We get a lot of small pays in each fortnight - the biggest is $550. Then some other ones once a month.

My pay goes on the pay-in-advance thing and any smaller bills, say under $300. Partner's goes on food. FTA goes on mortgage. Monthly pays go on any large bills (these have always been house related - land clearing, replacing windows, buying a fence etc). It seems to work. Our house deposit is in a high interest account that is hard to get to so that is where all our savings comes from, just interest on that.

I should really start saving for a car but we are going to be so close to the edge when we get the second mortgage that I think all our tax returns and any of our house deposit we don't use are just going to go straight on the new mortgage. We have one of those low income loans so for the first couple of years our payments won't even cover the interest, so the lower we can get the new loan the better.