How we cope as a single income family Pt 2 - Budget and dollar stretching

In part two of the How we cope as a single income family series, I'd like to share the way we budget and the things we do, and don't do to stretch that dollar further.

This is how I do our budget in order:

1.Fixed payments
Any and all fixed payments, such as mortgage, rent, loans etc, is allocated first as this is most important.

2. Bill money
We add all our bills up for the year and divide by 52 (or 26 if you get paid fortnightly, 12 if you get paid monthly etc). We put that figure away each pay into a separate bills acct. This includes everything from phone bills - car registration.

3.Leftover money
Any and all leftover money is allocated between groceries, petrol, play/sanity money etc. We learn to be creative and live off what we have left over.

We find doing the budget this way means we never struggle to find bill money as it's always there, the mortgage is always paid as it's first on the list, and we don't spend ridiculous amounts on groceries and take away because the money just isn't there.

We find free or cheap entertainment for the family. It's amazing just how excited the kids get when we take them to the park and bring along a footy to kick around.

We're fortunate enough to live in a street with lots of kids around my kids ages, so they spend most of their afternoon playing with friends.

Things we do and don't do to save money
Live within your means
Budget
Allocate every single dollar - Rent/mortgage/board, bills, loans, credit cards, groceries, savings, play/pocket/sanity money or allowance.

Groceries
Shop at Aldi
Cook from scratch - a great way to include the kids.
Get out of the habit of shopping because it's 'shopping day'. Look through your pantry, fridge and freezer and use what you've got on hand. Get creative.
Substitute ingredients.
Cook meals your family enjoy and will eat.
Water, cordial and milk are the main drinks - we don't give the kids juice cause Mr 2.5 gets a very upset tummy from drinking it, and to avoid any tantrums we don't let any of the kids have it.
Look around for good deals - We do most of our shop at Aldi, but our local green grocer is better priced with everything we buy except for grapes which are cheaper elsewhere.
I don't buy meat over $10/kg
I get the bulk buy rump steak and use for all stews, stirfries, pies etc, so no expensive diced beef
I use basic ingredients for seasoning's - good old salt and pepper, season all, garlic and paprika. I have more in there which I bought a while back but hardly use. I find I use it just to get rid of it, so that was a total waste of money.

Shopping - Clothing, Christmas/Birthdays, household
I buy on sale/clearance
We buy second hand
We happily accept second hand clothing off friends and family (we received a bag of stuff today, including a gorgeous faux leather jacket and some Ben 10 and Toy story clothes still in excellent condition)
We buy good quality furniture and appliances - We've bought cheap and found they didn't last long. We wasted money replacing with more cheap items. We're better off buying something built to last even if it means paying more (not always the case though).
I put a limit on birthday/christmas pressies
I buy things on clearance throughout the year and keep a gift box to store until needed. This way we've always got gifts on hand, so no last minute dash to the shops.
I take advantage of the layby service
I take advantage of the July toy sales
We don't buy pressies for everyone
We hold regular garage sales.

Babies
I use both cloth and disposable nappies.
Aldi nappies are great, even for night use.
Even before I switched to Aldi full time, I'd use cheaper brand nappies for day time, unless huggies was on a really good special, in that case I'd stock up.
I breastfed for 8.5 months with our 4th (not always possible, I couldn't do it for long with the other 3, my first lasted 5 days).
I reuse what we've got.
We didn't get the lastest and greatest. I did however waste a bucket load on the baby manchester coz it was just sooo cute :)

Car
I walk as much as possible.
Hubby has a little run around for work which costs about $15 a week on fuel, where as his old car cost $50+ a week on fuel.
I only fill the family car up once a month - I have to make it last
I combine errands

Misc.
I do the hair cuts
We don't smoke, and drink only occassionally
We have play money each which is used for whatever we want. If we want something big which is a personal want we have to save for it out of our own money

Energy Consumption
We run the dishwasher after 10pm - cheaper rates
I charge my phone when I use the laptop - saves power.
We have solar water and solar power.
We reuse boiled water from eggs/veggies on the garden
The kids are still young enough to bath together
I shower after 10pm
I chuck all washing in together, unless there is enough 'whites' or 'darks' etc to make a load. I know some people will not do this, but it works for us, I've never had a problem with colours running, coz I always hand wash brand new items first.
We barely watch TV, mainly coz we're too busy, but we don't want the kids being addicted to technology and not have an imagination (this was an issue, but since cutting back on screen time they have great imaginations).
We turn off lights, TV's etc when not in use.



I hope this can be useful to someone, as doing these little things has helped us greatly.
If you'd like to know more, feel free to comment or drop me a line on facebook. I'll do my best to get back to you as soon as possible :)

I am in no way a professional in this area, just a SAHM trying to stretch her hubby's hard earned cash as far as it will go :)

Update on my journey

My two older kids are at preschool, and both the younger ones are having their naps. As much as I'm enjoying it, I'm a little lost lol.

As I stated in my post yesterday, the past couple of months have been rush rush and have quickly blurred past me.

For the first few weeks after having bub, I didn't continue with anything to do with my journey to regain control of my house and finances, in fact it was quite the opposite. My plan of being strict with money and paying out that car went out the window, the house seemed to return to the state it was when I was working and the clutter seemed to breed like crazy...

I wasn't too concerned with the house and clutter as I know life can be crazy with the arrival of a new bub and would soon be dealt with once things settle down, but I was really concerned about the money side of things, as with the arrival of bubs, we're even more desperate for extra space and another room.

We can in no way afford an extension on the house, or to move to a bigger place at the moment, so we decided to get built ins in the kids rooms to free up some storage space. This has been heaven sent. Miss 4's room is tiny, but since having the built ins has made her room look larger. We've also put some shelves up, and by doing so we were able to get rid of her little table which housed her pretty things. She has so much more floor space now.

We haven't yet removed the old wardrobes from the boys room yet, so I can't comment on how much space it has free'd up. But I do love the built in :)

Over the past few weeks, I've started getting back into decluttering. I've managed to get rid of about 7 bags from home. We also held a garage sale, and with the promise of not bringing the left over stuff back into the house, I filled more bags and actually got my mum, aunties and cousin into the decluttering spirit. Between us, we managed to fill bags and boxes the length and width of a massive 8 seater dining table (It was stored there until dad could take it to the op shop. He's the only one with a car big enough to fit it all lol). That's great considering my mum and aunties hold onto things until they finally sell. Which in one case was 8 years lol.

Even with the house looking like a bomb hit it, it's so much quicker and easier to return it to a state of order. So those months of decluttering and organising has definitely paid off :)

We're still paying extra onto the car, with a minimum of $50 a week. Most weeks we put a lot more on it, but I found when we pumped so much money into the loan, we'd fall off the wagon. We're now under the $20000 mark on our loan :)

I think I'm finally getting it...

the value of money that is...

Saturday afternoon we were all having one of those ''blah'' moments. Kids playing together, DH on the computer and me sitting on the lounge. I really couldn't be bothered doing anything, we'd spent a few hours going through and tidying up our daughters room earlier in the day, and even though my husband did the bulk of it, I was tired.

It was nearing dinner time and I was hungry. I REALLY REALLY felt like pizza! I was craving it something shocking. I told my husband I wanted pizza and he pretty much said that's nice. He's really good like that, if I don't feel like cooking, he'd rather cook then buy take away, even though it's the smartest decision it's still a little disappointing when I'm really wanting it lol.

The kids over heard pizza and started getting all excited. My husband said seeing as though he hadn't been here the last few days (he went to Melbourne for work) that he'd treat us to pizza.

We only really eat pizza from Pizza Inn, it's sooo yum and the pizza's are massive, but it can be expensive. And when he said he'd treat us, something in my head turned. I couldn't justify spending (wasting) $50 on pizza when I've got a perfectly good roast in the fridge that needs to be used up. It was an instant change of mind for me. My husband rarely agrees to getting take away and usually I JUMP at the chance to get it, but not tonight.

I thanked the husband but told him I couldn't justify spending the money on pizza when that could cover a weeks groceries or go towards the car he wants to get. He was shocked and offered to cook, but I had already decided to use the roast in a stir fry and knowing it wouldn't take long to cook (it'd take longer to explain to him what to do lol), I decided just to get on with it.

The kids whinged that they weren't getting pizza, and let us know they weren't impressed with stir fry, or as my daughter put it, ''I don't want stir!'' lol... Tough, kids! you get what you're given! Funny enough they all wanted seconds :)

Whenever we order take away, the kids and I are so excited about it, but once it's gone I sit there and think was it actually worth the money we spent on it? My taste buds always say yes, but my wallet says otherwise lol.

So I'm hoping that now we have a goal to pay off the car this financial year, that us saying no to non essentials will continue :)

Pasta with Creamed Corn and White Sauce

Here's the recipe for the yummy pasta I made for tonight's dinner. I was sceptical about trying it at first, but I saw the kids scoffing it down, so I had a taste and I was hooked :)

Unless I'm following a specific recipe, I don't measure ingredients, so for this everything was chucked in to the amount I thought was good, so I've given a rough estimate to what the amounts looked like. You can change to what suits you :)

500g Pasta
4 rashers of Bacon
1 tin of Creamed Corn
2 cups of grated Cheese
1 Onion
1 tspn Garlic (I use the minced garlic in the jar)

White Sauce -

2 tbsn Butter/Marge
1-2 cups of Flour
2 Chicken stock cubes (just for a boost of flavour)
Enough milk for desired consistency
1 tbsn of Parmesan Cheese

Directions -

Cook Pasta
Fry Bacon and onion in fry pan til onion is almost see through, add Garlic and saute for a couple of minutes, once cooked set aside.
In another sauce pan (I reused the onion and bacon one to get the juices), melt the butter and add in flour and mix well.
Add in milk and whisk until all combined.
Add the chicken stock and whisk til it's a good consistency.
Once almost cooked, add both the grated and Parmesan Cheese, and bacon and onion mix. Stir til well combined.
Mix through the pasta and enjoy :)

Menu planning

I've tried over and over again to write out a menu plan and grocery list and stick to it. But I can't seem to do either. I don't know for sure why I can't seem to do either but one thing I know for certain is that I'm lazy when it comes to cooking dinner. Don't get me wrong, I love cooking, and trying new recipes, but I find I only really try out new recipes when it comes to snacks and baking. Dinner in our house hold usually consists of meat and 3 veg (love love love it lol) or something easy and lazy such as tacos, spaghetti, stir fry etc (all from a store bought jar not home made).

We could have a pantry full of food, but if I don't see that stir fry sauce jar, I won't make stir fry, even though I have plenty of items I could easily whip up into a yummy home made sauce.

So as usual, today I got out the sausages for the kids and myself, and a steak for the husband. As much as I love bangers and mash (sausages and potato), I really wanted to use up at least 1 of the 3 tins of creamed corn... I had no idea what I could do with it apart from a side to a salad... So I looked at other ingredients I had in the fridge/pantry/freezer that I could use up and stall my need for going grocery shopping and having to part with our hard earned money.

I saw the big bag of pasta and thought about making a pasta with a white sauce/creamed corn sauce. Well I did and it was fantastic (will post recipe later)! I think I've finally got the idea of using what I have instead of using up the easy stuff then taking the cheats way out and going grocery shopping instead of putting my brain to work and coming up with different foods.

I was supposed to be going grocery shopping tomorrow as we've ran out of eggs, snacks and cordial (we will also need bread soon, but we now buy that from our corner store as its fresher and nicer). So I've been googling egg less snack recipes, so that cuts two items off my grocery list, and as for cordial, we have plenty of milk and water, and plenty of milk flavourings if the kids get bored. Plus they don't need cordial anyway. I've also noticed the kids are eating more fruit since we've ran out of cordial, so that's a win win. That just means we'll have to grab some fruit throughout the week but that's fine, my husband will grab it when he grabs the bread next time.

I had a quick look in the pantry for future meals, tomorrow night I will do the meat and veg as I need to use up that meat I pulled out for tonight. There's a can of diced tomatoes plus a taco sauce jar (and plenty of garlic/herbs) pasta and mince, so I can make a big batch of spaghetti and freeze some. Plenty of carrots, potatoes, peas, meat, pasta, sauces (stir fry and others), so I can make plenty of soups.  I still have 2 tins of creamed corn and noodles, so I could make a similar dish as tonight. Plus have plenty of baking supplies as I did a quick shop yesterday for baking goods, so I can try a dough and make pies and use up some of that meat.

So dinners are sorted, Lunches are pretty much sorted as we'll have left overs where possible and we bought a 4kg box of chicken nuggets which we all love on bread with mayo ( to me it tastes almost like KFC minus the lettuce) and are no where near getting sick of it. Breaky's - there's plenty of cereal, porridge, semolina, bread for toast, fruit etc, if we run out I'll make egg less pancakes or try a new recipe. Snacks - I'll be making, plus there's plenty of fruit. One thing I wouldn't mind getting is rice, as I found this awesome custard recipe and when it thickens right up, it tastes like the rice puddings or rice custards you can get in the cans (I absolutely love them), and they'll be great for the kids snacks for pre school.

Apart from tomorrow night, I'll be trying to use up the "harder" items first, meaning the ones I need to think about, because I know if it slip back into using the easy items, I won't learn anything and will be right back where I started.

I won't aim for a specific day to go grocery shopping again, I'll just try and use what we have and see how we go.

What's planned for the month of June?

During May, I wanted to focus on learning about and putting into action, Time Management. This went pretty well. We're in a relaxed routine, at the moment. We know where the time wasters are, the kids have set bed times, eating times etc, I have daily must do's. The only thing I haven't really done is set up a weekly cleaning list - what house work to do on what day. I have yet to do this as personally it doesn't suit our family just yet. Once bubs is here and things have settled down I would love to set up a good cleaning schedule.

During June, there's a few things under way. As you know in previous posts, I've mentioned the odd jobs and reno's that we'll be doing, hopefully all of which will be done by 25th June, which is the day of my baby shower.

Along with that I plan to get a strict budget under way and stick to it. It's kind of like budget "rehearsals" for the new financial year, in which we will be starting fresh and tracking are spending.

We've been getting better with our budget since paying off some of our debts, and the past couple of weeks we have been sticking to it quite well.

We've got a set budget in place, but each pay day, I'll check the acct and see what the pay is - usually it's a set amount unless he does OT. With that pay I'll tweak the budget a bit, for eg, allocate more to savings or debt reduction if the pay is more. Look at areas in which we can cut back if the pay is less than expected (this can happen quite a bit even though he's on a set pay, sometimes it's only $1 or $2 which we don't really notice, but last week it was $11 which put us out, luckily I didn't need to go grocery shopping in the end)

I'll put a copy of this budget on the family notice board so my husband can see how much he can spend on what.

Hopefully we can get this budgeting down pat before the new financial year :)

It pays to check your accounts

We are currently in the process of redoing our mortgage as the fixed rate expires in a week. We have opted to go on a package which gives a discounted rate plus waives any and all fees, including application fees etc. But with a higher yearly fee.

I checked my acct balance today only to notice that my loan was $500 dearer. I was baffled as I knew interest was charged last week so where has the extra charge come from? I checked the history and to our horror the bank had charged us a $500 switch fee!

I rang them up and the guy was really helpful. It was very obvious he was frustrated at the operator who took my call last week and dealt with the loan, as apparently she has made an error in how she's doing the loan. She told me it'll be a 2-3 step process, but he said it should only be one and has emailed her and told her to waive the fee!

I'm happy with how it was handled and will be checking regularly in case this happens again. I'm not happy with being charged the extra interest for their stuff up though.

Let's hope the rest of it goes smoothly!

Small things we're doing to save money

In our household, winter is usually a very expensive season with the extra costs of convenience appliances and comfort food. It usually means heaters, electric blankets, long hot showers, solar water booster (when it doesn't get hot enough we need to switch the booster on) dryers etc.

So I'm writing a post on what we've been doing or going to do to save some money and help out the environment also.

• Eat red meat 3 nights a week - Surprisingly this was my steak lovin' husbands idea
• No/limited heater usage - We're putting on extra layers, plus investing in extra blankets. My brother and his fiance were so kind to buy our kids dressing gowns (they all had there own already but were fast outgrowing them). We've had some pretty cold days/nights but haven't had any complaints about anyone being cold as yet. 
• Close doors by 3pm to keep in the warmth.
• No/limited dryer usage - Unless it's absolutely necessary, line dry or rack dry does the job
• Cut down on disposables - we use 4 disposables per day. 1 at nap time and bedtime for each of the boys. The other nappy changes are all cloth. We have just purchased a bulk lot of MCN's, including night nappies, so if they work well for the boys, we will be making the switch to full time cloth use.
• Avoid hot water booster where possible - If our solar water hasn't heated up enough by my kids bath time, I'll either sponge them down if they've had a clean play day, or boil some water and pour in the bath. Most of the time though, there's enough hot water for the kids bath. Hubby and I have very quick showers.
• My husband showers at work as much as possible.
• Combining errands to save on fuel.
• Bulk cook/stretch meals to save electricity - I'm very new to this as usually if I bulk cook it tends to get eaten straight away, but we're being good now :)
• Don't over indulge - We have to make it last, otherwise we go without.
• Switching to fortnightly (eventually monthly) shop - save fuel and wasted groceries.
• Drink cordial or water - juice and soft drinks (soda's) are a treat in our house.
• Keep filled drink bottles and snacks on hand.
• Bake as much as possible.
• Check out Ebay/Gumtree or op shops first.
• Using dishwasher after 10pm when it's cheaper.
• DIY as much as possible - my husband completely renovated our bathroom himself and saved a minimum of $8000.
• Organise/declutter
• Plan ahead - this is a goldie

When we were really struggling financially, we HAD to do these things in order to survive, but now I'm finding it fun to cut back as much as possible - it's like a game to me now :)

I Love Op Shops

I'm fast becoming addicted to Op Shopping (Thrift Stores). I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing... lol

Normally I might go Op Shopping 3-4 times a year, sometimes if that. Not because I'm opposed to it, but mainly because I never thought of it when I was working outside the home. If I needed to get something I just got it while I was out.

This year though, I've probably been about 5-6 times, maybe even more. The past 2 Fridays, I've dropped the older kidlets at preschool, went grocery shopping (this week I spent $24.57 woohoo), Went back home, did some house work, dropped Hubby down mums (he borrows my dads car for work on Fridays), then Mum, Mr 1 and myself go up the 2nd Hand Store.

Last week I thought I did good with the amount I got for the $10 I spent (best buy was a pair on industrie pants for myself for .50c).

This week I did even better. I did spend more then last week, total being $18, but I got quite a bit:

• Barbie Quilt Cover set - $3
• Flannelette Car print Sheet set - $3 (barely used, and the pillow case looks brand new)
• Rain Coat sz 5
• Baby Blanket - $1 (I have many baby blankets, but this one's nice and big and perfect for the cot)
• Girls pants sz 5
• Hi 5 Girls 3/4 pants sz 5
• Girls Target shorts sz 5
• Girls MK mini shorts sz 5
• Target Dora skirt sz 5
• Girls long sleeve shirt sz 5
• Girls Tweety jumper looks around a sz 6-7
• Girls Cotton Long sleeve/pants PJ set sz 6
• Girls 2pc Lizzie Mcguire skirt ad singlet set sz 10 (looks about an 8 though)
• Mango Girl Denim shorts sz 10
• Supre denim shorts xxs
• Boys Urban Culture long sleeve top sz 5
• Boys World Industries Top sz 7
• Crossroads top not sure what sz maybe a 10-12
• Nice Blue/Aqua material Place mat which I'll use to store my centrepiece on the kitchen table :)

Most things being 50c.

Apart from a couple of going out clothes for my daughter for winter next year, I am done with next years winter stuff for the family :) Who knows, maybe she'll still fit into this years stuff.

I spent almost $300 at Target on Miss 4's winter stuff for last yr (and this yr as I buy clothes a sz bigger to get more wear), and to be honest I didn't bring much home for that price.

I get the majority of the boys stuff off my sister, as her son is a couple of years older then my boys, and my sister goes crazy buying kids clothes so most of the stuff is in perfect, barely worn condition. I don't mind, I'm getting almost new/new stuff for a fraction of the price hehehe :)

I do still buy some new stuff for them, as it's always nice to have some new stuff, plus I can't resist when I see motor bike, dinosaurs or pirates when it comes to my son. He LOVES them lol :)

Anyways, here's a couple of pics of my purchase today.