Money and Budgets [Stuff and Nonsense?]

In my last post I talked about how we have been looking at our budget lately and making some changes to our spending behaviour. I wanted to talk a little bit more about that, and just why we're doing this. Do you find talking about money to be a taboo topic? Sometimes it can be. But this is why I'm talking about it.

More biscuits

I neither like nor dislike money - it's just a thing. It only exists because people need a standardised way to ascribe a 'value' to things. So when you take a job, you're trading your time for money. You are essentially putting a dollar value on your time. I left my last job, mainly because I didn't have enough work to do, and my employer wouldn't consider a drop back to part-time hours. Ultimately, I valued my time more than what I was being paid to sit at a desk with not enough work to do. I valued being at home, working in the vegie garden, implementing a more sustainable way of life, studying for a different future, above the money I was earning in that job. And I'm extremely lucky to have been able to make that decision - see my post on living a simpler, cheaper country life here for more about that.

My ultimate goal is to be free from the burden of having to work for money, and instead be able to work doing something meaningful, for me, about which I am passionate. The ultimate freedom to to be free of obligation, free of financial commitment, free to do that which inspires me [us]. We still have a mortgage to pay, small as it may be compared to a city house mortgage, and the sooner it is gone, the better for us. So this is where having a good look at our budget comes into play. Any extra cash that we can throw towards that mortgage right now, is going to see it paid off sooner, even little bits here and there. And we're simplifying our lives further in the process - learning to plan our meals better, to shop less often, to make do if we don't have something on hand.

Any little savings we make are going back on to the mortgage. For example, we had too many bank accounts between us, and were paying minimum monthly fees of $12 on them. Closing these accounts frees up $12 to go onto the mortgage each month. It's not much, it's certainly not an amount we would notice having or not having to spend each month. But it makes a noticeable difference over the life of our mortgage. Same goes for any money left over from our grocery budget. Extra bits of money going onto the mortgage, which otherwise wouldn't be there, because we're choosing to be that bit more careful with our spending. I ask myself the question, would I rather have a block of chocolate now or the mortgage paid off sooner - sometimes chocolate still wins, but the mortgage is winning more than it used to. And it will make a difference.

So that is why we're looking at our budget. It is helping us to simplify our lives more, and identify areas where we can make small changes to our behaviour now, that will have long term benefits for our family. There are lots of other things in the pipeline to help us further along this path, which I'll post more about as they come to life. For now, I feel very empowered for making the little life changes that we are. I certainly don't feel like I'm missing out on anything - quite the opposite in fact. And it feels good.