Expensive Weekend

We had an expensive weekend. A VERY expensive weekend.

We had planned the long weekend away water skiing and I really should have anticipated an expensive weekend. Petrol for the 3.5 hours drive each way, take away food, dinner out one night, other food, booze for the three nights, plus the accommodation, fishing stuff etc. We were going with BF's best mate and his wife and another friend, and it's always a big boozy weekend with that crew.

I had pretty much cleared out our bank account paying every bill due for the next week and we were left with about $250 -- so we withdrew that, and it covered food ($60), accommodation ($70), dinner out ($70), food on the go ($30 on crap), and I've got $20 left in my wallet... Notice that didn't include everything I mentioned earlier... we put $120 on BF's credit card for a slab of beer and a slab of bourbon cans, and another $50 on his credit card for fishing tackle and bait. OUCH OUCH OUCH.

I'm going to pay back that extra credit card cost this week so our debt won't go up, but all up we spent $420 on a weekend that I didn't really plan for, which puts us $420 behind on potential debt repayment, and that actually hurts me more.

In other news, I think we've decided to down grade and sell my car! We bought my car last year for about $17,000 and we've started to realise that we're not using the mid-size 4WD for what it's designed for regularly enough to justify having it. It drinks about 13L/100km and I drive about 250km a week, so I'm filling up the tank with about $70 of petrol every 10 days or so.

Now that BF's boat is out-of-order, we never use my car to tow it, or anything along those lines. A quick look on the internet has shown the economic downturn has hurt my car's value quite a bit, as no one wants a thirsty car! But I should be able to sell it for $15k if i move quickly. I'm looking at buying a 2.0L 4 cylinder 4 door mid-size sedan so even I can keep it for a few years until we have a family. (One child will be okay in a mid-size car but two would be a stretch!)

I'm hoping to spend less than $12,500 and I'll put the extra straight onto the car loan which will take it down to under $12,000 so I won't have put us into negative equity in terms of cars - but I'll save in petrol and most likely insurance straight away! So over a few years, it'll make a big difference. Later on, when we have more play money, we'll consider buying an old 4WD to tow the boat... assuming we ever decide to put the money into it that's required to get it running! (I'm really grateful that BF isn't pushing the idea of getting it fixed - it'll cost about $5000 and since the wedding is as important to him as it is to me and we both need to make some sacrifices this year - I'd be happy to elope but he wants a big family event!)

Anyway, today is a public holiday (Monday) and we've spent money today, and tomorrow I need to go grocery shopping and buy petrol so it'll also be a spend day. I'm aiming to have a no spend day on both Wednesday and Thursday so I shouldn't fall too far behind my goals for March!

My other goals are not moving along very well - still haven't finished my 1st book (April Fools Day by Bryce Courtney) and I still haven't taken the dogs for a long walk. This week I'll do a double class on Wednesday and walk the dogs tomorrow and Thursday. I promise!!