I coached a client recently through the Financial Freedom e-course and I was like, “wow, A, this stuff is really good” I’d forgotten how sound that e-course was/ is because I wrote it 5 years ago but the lessons are all sound financial principles.  The financial freedom e-course is FREE when you get Organise your Home and no joke, you’ll make your money back in less than a month!

Taken at 5:02 one evening as I left work - so glad I stopped to take it

A few weeks ago there was an article in The Star that said the cost of living in Johannesburg’s risen by 15,9 % in the last 4 months.

Wow!

That’s kind of scary, isn’t it?

And yet, reading that didn’t make me think, “no! never!” because I do know that it costs us more to buy groceries, fill up with petrol, etc. than it used to.

I just thought I was being irresponsible with money.

I believe in working very smart with my/ our money but not freaking out too much as I don’t want to develop a mindset of lack.

Stay with me…

I’ve always thought that the way to approach these things is not to say, “I can’t afford ___” but “how can I afford ___?”

Mostly this approach has worked for me.

And yes, some of that will mean cutting out x and y, but my question takes me from feeling helpless to empowered.

I’ll share a few things I’m being a little more conscious about doing:

1. I make a menu plan and only put items on the shopping list I don’t have in my pantry… which means I check the pantry every week
2. I’m also trying to get creative and use up everything in the fridge or pantry
3. wait a day or two before doing online shopping – if I really want it I can still go buy it, but it takes away the impulse shopping

Have you felt the cost of living increases in South Africa and especially in Jhb?

Are you just taking it in your stride or how are you dealing with it?

Share a tip or five with me

Attention: Overwhelmed individuals whose financial lives seem out of control

Ask yourself: do you want be paralyzed with worry because you don’t know if you’ll have enough money to pay your bills?

• Do you know where all your bills are?
• Is your current money system scattered and not working?
• Or worse, do you have no money system except hope?
• We all want more financial security, but how do you do it?

My friend, Beth Dargis, has a new class to help you simplify your money systems:

Read more here to see if this could help you out.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how are your mid-year finances?

P.S. Beth wrote a blog post the other day on communicating simply and effectively. I told her she got quite fiesty

I have a goal to pay off my bond this year.

I’m not too concerned with the how at the moment; all I know is that the why is very important to me.

I can’t wait for Freedom from the Bond!

That said, I do have a good look at the budget every month and keep my eyes and ears open for opportunities. It’s all about conscious spending and being purposeful about our money.

So… the other day at work our PA mentioned something about getting cheaper insurance.

Hers wasn’t very much but every little bit helps and I thought, “well, it won’t harm anything just to ask for a quote”.

I had an older schedule from my current insurer saved on a flash drive so I phoned her insurer.

The guy quoted me R350 cheaper PER MONTH.

Suspicious me thought he must have got something wrong so I asked for the quote to be emailed.

I then compared the quote with my current schedule line by line and found that my laptop wasn’t listed.

No problem – I phoned back and they added that on. I also upped my household contents cover and still the quote was R300 cheaper.

Sold!

I then phoned my current insurer and sheepishly told them, “I need to cancel my insurance because I found cheaper cover elsewhere”.

She matched it…. but I felt bad letting the first guy down (is this a woman thing?!) so I said that I’d rather stick with the other people.

Then she quoted me R597 cheaper.

I could not believe her and interrogated her about everything.

Bottom line – the quote was valid and with a sister company in the same group.

Of course I accepted – I’m not that much of an idiot.

And so there you have it – I’m now saving R7 164 over the next year, which is all going into my bond.

The phone calls took 10 minutes each time but all of it happened over a number of days, so not a once-off, 10-minute quick fix, but so, SO worth it!

Which financial goals are on your list for the year?

How are you doing? Are you making headway?

When was the last time you phoned around for insurance quotes? A 10-minute call might save you thousands too.

PS Just read a fantastic post on 24 quick actions you can take with your finances – I don’t even know how I landed on his site but the article is fantastic.

I hate to say this but it’s true.

I’ve been using money not very intentionally but I’m happy to say I’ve turned a corner…

Bond

I was paying x on my bond and when interest rates dropped I forgot to do what I normally do in these cases which is pay in the difference every month anyway.

Well, I fixed that a couple of months ago.

Interest rates have continued to drop so I’m still paying in the difference into our bond account.

There’s something so satisfying about seeing all those “extra payment” entries on our statement.

Am I the only one who gets excited by debt reduction?

Credit Card

We get HUGE cash back every month (on average R1500) simply by using our credit card at partner stores, like Pick and Pay for groceries and ToysRUs for nappies and other baby-related purchases. Places we were shopping at anyway.

Again, we used to fritter away our cash back which is literally like a credit on your credit card, and the money seemed to just disappear.

Odd, that.

But again, since October, I’ve been adding that cashback to my trusty little spreadsheet as “extra money” coming in. So that I’m forced to budget it.

The weird thing?

We seem to have more money even though we’re not even using that extra money.

It’s the power of intention - it makes you more aware and I think, makes you wealthier.

I know it’s been said that if you respect money, it will respect you. Suze Orman?

On a scale of 1 – 10 with 1 being terrible, how good are you at managing your money?

I’d say I was an 8.

I’ve shared before that my theme last year was simplicity.

Well, I soon realised that living a simpler life was not going to just happen.

This is what worked for me then:

Re-examine your goals regularly

Regularly can mean monthly for some people; for me, it means weekly as I get sidetracked very easily if I don’t keep reminding myself of what’s important.

Every week I’d look at my life map (I need to do a blog about that) and see that big, bold word on the top of the page – SIMPLIFY.

And when I saw a hectic schedule, I’d ask myself, “is this representative of the simpler life I want?”

Make the tough decisions

My good friend, Beth, and I held a call last year called 5 steps to a saner, simpler life. I was the co-host and yet I probably wrote 3 pages of notes myself.

I loved that call for many reasons but the best reason is this:

She shared that we often think we have no choices when the choices are tough but we always do.

E.g. You have too many time commitments and think you can’t get out of any. Yes, it’s a tough choice and even harder to tell your kids no, we won’t be signing you up for 3 after-school activities but it can be done!

Fix your environment

On a more practical level, let’s talk about simplicity with material goods (stuff).

If you want to get out from under the clutter, you’ve got to start making different choices.

When I work with clients, yes, we organise but more than that, I help them to think about the behaviour patterns that led them to the state of discontent in the first place.

If you keep buying things you don’t need, then stay away from the shops. If you don’t go to the mall, you can’t shop.

I had a really bad habit of buying info products a few years ago.

The bad habit was not in the buying of the products; it was bad because I wouldn’t  use them and they’d all sit on my hard drive doing nothing.

I actually joined Beth in a Spending Fast one month. Once I was half way through an internet transaction before I realised, “hey! I’m on a spending fast” so I stopped and then put a post-it note on my credit card so I’d stick to my resolve.

What is your definition of a simpler life?

Is this something you aspire to?

What are your best tips for living simply?

pic from the Household Organising File

(part of the Organise your Home ecourse) 

Do you menu plan?

Menu planning is probably the one thing I do that saves me the MOST time every single week.

It’s also going to save you mo.ney when you start using up all the food in the freezer and in the back of the cupboards. Oh, and not doing so much impulse shopping.

Note – you should do your menu planning BEFORE you go to the shops to do your grocery shopping

Here are the five steps I use:

1. Go to your freezer and cupboards to see what food you have that you need to or want to use, and make a list.

2. Write out a menu plan for a week (if you do weekly shopping) or longer, using recipes to use up that food.

3. Add any items that you need additionally to your weekly shopping list and do your shopping.

4. Stick the menu plan to your fridge.

5. Follow the plan to the letter, or move things around and have Monday’s meal on Wednesday, etc, etc. At least you have the ingredients for all the meals available.

Now you don’t have to rack your brain every night wondering what to cook.

You have a PLAN.

Another tip that will save you lots of time is to cook something on a Sunday afternoon. This meal is not for eating that day, but for freezing.

When you have a busy day it’s easy to just defrost the meal and have a healthy supper on the table in minutes.

We went through a stage where we didn’t buy any meat for two months while we finished everything in the freezer and started on the cupboards.

You see, we all get into a habit of buying the same groceries every week without checking if we really need it.

If you’re not already menu planning, I’d like to encourage you to at least start. Do so for at least a month and give it a good go. If it REALLY doesn’t work with your personal style then so be it.

If you already do menu planning, then your challenge for this week is to only buy perishables for your next shopping trip and eat from your freezer and cupboards.

I was at a store the other day buying formula for the babies when I saw this:

The small tin (400g) costs R46 and the big tin (900g) costs R152,90. I couldn’t believe it!

The big tin should cost in the region of R103,50 or even less. A lot of people would assume that the bigger one is cheaper (I threw big tins into my trolley before I started thinking) but first do your sums and make sure you’re getting a good deal!

There you go – trying to save you money

I buy a fair amount of beauty products in these squeeze tubes, from face wash to moisturizer to hair products.

When it gets to the end of the tube and it seems like it is totally empty (even after rolling the tube as much as possible to get the last little bit out, I cut the top 1/3rd off, like this.

You can then reach inside and get the rest of the product out. I usually find that I get at least two more uses out.

The reason I only cut it around the one-third mark is because I want to be able to close it again without the stuff drying out (that has happened to me before).

It used to frustrate me, knowing that I couldn’t get it all out but now, this works for me.
For more great tips, go visit Shannon over at Rocks in my Dryer.

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day!