Downsizing Versus Up Sizing

No one likes wasting money do they? Or maybe they do... I guess it depends on the person. Personally I don't like wasting money, in saying that - I'm not tight, I just don't see the point in spending money on some items that others would consider 'must haves'. 

I read a lot of blogs and most of them are U.K, Ireland, USA based - I read very few Australian blogs. I don't know if it's because they write about things that I'm already aware of, or if I prefer the international blogs because they write about issues that I'm not aware of and I actually learn something :)

One trend that I have noticed in reading non-Australian blogs is the number of people who are either downsizing, in the process of downsizing or trying to figure out how to do this. The main reason for this is for economical purposes.

One blog that I frequently read belongs to woman who has a well paying professional position. A number of years ago after changes were made to her husbands employment situation, she decided that they needed to scale back on their spending. This wasn't only because of what happened with her husband, but the cost of living was also increasing and taking it's toll.

To cut a long story short, this woman reviewed every cent they spent and where they could improve. She cut back on many 'must haves', like a coffee on the way to work (she now takes her own from home), a trashy magazine here and there (reads all the goss online), beauty treatments (she does her own hair and nails), etc. Keep in mind this is just a very short list of changes she made. The money they saved was out of this world!

Given that she lives in the UK - she was paying a lot to keep her house warm, a house that was now over sized as her children had moved out. So her and her husband decided to downsize. Funnily enough the downsizing was going to cost a bit and the bank wouldn't loan them the money, so they worked hard to pay a chunk off the house they were living in which they were now struggling to keep.

They did eventually get to a point where the bank would assist with re-financing and they moved to a smaller home. Even after the move she continues to budget the way they did prior to moving.

I've done a few Google searches on downsizing in Australia and the results are all related to retirees. This didn't surprise me one bit. Australian residential blocks of land have gotten sooo much smaller, yet the houses are so much bigger than they used to be! It's a trend in Australia to squash as many homes into a new estate area as possible. Some estates are so jam packed, that if you want to clean your gutters you have to position your ladder on your neighbours property! That's how close the houses are.

So why do we in Australia seem to be up sizing (house size, not land size) while people in countries overseas are downsizing? My answer:- I have no idea. One guess is because houses in these estates are fairly inexpensive, so people buy them up and because people keep buying them, the developers keep building them. Don't quote me, it's just my guess.

 

Do I have a problem with these estates? Yes I do. Why do I? I'll tell you why. I live in one of these estates. This will sound ridiculous, but when you first inspect one of these properties you really don't notice just how crammed in they are, because everything's open plan - so you literally walk in one room and it just flows into another giving the illusion of space. They have huge windows which allows copious amounts of natural light in (which in itself isn't a bad thing) that also adds to the illusion, then you have the 'already built and ready to go' outdoor entertaining area which usually includes a pool. Yeah I know I'm making it sound like hell aren't I? lol

The thing is that you fall straight into the trap of "Oh a double garage! Four bedrooms! Oh two entertaining areas! A walk-in pantry! Oh 2/3 bathrooms plus en-suite! Oh look how much light comes in (because of the open plan design), Ohh a pool!" etc etc. It's the extras that prevent you seeing that just 2 feet from the pool edge is the neighbours fence line. Given that you're all so squashed in, you can't flush the toilet without the neighbour knowing you've just been to the loo. You can also hear phone conversations as well as just regular conversations - these conversations are not taking place outside, they're inside the neighbours house. 

Then there's the open plan design issue - I admit they look great, but they're not practical. You cannot close part of the house off when you want to heat or cool. In an older style house you can close a couple of doors and you're done. In these newer homes, when you want to cool or heat - you're paying either your gas or electricity company to heat or cool the whole house, even though you're only in one section. What a massive waste of money! 

I would love to compare a 12 month heating/cooling bill between a newer open plan home versus an older style home. Every time I turn the air con or heater on I see $50 notes floating around in the open plan areas that I don't want heated or cooled. Anytime I hear of a friend who is looking at moving, the first thing I tell them is to stay away from open plan housing, and I tell them why..... Usually everything I tell them is stuff that they hadn't even thought about. I guess you live and learn. I wish I knew someone who knew what I do now, and could have given me some advice before we bought the style of house we did.  

You Want How Much For That?!?!

We have a wall in our lounge room which is blank, and its blank because we've never really found anything that has jumped out at us to hang there. That was until one day we were having lunch, and then after lunch we went for a wander through some of the nearby shops. Now I'm not a 'shabby chic' kind of male lol Don't get me wrong, I love old stuff! But for me, it has to be the real deal! The last few years there has been a huge trend in decorating your home with shabby chic items, and they're just not my thing.... Maybe because they're usually in pastel colours and to be honest, I find them just a bit girly..... Sorry girls lol

Anyway, I saw some photo frames that were made up of multiple photo frames, that were all connected together like a collage. I really liked them! Part of me was thinking.... "No! It's a type of shabby chic!!! Stay Away" But the other part of me was thinking... "These are amazing!!" lol The reason I was in two minds was because firstly, yes they were a style of shabby chic, but secondly, it wasn't your typical shabby pastel colours. These frames were all different colours, and the colours were bold and bright!!  

I pointed them out to my wife and she also really liked them, then we noticed that the store had about four different styles of these frames. So we had a look at the different styles.... At this point I hadn't really thought about the price.... After all, yes they were nice, but they were also very simple in their design. So fast forwarding..... We decided that one of these frames would look great on our lounge room wall, that was until I discovered that the asking price was $300! Are You Serious?!?!?! It's needless to say that we left without the frames..... 

As we walked out the door I said to my wife, that if I could get my hands on some old timber frames from ebay etc, I could make the same thing for a fraction of the price! Then I had an idea! I'm full of them! lol There was a charity shop around the corner, so I suggested that we go and have a look.... Guess what I found?!? A bunch of new and used timber frames!! Guess how much they cost me? $8!!! Now I'm no mathematician, but $300 - $8 means I saved $292! Some of the frames are raw timber, which is great, the others I will sand back before painting. I have been playing around with layering the frames beside each other and over the top of each other and looking at which frames will compliment each other, as I'm not sure if I will use all of them, or if I will perhaps seek out a couple of different shaped frames for some variety. 

The photo above is a picture of our bar, it was built from recycled timber from multiple Balinese fishing boats, and as you can see it's made up of many small and different brightly coloured panels. This is going to be the style in which I am going to paint the frames. I also don't have to worry about buying the paint in which to paint the frames with, as I already have quite a collection of acrylic paints, which I have used in the past when I've made decorations for Halloween parties. The downside to my many 'brilliant' ideas is that, my to do list is already as long as my arm lol So it may be a little while before this job gets done. 

People Who Go Hungry

In the last week I have read many comments about a show that aired in the UK called The Great British Budget Menu. As I live in Australia, I wasn't able to view this via the BBC website, but I was lucky enough to find it on You Tube. Basically what it's about is that, three chefs stay with three families in an attempt to teach them how to cook nutritious food within their budget. Sounds easy.... Right? What if your daily budget is £1.66, which is equal to $2.55 USD or $2.75 AUD.... I don't believe that many could do this in Australia. The chefs did go grocery shopping and failed when they tried to purchase good food within the budget allowed. 

The show also looked at food banks and how every year in the UK, the number of people who required assistance from these food banks has increased. I must say that due to the fact that the majority of the blogs I read are UK or USA based, I have not read anything about food banks or people who are struggling to live within a grocery budget in Australia. Admittedly I also don't watch the news very often, so I don't hear about it there either, that is of course if this kind of issue is ever raised in the Australian media.

So after I watched The Great British Budget Menu, I started to search online for statistics regarding Australians and food/hunger poverty. Sadly, I found a lot of outdated information..... However I did find a website called Foodbank, which was loaded with current information. Foodbank stated that:-

"While there is a great deal of data available on poverty in Australia there is very little information specifically on hunger. As a result, the two million figure we quote is an estimation based on several pieces of data. According to an ANU survey, 4% of Australians are accessing emergency food supplies and, in total, 8% say they are unable to afford food. Up to 16% of respondents say they often or sometimes worry that their food will run out before they have enough money to buy more, and 13% say they cannot afford to eat nutritionally-balanced meals."

Some other statistics that I found on the website are:-

- 105 000 Australians are currently homeless

- 2.2 million Australians live in poverty

- 10.9% of Australian children live in poverty

- 1 in 4 Australian pensioners live in or are close to poverty

Image from Foodbank Australia

Some other numbers for you to have a look at:-

- According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the Australian population is 23 million people. Foodbank states that 2.2 million of these people are living in poverty. 

- Google states that the UK population is 62 million and The Trussell Trust, states that 13 million people live in poverty.

- Google states that the USA population is 313 million and Wikipedia states, that 43 million people live in poverty.

When I was younger there was a period in my life where I lived in poverty. At the time, I didn't view it that way... "I just didn't have enough money", plus I was young, so I was earning a very low wage. Luckily for me I found my way out of that 'broke cycle'. But for some people, finding your way out is incredibly difficult, especially if you are already working full-time and have children to support, or if you are on a pension, or if for whatever reason you have found yourself unemployed.

I found a blog the other day titled A Girl Called Jack, in a nutshell she was a single mum who was employed and doing well, until she found herself unemployed. You can read her story here. Her story could be any of us, at any given time.

The Pantry Nightmare - Solved!

Just the other day when I wrote about Frugal Queen's July challenge, I stated that I had no idea how I was going to deal with the pantry inventory side of the challenge, due to the fact that our pantry is bursting at the seams. Well I found a solution! I've mentioned before that I'm always looking for new apps for my mobile phone and tablet. . . . So I did a quick search for a pantry inventory app, and I found "Out of Milk". This free app will allow me to scan the bar codes with my mobile phone to create an inventory of what we have. It will also synchronize across devices, so I can also view the inventory on my tablet or send the inventory to my wife's mobile phone or tablet. So I'm very happy that I've found a solution! It will still take some time to scan it all, but no where near the amount of time it would've taken to type or write it all down. It will also allow me to move items that have been used up, into a shopping list.

I've also had a quick look through the pantry and freezer to see what we have, just so I can start to get some meal ideas going in my mind. In the pantry we have loads of different pulses which can be made into soups, stews, patties, etc. We have tons of dried herbs and spices, so nothing will ever be tasteless! We have rice, pasta, noodles and couscous that can accompany just about anything. We have tinned crushed tomatoes, pulses, soup etc, plus various bottles and jars of sauces and packets of dried fruit.

After raiding the freezer I made a quick note of what was stored inside, we have a whole chicken, cuts of chicken, frozen vegies, bread, tofu puffs, various faux meat products such as quorn and bounty burgers. No seafood, as my wife doesn't eat it, so I don't cook it at home for just myself. Also we're not big red meat eaters, occasionally we'll have something mince based, but not all that often so there isn't any red meat in there. So already, I'm thinking chicken pie, stir fries, curry, soup. . . Something in the slow cooker, the list is endless! As it's currently winter in Australia, you won't see me serving up any salads for a while yet, at the moment it's all about hot food!

After having a peek in the fridge, I find jars of minced garlic, ginger, chilli, and jars of Indian and Asian curry pastes. There is also a number of bottles of sauces and various condiments, which will all come in handy. All the usual fresh vegies are also there, which will be topped up as required. I'm really looking forward to this challenge and so is my wife! The next two weeks can't pass quickly enough for me lol

The Frugal Queen Challenge

I have been an avid reader of Frugal Queen's blog for quite some time now, not just because of her lifestyle choices, but because she also has some great recipes too! Towards the end of June, Frugal Queen decided that July would be:- "Just do with what I have July". The idea behind this was basically to eat what was in the pantry, fridge and freezer and to only top up with fresh veg and fruit. I often tell my wife about various blog posts that I've read, and when I mentioned this one, she thought - like I did, that it might be a good challenge to try.

However, we won't be starting this challenge for two weeks as my wife has already done the grocery shopping, and fortnightly menu plan, so it would be cheating to start now lol I noticed that those who were participating in this challenge, made an inventory of what they had on hand. . . . I don't know if I'll be doing this for two reasons:- firstly, because to be perfectly honest, I would be embarrassed by the amount of dry and packaged ingredients in the pantry, and secondly it would take me all day to compile! So I will have to have a think about how I will tackle this issue. This challenge, I believe is just what we need, as we have far too much food stored in this house.

When it comes to buying groceries, my wife does the main fortnightly shop, with top ups every couple of days for fresh vegies. I will do a shop at Aldi once a month to six weeks, depending on what we are running low on. One thing I have gathered from reading blogs such as Frugal Queens, is that many people will make small purchases from various supermarkets that they pass by, and that both the UK and USA have more options when it comes to choices of where to shop. The problem we have in Australia is that we are limited for choice where supermarkets are concerned. Coles and Woolworths own most of the market, with Aldi following behind. 

The big two not only own our supermarkets, but they also own most of our petrol stations, and liquor outlets. It's not an easy feat to be able to find an independent grocer, butcher or petrol station in this country. So when it comes to my wife and I doing our grocery shopping, Coles is the closest to home and we don't have a independent green grocer as they wouldn't be able to compete with Coles. So we buy both groceries and veg from Coles, and occasionally meat. The reason a shop is done at Aldi once a month to six weeks, is because Aldi is out of our way so when I do go, I make sure it's worth the trip.

But anyway, back to the challenge! I've got two weeks to rummage through the pantry to see what I can come up with, using what we have and only topping up with fruit and veg. As it will be August by the time we start this challenge, I'll have to think up a new slogan lol unless Frugal Queen comes up with a new one for August in the meantime!