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MrsBrown's guide to living on the cheap
Jun. 5th, 2004 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrsbrownAs requested by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nobble, here is a guide to living cheaply with chidren. It is based on the stuff I learnt while I studied fulltime, on government benefits and supported a largish mortgage for the time and a partner and 3 children. (Interesting side note, My mortgage now is more than twice the size of that mortgage aaarrgh!)
Worrying about money all the time can be the most stressful way to live. I completely understand why domestic violence and child abuse are higher in low income families. I watched us descend into it as money got tighter and tighter and we could only think about whether we had enough money or food in the house to last until the end of the week, or that a child needed shoes, but we didn't have the cash for a while. You can start to feel bad because you are not meeting society's expectations with respect to "the right clothes" in the "right state of repair" or even just doing the stuff your friends are doing.
People react to financial stress in different ways. MTB would often make the stress worse by buying a CD when I had carefully counted the money we had left down to"we have enough to buy 2 litres of milk on the day before payday." MTB's purchase made me feel better too, but bad at the same time. Another reason to cut up the credit card. Buying stuff was his response to always worrying about money, he pretended that we didn't have a financial problem.
To really live on a tight budget, a couple have to be playing the same game of money saving, with the same rules and understand how they respond to the money stress.
The list below is a collection of the stuff that mostly worked and that I still do because they are easy enough to keep up.
Know all of the government benefits you are eligible for, and get them. If you have to change your circumstances slightly to qualify - do so. I studied part time, but made sure I did sufficient hours to be classified full time by the gov't, then they paid me.
I keep a simple spreadsheet style budget. I try to predict when the next bill for gas, electricity etc will arrive and plan about 4 pays ahead. I review it every pay.
When setting it up, work out an approximate budget for each pay. Add up the utilities, rates etc and convert to a pay period amount. Allocate a reasonable food budget for the good weeks and work out the minimum food budget for the bad ones.
The priority system I use is as follows;
Work out the minimum you can allow the food budget to get down to, based on the standard stuff you have in the pantry. It should only get this low rarely.
Keep emergency food like dried milk powder, flour and porridge in the pantry. When the spare cash runs out 2 days before pay day, and there's no milk or bread in the house - you can make replacements.
Avoid the credit card. I'm not very good at this, but at my poorest, we had a maxed out credit card that then became a problem for our regular budget and didn't give us any credit anyway.
When I say food, I'm including all the stuff you buy at the supermarket. Here are some tips for reducing the cost of them.
Other ways to squeeze the food budget;
Cleaning products:
Other stuff to save money:
nobble, here is a guide to living cheaply with chidren. It is based on the stuff I learnt while I studied fulltime, on government benefits and supported a largish mortgage for the time and a partner and 3 children. (Interesting side note, My mortgage now is more than twice the size of that mortgage aaarrgh!)Worrying about money all the time can be the most stressful way to live. I completely understand why domestic violence and child abuse are higher in low income families. I watched us descend into it as money got tighter and tighter and we could only think about whether we had enough money or food in the house to last until the end of the week, or that a child needed shoes, but we didn't have the cash for a while. You can start to feel bad because you are not meeting society's expectations with respect to "the right clothes" in the "right state of repair" or even just doing the stuff your friends are doing.
People react to financial stress in different ways. MTB would often make the stress worse by buying a CD when I had carefully counted the money we had left down to"we have enough to buy 2 litres of milk on the day before payday." MTB's purchase made me feel better too, but bad at the same time. Another reason to cut up the credit card. Buying stuff was his response to always worrying about money, he pretended that we didn't have a financial problem.
To really live on a tight budget, a couple have to be playing the same game of money saving, with the same rules and understand how they respond to the money stress.
The list below is a collection of the stuff that mostly worked and that I still do because they are easy enough to keep up.
Know all of the government benefits you are eligible for, and get them. If you have to change your circumstances slightly to qualify - do so. I studied part time, but made sure I did sufficient hours to be classified full time by the gov't, then they paid me.
I keep a simple spreadsheet style budget. I try to predict when the next bill for gas, electricity etc will arrive and plan about 4 pays ahead. I review it every pay.
When setting it up, work out an approximate budget for each pay. Add up the utilities, rates etc and convert to a pay period amount. Allocate a reasonable food budget for the good weeks and work out the minimum food budget for the bad ones.
The priority system I use is as follows;
- mortgage/savings
- bills a fortnight overdue
- food
- bills due
- entertainment
- clothes
Work out the minimum you can allow the food budget to get down to, based on the standard stuff you have in the pantry. It should only get this low rarely.
Keep emergency food like dried milk powder, flour and porridge in the pantry. When the spare cash runs out 2 days before pay day, and there's no milk or bread in the house - you can make replacements.
Avoid the credit card. I'm not very good at this, but at my poorest, we had a maxed out credit card that then became a problem for our regular budget and didn't give us any credit anyway.
When I say food, I'm including all the stuff you buy at the supermarket. Here are some tips for reducing the cost of them.
- Avoid stuff that attracts GST. It is processed and you can do the processing of plain food at home.
- Base your food buying around fruit and veg, then pasta and rice, then meat if you must. We were nominally vegetarian at our low budget point.
- Don't use fancy cleaning products. See below.
- Don't buy disposable nappies, formula, or pre-prepared baby food. Wash nappies, breastfeed and make baby food from dinner you're making anyway
- Don't buy "flavour sachets" or other, prepared sauces, cake mixes etc. Organise flavouring and cake making from scratch.
- Try the no name brand version before buying the advertised product. It may make no difference..
Other ways to squeeze the food budget;
- Buy cheap bread at the bakery - day old etc
- Stock up when stuff is cheap
- Find warehouse type places and stock up on non-perishables. We get tinned tomatoes and pasta for about 65c a unit from the Mediteranean Supermarket and go every 3 months. My eldest HATES pasta and sauce!
- Go to a cheap fruit and veg place and get good at salvaging the edible, yucky looking stuff. eg. serve precut fruit as dessert (you cut off the bruised bits), make soups, stews etc
Cleaning products:
- I generally don't clean. It saves a lot on cleaning products.
- I don't buy fancy cleaning products: I keep plain (no-name) soap, vinegar, bicarb, ammonia (used when desperate) and eucalyptus oil in the house. I also use a green scourer, instead of Jif etc.
- I work on the theory "if it looks clean, it is clean" so my basin and sink is just wiped down with a cloth, elbow grease and water.
- The toilet gets similar treatment, but I sometimes use vinegar and a splash of eucalyptus oil for a nicer smell.
- Make laundry soap - grate a cake of pure soap and boil with a litre of water to dissolve. Dissolve 1 cup of washing soda (Lectric Soda) in one litre of hot water in a bucket. Divide the soda/soap solution into 3 buckets and fill each bucket slowly with cold water. Use 2-3 cups per wash. The book says you can also use this for shampoo and in a dishwasher. I haven't worked out the right rinse aid for the dishwasher - the dishes are clean, but the glasses have a bit of a soap film.
- Most of this stuff is what I have found useful from "The Green cleaner" by Barbara Lord. I can wash clothes for 5 people for 4 weeks with a cake of soap. Cost: about 20 cents. You might want to occasionally use a commercial clothes powder - it's a nice holiday and cleans out the workings of the washing machine.
- When you take nappies out of the washing machine, they may look a bit stained - hang them in the sun for a day and they'll be beautifully white.
Other stuff to save money:
- Use up your fabric stash.
- Barter with people
- Never buy kids clothes new - Get hand me downs from people, get other people to buy stuff - presents etc, use the op-shop, make stuff!
- If you must buy new, buy only bargains - I had a rule of thumb, never buy clothing for more than $10 and never buy shoes for more than $20. It made it easier to walk away when I found something I thought I wanted.
- Don't go out to dinner. It is cheaper to feed all your friends on steak, than pay for 2 meals and drinks. Get your friends to bring the wine and dessert - they're expensive.
- Avoid takeaway. Keep emergency food for when you can't be fagged cooking. At my house, that's fried eggs on toast with frozen peas and corn or tins of baked beans or tinned soup with toast or toasted cheese sandwiches.
- If you are going out for the day, take food and drink. If you can't manage that, ALWAYS, take drink. You can spend $20 on drinks without blinking and it's more pleasant to spend that money on interesting food treats.
- An awful lot of money saving ideas are also sustainable living ideas - ride a bicycle to work (save on gym membership and petrol at the same time!), walk when you can, turn off lights and appliances when you're not using them, put on a jumper instead of turning up the heater, etc.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-08 04:00 pm (UTC)You know, apart from my pathological nesting which does include a lot of cleaning, we are doing a lot of this. We now have $400 in the bank this week rather than previous weeks where we have tried to work out exactly what we are going to eat for a week with $20. It's a liberating feeling.
Taking lunch to work and eating breakfast at home I think are also major keys to not buying in the middle of the day or being tempted out by work people at lunchtime to spend money.
Anyway, must dash. Work to do and all that rot.