How to manage on a shoestring budget

Money behaves oddly, like a frisky goat. One thing is for sure prices go up and never come down, but the older one gets the income starts to shrink. Children may or may not contribute.

 How to manage on a shoestring budget? 

Here are a few tips:

•  make a random list of necessary expenses.
• make a second list  prioritizing the items.
• estimate the expenditure against each, the total is what you just have to spend every month.
• In the priority list are electricity, cooking gas, vehicle fuel if you have a car, transport , education, municipal taxes, income and wealth tax( not really applicable here because I presume you don't earn enough to be taxed). After these cant-do-without items ,list food and clothes. These are essential too but one can save on expense here by doing without some stuff.  
• Avoid loans as these actually increase the burden and the headache. 
• Remember it is better to go without than to borrow.
• Don't drink
• Don't smoke
• Keep a little sum of money aside whenever you can.
• Go window-shopping, but don't step inside the shop.
• Walk when you can and avoid transport.
• Avoid using the car frequently - you will contribute to a greener fresher world.
• If you have a patch of land grow your own herbs, veggies, fruits. One can have coriander,mint, chillies etc in pots.
• If you live in a large house and security is a problem keep  a couple of strays as pets, this is considerably cheaper than keeping a security guard or durwan. Dogs are loyal and loving.
• Use cooking oil sparingly, make preserves of veg and fruits  when they are in season and consequently cheaper.

Try these tips now.More next time. Let me know if you have any ideas on how to beat inflation.

How to get rid of Guilt!

Easy Lies

Small lies... Harmless little feathery lies, silly silky fluttering flattering moth-soft lies that brush against the listeners'  faces and make them smile. Lies innocent as butterflies - as short-lived  and light-as-air. Touchstone's definition does not include these.
I started small with Johnny, Johnny, Yes, Papa lies. Three older sisters ready to catch me out. I'd sneak out their comics and story-books from under their pillows while they slept. Instincts of self-preservation made me lie with a straight face. 'I haven't touched your stupid book', 'How am I to know where you've kept it!'
At school  a sunny smile helped- 'I wasn't talking', 'I've left my homework at home'.
Lies were there, lying all about me, to shield me from punishment.
Lies - yes... but what a lot of truth those lies revealed about me, my childhood. My naive defences  were no defences at all - mum seemed to know everything but she never scolded or smacked me. I felt low with feelings of guilt if I lied to mum, but had no compunction whatever about fibbing to my sisters! They would rave and rant a bit, but that was all.
Not that I didn't wish to be good and honest like Uncle Arthur's Gladys Great-heart, but I realised quite early that  there is a wide chasm between the ideal and the real, and unknowingly I put the teachings of a Zen master into practice -  in a moment of crisis for me I was the most important person and the most important task was to save my bacon and the most important time was 'now'.
In my teens and twenties I  dabbled with the truth, and emerged battle-worn and weary.
Discretion is now my watchword. People ask for an opinion, but don't want to hear the truth...they just want a back-up!
Lies are the sponge-soft mattresses, the cosy quilts on  wintry mornings.  I think, and this is my honest opinion, lies are just as important and essential to living as the truth.Guileless lies are guiltless lies. If I can make someone happier or more confident with a small harmless little lie, well why not? No Hiroshima will be destroyed by it.
So get rid of your guilt and go ahead and spread some buttery sunshine around.