Weekend trip to the Library

Hubby was looking for some info last weekend so I suggested we pop up to the local library. It’s at least eight years since I have been there – I had to re-enrol it has been so long! I had forgotten what a great place a library can be – you get to browse leisurely through books and magazines and can come away with lots of great books without having to spend any money. Hubby was also happy to hire weekend DVDs from there at $2 each saving us spending money at the local video store. One of the books I’ve been reading over the week is “Winning the Money War” by Lisa Dudson, the book based on the TV show Money Man. It’s a user friendly book and a good place to start if you want to start on the road to becoming financially literate. I enjoyed the book mostly because it reinforced how far hubby and I have come since I started writing this blog. It hasn’t been easy – hubby loves spending money and still finds our budget very hard sometimes, but little by little all the small steps are starting to pay off and we are no longer living from pay check to pay check which in turn spurs us on to save more. One of the money saving tips in the book that we used a lot last week was trading tasks or doing tasks for family. We babysat one evening for family, they fed us dinner before they went out. We did a family member’s gardening tasks, they gave us the $25 they normally give a company to do their gardening. Hubby helped do a building task, we got fed lunch in return. The money we earned went into our holiday savings for a holiday next year. The meals we were fed meant we have more food left in the cupboard/freezer this week and so don’t have to put as much this week on the grocery list. Small things but it truly is the little savings that make the difference over time.