I got robbed

Saturday night I came home from 2 days in Canberra to discover I had been broken into and everything of mine was stolen. By mine, I mean they only took MY things, nothing from anywhere in the house except my room. Clothing, shoes, jewellery, make up, skincare, perfume, even my underwear.

I had been in my new house 1 week exactly. I felt so sick. I had a feeling before I pulled up to my house that it had been robbed. Actually, I felt it when I was in Canberra, but thought it was my old house. All my electricals such as TV and fridge are still there. I stopped by my old house first and it was all fine, so figured I was being paranoid, but as I pulled into my street my stomach felt like lead. I just knew.

There were used fireworks near the side of the fence which I thought was weird and figured someone had used my backyard while I was gone. (That happened once when I house sat. Gone one night, came back to beer bottles in the yard.) As I opened my gates and pulled the car in, I started to feel even sicker.

We got out of the car and as I walked to the house I noticed a plastic bag and prayed it was just rubbish left on my lawn. I went inside and as soon as I hit the hall I could see - my stuff was gone.

I called the police and they were fantastic. They arrived 2.5hrs later, but were so good. I called my dad straight away. All I could get out at first was "I've been robbed" and I was in tears, he didn't even know who it was. He talked me through and calmed me down.

The next morning I called the insurance and they arranged for an assessor to come out. Despite not having updated my details it turns out I am covered for 14 days after moving for both addresses, old and new.

The assessor came out on Tuesday and when she stepped up to the porch she commented "I've been here before. This house has been robbed before."  Great, just what I want to know.

Unfortunately I can't get out of my lease and apparently the area I live in is actually not commonly hit, but there were a string of robberies the week I got done.

All up I lost over $25k worth of stuff. I am so grateful we weren't home. Stuff can be replaced, but who knows what could have happened if we had been here. Plus, my kids are completely unaware anything happened. They went straight to bed as it was 11:30pm when we got home from Canberra. The police were here at 2am and when the fingerprints were done at 11:20am, my kids were at church.

Scary thing is, we went to church about 8:30am and I got a call at 11am for the fingerprints. I left my kids with my mother in law there and when I pulled up home my garage was broken into. I even felt before I left for church I should check it but was too scared to open the door. I am kicking myself now. The police and insurance said it is common for the thieves to stash items and come back later.

So, it has been full on here with moving, getting robbed and other things in my personal life, but things are getting back on track now.

Cuts in my expenses for 2013

Yesterday I posted my budget. One of the things in there, that goes under miscellaneous is my therapy. I see a psychologist every 2 - 3 weeks to help with my borderline personality disorder (and it has helped  so much. I have improved drastically.) It costs $170 a session

Anyway, today my psychologist told me of a new program starting January 1, 2013 in my area which I would be eligible for.

Basically, the Government is going to be fully covering treatments for the type of therapy I need. My psychologist is registered/accredited for the program, so instead of paying each time, it would be bulk billed straight away to Medicare. 18 visits would be covered and since my visits are starting to get spaced out from fortnightly to every 3 weeks and hopefully will be spaced out further soon.

At the moment I do get some treatments which are partially covered by Medicare, but last year the Government slashed funding for mental health, making it harder to get treatment covered. I get back $122 from 10 visits a year, so this new program will save me thousands.

I am very excited about it. Also, as of January, my youngest daughter will be eligible for a $250 payment towards her speech therapy, as well as a payment from my health insurance, plus I can apply for Centrelink assistance for her which would see my income increase by $114 a fortnight. This payment from Centrelink would also mean a $1,600 payment at tax time. This will really help with her treatment.

So while everything is pretty much maxed out for this year (government assistance, private health etc.), from January my expenses will be much less.

My income also looks like it will be increasing fairly soon, in a more steady manner, compared to the rather up and down income I have at the moment.