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Weird, Wacky, Wonderful Things We did to Become Debt Free

1. We cut the grocery budget in half.  When Disaster Struck, the first thing to be cut was the grocery bill. It went from $100 a week to $200 a month (that's actually a bit more than half), and that had to include the baby's medicine. Generics and markdowns became my best friends at the supermarket.

2. We sold our lovely 2 year old car and bought a much cheaper, much older, second-hand car. The money from the sale of the car was used to make mortgage payments.

3. I did whatever I could to make money from home. Even though I had a pre-schooler, toddler and a newborn at the time, I gave up sleep to work at nap time and after the kids were in bed to earn a little extra money. I took in ironing for my "day" job. Of an evening I taught creative tapestry, cross-stitch and creative embroidery classes. Occasionally I did a sewing job (hems, taking in seams etc.). 

4. When the boys outgrew their clothes I'd revamp them. I'd add cuffs to trousers or cut long pants down to shorts. I pulled apart jumpers and trousers to cut down into clothes for the boys. Long sleeves became short sleeves. Worn sheets became tea towels, dusters, pillowcases. .

5. When our second-hand mixer died, I waited until my mother called me (all our calls were STD, so we waited for family to call us on a Sunday morning when it was cheap) and asked her to send me her hand mixer. I still have it, in the camping box now, and it still works. Even another second-hand mixer was beyond our budget, but free worked.

6. Some months we'd try to not spend anything at all. We'd eat from the pantry and fridge, and the only time the car was used was to get Wayne to work.  We'd try to only have one light on, heat just the loungeroom and the children's bedrooms, watch the amount of water we used.  The money we didn't spend meant there was money to pay bills when they came in.

7. We eventually moved interstate to find work. When we moved we lived with my mother for a while, until we found a home we could afford. The boys shared a bedroom, we had one bathroom, a tiny living room and a miniscule kitchen. It was what we could afford and we made it home.  

8. We became a one-car family. Every time I needed to go shopping, to Playgroup or other appointments, I'd get up at 3am, carefully lift the children out of their beds, put them in the car and then drive the 40 minutes to drop Wayne at work. Then I'd drive home, carefully lift them out of the car and back into bed. Come 3.30pm I'd do it all again, the advantage being they were awake so I wasn't lifting them all. I tried to only need the car once a week. The other days we'd just stay home. It wasn't ideal, and the one day I had the car was so busy, but it was what we could afford and saved us a fortune on fuel, repairs, registration and insurance.

9. We limited our holidays to visiting family. Once a year we'd travel to Sydney, then six months later we'd travel the 500km to Melbourne. I'd have a huge list of things to buy because they were cheaper than at home, and we'd load the car up for the return trip. 

10. We stopped going out. We went to playgroup and Church once a week. I went to CWA once a month. Wayne was studying at night so he had tech once a week. Every second Sunday he'd take the children to the model railway in the park for the afternoon. We didn't eat out. We didn't have takeaway. We didn't go to the movies. We only went to free concerts. We gave up skiing in winter. We entertained ourselves in our own backyard for free. 

11. We reused everything we possibly could. Everything from plastic bags to foil to boxes, milk bottles, washing powder boxes, bag ties, even bread tags were all reused over and over and over. The nails used when we finally built the extension on our house were second-hand.

12. We built an extension on our house for under $1,000. We found a house that was being demolished and arranged to take the weatherboards, windows, floorboards, and framing timber for free - it saved the builder paying the tip fees. I then sat under the magnolia in the backyard, six months pregnant, and spent days carefully pulling the nails out so they could be reused. The only expenses we had for the extension were plasterboard, cornice, insulation and paint. 

We still do many of these things. They became habit, and are now not so wacky, just an part of our everyday lives. 

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  • Home
  • Join the Club!
    • Twenty Reasons to Join the Cheapskates Club
  • About Us
    • Cath's Story
    • Ask Cath
    • Glossary of Cheapskating Terms
  • Forum
    • Current Forum Discussions
    • How to Use the Member Forum
  • Inspiration
    • Getting Started
    • 31 Days of MOO Index
    • Articles
    • Housekeeping Routines
    • Budget Renovations
    • Saving Stories
    • Learning Centre
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    • $300 a Month Food Challenge >
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