Monday's Money Matters

Oh it has been a glorious day today!

The sun's shining, there's just a hint of a breeze and today marks 20 years in remission for a very good friend of ours. As an added bonus ~ we have been out and had a celebratory (free) feed to mark this momentous occasion. It's even more special as Mrs Jonahs was not expected to see her 20th birthday let alone celebrate two decades later. It really does help put things into perspective.

Now The Jonahs is not their real name ~ its a carry over from a name which stuck back in 2007. For the past 4-5 years we have had their help and support with SmallBoy while Husband worked in Melbourne and I recovered from surgery. Every few weekends they would whisk him away to play with their children and every so often we'd have their little guy over to stay for the weekend. We've loved watching Joe grow up over the years, seen the changes when autism was confirmed and enjoyed observing the friendship between the two boys get stronger each year. Only recently we became aware that we are the only people he will stay over night with ~ even going away with us for a while. He is witty, highly intelligent and a great kid to have around. SmallBoy wishes for a brother like Joe.

No Spend / Low Spend

This past few weeks have been the most successful for no spending or low spending on necessities (if you discount all the back to school requirements). Those things we did need to purchase were either second hand or haggled in price. SmallBoy's school uniform items had a fare share of haggle power. After picking up, almost brand new, polo tops - 2 each in long and short sleeve, 2 pair of Stubby shorts,  2 pair of Stubby trousers and a zip up motif jumper for less than the price of a new jumper - the Grade 6 bomber jacket at $55 was one expense non negotiable in price. His school shoes (at $110) were also non negotiable and less than the $300+ for orthopaedics but we got the orthopaedic insert for half price and a 50% off voucher for our next purchase. 

Husband's dental requirements need additional work done. The first 'quote' was over $500! I asked if that could be reduced or bettered and you would have thought I had grown an additional eye in the middle of my forehead. We had been advised the 'scheduled' fee for this work was $159 and, seriously, that's closer to what I was prepared to pay. The 'best' that could be offered was $400 - paid in two instalments if that would assist our budgeting. So I rang two other dentists - explained what work was required, what I understood the scheduled fee was and asked for a quote to do the work. The dental hospital could do it for $20, but it would be about a year until an appointment would be available. One clinic said it could do the work for $280, but would not provide a written quote. The other clinic would not offer a written quote either, but did say if the original dentist wished to confirm the quote of $180 it would do so. Regardless ~ the first dentist would still go no lower than $250 so you can guess which dental clinic got the business. People think that dentists are not open to negotiation ~ have you ever tried. One reason I haggled over the dental fees was because my brother was told he had to pay over $2000 for dental work ~ and he got it down to under $800. Therefore I've never ever gone with the first quote!!

This past week there has been no shopping budget ~ the rates ensured that. However the pantry and fridge are sufficiently stocked, I ducked up the back roads and picked five apples for SmallBoy's lunch box, grabbed a loaf of bread from the Salvos and scored a voucher for Bulla Split Icy-poles which will cover dessert for him for a fortnight. I also sold two dozen eggs at a friend's office and should be getting an order for a few more ~ there are six dozen eggs in the fridge at the moment and that's $24 dollars to go onto something like the VISA. Speaking of the drastic plastic ~ its almost under $6k and as soon as it does, the limit gets to go down again. I am so glad I didn't take the PIN option ~ it's been so long since I used it I would have forgotten it by now. I can't remember the NIVA card PIN and its not been used since October! At the end of the month, the NIVA is reducing to $1000 available and this will roll $2000 onto the Line of Credit or the Mortgage ~ I can't remember which the bank suggested as a preference but we are to get a phone call next Monday to sign off on this one.

I've kept the 3L milk bought last week exclusively for the breakfast cereal and used powdered milk in cooking and my morning cuppa. It's not too bad, if nice and chilled you wouldn't know the difference. I'm going to see if I can sneak some into the milk carton to stretch it through to Friday - otherwise I'll be making pikelets for breakfast because there will be no milk for the porridge or cereal. Mmmmm - porridge. I had a 'pay it back' experience from a girlfriend I've helped in the past ~ having used my pantry to feed her family for a week two years ago, she popped past with Weetbix,  biscuits and some dishwasher tabs. That was so timely as SmallBoy has eaten the last of the cereal - hence the porridge *grins*

With the previous shop - at end of January - only $115 of the budgeted $120 was spent. We spent $10 on milk and cat food the week later but not the original $21 planned because petrol was needed - we ended up getting $2.40 off with a docket. The mystery shop $10 paid for milk, water and onions on Thursday and, until our pension comes on Friday, we don't have anything spare for shopping. It's going to be a scrape through by the short and curlies to have enough for the personal loan - so long as no unexpected fees or charges or a withdrawal goes through a day or two early, we are going to be fine. 

The Current Debt Total :  $32,052.74  

@ 25th January

Our Money : $27.90

Your Money : $54.20

'Coffee' dates : $7.00

eBay Sales : $42.50

The Total Paid onto the Debt : $ 132.60

New Debt Amount : $ 31,920.14

Our contribution in detail

$   5.00 - grocery savings
$   2.40 - Petrol savings
$ 13.50 - 50% off shoe insert
$   7.00 - cash discount for acupuncture
$   8.00 - egg sales

I do apologise for those waiting for eBay goodies to be added for selling ~ had a few friends suggesting different ways to go, putting clothes in bundles vs individual items and it is a little hard to get my head around the best way. I've set up a weekly schedule to help get the housework, de-cluttering, gardening, medical and online activities operating in a more organised fashion. This should help while the brain fuzzies escalate during medication withdrawal. Husband is being a brilliant carer and supporter ~ he's even gone so far as walking in for one item at the shop and exiting with that single item. He's also been helping get the fantastic pictures together so there is always something from the day to post and checking the information is accurate.

A Coupla Things to Flog

In trying to build a little momentum for contributions, donations and support for Our Mission, I've decided it is time to get this Blog a few more followers. Linking in with some other Mummy Bloggers has been part of this drive. None of these are paid advertisers, although if you let them know you heard about them here it might get a few dollars tossed into the spare change jar *cheeky*

Some have competitions, some have awesome products to sell, a few are just random wafflings about the 'joys' of chillins and all are pretty darn interesting as far as I am concerned. Here's hoping you'll check out one or two...

ProBlogger.net ~ I am using this wonderful chappy's eBook to help build Mands On A Mission's readership as part of a 31 day to build a better blog.

SoloMum ~ She's got a gorgeous necklace for readers to win. She's also offering the Zen Habits book on "Less" I've been eyeing off for a while now ~ let her know you heard how lovely, fantastic and brilliant she is through Mands On A Mission and fingers crossed I can win it *please*

PlaySand ~ It amazes me how creative people can be! I'm not sure of prices but if you are in WA you can have a hosted creative party ~ otherwise there are party packs or 'Im bored' kits available to do at home yourself.

Australian Made, Australian Owned ~ now more than ever is the time to consciously buy locally made and grown products

Cadbury 'Catch Up' ~ Mostly because I love Cadbury chocolate - and the new ads are really clever. Do you know how hard it is to see Cadbury Creme Eggs in the supermarket and leave them on the shelf?? Happy to provide an address to anyone wanted to sent chocolate!

Don't forget to have a look back at recent entries for other Flogged Stuff ~ I will try to mention a few each week.  Oh ~ I didn't win the Harley Davidson, so you won't be seeing that up for sale on eBay any time soon but I did win a bottle of perfume called "Outspoken" worth $50 and will be popping that online sometime soon.

OK ~ had a few wines, enjoyed the Duck a l'orange dinner and Tiramisu dessert - time for bed.
Hope to catch you all tomorrow - after my morning of volunteering at the children's respite centre!! I hope my working with children paperwork has been authorised so I can move around the building.

Onward and upward
*cheers*

A Tissue, A Tissue...

And we all fall down...

About the only thing staying on track at the moment is the budget ~ although its barely scraping through. Seriously the cost of one tomato was almost $1 and I've heard lettuce being up around the $4 mark. I am truly grateful to have a freezer full of meat, a pantry full of fruits, veg, flour, rice (and other things nice) and a refrigerator with enough to make dinner for this week and into the next.

The yard sale was the flop of the century but I've got over that (now) and we are going to try again to get this up, delaying it a little because I've been in such a negative slothy self defeating kinda mode and needed to chill out, will advertise in the local paper for the last weekend in February and get everything out of the house. Husband is really helping get this going because my mojo walked out and left over the weekend, in protest no doubt. I hope it comes back...

But the only way is up

It's been hard not having cash for frivolities ~ we would usually have gone away for at least a week or two to the Mornington Peninsula during summer holiday time, but its really not been a consideration at all this year. I'm not talking luxury resort escapes - just staying at the old family beach house, it's usually one hundred dollars or so a week (family rate!!) plus food and entertainment but not even possible this year.

So we escaped and aimed for the beach ~ off down to Torquay for a day, to wash away the glumps and soak up some joy. We packed ham and cheese sandwiches, a big bottle of water and another of cordial, a packet of supermarket brand corn chips ($1.79, a bigger bag than the labels and I'm tipping its from the Dorito line!) and set off for a drive. Sat in the sun, splashed in the water and rambled over the rocks!

Point Danger ~ sat and ate here ~ it was beautiful

Of course the car decided over-heating was in order. Grrr ~ all that mechanical work and it is still not running well. Might have to see if anyone on FreeCycle has a car to give away (ha!) ~ unsurprisingly, I won't hold my breath...

Finances

Give us a big cheer because we have repaid the NIVA balance and can drop that down to $1000. This adds $2000 back into the LOC ~ woo hoo!! The mortgage payment is due mid week, we've got more than half ready but with the rates also due, it's going to be a juggling act ~ hopefully nothing 'falls' down.

The other expense has been with SmallBoy needing new school shoes ~ usually we'd just buy something from BigW or the local cheap-o store however it has been come obvious he needs orthodontics which are $300 a pair. As this is not in the budget we've taken a less expensive route with some good leather school shoes and a set of inserts which may be enough to help. This will hopefully allow us to pay for SmallBoy's NetBook ~ $155 so he can use an item supplied by the school as a must. He must have this and unless we pay he can't use it. Yeah for the computers in schools programme (not).

Knowing between now and pension day we will have the rates $1108, the NetBook $155, the power payment $50, the mortgage payment $592, the personal loan payment $336, Home Insurance $63, the mobile phones $100 all due before the 18th and $1836 to draw on ~ there's no shopping for groceries for a week or two and it's all about making do. So we've reviewed the pantry, fridge and freezer contents to come up with the following menu plan for the fortnight.

Sunday - roast beef and veggies; Monday - pie with leftovers; Tuesday - Omelettes; Wednesday - Roast Potatoes with Chilli Beef; Thursday - Pasta; Friday - Veggie Burgers; Saturday - Veal; Sunday - Roasted Lamb Shanks; Monday - Pasta; Tuesday - Leftover Pie; Wednesday - Chicken Curry; Thursday - Vegetable Pasties; Friday - Egg and chips; Saturday - Turkey and Barley casserole; Sunday - Fish Curry.

School lunches are relatively fine - I'll need to go to the Salvos for some bread, maybe some vegetables if they have any available. There's 3litres of milk and I will make up powdered milk for cooking. There's a packet of Anzac biscuits in the pantry and SmallBoy can take tinned fruit once the fresh stuff has run out. I've got enough stuff to make muesli bars, brownies, fruit pastries and other yummy snacks or desserts as needed and wanted even!

The only item which may need to be delayed is SmallBoy's NetBook - but hopefully only for a fortnight if school is unwilling to provide some leeway on the rules being put into place for the first time. Failing that, it will only be the fortnight, he'll have it before the month is out.

Ending with some more self indulgence ~ yes its a poem, but this could be a song. I wonder if it is worth investigating how one submits pieces for musicians or bands to review. Wouldn't that be awesome to have words added to music and become lyrics for a hit song?!  Ahhh ~ always dreaming...

~ A Lovers' Tale ~ by Mands!

Always the one to see the sun

When the rain is falling down

Never so glum or bereft is the one

That can smile instead of frown

Nothing's as harsh as the whip of the bark

And a person who says they're a friend

Really it shows when the loneliness grows

Everything comes out true in the end

Listen my dear for the words are quite clear

Little voices are telling the truth

Everyone knew except me and you

And the angels were giving you proof

Never to late to accept your fate

Doesn't matter if you can't forget

Just another sublime in the midst of a rhyme

And not acting will cause you regret

So look back on the past with a message that lasts

Over time all wounds are healed

Never expect that your friends had left

True friendships and love have been sealed

For the message within only now can begin

You know you can only change you

It is time to move on with a whistle and song

Lovers quarrels can bring love anew

It's not Sunday ~ silly...

Sometimes I wish I was a cat... 

Oh a public holiday mid-week just throws me out of whack...

Today I went grocery shopping ~ I had planned to spend only $50 from the usual budget but there were a few things that were just too good to pass by. Veal steaks (make wonderful schnitzels) marked down to $3.54 for four good size steaks ~ at 66% off that was my score!

There was a dodgy looking half a pineapple on the shelf - just a wee bruise down the side so I said the chap if he marked it to 50c I'd take it. Saved $2.49 (bloody expensive half a pineapple) and it is now chopped up, in the freezer and ready to throw into a fruit slushy concoction with banana and mango and kiwi fruit ~ only the kiwi is fresh and ripe, the rest are in the freezer. Considering we are expecting high 30 degrees over the next few days ~ its going to be perfect *yummo*

Anyway ~ spent $115 on groceries. Oh the price you pay for not making a 'proper' shopping list ~ it was ad-hoc with the SmallBoy and me deciding we needed milk, bread and salad stuff for dinner. Sure, there is no cereal in the house and you know I am so fussy when it comes to my morning menu. But 'my' muesli was on special - 2 for $9 which saved over $2 a box. Then there was the cat food ~ it's not been on special for a while but was again on one of the bulk buy specials - 4 tins for $5, which is less than the usual $1.59 - and we were down to the last 3 tins from the early December mega-on-special-spend when it was half price. Plus one tomato cost 98c - rip off - but none of ours are red yet so one it was. Lots of fruit and salad items, a few dairy delights (feta, ricotta, bacon)  Toilet paper ($8 for 18 rolls) and the Iron Supplement ($23) were the expensive additions - not being usual buys from the stoopidmarket these were a little higher but both were needed . . . hopefully that wasn't too much information *laughs* 

More than enough to last through until the end of next week, and nothing was bought last week because I just kept putting of the shop and we made do with what was here so can't complain when its taken as a big picture.

sorting

Yard sale stuff.

Alright ~ I am so embarrassed about the amount of clothing I have hoarded for so many decades. Yet it is killing me to put price tags on them of less than $5. Some things are missing a button, others are in need of a wash, an iron or a dry-clean and having received a reader comment to open some of the Country Road items on eBay I've made a decision. Tomorrows Yard Sale is not going to have many of the high end items available ~ these will be up on eBay. Husband has had an offer for 10hours work setting up Sessions for Tupperware so he is not home this weekend (sitting in air-conditioned comfort, lucky boy) and it's going to be a mammoth job for me to be setting up so those items which are ready (and there are quite a lot - let me tell you!) will be dragged out and up for grabs tomorrow during the day.

The shoes can go - school uniforms - shoes (oh Emelda!!) - three boxes of womens clothing - one box of mens - two boxes of small children and baby things, including the cutest little shoes, and we'll see how we go. *grins*  Seriously, even $100 will be a start and I am hopeful of getting at least three times that with the stuff only half going.

some ready 

That will be put aside in readiness for the rates which are due mid February and we've only got half the money ready. We'd have it all only that is the same week the mortgage payment is due and some how I think the bank will take that first. All back to normal - if I can do another shop in a fortnight for only fruit and veg and milk, then do the same again a fortnight later - we'll be right for all payments.

Well, I should be in bed asleep ~ so I can be up bright and early to drag these boxes out. Half are in the hall, ones at the front door and the rest are still in the spare room. There are just not enough hours in the day some times! It's going to be a stinker of a day ~ I'm only planning to be out from 8am to 3pm then collapse under a cold shower. Wish me well ~ SmallBoy is quite excited about having a Yard Sale - I don't think he knows what to expect. Then again, neither do I!!

~ A Jar of Time ~

Beams of sunlight through the trees

Filtered light, a cooling breeze

Often it is days like these

We feel most contentment

Living, loving, working hard

Calm time for self we disregard

If we could capture in a jar

Spare time for pure refreshment

Take a little time for you

It stops the heart from feeling blue

You've got me as your friend, its true

I give you that commitment

ॐ. ☂✶ ॐ.

oo .-.

.\\(@)_

..'~~~'..  time to take it slow...

A Summary of Successes

Waiting for the train ~ by Husband 

Just watched Baz Luhrmann's "Australia"
Boy its a long movie. And it should make every viewer realise what a sad tale the aboriginal people have been left to tell as part of their story. Watching it made me ashamed of my forefathers and wish to know more of the heritage of this country. From my heart, I too say 'sorry'.

I remember as a child, taking several family trips across the Nullarbor ~ travelling by car from Melbourne to Perth and back over Christmas/Summer holidays. We've stayed in caravan parks along the way and a vivid memory of noticeable change through time was that of the aboriginal along the Nullarbor Plains. I remember in the early 70s, driving along the 'old' highway, seeing native Australian's along side the road dressed as King George (David Gulpilil) standing with their spears ~ hair blowing wildly in the wind ~ in their environmental home and free.

The new highway across the Nullarbor 

On a second journey, 4-5 years later, I remember seeing a similar sight ~ only this time the aborigines were dressed in denim and flannel type shirts or topless. They still carried the spears and their skin was an even glossier black than I recall from the first time. By the third journey across the great Nullarbor Plains, I remember only seeing aborigines close to the road houses, sitting on eskies and drinking beer. I don't think I saw any during my final family holiday to Perth.  Even as a teenager, my thoughts were that my children would never see the sights, sounds and people of those who arrived in Australia first ~ unless through a paid performance or heritage art.

So memories from my youth ~ ones which have stayed with me. Journeys taken with a family the size of mine (six kids, three adults, one station-wagon and a caravan) do tend to stick with you for a long long time. One day I hope SmallBoy will be able to follow his dream to see the outback and learn a native language by taking his own 'walk-about'.

Sometimes you stop, wait and look first

Our Mission Moves On

We are making in-roads and, although the financial page has not been updated as the happenings around our home has taken up a lot of physical time (and break-thru pain relief makes the ol' brain a little loopy), I'd like to share some of the successes we have made of late.

Telstra - hahaha ~ well, we got our money back as a payment into the account and NOT a credit. A $450 credit would have lasted us 21 months - almost two years. What on earth would we want that when the deduction from the credit card was incurring interest and leaving us with no emergency back up. Any way - it is sorted. Actually, we are in credit on the Telstra bill by $148.98 - so no bill payments required for about 7months. There's a small stress reliever!

Electricity ~ woo hoo ~ we have almost paid off the $850 arrears. Only two more fortnightly payments and we have! Plus, thanks to the next success on the list our electricity bill will be dramatically lower as the ol' power-guzzler is gone...

Two good, working units 

Refrigerator Rental ~ woo hoo (again) ~ it is finalised. We have $44 extra in the fortnightly budget ~ going to be spread around other outstanding bills.  Plus we get to keep the fridge! Nice!! Subsequently we have given the old power guzzling fridge/freezer away to another family to use while they save for their own good refrigerator and not need to hire, rent or pay one off using one of the GE Money type arrangements. Win-Win! Lesson learnt ~ never ever hire white-goods...

Council Home Help account ~ chipping away slowly with $2 a month has not made any great dent in this puppy, but it has ensured we are not having the account sent off to the debt collectors. This alone will save us a huge headache and stress melt-down.

The Line of Credit ~ well I am chuffed we've been able to get $800 in there over 8 weeks - especially when we only get $600 in per week and the mortgage takes half of this! I can't wait until February when the NIVA is reduced to $1000 - it will be more like emergency money then.

School Fees ~ $5 more and its all paid. Just in time for the new school year. SmallBoy has a small scholarship which will cover every thing needed for this year, excluding camp.

Dental Fees ~ believe it or not, we overpaid them by $10 so last appointment Husband walked out with a filling AND $10. It was paid onto the Personal Loan

Personal Loan ~ oh this is just not disappearing quickly enough. It's down to $3047 but the loan repayments are a quarter of our monthly income. Ridiculous really ~ but we weren't on government payments when we bought the share of a holiday property - it is worth it in the long run and we've had the chance to use it twice ourselves and twice by friends in the past two years. It's an investment of sorts, costs more than double the $10k we put in, so we really can't complain. We just can't pull out without losing the lot.

The Weekly Shop ~ is now a fortnightly shop with a "MFB" mid-fortnight buy - as well as being the acronym for mid-fortnight buy, it stands for Milk, Fruit and Bread! We've been staying within the fortnightly budget of $200-$250 ~ and fortnights where the shop comes in under $200 (like this past fortnight when we only spent $175) the balance goes off a bill - currently the gas.

The current debt is now :
$    0.00 - Dental account
$    0.00 - Refrigerator rental
$    5.00 - School fees
$   32.28 - Water arrears
$   49.90 - Magazine subs
$   88.00 - Electricity and Gas - payment plan costs set
$ 850.00 - HomeCare Services
$ 923.60 - Collections

$3046.98 - Personal Loan

$5628.77 - VISA 

$21420.21 - Line of Credit

$32,052,74 : TOTAL DEBT

We've gone down!! Reduced by a massive $5207.73!  Oh wow, oh joy.  

At the start of December, the total debt was $37, 563.47.  We were so disappointed when the debt increased in November due to the interest and fees and fines applied to the Line Of Credit and the VISA (more because we were struggling to stay on top of the payments) but talking to the banks and those we had debt with through Collections to renegotiate minimum payment amounts - plus doing community service time in lieu of two outstanding accounts not only reduced the dollar amounts outgoing, its allowed us to redirect available (ha) funds toward other accounts.

What a great way to start the year ~ we are feeling a little more empowered and assured we are still on the right track. So ~ every Monday we will again be updating the Weekly Report. Changing it from Wednesday to Monday makes a little more sense as we do the budget over the weekend when we know what is paid into our bank account on Friday.

Tips Which Have Allowed Us to Free Up Cash for Debt Repayments

Working together 

Don't Buy; Make Do ~ seriously I've not bought any 'new' clothes since we started Our Mission and prior to this is was only the OpShop. If something breaks, we try to repair it. At the moment, our lawnmower is held together with wire and okky-straps. Sure, not ideal, but when you don't have a spare $80 for repairs, it gets the job done! Fixing the brake pads on the car might be quicker at the mechanics, but it is cheaper (and often fun) when done yourself. Same with other basic car repairs.

Get's things fixed 

Less is Best; Make it Stretch ~ why make a home made pizza with lashing of meats, herbs, veggies and cheese. Seriously, just a little goes a long long way on something like a pizza.  Same with pasta and sauces ~ you don't have pasta with your sauce, or pie with your sauce. The sauces and toppings are an addition to the pasta, not the other way around. Plus there is less likely to be wasted left overs and more sauce to put away for another day (just make sure you label the item and the date it is being frozen)

Free is Fun; Find Out First ~ committing to not buying books, magazines or newspapers is a huge saving of cash. Going to the library means we are not missing out and calling ahead to ensure the books you want are in the library saves petrol or fares for travelling. We save the cost of the call by checking online and reserving the books if they are in the library. The local council usually has a 'whats on' section and we've enjoyed picnics listening to musicians and bands playing in the gardens or at the rotunda.


Here's hoping you will continue to support us on our journey ~ stay on our tails to keep us motivated and throw an extra dollar or two into our Spare Change Jar or Treasure Chest to help bring the debt down even more. Yes, it is a lot to ask - but if you and your friends can help with a spare dollar or two it will make an enormous difference to us.

Thanks so much for sticking with Our Mission and here's to providing you all with more success stories and the hints and tips we use to reduce our outgoings, pay more on our debt and get out of this vicious cycle. Your input is gratefully received, every time :D

Two Challenge Takers ~ two outcomes

Gorgeous - Ballarat Botanical Gardens 

Well done readers ~ we know two people have contacted their banks about their interest rates after we issued the Challenge.  

One didn't fair too well ~ Nicole commented on yesterday's post. I think it's because she's doing brilliantly already with a zero balance and only a low limit ~ but if her bank is getting nothing from her now - what's an interest rate drop to keep a customer happy?? Good on you Nicole for giving it a go!

But Renegade Rosie (not her real name) has the type of success we would expect. At 25 years young, Rosie has an almost max'd out card of $25,000!  Even worse, she has been paying interest at 21.6% and an annual fee. Rosie messaged via FaceBook and said no-way would this work. So I responded that it wouldn't if she didn't at least pick up the phone, call and ask ~ I even bet her $1 she would get at least 5% on the first offer and, if the bank did drop it to about 15%, ask for a little more.  So she did ~ and into our Spare Change Jar $1 has been put!!  Rosie went from 21% to 11% ~ a full 10% drop.

So she dared me back and said stop talking about calling the bank with your Line of Credit and do it. Little whipper-snapper had me *grins*  So I called our lender and we've been given three months off making payments on the mortgage and line of credit ~ holy Toledo Bat-tlers.  The three months of repayments will be added to the term of the mortgage, but we are four years ahead in payments so adding about $1500 for the relief of well over $4500 in payments, fees and interest is going to sit well with us.  By capitalising on the mortgage we can still pay into the account, and it will sit there as a redraw if needed. The other change we made to the loan package was to lower the amount available on the NIVA to $1000 - this way any repayments go and stay in the Line of Credit and don't keep going into the NIVA to make up a balance of $3000 - much more reasonable. That's going to save us over $580 a month in the short term, and a heck of a lot more in mental stress in the long term.  Woo Hoo!!

But I didn't stop there.  No ~ it was then on to Helstra to change our telephone account to a $0 incoming only line. Brilliant.  Sure, you have to beg and pander a little to get this, but that is a monthly saving of $20.95 better put into the LOC than to the telecommunication giant (headache). With Skype, email and text, we don't need a home phone to make calls, it means others can still contact us for a local rate, not mobile rates. What's more, I discovered the pension concession had not been applied when the low-income phone line was applied 5months ago and got a refund of $15.90. Hahaha ~ feeling a little power-happy.

So I rang Optus to see what discount I could get there.  Right off the bat - the paper fee was removed. That's $2 in our pocket. Then we changed my phone plan down by $10 to a $49 cap (no contract) which gives me an additional $200 of calls and text plus FREE FaceBook on the phone/internet. It also comes with 1.5GB of data download ~ although I am not really sure what that means.  No doubt it is about email and stuff, but I 'do' email on computer so that's an elephant (irrelevant).  Too darn cool ~ this little chickie is on fire with the finances today!  Really it is only being back in control of the crumbling mess of our limited finances. There was only one biller left ~ because the VISA rate was lowered last week ~ and that's the electricity and gas company.

This one has not been set as yet - but the outstanding balance on our account is still up at the $800 mark and it was suggested we apply for a charge waiver under hardship.  Did you know you can apply for this once every two years?  A total zeroing of any overdue account on electricity, gas AND water. Of course, 'conditions apply' but each service is eligible. I see a light - and it's not over at the Frankenstein place...

All up, in under 5hours, we have free'd up $620 a month. 

Today I also did my first street as an Avon Lady ~ ding dong...

One sale, one possible sale and sore feet. It was slow but fun.  Anyone want any Avon? There are some great stocking fillers, Christmas labels and decorative earrings along with the make up and skin care on offer!

And two of the items on eBay sold.  Sure - nothing huge but it is another few dollars to be put into the debt and for the first time in a long time we feel we are doing the right things to get back in control.  So if you've thought about throwing your spare PayPal change in our Jar or Treasure Chest but didn't want to be supporting some lazy no-hopers just wanting scam others to pay up - surely this shows how committed we are to helping ourselves as well.

We really could do with some help tho' ~ 100 people with one spare dollar will help us get this week's debt challenge paid out!  Go on ~ use some cents and help us out . . . please!?!