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Archive for August, 2018

2019 is looking good

August 31st, 2018 at 05:59 am

Well I have just completed 2019 budget for us and it is looking pretty good, all going well we should almost be at the $30,000 deposit that we need for the house deposit so happy about that. I am glad that I have next years out of the way now just need to work on my moms budget for next year then will be done with those. We are probably not going to buy a house for another 2 years but we will have what we need just have to see how we feel about it at the time and what is available in this area, in our price range.

The weather here has been horrible for a couple days and I have been unwell so we haven't really done anything but stay warm and rest up...not feeling to bad today but have a headache from wearing my glasses...its part of what they are trying to figure out what is going on..need my glasses to read (eyes have gotten real bad last 9 months) but they give me a headache and dizzy...optometrist can't find anything wrong with my eyes so have to see a neuro opthamologist but there is only 1 in this area so can take a while to get in to see them.

have 2/3rds of my christmas shopping done only a few more to get and then stocking fillers so should be done soon and can tick that off my list...but will continue with the charity one till december when they ask for them for the foster kids...will have quite a few this year which will be great.

Bought some vegetable plants so we know have our tomatoes in, have to plant our spring onions and next month will get our lettuces, cucumbers etc planted and we still have plenty of herbs, garlic and bell peppers (capsicums) growing as well...so looking forward to spring and summer.

how many accounts do people have?

August 28th, 2018 at 04:48 am

I was just wondering what the average number of accounts people have, I know it varies with different countries but just curious.

we currently have 6 all with its own purpose

daily account - where all our money goes into

splurge (x2) - this is where we have our own spending money on things we want or need..its a set amount each month.

annual account - this is where we put money each month for our annual bills that come in every 3, 3 or 12 months (insurances, car rego,etc, we also add things like car tyres in so we can replace every couple years etc, we have just updated a lot of our big household items such as fridges/freezers/dryer etc so know they won't need updating for at least 5 years so we decide how much we need to save each month over the next 5 years and add that in as well)

ice account - (in case of emergency) this is our money to fall back on when something happens so we don't need the CC usually sits at $2000

savings - this is where we put our savings (right now it is savings for a house)

So do others do similar things? just curious this works for us and we use a cash budget as well...but I know a lot of different ways to do things so open to suggestions.

Expensive week

August 25th, 2018 at 09:51 am

W have 2 grown daughters that live with us and it is difficult to live in such a small house with 4 adults but we get a great rate on rent since the home owners love us as tenants. We looked around and nothing fit us even looked at house that were an extra $100 a week...nothing...so I decided that we would put most of their stuff and stuff that we weren't using right now into storage...gives us all more much needed room and space to relax. W are still moving things and we decided to pay up front for a year which was $1920 so wiped out a lot of our savings that we had in our ice account, but worth it and much cheaper than paying more rent and having moving expenses. With one child with a chronic illness and the other at college they just couldn't move out if they tried.

Still have a few more docs/specialists but that is going to have to wait till we get our savings back up as not going to have no money in the bank...my plan is sept to get my ice acct back to $2000 and then start on the house savings again..although hubby and I are deciding whether or not to buy a house and then travel australia for a year (in a yr or 2) and our oldest could live in our house while we are gone...something we are contemplating..but that is a something to think on and something my hubby has always wanted to do.
So this week our accounts are looking dismal but everything is paid, grocery shopping is done...so all good there...just need to get back on track and stay on track...hope everyone is having a great weekend...we finally have a couple of sunny days...so nice..just need it to warm up a bit now

more er visits

August 12th, 2018 at 11:09 am

had another ER visit last night had uncontrollable shaking starting at 11pm and didn't stop till after 3am...doctors couldn't figure out why it was happening..so got sent home again with no answers...don't know why we bother going sometimes but I'm hoping one day to get some answers. Lucky we have social medicine over here.

I have 3 appointments this week so will be an expensive week so not sure if we will reach our goal this month...but savings is savings and if it is growing each month then I am happy with that.

Lets hope this week is better and we don't spend all our savings

schooling and living skills

August 10th, 2018 at 05:29 am

I am one of those people that believes that it's a parents job to teach their children about budgeting, shopping, cooking etc...life skills everyone should know growing up.

I understand people are busier these days (I have issues with this as well) so many eat out and just live week by week...do others think that it is up to the parents/families to do this or should they incorporate a budgeting class or life skills into schools?

I know that my hubby and I went without a lot when our kids were born so that one of us could always be home with them, be at their school events etc...they loved that we could be there for them...but this is a choice we made...I know not everyone has that choice but we taught them from a young age to budget (we use to tax their pocket money and take out sick leave etc), from the age of 2 they had chores and helped cook...

I'm just wondering what others thoughts are on this topic...do you think if more people learnt how to budget from a young age less people would be in debt??

savings & xmas shopping

August 9th, 2018 at 03:52 am

Well I am happy to see our savings grow so much this week, I know we have some specialists coming out of it but hopefully won't put to big a dent in it. We have 1 more payday before the end of the month so I' hoping it stays around the $2000 mark by end of month.

I have ordered 3 christmas presents so halfway done there so that takes some stress off I am a very organised person but being sick this year I have fallen behind on most things so being able to see myself achieving anything is a big boost for me...

Hubby and I are going to write up a shopping list today so he can do the shopping, going to try a new butcher this week the ones around here have gone way down in quality so will try another one...don't need a lot for groceries but want to stock up a bit more on meat for the freezer.

Hopefully I get some energy and we get some nice weather soon and I can spring clean and declutter the house and shed and make a few dollars with unwanted items.

savings so far

August 7th, 2018 at 07:31 am

Well our house savings has jumped from $7.80 to $560.25 in a matter of days...so happy to see how it is growing...we have 3 pays to add to it this month. I am hoping to save between $2000 - $3000 this month, but I do have specialist appointments this month and we will have to use some of our savings just not sure of the amounts just yet...so we are 1/4 way to our savings and feeling pretty good.

Charity

August 2nd, 2018 at 08:18 am

I have always done what I could for charity throughout my life and although my health isn't great I still do what I can for my 2 best charities.
The first is for a charity that provides meal/water/clothes/showers/clothes washing etc for the homeless...you can pay a certain amount for a day and it provides meals for the homeless...so I do this for my birthday instead of a party...nothing I want or need and my hubby and kids get to spend 3 hours each with me and they plan what we do (its interesting)..

The second is providing items for backpacks for foster children and children that have run from dv situations..its hard to get things down to them as its an hour drive (one way) and I can't travel so I have been buying gifts all year for their christmas gifts...its all I can do for now.

All these are budgeted for and it doesn't come out of our gift budget and I get to hit sales all year...does anyone else put things like this in their budget?

HOPING FOR A GREAT MONTH

August 1st, 2018 at 12:11 pm

I have been tweaking our budget for this month and I am hoping to save between $2000 -$3000 this month for our house deposit. I do have a couple of specialist appointments so not sure how much we will have to pay out of pocket that's why it's between $2-3000...maybe if we are lucky we can save more...can't wait to update as this month goes along...feeling excited!!