Saturday, January 1, 2011

Debt Balance 1/1/11

Starting Debt Amount $52,750.00

Received In - Rewards Central Surveys $30.00

Balance now is $52,720.00

Day one - 1/1/11 - What we achieved

Day one achievements -

Baked bread, made choc chip and saultans muffins, cookies, yoghurt, chocolate fudge, jelly and jelly ice creams.

No spend for us today Yah!

Went to Bunnings and used our christmas gift cards and purchased some more vegetables for the garden, two huge tomato stakes and chicken wire to extend our chicken house/run.

Have worked out our dinner menu for the week and have all the ingredients at home so should remain a no spend week for us except for fuel.

We got four eggs off our little hens today so quiet happy since we are out of layer pellets at the moment and they have been living off the scrapes and excess home grown vegetables.

Today was so hot here that we stayed indoors and tommorrow we are going to hit the vegetable patch early and plant the new seedlings and start on extending the chicken house/run, so hope it will not be too hot.

The debt this morning was $52,750.00 and I caught up on my surveys which I have been neglecting badly and I got enough points from rewards central to redeem $30.00 cash, so off the debt it comes. Now $52,720.00.

We got our phamplets today that we had to collate and roll which need to be delivered, and tommorrow we pick up another lot that is waiting to be done. Todays was only a small amount of pay $29.70 but hey every little bit helps.

The phamplet money is allocated to our food money each week and this is the only money that we are allowing for food. The cupboards and pantry and pretty well stocked so shouldn't be too bad, and currently the food account stands at $47.20 which is available to be used, and todays amount needs to be added on top. This will hopefully build up for a few weeks, as I don't think we will have to shop for a while or at least here is hoping.

Had a very enjoyable day baking, and a day at home, and are extrememly happy that today remaind a no spend day.

Friday, December 31, 2010

Day One - 1/1/11 - What we are planning for the day.



Good Bye 2010

Well it is a beautiful sunny morning in the Hunter Valley and we finished 2010 with attending the Hunter Valley Gardens Christmas lights and New Years Eve fireworks and all had a lovely time together as a family.









                                                                    HELLO 2011

Well this morning the washing got down over night and now needs to be hang out.

Hubby and I will be baking bread from the week, making yoghurt, ice blocks and jelly.
Need to sit down and work out what snacks we will cook for the week and start baking those and a menu plan for our lunch and dinner meals.

Going to plan out what other vegetables we can add to our vegetable gardens as we have some gift vouchers to Bunnings and plan on heading over their tommorrow to use these. Today will be a relaxing day for the family a well deserve break after getting ready for our challenge over the last few weeks, going to do a bit more planning and then go on a walk and chill out for the day in the kitchen and with a good book.

Weekly Family Meetings

Well day one - it is a beautiful sunny day here in the Valley, and this morning DH and I are baking bread, making yoghurt, ice blocks for this week. We then will be making the snacks up for the week and writing our menu plan with the kids when they wake up.

We will be having a weekly family meeting each Friday night after dinner over dessert (the only time of the week that it is allow lol).

At each meeting we will be discussing ideas, problems and suggestions.

Each of our children has their own calendar and on their calendars their days are marked out washing days, days that they need to feed the animals, meetings, things on etc.... This will be updated at each meeting.

The kids help with a phamplet deliver twice a week and receive $5.00 from each one, so they will receive their $10.00 from this each Friday and also their $10.00 pocket money. At the end of each month if they have not spent this money we will double it for them.

Out of their money they must purchase any thing they want through out the year, clothes, shoes, toys, books, dvd's, outings etc..... This will give they more control over their own money and how to use it wisely and they will learn that it does not go to far.

At each of the meetings the kids are to bring along their calendars to be updated, problems from the week, improvements for the next week both personally and as a family, 1 new saving idea that can be put into place. Our diary where we will be keeping our running costs for the family through out the challenge will be updated and we will go through what we have spent and highlight the things that we really could of done with out. We will add up what has been spent on food, and what hasn't been spent will come off our debt. We have allowed a food allowance of $80.00 per week only. The same will happen with fuel and a allowance of $100.00 per week has been allowed.

We have drawn up a hugh chart so we can see our debt coming down and this will give us a new lease of life at each meeting seeing it be reduced. The debt that we are aiming to clear in 2011 is $52,750.00

So here we go.

normally would have our family meeting on a Friday night to discuss how the week will pan out, do our menu plan etc.... but since we were out celebrating NYE last night it got moved forward to breakie today.

The kids are to bring to the meeting their calendars, which has their jobs on it for the week and things that are on in the family, 1 new saving idea, the amount of money they have spent over the last week, suggestions, complaints etc....

This will happen at the end of each week and give us some input on how we are going and where we are slacking off along the way. At the end of each month any money that the kids have not spent out of their pocket money and paper run we will be doubling it for them as a incentive. If they can do it for three months in a row they will receive a extra $50.00.

They is no spending planned for today so it will be a excellent day

Good bye 2010

Well it is nearly over - Good bye 2010, hello 2011 and debt free!

So looking forward to begining our challenge in just under an hour, $52,750.00 off debt will be gone this year and we will be debt free!

On top of this 2011 will be a year for me to find and rekindle with myself and my life, both physical and mentally. 2010 has not been a good year for our family nor for myself so we are now going to put all this behind us and move forward.

I say bring on 2011 and a happy new year to all my followers and their families. Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog and follow on our journey. During the year would love to get your feeback on what we are doing, and your thoughts and suggestions along the way.

Linda and Family. xx

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

My wood stove has arrived!

Well we pick up our new secondhand wood stove over christmas and what a little beauty she is.

This is another way for us to save on our NO spend challenge, cheaping cooking and heating.

It has a water boiler on it so before winter comes we will get this hooked up to be able to heat all our water on, The oven has two shelves that are nice and deep so a lot of baking will be done, and two large hot plates on top to cook.

We are really lucky it fitted into our kitchen nicely right near the loungeroom also so our lounge room will get nice and warm also and since we have good flow throughout the house, the whole house should become pretty warm, so no more gas heater = no more electricity or gas.

We will be running it during the day and night during winter as we have access to unlimited fire wood so this makes it also so cheap for us as it is FREE also.

Travelling the road to our financial freedom

Travelling the road to our financial freedom