As B got paid the other day, and I got paid today, I knew we would be ok to not have to watch every cent this weekend, so I decided to transfer the rest of the Banking the Difference from last week's bill payments, which was the savings on the phone bills - $88.02 for B, and $11.96 for the home phone.

Banking the Difference has now hit just over $2K ($2,004.63 to be exact), which is pretty awesome. Now along with the 52 week challenge money that will become $7.5K ($7,516.63 to be exact). Who would think that just by making a few simple changes there would be such an awesome payoff. I'm so thankful I stumbled upon this site and have you guys to share my experience, cheer me on and inspire me!

As we've really been watching what we spend down to the very last dollar for the last few weeks, this weekend I'm having a mini-celebration. I'm also having a mini-celebration because tomorrow is the 15th of May, our big deadline for work, and this year we sailed through it. Work has become so quiet (I have still have various jobs to do though so I'm not twiddling my thumbs or anything) for before 15 May - this time last year we had to work back every day and it was so busy that as soon as you walked in the door at work your head was stuck in whatever you were doing until you went home - no time for thinking about anything to do with the outside world. So to have everything done on time is really great and such a relief.

I got some nice wine (for more than the usual $6 a bottle - I got nice NZ Sauvignon Blanc for $14 a bottle, $10 a bottle and one other cheap bottle for $4), and I plan on getting Nespresso pods instead of pods from the supermarket. We don't really have any big expenses such as birthdays this weekend so I'm not bothered if we spend a bit more here or there as long as it's within range. Also thinking of making pancakes for breakfast and spinach & ricotta pasta roll-ups for Saturday night dinner.

I also transferred $1303 onto my credit card - $20 banking the difference and $1283 course fees for the latest subject, which starts June 1. I will then be back to working a fulltime work and doing 10 hours of study per week, so am currently looking at ways to structure my time better. I didn't do too badly last time, but time management is crucial with these things, so you have to keep on top of it and not get burnt out, or it will become too much for you.

Don't really have any plans this week other than visiting my sister with my mother for lunch - I usually spend around $20 on these outings and have a lovely time.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

We managed to get through the weekend on $304 - just, but still did it. Our shopping was amazingly $121 including food for entertaining- it's B's turn to host his poker night, so he made meatballs & risoni for 8. For Mother's Day for the inlaws we had to bring a dessert so I made a double batch of white chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate ganache (one for inlaws do, one for poker do).

Mother's Day gift was $48 for inlaws, mine = $0. My mother has increasingly distanced herself from us and tolerates these occasions. But... I had the inlaws do & accidentally booked a get together with a friend so wasn't enthused about also seeing someone who really doesn't care about it. So I texted her asking does she want me to see her & I know it's not really her thing so I'll let her choose. Her response was father day doesn't exist here anymore (he died years ago) so let's pass this day onto the next generation (my sister had a baby last December). I wasn't expecting that! I was expecting doesn't bother me it's fine, not let's delete this day forever.

So I don't even know why I'm upset but I am. Of course I went on Facebook to rub salt in the wound because every single person it felt like was having an awesome day while my mother was just being a cold so-and-so. Grrr. But the rational side of me is winning. (And a day has passed) She is different now to what she was. That was then, and this is now. These things don't interest her. Family doesn't interest her. It's best to just accept it and try to let go of any negative feelings. Not everybody has the ideal family, and that's life.

Anyway, moving on from that.

A couple of good things. I caught up with an old friend last night who I hadn't seen in 6 months and we had so much to talk about! And still share lots of common interests which is really great! We are aiming to catch up again in the last week of May (unfortunately as well as having lots of common interests, we are both really slack with social arrangements), hopefully it will all work out. She has just moved 5 minutes drive away from me, and is sharing a beautiful house with a friend.

And the final good thing - my football team St Kilda won their third game for the year! By 7 points, so I sent $7 to the EF (So far the points has been 101 + 28 + now 7), and have added it to Banking The Difference challenge.

We had to pay for the 52 week challenge out of our buffer in the account (non-EF), there is now $141.20 there - not good. We are hoping B will receive money this week but I am preparing myself for a possible withdrawal from the EF (which will be as little as possible).

I have to withdraw money from the EF anyway to pay for a subject for my accounting degree, booking closes on the 20th. My work pays me bonuses which I use to pay for the subjects. So I will have to withdraw $1000 but then (unless things change for the first time ever) next month I will get the bonus and put it back in the account.

It was bill paying day today, but the outcome wasn't as great as what I would like. It is our third week of living off $567 less business expenses but unfortunately B filled up on petrol at the start of the week and the end of the week, so we had to pay for two tanks of petrol plus a couple of minor purchases he made (McDonalds was one of them). $265 later and we were left with $304 (ok there was $569 in the bank) for the week, which is possibly doable.

Then it was time to pay bills - water $278.85, B's mobile $119.97 and the home phone $105.79. Total savings on these plus the business insurance added up to just over $151. But then I knew that the bills account would be cleared out pretty much completely if I transferred the $151, and the savings account is paying for the 52 week challenge money so don't want to touch that.

Sooo... I decided the safest option would be to bank the difference for a couple of bills. To make it easier I simply picked the bills paid/due from between 1st & 6th May, which was the business insurance ($9.68 savings, deducted on the 1st) and the water bill savings ($41.95, the bill due date was the 1st - oops).

Total deposit this week for banking the difference was $51.63. Not the same as $151, but as the title states, to save some is better than none at all. Maybe we will get paid next week and then I can save the rest, who knows.

On the upside we are now below $8k combined credit card debt after making those deposits, which is good to see.

Looking like another cheap weekend on the horizon with the exception of Mother's Day for two parents, we will need to get some sort of presents, hoping to spend about $30 each and get a decent present.

I checked our combined credit card debt just now after the 52 week challenge payments got paid as I knew it was hovering around $8K (when we started the challenges in mid-January it was $9.1K) and as of now it is $8,001.56.

So close to being under $8K! At least next time we have to make a deposit it will be under $8K then. Progress is a beautiful thing.

In other news we received 2 possibly 3 snowflakes today. A cheque from our old car insurance for the overpaid portion on my car for the amount of $84.48 (or thereabouts- it's $84 something anyway). I received a Priceline cheque for $3.87. And Priceline have given me an offer of $10 off my normal foundation (this is a possible snowflake as they had this offer last quarter too but were sold out so I couldn't get it before the offer expired). Will update the snowflakes properly when they are actually banked/used.

Last weekend was week 15, and now in one section, the EF, we have hit triple digits! Progress is a beautiful thing

Last weekend was the first of three weeks where we really have to watch our money, because of B's uncertainty of when he'll get paid next- they're saying three weeks so we'll budget for that.

I prepaid over the interest to his card and then it wasn't charged (still on $0, yay). I normally would have counted it as a snowflake but he bought petrol for work at $96, so leaving off the $62 received, we had to pay $34. (So we had a $567 less $34). So this weekend our money situation was semi-normal really. Missed out on a snowflake, and while we couldn't afford the party savings, we still made the 52 week challenge (which to me is crucial, as we need to build up savings and reduce debt). Have to pay some bills next week and there is enough in that account to make the banking the difference deposit (estimated at $143), so as long I can do that, that's good.

We had a quiet weekend, saw a movie called "The Longest Ride" which was a really sweet movie (directed by the director of "The Notebook" and "Dear John"). With groceries, spent our old spend of $170, but part of that was dogworming tablets and we just seemed to run out of a few things this week. Looking over the month, we haven't actually spent that much on groceries because we were away the first week of April and then my birthday was the second week (we had lots of left over food that week).

I have been spending all month jotting down the things I spend and how long it takes to earn each thing as an exercise in money mindfulness. A few things I can tell you is, with both the challenges combined, have managed to save 11.7% of my pay (or 18 hours that I worked within the month). I was aiming for 20% but after the last couple of weeks, it's not possible.

It's really made me evaluate what I spend on though. I don't feel like it's made me not want to spend but rather aim for a few quality things, here and there. I guess I can tell you, the bills portion - housing, insurances, bills, door lock repair to car, dentist visit and insurance savings amounted to 45% of my pay.

I saved $10 on petrol because I filled up once at the second week of the month, for $50 instead of $20 each week simply because I couldn't be bothered updating my notes! They do say that if you fill up once instead of small amounts here and there your fuel does last longer, and I found that it is true.

As I started this exercise in the second week of the month it's not totally accurate. I'm great with tracking expenses most of the time but whenever we go on holiday, I am officially on holiday. No updating finances - the bills get paid before we go, we have some money to spend and what it gets spent on I don't note down because I'm on holiday and relaxing is my priority.

But I found that this exercise is great for helping me live within my means, and to appreciate what I earn and what we can afford.

On another note, B got told about a job opening as a Building Supervisor for a new homes construction company, so we did an application letter for it and sent it with his resume. He thinks it would be a good idea because of the physical toll carpentry takes on the body, he could have a point there. If he's happy, I'm happy, so hopefully he gets it.

Also, last week I had to go over B's tax and work out how much he's earned from 1 July - 31 March, and he came in at $30,814 with $2396 tax payable. As we've paid just over $2400 for the year, there are no problems with not having paid/saved enough. I wanted him to make $40k, and I think he would just squeeze through, if he's lucky. (Of course if he gets a job, we won't have to worry about this anymore)

Our finances have been travelling pretty well, so lately I've been feeling that maybe I don't need to have blog label "trying to survive the rollercoaster ride of my finances"... and then I'm reminded why I have that label up there.

1) to remind me that my husband's work is seasonal, so when savings get to a certain point not to get too complacent, because there are three months of the year where work is hard to come by and savings are needed.
2) because he's self-employed there can be big ups and downs.

Right now we're dealing with a sucky small business problem. Hopefully it will be short-lived, and expenses will not balloon out in this time.

He's been lucky enough to work for about 12-18 months (somewhere in that area) for pretty much one guy at a new homes company. The company pays weekly-fortnightly (some of B's jobs take longer than a week, which is the reason why I say weekly-fortnightly) and we've never had a problem with them.

But.... the guy changed jobs. (as these things happen)He told B that he wants B to do his jobs for him because he loves the quality of B's work (he's a great carpenter), and there will be so much work he should have 1, maybe 2 apprentices. We were talking about getting an apprentice but we're still slowly getting back on our feet after him being out of work so long. So we said we'd think about getting 1, but as we are being conservative, nothing has come of this. (We don't want to hire staff until we know for sure that there is enough work for them, otherwise we wouldn't be able to afford it).

So he changed about a week ago, and B just started working for him at his new job this week. B finds out that they pay fortnightly too, but there is a waiting period first of a week, so you are looking at receiving money in 3 weeks (not great). Day 2 of working there (today) and the other carpenter for this company, who happens to be related- it's a family owned company, finds out the supervisor has got somebody outside of the company doing carpentry work and completely cracked it. As he is family and has six employees, the new supervisor had to apologise and state that B will only be doing one job for him, he will use the family-owned carpenter now.

Lucky we didn't hire someone!

So he is looking at one week of work, which will be paid in 3 weeks, and the previous company he was working for do have work for him (luckily) but not for a couple of weeks. UGH.

The four months of no work taught me what rock bottom is for us financially, so I know what we can function on. We should be ok. But we are both on the same page (discussions have been had), that we don't have a lot of money to spend. That way if we really need something we can dip into the EF, but it's a last resort.

We have three weeks of $567 per week to live off including business expenses (where it gets dicey- B's car can cost $100 a week to fill if he gets a full week of work).

I saved $149 to the mortgage, as the difference between old and new mortgage, and the monthly insurance savings. I updated Banking the Difference, but I'm guessing that's my last snowflake for 3 weeks or so.

Wish us luck to make it through the next few weeks with little out of the ordinary expenses guys!

As always, the 52 week challenge debits got paid. I was a bit busy during the week so didn't get around to paying bills until just now (I usually do this Wed/Thursday).

This week's bill savings were $133.27, from the following places:
- business insurance $9.68
- my phone $55.45 (thank you $30 plan!)
- animal registrations $7.50 (our cat has a reduced fee to due to her age now- lower price for animals over 10 years old)
- train ticket savings $60.64

Other stuff that went on:

I went to the dentist for the first time in 4 years, due to a chip on one of my fillings. Amazingly, that was my only problem (I'm strict with brushing, flossing & mouthwash). So a clean, polish & filling patch up was $270. I'm pretty happy that there was only 10 minutes of physical pain and, while $270 sounds a lot, over 4 years it works out to $67.50 per year. Not bad.

We are starting to plan B's 40th, which is 4 months away, and saved our first $100 towards it. While we're not sure how many people will be there, we do want to pay for food and alcohol. (We're not sure what type as yet though, that is negotiable)

We had some friends over from dinner last night that we hadn't seen since January, so was a lovely catch-up. We decided to do a last BBQ of the season. All up $60, however we put leftover meat in the freezer and are eating salads again tonight.

Today I went for a swim first thing, then went to the shops and spent some of my birthday vouchers- I got a pair of winter pajamas for $20, and my friends got me a Rebel sport voucher worth $150, so I got a nice tracksuit worth $130. Was great spending money that wasn't my own for once! (or our own I should say)

Then we went "camping shopping" eg getting things for our camper trailer. Today we ended up replacing my broken chair. We got a good chair worth $140 for $70, which I was very happy with.... If you are sitting around a campfire all night, a good chair is something that is money well spent. This chair is fairly straight with padding, I think it's a bit better for your back.

Food shopping wasn't too too bad at $120, however I pretty much got the bare minimum. Tonight we are having steak & salad, tomorrow ham, cheese & mushroom omelette, Tuesday pork & vegies, Wednesday & Thursday meatballs with tomato risoni (new meal, however looks like I can stretch to 2 nights).

Time to cook tea & then catch on blogs. Hope y'all had a lovely weekend!

Today it is exactly 3 months since I started the challenges, so it's time to note down the progress for a quarter of the year!

For month 3 of the 52 week challenge, approximately $1,381.00 has been saved/repaid against the various places.

For month 3 of the Banking The Difference challenge approximately $1,563.75 has been saved/repaid against the various places.

For both a total of $2,944.75 has been saved/repaid. Total current goal $5512 + $1,563.75 = $7,075.75. This makes progress of having saved 41.62% of the total goal (if there was no more banking the difference for the rest of the year and we just stuck to the 52 week challenge).

The result so far for each account / card is:
EF = $1,545.23 saved
CC 1 = $462.96 repaid
CC 2 = $489.56 repaid
Mortgage = $447 saved

It's great to see some results, now it's just a matter of not getting too complacent. It still looks like we kind of have a mini-EF now which is good. Credit card debt at the start of the challenge was $9.1k and is now just under $8.2k, so is moving further away from the $10k mark (which to me is scary). Mortgage $127k (we'll tackle the savings and credit card debt first).

Week 13 of the challenges has been a huge week. Not so much for the challenges, but more because tomorrow is my birthday and we have been celebrating all weekend. Currently we're winding down in preparation for the work week, so I thought I'd create an entry while we have some downtime.

Of the 52wk challenges, the EF is now creeping up to $1000, will be nice when it hits it!

Of the banking the difference challenge, my team St Kilda won the football by 28 points, so $28 will be transferred to the EF. Yay!

After Easter, a heavy workload at work and going out to our niece's birthday on Thursday night, I was glad that I thought ahead and decided that this birthday would be a quiet one. When we have parties with all our families, mine & B's, a birthday celebration becomes not only expensive but a lot of work. Before Easter I decided that as my birthday is not a special year, all I want to do is go out with my friends on Saturday night, and have my family over for afternoon tea on Sunday. B also came out with my friends, amazingly he was ok with being the only male, was very proud of him.

For my friends I decided to do nibbles platters plus put on some frozen food (mini-quiches, sausage rolls, spring rolls etc), and for my family, nibbles platters. So I decided when shopping to look for buy 2 get discounts deals. For celebrations I buy mostly brand name food. It's a celebration so I allow leeway in the budget to enjoy the nicer things. $111 in total, $10 was for grocery items however. Didn't have cash or money in checking, so used CC & need to repay tomorrow when I log into Internet banking.

Got my hair done, this was $95, paid cash.

Bought petrol & am hoping to stretch this for 3 weeks (fingers crossed), $50, which needs to be repaid back to CC.
Bought alcohol & am hoping to stretch that to 3 weeks too, $47.48, this needs to be repaid back to CC too.

So in total, I need to transfer back $209 back to CC tomorrow (rounded it up slightly), and $28 to EF.

We didn't go out until 10.30 so only had a few drinks, $65 was spent.

Had such a lovely time with friends and family! I'm glad that I decided not to do anything huge, because I had a great time, am relaxed and feel like I'm glowing! I love the people in my world

It was a happy time tonight, where I got to pay bills and there were savings galore! It was time to pay the phone bills for B & for home. B's phone bill was the big saving because the new plan has officially kicked in, there was a saving of $88.02 there, and the home phone had a saving of $12.71 (only because I am now in the habit of paying on time, thus avoiding their exorbitant $15 late fee), so total banking the difference deposit today was $100.73. I forgot to add the business insurance savings of $9.68, will need to do that next time.

I notice that Banking the Difference has now clicked over to $1,535.75 so adding that to the $5,512 52 week challenge money, I am now anticipating by mid-January $7,047.75! We've just clicked over into the $7k zone now, happy times

But to bring the happy times down a notch, we had a kind of expensive day today. Hubby found out the whipper snipper was broken and since we have had it since we moved in 14 years ago, the part needed to fix it is no longer available. $190 for a new whipper snipper. Then I noticed that my car central locking has been making a weird noise so when B went to look at it, he found that the driver side passenger door lock is broken. This is the fourth time we have this lock problem, it happens on various doors. B knows how to fix it which is good, but parts will be around $150.

So some great things, some speedbumps. We can afford the whipper snipper and door lock, so there is not much stress there. They are just things which need attending to.

I also got a rewards card in the mail for Safeway/Woolworths (supermarket). As I have credit card debt, I am not interested in a rewards credit card until the debt is paid off, but I see no harm in earning rewards from supermarket shopping (this is not a credit card at all). I also got a Dan Murphys rewards card, and I am still using my Priceline rewards card (I get about $5 a quarter, but I would shop there anyway so enjoy receiving the money).

I wanted to see my credit card owing $4999, out of the $5+ region, by March 31, to see a bit of progress. I made the $29 deposit required to do so (this has been added to the Banking the Difference challenge) but because we had a really expensive week it was a struggle to pay it.

With buying things for Easter plus a birthday plus big night out, we overspent. I'm not going to feel guilty about overspending because we've been good otherwise. We have a savings account with about 2 weeks bare necessities money in case B doesn't get paid, so we paid the overspent amount plus the $29 from there. (There's now $290 there so will need to go back to topping it up).

But- it was really nice to see $4999! I feel like that's a big accomplishment and that this debt will be going downhill from there.

On another note, work is crazy busy. I did something rare and took work home. (Really needed to). Had a problem and realised I'd need to spend some time reconciling, which I don't really have at work. I need to do some iPad updates etc so will spend some time on this job while it's happening. (And if I find the problem, it's one less stress in a stressful day).

Onward and upwards

Once again, typed up an entry, clicked "Save and Publish" and the damn thing disappeared into thin air! Ugh.

Take 2: the 52 week challenge amounts have been paid into various places (yay). Banking the Difference was not found in bill payments as such, but the difference in the mortgage repayment ($149 as per previous month), so that got sent to mortgage offset account. A bit under $500 sitting there now.

The other Banking the Diff saving turned out to be our credit card interest expense. I treat the interest expense as a bill and prepay the interest I think will be charged ($60 per card). My interest came in at around $55, so $5 saving there. B's card was the big saving with $0 interest charged! Not sure why. We swapped over the card to a low rate in Dec/Jan, and it says on the banking website 3 months interest free for cards opened between Feb & May. Who knows, maybe we got the deal too? I'm counting it as a snowflake and adding to the challenge.

As a result, B's card is doing great. I wanted it to be $3299 by March 31, it is that now (actually a bit under) so no extra repayment required there. My card will still need $29 transferred on Monday to meet my wish of seeing $4999 owing on March 31.

Hoping you all have a lovely weekend!!!

Well we got B's car serviced and looked at after the electrics failed for the second time. They couldn't give an explanation why it happened but it was time to adjust the V-drive belt (like a timing belt I guess). $450 it all came to, so we knew it would be more this time so we're ok with that.

My car insurance bill came in last week- payable April 7. My car's now 12yrs old so when the insurance was higher than last year (only by $20 but it is the principle- the car is ageing and dropping in value, so really should insurance be going up?) B decided to shop around. While I deal with the financial side of things, B deals with anything to do with the cars.

So he called up another company and looked into prices for both of our policies. Because it is our first time with this company they offered a 15% discount for both cars. The net result works out to be $333 less than what we normally pay, so we agreed to move over to them. The only thing is they are all due and payable in full so we are getting $2142 withdrawn from our accounts today.....

I looked at our finances the night before and realised we can do afford to do it. Need to slow down the outpouring of money after this though!

While it is a lot of money (thank goodness for high season!) it solves a continuing problem we have. My car is generally $700-$800 which we usually pay outright. B's car being newer however (4yrs old this yr) is generally around $1300-$1500 which is too much for us to pay outright so then we have to resort to direct debit monthly which incurs an $145 administration fee (highway robbery).

Even though we have saved money I'm not going to count this in Banking the Difference (I think we have outlaid enough at the moment), but instead starting next month I will save a monthly instalment (what we just paid divided by 12) into our mortgage offset account. So one year later we will have the full insurance amount and goodbye sky high direct debit fees, hello mortgage interest reduction!

Another week, another round of bills to pay.

Had to get the monthly train ticket, plus pay the electricity and my cell phone bill. Savings on all three totalled $115.95, as below:

Train ticket savings $45.00
Electricity bill savings $29.37
Cell phone bill savings $41.58

Loving how the train zoning changed and I see that drop every month! The electricity bill saving is nice and so is the cell phone bill savings- and I barely notice any difference between the previous "superior" provider and my $30 provider. The internet is not so wonderful occasionally, that is the only difference. It's mostly fine.

Month 2 actually finished two days ago but I guess I've been busy and had other things on my mind. Now there's lot of money things to do, so need to get on it.

For month 2 of the 52 week challenge, approximately $957.00 has been saved/repaid against the various places.

For month 2 of the Banking The Difference challenge approximately $1,074.53 has been saved/repaid against the various places.

For both a total of $2,048.53 has been saved/repaid. Total current goal $5512 + $1,074.53 = $6,586.63. This makes progress of having saved 31.10% of the total goal.

The result so far for each account / card is:
EF = $1,087.97 saved
CC 1 = $301.78 repaid
CC 2 = $343.78 repaid
Mortgage = $298 saved

It's great to see some results! It looks like we kind of have a mini-EF now which is good. Credit card debt at the start of the challenge was $9.1k and is now just under $8.5k. Mortgage $127k (we'll tackle the savings and credit card debt first).

We're back from our short cruise holiday/friend's wedding! We had fun, it was a very nice trip and we'll have many good memories for years to come because these are friends that we don't normally go away with. Would we go away on a cruise again? Probably would not rush to. I got motion sickness which was unpleasant for a short period of time.

As I can speak anonymously, we had an interesting situation. It was a destination wedding so we had to obviously pay our own cruise fares, flights, etc. I was happy to because the concept of going on a short cruise with my friends interested me. My boss said "you know they would have got the wedding for free right?" (I don't care if they did and I'm happy they got upgraded to a suite with a balcony) My friend said "don't be surprised if they don't pay for the wedding meal or drinks", which I replied "I don't think they would do that"- well there were no prices on the meal menu so we thought it was paid for like a typical wedding do so when we went to order drinks the waiter turned around and said "cruise card please" (you put money onto a card issued by them as a form of monetary denomination). We found out we had to pay for our own drinks for the wedding meal and the only reason our meal was free was because it was incorporated into the cruise fare! I'm all for saving money but to me this was beyond stingy, especially as everyone would have paid minimum $500 to go to the wedding! Rant over. What are your thoughts on the matter?

The 52 wk challenge debits came out as normal and we put money on B's credit card to pay for items on holiday and when we got back the challenge money was there plus $149 extra so I am calling that a snowflake and have added it to banking the difference challenge. My team also won by 50 points last weekend so that was a big win and therefore threw $50 over to the EF. Banking The Difference challenge now has hit over $1K, woohoo!

Had to pay bills again before next week (the phone companies charge late fees of $15.00 per bill and I forgot to pay on time last month so was *not* doing that again, $30.00 is a lot of money to pay for such a stupid thing) and sort out the bank accounts so there is enough money in each one. This time paid B's phone and the home phone - no saving from the home phone but big savings on B's- $62.78. Plus there was also $9.68 saved on his business insurance so added that to the challenge too, so a total of $72.46.

The bank accounts are now getting to the lowish sort of place (as happens with us between about the 5th & 15th of each month), so it might be a good thing that no more bills are required to be paid for a couple of weeks. However we got our electricity bill in the mail today, there will be a $30.00 saving when we have to pay it around the 20th - yay!

So far anticipated savings by mid-Jan next year are 52 week challenge $5512 + Banking the Difference $874.96 = $6,386.96.

Our mortgage came out today (instead of in February we are having two withdrawals in March? Usually it's the 28th of every month? Anyway) so there was a saving of $149 compared to this time last year, so sent that straight to the mortgage.

I also received a snowflake of $37.05 into the EF account courtesy of a Medicare rebate (government rebate from the doctor's fee), so added that to the challenge.

I actually want to do a variation of the Banking the Difference challenge too. Imasaver gave me this idea from when her football team The Braves wins she deposits to her challenge then. Australian football has just started this week, which runs to August-September (August if the team is unlucky and doesn't get into finals, September if they do get into finals). My team, St Kilda, is a pretty on-off team. They have had some spectacular years and some miserable years. While I might not be an avid football follower, they will always be my team. My variation is $1 per point they win by goes to the EF (we will see how this goes! they finished bottom of the ladder last year). Last weekend they lost by 3 points so no addition to the EF then.

Our low-spend week ended up being us overspending by $20, which while not being wonderful is a definite improvement on the last two weeks. B wanted some alcohol for his poker game, which turned into me getting some too, which caused the blow-out (can never resist good sav blanc!).

This month we go away on a short cruise for my friend's wedding. The cruise got booked and mostly paid for before B broke his wrist which is why we decided to still go. We knew if we didn't go we would have lost the $540 we paid on plane fares which really wasn't a nice thought. It's going to be our last holiday for a while, really excited about it. It also works out well that B is doing so well at the moment now that we don't have any money stresses from his business. Now to just get through the pre-holiday stresses of getting everything organised!

It's bill-paying day today so had to pay B's motorbike registration, council rates & my phone bill. The motorbike registration is new from last year, the council rates have increased but my phone has decreased. For some reason the phone company when I set up the phone insisted on my bank details in case I don't pay the bill in two weeks. I paid by the due date and yet they also took out a payment. (I paid $26.13 and they deducted $26.13). This was last month. This month I got a phone bill for wait for it - $3.87!!! I know really it's not that exciting because it's an overpayment from last month in actual fact. They didn't direct debit it this time which I am happy about. I don't have a lot of time to call call centres so was not looking forward to it.

Anyway the $150.13 savings consists of:
- House insurance saving compared to last yr $8.70
- Car insurance repayment we're not making at the moment (but need to save for) $90.24
- Phone savings compared to last year $51.19

I had to check the bank account to make sure that I can do all these banking the difference amounts & pay our automatic debits (still have $149 on mortgage expected to go), but the balance is fine, can do them.

So now expected savings by mid-January next year = 52 wk challenge $5512 + Banking the Difference $616.45 = $6,128.45. Over $6000! Exciting

I had to pay our phone bills today and there were no savings there (B's mobile had a saving of $5 while the home phone had an increase of $5), however it is also time to buy my monthly train ticket.

The monthly train ticket went down from $190 per month to $130 per month as of 1 January 2015 so there will always be savings there, but when I compared February 2014 $290 to February 2015 $155 there is a saving of $135.00 there. (Last year our weather was really hot so I drove to work a few times and parking is expensive). So I sent over the $135.00 to the various places (sidebar updated).

I think I can see a couple more saving opportunities for the month- car insurance, my cellphone and our mortgage repayments, but will do these deposits as the bill payments get made. Who knew paying bills could be so much fun!

The fifth week of the 52 week challenge came out on Friday but rather than update on the weekend I really wanted to wait until exactly 1 month from the challenges start date, which was January 16th.

For month 1 of the 52 week challenge, approximately $533.00 has been saved/repaid against the various places.

For month 1 of the Banking The Difference challenge approximately $331.32 has been saved/repaid against the various places.

For both a total of $864.32 has been saved/repaid. Total current goal $5512 + $331.32 = $5843.32. This makes progress of having saved 14.79% of the total goal.

The result so far for each account / card is:
EF = $478 saved
CC 1 = $145.46 repaid
CC 2 = $92.60 repaid
Mortgage = $149 saved

This has been a good month and we are in the better times of the year. (October-December is never good for example) I'm pretty happy with the result, it's nice to have a little bit saved away.

Our debits for 52 week challenge came out on Friday, this is now Week 4 (yay!). Sidebar is updated and next week will have saved/repaid over $100 on 2 out of 3 items. Getting there.

I received onFriday a $50.32 snowflake which was a credit from my old phone company for an overpayment (I paid the bill, then 2 days later got the final bill showing a credit of $50.32 but as it got paid in full I needed a refund). Amazingly the phone company did it within 2 days which was really good service for a now ex-customer!

I sent this over to Banking The Difference challenge in various places, sidebar is updated.

Now looking at $5512 52 wk challenge + $331.32 = $5843.32 anticipated savings at end of challenges.

I'm looking forward to recording at exactly 1 month from the start dates of the challenges exactly how much has been saved and how far along we are

Had to pay the water bill and hubby's business insurance was deducted, the savings from both added up to $12.00, so added it to Banking The Difference (sidebar is updated).

Total for year now $281, plus anticipated 52wk challenge of $5512 = $5793.

I was going to bank the difference from grocery shopping but am finding that because we are already saving the 52 week challenge from our spending money, it is hard to save much more from there. If we have money left over from there it goes towards maintaining things which is another form of saving anyway.
However I compared what we paid in bills exactly 1 year ago to now (January 2014 compared to January 2015) and thought that banking the difference from there might be a good idea.
I had to pay our phone bills and gas bill and found that the savings there were $30.00.
I also noted that last year we were paying $90 per month for my car insurance. In April it fell due and because it dropped so much we could afford to pay for it outright (saving us from having to pay the $80.00 direct debit charge). I thought as it is due again in April it would be a good idea to save that money aside too.

So my first banking the difference deposit is $120.00.

To add that to the 52 week challenge would be $5,632.00 we would save by the middle of January next year.