Cash Stash - Money Savings Envelope (Part 1)

My Cash Stash system is a savings method that I have acquired over the years, after reading a number of books/articles on managing finances.  This is a system that I have modified to work for me, and I am sure that you can modify it to suit you, if you are serious about saving some of your hard-earned cash!
Although I will admit that I don't do this all of the time, when I am being budget-conscious, I swing back into the habit, and it is surprising how much money accumulates just from these simple principles that give me excess cash (that I would have otherwise spent), which I like to call my Cash Stash!

Organising Finances to use the 'Cash Stash' Savings System

This week on the blog, I have a five-part series which reveals a budgeting method that I have used for many years, which helps me to achieve my financial goals.

In order to run with this system, there are few things that you need to get organised first!  So, I thought I would share these with you today, so that you can get your finances organised, ready to try this new savings method, that recently helped me to save $300 for an Expedit bookshelf for my study makeover, in just over one month!  I didn't go without anything, I didn't do extra work to get more income, I simply managed the money that I had budgeted using the Cash Stash savings system!

Firstly, it is best if you have a budget set up.  This system really works best if you partly operate your money system using cash, which I certainly do.  I get paid fortnightly, withdrawing all money that I have allocated for groceries, petrol, presents, spending, and spend the cash over the next few weeks, rather than swiping my cards.  I have labelled sections in my purse, so that I can keep my money easily organised to manage this system.

My Study - The Colour Scheme

It has been quite a while since I wrote about my study make-over....  I guess I kind of lost momentum with it, partly due to lots else happening in my life recently, but also because of my indecisiveness.  I am notorious for not being a confident decision-maker, so I procrastinate making a choice, for fear of it not being 'perfect'.  This is something that I have been working on getting over in recent years, but my study is the prime example of this side of my perfectionist personality rearing its ugly head! 

A big part of my reluctance to proceed with the study make-over has been the fact that I couldn't decide on a colour theme.  I knew I wanted white furniture, but the colours of everything else in there has been playing on my mind.

You have probably noticed that I have lots of red in my house.  I love the colour red!  It was the colour of my year 12 formal dress, I had a red car for 4 years, it was the colour of my bridesmaids dresses and roses at my wedding, and it also happens to be the main color of the Danish flag - which I am proud to have as my heritage.  Red is such a powerful colour, I know when I wear red I am going to have a great day!

Given that most of my house already has red accents, and the fact that I have so many red storage boxes and accessories already in red, I was pretty keen to stay with red as the key colour of my study, but I knew I wanted another colour to compliment it.  Sometimes red can be quite bold, and I wanted a pastel colour to help calm the 'boldness' down.

The answer to my dilemma came when my sister recently was travelling to America and offered to bring home some goodies.  To my delight, I came across these divine file folders by Martha Stewart, and knew that my problem had been solved!

Christmas Wrapping Paper - 2012

I took the plunge today and bought my Christmas wrapping paper for this year!  It is such a big decision - well for me it is anyway!  I like to have all matching paper, and since I am not that great coordinating patterns, I like to stick with one style of paper for all of our Christmas presents.

The last 5 or so years, our Christmas colours have been Brown and Gold.  You can see where I have posted about this here and here.  This year I decided to shake things up a bit, and I am adding Red to the mix.  At the after-Christmas sales last year I bought up big - lots of red baubles and tinsel, which cost next to nothing!  I am ready for my new-look Christmas in 2012!

So, when it came to the wrapping paper, I knew I wanted red, to help to bring out the new colour I am adding to my colour theme - as I won't have half as many red decorations as I do brown and gold.  This is my cheap and easy way of making our tree burst with the new colour!

Here it is....

A Summer Serving Tray

The weather is finally warming up, and for us, that means we move our meals to outside on the back patio!  There is nothing like being outside in the fresh air, it sure beats sitting inside in front of the TV!

To make the constant transition from kitchen to patio (which isn't really that far, but the door is always where I have to juggle things!), last year I decided to leave my favourite serving tray out on the coffee table near the kitchen.  This way, I could just pop it onto the bench and fill it up with whatever we need for the upcoming meal.