215 - rent
30 - groceries
40 - spending
30 - electricity
10 - phone
65 - preschool
60 - christmas club

450 - TOTAL

POTENTIAL SAVINGS = $370 ($185 on credit card and $185 in ING Savings Maximiser)

Try, Try, Try Again.
Everything was going great financially last week until I got a phone call on Friday night from my father in law. He bought me a playstation eye-toy and eye-toy game. It was really nice of him except we didn't own a playstation2 (we have an Xbox). I pointed out this slight problem to him and he said that saving money can wait a week, he would duck down to the Pawn shop and get me one second hand and I could give him back the money when we visited on the weekend. It cost me $140, I just didn't have the heart to say no and it really is a fun way to excercise. It gets better though. We went to the markets yesterday and picked up a few really good deals. I got a winter coat for $15, 6 boxes of tissues for $4 a new watch with matching bracelet, necklace and earings for $14 and a cane picnic basket for only $5. Hubby's parents also bought me a silver coated antique serving tray (which I fell in love with), a pair of gloves and four learning computer games for Zac. They also gave us a bag full of cleaning agents, two bottles of moisturising cream and a set of glasses. We spent a lot more money than planned this week but managed to get a lot for what we spent. All we can do is try saving again this week.

We are considering getting finance to buy a car. I'm in two minds about this. As much as I want a car they cost a fortune in maintenance and fuel and I'm worried it will be a very long term commitment and hold us back with our other financial goals. We only plan on borrowing about $7000, enough for a good quality second hand car, but still I don't know if it's a good idea or not.

Well, we are finally settled into our new place and everythings going great. Hubby passed his driving test and brings the work ute home so we now have a lot more freedom. We took Zac into Sydney to visit the Powerhouse Museum and he loved it! It wasn't busy so we let him run around and play in the different kids playgrounds they've got set up all over the place, he's walking so well now. His birthday went well. He got spoiled by everyone and is now the proud owner of a lot of new toys including a motorised four-wheeler motorbike (which he hasn't quite worked out how to use).

We got $3200 back from our taxes and Family Assistance but only have $500 of it left - which I put on the credit card - so much for paying it off. Our washing machine died our first week here and flooded our apartment and the one below us so we went out and bought a new one for $650, we got a front loader because they don't use as much water and we are on strict water restrictions. We also bought a tallboy and matching bedside tables because we didn't have anywhere to put our folded clothes and that was another $630. Another $500 went on our first big grocery shop, which included the purchases of all our toiletries, cleaning supplies and mop and broom. $180 went on our security deposit for getting our electricity connected. The rest of it, well i'm not entirely sure where it's all gone. Some of it was for takeaways during our first week, some went on things we still needed for the house such as bathroom mats and clothes racks so I can air dry our clothes and not use the dryer as much, and cloth nappies and pilchers for Zac . Apart from that it's all just vanished into thin air I guess.

The good news is, we are on top of all our bills and have everything we need for the house so it is time to get serious about saving. I just paid our bills for the week and we've already done the groceries which was a big one and i've put $100 into the savings account.

We did the big grocery shop at Aldi. It's the first time i've been there to do a proper shop and I was so impressed. We bought two shopping trolleys full of groceries for only $212. This will feed us for 2 - 3 weeks. We still had to go to another store to get a few other items but we took advantage of the situation and stocked up on a few of their loss leaders while we were at it and I used my staff discount card. Not everything is cheaper at Aldi, I discovered that I can get some of the fresh produce and meat at cheaper prices when they are on sale at the fruit market, butchers or supermarket so I will still be careful to shop around for those items. Everything else i'll be buying from Aldi though. They're Mamia nappies are exceptional quality, much better than huggies. Zac was always leaking through Huggies but I haven't had that problem once with Mamia.

Our bills this week:
Rent - 215
Groceries - 320 (for several weeks)
Phone - 20
Electricity - 30
Preschool - 65 (it went up)
Savings - 100
Train - 50
Spending - 40
Sponsor child - 45
Christmas Club - 60
TOTAL- $945 (Hubby did a lot of overtime last week)

Next weeks savings should be a lot better.