Friday, August 27, 2010

Minimalism and thriftiness - partners in lean living

In the lead up to the great leap south, I took to a very minimalist living philosophy. Aside from the therapeutic affects of a good cull of "stuff", it also meant there was much less to pack. It's also re-affirmed a desire to live free of unnecessary clutter. I've enjoyed posts from The Everyday Minimalist, though she's far more minimalist than me!

The other thing that I've taken to a further extreme than usual lately is being thrifty. I've always been a firm believer in living within your means. At the moment, we're in the rather annoying position of having to pay both mortgage and rent while we wait for the house to sell. Add to this mix the fact that I've changed work from regular salary to consulting and invoicing so our income is a little wacky. As soon as the house sells, we'll be back on very good financial footing, but until then we're keeping a tight reign on things.

First things first, all discretionary spending is either on hold or significantly reduced. Getting back to the minimalist philosophy, everything comes down to whether we really NEED something. If it isn't essential, we don't buy it. In the majority of cases, it will still be there later when the budget is more healthy.

Now everyone varies in what they consider necessary or discretionary spending. Something that is very definitely in our necessary category is health care, which in my case is expensive. By cutting out as much discretionary spending as possible, I can do everything I need to do to keep me healthy without feeling any guilt for blowing the budget.

Next, we've changed the way we use the credit cards. Normally we pay the credit card off in full each month. This is great as it means no interest charges. Now though, it actually makes more sense to pay the minimum and incur the interest instead of pay it in full. We won't end up that much out of pocket from the interest by the time we're back to being able to pay it in full. We already use the credit card as much as possible. Partly for the Frequent Flyer points, but also because it's easier to track where our spending is going.

I've always enjoyed thrifty shopping. I've been making use of websites like Gumtree to source things cheaply. We managed to get a second-hand desk and office chair for the home office so the CPD could work from home relatively cheaply. Our thrifty gardening adventures are over at Greening Our Life. I think the trick is to only buy what you need and not get sucked into something that is a bargain, but isn't essential.

I'm enjoying the challenge at the moment, though I'll admit the list of "things to buy once the house sells" is starting to get long!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Bonjour Brunswick!

We're here! The move from Figtree to Brunswick went very smoothly, though as the Cunning Plans Dept commented, what would you expect with two project managers running the show :)

We headed off on Thursday morning, stopping a number of times along the way to swap drivers and give the dogs a stretch and toilet break. After having gone to the effort to get sedatives from the vet, I then managed to misplace them in the packing madness on Wednesday and couldn't find them. As it turned out the dogs were fine (except for the bit where they ate a bag of blood & bone that was in Mum & Dad's garden shed). Hudson was only car sick once. Otherwise they handled the drive pretty well. We arrived in Brunswick around 8:45pm and stayed at a friend's place around the corner from our new digs.

Friday was moving in day and it also went pretty smoothly. The new fridge I'd ordered a couple of weeks ago arrived with impeccable timing on Friday morning, followed by the removalists and the electricity guy, so it was all systems go! Basically I stationed myself in the kitchen by the front door and the CPD was on dog/shed duty and we just directed the removalists where to put things.

By Friday night we'd unpacked the essentials and had our first meal (granted it was Indian home delivery) with the wonderful Dr Krys. Saturday saw some grocery shopping, more unpacking and a visit from Sam & Belle, who introduced us to Apple Cakes, which are apparently a very Victorian treat (they are effectively an individual size apple pie, dome side up, which is coated in a thick layer of icing). Sunday the unpacking continued with a quick diversion out to CERES to meet Dr Krys for lunch after her Sunday radio show. We had hoped to make use of the famous Melbourne public transport system, only to be thwarted by the fact that the 503 bus does not run on Sundays. At all. Which is a bit lame if you ask me. More unpacking, then a lovely dinner with Miss Bethany (home delivery again).

Monday was back to work for both myself and the CPD. I'd managed to set up enough of the new home office to be functional. Ironically, the first main work task for the CPD in our new location was to fly to Sydney for a meeting. It will be interesting to see how we settle in to having both of us working from home. We are definitely going to have to acquire another desk.

There are still a few boxes left to unpack, but we're mostly moved in. The new place has the footprint of one floor of our old place, so we've downsized a reasonable amount. Thank goodness we were fairly ruthless with the cull before moving. The new house has pretty good storage options. Both bedrooms have large floor-to-ceiling built in wardrobes (and the ceilings are tall, so that's extra space). The kitchen has amazing storage space. I am in serious kitchen storage heaven. I've unpacked all the kitchen items and I still have an empty drawer and a few empty shelves.

More tales of settling into Melbourne to come. So far, c'est magnifique!