Mumof2's Personal Finance Blog

Have some extra money this month which has really boosted our home deposit account (see side bar) so happy we are reaching our goal...a little each month..but this is a big jump for us..

Other than groceries/gas..I also bought a gift for a baby shower and a house warming gift...although I need to send that to the US so will cost a bit but that will come out of my mad money.

Was our youngest b-day today..she didn't want to do much so we just had cake and then she left to go home..

Bought a rug today...have wanted one for quite awhile it is so nice and much better than the carpet to lay on..it set me back $350 was on sale and talked them down another $50....but its what we wanted..so all good.

May have found my mom a house but we will see what happens last time it didn't eventuate so hopefully this will be the one...she really needs her own space...apparently the landlord will call me tomorrow so will see what happens.

payday tomorrow so will go do the shopping for the next couple weeks as per the menu..then the rest will go into savings for the house.

Apparently we may be getting another small stimulus payment so if we do (not counting on it) it will go into our ice acct

This week is pay week other than groceries and gas the rest will go into the house account so around another $300..I love to see it climb each month and getting closer to our goal.

Gas prices here have sky rocketed back to $1.47 per litre don't know why but probably cause the kids have 2 weeks off school

Other than that satying home..saving money and trying to stay warm

So we were able to put $500 into our ice acct and another $750 into our house deposit account..total now $3310..not bad for a months savings!

Well its the beginning of the month and all the bills are paid that should be except groceries and gas...which we take out each fn...so a majority of our money will go into our house deposit account...I should try put some into our EF as I always like at least $2000 which is low but once we buy I will work on building that up more..so current balance

$2,610.14

Should be able to add more to it over the month

So we are still looking for houses for my mom and these are the sorts of things they have in their ads...I have honestly never seen stuff like this before but it is so weird to me and wonder how anyone can rent their houses out
Exclusions: Fireplaces, external toilet, large shed and electronic functions on pod shower are not available for tenant use.

No wonder it is so hard to find her a rental...we see stuff like this on half the ads....and who still has an external toilet??
Oh well we will keep looking...and a brighter note it is pay week so can update our accounts this week...YAH!!

We bought a new slow cooker yesterday we have one that works well I just wanted a square one that was a bit bigger and I can make things like lasagna etc in them...it wasn't in our budget but that is fine...something that will get a lot of use especially since it is winter here.

Its payday this week can't wait to add to our savings...also need to menu plan tomorrow ready for the month...updated the monthly planner..and we are ready for July to start...can't believe the year is already half over

Was a bad start to the week, my youngest daughter lost her FT job but she is now on unemployment so that will help her out she decided to go back to college and do social work, she did a transfer from her nursing school and starts late july as a mid year student so things foe her are looking up...but she is still trying to look for a part time job as well while she studies.

Our oldest is doing great with her walking, I decided to do a long walk with her yesterday it was 9.6 km (my part she walked a little further up the street to make it 10km) and I was so tired when I got home but I made it.

hubby got the car back and it is running like a new car..so now he can put in and get a towbar on it..he will call this week and get it booked in..he seems to be doing okay but his energy levels are still pretty low in the afternoon and he sometimes needs to nap...hoping in aug his tests results are good and there is no more cancer..only time will tell.
Will take a look at the budget again this weekend as next week is pay week and see how we are going also have the girls b-days in july..they only get money and a cake..and they are fine with that....and I have had that money put away since the beginning of the year...and will make the cake ourselves...life here is pretty normal but cold...can't wait till spring and it warms up a bit...

Other than that we are just trying to keep saving for a house deposit

So a little off topic here as it doesn't deal with finance but for the last 4 months (and yes we are still looking) I have been helping my mom look for a new rental...it has been frustrating as she is on a fixed income and the rents keep going up here...but the rentals have some weird things attached to them in the last week alone with the houses we have looked at it has stated the tenants of these houses can't use
heating/cooling
garage/shed
patio area
balcony

Seriously why would anyone rent a house that they can't use any of these things...I have not seen this before and find it becoming more popular...I know we will never rent a house like that but it seriously weird...I mean geez you can't even put photos up on the walls without permission here..but I think this is going a bit far!! what are others thoughts?? And yes this is in Australia

Well it has been a long week and its only hump day here...my daughter was made redundant at her job yesterday...over 100 people let go..they want to try and do more online they said...got no notice they had a meeting at 1 and were gone from the offices at 2...so now she is on the hunt for another job as she lives on her own and has to pay bills...I bought her some food today just so I know she enough to get by for now...

Got my hair colored today..that was a great feeling...and an expense I had in my budget!!

Got the car back today and it is running like a dream and it was all free so that was good as well...hubby can start getting the car back together with all his bits and pieces.

My DD is doing so good with her walking...she is doing 5km a day today she had such a busy day but managed to get it done just as it was starting to get dark...she called me about 5 mins out so i can run a nice hot bath for her to warm up...its cold here.....I am so proud of her

Tomorrow is clean the house and rest up day as we are really tired...hopefully the rest of the week is quiet

I bought some kabana yesterday...went to cut it up today and it smelt weird so took it back to the store they gave me 2 new free ones and a refund..so that was good. no other expenses at the moment so that is goodgot a haircut later this week and its pay week all bills are paid so it is just grocery/gas money the rest can go into savings I think...and I will donate to my daughters fundraiser...she walked her 5km today (just over 3 miles) it started pouring rain and she got soaked...so made sure when she got home she had a warm bath waiting and the heater was on..so she could stay warm...she is doing good...only 69 days to go

Well we dropped the car off today should get it back wednesday, hubby and my daughter did that as it is around an hour away...in that time I managed to make the dog food, made choc mousse, made scones (I had extra cream so wanted to use it), changed my bedroom light as it went out last nite and kale chips as well as cleaned the house..just have the laundry to finish up...pretty dizzy today so taking it easy for the rest of the day..happy fathers day for all the US dads (not fathers day till sept here)

So we have been wanting to get out and about more especially walking...I love to walk and we support 2 charities here all year this is something we do each year although this years walk is different as we can't gather in big groups right now so people are doing their progress online via app. Hutt st here provides services for the homeless here, they provide meals, storage, clothes, washers/dryers (including mobile ones), showers etc...each year they do a walk a mile and it is in winter and you walk a mile at 7am so you can kinda see what they go through on a daily basis..this year has changed so starting today my daughter need to walk 3 miles a day for 72 days to reach her goal to walk 217.5 miles (or 350km)..so if anyone is interested in donating or tracking her progress here is the link...I am going to try walking with her daily so I can get my fitness back up

https://www.walkamile.org.au/fundraisers/jackitaylor/walk-a-mile-challenge

Also we are going to look at a couple houses this weekend to see if 1 house can accomodate our needs as a 2 family living in the same space...wish us luck

I sit here in our state and life is pretty normal now, most businesses are opening, hardly anyone wearing masks, still social distancing, disinfecting all hands/carts etc when you go into a store, still restricting how many people go into a store etc...but our state has 22 days no new cases...our borders open up in july to some states not all as some states are still having active cases, we had a BLM protest here over 5000 people attended, it was a peaceful protest and no-one got sick from the virus..I feel pretty lucky that our state is doing what is needed.

I do hope the US gets their numbers under control, it is so disheartening to see the riots/protests etc going on with this pandemic...like their isn't enough sick people there with the covid19 so rampant...I just hope that people realise how dangerous it can be maybe not for them but for those around them...or maybe they just don't care...but my thought and prayers are with everyone over there that the protests/riots cease and that you get the covid19 virus under control soon...its hard to watch so much devastation...I don't even watch the news anymore..never anything good...might be called burying my head in tha sand but for my mental health its what I must do...especially when it doesn't directly affect me...sounds selfish...I know...but I hope that things settle down for you all real soon....although apparently china is having a second flare up of the virus

Finally was able to contact the irs today my itin number was reinstated end of feb they sent a letter early march but we haven't got it yet...also called the irs office they said that they have only gone back to work 2 weeks ago and have so many to process so wait 6 weeks and call back if we haven't heard anything...so we are hoping they have received it...mail has been slow but didn't think it would take this long to receive letters...here is hoping that it is done and done soon so can move on...before long it will be time to do them again!

Well we updated our car last month and after a week I heard a weird noise, now the car was checked over and everything and everything seemed fine...so we called the company and said that it was making a noise and I wasn't happy as we just got it from them...he had us take it to their mechanic...and he said it needs a new transmission...so they are doing that next week...they need to order in and postage is slow here considering the borders are closed and no flights...but they are repacing for free so happy that we caught it early and hopefully no more hassles with the car.

Looked on the irs website it doesn't say that they have received our taxes yet, we sent them in april...can't do them online from over here...and there is no-one there to answer our calls I know they extended the deadline but don't know what to do since we can't contact anyone and we have no idea if they even received them yet...so that is frustrating..just wish it would be processed so we can get it done and finished!

We have been waiting since april about a package that was sent to us but was broken when we got it and it had obviously been run over by something, we hadn't heard back and I was annoyed but thought with the carona virus and all the disruption to mail and with hubby going through treatment it just wasn't a priority...so over the last month I have tried emailing them and heard nothing so I wrote to the ombudsmen (postal one) and they called and asked for some detail which I sent him and he gave them 10 days to pay us and finalise the account...so hubby went and picked up the money today it is only $54 but still going to fight companies who don't do the right thing and get what is ours and we haven't been able to replace things as only cargo ships are bringing things into our country which take forever!!

Other than that we are not spending money unless we have to..trying to save for that house deposit...so far so good

Hubby has finished treatment we have 2 months before we get any results but the doc is very optomistic about the cancer being gone as hubby was a champ during the whole treatment process and tolerated it well so we will live a normal life till we are told any different.

Yesterday we got a lease renewal but only for 6 months..I guess they are sick of us asking for things to be fixed...so we decided to sign (would have like a year) but now we have to try and save and see what we can do in the next 6 months in order to buy a house...not sure if it is possible, but we will try...it is putting us 6 months ahead of where we need to be and don't want to move and then 6 months later move again into our own home it is such a waste of money...so going to start looking into that...it is hard as my daughter has a chronic illness so will always live at home but wants her own place to live in now we have less time to save and find a place and need to find out all the regulations before we even start looking...but it does gives us a good amunt of time to pack up and declutter as well so going to think of this as a positive move and do what needs to be done to get where we want to be!!

hubby has his last treatment tomorrow..should have been today but a couple weeks ago a machine broke so they had to reschedule..so tomorrow is the final one...yah...won't get results for a couple months but at least no more hospital visits...for treatment

Tomorrow is payday so the plan is to get grocery/gas money out and put the rest into our home deposit account...all bills are paid for the month except groceries/gas which we take each payday..

our menu starts again tomorrow so will go do our grocery shopping for the next couple weeks and then should be done for the next couple weeks except for fresh fruit/vege/milk and bread

It's funny we watch the news and life in our state is pretty normal and has been for few weeks, hardly anyone wears masks, you can shop regularly nothing is hard to get in stores, more places are opening and life as people knew it is getting back to normal...as for us..its funny people asked us if it has stressed us out not living life as we normally would and my response...living life during a pandemic is how we live our life all the time...when you have a chronic illness it hits you and you have no choice but to deal with it..you don't have energy to visit people or places so you don't...so nothing much changed for us...it's like life was normal...the only difference was for a few weeks some things were harder to get at the stores..but other than that nothing changed..we will still social distance as we always do in winter due to hubby having copd and the flu goes around...but we do this every year anyways...

Financially things haven't really changed much either if we did more driving than usual as hubby had his treatments mon-friday but gas was cheaper than normal so we still saved some money...and that was paying for our daughters gas as well as she has been doing a lot of our grocery shopping etc.

Hubby only has 3 treatments left this week and he is done...then have to wait 2 months to find out results...not looking forward to that..but glad to be done....and we menu planned today so that will also help the food budget a bit...have been really slack on that this year...but trying to get back on track..still waiting for our car ins refund to hit the bank...but it is a public holiday so I'm guessing not till tomorrow..

Things are going well here..very cold but okay.

Hubby has 3 treatments left next week and then he is done...then we wait 2 months and see what the results are...fingers crossed all good...but it will be nice to get back into a routine.

Still waiting for the insurance money to hit our account once it does it will go into our home deposit account..and that is slowly building up.

The new car that we updated to after a couple weeks had a funny noise...so I called the car yard and said I wanted it checked out, it was checked over by the RAA (state approved) and it didn't have anything wrong with it, he said fine bring it in and he would get his mechanic to look at it...it has a slight hiccup in the transmission so they are going to replace it...it is on order so we can use the car till it comes in and then get it replaced..I'm glad they chose to do the right thing.

Had the roofer come out and he said the roof need quite a bit of work, when the last guy swapped a few of the tiles over he actually forgot to pull on down so we had a hole in the roof that why we got so much water in the roof...he blew the leaves off the roof to give it more drainage but he can't do much until the owner decided what they want done...still haven't decided wether or not we are going to move or not I think it depends on if they are going to fix the roof and what we can find to move to...I prefer not to move again til we buy but we might not have a choice...time will tell

other than that not much else to report..pay week again this week which is usually just groceries/gas...and then the rest will be divided to ice and house account

So when we bought our new car it was bought in a couple days and with all that was going on and me being exhausted I just went with our normal insurer...but yesterday I was looking around as was our daughter for her newer car and I found one that offered more and could save me $260 a year more than the other one so rang and got it started and cancelled the other one..so in next few days we should have the extra $260 which will go into our house account...which is now over $1000

I can't believe it is june already this year is flying by...have done most of our banking but yesterday was so exhausted just paid what needed to be paid...gave hubby $1200 to finish doing some stuff to the car he wants to do, paid all the bills except food/gas that comes out in cash every couple weeks...all I have to do now is transfer the money into my POM acct and house deposit account and we will be done...will update later when I have done this have a busy day today, daughter has specialist appt, hubby has treatment have to be at other daughters house for internet to be connected...have some errands to run and it is cold and rainy and I don't feel well so going to be a long day..and woke up around 4.45am...which is about normal but haven't been going to sleep till 1am so not so good..my body hates winter!!

So glad to be finally saving for a house!!

So not sure if any of you actually read my post much but we have been telling the landlord/agent that the roof has had dripping noises in it and we can see discoloration on the walls...so they said the roofer would contact us...he hasn't yet and we have high winds and plenty of rain today....well tonight we have water running down the wall, i have called 2 cell numbers we have for them and no answer no emergency numbers and i have to say I am really freakin annoyed and let them know about it...we have so much rain due this week..as it is winter here and if they don't call me early they will be getting a not so pleasant phone call in the morning....seriously the roof is all wet in one area..so we have had to move stuff...hopefully the roof won't cave in...so tonight is going to be rough....and we don't know what needs to be done to it...we don't know if there is mould there..not what we need in flu season and hubby going through treatment...just when things were going good.

On another note its pay week and our daughter updated her car...she was going to wait but it big enough for when she has kids in a couple years (yes she is a planner) and she paid cash for it so all good!!

Our new budget starts next week and I can't wait each month we will have savings towards our house deposit...

I can't believe it is almost June, hubby will finish treatment, our budget changes and we can finally start a healthier routine than what we currently have...I am excited for the rest of the year...hopefully our savings goes up and my weight goes down...is it me or is this year just flying by...will be christmas before we know it

We haven't heard aything back yet from the landlord about the gutters or the dripping we hear in the roof yet so have emailed the agent today and see what happens, we are due for a lot more rain in the next week and really don't need flooding inside or outside...so we will see what happens, we are due to sign our lease again aug so we will see if she wants to keep us or not...we don't want to move...but only time will tell.

Although if anything flooded like in our last house we had to go through insurance twice so we moved...but if it happens here I might take them for what gets damaged especially if we have spoken to them and they have done nothing...it frustrates me wish people who owned houses took care of them, I know they use it for additional income etc..but when you pay good money the house should be in good condition..and this one isn't...and I know she has the money as most of last year she was travelling the world...so if you can do that then you can take care of the house!!

Hubby only has 11 treatments left so a bit over 2 weeks (they don't do it on weekends) so excited for that to be over...we will save more on gas and we have already paid in full what is owing to them so we don't have to worry about that...we have bought them chocolates and cookies as a thankyou for all they have done for him...but we are hoping we don't have to see them again...then after a couple of months we will find out if it worked or not and if he needs more treatment or not...so after treatment life can go back to normal for a couple months at least...fingers crossed...its payday this week and we still have a few doc appts so hopefully won't cost much and I can put extra into our ice acct

I have set a goal to buy a house in 12 months time...we are finally getting back on track and that is my new goal, we have paid off the CC a couple months ago...updated the car so now its time to get saving for a house...its a bit harder to know what we need to get as our daughter who has a chronic illness and can't work will be living with us but she also wants her own house/space especially since she wants kids...and deposits over here are so expensive...unlike the US...so it is my goal to save around $30,000 in the next 12 months and start looking for a house...my daughter has her own savings to add to the deposit so that helps...so all going well that is my goal to start working on in june...I'm determined and a bit excited!!

Wish me luck going to be a tight year trying to make that goal

This house has been better than our last house in so many different ways but also has some issues that the owner just takes their lazy time fixing or just doesn't bother...we have complained about the roof and gutter being cleaned for months we live in a high risk fire area in summer so have to keep the yard cleaned up etc...but the owner won't, the gutters shoould have been cleaned months ago and they haven't bothered we have asked several times and now with all the rains and nothing being done we have heard dripping in the roof...we called them but no answer from the owner yet...so we are deciding wether or not to move again this year...we didn't want to due to hubbys illness and treatment and we wanted to buy in a year or so anyways so didn't want to have to move till then...so now we have to start looking and see what is out there or maybe do a 6 month lease and see how we go...people frustrate me when they rent out houses but don't take care of them...its your investment so invest the money and keep on top of things...oh well rant over

Hubby has only 14 treatments to go...it feels like forever but at the same time it feels like it is going so fast...he is coping pretty well and takes himself to the appointments..he does get tired and also uncomfortable at night but other than that is doing okay...hopefully once treatment is done we get the all clear and can move on..if not then we will see what the next steps are.

It has been cold wet and horrible here and my body feels broken...I hate winter and we still have 3 months to go

financially nothing is happening..its payday next week and we only need money for groceries and gas....can't believe we are almost in june!!

Got $490 in from our car ins, I gave hubby 400 and banked the rest..went back to using cash for our groceries and gas...its to hard to keep track of it from our account and we usually use self serve anyways so not a big deal...it should work better now.

I have put a complaint in with our health minister against the hospital in regards to my hubbys treatment, I don't want it to happen again so now just sent in some forms and will wait to hear back, know they are busy with all the pandemic stuff but hopefully won't be long.

Still looking for a house for my mom to rent who thought it would be so hard to find one...but we will find one...I always believe what is meant to be will be...so guessing the right house is just waiting for us to find it...and we will.

it was payday yesterday other than taking out grocery and gas money I haven't done anything else..to tired and there is no hurry, our bills are all paid so will do over the weekend.