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

There is a quote I see quite often which is "the price of anything is the amount of life you pay for it".

Today my boss emailed me my payslip and for some reason (maybe I just needed a mental break for a minute) as I opened it that quote popped into my head. So I spent a bit of time actually analysing it.

My pay period starts on the 1st of the month, I work 154 hours a month for a rate of $23.27 after tax. As this is the amount I receive in the bank, I am using this rate.

I guess by doing this exercise I want to appreciate what my time spent at work pays for. It has made me appreciate having a monthly pay, that's for sure!

So far I've worked out: I have to work for 22hrs to pay for my share of the mortgage (we don't split money but for the purpose of how long do I have to work to pay for that thing, I am splitting because I am only looking at my time spent), for example. I have a page on my iPad where I have jotted down things bought & the time needed to work to pay for it. High point is so far $156 has been saved, equal to 6hrs 40 mins of my 154 hrs. Low point is the car door lock we had to buy cost $180 equal to 7hrs 40 mins of my time

I also just bought a bottle of wine for $10 which is just under half an hour of my time. Happy to say it's nice & well worth it!

I wrote an entry yesterday and when I pressed "save & publish" it promptly disappeared. Maybe it's a good thing! I wasn't my usual self and was a bit cranky, so maybe I simply got to vent, let it all out and feel better without putting you all through my rant. (I feel better than yesterday).

We're now at week 10 and there's enough in the EF to consider it to be a mini-EF. I was thinking a mini-EF should be $1K per family member and readily accessible in a cash form, which means we're a bit over halfway there in that case. And then I was thinking the balance should be a maxi-EF which is saved/invested somewhere which earns a good return.

Checked the credit cards and my credit card stands at $5049 owing. Would love to bring that down to $4999 by 31 March. One more challenge payment will be made by then which will leave $29 to be made to reach that goal. If there are no more banking the difference payments I will pay the money. B's card stands at $3328 so we could also get that down to $3299. We'll see what happens within a week

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).

By paying with gift cards.

A friend of mine did that last year or the year before and put a picture up on Facebook of all the cards she bought, and I thought that was such a wonderful idea.

I figured if I divide the Christmas spend by 10 and buy 1 card per month from February to November our Christmas spending will be taken care of, and not only will one headache be taken care of, but it should add to the enjoyment of the season. (Sure I could save the monthly instalment into the EF and withdraw at Xmas but I want the EF to be a place where money floods in erratically & often and dribbles out only in the event of a true emergency, no transfering between accounts willy-nilly).

Gift cards have a 1 year expiry date so I will buy first the ones I know I will be shopping with and last the ones that we will be giving.

Last year because we were so broke our Christmas shopping was phenomenally low - $180 and we only bought for the niece and nephews. We felt bad, it's not really the meaning of Christmas to make other family members miss out because of our money dramas. It sucked.

So as it's the 27th of February I thought I'd better get card number 1 and bought one for $50.. 1 down, 9 to go!

I got invited to go to a lingerie party tomorrow night. Kind of like Tupperware but instead, lingerie. I ummed and ahhed because this is so not my thing but I felt bad saying no. Then I thought of what I said Sunday "if it involves money or energy this week that is not needed then the answer is no", and sent off a text nicely explaining that this is not really my thing but have a lovely time. My SIL who was having the party was nice about it which makes me happy.

So it's Tuesday and the week is so far so good. I'm at 2 no spend days, have avoided a big spend (that lingerie would not be cheap) and am creatively aiming this week to avoid spending as much as possible. 2 down 5 days to go!

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).

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.

Both my doctors visit and the dog's trip to the vet cost more than expected, especially the dog. We had to buy antibiotics and other bits and pieces for her, costing a whopping $174 (and my doctors visit ended up being $115). We already see an improvement with the dog so we're happy about that.

While I was killing some time before the doctors appointment I decided to buy a Valentine's day card & chocolates- got a big $15 box of Cadbury Roses for $7.50 so was really happy.

Then afterwards didn't feel like having the curried sausages so we just had something little. We decided that because the appointments cost more to save money instead of going out for tea we will have the curried sausages followed by the Cadbury Roses for dessert. I'm not even bothered, I'm just looking forward to the chocolates

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.

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.

While I love the idea of paying a different amount each week and ticking it off against the appropriate week, the reality is to really make the 52 week challenge work I think it would be best to simplify it by dividing up the payments equally and setting up an automated direct debit, that way there is less leeway to shift amounts and shift weeks when it is an expensive week.

The reality is we need some savings, so I don't really want to have any excuses for delays/reductions, whatever.

I read something a while ago which said "save first, then spend what is left over not the other way round" and I think there's way more than a grain of truth there.

So tomorrow I am setting up a weekly debit for a total amount of $106 to be withdrawn weekly from our bank account, with the end goal being a minimum of $5512 saved up by the middle of January next year.

Let the 52 week challenge officially begin!

Our phone plans expired on 27th December, and our handsets got completely paid for on that date. As there are no problems with our mobile phones (aka cellphones) we decided to keep them and look for better plans.
So today we visited the phone shop which they are all with to see what they could offer us. Sometimes it is better to go in person because the consultant can tailor plans to meet your needs. (Of course we did our own research first though). My mobile phone did not get much of a reduction so I have taken it elsewhere. The plan is currently $60 per month and the best they could do is $45 per month, while elsewhere I have been able to get a $30 plan, so a 50% reduction and also have been able to increase my data by 50% from 1GB to 1.5GB.
Our home phone & internet bundle got increased from 25GB to a whopping 100GB for an extra $2 per month.
B's phone plan got reduced from $130 per month to $80 per month which is really good.
Then I changed over B's credit card rate from 20% to 13.49% (mine is already a low rate with my bank, 13.99%).
Very happy with these outcomes and looking forward to banking the difference!

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).