A realisation...

I simply am going to have to break some of my rules :( I'm not very happy about it but I also have to remind myself that first and foremost is my girls health...

What AM I rambling about you ask?! OK as you know we are now underway on our special Biomedical Intervention Program to help my beautiful girls and on Day 18 I can honestly say I have seen some massive improvements so it is absolutely worth it... BUT it is costing us more than our old lifestyle for groceries (we need to eat around 1kg of meat per day as well as making EVERYTHING from scratch from specific order in only ingredients) and also as part of the requirement so avoid contamination things relating to food/meals/eating etc need to be bought new.

So how am I going to work around this... Well for starters we are no longer allowed take away so any money spent there previously can now be diverted to our Grocery category, as can $90 per month that was in our Medical Budget as that is the amount we have reduced our pharmacy costs by already (and will continue to no longer need YAY!), as can all those little things that add up like a snack when out shopping and fuel spent going to our hospital and driving for over half an hour to find a car park when collecting feeding tube supplies etc... So financially I don't see us being any worse off (although today I will be doing my first analysis for an entire fortnight on the program).

BUT I cannot avoid having to purchsae some new things for the kitchen - for example I have had to replace a lot of things including our toaster, and we have also needed some new equipment that I didn't have (waffle cone maker) and things like this need to be new to avoid any cross-contamination. I have also purchased some new easter egg moulds because for the very first year ever my baby girls can have a special chocolate concotion for easter! And again, to avoid any contamination I have had to buy new.


I think I am going to add a clause in the pledge that allows purchases NEEDED (not wanted) due to the BIP to be brand new without necessarily meeting all our other criteria. What do you think? Is it a cop-out or am I really justified?

Unfortunatley though this past fortnight has been an expensive one... our new laptop arrived, and we had to replace our stove. With the stove I opted to purchase one from the only local supplier able to offer me local service/parts/assistance etc. They are locally owned/operated and stock an amazing range of spare parts in store and have qualified staff to do the repairs. It wasn't the cheapest stove we could have bought, but it was the one from the supplier that we felt was right for such a purchase. And I am now back in baking heaven as things are turning out due to a stove that works!

I'll be reporting back in the next few days regarding our fortnightly analysis, but I wanted to get all this down for now and get some feedback...

Theresa

I've fallen off the wagon...help me back on

Sad but true, I've had a rough couple of weeks and my emotional consumer has broken loose and I need to contain her.

We are now at Day 9 of our new Program and its certainly been a tough 9 days... forcing medication into children, learning new recipes, convincing kids to eat (still struggling immensely with this one), and of course dealing with the many side effects of our new medication regime...

As a result I have not been as on top of things as I like to be and yesterday whilst out with a friend looking for clothes for her I spotted Organic Cotton T Shirts at Big W and without very many second thoughts (my pledge crossed my mind and went out equally as quickly), I was at the checkout paying $29 for two shirts.... OK so its not a huge amount and I do have 2 new organic cotton T's and I have been needing T's, but its not the point - my emotions got the better of me and I bought. Earlier in the week I read about a great deal from an online retailer giving discounts and free shipping and so I also bought some Organic Bamboo Bed Linen for $50 - again not an enormous amount, an environmentally friendly choice and something we need, but not something so in need that could justify my wanton spending without consideration.

So, how do you cope when you have an overwhelming urge to purchase and the thoughts of your Consumption Challenge aren't enough to curb the urge?

I am not even going to report in on my last fortnightly analysis... again, groceries were just ridiculous and I am honestly too embarrassed to admit what we spent.

There is some good to come of the past 9 days though - my grocery costs have become ridiculously small! I am still spending a considerable amount on meat, but the total so far this fortnight is much less than any other fortnight to date and meat is really the only thing I can buy commercially.

I'm definitely feeling the urges to spend more at the moment whilst I am under extra emotional stress so I'm hoping that a couple more weeks into our program things will have settled down and these urges will have dissipated.

Oh and there has been one considerable purchase - we have ordered a new laptop - this PC is on its last legs and we need a computer so after almost 2 weeks weighing up the pro's and con's of all the available laptops we have ordered one that should arrive early next month.


Hopefully I'll have a more positive post next time...

Love
Theresa

SO how was our second weeks Budget vs Spending?!

Finally I have a few minutes to blog!

It was actually almost 10 days ago now that I did our second analysis, but here's the results:
Groceries overspent by $126... but that includes putting new batteries in every torch and getting some extra bread and meat for our non-event of a flood, so I'm ok with that.
Household - UNDER by $20 YAY
Dining Out/Takeaway - only spent $68 this fortnight which is a lot less than last fortnight so its a bit of progress.

In other areas of spending we are all within budget so I feel confident we are going to do OK once we really get into the swing of it all :D

As for our Budget for our Biomedical Intervention Program...

Well we set ourselves a Budget of $2000 to cover the replacement of the *contaminated* appliances/equipment, purchase of new needs, the program Fee and any other incidentals that may crop up. Food and anything else prescribed was to hopefully be met out of our grocery budget.

So far we have spent $306 on the replacing/purchasing of equipment and $1440 on the program fee and our first food order for a total of $1746 INCLUDING food! I'm really happy with that and am glad that includes food!

I think we will also find a massive financial benefit as we have today and tomorrow left of our *old* lives which includes takeaway, then we will be on a strict diet regime with NO takeaway included at all so even if our food does cost a little more than regular food, its still got to be less than adding in our current takeaway expenditure. Although saying that, this fortnight will include a fair bit as we are having our *last* of a few things for a long time - our last chinese, our last thai... etc!

Refashionista's - Now February was the start of my two month pledge and I haven't bought ANY clothing for any of us! I do have a pile of clothes that I have dug out that can be refashioned, but I just need to find the time! In my pile I have:

• A pair of old jeans to turn into a denim skirt
• A pair of old tailored pants with a stain on the leg to turn into shorts
• Another pair of pants to turn into shorts (why exactly do I have so many long pants in the middle of Central Qld?)
• A floaty skirt to tailor down so it doesn't blow up every time I set foot outside the door!

I've finished the last quarters BAS's for my bookkeeping clients so i'm hoping that my *work* nights can become sewing nights! I still have to finish a dress I cut out for Em ages ago too!

Here's a pic of the floaty skirt - I think I'm just going to unpick the side seams and trim out all the curve! What do you think - will that work?



I also need to get googling and find a tute on how to turn the jeans into a skirt (I know I've seen one SOMEWHERE!) so if you do happen across it let me know!

I think that's enough of me today!

Theresa

So I bought it...

ugghhh that is a phrase I used to say a LOT and I have used it again today and HATE it.

As mentioned in my previous post, we are about to start on this Biomedical Intervention Program for our girls, and it involves replacing a considerable amount of stuff around the house. We did up a bit of a budget to replace these things, and have been discussing water filtration as all cooking and drinking water needs to be filtered, as well as discussing lockable storage cabinets for our shed to lock things like the dog food etc in that does have ingredients that will be banned, but obviously we need to feed our dog, so Pete will be doing this.

Anyway, I went out this morning armed with my list and bought the things I needed to buy (about to compare budget to actuals very soon but I think I did ok), but whilst I was out, I found the water filters that you can attach to your tap for $60 down from $90 at Big W. So I bought it.... and I hate that I have just bought it because we haven't actually discussed exactly which method of filtration we are going to use, but (and here I go justifying it again), I felt I couldn't let that saving pass and if we do take a while to decide exactly and have to order something in etc, at least we can now use filtered water in the kitchen regardless.

I must admit though that it was super easy to install, so I have done it myself already and it is excellent! Our water has been extra chloriney lately (I suspect due to floodwaters!), and I just had my first glass in ages straight from the tap that I actually enjoyed - usually I have water from my filtered jug that lives in the fridge so the ants dont get in, but I am not a fan of cold water.

I will report back later in the week once I have completely finished picking up the few extra things we need for the program as to how the budget has gone.

Theresa