After a month of waiting for the paperwork to be put through (and even longer since I actually signed the papers!), our split loan has been finalised. I checked our balances this morning, and instead of owing $298xxx.xx we now owe:

Fixed (7.94% for 5 years) $175 000.00
Variable (currently 5.11%) $123 630.24

For a month I have wondered if we did the right thing, or if we should have waited a tad longer. (Atleast, I now know we should have fixed straight away at 6.94% - but eh, what can you do?).

I got an email last week, the Reserve bank had raised their interest rates by 0.25%. The next day the Big 4 raised theirs. So, that was my answer. We did absolutely the right thing. (Hasn't hit our variable portion YET - will soon...)

I have also read that there will probably be another raise in December. Whew!

Sorry I have not posted much this week. Things have been a bit busy, life has been happening, and I have been rather distracted by some other websites currently. However!

I do have some news.

On Thursday I am going into the bank after work to fill out the papers to fix the rate for some of our mortgage.
I am thinking 50% (approx $150k) for 5 years. The fixed rate for 5 years is 6.49%. Our variable rate is 5.21%. We can only pay $10k extra for the term on the fixed portion, which is why we want some left at a variable rate. I don't foresee us paying more than 150k in extra repayments in the next five years... would be nice though! but i doubt it...
Anyway. They are calling the Australian economy the 'miracle economy'.

Our weekly mortgage payment came out today, and that leaves the balance owing at $299 781.76, with $2168.26 in available funds.

It wasn't actually a goal or anything, but it feels good nonetheless!

I am doing well with the freezer cleanout. Yesterday we had bologanise (from the freezer) and I made a vege pasta sauce for myself. I made a double mix for myself so unfortunately I didn't actually generate space in my freezer seeing as I put the leftovers in there . But I also took out a chickpea & pumpkin curry for myself and a beef & redwine casserole for DF. I will have rice with mine and DF's I will make into a pot pie. We've also eaten the half loaf of sourdough and some tofu. BUT I made more dog food because of our poochy-guests, so it's pretty much chock-a-block for a while. *sigh*

In other news, we have a little more than an extra one months' minimum mortgage payment in our mortgage account, and are nearly under the 300k mark!

I am going to attempt to make a pizza base at home sometime this week. I know it's pretty normal to do and everyone should know how, but I usually make them at work - or get someone else to make them there for me And it will be a little difficult, seeing as normally they are made with a 25 kg bag of flour - hmm, not sure I want that much pizza. So making it to proportion will be the tricky part. Any good pizza base recipes?

Only 5 weeks and three days til we pick up the engagement ring. I don't understand why it had to take so long, it's very plain. But *sigh* what can you do?

DF's sister still has not had the baby! She was due on Saturday. Any moment now I expect to get a call.
My brothers partner is due in about 5 weeks now too. One of our friends is due TODAY as well, and another of my friends is due in 3 weeks. Another friend is due in 3 months. Ek. So many babies!

Income: $5454.10

Expenditure: $5250.89

Mortgage Payments: $1572.46
Groceries: $498.81
Petrol: $246.74
Phone & Internet: $77.39
Car Registration (2 x 1 year): $1058
Electricity: $79.35
Car Repairs/Expenses: $63.00
Mobile Phone: $58
House Insurance: $69.56
Life Insurance: $53.67
Car Payment: $148.00
House Spending: $189.00
Work Expenses: $20.00
DF Fun: $413.83
WS Fun: $234.04
Clothes: $211.90
Dining Out: $78.60
Entertainment: $153.54
Misc: $19.00
Bank Fees: $2

Remaining: $203.21

NOTES: Groceries are higher this month due to our housewarming party - however, we are only $4 over 'budget' per week. This is probably due to me cleaning out the pantry at the same time. So it is good I decided to do that this month!

Car Registration is what really set us back this month. I mean, it didn't set us back, but, if we didn't have to pay it, it would mean we could have sent $1058 more to our mortgage or savings this month. As it is, we only have $203 remaining after all of our expenses. Which means, next month should be great. (SHOULD be).

DF is still spening more than his allowance per week. This month it was $23 per week. I said to him 'I have spent $2 less per week than I am allowed, and you have spent $23 more!' and he said 'yeah but you don't buy alcohol!' and I said 'yeah, but I get $20 less than you per week, and I have coffee with friends three times a week, buy my makeup and clothes and magaziens out of that too, remember!' Hrrrmmmmph!

Clothes expenses are actually out of my stimulus money - but it is an expense, and I added our stimulus money into last months income, so that is why I am listing the spending this month.

Dining out and entertainment aren't too bad, but could be better. $50 of that was for food for the party too (I bought it from work so it didn't really count as groceries).

DF got a cash withdrawal from another atm so we were charged a $2 fee, that's why we have bank fees this month. GRR! lol.

The $203.21 remaining will be paid into the mortgage. I am also going to start next week putting $180 into our E-saver account for bills. When I pay a bill I will just record it, and then transfer it back at the end of the month into our main account.

I am also going to start splitting the leftover money each month into two groups: mortgage pay off and EF fund. Even though it will be going into the same account, I will record it in a spreadsheet so that I have totals of how much we have put into each. Once things start settling down we will work out a buffer amount of how much we want in our everyday account (I was thinking $5k is a nice round number, but it's possible we could do $10k).

So, here's to June!

This weekend has been very spendy indeed, but mostly in a good way. We finally bought a set-top box. The ticket price was $59 but we got it for $49. We now have perfect reception. It's so perfect, in fact, that DF, who *hates* tv, is willing to sit and watch it. (which goes to show how bad it was before!)

We bought a lot of gardening supplies yesterday, and spent $74.43.
We bought: lawn fertiliser and lawn seeds (for a tiny patch that DF wants to grow grass on where it is shaded - all of the other grass areas are fine except this one part). Also bought a round flat saucer (thanks to Baselle for that brilliant idea!!!) and some lettuce seeds, and a long rectangular tub for herbs. I bought mint seeds, rosemary seeds, coriander and basil seedlings, as well as seedling potting mix and regular potting mix. Fingers crossed it all works out! I should have a lovely mixture of lettuce in 8-10 weeks. Not sure about the other herbs. I will post pictures later.

Today we bought a passionfruit vine as well.

Not a lot of other news. Now it is time for me to go and start planting!!!

I am still thinking of a way to track our EF savings when it is in our everyday account. I am thinking of chucking the whole lot into our mortgage for now, because we are not charged fees for redraw or extra payments - and it will save us the same money as when it is in our everyday account. But then there is the issue of tracking it in THERE!

I am not one of those people that can relax when everything is mushed together, which it is right now.

I also want to be able to track our extra repayments. And the extra repayments have to be tracked INDIVIDUALLY as well. *sigh* It is very complicated. Which is why I have not made extra payments, nor have a total for our EF yet. Grrr.

For the extra payments, I have worked out a system though. I think. I'll see how it goes and then I'll post about it later this month.

Last night DF got home early, so he put key-locks on all the windows. We did not need to put any on the high windows so I think we used 2 packs of locks, which had 4 in each pack. I think they were $42.88 for each pack. We had budgeted about $200 so I am pretty happy we only spent about $90 for them!

Other items needed:
-a rubbish bin
-new toilet seat (how exciting)
-a toaster

That is how much our first addition of interest was for our mortgage. Kind of exciting even though it is really NOT exciting at all...

Our new loan balance is $303 117.38 - at least it is still UNDER the initial borrowed balance, eh?