Clothing Clutter

While sorting through old things I am really begining to make the connection between clutter and disorganisation in more areas than my finances. Yesterday I attacked the main bedroom. I found two very large bags of clothing that I had stored in the top of the cupboard years ago. Most are in very good condition, too small to fit me now. I had forgotton about them.

They are gettting sold, either on ebay or through the pre-loved clothing shop.

My wardrobe has clothes ranging from size 10 - 18. There are more clothes in there than I can possibly wear. The truth is I tend to live in my jeans. I am a twinset and pearls girl with at work and then jeans and t-shirts at home. I don't need After 5 wear as I don't go out much at night.

It's just accumalated over the years. So in order to get the point across to myself I have decided I am not going to buy any clothes or shoes for the next 12 months.

Usually I don't budget for these things. I may buy nothing for ages and then spend a couple of hundred dollars on clothes when I see something I like. So 12 months with no purchases will do me good and it will free up several thousand dollars for the mortgage.

I won't get into the shoes today (my middle name is Imelda!) that needs a whole post of it's own ,with pictures!

To pay off this debt I have bring in more money. I cannot do it on our wages alone. So selling off clothes and whatever else I can find is one way to do that. It is hard work to get up every day and keep asking myself 'what am I going to do today to pay off the mortgage?" Some days it would be easy to just not worry about it and do nothing. But I want to get as much off the morgage as I can ASAP as the mortgage is still young, 2 years, so any extra now makes a much bigger dent in the principal.

The clutter has made it difficult to keep track of things. It costs me money as I am unaware of the 'real state of affairs' when living in clutter. I sometimes wonder how I came to be so cluttered as at work I am a fastidious and very tidy person....

I can't wait until I have simplified my life. That red bar is going down at the end of this month so help me...!

Super saver from My Wealth Builder

Super saver from My Wealth Builder has tagged me in a new blog project. This project calls for sharing 8 personal facts about myself, then tagging 8 other bloggers to do the same. Here are the rules , which were passed to me:

• Each player must post these rules first.
• Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Eight Random Facts About Louise!

1. I like to draw and paint for relaxation. Most people who know me would have no idea. About 2 months ago an author phoned me and asked if they could include one of my drawings in thier new book. I said yes so long as it is anonymous. I had met them years ago and showed them a few drawings. I am thrilled about it!
2. I get obsessed and lose track of time with things like sudoko, tetris, and my sons video games. Thats why I stopped playing them.
3. Last year when I went away for a weekend with the 'girls' we had way too much to drink... there is a video somewhere I think...? We did not recover as well as we used to 25 years ago!....
4. On the top of my list of things to do before I die is to climb to the Base Camp of Mt. Everest. I have all the brochures and I am going to do it when I have paid off this mortgage as my reward.
5. I used to go skinny dipping when I was younger and my birthday suit fitted nicely.
6. My favourite junk food is potato chips and chocolate eaten together.
7. I would give up posessions for experiences any day.
8. If I could come back as anything I would be a spy. I love spy novels and movies.

Now I have given some thought about who I would like find out more about and here is my list of those I have tagged:

Ian Denny of Phoenix from the Ashes

Ladies in the Red

A great Aussie blog The Birds and the Beads

Has the World Gone Mad

Blogging my way out of Debt

Surburban Mum who's Open Letter to The Dragon may well become a classic!

Heavenabove at Wildlife Alive

and No More Spending

Make Money While You Sleep!

Late last night I finally got around to listing the old coins I found in my old piggy bank on ebay. I took a gamble and listed a couple of different sized lots at .99 NR. This morning I woke up to find myself almost $160 richer! Wow! What a great start to the day. Taking the risk and listing them low seems to really get people bidding.

I think of all those internet marketing ads that screamed "Make Money While You Sleep!" . Hey I finally did!

Yesterday I spent time cleaning out old boxes of 'stuff'. Most of it junk, most of it untouched for years. Boxes from my childhood, full of memories. I found some more old coins! Some were in an old jar and a few more in a plastic bag with other things. It's funny because, all this stuff has always been there. It kind of reminds me of the old Acres of Diamonds story. I am wonder now what other 'finds' may come.

I feel good about my decision to sell off these old things and free up my life of both clutter and debt. My plan is to try and sell all the old coins this month so I get the mortgage down under $150,000.

Budget beater meals.

I'm not one to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I really admire those people who are creative cooks, passionate about the whole process of cooking. For them cooking seems to be an art. Unfortunately I am not one of them.

I do however love to eat! Perhaps just a little too much. I also like to coook soup. The one thing that has stood out more than anything since I started this journey has been the amount of money we spent and wasted on food. On average we were spending $200 a week for groceries and take away and about $45+ a week on junk food. We have made our biggest savings with food. There are 4 adult mouths to feed and 5 when my son is home from college.

I really want to learn to be thrifty in the kitchen and still make nutritious and yummy meals. So here is what I made today for lunch with a complete cost breakdown. I even took a photo so you can see how good it looks.

Lamb & Vegetable Soup.

• 1/2 bunch celery $1.29
• 1 onion .30
• 2 carrots .70
• mashed pumpkin leftovers .60
• olive oil 2 tbspns .30
• 500 kg lamb forequarter bones $3.69
• vegetable stock powder .20

Heat the oil in the bottom of a large soup pot. Add vegetable stock powder to the oil, then add chopped onion and celery and stir until onion is translucent. Add the lamb bones and brown well. Add 2-3 litres of water, grated carrot, leftover pumpkin (and any other leftover vegies) and simmer for 3-4 hours. Put in fridge overnight, scoop of the fat, remove the bones, heat and enjoy!

My family, who don't actually like my cooking (or burnt offerings as they call them) agreed to try it because it smelt so good on such a cold day! They all agreed it tasted OK. So that is saying something coming from them. It was nice and thick with tender meat pieces from the bones

So the total cost was $7.08 for soup for 5. Even with bread this would be a meal for 5 for under $10. Or make it up and freeze if for low cost lunches at work.

Making money from blog?

For me making money is not the primary purpose of my blog. If it was I would be doing things very differently I'm sure! I'm the person who lost a couple of grand trying to make it as an Internet Marketer remember!

It has been interesting to see the different types of blogs that catergorise themselves as 'personal finance'. Some of them are just sites filled with articles. Boring! I like the 'personal' in finance blogs. It helps me stay the course I have set.

I also notice some blogs have donation links so that people can help them pay off the debt they are blogging about. Thats just not me. If anyone feels an overwhelming urge to make a donation while at my blog visit Kiva where $25 can change a life, and you get it back! I would never ask for money in the offline world so I am not about to online.

Instead I have added some afiliate links and some ads to the site. If they make some money, great! it will go straight off my mortgage. If not, it's no big deal. My goal is to pay off my mortgage through my own efforts. My blog is kind of an online diary that lets me make contact with others. I find writing each day helps my stay focused on my goal.

Recently I started looking at some of the pay to post sites that have popped up on some other blogs I read. I have been to a few sites and one thing I didn't like is that most of them say you can't write anything negative about the site/ product. Not my style. If I am going to review or talk about something I have to be able to be honest about it.

I came across Blogvertise a few days ago and have been thinking of applying, mainly because I can say whatever I like and possibly add a few dollars to my mortgage reduction plan. I have been through the site and I like what I see. Here is Blogvertise in a nutshell;

• free to join
• initial rates are $4 - $25 per post
• after 10 approved posts payment rates may increase
• paid through paypal 30days after completed
• you do not have to endorse the product / site *

At one stage I did add text ads to the blog but I soon took them off. They annoyed me no end when I was trying to read entries! I have decided to try Blogvertise and see how it goes. If I am approved the extra dollars will go straight off that mortgage. I will post any updates on my application and earnings here.

I would be interested to hear others views on paid posts and donations for debt reduction.

How to save money on Hair Care.

This morning I saved myself $30. How did I do it? Well I cut my own hair.

I used to cut my hair when I was at uni to save money. When I started earning an income again I treated myself to getting my hair cut ($30), coloured ($80) and buying myself luxurious hair care products (shampoo $17, conditioner $20, colour definition brilliance fluid $12.95, smooth & shine serum $8.95) This would last 10-12-weeks.

Last night while I was cursing the fact I need a cut and colour I started adding it all up. I pulled apart the bathroom and looked all the 'products' that we buy as a family for hair care! There were lots of them, many half used.

So this morning I made another family announcement! (they are getting used to it now!). No more fancy hair care products. I will find an inexpensive shampoo & conditioner and beyond that they pay for thier own.

Now my hubby, dad and son were not at all perterbed or even remotely interested "whatever" was the response. They cut thier hair using a razor at home so there are no hair cut costs. Teenage daughter is happy to pay for her own products to maintain her lovely hair 'do'. She already pays for her haircuts.

I have put out all the bottles of half used shampoo etc to be used up. I will go back to home colouring and cutting it myself. I just think about that mortgage being paid off and it is enought to motivate me.

I have found a couple of other blogs mentioning savings on hair care and products. The Frugal Law Student still gets mum to cut his hair even though he's 26. Over at Wallowing in Debt there is good article and review of using henna. Blogging Away Debt also saves money on haircuts.

Well that's another step closer to reducing my living expenses!

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More Money Finds !

I was sorting out some more files yesterday and I found some medical bills that I had not claimed. Over the past 6 months we have had a lot of medical expenses. I usually pay up front and then claim it back from medicare in cash later.

I found the first unclaimed account and that made me think there could be more. So I did a big search of the files, my handbag, my diary, the kitchen drawers and I found $235 worth of unclaimed bills! My daughter collected the money and now I will put that cash off the mortgage as well. Once again by being disorganised I lost track of what was owing to me.

With this extra cash and our other savings I feel confident we can reach our goal of owing less than $150,000 at the end of the month.

Earlier this week I phoned some contacts and let them know I was officially back on deck and ready to take on more work. It paid off! I have been referred some work at top dollar rate. It should bring in almost $1000 extra over this month which will build up my business account. So it pays to keep in touch with other professonals and let them know you are available and willing to take on work. I have found there is no advertsing that can beat word of mouth! Particularly in a small community where people know who you are. It can make or break!

I keep my business and home accounts completely seperate. If I can build my business up to provide a steady second income I will be thrilled! After I have seen the accountant and had my tax done I will have a clearer picture of my exact income. My guess is that last year it was around $40,000.

So the extra cash and the extra work gave me another boost to stick at it. I am finding the reduced grocery budget difficult but we are perservering with it!

E-bay profits & business basics.

Some more E-bay payments went straight into the mortgage this morning! So a total of $355 paid straight off the mortgage from e-bay sales. There is another $35 in Paypal but I need to wait until it reaches $150 to take it out to avoid fees. I have more stuff to list but I just haven't had time to do it.

It was just the boost I needed today. Sometimes I look at my goal and it seems so large an amount. Then I remind myself I just need to be creative and come up with more ways to bring in additional money. It will be the only way we can do it. I really want to put as much as I can off in the next 6 months so we make big savings on the interest.

I have now got the details of sharing my business office space sorted out. It will halves my rent expenses! The new lease will start in 2 weeks. It just means that now I don't have the luxury of working in the office whenever I choose. I have now set days and specific appointment times.

It has actually been a good thing as I just have to be more organised and it will make me more efficient. It was the fastet way to cut business costs I could think of. So my rent decreases by 50%, my income will increase by 10% with the raised fees.

I have got a lovely green shoebox that we are keeping all the receipts in for everything we spend. We have forgotton to save a few because it is a new habit but I think we will get used to it.

A Tail of Three Kitties!

We share our home with three wonderful kitties. They have very different personalities and they often don't get along. But we love them anyway. And so because we love them we feed them well and spoil them rotten!

Ginger is 15 years old.She is a quiet placid gentle cat who just needs a meal, a place to sleep in the sun and a house to hide in during a storm.
Rose is 5. She is an intellegent, naughty, haughty spoilt 'teen' of a cat that keeps us all thoroughly entertained with her antics. She dances for food, eats vegetables, makes bird calls and can open windows and screen doors.
Puss is 18 years old, very fat, spoiled and grumpy and came along with my father and his belongings when he moved in with us.




I have just come to realise the price of these three kitties. As well as food, Rose and Puss live inside only so they need kitty litter too. For years we used to get our cat food at a discount or for free because we had a friend who worked at a pet food factory. A few years ago that stopped and they don't sell to the public.

So our cats got used to the good quality food and I just kept buying it. The kitty litter, well Rose doesn't use too much, but Puss is getting old and having a few problems in that department. So she goes through a lot of kitty litter!

So I have been working out the costs and how I can reduce them. I went to the online supermarket site to check prices as it does a comparison of prices per 100g which was really helpful.

Our three kitties cost $45.27 a week for food and litter.

Just out of interest when I compared the brand prices at the supermarket the differences were huge.

Dry food per 100g: cheapest = $2.87 dearest = $8.25
*Wet food per 100g: cheapest = 19 cents dearest = $13.59 (!!!!)
Kitty Litter per 100g: cheapest = 33 cents dearest = $1.48

There are some agricultural supply barns and pet shops in town that stock animal supplies in bulk. I am going to go and do a comparison of prices this weekend and see if I can reduce the costs. I never thought about how much they cost before and I would not have thought it was that much.

I will leave adding up the vet bills for another day! and then there is the dog....

Goals for July.

I have decided to set a specific $ amount goal each month so that I don't get complacent about paying off this debt. I know I have to keep focused! So here are my goals for the next 30 days.

• reduce mortgage to < $150,000
• pay all other bills on time
• see accountant and submit tax
• record our spending
• sell old stuff we don't need anymore

To reach this months goal I need to pay approximately $2,177. The usual payment is $1,114 a month. We have always paid $300 a week. With the savings on food now diverted to the mortgage we are going to pay $500 a week. Then I also need to see how I can earn money elsewhere.

My big E-bay sale has now gone into my mortgage account so that is just over $300! I have requested buyers pay straight into my mortgage account rather than paypal. That way I save a few dollars in fees and I don't have to wait until the balance is $150 to transfer it over. Also I never even see it so there is no temptation to spend it on something else.

There is a lovely upmarket 'pre-loved' clothing store about 1.5 hours from here. They only take good quality clothes and shoes and they have beautiful stuff. I am going to see if they will take some of my clothes. I think they will get a better price there than E-bay. I have some really lovely clothes and shoes, evening wear and coats that I won't be wearing again.

It feels strange to think about selling them. It is like acknowledging a part of your life that is now over. I look at each outfit and I remember the occasion it was for, a wedding, a reunion, a school graduation...

But I need to be realistic. I still have the memories and somewhere there are photos. It's like a realisation of getting older. And I want my life to be simplified, not cluttered as I age.

I wonder if that's why we keep so much, a way to hold on to the happy memories perhaps?

We are also looking at selling off a lot of old furniture and cleaning out the garage of 'stuff'. There are wardrobes, fridges, a piano, kids bikes, swings. It is incredible how much we accumulated over the years of raising children! So a busy month ahead for us!

I need constant inspiration to stay on track. For me that comes from about one hour a day, every day, of reading personal finance blogs. It's the first thing I do when I wake up. It keeps me focused on suceeding.

I have recently discovered 'carnivals' where bloggers all submit posts. There is plenty of inspiration at this personal finance carnival. I love the very first story, (The Wastrel Show) of a couple who paid off their mortgage, moved out of the city and live debt free.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

Well after a marathon effort over the weekend I have all my business tax paperwork ready to submit. The results were a pleasant and unexpected surprise!

Before crunching the numbers I had seriously given a lot of thought to dropping the business and getting a second part time job. I did not think I made any real profit. The last seven months I have only worked enough hours to pay the bills due to the responsibilities of caring.

Well I did make some money! The potential is there for income.

I can now see where I can make savings. Many expenses were reasonable for a newly set up business such as office furniture, training, mentoring, equipment. This year I will not have those expenses.

When I orginally set up I did a business plan. I also spent just less than $5,000 on business mentoring. While it sounds a lot it was an excellent investment in my future that I believe will save me much time and money over my career.

I had lost track of all the business excitment over the last few months. Now I see that I can still build my business, I will just keep it part time for a lot longer than I originally planned. There is a second full-time income there if I work smart. All of it can go to the mortgage.

I need to also look into how I manage the caring and how I can streamline that also. I do not want to get burnt out. Caring for my dad will only get more demanding as the years go on. That is another reason for me to pay off the mortgage as fast as I can. Then I can work less.

Yesterday I found this inspiring story about a couple who paid off their house in 3 years. Paying off the mortgage has become the number 1 priority now for us. If we can reduce our living expenses to what we had when I went to uni then we could pay one wage straight off the loan.

Now if I also increase what I earn by working smart in my business, then that is like adding another wage that could go straight off the loan. The easiest way to do that is to raise my fee. I have just done this with no complaints or loss of business so far. This has given me an instant 10% payrise.

The next thing that I am working on this week is to streamline my billing, reporting and paperwork systems so that I am more efficient and less stressed about it. Once that is completed then I think I will put out the message I am back on deck!
.

It's good to see a crack of light at the end of what felt like a very long tunnel!

Progress Report #1

Well here is the first months progress report!

Mortgage Amount Now Owing: $151,178

Extra amount paid last month was: $1046

This saved $7,384 in interest and 7 months off the loan term!

We paid .8% of the original mortgage total ($152,377)

Because the mortgage is only 2.5 years old (due to a consolidation) extra amounts paid off have a bigger impact on the principal amount. So now is the time for us to make the big savings in interest.

I am really happy with that! Without my decision to 'Just Do It' and my blog, no extra money would have been paid and I would have wasted another couple of hundred dollars on internet marketing junk. I would have just spent the $600 bonus on... ???? who knows what?

These are the changes we made in the last 3 weeks:

• No take away
• No munchies junk food from the corner shop
• I stopped eating junk food in the car on the way to & from work
• Taking a packed lunch to work instead of buying it
• No hiring videos
• Halved the food budget from $250 a week to $125
• No impluse purchases of (even more) clothes, shoes or 'stuff'
• On the last day of the month I left $50 in the account and paid everything else off the mortage ($110)

In all honesty we just stopped being so wasteful. Food was our biggest area of saving.

Other amount owing: Credit card $12,794, Interest Free Card: $1,389

After a big day on the budget yesterday it is all drawn up and ready to go! I know exactly what I pay for everything, when it is due and how much I need to set aside every week to pay all our bills. I used the Simple Savings Bill Payment System which is free (see the left sidebar). I like having it all in a folder where I can find it. It's easy to follow, logical.

Calculating how much interest I am saving and the time off the loan helps me see that this is worthwhile. Sometimes if I get a bit down I jump online, crunch some numbers and remind myself that in 5 years time I will have no mortgage. I have added the calulators that I use to the links on the right side.

Well I'm off to move that little red bar on the right .8% !!!!

All in the family!

Yesterday we collected our son from college for the mid year break. The trip is about 4.5 hours each way so we had a long time to catch up on all his news. I was amused to hear my hubby filling him in what's been happening while he has been away.

"Well mate, you're going to get a shock when you get home!"

I wondered to myself what was coming... never would have guessed it!

"There's no takeaway, no videos, no trips to the shop for junk food, no money for a night a the pub with your mates and no eating chicken breast fillets and steak anymore. It's mince and sausages or starve!. You're mothers decided we're going to pay off the mortgage in 5 years so we just all have to go without and do it."

I love the way men explain things. Straight to the point. No nonsense.

Well my gorgeous son took it all on board quiet well. He confesed he had $33 dollars left from his spending and handed it over for 'the cause'.

I have been pleasantly suprised by my kids attitudes. My daughter is now working part time. As of last week we are no longer paying for her medications, her textbooks, or her junk food habits. While they are at college we don't charge them board so long as they contribute in kind. She is great help to me at home with managing the cooking, shopping, washing. If they were not studying they would be paying board.

It's an interesting question of how you manage money when kids are in the young adult phase. Neither were allowed to have mobile phones until they were 16. Then they got $10 a month credit, they knew if it was over that they would have to pay it. They never went over it. They have no debt other than their HECs debt for thier study (a goverment funded student loan). My daughter already has over $3000 saved.

I find it interesting how other parents work out these things with their adult children. There is no 'perfect' solution. Just the solution thats right at the moment, and it's probably quite different for each family.

Meanwhile back to the budgeting!

Ebay Success!

Short & Sweet today.

It's a good thing I made it through the snow yesterday and made it to work. I got asked to oversee a new project which I am very excited about.

Ebay auction update: One item caused a bidding war at the last moment which was great for me! They bid just a couple of dollars short of the new price. Almost $300!!!! Yeee Haaaa!!!!

So if the bidders pay me before 30th June I can reach my goal of paying off 1% of the mortgage this month!! If they are a slack payer I will go very close to meeting it, I may scrape over the line but I'm not sure. Either way I feel good about this last months effort.

I have still got to bank all the loose change I collected. I also cleaned out both my offices for change which has boosted the amount.

I also have not sold the old coins I found yet. I just have not had the time to list them.

Tommorrow I have planned to finalise all the outstanding paperwork and by June 1st I will have the new personal and business budget all written out and set up.

All the regular bills and payments are up to date.

This blogging experience has been a wonderful way of staying focused on my goal. I am committed to blogging every day of this journey.

Each day my mind is now thinking about HOW can I reach this goal. Instead of just hoping and wishing and feeling crappy, my mind is working for me. Linking up with others trying to do the same thing has been so helpful to me.

Feeling good today!

Have a great day everyone and thanks for stopping by.

How to Save Money on Electricity Bill

I had to leave work early yesterday so I didn't get snowed in at work. When I came home I did some research on saving money on the electricity bill. Here's what I found out:

Reducing fridge costs.

• Turn off the second fridge when not being used. (eg a beer fridge in winter)


• increase the fridge & freezer temperature a degree or two


• don't put hot food in the fridge, let it cool first


• keep the fridge coils clean and allow the air flow around them


• keep fridge in a cool airy spot


• fix broken seals

Heating costs.

• *for each degree of difference between the outside temperature and the inside temperature there is a 10% increase in the cost of heating or cooling


• so adjust the thermostat by a couple of degrees


• use insulation in wall & ceilings


• seal up draughts under doors and windows


• use draught stoppers, heavy curtains


• only heat or cool the room you are using


• switch off appliances at the wall to save standby power costs


• insulate the hot water pipes


• lower the hot water service temperature

You can calculate the stand by power used by appliances by turning everthing off as you normally do and then go out and check the meter. I would do this except for the fact is has been snowing and it bloody cold outside! But I will do it one warmer day to check it out. We have so many electrical things that we just leave on standby, computers, TV's etc.

So I turned the fridge up, I am nagging the family about the temperature and to not overheat the place. I have banned the electric dryer and our lounge room now resembles a laundromat, but thats OK. I did find an old clotheshorse that has been resurected. I've pretty much done everything on the list.I will find some draught stoppers and put them on the doors on the weekend.

I just found this great post about a power cost monitor, available in the US, I don't know if it's available elsewhere. It looks like a good way to monitor the power useage in the home.

Well when I got up this morning the roads were closed and I was relishing the idea of a paid day at home. No such luck! They have opened the roads again so I have to go to work.

My ebay auctions have done well they all finish later today, so far I have made $243, but none of the clothes sold. So that will all go off the house this month. I can't wait till Monday to post my tallys for the month!

The clothes dryer is the biggest problem I think

I got the last credit card bill yesterday and it had anther late payment fee: $35! Well at least I know that will be the last one ever. No more missed and late payments.

The car decided to have a bad day yesterday and ended up at the garage. I will get the bill today. I need to start that emergency fund account ASAP for these kind of unexpected expenses.

I have to look at cutting down our electricity bill somehow. It came yesterday and it is just too much! Our consumption is up slightly but it has been very cold with snow around some days.We have changed over the light bulbs to the more economical environmentally friendly ones. I have also been walking around turing off lights that get left on. Another bad habit that costs money.

The clothes dryer is the biggest problem I think. I don't use it, I hang washing in front of the heater to dry in winter. I suspect that my family are not so thrifty when I am not around to 'supervise'!

I was reading somewhere that there are communities that actually ban the use of the clothesline! At first I thought it was a joke or a hoax. It's just ridiculous! I don't understand it all. certainly an Aussie backyard wouldn't be complete without the old green hills hoist. With all the problems in the world to solve why clotheslines get banned is beyond me!

Not the kind of community I would want to live in for sure. Sunshine and fresh air is the best thing for clean clothes, the environment and healthy happy kids. Clothes flapping in the wind and kids running around the yard playing. That's my kind of community.

Down to Business...

Ok I've alluded to my fledgling business and in the coming week I will be sorting out the mess there.

Some background info. About 12 years ago I was ill and unable to work for a couple of years. That put a big dent in the finances but we managed. I decided to go to University and study. University had always been a dream of mine. But when I grew up I thought it was for other people. No one in my family had ever been and I didn't do anything exceptional academically at school. But I had nothing to lose by applying so I did.

I got accepted and went to uni against my doctors advice. The wonderful thing was I found out I'm no slouch academically. I won some awards and scholarships and regained my health. It's amazing what happiness does for your health. I was like a pig in mud at uni! I even cried on my first day I was so happy to be there.

I worked for a couple of years, completed my qualifications and some more study and early mid 2006 started my own business part time. I had a business plan, got mentoring crunched the numbers and set my goals. I even got an accountant! Everything was on track to increase over 2007 and go full time in 2008. I got another part time job for security.

I love my work and it was all going to plan. Then 'Life' got in the way when a family member became critically ill suddenly. I was unable to work for about six weeks so I received no income. I had to live away from home for most of that time so that cost money also. I wouldn't wish the experience of having a family member ill hours away from your home and family on anyone. It was hell.

In order to pay our ongoing bills we had to use the money that we were ahead in our home loan and increase our credit card limit. But you have to do what's best for family and I don't regret our choices.

I had just signed a lease for my business and my kind landlord only charged me my previous lower part time rent rate instead of the new one ( 1/4 of the cost) for the time I was away. So there are good people in the world and you find out who they are when trouble strikes.

Since returning I have only worked enough to pay the business bills only as I still need to provide care. I had hoped that I would be able to go back to my plan of working it full time but realistically I can see that this is not an option. I am already tired and had a health scare of my own only a few months ago.

So the paperwork is in a mess. Tax time is fast approaching and I need to make decisions and take control of the business money leak.

The positives are:

• a great landlord who will let me out of my lease
• it is the type of business I can pick up again very easily in the future
• no business debt, I refused to go into debt to start it and I paid for everything as I went
• one colleague has already agreed to share the rent with me if I want to do that to cut costs

the negatives:

• sloppy paperwork and record keeping (hmm.... starting to see a pattern here)
• I have absolutely no idea of my financial position for the year (see above)
• I love it and I feel dissapointed that my plans have been sidetracked

Yesterday I got started on sorting out the business mess. Here is what I have done:

• wrote out a new billing policy
• increased my fees by 10% in line with other similarly qualified providers
• started checking my records and so far found $900 owing to me in unpaid fees
• found an unpaid professional registration (!!)
• Swore that So Help Me God I will get my paperwork in order !! (I had a Scarlett moment)

Today I will be working on more of the same. I know that a lot of my disorganisation has been a result of the upheaval last year and ongoing demands on me. But I have to be truthful and say that my record keeping and filing was just a mess beforehand. I can only blame myself.

Again it feels good to 'face the music' and sort it out. I really can't wait till the end of June for fresh start in the new financial year.

Thinking Blogger Award!

Well I'm really chuffed! Heavenabove from Wildlife Alive has tagged me for the Thinking Bloggers Award!

Here are my choices for the Award:
1 Rossetta Rants. This is a daily must read for thinking bloggers.
In the words of The Translator "There are a lot of things in this world that I just don't get. And just as the 2,200-year-old Rosetta Stone helped us to translate the unknown into the familiar - I want to travel the world to bring the foreign, the crazy, and the just plain stupid right to your doorstep. Because for most things, I just don't get it. Can you help me translate?"
Where else would I learn how many newborn babies it would take to weigh as much as an African elephant?

2. Views From My Tent Louise has a couple of blogs aimed at teaching sustainable living and bushcraft skills. She is trying to be self sufficient, fit and debt free. Her blog makes me think about the simple life I always aspired to and somehow got sidetracked from. Plus I have learned how to navigate using the sun, how to make money from poo and health tips based on her working as an apprentice of Tibetan Medicine at the Eden Medical Centre in London.

3. Give me back my Five Bucks! Krystals blog is one of the ones that made me think really hard about taking responsibility for my finances. A recent college graduate, she eliminated $17,223.10 worth of debt in 10 months! As of May 11th, 2007 she is debt-free.

4. Clawing our way to financial health Meet the Woolys: two Canadian university graduates who have accumulated too much debt, $91,873 to be precise and they are working hard at paying it off. Wooly womans' posts always makes me think.

5. Wallowing in Debt I like this blog about a young couple trying to pay back $63,000 debt. It's an honest look at the ups and downs of it all.

THE RULES ARE: Congratulations, you won a Thinking Blogger Award!
Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the memo
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (there is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Simple steps to sanity.

Yesterday I wrote a shopping list for the first time in over a year. Just wrote a list and went shopping. Sounds simple, and I suppose it was, but it does help to curb the impulse buys.

These are the habits I need to get back to. Having a list, having a regular shopping day and developing thrify habits. Years ago we had a small shopping centre built only 2 blocks from our house. It's a friendly welcoming place where everyone knows each other and you stop for a chat. Unfortunately we have got in the habit of shopping there everday.

With no shopping or menu plans we just call in at the shop on the way home and buy whatever looks good at the time. If we don't feel like cooking, (and I never do!) then just stop there and get takeaway. They know our names, our regular order and it's a 5 minute walk. It has to stop.

Last week I came across a great site, Simple Savings. They have some great freebies which I downloaded to keep track of my bills and budgeting. If you have a look down the left side you will see Bill Payment System. This has free simple to use worksheets for keeping track of payments. You will also see a link for Free Stuff. Click on that and it takes you to planners, vouchers for giving family and calendars.

My next job is to tackle my business finances.

How much does a lazy Saturday afternoon cost?

Yesterday was a lovely rainy cold winters day here. Usually this would have meant curling up watching videos and eating lots of junk food ie. chips, chocolate and diet coke (it equals out the calories!).

Cost: $14.95 for videos + late fees. We forget to take them back about 50% of the time.

Junk Food for 2: Chocolate: $4.80, Chips $4.95, Diet Coke: $2.25

Rainy Saturday Afternoon Total = $26.95 + an awful lot of calories (despite the Diet Coke!).

So what we did instead was go through our monster TV cabinet bottom drawer and found old videos amongst the dust. We ate the wonderful hearty pot of chicken and vegie soup that I made from all the vegies that were in the fridge and the leftover stir fried chicken. Cost was less than $5 for the soup.

We ended up watching Gone in 60 Seconds, which makes you feel like heading straight out and stealing a car and The Blues Brothers. It is just a fantastic movie. I love it!

I am pleasantly surprised by the way the family has got on board with this project. I have never felt excited about the end of the month before but I can't wait to move that red ticker down!

My ebay auctions are doing well. I have a couple of higher priced items that will sell and so far I will make at least $120 this week. All to go on the mortgage.

My daughter was right about listing the items for low starting prices. The ones I listed at low prices are going up and up. The ones I listed for a reasonable price that I would be happy with have no bids.

Smart kid I will take her advice more often.

Creating a Budget to eliminate debt.

Being disorganised with my financial paperwork has created more stress in trying to manage my finances. I am starting to feel that I am gaining control now. This is what I did to get organised and create a budget.

I gathered all the bills and records I had for the last 12 months. From this I worked out and wrote down the:

• fees & charges including late penalties, direct debit fees
• interest rate
• repayment due dates
• amounts paid over last year

for:

• credit cards, no-interest & store cards
• loans
• electricity, gas, rates, water
• insurance: car, house, life, accident, illness
• college fees

I have also worked out an estimate of what I spent on:

• food
• car: registration, petrol, maintenance, repair
• clothes, hair, pharmacy
• entertainment
• textbooks, education expenses
• medical expenses
• holidays
• internet & phone
• house & garden
• internet marketing schemes!

This has taken me the last 3 weeks to sort through the mess and find out all this information. I found out that we waste a lot of money just through being busy and disorganised. Our grocery bill is now half what it was and we seem to be surviving. We have cut out take away, munchies at the corner shop and videos to start with and gone back to cooking simple meals. It feels good to be taking action rather than hoping.

Now I know what the real costs are, when everything is due to be paid and what amounts are due. So everything above that is being directed into the mortgage. I am looking at a few different ways to record and monitor my expenses to see what works the best for us.

Piggy banks pay off in the longrun!

Remember I mentioned my old blue elephant piggy bank? I haven't seen it in years. So guess what turned up in a box of kitchen junk just a couple of hours ago....

...and even better than that is had 39 pre-decimal coins from the same year that are currently selling on ebay for about $6.00 each!

Thats $234 if I got top price for them!

There are also several other old coins as well from other years. The coins are from my first years at school judging by the dates. About 40+ years ago. Well those piggy banks really DO come in handy!

I have spent the last hour checking and rechecking the dates and the values online. I cleaned them up in some Coke and I am going to list them individually over the next month or so. I think I will get a better price than listing them all together.

I am so excited! Another completely unexpected 'bonus' that will help me pay off this mortgage. I wonder what else is laying around here that I don't know about...

We LOVE Leftovers!

I just realised I hadn't blogged today as I have been busy listing items on ebay all day. It is much more time consuming than I thought it would be. Anyway I thought out loud " what am I going to blog about?"

The answer came back fast from the family room: " Tell them how you're making us eat leftovers!"

OK , sounds like a good topic to me.

A couple of days ago I gave the family a lecture (yes another one!) on the value of leftovers and the wastefullness of throwing out food each week just because we've been too lazy to eat it and it's gone bad in the fridge. I skipped the bit about the starving children in Africa as I sensed that would be going just a bit too far and told them I had cut the food budget in half and we just have to eat what we have.

Well it's amazing how much leftover food can be made into something else. And it tastes good. We are all getting in the habit of looking in the fridge and cupboards first to see what is already there and then deciding what to cook. Who cares if we all eat different things sometimes so long as we're fed.

I really wonder how we got so out of touch with these simple measures over the years. But somhow we did.... I suppose we got too busy raising children, making money, working... just busy living really. And somehow we lost touch with a lot of the simple ways we used to save money when we were younger and had to.

Well we are determined that our first monthly total on the 1st July will see that red bar on the top right come down! To move it 1% we need to pay $1523.77 off the principle of the loan plus the months interest.

We are going to really try and do 1% in our first month. So we have agreed to eat out the stored food in the pantry and the freezer and put every extra cent that is in bank at the end of the month into the home loan. I think finding out about the $600 bonus yesterday made me think that we really can do it! It would be a great start and give us a real boost to keep at it.

We bought 2 cake mixes for <$5 and made chocolate cake so that we can eat a peice of cake instead of going to the corner shop and buying choccies and chips at $15 - $20 a trip. It is working well. No trips to the shops now for junk food since I made that post about adding up the cost.

So let me see what is on the menu for tonight... as you can see the fridge is full of vegetables. That's because hubby and I didn't communicate and we both shopped for vegies on the same day.

Anyway the leftovers in the containers reveal that tonight we will be dining on: stir fried chicken, rice, bolgnaise and pasta.

Bon appetit!

Unexpected Bonus helps eliminate my debt!

Well I got and unexpected bonus yesterday!

I receive the carers payment, $49.25 a week, because my father lives with me. He is ill and frail and unable to care for himself. I manage his finances and we pay for the things he needs that his pension doesn't cover. He has no savings.

Usually this money just goes into the general account that we live off and pay bills out of. I decided to have it paid directly into the home loan account so I don't even see it. Yesterday I rang up centrelink to arrange it. When she was finished she confirmed the details and said " and your next payment of $600 is due on...".

I interrupted her to explain her mistake and she told me this year all carers are getting a $600 bonus!!

YeeeHaaa!!! Doing the happy dance!!!

Now I could be cynical and say it's just because we have an election coming up... but frankly I don't give a dam what the reason is. I'll just take the money thanks very much!

So that gave me a real boost because I know it will be hard to reach this goal but I really want it. I plan on having sorted out all the mess of paperwork by June 30th so I can get my tax done quickly and make a fresh start for the next financial year.

I just want to say thanks for the message of support I have been getting. I really enjoy and appreciate them.

Cheers

Louise

Bring Back the Piggy Bank!

Well no photos of the trip to the Blue Mountains, it was typical winter mountain weather, foggy, rainy and freezing cold!

So after a much needed hot chocolate at the Wazygoose in Leura we hit the shops. Me with an intention not to spend anything. ( I ended up spending $30). My daughter bought herself a gorgeus tartan piggy bank! She has a dream to travel to Scotland one day so a tartan piggy bank seemed perfect!

That got me thinking about how it used to be as a kid. I remember my piggy banks. The blue plastic elephant, the tin bank building, the bright pink pig. I remember also doing my banking each week at school with the old blue passbook. Each week taking in my 5-10 cents and getting my book stamped. I felt quite grown up with my bankbook.

Then when I left home I had the huge Tooheys beer can piggy bank. That held a lot of money and it was much too heavy to lift when full. It was about knee high. Eventually we had to use a can opener to crack it open! If you're an Aussie you probably know what I am talking about.

So what ever happenned to the piggy bank? Where we dropped our coins in, listening to the clink, shook them trying to work out how much was in there and eventually broke into them to get the cash. I think once we went to elecronic banking they've dropped off in popularity. Do children still use them these days?

Anyway when we got home I did a big search for loose change and piggy banks to see what I could turn up. I was very thorough, the cops would have been proud of me. Laundry, bedroom, pockets, behind the lounge cushions, handbags, purses, change tins, drawers and bookcases we found $53 in change!

If it was a $50 note I would not just ignore it and leave it lying around. But because it's loose change I just forget about it. Not any more. Now all the change is getting collected. I will 'frisk' them every night for cash, and then each month or two I will bag it up and pay if off the loan. Every little bit counts.

So lets bring back the piggy bank and start valuing the small change. it's still money, it's just noisy money.




This a a really beautiful old china piggy bank that was given to me by and elderly relative. You can guess where the money gets put in! The base is marked: Mata Italy.

Ebay, internet marketing and the simple life.

Yesterday I spent the day getting started at ebay. It took a lot longer than I expected it to but I have 6 things listed and 600 more to go! It was a strange experience to go through my wardrobe and see so many clothes there that have never even been worn! Many are because of buying clothes I see on special for 'when I lose weight'. Hmmm...... maybe one day!

I set up the ebay payments to go either into my paypal account or straight into the home loan account. If I make a couple of hundred dollars a month I will be very happy. Plus I get rid of a lot of stuff.

I wonder why we feel the need to accumulate so much stuff? Does it come from the days when we needed to store food in case there was a famine in the future? I know my grandfather was a second hand dealer in the war and believed in never wasting anything. My mother saved everthing! Buttons, string, zips from clothes, paper, glass jars and on on. I guess it came from the war years and the depression where people really did need to be thrifty to survive.

I don't want to live like that, but I do want a more simple life. I think of nomadic tribes years ago and if you couldn't carry your belongings on your back then you couldn't keep them. We hire huge trucks and 2-3 workmen to move our 'stuff''!

My debt, or rather my choice of home and lifestyle keeps me committed to a certain income to maintain it. I am fortunate in that I love my work but I would like more time to myself. Time to sit in the sun, work in the garden, go bushwalking, travel and read books. Time to think and meditate. Time to enjoy a lazy day eating and drinking with friends.

Those are they things that I was looking for in my quest to earn money online. Time, and freedom to choose how I spend it. crazy when I think about it! I am free to choose how I spend it every day. I just need to be aware of that.

Today I am going to do just that, choose to spend my time as I please. I am going up to the Blue Mountains for the day. This is one of my favourite places. Years ago when I was unable to work due to illness I used to go there on my own and just bushwalk and meditate. I love it. So I am not waiting until my home is paid off to simplify my life and enjoy more peace. I am starting today! I will take some photos post them here tomorrow.

By the way if you want to see some great photos and read a great blog on living simply with purpose check out this blog: http://viewsfrommytent.blogspot.com/

I'm off to the mountains for some peace and beauty!

A penny saved is a penny earned!

In fact the other day I came across an article which said that for every $1 saved it reduced the need for $25 income! I have been trying to find it again so if anyone comes across it let me know.

Yesterday I spent more time sifting throught the minutia that makes up our financial life. I found out that being too busy to 'read the fine print' doesn't pay off. in the long run. As I sorted and calculated and made myself face facts I was thinking that maybe all that online moneymaking activity was really just another way of maybe not having to deal with things.

I mean it's easy to convince yourself that you are working hard at all hours of the day on the 'Internet Business' for the families benefit. Sure my intentions were good. But I needed to be paying attention to what I already had instead of being too busy to face facts.

Here's what I discovered in The X Files (aka the huge heap of bills dumped in my filing cabinet in no particular order).

I paid over $100 in late payment fees just because I don't pay attention.
I pay an extra $42 a year for my insurance payments to be direct debited .
I pay over $50 a year for my no interest card even if I don't use it.
I paid $832.82 interest on my credit card in the last 8 months.

Nine months ago the home loan interest rate went up to 7.70% and the repayment went up also. I found a letter from the bank that I don't even remember receiving.

OK, so I really need a better filing system! Or just a filing system. So I have set one up. It's all ready to go, just files labelled with all the regular bills. Simple really. Like most things it's not that complicated once you look at it. I think I complicate things as a way of not having to deal with them. Kind of like a lot of busy work, it look good but not much actually gets accomplished.

Thats why I haven't gone out and spent money on more books and systems to 'help' me reach my goal. I know exactly what it is I have to do.

I have pay back as much money as I can as fast as I can. That's it.

The rest of it is just fluff and decoration.

By not keeping a close eye on my bills and my spending habits I have wasted a lot of money. It pays to check the fine print and find out how much extra you pay for services and what the late fees are. I have now written down when all the regular bills are due and will put it on a calendar or in outlook.

The next step is to reduce them.

The Word is Out.

OK. So last night I told the family of the plan.

They were actually pretty good about it and told me they will try to help with the plan and not grumble too much. (we'll see about that in a few weeks time!)

We decided to go and buy takeaway 'one last time'. We have got in a bad habit of eating takeaway about twice a week. At $30 a pop thats $3120 a year. that would take about 1 year and 6 months of the home loan.I kept track of what I spent on lunches and junk food this week at work. I spent almost $40(thats $2080 a year).

So the trips to the corner shop for munchies are going to stop and I will be taking my lunch from this week. I used to cook up a big pot of soup each weekend in winter years ago so I will look out the old cookbooks this weekend.

I have never sold anything on e-bay but I have a friend who has made about $1200 over the last few months selling off everday items she no longer uses. I have decided to clear out my house of everything I don't want and sell it. I opened up an ebay account and a paypal account. I have set up the pay pal account to pay straight into the housing loan. So each time I have $150 in pay pal it goes toward the house.

I am hoping to get my first items up for auction later today. If I am going to meet my target I will have to find extra ways to bring in money and at this point ebay looks to be the easiest, even if it is small amount. I also discovered ebay has an affiliate program so I will take a closer look at that later as well.

I had to move my blog over as I decided to add adsense. It doesn't costs me anything so might as well give it a go! I have now quit all my internet marketing mlms except one.

I am getting quiet excited about this project! Just doing the blog is keeeping me motivated. Can't wait to see that ticker go down!

Biting the Bullet!

I have been cancelling all the remaining subscriptions for various Internet Marketing services. How quickly those small amounts add up! $6.95 here… $11.95 there…. I am considering keeping on paying in one mlm company for a few more months because I recently invested in getting sign ups and I am having some (small) success with it. If I keep it that will be just $30 a month.
I kind of feel odd cancelling everything but I need to bite the bullet and just do it. That money could be invested for a REAL rate of return instead of a possible one. Really its like being sold HOPE for the future by joining all those companies. I have also been cancelling and unsubscribing from all the email lists I seem to be on, all trying to sell me something.

I forgot to add my HECS debt into my total debt owed so I will find out later exactly how much I owe and what is the most cost effective option for paying it back. While I was looking for the HECS site I came across this Australian Graduate Loan Scheme. It isn’t suitable for me just at them moment and I haven’t looked into all the details but it may be of interest to someone out there. It is for graduates with a HECs debt earning over $65,000 a year.

My goal is to pay off our home loan in 5 years.

So by June 30th 2012 the mortgage will be paid off!
There! I’ve said it publically and now I am committed to it! I am making June 30th the ‘official’ start date as it is the end of the tax year. I did pay and extra $150 off the home loan though this week and it felt good to get started!
The weekly payments to do this will be $706.10!! I plan on adding any extra income or payments to it as well.

My partner really like his creature comforts whereas I am happy to live frugally for a couple of years in order to do it so it will not be all smooth sailing. What has worked best in the past is for to just pay the money immediately into the account and them there is only what is left to spend. It will be hard at first, particularly with kids at college.
I will post my monthly totals of debt and savings.

Here is our net worth at the moment:
Assetts: $453,500
Liabilities: $179,237
Net worth: $273,263
I did not include personal belongings in there such as furniture and household goods. we have average quality furniture which is about due to be replaced. I don’t see my household belonings as assetts I can realise if needed so I won’t be including them.

It doesn’t look as bad when I see it but realistically most of this is from our home, so money to live on and travel with in retirement is not looking good. I have no problem with borrowing to invest a bit later, the credit union is happy to loan us money, but we need to be in a better position first.

I feel scared and excited about doing this!

Sorting out Superannuation

Today I tried to tackle the superannuation and sort out my options.
The recent changes to super in Australia seem to make it a much more attractive option. This is possibly the last year that I will be eligible for the co-contribution. So far I have put in about $400 this year so I need to try and add another $1100 before 30th June. It can be worth up to $1500 which I got last year so I will find it somewhere.

I also need to look into super funds. At the moment I am with an ANZ fund but I want to look at the industry super funds. I originally tried to join one of those when I went back to work about 4 years ago but the employer was not exactly co-operative. When I retired from that job after 8 months I found out none of the payments had actually been deposited! I was so angry!

On my payslips the super was being taken out and I had completed all the paperwork with the super company. I was waiting for my end of year financial statement from the super company and when I rang them they told me I had no employer contributions only my own! I had to spend hours on the phones trying to sort it out. Eventually the deposited the money but really they should have paid me interest on it. It makes me cranky just thinking about it!. So yes the moral of the story is ‘trust no one!’

Back to industry funds… I am going to look into them and see if it’s worth changing or not. Years ago I was in the old State Super. How stupid was I to take my money out when I left work to have kids! A friend of mine I worked with left hers in there and later returned to work. She is now sitting on an absolute fortune! Leaving the old State Super scheme was a silly move but I was young and retirement seemed so far away!

Suddenly it is only a few years away and there is not enough money in there to live on let alone travel as I had planned.

The Awful Truth.

In my quest to eliminate debt I have been looking into the real state of affairs and here is the awful truth!
In the last 6 months I spent $2331.91 on products, subscriptions, programs and other paraphenalia to make money online. Ouch!


The only redeeming point is that none of this was on credit. I sat here this morning and made myself go through my bank statements and add it all up. I kind of feel like I need ‘Internet Marketing Idiots Anonymous’.


Anyone care to join me?


Anyway back to the task at hand…
I have rounded off the numbers and done some calculations. Now if I had paid this amount off the home loan as a lump sum I would have saved $15,410 in interest and 1 year and 4 months off the loan.
1 year and 4 months of not having to go to work to make the mortgage payments.1 year and 4 months extra to travel and relax and enjoy life!


If I had invested it at 6% compounding interest for 10 years it would have earned $1909 interest and been worth $4329. For 20 years: $5382 interest, worth $7712.
Kind of sobering isn’t it.


I suppose I had better ‘fess' up to how much I did make with my ‘investment’: $164.76
Now don’t get me wrong, I am sure that there are people out there making good money online and doing it honestly. I don’t rule out that I won’t make money online also in the future. I just want to be honest about my experience up to now.


Most internet marketers promote the idea that anyone can make money online if they just keep at it and then they tell you about a product that will help you succeed. I am not trying to blame anyone, I am just trying to understand how I ended up in this situation.
My realisation is that I can get what I want in other ways than making (or losing) a fortune online. I need to focus on the reality of my financial situation and make a plan to eliminate debt and live a simpler, more peaceful life.


Now other things I could have done with the money:

• taken a holiday


• put tiles under my pergola which is like a mud puddle at the moment


• built a retaining wall for the garden to replace the one falling down


• finished the fencing


• bought a new lounge


• put wardrobe doors on all the built ins

The funny thing is that these are all the things I wanted to do to begin with when I started looking for a way to make money online.
So if anyone ever reads this blog I would love to know how much you have spent on ‘making money online’ and what you could have done with the money.
Heres a little video clip I like. Its soppy I know, get out the tissues, but it does kind of make a point.
Why are we working so hard that we can’t spend time with our families, to make enough money so we don’t have to work and can spend more time with our families?

A New Begining!

Welcome to my blog!

I have recently realised that the money I have spent trying to make money online would have been better spent getting out of debt. Along with many other intelligent and rational adults I have spent way too much in my quest for an online business. That money applied to reduce my home loan would have cut years off the payments and been equal to actually earning more money.

I have been reading lots of financial blogs which got me thinking about the financial reality of my decsions. I have decided to get my act together, sort out my finances and get out of debt. Blogging will keep me accountable. I can document the journey and what I learn along the way.
A little about me…

I am a middle aged married woman with 2 adult chidren, both at college. I work part time at a job and a fledgling business. My partner is currently ‘between jobs’ after being laid off. He gets a payment which is about half of what he used to earn. I also manage my parents financial affairs as they are unable to.

We have had our share of difficultys in the past including illness and job loss. At one stage I had paid the mortgage down to under $100,000 !!! But we had to increase it a couple of years ago to manage. I know I can do this so lets get started!

My starting debt:
Mortgage $152,377 7.44% interest
Credit card $12,705 9.99% interest
Credit card $1,240 interest free period currently

Over the next few days I will go through all my financial papers and work out exactly what we are worth and where all the money is going. The I can work out my plan. First though I need to sort out the mess and know exactly what the current postition is.