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3rd - The Recession Challenge
10th - Ho ho hum...
17th - The Fab Four - er, Five!
21st - Head in the sand
26th - Think positive, Penny!
The Recession Challenge
Nov 3, 2008
Good grief the boys are growing up! Ali absolutely loves his new school and the phone rings constantly these days with invites to go and play. His best friend Ellis lives in town and for a child who has always lived in the middle of nowhere, Ali loves the independence of being able to do things with Ellis that other kids often take for granted, like being able to walk to Mr Patel's for a bar of chocolate. Although it's probably just as well we don't live within walking distance of the shops otherwise Ali would be permanently broke, not to mention overweight. It amazes me how many kids I see walking through town to school every day clutching a two-litre bottle of Coke and tucking into a pie at eight o' clock in the morning. Every one of them is grossly obese and are the same kids you see buying another pie on the way home from school, or hanging around the local fish and chip chop. These are the unfortunate offspring of Sad Sally parents, who instead of giving them a decent breakfast or school lunch, send their kids off with money to buy whatever junk they need to get them through the day. Ironically, they are all lower income families who are throwing away a fortune on crap each day when they really can't afford to. It's such a big problem in our area that the Lions club started a breakfast programme in a couple of local schools several years ago. They regularly donate bread, cereal and toast toppings so when kids are sent out from home with empty tummies, they can come in before school and the teachers will make them some toast or a bowl of cereal. The teachers support it whole-heartedly as the children's behaviour and ability to learn is so much better when they have food in their tummies. This programme has been a huge success for several years now at the primary schools. Unfortunately when the kids reach secondary school they're on their own again and it's back to the old bad habits. Such a shame.
I'm glad - and I have to say proud - that my kids are not one of these. At 12 Liam is growing at an alarming rate and is now officially taller than me - eek, I thought that sort of thing didn't happen for at least a few more years! He has recently fallen into the trap many kids his age fall into - the lure of the mobile phone. Actually to be fair he's had one for quite some time and has never even run out of credit until recently but now more of his friends have got their own mobiles, that's all changed. We always know where Liam is these days because loud beeping noises are constantly emitted from his pocket. It's a real bone of contention with Noel, who while he has no control over other people's kids wasting their money, cannot bear to see his own son throwing his hard earned pocket money away; particularly when he and most of his mates can actually call each other for free using a regular phone! Liam has fast learned that a $20 top-up doesn't last very long if you don't use it wisely and now asks himself 'do I have to text this now or can it wait until I see them in person?' Nine times out of ten, it can wait.
A very sensible lesson learned - and one I also needed a reminder of! Years ago I had a mobile phone on contract but I switched to pre-pay as it was costing me $80 a month for something I hardly used. This has worked out really well until recent months but these days I use it all the time. I realised to my horror the other day that I had topped up twice in less than 48 hours, spending a total of $40 that week and $50 the week before! 'This pre-pay lark isn't working for me any more, I'll have to go back to contract', I grumbled to Noel. 'Jeez, how many texts and calls are you making then?' he said, aghast. 'Gimme that phone here!' On closer inspection we could see quite easily how all that money had disappeared. Sometimes I was sending up to 10 texts a day to the same person! All you need is a few of those to your mates and there's $20 out the window. Obviously there were quite a few calls in there as well but it was a real wake-up - er - call! Basically it made me realise that using my mobile was working out to an average of $2 every time I used it! 'You Sad Sally you!' chided Noel, who was of course right. My mobile had become far too convenient for me. I love texting because it doesn't take up as much time as talking on the phone, which takes time away from my family. However, looking at most of the texts I had sent, it would have been easier to pick up the phone most of the time, not to mention free! Doh!
A costly mistake for Penny the Plonker but that's all about to change. I am proud to announce our new family money saving project, which we are calling 'THE RECESSION CHALLENGE'. Wow - I've never been so excited about a recession before! It's thanks to Fiona, once again. Her article 'invest in your life' in the October newsletter is brilliant. Even though we already do most of the things which she said need to be done to cope with the recession, it still made me go 'WOAH! OK, let's see how well we can get through this!' We are so fortunate to already have these skills that so many others sadly lack - we know how to garden, we know how to cook, we know how to slash our living costs when we need to. Let's stop taking these skills for granted and REALLY make them work for us. Go hard out, just like in No Spend Month - but this time it's for keeps. No more bad habits are allowed to sneak back in! Noel has recently begun reading my blog for the first time ever . He's started from the very beginning and in between falling about laughing at some of the things I've said about him, it's made us realise that there are heaps of money saving tips and ideas which we thought about doing, or started doing but never kept up. So now's our time to dust them all off and go into savings overdrive. I don't want this recession to get our family down, I want it to be a test of skill that we can be proud of. We have a huge advantage over the millions of poor people who don't have the skills to cope and are scared out of their wits. We know being frugal doesn't mean going without. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
So from November 1st, our family has been in recession mode. It hasn't hit us personally yet but we're acting as if it has and will continue to do so for as long as we need to. It won't be long until it hits us anyway - it's become really noticeable in the shops already; all but the supermarkets are empty. The kids are up for the challenge. They know it's serious but only half understand it - it's pretty hard to explain a recession to youngsters, especially when everything looks and feels just the same to them. I remember England being in recession as a teenager in the early 1990's and I didn't get it at all. My Dad lost his job as a builder and struggled to get regular work for years. I remember the first time I realised things were REALLY bad - Mum, Dad and me were in the supermarket together. Over the years I'd never paid any thought to what went in our trolley; we put in pretty much what we liked and there were always a few treats. Dad's treat was a bag of peanuts and mine was a block of Swiss chocolate. I still remember the horror on both of our faces when Mum told us that we couldn't have them any more; things were too tight. At that moment I really resented the recession and felt like we were 'going without' but to be honest that was the one and only time, which goes to show what a fantastic job my mum did at getting us through those years. She and Dad must have been scared out of their wits but they too had the skills they needed to get by. Mum had always baked and kept a freezer full of food and we had a huge vege garden. I guess I came from a generation of Simple Savers!
I couldn't wait to start baking for our Recession Challenge and did allow myself one treat before I started - I went and bought Sophie Gray's new book 'Delicious'. I considered it an investment in our future and I wasn't disappointed. I have made several recipes from it already and haven't had to buy a single thing from it yet, every ingredient was already in the pantry. The 'raspberry heart muffins' have been a huge hit and I particularly like the section called 'A Handful of Rice', which are all tasty recipes for making something out of nothing. A valuable book for the times ahead and I think other Kiwis are finally listening too - when I went into Whitcoulls to buy Sophie's book, I had to ask for it as they had already sold out of the first batch and they hand to hunt around in boxes until they found me a copy! Books such as this, and Fiona's 50c soup recipe means that we can all continue to eat well for very little money but just as important for me; it also means that by saving money on my grocery bill, we will still be able to afford to pay $40 each for the kids' summer cricket, $90 each for their swimming lessons and a new uniform for Ali who has just joined cub scouts.
One thing which is already saving us heaps of money is our newly-named and much-loved 'Cuddling Chair'! I bought Noel a comfy reclining chair for his birthday back in September. It was a real bargain and is something he has always wanted. Technically this was intended as a 'Dad Only' chair but we recently discovered that we can both fit in it very comfortably! So this has become our evening ritual - once the kids are in bed, we both snuggle up on the cuddling chair and talk. The only problem with this is that it's SO cosy that we both fall asleep in minutes but we came to the conclusion that it's actually a very good money saver. We drink far less wine because we either fall asleep or are too comfy to be bothered going and refilling our glasses. We go to bed earlier too, because we're already sleepy so this saves us heaps in electricity to power lights, TV, computers and so on, not to mention it also saves us using more firewood. However, we've decided that we had better stay well out of the chair on rugby nights in future. We couldn't wait to watch the All Blacks play the Wallabies live from Hong Kong on Saturday night. We waited impatiently until 9.30pm for the game to start and... slept through the whole thing, didn't even make it past the National Anthem. Disastrous!
The Fab Four - er, Five!
Nov 17, 2008
Wow, what a hectic week it's been! If there's one thing our family know how to do it's have fun and we've had heaps of it over the past few days. I know we're more than a little biased but our kids are brilliant! We just adore their company and the four of us have such a hilarious time together. Well, these days it's more the five of us - we've kind of dragged a poor unsuspecting Alex into our merry clan in recent months too. It all started when he kindly offered to be my running buddy a while back, when I was looking for someone to keep me on track in my weightloss mission. In the process of losing 12kg, I also ended up gaining a third son! I'm not sure he knows what's hit him yet but his peaceful existence has been shattered by a group of people who somehow manage to get him to agree to do all sorts of things - anything from 'Alex, do you want to come clay target shooting?' to 'Alex, do you want to swim two kilometres in a Half Iron Man with us?' or most recently 'Hey Alex, how do you fancy an 18km trek across a mountain?'
Take yesterday for example. I'm proud to admit that I completed my first competitive running event successfully! At least this one only charges a $20 fee to try and kill yourself, compared to $210 for the Half Iron Man! Yesterday morning Alex and I lined up nervously along with several thousand other mad people for the 12km Hamilton Round the Bridges event, accompanied by Noel and the boys, our trusty support crew! Alex, being 20 years my junior could do the run with his eyes shut and his hands tied behind his back but I was particularly worried because not only was I still recovering from a nasty virus which had put the cobblers on my training for over a week, but all the fragrant flowers and pollen in the air lately had been playing havoc with my asthma. Only the day before it had become so bad that I was forced to stop after only 2km as I simply couldn't breathe. Yesterday morning I woke up early and straight away I knew I was in for trouble - how was I going to get through this? My inhalers weren't proving effective and I really didn't want to let everyone down, especially myself. My only hope was that I would find something in my homeopathic first aid kit. I looked in my books, then got online and typed my symptoms into the ABC Homeopathy website. The remedy they reckoned I needed was Arsenicum Album, which was the same as I had suspected from my books. It had to be an omen, I hoped! I popped a tiny pilule into my mouth and I swear to goodness not even five minutes later all traces of my wheezing and sore throat had gone. I had no more problems for the rest of the day and completed my run in a very respectable time. I can't wait to see the results online - while I wasn't first I definitely wasn't last. There's life in the old girl yet!
Alex belted his way along the course and arrived at the finish line a full 15 minutes before me. I was really proud of him for challenging himself and trying something new but what really made the day for me was my lovely hubby and boys, who monitored my progress throughout the course and would turn up unexpectedly to wave madly at me or run alongside for a bit. It always made me smile and encouraged me to try that little bit harder but best of all, I never knew when they might pop up so I didn't dare stop! The atmosphere was great and we made the most of the opportunity to take advantage of some half-price race day bargains. Noel as you know has also caught the running bug lately and has been gleefully ribbing me no end about how much it has cost for me to be able to run injury-free, with my podiatrist and physio visits and my $200 running shoes. 'Pah, I don't need any of that flash stuff, all I need is my $29 running shoes from The Warehouse!' he would gloat before heading off to pound the pavements once again. Yeah - they didn't last long though did they mate? By my calculations it was less than six weeks before the entire sole was cracked and you could see the road beneath through them - and that was AFTER I had spent another $20 on insoles for them weeks before, as he felt they were wearing a bit thin! In comparison, my 'posh, girly brand name shoes' have not only more months and countless more kilometres on the clock, they show no signs of wearing out whatsoever! Sometimes you get what you pay for but Noel still ended up with the last laugh as he managed to get his own pair of posh shoes at half price. I'll know where to buy mine from this time next year, should they need replacing!
Because I had done so well at my run, Noel said I could have a treat from Rebel Sports, who were also having some great specials. Yippee! This could have been fun - had I not had Senior Scrooge Noel and Junior Scrooge Alex in tow. Junior Scrooge flatly refused to let me buy anything without trying it on first. 'Yeah', grumbled Senior Scrooge. 'You want to see the stuff she's chucked out of her wardrobe over the years, just because she can't be bothered to try it on first'. Terrific - now they were ganging up on me! In hindsight it was just as well however, as they both informed me that the purple Nike shirt I had convinced myself was going to be my lucky running shirt (and was NOT on special) looked completely hideous and made all my lumpy bits look even lumpier. Sigh - at least they're honest I suppose and if it hadn't been for them I would have been $50 worse off and stuck with a shirt I would never wear. When will you learn from your past mistakes, Penny?
Prizegiving over and we were on to our next mission of the day - water sports! It's one of our very favourite pastimes - awesome scenery, great company, heaps of fun and best of all, no cost! I must apologise to anyone within a 50km radius of Lake Karapiro yesterday whose peaceful Sunday was ruined by a screaming banshee - that was me being dragged along at terrifying speed on a sea biscuit. Our mate Dave brought his boat, we brought the sea biscuit and lifejackets and hours of fun was had taking it in turns to whiz along the river, whilst trying very hard not to fall off (and failing). The weather was glorious and we found a lovely lakeside spot to relax and sunbathe in between rides. While we were all excited about having a go, we were particularly keen to show Alex, as he had never been on a boat before, let alone towed on his belly behind one! He even had his first go at waterskiing and did remarkably well for a first-timer. We all really enjoyed watching him have a go at something new and it brought home to us, as it often does, how much we take for granted as a Simple Savings family. We do pretty much what we like and don't miss out on anything - in fact we probably do more than any other family we know! The secret is, we know the smartest ways to get what we want. It's not rocket science. Where other families might spend $50 on a couple of hours' entertainment at the cinema, we get a whole afternoon's action-packed entertainment for nothing! It's all about mindset in the end, isn't it?
Oops, almost forgot! Our first attempt at a family movie is now live on YouTube! We had a blast making it and because I always talk too much we ended up with three segments! You can watch the first clip here, the second one (featuring Mr Patel) here and the third (which is basically bloopers!) right here. Thanks for watching, feel free to laugh at our expense as much as you like!
Think positive, Penny!
Nov 26, 2008
What on earth is wrong with me?! Christmas is less than a month away and for the first time ever, I don't want to know. I can't even bring myself to think about it. The kids are already excited and nagging me to put up the Christmas tree but all I can think about is the fact that I really don't want to go out and spend money on a load of meaningless stuff. I mean, that's all it is, isn't it? The toy Nerf gun Ali wants for Christmas will no doubt break on the first day just like the last one and the dogs will chew up all the foam bullets again. All the things Liam wants are going to use more power and are not exactly environmentally friendly. I hardly know my two nieces and haven't seen my brother-in-law for two years so have no idea what any of them want or like. No doubt I will end up giving them something they already have at least 20 of, or never knew they wanted before. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Think positive, Penny!
It's the financial side of it that's getting me down, you see. I just think there are far more important things we need to be doing with our money right now and we need to make it last, not fritter it away. I mean, helloooo people, there's a recession on! Nobody seem's to have told the stores that though, who are still bombarding us all with glossy catalogues to try and get us to buy more stuff. I was actually thinking of going so far as to write the kids a letter from Santa, explaining that due to the recession everyone's stockings are going to have to contain a little less this year, in order for there to be enough to go round. Is that mean, do you think?! I doubt if I could actually bring myself to do it, but it's sorely tempting. Obviously we've been talking quite a bit about the recession and it's a hard one to explain to the kids. Liam just can't understand where all the money in the world has gone. 'I mean, why don't the money factories just make some more?' he grumbles. We explained to them that it's due to everyone borrowing too much money that they don't have. In that case, as far as Ali is concerned there must be around a dozen REALLY rich people who are sitting on top of their money mountains scattered around the world and they should all now be forced to share it with everyone else. Nice logic - if only it was that simple!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting all depressed about the recession. As far as our family is concerned, bring it on! Like many other Simple Savers we know what we have to do to get through it; it just irks me that I'm feeling pressured to spend money at this time of year when I really don't want to. Noel actually thinks the recession will be good for us in many ways. For example, it only cost him $64 to fill up his ute this week, compared with $90 a month ago. Interest rates have dropped and will keep going down. Already the floating rate is below our fixed rate, which is currently up for renewal and will no doubt continue to go down. While 3% may not sound much, on a $100,000 mortgage that means an extra $3000 in your bank account. Not to be sniffed at!
Mind you, I'm not sure how good I would be at this self-sufficiency lark without my capable hubby. As well as keeping us well fed with seafood, he's been ribbing me mercilessly about my black thumbs. I seem to have an uncanny knack of killing off everything I plant; usually due to two things - one, I forget to water them and two, sometimes I even forget to plant them! Fortunately everything Noel plants grows like mad. Tuesday night is our family squash night and we always used to get fish and chips on the way home but it didn't take long for that idea to go out the window. Not just because of our recession challenge but mainly because we love our simple dinners from Dad's garden so much better! Instead of spending $30 on soggy fish and chips, we now enjoy a cooked chicken with a fresh salad and whatever's in the garden. There's no comparison really, although as Ali pointed out, if we lived in Mooloolaba the fish and chips would be much harder to resist!
We got a beef animal 'done' this week for the freezer as Noel was keeping us fed with fish and venison but we didn't have much else. It will be interesting to see in Noel's line of work whether more people in general will begin buying their meat this way at the saleyards, rather than just farmers. I honestly don't think most people over here even realise you can do that. Ali came home from school chuckling the other day. He said his teacher was horrified when he told her the vaccuum-packed meat she buys from the supermarket is around six weeks old. 'Can you believe she didn't know that, Mum! Guess she's not a Simple Saver!'
Before I go I must proudly announce that we have saved ourselves thousands of dollars today with one simple decision. After years of deliberating we have decided not to build a garage after all - well, at least until the kids leave home. It would ruin our family sports field and cricket pitch and we can't do that, it's too much fun! Instead of spending six or seven thousand on a big garage, we will make do with a small kitset shed for a fraction of the price. You have to get your priorities right in this household!