Things seem to be falling into place

Well getting this garden stuff sorted seems to be flowing quite easily. My X Mother in Law gave me some contact details for chickens and also for food. The chickens are not ready until the end of August at the place she recommended however I let my fingers do the walking and after a few clicks found another supplier with point of lay chickens ready to go. I just have to ring the day before I want to pick them up and they will be ready for me.

Then rang the grain store and got prices. I had budgeted $110 for 2 chickens and some food. The boys are using their savings to buy 2 chickens each as well. So the cost of my chickens is $40 and I have calculated the cost of food at $70 so that is spot on. And the grain store is reasonably close to home so that's even better.

On other money savings front we have been very well behaved. Only planned expenditure which is always great for the budget. And with the home days we had last week the petrol is lasting longer than I expected these holidays so even better savings than planned. Any extra petrol money in my budget is going onto a BP gift card so I have a wee bonus if money is ever tight. I always like to plan ahead.

On the babysteps mortgage challenge of $500 for this month all is going well. Looks like I will have about $80 surplus for this month so that will make up my shortfall for paying the stump man with cash. By managing to scrape together enough cash for this bill it's $240 less I will have to use from savings which is always good. And only about 7 weeks to go until my mortgage dips under the $150k mark which is really exciting. I have always seen $150k as the point at which my mortgage becomes manageable. So it's great to have it so close.

And all this excitement has given me a real buzz. For a while now I have felt that my only goal has been the mortgage and it's a big long term goal. Turns out I needed a couple of short-medium term goals to balance things out. So short term is the back yard. I'd love to have this finished by the end of September so I can get the planting done in time for bountiful crops. My chicken deadline is the end of July however. My short-medium goal is the Australia holiday. So far I have covered airfares and accommodation. The lads have almost covered the rental car and then we need spending money. We have about 30 weeks to come up with approximately $2k but I'm not worried about that one at all.