School holiday spending

Well, it's Day 2 of winter school holidays. 

I thought it would be interesting to post what we have planned and the cost of school holidays when we are at home.  Over the years I expect that while cheap right now, school holidays will become more expensive with each year and as TootToot becomes a teenager and is less satisfied with free (or inexpensive) activities and entertainment.

TootToot was sick last week and not at school for the whole week. Instead of being happy and content for the first week of school holidays almost immediately she gave the usual school holiday war cry of "I'm bored". The weather hasn't been co-operative and it's been so cold and miserable that outside play hasn't been an option.  Is this boredom because she was sick or is it because she's getting older and getting her grumpy pants ready to wear for adolescence?

Now, how do we entertain an already sick of being at home, bored eight year old without blowing the budget?

We allow TootToot to choose one special activity each school holidays and she can take a friend to do it with if she wants. This time she chose to go bowling with GuitarMan. Just her and Dad and that's nice. 

We are extremely lucky that Nan (my Mum) is able to look after TootToot for two days each week and that certainly cuts our school holiday costs in half. We're also fortunate to have kids a similar age to ours living on either side, and TootToot will play with them on holidays and weekends as well.

Here's our rough plan. I haven't included weekends as we'll do the usual stuff like horse riding.

Week One:

Monday - Day with Nan

Tuesday - hanging with GuitarMan. Two games of ten-pin bowling in the morning, a hot dog each, a drink and $5 of game tokens. $35

Wednesday - spend day with Nan. Collect a free Wednesday movie from the OOVIE Kiosk to watch

Thursday - Day with Mum. Go to a birthday party at lunchtime. Present is in 'present box' so nothing to be spent. TootToot's friend Rapunzel will arrive at dinner and stay over until Friday afternoon.

Friday - If weather is still horrid, will do one of the craft activities we have lying around.  I think I might get the girls to carve some apple people which they can decorate at Rapunzel's house next week. If weather not too bad we'll head off to the Botanic Gardens with a packed lunch and do a school holiday activity for $3.30 for each girl.

Total cost for week $41.60

WeekTwo:

Monday - Day with Nan

Tuesday - Day with Mum. Girls Day. We usually choose to stay in our PJs all day and just chill. Eat some chocolate and watch one of TootToot's DVDs and snuggle in my bed. GuitarMan often comes home on Girls Days to find us fast asleep in our bed.

Wednesday - Day at Nan's

Thursday - TootToot will spend the day at Rapunzel's. I think Rapunzel's Mum has promised to take them to see Shrek. I'll send along $20 for popcorn and a drink for the girls.

Friday - Day with Mum. We'll visit cousins in the morning and after lunch spend some time at the library.

Total cost for week $20

I'll post an update at the end of school holidays and compare how we really did compared with our plan.

How funny is this?

After dinner I make my usual cup of coffee which I enjoy while GuitarMan listens to TootToot read.  Tonight was a little bit different.

After much laughter from Jane, GuitarMan, TootToot and one photo later - here's tonight's result to share with you.

Sometimes these silly end of day moments provide a terrific end to the day and set you up so well for tomorrow.  Hope it brought a smile to your day too.

Where did those WISH cards come from? (making frequent flyer points and my credit card work for me)

When I posted Extra money for little effort, GoGoGoanna asked how I came to have $1900 in WISH cards for my challenge.  A very good question, and here's how.

Our family loves to travel. I think it has something to do with living on the world's biggest island combined with my need to explore what's on the other side of the horizon. Having the funds and the time to travel is one of our biggest motivators in life.  

Wanting both enough money and time to make our trips happen has led us to become increasingly frugal with our time, energy and money in areas of life we are not so passionate about. GuitarMan is happy anywhere in the world as long as the two ladies he loves are with him and he gets to indulge his passion for music along the way. We've been travelling with TootToot within Australia and around the world since she was 15 months old.

The $1900 of WISH cards for my challenge were obtained from Qantas when I redeemed frequent flyer points , but this could just as easily be another major airline or via a credit card reward scheme.  You have to be very disciplined about your credit card use though and I certainly wouldn't recommend getting a credit card just to try this out. If you are fundamentally opposed to credit cards then this probably isn't for you.

Earning Frequent Flyer Points

1. All three of us are frequent flyers with multiple airline programs. Any travel booking for flights, hotels etc will give us miles with one airline or another. We redeem these miles for hotel stays, vouchers etc.  Of the points we redeemed, 47,538 were earned on one overseas trip last year.
2. Qantas frequent flyer accounts allow you to transfer points between family members once every 12 months.
3. I have a credit card which is linked to our Qantas frequent flyer account.  I pay for everything using the credit card. I park the money in our mortgage offset account and then transfer the money when the bill is due.  When I wasn't so disciplined about credit card debt, I would transfer the money each day.
4. I have no annual fee on the credit card as it is part of our home loan package.  The annual fee for my package is more than saved by having no transaction fees for banking plus a considerable reduction on the variable interest rate for investments.
5. I have paid for renovations, a car, plus deposits on land and an investment property using my credit card.  Most businesses are happy for you to do this in a number of smaller payments over a few days as long as they know what you're doing.  We are just about to build an investment property and will use the same strategy again.
6. If we're considering any purchases, going to dinner, concert tickets we will see if the item or service is offered by a Qantas partner and accrue points that way plus on my credit card.  We'll only use the partner if the price is right.  Woolworths Everyday Rewards card is probably the partner most people would use.  The WISH card challenge is in fact giving me frequent flyer points as I use them up thanks to my Everyday Rewards Card.
7. I don't ever fall in the trap of spending to accrue extra points and pretty much ignore 'bonus point' specials or weekends unless I was planning to buy that item/spend that weekend anyway.  The promotion of 'bonus points' has become a major strategy for both major supermarket chains in Australia and the benefits are generally not for the consumer.

Redeeming Points

Planning our spending and maximising the points we can get from multiple sources has really ramped up how quickly we can accrue points. The next step was working out how best to spend them.

1. Experience has taught me that redeeming points for flights isn't effective as you have to pay the fees and charges associated with the flight. For example a return trip from Melbourne to Los Angeles on special costs $1100 buying via the web.  If you redeem frequent flyer points you'll have to pay taxes of $455 plus redeem 96,000 frequent flyer points.  The cost for the non-tax part of the flight is equivalent to 148 points per $1. 
2. Unless you plan your trip twelve months in advance, you are stuck with the flights that nobody really wants. I usually don't want them either as they involve multiple connections or I can't travel on the dates I want.
3. Redeeming points for WISH gift cards, you can get a $500 gift card for 72,500 frequent flyer points.  This is a cost of 145 points per $1. When you use your WISH cards you can also use your Woolies Everyday Rewards card to accrue further frequent flyer points.  Transferring Guitarman and TootToot's points to my account gave me a total of 275,500 points to spend on $1900 worth of WISH cards.
4. You can also redeem for vouchers from specialist retailers at a slightly better rate of 135 points per $1. This wasn't an option that was good for us as we generally don't shop at those retailers anyway, so why start now?

Isn't it interesting that flights give the worst redemption return?

Extra money for little effort

I'm always looking out for ways to increase my income or get free stuff without too much effort on my part.  I'm talking about $5 or $20 at a time not massive windfalls, but the amounts can sure add up quickly.  "Can't be done" you say.  Yes it can be done and here's how.

Over the last few years, I have joined various survey and market research companies.  If they're particularly worthwhile, then GuitarMan joins them too.  Not everyone's partner is going to spend a few minutes each day completing surveys, so I'm lucky that he indulges me that way.

Now GuitarMan was sceptical at first that there was any benefit in signing up for market research but once the vouchers and cash started coming in he has ever so slowly changed his mind.  I've found that the longer I have been doing surveys for each company, I have started receiving higher paid surveys and product tests.  Although the website blurbs don't say so, it appears your effort, time and loyalty are sometimes rewarded with better assignments.

I'm not going to guarantee the hourly rate will be fantastic but I like completing surveys and I like trying out products I probably wouldn't buy so it works for me.  I also like that the only investment required from me is my time and I can undertake the surveys at a time of my choosing.

For the month of June so far, here's how GuitarMan and I are going.  I've written the company in brackets in case you want to check them out for yourself.

• $50 Coles Myer Voucher (Opinions Paid)
• $5 cash (Lightspeed Panel)
• $20 Bunnings voucher (Valued Opinions)
• Another $20 Bunnings voucher (Valued Opinions)
• 4 x Adult Movie Tickets (Nielsen)
• 2 x Free Tickets to see The Losers on 21 June (Contagious Network)
• 2x Oral B toothbrush heads for our rechargeable toothbrushes (Vibe Village)
• 4x travel tubes of Pronamel toothpaste (Vibe Village)
• $60 cash for attending a focus group (Read Research)

All up, the value in vouchers, tickets and cash is around $265 and it's only the 12th of June. 

On the way but not yet arrived:

• $75 cash (Pureprofile)
• Yet another $20 Bunnings voucher (WDYT)
• Bertolli Pasta Sauce (Contagious Network)
• $50 USD (Global Test Market)
• Masterfoods Spices (Vibe Village)

I may also attend another focus group on Thursday and the payment will be an $80 Coles Myer voucher. I got a message yesterday but can't contact the company until Tuesday due to the long weekend, so fingers crossed.

Focus groups are something new for me and I'll need to do a few before I decide whether they are right for me.  I registered for two companies this week and immediately got contacted by both. Although the money is good, I've yet to decide if the convenience factor makes it worthwhile for me.

Anyway, off to lunch at Mum's for my brother's birthday.  No money spent and an afternoon with family.  Lovely.  TootToot has a friend staying for the weekend so there won't be much money spent in this household.

Coffee anyone?

Australia loves coffee, no doubt about it.  Not for us drip filtered or instant coffee, we are in love with strong European espresso style coffee and it's milky cousins.

GuitarMan and I both love coffee and so we took the step a couple of years ago of purchasing a high end DeLonghi coffee machine.  The DeLonghi coffee machine grinds the beans, makes all varieties of coffee at the touch of a button and all requiring absolutely no skill on our part.  GuitarMan bought the DeLonghi (on special of course) for $1600.  I can almost hear you cry "What $1600 for a coffee machine!"

Here's why the decision to buy a coffee machine was a frugal one for us. 

GuitarMan and I both love our coffee.  I drink one a day as I generally prefer tea.  GuitarMan however is a fan of espresso so strong it pulls your cheeks in when you drink it.  GuitarMan averages four cups a day. At $3 each our average coffee cost during a working week was $75.  We'd usually have another couple each while out on weekends so lets say $90 each and every week just for coffee.  That's a whopping $4680 each year or $9360 in two years.

The DeLonghi coffee machine cost us $1600.  We spend around $25 each month on coffee beans and say another $20 for power, water, milk etc.  Over a two year period, making espresso and cappuccino at home has cost us $1080 and even when we add in the $1600 purchase price of the coffee machine we have saved a whopping $6,680.

I have been reading about The Latte Factor on David Bach's website and how by recognising your Latte Factor, you can change your spending habits and turn your finances around.  Interesting reading and certainly something I hope will help stop those $2 coins disappearing from my wallet.

I wonder what David has to say about buying books and musical instruments?

Keeping your grocery spend low

Anyone who has shopped at a supermarket in the last twelve months will probably tell you that grocery prices have gone up. A lot.

The major supermarket chains tell a different story and have 'shelf price reduced' stickers all over the store and will happily tell us that over a hundred items have had the shelf price permanently reduced.

So, who do we believe?  Both are actually correct but there are ways to stretch your grocery dollar further.  We manage to keep our overall grocery spend for two adults, one child and numerous pets to an average of $125 a week.

GuitarMan and I both work and saving time is often as important as saving money.  I have a rough rule of thumb that each hour I spend on reducing our spending should give me a decent sort of return for my time investment.  On that basis there are things that I have done to save money in the past that I don't bother to do now as my time with my family is important to me.

Things I (almost) always do to reduce my grocery spending

• Shop around.  Don't buy everything in the one store.
• Have a weekly budget set aside for stockpiling bargains or bulk items.
• Shop with a list
• Don't shop when I am in a rush e.g. I have to pick up TootToot or be somewhere in half an hour
• Never spend more to achieve fly buys, reward points or fuel dockets
• I have the ugliest trolley in the supermarket and I'm prepared to buy generic or store brand.  No pretty labels for me.
• If I try a generic or store brand and nobody likes it or the quality isn't as good then I'm happy to buy the brand name.
• Compare the unit cost or cost per kilo.  Sometimes a brand name on special can be cheaper.
• Take advantage of manufacturers cash back offers.  You can get some great one's for new product lines.
• Never buy prepared cooking sauces etc.  I buy basic ingredients and cook from scratch.
• Bake cakes, biscuits and savoury snacks at home.
• Consider more vegetarian meals.  Pulses are cheap when compared with meat, chicken and fish.
• Buy marked down, meat, bread etc if I am at the store anyway and if it's something I want.  We will not eat lamb's fry no matter how cheaply I can buy it.
• If I only need one or two items, I think about what can be substituted from items I already have.  Every day I can delay that grocery shop saves money.
• Shop outside the supermarkets.  I buy fruit and veg from the local market, meat from a wholesale butcher and pulses from an Indian grocery store.

Things I've done in the past to reduce my grocery spend but no longer do

• Go to the store at the time they will be marking down produce.  My local supermarket is across the road from the primary school.  The meat and bakery items are marked down just before school lets out for the day. It's like the first day of the post-Christmas sales and if you can get any reduced items it takes 15 minutes to get through the checkout.  Not for me thank you.
• Buy five of an item on special only to discover we don't like it or have no real use for it.
• Drive distances to buy a bargain.  There are certain places e.g. COSTCO that I know are cheaper for me but I will only shop there if in the area anyway.  When you add the cost of fuel in sometimes there are no real savings in going too far from home.
• Buy from factory outlets.  Love it but I'm generally at work when they are open.
• Make my own bread all the time.  We still enjoy home baked but for everyday, we will buy a loaf at the supermarket for our toast.
• Grow some fruit, vegetables and herbs.  We are planning to start this again in the spring.

Things that have never worked for me

• Maintaining a Price Book.  You can read about them on most frugal living websites but for me personally it was an absolute drudge and a complete waste of time.
• Preserving foods.  I just have no knack for this at all even though I'd like to.

Meet The Poopers

Sometimes the right choices in life don't seem frugal a first.  That certainly seemed the case when we purchased "The Poopers" back in February.

We certainly weren't in the market for another dog, let alone two.  We already had Meg our 10 year old Jack Russell and Lucy a 3 year old Miniature Schnauzer.  We went in to the store "Just for a look" and came home with two of the most adorable fluff balls you ever saw.  They are Cairn Terrier crossed with Bichon Frise and litter brothers.

How easily these little guys slotted into our family.  TootToot now spends more time away from the Wii and playing outside.  Every time we see their two little faces pop out from the Lilly Pilly hedge we giggle and try to catch it on camera.  How can you price being more active and happy?

They are learning to tolerate if not love TootToot dressing them up.   Stewie is on the left and Toby is on the right.  Stewie is the silent type, half the size of his brother and makes very little noise.  Toby is a thug and makes Scooby Doo noises when he wants fed.

Maybe not terribly frugal but terribly cute - don't you think?

TootToot super saver ...

Toot Toot received a letter addressed to her yesterday - the first bank statement all of her own. 

Toot Toot "what are debits?" - I explained that is where any money you have borrowed is shown on your bank statement.

TootToot thinks for a moment and replies "I'm the best saver in the family then because I have no debits and I don't pay interest." and marches off to share this fact with GuitarMan.

TootToot and I have talked before about how the bank will pay you interest to 'rent' your money while it's in the account.  She loves the idea of making money without doing extra chores so is happy to leave her money there.

TootToot has been accessing Coinland https://coinland.com.au/ as well as her chats with me. It's a great site that teaches kids about money and saving and you don't have to be a bank customer to access it.

I wasn't sure TootToot understood that if you borrow money, such as when you buy a house then you have to pay interest until you pay it back.

Seems my TootToot understands all too well... I wonder what else she can teach me

So what is frugal anyway?

Now that's probably a multi-million dollar question.  If only I was armed with the answer in my teens when my working life started.

One of the reasons for this blog is to be a record for my daughter TootToot (her name of choice when she was two).  May TootToot be armed with the knowledge it's taken her parents 40 plus years to find.

The dictionary definition of frugal is
1.economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful: a frugal manager.
2.entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty: a frugal meal.
 
Another way to describe our life choices would be thrifty
1.practicing thrift or economical management; frugal: a thrifty shopper.
2.thriving, prosperous, or successful.
3.thriving physically; growing vigorously.
 
Please note dear TootToot that nowhere is there mention of being tight, cheap or mean.  Remember that GuitarMan and I are none of those things.  You are so kind, giving and generous of heart that I expect you won't be either.