So I thought I'd make some money today.  And to be honest yes I did.  Not the barrels of it that I wanted to but I am now $50 richer and my house is less cluttered.  It did make me think though about how much we throw out and how much we give away.  I'm more than happy to donate clothes to the Sallies and other donation shops but with things such as my books and dvd's I wanna make a profit.  I had a HUGE bag of books and a bad full of dvd's that I wanted to be rid of so I got my walking shoes and bus legs on and left the house.  I ended up heading to Fraser Cove to lose my books.  I thought, bookworm is a great place they sell loads of books and have a great selection.  Lets just say I WONT be shopping or selling there anymore.  The women TOTALLY ripped me off and I'm still pretty angry.  For a HUGE bag full of great condition nearly new books she gave me $10.  What a F**KING CROCK!!  Especially because I know she's gonna mark up the prices and make a killing.  But my fault for being to lazy to LUG these books to another store.  So I took the cash after trying to haggle her for at least $1 a book.  But NO it was NOT to be so.......  Well I left vowing never to shop or sell there again.  Also its probably a good thing because they are part of United Video and I'm BARRED from ever having an account there ever again.  (THANK YOU dumb BOY flat mates who lose dvd's and or lie and say they returned them when they hadn't!!)

So it was onto the bus for me and into town.  Where I made $40 at Cash Converters for some dvd's, a ps2 game and some skull candy headphones that I got for FREE and never used anyway.  So that was more of a winner.  And then was on to the library where I will now be getting all of my books from.  Of course I had a $7 fine to pay so the profits for today were really $43.  But still a WIN!!  and I also came home and ate noodles for lunch instead of getting a pie!!

I paid for my LAST coffee today and tonight Anya and I shall be dining on our LAST feed of Fish & Chips before our Spend Free September begins.  OH its gonna be a LONG 30 days I can feel it.......

Lists.......

I am a HUGE list person.  I LOVE them!!  I write a list for everything and I'm one of those people that will write things that I've already done just so I can cross things off.

When Anya was a newborn I would have lists to just get through the day.

1. Shower
2. Get Dressed
3. Was Nappies
4. Hang Out Nappies
5. Make Sure I EAT.......

Of course there was also a Baby in there too but it was an achievement to get dressed somedays.  If your a Mum then you'll understand.

But today it was lists for Spend Free September!!  What we need to do and what we need to pay for and writing out menus for the month.  Its actually really hard to think of meals for a whole months.  Like what do you eat??  There will be a lot of rice and pasta because those are Anya's favourite meals.  A bit of fish and maybe some spaghetti on toast?  And then there's lunches.  Not so much during the week for Anya but more on the weekend.  And the big adjustment that I have to get used to is making lunch for me when I make lunch for Anya. This way if I need to pop to the library or somewhere out of the house I have lunch and I wont be tempted to buy a coffee or a sandwich.

I think this month there will be a lot of fruit and vegetables, slow cooker meals and sandwiches.  The main goal is to save so I don't want us to blow our budget at the super market.  So I guess I'll be recipe hunting on PINTEREST and all around the net.  Made chocolate chip cookies today for Anya and they went down a treat.  

But for anyone that is actually reading my blog if you have any meal ideas for the month please post and let me know.

I'm sitting in the bathroom on the floor while Anya is in the shower.  And really all I can think about it how much money is running down the drain now that she insists on having showers instead of a bath...........

When did life become so much about money??  Can't we just enjoy the small stuff!!

It all begins.......

So I had this GREAT IDEA.  My daughter and I wouldn't spend any money for all of September.  We will only pay the bills and pay for groceries.......

This may seem like an easy thing to do for your average person but for ME this is GONNA BE TOUGH!!  I'm an impulse buyer and I LOVE my SOY, CARAMEL LATTES.......

But we can't afford it.  To be honest, we live in the red every week and I want us to get on top of my spending so I can give my daughter the best life she can have.  Heres some back ground on who we are.  I'm Esta* and my daughter is Anya.  I'm 28 and she is almost 2.  So if your a parent you know how easy it is to buy cute outfits, toys and dvd's for your kiddies.  I NEED to stop though.

I'm a solo mum and full time student.  We live on the benefit and it really is tough.  But we'll only be on it for as long as it takes to get my degree.  Every week I send Anya to daycare and it breaks my heart, but I know its for the best so I can study so we can have a better future.  The best way for us to get to that future is to not spend any money.

So the rules are pretty simple for September, pay the bills and buy food that's it.

On my blog I'll post my day to day struggles and also how our saving it going.  From Our rough budget for the month we should save about $150.00.  May not seem like a lot but when you see what we pay and what we live on I think its GOOD.

SO our total weekly income is $478.00.  Now out of that we take.......

Rent: $220.00

Power:  $40.00

Internet:  $20.00

Mobile Phone: $5.00

Insurance:  $15.00

Daycare:  $33.60

So after all of this we have $144.40 a week to buy groceries.  We usually spend about $80.00 so we could be saving $64.40 =)

So I'll post everyday during September to let you know how its going!!

haha as if I'll have any followers but who knows