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”
Every week when my wages come through, I put about a tenth straight into my savings account. The rest of my money is for my bills, and anything over I can spend on me. I think you need a few treats every now and then! I have a terror of being in debt. That’s partly why I haven’t bought a house yet – I want to save as much as I can first, so I have as little debt as possible, and therefore smaller interest payments.
That is such a sound idea. My Dad always said if you save ten percent a week and NEVER touch it, the interest alone will manage your retirement. I also have no debt – like I say I own very little but when I die no-one will have to pay my debts off. And that is a good thing.. well done Miss Kitty – i agree completely.. c
Coming back to read and catch up on the comments in the Lounge for the third time today, it strikes me that there’s an awful lot of commonsense advice, suggestions and plain old thrift being discussed. Celi, I think there’s a Farmy Book of Household Management waiting in all our heads. How to get four meals out of one chicken. How to save for the big stuff and the small, how to repair and mend things, how to recycle all sorts of things usefully. I’m not suggesting a Mrs Beeton for the modern age, more a slim volume of sound advice, the sort of things our mothers and grandmothers used to hand out and we so rarely listened to properly when we were young. Perhaps ‘Letters to the Next Generation’?
Well, Kate, I am back for the second time – this time to read yours added: that modern version of ‘Mrs Beeton’ would be a shoo’in methinks, fun to write and useful to read! And everyone would have something to say 🙂 !!
YES! It is called Letters to My Baby Girl! I hope to fill it with these kinds of things.. c
Laughing!! I guess you DO have a point, Miss C . . . I just thought that book was meant to contain deep and meaningful and soulful psychological utterances 😀 !! Teachings of where both generations may have gone ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ !!! I am still ‘out’ as my two surely don’t have to count the ‘noughts’ on anything they spend . . . a story which those close know but won’t be told in public forum . . . nope, methinks what Kate has suggested is something a wee bit different . . .
Yes Eha. This book is not about personal revelations not at all -though some of it is personal – it even has recipes in it… and tips on how to get red wine out of the carpet.. and how to survive with cancer and how to say thank you – though I am collating it so slowly my daughter will be writing it herself before long!! laughing.
And there would be something to learn for all of us, I think, as our circumstances, past and lives are all so different and the acquired wisdom would be different too. I would love to pass on the clever, commonsense and frugal habits I received from my mother, but having no children I feel as if the knowledge will go to waste unless I *do* something with it!
Well, we are having a rash of appliances breaking down. I managed to diagnose and fix the refrigerator. Next on the list is the washer, leaking and not staying locked (the door). Then, on to the stove. One of burners quit working. YouTube videos are wonderful!!! If I can see it done, I should be able to fix them and save a lot of money. Of course, my car is misbehaving, so the savings will probably go to the mechanic. So good about the happy porcine couple.
Hi Kim! That kind of stuff always happens at the same time! John has fixed our dryer, I threw out the dishwasher no-one could fix it, and in the end we swapped the fridge as no-one could find the leak and it was ruining the floor so hopefully that will be all for a wee while.. John watches those utubes too – they are very useful! c
too true! Not moving the money does not make “cents” .
Perfect!! c
I’m funny about saving. I have a 401k and money put by for retirement and for Kelsea’s college. But I hide money from myself and call it savings. If I find money in the laundry or when I clean out a purse, it goes under the proverbial mattress and I consider it untouchable until it’s time to go somewhere tropical. Then it becomes spending money.
A timely post, Celi, as I scramble to fund my upcoming return to San Marino. That could be my 2nd book, “Italy on a Shoestring.” 🙂
This part of our life is exactly like yours…trying to save the money to do the simplest things after paying to stay alive. Jenny is a master of the wallet system and is in fact a master of all things financial. I, on the other hand, am, and always have been, a wastrel and spendthrift which is how we find ourselves in this predicament:)
At the risk of sounding all gushy, I love the way your mind works! I really do. Well done, as usual. (The piggies are darling.They actually look like a happy couple. Do you think they’ll feel monogamous after a while?)
Hi C,
The thought of replacing my dishwasher surface a couple of days ago when I found part of the door seal on the bottom of the dishwasher……………very brittle and dry. I worked on the principle it must have been like that for ages, after all its 28 years old. Put another load of dishes through yesterday and all good!
[…] my favourite of all time. The blog’s resident genius, Cecilia, posted a while back about the joys and ways of saving for something you really want. In her case, it was travel, to visit her far flung children on the other side of the […]
Your post just showed up in my suggestions after adding my money saving post. I have never seen so irrelevant pictures to the post topic, but you know what? That actually made me click on your post and I will stay longer 🙂 Hopefully you will get your new chair soon. Best wishes xxx
Oh yes! I do that all the time – talk about one thing while looking out the window at something else! Love that you pointed it out! and no! I am still sitting on the old chair! and travelling again! c