Getting All My Ducks In A Row

Alrighty - so you may have seen a few of my Tweets this past fortnight or so begging for someone to buy my house ( or to lend me a few thousand dollars ) ? Yes well, i have the itchiest of itchy feet.... our little duplex is great and all but i just want to start the next chapter of our lives NOW. However, until this week, i havent done anything to make that happen other than trying to will myself to win the lottery. Apparently, no matter how hard you wish, you cant attract absoluetly EVERYTHING into your life...

An " Edward Scissorhands " neighbourhood - that'd be nice...

So i've decided i'm going to be proactive about this whole " lets buy a house" thing. I've gone to an open home for a house that would be in our price range, and i've had a chat to the real estate agent there about the market, how much we could expect to sell the duplex for, and how long it might take.

I've made an appointment with our bank ( which bank? ) to see the home loan specialist, so we can figure out how much we might need to sell for to cover the existing mortage, plus commission/solicitor/etc blah blah blah, but also so that we can (hopefully) be pre-approved for a new loan. That way, Mick and I can have a realistic expectation of what we might be able to afford to spend on a new property.

I plan on making an appointment with a mortgage broker when i'm done at the bank. Mick isnt too keen ( he thinks we stand a better chance at the bank because we're existing customers ) but i want to know exactly whats available to us. I dont want to find "the" house, get a loan with our existing bank and then find out we sold ourselves short.

After all that, our plan is to list the duplex when we get back from our honeymoon, and begin looking for a new house right away. If everything fell into place ( which, lets face it - these things rarely do ) we would be able to sell the duplex and find a new house within a few weeks of each other, and move out of one and into the other before the 6 week settlement period was up. If we cant find and move into a house in that 6 week period... well, then it looks like we'd move in with my parents for a while. " Argh, no, dont do it! " i hear some of you shouting ( Holly is probably behind her screen screaming at me right now... )... but thats the only workable solution. If we did have that period in between selling and buying and we didnt move in with my parents we'd be homeless. And as frusturating as it may be to live in a household that would contain 5 adults ( including my sister ) and one toddler well... its gotta be better than having nowhere at all to live.

So - bring on November i say. Wedding, honeymoon, Wiggles concert ( i know - excited much!?! ) and listing a house.... you know, if my stress doesnt kill me first!

Give Me A Break!

Seriously, it seems like Mick and I can not win a bloody trick. Its no secret that we are trying to save for our wedding ( even though my mum and dad are paying for quite a bit ) but just in the last month or so its seems like every second day i'm opening another bill and we just aren't making any ground on anything.

Last week i paid the car insurance ( after driving around for a month uninsured because we couldnt afford it ) and over the next two weeks we have to pay the quarterly installment of our rates. We're also expecting this quarters electricity bill this week and today i come home to find I owe the Goverment $560 in overpayment of Family Tax Benefit. And those are on top of two mortgages ( Mick bought a property in a small country town before we met and we are trying to sell it ), the groceries and childcare each week. I dont mean to whinge, because i know there are people out there who are far worse off than us, but its just so frusturating.
I opened that bill today and just wanted to burst into tears - over $2000 ( roughly ) of bills due within a four week period on top of regular expenses. I already try to buy the cheapest groceries possible, and have stopped buying my lunch once a week in an effort to save money. I dont go to beauty salons, i only have my hair cut 4 times a year, and havent bought new clothes with my own money for 6 months or more. All this, and i'm still having to dip into meagre savings to pay bills on time. For God's sake - when are we ever going to catch a break and get ahead!?!?

Ok. Sorry. Just needed to get that out. Rant over.

Lie, Cheat, Steal - Or How Bludgers Make Me Mad....

I know i've already participated in this weeks Blog This! challenge, and usually i would consider one rant post for the week enough but, well, somethings just got on my goat and i want to rant about it. I found out this morning that a young mum i know is rorting the government and, frankly, this knowledge has given me the shits.

This new mum ( who i have mentioned previously ) is getting the maximum Baby Bonus* ( which i dont begrudge her - i get it too ) and is also claiming Family Tax Benefit A and B. Thats all fine, no worries. Because her partner is part Aboriginal she is also claiming all the Indigineous benefits she can. I dont want to get into all that but i'm not a big believer in being able to claim extra monies simply because of your race ( or hell, even one quarter of your race ). But whats really gotten up my nose is that this woman is claiming single parents benefits - because she's told the government that her partner does not live with her - and thats an out-and-out lie. She and her partner have been engaged for over 5 years and have been living together longer than that. So, she's lying to Centrelink so that she can claim all kinds of money she isnt really entitled to.

The rorting of benefits really gives me the shits. This woman is telling a bald-faced lie and, consequently, she is able to claim almost $500 more per fortnight in government benefits than I am. You might want to say that i'm jealous, but thats not it ( although a little more in my pocket each week would be nice ). Its annoyed me that Mick and I are being honest, we've paid our taxes in the past, and now that we need a little monetary help from the government, we get what we're entitled to based on the truth of our situation.... and then you have people like her, who lie and are able to get so much more than they need or deserve. I cant stand being ripped off, and even though the money is not going directly from my pocket to hers it may aswell be. I pay my taxes in the anticipation that they will be used properly and to good effect - and then there are money grubbing people out there who are a drain on the system.

People who claim disability benefits because they have a slightly pulled muscle in their back, when honest-living people ( like my father ) work for 20 years with a legitimate disorder, up until their doctors tell them if they keep going they may not be able to walk....and then those honest people have surgery and get straight back to it.
Women who have numerous babies to different fathers so they can live off the family benefits.
People who claim unemployment, even though they are perfectly able to work - they just have no drive nor desire to find work because why should they when taxpayers will keep them in the money?

I have no problem with people claiming government benefits when its legitimate - i am, at least while i'm on maternity leave - it just really gets my back up when people cheat the system. I have half a mind to go and dob this girl in, to have her investigated, and made to pay all the extra monies back - but i wouldnt want to seem spiteful. I guess i can just sit back and know that i'm doing the right thing and live knowing that my son will be brought up with good moral standards, because his father and I are setting hime the best example ( even though its the  hard way ) right from the start....

*NOTE* For those of you not in Australia, the Baby Bonus is a benefit paid to new mothers to help with the immediate costs of raising a child. The maximum benefit is just over $5000, paid over 26 weeks.

You Gotta Be In It To Win It

The lottery that is. And i'm not usually - i might buy a lottery ticket once or twice a year, so its highly doubtful that i'll ever win the big bucks but, for the sake of a blog post, lets just pretend that i did win big. Say $50 million dollars big. What would i do with it ? ( NOTE: i totally stole this very simple idea from Erin @ Motherhood Y'all ).

#1: Umm, boring - i'd pay off my debts. Which, for me, means my mortgage, my car loan and a couple of hundred dollars on a credit card. I'd also pay Mickey J's debt and our immediate families. Way to get in the good books right ?

#2: Pay for my wedding and honeymoon - we still havent set an official date yet but Mick and I plan on getting married sometime around September or October next year. My parents have a bit of money set aside to pay for it all but i'd much rather pay for it myself. Either way, whether we had $1000, $10 000 or $1 million dollars, it wont be an extravagant affair. We're just not that kind of people. Beautiful dress ? Yep. Pretty location? Yep. Good food? Yep. Should it cost the price of a new car ? Umm - nup.

#3: Buy a new house - for my little family ( we currently live in a two bedroom duplex that i - or the bank - own ) and one for each of our immediate family members. That way, after having already paid off their debts, they could have a new home to live in and one as an investment property to earn them money. Tricky....

#4: Set some aside for my children - well, i only have one at the moment but i will have more in the future ( i'm like 99% sure ). So i'd set aside a big lump sum as a trust fund, say one that couldnt be touched til they were 25. I would hope by then that they'd figured out their priorities in life and then they could put the money to good use. You know, instead of blowing $50 000 on booze and parties and sexual liasions. Which is all fun, just not what me as Mum would want the money spent.

#5: Investment - i dont really know how the investment market works so i'd have to get some help with that, but i wouldnt wanna blow all my moolah on junk. I'd be smart enough to put some into stocks, or into the property market ( or, you know, whatever ) so that i could make money off of my money. I don't mean for that to sound greedy, but you'd do that too right?

#6: Give to charity - maybe a $100 000 or so. I'd give to a few different causes : Westmead Childrens Hospital in Sydney, Careflight, The Jane McGrath Foundation.... things like that. I might give some to a foreign aid charity, but only after i'd fixed up some Australian interests first. I'm not against foreign aid ( i've sponsored a child through World Vision for 9 years... ) i just would like to give to a charity this is going to help in my community first, thats all.

#7: ( Lucky last ) Living allowance - i'd quit my job so i could be a SAHM for a while ( until Flynn and any subsequent children were at school ) so i'd need to allot some money to the day to day running of our house. Maybe $80 000 a year? Thats more than what we live off now but its not flashy - enough to cover bills and neccessities but with a little extra for luxuries and holidays. Yep, that sounds about right.

So how about you guys? Where would your Lotto winnings go ? ( Oooh, and speaking of winning things, head over to Blog This! and vote for me in this weeks poll. Please!?! )