Spare Change

Whilst in Auckland the other week I felt a little odd walking down the street.
Now I know people stand (or sit) asking for money and I have no problems with that.

I support my fair share of charities.

1. Breast Cancer
2. Diabetes
3. Homeless Shelters
4. Women's Refuge

So there I was walking down the street, dressed nicely (ok jeans and a jumper but I take pride in how I look) carrying a bunch of flowers and some hot chips.

The flowers were for my best friend who we were going to for dinner that night. She had just informed me that she had gotten engaged the night before, so flowers were a must.

It was also 4pm and I had missed lunch and decided to grab $2.50 worth of hot chips to eat when I got back to the hotel that was 5 mins away.

And then I got asked if I had a dollar to spare? And I said NO!

And I felt stink for saying it...but...I really didn't have a dollar to spare. Yes I was dressed well, carry flowers, which really are a luxury, and some hot food which I also know for some is a luxury, but I don't have money to spare. I support my charities but I don't have dollars floating freely to hand out to anyone that asks. I am unemployed you know. 

You never know what they are going to spend it on either, ok they may all be honest and use it for food but I am not giving out dollars to support smoking and drinking.

So I kept on walking thinking about how cruel I must have looked.

However on the other side of things, totally different story now, I was quite shocked that the hotel we stayed in charged 2% for the use of credit cards.

This was a well known international hotel that must have 90% of its guest survive on credit cards yet they were charging you to use it. You could pay by cash or Eftpos and not incur a charge.

Visa and MasterCard promote themselves on the ease with which you can use their cards around the world, how convenient it is to use credit cards, how safe it is yet they must charge the hotels a fair whack if the hotel  feels they must pass this charge on to the customer.

So no I didn't have a dollar to spare for the guy on the street as it went on paying the surcharge so I was able to pay for my breakfast in the hotel!

Getting Older

Today the school are having some discos.
The junior disco will be straight after school and the senior disco will be at 6.30pm.

Alex will be attending the junior disco as this goes up to Yr 3 and therefore Ben will now be attending the senior disco!
Last night Alex negotiated all his money, we happily agreed to pay for the door entry and also a little towards some snacks. He then mentioned that he wanted to get some "Glow Glasses" like glow sticks but shaped as glasses, however we are well aware that he has money sitting in his wallet in his room, so we told him what we would pay for and that if he wanted anything extra he had to pay.
He happily got his money out and sorted what he was having and how much it would cost.
This morning he happily went to school with his wallet full of the money required to get him through his disco after school.

Ben on the other hand, will be collected at the end of school and taken home. He will then go back to school later tonight for his disco. He is more chuffed at the fact the disco does not finish until 8.30pm than about the actually disco.
As I am on the PTA then I have volunteered to help at the senior disco, so I will be there with him, to an extent. I will be helping in the kitchen with the food whilst he is out there sharing his stuff with his mates.
He is a very friendly outgoing person when he wants to be, so will be interesting to see how he handles being in a more relaxed enviroment and with older kids around. This disco goes up to Yr 8 (13yr old) Ben at present is Yr 4 and only just turning 9, so quite an age difference to contend with.
He too has to sort his money out before he goes tonight. We again have agreed to pay for the entry and towards snacks but any glow stick extras he wants, he will have to fund himself.

This was my decision to make them use their own money, when I mentioned it to Steve he agreed and said they had to understand that money wasn't just there for them to use whenever they felt like it.
We currently do not do pocket money and I am not sure when we might start it, but at least they are getting some understanding of money.

Relay for Life

At the weekend I had the greatest pleasure of being part of the Cancer Society "Relay for Life".

If you don't know what this is then I will explain.
It involves teams of people spending 22 hours walking round a set track. It is done in a relay, so you are only required to have someone from your team on the track at all times, you don't have to walk for the whole time.
You then raise money by getting people to support you in this process, so people give you money for the fact you team is there not for a set amount of laps or anything.
You start the relay at 2pm on Saturday and it continues until 12 on Sunday. You of course pray for nice weather.
You pitch a tent and gazebo for the team and this is where you spend your time when not walking. The tent is used for sleeping because you are, after all, there all night, and let me tell you a few hours sleep is greatly received.

I got involved as it was something I had heard about and had at one time decided it was something I wanted to complete.
So this year I managed to get involved at an early enough time to be part of a team. I joined a team that was made up of lots of individual people who all wanted to take part. A lot of teams are made up of people who all work together, are friends, or even families.
The only requirement I had as a team member was that I had to raise $100, as each team must have a minimum of 10 people and then this way each team would raise minimum of $1000. Seemed fair enough to me.

So on Saturday I turned up at the field with my bag in tow. You have to remember you are walking all night, or at least some of the night, and the temperature can drop big time. So extra layers are well adviced, so is a wooly hat, gloves, extra socks, blanket, sleeping bag and pillow. I also took extra snacks even though the team were providing dinner and breakfast and some nibbles, and also some exciting drinks so I didn't have to keep buying things there.
We had a roster to follow as to who was walking at what time, in half hour slots, although you were able to walk whenever you wanted to, this roster just meant that we always had someone from the team on the track at all times.
My walking time varied but I got to walk at the following times 5, 8 and 11pm and then 3.30, 5.30, 7.30 and 11.30am
Although I happily walked at other times for the odd laps just because you either sit and watch everyone go by or you join in and walk a little for something to do.

They even had themed laps. Yes this was where you were expected to dress up for the laps. The themes for this year were

• Superheros
• Olympic Glory
• Night at the Oscars
• Around the World
• Raindrops keep Falling on my Head
• Circus
• Uniforms
• Jazzercise

I happily dressed up when it fell on one of my laps, which was Oscars, so the 2 of us pulled on pretty black dresses over the tops of our clothes because it was 11pm at night by this stage and it was cold! Although once you got walking you in fact stayed really warm. (Sadly I never took any pictures of the themed laps, but then I never really took too many pictures the whole time I was there!)

The walking itself was easy, you just plodded round the set track for the allocated time. All the tents from the other teams were set up inside the track all facing the track so everyone got to see you walking past. This caused quite a bit of noise because people were cheering at different times for different things.
At one stage there was a lone fire-fighter walking round the track in his full gear (All 22kg of it, with tank). I got talking to him and discovered that apparently his team had ditched him but because people had supported him to walk he decided to turn up and walk for a couple of hours anyway, honour his agreement with them etc. So I told him we had food and a seat if he required it and then everytime he passed by our tent we clapped and cheered for him, he would wave and smile. This went on for about 3 hours and I am sure it helped him keep going. I even got it annouced over the loudspeaker that there was a lone fire-fighter out there and I think he then got heaps more cheers as he walked round from the other teams.

The relay started with the first lap being completed by survivors, it was a special time having all these cancer survivors, of all ages, walking round the track. A very special moment.
The other special moment was the Candlelight Lap at 9pm. All these paper bags were decorated in memory of someone lost and then a tea light candle placed inside and lit. We then all walked round the track in the dark with the candles burning. That too was very special. The boys and Steve managed to stay around for that and it was very difficult to explain to Ben what we were doing without getting emotional, even though I didn't have anyone really close to remember. However the boys did help decorate a bag for me and we did it in honour of a school friend, Alex, who died 22 years ago at age 19 of bone cancer.

The set up of the whole thing was very well done. They had coffee carts servicing our needs the whole time, yes they were there in the middle of the night, but then so was Subway too.
For $10 for 10 mins you could book a massage at certain times and I must admit that was lovely at 9.30pm to have a lovely quick leg massage to keep you going. They even had a group come and supply us with a free breakfast on the Sunday morning. Nothing better in life than walking round the track at 7.30am eating corn fritters and baked beans on toast, even though it wasn't piping hot, it went down so well.

The whole event was well coordinated and we were lucky enough to have good weather, although the rain stayed away the wind decided it wanted to join in and that made for a slight chill in the air.
The husbands of some of the team were wonderful coming in and cooking dinner and breakfast for us. Nothing better than suddenly being told that food was ready and not having to actually do anything to get to that point.
The boys and Steve were able to join in for the time that they visited with me but they went home for the night and then came back the next morning. However the boys were really excited about being there and would love to do it all next year. Having done it this year now, I can see how it would work with them present for the whole 22 hours and I am sure we can work something out for next year, even if it is in Grandma's camper van for the sleeping part during the night.

He loved every minute of being there, from joining in to playing ball with other kids/adults

So if you want to do something like this, then go check out the Relay for Life website and see if there is an event close to you. If the Hamilton one turns out to be your local one and you want to join in then let me know because I will be looking for team members for next year at some stage!

Budget

We do have a budget!
I may not stick to it as religiously as we should but I have an idea as to what goes where.
I was very anal one time and actually put it all together on an Excel Spreadsheet, complete with sums so it adds it all up for me when ever I change anything, you know, like allowing more money for gas and power or less for entertainment etc.
I also made sure that when calculating the budget I included everything, and I mean every little detail.
I have included on our budget for the subscription to the tv magazine we get throughout the year, for our family subscription to St Johns (ambulance service that allows us to get free ambulances whenever we need them, and with Steve having Diabetes and having the occassional hypo in the night you just never know when I will need medical assistance for him, and seeing as everytime I call them it could cost us $70 per call and it is only $60 for the year, then we have this service) and even down to allowing x amount each week for Ben to buy lunch at school if he wants it.

But whilst updating it this time I was amazed at just how much we do spend on things.
With life how it is for some people at present, then I can see how people decide not to have life insurance or even house and contents insurance!
I always cringe when I hear on the news that someone has lost their whole house and possessions due to a fire, that they firstly had no smoke alarm and secondly they are not insured! I don't know what we would do if we came home to find our whole house ablaze or even emptied due to being burgarled! We would have nothing and no extra money to get the stuff back. Now I know stuff is not important, yes it would be lovely to get back all the pictures and family moments you have saved, but I am talking plan and simple stuff like furniture and clothes, things you need to survive day to day with.

But having just redone the budget, it shows that we have life insurance for both of us, I have an extra one on Steve and we have total family medical cover. We also have house and contents plus car insurance, oh and I also have a superannuation account as well, but having all this costs us a little penny, which I know we are not seeing any of it now, but will benefit us later in life, but at just over $700 per month it is a tidy little sum of money that could be spent else where sometimes, but then when I think of being able to come home and know that if anything happened here we could have another roof over our head, we will be ok for transport if something happens to the car and god forbid one of us needs surgery we would be able to get it without having to wait months and months on the District Health then I can happily justify the money that we spend each month.

Do you have a budget? Does it include everything on it to give you a real look at where you spend you money?

Right Thing

Today Alex and I ran some errands.
We ended up at the supermarket and picked up a few little things we needed.
1 of the things we got was a little bag a lollies.

However at the checkout, Alex decided to help himself to a box of Smarties!
I however did not notice the box until he showed them to me at the car.

And I made him do the right thing.....and take them back!
I know cruel mean mummy, but oh so morally right mummy!

So we walked back in, with me explaining about taking without paying and that he had no money so couldn't have them. Then I made him give them to the lady and say 'sorry'.
She however looked at me at little surprised at first, until I explained how he had taken them and we hadn't paid for them. Then she smiled and said 'thank you'

I have no idea if he understood what we did, but at least I can hope he might.

Cost Saving

All over the world people are talking money, how are you saving? What are you cutting back on? etc etc.

But Mary over at Owlhaven has written a pretty good post about it all which really puts it into perspective, go check out what she has to say....

Unconditional

We officially went unconditional on the house today.
Of course now they want the deposit! Oh well off to the bank we go.

Rescuing Grandma

Grandma has been in New Zealand for the last week helping my brother and family settle into their new life in Rotorua.
Today she is flying back to Dubai.
On the news in the last 24 hours there have been reports on the fact that Air New Zealand have grounded some flights due to safety issues.

'Air New Zealand grounded about 60 flights to check 17 planes after a safety "issue" was found during routine inspection of an Eagle Air plane last night. '
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/

It was only as I heard a news bulletin at 11am that it clicked that grandma was flying up from Rotorua to Auckland today, in a little plane, with Air New Zealand and more than likely one of the ones that had been grounded.
So I gave her a quick call and suggested she check it out, because as she was due to get a connecting flight up here in Auckland, she didn't have the time to get that flight if she only found out at 2pm that her 3pm flight was not flying (it is a 3 hour drive).
So she checked it all out and found that all flights were grounded until 2pm and they could give no reassurance that the 3pm flight would fly. So my brother and family suddenly found themselves driving to Auckland and back to deliver grandma to the airport.

So a good deed by me for thinking of her and getting in touch quick enough.

Unfortunately at 4pm I got a call from grandma to say she was at the airport BUT her wallet was still in the car with my brother and therefore she had no money!
No money means no leaving New Zealand as you have to pay a $25 departure tax before you can go through to the gate!
So off we rushed to the airport (20 minutes away) to rescue grandma again for the 2nd time today.
She was more worried about the fact that it was her wallet with all her cards and driving license, which she needs in Dubai, but unfortunately there was nothing we could do about it at that moment, so we paid for her to leave, we gave her some money for the flight and made sure she had everything she needed and then we saw her off.
Luckily for us, just after she had gone through another Emirates flight taxied down the runway to take off, so as far as Ben is concerned we saw grandma's plane take off!
Unfortunately due to the time at the airport we were never going to make it home in time to make dinner so ended up having to have dinner at the airport. Expensive and not the greatest actually.

So a wild day of rescuing grandma.
Luckily when we called my brother later he had grandma's wallet from the car, so at least it is not lost and we can now organsie getting it to her soon.