whitestripe

Today I am going to the new house after work. I have to putty some nail holes in the floor (fun! not). The better it is done now the better the floor will look when it is sanded though.

DF found that our house is used as a thoroughfare to the park behind our house, in turn to the pathway near the park and to the schools behind the trees, behind the park. (if that makes any sense!). Of what we have seen it is only school kids, but we are still going to put a temporary fence up until we settle down and can plan a proper one. Poor kids will have a shock when they come to find they can't get through our yard any more. Oh well. When I was younger I would never dare go through someone elses yard, unless I knew the people in the house!

We just got the settlement notice in the mail yesterday, which included everything that had been paid on settlement day - which was indeed EVERYTHING. For some reason I had in my head that we still had to pay the solicitors. (By the way, our budgetted amount for solicitors? $1200. Our actual spend? $592!)

So that means everything that is left in our savings account is indeed ours. The balance is $8401.56.

That will be a nice start on our emergency fund, as well as all the other things we have planned. I have realised March is going to be a very big washout in terms of keeping track. While I am still keeping track of my own expenses, it is going to take some getting used to recording DF's as well.

Still not really sure how I am going to do it. I mean sure, it's easy in theory if you have a plan, but sometimes in reality it doesn't work out like that. I have been doing it for years, so my brain works at storing those numbers away so I can remember them. If I go away for a weekend I can remember three or four days of expenses without writing them down. DF has trouble remembering how much he spent at the shop ten minutes ago.

How do you guys do it???

After reading BrooklynGirls last post on the cost to make a salad at home, I was inspired (not only because a greek salad sounded delicious) to see how much it would cost for the same ingredients in Australia.

What I bought:
1 Red Oak Lettuce $2.45
250gm Cherry Tomatoes $2.25
1 bunch Parsley $1.95
1 Avocado $2.49
1 Continental Cucumber $1.69
1 Red Onion $0.46
100g greek fetta $2.91
100g kalamata olives $1.90
700g kent pumpkin $2.06
Total: $18.16

I used all of the ingredients except 5 cherry tomatoes and about 1/3 of the parsley.
The pumpkin I roasted in chunks and drizzled with olive oil.

I was able to make dinner for DF and I, and lunch for tomorrow as well (a slice each of the roasted pumpkin, and salad).

So technically this cost us $4.54 per meal. I think that's pretty alright. I wouldn't find a greek salad around here for under $10. I think it's definately cheaper to eat at home, and healthier.

I am so excited! In two weeks time we will no longer have to pay rent! We are only letting another $1k or less down the drain, and from then on, and hopefully the rest of our lives, the money will be going into our own mortgage, not someone else's. (and yes, I realise that we are paying lots of money to the bank too...)

Today I spent $1 at work on a drink for me and a co-worker, and $2.40 on some fundraising chocolates a little girl was selling. Also I spent $5 to share with a friend on a bunch of flowers for another co worker, her name is T.
It is very sad, T's sister had a heart attack and passed away last week. We were her first visitors (which I didn't know) that she would see, she hasn't seen any of her other friends or another lady she is friends with at work.
T is older than us, she is in her 50's. I guess she is sort of a bit like a mother or grandmother figure. She is such a lovely lady. I think she was happy to have us over and be able to talk. We chatted about her sister, her family, work, etc. I think we might have cheered her up a little, I hope so.

Tonight we are having some mexican tomato beans with brown rice, and DF will have a steak. The beans are from the freezer. I think we are slowly making our way through all the bits and pieces in there.

Oh and I think we have decided to call the previous owner about the termite post because he is a builder also, and he will probably know a good honest pest person. I have no interest in any of those barrier- things and perimeter sprays, or the termite mesh or whatever. I think some people just don't know about it, so they get sucked into spending a lot of money on these things. Of course, I mean if you have had really bad termites it might be worth it and all, but I think a lot of people are just afraid of them because they don't understand, and they have been made to 'fear' termites. Eh. Anyway


Ok well I must be off to cook dinner now!

Spent a bit of money on food last week. We had takeaway for dinner on Saturday night as DF's sister and fiancee (his mate, the one that helped him move his cars yesterday). We had indian, it was delicious. Keeping with my 'eating smaller portions goal' i only ate half of my meal and put half in the fridge. DF also saved about 1/3 of his meal! So last night we had leftover Indian with steamed veges and I baked some fries that were in the freezer for DF. I had about three fries . I think they were DF's sisters from when she lived here, she left a lot of stuff in the freezer but said she didn't want it. I have been slowly working our way through the food in the freezer.
And yesterday I bought lunch for everyone that helped us with the floors at the house. It was $30 including DF and mine. I put $10 as a takeaway food expense and the $20 as 'house and moving costs'. Technically I was paying for labour....?

It looks like we may not have to buy a new fridge! My parents bought basically a whole new kitchen for their renovations, but had them delivered before the renovations (they were worried the company would go bust and they wouldn't get their stuff because of the economical stuff happening...) Anyway so they said we could have their old fridge, which isn't that old. They bought it new about 8 years ago. Well, ok so it is old, but it's much newer than the one we have.

We have just over $8k left in the bank, but I don't think we have paid the solicitors yet... Anyway I am going to wait for a few weeks before planning what to do with some of the money, to make sure everything has been paid for with the house.

Now that we don't have to buy a fridge, that gives us a bit more. We will have to buy paint, termite baits (and a professional pest control inspection)... hmmm. The list will no doubt grow! But we are being careful, and making sure everything we plan to spend money on is necessary at this time.

Today we did more stuff on the house. DF's mate helped us move DF's two cars (he has a car trailer) and also helped putty some of the floor. DF paid for his petrol, which is what his friend did for him when DF helped him put up the framework of his shed (as well as dinners and stuff).

We managed to move two outdoor tables, most of DF's plants and a whole heap of boxes from the garage. I helped putty some of the floor too, and DF cross sanded it. DF also showed his dad how to use the sander (his dad bought the sander for his business, but DF was the only one that had been shown how to use it). So DF and I had help from his dad and my younger bro and sis helped as well. I bought them lunch.

It is good this time around as we are moving the tough stuff first - last time we had to wait until last to do all that stuff. It now is a load off our minds that has been done and we can focu on little stuff.

But in true form, once there is a load off your mind, another worry comes up to bite you in the ass.
We found some termites on the letter box! But no one panic! - we are not particularly worried. There is absolutely NOTHING around anywhere of the house (the letterbox is many metres from the house). I've been over the house and there's no tracks anywhere. We are releived it only seems to be there, and we are about 99.9% certain it wasn't there when we first inspected the house. So this week I am going to get some termite baits and maybe look into getting a professional to spray or dust around the perimiter.

whew! big weekend!

I checked our accounts yesterday and our first mortgage payment had gone through: $430.15. I have updated my side bar

Now we know for sure we only have until the 24th in our rental house, that makes it easier on calculating our costs.

I called and organised our phone and broadband relocation. It is $59 for our phone relocation and $99 for our broadband relocation, which is what I thought it would be anyway.

I am wondering if my car insurance will go up too, I hadn't thought of that.

Yesterday we did a late night run to the supermarket because DF wanted something sweet. In the past, 'something sweet' means one or many of the following: chocolate bars, chocolate blocks, tubs of icecream, boxes of individual icecreams etc.

What did we end uo buying?

A tub of wildberry frozen yoghurt.

And my input? Was to get the tub, not multitudes of small containers. I was very proud of DF. He has a very unhealthy streak, and while I know frozen yoghurt ISNT that healthy, it's much better than his previous choices.

We also bought three 2L bottles of juice as they were on special for $2, normally around $2.89.

Also I made DF buy me two recipe magazines (one was $2.95, one was $2.90) in return for the meat I bought him yesterday ($11.35). One of the magazines came with free star-shaped cookie cutters!

At the moment I am not really keeping track of 'who owes who' because in the next three weeks our monies will be merged.

We've also come to the decision that our allowance will be a set amount each week. DF's will be $80 and mine will be $60. (which is 10% of our normal net weekly income)
There are times when DF only earns around $600 a week, and there are times when I might earn only $400 a week. Also there are times when we both work overtime as well. So in the end it will most likely work out.

Today I am only working 6 hours, 11.45am til 5.45pm, and doing customer service not cake decorating. (I get excited when I get to do customer service as it is like a 'break' for me, the work is non-thinking and easy, compared to my work in the kitchen, where I constantly have measurements and baking times running through my head).

DF and I have been researching what my mums dogss' puppies may look like. My mums dog is a Maltese, and her 'mate' was a Shnauzer. Though we are not entirely sure if she is pregnant yet. I really hope so, and she does seem a little heavier. But I don't want to get my hopes up too much. Oh but I doooo hope soooo....
LOL.
Anyway, so this is a picture that I found on the internet of a Mauzer: (it was too cute not to share)

I didn't go for a run today (I forgot my sunglasses and sunscreen in the morning and I usually go straight after work) So I did 20 minutes on my exercise bike. Now I am going for a swim in the river. I also had a good day diet wise: bran and muesli for breakie with a small coffee, a cup of tea, a salad sandwhich, a small iced coffee milk, a can of coke (ok so it's starting to sound bad...). Tonight I am thinking of making some type of sundried tomato pesto sauce with pasta and veges.

I packed up the odd stuff in our bathroom that I don't need (a whole CRATE). Not sure what to do next. I think I might start cleaning some empty cupboards to get a head start...

I am now working on Saturday as one of my colleagues sisters' died. I don't think she was very old, only about 50 or so - I haven't heard any details though. It is sad, this colleague is one of the 'nice' ones there, she really is lovely.

That will be around an extra $150 before tax for me. My boss said he was sorry because he know we just bought the house and I would want to do stuff to it but he said just to think of the money. (actually, inside I was gleefully jumping up and down going 'money money money') It is not often I get extra shifts any more as I am a bit too expensive, especially in 'these times'.

I have not done any cardio this week, but I did do about 45 minutes of gardening (where sweat was literally POURING off me - being midday in summer and all) and about an hour and a half of pulling staples out of the floor at the house on monday. The day after I did that the back of my thighs ACHED.

Today I plan to go for a run, YES a RUN. I don't know why but I just felt very motivated this week. I gardened, I cleaned my car, now I'm running, regardless of the consequences to my shins...

Just checked my facebook account. I had updated my status to something about the house, can't remember, anyway and I got a comment on the status from a girl I went to school with, (whom, but the way, I have not seen in person since 2002). Her comment?

Congratulations, you deserve it! Allah shines down on you.

Ok, apart from the religious ... stuff... (I am use to it - she's a recently converted muslim and seems to want to ram it down everyones throats with a healthy serve of smiles and sunshine) the one thing that REALLY REALLY REALLY irks me is, how can she possibly know I deserve it? This mindset totally baffles me. You don't deserve something unless you WORK for it, in my books. She wouldn't know if I'd earned it, because I haven't seen her in 7 + years.

It's just not her I am mad at. Don't get me wrong, I know she is just being nice.

But honestly... there are so many people out there that say that to me. And I can't possibly think of anything to say to them back, I can't think of the proper reaction I am meant to have. How can you seriously tell a person they deserve to buy a house? It has absolutely NOTHING to do with deserving-ness.

We will see in 20+ years. When we have succesfully paid off our house, then I will be able to tell myself I deserve it.

This morning I logged onto our *new* accounts and the loan balance has hit. (It wasn't there yesterday or the day before). So I guess I have a very limited time to actually be excited about being in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.
Tell me honestly, what sane person is excited to have a balance on her account saying - $304 000.00????
I am an odd person, I will admit.

I forgot to mention, when DF picked up the keys the real estate gave us a bag (an environmentally friendly bag!) with some Brie cheese, crackers, chocolates, champagne, key rings, magnets, a one month newspaper subscription and a card that every staff member had signed. Isn't that nice?

Also when DF finally got to the house after picking up the keys, the previous owner was there, mowing the lawn for us and patching up some of the boundary. I am just astounded at how nice everyone has been. Of course, I'm not naive. I realise we have just given him $320k. But he technically didn't have to do anything. I guess it does sort of have something to do with the area as well. It's a town, as I've said. The main area we live in is full of suburbs, there are only a couple of proper towns around here, and you can really feel the difference. Suburbs, people are just wrapped up in themselves. They have their little 500m2 blocks and that's their world. The towns have a little more of a community spirit.

Anyway I will stop blabbing now.

I dragged myself in to do grocery shopping today (feeling uninspired about meals lately).
I got a great deal on Extra Virgin Olive Oil, $2.99 per 1 Litre bottle, so I bought 3 bottles. This brand is worth $9.99 per bottle normally! Last time I paid around $25 for a 4 Litre tin of a different brand. So we will be fine for olive oil now for quite a few months!
Next to coffee, I would say that olive oil is one of our higher priced grocery items.

Also while I was shopping, I accidently picked up a reciept for someone elses shopping which was in my trolley. When I got home I realised it wasn't mine, but I read through it anyway (am I the only one that likes doing this?)
$318 for 77 items. And you know, this person has spent soooo much money on cleaning and insect products. Amazing. I'm not going to bother adding it up, but I would say it's somewhere in the vicinity of $80. I would be quick to say it might be a 'bulk' shop, but the rest of the docket indicates this is a weekly shop. Gosh, I just want to find this person and shake them!

Well, yesterday while I was at work DF got the keys and he and his dad went in and started ripping up the floor. When I got there I took a quick couple of 'before' pics because DF had forgotten.

This one is of the spare room. Both spare rooms were added at a later date to the house, so a different timber was used for the floors. It's a recycled hardwood floor, so it's a bit crappier and not as well layed, but once we sand and seal it, it should look fine.


This one is of our lounge room. The lounge, kitchen, dining, office and main bedroom all have a mixed hardwood floor which is better than the recycled one and is going to look really great once it's finished. One of the worries is that the vinyl was glued to the floor, so that might affect it a little bit in the kitchen. (sometimes you can't get the glue off). Oh well! We'll see how it goes!


Sorry there's only two pics but there will be more once we finish!

Today is the day we finally get the keys to our house. Settlement is at 11.30am, so by midday or 1pm DF should have collected the keys. He is doing a pre-inspection at 10am - thank god everything worked out with his work and he was able to take today and tomorrow off. He is going to start ripping up the carpet and vinyl and the masonite that's underneath. We have a bit of a job ahead of us as most of the floor is lined with masonite and we have to de-nail it (if you don't get the nails all out it will wreck the sander). I am going to go straight from work to help.

The owners of our rental house came over yesterday to measure up some things. They are pretty nice people. They've told us not to worry about cleaning the carpets, as they will rip them up anyway (!!!). So that's a saving of about $130. If they hadn't of said that we would still have to clean them as most real estates, and this one in particular, are bastards when it comes to anything like that.

Also they said whenever we would like to move out is fine with them. So I think we tentatively said March 23rd or 24th. Which gives us 3 weeks from today, and is three and a half weeks earlier than our lease expiry. (So that's a saving of around $1470).

I have changed my bank details over at work, so my pay this week should go into our new offset account!!!

We have pretty much packed everything up now. We still have a bit of crap lying around. I think the next few weeks will be difficult. It is in our best interests to sleep at our rental house, but we will probably move everything as soon as we can to the new place. Card Games it is for the next few weeks!

I have decided to do a detox plan once we move into our new place. I read it out to DF and he said 'so basically, it's not a detox plan, it's how you SHOULD eat anyway'. But then I asked if he would do it with me and he said 'maybe'. *sigh*
This is it:

I'm not going to try and set huge goals for March because we will be moving, but I DO want to set a few achievable ones.

[] 3 x 30 minute exercise sessions per week.
[] Start to wear a pedometer to keep track of steps per day.
[] Finish gardening our rental house yard.
[] Change our mailing details for everything that gets sent to our rental house address.
[] Paint the lounge room walls and the wall in each of the spare rooms with panelling in our new house.
[] Sand the floor in the new house.
[] Keep track of all spending.
[] Begin to set up our EF and other savings goals FOR REAL!

I thought I may as well post my totals for February. March is going to be an interesting month I think. It will be the first time DF and I track our spending together. I am going to use Gamecocks method and have a piece of paper on the fridge to record our daily spending. It will be easier for DF as it will be right in his face every night - otherwise he won't remember.

OK! Feb Totals, here we go!

Income:
Job 1: $880
Job 2: $1564.60
Other: $180.00
Total: $2404.60

Expenses:
Rent: $720.00
Groceries: $249.10
Petrol: $105.23
Phone & Internet: $39.13
Insurance: $21.55
Mobile Phone: $62.22
Loan Payments: $148.00
Skin Care: $39.90
Misc: $7.25
Health/Beauty/Grooming: $30.13
Gifts: $109.48
Bank Fees: $55.60
Work: $46.46
Alcohol: $9.99
Takeaway Beverages: $67.10
Takeaway Food: $58.36
Clothes & Shoes: $61.93
Entertainment: $50.00
Staff Lotto: $8

Total Expenses: $1977.40

HOUSE expenses: $3005.40 (Deposit & Cheque Fee)

Surplus: $427.16

YAY! I think that was a great month. Also, this month I tried to limit myself to my 'allowance' which technically doesnt start until tomorrow, just to see how hard it would be. I am pleased to say that I was able to buy a few pieces of clothing and virtually no change to my 'coffees with friends' either. So I think all round if I make consistently good choices it's not going to be too hard for me.

I decided to clean the pantry, and I even took before and after pics, lol.
before:




after:





before:





after:






Well, it just makes me realise how much I don't have in the pantry! It looks quite bare once it's all tidy, doesn't it?

Well today I am covering a womans shift who works out the front of the shop, so instead of working 6.30am-1.30pm I am working 10.15am-5.45pm. I will get home just in time to get dinner on, have a shower and watch neighbours

It's 7.30am so I have some plans to do stuff before getting ready to leave in two hours.

- mop our bathroom
- clean guest bathroom & toilet
- do the dishes
- wash & hang out a load of washing
- clean some windows (kitchen, dining room, spare bedroom etc)
- tidy loungeroom
- tidy kitchen

I think that is a small amount to do in two hours.

I am feeling a bit lazy about dinner tonight. I am trying to convince myself NOT to get takeaway. Problem is I found a coupon (YES! a coupon! it's a big deal for me because we DON'T get coupons here) for 10% off our local thai food restaurant...
To add to that, we don't have a great deal of food in the fridge...

BUT NO! Roast veges and salad it is, for dinner tonight. I will save the Thai coupon for when all our kitchen stuff is packed away and we have been moving stuff all day and not feeling like cooking.

My friend and I are splurging today and getting back/neck/shoulders massages. It is 45 minutes for around $40-$50.
I can't wait!
We were meant to do something like this every month, but it has become now something every three months. Which is still good of course! We have also been to a day spa which was lovely (I had been there before, it was my idea to go there). Next we are apparently getting one of those wrap-things. Where they wrap you up like a mummy and you are meant to lose inches, apparently. I am not really that concerned about losing inches but I would like to try it anyway!

Anyway, must go and get ready now. YAY!

is what I paid for 100 organic ceylon tea bags today.
I had to double check. I have no idea of the price of them before, but I know it was nowehere NEAR that little. There is another brand next to it that has a box of 25 for $3.99. So I know I had atleast some sort of saving.

Anyway. I didn't INTEND to buy teabags today but it was too good of a special to pass up.

I am still noticing a lot more 'buy X amount for X' specials. Normally supermarkets here DONT do that at all. It is odd. But all the better for me, I quite like buying in bulk.

I found a great price on cheese at Aldi, $7.29 for 1kg. But it's a bit of a bummer because I hardly ever go there. Once we move I will be even FURTHER away from Aldi than I am now, and it's about a 30 minute drive now. And to be honest I didn't find anything much else there that I couldn't find the same price in other supermarkets. Eh. Oh well...

I just got charged an annual fee on my rewards CC - the one I will be cancelling once everything settles with the mortgage (ie. in a week...!).

I completely blanked on the date (yes, even though it's on the front of the card).

I just paid $48 to learn the hard way, remember when your fees hit.

BLAH!

Oh well. Now I will have to try EXTRA hard to makeup for it this year. I now have to find out a way to save (or earn and redeem rewards for) the $395 package fee for the mortgage AND the $48 card fee from my old CC card.

I did 17 out of 27 of my goals for February. Eh. Not flash but atleast I did more than half...

[x] pack items that won't be used in the next two months
[x] survive having my brothers family visiting me (oh yes, i'm serious!)
[x] stick to my 'allowance' each week of February (as a practice to the real thing starting in March) (well... almost...)
[x] sort out accounts with new bank (savings, offset, everyday, EF etc)
[x] decide on a starting amount for EF and a plan of action to build it up
[] get my car serviced
[x] cook three new dishes
[] ride exercise bike 3 times per week
[] swim atleast once per week
[x] read a book
[x] begin to organise new budget
[x] make an appointment with doctor to go over blood test results
[] clean my car!
[] lose 1 kg.
[] try to incorporate a healthier eating plan into our day (see below)


[] walk or cycle three times per week, for 20 minutes or more (only managed once a week)

[x] drink 1.5 litres of water a day

[x] do not buy any more flavoured milk when at work. a big ask! (YAY! saved myself $37.20)

[x] begin to replace coffee and coca cola with teas. (have hardly drank any cola except at work, have started to drink teas and my coffee consumption is generally 2 a day)

[x] do not purchase cakes or snacks when having coffee with friends, for the whole month of feb. (another YAY moment! i have eaten MEALS with friends, but that was at proper meal times, I haven't been ordering anything in the in-between times)

[x] cut down significantly on processed/sugary/fatty foods. (my target was cut down 95% but I would say it was about 65% - not the greatest but i did cut down)

[x] begin to MAKE desserts. (i have made more than i normally do, but am still working on getting DF to cut down eating icecreams)

[] consistently serve up smaller portions at dinner time. (i'm not ticking this because it hasn't been consistent - i have been serving smaller portions but probably only about half the time. other times i forget).

[] chew my food. (HA! of course i chew my food, but i don't take the TIME to do it like a lot of people... sigh...)

[x] SNACK! (have begun to do this but i need to work on it a bit more)

[x] eat fruit - tinned or fresh (most days i have)

[] Weightloss of 1kg (i haven't checked lately but i think it has only been about 500g so i'm not going to bother putting it in here)

Random updates:
- my sister 'ran away' from home (meaning, she walked to our place and stayed over) last night. all is fine now apparently. i think it has more to do with her being a teenager than my parents this time lol.
- Went to the bank and we are now set up with internet banking and Life Insurance (accident, trauma, illness AND death cover!) Currently at $61.35 a month, but we are going to make an appointment later on to see if we can get it reduced a bit. It's standard cover, and because neither of us work in a high risk job we might be able to get it tailored to our occupations and save a bit extra.
- Went and got the ultra sound on my leg but I won't know the results til I go to the doctors. Hopefully I will make an appointment this week or next.
- I have been going well on some of my Feb goals and not so well on others. Atleast SOME are going well..
- I have realised I MUST stop using the internet on my phone because it is costing me a lot of money! I got a $12 charge for last month. *sigh* sometimes you just HAVE to look something up on google though, you know?
- A friend of a friend is bugging me to join a bike class at her gym. Not only do I HATE gyms, I have my own exercise bike. When I made an excuse about money, she said 'classes are only $4'. I was like umm... yeah... well... (I am not eager to show the extent of my cheapness...)
- DF made dinner on Sunday night! He made himself a roast lamb and roast veges, steamed side veges and heated up a tofu/bean/tomato mix for me. He also did half of the dishes. ALSO he did the dishes for me last night too because I burnt my hand at work. Not badly, but badly enough for me to whinge about it!
- Speaking of dishes, we have come up with a plan: DF will do the dishes once a week, and cook once a week. Then it means I will only nag him once a week. I don't mind cooking dinner, and I have no idea how to use a lawn mower/whippersnipper/edger so I'd say that's fairly even. We share the laundry evenly and I don't mind the rest of the housework.
- Grocery expenses have been high this month which is a bit of a bummer, though I'm not really sure why. I will have to work on reducing the costs of our meals.

Well, that's all my updates for now. To end on this post, I will leave you with a picture of a tattoo that I got over a year ago:

Well, today was a rather spendy day. I had breaky with some friends and then I went into town to buy some work shirts. I ended up buying the stuff I was talking about earlier for DF's sisters 'pregnancy pamper' pack. Nearly finished it, so when I do I will post a picture.
I did some gardening too, and yesterday DF and I packed a fair bit.

Just wanted to share two beautiful songs that I love:

When I got home today I opened a brand new packet of Chai Tea to sip on while I checked my emails. The box was kind of light, and I counted the teabags. 10! I did a double count, and then had to keep checking the box, as it clearly says 20 tea bags, 50grams.
Obviously it's a human or machine error, I'm not too upset about it. I sent off an email to Lipton and asked how they were going to rectify it.
I know it's only some tea bags, but they cost about $3.99 for a box, so I don't want to let it go that easily.

It made me think though, I don't normally count things in bags. I should do it more often just to see how many times things are screwed up.

In the past, I complained about a rock I found in some chocolate. Cadbury sent me a massive box fill of chocolates, all types. It was great! Of course I'm not the type that expected it, and I would never 'fake' something like that. But it was great all the same.

I had two bras that the hook things snapped, made by Bonds. I wrote a letter of complaint and mailed the bras back, and I got two new ones sent back to me.

It's one thing I do appreciate when being a customer, if a company DOES make good, I will of course continue to use them. It shows that they care.

So fingers crossed I atleast get my ten teabags sent to me! I would 100% be happy if they just sent me that.

Well this weekend I have no excuses, I HAVE to pack some stuff and do some proper housework.

We just got a letter saying our lease expires on 16th April, so can we kindly please get out.
We also have an entry notice for the owners to look at the place next sunday (day before we get the keys to our new place) I rang the real estate and they have talked to the owners about us moving out earlier (seeing as we bought the house and get the keys in... 10 days!!!) and that is all fine.
Now we are just trying to decide how much time we need to move. I initially said a month (remember, we have to sand the floors and paint first... otherwise it will NEVER get done). DF said around the same. I went to work yesterday and mentioned it and my boss was like "WHAT!? A MONTH? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? You could do it in a few days!!!" and I was like "yes but we have to do the floors, and clean the old place, and do stuff..."
Anyway, I realised we were making excuses, so we are going to try and do it in 2 1/2 - 3 weeks (hopefully 2 weeks will be enough but I think with both of us working we will need a bit extra) I REALLY want all the bond back so we have to do a proper job cleaning and gardening.

So my plans for this weekend:

[]clean the guest bathroom (still haven't done it...)
[]pack all of my unused jewellery, paperwork etc hanging around my room.
[] pack most of our kitchen stuff except for the basics (should make for some interesting meals)
[] 'aquire' some milk crates from my work to stack DF's plants in (did this last time)
[] pack all the bank paperwork into a box but leave unopened
[] change the sheets on our bed
[] pack linen closet except for a couple of towels
[] begin the massive huge-ass task of weeding the garden (eugh!)
[] give everything a quick tidy over
[] vaccuum the floors
[] tidy the pantry

well, some of you may know the story of our ex-flatmate, who is DF's sister (let's call her A)
She used to be with DF's best friend, L, but broke up with him after two years because she no longer loved him. She moved to live with us, and started a fashion course - which she quite after six months (it was a year long course). A year after the breakup, and six months of living with us, she decided she liked another of DF's friends, D.
L obviously wasn't happy and it caused quite a rift in the circle of friends. L proceeded to send abusive text messages to both D and A, and this put my DF in a hot spot. He defended his sister obviously, which lead to DF not really wanting L as his closest friend anymore.
A and D made plans to live on D's block of land in a shed that they are currently building, when our lease ran out (january).
After about three or four months (?) of being together, A & D announced they were having a baby. This was while A was still living with us. She would visit D every weekend. The baby would have been due in March this year - two months after the shed was supposed to have been built.
They had a miscarriage after six weeks.
A was upset when the doctor told her to wait for three months before trying again.
On christmas day they announced they were 12 weeks along again (so I think I worked out that they only waited two months at the most). The shed still isn't built, so they rented a place in the town where D lives, about a month and a half ago.
DF's mum called him the other day to talk. She mentioned to DF that A didn't seem happy when she talked to her last, on the phone. She said they (A & D) seemed to be having some kind of tiff in the background. Something about they yelled at each other 'not liking your attitude' and 'yeah well i don't like YOUR attitude'.
I have been careful to step around this issue, after all it is DF's sister. But DF and I had a bit of a chat about it and we are both on the same page, technically. I said to DF that I just think they went WAY to quick on EVERYTHING. I mean, I KNOW that lots of people still work out like this, six months together, a baby, moving in (AFTER getting pregnant...?). Anyway, all that is not my point really. It is SOME of the point, but mostly it is just to do with A. She just doesn't seem to think about anything other than what SHE wants to do.

But anyway, the whole point of this little rant was to say that it doesn't surprise me that they have begun having tiffs already, after living together for a month and a bit. They've spent some time living together, but it has been with his parents. A doesn't exactly clean a lot, and I think D, having lived with his parents for a while, might take a bit of getting used to doing things for himself. He is also working full time, while A doesn't work (you know, being pregnant and all...) A also doesn't think anything of laying in front of the tv all day - even if there's a sink full of dishes and the hosue is filthy, AND it's her turn to do all of those.

Yes, it's true, I did get the shits with her a bit when we lived with each other. I never let on though, as she's 25 and apparently an adult. I also knew it was only a temporary arrangement (a year) so there was no use stepping on peoples toes about stuff that they should already have learned how to do properly.

But anyway, I think this whole experience is going to be very interesting for them. DF has already said he almost 'can't wait' until D comes to him and says something about A (who is DF's sister). DF said he will be like 'yeah well, that's A... that's my sister for you'. DF also said it wouldn't surprise him (and me) if A called the wedding off at some stage during the next year or two and said 'that's it!'. It really would not be that much of a surprise. It might sound harsh. But it's the way she is. You can't tell her no, you can't even tell her 'i told you so' because she will get angry at you. you can't reason with her because she will say she knows everything about what she is doing. she doesn't learn from her mistakes either. she doesn't learn about jumping in too fast. you just have to sit back and go 'oh, here we go...'

Well, I found out I am not cleaning until after lunch, so I went into the shops early (I was actually there before they opened - I got there at 8.20 thinking they opened at 8.30 when really everything opens at 9! Bah!)

I found a good, black, button up, wool, above-knee coat in Target for $89.95. It fits around the shoulders and I did all the stuff like bending down, sitting down, etc. I even took a jumper in to try on underneath. It's better made than the other one I was looking at buying, and it fits much better around the shoulders.





I also bought a skirt, it's so cute. It has pleats on both sides of the leg at the front and sort of a fishtail pleat-style at the back centre: (not a very good photo but oh well)



All up I spent $52 after my $70 of vouchers were deducted. I also bought a coffee while I was waiting for $3.75, so that was my total spending for the day.





I was thinking of going to the supermarket tonight for dinner supplies and then do a proper shop tomorrow, but I think I might be able to stretch it til tomorrow and use some more stuff up in the pantry. I am thinking of making: roast potato, salad and a mexican bean mix. DF had a lamb chop yesterday so I think a meatless dinner will be fine for him tonight