It's the simple things

This week at work I have been doing a mind numbingly boring job. I can happily announce that today I finished it - I am pleased I will not have to listen to that machine noise tomorrow!

That said while the job is boring it does give one a lot of time to think. And I've been thinking about ways to save even more money for our holiday next year. And this is where I struck a bit of a problem. Whenever you read finance books/ debt reduction books they all make suggestions of things you can do to trim your budget or bring in extra cash. My problem is that I don't drink take away coffee, dine out, have expensive haircuts and beauty treatments every 6 weeks. My grocery budget probably can't be cut back much more without affecting the lads by having no "treats" and me by no chocolate. And being a single parent I cannot just pick up a second job or do some overtime. Between government departments clawing back any allowances I receive along with taxes and a lack of time available to work more it's almost impossible for me to get ahead by increasing my income.

So I guess I am going to have to maximise the simple things in order to save money. I'm already pretty good at making sure things are switched off at the wall and all the other things that save a little here and there but I'm going to start scouring the vault on Simple Savings for other little ideas. I am often amazed at how quickly little savings can add up.

The area in which I think I can save/earn the most money is in my back yard. We are already growing some veges and have started planting seedlings for this seasons crops. The berry patch is in and that's an area that should save us hugely. I'll need to put in some hard yards for this to pay off but I think the boys and I are up for the challenge. If we could manage to trim our grocery budget by $20-$30 a week over the season that's going to be a great addition to our holiday fund.