Category Archives: budget

Budgeting

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I really need to get back to basics with our budget. We’ve overspent small amounts but they quickly add up to large amounts. Our grocery spending has crept up again. Theres plenty of food in pantry and freezer so for the rest of the month we need to be using up food we already have.

I’m going to go back to tracking every cent and I’m going to spend some time reviewing our expenses and see where we can cut back.

Yesterday DD made a big batch of chilli. We’ve been trying to cut back on our meat consumption so we added 2 tins of beans to 1kg of beef mince. This made 3 meals for dinner last night and 10 for the freezer. She also made a batch of choc chop cookies and froze them.

One change I have made this month is to just eat breakfast and dinner, that gives me 17 – 18 hours of fasting. I’ve done five morning walks ( 1 hours) and six afternoon walks at work (15 mins) so far this month. My weight is down to 97.3 kgs so I’m really pleased with that, I’m down 2.6kgs (6lbs) so far.

Tonight I’ll do a bit of a stocktake of whats in the freezer so I can plan ahead. I don’t really like menu planning but its a habit that would help I think.

Are you a menu planner? Do you find you stick to the plan?

New Budgets & Mortgage payments

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Yesterday we received our first pay with DH’s reduced wages. So his income has dropped $200/week or $800 a month which is quite a lot. My income has gone down $250/week since I’ve reduced my second job hours. I have gone back to using YNAB and done up a new budget for the year, looking for where we can make some savings.

DD & I have banned ourselves from going to the shopping centre just one block away as we overspend there. Instead we have been doing the shopping online & collecting it each week and we’re spending less. I’m sure I can reduce our grocery spending further in coming months.

To reach our goal of paying $35,000 off the mortgage we will need to pay $673 per week plus approx. $100/week interest = $773/week. So my goal is $800 per week. I will pay all of my second job income off the mortgage which is $800-$1000 per month.

So today, after paying some bills and doing the grocery shopping I transferred an extra $350 off the mortgage, taking the balance to $133,521


I can’t wait till I see that number go under $100,000 some time in 2019!

Organising the Finances

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October / November is our most expensive month. Our annual car registration, car insurance, home & contents insurance, ambulance cover, professional registration, professional indemnity insurance, accountants fees have all been paid plus some repairs on the car – all up around $4000.

So theres been nothing extra paid off debt this payday.

I’ve gone back to using YNAB so I’ve been busy setting that up and planning our budget for next year. I am planning on building a one month buffer in the offset account and then anything over that will go to debt reduction.

I’ve also opened up an online account at another bank for our ’emergency fund’ in preparation for closing the redraw when its paid out.

So I am waiting for the tax refund to go into my account, hopefully in the next week so I can get back to mortgage reduction.

Other than that I’m just busy with work and really looking forward to having a break over Christmas.