On Eating on a Budget

     Being gluten free, making my own cookies is a great way to save money

I love food, and I love budgeting.  But when we had to tighten the belt a little on grocery spending, nevertheless, I got a little worried.  Over a month in now, I have to say we haven't really missed out on much.  So as I said in my 'Money' post earlier this month I'd write some tips on how to eat on a budget.

Be Realistic
Like with my other money advice, make sure your budget is realistic.  If you know you can't live without coffee find a way to incorporate it into your food budget.  I'm a serious sweet tooth, so we buy one big block of chocolate a week (whatever's on special) and have a little each night after dinner  Budgeting for these temptations is safer than just being tempted by what's on special and then getting a shock at the checkout.  It all adds up.  It is more cost effective to shop monthly, but for us shopping weekly works better - set your own boundaries and work within them.

Plan Your Meals
This is the best way to avoid food wastage.  In the past we often accidentally wasted feta because it was left over from another meal and found it's way to a back corner of the fridge.  Now I plan meals around those short-life products - a block of feta means two to three meals that feature feta over the next week.  And we shop to the meal plan.  I plan five meals a week and base the other two meals around what veges we have, and what else is left in our fridge.

If you're on a tight budget, pick one or two 'luxury' items a week to make your meals a bit less bland and plan around those.  It's great if one of those is a luxury that goes a long way - like parmesan cheese or sundried tomatoes - these last us for a month or more and pack a lot of flavour, so for their lifespan are actually fairly inexpensive.

And it's important to plan for more than dinner.  You need to also take into account breakfast, lunch and snacks.  I find I need high protein foods in the mornings to kick start my day, so cheese, eggs and smoked chicken are staples in our house.  Murray is always in a hurry (mornings are not his thing) so we always have vast quantities peanuts in the pantry (cheap protein, high calorie) and plenty of little snacky things like Cruskits (we have fruit too but he's less keen so that's more for me and the rabbit).  If you cook enough dinner to cover lunch the next day, you'll save on time in the morning, and you won't spend unnecessary money buying lunch.  I highly recommend this.  If you don't need it for lunch, you can freeze the extra and that's a meal you don't have to cook one night when you're tired.

Always Use A List 
Shopping without a list is a very dangerous thing.  It's a great way to spend money on things you don't need, and to forget to buy the things you do, which can mean paying bigger prices picking them up from your local dairy later on.  I am mega-anal, and go through grocery receipts so I have a rough idea of what most of our regular groceries cost, and cost out our list as I write it so I know (roughly) whether it's in budget.

How do you know what to put on your list?  I have weekly and fortnightly staples which are always first to go on the list.  These are things we consider necessary - in our house eggs and cat food are a weekly necessity, coffee is fortnightly.  Then I check the pantry/fridge/freezer to see what we've run out of/are running out of and put those onto the list.  Then I do a quick tally of how much it'll cost so far, and based on that, plan what meals I'll make.  If we've run out of a lot of stuff, we have very inexpensive meals (using lentils, veges, stuff from the freezer).  And once we've done that, if there's any extra money it goes on extra tinned food or snacky meal things for Murray (he eats much more than me, and more than I'm prepared to cook for). 

Knowing (roughly) how much the items you usually buy cost makes preparing a useful shopping list much easier.  If you don't know, shop with a calculator (or use the one on your phone).  Get your necessities first, then if there is money left over, get the other items on your list.  Once you've done this a few times, you'll have a better feel for things and can probably start shopping without it.

Buy In Season
You can save crazy money just buying stuff that's in season - and it's fresher and (usually) grown locally, so carries less food miles.  You can sometimes buy strawberries in Summer at three punnets for $5, so it seems stupid to spend $6 on a punnet in Winter.  Especially when you can freeze them.  Yeah, it's not quite the same as you can't just eat them like in Summer, but you can use them in smoothies, salads and desserts, and they're still full of antioxidants. 

When avocados were cheap I made a bunch into guacamole, froze it in little individual portions (used silicon mini-muffin pan as easy to get out later) then put into a freezer bag.  When a friend dropped around a bunch of lemon I squeezed them and froze the juice in ice cubes, then moved them into freezer bags.  And those apples from Maggies garden?  Peeled, stewed and bagged in the freezer.  My favourite is charring red capsicums (cheap over Summer) then freezing them so have sweet roast capsicum to add to meals all year around (well, almost, we just ran out).  Yum!  And way cheaper than paying for a capsicum in Winter.  The freezer is totally your friend here - and that's great because a well-packed freezer is actually more efficient - so keeping it full also helps save on power!

Shopping Around
Shopping around isn't always going to save you money - it's important to factor petrol and time into this equation.  Driving to Orewa to go to Bin Inn once a month may prove more costly than just buying those things at the supermarket.  In saying this, I highly recommend not buying vegetables at the grocery store.  Even Pak n Save charges crazy amounts for regular veges.  Guess how much a courgette was going to cost me from there the other day?  $3!  That's more than a king size block of chocolate - I put it back.  We do our vege shopping at an Asian grocery store just around the corner from Pak n Save and it's much cheaper.  And if I happen to be in the local mall I'll check out what's on special at Countdown - again, only buying things on my list, or that are regular staples in our house.

If highly recommend checking out your local Asian grocery store - some of them are terrible, but many of them are fine and you can pick up ok quality fruit, veges and other stuff at very reasonable prices.  We spend under $20 a week on fruit and veges, and that includes our eggs (free range eggs are cheaper there than at Pak n Save).  Often rice and other staples (for us, rice noodles) are cheaper there than at the supermarkets.  And if you're looking for bulk bin products, you'll often find them at Indian grocers - the cheapest way I've found to buy gluten free flours, beans and legumes - but again, only worth it if you aren't going out of your way to shop there.

Grow Your Own 
 I have never had a green finger.  I was the one in the (farming) family that could not even grow radishes (and also didn't care a fig about growing radishes - farming fail).  Despite this, I've learned how to grow some edible things, and that spending time setting up (soil/manure etc) makes everything a lot easier in the long run.  Murray has always been the vege gardener, and I've always grown the herbs.  His fingers are only slightly greener than mine, but we've still been able to cultivate chili, rhubarb, kale, silverbeet, Maori potatoes, tomatoes and the occasional strawberry, courgette or capsicum.

By far the two easiest things we've ever grown are silverbeet and kale.  These are great as they are full of iron and B vitamins and are versatile and tasty.  If you were to grow one thing, I'd recommend silverbeet - it seems to survive anything, and is pretty fast growing.  I highly recommend growing your own herbs too.  I tend to stick with the 'bushy' ones - oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary and the 'sturdy' ones - mint and parsley as they don't die as easily as things like basil.  Fresh herbs add huge flavour to anything and cost next to nothing to cultivate, so are a great, cost effective way to add something special to cheap meals.

Can't put a garden in your rental property, or live in an apartment? No excuse!  Many veges do well in pots, and some even indoors.  Our in-laws grow basil on their kitchen windowsill and rocket and other salad greens in a long plastic trench pot thing on the deck.  We've grown capsicums and chilis in pots - the chilis actually grew slightly better.

And once you've got something growing well - even just one or two things, make friends with your neighbours, or talk to your friends and swap produce!  Heaps of people have fruit trees that produce more than they can eat - we almost always have oranges going free to good homes.  And our neighbours (lucky us) often have an excess of eggs.  And don't forget about 'weed' foods like puha and watercress - they are fantastic and full of vitamins.  Free food is the BEST food! 

Every Little Bit Counts
Small things add up to big things, and it's important to remember this with both money and food.  If we underspend on the groceries - which we often do these days, the extra money either goes to the side to buy a foody treat (like ice creams or wine...) or gets put on our Pak n Save Christmas Club card.  The club card is great as you can put as little as $5 on at a time.  So once we've done our shopping, and know if there's any extra, I put that in there.  Even if you only save $5 every other week, over a year that's $130 extra saved for Christmas groceries - which for us is plenty!

I hate wasting food, so find ways to use up all the little 'bits' left in our fridge.  Necessity is the mother of invention, and random bits of food have helped me invent an array of random meals - some to be repeated (weird lentil and pumpkin meatball/dumplings) and some not.  A little bit of left over sour cream can add lovely creaminess to soups or bolognaise, refried beans adds viscosity and flavour.  And don't waste those celery leaves!  They're edible!  Wash and chop them and add to soups or stews.  Roasted a chicken?  Don't throw out that carcass, use it to make stock and pop it into the freezer.  All of it adds up to more meals that cost nothing but creativity and a little extra of your time.

Make It Fun
I never used to trust Murray to do the grocery shopping.  When we first went on our strict budget, I'd do the shopping (armed with a calculator) and he would hang out with Etta in the car (I don't drive).  It wasn't the best way to do it, but now I have a better idea of what our regular groceries cost, I'm better at costing out our shopping list, so am happy to send him out.  And he's awesome at it now, because now he COMPETES with my budget to prove his awesomeness.  This is fun for him, and helps distract him from his desire/tendency to impulse shop which is great.  I'm a weird, anal nerd, so shopping within a budget is just fun for me full stop.  I have a Christmas fund to watch go up every time we save on groceries.  That's fun for me.

It might not be fun for you, but something else might be.  Like competing with your flatmates to see who can get the best deal on chicken (or whatever) each week.  Or seeing how much free food you can score by whatever (legal) means.  Or calculating how many food miles you've saved by shopping seasonally.  Or giving Living Below The Line a go one week, and spending the extra money from that week on super exciting stuff (chocolate and wine {or charity}) the next.  However you do it, it's important to focus on the positive aspects of living on a budget. 

                                A few of the awesome money savers from my freezer

On Baby Sleep part 1: On Getting Etta to Sleep

                                          Aren't they lovely when they're asleep?

Etta slept most of the time for her first month on this Earth - apparently that's quite normal for early babies.  But after that, she woke up, and appeared to never want to sleep again.  Being new parents with no prior baby minding experience we had zero knowledge around baby sleep - how much they need, when they need it, or how to get them to sleep.  I think (early times blurry due to lack of sleep) we assumed she needed sleep at night, and otherwise when she got cranky - and worked out we could get her to sleep by doing the following:

- Feeding her to sleep
- Rocking her to sleep
- Making shhhhhhing noises

Sadly, the rocking her to sleep was not that effective.  Sometimes it was more like rocking her to quiet, then as soon as you stopped rocking she would scream.  And the shhhhhing only worked once she was calm.  One night Murray attempted to rock her to sleep for four hours before coming to get me so I could feed her to sleep.

And shortly after that she would no longer feed to sleep.  The sleep situation was pretty ridiculous.

She was only about six weeks old at this stage.  We had tried the methods my friend had used (her son is two months older than Etta), but they hadn't worked for us and the internet offered so much conflicting advice it was confusing.  The only book I'd read that had anything in it about baby sleep was one by Nigel Latta.  So I re-read his advice, and trialled it for a day nap.  Nigel Latta uses a 'controlled crying' method.  It's where you put your baby down for a sleep (in a quiet place, with some sleepy preamble) and then you leave them for five minutes before checking on them.  No matter how much they are crying.  And then you go back, and if they are crying you pick them up (or rock them) and soothe them to quiet - and then you put them down and check them again in six minutes.  And it goes on like this up to leaving them for half an hour if needs be.

And it worked.  She was asleep after (I think?) six minutes.  It was hard letting her cry, but armed with a book that reminded me babies don't die from crying I managed to hold out on picking her up early.  This was a revelation!  I used it for a few days.  Then I checked this method with the internet.  It was not recommended for babies under the age of four to six months.  I felt bad.  So I stopped using it.

Until I really thought about how hard it was to get her to sleep without it.  So I thought bugger the internet, I'm with Nigel Latta.  It seemed to work for Etta, and Murray was on the same page as me*.  In the first two weeks it sometimes took up to nine minutes to get her to sleep - but most of the time it was six.  And even at the nine minute mark, allowing two minutes each time to soothe her - that's only 45 minutes of crying and not sleeping as opposed to four hours.  So I know it seems bad to leave a small baby to cry - cortisol and all - but in total she cried less during sleep training than she had overall beforehand because she slept more and was generally a more content baby.

We still use this method to get her to sleep - and most of the time (unless she's teething or cranky) she doesn't cry at all.  We have been also using white noise to soothe her, but I've recently discovered she doesn't actually need it.  Sometimes it takes her a while to actually sleep - she often lies there quietly staring at the ceiling, or flicking her head back and forth but she almost always eventually goes to sleep.  For naps, putting her down is quick and easy.  She gets tired.  I swaddle her and put her in her bed (in a quiet, dark room) and say 'It's sleep time now.  I love you and I'll see you soon', kiss her and leave the room.  In the evenings, we have a small routine - we lower our voices.  Murray changes her into night time clothes, we swaddle and feed her, then Murray reads her a story and sings her a song in bed, then it's bedtime.  She's asleep now, and she got there, as usual with a little protest grizzle but no tears.  No picking up, no messing about.  Lovely sleeping baby like the one pictured above.

There are LOADS of articles on why controlled crying is dangerous cos crying babies equals too much cortisol which damages babies brains etc.  Despite this, it works fine with our Etta - she is a happy, normal baby who still seems to love us both.  Like most things around babies, there are several schools of thought on how to do things, and why other ways of doing things are wrong.  I think that just like there are many ways to cook an egg, there are many ways to teach your baby.  And just because you prefer your eggs poached, doesn't mean that scrambling eggs is wrong.

Initially it isn't easy to just sit on your hands while your baby cries - we aren't heartless.  If you do use this method to get your baby to sleep, I recommend going and doing something for the first five minutes - make a cup of tea, or check your emails, or (if you're quick like me) have a shower.  Once they're sleep trained they'll usually be asleep (or at least quiet) once that first five minutes is up anyway.  And then you also have a cup of tea, or are clean and refreshed - so if they are still crying, you are probably in a better mindset to cope with the next six minutes.  And if you really can't cope with the crying, you don't have to start with five minutes - you can start with two like in Jo Frost's controlled crying method.

What I like about this sleep method  is that it has taught Etta how to self settle without sleep aids.  It's an important thing to learn which will help her get to sleep through the rest of her life.  And Murray and I are fairly independent people, so a method that teaches independence to our child makes sense to us.  Because we are not leaving her to cry indefinitely, she knows we haven't abandoned her, and that she is loved and cared for.  And I don't think it has emotionally retarded her - she has absolutely no trouble communicating her emotions - be them happy or sad. 

And most importantly, she sleeps! 


* Having him onside is what made this work.  Whenever one of us was about to buckle because she was making such a piteous sound, the other would stand strong.  This definitely got us through the tough first few weeks, and still helps us get through the occasional tough nights now.

My Two Cents on Money (cos apparently it's not just NZ Fashion Week)

I went on the internet yesterday and discovered that there was such a thing as 'Money week' and apparently it's now.  And because my PPL finished and I'm having to be even better with money, and I'm a HUGE fan of budgeting anyway, I thought I'd share some of my basic tips for surviving on an 'austerity budget'*

Know What You Are Spending
If you don't do this already and you'd like to be better with money, track your spending.  This means writing down every transaction you make, in or out, over a period of time and then going through and analysing it.  I don't track my day to day spending often because I'm pretty good with money now - but I do track the big things like the power bill, so that I know what we spend and how much to budget for.  Once you know what you're blowing your money on, you can better target your budget, and your spending habits.  For instance, most people I know spend WAY more than necessary on lunch or snacks for work.  $10 a day is $50 a week, and that can easily be curbed by making lunch at home.  I make biscuits once a week and pop them into little containers for Murray's lunch, and make twice as much dinner as we need so we can have it for lunch the next day.  This is a quick and easy, cost effective way to stop that work lunch spending.  But we mightn't be doing it if we didn't know that's where our extra money was going...

Get Organised
I love my husband, but he is not the most organised person in the world.  When we dropped to one income and I had to redo the budget I found out he didn't know how much our insurances cost... In previous budgets I'd estimated these, but with going to an 'austerity' budget, every dollar counts, so it was important to know exactly.  He also didn't know how to find the amount....

If you don't know how much you spend on power/phone/insurance, whatever just go through your bank statement online - pretty simple.  Once we found the insurance figures I found out I had previously over-budgeted, which meant I had slightly more money after paying the bills than I thought.  That felt like getting free money!  But it could easily have gone the other way.  If you underestimate what you spend on regular direct debits you may go into overdraft and have to pay bank fees.  Paying bank fees for this reason is as stupid as purposely flushing money down the toilet - and so easily avoidable.

And if you're organised you can actually make money.  Because I have our power bill budgeted for, and know when it's due I save 10% on my bill by paying it within two weeks of receiving it.  If you have a $200 power bill, that's like someone giving you a twenty dollar note.  It's the same with your car registration or rates - you know you have to pay them, and if you can bulk pay them (like pay for a year instead of just six months) it works out cheaper.  If you budget for these, it will not only stop you from freaking out when you get the letter in the mail saying you have to pay them - but it'll save you money.

You can save heaps on groceries by planning your meals and just shopping for what you actually need.  We have just been doing this properly over the last month and it's so much better as we waste a lot less food then we used to, have lovely meals, and I'm not scratching my head about what to cook at 5pm.  I choose one or two 'luxury' items, like feta cheese, and incorporate that into that weeks meals alongside cheaper ingredients - like tinned tomatoes.  And don't forget that snacks are meals too - having small things you can take with you when popping out will save you spending unnecessarily on expensive dairy snacks.**

Be Realistic
It's all very well and good having ideals, but at the end of the day they could get you into trouble.  When budgeting for your power bill, budget for your average bill - don't budget around your cheapest bill and plan on how you will use less power.  Average out your last 12 power bills and budget based on that amount.  And if you actually are managing to save on power, after three months work out your monthly average again.  This will bring the average down marginally, and over time your power savings will be incorporated into your budget - once you've proven that it's actually achievable!

And if you know you cannot survive without something, like decent coffee - put it in your budget!  Murray would be not worth dealing with if he couldn't have 'real' coffee on the weekends, so it's incorporated into our food budget - but we only buy it fortnightly.  If he drinks it all in one weekend - there's no coffee left for the next weekend.  But if having that coffee means you have no money for petrol to get to work - the reality is you're probably going to have to get used to instant.

Get Friendly With Your Bank
The reason I am good with money now is because I wasn't when I was younger.  Even when I was earning fairly well I spent pretty much all of it - and on horrible things like expensive shiny pants.  I did what many young people do and got into credit card debt.  After that, I was slightly terrified of dealing with banks, but have since learned you can use them to your advantage.

I have seven bank accounts.  This might sound like a lot, but every one serves a purpose.  You probably won't need seven bank accounts but these are mine and what they do:

1) A regular personal chequing account with eftpos card
2) An internet only 'rainy day' account (also for car maintenance)
3) A debit card which doubles as a personal savings account
4) An account for Etta (to pay for things like swimming lessons)
5) A double signatory savings account for our 'real' savings
6) A 'fun' account (this pays for movies/takeaways etc)
7) The 'bills' account (for power/phone/water rates/mortgage etc)

Bank fees through the roof you say?  I only pay bank fees on one of my accounts (my debit card) and also have unlimited transaction fees on all but one account (savings account).  Talk to your bank and see what they can do for you.  Multiple accounts makes it easier to organise your finances and allocate money for specific purposes.  Three of these accounts are both mine and Murray's and three are for me.  Even though we're a couple, it's important to both of us to maintain some financial independence - Murray doesn't want me nitpicking his personal spending, and he doesn't need to see what stupid things I blow money on either.

Probably the most important account I have there is our double signatory savings.  I used to be unable to save money.  And then one day my boyfriend-at-the-time's sister decided that she and the family were going to Fiji for her 30th - we both had to save up to go.  So we set up a double signatory joint account so we could stop each other from taking money out whenever we wanted a new pair of shiny pants.  And it worked.  And we went to Fiji with the family!  Seeing a savings plan come to fruition is a great way to make you want to keep saving, we actually kept it for quite a while after we broke up (cos we were still friends) and I used it to save for other things.  This is how Murray and I managed to save for our Civil Union, and our house deposit.  If you suck at saving, I highly recommend it.  And you don't need to be in a relationship to do it - ask your Mum or Dad, brother, sister or friend - as long as it's someone who won't buckle every time you want new shiny pants it will work, and you will save money.

Compare Prices
This is especially important when looking to buy important things (like fridges), but also a great way to stop you impulse buying using online specials - which can sometimes be a little less 'special' than you'd think...  There are apparently apps you can get for your smart phones which do this for you - but my phone is not that smart so I just use websites like PriceSpy or PriceMe whenever we need to buy big ticket items.  These are great cos they can also let you know about demo models available at certain stores - totally worth doing on most everything but TV's, and you'll save a bunch of money.

Although Pak n Save is usually the cheapest supermarket it's definitely worth checking out the other supermarket's specials.  I get the Countdown specials email every week, and if something I regularly buy is on special and I happen to be passing by Countdown during the week I'll pick it up from there instead - it's sometimes not worth the time or petrol to make an extra supermarket trip, so definitely not something I go out of my way to do - if it costs more in petrol than in savings than you aren't saving anything at all!

And if you're an impulse shopper who is signed up to deals newsletters like Grabone, and you just can't bear to 'unsubscribe', when an offer comes up that looks enticing just do this.  Google that product and see how much it costs.  Is it much more than the cost of the 'special' plus postage?  And do you really need it?  Even just taking the time to stop and look at something else for a few seconds can make you realise that you don't really need those pet brushing gloves after all.

Don't underestimate other revenue streams
This probably sounds dumb but I'm one of those suckers who does online surveys for money.  I figure I'm at home, I have no job and I like pissing about on the internet so hey, why not.  Because I'm the nerd that I am, I have started tracking my earnings from the various survey sites.  Currently I earn about $12 a week in vouchers or Paypal money.  That doesn't sound like much, but it's over $600 a year.  It's enough to sponsor a child, or buy three coffees (in West Auckland), or if you're me, to put aside for Christmas shopping.  Not too shabby really.

And garage sales are not to be sniffed at.  We had some pretty massive ones at our old flat to help fundraise for our Civil Union and honeymoon - we made over $700 at one of them!  And it's a great way to de-clutter your house. 

Incorporate treats
Being on a budget is not a bad thing - it's a way to work toward getting the things you want in life - like a holiday, or to maintain the things you've worked hard to get, like a house.  But it can be hard to see it that way when it means you've had to change your lifestyle to stick to it.  Because of that, it's important to set a small amount of money aside for treats.  It doesn't have to be a lot.  I put $3 aside each week to spend on Instant Kiwis, cos they are my 'little happy'.  Yours might be chocolate or coffee, Sunday fish 'n' chips or a bottle of wine.  Whatever it is, it's important to make sure there is still room for a little sunshine in your budget.  Even if it's just 50 cents worth of sunshine.

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

So those are my tips for Money Week - sorry I don't have any for Fashion Week.  Being a stay at home Mum I pretty much live in pyjamas these days...  Combo tip: $5 PJ bottoms from The Warehouse's online store - you probably shouldn't wear them to any Fashion Week runway shows though...


* We're not proper poor - but we would be if we didn't budget and watch our spending pretty closely.

** I have HEAPS of money saving tips for grocery shopping/eating - will write a blog just about that some time soon.