Tag: Finances

Travelling Light

What’s your best tip for budget travel?

Tea at Brecon Mountain Centre, Bannau Brycheiniog / Brecon Beacons

First, the answer to this question depends on what is meant by ‘travel’. It would be easy to assume that we are speaking about going to distant lands for whatever reason, but let’s not jump to that conclusion, especially if our purpose is to discuss vacation travel.

Continue reading “Travelling Light”

Everything!

What’s something you do completely differently from how you were raised?

Swathes of Glory

Where do you start with what’s different?

Travel. I take the car nearly everywhere. We couldn’t afford a car when I was growing up. So, we took the bus or walked. And we were fitter.

Food. My parents grew up when food rationing was still in force. So, they’d learned to use ‘alternatives’ like beef dripping (the fat that came from roasting meat) instead of butter. And my mother liked it with salt added. Now we know that’s a recipe for a heart attack. So, some of us try to eat healthier. Although it’s also interesting to watch other people’s eating habits. You’d swear they’re on a mission to see who can have the first heart attack!

And we used to cook from scratch, not check what’s in the freezer to heat in the microwave. Our freezer was the cold larder room at the side of the house. Milk, delivered every day, and butter were kept cold in there, too. Even so, a lot of food had to be bought fresh, or picked from the garden which is now a lawn.

And that meant much less food waste.

Entertainment. For the first 10 years of my life we didn’t have TV, or electricity, for that matter. When we moved into a new local authority house we got a TV, in black and white. Seeing the latest movies meant a trip to the cinema. Now we have home cinemas in glorious colour,  with live pictures streamed from space.

Clothing. I grew up in the days of hand-me-downs. Today’s fast fashion put paid to that. Some of us still try to use clothes until they fall apart, and repair the favourites. But a lot of people have an annual (or more often) change of wardrobe and the old clothes just go in the bin.

Communication. If we wanted to communicate with anyone we either had to write a letter or go to the nearest phone box. Urgent messages would be sent by telegram. We used to watch Thunderbirds on TV and wish we had one of Jeff Tracy’s wall mounted video phones with the portrait of the person at the other end as a screen saver. I realised, a few years ago, when I was driving home one evening and my friend called me from Sri Lanka where he was working, that we now have them in our pockets. We had a long (hands free voice only) conversation and things that needed to be arranged were arranged in minutes instead of weeks.

Is that enough?

But then, times have changed. Do I long for those days? Not really. There are things I try to replicate, like cooking from fresh ingredients as much as possible, and recycling old clothes. Yet, each era has its own charm and advantages. When I was younger, life expectancy was shorter. Things change. And we have to change with them.

The job you want

If the salary was the same, what job would you be doing right now and why?

I’ve always said that I’d rather have a lower paying job that I enjoy than a higher paying job for which I struggle to get out of bed.

The salary isn’t important. If you don’t like the job, or the people you’re working with, you’ll struggle to get up every morning and eventually the salary will not seem as important and you’ll lose it, anyway.

The reality is that most jobs pay a living wage by law. The real problem isn’t the salary; it’s what we do with the salary. When we overspend, we go looking for a high paying job that we don’t like. Far better to live within the means provided by a lower paying job that we enjoy.

One of the things I’ve learned since I’ve retired is that we waste stress on work. Once we leave, someone else takes over. And they could have taken over long ago if we had left sooner. We are not as irreplaceable as we’d like to think.

So, the salary isn’t the important thing. It’s more about enjoying the life you can afford than striving for the one you can’t.

You made a difference

If your future self could send you one sentence, what do you hope it would say?

I would hope that I could look back on my life and say, “You made a difference.”

Many people spend their lives trying to obtain some sort of wealth and so-called success. But what is wealth? What is success?

E told me that her sister, S, was visiting. S, who had no grandchildren, looked around at E’s photos of her grandchildren and said, “I may have money. But your wealth is in these photos.”

Real wealth and real success are in the difference we make in the lives of others.

Enough Really Is Enough

When it comes to the difficulties of obtaining “sufficient for each day,” what do we mean by “sufficient”? When is enough really enough?

Some years ago I was discussing the weekly shop with a colleague. He told me that his wife had been to the local superstore, the previous evening, and returned with a car “full” of bags. She had spent most of the week’s grocery budget. On checking the bags, however, it appeared that there was little food included. As he said, it appeared that the cleaning products, toilet rolls, toothpaste, etc., far outweighed the food.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow developed his theory of The Hierarchy of Needs. In it he proposed that the physiological needs fill the most basic necessities – food and water, among other things. Safety, such as you may consider to be satisfied by cleaning products, comes second. That makes sense. We are not likely to be able to clean the house if we fail to eat or drink for too long a period.

All of this highlights the difficulties of obtaining “sufficient for each day.” What do we mean by “sufficient”?

Advertising Pays – But Not You

Without getting into a lengthy discussion about what we really need, let’s look at the concept of enough.

We are all aware that advertising works. We are all aware that we are influenced by advertising. Even those who say that they are not influenced have been influenced by the advertisements telling them that. In addition, when we visit the store, we know that certain items are displayed in prominent places to encourage us to buy. Consider, for example, why we have to pass through an entire aisle full of sweets (or candy), but then there is another display of the same products next to the checkout. If you take children shopping with you, then you will be aware of the danger zones.

Also, store owners will make a habit of locating those products which they want to sell on the middle shelves of the racks. Why? Because many people are too lazy to stretch to the top shelf or to bend down to the bottom. In fact, it is sad to say that many people in the Western world, today, find it impossible to bend down because of their obesity. Yet the “exercise” of bending down to the lower shelves, where the less fattening products may be stored, could be the best exercise they could wish for. The middle shelves are also at the eye level of children sitting in shopping trolleys.

Then, again, advertisers go out of their way to emphasize that they are being “fair” to their suppliers, that their “carbon footprint” is neutral, or even negative. One of my favourite anomalies in this regard is paying to offset your carbon footprint. With all due respect to those who commendably give consideration to using such a system, would you pay someone else to eat your food?

Enough is Enough

So how can we overcome the tendency to buy more than we need? how can we simplify our lives when it comes to consumer spending? Here are some suggestions that may help. They are by no means exceptional; nor is this a complete list. I’m sure that you could come up with equally valid, if not better ideas of your own. For now, though, this list is meant to get us all thinking about what we use and when enough really is enough.

  • Use a shopping list. This might sound superfluous, but it serves two purposes. First, it prompts you to purchase only those things that you really need, thus providing some protection from consumer advertising. Second, how many times have you returned from the store without the very thing you went to buy? (Yes. I did this, recently. I commented to the store staff that I was walking out with what was, effectively, “a £35 loaf of bread,” only to realise that read was the one thing I had not bought!) A list acts as a prompt to buy what is needed, sufficient for each day.
  • Use cash if possible. In these days of credit buying, it may seem old-fashioned to talk about using cash, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, many stores have abandoned the use of cash. Still, using cash has a remarkable focusing power, especially if you leave your cards at home. When you know that you only have a certain amount of money to spend, it is very difficult to go over that budget.
  • Use a basket instead of a trolly. Shopping trolleys are designed to be filled, and we have an inbuilt distaste for empty space. Why else would we see so many overflowing trolleys at the checkout? Also, as it gets heavier, having to carry a basket will provide a constant reminder not to fill it too full.
  • Use bags and walk or go by public transport. Walking is good for you. However, if you know you will be weighed down by bags of groceries, you will be less likely to purchase more than you need. Don’t be tempted to buy a shopping trolley that you can wheel behind you. That will only encourage over-spending.
  • Look up and down in store. When you are passing through each aisle, do not be tempted to reach for the middle shelf. Check to see if the products on the upper and lower shelves are better value and/or healthier.
  • Don’t be tempted to ‘Buy One Get One Free’. These offers are great – but only if you need the product. How many half-cucumbers have you thrown out? Why? Because you bought one for a salad and it sat in the fridge until it went soft and runny. Only buy more than one if you need it and will use it. Also, check that you really are getting one free. If you could buy one, walk out of the store, walk back in and buy another one, and the total price is less than the offer, then it is not a special offer. Also consider this: If stores are selling two for the price of one, how much money are they making on the product? If they can afford to sell two for the price of one, why don’t they drop the price? If we all refuse to be drawn in by such advertising, then stores will be forced to lower the price for everyone.
  • Look for coupons. But only if you really need the product. The same rules apply to coupons that apply to special offers. The exception is store loyalty cards that give a discount to loyal customers. For example, one major UK supermarket’s loyalty scheme allows customers to obtain items at discounted prices. Having said that, it’s still worth checking if it’s really a bargain. And, with modern technology, you could connect to a rival supermarket to check the price before placing the item in your basket.
  • Check the date. There are a number of reasons to check the date of products. First, if you are not going to use the product before the expiry date, then you do not need it, now. Second, if the product is near the expiry date, maybe the store would consider lowering the price. Third, buying and using a small pot of something about to reach its expiry date may be cheaper than buying a large pot that will waste cupboard space and be thrown out in a few months’ time.
  • Leave the children at home. Not on their own, of course! If you can go shopping without the children, then you will be less subject to emotional pressure to buy things. This is especially true if you have trained your children (even inadvertently) to throw a tantrum when they cannot have their own way.
  • Leave your spouse at home. Many wives lament the fact that, although it’s nice to have someone to carry the shopping, they spend more when their husband goes to the store with them. (As a widower I can see this argument from both sides!)

As mentioned, earlier, these are just some of the suggestions that could help to meet our needs, rather than our wants. I have no doubt that there are many more. However, this list should be enough to get us thinking about when enough really is enough.