Little Retro House

Money Lessons 2009 - The Bad

I'd like to talk about 10 of the things I wasted good money on in 2009. There are far more than 10 but these were the first ones that popped into my mind .

Gym Membership

I hate gyms and I always have. They combine three things I hate the most in this life: exercising, air conditioning and large rooms full of women. But in a weak moment I found myself signing up for 12 months. I went for about 4! I'm still paying but I don't go. My membership finishes in March.

Buying Cheap Shoes.

In a store, there does not look to be too much difference between a $36 pair of shoes and a $150 pair of shoes.

But you soon realise the difference when you have to wear them for a couple of hours.

I bought Rhianna's school shoes last year from Payless shoes. They lasted 6 weeks before they fell apart. Bill went and bought her the $110 from Shoes and Sox and they lasted the rest of the year. Lesson learnt.

Breadmaker

I ummed and ahhed all year about purchasing a breadmaker and didn't. My darling husband bought me one in the January sales and it's been going full steam ahead every day since.

The bread is fabulous and fresh, tastes great and has no preseratives. I should have bought this sooner. Oh, and it costs less than a $ a loaf.


Buying clothes from Op Shops

Now, don't get me wrong I love my op shops but I will never again buy clothes from there.

First of all, I never try them on in the shop as I will not try on old clothes until I have washed them (scabies anyone?). So I take them home, wash them, try them on, find they don't fit, are uncomfortable or unflattering and I put them back into my charity bag.

Birthday Presents for kids parties.

I estimate I spent about $500 on buying presents for other people's children last year. Most of it was cheap crap.

I feel bad that because of the number of parties we go to I have to limit how much I spend. Thus the quality suffers. Also I feel bad that I am giving another home on the planet more non-disposable junk to get rid of. Not this year.

Trashy magazines

There was a time whem I cared what the people in these magazines wore, said and did. It was around 1987 and I just got into a habit of buying them each week. Have gone cold turkey since the 1st of January.

Buying new books and DVD's.

If I saw a great book reviewed I had to buy it immediately and read it. This year I intend to order it through the library. And if I saw a movie that touched me I would buy it when it came out on DVD. And on the bookcase it would sit - never to be watched again.



Going blonde.

I used to be the Director of a Pre-school and one of the kids at the Preschool had 2 parents who were hairdressers. They talked me into going blonde. It looked O.K (I never loved it) but the cost to upkeep it was insane. About $150 every 6-8 weeks. Now, I'm back to brunette.

False nails

Coming into Summer last year I decided to treat myself with some new nails. I've had them before and hated them, but I told myself this time I would love them. WRONG!!

They get in the way, get dirty underneath and it costs $35 every 3 weeks to get them "filled". I ripped them off myself in December when I couldn't stand another second of them.

Growing stuff

I want so much to be "green" and a big part of this is growing your own produce. Well I have not had a lot of success so far.

I've tried to grow strawberries, onions, shallots and lettuces. The only thing that did any good were the lettuces.

And the money involved in setting up these projects is not cheap: planters, soil, seeds and fertiliser. Then there is the time and water you need to invest in the nurturing of said plants. I'm over it. I'm just going to buy local as much as I can.