Living on a Restricted Budget

By Simon Staub

Living on a severely restricted budget can be a difficult and harsh reality that many people are now faced with. This eBook is to share our family’s experiences on how we coped with, and prospered, over the last few years after having to live on a very restricted budget. It provides ideas for many budgeting skills and recipes that we use regularly to help provide meals and the other necessities our family has needed. My experiences over the last 40 years have given me a reasonable knowledge of basic food preparation, this I have adapted to suit our economic situation. I make all our food from scratch using mainly organic fresh produce, much of which we grow ourselves in our organic mulch garden. We use very little processed foods of any type; instead make our own. We also make our own home and health care products, this is not only for budgeting considerations, but also as a health measure. Many chronic health problems, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes are a direct result of diet and the chemicals in our environment and the products we use.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon Staub
• Release date: Jun 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310158179

Simon Staub

Simon is a solo parent living in Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental, Philippines with his two children, Jean, 8 years old and Trevor 6 years old. Jean and Trevor have a condition known as G6PDD; Jean has a milder version while Trevor has a much more severe version. Because of this condition they have to be on a restricted diet of mainly unprocessed foods, with no legumes, food colorings preservatives or other additives. Simon makes and prepares all of their food from scratch, using raw, organic produce. Otherwise, they are healthy, happy children, enjoying a modest, relaxed lifestyle in a semi-rural area of what is known as the City of Good Life in the Philippines, a warm, friendly city, blessed with very little pollution and a very low crime rate in a tropical area with a temperature of about 30C all year round, it is protected from typhoons and other harsh conditions found in other parts of the country.Simon is 58 years old, a New Zealand Born Australian a retired Chef and Entrepreneur. His hobbies include organic gardening, raising free range chickens, pigs, fish and cattle for personal use, making and preparing all their own foods from scratch from wholesome ingredients and living a naturally healthy lifestyle. They enjoy practicing Tae Kwondo, water sports, fishing, diving and boating; have traveled to Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, India, Hong Kong, and China. He is now concentrating on this children’s schooling and compiling eBooks on topics related to g6pdd, arthritis and healthy living, to share with others their experiences and knowledge on how to live long and happy lives with Arthritis and G6PDD.

Book preview

Living on a Restricted Budget

by

Simon Staub

Published by Simon Staub

at Smashwords

Edited by Cris Michelle Pedrajas

Copyright 2016 Simon Staub

Dedication

For my children, Jean and Trevor. Love of my life, inspiration and source of my strength.

Simon

Thank you for downloading this eBook. This eBook is licensed for you and your family’s personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

My eBook is presented to you so I can share with you the way our family went about recovering from our own financial difficulties when faced with being on a very limited budget. While every effort has been made by me the author to present accurate and up to date information within this document, new information is always coming to hand. Therefore, I, the author reserve the right to update or change the contents and information as any changes are required.

I strongly advise everyone to do their own research into all aspects of budgeting I, the author take no responsibility for any errors or discrepancies in this document or any actions taken by anyone whether monetary, legal or otherwise. It is the reader’s sole responsibility to seek additional information and satisfy themselves on the appropriate methods for their finances. Reader's results will vary according to their skill levels and individual perception of the contents.

The facts and figures contained within have been taken from many reputable sources, but are meant as a guide only.

Thank you for your support

You are welcome to contact me through my

Website; http://www.simonstaub.com

Or email: [e-mail]

Table of contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Pre-Budget

Consolidating your Debts

Insurance

Chapter 2: Making Budgets

Chapter 3: Safe Standard Foods, and those that should be Organic

The Safest Standard Fruit and Vegetables

Fruits and Vegetables you should buy Organic

The most Affordable Cost Effective Organic Foods

Chapter 4: Budgeting Time as well as Money

Chapter 5: Ideas to Save Money and Stretch the Dollar

Chapter 6: Being Healthy Doesn’t Necessarily Cost a Lot

Chapter 7: Cutting Serious Corners with Healthy Friendly Recipes Ideas

Baby Foods

Breakfast or Snack Ideas

Beverages, Vegetable Juices and Smoothies

Homemade Pasta and Pasta Dishes

Homemade Stocks and Soups

Home Cured Bacon & Ham

Homemade Vegetable Flours and Baking

Condiments

Desserts

Chapter 8: Great Savings with Alternatives to Everyday Products

Chapter 9: Savings with Healthy Cooking Methods

Chapter 10: Healthy Savings by Avoiding Chemical additives in many Foods and Body Care Products

Other books by Simon

About the Author

Connect with Us

Introduction

The ideas in this eBook are taken from my own experiences in coping with living on a very restricted budget; it’s designed to assist with ideas to help with coping and thriving on a low income in today’s modern world. It goes through some of the ways our family used to overcome and cope with our own severe cash shortage and work out a realistic budget based on real practical needs so all our living expenses, requirements and needs were covered. It also gives some ideas on recipes, to provide healthy, nutritious and tasty meals, household and body care products that do not pollute or contaminate our bodies or the environment as well as giving us a reasonable standard of living within our budget.

For many of us living on a restricted budget is a harsh reality, trying to stretch the dollar each week to cover all of your expenses can be a real challenge and often feels like a losing battle. Covering all your family’s needs as well as buying or producing healthy, wholesome, nutritious foods on a budget can take a bit of careful negotiation and planning. You need to have a realistic strategy, be prepared to sacrifice many wants for the things you really need and formulate an overall financial plan that you can work with so that you know exactly where you are and where your money is going.

A sensible budget is not just replacing high cost items with the cheapest possible substitutes and going without the things that make life enjoyable, it’s finding a way to live within your means, which covers your family’s basic requirements, gives you a bit of flexibility and eases the worry and stress caused by not being able to make ends meet. This need not be expensive or take an undue amount of time, but it is essential in order for you to take control of your finances and future. There are many free budget plans and ideas on the internet that are easy to follow that can save you a lot of time and effort or you can seek the help of a free financial planner available from any number of government or non-profit organizations to help you budget your finances, eliminate all debt and even start saving for future events as well as creating a life that is financially stable regardless of your salary or income. In fact, you can live a comfortable and healthy lifestyle on a very limited budget as we do; you just have to be smart with the resources you have as well as being prepared to make changes to your lifestyle if your income or earning capability has been restricted or reduced, you are living on a pension or benefit.

If you are placed in a situation for whatever reason that you cannot provide for yourself and/or your family most western countries have government welfare programs, church groups and other organizations that can provide assistance to help, whether in the form of direct financial assistance, housing, food coupons or subsidized services.

Many people that I know in Australia are on a pension or benefit payments and do not own any major assets like a home or a car, they are caught in a situation where they have to pay rents they cannot afford and barely manage to feed themselves and their families. People such as solo parents, school leavers, retirees, widowers and people who have been made redundant or laid off from their jobs through no fault of their own but because companies downsize. Regardless of the reason, living on a very low income is a reality for many people and can make life very difficult. Often it is almost impossible to change or improve your situation when all you can do is just survive.

Fortunately for our family, we own our home and have a little land on our section that we can use for an organic vegetable garden as described in our eBook Simple Organic Vegetable and Herb Gardening Made Easy, so we do not have the major expense of providing somewhere to live. I am an Australian solo father living in the Philippines with 2 young children, for westerners such as myself there are no social welfare payments or pensions available from here or Australia, so for the foreseeable future we have to live on a small income I get from my Australian investments. Returning to Australia with my children would mean we would become reliant on the government to assist and provide for our family’s needs and have a reduced standard of living.

I became very tired of each month of finding it almost impossible to pay my bills such as power, gas, water loan repayments plus interest and other monthly bills by their due date. I almost always had to pay a late payment penalty and or lose my early payment discounts; often bills got paid on the last day or when disconnection notices were served.

I decided I needed to do something, so I took a good look at all the stuff around our home to determine what I could sell and luckily managed to sell just over $2,000 worth of items we no longer had a use for or could do without, which was a welcome and an unexpected amount of cash. Now what to do with this money, I really wanted to spend it on a few luxuries we had been thinking about and hoping for but this is the type of thinking that we had to get away from. Money comes in, then goes out and things just remain the same, so we might as well not have had it to start with. We needed to make every cent count to improve our economic situation. So we looked at what we really needed. The answer to this was to free up our cash flow a bit, not to waste it on stuff that was not really important. We decided the best use of this money was to pay all our monthly bills and put the balance in a new account that I opened especially for next month’s bills. The result is that our household is in front of our bills for a change not struggling to catch up. I will pay next month’s bills from this month’s income, it sounds a bit strange, but I no longer have the stress of worrying about this month and I am always able to claim my early payment discounts which amount to about a 10% saving.

By using internet banking it makes it easy, there are no charges for money transfers from one linked account to another. I can pay my bills directly from my account using internet banking or they are paid or taken from the account by the company’s owed using direct transfer; there are no fees to do this as long as the account has enough funds in it to cover these transfers. I have a month (the current month) to transfer the money to the account for next month so the account is always active. I appreciate that many people will not have or want to use bank accounts, but devising a similar system can save a lot of anxiety if you can manage to do this. Even placing the cash in marked envelopes and keeping them safe until it’s time to pay the bills would work, as long as the temptation to borrow from them or use the money elsewhere is overcome.

Chapter 1: Pre-Budget

Before you can create a budget, you need to know all your expenses and where your money is going, to do this, start by asking for receipts for everything you and each member of your family buys even the smallest items need to be included or carry a small daily diary to write up all spending. Each member of your family should keep all their receipts or have their own small dairy, so they can keep track of all expenses and payments.

With the cost of basic foods and commodities, rents and interest rates constantly rising and with most people’s income largely remaining static or only increasing slightly, but never enough to keep up, spending power keeps diminishing, forcing cut backs on many things that in the past you might have been able to afford and enjoy especially luxury items and or treats. The first step to gaining control of your finances is to work out a realistic financial plan and budget that works for you and stick to it. All spending should be scrutinized and a decision made on whether you really need it or if you can you do without it, even the little things soon add up and can blow out the budget.

Sometimes drastic steps have to be made and a complete remake of your life style becomes necessary. Many people asked me how I can cope with no longer enjoying the level of income I had been accustomed to. Never before had I had to worry about providing for my family and their needs. Suddenly I was faced with a budget that was about 1/5 of my former income. I became a solo parent with 2 young children 3 and 5 years old. My fixed expenses remained the same and my debt level was rising dramatically. Borrowing money to cover debts and ongoing expenses for me was not a realistic option; as this money plus interest would have to be repaid sooner or later only making matters worse in the long term, even if it was possible to borrow. With no real prospect of increasing income in the foreseeable future, it is almost impossible to borrow money, especially if finding it difficult or impossible to cover your living expenses and service present debt levels, let alone increasing outgoings. One of the golden rules many lending institutes follow is if you really need the money, then they will not lend it to you as the risk of your defaulting on the loan is increased, if you don’t really need it then they will lend it to because you can easily repay it so the risk it much lower.

∞

Consolidating your debts where or when possible is a good strategy, but if possible it is better to do this on your own (with guidance). Debt management companies, often promise the world, but at best they deliver a costly service that just does the many things you can do yourself for free. If you are unsure about the best way for you to go about reducing your debts and moving into a situation you can manage within your budget, start by seeking free advice from a government based or nonprofit organizations or searching the internet for ideas. This is the first step towards reducing personal debt, changing your financial behavior, and learning the key skills required for staying out of debt or at least keeping to a debt level that you can comfortably