Well, a whole lot of changes are going to be happening in the next few months. Michael’s mum gave us the ‘ultimatum’ - get out today or we can get the tenants out of the apartment they bought for us in 60 days. I originally was hoping to move to Tasmania before living in Melbourne again - I’m missing my family a whole lot more and stuff, which isn’t doing my mental/emotional state much good, but we’re going to give living here by ourselves a shot.

Then there’s the problem of money - our rent is $300/week. A WEEK, people. That’s $600 a fortnight, which is more than my fortnightly paycheck. This then means that I have to start working full-time, which I don’t necessarily want to do before moving out because it means we’d never get any washing or cleaning done. BUT I need to do it before we move out because we need money for the bond and furniture and stuff like that. I don’t know how much I’ll be earning, but we might be a little better off if I go full-time.

We’re already making decisions, like phone calls will be made on our mobiles only, unless it’s to a number that mobiles can’t connect to, in which case we’ll use the landline. But hopefully that would cut down the landline bill. Next thing is internet - we need internet because I make money through the ‘net with my designs site and stuff, so that’s a definite. Next, there’s furniture - we’re looking for as much second-hand furniture as possible in our area. We’ve hopefully got a couch lined up already, as well as a fridge (but that’s not certain yet). We also need a couple of barstools for our breakfast bar thing in the apartment, and two bedside tables. If you know of any in Melbourne and the owners are willing to transport them for us, please let me know!

Finally - bills and food. On Michael’s wage and my part-time wage (keeping in mind I’m going to be going full-time from 26th Feb 07), I worked out we’d have $885 a fortnight for bills and food. Fair enough. That just means we need to keep down on DVDs and entertainment stuff until we’re well settled.

It’s such a headache for us but hopefully we’ll get through it. If anyone has any advice in terms of finances please let me know!