Tightwad Kitty's $$$ Stretching Blog

Got a letter in the mail last week to say that my health cover has gone up by $210 for 2013 to be added to next year’s bill this is due this December. Then this week we were told that our electricity bills will be going up by 21% per year around $253 on $1205 bill. I am lucky that I put in solar panels and solar hot water a few years ago now! I don’t think my bill will that high but high enough that I will add 21% to my annual total as I have allowed about $100 to $140 per quarter I will allow about extra $30 per quarter so that’s extra $330 added to my budget from July on when these price rises take place. This is on top of my insurance price rise of around $400 last month. Next will be my chiro next one to go up that’s next month price rise.

Weather is bad here again; our ground is soaked from the January’s rain depression so it won’t take much to start flooding here.
More rain, flooding, high seas and 100km winds in NSW this weekend and we waiting for another rain depression for our area with about 300mm worth of rain.

Do you get bored with saving money all the time and feel you need to break the mould sometimes. Well I do as have been on this quest for more years than I can remember now!

When I was a pre-teen my pocket money was two shillings per week, (24 pennies) now days that’s amount would be 20 cents. Value today I have no idea about $2.00. My way of thinking was if an item cost more than 1/11 or 23 pennies, I couldn’t afford it. When I got my first pay from my first job things got a little better, after paid my board and fares I had about 10 shillings ($1.00) per week to spend. Wages were about 1 pound and 18 shillings ($3.80) in those early months, this was 1960.

I am retired now and on age pension but my thought patterns are the same almost. Today I save money then I can go do what I like for one day every so often, given certain amount to spend and place to spend to go spend that money or some of it!

Sometimes it’s a school fete or op shop or trash or craft market often times it may be shopping centre if in need of some new clothes or appliance. I do set amount that I can spend on these days, most times I never go over it. I never have many of these days about four per year. I had about three last year; one while I was in Sydney and I bought some kitchen items and had the goods posted home.

I call these days ‘Free Spending Spree Days’ and was shopping in Aldi on one of these days last Christmas said to another customer that I was free to buy what I would like today if I wanted too! Would I like to buy her children, both were in the shopping cart? I just smiled and wished her a Merry Christmas and walked on I think she was having a bad day. I only spent about $100 that day as I was buying Christmas gifts too!

It’s time that I posted, this Financial Summery for 2013.

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

This for 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

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

Items === Approx. Budget===Spent

Eating out===$35=====$35.20
Groceries===$125=== =$50.67
Non-Food===$15=====$2.00
Clothes ====$35
Grooming===$20
Gas======$20
HH items===$40=======$203
Fares== ====$15 ====$10
Entrainments== $15
Garden =====$15========$9.00
Gifts & Donations ==$35
Medical & Diabetes Expenses ===$70====$44.14
Misc ======$10
Personal Allowance =$90 ===$72.26

Note only one amount is a No Spend

Budgeted for this period $550 spent $ 426.27 under by $123.73

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, it was $240

The high cost in the Household was for an electrician to fix my solar hot water element. $203

I do keep my bill money separated from this summery. This year I will be budgeting around $750 per period month to cover all my bills and bills for this period it came to $1313.47 part of this was Car major service$ 254.00

My 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 now. 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 and personal allowance as I got to stop spending money on books, I think this is my biggest downfall most of my personal spending is spent on books as half of it was spent on books.

How am I going with my finances in 2013, up and down once I get over paying all my major bills for this half year, I have about little over $1000 for next month then it’s back to saving for next few month until I need to pay these annual bills again.

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

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

Manage to get to the city early enough to get all my bill paying done before my first appointment today.

Paid the insurances and my credit cards off in full yet again, lucky there was enough money in my account to pay them. That’s withdrawal of $ 2700 today alone.

Had lunch in city of grill fish and salad, the salad wasn’t as nice as it could have been Avocado and Chicken Salad so next time will stick to a Greek Salad and the Grilled Fish $7.95 plus a Frozen Chilled Fanta $1.00 and Ice cream cone 50c all up the food $9.45.

As the Chiro is paid for this time but will need to outlay next 12 visits with the next visit somewhere around $600 I should think. But do get rebates of $19.40 for each one not much but it helps. My podiatrist cost $38.50 after rebate today.

In all it was expensive day.

Finally I can pay my insurance bills that I was worried about! I spoke about them in these posts.
Tomorrow I will going to the city, can pay up all these and no long worry about them then start saving again after I pay the last two next month.

Starting over with budgeting and saving again!

Review of my spending plan for Bills!

One quote that I set my upper limit at was $650 higher than the final bill. Some households can't just afford to pay insurance on their houses, and after the last flood last week, it may only get higher again next year.

Well my house and contents insurance bill came in $349 above last year about 29% rise. I do have a very low risk of ever flooding here as I am the same height as the hospital helicopter port which is about six stories high on top of the hospital.

My car insurance which is due only 2 weeks earlier has a rise $43 about 9% up on last year. Value has gone down through. But as I get discount by having them all with one company and a senior discount on top this, so I will stay with insurance for another year and review again next year.

As for other bills I will paying my dental bill that I put on my credit card last month and advance payment on the IP bill as I need to make sure that all my bills are paid before the 14 February as I may not be available to pay any after that date and tomorrow is my last day in the city before then. All I need to do now is make sure there is enough money in the bank to pay all these.

I will do a final review of this Bill Challenge in another post. Then will set a new challenge for the balance of the year.

Everything has to go on hold from February 14 as I will not know what I will be doing for a few weeks even I may not be able to come online either. Nothing to worry about either just civil duty service work that I am not too old to do!

Both have a water theme, leaking water to be correct. One was just a simple tap washer that I was able to get my neighbour to fix, I do have a lot of taps washers here so I don’t have go out and buy some to do the job, as getting someone to do the job more of a problem. Hot water shower was dripping like mad when I came home yesterday.

The day before I had another drip but this one was a major one, water dripping from a power socket, on a weatherproof switch not good, I turn the switch off to see where the water was coming from and found coming out of the one of the socket for the power plug in part from my solar hot water unit this is the power that pumps the water to the roof for the solar panels the unit and it’s not 3 years old yet. I phone my Home Assist people to order an electrician to look at it. With the flooding it will be up to week before they may come out. I was told. Within two hours the electrical company was on the phone and they would have someone out that afternoon, the young guy arrived he looked a teenager to me mostly likely in his early twenty.

He never seen as much water either so we checked the tank and when he pulled on a cord from the switch water came running out of the tank element area it was rusted in so had to be replaced a long with the power switch unit. So it costed 2 hours labour $176 and parts $100 less my senior discount of $88 for one hour labour. Total came to $188.00 all up. That’s why I rang Home Assist so I could get my discount for how long this service will last I don’t know as our state government is cutting cost in all areas.

As had good and friendly service all round so I paid the bill next day. For bad service they would have had to wait full 14 days before I paid it!

Six Dead and record flood levels in some towns in two states.

This rain depression travelled from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Sydney about 3000 km plus very slowly down the coast just inland and with another coastal depression out at sea so both together came the rain and high winds all the way down the coast line.

The flooding in Brisbane and Ipswich was not as high as last time (2011) by a long shot. Most houses that went under were from creek and high tide flooding and not river flooding. Other areas were far worse than our area. One family went to look at the river and a tree fell on top of the mother and 3 year old boy the little boy died on Brisbane. Two men tried to go to work in separate cars both were washed away in the same creek. Why do people take risks when they are told not too! Here in our state if you are told to move because of flooding you can be find or gaol if you don’t go the water is running too fast for someone to risk their life to go back and get you! 1500 had to air lifted out because they were cut off and that area was going to be flooded by morning. Still one city Rockhampton is still to flood as the water is coming from another city before it goes out to sea by the weekend. Hopefully we don’t get another cyclone this bad before the end of the season in April.

I finished off being ok; I didn’t lose power once, but two household in families including my son household lost power for 4 days plus. This morning there were some here without power still. With 250000 household and business out the most ever in the south east area, the ground was too soft for the trucks or they have water around the lines that you can’t to get into as the linemen have been working 24/7 since Sunday, they were down to 17000 this morning hopeful only the ones still with water are left only by night fall, If your suburb or area is not on the list now you have to phone the company and report it. They have got to that stage now!

Now for the big clean up!

Floods news

video about little boy

We had a cyclone in the gulf about six days ago and it was only a category one but the rain it generated is huge, our gulf is 2000 km away from Brisbane but today we have 125km winds and so far over 115 mm of rain so far with another 12 hours to go. Some towns and cities further north are now flooding higher than 2011 flood. Lockyer Valley where all those people died last time is flooding now and all that water is heading for the Bremer river then on to the Brisbane river so around 3500 properties in Ipswich and Brisbane flooding again in the next 48 hours twice as it king tides at the moment so the local creeks are flood now because of the King tides and all this rain some areas have had only year worth of rain in 24 hours so flooding. Tornados are coming with this monsoon rain so far we have had about 8-10 down the coast. Black-out is around in different suburbs my son place has lost power and the linemen are not going out until it safe to fix them. I could have a problem with the loss of power or with Tornado or one of the neighbour trees fall over. I will not be flooded here as I am 45 m above sea level.

Check January 2011 posts for last time it Flooded here.

So I have had no spending day here as I never even opened the front door today to go out.

I had a puncher in the rear tyre a nail was causing a slow leak luckily I wasn’t driving too far so no new tyre yet! The mechanic fixed it and rotated the rear tyres. Service for the car was good and I got discount $280.00 off the full cost so my outlay came to $254.00. It will need to have a minor service in 5 months’ time to get use of the full deal of this car service package which I paid $189.00. It’s worth $1090 so I will do some jobs that need to be done over the cause of this year. I haven’t had much done for the last 2 years and now the car has no warranty to worry about I will go back to a car service every 5000km or once every year after this year. I will need to start saving for all my rubber and perishable parts to replace in the next three years or so whether they worn or not! For a car that has not done 26,000 km in 8 years it’s in good nick even if I say so myself. I bought it with 13,000km on the clock 6 years ago.

As for the weather here today it’s a lot cooler as it showering on off but not much rain to ease the drought conditions for now!

I think we have got it lucky here as the heat has not been as bad as in some places around the country. Sydney had its hottest day since record begin about 105 years ago 46.5C . Here we got to about 35C and Ipswich got to over 40C which is only 30km away but inland not on the coast. I still haven’t put my Air Conditioner on as I can stand the heat up 36C than I will think about if the there is no breeze, so I am saving money by only using a standing fan near my computer with all the doors open for any breeze. I can’t do any gardening as the sun is too hot to be out in to do it. In January it is always like this so minimum gardening. The lawns are almost dead as we have had no rain for at least 6 weeks then very little of it.

Still no spending here as I am on my six no spending day in a row. Most likely will spend something tomorrow and on Tuesday my car goes in for a major service and new tyre I think I will get the spare tyre put on with this new one and use one of the old ones as a spare. I have to pay some bills this week so may go the city or a major shopping centre to that sometime this week after the car is fixed.

All my money will be spent on bills this month so I have got no money to spend anyway!

I just tried to get on to the Garage that I got that car deal with and haven’t heard back from them as yet!
I will ring again tomorrow just in case the guy who took the call got my phone number wrong as the boss has to phone me!

I want to have a major service done plus a check on my rear tyre as it has a very slow leak. I had a problem about 15 months ago with tyre so it may be the same one if it is then I will save for a new tyre to replace it. It’s a worry as I drove the other day with a slow leak tyre and didn’t know it was that bad. On Monday night I got my son to put more air in the tyres most were 29+ but this was only 13. He put up to 35 in them each time. So I am not taking it out again but to the garage.

It’s very hot here; Friday will be 33C and Saturday will 35C it has been up to 39C but in some parts of the Australia 49.5C. Birdsville QLD, has been hot most days this year so far and was 49C one day this week and not under 40C since Boxing Day last year. Our lawns are almost dead but for weeds so you have to mow them still which I got my son to do yesterday.

The trip to the dentist end up being a bit of a drama as I couldn’t get my car to start, I had a flat battery, and had to get the car membership club to come and jump start it for me. I had rung the dentist to let them know that I wouldn’t be able to keep my appointment that morning so they made it for the afternoon. After mechanic came I had to drive the car for a long drive without turning off the engine for over 40 minutes. So I took the car off for a good drive instead of going to the dentist. I had nowhere in mind to drive too, but just took off down one highway that went the back way heading for the Gold Coast and drove for 20 km along then took next return off and headed down another cross country road heading for area I thought would take me near my son’s suburb well it did but I found a sign saying City so I took that one. It end up on a new road heading for the road that I would got back onto if I went via my son’s place. They have been doing a lot of road works in this area over the past two years so I am not surprise at finding it.

I did around trip of 42 km in all and got home 60 minutes later. Then I had lunch and a bit of rest and went to the Dentist in afternoon another drive into same area but one road over from the one I took in the morning. I paid the balance on my dentist bill which came to out of pocket $540.00. I didn’t spend on any else that day. At the end of the day after the engine cooled down, I put the battery charger on so I could recharge it overnight.

Today I went to the Chiro for my monthly appointment, and then just bought a Dan Brown book ‘Symbols’ it the picture one and some tissues as I was low on them. Also I went to find out about my house insurance but still they will not say how much it will be for next year as I have to wait until the end of the month. I know that it’s gone up a lot that why I am worried about it. Somewhere between 30% and 500% which I can’t afford if it’s the later then I will only have days to find someone else as I may be unable to look owing to another commitment around this time. I keep you posted on this

Three out of the last four days have been no spending days, I did go up the street to the shopping area today and into the one shop but never bought anything at all just checked prices so that I can buy my diabetic lancets at the best price which I will need by next pay day. These are only thing that I have to buy at full price as I got the Diabetic Blood Glucose Meter for free after cash back deal and test strips via National Health Scheme for around $1.70 instead of about $16.00. I am will have to pay about $18.69 (this is $2.00 RRP now) or below that for the box 100 lancets. I have a number of discount chemists around this area so will be checking out them all their prices before I buy them.

Vandals smashed the bus stop glass panels this morning what a mess, glass everywhere. I don’t like this sort of thing at any time. Its school holidays here so the teenagers are bored.

Tomorrow I go to the dentist so it will be a spending day again.

Annual Summary Daily Living Allowance parts of my budget for 2012

Here are my final totals for last year.

Eating out- $455---------- $441.95---------under target by $13.05
Groceries -$1655-----------$1368.82--------under target by $256.18
Non-Food -$195------------ $200.41---------over target by $5.41
Clothes -$400---------------$250.28.--------under target by $149.20
Grooming -$260-------------$339.05--------over target by $79.05
Gas -$200------------------- $122.71------- -under target by $77.29
Pets -$200--(5 months)-----$274.52--------over target by $74.52
HH items -$520-------------- $468.29--------under target by $51.71
Fares -$380-------------------$360.75 ------- under target by $19.25
Entrainment -$520-----------$658.58-------- over target by $138.58
Garden-$100------------------$7.00-----------under target by $93.00
Gift & Donations -$455-------$584.73---------over target by $219.95
Medical & Diabetic-$910------$1045.22 -------over target by $135.22
Misc. -$75--------------------$29.00----------under target by $46.00
Personal Allowance-$1170----$1004.28--------under target by $165.72

Daily Living Allowance allotted amount for 2012 was $7495 and I spent total $7155.59 under target by $339.41

Even with being over in six categories, I still manage to come under my budget allotment for 2012.
I did buy new Camera and had interstate holiday that has been included in the above totals.

This does give me the idea that I am subconsciously set myself amount to spend then holding back on some things if I think that I have to cut on my spending because I spend a lot one area that was needed like the medical.

One thing this summery proves that averaging out over whole year is better than worry if you go over month as you can try to cut on other months.

Ok this Daily Living Allowance is the area that I will be working on to stretch and find any extra money I can. I also am looking at cutting back other on bills where I can. We will have a very large hike in household insurances this coming year as I haven’t received the bill, I don’t know how much it will be as yet!

I know that my medical out of pocket costs will much higher for 2013 so some this need to be add to bills section as I already am over by $1000 and the first month isn’t over yet! I will set aside $3500 for this one next year. This is for just out of pocket costs.

I know that my medical out of pocket costs will much higher for 2013 so I need to up my bill budget by known cost. Dentist, 2 specialists with op so will add these bills there. So I will just track medicine and vitamins, glasses and diabetic section in this section of Daily Living Allowance. Allowing around $1250 for these items in next year tallies.

No Spending Days 154 of 365 days

Strategy - Review your bills every six months that you are still saving money with your changes that you made since renewed or changed bill companies. Change your habits if you can’t change the company.

I's time that I posted, this Financial Summery for the year.

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

This for 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=====$86
Groceries===$125=== =$147.05
Non-Food===$15=====$12.27
Clothes ====$35
Grooming===$20=====$7.49
Gas======$20=======$35.56
HH items===$40
Fares== ====$15 ====$10
Entrainments== $15
Garden =====$15
Gifts & Donations ==$35===$62.10
Medical & Diabetes Expenses ===$70====$66.49
Misc ======$10
Personal Allowance =$90 ===$43.20

Note only one amount is a No Spend

Budgeted for this period $550 spent $ 471.16 under by $78.84

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, it was $710

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 bills for this period it came to $637

My grocery bill came in over 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 now. 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 and personal allowance as I got to stop spending money on books, I think this is my biggest downfall most of my personal spending is spent on books.

Strategy - Do remember what you have stored before you go and buy more of the same.
Strategy: - Track your daily spending down to the cent by writing it down daily.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and seasonal holidays where ever you live!

I went to a five star hotel for Christmas lunch this year. It was a nice smorgasbord kind of thing about 200 people for lunch. There were eight of us in our own group seven were relations and one family friend. We had turkey, ham, chicken, all hot plus baked vegetables and lot of salads, prawns and large oysters just to name a few things you could eat. There were lots of little cakes and mini plum puddings and custard along with Christmas candy. Drinks were what you paid for when bought your ticket months ago. At our table there six were non -drinkers as we had two children. Drinks were non- stop for over two hours all house wine and beers and non- drinkers we had diet coke and lemonade or other drinks. At the end we had coffee for those who wanted it! Children under 12 got a gift from Santa and if under seven they meal was free too!

I am now looking forward to watching TV on New Year eve. Two of my favourite shows will be on then. Both are English reply plays Edinburgh Tattoo and Night at Proms –Vienna that are show on New Year Eve here.

As for being offline, I was downloading some ebooks and my anti-virus failed twice and I got a page saying that I use up all my Gigabits for the month. As I only have a small amount I still didn’t think I should have used that much as I have never use it in the past year when I was paying for higher amount. So I went offline for an few days then retried my internet Wi-Fi and found I still had over 2G left so will go easy on downloads until next middle of month.

I have order them and paid for them then will pick them up in the New Year.

As I may have to get a new pair when I see the Eye Specialist next year!

I always allow 11 months for emergency replacement glasses then get replacement pair that I fancy having in last month each year. You can only do this with Health cover that has one new pair each year and you can afford the difference. This year cost was $179 glasses and will out of pocket cost just $44 as these will be basic ones around the house pair.

I wrote about this in this blog

Starting over with budgeting and saving again!

Here’s a list of some things that was planned and how I went so far four months in.

Trips - Sydney wedding and visit to my sister later next year but fare need to be paid in this period. (both are interstate.) Estimate $2000
Still waiting to book air fares for June visit to my sister so only air fares will come in this six spending plan not the holiday expenses. Sydney trip cost was $920

Out of pocket dental that can’t be put off. Estimate $2000
Dental - I paid the first out of pocket bill today - $1375and second bill should be $540 = $1915

Car service that is well overdue so approx. $500
Paid $189 for car service card but still need pay for parts for major service? I will have this done mid- January.

Rates and water bills, power, medical fund annual fee, phone & internet fees, car rego. Approx. $5500
So far I paid medical fund annual fee $2320, first rates and water bills $456 car rego $515, first power $53 = $3344 with and will have extra Chiro Bill coming of $560 in February that not on this list. Another rates and water bills $456 and power $65 to come yet! = $521
Phone and internet will be around $500 for 6 months. I have reduced this cost by $30 per month.

House & Car Insurance due (these are the ones that I am worried about) Estimate $2700 but could be more.

Planned expenses for next six month estimated about $12,700
Age Pension over this time frame under $10,000

So living expenses will be almost nil for next few months, it’s lucky that I do have savings to fall back on if I need too! I will try not to spend too much of it though.

By estimates I am within reach of the target but still living off my savings for Living day to day expenses. So far I have shaved off $2070 off the original total with around $650 will need to come out savings also!

I will have a few months to recoup this money before the next around of large bills. I am still a little worried about that House insurance bill coming in February or early March as some households have gone through the roof by thousands.

Strategy - Review your bills every six months that you are still saving money with your changes that you made since renewed or changed bill companies. Change your habits if you can’t change the company.

The other day I got a door to door salesperson drop by here. He was selling Car Service VIP Cards for local garage. As I am in need of a major car service in the New Year past, I thought I buy one as the price was cost of this service only, the deal is I don’t pay for labour but I do pay for all parts.

As my car has very low mileage and is now 8 years old. My car hasn’t had a major or minor service for almost two years now so it’s long overdue for one. I may need most of jobs on offer as there are 2 minor services plus heaps other little jobs that can be done.

The card cost $189 with $1009 man hours’ worth of jobs to be done over next 18 months. I am allowed to have three jobs each time off the VIP card.

It should be interesting to track whether I get good service or not with this deal and how much extras parts will cost etc. I know I may need a new tyre for a start.

Last time I had one of these VIP cards years ago, I stayed with that garage until I sold that car six years ago and got this one.

I had a spending spree of sorts today I had to order some new glasses at certain shopping centre as my optical store closed down and the staff move elsewhere. I paid for them via cash and medical benefit refund they cost $179, I will pick them up in the New Year as I am in no hurry for them. I get a new pair each year so I have enough pairs around the house. I handed in 5 old pairs of glasses so they can be recycled for those who can’t afford them in poorer counties. It’s a system that optical store do here.

While I was out I posted a Christmas parcel then did my grocery shopping for the things that were on special that I wanted for December. After having Subway sub and coffee I went to find some Christmas ideas and presents for last few on my list. I got a comfort and toiletries gift for one person which I thought I was paying full price for but it was on special as was the other gift that I bought for the other person which was grocery hamper and both of them had 20% off, I was happy about that!

Also I bought tins of biscuits and candy for other gifts as shocking fillers or extra gifts.

I had a very long walk today so my exercise of walking took hours today. Medical research is now telling us ‘we are sitting too long now these days and this not good for our health’. Well I walked and stood for over 5 hours around this shopping centre today. I struck at it until I got all on my list finished so I wouldn’t have to go again to the shops as the school children finish up this Friday for their annual summer holidays. No parking or very little park in shopping centres after this date or at least none in the shade at 39 degrees C. I was very tried by the time I got back to car to drive home.

I will only shop locally from now on until they go back to school.

It’s time that I posted, before I do the next month’s Financial Summery.

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

This for 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.

Included is my trip to a wedding which I took earlier in the month.

Reviewing my monthly daily living allowance

These are the categories for this challenge.
Items === Approx. Budget===Spent
Eating out===$35=====$72.75
Groceries===$125=== =$30.35
Non-Food===$15=====$11.00
Clothes ====$35=====$95.75
Grooming===$20=====$175.5
Gas======$25
HH items===$40=====$200.45
Fares== ====$15 ====$310.75
Entrainments== $15 ====$56.47
Garden =====$15
Gifts & Donations ==$35===$173.5
Medical & Diabetes Expenses ===$70.00====$144.75
Misc ======$10==========$8
Personal Allowance =$90 ===$16.89
Note only one amount is a no spend

Budgeted for this period $550 spent $357.64 at home then $800.00 for trip and holiday and wedding came in at $938.52
Total $1350.00 budgeted for month and spending came in at $1296.16 under by $53.84

No spending days 8 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, it was $150.00

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 bills for this period it came to $1220.00

My grocery bill came in well 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 now. 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 and personal allowance as I got to stop spending money on books, I think this is my biggest downfall most of my personal spending is spent on books.

Strategy - Do remember what you have stored before you go and buy more of the same.
Strategy: - Track your daily spending down to the cent by writing it down daily.

Enjoy your dinner out on last week. I have always average out on spending money over the year so long as I have some money left at the end of that week or pay period. I also keep a float so that I have some money for these kinds of nights out. I have to budget in Christmas dinner this year at Five Star Hotel as my DIL family likes to dine out $189 for one meal. You only live once.
I would not go if it was every year that they did this. I know they can't afford it!

Here is that salad recipe that mention a few posts ago.

Traditional Greek Salad
(Tomato and Feta Salad)

Serves 6
Prep time 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS
2 Lebanese cucumbers
2 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 red onion, thinly sliced
100g roughly diced Bulgarian style feta or firm feta
1/2 cup pitted Katamata olives
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice and/or Balsamic vinegar (50%-50%)

METHOD
Halve each cucumber lengthways and then slice thickly.
Place in a large bowl with remaining ingredients and toss well to combine.
Season to taste
Serve with Chicken Souvlakia or Keftethes (Greek Rissoles)

Carbon tax is making some bills like Rates and water go up of late, I think next Power bill will be higher too!

Revamped my internet plan today as this bill was getting to high, it jumped in price by $20.00 this month so I change it to another plan saving $30.00 but I can get a higher G plan if I need too!

Another thunder storm is forecast for Thursday so we will wait to see if it does arrive.

Well they would come here in the storm season. Only here for 5 days and we just had the two worse storms for a long time. They are staying a motel near where my niece is working this weekend; my sister came up with her this time. The place where they are staying got damaged and one guest left a baloney door open and the storm and wind damaged the room and everything of theirs too! At least my sister knew how bad our storms can be here and left their's locked. Trees down everywhere and just down the road from them a street flooded and 20 parked cars went under water. Where I live and my sister was at my place when the first storm hit we got very little damage here. This first storm lasted about 30 minutes and moved very quickly over. However the second storm lasted for hours it seemed as I went to bed and it still was raining and lightening flashing 3 hours later when we lost power for a few seconds but enough to stop all the clocks working. I know it just a summer storms but over 33000 lighting strikes between the two storms and the loss of power in some areas.

Severe storm warming in South East Queensland We did go out on Friday and I spent the day and evening with them. My son and his wife meet up with us all at South Bank Night Markets (Friday night and day time on Saturday and Sunday) do go there if you happen to in Brisbane on the weekend at any time and we had dinner there and Greek restaurant the food was great too! With an entertainment voucher of 25% off the table cost it was around $32.00 per head including drinks. I didn't spend any money other than on food for the whole day. We had two entree of cheese and dips for the table plus a main course each, I had Chicken Souvlakia with Tomatoes, Feta and Olives Salad (Greek salad I will post recipe) and the others had Moussaka and Green Greek Salad or a non -Greek dish. My niece just loves these craft markets and does make a bee line for them when she comes here to lecture on the weekends every so often they are fly in fly out trips as she lives interstate over 5 hours away from here in the country South Australia. Spending for the day $39.00 all up including lunch which was Thai Vegetable Curry with Brown Rice. Some three more storm cells have arrived today so far but were light here but much heavier on the north side up the coast a little. I will post now as I need to close my computer down each time a storm cell comes over and I have loss my Wi-Fi a number times today.

At 6.38am EST I may see a particle eclipse here I have to go around the corner but I may view it by

Slooh and listen to it on the Radio 612 at the same time.

Let you know how I go.

Updates I have found where sun is here as it's blocked out by Apartments across the road.
The Sun is now coming into my computer room that I have my sunglasses on now.

I had a look on the website link plus the local TV channel that was viewing from Palm Cove
Aussie Solar Eclipse while listening to the radio and seeing the sun outside which was to bright to view.

This one is about the size I would make a cake and not too much in the way of ingredients.

Spicy Carrot Cake

2/3 cup finely grated carrots, lightly packed (about 1 medium-sized carrot)
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
125g butter (4oz) butter or margarine
1tsp grated lemon rind
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp milk
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

METHOD
Beat butter and lemon rind until creamy add sugar, then eggs one at a time; beat until light and fluffy.
Stir in milk carrots and walnuts.
Stir in sifted dry ingredients, mix well. Spread mixture into well-greased 11inx 7in tin.
Bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes.

It’s time that I posted, before I do the next month’s Financial Summery.

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

This for 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=====$20.95
Groceries===$125=== =$111.83
Non-Food===$15
Clothes ====$35
Grooming===$20=====$9.00
Gas======$25
HH items===$40=====$44.00
Fares== ====$15 ====$10.00
Entrainments== $15
Garden =====$15
Gifts & Donations ==$35===$5.75
Medical & Diabetes Expenses ===$14.05
Misc ======$10==========$2.50
Personal Allowance =$90 ===$121.87

Note only one amount is a no spend

Budgeted for this period $550 spent $329.95 so under budget by $220.05

No spending days 15 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 it was $90.00.

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 bills for this period it came to $136.69

My 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 now. 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 and personal allowance as I got to stop spending money on books, I think this is my biggest downfall most of my personal spending is spent on books.

I am still donating some old books to a number of charity stops around the place that I will never read or never read again as I need the plastic containers that they are stored in as this will save money by recycling the plastic containers that I own.

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

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

Beef and Pineapple Casserole

2.2lbs (1000g) blade steak or beef -cubed
Seasoned flour -see below *
2 tbsp oil
2 sticks celery- sliced
2 onions -chopped
1/2 green pepper- sliced
1 cup beef stock
1/3 cup vinegar
440g can tomatoes
450g can pineapple pieces
1/2 cup sultanas
1 tbsp brown sugar
*Seasoned flour
Mix together in plastic bag -2 tbsp flour, 1 tsp ground ginger 1/2 tsp paprika, 1 tsp salt and a good grind of black pepper

METHOD
Drain pineapple and reserve 1/2 cup liquid and soak sultanas in this until required.
Cut meat in cubes if you haven't bought them cubed. Then toss in seasoned flour.
Heat oil in heavy frypan and brown meat all over then remove and place in casserole dish.
Add celery and onions to pan and cook for a minute or two to soften Stir in beef stock, vinegar, undrained tomatoes, sugar and mix well.
Pour over meat, cover and cook at 300F for 1- 1/2 hours.
Add carrots, pepper and pineapple and sultanas in liquid adjust seasoning and cook for a further 30 minutes.

I spent time in the city today paying bills and keeping appointments that I made last month. Not much going on here at the moment so will posted some more recipes. Most of the week was a no send one!

As I am still typing up some recipes from my friend's booklets so I will post a few over the next weeks, I trying to find some interesting ones.

Tuna and Herb Pie
8 slices wholemeal bread- crust removed
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 shallots or 2 small onions - finely chopped
1x425g can tuna- drained and flaked
4 eggs
1/4 cup natural yogurt
1/2 cup tasty cheese- grated
1 tbsp fresh dill - chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
METHOD
Line base of a lightly greased baking tray (about 13in x 9in x 2in) with bread.
Whisk together eggs, milk, yogurt, lemon juice and pepper.
Spread tuna over bread, sprinkle with cheese and dill, and carefully pour over mixture over tuna.
Bake in moderate oven 25- 30 minutes or until set.

What's interest about this one is using up stale bread.

Last time I used my washing machine the power point wouldn’t work as it stopped in the middle of a cycle. As my washing machine is 1985 vintage I thought that I would need a new one, I do have that money invested so was just about to start looking for new one! Then I decided that I should put the washing machine on power lead to another power point to check if it was still working and it was. So no need for a new one just yet!

I phone my Home Assist Service for pensioners which will pay part of the bill for you that‘s $88 off bill. Today he came to check my power points in the laundry and fix a light there too! I had the light fittings so only needed to pay for the new power points he had replaced two, I don’t like iffy things if there’s a problem its gets fixed with too many house fires with faulty electrical around the place. The total cost of out of pocket expensive was only $36.50.

He also set my mind a rest on the power spikes that I get from time to time. It’s my solar hot water power unit starting up it only goes for a few minutes and not all day at 3500 kWh I will have to learn to live with that.

Strategy - If it can be fixed then repair it, but use the less than half rule on replacement costs rule.