struggling along with my finances - not getting ahead - already after printing out the first week budget stuff from terry i've seen big changes i need to make ... but i'm guessing like anything - it will probably take baby steps
like the first one will be to make my lunch for work each day and not spend $8 a day on food and $3 a day on coffee - i worked at that in a working year i will save $2112 (less what it costs me to make 4 days worth of sandwhiches and fruit) so i still should be able to save at least $1000 a year !!!!
Yor are right Kat, lunches and coffee at work can really add up and often they are poor quality and not that healthy. I too try to take my lunch most days. I find it easier if I take leftovers so often cook my meals with that in mind. Also treating yourself on payday or once a week or so still saves you tons of money and doesn't make you feel deprived.
Re: just saying hello
You will be amazed at how you start saving, first it might be lunches and coffee, next you'll find yourself thinking, why am I paying all this money for____________, why I could make it for 1/2 that. The next thing I found dh and I doing was changing what we bought, and we would spend more for something that was worth something to us, but in the long run saved us even more money. As an example, We planted a new garden, the deer and moose came and ate it. We invested some time and Money and put up an 8 ft wire fence around a garden area almost 3 times the size I wanted the garden. Then I planted a mini orchard, ( most trees grown from seed), I was given some free raspberry plants and they are planted in that back part of the garden, same with a gooseberry, a couple of rose bushes, then we made a gazebo. and the old wood chairs went in. Last summer when I gardened, I would stop and sit in the gazebo and have a nice glass of cold ice tea ( made ahead of time and kept in an old thermos that I take down to the garden), dh would stop what he was doing and come and sit down and we enjoyed our garden, visually, spiritually, and the aroma was heavenly, as I ended up planting packets of anuals around the gazebo.
Our fence, and gazebo paid for themselves in less than 2 years of vegetables, and fruit. The humming birds love the flowers and we love watching them. I know we will have many more years of enjoyment from our garden area.
We also bought a power saw. We live in a forsest area, and get yearly permits and go and get our own winter's wood. Dh
bought a very good saw, not cheap, but we have been able to get 3 winter's wood with the saw, with only maintenance up keep for the saw. It paid for itself the first winter.
So it's not just not spending , but how you spend, and not running up credit. Good luck in your new way of living. I hope you enjoy the peace of mind it brings you, and real happiness, stuff does not give you. By our working together, I retired at 56, dh and I met when I was 38 and both of us came with very little in the way of posessions as both of us had been married before. I was raising my girls, and he had got himself set up and then when he was away working in camp his home and all his posessions burnt down. He had no insurance!
I met him shortly after that, so in those few years we decided what we wanted and worked toward it. But only by living frugally, now we have the freedom to do what we want and we enjoy that.( yes! we do have insurance!)
Yes, I've been to Malaysia several times. Took the train into KL and then traveled through to go to Thailand. Also spent some time in S'pore, as well as Indonesia.
Where in Malaysia are you from?
I miss the nasi goreng and roti, among other foods.
What a wonderful story!!
Now this is a wonderful love story with a perfect ending if I ever heard one. I can't have a garden but I'm learning to grow some things in pots and flower beds and it really makes a lot of difference in the grocery bill. And there's something special about eating what you've grown. I grew up with a garden, pecan trees, apple, peach and pear trees, our own chicken, our own goats and hogs and even rabbits. We didn't buy much from the grocery except sugar and flour.
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