report from, to see about the Automatic removal of these entries, because the way I,m reading this my report will be clear of all three entries by the 11th of April. So that is fantastic news.

Has anyone seen news reports about the flooding in Queensland, fortunately it has,nt really affected me but there are some of my workmates still stuck where they went on Holiday, and fast running out of food and water, one poor lot was camping. I still can,t believe that we have still had the only dry week for our Wedding, the area that the Marquee was in is now under water, as it was on the lowest flattest part of our yard.

O.K. I promise this is the last time I,m going to ask the Snowflake question. BUT what exactly am I allowed to add to my Snowflake amount, I was thinking extra income earned, but does this include Tax Rebates, Gifts etc. or only overtime and selling stuff. Also at the end of the week/ month/ year can you add in money left in your jars ??? I,m confused !!! does it show ?

My Weekly Spending Report Jan 8th

Checking in with my weekly spending report, this does,nt include Savings or Retirement money.
When I worked out my budget for each week and month I forgot to add in a direct debit amount for $42 this was for a monthly series of DVD,s which I had ordered around July of last year. A payment was taken out in July, August, September and October and then nothing in November or December, so I presumed that the series was completed and I never gave it another thought. This head in the sand attitude has got to stop, instead of phoning them up and finding out why nothing had been taken out in November and December I was just relieved that it seemed to have come to an end. BUT when I went into my bank account on Friday there it was again, with no explanation as to why. I am pissed and at this stage I,m not sure who,s fault it is !!!
Anyway after finding that one of my categories was going to be short by $42 I found $50 hiding at the back of my wallet. Yippeeee so I.m $8.00 better off than I thought I was. But I will be ringing and finding out what is going on and stopping the direct debit.

All my categories have been filled now and at last I should be able to add to my sidebars, work towards having snowflakes, and paying off a personal debt.

We spent yesterday with family having a lovely meal and admiring the new home built by this couple, the company was excellent the food gorgeous and the scenery inspiring. And all only 1 and 1/2 hours drive away, so we will probably do it again often. Have a great weekend everyone.

Total spend for 02 Jan 2011 - 08 Jan 2011: $310.00

CAR EXPENSES
2011-01-07	Petrol	$20.00
2011-01-08	Petrol	$10.00
TOTAL FOR CAR EXPENSES		$30.00
DEBT
2011-01-07	Lion Finance	$25.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$25.00
ENTERTAINMENT
2011-01-08	Alcohol	$10.00
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT		$10.00
GROCERIES
2011-01-02	Aldi	$30.00
2011-01-07	Aldi	$115.00
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$145.00
HOUSEHOLD
2011-01-07	Electricity	$100.00
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD		$100.00
SPENDLESS YEAR
2011-01-03	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-04	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-05	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-06	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
TOTAL		$310.00

Tomorrow Starts a Whole New Chapter

My Best friend is ME

O.K. so perhaps that is a bit over the top, I admit it !!! But I am going to treat myself better this year than I ever have before, I,m going to get my finances in check, catch up with friendships which I,ve let slide and never put myself down even if it is a joke. I,m going to teach myself how to accept compliments, instead of brushing them off with
" Oh that old thing, it was really cheap "

Jane posted not long ago all the things she was going to do to look after herself this year, and I wrote a long comment which got lost in the great blogging airways, so now I am reposting that I will be getting a Mammogram done shortly this is an Annual event and I,m just waiting for them to send me out an appointment. And I,m due a Pap Smear test so I will contact my GP about that one.
Fortnightly I will be getting my nails done, and monthly I will color my hair. I am not a high maintenance type of girl, but maintaining is definitely getting harder as I age.
I will also have to lose some weight, this is getting to be a huge must as I have two bum knees and the extra weight I am carrying is, putting added strain on them, and I have been in agony since Christmas.

But the huge big look after yourself thing for me this year is my finances. Today is the last day in which I will struggle with bills, have no personal savings for retirement, although I have got Superannuation, have nothing in my Holiday fund or Emergency fund. Today is the last day I will have to deal with low self esteem, hide things from Hubby, make excuses to friends, family , strangers. So why does it all end today ?? Because tomorrow is payday my first of this year and the first of my new budget. I am on a tremendous high, I keep checking and rechecking my figures and they do add up, I am going to achieve all I want too this year.


At last it,s over !!!!!!!

I Have Crunched All The Numbers

I now know exactly where my wages are going to be allocated this year, I have played around and played around with these figures, and hard as I try I cant make them do all I want however I think I am getting the most bang from my buck by dividing them like this. This is a weekly amount.

1. Electricity per week $35.00
2. Phone/ Internet/Cable package per week $60.00
3. Mobile phone Bill per week $8.00
4. Food bill per week $100
5. Debt repayment $ 25 one week and $50 the next
6. Petrol per week $20.00
7. Car registration and Insurance per week $30.00

This comes to $ 293.00 so I will keep this money in my main account and pay bills when they are due, Food and Petrol money will be taken out and put in my jars.

1. Emergency fund per week $40.00
2. Holiday Fund per week $40.00
3. Retirement Savings per week $50.00

These are my weekly savings amount I want to get that emergency fund up to $1,000. We are already making plans for a couple of holidays this year a week in April/May to celebrate out 40th Wedding Anniversary and a couple of weeks off over Christmas this year with the family. The retirement Savings account is not to be touched for any reason at all until I retire. Savings amounts $130.00

1. Misc, amount per week $50.00
2. I am putting an extra, $50.00 a week away for ????

This is a total of $100 put aside for Misc, I have a group of friends who like to go away weekends and this is my in case we go money. My birthday present money as well as next Christmas money, is my 2nd total.

All up $523.00, not a Kings ransom but enough for me to get my finances in order. Those of you who have been following my blog are aware that I have recently been given an allowance for being my MIL,s carer, this amount is $110 a fortnight. And I am putting this straight into a personal debt which I am really keen to pay back. After crunching the numbers I should have this paid off in full by April, and then I will have to rethink where this money will be best allocated..
So my last three posts have been about crunching the numbers but I have had my trusty calculator in my hand again today and it all works. BRING IT ON!!!!!!

Big Spends Week !!!

I am astounded at the amount of money I have spent in the last week, certainly a big chunk went towards registering my car, I also had a phone/ internet/Cable bill which I paid, this bill is not officially due until next week, but I had the money lying and wanted to get as much cleared off as I could before the end of the year. But I still found the amount to be pretty high. These are the necessities of life and as such have to be paid for. Plus we are in a notoriously expensive time of the year, so next weeks figures will be better.
I have a weekly budget set out for every week this year, or at least until circumstances make me change it, but I have posted enough figures today and so I will give you my weekly breakdown tomorrow.
I am so excited reading everyone,s goals and budgets and knowing that I am a part of it all and in control of my finances for once in my life. See you can teach an old dog new tricks.

I have noticed over the last few days a number of new followers to my little blog, so I am taking the opportunity to say hi and welcome, since adding my globe it has been so interesting finding out where you all come from. I am not at all computer literate but this last few months I have taught myself how to add a sidebar, the globe, my ticker etc., and I,m getting such a kick out of it all. So I,m delighted to have you on board.

I have just had a light bulb moment, could the number of new followers be due to New Years Resolutions ???

Total Spends from 26th Dec 2010 to 1st January 2011

BIRTHDAY GIFT
2010-12-31	Ryan,s Present	$30.00
TOTAL FOR BIRTHDAY GIFT		$30.00
CAR EXPENSES
2010-12-31	Car Registration	$381.05
TOTAL FOR CAR EXPENSES		$381.05
DEBT
2010-12-31	Transpacific	$50.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$50.00
ENTERTAINMENT
2011-01-01	Taxi Fare	$10.00
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT		$10.00
FOOD TREATS
2010-12-30	Takeaway	$5.50
TOTAL FOR FOOD TREATS		$5.50
GROCERIES
2010-12-27	Aldi	$51.05
2010-12-31	Aldi	$53.25
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$104.30
HOUSEHOLD
2010-12-31	Telephone Bill	$236.81
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD		$236.81
MISC.
2010-12-28	Credit Report	$36.95
TOTAL FOR MISC.		$36.95
NEW YEAR 2011
2010-12-31	Alcohol	$50.00
TOTAL FOR NEW YEAR 2011		$50.00
SPENDLESS YEAR
2010-12-26	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2010-12-29	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
TOTAL		$904.61