Categories
no spend year

No Spend Year Week 2 Update

Two weeks into the year already, and here we are with our second update for our 2020 no spend year.

Anyone familiar with us already knows that we have a pretty major car repair looming over our heads at the moment. We have decided to go ahead and source some finance in the form of a personal loan to deal with this and get this car going again. This unfortunately will put us even further into debt and that seems counter intuitive for everything we are doing to get away from debt, however this does make the most sense after all the numbers were crunched.

My second step dentist appointment was this week also, as discussed we are not including any medical or health care into the no spend year figures, but it is just another expense looming over us. Still better to take care of all my teeth now than to wait until they are too bad to be repaired (ouch!)

Trying to stay one step ahead of things running out around the house, I have noticed my supply of general household cleaner is getting low, so keep an eye our for my attempt at a home made cleaner that will be appearing here and on our you tube.

One expense we had not planned in advance was an impromptu drive up the coast to visit my parents in law for a few days. This decision came as we were supposed to go to Bali, we have had tickets booked for months, unfortunately at the last minute my husbands work told him his leave was shortened and he had to be back at work before we would have returned from Bali. It was going to cost us more to come home 1 day early than what we had paid for the entire original trip, so we simply did not go. We did want to do something, and a visit to the in-laws seemed to be the best compromise. We lost $1500 on our flights this week, but saved that much again by not going at all.

Now to get down and dirty with our figures for week 2, we spent $93 on fuel that was not planned. My husband and I are on a clothes buying ban this year so I have included a new pair of sandals for Alex after he lost his on the beach last this weekend. There is $10 for that. Our totals are now:

  • This Week $103.00
  • This Month $2110.50
  • This year $2110.50

Go ahead and give us some encouragement by following our story this year, here or on Instagram you tube or Facebook.

Categories
Recipes

Homemade Dishwasher Tablet Recipe

With our no spend year challenge came the promise to ourselves and to all the followers of the freedom family that I would purchase no luxury items this year. We had a little debate as to whether dishwasher tablets are luxury or not, in the end it was decided that a dishwasher itself is a luxury item so anything to go with it falls into that category as well. I have to say honestly I wasn’t prepared to run out of anything in the first week of January and be in the kitchen whipping up alternatives, and truth be told if I had realized just how empty the box was I probably would have bought a new box before the challenge started. But alas this is how it happened and I have to say honestly it was fairly easy to come up with something that works quite well. So let’s get right into it.

Dishwasher tablets

1 Cup Bi-carb Soda

1 Cup Borax

1/2 Cup Salt

2 Tablespoons Corn Flour

2 Tablespoons Citric Acid

2 Tablespoons White Vinegar

12 Drops Lemon Essential Oil

4 Drops Yellow Food Colouring (for fun)

  • Mix all dry ingredients together in a glass or stainless steel bowl
  • Mix wet ingredients together in a small bowl
  • Slowly add wet ingredients to dry, about 1 teaspoon at a time stirring in well. Do not allow the dry mixture to fizz as this is the activation of the soda and you want this to happen in your dishwasher not in your bowl. Mixture will look quite dry still but it is supposed to.
  • Spoon mixture into an ice cube tray. (I prefer to use a silicone one as it makes removal so much easier). Compress the mixture down very tightly.
  • Leave trays to set for 2-3 days. I like to leave mine for at least 3 as I live in a very humid climate and if not properly set the tablets can crumble when being removed from the tray. (when this happens I still keep it and use it as dishwasher powder)
  • Store in an airtight container and enjoy!

You can watch the video of me making these here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G75jAnAyrbw&t=10s

I impressed myself!

I honestly find my dishes just as clean as using the store bought tablets. I do however clean my dishwasher regularly and empty the filters weekly at maximum. This helps a lot with the end result. Occasionally if I have a lot of glassware going through I find it helps to put a small bowl of white vinegar in the top tray for extra sparkly glass.

I am also quite interested to try to make a recipe without the borax. I will have a play around and leave an update if I have any success.

If you want to join the freedom family for more recipes or anything else we are doing during our debt busting year to freedom you can find us here.

https://www.instagram.com/familyseeksfreedom/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog

https://www.facebook.com/familyseeksfreedom/

Categories
Finance

Finance update 9th Jan 2020

Today is payday, and while that may make a lot of people happy to us this week it was just full of frustrations. We are so motivated to start paying down our debt and to see those numbers creeping closer and closer to black, that it is rather disheartening when there is a pay cheque that had to be used for something else. For us that something else is our cars. I am happy to report that one of our cars is completely fixed and operational again, unfortunately the other will cost us $7000 on top of what we have already spent on her. This week has also brought the news of my wisdom teeth needing to be removed at approximately $3000 and a blood test that was done on our dog, that the vet ‘forgot’ to bill us for at the time, is now due also. Not the best start to a January we have ever had, but at least the rest of the year should be up from here.

So with all that being said, let’s get to what we are all here for today and that is some real figures.

We still owe ourselves $290 that we borrowed from our car registration fund.

We paid $200 to my in laws leaving us a balance of $580 for the portion of the Christmas day emergency vet bill they paid for.

Zip pay is down to $65 owing and it should be knocked out very soon.

Gem visa has $1376 left. The interest free period is still valid until June.

Our phones have not changed since last payday.

The big bad wolf has more owing than last time as interest was charged to the account. This leaves us with $26,685 to pay on the principle.

Our emergency fund only increased by the default $20 that was added from our payday as we are still trying to fix the cars.

Overall our position has crept slightly down from -$31,052 to -$30,799 that is $253 towards our goal this pay day.

I am doubtful there will be any major improvements around any of these numbers until we have fixed our second car and my wisdom teeth have been removed. When life stops getting in our way we will get going!

Join the freedom family on this year’s no spending debt busting challenge

https://www.facebook.com/familyseeksfreedom/ https://www.instagram.com/familyseeksfreedom/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog

Categories
goals

January goal

short sweet and simple. This month our goal is to have both cars properly fixed. no ifs, buts, or candied nuts. Two fully functioning not-a-single-thing-wrong with them cars by the end of this month.

Categories
Finance

An intro to our finances

This is the post where I lay it all bare. For those who are interested I offer a complete overview of our current financial position. Updates to this post will be every other week when we get paid, until we are back in the black. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen meet our debt..

We have arranged our debt in the order we are going to pay it off, it is almost the snowball method with the exception of zip.

We start by owing ourselves $290 that we ‘borrowed’ from our car registration account. This has to be paid back asap so we have the money ready when the bill comes in.

We owe $780 to my parents-in-law, who helped us out with a part of our Christmas day emergency vet bill.

We have $120 left owing on zip pay, some supplies for my husbands hobby.

Gem visa comes in at $1426 left owing. this balance is for our new washing machine (desperately needed after our last one died a sad watery death) Also for our daughters bedroom furniture. the interest free period runs out in July this year.

$1850 for two shiny new phones we bought in November. yeah. mistake.

$26,613 left on our personal loan. This is actually our second dance with this loan, we had it paid down to only $4000 owing and then maxed it out again to replace both cars and furnish our house. These are things I never would have bought on credit, but given our situation at the time suffice to say it was a necessary evil.

our emergency fund was obliterated over the second half of last year with both of our cars needing major repairs more than once (yes the cars we bought only 1 year prior. yes we bought them used but they were only 5 years old. No there was no warranty left once the problems started.) We also had an emergency vet trip on christmas day when one of the dogs decided to eat a piece of rubber that was too big to pass naturally. so here we are starting from nothing in our emergency account. We are at least very thankful we had it to get us through what it did.

Anyone with a keen eye will note that I have not included superannuation in our net worth, this is intentional however we will include it in our complete portfolio once we have organized it. As Alex and I can not access our super for about 30 and 40 years respectively any amounts in there are really inconsequential to our debt journey at the moment.

Join the freedom fam on this years no spending debt busting challenge https://www.facebook.com/familyseeksfreedom/ https://www.instagram.com/familyseeksfreedom/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog

Categories
no spend year

No spend year 2020

So I thought I would go a little deeper into what we are doing with our no spend year. we have set out some rules for ourselves to make this a bit clearer and easier to stick to because obviously we do have to spend some money.

Rule #1 We are paying rent/ utilities/ groceries/ Swimming lessons/ pet vet bills.

Rule #2 NO luxury items. At all. If it is possible for me to make a cheaper alternative at home from staple household supplies then I will. (that should be interesting)

Rule #3 No bulk or stocking up shopping beforehand. If something we own breaks or runs out during the year, there will be a serious discussion about if we should replace it or not. If we do we will replace it with a quality and permanent replacement as we try to move away from single use items.

Rule #4 We want the smallest utility bills possible, so everything from turning off a light to negotiating with supply companies is on the table for us. Also all subscriptions will be cancelled.

Rule #5 A complete clothes buying ban for my husband and I. As our daughter is only 2 and growing 17 inches a day she will inevitably need clothes this year. we will purchase everything possible from thrift stores for her.

Rule #6 Our cars will be properly fixed this January no matter the cost. this is long overdue and needs to happen before we cause further damage and bigger problems.

Rule #7 We will buy gifts for our daughter for her birthday and Christmas but no gifts for ourselves for any occasions this year.

As we move through the year we will keep a list of everything we wanted to buy and constantly update it. I’m willing to bet by the end of the year very few things on that list will still be important to us.

Our no spend year will be vlogged in detail on our you tube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog including updates with real figures, triumphs and fails, along with all sorts of money saving recipe attempts. this is where we will be discussing any purchases that need to be made throughout the year, and our progress on digging ourselves out of a mountain of debt.

Until next time xx CC

Categories
General family seeks freedom stuff goals no spend year

What are we doing this year?

We have lived too many years saying we should and we will. I am decidedly not getting any younger unfortunately and if we dont make some changes to our lives now there simply wont be enough time left to reap the benefits. We really want to make ourselves accountable for our lives and every decision we make. We are focusing on three things this year, the first is having a no spend year, that we are vlogging primarily on you tube. The second is getting our finances in order, from busting debt to eventual financial independence, this we are documenting on Instagram. Finally we are smashing our fitness and weight loss goals, so we can end this year feeling so much better than we are starting it!

This blog will focus on tying all of these aspects together with some of the other little bits and bobs that make us who we are.

Looking forward to this year, and seeing just where all of this will go!

Join family seeks freedom on our other platforms and share this year with us https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjv3QDuYnFXfYv9PTgOVUog

https://www.instagram.com/familyseeksfreedom/

xx CC

Categories
General family seeks freedom stuff

About us

After years of empty promises to ourselves we are tired. Tired of debt, tired of being unhealthy and tired of never being able to do what really makes us happy.

So here we are, a public record to hold us accountable for our actions. we will lay it all out as we try to improve our lives in every way. Out of debt and toward freedom to live our best lives.

We are a 3 person 2 dog family living in sunny Queensland. Follow our journey out of debt and towards a life that we can be proud of.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started