Don’t you love water leaking somewhere at least I could pinpoint where this time. About nine months ago just before Christmas, I had my street redone while they were doing it the workmen cut the water pipe to my house and had to fix it. A few weeks ago now I found water leaking on my footpath so much that when I put my finger into the grass the water was up to my palm deep I rang the local water utilities and finely they came out to fix it up the new join had given way. After that was fixed a few days later I found I had rusty water leaking in my laundry down the wall. I had a hole in one of my pipes; a plumber came to fix it up yesterday this cost around $90 after a pensioner discount through a pensioner group I had joined. This is not bad after all the water leaks over 20 years I only had to pay for 2 repairs all the others were on the street side of the fence.

Four major water pipe bursts on street side and two minor pipes on my side costing me under $150 to repair over the past 10 years. If I have to replace the old pipes, this will cost around $1000 they are over sixty years old so I know that at some point they will need to be done. I will now budget for them and have this money ready for if or when that happens. All is working well at the moment so I am not in any hurry for it to be done now!

Our water bills are still going up whether we use to much water or not as the power to be are charging like a Bull in a China Shop, we now have to pay for all infrastructure of new dams and recycled water plants and Desalination Plant that doesn’t work after 2 years yet!

Update

I had a great day in the city today! I went to lunch at Casino again with my ex-workmates. We haven’t worked in 12 years next month, all of us were retrenched at the same time and enjoying our retirement now. We do meet every month like clock work not always the same ones but someone turns up each month, this time nine of us turned up about the normal number for our group.

Before lunch I set out to pay all my bills that are due this pay. This saves me an extra trip of running around early next month as most are due then. I like to pay as many bills over the counter as I can as this is away I can remember that I haven’t missing them. It’s a route now to pay the bills on certain dates that I go to the city. Some of the bills are paid via bank debit and another’s via post then the council rate bills are paid at the main counter so that I remember that they are paid and I get my discount and all credit card bills are paid when I am near the banks again over the counter. I did buy some birthday cards for the August Birthdays, another USB stick, A Moroccan Cookbook that I wanted, top up my fare card which is called a Go Card here which allows me travel around without having to find change for fares.

Costs
Lunch _________$13.50
Gambling ______$8.00
Fares __________$20.00
USB stick_______ $12.99
Cookbook ______$14.95
3 Birthday Cards _$2.00
Bills total ______$505.00

Total __________$576.44

It’s up and running just waiting for my rebate to come back. So after waiting 110 days for a team to come an install it for me! Why so long, a lot of red tape as someone (Federal & State Governments) didn’t do they job right the first time around, no safety checks were done that everyone was working on installing solar hot water and ceiling batts had the right certificates to do the jobs. Four young workmen died in the ceilings here installing ceiling batts which is the other option you could have had done. I had ceiling batts so went with the solar hot water option.

I will not know if I will save any money for another three months as it was installed two days the last meter read. I am working on that I will save about 4 kWh on Hot water and third off my power coming down from 16 kWh & 4 kWh per day to around 9 kWh per day for both. Prices are rising for our power here in leaps & bounds, another price rise started on 1st July for electricity and water is going up too! I am still using around same amounts but the bills are still going up. I have budgeted for extra $200 but mine may stay around the same because of solar panels & solar hot water installed. I do sell back to the grid but now I will use most of this to run the solar hot water pump.

I do have a slit system where the 400L water tank is on the ground and the panels are on the roof the only drawback is they had to put the panels on west side of the house and my solar panels are on the east side of house. Ideally they should be facing north but I never had the room to put either there. But I do get between 10 to 14 hours sun per day 365 days of the year. It’s good to live in the Sunshine State.

The Solar Hot Water rebate was scrapped last Friday and reduced to $1000 and comes in next June with a new scheme will not affect me. As I have paid my part of this scheme and I am registered with the State scheme it will be still covered if they install the system in one month before March 19.

As the company that is installing it have cut off all contract for now. Panic went into overdrive but then you had to phone a special number where you were told what was going on. I just have to wait for a phone call from the company for a rebooking of the installing date. If they dont make it by the March 19, I have been told not to worry as the State Gov will pick up the tab for the different in cost after that date.

So I will be not out of pocket and dont have to find the $1600 upfront then wait 6 months for a refund.

It rained so it never went up today, as we had over 140mm of rain in the past 36 hours with 80mm of that in an hour. There is a lot of flooding in some areas as the drains just dont cope with that much rain in one go!

So rebooking is in order, but one good thing came of all this I found out today the they had run out of the size of water tank I paid for, so I had got an upgrade to next size larger 400L with larger panels and more greener.

They did not tell me how much more the cost was but few hundred dollars I would think as its 65% larger than the one its replacing and it was around $700 when I bought it on its own.

So with all the waiting around it was a No spending day here too!

Sometime this week if the weather holds here, I will have the Solar Hot Water System installed. Its raining at the moment here.

As I reported before that it was rebate of $1600 as part the Gov stimulus package and our state government has got a deal going with buying in bulk for the State that picks up balance of the tab. True cost of Solar Hot Water is closer to $3800 than I thought but my cost for it $505 less a $50 voucher by local council.

Some people will find that they will be out of pocket a lot more if they need a lot more extra copper piping than allowed in the quote and same with the electrical work that is to be done.

I will write a full summary up when I get time.

They are still working on my street at the moment; they have finished the kerbing & channeling. Today they started on the road surface; outside my stretch they needed to go down to 225mm not the normal 125mm of road base. So while digging out the old road surface they broke the water pipe to my house. This is while I was doing the washing today. So I never got to finish washing until seven hours later. Water board had to replace the copper piping for 6 metres of 9 metres wide street. While at it they put in a new washer for the water meter too!

This broken pipe put the road gang back by about 3 hours as they still had to finish the job to a certain point before they stopped for the day. Now they will do second half of the street tomorrow then when they finish the topping gang will come and finish the job on Friday or before Christmas I hope.

About 12 months ago I got a Climate Smart Meter Power checker installed here, one of our state government deals to reduce power usage here. Its a device that checks how much power you are using that minute and it cost. I needed do a battery change a few months back so the pricing got changed by accident and now is out by a few cents for each watt. Not that I am worried that much as the power cost has gone up since then and its in the pipeline that its to go up a lot more over next few years something like 25% more.

My hot water is not on this tariff but still shows on the climate smart power meter, when this is on 49c less any phantom power and then if you put anything else then its more. I am averaging around 12.6c most of the time. Lowest before charging batteries was about 1.6c but now is about 2.35c at night with no hot water on and just phantom power for things that needs to be still on and with no fridges or freezer on.

A few months ago I got six solar panels installed here, another government grants to the tune of $8000 plus our state government working on bulk order deal that in the end costing to low income earners a few hundred dollars to have installed this offer is now over. After nearly two months our energy supplier finely came and installed the new meter so that I can get rebates on any extra solar power that is sent to the grid because I wasnt using it. Daytime power is now mostly solar powered and I even sending some back to the grid.

Its now 14 days since that meter box was changed. I have use 83kW of grid power and generated 56kW of solar power and sent to the grid 16kW on top of what I have used. I am averaging 1/3 solar and 2/3 grid kW use per day. I have been monitoring it for 78 days now, so I can see a pattern forming of using 8 to 9 kW on grid power and generating between 4 -5.9 kW of solar power per day..

Last summer I was using 16.27kW per day with very mild use of an Air Con at times when temps got over 34C inside the house.

So in all it will cut my bill down to a bearable price and ever more if I get solar hot water installed next year as my name is down for another grant for that one too! I would never be able to afford it if I had to pay full price. So I have done my little bit for Climate Change in this household but I will be on the look out to do more in the future.

Update
Costing of all is well over $9500 in the end I am out of pocket only $355 including the Climate Smart Meter which I got a refund of the cost from the local council.

Still to come is the Solar Hot Water worth over $2500 out of cost I am told will be with senior discount around $100 out of pocket. Which checking my inbox just a while ago I am just now waiting for the grant approval then it will just need to wait my turn for installing.

With all these schemes will, its hope save on building extra coal power stations in the near future. We do have the sunshine here as I am getting over 13 hours per day with my solar panels now!

I went to check my downstairs fridge & freezer only to find it dying; I will be able keep the fridge going a little longer but empty out the freezer section as only the freezer bottles of water are keeping it cold. I mainly use it for storage with my years worth beans, flours, pastas and my stock of chutney as it vermin proof so will need to look at finding a new home for these.

I will try to do without this fridge as its over 30 years old and cant be fixed as the gas cant be refilled in these old refrigerators as it rusty and has CFC in it.

I had then to find room in my other freezers for the frozen vegetables and cooked beans that I did keep in this fridge. Some of it got trashed as the dates on them were 2005 and looked dead to much ice.

Now I will have a look at how I can use it after I turn off the power and dry it out for a few weeks.

It is coming close to the end of my 56 days cycle in reporting my review on my daily living allowance.

I have had a quite two month so far just kept spending as I see fit. I will need to cut back on my grocery spending as I do have too much food both in my freezers and pantries. I have food stored in a number of places around my home. As one of refrigerators broke down as in not as cold as it should be and I hope I can learn not to need it any longer as it was an old second fridge and freezer combo. I have empted out the freezer section so far and put bottles of water in it to see if its still works for now as the fridge part looks to be still working for now. Items I do store in this refrigerator can be store out side a fridge but needs to be kept safe from vermin.

We will need to keep a close eye on my grocery spending for the next six months to see if I can get it much more lower and use some of my stockpile so that get my refrigerator stores into the freezer which is full the moment. It is a chest freezer only 160 L size so it is a small chest freezer suitable for a single household but not suitable for what I wish store in it.

Not that it make much difference to me but a lot of other things are happening as well to make the cost of living higher around here.

For one our state government has had an 8 cents a litre state tax subsidy on fuel here for many years now but come the 1st July it will be gone. This will increase the cost of not only fuel but cost of most things too! As our State was the only one that did not have this extra tax on fuel, it will an eye opener to the others states if the transport and supermarkets in Australia were averaging their prices with our states fuel subsidy because at times our prices for fuel were still higher then some of the other states. Someone was making money on this subsidy and not our state motorist. I see it as putting all the states on a level playing fielding but others see it as a rip off by the our state government for taking it off. Time will tell as their say.

Another price rise will be electricity price will be going up so will need to watch my power consumption until I get solar power installed. I still dont know how much but will review my contract with my supplier when I get an idea of how much. If I can get a better deal then I can change suppliers.

Another expense that is coming in on 1st July will Cat Licence this will be a problem as my cats do not like collars at all.

With all the rises that are coming in like rates, water, fares and everyday cost of living with fuel subsidy coming off even I will need take stock of everything and find more money out of my pension to pay all of it. Luckily single pensioners are getting a pay rise in September but there will not be much leftover in the end.

Well I thought I better start again with blog. It's back to basic for now.

Time to review my daily living allowance for the next two months of my 2009 budget.

First I would like to say that I dont work on a calendar months as my budget always starts a few weeks before Christmas as I am procrastinator if I dont do it then it will take months for me to getting done if at all. I am working on it.

I am hoping to cut over $1000 from it over the year on what I spent last year or better. Its all those little items included that mount up. As this the area that I do have some control over in my spending.

First number is what I have averaging amount budgeted for these two months; second figure is what I have spent. The figures in brackets are the area and amount spent with the stimulus package see below.

Eating out= $67==$80.46
Groceries=$271.00= = $94.56
Non-Food=$33.00= =$7.10
Clothes =$67.00==$181.93
Grooming=$25.00==$17
Gas=$50.00 ==$18.25
Pets= $98.00 ==$52.87
HH items=$83.00==$91.14
Fares= $17.00 == $25.00
Entrainments= $25.00 == $99
Garden =$17.00==$141.66
Gifts & Donations =$67.00= =$75
Medical Prescription =$30==$101.29
Misc =$17.00 ==$10.63
Personal Allowance =$168.00 ==$87.19

$1045 = $1045 to spend over this period, spent $1083.08 came over by $38.08. In this period I budgeted to spend a little more of my $1400 Stimulus package over these two months as I didn’t get any in the second around of Stimulus package that is being paid now. So what did I buy; a DVD player that I found for $99 saving of $30, Garden blower & cord $141 which was needed for my garden, some more clothes & shoes for next summer at the summer marked down sales $181.93== $421.93

Spending was as normal over this period but still cutting back on grocery & pet food over these months. My medical expenses are going up owing to a current medical condition.

I had 28 days of no spending days over this period.

With the way the economies of the world these days, with shares, banking, peck oil & shortages of some food items. I do think it time for me to start stockpiling more food & other supplies. Things are only going to rise and almost never will come back down in price. My starting point is reviewing what I have already got stockpiled. Then filling the gaps first, using any old or nearly old stock replacing them with new items that I will use and can cook without power if there is a shortage in electricity here. I’m looking into different ways of cooking so I can cook if there is rationing of the power grid. I do believe that is may be happing some parts of the world now. Solar cooker, hay box, camp gas stove & BBQ non-gas one, two of these methods I have already have. Food lines can be used in my normal cooking until needed but keeping them to a peak level when each comes on special in they cycles. They are many places now on the internet telling you how much you need to store per person. As I am in a single household I will be only storing for two, mostly things that other people will not to want to make from scratch too! Dried & canned beans, dried & canned vegetables, mainly canned tomatoes, and other foodstuffs, oil & vinegars, spices & herbs, coffee & tea, water plus paper goods and good first aid kit enough for a few months at least. Torches & radio with batteries, to name a few things I’m thinking of. Another thing is the information of how to use these foodstuffs using these cooking methods and how to make things & repairs them to last longer.

Today we had a ‘Wet Weekend’ for a one hour on odd & even house number system that we have. We could get our hoses out for just one hour this weekend. Some people didn’t use they hoses for this one time only in 18 months. For me it was a lot longer than that as I always started a lot earlier as when the next level was published not when it started and the first 3 levels were published together. So for first time in over 3 years I washed my house and window of dust and had time to wash my car also. I did get everything ready before hand and all I had to do at end of the time was dry the car down. We are still on 140 litres per day per person. I’m at below 90 litres per day so I’m well within my limit. Hopefully we may go to 170 litres per person when we go over 40% and we are at 39.5%.

Weekly Main Meal Menu

Sunday ~Apricot Chicken with rice
Monday ~ Steak with Onions & Grilled Tomato
Tuesday ~ Leftovers night
Wednesday ~ Curried Sausages with Rice
Thursday ~ Chicken Schnitzel & Egg with Vegetables
Friday ~ Salmon Patties with Vegetables
Saturday omelet with salad

Well I did get my Hot Water System put in last Saturday, all is well and working as it should. I was lucky as the plumber that bought & put it in for me is a son of one my neighbor’s that do watch from time to time. So now I owe him some of my time as he didn’t charge me for the work of putting it in just bought the best one in that style, as they are three grades each one cheaper each other and not as strong. This one has thicker copper tank so I’m told. So I was out of pocket by $625.00. I had that money put aside for such emergency so no big deal on the money front. I do try to budget, some money for that kind of problem knowing that a lot of my appliances are on the old side and will need to replace in the near future. What is next, it should be a computer & lawn mower in that order with stove and washing machine coming in after that. Only a microwave will be bought straight away.

I will try coming on here bit more regular and update starting a fresh.

My Spending today $625.00

Today I did a big run around shopping and pay my bills, as I haven’t been out for a while. I went to thrift shop on the way up the street and bought a large plastic container, for $2.50 that is normal sold for about $12.95 new. I also pick up some more Gourmet Traveller magazines, 5 for $2.00 I now have quite a number of theses now. I bought some grocery $4.70. I want to get some film developed but no one does it any more but at large shopping centres. So I had to go the another shopping centre in my car. So as I need to pay some bills as well, first put the film in to get developed, $11.63 then I had wait for 3 hours but I needed to shop, have lunch and pay the bills. Going to Aldi spending $19.93, buy some underwear $11.94, having lunch for $1.65 saving $1.50 on coffee with my senior card. Paying my car membership $62.00, and another bill for $94.50. I did buy the book The Secret $20.94 so I will know want it all about. I still have a few more bills to pay via my credit card. I will pay this before I need to put my next annual Chiro bill on it. But I will have it paid off along before the interest is due on it.

Weekly Main Meal Menu

Monday ~ Chicken Mustard with Rice.
Tuesday ~ Beans Rissoles & Salad
Wednesday ~ Toasted Savoury Mince Jaffa’s
Thursday ~ Scramble Eggs on Toast
Friday ~ Poached Fish with Steamed Vegetables
Saturday ~ Spicy Pumpkin & Sweet Potato with Lentils
Sunday ~ Chicken Schnitzel with Tomato Salsa & Steamed Vegetables.

Today’s Senior Card Savings - $1.50
Add to total $20 Challenge $32.40

My Spending today $231.79
Any Savings today $11.95

I am making a habit of going shopping with others and not buying at all or very little. They are the ones who are doing all the shopping. Today was no exception as I went with DF-M daughter, from interstate. First off, we went to Bunnings Hardware to buy some things for DF-M. Then came home then went off to buy shoes. After 2 hours Shopping, she spent money on shoes but I didn’t buy anything. After visiting five shoes stores. To find her size 35 (3.5 size) was the most difficult part of this exercise. As only one store had her size and they had a sale on too! So she end up buying them for $30.00 off the RRP. All I ended up buying was a special tap handle for my garden tap $14.95, that allows me to leave the tap with no handle but I can use it with a special key.. After I had lunch with them at DF-M house before I came home.

Weekly Main Meal Menu

Sunday ~ Macaroni Cheese with Fruit
Monday ~ Beans Rissoles & Salad
Tuesday ~ Chicken Schnitzel with Tomato Salsa & Steamed Vegetables.
Wednesday ~ Omelette with Tomato Salsa
Thursday ~ Devilled Sausages with Cheese Risotto & peas
Friday ~ Poached Fish with Steamed Vegetables
Saturday~Curry Mince on Toast

My tank arrived today, I had it delivered & installed today, after a 217 days since I ordered it.

It cost $1540 plus extra $50.00 for a ‘Water Diverter First Flush’ so I can drink the tank water if I want too and the first lot of water doesn’t go into the tank so it clean water going into the tank only. I will get back $1500 in government rebates over next few months. I will keep you posted. So will end up paying $90.00 all up for the tank 3250L with pump, extra tap & extra pipe plus fitting from part of main roof near the garage.
I spent nothing else today.

Today the son of another neighbor that I keep an eye on from time to time. Came over and put water diverter on drainpipe for my washing machine water, he is a plumber for free. Now I can use my grey water hose, as it never fitted before to my machine. It’s a little slow, but I can now put my soapy water straight on the lawn near the fruit trees.

Week before he went on holidays interstate and left his mother alone with his teenager son the only contract here. So each day I had to check on her to make sure that she was ok. As she has had a fall before and was on the floor for over 12 hours so everyone was a little nervous about her at 87.

Weekly Main Meal Menu

Sunday ~ Poached Fish with Marinated Pepper & Steamed Green Beans Topped w’ Chilli Sauce
Monday ~ Devilled Sausages & Mashed Potato
Tuesday ~ Beans Rissoles & Salad
Wednesday ~ Thai Satay Chicken with Steamed Rice & Green tea
Thursday ~ Beef Bourguignon with Basmati rice
Friday ~ Pasta with Pasta Sauce & Tuna
Saturday ~ Curry Ground Beef & Rice with Sambal

Another No spending day

My DS turned up today, ask for me to go to his house and help him do some of the housework with him. As I haven’t seen him for a few days and needed a change. I yes I would spend the day with him. Well I got a few things for my trouble in the way of freebies. First off I got my Easter egg that I didn’t get over the Easter weekend. As he had been working long hours and had been very busy too! Also I got a small gift of a brooch from my DIL when she was away over Easter. I got a old mobile/cell phone so I could have a new one as I am on pre-paid and they have just got a new lot of mobile phones so I asked for one of they old ones. I will have to learn to use it a bit more as he has put in the wrong setting for me to understand. I will not be making any calls on it until I will see him again.

After we had done a few jobs around the house we went up the shopping centre to get birthday card & gift for my DIL to-morrow. I bought a bag of chocolate at the dollar store and looked but didn’t buy anything at the supermarket for DF-M plastic containers that she is after, this supermarket was out of stock. In the end we didn’t buy lunch out but came back to have leftover Spaghetti Bolognese instead that DS remember that was in the fridge, a first. We found a few more little goodies that I could take home. Like a Peri Peri Wedges Set that my DIL bought a few years ago but out of date RRP $24.95, buts it could be used so I got it to take home. Now I can use those little metal serve tins and sauce but the Mayo sauce was unsafe to use.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Spaghetti Bolognese Coffee
DINNER Fruit Coffee

Today’s Full price Tally $26.95
Today’s Savings - $ 25.95 + 2nd hand mobile phone.
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $10638.46

I did the washing today saving all the grey water that I could. Using every trick that I have mention before in other post so that I could to get every drop. This routine does take a little of more time (around 1½ hours for two loads and one load of hand washing) than when I can just leave it to go down the drain.

After I did drive up to the Hungry Jack’s for lunch. They were having a two for one deal again so I had a Spicy Chicken Baguette for $5.25 for both. Using my senior card I was able to get two cappuccinos for free saving $4.90 and I bought a cone for 40c. So as I only ate one baguette at lunchtime I will have the second one for my dinner, as I was able to refrigerate it before it was unfit to eat. Less than two hours is the limit we have been told here. Four elderly people have died in a nursing home from food poisoning just last weekend and over twenty are very ill. This was in Victoria but the risk of food poisoning here is high because of our hot climate so we maybe more watchful.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH lunch out *
DINNER 2nd Spicy Chicken Baguette Grapes Coffee

Today’s Full price Tally $10.55
Today’s Savings - $4.90
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $10612.51

I have always watered in the early morning at dawn. Now I have to water only after 4pm until 7pm with a bucket only. But I can water at anytime if I have grey water or tank water. As my tank has not arrived yet! We had no rain for a month now, so it will have no water in it until it rains next when does arrive. We are on a odd & even house numbers as before. So now I have to change my jobs around so I can water in the afternoon before sun goes down, that only gives me about one hour to water the whole area. Some plants only need watering once per week so I will do them on the odd day. As I only water twice per week now. I will have to change my strategy on which plants to water and when. With the view that we may not be able to use buckets or water our gardens at all when we get to the next level in about September at 15% dam water level. My daily water use is only 129 litres per day. So I am saving money on my water bill. $12.50 for 3 months is not bad!

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Macaroni & Cheese Fruit Coffee
DINNER Stewed Lentils & Tomato Sauce & coffee

Today list of chores was washing and some ironing. This is saving money as I am saving every bit of water for my garden in the backyard. As some of you may have read that I do save first suds load to put back into the machine for the second load thus saving 80L of water each wash day to start with. I am saving as much recycle grey water that I can now we are at level 5.in a few days time. I am getting around 240L of grey water each washday. In doing so now I am saving the second suds load too! This is for plants that if I lost them it will not matter that much. So far I am able to water for two days with water and spot water the pot plant with tap water on the days that I am allowed to use potable water. I am hoping that my tank arrives soon & we get some rain so that I can fill it somewhat! We are coming into our dry season I do think it will have not much water to fill it before next spring. It’s over month that we in the city have had any rain here and almost 2 years in catchment area, now my grass is a just a lot of weeds and dry grass with dirt patches. I will still have to mow as the weeds are still flowering. That’s on the list for next week.

I did do some of my friend business shirts today also some of my own ironing that was still to be done. I did go for a walk around the block for some exercise today.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Macaroni & Cheese Fruit Coffee
DINNER Stewed Lentils & Tomato Sauce & coffee

I had to recharge my pre-paid mobile today as it is soon due and I didn’t want to lose my credits if I forgot to re-charge it on the date due. Too much to lose, and I not talking about cents here. it’s annual pre-paid plan that I am on as I only use it for SMS & incoming calls. I will only use it for actual calls if I am in trouble or have lost the person I am with and need to find them. As we all have mobile phones in our family. My family bought this mobile phone about three years ago so that I could have on when I am driving back and forth from they place 20 minutes away on a freeway and they can find me if I am out. It’s when I do put my mobile on.

So back to the costing of this mobile phone, Ok I got it for FREE with $30.00 free calls on it. As I can’t hear it ring only see the lights when a message come in. I don’t use it much to talk on, as the calls on this annual plan are .60cent per minute. I have no voice mail, rarely call out, only SMS mainly. After first 2 months, I bought $50.00 recharge and put it on annual plan. At the end of the first year I had $49.00 left which rollover to next recharge which I put another $50.00 recharge on it and next year another $50 recharge. Because now, I have still $72.00 left to rollover this year I put only $20.00 on it this time which is the lowest I can get. This is not all I saved, as I got 15% off each of those recharges as well! So what’s the cost of my mobile phone to date. As the phone was free with $30.00 in call. I spent only $127.50 out of my pocket. In 3 years I had $200 of call credits now have $92.00 left. Using only $108.00 in this time. $108.00 call credits used on Mobile phone calls in 3 years with a phone that is in daily use. Can anyone else beat this?

Also I went shopping today, bought some groceries $3.85 saving $2.00 and had lunch out $2.95 and free coffee, saving $2.45 and I bought chocolates as I do have a sweet tooth. $3.88 saving .60 here

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Crackers & Marinated Feta Cheese with Marinated Peppers Fruit Coffee
DINNER Savoury Mince on Toast. Fruit Coffee

Today’s Full price Tally $33.10
Today’s Savings - $ 8.05
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $ 9963.51

I started to get to on with my major project, one of the minor jobs to be done before any work can be done on the widow that will become a door in the near future. So today job was to move all the books off the bookcase that in the in the way. I moved it the corner of the room, I may leave it there for now. It’s full of books on fugal living and cooking. I still have another bookcase to move but this will be going to another area of the house. At the moment it can stay where it is for now!

I went to buy a rubbish bin for DF-M but they didn’t have any so I will ring before go again. I did buy some waterless car wash that I may need at some time in the future as I will not be able to wash my car on the next water use level which is coming in a few weeks and I will not get fined for cleaning my car. I drop to the fruit shop on the away home and bought some milk & tomatoes.

BREAKFAST Baked Beans on Toast Coffee
LUNCH Mixed Salad & Hummus on Crackers Fruit Coffee
DINNER Omelette with Cheese

Today’s Full price Tally $16.80
Today’s Savings - $ 5.00
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $9887.02

Well have finish my entire neighbor’s washing, it’s time that I did some of my own.

I have left it a bit long in doing to its time schedule but just by a few days. I did do two loads a little larger than normal this time. My going out clothes for Christmas & New Year are in this lot for hand washing. I do hand washing, as this does save on wear ‘n’ tear on good clothes and helps with not going into a third load as I only use one-eighth of the water in hand washing. As I did kept one bucket of sudsy water for hand washing from the first load and use some of rinsing water from the first load also. $$$ Another Strategy Ways of save water in a drought. I did water the garden while I was washing as I was using recycle water this was allowed.

It’s a no spending day here. A very quite day just work on my computer and resting.

Today it’s driving DF-M around, first to medical appointment then off to get blood tests.

After we dropped it at Hungry Jacks for Coffee & pancakes. The coffee was free saving $2.45 a cup with our senior cards.

Next stop bank, chemist & butchers in the nearest shopping area. Then home to drop off the meat bought at her favorite butcher, she bought meat for me too, some ½ kg fillet steak and 200g ham off the bone, around $20.00 worth.

After that stop, we went down to the supermarket and then on to another supermarket that she likes and had lunch together as she had not eaten much since last night. As her family is coming to stay for the weekend, she needed to buy food for another five people along with her monthly bulk shopping. I was very good with my shopping and spent only $2.00 saving $2.00. Paying my phone bill while I was at it!

I had to have my afternoon nap by the time we arrived home at 2.30pm, having started out 8am this morning. It was defiantly her day, I was just the driver today.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Ham Salad Roll & Orange Juice*
DINNER 2 Egg Ham Omelette and Salsa Apple Coffee

Today’s Full price Tally $78.00*
Today’s Savings - $ 35.80
2006 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $7394.66

We are in the middle of a drought here and we are going to the next level on 1st November.

Our state government along with some local councils are have a plumbing Waterwise service in which a plumber visits households for $20.00 (value @$150.00.) You get a AAA shower rose, air aerators fitted to you kitchen & bathroom taps plus 3 dripping taps fixed, you do have to invite them in to house by calling a special number. Along with my handyman doing all the others taps, I should be right for awhile. So I saved $130.00 here. My water bill is low to start with so it may go lower yet! I am at 46% below the amount used in an average single household and I do water my garden with 80% recycle water.

I also went for a walk and bought a bag of ‘MilkyWay’ ® again. Saving $1.50

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Soup & Toast Coffee apple
DINNER Poach Fish & Salad Coffee

Today’s Full price Tally $152.98
Today’s Savings - $ 131.50
2006 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $6645.21

October / November Goals & Planning Ahead
~ Have my credit card at Zero balance by end of the each month.
~ Come under budget.
~ Deposit into the online account.
~ Pay All Due Bills on pension days.
~ Chiro visit (one every 4 weeks)
~ Known outings to budget for in October / November -lunch out 3, dinner 1
~ Live off my Bulk Food Assets (on going)
~ Make up another eight meals OAMC. Out of Bulk Food Assets.
~ Gardening Mowing & repotting all pot plants using water saving techniques.
~ Cleaning and painting garage before the tank is installed.
~ Downsizing storage and clean these areas (zones 1 & 3)

Review of the last two months.

August / September Goals & Planning Ahead

~ Have my credit card at Zero balance by end of the each month. (½ paid other ½ within %Free)
~ Come under budget. (But for Car it’s to come out of Bill A/C.)
~ Deposit into the online account. done
~ Lodge my tax claim before middle of August - done & Chq. Bank
~ Pay All Due Bills on pension days. - done
~ Have my car service and rust proofing installed ($600.00 plus service.) done
~ Chiro visit (one every 4 weeks) Done
~ Doctor Visit & 2 Hearing visits for August & September (done see blog)
~ Known outings too budget for in August / September (Trip to the Annual Show, Lunch 3, Dinners 2.) done
~ Live off my Bulk Food Assets (on going)
~ Make up another eight meals OAMC. Done Out of Bulk Food Assets. done
~ Downsizing storage and clean these areas (zones 4 & 5 ) done

This morning the man came to measure and check if I could put in a water tank. He said yes, his firm could get a tank over the garage roof no problem at all! So I am getting one installed a 3000 litre size with best pump, road base and all work done by them too! I didn’t get another quote as I have seen they work before and all paper the work has come thorough, which is the most important part of getting the water tank as the REBATES are almost the full cost of the tanks. Mine will set me back six months of NO interest and $40.00 out of my own pocket when finished. The waiting time is around 12-14 weeks so it will be around January before anything happens with this project. I will factor in costs and saving when I hand over the cheque.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Macaroni & Cheese Apple Coffee
DINNER Devilled Sausages with Garlic Focaccia Bread