Thankyou. The serving size for hot seems to be much smaller today than I recall it being. Are we suffering from temperature shrinkflation?

May I please have some hot

I used to have a great cold weather look when I was working in the city (many years ago). Long black coat, suede gloves with fur trim, and a black fur scarf and hat. Now that I I only have a few minutes passing between car and buildings I am much more the random hodge-podge look.

I do not like that forecast. I looked at the predications for the next week and the coldest mornings are all the ones I’m working (which means 4am wakeup). Two days -1, one day 0, and a pleasantly warm 2 degrees for the other. There should be an extra penalty rate or allowance for early starts in below zero temperatures.

I just picked up an overtime shift and my inner accountant is thrilled. The rest of me is not so pleased with the addition of another early morning wakeup to my week ☹️

More than the 3% that government policy caps the offer for all their other workers at. But the politicians themselves and the executives get to have different rules.

Well, 11.5 degrees looks to be as warm as I’m getting today. I’m off to have a stroll around the neighbourhood with Mr Woof.

Victorian public service executives have now been awarded a pay increase between 3.5% and 4.3%.

I washed the woolen underlay I use as a dog blanket a couple of weeks ago and hung it outside to dry. I missed taking it in before rain hit so it had to stay out longer. Now I have a magpie coming in regularly to collect nesting material from it, so I guess it has to stay there now.

On the other hand when you have to answer “yes” it starts opening up a bunch of complicated questions to wade through. I put a small amount of money into some investment funds a couple of years ago and now I get to wade through a whole bunch of extra questions, all over tiny amounts of money. It’s all stuff like $20 of franking credits, $2.31 in foreign investment offsets and $6 of capital gains. I’m looking forward to hitting the age I can access Super and can just shove money in there and take it out tax free without all the hassle.

I think USA has the additional complication of having both State and Federal income taxes. There also seem to be a lot of things that can be deductable there that don’t apply here - like mortgage payments on your own home and the value of donations given to charity (not just money, but stuff like old clothes you drop off at the op shop!). Plus they have the option to file a joint tax return as a couple instead of being treated as two individuals, which is beneficial in some circumstances but not others.

It’s certainly a massive improvement on the old paper forms. The early electronic lodgements were also basically just the paper form online, all of this automatic stuff makes it so much easier.

I know they get a lot of hate, but I actually like the new short Coles paper bags. They have about the same effective carrying capacity (unless you are buying something really light like a bulk purchase of marshmallows) but are much less likely to end up torn. They also seem more stable, things don’t end up rolling around inside the bag as much. The larger bags almost always ended up torn during delivery when they had cans of cat food and similar in them, it hasn’t happened once with the shorter ones.

I’ve also seen it more dramatically stated as "don’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm ".

It comes up a lot on the caregiving Reddit sub, there are way too many people who are manipulated into prioritizing other people’s needs above their own.

The last time I did my tax that quickly I realised later I missed something and had to do an amendment. Turns out it meant the tax refund I had already received was higher than it should have been, so I had to repay the ATO 8c.

Gratitude update: I am now also grateful that my application for critical illness insurance has been accepted with no fuss and I will not be needing to have a blood test.

Getting a lot back means you have overpaid during the year for some reason, if you only get a small return it means that you have had the use of that money earlier instead of giving the govt. an interest free loan.

I should be getting a decent return this year because I paid a fair bit extra into Super, plus a bit for the rebate on health insurance premiums. Unfortunately I have some money invested in EFTs and it always takes a few months for them to put together the final statements so I can’t put in my return and get the money back until that is done. I’m looking forward to the time after I retire and I can have all my investments in a nice simple tax free super fund and not have to worry about all this tax return nonsense.

The Remuneration Tribunal that determines the wages of Victorian politicians has just released it’s determination. The government which has a policy that govt. sector employees should have wage rises capped at 3% has just been awarded 3.5% raises for themselves.

I am grateful for my cat who is acting as a purry lap warmer, my dog who acts as personal trainer and motivates me to be active even in cold weather, and for my large supply of eggs as I hear they are currently a bit hard to come by.

I’m starting off the new financial year with pay day today. A bit of a tax cut and a sliver more Super. If the new EBA gets through there will be a pay rise in a couple of months. Not enough to keep up with the CPI increases of the last couple of years but it’s nice to be finally closing the gap a bit.