It's hard to believe that we are through 8 months of this year already. It feels like just yesterday we landed back in Australia for our new adventure back in the homeland.
The beginning of the month had us down in the Hunter Valley region to celebrate Allanah's 30th as I mentioned in last month's update. That was a great weekend away filled with a bit of nostalgia from when we got hitched back in 2017.
At the start of August we were free from lockdown - which was great - but that didn't last long for us. The week after we got back from our weekend away, we were notified that the Hunter Valley region had a few Covid cases. Because we were there during that time, we had to self-isolate for a week once we returned. What a bummer!
It didn't end there though. Just a week had gone past and Orange entered into yet another Covid lockdown, so we were confined to our house yet again.
To make isolation a little more bearable, Allanah had purchased a "Family Adventure Kit", which has little challenges inside that you scratch to reveal what you need to do. I'll admit, we've only done one challenge so far, but we had a bit of fun and good laugh doing it.
In the videos below, you'll see us navigating through our homemade "obstacle course" in the living room, blindfolded. The aim was to set the quickest time while your partner was directing you where to go. The kids directed each other, while Allanah and I did the same for us.
The first one is Addi's attempt (slowest time, lol), then Cal, and finally me. Funny how Allanah didn't get filmed though isn't it? Hmmm. Note: turn the sound on to hear the director shouting orders.
That was a good bit of fun for the fam. There are more options than just the family adventure book as well. Look up the Adventure Challenge books if you think this would be fun for you too.
Since we were seeking fun things to do while in lockdown, Allanah was savvy enough to find that the government offered "creative kids vouchers", valued at $100 per child. You beauty!
The voucher can be used with a registered activity provider for registration, participation and tuition costs for creative arts, speech, drama, dance, digital design, coding, and music lessons and activities.
Check out the link HERE if you have kids and want free money from the government.
We chose to buy a box full of activities and colouring pencils for the kids to dig into (cheese wasn't included).
The kids were still going to school at this time so we didn't whip out the pack until we were in full lockdown and they were stuck at home with us. They also got the chance to test out their cooking skills in the kitchen and they whipped up some cupcakes together.
But before the schools went into full lockdown, Callum had managed to do himself a mischief and fracture his wrist in the playground! Turns out it wasn't a fracture in the end and just a severe sprain, but he did get the honour of wearing a cast for a good week or so. Kids will be kids, eh!
Another fun way we spent our time was outside with Allanah's new fire pit she received for her birthday. We collected some supplies from the local Bunnings (yep, still open in lockdown) and set it up for the first family gathering around the fire.
We didn't have any kindling so we had to be creative and use some of our packing boxes as fire starters. There's no chance of us running out of cardboard any time soon, so it was a good substitute to get our mini fire going.
Not sure what the kids liked more; the idea of having a fire in the backyard, or the marshmallows they get to roast on the flames. I'm pretty confident it was the marshmallows!
SAVINGS UPDATE
No formal savings for this month. I know, I know. We did so well last month, but in August we had a few expenses to take care of.
One was the payment for our new dining table that our friend made, that we still haven't been able to collect yet thanks to lockdown. The other big payments were for a new air con on our property in Cobar and a few light replacements in the kitchen. Don't come at me for not replacing the lights myself, we are in lockdown!
Hopefully we are able to get our living room couch in September if it can be delivered from Sydney. That will be a fair chunk of change as well so that will impact our savings potential, along with paying the remainder of the cost for the new air con on our Cobar property.
We did still invest as per normal though, and shuttled a little bit more than $2,500 to our investment accounts, excluding Superannuation.
NET WORTH SNAPSHOT
Even though we didn't formally save in August, our net worth still increased ever so slightly. The main drivers are again our investment contributions, including Superannuation, and the growth of those assets as well.
You'll see that our net worth doesn't always go up every month and that's normal and expected. As long as the long term trend is up and you have good financial habits you'll likely be okay.
That's a wrap for another month! Hopefully we get a few more freedoms in September and are allowed to travel for the school holidays. Fingers crossed!
Blake - FIRE with a family