the golden gorilla

In the early days of my wee boy's life, I was a bit housebound. I think it was the shock of it all. We also had to adjust to one income, rapidly. But shopping was so hard. I used the online delivery supermarkets, for the convenience, and the local shops for meat, fruit and veg. We did ok. We weren't saving though.

Then a (dear, true) friend recommended the Golden Gorillas. They are a fresh fruit and vegetable delivery service that comes weekly or fortnightly and brings fresh fruit and veg. A big mystery box of goodies delivered to your door for $35.

Now, I know that every time I go the the green grocers it costs me $30 at least, and that's more than one visit a week. So already, I'm in the green. But then the delivery actually came. It was about three times more than I would buy. Amazing. And fairly consistent quality, which is important to me. You don't get to choose, but you can say what you don't want. It's a lovely challenge for a house-bound chef. Surprise dinner.

As the first week rolled past I became aware that we had a bit of stuff left. I made soup, stew, a roast and had people to dinner to use up what we had. Great. Same at the end of the next week. So I stepped it up during the week. The running joke became 'Veg and three veg for dinner tonight, darling'. We became vegetable eating machines. It was good for us. I lost a couple of kilos of baby weight, and my husband lost the last of the Paris pastry weight he bought home. All good.

This past summer the Gorillas went on holiday for three weeks. What a shock. We went straight back to our old habits (three aging apples in the fruit bowl and the same limp veg staring out from the crisper). I was shocked. I expected to have to spend to keep up with what we were used to. But I didn't. Without the knowledge that more would be arriving I couldn't motivate myself to cook and eat what we had. Ridiculous, no?

Nevermind, they're back and we are loving what it saves us, loving home delivery, and my baby loves all those mashed vegies and stewed fruit. Viva la Gorillas!

and so we begin..

It is a resolution of mine to 'blog' this year. Now it's mid January. A slow start, but I feared putting my crap out there and then not being able to take it back. So I spent the better part of the month thinking of a purpose for my blog.

The other resolution this year is to save money. Yeah, right, who doesn't have that resolution every payday? Well, of course, but this year there is going to be a big push for cash. We want to buy a house. Actually, we want to set up our own business, but having tried to do this recently and been denied, we discovered we need a big, equity building asset to realise our dream. We are well short of the cash needed to do this.

Adding to the saving challenge, our household recently went from being DINK (ol' super indulged double-incomers) to BBNE (baby bonus not enough!). We knew it was coming, it wasn't really shocking until about six months on. Then the gaps in our life opened up. I became one of those people who has trouble getting from one pay to the next, and I have not ever been like that. I have always had a paying job, income was always due me and I have never worried about paying for anything. I was always on that hamster wheel, running full tilt from adventure to adventure.

So, I reviewed our life. Scanned the bills, considered the expenses, the necessities. We trimmed up the edges, decided what we would live without, cobbled together a budget and we are afloat. But saving has become quite the challenge. Time to get creative. That's what this is all about.

Being a new Mum, I can't just get a job and get on with the savings plan. Well, I can but I don't want to. Working outside the home has far reaching consequences for me, my husband, the baker, the new littleone (MB) and our lifestyle. Is it necessary from me to work for us to move forward? Surely there are some good housekeeping principles, masterful home economic practices, thrifty, natty ways to save a buck that I can master? If I'm not out there bringing it in, I can sure concentrate more on keeping what does come in.

Time to get the real deal on super-cheap living. Is meatloaf so economical? Can you eat it 5/7 days? What about our health, if we do that? In fact with modern food manufacturing, is home-made the cheapest option anymore? And again, what of our health if we eat cheap? Which supermarket is the cheapest? Is it good economics to 'shop around'? Birthday presents, Easter, Christmas, dinner parties, baby expenses, medical expenses,- there's some serious, unavoidable expenditure to be planned for. It might be a cheap year, but you can't cheap out on gifts, can you? Who can help me? Where's the free advice, the price comparisons, the calculators and spreadsheets to really make this work? And I'm going to hunt up some fun challenges- feed a family on $30, five meals from one chicken, 10 ways to reduce your electricity bill and such, just to shake things up. I'll be reading and reviewing the literature as well, as expert advice is not going to hurt. I think I'll begin by re-visiting to that old savers classic 'How to Pay off your Mortgage in Five Years' by Anita Bell. Just gotta dig it off the back of the shelf.

So what's the goal? How much can we save? Is it possible to save $10,000 this year? That's not spending $192 dollars a week. That's bringing in more than a few belt notches.. But it's very important to do this. And I don't yet know what's really possible, do I? $10, 000. More? Wow. Just imagine!