Reining in the food budget.

Hi guys!

Well when we first started OBL we all had alot of discussions about what it would mean to us and ways to go about it. The biggest thing that we all agreed on was that although the goal of OBL was secure housing that in fact it touched how we lived our everyday lives in numerous ways.
If we want to live a better life then changes had to made to reduce our outgoings. Now we dont live very well off affluent lives so i have to confess to not being able to see the wood for the trees when we first talked about this. How do we reduce our outgoings anymore?
Well, step 1 took place on Friday. We needed a food shop, the cupboards were looking distinctly empty and with Finn going bavk to school on Monday i also had lunches and healthy break to consider again. Neil kept the kids and i headed of to visit Mr Tesco.
Now, generally when i go to Tesco's i have 3 kids in tow, who get fed up very quickly, need the toilet (never all at once!) , have suddenly found a need for everthing in the toy and sweet aisles and get hungry very quick (which they like to inform you of in a loud winge type continuous manner!) so i have to say walking into Tesco's on my own, although strange was actually very relaxing.
I had checked the bank balance on the way in and to be honest it wasnt looking overly healthy, i did wonder how i was going to get everything on my list as it included biggies like nappies, wipes, toilet roll etc.
I needn't have worried, with the thoughts of OBL in my head and time to browse and calculate everything of i went.

Now breakfast cereals in our gaff is a bit of a bone on contention! We used to get Kelloggs cornflakes and rice krispies. As Madison who is coeliac can eat both. None of our kids take milk on there cereal so we were finding very quickly that half of it was ending up on the floor as they tried to scoop it out! They all enjoy cereal but how wasteful and an expensive breakfast if some is being wasted.
We have now solved the issue with Tesco Everyday Value Cornflakes and Rice Krispies.Both suitable for Madison which is excellent. And the best bit??

The cornflakes are 31p per 500g box and the krispies are 70p. Not bad, Eh?

                                                                 www.tesco.com
And, the kids love them! Neil and i dont eat the kids cereal so we got the everyday value muesli, £1.18 for 1 kg and i have to say it tastes great..

I continued on along this line and actually bought the majority of my shop from the value range, i had time to work out costings etc and see what we would actually be saving. It some cases the difference was unreal.
I had two purchases of the day which i couldnt believe and since getting them home and trying them, am still in total aww!

With 2 kiddies still using nappies (Valentina only at night) we have found that we are still spending an extortionate amount of money on nappies. Now before i get messages saying we should have used washable, we did 100% for Finley, part time for Valentina but never for Madison. When you have 3 in nappies, which we had when Mads arrived the convenience and simplicity of disposable takes over!
We were buying the boxes of pampers simply dry nappies, costing between £10.99 and £12.50 depening on what offers were on. We stuck with these as we never had a problem with them, they never leaked etc. Well on Friday i took the plunge and bought a pack of Tesco Everyday Value nappies!

                                                              £1.41 for 20.

Now i must confess, i bought these thinking, it was about time Madison was starting to think about the potty and we are trying to get Vale out of nappies at night so i didnt think these would be as absorbant, therefore introducing Mads to that being wet feeling!
Wow, well how wrong was i! These nappies are fantastic, they are just as good as pampers (to the point i did question as to whether they were re branded pampers?) They didnt leak and the girls seemed comfortable in them. This has got to be a champion find! Now i did stick with Tesco's own wipes rather than the value range as i found when i tried the value range wipes before that i used more of them so it was a false economy. Tesco's own wipes are currently on offer for 3 packs for £2.70 which is better value than there big 'value' box of 6 packs, so just be careful while that offer is on and utilize it!

The second purchase of the day was ketchup.I had thought of making my own but with time constraints recently it just hasnt happened. By the time i reached the ketchup aisle i was in full money saving mode! I got a bottle of Tesco Everyday range tomato ketchup for 20p!

                                                              20p for 590g.

It is only a small bottle but the equivalent in a branded range was £2.78!! No one has complained about it this weekend so i must assume its as good as the other and its suitable for Madison as well!

This is only a few of the things that i bought i could go on for ages and go through everything individually but i think you've got the gist from this select few!!
I was really impressed from the petit filous (6 for 41p!) to the nappies, i had a very sucessful shopping trip out. When i have a minute i must sit down and calculate the actual savings against branded goods.

Although many may not agree with latge supermarkets taking over from small businesses in our towns i have to say, well done Mr Tesco for stepping up to the plate and providing a range that is reasonably priced and good quality!

Have a go, it was genuinely enjoyable!!

Suzi
xxxx

Off the grid?

Hi guys!

Well the rain has finally stopped here for the day and the sun is shining! I thought I would come on quick and fill you all in before heading out with the dogs for a good walk.

Following my last blog post on Alternative housing we have recieved emails from people who are living in alternative housing and living off grid. It has all been really interesting reading so I thought I would add some links so as you can see the blogs and communities that these people have directed us towards.

Just this evening we recieved an email from Steve. He and his wife live in Northern Ireland and are in the process of rennovating a cottage. They currently live in a converted truck.
http://www.offgridsteve.co.uk/p/truck-house-conversion.html
Such a novel and successful conversion. His blog is well worth a read as they live off grid and are rennovating their cottage using recycled materials. Even if you don't want to live a converted truck, it should definately give you food for thought with regards supplying your own utillities.

Then there is @WildlyDiff who I stumbled across on Twitter. They are living in Yurt and as far as I can see from their blog, have done for some time while they are building a house. For me this is really interesting as I am facinated by yurts so to read someones first hand experiences of living in one in the UK is great.
http://www.wildlydifferent.org.uk/
Again if Yurt life is a bit too far for you this blog is great for if you are interested in growing your own veg. A great way to reduce your outgoings and stress levels!

Now, this has got to be my favourite by far! Simon Dale built his house for £3k! He put alot of hard graft into it but got a home out of it.

                                            I dont know about you but I think it looks amazing.

Simon is now continuing his work and has applied for planning to build an Eco village. To read his blog go to http://www.simondale.net.

And last but by no means least, I quickly hit on the issue of planning in the last blog. Well this should prove that planners are starting to take the need for low impact eco houses seriously.  
http://www.lammas.org.uk  These people have set up an Eco Village in Wales with planning consent granted for it.

For us the biggest issue we can see with all this is land ownership. We are striving for security for our famillies and I'm unsure how moving into alternative housing with possible planning issues on rented land would improve this situation but interesting reads none the less and I would like to pull a little something from each of these and inroduce it into Operation Better Life such as growing your own food and being able to supply your own utillities. At the end of the day a vast majority of your personal income goes on both and if we could acknowledge and make changes to these through our project as well as providing secure housing then we are not only helping people succeed and save money we are also helping the environment and teaching our children valuable lessons for the future. Bonus on all counts!

xx

Alternative Housing Solutions.

Wow, what a mad couple of days! Thank you to all who have read our blog and are following our progress. We have had loads of feedback, all positive which is great.

Today I (Suzi) headed out to our local shop and was amazed to see a camping pod in their car park! Intrigued, I went and had a look and WOW! It was absolutely fantastic. A great space and strangely calming environment. Its all made of wood so it smelt great too. It got me thinking, we could all live in a big one of these, so home i came and consulted Mr internet.

The pod I saw today was made by these guys, http://www.podcampingireland.co.uk and looked like this :

                                                                      Its so cool!

When I went on the web and looked at alternative housing options I was amazed and what I saw. Some people have made the most amazing homes out of so little materials, through sheer hard work. The homes I have looked at have been simple structures that have been made beautiful by there owners.

                                                         inplainaircenter.wordpress.com

This is a yurt, made using the original mongolian yurt building methods but it's been adapted to meet the requirements of its current owners.
You think the outside looks cool? Look at the inside of this one.

                                                                   houselogic.com

Every home comfort you could ask for in what is essentially a tent. Personally i think its amazing.

So this got me thinking as obviously we need something that has to house 4 adults and 7 kids, not to mention the cats!! What if we combined the yurt with the pods? What if we had the pods as bedrooms and a bathroom and the yurt as a kitchen/living area? Would this work? Could we infact grow Operation Better Life into a community?

The biggest issue with this idea is of course good old uk planning regulations. You need full residential planning permission if you are going to live in it full time. From as far as I can see it completely depends on what council area you live in as to whether permission will be granted. I've found stories of people who have been successful but equally I have found plenty that have had it refused.

It does appear however that it is something that councils are going to have address sooner rather later as these students from the University of Falmouth have shown, 
http://www.falmouthpeople.co.uk/Yurt-kidding-Falmouth-students-novel-housing/story-12756859-detail/story.html

I intend to do more research into the cost implications, as far as I can see the highest cost will be land to erect it on.

We would love to hear from any off you that  have sucessfully got planning and are living in an alternative housing solution. It has certainly given us all food for thought.

Dont forget if you would like to get on board and support our project, Operation Better Life then you can send donations via www.paypal.com to operationbetterlife@live.co.uk


Thanks for reading.

Suzi xxx

So who are Hutch and Janine?

Hi everyone, as Suzi has already mentioned there is a second family involved here, Janine / myself Matt (Hutch) & my 4 beautiful kids (Not that I’m biased). We are all incredibly excited about the OBL project & between both families we are all getting our heads together to ensure we give it our best shot.

Both myself & Janine work for a logistics company supplying car parts throughout the UK, we have done so for ten years… There is a lot to be said for having the stability of full time work & in the current climate it is a bonus to have that safety blanket come the 15^th of each month & long may that continue… Suzie & Neil are fantastic friends to us, our closest by far & we are so lucky to have them… Our extended family with a bond that is solid in all ways.

Operation Better life is the opportunity to help people who want to help themselves… People who have great ideas of bettering themselves but do not have the financial ability to do so… It is a sad state of affairs when banks refuse investment based on a clean credit rating but this is currently the case.. If you are up to your neck in debt you stand a better chance so say the banks… A better chance of what exactly? Losing it all when the payments exceed the income… Personal circumstances do not figure when it comes to the bank manager’s decision & that’s what we would eventually like to challenge… This isn’t about freebies for all though & that is a major consideration for those wanting to contribute towards this project.

Implementation or Phase 1

Suzi & Neil have already spoken about the initial Operation Better Life HQ but how do we even start to pull that kind of money together… My Granddad always said look after the pennies & the pounds will take care of themselves… To a 10yo that’s plain gibberish…Surely it’s easier to look after the pounds first?.. You save more? At the age of 36 now it makes a helluva  lot of sense (Thanks Alf J )… It’s very difficult to make massive savings in day to day life but the smaller concessions add up to big savings.. There are the obvious methods, cycling to work to save diesel, no more cigarettes (Week 10 & doing fine thank you very much), selling all unwanted / unused bits around the house on auction sites, utilising my basic engineering skills to re-work or fabricate motorcycle parts for resale, going for own brand supermarket products…. The main thing here is consolidation consolidation consolidation… By pulling enough money together to buy a property where two families cohabit this mantra REALLY begins to show benefits REALLY fast… As Suzie mentioned, bulk buying of food for the extended family, car sharing, having extra adults about to look after the children whilst various moneymaking initiatives are tried & tested… All of the above is the tip of the iceberg…. There are many idea’s going back & forth between the two families to make this project happen… Will they all work? I’m very positive they will yes.

Working in the warehouse environment it is obvious that a company would seek savings in all areas, there is, however the risk of complacency & fear of change… “We have our operation as streamlined as possible… It works…. Why change it?”. Some of you may be aware of LEAN principles, this begins with a full study of a business from the ground up, identifying waste & changing processes to improve efficiency… It has saved the company I work for in excess of 1.5 million pounds so far this year… Why can’t these principles be applied to everyday life?... They can & they will…. Over the next few months I will update this blog as often as I can with these applied initiative so that hopefully other people can benefit.. Mostly common sense but there are always a few surprises to be found when you place your finances under a microscope…

Many thanks for taking the time to read this & with us lot working hard & your help we can make this dream a reality.

Hutch

So who are Neil and Suzi?

Hello! We are a family of 5, consisting of Neil (33), Suzi (31), Finley (6), Valentina (3) and Madison (2). Neil and I have been togethr for 15 years and have been married for 8. We have always dreamed of a better life but until now its all been just that! A dream! It's time for action!

                                                                     Suzi, Neil
                                                           Valentina, Finley and Madison.

Neil was made redundant 2 years ago this month, obviously it has affected our financial position alot, we became reliant on the benefit system just to survive, which obviously at the time we were very grateful for but it is not how we see our future and it is certainly not how we would like our kids to grow up. On the opposite end of the scale redundancy improved our family life ten fold. Neil has been able to see our children grow up over the past couple of years, he saw our youngest Madisons first steps, heard her first words, has watched Valentina our middle child turn from a toddler into a little girl and has had the opportunity to help our eldest Finley with homework and encourage him at after schools activities. All of these things that you are unable to do whilst at work all day like most.
It led us to discuss our future and what we wanted as a family, employment as you are all aware is still quite difficult to come by so we made the decision to go it alone and start our own business, Nice Buns. We have been very lucky and the jobcentre have provided us with the advice and support we need to do this and indeed will be with us for the next 26 weeks following our progress and providing support when needed.
Nice Buns began with the thought of being a home baking produce supplier however the idea has quickly expanded to include childrens and adult workshops in sugar craft and baking, teaching other people what we do and providing them with the skills to do it at home. It's early days but hopefully we are on the up.

We have big plans for the future of Nice Buns. In conjunction with Hutch and Janine we would like to offer more workshops, not just in home baking but also in other skills so as in the long term we are providing people with a skill that will ultimately save them money and help to make their life a little better.
One thing that we are all in agreement with is that although we are the people bringing Operation Better Life into action we are very aware that there are plenty of other people just like us out there also craving and striving for better things and the dream would be that it would help not just us but plenty of others too. This isn't just about us! It's about everyone who dreams of better and has the drive to achieve it. Nobody is going to hand it to you (or us) but we believe with help and good old fashioned grafting you, them and us can achieve that dream that seems so far away.

Love:

Neil, Suzi, Finn, Vale and Mads.
xxxx

Welcome to Operation Better Life!

We should probably start by telling you who we are and what our main aim is for Operation Better Life.
We are 4 ordinary people, Hutch and Janine, and Neil and Suzi. We all dream of living a better life and have decided that we have got to do something about it. Hutch has 4 children and Neil and I have 3. The main goal in our better life search is to ensure are kids have security and live a happy fulfilling life.
We all rent our houses, as none of us are, at present, in the financial position to be able to raise a mortgage. We have made the decision that to lessen the pressure on us all we should live together, a sort of commune living on a small scale! We have spent periods during the year staying with each other so we know we can all live together happily!
The thought process behind this was that it opens up alot of money saving options for us, for example, wholesale shopping, cooking in bulk etc. Pooling our incomes in order to create a better future.

                                                      Neil, Suzi, Janine and Hutch (Matt)

Rental provides secuirty for 12 months, at the end of your 12 month tenacy there is a chance your landlord will not renew and you will be in the position that you will have to move again. This is a fact that the four of us have accepted but we are very aware in the current financial market that more and more people are renting their houses for a year and then trying to sell again. This is not providing our children with the security that we would like. We would love for our kids to live somewhere where we could all call home or as Finley says 'our forever house!'  This got us thinking, we can't be the only people out there striving to improve their situation. So we plan to register Operation Better Life as a charity, money raised will be used to buy property.

The intial property, will become Operation Better Life Hq. Then we will continue to raise money to purchase a second property which we will then rent at a low cost to another family who are trying to succeed and so on and so on. The long term goal for these properties is that the tenant will be able to buy their house off Operation Better Life when they are in a position to raise a mortgage. For example: When we can raise a mortgage we will buy Operation Better Life Hq and that money will then go back into the charity to keep the cycle going. We hope that by doing this it will encourage people to bite the bullet and focus on their goals and go and get it no matter how hard or daunting it is.


So how will it work? At the moment that is a constantly evolving plan which will involve fundraisers etc but as we are starting from zero, it begins with an online collection tin.Remember the 'give us a pound' campaign on the internet a few years back? Like that. and just like the real life collection tins, whatever amount you can spare, large or small we will be very grateful to recieve it. As they say, every penny really does count and hopefully if we can make this sucessful will be able to roll it out through out the UK so more and more people benefit from it.

This blog will be used to update you on our progress and also to introduce you to ideas that will save you money every day and therefore making your life that little bit better.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for any help you can offer.

The collection is on Paypal operationbetterlife@live.co.uk

Yours sincerely

All at Operation Better Life.