Category Archives: Philosophy

Digital Deadline

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The year is rapidly drawing to a close and it has made me start to think about some of the things I hope to achieve in 2014.

I am well underway with scanning all of my recipes and filing them in a digital format.  The photos are also a work in progress but that will take considerably more time than the recipes.  I also have 2 substantial collections of historical material which would benefit from being scanned and sorted rather than filed away in a box with limited access.

digital files
So one of my goals for 2014 is complete all of these projects.  I see several benefits from transferring these to digital files.

Easy to access
Preserved for the future – able to create several copies in different locations
Reduced clutter
Able to share information

Do you have any particular goals for 2014?

Making Ends Meet – The Essentials

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In an earlier post I identified the essentials for life as shelter, food and clothing.

I talked a bit about food and how you can immediately reduce your costs by creatively using what you have on hand and also the importance of not wasting precious food.

Now for the other 2 essentials before we move back to food.

Shelter

I know it is unwise to assume, but for the purpose of this exercise I will make the assumption that you currently have somewhere to live.  This means that you will most likely have the expense of either rent or mortgage payments.  These need to be your first priority when you are accounting for money and if you are unable to meet this payments then your situation is very dire.  You should seek financial counselling as soon as possible.

rising-housing-costs
It is not a good idea to try to sell or move to another rental property when things are really tight as there are costs associated with moving house, so, if it all possible, it is best to see if you can possibly maintain your current location by cutting back in other areas.  If it is absolutely essential that you move, you could consider moving in with other family members as a temporary solution or sharing with another couple or family to reduce the costs.  All of these strategies have been done before, and whilst not perfect, they are better than ending up homeless.

Clothing

“It is interesting, because I often don’t think of clothing myself as an essential. When I was trying to save for a deposit for a house, that’s the category I set to zero (save for a three week holiday I budgeted for overseas, and within that budget I was allowed to buy whatever, which happened to include lots of clothes!). Admittedly, most people have clothing, so can skimp for a while. And there’s free clothing, through hand me downs, swaps and freecycle. Or there’s op shops. Still, very interesting reading!”

This was a comment in response to my post where I placed clothing in the ‘essential’ category.  Having clothes to wear is essential – we are not in the Garden of Eden – but buying new clothes is definitely not essential!  In fact, like Sarah’s comment, in tough times the clothing budget should be set to zero.

Think about this:  You had enough clothes last week and nothing has changed so there is no need to go and buy more.  Children’s clothes can be let down, patched and created from refashioned adult items.  Check out websites and you will find many references to challenging yourself to buy no new clothes for a year.  It can easily be done.

A final tip:  Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.

In my next post I will look at what meals I can create using the list of contents of Sarah’s refrigerator and pantry.

 

Making Ends Meet – Expenses

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We all have different expenses and priorities but I will try to cover them all using some broad categories.  Not all categories apply to everyone and please add any of your own.  Please feel free to let me know what I have omitted.

The necessities are really shelter, nourishment and clothing.  There are lots of other things that we see as essential in Western cultures but if we strip it all back these are the bare necessities so we will start with them first.

Mortgage repayments or rent
Food
Clothes

Other ‘essentials’

Debt repayments
Transport costs – car and/or public transport
Utilities – water, electricity, gas
Communications – telephone, internet
Heating, cooling
Education costs
Health – including health insurance
Other insurances – house, car, life

The first thing you need to do is to know how much you are spending in each of these categories at the moment.  Some, like rent or mortgage payments will be easy as it is a set amount.  Decide on a timeframe such as weekly, fortnightly or monthly and then work out how much you are spending in each category for the specific timeframe.  I would recommend weekly or fortnightly, however, monthly is an option if you are paid or receive benefits as your major income source on a monthly basis.

Money problems

Now, you need to add up what you are spending on the essentials and what income you have.  Is you income enough to cover your essentials?  If not, you will need to work out how you can cover the shortfall.  Increase income? Reduce costs?  Even if you have calculated that you have enough income to cover the essentials, now is not the time to be feeling smug.  Remember, there is no allowance here for gifts, treats, outings, birthdays, Christmas, haircuts, coffee, snacks or eating out.  If you think this sounds extreme, it is, but it can be done.

No spend
Read this link from Frugal Queen’s blog.  http://www.frugalqueen.co.uk/p/our-story.html  I began reading this blog about 3 years ago and it is absolutely inspirational.  Froogs pulls no punches about what has to be done to improve your financial situation but she leads by example and we would all do well to follow her lead.  Once you have read the previous link, I would strongly suggest that you take the time and read the blog from the very beginning.  You will not do it all in one sitting but you will start to see that by taking some fairly drastic action you will see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Some things will be relevant and others will not but the message is clear – take responsibility for your own financial position and do something about it now!  Cut your spending to the bone.  There is no use mincing around the edges and wailing that you can’t do it.  You can and you must.

Tomorrow I will cover what I refer to as ‘Emergency Action’.  These are things that you can do right here and now that will make an immediate difference.  You will not necessarily be able to continue such drastic measures long-term but it will help to kickstart your journey to balance the budget.

Making Ends Meet – Be Honest

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Do you really, truly know the state of your finances?

It is very easy to try to ignore the situation.  Burying your head in the sand is the wrong decision.

old sand

 

You need to be totally honest and the first thing is to be honest with yourself, extricate your head from the sand and face the facts.  It won’t be pretty and I expect that you have known that in your heart and that is why you chose to ignore the problems.  The inertia that overcomes us when things become too difficult can be extremely overwhelming.

It is very unlikely that this is a situation that you want or need to face alone.  None of us live in total isolation so it is time to include those who are close to you as it is likely that at least some of the changes you are going to need to make will impact on them.  Whether it is your spouse, parents or children you need to be absolutely honest with them.  There is no use trying to gloss over things, otherwise, they may not understand the seriousness of the situation.  Once your and your spouse (as an example) both know what the current situation is you can start to build a plan to move forward.  If you both have the same goal you can support and encourage each other.

honesty

Your new-found honesty needs to extend to your bank, anyone to whom you owe money and anyone who is going to assist you financially during the period while you get your finances back on track.  There needs to be complete and utter transparency to make this work.

new sand

We have already decided that burying your head in the sand is not a sustainable, long-term financial option.

So, it is time to draw a new line in the sand and move forward with confidence.  Things may look desperate now but you can do it.

Tomorrow we will identify and list all of your expenses.

 

Making Ends Meet

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The Duke and I have begun planning and booking for an overseas trip in August 2014.  It has been a considered financial decision for which we have budgeted.  This is in addition to our day-to-day household budget, debt repayments (mortgage and personal loan) and savings (superannuation).

On the face of it, everything looks pretty rosy financially at the moment which is in stark contrast to some other stages of our lives.  But everything could change in a blink if one or both of us were to be made redundant from our jobs.  We do not really expect that to happen but nothing is 100% certain.  We just have to make the best of what we have at the moment.

making ends meet

As I mentioned earlier, there have been times when making ends meet has seemed almost impossible.  Unfortunately, there are many people in this situation.  I read their stories every day in newspapers, online and in magazines. I see it being played out in cities and small communities all over the world.  Sometimes it can be a problem of long-standing (spanning generations) or may be a small blip on the radar due to a temporary change in circumstance.

Whatever the reason, there is a problem when expenses exceed income.

I deliberately left that line by itself because that is the crux of the matter.  Read it again.  When expenses exceed income.  It does not matter what way you dress it up, if you spend more than you earn you will have a problem.  One day the credit card  will reach its limit, you will not be able to get more credit and the house of cards will come tumbling down.

Enough of  the problem.  We are looking for solutions.  There is no magic bullet and this is going to be hard work.  I plan to write a series of posts over the coming days to focus on each of the following points in more detail.  If you have personal experience, suggestions or comments please leave them here or you can email me directly at the email address in the ‘About Me’ tab at the top of the page.

1  Be honest

2  Create a list of expenses

3  Sort essentials from non-essentials

4  Make a plan

5  Accommodation

6  Food

7  Utilities

There will be other topics and the structure may change as the comments unfold.  However, the purpose of this will remain.  It is designed to share collective wisdom from all sources in order to help and support each other.

I look forward to hearing your stories and tips, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem.  What are the little things you do every day that save you money?  Remember, this may make the difference to someone else’s  life.

Until tomorrow.

Project 333 – Packing

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For those of you who may be new to reading this blog, it is probably timely to explain about Project 333.  It is a concept developed by Courtney Carver in which you commit to wearing a maximum of 33 items for 3 months.  You can read all about it at her blog, Be More With Less.

I first discovered Project 333 in April 2012 and followed the guidelines carefully for the next 3 months.  Since then, I have continued to streamline the contents of my wardrobe.  I am constantly striving to create a small but effective selection of pieces which work for me.  For ease of searching, I have used “Project 333” in the title of all of my clothes-related posts.  If you have not read them all you can search all posts under this topic to gain a broad understanding of what I am doing.

I have been in Sydney for the past 2 days for work.  I needed to be appropriately dressed on Tuesday when I arrived as well as yesterday and today.  I was meeting friends for dinner on Tuesday evening and attending a work-related dinner last night.  The constraints were that I planned to only take carry-on luggage as well as staying in a hotel and no opportunity to wash clothes.

Here is what I packed.

Trousers
Green jeans, denim jeans and white 3/4 trousers.

Tops
Floral cardigan, teal top, red/white striped tee and black pullover.  These all have 3/4 sleeves.  I find these very practical for a range of weather and they can be worn in a variety of ways.

Extras
I also packed a black camisole, black/white checked short sleeved shirt and leopard print scarf.

Shoes
2 pairs of flat shoes completed the selection.  I try not to wear the same shoes every day.

I chose the items with a specific plan in mind but sufficient versatility to change the choices if my mood or the weather dictated it.  The plan (which I adhered to) was:

Denim jeans, red/white tee and red flats on Tuesday flight.
Green jeans, black pullover and scarf with pewter flats for dinner on Tuesday.
Green jeans, black camisole, floral cardigan and red flats – work on Wednesday
Denim jeans, black camisole, teal top and pewter flats – dinner on Wednesday.
White trousers, checked shirt with black pullover (if needed) and flats – work on Thursday and flight home.

I really only wore each item once , however, the combinations are almost endless.  The only ‘no go zones’ as far as I can see were the green jeans with the teal top, the red flats with the teal top or the the striped top and floral cardigan together!  My maths is not good enough to be able to calculate all of the possible permutations but I know there were plenty of choices.  All of this confirms what I have often said, “You need almost as many clothes for a couple of days as for a few weeks”.

How do you decide what to pack? Have you ever travelled for an extended period of time with only one bag?

Organised Kids

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On Friday afternoon The Duke and I picked up Miss O as she was coming to stay for the night and most of Saturday before meeting up with her Mum at a family BBQ late on Saturday afternoon.

Whenever either of the grandchildren come to stay something invariably gets forgotten and it is often a toothbrush so we reminded Miss O when we arrived.  This time it was spare underwear that was left behind and then when it was bedtime she announced, “Mum forgot to pack any toys”.  I pointed out to her that it was not actually her mother’s responsibility to pack toys – after all Miss O is nearly 6.

I decided to help Miss O to try to overcome things being forgotten so we made a packing list.

Packing list
This is what we created.  Miss O decided what needed to be on the list and with the aid of Google we found images to go with each item.  Naturally, there will be seasonal variations and not everything will be required each time she packs to go somewhere but I am hoping it will be a useful prompt.

We did not get it quite finished on Saturday but it is all done now, laminated and posted to Miss O as promised.

The picture prompts will also encourage her reading skills.

Project 333 – Making it Work 3

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As promised, here are the next 3 outfits based on the black camisole.  This is the one from yesterday where I teamed the camisole with an overshirt and white 3/4 trousers.

Striped shirt 3
Outfit 2 – a completely different look by teaming the black camisole with a black/white check skirt, lacy gold bolero and metallic sandals.

Black camisole 2

Outfit 3 – a simple, summery combination with the addition of a lightweight Hawaiin-print skirt and black slides.

Black camisole 3
I made the Hawaiin-print skirt from fabric that was given to me.  I love the skirt but it is very different to most items in my wardrobe so I have really set myself up for a challenge by choosing it as my base item for tomorrow.

Will I meet my goal of 3 different ways to wear it?

Project 333 – Making it Work 2

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Now for the next instalment, using the striped shirt as the base for 3 outfits.

Here is the one from yesterday which I will call Outfit 1.

Green jeans2
Outfit 2 – black trousers, teal/black/white striped collared shirt with 3/4 sleeve and zip front, turquoise cardigan and black mary janes.

Striped shirt 2
Outfit 3 – white 3/4 pants, black camisole, teal/black/white striped collared shirt with 3/4 sleeve and black leather slides.

Striped shirt 3

Because we live in a temperate climate I have the luxury of being able to wear some of the more versatile items in all seasons.  This shirt is a perfect example.

Tomorrow I will show you 2 more ways I wear the black camisole.  There are many options for this piece but I will use the opportunity to introduce a couple of the more challenging items.

Project 333 – Making it Work

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As promised the other day, here is the first of a series about my small selection of clothes and how I make them work.

I read recently that someone expected that every item of clothing needed to be able to be incorporated into 3 different outfits to justify having the item in her cupboard.  I decided to test this theory and here are some of the results.

The first item I chose was my green jeans.

Green jeans1
Outfit 1 – green jeans, red/white striped 3/4 sleeve tee and red flats.

Green jeans2
Outfit 2 – green jeans, teal/black/white striped collared shirt with 3/4 sleeve and zip front plus pewter flats.

Green jeans3
Outfit 3 – green jeans, white camisole, charcoal denim jacket and black mary janes.

The great thing about this exercise is that it actually makes you think outside the box.  I have actually worn outfits 1 and 2 but outfit 3 was created purely as a result of this exercise.  I like the look of it and will definitely try it out.

Some items will easily give you 3 or more options while others will be a bit more of a challenge.  I am not just going to showcase the easy choices.  Each day I will select one of the pieces I used as my next base.  Tomorrow will be 2 more ways of wearing the striped shirt which you saw in Outfit 2 today.

I look forward to hearing your comments on my choices and if you have any strategies for making sure that your wardrobe items earn their keep.

Finally, I want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for my sister-in-law.  Her condition remains very serious and we continue to pray for her.