No problem, just go and buy her a new T-shirt! That’s what you would think- except Teag’s wanted a “Billabong” T-shirt for $45. Now here comes the crunch. Teag’s did need a new T shirt but wanted a more expensive one than I, as a parent, was prepared to pay for. Now you can call me tight, but what I was trying to teach Teaghan was the difference between a want and a need. I could fulfil the need with an excellent quality “bonds” T shirt for $20. Let’s face it, they are good enough for Pat Rafter, but Teaghan wanted a $45 Billabong one.

 I explained to her I was quite happy to fund up to $20 to fulfil the need, but if she “wanted” the Billabong, she would need to fund the difference with her own money or earn some money by doing extra jobs around the house.

 No problem as Teaghan agreed on the extra jobs to fund her new T shirt.

 The upshot of this is that the T shirt is hers because she wanted it and was prepared to put in that extra bit to fulfil the want. As a parent, I am proud of her because now she is aware of the difference between a want and a need.

p.s I did buy the T shirt for her and Teaghan is paying me back each week - I’m not that mean!

 As adults how many times have we “wanted” something, but did we really “need” it?

 Think about something you wanted and just had to have but didn’t really need it.

p.s Shopping at Bunnings doesn’t count!

 125ml (1/2 cup) light soy sauce

• 80ml (1/3 cup) honey
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 12 chicken drumsticks

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Combine soy sauce, honey, lemon juice and garlic in a bowl and mix well.

Place the chicken drumsticks in an ovenproof dish in a single layer and pour the marinade over the top.

Cover the dish with foil and cook drumsticks in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the juices run clear when the drumsticks are pierced in the thickest part.

Turn the drumsticks and baste them with the marinade every 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, drain off marinade and cool to room temperature.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.

If you want to reheat the drumsticks, preheat the oven to 140ºC. Place the drumsticks in an ovenproof dish and reheat them for 10 minutes or until heated through.

 Linda’s debts were certainly quite large and, as Linda explained, she had resorted to re-financing her home loan which provided a temporary fix but she had very quickly slid back into arrears with her mortgage repayments.

 Then the “saviour” arrived - no not me but a pre-approved credit card application for $25,000 - just sign and send it back. Wow, thought Linda, I’m saved. Now I know you are sitting there reading, thinking, how could you be so silly? Well, in desperate times, we do desperate things and of course once this had been used up, she still had to pay it back - Banks are funny like that!

As Linda put it to me when we sat down over a coffee she had a problem and she had been in denial about it.

 When I asked her what her husband thought, she confided that she hadn’t told him as he let her manage all the finances - he didn’t know the extent of their debt and how this poor woman through good intent had been going through hell, trying not to worry him.  It gets worse before it gets better. The next thing I know is they have put the house on the market to get out of their problem - by this time Linda had told her husband and, all credit to him, Peter, though understandably not happy, loves his wife and was prepared to work through the problem together. 

 I had Linda draw up a budget with Peter and put in everything, warts & all.  After going through their expenditure which I had to look at several times, because I kept thinking to myself, this is too simple, I’m missing something, but it just kept hitting me in the face - their phone bills, home and mobile were their next biggest expense after food and mortgage.  Linda had become a depressed shopper, no not in buying things, but by talking to friends & relatives - this was her release from the “financial nightmare”, her feel good fix to help her stop thinking about her problems. Once we had uncovered this, Linda disciplined herself in the way she used her phone. They have gone from overspending to now being able to save some money, but more importantly their house - no need to sell it now.

 Linda took the time to draw up a realistic budget and apply a little discipline and her husband is now involved in helping her with the finances. As the old saying goes “Linda could not see the forest for the trees”.

 The points that I took from the meeting and working with this couple are:

> Be honest with yourself regarding your debt

> Reassess your spending (Yes! Do a Budget)

> Set some goals and review, review, review, and if you have a partner involve them so that you have a common goal.

Start with small, achievable ones that keep you motivated.

Write them down. Include your partner in framing it.

4 diced bacon rashers

1 cup grated carrot

1 chopped medium onion

Chopped green capsicum

4 beaten eggs

2 cups grated tasty cheese

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 cup milk

Method:

Mix all ingredients together and place in a greased 23cm pie dish.  Cook in a moderate oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on your oven.

Makes 24

Special Info:

Egg free, Nut free

Ingredients:

• ½ cup (125mL) honey
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 125g butter
• 3 cups rolled oats (see note for GF)
• 1 cup rice bubbles
• 1 cup sultanas
• ½ cup chopped apricots or dates or choc chips
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• ¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seed kernels), sunflower or sesame seeds

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease and line a slice tray (mine is 31 cm x 22cm) with baking paper.

Combine honey, sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until butter melts and sugar dissolves.

Bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes or until syrup thickens slightly.

Remove from heat.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

Pour over the hot syrup and stir to combine.

Spoon into prepared pan and press firmly to make sure the mixture will stick together.

I wet my fingers with a bit of cold water and press the top to get a smooth finish.

Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Cool and then refrigerate until well chilled and cut into 24 slices (about 2cm x 6cm).

Notes:

• To make these muesli bars gluten free, use 2 cups of crushed cornflakes and 2 cups of rice bubbles.
• The mixture has a total of 1½ cups of dried fruit - use whatever combination you or your kids prefer.
• I have to put some obvious choc-chips on the top so my son will tolerate the sultanas.
• And let’s not mention the sunflower seeds.
• You could use half honey, half smooth peanut butter in the ‘syrup’ or add nuts to the mixture, but as most schools are nut-free now I have omitted these from the basic mix.

Recipe created by Melissa Hughes for Kidspot.

The problem with cash flow is that we know exactly how much we earn, either by payslip, or what appears in our bank account, and it is finite in other words what you see is what you get.  Where our cash flow comes unstuck is our spending.  For some of us it’s infinite, in other words we just spend and usually more than we earn.  How does this wondrous thing work you might ask - well for most of us it’s called credit.  Now let’s just get one thing straight at this point it’s not credit its DEBT.  Credit is good, debt is bad.  Every time we use our credit card we are going further into debt but of course we only use it in an emergency and we always pay the whole lot off at the end of the month - yeah right!  Some do, I must admit, but for the majority of us we juggle.  Why not take out your credit cards now and write the word DEBT in permanent marker on them so that every time you use them you know that unless you have a plan or dare I say it a “BUDGET” in place to pay the card off each month you are just adding to your DEBT.  By the way the record I have seen is 27 credit (DEBT) cards with $177,000 of DEBT for one lady.  Oh yes and before I forget did you recently receive your Group Certificate - and like the majority utter the usual standard phrase that most of us utter every year when we receive it - bl..dy h..ll where did that go?

Mmmmmm, beginning to understand the term cash flow now, simply put, money flows in - INCOME - (or in most of our cases, trickles) then the money flows out - EXPENDITURE - what you spend.  The sad thing here is we know what we earn but have no idea what we spend or where, in most cases.  Take heart, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Let’s make is very simple.  Carry a small notebook with you and start recording everything you spend.  It doesn’t matter how little, a cup of coffee, paper, but write it down.  This is not so that you can become a sado-masochist and beat yourself up or your partner for that matter but so that you can see where you spend your money and how much.  This recording is the first step in you controlling your finances rather than your finances controlling you.  Sounds easy, well try it, what do you have to lose or better still if it all sounds too hard then call ihatebudgets and get us to help you.

Obviously the first question I asked him was how he was finding the ihb budget system.  “Boring” was his reply, to which I must say I was a little taken aback.  I was expecting great, really good or some other form of accolade but boring - no way.

I quickly asked what he meant by his comment.  Well he said “life in general is now pretty boring because of ihb”.  He went on to further explain.  Because he was now in control of his finances he and his wife no longer fought and he was able to sleep in his own bed all the time rather than camping out on the lounge every now and then.  The bank manager no longer called because his credit card and mortgage were not only up to date but had excess in both.

When the water board or Integral energy pulled up at the front it was to read the meter and not disconnect their water or power, he now enjoys dinner by candlelight because he can, rather than has to.  He has planned in conjunction with his wife the families annual holidays and going somewhere they want to rather than have to.  He went on to tell me how sorry he felt for the major department stores as he had paid out his store cards and was no longer paying 20% plus interest to these companies. 

The excitement had gone out of shopping because he now knew how much was in their bank account and did not have to add up all the grocery items he put in the basket.

All in all he said life financially was not pretty boring but he would not have it any other way.  He paid for the coffees and wrote the cash down in his “dork/notebook” to record later.

How exciting is your life - like a little financial boredom then contact us about ihatebudgets and see how the ihatebudgets system can take the financial rollercoaster out of your life.