Category: Saving/Managing Money

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To Leek or not to Leek

I have been umming and aahing for weeks over sowing leeks. Every different source of information I read gives me varying advice as to when I can plant them – it gets very confusing for a learner vege gardener. I’m not even sure I like leeks but I have become so enthralled with the pleasure of eating our lovely home grown spring onions and red onions that I thought I would continue with the onion family. My pack of mini leek seeds tells me I should have had them sown by early summer – December – but seemingly there are lots of opinions Gardening: The leeks you want – Gardening – NZ Herald News so I’ve decided this morning to go ahead and give it a go. I can always take them in over winter as they will be in pots. On the sowing list this morning was also more baby carrots, spring onions, winter spinach, heritage lettuces from Koanga nursery and mixed variety lettuces. While writing this I am munching away on gorgeous cherry tomatoes (must plant lots more next year!). Everything I have grown over the last year has been from seed – it feels a much greater achievement than buying seedlings from plant shops. I was so proud this morning to see my first 3rd generation lettuce growing happily – grown from seed I collected from lettuces that had self seeded from my first set of lettuce seedlings that I bought two years ago. My mother-in-law has also collected seed from the lettuces I grew for her and has in turn passed extra seed on to her sister. My $3 investment in six lettuce seedlings two years ago has produced at least a hundred lettuces so far and will continue to grow hundreds more for a growing group of people.

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First Day of Unemployment

Yesterday was my last day of holiday pay so today is my first official day of unemployment since I came back from my last OE almost 13 years ago. I start my short term contract on Monday but as it is only for two months I still need to be looking for a full time career. In the meantime I decided not to waste time so yesterday I started on earning my keep by painting all our window frames and architraves. I have been desperately hoping for over a year that my husband would do it but I have finally come to the realization that this is as likely as winning a major lotto prize.  I figure for the next few weeks that if I am not earning my usual full salary that I can ‘earn’ money for our household by doing a job in my spare time that we would otherwise have to pay someone to do. When you are at home not earning wages it can help both the household and your sanity if you can calculate how you can add value to the household finances by your contribution in other ways other than bringing in a salary.

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3 Days after my resignation

Today I realised that I still had to go back to work tomorrow and face the same old situation even though I had resigned. Had a few grey moments. Found this guy on your tube who cheered me up with his resignation routine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PJt0DXdZ0k . Didn’t quite have the guts to do it quite like him – I need good  references (plus I have breasts). We cut down our spending to $2 today(hubby couldn’t resist the sausage sizzle outside Mitre Ten) – not bad for a weekend. I have been buying in bulk the last few weeks while things are on special to help us reduce our grocery bill over the next few months – got butter at pak n save this weekend 2 for $6. The top of my fridge is full of butter now – should last us until after Xmas. I am not going to pay over $5 for butter – that is just crazy. Hubby helpfully made stuffed schnitzels when he got home from work as he could see I was feeling a little down – one spare meal left over which has gone into the freezer for another day.

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Saving $50 a week July Challenge (Week 4)

Well we have come to the end of a cold July and our month of save $50 a week challenge Simple Savings – Free Newsletters. Looking this morning at our overall monthly expenditure summary it has been the lowest spending month since February and the lowest food bill category since September 2009. So thank you Simple Savings for the inspiration. Our savings for Week 4 were:

• Only doing a small shop for vital items – saving $80.

• Having a takeaway free week – saving at least $20.

• Going to our local Farmer’s Market to find free range bacon for half the price of what we pay at the supermarket – saving $7.40.

• Growing our own lettuce seedlings rather than buying seedlings (about 4 punnets worth) – saving $12.

• Getting free lemons from the in-laws tree.

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Saving $50 a week July Challenge (Week 3)

Challenges like the $50 a week challenges Simple Savings – Free Newsletters are good opportunities to not only extend ourselves to save more if we can (not everyone can given their present financial situation) but also to reflect on things we already do on a day to day basis but don’t normally attach a monetary amount to. It can make tasks more rewarding when you realise how much money is saved.

  • Last night was left over meat night. Took the left over frozen bolgnese from the week before and bulked it up with grated carrot (hubby never even noticed!) and red capsicum. Had it with tacos. Saving $5?    
  • Picked up 3Kg granny smith apples at 99c a kilo rather than other apple brands which were all at least $2.95 a kilo. Stewed them all – put away in the freezer – saving $6.
  • De-cluttered wardrobe – old t shirts cut into rags to build up rag supply again so we don’t go and buy paper towels – saving $2.80.
  • Picked up new rechargeable batteries for our camera on 20% off sale, saving – $3.
  • Cats together at the vet $10.80 discount both going together (plus avoiding evening surcharge – not sure how much that is).  
  • Hubby gave me a hair cut – no idea how much hairdressers charge for a cut anymore –  saving 25 – 35?
  • Putting all our errands into one trip last weekend – saving of about $11.
  • Checking our supermarket dockets from the last 2 weeks – two items overcharged  – saving $4.58
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Cat Discount

Around our household it’s that time of the year for the cats to have their annual vaccination & health check up. Having pets is not cheap but they do make up for it with their unconditional love. Yesterday we saved by taking both cats up together which saves 10% ($10.80). On top of that I found out that there is also an evening surcharge which I didn’t previously know about, we always take them up in the evening after work – I thought the surcharge was only for the weekend. So by taking the cats up at 5:30pm yesterday rather than 6pm onwards we avoided the surcharge – something we will be doing from now on. Moral of the story – always ask businesses how you can save money by using their services.

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Financial literacy for children

Even though we don’t have any children of our own we do have discussions regarding the teaching of financial literacy to kids as we reflect on our own childhoods and what we learnt about money. Nations everywhere are introducing financial literacy into the school curriculum in the hope that it will change the financial habits of generations to come. I’m not that convinced though – I think that the biggest lesson that children learn about financial literacy is from what they see their parents doing on a day to day basis with their finances. For financial literacy programmes to really work they need to involve the whole family but how do you achieve that?  Not sure at the moment.  At the moment I’m reading an American blog by Susan Beacham – Helping Kids Get Smart About Money – worth a look at.

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Saving $50 a week July Challenge (Week 2)

Yesterday we did our shopping at Pak n Save getting a 21 c a litre voucher for fuel, saving – at least $10. Today our godson had his 1st birthday – we bought his present last year on sale and kept below our gift budget limit – saving $12. Not buying any wrapping paper for his gift (did up a cardboard box with wrapping paper we recycled) – saving $6 (price of the roll I had in my hand at Pak n Save but didn’t buy thanks to the power of our shopping list). Making a big plate of meringues for the party from ingredients already in the house instead of buying food for a plate  – saving $11. At the store today I resisted buying a turquoise plastic container that I wanted for holding my niece’s colouring felts. Instead I went home, found an ice cream container, turquoise card and pictures of Thomas the Tank Engine and created a container – saving $5.25.  Took a 2 min detour to the Mad Butcher – bought schnitzel there for $9.95/ kg instead of at the supermarket – saving $6. Hubby picked up second hand kitchen cupboards free from a kitchen renovation job he was doing and set them up in the garage today for shelving – saving $100 plus. So far a good week of reducing expenses.

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Saving $50 a week July Challenge

The Simple Saving website has the July challenge of saving $50 a week off your expenses Simple Savings – Free Newsletters. I don’t belong to the simple savings club but I keep in touch with the website every now and then – I thought it sounded like a good challenge.  For the first week of July I’ve cut the money off our food expenses by avoiding takeaways and only grocery shopping for the very essentials. There are enough ingredients in the freezer and cupboards to make meatballs and spaghetti for dinner tonight and a chicken and rice dish with roti for dinner tomorrow. Hubby didn’t buy his lunch yesterday so that will help save $10 this week also. Baking wise for nibbles I’ve tried the coconut loaf again this morning adding jam swirled in the middle of it this time to see what that turns out like (only had a small amount of jam left – more next time!).  All up cutting back on food spending should save us at least $100 this week (which of course goes to show in our house hold that normally we spent far too much on food).  

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Spreading the word

Visiting family a few weeks ago my sister-in-law mentioned that she was now doing what we do at our house and planning meals on the fridge door and it was making a huge difference. (Ours is defrosting in the fridge at the moment. Steak on toasted ciabatta bread, lettuce, red onion, tomato, avocado, onion marmalade chutney……. mmmm.). Meanwhile my mother at the age of 74 has become a white vinegar convert because of me and in turn is spreading the word to all she meets. I was talking to someone the other day about the usefulness of white vinegar and they said they couldn’t live without their Jiff but even my husband who was a Jiff fanatic happily uses our white vinegar spray and wipe. My mother–in–law has become a bush baby dwarf bean plant convert after I gave her some seeds last year (very easy to grow). It’s nice to see people’s lives getting a little easier just from simple things that you do in your life. It all helps to make us the eighth happiest country in the world NZ eighth happiest country in the world – National – NZ Herald News – maybe if we all work at it we can move up in the ranks after the next survey!