My husband had hysterics when I told him about my most recent voluntary and unpaid endeavour. When he finished laughing, he sputtered: "You? Writing about ways to save? For a bank?" and then he started laughing again.
Lest you judge my husband, firstly, I already do and second of all it would be disingenuous of me to be upset at his reaction.
You see,
I refer to my husband affectionately as "my boat person."
He came as a child to Australia with his parents, as political refugees from Poland.
They had $200 and 2 suitcases between them. His parents, both highly qualified individuals couldn't work as engineers (the profession both were qualified in ) and he didn't speak a word of English.
Today, his parents having worked every minute since they got here, sometimes at up to four jobs at a time, are financially secure. But my husband is not. Well, he doesn't feel he is. And I get that.
Outwardly, with a degree, an excellent job and a home (heavily mortgaged mind you) he should feel comfortable, but he doesn't. My family often get frustrated at what appears to be a pedantic nature in relation to money. My family will lend money to each other and write if off to "being family." He doesn't.
He is passionate about being debt free and ensuring our children are secure when they grow up. He also wants to instill a savings ethic into them to make them appreciate how lucky they are.
My husband is incredibly generous with his time and will spend hours helping others with building things, installing things, making things. But he's careful about his possessions and careful about money. If I had been forced to leave all of my things as a child, and then live in absolute and utter poverty in a foreign country I'm pretty sure I'd be exactly the same.
As you can imagine though, over the years our biggest fights have usually been about money.
Specifically, his desire to save it, and my desire to spend it.
We already have a little system in place that tracks our spending. It's a little gizmo called iCompta.
But this month I want to try and save money. As much as possible. So I'm putting myself in your hands. I would love for you to tell me your tips for saving and if they are applicable to my little clan I'm going to try them out.
In return I'll randomly pick two winners to recieve these delightful gifts.
They are, ahem, un-given Christmas gifts,
because remember
I'm trying to save money.