No spending Day No. 4

I love love love spending no money, everyday presents new challenges and everyday I am facing them head on and winning. I put my petrol into the car last Saturday for the week and I still have a 1/4 tank. I am taking a packed lunch with me everyday so no buying a lot of expensive rubbish. Plus I have been working overtime so not only have I no time to go out and spend money, but I am making a little extra as well. Joy Joy Joy.

The only downside to this is the effect my being so frugal has had on the way I see my Husbands wasteful ways, and we even had an arguement last night about money, I thought these arguements would stop when I got a handle on my finances. But now I want to handle his as well and he is,nt having any of it. Maybe when he sees the benefits my budgeting is having he will get more interested in trying one of his own. We have always had a my money your money kind of marriage and look where that,s got us.

I,m going to try and sit down and plan a menu for next week, so I can gauge what I,ll need to put on my shopping list. I love a list it can save you a lot of money.

Incoming $00.00
Outgoing $00.00

All work and no play

I have just had 3 no spending days in a row, and if everything goes to plan tomorrow will be a nother one.

I had to go to the Specialist,s yesterday after work as I have Carpel Tunnel Syndrome as I have to have both hands operated on. I am covered by Workcover who will pay all my medical expenses and 85% of my wages until I return to work. All up I will need about 7 weeks off of work. The operation is done in 2 stages the right hand will be done first and 3 weeks later the left, this means that I should manage to do all the little personal things by myself. If they had to do them both at the same time I would need assistance to do the most basic things.

I have been doing a few extra hours over the last few days and the overtime money will go into my wages on Friday, and as my operation is on the 28th of this month any extra money I can squirrel away is a bonus. Money in today was my MIL,s board of $100.00 for the month, I find it embarrassing to take this money from her but she says that she can,t stay here comfortably without putting a little into the kitty.

And so today we have

Incomings $100.00
Outgoings A no spend day.

My Frugal Ebay Lounge

I was commenting on a post today from a fellow blogger who was asking what she would need to decorate her first home, and I suggested she try Ebay if she was looking for bargains. This is precisely what we did when we moved from a home with 1 living area to a home with 2 areas. So in the photo the Lounge suite with matching cushions, the coffee table, all the lamps and on the wall you can,t see we have a matching entertainment centre, all bought by bidding on Ebay. Last month we bid on and won an LG Dishwasher in perfect working order for $23.04 obviously there are a lot of people not prepared to take the seller at there word when they say the machine is still working. And we are loving not having to fight over the dishes every night. Most of the bits and pieces for my Daughters Wedding we picked up on Auction sites. I don,t think our home reflects how we buy our furniture as we have been very choosy, but it was cheap and that,s part of the fun for me knowing that nobody else would guess.

Today was a no spend day for me

Daughters Wedding Photo

Today my MIL gave me back $50.00 that she owed me I had completely forgotten that I was going to get it back, it was,nt part of my budget, so what to do with a little extra money. Well as I have mentioned in earlier blogs my Daughter is getting married in November and her Dad and I are giving them money towards the costs, but I know she has heart set on getting a red food mixer as one of her Wedding gifts, so here it is and according to the user manual it does everything except the dishes. Hope she is pleased.



Spends for today

Foodmixer $149.00 ( my share $50.00 )
Coffee And Doughnuts for two $10.00

I accomplished this today !!!!!

Payday today and I usually hate this day with a vengeance, if ever I was down my hubby used to " say what,s wrong with you is it payday already" that,s how affected I was by my financial ups and downs. But today I feel great, not any better off but great nevertheless. I stuck the labels on my jars and I have money in my petrol jar, my entertainment jar and my holiday jar, as well as a little money left from my Grocery shopping in my Grocery jar. Also today I paid a large bill and it,s now looking good to start saving in earnest by July. This is my breakdown.


Incomings : wages $500.03
:MIL,s Grocery money $50.00

Outgoings

• Bill $350.00 ( this one was way overdue )
• Petrol $20.00 ( $5.00 left of my estimated amount for the week )
• Groceries $147.85 ( this included fish and chips for tea )
• Shampoo $8.00 ( I had completely run out )
• Potato masher $4.35 ( last one broke after 20 years )

Jars, overtime and conversations

Today I printed out the labels for my jars so now they are labeled

• petrol
• clothing
• Entertainment
• travelling
• Groceries

Everything else I pay by Bpay or direct debit, so it would be silly of me to take it out of the bank, if I am lucky enough to have any money left at the end of the week then any money left over will go into savings, I get paid weekly ( very weakly ) and payday is a Friday so roll on tomorrow. I managed to squeeze a few overtime hours out of the company I work for this week, I wont get paid them until next Friday and the extra money is going to go towards my weekend away at the end of the month. I had only allowed myself $100.00 for the weekend but with 2 nights board and a few meals out I definitely underestimated.

I was sitting having morning tea with the girls I work beside today, they all went to the food van that stops at our door and I took out my couple of biscuits and a yogurt that I had brought from the house, as well as a cup of coffee which our work provides free of charge. I was mentally counting up how much they spend daily on eating junk, and was estimating it to be at least $15.00 each, which over the course of the week is $75.00 spent on rubbish. I have always taken my food to work with me, and although it makes my weekly shopping bill a little higher as I also give my hubby a packed lunch, I,m sure it is way below what they are all spending. So armed with this information I got onto the subject of budgets and without going into all the details I was telling them about me curbing my spending. One of the girls said she did,nt bother to budget but used her credit card a lot, and both of the others thought that they managed their money really well. It was,nt my place to tell them that they could do a lot better simply by cutting down on money wasted at the food van. We all have our areas that we overindulge in and now that I realise that I,m going to make a success of budgeting.

A no spending day today

My first ever budget

Well I,ve committed myself now there,s no going back. Remember this is in Australian Dollars and are monthly figures.

• Food : $400.00
• Petrol : $100.00
• Mobile phone : $30.00
• Entertainment $ 80.00
• Clothes $00.00
• Entertainment $ 100.00

Outstanding bills for June.

• Electricity $ 350.00
• Car rego $ 400.00
• Phone : $250.00
• Debt : $50.00

Monthly total $1,740

Monthly income $2,000

Savings $260.00

I have not got any idea at this stage if my budget is going to work, as I have never ever tried to do this before, this is not a working budget I won,t be able to do that until I have cleared the backlog so at the end of the Month I may put money away into future bills instead of into savings, but first I,ll see how I go. Into jars I will be putting, my petrol money, my entertainment money and if I was buying anything new this month I would also put that money into a jar. Wish me luck.

Spends so far this month

Debt $25.00

Petrol $10.00