Money

First of all i have to have a mini ARGH moment... ive just hung out a washing line full of clothing... and it is raining... DUH me for not checking out the weather forcast!

Thanks for your comments on the pics, no they arent wearing the same outfit, but i do love my gorgeous girls, Kaylee this morning has been amazing, before she left with Darryl this morning she was just so lovely and sweet (lets hope she comes home from Kindy like this!) she come out to me while i was hanging out the washing and i bent down to her, she held my cheeks and gave me a kiss, said byebye mummy, i love you! gave a little wave and off she went, ahhhhhhhh *gush* such the stuff memories are made of!

Money, ohhhh yes, the stuff you either love, or hate, hate to love or love to hate, but you gotta have it, you need it to survive in todays modern world.

for those of you who dont know, we are taking an increase in bills and a decrease in income... which basically means unless i get drastic NOW we are going to be in the shit bigtime, BUT its completely for the best, and we WILL get there! i have cut down SO much, im very amazed at myself, so far i have got my food bill down to $100 a week (thats $30 on meat, $30 on vege and fruit - its amazing how much $30 for fruit and vege actually is, i got 2 full bags the other day for $15! - and $40 on misc grocery items, and its actually really easy to do, buy on special, buy in bulk, think about your meals, buy in season, now before you say "well duh, it is pretty easy to do" this is coming from a household who used to quite happily spend $200-$300 Per WEEK on groceries.... we spend $15 every 3 weeks on nappies for Kaylee and use cloth on Olivia, so no probs there with cost apart from the washing liquid we use which costs about $8 and lasts us 3-4 months. incase your wondering, im putting all of this on here so i have something to look back on. ive pretty much sold my car (dammit! im gunna miss my baby!) for $11,000 so that is $11,000 worth of debt that will be very soon gone, we have our eye on a car which is just under $2000, so we will own that outright, no more car payments coming out of our account, (but dammit im gunna miss my baby!)

its amazing how you get used to a certain lifestyle, and it does take a while to adjust to change, just like when you start a new diet really, you get used to doing things a certain way, but situations change and so you have to aswell, but i think for me its a huge learning curve, and over the last couple of months i have grown a lot and learnt so much. and i hope that maybe others can learn from me.

we are consolidating all our debt today, which means paying off the visas and the little loan we have, and paying it back in lump sums sooner with less interest, (why didnt we do it sooner? i really dont know!) we got used to living good, and when it come to a stage where we couldnt afford to still live extravagently, we still did, but its a bit of a culture shock when the money runs out. makes you really stretch that last wee cent. ive discovered at our local fruit and vege shop, they have 2 x 2L milks for $5 (instead of about $4 each at the supermarket) they also have $1 loaves of bread (instead of nearly $3) and $4 trays of eggs (instead of $4 for a dozen) the other day when i went F&V shopping, i got 500g of plums, 500g of nectarines, 500g of tomatos, a cucumber, 2 lettuces, 2 x milk, bread, carrots, potatos, onions, for about $16... i thought that was pretty good! they have 10c pumpkins at the moment, unfortunatly i dont eat pumpkin (ick) but im going to get a few to make a whole heap of baby food up for the freezer for when Olivia starts solids in a few months (man thats scary to think about!) that saves $1 a jar!

Browsing the internet for free samples helps too, lately i have had washing powder, toothpaste, dishwashing powder, shampoos and conditioners, moisterisers, sanitary pads, all for free, all delivered to me. its great!

im just watching out my window an aeroplane going over dropping out parachutists (we live near the airforce so get to see them do heaps of neat things) looks like heaps of fun!!

its like my new mini project, going around, seeing what else i can cut down on, what bills we no longer need, ive cut down our Telecom bill $50 a month so far, just by ringing them and talking to them about the plans we are on, i have just worked out a way to save another $50 off it (free broadband... watch this space!) i even have a few other people around me seeing the money im saving thinking, well hey, we can do this too, and its great bouncing ideas around the place.

i'll be back :)