I went in and picked up a book I had ordered a couple of weeks ago - Cooking with Kurma by Kurma Dasa. My dad has his books and he cooked a bit from them when I visited him last. Delicious. I really wanted to get a vegetarian cook book seeing as all the cook books I have only have a couple of recipes in them. Of course, you can do substitutions or leave the meat out, but I just really wanted one that was actually FOR vegetarians. Only thing is Kurma doesn't cook with garlic, but I'll just be adding that in when I need to.

I had a quick flick through the book and I can't wait to get home so I can have a good go-over it. Next week I will plan a couple of meals around the recipes.

Tonight for dinner will be a little experiment. I am planning on baking some pumpkin, capsicum and zucchini (and some lamb for BF), blanching some beans and broccoli and caremelising some onions, then i am going to add that all to some plain cooked pasta and stir through the rest of the jar of pesto I have left in the fridge (from the pasta salad I made for my party). I might crumble some fetta over it and add some fresh rocket as well.

Yum Yum!

I need nothing from the store except the meat for BF.

Todays expenses so far:
Book: $30
Florentine Biscuit: $3.70 (i know! rip-off!)
Petrol: $30.31
Phone Bill: $44.45 (my share)

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I am excited because there are three people going on holiday at work at the SAME TIME (which is terribly stressful for my boss - but good for me!). Which means I get to do my maximum hours, and I might even get some easy work serving customers for some shifts. My max hours per week are 30 - I mentioned to my boss if he's REALLY stuck for people to work shifts, I said I would do more, and then he can pay me normally when I want to take time off. I don't really care that much about overtime unless I'm actually working more than 8 hours in a day - if it's spread over a week I couldn't care less if I worked an extra 8 hours and 'only' got $19.78 per hour.

Income: $2041.50 ($510.38 p/w)
Job 1: $695.00 ($173.75 p/w)
Job 2: $1219.50 ($304.88)
Other: $127.00 ($31.75 p/w)

Deducted from Savings:
Gifts: $50
Holidays: $150
Bills: $142.69
Total: $342.69


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Expenses: $2113.43
Rent: $506.68 ($126.67 p/w)
Groceries: $219.71 ($54.93 p/w)
Petrol: $113.13 ($28.28 p/w)
Phone & Internet: $26.69 ($6.67 p/w)
Loan Repayment: $148.00 ($37 p/w)
Extra Loan Repayments: $80.00 ($20 p/w)
Skincare: $29.95 ($7.49 p/w)
Mobile Phone: $30 ($7.50 p/w)
Misc: $5
Health & Beauty: $36.50 ($9.13 p/w)
Gifts: $60
Bank Fees: $7
Fun-
Alcohol: $56.50 ($14.13 p/w)
Takaway Beverages: $90.32 ($22.58 p/w)
Takeaway/Dining Out: $239.40 ($59.85 p/w)
Magazines & Books: $13.50
Clothes & Shoes: $83.65 ($20.91 p/w)
Makeup: $21.95
Entertainment: $213.45 ($53.36 p/w)
Staff Lotto: $8 ($2 p/w)
House: $8.00
Car Service: $116.00
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Savings: $220 ($55 p/w)

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So:
Income: $2041.50
+ saved: $342.69
= $2384.19

Less Expenses: $2113.43
Less Savings: $220.00

Remaining: $50.76

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Whew!

This is the first time that I have used my Holiday/Gifts Fund for what it was supposed to be used for, and it actually worked!

And yes, I know, I know, I spent a lot on the 'Fun' categories. In my defense, I had a wedding and a hens night to go to, which meant two whole weekends a couple of hourse drive away from my home. This month will be much better, the only thing I have to spend on in September is stuff for my party, which should cost roughly $100 or a bit more. I am thining I will take what I can out of my holiday account, if I need to.

First off, I just wanted to say thankyou to all the kind comments and advice from my previous post. While it's not really MY financial problems, it did have some financial bone in the post and overall I think I just wanted to have a whinge. The worst part is yet to come as I have decided I will have to atleast say something to my mum (I have a habit of trying to ignore these things) and I also have to find out if she has told her partner yet - I don't want to be responsible for keeping something from him like that, and also the fact that I have a lot of financial control in his accounts as well will not inspire trust if he isn't told asap about this.

On another note, BF and I have been talking about this property thing. What we have decided to do is SAVE SAVE SAVE for the rest of the year. On top of this, we are looking into possibilities of renting again for another six months. While I am sure some of you will breathe a sigh of relief about this, I will also share the facts:
Renting now: $126.67 for me and $136.67 for BF.
In six months, if we can't find someone to rent with us, rent will increase to approximately $200 each. No doubt that will put a big dent in our ability to save. If we move somewhere else, that is smaller, rent will still be around $160 each.

We have one option which we have been talking about, which is a married couple (we'll call them M and F) that we know who live a few hours away who want to move to our area. Both the couples parents live near us as well. The mother of F has cancer, and it looks as though she might be at the end of her life. F is also expecting her first child in the start of 2009. M and F also have two dogs.

This would reduce our rent to around $100 each per week. The internet would also be reduced from $25 per week to $19. It would be a financially beneficial move for all of us (as M & F want to save for a deposit too) however, it would mean that we would be living with a newborn baby for about 5 months. It would also mean that BF may have to spend a fair amount of money fixing one of his cars so that it is driveable (therefore M & F can have half of the garage - currently BF has two cars in the garage). That would be putting a halt on our house deposit savings. I estimate a couple of K on the car. Also, BF and I would have to move to a smaller room. Currently we have the ensuite master bedroom. I think it would be only fair if M & F had the larger bedroom when they are expecting a baby.

Anyway. So those are our choices really. Current flatmate is moving at the end of the year, to live with her BF who is a couple of hours away. There's no chance of any of that changing.

So we either rent this place by ourselves, for $400 a week.
Or we find a cheaper place to rent, at a minimum of $320 a week.
Or M & F decide to move in with us, and our rent is split four ways.
Or, we save for just the mortgage insurance, and give the big bad banks $10k of our hard earned money. Plus stamp duty and fees, of course.

oh well. atleast i am trying to look at other possibilities. i thought you would all be proud.

Today I paid the remaining $84.67 on my CC # 2 and now I officially have NO BALANCES on ANY of my CC's.
Which means my only debt is my personal loan. Technically I never actually had CC 'debt', as I always paid the full amount at the end of the cycle, but I always had a balance. So it's a very freeing feeling. I like transfering the money as soon as I spend it, I think I will keep doing it, it makes me feel on top of things.
I have set up a $60 transfer into my bills account for the next three weeks, as I probably won't have much access to the internet over my holiday. On Monday night I am going to adjust my automatic transfers for my online savings accounts as well, and transfer ALL of my holiday savings into my main account. I have worked hard for these savings, so I am not going to feel guilty for whichever way I decide to spend the money.
I am already a low spender type of person. I wouldn't say I'm especially frugal, and I like to have fun (sometimes a bit TOO much) however I am not the type of person to blow a paycheck on shoes or clothes, nor my holiday savings on a bunch of crap I won't use. I know if I have any money left over I will put it to good use as well.
Last holiday, I was with a friend who tried to convince me to buy something from a Country Road store, even though I wasn't really that interested, I only said I liked some of their clothes. Her reasoning? "you work hard, you deserve it."
deserve what? a piece of overpriced clothing that i only sort of like?
sheesh.

I am looking forward to seeing the SATC movie, haven't seen it yet. I was waiting to see it with my step-mum. She has already seen it but would like to see it again.
Oooh, can't wait! Only five more days to go!

In other news:
I got some bread rolls from work today (FREE!) so we are having burgers tonight for dinner:
Homemade beef rissoles, lettuce, tomato, cheese, cucumber, pineapple and beetroot.
Yum!
Bread rolls are normally 70c each, so I am adding 70c to my challenge, as well as $1 for a NSD today. New balance: $77.98

Last night we went out for dinner and I spent $2.20 on a drink and $12.50 on a pasta dish. It was delicious; a garlic, chicken and mushroom fettucine pasta. I think I did quite well for the night.

That's all my news for now!

I am trying to really get on top of my credit card usage. While I've never actually not paid the whole balance by the due date, it's usually a rude shock to see my CC balance at the end of the month and I find myself scrambling around to pay it. So I have been trying to transfer the money onto it from my main bank as soon as I charge something to it (like a visa debit card i guess). While some people will say this is silly as I'm missing out on interest accruing, it's a small price to pay for peace of mind, and the main reason I use the CC is for the reward scheme.
So today I charged a 2gb USB Flashdrive stick for $14.95 and an Invoice & Statement Book ($5.29) for my contract-cleaning job. Yesterday I charged the petrol ($23.17) and milk ($2.39) expense to my CC, and last week I paid for the electricity bill ($277.07 shared by 3).
I transfered $230 to the CC today, and will transfer another $93 when my BF transfers his portion of the electricity bill to my account.

Whew! It's hard being organised sometimes, but worth it all the same.

Does anyone else do this, or am I just insane?