End Of No Spend February and Results.

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

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.

Day 21 No Spend February / Plus Weekly Spending Report

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

Big Removal Day

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

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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

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

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

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

1. Holiday Fund, $240.00 of $2,000
2. Emergency Fund $240 of $1000
3. Savings $250 of $10,000
4. Personal Debt $500 of $1000
5. 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 !!!

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

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.

Day 6 No Spend February

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.

Can,t A Woman Change Her Mind ???

Thats Me Indecisive

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

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

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

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

Waiting For The Rules 1 Week To Go

My Rules For No Spend February.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finances Right On Track I,m Winning This One

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

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

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

I Have Crunched All The Numbers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Insomnia Over Money Plans

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

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


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

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

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


ONLY 5 SLEEPS TO GO

There are Umbrellas and then there are Umbrellas

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


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

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

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

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

End of my Financial Week / Garage Sale Finds

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

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

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

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

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

Blog Improvements and Updates.

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.

November,s Goals / Melbourne Cup Day in Oz

Today was Melbourne Cup Day here in Australia, they call this the race that stops a nation, and it definitely is. Most workplaces lay on a lunch and bring in a TV so that nobody misses this event. I put a bet on and my horse came in third, so I got my money back. I would have liked a win, but maybe next year. One of these days I will go to Melbourne,s Flemington Racecourse and soak up the atmosphere myself. Wear one of those silly huge hats and stiletto heels and get drunk on Champagne, but till then I,ll continue to watch it on my bosses TV squeezed in amongst our machinery.

My financial goals for November are pretty much the same as Octobers I mentioned at the beginning of my spend less year that It would be the 21st of this month before I can really begin budgeting for the next year. But I aim to take on no debt, still pay the couple of debts I have, put my bill money away, and spend wisely. I have done well with my not buying myself anything new goal. I have a lot of clothes which I will be able to get through this Summer wearing, and I am keeping my Grocery bill low although with visitors popping in and out I will go through my pantry and fridge quite quickly.
I know I should,nt be wishing my Daughters big day over and done with, but I can,t help wishing that more of my money was going towards debt repayment. I am getting so keen to start this spend less year.







FOOTNOTE

I walked out into my garden this morning and my Frangipani and Jacaranda Trees are both in full bloom, so my garden is awash with purple and white blossoms on the trees and a carpet of it is also on the grass. It brought a smile to my face and as it was a lovely warm Spring morning I stayed out there with my coffee. It really set me up for the day.