The ups, downs, and occasional sideways bits of trying to be mortgage free

No mistaking that it's mid winter now. Mid winter here isn't as fierce as there, obviously, but it's barely climbing to 10 degrees during the day, and we have all the heaters going inside (no central heating in Aus, so it's a matter of turning on the gas heater in the lounge, lighting the old wood oven in the kitchen and hoping the heat gets through the house!). We're dog sitting for the week, so lots of brisk country walks with our breath puffing out in front of us. It has the merit of being free.

Cheap weekend all round in fact: yesterday was dog walking and groceries and house cleaning, today I'm working and Mr E is making a papier mache Mr Tickle costume with the girls for Book Week because I guess he's that kind of parent? I'm far more of a "here, carry a pile of books, now you're Matilda" kind of person but whatever keeps them happy. Most expensive thing all weekend was a Friday afternoon cafe trip to celebrate school reports. Yep, it's the end of the term, with two weeks of holidays and no activities planned in front of us!

Gorgeous laksa for dinner Friday night: I bought a ready made paste ($4) from the speciality Asian grocer, which is cheating but it meant I got to use up a couple of cubes of fried tofu, a few fish balls and the last of some cold roast chicken and it was as good as a takeaway. Half the broth is in the freezer for next time, because it served 4 but was too spicy for the girls so they had a fishball, seaweed and noodle miso soup instead. Salmon poke and avocado miso salad last night. Roast lamb and gravy and all the trimmings tonight, and looking forward to it!

Sticks, I gather? So her entire body is going to be encased in this enormous papier mache oval, with holes in the sides out of which she will poke long sticks with gloves on the end?

I don't really think either of them have thought through the logistics of how she's going to function at school in this contraption, but I'm staying out of it!

The sky is blue today! I'd almost forgotten how pretty that colour is. I have even optimistically hung out some clothes. Mr E took off this morning for a four day jolly-I-mean-conference, so I'm looking forward to uninterrupted control of the remote and lazy meals.

On the downside: after finally, finally switching my phone contract over to a sim-only plan, I dropped my phone and smashed the screen yesterday. So now I have to either repair the screen or replace the phone. Replacing the screen is obviously cheaper (about $70) but it's an old phone now (iPhone 5c) and the battery life is pretty dodgy. I will do the screen I think, but then I have to start saving up in earnest for a new phone. I want an iPhone SE, which are about $400-500 now. I don't need new and shiny tech, just something that will keep working for a while. It's a tax deductible expense for me, at least.

Various children shrieking in my back garden at the moment. Visiting dog must be tired: he's eschewed the company of the shrieking children in favour of flopping next to me for a nap on the couch. Between Visting Dog, two cats, a bunch of chickens, various visiting children and my own offspring, I feel like my day has just been feeding and wiping up spills!

Had other various children here yesterday plus my business partner for a Very Exciting tax conversation. Am mildly concerned that my tax affairs are going to turn out far more complicated than I thought, but the accountant will clear that up for me next week. I keep a huge percentage of my income aside for tax, way more than I'll need, so there is room for errors. Hopefully there will be no error, and I can shift $10K across to the mortgage, but one never knows.

Have decided to see if I can buy a thin cover for the iPhone, thus protecting the cracked screen from disintegrating further, because it does still work but it's so badly cracked I worry about chunks of glass falling out. That should only be $10-20, then I can save up for a slightly newer model.

Good morning! Nothing at all to report here. Mr E came home last night and is spending the day with the kids while I catch up on work. Kids very happy. Dog still here. Mr E slightly less keen on the concept of walking the dog than I had hoped, but I have approximately 14 hours of work to do today so tough.

Most of his spends from the trip away are reimbursable (it's mostly meals) and the few that aren't (beer!) will just come out of his personal spends, so I am ignoring the red bits on YNAB and being patient for reimbursement.

Managed to patch his coat up, but it doesn't look very good now so he's going to go explore the sales. Which will put us over budget on clothing again since he already bought a new shirt and a pair of pants earlier this month. I had no idea we spent so much on clothes! But there we are, I guess: I honestly don't see how we could do it much more cheaply, it's only things being bought when they're frayed or too small, and usually in the sales, there's no buying-for-boredom going on. I try and do charity shops but it's time consuming, and Mr E won't contemplate it. The girls' stuff comes from Kmart (= Pr!mark) supplemented by charity shop finds and things the grandparents gift them. Mr E definitely has more expensive tastes than the rest of us, but also he's the one with an office job, so he has to have half-decent stuff.

Anyway, I'm just thinking aloud.