Towards Retirement With Debt

Council Inspection of our Restaurant Kitchen - Today

2011-05-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

We need Another Sink

Title explains it all, so I am sitting here with my fingers crossed that they won,t find anything else which needs done, as any work will slow down our opening. I really was naive enough to think that any Kitchen issues would have been long resolved, but apparently not. Perhaps as the Restaurant has'nt changed hands in a long long time, it has'nt been inspected for awhile, and of course regulations change every time you blink. Anyway I,ll know more tomorrow.

My sister is away doing her food handling and Kitchen management courses today, and like my Liquor Licensing courses you have to get your certificates to be granted your licenses, so good luck to her for today.

My Takeaway menus are being picked up by me later today, can't wait to see them. I have a draft copy but there is nothing beats seeing them in the flesh ( so to speak ) I saved some money by not having had them folded, so I guess I'll be busy this afternoon. This will be a breeze for me as I had been doing this type of work for six years.

Nothing else new for me to do today, Sis. and I had been going out yesterday to pick up our Commercial Dishwasher and we had borrowed The Foxx's old workhorse of a Station Wagon. however the salesman we had been going out to see was off sick and nobody else had done the paperwork for us, so looks like next week before we will pick it up. They wanted $160 to deliver it !!!! So picking it up is a no-brainer.

On my to-do list for this week.

See Solicitor to sign lease

See current owner to have a run down on appliances, and the workings of.

See current owner regarding council's inspection.

See Insurance Agent for Restaurant Insurances.

See bank to pick up Merchant Banking info.

Speak to Telstra regarding phone lines into Restaurant.

Speak to my Superannuation company re: my application.

I,m sure there is more, will need to go and check my diary, see you all around.

Blogger/Google is still playing up for me I can,t even add a comment to my own blog now, so unless I am able to sign in Anonymously then there are some blogs I just can,t comment on. Apologies xxx

My Barista Course

2011-05-28T15:21:00.001-07:00

My Barista course is now finished, and because it was an accredited course we ended with an exam, I did'nt expect that, I had thought I was going for a nice relaxing enjoyable day out. Instead as soon as the word exam was used I turned into a quivering wreck, much the same as I did for the Liquor License exams, however I passed and am now a fully trained proffessional Barista. Yippeeeeeeeeeeeee

I am now trained to use, clean and set up both an expresso machine and grinder, to achieve the perfect Expresso based drinks.

Yesterday my sister and I found the perfect set of dishes for putting dips into, one of our entrees is a trio of dips and we had been searching for the perfect white containers for ages, and we stumbled on them quite by chance. I think we have almost everything we need now, but we will know better on Monday when we are going to the Restaurant to meet the current owner and a member of the local Council.

Apparently the Council have been asking for another sink to be installed in the kitchen, and as we will be the ones working the kitchen they want to ask where we want it placed. When we had the contract of sale drawn up, we stipulated that we were not prepared to take on any outstanding repairs or debts to this business, and so we will not be paying for this sink. We will find out tomorrow if the owner realises this. We have spoken to our solicitor regarding this and he has made it clear to us that we are not responsible.

Heading off to our local markets now, we would like to use local produce where we can and markets are usually the place to find the freshest and cheapest produce so we are going on a fact finding mission, wish us luck ....................

Apologies All Round

2011-05-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

I am so frustrated with my google account just now, I have one but whenever I try and make comments on some blogs it just keeps flashing back to this sign in box, so i do that then try and add my comment and blow me down but it does it too me again. So far today this has happened in three occasions, so today my apologies go out to.

Debt free by thirty

We May be Poor but we are Happy

Head over Heels in Debt

Sorry girls I am reading your posts but until I figure out how to fix this problem I can,t comment. I read every post written by all of my favourite bloggers, so if you are not hearing from me it,s probably because of this..........

No new happenings on the Restaurant front to report, an email from The Agent made us realise that we will be signing our lease agreement as soon as our Solicitor reads it over, but other than that I am having a housework day today before my Barista course tomorrow.

RSA and RMLV Certificates Passed

2011-05-25T03:57:00.000-07:00

Ok so I,ve been really really busy for the last couple of days, sitting for and getting my Certificates, my brain was about fried with all the information it has had to process over the last day or so. On the first day I spent 7 hours doing half of my RMLV that same evening I spent 4 hours doing my RSA. The next day saw me finishing my RMLV and receiving both Certificates. Apparently nobody saw me getting both of these at the first sitting, but I did and so I am feeling just a tad proud of myself. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with the amount of liquor I consume LOL

I got in touch with my superannuation company this morning, explained my position with regards to my settlement date and they are going to fast-track my payment so if we all keep our fingers, toes, knees and arms crossed it just may be through in time.

Today has been a day of form filling and endless phone calls to companies which keep you hanging on the other end for ages. But I have managed to set up an appointment for next week to speak to an Insurance Agent, we need to know a lot more about Public liability etc. I have also made an appointment with the bank regarding our merchant machine for the Restaurant, no point in opening up without having means for customers to use their cards as payment, and I have also made an appointment with the current owner to get a full hands on day with him in the Restaurant so he can show us the ropes.

Our Kitchen knifes have arrived this was an exciting moment for my Sister, every Chef needs good knifes and she took ages to make her mind up which ones she wanted, but now that they are here she is happy with her choice. Our uniforms also arrived they were away getting the Restaurant name on them, and they are so smart, can,t wait to wear them. And last but not least our Sundae glasses are here, think old Soda Bar and it should give you an idea what they are like, love em.

So thats where I am at the moment, waiting waiting waiting for everything to be finalised, I am starting to get a touch nervous, but this is a good nervous feeling.

Proud Restaurant Owners Photos

2011-05-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

I nearly never posted this photo because it was taken through the front window and so the quality is terrible, but I wanted to show you the Restaurant at it,s worst before we wave our magic wand over it.
On the wall to the left of this photo is our famous Tivoli Fountain wall mural, the kitchen is the bright spot to the top right our bar is also too the right and straight ahead behind the curtains seems to be an area for dumping things. But we intend to make that area if it is big enough into an intimate sitting area. Watch this space for more updates.

This is a picture of the outside, with me on the right, my sister on the left, her Granddaughter in the centre and my two little Angels next to us. The current owner ( we have not formaly settled yet ) seems to have lost his marbles and spoiled the whole shop frontage with this awful Spaghetti eating bride, he also used this logo on business cards and menus YUCK !!!! So the bride is going ASAP.

Today we added our outgoings to a new Quicken program we bought to keep our accounts up to date and so far we have spent arount $7,000 this includes a few bits and pieces for the Restaurant our initial deposit and licenses and training courses, and we are a long way from finishing our outgoings. It,s all out and nothing in just now but we were not naive enough to imagine it would be otherwise.

I managed to lay my hands on exactly the pasta bowls I was looking for as well as Sundae glasses and long spoons for them, and so at last we have sourced and looked for the best prices for everything we wanted. By going online, visiting auction houses and $2 shops we have paid way under the going rate for almost everything.

We looked into purchasing an industrial Dishwasher but they were soooo expensive that we have decided to rent with an option to buy after a year, or continue to rent. We were going to have to hire someone to help with the dishes but this has turned out to be a cheaper option. Plus the machine wont be looking for extra hours or holiday pay LOL

Heading off to do my Liquor course tomorrow, wish me luck as getting the licence for the Restaurant depends on me passing an end of course exam. I can,t remember the last time I had to sit and study, hope my brain doesent explode.

Well it,s Sunday and as the world is definitely still going strong I wish you all a great weekend.

Superannuation Blues

2011-05-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

Definitely more going out just now than coming in, plus bad news from My superannuation company, they have told me that because they are currently changing the structure of the company there is a delay in paying out individuals Superanuation, this means ME. OMG I am worried stiff what if it doesent come through in time for the contract to be finalised which is the 6th June.

So once again sleepless nights for me, half of me is getting on with my plans and the other half of me is frightened to make any, on the plus side my Sister is so positive, that I,m hoping it rubs off on me.

My final final final wage came in to the bank today this consisted of about 20 hours of holiday pay and the 16 hours I worked this week, so not a lot but added to what I have already got it will get me through, plus there is a credit card added to our business account with $4.500 available on it, so I may be able to use it and put anything used back when my Superannuation comes through.

We picked up our uniforms yesterday with the Restaurant name embroidered on to them, they look really smart I will be mainly in black with a long Bistro Apron and my sister is going with the traditional chefs jacket and striped trousers, we have bought confortable shoes, and so we are ready for our first service.

Next week my courses start and I,m looking forward to learning the fine art of coffee and alcohol service.

Anyone noticed my 2 sidebars, yippee almost paid off debt 2) cant wait to really get started on debt 1) I am only paying off $25 a fortnight at present so you can imagine how long this is going to take, still there is no interest on this debt so I actually can take my time with my repayments, still I would love to get rid of it.

Heading out with Sister to have a look at Chefs knifes, OMG more money.

Almost Retired From My Job !!!!!

2011-05-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

My word is blogger experiencing problems over the last couple of days, I,m not sure if anybody has managed to catch up with my last post, I had some trouble finding it myself, however here is more of my journey.

The candles above are exactly what we have bought to go on the inside tables, we have a mural on the main wall of the Restaurant which is a picture of The Tivoli Fountain in Rome, and we have used this image for all of our artwork on menus business cards etc. The rest of the walls are plain as to add any more would be overkill, and because of all the stone work in the mural we have tried to find something to match for the tables, and we thought these were perfect. They are not too big that you can,t see round them and not too small as to hardly stand out.

The Tivoli fountain

Tomorrow afternoon we are going out to catch up with a lad who has just closed down his family,s Italian Restaurant due to his Father,s bad health. He has loads of bits and pieces for sale and although there are very few things we need I want to pick his brains regarding Suppliers etc.

I did not leave work yesterday as planned, because they are right in the middle of a very big order and asked me for another couple of days, so now it,s Tuesday before I retire from working for the man. I managed to get my wages sorted out and now I am earning another couple of days money, so my expenses are not as bad as I thought they were going to be, and I should get by comfortably until we open up.

The Foxx is managing to take the news of our business venture pretty well at the moment, but I know the other shoe will eventually fall, and I,m prepared for that.

At the moment my Sister is having to handle almost all of the business appointments which don,t require my signature, and this is because of my work committments, so some days I feel a little out the loop, however I,m there when I can be and we do catch up every night as she is still living with us. Her Daughter and Husband are also here ( until the 8pm flight tonight ) although not staying with us, and I do feel threatened by him. I am not keen on him knowing our business and he is wooing her and fully expects her to return to him even although he is aware that all our money is tied up in this business, he wants to return in a couple of weeks to help with any painting etc. and then return again for our opening night. It wont be long before he will be getting told to back off, more dramas !!!!

Off to friends for a BBQ today, this will probably be the last one of the Season as it,s beginning to cool down a lot today, we are at 21centigrade or 69.8 fahrenheit not cold by some standards but my blood has thinned down after all my years of living down under.

Have a great weekend

Maureen xx

My Last Day As An Employee

2011-05-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go to ???

Today is my last day at work, I handed in two weeks notice and at last the big day has arrived. What a scary feeling to think that this wage is going to have to last me until the Restaurant starts to pay, and I,m not sure that the amount he has paid me is correct as I had expected around $200 more than I got, still I,ll be in his office first thing this morning checking that out.

At the moment all of our money is going out as we pay for courses, licences and stock. In a couple of weeks I am doing two days training in responsible sale of liquor, if I pass the course then it,s full steam ahead to apply for my Liquor licence. and then at the end of that same week I do a full days Barista course to learn the fine art of coffee making, complete with art on the top of each cup. I am a little concerned about the Liquor course as the exam at the end is going to be the deciding factor between getting that all important licence or not.

Because I work for a Printing firm all my Menus, leaflets and business cards are being done for me as part of a going away gift from Management and I should get them today, how exciting is that, my name in print this could be the most famous I ever get LOL

Our little Restaurant has been running now for around 14 years and is an intimate candlelit 40 seat dining area with room to sit another 16 outside, but as we head into Winter this area will not be getting much use I wouldent imagine. We have had to buy very little in the way of equipment, as it is already all set up. however girls being girls we have changed the table linens and centrepieces, and it is getting a lick of paint and a bloody good clean but very little else.

We asked the present owner if he would close the Restaurant down just now, so currently there is a large sign on the window, advising customers we are closed for renovations. You may think this is a very strange thing to do but we felt it was for the best.
The original owner and her Husband split up and he left the state, and she inherited the busines,s as she was the Chef and the business was her passion, then she took on Michael who invested a little of his own money and helped her run the place, doing his front of house Manager. Then she got sick and walked away from the business, and there was Michael left with a Restaurant he had very little interest in, he has done his best but we felt he was doing us no favours staying there and losing custom and so we suggested he closed and he was in agreeance. A drastic step but one we felt was necessary. So now you know why we have been able to afford to buy this business, it,s all been because of other peoples bad management skills and lack of Michael keeping proper books.

However having said that we have benefitted from this it has also had it,s drawbacks, as the original owner has now passed on and we are having a devil of a job getting the licences and even the phone changed over to our names and one thing we dont want to be losing is the phone number as all our flyers and takeaway menus are all printed now with the number already on them. Still we are paying an exhorbitant amount of money to our Solicitor to make sure this is all handled properly.

I got a lovely leaving gift and a special morning tea yesterday from the girls I have been working beside for the last 6 years, and for a couple of moments I wondered if I was doing the right thing, but it quickly passed and now it,s onwards and upwards.

You are going to be blown away, by my news.

2011-05-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

No time for pictures apologies or smart little comments, I have only got time to tell you what has been happening in my life for the past 4 weeks.

After picking up my sister from the train station after she completed her flight from Western Australia, we got talking about what she intended to do now that she was on her own. And she told me that she wished to start up a little Restaurant but dident have the money so she would probably look for paid work and give up on her dream. Before the words were even out of her mouth I told her that I felt excited about her coming to live with or near me and how I felt that what ever decision she made would somehow include me. I asked her how much money she had and she had almost to the penny the same amount of money that I have in my superannuation fund.

So today we are the proud if not scared owners of a little Italian Restaurant, we put in a silly offer and it was accepted, it settles on the 6th of June by which time my Superannuation payment will be in my bank account as well as my Long Term savings, my Holiday Fund and my Emergency Fund.
Am I mad ??? Probably !!!
Am I scared ??? Definitely !!!
Am I excited ??? You bet !!!

I am not going to change the name of my blog as my goals are still the same, retire without debt and relatively comfortably, but my methods have done a 360deg turnaround.
We are entering into this venture without debt, that was a huge no brainer for us, no borrowing from the bank or family this is completely our baby and we either sink or swim.
My posts will now be all about how we get up and running all our successes, failures, trials, tribulations and a whole lot of laughing. At last I feel in a good place, I feel happy and can,t wait to get on with it.
Many of you will be reading this shaking your heads and tutting, some of you may feel a little envious, but I,m hoping you all wish us luck.

One last thing for me to do is update my sidebars and remove those funds which are now empty, in the future once I know how much of a wage I will be getting and how much I can save I will start them up again. I leave work on Friday the 13th ( spooky eh ) and after that I will have no money for a few weeks, so everything I have learned from my PF friends will be getting put to good use, fingers crossed.

It,s Mothers Day in Australia today so for all the Mum,s out there.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY XX

The Holiday Is Well And Truly Over

2011-04-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

I,m back !!!!!!

It seems like forever since I last posted or checked and commented on any other bloggers posts, so my humble apologies. But as expected with the arrival of my sister, my life has been turned on end, but it,s exciting.

For the first time in a long time laughter is back in my home, my Sister is a very uplifting personality and together we laugh. I have no doubt in my mind, that while alone in bed she grieves for all she has lost and left behind, but she seems determined to get on with things and make a new start.

At the moment she is on the Golf Course, meeting some of the Lady members to see if she can build a social life round her love of Golf. Maybe one day I will join her down there, I have the Clubs now all I need is some motivation.

My holiday accomodation and flights were by far the cheapest part of our trip away, as we seemed to spend an awful lot on food and booze. We choose to stay in Hotels rather than apartments and so we had to eat out for every single meal, this is the first time we have ever holidayed this way and we did,nt realise how expensive this was going to be.

I reckon between food and drink we managed to spend around the $150 mark each day for 10 days so that was a huge lump out of our spending money. Then we stayed with friends for the last day or two and in both homes and I contributed to the weekly groceries.

Actually that annoyed me slightly as you would have thought that both of my friends would have shopped BEFORE I got to their homes ???

Total Holiday Spends ( just for me )

Flights $198

Hotels $450

Food & Drink $ 750

Presents for Grandkids $75

Total = $1,473 ( approx. )

Oh my gosh !!! It,s not until you write it all down that you realise how much a trip away costs, and this was not even our summer break, looks like I may have to up my holiday fund for that one.

Back at work now and money has started to come back into the house again, but my budget is no way meeting this houses demands, and so a rethink of all things financial will be happening soon. This time I will be expect some input from my Sister and Mil especially with the Groceries.

Great to be back, I am never going to be able to catch up with all the posts I have missed, but I will try and get through everyones last post, see you around

Maureen xxx

A Much Needed Break

2011-03-22T02:27:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time I wrote another post, great idea let everyone know how your finances are doing, let the blogging world know how much you,ve spent, saved, budgeted for this last few days. So O.K. now open up your blog and lets get on with it...............Nothing.............I have writers block.

My finances are in the best shape they have been in for years, my spending is now under control, and my savings are growing.

My Holiday starts in a couple of days, my much needed time away from MIL, work and a chance to clear the air with The Foxx.

But where is my head, it,s with my Sister who as I write this is changing her life turning everything upside down, and in my opinion is the bravest Woman I know.

Forgive me my lack of committment to my blog, I will be taking almost 2 weeks away from the PC, until I return all the best with your plans hopes and dreams.

Friday,s Spends A Little Splurge

2011-03-18T02:20:00.001-07:00

My Weekly Splurge. Well here she is, not exactly the kettle of my dreams, that one was $142 but definitely an edgey little number, when switched on she makes very little noise and lights up like the cockpit of a jet plane. Plus she makes a mean cup of tea, and cost $78 a little cheaper than the $100 I had intended to spend, so good for me.

Total of todays spends

Petrol $20 ( I have fuel left in my tank from last week. )

Debt $ 25 ( normal weekly payment )

Layby,s $65 ( payments on my pots, pans and bedding )

Clothing $23 ( broke my promise and bought a couple of tops to take on holiday )

Food $100( not spent yet just allocated to jar )

Kettle $78 ( as stated above )

TOTAL SPENDS = $311

My snowflakes went up by $202. 22 made up of

Overtime payment $172.22

Money for online surveys $30.00

All up I,m really pleased with my weekly spends considering I had,nt planned on the kettle expense. I,m kind of hoping to get some change back out of the Grocery money, but as The Foxx will be shopping for me, it,s highly unlikely as he has a sweet tooth.

I,m working again tomorrow and this will be going into my wage next week, just in time for my trip away. This extra money will be allocated towards Champagne, gotta love those bubbles. Yes after all my frugal months I,m splashing out on this holiday.

My First Emergency Of 2011

2011-03-17T01:51:00.000-07:00

Me And My Big Mouth

After my comment yesterday about having had no financial emergencies and everything travelling along on an even keel. I woke this morning to find our house in complete darkness and The Foxx out at the fuse box with a torch. Our old but reliable kettle had decided to become our old and unreliable kettle, and had tripped the safety switch in our power box !!!

It,s not a fixable problem so a new kettle is now on my shopping list for tomorrow, and in my usual fashion of buying for quality and not price, I will be up around the $100 mark. Still it,s money well spent to get a decent cuppa. Although I will be looking for the best price possible.

My wages will be given an extra boost tomorrow, with extra snowflake money ( overtime money ) and this is my last wage before I take off on my holiday.

As soon as we booked the table for Dinner last night we realised we had made a mistake, there is no need for us to be having a night out so near to our week away. We thought that we had to use the coupon by the end of this month, but they have extended the offer until the end of May, so plenty of time to go for this meal.

My Sister lives about a 5 day drive away from us on the opposite side of this vast country, normally we would fly but as she is coming to live she wants to bring her car. But she does not want to drive across the Nullabor Desert alone, so she is putting her car on a train and then meeting the train in South Australia around the middle mark and coincidentaly this is exactly where The Foxx and I are going to be. This was not pre-planned but I,m glad that we are going to be there for her as she is going to need a lot of support. Then she will have to drive alone for another 2 days to get to Queensland, I would love to make this drive with her, but she insists that she needs the time alone to think things out, plus I would be abandoning The Foxx right in the middle of our holiday, plus I would not be back in time to start work the following Monday. So lots to think about.

Life Goes On

2011-03-16T02:29:00.001-07:00

Now that I know that my Sister is going to be living near me my head is in a whirl, I cant sleep at night, plans , thoughts and suggestions are whirling around in my brain. On the 1st of January I made the statement that 2011 was going to be a great year, and since saying that the world has being going through some troubling times. Some right round the corner from me and some on the other side of the world. But I could stil not get rid of the idea that for me anyway, things were about to change.
Could this be it ??? could the difference be having my sister back in my life ?? I,m not sure but I cant get rid of the knot of excitement I,m feeling right now.

On the PF side of my life, I seem to have settled into a routine of working out my wages on a Thursday night and shuffling my money around on a Friday. I have not had any major financial emergencies so far this year, so I have not had to redo my budget other than to add on my layby payments for my bedding and pots. I have opted to pay the minimum amount on these purchases weekly. I figure I have waited 20 something years for new pots so a couple more months wont make much difference.
The Christmas present my Daughter gave to her Dad and I is finally going to get used on Tuesday night, when we will get all dressed up and go out for a free swanky meal. I love eating dishes I would never attempt at home.
And talking about dishes, I made out a menu which covered dinners this week, so no scratching my head and wondering what on earth to eat, I involved MIL and The Foxx in my decisions so we are all happy and everyone gets at least one favourite dish a week. And leftovers are being put aside for a Friday when it,s every man for himself and it,s first to the freezer scores the dish they prefer. It,s only week one but so far so good.

I have been a little slack commenting on your blogs, please I do try and find the time to get online every night after tea, but this week life just seems to be getting in the way. MIL has been a little under the weather, and I have been spending more time sitting chatting to her. My depression has been coming and going in waves, although that now seems to be back under control. And after getting a bone marrow test done The Foxx has 33% cancer cells, so his Leukemia, is back with a vengeance and the Chemo drugs he has to take have been knocking him around quite a bit.

I think we need this holiday big style !!!!!!!!

In Holiday Mode

2011-03-14T04:01:00.000-07:00

Well the beginnings of another week and a step nearer my holiday, I will be leaving home on the 25th March and returning on the 3rd April, cant wait apart from the time I took of for my Daughters Wedding last November it has been 15 months since our last break.

We are going back to our old stomping ground in South Australia, where we lived for 9 years when we first emigrated out from Scotland, we have some amazing friends there and some terrific memories, in fact sometimes I wonder why we ever left ???

On the financial side we tried to do this Holiday as cheaply as we could and managed to get cut price airfares and a terrific deal on our Hotel, we will eat out as cheaply as we can when we are on our own, and splash out a bit when we are out with friends.

My Holiday fund is nowhere near large enough to accomodate this Holiday, and so I am not touching it and we are going to finance it mainly by cash and The Foxx,s CC. He has a limit of $2,000 on this card and pays it out every month, with a little help from his good lady ( me ). If used correctly I actually love the concept of CC,s but I,m not very good at using them correctly and so I don,t have one.

I am absolutely loving my new PC it is soooomuch faster than my old one, the mouse actuallly moves when and where you want it too, and my super sized monitor means no eye strain. Although I have taken it off of the shelf it was on and put it on a flat surface as I was getting a crick in my neck just looking up at it.

My Sister has made the decision to leave her Husband and come all the way over from the other side of Australia to live nearer to me. He is an Alcoholic and is not getting treatment for it, he is completely in denial. I know that this move is going to bring it,s fair share of dramas into my life and of course my sister,s. So I will write more about it as it unfolds.

There,s Light Appearing Now !!!!!

2011-03-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

I,m Feeling Heaps Better

I was looking for a picture which described how I feel right now, and to tell you all that I can find some light at the end of this tunnel, and I found this picture, maybe not exactly what I was loooking for, but it made me smile. Which should give you some idea of where I am right now. My meds have been tweaked and I,m in a much better place right now. Thanks for the support I may not have been blogging and commenting but I have been lurking so I am up to date with all your achievements and supporting all your failings.

I even felt well enough to work a little overtime yesterday, so looking forward to a little extra in my pay next week.
I will be heading off Grocery shopping soon and putting some money onto my layby,s ( pots and bedding ) I don,t know how much as yet as I have not done a budget up to include this, as I have been doing my Ostrich ( head in the sand ) act lately, which is a lot better than my Shopaholic act which started the month.
I have just noticed that my sidebars and Snowflake total need updating so I,ll be on to that soon. Otherwise everything is OK on the financial front.
The Foxx and I have still not had THAT conversation yet. But we are going away for 10 days at the end of the month, and we are going to be on our own for the first time in ages. I have no intention of spoiling our break, but some aspects of our finances and relationship are going to have to be ironed out.
More about our mini holiday later.
Once again a shoutout to an amazingly supportive bunch of bloggers, I have missed you all but I,m back now.

Sinking Lower And Lower

2011-03-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

I have noticed a pattern forming and it seems as if my fits of depression are returning, this is a surprise as I am currently on my meds, so perhaps I need the dose looked at.

Symptoms for me are highs and lows, when I say high I actually mean I am feeling well and capable, where the lows have me keeping away from friends. Staying away from the Internet ( I call this my Ostrich time, head in the sand )not answering the phone and missing time off from work, so I,m currently at home, and forcing myself to post.

Things are still not good between The Foxx and I, he is once again broke and turning to me to keep him going, but I,m so over constantly being in financial charge.

Yesterday he wanted me to help him in the garden, but I wanted to sit and play games on my PC, and that ended in a row. Yes he is the one with the physical illnesses and I do sympathise and worry about him. But at the moment I am just mentally hanging on by a thread.

I have completely run out of paid sick leave, and so I am not being paid for my time at home, and like it or not I will have to return to work tomorrow.

I am stalking the blogs today, and will make no comments, because my head is not in the right place for making, enthusiastic, helpful, chatty responses.

I,ll be back with meds firmly in place, till then, happy blogging.

A March Shopaholic,s Confession.

2011-03-03T04:32:00.001-08:00

Guess what I have been up to these last few days!!

Well if you thought that maybe I had taken time off from blogging in order to spend money then you were absolutely right. The Northern Hemisphere is looking forward to warmer days and we in the south are hoping for cooler days and nights. It all started with new carpets going down throughout the house, as soon as they were down I wanted to decorate the whole house. normally you would do this before the carpets went down but we got about 2 days notice and we had to strip 3 bedrooms and a lounge/ dining room of all furniture. so you see I have been busy. no time to blog.

To get back to the cooler weather thing, I want to get more organised in the Kitchen, and that means more cooking from scratch and replacing one or two items which have outgrown there usefullness. Namely my pots, I bought my last set about 22 years ago and they were inexpensive then. I have always stood and drooled over Baccarat pots, but I wouldent spend the money on them. so how could I resist this set which were 1/2 price reduced right down to $380.00

Gorgeous arent they, sorry I couldent find a larger picture, the special on that day was for 50% off plus a wok, so I put them on a layby and will pay them off gradually over 8 weeks.

O.K. satisfied that I had gotten the bargain of a lifetime and had got spending money, out of my system. I confidently decided to browse around our local Curtain Wonderland Store. Because this is a rental house I never buy curtains, as they are always already on the windows, maybe not exactly to my taste but in the case of this home not too shabby at all. So passing the curtains and going deeper into the store I discovered The Bedding Dept. I love, love, love, white bedding, I know it,s not really practical but what the heck, it,s one of lifes little luxuries for me. so I bought a white and silver duvet set , two extra white pillowcases, 4 new pillows and a couple of white and silvery sparkly cushions to throw on the bed.

All up about $150 as these were also on sale, and are now on a 12 week layby.

Am I finished ? well almost I have wanted a yogurt maker for the longest time and now I am making Greek yogurt like a crazy woman, cost $19.99. And lastly I got my bread maker out and I am now making my own loafs. The Breadmaker was a freebie, so spending spree over.

I am looking for someone, to tell me how to make inexpennsive bread and yogurt as the pre-packaged way is expensive.

How did I finance this amazing Spending spree, all of my layby deposit payments came out of my snowball money plus what was left after No Spend February, and after $1,000 had gone into my debt repayment. I will have to massively update my budget to include my PC payments and my Layby, s. I. will do that on the weekend.

Thanks for the amazing support you gave me after my last post, I have done nothing about speaking to hubby again, but I will.

A Plea To My Hubby......

2011-02-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Foxx

As you may have noticed I share this blog with nobody, I started it off as my personal diary and just to see if I could, because as you know I am not that computer literate. but now I have met some awesome bloggers and I am at last with their help managing to get my head round my finances.

One or two things you have said to me lately lead me to believe that you have found my blog and have been reading it. That annoyed me at first but now that I am writing this I hope you are reading it. We are a couple and finances are definitely an area which we should be sharing.

I get quite jealous of the fact that so many of the bloggers I follow, reach awesome goals and make terrific decisions, together. They sit down discuss their finances and work out a budget which suits their household.

Most of them like you and I get to a bad place first before this happens, they have debt, no savings, no budget and no idea how to get out of the mess. And so along comes blogger and without looking back they dig themselves out.

We need to be doing this, it,s all well and good that I am at the moment in a better place, but this needs to be a joint venture. We need to be sharing information, working as a team and arguing a whole lot less. We retire shortly with bad money habits, and no home of our own.

Our Marriage needs to be in a better place with more trust, sharing and joint decisions.

I realize that it is going to be a while before the trust is there again, we have always been so secretive about our triumphs and failures. We have always had a mine and yours mentality towards money.

Can we get on the same page, for the first time in 40 years, that,s one hell of a lot of time wasted, and a hell of a lot of money wasted.

I love you Foxx can we do this
Maureen xxx

End Of No Spend February and Results.

2011-02-27T00:11:00.000-08:00

A massive shout out to Sharon for organising this No Spend Month.

I have had an awesome month, I managed to cut my Zero based budget down,( who would have thought that possible) and as a result of this I have saved an extra $180. My savings were..

Petrol $10 ( cut back on two of the 4 weeks by $5 )

Mad money $110 ( cut back $ 30 on 3 of the weeks and $20 on the fourth )

Grocery money ( cut 2 of my 4 weeks back by $30 )

So if you add those savings to my snowflakes for the month, most of which were overtime money. I am going to be adding $1,000 into debt 1 )

Savings this month came to $920.00 this was divided up between my Holiday Fund, Emergency Fund, long time Savings Fund, and a personal debt, not to be confused with my debt bars.

Normal Debt payments came to $165 divided between Debt 1 } and Debt 2 )

Bills were covered as usual, with money put aside weekly.

So all up a successful month, yippee when are we having the next one ?????

Thats All Folks / Showing off About My New PC

2011-02-25T02:45:00.000-08:00

I, m finished Spending

Technically speaking I have finished my spending for the month of February, today was my final payday and I have finished my Grocery shopping, put petrol in my car, and have used up my Mad money and then some.

Yes I went over on my mad money, by $10, not a Kings ransom by any means and so I,m not going to get all dramatic and declare this month a failure. I dropped a heavy box onto my french manicure and split two nails, badly.

I have been in a lot of pain with them and so after work today when I could stand it no longer, I had them fixed. they are still painfull but no longer catching on things and they will heal.

I only made around an extra $48 this week as I had done very little overtime, just as well really as my body was screaming out for me to stop, but every cent helps to eliminate debt. So I will add it to my snowflakes total.

I will do a final account on Sunday of how I have done this week. but I think all up a very successful month. Cant wait to see how everyone else has done.

I have now got my new PC up and running, fortunately it was installed by the tech when it was delivered and so far I have had very few dramas, this is the first time I have used Windows 7 so there are one or two annoying things about it but nothing I cant get my head around. So I have gone from a 12 inch laptop screen to a 23 inch LED screen and an ibook G4 borrowed from my Son. To an acer AM1900 with

Windows 7

intel 2 Quad processor
4GB of memory

1TB hard drive

DVD super Multi drive

etc,etc,etc.

Even the keyboard has a volume control.

It has a Microsoft Media Centre and I can watch TV on it.

So I am stoked, but here is the downside it is costing me $30 a week, that includes insurance and I,ll be paying that for three years before I can buy it out for $1. Not perhaps the best way to buy a new PC but with nobody prepared to give me credit this was my only option. I feel I can manage my budget well enough now to incorporate this payment in without cutting back on debt repayment or savings. So I will write a new budget and tweak a couple of other areas, will need to give this some thought.

By the way as a bit of an after thought I am now getting a proper look at a lot of your blogs and am seeing some of your backgrounds for the first time. There are some beautiful blogs out there, keep up the good work.

My New PC Arrives Tomorrow

2011-02-23T03:05:00.000-08:00

A Big Day For Me

Well at last it is happening, my new PC arrives tomorrow, I am super excited, but I have no idea how to attach all the cables and set up the wireless mouse and keyboard, so I may have to take a couple of days off from blogging until some kind child takes pity on me.
Because it has taken so long for the company to find me a PC they are giving me the first month free, by way of an apology, yippee.

Short blog tonight. So the finances are NO Spend Day today, 3 hours overtime worked so far this week, will get by on my petrol until payday and my Phone Bill came in today and is cheaper than I expected, so good news all round.

On a serious note, our news bulletins and reports are full of the earthquake in New Zealand. I have some amazing Kiwi friends and many of them have family still in Christchurch. So for all those affected it is now our turn to say how sad we are, and wish you and yours safety. You are in my prayers.

Day 21 No Spend February / Plus Weekly Spending Report

2011-02-21T03:36:00.001-08:00

My Spend Less Week In Review

This week has been a big success, I still have some of my Mad Money left, I also have not put all of the money allocated for fuel into my car yet, the petrol money you can see spent was left over from last week, hoping to be able to keep that expense down. My Grocery bill was around the $100 mark but because I made some good food choices next weeks bill should be down.
I managed to sneak in an extra 1hr 20mns overtime today, I had been counting on staying back for 2 hrs but the sky turned black and a storm threatened so we all got sent home. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to pick up some more hours.

Total spend for 13 Feb 2011 - 19 Feb 2011: $153.55

CAR EXPENSES
2011-02-15	Petrol	$20.00
TOTAL FOR CAR EXPENSES		$20.00
DEBT
2011-02-18	Lion Finance	$25.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$25.00
ENTERTAINMENT
2011-02-18	Coffees and Cakes	$11.00
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT		$11.00
GROCERIES
2011-02-18	Aldi	$68.56
2011-02-18	Woolworths	$28.99
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$97.55
SPENDLESS YEAR
2011-02-13	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-02-14	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-02-16	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-02-17	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-02-19	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
TOTAL		$153.55

2011-02-19T15:05:00.000-08:00

I really do hope nobody finds this offensive, if you do my apologies, but I laughed my head off when I received it from my daughter, it pretty much describes how I would feel about losing my PC, my new one has not been delivered as yet, apparently they have none in stock. I really cant understand why they would take an order, promise you a delivery within the next couple of days, and then leave you hanging for the next couple of weeks. Thanks to my wonderful Son and Wife for being so patient, shouldent be long now.

Check out the Snowflakes folks , add to that total the amount of money saved during this challenge, and Debt 2) is going to receive a $1,000 bonus, I,m so excited, I could do it now but I want to wait until the 28th. I am so glad I decided to add my snowflakes to my debt instead of flittering it away over the month. So a big thanks to Sharon for organizing this No Spend Month at exactly the right time.
I will update my sidebars at the end of the month.

What on earth possessed me to buy a leather ( plastic ) covered computer Chair, in our hot and steamy climate. I am sitting here with two towels draped over the seat and backrest, because I stick to them. Might have to reupholster, if I can find out how to do it although it is a fairly solid looking piece of furniture. It is only 9.30am and already we are uncomfortabley hot and it is expected to reach 34c today. If this was to be a dry heat I would be loving it, but the humidity not so much.

Big Removal Day

2011-02-18T20:05:00.000-08:00

All of my family are helping my SIL move house today, so I am doing the Babysitting, and so far this has gone really well. although the 2 year old is needing to go down for a nap and is fighting it like crazy, I will probably find her curled up in a corner asleep clutching her favorite Teddy soon.

My SIL is a business woman and a pretty successful one but she can not organize a removal, and leaves everything until, the end and also leaves everyone in the dark regarding times places and who is expected to do what. so I think everyone will be very tired and grumpy around now, so I reckon I have the best job, staying home with the kids and making a super sized Lasagna so they can all eat when they are finished.

I am a pedantic packer who starts well in advance and uses a spare bedroom to store all boxes once they are packed, I wrap all glassware and china in heavy duty tissue paper, put 5 labels on each box, on these I write where each box is going and whats inside,then a label goes on the top and one on each side so no matter which way they are turned the contents are easily read. I wash all bedding before moving, going through my linen press a shelf at a time, and freshening everything up.

I write out a list with everyone I need to contact regarding my move, this list includes my Doctor, Dentist, Work, Car Registration Dept. Insurances and of course for the move itself I have to get my electricity, cable, Internet and phone installations organized.

The family usually take the bulk of my boxes and of course all my private papers, plants, and my old cat who is usually found hiding somewhere by this time. And then we hire a couple of removalists to lift the heavy items. The whole thing only takes an hour or two because I have everything packed and ready. The last time we moved my BFF and her Husband came round and had Dinner with us that night and I knew where everything was right down to the champagne glasses. Moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do so I just like to take the pressure of myself a little.

I forgot to mention that my SIL is moving from a rental property into her own home, this will be her first house purchase in Australia and she is finding the system totally different, still it,s all signed sealed and delivered and she is now the proud owner of a mortgage on a beautiful home set in 5 acres, about a ten minute drive away from us.
I burst into tears when she told me about the house, yes a part of me was jealous but mainly I was delighted that she has managed to get some security behind her, I even had her in tears, happy ones of course.

On the financial front I have spent $100 on Groceries,so no savings there and although I havent as yet put my fuel in I have set aside $20, may make a small saving there.

Day 16 No Spend February / Fortnightly Progress Results

2011-02-16T01:24:00.000-08:00

Mid Month Report

Today was another no spend day the 4th in a row, and tomorrow is going to be another. I am finding this Challenge less Challenging than I thought it would be, and Iv,e tried to analyze why. Now I think Iv,e worked out why.

I don,t have children at home, so there is nobody demanding junk food, money for school trips, pocket money, junk food, ripping the knees out of their school pants, or just getting a treat from their worn out Mum for just being good.
My Husband is ill just now and the last thing he wants to do is go out, so no sneaky meals out, no drinks at the pub on a Friday night, no having friends round for a BBQ or drinks.
My MIL is quite bright and sunny for most of the day but by night time she is ready to go to bed and very often just falls asleep in front of the television, tonight she was sleeping by 6.10pm, so no chance of her wanting to go out and spend money.
No Girlfriend to have a social night out with, since my BFF went to live in another state I have no close friends to spend quality time with, she and I used to go out at least once a week and we would often go for a meal followed by going to see a good Movie.
And last by no means least is my demanding job which although far from stimulating seems to take over my life some weeks.

So this is the reason why I am breezing through this Challenge, all up I have managed to stick to my $100 food budget even dropping it to $70 this week, I have failed miserably to keep my petrol money down to $15 as I have been traveling back and forwards to work 6 days a week, so it is still $20.
My biggest achievement has been dropping my MAD MONEY to $20 a week instead of my usual $50.
So savings so far of $90 as I work on a zero based budget with most of it going into savings and debt I think I have done quite well.
Are we all posting a mid month report ?? I,m dying to know how we are all doing !!!

Day 14 No Spend February / Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-14T01:26:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentines Day Bloggers

Whats the idea having Valentines Day slap bang in the middle of no spend month ?? Except that I thought it was me not doing the spending and not Hubby, surely he could have splashed out on a single red rose ?? Oh well maybe next year !!!!
Hope you all have a great day and don,t fall into the retail trap, I sent Hubby an ecard and we had a lovely Dinner, even if the romance of the occasion was slightly ruined by having my MIL sitting between us. We were going to use our voucher for dinner tonight but Hubby is,nt feeling up to it.

Another no spend day for me, and it looks as if the overtime could be drying up a bit, that makes me doubly glad I took what was available.

Day 13 No Spend February / Plus Weekly Spending Report

2011-02-13T02:11:00.000-08:00

I,m hot And Sweaty

My word it,s hot over here, after what started as a very wet and mild Summer it has turned into the usual humid sticky and miserable Summer. When I first came to live in Queensland I was told to expect 9 glorious months and 3 months from hell, so this is hell or Summer to some folks. If I was a beach babe I would be enjoying this heat but trying to work and do housework in this heat is definitely not funny.

I have had yet another no spend day, as I did some housework and then went to help my SIL get ready to move house. It was too hot to do much but I was able to give her , everything she would need to pack and wrap all her glasses and good china, it helps to work in a printers where paper, labels, tape and boxes are easy to come by.

You will notice on last weeks spending report that my Grocery bill is way over budget, this is because I shopped late last week and early this week putting them both in the same time frame. I also sneaked in a $6 dress for my Granddaughter. this was in the seconds shop and is next years size for her, plus it still had a label on it and a price of $27.00 so a bargain and the first of my Christmas presents. My SIL who works in Perfumery and Cosmetics gave me a load of samples, and gifts with purchase leftovers, so I will put these away to make up baskets to use as gifts during the year and at Christmas, so I,m definitely getting my bargains this week.

Total spend for 06 Feb 2011 - 12 Feb 2011: $603.49

CAR EXPENSES
2011-02-11	Petrol	$20.00
TOTAL FOR CAR EXPENSES		$20.00
DEBT
2011-02-11	Lion Finance	$25.00
2011-02-11	Transpacific	$70.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$95.00
FINANCES
2011-02-11	Bank Charges	$10.00
TOTAL FOR FINANCES		$10.00
GIFTS
2011-02-06	Dress For Eva	$6.00
TOTAL FOR GIFTS		$6.00
GROCERIES
2011-02-06	Aldi	$115.00
2011-02-11	Aldi	$70.00
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$185.00
HOUSEHOLD
2011-02-11	Mobile Phone	$59.27
2011-02-11	Phone/Internet/Cable	$228.22
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD		$287.49
SPENDLESS YEAR
2011-02-07	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-02-08	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-02-09	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-02-10	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-02-12	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
TOTAL		$603.49

Day 12 No Spend February / Quiet weekend

2011-02-12T01:40:00.000-08:00

You And Me Buddy

Another no spend day and more snowflakes next payday because I worked today, I only stayed about 5.5hrs because I had finished all I was asked too do. So I was home just after Lunch, then visitors popped in to see Hubby, but he quickly got tired and so they did,nt stay long. Thank you for all your kind wishes and prayers for Hubby, one day I will write a post about how, when, and where his illness was discovered and the long and rocky road since then.

No spends today, the harder you work and the more you earn the less time you have to spend, I wonder if that,s how Millionaires do it :) My bank manager is even smiling at me now, as soon as I get my snowflakes to $1000 I am going to hit Debt 1) cant wait to get rid of this burden round my neck.

Financial Targets Reached

Holiday Fund, $240.00 of $2,000
Emergency Fund $240 of $1000
Savings $250 of $10,000
Personal Debt $500 of $1000
Retirement Fund $20,500 of $50,000

I,m doing all right I think at least I,m bang on my targets, so happy, happy, happy, joy, joy, joy.

Day 11 No Spend February / Ive Been Approved !!!

2011-02-11T01:20:00.000-08:00

No Time To Spend Money

Pay day today and once again a really good weeks wage, just check out my snowflakes I have added another $280 to them today. But boy am I stressed out and tired, for example last weekend I worked back late on Friday, worked another 6 hours on Saturday. Then went to my Granddaughters birthday Party, fell into bed that night exhausted. Got up Sunday went Grocery shopping, came home and eventually got some washing and housework done, before collapsing into bed early again.
I am doing super well on February,s No Spend Challenge, the main reason being I don,t have time to spend any money. My joints ache my headache is constant, and I,m working again tomorrow.
Why am I doing so much overtime, it,s partly because I don,t know how to say no. Our Printing Firm is doing so well in this economic climate and our Boss gives us the "all hands on board so we can all keep our jobs" speech weekly. plus I am putting my snowflakes to debt repayment and I can,t wait to see it paid off.
A lot of upsides and a lot of downsides too, but it could all dry up tomorrow so till then I,ll keep plodding along. There is a more personal reason behind my need to keep my job and earn extra income. After almost 3 years of excellent blood levels my Husbands Leukemia has reared it,s ugly head again, when he was first diagnosed his condition was so bad that he was,nt able to work for a couple of years, and I became the bread winner and ended up flat broke and in debt. There is no way I am going to allow that to happen to us again, so in the meantime I,ll take on all the work I can get. I am not looking for sympathy, as I am quite well. But somehow it just came tumbling out, it,s amazing the connection you feel with people you don,t really know.

Now for the good news I have been approved for my PC, yahoo !!!!!! I should get it before the end of next week, and my Son and Wife have gone away for a few days and have brought me back the laptop until Tuesday, so if the worst comes to the worst I may only be without the internet for a couple of days, so over the next couple of days I should be able to catch up on all your fabulous posts, looking forward to it.

Popping in again/ On the hunt for a PC

2011-02-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that I have searched everywhere for a PC that anybody is prepared to give me or for me to buy cheaply, the answer is always no sorry, and. the sad truth is that I am going to have to get one and fast. so I am either having to go with Plan 1 ) Buy on credit or Plan 2) rent to buy. So I took an Annual leave day today and went hunting, my first port of call was to our local Hi-Fi shop where you can get credit through GE finance. But because I still have a black mark on my credit report they declined my application. So on to the rent to buy scheme, this company claim to do no credit checks, but I fessed up to having this black mark ( $157.00 is all it,s for ) and they still went ahead and put in an application for me to get a new desktop PC and a new Monitor.
I should know in 48 hours if I have been successful, and the system will be delivered middle of next week.

I am going to have to redo my budget some time this weekend in order to make room for this $27 per week dent. This covers Insurance, 23inch Monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse and a fairly fast download speed.

Do I think I can afford to have this PC ? I think I definitely cant afford to not be accountable so I say yes worth every dollar. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.

Apologies but I cant possibly afford the time to catch up on all blog posts, so for those doing the challenge, I bet your rocking it about now, into the second week and cruising along.

My spends for this week are all within my budget, and charges for my new PC ( if I get it ) wont come out until next month, So far I have had nothing to throw me off of my no spending habits. Hoping this continues all month.

Missing having more time with you all.

This Might Be My Last Post For Awhile

2011-02-07T02:06:00.000-08:00

Woe is me

Unfortunately the time has come for The Laptop to return to it,s rightful owners, my Son and his Wife. And it could be as early as tomorrow.
I,m devastated not because I will go back to my old spendthrift ways, but because we are in the middle of a challenge, and I,m enjoying it. Plus and this is a major plus I am going to miss all my blogger friends, so I will make a point of going over to my Daughters house at least once a week and posting from there.
I dont want to have to go into debt for a PC but I dont have enough money saved to cover the costs of a new one. However I,ll throw one or two ideas out into the Universe and see what comes back.
Till we meet again. xxxxx

Day 6 No Spend February

2011-02-05T19:55:00.000-08:00

It,s Sizzling Hot

What,s with Mother Nature, now she is trying to fry us, the weather has now gone to sticky and very very hot. Thanks for your good wishes about our Cyclone disaster, it,s mop up and rebuild time for Queenslanders.

Now about finances, how did I cope with Lunch out with a friend, that was easy solved we canceled it, as she was having car troubles and was scared to make the journey up from where she lives about an hours drive from me.

So far I have spent my weekly limits on Fuel Groceries and Mad Money so nothing saved but no extra spent, so the news is all good.

Snowflakes have taken off as I earned $298.64 in overtime money last week, plus I will have more coming up this week as I worked back a couple of days and did 6 hours on Saturday. So it,s all going very well ( maybe I should have whispered that in case Murphy was listening ) On to day 7

It,s too hot to sit in my stuffy little Office, but I,ll be back tomorrow, see you all.
By the way I may have mentioned a couple of dozen times in fact that I am using my Son,s laptop. Well my Daughter-in-Law uses it for her courses and she wants it back as she has another course starting very soon, so if I disappear off the radar for a couple of days, bear with me as I will return.

Day 3 No Spend February

2011-02-03T03:01:00.000-08:00

This month I,m going to be tighter than a ducks a**e

It,s day 3 of February and already I am faced with my first challenge, I have arranged to meet a friend for coffee on Sunday and I need my hair dyed. My mad money is $20 and my dye is around $12 this only leaves $8 not sure that this is going to be enough.

On the positive side I have spent nothing so far my Granddaughter turned 2 today and her present was already bought, and the food I,m taking to her party was picked last month.
Payday tomorrow and I have a Phone/Internet/Cable bill to pay also my mobile bill, these are not included in my no spends. So so far so good
This is January,s spends, look at the number of no spend days, I,m really pleased about them.

Total spend for 01 Jan 2011 - 28 Jan 2011: $1291.47

CAR EXPENSES
2011-01-07	Petrol	$20.00
2011-01-08	Petrol	$10.00
2011-01-19	Petrol	$10.00
2011-01-24	Petrol	$10.00
2011-01-28	Petrol	$20.00
TOTAL FOR CAR EXPENSES		$70.00
CHARITY
2011-01-21	Flood Donation	$20.00
TOTAL FOR CHARITY		$20.00
DEBT
2011-01-07	Lion Finance	$25.00
2011-01-14	Transpacific	$72.86
2011-01-21	Lion Finance	$25.00
2011-01-28	Transpacific	$70.00
TOTAL FOR DEBT		$192.86
ENTERTAINMENT
2011-01-01	Taxi Fare	$10.00
2011-01-08	Alcohol	$10.00
2011-01-15	Coffees and Cakes	$11.00
2011-01-22	Alcohol	$13.00
TOTAL FOR ENTERTAINMENT		$44.00
GROCERIES
2011-01-02	Aldi	$30.00
2011-01-07	Aldi	$115.00
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
2011-01-22	Aldi	$66.10
2011-01-28	Aldi	$100.00
TOTAL FOR GROCERIES		$455.45
HAIR AND BEAUTY
2011-01-14	Hair Dye	$13.00
2011-01-14	Nails filled	$30.00
2011-01-22	Nails filled	$50.00
2011-01-22	Shampoo	$4.67
TOTAL FOR HAIR AND BEAUTY		$97.67
HEALTH
2011-01-22	Prescription	$13.00
TOTAL FOR HEALTH		$13.00
HOUSEHOLD
2011-01-07	Electricity	$100.00
2011-01-14	Electricity	$298.39
TOTAL FOR HOUSEHOLD		$398.39
SPECIAL BARGAINS
2011-01-22	K mart	$0.10
TOTAL FOR SPECIAL BARGAINS		$0.10

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
2011-01-09	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-10	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-13	Spend Less Day	$0.00
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
2011-01-23	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-25	Spend Less Day	$0.00
2011-01-26	Spend Less Days	$0.00
2011-01-27	Spend Less Day	$0.00
TOTAL FOR SPENDLESS YEAR		$0.00
TOTAL		$1291.47

OMG It,s Happening Again !!!!!

2011-02-02T01:49:00.000-08:00

I cant believe that it,s happening to us again, for the second time in 4 weeks Queensland is making headlines round the world, as Tropical Cyclone Yasi bears down on our coastline. Apparently this has now been upgraded to category 5 and is the biggest one we have ever had. So once again residents in the North East areas are being evacuated. according to the weather bureau this storm is expected to hit in approx 4 hours. Our Premier Anna Bligh has not spared any punches and has told us to expect mass destruction and many deaths.
I am not going to be directly affected, although I know a couple of people who are, but I feel sick to my stomach, at what is definitely going to be a major catastrophy.

Queensland needs your thoughts and prayers tonight.

Apologies Sharon if I put my financial report on the back burner, when this is all over and we know the final outcome I will post again,

I,m Super Excited My First Award

2011-01-31T01:54:00.000-08:00

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 ???

2011-01-29T21:49:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-27T02:10:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-25T19:38:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-24T01:29:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-23T01:21:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-21T23:02:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-21T03:09:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-18T02:25:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-14T20:46:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-12T20:57:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-01-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-10T17:18:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-09T13:19:00.001-08:00

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

2011-01-08T14:52:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-05T22:07:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-03T00:46:00.000-08:00

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.

Electricity per week $35.00
Phone/ Internet/Cable package per week $60.00
Mobile phone Bill per week $8.00
Food bill per week $100
Debt repayment $ 25 one week and $50 the next
Petrol per week $20.00
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.

Emergency fund per week $40.00
Holiday Fund per week $40.00
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

Misc, amount per week $50.00
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 !!!

2011-01-02T03:43:00.000-08:00

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

First to 2011 / My Goals

2010-12-30T19:43:00.000-08:00

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.

Pay off Debt 1 by August 5th, I would love to pay this off quicker at least before the end of June.
Pay down Debt 2 by at least $2000 making a sizeable deduction to this my last remaining debt.
Emergency Fund adding $40 per week into this fund to bring it up to over $1,000
Holiday Fund adding $40 per week into this fund, this will be ongoing as I want a couple of holidays booked in 2011
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.
Household budget $300 per week will be kept in my main account for food, electricity,phone, mobile, petrol, and insurances.
I will have a Misc. Fund of $50 per week to cover anything extra that pops up
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

2010-12-28T00:47:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-26T17:30:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-25T15:11:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-23T22:24:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-22T02:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-20T00:43:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-18T19:30:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-18T04:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-17T02:26:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-14T02:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-13T02:21:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-11T23:13:00.000-08:00

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.

Bank Account 1) To put my wages into and pay off weekly amounts as well as leaving standing orders in.
Bank Account 2) Emergency Fund
Bank Account 3) Holiday Savings
Bank Account 4) Life Savings.
Jar 1) Food Money
Jar 2) Petrol Money
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

2010-12-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-10T05:35:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-09T02:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-08T03:08:00.000-08:00

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 !!!!!

2010-12-06T00:53:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-04T01:16:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-03T04:50:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-02T01:33:00.000-08:00

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

Making A Start On Christmas

2010-11-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

Today I bought some special cards, the kind for specific family members, they were a little more expensive than usual $23.80 to be exact but as they are all I,m giving this year I had no problem paying the extra amount.

Browsing around the shops at this time of year is ohhh so tempting which is why I only carried $50 in my purse, I was actually looking for ideas for presents for my Grandchildren, but I came up empty handed, so I,ll be asking my Daughter for some ideas. So in keeping with my policy of no new clothes this year I went into our seconds shop and paid $18 for 4 items, I got 3 tops and 1 pair of cutoffs for work. I am a lot heavier than I was this time last year and so I very badly needed these items it was definitely a need and not a want.

Lastly I bought $10 of petrol for my little old girl, she had an almost empty tank, I have been neglecting her recently. I had a free voucher for coffee and my MIL treated me to a cake, so all up $51.80 spent.

I have mentioned on a few occasions that I am currently using my Son,s laptop and as it,s Apple I don,t have access to spreadsheets and so I have been writing down my daily spending amounts in a journal, it has worked OK for me, but while googling some other options for tracking money I found www.spendingdiary.com and now I can enter everything online, it does a running daily, weekly, and monthly amount as well as a pie chart to show you exactly in which category you are spending the most. I only started today and will try it for the month of December before making up my mind if it,s for me, but as I am on line every day I think it will work.

PF Bloggers Christmas Cutbacks

2010-11-29T01:42:00.000-08:00

It seems I am not alone in drastically cutting back my Christmas spending this year, most PF bloggers have decided to rein in the spending this year. And we seem to have mixed reasons for this. Aside from the fact that money does,nt grow on Christmas Trees.

No1) Christmas it too commercial.
No2) I could be putting the money to debt repayment.
No3) The country is in economic chaos, so we are holding on to our savings.
No4) I may lose my job next year, what,s round the corner for us.
No5) I,m flat broke ( my reason )
No6) All of the above.

What ever your reason for cutting back you may be up against some resistance from family and friends who perhaps have never seen this side of you, especially those of us who are just starting this journey. I decided to be brutally honest about who I was buying for how much I was willing to spend on my gifts and why some people will be doing without this year. If these are true friends and understanding loving family members, then they will understand, and we will have just as awesome a Christmas as we usually do.

POSITIVE THOUGHTS

I received my first Christmas Card today, from an ex-neighbour, when I lived in Scotland, she had told me in her card last year that her Son and his wife had been told they may never conceive, and how heartbroken they all were. So imagine my surprise and delight to open the card and inside was a picture of the baby who was never meant to be, or maybe I should say the baby who was always meant to be. Enjoy your First Christmas Grace xx

Blog Improvements and Updates.

2010-11-27T18:33:00.000-08:00

Wow today is a hot sticky one, it came on unexpectedly and so I am now scrambling around for something to wear, baring in mind my no new clothes policy for this year. If I had stuck to my diet I would be able to squeeze myself into the clothes I bought for last years cruise, but it is what it is and so I am trying to cut back on calories a bit. ( a little bit LOL )

There are 5 paydays for me in December so things won,t be as dire as I forecasted, in fact the tougher the better, as I intend to win this Christmas fight ( do you hear that Santa ) Once I have made out a budget for the month I will post it and stick to it religiously.

I have changed my blog theme as the black definitely was,nt Summery enough and I have also updated my sidebars and added a ticker with a countdown to my retirement, unfortunately I hav,nt managed to work out how to change it, still this is trial and error.

Debt 1) My largest debt is only 7.36% paid off
Debt 2) Is 32.80% paid off
Retirement Fund is sitting at 40%
Savings 0.00% ( sadly )
Emergency Fund 0.00% ( scary )
Retirement Date unfortunately still a long way away.

I have just spoken to my Son about Christmas as he rang while I was typing this and he sounded disappointed in my no presents for the adults policy, however as he moves house in 2 weeks time he is going to thank me eventually, it,s self preservation this year.

I have applied for a Carers Allowance for my MIL who lives with us, it is only going to make a difference of around $25 a week to our income, but it will cover the costs of driving her to appointments ( Doctors, Pathologists Etc.) this extra money is not taxable income and will make no difference to my earnings, thank goodness. I have also applied to the UK for my Aged Pension I should qualify for a part pension, but this will be classed as income and be taxable. I,m hoping that this little bit of extra money will help me to bring those debts down.

A trip to the produce markets this morning has topped up my fruitbowl and vegetable rack, and going at the end of trading meant I got some great bargains. I also bought a gorgeous pair of curtains for my MIL,s bedroom for $10. Now to go and hang them.

Positive Thoughts

I love the vibe of going to the Markets to be served by someone who genuinely enjoys meeting you and serving you, is worth the hassle of carrying around bags of produce. We sat in a little sheltered area and listened to a Peruvian Group play some gorgeous music while having a stress free cup of excellent coffee and a slice of cake to die for. ( of course it was low in calories LOL ) They are having a night market just before Christmas with special bargains and entertainment, so I will be going in order to catch some Christmas spirit.

A Really Scary Day but Hopefully the Last

2010-11-26T01:51:00.000-08:00

Why is today so scary ?? It,s because I tried to work out and justify my spending during November, I know how much money came in but I have lost track of what the out money went on, but here goes

Incomings $2,530

Outgoings

Wedding money $1,000
Rent $365 ( paid today )
Debt $75 ( usual payments )
Hairdresser $70 ( done for Wedding )
Nails $60 ( full Acrylics + Pedicure )

That adds up to $1,070
So where is the rest?? $160 is still in the bank but where in earth is the other $800, I can,t remember having any other large purchases so that being the case the lost $800 went on food and alcohol for a month. That,s $200 a week now that,s seriously scary. So now I,m way behind with everything and broke, but you know what I am feeling positive about next year, so bring on Christmas not because I,m ready for you but because I want you behind me.

Positive thoughts

I,m sitting in my office just now and the smell of the Camelia bush outside my window is filling up the room, the Cicadas are singing and Summer is in the air.

My Thoughts About Christmas Spending

2010-11-24T02:04:00.000-08:00

Time to put fingers to keyboard and add a PF post to this blog, but what to say ??? Since I managed to get through The Wedding and the visitors I hav,nt received a wage and so my finances are in the same state as they were on Monday, what am I saying they are slightly worse as I have a new phone bill in, and my car registration is almost up. So Friday which is payday is going to be mostly taken up with paying a weeks rent food and petrol.

As I am making this rent payment to help my hubby through a sticky time, I am hoping he will repay the compliment by making my registration payment on my car for me, although he has,nt offered as yet.

I worked back 2 hours today and will do the same again tomorrow if offered as I need all the money I can get just now, I even cashed in some points at Rewards Central and so they will be posting me out a $30 cheque, although it will be the end of the year before I see it, still every cent counts.

I am not an envious person, but at the moment as I read through some of my favourite blogs and see how well everyone is doing, I have a little " why not me " moment. Please forgive me for this girls as it will pass.

As a family we have collectively decided to give Christmas a body swerve this year, my Grandchildren will be the only ones I will be buying for and a Secret Santa for the girls at work. I will still send Christmas cards as this is the only time of year I get a chance to catch up with some old friends, but as we are all stressing out about the expense of giving everyone a gift why do it ???

I have morphed into Scroodge but only for this year, I will post an end of the month report soon, plus my plans and budget to get me through December

A Wedding Photo

2010-11-20T17:12:00.000-08:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64527&id=750847165#!/photo.php?fbid=10150116866402166&set=a.440254152165.225159.750847165

I have no idea if this will work, but if it does enjoy.

Getting back onboard and not before time

2010-11-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

The Wedding is behind us now, and it,s time to start making some financial plans, I thought we did really well and this morning I found out how we managed it. Firstly on top of the money put towards the Wedding we entertained 2 extra people all day long and in the evenings after spending all day at the Gold Coast Theme Parks we also fed my Sister and her family, I know we did,nt have to do this but we wanted too. We are all Scots and so no meal was complete without Champers for the girls and Red Wine and Beers for the boys. So you could say that most nights we had 10 for Dinner and drinks, I hav,nt worked out the cost of this, too scared too I quess.

We had Dinner out on two of the nights, the night before The Wedding when everyone including my Friends from Interstate decided that enough was enough and I needed the break. And last night as a last Supper before they all flew out, we each paid for our own meals, but my BIL had picked the Restaurant and it turned out to be quite expensive.

On Thursday my Sister and her two eldest and I went to see the latest Harry Potter Movie, and the men played golf, so once again a pretty expensive day, what with tickets, train fares and Lunch. To say nothing of Hubby,s petrol and green fees and Lunch.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post I have only just discovered why we managed, and it,s because we have now fallen 2 weeks behind with our rent, Hubby pays this and was,nt able too, and as he now has just over 2 weeks to go until his next pay, I am going to have to pay a rent out of each of my next two weeks wages. By the time I do this plus grocery shopping, nothing else will be paid or bought, so Xmas is once again on the back burner. Technically speaking we are not really behind as our rent is 2 weeks in advance but we want to get it back to that stage again.

I suppose things could have been a lot worse just think if we had had a CC and not paid everything in cash we could have dug ourselves a deeper hole. On the plus side I am still pretty chuffed that we paid cash for our Daughter,s Wedding and nobody guessed that we had cut corners. I have had some great texts and emails talking about how perfect it all was, and what more could you wish for, for A Daughter,s Wedding.

Sorry still no photos as yet, but the picture is off the mask my Daughter wore with her gorgeous red gown.

I,m back and broke but The Wedding was awesome

2010-11-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

It,s seems like ages since I last posted, and this one is a real little quickie just to thank you for your good wishes and congratulations.
The Wedding went really well and after all my hours of panicking the weather was unbelievable, the Bride was gorgeous, the Groom very handsome, and my Grandchildren so cute.
No pictures as yet because of me still having my son,s computer with a full hard drive, pictures have started to appear on Facebook, but the format won,t allow me to upload them to blogger, so I am now waiting patiently for someone to email me some.

As this is a PF blog I should at this point add that I am flat broke, everything has been spent, and every available bank account has been emptied, plus my visitors are with me for another few days and then it,s going to be another week after that before my next pay. On the plus side we incurred no debt and so it wont take long to get back on track.

Will pop in whenever I can.

Nearly Out Of Time

2010-11-07T14:05:00.001-08:00

It,s Monday morning here in Oz and I,m fast running out of time to get prepared for The Wedding, I never lost any weight and so I,m frightened to try my dress on again and it has not stopped raining yet. So I,m expecting that like a stage play the rehearsals are bad and the performance will be a triumph.

WORKLOAD

Wednesday my grass is getting cut.
Thursday the marquees are being erected.
Friday the toilets are being delivered and set up by a firm called DUNNIES WITH DIGNITY.
Friday we are also having a fridge trailer delivered to hold all the booze.
Saturday the lights are going up, in the trees and the tables and chairs and decorations are being put into the marquees.
Sunday the big day and hopefully the rain will have stopped and my heart rate will have returned to normal.

SOCIAL EVENTS

Sunday Mum and Dad arrived from Western Australia
Thursday Friends arrive from South Australia
Friday friends and family members arrive from South Australia and Western Australia.
Friday we have invited everyone for a BBQ
Saturday more friends arrive from South Australia
Sunday Wedding

FINANCES

I have completely lost control of my spending at the moment it is disappearing quicker than I can write down why. My carefully laid plans are spinning out of control. And you know what I,m not concerned as I know I will have the full support of you all to pull me back on track, after it is all over.

Finally due to a full work and social calendar, I might be missing in action over the next week, so have a wonderful week and happy saving !!!!

I,m on holiday

2010-11-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have just finished work for 2 weeks, I would put down that I,m on holiday only I am sure that by the time these two weeks are up I,ll be returning to work for a break. Hubby and I started on our garden last night after work, he got cracking with a high pressure water blaster to clean the outside of the house, patio, driveway and garage floors, which he will finish today and tomorrow the whole family are coming round for a general clean out and cleanup, we keep a nice neat yard but there is always some improvement can be made for a special occasion.

Sunday sees my Mum and Dad arriving and so tonight I will be concentrating on emptying out the wardrobe in the spare bedroom, we keep our out of season clothes in there and I also keep my I don,t know where else to put it things.

Pay day today and so far all I,ve paid is my debt, I would like to think I,ll have a few no spend days, but I doubt it. I,ll keep you posted.