Saturday, July 23, 2011

On doing my tax

Did my tax. Sigh. I wish we could just agree to get back roughly $x of what we pay out through the year. Agree on some deductions, agree on some surcharges. And be done. Cause I get the same amount back roughly each year.

It did take me a while to do my tax this year. I've had a husband for the entire year and a child for the entire year as well. But I had to wait on so. many. pieces. of. PAPER - Centrestink, Flinders University, Adelaide University, Bunnings, share statements - that it took 2 weeks to get through.

I love doing my tax. I know some people get upset about it. That "their money" is hanging out somewhere other than in their hands for up to a year, and should be theirs instead! But I like having some forced savings through the year, and a money balance sheet that is in my favour.

Now I'm waiting for the money to come back to us. What with buying a new house and all, the money we can get in needs to be accounted for and the more the merrier! So much more for the plans we have for next year as well.

But that's for another post ;).

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

On how to buy a house

This was #10 in yesterday's list but I thought I'd write it out today.

A few weeks ago my settlement conference for my motor vehicle accident for going on 4 years and 2 months ago got delayed. Again. By 5 weeks this time. Which would be laughable if it didn't also come up against a whole lot of other stress in my life.

Like - our lease here is up in early October. So either we need to keep this lease up even though TheHousemates want to move on; or move from here to another place that is affordable; or buy a house. Actually that is only the distillation of the whole process, because there are a huge list of backs and forwards in there, and costs and benefits and challenges. In the end, we decided to go ahead with the craziness of buying a place.

So we (I) had to decide:
  • where to live
  • what to live in
  • how much we could afford
  • what kind of loan to get
  • how to find a house
  • and the whole process of buying it!
in the space of a few weeks. Phew! It was TOUGH going because for some reason I was seized by an urge to do so RIGHT THIS MINUTE and when we (I) found our little house I knew why the urge was so strong!

Because it was the right time to find TheNook. It is perfect.
It has 3 bedrooms.
It has a loo separate to the bathroom.
It has land to grow on.
Which faces north, which is all kinds of exciting because it is better for growing all year round, and for heat management for the house.
It already has solar panels which are feeding into the grid.
It's in good condition for its age.
It's been painted recently.

So now is the time to move and as we've not moved or packed in 2+ years this is going to be "fun" right?

Right????

Friday, July 1, 2011

In which my blog morphs into a house reno type blog...

No not really but dear blog, I do have a lot to share with you!

I've had a serious attack of Life (TM) recently so my blog has just fallen down the list of priorities. I has gotten me to thinking though that blogging about deeply personal stuff, like working my way through the steep learning curve that is putting an offer in on a house, is something I'm better at doing in hindsight. Plus I was so caught up in the doing that I couldn't also take time to do the blogging about it, ya know?

I have been so caught up in the last few weeks with Life (TM) that I've also not been looking after myself very well. Sigh. It seems that I fall off my "to do" list so much more quickly than other things, and when I'm limited with my number of spoons* I just don't have time for me. Silly Emma though because that then reduces the number of spoons* I have and so on and so on.

So as well as blogging, I plan on doing:
  1. a massage
  2. a haircut and colour 
  3. fitting the gym back into my weekly schedule, twice a week
  4. finish TheChilderbeast's quilt
  5. catching up with friends
  6. planning my future better
  7. cooking and baking
  8. spending time with my lovely TheHusband and TheChilderbeast
  9. doing my tax
  10. and - buying a house
No I didn't forget about the title of the blog. But for now, short and sweet is the name of this game!