Baby Step 0.4 - Temporarily Stop All Retirement Contributions

Good Monday evening All!  The past few weeks we've begun going through Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps.  So far in Baby Step 0, we've discussed committing to the process.  Last week in Baby Step 0.3 I discussed the importance of a budget and how to create a budget.  Please if you haven't created a budget yet, please do. The first place you can find pennies - or many, many pennies! - is looking in detail where your pennies go each month.  You may be surprised!

The next penny-sized step in Baby Step 0 is to temporarily stop all retirement contributions IF you have debt (not including a mortgage) and/or don't have 3-6 months of expenses saved. 

The key word here is "temporarily".  This will mean different things to different incomes BUT this does not mean different approaches.  We haven't discussed the phrase "gazelle intense" yet, but in essence, it means to do something as quickly as humanly possible.  So DR recommends going gazelle intense on Baby Steps 1, 2 and 3 - saving the initial £1,000 for an emergency fund, paying off all debt, then adding to the initial emergency fund to build a fully-funded emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses.   Build these "foundations" of your finances as quickly as possible to then be able to then be able to build the "roof" of your finances. DR explains that there's no point in building the roof before you build the foundation of your financial house.
 
What does Martin Lewis from Money Saving Expert say? If you have been auto-enrolled into a workplace pension, you can opt-out.  "Don't be afraid of opting out though if you're having financial difficulties or for other reasons. You can opt out whenever you like - however, you still won't be able to access any money you've already paid into your pension until retirement age.  Even if you do opt out, if you remain at your current place of work for three years, or move jobs, then you'll be automatically enrolled again.  So you'd have to opt out again if you don't want to join."

Although we'll discuss pensions in Baby Step 4, you may want to look ahead about pensions on moneysavingexpert.com, please click on this link.  There's also Pension Wise and The Pensions Advisory Service.

Consider very carefully - even seek professional advise from an independent financial adviser (IFA) - before using any money you've saved in bank accounts or investments - you can't take out money saved in a pension until you've reached the minimum age of 55, so this may not be an option for you if you're under this age.

The key in this Baby Step is to stop the contributions you've been making to retirement just long enough to blitz your way through Baby Steps 1, 2 and 3. Once you've paid off all debt (apart from your mortgage) and have saved 3 to 6 months of expenses in a fully-funded emergency fund, then you will re-commence your retirement savings. 

Again, I am not an expert at pensions or retirement savings, so please do your own research. I hope I've given you some helpful guidance and something to consider to help you in your financial adventure.

BS 0.3 - Create and Follow a Written Budget - Part 2

Good evening All!  I hope you're doing well.  How has it gone writing down all of the expenses you can think of?  Don't worry about whether or not you've written every single item down that you pay towards each month and year, we'll check those over as we create a budget in this blog.  Keep in mind that your budget doesn't necessarily have to be the same each month, so if you think of another category to include, just add it in. Simples.

We're still in Baby Step 0.  The past couple of weeks we've taken a look at committing to never borrowing money again (except maybe for a house), committing to walking this financial adventure with your spouse and the importance of creating and following a budget.  My hope is that you're convinced that a budget is the way you and you're spouse are going to make progress through the Baby Steps.

Let's dive right in. There are many ways of creating a budget: pen and paper, an Excel spreadsheet (this is the way we do it), online and apps.  None of these are wrong; use the method you are comfortable and works for you.  You may end up trying a different method after you've tried a first!

Although I haven't used it myself, others highly recommend using Dave Ramsey's FREE budgeting tool called Every Dollar. This is an easy to use web-based budget planner, but unfortunately, the app is not available in the UK. 

No matter which method you use, follow these steps to create a budget:

First - Write down all income streams.  This includes your and your spouse's (if you're married) take-home pay - the amount that gets deposited into your bank account.  Be sure to add in any second jobs, pension income and benefits.  Add it all up. 

Second - List all of your expenses.  Hopefully you've already started this last week, but if not, take the time to look at your bank accounts for deductions, credit card statements for purchases you've made over the past few months and any receipts you've saved for ideas.  Again, this doesn't have to be perfect, but needs to be as close to reality as possible.  I'll give you more ideas in a sec.

Third - Group Expenses. Once you know what your regular expenses are, group them together into categories: Home, Vehicles, Insurance, Giving, Retirement and Other. If you're using an online budget or app, these categories may be named something similar.  If you have debt to repay, you'll want to create a category with all of the company's you owe money to and list the minimum payments next to each of these.

I'd like to give you more ideas of expenses for each of the categories by giving you insight to our budget.

•  Home: 
• Mortgage (or rent)
• Utilites - gas and electricity (you'll want to divide yours if they're supplied by different companies)
• Water
• Cable TV
• Line Rental
• TV Licence
• Council Tax
• Neighbourhood maintenance
• Boiler Service
• Window Cleaner
• House Expenditures - we save each month for upkeep, small pieces of furniture, decorations, landscaping, lighting - not that we spend towards these things each month!
• Vehicles:
• Tax Disks - we have 3 paid-for vehicles (2 cars and a motorcycle)
• MOTs - for each of the vehicles 
• Breakdown service
• Vehicle servicing
• New vehicle purchase - because we're committed to not incurring debt, we save money each month for a new vehicle.  This is an important category that you may want to consider adding after becoming debt free (BS2) and having saved 3-6 months of expenses (BS3)
• Insurance:
• Car insurance - for each vehicle
• Home insurance
• Life insurance
• Travel insurance
• Giving/Tithes: I don't feel comfortable discussing publicly who we donate to, but we do on a monthly basis and this is part of our budget.
• Retirement Savings: this is in addition to pension contributions through work
• University Savings: yes, we're saving now for our daughters' education. This comes in BS5, which we'll discuss when we get there in the Baby Steps series.
• Other: 
• National Trust Membership
• Bank account fee
• Travel/Holiday
• Mobile phones 
• Gym
• Health
• Hair cuts
• Association of Project Management (Hubby's)
• Guest Bed (we're saving for a new guest bed to buy in the next year)
• Disney World 
• School - field trips, PTA fundraisers, school pictures, teachers' gifts
• Babysitting
• Girls' Commission - similar to allowance
• Clothing
• Christmas
• Birthdays
• Gifts for Others
• Fuel
• Groceries
• Restaurants
• Play
• Other - unexpected expenses, like post office and parking

For the items that are annual expenses, I divide the annual amount by 12 (months). and this the monthly amount that is budgeted. For example, MOTs - a MOT for one of our cars is £45. So each month, we budget £3.75. (£45/12 = £3.75). 

Step 4 - Assign Amounts - For each of your items, list the expense.  This may be a real eye opener!

Step 5 - Subtract Expenses from Income to Equal Zero - This is known as a "Zero-Based Budget", whereby you want every single penny allocated to each of the items.  Subtract the amounts from your income and - voila! - you know how much you either have still to allocate (if the difference is positive) or how much you need to cut back by (if the difference is negative).  Ideally you want £0 left... every single penny has a job to do.

Step 6 - Track Your Spending - Pretty much every day, I update my budget for anything we've spent that day. It only takes a minute or two and makes me feel a sense of control over my finances.

For more information on budgeting, you can visit other's websites:
Money Saving Expert: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Budget-planning
Citizens Advice: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/budgeting/budgeting/work-out-your-budget/
Money Advice Service: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/categories/budgeting-and-managing-money

If you have further budgeting questions, please don't hesitate to contact me and I'll do my best to help. 

BS 0.3 - Create and Follow a Written Budget

Hi Everyone!  A special hi! to everyone who started following Finding the Pennies this week.  I am so excited you're here; I hope you are, too!

Winning with your finances isn't easy.  It takes work, determination and a money-saving mindset.  By having a plan in place, we can all take steps - no matter the size - to take control of our finances.  The plan I started to share last week is one we've - my husband and I - have been following for a few years - and it's working so well for us, that I want to share it with all of you.  The control we have over our finances can be attributed to God's grace as well as following a budget - or a written plan for money before a penny is spent.

The 3rd step under Baby Step 0 is to create and follow a written budget.  Just to recap what we've already looked at over the past week.  Baby Step 0 - to commit - is an unofficial but important step in taking control of your finances.  BS 0.1 is to commit to never borrowing money again. BS 0.2 is to commit to working with your spouse on this life-long financial "adventure".  Now we're going to take a look at creating and following a budget.

Perhaps you're thinking, "Lauren, I don't have time to create a budget, let alone to actually track every penny I spend." Admittedly, creating a budget takes a small commitment of time - like maybe an hour or two - but by visiting your budget on a daily or even weekly basis, it doesn't take too much time at all.  Be honest with yourself... what do you spend your "down time" doing?  Watching telly?  Facebooking?  Surfing the internet?  Staying on track with your budget is worth every second of your time.

"Ok, Lauren.  Why is it worth my time?"  You work hard for your money!  *Sing it with me!* You work hard for your money so you better treat it right! (I've slightly changed the lyrics.)  I can't understand why we would work hard and then just spend money irresponsibly and not save for the future.  It's important to know what money you have coming in and how much money is going out.  Without a budget how do you know this?  How do you know that you'll have enough money to last you until the next time you're paid?  Isn't it worth a few minutes of your time a few times a week to give yourself peace of mind?
 
My hope is that you and your spouse (or your accountability partner if you're single) have discussed your (plural) goals.  By intentionally putting aside (saving) money by including your goals in your budget every single time you're paid, you will be able to:

• Get out and stay out of debt (Baby Step 2)
• Fund a fully-funded emergency fund (Baby Step 3)
• Pay for a holiday in advance (Baby Step 3b)
• Put a down payment on a house (Baby Step 3b)
• Purchase a new piece of furniture (Baby Step 3b)
• Purchase a new-to-you (aka "used") car (Baby Step 3b)
• Save for retirement (Baby Step 4)

There's no better way to get control of your finances than by creating a budget and following it.  I get VERY excited talking about budgeting and VERY excited talking about ways of saving money. That's what this blog is all about.  I want to help you to achieve your goals. I want to help you to be able to make it to the end of the month with money left in the bank.  I want to help you to learn ways of cutting back, good 'ol fashioned "living within your means", and stretching every penny.  Let's get excited about our finances, Friends!

If you have tried to follow a budget, but you lose motivation after a few days or weeks, let's pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and get back to it!   You may pretty successfully follow a budget, but admit that something isn't quite right or that some expense creeps up on you that you forgot about it.  Let's improve your budget!  Perhaps you've never followed a budget, but are satisfied with the fact that there's money left in the bank... that's alright, but you could be doing much better!

Tomorrow evening I'm going to share with you ways of creating a budget - yes, there are plenty of ways - and you can choose which way best suits you.  I will also give you loads of ideas for categories to include.  Your budget won't be the exact same month to month nor does it have to be perfect from the get go!  You will learn where to adjust your budget for different times of the year and think ahead to recurring annual expenses.

A year ago I wrote a similar blog to this one: The Importance of Budgeting.  I encourage you to find a few extra minutes to read it for more insight on budgeting and to look at the categories to include in a budget, which I'll discuss tomorrow evening.

Until then, get out a sheet of paper and write down every expense you can think of that you pay on a monthly and annual basis and the approximate or exact amount you pay.  Just make a list. Don't worry about categorizing it, just write it down.  Until tomorrow, take care. xo

BS 0.2 - Get Spouse on "Same Page"

If you're like me, you're ready for Spring!  All the snow and bitter cold this past week has me yearning for warmer temperatures and sunnier days.  Oh well... let's turn our attention again to accomplishing our financial goals and the Baby Steps we started following last week.  In case you haven't read the first two blogs on the Baby Steps, take a few minutes to read through them. 

We're starting with the "unofficial" Baby Step 0, which is to commit. First, commit to never borrowing money again (except to buy a house), and second, commit to talking to your spouse and getting on the same page in terms of your goals and how you're going to accomplish them.

Why is this important?  Some believe that, even though they are married, finances are still separate.  Debts are separate, incomes are separate, bills are separate.  In a marriage, however, two become one. "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh" Gen. 2:24.  Therefore, there is no "his" and "hers" with finances - it's our fiances... our income... our debt... our budget... our financial dream... our life together.

I love this quote from DR, "Marriages are either growing together or growing apart... when we're sharing our goals, we're sharing our lives."

An important point that Dave Ramsey points out is that, ladies, if your family is struggling financially, your husband's self-esteem is suffering, and even more so if he is self-employed. Gentlemen, if your family is struggling financially, your wife is feeling afraid and insecure.
The main thing that men get from money is esteem, and the main thing for women is security. It is important to know this and recognise this as you go through your life-long financial "adventure" together.  Make sure you discuss your thoughts and feelings when times are tough, like when unexpected big expenses, job losses, or when dreams are dashed.

Start here: give each other a hug. You're in this together.  For better or worse, for richer or poorer. Next, make a list of everything you can sell to put towards building an emergency fund or paying off debt (we'll discuss these steps in BS 1 and 2).  Make a plan of how your going to get your finances in order and start working and living towards your dreams together.  Hint: take a look at the overview of the Baby Steps; you can probably take a guess at which Baby Step you're in, or where you need to start.  Once you have a plan in place and take ACTION, men, your self-esteem will strengthen, and ladies, your feeling of security will increase.

The following questions will help you to begin to understand each other's thoughts surrounding some of the issues in each question... by the way, you don't have to have the answers to all of these or know how you're going to accomplish them at this point.

Questions to consider:
*Do both partners need or want to work? Is part-time possible, or is full-time necessary?
*How soon do we want to purchase a house? A new car?  Our next holiday? A new piece of furniture?
*Do I need to get permission for every penny I spend or is there some leniency?  What if I want to buy something for myself (that no one else in the family benefits from)?
*How soon do you want to pay off debt? And the car loan? And the mortgage?
*Do we want to help financially support our children through university? If so, how much? Some of it or all of it?
*How do we see ourselves living in retirement?
*What changes do we need to make to make this happen?

What if you're not married?  If you're single, find someone who will act as a mentor, someone you can trust to work with you and encourage you.  This may be a friend or family member, someone from your church or maybe even me. I am more than willing to help in any way I can; please just let me know.

You may be wondering about how my husband and I handle our finances, and I'd be glad to tell you.  Our finances are completely combined.  At the start of every month, we compare budgets for the upcoming month.  We talk very openly about our expenditures, concerns and goals.  If one of us wants to buy something, we discuss it first, no matter the cost.  We agree on our short- and our long-term goals: to buy a new-to-us 7-seater/ mini-van (in American) with cash, to take a family holiday to Disney World paid for in advance, to pay for most or all of our daughters' university, to pay off our mortgage as soon as we can - which is many years away - all while giving generously.

Has it always been this way?   From very early on in our relationship, we discussed finances and money, but we agree, that we have improved greatly over the years in the way we budget and decide how and when to spend money.  Because personal finance and saving money are my interests, Jeff usually goes along with the suggestion that I have, though we always discuss things before we do them. Is there room for improvement? Always, but I believe we're working together really well to accomplish our financial goals.

It is not only great for your finances, but also great for your marriage, to be working together to accomplish your financial goals, too.

Our Month in Review: February

Hi Friends! I hope everyone's staying warm in this freezing weather.  Looking out the window, you'd never guess it's the 1st of March tomorrow!  

Before we begin the next month, let's take a look back at February.  I'm asking myself the same questions I asked myself last month: what went well this month and where is there room for improvement?  Having concluded our February budget, I can easily reflect on these questions.

The only area of our budget that we really overspent on was our restaurant budget.  Any time we eat outside the home, it goes in to the restaurant budget (makes sense, right?!). This month we ate out twice: one was a planned meal out with the in-laws as their belated Christmas present and the other was not planned, but completely worth it when my sister-in-law visited.  No biggie but I had to move some funds around this evening while completing our February budget in preparation for March.

What went well?  I managed to sell £87 worth of the girls' toys and clothes which was put in their University fund.  We also sold a fan heater for £10 which was added to the House Expenditures Fund.  

Also, we came in about £27 under budget with groceries - another month under budget.  I'm quite chuffed with this!  I used to spend easily £400-£450 every single month when I was working at Sainsbury's, even with my 10% colleague discount.  Now that I don't work there, I'm spending about £100 per month(!!!) less because I'm shopping mostly at Aldi.  I may have said this last month, but I'm trying to make sure we have a meal made up of leftovers at least once a week and at least two meat-free suppers, too.  

"Lauren, do you ever treat yourself to anything?" Yep!  I bought myself to a small Yankee candle that was on sale for £4.49.  Also, Jeff and I got to see The Greatest Showman at the cinema last week thanks to having live-in babysitters (aka. Granny and Granda) and thanks to friends who let us use their Meerkat Movies BOGO voucher code.  By the way, if you haven't seen it, do... we were mesmerized every single second of the film.  

I shared a great quote from the film in the last post I wrote in 2017: "No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else" (although this may only be said in the trailer) Another one... and it could have so easily been missed... "Comfort: the enemy of progress." LOVE THIS!  You can only make progress when you move out of your comfort zone.  This quote can be applied to any area of life, but since this blog is focused on finances... the only way to achieve your financial goals is to examine your finances, find ways to save, save money, create and follow a budget, save money, plan, save money, make sacrifices and save money.  

I love talking money and personal finance.  Please, if there's anything you'd like to ask me about or that you'd like me to address on the blog, please let me know... like my friend did when she asked me about will writing... I'll write a blog on this when I get to it in the Baby Steps series.. but I've already answered her, because I wanted to help her sooner than later.  I want what's best for you, too.  Plan your budget for March. Save money, but also make sure to enjoy your money every now and then, too. Take care. xo  

BS 0.1 - Never Borrow Money Again

Hi Friends!  Last night, I introduced Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps with the aim of giving you hope that you can achieve your financial goals by following a proven step-by-step plan.  This is not an achieve-your-financial-dreams-in-30-days-type plan... no, no... sorry... not sorry... this is a you-decide-today-to-take-control-right-now-for-the-rest-of-your-life plan.  No, it won't likely be easy. Yes, you'll most likely have to make short-term sacrifices for long-term gain.  It will require some work and effort, but very worthwhile work and effort.

If you're ready to commit and make a change or if you're already familiar with Dave's Baby Steps and, like me, want to make sure you're still on track, let's get going.

Baby Step 0 isn't officially a Dave Ramsey Baby Step, but it is mentioned on his show and is just as important as the other steps.  The first penny-sized step in Baby Step 0 is to commit to NEVER borrow money for ANYTHING (except maybe a home) EVER again.  That means you only buy what you can pay for right now.  This includes everything from your morning takeaway coffee to paying for big ticket items with cash or in full at the end of the month with a credit card.  New smart devices, new or used cars, holidays... you will commit to saving for them BEFORE you purchase them.  I know, you want it now, but you're an adult. 

DR strongly encourages destroying credit cards so that they can't ever be used again.  There's a few reasons for this; Dave says, "Getting out of debt is 80% behaviour and 20% head knowledge. Credit card companies know this... you spend more with plastic than you do with cash."

I can imagine you gasping at this realisation!  Handing over cash when you pay for something equates to pain. If you pay cash for your purchases, you'll likely spend 22% less (according to Dave) than if you were to pay by card.  That's massive!  You tend to impulse buy when you know you're paying by card and it won't hurt... but if you keep in mind that you're going to have to part with cold hard cash at the checkout, you're more likely to only buy the necessary items on your list - you do shop with a list, right?! 

I'm going to go off on a tangent for a minute.  Aren't contactless credit cards so convenient?  I never have to carry cash.  I can buy little things here and there so effortlessly!  No! No! No!  Based on the idea that parting with cash induces painful emotions, contactless credit cards induce hardly any negative emotion at all!  Credit card companies think this is great!  Customers are spending willy nilly, not realising how much and how often they're spending money!  Then the credit card statement comes at the end of the month and customers are shocked at how much they've mindlessly spent!  Then they get mad a credit card companies for being evil and forcing them to pay back the money they've borrowed... and if it's not paid off IN FULL (in Martin Lewis' booming voice) this month, they're charged interest on these practically effortless, mindless purchases.  I'm going to have to write a full blog post on this with more statistics (*note to self!).

So what can you do?  Stop using credit cards.  Ahh! That's scary!  Well, not really, but admittedly, I've been trying to convince myself to do this for at least a couple of years.  I don't love to carry lots of cash on me, nor do I want to have to go to the cash point all the time; I could use our debit card, which Dave Ramsey does himself which would prevent any interest being charged on top of the purchase price as with a credit card.  Although I am very careful with what I spend due to following a budget, and perhaps I could spend even less by only spending cash... perhaps I'll challenge myself to do this for a couple months and let you know know how I get on. 

What you can do if you're not ready to cut up your credit cards is to simply stop and think before making a purchase.  Do you really need what you're about to buy?  Is there an alternative?  Pay off your credit cards IN FULL every month. 

Do you rely on your credit cards for emergencies?  Well, if you continue to follow this plan, you will be building an emergency fund, then later a fully-funded emergency fund to fall back on in the case of an emergency... or emergencies. 

So Baby Step 0.1 is to commit to never borrowing money again (except for a home).  How do you feel about this?   Please let me know.  The next penny-sized step is that I'll be examining in a few days is to get on the "same page" with your spouse.  Take care.

Let's Get Started: DR's Baby Steps

Happy Sunday evening, Friends. This is the moment I've been waiting for.  I have been wanting to share with you something that may just change your life forever.  Let me just ask you: Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?  Are you ready to take control of your finances?  If you are ready to make changes to your spending and saving habits that will not only impact you for the rest of your life, but will also have a lasting impact on your children, I want to invite you to join the millions around the world who are following Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps to financial freedom.  

I am sooooooo excited to share the plan with you that is making a HUGE impact on so many and which has made such a huge impact on my mindset and our finances.  Each week for the next month or so I will be taking an in-depth look at each of seven baby steps and breaking them down to the best of my knowledge for those living in the UK.  

Why the UK?  Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps is written for a US audience, and so far, isn't written for those living in the UK.  "But Lauren, I'm sure there are some big differences between the UK and the US in terms of taxes, savings and retirement."  There are some differences, but there are also similarities, especially when thinking of mindset.  No matter which country you live in, you must have a money-saving mindset. You must want to make a change.  You have to be committed.  But most importantly, this plan works... no matter which country you're in... as long as you do the work.

As I've said many times before, I am not a qualified professional.  I am simply a friend who wants to help you, no matter who you are and no matter where you are in your financial adventure.  I want to give you hope that you can get out of debt (if you have any), build wealth and reach your goals.  I truly, truly believe that by combining Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps, advice and guidance from Martin Lewis (and others) and penny-sized mindset changes that I share with you, you will be able to accomplish big things with your money.  

It's tough love time.  If you have been spending money like there's no tomorrow, it's time to stop doing that.  If you don't have a fully-funded emergency fund saved, it's time to save for one. If you haven't been saving for retirement and believe the money will simply be there when you retire or that you can rely on the government to support you - ha! - it's time to get your head out of the sand.  It is up to you - no one else - to get your finances in order.

I am here to share with you what I know to the best of my ability.  I invite you to message me with any questions you have or guidance you need, and I will do my best to guide you in the right direction.  If you don't feel you want to make a change, that's fine by me.  If you don't think this is worth your time and energy, that's fine, too.  But if you have that desire deep down that now is the right time and now you are ready to make a change or even just make sure you're going in the right direction, please keep reading.

Let's get started: Dave Ramsey has created these 7 Baby Steps as a guide to financial freedom.  What does financial freedom mean?  To most it means to live your best life without debt and finance-related stress and worry.  You can find Dave's Baby Steps on daveramsey.com by clicking here, and as follows: 

Baby Step 1: Save £1,000 for a beginner emergency fund

Baby Step 2: Pay off all debt, except your mortgage, using the debt snowball

Baby Step 3: Build a fully-funded emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of expenses

Baby Step 4: Invest 15% of household income into retirement

Baby Step 5: Start saving for your children's university

Baby Step 6: Pay off your home early

Baby Step 7: Build wealth and give generously

Oh yeah, and there's Baby Step 0: Commit

I will be breaking these baby steps down into smaller penny-sized sub-steps every Monday over the next 8 weeks, again, combining information from various UK-based sources.

Below is an animated, yet informative, overview of the Baby Steps on YouTube. 

There is also a great UK-based Facebook page called "Dave Ramsey UK Based Support Group" that I am a member of and encourage you to be a part of, too, to gain support from other followers of the DR plan.  

If you know a friend or family member who could benefit from these steps and the guidance I give, please invite them to subscribe to this blog and/or follow Finding the Pennies on Facebook.

Perhaps you're wondering where my husband and I are on this plan.  We're on Baby Steps 4, 5 and 6, which are done simultaneously; however, to be honest, we do owe family friends some money which will be paid back in full by May. We have a fully-funded emergency fund in our current account.  Although we do contribute a good chunk of money towards our pensions and extra retirement savings every month, we haven't actually checked whether this is 15% of our household income - we definitely need to do this!  We do save towards our girls' university fees - more on this in the next few weeks.  We would absolutely LOVE to pay off our mortgage early, which seems so far off at this point, but that is our goal.  We already give generously as part of our Christian beliefs every month - again, more on this another time.

As you can see, we also have some work to do on our finances... I often say that there's always room for improvement!  I truly hope you join me on this plan.  If I can support you in any way at any time, please let me know.

I hope you join me tomorrow evening to discuss Baby Step 0!

Pancakes and Shoppix

Happy Saturday evening All!  I must be almost back to my normal self after fighting a very bad cold or two over the past couple of weeks.  Geesh has my energy been swiped!  Pancake Day is Tuesday, so in preparation for that yummy day, I'm going to share the recipe I use every single time I make pancakes at home... oh yeah, they're the fluffy American version... and they're soooo good. I also want to introduce you to Shoppix - an app that earns you rewards when you snap pictures of your receipts. 

Many Saturdays begin with pancakes. Delicious... hot... yummy... pancakes.  So American, right?!  Every now and then we'll even enjoy them during the week for supper with some bacon and either a fruit salad or smoothie.  I'm not one for European-style flat pancakes or crepes... do nothing for me, tbh.  The shop shelves are prepped with all of the ingredients and skillets to make pancakes on Tuesday.  That's fine, but for inexpensive, fluffy pancakes, here's the recipe I follow:

Pancakes 
Recipe from a Betty Crocker cookbook. Recipe for 6 pancakes; can be easily doubled.

1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose/plain or whole wheat flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Butter

1. Beat egg in medium bowl with whisk until fluffy.  Beat in remaining ingredients except butter until smooth (but don't over mix).

2. Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Grease with butter to prevent sticking.

3. For each pancake, use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop out equal-sized pancakes. Cook pancakes until bubbles rise to the top of the pancake then flip pancake to allow to cook for a minute on the other side. 

4. Serve with warmed maple syrup.

We use Costco's Kirkland 100% Pure Maple Syrup.  This 1L jug of syrup works out cheaper per 250ml than the maple syrup from Aldi.  

We sometimes enjoy pumpkin spice pancakes, banana pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes and oatmeal pancakes.  There are so many variations!  On Pancake Day, we'll probably have savoury pancakes, but I haven't decided what exactly.

I downloaded the Shoppix app last month with the aim of finding little ways of making money with little effort.  So far, it has been quite easy - I simply submit a picture of my receipts and collect tokens, which can be redeemed for gift cards from Amazon.co.uk, iTunes and Love2Shop.  I can also earn tokens by earning bonuses, taking short surveys and referring friends to Shoppix.  It's really not complicated or time consuming. I haven't redeemed any tokens yet, but they're adding up quickly.  

If you'd like to try Shoppix for yourself, feel free to use my referral code BWYWDADY when you download the app and sign up. We could both earn 200 tokens!  

Just a quick overview of our day - today was a "Home Day" for the Boltons, mainly because my in-laws are coming to visit at the end of the week and some major organising needed to happen today - some did, but we didn't get as far as I would have liked.  After pancakes this morning, I headed to Home Bargains for a few items:
Allinson's Plain Flour - 69p
Wild Bird Seed - 99p
Heinz mayo - 89p (a super buy for a 710ml jar)
Bag of Cadbury Picnic Bites - 49p
4x boxes of Tempo tissues - 99p each
Tyrrells crisps - 79p
Toilet bowl cleaner - 59p
Hills biscuits - 26p
Heart chocolates for the girls for Valentine's Day - 79p,
Microfibre dish cloths - 99p
Red lentils - 79p
Fig rolls - 39p
Aquafresh toothbrush for Ellen - 95p, which I saw a little while later at Tesco for £2! 
LOVE Home Bargains!

Then I went to Tesco - I won't go through everything I bought there, but one thing I really love are the FREE Tesco magazines that can be found at the checkouts.  I pick one up on the way in to look at the page of coupons in case there's something I can use in store.  Once home I made homemade ranch dressing mix to make a dip for veggies to have with lunch, then lunch, then dishes... boring.  I did, however, listen to the inspiring Retire Inspired Podcast while I was making lunch.  We spent the afternoon organising the girls' rooms; in attempt to de-clutter, I managed to give away a chalkboard easel that we had been given, but nothing else I posted on the Facebook selling pages sold yet... bummer. 

Something that frustrates me soooo much is the cost of soup at the grocery store... it's sooo expensive for what you get. Think about it! It's mostly water and vegetables!  So although I did buy a small container of carrot and coriander 😝 soup for £1 at Tesco for the girls for tomorrow's lunch, I made a huge pot of my favourite curried butternut squash and lentil soup this evening to last us a few days plus some for the freezer.  Here's the link to the recipe.

My super-exciting, envy-inducing day has concluded with submitting receipts on the Shoppix app, updating our budget and writing this blog while enjoying this super-amazing bar of HRH Highgrove Milk Chocolate... with the hubby, of course. This bar of chocolate was part of a Fortnum and Mason gift basket we received for Christmas (my friend, Pam, really truly knows the way to my heart), but out of curiosity, I perused the Highgrove website for said bar of chocolate.... £3.95!!! What?!  Sooo delicious.  And there's a salted almond chocolate bar, too.  Oh, yes! 

Pancakes, Home Bargains, Tesco, organising, soup, Shoppix and a bar of chocolate.. that's what dreams are made of, right?  Not exactly, but that was my day.  How was yours? 

Citrus-Scented Vinegar Spray

Cleaning products may not be the most expensive item in the house, but if there's a less expensive way of doing something, I'm all for trying it!  The use of vinegar for cleaning is certainly frugal and effective, plus it's natural and non-toxic.

I keep a spray bottle of half vinegar, half water on my window sill in the kitchen to wipe down the table and counter tops after use and use the same spray on fruit and vegetables as a quick produce wash.  I use distilled/white vinegar to descale the coffee maker and to clean and freshen the dishwasher every 2 months or so; however, it has been a while since I used vinegar to clean the bathrooms.

A month or so ago I was reading one of my favourite house keeping websites, One Good Thing by Jillee, which discussed making scented vinegar to clean with.  I loved this idea and the pictures on this website are so fantastic!  (I will learn how to take the same quality of pictures some day.)  

Simply fill a jar with leftover lemon or orange peels... I actually used clementine peels... fill with distilled/white vinegar and wait 1-2 weeks for the oils from the peels to be released into the vinegar.  Jillee recommends heating the vinegar which expedites the rate of this process, so I'll have to try this next time.  I poured the scented vinegar through a sieve into a jug, then poured it into the spray bottle. I did not dilute the vinegar with water as I wanted to maximize its germ-killing power for cleaning the bathrooms. 

Does vinegar actually kill germs? According to everything I read online, the answer is yes. According to this very interesting and informative article, the simple act of scrubbing effectively kills bacteria.  Add to it vinegar and hot soapy water and you have a germ-killing powerhouse in your hands. 

I use a microfiber cloth to clean with, which also picks up bacteria within its fibers.  The toilet bowl I scrub with a worn dish sponge, then discard it after use. 

Perhaps you're concerned your house will smell of pungent vinegar after using vinegar to clean with.  The scent does last about a half hour, but my girls didn't mention it, nor did my husband notice it when he came home from work a little while later, so it probably wasn't too bad.  I, however, noticed how very clean my bathrooms looked and am very pleased to say that I will continue to use vinegar - scented or not - to clean with.

How We "Spent" Our Weekend

I have to admit - it's been a challenging week.  First thing Monday morning at the gym, my weak side got the better of me which, in the end, has caused me to realise, once and for all, that I need to work hard to overcome this.  This weakness is affecting my loved ones, but with the Lord's strength, this "mountain" shall be moved.  I know this is completely vague, but please know that I've been struggling with this for as long as I can remember, but I have faith that the Lord can take this affliction away from me.  

Later Monday morning my sister-in-law said good-bye to her fiance, who she has been with for over 20 years.  His somewhat unexpected passing caused Jeff and me to think about "what if...?"  Though we have a will, is it up to date? We still need to get the appropriate amount of life insurance; though we have some, it's not enough to sustain us should something happen to one of us. Also our "Important Documents" folder hasn't been updated in at least 2 years.

Monday evening a bad cold came on suddenly leaving me feeling achy and having a deep cough on Tuesday.  Thankfully the achiness only lasted a day, but the tiredness and coughing continues.

Thankfully our weekend brightened despite the draining week we've had.  After taking 3 days off from the gym, I returned on Friday but only really had the strength and stamina to walk on the treadmill for half an hour.  I did the same on Saturday morning plus shoulder exercises while listening to The School of Greatness Podcast by Lewis Howes, who interviewed Tererai Trent.  I have never heard of her before, but she is an inspiration to achieve the impossible.  I'm so glad I got to the gym both mornings; each morning I asked myself what I CAN do, which was the treadmill, and better than having stayed in bed and not done anything. I'll be back to my usual spinning and abs classes tomorrow morning thankfully.

Oh, I did squeal silently with delight when I found £1 at the gym - just to add to the other two 5p coins I found earlier in the week! Ka-ching!

Saturday morning we headed to Enginuity, a science-based museum near Ironbridge.  Of course, I wouldn't pay the £32 entrance fee - no way!  Thankfully we were able to use the annual passes from Jeff's work which they ask a £5 contribution for.  Gladly!  Of course, there's the £3 parking fee to pay as well, but for an indoor family activity on a cold, rainy morning, £8 isn't too bad.  We went home after a couple of hours for lunch, but of course, driving into Ironbridge to one of the nice cafes or restaurants along the River Severn did cross my mind!   

Before I forget, we added £49 this week to the girls' university savings fund by selling our once-beloved Little People castle and princesses to our dear friends, a pair of boots and a large bundle of 2-year-old clothes.  There's still so much left to sell!  I'm still contemplating whether to spend the time and effort to tag items for the next NCT Nearly New Sale in March; I've done so many, many times before, but just not sure it's worth the time and effort.  The day I spend volunteering at the sale is always fun though!

Last night, Jeff and I hunkered down to watch a WONDERFUL movie called "Lion".  The DVD was kindly lent to me by my coworker, so cost me nothing.  It was another reminder of all the blessings in my life.  Have your tissue box ready for this one, but I HIGHLY recommend watching it.

This morning we went to church, came home for lunch, Skyped with my mom and step-dad, then took the girls to a fun birthday party at the school.  You may be wondering what we spend on presents for kids from school.  It varies, but somewhere in the region of £5 per gift, which may also include a bag of sweets.  We have a "gifts for others" section of our budget that we contribute a bit to each month.  

On the walk home from the party, Subway tempted us to come inside, but thankfully we didn't have any money on us and I knew we had leftover bolognese waiting for us at home.  (BOR-ING!)  Not really, but Subway sure sounded good! 

This evening I baked 6 chicken breasts to use for lunches and dinner on Tuesday evening, as well as a meatloaf to have with sweet potatoes tomorrow evening.  I wanted to not only get ahead with meal prep but also save electricity by baking them at the same time.  While these baked, Jeff and I compared our February budgets to make sure we're "on the same page" with our finances - it's sooo important to be working together!

One more frugally bit to leave you with this evening.  When I have tea left over in the tea pot from making cups of tea, I let it cool slightly and pour the remainder into a glass, top it up with a bit of water and chill it in the fridge for a cool iced tea the next day.  Delish!   

Our Month in Review: January

Hi Friends, I'm not feeling very well this evening, but I wanted to touch base with you before I hit the hay (I sound like my grandma!).  I want you to take the time to reflect on your January, and I want to let you in on some of the things that have gone well this month.

How has the first month of 2018 gone for you?  What has gone well for you?  Where is there room for improvement?  There's always room for improvement! 

Before I go any further, you're probably wondering what this protein bar has to do with our January review.  Answer: nothing.  It was a freebie worth £2 that was delivered with our meat order from UKFreshMeats this evening, which, by the way, I used a voucher code and got 10% off my order.  Score! 

Where did things go well for the Boltons (that's us) this month? 

I set myself a goal of spending at least £50 less on food from the shop this month, and I not only achieved this goal, I saved an additional £83 on top of this!  Yeah! How did I do this?  The usual meal planning, stretching meals by having slightly smaller portions at supper to have enough for either or both of our lunches the next day, and adding in an extra meat-free meal each week (usually breakfast for dinner).  I also used about £50 worth of Nectar points over a few shops at Sainsbury's.  I could do better by planning our meals slightly better so that I make fewer trips to our local Morrison's.  I have probably shopped more at Morrison's this past month, because of the convenience of it being so close to home, than ever before. 

My US passport was due for renewal next month, so I had to factor in that pretty big cost into the budget along with the delivery charges this month.  I should have budgeted for this monthly since I realised in the summer that it would expire, but I was in denial and had to fork out the money for it all in one month.  Ouch.  But hey, we cut back in a few areas in order to pay up front for my new passport.  I will also probably have to pay for a new "Indefinite Leave to Remain" put in my new passport, so my goal is to figure out what I need to do for this in the next week.

Eating out/Restaurants.  I enjoy eating out... sometimes.  Honestly, I struggle to get over the cost of mediocre food often served by miserable waitstaff.  However, our girls enjoy going out... kids meals are usually great value, because they often include a drink, a starter, a main meal and a dessert.  I seriously wish I could order from the kids meal!  This month our restaurant budget had to be reduced £10 to be put toward my passport, which meant one meal out.  Since my husband's meals at the canteen go into our restaurant budget as well as coffees out - neither are often - it didn't leave much for our meal out.  I let the girls choose between McDonalds and a pizza restaurant - no surprise, they chose McDs.  We were still under budget by £2.03 in our restaurant budget this month... yippee!

We were slightly over budget (by £1.05) this month in our "play" budget due to treating our friends' children to soft play a couple of weeks ago... but it was TOTALLY worth it.  The £1.05 I'll carry over into February's budget so that it balances out over the two months. 

Not everything went according to plan... hey, that's life, right?!  We decided to book our flights "home" to Ohio.  I had been carefully watching for price drops for a few months, but there wasn't much change. However, I know that prices tend to increase, due to basic economics, in the winter months because people long for their summer holidays.  I was having difficulty using my credit card to book the flights, so I asked my husband to.  I won't go into detail, but one tiny error on our reservation resulted in a correction fee of £50.   All in all though we saved about £400 over last year's flights due to a new route on Iceland Air between Reykjavik and Cleveland.  So, we'll fly a different way from Manchester into a different airport, Cleveland, but £400 is definitely worth it!  (At least I hope so.)

Other than those things, nothing was too different in January.  We were even given the opportunity to bless an almost stranger with a small financial gift, which I feel absolutely blessed by! 

I planned ahead for February yesterday and this evening by preparing our budget for the next month.  Honestly, I LOVE to update my budget.  *Weirdo alert!*  It allows me to have a sense of control over our finances, which is completely freeing!  I do, however, know that everything is in the Lord's control, not mine.

Enjoy Life NOW

Do you think it's possible to enjoy life while getting out of debt or working towards your financial goals? I believe it's absolutely possible, because this is how we - my family - live.  Read through this screenshot of a question someone posted on the Dave Ramsey UK Based Support Group Facebook page a few days ago followed by my reply:

I'd like to break down both her question and my reply.  "Dave podcasts" are Dave Ramsey's (DR) Daily podcasts which can be found through daveramsey.com or on the Dave Ramsey app.  I listen to parts of his podcasts pretty much every day for inspiration and education.

Dave's catch phrase "live like no one else, so you can later live and give like no one else" is so incredibly motivating to me.  To live like no one else means to not live like the average Joe meaning to budget, save, pay off any debt, not accumulate any more debt, save for retirement and to live within one's means. Basically this means to make some sacrifices and delay gratification TODAY so that you can prepare for TOMORROW.  The second half of this statement "so you can later live and give like no one else" means that when the time comes that you have paid off all debt, including your mortgage, saved an emergency fund worth 3-6 months of expenses, contributed 15% of your income towards retirement, and saved for your children's university fees, you can then live an EXTRAORDINARY life and give EXTRAORDINARILY knowing that you're financially secure.

Just a note on giving.  Christians believe in tithing 10% of their income to their local church and missionaries to give back to God what is His in the first place.  It's a monthly "thank you" gift to the Lord who has given us everything we have for the furtherance of His kingdom.  I know that everyone believes different things about tithing and giving, but I think we'd all agree that it changes one's heart.  It makes one think beyond one's self or one's ego.  And for this reason, I encourage everyone, no matter where you are with your finances to give, even just a tiny amount, on a regular basis.  Once you've freed up money that's going towards paying off debt, you can give more.  Once more money is freed up after having enough money in a fully-funded emergency fund, then you can give even more.  Once you've saved for your children's education (I know there are differing opinions on this) and have plenty going into retirement savings, then you can GIVE like no one else... that means BIG money! How exciting!

The husband's question to his wife in this post is actually absolutely fabulous!  He's thinking beyond today.  He's considering how to break free of the lifestyle they're used to, how they can enjoy life while they work together to accomplish their goals.

Ok, just to clarify a bit more before getting to my reply.  "BS2" stands for Baby Step 2, which in DR's plan refers to paying off all non-mortgage debt.  DR's plan has 7 steps plus BS0, which must have been added after 1-7 were created.  More on these in future blogs!  Or watch some videos on YouTube.

Now to my reply: enjoy money NOW.  By planning where your money goes (ie. budgeting) and sticking to it, you have the ability to enjoy what is left over NOW.  You don't have to sit, twiddling your thumbs and being miserable while you wait for time to pass and for your financial goals to happen.  NO!  The aim of my blog is to encourage you to "find pennies" or small ways to save money while you live your best life! (Now I'm sounding like Oprah!)  That doesn't mean once you achieve your financial goals or get to Baby Step 7, that means NOW!  LIVE LIFE NOW!

Moving on... I used to shudder at the thought of contentment.  "How can I possibly be content with what I have when so-in-so has so much more than me?"  The Lord has taught me sooo much about contentment the past few years.  The Lord provides for all of my needs.  I don't need anything more. I have a roof over my head, warm clothes and plenty of food.  I have so much more than that!  Do we live in my dream home? Far from it.  Do I wear the prettiest, designer clothes.  Uh, no.  Do we take exotic vacations/holidays multiple times a year? Not unless trips to visit our families in Northern Ireland and Ohio count.  Since putting my 2018 mantra "I have enough" into practice, it's made me take an even closer look at how content I am with what I have.  It's also about making the most of what we have and being thankful for everything.  Believe me, it's still something I'm working through and I'm not sure whether I'll ever be truly content... on Earth, that is.

Simple.  Isn't the word simple such a beautiful word?!  It's not complex. It's easy to understand.  What simple means to you may mean something different to me.  Simple to me means looking at situations and finding the root of why I'm doing it.  Is it to fulfill something in myself?  Is it to impress others?  What is it?  Are you going shopping to get out of the house?  Could you go for a walk somewhere instead?  Are you popping into the local cafe for a coffee and slice of cake "as a treat"?  What about making a pot of coffee and baking a cake at home?  A big part of simplification is slowing down and appreciating what you truly want from a moment in time.  It's about making things habitual or automatic, so you can focus on what you really want out of life.

You probably already know that very little excites me more than finding a discount code for something I was already going to purchase.  Or finding a cheaper and more effective way of doing something.  I love getting things for free.  I love when my kids are happy doing inexpensive, fun things together, like looking for "mini beasts" on a walk, baking together, playing a game together or our once-a-month meal out.

The idea is that with some simplification, contentment and creativity, you can live your best life NOW... no matter where you are in your financial adventure. photo credit

6 Rules I Follow For Using My Tumble Dryer

A recent post on the Dave Ramsey UK Facebook group I follow asked, "What's your 'luxury' that you're not prepared/struggling to give up?"  Another member answered, "my tumble dryer" and I couldn't agree more!  I LOVE our dryer.  It dries clothes... within an hour and a half... and it comes out all fluffy and warm and fluffy and warm.... *grin*

Before I moved to Germany in 2003, I never had the "pleasure" of hanging each. and. every. single. item of clothing on a drying rack that took up half a room, then wait patiently for about two days for the clothes to finally dry only to have the clothes come off the drying rack stiff and wrinkled.  I had the pleasure of using drying racks through 2014 when we moved into our current house.  I pretty much demanded that we have a utility room in our house so that I could have a tumble dryer... a lovely tumble dryer. 

If I remember correctly, the first load of laundry I dried in our new dryer included my daughter Ellen's blankie.  I remember calling the little 2-year-old to the utility room.  The little blonde headed girl came toddling in and squealed with absolute delight when she snuggled her warm, soft blankie for the first time.  Tears filled my eyes and a lump formed in my throat.  Yep, there is nothing like a tumble dryer. #tumbledryerlove

As I was emptying the dryer a little while ago, I realised I follow my own money-saving rules even when I use the dryer. 

First, I make sure that everything that goes in the dryer is actually dryer-friendly.  This prevents any shrinkage of or damage to clothes (this is pretty obvious, I realise) and also the fewer items in the dryer, the faster the clothes will dry, thus using less energy (even if just slightly).


Second, we use wool laundry balls that I bought at Home Bargains for about £3 at least a year or so ago.  They claim to gently fluff clothes as they bounce around the drum and also help clothes dry quicker, again by hopefully reducing drying time, thus reducing the electricity used.

Third, any large items like duvet covers and bath sheets only get a partial dry in the dryer then we take them out and hang them on the banister upstairs to finish drying.  Again, this helps to reduce the electricity we use.

Fourth, we try to stop the dryer either right before or just as it finishes drying so that the clothes won't wrinkle not only saving (my husband who does the ironing!) time and more electricity to iron the clothes.

Fifth, we immediately clean the lint out of the lint trap and empty the condenser tray/reservoir/the-thing-that-holds-the-water so that the dryer works efficiently each time we use it.  Periodically, I clean out the filter on the bottom of the dryer as well.

Sixth, we then turn off the dryer switch at the wall, because even though the dryer isn't turned on, electricity is still running through the machine.

Oh, if you're wondering whether I don't use our dryer on the two hot summer days we have a year... nope... I know, it's my little luxury.

Do you have any dryer tips or rules you follow that I could consider adopting?

I Did Something Crazy...

Sooo... I did something crazy this week... something so not me.... something so not Finding the Pennies.  Honestly, I can't believe that I did it actually. Enough already! What is it, Lauren?! I passed up the opportunity of a FREE gym membership to Nuffield Health Gym. *gulp!*  I can hardly believe it myself.  The directors of the company I work for offered to pay for a full gym membership for the office employees, worth £33... and I didn't take it.  Why?!  Because I belong to Anytime Fitness which is about a 5-minute walk up the hill from our house.  I know myself... there is NO WAY I'd want to get in the car and drive 8-ish minutes to Nuffield.  More than that... the classes don't start until 6:45, so there's NO WAY it would work out time-wise with working out for an hour then driving back home to get myself and the family ready before the school run and work.  I mostly don't work out in the evenings, so evening workouts/classes isn't really a possibility for my family's schedule.  So, I kindly declined the generous offer.  *sigh*

So, back to the money-saving Lauren.  What did you do Friday evening? I bet it wasn't as good as ours!  While the girls enjoyed their movie night - Dora the Explorer... again - Jeff and I hovered over the laptop screen at the kitchen table considering remortgaging options. Yay! Fun! (Not.)  What's sooo depressing is realising how much is left on our house to pay off and how much we pay in interest!  Waaaa!  At least we're starting to look at the options and have the time to ask others for advice.  My ultimate goal is to pay off our mortgage... and the sooner, the better!

Completely changing topics.... my girls have had the Mueller corner yogurts perhaps twice... ever... because they're full of sugar and EXPENSIVE... and the "yogurt" is drippy and gross.  Can you tell I don't like Mueller yogurt?!  Not that the above-pictured yogurt is any less sugary (I haven't compared nutritional info), it does taste a WHOLE lot better and cost less than 90p (I can't remember the actual price) from Aldi.  So that my daughters don't entirely miss out on the "fun" of having Smarties (British M&Ms for my non-British readers) in their yogurt, I occasionally let them add a small handful to their yogurt.  Cost-wise it comes to about 15p per bowl compared to the best price of 40p per Mueller Corner yogurt.  

Sorry (not sorry) that I talk so much about food on my blog, but it is such an easy way of saving money.  Almost every weekend, I crave Chinese or a curry.... but it can be sooo expensive if it's eaten at a restaurant or even taken away.  The next-best option is the Chinese or curry "deals" from the supermarket... and yes, they're fine, as long as my girls will eat them. The meal would cost £8-£10.  Not too bad... but I know I can do better... with the use of my slow cooker.  Even having ordered great-quality meat from UKFreshMeats for £8 for this recipe, it still works out to about £4 for the meat for this meal since we've only eaten half of the beef.  Of course there are the costs of the pretty basic ingredients for the sauce and the costs for the brown rice I boiled myself... oh yeah, I made Slow Cooker Broccoli and Beef  and it hit the spot!  The leftover beef will be used in steak fajitas tomorrow evening for a quick, easy and cheap meal.

Saturday evening Jeff and I shared this small-ish bar of chocolate that was marked down to 47p at Aldi after Christmas.  It was alright... not fantastic... but it did the trick for a simple, inexpensive Saturday evening treat... and it looked pretty too! 

I know this post is somewhat random, and honestly, not completely thought through... but that's ok!  I'm simply sharing my thoughts in the hopes of encouraging you to find ways to simplify, cut-back where possible and consider options that may or may not save you money depending on your circumstances, like not taking advantage of the paid-for gym membership. 

Have a great week!

Putting "I Have Enough" into Practice

Evening All! I sat down a half hour ago with my cup of tea and a couple of Lindor truffles (my favs!) to start my evening by clearing out a few receipts from my wallet/purse and updating my budget.

Brenna and I went to Sainsbury's this morning.  Man! I almost wish I hadn't.  £56.51 for seemingly few things!  Unfortunately, I can't get everything at Aldi that my family wants, Shreddies (Jeff doesn't like Aldi's Malties... oh, well).  I did buy a large reduced beef joint for a VIP's visit on Saturday and a few packs of fresh berries that I don't usually buy... it all sure adds up quickly!  I used up what was remaining on the Sainsbury's gift card that we purchase at a slightly reduced rate through Jeff's work) and £32.50 worth of Nectar points, leaving £2.14 remaining. 

We reduced our grocery budget £50 this month as a challenge to get by on just "enough", which could be allocated elsewhere in the budget.

I also returned an unopened canister of Allinson's yeast that I bought prior to Christmas for £1.10.  I found yeast at Aldi for much less a day or so later, so I didn't need the Allinson's yeast.  It's about finding pennies, right? 

This afternoon I spent a little time setting up the girls' Fisher Price Little People Farm and Zoo toys to take pictures of in the hopes of selling them.  I've been dreading this moment for years as these were favourites once upon a time, but aren't any longer.  My girls no longer play with them, they're taking up valuable space, and I'm sure they will be loved again by another family. (This is me trying to console myself.)

Yesterday, I forgot to take my lunch to work.  My immediate thought was to make it until I got home at 3:30pm.  Hmm... nope that didn't last long.  Then I remember the sandwich van whose music chimes loudly outside the office at 11:45am every day.  I thought, "This is the one time I will buy myself a sandwich."  Then my mantra "I have enough" popped into mind.  In my desk drawer were some packets of just-add-boiling-water soup, a handful of almonds, a clementine leftover from Tuesday and a selection of biscuits/bars.  "I have enough."  The sandwich van came and went without my visiting it.

I didn't really feel like going to the shop yesterday, nor did I really need to.  We had enough at home.  Since I like to have a couple of meat-free meals a week, I decided it was "breakfast for supper" night.  We had scrambled eggs (it's not technically meat, right?), blueberry muffins (Recipe from Everydaycheapskate.com, but without the sugary topping) and fruit salad with a couple spoonfuls of yogurt stirred in for something different. Cheap and easy.

"I have enough" has helped me in a few situations already this week.  One other example was when I went to dry my hair yesterday morning. I almost turned on the light in the bedroom, but then realised there was just enough light in the room to dry and brush my hair. I'm finding even more places to cut back when I keep "I have enough" in mind.     

My 2018 Mantra: "I Have Enough"

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Welcome to 2018, Friends!  Have you made any New Year resolutions?  I haven't.  That's right.  I haven't.  There's something about new year resolutions that feel so immediate, but temporary, not something that is sustainable or something that one can start and build up gradually overtime.  I feel that in order to make a change... for good... old habits have to be broken down, while new habits are slowly created and improved upon.  My money-saving mindset did not - voila! - magically happen overnight... in fact, it's very much a work in progress and always will be. 

Although not always good at it, my money-saving mindset started when I was young.  I would watch my dad clip coupons for groceries from the Sunday newspaper, then eventually, I'd be the first to snatch up the pages of coupons to cut out.  We didn't necessarily need to cut out coupons and use them at the grocery store, but we did.  I began to understand how much fun it was to get something for less money.  Over 30-odd years, this has developed into not only my love for and utter thrill at finding a bargain, but wanting to share this love and thrill with you! 

Perhaps you're thinking, "Lauren, doesn't saving money leave you with feelings of deprivation or inadequacy?"  My answer: No, not at all. In fact, the more money I don't spend, the more money I get to keep to myself or use for something else.  Makes sense, right?

But honestly, sometimes I do feel a little inadequate when I see lovely cars driving down the road while I drive my 11-year-old Vauxhall Vectra, or when I see others wearing lovely clothes and mine are pretty basic and either a hand-me-down or purchased at 60% off somewhere.  But you know what, I then quickly remind myself that there's absolutely nothing wrong with driving a perfectly good, safe Vectra or wearing hand-me-downs.  I have enough.

Just a little bunny trail here - I listen to podcasts as often as I can (they're FREE!) as they are so informative and encouraging.  My favourites, by the way, are Primal Potential with Elizabeth Benton (healthy lifestyle), Dave Ramsey (finance), Retire Inspired with Chris Hogan (finance), Life Money Hope with Chris Brown (Christian finance) and Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth (Christian).  

I listen to pretty much every single Primal Potential podcast and learn amazingly wonderful things from Elizabeth Benton about nutrition, exercise and mindset.  But Podcast 429 titled "My Personal Mantra & 2018 (please listen here) I listened to 3 times (and now a fourth time to write this blog).  Three times! Elizabeth discusses a book she read and had reflected on called The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist and from which she quoted a couple of pages.  Did I mention that I listened to this podcast three times?!  It had that big of an impact on me. 

Elizabeth quotes, "...and for many of us, our first thought is 'I didn't get enough sleep', the next one is 'I don't have enough time'.  Whether true or not, that thought of "not enough" occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it.  We spend most of the hours in the days of our lives complaining or worrying about we don't have enough of.  We don't have enough time. We don't have enough rest. We don't have enough exercise. We don't have enough work. We don't have enough profits. We don't have enough power. We don't have enough wilderness. We don't have enough weekends.  Of course we don't have enough money... ever.  We're not thin enough. We're not smart enough. We're not pretty enough or fit enough, educated or successful enough or rich enough... ever. Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we're already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something.  And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds race with a litany of what we didn't get, or didn't get done that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that revelry of lack. This manta of "not enough" carries the day and becomes a kind of default setting for thinking about everything.  From the cash in our pockets, to the people we love or the value of our own lives. What begins as a simple expression of the harried life or even the challenged life, grows into the deep justification for an unfulfilled life. It becomes the reason we can't have what we want or be who we want to be.  It becomes the reason we can't accomplish the goals we set for ourselves, the reason our dreams can't come true, or the reason other people disappoint us. The reason we compromise our integrity, give up on ourselves or write off others.  We live with scarcity as an underlying assumption. It's not that we necessarily experience a lack of something, but scarcity, as a chronic sense of inadequacy about life, becomes the very place from which we think and act and live in the world. Through that lens, our expectations, our behavior and their consequences become a self-fulfilling prophecy of inadequacy, lack and dissatisfaction. 

"In the mindset of scarcity, our relationship with money is an expression of fear. A fear that drives us in an endless and unfulfilling chase for more, or into compromises that promise us a way out of the discomfort around money." 

Elizabeth goes on to explain the parallel between money and overeating... "the desire for more... more... more."  She continues to quote, "When you LET GO of trying to get more of what you don't really need, it frees up oceans of energy to make a difference with what you have."

Elizabeth then chats about an exercise in journaling (which I have really haven't gotten the hang of myself) and has asked herself, "What do I not need more of? And where do I act as if I don't have enough? Where do I act as though I need more?" She answers what she doesn't need more of, "Food, sugar, alcohol, television, money, stuff.  Whether that stuff is clothes, coffee mugs, tech accessories, books."  For me, it's very similar things. I, too, don't need more food or sugar, bath towels(!), cooking equipment, stuff... ugh! I have too much stuff!  Kids' toys, markers and pens, dust (ha!). 

Where do you feel like you don't have enough?  I have been thinking of the word "enough" since I first listened to the podcast last week.  I have enough. I feel fulfilled. I don't need more. *BAM!* It was a total light bulb - no, EXPLOSION moment! 

I have enough.

I have enough food - my fridge and freezer are crammed full. My cupboards won't fit another can/tin or box.  Look at me! I am no skinny mini! I hardly need more food than I need.

I have enough friends  -  I don't need more friends. I don't even nurture the friendships I have with amazing friends who are spread around the globe.

I have enough money - we are able to pay our bills, put food on the table, keep warm and dry.

I have enough time - hey, we all have the same 24 hours.

I have EVERYTHING I need.  "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19).

I have enough.

This is my 2018 mantra: "I have enough."  I have noticed already that a few thoughts of inadequacy were quickly diminished when I recited my mantra to myself.  I am really looking forward to exploring how this impacts my decisions regarding money, my continued progress to lose weight and my life in general and will share these experiences with you this year. Take care, Friends.