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1st - The price of being nice
3rd - LOADSAMONEY!
8th - The Vault Challenge
15th - No eye-deer
23rd - Full steam ahead
26th - Ivana Trump (sort of)...
The price of being nice
Apr 1, 2008
Sigh... I feel like a right plonker. Yesterday Noel and I had our first real argument in years and it was over money. Well, something stupid that I had done involving money. It wasn't a big thing, but I had lied about it and tried to cover it up and that to Noel made it a big thing. If I had just been honest in the first place and taken the flack it probably wouldn't have gone down well but it wouldn't have been anywhere near as bad. The worst thing of all was that I only got myself into this mess by trying to be nice! You see, Noel's ear is permanently glued to the phone for his job and every month he has to go through the phone bill and claim any work expenses owing back from the company. Not usually a problem but I had already paid the bill a few days earlier and was shocked to see that I had unwittingly donated $60 to charity. You know - all the ones who ring up when you're up to your eyes in cooking dinner or bathing the kids and you agree to anything to get them off the line. I couldn't even remember who one of the charities were and then to make matters worse I remembered the $40 Noel told me he donated to Friends of the Air Ambulance a couple of days ago. Between us we had donated $100 to charity in a single month's worth of calls. Now I am all for supporting worthy causes but we just don't have that kind of money to give away! I was horrified when I opened the bill and knew Noel was really not going to be impressed, so I did something really daft. I destroyed the piece of paper from the bill which listed the calls and simply kept the piece which had the final total. Even at the time I knew it wasn't going to work, I don't know why I even bothered but it gave me a few days grace until Noel did his company expenses. Upon which he immediately asked 'what have you done with the other piece of paper?' I tried my best to look innocent and mumbled something about oh dearie me I must have thrown it in the rubbish with the envelope. I would have got away with it too but I'm a dreadful liar and his disgusted expression caused me to burst out laughing. Well that was it! Straight away he realised I was up to something and I got accused of having affairs, ringing phone sex lines and all sorts of other things - why else would I go to such lengths to destroy the phone bill? I told the truth about the charities but to my dismay it wasn't enough. I mean, if his wife could lie about something so simple, what other things did she lie about? In one fell swoop I had managed to earn his distrust AND leave us $100 worse off because now he couldn't claim back his work expenses. I promised I would ring Telecom and ask them to send a copy of the bill again and he agreed. 'Honestly - if I'd known you were going to do that I wouldn't have forked out another $40 to the bloody air ambulance!' he fumed.
To cut a long story short, all is well again but basically it all came down to the fact that I was too nice to say no to the charities when they rang and not only did it put us in financial strife, but also a fair bit of marital strife as well! It's just the way I am - other people are a lot more assertive but I'm not and I decided I didn't want to be put in that position ever again. I would love to be able to support all the charities who need help, they do a fantastic job but I can't save the world to my own family's detriment. Lately we've been getting an average of four calls a week asking for money, and the lead-up to Christmas we were getting as many as eight! I even made notes of some of them in my diary who I had asked not to call for another six months at least and found they had been calling at least every three months, sometimes every eight weeks! So I sat down and thought of all the things we do to support organisations that don't go on the phone bill. For years our family has sponsored a guide dog puppy and shaken fundraising buckets at people during Guide Dog Week. Ali sponsors a crocodile from Australia Zoo and we have recently become members of WSPA and make an automatic donation every month. I buy wristbands for breast cancer awareness, poppies for ANZAC Day, ballpoint pens for Daffodil Day and bandannas and Christmas cards from Canteen. I often put an extra pet food item in the SPCA donation box in the supermarket and buy tickets for all kinds of raffles. I can do all these things without breaking the bank but no more phone calls. In desperation I rang Telecom and explained my situation - even they were horrified at the amount of calls we'd been getting and directed me to a website called The Marketing Association. All I had to do was submit the online Name Removal Service form for Consumers and I was done, they assured me I should start seeing a reduction in the amount of calls and junk mail I receive within a month. Woohoo! I hope they're right!
As well as unwanted phone calls, I have also put an end to unwanted spam, with the help of the Vault! My email account was being swamped each day with all kinds of dreadful mail; anything from replica watches to Viagra and 'health' supplements. I didn't want to go to the inconvenience of changing my email address just as everyone had got used to it but I was sick to death of being offered fake Rolex watches and the secret to having a bigger willy. Something had to be done - but why should it be at my expense? So I checked the Vault and Forum for a free anti-spam provider and found a tip which told me about a free program called Spamfighter. I downloaded it and have never looked back! It works really well with my Outlook Express and you can see the pesky spam emails being dumped into the Spamfighter folder before they even arrive. The only thing you have to do is remember to check the spam folder occasionally to make sure no emails you actually WANT have been put in there by mistake, but so far it's got it right every time. Brillant - and thank goodness!
We've done quite well for freebies lately. Liam got bowled over by a huge wave at the beach on Sunday and landed awkwardly, injuring his foot badly. Of course it had to be on a weekend when all the medical centres were closed but luckily the doctor was on duty. He was a locum and was up front from the start. 'Look - he needs an x-ray but we don't have the facilities here. I'll look at his foot but there's no way I'm charging you $60 for it being on a weekend and me not being your usual doctor. We'll just pretend we met on the street if anyone asks, shall we?' What a nice chap! Fortunately we had to go past a hospital on our way home and fortunately it was quiet. Fortunately because the injury was also accident related we didn't have to pay for any treatment either! However, while Liam's foot was thankfully not broken, his foot's still swollen like a balloon and he can't walk without crutches. Luckily I knew where to get some free crutches from too though - our local information and support centre lends them out!
Day Two of my $21 Challenge and so far I haven't spent a cent. My first proper home made loaf turned out wonderfully - probably too well actually, I think I'm stuck with that job permanently now but I have to admit I was rather proud. Even yesterday when Noel accidentally knocked off the ceramic coffee jar we've had for years and it smashed into a million pieces and sent an entire new bag of coffee over the floor in the process, I refused to go and get him some more until the next time I happened to be in town. I think all this renewed enthusiasm is mainly down to the fact I interviewed Tara Holland from our Campbell Live No Spend family for That's Life! magazine last week. What an inspiration! I can't believe how dedicated she and her family have been and how well they have adapted to turning their habits around. Even though No Spend Month is over they have continued to keep up the excellent work and are continuing to reap the benefits. Talking to Tara reminded me of a lot of the things I used to do which have gone out the window over time. I won't say too much about them for now, we'll wait until That's Life hits the streets in the near future!
The Vault Challenge
Apr 8, 2008
OK everyone, to the tune of '21 bottles of beer' if you please!
'21 bags on the washing line
Flapping away in the breeze,
I've saved them from landfill, hooray for me
And that's only a week's worth - Jeez!'
Seriously - our family has kept 21 plastic bags out of the rubbish in just one week by washing and recycling them. Plus we also had to throw a few out that were beyond repair so supposing we can manage to recycle 21 bags in an average week - that's 1092 bags that WON'T end up in landfill over the course of a year, just in a single household! Although I have to admit I am racking my brains as to where the heck I'm supposed to store 1000-odd bags. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it - it could be a bit of a challenge!
Talking of challenges (oh very smoothly done Penny) I have to admit, I did end up going ever so slightly over my $21 Challenge limit. However, I refuse to beat myself up about that - it's the first time ever that I have gone over budget during a Challenge week and I still ended up with the huge majority of the usual grocery budget left to transfer into savings. We enjoyed some great meals too! Which reminds me, I still haven't got round to trying that lamb recipe but I will do so this week. So seeing as I'm still in frugal overdrive mode, I reckon it's time for a whole new challenge and everyone is of course welcome to join me. I call it The Vault Challenge!
Be honest, when was the last time you looked in the Vault – properly? I'm ashamed to admit that I've been neglecting this wonderful resource lately and I was blown away when I clicked on 'Recent Hints' and saw so many brilliant tips there. It's not that I've been slack about living the SS way - far from it; it's just I've got used to incorporating so many of the existing tips into every day life, I've forgotten about trying some new ones. I know it's not just me either - another member, Pip, decided she also wanted to get around to trying some new tips and started a great thread called 'Challenge - one new tip a week' right at the same time. Great minds think alike! The only difference is that I aim to try out not just one tip a week but as many as I can as there are so many brilliant ones at the moment, I don't want to forget them again! Some of the current ones which I really like the sound of are:
'Enjoy a big breakfast and save!' - I am really curious to try this out and see if it works. Breakfast in our house is a real 'get-it-over-with' meal so it would be nice to see if we could make it more enjoyable. As long as I don't have to get up earlier!
'10% less rule saves money and planet'. Could I truly be that disciplined? It's a great idea!
'Watties microwaved mashed potatoes - the SS way!' I have never bought ready made mashed potato in my life but I really like this idea for a quick filler for kids so am planning to try it out.
'Visualise your goal and stay on track'. Our family has a brand new goal to save for so we are definitely going to do this! If we can save enough over the next few months, we are going to go to Australia in the July school holidays. This tip will really help keep the whole family on track.
'Work out the real cost of whistles and bells'. This is a clever one and has already saved me a few dollars here and there since I read it.
'Luxurious natural facial scrub'. I just HAVE to try this, it sounds divine!
'Scrapbook-style canvas saves fortune on albums'. This is a lovely gift idea which I reckon even I can make!
'Grandma's Day saves $30 a week on groceries'. What a brilliant idea! Even though we make just about everything from scratch, it would be really fun to do this next time the kids are I are in Mr Patels. I wonder when potato chips were invented?
Jings, there are just too many great ones to mention them all here - and that's just in the last week or so! I dread to think how many other fantastic ideas I've missed lately. Then of course there are the recent Hints of the Week like 'Mealopedia' and 'Love Food Hate Waste'. Honestly, if it wasn't for Simple Savings I would never hear of any of these! So today I'm going to start off by making our visible goal chart for our trip to Queensland. The kids can cut out pictures of the things they want to do and see and Noel still has fond memories of the Ettamogah pub, I wonder if I can find a picture of that?! Talking of booze, almost had a drunken disaster on my hands yesterday! Noel bought me a nice bottle of wine as a treat and I had some leftover but I didn't want to leave it around the house as it would be too tempting for this new tee-totaller! So in saintly SS style I poured the leftover wine into ice cube trays and popped it in the freezer so I could use it for cooking when the need arose. Unfortunately Ali has a similar habit of squeezing fresh lemons and freezing the juice in ice cube trays to enjoy in a nice, cold glass of water. I was pottering around yesterday afternoon and heard a voice shout from the kitchen, 'oh great Mum, thanks!' I thought he was thanking me for the new tub of ice cream in the freezer but a few seconds later I heard the 'plink-plink' of ice cubes hitting glass. 'Look Liam - I've got HEAPS of lemon ice cubes!' he announced, most impressed. I dashed out into the kitchen to find him happily sipping away on a tumbler of water, full to the brim with frozen wine cubes! Of course it didn't take long for him to realise that it definitely was not lemon juice it was drinking and before I could do anything he spat everything back into his glass, before rushing to the sink and pouring the whole lot away. So much for saving my leftovers!
At least I do get to enjoy a few more leftovers of a different kind for lunch - although I prefer to call them 'tiffin' a la Sophie Gray lately. It sounds so much nicer - I always really look forward to having my tiffin for lunch and it's made me a lot more conscientious about using up leftovers wisely. One thing we won't have to buy for a while at least is eggs. The chooks have all gone off the lay apart from the odd egg here and there and I was finding it rather painful having to buy eggs. However, Ali's young pet hen Speckles came to the rescue. She kept getting out and would ask to be let back in at feeding time but unknown to us, she had spent many a day happily camouflaged in the ferns and bracken before we finally found her hiding place, proudly sitting atop 15 tiny bantam eggs! Unfortunately they are so small you almost have to use twice as many as normal but nonetheless we are all very grateful to her for her contribution.
Before I go, I must share with you one rather humorous example of recycling. The boys absolutely love WWE wrestling and spend hours on their trampoline, practising their 'finishing moves' over and over again. Great exercise for them I must say! However, the one rule is that they are not allowed to wrestle each other as it's too dangerous. For a while they were content to wrestle Ali's giant stuffed penguin but a few days ago Ali was consumed with remorse for the poor penguin's ill treatment and decided it was to return back to his bed to be cuddled at night with the other stuffed animals instead. 'Oh - well that's great - what are we supposed to wrestle with now?' moaned Liam. They tried using pillows but it wasn't the same at all - then I hit upon an idea. Remembering the hilarious Guy Fawkes days of my youth, we always went to great lengths to build a wonderful 'Guy'. In fact, it was a real combined effort as we always used to celebrate with two other families and every year we would take it in turns - one family would make the head, another the body and the third would make the legs. Then on November 5th we would all come together to attach the three parts of the guy and it was always absolutely hilarious to see what everyone else had created. That was what the boys needed - a wrestling 'guy'! The boys looked on bemused as Noel helped me find an old pair of trousers and a shirt, then we set about stuffing them with everything we could find. Old, ripped sheets, clothes which were beyond even giving to the op shop - you name it. We sewed the legs and body together with baling twine. Then for the head, I stuffed a white plastic shopping bag full to bursting with other plastic shopping bags from our vast saved collection, attached it to the body and drew on a face. By the time we had finished, the 'guy' was bigger than Ali! The kids were over the moon and took it straight outside where they have played for hours ever since, throwing this thing around and launching themselves at it. We certainly never realised years ago that our Bonfire Night guy-making tradition was actually a brilliant exercise in recycling!
Full steam ahead
Apr 23, 2008
Eek, sorry it's been so long! School holidays are here and the last week has been a blur of sports activities and other people's kids. Not that I'm complaining, it's great for the kids but I'll be so happy to stay in one place for just a day or two - I'm exhausted and I'm only the taxi driver! Have had to fill up my car twice this week already and it's only Wednesday - rather painful with the current fuel prices. It's been worth it though and apart from the petrol our school holidays have hardly cost a cent so far. I booked the boys into a three-day cricket workshop with former Black Cap Grant Bradburn. I did briefly question my sanity at having to drive an hour each way into the city when we could have chosen something much closer to home but it has been well worth it. The boys had a fabulous time, learned heaps (so did I!) and made lots of new friends. We'll definitely do it again!
It seems after my ranting and raving last week that our luck has changed dramatically! First, not one but BOTH the boys won a radio competition for a two-hour personal coaching session with the Chiefs rugby team. I don't know who was more excited, the kids or me! We all had a wonderful time, the boys learned heaps from their heroes and even received a free Chiefs reuseable bag full of goodies. That was awesome in itself but you would not BELIEVE the email we came home to! I have absolutely no idea how it happened but we received an email out of the blue from a television company asking if Noel and I would be interested in taking part in a TV show about home makeovers, where we would get two rooms of our choice made over for free! Who knows, maybe someone read my blog and felt sorry for us living in such a shambles but I'm absolutely stoked regardless. I've got no idea if it will definitely go ahead or when but it's fantastic to be asked anyway. Although I'm not sure how the show's interior designers would feel about me trying to come up with a cheaper alternative to all their ideas! Will keep you posted.
To top it all off, Noel is currently on his EIGHTH smoke-free day! And you know what - I don't think he's cheated even once this time. Thank you to everyone who posted on his support thread in the Forum, it's really worked a treat. I have noticed already that he no longer coughs - and no longer stinks either, hooray! Best of all however has been the huge reduction in his spending. He is now down to just one beer a night and had great delight in proudly informing me that over a five-day period he spent a grand total of $2.40. 'Beat that! Now who's the best Simple Saver around here!' he gloated. Good on him though - he hasn't even been that hideously grumpy yet. Well, perhaps a bit...
So we make a great team. A cash-carrying frugal warrior married to Mr Squeaky Clean. He even went clothes shopping the other day with a colleague. It was a bit spontaneous but kind of necessary as they got stuck half way down the country and ended up having to stay overnight but neither of them had any spare clothes. So they decided to see who could get the best outfit for the best price. Noel ended up getting socks, undies, a singlet, shorts, jersey and a pair of sneakers for under $80, beating his buddy fair and square who spent more and bought less. I wish the boys and I had been able to go shopping in the same store - the same day we had to buy two new pairs of school shoes, which ended up costing more than Noel's entire wardrobe!
Mind you, even I had to draw the line the other day when I was at Mr Patel's. I picked up a 500g block of cheese and found it was $14 - and that was just for Pam's cheapo brand! Talk about ridiculous; I would much rather go without. Ali on the other hand was feeling far more generous. A woman came to his school a few days ago who rescues injured birds at her home for the SPCA. The kids were asked to bring a coin donation to school to support her work but Ali my little wildlife fanatic went to his money tin and pulled out the $20 he had been saving since Christmas. He was adamant that this was how he wanted to spend his money, saying it would be put to much better use than on toys for himself. His dad thought he was mad but I was super proud of him. He still dreams of being the next Steve Irwin and if he keeps saving hard his dream will go some way to coming true in July. Our trip to Queensland coincides with Australia Zoo's 'Zookeeper for a Day' program - he's over the moon! What a saving incentive, although he has to save an extra $20 now!
Apart from that there's not much news. The last week or two has been too hectic to even get my brain in gear, there's probably heaps of things I've forgotten to write about but had to put 'pen to paper' while I had the time. Tomorrow is going to be daunting but very exciting. I've been asked to go and talk to Work and Income NZ (WINZ) about Simple Savings and how SS can help their clients learn to manage their homes and food bills for less. It's a huge honour but I have to talk for two hours - eek! I don't know why I'm panicking really, I mean I'm never usually short of words when it comes to Simple Savings! I'm really looking forward to showing them the tipsheets, the Bumper Book of Cleaning Clues, the Menu Planner and $21 Survival Guide, the newsletters... that should keep them going for a while for starters!