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”
very interesting an something I need to think about
For us, it seems easier to save money by spending it, while money saved gets spent too easily. We find that if we take our extra money and invest it into the garden/homestead or put extra on a bill to pay the principal down faster, it goes to a good place and saves us money in the long run via interest and returns. However, if we save actual cash in a bank account or jar, we end up spending it on frivolous things like eating out or odd things that we think we need. So far, that’s been working. Once we pay down many things and don’t have that luxury, we will need to learn how to save in a jar again.
It sounds like you have worked this one out! And an excellent idea to hurry along the homestead payments, it will be wonderful when that is paid off. c
I know! I can’t wait!
I have thought about this same subject before but never done a darn thing about it! Great reminder to DO it!
Another thing I do is save EVERY five dollar note I get as change, they all go into a seperate envelope – you would be amazed how 5’s add up! c
What a great post on the propriety of finances and frugal living. Those are aspects of living I learned from my parents and grandparents. They are fundamental survival life skills. It takes discipline and determination. I do not meet too many people who understand this concept in this day and age. Spend, borrow and worry about it later… and later, and find yourself in big bad debt! 🙂
Big Bad Debt terrifies me – I own very little really but I have no debt and that makes me kind of proud!.. c
The romance of Poppy and Manu is so heart-warming!
What I learned from my parents was to live below your income. We are old now, and though we are financially healthy, we have no idea what we can and cannot spend. We figure we are going to end up in a nursing home and they are expensive. Home health care is expensive too.
How much you save by farming is not easy to determine. For example, you have to factor in how much you’d be tempted by new products and all sorts of enticing things displayed.
Thank you for updating The Cast. I had totally forgotten about Carlos IV. (You’ll find me soon enough in the “Memory Care” facility.)
It is hard to work out how much I save by farming, but the first equation would be how much meat and eggs and milk and chicken and vegetables would cost at the supermarket then halve it. That half is what I save. Sometimes between fifty and eighty dollars a week. Nursing homes are expensive, but you are onto it. Many people just rock along imagining things will take care of themselves.. c
Oh one more thing! I love the first photo because I can see the texture of the bark of the tree is similar to Boo’s coat. I wish I could see the bottom of the picture though. I lose about an inch.
Just click on “Thekitchensgarden”, the Headline of thist blog – on the black bar above all… Boo is standing there in full height, proud and in an exact profile – great!
Irmi, thank you thank you thank you! I did it and saw Boo’s piggies!! This is really exciting, because it has been so frustrating not to see the full picture.
I was losing more like 4-5 inches!!!
Me too. That’s normal and everyday it is like this. It’s WordPress. – You just have to go one step back and click on the blog title… Always. And you’ll never lose 4-5 inches again and get always the full picture!! Makes me glad that I could help you!
Love the photo of Poppy and Manu. They make a lovely couple. Kate is so sweet to offer a new cushie for your tushie! I hope you are able to get a new, comfortable chair. I got a new office desk chair for Christmas, and my back is much happier!
Cushie for my tushie! c
I was more or less understanding (though I don’t get the bit about calculating how much you are saving on groceries and taking that out of household expenses because your household budget must already reflect your lower costs, right?) until the end when you said you would put money in your travel account to pay for a new chair. We’ve all heard the expression ‘armchair traveler’ but surely a chair actually IS a household expense. I’m confused.
It is a work in progress.. c
Keep the glass of red wine half full.
I finally solved the “is the glass half full or half empty” saying. It depends on whether you are pouring or drinking it! Lots of love, Gayle
My thoughts exactly.. c
It’s a balance really. Of drinking and pouring.
I understand the drinking bit? I just have trouble with the pouring – need more practice! c
A chair Is something I can supply if you feel like a trip to the city. It needs a home, it’s a comfortable chair, not new, not especially attractive, but newness and beauty are not always that important, it isn’t exactly ugly either. I’ll try and get a photo or two and email them to you if you like. Many and Poppy look quite happy looking out the gate and Boo is just a handsome fellow. Have a wonderful day and stay warm. We’re supposed to have snow later today.
SNOW!! Goodness I had better check the forecast. Thank you for your offer.. I think my chair will toddle along for a wee while yet, with the addition of a new cushion or two .. it was really more of a metaphor.. c
Let me know if you change your mind.
For a while our household was enchanted with playing the local lottery. Just a ‘little bit’ of dollars went that way every week … and then the work group of girls started up another lottery ‘pot’ that we all chipped into. Well, after a year or so we looked up and said, “Hold on. Look how much that added up to after twelve months!” So for one year we put the ‘lottery’ money into a separate line in our budget book. At the end of the year we had enough saved to buy our first computer. For AGES we told people we won the lottery – we won a computer! Lesson learned – a little over a long stretch adds up to a lot!
YES! That is exactly what i am talking about.. great!.. c
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Happy New Year Celi, I wish you all the best for 2016. Great advice on saving…my dear Mom was an expert saver. When my Dad passed away (she was 46) they had no savings and Mom hadn’t worked in years so she pulled up her bootstraps and went to work. Not having much experience or education, she didn’t make a lot of money but she knew how to save. By the time she died about 20 years later, she had amassed about $100K! I was so proud of her.
Wow! That is an amazing amount of money to save in only twenty years. I cannot imagine saving that much – proud indeed!.. c
Oh Celi, I cannot believe how alike we think and function financially . . . and you would never believe my first ‘New Year Save’ is to replace a 50-year old Eames chair I use at the computer in the library: not very healthy for one’s back to sit down ‘clunk’ right onto a frame 🙂 ! And living in the country with a head of thick naturally streaky hair which everyone thinks is the work of an expensive hairdresser, I have been delighted to have learned to do the cutting ‘deed’ in front of the bathroom mirror and still look OK; well, long and straight – no big deal!!! Of course the ‘fun’ bit is that for most of my life money was absolutely no object . . . but that has been another of life’s vagaries . . . 😀 !!
I have never been in a position where I had plenty of money so being careful of spending is second nature.. though it is a fear really. A fear of the poverty that dogged me as a young mother. I NEVER want to go back there.. I have to have some savings to feel safe. Curly hair is so forgiving don’t you think? c
I have been giving a lot of thought on how to establish a working relationship with money something that has always eluded me so your post made all kinds of sense to me.
As Nike says “Just Do It” Love that saying.. c