Author Topic: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?  (Read 6987 times)

mrs.zara

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Hi guys
Im going to put my situation on the table and then I need honest feedback on where I & DH fall on the Mustachian scale please.

*Deleted details due privacy concerns, tks for understanding*
« Last Edit: February 22, 2016, 09:45:36 PM by mrs.zara »

Larabeth

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Re: Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2016, 01:54:13 AM »
Definitely start considering some options for investing like Vanguard or Betterment.  There are several "Australian Investing" threads on the forum that could help you!

I'm also assuming you've read this post?
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/

Woody Viet

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Re: Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2016, 09:42:18 AM »
The biggest things that jump out at me are that your situation is very good considering your age. You have substantial net worth in your house and savings (and no debt, woop!). You also seem to have some solid income generating potential.

The biggest factor to consider is how much of your income is required to pay for your lifestyle. Is it possible for you to post your current expenses? If possible broken down into categories such as food, transport, utilities etc. The more details the better.

It's great that you've got concrete goals. In what way are you guys planning to upgrade the house? How soon would you like to retire?

You've already taken a big step in finding out that there is another way and not discarding mustachianism offhand. Also having a frugal partner is a huge advantage, possible the biggest one you can have. It can make the process go such much easier and faster. Good luck!

mrs.zara

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Re: Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2016, 09:21:08 PM »
Hello there
Thanks, appreciate the replies.

larabeth, Investing is something I know nothing at all about! Not feeling ready for that at this stage. I tried to find those threads but the search seemed to be broken. Yes thank you, that post was the very first one that led me to MMM!

Anyway to go on, I just have a niggly feeling that something is not in balance with our life/budget/goals.... but I can't work out what.

Thanks for the nice words Woody Viet :) - I know one thing that bothers me is I feel we are wasting a great opportunity, as you say, we are young to be in this position.

Anyway here's the breakdown
ALL PER MONTH:-
GROCERIES $925 incl having lots of friends round, good food. Would like to do more but spend less, I do go overboard.
EVERYDAY EXP $275-$500 - personal, medical, fun, small house maint eg garden
UTILITIES $652
ALCOHOL $320 (last yr mthly was $425!) I don't drink anymore and DH has always had approx 3 drinks/week, rest is gift/entertaining
TAKEAWAY $100 (almost never eat out! prefer to cook ourselves)
EXPECTED EXP $560 - various annual eg pest control, my only mag subscription fee, house & health insurance, credit card fee (!) {DH says the rewards outweigh the fee}
IRREGULAR EXP - $1250 - eg travel to visit family (some overseas), house repairs, dentist, charities
GIVING $775 - weddings, birthdays, tithing, child's savings
CLOTHING $275-500 depending on season

Goals - House - we love current house location but the floorplan is badly flawed (dark, wasted spaces, lack bathrooms,odd bedrooms etc).It bothers me more as I'm the SAHM/homemaker. Have been watching the market for years and can see the most economical option is to build... but have not looked into actual land/build costs. DH says ideally he wants to wait and do this without a mortgage but I don't want to wait forever! or he says just extend this house (more costly, less benefit) as we do love the location/setting. I don't know what to think... and whenever I bring it up we end up coming back to those same two options and get no further!

Retirement - I only just suggested this to DH, he is of course keen, but we have no idea what to aim for....

Savings - the 40k mentioned in first post is what's in the actual bank account.
In the budget it is noted as $22k New House/Renovation and $12k "DH Fund". He would like to build this up to at least $50k and then it would be used eventually towards charity.

Anyway hopefully something jumps out at whoever reads this... thanks MMM's!
« Last Edit: February 11, 2016, 11:00:43 PM by mrs.zara »

Woody Viet

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Re: Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2016, 01:14:05 AM »
OK. So the good news is there is a ton of room for improvement there in pretty much every category! If you read through MMM and many of the other personal finance blogs around you can usually find good trips for increasing the efficiency of your spending (and hence saving lots of money in the process). With this in mind I'm just going to post a quick overview

The biggest thing that jumps out at me is you want to start recording all of your expenses. You also want to come up with your own categories. You can then use this to keep track of your progress and then once you get your spending down to a good level you can use it to prevent waste creeping back in.

Your grocery budget can definitely be sized down by around 30%. You can probably keep eating what you are now and get these kinds of savings by shopping more efficiently and throwing out less food. I'm not sure if these is totally realistic as you mention you entertain a lot. I would move takeaways up next to your grocery spending. You might want to consider if you're getting full value for money from them.

You want to break everyday expenses down into individual items. I don't really know what you mean by personal. Medical certainly needs it's own category and I would throw health insurance in there too.

Utilities. Ouch! You guys are paying an absolute ton here. I spend roughly $50 a month for my entire apartment's internet, water and electricity (but I don't live in Australia). This jumps out as one area where you could be saving big money.

Alcohol. Ouch! What are you guys drinking? If you guys are only going having 3 drinks between you a week then almost all of this is going on gifts/entertaining. Each should be there own category.

Expected and irregular expenses need breaking up. Pest control, house insurance and house repairs can go under home maintenance. Travel should definitely be on its own. How much is the credit card giving you guys in benefits? Have you guys run the numbers? Work out exactly what the monetary benefits of the card are and see if they exceed the fee. Also maybe ship around for a new card. You need maths here more than reassurance. Dentist can go under health.

Giving. Dam! That's almost 15% of your spending going out on gifts. This is of course a personal choice but you are spending almost $10000 a year in gifts to others. After reading your post again it seems like this is a big part of your life. It's still worth tracking just who you're giving too.

And lastly clothing, ouch again! You guys are pouring money away here, on average 10% of your spending. How much of the new stuff is getting worn? If this is mainly for you and your husband then consider you are each spending roughly $1000 on yourselves each on clothes alone.

So that's it for face punches. If I were running a 3 person family home in Australia this is what I would estimate I would need. Bear in mind that some of these projections are probably wide of the mark (I'm using my home country, the UK, as a comparison). In aussie dollars:

Groceries & Takeaway's                                        $800
Medical (very rough)                                            $250
House Insurance, Maintenance & Repairs               $500
Utilities                                                               $300
Alcohol                                                                $100
Clothing (possibly less here)                                 $200
Personal ($150 per person)                                   $300

Total Core Spending:                                           $2450

Then add in extra for giving, charity and travel as you see fit.

With regards to the house it looks like you guys really need to do your homework. My only advice would be to take your time and work through all of your options. Building a house could be a great idea but remember you'll either need to mortgage your current place to free up the cash or move into a rental while your new place is built. It's also a big time investment and costs can be significantly above what you expect. Have you guys started shopping around? Are you after a bigger house or just one with a better design? 

With regards to your next steps I think the biggest things are getting your savings rate up. If you can track your expenses and seek to optimise as much as possible (without sacrificing the fun stuff like entertaining and travel), I think everything else will fall into place. After that you can start looking into investing. A rough guide is every $100 you save will generate $4 in pre-tax income. So moving to a house that costs an extra $100,000 will end up costing you $4,000 a year in investment income forgone. You can also apply this thinking towards charitable giving where each $100 you stick into your DH fund will support $4 of giving each year, forever.

Hope this helps!

mrs.zara

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Re: Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2016, 01:38:28 AM »
Wow - Thank you so much Woody! i have only had time to skim it but it looks super helpful. I am using Ynab but still learning so all your category tips look fantastic. And also since I wrote my post and had to work out those numbers I have been thinking some of the things you pointed out, so it was cool to hear it confirmed from you. Got to run but wanted to say a 'quick'  thank you! You rock!

former player

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Re: Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2016, 01:49:28 AM »
I just wanted to post about your house.  You love the location.  You love the setting.  You have 4.5 bedrooms which is big enough for any family, and in particular more than big enough for 3 and one on the way.  You hate the floorplan, which has dark spaces, a lack of bathrooms and odd bedrooms.

What all that adds up to is "improve don't move".  In terms of building new: you have already found a great plot in a location you love, you've already got permission for a house of a good size for you, you've got all the services put in, you've got the shell of the building (floors, walls, roof) already built and you've already put work into getting the garden how you like.    There is very little point in throwing all that work which has already been done away.   What you do need to do is rearrange the floorplan and rooms within the shell that has already been built for you.

In the UK I would be suggesting you look at Architect in the House and Architect Your Home as a cheap way of getting an architect to look at your house and suggest alterations which will change the house to fit the way you want to live in it.   As you are in Australia, can you find something similar or get an initial assessment free from an architect?  It's practically a guarantee that an architect who has been training in thinking about special usage for several years will come up with ideas you haven't thought of which might turn your current house into your perfect home, for a lot less money and hassle than starting again.

Larabeth

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happy

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Re: Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2016, 04:34:00 AM »
Hi Mrs Zara,
Welcome to the forums.
Firstly can I suggest you alter your thread title by adding in (Australia) to the title.  This will help you fellow Aussies to pile in, there are too many threads to read them all, and There are substantial differences between US/Australia.

The first thing that strikes me is something amiss with your data.
You've done really well to have a paid off house and savings and no debt at 30. Well done.
BUT your income is 88k, and after tax thats approx 68K. And adding up your expenses you spend at least 61.5k, or around 62k if  I add in the higher end of your ranges. So unless you worked in a really high income area before kids this seems to not make sense.

Secondly you are spending 90% and saving 10%. Excluding super I guess from your figures. This will get you nowhere fast and DH will be working to 67, especially if you have the house bug and want to keep giving money away. ( not against tithing or your charitable intentions at all, just you need to be realistic)

From your post I can't really pin down any concrete goals or figures, to see if you are on track.

So I would suggest:

1. Track your expenses. Learn to be frugal ( coz you're not right now). You should be able to live on <40k/year for 2 people and a 3 yr old with no debt/paid off house. As others have pointed out there are lots of areas for you to save
2. Try to save 50%. ( i.e. live on 34k)…. this will put you on track for retirement in 17 years or so, provided you continue to live on 34k in today's dollars. Don't forget though the kids will get more expensive as they get older
3. Sort out your priorities - if you want DH to retire early, then I doubt you can also spend substantial amounts of money on the house whether that be moving, renovating or building.



mrs.zara

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Re: Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2016, 05:46:00 AM »
Thank you every one who has commented - all fantastic and i am totally loving it. I KNEW something was amiss and youse are all helping loads. Right gotta run again sorry. Be back after the w/e - have a goodie!

Miss Prim

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2016, 05:54:34 AM »
I just wanted to say, and I am not sure how the housing market is in Australia, but usually per square foot, buying an existing house is usually cheaper than building from scratch.  I second (or third?) the idea of just remodeling your existing house and save money that way.  Also, you definitely need a budget!  Some of your expenditures are quite high.

Good luck to you!                                                 Miss Prim

mrs.zara

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2016, 09:11:14 PM »
Happy - just wanted to clarify - 88k is our take home income after tax :)

Working on everyone's input and will respond in due course...

mrs.zara

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #12 on: February 12, 2016, 09:49:59 PM »
hi Woody, you mentioned your utilities are only $50 -wow! - just wanted to run this past you.
Utilities incl:
Phone & internet $92
Electricity $375
Council Rates $185

We have just got an 18% discount on electricity.And an offer in the mail that means we can cut our phone & net to $50.
Our electricity does seem exorbitant, we are going to get the hot water system checked, also our AC is really inefficient but guesstimate $20k to replace. We have a fridge/freezer pair (both small freezer drawers under fridges), plus an extra freezer and a fridge we only turn on if we have to usually just over a weekend.
Any thoughts...? And also is it ok to post this sort of specifi question...?!

Thanks

Woody Viet

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #13 on: February 13, 2016, 12:01:45 AM »
Yes, definitely OK, ask away! Bear in mind I'm living in Vietnam and in a studio apartment. That total does include air con for half of the year however.

Are there any online comparison sites available for utilities in Australia? That phone and internet package for $50 looks OK but I reckon you guys could probably get an even cheaper deal. Do you guys have extensive data demands on your internet? Also what's mobile phone reception like near you? How much are you guys paying for your mobile phones? In the UK I would expect to pay around $30 equivalent for internet and a phone line.

That electricity bill is very high. Unfortunately most of that will come down to usage. What temperature are you running your aircon at? Also at what times of the day? Take a look at these MMM articles:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/10/ill-show-you-my-electricity-bill-if-you-show-me-yours/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/07/18/how-not-to-use-your-air-conditioning/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/05/so-i-bought-you-a-40-light-bulb-today/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/03/25/cut-your-power-bill/
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/10/15/when-energy-saving-becomes-an-emergency/

Something useful would be measuring how much electricity each appliance is using and this is covered in the articles above. Lots of appliances sitting on standby will really drain your power down.

Council rates are probably outside your control. Do you know how they are assessed? You might be able to get a discount if you get lucky.

deborah

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #14 on: February 13, 2016, 01:55:00 AM »
Given that you say you are in rural Australia, I know that electricity is higher there than in the cities, so I can't comment.

It sounds like you really need to look at your floor plan and work out what can be done with it. Just because a room was labelled "bedroom" doesn't mean it has to stay that way. Archicentre (run by the institute of Architects) www.archicentre.com.au can look at your floorplan and suggest alternatives that fit better with your living style for a minimal amount, although, years ago when I got them to look at my place, they didn't give me a good option. However, what I did get out of it was another way of looking at my house, which ultimately allowed me to work out a plan that suited me. It really doesn't sound like you need an extension!

Americans have much cheaper groceries than we do, but your spending patterns appear to have a lot in a few "we really don't know where it goes" buckets. Look into these and work out how you are spending so much!

Adram

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #15 on: February 13, 2016, 05:17:27 PM »
Some of those expenses as previously said do seem very high. Our grocery spend is probably closer to $400 per month, with just the 2 of us though, no kids. Prior to MMM it was about $600, and that was with spending around $200 a week on eating out! I dunno how we managed to spend that much looking back. We've cut the eating out back to well under $200 a month also.

I'm in Adelaide, so not sure how much extra groceries cost out in woop woop, but you can make huge reductions just by attitudinal changes, being very mindful that your aim when grocery shopping isn't just to get groceries, it's to escape the store without spending a cent more than necessary. We used to just walk through grabbing anything we thought we needed without looking for the cheapest version or having a plan.

Electricity seems high also. We have solar now, but before that it used to be around the $400 per quarter mark... But we have gas also, so that helped. Being at home all day doesn't help either I guess, we both work. But you can maybe bring this down just by turning lights off, changing globes, making sure computers don't get left on... Something I used to do a lot of.

As for the alcohol, i'm assuming that most of that is entertaining, not gifts... If I was spending 300 per month on getting my guests drunk I'd be telling them it's BYO from now on!

Clothing also i'm finding that our spending has dropped dramatically since finding MMM - most people have clothes that they never wear, my girlfriend found minimalism a bit after I started being frugal, and that changed her outlook on clothes a lot... Instead of buying them, she's donating them to the salvos instead lol.

Once you get into the frugal mindset a lot of this stuff happens automatically.

On investing, notch up another vote for vanguard index funds from me. A good idea is to read a lot about it before you do it, comfort is important. I would recommend the stock series at jlcollinsnh.com as a start, plus the various MMM articles.

Can't say much about the housing stuff that hasn't been said - great effort having it paid off at your ages though!

alsoknownasDean

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #16 on: February 13, 2016, 05:47:04 PM »
hi Woody, you mentioned your utilities are only $50 -wow! - just wanted to run this past you.
Utilities incl:
Phone & internet $92
Electricity $375
Council Rates $185

We have just got an 18% discount on electricity.And an offer in the mail that means we can cut our phone & net to $50.
Our electricity does seem exorbitant, we are going to get the hot water system checked, also our AC is really inefficient but guesstimate $20k to replace. We have a fridge/freezer pair (both small freezer drawers under fridges), plus an extra freezer and a fridge we only turn on if we have to usually just over a weekend.
Any thoughts...? And also is it ok to post this sort of specifi question...?!

Thanks

You're seriously using $375 a month of electricity? How many kilowatt hours is that?

What's your husband's super contributions like? Anything salary sacrificed?

Do you have Aldi in your area? What about local butchers and fruit and veg shops? Chances are it's going to be more expensive if you buy everything from Coles/Woolworths.

Are there any online comparison sites available for utilities in Australia? That phone and internet package for $50 looks OK but I reckon you guys could probably get an even cheaper deal. Do you guys have extensive data demands on your internet? Also what's mobile phone reception like near you? How much are you guys paying for your mobile phones? In the UK I would expect to pay around $30 equivalent for internet and a phone line.

That electricity bill is very high. Unfortunately most of that will come down to usage. What temperature are you running your aircon at? Also at what times of the day? Take a look at these MMM articles:

Something useful would be measuring how much electricity each appliance is using and this is covered in the articles above. Lots of appliances sitting on standby will really drain your power down.

Yes there are comparison sites, iSelect, Choice, Compare the Market, etc (if you're in Victoria there's an additional one). In this case, the OP really needs to focus on what's using so much damn electricity. Even though electricity rates are often about 20-25c/kWh here, there's a good chance they're using 40-50kWh a day.

$90 a month for landline and internet isn't huge here, especially if they're with Telstra. Given that the OP lives in a rural area, their internet service is likely to be more expensive than those in capital cities. I'm paying $60 for naked DSL with iiNet. If they're rural enough, they could be stuck with Telstra for their mobile as well, although there may be room for improvement there too (I'm currently paying $39.90 with Amaysim, with heaps of data).

Also, a 4.5 bedroom house with soon to be two kids. Unless you're planning on having plenty more, that's a lot of house. That said, great effort on being mortgage-free at such a young age.

What booze are you buying at $320 a month?
« Last Edit: February 13, 2016, 05:57:22 PM by alsoknownasDean »

Anatidae V

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #17 on: February 14, 2016, 05:46:54 AM »
I have some budgets up on my journal, as do the other Aussies. We're in Perth WA and we spend about $80 on electricity, $60 on gas and $60 on internet per month. We rent, so I can't compare water costs. That said, we live on a bit less than what you do - and it includes our housing costs, which are 40% of our annual costs. We don't have any kiddos yet and we live in a smaller place, but even if I double the electricity it's still a lot less! I definitely recommend reading through the journals section (the numbers are in there somewhere amongst the kerfuffle, I can dig out my last budget if you like).

mrs.zara

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #18 on: February 14, 2016, 11:14:27 PM »
I've been looking into my electricity and found that the $375 per month I was allocating in my Budget was based on what turned out to be a super high bill after summer last year when I was mindless with the AC ($1380).

The next 3 bills steadily dropped (yay) and long story short, I believe my monthly average (incl the 18% discount) should be $190/mth. MUCH better than $375!

I'm sure we can do much better after reading some links here and finding for myself that Yes even though its a humid 32 outside now, there's a breeze -  having been out all day I would usually walk in and put AC on as a matter of course... seems I have a LOT to learn.

Lastly, any tips on how to cool one VERY hot bedroom down mid-arvo for my sons sleep? Actually this is my main reason for putting the AC most days and the craziest bit is if I turn it on, I have to also turn on the open living area plus one empty bedroom... TIA

Back to my budget drawing board... MT all

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #19 on: February 15, 2016, 12:14:50 AM »
What kind of aircon do you have? If it's evaporative, you can close off the unused rooms and use a lower setting, and it will still cool down your son's room nicely.

Make sure you close the blinds and curtains before it starts to heat up in the morning, and make sure all the rooms have 3-pass curtains (the heavy ones that keep the heat and light out).

deborah

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #20 on: February 15, 2016, 01:02:03 AM »
Firstly, does the window in the hot room get sun shining directly onto it? If it does, it acts like a radiator. You need to put something between the sun and the glass. Awnings are good. Trees are good. Even a sheet attached across the window on the outside is good. Inside curtains and things are useful, but stopping the sun heating the window is the most important thing.

Curtains are good, but they must stop the air flow into the room. If they have gaps above, below or at the side, they just circulate the air from behind the curtain into the room. This is why pelmets are important (but they must make an air seal), and really good curtains are much less useful if there is no air seal. All my rooms have full length curtains and pelmets.

Check that there is insulation in the ceiling above the hot room. Quite often in houses there are rooms that don't.

pbkmaine

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #21 on: February 15, 2016, 01:38:15 AM »
We had one particularly hot bedroom in a former house and added a window AC unit. It saved us from having to cool the entire house for one room.

HappierAtHome

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #22 on: February 15, 2016, 02:22:55 AM »
Can your son have his afternoon sleep in another room?

mrs.zara

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #23 on: February 15, 2016, 04:14:49 AM »
Thankyou everyone for the ideas!

I shouldve mentioned his window gets direct full sunlight all day, also the window is tinted dark and is semi-permanently covered on the inside with a black block-out blind (helps him sleep in), and timber venetians.

We're in north Qld - no evap AC here!

Thank you - I've thought about that last suggestion but actually all our bedrooms get so hot during the day...

So I think the shading from the outside might be the thing, looking into it now.

Can anyone suggest a deciduous tree/plant that would grow well in an enormous pot?! (already there)

Thanks!


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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #24 on: February 15, 2016, 04:20:23 AM »
Would shade sails work as a quick fix? Should be able to get them from Bunnings/Masters without too many issues. Of course, trees are nicer :)

Anatidae V

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #25 on: February 15, 2016, 06:10:11 AM »
As a longer term thing, the tree's a great idea. What about a deciduous fruit tree? Are there any that would survive where you are? I know a lot need cooler climates and frost.

deborah

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #26 on: February 15, 2016, 11:26:01 AM »
Would shade sails work as a quick fix? Should be able to get them from Bunnings/Masters without too many issues. Of course, trees are nicer :)
They would be good if they stopped the sun from shining onto the window.

faramund

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #27 on: February 16, 2016, 02:54:36 AM »
What about a mango tree - with its liquid gold fruit, of course, quick, it is not.

Jacana

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #28 on: February 16, 2016, 06:00:36 AM »
North Queensland? What about a tall tropical shrub, eg in the banana/plantain family, or bird of paradise? Fast growing, big shading leaves, and usually do OK in containers. Some get over 2m tall.
 

nnls

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #29 on: February 16, 2016, 03:32:48 PM »
hi

this thread may help you with some basic Aussie investing

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/basic-australian-investing-thread/

and you can always ask more questions

Adventures With Poopsie

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #30 on: February 16, 2016, 10:40:12 PM »
Lovely to see another Aussie here. I'm so glad you got your electricity down, that definitely looks better but I am still hopeful you can get it even lower.

Where in Nth QLD? eg. how North and how rural?

You've taken that very first important step of getting onto the forums, so keep it up. I can't wait to watch your progression.

Woody Viet

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #31 on: February 17, 2016, 03:58:29 AM »
Awesome news on the electricity! Planting a tree that can produce something tasty definitely sounds like a good option. It might be a good time to consider where you want your child to sleep and maybe redesign the layout of your house

mrs.zara

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #32 on: February 22, 2016, 10:06:21 PM »
Minor update - all the plant/tree ideas have come to nothing as the area is too close to walls to plant anything large in the ground... and the pots are too small to support anything (deciduous) that would grow big enough (floor level of house is significantly above ground level of pots)... so back to the drawing board. Considering a portable AC unit if all else fails...

And since being on this forum I've discovered I can survive nicely without AC more than I ever thought, so that's a win :)

Not much else to say but feeling more financially empowered than ever before. We're probably not true-mmm as ER isn't a big drawcard but we are still working on our life goals. In the meantime we're forward with meaning and mindfulness, knowing that 'fortune favours the prepared'. (Sorry I pinched that off someone else's footer!)

deborah

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mrs.zara

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #34 on: February 23, 2016, 03:58:03 AM »
Wow def trying that one out tonight!

JLR

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #35 on: February 24, 2016, 01:00:09 AM »
Just dropping by the finally say 'hello'! I've had the page open since you first posted, but just hadn't gotten back to it!

Last night I tried the exhaust fan trick from that article, Deborah. I might try the fan out the window tonight. It was so hot today!

Can't wait to hear more from you, Mrs Zara.

mrs.zara

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #36 on: February 24, 2016, 10:51:37 PM »
Hello JLR thank u for saying hello :)

I tried the fan trick but I think i need to be more strategic with placement vs open windows as it wasn't noticeably cooler.

Have "solved" the too-hot bedroom problem by giving up son's naps.Its still v hot at night. Is it safe to have a fan going all night in a small-med size bedroom with door shut? (Can't open his window)

Now looking at moving savings to ING Direct 3.5% interest. But can anyone advise how secure/reliable they are? I've only ever banked with the Big 4. I might start a sep thread on this.

Thanks :)






Adventures With Poopsie

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #37 on: February 25, 2016, 12:19:17 AM »
I have used ING for my savings for years. They're excellent, very reliable. They're also guaranteed by the Australian government up to I think $250k just like the other banks. Highly recommend them!

JLR

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Re: *AUSSIE! Im a newbie. What do I do now to become Mr & Mrs Mustachian?
« Reply #38 on: February 25, 2016, 04:05:20 PM »
I think the only problems I can see about a fan on all night with the door closed is that he might get cold, but you may not hear him over the sound of the fan?? Or that it is stale air circulating all night in his room, rather than fresh air coming in from other rooms of the house??

We have a pedestal-style fan in our boys' room. Occasionally we leave it on all night, but usually I turn it off when I go to bed a few hours after they do. We also leave their bedroom door open all night. And they are older, so are able to turn it off, or tuck themselves in if they get cold.