I haven't updated since October last year so I thought I'd do so now!

The mortgage in October last year was 107 624. Now it is $96 106. We are managing to put at least $2000 a month to the mortgage to try and pay it down quickly. The interest rate is now 6.85%.

DS went overseas with his Dad 3 months ago and is due back next week so I am looking forward to seeing him again...he will be with me for 2 months then goes back overseas at the end of August.

And other than that, life is going well... I am staying up late at the moment so I can talk to DS via skype...

Cheers

lowincomelady

Another payday, another payment!

Old balance: 108698.14
Minimum Payment: 510
Extra Payment: 563.98
New balance: 107624.16

Interest rate is now 5.48%

I have a couple of weeks to myself these school holidays as my DS is going to vacation care and being looked after by a relative. It's a nice break and a chance to get used to being by myself. There is a chance that my DS will be going overseas to visit family for a few months and I won't be able to go due to my disability, so I am trying to get used to being by myself. Last school holidays the same thing happened and I found it very difficult and I was very lonely...but this time is much easier...


The mortgage is down to 108 697.64, I might be able to put $10 or so on it tomorrow. Next week I will be able to put about $650 extra to the mortgage as well as our regular payment of $510. Oh and interest rates went up yesterday unexpectedly by 0.25%. This will bring our interest rate up from 5.23% to 5.48%. It will be the first of many interest rate increases. It is good we have paid so much extra to the mortgage!

I did some figuring and we should be under 100 000 by February 2010 and we will be between 75 000 and 80 000 by the end of 2010. We should have this thing paid off by the end of 2013, hopefully by July. There are always unexpected expenses though...we have been having a little too much takeaway lately so we will cut back on that for a while...

Dad came home last Friday night. He was in pain the first couple of days but seems ok now...it's good to have him home. Visiting him in hospital by public transport every day was really starting to wear thin by the end!

Ok, we get paid on Thursday and the we will be able to put about $800 extra to the mortgage...We decided with the emergency fund that we will make sure we always have $1000 and we can always redraw from the mortgage in a dire emergency as we have over $20 000 extra available there...

Last Wednesday my Dad was admitted to hospital with pneumonia and a suspected minor heart attack. On Friday they pumped a litre of fluid from his lungs. So he was drowning here at home! His breathing was so raspy and he wasn't able to get his breath. He has now been on oxygen for a few days and I expect he will be in hospital for at least another week...

We are saving a bigger emergency fund from $1000 to $2500. Which means we only put $510 to the mortgage last Thursday...

We have so many expenses to pay tomorrow - the phone bill, the electricity bill, Credit card, build our savings account back up because we have had to use a bit of it and after all is said and done, we will only be able to put $169 extra to the mortgage! When I am used to putting 500-600 dollars extra every fortnight, its a bit of a blow! Although the balance will be about 109 967 so we will have broken the 110 000 barrier which is quite an achievement!

Breaking that barrier makes me feel a bit better... the next barrier will be the 100 000, it's going to be great going to 5 figures!

Oh and I am now 319.9 pounds.

I went clothes shopping for myself and spent about $178 on 5 pieces of clothing and some new underwear. I bought a long jacket, 2 tops, black pants and a black and white skirt. I am quite a large person and finding things that fit is very difficult so I felt I had hit the jackpot finding these clothes...especially the black pants, as these looked ok and pants rarely look good on me. They were the last one in my size and I really love them!

Things are looking ok on the mortgage front, next payday I should be able to put $1095 to the mortgage.

Mortgage is down to 111273.95

We sold some stuff and made an extra $1550. This Thursday is our normal payday and we will be able to pay $1094 then.

Next month our income will increase from 1888 a fortnight to over 2000 a fortnight. (this is my parents and my income together) because the government is increasing payments...

Everything is going well...my Mum turned 64 recently and I'm starting to think about my son's Christmas presents...

I have just been doing some quick and dirty figures and I worked out we can get this mortgage paid off by January 2013...

I received the $600 bonus today and transferred it to the mortgage.

The new balance is 117547.90

I got a letter today about the Education Tax Refund. I will be able to get $375 back from the Tax Office in July because I spent money on a new computer that my son uses for schoolwork.

I am also getting the Family Tax Supplement in July which is $1022 which is a yearly payment.

So I will be getting a bit of extra income in July!

I have a chart at the NCN Network showing my mortgage progress:



It will be good to see some more purple gone!

In the last Australian Federal Budget in May, it was announced that carer's would be getting an annual $600 payment every June. I have just found out we will be paid that this Wednesday. (My Mum cares for my Dad)

So there will be a $600 payment to the mortgage this Wednesday!

Oh and the bank we are with is raising their variable interest rates by 0.1%. So our interest rates will be 5.23% on Monday instead of 5.13%.

I got paid $2.39 interest on my savings account for the last month so I added a bit more and put $5.07 more to the mortgage. All these little bits add up over time...

We put in a solar hot water system in December last year and we were not charged for the frames to hold the solar panels up and we finally got the bill yesterday. $355. It is not due until the 24th June so I will wait until the 16th to post it back with my payment so it can go on the next credit card statement.

I am trying to put less on the credit card next month...we will see how we go...

I paid $1109 off the mortgage today. New Balance is $118,152.

It was so cold yesterday, my son is sick now, I think he has picked up a bug yesterday...

By the way, I live in Australia and it is winter here now and getting very chilly. I don't get snow where I live though...

I have decided to keep my son home from school today. The wind is blowing a gale and it is freezing cold. I don't have a car to get him to school and with all the trees around here and at school, it is not safe to walk.

Tomorrow is payday, and I will be able to pay $1087 to the mortgage in total including the minimum payment...

Wow, it's been a while since I last updated.. I have got out of the habit of blogging...

The mortgage is currently 119 261. Yes we have paid off 10 000 from the principal since January. We will do even better in the next 2 weeks I estimate the balance will be 116 500 on the 25 June. We are getting a bonus payment and also keeping up with paying extra off the mortgage...

My son is doing well at school, he is first in attitude and he never gets in trouble. He loves his nintendo ds.

Also, we just got pay TV installed ... we spend a lot of time at home and there is a lot of interesting programs to watch. I do cross stitch and watch it...

I just joined global test market which is a survey site, I earned 50 points this morning. Each point is worth 5 cents and they send you a cheque for $50 when your balance is 1000 points. I also have a $20 coles gift voucher coming from valued opinions...

Till next time

Low Income Lady

I have been trying for months to lose weight. And not succeeding! In fact since I started I put on about 7 kilos!! But the last few days or so I think I have cracked it...

5 Jan: 148.3 kg (326.26 pounds)
6 Jan: 147.9 kg (325.38 pounds)
7 Jan: 147.0 kg (323.40 pounds)
8 Jan: 146.5 kg (322.30 pounds)

Not bad eh! Lots of veggies, lean meat some dairy, not much bread... yada yada yada LOL

Oh yes and it was payday today so we managed to put $715 extra to the mortgage on top of the minimum payment of $510 (Total: $1225)Now the new balance is 129611.69. YAY, we passed the 130 000 barrier!

I might be able to add a little more next week...

A lot has happened since I last posted...

My Dad got sick and had to go to hospital for 3 weeks ... then I got sick and was in hospital for 7 weeks ...

As a result we ran up a lot of credit card debt and added to our mortgage so we aim to pay back the mortgage by 2014, not 2012 now.

In 2008 we paid back nearly $8000 in credit card debt. We also paid over $3500 extra on the mortgage. The balance is now 130 837.27. I hope to get the balance under 110 000 by the end of 2009 hopefully more!

My son has just turned 9, he is happily playing with his presents. He has been playing with his friend up the road a lot these holidays.

I will be going more to craft this year and trying to go out a bit more and of course stay well!

Oh and our income might be increasing quite a bit in the middle of the year because of increases to the pension being promised by the government...

Here's to a great 2009!

Total spent on groceries today was $200.86 and we got $70 cash out. We also bought a strawberry cheesecake from The Cheesecake Shop for $10. The cake was half price and there was nothing wrong with it!

I worked out something weird today. We have spent money on a new computer and bought a hindquarter of beef but we are still on schedule with the mortgage! After the interest on the mortgage is posted on the 8th June, I aimed to get the mortgage to 106 653 and I estimate the mortgage will be 106 603. So we are $50 ahead! I don't understand how that can happen!

This has eased my mind a lot! I hate being behind on my self imposed schedule...

I had a look at the finances and the variable mortgage will be about $300 more than it was last fortnight.

We didn't go to church today, I have had rather a busy weekend so I decided to take the week off.

So it is back to the routine of school tomorrow. My son has a bad cough at the moment but hopefully he will be alright to go tomorrow.

I don't want to look at the finances at the moment! We have just bought a new computer and bought a hindquarter of beef. The computer cost $661 and the hindquarter cost $275. So that has come out of our offset account as we have no savings except for the offset. So I just don't want to look at the moment. We will be getting a carer's bonus at the end of June which will pay for the computer so that is making me breathe easier!

So when I get the guts to look at the finances, I will be able to post more! I think we will probably be able to pay the variable loan by November now, not October but I haven't worked it out as yet.

The credit card balance for this month is $589. I bought an electric blanket for my queen bed, curves membership, school shoes for my son, phone bill and extra groceries.

All that was needed except for the Curves membership which has turned out to be a mistake.

Mum spent 11.37 at Aldi today on some shampoo and conditioner, a kilo of tomoatoes and a kilo of pears. Tomatoes were $3.79 a kilo! I remember when I used to get them for 99 cents a kilo!

The mortgage balance will be 107 139. After next payday which is when the interest is posted and the credit card will be paid, the balance will be 107 095. Its frustrating that the balance will not go down very much!

The balance of the mortgage as of next Friday will be 107 139.23.

I did the shopping today and spent $239.93 on the groceries. I was hoping to spend $218 but we added more things since I calculated that.

I earned a $20 coles gift voucher a few days ago from a survey site. That should arrive next week.

I gave my son 2 weeks pocket money in advance today so he could buy a star wars lego toy he wanted. I hope it is as good as he hopes it will be as he will be without pocket money until the end of May!

I am enjoying this weekend, I rented Happy feet from the video store, we have watched it this afternoon and we will watch it again tonight. It cost $4.95 to rent.

I bought the Sydney Morning Herald and I will start reading it soon. I have already read the local paper. Better get to it!

I rang the broker that set up our mortgage yesterday. We have a split loan and there is $9577 in the variable loan at the moment. When we pay that off, hopefully by November this year, we can shut down that loan (and save the $8 fee YAY!). The rest of the mortgage is in a fixed loan (balance: $98 146). The thing is I won't be able to close the variable loan until I have saved up an emergency fundas if you pay extra to the fixed loan you can't withdraw it. so hopefully by January I will have saved an EF and then we can start paying extra to the Fixed. I am able to pay $10 000 a year extra to the fixed loan so I am hoping to do that. Then when the fixed loan expires in July 2008 it will revert to a standard variable loan and I will just attach an offset account to it. The broker suggested going to a basic loan but I want the convenience of an offset account. With a basic loan it costs $50 to withdraw from it and you never know when you will need to withdraw money!

Mortgages have got more complicated over the years haven't they! LOL

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!

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.

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!

I went shopping yesterday. I only spent $185 dollars on groceries and that should do us for the fortnight.

The next credit card bill is looking good, there is only about $160 on it at the moment and hopefully it will stay that way. I have given my credit card to Mum so I don't use it for stupid stuff like takeaway food which I have been known to do. I still have a access to money but I don't tend to spend cash in the account.

We paid our council rates and insurance in full last year but we are going to pay quarterly for the rates and monthly for the insurance starting in August this year. The rates will be about $200 a quarter and tha insurance would be about $80 a month. I will know exact figures for the rates about June this year and the insurance in late July/early August.

Also I will be getting a $959.95 lump sum payment in July this year that will be going straight off the mortgage. I should find one of those lump sum calculators on the net to find out how much interest I would be saving by doing this.

I am going on an easter picnic today! We will spend a couple of dollars getting hot chips for my son and an ice cream probably! I am taking my own food and drinks. We should have a good time!

I've been looking at some blogs on the saving advice site and I really love this community on here. It is such a supportive community and I miss that on my other blog I started! So I think I will post here occasionally as well.

We haven't done that well with the mortgage lately. I had to buy my son his school uniform as what he had didn't have a logo on it and he got into trouble for not having the correct uniform. So there went $355. Plus I spent $55 on 2 pairs of shoes, sports joggers and school shoes. The school shoes turned out a bit big for him so he will have to grow into them. So I have a size 2 now and plus I have a size 3 pair I already had. So the mortgage is only down about $500 for the month...

Anyway, next month should be a better month! I am hoping not to get the credit card up too high this month. I want to keep it to maximum $300 a month. that way we can pay off the variable loan by November this year, then start throwing money to the fixed loan. We can pay $10,000 extra to the fixed loan a year and we haven't put any to it yet because the variable loan has a higher interest rate.

Thats all for now!