My husband B is self-employed so it is important to keep up to date with his tax Withholdings in order to avoid being in a world of financial pain when it's time to lodge the tax return!

We had money problems while he was off work but now he is back working and we are recovering, he has a lot of work at the moment.

Now that we have money again a friend has offered to sell him a camper trailer for $2000 which is in pretty good condition and would be a valuable purchase for us, we would get a lot of use out of it. I told him I would let him know this week if we are able to get it.

The Australian tax year starts on July 1 and ends June 30. The way I look at his tax is to pay instalments towards his tax as the government advises for the first half of the year, and then between months 6 & 8 start looking at his profit & loss to see have we paid enough tax? If not, we have a few months to get things back in order by year end. (If he was making way more money than usual I would be checking earlier).

So I had the family banker hat on this week and have found that he is doing ok. He hasn't earned much this year ($27000 so far), tax payable is $1300, tax we have paid is $1700. So it works out I have over saved for tax so we can use that money to buy the camper trailer. It's nice to know that we're on track and won't get any nasty surprises in the form of big tax bills. Really hoping B will make a taxable income of over $40000 by year end (which will be an improvement on the $37000 he earned the year before).

Oh, and once I start checking at months 6-8, I continually check at the end of each month to keep a clear picture of where he's at. (As a salaried employee I don't need to do this for myself, there's not a lot to report and tax is withheld at the right level).

Meal Plan:
Sunday: curried sausages w/ mashed potato (double batch made from scratch)
Monday: sandwich steak & veggies
Tuesday: the other half of the curried sausages
Wednesday: pork chops & veggies
Thursday: out to dinner

The week started off quiet. Then I had to go to the doctor for a routine test. Will be $70. We planned to go out for Valentine's Day and still want to. SIL's birthday on Valentine's Day so we have chosen to go out Thursday, have an early Valentine's Day. Then SIL's birthday became a double birthday (a cousin born on same day) and out for dinner too. Then there is another birthday that we got invited to in the daytime.

Then we found a skintag on our dog which needs to be looked at by the vet. Oh and I'm getting my hair done too!

A quiet week turned into two medical appointments, a triple birthday, two dinners out and me getting my hair done! Wow. I try to plan ahead as much as I can but sometimes it doesn't matter how much you plan, there'll be a curveball or three.

The thing which is stopping me from worrying is knowing that we put money aside for my hair and Valentine's Day dinner (we're now just going out for a cheap pizza dinner) and we have a quiet week the week after. Really hoping that the dog will be ok and not cost too much.

My hubby has been feeling the damage of the holiday season. Too much alcohol, plus weight gain. I nearly fell over last night when he suggested doing a FebFast (he likes beer).

Do you guys have that where you are? It's spending the month of February sober. You actually enter in a fundraiser and get people to sponsor you (we have FebFast, DryJuly and OcSober). We're not entering just planning to abstain for the month.

I call it semi because I had a glass of wine last night. Last glass & not planning to buy anymore. I looked at our weekly spend on alcohol and decided we could use that money to go to the movies Saturday night instead. At the moment thinking it be a good thing to do and looking forward to going to the movies instead

We both got paid & since it had been a while since we received any money, we treated ourselves. We spent roughly what we used to spend weekly - $535 - however $161 was allocated to savings & debt repayment ($106 to 52 wk challenge, $55 to go to B's parents to repay loan), so I'm happy about that.

It was a quiet weekend- B visited a friend, I visited my sister, we had pizza last night. Also from our weekly money I got a $20 iTunes card so I could buy an app for my phone company so I can see what my data usage on my phone is (believe it or not it's a whole $1.30- I had to spend $20 to get something worth $1.30!!!).

Meal plan:
Tonight - curried sausages & mashed potatoes
Monday - pasta with ham & white wine sauce
Tuesday- burgers with mashed potatoes & vegetables
Wednesday - steak, mashed potatoes & vegetables
Thursday - stir fry chicken & rice
Friday - TBA

We thought we were going to a BBQ last so I bought 2 kilos of sausages. As we didn't end up going we now have 3 weeks worth of sausages! Hoping we don't get sick of them too soon!

B went to go to work today and made it up the street and had to come home, there was a loud banging noise coming from his car.
So he had to take the car to the mechanic who found that there was a stone stuck in the caliper (?)(I'm not great with car terms).
$88 was what we were charged, which has pretty much eaten up the last of the money we were given. But being a car problem, it could have been much worse, just happy that it's fixed and he can go back to work tomorrow.
A post here the other day reminded me that you can try to fix your own car so if it was going to be expensive I was going to get B to see if he can fix it himself. (He fixes motorbikes after all so he does have some knowledge of engines etc)
Only 2 days before payday and I can't tell you all just how much I am looking forward to it!

I switched over my phone on Tuesday and already received my first phone bill on Friday....

Turns out that this company charge for mobile phone access in advance and then when the month is done charge you extra for any excess charges (data, etc). Certainly a different way of doing things.

So I have a fairly high phone bill from the old company ($95.13) and the new low charge of $26.13 (being the $30 monthly plan fee on a pro-rata basis for the first month). It's not too bad though.

We had our first week back at work this week and the first couple of days were really tough. For me, I was tired, and for B, it was his first week back since being injured. He's done pretty well though. His wrist is a bit sore but has tried to be pretty sensible and not overdo it. He can't work as quickly as before but has a big job he's been doing which he wants to complete Monday not next week, the week after.

Because we got paid the loan in cash I divided up the cash into separate envelopes. It's nearly all gone now because most of it was for us to get back to work. Doing it was a really good idea I think, and I think I want to continue doing this method for our spending money. It was nice to have it set out $xxx for work expenses, $xxx for groceries, $xxx for petrol, $xxx for alcohol etc. I want to do it this way for a couple of reasons: 1) this year I want most of our electronic transactions to be of the debt repaying/saving/bill paying type and 2) you pay more attention to what you spend when you have to pay it in cold hard cash!

B spoke to his income protection insurance and it looks like he will be getting another month's pay around the same time I get my pay, will be good to get some cash flow in. It's all happening. Feels like it's at a snail's pace, but it's all happening!

And hopefully by February 1, I can start the 52 week challenge & Banking The Difference, fingers crossed.