Home Grown and Homemade

We are so lucky to have some very lovely neighbours who keep chickens.  The chickens lay many more eggs than the family of 4 can keep up with, and we have become the fortunate recipients of the excess eggs.  They are so fresh, and the yolks are such a lovely golden colour we all enjoy them for breakfast on the weekend and cooking during the week.  I really wanted to pay them back for their generosity, but our neighbours won’t take any money.   I had started collecting egg cartons for them as a gesture of thanks, but I’m conscience that it could be taken as a request for more eggs! (the eggs are so welcome, but I’m not going to ask for them!!).  I racked my brain for an idea of how I could repay the favour.

A couple of years ago I had discovered some fresh produce in the market gardens that are still allowed to remain in the North-Eastern suburbs of Perth.  One of my favourite places is a strawberry farm.  At the start of Spring the berries are huge and juicy, and while they are not that much cheaper than those you can get in supermarkets even in bulk (at about $25 for 3kg), they are so much fresher that there is no waste….. which I think is key to getting value for money when it comes to fresh food.  I had frozen some strawberries that I purchased in spring, and decided to turn them into some strawberry jam.  I could finally offer something back to our neighbours made by hand!

I found a recipe for Strawberry and Vanilla jam – perfect, because that sounded yum and I’d never seen this combination in the shops, so I could make something a little different.  The recipe was easy…. 2.5kg of strawberries, 2kg of sugar and a split vanilla bean.  I washed and hulled the berries, dried them, let them sit for 2 hours (stirring every half hour) in the sugar with scraped seeds of the vanilla bean plus the husk itself, then cooked the mixture quickly for 30 mins.  In the meantime I had prepared jars by boiling them to sterilise.  I checked the set of the jam by testing on saucers left in the freezer to cool (run the jam down the cold saucer and see if it stays runny or sets jelly-like), then when ready I removed the vanilla bean husk and bottled up.  I turned the bottles upside down for 2 minutes to seal (it actually work!  I could push down the pop-up bit on the lid and it stayed down). And voilà – my Strawberry with Vanilla jam was ready!

The next day, my girls gleefully took our jam over to the neighbours.  It felt good to be the giver rather than the receiver!  I hope our neighbours enjoy the jam.  I hope we do too, there is so much jam that even the 6 jars I had washed and stored did not contain the batch, and I had to fill some extra containers!!

It is a satisfying feeling to create your own produce – whether that be preserving like this, or growing herbs and vegies and harvesting from our own garden.  At the moment I have rosemary, dill, thyme, basil and parsley (curly and Italian) growing and they add a flavour explosion when added to dishes.  I also have some lettuce growing in a shallow pot.  I’d like to create a vegie garden, but will have to cordon off an area of the garden to do it so that the dogs don’t have access, and also I want to wait for the days to cool, because these over 35 degree days will just wilt young vegie plants.  I have plans to create a raised garden bed as this will allow me to build up a nutrient rich soil and I can locate it in an area that will be watered off the bore-fed reticulation. 

In the meantime, I have discovered a website called www.ripenear.me where I can source local, home grown produce.  The website allows you to search for households in your area that have excess fruit, vegies and herbs.  It’s a terrific idea, and one that ensures that the excess food grown doesn’t go to waste, especially when the owners have exhausted every conceivable recipe for broad beans/rhubarb/tomatoes!  In the UK you can try www.poppito.com.

If you share your home-grown produce with your neighbours, have a barter system going, or have any recipes for preserves made from home grown produce, I would love you to post about them here, or send me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com .

Improving Performance Through Delegating

If there is one skill that assists dramatically in time management, keeping goals front of mind and on track, and maintaining focus on priority activities it is delegation.  While some find it easy, others myself included, can sometimes find it challenging.  I don’t consider myself a ‘control freak’ but admittedly I am comfortable multi-tasking and being accountable for my actions, and occasionally I have thought that people who delegate too often are just lazy!  But I recognise the importance of improving my delegation skills, letting go of tasks that can become someone else’s responsibility, and ensuring my time is spent on doing the most important activity at that particular time.

The way in which tasks are delegated is important for both the person delegating and the person being delegated to. 

It’s important to me that delegation isn’t just a matter of telling someone else what to do.  Through my paid work, I want delegation to be a mutual understanding between myself and person I’m delegating to that I value their contribution and want to work with them as a team to accomplish all that needs to be done on the accounts that I manage.  I know that allowing colleagues to assist sends a clear message that I have faith in them, I value their skills, and I want them to succeed and grow in their careers, too.

KT Bernhagen shared a great tip on the website http://www.themuse.com/advice/6-tips-for-delegating-success .  “Open, clear communication from the get-go is absolutely crucial to ensuring that the projects you delegate will be done well. From the very beginning of the project, be up-front about your expectations, including timelines and deliverables, and give your team members all of the information they need to achieve those goals. It can be helpful to put everything in writing or provide people with a template or guidelines for the project—the more direction you give them, the more likely they’ll come back with what you’re looking for.”

One way to keep the elements of the delegated task on track is to adopt the SMART or SMARTER rule.  At work, my delegated tasks should be:

·                     Specific

·                     Measurable

·                     Agreed

·                     Realistic

·                     Timebound

·                     Ethical

·                     Recorded

On the website www.businessballs.com/delegation.htm Alan Chapman writes:

“The rate and extent of responsibility and freedom delegated to people is a fundamental driver of organisational growth and effectiveness, the growth and well-being of your people, and of your own development and advancement.”

At home it is much less formal, but still just as important that I can delegate chores. I want the delegation of tasks to my children to be learning experiences for them, so that they can develop the skills they need for self-sufficiency – real life skills.

This has been relatively easy for my eldest daughter, who relishes any new responsibility and new tasks (at least before the novelty of it wears off!). This year she has really taken to making her own school lunch, which at 7 years of age is quite impressive.  As she gets older, I realise that I can delegate more to her, which helps her to build the immediate skills of the specific task, but also a sense of accomplishment and responsibility, and earned trust from her parents.  My youngest daughter at 3 is somewhat less independent, but can skilfully find a way out of a task, or con someone in to completing it for her…. Quite the delegator (maybe I can learn from her!!)

Whether at home or paid work, being mindful of others is critical.  I should be grateful for the work others have done and ensure that I show my gratitude.  I should give credit for the work done, particularly if it’s rewarded by customers or stakeholders.

So, my aim is to put delegation into action every day, to assist others in building their own skill set and teach my kids some important life lessons and survival skills along the way.  By doing this, I’ll be improving my own efficiency and ensuring I spend my time getting the most in return for my efforts.  Do you find it easy to delegate tasks?  What strategies do you use to ensure tasks are completed appropriately?  Please send me a post or drop me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com – I’d love to read your suggestions.

Educating Myself on Investment Options

One goal I promised myself I would keep this year was to start saving harder than ever before, to prove to myself that we as a family can live on less.   I’m aiming to save one third of my wage each month, which is quite substantial and will force some considerable adjustments to our budget, but I’m up for the task!

It’s February, which means one month of the year has passed already, so now to plan what to do with the savings I have from January and will continue to grow.  I definitely don’t want them stored in a low interest day-to-day savings account on two fronts:  I don’t want them to be easily accessible and I want to earn a decent return.  I’m happy not to put all my eggs in the one basket, and plan to divvy up the funds across three areas – short term savings in a high interest online account, medium term savings in a term deposit or managed fund and long term savings investing in the stock market.  It’s the latter two that I know little about, so I’ve set about researching some information.

I’ve started my research by using a one-stop investing site www.investsmart.com.au .  It gives clear and easy to understand comparisons of managed funds across various sectors and strategies (ie. Global shares vs Australian shares).  It also provides quick summaries on the highest peforming funds and the most popular funds.  The Barefoot investor, Scott Pape, often talks about the Australian Foundation Investment Company.  Their investments have regularly made returns at solid rates over decades of years.  This is a bit of a hybrid between managed funds and investing in shares, as it is an investment company investing in Australian shares using the pool of multiple investors' cash in the same way as managed funds, but it is listed on the stock exchange so stocks are purchased through brokers in the same way as shares in any public company are purchased.  Looking on their website, www.afi.com.au  there’s heaps of information on historical returns and dividends paid (these are in February and August).  To me, it sounds like an option worth exploring further.

Then there’s investing directly into public companies listed on the stock exchange.  I’m more comfortable to invest in companies I know well, so I’ll limit myself to Australian shares.  There are many options to set up an online share trading account, whether that be through banks or websites such as www.investsmart.com.au and it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to set one up, particularly if you go through the bank you currently have accounts with, as proof of identity and documentation required is at a minimum.  I have arranged to get an account ready, but haven’t started trading yet.  I feel that I need to put some energy into understanding the market further before taking the plunge …. I need more education.  I want to know what investment strategy would best suit me?  I need to consider such things as high dividend returns vs high unit value growth and how this impacts investments over the long term.  How to look at a company’s balance sheet to determine their risk profile?  Finance experts provide advice on companies to invest in and their potential growth and value, but who do you trust?

The www.asx.com.au website is an excellent place to start researching EVERYTHING about share trading.  There’s an enormous amount of information on potential companies to invest in.  The site allows you to put a “watch list” together of the companies you’d like to keep tabs on, so that you can see these particular companies over a period of time and determine how they are performing and when might be the right time to invest.  There’s an “education” section which includes information for “first-time investors”.   There are tutorials to watch on how the share market works, an online shares course to find out what you need to start trading, investment videos and an investor update newsletter that you can sign up for.  Then there’s an opportunity to play the ASX Share Market Game and learn how to trade in real market conditions without risking real money.  The game goes for just over 4 months, giving participants a chance to test their strategies and learn from others’ strategies.  This sounds ideal for me, so I’ve signed up for the game which starts at the end of February.  It’ll motive me to keep up-to-date with the market and I’ll learn lots along the way.

What investment strategies have you employed?  Do you have a preference for cash, shares, bonds, property funds, managed funds or anything else?  I’d love to hear your thoughts so send me a post or drop me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com

Teaching Kids the Value of Money

Earlier this month I took the kids to watch a theatre version of Peppa Pig – their favourite TV cartoon.  They were so excited to be going along, the air in the car was electric with anticipation as we drove there.  After spending about 15 minutes trying to find a parking spot that allowed us to stay longer than 2 hours, I was keen to get settled in our seats when we arrived, and so we skipped through the foyer in a flash.  But not quick enough for the children not to notice the merchandise stand set up conspicuously along the path to the exit.  As we got ourselves seated, both my children started looking around at other kids whose mothers had already made piggy purchases.  Then the hard squeeze started. 

Now I had already spent quite a bit of money on the tickets themselves…. Not much change from $150 for 3 tickets, so it was quite a treat.  My youngest had her eye on the girl-across-the-aisle’s spinning colourful light-up toy which looked particularly stunning as the lights dimmed and the theatre darkened.  She was totally mesmerised.  “I want one of those spinning things, Mummy”.  Hmmm…. The show was enjoyed by both the girls, who participated in the audience participation parts, and clapped and sang their way to find the hidden treasure with Peppa, her little brother George and her friends.  As we descended the stairs back to the foyer, my eldest chimed in with my youngest that their lives would be so much the better if it included the spinning, colourful, light-up thing.  I braced myself to find out the price of the toy as we neared the merchandise stand …..$20 each. The kids  were pleading and begging, and it had been a delightful show so I was in a treating mood and I gave in and bought them one …… to share…. They were definitely NOT having one each!

It got me thinking that my kids have no concept about the value of money (although they are only 7 and 3).  They don’t understand when I tell them things are expensive.  How do you get the concept of expensive across to your children? 

Then later on in the week I heard a snippet on the radio talking about exactly this.  One of the ideas discussed was to use monopoly money to show the kids how much money we bring home each month.  Then take out money for the mortgage, for food and utilities, for the car and other bills.  There’s little left for savings and discretionary spending.  It’s a good idea and a tangible way to demonstrate to kids that while Mum and Dad go to work to earn money, there’s not an unlimited pot to draw from and choices about what to send money on to get maximum value are important.

I’d love to hear your ideas about how to teach children about money and making wise money choices.  Send me a post or email me at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com

By the way, the spinning, light-up toy lasted 2 days and broke when the kids took it to Nanna’s.  Not one of my wisest purchases!

Living Within Your Means

Over the Christmas period, I picked up a great book from the library titled “The Thrift Book: Live Well and Spend Less” by India Knight.  It gave all sorts of tips to help you stretch your dollar further and was split into chapters on

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Food

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Clothes

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Crafts

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Community

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Having Fun

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Beauty

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Holidays

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Home

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Money

India writes in down to earth, plain language and in a humorous way that makes the book an easy read as well as entertaining!  Most the shopping references were from the UK, so not so relevant to me in Australia but for the most part the principals can be adopted and local shops/farmers markets/organisations can be sought.

While it made for interesting reading and got me thinking a bit about my spending habits, it was the last page of the book that struck me with a bit of an “ah huh!” moment.  

It went like this:

“Appreciate what you’ve got, even the really small things.  For me, those really small things are often domestic, and I hope this book has communicated my enthusiasm for the nourishing significance of the very small.  Everyday happiness, as opposed to one-off great bursts of pure ecstasy, is intricately tied in with tiny everyday events: the jaunty-looking teapot that pours without dribbling, the children’s bath-time, blossom in spring, an especially good book.  These things aren’t sexy, or glamorous, or envy-making, but they are the fabric of all our days.  Concentrating on them, and on all the small joys they provide, can be intensely fulfilling.  Moaning because you can’t afford a $300 pair of shoes is not.  

Be happy. We are all blessed, in thousands of different ways.  There is enormous beauty in everyday life and it doesn’t cost any money to look and it and feel glad to be alive.”

If you’ve read any interesting books on being thrifty, I’d love to hear about them.  Send a post, or email me alivewelllivesmart@gmail.com .

More on cultivating a balanced life....

I find it so interesting that time and again, when I plant a seed of a thought in my head I immediately find that events and people come into my life that provide more direction, more information and sometimes the answers to the questions I have been asking.  It simply reinforces the phenomenon I have recently been reading about where when you ask for something the Universe finds a way to provide it.  I also think the saying “when the student is ready, the teacher appears” is so true.  Since my post on my goal for 2014, being to find a balance in all elements of my life, I have come across two very useful strategies to maintain focus on this balance.  This blog entry addresses both of those.

The first is the idea of the “Wheel of Life.”  I had seen this principle before – possibly while doing a Meyer-Briggs course as the principle is a trademark of the Meyer Resource Group Inc.  It involves mapping the various aspects of your life on a wheel and then charting how effectively you focus on each of these elements.  It allows you to visually see the areas of your life that you are neglecting but would like to put more focus on or improve.  Life aspects to include are suggested as:

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Relationships

•

Mental attitude

•

Finances

•

Health

•

Society

•

Career

•

Spiritual

The structure of the wheel is circle, with up to 7 lines from the radius out to the rim representing the various facets of our lives.  The centre of the wheel represents total dissatisfaction and the outer rim on the wheel represents 100% satisfaction.  For each facet of your life place a dot along the satisfaction axis, then join all the dots. You will then easily see where the wheel becomes ‘wonky” and unbalanced and where you might place greater emphasis to improve that facet.  This can be done once or twice a year, and is a good way to see at a glance how in-balance you feel your life is at that moment.  More information on the Wheel of Life can be found atwww.mindtools.com .

The second idea, is that of developing a weekly framework or structure around the most important roles we hold in our lives; the roles of mother, wife, daughter, employee, friend etc.  This suggestion came from Angie “Speedy” Spiteri’s book “The Secrets on Mastering Time”.  Angie suggests that by getting time for all the things that are important to you, you will feel well rounded, more satisfied and happy in the now.  Sounds like exactly what I’m after.

The first step in the framework is deciding on what your roles are.  The second step is to decide on the goals for each role.  Eg. As a mother I would like to help my children each evening with their school work.  The goals could cover a 12 month period, which is ideal for me as the timeframe for my  personal goals then coincide with my career and work objectives.  The third step is to start moving in the right direction by asking yourself “What is the single most important step I can take in each role this week to have the greatest and most significant impact on my goals.”

Then the idea is to translate the outcome of the third step into a schedule (using Outlook) for a week.  I can colour code the activities by role, so that when I look over the week I can see at a glance which colours are dominating and where I am placing my focus.

The framework should include

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Time for important project and roles: what you need to do and when you are going to do it

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Cyclical work and regular meetings: aim to do the same type of activity at the same time every day.  Group similar tasks together.

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Time for unplanned events

I may need to train others to support me (eg. by not scheduling appointments before I get into the office, or on my working from home day).  Angie suggests that “people get used to what you do.  If you say you are going to cll and then call when you say you will, many will stop emailing-ringing-visiting and will wait for you to get back to them.” Angie has encouraged her readers to share their ideas and frameworks as www.facebook.com/time.equals.moneywhich is where I’m headed now to have a squiz!

If you have any suggestions for building a framework to maintain balance in your life, or to help you to review whether or not all the important facets of your life are in balance I would love to hear them. Send me a post of drop me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com

Keeping life in balance

This year my New Year’s resolutions have been easy to articulate.  For me, it’s all about focussing on cultivating a good and balanced life.  To not let any of the bits get out of balance, and to keep reminding myself that this balance is important and I need to strive to maintain it.  The “bits” include:

Work

-       Family

-       Friends

-       Spirituality

-       Learning and training

-       Fitness and health

-       Personal space and stillness

I’ve found an excellent website at www.everydaysuccess.com , which says that finding balance is about setting priorities for all the different aspects of your life and then being clear about how you will set boundaries for what you expect of yourself for each priority.  When you know what actions will fulfill your priorities to your satisfaction, that’s when you’ll begin to feel balance.  Until you are clear about your priorities and how you want to fulfil those priorities, you’ll always feel on edge and out of balance.

Then, the glue that brings balance to your life is planning.  Plan your life daily.   Plan your life weekly.  Plant your life monthly and even annually.  You’ll enjoy your life more when your balls are balanced and your ducks are in a row.

How do you achieve balance in your life?  I’d love to hear your life experiences and ideas.  Drop me a post or send me an email at livewelllivesmart@gmail.com