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2023 So Far

November 19th, 2023 at 03:23 am

It’s been so long since I’ve written a blog post but a lot has happened this year. 

 

In January we changed around our mortgage payment for our house we’re living in to monthly payments instead of weekly and were able to clearly see just how much the mortgage payments for two properties had become and realised that we could not afford to pay for a large mortgage on our house and the balance of the mortgage payment for our rental property (our old house) after rental income was received, so prepared ourselves to sell our old house. 

 

We put the house up for sale in March and it was sold in April for a good price, and settlement completed in July. There was a lot of trouble with the entire process, with telling our great tenants that we were selling and them having to find a new place to live only a year after they moved in (they did find a good place to live though); and the purchaser was a nightmare. 

 

But the house sold, and we put a very large payment down against the mortgage on our current house and have left some money aside to do some upgrades on our house to make it more comfortable to live in.  The mortgage repayments are now much more affordable and we are living more in line with how we were before. 

 

The mortgage is a 30 year loan so we repay extra each month so it will be repaid in 20 years when we are due to retire.  Hopefully we can pay it off earlier than that but I have made it non-negotiable that it is paid off in 20 years at the absolute latest. 

 

The interest rate rises are annoying but no longer extremely stressful as they were when we had two mortgages, and because we pay an extra $711 per month it doesn’t make any difference to our bottom line. 

 

We are back to paying loans on one property not two which I guess is where we are supposed to be. Our main focus now is working out what is our maximum to spend on various things to be able to continue to live comfortably within our means.  With the current inflation challenges this is proving to be very difficult! 

 

As always I have been reading the blogs and look forward to being more active now that life has calmed down slightly! 

Rent Fo

August 16th, 2022 at 09:23 am

Please disregard this post, I accidentally hit post while writing the header.. content is in my later blog post

Goodbye 2020... and both of our pets....

January 2nd, 2021 at 08:33 pm

Hello fellow SA'ers,

I haven't blogged in a while because unfortunately our beautiful dog started to get sick with a paw infection around August-Sept, and we got her to the vet a couple of days after the last blog entry.  The vet gave her lots of meds for the paw infection however gave a disclaimer that it was possibly a tumour but only time and a proper diagnosis would tell.  After a month of giving her the meds, going backwards and forwards to the vet we got the cat scan done and a needle inserted to withdraw cells from the infected area and the diagnosis came back with a malignant melanoma... as she was just under 18 we opted to forgo surgery and instead had a vet come to our home a couple of weeks later to put our beautiful baby to sleep.  While we miss her so much we are so blessed that I could work from home in order to care for her.

The September-October period was swallowed up with caring for her and of course emotions involved so financially we were on autopilot for a while; actually until the end of November.  Luckily though in that period we only spent the usual weekly allowance and there were no major bills, so around December when I went back and looked at everything we were still pretty much on track.

Also, in September-October I completed my bookkeeping course, which is super exciting and was something nice amongst a very hard time.  My boss asked me to work five days a week and I agreed to work it for 6 months as long as he signs off on all bookkeeping time done for the company which will go towards my experience required to become a Registered BAS Agent (the final requirement I have to complete is 1000 hours of time spent providing BAS services).

So, I guess to go over 2020, while the main part of it was that it was the year of goodbyes of both of our pets and the rainbow bridge, these were the main points:

- we had to say goodbye to both of our pets (emotionally hard but also financially hard - pet expenses for 2020 were $5400)

- I got the car I had been wanting for a long time (paid 1/3rd cash upfront with a five year loan for the remaining balance)

- DH got retrenched from his job, received a good redundancy package and another job quickly after.  We still have some of the money left, which we have agreed he can spend on a project bike, as this is one of his interests.

- I passed my bookkeeping course which will greatly help in my aim to be a Registered BAS Agent and have my own business

- we were supposed to go to the UK in July however due to the pandemic our tickets were cancelled and 3 months later we received a full refund which got applied straight to my credit card (which is how payment was made).  We still have the remainder of the holiday savings in the holiday account however due to uncertainty with when we can travel, saving for this is not a priority right now.

- my credit card debt has gone down dramatically due to the refund being applied against it.  I have become better with using the card and pretty much only have everyday expenses going on there which get repaid in 1-3 months, business expenses and interest expenses.  Progress is better but still needs to be made in this area

- our mortgage continues to drop rapidly now which is exciting, it is just over $90k with 11 years left so we will be working to speed this up

- cash is higher now as I am saving away the fifth day I work currently in preparation for taking the next step in my business etc, and we have not spent the redundancy package remainder nor the holiday money

So it was definitely a year of extremes!  We are still getting used to not having any pets anymore and plan on giving ourselves a rest as caring duties over the last four years increased and we want a bit more freedom to go away here and there without having lots to organise.  We're thinking of possibly having a 4-5 year break so if we actually do get to go away to the UK we are not leaving a cat or dog behind for a few weeks.  We will see how that goes though because we definitely miss the adorable quirks and love pets give.

I have updated my sidebar (however the EF breakdown is not accurate right now), and for once have used the financial tracking software throughout the whole year without fail, so will go over the expenses (have exported the spreadsheet) and will possibly blog about that too.  Definitely have to work out 2021 goals, there will definitely be a blog post about that as it is a big focus on my mind right now.

I have been lurking on the site but I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas break, New Year's and looks forward to planning their 2021!

Meal Plan

February 1st, 2015 at 07:51 am

Had a very busy couple of weeks so meal planning hasn't been a priority. We had a long weekend last weekend due to Australia Day which was very social, and this weekend went away and only just got back a couple of hours ago. Because of this I did a fortnightly shop so only have to buy milk, fruit & vegetables after work.

So now it's time to get back into meal planning and normality after our couple of weeks of fun.

Monday - Italian sausages & pasta mix
Tuesday - chicken drumsticks, mashed potatoes & veggies
Wednesday - various meat from freezer, mashed potatoes & veggies
Thursday - chicken & rice with mushroom sauce
Friday - TBA

Banking The Difference deposit

January 27th, 2015 at 10:12 am

Tomorrow the mortgage gets paid and as the new monthly repayment (as of last November) is $149 lower, I have paid the difference of $149 towards the mortgage.

Banking The Difference total is now $269.
If all goes well the end of year total saved will be $5,512 plus $269 = $5,781.00.