The Money Monster - Part 1

The ickies are gone! The ickies are gone! Let’s just all maintain a minute’s silence for the dearly departed germs.

Amen.

I don’t think I could adequately express just how joyous it feels to be rid of the bug that ambled it’s way into our lives last week. Suffice it to say, it feels pretty darn good. Miss Moo returned to school Tuesday, nary a memory of that 3-4 day period except for a new-found hatred for mint chocolate chip icecream. I guess I’ll pay that.

Today, however, I want to get serious.

Money. We spend our whole lives in pursuit of it. Even those who recognize it’s evil world dominance still kind of need to earn some of it to survive. Self-sustainability is a wonderful thing but despite the obvious benefits only a select few of us have the time or the werewithall to go the whole-hog and grow some steaks in our suburban backyards, so in a roundabout way, we’re all ruled by the Money Monster ;P

Talented Hubby and I were having a conversation in the car this afternoon about money. We seem to be treading water at the moment - not falling behind, but not really getting ahead either. This bothers TH some. Then you take me. I understand the practical implications of money, but I don’t tend to dwell on how much we have vs how much we need vs how much we want. We pay our bills, we have a little behind us, and that’s pretty much the extent of it. But TH’s comments got me thinking. If we took a nosedive fast, where would we stand financially?

Thankfully, job loss isn’t much of an issue. Talented Hubby’s work is solid, includes room for promotion and is in an industry which will always be there. We earn a decent salary, enough so that until now, I have not needed to work. He has a generous life insurance/permanent disability package and we have enough saved that a minor to moderate injury requiring some time off work wouldn’t send us to the cleaners.

But. BUT…

Daily living prices in Australia - and I suspect the world over - are skyrocketing. Fuel - my goodness. It makes me thankful I don’t drive and we don’t have to maintain (or fill!) a second car. Interest rates have gone up more than 2% in three years, just about obliterating our ‘buffer’ between minimum payment required and what we are actually paying (we thought we were so smart then…and we were…but we were also cocky and never dreamed rates would be nearing 10% in such a short timeframe). Eggs used to be the cheap option and now a dozen (to feed five of us scrambled eggs or omelettes, we come close to using the full carton) is comparable to a half-kilo (about a meal-for-five’s worth for us) of ‘premium’/'4 star’ beef mince! It continually shocks me every time I need to pick up produce at the supermarket rather than the stand-alone greengrocer. Dairy? We certainly won’t be having fondue anytime soon! And it goes on and on…

I did not grow up with much financial security in the home. Many, many times my folks had no money to see out the week and I remember one time my sister and I having to go and stay with an older brother for a couple of days because of the scarcity of edibles at home. That same trip, my brother had to buy me a pair of shoes because Mum and Dad weren’t in a position that week to buy them. Dad was (still is) a brilliant shot and would often shoot rabbits on our property which Mum then cooked up and served ‘Kentucky Fried Rabbit’ style (it is suprisingly delicious and rabbit is actually extremely lean and therefore good for you). For years, each time my older brother’s girlfriend came over for dinner, we would have spaghetti. Every time without fail. It stretched further and Mum could hide bulky vegetables in the sauce. We survived. And we’re better people for it, I think, but I also remember several occasions where money would come into the home, perhaps a little extra than we were expecting, and I would feel guilty for ordering an extra piece of fish with our (rare) takeout dinner. Or how a $2 coin from my parents (even rarer) seemed like I was taking money I didn’t deserve, that the money could be spent on more pressing matters. My parents only owned one house while I was still at home and that wasn’t for very long - it was lost to the market crash in ‘88 (we all laughed at their stories of 17% interest - we’re not laughing so much these days) That’s the undercurrent I grew up with.

When I got older, there were things I was determined to do differently. For starters, owning a home was really important to me. It meant roots, a solid grounding. It meant work was steady and we would not be living week to week (or even day to day) like periods I remembered from my childhood. I did not want to have to move my children about the country as I was moved. Second, I found the most level-headed-about-finances guy I could and then I married him, LOL. Financial services run in his family and he was raised markedly different to me. His parents saved when mine spent. They were not frivolous (neither were my parents, but they weren’t exactly Dave Ramseys either). Being careful with money is my husband’s blood, and I am surpremely grateful for that. He has been my voice of reason - and, yes, at times my tedious one! - over the last decade. He is a selfless provider and I’m very thankful for the ability to have stayed at home all these years. There is still a little wriggle-room in our budget and a small amount of money for incidental spending. We don’t have to freak out each day at the sound of the mailman’s motorbike, thinking there’s another bill on the way. Don’t get me wrong. It bites. We hate paying bills! But at the moment, the money is there.

And yet…I’m beginning to worry in a way that I have not needed to worry before. I’m still inclined to be more ‘glass half full’ to TH’s ‘glass half empty’ but I’m starting to think very seriously about our financial future and what this money business will mean one, two, five years from now. Will I need to go to work? I always counted myself so darn lucky that we were surviving quite well on one income. But with each pay increase, expenses have risen. It is getting increasingly harder.

Isn’t it interesting how ‘frugality’ is moving from the realm of the ‘working poor’ and is now popping up as a ‘lifestyle choice’ cleverly wrapped up with an environmental tag? It’s no longer a three minute shower to save money and risk being considered a little kooky. No, now it’s shorter showers to save the planet. A worthwhile cause, of course, LOL - but with a trendier side effect, frugality has become more socially acceptable. Hmmm. What do you all think?

Heck, I’m not sitting here scratching myself a bald spot or anything, but our financial stuff remains concerning. TH is more apt to fret over such matters so to see his brow furrow a little more often these days is a bit disconcerting. But I know I’m in good hands and I have faith that we’ll be just fine, with a little hard work and a deeper dive into frugality.