To drive, or not to drive.

We couldn’t go car-less for the following reasons:

• We don’t have great public transport where we live.  Taking the bus at least doubles our journey time to most places, especially since we rarely experience traffic congestion.  Most services run 20, 30 or 60 minute intervals; changing services can mean a long wait. 
• Only a few of the bus routes operate on a Sunday; the route we live on doesn’t. 
• A lot of places we might go with friends and family, including friend’s houses, aren’t accessible by public transport.
• We have small children and riding bikes isn’t an option, especially at night.

We do try and go car-light:

• We only have one car. My husband takes it to work 2-3 days a week, I drop him off and pick him up the other days.  In four years this has hardly been an issue.  Once a week the boys and I get dropped off in the morning, then we catch the bus home from playgroup.  
• We are now experimenting with my husband catching the bus home from work one day a week.  It’s a half hour round trip to pick him up from work. If he is able to get the right bus, he can get home in less than 40 mins for the same cost of fuel to pick him up.  If he can’t get that bus, it’s about 15 minutes on the bus, then a few minutes each way to pick him up from where that bus stops (or a 25 minute walk home). 
• I don’t make special trips. If I need to go to a specific place, I do it to/from work or kindy pick up/drop off, and group together things in the same area of town.
• My husband has tried riding home from work, but has had a few problems with his bike and hasn’t got around to fixing them.  It’s too far and too hot for him to ride to work in the mornings.
• We have Big Boy’s name down for school next year at the same school as my husband works at, partly to cut down on time I spend ferrying people around.  

Future considerations: 

• If we were to move house, we would consider location in relation to riding distance from work and proximity to bus stops.   Our town does have great bike paths right along the river.
• Child restraint laws are pretty stringent in Australia.  Big Boy still has 2 1/2 years sitting in a booster seat, and God-willing we hope to have a third child in that time. Three car seats probably won’t fit in the back of our current car, so if we need to change cars we will get the smallest and most economical car for our needs. 
• My estimate is that insurance, registration (state taxes) and maintenance probably costs us $2200 a year, or $6 a day.  By driving less, we have less wear and tear on the vehicle which means longer time between things like new tyres and new brakes, but we can’t reduce much more by driving less.   I think $6 a day depreciation is an appropriate figure, considering the price we paid for our car and what we could get for it now.  Driving less might help with depreciation.  Less kilometres on the clock should mean more value when selling.

I would consider catching the bus more often but the only place the bus runs to is the shops, and I’m trying to avoid the shops!  We could catch the bus into the museum/aquarium.  It would be an hour on the bus each way, plus a 750m walk each way (according to Google maps), and it would cost $3.90 each way in bus fares. Alternatively, we could catch the bus from my husband’s work (15 minutes from home), which would be 20 minutes into the same bus stop, for $3.50.  That would be during peak hour, and I don’t like the idea of taking the pram on the bus in peak hour (I have a much smaller stroller, but Little Boy is still too young for it). My husband still has to get to work, which is about $2.50 in fuel.    Total cost for the day would be $9.40 - $9.90, with about 2 hours travel time (including the walk). 

The other option is to drive the 17km, dropping off my husband on our way, and stopping for a play at a park or running an errand in the time before the aquarium opens, parking just outside the aquarium, then driving the 17km home again, then having to go pick up my husband from work in the afternoon, which is roughly a 20km round trip.  Fuel for the day would cost $6 - $7, total travel time would be a little under an hour and a half, but I would also have to pay parking fees of no more than $3.  

I can’t think of many other places we go that we could catch the bus, that isn’t already on the way to or from work. 

We have no trouble living with one car, but it is not realistic for us to have no car. 

Cupboards Full of Nothing

After the pest control man came and sprayed my house for cockroaches, he said there are a lot of eggs around.  I need to get rid of all the eggs, because each one contains another 30 cockroaches.  Getting any housework done with a 4-year-old and 3-month-old who both need little sleep and a lot of attention from mummy is a task and a half to start with, let alone trying to clean out cupboards as well!

But, I'm trying my hardest to get it done before he comes back for a re-inspection tomorrow.

I'd not actually noticed the eggs before.  I've seen the cockroaches, but not the eggs.  And, after cleaning out the cupboards, I know why.  The cockroaches are living in, and laying eggs in, the cupboards I don't access regularly. Why don't I access those cupboards?  Mostly because the stuff in them is stuff that I don't use.

I just found a platter full of dead cockroach bits that I didn't remember I had, don't remember where I got it from, and don't remember having used.  I'm not disgusted easily, but I am this week.

Here's to a less cluttered and more clean house!

One Less Bowl

I had a bowl in my kitchen that contained a collection of rubber bands and the twist ties that come on our loaves of bread. And some marbles. No idea where the marbles came from!

We buy more bread than we use twist ties.  I know I use them, but I can't think what for, so I kept ten and a few rubber bands.

The rest went in the bin, and I'll check that my husband doesn't have any sentimental attachment the bowl before I give it away.

One less thing on my kitchen bench.

Too many meals!

Not that long ago I made a list of all the different meals my family likes to eat. Given that in our house there are only 2 adults, one small child and a baby, lots of meals I can make one night and we eat leftovers on a second night.   

According the list, and the number of meals from each dish, it would take us 110 nights to get through the list if I only made everything once.  3 1/2 months!  

Every Friday we eat pizza - usually home made - and on Sunday nights we have something simple, like cheese on toast, or baked beans or scrambled eggs on toast.  That leaves us with five nights a week, so it would take us five months to get through the list.

Add into the mix that we spend anything up to a month each year on holidays or visiting relatives, and we eat out 1-3 times a month, so if I cycled through our whole list and never tried anything new, we would only eat the same thing (other than pizza!) twice a year!  

This tells me that I need to do one of two things:

1. cut back on the number of different things we eat, or
2. not keep the ingredients for every possible dish in my pantry

I’m not much of a meal planner.  I tend to go the shops, see what is a good price, then decide what we’ll eat for the next few days.  The thought of deciding on Monday what to eat for the next seven days stresses me a little. Well, a lot.  I sort of freeze up and can’t think what we could possibly even eat.  I don’t like too much structure to follow, but then I don’t like to get to 5pm and wonder what we’re eating tonight.  I guess that explains having so many ingredients stored in my pantry.  

I probably need to strike a happy medium.  I usually do the grocery shopping once a month, then top up with fruit, vegetables, meat and milk once a week.   If I made a rough list once a month of meals we might eat this month, then I could make sure I’ve got the pantry staples for those things when I do my monthly shop rather than buying an item just because I used it up last month.   If I was really organised, I could even assess what is in my pantry and see if something, like a half packet of split peas, needs to be used up that month rather than it sitting in the cupboard for a year (or more!).  I don’t need to keep a packet of split peas in the cupboard for in case I decide to make pea and ham soup. I have to buy the ham bones anyway, so why not buy the peas too? 

I could also cut a few things off my list.  I’ve never been that successful making my own felafel, and as much as we love sushi, the effort it takes for me to make it isn’t really worth it.  If we want to eat those foods maybe we should leave them to when we are on holidays and eat out more.  

My grandparents’ generation, and even my parents’ to a large extent, just ate meat and three veg every night, with the occasional casserole or roast thrown in the mix. I wonder if that is better or worse than the vast amount of choice we have today?

Where I’ve come from - the last straw

My second son was born two weeks after my 30th birthday.  He’s three months old now. The pregnancy had taken it’s toll on me.  I get tired so easily, and pregnancy makes me tired.  I spent the whole nine months with very little energy, and what energy I had was given over to my older son, who is four, and has an incredibly active mind needing a lot of stimulation.  Plus, I spent a lot of time procrastinating. 

The baby was born, and I was then really unable to do much more at all than looking after the baby.  Just like his older brother, he isn’t so keen on sleep. I could not see any time in the foreseeable future when I was going to do all the things on my list that I had procrastinated , and I had a little meltdown.   The house was getting messier and messier.  The list of things I needed, not wanted, needed, to do was getting longer because I was putting them off too.   

And gifts were pouring in. Gifts for the new baby.  Gifts for my older son, congratulating him on becoming a big brother.  Gifts for my husband from his students for the end of year. Then Christmas.   I was feeling ungrateful every time something else arrived for the baby because he didn’t need any new clothes or new toys - we had everything left from our first baby! 

I was craving simplicity.  I just wanted things to be simple and straightforward. That way I could have time to spend with my husband and my children, and not feel guilty that I hadn’t finished things or that I wasn’t meeting other people’s expectations.    I had been striving for simplicity for so long, but was making it too complicated.  

But then signing back in to Google Reader on the iPod Touch while rocking the baby one night, I was reminded about minimalism.  I used to read lots and lots of blogs, and after culling them by half to try and regain some time back, I simply stopped reading all together.  Some on finance, some on housekeeping, some friend’s blogs.  So I’d read about minimalism before. 

And that’s what I wanted.  Just the basics.  Just what we need as a family.  Not what everyone else tells us we need.  It’s what I had been searching for all these years. 

I’m starting to feel a little freer already.

Where I’ve come from - a catalyst for change

During my uni days my bedroom was getting more and more jam packed.  I hated it, because it was always so messy.  I found it too stressful to work in, and found myself studying either at the dining table or the library.  My sister hated it, too, because she shared the room with me.  It was the size of two bedrooms, but we still had to share. My sister is a bit of a neat freak.  I sometimes wonder if that’s my fault... 

I wished at the time that I didn’t have so much stuff.  I wanted to be the sort of person who could just put everything they owned into the back of a car.  I didn’t realise that I could have been that if I wanted to.  Instead, I chose what seemed a whole heap cooler at the time - the sort of person who bought a new CD every week or two.  I listen to very few of those CDs anymore.  I know now that spending breeds spending

I left home and had not one car boot full of my stuff, but probably five or six. Or maybe more.  I couldn’t take it all with me at once.  My sister was moving town at the same time, so my parents got a big trailer and moved us both at once.  Just that stuff filled the boot and backseat of my sedan. Twice.  And I’d left stuff back home.  

I moved house twice while I lived in that town. The second one was into my husband’s house when we got married.  It was a big effort to move, both times.  I didn’t realise that it didn’t need to be.  

But then, a few months after we were married, we decided to pack up and head overseas for two years.  We were only taking what we needed for the two years with us.  Everything else was going into storage.  

As I began packing things into boxes to go into the storage facility I kept thinking but what if I don’t want this in two years time?    But, we were busy getting the house ready for renting it out and didn’t have time to properly go through stuff.  I got rid of quite a few things, but could have got rid of so much more.  I didn’t realise that I was right, and I was going to be storing stuff that I just got rid of when it came out of boxes two years later.  

I didn’t bring anything home with me that I didn’t want, when we came back to Australia.  I gave bags and bags of stuff to the girl who looked after our house.  She was so grateful, because she only earned a few dollars a day and couldn’t afford much.  

Then I had my very own house for the first time.  A whole house.  With just my stuff in it. (As opposed to moving into my husband’s house that he had already furnished himself.)  And I was in it all day most days, because I was now home with a baby.  And it wasn’t just my room that was messy - it was the ENTIRE HOUSE.   That’s when I started decluttering a little here and there, but unfortunately, I was still buying stuff and hoarding it. It’s been a very gradual process, thus far, but I can honestly see a difference between now and when we moved in here.

Where I’ve come from - the stuff

I keep stuff I don’t need.  I buy stuff I don’t need.  I buy more than I need. I buy things and keep things for ‘just in case’.  I think I’m saving money when I buy something on a really good special, not realising that if I never use it then the money is wasted.  

When I was studying English Literature, I would scour the secondhand bookshops for my required texts, but came home with three other books I wanted to read, but not necessarily the book I needed.   It would have been cheaper to go straight to the Uni bookshop!

My friends and I would go ‘op-shopping’.  I don’t know what you call it in your part of the world, but we would jump in the car and go to four or five different charity stores.  In Australia we call them op (opportunity) shops, or Vinnie’s (St Vincent De Paul) and Salvo’s (Salvation Army) and or Lifeline, after names of shops.  We could go looking for outfits for fancy dress parties, or dress up nights at youth group (a couple of us were leaders), or just funky outfits.  I could easily go for a morning op-shopping with the girls and spend $20 or $30, and never spend more than $5 on a piece of clothing.  I’d go by myself other times.  I was buying all my clothes cheap - I was, and still am a little, into the retro look - but buying so many of them.   I did get a lot of bargains.  A dress for 10c, that I got a lot of wear out of, and is still hanging in my cupboard because I love it and haven’t been willing to part with it yet.  A pin-stripe suit for $1.  I gave that back to Salvos a few weeks ago.   

When I was studying Education I would collect things that would be useful for teaching.  I was going to be teaching Music and English, so I collected up books and CDs and sheet music.  They would all come in handy if I were to be teaching a unit on that particular topic! 

I love to sew and make things.  I have unfinished craft projects, and untouched fabric and craft materials dating back over ten years.  

Since having a family I stockpile food and clothes and toiletries and games and activities.

I could go on, but I won’t.  I need to put an end to buying things for in case I need them, and then not using them.