Leaving London and downshifting to become a full-time parent and rural homemaker
Here’s a fantastic list of easy ways to save money from The Times Online. Some really good ideas.
http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2008/02/the-thrifty-fif.html
I’m already doing some of them (cooking in bulk, using leftovers, magazine swapping with a friend each month, using a piggy bank for all my loose little bits of change, reusing pots and bread bags for storing sandwiches [...]
Ever since we noticed our monthly food bills rising without good reason, since we heard more and more about the so-called ‘credit crunch’ and the predicted downturn in the economy, we started thinking seriously about what options we had to make ourselves recession proof.
A brief look at our fixed monthly outgoings identified our rent, food, [...]
I was a bit shocked to see that we had overspent by £175 on our Housekeeping account but it is not yet the end of the month. My initial reaction was to be cross with myself for not keeping on top of the spending, for not sticking to the budget and for not doing things [...]
Luckily for my purse and our bank balance we don’t live near to any shops apart from the butcher, the bakery, a small grocery shop and a few charity shops (full of old ladies’ things mainly). When we lived in East London and I worked in the City I found that the majority of my [...]
One of the upsides of being hugely pregnant and on maternity leave while the kids are at school & a completely clear diary free of rushing around doing things is the amount of time available to do things one usually never gets round to. While the rain is lashing down and the wind is [...]
Unfortunately I wasn’t taught early in life how to manage my money, how to save, or how to manage a limited household budget. I now realise these are essential life skills. I swear I’m not going to let history repeat itself and will ensure our kids will know about how to manage money from an [...]
Since we downshifted to rural Worcestershire and I left work to be a fulltime mum I have started to manage the family’s weekly and monthly budget (before this move I just spent). If I saw something I liked I generally bought it. No wonder I ended up with a house full of stuff and no [...]