Nutritious, wonderful soup!

With autumn fast approaching here in New Zealand I have a craving for soup. One of my fondest childhood memories is of drinking cups of Mum's vegetable soup while curled up reading a good book. I can never seem to replicate the taste of her soup but it's good fun to keep trying.

Today I bought a bacon hock and a few extra vegetables and now my house is filled with the wonderful smell of soup which is bubbling away. For those trying to lose weight, eat healthier or save money soup is a wonderful meal. I will be freezing meal-sized portions which will make good lunch fodder for the next week or so. Also, living by myself I love coming home from work and having soup and crusty toast for my dinner.

Today's soup has onion, grated carrot and parsnip, sliced celery, silverbeet, barley and, of course, the bacon hock for flavour. Now I find myself sitting here impatiently waiting for it to ready to eat. Yum! Lunch will be a real treat today.

4 days down

My No spend challenge has been all good so far.

I have needed to make sure I bring a couple of extra small snacks to work and have tended to stay away from shops to avoid temptation. I was worried yesterday as I flew to Auckland for the day for a training course and felt sure I would end up hungry or thirsty on the trip home. Luckily the lunch provided on the course was substantial and the airline provided some very nice cheese and crackers (and a free beer) so I didn't end up spending a cent! In fact I couldn't face eating any dinner when I did get home.

Sadly tomorrow I think I will fail. I am meeting my brother for lunch in the city and am certain we will end up going to a cafe for lunch. We only meet a few times a year so I figure this slip is ok (with me anyway). What I plan to do is have a late morning snack so I won't need to buy a lot and probably skip having a drink. That will keep the cost down. If I can do lunch for under $10 I won't be too worried as I sold a chess board on Trade Me for $10 so that can pay for lunch.

What are your priorities?

I have plans to have a No Spend month in November. To me this means I will not spend money on anything that is not necessary. In reality this means no dining out, no outings (that cost money), no clothing purchases, no treats.

When I was considering doing this I realised that for this to be successful I needed to figure out what my priorities are. Of course I could spend money on a meal out but that would mean less money put aside in my savings account. Please don’t think I am one of those people who save, save, save and never spend their money. That is definitely not me. I have some goals to achieve and to be able to succeed with those goals I need to save money. So, for me, it is a no-brainer. If I want to be able to have my lounge re-plastered and painted I need to put money aside. If I want to upgrade my ugly, aging bathroom I need to put money aside. If I want to landscape my front garden I need to put money aside. Getting that work done is more important to me than going out for a meal.

Having a No Spend month should boost the coffers quite nicely and will provide me with an incentive to look at what frivolous spending I can curb without too much pain.

All those small expenses add up to significant amounts of money that could otherwise be saved for those higher priorities. If you are a coffee drinker and spend $3.50 each working day for a takeaway coffee, that mounts up to $840 annually (calculated at one coffee five days a week for 48 weeks of the year). I’m not a coffee drinker so my estimate of $3.50 for a takeaway coffee may well be incorrect but you get my drift right?

Consider what your goals are that require money. Would you like to buy an investment property? Would you like to upgrade your home or car? Would you like to take time out from work? Would you like to rid yourself of debt?

Write your goals down. Work out how much you need to save to achieve those goals. Figure out which goals are most important to you and review your goals regularly. Consider what you are spending on items you could live without. Next time you are about to spend money think about your goals and consider whether the expense is necessary or not. If it’s necessary is there a cheaper option?

For anyone who thinks my bathroom upgrade is frivolous here is a photo of the current bathroom. I’ve lived with it for 8 years and fervently hope that I can upgrade it within the next year.

It's all in the attitude!

I've been mulling over what to write next and decided that an article on attitude would be useful for me as it will help me to refocus.

There are times when stress kicks in, the bills pile up and the weather is horrible (welcome to winter in Wellington, NZ!) when it is hard to stay positive. These are the times, for me, when it starts to get hard to stick to the budget. The thought of dining out, running away for a few days or booking a holiday in a warmer climate becomes incredibly tempting.

We've made a commitment to hold off on spending outside of the budget until our nastiest debt has been cleared. So these are a few tricks I try to make sure I stay on track.

1. I bake and I cook. To me there is nothing better, on a nasty day when I am grumpy, than turning the oven on and cooking up a storm. There is something about the aroma of cookies in the oven and soup bubbling on the stove that lifts my mood immediately.

2. I look at how far we have come since our budget has been in place. I find it inspiring to see that we are managing to chip away at our debt, bit by bit. I like to imagine what life will be like once those payments can be routed into savings instead - that will be a wonderful feeling!

3. I read. I "do the rounds" of all the blogs I follow on the subject of finance and frugality. Often I will come across a post that provides me with the boost I need. If I come up empty-handed I will spend some time searching for new blogs or websites until I find one that gives me the inspiration I need.

4. I plan something. This may be an outing to the movies (using the vouchers I received for my birthday) or we might invite someone round for a meal or we might look at the budget for the next month and squeeze in something special - like a cheap night away somewhere.

5. I take some personal time out. On the weekend just gone, this was curling up in bed with a good book and having a snooze. Those who know me well will know this is completely out of character for me but it really did me a lot of good. My other way of escaping the world is to run a hot bath, make a cup of tea, apply a facial mask and soak for as long as I want.

These may all seem pretty simple fixes but they are do the trick for me. Deep down I know that we are on track to improving things vastly for our future so it's important we don't give up now!