a money question??

[Candice]

ours is quite low atm because we are in money boot camp gearing up so that i can afford to not work when we decide to have #2, so we are paying 1 1/2 payments on the homeloan, paying extra on all our bills to get ahead and paying somethingl ike $200 p/w off DHs HECS to have it all gone in undera year so doing what we are doing we usually after grosseries etc have $600-700 a fortnight 'play' money atm..

[Ali]

eeek
My on paper budget says after everything is paid, we have $130 left over per week.
But that's the on-paper one - and more often than not it doesn't quite work that way!

[~Melissa~]

Originally Posted by Linds

savings??

My answer would be the same as Linds'

Especially now that I've started uni which has meant I now have childcare expenses of $70 a week plus had to reduce my hours at work, we only just have enough to breakeven & some months we even have to dip into the savings to get by. Plus we just got a letter from the bank yesterday saying our minimum mortgage repayments are going up by $50 a fortnight

Despite the fact that both DH & I have accounting degrees & he is actually a qualified financial planner, we are hopeless at managing our money on a day to day basis. We really just have no idea on how to make it work better than it is at the moment

[vickichiki]

if I didnt have a business that sucks everything that is leftover then maybe something LOL our mortgage is pretty sizeable though and neither of us have fixed incomes so its impossible to tell

[kat13]

Never heard of that word!!

[belindah]

You know Aimee, I was thinking this exact question just the other day!

We generally have between $300-$400/week between the two of us. We don't move it to a different account, as our 'savings' are offset on our homeloan, so it just kinda sits there for things we want/need.
Not particuarly saving for anything...don't really 'do' holidays, as Connor simply doesn't cope...nor do we go out for the same reason, so I guess it's probably quite a bit easier for us to save then others...it's more hassle to spend the money then it is to just stay at home IYKWIM?

Oh, and the only loan we have is our mortgage, which is quite small compared to most, as we made quite a lot of money when we sold our first house, so I guess that helps too.

[Tracey]

oh my goodness, I wish I never read this post. It has been a while since I sat down and worked out the finances. Probably good I did though. On paper I am left with $50 a week. This does not include any take out, any outings, any clothes, nothing fun. I only included bills and food. Can I faint now, no wonder we are struggling to keep the credits higher than our debits on our statement

this week I think we will be in the minus after breaking a window yesterday.

ok no more nappy buying here. umm what else can I cut out.....we need to save more than that, this house needs repairs

[Bec259]

Originally Posted by Tracey

oh my goodness, I wish I never read this post. It has been a while since I sat down and worked out the finances. Probably good I did though. On paper I am left with $50 a week. This does not include any take out, any outings, any clothes, nothing fun. I only included bills and food. Can I faint now, no wonder we are struggling to keep the credits higher than our debits on our statement

this week I think we will be in the minus after breaking a window yesterday.

ok no more nappy buying here. umm what else can I cut out.....we need to save more than that, this house needs repairs

At least you're saving some money per week Tracey - it's better than being in the negative.

[Tracey]

yes very true, I should be happy with the on average $50 saving a month. Thanks Bec

We just have leaking windows here that need fixing, and the garage will need a new roof soon (tin though, so should not cost too much), oh and downpipes that just hit dirt (wish we spotted those before buying).

[Aimee]

thanks for your honesty, I know money matters aren't the nicest thing to think about.

it really has made realise that we should be doing a lot more with our money & that bigger house is something we should/could be doing with our money.

we want a nicer/slightly bigger/ newer home, but I don't want to go back to the days of everything being a constant struggle.

I am hoping we can sell our house & make 50K, pay out the car & have money for a deposit on land. Then I would like to get a new & modest size Prefab home.
I have been looking into these, Prebuilt - kit home, prebuilt home, kit homes, prefab homes, factory built home, sustainable home, manufactured home