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I'll be back soon with my thoughts on how March went and what I need to do in April.

Jenny

March-ing on...

It's March, autumn at last.

Living to the budget was my goal for February and it was a rocky month, one where I felt joy because my budget was adhered to with regards to savings and grocery expenditures, but frustration at the unforeseen expenses of TAFE fees, a car accident, a dentist bill, and medical expenses. They sort of wiped my projected debt reduction for 2009 out the window. Ah well, the good Lord tells us not to plan tomorrow does He not? I'll listen now Lord. ;-)

I guess the high point of the month's financial journey was seeing that we could live by the budget - if we'd not had anything of an unexpected or emergency nature we'd be right on our target, which says that despite the hiccups we still managed to live on less and live well! \o/

A change that has most affected my grocery bill is serving smaller meals, not heaping everyone's plate and then watching the dogs walk off with 1/3 of the meal. If someone is still hungry they are welcome to a peanut butter or vegemite sandwich and a piece of fruit, but so far the family has been happy with less on their plate. I'm livin' and learnin'.

Letting go is the theme for March. There are a lot of things I've kept for sentimental reasons, or because of their monetary value, but they mess with my need to keep order and some of them I just don't like! Blossom and I had a good talk about this and before we began the 'big purge' we agreed not to be offended if one or the other wanted to get rid of something the other had made or given them. This was a GOOD thing because we would sit and laugh about certain items together and then agree to put it in the op-shop boxes being filled by the front door. It was funny to see the relief on her face as I held an item aloft she'd made me many years earlier and asked if she minded me getting rid of it - so often she would say"at last!" and I in turn would be the same with her own things no longer needed. It's not the things that are valuable, but the heart of the one who gave it to you, and that is what we celebrated along the way.
We're only 3 days into the purge but already there is a lightness in the home and in our emotions. We're determined to simplify and relinquish until we're content with what's left.

How are your plans going?

Hugs,
Jenny

Reflections from January

This week we've had a lot going on in the extended family so ways to save money did not rate as a priority at all, however, as I sat down today to go over the family finances I found that we've stayed completely within the budget without even trying. (she does a jig,and loud whoops of joy can be heard by the dogs who jump from their bed to see what the loony mistress is up to!)

A few things I learned about saving money this month :

1. It's TRUE, you don't spend money if you don't go to the shops!

I was so low most days that even the thought of getting in the car to go to the supermarket made my head swim with panic, so I kept things simple and sent people to stock up on things like fruit and milk. We had a stash of bread in the freezer and I'd baked so many cookies the week before that the supply was not quick to dwindle (despite my doubts on that score)...and my beloved husband proved a dab hand at sausages on the bbq when a protein hit was needed.
Now, we won't be living with these conditions under normal circumstances, but I saw that if we stayed with basic simplicity we were actually quite satisfied. No-one complained, and that surprised me. I think I needed to have my repertoire of recipes scrapped for a week to see how much less we really eat - and the dogs can attest to that because the scraps have been light-on the last seven days!
I'll list a core of items that we mostly eat and work from there next grocery day.

2. There are many FREE things you can obtain if you look.

I sew, it's a very important part of my sanity, it's the one thing I can immerse myself in and yet still be able to pray deeply while I'm doing it. If you are a quilter/embroiderer you'll know how expensive fabrics, threads, and patterns can be. Craft magazines cost around $9-10 each per month and there are many out there. They can become quite an addiction as evidenced by the bulging shelves of them lining my family room bookcase.
Over the last month I have taken a new direction and opted out of the magazine collection business.
If you check out my sewing blog, Elefantz, you'll find links in the side-bar to free embroideries and quilts by well known designers. Over time I am going to build a list of links to good quality free patterns (there are a number of sweet easy things around but for dedicated crafters we need a bit of a challenge), and it is my hope that I can add my own name to those who offer free patterns with some original designs already floating around my brain.
I know that there are free scrapbooking classes on blogs too, and if you're a knitter or you crochet I bet you'll find heaps of them if you look. (If you need help, ask me and I'll try to do so)
Just last year there was a felting craze permeating every quilting group here in town and the local craft store did a whopping business in wool and patterns for felted bags. Thing was, most people were knitting and felting the same few bag patterns - they were about $20 each. I did a google and came up with a number of REALLY good sites loaded with felted bag patterns, and all much nicer the $20 each patterns sold here in town.

3. USE your library!!

I used to be the queen of bookbuying, but now my book ownership has dwindled to a few bookshelves of rare titles I collected over the years, religious books that we use often, and a number of good crafting titles. When I want a book these days I try and get it from our library through inter-library loan (we are remote with a tiny library so this is a service they offer free) to see if it's worth the money, if I really DO want it after all, and if perhaps that one reading will be sufficient and no purchase is needed.
I am saving buckets of money doing this because of all the books I've borrowed in the last six months I have only gone on to buy ONE.

4. Don't always trust ebay!

When ebay first began it was a bargain hunters paradise and I bought and sold a great deal. Over time there has been an increasing number of items selling on ebay that are new. When you're on ebay you have the mindset that you're going to get a bargain, and sometimes you do - but if you do some googling for the item you're after you often find it is cheaper elsewhere. For example, we bought a copy of Nigella Express (cookbook) for Christmas from the Book Depository in the UK. We paid $34 Australian for it (free postage), but the same book on ebay sold for $70. I did a check on a number of popular titles and found that this was common - so many people buy from ebay without shopping around and pay up to twice as much.

My husband was after a particular backpack for work, one that would hold his laptop, workbooks and lunch. He immediately went to ebay. I asked him to check in town before he bought the one on ebay and though he doubted the validity in my suggestion he did it anyway. The exact same bag was here at the camping store - if he'd bought the ebay bag and paid postage he'd have paid more than buying the bag here in our little town.

Even buying from shops online is not the cheaper option at times. We needed a specific large hardrive to save back-up files from our four laptops...he bought it online at Dick Smith. Next week he found the same one here in town for $60 cheaper.

Okay...gotta go sew, and there are only so many hours left in the day. My tips for this week are: stay away from the supermarket if you can, order the books you want from the library, check out free sewing/scrapbooking/craft patterns online, and don't buy from ebay before you check elsewhere for price comparison!

Happy saving!!
Jenny

Is it just me?

Or have you, too, found when you make a major decision in life to cut right back on spending and cease to fritter away dollars and cents something breaks?

We're having a spate of that right now. Some things we use daily have died unexpectedly and we're left to consider how we can repair or replace without using that little piece of plastic.

It reminded me of life before we got our credit card (Dec 2005) and how we just had to do without or find a way to supply what was needed - the first step being prayer, trusting Our Heavenly Father to provide or to show us what to do, and He never failed us.

I was raised by my grandparents, they were poor people who lived in a 3 room flat with newspaper and tape holding their broken windows together. The only thing my grandmother paid for on credit was the electricity and that was only because the bill came from the local council every three months based on usage.

At our front door was a gas meter and she'd drop coins into it when she wanted to cook; we had no fridge but she'd pay the ice-man every few days to deliver a large block of ice that she stored in the ice-chest for our cold goods. I remember the thrill she got when her and pop had saved enough to buy a new kitchen table and chairs - it cost $59, and they had saved for months to buy it, my grandmother taking in laundry and ironing to help out with it's purchase (and she had no washing machine, everything was washed in a big copper). The table had steel legs and a laminated top, the chairs topped with creamy brown plastic cushions. She polished it proudly every day...it had great worth because it had taken so long to buy and was expected to last a long time, in fact I sat holding my grandfather's hands across that same table twenty years later after her funeral and it comforted us to remember her joy the day it was delivered.

She never wasted anything, and never took anything/anyone for granted - she knew the value of living within your means and with the same care she administered to her home she gave forth in friendship to others.

I wish she was here today to tell me what to do about these items that need replacing. Sadly, there is a wealth of teaching her generation have left behind them that many of us never took the time to learn, but, today we are in an economic climate where female ingenuity and prudence needs to rise from the ashes and be a tool for carrying our families through the unknown circumstances we may find ourselves facing.

I hope I do my grandmother proud as I teach my children, and re-educate myself, how to live with what is on hand - and to be content with it.

Where do I start? Prayer...

God bless!
Jenny

Use it up

Today was shopping day, the first *real* shopping day since I restructured the grocery budget. Rather than make a menu plan first, I chose to work with what was on special this week and plan around that.
A creature of habit, I tend to buy the same brands every week, but this week I looked with new eyes at what was available.
We never buy homebrand pasta but it was half the price of the Nanda brand we usually buy so I tossed that in the trolley, followed by a number of carefully considered replacements on our regular staples. I also looked at the vailidity (for us) of buying in bulk as I found that too often I over-buy and things spoil from sporadic use. Thinking carefully as I walked the aisles saved us quite a bit of money!

Another saving was in cleaning out the fridge and vegetable keeper before shopping - we had a number of tomatoes about to spoil, and a bag of plums that had been forgotten under all those wonderful nectarines we devour like chocolate.

My 2009 plan is to use up perishables before buying fresh produce, and that can be in any number of creative ways. So, today I made a pot of lovely plum and cinnamon jam, then enough nacho sauce from the withering tomatoes for tonight's dinner!

Interesting thing about jam and me. In the past I get the bug to cook jam so I buy up large quantities of fruit, sugar and jars, and proceed to make so much jam that most of it is given away. My mindset was that when one makes jam one makes a lot. Now, it's nice to share, but to make copious amounts of anything because 'you feel like cooking' is silly when you have a strict budget to adhere to.
Today I had 4 plums, cut up they weighed 250g. I added 200g raw sugar, a squeeze of lemon juice, 1/2 a cinnamon stick and a heaped teaspoon of Jamsetta. 15 minutes later I had a 400g jar of jam. Just like that we have our toast topping for the next week. Instead of $3 for a jar at Woolworths, I have a jar for free because I chose to use the fruit and not toss it out.
Blossom wanted to make nachos for dinner tonight and I knew I had those tomatoes to be used so I did a google for a mexican seasoning recipe and 15 minutes later I had the nacho sauce ready for her to add to mince later. That saved me $3 in a prepacked seasoning mix and a tin of tomatoes.
Today those two things saved our budget $6, just in using what we already had. It may not sound like much but when you consider milk is $6 for 3 litres now, I just financed enough milk for three days.

It's all those little things I'm looking for that will make budgetting easier, without 'doing without'. Recycling is not just for plastic, bottles and clothing is it? We just need a little creativity and we can make use of many things again, even perishing fruit and veg. Every $ saved eases the burden of managing on a limited income, and it teaches our children the value of using what is on hand - a value that up to now I'd been remiss in teaching.

Happy saving!!
Jenny

PS: Btw, today we packed away the credit card. I thought I'd feel lost without it's security, but instead I felt a huge burden lift off my heart. I was so inspired by shedding it's weight that I dug out an old exercise video and did a workout for the first time in 2 years to lose my weight! (I am so inspired by Leonie's love of exercise and I knew it was only a matter of time till I got off my widening backside and started to work it off, but it was a surprise that my credit card loss would be the catalyst!)

I asked them...

....how does one get out of debt? These were the first responses -

DH: Don't get into debt in the first place.

14yodd: Stop spending.

16yods: Get a job and pay it off.

....and what was my first thought?

Jenny: Stop spending and live by a budget.


So with those gems of wisdom I found insight into the members of my family who still live at home.

My husband wishes we'd never gone down the credit road (me : nodding head in vigorous approval!) ;

14yo realises she likes to shop/spend and that contributes to debt, so curbing the habit would stop the problem escalating ( it prevents future debt but how does it reduce the current debt?);

16yo goes for the pro-active tactic of beating back that blighter, debt! You can see his penchant for battle games coming through can you?

Me? Like 14yo I see calling a halt to spending as a first (and vital) step, however last night I took it a step further. I went back over the family budget I'd been doing my best to live by for the last three years to see where my biggest mistakes lay, and, lo and behold, I discovered 'hidden money'!

I should explain first that I'm an over-estimator; for example, if I need 1 yard of fabric for something I will buy 1.1 yards. As I studied and calculated our current expenses I found that I had over-estimated money set aside each pay period for phones, electricity, gas and water. That money is put into a separate 'bills' account, and as those bills are received they are paid from that account. Over time we end up with a good surplus in that account so we 'find' something to spend it on - now, that money should not be sitting there waiting to be spent, should it?

The new budget was drawn up last night and I was pretty surprised at how planning realistically for incoming expenses loosened up extra $$'s to pay off debt, save for next Christmas plus this year's birthdays, AND save for any emergencies!

If I stay the course I am setting by the end of this year I will have paid off $6,500 from our credit card debt (plus interest!), saved $1,000 for Christmas 2009 plus birthdays, AND saved $1,000 to an emergency fund. On top of that I have been able to increase our Church giving! Wow...my head is still spinning.

Everyone still gets pocket money, though I halved mine (I have a plan to cut mine completely but I'll share that another time). Everyone still eats well, are clothed, and medical expenses even have their own allowance. All this on a single income, and not a big single income either.

We still have a car loan and student loans from hubby's University days (1999-2002) but if all goes to plan this year I can tackle them next year.

Have you looked over your own budget lately? Do you read your monthly credit card statements to see where the little bits here and there are going? Are you shocked at how all those small purchases add up to one big bill at the end of each month? (I was!) Have you estimated correctly your expenses each pay period? Have you considered going back to buying things on laybye (lay-away)?? (I will be)

Honestly, I thought I could not do much with our budget, but I was wrong. Looking with new eyes and studying the past expenses gave me a boon I had not considered possible.

More prayer...more ideas to follow...and I hope you feel free to share some of your own debt busting ideas here. Please. :-)

Jenny

Emptying

I have another bad habit. I love supermarket shopping...really, I have always loved it. I almost salivate the day before pay day because I know I'm only 24 hours away from touring the wide aisles of Woolworths and spending money on one of my favourite friends, food. And then I go the next day, and the next day...I just love the place.

Having made the decision for 2009 that I'm not going over budget on the grocery allowance (I have not been within that allowance for years ) I needed to have a chat with myself (do you do that?) about WHY I go over budget.

Are we overeaters? No.
Do we have gypsies living in our kitchen who pilfer our food? No.
Have grocery prices escalated to such a point that one trip to the supermarket for bread and milk costs us $40+?? Nooooo.

The truth of that matter is that I hoard provisions for that Long Winter - you know, the one Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about? The fact that I only ever saw snow for 1 hour in my life (and drove 4 hours to find some) has nothing to do with it.

The things of the past often rise up and interfere with our present. As a child and a young adult I lived through some very weird food experiences thrust upon me by other people who themselves had food issues. Over time this birthed an obsession - to always have the pantry bulging and even then to look for more space to fit more food.

And that, my friends, is why the grocery budget blows out EVERY week.

So...the new plan. Empty the cupboards. Don't buy another similar item until the ones already stored have been eaten. Make the menu plan for the next month by staring into the pantry and the freezer and using all the stores within. DO NOT read recipe books, DO NOT make two (or three) main meals in order to offer a restaurant menu to the family, DO NOT feel guilty for making plain meals because that is exactly what your husband enjoys, DO NOT go to the supermarket more than once per week and ONLY buy what is on the list (and if possible send hubby instead!)

I made this plan on Thursday last week, it is Monday today and I have not been to the supermarket in 5 days...this is like a Red Sea miracle for me. I am surprised at my ingenuity with what is on hand, and I did not cave in to 16yo's pleas to go refill the coffers with bacon and Vegemite (though I almost caved on the Vegemite). I am not sweating profusely at going cold turkey. I can do this. :-)

Jenny

Finding coins in the couch...

Coins in the couch? Well, not exactly, but do you get a nice surprise when you find those loose gold coins under the couch cushions or in the washing machine? I do.

With that idea in mind I've been looking for loose change in other places - namely, every nook and cranny in my house!

It's amazing to discover just how much stuff we have around our homes that we don't use. When we were away last weekend I read this in the latest issue of Women's Weekly :

"The stuff we own has the power to create the home we want or to turn that home into an overrun, overwhelming pit that stresses us out and paralyses us." (Peter Walsh)

I'm a very visual person and having lots of stuff everywhere makes my head spin and can cause me to feel physically drained of all energy or joy, therefore I declutter often and I'm fairly ruthless about it.

However, clutter can also be of the mind.
Bills, appointments, phone calls, emails, cooking meals, birthday presents...it can all clutter your sense of peace.

The mental clutter for me this year is financial debt, and continuing to physically declutter my home is going to give me a head start in clearing that brain-drain. The loose change I'm finding at the moment are books, dvds, cds, clothes, and fabric. In the past I have given most of it away, only selling bits here and there, but now I see things in a different light after admitting to myself that my dear husband worked hours (or days!) to buy this or that item. I cannot rashly discard things so lightly now that I see from what toil they came.

The author of the article I mentioned also said that there are two kinds of clutter - "memory clutter", and "I might need it one day clutter". The things I am going to sell can be found in both categories, but it helped me to identify which one each item was a part of - for example:
I have had particular books on my shelf for many years (I homeschool) because I have warm, fuzzy memories of using them with my children - yet they are NEVER used. They sit with their spines staring at me every day, imprisoned in my home, never opened, because of a nice memory.
Well, memories have kept me bound to a financial source that would help lift some of the burden of debt from my husband's (and my) shoulders! Putting my situation in that light I have been able to put aside many books, cds, dvds etc for sale and hence work further along the path I am clearing for myself this year of becoming debt free.

Do you have any clutter lying around that could be used to bring down your debts??

So what to do with this saved money?

So, in reference to my previous post, I now have $468 'extra' per year.

What do I do with it?

I think it can be a bit of a trap when we start saving money on various activities, items, renegotiated utility costs or mortgage payments, to feel as though we now have some extra cash on hand. But that's not a smart 'feeling'.

If I am saving that $468 per year of forgoing cafe coffees then I need to pay that $9 per week I am now not spending off a debt. My husband and I have always given ourselves and our children 'pocket money' each payday - money that we are free to use as we like, money that is supposed to be all we use personally each fortnight. Unfortunately over the last year we have both spent more than our allowance each pay and the credit card shows this.
Before I allocate that $9 somewhere else I need to deduct it from my pocket money and then make the decision to stay always within my fortnightly allowance (which in effect would save us more money!). With that done, and that promise made to self, I have added my $9 each week to the amount we have budgeted to pay off our credit card each pay week. Now I have just lowered our credit card balance by $468 in the next year - and that is only by cutting out the weekly cappuccinos!

This has inspired me to set my cap at more 'hidden' little costs that we pay out each week. I am reminded of something I read in a Suze Orman book many years ago. She said we "nickel and dime" ourselves into debt. How true is that!? A dollar here, 3 dollars there, 5 dollars more over here....it's those little payouts, often the change in our purses, that we do not think much about. If you go to the $2 shop do you only spend $2 on the ONE item you went in for? I don't. I hardly ever leave with change from a $20. So my strategy? I won't go in. If there is something in there that I need I will stay in the car and give the $2 to my husband or teenager and ask them to go buy it. That is my next step in saving - it is how I will be able to keep within my budgetted pocket money.

I am loving this.

Happy saving!
Jenny

Cafe makeover...

The thing about adjusting your spending habits is that it can all seem a bit harsh and though you've chosen to do the right thing you can fall into the trap of punishing yourself for past over-indulgences and then like a dieter who has restricted her food choices you'll have a fit of despair one day and go binge like you never binged before.
For the spender this would not necessarily be food you're binging on but anything with a $ sign attached.
Now, I know this as it was my downfall in the past. So how to make 'not-spending' fun?

First I think you need to write down the things you do that you really enjoy, things that nourish you as a person, things that make a dent in your wallet but that you don't really want to give up. ;-)

The first thing that came to mind for me was taking my 14yodd out for cappuccinos (or lattes, or steamers, or...). I love those special girl times with her, the weekly date at the cafe away from home and the male components of the household, just the two of us talking about our hopes and dreams, sharing ideas, laughing, and sometimes shedding a year. I really treasure those moments with her. But they cost me $10 every time, that's $520 a year on coffees.

I had already prayed and asked God to help me turn over the new leaf of money management so it was no surprise when I woke this morning with an idea that made our 'dates' even more special.

I packed us a picnic...not your ordinary picnic, but a cafe picnic for two.

Two mugs, in mug bags.
A teaspoon.
Sugar.
Two Moccona Cappucino sachets.
Two pretty serviettes.
A vintage embroidered table runner to use as our tablecloth.
A thermos of boiling water.
A wet cloth in a ziplock bag to wipe out the cups afterwards.
A destination with a view (not hard as we live on the ocean).


We drove down to the beach and set up our cafe picnic, the view before us a majestic ocean. It was really windy, but it was really good.

Now, this was special, and something I wouldn't have thought about had it not been for a desire to curb the spending and make a dint in our debt. I wonder how many other lovely things await me that I would never have done?

The total cost of our cafe picnic was $1, so we're going to make it our new special time out together.

You know what this means? I saved $468 this year just by changing one habit.

Not everything I change or give up will be this rewarding, but it's the little victories that will carry me.

God bless!
Jenny

Changing Habits

This is my yearly accountability blog, the place where I put my life on a blank page and make myself read it.
Last year it was making sure I kept the teens moving steadily along with their education, and to be honest, having that homeschooling schedule blog really did help! There is something about speaking up that spurs you on…reminds me somewhat of God speaking forth the words “Let there be light, and there WAS light”. Taking an idea or a motivation out of your mind and presenting it visually and practically gives me more ‘ooomph’ than if I just kept it to myself.

So this blog is about budgeting. 2009 is the year to work at my goal of bringing down our personal debt and creating new SENSIBLE financial habits – habits that flow on down the line to all my kids.

I read that when you are trying to break a habit you have greater success if you replace the bad habit with a good habit. That is the core reason for this blog – changing habits.

I welcome anyone to come add your own ideas, share your failures and subsequent successes, or just put your hand in mine and we’ll help each other bring sensible spending back into our lives.

My motivation for starting on this very public path is my husband. My life verse as a wife has always been – The heart of her husband trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. Proverbs 31:11-12

Over the last year it has occurred to me, more than once (or thrice!) that I have not been loyal to that statement in the area of managing his hard-earned income. I have prayed and wept and repented much over this and as I sought God’s help the idea became firmer that I needed to be accountable in a very tangible way.

This blog is not going to be written from a sad/sorry/woe-to-me manner – if you have met me personally you’ll know I laugh often and I laugh loud, so being down in the mire is not a place you’ll find me very often and if you do, tell me to get out. I will not be offended, I will bake you a cake. I am rarely a head-in-the-sand ostrich type, but like to know up front what the problem is and set about finding a solution. I see our current financial situation as no different, though I should mention that we’re not too badly off in the debt department but the last twelve months have seen us climbing that credit hill rapidly when we should have turned round and gone back home!

I think one of the keys to cutting back on spending is to take the time to see where the bad habits lie, then find a creative way to still have your cake, but perhaps a smaller slice.

I’m quite excited…

God bless!
Jenny