My bookshelves are filled with books I bought pre-loved. Worn edges, creases folded in, sweat in the pages. I love it.
I wrote an article for Money Circle about second-hand shopping and why it’s an excellent option.
We live in a throwaway society. Our oceans are full of plastic and we’ve gotten to the stage that when things break, we replace them rather than repair. I’m not judging you, because I do the same thing.
Recently my desk lamp broke. Pulled off my desk too many times by the inquisitive toddler, the switch died. When I shook it, it rattled, and clicking it produced nothing. Not even a fizzle of electricity through to the bulb.
I complained to my husband and prepared to throw it away and buy a new one, but he promised he would try and fix it.
On a side note, WHERE DID MY WEEK GO?
How is Christmas this close already? EEEEK.
For a long time, I didn’t have any savings. When things went wrong, which they frequently did, we were left without any backup plan.
At the time, a savings account was beyond us financially. Between rent, commuting and our growing family, we had nothing left over. But the panic every time I thought about paying the car registration, or the power bill, or something breaking eventually got to me and I couldn’t do it anymore.
(Yes, we’re still in the hospital)
It’s that time of year again. Car parks in the shopping centres are becoming increasingly crazy and a little old lady nearly ran me over in her quest to find candy canes that hadn’t been shattered to pieces by excitable toddlers.
It’s a strange time of year. School is wrapping up finally and people, while supposed to be infused with holiday spirit, are just seeming grinchier.
I blame money.
When I was a child, I distinctly remember searching for my shoes in my bedroom. It must of been the end of the long weekend, and I rarely wore shoes at home if I could help it (I rarely wear shoes at home now too – some things never change). I found one sandshoe, but the other one was lost.
This was a big problem, because I only had one pair of shoes, and one pair of gumboots, and you couldn’t wear gumboots to school.
Eventually we found my shoe, and big sighs of relief abounded, because shoes are important. I think I used to have dreams about being barefoot at school with people laughing at me. Related: I don’t have pretty feet.
I remember being astounded, as I got older, that some people had more than one pair of shoes. They had dress shoes even. Adults had lots of shoes? REALLY?
Now I have lots of shoes, and they’re pretty.
I’m writing more about my childhood and poverty over on Money Circle today, and why it feels like I’m rich today.
I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been asked to contribute regularly over at Money Circle. I’ll be posting links so that you can read my articles when they’re published. My first one went live last night.
When I first moved in with my boyfriend, now husband, my mother gave me some good advice: “Never fight about money. Fighting won’t magically create more money, so it doesn’t do any good.”
Leaving aside the ways in which fighting does make a small subset of people a lot of money (WWE, UFC, Reality TV), she was completely right. Which is not unusual, when you think about advice given by mothers everywhere.
My husband and I have been together for nine years now, married for two. We have three children. In our time together, we’ve gone through various money woes, but we’ve always managed to talk about it openly and honestly, without fighting… Read More at Money Circle
