Mumof2's Personal Finance Blog

Well being sick on top of a chronic illness has been extremely boring...to sick to do anything..so glad we have netflix...but on the upside still not spending other than groceries...which my hubby usually does.

I have our savings up over $1000 but only updating my blog at end of month as it changes all the time..so feeling good about that...set it up that I have $100 a month going directly into my retirement fund (super as we call it) every bit helps. only have a couple more christmas gifts to get and then I'm done other than stocking and food...so can mark that off my to do list..still need to finish up the shed and get some things put up for sale online and make a few dollars (hopefully)...even thinking about a garage sale just not sure yet and hubby is thinking of selling his boat as well...but we will see.

so far sticking to our budget now just need to get my moms budget for next year done

Well have been sick all week so haven't been anywhere except the doctors and since we are on free scripts for the rest of the year this one doesn't cost us..so haven't spent money on anything but groceries...except today when I just ordered my daughter a christmas present (although that is from our present account)

Finally have my ICE account back to $2000 so now going to work on our savings for a home deposit and hopefully nothing else comes up that is to expensive. Still working on putting stuff into storage and sorting out the shed but the weather has been cold, wet and miserable and being sick it can just wait..hopefully will get some warmer weather and feel better soon so can get it done

Well have been sick all week so haven't been anywhere except the doctors and since we are on free scripts for the rest of the year this one doesn't cost us..so haven't spent money on anything but groceries...except today when I just ordered my daughter a christmas present (although that is from our present account)

Finally have my ICE account back to $2000 so now going to work on our savings for a home deposit and hopefully nothing else comes up that is to expensive. Still working on putting stuff into storage and sorting out the shed but the weather has been cold, wet and miserable and being sick it can just wait..hopefully will get some warmer weather and feel better soon so can get it done

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.

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.

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

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

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??

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.

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.

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?

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!!

I have learnt to budget when our circumstances changed dramatically and we had to adjust...it took a long time but we are doing well I have taught both our daughters about budgeting as well one does better than the other, but they both do well with it.
My mom who is 80 this year had a few things break down over a year and she didn't have the cash to buy them so she did a rent to buy and her budget went out the window...so for the last 15 months I have been doing her budget, I tell her how much money she needs to take out of her bank for food etc and I deal with the rest, she will have no debt again by nov...she loves it as she has no hassles anymore and just takes her cash and does what she needs to with it (she is also raising a 12 year old that she has had since birth - long story) so she still has school related expenses etc.
Today my step son is coming over so I can help him write up his budget and help him menu plan as he is pretty bad at it (his words) so can get him back on track (he is getting a divorce and is raising their daughter)....I love budgets and helping others with them...I do think its important to show them how to work out debts and a budgets so they don't get back into bad habits, if I do it all then they won't learn or do the hard work. I do my moms as I pay her bills via my computer but we sit down and hash it out together so she is doing it as well.
Does anyone else teach their kids/spouses/partners etc how to budget or sit down and work it out together??...my budgets are written out annually so by sept/oct next years budget will be hashed out and written out ready to go

I am just wondering after reading many posts on here (and I'm not judging just curious) as to why some people have so many CC? I have one and it has a limit of $5000 and that bugs me that if it was maxed out that I would pay so much interest.

I just think in Australia it isn't easy to get a CC so I don't know many people who have more than 1 so I'm just wondering why some people have several? if you have 1 can't you increase the limit if you need it? if you have several and max them out why would you get more? Is it easy to get credit in America?

As I said I am just curious to why people have several, I'm not judging at all...it just seems credit is so much easier to get in America than most places I wish our home loans were as easy to get as yours, that would make life over here so much easier

Well it is payday today, which I love (who doesn't right) and even though we had a medical expense come out of our house savings and we also filled out 4 jerry cans of gas while it is around 30c cheaper than it normally is...our savings dipped to just $36...but it's payday and it now up to $371 although not a lot it will grow steadily and it's better than not having any at all...

Have not been well last last week so menu planning and next years budget has gone out the window but will get to it in next few weeks...hubby has his cash for groceries and gas so don't need to worry about that for a couple of weeks...I love a cash budget makes everything so easy.

Does anyone use cash for their everyday expenses such as groceries, gas etc?

I love watching the coupon shows on tv over here and I always said if we lived in America that would be one of the first things I would learn to do. It is amazing how much money you can actually save by doing that...I wish here in Australia we had coupons...we have nothing like that here.

Does anyone on this forum use coupons? Food over here is so expensive and would love something like that here

Although we have no debt now we have had debt in the past and lived pay check to pay check, no-one really taught me about budgeting, saving etc. Although our bills were paid on time ( for the most part) we did struggle.

Everything changed 13 years ago when our daughter got really sick and I was at college and my husband had to give up work to take care of her (needed 24/7 care), we sold our house but still had debt and I was really over living pay check to pay check, so I sat down wrote out our bills/debts etc and figured out how we were going to pay it off and have it gone. We had no savings and so the journey began. Believe me it was a long process and it took a long time to get where we wanted to be but I researched, called companies for better deals paid our debts off 1 by one and then snowballed the rest, started trying to save a little...although I was more focused on getting rid of debt then saving and this hurt us a lot along the way when something came up.

My husband was quite sceptical at first, but I put us on a budget, menu planned and shopped with lists and watched our debt disappear....even now with my current illness and not being able to do anything much at all we are still on track and starting to save for a house again. I think he is a bigger cheapskater than myself now.

We also are saving for a new car, I don't want debt other than a morg so we will save for a car and when we need to replace it we will use the cash that we have and that is all...its a tool and not something you have to have the latest and greatest of..

remember when you get discouraged that you didn't get into debt overnight and you won't get out overnight but if you stick to it you will get there and all the stress and pressure that is alleviated is amazing and you can live life again...and on your terms...living to work not working to live

It's august in a week and half so its time to start my christmas shopping for the family, I have been doing the charity one all year and its looking good for all the foster kids that they will go to.

I have a set budget that I put away each month for christmas and everyone is giving me ideas for what they would like so I will carry my money and list and see what sales I hit along the way to save more money.

How does everyone else do their christmas?

Hi, I'm new to this site and blogging in general. I have been reading some of the stories and blogs on here and I'm hoping to get some hints and tips and support along my journey.
We have no debt, and we are just starting to save for a house deposit..we need around $30,000 for a 3% deposit so that is our goal and I am hoping to achieve that in the next 18 months...we have accounts for seperate things which are as follows

daily account - for money to go into

splurge acct - "mad money" to spend on what we want

ice account - this is for emergencies (usually sits at 2000)

annual bills - this is for all our ins etc that come out yearly we put monthly amount away for these

house deposit - where we put our savings for our house

we always have bills paid on time and we live on a cash budget for petrol (gas) and groceries.

we have 1 CC but we only use for emergencies and owe nothing on it.

we currently have approx $900 in our house deposit acct

that is a general run down, hope i haven't forgotten to add anything