Since I started a family and had to become our financial manager, not very exciting things like budgeting, saving and meal planning became reality. All I can say – thanks Ramit Sethi – automation is key 🙂

I think I have proclaimed my recently acquired love for the £1 shops somewhere here already? Well, I found sort of an equivalent in my village 🙂  It’s called Action and sometimes you would not believe the things you can find there, usually under €5. Look at what my all time favourite interior designers Colin & Justin do with budget items.

And this is what I found there lately! It’s a hedgehog tape measurer 🙂  How kawaii is this thing!?

What I am trying to say is that if you occasionally derive happiness from little things, which imho is fine, it does not need to cost the earth. Material things don’t make us happy, so if you are spending lots of money (that took you blood & sweat to earn probably) on large material things, you are just wasting the energy you spent working so hard. Why not instead buy little things that are useful and make you smile? And looking for them on ebay, in £1 shops, flea markets and so on takes time, which means you are spending less and also less frequently, yet maintain same level of happiness from material possession 😉

But let’s go further. Being a ‘treehugger’, I have recently joined GreenApes, have you checked it out? Sustainability gamified. This thing is infectious 🙂  GreenApes jungle rightly does not approve of buying new things. This is why I joined sharing app Peerby and am considering more thrift/ vintage shopping (thank you, Macklemore). Before you buy something, think if you can borrow it or buy used.

And if all fails, buy a song. I am currently crazy about John Newman, this guy is like a cross between Amy Winehouse and Elvis Presley. He will be big. I LOVE this latest song of his.