I know that I am a few days late but this is my first post for the New Year.
I posted a similar image at the beginning of 2016 at which time I wrote:
I was searching for a photo that really portrayed my feelings for the end of one year and beginning of the next. I did not want images of alcohol or fireworks. As 2015 is washed away by the incoming tide it is time to write a fresh new date in the sand and move on.
I cannot remember a year that was so universally wished to end as the most recently completed one.
Well, 2020 is now over and in some respects 2021 may not be a great deal different in terms of what is dealt up to us, particularly as COVID19 is definitely still part of our lives and seems likely to be for some time yet.
However, we can decide on how we respond to outside factors which we cannot necessarily control.
For me, it is going to be more of the same. I will continue to simplify my life and focus on what is truly important to me and my family while doing whatever I can to care for our planet and all life on earth.
The 2 weeks since my last blog post have slipped by quickly. Our 2 granddaughters came to visit for a week and then we spent a week at the beach with them and our daughter. Christmas was a fairly low-key affair as we, like many others, simply needed to relax at the end of what has been a challenging year.
Anyway, this post is about looking forward. I know that COVID19 will not disappear at the stroke of midnight on 31st December. Much of what we have endured in 2020 will remain with us as we enter 2021.
Six years ago, at the end of 2014 I decided to record all of our spending for the year. Since then, I have continued to do it each year and have refined the methods I use in the process. I use an Excel spreadsheet, however, you could use a notebook if you prefer.
When I was setting up the spreadsheets for 2021 I noticed that I now have 6 years of records of our spending. During that time we have both retired from full-time work and had major home renovations done as well as travelling overseas on 5 different occasions. There won’t be anymore of that in the foreseeable future, though.
It is interesting to see how some categories of spending have altered dramatically in the wake of our retirement. The most significant is the category ‘Transport’. During the first 4 years of recording our spending, we were both working fulltime and our total transport costs were about $6000 per annum. We had a long rail commute from our home to offices in the city. In 2020 our transport costs were less than $300. Not everyone will have the same costs but if you are considering retirement it is wise to take changes in circumstances and spending into account.
Grocery spending was interesting for a different reason. In 2015 my average weekly spending for 2 adults was $93.88. Unsurprisingly, by 2020 this had increased. However, the margin was very modest with the weekly average being $97.11. In five years my grocery bill for 2 adults increased by a mere $3.23 per week on average. We eat good quality but relatively simple meals with an increasing number of vegetarian meals and are working on growing more of our own food. Minimising food waste is also important from both an environmental and financial perspective.
Clothing was another category where there was a substantial change in our spending during the six years of recording data. Our total spending on this category in 2020 was less than 30% of what we had spent in both 2015 and 2016. Since our retirements were planned, we made a conscious decision to limit our expenditure on work attire over the final couple of years. Additionally, I now have time to source some excellent pre-loved items.
For anyone who is interested I have provided a sample of what my spreadsheet looks like. I use a new sheet in the workbook for each month.
Date
Amount
Category
Description
1/01/2021
$24.76
Groceries
Aldi
$10.00
Self
Gym fees
2/01/2021
NIL
These are the categories that I use. The final column ‘Description’ is for extra details – as much or as little as you want.
Transport
(public transport, taxis and Uber)
Groceries
(food, toiletries and cleaning products at home and on holidays)
Clothing
(buying and repairs for clothes, shoes, jewellery and fabric for dressmaking)
Haircuts
Cars
(fuel, tyres, servicing and repairs including when travelling in our car)
House/Garden
(all equipment, repairs and renovations to house and garden including chicken feed)
Pets
(vet bills, toys, medications, equipment and dog food)
Health
(dental, medical, allied health and chemist expenses)
Entertainment
(meals, shows, movies and events attended jointly)
Alcohol
(beer, wine, spirits and home brew supplies)
Subscriptions
(any subscriptions not listed in fixed expenses)
Gifts
(Christmas, birthdays, cards and postage, memorial donations)
Holidays
(flights, accommodation, tours and entrance fees)
Husband
(gym fees, individual socialising, hobbies and books)
Self
(gym fees, individual socialising, cosmetics, hobbies and books)
I have only addressed our variable spending in this post but I also have a spreadsheet set up for our fixed expenses each month. This helps us to easily see what bills are coming up and predict when we are going to need extra funds. Some months are less than $200 in fixed expenses, whereas, there are other months which are much more than that. This is because we choose to pay some of our bills on an annual basis.
Do you have a plan for keeping track of your finances for the new year?
I am happy to answer any questions you may have regarding tracking your spending.
In the wake of the unprecedented bushfires which ravaged most states of Australia last summer and the forecast of La Nina this summer, it would be very foolish to ignore the risks of natural disasters.
Last night GMan and I attended a Disaster Preparedness Seminar in our local town. It was presented by our regional Council and included some excellent information regarding the local resources that are available.
We regard ourselves as relatively well-prepared but there was plenty of new and enhanced information that has encouraged us to fine-tune our arrangements.
Here are a few points to remember:
Very few of us can think logically and quickly in an emergency situation. Therefore, It is important to have considered and planned your response to various scenarios.
A couple of resources to assist in planning.
You need to have both an evacuation kit (if you need to leave in a hurry) and an emergency kit (to be self-reliant for at least 3-7 days in your home) as emergency services and other resources may not be immediately available in the case of a major disaster.
Some useful items. Waterproof, hi-vis raincoat, a waterproof document pouch, USB drive for copies of documents, resources and information.
Services will be co-ordinated by local councils as well as possibly involving state and federal governments.
Your family, neighbours and local community will be integral to supporting each other in the first instance. Make sure your cultivate these networks.
Know your risks. Our local council has identified (in no particular order) the top 4 risks for our region as:
Last week I bought 13 pineapples. Why 13, you may ask? There were 13 medium sized pineapples in a box at the front of the local fruit and vegetable stall where I shop.
It pays to keep an eye out for these occasional bargain boxes as you can see from this post from January this year. This time the pineapples were in perfect condition apart from being slightly odd shapes and I did not need to discard any of the flesh. My $10 box of pineapples yielded one which we ate fresh and 12 others at 77c each.
Some were sliced and others pulped. Here is the results ready for the freezer.
I retired from full-time, paid employment in July 2019 so it is now 15 months since I was last in the office. My finishing date was pretty much decided at least 2 years prior to my retirement. I did not really contemplate gradually reducing my hours or other strategies to ease into retirement. This bemused many people who continually quizzed me as to what I was going to do when I retired. I did not really have a clear answer which made them even more convinced that I would return.
The last 15 months has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. 6 weeks after my final day in the office, we headed overseas for a much-anticipated 9 week holiday. It was an amazing adventure which we thoroughly enjoyed. Towards the end of the trip GMan and I independently came to the same conclusion – that we would have a break in 2020 and not go overseas. What a fortuitous decision that proved to be. We had previously considered travelling to Scandinavia this year.
Upon our return from overseas towards the end of October we had barely 2 months at home before setting off on a road trip to Victoria. We spent Christmas with family and then planned to visit areas in eastern Victoria and south-eastern NSW but the worst bushfires in living memory crushed that plan. We did manage to visit more family in Canberra and experienced the impact of the smoke first-hand. Not a pleasant experience.
Home again in early January and we imagined that 2020 would be a time to settle into a steady routine. Enter COVID19 and the world seemed to be completely upturned. We were very grateful for the space we had – house and large garden, a well-stocked pantry as well as a garden which supplied at least some of our food requirements, not having paid work to try to do from home or children to homeschool. We were unable to see or visit family and friends for several weeks but this was barely a minor inconvenience compared to what some people have had to endure.
In fact, COVID19 gave us the opportunity to focus on projects around our home. A quick scroll through previous blog posts provides a bit insight. Compost bays, a cold frame, more raised garden beds and finishing the pergola are some of the outdoor improvements. Meanwhile, I prepared meals made predominately from our homegrown produce as well as sewing and mending. Furniture restoration completed.
As restrictions were lifted we resumed some of our activities and interests outside the home. Which brings me to the essence of this blog post.
It is easy to become immersed in a particular interest or activity to exclusion of most others. Therefore, my goal is to identify broad categories and try to include a mix of activities/interests. It is probably not feasible to try to do this each day but I think that it is possible within the timeframe of a week.
After some thought, I have come up with a list of general categories which cover most of the things I do. Yours may be a little different.
Administration Appointments Community engagement Craft and creating Family Friends Garden/outdoor maintenance Garden/outdoor projects Health and fitness Homemaking – regular/frequent tasks Homemaking – seasonal/occasional tasks Planning Relaxation Socialising and entertaining Travel
Of course, some of these definitely overlap and some activities may even cover 3 categories. The list is in alphabetical order so that no-one can question my priorities. I do not envisage making specific lists but it certainly helps to keep things in perspective.
Finally, to those people who were convinced that I would not have enough to do in retirement – you were definitely wrong. My days are occupied, interesting and most of all, fulfilling.
As I mentioned in a post last year, I have tried to remove ‘busy’ from both my vocabulary and mindset as much as possible.
I have spent the last 3 days occupied in one of my favourite activities – sewing. It has not been just any sewing but specifically dressmaking clothes for myself.
The first project was a dress which was modelled on an oft-used shirt pattern.
I bought the fabric which is a cotton drill from a local thrift shop for $5. I have yet to source suitable buttons and finish the hem.
Another dress. A simple, lightweight shift which will be perfect for hot summer days at home or the beach. The fabric for this one was leftover from a previous project. Of course, both of the dresses have pockets.
A navy linen shirt made using the same pattern as the first dress. This is an extremely versatile pattern which I have used numerous times. The contrasting binding on the neckline and armholes is not visible when the garment is being worn but I think it adds a somewhat whimsical touch. Making my own bias binding allows me to indulge ideas like this. Once again, buttons and hemming are required to complete the shirt.
I have another linen shirt cut out which is black.
This has barely put a dent in my stash of fabric and I am looking forward to making more items to add to my wardrobe.
It is almost 2 years since I last bought any brand-new clothes apart from underwear. In that time I have bought less than 10 pieces from thrift shops and recycle boutiques and made a few items. Some of the clothes that I wore to work are still suitable for some occasions, however, I find that I am gradually changing the mix of clothes in my wardrobe to reflect my retirement lifestyle.
The current television series, ‘Fight for Planet A’, has opened some vigorous debate in some forums. Some people believe that promoting the use of renewable sources of energy is reckless as this is simply perpetuating the problem that is the ‘growth economy’. Unless we actually participate in degrowth the planet is doomed.
I am not totally of this mind, however, I do believe that much of our future depends on a serious change of mindset and questioning what stuff we actually need.
A really good place to start is to think twice about replacing broken or damaged items. I want to give you an example which confronted me this morning.
We have a laundry hamper in our bedroom and one of the handles snapped when I picked it up to take it to the laundry this morning.
I decided to mend the handle and found some strong navy fabric in my collection. It happened to match nicely, however, I would have used any colour or pattern if required.
I applied a small strip of double-sided interfacing to the wrong side.
The job was a bit tricky with the handle still attached to the hamper. I basted the 2 ends of the handle together and then pressed the interfacing to the handles.
The remainder of the fabric was folded over and around the existing handle. Here it is pinned and ready to stitch.
I stitched all around the patched handle and reinforced the ends and this is the result.
My repair effort is far from perfect but it is functional. I even managed to put a twist in the handle, despite my best efforts not to. However, this does not detract from the usefulness of the handle.
There is no right or wrong way to approach a repair so this is simply an example of what can be done.
The repaired hamper will hopefully last for many more years.
This is degrowth in action. Do not buy things that you do not need. Think laterally and repair or reuse what you already have. If you are not able to do you own repairs, check out your local repair cafe or ask a friend, neighbour or relative. We all have skills and we need to support each other in whatever ways we can.
I started thinking about how to begin this post and went trawling through the archives of the blog. What an eye-opener!
This photo is from a blog post in January 2015. It is one half of the the cupboard in the office/study – the other half is my linen cupboard. You can read the whole post here if you are interested.
These are before and after photos from a follow-up blog post in June 2015. We had down-sized from the 4 drawer filing cabinet to a 2 drawer one. This also meant that we were able to create an extra shelf using an offcut of melamine shelving.
Fast forward 5 years and after gradually reducing the contents of the filing cabinet, we were able to get rid of it completely and relocate the last few remaining files to the filing drawer of the desk which had remained unused up to that point.
We decided to add another shelf but also removed the previous extra shelf as the cut edges had never been painted. There is plenty of space.
Two shelves in place.
The contents rearranged and easy to locate.
The plastic crate on the floor of the cupboard is going to be our evacuation/emergency box. There will be a few things stored in it but the primary thing is a checklist of what to add (eg: medications) and what to do in specific situations. The contents and list may have slight seasonal variations and will be reviewed at regular intervals. My camera is sitting on top of the box.
It is interesting to see the evolution of the organisation of various spaces in our home. We have lived in this house for almost 15 years which is considerably longer than we have ever resided anywhere else. There has not been the impetus of an impending house move but we have actually decluttered quite a bit by doing it slowly and consistently. The blog is quite an amazing record of what we have achieved in the last 9.5 years.
Over the past few days I have been clearing out the Inboxes of our 2 email accounts. This is what it looks like now.
The total emails I have in ‘All Mail’ is 207.
This is not the first time I have done this and I am sure it won’t be the last, however, I do intend to try to keep on top of the email correspondence on a regular basis.
You can read this post from 2015. There were only about 1500 emails before I started this time.
My goal is maintain the ‘All Mail’ at less than 250 but this will fluctuate somewhat depending on what I need to hold for future reference.
Clutter can weigh you down and prevent you from living your best life. Digital clutter is no different.
We often think of being patient and/or persistent when it comes to locating a specific item. It can be trawling secondhand shops or even looking for a vary particular item brand-new.
However, I have discovered that patience and allowing things to take their course can apply in equal measure when trying to sell or give something away. Somewhere, sometime there will be somebody for whom your treasure will be just perfect. It is simply a matter of finding them.
A case in point is this dressing table. We bought it several years ago with a view to restoring it but plans and needs changed and we needed to find a new home for it.
The mirror attaches to the back of the dressing table and the mirror is absolutely stunning – almost a metre in diameter with a beautiful pie crust edge.
The interior of the cupboards features a central shelf on one side and 4 drawers on the other.
I listed it over 2 months ago on several local Buy, Swap, Sell groups on Facebook. Despite a few enquiries it failed to be sold. A couple of weeks ago I decided to try Gumtree and was feeling a bit despondent as there did not seem to be any interest.
Yesterday I received an enquiry about the Gumtree advertisement from people who live in an adjacent locality in our semi-rural area. They arranged to collect it at 10am this morning.
I held my breath as I cannot remember the countless times that promising sales or giveaways have failed to eventuate.
As arranged the purchasers arrived with a trailer at the appointed time and were absolutely delighted with the dressing table which they plan to put to good use as they fit out their newly-acquired home.
I was really pleased to see this go to a good home and know that it will be appreciated.
