Pros and Cons of Being More Frugal Part 2

Losses and Gains Part 2

After posting my losses yesterday it's now time to look at what I have gained by losing. I neglected to say yesterday that I have also lost paid income, but that in itself has provided me with many gains.


GAINS

1. I think I will start with one which is of real importance to me and that's self respect, I used to feel so guilty about where I was in my life and I used to worry about what my Grandchildren would think of me when they were old enough to recognise me for what I was. A financial disaster, so as a way of preventing them from falling into the same trap I started bank accounts up for them as soon as they were born. I still give them a little money each time I see them and allow them to only spend a portion of it while saving the rest. I am now hoping that as they grow older they will see me as a good financial role model.
2. I have now gained good sleep patterns, I no longer walk the house in the wee small hours counting and recounting money. This stage in my life was particularly bad when I was running the Restaurant and it was time to work out wages and pay bills, during that time I would be surprised if I got more than a couple of hours of sleep a night.
3. I have gained a wonderful Husband, for years we were on a different page financially we worked our wages and bills as a you and me type of situation with both of us refusing to talk about how much savings or debt we had incured. This was especially frustrating for me when I finally saw the light and The Foxx did not. Now we plan together and spend together and save together, how sweet does that word together sound.
4. I am now slowly crawling my way back out of debt. At last I am gaining control of what I thought would be following us into retirement. I now know that by sticking to our plan we will be debt free before The Foxx retires.
5. I no longer pay bank fees I have gained control over my bank accounts, there was a time when all of my direct debits would be late and at $40 late fees per time this happened I was struggling to get through the month ( I have since changed my account name and the fee would now be $10 ) I think now I would be happy to look my bank Manager in the eye.
6. I have gained my home life back and because I am no longer working we have gained a carer for my aging MIL. I now enjoy cooking and cleaning and everything involved with running my home. I remember a few years ago I hired a cleaner to come in weekly and do the work which I never had the time or the inclination to do. Now making my own cleaning products and trying to find ways of living better for less are what occupy my days now. I love being a housewife and The Foxx is loving coming home each day to an organised home with wonderful new recipes to eat ( all bought with my budget in mind ) I am contributing things which money just could not buy.
7. I have gained my own fruit and veg shop as we laughingly call it, this is my backyard. I am growing herbs, veg and we have a few fruit trees. Putting my hands into the soil is so therapeutic I love it. There are some aspects of gardening I just can't manage like heavy digging and spending hours bending over. So I have set up a high bench for all my seedlings and for potting and by regular weeding I don't have to spend a lot of time bending over. And if I need any heavy digging done I have a fit and healthy Son and Son-in-Law.
8. Last but by no means least my financial journey has brought me in contact with some wonderful bloggers who are a wealth of knowledge and support. I have gained some facebook friends through this as well maybe some day we might even meet.

So there we have it, my gains. I am sure there are heaps more which by now I am taking for granted. But after reading back over them I notice that the biggest gains are all about how I feel about me. It's shocking that it has taken me till I reach 61 years of age to find out things I should have always known. Still better late than never..

Pros and Cons of Being More Frugal Part 1

My Losses and Gains Part 1

Since starting to get my life and finances together there have been losses and gains but after  looking at it closely most of my losses have ended up as gains. If I give up something which costs me money I end up with a bigger bank balance, or my bills paid on time, or my car regularly maintained, so which of my lists ends up giving me the greater enjoyment and pride ?? You judge.

Losses

1. I have given up getting my acrylic nails done, this used to be a 3 weekly visit which cost me around the $35.00 mark each time they needed filled or extra if I needed any replaced. I kinda miss these visits, but now that I spend time in my garden I definitely don't miss the nails... $600 at least saved yearly
2. I used to buy a magazine every week, it was a bit of an indulgence coming home every week sitting down with a coffee and having a read. But my local Library stocks this read or I could go online to read it. So I don't miss this at all now....$260 saved yearly
3. Gourmet cooking was a bit of a hobby for me I would get terribly enthusiastic buy loads of ingredients, then forget why I bought them or use them once and then end up throwing them out when they passed theyre useby date. At that time my Grocery bill was sitting around $175 weekly, now I try to spend no more than $100 a week and often less....$3,900 saved yearly
4. My trips to the Hairdressers are very few and very far between now, maybe one every 6 months rather than every 6 weeks I also now dye my hair at home thanks Mr Clairol. I was a Hairdresser in an earlier life so I can actually manage it OK myself if I am in the mood. I am going to have to estimate the savings here as I really have lost track of Salon prices now....$1,300 at least saved yearly
5. Gym membership, oh yes I had one of those where you lock yourself into a contract which you never keep, of course it's all done with the very best of intentions after all who would'nt want to look toned,taut and terrific ?? I now have a garage full of equipment which I was given for nothing so if I don't use it guess what no charge....$456 saved yearly
6. Every Friday night was takeaway night, when I worked fulltime this was a non cooking night I felt I deserved the night off after what was very often a heavy week. Now we use leftovers as our Friday night meal or Hubby throws together a Pizza. So still no cooking for me plus savings....$1,560 at least saved yearly

There are a lot of little losses which I make on a daily basis, like using less shampoo, less toothpaste, switching off electrical appliances and wall switches buying long life light globes these are changes which I can't put a price too but over the course of a year are bound to make a huge difference. Then there are the big losses like the new car I never got into debt for, believe me if I could have found a way of getting myself a more reliable car while travelling to and fro to The Restaurant then I would have got one. So my thanks to the banks who would not entertain the idea of lending me any money. So these losses / gains are saving me a minimum of $8076.00 or $155.30 weekly. The bottom line is am I missing any of them.....absolutely not !!!

Tomorrow I will post the gains.

1.  

Painting Project

I Am Painting My Toilet

I could'nt wait to get The Foxx off to work this morning as I wanted to spend all day in the toilet. No there is absolutely nothing wrong with me I decided to make my non spend stay home project painting the toilet.
It all started with the toilet roll holder falling off of the wall and leaving a huge hole behind it, this was fixed yesterday by The Foxx on his holiday Monday, if you are looking for a cheap way of spending your day off I can recommend this. So now we have a patch on our Aqua wall. Am I upset not a bit of it, I hated the colour, it was there when we moved in and I just kind of put up with it the way you do in a rental home.
When we first moved into this home the horrible Aqua colour was in one of the bedrooms and in the toilet, yuck, I spoke to the landlords about painting over it and they agreed to provide the paint if I did the work, which was the only way they were going to agree to it. So here I am sitting in the office typing this while my first coat dries. I might add that this Aqua colour does not want to go in fact it may even need 3 coats to do the job, but there is enough paint so it is what it is...

We spent hardly any money at all over the holiday weekend, as we spent most of the time doing our little projects and some gardening.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend I'm off now to check on my toilet, what is the saying about watching paint dry LOL.......

A Waste Of Food and Money

A Waste Of Food

And here was me thinking I had gotten on top of this pantry of mine. Yesterday I decided to check my staples as a way of eventually keeping my grocery bill down, I took everything off of the shelves washed then down and put all my flour, sugar, cereals and pasta into containers in fact anything which was loose in now in labeled containers.

So why am I so angry ? Because I found dessicated coconut which was about a year out of date I found Porridge oats which had passed there use by date and I also found sultanas which I could have used in my scones the other day hidden away at the back of a shelf which I keep my little used electrical appliances on. So what is going on there ??? Has the pantry imp been up to mischief again or is it the two women in the same kitchen scenario ?

Whatever it was that caused me to throw unused food into the bin I am not happy about, got to keep a tighter rein on what is happening in my own kitchen....

I have nothing to report on the financial front as I have spent most of the last couple of days in the garden weeding and repotting. My Herbs are doing so well in the spot I have put them in and my Veg. although growing well is getting eaten especially my cabbage leaves. I want to keep this garden as organic as possible so if you know of a way of keeping my veg from getting eaten please let me know.

Yesterday blogger was playing up really badly for me and it has been a couple of days now since I was able to post, so I have had to put my blogger interface back to the old original settings just to get my dashboard to work, how frustrating is that. Although I found out that this was my problem by googling the error number I kept getting and I ended up in a chatroom where this seemed to be a problem affecting a lot of bloggers, so if this is an issue for you try going into your dashboard and clicking on the little gear icon top right of your page and clicking on the original interface setting. Although I am still finding I cannot highlight any of my words so I cannot change sizes colours or font Grrrrrrr

Off now to do a little grocery shop, hoping to catch up with the baby tomorrow, see you all around...

June Goals

Goals For June

I have not been setting any monthly goals of late being content to let each month take care of itself, I had gotten myself into a bit of a payment and spending routine and I was not challenging myself in any way. So June will be a little different, I am going to set some goals and they are.

Savings = $1,000

 I have worked out that I will be adding $880.00 to our savings this month. If I can keep my Grocery bill down I would like to see that figure climbing up to $1,000.

Groceries = $400

I allow myself $100 a week for food and household needs, but MIL adds another $50 to that and if I try really hard I am sure I can get that figure down. Allowed $400 hoping to get my fuel off of this amount.

Bills = $500

 Adding all our bills up for the month the total should read around the $450.00 mark this includes the rent to buy scheme for our PC. We will put aside $500 anything left over at the end of the month will go into July's budget.

Debt = $600

Around $600 will be set aside for debt. For the household debts this is only our CC and for my failed business I will be using $250. I do  intend to pay more off of my debt each month so any extra money earned by The Foxx or any Ebay sales money plus my snowflakes will go straight into paying this off quicker.

House Payment = $1,480

This is our rent and as private rental is so damn expensive this costs us $1,480.00 monthly. Actually this covers us for only 4 weeks so in a month when we have to make 5 payments this can become a bit of a stretch. But we are 2 weeks in advance with our payments, so no stress there.

Misc. = $00.00

I am allowing myself nothing for entertainment, clothing, or presents this month. I overspent on my Grandchildren last week buying each of them a new Winter outfit and of course buying for the baby as well as sending his Mum and Dad flowers when he was born. I also sent flowers to my Mum when she came out of hospital and I bought a gift for my Sister-in-law's Birthday last Friday. Did I budget for any of this expense no, which means in came from my pensions back money. I want every dollar to be accounted for, so fun over, it's back to being Mrs Frugal

Holiday Fund = Approx.$350

 We are going away in August and I would love it if we did not have to dip into savings to fund this. Our goal is to get ourselves some scoopon deals before we head off which should pay for all our entertainment in advance. So any deals we see will come out of this fund. I am putting my little pension into this fund can't wait to see how far I can stretch it.


I will come back to this list and check it off as I go through the month, hopefully there will be no variables. Murphy stay away......

I Have Had The Famine Now I Have The Feast

  

I'm In The Money

Since I last posted I have received my Superannuation money back from the Tax Dept. This was co-contributions and came to $585 so now my bank balance is even healthier and still untouched. I have received no notification as yet from the UK and I am still somewhat scared to think $4,800 that they sent me is mine... However I have now made up my mind how this money will be used.

As The Foxx and I have very little time left where we will be in a position to buy new furniture, we have decided to buy a Lounge Suite, one which will last us well into our retirement a comfortable one which we will feel comfortable with allowing our Grandchildren to sit, eat, play, jump on. Our present suite is covered in a light coloured linen which has not stood the test of time and was never comfy to start with. We have a gorgeous suite in our formal Lounge room but this one will be for our Family living area and we are thinking leather.

Expensive I hear you say Ebay I hear myself say, yes The Foxx and I are looking to buy a good suite on the cheap, the search starts today with The Foxx heading off to have a look at one we saw listed yesterday. If the quality and condition are any good we may have found one already so fingers crossed.

$2,600 will be put into an emergency fund which we are hoping to be able to add too, and the rest will be put towards debt. We have very little now owing on our CC and have no mortgage or car payments so all that is left is my debts from The Restaurant and as I have been plugging away at them, they are now only Utilities. Can't wait to hear from two of the debt collecting companies who still have not been in touch, then arrangements can be finalised. Yippee this puts me in a place I never thought I would be again, comfortable with staying at home and no longer scared to open mail or answer the phone.

My Son has just phoned me and it looks as if my new Grandson will be putting in an appearance today, my DIL was in labour all night, although it seems to have slackened off a bit just now it's 8.30am on the 28th May so depending on her blood pressure she is happy to stay home for a while yet. Unfortunately due to what has turned into a chest infection I have been advised by my doctor not to go near them, how frustrating is that after waiting 9 months I get ill right when it counts Grrrrr

Will Keep You All Posted

Organised Me / Mothers Day

My Recipe Organiser

While out Grocery shopping in Aldi on Friday I bought myself this cute little recipe box, I don't know how often I have sat at this Computer and written recipes down on scraps of paper only to lose them, so now I have put this little box on top of my Computer Tower. As you can see I have also added my cleaning recipes as I hav'nt learned them off by heart as yet. The box was heavily reduced and I just know it is going to be worth it's weight in gold. In fact it could become a family heirloom. LOL

So keep those excellent money saving recipes coming bloggers, because now I'm ready for you.

Mothers Day in Oz

Today is Mother's Day in Australia and so I would just like to wish all Mother's and Grandmothers everywhere a special day.

Unfortunately I was unable to catch up with my Mum as she lives so far away but I rang her this morning and we had a cosy girly chat. I had sent her flowers and a a card which she loved.  My MIL spent most of the day out with her Daughter while we spent most of the day with our Daughter and her family, starting with breakfast and a walk round The Markets. Unfortunately with our new Grandson's birth only days away we only spoke with my Son and his wife by phone, as the drive would have been to much for them. So a lovely day one which I will treasure.

Homemade Cleaner and Grocery Shopping

 

Grocery Shopping Day

Today is a big day in our house it starts with pen and paper and me going through my pantry, fridge and freezer checking what staples I need. Usually the night before I will have made up my menu plans for the week and so armed with all that information I head for the shops with my MIL.

We started at our local butchers where we got chicken breast fillets on special for $6.99 kg, and premium minced beef  $16.00 for 2 kgs right away I have the basis of 7 meals. A quick cup of coffee, then it was off to Aldi for the stuff on the rest of my list. I should now have enough food in the house to get us through the next week with the rest coming off of next weeks grocery list. Apart from the Chicken and Beef I also bought a nice joint of Lamb some Fish and fresh Lasagna sheets and Ravioli. there will also be enough for us to make a Pizza for dinner one night, this will probably be a vegetarian Pizza, made with whatever is left. Plus we snuck in a mascara for me, I love Aldi's brand of makeups and skincare range.

Aldi            = $82.65
Butcher's   = $28.32
Coffees      = $4.00

Total Groceries for this week = $114. 97c

Homemade All Purpose Cleaner

After my huge success with my home made washing powder I decided to go ahead and make my own all purpose household cleaner, this was so easy and I have tried it already and I don't notice any difference between shop bought and homemade. I just googled a recipe and up came hundreds of them so take your pick. I added Eucalyptus Oil  and it has the freshest of smells. I had all of the ingredients in the house so the cost to me today nothing at all. 

A Weekend Rundown

A Day in The Garden

Most of this weekend passed was spent in the garden, Monday was a public holiday and so The Foxx and I spent it keeping ourselves busy and our hands dirty, we planted vegetables mainly Broccoli Cabbage and Leeks. We replanted all of our decorative patio pots and no weeds are daring to show their heads, the grass is cut the paths are swept and we are exhausted. I think The Foxx was glad to return to work this morning.

I have had to string off my herb garden as something ( I am glaring at my old Cat ) has decided that nicely turned earth would make a great toilet, so it is now crisscrossed in bright blue wool with old CD's hanging from the wool. I have lettuce and Bok Choy also in that area so this might also be successful in keeping the birds away. Now all that's left is a way of chasing of the snails or encouraging them with beer. Would I stoop that low LOL ??

However we did spend some money this weekend but only on garden stuff, which when I am saving money at the Greengrocers should pay for itself.

Today is The Fox's payday and we will sit down after tea and pick names out of a hat, only kidding!!!!!!!!!  maybe that was how we used to pay our bills but not anymore we will check the balance of the account to see how much his wages are and then work it out from there. Although we are now at the stage where we agree with the household expenses we are definitely miles apart with how to divide up what is left. I want so badly to have a savings plan an emergency fund a holiday fund and miscellaneous fund as well as all my jars but The Foxx wants to put it all into our CC and work from it, unfortunately for him I discovered that he took cash money out of the card last week and so now we will be paying heavy charges for that. This resulted in a row about money yesterday, which we swore would never happen again. He has obviously been going through his adult life with no conception of how the banks charge, no fine print for this Scotsman.

The sun did not set on that row but it lets me know we still have a way to go before we have got this right.


I am having Lunch out today with a good friend who has just returned from a Cruise so I will be on familiar ground as I have always loved cruising, can't wait to see her photos. But I am going to try and keep expenses way down, between my MIL's little trips to the shops and my lunches out I am seeing a pattern of spending there which I am going to have to rein in. I cannot afford to spend money on coffees and food outside the house, so it is going to be once a week for Lunch and twice a week for Coffee. Just got to pluck up the courage to tell MIL...

Finally got all my information off for my pensions and Superannuation and The Australian Budget which is out today is promising extra money for people on pensions of all kinds this includes the unemployed. A lump sum so MIL is a happy Bunny today. Maybe our lucks are changing....

My fortnightly budget will be posted tomorrow......

Have I Cheated ????

Day 3 Of My Fiscal Fast

Another no spend day for me today, it's really easy to not spend anything when you stay home. However having said that my Mother-in-Law  did spend and because she lives here she brought into the house a crusty loaf ( a want not a need ) a kilo of white filleted fish ( I had already organised dinner ) a bottle of red wine ( a present for The Foxx just because ) there is no earthly way I can prevent this from happening. She had had a day out with her Daughter and they ended up in the supermarket, so did we eat the fish YES did we have a glass of wine with it YES was it nice served with crusty bread YES do I feel as if I have cheated YES even although I spent nothing.

So am I being silly by not being grateful, please give me your opinion because I feel I have failed in my Fiscal Fast through no fault of my own.

Tomorrow I am going to have to spend some money, as the baby shower is being held at a coffee house, near where my Son lives. My Daughter will be driving us there and so my hand will be going into my purse to contribute towards the petrol and whatever I eat for lunch, but I will be cutting back whereever I can.

My little garden is really giving me a lot of pleasure just now, and as we approach winter it is going to be time to plant Pumpkin and Potatoes. The herbs are doing great and we have now planted Bok Choy and Brussel Sprouts. So after this week it will be back to the Garden Centre..

Homemade Washing Powder Trial Results

The Skinny On My Homemade Washing Powder

Well the jury is in and the results are amazing, if I had known years ago how easy and cheap this was going to be I would have started long ago. Ever since I went on my journey to become more frugal, I have looked into making my own soap powder, but something always stopped me from giving it a go. I am not sure why maybe a combination of things, will it work, will it be any cheaper, is this taking saving a few Dollars to extremes ???

Yes to all of the above, it works, it is cheaper and to some it is extreme. Hopefully this will also be better for the planet and me as I have a very mild form of Ecxema, and so I am hoping this will stop any further inflammation, but the jury is still out on that one.

My Recipe

4 cups of grated soap ( finely grated )

2 cups of Washing Soda

1 cup of Borax

I put all of these ingredients into a large jar gave it a good shake and was ready to go. I have been adding 2 tbsp to a load but after checking this amount on the web it seems to be anywhere between 3 tsps and 2 tbsp. Has anyone got any thoughts on this.

I have tried this now on a hot wash a cold wash and on whites and coloureds and I have been very pleased with all my results.I don't own a clothesdryer and so everything comes back in off of my washing line smelling clean and fresh. Another benefit it only costs around 13.5 cents per load.

These are all the pro's the cons are I took the skin off of my knuckle grating the soap, so from now on that might have to be The Foxx's job.

My thanks to Jane at http://lifebeginsatretirement.blogspot.com.au/ she has awarded me The Sunshing Award and I am pleased and thrilled to accept it. It comes with a few obligations and as soon as I can I will post these. Thanks again Jane you know I am with you every day just lurking in the background.

Show Me The Money

Today It's All About money

It seems to me that all I have talked about lately is the weather, growing fruit and veg, my Grandchildren and plans for Easter. Am I avoiding the subject of money, probably !!!!

Part of the reason for this is because now that I am no longer working, I have none. We, as in The Foxx and I, do have income, but because he does'nt get any overtime, and is unable to work 2 jobs what comes into our home on a fortnightly basis never changes.

So every couple of weeks we write down our priority payments, our debts ( most of these relate to The Restaurant ) and of course there is the CC, by the time we have made these payments there is literally nothing left.

So at the moment I am finding subjects to keep my blog interesting and progressive really hard to find, because things are going along on a pretty even keel, so I am financially bored. This is actually where I have always wanted to be, but I imagined myself with a wage being able to contribute more to our finances. You know the old saying " Be careful what you wish for "

Now that I have got that off of my chest, I am going to look into ways of making a little money on the side, I have a few things to put onto Ebay. I am thinking of becoming a Secret Shopper. I am currently doing online surveys again. At the moment my Snowflakes are all change I have taken from my purse and Hubby's pockets, but if I earn any extra it will be Snowflaked and will go towards debt.

Tomorrow I will try and lump our debts together and give myself a number, this is actually going to be a very scary move for me as I am responsible for most of them, fortunately I have the backing of The foxx. Maybe after he see's how much it actually is he will feel less likely to embrace it.

You may have noticed I have changed the look of my blog, this is not a Religious statement, just me trying to bring a little Zen into my life.

I Am Jealous Of Coupon Users

I Could Become an Extreme Couponer

At least I am sure I would be if Australia had food coupons. I am so caught up in the extreme couponing show that I watch each and every episode at least twice. I am only tormenting myself as there is nothing here to compare, so I will never be able to safe the money I see these couponers save.

Both The Foxx and I use Scoopon and other similiar sites to save money on Holiday accomodation, Restaurants and games of golf. But the only savings I have found on food is a $1 coupon for organic chicken breasts which were so expensive they are out of my league anyway.

So I will continue to watch Extreme couponing on TV and dream.

Easter is over now and the Foxx has taken himself off to bed to get in a good night's sleep ready to start back work tomorrow. His wages go into the bank tomorrow and we have not had a chance to sit down this weekend and work out our plan of attack for this fortnight. There will be the usual list of suspects, rent, cc, food, petrol and bills. But I am hoping for savings as well, so fingers crossed.

In 2 weeks time my Daughter-in-Law will be holding her baby shower, so that is going to be my next  expense, trying to find a suitable gift which will also fit in with my more frugal ways. I find buying presents the hardest thing to cut back my spending on, I just love to give and give big.

Although having The Foxx onboard makes it harder for me to spend up as he has always looked down on my gift giving amounts, I always called him Scroodge. So lets find what Mrs. Frugal and Scroodge can find for a baby shower gift LOL

I will be Grocery shopping tomorrow and menu planning so a big day for me. Oh I nearly forgot to mention that at last I made my washing powder and I can't wait to try it out. More about this in another post.

Happy Happy Easter

  

A Very Happy Easter

How is your Easter break going so far ???
I am having a family orientated time kicking off yesterday with celebrating my Daughter's Birthday. Everyone came round to mine and as the weather was heavenly we spent all day outside, my Grandchildren love out huge yard, as we have a rope swing hanging from one of our larger trees. So the noise of their laughter could be heard for hours.
I really really tried to keep the cost of out food down while trying to put together a nice meal, here is a rundown of what we ate..

Starters

Bruschetta topped with Fetta

Haloumi Skewers in an oil, lemon and Oregano basting sauce

Mains

Fetta & Spinach Pie

Lasagna

Garden Salad

Desserts

Pavlova

Hot X Buns

Everyone was stuffed after as there was loads to eat. I managed to keep the costs down as most of the dishes contained no meat, the cheeses were already in the fridge, the salad veg came from my own garden and I kept the amount of meat in the Lasagna to around the kilo mark with leftover Lasagna going into the freezer today for another meal. My Daughter-in-Law made the Fetta and Spinach Pie and my Son-in-Law provided the pavlova for his Wife's Birthday cake.
Everyone provided there own drinks and as I was given a bottle of Champagne for my Easter and The Foxx was given a bottle of red, we paid nothing for our booze.

Sticking to my plan of not spending over $50 on Birthday presents I managed to find a gorgeous steel grey jumper for my Daughter, then I teamed it up with a great scarf in a peach colour and with card and gift paper it all came to $41 great bargains and great looking presents she was delighted....

I made up Easter baskets for my Grandchildren very inexpensive and not too high on the sugar scale, so their parents were happy.

Hoping you all have a wonderful Easter and that the real spirit of it all is not forgotten....

Needs Versus Wants With a Happy Ending

  

My Internal Dialogue

The converstaion went something like this " I am now working hard at growing my own Fruit and Veg organically so I really need a brand spanking new watering can, as my seedlings are too little for a high pressured hose. " But do I really? Have I checked to find my old watering can. ? Can I turn down the pressure on my hose ?  Would I rather have another no spend day or a watering can ?

This conversation went on long enough for me to drive home without buying one and you guessed it as soon as I drove into my Garage I spied my old green plastic watering can with the leaky spout, this was definitely a want against need dilemma and my frugal self won this round.

I have been making the most of my local library lately,  and using the knowledge I get from the gardening and cooking vegetarian books to plan my garden, I have dug over and fertilised an area for my herb bed and an area for growing vegetables .

I already grow Bananas, Apple Guava and Paw Paw trees and have bought dwarf citrus trees which I can grow in pots, I have the tops off of 2 Pineapples rooting just now and as soon as they have a good root system going I will put them in my garden.

Can't wait to cultivate and eat my crops.

Apple Guava

Banana Plant

Paw Paw

Paid off some bills today and put some money into savings, I really don't have very much cash left to save with, but I need to feel as if I have more control than I really have over my debts and savings. It is going to take me until the end of April to get to the point of being able to start saving in earnest, can't wait...

Angry Mother-in-Law

Yesterday while out buying my ingredients for my washing powder, my Mother-in-law told me in no uncertain terms how ridiculous I was becoming, how much she hated " that kind of stuff " and surely I could get it just as cheaply at Aldi. It was on the tip of my tongue to mention another few areas where we could save money ( I'll leave that comment to the readers imagination ) but as she is an old Lady with set ideas about how things are done, I let it slide.

I fight my mother-in-law constantly over menus, shopping lists and a heap of my other money saving ideas, she has never ever learned the art of saving, budgeting even switching things off after you have used them and not leaving taps running these all seem to be alien concepts to her.

So now on top of the money she puts in for food she sneaks other food items into the house as she obviously feels my lists are lacking, they say two women in the kitchen does'nt work and now that I am home full time I am now noticing how much control of my Kitchen I have lost over the years.

I want that control back, so maybe some of these issues we are having are as much my fault as hers, so I will continue to go about my frugal ways quietly one fight at a time.........

I got a final reading from the Electricity supply to The Restaurant yesterday so I am now sitting with the Phone account the Gas account and the Power bill, a grand total of over $5,000 and no way at present of paying them, so I am going to have to wait until they put these accounts into the hands of collection agencies and then make arrangements to pay these off slowly.

I am now finding myself back where I started  when I first started this blog, seems to me I am going backwards instead of forwards.

Is it all bad news I can hear you asking, not at all everything in my personel life is fantastic The Foxx left me a note this morning and his bankcard, just in case I needed anything, I am staying home today so I can give him it back tonight with thanks. My Daughter-in-Law is 7 months pregnant and we are having a little boy this time, this is my 4th Grandchild and will  make 2 girls and 2 boys. My Grandson will be 6 this month and so I will be looking for a present for him this weekend and my Daughter will be 37 in a week or two and the family are all coming here for her party. This will be the first time since I left that we will all be together and I can't wait.

So am I in debt YES

Am I happy YES

I Feel Like a Real Housewife Today

Bringing out the housewife in me

Tomorrow I am taking the bull by the horns and making my own washing powder, I have done all my homework, as today I went to the Supermarket just to make sure everything I needed was in stock. so now I know quantities and prices. Wish me luck, I have never ever done anything like this, can't wait to work out the cost per load. Although I think I will have to wait until it's all used up before I can get an exact figure.

I have been missing in action for a few days now, no reason in particular. I was doing very little on the PC very little on the expenses side of life and I decided to give my home a good clean, so now I am the proud owner of the tidiest linen cupboard in the world. The neatest kitchen cupboards and the shiniest most organised fridge in the Universe.

Pay day today for The Foxx, in one hand and out the other, such is life !!!

Ladies Of The Pink Purse

All about the Pink Purse

The pink purse is where we keep the Grocery money, it is kept in the Pantry and gets topped up every Saturday morning. When my sister was living with us we all put our money in and if any of us were picking up Groceries we took the pink purse, obviously nobody was in control of the spending but as long as we had money still in the purse on a Saturday morning when it was time to refill, we knew we had kept within our grocery limits.

Now that my Sister is no longer staying with us and my MIL is unwell the pink purse is all mine, I can hunt for bargains and budget on food to my hearts content, I am empowered as I am THE KEEPER of " The Pink Purse " better not let this go to my head.......

Many moons ago in an earlier post I wrote a letter to The Foxx
http://towardsretirementwithdebt.blogspot.com.au/2011_02_01_archive.html

I had a feeling he was reading my blog and I put this out to him in the hope that he might see how desperate I was to change our financial ways. Yesterday I let him read the post, I felt comfortable enough with our situation to let him in to one of my best kept secrets, this blog.

He offered me nothing but support after he read it and assured me that from now on things will be different, I think he was quite surprised at the whole idea of me having a blog and seemed surprised at the community in general, he laughingly suggested that this is where I get my crackpot ideas from, so bloggers keep those crackpot ideas coming my way...

The Last Pity Party Post

I am now a Housewife and Caregiver

I'll bet you had thought that I had exhausted the disasters which I have been recanting in my last 4 blog posts. but no the final, nail in the coffin of our finances was brought about by my MIL ending up in hospital with heart failure while I was away from The Foxx. I have a really guilty conscience about what happened to her as I am almost positive that the strain brought on by my leaving  contributed to her condition. So now I am unable to work as I am needed at home with her pretty much constantly at the moment. I made all the normal enquiries about a Carers Pension but as it's based on the amount of money coming into the home, The foxx's salary is too high for us to make a claim.

So now I am her caregiver without being able to make a claim for financial help, part of me is panicking and part of me feels empowered. For the first time since I can remember I am solely in charge of making sure we can afford to live like this.

So budgeting, menu planning and spending are all dictated by me. I am totally committed to getting us out of debt and living a stress free lifestyle.

I will be counting my no spend days again, taking special note of cheap petrol days, produce market shopping for fruit and veg, remembering to turn off electric lights and even making my own laundry detergent. i feel excited and I know with your help I can do this...

PS Jane can you remember the name of the website we used to use to track our spending ????

My First Emergency Of 2011

Me And My Big Mouth

After my comment yesterday about having had no financial emergencies and everything travelling along on an even keel. I woke this morning to find our house in complete darkness and The Foxx out at the fuse box with a torch. Our old but reliable kettle had decided to become our old and unreliable kettle, and had tripped the safety switch in our power box !!!

It,s not a fixable problem so a new kettle is now on my shopping list for tomorrow, and in my usual fashion of buying for quality and not price, I will be up around the $100 mark. Still it,s money well spent to get a decent cuppa. Although I will be looking for the best price possible.

My wages will be given an extra boost tomorrow, with extra snowflake money ( overtime money ) and this is my last wage before I take off on my holiday.

As soon as we booked the table for Dinner last night we realised we had made a mistake, there is no need for us to be having a night out so near to our week away. We thought that we had to use the coupon by the end of this month, but they have extended the offer until the end of May, so plenty of time to go for this meal.

My Sister lives about a 5 day drive away from us on the opposite side of this vast country, normally we would fly but as she is coming to live she wants to bring her car. But she does not want to drive across the Nullabor Desert alone, so she is putting her car on a train and then meeting the train in South Australia around the middle mark and coincidentaly this is exactly where The Foxx and I are going to be. This was not pre-planned but I,m glad that we are going to be there for her as she is going to need a lot of support. Then she will have to drive alone for another 2 days to get to Queensland, I would love to make this drive with her, but she insists that she needs the time alone to think things out, plus I would be abandoning The Foxx right in the middle of our holiday, plus I would not be back in time to start work the following Monday. So lots to think about.