Budgeting plans

I have been thinking a lot lately about budgeting and living on less. We are by no means in struggle street at the moment, mostly because we are living rent free with my parents (don’t worry guys we totally contribute I swear. We go halvsies on everything else) so we are able to save really well because we are pretty good at that kind of thing. I have even been able to contribute an extra $600 a month towards the mortgage on the land which is nice because it means we are paying off more than interest 🙂

We are covering all of our bills and we have still been able to save, but this could change a lot once we go through all of the surgeries Mr T and I have coming up and then once we take possession of the house, not to mention Christmas in-between so I have been thinking about how to do more with less. I have also been thinking about plans for once we are in the house.

What am I hoping to achieve

I am hoping that in being able to get some additional savings each week now I will be able to:

• Up my extra mortage payment each month from $600 to $1000
• Save between 10% and 20% of my wage. I am hoping for 20%, but I might start off at 10% so it is less of a shock hahaha.

Changes I have already made

• When Mr T and I decided we wanted to buy a house the first change I made was to dump barista made coffee. I worked out that my one bought coffee a day meant I was spending almost $30 a week on coffee! Holy crap that is a bunch. Don’t even get me started on how much Hubby was spending (it’s A LOT more than mine!). The amount we were both spending on coffee each month was rather obscene, if we both stopped immediately within 2 months we could have afforded to buy an expensive coffee machine for the workplace LOL. At the time I was even working at a Library that had coffee (instant) and tea facilities… they even provide milk and sugar! (This is the same Library I now have a full time job with). Stopping this immediately freed up $100 per week!
• I used to love a good shop and buying new things. I was a big fan of STUFF, particularly handbags and things like that. That HAD to stop 🙂 I am now a lot more controlled with my shopping, but I do let myself indulge in some retail therapy from time to time so I don’t feel like such a big hermit!

What I am going to do moving forward

• Currently there is a lot of our “savings” sitting in our everyday account. I am moving that into our savings because we get higher interest on it. I can’t even believe I haven’t already done this. I am going to leave some of it out though because there might be gap payments for our surgeries and if we take out of the Savings account we lose the interest for that month 😦
• Because I have been dedicating myself to living a healthier lifestyle the only downside related to that is the cost of food. It costs a lot more to eat well (especially if you are trying to go organic). However some thing I have figured out is that cooking bigger meals is more cost effective and also means that I have two nights worth of dinner and perhaps even a lunch. Using leftovers can be a HUGE money saver. If you do not like eating the same thing two days in a row see if it is freezable. Most meals will freeze well and it means that you have a healthy homemade microwave dinner for some night you really need it 🙂
  Along the same idea as this I am going to try and be much more organised with food. I did a 5 day healthy eating challenge recently which was great and one of the things I found was that because all my food was already organised I didn’t have to spend brain time during the week thinking about food which was awesome! In planning my food it also means writing a grocery list and sticking to the list means no unnecessary spending 🙂
• I am going to go through my belongings and have a good clean out. I am going to figure out any items I actually need to purchase for my closet (I doubt there will be any apart from a pair of black flats for work which might be pricey, but you should always buy proper shoes for your feet or they will cost you more in the long run – my current pair are literally starting to fall apart). The plan behind this is that by figuring out what I actually need I will shop less for random things I want. It will also cut down a bulk of my clothes which will mean I don’t have to pack and move them and deal with them again in the new house 🙂
• Whilst cleaning out my belongings I am going to see if there are items I could get rid of by selling. One I can think of off the top of my head is a fish tank I haven’t used in years, it is biggish and is a waste of space for me. I don’t expect to make a bunch of money out of this, but if I sell five items for $10 each that is $50 which covers about half of our grocery budget for one week. It all adds up.

Extras

Mr T. is not going to like this – actually I think he will be okay with it. He doesn’t really spend much 🙂

Because we were quite poor when we first got together (in fact we started living together before we went on our first date because we were both without a roommate and couldn’t afford to live on our own) and we went on serious budget living. Honestly we were managing to buy groceries for $50 or less per week we had to be so strict, but being that way for over a year then and staying budget conscious but not as strict in the years following has meant that we can easily afford our awesome dream home. We have worked hard at Uni and jobs to get ourselves into a good position where we can live comfortably.

So why am I wanting to do this? Well my parents went guarantor for our house (apparently 2 professionals in permanent employment with steady work history, a reasonable deposit and enough money to cover it wasn’t enough), in order to release them (and their house) from guarantor status we have to pay off a certain amount. I want to get that done as soon as possible 🙂

Also paying off more now (while we can) gives us more leeway in the future if something drastic happens and we are short on a payment.

Everyday Heros: Thank you random wonderful woman

I was Team Leader for a desk shift the other day which means you are in charge of all the important decisions during that shift. A staff member came to me and asked if we could figure out a work around for this woman to use the computers and print without her card, normally this would cost money for a replacement card, but the staff member said she felt we should waive it and would explain later. I trusted her so we figured out a work around where the woman didn’t have to get a new card.

The woman had a kind face and I recognised her from other visits she had made to the Library, I had noticed that she always seemed to have a newborn with her. I asked the staff member about it and she said that the woman fostered newborns who are born addicted to drugs, she keeps them until they are clean and adjusted and ready to go onto a new foster parent. My heart about exploded for this amazing woman in this moment. I looked at my staff member with moist eyes (she is one of the very few who knows about our infertility journey), she squeezed my arm and asked if I needed a couple of minutes.

I said to her I was fine and that the patron was an amazing person to do this. I also said the little baby boy she had was gorgeous and as far as I was concerned she could print off adoption papers and I would sign and take him home this instant. I do know that is not how adoption works, but in all honesty I was deadly serious. When I got home I told Hubby and he said he would have been all in too.

I want to say thank you to this woman, any newborn presents a challenge to even the most experienced mother, but what you are doing is so much more. These poor babies who are born addicted to drugs through no fault of their own scream for hours and hours on end in pain, many find it hard to bond and many have difficulties even eating and drinking. To put your hand up to help these babies time after time is just beyond amazing. This woman is my new hero! I will remember her always and will always go beyond the extra mile to help her when I see her because she goes above and beyond every day.

Faith in humanity restored!

Déjà vu clients

Recently I seem to be having a lot of deja vu clients and it’s starting to make me feel insecure!

What is a deja vu client?

A deja vu client is someone who comes into the library (or whatever workplace you are in) and asks a question. You look at the client and figure out either immediately or partway through the answer that not only have you answered this question before, but you have answered this question to this EXACT person.

This seems to happen most with scanning, photocopying and printing. Even though I make the client do it each time and just verbally guide them AND show them the instructions hanging on the wall NEXT TO THE PHOTOCOPIER/PRINTER/SCANNER and they come in ALL THE TIME they just can’t seem to remember how to do it.

There is a gentleman that comes in who can never connect his WiFi, I don’t know what he does to his computer at home, but everytime he comes there are issues connecting. I have helped him twice. Both times he has said to me, “I don’t think you know enough, you need to get someone else” and both times I have said to him, “sir, there is only one person in the whole Library service with more IT knowledge than me and she is unavailable” (in my mind I added “jerk off” to make myself feel better). This same gentleman has asked me twice how to save pictures from an email and get this… it was the same damn picture each time (SIGH!). The first time I showed him how as soon as we pressed ‘save as’ his picture library came up with some pretty graphic close ups of lady parts, I turned away and said I couldn’t help him with that on there and he seemed embarrassed. The second time I was wiser and said to him, “remember we have done this before” he said we hadn’t and when he brought up the picture I said, “yes, see this is the same picture we saved last time and remember when you pressed save some inappropriate photos came up. If they come up again I will walk away” he looked at me and then said, “oh, okay, I will delete them”.

Just today I had a lady ask me how to scan documents, I looked at her and knew we have had this conversation before. I told her she needed a USB and she said she didn’t have one. I let her know that the machine will only scan to a USB and she asked if she could borrow one, I said we didn’t have any to borrow, but she could buy one at the front desk for $10. She said too expensive so I suggested she walk down the road to Kmart because they have cheaper ones there. I felt like a robot during this discussion, we have literally had this EXACT conversation before. I remember her because she has some cool tattoos. Cool tattoos yes, but I think she needs a remembrall!

Does anyone else have this happen with their clients regularly? I am not sure having the ‘you need to be quiet in the quiet study area’ really counts does it? If it does then I have an epidemic on my hands hahaha.

Frustrations, ranting & fibbers.

Warning: this will be a bit of a vent session. This is your last chance to click away 🙂

Back in my post “Is it okay to eat the world?” you might remember me talking about the fact that my brother’s GF is now unexpectedly pregnant with their third child. As I mentioned in that post, neither of them have themselves together despite the fact my brother turns 30 in a couple of months and she is 26. Both are well aware that we are struggling with fertility and desperately want children and yet neither of them actually told us they were pregnant, they left it to my parents to tell us. My Dad told me the day they found out and the next day she came over and immediately (as if we had already been mid conversation) says, “Yeah, so M totally thinks the baby will be a girl” Umm… ‘scuse me? As far as you know I am not even aware you’re knocked up… what the hell girl? A little bit of sensitivity and thought that it might be hard for us would have been appreciated.

She went on about this crap for awhile and I nodded and messed around on FB trying to mostly ignore her. She went on about names for awhile and in the end I interrupted her (I know it’s rude and I wouldn’t normally, but I was totally over it you guys!) and said, “Honestly T, there is so much you need to think about before you even consider names. For starters, will 3 baby seats fit in the back of your car? If not you will need to sell your car and get one that will. Have you thought about the fact that you thought you were done with babies and so got rid of all the boys baby stuff including your maternity clothes and you don’t have any extra money? How are you going to pay for 3 children when you can’t even keep up with two? You need to stop J being such a clingy child, if you don’t do this before the baby comes he could hold it against the baby and hurt it by accident.” I listed a bunch of other things she needed to do before the baby arrives and then said, “ALL of that is so much more important than what you are going to call them. You need to start with a complete cleanout of your stuff and clean your house”. She looked at me like most of it had gone over her head then said, “Yeah I know, I just wish your brother would help out more. Did you know that I will get X amount of money per week from the government now we have three kids?” I just looked at her aghast. She had only found out she was pregnant the day before and she was already looking up what kind of benefits she could get out of it?!!!!!!!!! What. The. Hell!!!

I said something to the effect of “that is really not the kind of thing you should be relying on” and something about, “you might not be able to get all of that” to which she started spouting off about what she was ENTITLED to and made a joke she thought was SO funny along the lines of, ‘at least you know where your taxes are going’. I looked at her with what I thought was a withering stare and said, “Yes, I am SO glad that my hard earned tax dollars go towards paying my nieces and nephews mothers to stay home and not work. It’s almost like I am paying for the lives of my brothers and their children even though I have none of my own”. She didn’t get it. She didn’t get I was mad at her. She said (to be fair she said it quite genuinely), “I know, that totally sucks. I really want you to be able to have children soon”.

I spoke to my brother a bit later about this happening and he said he was deeply concerned because she had said the same thing to him about the money. He said he had tried to tell her that whilst the money would help that it wouldn’t cover all their needs and that she needed to not be so centered on it, but he couldn’t get through to her.

AND THEN… THE SAGA CONTINUES…

She came over yesterday talking about the baby shower (She had done this before and I tried to tell her that traditionally you really only had a baby shower for your first child and reminded her that she didn’t have one for her second. She ignored this obviously.) and apparently she asked my parents if she could have the baby shower at their house (remember it was only yesterday during her visit that she asked), my Dad said he was okay with it, but my Mum would have the final say. My Mum asked why they couldn’t have it at their place and she said it wouldn’t be big enough (umm what?), apparently Mum asked a bunch of other questions, but never actually said yes. Half an hour after this conversation she hands me an invite with Mum and Dad’s address as the location and Mum and Dad as one of the people you can RSVP too. WTF you guys?! WTF???!!!

Also it is halfway through September, she’ll be barely halfway through her pregnancy by that stage, she isn’t even 12 weeks yet, how stupid can she be sending this crap out? Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. It is also really hurtful and is pisses me off because even though she told my Mum she would come over the week before to clean Mum’s place and would do all the catering I know for SURE that come the day nothing will be prepared and it will be left up to me and Mum to do it. They are doing this party in the place where I live… there is nowhere for me to escape or hide from it when I become overwhelmed. I may be overreacting, but I find it terribly rude! I honestly feel like telling Hubby we need to go away that weekend except I don’t feel right leaving my Mum with all that crap.

Oh and then I realised that the invite was for both me and Hubby and was from my brother and his GF… uhh okay? What? It turns out that they are inviting over 50 FREAKING PEOPLE! That is HUGE! That is not a baby shower, that is a freaking rager! Personally I think they want an excuse for a party to take their mind off their issues and they don’t want to have it at theirs because they would be forced to clean their house!

Lies I tell you!

Am I being unreasonable? Is it wrong for me to be mad about this being thrown on not just us, but my parents too?