Lots of goings on today!

Firstly I received a snowflake. For my online study unit I bought a book and then found that I had an older version from a couple of years ago and am allowed to use it, so returned it and received the refund today of $109.76. Postage to send it was $23.15, so net snowflake is $86.61. As I am not collecting snowflakes and the EF is owed $407.76, I transferred $86.60 to the EF, and now $321.16 remains owing.

The $86.60 is on my credit card so I transferred cash from our weekly spending money and need to use the $86.60 for weekly expenses. Had to pay back $17 for alcohol bought and $20.52 for petrol (they were bought ahead for this weekend), and bought coffee pods online (more below) for $22.50 and grocery items tonight for $7.04, so $19.54 remains to be spent. This may simply be next week's petrol expense I think.

I have coffee pod machine (which I love dearly) and have been reading backlash about the fact that once the coffee pods are used they cannot be recycled (Nespresso) and simply sit in landfill, which is a huge problem. The cheaper pods I often buy (Piazza L'Or) are not much better. However I have read about a better more environmentally friendly coffee pod made by a NZ company called Eco Caffe, where their pods are biodegradable. Today I ordered two sleeves a trial. They are the same price as Nespresso so are not cheap but when I think of the environmental benefit, I think it is an expense worth paying. The two sleeves are $14.80 with a postage charge of $7.70 (ugh). If you order more than $100 worth of pods, postage is free. So if they taste ok and I can buy that amount (depending on the useby date on the box - will have to look when I receive the two sleeves), it's about as cost economical as I can get it. (And I would have, say, four-five months worth of coffee pods- kind of like Toilet-Paper-Tracker with her tissues!). We'll see how this idea pans out.

Finally, we received the remaining two invoices, so have the party money saved away, which is a big relief. We are not out of the woods yet with him though, because they are still behind with their invoice payments (just not as behind). He also only will have worked for 2.5 days of this week so will not be invoicing out, so I am currently looking at the invoices he has owing and I can see already that in between slow payments and one week of nothing billed out, it's only the 8th but we will need to watch our money carefully to be able to make the car payment, his motorbike payment and superannuation (in total $1405) which is due at the end of the month. So I'm happy we have the party money but still a bit worried, not quite in comfort zone yet! A quiet week this week it will be!

Week 24 ended up going pretty smoothly. I was stressed out last week about having to spend for a birthday party at the last minute when we didn't really have a lot of money available but it ended up ok.

I got invited out with my friends on Friday night, so I drove and had wedges with sweet chilli sauce and sour cream ($9) and bought a wine and soft drink, so did not spend much. I bought a perfume for the cousin worth $30 and she really loved it (was good because it was worth $60 and I have it, it's a great perfume called Wish). B found out we can bring our own alcohol which saved about $40. The restaurant was expensive, $70 for the both of us, so at least we didn't have to pay for overpriced alcohol! Groceries were as cheap as I could get - $94, which is what I was spending for us when B was off work. It was B's turn tonight to host the poker party (his Monday night event) so we spent $38 on food for entertaining- he did a beef casserole for 8 and I managed to score a plate (yum!).

We did have to draw some money again from the EF but not as much as last week - $142, $45 to cover the shortfall from spending and $97 to cover B's petrol for the week. Total amount now owed back to the EF is $407.76.

This week we are hoping B gets paid for all old and current invoices so then we can have the party pretty much paid for and start getting back to normal. I want to have the party money well ahead of time so that we can enjoy his birthday and make it a memorable occasion instead of it being a stressful occasion!!

Now for something I consider pretty exciting.. Every time my football team wins I save $1 for every point they win by. This weekend they won by 110 points!!! Their biggest win against this team in 119 years. I actually owe $2 for a win a couple of weeks ago and now $110 for last weekend's game. I felt like celebrating so thought you know what, I'm going to turn their winnings into a mini holiday fund! Travel is a big part of who I am and what I love- I love at least one holiday a year. So I worked out the winnings and have adjusted my sidebar accordingly. Currently there is $270.00 there.

The mini-holiday fund can be a contribution towards a holiday or perhaps simply a leisure event. I'm just giving these dollars a particular purpose. Our wedding anniversary is in October this year and we haven't really planned anything because our focus is on the party. For $270.00 we can get a room in the best hotel in Melbourne (marked down from $400), so we could go out for a really nice dinner and a great hotel room is already paid for. Or we could put that towards three nights in Port Douglas, Queensland ($100 might have to be paid out of pocket). Flights up there and back are pretty cheap. Swanky hotel or fun in the sun, what would you guys choose? Decisions decisions

B got paid and after tax we have saved the majority of this invoice - $1470. Two more invoices to go and $2230 left to save. I can't wait to have it saved because I'm out of my comfort zone with having to save this much money in such a short amount of time - the anxiety I am experiencing is my indicator. $1470 is just under 40% of the required amount, I am reminding myself of this. And reminding myself that this will be a great night, and worth the anxiety.

B keeps telling me that we still have 5 weeks to we don't have to save so hard, but I worry that something expensive could come up and derail us, so it's better to get it over with. Even if the expensive thing is simply a slow-payer for his business! I do look forward to getting back into the challenges too - the mortgage dropped again, now it's $995 per month with a saving of $183, looking forward to adding that saving to the challenge, trust me

Invitations got sent out to everyone this week, so that is an important thing done.

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All of the talk on this site about retirement funds has made me want to check mine - I really only look at the annual statements and that's it. Last year at 1 July it was $69000. So I decided that on 1 July I would get out the statement from last year and register to log into the website and check everything there. I did that, and found that it has increased to $79031! My current pay is $55000 per year, however I'm not sure that I would need that as a retired person, I'm imagining I could get by on $40000 a year. Remembering Ceejay74's post a while ago about saving amounts by looking at the annual pay and multiplying it by x depending on how old you are - I am 37, so would fit into needing 2 x times my salary in my retirement fund. If the market continued in this fashion I could have my actual annual salary by 40 multiplied by 2, but currently it is sitting at 2 x $40000, so I am happy with that.

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My gripe: my inlaws are lovely but have become accustomed to eating out at every birthday, which is so expensive! We had to go out for the MIL's birthday last Sunday and his cousin's birthday is this weekend. (Close family) The uncle told us that she just wants to go out with friends for her 30th. Now we get a phone call today that we the family are to go out a restaurant in an upmarket suburb for the family celebration the following night! Grrr. Two days notice is pretty rude for something where you need to buy a present, pay for two dinners and drinks. Do they think we're rolling in it and would just happen to have a spare $150 to blow??? No, they obviously didn't think.

To cut costs I told B that we would buy her present, not put in with his sister (she likes buying vouchers, so will ask for $50, whereas I will shop around and spend around $30 - I'm thinking perfume of some sort), and to call back his uncle and ask him if the restaurant has BYO alcohol (a lot of chinese restaurants do).

I know, looking at the bigger picture, it is good to have family that do these things and are close, and we will get to have a nice meal. Hopefully we can bring our own alcohol too to cut costs too. I told B that we will not be spending a lot on food this week - we have bulk bought so only need to buy meat and vegetables, everything else we have. We have a spaghetti sauce and spaghetti, so just need mince, and I am thinking instead of having steak etc of just buying a big packet of sausages and eating that a few different ways.

Apologies for the super long post! I am constantly telling myself to relax and not be so anxious - I figure if I keep doing this, keep breathing and going to my happy place, everything will all work out and it will all be fine.

As discussed last week, I've decided to change the 52 week challenge to the 50 week challenge so it finishes on New Year's Eve. I've now updated the sidebar and so far it's looking like we'll have saved/repaid $7477.84- who knows what it will actually be? Conservatively I'm guessing it will be over $10K, but time will tell.

Grocery shopping this week was really low for us- $87 (and if you add 1/2 of the fortnightly meat purchase being $23, total spend was $100), which is what we were spending when we had no money. No idea why other than I have been taking advantage of lower price bulk buys which I'm sure has been helpful.

Other spending this weekend- dinner and cocktails with friends Friday night $160 for drinks, dinner and cabs. We have to live it up occasionally. We added some lighting to our spa area $43 and replaced two light switches $20. The spa area only had lights at the front so when you were in it, it looked really dark. Looks much better now.

Also some clothes shopping. We had a birthday function on Sunday and our smart casual clothes are getting a bit old. I got a really nice vest, woollen with a fake fur collar, and a long sleeve tshirt for $95. Expensive but good quality and looks good, so would be happy to wear it many times. I got two tshirts for B for $55 but one didn't fit & he didn't like the other one, but can refund them and we looked up other clothes on the Internet that we can buy instead.

B had two days off this week and so he took my car in for a wheel rebalance and tyre check. $55. They then pointed out that it looks like we need a new muffler and gave us details of a guy who would do it, he quoted $150-$170. B takes the car there and it turns out we will need to replace the muffler and whole exhaust system. $600 quote. Grrrr. And the ceiling lining has completely dropped and they say you can't glue it, you need to completely reupholster. $220 quote. Grrrr.

So I thought how much is a reasonable repair allowance annually for a 12yo car? I thought $1000, and forums I have read say that too. So $180 new door lock last month, $55 wheel balance, $600 exhaust system and $220 reupholstering will bring me to $1055. B will do the car service so all we will need to buy is oil & oil filter.

I'm a bit annoyed but we're lucky to have had many years of virtually no repairs.

Last thing, my coworker just quit her job yesterday, she's a mother of a 10yo boy and works 1-2 days per week. Why? Because her partner wanted her to work more to pay down his massive credit card debt. So now she'll be working full time (and she always looks tired now) but yet he still can't get around to switching his cards to a low rate/zero rate! I found out it is a $30k debt on 20%, split over 3 cards!! I did a quick calculation for her - $6k interest per year and this has been going on for 6 years!! I feel sorry for her and annoyed with him, his laziness is costing their family a fortune and she will now be exhausted. Grrrr. I just hope there will be a good outcome.

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.

Week 16 was a bit harder financially because we are waiting on some money from B's work & not sure when it will get there. We had $567 but after B's business expenses were left with $403. I wasn't sure how well we could live off $297 (being $403 less $106 52 wk challenge money), so used $38 of the $300 buffer in our savings- no idea why I picked such a weird amount!

I really wanted to go and see Fast & Furious 7 so we went to our local cinema (did not go out to tea first, simply ate at home & because this was a cinema close by didn't have to pay for parking). Still $62 including snacks though.

On the spur of the moment we decided to visit friends an hour away and stay in our camper trailer overnight. B was going motorbike riding with the husband on Sunday so we drove our own cars and I drove home first thing Sunday morning. Was nice to use our camper trailer without having to go for a big weekend away and we had a nice relaxing night. As our friends cooked dinner we bought desserts - $18.63 for the desserts (one of them was a really nice lemon tart), and $40 for petrol for my car - double what I normally spend but the car got a great run, which hardly ever happens- it's usually 5-10 min trips here and there.

We spent $65 on alcohol and $135 on food for the week, not bad amounts for us.

We turned our hot tub on for the first time since mid-March and spent a really nice couple of hours relaxing in it last night, a nice way to finish the weekend

Then B took the last $20 for his poker game.

We didn't have loads of money to spend but felt like we did a lot of really nice things (we also did weekly cleaning & laundry too so as to not get behind) and made the best out of our weekend.

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)

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!

Sometimes I think if I didn't post and update weekly about the 52 week challenge I'd completely forget where exactly I am with it! It's helpful doing this. Anyway the debits have come out as usual and the balances are increasing as expected.

After the holiday last week, this weekend was very domestic. We cleared away nearly all trace of suitcases etc, washed nearly all the clothes (not done yet, a couple of loads to go) and had a big clean-up, as in cleaned the house from top to bottom (as opposed to the usual rush job which ensures that surfaces etc are clean). I hope to not see another cobweb for a while! I think I got everything. And other things just got cleaned better than usual (eg shower). We felt pretty accomplished by the end.
This took me most of the weekend so meal plans are out the window. As we've been home, not much has been spent so I guess that counteracts not having time to go to the butchers or Aldi. It is Coles and Safeway all the way this week. I'm guessing this may cost an extra $20 or so, which I'm happy to pay as we have seen some good results, our house looks cleaner than it has in a while.

We've been meaning to do car services for a while now and my goal was to have both cars done by Easter (April 2? around then anyway). The electrics cut out on B's car about a month ago and he never got around to booking a service. Well he drove it a couple of days ago and the electrics cut out again and when he looked at the manual it said "get to the mechanic asap", so we're not sure what we're up for. B has said that he can service my car (I think because it is now getting older he is not as worried about doing it as he was before) so it looks like he will do that to offset an expensive car service on his. If it helps our bottom line and doesn't wreck my car in the process I'm all for it!

That's about all from me, hope you're all doing well

The debits for week 7 52 week challenge have been applied in the various places, and now the EF category there is just under $500. (With banking the difference also it is standing at around $810, so it's progressing well)

We have tried to spend as little as possible this week. Takeaway has been the lower end of our scale. Friday night B was out with friends and had McDonalds. I felt like getting a good quality bread (which is more than our grocery spend) so spent $3.50 on it instead of getting takeaway and had dim sims from our freezer for tea. B's Saturday takeaway was $6 chicken & chips (he can easily spend $15 on KFC, so swapped it this week)

We held a thank you dinner for B's parents and repaid them the final $700 of the money we had to borrow at the start of the year. They were very happy and we are so happy to have finished that chapter. Roast dinner with all the trimmings = $55 (we got a piece of roast beef plus we got all the vegetables also, bakery bread, nice icecream & cream to have for dessert, $9 vodka drink in case B's mum wanted something).

B plays poker once a week with his friends and they rotate whose house it is at. This week it is his turn. We decided to have a bbq for it, bbq meat = $25.

We have found that while we had to buy roast meat & bbq meat, we have enough food in our freezer to only buy 1 night's dinner this week so our spending has been offset by that reduction.

Of our $600 weekly spend, $256 has gone towards savings and debt repayment. ($106 52 wk challenge, $50 xmas gift card, $100 loan to inlaws). We have $143 left. With that I have to buy groceries (not looking at a huge spend), develop some photos and B wants to get some more alcohol before tomorrow night. Maybe we might go over but it won't be by much and it feels like we have done some good things this week.

The payments came out on Friday as scheduled (so handy having it automated!).

As it stands this week the balances are creeping up but no real digit change. Next week the EF category will be a couple of dollars shy of $500 which will be nice.

I could have had a Banking the Difference snowflake but we overspent this week and this helped to offset the amount we overspent. (Overspend of $110, snowflake of $48). Sometimes you have to allow a little leeway.

But not next week! We had a huge expensive week last week but this week we over-indulged in our favourite comforts so it was just an expensive week (fish & chips for Friday night tea, KFC for Saturday lunch for B, I went out with my mother & sister today, we borrowed DVDs, I bought a book) and bought a few new items- shoes for me $50, wine cooler from op shop (me) $2, camping plate set & kettle (B) $32. It all adds up. Did we enjoy ourselves? You bet. B had a day out with his friends ($29), I went out with my family ($20), we had our favourite takeaways and bought new things. Life is to be enjoyed sometimes. (All the time is unrealistic)

So now I am planning on having a low-spend week this week. If it involves too much energy or money it's not happening, it can wait! This week will be the week of no. It has to be said now and then.

Meal Plan:
Tonight: chicken drumsticks, roast potatoes & veggies
Tomorrow: fried rice with chicken as the meat portion
Tuesday: steak with mashed potatoes & veggies
Wednesday: schnitzel with mashed potatoes & veggies
Thursday: spaghetti bolognaise

Hoping you all have a lovely frugal week!

It's the end of our big weekend, it's Sunday night. We had a mini-date night the other night for Valentine's Day, ate our chocolates, went to three birthdays yesterday, two of which were out at a restaurant. It was nice to go out to dinner for once but if turned out to be expensive. We took $120 thinking it would be fine but everything cost more. As soon as we ordered I had to tally up how many drinks we could afford to have so we wouldn't spend over the $120! We ended up spending $104 and while the entree was nice, the main wasn't worthy of the charge. I love marinara dishes and you can usually expect 2-3 each of prawns, scallops, fish pieces, mussels and a couple of other fish things. For $25 I got 2 scallops, 1 prawn, 1 mussel and a lot of cheaper fish pieces and a lot more pasta. If I wanted mostly pasta I would have spent $10 less & got a pasta dish! They did have a nice band though which made it a fun night.

I got a text from a very good friend the other day to meet for coffee this morning, which was a really nice catch-up. We have a lot of the same values and I trusted her enough to tell her about my blog (the only other people who know are my sister and B, who has no interest in the blog anyhow). She is currently going through hard financial problems and hopefully everything will change for the better soon. We had lots to talk about.

I bought a pair of work shoes for $50 and B went out and spent $29 - both things were from our spending money for the coming week so will need to adjust accordingly.

Meal plan:
Sunday- we were bad & had steamed dim sims!
Monday - omelette
Tuesday- chicken sausages, mashed potatoes & veggies
Wednesday- pork chops, mashed potatoes & veggies
Thursday- steak & chips

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.

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!

I got these Moccona pre-mixed caramel lattes at a box of 10 for $2.64 (they are normally $5.30) and wasn't sure how I'd go because I'm the sort of person who needs *strong* coffee in the morning.

I normally have pods. From the Nespresso shop they are about $7-$8 for 10, from the supermarket you can get a decent type of pod for $6 (sometimes as low as $4.79 if you're lucky). I tried name brand for $4 and still felt asleep hours later so no that wasn't going to work.

But today I had the pre-mixed caramel latte and it was really nice! So now I have three types of coffee to choose from, yay! I'm chalking this up as a small victory

Meal plan for the week:
Tonight: chicken drumsticks with roast/baked potatoes & vegetables
Monday: Tortellini with tomato pasta sauce
Tuesday: Chicken schnitzels with mashed potatoes & vegetables
Wednesday: Steaks with mashed potatoes & vegetables
Thursday: Chicken & rice stirfry
Friday: possible oven pizzas with garlic bread

Shopping (groceries) was slightly over at $104.00. Other than that we didn't spend much at all, $50 alcohol, $38 train ticket for me, $10 petrol for me. (B's petrol money has been set aside to be used through his business)

B got on a big decluttering mission yesterday in our study and now it looks great! I'm good with doing all of the weekly tasks grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry but when it comes to projects I'm not so great because I don't really have big chunks of time free. B spent all day working on it and then I spent about 2-3 hours with him at the end. Afterwards we had tacos for dinner and a music night together, watching our favourite concert DVDs. Fun and low-spend.

I bought a 5kilo bag of potatoes on December 31st and can't believe they are still good! It's been 2 weeks and there is no sign of going off. Didn't think potatoes kept this long. Looks like I might be able to get a big bag for 2-3 weeks from now on.

Doing something adventurous with morning coffees this week. We have a pod machine (Nespresso) which I love and had to buy some pods while shopping however saw a packet of pre-mixed Nescafe caramel lattes on special for $2.64 (pods are $6.00 a box)so thought, why not do something different this week? Hopefully won't be buzzing in the morning from a sugar rush!!!

A new year begins and so it is time to create goals that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant & timetabled).
Goal 1:
As our income is unstable for the moment I thought that the best thing to do was to a 52 week money challenge. I have chosen to do 2 x 52 week double money challenges. It might be a bit much for us, but we may also be pleasantly surprised. I will update the sidebar as we progress. We both have credit cards which are currently maxed out but also need to create an emergency fund, especially as B is self-employed. So for 2015 I would be happy to pay 20% of each credit card limit and to send the rest ($3692) to create the EF.
Goal 2:
Banking The Difference.
As we have had to cut so many costs and have become accustomed to spending the revised amount, once we are back receiving both incomes (hoping to be able to start February 1 2015), I would like to set aside the previous amount to spend on each item (for example grocery shopping $170 per week was our previous weekly spend) however actually spend the new amount (for this item $100-$110 per week) and send the savings to our credit cards and EF as per the 52 week challenge allocation. The only thing I will pay differently is the mortgage which has also dropped in the last couple of months- this difference will get paid against the mortgage.
Wish me luck guys!

I would have simply thanked you all for welcoming me at the end of my first post, however as that was back on December 6, that was too long ago to simply add a comment on the end. Very much appreciated the warm welcome.
Had a really busy month, what with Christmas craziness, but now that that lovely time has passed (it really was lovely) it is time to recover and move forward without spending too much for New Year's.
We managed to not spend too much- we are still on 1 steady income & 1 unsteady income, so money is scarce right now- my husband goes back to work on January 5, there is pretty much a 95% guarantee of that.
We only bought presents for nieces and nephews and managed to get our in-laws something small with the money left over from the kids presents we bought, so did well there.
We couldn't afford to go away to our friend's place 3hrs away (which we usually do) so they are coming to us. So it turns out as of yesterday, that we are having a small party, which I'm really looking forward to.
I had a look at our groceries required and found that we actually don't need very much food this week so we can afford to use that money on food for our little party. We have told our friends to bring their own meat (this is usual custom, we all do this) and we will provide the rest. It looks like we can do a lot of home-made food with some careful planning.
Thinking of making oven-baked arancini balls for an entrée and may buy some cocktail franks if we end up having a few extra kids, home-made burgers for us with green salad and curried potato salad to serve everyone for mains with buttered bread, and saw some awesome recipes for icecream cakes which would be much cheaper than buying sweets and would probably produce a lot more.
Have to say that we have learnt so much about saving money during this time- our usual grocery spend was $170 per week for 2 people & 2 animals which we have sliced down to $100 per week ($110-$120 on an occasional week where we would need to buy a few extra bulk items).