I am not crazy about it and it is one of these jobs I kind of... hate. The fact I am good at it, the same for bookkeeping, doesn't make it any better. I still try not to do it although making a budget, a financial plan is something I like. Especially if it works out better than planned.
Since it works out most of the time as planned there's no need to have a closer look at my budget or to see how I am doing. But we passed the third Tuesday in September which means all prices size again (and will again before each vacation, holiday, celebrations, and before 2021 starts). It all might sound far away but it is not. Not in terms of income. Only 3 more to go and the year is over. Three more incomes (number four is needed for Januar 2021) which mean I really need to save. My savings boxes do not look good!
There's hard money left in the saving box for the dogs, I need extra money for gasoline (twice as much as at the start of this year), I need money to buy two electric heaters before the winter starts, money for gas and the annual bill for electricity will be dropped on my doormat in about a week time. All these extra's need to be paid and this means I need to find a way to reduce my payments. It's an annual task and each year again I find something but it is never enough to compensate for those higher costs for living.
The old car can't pass the test which means I keep paying road tax and insurance. I can only stop it for 6 months and need to pay for it (nearly the same amount as the road tax) but at least no insurance. Next year I go for one phone numberless. As soon as my credit is finished. A new year I start with a new phone number. This way I get rid of annoying spammers as well.
The car seller I just wrote an e-mail. I should say the next e-mail. He should give me a guarantee of what he sold me. He might have done that if I had been able to bug him in person daily. He stopped writing back which is a big minus to me no matter how great the reviews about him are on the internet. I can not check it out. It can be written by himself too. I sent the bills and my bank account number to him plus wrote about the problems the car still deals with.
It all will not be enough to fill up the holes but it is a start. Since we are no big spenders (our saving box for going out is empty, clothes and shoes we only buy in case of need and we do not smoke or drink) the only way left to save money is on food. It's not that we spend a lot of money on it but there are no options left. Rent, electricity, insurances, gasoline/bustickets, and taxes need to be paid. These are the first priorities, next, it is food, and the rest we consider as a luxury. I wish it was different but it is not. We need a roof above our head, electricity to have water. We have no tv, radio, no fridge and this winter will be without bought firewood. I cannot afford it. I discussed it with the children and they are willing to give it a try. Who knows we are lucky and it won't be -20°C.
How do I know we are not big spenders?
I see what others spend. I see it in the shopping carts and where they buy. I notice a cultural difference too. Where our first concern lays in having no debts, paying others first I see foreigners do the opposite. Their first priority is food, next to beauty products, and clothes and shoes followed by smoking, drinking, going out. At 5 a.m. I see people in the bar, drinking, the whole day on I see them eating. They eat at home, at the shop, on the street, everywhere. They are always swallowing.
Yesterday my child showed me a list of expenses for 4 people and a small dog. It was its task to tell on which expenses could be saved. Although both children in this example have three meals at school the amount they spend on food is still three times higher than what we spend plus with us, everything is included. Cleaning products, beauty products, dog food...
It wasn't a hard task for my child. It knows how our income and bills look like, enough prices by head and the word "discount" and "on-sale" are familiar too.
"Let's show how we do it, how much money can be saved", it said.
I doubt it will impress anyone, the only thing that impressed me is that this family in the given example had no rent or loan to pay for a house. I wonder why they have an electricity and gas bill, tv, internet, and a landline. All things you don't need if you live in your car.
