Life(style) Improvements - Your Tips!

Calcifer on 28/12/2018 - 13:28
Last edited 28/12/2018 - 16:08 by 1 other user

It's that time of year again where everyone gears up for their new year's resolutions

I'm looking for specific things I can do in the new year to make improvements in mine and my family's lives. Thought I would start this thread in the hopes that everyone would contribute what has worked for them, and everyone can benefit.

What purchases made, service procured, or general change has made the most difference in your life?

I'd be super keen to hear about easy / simple / cheap ways to improve or automate things

Improvements might constitute:
• Reducing time expenditure / increasing free time
• Reducing costs, increasing income, or being more effective with your money
• Reducing stress / increased happiness
• Enhancing yourself
• Really anything else you consider an improvement

Some examples might be:

• Outsourcing tasks such as cleaning or cooking
• Meditation for 20 minutes every morning to reduce stress / increase happiness
• Checking OzBargain every day for money saving deals ;)

I'll throw some of mine in the comments section below.

Health & Beauty

Comments

  • Calcifer on 28/12/2018 - 13:30
    +2

    Some of mine… I'm certain I think of others

    Batching laundry tasks, such as washing and ironing (time saved)

    Buying a dishwasher (time & sanity saved) - I held out on this out of sheer stubbornness for SO long

    Making better coffee - ditching instant and pod coffee, in favour of a French-press and fresh ground beans

    Audible ($14.99pm) & PocketCast (small fee) - Consuming books and podcasts while driving to doing mundane tasks. Has allowed me to read (listen to) an extra 12 - 15 books a year.

    Making going to the gym part of my end of day routine (between work and home)
    Also: Buying wireless headphones for the gym = saving my sanity

    Meal planning for the month in advance - save mental load on deciding what to eat, save money on wasted groceries
    Also: Using a slow cooker to pre-prepare meals on busier days

    Making use of the commute to and from work to do something productive, so as to free up more time elsewhere

    • bargain huntress on 07/01/2019 - 03:59

      i love your thread idea.

      how do you manage to be organised enough for a month of meal planning?

  • dcep on 28/12/2018 - 13:56
    +2

    xiaomi robot vacuum

    • tgpraveen on 28/12/2018 - 16:06

      Yes! Love the feeling of coming home to a clean home after a scheduled cleanup, meaning i didn't even have to think about it.

    • bargain huntress on 07/01/2019 - 03:58

      i'm too afraid to get one, because i have house dogs
      (i'm sure you've seen those horror stories)

  • Quantumcat on 28/12/2018 - 14:06

    Playster is better value than audible - $7/month instead of $15/month, infinite books instead of 1/month. Only get audible if it has a book Playster doesn't have and even then, use a free trial to get it.

    • bargain huntress on 07/01/2019 - 04:00

      i have never heard of this before. sounds almost too good to be true! i will check it out

  • [Deactivated] on 28/12/2018 - 14:32
    +1

    reduce outsourcing around the home if you are trying to save money, so many things we used to do ourselves but they are easily done if you give up a little time in front of your screen…today I am installing a sail shade.

  • Tasmaniac on 28/12/2018 - 14:35

    There's research that suggests the best thing you can do for your life is to weight train. Forget moving, promotion or changing career. Weight training represents the best return for effort and the most impactful and lasting change.

  • Ace Ventura on 28/12/2018 - 15:40
    +11

    My lifestyle improvements.

    • Moved to the country, a commute on a country highway is still quicker and less stressful than city traffic. I don't need to tell anyone about the clean air or nature or any of that obvious stuff.

    • Found I job I love, I don't work soley to pay the bills now, I get genuine pleasure from my business.

    • Fix my own problems, we don't buy things if I can fix it, being handy on the tools is useful for repairs, but building things, fabricating stuff, gives a sense of accomplishment.

    • Take others along for the ride. My wife and kids are all part of our business, they all work hard, and all reap the rewards. I want to see my kids achieve greatness and happiness, their dreams are part of our life too.

    • Excersize, as a family we train Mauy Thai, competitive for me and the son, casual for the girls, but little miss wants to go competitive when she is old enough, my son plays football and basketball, my daughter is just starting horse riding. Motorbikes, dirt buggies, bushwalking, hunting, hiking, it's all about the lifestyle.

    • Life is nothing more than a collection of experiences, don't shy away from them, if they are hard to achieve, that just makes the experience all the better. Jump out of that plane, climb that mountain, kiss that stunner.

    • Find time for yourself. I go hunt deer, alone, miles from anyone, stalking, silence, studying, listening, just me, my senses, my skills and my own thoughts. It clears my head when needed and brings me closer to nature.

    • Eat well, I'm not a great cook, but I married one, we all know how important this is, but too many people neglect it. When I say well, I don't mean a diet plan, it's not hard to understand basic nutrition and having a varied diet supports that. Eat the good stuff, get the bigger steak, walk it off later, spoil yourself, just make sure your energy output matches your input.

    • Love, love who you love, this is a very unLowlife thing to say, but I just don't understand couples that fight and bicker, you need to be a team, support each other, find common goals and smash them together, lift each other up, be passionate, relationships take work, if they aren't worth the work, why are you still there?

    • neo on 28/12/2018 - 16:25

      Great post. We could all learn something from this.

    • ihbh on 28/12/2018 - 19:30

      I go hunt deer, alone, miles from anyone, stalking, silence, studying, listening, just me, my senses, my skills and my own thoughts

      Make sure you don't look like a deer to other hunters …

    • bargain huntress on 07/01/2019 - 04:05

      how country?; regional city, small town, outback station,…?

      • Ace Ventura on 07/01/2019 - 17:14
        +2

        We have 200 acres just outside an old mining town of maybe 100 residents. 10 minutes down the road is a country highway town of 1500 odd people, but it has all the basics, supermarket, couple pubs, post office, newsagents etc.
        All in all we are 40 minutes from a large regional city if we need any of the big retailers. Nice double lane highway all the way there, never sees enough traffic to hold us up.

        but I would happily go further away into the country if I could afford it, an outback station would be awesome, but the current property is our business and lifestyle so we are here to stay for some time. If the neighbours ever put their land up for sale, I might expand a bit.

        • bargain huntress on 08/01/2019 - 02:58

          that sounds EXACTLY what i am looking for.

          heaven on earth!

          (I don't suppose you'd feel comfortable telling me where you are? I don't know if there is a PM feature on here I'm new. But you probably wouldn't/shouldn't - that's ok. And it probably doesn't matter because it's probably the wrong state for me.)

          But PLEASE PLEASE tell me HOW you found this place! - so that I may replicate your genius ways when I move soon and find my own perfect new home.

          • Ace Ventura on 09/01/2019 - 13:03
            +2

            @bargain huntress: Well that's enthusiastic. We are in the pyreness in victoria, Can't be any more precise than that as I don't want to link the business to this online persona.
            There's plenty of realestate websites that show rural properties as well as inner city. I think realestatedotcom has a search function for just rural properties. The further you go from a city, the cheaper the prices, my 200 acres 4 bedroom home and 6 car garage and two colorbond barns was likely cheaper than a 3 bedder in a lot of sydney/melbourne suburbs.

            Do your research before jumping in, it's a different world, many places don't get rubbish collection, rely on rain water, don't have natural gas connections, must have a septic instead of sewage. The maintenance is higher, you need good fences if you want animals, need to be fire ready in summer, no internet by wire, it's satellite only which is slower, has download limits that pretty much make streaming impossible. May have to cut firewood, maintain tractors and other machinery. Rural properties are much harder to sell, so you aren't getting out of the lifestyle quickly if you don't like it.

            But I don't mind any of that stuff, and the benefits far outweigh that stuff. We've made a life here, we love the small community, we have a successful family business, the kids can fly around on motorbikes and the daughter just got a horse recently. My kids know and excel with technology, but they spend their days outside, they have learnt a healthy work ethic already and see the value of hard work through the results they generate themselves.

            I'm rambling now, feel free to message me if you have any questions.

  • DarthAntz on 28/12/2018 - 17:24
    +2

    • quit social media (unless youre using twitter for ozbargain competitions). i saved about 2 hours a day this year and used it to read books instead. this improved my relationship as it encouraged a lot of communication, and improved my memory and recall as i would summarise interesting things i learned. forgot all my friends kids name though… theyre probably all still sick with the flu.

    • eat boring. Eat the same foods. digestion doesnt have to work so hard, and it was an easy way to lose weight. seasonal foods. a few times i'd eat a quarter of a pumpking for dinner. it was filling, cheap and delicious.

    • In a relationship, focus more on yourself, and the environment around the people/person you're with. The better you are, the better you can look after people and be a better influence. The happier the environment around your family, the less work you need to do for them.

    • spend a month focusing on spending as less as possible. only spend money 1-2 times a week. this sets a precedence for all other months afterwards to know how much you can save and when is the best time to spend money.

    • get joy out of throwing things away or selling them. everytime we finish a bottle of sauce or seasoning on the door of the fridge, we appreciate what it was and the space we now have as we have finished consuming it. same thing with whats in your cupboards and clothes. learn how to best use scumtree and ebay to hock what youre not using to others who do want it.

    • bargain huntress on 07/01/2019 - 04:13
      +1

      scumtree

      how can you insult my favourite website in the whole world like that? half of everything i own came off there. yumtree.

  • myusername on 28/12/2018 - 17:54

    quit your job and chase your dreams

  • TheBilly on 28/12/2018 - 19:07
    • Waking up at 5.30am
    • Taking a 30 minute siesta on sat/sun
    • De clutter the house
    • Reduced your work commuting time to under 20 minutes
    • Excercise 3 times a week for 45 minutes
  • bluesky on 28/12/2018 - 23:41

    I endeavour to be more Stoic. But unlike the title of this article: Want to be happy? Then live like a Stoic for a week, I do not see why just one week, and not long-term.

  • fossilfuel on 29/12/2018 - 00:25
    +1

    What purchases made, service procured, or general change has made the most difference in your life?

    I'd be super keen to hear about easy / simple / cheap ways to improve or automate things

    I bought the barefoot investor recently for $19 at Big W. I love it. Excellent book on how to put your finances on autopilot. It's brutally honest and realistic about how you can become financially independent. i.e it doesn't happen overnight, it takes time and implementing the right steps can get you there quicker.

    All the improvements you listed in your initial post, Scott (the author) outlines how to get you there. For example, I've already changed my super to a super low fee option and in the process of setting up my everyday finances so it can run on autopilot and with no bank fees which will save me heaps in the long term.

    Another book I thorough enjoyed is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Simple everyday wisdom we should implement in our lives.

  • Lastchancetosee on 29/12/2018 - 16:20
    +1

    Yes to ditching Facebook, big time saver, and I'm still in touch with the people I really care about in other ways. The Barefoot Investor is a helpful place to start thinking about money, if you haven't yet. Ditto to trying to keep space physically and psychologically by getting rid of things you don't use, and being thoughtful about getting extra goods. That said, upgrading some household appliances can really save time and make tasks easier. Get out into nature whenever you can, whether it's the backyard, the bush, or the beach - it gives you a new perspective and is a great way to spend time together as a family. Finally, find ways to appreciate what you have, make peace with yourself, and show those you love that you care. Have a good year, and let us know how you get on.

  • tgpraveen on 30/12/2018 - 21:12
    +1
    • Switched to online banks ie ING to increase savings rate, reduce fees and overall improve banking experience, especially when travelling internationally.
    • Read Barefoot Investor and made some changes to my financial setup eg. switched to a better super fund with lower fees and better historical returns.
    • Got the Xiaomi mi robot - as a lazy cleanliness freak, it is an awesome device.
    • Started using Screen Time feature on my iphone to limit time i spend on the phone and especially have it disable most apps after certain time at night.
    • Made a number of changes on my devices to improve security and privacy - changed to Cloudflare DNS 1.1.1.1, installed VPN and adblocker apps and extensions on devices, started using Chrome's password manager to generate and store passwords.
    • Not sure, if i started this one in 2018 or before, but have been consuming podcasts and online educational videos at 2x speed - you get used to it in a few mins and it dramatically increases how fast you can learn new things. BONUS: Overcast on iOS also has feature to skip through silent pauses intelligently and it shows you much time you have saved over your lifetime by using these enhancements, i was at 25 hours or so at last count.
    • Listening to numerous interesting podcasts to increase my knowledge and at the same time make busy work go by quicker while being more productive.
  • chumlee on 09/01/2019 - 13:08

    Exploiting price errors in my favour & taking advantage of no tax paying multinationals

    • Calcifer on 09/01/2019 - 21:39

      Please, do elaborate :)

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