Finances

Our first big test

May 31, 2008

Image via Wikipedia On Thursday I wrote a post about . I wrote about how instead of making impulse purchases of things we think we need, we are making ourselves think again. Well, as it turns out, our resolve is being tested. What timing! Around dinner time on Thursday night our town was blacked out […]

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Wants vs Needs

May 28, 2008

Image via Wikipedia For a lot of people “need” and “want” have come to mean the same thing. All to often we are being programmed from an early age to believe that wants are needs. Rather than being guided by our heads when it comes to purchases, we are guided by our hearts. We need […]

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Budget Review for April/May

May 21, 2008

The Engineer was paid on the 15th, so on the weekend we sat down and reviewed our budget to see how we had fared. Overall, we did well. We made it through the month without a credit card. Woo Hoo! This is the first time in years that we have not relied on our cards […]

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Getting off the consumerism bandwagon

May 13, 2008

When did everyone become so entrapped by consumerism? When did “wants” like the latest mobile phone, massive houses, new clothes every season, big, new cars and expensive birthday parties become needs, on a par with food, shelter and adequate medical care? Our family hasn’t been immuned to this epidemic. We’ve jumped on the bandwagon ourselves. […]

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Reducing the grocery bill – week 3

May 6, 2008

I’m almost there. This week I’ve managed buy all of our groceries for just over $156. That is a reduction in our weekly grocery bill of approximately $90 – not to mention the money we used to spend at the bakery on the weekends. If I continue to do this for a year, I will […]

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Reducing the grocery bill – week 2

April 29, 2008

I have been feeling disheartened with my grocery bill reduction progress. Last week we spent $215. It’s a bit odd, because I thought with being away for the weekend we would spend less. Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh, as we did cater for an improptu family picnic on Saturday. The fact it wasn’t planned […]