Here is my summery for May

I have updated my Excel finally so here are the figures for last month; I have been quite busy here.

This for period of 28 days each as I work on 28 day cycles, my dates may be out to calendar months so here are the figures that will bring it up to date as its very near the end of next 28 day cycle.

Reviewing my monthly daily living allowance

Review for May budget.
These are the categories for this challenge.

Items === Approx. Budget===Spent

Eating out===$35=====$27.40
Groceries===$125=== =$167.59
Non-Food===$15
Clothes ====$35=====$95.00
Grooming===$20 ====$35.95
Gas======$20
HH items===$40======$1.50
Fares== ====$15
Entrainments== $15
Garden =====$15
Gifts & Donations ==$35====$57.50
Medical & Diabetes Expenses ===$70====$118.30
Misc ======$10========$121.00
Personal Allowance =$90 ===$90.99

Note only one amount is a No Spend

No Spending Days 13 of 28 days

Budgeted for this period $550 spent $715.23 over by $165.23 on general spending.

This is because I have paid deposit of $121.00 for Awing for one of my windows with another two being paid by my insurance company. I also had a medical bill out pocket of $118.30 from skin specialist. Taking out these two items of $286.30 I still am under in my spending $428.93.

Personal allowance covers health drinks, lotto, books, stamps, craft and hobby supplies.

Eating out including meals out with family and friends, we all go Dutch.

My credit cards are still paid in full each month; it was $335.00 this period.

Grocery allotment $125 for each period it was over by $42.59 this period.

Strategy - Track your daily spending down to the cent by writing it down daily.

Is on its way after a long wait of almost 7 months since the storm hit. When you have over 70,000 roofs to be replaced and limit number of tradesmen to do it all and still build new houses it a big ask.

Owing to our cyclone codes here it has to be done to that standard and all jobs have to the latest codes.

My house had asbestos roof at one stage and all that rubbish was left in the roof and not removed so it wasn't up to days code standard so I had a bit of wait for them go ahead with the job after they put up all scaffolding as they had get it reviewed by the insurance company for the extra cost.

They are now back and putting on the new roof and hope to be finish it soon. A lot of the houses around here have scaffolding up and work men working on them.

They are still not done but it's on its way, so by the end of June, I should have 99% of the work done.
I had that job done but whether it has been done right it's another matter. At least I have a State company doing it, some roofers are coming from oversea and interstate to do the work but are doing it wrong as we have different codes here than some of other states because of the Cyclones which means a lot more roof nails and special tying down code has to be done and they doing as their own codes and with all the rain we have had in the last few months, some of the roofs are leaking and causing more damage and insurance companies now checking the work with other Asser's to see everyone doing the right thing. All the companies that are doing my work are Asser's firms.

We had major hail storm in my area late last year; I am down for a new roof and a few other things that need to be replaced. The insurance company will pay up but only if I have some maintenance done on one part of the roof first. I have tried to get someone to do this work so that other jobs can be done. Out of the three companies that contacted only one came up with a quote and call here. I will go with this company now. It's over month now since I was told about the maintenance to be done and all were called that day. Now if there was no work then the quote most likely cheaper but with two major storms within two weeks and over million widows broken and over 50 suburbs in trouble from the hailstorm alone. Some houses still have boards over windows and will not be look at before end of March, as for getting a tradespersons that can do insurance work you are lucky if one is around before middle of 2016 for any other jobs.

The quote is under my maximum price but a bit on high side. I am looking at a bill for $3800. It's lucky I have my suppuration rainy account to fall back on but I must top it up again so I will be stretching those dollars a little bit more.

I am only keeping this house liveable but not at resale standard. So only maintenance jobs that I have to do will get done.

It's lucky that my car was not Hail damaged it was in the garage as all of them are being written off.

One major purchase I had while offline, I had to replace my refrigerator. They sure don't make them like the old ones these days. As my rust bucket fridge downstairs is still working after 32 years.

It was only 10 years old and not worth spending a lot of money on getting it fixed either. So over $1300 was spent on replacing it. I had the money saved for new washing machine so I didn't need to panic about it.

Now I am saving money again for my washing machine replacement as I am not planning to have it fixed, just will replace it when its time it's almost 30 years old and there are no spare parts for it now!

Here is my Financial Summery for - December period.

I have updated my Excel finally so here are the figures for last month I have been quite busy here.

This for period of 28 days each as I work on 28 day cycles, my dates may be out to calendar months so here are the figures that will bring it up to date as its very near the end of next 28 day cycle.

Reviewing my monthly daily living allowance

This is my review for last month's budget.
These are the categories for this challenge.

Items === Approx. Budget===Spent

Eating out===$35=====$15.30
Groceries===$125=== =$106.83
Non-Food===$15======$2.50
Clothes ====$35======$34.00
Grooming===$20
Gas======$20
HH items===$40=======$21.46
Fares== ====$15
Entrainments== $15 =====$26.50
Garden =====$15 =======$47.90
Gifts & Donations ==$35 ===$37.48
Medical & Diabetes Expenses ===$70====$11.90
Misc ======$10
Personal Allowance =$90 ===$4.00

Note only one amount is a No Spend

No Spending Days 13 of 28 days

Budgeted for this period $550 spent $307.87 under by $242.13 on general spending.

My watches required new batteries that came out of clothes were an out of pocket expense of $34.00 and I never spent much of my personal allowance. Personal allowance covers health drinks, lotto, books, stamps, craft and hobby supplies.

Eating out including meals out with family and friends, we all go Dutch.

My credit cards are still paid in full each month; it was $245 this period.

Grocery allotment $125 for each period it was under by $18.17 this period.
I had to watch my spending this period as my outgoing on bills and major projects were over $16000 this period. That they all have been paid for now.

Strategy - Do remember what you have stored before you go and buy more of the same.

Here is my Financial Summery for October period.

I have updated my Excel so here are the figures for last month.

This for period of 28 days each as I work on 28 day cycles, my dates may be out to calendar months so here are the figures that will bring it up to date as its very near the end of next 28 day cycle.

Reviewing my monthly daily living allowance

This is my review for last month's budget.
These are the categories for this challenge.

Items === Approx. Budget===Spent

Eating out===$35=====$37.00
Groceries===$125=== =$66.22
Non-Food===$15
Clothes ====$35=====$8.00
Grooming===$20
Gas======$20
HH items===$40=======$35.00
Fares== ====$15 ======$10.00
Entrainments== $15
Garden =====$15 =====$9.50
Gifts & Donations ==$35 ===$24.20
Medical & Diabetes Expenses ===$70====$5.90
Misc ======$10===========$2.00
Personal Allowance =$90 ===$118.70

Note only one amount is a No Spend

Budgeted for this period $550 spent $316.52 under by $290.41

No Spending Days 11 of 28 days

Personal allowance covers health drinks , lotto, books, stamps, craft and hobby supplies.

** 3 year subscription to Diabetic living $87.00 - 39%off @ $4.83 per copy (RRP $7.95 x 18 copies)

Eating out including meals out with family and friends, we all go Dutch.

My credit cards are still paid in full each month, it was $2053.00 this period.

Grocery allotment $125 for each period it was under by $58.78 this period.

You can see that I am saving for something! A dentist bill that is will show up in period 11.

Strategy - Do remember what you have stored before you go and buy more of the same.

I have been very busy working on doing some renovations in some rooms here. Getting all the stuff that I collected over 40 years is hard to pack up and move it to other rooms so they could get at these rooms. I have had a new kitchen and breakfast room makeover done. I still am doing some painting that will be finished in January sometime owing to festive and school holidays and lot of people take this period off for their annual holidays.

At the moment I am working on my pantry which had to be done as well. I was planning to move the pantry into the kitchen but this is not going to happen now! I am putting it back as before minus a few things and replanning it if I can.

I did repaint it and had new shelving put there, so it good to go for the rest of my time here. I can't move any shelving around as they are fixed to fit the old shelving spacing. The cabinetmaker had to remove then cut each shelf to fit too!

I don't know if I have a before work photo I will one if I have. They went up in 1951 so it was time to a refit there. When I am finish repacking it I will post a photo of it.



After painting it but before fitting out with new shelving. These shelves are at least 40 plus years old.
.
Strategy - If it can be fixed then repair it, but use the less than half rule on replacement costs

Strategy - If it can't be fixed then buy or replace it within your means. You don't to buy everything new either!

I will need to catch on my financial summaries soon I am way behind on them!

Well I am almost finished my garden in readiness for summer.

Just need to weed and munch the front garden before it gets to hot here. It's very dry so I may only just weed it for now!



Here are after pictures of my clean-up of those two garden beds. The dead vines on the tree had the main roots in the clean-up bed so died when cut. It's takes about two years to get back to the way it was. I think I may plant some sweet potato in that bed for now!



I have started on a new project here so more about it later.

It’s time that I updated here before others things do get in the away again.

I only just updated my Excel so here are the figures for past month not posted so far.

This for one period of 28 days each as I looks like I missed one somewhere. As I work on 28 day cycles, my dates may be out to calendar months so here are the figures that will bring it up to date as its every near the end of next 28 day cycle.

Reviewing my monthly daily living allowance

These are the categories for this challenge.
Items === Approx. Budget===Spent
Eating out===$35=====$22.15
Groceries===$125=== =$76.11
Non-Food===$15=====$3.00
Clothes ====$35====$54.85
Grooming===$20=====$45.00
Gas======$25
HH items===$40====$2.00
Fares== ====$15
Entrainments== $15 ===$455.00
Garden =====$15
Gifts & Donations ==$35
Medical & Diabetes Expenses ===$70=====$13.05
Misc ======$10
Personal Allowance =$90 ===$50.89

Note only one amount is a no spend

Budgeted for this period $ 540 spent $757.05 so over budget by $217.05

No spending days 14 of 28 days

Personal allowance covers confectionery, lotto, books, stamps, craft & hobby supplies.

Eating out including meals out with family and friends, we all go Dutch.

As for Medical & Diabetes Expenses - this is the extra out of pockets amounts that came up over this period just on medicine that is not covered be refund claims.

My credit cards are still paid in full each month.

I did buy a new camera and paid the deposit for the painting $1000, this period one is under bills and the other come in under entertainment spending.

I do keep my bill money separated from this summery. This year I will be budgeting around $650 per period month to cover all my bills and for this period it came to $146.00

The grocery bill came in under budget for this period.
If any changes to my spending habits will need to come out of my daily living allowance categories of my budget as my bill categories are very tight. I was very tight in some areas of this daily living allowance over this period but I did work out in the end.

Still need to work on a Grocery category.

Strategy: - Track your daily spending down to the cent by writing it down daily.

Early this week the painter finished his job and was paid in full. It was a good job and some of the neighbours ask for his card so he may get more work around here later on. I did pay him as planned with the final payment in the form of a bank cheque and got him sign to say that he has been paid in full, this is now filed way. The new awnings will arrived next week hopefully this should complete the job on the outside that I can’t do myself. I will look at doing all the gates and poles on the front fence over next few months. I may need to buy another can of green paint to finish this job off.

My next major project is a new kitchen which I will need to save for now! I will still keep money aside for a replacement of my washing machine when it breakdown next. Planning my money around need not wants have kept me on a level playing field just by knowing that the money is there to buy things when they are needed and not have go out get a loan that I can’t afford to repay.

It has been quite here and I am still reading my list of books more have arrived in the Thursday post all four books on order arrived together.

I will need to update cost of living figures here soon as I am a month behind!

Well I paid my next progress payment of $1500 to painter today. I did have a bit of the run around to get the money. I went to one shopping centre to make a withdrawal but that branch closed last month so had to drive to another branch to get the money. It goes to say that I don’t withdraw money out that often via a teller. Will need to make the final payment with a bank cheque as I don’t like having large amounts of money around the place. This will prove that I did pay him if it ever came to that.

The job is looking good and very clean should take another week and a bit to do. He is on the final side but for 10 foot area near the stairs. I will need to get new awnings which will be an extra cost, the one I do have are too old and unrepairable to make them look good. They are on the sunniest side of the house. If I sold the house I would need to replace ASAP and area where they are would be not painted this time too! At 60 years old they are ready to go. I have someone calling Monday about them and will get a quote.

The painter has been here a week now! One side of the house is done plus the garage so far. I only have paid him a minimum deposit. I will pay progress payments up to half of the full amount and balance on completion. Work done so far is very professional so no worry about stranded of the work.

I have bought a new camera which I hope to use in the near future at a friend’s wedding. As for clothes I will borrow an outfit from a friend, who has more formal outfits than I have, we are almost the same size. My last one I bought was for my son’s wedding eleven years ago.

I am still reading my way through my list of new novels about two per week. So not spending so much time on my computer as before, I think I was over doing it at times.

I finally found a house painter and he is starting work today. So I hope I will get a good job from him. There was a large different between quotes that I got so I took the middle one as it what I thought the job was worth and I could afford to pay. One quote was so high that $12000 plus more than the one I went with. All had the same work to do. When this is finished I will save up for a new kitchen next.

For someone that doesn’t do a lot of gardening I have a lot of stuff that are garden items. What I have done will stop me buying items that I have already bought and need to be used up. I do gardening in waves when I have the energy to work on it. We have the right weather for gardening here! I just that I do it so rarely other than mowing the lawn it takes me so long to do the whole garden front and back.

I needed to get started on redoing the storage areas so that the painters can work in that area. The less I need to move later the better. I would like to just move just once when the painter arrive and not need a clean-up then. So anything not needed, I will dump now and other things stored in other areas. I have started working on the smallest storage area will work my way through all three areas over the next few weeks putting all the same items back together again. If I don’t find what I need at the time I go and buy more and then when I have these clean-out I find have double of some stuff and none at all other items.

I finally got around to getting some quotes on my painting the outside. Still waiting for the last one to come in then will decide.

Strategy - Do remember what you have stored before you go and buy more of the same.

Our local supermarket closing this weekend for a year and they are building a new one on the site. So no more daily walks to the local supermarket for my neighbour, she will have to plan better in the future. This is the supermarket that has some wonderful bargains in the past. Which I will miss but then I have such a large stockpile of things that need using up. I will need now to plan so that I shop for needs only to fill any gaps but no longer stockpiling.

Strategy - Do remember what you have stored before you go and buy more of the same.

So it’s into a saving mode from now on!

I am saving up for new flooring and kitchen as the painting outside will cost about $8000 all up. I will try and get more quotes next week but almost likely will go with the one I have got now!

I have started making my budget for 2012, as my budget is finished for this year as when I made it years ago, it was a few weeks before Christmas so I just keep following on. My expenses have risen over the past year and spending money on new computer didn’t help either. I now think now my spending now is about $1500 more than my age pension so I am going backward a little but I can cut back in some areas to make this money up. The medical fund and antenna is coming out of 2012 fund so that’s around $3200 next week. The Money is already in the bank to pay these as I never spend money without having it in the bank first.

So my challenge for 2012 is to spend money on getting my house painted. My goal is to only spend what I get paid from age pension to live on and just use earmark money for the painting that I have been saving for the past few years. The painting can’t be put off any longer it must be done next year.

No spending over weekend

My Digital Antenna is up and works the way it should. The installer took over 4 hours to do the job and cleaned up after too! I was able to find the old antenna cables and remove them so they are gone now! I am lucky that no one can live under my house as all the lines are visible for all to see. I have tried so if I could work out which cable was for what. Most are old phone lines which I am leaving there but none work now, the main power cable runs under there too! I do write on them what I think each one is, as I am worried that someone will try to move them one day when I am not around. I even found the original phone line 60 years old. You can't legally live under there but it's a great storage area. Height is not high enough for someone 5ft 6inches or over to walk freely around without hitting they head on a beam or ten. In some places its only 4 feet high. The total cost was the quote $840 with better antenna which was stronger and cord for one of TV which didn't have one. This sounds a lot of money it done now. I am very happy with the service that I received.

I finally booked the job so I will be getting the Digital Antenna this week, as I have been going to do this work done for last 2 years since I got my first digital TV 3 years ago now! They are the cheaper end of Digital TV so no fancy one here. Large Plasma TV don’t work in this house as you would be sitting on top of them. I didn’t go for Plasma TV as these are expensive to run power wise.

I am planning to get my house painted in the new year, I will have to get a few quotes as this job is worth thousands to do, one of my friend’s sent around some painters for quote as she is always getting quotes but never getting jobs done by them. I had a small painting job to be done here inside the house like the small bathroom ceiling which had gone mouldy so needed special cleaner and new paint after 20 years. I can’t do that room myself alone. So I got the price for that ceiling as gave them the job to see what kind of work they did and if they were messy and time wise. All work I had to do is clean out the bathroom and leave it bare. The only thing is they left they ladder at the other job they were doing but I had one here that was tall enough. How did they rate!

Time plan

Monday is due 8.00am - arrived 7.55am
8.05am - found and got my ladder out.
Washed and sanded down ceiling.
8.20am - One painter painted corners etc. with white enamel paint while the other painter held the ladder over the tricky parts.
8.30am - other painter used the roller
8.45am - finished first coat and left for another job.
11.05am - back to put the final coat on
11.50am - put back ladder in the right place.
11.55am - paid and gone

What I can say is that they had the timing down a tee and passed non-messy test. In the past I have painted the inside of my house so could work out what needed to be done and if it’s a good job. I paid them $220 for that job and will be considering them for the other job or at least getting a quote from them.

All small jobs around here are $150 minimum or have a callout fee of $100 for first 30 minutes also it very had to get trade people to do small jobs at anytime so if you can get one you jump at it.

These painters are painting hotels at the moment and its raining here so quick inside jobs between coats is what I think they are doing. At least I got a newly paint ceiling, now for freshening up rest of the bathroom for next few years. These jobs will have to wait until it stops raining at least.

Some time in the next month I will look at buying some white enamel paint if what I got is no longer useable. What needs to be done is the door both sides and door edges, widow frame, two mini wall cupboards, a chest of drawers, and 60 year old cane linen basket. Walls don’t need painting.

I will blog about my painting jobs next year.

It’s time to start again on reviewing my monthly daily living allowance.

I have been spending a little more on some books and cookware over the past few months than I really should on my monthly allowance but it’s spent now so I will to have work around that and make up for it over time. I am still just under my budgeted allowance so I am on track.

These are the categories for this challenge.

Items === Approx Budget===Spent

Eating out===$35.00=====$42.05
Groceries===$135.50==== $109.77
Non-Food===$17.00=====$4.29
Clothes ====$35.00=====$69.95
Grooming===$15.00
Gas======$25.00
Pets====== $50.00=== ==$7.47
HH items===$42.50======$117.39
Fares== ====$9.00 =====$20.00
Entrainments= $12.00
Garden=====$10.00=====$19.96
Gifts & Donations=$35.00=== $36.00
Medical=====$15.00
Misc======$9.00
Personal Allowance=$85.00 ==$75.39
Note only one amount is no spend

Budgeted for this period $530 spent $502.27

No Spending days over the 28 days = 14 days in total.


I have to still line up some painters for quotes the outside of my house over the next year this should be my major expense if all goes to normal here. I think I just like having the money in the bank and not spending it. I do know that it will make me save a lot more when I do spend it as I don’t like not having money in the bank as safety blanket for me.

As for banking in the past month I have saved over $200 in cash so you still can save money on a pension but need to make choices on where you spend your money. As for saving money on things I will save that for another blog.

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.

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!

No much too write about at the moment. I have only been out once since I last wrote on here.

It now been 7 days of no spending, so other than a day in the city for a medical appointment and I had Lunch at the casino on my own for $10 a main meal, cake & coffee, when I buy this I keep someone in a job and I dont cook that night too! If I went to a fast food restaurant it would cost about $8.00 so I get no junk food and real services. Its bit of a walk to the casino but it worth it.

I hope to spend very little this month; it time to start the ball rolling to get some painting quotes as the outside of the house need painting. I just hope its not to cost too much.

I had visitors here, number of day trips to the country and little time to get on here. Now things are back to routine so I will be able to post more.

With the price of gas now, I did drive my own car doing over 500 km while they were here. I did go to a country town and found some canning bottles for under 30c each, I will have to buy lids and seal when I do get around to using them. I will find time to review my chutney bottles and get new lids and seals as I haven’t use them for along while.

Starting a new vegetable garden here, one of my visitors did dig the beds for me, now I am waiting a few weeks to let the mulch kill some of the weeds that may be in the lawn area that is now vegetable garden. I was looking up the seed companies online as I wish to void hybrid seeds where possible. I will be going organic with this garden. I do know that planting times are very important around here as we are sub tropics here. So I have made a list of what will grow here all year around, fall & winter, spring & summer. These lists will help when planting out and when. Some vegetables I will never eat so will not be buying them. So far I have spent around $100 on garden soil mixtures and edging bricks. Will be spending about $35 on seeds but these will be for next three years of planting.

Weekly Main Meals Menu

Sunday ~ Roast Chicken & Vegetables
Monday ~ Omelet with salad
Tuesday ~ Grilled Steak & Onions, Mashed Potatoes with Baked Beans
Wednesday ~ Leftovers night
Thursday ~ Grilled Sausages with Onions & Grilled Tomato
Friday ~ Salmon Patties with Vegetables
Saturday ~ Pasta with Tuna & Tomato Sauce

This week it’s time to charge the batteries in the smoke detectors, I have 3 of them so I went and bought a pack of 4 x 9 volt batteries @ $16.57 pack or if I wished to buy them in single packs @ $6.99 a pack it’s crazy but I’m saving money by buying four. As three of them would have cost $ 20.97 and I got four for $16.57 value of $27.96 saving $11.39 on the four. It’s the end of our day light savings in the Southern States, we don’t have it here. Fire dept recommends’ to change at beginning of the day light saving but as I did put new ones up at this time last year I’m doing at end of it each year, it still one year but at a different time of the year.

Weekly Main Meal Menu

Sunday ~ Grilled Sausages with Onions & Grilled Tomato
Monday ~ Apricot Chicken with rice
Tuesday ~ Pasta with Tuna & Tomato Sauce
Wednesday ~ Omelet with salad
Thursday ~ Leftovers night
Friday ~ Salmon Patties with Vegetables
Saturday ~ Steak with Onions & Grilled Tomato

I had a very busy morning; first I spent 5 hours with my Italian DF-M, as she is elderly and wanted to make pasta today. So we were up at first light this morning making and rolling pasta for Easter. It was just the two of us do this today.

After having lunch I started working on an area in my workshop. I got to put some stuff away into they right place after I had finished the painting the other day. With that lot cleared it made way so that I could get to the area that I wished to clear out. I did half this area today which took about 2 hours so far. I needed to put some wood away that I would need to repair the outside of the house what was sitting the corner from my door project a year ago. If I ever get dry rot I will have matching boards to replace with and I do have the storage there.