Monthly Expenses
Rent: $1,731 (split with my husband, I split all the below costs with my husband)
Utilities: $200
Netflix/Amazon Prime/Spotify: $20
Health Insurance: $0 (it's covered by my company)
Internet/Cell Phones: $142
Superannuation: 3.5% of our salaries (company contributes 11.5% of base for each of us)
Investment Properties: $900
Pilates Membership: $67
Les Mills On Demand App: $8
Security/Alarm: $30
Lawn Mowing/Cleaner: $150
DropBox: $10
Car Insurance (annual): $680
Car Registration (annual): $700
3:35 a.m. - I wake up and walk across to the camp gym. I use the treadmill and watch an episode of Suits on Netflix. I head back to my room, shower and head to the mess (translate from mining speak, the dining hall). All of our meals are supplied up here because we aren't allowed to leave the site or camp, and even if we did, there is nothing around for miles and miles. I pack a salad for lunch, take some fruit and make a coffee, then drive the tiny little distance of about three minutes to the mine site for work. My shift starts at 6 a.m. every day, but I usually get there earlier to attend department pre-shift meetings and chat with night shift workers who are finishing their shift.
6 p.m. - The rest of the day continues like normal, lots of meetings. I leave site (our shifts are 12 hours) and head back to the village. As a manager, I have a car, but most people catch a bus or walk if it's not too hot (today reached 114 degrees, yesss Aussie summer!). I drive myself and my colleague to our rooms and head to the mess for dinner. I spend the meal discussing the recent food quality at the mess and debating if the dessert bar is worth it tonight (spoiler alert, it is not) before heading to my room about 7:30. I shower then read on my Kindle before bed. I am reading A Beginners Guide to Freefall by Andy Abramowitz and love it!
3:30 a.m. - Repeat of yesterday except today I do a workout from my Les Mills app, BodyPump, which is an hour-long strength workout with high reps...walking will be tough today! I head back to my room, shower, and I'm out for the day. The best part about my job is that I have to wear specific clothes provided by the workplace, for safety reasons. They are by no means sexy (high visibility yellow long sleeve shirts, navy blue drill pants, steel-capped boots), but I never have to pick what to wear or pay for work clothes! Out the door by 5:20 to get to work.
7:45 a.m. - Breakfast is a banana, peanut butter, and protein powder smoothie. I also have a coffee from the machines at work, which aren't amazing but get the job done.
3:30 p.m. - A day of spreadsheets and numbers, so I listen to Spotify off my laptop. I mix it up with Lizzo's new album and whatever plays from "Australia's Top Hits." I resist the chocolate box and eat a muesli bar and crackers at my desk that I already have up here.
8 p.m. - I have cleverly figured out that rather than hauling my beauty and skincare products to and from work each week, I should just buy doubles of everything. So I have both on-site and at home serums from The Ordinary, Dermalogica, and a few others. I recently started using a dark spot corrector for some pigmentation on my face, but it's really hard up here in the Aussie sun to protect your skin!
3:45 a.m. - I go to the gym for another run and Suits session. If it sounds like I go to the gym nearly every day, I pretty much do because my job is long sedentary hours. I get back to my room and get ready for work. As mentioned, I use a variety of different skincare pieces, day time calls for epic sunscreen. I also wear a small amount of makeup up here. I wear concealer from NYX, mineral powder from Nude By Nature, and mascara. Whatever mascara I happen to have, I am not fussy.
8:30 a.m. - Today is "fly-out day," so I'm heading home! It also means the day is shorter as I have a plane to catch. Everything is hectic on these days. Breakfast is slightly later due to people issues (I am in HR, after all, my job is mostly people issues - good and bad), so I have the same smoothie and some dark chocolate. It's dark. It's healthy.
2:30 p.m. - I depart site for the airport, with 99 other people, on several buses. It's hot, we're all tired, and ready to fly back to life. Even though I've only been up here for four days this swing, some have been here for eight or even 14, so everyone is pretty keen to get back to Perth!
6:30 p.m. - The most exciting part of the day - we pick up our dogs from my mum. I miss their stupid wrinkly faces so much when we're away! We get home to our food delivery ordered a few days ago, put that away, and cuddle with the dogs in front of Netflix. We are both always so tired on fly-in night so we watch whatever we land on, and head to bed about 9.
8 p.m. - We continue our Festivity of Chill in front of Netflix on the couch with two snoring dogs. We can't agree on what to watch (also, I may have binge-watched anything remotely good without him so have to lie and pretend I don't "feel" like watching You). We rent the new Joker movie. It's good, but very intense! $4
12 p.m. - Fly-in day is not fun. I have lunch we picked up from the mess when we landed. Coffee coffee coffee. I have to tell someone they are about to be fired today. This always happens over the weekend and I fly back into Shittown. Not the most fun part of my job but mining is a very hardcore industry focused heavily on safety and standards, so people really need to behave!
7 p.m. - I head to my room at the earliest possible time I can finish. After showering and skincare, I browse my Kindle store for a new read, I get Grown Ups by Marian Keyes. That's two non-scary serial killer type books in a row, go me! Magnesium, fish oil, and lights out by 7:35. $12
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