Last night flatmate and her BF went out for dinner, so my BF and I were left to our own devices. I really really did not feel like cooking, and we considered takeaway for about 5 minutes. But because we have been on each others backs about super-saving until the end of the year, we decided to not spend $30+ on dinner and instead I pulled some pasta sauce out of the freezer that I had pre-made and frozen. (even THAT felt like an effort!) Bolognaise for BF and a vege packed sauce for me! And I also had a corner of a pizza base that had cracked off in the freezer, so i crushed some garlic on it, added some herbs and grated cheese and we had some garlic bread!
I felt good saving that money, as well as knowing that the food was fresh (well, fresh when I made it, then frozen!) the pasta was organic, and I had even made the dough for the garlic bread myself at work!
And I was able to watch Neighbours while I cooked it, heh heh (the truth comes out - I usually watch Neighbours every night...)

I am starting to run low on our stock of frozen pasta sauce though, so I will have to make some more. Tomorrow I am determined to go to the market, as I have not been in weeks.

On monday we are having a building and pest inspection done on our house. I don't know why?! The real estate has assured me that the owner is not selling, so I guess maybe that means that they are worried about us living here? I have always felt a little unsure living here, as the real estate aren't exactly friendly (we got a phone call about our lawn being 'ho-hum' and that we had 24 hours to mow it - even though it had been raining for 2 weeks) and I know for a fact we were the 'second choice' for occupants, which makes me feel a little edgy.

Anyone that has rental properties that they own, what would be your reasons for a building and pest inspection? I am planning on tidying up a little today and tomorrow, but I am not sure how far I should really go (as BF is working and flatmate has HER BF over - so therefore won't be much help - I don't want to clean the entire house myself). Apparently it will be the council doing the inspection, not the real estate, although the real estate MAY be there. So I was thinking just a general tidy-up, vaccuum & mop, sweep outside and clean the windows??? would there be anything else I would have to do? what about gardening? I HATE GARDENING!!! ok, I wouldn't mind if it was my own house, but it's not.

anyway.
any advice or thoughts would be appreciated

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.

I haven't done very well in tracking my expenses this week, mainly due to the wedding I guess. (Mainly due to me not wanting to know how much we really spent!). We were away for the entire weekend, and I had Friday off as well. Now I can settle back into routine. I am planning on running again atleast 3 times a week, and hopefully 4-5 times, depending on schedule. I was meant to go for a run on Monday afternoon but I went kayaking instead so I guess it is still exercise.
I went bowling on the weekend (the day after the wedding) and now my arm and right side hurts! I won the second game though...

Overall it was a spendy spendy weekend. Because I don't know the exact amounts, I am estimating and hoping I don't leave anything out. It is better to have some sort of idea of my spending than just giving up completely, right???

Expenses:
Magazine: $7.50
Breakfast: $8.00
Gift: $50 cash
Alcohol: $18
Bus: $10
Breakfast: $40 (BF and I)
Groceries for dinner: $17.23 (BF and I)
Bowling: $17 (for two games)
Drinks: $7.20
Breakfast: $20.40 (BF and I - a cheaper and nicer place second time round!!!)

Total: $195.33

Whew, isn't too bad considering I transferred $200 from my gifts/holidays fund!!! I thought it would be way more. Of course, it's still a lot. But these events only happen rarely in our group of friends, (for example, there was a wedding last year, then this one, and then the next one will most probably be BF and myself - and we're a long way off!) I think it's worth the expense because it was just such a great time.

On another note, we got our phone & internet bill, which is $88. BF and I are sharing the cost without other flatmate this month as she was away for a month. It's funny, she accepted the offer straight away to not pay it, even though I went away in June-July for three weeks and still had to pay the bill.

For the past 2 weeks we have had visitors staying at our house, and they left late last week. Also our flatmate, who had been away for a month, returned. It was nice to have the visitors, but I definately noticed an increase in spending, as we would often have takeaway, or I would cook for all four of us (they cooked once). They were our guests and seeing as I didn't know them well enough as I know our other friends, I didn't exactly feel comfortable asking them to pitch in on grocery items and dinners (unless we got takeaways). So BF and I paid for about 3/4 of their dinners. (breakfasts and lunches they did their own thing).

Now everything is back to normal I am looking forward to a decrease in Takeaway Food and Groceries spendings. I know I have to work on some dining out expenses as I have been having coffees with a friend about 2 or 3 times a week, and I stupidly decide each time that I won't bother to pack some snacks and 'will be fine to just have a coffee and wait til dinner', which usually ends in my stomach grumbling at me and my friend and I sharing a bowl of chips or some other equally fattening non-essential item we could have easily avoided.

I have also not been walking AT ALL lately. Usually I have atleast 3 x 30 minute walking/jogging afternoons a week at the beach along a track, but have not really gotten back into it since my holiday. So this is all going to start again next week, on monday after work. NO excuses! and I have decided I will jog an extra 10 minutes each session just because I have been so lazy.
Fortunately I have not put on any weight, though I am sure that will change unless I do something immediately!

I am going to make a meal plan for this week. This vegetarian/meateater combination is a tricky one sometimes, but it's working. Tonight I think we will have homemade pizzas as I have some bases in the freezer which I made last week.
For the toppings we will have: artichoke hearts, pineapple, onion, capsicum, roast pumpkin, olives, sundried tomato, with a tomato and garlic sauce, fresh herbs and on BF's side he will have some sliced lamb.

Today's expenses:

Muffin: $3.50
Extra: $2.09
Chocolate: $2.39
Petrol: $30.03
Fish: $6.05

Everything except the fish and the petrol I could have done without. So obviously it's all going to the Stupid Vault.

I was so ridiculously hungry this morning and I realised I had forgotten my lunch, so I bought a strawberry muffin from the organic cafe when i made a deposit at the bank.

My parents redeemed their credit card reward points for a coffee machine so I bought the chocolate (a kinder bueno) to share with my mum with a coffee.

my flatmate went to a housewarming party of a friend of hers and her bf's. they have been together for roughly 2.5-3 years and have just bought a house together. she is a real estate receptionist, so i understand the need and determination of someone in that profession to own property, but i wonder if they aren't jumping the gun a little on buying together? apparently the boy contributes more money to the mortgage than her as well.

eh.

sometimes i wonder why it seems so easy for other people.

the one thing that made me smile is, about a year ago they took out a five year term personal loan of $6000 to get a plasma television. apparently (according to flatmate) that is the only thing of value in the house, other than the house itself.