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1st - The good life
7th - Making do
9th - Experimenting
13th - Old and new habits
15th - Romance gone wrong
20th - One step at a time
26th - Blunder Free Zone
The good life
Feb 1, 2006
Am feeling nauseatingly content of late, as my 'Felicity Kendall' transformation moves up another notch! As I look around, even with the drought, things are looking pretty idyllic. Apart from the pampered donkeys on our two acre block, we also have two cows, two calves and they have recently been joined by Friday and Bob, two pet lambs courtesy of the neighbours. Technically the sheep were acquired with the sole purpose of keeping the grass down in our new orchard, but Bob keeps making a break to join the cows, leaving poor old Friday to chew out the orchard on his own and berate Bob loudly for being a rubbish friend.
At least Friday is getting plenty of company from me, as I have to walk through his domain to get through the vege garden every day at the moment and reap my bountiful harvest. Somehow the remains of the garden managed to survive Noel wreaking havoc on it with the fish fertiliser and it is currently producing big time. I love playing the hunter-gatherer! After starting off at an average of one bean a week, I'm now picking basketfuls and freezing them. We have beefsteak tomatoes, plum tomatoes and cherry tomatoes all groaning under the weight of their fruit, which I gleefully relieve them of and use to make pasta sauces and home made tomato sauce. The sweetcorn did not survive being pounded by the fish brew from hell, but is probably just as well or it would have been suffocated by the pumpkins now winding themselves across half the garden. We still have a lot to learn about growing our own produce, but nothing beats eating something you have grown yourself!
I'm hoping that from now on our little garden will be even more productive, thanks to my latest purchase - at last I am the proud owner of a worm farm! I did heaps of research (and I mean HEAPS) on caring for and maintaining my wiggly friends and shopped around extensively for the best deal before finally settling on what appeared to be the most suitable for our family's requirements. I bought it brand new on eBay and you'll be pleased to know it is Australian made! The Can-o-Worms was described as 'the town house of worm farms' and included 1000 worms in the price (you need that many to start your farm off nicely). I had to admit it was kind of funny getting so excited about meeting my new worms, particularly as I used to run a mile from any I had ever had the misfortune to come across in the garden. But these ones are different! They are my pets and are here to do a valuable job. I can't wait to go and feed them and see what they're up to every day! Even at this early stage, there is evidence of the 'liquid gold' natural fertiliser they produce in their bottom tray - although Noel wasn't impressed when I told him to go and have a look and a dead worm fell out when he turned the tap!
As mentioned, I did do a fair amount of homework before setting up my farm and there are all kinds of ways of doing it. One site I did find valuable is relatively new, but has a really friendly and helpful online community of people and is called Aussies Living Simply (www.aussieslivingsimply.com.au) - the perfect place to seek advice from other would-be Felicity Kendall types, who are striving towards, or already enjoying self-sufficiency. Really good for owners of small blocks like me, who like to keep a few animals and want to learn more about making their patch of heaven as productive as they can. I think I have even just about managed to convince Noel to let me keep a few chickens - he would never let me before as I wanted free range ones and he kept telling me the dogs would get them or they'd ruin the garden or poo on the veranda along with various other excuses. Unfortunately for him, the neighbours recently went away, leaving me in charge of their three laying hens and taking care of the feeding and egg collecting. Penny the hunter-gatherer strikes again! Through them, I discovered the perfect system, which allows them to do happy free range chook things, yet will keep them protected and will leave my garden and veranda unaffected. Even Noel hasn't found a way to argue against my perfect logic yet - where there's a will, there's a way!
Making do
Feb 7, 2006
Whew, what a busy week! Dropped the kids off at school this morning after 49 days of school holidays - yippee, we survived the summer break, and so it seems has our bank balance! Mind you, I shouldn't be surprised, I have managed to save sooo much money recently!
For example, just by keeping my eyes open and checking my statements properly I noticed I had been over charged by $130 on one bill, and when I went to buy a birthday present online in the Pumpkin Patch sale, I noticed they had charged me $11 too much. Once upon a time I would not have even noticed, or just coughed up the extra amount without saying anything, but not any more! Our family is also saving around 50% on shampoo since I bought two plastic pump bottles for a couple of dollars and transferred shampoo into one bottle and conditioner into the other. It is amazing how little is actually needed to wash my hair effectively - three squirts of the pump is all I need for my long hair and Noel and the boys only need one squirt each. We are all using half as much as we were before and my hair certainly doesn't seem to be suffering for it. I also picked up a plastic spray bottle at the same time and use this to refill from my large cooking oil bottle. I use so much less oil in my cooking that way, by spraying instead of pouring - not only does it save heaps on oil but it has to be better for us!
One topic which has cropped up again and again during the school holidays is 'Making the best of what you have'. Isn't it funny what you can talk yourself into thinking you need? For example, one of my favourites lately has to be the Penny Wise solution to buying a swimming pool. Several of our friends have pools and although the boys and I were having a wonderful time swimming at the local pool every day, I decided that it wasn't enough - I wanted a pool of our own. I envisaged that it would save us money on pool entry fees and petrol into town and back each day, but I didn't realise just how much a pool was going to cost. An inflatable pool wasn't an option with a water loving dog like Ella around (having already wrecked at least two) and even eBay options proved to be either too pricey or too decrepit to consider buying. I was feeling a bit frustrated and sorry for myself as I couldn't justify the expense or need for a pool, but really wanted somewhere the boys could play and keep cool when it was really hot. Luckily an idea soon came to me and it cost me nothing! Some time ago a friend was moving to a smaller property and asked if I would like the old painted claw-foot bath that had sat in her garden. Being sought after items these days and none too cheap, I snapped it up. It had always looked very chic at her place and had been filled to overflowing with nasturtiums, but although it was a focal point in our garden I had never gotten around to really doing anything with it. So, out came the hose! I filled the bath, let the water warm up in the sun for a few hours and plopped in some bath toys. The boys had a ball in the sunshine, having water bomb fights, playing and even snorkeling in their new 'pool'. Later on, I just brought out some soap and shampoo and they had a wonderful time getting clean in their outdoor bath, before helping me bucket out the water and using it to water the plants. Even Noel was happy to jump in it to cool off after mowing the lawns!
My best saving though is definitely the one that came about this weekend. By thinking outside the square (and thinking like a Simple Saver) I have saved us hundreds, if not thousands on home renovations! Liam and Ali have always shared a bedroom, because they wanted to, but at seven and nine it was becoming increasingly clear that they needed their own space. This was not going to prove easy though, because daft as it sounds, even with our huge house, there is actually very little space for bedrooms. I had worked out a plan, which involved cutting through walls and so forth, and we were waiting for a builder to come and give us a quote. I wasn't looking forward to this because there were plenty of other things on the house and garden agenda which should really come first, but the fighting between the two boys was driving everyone mad.
On the whole, I consider ourselves quite lucky in that the boys get along really well, but after weeks of being stuck at home together on holiday, the wait for a builder to fix the problem was proving painfully long. The last straw came when Liam was caught throwing Ali's possessions out of the upstairs window and I narrowly managed to intercept a tiny blonde whirlwind hell-bent on revenge, removing a large kitchen knife from the drawer and heading upstairs with it! It soon became apparent that if they weren't separated soon, the proverbial you-know-what was going to hit the fan. A solution had to be found quick smart.
I was lamenting my situation with Maxine at one of our daily discussions at the swimming pool when both our brains started ticking over. I was thinking about some of the stories I had read on Simple Savings and how people had made the best use of what they had to avoid adding an extra bathroom, or creating bedrooms from small spaces and so on. Before long, we had the answer (and now I look back I don't know why I didn't think of it in the first place!) The bedroom Noel and I share is huge and directly on from this is what is supposed to be a large walk-in wardrobe, but it is of such a size that it is actually big enough to serve as a small bedroom. By swapping bedrooms with the boys, this would actually give them a large enough area that they could still be together, yet have their own space. Better still, we could do it straight away and it would cost absolutely nothing! No builder, no mess, no cost. Noel and the boys thought it was a fantastic idea too and we set to work at the weekend.
It took us two whole days and was a huge mission but the result is just perfect. Ali volunteered to have the smaller room and he is snug as a bug surrounded by penguin pictures, his beloved stereo and his goldfish. Liam loves his new big room with plenty of room for friends to stay and Noel and I are quite happy with our new room too. We still need to make a few finishing touches - at the moment we are sleeping with a giant sized poster of Shrek in our room, but I have got quite used to the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling! I'm so proud we were able to come up with a solution without spending a cent and very glad of those Simple Savings stories to set me on the right train of thought. It certainly pays to make the best of what you've got!
Speaking of which, did you see last week's copy of That's Life magazine? Issue 5 (February 6th 2006) featured a story on Linda Cockburn and her family in Tasmania, who set themselves a challenge to spend nothing at all for six months. At the end of the six months, they admitted it had been extremely challenging at times, but they had managed to live on $11 a week! What an amazing achievement and one which has been documented by Linda in a book called 'Living the Good Life', published by Hardie Grant. It's a book I can't wait to get my hands on!
Experimenting
Feb 9, 2006
I have been experimenting with all kinds of money savers lately! Having an abundance of tomatoes, I decided to use some of them to make semi-dried tomatoes, using Laura Diete's recipe from the Vault. What a result! They are so simple to make and absolutely divine - so much so that I had to hide them from myself to avoid polishing off the whole lot! While drying my tomatoes, I also used the opportunity to make some home made muesli that I had been meaning to try for some time. It is a recipe from Destitute Gourmet's 'Stunning Food from Small Change' and is called Judith's Muesli - it is aimed to try and encourage youngsters to eat a healthy breakfast but is just as good for adults! This recipe makes enough to fill one of those large cereal containers:
6 cups medium rolled oats
½ cup coconut
½ cup oil
1/3 cup honey
2 tbsp molasses (optional - I didn't have any!)
12 Weetbix, crushed
1 cup dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, apricot, banana chips, whatever you fancy!)
Preheat the oven to 180C. In a large bowl combine the rolled oats and coconut. Melt the oil, honey and molasses together and stir through the oat mixture until thoroughly combined. Toast in two or three batches in a roasting dish for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven, add the dried fruit and crushed Weetbix and mix through. Store in an airtight container.
Neither myself or the boys are big cereal eaters, but this one is really delicious and just seems to taste so much yummier being home made!
One experiment I tried in fear and trepidation really paid off and involved our tropical fish tank. Even though the tank was just a few months old, we had been having trouble with 'green water' since way back in October and there was no sign of it abating. I tried everything to try and fix the problem - reduced the lighting, rang countless pet shops and experts and had numerous 'magical' products couriered out to me but nothing did the trick. The tank was as clean as a whistle and everything was working as it should, but still the poor fishies were swimming around in pea soup. Last week in desperation I brought up the subject yet again with the local pet shop lady, who couldn't believe that the regular products hadn't done the trick. She suggested as a last resort that I try a pond conditioning tablet, which I was a little perturbed about, but as she said, there was nothing left to try! A single tablet was enough to treat my 200 litre tank and cost just $3.00. It was a chance I had to take as the fish couldn't remain happy and healthy as they were, so I dropped in the tablet and crossed my fingers that the little green square wouldn't kill them all off once and for all. 24 hours later I wasn't impressed. By 48 hours I could see the back of the tank - I could not believe it, I was able to see fish that I hadn't known whether they were alive or dead for FOUR months! I rang the lovely lady at the pet shop and gushed down the phone at her, she was delighted but I don't know who was more surprised, her or me! After all the expensive tropical products I had tried, one measly $3.00 pond tablet did the trick and the tank looks fantastic and crystal clear.
I have also been experimenting with health insurance following an interesting feature in one of the Simple Savings newsletters a couple of months back - based around the question 'is it worth it?' We used to have private health insurance several years ago, but when we hit hard times it was the first thing to go. With two children being born since and my recent costly bone scan experience I was seriously considering looking into insuring our family again. Not having anything like iSelect in NZ to glean information from, I perused the Consumer website (www.consumer.co.nz) which is akin to the Australian Choice website I should imagine. There I found heaps of interesting and helpful information which I was able to print off and read through with Noel. It even narrowed down all the various providers to give us what they considered the best options cover, premium and claim wise for our family's requirements. Of course I had great delight in informing Noel smugly that we could save even more on insurance premiums if he would give up smoking!
Scored a great unexpected saving this morning when I visited the Warehouse looking for a birthday present for my little niece. Having two hulking great boys I was struggling big time trying to find anything suitable for a two year old girl, but finally settled on a My Little Pony playset for $39.95. I was dead impressed when I reached the checkout and the computer scanner brought the price up at just $20 - a saving of 50% - and no I was not going to query the price! I couldn't wait to check my docket to confirm my saving. I was also really impressed that I had managed to survive a visit to the Warehouse and ONLY bought what was on my list, resulting in a very brief visit. The only thing I wasn't so impressed about was my main visit for having to go to the Warehouse in the first place, which was because I washed Ali's curtains in his new room yesterday (they were all musty where the room had never been occupied), only to pull them out of the washing machine and found they that the stuff used for the curtain backing was definitely not suitable for washing! They were completely ruined, so a trip to the Warehouse was necessary to buy new curtains. At least I managed to save about $40 by buying roller blinds instead of replacing with regular curtains!
Old and new habits
Feb 13, 2006
Here we are, mid way through February and I haven't even told you what my 'habit changer' on my calendar is for this month. Probably because I'm too embarrassed to admit I'm still working on the same one - is it alright to carry the same habit over, do you think? I was supposed to be giving up the grog, but I kept making excuses - 'it's a long weekend', 'today was SUCH a busy day' and so on. However, I'm happy to say that this month is much, MUCH better, as I have found something that is really working - crossword puzzles! Instead of a bottle of wine, I have been treating myself to a copy of That's Life and Woman's Day magazine each week. While I consider magazines to be an unnecessary luxury as a rule, they still work out much cheaper than a bottle of wine and they are serving a valuable purpose! Now after dinner, instead of pouring myself a glass of wine, I sit and do some puzzles. It is very important that I do these, because if I don't complete them and send them in before the deadline, I have no chance of winning the competitions and I feel like I have wasted my magazine purchase. Doing the puzzles keeps my mind occupied and is a great way to unwind. I have found doing these means I don't even think about drinking as I am too busy! So, while my magazines may cost up to $10 a week, I am still saving $40 a week on wine. My reward is being able to enjoy reading the rest of the magazine in the bath!
An unexpected bonus of keeping busy at night is that I am much more organised. Instead of flapping around every morning making school lunches and so on, I make these at night and keep them in the fridge, so school mornings are much less stressful. I am even saving on water and power! Usually when I fill up the dishwasher after dinner, there are still enough dishes left to do another load. I used to leave them until the dishwasher had finished and then load them up again (which was a really bad idea, because sometimes the cycle wouldn't finish until after I had gone to bed, meaning as well as having to make lunches when I got up in the morning, I would first have to clear the bench of dirty dishes!) Not any more! Now I load up the dishwasher as usual, but instead of leaving left over dishes for the next load, I keep a dish rack on the bench and simply wash them by hand and leave them to drain. I even keep up with the ironing better, as I stand and do it in front of the TV at night, instead of just sitting in front of the TV with a drink. It's so much nicer to go to bed at night and feel like everything is done! All that, just as a result of ditching wine!
I was particularly proud of myself for not drinking last week, when Noel was away in a week-long game fishing competition. I don't cope with being on my own at night very well; in fact I become totally paranoid. When I am finally brave enough to turn the lights out and go to bed, I have both the home phone and the mobile phone under my pillow. Noel's large hunting knife is within easy reach under the bed, with a large heavy torch beside it. On the bedside table is an empty wine bottle (not a good look I know, but highly necessary for clonking intruders over the head if needed) and a can of hairspray (to spray in their eyes if need be). I have even been known to push tables in front of the doors so nobody can open them before now! Usually I have to have a fair few glasses of wine to help me get to sleep when Noel is away but I am proud to admit I got through the whole week without doing so. Mind you, I still ended up being totally sleep deprived as the kids wanted to come and sleep in my room, so I was forced to endure night after night of being snored at, kicked, elbowed, freezing from having the blankets constantly dragged off me and generally pushed out of bed. All in all, it was enough to drive anyone to drink, but it was still better than being on my own!
I found it to be a very frugal week with Noel being away. I didn't need to make any trips to the shops because we didn't run out of anything the way we usually do (which just goes to show how much bread and milk he consumes!) and I only needed to do ONE load of washing all week! He may be expensive to maintain, but I did miss him terribly, which is probably why for once I intend to surprise him for Valentine's Day tomorrow and have been picking up some great ideas from the Vault.
Noel and I may well qualify for the World's Most Unromantic couple. It's not that we love each other any less, or are any less thoughtful towards one another - we're just totally unromantic and have no problem admitting it. When we got engaged, I pointedly hinted that I would like a ring for Christmas. Noel waited until Christmas Eve to drag me out to a jeweller, because he couldn't think of anything else to get me. When I found a ring I liked, the man behind the counter smiled 'Now, which finger is it going on?' at which Noel replied 'Oh yeah, you might as well put it on that one I suppose, it'll save me buying another one later!' The marriage proposal was much the same. “Hmm, I suppose we had better get married before we climb too far up the farming ladder and get too busy”. Such was my proposal! The two of us can never believe it when we go to weddings and find the bride and groom and everyone else in floods of emotional tears - we spent our whole wedding ceremony laughing! As we stood in front of the church altar back in 1994, I remember commenting that Noel's fingernails were very clean (he was farming at the time). “Yes”, he said proudly, “my Mum gave me a manicure - she did my toenails too!” I couldn't help thinking at the time 'Here we stand before the face of God, our lives are about to change forever and we are talking about my new husband's toenails'.
Tomorrow will be our 15th Valentine's Day together and I haven't received anything since 1992. We both went all out the first year; the second year Noel came home and said 'Here you go, I was going to buy you some roses but they were too bloody expensive so you can have some carnations instead'. Not that I'm any better, which is why this year I want to surprise him! Remember the glow in the dark stars I recently gained from swapping bedrooms with the kids? I just read a new hint by Tamara Hamann, which suggests buying a pack of glow stars, which cost just a few dollars and sticking them on the ceiling to read 'I love you' or whatever. So when the lights go out, your special message is revealed! I thought that was really romantic and costs next to nothing, so will be giving that one a go tomorrow, but I still have plenty more tricks up my sleeve yet thanks to the Vault. My unromantic hubby won't know what's hit him!
Romance gone wrong
Feb 15, 2006
As predicted, my husband didn't know what had hit him yesterday, but things didn't go according to plan at all - unfortunately, he really does look as though someone has punched him following yesterday's escapades. Sigh, let me explain the saga of Noel's teeth...
As I mentioned recently, I had found the Simple Savings coverage of health insurance very interesting. The main reason for this sudden interest was due to dental purposes. As a youngster, my teeth received the utmost care and attention, but when I emigrated from the bountiful land of free dental care (England at the time!) I got one heck of a shock to visit my first dentist 'down under' and be charged $400 for four fillings - only one of which I had known I needed. To lessen the blow somewhat, I did get a discount of $50 per filling, (as Noel had been one of the dentist's wife's favourite pupils at high school), but at just 19 years old and setting up home together, this was not money we could come up with at a moment's notice. Consequently we were loath to repeat the experience again and neither of us visited the dentist again for a long time … like about 15 years (don't cringe!) Honestly, we did mean to visit the dentist more regularly, it's just that we couldn't bear the thought of having to part with hundreds of dollars every time we needed treatment, as we never seemed to be in the position to have any spare funds for that sort of thing. Then once the kids came along, our priorities changed again and well, we just never seemed to get there.
Consequently, although my front teeth do look perfectly respectable as in my new cartoon, to my mind if a dentist were to look in my mouth these days, he would find my back molars closely resembling Gouda cheese - you know, the one with all the holes in? I know, it's my own fault, and Noel's are no better. The evil thing about avoiding dentist visits is, if you don't go, all that neglect is going to catch up with you in the end and in Noel's case it most definitely has. His back teeth have been giving him grief for months and over the last few weeks one in particular has been giving him hell. I've been watching him for days digging at it with a toothpick, then cursing at him for keeping me up half the night gargling noisily with Disprin, not to mention taking a course of antibiotics. At last he could take it no more and I managed to get him along to the local dentist. Who informed him that three of his wisdom teeth need to come out, not to mention the one that is giving him the most problem at the moment. This would need to be done under general anaesthetic and would cost $2000. In addition, he needs a further $1000 work done on the rest of his teeth to get them all up to scratch. To top it all off, he was going to have to spend another eight weeks in pain stuck on a waiting list before the job could be done.
As you can imagine, I was not about to throw a party at this news. I mean, they're teeth! You can't just leave them; you have to sort them out. What really hurt me almost as much as Noel's tooth was paining him though, was that the sum of $3000 was the exact sum of money we have had put by in our savings since May 2005, so we could give the outside of our house a much needed coat of paint. For nine months that money had sat safely, while we patiently sat on the waiting list for the painter to get round to us, and in one fell swoop the blasted lot was in jeopardy. I could quite happily have wrung his neck to be honest! Don't get me wrong, I did feel sorry for him, but what rotten timing!
A plan of action was needed. Noel decided that the thing was, his wisdom teeth weren't actually bothering him, it was only that one back tooth which was causing the immediate problem. The dentist had put a temporary filling in it, but it fell out after two days and he was back in agony again. Seeing as a general anaesthetic would not be needed for this particular tooth, he decided to simply shop around for another dentist who was willing to take the offending tooth out as soon as possible.
We found one in the city who was willing to fit him in yesterday morning and extract the tooth then and there. Thank goodness it was finally getting sorted, I thought and welcomed Noel back from the dentist happily. I wasn't even that perturbed to see that he that he looked uncannily like a vampire, complete with ghostly grey pallor and blood trickling out the side of his mouth. 'They botched it up!' he mumbled, stuffing more cotton wool in his mouth. 'In fact, they botched it so badly that they didn't charge me anything. I have to find an oral surgeon to fix it up and go back on the waiting list'. Poor Noel. After an hour and a half trying to wrench the stubborn tooth out with pliers, the dentist exchanged worried looks with her assistant and out came the scalpel. Despite being butchered for a further half an hour, only part of the tooth came out, leaving the roots of still firmly embedded. The dentist has no choice but to stitch him up, apologise profusely and send him on his way.
So we wait for the next instalment. Poor Noel's face has swollen up like a football and he has great trouble talking, which is most inconvenient for someone whose job revolves around talking on the phone. At this stage we are trying to get him into the local hospital for emergency dental treatment and to add insult to injury two of my teeth have started bothering me, but they'll just have to wait! Consequently Noel was feeling far from amorous for Valentine's Day yesterday, so all my romantic plans had to be shelved - there didn't seem to be any point cooking a slap-up meal for someone who can only cope with milkshakes and soup!
On a brighter note, I was delighted to receive a phone call from Noel Leeming. Five years ago when I bought our flash new Kenwood stereo, I was talked by the salesman into paying an extra amount to have a five year extended warranty. With two pre-schoolers at the time getting into everything, even I had to admit it probably wasn't a bad idea. As time went on, the tape decks broke, but that didn't worry me as we never listened to tapes any more, so I didn't bother fixing it. However, when the CD player started acting temperamental I checked my warranty and found there was less than a week to go until the five years was up! So, I shot it back into Noel Leeming to get it fixed a bit quick. Imagine my surprise when the phone rang and the assistant told me to come and pick up a brand new replacement stereo! I couldn't understand what I had done to deserve that, but I was told that under the five year warranty, if the faulty item was unable to be fixed, or proved uneconomical to do so, a full new replacement was automatically given. Hooray!
One step at a time
Feb 20, 2006
Isn't it amazing to think there are almost 8,000 hints in the Vault now?! When I joined Simple Savings, several thousand hints ago, I have to admit that it was a while before I started getting the most out of my Vault membership. I mean, all those hints - where's a girl to start looking? I found it all a little daunting, until I read a Savings Story by a woman called Beth Pastore (I think it was called A Simple Journey to a Better Life, but don't quote me). Faced with a huge money saving challenge, Beth and her husband coped with the enormity of their task by choosing one hint from the Vault each week to try out until they grew more confident. I thought this was a great idea and chose the same hint as Beth to start with - prolonging the life of razor blades in a dish of olive oil. Anyone who has read this blog over the past few months can testify how well this works! Anyway, from then on I never looked back, so a big thanks to Beth for showing me how it can be done.
These days, I take the ever-growing contents of the Vault in my stride. If there's a new way to make a saving, bring it on! The great thing about Simple Savings is that the information is always there. Some hints I will read about and go and try out for myself immediately; others I will make a note of, or just store somewhere in the back of my mind until the right time comes along. One such example is what I call a 'birthday book' and I know this kind of thing is used by several members. At the beginning of the year, I got a little notebook to keep in my bag. I wrote the name of each month on a separate page and the corresponding dates of any friends and family with a birthday that month. This way, when I am out and spot a potential bargain, I can check my birthday book, see who's coming up in the near future and take advantage of the great price. It means I am always organised for birthdays (which saves me heaps on buying cards too as I can buy as many as I need on special). Also, it means I have plenty of time (compared to the usual last minute purchase) to make sure I choose the right gift for the right person. One such fine example was at Christmas, when I impulsively bought my Mum some expensive body butter - it smelled fantastic and I thought she would love it. Instead, she got the wrong end of the stick and scolded me rotten. 'What on earth did you get me that for? I haven't got anyone to lick it off!' she tutted. I did try to tell her that she had got her body butter mixed up with body paint and that what I had bought her was a perfectly innocent product, but somehow I don't think she believed me!
Of course, the birthday book can also be modified for Christmas gift buying throughout the year as well - I'm just not that organised yet. However I have been organised enough to start compiling a 'gift box' - another Vault idea, so that when I do come across a bargain that's too good to miss, or decide to make a gift of something that I already have, such as an unwanted raffle prize, I just pop everything into the gift box and next time I need to find a gift or donation for someone, there is plenty for me to choose from. Saves a lot of rushing about believe me!
Yep, I've been trying to get organised this year - so much so that my frugal thinking even saved me a trip to the dump the other day! I had loaded up the car with several busted plastic laundry baskets that had broken handles, cracked sides and so forth and were no longer useful - so I thought. It was just in the nick of time that I decided to sort out my linen cupboard, which was driving me mad as everything had a habit of falling out the minute the door was opened - and there was the solution! The broken baskets were brought back in from the car and quickly put to good use - one for pet blankets, one for dust sheets, one for rags and tea towels. I can't believe I almost dumped them! My linen cupboard is tidy and organised for the first time in three years!
Another big change I have made is regarding baking - or spending any time in the kitchen whatsoever in fact. I used to hate baking of any kind - as far as I was concerned it was a total waste of time slaving over a hot oven only to have your family polish the whole lot off within a few hours, how unrewarding was that? Not so these days! I love spending time in the kitchen cooking for everyone, singing along with the radio and watching the boys drool over the latest offerings hot out of the oven. Yesterday alone I whipped up a dozen chocolate and banana muffins, a batch of brownies and no less than 60 chocolate chip cookies (thanks to an awesome Destitute Gourmet recipe - tastes just like the bought cookie dough!) Instead of feeling chained to the kitchen sink, I feel proud that I am doing the best for my family. The kids' lunchboxes have never looked so good! Instead of coming home from school and grabbing a Roll-Up or packet goods, they reach for the baking. As Mum and I discussed yesterday, her generation was brought up on nothing but home made food and they certainly didn't suffer for it!
A quick update on Noel's teeth. He dropped in at the emergency dental department at a city hospital last week. While no appointments are taken and he had to endure a wait of a couple of hours to be seen, he was delighted to report that the remnants of his tooth could be removed without the need of a general anaesthetic as first thought, for the sum of $170. A big change from the original $3000! He was really impressed with the service and would have no hesitation in going back for further treatment. High praise indeed from one so cynical!
Blunder Free Zone
Feb 26, 2006
The new 'Blunder Confessions' and Three Step Plans have been making me chuckle - no doubt because I have identified with so many of them in the past! What a neat idea, and a great way to get your financial mistakes off your chest, move on and develop a plan to make sure it doesn't happen again. Mind you, I am pretty much a 'Blunder Free Zone' lately. The Simple Savings way of life has become so automatic that I manage to be frugal 99% of the time. I was really proud of myself last night, as it had been a really tiring day and I could hardly bring myself to cook dinner, so I suggested we go and get takeaways. 'Why not?' agreed Noel, 'we haven't had takeaways for ages'. But you know what? I couldn't bring myself to do it! Not when there was already plenty of food in the house and there was no way I was going to waste petrol on a trip into town just for that. So I stayed at home and it really didn't take much time and effort to defrost some meat, roast some spuds and throw some vegetables together in a cheese sauce. I felt so much better! Even Noel commented proudly that I had only filled up my car with petrol twice in January, so he can see how hard I have been working to save us money.
So why then, if I'm being such a miserly martyr is our bank balance worse for this month than it was the previous month - even with the post Christmas slump? I'll tell you why - it was Noel who made all the blunders! Teeth problems not included of course, but there were week-long fishing trips with mates, too many meals bought out, cash withdrawals all over the place, not to mention horrendous amounts of petrol. Of course I could see clearly through my budget spreadsheet and Bill Payment system where all the money had gone! However, instead of being angry, I was extremely smug. When I confronted him with the bank balance, I tried to soften the blow a little by saying 'we really must tighten our belts next month dear', to which he replied 'Yes, I think I did spend rather a lot this month'. Well that was all the trigger I needed and I couldn't help sounding self righteous as I agreed that actually it wasn't really 'us' who had spent too much, it was all him. After years of the boot being on the other foot and having to justify my pointless purchases to him, it was hugely gratifying to be able to point the finger right back and say, 'Yes, it was you! You were crap, matey and I was the good one!' Even he had to see the funny side!
Still, there are still plenty of ways I can improve on the progress I have already made. This week I set up an automatic payment to transfer $200 per week into a Credit Union 'Living Expenses' account. I plan to use this to cover my spends each week on food and all the other little incidentals that crop up, such as chemist, Post Office and that kind of thing. I don't know how suitable an amount $200 is having just started it, but so far I still have $99 left in the kitty until the next payment, which is only three days away! I chose $200 after talking to some of the women at Book Club, who couldn't believe how I could spend less than $200 at the supermarket online in a whole month, when they were spending $250 there in a week. Obviously they seem to make a weekly pilgrimage to the supermarket and buy everything there they need, which I don't. I can't bring myself to pay supermarket prices on many items and I have neither the time nor inclination to drive the 80 minute round trip it takes to get to the supermarket - not to mention I am too stingy about my petrol now to waste it on a big trip each week! $250 each week sounded to me like a huge amount, but apart from the monthly online purchase, I actually had no idea how much I did spend each week in comparison, by buying my bread, milk, fruit and vegetables and any other necessities elsewhere. So, I have made it my mission to find out! I chose $200 as a good round figure to start with - others may think this is heaps for a family of four, I have no idea until I get into a routine, but I would like to think I could certainly manage on less than $250 a week. Luckily, I have the perfect tool to help me keep tabs on exactly what I'm spending - it's a nifty little gadget called a Spendtracker!
I pinched the Spendtracker from Fiona when I was in Australia last November but I have only just disciplined myself to start using it properly. It looks and works a lot like a calculator, but instead of adding amounts up as you go along, you enter in your budget to start with, and it subtracts each time you enter a purchase, so you always know how much spending money you have left. So in my case, I enter in $200 on the Spendtracker every Monday when my latest automatic payment goes in. Then I enter each purchase I make through the week and every time it gives me the new total of how much I have left in my account. It is a slim, credit card sized wee device that is easy to carry around in your wallet or pocket. If there is anything left in the account by the time my next payment goes in, the remainder gets transferred online into a goal savers account. This way, I know I am never going to spend more than $800 per month on our food and living necessities and don't risk any nasty surprises when the bank statement comes. Of course it's a bit of a fun challenge for me too, as I want to see how much under that $200 I can spend each week and try to keep improving on it! You can find out more information about Spendtracker at the following website: www.spendtracker.com
I can't wait to see the results of this experiment, I'll keep you posted!