Birdy Bathing Time

Spooki and Squeak having a shower in the rain

We had a little bit of rain this afternoon, so I took the opportunity to let the birds have a shower the way nature intended. Not really captured in this photo but they loved it, Squeak was walking around on the botom of the cage and and was almost rolling around, head right down on the bottom of the cage wings up.

It was just wonderful to watch, I had taken Spooki in the shower with me but she didnt seem to enjoy it just sat there, so to see them both fluttering around and turning themselves inside out was bilss.

Harvest

The first harvest of carrots and beetroot. I sould have had something in the picture for a size comparison but for an idea the beetroots are about the size of golf balls. The carrots are supposed to be "baby" Carrots but I think that is just a little bit too baby, maybe another order of seeds might be comming up :0)

The Blossoms begin

The Almond tree is starting to blossom and there are little green shoots of leaves starting to appear too. Spring is definitely here.

Weekend Jobs

Well that's another week over, so now its time to think about the weekend and what needs to be done, but most importantly what do I want to do. So yet again it is time for the lists to begin.

Inside:

• Sweep/vacuum floors
• Tidy up kitchen table and kitchen benches
  
• Sort out HECS money I owe to the tax dept, put in separate account and set up reminder to pay in March.
  

Outside, Frontyard:

• Pull up weeds
• Decide on locations for the plants from Arid Lands to go (some of the larger ones may go along the front fence, creating a screen/backdrop for other plants)
• Sort through seeds and see if there are any flower seeds that can be planted
  

Outside, Backyard:

• Clean poop from chooks house
• Give fruit trees a water
  
• Plant lucerne, red clover and nasturtiums under Fruit Trees, under the pea straw that is there (after they have been watered and the ground is nice and wet)
• Sort through plants under Carob tree and discard any dead ones and store pots
• Clean up under Carob tree throw out rubbish, and rake up leaves, just make things look tidy.
• Clean gutters, using our newly purchased ladder.
  

I'm sure there is lots of other things to do around the place but that's what comes to mind now, how much actually gets done is another matter.

My money, My interest

After Spending 5 years at uni I have a HECS (now called HELP) debt that I have to pay back.

Now most people in this circumstance just tick the box on the tax form when they start work that says "I have a HECS debt" which means that payroll takes an extra amount of tax to cover the amount you will have to pay, which is what I did when I started working.

What I didn't realise until I got my statement after I started working (no more fees added) and the amount I owed hadn't gone down at all even though I had been getting money taken out of my pay for it.

After talking to the ATO I discovered what actually happens. I had thought it would be like a normal loan and when you made a payment then that amount came off the total, but what actually happens is that that money is collected by the ATO and put in a holding account then at the end of the financial year when they have your complete taxable income (from your tax return) they then work out how much you owe and then take that out of the holding account, returning the left over to you as a tax return.

So after finding this out I decided that if its not coming off my debt then I would rather stick it in my own "holding account" and earn interest on it while it is sitting there. Now as I have been told by my accountant this is fine to do as long as you realise that you will get a bill at the end of the year and you have to be disciplined to put that money away and not touch it.

So far so good, earlier this week I got the ATO letter, which usually comes with a cheque attached, but this year it was a bill (which I was expecting), but the amount that is in the account is more than the bill is which means I effectively still get a tax return.

Because I'm on a salary I set up a automatic transfer for each pay, but lately I have been fortunate enough to do some overtime, meaning that each pay is different. More pay means more you have to pay off your HECS debt. What I have been doing is looking up the tables and adding the extra amount to my HECS account. But I have now found that the ATO has a HECS calculator for working out how much you need to pay as a compulsory payment. Its much the same as the tables but you can be a bit lazier and just put in some figures and out come the figures you need, well almost, it only works on yearly figures, but that's just a matter of multiplying my fortnight;y pay by 26 then dividing the amount it spits out by 26.

The bank account I put the money into is an online account with high interest but low accessibility (perfect for what I need it for) and it also has the added bonus that within the one account you can set up sub-accounts so I have one for "emergency/big bills" and one for HECS, but now that I don't have to pay last financial years HECS until March next year I am going to set up another one so I have two HECS accounts, one for last financial year one for this financial year, and leave the money sitting there until March next year earning me more interest.