Kenny's LEAN, GREEN & MEAN Blog

You would not believe it but I have typed a wonderful addition to my blog only to lose the lot. So now I have to start again......

So what did I write about there was the fact that I had lost 10lbs or nearly 5 kilos since the beginning of the year. It may not seem a lot but I need to go slow and steady so my skin has time to adjust and besides it is not much fun to deprive yourself of everything you enjoy.

I came to realise that by putting on so much weight last year - and I must admit I did have a great time doing that - was not very financially responsible as I had to spend more money than necessary on shopping and not only on food but clothes as well. Extra weight means bigger sized clothes.

This year I decided to reduce my food intake and move over the diet softdrinks, cordials and diet sugars, which all don't taste any different.

I have implement three new ideas this year which I think are pretty terrific. The first is the use of teapots. We bought 2 stainless steel 4 cup teapots from garage sales and made teacosy's from old left over wool. The teapots are terrific value as we use use enough tea/coffee and sugar for three cups and fill it for 4 so basically we get another cup for free. There is no difference in taste and the teapots keep warm until the last drop which means that the kettle does not get turned on several times in the morning.

Right now it is summertime here and it has been stinking hot. I decided to help the kids sleep much better I turned their winter hotwater bottles into frozen iceblocks. I wrap up the rubber waterbottles in plastic to protect them from the sides of the freezer and have 2 for each kid so they have one whenever they need them.

Another is the realisation of how much water actually goes down our household drains. Think about it for a minute. We turn on the kitchen and shower taps waiting for the hot water to come through. We pour our cups and bowls down the sink when we are finished, we empty or drain away rice, pasta and boiled vegies when we are finished cooking them. How much water do you think you could save and use for other purposes such as potplants, vegie patches and fruit trees. I put a 5 litre bucket in the kitchen and need to empty it twice a day. So my vegie and herb garden is having a great time even in this drought and hot weather. The 2 gallon shower buckets are emptied 3 to 4 times a day onto outside potplants and fruit trees. My husband finally gave in to my nagging and hooked up our washing machine to hoses that pours all of our grey water on to the lawn.

This has a wonderful side benefit of bringing many different types of birds into our lush, green backyard and even a peacock turns up every morning.

So it may seem strange but it makes financial sense to use excess water than letting it all go to waste.

So I have been lean, green and mean over the last couple of weeks. There are plenty of other ideas I have been trying out that I would love to share but that has to be for another day. If you have ideas let me know. love to hear from you all.

I woke up this morning and wonder how my new found entry into the blogging world went and to my surprise there were 6 wonderful and supportive comments waiting for me. So thank you one and all for making me feel welcome.

A couple posed questions about how I put together my budget and my teenagers.

I have allocated $200 a month towards my budget. My husband pays for the major items ie utilities, furniture, car, etc. For the time being Food has not been included in any line items but that may change later on as the prices keep going up. As I have stated this is a work in progress. My current line items include 'Christmas, Personal, Holidays, Kids education, Health, Entertainment and Savings'. These are the ones that cause me the most grief throughout the year and felt it was important to keep track of these. Each month is broken down by 'month' and 'actual'. This hopefully will help me to keep track of my spending in particular areas such as the kids education and the other is to give me a good perspective on the spending such as once again the kids education. Something which I had never experienced before so my budget is mainly guess work. I previously stated the school fees were an unexpected expense this year as they jumped dramatically and then one week within the new school year I already had my hand in the pocket for a school 'conference' barbeque. I tried to calculate for school activities and there are quite a few incidentals that turn up through the year that needed to be accounted for 1) casual dress days; 2) day excursions and 3) school socials just to name a few. You never realise just how much these all add up.

As for the teenagers working to earn extra pocket money. They do that around the house $10 each. But that comes out of my husbands pocket. The oldest one has been looking very hard for after school/weekend work for the past 18months with no luck and believe me she has been trying very hard to the point that she is becoming quite depressed and taking it personally. My husband and I have been using all of our contacts to help but there is just nothing around. This is a small town of 5000 which may help others to understand the situation here. The youngest one has another couple of months before he is allowed to legally work afterschool.

I must admit though that the kids do save up their pocket money for those items which we refuse to pay for instance my son is a keen muso so he saved for his guitar. Mind you we did help with the postage and Xmas presents went along those lines which will further encourage him. My daughter saves for clothes, mobil phone & recharge cards and all those things which she enjoys. Both kids know the value of selling off their unwanted goods on ebay to earn extra cash and how to research items before they buy. So I cannot complain too much.

When the kids start work the pocket money will stop but we will still continue to pay for the essentials such as school expenses and etc. They will need to save and spend on those items which they and we consider to be luxuries.

So if you have any ideas on ways to help let me know. Just love the advice so keep that coming.

Well as everyone can see this is my very first attempt at writing a blog, so please be gentle.

I became very interested in the 'Savings Advice' website as I attempted in getting one of my sons to become more financially independent instead of coming to us (my husband and I) for 'loans' all the time. Instead I realised there was a great deal that I could learn and improve in my own financial situation.

In 2005 my New Year's Resolution was to give up smoking and I achieved that without too much drama. This year I decided to become 'LEAN, GREEN AND MEAN' hence the title of the blog.

LEAN is because last year when I gave up smoking I had a terrific time in the kitchen - cooking up a dream after dream. Unfortunately it all went to the hips and I am 2 stone or 10 kilos a little heavier than I am used to.

GREEN - I want to become more environmentally friendlier while at the same time find ways to cut down on the utilities. These are the most expensive items in the house besides financing the kids. When they are gone and its just the 2 of us living on an aged pension then we need to find ways to keep the cost of living down.

Finally, MEAN - I wanted to take on the $20 Challenge, then I realised that I had to first have an extra $20. With 2 teenagers still living at home finding the extra $20 without having their hands out for it was going to be more of the challenge hence the MEAN part of the triology. I knew toundertake such a challenge a budget needed to be organised and I had to be tough.

The budget, in my opinion, was beautifully written up, leaving plenty of room for those little extra treats and unexpected items. Then, the school year started and while I had put a line item down with room to maneuver to cover these expenses, the school forgot to inform me and many other parents that there were going to be major changes in the school fees. I nearly died when they rose from $100 to over $300 then I was gently informed that one of my daughters course's would require another $70 a couple of months down the track.

That was just the fees then there were the books, uniforms for this year and next year's had to be ordered and paid at the end of the year and etc on top of that.

Needless to say the budget was looking very shaky. I could understand why someone would give up. Now it is the middle of February and the budget still has not lived up to expectations But I appreciated the fact that there was no advanced money in kitty to cover these hiccups and line-items needed to re-adjusted.

I have not given up yet because sooner or later there will be a quiet month and the budget will start looking healthy again.

Thank you for being so kind for my first blog and I always look for any kind of advice that would help me in my task.
Cheers
colleen