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Archive for April, 2007

Grocery shopping!

April 29th, 2007 at 06:15 am

I went shopping on Friday and spent $150 on groceries. this will do the 4 of us for 2 weeks. About $15.00 of it was for prescriptions so I only spent $135 on groceries! That's only $67.50 for each week on food. Of course next shopping I figure we will spend about $250. We tend to have a light fortnight then spend more the next fortnight!

This Thursday I will be paying the credit card which is $223.03. I figure the current credit card will be about $430.

I worked out approx what we could afford to pay to the mortgage every fortnight provided we keep the credit card to $400 a month and we should be able to pay it off in 4 years time from now!

Australian Biggest Loser Finale on tonight

April 26th, 2007 at 09:35 am

I have watched the whole season of the Biggest Loser on TV this year. I have only missed one episode and tonight is the Finale. There are 3 people who are competing, Chris, Patti and Marty. I really hope Marty wins. At Curves today the trivia question was Who do you think will win? and I voted for Marty. He has the weight to lose and I think he can get the biggest percentage of weight lost!

I spent $2.50 on bus fare and $10.15 on cheese and fruit. That will get us through until Saturday. I was going to do the shopping today but my son got upset when he realised he couldn't come. He was trying so hard to be a good boy while we were shopping and he thought he was being punished when I told him we were going to go shopping today. So I got 3-4 things today so we can get through to Saturday and I think I will try and go shopping just with my son. My Mum gets stressed when she shops with my son as he is only 7 and mucks up a little bit as kids are prone to do so I will go alone with him and spend some time with him!

Went to town and worked out

April 23rd, 2007 at 01:44 am

I went to town today and got my last DVD's from Video Ezy. The contract ends tomorrow so I will have to hand in my card and get an ordinary one. I had a lot of trouble finding movies today that I liked so I guess its a good thing that I can't get anymore now!

I caught a bus there and back today, I just didn't feel like walking. I went to Curves and when I finished the workout and was changing my clothes, I couldn't find my watch! So when I went home, there it was in my bag sitting in the one place I didn't check when I was frantically searching for it!

I went to Aldi and bought a bag of tomatoes for $3. It's pocket money day for my son so he got $4.

I also sold a book for $4.95.

Total spending for today is $9.50

Secondhand books

April 21st, 2007 at 07:32 pm

Yesterday I went to a huge secondhand book sale and bought about 8 books for $23. One of them I bought specifically to sell on Oztion. Some of the others I will be able to sell once I have read them.

Payday was Thursday. The mortgage is down to 108 813.51. I estimate the mortgage should be down to 107 800 next payday but then of course interest will go on and make it about 108 400.

I received $21.50 from an oztion sale. I will transfer that money to the mortgage on Monday.

We should just be buying bread today. Bread costs a dollar a loaf so we should spend $3.00 today on it. We can get bread rolls at church for a small donation.

I joined a Curves gym last Thursday. This cost a $99 joining fee and $59 monthly. I really want to lose this extra 100 pounds my body is carrying and other people I know have had success with Curves so I will give it a go. There is a small fee to cancel the contract so I am not up for a huge amount if I decide its not for me.

An hour's walk

April 17th, 2007 at 04:49 am

My son and I walked to town and back today, which was about an hour all up! I bought some KFC chips for him for $1.95 and I only had one...

Yesterday Grandma, my son and I went to town. We spent &7.80 on the bus tickets, $7.70 on Maccas, and $37.50 at the Salvos getting some clothes including this beautiful leather jacket which I absolutely adore! It is too small for me but I hope to get into it when I reach my goal weight!

I am very annoyed!

April 13th, 2007 at 03:59 pm

I developed an ear ache this morning so I thought I had an ear infection. So I rock up to the doctor, well after I had waited for 2 hours, as you don't need to make an appointment and just wait your turn. Well, he examined me and got me to open my mouth wide open while he pressed a spot near my ear where the jaw connects to the skull and it hurt like heck! So, I have something called TMJ Dysfunction... this means I have to do exercises to help the pain as I have a constant dull ache on one side of my face. The thing is I went to get the painkiller he prescribed and I asked for the generic version. So the chemist dispenses it and then she asks for $19.80! The charge for generic medicine is $4.90 and then she said there is no generic version. I mean shouldn't she have told me that there was no generic version before she bl**dy well dispensed the medicine? So I ended up paying $19.80 for 20 tablets. Thats $1 a tablet! AND they are no good, they do nothing to help the pain! What a rort! I am NOT happy!

Some school holiday spending

April 12th, 2007 at 05:37 am

We went to the corner shop today and got some hot chips and I didn't have any for $2. Also got an ice cream for $2 for my son and some sour chew lollies and some chewing gum.

We are getting some extra veggies this shopping for a couple of meals I am going to make then freeze. I am going to freeze meals and have them each night instead of cooking for myself every night. So I will have toast for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and my meal for dinner. This will help me control portion sizes.

Went to diet group

April 11th, 2007 at 03:59 am

I went to town today and spent $6.92 at Aldi on cheese, minced garlic, bread and peanut butter. Also got some more DVD's from Video Ezy. I posted a couple of letters and also went to my diet group where I put on weight so I spent $9.50 there.

I went to Sydney yesterday and spent $9.40 on my son's train ticket and also $9 for the taxi to get to the station, $1.40 for my son's bus ticket home and $2.50 for my train and bus ticket. Other than transport I spent $2.70 on a coke and ice cream for my son at Hungry Jack's when we got to Central. We took our own food and drink with us so the coke and ice cream was just a treat.

We go shopping next Saturday and it looks like it will cost $233 for the groceries, give or take a few dollars.

Town Visit

April 9th, 2007 at 08:22 am

Walked to town and spent $6.34 on half price easter eggs. Also spent $2.80 on bus fares to get home for me and my son as he came with me. He rode his scooter down and we just carried it back on the bus.

My parents and I have come up with a plan to help me lose weight. I am going to get $20 for every kilo I lose. So for every 100 grams I lose I get $2. Monday will be the weigh in day and I was 112.6 kg this morning. I am going to transfer the money into my savings account. I can only lose the weight once, if I put on weight and then lose it again, I don't get the money again. We will see if this motivates me!

Frugal Few Days

April 7th, 2007 at 08:43 pm

Well since the holidays started on Friday the only money I have spent has been $4 for 2 Saturday newspapers and $2.80 for a cabbage. And the shops are shut today because it is Easter Sunday. Hopefully the video store will be open so I can get some more DVD's. My DVD unlimited subscription runs out on the 24th April so I want to make the most of it while I can.

I am trying to lose weight, and my weight loss is not going well this week. I'll have to really try for the next 3 days if I have any hope of losing this week! My official weigh in day is on Wednesday.

Well, I hope you are all having a Happy Easter!

Paid $10 000 to loan

April 5th, 2007 at 04:45 am

Well, not really! I transferred $10 000 from the offset account to the loan account which still leaves the balance the same. I did that because I was afraid interest rates would rise and I was hoping that the bank would take the new balance into account when calculating the minimum payment.

It was payday this week but I had the big credit card to pay. At the moment, here are the balances of the accounts:

Variable Mortgage: 17696.89
Offset Account: 6665.65
Net Variable balance: 11031.24
Fixed Loan: 98232.08
Total Mortgage Amount: 109263.32
Credit Card: 172.99

The credit card is one of the lowest and the statement date doesn't end until the 16th of the month.

When I figured out the balances just then, I realised I had made an accounting mistake in my books and we are finally under 110 000 dollars with the mortgage! YAY!

Spending for the last 2 days

April 3rd, 2007 at 03:13 am

Yesterday, my son was sick so I spent his $4 pocket money for him at the fruit shop on some treats. I also entered Dad in another chess tournament for which cost $13.23. That went on the credit card. That makes the credit card balance $172.99 which is a whole lot better than previous credit card balances. Last months was nearly $800 which I will pay tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I am going to my diet group which will cost $8.50 including bus fare. Plus I have to buy a prescription which will cost $4.90. I am also going to the doctor but he bulk bills so it won't cost me anything. I am not going to lunch tomorrow so I will save $5 there. I ordered a garden salad last week and it was yum but my doctors appointment is at lunchtime so I will give it a miss this week. I have lost weight this week which I am pleased about! I made up a weight spreadsheet where I can put in my daily weight and it produces a chart automatically! I am very happy with it!

Shopping List for next shopping (work in progress)

April 1st, 2007 at 06:54 am

I thought I would share my shopping list for next fortnight that I wrote out last night. It is a work in progress so this is not a final version.

Aldi

2 powdered skim milk 4.29*2
jam 1.39
honey 2.99
2 peanut butter 1.89*2
choc eclairs 1.49
noodles (5 pack) 1.09
2 cheese twists 0.89*2
tomato paste 1.19
2 tissues 1.19*2
3 salmon 1.99*3
3 beetroot 0.65*3
8 tomato soup 0.99*8
5 cans of peaches in juice 1.79*5
3 cans of spaghetti 0.79*3
3 cans of baked beans 0.79*3
minced garlic 0.99
3 lemonade 0.69*3
4 cordial 2.19*4
garbage bags 2.49
2 carrots 0.99*2
5kg apples 1.99*5
oranges 3kg 2.99
pears 1kg 3.00
1kg tomatoes 2.49
bananas about $4 worth at 1.99 kg
packet of snow peas 2.50
4 red capsicum 2.89
half pumpkin 2.50
brushed potato 4kg 3.99
grapes 3.00
2kg chicken breast 19.00
4 cheese 500g 2.99*4
3 margarine olive oil spread 1.99*3
baby peas 1.49
fish fingers 1.99
12 party meat pies 3.19
4 white bread 0.99 * 4
2 soy and linseed bread 1.99*3
3 eggs 1.99*3

Coles

shapes multipak 4.74
3 vitsweat 2.58*3
6 evaporated light milk 1.99*6
2 frozen onions 2.29*2
beef stock 2.49
ground coriander 2.50
cumin 2.50
pickles 1.55
pecks paste 1.62
fresh fish $10 worth

Coles should cost about $50
Aldi $166

We also have to get 3 prescriptions which will cost $14.70 and we will get $125 cash out. All up $355. I will improve on the shopping list as the fortnight goes by, we might not need as many tomato soup or other things!

Menu plans

April 1st, 2007 at 06:39 am

School Snacks: DS has 1 vegemite sandwich and 1 peanut butter sandwich for lunch. And he has a packet of chips and a packet of shapes or tiny teddies for recess. He won't have fruit because he doesn't like it when its warm and it just comes home again. So I get the 20 pack of chips from Aldi for $3.99 and that will last about 5 weeks. He has 3 sandwiches on a Monday only because that's the day he gets his pocket money and he buys rubbish from the canteen. I used to just give him sandwiches but his schoolfriends gave him chips and snacks anyway so I gave in.

My menu plan is not really set out. My son is very fussy and will only eat a limited amount of stuff and I cook my own meals so I cook twice. Mum cooks for herself and Dad and sometimes I share in their meals. So I guess my menu plan would not really be suited to anyone else's family as sometimes it works out that we are cooking 4 meals on the one night. My Mum will cook my Dad a meal which she doesn't want to have so she has something separate. And the only meal that I can share with my son is spag bol.

Here are some of the meals that my Mum cooks:

Nasi Goring (you can google the recipe). It is spicy but yum! We use pecks paste for the shrimp paste.

Beef casserole with gravy beef. Just cut up beef, flour, then cut up potato, carrot and any other veggies and cover with beef stock in a casserole dish, cover and cook for 2-3 hours at 180 degrees. Its yum!

T-bone with veg

Mongolian beef and rice

rissoles and veg

homemade hamburgers with lettuce, beetroot, cheese, egg and tomato.

porcupine casserole, this is meatballs with cooked rice added with tomato soup and canned diced tomatoes, tomato paste and oregano.

chicken strogonoff and rice (with light evaporated milk)

chicken curry and rice (the curry has cabbage, grated carrot, capsicum and onion added)

battered fish (from Aldi) and veg

fresh fish in foil and veg

salmon patties and veg

I have some of the same meals and I have a lot of stir fries, I usually make the recipe up as I go along!