Life is a Journey not a Destination

I’ve mentioned a few times about how we’ve moved over to a cash budget and one of my readers asked for some more details.

I’ve being using the Simply Budgets program for a number of years now and love it (if you need to change any amount it does all the work for you and you can see your cash flow for the coming year). Any budget program will do but you do NEED a budget. However, having a budget and sticking to it is another thing. In fact, we were not able to EVER stick to our budget while putting most purchases on credit card. Yes, we did pay off our credit card every month but I was continually having to rework the budget to be able to do this.

During the year I started watching Till Debt to us Part and the first thing Gail does is put her “clients” on a cash budget. Eventually getting sick of continually running out of money (the crunch came when Kevin had a $1000 dental bill and we had no SAVINGS), I decided we’d try the cash budget.

I bought seven little containers for our main categories - Beauty (covers skin care/makeup, hairdressers, beauticians), kids, entertainment, clothing, household, pets and Libby (personal spending money - mainly for magazines and books). I also have a small purse for groceries and gifts - these stay in my handbag.

I added up how much money I needed to withdraw each week and once a week I’ll get my money and divide it up. Some categories - like food - get used up weekly, but most accumulate so I can buy things when needed. Our bills, like water, electricity, etc are still paid on credit card and paid off monthly.

The first few months were a little tough and I had to shift “cash” around from one container to another. This was mainly becuase I had to accumulation to start with. Now as you can see there is quite a bit of money in some containers - I’ve been especially working on the entertainment one so I’ve got spending money for the school holidays.

Now that Christmas is over I expect things to really settle down. I don’t like parting with my cash now so I really do think about my purchases. Just the other day I told Christy I’d look for a new Christmas book (to replace one that was damaged). The one I liked was $32 so I quickly put it back on the shelf. A few months ago I would just have bought it on credit card.

The best part is not only do I no longer have to rework the budget to accomodate my overspending but in the 4-5 months we’ve been doing to cash budget we have managed to save $5,000!!!!! Some is in my travel account, some in long term savings and some will pay for my new kitchen table.

Honestly, if you have trouble sticking to budget I suggest you try a cash budget. I was a doubter for many, many years but this is only thing that has worked for me. And you know the crazy part? Even though we have had to say no to buying things we really haven’t done without. I don’t feel like I’ve been deprived. I’m not wanting. Which just shows that that $5,000 we’ve saved would have been spent on stuff we really don’t need !!!

for the perfect kitchen table. Today I found it - while we were looking for a new mattress for our bed. Can’t wait to get it - I think it’s going to look so good in our kitchen.

And best of all we saved $450 (and $1000 on our mattress)!!!

As promised here’s another video - this time a before and after of Christy’s bedroom. It’s funny at the end I didn’t feel it looked much different - but that was until I watched the before video. It doesn’t normally get that messy thank goodness.

Before….

And after….

Ever since we moved into this house (4 years ago) I’ve never been happy with the lounge room. It was supposed to be painted with a textured paint - which it was - but the colour is SOOOOO NOTHING!!! And the texture just looks like dirty walls. Most of the wall contain furniture/windows but there is one quite big wall that is blank. We did have 2 large prints of Scottish Castles which helped break it up. But about a month ago I had an idea. And here, thanks to Kevin, is the result….

I tried to find a before photo but I’m guessing cause it was such an awful wall I never photographed that side of the loungeroom. And the best thing about this is that we can change the photos from time to time when we get a great new photo we want to showcase.

Well, love might be too strong a word, but I can’t be the only woman who likes ironing. Or am I? I actually don’t think I know of anyone else who does. Please let me know I’m not alone…

I was introduced to ironing by my Mum. She PAID me to do it. I used to do the ironing every Saturday morning while watching music videos. So maybe that’s why I enjoy it - it has memorable connotations - money and music!!! Funnily enough my Mum doesn’t like ironing and she irons EVERYTHING. I too used to iron everything, but when my girls were young a fellow flybaby pointed out the fact that some things really DON’T need ironed. So I don’t iron everything. I don’t iron DH work shirts (they go straight on hangers after washing), I don’t iron PJs - unless they really need it, and I definitely don’t iron sheets (though will occasionally do a quilt cover). Everything else gets ironed. I find all up it takes less than an hour a week.

At our old house I used to iron outside (well, it was a flyscreen room under our house). The girls would paint or play outside while I did my thing. This worked well as it was right beside our laundry. I then carried all the clothes upstairs. I miss being able to that. But I do LOVE my current laundry…well, I did design it afterall.

Nowadays I use my ironing time as my thinking time. My mind is free to think about whatever. Kevin recently got me an I-Phone so yesterday I actually listened to a flylady podcast while ironing, which was quite motivating.

Last Summer I taught Amy how to iron and it was a novelty for a about a fortnight before she got bored with it. Maybe when she’s older I’ll pay her too…. but I personally I think I’d miss my ironing sessions.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know that I love to entertain at home. We seem to go through phases of doing lots, then not anything for a while. Winter is a quieter time and this year it was extra quiet with us being away for 3 weeks. But we had friends last Sunday and some other friends coming this Sunday. And there a few more friends I need to organise a day with. We will soon be starting our busy time. We have Christy’s birthday in Sept, our Halloween Party in Oct, then Christmas Eve (with friends), Christmas Day (with family) and New Years Eve/Day (with friends). That’s on top of the normal entertaining we like to do.

A lot of people are surprised by how much entertaining we do and how effortless it seems. But I really don’t find it too hard and I think part of the reason is that I don’t get stressed about it. I plan out what I’m serving/making and write a to-do for the few days before the event to make everything run smoothly. I like everything ready when guests arrive and don’t want to running around madly on the day. In the case of last Sunday we were out all day Sat so we had a BBQ and a couple of side dishes. I usually make my own nibbles and desert but due to lack of time didn’t do that this time. Normally I clean the house the day before with the wedding on, Mum & Dad were kind enough to come and help tidy and clean in the morning.

A part of entertaining I particularly enjoy is setting a nice table. With most of our friends having young children we tend to eat outdoors if possible. Having 5 adults and 6 children on Sunday I set a special kids table. The girls usually help to do this.

All the food was ready before the guests arrived.

I lit some candles and even had time to sit down for about half an hour before they arrived. When our guests arrived (2 girls that I grew up with and their families) we welcomed them inside and I put some spring rolls in the oven to cook. Later Kevin cooked the organic meat on the BBQ and I heated up some side dishes.

We had a great afternoon. Amy had organised some activities for the kids.

And I had a lovely time catching up with old friends. I have known these wonderful ladies (who are sisters) since I was 3 years old. They lived behind us growing up and our parents used to pass us over the fence to each others homes. Later we had a gate cut in the fence. It’s impossible for me to think of my childhood with out thinking of them and I’m so very glad we’ve not lost contact (even if we don’t see each other that often these days). Michelle & Terri thanks so much for coming to visit us.

Well, it’s been getting chilly the last few days and we’ve been dragging out the blankets in the evening. Now that we’ve switched back to standard time it seems even cooler. This afternoon it’s pretty cold (and wet) so I decided it was time to drag out the gas heater. This, of course, entails the re-arranged of our loungeroom. Kevin doesn’t like it like this but Amy does. It certainly makes the room seem cozier - which is nice for the cooler months.

I’ve been busy working on my photos the last few days as per my Library of Memories class. And yesterday, I was very excited when a box of goodies, including my new scrapbook albums, arrived.

I’ve been thinking about getting new bedding for a few months now and finally decided to take the plunge since most of it was 30% off (and Christy drew on our bed with ink!!!!). Firstly I needed a fleecy underlay - since losing weight, hence losing a lot of my padding, I’ve been getting sore when I lie down for more than a few hours. I also decided to try ALL white bedding for that “hotel” feeling. I was a bit nervous but I LOVE how it looks. So clean and fresh and oh, so, peaceful. And yes, I did have a great nights sleep, with no sore body parts…… but Kevin complained of a sore back this morning…. go figure!!!

The old bedding

The new bedding - what do you think looks better?

Rosie - already at home on the new-look bed. We just have to be more vigilant for muddy paws now :-).

We had a VERY quiet Australia Day this year. Usually we do lunch with Mum & Dad but they are off in their caravan to attend a wedding. Instead I went to the gym, did the groceries, tidied my desk,

did some work for my BPS organising class with Wendy and did a layout for the class

took my photo of the day - CHOCOLATE! Actually didn’t think I had much in the house until I went searching…

Kevin added an extension to our chook mansion before going into work. They now have a nesting box and some of the chooks have already used it (so Kevin is feeling pretty pleased with himself), and the girls will now be able to collect the eggs.

Amy decided she wanted to learn to iron so she had her first lessons. She did great, ironing all her and Christy’s clothes.

Our only bit of celebration happened at dinner when we had a BBQ with damper and lamingtons.

So a lazy but rather satisfying day. We ended the day watching The Three Musketeers - but somehow we just ended up watching the second half - suprisingly it still make sense and we didn’t realize until the credits started rolling after just 45mins :-). We then watched the first half of Harry Potter VI and will finish watching tomorrow night.