Welcome to my April diary! Another Net Worth Update, a $10 day out at the Zoo, some arguments on Instagram, an INXS concert and quality School Holiday time with Andy!
My Personal Update
All my family have contracted Covid and some of them have had a difficult time, especially with new babies and lack of sleep thrown in the mix! I’m surprised Andy and I have not had Covid yet to be honest. I decided that if I had Covid, I would want somebody to send me donuts.. haha. So I sent donuts to my brother and sister in law, who were going through a difficult period. No donuts for Bubby and Puppy though!
Have you heard of the band, “Don’t Change”? They are a cover band, singing INXS songs and they are amazing! I went with my friends to one of their concerts and I honestly had way more fun than I thought I would! These guys were incredible! The songs, the lead singer! The energy and the vibe was amazing and I highly recommend them if you love the INXS music! Such a great night out!
I went on one date this month which was nothing to get too excited about, unfortunately. It’s honestly hard to find the motivation to continue dating after such a long string of bad dates.. You can read about my Dating Horror Stories here. That’s right, there were so many, I had to put them in an article! This date wasn’t a horror date thank goodness, but it won’t go anywhere.
I’ve had some other family members and friends interested in the Kids First Aid course too which is wonderful! I’m a huge advocate for having current, up-to-date First Aid knowledge as it saves lives. For those that don’t need to have an official First Aid qualification but who need to build their First Aid knowledge, this course is perfect. It’s only 2 hours, all online and delivered by paramedics. It covers the 10 most common emergencies involving children and signing up gives you lifetime access. You can read my full review of the Kids First Aid course here. If you’re interested to get started right away, you can sign up HERE. Don’t forget to use my promo code TEACHINGBRAVE for a $10 discount.
Money
Net Worth calculation time again! I decided to do this just 3 times per year. I use the Net Worth Calculator on the MoneySmart website as it’s quick and easy to use. Calculating your net worth is simply adding up your assets, listing your liabilities (debts) and subtracting your liabilities from your assets. This is what it looked like for me this month:
Assets:
My Home: $750,000
Super: $167,911 (dropped in market value a bit)
ETF shares: $7379
Savings: $26,400
Website business: $5000 (difficult to calculate – probably worth more, but I’m listing it as minimum $5k – bank of 82 articles, traffic increasing, some regular revenue)
Car and belongings: $13,000
Total assets: $969,690
Liabilities: My mortgage: $530,418
Total Net Worth (Assets – Liabilities) = $439,272 (+$17,967 since Dec 2021).
Do you calculate your net worth? If not, why not? I like to keep track as it keeps me accountable and helps to remind me where to place my focus. This month, that will be ensuring I have some surplus to continue investing, as well as improving the business and therefore the business income.
School holidays means I get to spend some quality time with Andy and so we chose some activities, trying to not make them too expensive. We hadn’t visited the Sydney Zoo (western Sydney) yet, and so we planned to go together. I redeemed one of the NSW Govt Parent vouchers ($50), we packed our own food for the day, I used a Petrol voucher I was gifted for my birthday, and the parking at the Zoo was free. All up, for a day out at the Zoo for Andy and I, I spent $10! This just goes to show, with a little bit of planning, and being savvy with vouchers and discounts, school holiday activities don’t have to be expensive!
Who else keeps an eye out for clearance racks in stores such as Target, K Mart and Big W? Take a look at this outfit I scored at Big W for Andy – total of $2 for the T shirt and shorts! That’s even better than Op Shop prices! Sometimes clearance racks are hit and miss, but when it’s a hit, it can be a real hit!!
I bought a $99 Gel nails kit from Priceline last year and I no longer get my nails done in salons! I do my own nails at home and it saves me HEAPS of money! Shellac (gel nails) manicures used to cost me $30 per visit, but now I do it myself, in front of the TV and I’ve made the money back that I spent on the kit (Opallac kit) many times over. Rainbow nails this month! The kit comes with 3 colours, and extra colours cost $20 each but they do last ages. I’m most certainly NOT a sponsor for Priceline or Opallac, I just love my nail kit! Do you get your nails done at a salon? Would you ever consider doing your own, to save money (and avoid the crowded salons)?
Parenting and Co-parenting
Andy spent half of the school holidays with his father which gave me some time to spend on my blog, on time for myself and catching up with some friends. For the second week, Andy and I spent some time together doing some fun activities. One of the days was the Sydney Zoo day which I described above. I think I enjoyed it even more knowing I only spent $10 for the whole day! Highlights were seeing this huge saltwater crocodile so close!, as well as the Orangutans and the elephants.
Another school holiday activity Andy and I enjoyed was an Escape Room! Have you ever tried one of these? I thought this one was quite hard! We actually didn’t make it out! (Haha, no, we are not still trapped inside, but we didn’t solve the puzzle in the required time). Andy enjoyed it though – we might have to try an easier one next time..
One of the benefits of having flexible work from home is being able to attend Andy’s school carnivals if they are on, take him to medical appointments without applying for time off work, and being able to be at home with him if he is sick. Andy had his cross country carnival this month and it was actually right across the road from where we live. It was wonderful to tell him, “Yes Andy, I’ll be there to watch you!” Andy has also been excelling in his soccer and his karate, with coaches telling him he has improved a lot! We have been planning one of his speeches which he will present next week. He needs to talk for 3 minutes about Australia Day. I’m proud of the effort he has put into the research for this! Andy won 2 public speaking trophies in Kindergarten and Year 2 and helped me put an article together with Public Speaking Tips for Kids! I’ll publish that later this month.
We also had a trip to the Children’s Hospital this month to check on Andy’s kidneys. Andy was born with a smaller kidney and has kidney scarring from some issues he had as a baby so we regularly check his kidneys with Ultrasounds and scans every year.
Professional
I caught up with some of my teacher friends this month and I can’t believe how many stories I am hearing of teachers wanting to leave the teaching profession! I honestly feel there is too much expected of teachers and early childhood educators, with an unsatisfactory award wage! I have friends who have been child care Directors, full-time school teachers, and early childhood educators and most of them are just getting burnt out! How are we supposed to ensure quality care and education for our young children if teachers are not paid adequately and are expected to put in so many unpaid hours? It makes me question whether I will ever take on another full-time teaching role.. time will tell.. as will the success of my website business!
I just may take up that casual teaching position soon.. I know the money is decent for casual teachers. I am qualified to teach primary school, up to year 2, as my degree covered age groups 0 – 8. While I did apply for a leave of absence from teaching through the NESA portal, I know I can always reverse this if I feel the need. You can read my article on NESA accreditation here.
Does anyone care to teach me how to use one of those classroom smart boards?? I can handle behaviour management and I’ll figure out the lessons, but the tech stuff? I might need the kids to help me.. haha.
Teaching Brave Update
I was perusing the Flippa platform this month and I almost bought another website – I pulled out at the last minute and decided I needed to learn more! Call it cold feet – maybe it was, but it’s a scary decision! One day soon I’ll buy one but I don’t want a welding website or a fishing website! If you’ve ever bought a website, please let me know! I would love to hear about your experience!
I’ve had some consistent traffic on the blog which I’m pretty happy about! Google Analytics can give me some pretty detailed data and this shows me which articles are performing well and which ones get the least traffic. Good SEO definitely makes a difference! Thank you to all of you who have been reading my articles and letting me know you enjoy them! If you would like to help my traffic a little bit, you can always make a comment under any one of my articles.. : )
In April I published the following articles:
Hospital Bag Checklist; HELP! What Do I Pack? – When I was packing up to go to the hospital to have my son, I remember feeling like I was missing important items from my hospital bag! Although this will be individual to you, I wanted to put an ultimate list together to help prompt people as to what they may or may not need. If you’re pregnant and thinking about packing your hospital bag, check it out. It’s pretty comprehensive!
Mother’s Day Gift Ideas – The Ultimate List – Not long to go now! This list has about 100 ideas – there’s unconventional, quirky ideas, traditional ideas, DIY ideas, low cost ways to celebrate Mother’s Day and just a few extra ideas thrown in. Seriously there’s HEAPS of ideas.. check it out – you only need one or two of them if you want to spoil your mum!
Extracurricular Activities; Kids Don’t Need Them All! – At one point, I had Andy doing way too many extracurricular activities – we didn’t have a spare afternoon and it was starting to negatively affect our wellbeing (and my pocket!). So, I wrote an article discussing why extracurriculars are important and how it can benefit our children; their well-being and their development, but how doing too many can be damaging. I think it’s an interesting read.. let me know what you think!
I posted the above Easter meme on Instagram this month and I received some serious hate from some accounts who criticized me heavily for talking about kids and chores. Even though this was only a meme, these accounts were seriously judgemental! I was honestly shocked and I’m curious to know what other people think about chores, kids and pocket money..?? Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with encouraging kids to complete some household chores and earn small amounts of pocket money for SOME of those chores. I believe some chores should be completed as a contribution to the household.
GUEST POSTS:
I did a guest post interview with Equip Super this month – I had a chat about my personal financial situation and about how I started my investing journey during Covid. The interview is yet to be published. I’ll put a link in my next update.
I wrote an article about Schoolyard Bullying and how it can be prevented for a fatherhood blog. Also yet to be published – I’ll publish the link next month.
I connected with a lovely woman named Aja from MilkieBra.com this month and I interviewed her about her home birth experience. I cannot wait to share my interview with Aja with my readers – it certainly taught me a lot about home births and I hope my readers enjoy the article too! Keep an eye out for this one – it will be out later in May.
As always, you can support my blog by subscribing! This simply means that links to weekly articles will be sent straight to your inbox! No payment involved, no spammy content, just my articles. Thank you to all my readers for your ongoing support!
Liz. : )
Disclaimer:TeachingBrave participates in affiliate marketing and may receive a commission (typically 1-2%) on any products you buy through affiliate links. This is typically a small amount and is not charged to you the customer, but instead comes from the affiliate marketing program not having to pay for conventional advertising.Any commissions made are reinvested into site development to ensure a better user experience. I will never recommend an affiliate link for a product I do not use or vouch for myself.
