7 fat years and 7 lean years

News of what is happening to the world economy is making me realize how fragile everything is. There's this news about the Italian economy being "too big to fail and too big to save" and its collapse would wreak havoc on the Euro.

Then I came across this great article from Slate.com which paints a good picture of how Americans are getting by the recession. Read it here. I was halfway through the article when I realize that I need to simplify my life further in order to save more. We are blessed to have jobs, to not be underemployed, to have our health and to be able to service our bills and mortgage. But come to think of it, so were most of those Americans before the recession happened. No one predicted that this would happen and when it happened, it sent everyone reeling from disbelief.

I am looking for a way to save money better. Saving in banks seems to be bad (but still safe) option since the interest rate is just less than 1% per annum, whereas the inflation rate is at 5.5%. The average person may be saving more, but he will still end up losing more. How ironic.

Here are the tips I can share on getting by the 7 lean years:

You don't have to sacrifice fun just because you don't want to spend too much money
There are many activities you can do as a family at no cost. There are a lot of free parks with lots of things to explore: Botanic Gardens, Jacob Ballas Children's Garden, MacRitchie Reservoir, etc. You can also go to the public library -- most would have a section for kids where you can borrow books and AV materials. A lot of malls also have nice playgrounds which are free. Go here for the list.

There are also some venues with minimal fee: Science Centre, museums (I remember the Live Turtle and Tortoise museum with fondness because entrance is just $5 and I had a lot of fun looking at different breeds of turtles).

Spending time with your family is both price-less and priceless.
I am learning a lot from my son. He is extremely happy when it's a Saturday because he knows that we'd be home with him.  It doesn't really matter whether we're just at home playing or outside. What matters is that we're doing things as a family. A small reminder that it's not the place, it's the people you're with.

Eat in. Cook in.
We all know that meal times is the best way for the family to bond. Since I became a mom, I swore to myself that I will learn to cook decent meals. (When I was single and living with my parents, all I knew was how to cook fried rice and hotdogs, hahah). While cooking is hardly possible for me to do during the weekdays, I make it a point to cook during the weekends.

I also taught myself how to cook food we'd normally eat outside -- like pizza. If you do the math, you have a lot to save. Making FOUR pizzas would cost me only around $16+. (I actually spend around $16.50 for my ingredients: pizza sauce: $3, bacon: $3, mozzarella cheese: $4.50, assorted veggies: $3, homemade dough: $1, chicken meat: $2). That's $4+ for a pizza that feeds 4 people.

Here's what my homemade pizza looks like. Yes, it's not round. It's not a perfect square either. While it is not perfect shape-wise, I think it was good enough to make my pizza-averse son request for a slice.  

Homemade Bacon Pizza. Serves 4: me, hubby, yaya & little boy

Like I said, you don't have to spend a lot to enjoy good food. Our hands are capable of many good things. We just have to unlearn some of the things that were brainwashed to us by those cleverly written marketing campaigns.

I love Jamie Oliver's 30-minute meals. While it may not be so easy to source for some of his ingredients, it is easy to substitute them with local meat and produce. And since Jamie is a busy family man, I trust that he's doing this for his household.

There's more to life than shopping.
Like watching sunsets. Watching movies at home with your son sitting at your lap and your husband holding your hand at the same time. Walking at the park. Reading books together. Taking trains not caring about the destination but enjoying the journey itself. Taking photos of your favorite things and sharing them to friends and family. Singing. Sharing jokes. Actually living.

Be creative.
In this age of consumerism, we often overlook the fact that we can up-cycle and re-purpose a lot of things. An old shirt can be sewn to be a rug, a sock that has lost its pair can be used as a cleaner for those hard to reach corners at home.

My yaya has another ingenious way of saving. She up-cycles food. Note that this is leftover food that is carefully inspected to still be good food (Not spoilt! I remind her that it's cheaper to throw spoilt food than go to the hospital for indigestion).  She successfully used the leftover chicken from our tinola lunch and turned it to chicken noodle soup for dinner. Wonderful.

Yes, the 7 lean years has come. And it's teaching many valuable lessons -- things that we've forgotten during the times of plenty.