I Found A Money Tree!
In the space of about 20 minutes, somehow, amazingly, I discovered I was sitting on a money tree!
It’s tax time here in Australia and there is money flying left, right and centre. I’ve spoken before about how our social security system is set up - it is very much geared toward families and children and most families get money from the government to help with the cost of raising children. There is, unfortunately, a small portion of people who abuse this facility (having children specifically for the government payments), but there isn’t generally a stigma associated with family payments.
Well, today I finally got around to ringing the agency which overseas social security. I knew we had some payments coming our way but they were dragging their feet. Without going too deep into it, families are supposed to estimate their income for the year ahead and the payments are given as a fortnightly amount according to this estimate (the more you earn, the less you are given in family payments, and so on). We have always over-estimated our income on purpose, because at tax time, you get the ‘leftover’ money paid as a lump sum. On top of that, there are a few ‘once a year’ payments that happen at this time of year, one or two of which are tied in with our son’s disability.
Phew. Did you get all that?
The upshot of today’s phone call is that the sum of money coming our way was several hundred dollars more than what I was expecting. It hits our accounts on Monday. This, along with our tax return (already paid) and the bonus part of my mother’s estate, increases the buffer between ‘happy’ and ‘concerned’ (LOL). We’re still knuckling down with Financial Spring Clean September, but there might actually be a little leftover to put toward household repairs.
And maybe a treat or two ;)
Cheers,
Lizzie
Great Organizing Site
I just have to tell you all about this awesome site I discovered not thirty minutes ago. I was over at I’m An Organizing Junkie and came across the link to MeckMom.com (some of you may have already seen it). This site is awesome! If you’re after fantastic organizing ideas, Maria has them shooting out of her pinkie finger, LOL.
I’ve already gleaned, oh, about fourteen different organizing projects from her files. She also has a great Free Downloads section - well worth a look-see. Makes me want to throw out all my plain ol’ boring templates and whip up some new ones that are more on her par!
Cheers,
Lizzie
Spring Cleaning The Finances
Today is one of those glorious days that seem to herald in the coming of Spring. The forecast is for the warmest temperature we’ve had for several months, and as I was walking the kids to school I could already smell the laundry detergent in the air.
Today is also our local council’s hard rubbish collection for my area. Hubs and I hauled various broken items of furniture out to the kerb last night. We’ve had most of these items stored outside for the two years that we’ve lived here, so it was high time they went.
With September (and Spring, at least for us folks down here!) a hop, skip and a jump away, I’m dragging out all of my old expense tracking spreadsheets (self-designed…but did you expect anything otherwise? LOL) ready to begin tracking our expenditure come the 1st. We’re not terribly big spenders - we always stay within our means - but we’re far from perfect. Hubs was crunching some numbers on the computer last night and at our current rate of mortgage repayments (which includes a healthy buffer above the minimum repayments), it will take us a further 16 years to pay off the house, making 18 years total. We had been paying an additional (and completely voluntary) $150 per fortnight until a few months ago but stopped that temporarily to allow for some extra expenses that were coming up. Hubs also figured out that if we begin that extra payment again, the length of the loan will drop to 11 more years, or 13 total. Which is about where we wanted to be when we first applied for it. This does not take into account interest rate hikes (groan - they’re on the upswing here) or me working at some point, which was/is also on the cards now that all of the kids are in school full time. I’m in no rush though (and truth be told, I’d be perfectly happy to be a homekeeper for the rest of my life, for a myriad of reasons we all know back to front and sideways, LOL). But it was always a dream of mine to have paid off the house before our second son hits university age. Tuition is expensive! Of course, it would stand to reason that he’s already skipped one year, and will probably skip a second as he enters high school, LOL.
So, there’s a strong undercurrent in Lizzie’s Home, as we enter into the warmer weather, to do a bit of a Spring Clean of our finances. I must admit, I haven’t exactly been the best steward with the money that passes through my hands in the last few months, so that’s something that I’m focusing on. As a homekeeper my main expense is groceries, so I’m committing to tracking dilligently for one month to begin with. And, because I’m slightly OCD (LOL), I’m going to return to my very detailed Grocery Tracking Spreadsheet to do it. This spreadsheet is a wonder folks - it tracks 26 different categories from meat, fruit and vegetables and toiletries to stationery, frozen food and baking supplies.
Because I’m just that degree of crazy, people.
Ahem.
All jokes aside, each time I’ve done this, some really interesting information comes to light. I can tell you how much we’ve spent (for example) on meat (or any of the other 25 categories), and it keeps a running total for me. It also highlights the spending in ‘naughty’ areas, like Treats & Snackfood. I’m always shocked at that figure! (For the record, my ‘grocery’ total always includes things like toiletries, small household items like toothbrushes and lightbulbs, paper products - there’s even a Chemist (drugstore) category - as well as what we spend on actual food. It’s just how I prefer to arrange the finances. So if I ever quote a figure that sounds outrageously high, consider this, but also consider the exchange rate and general increased prices of shopping in Australia!)
So there’s that. Plus, I’ll be keeping a record of all other expenses (mortgage, electricity, phone, school expenses, clothing, shoes, etc) on another document. I’m certain I can find the additional $300 in September to meet the extra mortgage repayment. Hubs and I have already discussed keeping all non-essential spending to the bare minimum during September. At the end of the month, we’ll re-assess and see whether we need to tighten or loosen the slack.
Tracking so minutely can get a little tedious at times, but the end result is worth it :)
Cheers,
Lizzie
Works For Me Wednesday ~ August 29
Kids are funny creatures at the dinner table. They’re either shovelling in the food like a Survivor contestant after winning a food reward, dropping scraps on the floor for the dog (…oh wait - we don’t have a dog) or surreptitiously trying to poke a pea up their nose just to see what it feels like.
Or is that just my family? Ahem.
In our house, we do something we ingeniously entitled The Good and Bad Game. Going around the table, we each talk about at least one good thing and one bad thing that has happened to us that day. At this stage in the game (our kids are almost-9, 7 and 5 ½), the tidbits that come forth are hardly earth-shattering (”Sarah went ahead of me on the playground today! It’s not fair!”) but we figure it serves as a starting point for deeper conversation (”Well, going down the slide fourteen times in a row probably wasn’t that fair to Sarah either, sweetie.”) And we’re hoping as the kids get older, and their lives get more complicated than slides and jungle gyms, that they’ll be far more likely to open up with their problems. Plus, its lovely to hear about their ‘good’ things. We’ve talked about getting special praise from a teacher, helping a friend at lunchtime, special responsibilities, lost teeth and fun schoolwork. Of course, we talk about these things at other times too, but The Good and Bad Game is a hightlight of the evening meal for all of us :)
As usual, drop in at Rocks in my Dryer for more WFMW participants :)
Cheers,
Lizzie
New Growth, New Budget
(yes, those are real Australian notes! LOL)
Doing my rounds of Bloggityville today I came across this great post over at SAHMmy Says.
As August draws to a close, I’ve had money on my mind. For my neck of the woods, Spring is right around the corner. There’s new growth everywhere. Except in my purse!
A ’series of unfortunate events’ over the last two or three months has left us with a short-yet-not-insignificant list of repairs and other necessary financial evils. Thankfully, there’s hope around the corner. It’s tax time here, meaning we just got our tax return back. As well as this, our social security system is very much geared towards families (nearly every family gets something from the government, even those, like ourselves, earning a decent wage - though the more you earn, the less you get in SS payments obviously) and we’re being slipped little chunks of cash from the government in the form of rebates, schemes and family payments (I’d explain it in more detail, but it would bore the 85% of my readers (ie, those Stateside!) to tears, LOL). Bottom line, we have some bonuses coming in. We just need to prioritise what goes where.
But when I read the above post today, it reminded me that I was going to try something similar in September. I just need to work out the details. Everything is going up in the grocery store. Milk and cheese - eek! And the drought here in Australia has seriously affected the quality and price of our fruit and vegetables. It’s far more economical in my area to go to a stand-alone greengrocer but it can be inconvenient to get to them. And Woolworths is just down the road. So its a constant juggling act between wanting to save time, and wanting to save money. However, I shall persevere!
I think its about time to dust off my super-dooper expense tracking spreadsheet system. I haven’t used them in quite some time, but September is looking like the time to start it up again :)
Cheers,
Lizzie
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