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.

A couple of days ago I posted that I hoped to spend $196 on shopping for the week. The tally actually came to $192...

I am doing the shopping today, I have to get a haircut as well. All up it should cost me $196...we will see how we go.

Next Saturday I am going to a comedy show and I am looking forward to that. I have gone to the same thing for the past 2 years. They have 4 standup comedians and I laugh so much, my stomach hurts! I love observational humour. To find humour in common things is a great skill.

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...

When I figured out the grocery budget it came to $185 for this Saturday's shopping but now it is $230 because I am going on the CSIRO Diet. That's not too bad!

Oh and I lost 1.7 kilos this week so I now weigh 110 kilos exactly! If I only I could have lost another 100 grams and I could have seen 109.9. Oh well maybe tomorrow!

Oh and my Dad's laptop has been playing up so he has bought a new computer, well its refurbished, not new but it will be fine. We bought it from www.bargainseeker.com.au I bought my computer from there, plus my friend bought it from there too and we are quite happy!

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!

Well, I have worked out a shopping list and the total comes to $302, thats $157 for groceries and $145 for cash out.

I went to Curves today and also had an eye exam afterwards. I am getting distance glasses that will also double as computer glasses. She was pleased with how my eyes were, even though I can't see very well out of my right eye, I still managed to read the bottom line of the eye chart with it. She said I compensate well for it and that that was unusual for people who have had it since childhood. When a child is longsighted, they tend to get lazy and take the easy way out but I haven't done that, my eyes work well even though my right eye is fuzzy. I have read a lot as a child and an adult, I am very well read. I do most of my reading on the internet, hence the need for computer glasses. I already have reading ones but I don't use them often as I don't read actual books very often.

I also went to Aldi and spent about $15 getting fruit and bread... it was very heavy to carry home. My weigh-in and measurements are due on the 19 May at Curves. I hope I have done well, I know my weight has gone down, I hope I have lost lots of centimetres too!

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

Well, We went to craft today and did some shopping which we put on the credit card. We spent $25.40 at Coles on 500 grams of Nescafe Coffee which was on special, a replacement light bulb for my bathroom which cost $4.69, a 5 pack of quikease for my Dad and a 5 pack of lifesavers which my Dad wanted. We also spent $12.05 cash at Aldi on a easter egg which Dad and I shared, grapes, bananas, tomatoes and pears.

Yesterday, I gave my son his $4 pocket moeny and also spent $3 on him at the fruit shop and told him not to ask me if I had any more money this week when he got off the bus!

And that's the spending up to date!

I did the shopping yesterday. The bill came to $280.66 and also I got $165 out to cover expenses for the fortnight so all up I spent $445.66. I had budgeted $447 so I came slightly under budget.

I also spent $84 on an item which I won't reveal here but it was necessary!

I managed to put $184.44 into my savings account for a total of $235.42. I am going to put aside 135.42 into a separate savings account to save up for an air conditioner. I'll need to save about $2500 to $3000 for that.

I helped a lady with her budget yesterday. We worked out that her only expense which she could lower is her food budget so I have found heaps of budget recipes for her and printed them out and put in a display book. I can't wait to give them to her this afternoon. Also I am going to teach her how to use a computer. She will pay me a small amount, like a tutoring fee. I have worked out a rough guideline to follow as she doesn't even know how to open up her laptop, let alone turn it on! So that will be interesting! I'm not sure how much I will earn doing this but we will work it out next week!

I prayed in the train coming from Sydney on Tuesday that I could get some work and 2 days later its answered! WOW! It's been a long time since I prayed something specific and it was answered like that!

I have given my son $4 for pocket money this morning. He usually spends it at the canteen.

I am preparing a list for shopping laster this week. We are on a bit of a health kick so there is plenty of fruit and veggies on the list!