Investigative Blogging: Finishing school, starting a new job

Next week, on Monday I start my new job. I am VERY excited about it for a number of reasons, ranging from: 'I love learning new stuff' to 'Fuck Yeah, a stepping stone to my Ideal Future'. However, one of the biggest reasons that I'm uber, sickeningly excited, is that I will have money for the first time in months and months and months.

What I want to do is have the world's largest splurge: throw my money around and buy all the shoes and electronics in the world. Summer shoes! Ebook readers! iPhones! Leather jandals! Possibly also I would buy some books and some audio books and some ebooks. Books books books.

However, what I will actually be doing is riding the Debt Unicorn again. Confession time: I have truly fallen off the Unicorn, and have had to increase my debt, telling myself all the time that as soon as I'm working again I'll be able to make some more serious payments. And I know that it's bad because I have tried not to tell anyone (read: the Boy, the SCP lovelies) about my debtiness.

So, what I'd like to do is try and get the credit card paid of in it's entirety by this time next year. In fact, I estimate that I should have it done within six months - but I need to be practical as well, especially as I am planning to make some changes to my living situation. So this is my declaration: that I will have paid of my credit card debt in it's entirety by the 16th of November 2012. I shall update the Unicorn regularly. I shall be honest with myself and others about my monetary situation.

Over my period of getting on top of my debt (and then backsliding) I've discovered how much I prefer to have a budget and know exactly how much I'm spending on a day to day basis. Whenever I backslide I get caught up in a sort of roller coaster ride of budgetary "not knowing" - that is, I kind of enjoy spending without any controls, but then I am struck with horrible fears and random money guilts. Yes, it can be a pain in the arse living within my means, but at least it's not freaking scary.

Currently playing in iTunes: City Girl by CSS

Investigative Blogging and fermenting things at home: Baking with beer yeast

My flatmate James is a dude and (more relevantly) brews his own beer. Since I’ve become somewhat obsessed with bread making, we’ve had a number of conversations about combining out powers for good: that is, I will give him some bread for his brew, and in return he’ll give me some yeast as a starter for my bread.

In theory this should work fine. But in practise? It’s difficult to say. After I was given a huge plastic container of live, beery-smelling yeast, I decided that I should probably do some research instead of winging it (ie bunging it into a bowl of flour and hoping for the best).

One of the forums I looked at suggested using the yeast to make a sourdough starter (I think sometimes called a sponge) and picking up the bread making from there. Fortuitously, James has a copy of NZ Lifestyle Farmer which has a description of how to make and bake from your own sourdough starter. There was also a comment that the yeast made a slightly bitter bread, which I chose to ignore. I figure people have been doing this for centuries. Right?

This morning I decided to start the whole, epic process. I didn't manage to put the loaf in the oven until about 8.30 this evening!

I first took about half of the yeast that James had given me and put it into a bowl with a dough made of half a cup of water and a cup of flour. I did my best to combine this (not easy; very gluey) and then covered it with a teatowel and left it to grow while I went to school.When I came home four hours later the yeast had grown to a freakish size and had begun to eat my teatowel! A good sign though, because clearly my yeast is ALIVE.

The beer yeast in its original state. Things to notice: brown, bubbly, not very appetising

Step two involved throwing away half of this mixture, and adding a slurry made of a cup of water and a cup of flour. I combined these two together and went away for about two hours to do some work. The mixture doubled again, without a teatowel casualty this time.

The sponge/starter in a glass jar. Slightly more appetising than the yeast in its most basic form. Also: bubbles! It's alive!

Finally: time to make a dough! The instructions recommended combining two cups of the starter*, two teaspoons of sugar, two teaspoons of salt and two tablespoons of oil in a bowl and then kneading in three cups of flour half a cup at a time until the dough “felt right”. This is very vague if you’ve never made a loaf of bread before, so to clarify: it should feel silky, but not sticky. This part of the process made me long for my beloved no-knead bread because kneading lots really strains the unaccustomed hands.

The dough then goes into a warm place to rise. At this point I normally hope for “twice the original size” but the sourdough manual warned me that it might not grow very big. This was a fair assessment of the situation: while the dough grew a bit, it just didn't grow terribly much.

I then knocked back the dough, gave it a quick knead, put it on a tray and shaped it into something approximating a loaf, and left it to rise again. The second time around seemed even slower! After something like two and half hours I decided that I'd had enough and put the loaf in the oven at 220C for about 25 minutes - I was planning to do it for longer but it didn't need it in the end (and luckily James caught it before it had burnt to a crisp).

The finished loaf on a decorative teatowel

The texture of the bread is absolutely lovely, very soft and moist, and not crumbly at all. The crust is nice too. The flavour is a bit borderline - the lees in the yeast are very strong tasting, and the loaf has a kind of weird bitter after taste. However, I think if I persevere using the sponge that I started making, eventually the lees in the yeast will become less concentrated.

In conclusion: As a breadmaking method, it's worth a go, and I'm now quite keen to make a proper sourdough starter sometime in the future. I am in love with the texture of the bread - in terms of texture I think it's probably one of the best loaves I've ever made. However, the flavour is very much a downside and I hope hope hope that it will become less concentrated over time. Finally, it's probably best to leave the loaf to rise overnight at least because it takes so much longer than a store-bought yeast does.

You could give it a go if you have all these bits and about 24 hours at your disposal. I'll let you know how the second attempt goes.




 *The rest of the starter goes into a jar with half a cup of warm water and half a cup of flour. Because you need to feed that little dude!

Investigative Blogging: No Shampoo

We Heart It

Unless you're living in an blogging bubble (guffaw) you've probably heard of the "No Poo" movement, a movement that has one of the worst.names.ever (and will thus be referred to as No Shampoo throughout this post). An extremely quick Wikipedia search reveals that the theory behind No Shampoo has two angles: trying to avoid the chemicals in shampoo, and rejecting commercialised standards of hair beauty. I am not a specialist on either of these arguments -- while I like the idea of trying to minimise the amount of mass produced chemicals that I voluntarily apply to my body, my main reason for turning away from shampoo is that I have no freaking money at all. Poverty is an exciting challenge, non?

The concept that not using shampoo might make your scalp and hair more healthy is not a completely foreign concept to me. My brother Josh was infamous in our family for not using shampoo at all, much to my mother's chagrin. The story goes that after months of shampoo-avoidance, he went to a hairdresser who told him that he had the healthiest hair and scalp they'd ever seen. I used to know a lot of hippies who would assure me that your hair actually begins to clean itself after it's been dirty for a while. I'm yet to find any evidence for this theory, but it is true that your scalp begins to limit the amount of sebum it produces if it's not completely stripped of oils.

For my own dip into the world of No Shampoo, I mostly followed the guide in this Hairpin article but padded out my information by looking at this Instructables tutorial. I bought a couple of plastic bottles from Plastic Box, filling one half with baking soda and half with water, and the other with water and a couple of tablespoons of ACV (that's apple cider vinegar, the wondercure, for non-hippie types). [FACT: You can get three kilos of baking soda from Moore Wilsons for only $5, which is much cheaper than the semi-hippie shampoo I was using earlier.]

Despite the depth of the information flying around, the process of removing shampoo from your beauty diet is very easy. Stage one involves replacing standard shampoo with a baking soda and vinegar treatment. The hair is washed with a baking soda and water solution - you need to really massage it into your scalp before smoothing it to the ends of your hair, and rinsing it thoroughly. The weak vinegar solution is used to rinse and condition your hair. I recommend rinsing your hair really thoroughly after this part of the process, because smelling like salt and vinegar crisps is not awesome.

Apart from the risk of smelling like a delicious snack, I found this part completely painful. I'd go so far as to say that I didn't notice any difference to speak of between the condition of my hair when washed with baking soda and vinegar, and the condition of it when washed with my standard natural-ish shampoo. Except that it was maybe softer?

Stage two was rather more tedious in that it requires giving up any kind of soap entirely, and washing the hair with nothing but warm water. This isn't so much washing as massaging one's progressively more greasy mop of hair under water daily. My head reached peak greasiness at day four and then pretty much maintained this level of dirtiness for four weeks. I took to brushing cornflour and baking soda through my dry hair in order to make it look less gross, but I swear I must of looked like a footman with all that powder in my hair.

I enlisted Shannon to smell my hair daily and advise me on how it smelt (can't stand the smell of dirty haired people) and he reported that it smelt good, like a person. In fact, he said, it smelt like Ginger. It's strange that the idea of your hair smelling like yourself has become such a foreign idea. Smelling like yourself is almost like an exposure - no layers of synthetic scent between you and the outside world.

In terms of appearance - well, I know it didn't look bad because my passport photo looks absolutely fine. I think that not-washing-one's-hair-with-anything-but-water is a conceptually dreadful thing rather than something that is truly disgusting. And damn it, if I'm challenging the commercial mores of shampoo, then I must be determined to go against the normalised image of the Pantene commercial! Yah! I spit at you Rachel Hunter.

Stage three is a blessed return to sanity, baking soda and AVC. This is your future routine: using the combination weekly or maybe more frequently if you're a greasier person (I'm a greasier person).

Two weeks into this last routine and I feel WONDERFUL. My hair is awesomely soft and manageable, with less flyaway bits. At present, I'm trying to stretch out washing my hair to every fourth or fifth day and leave it at that.

CONCLUSION: Stop using shampoo.

For serious, between the MoonCup, the No Shampoo and my crystal deodorant, I am some kind of hippie these days.

Investigative Money: studying, and the fine art of living on next to nothing

My money situation has done nothing but improve since I've started studying. I think I've ranted before about how liberating the lack of money feels - my acute awareness of the lack of money means that I'm not overspending week by week, rather, counting (and accounting for) every cent. I've been very accurate with my budget, something I have been not that great at doing in the two or three months leading up to beginning study. And it feels absolutely fabulous. I really want to take this feeling of control with me into the post-study, post-debt stage of my life, and it's something I'm going to work really hard to maintain.

I could never have imagined myself saying this 18 months ago. Bizarre.

Truth be told, I've had a couple of great things that have happened that have further freed up my money situation, including the tax people being very understanding with my tax repayments (did I mention my $5000 of overdue taxes? No?). Basically, I had paid off about half of this debt and - be still my beating heart - have been "excused" from the remainder, due to hardship. That is: I rang the IRD to advise them that I would have to pay off the debt at a much lower rate per week, and they just wiped it entirely. When they rang me to tell me this, the phone had woken me up from an afternoon nap and I was absolutely convinced that I had dreamt it. I had to wait until a letter arrived before I could let myself believe. It felt like an enormous weight melting off my shoulders, dissolving into the ether, slip-sliding away ... Moral of this story: TALK to the IRD petals. TALK to the tax people. Do not run away from the Tax.

Would you like to see the Debt Unicorn?

Cunning things to notice: I am just over $1000 dollars still in debt. I'm paying off about $100 a month at the moment (down from $600) and just whittling away at it for the time being. I plan to pay off the rest in a couple of big chunks when I'm working again and then dance in my underwear for about three weeks non-stop.

Ok, so enough of the skiping already. Want to hear my top things for saving money at the moment?

• Taking a leaf out of Ange's book, I am giving myself "espresso days" and not drinking espresso coffee on any other days (unless, of course, I am given one as a treat from my Boy). So, at the moment, I'm only drinking espresso coffees on Monday, Friday and one day in the weekend. Sometimes on Monday I think "oh, I'll treat myself tomorrow instead", but my self imposed rule means that even if I shuffle my treats around I'm still limiting my treats, and given that the coffees are now like, $4 each, the limitation sure is something.
• On the rest of the days, I take my wee flask of coffee to school and drink it in the student common room. It's officially the geekiest mature student thing that I do.
• Having breakfast means that I'm not hungry during my morning break - I come home and eat something substantial for lunch, leftovers or poached eggs on toast. Lately we've had a lot of soup around. So, no buying food out, unless I'm going for dinner or some other kind of meal - and then it's a social event, which is another matter entirely.
• If I'm not drinking any coffee and coming home for lunch, and then working from home in the afternoon, I've found myself having "spend nothing" days almost inevitably.
• I'm back on the cash band wagon. I take out $100 dollars on pay day, knowing that it should be enough to last the week. And, so far it's been pretty good - I've even been able to put a little money in my savings account because there has been money in my spending account that I haven't even touched.
• I've been saving for things I want! I've thought out any big purchases I'm planning to make over the next six months or so and I know about when and about how much I'm going to have to stump up. Organisation with money is a strange and wonderful thing.
• I'm not allowing myself to owe people money. If I can't pay for it, I don't do it.
• I've purged yet more of my clothes, and have taken stock of my clothing situation. The only clothing I can imagine myself needing or wanting over the next year would be a pair of black pants (I imagine cigarette-style pants). I've taken in a bunch of my clothing to the Recycle Boutique so I should have a little money there to help me get a new pair.
• And finally - tiny luxuries make me happy. I'm trying to treat myself to something little and luxurious week by week, knowing that (like the coffee) it's a little treat to reward me for all my good work. At the moment I'm looking at my lovely little miniature roses and reflecting on how pretty, lovely, and cost efficient they are. 

I'm loving on my tiny, concise world at present. Of course, I'm pretty much a hermit. But, I love that as well so HEY HO.

Investigative Blogging: How the Money is Going; including my Current Lack of Enthusiasm

via We Heart It

ight oh. So.

The money thing (i.e: getting on top of my finances, paying back my debts and living within my means) has been pottering along reasonably well. In saying that, I have been finding that my enthusiasm for the whole endeavor has been on the wane since just before Christmas. I guess that's the Christmas condition - it's hard to live within your means without masses of organisation and I just never really got around to getting organised, if you know what I mean. And that combined with the debt repayments meant that I spent a lot of the month juggling money and spending in very strange ways. In addition, January has been a struggle as the urge to spend has been really, really affecting me. Specifically I keep thinking: Buy it All now! There will be no money next month! Gah! Buy! Spend! Lipstick! Really ugly stockings!

I guess that the Answer is to take stock of the situation and try and reinforce some of the really good things I was doing earlier, things that had inspired me and enabled me to feel good about my self control (as oppose to bored and mildly depressed). I read over my little inspiration post that I wrote way back in September and I think the things I need to do are:

♥ Start spending only cash again so I can take stock of the money I'm actually spending. I was doing this for a long time, but at some point I slipped back into using my Eftpos (debit) card to pay for everything.

♥ Take up daily tracking of my spending money. I always intended to do this, but I never quite got around to actually doing it. This is exactly the kind of thing I need to be doing in order to take control of my spending again. I've printed out a little calendar already and it's all neatly filed away in my Filofax.

♥ Complete my Money and Other People series by interviewing my little brother. Talking to people about spending and money is the best way to keep me on track.

♥ Update the Unicorn regularly! Here he is in all his glory:

♥ Rub my little Buddha's belly. It makes me think about self-control and NOT SPENDING every morning, and that's a good thing.

♥ Keep a better track of exactly how much money I have at all times. There is nothing good about not knowing what's in the bank account.

♥ Drink espresso coffee once every two or three days (instead of everyday and sometimes even twice a day *looks around guiltily*).

Furthermore:

♥ I pledge (places hand on heart) to not buy any clothes until the end of my Six Items or Less Challenge. I shall not even cruise the op shops. I shall cross the road to avoid yarn shops. I will steadfastly avoid fabric shops.

Yes indeed, I shall be Little Miss "knows-where-her-pennies-are-at". Watch this space!

Investigative Blogging: clawing my way back on the wagon

onfession: I've really struggled to keep on top of things these last few weeks, pretty much ever since I came back from the Mini-Break. Essentially, the issue comes down to the fact that I let my guard down while I was on holiday. I had always intended to spend some of the money that I put aside in my savings account but all that extra spending power made me lax! I spent money on food and coffee like it was going out of fashion! I was crazy caffeine driven Disaster Tourist woman!

I wrote before that I found it strangely hard to spend money on other things - clothes and such like. This is true, but apparently I found it very easy to eat until I was a woman with a sexy swollen buddha belly.

And unfortunately, I seem to have bought my food obsession home with me. I have drunk SO much extra espresso, which is especially crazy given that there is always delicious coffee at work and at home. I have spent nearly everyday drooling at the fresh bread section of Moore Wilsons, the section I normally avoid like the plague because I can spend so much on pastry and boutiquey rolls. Also (and most fatally) I have been overcommitting myself. OH. NOES.

But. I know the best thing I can possibly do is to reinspire myself, and get back INTO it, beginning with but not isolated to, writing a list of things that I find helpful to keep me going.

♥ Rediscovering Heaps, which describes itself as "a personal financial management service". I started using it when it first went live throught the Kiwibank internet banking website, but got pretty frustrated. I'm stoked that I've given it another go though! The site has really improved - not intuitive unfortunately, but once I'd figured out what was going on I was really pleased with it. Mostly I like the visualisations of my goals. Thus, the Debt Unicorn looks like this, when expressed as a line graph:

 

Not quite as exciting to look at as the Unicorn, but I didn't have to plot the damn thing, and that makes me happy.

♥ Reading other blogs: not just financial or money blogs, but also blogs that talk about simpler lifestyles and self empowerment (normally I would say urgh). I've made a note of some good series or individual items, but to be honest I think the most useful thing is just to keep the commentary rolling in. There's nothing like a pep talk!

• Gala Darling talks about money in her series Mo' Money Mo' Problems (part three I think was the best one).
• Holly at Shopaholly did an excellent series about fixing your finances - I have part four bookmarked in my reader, I think because I liked the idea of daily tracking.
• She also did a nice interview with Alexandra Franzen at Unicorns for Socialism.
• I generally love this article from the Happiness Project - I think the main part that's applicable to the money situation is where she discusses "Letting yourself off the hook" - if I've had a bit of a Fail week with money, the best thing I think I can do is to get right back on the bandwagon again.
• This piece by Sarah Wilson discusses shopping and how good it feels NOT to shop. 
• Miss Minimalist writes 100 Ways to Simplify Your Life. I strongly associate my money situation with simplifying my life, and I feel more inclined to keep saving and on top of my money when I'm actively simplifying.*
• I really liked this New York Times article about spending less to find happiness.
• Another newspaper article: Top 10 Money Myths on Stuff.
• Greer McDonald is writing a blog about getting on top of her finances as well. Mostly good commentary!

♥ Finally, and most importantly: talking to others. The Boy is especially fab in this regard as he's happy to listen to me prattle about money, and he tells me that he's proud of me *squee*. I also find that telling my mum how much I've paid of my credit card is an instant enthusiasm booster. The interviews that I've been doing have been really helpful - I was flagging a bit before I talked to Nat a few weeks ago, but the conversation we had made me feel ten times more enthusiastic about keeping on top of things.

In the same vein, I'd like to finish with a quote from the Ever Fab Katherine:

But you know, I think sometimes one has to fall off the wagon in order to appreciate how good it feels to be on the wagon, riding high with the wind in your hair. *gallops*

*in saying that, I don't think I could ever live an entirely Minimalist lifestyle. The Stuff that I like, I really like.

Investigative Blogging: money and Other People

I know lots of interesting people (so lucky), and most of these people have and spend money in a completely different way to me. In an effort to keep me and other peeps enthused, I've started interviewing people about their attitudes towards money and how it is that they are able to keep doing the awesome things that they do!

This is an interview with my lovely Natalie, who I've known since we were both tiny school girls with too-big bags. Nat returned to University to study two years ago, after living an exotic big city life in London town for about seven years. I interviewed her at Hashigozake over fine and tasty beer. (Much later, I tried to transcribe the whole thing, which turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. So, any weirdness in this is totally due to my transcription inexperience and not to do with Nat. Nat is awesome.)

 

I’ve had savings accounts on and off since I was a kid, but until relatively recently I’ve been pretty crap at keeping on top of it. How about you - do you have a savings account? When did you first start saving?
I do have a savings account, I didn't have one as a child but when I left home I started one up. I generally save towards things, rather than generally saving. When I first got one I was saving to go to the UK and when I was in the UK I was saving to go travelling, and when I came back to New Zealand I was saving for the purpose of going to University. That's how I use it at the moment [paying for Uni]; I have a direct debit set up between my current account and savings account that goes through every month. That's the thing with savings accounts, I always find it easier if I'm saving towards something.

At the moment I have a budget because I'm a student and I don't have a lot of money. I direct debit $300 each month, and then anything I have left over at the end of the month I put in the savings account as well. I think it's a really good idea to have a direct debit with a minimum amount that you can save and then the months that you have money left over put that into the account as well.

I've only ever been a Saver For Things, I haven't had the luxury of just putting money away for a rainy day or for my "investment plans".

Do you have a credit card at the moment?
At the moment, no.

But you've had a credit card in the past?
I sure have.

How did you use it (i.e. as oppose to a debit card, hardly at all and pay back immediately, or, like me, max it out and spend three years paying it back?)
I never used it like a credit card, I pretty much just put stuff on it when I have to, like if I buy something off the internet. Even in the UK it was the same, when I had the most sustained living I've ever had, I paid the card off every month. I used it like a Diners Card.

The thing with credit cards is that I never felt like it was my money, and I think the trap is that people think it is their money. I've always been really careful, the bank must hate me because I pay it off every month.

You’re in your second year of university study, after working full time since you’d left high school. How are you finding the change in circumstances - any suggestions for other people returning to study?

Find a boyfriend who can support you (laughs). I'm really lucky in that I do have a boyfriend that supports me. I give him money every month for stuff, but it really doesn't cover where we live and all the expenses that we have, so it must be heaps harder for him. I've gone from having quite a good wage to having a really minimal one. So although I live in the same place, my day to day living has changed quite dramatically. I get out a set amount per week from my account, say $50, and that pays for anything I want during the week; things like drinks and coffees and yoga. You just have to stick to that, and if you have no money left on Friday, well that's it. I don't like Mark [Nat's boyf] paying for stuff I need.

How would you characterise your attitude towards money - would you describe yourself as a saver or a spender? And on the day to day - are you a hard core budgeter, or do you just take the money as it comes?
I kind of meet in the middle somewhere there. I'm not a hard core spender, although I have been in the past, andI try and always live within my means. Sometimes you end up spending a bit more than your weekly allowed budget, sometimes you end up taking money out of your savings account, but I think it's important not to rely on things like credit cards and loans, you don't want to get into that kind of trap. I'm kind of in the middle - I'm a spender sometimes and a saver at others, but when I'm really determined and have a goal I can put other stuff aside. I'm very sensible with my money. I don't make rash decisions, I really have to think about big purchases. But at the same time, I don't want to deny myself things.

I like my little things, there are some things I would still spend money on, but then there are some things that you have leave behind. You think it's going to be the end of the world, but it's not, you get used to it and you start realising "what the hell did I spend all my money on?"

Finally, do you have anything that you want to add in terms of HOTT money tips?
Don't get a credit card! Use a Visa Debit.

Nat my love, thanks for taking the time to drink beer and chat with me about money. Good luck with everything at Uni (not that you need it, swotty clever person xx).

Investigative Blogging: money and Other People

I know lots of interesting people (so lucky), and most of these people have and spend money in a completely different way to me. In an effort to keep me and other peeps enthused, I've started interviewing people about their attitudes towards money and how it is that they are able to keep doing the awesome things that they do!

This is my second interview, this time with Lake of Urban Tramper. Urban Tramper have just finished their most recent tour around Europe which sounds like the most fun ever (Eli has documented lots of it on their blog).

Image from the Urban Tramper blog - Lake is in the middle.
(L-R) Ben, Lake and Eli

I’ve had savings accounts on and off since I was a kid, but until relatively recently I’ve been pretty crap at keeping on top of it. How about you - do you have a savings account? When did you first start saving?

I have two accounts. One is for band stuff and the other is for general spending. I've never really had a separate account for saving. I've often thought it would be a good idea and have also considered a term deposit kind of thing.

I do save my coins though - ever since I can remember. It began with Easter eggs. My brothers and I would get one big chocolate egg every Easter. It was a huge treat and we would want it to last as long as possible. Sometimes my younger brother would still have some left - days after mine was long gone. Oh the pain of knowing I could still have some left if I hadn't scoffed mine.

I don't really care for chocolate these days (it gives me sore teeth), but Easter taught me that there is joy to be had by saving something for the future, even if it means depriving  oneself in the present.

What about a credit card? If yes, how do you use it (i.e. as oppose to a debit card, hardly at all and pay back immediately, or, like me, max it out and spend three years paying it back?)

I got my first credit card in 2008 prior to going to England to live for a year. Receiving the card was actually quite exciting, then I just worried about losing it. I used it reasonably frequently to buy stuff online. Mainly bus/train/plane tickets. I've never really been in debt* and don't like the idea. I always pay the card back the same day. I don't know if it's well founded, but I always thought I'd be charged large sums of money very quickly for missing payments.

I actually think credit cards fuel excess production by encouraging over consumption. One then has to work long hours at a shitty job to pay back this debt. Working 40 hours/wk at a boring job, or even a sweet as job, leaves little time for reflection, creativity, community participation, relaxation, family etc...  Thus, the discontent that follows is often buried under a pile of new purchases that are bought on a salary which is also paying off old purchases... Hence, a cycle of debt and discontent ensues. I think debit cards are better idea.

Having said that, I often imagine what I could do if I went mad and maxed out my credit card.

At the moment, you’re traveling throughout Europe and wowing people with your music. If it’s not too personal, how are you managing this?

Yes we've just finished a 7 week tour and now I'm de-toxing in the Pyrenees making hay as a wwoofer.** I worked part time for about 9 months to save the coin to be able to afford the mission. We don't get paid enough to cover costs (flights, rental car, petrol, tolls, food, etc) but we managed to do the tour quite cheaply. We only paid for accommodation once over the past 7 weeks (two nights at a camp ground) and I think this is normally a great cost in traveling. We utilised the kindness of friends and www.couchsurfing.org to great effect. People are often happy to have visitors for a couple of nights. We ate a lot of bread, cheese and tomatoes and only ate out once or twice the whole trip (apart from numerous felafel kebabs in Germany and 2.10 euro pizza in Berlin).

You have a pretty cool attitude to the distribution of your music online. Can you describe your philosophy on this?

I'm still in the process of working out the best way to earn a little money from music. Distributing music online is the best way to get more music to more people quickly and cheaply. We would hope that our music can help people in certain situations, or bring them joy in some way. I also think it's important that music, which is an integral part of our culture, is available to everyone. Because of this I'm trying to make all our music available on our website for no set fee. I'm trying to steer people away from our Myspace page and towards our website as we have more control over the advertisements on this page. Myspace, and other intermediate sites, have done a great job of making money off musicians without paying them. I do admit that they can be a great tool, I just think it's a shame that these 'music' sites (iTunes, Myspace, lastfm) are made by entrepreneurs who exploit musicians that “just care about the music”. At the moment on our website we offer free mp3 downloads and give people the opportunity to donate to our cause, a 'pay what you want scheme' if you will. Most people who obtain CDs (including myself) burn them straight to their mp3 collections and forget about them, hence the CDs become disposable and wasteful.

Some people still want something to hold. Therefore I think good quality downloads combined with some sort of artwork/clothing is great option (I think www.alowhum.com was doing this at some stage) and I will try and make less CDs and more art for my next release.

I wrote an extended rant on these themes for a sociology paper I was taking. Here it is: http://urbantramper.blogspot.com/2009/06/goal-is-not-only-better-living.html 

How would you characterise your attitude towards money - would you describe yourself as a saver or a spender? And on the day to day - are you a hard core budgeter, or do you just take the money as it comes?

I basically try and minimise the time I spend working a dull job for someone else. This means I earn less money and, hence, have to be more careful with it. I have an aversion towards spending and 'shopping' in general. I cannot buy new clothes/new shoes at all. I just wait until my stuff is completely worn out and then hope I can inherit something from a friend/relative, or find something at an opshop. Thus, I don't really budget. My first question at any establishment is “what is the cheapest …... you have?”. This approach has changed somewhat as I try and make more ethical purchases. I'm trying to bring myself to part with more money so I can purchase things that last longer, and are ethically produced.  In short, I'm a saver by necessity. I'm scared of debt and hate to work too much, therefore I spend less. Now and then I blow out and spend $100 in a weekend, usually on booze and hangover food, but the shame is enough to prevent those episodes occurring regularly.

Instead of keeping to a budget, and thus feeling restricted and sometimes missing out, I try and exploit life's less expensive pleasures. It pains me to see waste and the vast amounts of useless stuff that is produced, and later becomes waste. I'm all about re-using and borrowing/lending. If my friend has one, do I really need one too? If have a perfectly OK microphone, do I really need another/better one? Making lots of stuff affects the environment and this stuff has got go somewhere when it stops being useful. It's also good to remember that the way we spend/save our money is a political act - whether we like or not. It sucks to think that me buying a certain good/service contributes to the fortunes of the already super-rich. I consider all these issues when I buy goods and services, hence, it's easier to cut down my options and buy second hand/ethically produced, or not at all.

Finally, do you have anything that you want to add in terms of HOTT money tips, maybe in terms of travel?

These sites were key to the success of our mission:
http://www.wwoof.org
http://www.couchsurfing.org/
ride sharing in France: http://www.covoiturage.fr/, Germany: http://mitfahrergelegenheit.de/
and the UK: http://www.mylifts.com/

I also recommend the following to save one's coin:
kebabs
vegetarianism
dumpster diving
hitchhiking (it's possible throughout Europe)


*apart from a student loan. I think mass disobedience is necessary when it comes to these. We all have them, let's all not pay them back.
**working for a few hours a day on organic farms in exhange for food and accomodation.

Thanks Lake! I hope the rest of your travels go super well, and I can't wait to hear more about them. See you next year! x

Investigative Blogging: more about making my own beauty bits

The other week I blogged about saving money and beauty stuff (and incidentally got some awesome tips. Thanks!). I briefly mentioned that I'd started making my own body scrubs, and that I was interested in making a coffee based scrub. I tried it on Thursday.

Dudes. I am so in love with this scrub.

On pay day I went to the health food store, bought some sweet almond massage oil and some geranium essential oil, rushed home to mix up the scrub and proceeded to lovingly smother myself in coffee grinds. I've been using it for about four days now, and my skin feels soft and smooth (oh my!). The caffeine in the scrub is supposed to encourage circulation and decrease the appearance of cellulite too. Not so sure about that, but I do feel peppy in the morning.

Since the complete and unprecedented success of my adventures in body scrubbing, I have developed something of a passion for making my own beauty bits. Firstly, this is because it is CHEAP. However, it's also  pretty awesome fun, and I love hearing Shannon sound like a grumpy old man while he complains about food in the shower (evil laugh).

This weekend, after much research, I infected Jo with my enthusiasm and convinced her to indulge in some Serious Sunday Night Fresh Food Facial Pampering. We drank some port and mixed up a bunch of different scrubs to see what was the most effective. Our conclusions were:

♥ Baking soda zit paste: Jo tried this. She wasn't sold, but agreed that it seemed to make the zit fractionally less red and sore.

♥ Sunflower seed exfoliant: The oil in the sunflower seeds came out with the water and made a lovely gentle, soft scrub. Very pro this exfoliant.

♥ Baking soda and oatmeal exfoliant: Ouch. Way too harsh, unless you are fourteen and desperate to strip your skin of any oils. I am now fearing a horrible horrible breakout of rosacea unhappiness. Never again. The term "burning" springs to mind. Maybe I used too much baking soda.

♥ Egg white face mask: It was universally agreed that egg white was the winner on the day. MMMM silky smooth facial parts!

Recipes for beauty bits mentioned in this post (because I care)

(These first two recipes come from a Sunday Star Times magazine article)

♥ Coffee Body Scrub: 1 cup coffee grinds (out of the pot is fine), 1/4  cup sugar, 1 Tbsp Sweet Almond oil. I've also been adding a couple of drops of Geranium for smelling yummy and for extra revitalising. WOO!

♥ Oat and Sugar Body Scrub: 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup honey and oil. (I used cooking oil the first time I made this. I strongly recommend you don't follow my lead because EW.)

(From my baking soda book: The Wonders of Baking Soda. I have no idea where this book came from originally, but my dad gave it to my mum and my mum gave it to me. The copy I have has no author or date of publication)

♥ Baking soda and oatmeal exfoliant: whiz a handful of uncooked oats, some water and a handful of baking soda in a blender. Probably best to keep in an airtight container if you want to use it for a while.

♥ Baking soda zit paste: mix up a paste of baking soda and water, roll into a ball and press balls on to spots and let them sit there as long as possible. This looks kind of freakish.

(From an awesome website that I'm in the process of properly investigating)

♥ Sunflower seed exfoliant: grind up 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds and mix into a paste with water. I've put a whole bunch of ground sunflower seeds in a jar and I'm just going to add water as I go. Also, I'm keen to try a couple of drops of chamomile or lavendar oil in the mix, as I hear that they are good for rosacea. Perhaps I could mix with cold chamomile tea?

♥ Egg white facial mask: whip egg white until it's foamy and paint on your face with a brush or your fingers (I used a clean foundation brush). Let it sit until it feels tight and wash it off with cool water.

At the end of this whole process I followed up with my Trilogy Rose Hip Oil, which I'm hoping like hell will calm down the baking soda harassed part of my face. PLEASE.

Investigative Blogging: money and Other People

I know lots of interesting people (so lucky), and most of these people have and spend money in a completely different way to me. In an effort to keep me and other peeps enthused, I've started interviewing people about their attitudes towards money and how it is that they are able to keep doing the awesome things that they do!

Lizzie (L) and Me, extreme-close-up-and-three-years-ago Edition. 

This is an interview with the Lovely Lizzie, who I've known since high school (oh those days!). Amongst the other fascinating things that makes up her loveliness, Liz runs a second hand stall at Camden Passage in Angel, London, on Saturdays, and is planning to open a shop soon. If you're in London you should visit and benefit from her Amazing Eye for such things.

Liz has always impressed me with her ability to be apparently so relaxed with money - she's inspirational in that she Lives Within her Means. Also she's very funny.


Ginger: I’ve had savings accounts on and off since I was a kid, but until relatively recently I’ve been pretty crap at keeping on top of it. How about you - do you have a savings account? When did you first start saving?

Lizzie: Am also very very very bad at saving. The only times I’ve ever been able to do it is when I’m saving for something v specific, over a short and determined period of time. That said, extreme poverty upon arrival in London did force me into a quite nifty savings/current account arrangement. When I get paid I put all of my money immediately into a savings account. I then transfer a weekly budget each Monday. This seems to be the only way that I can resist spending my entire pay cheque in the first fortnight of a monthly (!) pay cycle. Although it has the downside of making me feel a bit like a ten year old with pocket money. Now that I’ve written that, maybe the pocket money thing is more of an upside.

What about a credit card? If yes, how do you use it (i.e. as oppose to a debit card, hardly at all and pay back immediately, or, like me, max it out and spend three years paying it back?)

No credit card at the moment – my bank won’t let me! But I generally have a large fear of credit. I used to have one with the BNZ. Started out at a $3000 limit which they arbitrarily extended to $10 000. This caused me to lie awake at night wondering if my card had been swiped from my purse without me noticing. I am pretty good with credit cards though – tended to only use it to buy things online and had such a deep dread of interest that I would pay it off within the month.

You run what I have no doubt at all is a pretty awesome second hand stall. How did you come up with the capital you needed to get it going? How are you finding managing the money and accounting side of your business? 

This question made me laugh with great joy. My stall is amazing, but its money and accounting sides are somewhat akin to a giant mock tudor mansion standing on stilt legs in the middle of a lake. Basically, when we started the stall we each put in around £100 to buy stock with. Since then, it’s been entirely self-funding but pays us pretty much nothing (aside from wine and salami sandwiches). We keep all of our money in a fetching black leatherette bumbag and don’t keep track of either out or ingoings. We know that we have had one too many free pub lunches when the bumbag runs dry, what follows is usually a couple of slightly desperate weeks when we actively sell things to people rather than just sitting a couple of metres away gossiping and drinking tea.

Despite this somewhat precarious financial situation, we are hoping to open a shop. This may sound rash. [In fact, writing it makes my heart race in an uncomfortable manner that has little to do with the four cups of coffee I’ve had this morning.] But our plans are essentially dependant on finding a shop with very cheap rent; being prepared to sell everything we own even the most cherished of secondhand possessions; both continuing to work essentially full-time at other places and each being alone in the shop for a couple of days a week [happy offshoot to this lone selling: a shop dog for company]; plus we have grand and exciting plans to use said shop’s windows as an exhibition space for funny designers. And, we would borrow around £3000 to get us started.

Exciting but exhausting. Will let you know how it goes.

How would you characterise your attitude towards money - would you describe yourself as a saver or a spender? And on the day to day - are you a hard core budgeter, or do you just take the money as it comes?

Definitely a spender. That said, relocation to England and student-based poverty has made me realise am not as much of a frivolous spender as I had previously imagined. I still buy lots of things that I don’t need, but most of my non-essential money is spent on having a fun life – going out for meals, drinks, buying coffees. [Also, I have an almost obsessive need to always have a bottle of wine and flowers in my house. This seems ridiculous, but no budgeting can ever make me stop.] What I haven’t done at all since moving here and being struck down with financial lack, is buy things. I haven’t bought any new clothes for about two years, and I never buy books or things for my house [only exception to this recently is an AMAZING 1930s children’s tea-set. It was irresistible to me].

Basically, I am excellent at spending all of the money that I have, but not living outside my means. This is generally a pretty good way to be, I think, apart from the brief moments of panic when I think about wanting to buy a house and the deep deep distance that my frittering of any penny puts me away from that point.

Finally, do you have anything that you want to add in terms of HOTT money tips?

Nope, not really. Except maybe that there is a whole world of wonder that can reached with a bag of potatoes in times of acute financial crisis?

Thanks Lizzie my love, I shall see you soon I hope. Good luck with everything!

Investigative Blogging: make up and other beauty crap

I have so much stuff. I periodically purge, but almost like magic I am promptly inundated with crap in record time (in this, I'm not unlike the garage of our flat. COINCIDENCE?) When I started thinking about my budget, I considered putting aside dollars for beauty bits (moisturiser, mascara et al) but I couldn't honestly think what on earth I would need to buy. To clarify: I'm not terribly high maintenance. I don't wear a hell of a lot of makeup, I've cut and dyed my own hair for the last two or three year, and I've spent years whittling any kind of beauty routine down to the bare essentials.

Apart from living my minimalist beauty routine I have also been:

Emptying the baskets. At the moment I am trying to work my way through two baskets of half-used up products, left over from the days when I fell in love with the concept of new products once a week or so. A lot of the using up is to do with repurposing the stuff that I have - I've been using some overly harsh facial exfoliants as body scrubs, and some cream cleansers as eye make up removers. Not perfect, but I swear I am not buying eye make up remover until I've got rid of it all.

Making my own body scrubs. Did you know you can make very effective body scrubs from household ingredients? Cheap! My favourite is made of brown sugar, oatmeal and sweet almond oil or honey. It's gentle and effective. Another one I want to try uses coffee grinds and almond oil. I have a big jar and I scoop out handfuls of the stuff as I go. I think the Boy is less than impressed with finding porridge on the floor of the shower though. 

Make up goes on the List of Want where I interrogate it. Thoroughly. Do I really need more primer? 

Reusable make up pads/wipes. I've blogged about these before, but now I truly see their beauty. I haven't bought cotton wool or make up pads for weeks, nay, months. J'ADORE.

Not a Product Princess. I like posh products, but not enough to bankrupt myself. Also, I've honed down the routine to include things that are long lasting and can be bought in bulk.

MMMMMMenstrual Cup. I love my menstrual cup. And I love it's one off investment-ness. I can't recommend this highly enough in general, and now I proudly put it on my list of money making ventures. Booyakasha.

Investigative Blogging: money and the fine art of Not Frittering It Away on Food*

Dudes, I love food and I also love eating. Also, I like drinking coffee. Since I started working in the city again, buying lunch has been ridiculously expensive. So much choice! Insanely tasty filled baguettes! So much delicious coffee!

When I started dealing properly with my finances, I knew that one thing that was going to have to change was my expenditure on food and alcohol and coffee. I was going to have to take it in hand and learn the Way of the Budget. There are a couple of things that I've done that have definitely helped me out.

1. LeleleleleLEFTOVERS! Are usually delicious. Not always easy to remember to pack one's lunch however. Also, I share a flat and we share food, so I can't always rely on leftovers for lunch the next day. My second plan then is ...

2. Food at work. I usually keep the makings of toasted sandwiches, miso soup and fruit at work. Sometimes I go crazy and get something like a box of muesli bars or a packet of sante bars. The supermarket that is closest to my work specialises in gourmet bits so the toasted sandwiches are often filled with things like garlicky fromage stuff and extremely posh Italian salami, but nonetheless it works out considerably cheaper. And it keeps me away from the shops on Cuba Street which is always a good thing.

3. Prepaid Coffee Card. I am completely addicted to coffee, and espresso is one of my little life treats. When I started budgeting I worked out how much I spent weekly on espresso and while it's horrifying, I knew that I would be more likely to spend more if I didn't allow for it on my weekly expenditure. The cafe that is nicest and closest to my work is Milk Crate, who offer a discount for re-usable cups (I have one) and has a pre-paid coffee card that allows you to get eight coffees for the price of ten.**  This means that I spend $34 dollars for a fortnight's worth of soy flat white from Milk Crate. Technically this saves me about eight dollars from the cost price, but in actual fact it controls my expenditure more - I don't go around buying coffees willy nilly because I know that the allowance has already been allocated.

4. Take your food wherever you go. Over time, I've developed a wee "Everyday Food Kit" for carrying snacks and water around with me. It consists of a banana holder, a bottle of water (largish one) and a snack tube, which is made of three reasonably sized compartments that screw into one another in a stack. The plan is that where ever I go I take food with me, and am then less inclined to buy myself "a little snack" or "a little treat". Having the water is pretty awesome because I don't find myself buying revolting sickly sweet drinks that I don't really want, I am pretty consistently hydrated (get my eight glasses etc) and I'm not drinking out of one of those creepy plastic bottles that leach chemicals into whatever you're drinking. Banana holders sound ridiculous, HOWEVER; as we all know, there is no better snack in this world than a banana, but there is nothing worse to eat than a battered banana. Gross. Banana holder saves me from fear of battered banana consumption.

Not pictured here but definitely worth a mention is my Keep Cup, the praises of which cannot be sung high enough. Not only does it save me money (see above) and help save the planet (imagine how many coffee cups I haven't used since I've had it?) it also controls my coffee spending: when I don't have my cup with me and I don't have time to sit down and have my coffee, I am far less inclined to buy myself one. It removes the issue entirely. And it gives me space to decide whether or not I need to spend that extra four dollars.

5. Not going out for dinner as often as I used to. It's just self control and sometimes, it sucks. On the other hand, going out for dinner is more of a treat these days, and as a result I tend to enjoy it more. I've also stopped eating so much takeout food (ordering pizza), which is better for my health too - I tend to think carefully about what take out food I want if I'm going to get any at all. Also, I've discovered that I get a kind of masochistic pleasure from walking past all the cafes and take out places on the way home, toying with the idea of buying something, drinking in the smells and imagining the delicious spicy flavours, but ultimately cooking something with the ingredients in the house. Dude, it's SICK.

6. Eating at home - a budget and sharing expenses. I'm in the extremely lucky position of living in a flat where we share expenses and food at a set rate, shop pretty thoroughly and don't skimp on ingredients. I don't know if it would be as easy to live like this if I didn't have that luxury - but if you can instigate something like that, I strongly recommend it. In saying that, we visit the vege markets every Sunday and do the majority of the flat food shop there, which works out really cheap. We don't eat a hell of a lot of meat, and a big supermarket shop normally happens only once every fortnight or so. We don't buy pre-prepared foods or sauces or convenience foods, and I am lucky in that all of my flatmates like cooking and challenging themselves. All in all, we eat a really healthy, varied diet and don't spend crap loads of money to do so. Awesome.

While I'm on about money (because it happens so infrequently, lulz) here is my debt unicorn...

And, I'm keen as a bean to hear if you have any more suggestions!

*Pun Intended
**I think that it's also possible to pre-pay coffee at Mojo.

Investigative Blogging Time: The Cup

[Lady Blood Disclaimer! Also, I get a little more explicit in this one]

As far as I can tell, menstrual cups are all much the same. They're marketed under different names: Diva Cup, Moon Cup, Femme Cup et al. I used the one named "Femme Cup". It was about $40 dollars and I ordered it online from a New Zealand based shopping site called (gag) Babycuddles after much research. Despite their heinous name and use of Comic Sans they were really good to deal with: delivery and communication were prompt.

CONSTRUCTION/STRUCTURE
Essentially, the Femme Cup is a small - uh - cup, with a stem. It's made of medical grade silicon. My one is a clear silicon, but by the look of it you can buy some of the brands in different colours (if I could get a pink glitter menstrual cup I'd be in there like a flash). There is a lip that is designed to create a seal, and my Femme Cup has millilitres marked on the side. Not sure how I feel about this, or what use it would be - I guess if the doctor asked what my flow is like I'd be able to answer authoritatively?

Most brands seem to have two size options - one for younger women and one for older women and women who have had children. The Femme Cup is apparently made of a softer silicon and thus is a "one size only" version.


Menstrual cups are supposed to last for quite along time too - I've seen 10 years quoted before. That has to be a good thing for my budgeting attempts! And it definitely rationalises the cost.

EASE OF APPLICATION
Basically, you fold the cup in half and then half again, and insert. You should probably wash it with a little soap and water as well as it's easier to get it inside while wet. This is a little more awkward than it sounds - I kept finding that mine popped out of it's folded configuration before I could pop it in, so it took a couple of goes to get it fitted correctly.

Also, I had a difficult experience on my first wear which certainly constitutes a Cautionary Cup Tale. The cups have a little stem on them and the back of the packet notes that menstrual cups sit a lot lower than tampons and most women will need to shorten the stem to just about nothing. Following the instructions, I happily hacked off about half the stem with my nail scissors forgetting that unlike "most women" I have a freakishly long *ahem* passage, as witnessed by many unhappy and awkward cervical smear experiences, some of which have included the phrase "oh! your cervix is hiding from me!" and "I'll have to use a longer speculum!". Thus, I almost LOST the damn thing the first morning that I used it. It was awkward to find it and get it out and I'm just glad I didn't dislocate my shoulder during the removal process.
Subsequent experimentation has revealed that this first experience was due to operator error. But let my experience be a lesson to you all - don't trim the stem until you're sure, and don't put the thing too far up inside you, because you will never see it again.


CLEANING UP
Gently pour off into the loo, rinse and wash with soap, reinsert. So easy and stress free!

The manufacturers suggest boiling in salt water to sterilise if that's the kind of thing that you worry about. I've heard some stories about people finding their flatmate's menstrual cup boiling on the stove and being a little taken aback, so you might want to time this properly.


CONCLUSION
I LOVE MY MENSTRUAL CUP. I don't really want to try cloth pads now because the Femme Cup is the alpha and omega of my ladyblood world. I cannot recommend the menstrual cup highly enough. Go out there and get yourself one if you haven't already!

Upcoming adventures in Lady-blood: The Cloth Pad.


See also:

• Introduction
• The Crocheted Tampon
• The Knitted Tampon

Investigative Blogging: money money money money

This is where I was going to embed a youtube video clip of "Money" from Cabaret, but all the clips had embedding disabled! You can watch it here though.

Money and I have a historically fraught relationship. As a rule, this is because I don't have any, ever, and I want to spend it.The term "Money Burns a Hole in the Pocket" seems to have been coined especially for me; I spend anything that comes my way in the blink of an eye and ever since I've worked I've lived pay day to pay day. I am also notoriously debt prone - as in, I'm constantly getting myself into debt. I justify my unnecessary buys with the thought that I can easily pay up and get myself out of debt again, however I usually flake out and ignore what's going on until the bank letters have red writing on them. The moment I start spending on a credit card I become like a money obsessed harridan, thus:

It's amazing how I've just trundled along like this for so long, taking for granted the fact that I don't have any money. Lately, the debt situation has become worse and also horribly tedious. My debts are greater, have become more pressing AND super depressing. The IRD have been on my back - I owe them lots after my misadventure in self employment taxation, and I can feel my credit card bills eyeing me reproachfully before I even open them. Also, my boyfriend wants to go on holiday with me AND I CAN NEVER AFFORD TO GO ON HOLIDAY. There is nothing like watching someone you love flying away to exotic locales to make one feel like a loser-debt-infected-lady-cad.

It is time to end this rubbish. It is time to feel in control of my bank balance again. And because I am a blogger and thus, convinced that you all find my life as fascinating as I do, I want you to share my journey. COME ALONG FOR THE DEBT CANCELLING, MONEY SAVING RIDE! THERE WILL BE UNICORNS!

I know that the first step is budgeting. I had to be honest with myself, and although this was incredibly hard, I also knew from many years of experience that debts rarely disappear if you ignore them. Thus I bit the bullet, worked it all out, and I took a long hard look at that figure. This was rather painful, and I wanted to look away because my eyeballs were burning (shame, humiliation, horror). But, I know that the first step in getting rid of that debt is to OWN IT.

Having suitably horrified myself with my money situation, I had a little cry and then sat down and nutted out a budget. This was based on what I was committed to paying for (bills, rent, food and *ahem* coffee), how much I wanted to pay off my debts at each week, and how much I wanted to put aside for emergencies (unexpected doctor's bills and such like). While I was working this out, I took a long hard look at my financial commitments, and purged those that were not entirely necessary. There were a couple of subscriptions that I was paying for that were not vitally important by any stretch of the imagination and I gave them the flick - I cancelled my Audible subscription despite my amazing deep love of audiobooks, and the ongoing costs of hall rental etc became a deciding factor in my decision to leave derby. This was the first thing that I had done in a long time that made me feel truly empowered in my money situation - I had decluttered and made some mature and responsible decisions.

It's been a fortnight since I've been doing this seriously, and so far so good. I know that the absolute hardest thing for me to do will be to keep motivated and retain that feeling of financial empowerment - and I've decided that one of the best things that I can do is to keep blogging about my adventure.* I want to share what I've found helps me keep inspired with the arduous task of living within my means, and I would dearly dearly love suggestions from other people.

What have you got? Suggestions to help me out?

*Yes I am trying to make myself feel more enthusiastic.