All organised - that feels better!

I've been without a personal internet connection for a few months now (have one at work, but we get tracked, so I haven't exactly been able to spend time on my favourite sites!), and over the last couple of days I've been catching up with all things Simple Savings. One thing I've downloaded from one of the other members is a budget spreadsheet. I thought it would be fairly basic, but would have everything required - but I was wrong! Its amazing! The amount of time this person has put into making this spreadsheet is phenomenal! There are worksheets for everything: income, loans, home banking, home bills, home living, investments, transport, medical, food, school, insurance, clothing, animals, ebay, recreation, grooming, and general, and it also has a summary page so you can see all your data neatly. Its just perfect! So I've spent the afternoon entering all transactions we've made in January.

We have not been Simple Savers at all this month - we bought a boat and a billiard table. They're both items on our wishlist, but neither of us expected to be buying them so soon. My mum is sadly a pokie addict, but she won $10k this month and gave us some money, so that took care of paying for the boat, and we had enough to buy the billiard table as well. They're both good things in the long run - the billiard table is already proving its worth by providing lots of in home entertainment - instead of going out, we've had friends over every Friday and Saturday night for drinks and a few games, so its proving to be great. After moving out of the town, we'd planned to make ourselves a "bar" with everything we'd normally get at the pub (well nearly everything - we don't have beer on tap, but there's certainly some in the fridge!). Our mates love it and its certainly cheaper than a night out at the pub.

The boat however has come with trouble. It was being sold through a local general store and its owner lives in Adelaide (has a holiday property down this way). He assured us it was fine and worked well and he'd never had trouble with it. James took puppa down to look at it, and he gave it the stamp of approval. They weren't able to start the motor though because it'll break it if it doesn't get started in water. So, boat bought, brought home, and lovingly dusted off. The big moment comes when its time to start the motor... except the motor doesn't start. So James takes it off to a local boat motor mechanic who promptly finds that the piston has melted inside. This is a very big deal. It is not easy to melt a piston. It generally happens when the motor is started out of the water, and because there's no water to pump through, well I'm sure you can imagine what happens. A very very loud bang, probably lots of smoke, and in our case, a motor that is simply not worth fixing (it'd be cheaper to buy another motor than it would be to replace the piston since it has melted in such a way). So after a few tantys by James, we decide to fork out $500 to buy a secondhand motor which seems to be of the same vintage as the boat (both look like they're from the 60s). To be on the safe side, James and Puppa spend time performing general maintenance on the replacement motor before even thinking about starting it. But eventually the time comes when its ready to push the magical button... and what do you know, it works! Hurrah!

The boat was been wonderful to cruise around in and is much comfier than our old dinghy. Strange discovery though - I've gotten sea sick in boats before about 12-14ft big, but never once felt sick in our little dinghy. After a few goes in the new boat, I started to feel very green (new boat is 15ft). Not sure what it is about bigger boats (and they're not big by most people's standards!), but I just can't stomach them for too long. This is ok though - I'm perfectly happy basking in the warmth of the shade on the beach, reading a book in between naps, while the boys go out fishing or just generally boating around.

So now that we've bought two big ticket items in less than a month, its time to curb the spending a bit. We're not in any financial trouble, it just seems to be wise to keep a lid on things for a little while. Having said that, I believe Clive will be helping James line the games room next time James is home - another big expense! But another worthwile cost. Very worthwhile actually it will help keep the dust out and temperature down, not to mention it will look very nice.