Shop free week...or how to save thousands

How many times a week do you go shopping ?

Do you pop into the store just to pick up one item and walk out with ten?

If you do you are sooooo normal.This I must admit is my weakness . In order to combat a habit I know can be destructive to my spending habits, I do what suits me and I hide. Yep, I hide from shopping...

I've found over the years that if I just stay away from the shops then there is a high chance that I will not spend....and therefore I save. Sound nuts??? I realize hiding is not suitable to many, but what I suggest you try is at least one week a month, rather than doing your weekly big shop,  do not buy anything except for the necesities like bread or milk.( This does not mean chocolate!!!!! even though I realize it could come under that catagory) but for one week you just dont spend. This is when you clean out your fridge and make a stew or casserole with the nearly spent veggies, raid the pantry for items you bought and never used, dig to the bottom of your freezer and cook that mystery meat.It's an opportunity to de-clutter the cupboards and freezer.

If you generally spend $200 to $300 a week for your groceries, then on your shop free week only take $30 (or $50 to start) in cash with you to buy the necessities. This equates to a possible savings of  $2200  to $3500 for the year. Could you use this money to pay off that Credit card? Put it towards those jobs around the house that have been just to expensive. Put it towards something that will help reduce more bills else where eg solar panels, water saving drip systems around your home or replace your electric water heater with gas. The ideas are endless. All you have to do is cut back one week a month on your grocery bills.

Of course if your grocery bills are higher then you will really save some dollars.

Have a go at this shop free week and let me know how you go. It's a great feeling regaining control of your money. I have done it for years and I know it works.

Stop paying someone else to do what you can do yourself.

The importance of living well on a budget may seem like an oxymoron.However it is very easy to do. The first thing you need to know is that it requires a bit of effort in the kitchen, and a bit of forethought and imagination when you are shopping.


The first rule of budgeting (for me) is to stop paying someone else to do, what I can do myself.

This quite simply will almost halve your monthly grocery bill as you wont be paying the extra costs in preparation.

You also have to be prepared to experiment and try new things in the kitchen. If you have ever watched the early shows of Vicar of Dibley; you may remember there was an old woman Leticia who was cooking these weird concoctions. I'm not advocating you cook what she cooked (as most things were inedible!!!) what I'm trying to encourage is the idea that something that you are not familiar with has the potential to be a great meal.

When I was shopping last I picked up a piece of lambs liver/fry. Now I know my husband isn't to keen on the idea, but tonight he will be having a go at this. I generally cook this for myself and the boys when hubby is working away. When I was small, my Mum used to fry up sliced pieces of "soft steak", make a mound of fluffy white mashed potato and serve with a rich black gravy made from the cooking pan scrapings.This was absolutely delicious.I'm sure it will be tonight.
To top off the budgeting feel, the piece of lamb's fry I bought only cost me $2 and the bacon is just a small packet also only worth less than $2 Between 4 adults...not to bad.

Here's my recipe if you want to try this

Fry up the bacon in a med pan, then put aside.

Slice the liver into thin slices.(We alternate between palm size slices or strips, depending on who's eating it)
Dust with plain flour (I have been known to add some dried herbs at this stage)
Put pan on med to hot and fry quickly to brown( too long makes it tough)then take off heat and put aside
To make the gravy add some water or stock to pan and scrape of the crunchy bits Add a little salt and pepper, extra herbs and some garlic if you like. If your gravy is a bit thin, mix some cornflour and water together then pour into gravy and quickly stir in.
Pop the liver and bacon back into the gravy and leave the flavours to mix all together. Keep warm. Pop in the oven or on the stove on the lowest setting. Make your mashed potato and green veg of choice and serve.

This is a surprisingly cheap and tasty meal.

Starting the year with a bang

It is nearly time to celebrate Australia Day. You would think that the beginning of a new year, celebrating (what our German friends call) the biggest celebration of our country, would put a spring in most peoples step. But what I'm seeing on the news, on the internet and in general conversation at the shops, is that many people are just trying to get by day to day. Starting a budget is what I'm hearing but many just don't know how or where to start.

Many are now starting to realize the money spent before and at Christmas time is starting to bite, and the prospect of the next couple of months not quite knowing how to go about paying their bills is quite daunting.

For families that have children, school will be starting and this can be rather expensive as well as stressful.
I'd like to recommend that if you are feeling the pinch, just take a deep breath and take one step at a time.Cut back on a few wants for a couple of weeks, and buy only what is absolutely needed. If your groceries are generally $150, try to drop down to half and use this extra cash to go towards the school needs.Re-use last years pencils/pens etc. Try to salvage as much of the previous years gear as possible. If buying new books for school, try on-line and ask at the school, as quite often some schools have a 2nd hand section.There are many things you can do.You just need to look around.

I realize kids will want new of everything, but don't cave on it all. After the first 2 weeks of school, no one will notice what is new and what is old. If you talk to them, let them know as much as is possible for their age; and you will be surprised with where and what they will be willing to do, to help out. Most kids are prepared to dig in and help; and may even be willing to do without all new gear. A lot of kids just want to blend in, and if they have some new gear, then both you and them can start the year on a good footing

Work together as a team...that's what families are supposed to do.

I hope your Australia Day is a good one.

PS if you need help with starting a budget go here for information on how to start a budget.It's a free download and might be just what you need to kick start the new year.
http://budgetskills.com/irregularincome.html

Baking Bread

Today is bread day for me. I've just finished baking 4 loaves of bread..2 of plain white and 2 banana bread.

I was shopping yesterday and noticed the price of the breads. The plain prepackaged mass produced stuff was cheap, however I noticed that many shoppers were hovering over the better quality bread, here they would look over the ingredients, nod their heads in agreement with each other, look at the price being charged, then sadly put down the good breads and toss a cheap, no flavor loaf into their trolley
.

finished product..yum

I also noticed the cost of foccacia  breads and any type of bread that had bacon, olives or dried tomatoes on it, most were around the $5 mark. Incredible.

I've worked out that my loaves cost less than a dollar to make, have no preservatives, and I can customize them by adding any flavor I want.I can choose to do savory or sweet, grainy or full of fruit. So long as I use the basic recipe....the rest is easy.

Using a basic recipe also allows us to make our own pizza base, as well as pizza turnovers.(basically a pizza with the toppings on the inside....Yum) This for me is a really great way to use up any left overs in the fridge.

Doing your own cooking from scratch is definitely a lot cheaper as well as healthier as you get to control what goes into your food. You also get more control over what you buy, how you spend and what you spend it on.

From the garden to the kitchen

I picked some herbs from our garden this morning, and have just sprinkled them all over the roast that is in the oven. The smell in this house is incredible. I use herbs for almost everything I cook, can't help it. I think I'm a herbaholic.

If you are not using herbs regularly then your meals are missing that extra kick that encourages families to eat more meals at home. If your meals taste great then the chances of them asking for your flavor packed meal is higher than the requests for some greasy carb packed takeaway. There is nothing more rewarding than having your loved ones asking for more because the meal tasted so great. Sometimes it takes only a small amount of herbs to achieve this.

Since moving to this City we're experiencing the high costs of buying our own fresh herbs, this is what has kick started me into gardening mode; so I'm in the process of redoing our garden as this is a rental and I've had to leave my garden that I had developed over the past 10 years. So I will be posting updates on this process over the next couple of weeks.

What herbs could you not do without?

Make use of what you've got

Whether you call it self sufficiency, sustainability , budgeting or frugality, using something the second or even 3rd time around is just plain good sense.

When I was still at school I remember my uniforms couldn't keep up with the growth rate of my legs. I was pleased when my last year at primary was over, and so was my Mum, as there was no way we were going to make those 2 dresses pass 1 more year.I wore these uniforms for 3 years, they had been well worn however still could be passed on to another family. You wont see that anymore.


Over the past 20 years our boys have used and reused every piece of clothing that we started with. They always got handed down at least 3 times then moved on to another family.We even have a photo of my husband feeding our eldest a piece of cake from his 2nd birthday. In that photo the jacket that he was wearing still gets used. Our eldest is now 21.

On the weekend my youngest (who is over 6 ft tall) asked if I could chop his jeans into cutoffs as he has shot up again since we bought these. It never crossed his mind to buy new shorts, just reuse the clothing he has to make them more user friendly and as these have no one to be passed on to, and he needed shorts. Problem solved

Clothing can be as  expensive or inexpensive as you choose. Don't buy cheap clothes as these are often cheaply made. Shop around and you will find good quality at a good price. Thrift stores are my favorite. There will always be cheap stuff, but if your prepared to take your time you will find good quality priced clothing at a great price. Often shopping out of season is the best way to go. Start looking for decent winter coats in summer as this is when they are the most cost effective. Same as summer clothing. Shop for these in winter.

PS   The cut off legs from juniors jeans will be stuffed with rags and used as spare pillows for his bed.

PPS  I always leave my giveaway clothes in a basket for 3 mths before I get rid of them...cause you just never know what they will come in handy for.

M.O.R.T.G.A.G.E

After Christmas and New Years are done and dusted you may find yourself in a bit of a bind with cash. Many people would have been in denial before the holidays and oblivious to the consequences of spending all of their cash. If you are finding it a bit hard to cope and the family is starting to suffer then you need to do something about it.

The last thing you need to worry about is your house. Here are a few ideas that may help.

M     MOTIVATION... Have you been avoiding looking at your mail for fear of what might be there?      You need to bite the bullet and see where you stand and make contact with the banks. The sooner you contact them, the more choices you may have.  Make sure you get moving as soon as possible.

O     ORGANIZE YOURSELF... In order to make contact you will need to make sure you have organized all related files and paperwork. This also increases your sense of control over your situation.

R     RECRUIT THE FAMILY... There is nothing worse than trying to do it all yourself. If family members are aware of the situation you may be less likely to stress as much, and they may give you a little leeway if you are a bit short with them.

T     TALK TO SOMEONE…There is always someone around who may be able to offer assistance whether it be face to face or phone assistance (Life line, Red cross or similar)

G    GET A VALUATION…If your situation is really dire you may need to sell. If this happens you will need to contact a couple of real-estate agents who may give you a free valuation. This will at least give you some more information to present to the banks.

A   ACTION…You need to “pull your socks up”, take a deep breath and take action. Don’t spend too much time dithering around avoiding the problem and don’t give in to analysis paralysis. You need to just DO something. The next step will present itself once you’ve taken that first step.

G   GO EASY ON YOURSELF… If you know deep down that you have done your best for yourself and your family, then guilt, anger, and frustration have no place in your home. All these emotions do is drag you down. You need to let go of them in order to help solve your problems

E   ENJOY YOUR NEW FOUND FREEDOM…Once you have sorted the repayments out, and all parties are happy, the freedom and relief you will feel will be enormous. When you are ready, if you use this knowledge to help others, you will feel so much better about yourself. You may be the reason someone else can save their home by lowering their mortgage payments!

The upside is that there are many mortgage companies these days that are open to mortgage reduction programs to help homeowners keep their houses; as it is in the best interest for them to keep the borrowers in their homes because they are simply not in the business of real estate.

If they take back (repossess) a home because the homeowner defaulted on the mortgage, they are more than likely going to lose money on that house in most cases. If helping homeowners to keep their homes the mortgage companies stand a good chance of continuing to make a profit on the mortgage they had loaned out.

And with the state of the real-estate market they really don’t need a whole drawer full of houses.

This is why it is in everyone’s interest to sort out some sort of repayment plan, or refinancing plan.

The banks will be better off and you still get to keep your house. Win win all round.