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Free Decluttering Treasure Hunt Printable

Posted on May 26, 2020

This is the printable you will receive in the Decluttering treasure hunt Printable showing all 50 items to declutter

If you’re not someone who finds decluttering as fun as I do, hopefully this Decluttering Treasure Hunt Printable will help take the tediousness out of decluttering!

To grab your free Decluttering Treasure Hunt Printable simply fill in the form below and download and print off your printable. Cross off each item as you declutter it.

And let me know in the comments how many of the 50 items you found, declutter and crossed off your list! 🙂

And if you love Decluttering Check Lists don’t forget to grab this one next 101 Things To Declutter in Your Home Right Now so you can keep going on your journey to declutter and minimise the excess!

Hope you have fun with this one, minimisers!

Budgeting

12 Financial Goals That Should Be On Your Agenda

Posted on May 19, 2020

A board walk with arrows painting forward to signify moving forward, not backwards with your financial goals

What are your financial goals?

Are you well on your way to knocking some of them down? Or is that a problem for future you?

Setting financial goals is an important part of life, just like eating healthy food, exercising and looking after your mental health. When we set financial goals, and our finances are in order and working for us it eliminates a huge stress barrier in our lives. And let’s agree that life is stressful enough without having to worry about finances on top of other stresses!

I was inspired reading P.J. Money at budgets are sexy’s blog A Checklist of 15 Financial Goals to hit and decided I would too, throw together what my own 12 Financial Goals goals and what I would encourage anyone else to aim for!

If you can work towards these goals, no matter what age you are or how long it takes, you are going to set yourself up for a financially successful future.

These are all things that I have done over the past 8 years, ever since I moved out of home. Utilising one pay cheque at a time, to slowly but surely achieve each financial goal I set for myself.

And I can attest that this list of financial goals has helped me to stress less about money and worry less about the future. And whilst doing so I haven’t ever completely deprived myself of enjoying life. I just make sure I’m frugal where I can be, I only buy things that bring me joy and that I have thought about long before I’ve clicked buy or walked into the store.

Here are my top 12 Financial Goals that should be on your agenda so you can set yourself up on a path to financial success and less financial stress.

12 Top Financial Goals That Should Be On Your Agenda

1. Save an Emergency Fund
In the words of ‘I can’t stress this enough people’ guy from the Simpsons, please, please, if you do nothing but this, have an Emergency Fund of at least $2000, ideally 3-6 months of your expenses and don’t touch it for any reason other than actual emergencies.

An emergency is not a European vacation or a shopping spree. It is a buffer between you and all the financial mud that is going to come your way, whether it be the unexpected dental visit you have, needing new tyres on your car or needing to replace your hot water heater. Be kind to future you and prepare!

A great way to jump-start your Emergency Fund is to look around your house and sell any unwanted things to help grow this fund quickly.

With the current economic climate, it has never been more important to have an emergency fund and this is why this is my #1 Top financial goal that should be on your agenda!

2. Pay off all consumer debt; Car loans, Credit cards, medical debt, After or Zip Pay & Student Loans.
Until you say no to going into more debt, you will be stuck in a debt spiral of borrowing and repaying money and the struggle of trying to juggle keep up with those repayments. Even the most confident spender will one day be caught out when they can’t afford their minimum repayments and all the balls their trying to spin in the air drop.

Don’t be that person who gets caught out. Pay off your consumer debt as soon as you can and set yourself a new personal value to stay out of further debt.

The Barefoot Investor says Debt is Compound interest in reverse. So if you want your money to build wealth, you need to start investing in things that make you money, rather than throwing all your hard-earned cash to interest repayments with zero plan to ever pay them out.

Debt is compound interest in reverse – The Barefoot Investor

3. Save up a deposit for a home or pay down your mortgage when you have paid off all consumer debt.
If you don’t have any consumer debt and have an emergency fund of 3 months of expenses (a huge congratulations to you!), now is your opportunity to do one of the following with your freed up cash that used to go to debt repayments:

Bank your spare money in a high-interest savings account and save up a deposit for your first home. You should be aiming to save 10-20% of your income each month.
Pay down your mortgage faster.

You should be aiming to save 10-20% of your income each month. If you can’t save that or put something similar to your mortgage, you have two options:

1. Review your budget to see what expenses you can minimise I.e. cancel your cable or any other unnecessary subscriptions, find cheaper mobile plans, consider finding a cheaper place to rent or moving closer to work to save on transport costs. Everything needs to be on the table and you can choose what you are willing to cut and what you aren’t.

2. You need to see how you can increase your income. This could involve getting a better paid job, working towards a pay increase at your current job over the next 6-12 months, up-skilling so you can move up a role, speaking to your partner about returning to work to bring in more cash or helping to encourage and support them to get a better paying job. Or getting creative with side hustles in your spare time and selling your unwanted items to make some extra cash each month.

Between cutting expenses and increasing income, you will hopefully find some new avenues in your budget to start saving up that house deposit or paying down your mortgage faster.

4. Contribute extra to your retirement

In Australia we have the Superannuation Guarantee, which means that if you are an employee over 18 who works over 30 hours, you should be getting paid 11% of your salary into your Superannuation. Luckily for us we already have a nice portion of our wage, going into our retirement account.

The key to building wealth is to start early. If you have the capacity to do so, for example if you are debt free and have money to save, you may want to start topping up your Superannuation (401k or equivalent in your home country). There may be tax incentives for you to contribute to your retirement which is a great bonus. Speak to a financial adviser or your retirement fund to determine what is the appropriate investment decision for you.

Remember, Iit’s never too late to start contributing to your retirement, just remember, the sooner you start, the sooner you can benefit from the effects of compound interest!

5. Track your expenses for 1-3 months
If you have never tracked your expenses, you might have no clarity over what you are spending your money on a month to month basis. Knowing what you spend is the first step in controlling any out of control spending.

If you buy everything on a credit or debit card, this is an easy exercise of downloading all your bank statements into one document. Alternatively, if you are a ‘cash is king’ kind of guy or gal, simply keep a notebook handy every time you spend money over a 12 week period and note down what you spent. If 3 months is too prohibitive, at least do the exercise for one month so you get an idea of where your regular spending falls.

6. Create a Zero-Based Budget
Carrying on from the expenses review, one of the most important financial goals you should now tackle is to create a Zero Based Budget so you can see if you are living within your means and what you are earning Vs. what you are spending. It’s important when planning for your financial future that you know where your finances are at this moment so you can start making decisions about your finances.

The Zero-Based Budget will give you a snapshot of where your budget is and where you might need to reduce spending, or increase saving. To help you get started, you can grab your free Zero Based Budget Worksheet template.

7. Set up automated Savings Transfers
If you have trouble budgeting and saving money, the easiest way to be successful is to set up automated savings transfers. Taking the physical work out of budgeting and savings and constant decision making out makes it much easier to save. And it is important to always ‘pay yourself first’, that is, save some of your money before you pay your bills or spend money on anything else.

Don’t let saving be an afterthought. Set up a regular savings transfer of whatever you can afford out of each pay cheque. Even if it is just $20 a week it will add up, of course, the more you can save the better. And once you get used to the habit of saving and building that savings muscles, it will become easier and easier to add extra money to that regular savings transfer and build up your savings faster.

Don’t forget to put your savings somewhere you won’t be tempted to touch them like a separate high-interest account. And treat the money like it isn’t yours. The more you ‘detach’ from it the harder it will be to spend unnecessarily and be there when you really need it!

8. Set up your Sinking Fund accounts
If you have never heard of Sinking Funds, never fear, I am going to give you the down-low on them, so they too can change your financial future. In my early 20s I was opening some mail, minding my own business when I was hit with an unexpected $1200 vehicle registration and medical insurance (Greenslip) bill. Ouch!

But the truth is, it wasn’t really that unexpected. You see, this bill came at the same time every year and everyone knows well in advance what date their registration is due, it used to be noted on a little sticker on our window screen at the time. Now we are just expected to memorise it in our head, but still. We know when it is coming up.

Somehow it had completely slipped my mind, lets put it down to being in my early 20s and still figuring out life. And so I had to deplete my entire savings account to pay for these two bills and keep my car on the road (and me in a job!). Which left me with $25 to my name. That was a huge scare and I couldn’t be more thankful that it happened to me in my early 20s as that is when I learnt about the magic of Sinking Funds.

If you want one fail-proof system for managing your finances and bills, and not leaving yourself deciding between buying groceries and getting your car on the road like me all those years ago, set up your Sinking Funds.

Simply make a list of all your non-monthly bills or expenses, anything that you can reasonably estimate and get the total for the year. I.e. your annual car insurance bill, clothing, miscellaneous expense etc. And work out the monthly cost.

You want to put that monthly amount away in a separate account where you will pay into each pay check to cover these costs as they come up. Please check out my Sinking Funds post for more information on how to set up your own sinking funds and say goodbye to bill shock forever! 🙂

9. Get your bills direct debited to save you time and automate your finances.
Now that you know your monthly expenses, and have set up your Sinking Fund accounts as mentioned above, you can safely set up your direct debits to come out of your Bills Sinking Fund Account. Set them to come out a day after your pay day so if there are any issues with your pay, you can pause the transfer if need be before it is withdrawn.

Never get a late fee for a bill again. And now you can take ‘pay bills’ off your to-do list and do something more fund instead 🙂

10. Start Reading finance books and getting yourself educated.
It may not be your thing to read finance books, but if you can get through 3 of them, you’ll be able to take in a lot of financial wisdom from some of the best financial experts around!

I suggest; Dave Ramsey’s, Total Money Make Over, The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape, and Remit Sethi’s I Will Teach You to be Rich as a great place to start with your financial education.

11. Start savings for ‘big things’ you want in life
If you want motivation to get saving, this is it. Pick something that you want to save for that means the world to you. It could be that European holiday you’ve always wanted. Your upcoming wedding. A car upgrade. Your kid’s university education funds, or your first home.

Whatever it is, having those financial goals at the forefront of your mind will help you to save money. Every time you go to spend money on something non-essential ask yourself if that purchase is more important to you than your savings goal. Keep that big savings goal at the forefront of your mind.

When we planned our wedding, we had to ask ourselves this question constantly for 19 months whilst we saved up and planned our debt-free wedding. Sure it involved lots of sacrifices, date nights at home, saying no to seeing some of our favourite band, not having any money to do updates on our house etc, but it was all worth it to come home from our Honeymoon to Europe and not have one single debt repayment to make. And driving a car, or travelling to a new destination is going to be so much more enjoyable when you know that it was a reward for your hard work in saving up for it beforehand.

12. Change your consumer spending habits
As you work towards implementing the above financial goals, it’s important to reassess your spending habits so you can spend in line with your values, rather than just how you always have, such as buying things out of boredom or because they are on sale and you just can’t resist a good sale. I know myself, after years of living out of home I had accumulated a large amount of excess crap that I had wasted who knows how much on and after turning my finances around all that money I had wasted really hit me.

If you have debt or savings goals and want to temporarily boost your income, and make some changes to your spending habits a great way to do that, is to turn your clutter into cash. Kill two birds with one stone, and make it one of your financial goals to declutter your home and make some extra money for your Debt Snowball or savings goals at the same time. And I guarantee, after going through the process of selling your excess stuff, you won’t be able to walk away without changing your consumer habits and spending your money more intentionally. Especially when you have some huge financial goals to achieve that will be more alluring than another pair of shoes.

Photo by Jungwoo Hong on Unsplash

General Advice Dislaimer: The information on this site is of a general nature. It does not take your specific needs or circumstances into consideration, so you should look at your own financial position, objectives and requirements and seek financial advice before making any financial decisions.

Organising

32 Things to Keep You Busy During Self-Isolation

Posted on March 16, 2020

It appears more and more likely that many cities around the world will soon be in some form of self-isolation. It’s a scary reality, and not something any of us ever imaged could happen. In order to help you keep your spirits up and keep busy, if you are stuck at home in self-isolation for any period of time over the coming weeks, I threw together some Organising, Self Care and Fun activities to help you keep your sanity and take advantage of a little bit of extra free time.

Becoming Minimalist also has 14 you can add to the below list to Help You Declutter Your Home While Stuck Inside, so if you are keen for more ideas on how to keep busy, be sure to check that out as well!

Here are 32 Things to Keep You Busy During Self Isolation.

Organising Activities

If you are going into self isolation in your country, and unfortunately more and more countries are bringing that in, we need to keep ourselves busy and hopefully a little distracted from the constant stream of bad news. If you are stuck indoors it is a great time to get around to all those things you have been putting off around your home. Here are a few ideas to help you get organised and pass the time.

Sort and organise your photo prints and photo albums. Throw out any photos that no longer bring you joy.
Organise your paperwork. Go through your paperwork and recycle, shred and scan your paperwork, only keeping what is necessary to have in hard copy form.
Clear out and organise your pantry. Review what is in your pantry and if anything needs to be disposed of. This will give you the opportunity to see what you do and don’t have and what you might need to stock up on.
Clean your fridge. Throw out anything nasty and give everything a wipe down.
Declutter the garage/basement. This is one of those jobs you most likely have put off for sometime. If you are stuck in doors, now is probably as good a time as ever to declutter things. Of course, you’ll have to keep one area to store any items you want to donate for the time being.
Declutter and create a Capsule Wardrobe. Take the opportunity to go through your wardrobes and access what is and isn’t fitting or working anymore and set them aside in your donation pile. Select season appropriate clothing for the next three months and store the remainder away.
Back up photos. It can be a great time to back up your valuable photo collections across your devices. Ideally in at least two locations, one in the cloud and one in physical form such as on a SSD.
Reorganise cabinets. Go through your cabinets and tidy them up. Throw away any empty bottles and merge any that you safely can into one bottle if you find you have multiples of the same open.
Gardening/ weeding. Get your gardens looking gorgeous so you can at least enjoy your outdoor area whilst you are stuck at home.
Start any house projects you have been putting off. If you’ve got the paint, paint the areas you had been planning to, hang up any new frames or new curtains etc. I’m sure you already have a sizeable list started 🙂
Look after your plant babies. I have recently adopted a huge number of plants. And looking after them takes a bit of time every few days, but is so worth it when they thrive! Keep them well watered, trim off any dead leaves and feed them when they need.
Disinfect and spring clean your home (regardless of the season ;)). You can’t be too careful at them moment and that can be great motivation to give all surfaces and handles a wipe down. If you were as unlucky as me to miss out on grabbing any antibacterial wipes or sanitiser, you can create your own using The Organised Housewife’s DIY Antibacterial Wipes recipe. Of course check out whether this will be suitable for your benchtops etc. (NB: I am not a doctor of any sort, so I can’t attest to the effectiveness of this recipe against COVID19, but it is preferable to me than using nothing).
Take up the Minimise With Me Declutter With Me Decluttering Course and get started on decluttering your entire home, one room at a time. This course will guide your through all areas of your home to help you declutter and simplify your life and remove the excess you’ve been carrying around for so long.
Or grab my 101 Things to Declutter Right Now Printable to help you get started on a smaller declutter.

Self Care Activities

There is a lot of uncertainty around the world at the moment, with each country making it’s own decisions regarding this COVID19 virus. It’s important to take some time for ourselves to relieve any anxieties we have been carrying around. Stress is not good for us, so we need to be conscious of our stress levels and do what we can to destress. Some ideas you can do from home are:

15. Take a warm relaxing bath with some lavender scented wash or oil

16. Give yourself a hair treatment

17. Do a DIY facial, body or foot scrub using what you have in your pantry

18. Exercise. It is so important to be healthy to fight this virus, so make sure to incorporate some exercise into your daily routine to keep you healthy and strong. Some options to try are: Yoga, Pilates, Tabata, Weights and walking if you are allowed outside for exercise. Be sure to check out YouTube for some free routine videos!

Fun Activities

Depending on whether you live alone, with a partner or kids, here are some ideas to pass the time:

19. Call a friend or family member. You may not be able to leave your home, but you can always call loved ones to catch up and see how they are going.

20. Read one of your books on your bookshelf, you kept insisting you would read. If you have kids, find one or a few you can read to them so it can become a new family activity!

21. Crack out those board games

22. Set up a video console such as your old Wii or N64 console that have been collecting dust

23. Rewatch your fave shows or movies like Lord of The Rings or Harry Potter. We are currently rewatching the Scrubs series and loving it!

24. Find some Docos on your fave topics to watch. Some great places to find them are on Netflix, Youtube, ABC or SBS to name a few.

25. Catch up on your fave YTers videos

26. Read your favourite blogs

27. Learn a new language. Download the Duolingo app and practice a new language a bit each day. It is truly amazing how much progress you can make in even just a few weeks.

28. Practice your instrument. If you are a musician, or learning a new instrument you’ll have some extra time to fit practice in and learn some new songs you have been wanting to get to but haven’t had the time.

29. Learn a new skill, the options are endless and there.

30. Do arts and crafts. Whatever you enjoy, colouring in one of those adult colouring books, scrap booking, creating a artwork book for your kids etc.

31. Enjoy cooking. Without the rush of the daily grind you can be free to enjoy cooking a nice meal.

32. Bake, if you love baking take advantage of that free time to cook something yummy for your family.

Please let me know what activities you are going to do to keep you and your family entertained if you are required to go into self-isolation so we can keep those ideas flowing and hopefully we can all find a few things that will give us joy in this difficult time.

And I hope for all of you and your family and friends, that you stay safe and healthy and we can return to our regular lives as soon as possible. Let’s be kind to one another, reach out to loved ones that may be lonely and in need of help where we can and do our best to keep our anxieties at bay. We’re all in this together.

Photo by Kirill on Unsplash

If you found value in this post, please share it to your friends and loved ones, who may be looking for some welcome distractions in the coming weeks.

Organising

10 Productivity Hacks For a More Efficient Day

Posted on February 25, 2020

Girl with long brown hair sitting at desk looking at her monitor and being productive

If you are like me, you love to get as much done as quickly and efficiently as possible. If I get something done, I am always looking at how I can do it quicker next time and what I can eliminate.

So you won’t see me tossing junk mail out in my house, because it didn’t get delivered to my house in the first place, thanks to a carefully placed ‘No Junk Mail Sticker’.

You also won’t see me sitting down paying my bills four times a month because most bills are set to direct debit.

Tax time you won’t see man scrambling to scan a years worth of receipts (at least not any more) because I now scan receipts as I go rather than waiting for a 12 month stash to tackle.

The less I have to worry about and physically set time aside for the better.

Everyone has the same 24 hours and it seems to never be enough. So don’t waste your precious time working inefficiently. There are always things you can implement to speed up tasks such as laundry or your finances. Check out these 10 Productivity Hacks for a More Efficient Day that you can implement in your life to save you time and get you back to doing more valuable things!

**This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase of a product from the links in this post I will receive a small commission, at no cost to you. This allows me to keep my blog advertisement free and support the running costs of my blog. I only recommend products I believe will add value to others and that I love myself.**

10 Productivity Hacks for a More Efficient Day

Utilise Organisation Tools

If paper to do list just aren’t cutting it for you these day, check out some different organisational tools to get all your to dos in one place. In order to be productive you need to know what you need to get done and these organisational tools are there to help you jot down any To Dos or ideas as they come to you, whereever you are.

Some of my favourites are:

Trello is essentially a digital post-it-note, without the need to worry about them losing their stickiness! You can set up as many boards as you need and as many To Do items. Once you are done simply move the task to your completed list, or drag it to the top of bottom of the screen to archive it so you never have to see that To Do again! Good riddance!

I have many boards set up including: To Dos, To Buy, Meal Planning (where I list tried and tested recipes as well as ingredients), Gift Ideas and you name it! And the awesome thing is you can chose custom designs for each board to personalise it!

Google Keep is another great organisation option that gives you the satisfaction of ticking off a To Do Item. This used to be my main organisation tool before I moved across to Trello. Again here, you can make notes or checklists and it can be synced to your Google Account so it can be handy whenever you need.
Colour Note is similar to Google Keep, it’s a digital note pad where you can type out various notes or check lists under a topic category. It also can sync to back up your lists.
Google To Do List Template – If you want a digital organisation tool and are as obsessed with spreadsheets as I am, Google To Do List can do just the trick. Open up their Excel To Do List Template and add in the due dates and tasks. You can separate each section into categories i.e. Home Projects, Car Related, Daily Tasks and so on. When you tick off a task it will strike-through the item on your list, providing an ever-so-satisfying line through your to do item. To create your own, simply go to Google Drive, select the + New and Google Sheets, From a Template and select the To Do List Template.

2. Set a timer

One of my all time productivity hacks has been to set a timer. I’ve been using this productivity hack for over ten years, back in my uni days #memories, in order to get shit done, I would lock myself in my bedroom, put a timer on and not allow myself to exit the room until that timer went off. It made for a fairly productive 1 or 2 hour work or study session and meant that I could reward myself with a break after some hard work.

No matter what it is, setting a timer can help you get what you need done. If you need to clean up your mess of a house, set a timer and speed clean as quickly as possible. If you need to study, set a timer for an agreed period of time and only when it goes off, can you leave your books. Need to write a blog post? Get that timer on and don’t move your butt out of that chair until it goes off.

Sometimes a short timer is all you need to motivate yourself. Once that two minute timer goes off, you might find you are a lot more motivated to continue with the task you are on. And if not you can always stop.

3. Time blocking

You may feel like you have no time in the day to get anything done, but I can assure you that you do, even if only a small window in the day. Whenever that may be, the key is to think of your time in blocks and allocated periods of time to a particular task.

My personal routine on a regular work day looks a little like this;

Morning – stretch and 2 minute quick tidy
Commute – Listen to Audiobook
Morning Tea – read daily news
Lunch – depends on the day but it can include a Duolingo lesson or two, a short walk, time to catch up with some YT videos, read, get something I need from the shops (to save time on the weekend)
Afternoon Tea – read/free time/make any important calls
Commute – Pimsleur language lesson, vocal practice, listen to radio or podcast
After work – quick speed clean (10-15 mins max)
After dinner – bass practice, go to the gym, blog and free time

A lot of my daily activities area squeezed into 10-15 minute periods of free time. And I don’t manage to fit the above into every single day, every single week. I certainly don’t achieve everything in the above list. But some really good days I might come close 🙂

But if I can get a few of the above done here and there, it means I am being a lot more productive than I would be if I just waited until I got home to get things done when I am more than likely exhausted from the day.

Now I want you to look at your schedule and see what you can time block in your schedule. Make your blocks whatever time they need to be to suit your schedule. I work full-time so a lot of my time blocks are small, but fifteen minutes is fifteen minutes and you’d be surprised what you can get done in that time! If you have more free time, your blocks might be bigger sections of time where you can fit more things in.

So can you squeeze a ten minute walk into your morning before you leave for work?

Or load the dishwasher before you walk out the door?

Could you do a quick Speed Clean for 10 minutes as soon as you get home to get onto of the housework?

Sometimes just a quick review of our weeks and time blocks can reveal free time we had been wasting on Facebook or watching TV which could be more productively spent time.

4. Prioritise

A super important productivity hack is to prioritise! If we don’t prioritise we will never get what we need done. Procrastination isn’t always a bad thing when you are putting off less important tasks in order to do the things that really matter.

Work out what are your Must Dos and what can be put off.

Do you feel committed to going to the gym 3 days a week for 45 minutes? Okay great. Now think about what are you willing to give up to meet that commitment. Maybe you could cancel one social outing a week and rearrange your cleaning schedule so you free up some time.

Is your house sheer chaos and you only have 30 minutes before your friends are dropping by? Figure out what is the most pressing items to clean and leave the rest. For me, I hate really obvious visual clutter so I can live with a few crumbs on the floors or some dust that I will get to when I can, but if there are cushions and shoes and dirty laundry everywhere it drives me insane and has to be moved.

An import lesson I learnt from ‘Eat that Frog‘, is that you should tackle the most important task first thing in your day. Don’t leave the most pressing items on your to do list to get to at the end of your productivity sesh where they are most likely to not get done.

5. Break up tasks into smaller tasks

If you get overwhelmed by long To Do Lists, set yourself a more realistic goal by creating a 3 Item Task List. Here instead of writing a long list of To Dos that you will attempt to knock over in a day, only to be frustrated by your lack of success, we try something a little less stressful. Think of the 3 most important tasks that you need to complete today and write those down on your day in the rows 1, 2 and 3.

If you don’t get to them today, that’s okay you can move them over to the following day.

This organisation method helps you to prioritise your tasks without overwhelming you with a long list of To Dos, to tackle today. And also gives you the chance to tackle 21 tasks in the space of a week. Imagine how much progress you would make if you could complete just three tasks a day! Even if they are super quick tasks you will feel like a winner at the end of the week with the progress you have made!

6. Put your phone on airplane mode

There is nothing that diminishes your productivity streak more than a phone call or notifications. The next time you are sitting down to get your productivity on, set your phone to flight mode. Silent is not good enough, that little irritating flashing notification light will get to you soon enough, even if you can’t hear your phone go off. It is unrelenting and no task’s pull is so strong to make you ignore it. At least that is what I’ve found.

When you are done with your work you can turn your phone off airplane mode and get to any missed notifications. But they can and need to wait whilst you get your To Dos done.

7. Stay motivated and track your progress

If you are someone that likes to tick off your goals and see your progress utilising Habit Trackers can help motivate you to keep going!

My husband currently has a 40 day Duolingo streak for Japanese for our upcoming trip to Japan and he is determined to maintain it. This is a genius feature of the Duolingo app. It goes a step future by showing your proficiency score and ranking in the leader boards so you feel the pull to keep up with other learners!

If you want to stick to a goal, like going to the gym or paying off debt, having someone as an accountability partner can go a long way to helping you stay motivated and productive.

You could set up a debt pay off chart in your bullet journal or print off one like these from Debt Free Charts to track your progress. We currently have one for our mortgage and love colouring a line in whenever we cross that dollar threshold! Who knew colouring in lines could be so motivating 😉

There are also great habit tracking Apps like Habit Tracker, where you can mark down your daily goals ie. Drink 1L of water, go for a walk, read for 10 mins, buy no lunch day and so on and then you get the satisfaction of ticking off your achieved goals each day.

8. Utilise Your Commute

If you have a fairly distant commute to make to work or uni, or wherever you need to be each day, take advantage of that lost time however you can, and get productive!

Here are some ideas of how to utilise your commute time whether you drive to work, take public transport or walk or cycle:

Listen to an Audiobook – this is a great way to get some reading in, and maybe learn something new!
Listen to your favourite podcast – Mine are the Dave Ramsey Show, Joe Rogan Show and The Minimalists Podcast! (please let me know your fave Podcasts in the comments below! I could use some newbies!)
Sing along to your favourite songs (not on public transport of course hehe)
Catch up on your New Release Radar on Spotify
Call a friend or family member to say hi

9. Reduce Decision Fatigue

We make hundreds of decisions every single day. This is sure to wear on us and make us less inclined to be productive. In order to take away some of that mental burden we need to think smarter, not harder and implement some habits and new routines to give our minds a break so we can focus on more important things.

Create a Capsule Wardrobe and make mornings less stressful by eliminating difficult fashion decisions
Start Meal Planning so deciding what to make for dinner is less of a chore
Consider adopting a Minimalist Lifestyle where you keep only what you love, use and need and can eliminate the excess.

10. Limit Distractions

We are all prone to distractions when we are trying to be productive. This is why we need to create some Intentional Friction like Anthony from Break The Twitch discusses in his video, where he suggests to put up a small barrier between you and any sources of distraction. Some ways to limit distraction so you can get back to being productive are:

Delete social media off your phone. You can delete the apps from your phone completely and set yourself a rule that you can only access those social media sites from your Laptop or PC.
Set your phone Social Media apps to inactive by holding down your app and selecting the Inactivate option when it appears. In order to use the apps again, you will need to find the app in your Settings/App folder in order to reactivate it. Next time you go to click on the app mindlessly you’ll have to stop and think if you really should be using the app or could be spending your time on more productive pursuits.
Download the Self Control Mac or Windows plugin on your phone or PC to set times when you cannot access particular websites
Do a No Spend Month, so you aren’t distracted by online shopping. It’s a great way to reset when you are feeling that consumer pull.
Put your phone away temporarily. Lock it in a drawer, leave it in your bag. Just keep it out of your reach so you can avoid being distracted by it so you can get stuff done!

Photo by Nicole Wolf on Unsplash

This weeks comment question: I’ve love to know what productivity hacks you’ve implemented in your life, and for your family and what has been the most effective. Let me know in the comments!

If you found value in this post I would be super appreciative if you could share it with others who might also find value in it 🙂

Minimalism

15 Intentional Ways to Simplify in 2020

Posted on January 26, 2020

A coffee cup on a bed with sheets. A cosy space.

We are often running on autopilot. With work, social commitments, hobbies, exercise, cleaning and kids in the mix there is little time left over to take a step back and access what we can do to reduce anxiety and stress and what changes we can make to simplify our lives. Sometimes it is not until a really overwhelming and stressful period that we even realise we are taking on too much, developing habits that are bad for us and we might need to reassess our current habits and lifestyle and the people and things around us.

We can all use more tips to simplify our lives and live a more intentional life so here is 15 to simplify in 2020 for you to try out.

15 Ways to Simplify in 2020

Get more sleep

Some people say they can live with a handful of hours of sleep a night. I am not one of them. If I don’t get at least 6.5 hours a night of sleep, than I am useless. When you don’t get enough sleep, it creates chaos in your day. You end up sleeping in late and being rushed. You’re irritable and unmotivated. You might even end up needing a nap at some point later in the day so less gets done. Simplify in 2020 by making it a goal to get more sleep! Even if it is just an extra half an hour a day, it can make all the difference. I recently invested in a Manta Eye Mask and it’s now my must have every night to get a good night’s sleep.

Ditch toxic friends/family

Do you have a friend, family member or other relationship who adds unnecessary stress and drama to your life? It might be time to say goodbye to those relationships. Whether it is leaving a toxic work environment, breaking up with a partner who doesn’t have the same values as you or letting go of the friendship you seem to always be holding together. Set yourself free from those who are weighing you down and bring toxicity and drama to your life. Even if it is just you finally setting appropriate boundaries for relationships.

If you have people in your life who choose not to respect your boundaries, people who continually make bad decisions and expect you to pick up the pieces, people who cause you constant anxiety and headaches, or even just someone that doesn’t seem all that interested in having you in their life anymore, it might be time to say goodbye to those relationships for good. Life is too short to spend with people who don’t appreciate you and take advantage of you.

Start looking after yourself

Do you need to do more to look after yourself? I know I can often find myself choosing between practicing for the next gig, writing a new blog post or having an hour to myself and it has taken me a long while to realise that sometimes productivity and other goals need to take a back seat to my own self care.

Simplify in 2020 by starting to look after yourself. Use that gym membership you are paying for, go for a small walk everyday, read a book you’ve had on your read list for too long, drink more water, book in that dental check up even though you prefer to put off those visits. A little effort goes a long way. And trust me, when you hit the big 3-0, your body is going to insist you make better choices :p

Declutter the clutter you’ve accumulated in 2019

It’s time to say goodbye to the clutter that’s been impeding the enjoyment of your space and making clutter eyesore hotspots in your home. Simplify your life in 2020 by letting go of the excess in your home! Let go of the clothes you no longer love, donate the excess Tupperware you don’t have space for and say goodbye to the books you know you are never going to read.

A good rule of thumb is, if you haven’t used it in 12 months out it goes. If you need the extra cash you can sell your clutter otherwise bag it up, get it in your boot and drop it off to your nearest donation bin or charity as soon as you can.

Watch less TV

I absolutely love my TV time, I am a #NetflixandChill girl at heart, like any other millenial but I decided to simplify in 2020 by reducing the amount of TV I am allowing myself. Instead, I am going to the gym three times a week. I’m minus 1.5 hours a week of Netflix but feeling great knowing that I am better utilising that time!

Have a think about how much time you spend in front of the black box a week and how much time you would need to dedicate to a new goal of yours – whether it be to hit the gym, read more books, work on some craft or DIY projects or learn a new language. Even if you can cut out just 30-60 minutes a week of TV there is a lot of value adding activities you can squeeze into that new found time! Give it a go! And let me know in the comments how much screen time you gave up and what you replaced it with!

Set small goals

Simplify in 2020 by setting yourself some super achievable small goals. As the saying goes, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

If you have a goal in 2020, such as reading more, set yourself a super easy to achieve target such as sitting down every day at 3pm to read for fifteen minutes. Set your timer and go! If 7pm works better for you – go for it! Maybe you can squeeze it in while you’re in the car at your kids dance practice or get up a little bit early in the morning. The key is to find a time where most days you are able to do that activity.

Maybe you want to learn a new language for your upcoming holiday, how about you do just two Duolingo lessons a day which take at most 10 minutes!

If you want to learn new recipes, set a goal to try one or two new recipes a month! Throw that ambitious once a week goal in the bin and make the goal so easy to achieve that you can’t possibly fail!

Buy less

The more we buy and bring into our homes the more effort we need to put in to maintain these items.

Simplify in 2020 by aiming to buy less. Spend less time shopping, less time researching, less time rearranging things to fit in the cupboard, less time cleaning said items whether it be dusting, washing etc. And save future your from the chore of decluttering any excess later on! And a great bonus – you’ll save lots too!

You might consider doing a No Spend Month as an extra challenge to take in 2020 to help you curb your consumer spending. Even if just for a few weeks of the year.

Create space in your schedule

A few years ago I was completely overwhelmed by my schedule. I worked full time as well as a second job on Sunday nights. I was studying for my CPA, playing in a band and had moved out of home so had all the cleaning, cooking, washing, socializing and so on to squeeze in as well.

Since then I’ve learnt the importance of creating space in my schedule. I looked at what was and wasn’t a priority and reworked my schedule to reflect that. I quit my second job and realised that more time was more important to me than more money. I became more selective of what I said yes to and acknowledged that I couldn’t possibly keep squeezing 3 or 4 social gatherings into 2.5 days on top of house work and some much needed downtime.

My new routing involved planning ahead in my schedule and blocking out dates or times to create space in my schedule. This means that our weekends are no longer consumed by multiple social gatherings where we have no time to rest after a big work week. Time to rest is factored in every single weekend.

You can simplify in 2020 by doing the same, creating times booked into your calendar to recharge. I use Google Calendar for this. As events get locked into your calendar, be sure to add in some block out zones for your sanity. If Friday night is a friends party, it might be work keeping Saturday night free. If you have a few mid week catch ups scheduled and know it will be a stressful period at work, maybe that week you keep the weekend relatively free.

Declutter your digital space

A cluttered digital space can cause you unnecessary frustration and stress. Take the time every so often to review your digital space and remove anything that is not adding value. Delete apps that you no longer, or never use. Delete blurry or bad photos and keep only the quality shots. Delete memo notes you no longer need and review any to do list items that you can clear off. Do the same for your laptop or PC. Don’t forget to unsubscribe from social media accounts or emails that no longer add value.

Tidy your pantry

Your pantry is something your family will access multiple times every day. A disorganised pantry can make meal planning, grocery shopping and cooking harder than it needs to be. Not to mention, not being able to see what you need can make you waste more money and food!

Whether you have large or short window of time, set your timer and get started tidying your pantry. Even if you only have fifteen minutes you can make a lot of progress in a short space of time.

Throw out anything that has expired. Usually you know at a glance what has been sitting in your pantry for too long
Put any open packets into storage containers to keep the food fresh
Group like items so they are easy to find
Give the shelves a quick vacuum and wipe down. If you are short for time just do a spot clean

Declutter Makeup

Less is more when it comes to make up. Simplify in 2020 but going through your make up stash and tossing anything that is empty or that you no longer use. Keeping only the makeup you use and love will make getting ready a lot easier and keep your makeup storage area much easier to keep tidier.

In 2020, consider a more minimalist approach to buying makeup, by only purchasing makeup to replace items as they are used up. Most make up items have an expiry of 18-24 months so the less you buy, the more chance you have of using up what you do have within the expiration period.

Set up a donation box in your wardrobe

A great way to donate items, especially for those too busy to dedicate a lot of time to decluttering is to set up a donation box in your wardrobe so you can declutter as you go. Each time you pull something off the coat hanger or put something back from the wash you can make a decision about whether it is something you want to keep, or something you want to let go of.

The easiest way to simplify and declutter for those short on time is to do it as you are assessing the piece. When you are trying on a piece of clothing that no longer fits, that is uncomfortable, or is simply no longer your style you can easily toss it into your clothing bin and donate it when it gets full. You can of course chuck anything else in to donate from around the house that you come across that needs donating as well.

Declutter your jewellery collection

Too much jewellery can add too many decisions to getting ready every day. Review your jewellery collection and donate anything that you no longer wear or love. Let go of mismatched earrings, discoloured jewellery or anything that is no longer in your style. Group like items together so you can select what you want to wear as you get ready at a glance.

And as with your makeup collection, consider limiting how much jewellery you buy going forward. Consider a jewellery ban for a period of time where you don’t add anything to your collection or set a one in one out rule, where you can only bring a new piece in if you have let something else go.

Don’t forget to be honest with yourself and only keep the jewellery you will wear that you still love. If you have a collection of rings but only enjoy wearing your wedding set, let the others go to someone who will love them

Organise your paperwork

Papers can easily multiple once they come through your front door, before you know it you have too many papers piled up and don’t know where to start. Simplify in 2020 by limiting what comes into your home in the first place:

Putting a no junk mail sign on your letter box can go a long way to stemming unwanted mail.
Sign up for email statement listings for your accounts to reduce paper mail being delivered to your home that requires filing.
Set up a paper station for items you need to Action, File, Scan and Shred. Try and get to this pile once a week for action items and once a month for the Scanning, Shredding and filing so you piles don’t become Mount Everest!

Once you have limited what paper is coming through the door it will be a lot easier to manage and you will have less physical paper to action and sort.

Lastly, scan your receipts when you get home from shopping. I simply take a photo and upload it to a Receipts folder in Google Drive and recycle the original. Or grab a box for receipts and go through and scan them once every now and then to keep on top of them. You will never misplace a receipt again and will tackle your paper clutter before it gets too out of hand and feels too overwhelming!

Create a chill zone

Simplify in 2020 by creating a ‘chill zone’ space to unwind. It can be as fancy or simple as you like, for me it is just my lounge recliner where I keep a throw blanket and candle nearby, and some comfy cushions. It’s a place I can go to, to unwind, read a book or some articles.

Keep everything you need nearby so you aren’t running around grabbing things and getting distracted on your way to the chill zone (Oh look – mess! Let me just clean that up…).

Depending on your home, you may have a room for this or just a small nook in your lounge room, or just a chair somewhere in your home. It’s a space where you can get away from the dishes, laundry pile and anything else that is distracting you so you can unwind.

Want more tips on how to Simplify?

For more tips on how you can simplify your life check out these 9 tips and these 15 in this post.

Photo by Carolyn V on Unsplash

Comment Question: I would love to know how have you simplified your life? Let me know in the comments!

If you found value in this post I would be super appreciative if you could share it with others who might also find value in it 🙂

Budgeting

19 Things I Did in 2019 to Save Money

Posted on December 31, 2019

Happy New Year Text written in neon pinkish white

The past couple of years, I have done a post on the things I did that year to save money, here I am sticking with that tradition, and have compiled a list of the 19 Things I did in 2019 to Save Money to help inspire you with new ways to save your hard-earned cash! Don’t forget to check out my prior post 17 Things I Did in 2017 to Save Money for more ideas on how you can save money! And don’t forget to sign up to the Minimise With Me Mailing list for your free eBook ‘101 Ways to Save Money, Whilst Still Living Awesomely’!

19 Things I Did in 2019 to Save Money

Saved On Electricity By Using My Utility App

Early in the year, I discovered that my utility company had a handy, dandy app that was super helpful in monitoring Electricity and Gas usage at our home. I downloaded my utility app and monitored it to get electricity use and our bill down. It was great to see how much electricity and gas we used day-to-day and to experiment with how to get it down. I managed to get one of our Electricity quarterly bills down from the initial predicted $550 amount, to a much smaller $400. It’s a great motivator when you can see your bill is going to be high so you can make more of an effort to reduce your bill.

It also allowed me to enter my gas meter reading so the charges would be accurate rather than an estimate.

Some adjustments we made to our electricity use, as a result, were turning off stand-by power, setting our aircon to 24 degrees instead of 18 (I was more than happy as I am not keen on living in Antarctica ;)) and just trying to be more mindful of our power use E.g. Turning off lights that were not necessary and leaving the heater off until it was really needed.

With water restrictions, I am doing my best to save water and money on water.

Estimated savings: $200 a year

2. Resisted Upgrading My Phone Plan

My husband and I have sat on our 15GB data phone plans all year, despite easily being able to quadruple our data for $10 or $20 a month extra but instead, we just made the 15GB plans we had work.

Estimated savings: About $10 each, a month – total $240

3. Taking Advantage Of Big Sales

If I ever need to buy any big ticket items, I do my best to buy those things when they are on sale, such as on June 30 for end-of-year sales or Black Friday.

Of course, we don’t go looking for things to buy, but buy what we specifically want or need. Earlier in the year I was after a new quilt and picked one up from Adairs for 50% off saving $100 (although I would never pay $200 for a quilt ‘:)) and scored some new shoes for 35% off, saving myself $35 and replaced my old jeans with new ones when they had a buy one get one free offer.

And whilst I am there, I do research on as many purchases as I can! You can’t imagine the time I spend researching something that is $60 (it can be annoying to buy things I can’t deny), but at least when I buy something, I know I really need or want it, and it should be a quality product that will last. At least I do my darndest to make sure it is 🙂

Estimated savings: Who knows, would be in the hundreds!

4. Cancelled Our Second Streaming Services

At the start of the year, we were paying for both Netflix and Stan but realised that one is enough. There is only so much time in a day! So we cancelled Stan which was a$10/mth saving. We still have our Netflix subscription, which adds value to our lives regularly, but if we ever find we have nothing we want to watch on that platform, we’ll happily cancel it, or switch it for something else.

Estimated savings: $120 a year

5. Takeaway “Hacking”

I am completely making up the term, takeaway hacking, it’s really just a phrase to describe how we cut our eating out budget by getting takeaway vs dining out, more often. My husband and I both LOVE good food, so one thing we have both said we will justify spending on in our budget, is the food we love! But, there are always ways to save money, so we started finding creative ways to still eat food we love from restaurants, but save at the same time.

Often instead of dining out and paying $55-70 for a meal like we did 1 – 2 times a week in the past, we would instead eat at home. This way we were able to cook our own rice, eat our frozen stash of naans, and have drinks from home saving us about $15-20 a meal. So at least once a week, instead of paying our usual $55 or $75 to dine out, we would get takeaway for $40. This alone has saved us about $780 over the year.

We then ‘hack’ our eating out further by splitting our takeaway into two (or more) meals where we can, for lunch or dinner the next day to make further savings.

And we don’t feel like we are missing out. We skip the issues with slow service, paying top dollar for drinks, and a bit of a personal gripe of mine, paying $8 for the equivalent of $0.50 of rice.

We often buy naans for $13 for a pack of 15, which alone saves us about $8 by having our own naan instead of ordering them each time. We did the same by buying frozen samosas in bulk which cost us a few dollars, instead of the $10 cost of each entree. Of course, we don’t always do this, sometimes we will go out and buy what we want, but it certainly has made us rethink what we order. Now we often get dishes we can share and therefore end up ordering less and will skip the entree on other occasions. And when we eat out, we always ask for a takeaway container so nothing is ever wasted!

Estimated Savings: $780

6. I Brought My Lunch To Work More

Continuing with the food theme, I also upped my bringing my lunch to work game and most weeks did so 2-4 days a week. This saved me about $6 a day! So on a 2 day a week saving alone, this is about $600 a year saving. Not to mention when my husband does the same. He spends a lot more on food in a day, so if I assume, just one lunch was brought from home a week that is another $780 saved 😀

Estimated Savings: $600+780 total of $1380

7. Continuing to Meal Plan

In 2019 we continued with our Meal Planning routine, which has helped us stick to our $400 a month grocery budget.

We haven’t technically saved money here, as we have been doing this for some time, but by sticking to meal planning, we are not spending more money than we needed to on groceries so I think it counts!

Estimated Savings: Nothing extra in 2018, but we aren’t spending more, so yay!

8. Travelling Domestically

We knew we had plans to travel overseas in 2020, so in 2019 we traveled only domestically. Including a staycation in our own city for 3 nights for our 5-year wedding anniversary. We could have spent a lot more, but we decided to instead do something smaller and do some overseas travel in 2020 (Update: Ha! Joke was on us! Our next overseas trip was in Dec of 2022. Splah!).

Estimated Savings: Not having to pay for overseas flights alone would have saved us a pretty penny!

9. Maintaining Our Cars

After years of being slack with car repairs, thinking I was saving money by delaying my service, and just generally being slack at booking in services when I was supposed to, I eventually realised that that is why so many of our cars in the past have died!

I now make sure I service our cars on time and hopefully will avoid any major car issues! We’ve had my husband’s car now for 5 years and mine for 3 so touch wood we can keep them for a lot longer by looking after them! (Update: It’s Dec 2022 and both our cars are still going strong at 11 and 6 years respectively).

Estimated Savings: In the thousands!

10. I Sold More Clutter

Continuing with my prior year clutter selling goals, in 2019 we continued to sell anything that did not add any value to our lives!

Estimated Savings: I actually lost track of this year, but it was at least $500.

11. I Cut My Own Hair

I’ve been dying my own year for years, and this year decided to continue that saving by cutting my own hair. I never liked sitting at hairdressers anyway so not missing out here, and any trip I don’t have to make to the shops is a good thing in my eyes!

Estimated Savings: Approximately $200 a year

12. I Utilised The 7/11 App For Petrol

A friend of mine recommended me the 7/11 petrol app (Australians only sorry!) which has been such a lifesaver! Our petrol now jumps up about 35 cents with the petrol cycle (updated Dec 22: It now jumps up 50c!), so having to fill up on the high days, really hurts your hip pockets! By locking in the cheaper price, we save about $13 for my car’s tank and about $20 for my husband’s. It takes a bit of paying attention to the price cycle and locking in the price at the right time, and remembering to use the voucher before it expires, but the effort is totally worth it when you see your $15 savings! That is some serious cash!

Estimated Savings: Basing it on a fortnightly fill up about $858! I’d estimate it is more though!

13. We Stayed Home More and Thought of New Ways to Have Fun

We have become masters of cheap entertainment! Some of our free & fun activities are:

Watching comedy or docos on Netflix. Netflix keeps putting up some great stand-up comedy!
Watching a movie or new TV show
Playing board games like Rummikub, Scrabble, or our Nintendo Switch
Going for a late-night walks
Watching interesting interviews on YT or ones on things to do on our next holiday in our chosen destination.
Make dessert at home e.g. homemade waffles

We keep outings for things that we really want to do, like seeing a movie we are keen to see or going to see a favourite band play or musical.

Estimated Savings: If we estimate that we save $20 a week on entertainment that’s $1040

14. We Chose to Invest Over Spending

Here’s where that old rule ‘Pay yourself first’ comes into play. We realised how behind the ballgame we were on investing, so in 2019 we prioritised adding to our investments over spending money. When you can save or invest your money, it really takes away from any thoughts you may have about spending everything! Some people feel the urge to spend every last cent, so why not spend it on something that will in time grow your wealth?! We of course spend on things we need or want at times, but do prioritise travel, saving, and investing.

Estimated Savings: Hard to say here, but instead of buying things that depreciate, we are buying things that create a passive income!

15. We Continued To Save All Lump Sums We Got Over The Year

All extra funds on top of our regular salaries – tax refunds, bonuses, pay raises, additional holiday pay, etc were utilised to throw onto our mortgage. We keep 10% in a house fund for updates and the rest goes straight to our mortgage. Again, money we could have eaten up with lifestyle creep or spending and upgrading our electronics and decor, etc, but we chose to pay off debt!

Estimated Savings: Very approximately $3600 a year based on Dec 2018 vs Dec 2019 interest (annually)

16. We Went Digital

We went digital as much as possible saving ourselves on ink and paper costs. No more printing insurance or bank statements, and any statement that cost a fee to be mailed out was negated by switching to e-statements. Not a huge saving here but everything adds up.

Approximate savings: $100

17. I Went to the Dentist More

This is certainly a weird one, but a valuable lesson for us people trying to adult. My husband has a really bad tooth chip in 2019 that he left until the last minute when he was in excruciating pain. Turns out the sooner you go to the dentist, the cheaper the visit is, so like the car service, I am learning prevention is the best medicine and paying $150 for a dental visit is a lot better than paying $1,500 for a root canal (plus – ouch!!!!!!).

I’ve had a very irrational fear of dentists since I was little and am still working on this hehe, but at least now in the back of my head, I have a potentially huge bill to encourage me to make those necessary regular appointments! Now the $150 visits don’t hurt as much either 😉 (December 2022 Update: Pleased to report that I found an amazing dentist and go to the dentist for regular check-ups each year now and my pearly whites are thankful for it!)

Approximate savings: Not sure, but could be lots – and more importantly saving on more severe dental work!

18. I Picked Up a New Side Hustle

In addition to my side hustle of selling unloved clutter, I created an Etsy store to sell organisational printables and budgeting worksheets to help readers of Minimise With Me get organised with their lives and finances! It doesn’t make a lot of money but is an avenue for me to add some income in the future and something I enjoy doing as my passion is to help people minimise stress in their lives and help them on the path to build wealth!

Approximate savings: ???

19. We Went Without

To save money in 2019, we sometimes just went without.

I’ve been wanting a newRobovac for over a year now, but still have not gone out and bought one seeing as our Dyson V8 is still working perfectly fine. Our lounge has a couple of dodgy recliners, but again we have made do as otherwise our lounge still does the job. We have the same television we first bought when we moved in 8 years ago. We could have upgraded to a new smart TV but, instead decided to invest $99 into a Chromecast to make it perfectly functional. We did upgrade some things, like a few pieces of decor and a new dining table but mostly we have just made do with what we had or got creative. I recently sprayed out kitchen handles black for a DIY budget kitchen upgrade and just focus on creating neat and tidy spaces we love rather than spending and upgrading every time there is the urge.

Approximate savings: n/a

[Photo by Crazy nana on Unsplash]

Don’t forget to sign up to the Minimise With Me Mailing list for your free eBook ‘101 Ways to Save Money, Whilst Still Living Awesomely’!

Of course this is all in unison with everything I have done over the prior years, don’t forget to check out my prior post 17 Things I Did in 2017 to Save Money!

If you found value in this post I would be super appreciative if you could share it with others who might also find value in it 🙂

Question: Which of the above suggestions are you hoping to implement in 2023 to save money? Let me know in the comments 🙂

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