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!

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).

Week 12 debits got paid, so it's progressing well, no real interesting numbers this week though.

We used our camper trailer for the first time over the Easter holidays, which was nice. We were holidaying with my inlaws which was 50% fun, 50% I deserve a medal! I just hope hubby got some good memories. His aunt, uncle, cousins and nephews are fun.

I found four days with MIL and FIL very hard work though. MIL has onset dementia/Alzheimer's so swings between lucid and with it and her normal self when she has energy, and regressing to about a 3yo when she is tired and needing to be entertained from morning until night (and constantly watched). If she is not entertained she stares into space or complains constantly or constantly repeats the same thing or becomes obsessed with the time to the point of shooing anybody onto their next appointment so they are not late! Aaargh. The most success I had with her was treating her like a 3yo- do you want to come for a walk? Can you help with this? (Drying dishes for example). Eg making sure she is occupied. I feel sorry for FIL, this must be so hard for him.

However he is hard work in another way. Bossy, so we had a few disagreements about food-making. I thought as it is my & husband's camper trailer we would mainly be organising the food and cooking it (you know, like a normal couple!) but he barged in every time I would start to make something and not sit down (because it is really so difficult to cook hot cross buns and butter them...). He has a big control issue with food, it has to be perfect or he gets really upset, so I decided to be the bigger person and let him cook all the meals so he can eat his perfect food. He cooked a roast on the last night and decided it wasn't cooked to his standards and threw a huge tantrum. We all said it wasn't that bad (it wasn't) and later on I told my husband he acts like a three year old and could you imagine if I acted like that??? And he said, please don't!

At least I had fun drinking wine, eating chocolate and enjoying nature while having an Internet connection!! There's a silver lining in every cloud! (But no, don't want to go away with them again anytime soon.....)

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

No, not a gun.

Was doing some reading this morning and today's article was about the two types of credit card users there are. A "revolver" is the name given by the credit card industry for a credit card holder who carries a balance continually. They have a revolving balance. A "transactor" is a credit card user who simply uses the credit card for transactions and pays the balance off in full each month.

The scary part of this article is in Australia 2 out 3 credit card users are transactors, yet the 1 in 3 credit card users who are revolvers fund the entire credit card industry! Yikes. Makes me really want to get out of the revolving credit card cycle and into a transactional credit card cycle. The whole it being in your interest to watch the interest that you have to pay and all.

I don't think there's anything wrong with credit cards- used correctly they are a loan in your name that you don't have to go through a lengthy application process for. It's just misuse of the credit cards which is clearly painful for us (credit card users) and a big win for credit card industry.

I thought this article was really interesting, wanted to share.

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

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

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