The reality with leaving paid work and self-employment is sometimes there's a gap in the finances; and eventually the savings run out. So it was with cap in hand to accept help from Centrelink, which in hindsight I ought to have done back in June, but some of us are just stubborn!
As Stuart Wild says, “The trick to having money is spending less”.
Groceries for cat and I were down to $20 a week. No meat, although Tims cat food started to look good! 1 Egg, a cup of flour and some milk made 2 x breakfasts of pancakes, as a change from porridge; but thank goodness for my vege garden! Although it was winter, I had carefully saved the meagre pumpkin harvest from summer, and now had lots of fresh fennel, broad bean leaves, coriander – plus a huge jar of dried broad beans (fava bean) also from summer but saved for seed. A friend told me about an Egyptian style broad bean soup with Middle Eastern spices. Yum! This became my survival soup, replacing the carrot and celery with pumpkin and fennel.
As kids, broad beans were the dreaded winter staple in winter, podded and eaten as mature, bitter beans. Now Australians have a much broader food culture, influenced by so many other cultures. Spanish friends use the dry beans in paella, or as a dip.
Luckily in September I was house sitting in town, so was able to walk to and from Centrelink and the library for inet, as it took a month in paperwork for financial help to come through. Although, I'm a believer too in only using vehicle where necessary as driving car = $ + pollution. If we don't walk our talk, what use then are our words? Sadly, I feel many words are currently in lip service :(
Years ago, I attended a 'Saver Plus' course, (run through Anglicare and the ANZ bank), looking for ways to save for building. I was shocked at some of the tricks commerce uses, but I learnt then to cut out what I didn't need, and the library has newspapers to read for free :)
My learning from this month was to remember that only 10% of the worlds people have access to a flushing loo. That if we have a car or laptop, we are among the world's richest people – and always, ALWAYS – replace fear with gratitude because we have so much to be thankful for. We just forget to step back and see that.
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