1-1-11...

Have had a pretty productive day today...checked power usage again this morning and again 9 units...pretty sure thats not bad..will know more once i get our first bill.  I did the laundry, mopped the floors, cleaned the bathrooms...turned some older potatoes into ovenfries and put them into the freezer...noticed the milk is nearly over the date so made some chocy muffins(needs a bit of milk for reciepe) and put them into the freezer for future picnics.  I did end up going to the shops...with list in hand I went to coles...My sons birthday is next week so Ive arranged with some of the mums to bring their kids down to a local park for a playdate..Ill take along some treats(hence the going to the shops) not alot, just something to make it seem like a birthday.  Im thinking fairy bread, some chippies and they had some xmas lollies on special so I grabbed a bag of those. Ill bake a cake as well... Its not easy doing something, not only do we still not know that many people, but during the holidays too makes it hard to organise people to come.  But will give it a go, he'll be happy I think.

Fun in the sun on a budget..

Decided to meet up with a friend and her kids today at a really good little park...Packed a home-made lunch, bottles of water, threw their bikes in the car and off we went....The sun was shining, it was a lovely day...so had a great play, nice luch then headed back to their house for a swim in their pool.  So had alot of free fun, that took up most of the day..can't beat that..Then went to dinner with my sister and her hubby..which again worked out well, the kids eat free at this place with a paying adult, and they paid for my dinner. So have gone the whole day without spending a cent.  CANT BEAT THAT...wont be staying up til midnite...and very excited about 2011...I think I am in a good place, to start the spend-less to none challenge....Bring it on!

Hi ho, hi ho, its off to the shops i go......

The sun was shining, the birds singing and the shops were beconing...I decided to get the bedroom suite, which turns out to be even better than i knew, it matches the tallboys I had already bought..I upgraded the mattress it came with,,,talk about horrible the first one...now I really only have one room left in the house to do, the family living area..not to be confused with the theatre room (note of sarcasim in my voice), we didnt have this many rooms back in NZ..especially not theatre rooms...but for the last room I am gonna save up extra so I can do the room at once and make it match...I also picked up a hallway table, got $40 knocked off plus instead of paying the $40 delivery, I found a friend with a wagon that picked it up for me/...so pretty pleased with that one. Ive worked out we dont need groceries this week, (milk and a little fruit being the exception), so that will save around $100, give or take...I baked some banana muffins with the very overripe bananas i had in the pantry...will use them for the picnic tomoro...Trying to find free entertainment and activities..playdates at parks with home made lunch is a great way of doing it.Have lined up one for tomoro, and one for Monday and for my boys birthday gonna do a big one on Wednesday..will bake a cake for that one..the big 06..lol  The count down is on for 2011..the year of living cheap...I wanted to get as much of the big stuff before this as I could...and think I have achieved this...I can wait for the other room..

Another day, another dollar...

Well, hubby left for work this morning, 2weeks til hes home..(sad face), so decided on this fine, sunny day to take the kids to the park...then thought, we may as well turn it into a picnic seeing as how we had all this food in the fridge..even took our own drink so as to save a little more...This morning I took note of the power reading, so I can check to see what sort of usage we have...now just have to remember to read it again tomoro morning.  The kids are enjoying the Wii they got for xmas, its pretty hot out and its nice to have something they enjoy doing inside.  Saw in the.. local rag a great deal on a bedroom suit, so im now debaiting whether to get it or not...let me set the scene for this one...when we came over from New Zealand we got rid of alot of our stuff, including furniture..we brought over our dinning room set, our entertainment unit, our beds and some apliances..we have moved into a four bedroom, and lots of living area house...the echo in here from lack of furniture is borderline funny. I have already purchased a tallboy each and over the weekend got a really nice wooden blanket box to use as a coffee table/storage box..We have the inlaws coming nxt year so will need a spare bed and the bedside tables from the deal will go into our room, then i can stop using a suitcase as a table. Im torn between needs and wants. We picked up a couch for the theatre room for a great price, and i picked up some camping chairs to put in the other living room for now...So thats about it for now...will let ya know about the bedroom suite...

And so it begins

Thought I would jump on the blogging bandwagon and give it a go...Life has changed a great deal for my family this last year...we moved from New Zealand to WA, Australia in August, stayed with family till a few weeks ago, when we found a house to live in and DH got a job, doing 2 and 1 swings.  So things have changed alot for us...Following a thread on Simple Savings website I have become inspired to do a nospend challenge in 2011, now I cant promise it will be no spend, but I want to save a large deposit for a house of our own...and to make it worth our time apart and save as much as I can...I have 2 children, one girl 7 and one boy 5...and one darling husband..who leaves for work tomoro..and will be back in a couple of weeks...So this will be my outlet, my adult conversation of sorts..being new to town and country I still dont know all that many people...