New month, new budget sheet

Oh it's April - 

First important issue is SmallBoy ~ he is doing ok at the moment. He has knocked his broken foot going to the toilet and the pain sent him to tears and raised his temperature quite a bit. A quick call to the hospital and a re-visit to Emergency was required but all seems to be OK. A stronger pain medication dose is now in place and fingers-crossed nothing moved. We are not mentioning anything about operations, likely or not. I forgot to include the required purchase of a new ice pack ($11.95), an additional bandage ($12.50) and the 'hire' of two movies for SmallBoy's entertainment (free - only because the staff felt sorry for hubby when he was advised we had, and paid, $26 in late fees for a movie hired in July last year). 

I popped into school to collect SmallBoy's netbook to enable him to connect into school for work assignments, his 'publishing' book for project notes, his pencil case and a few library books. As mum is a teacher, she had previously suggested a few programmes school may be using. We have now linked into a comprehension programme, the Mathletics website and hope to connect to a few more so he does not fall behind with school work. 

It might sound odd we are doing this ~ however less than two hours before he fell, we had parent/teacher interviews where we leant SmallBoy was top of his class in comprehension and math, doing work at a level assigned to 13/14 year olds and discussed letting teachers know if he was bored or unstimulated by the class work so more challenging lessons could be given. He was on top of the world to hear only his handwriting needed improvement - one thing we have been working for several years with continuous, albeit slow, progress. Knowing that, its obvious he enjoys learning and we certainly don't want his injury to disrupt what seems to be a keen student.

Back to Budgeting...

Friday is 'pay day'. I went to the supermarket. Coles has Whiskas cat food on special for 77c a can - half price - so I bought 30 cans of various flavours to keep the pussy-cats happy for a month! More than half of the final bill ($54.53) was cat food ~ the rest was spent on specials including Turkish rolls and pida breads, some triple choc chip biscuits marked down to .99c - usually around $4 and I cant make them as good as these ones! - yoghurt, corn chips (for nachos), fruit juice, milk and a wee splurge on a bottle of Coke! Should get us through until mid month and, fingers crossed, only milk will be required around then. Regardless, I've allowed $21 for groceries each week for the next three weeks.

Also needed a petrol station stop - filled the car from empty for $49. I had a myotherapy appointment and had my neck, shoulder and back worked on which was another $55. At the moment, these appointments are weekly and do need to be maintained. Considering the past two weeks have been the first in four years I have been able to look over my right shoulder, the therapy is definitely worth it! Forfeiting my acupuncture for the next few months to allow me to attend myotherapy on a weekly basis, sorry Peter - I do miss the appointments.

Husband did a little work for his former employer - only a few days over the past fortnight which brings an extra $200 to the budget this month. Straight onto VISA. Sure, I'd love to use it to get the blackberries dug out by someone other than me! But I'll call it exercise therapy - save another $50 (in my head) and aim to strengthen my right side, stretch my upper body and work on my more muscles. It's time to be more dedicated to health and fitness while still lowering the grocery costs.

According to 'Bill's Budget' - my monthly budget spreadsheet - we've got $2970 in this month and expenses of $2725 leaving about $240 for extra payments on debt accounts. When you compare the outgoings of the past few months, we are getting ahead with steady little amounts. I've budgeted $50 a week for fuel, but suspect this will be lower with SmallyBoy not being able to go to school next week and the school holidays. Plans to go away to the family holiday house are off - can't afford to get sand into a plaster cast - we'll just find fun things to do closer to home. 

Our outgoings this month are the mortgage (2x 596.06), Fuel ($200), Therapy ($220), Personal Loan ($397.86), Insurances ($125.35), Phones/Internet ($173.60), Water ($25), Gas and Elec ($100), VISA interest ($45), Groceries ($120) - oh and the obligatory $2 for the Home Help bill. Plus I've budgeted $50 for Easter as our gift giving here has always involved winter pyjamas and one chocolate bunny or bilby.

Bartering eggs during the week next week ~ hoping to get some corn, pumpkin and maybe some asian greens. We'll have our own potatoes soon and I gave some tomatoes and eggs to the neighbours knowing they are both on pensions themselves and no longer able to keep a vegetable garden growing. It's what you do when you've got neighbours - well, it should be :D

Chat tomorrow...