Journey to Future Freedom

Tag: lifestyle

  • Alcohol….reasons I’m giving it up!For Good!

    I have been toying with this idea for at least the last ten years. I have known since our children were young that my relationship with alcohol would be described as dysfunctional.

    I don’t drink everyday and there have been periods of time over the years where I’m have not drunk for months or weeks but I’m always go back to it and once I pop out can’t stop.

    I grew up with an alcoholic father. It didn’t really affect my life hugely as he was not nasty or violent. He was just a drunk that had nothing. The kindest drunk I knew. When I was 21 he went into liver failure and ended up giving up alcohol. He received a new liver and managed 10 more years of life before dying of cancer. I’ve seen first hand the toll alcohol can take on the mind and the body.

    But back to me. My reasons. There are so many.

    My daughter hates me drinking and as she gets older it is starting to have an impact on our relationship.

    It is definitely affecting my health. In the past five years I have put on 15kg mostly in the form of calories from wine.

    It steals my motivation. Five years ago I was running half marathons and playing with the idea of running a full. Now I’d be lucky if I could run to the end of the road.

    It steals my time. I do things while drinking but not well. The time I spend drinking in the evenings could definitely be used doing other things. Running maybe.

    I’m literally flushing money down the toilet. It is so expensive. I hate to think how much money I have wasted over the years. Thousands!

    So it’s time for change. I know it won’t be easy but I set out this year to find freedom and this is definitely going to be freeing. I’m excited to see what it will look like

    “I officially NO LONGER DRINK ALCOHOL!”

  • Bartering- old fashioned or a way forward?

    We did a job at work for a very regular customer and yesterday. Not a big job just a quick and easy fix. A couple of hours later he came back into work with fish for us. Now if you live in NZ you know that fish is bloody expensive. It really doesn’t matter if you buy it or go out fishing for it. It is costly.

    So I was so grateful to have a meal of fish that would have cost us $50 if I had purchased it. Although being honest I wouldn’t have purchased it because I would deem it too expensive.

    Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the fish burgers and there was plenty leftover for lunches today. The dogs even enjoyed a small piece each.

    It got me thinking though. “How much could we reduce our groceries if we shared what we had? How much waste would be reduced if we shared what we had? How much time would be saved if we cooked in bulk and shared it?

    We often share surplus with others in Summer when there is a surplus of fruit available but honestly it’s never gone any further than that. Is it really an old fashioned way of trading goods and services or could we benefit from it? Hubby said it never works because the transactions are not equal. The exact reason money was brought in in the first place.

    What if we started sharing more of what we had without expecting anything in return. Would people then feel that they had to repay you?

  • 20% Planning 80% Execution

    I have always been a planner. I can make the numbers work out beautifully on paper or I can come up with itinerary that has the best intentions. However, I really fail on the execution!

    I have come over the past year to realise that the planning means jack shit if you don’t put it in practise and consistently.

    Let’s use saving money on takeaways as an example. It’s easy to cook every night for a week but then kids sports go later than planned, and one of us ends up working late and you find yourself thinking, “We will just stop for something on the way home.” It is such an easy trap to fall into. Then you think oh I’ll do better next month, but next month comes and the same thing happens.

    Well I put a stop to this!

    First thing I did was load the freezer with easy meals. You know the ones that are ready in 20 minutes, require very little cooking and best of all no thought! Tacos, Nachos, Soups, burger patties. This meant that I no longer had time as the excuse.

    The second thing I did, was point out that if we purchased takeaways then effectively one of us had worked late for “NOTHING” Lets say we spent $80 on takeaways, easily done for a family of four in NZ. Then the 2 hours working late had been completely in vain. Nothing more degrading than hubby walking in the door and me saying, “Welcome home, here’s dinner that you just paid for with the past two hours of working . It isn’t worth it!

    Gone are our days of takeaways- I think it’s been a good three months since we had them. Or so the kids keep telling me. Although I have noticed they have pretty much stopped asking. I prefer now to eat out on a special occasion where we can have one on one time together with no devices .