Laceshawl's Personal Finance Blog

there'd be no trade for tinkers, as granny used to say. My little saucepan has sprung a leak after 35 years of almost daily use. It saw me thru boiling eggs in student days and heating milk for ds' cocoa, plus making gravy every Sunday. When granny was a young housewife in Dublin she really did take the pan to the tinker to be mended, but there's not much chance of finding one nowadays, so I am mentally preparing for sticker shock when I go to buy a new one. I doubt if I will find one that lasts another 35 years either.

I have lost 2 lb.

not sterling, tho I dropped a fair few of those on my trip. I have been eating a lot of comfort food since my dad died and am now -gulp, 198 lb. So I'm revisiting the weight loss category. No more cheese and cookies. Gotta gat back into that size 12 dress.

left the heater on all night. No refunds due to carelessness.

is sometimes inconvenient, but saves me a lot of money. I get all my exercise from walking so don't have to pay expensive gym membership - can't understand people who drive to the gym and run on a treadmill. Besides, running stuffs your knees. Need to lift weights? Try carrying a 10 kg (22 lb) sack of rice a mile home from the shop - okay, that's beyond me now, but I did when I was young.

Not having a car saves me time. I've been late any number of times when someone offered me a lift because the car wouldn't start or we couldn't find a park.
when I walk somewhere I always know how long it is going to take me and I allow for that. If it's raining I catch the bus, whic is cheaper.

Now you're thinking, yeah but I have a full time job. I don't have time to walk everywhere. Here's the thing; because I don't spend money owning a car I don't have to work as many hours. I can meet all my needs with 30 hours a week - and that leaves me time to walk.

And walking, I spot all those coins dropped by rushing motorists at the parking meters. Found .70 cents today.

Today I ran out of bread but didn't want to go to the shop just for a loaf, so I made flatbread. Add generous tablespoonful of nonfat milk powder to one breakfast cup flour. Stir in pinch of salt and one teaspoonful baking powder. Add enough liquid to make a firm dough. You could use plain water or left over stock. I used the left over cooking liquid from a packet of chicken instant noodles. It had some fat in it which is probably why it tasted so good. Flatten out the dough with your hand to about 1/4 inch thick. Fry until brown on both sides. Eat while still warm. I spread avocado on mine - and ate the lot.

a no spend day and I found 10 cents. So I am richer tonight.

More bad weather is forecast to arrive. I have been filling up my pantry to survive another snow. I now have:

10 kg rice
4.5 kg oats
2 kg flour
8 cans fish
9 cans meat
19 cans beans (but no jelly beans...
8 cans spaghetti
8 cans corn
8 cans tomatoes
8 cans veges
8 cans fruit
4 cans soup
1 kg milk powder
2 liter oil
3 kg sugar
5 kg onions
2 kg potatoes

I think that will keep me going for a month if the roads get blocked

I thought my broadband seemed slow. I'm on a plan that allows me to use 1 gig (I don't download much) before reverting to dialup speed. Now the ISP has sent me a letter saying their little whizzometer has miscalculated the amount I've been using over the last six month. Their apologies and they're crediting my account with nz$66

Since I came back from holiday everyone else at the shop has decided they want to go on holiday. So I'm getting extra hours next month. Keep on stashing the cash.

I think folks is getting so poor they has holes in their pockets. The little money they have drops thru onto the street. Today I picked up a $nz10 bill. Doing the happy dance and checking there's no holes in my pockets.

I found a 10GBP in a wallet - all the money I have left from my trip. I took it to the bank and exchanged it for $nz19.

Now if only someone would pay me for every pound of weight I lost...

It is officially 10 days till spring. Today was a beautiful sunny day with warmth in the breeze., but there will be a frost tonite.

I checked this week's specials in Countdown - canned corn for $nz1.05 so I got 6 cans. Also baked beans and spaghetti for .69 cents, so will go back for those later. (Only $5.70 in the wallet until Wednesday, but I don't think I'll need to buy anything.)

New World had a special on rolled oats this week - 60 cents off a 1.5 kg bag, so I bought 4. Should keep me going for a couple months. Marmite was also on special for $nz4.99 so I bought 2. I'll be bursting with energy after breakfast.

I bought 10 pairs to travel to Britain and there are none left in my drawer. The underwear I also bought made it back home ok, so I can't have left a trail of dirty sox in hotel rooms. Where can they have gone?

Having put on a little weight - erm, gone up a size, I am finding it harder to get fitting clothes in the charity shops. I was down to 4 pairs of trousers I can wear. So I went to Classic Clothing and bought 2 pairs of jeans @ $29.99 each. $10 off per pair. I should lose weight but if I do that my new clothes won't fit!

Here is a breakfast that requires no cooking

One cup rolled oats
handful raisins
tablespoonful sunflower seeds

mix together, pour milk over and leave to soak overnight. In the morning add sliced banana and apple. Guaranteed to keep you regular.

and is predicted to go on for the next four days. This morning it was coming down in spurts so I got to church where the oldies were all talking about the Big Snow of 1939. I thought i would stop by the supermarket for some teabags - the place was chocka with people all stocking up. I got my teabags plus a big pumpkin and some cheese. Soup and scones tonite.

I was looking for info on building up an emergency food supply and I came across this.

http://www.grandpappy.info/hfood1yr.htm

I feel bloated at even the thought of that much food. I hadn't looked much beyond an earthquake or severe snow storm cutting off supplies for a week - friends in the Christchurch quake were without water and power for 10 days, but the worst affected areas were evacuated. Still I think the most likely time I will use it is when I lose one of my pt jobs at the end of the year. At the moment I have in my pantry

10 cans beans
2 cans fish
6 cans veg
2 cans fruit
1 can beef stew
1 can chicken soup
1 can coconut cream
1 can tomato paste
400g sultanas
1 kg oats
4 kg potatoes
2 kg flour
1 kg dried milk powder
4 pkts instant noodles
2 ltr cooking oil
small amounts pasta, rice and dried lentils
herbs and spices

When I get paid next week I shall buy 10 kg rice for $nz19 and some mung beans for sprouting. And a big jar of peanut butter.

Call me an optimist. I don't buy scratch lottery tickets but I pick up ones people have thrown away, just in case they overlooked a winner. I picked one up today and it was worth $3. Thank you unknown person who dropped it.

I am currently using up some of the older supplies in the pantry. There was some popping corn which has been there so long I didn't think it would cook, but it did so I had popcorn for breakfast.

In
UB $130
found .50


Out
grocery 25.70

Friday night I went to the supermarket to buy groceries and when I got to the checkout discovered I'd lost my debit card. Yikes!

I abandoned my basket of meat and veg and rushed off to phone the 0800 number. They cancelled my card and said they would send me a new one (at a cost of $10). Unfortunately it takes 3-5 working days to arrive.

So there I was with plenty of money in the bank and no way to suck it thru the ATM. Luckily I have plenty of rice, flour, dried beans, canned tomatoes and a sack of potatoes. My diet for the weekend has been limited but healthy.

I hope my new card comes tomorrow.

Fortunately I haven't been sick, but there has been a lot going on and I haven't had time to blog.

My dad passed away soon after the earthquake. In many ways it was a relief as he was getting to the stage where he couldn't recognize us. Dealing with grief has been complicated as he was an alcoholic and at times could be abusive. I try to remember the good times.

He left us quite a bit of money which I am expecting to be paid around November. I have to work out what to do with this. It is enough to provide several thousand a year in extra income but not enough to retire on.

And I took a trip to Britain last month. I had a fabulous time seeing ds and various relatives I haven't seen since childhood, looking at cathedrals and castles in England, Wales and Ireland. I blew my budget but it is worth every cent.

And a further change coming up - I will be losing my pt cleaning job at the end of the year as the Early childhood centre is closing.

So, need to make some plans and get back to watching the pennies.

It's official. According to Mr Bill English, he what hold the nation's moneybags, the economy is slow to recover because people are saving money instead of spending. Guilty as charged, your honour. He went on to say that under current circumstances it behooves the govt to be fiscally responsible and not go on a big spendup. Okay, so it's important for the govt to balance its budget - and they want me to go into debt to buy stuff? I'm only doing with my cash what the Treasury does.

No money out apart from envelope at church. I put on a sweater to keep warm instead of turning on the heating and made potato patties. Coarsely grate 2 medium sized murphies and gently squeeze out excess water. Stir in half a finely grated onion, 2 tablespoons of flour, and salt to taste (I like lots).Drop spoonsful into hot oil and fry till nicely browned on both sides.

If ever I get down to my last $10 I will buy a big sack of flour and one of potatoes and live on this for a month.

and the pounds will look after themselves was one of grandma's most frequent sayings. Today I frugalled thusly:

line dried the washing
roasted the seeds from a pumpkin instead of buying them from the health food store at umpteen dollars for a tiny packet
picked up .20 cents from beside a parking meter
decided not to buy a nz$2 top from the charity shop.

Today is the day of the big tax changes, hailed by our Minister of Finance as the most important in 25 years. Goods and services tax goes up 2 and 1/2%, and income tax is lowered, in my case the bracket goes down 3 and 1/2%. With an income of less than nz$20,000 pa I really don't expect to see much significant difference.

The govt says this is being introduced bacuse it is fairer, I suspect, as I grow more curmudgeonly in my old age, it is because they hope people will spend more and get the economy moving again. Also, with sales tax, they can hand on much of the cost of collecting it to the business owners instead of govt employees.

Be that as it may, I can only control my personal economy. I continue to be one of those scrooges who are sitting on their bank account and deepening the recession. I did a little stockpiling last week before the prices went up, of toothpaste and canned tomatoes. I was looking for a double bed to buy, but couldn't find one I liked.

The changover of prices is a major hassle for retailers. My local supermarket has a notice up saying problem postponed over the weekend. At work, like many other places, the owners have decided to take the opportunity to review prices and stocktake. Much of my day today was taken up counting tubes of buttons (yes, every button had to be counted) and deciding whether the price should be rounded up another 5 cents. This is important skilled work, bud - you need a university degree for this. My poor back is aching after standing all day on a concrete floor.

Today was a nice warm day so I walked into town. On the way I found a whole FIVE DOLLARS!!! I rushed to the bank straight way and deposited it in my house account which I'm saving to redo my kitchen. It will pay for five minutes of the carpenter's time. Now if only I could find five thousand dollars...

In the past at this time of year I have gone into whirling dervish decluttering mode, tossing out piles of stuff - only to wind up regretting some discards and buyign tons more junk to refill my empty shelves.

So this time I'm taking it slowly and making absolutely sure I don't want something before I get rid of it. I tidied my shoes and gave two nice but never were comfortable pairs to charity - hope they fit someone better than me. I sorted my cookbooks and gave some I never use to the annual booksale. And went through a big pile of papers and binned some that were no longer relevant. Now I'm relaxing with a cup of tea and surveying the rest of my possessions. I quite like the clothes I have and they're in good condition. So I'll hang onto them and only replace when they're worn. I've done quite well over the last few months at not buying stuff (three months without buying yarn!) so resolved to be satisfied with what I have, and only allow anything new into the house if I get rid of something old. This is a small house, so I really can't have tons of stuff in my closets. I will go for minimalism and much savings.

Of course, there's still ds's room with all his gear, waiting for him to come back and take it away...