Well its december, we are debt free, our ice account is back to $2000 but we have no savings at the moment but thats ok..we still have a couple of pays before the end of the year...I do have to give my daughter some money for christmas (what she wants) she has other gifts...and I have my specialist tomorrow so have that to pay for..but everything else is done for the year so we are where I wanted to be...next year we will start to save and stay on track going to be better than what this year has been.

Think over the holidays I might do some research on investing in shares it interests me and looking at starting for extra income as well over the next few years....does anyone invest or know some good books to read etc?

Have had 3 specialist appointments this week, the first 2 said they couldn't find anything..but today I saw a neurophysio therapist and I think they might be able to help me..so that is what we are focusing on right now...so hopefully it will help...they said it will take some time as they have to retrain my brain in several areas so here's hoping...but been an expensive week and its only tuesday...now need to figure out the rest of christmas and how to pay for it...spent so much money on specialists.

On a better note my brother paid for the boat today so hubby has that for his interests...and we still have some savings...just need to sit down and rejig the budget....mom is coming downs this week or next week so can go over next years budget with her and finish up setting up her banking.

so far a good week and expensive week but we are getting there...

Saw another specialist today (neurologist) cost $305 and they basically said that sorry but it's not neurological it's something else...so more savings gone and no answers!!....a little frustrating...still see another one tomorrow and one next week then our savings will be almost gone...maybe one day we will have answers and saving...

The kids are home and we can tell with how much busier the house is, the food budget has gone up and the house is messier...but I love having them home.

Didn't reach my financial goal for the month but was only $300 off so I'm okay with that we can play catch up next month (hopefully)...but we have money in our ice account and savings account so I am happy with that.

No more paydays this month so I can update our savings info on here, and I also need to save to buy my friend a plane ticket from the States to Australia next year...she is coming to visit for 3 months and I can't wait.

has been a busy week for us all but so far not an expensive one....unless your our DD...her cat got out of her area and into next door yard and got attacked by their husky...all I heard was blood curdling screams from my daughter and I went running just in time to see her cat jump over our fence and hear their dog bash into the fence...so lots of vet bills..luckily she only had a few not to serious puncture wounds...lots of bruising but no broken bones...but was expensive for her....also her cat obviously freaked out attacked the other cat which freaked out and attacked my other DD small dog so it was a hellish few minutes trying to get everything calmed down but they are all doing pretty good now.

We have 1 DD away on holiday and 1 house sitting so the house is very clean, quiet and we aren't spending much on food or anything...so that is great.

I have finally been able to make appointments with a neurologist, my ENT specialist (again) and a opthamologist they sent me to the hospital and when I rang they said it was a 2-3 year wait list and I asked if they knew any private ones and she gave me a number and I get in november....yes it will cost me more...a lot more but not waiting on my sight for 2-3 years could be blind by then....so until those appointments it is living day to day and hoping someone gets some answers.

So going to rejig the budget and hopefully be able to cover them all and not use up all our savings...

had some big expenses yesterday the car was serviced and needed some new parts we thought it might (its a 2005) so getting old so it end up costing us $880 and then hubby went and got me a laptop once he finishes transfering all the data then we will sell my desk top and hopefully recoup a few dollars.

hopefully no more big expenses and I can at least be over the $2000 mark by end of month

It was time to renew our contract for gas/elec and we have been with the same people for years (they are competitive priced) and managed to get our elec savings rate from 18% to 21% (paid on time) so more savings there...and yes we always pay our bills on time..they are budgeted for...also paid another years worth of contents insurance budgeted $800 but it was only $640 so can keep the rest in our bills account which means adding a little less next year.

Haven't needed much for groceries but hubby had grocery money left over so we stockpiled a few things that were on sale and we are doing okay this week so should hopefully have some left over.

Haven't really spent much money this month other than 2 dvds (with my illness I spend a lot of time in bed so I have dvds...lots of them) and we are getting the car serviced tomorrow but other than that not much else we do need to work on the car a bit my mom literally broke the passenger handle off the door...so need to get that fixed.

next week one child is off on a 2 week holiday with friends and the other is house sitting so hubby and I will have the house to ourselves....will be so nice...don't get that very often.

It was time to renew our contract for gas/elec and we have been with the same people for years (they are competitive priced) and managed to get our elec savings rate from 18% to 21% (paid on time) so more savings there...and yes we always pay our bills on time..they are budgeted for...also paid another years worth of contents insurance budgeted $800 but it was only $640 so can keep the rest in our bills account which means adding a little less next year.

Haven't needed much for groceries but hubby had grocery money left over so we stockpiled a few things that were on sale and we are doing okay this week so should hopefully have some left over.

Haven't really spent much money this month other than 2 dvds (with my illness I spend a lot of time in bed so I have dvds...lots of them) and we are getting the car serviced tomorrow but other than that not much else we do need to work on the car a bit my mom literally broke the passenger handle off the door...so need to get that fixed.

next week one child is off on a 2 week holiday with friends and the other is house sitting so hubby and I will have the house to ourselves....will be so nice...don't get that very often.

Who doesn't love pay week...I do!!

I can't wait till pay our regular bills and add the rest to savings, hoping by end of month to have between $2000 - $2500...we currently sit at $611.56, I have a visual board that I have drawn up so I can mark off how well our savings is...so each day we walk past and it encourages us to save what we can for our house deposit.

Also made $30 from selling some stuff online this weekend, have more to put up just haven't got around to it yet...not sure what I am doing with it yet so sitting in the safe till I decide.

I had ordered something online that was back ordered so emailed to ask when it would be sent (as I forgot) they said shipment was late and sent me $20 for waiting a bit longer so that we back into savings...no hurry it is for christmas.

Feeling good but I know we have to spend some money on the garden vegies we just haven't got that far yet....but hopefully this week

Some nice weather so hopefully can get the shed sorted a bit more and post some more things for sale.

So I have been going over our barefoot investor book (I love his advice) and looking at where we can save more money again...have been a bit off this year due to specialists (have a couple more to go) but we are wanting to buy a house in a couple years and we are looking at 15-20% deposit.

so I am going to look at butchers that have bulk buys in our area, we have a couple insurances that are coming up in nov so will look around and see if we can get a better deal from the one we are with or another one...looking at trying to save money on food as we spend a lot but we don't go over...still have some work to do and some research to see what else we can do, going to try make our own jam this year and still on track to grow, dry and/or freeze our vegies...WANT to bring our spending down and our savings up more...cutting back on christmas next year...not that we go overboard but think we can do better.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Well we have had a bad winter with a chesty cough and sickness which we have had for 7 weeks..not good for my hubby who has copd...had to spend money on medication and a vapouriser but we had no choice...hopefully it will start working...haven't really been buying a lot of groceries but we have had some chilli and chicken noodle soup in the freezer which has helped us a lot when we need to eat but don't feel like cooking much...

Finally got our dishwasher fixed, it didn't cost anything as it was under warranty.

My doc doesn't know what else to do for me so is waiting to see what my 2 specialist say when I see them...1 in nov and still waiting for an appt for the other one...then we will see what happens...if anything.

The weather is warming up a little so have been outside a bit more...hoping we can start feeling healthier and finish up planting our spring vegies...we have some in but not a lot...and nothing better than fresh vegies from the garden.

Savings has taken a bit of a beating in last week so way off our target but hopefully will get there next month

So over the last couple of months we have spend a couple thousand dollars on specialists to try find out what is going on with my health. The first one said it was vestibular migraines...so my ENT sent me for the balance tests...they are saying there is no vestibular issues...I have an appointment with a neurologist in nov not sure what they think they will find as there is nothing showing up on the MRI...so looks like all that I have done in the last couple months has resulted in zero info...a bit annoyed as I have never been this sick in my life and nothing is showing up or they just aren't finding anything...all docs agree something is wrong just by looking at me but they just don't know what...so do I keep paying for tests or just save the money...such a hard choice right now...but I try to remain positive and figure even though they haven't figured out what is wrong yet...they have ruled something else out...what else can you do?

So going to talk to my doc in a couple weeks and see what she says whether or not to continue paying out money on tests or just deal with this till it passes or kills me!!

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

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.

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?