I know that this is the time for New Years Resolutions and things like that but how about a New Years Revelation: about saving. I am a slow thinker in that I can be idly thinking about a certain subject on and off for months before my thoughts filter from my sub-conscious to my conscious and that animated light bulb lights up above my head. 
I have always said that farming does not make a lot of money but it does SAVE money. If you seed save and make your own compost vegetables cost almost nothing to grow. Processing is the biggest cost for Grass fed beef and pork raised on vegetables, milk and eggs come in way below anything you can buy at the supermarket. (Chickens are more expensive though). If I have bred and raised the animals myself – I am saving even more off the food bill. Milk and butter and cheese are literally a bonus after feeding the animal on grass. My grocery bill can be really small. So I really do save the household budget a significant amount of money.
But unless I actually SAVE the money I am saving then it is not saving at all is it!
Once the equation has worn itself out there will be a number of dollars left over, these dollars need to be taken out of my household account and deposited into the farm account. Literally. Letting them just slide out the door on the backs of other expenses is not saving at all. Do you see?
Or how about this. I have a writing chair in front of the fire – in fact I am sitting in it as we speak. My writing chair is OLD, it is falling to bits. Cushions have to be strategically placed for it to be able to hold its head up beside the fire at all. A book instead of a leg. A wiggly arm. Transparent fabric. It should be IN the fire. I need a new chair. However I have decided that I will not get a new chair until after I have been out to Australasia to visit with my children. Then I will save for a chair. SO. I am sitting in an uncomfortable threadbare chair, into the corner where I cannot feel the springs, feeling smug about saving myself the expense of a new chair. But WHERE IS THE MONEY!? Where are the savings? To save it I have to take that money out of the home account and physically put it into the TRAVEL SAVINGS account or I have saved nothing.
(And no, I do not use the home accounts when I travel – I have a separate travel account so if the money is not there it is NOT THERE).
I have skipped having my hair cut (and coloured but don’t tell anyone that I am not a natural blonde) so that money needs to be taken out and saved into the travel account too. Do you see what I mean?
Likewise quitting smoking or stopping drinking to save money. SAVE THE MONEY! If you get a raise – SAVE that money. Or if you give up Starbucks on the way to work or make your own lunch. Take it out of the household account and save it into your savings account.
Of course this is very different from budgeting your money. This is when you look at your incomings and your outgoings and make a plan to ensure that the monthly outgoings DO NOT EXCEED your monthly incomings. After all that would be very silly.
So that is my New Years Revelation. I am going to take money out of my household wallet when I make a savings decision and save it into another wallet. Not just leave it available to be spent on something else thereby losing it twice. And then I can SEE the results of my saving. And seeing the results helps me to save even more.
Starting with this chair, how much would a new chair cost anyway? I need to get that money into the travel account. Or do I have to sit in this wonky chair for the rest of my life to call it a saving. Hmm.
I had better think some more.
Did any of that make sense?
Sunrise is at 7.16 this morning so it is time for me to have my shower and get ready for work.
Love celi
p.s. Update on Manu (the boar) and Poppy (the sow). Last night they were sleeping together tucked up!! All calm. This is the first time that Manu has slept with anyone since he was a piglet so he is swooning with happiness. Plus Poppy is a good sized lass she will be nice and warm for him.
Here they are waiting for their gate to be opened. They know the drill already.
The Kitchen's Garden 
93 responses to “Save The Money”
I know exactly what you mean. What’s the point of making economies, giving things up to save money if you don’t actually SAVE the money. It needs to be put out of reach of casual spending, tucked safely away. Better still, take it away before you know it’s there. Dear Celi, please may I make you a cover for a cushion for the bony, uncomfortable chair? Not the filling too, that would be too bulky for you to carry home, but something with a zip so you can stuff it with something soft. A iittle extra lease on life, a cheerful coat of lippy for its tired, pale chair face?
Hi darling. I think the chair will last a while yet with some tlc.
Love the idea of a cushion cover though! c
Then you shall have one!
But who is keeping Our Sheila warm… or have the twins moved in with her? Don’t save too much money, you will have another problem worrying about how to spend it ha, ha 🙂 Carlos IV is fattening up nicely and dare I day Aunty Del looks a bit wider too. Celi, saving is great but trieing to perpetuate false economy, like not replacing broken chair, may cost you more in the long run (like medical expenses if it breaks when you are sitting in it). Best way is to take a modest amount from one account at the beginning of the month and try not to reclaim it during the month. Laura
The twins are living with Sheila but I am not sure if they are brave enough to cuddle up yet. c
I so admire what you do and have to admit to a bit of envy. I failed so badly with the pigs, then the chooks, ducks, geese. Everything died, or had to be re-homed except the remaining peacocks and guinnea fowl. You are a true farmer; I am just the wife of a true farmer. Your incredibly interesting posts continue to inspire me and make me wiser.
Not failed but learnt hard that farming is not for you – but how is your garden? I bet you are achieving in your wee vege garden! c
I hope you get a new chair soon. That is so sweet about Poppy and Manu.
I don’t really care about the chair, I was just sitting in it as I was thinking about things.. c
Wise thinking indeed – this is what we do, a separate account for what we have “saved” by making economies or DIY-ing – it soon adds up. Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves…as my granny used to say!
Oh well done! It makes sense to me.. c
Do you have freecycle where you live? Lots of people post household items they no longer want and you can pick it up for free. Or craigslist to purchase a better quality used chair? Much cheaper than buying new.
Yes! Or estate sales too, if there are any in the area are often great places to buy good used furniture!
I just got a mental picture of a piggy wedding – all the girls dressed in white! I suppose Tonton might be a priest with his markings 😉
I love it!
Me too! So great!
Great header shot of still standing Boo. Boar Manu seems to be a bit exhausted? And cute Tane caring… Love our new twosome and their romance… So nice that the became good friends too. I love them!
I don’t do New Years Resolutions – never kept them, so I let it be… A Revelation might be a different thing though… Never thought about it before. – I think your point of view means to redistribute or reallocate the saved money, isn’t it?
Once when working as a taxi driver (the car was not mine) I decided NOT to want work for an own car. It’s waisting time & money I thought. So I had to work less, got more time for me and myself and had less expenses cause no car. I felt great with that. – When I quit smoking I put every saved coin into a big jar – that was my travel money for quite a while…. And my hair? Since I have had no work and real income for the last two years I saved my hair dresser’s cost by cutting my hair myself. It worked well. Last week I visited my hairdresser after not being there more than one and a half years now. He was pleased to see me again and lauded my skills. After having made a new cut he just charged half the prize. What made me oh so glad. What a nice gift and what a cute guy…
Loved your today’s post and thoughts! Isn’t it more than revelation? Isn’t it kind of enlightenment? Do you remember when being young how we tried to save money by hitch-hiking? That was quite an adventurous saving method, wasn’t it? – For the chair: Why not saving for a used one? I bet there are lots of good and very low-prized ones available.
“Australasia” made me laugh! You are always so great in new wordings (or neologisms) … – Have a beautiful day, Celi!
Your hair dresser sounds like a great guy! c
Oh yes, he is! Very young, a christian Iraqi, just married in last summer (he was telling me about the beautiful honeymoon they had while cutting my hair) and with the beautifullest bright blue eyes I ever saw.I call him “my hairdresser with the beautiful blue eyes” when speaking of him to others…
Excellent post, very instructive! Thank you! Advice we can all adjust and use for our own benefit.
But I just knew it was building to something and soon as you mentioned the chair I figured you were about to tell us of a chair you had just gone out to buy,,, lol A pleasant surprise to read on and find you hadn’t… and THEN I realize, or think I’ve figured you out now, that you’re not so unhappy with your broken down chair but are looking for ways to bolster the travel account to have more to spend when you’re away!!! You lil devil!!! (I hope it works for you… heh heh) If you hadn’t had this ‘revelation’, then you’d be stuck with what funds had been put in the travel account but now you can add more to travel in lieu of a new chair. I am falling over laughing over this one…. Good for you! Let’s have some more ‘revelations’! ~ Mame 🙂
You are onto me!!! Ha ha ha cc
I love this comment. Love the whole thing today. But I’d better not show it to my dear. She will be after me to save the way you do. I think I would mess things up even more than I do now. Money is money, I say to her. Yes, she says, but where is it, and how does it disappear so fast. On second thought, I’ll show her the post. It is so funny, so real. And photographs! The pig couple peering through the gate. And the dog with a stick. But best of all, those chickens (and I think I see a peacock in there) on top of the. . . What is that, a tub full of food? It looks like my family at dinner when I was a kid, nine of us digging in, and dad trying to get us to sit properly and have a conversation.
Much too easy to spend savings all away when it isn’t put aside in a place one knows not to touch. I do this every month, making saving for home improvements something that is actually viable in the near future.
That is great – I think going into debt for things like that is so scary!.. c
Manu is smiling too. 😉 I have the January calendar up at my desk. The kittens are so adorable and I love that Nannie Boo’s feet are in the shot…. Always watching over his babies.
I was going to crop his feet out but they kind of tell a story.. they make me smile too.. c
You are about half my age, but your post reminded me of my grandmother. She never had much, so she had to be very careful. In her kitchen there was a shelf of labeled jamjars and when Grandad gave her his wages (paid in cash, never more than £4 a week) she would divide it up into jars marked rent, gas, electricity, food, clothes and housekeeping and, yes, savings. Nowadays we have one current account and several savings accounts. When the current account gets to a certain level I transfer the excess into savings and vice versa when bills have to be paid. I check that the totals show a healthy increase at the end of the year, and we give any surplus even-handedly to the children and grandchildren.
Can you put up a picture of the rickety chair? Perhaps Jock could make you a new one, to go with the cushion Kate is making?
Love solitary ViV xox
When I am saving to travel I literally save into different envelopes, one especially for on the way home – it is awful when you have two days travelling and forgot to save any cash for dinner on the way!! c
And all the sandwiches you took with you are eaten or stale.
In these days of ‘card’ shopping, we can so easily lose track of what happens to our special offers and the money we are supposed to have saved. When Elly was young I introduced The No Biscuits Rule. Back then direct flights from Belfast to warmer climes were not as frequent as now with all the smaller/cheaper airlines. Holidays were often booked months in advance and once the deposit was paid, the No biscuit/cookies rule came into play. I would not buy any biscuits, mind you it never really mattered, since the tins were always full of home baking. The rule applied to sweets also. Once in the local newsagents, Elly asked if I would buy a bar of chocolate for her. Always aware of an audience, I projected my voice slightly as I answered: “Elly, my money is for food and daddy’s money is for spending. If I bought you chocolate today, it would have to come out of our holiday spending money. So is it a bar of chocolate that would be gone before be get to the bottom of the street and one ice cream less when we go on holidays to Spain”? Holiday ice cream won! Oh I was such a hard mother!!! I notice she now occasionally plays The No Biscuits Rule.
This is very touching.
Perfect! c
I just knew that Manu and Poppy would be cuddling up sooner than later! 🙂 And yes, keep the extra savings in a special place and continue to add to it when you can. And do not go into it for anything but the purpose/s the savings were intended for! xo
Exactly and I am very tough on myself about dipping! .. c
I understand exactly what you mean there. You see if mom skips coffee, that money goes into my account. If dad skips lunch, that money goes into my account. My account is my allowance. See, I perfectly understand. Snorts and oinks. XOXO – Bacon
heh heh — reminiscent of: “What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine too.”