I Should Have A Bucket List

Because lately I've been managing to do so many things that make me feel more and more like a "grown up". Things that I've wanted to do for a long time, and a lot of people have done since childhood and I just felt like I was missing a bit of knowledge and experience I thought I should have.

In the last few months I've:

Moved away from my childhood town 

Taught myself to wax my furry legs 


Mastered my blowdryer and discovered how gorgeous my hair can be


I've been interviewed and photographed for the paper (more about that next week!)


And this weekend I went to my first ever AFL match!

I've wanted to "go to the footy" ever since I was a young girl. Unfortunately Hicksville was just too far away - by the time you added travel, accomodation, food etc to a couple of tickets it was something my parents were never ever going to be able to afford, and not something that would ever have come high on their priority list.


This weekend we were given the chance to attend thanks to free tickets from My Budget and Balls For Life.


So these four little Bombers supporters rugged up and headed to AAMI Stadium on Saturday.


The highlights for me:

 Seeing Hirdy! In real life as opposed to on a tv screen! Admittedly he was several feet below  us as we were in the northern grandstand but WOW!


Shouting and cheering with a crowd of Bombers supporters - the adrenalin rush from being there in the middle of the excitement and noise is amazing.


The family in front of us whose son ran out with the team and could not possibly have been more excited, he looked like was going to burst!


His dad who was convinced the umpire in front of us was legally blind and offered his dog.


Watching our team get up and WIN!! It can't get any better than that.


So there you go, I've been there. I'll definitely be going back again.


I'm going to put Official Grown Up on my contact cards now.
 

 

STUFF does not = LOVE

The My Budget Money Talks latest blog post - "Are We Spending Too Much On Our Kids?" - just dropped into my inbox and the timing could not be more perfect.

I've been in a few shopping plazas over the last two weeks, smack bang during the toy sales. 

It was overwhelming, headache inducing, and watching the people around me I could have sworn I'd fallen into a parallel universe where things like the GFC haven't happened. 

My "excitement" over the annual toy sales was best summed up here:

That's right. I did.

To be fair - I buy my kids toys for their birthday, or Christmas. Sometimes I give them little "just because" presents. 

But I don't rush out and spend a months grocery money on a trolley full over overpriced plastic, beeping, electronic, brain melting petroleum products in the hope my kids will think I'm awesome.

Frog does have a fair few toys - but when you look closely you will see that they are mostly inherited from her big sister, or even began life as MY toys. I had to wrack my brains to decide what Father Christmas was going to bring because we already had plenty. 

According to reports, kids are increasingly costing their parents crazy amounts of money. 

Anywhere between the base figure of approx $400K and anywhere up to $1M to get from baby to age 18. 

Holy. Cow.

Food, clothes, dance lessons, football boots, driving a squillion miles a year to ferry them around everywhere. It adds up before you can blink. And mostly, I can understand the figures.

BUT...

How much of that is inflated by the fact that kids "must" have absolutely everything?

Every child I saw over the last couple of weeks was whinging, whining, screaming, hitting, kicking or having a full scale meltdown because "I WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT TOOOOOOOOOOOO MEEEEEEEEE!!"

And every time, without fail, the offending item was added to the overflowing trolley.

Kids are growing up being indulged constantly, and are going on into adulthood with a massive, and misplaced, sense of entitlement that will do nothing but cause them grief, whether financially or emotionally later in life. 

Parents are hurling themselves into unmanageable and crippling debt year after year to provide a mountain of presents bigger than the Christmas tree. What is wrong with one present?

Can someone tell me why a three year old needs their own iPad? I saw a woman getting shouted at by her tiny dictator because she wanted a pink cover, not a purple one, for her brand spanking new iPad3. I shit you not.

And for the cost of that iPad, four children could have access to a basic education they otherwise wouldn't. I bet those children aren't shrieking about it and stomping their Mini Choo clad feet.

For me, the answer lies in a basic formula.

STUFF does not = LOVE.

You are not doing your child any favours by teaching them that money never ends.

Do you really want to be unable to retire because you are still paying your little spoiled darling's credit card bill every month?

Talk to your kids about money. 

Teach them to save, teach them to budget.

Teach them not to expect everything and give nothing. 

Give them the gift of a financially stable future for you and for them.

Love them enough to say no.

Freebird or jailbird?

{DISCLOSURE} This post is not sponsored. I pay for the service we use. We are currently on a journey to  live the life we want to live - My Budget are a huge part of this,  so I will be speaking about them as part of our story. The questions I ask and the things I discuss in this blog are my thoughts and feelings only.

When you think of your finances how do you feel?

Light... happy... at ease?

Or dark... despairing... chained down... anxious?

Are you a financial freebird... or a jailbird?

What does financial freedom mean to you?

One of the biggest things in my life and the shaping of how I feel about the everyday is the desire to be financially free.

I grew up with self employed parents who struggled and worked forever and a day with nothing to show for it.

I knew very early on in life that we couldn't afford much. I went without what everyone around me took for granted. And I knew if I wanted anything in life - a car, new clothes, petrol for my motorcycle - I had to work for it, and work hard.

At 15 I woke up to the blindly obvious fact that nothing short of a miracle was going to be able to pay for me to go to college or university after Year 12. It was a big thing for me to suddenly realise my dreams were never going to be anything but dreams. It was my undoing, and one of the biggest reasons I stepped away from school and started working before I had completed my leaving certificate. I really felt that every minute I spent striving and learning was going to be rewarded with nothing at the end. It was a hard lesson in how much money (or lack of it) can affect your life.

Since then I have never really felt free. I've always been a slave to the dollar - judging my worth by my pay packet and not what I do and give to others.

I've defined myself as a jailbird, and lived with chains around my ankles, always believing that what I wanted was out of my reach.

We started our journey with My Budget in March this year.

It was a long hard road up until the day I picked up the phone. I believed only a miracle could cure us of the debt and depression and being "poor". 

With two conflicting ideas of "budgeting" and a tendency to self sabotage our own efforts, we were never going to take that step towards freedom without help.

Three months in how do we feel?

Not free yet. That's going to take a while.

But definitely in control, which is the first step.

If a bill drops into my mailbox you will no longer find me sobbing in my driveway.

Progress... little baby steps. 

The end goal is financial freedom.

What does it mean for me?

It means the end of the never ending juggle. 

It means the incomings exceeding the outgoings. 

It means knowing that I can give my children what I so dearly wanted - opportunity.

It means having enough to enjoy life without excess. I don't need a holiday house in the Hamptons, but I want the freedom to say "let's go somewhere and explore this weekend" without it being a major logistical and budgeting nightmare.

But by far the biggest measure of financial freedom for me will be never ever having to ring up that damned Centrelink switchboard! I live for the day we are able to live without jumping through hoops.

In the meantime we are able to let the finances happen, and focus on being the best we can be, and living the life we want to live as a family.

With every beat of our wings, and every step on the journey we are shaking off the chains and turning our faces towards the wide open sky.

That's worth more than gold to me.