Fiona Lippey,
Miser Extraordinaire and
founder of Simple Savings

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I've got the power!    

Jun 7, 2006

I apologise in advance for any spelling mistakes, I’m trying to type with gloves on! Jings, it’s FREEZING! Makes this power saving lark a bit of a challenge I can tell you. Not that I mind not having a clothes dryer – my drying racks do the job very well (I have an 8kg top loader and I can fit an entire load on one large rack and one small one). Another bonus is that the room always smells lovely while the clothes are drying! Well, normally it does – my nose is actually too cold to smell anything today. Anyway, freezing or not, my power saving efforts are paying off. I have never complained about our power bill; I’ve never thought it was unreasonably high for a family of four, but apparently there is sufficient room for improvement. I realised this a few months ago when our lovely power company gave us all a rebate (I can’t remember why but it was much appreciated!) and while the average family I spoke to said they got about $200 credited back to their account, we got well over $500 back! I thought this was very impressive until they pointed out that the reason we got so much more is that our power bills must be far higher than theirs!

Judging by the hints in the Vault, it seems most Simple Savings members receive their power bills quarterly – ours are monthly. I don’t mind – they get paid by direct debit and we receive a prompt payment discount of around $30 a month. Anyway, do you remember not so long ago I decided to empty our beer fridge and turn it off? Noel thought I was overreacting at the time, even when I pointed out the fact that it didn’t seal properly and made puddles on the floor. Undeterred I continued and couldn’t believe it when the power bill came the other day. Now, even though since we stopped using the fridge I have had to start putting the heaters on in the boys’ rooms at night and running a dehumidifier, since I turned off the beer fridge, our power bill has gone from $294.22 for last month to $171.24 this month! A saving of over $120 – even though we’re using more appliances for heating! You only have to read the Savings Story in the current Simple Savings newsletter to see how those old fridges can suck up the electricity – I think our one will be on the next trailer load to the dump!

There’s still plenty more power savings to be made around here though. My next experiment is to turn off as many power points as I can each night, not just a select few. The Vault hints are always saying that appliances left on standby still waste power and I couldn’t believe it when I went to lock up my office last night and counted no less than eight little red standby lights winking at me in the dark, in just one room alone! I was quite shocked! So from now on I am going to try and switch off as many appliances as possible before going to bed each night and see how much of a difference it makes to the next power bill. While I think of it, a quick update on my shampoo experiment – the same bottle is still going strong after 40 days so far!

While on the subject of shampoo, I found the newsletter section on pretend bargains rather interesting. I got sucked in myself by a false bargain just a few days ago! My local store sent round a flyer to say that my favourite V05 shampoo was on special all week, down to $3.49 compared to the $4.99 I usually pay. $1.50 a bottle less was a pretty good saving I thought, so I made sure I picked up two bottles the next time I was in store. The very next day I happened to be walking through a supermarket when I saw that the exact same bottles were on special for an even better $2.99! I was a bit miffed as you can imagine but at least something happened shortly after that cheered me up.

I had Liam with me as we had spent half the day at yet another hospital appointment for his foot and decided as it was just the two of us that I would treat him to McDonalds. It was during the lunchtime rush and we had to wait for ages to be served. While we were waiting I noticed two flustered young Mums in the queue next to me, busy trying to keep their four hungry toddlers happy. I was impressed to notice that they were ordering the healthiest options from the menu for their children, but then I realised that they were about to order bottled water for the children and themselves. At $2.00 each to order a bottle for each of the four children and both Mum’s, they were about to part with $12 on water alone! I couldn’t stand to watch them, so I said ‘Excuse me, did you realise that you can ask for water in a cup with a straw? It won’t cost you anything!’ I had never used this tip myself with my fizzy guzzling pair, but I had recently read about it in the Vault. The two women had never realised they could do this either and couldn’t wait to try it out! Sure enough, they were rewarded with six free cups of water and the kids loved their ‘proper’ McDonalds cups with lids and straws. Made me feel great to save them some money and my false shampoo bargain no longer felt so bad!

It’s amazing how much money you can save if you really put your mind to it and there is no better example I can think of at the moment than a Simple Savings member called Barb Kane. In an email which blew me away, Barb wrote to tell me how she recently took menu planning to a new extreme, using what she calls ‘The $21 Challenge’. After her well-meaning husband returned home with a $20 note for her (considerably less than she had been expecting as she had asked him to get her some cash in order to go grocery shopping!) Barb asked him jokingly ‘How am I supposed to feed the family with that?!’ She found another $1.00 coin in her pocket and decided to set herself a challenge to see how long she could make her $21 last. It wasn’t easy, but with some planning, baking and careful shopping, Barb successfully managed to feed her family of four (including 17 year old twin boys!) for the entire week on her $21. What an inspiration! Barb was kind enough to share all the details of her week’s menu and I promise all shall be revealed in due course. I couldn’t wait to tell Maxine about Barb’s achievement and she was blown away too, so… we decided we’re going to have a crack at it too! Yes, next Monday we will be doing our own week-long $21 Challenge, how exciting! Is anyone else game enough to give it a go? Email me for more details - let's start a Simple Savings trend!

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Glutton for punishment    

Jun 12, 2006

I admit, I came very close this weekend to giving in and rushing off to the nearest electrical store to get a tumble dryer. With the run of bad weather we have been having, the pile of dirty washing was almost as tall as me. Both drying racks were strewn with damp washing which seemed to take forever to dry and the two loads of washing on the outdoor clothes line had been consistently rained on for eight days. ‘It’s no good!’ I wailed to Noel, ‘I’m just going to have to give in and get a dryer, we can’t go on like this’. ‘Don’t panic, I’ll help you – we’ll get the lot done this weekend!’ he assured me, and the mission was on! We cranked up the log fire and stood the racks in front of it (at a safe distance of course) and before I knew it, the first rack-full was dry and quickly folded and aired to be replaced by another load, and then another. Washing lines were strung across the back porch and hung with clothes, bucketfuls of muddy rugby gear was put in to soak and gradually the monstrous pile began to dwindle. Wonder of wonders, later in the afternoon the wind actually began to blow in a helpful direction! The racks were transferred outside onto the deck and the washing from eight days ago finally was dry enough to remove from the line. All in all, we managed to get no less than eight full loads of washing clean and dry in one day – what a team! What a relief too, that’s one challenge I won’t be keen to go through again for a while, but at least next time I’ll be prepared!

Talking of challenges, what a fantastic response there has been to Barb Kane’s $21 Challenge, I think the number of members eager to take it up has risen to around 50 over the last few days, what a brilliant effort! I’m starting my challenge today and it’s just as well because the last week has been another expensive one for the Wise family. Yes, we’ve been spending time at the vet’s again; not with Ella for a change but Dudley. I could tell something wasn’t quite right with him a few days earlier, but I was so full of the flu that I couldn’t smell the tell-tale pong of an ear infection until it had reached the chronic stage. As soon as I realised, I headed to the vet to pick up his usual ear drops; these usually work like magic and I was surprised to see 48 hours later that he wasn’t feeling much better. I decided to leave it another day or two and keep giving him the drops, but the very next morning Dudley decided to take matters into his own hands. As I was bundling the boys into the car to take them to school, Dudley ran out the door straight to the car, something he never does (Dudley doesn’t ‘do’ mornings very well). There was no way he was letting himself be left behind, so I gave in and decided he could have a ride to school and back. I lifted him up into the car and was horrified to see that one of his eyes had turned completely blue and was surrounded by yucky gooey stuff. The poor dog was desperately trying to tell us he couldn’t see! So off we went to the nearest vet, who took one look at his eye and almost fainted before referring us straight on to another vet. Further tests showed that he had a huge ulcer behind his eye (ouch!) and he had absolutely no vision through it. So, he was swiftly booked in for an operation to sort out both his eye and his ear and the following day I picked the little chap up again, very sore but once again able to see. I was extremely grateful to the vet, but unfortunately am now another $500 worse off. Will it never end?

I vowed to the vet that I thought that guinea pigs would make a far lower maintenance pet for us in the future, but we both knew this was not going to happen as this weekend heralded the long-awaited arrival of Ali’s very own puppy. Tui the Cocker Spaniel is just six weeks old and came to our home yesterday. She is black, with a white blaze on her chest, just like the native NZ bird with the same name. With this in mind, I congratulated Ali on an inspired choice of name, but he informed me that in fact it had nothing to do with the bird, but rather that we had driven past a billboard advertising Tui draught beer on the way home and thought it had a nice ring to it. She is absolutely delightful but I am starting to think that ‘Chewy’ would have been a more appropriate name, so I am going to head to the Vault to get some ideas for low cost puppy toys. Noel also didn’t appreciate it when Ali dumped her in our bed at 2.00am this morning announcing that he couldn’t sleep because Tui kept trying to eat him. Talk about a glutton for punishment!

All in all it was a pretty hectic weekend. A fantastic night was had on Saturday watching the All Blacks play Ireland at our local stadium! We had booked the tickets weeks in advance – being loyal members of the home team’s fan club, we had the privilege of being able to buy our tickets before they went on sale to the general public. This also entitled us to pay less for our front row seats! What an amazing family night out for under $20 each – the kids received free goody bags with All Blacks posters and memorabilia plus drinks and snacks to keep them going through the game – we didn’t have to buy another thing. We were treated to spectacular dance and firework displays and our front row view was brilliant, enabling us to take heaps of photos of all our favourite All Blacks. We proudly sang along with the national anthem, joined in the Haka and even got a ‘thumbs up’ from new captain Richie McCaw! An unforgettable night for little cost; as the Vault so often says, it is well worth joining some of the many clubs around to make some terrific savings. I have kept everything from our night out, tickets, newspaper clippings and so on and will compile them along with the photos into a unique album for Liam’s birthday, as a permanent reminder of his first All Black game. A low cost present that will hopefully mean a great deal to him for years to come!

With a hectic weekend like the one just gone, it’s a wonder that I have managed to get organised in time for this week’s $21 challenge, but I think I’ll get there. I have really enjoyed reading all the goings-on in the discussion forum, there are some great meal suggestions being aired! I had to laugh when I read of one member who examined her pantry prior to the challenge and realised she had somehow managed to accumulate no less than 11 cans of corn – I’m not quite that bad but almost, so I think this week will be a perfect opportunity to get through some of it! It really is amazing what you can find to make a meal out of if you just take the time to have a decent look. I was convinced last week that I would have to go shopping, but once I looked in the freezer I saw plenty of things I could use and that’s the whole point of the challenge! So, tonight for our first meal we are having roast chicken. This is one which I bought on special a couple of weeks ago and put in the freezer. I have plenty of vegetables to accompany it and our family always has Yorkshire Puddings with our roast dinner, which are super cheap and easy to make and a great filler. I couldn’t believe it when I started seeing frozen ready-made Yorkshire Puddings being advertised in supermarkets, I’ve been making them for years! If you don’t know how to make them yourself and would like to save a few precious dollars on buying them, email me.

At least I’ve got the first meal sorted, although I’m nowhere near as organised as some of the other SS members doing the challenge. I should be alright for tomorrow night’s dinner too, as the chicken is a large size so there’s bound to be leftovers – well, I’ll make sure there are! I’m going to head back to the Discussion Forum where there are some great recipes for Rubber Chicken (this is where you make a whole chicken last three meals) so who knows, we may still be eating it on Wednesday! Have baked chocolate chip cookies for the kids and made enough soup yesterday to last me a few lunches, so haven’t had to dip into my $21 yet. Best of luck with the challenge everyone!

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Spend more, save more?    

Jun 28, 2006

Haven’t been able to get much blogging done lately, my computer decided to pack up totally after the lightning strike so am using Mum’s computer. What with one thing and another I am wondering if I have ‘MUG’ stamped on my forehead or some such message. Just a few days ago I was wheeling a full barrow-load of firewood up to the house when I slipped on the wet ground and landed flat on my back, the wheelbarrow flipped up 90 degrees and the handles bashed in to my chest and the entire load of pine fell on top of my head. It blooming well hurt! Thank goodness the neighbours couldn’t see me, sat in a wallow of self-pity and plastered from head to foot in mud and cow poo, it must have looked rather comical. Then yesterday, with the bumps and bruises still smarting, I managed to cover myself in boiling chicken stock. I received a call from the school asking me to come and pick up Ali as he was unwell, so in my efforts to be a good nurse Mummy I decided it was the perfect opportunity to make chicken noodle soup, using a recipe from the Discussion Forum. All was progressing nicely until I went to pour my chicken stock into the same old jug I have always used and the darn thing literally exploded, sending boiling water all over my legs and feet. I was in a right old state, hopping around trying to get my trousers and socks off (which Maxine informed me was totally the wrong thing to do, I was supposed to get the cold water on first so am lucky I still have all my skin!) A little lavender oil dabbed on the burns meant I was soon pain free, but unfortunately in my haste to get under the cold shower I had left my pot of soup vegetables on the stove and by the time I returned the smell informed me that the contents was significantly more burnt than my leg.

Luckily I managed to retrieve most of the ingredients and the soup that resulted was divine (thanks to Natalie B for sharing her recipe!), but even after the most lengthy soaking and scrubbing, it looks as though another pot has bitten the dust. This got me thinking about something that has crossed my mind a fair bit lately – do you think sometimes we have to spend more to save in the long run? Certainly I think that this is going to be the last time I am going to buy cheapo pots and pans – I only bought a set of three from the Warehouse for $19.95 a few months ago and already I have had to replace two – it’s not like I burn things THAT often, but they just don’t seem to stand up to a lot of wear and tear. I really think that in that department at least I would rather spend a bit more in future for a product that lasts. Don’t laugh, but another area I have found the same applies is to underwear. I thought I was being so clever last year when I bought a load of $5.00 bra’s and $3.00 knickers at a well known factory shop, but it only took a few months before all the colours had faded into oblivion and the bra fabric had worn almost transparent – it ends up being a kind of false economy! Mind you, I have read heaps of tips about dyeing clothes to give them a revamp, so maybe I should try that before I write them off completely. Can’t say the same about the pots though…

Am still doing pretty well following the $21 Challenge. I did one online grocery shop last week and spent just over $100 which I didn’t think was too bad, and this week I am back into menu planning and have spent a total of $37. It’s taken me a while and goodness knows how many times I have read it in the Vault but I have finally learned to browse the mail flyers from my local store to see what specials they are having for the week ahead. I managed to save heaps this week with a little smart shopping! I did my menu plan on Sunday and wrote a shopping list. The store specials were due to change the following day, so I took my shopping list in that afternoon and bought all the items I needed that were not going to be on special – I was really chuffed to find that most of them were actually discounted from the week before! Then on Monday when the specials changed, I went back into the store to get the rest of my list at the cheaper price. What an easy way to save! I dread to think how much I have needlessly spent over the years by not keeping up to date with what my local stores are doing, but I am finally learning and it’s a routine I don’t plan to stop!

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