i have found in the couple of weeks i have been back from my holidays that i have been spending less than i did before i went on holidays.
it FEELS like my spending is out of control, but the expenditure log begs to differ.
other than the $180 dress i bought for the wedding, (which i had funds for anyway) my expenses each week are much less than what i have been earning, and much less than i was spending per week before my holiday.
and yet i have been going out for coffee a few times a week with friends, spending more on groceries, buying crap i don't need...
i have double checked the amounts, and every cent i have spent is there, listed. i have even paid for some costs that BF could have shared (like tea tree shampoo, a nail scrubber, some grocery costs i hadn't bothered to divide).

i have come to the conclusion that limiting the strictness of my budget, and relaxing a little on how i spend my money, is a good thing. it allows me to make decisions without feeling bad about it so much. i guess it's like a diet, if you control your eating so much you end up eating five tubs of icecream before too long. if i try too hard to limit my expenses i feel trapped and end up spending more.

i have found lately i have been losing motivation to post frequently. i think my finances might be suffering as well because of this, although i really have tried to do well.
my main problem areas are takeaway food and beverages and grocery shopping.
the takeaways i can deal with, as i will work on decreasing the costs. i actually already have been, as the most of the costs are from catching up with a friend and we have begun sharing a meal if we need one, or just having a coffee.
grocery shopping is a tricky one. having spent three weeks with my father and that side of the family, where they all eat organically and fresh, i have sort of turned over a new leaf and begun buying organic here and there. i am really trying to keep costs down, but i think this is something i want to do, so we'll see how i go. the other reason grocery costs are high is because i haven't had the motivation to do a full shop, and so have been going to the supermarket every couple of days for items, and therefore probably purchasing a few things each time that i don't actually need.
i'll try and work on that.
lately i just can't bring myself to push a trolley around for over an hour. i know every couple of days the time would add up to over an hour, but i just can't do it at the moment.
does anyone else ever have these days? (or weeks, i should say).

in good news, i am about to update my side profile with my savings and debt amounts. i transferred $700 (my tax refund) into my home loan/uni fund account, which brings the balance to over $1200. woohoo! have reached goal #2 and am closer to #3 every week.

bf and i have been (well, i have mostly, with bf looking over my shoulder now and then) having a look on the internet at some properties so that we know what we can expect to be looking for in a few months time. the prices of units seem to be steady, but have fallen slightly in a year, which is good news for us. there are also a lot more on the market than there was a year ago. houses seem to be out of the question at the moment, the cheapest at $450 000 and most ranging from $500 000 - $800 000 for a 3-4 bedroom slab house.

it's been a bit tricky sometimes with cooking meals, BF eating meat and I not, but overall it hasn't changed our routine that much. i am planning on buying a heap of small steaks or cutlets to freeze individually. this will give me a bit more freedom as i can cook him a cutlet and add it to whatever i am cooking.
eating out is tough, i have discovovered. i guess i am normally used to eating in restaurants that do have a wide range for vegetarians, whereas lately we seem to be going to places like pubs and clubs, which usually only offer one vegetarian meal. so i'm going to have to do some research and find some good places to eat around here! sooner or later i am going to get sick of raviolli and nachos...!

i bought a dress for a friends wedding last week. let me just say, i HATE shopping for dresses for big events, because i am typically a jeans, tshirt & cardigan girl. so i always find it really stressful trying to find a dress, as i don't feel 100% comfortable in them and can't just buy one that someone else says looks nice. i have to be able to put it on and instantly feel good about wearing it, otherwise i will probably take it back the next day.
so i went shopping the other day and the second dress i tried on was the one. the only thing about it that was NOT the one was the price, which was $AU179.90. i put it back on the shelf and ran around to some other stores desperately trying to find a dress under my targetted spending amount ($150.00). i didn't. it's not that i wasn't looking. i tried on so many dresses after that second one, and i really wanted to find something that was cheaper, but i couldn't. so i went back and bought it, and i have resigned myself to the fact that i will either have to find shoes, a jacket and a bag under $20 or find something in my closet that will go with the dress (i had allowed $200 for my wedding clothes, which most was leftover from my holiday money).
i have some black shoes that will go, although they were initially very cheap ($20) and i have had them for a year now, i am a little worried that the heel might snap off.
anyway, my spending for this week has gone quite well, so i will see if i can save a little more money somewhere to put toward these other items.
and yes, i am aware it was a lot of money for a dress. atleast i paid for it in cash, though and i most certainly will wear it again.
the bride and groom (both our friends) have a wishing well, or accept gifts. the last wedding we went to also had a wishing well, which BF and I gave $50 each. do you think this is still an acceptable amount to contribute?

i talked to my boss today about BF and I discussing (and agreeing) to talk to some banks/mortgage brokers/lenders about loans and property etc. my boss said he would talk to his wife if I wanted (his wife is a manager of a bank). I said yes, figuring (as she is pregnant) that it might take her a while to get some stuff together. Anyway, about an hour later she called me at work to ask some financial questions and said she would get back to me in a few days to tell me an idea of whether she thinks we can get a loan and what interest rate we will be offered.
HOW EXCITING!
It's not that we are actually going to DO anything just yet, but I am really interested to see how our finances stack up.
She also advised me (of which i was aware of anyway) to save as much as we could and for the time being make minimum payments or a bit more on my loan, as it would be better to have money saved and still have a small loan than have no money saved.

anyway. like i said, it's not that we are buying anything for a long time, but i guess you have to make the first step. i am just glad i have friends and people i can count on in areas like this so that i never have to do anything without being looked after. it takes a lot off my mind.

but my boyfriend and I are almost positive that we will be taking out a 100% mortgage at the end of this year to buy ourselves a unit.
Why?
Because we don't really have a choice.
At the end of the year, our flatmate (boyfriends sister) will be moving out. Our rent is $390 per week. While we COULD afford the rent between the two of us, there isn't a chance that we would consider paying that amount of money to live in someone else's house.
There is also not a chance that we would live with a stranger, and there is only a very small chance that someone we know would move in with us, as everyone is already shacked up with someone else presently.
If we were to rent our current house at $400 a week (as will be the price by the time our lease is renewed) we would be shooting ourselves in the foot. It would be making it almost impossible to save money for a house deposit, as all our extra money we currently are saving would be going on rent, therefore in a years time we wouldn't be any closer to a house deposit than we are right now.
If we were to put an extra $100 on top of the $400 per week, it would be enough money to pay for the repayments of a unit in the vicinity of $240 000 - $300 000. Taking into consideration interest rate rises which may occur, we would be good for it.
I am guessing you are wondering why wouldn't we rent a unit (at around $300 p/w) for another year to save money? Well one reason is BF's cars. Currently we have a double garage, which houses two project cars (read: not working). Now, BF would be willing to sacrifice them to go to storage at his mates (no cost) if we were to BUY a unit.
However, he doesn't want to rent a unit because, well, he doesn't like units to begin with, and it will mean that he will be giving someone else money to live in a tiny box, that has only one garage where he cannot be close to his beloveds. It would only be worth it, to him, if the unit was actually OURS, because there would be a meaning behind putting his cars in storage.
Some of you may think this is silly but I actually understand it, and anyone that has an attachment to a certain car might probably understand it too. I don't expect you to understand it, I guess is what I am saying.
It's hard to explain I guess.
A unit (or townhouse, or duplex) would not be ideal for us to live in forever. I want to live in a house. BF wants to live in a house. However. In the areas where we want to live, a house costs between $450 000 and $600 000. It would take us a very long time to save for a decent deposit on that amount of money, however, if we were to get our foot in the door now, and purchase a cheap, renovateable unit for $250 000, in a year or so we could rent it out and use the equity to buy a bigger unit or house, and so on.
so i think that's what we are going to do...

New Savings Deduction Amounts:

Emergency Fund: $20 weekly
(current balance: $64.82 goal: $1200 amount left to go: $1135.18)

Gifts/Holiday Account: $15 weekly
(current balance: $113.84 goal: $500 amount left to go: $386.16)

Uni/House Fund: $50 weekly
(current balance: $525.15 goal: $10000 amount left to go: $9474.85

Bills Account: $60 weekly
(current balance: $212.57)

Debt:
Loan Repayment: $37 weekly
Extra Loan Repayment: $40+ weekly
(current balance: $4153.24-)



gosh, isn't it funny how direct debits seem to take over your money (and life) and suddenly there is none left? it's a bit overwhelming sometimes!

from my tax return, which I just completed online. woohoo! i love doing my tax straight away. of course, i am sure had I OWED money I wouldn't have done it as quickly...
I am putting $350 in my savings and $350 on my loan, and the spare change is going on my credit card payment.

I have been thinking long and hard about this decision. I guess I should explain:
I was raised as a vegetarian. My father has been a vegetarian for decades, and while my father and mother were together, my mother was too. I knew what meat was, I was allowed to eat it if I so wanted, but the thing was I didn't want to. I couldn't think of anything less appealing than dead animal flesh. When I was about 6, I was tricked into eating meat by my mother and her new boyfriend. (they told me what I was eating didn't have meat in it, and I didn't find out until later, when I refused to eat turkey at christmas and they said "for gods sake, you've been eating meat for a year anyway!" - thanks mum). So from then on I had to eat meat. To be honest, I really dislike eating meat, particularly red meat. I've never craved it, nor have I ever gone out of my way to order a steak or something when dining out. I don't mind fish or eggs, and chicken is usually what I go for with most meals, but like I said, I don't like eating meat. I never 'feel' like it.
My father is still a vegetarian, as is his new wife and my sister. As with me, my dad and stepmum have encouraged my little sister to try it if she ever wishes to, but as so far, she has refused.

Getting back to my decision.

One thing that makes it difficult, is I guess my laziness. My boyfriend LOVES meat. He could eat it all day, every day. He also does very physical work, and so I guess one of his justifications is that he needs red meat for all the physical benefits it provides (muscle regeneration and growth, vitamins and nutrients etc).
So here I have a problem, as I cook the dinners each night (and no, this is not a discussion about who should cook, I WANT to cook the dinners - also my boyfriend leaves home at about 6am and gets home at 6pm, seeing as I work shorter hours it's only fair).

But having just come back from a holiday where for three weeks I ate a total of two meals which included meat (from staying at my brothers and then my grandparents), I have realised a) this is a choice I truly do want to make and b) I have felt so much better physically having only eaten a small amount of meat over that period of time.

I just wanted to write about it here as I haven't really told anyone else about my decision yet (except my boyfriend and a friend whom is also a vegetarian). It is also slightly financial because at the moment meat is so expensive, and even though I will be eating more beans, nuts etc, I think in the long run it might work out to be better financially as well.

Don't worry, I'm going for a yearly checkup with my doctor soon and will be informing him of this change and will get them to monitor my iron and b12 levels.

thanks for reading.

I thought I would just list my expenses for my holiday in detail:

Food: $72.55
Beverages: $61.50
Clothes: $77.95
Entertainment: $50 (Circus Oz ticket)
Magazines: $8.20
Books: $76.90
Misc: $12.30
Transport: $22.00
Total: $381.40

This is for three weeks. The reason my spending was so low is because I was staying with my dad, stepmum and little sister, so I had most homecooked meals and a lot of my dining out meals were paid for (even though I tried hard to pay for myself).

Now I am back into the swing of things again. I worked yesterday and today. (a rude shock to my system, my first day of work having started at 5.30am on a monday - quite a bit different from three weeks of waking up at around 9am!!!)

I am going to allow myself two weeks of leeway before I begin my challenge and stupid vault counting again. by this time I will have started to get full pays again and will have sorted out all my money!

It is now officially tax time, woohoo! I am currently writing up the group certificates for Work #1, and will be getting my Work #2 group certificate with my payslip on thursday.

Also apparently my boss and his wife at Work #2 handed out $25 coles-myer gift cards to all the staff with our group certificates for putting in a good effort over the year, which is lovely. (we also get $50 gift cards for christmas and a bottle of bubbles, and scratchies-cards for our birthdays...) Yes, it's a nice place to work.

I don't know how much I will get back from my tax return but I'm going to cross my fingers and hope for $700+.

While I was on holidays I also reached Goal # 1 on my Personal loan for $4250 balance. It is now at approximately $4190. I will update all of my savings and debt amounts later.

Well that will be all for now. Thankyou for reading but I have to get back to work now

from my holidays in victoria! hello everyone, i am ready to start getting into frugal mode again.
i have to say though, my holiday expenditure went *exceptionally* well.

I spent, in three weeks, $381.40 on food, transport, beverages, entertainment and clothes.



(this is not including my normal expenses at home ie. bills, rent and loan).

I am so very pleased with myself.

We have a wedding to go to in 6 weeks, which we just got the invitation to, so I will be using some left over money from my holidays to buy a dress and shoes.