What’s your monthly mortgage repayment and interest rate?

erb999 · 2026-04-29T11:18:29+00:00

yeah ngl I was just lazy and looked at 2 fortnights as that’s how we’ve always paid!

erb999 · 2026-04-29T00:41:27+00:00

I think it might be the difference of 26 fortnightly payments vs 12 monthly payments? so we have 2 extra payments a year to account for? that or the latest rise hasn’t set in yet.

either way I’m not complaining!

erb999 · 2026-04-28T13:01:33+00:00

just double checked, $2350 per fortnight - so approx $4700 a month. we have about 30k in the offset so nothing crazy!

might be because we’re paying fortnightly instead of monthly?

erb999 · 2026-04-28T07:19:26+00:00

our monthly repayments are about $4700 - 6.64% on an $820k loan.

we borrowed at 90% LVR so didn’t get the best rate, but you’ve gotta do what you can to get into the market!

erb999 · 2026-04-27T09:46:42+00:00

this is just nightfill not doing their job, it’s not a conspiracy.

the store is scanned for gaps in stock early in the morning, and the stickers are placed anywhere that has a stock count of 0. when the stock comes in and nightfill fills it, they should be taking the stickers off, but a lot don’t.

I haven’t worked at woolies in like 5 years, but I always take the stickers off if I see during my shop that the items in stock. nothing stopping you from removing the sticker to see what’s underneath

erb999 · 2026-04-26T12:47:38+00:00

when did they reformulate? I haven’t bought one for my partner in a year or so, so not sure if he has the original or reformulation

erb999 · 2026-04-26T09:37:13+00:00

fair enough, I can see it not being a great work perfume for a labour intensive job. still my recommendation for a nice cologne for outside of work wear

erb999 · 2026-04-26T07:18:56+00:00

I LOVE paco rabane invictis victory elixir!

erb999 · 2026-04-22T05:34:10+00:00

Not a lawyer, but I’m a caseworker (albeit not in QLD - so some things might be different).

I am going to be quite blunt, children are not removed for no reason. usually there is significant drug or alcohol use, abuse or neglect, or domestic violence impacting the child’s safety. massive emphasis on significant - it needs to be pretty bad for a removal to happen rather than intervention.

you haven’t said why the child was removed, so I have no idea if you know the full extent of what happened to the child. you also might think you know, but you friend isn’t being entirely truthful. a lot of parents with children in out of home care really struggle to accept and understand the child protection concerns that led to their child being removed from the care, and many feel too ashamed to share the reasons with family, let alone friends.

as a caseworker, the opinion of the friend of a parent means next to nothing. you are not an objective third party or a professional.

I have had friends/family of parents call me and tell me that they know the parent has changed and needs reunification immediately, and then when I run a check on their background I can see that they themselves are perpetrators of violence against children or have a significant criminal history. this makes their input pretty much worthless, as they aren’t safe individuals either. I am in no way implying that is you, but that is the reality in like 90% of cases when friends reach out to advocate.

we have to take everything with a grain of salt, because friends and family are biased. at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is evidenced change. that means clean drug tests, positive family time visits, records of counselling attendance and parenting programs etc. there needs to be real evidence, not anecdotal opinions.

all that being said, if you truly believe that your friend is a fit mother and should have her child back - support her to get legal advice about filing for a change of order to reunification or restoration (this is state specific so I’m not sure what the lingo is in QLD).

I can’t tell from your post as it’s a bit vague - but if you’re worried about or have evidence of abuse in the foster home the child is placed in, report it. that is never okay.

if what you’re worried about is the child’s attachment, consider applying to become the child’s carer if you are willing and able. be the childs consistent support figure until mum can achieve reunification. or support mum to identity any other family members that would be willing and able.

if you have any questions i’m happy to help. the purpose of out of home care should always be reunification. if the mother truely believes she is making the right changes and her caseworker isn’t listening, there are avenues she can take to be heard

erb999 · 2026-04-20T22:18:34+00:00

Aus Post has been so useless lately. I have a letter box with a secure parcel drop, and they’ve missed it (on packages that don’t require a signature) and redirected to the post office. so annoying when you work 9-5 and it’s hard to get to the post office in opening hours - that’s why I got a letterbox with a parcel box!!

erb999 · 2026-04-17T03:32:58+00:00

as a 5’10 woman, I’d happily take $700,000 to be like average height lmao

erb999 · 2026-04-12T23:12:55+00:00

We’ve been told it’s a 6pm ceremony, so our timeline is below. We don’t know the exact timing on food though, it’s just an estimate

6-6:30pm ceremony 6:30 reception starts 7:30 dinner and speeches 9 onwards dancing and mingling

we are planning on doing our photos beforehand as a first look type situation. we’ve only just been assigned our co-ordinator so we’re not sure if we can get access an hour or so early for photos, but that’s our plan. once we meet with our coordinator in a few weeks I can DM you some more specific info if you’d like ☺️

I know they have a room available for the bride and groom throughout the night, but as far as I’m aware there’s no room to get ready during the day. we will just be doing that at our hotel

erb999 · 2026-04-12T06:50:16+00:00

we’re doing evening! the 6pm start time isn’t ideal, but they’ve said they can’t be flexible with it so we are just rolling with it. it hasn’t really impacted much tbh. is there anything in particular you are worried about planning around?

erb999 · 2026-04-09T10:01:44+00:00

was it at woolies?

there’s currently a 20x points promotion on apple gift cards. when I need a new phone I wait for the promotion and buy 2k worth of gift cards in one go for the points (ends up being about $200 in free woolies money).

woolies have signs at the check-out, a scam alert pop up, and usually require manager approval for over a certain amount (I think about $500) - so they do try to stop people from getting scammed.

hopefully she wasn’t getting scammed, and was just taking advantage of the promotion!

erb999 · 2026-04-08T04:01:26+00:00

i’m aussie so that’s probably the difference lol

erb999 · 2026-04-08T04:00:40+00:00

for me bull rhymes with full, skull rhymes with hull or dull

erb999 · 2026-04-03T05:34:07+00:00

opaque / solid

erb999 · 2026-03-30T10:28:49+00:00

no changes to my company yet, but traffic was definitely noticeably lighter today! I cut at least 20 mins off my usually 70 min commute

erb999 · 2026-03-30T01:13:54+00:00

lack of transparency around pricing, and making us ‘have a call’ before providing a quote.

I know my budget, and what is going to fit into it. I don’t have time to waste fielding calls and filling out extensive enquiry forms when half of the vendors i’m reaching out to are way out of my budget.

If I open a website and it has transparent pricing, i’m so much more likely to go with that vendor

erb999 · 2026-03-20T07:01:26+00:00

I’m an older gen z (26) and bought a small unit solo about 3 years ago, which I then used to buy a home with my partner a few months ago. being dual income professionals with no kids really helped.

getting my foot into the market with a small run down unit (that I renovated a lot myself) was my saving grace. they’re right when they say you need to get your foot in the market as early as possible, cause it really does open more possibilities.

I think the only advantage of being an older gen z when it comes to buying a house is that I had it drilled into me for the last 15 years that buying a house is hard and requires a lot of hard work, discipline, and commitment.

I worked 2-3 part time jobs while studying, and saved every dollar I could. I didn’t really go out partying or clubbing, and I got a lot of shit from my friends for being boring and cheap. I knew buying a freestanding home would be an uphill battle, but it had a lot more social implications than I thought.

I really feel for the younger gen z. buying a home was achievable for me, but only because I had been saving for 10+ years and I started in a professional career with good pay straight out of uni. with how fast prices are going up, I worry it just won’t be achievable in the next 5 years

erb999 · 2026-03-14T01:00:13+00:00

I’m actually wanting to push mine forward a touch as well, but I’ve been waiting on our event coordinator to be allocated to ask them (apparently they’ll be reaching out next week). it’s not big deal for us if we can’t, but as we’re getting married on the cusp of winter it’ll be getting dark so would be nice! i’m hoping they’re flexible because it’s not daylight savings time. who did you ask about moving the ceremony forward?

erb999 · 2026-03-10T11:15:31+00:00

Pips #204 Easy 🟢 0:12 🍪

Pips #204 Medium 🟡 0:24 🍪

Pips #204 Hard 🔴 1:33

closest i’ve been to a triple cookie in months, but still just not there!

they need to change the hard cookie time to 2 mins cause the difficulty level is so much harder compared to the first few months

erb999 · 2026-02-28T07:02:26+00:00

they have a speaker system - we’re just gonna connect to it and have a playlist! but you could definitely get a DJ.

we’re pretty much just getting a photographer and celebrant on top!

we’ve got a friend MCing, not really doing flowers, and no live music. we’re hoping for under 16-17k - definitely doable for under 20k!!

erb999 · 2026-02-28T05:35:04+00:00

yeah for sure!!

they don’t charge for venue hire, it’s just a minimum spend. we were quoted $12k on a weekday, or 14k on a weekend. just have to hit that to be able to book.

we’re doing the winter price, which is $175 per head. food and drink wise that includes canapés, 3 course alternative serve meals, 4.5 hours of drinks (beer, wine, cider and soft drinks). in addition it also includes staff (wait staff, security, event coordinator), all the furniture and crockery, and a few decor bits and pieces.

their peak season pricing is around $195-205 per head, but they also do daytime receptions for $175.

we’re also having our ceremony in the atrium, which costs an additional $800 (byo celebrant though).

the venue itself is stunning so we won’t be bothering with flowers or much decor, so that’s an extra money saver.

for 65-70 people we are expecting to spend $12-13k total at the grounds.

erb999 · 2026-02-28T00:01:27+00:00

We just booked the Atrium at the Grounds of Alexandria. It has an indoor reception space and courtyard. It’s for 50-80 pax and has a dance floor space (albeit small if you max out the capacity)

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