Biscuits and Budgets

We're going through a major biscuit phase right now in this house. Actually I hope it's not just a phase. Homemade biscuits, the smell of them baking in the oven and wafting through the house, eating them while they're still warm. Hokey pokies, white choc chip, jam drops, lemon biscuits. Still to make chocolate biscuits, maybe next week. But not before another batch of jam drops because they're my favourites.

We've also been looking closely at our budget, which is always fun [no seriously, one ex-accountant and one current accountant, don't we sound like fun people?]. I recently got my hands on the book Down to Earth written by Rhonda Hetzel, who also writes the blog of the same name [link here]. One method she suggests in working out your budget is to track every single thing you spend money on for a month, and see exactly where the money goes. 

We did it! Or have almost done it. Tracked all our expenses for a month that is. And it has been a very interesting exercise. I can tell you that our spending behaviour changed in doing this. As in, do I really want to write down that I spent $2 on a bar of chocolate, again? No, I do not because it's embarrassing. I guess a good way to describe it would be that we are becoming mindful of what we spend money on, and not just spending on autopilot. 

Rhonda also suggests paying in cash for purchases, which helps become aware of just how much money we spend on things. When you see a $50 note disappearing, it has more of an impact than just another swipe of the card. So we've been trying this too. I have to say I'm enjoying in. I feel like we're in control of where our money is going, not just getting to the end of the week and wondering where our money went. And if we don't carry cash with us, then - we don't buy anything! Simple. 

One evening during the week I had to duck across the road to the general store [have I said how much I love this very small town?] and get cotton balls. We were also out of chocolate in the house, so I figured I would get us a block while I was at it. Because we don't like not having chocolate in the house. I took $22.30 from our grocery cash - a $20 note and the $2.30 in change. The cotton balls cost $2.20. So do you know what I did? I decided that I did not want to break a $20 note for a block of chocolate, and that I would go home and make a batch of biscuits instead.

I like this budgeting thing. I get to eat homemade biscuits. Yum.