The 1st of Miss BB's expenses has been PAID

Hi

When we drew up our budget for 2012 we had an entire section dedicated to Miss BB and her expenses. These expenses are for her extra-curricular activities and some for her schooling. 

Miss BB does piano, gymnastics and girl guides as extra activities.  She enjoys all of them and I think that we have a good balance between something musical, a sporting activity and a group activity in the form of guiding.  We have been told that maybe these are costing us too much and we could be better off putting that money into the mortgage or our own retirement fund.  While it is true her expenses are a high percentage of our budget, we really feel that these activities are important and we are prepared to make some sacrifices for her to be able to participate.  We do acknowledge that we only have 1 child so even on our small budget we can get by and still provide her with these experiences. 

Having said that it is hard to have an invoice handed to you for 1 term of gymnastics totalling $250.  This does include our yearly levy for the club, the yearly insurance and rego for the governing body and it is a two hour a week lesson.  The next one wont be so high.

Next week Girl Guides and Piano lessons start again.  Girl guides is only $5 per 2 hour meeting but we do have to pay for any camps they go on.  Guides also has a yearly registration fee of about $100.  Piano is by far the most expensive at $25 per 30mins.  Next week is her first with a new teacher so I'm hoping that the rate doesn't increase.

As for school. Miss BB goes to a normal Queensland state school but we have found that even a free education is not exactly free.  There are excursions, free dress days(gold coin donation), school levies, swimming lessons and the cost of school books and uniforms.  Last year she did Viola lessons through the school and we had to pay for the hire of a viola, music book, the lessons(a group lesson) and shoulder rest.  Luckily she decided not to continue with it this year as we would have had to buy the viola this year.

So when were drawing up the budget is was decided that we would take the weekly amounts, add a little more for camps, music books, excursions and multiply them by 52 and then divide by 12.  By multiplying by 52 we will be sure of having enough in the budget to pay for all expenses even though they all stop for school holidays so they are not exactly a year round expense.

Mrs BB

Week 3 Grocery Shop Challenge

Hi

Well last week Miss BB and I did our grocery shop together on Friday(20th) morning.  We were having friends two little girls sleep over on Saturday night so we planned to have a movie night with homemade pizza for dinner and a couple of snacks for the movie we planned to watch.  (Red Dog was the movie and we all liked it even though we all cried(yes even Mr BB) at the end) This meant a little extra food was needed but we still came in at about budget.

Here are the figures.

Coles          $31.85
Aldi            $81.90
Fruit & Veg  $10.25
Woolies      $  3.00
                 $127.00

With this amount now taken off the monthly grocery budget I still have $155 till the end of January.  Apart from a couple of milk purchases(I don't like to buy milk too much in advance) and fresh fruit and veg, I might be able to get away without doing a normal week shop. Fingers crossed!! 
Any money we save from the grocery budget we will be added to the holiday budget.

Mrs BB

Week 2 Grocery Shop Challenge

Hi

When I did the grocery shop last Friday, I thought that week 2 of our trying to stay under our grocery challenge would be better than week 1.  WRONG.  In a big way.  I was doing really well until I had to buy meat from Coles and Mr BB's yoghurt mix.  These couple of items pushed us over,over, over.  I did manage to stay on track with my list and only bought 1 snack item that wasn't on it for Miss BB for back to school next week.

Here is the breakdown.  The Woolworths items are mainly milk and a couple of fruit and veg and ingredients to make spur of the moment cookies.

Coles                  $72.75       
Aldi                    $47.32
Fruit & Veg          $12.50
Woolies              $33.52
Big W(Yoghurt Mix)  $  9.54
                         $175.63(Over $35.63)

After this is amount and last are taken off the monthly amount of $606 I still have $282 till the end of January. 

Mrs BB

Things that derail.

Hi

It seems that once we decided to start this blog and record our journey to more financial security things have started to pop up to derail us.  Here's what I mean.

1. Mr BB cracked a tooth nearly 20 years ago on a cherry pit left in a pie.  He had that fixed with a filling, however about 18 months ago it cracked again and had to be extracted.  This has left a gap that you only really notice when he smiles.  Then last week the tooth that was next to it also started to crack.  Off to the dentist he went and another temporary filling was put in, to see if this will be enough before expensive work needs to be considered.  This little visit cost us $325.  It appears that this may not be enough and we will have to start looking at other options all of which will cost thousands. 
2. Next expense. The computer.  It appeared to die on us last Sunday.  So we started looking at a new desktop.  These run at about $600-$700.  Luckily a friend of ours is a computer guru and he managed to get it to work again(something about a PSU???).  Anyway he had the part hanging around but we have decided he needs to be compensated even though he told us not to worry.  So I guess $40 is better than $700.  Still.....
3. Possible next expense.  A speeding ticket.  I was driving on Wednesday and I was possibly caught by a hand held speed camera.  I was doing maybe 66-67km/hour in a 60 zone.  If this does arrive in the letterbox I will be so disappointed in myself.  It will be the first one I have ever received in my 25 years of driving. 

We are, however, fortunate that we already have a fairly good safety net as far as finances go.  We have just put money back into our mortgage($5000) that we were going to use for some garden renovating that isn't really necessary so we can use that for Mr BB's dental bill.  The same for the computer and possible speeding ticket.  Even though it wont be pleasant to dip back into our prepaid mortgage account I am glad we have it and we don't have the worry about finding it or worse still borrowing or using the credit card to pay.  
   
This week has made us more determined to keep on track though.  We are sure that other expenses will pop-up when we least expect them and we want to be able to continue to meet them without incurring debt.

Mrs BB

Sobering thought

Hi

While I was getting to figures for our last post about the state of our mortgage I had a better look at the terms.  The end date of our mortgage is 2036.  This means that Mr BB would be 73 and I'd be, shall we say, only slightly younger.  Miss BB would be 34!  Yep it needs to be gone before then, definitely

Mrs BB

Money Movement - Jan 2012

Hi

Mr BB and I had money sitting in our everyday online account that we thought would be better served in our mortgage instead.  We also received our Solar Power Feed-in money for 2 quarters and have moved that money into our mortgage account as well.  This money we have earmarked for our holiday account but we are leaving it in the prepaid amount for the mortgage so that we benefit from the reduced interest.

The Figures
Mortgage - Jan 2012  = $141,532          
  Added extra               $    5,000
  Solar Rebate              $       242
BALANCE 6 Jan             $136,290       With $33,665 prepaid account

And we received a letter from our bank yesterday telling us that in February the last interest rate cut will be passed on and we will need to pay a minimum of $268.35 per week.  As we are paying what we think is the rental value(between $370 - $410) of a similar house in our area of $380 we will soon be adding $111.65/week extra.  Here's hoping for another rate cut that our Big 4 bank will pass on.

Holiday Account
It has been boosted by $242 so far. Only 97.58% to go!

Mrs BB

First Grocery Shop with CA$H, well kinda.

Hi

Did the first grocery shop of the new year yesterday.  It was that we were going credit cardless for groceries, however a compromise was reached between Mr BB and myself the other day and a credit card was pulled out and used.  But only at 1 shop because of the rewards and the extra fuel vouchers we receive every month.

We shop at 3 shops as they are in the same little area of the shopping centre I use and I can park underneath.(Great for the summer months).  The 3 shops are Aldi, Coles and the independent Fruit and Veg shop. 

Yesterday I had my extensive list and my little helper in the form of Miss BB with strict instructions not to let me buy anything that wasn't on the list.  Being 9, she loves being the boss at times and loved the idea of saying "Is that on the list Mum?" several times.

We only bought 2 items that weren't on the list.  Cat food(how could I forget are littlest family member) and a little treat for Mr BB(he does work hard) in the form of a pack of unsalted nuts($4.67!)

I used cash at Aldi, cash at the Fruit and Veg and the credit card at Coles.  As Coles is last on my hitlist I knew how much I could spend on the credit card.  I must say handing over cash felt a little strange and I really had to think about having it on-hand before I left home.  But I guess I did also save the 0.5% commission on credit card use at Aldi ($0.43)

Was I successful in staying in budget?  No, unfortunately.  But having said that I did buy a couple of things that will last more than a week and I won't have to buy them again next week. I was also trying a new recipe that needed a couple of special items.  So I don't feel too bad this week.  If next week is the same overspend then I will be disappointed.

The Breakdown - First grocery shop 2012
Aldi - $ 85.25
Fruit and Veg - $17.05
Coles -$46.31
Total  -$148.61($8.61 over budget)

Mrs BB

2012 - Getting it together

Hi

The 1st day of the New Year.  Welcome 2012!!

I've decided to get all the our ideas of how we plan to tackle this budget challenge of ours in one post.

GENERAL AREAS

• Record all spending in our diary daily and transfer to budget spreadsheet weekly - to keep spending on track
• Think about any extraordinary purchases that come up, ie do we really need, can it be found or done cheaper etc
• Make time to sit down and review budget with all members of family.(After all it is a family thing and Miss BB is old enough to understand)

SPECIFIC AREAS -  The Variable Areas

Groceries

• Make a list of weekly shop and stick to it (make it a list and not a reminder note)
• Trial the use cash instead of credit card for supermarket shopping
• Stick to the use of a menu plan for the week
• Start cooking more from scratch(not going to be easy as I'm no kitchen princess)
• For me personally - Drink more H2O and seriously cut down on Pepsi Max.(This should save about $12-$20/wk.  VERY BAD ME!!)

Family entertainment

• Limit the trips to McDonalds, Hungrys etc this year to really special occasions.(This alone would save us about $20 a time.)
• Introduce more Family Game nights (Miss BB is 9 so we better take advantage that she still wants to spend time with us)
• Make more use of member discounts we have through things like RACQ, NAB Life etc
• Do more free stuff like go to the park or beach
• Continue to use the Library for renting DVD's - This option currently costs $0.60 for the reservation fee and you have the DVD's for a month.  Of course you don't get New Releases on their release date, but hey, at $0.60 for a month I'm not worried.

Gifts

• Send more E-Cards this year for birthdays, Christmas etc. -  Most of our younger generation family members are techno savvy and this would save us a card(usually $1) and postage to Europe($1.60).
• Handmade gifts will be 'thing' in 2012 - May or may not save money but would be more thoughtful
• Use any accumulated Flybuy points for vouchers for Christmas 2012
• Watch sales throughout year for gift ideas.

Hopefully these ideas, which have been contributed by the whole family(well except the cat, he just slept on the chair) will help us towards our budget goals in 2012. 

Mrs BB