Creative Chaos

Creative Chaos

Friday 5 February 2016

Five on Friday

End of a 4 day working week, with a 3 day weekend coming right up (due to Waitangi Day) - perfect!
Five random photos from Dunedin/Central Otago...







 and five random things this week -

I am partaking in a Month Of Letters. Every night I write to a penfriend or catch up on sending postcards. Or send Swap-bot things out or packages for bloggy swaps. Loving it. No mail this week, which is highly unusual. Snail mail is the bees knees. I am always on the lookout for more penfriends by the way..

We have Indian takeaways every Friday night. Love it. We either get takeaways from Tiffin or Satya.
Top notch food from both places.

Everyone is all settled back into school - more news today with the year 13 kid - he got 2% behind his mate Timo in the AS Computer Science exam - It was announced today that Timo got Top of New Zealand for his mark! We are thrilled for both boys, but really totally stoked with our own year 13. An incredible result!

I've put myself on a cash budget. I am trying not to spend more than $500 a week. That covers food/petrol/postage and whatever else I usually use my credit card for (wool/books/stationery...ahem). (does not cover rates/water/power/internet/insurance). This is under what I'd spend on my credit card usually and so far, it IS working wonders. 2 more days of the week to go and I have not even spent half of my weekly sum. The husband does a lot of the food shopping, but I am just trying to keep wasteful, discretionary spending by ME down! It does help when one does not go anywhere near the local shopping centre for anything! (None of us need a thing at the moment either!). I have proven to myself for 2 months now that I can live without shopping aimlessy (obviously Hong Kong and my little impulse road trip with the cousin - first time we have travelled together ever or spent more than 2-3 hours together in our entire lives! - were exceptions!)
I am also putting every bit of coinage in a money box till the last day of 2016!

And we have rain today! But best of all, the temperature has dropped and the humidity! Whew!

Happy weekending everyone! Joining in with Amy


13 comments:

  1. I need to take a leaf out of your book and put myself on a budget, my impulse buys, books, yarn etc needs taking in hand AND I want to declutter so really I should not be buying anything!

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  2. Its amazing how much you can save by putting coins into a box everyday, we do that for treats for the Grandchildren and they do really well.

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  3. Sounds like a good time of year to have a four day week. I haven't heard of that holiday before. I love blogging you find out so much. Good luck with your economies , I'm trying to be good as well now I'm retired! Have a great 3 day weekend. Barbara X

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  4. Books and yarn are my downfalls and I need to use some of my stash and read some of the books I already have but I find it so hard to resist buying more. Good luck with your budgeting. xx

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  5. You have high temps and humidity. I have cold and snow. Amazing isn't it! I hope you can stop by:

    http://collettaskitchensink.blogspot.com/2016/02/tea-time-birthdays-and-tea-parties-2516.html

    Colletta

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  6. I am doing the whole budget thing too, I took redundancy from work last month. I am really enjoying the challenge of not spending too much - although my family laugh every time I say Do I Want it? Yes But Do I Need it? No :)

    Happy budgeting!

    Angela - Garden Tea Cakes and Me

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  7. As others have said, books and yarn, definitely problems for me! I hope that you have a good Waitangi day, although I have no idea what that is so I am off to find out! Thank you for joining Five On Friday, happy weekend! xx

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  8. Books and stationary are definitely my weakness too, I love both. Well done on your resistance. Congratulations to your son, what a great achievement. Have a lovely weekend xx

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  9. Good to meet you through Five On Friday. A long weekend sounds perfect. Hope you have a good one with the national holiday as well.

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  10. Nice to see your warm weather pictures.

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  11. Well done Mr 13! This is truly great. I am quite obsessive about budgeting... I am on a £300 budged a month for fun, hair and clothes. I sometimes have to save up, just like the kids :-) We budget £800 for groceries a month, which can be tight (it is six of us and three pets) but plenty. Saving up for a big house extension at the end of the year! Have a great long weekend.

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  12. It's so great to see one's children do well at the tasks they've attempted. I enjoyed seeing the warm weather photos and lovely colours. Hope you've enjoyed your long weekend.

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  13. That's an amazing achievement for your son, you and he must be delighted. Good luck on the non spending front. All my loose change goes into my grumpy old woman tin. Not sure what I am saving it for at the moment but I bet I'll know when I see it!!
    Hope your weather cools down and feels more comfortable soon xx

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