To read the grey entries, you need to log in.
5th - What it's all about
14th - Wants vs needs
14th - Coffee, anyone?
14th - The Mighty Ali
18th - The Too Hard Basket
Wants vs needs
Feb 14, 2008
Here we are, half way through No Spend Month and I've spent most of it wondering what part of 'No Spend' Noel doesn't understand. On one hand, he has been great, dutifully bringing me his receipts at the end of each day - but not all of them. I realised this a couple of days after we returned from holiday and I was bemoaning the fact that there was nothing but water to drink in the house. 'That's OK, you can have some of my tonic water if you like, I got some more' came the reply. 'Tonic water?' I said. 'But you never touch the stuff unless it's with... gin', I glared at him while he grinned sheepishly. 'It's No Spend Month and you spent $40 on a bottle of gin already?' 'But I have to have something! I didn't buy any beer or anything', he tried to justify himself. To make matters worse, he put it on his AMEX card, aghhhhh! And of course since then the gin has also magically been joined by red wine and beer, none of which is mine. He did try to give up smoking on the Tuesday as promised, but it turned out 'not to be the right day' so Wednesday became 'the right day'. Unfortunately we caught him redhanded at the service station when the kids and I drove through town. I had to fill my car up with petrol and, whaddya know? He was there doing the same - and trying to surreptitiously put something in his pocket. 'Why are you here are 9.30 in the morning?' I asked him. 'Ah, well... I didn't know what time the gas station closed today so thought I had better fill up early', he bumbled before driving off. Yeah right! 'Did my husband just buy some cigarettes?' I asked Mr Singh when I went to pay. 'Yes he did!' he smiled apologetically. 'I wish I didn't have to sell cigarettes in my shop but if I didn't then people would go elsewhere to buy their bread and milk too. You know what really makes me sick?' he went on. 'It's when people come here to buy cigarettes and they won't even spent 50c on a treat for their children but they happily hand over $10 or more to feed their own habit'. It's so true! I used to do the same - that's because when you're a smoker you consider cigarettes to be essential. I know I did! I used to waste heaps in petrol making mercy dashes to the service station early in the morning or late at night because I was running out of cigarettes. I use a lot less petrol now!
Needless to say, Noel has tried to give up almost every day since but it just hasn't happened. He even spent hours one evening poring over the Why Quit website and thought it was brilliant - but still couldn't get through the next morning without a smoke. I don't mean to sound like such a grumpy old moo - as Fiona pointed out to me, OK, he is having trouble cutting out his vices but there are still a lot of things he is doing really well at for No Spend Month and he is bringing me most of his receipts. The funniest saving so far has been at the hairdresser. In the last blog I mentioned that it had become necessary for him to go and get a haircut. Anyway, he came home that day quite miffed because he hadn't found a hairdresser either open or with an available appointment. 'You're just going to have to do it', he said. 'Me?! I can't do it? Why don't you just wait until tomorrow?' I said. 'Nope - I've had enough, I want it cut now', he insisted. 'Just get those clipper things out and whiz them all over'. 'The clippers? But I use those to groom the dogs!' I protested. However, he was insistent so I duly did as I was asked, even though I was extremely nervous and the light was far from ideal that evening. I couldn't bring myself to use the clippers all over so did my best with the scissors too, while the kids looked on and said encouraging things. When I had finished, he simply put his cap back on and sat down in front of the TV. 'Aren't you even going to look?' I asked. 'Nope, I don't need to, I could see the reflection in the window, it looks fine, thank you', he said. And that was that! Until the next morning dawned and he saw the full extent of my hairdressing skills. 'Hmph - don't think much of the haircut Missus!' he grumbled. 'What?! But I never wanted to do it in the first place!' I protested. To be fair, it wasn't that bad. Just as well he couldn't see the two or three bald patches I had unwittingly shaved into the back of his head. Just as well he always wears a cap too! Fortunately after a few days it had settled down nicely and even he had to admit it wasn't bad at all. I really hope he doesn't ask me to do it again though! It probably sounds as though I've been a bit hard on the poor bloke lately and you'd be right, his unhealthy vices have been annoying the heck out of me but again Fiona had a few pearls of wisdom which really helped me put things into perspective. She said not to beat myself (or Noel!) up if we don't manage to get through an entire day without spending. The point is that we try. Making a conscious effort alone still results in some serious savings. The hardest part of No Spend Month is separating your needs from your wants. Noel thinks buying cigarettes is a need, I see it as a want. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one but I'll try to go a bit easier on him from now on and encourage him instead of berating!
Anyway, apart from the aforementioned 'needs', things are looking bright. I was delighted to check the bank balance the other day and see that barely a dent had been made in it. And Noel really is trying. He's just gone away on his annual five-day fishing competition with his mates and packed half the house with him to save money on food. He took two zucchini loaves with him and even cooked himself a whole corned silverside in the crock pot so he would have plenty for sandwiches and dinners. We've both been experimenting with cooking some of our fruit and vegetable harvest too. Noel made a batch of plum jam - something I have never been brave enough to do as I always find jam recipes so lacking in instructions. Just like the recipe Noel found for the plum jam. It set 'cook to setting point' - well what was that? We had no idea and it didn't tell us anywhere so he transferred it into jars in the hope that it would set properly in time. It didn't - but it tastes wonderful! So now we have half a dozen jars of what can only be described as some sort of plum dessert sauce. At least he had better luck with his jam than I did with my tomato puree. The recipe said two kilos of tomatoes would make one litre of tomato puree. I don't know what I did but I ended up with little more than an egg-cup full. Although once again it tasted very nice and it was most rewarding spreading our home made pizzas with our very own tomato puree. Noel's first potato crop has been a real success, we shouldn't have to buy any for ages! Lunchboxes are also very cheap at the moment, full of delicious treats like plum cake and zucchini loaf and fresh apples, plums, peaches and passionfruit for the boys. I also used our bargain food dehydrator with great success to dry tomatoes and zucchini. Several people have asked me about making their own butter and cheese lately, to combat the horrendous dairy prices. I haven't had a go yet but the price of cheese is so scary we've resorted to buying cheese slices instead of the 'real thing'. Will try and find a book on the subject in the library, it could be fun!
Our freezer is also full to bursting with super cheap meat. One of Noel's clients raised a pig for us free of charge, which was very nice of him. All we had to pay for were the butcher's fees, which they charged us 'mates rates' for once they found out Noel was a stock agent, so we got an entire pig dressed, packed and frozen for $85! We have also had another huge influx of beef courtesy of our old neighbours who moved to a new property to find they also shared it with a huge and very cantankerous wild bull. Again, we only paid butcher's fees and ended up going thirds with them and another family. It might have been No Spend Month but $170 for a third of a whole beef animal was too good to miss out on. I can't imagine how much the same quantity of meat would have cost to buy from the supermarket! We are feeling very fortunate to have our few happy animals on our land at the moment. With the Waikato officially in the grip of its first ever official drought, our part of the country is suffering terribly. Many dairy farmers we know are no longer able to milk their cows, meaning they will miss out on as much as six months' income and it is costing them a fortune to feed their animals, with a single bale of hay fetching as much as $200 each at the moment. These are usually picked up easily for as little as $5! This year was supposed to be a golden one for dairy farmers, with the milk payout at a premium but instead it will be the ruin of many.
I was also able to tell Noel very proudly this week that I have paid off my car, seven months earlier than planned and saved us $1000 in interest. I am now $680 a month better off, yah! I paid off an extra $70 a week and didn't even notice the amount coming out so have decided to transfer this amount over to paying off the carpet sooner too. It's an interest-free agreement we signed up for a year ago and there is still 12 months left on it but I hate owing anyone anything these days. Noel's boat will be finally paid off at the end of this year too (after five long years, groan) so I can't wait. It will be great to finally be able to concentrate on the mortgage without all the other little stuff getting in the way. Apart from the house, by Christmas we will be officially debt-free!
The Mighty Ali
Feb 14, 2008
Yet another update! I guess I'm breaking the rules with this one, as it's not really about saving money but it is about saving something else which is even more priceless. What I really want to do is have a bloody good howl but for some reason I can't seem to do that so I suppose you could call this blog therapy. Yesterday we came heartstoppingly close to losing our youngest son. Ali almost drowned in what was supposed to be an idyllic day at the beach. As I look at him now, contentedly curled up in his favourite chair, I can hardly believe he's still here. I almost have to pinch myself. And do you know the stupidest thing of all? He wasn't even in the water. It started out the most beautiful, perfect day. I had the pleasure of reuniting with an old college buddy I hadn't seen in 18 years and we were laughing about the irony of it all. Who would have thought as a pair of teenage metal-heads in the college canteen that almost 20 years later Jason and I would be going boogie boarding together on the other side of the world with my children? Well, the plan was to go boogie boarding together at Whangamata but as we ambled along the sand it became blatantly obvious that there weren't any waves. But it was no big deal, it was my aim to squeeze in as much of the gorgeous Coromandel Peninsula for my old buddy's benefit as I could, so we headed to one of my favourite places called Onemana. It's a pretty and peaceful little bay which always makes me feel like I've gone back in time - a bit like a Postman Pat village! We arrived there and saw to our dismay that the sea was even flatter so boogie boarding was out of the question but what the heck? The scenery was so stunning and the weather so glorious that we decided to stay there anyway. The boys were a bit miffed that we hadn't been able to find anywhere more exciting but that all changed soon enough.
While there weren't any waves as such, we soon discovered to our delight that the sea had a funny habit of slapping into the shore and drenching us from head to foot, before pulling away and dragging the sand back with it. The water temperature was divine and we were soon having heaps of fun, letting the water slosh over us and 'sand surfing' as the water dragged our feet. It was hilarious and we could have stayed like that for ages. Jason was out in the water and the kids and I were standing on the shore. Then we saw the wave. It came from out of nowhere and headed straight for Ali. Jason described it later as a white hand coming out of the sea to grab him and that's what it was like - we were all close together but it didn't come near the rest of us, it just seemed hell-bent on consuming the smallest among us. And consume him it did. With no time to act, we could only watch in horror as Ali was literally engulfed and disappeared completely from view, dragged helplessly deep into an unrelenting ocean. It was horrific and we knew that once he was in the sea there was no way we were going to be able to see him because of all the sand being thrown up into the water and the sheer volume of that single wave. I did the only thing I could do. I leaped forward and reached blindly into the ocean. I knew I had one chance and if I came across nothing, we would lose him and never get him back. I grabbed - and I found him. Oh thank God I found him. I picked up my precious tiny bundle and carried him out of the water, where he collapsed on the sand. He was in deep shock and it was obvious he had swallowed a lot of water. I was eternally grateful at this point that Jason was an ICU nurse but mercifully he began coughing and spluttering before finally giving way to tears. I've never seen him cry like that, it was gutwrenching.
As soon as he was able, he marched far ahead of us along the beach and climbed up to the top of a huge sandbank, where he sat for quite a while in quiet contemplation. Ali's always been the 'hard one' of my two boys and often ridicules me a little for being so over-protective but on this particular day he was grateful. As I climbed the bank to join him, he looked up at me with tears rolling and said softly 'I'm so glad I have a mum who cares about me as much as you do'. I thought I was going to cry then but I didn't. I'm crying now though just writing about it! Then he chuckled and said 'You always told me that if I got into trouble in the sea that you wouldn't be able to save me, but you did.' I think just for a while, I might have been up there with his dad in the 'hero stakes!' Then he defiantly wrote 'HA HA I'M STILL ALIVE' in the sand before running down the hill to join the others.
We're all staying home today, just chilling out and trying to feel normal again. You know what it's like when awful events keep on and on replaying in your mind, making you feel sick to your stomach and thinking 'what if?' 'what if?' - even though you keep telling yourself everything's OK and you don't need to keep thinking about it any more? It happened when we had our car accident a couple of years ago too but I know it will go eventually. I still have to keep going and checking on him though, and hugging him tight just to make sure he's really real. Sleep didn't come easy last night, the boys took a long time to settle and with their dad away we all huddled together in the same bed for the first time in years. The dogs all slept on the bed too and it was great, if not exactly comfortable! Ali is doing OK, still quiet and sounds a bit rattly still, not to mention a very sore throat and nose but he'll bounce back soon enough, it's the way he is. This morning I received an email to say that my friend and fellow blogger Jason had posted the photos we took from yesterday. A few of them brought back bittersweet memories, knowing what occurred so soon after these happy snaps but the most poignant of all was one taken of Ali just a few minutes before he was almost taken from us forever. In typical Ali style, he's in the face of the camera lens, puffing his cheeks out and flexing his muscles. Jason captioned the photo 'The Mighty Ali'. How very true that turned out to be.
Be sure your sins will find you out
Feb 24, 2008
"Nobody's perfect, I gotta work it", sings Liam at the top of his voice. How appropriate. I don't usually have much in common with teen pop singer Hannah Montana but it's a song I seem to be singing a lot too at the moment. Yes, I've decided to stop beating myself up about my No Spend month mishaps. OK, so it hasn't gone as well as I planned but at least I know we can recover from it and get back on track. Some things were unavoidable - for example yesterday, when we noticed a rather worrying water leak was running down the inside of our kitchen window, as well as numerous drips coming from the ceiling. 'Oh no, here we go again!' we thought. Last time this happened was shortly after we moved into the house. The same thing happened and by the time the leak became obvious half the kitchen ceiling was about to give way, it ended up being an insurance job and we had to wait 18 months for a local builder to come and fix the giant hole in the ceiling. Fortunately it didn't reach that stage this time and Noel would have been able to fix it himself this time. Had the plumber not given him the wrong part. Twice. In the end it was easier just to call him out and fix the leak himself before the kitchen floor became completely submerged. Hope to goodness he doesn't charge us as it was his stuff-up after all, but either way it's still going to cost several hundred dollars to fix the ceiling again.
Unavoidable, as I said. But then there was the odd thing which definitely WAS avoidable. Like the other day when I had to go to The Warehouse on an errand for someone else and ended up walking out with no less than FOUR CD's for myself. I know, I know. It's supposed to be No Spend month Penny, what the heck were you thinking? Jings, even when it's NOT No Spend month I don't usually make daft splurges like that. Before I joined Simple Savings, buying CD's was among some of my worst spending habits but over the last few years I have done SO well and have hardly bought any, borrowing those I like from the library instead. So what was different this day? I was on my way back from visiting Mum in the hospital, I was feeling low and should only have set foot in that shop to buy what I was sent for. But I was vulnerable, the marketer's worked their magic and those CD's just jumped out at me with their 'HAPPY SONGS', 'TAKE IT EASY', 'ANTHEMS OF SUMMER' and so on. Worse still, they were almost all double CD's at $28.95 each but I didn't even notice. I just grabbed them, thinking 'this is just what I need, these will make me feel better'. And they do - sort of. I've been bopping around the house and singing along joyfully in my car ever since, but it's not the same when they also bring a constant reminder of 'the time I spent $120 on crap'. Egads, it's been almost three years since I did anything quite so blatantly stupid! And then there's the fact that I haven't exactly got round to telling Noel yet.
It's not like I've hidden them from him or anything, I just haven't brought them to his attention yet! Well, one did quietly materialise in the kitchen last night when I was cooking dinner and I did own up to it and say I had treated myself to a nice new CD. One's a bit different than four though, isn't it. To be honest, I don't really think he's going to think it's a huge deal. It might have been a bit different a few years ago when I used to do this all the time, but as Hannah Montana also keeps singing 'Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days' and I just had one. And I will own up to the other three - eventually! I guess some people might think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill and I probably am. It's not like I've spent thousands of dollars on something huge but it's a long time since I allowed myself to be such a shopping victim. My splurge was daft, it left me feeling embarrassed and too silly to tell Noel, which has progressed further to feeling guilty for not being honest. In the 'bad old days' before Simple Savings, I used to hide my spending all the time but since I turned things around I've been happily living guilt-free. I've been proud of how little we can live on and how we share all our savings ups and downs together. In almost three years I can honestly say I have had nothing to be embarrassed or guilty about, so I just can't help being hard on myself about this now. I will tell him of course - eventually - but it's not like I'm scared that he'll be angry. On the contrary, he is going to LOVE this. He's already been relishing how I've let things slide this month and has been ribbing me heaps. 'Simple Savings eh?' he tuts and shakes his head when he finds something has expired at the back of the fridge, or a bottle of fizzy drink in my car. Yeah, well 'nobody's perfect, you live and you learn it - and if I mess it up sometimes...'
If there's one good thing about writing a blog, it makes you accountable to someone else. There's no point not being honest. It would be lovely if I could be Penny the Perfect all the time but why pretend to be something I'm not? Apart from lying to everyone else, I'd be lying to myself and that would be even worse. Besides, too many people I know read my blog now, they would soon know if I wasn't telling the truth! Ah yes, your sins will always find you out, so I might as well confess them myself. Besides, I'm still determined to give No Spend month a proper go. Any month can be No Spend month! And I am going to get my revenge on the gleeful finger-pointing Noel. I am going to blow him away with my frugal skills! I've already started, ridding the fruit bowl of all the overripe fruit and baking up a storm. The only problem is, the freezer is so full I can't fit any of it in so we'll all be stuffing our faces with it over the next few days. Talking of stuffing, my diet seems to have gone out the window. Burger Kings aside, being unwell has done nothing to help my waistline – you know the saying 'feed a cold, starve a fever?' Well I've had a cold and I've been well and truly feeding it!
Mind you, I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts, what with the scary hike in food prices. The media are full of it - all the papers this weekend predict doom and gloom for the humble grocery shopper. 'Wallets are developing allergies to dairy foods', screams one headline. They're not wrong there, it's nothing short of painful trying to find the best price of butter and cheese in Mr Patel's. I mean let's face it, even the most budget conscious brands have rocketed through the roof. Over the past year, cheese has gone up 63.1%, fresh milk by 16.9% and butter by a whopping 85.2% in NZ. It's obscene! It's even got a proper name now - 'agflation'. How ironic that we are all forced to pay through the nose for something locally produced in such massive quantities. As one article stated, 'absolutely no sensible argument can, or should be made for the fact that in NZ a bottle of Coke now costs far less than a bottle of milk'. It's not just dairy of course, all food prices have increased in general - except avocados, which dropped 52% last month so the media is encouraging everyone to use avocados instead of butter to make the most of the financial benefits, not to mention the health benefits too. Nice idea but only a short-term one. They'd be better off to visit Sophie Gray's website and sign up for her newsletter, which this month includes some brilliant ideas and smart substitutes for cutting the cost of dairy. If only more people would take a leaf out of her book. One comment from an Otago university nutrition researcher had me cracking up yesterday. 'Perhaps everyone should be home baking and organic gardening, but that is not a realistic expectation', he was quoted in the newspaper. Why on earth not? If the media taught more people to learn how, rather than predicting bad diets of junk food for everyone because the cost of fresh food has got too expensive... well, it beats me. They might have got a few people worried with their scaremongering but not me. I'm a Simple Saver for goodness sake! I can bake and grow my own food for as long as I need to and if 'agflation' gets too much, I'll milk a blooming cow and make my own butter and cheese, no problem! Put like that, I guess I'm not quite such a Sad Sally after all - but a Happy Hannah Montana!'
Next time you feel like
It's just one of those days
When you just can't seem to win
If things don't turn out the way you plan
FIGURE SOMETHING ELSE OUT!
Don't stay down! Try again! YEAH!
*Grin* - you said it girl!