My Budget :) & a story

Hey Bloggers,

Today I thought I'd share with you my "Budget Envelope System" & the reason why I decided we needed one.

Once upon a few weeks ago..........
We had a cyclone called Marcia blow in for about four days.  Nothing too damaging, torrential rain & not a lot of wind where we are.  But enough rain for our back yard to flood, the pool filled up with dirt & to cap it all off the pump & chlorination system died.  We think they filled up with water & the electrics got fried.  So we had to replace them & unfortunately for us I didn't know that pools & duct-ed air conditioners (it died early in January) aren't covered by your standard house & contents insurance.  Oh no you have to get separate insurance called Motor Burn out Insurance.  Which I would have known about if I had read the hand book full of techno babble.

This will be added in November (I'm not making the same mistake twice thank you).  So we needed to come up with close to $1000 for the pool over the last few weeks.  Then last week we got a visit from the neighbours behind us about our trees along the back fence.  They want us to prune them because one of the gentlemen in his early 70's was climbing onto the top of a 6 foot ladder to prune the branches damaged & hanging over his side of the fence.  Understandably we could see where there is cause for concern.  But that means we are now up for another unexpected bill of $650 to get the trees pruned.  Which is something we where considering getting done at a much later date. Say in about 6 months or so *sigh*.  It never rains it pours around here,  Pun intended. So just after Easter (because our garden man is super busy at the moment) we are having some yard work done. Hopefully that will keep us in the good books with the neighbours.  Then I got my car (Tom the Kia) serviced & was overcharged $200 (a story for another time maybe). I had to take Tom back to Kia Maroochydore to get the door fixed (a pre-existing problem) as well as the hand brake that mysteriously stopped working after being serviced at the Nambour place I use to go.  Which was another unexpected bill of $350.00.

So of course that leads me to our new Budget.  Because I woke up one morning not long after all of this & decided I needed to calm the inner "Control Beast" by seeing where our money goes each week/month.  Plus I'm tired of being "One of those women who have no idea about the finances" as my step-mother likes to tell me not so kindly (mostly I let the comments slide, but some times they stick).

Firstly I watched a bunch of videos from You Tube on the subject.  Because lets face it - I like to find out as much as I can about things before doing them.  Remember I'm A.C.D. ;)   One video that I found particularly helpful is this one. Why?  Because of what he says near the end.  That it may take three to four months for you to perfect your budget.  That to me is the most single important piece of info that any one could have given me.  Being the type of person that I am (anal) I tend to stress if things don't go right or are perfect straight away.  By him saying this it has given me the freedom to not worry about any "mistakes" that I/we make with the budget.  Also it helps me not stress over those things that have a habit of cropping up that are out of our control - see above story (which I hate! First world problem I know).  

Now here's the fun bit.  I nagged asked Doug how much we spent on what each week/month & worked up about four budgets until I was happy with the categories and amounts (because some hubbies listening skills suck!).  Plus there is always that one thing you forget or crops up.  So here are my categories &  what I use to pay them:

My three groups are : Cash, Credit Card & Stays in bank*

Cash:

• Groceries
• Karate - Emsy
• Fuel - Kia
• Fuel - Bluey
• Pets
• Haircuts
• Pool
• Medical
• House Upkeep
• Car Upkeep
• Car Rego
• Air con
• Clothing 
• Birthdays
• Christmas
• Emergency
• Fun 

Credit Card:

• Optus
• Telstra
• House Insurance
• Car Insurance
• Tuckshop

Stays in bank:

• Electricity
• Water
• Rates
• Gas
• School Fees
• Swimming - Lilly
• Tax

The only problem I can see with the last category is the money could "disappear" on other things.  The reason I have a Credit card & stays in bank is because these things are transferred electronically either fortnightly or monthly & I didn't want to be taking money out just to be putting it back the next week or month.  I could see payments being missed & that is not going to put me in my happy place ;p.  

** Also the telephone quote isn't something I'd do - honest.

Have a great day.

Let's talk life and the "B" word........

Hey bloggers,


I know I've slipped up in my blogging of late.  I must admit my last 3-4 posts have been scheduled.  Or they wouldn't have made it out there to 'net word'.  I know I may have said in a previous post that I wasn't going to worry so much about my blogging habits this year..............and I haven't for the most part.  Well ok that's a little lie.  I've been thinking I need to do something & not "Stressing" about it.  See I'm getting a better ;p.

So I have been busy, busy, busy with life of late & loving it.

I'm in a really good place mentally at the moment.  So am planning on taking advantage of it while this lasts.  I'm calm, happy & most importantly my mind is quiet & restful.  Which is a refreshing change that doesn't seem to happen often enough.

Yes I'm one of those "Psycho Cows" who has mood swings ranging from I will tolerate you to don't even think about looking at me or you are dead!  Add in migraines, depression & you can guess the rest...............I'm surprised my gorgeous family hasn't "killed me off" or at least kicked me out.  

March has been a busy month so far.  I've started Budgeting (hence the post title).  I woke up one morning & thought we (me) need to know where our money is going each week.  So one text later (to Doug).
Me: Honey how much do you get paid each week?
Doug: No you can't buy what ever it is.  Why do you need to know?
Me: Silly man, I'm starting a budget & need to know.
Doug: Great! Its $............ (not sharing that bit tee hee)

So armed with the amount of money that we can use each week I went to one of my three favorite places - You Tube & looked for budgeting ideas.  Where I happened on some really good vid's.  I now have an envelope system in place & so far it is working well for us.  I actually made a little folder with some envelopes & decorated them up & put my money in them each week (so far it's been about two weeks).  Whilst the actual system is working, my little folder isn't :(.

Let me explain, I love it, but it is way to bulky & awkward to use (for me).  Plus the envelopes can't be separated so I had the money on me all the time.  Which makes it hard if Doug needs to access it. On the plus side, I used up some of my 6.5" pads from Kaisercraft.  A win on that front.  If you look closely the second last photo you may notice a strip of blue washi tape running down the inside flap of the envelope.  It's because the flap started to split apart from the envelope. Also of note, is the three "lumps" under the green strip on the right side.  They are magnets, that would normally work except my folder is so stuffed full of (not money - well not much money) stuff that it wouldn't stay closed properly.  That led to me adding a ribbon to keep it closed, yet another reason why it didn't work to well for me.

So I have changed to a new "envelope" system.

This is what I'm using now.  These clear wallets are the perfect size to fit into this small expanding file.  The three best things about my new system are

• I can take out the "envelopes" I need & leave the rest at home
• It's not bulky 
• I can see at a glance what's inside & more importantly I can keep the coin in the right envelopes.

Which is extremely important for me as I have A.C.D. - Anal Compulsive Disorder (yes I diagnosed myself thank you very much).

Well lovelies,  I'm going to bid you all good day & go harass play with the kids.  Have a great weekend.