Comment on my budget outcome for the previous 6 months (Australia) (voyeurism)

[StinkWorth]

What do you think?  Any advice or comments?  I live in Australia, where the cost of living is higher than in USA.

Income    Jan 2013 – June 2013
Gross salary   40510
Tax   8806
Net Salary    31704
Govt Payments    1645
Total Income    33349
   
Expenses   Jan 2013 – June 2013
Total 21218   
Mortgage Interest    7592
Childcare    4820
Aldi Groceries 1578
Coles Groceries    215
Petrol    602
Electricity Bill   441
Body Corporate Fees    728
Water and Sewerage    350
Home Contents Insurance    347
Internet Provider (Monthly)   285
Mobile Phone    80
Telstra Home Phone    153
Ambulance Insurance    76
Car Registration (12 months)    858
   
   
Washing Machine Purchase   400
Furniture Purchase   100
Bike Parts    181
Car Parts   18
Specialist Appointments   230
Work Shoes   78
Medicine   11
Home Hardware   79
Sports Club Membership   271
Spectacles   60
Gifts   354
   
   
Photo Printing   51
Department Store   30
Liquor   51
Books    36
Theatre   89
Parking Fine   83

   
Cash Spending on random shit   960
Misc   13

What do you think?

[gooki]

33% savings rate while paying child care and a mortgage with a single income is pretty damn good.

[StinkWorth]

33% savings rate while paying child care and a mortgage with a single income is pretty damn good.

Cheers :)

Do you have any ideas for improvement?

[gooki]

Don't rack up more parking tickets ;) Shop around on internet, insurance, photo printing, etc. Avoid cash buying of random shit as much as possible. Drive less.

PS is car registration really that much per year?

[StinkWorth]

In australia, that is roughly average - but it also includes compulsory insurance for third party injury.

The insurance is $450 and the rego fee is $400.

[garden girl]

Your food bill is good, much lower than ours.

How old are your kids? it would be good to be done with the child care expense.

I think your internet, phone and mobile expenses are very high. We pay $90/month for phone and internet combined. I have a prepaid mobile which costs me about $15 every 3 months.

Your car registration is also higher than mine. I think this is somewhat dependant on where you live. Did you shop around for a better green slip price?

Apart from these things I think you are doing really well.

[StinkWorth]

Thanks GardenGirl.

Childcare fees will be finished in 16 months.

I'm stuck with the telstra line rental (I make 0 calls on the home phone), for $25 per month, because fuck telstra.  If I cancelled the home phone, the internet would stop working.  I'm getting NBN soon, so I can finally get rid of telstra.

Mobile phone is 20/mth (sim only) at the moment - do you know of any other cheaper options in Australia?  What plan do you use - that looks good!

In my state, There is only one option for car rego, and only one option for third party personal injury insurance.

Thanks for the feedback :)

[Nudelkopf]

I'm impressed both with your grocery and alcohol spending! :) Much lower than mine!

[StinkWorth]

I only have one full size human and two half-size humans to feed.

I also take a hard line with any attempted picky eating - "You can eat this, or you can eat nothing". :)

Also, I drink a medium amount of liquor.  In addition the liquor category, There is some liquor in the "aldi groceries" category, and a fair amount of liquor in the "Cash Spending on random shit" category.

[garden girl]

HI Stinkworth,

my mobile is with amaysim, it's prepaid. The minimum is $15 and this will last for 3 months. They use optus as their carrier, so you may have problems with reception if you are rural. Aldi mobile has a similar deal and use telstra as their carrier.

I know what you mean about internet, we use iprimus (using telstra lines). Lucky you, about to get NBN, we have a few years to go yet. I'm not sure if I will go with it when it comes. Our ADSL is adequate - depends on what deals they offer. It seems to me the only benefit we would get is to be able to stream TV/Movies quicker. Of course this would cost more so I wouldn't do it.

[marty998]

I use virgin pre-paid mobile. $15 for 180 days. Best deal ever for people who only need phones for emergencies.

Tell me how you qualify for government payments on $80k a year? You are effectively part of the top 15% of taxable incomes at that level. Sorry but I do think that is a rort.

Regardless, I think overall you are doing well. My rego + greenslip came to $1100, insurers keep the greenslip "young" driver loading up until you are 30 now. Childcare is your killer, but as you say it won't last forever. I'd love to get my strata fees down to where yours are.

Do you not pay council rates?

[aaronhann85]

The govt benefits are likely a childcare rebate.

I hate to whinge but single people on reasonable incomes in Australia are about the only people to miss out on all the 'welfare' dished out. I have a friend who complained when Labor decided to income test the baby bonus. He felt he should still get it whilst earning over $150k

Check out Vaya for monile. I'm paying $17.70 / month for the equivalent of the Optus $60 plan - with no contract.

Could you used Naked ADSL to eliminate phone line rental?

[StinkWorth]

I checked out Amaysim "as you go", and virgin "long expiry", and the aldi plans but I am a moderate/heavy user of SMS, and 12c or 28c of actual money per text is too expensive. 

I have a $20 per month plan with Live Connected (Subsidiary of Vaya?), which is the cheapest I could find for moderate usage.

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It looks like only 20% (?) of the country are getting the NBN, and I am one of the "have's".  which is bad overall :(

Naked DSL is not available in my area, due to poorly planned infrastructure.


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Govt benefits - Child Care Rebate and Child Care Benefit are given straight to the childcare centre - the childcare cost would be tripled ($15000 for 6 months) otherwise.

I am a single parent, so I also get Family Tax benefit A and Family Tax Benefit B.  $1645 for 6 months for me.  The Centrelink income cutoffs are very high - 110k to 150k depending on circumstances.

I agree that middle class welfare is a rort, but I am not so morally pure that I will forego $3000 of free money per year. :)

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for strata fees, I am on the committee and am a bit anal about the budget, so that saves a small amount of money for all owners.

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I pay council rates at ~900 per year, but it must be in the second half of the year.

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Thanks for the replies, they are very helpful :)