the surprise

The house has consumed our lives. Poor G has been with Nanna and Grandad non-stop for the past four days. He is fine there, and well occupied and adored, but he's a bit lost. He clings and grizzles all the way home, all through dinner and struggles to go to bed. It's going to take a bit for him to recover from this experience. And then he'll have to move into a new house!

The baker and I wake up energised, full of plans and strategies. We get to the house and wander in circles, attending to bits and pieces. People come by, we stop and give them a tour, explain what's happening. By then it's about 4pm, time to collect the baby boy and wind up for the day again. I feel like we are getting nothing done. It's very frustrating.

But so much has happened!

We had a lot of little jobs to attend to preparing the walls for painting. We set to pulling off the faux wooden panels that lined the walls. Reveal lines of ancient glue needing to be scraped off with a blade or removed with solvent. Reveal a huge gap between concrete panels on the feature lounge wall. Gap filler, metal strip, leave it?

That was sidelined when we found the carpet rotten in front of the bathroom and along the wall in the little bedroom, meaning that the shower may be leaking. Huge issue, since we are putting down all new floor coverings and do not want them ruined by damaged plumbing. Investigate that. No real solution yet, but much discussion about ripping out the shower and putting in the bath. Back to the panels. Reveal sticky 70's wallpaper lining the kitchen walls. Steamer and scraper needed. Reveal a hidden door in the loungeroom wall.

Well, this was something we wanted to do later on- put a doorway through the kitchen to the lounge. But look! It's here already! However, on the other side of the door our kitchen bench and wall cupboards cover it. They are attached to the wall. Do we demolish the kitchen and utilise the doorway? How can we live without a kitchen? Why would we not use the doorway when we wanted it anyway?

So the kitchen is ripped from the wall and the termite riddled door smashed through. Wow. But oh, wow, you know? Suddenly we are in the middle of a renovation. One we were not going to do. In fact the discussions have been all about a kitchen and bathroom renovation. The two most expensive and time consuming things to do in a house! Money and time we do not have. We have time for paint and carpet.

The simplest ideas have snowballed and we are having to decide and react quickly in circumstances completely new to us. On a deadline. Thank goodness for those family members who have shown up with their reno experience and skills. This week I have realised how good it is to know useful people, and how many useless people there are in the world. Including the 'customer advisors' at Bunnings.

So where are we after three days? It's amazing, really. The bedrooms have been washed, holes patched, and two of the three ceilings painted. Tomorrow I am going to finish the bedrooms. And wash the hall. And prepare the doors, maybe. That's half the house done.

The baker has fixed the ceiling, scraped the glue. His Mum painstakingly removed the wallpaper, so tomorrow he'll be fixing the gap in the lounge and set about washing the ceilings and priming the walls to paint. I think. He may have other plans.

We must call the carpet guys and demand 10% off the quote they gave us. We must call the laminte guy and have him back to re-measure, since the kitchen has gained another couple of metres of floor space. We must find a plumber to confirm where our leak is. I have to call the water people and the council.

Oh, and tomorrow our current house is open for inspection....

the smell

We have the keys to our house. It's ours.

But it doesn't feel like mine yet. Mostly because it doesn't smell like anywhere I'd live. Smokers. Grr. Did the tenants have, like, 25 people chain smoking 24/7 for the past four years? How can a place smell like that?

And grime. Grr. The young, male tenants who lived there before us did not clean anything, for a long long time before we came. There's dirt on the inside of the windows. The kitchen is a greasy grime fest- I'm actually going to have to throw away the kitchen blinds, they're so putrid. They didn't even vacuum before they left. What is wrong with them? I mean, I couldn't leave a house looking like that.

Being pregnant I'm not allowed to bleach or use caustic or bomb the house to clean it. Fighting the urge to White King the whole place is taking all my energy. I like a clean house and I like to clean my own house, you know? I am a passionate Enjo user, but I'm not using my beautiful cloths on that house until I have sugar soaped and bleached every surface. Then we can go chemical-free cleaning!

Also I know it's silly to spend too much time cleaning, as we are ripping out the carpet, painting the walls and doing something to the bathroom, within the next three weeks. But I just can't have it so grubby in the meantime. Because of the smell.

the house

Settlement on our house TOMORROW. Finally we can get in there and it will be ours! Well, the responsibility will be ours. Owning the building will take another 30 years, according to the bank.

So much checking and running around to be done all last minute. Plus appointments with builders to look at repairs and minor improvements, carpet and floor guys measuring up and all we want is to start ripping that hideous fake wood paneling off the walls.....

mother's group

Thank goodness for Mother's Group.

This free resource that new mums are encouraged to join is my saving grace in times of trial. I love it, and all the mums I have met, who, with their wonderful and desperate stories, and delightful babies, make my week, every week.

We are currently battling disrupted sleep (again). Initially, after brilliant mothers group counseling we tackled controlled crying (very successfully) at about 11 months. I thought it was going to be smooth sailing after that. And it was until a couple of weeks ago. Now G wakes at 11pm and 4am, without fail. Like a new habit. And me going in there does not settle him, it seems to make him worse. I pat and calm him, he gets worked up, I leave, he quietens and sleeps. But if I don't go in, he's inconsolable. And at 4am, he just wants to come into our bed, which I am trying to avoid. But I end up patting him for an hour and it's just seems pointless when in our bed we all just drop off and sleep until 7am.

Knowing I'll be able to float this problem at mothers group makes the waking and tiredness a bit bearable. It's the light at the end of the tunnel, the ten mums who may have a clue about what is up with my baby, since I am totally stumped. You think your baby is unique, and he is, but at MG you learn that babies are all pretty much the same, developmentally.

Lo and behold, several of the good sleepers had been waking and disrupted too. No-one had the answer yet, we couldn't find a solution, but we compared notes on possible causes- cold nights, new teeth, full moon - and what strategies had already been attempted. But for me the relief was in acknowledging each others trials and issues and knowing you're not the only bleary-eyed freezing zombie, stalking the hallway at 4am.

I never expected that MG would be like this. I was so self sufficient and felt so capable in my pre-baby life, I'd never relied on others to help me much. But honestly, I couldn't live without it, and if I didn't have these girls, I'd be at the mercy of every baby self-help book and a lost and confused soul (presumably with a screaming and neurotic baby!).

Free support and advice, solicited or not, true and correct or not, this resource is one of the most important available to new mums. Other mums, with no agenda, nothing to sell you and not 'invested' (like grand-parents and well meaning family members) are a breath of air in those first weeks. And longer....

a million dollar tip

Here's a free business idea for someone with the cash and space to do it. Ready? Set up a children's farm/petting farm, near me.

It's so silly that there isn't one. My Mum's best friend used to run a brilliant one near here. She was busy all the time with schools, parties and groups and on weekends it was sheer madness. Over-fed chickens and ducks and tormented pigs and goats everywhere. The kids just loved it. She and her family ran it for years, then the lifestyle got the better of them and off they went to see Australia. The new owners only open irregularly.

We were so thrilled when G started to understand what animals are, I was desperate to take him to the zoo or a farm. It just seems ridiculous that we couldn't find anywhere to show him a cow or a chook. We live well out of town, and yet to find a 'farm' we had to go to into the city. And it cost us $8 each to walk through, which is just wrong. You can't even feed the animals, just look at them. For all my moaning, we did have a fantastic day, G loved it, moo-ing and clucking all the while. He was thrilled with the geese and the ducks.

But surely there's some call for this kind of resource locally? What do the kinders, schools and general public do? Wait for the annual, local agricultural show? Not see farm animals at all? Take up the challenge and open a farm, dear readers, someone, anyone. It's a million dollar idea, just sitting there, waiting.

mini-break

I've had a lovely week off work, and realised how good it is to be at home all the time. It's a big step for me, who rushed back into a job when G was just five months. Not because we needed the cash, but because I'd always worked before and was lost as to what I was supposed to be doing. But it's easy to see now. I should be at the park, feeding ducks, going to the pool, putting bread out for the birdies (see left. I know- bend your knees, pregnant lady!), checking for doggies over the back fence, taking adventurous walks, climbing through tunnels, sewing, knitting, sorting out piles of baby junk, preparing good lunches and dinners for my starving boys and taking time to look after my own health and well being.

I was also amazed at how quickly we got into a rhythm and the effect it had on G, who adjusted his pattern to one big sleep in the middle of the day. He also passed another milestone, mastering climbing (see left).

The week allowed me to see where I fit into this picture and how life is when I'm there. I know I miss things, working the few hours that I do, but it was much more than that. It was having enough energy to get through the whole day. Feeling on top of the chores and our meals and the washing pile, and still wanting to hit the park or the playground without thinking 'I can't be bothered with this today,'. That's how G (and I) benefit from me being home.

I'm on the countdown to the end of working....Just as my boss needs me to ramp up and take on more work! It's lucky for him we have grand plans for the new house. Currently I have a large 'carpet monkey' on my back and am grabbing every extra hour I can (and calculating the broadloom metres as the clock ticks past each hour.)

the chiropractor

With regard to health, I have natural, holistic leanings, balanced by a respect for Western medicine and its place in the world. I embrace the principles of yoga, even if I am slack in my practice, and read keenly about naturopathic and Chinese medicine. I am probably attracted by their foundations in nutrition and bodily processes as a point of interest. I am lucky, since my sister has studied naturopathy, the texts are lying about Mum and Dad's place.

That said, I have never undertaken an elimination diet of any kind or consulted with anybody to assess my yin-yang balance. I have obviously not suffered an affliction so dire as to resort to drastic measures. 'Cut out wheat? Oh, no, I'm fine...'.

But something that has caught my attention is the 'new' chiropractic. My sister-in-law converted me back to chiropractic care after G was born. While in London I had heard a lot about cranial osteopathy for newborns, it was the 'in' thing for hip London mums. Apparently the gentle manipulation of a newborn's head plates can undo any damage they may have suffered during birth and set right issues such as reflux and crying. But back in Australia, I couldn't find anyone who wanted to talk about it, even my own osteo, and so let it go.

Then my sister-in-law told me of her amazing success with her allergy/asthma kids through chiropractic care. Which I thought was ridiculous. I had given up on chiropractors ages ago, the twice weekly visits and pointless crunching. For physical pain I was into the osteo and the physio as a better solution for me.

But it turns out that chiropractic care is now being used for naturopathic type functions. By encouraging your nervous system ( housed the length of your spine ) to work at optimum levels, your body's own processes can fight reactive conditions such as allergies and asthma. And everything else, they'll say, since the nervous system is central to the functioning of your body. Chiropractic care is then best way to manage your spinal/nervous system.

The more extreme purveyors of this practice will advise you not to immunise and poo-poo germ theory. This attitude flies in the face of my healthy respect for western medicine. But the beauty of our health system is you can take on what you like and avoid what you don't. I am critical and cynical, and read widely before embracing the radical claims of a left of centre practice.

We took little G along for a check-over at six weeks old, and without even getting a history from us, the chiropractor was able to tell us the few issues he had been suffering (feeding difficulty on the left due to a sore neck, unwilling to lie on the floor because his sacrum was 'out', random mild reflux and crying). He was adjusted and we set off wondering how it would all go. Brilliantly, as it happens, and we haven't looked back. An adjustment after each immunisation, and our monthly check-ups hold him in good stead. I can only suggest that it must have helped us avoid the colds and infections that have passed through mother's group. Any time I feel he's very unwell we head off to the regular doctor, who looks at this clear-skinned, sparkly eyed child I have and tells me if he was sick, he'd look sick.

Having embraced the chiro for our son's 'wellness', we have been pretty slack on taking it up ourselves. But this week I bit the bullet and checked both the baker and I in for an assessment. The baker was a bit shocked by his diagnosis, but is on board with having regular treatments and I am loving the neck and shoulder relief, and the chiro telling me we will be avoiding sciatica with this pregnancy. Hooray.

In terms of savings is this another case of spending money to save it? Hmm...well, I haven't cancelled the health insurance yet, since starting this, as it pays back quite well, and I figure since I'm paying for it, use it! But I'm sure we are spending money when two weeks ago we were not. However, maintaining our health is an imperative with the mortgage burden. Visiting the chiro has inspired me to find time for a bit of self-guided yoga practice, good for general living and reinforcing the chiro's work. The government has recently been banging on about preventative medicine, after telling us we are all too drunk and fat to look after ourselves. I'm sticking with it.

I'm not joking about my second trimester energy levels. They are just soaring at the moment. And I can think again. I think about how I feel and what I want to do and eat, whereas before now, I was a zombie. I couldn't decide toast or tea, let alone make it!

I made myself some muesli, as I crave high energy, high nutrient, slow release food. I make it without all the awful, shriveled, inappropriate fruit they put in. Mango and paw-paw, I mean, really? And no fluffy, puffed bits, or oatbran noodles either. Old school- oats, wheatgerm, toasted with honey and all the good nuts and seeds. A few natural sultanas and a packet of dried blueberries I found in the back of the pantry. It's a comparably cheap but luxurious breakfast. Also there's a secret twist in the recipe, learnt from a lovely B'n'B lady in Byron Bay many years ago. I'd love to tell you, but I won't. Unless you ask.

Recently I received a gift of some gorgeous Meredith blue cheese, purchased before the giver knew I was pregnant. Not being one willing to miss out, today I decided to make it into cheesy biscuits, so everyone could enjoy it, though I will of course eat the lions share. They are flaky and melting, with a hint of mustard and freshly ground pepper. Divine.


The final highlight of another high energy day- I took baby G to the pool for the first time. What a ball we had! First we checked out the pelicans at the pier, fed our old bread to the swarming seagulls and then headed in to splash away a bit of time. Not long though, swimming totally knocks him out, and he was all ready for a morning sleep by the time we got dressed and walked back to the car. Which was all part of my cunning plan. Except that I was all tuckered out too! I going to make this a regular weekly date for us. He swims for free and I pay less than $5. Another item to factor into the budget, but happily.

Just a quick reminder- the last episode of Doc Martin tomorrow night. I'm going to curl up on the couch, barrel of cheesy bikkies and cold glass of Maggie Beer's Desert Pearl wine (non-alcoholic, another thoughtful gift, purchased when the giver did know I was pregnant!) and giggle and sob for an hour. Have a lovely weekend.

Golden, luscious love.

The colder weather has invigorated my appetite for cheap home-made puddings. Over the past two weeks we have had Lemon Delicious (using up lemons from the heaving tree), Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding (trying a new recipe from a 'cooking for toddlers book', but that much sugar is NOT for a toddler!) and tonight, Golden Syrup Dumplings. Except that we had no golden syrup, so they were brown sugar and treacle dumplings. No matter. Still so good.

I actually made them today at work, to sell tomorrow. My boss thinks we won't sell many, but I know he's wrong. Our first customer today demonstrated this for me. Harriet is a lady of a certain age with flair, a lust for life and a yellow Peugeot. The farmhouse kitchen I work in is right at the end of a rutted dirt road past a turn off to nowhere. I'm amazed we have any customers, let alone ones who would find getting there such a challenge. But she's a devoted regular and she interested in the more unusual things we cook. She wants tagines, not casseroles, rhubarb pudding, not fruit cake. She loves the flavour of juniper in her pork pie, as it goes with her taste for gin, she says. I get her.

Today she came in and once she'd collected together her purchases, I asked if she likes Golden Syrup Dumplings.
'Ohh, hmmm,' she said, eyes widening.
I said 'Great, I've just made some, but I bet you don't make it home with them, they're still warm,' and at that, she surged past the counter, around to my bench, fished out one fluffy, sweet orb of dumpling, still hot from its pan and promptly gobbled it up. An eighty-something old woman, twin-set, tweeds and sturdy shoes, cheekily swiping one of my dumplings, dripping syrup on the bench and grinning like a sugared-up loony!

It made my day. And since today is my wedding anniversary, I decided to make my husband's day, too.

Golden Syrup Dumplings.
It may feel a bit daunting, but just think of these as scones baked in a pot of syrup. Easy-peasy.
I wish I had a photo, but it would be of the empty pot. Sorry, next time.

for dumplings-
1 cup self raising flour
40gm softened butter
pinch salt
1 egg
50ml milk
Rub together the flour, salt and butter. Stir together the egg and milk and pour into a well in the middle of the flour mix. Stir together with your fingertips until a dough forms. Don't knead it, just bring it together.

for syrup-
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons golden syrup
squeeze of lemon
Place all ingredients in a wide bottomed pot and stir over heat to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil and drop in golf ball sized pieces of dumpling dough. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Serve at once with dollops of heavy cream. Do not mention to anyone if there are leftovers, you'll be kicking yourself when there's none for a late supper.

Happy Anniversary, baker man.

Dear, beloved friends, you have been so patient with me, while so much has happened here...

This month we bought a house! As I moaned earlier, this is a long process, where decisions must be made quickly, but the time between decisions is fraught with worry. That is all over now, and we are heading towards settlement, trying to choose carpet and paint colours for a home we have seen twice.

It's great though, a big step towards our other goal, of owning our own business. Brilliant.

Meanwhile, it has come to pass that we are also expecting our second baby! Very exciting. It explains why I found decision making so difficult the past few weeks and why I've been feeling nauseous every afternoon at 4pm. So onward and upward to November. We'll be well settled in our new home, freshly painted and carpeted, summer seedlings established by the time the new little one is here. Although saying that now makes me feel exhausted. So much to do!

Our savings plan is under heavy, heavy scrutiny, since we will shortly be back to one income.
Also, owning a house has brought along a new world of expenses to consider, and it seems that everyone wants money from us. My biggest bugbear at present is insurance. They prey on your worst nightmares and then find a way to really hurt you. Get this- one policy will pay you an amount if you get a serious illness, but this payment renders your life insurance void. So if (ahem, when) you die, your family will not be entitled to a lump sum payment, since you already received one while you were alive. But, there is a buy-back option, where you can opt to buy back your 'death' insurance, in the event of having cashed-out on the serious illness policy. Thoughtful, no? It's a really ugly business. I have encountered a lot of sheepish looking sales people, peeping guiltily out from under dropped eyes. They know it's bad too!

We are doing our utmost to avoid and minimise new expenses, without being foolish, but there's not much room to move now. Our repayments are managable, just, and we need to use this time with two incomes and no mortgage to get a bit of cash stashed for later. It's tricky, because I find myself tempted into spending by thinking 'Oh, soon we won't be able to do this at all..'. Self sabotaging must end.

Now that my energy is level and my stomach sits steadily, my savings enthusiasm has returned also. I am very aware that this will only be for the next three months, and I'll be making the most of that too. The investigating I have to do over the next months (I hope) will be useful for everyone. Now that we're moving with reasonable notice, I can properly check out telephone, gas, electricity and internet providers and set us up with a good deal. Movers, decorators, conveyancers, insurers will all be needed and utilised with minimum expense to us. I hope!

Achievable vs Sustainable

I have a personal philosophy concerning change. I have been thinking about it since recently a couple of my friends have embarked on life changing projects that are spectacular and dramatic. And so have we, with this savings project.

My philosophy came about few years ago, when the baker and I embarked on a weight loss program, let's call it WW. We did brilliantly and still maintain ourselves around the old landmines of Christmas, Easter, birthdays and such. But we worked hard. You had to do a lot of thinking and planning. You had to make some choices and changes that would be there forever. It wasn't a short term stint, we followed that program for more than 12 months.

To successfully complete the program, you do six weeks of 'maintenance', where you work out how to stop losing weight and live 'normally' again. About half way through our journey I found myself using this finishing point as a motivator. Like 'Ohh, I'm going to have butter on my toast again when I get to maintenance,' and 'Ohh, I'm going to have 60gms of cereal when I'm on maintenance,'. Then one day the leader suggested that I add up all those things that I was going to go back to eating on maintenance, and see if I could do those things while successfully maintaining my weight. I would not.

I had to look again at what I was doing everyday, the choices that I'd made that I wasn't intending on continuing with. And I had to think again about what I could do, as opposed to what I would do. My choices had to be achievable, and sustainable. I could live without buttered toast, but I wouldn't. I had to choose something else.

Thus my philosophy was born. Achievable vs sustainable. I find myself living this way again with our savings plan. We certainly do without many, many things, but what about later? What are we just going to go back to buying, having, using? And what are we using, having, buying now without even thinking about? Are we denying ourselves some things and mindlessly consuming others? The powdered milk episode is a perfect example. I can use it, I did use it for a few weeks, but now I don't. I don't like it. So I'm back buying regular milk and looking for alternative product substitutes.

I had to think about my philosophy as I shopped at our local, huge supermarket for the first time in months. I didn't have the time or energy to go to Aldi, so, list in hand, budget in wallet, I hit the shiny, tempting-product laden aisles of the megamarket.

I did well. Very few branded items, nothing other than what was on the list and within budget. I saw aisles and aisles of things we don't use or need, and I saw what I buy week in, week out. I realised that shopping at Aldi has re-trained me, and I know what we need. I also noticed that there's very few things I'm leaving out or missing on the weekly shop, which is good. A sign of sustainable changes.

I hope a burst of my philosophy helps my dear friends who are facing similar choices to reach their own goals. Can you see yourself doing this in a month, by Christmas, next year? Will you still be doing it then? Will you be able to? Check back. The end goal is a massive motivator, but if the way you're living now isn't a part of the end result, you will find yourself doing this over, and over again. Change is hard, change is challenging. The hardest part is to stop fooling yourself that you've made a change when you haven't.

To my more paranoid friends- the last paragraph is not directed at anyone specific. The 'you' isn't necessarily you, I could mean me, not you. You are all brilliant and I am ever supportive of all your endeavours.

kickbacks

And there I was whinging about the cost of health cover!

Those of you completely disinterested in health insurance will have no idea that presently my health fund is being bought out by a larger, British based health fund. And to encourage the members to go along with it, they're offering cash payments to smooth the way. Woo-hoo!

I'm sure there are lawyers and such who would be horrified by my statement. I'm sure it's much more complex than that. If I'd really read the fine print I may be upset about the takeover, but all I saw was the four figures at the top of the statement letter and where to put my bank details. I'm so easily bought off. But an unexpected windfall is a brilliant way to start the week. It always seemed to me that this kind of thing happened to other people. This time, it's us. Hooray!

the fresh Autumn

Something about the change in the weather always re-invigorates me.

We headed off to the library and came home with arms laden with gorgeous and inspiring cookbooks, house renovating manuals and world music. It's exciting to be excited.

There are grand plans for the vege garden, for furniture painting, for a chook shed. We wait for mild, misty mornings to go foraging for mushrooms. I love not having to haul water back and forth to the plants, and having washing cool on the line, instead of drying all crunchy and burnt.

I start to cook more. Richer and more sumptious meals, preparing to lay down that extra layer of squidgy winter fat to get us through the cold weather.

The baby boy dashes across the garden in his first pair of shoes, scraping the toes off and tripping over everything. He loves it outside. Today we pulled all the tomato plants and saved the last few tomatoes to dry for the seeds. Time for brassicas, after a good mulch.

Things are happening, and it's marvellous.

toy library

In another example of spending money to save money, we joined the toy library this week.

It was unplanned, which is bad. I got caught out a bit. I thought it was just a part of the regular library, so we sauntered in with my library card, we picked out a few toys and hit the checkout desk. Where we were introduced to what the toy library is really about.

Joining the toy library costs about $1 a week. So it costs $60 to join. But then you have to be made aware of what it is you are buying into. Being a not-for-profit community organisation, they rely heavily on membership and fundraising to keep going. As a member, you commit to helping out three hours a year in the 'shop'. You commit to participate in the two major fundraising events, the Teddy Bears Picnic and the Fashion Parade. You also commit to participating in other fundraising events that my arise and you are encouraged to join in with the committees that run the organisation. Sell raffle tickets, make sure the toys are always cleaned before returning them and count the pieces before you bring them back. Phew.

If you don't want to do all that, you can pay $20 and be absolved from the fundraising activities. Time in the shop can be diverted onto willing relatives or others.

It is an amazing resource. They have puzzles and games across all ages, dress-ups and large toy equipment that you can book for parties and such. They have push toys and instruments and, just everything. I'm really happy we joined, and I'm going to put the annual membership cost down as a gift request for the baby boys birthday each year. If no one else wants to pay it, then we will, because it's such good value. Better than a crappy toy and it goes all year.

I was wondering if I would have spent $60 on toys this year. We are given lots and the garage sales around yield up blocks and such regularly. I'm a cheapo, and I don't go into toy shops anyway. I loathe them. So much crap. And he's only one. Like how much does he need? Once he can go outside and knows not to eat the leaves and dirt, well, toys will be a thing of the past, won't they? There'll be 'outside'. But $60 isn't hard to spend. Would I have spent it?

Frankly, if the whole saving money project hinges on $60, we're stuffed.

desperate housewife

The lack of inspirational tips and posts has been due to us seriously trying to buy a house.

A lot of brain energy goes into buying a house. You question ourself over and over about the property, the layout, the fittings, it's true value. You're trying to double guess the agent, get the jump on the other buyers, the vendors, you role play scenarios with the bank, thinking through the timing, the rate rises. You worry about the neighbours, the noise of the freeway, the rental potential, re-sale value. It's circular and ultimately pointless, because one simple phone call ends it all, and you have to start again on a whole new place.

However the process does reinforce your understanding of what you can afford. When you are pushed to come up with another $2000, $3000, $5000 to finalise the purchase and the graph on the loan calculator soars skyward.....well, it's only another $5000 to them, but it's years and thousands more to us.

The last attempt was the most affordable house we've looked at yet. Within our budget, but also easier repayments. Or so I thought until I discussed it with a friend of mine, who pointed out that our cheap loan would still require us to pay $400 a week. Yikes! Really? Oh dear.

Seems my grasp on the mathematics of this is still a little shaky. I'm well into the household budgeting process, but the manipulation of the loan figures I've been leaving to the Baker. I can't worry about everything....But of course, now I am.

How on earth do other people do it? Did they have massive deposits already saved? Do they not eat, drive or have children? $400 a week? Why are so many people coercing us into a mortgage, like it's a good and better life? I get why people choose to rent- even high rent is still cheaper than a below average mortgage!

That's the best part of the joke. We are looking to borrow well below the 'average' mortgage of $300,000. Like we are looking at buying an ex-commission house in an area of questionable reputation. No queues of people fighting to get in there. And yet this 'blessing' of cement pre-fab-70's-kitchen-stinky-carpet home ownership is going to cost us the better portion of our weekly income, for thirty years.

I feel sick.

cheap easter

We have a lovely little Easter weekend coming up. But I'm only mentioning it to demonstrate another savings tip. The lesson here is that you must know your resources and use them.

My brother in law works for a hotel chain, which offers cheap city rooms for family and friends. And when they host for special events, like tennis or the Comedy Festival, there can also be free tickets to the events. Boom, boom.

So Easter weekend is a night in a hotel, complementary tickets to some stand-up and free baby sitting by willing uncle and aunty. Marvellous. Much better than a ton of chocolate.

I say that it's a savings tip, but maybe I'm mentioning it because I'm thrilled about our first real, adult outing since the baby boy arrived. Not counting a failed dinner out at a supposedly great restaurant while on cheapo holidays in Sydney. I just hope we can squeeze in Yum-Cha, too!

free haircuts

Funny the things you forget about.

Many years ago, a friend and I spent the better part of a free day in Melbourne at the School of Hairdressing, getting a free haircut. I think we were 15 or 16.

I remember having my scalp combed until it was raw. I remember the fear and trepidation on the face of the trainee, almost closing her eyes with each snip of the scissors. Every slice had to be checked before and after. It took hours. My friend only wanted a fringe cut. By the time she was done her forehead was also red and raw, and we had been there two hours, to have two centimetres of hair cut off.

I was only reminded of this when my own hairdresser recently asked the baker if he would mind having his hair cut by a trainee. All supervised and monitored and she'd correct it at the end, of course. And free, of course. They just need the practice. How could he say no?

Two hours later, he came home, a little grazed on one ear and a bit patchy but happy enough. He'd had a bit of a laugh, having his head compulsively combed and re-combed. But he thought he'd probably go back.

There has been a gradual stepping down in hairdressing expenses in our house. I used to justify extraordinary costs, since I don't spend on other girly stuff like make-up or beauty treatments. The baker went from $15 cheap cuts to decent salon cuts. So my hair was about $70 or $90 or $150 a go and his was $60. About every six weeks.

This stopped when we went overseas and when we came back pregnant, the baker went back to cheap cuts and I didn't bother at all.

Then I heard about hairdressers who come to your house, and being house-bound and feeling shabby and post-partum, I went for the idea. But the bonus is that by coming to you, they charge heaps less. Our haircuts cost $55 for the two of us, and the baker didn't look like he'd been shorn by a blind shearer. Love it.

Now it's even better, with the baker's hair being cut for free. I'm back to not cutting mine, so another expense has been circumvented. Doesn't even feel like a sacrifice.

a leak and an ache

It always happens that when my bank account reaches a minimum threshold, my teeth start to ache. It's like they know that I can afford a root canal. I have ignored this ache for more than two years now, between going to London (saving and so not willing to spend on teeth), coming home pregnant (dentists not liking pregnant patients, me unwilling to spend the money again) and now. There are two sensitive spots, on opposing sides of my mouth, so I can't ignore it anymore. Chewing on either side is an issue, and I am a professional chewer.

Suffice to say, I'm not dropping the medical insurance extras until this episode is over. But eventually we will drop the extras.

Having some savings seems to also coincide with something going wrong with our cars. Yesterday I noticed that green liquid was leaking from the front of my hard-working but crappy little Astra. I'd love to ditch a car, but currently we seem to need two. You definitely know about expenses when you have lived with one car and then upsized to two. Lordy! It's about $3000 a year just to own, insure and maintain the thing.

So, tomorrow I have to make two phone calls that may set our savings plan back by months. It's disappointing and necessary. Just the kind of spending I hate.

time to moan

I was not going to use this forum to whinge about interest rates and housing affordability. This blog is about finding a way to get on with it and get over it. But, sheesh. It's causing me some consternation.

The situation for everyone who wants to buy a home is that each interest rate rise reduces the amount that we can borrow. For us it is a significant amount. It will take us twelve months to save what the last two rate rises have cost us.

Meanwhile house prices go up alarmingly fast- houses we saw in the sub-$250,000 range are now $269,000. This increase has only happened since November '07. Six months and $20,000 difference.

The alarming part is that even on our stringent saving schedule, we can't keep up.

The irritating part is the advice from people who know us and who should know better don't 'get' our position.
"What's wrong with the house across the road?",
"Hmm, that $350,000 house across the road is lovely, thanks for pointing it out, but as we've told you before, there is no way we can buy that.".
"Hmph, well, have you even looked at it? You could offer a bit less,"
"No, because we don't think they'll accept an offer $100,000 below the advertised price. Most likely it will sell for $420,000.."
"Nah, really?"
"Yes, really,". Grrr.

There's nothing we can do but keep saving and keep searching. But it is a dispiriting process. I daydream that we save for so long that we can pay half and can get a great house. Who knows where we'll be in five years? What about when I am working full time again, on a decent wage? Imagine saving a whole adult wage! Great, but will I have a house before I'm forty? Will I be drinking powdered milk for that long?

PS
I promise to lift the tone of my posts after this. I've lost my sense of fun and joy in what started out as an amusing project.

Happy Birthday baby boy. One year already! See how time flies?

soon, I promise

You're wondering what happened to the home-made yoghurt, aren't you?

It's on hold until after next week. There's an issue with the milk burning in my saucepans. I have to work it out. Mainly I need to do it when I can concentrate 100%, instead of trying to make dinner, feed a baby and wash dishes while making yoghurt. This cannot be multi-tasked.

Keep watching.