Saving Money

There are a few things that I don’t spend money on. I just don’t find value in these things. A few are things of convenience. And most I feel I can do myself, or just plain do without. Things I don’t spend money on Hair cuts I know a lot of people may disagree with me on this one. But I don’t actually value the work that a hairdresser does. My mum always cut my hair. And my brother’s hair, my dad’s hair, my grandpa’s hair, my cousin's hair. You get the picture. I always had long hair so it [...]

We have been using the cash envelope system for one month now and it’s time to tally everything up to see how we did. Unfortunately, we used most of the money set aside. Which is actually ok, because it was set aside for a certain purpose. I am keeping track of how much is left at the end of each month, assuming we are going to continue with this method for a while. For me, I like the idea of trying to have more and more left over each month. Cash Envelope balances at the end of month one Groceries [...]

We were lucky enough to be able to get started with the cash envelope system as soon as we made the decision to try it. I had some personal savings that had no real purpose. And I was willing to sacrifice it to get us started. I’ve been tracking out spending since March using Google Drive’s budget spreadsheets. One for each month, then adding them to a yearly spreadsheet. The budget column isn’t really what has been budgeted though. It’s what I think is reasonable. Many of the amounts are actual because I know they are a fixed cost. But [...]

A while ago I caught a snippet from a morning show on Facebook where it was mentioned that it is not necessary to use the recommended amount when doing laundry. So I followed the advice and experimented a bit on my own. And the result was that I cut my laundry costs in half. Secret confession: Laundry is my favourite household chore. I put the machine on then get to do something else for almost an hour before I have to worry about it again. It takes me 10-15 minutes to hang it up (the right way), and it’s done! [...]