Making Market

Ahh yes! It is Sunday morning and I’m off to the market to get the usual. You know, green seasonings like celery, chive, shadon beni and pimento peppers. The only difference is I’m not going to the regular market but to my backyard to reap these from my kitchen garden.

A market list includes all these and so much more. Dasheen bush, ochro, hot pepper for the Sunday callaloo; carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber for the fresh salad…all of these add up to a fortune on a Sunday morning. And these are just a sample of the produce that we purchase at the market. 

These items however, can be grown at home in a small kitchen garden or in containers. Guides for doing this can be obtained here under "Publications". You can also check out the Growbox System at this link.

While space for planting may be a challenge, teaming up with a neighbour or two is an option worth considering. You can plant 4 or 5 different crops, another neighbour 4 or 5 and another the same and when the harvest is in, produce is shared. In total each family can enjoy 15 different items and save a lot of money. If the produce is extremely bountiful, you can even share with other friends and family members.
Are there any other crops that can be planted at home and end up on a trini plate? Drop us a comment and let us know what you intend to cultivate.

Old Thing Does Bring New

An old trini saying which basically describes the scenario where someone damages an old borrowed item and has to replace it with a new one. That’s not the scenario I’m describing here though. What I’m talking about specifically is using your old car to help subsidize the cost of a new one.

I’ve been driving a Nissan for the past 8 years and it’s about time I “upgrade” as everyone keeps telling me. My decision is not based on the hankerings of my friends though. The vehicle itself has reached the point where it is costlier to keep. Mileage on the litre has decreased, oils have to be changed more regularly and the normal tune up is now demanded more often than I would prefer.

I could sell the old girl but I’ve decided to make it a taxi and get a driver. This way the vehicle will take care of itself and provide some extra cash for my installment on a new vehicle. How much cash will it provide, you ask? Taxi drivers nowadays pay the owner an average of $200 per day for 6 days per week. That works out to around $5000 monthly and that’s being prudent. It can work out to as much as $6000 per month.

So what do you think? Can an extra 5 or 6 thousand dollars a month take care of your old car and purchase a new one? I’m willing to give it a try. How about you?

Christmas is Coming

“Ah cyah wait for Christmas. Oh gosh! Soca parang, sorrel, ginger beer, pastel, black cake”. Christmas is my season.

It’s a known fact that we trinis love to celebrate and one of our most favourite seasons is Christmas so a lot of us spare no expense in decorating and stocking up on drinks and food supplies not to mention spreading some Christmas cheer with presents.

The Christmas expenses though, have a way of adding up and creating what we call “guava season” come January month. For those who don’t know, guava season is our way of describing the difficult economic times that we find ourselves in as a result of our frivolous expenditure. December’s salary is usually paid before the 25^th of the month and the majority of trinis, captivated by the spirit of the season, spend it on Christmas expenses and find difficulty meeting their financial obligations in January.

Getting around this guava season can be a simple matter of spreading out the expenses. Rather than using the November and early December salaries to meet all the Christmas expenses, try spreading them out throughout the year leading up to December. Buy a case of drinks every month, a present each month or buy decorations during the year in the off season when they’ll even be cheaper. counting this month, we have 5 salaries before December so why not give it a try. Trust me, I did it last year and guava season didn’t come in 2016 for me or my family.

What other Christmas expenses can we take care of before the season actually starts?

Dinner and a Movie

What can we do to entertain ourselves and our families on a Friday or Saturday evening these days? A little lime has gotten so expensive!

Cinema tickets cost $35 to $45 at best. For a family of four we’re multiplying everything by 4. Four times the tickets, four times the food. It can get quite costly and while going out is an experience in itself and families look forward to it, there has to be some control with regards to how often we do it.

Dinner and a movie can be enjoyed at home for a fraction of the cost. There are so many delicious meals that can be easily and quickly prepared. A ‘finger licking good’ home-made fried chicken and mashed potatoes, oven-made pizza or a spicy Italian dish of spaghetti and meat balls. These are just some ideas but this site can help spark even more creativity.

Movies can take the form of a family flick on tv, cable if you have or a dvd or internet movie. There a number of internet movie sites such as putlocker.is, solarmovie.com, genvideos.com, just to name a few. There are also full length movies on youtube.com. In essence, there are options to entertain the family at a reduced price so that having family time doesn’t have to leave you broke.

Give us some ideas on what cost-cutting activities you and your family enjoy.

Walking For Health And Wealth

Recently the taxi drivers in my area increased their fare from $4 to $5. The residents in the community groused and voiced their disagreement and displeasure with the increase but the fare has remained. $5 for a 3 minute drive, good road and no traffic. Unjust in my opinion but that's the fare. We do have an option however.

I can recall walking out of my area to get to school as a child. The fare at that time was $1 yet children and adults walked morning and evening. Travelling was for bad weather, late hours or if you had baggage like groceries etc. The distances haven’t changed, the climate hasn't changed significantly but our behaviours have. Granted, depending on where you live, walking may not be an option but if it is, give it a try.
A half an hour walk on mornings and evenings will do wonders for your health and your wealth.

When last have you taken a walk with the children or the spouse? These days all we do is go for a drive, never a walk. Next time choose a cool, relaxing walk and save some money on that monthly fuel bill.

Bulk Up and Save

Make groceries in bulk. Capitalize on the savings that can be derived from buying in larger quantities. A good idea is to team up with other households like friends, neighbours or relatives and purchase the large case of milk that has 8 packs instead of 2 pack each.

I was surprised when I compared the price of an item at the supermarket against the price per unit in a case. The savings were as much as $3 per unit on a case with just 12 units. These savings add up especially if this is done for many items.

Not everyone can afford to buy everything in bulk and store away. Teaming up with other families reduces the initial investment required for bulk buying while still taking advantage of the savings that can be derived. Since bulk buying takes up space when transporting, an arrangement can be made where your family buys a few item, and the others do the same with different items. This makes the process equal for everyone involved and overcomes the challenge of transportation space.

What are some of the items that this can work with? 

Snacks For The Little Ones

When have you last had a tamarind ball?

As a child it costed 25 cents at the neighbourhood parlour but my favourite was when my mom made them. That way I could have all I wanted whenever I wanted and I didn’t have to sneak out 25 cent pieces from the old cash pan. It was always a big hit for me and my friends.

These days a tamarind ball costs $1 and they’re smaller than they used to be. The point is snacks cost a lot these days and with the kids home for “Ju-gust” vacation, it can become quite costly keeping them satisfied snacks-wise. The snacks at the parlour not only drains your pockets but they’re really unhealthy, pumping a lot of empty calories into our children.

So why not go back to your roots for the kids’ sake. I’m talking paw paw ball, sugarcake, fudge, suck-a-bag. These are just a few of the snacks than we enjoyed as children and are sure to be a big hit with our own children as well. Here's a photo of what we did this weekend.

Let us know what homemade snacks you enjoyed as a child. Share a recipe nah...

Prepare Breakfast...For The Week

Rushing out of the house on mornings is an all too common occurrence. No time to watch the news, have coffee or even have breakfast. How do we compensate? We listen to the radio news on the way to work, we drink coffee at the office and we buy breakfast. All of these are acceptable except for the “buy breakfast”.

One quarter of a sada roti or bake with a vegetable side can cost as much as $15 TT. If you’re like me, you need at least two so that’s $30 by 5 days for the week. If I do this, as well as my wife and daughter (they’ll have one quarter each per day), that would work out to $300 per week just for breakfast. Something is definitely wrong with that. Yes, doubles are an option but doubles every day for man, wife and child just isn’t right and can be quite dangerous.

Bhagi, patchoi, spinach, fried ochro, tomato choka, fried plantains, tuna salad, chicken paste, cheese paste, aloo (potato) choka, fried aloo, pumpkin, melongene choka, saltfish buljol, smoked herring, corned beef… These are some of the many sides that are available as breakfast options some of which can be self-cultivated (read my post Making Market).

The trick is to prepare five of them on Sunday evening, put them in bowls, refrigerate and use them throughout the week. You can get recipes here.

Dough for sada roti or bake is kneaded on the nights before they are required and refrigerated. Once that is thawed out the following morning, it takes just 5 to 10 minutes to have hot, delicious bake. Click here for help on making sada roti and get baking ideas on my other post. A few more minutes to make some sandwiches, pack them to go and you’re all set.

This way everyone is little fuller, even the wallet.

How much can you save by cutting out the “breakfast buying”?

Go On a Family Vacation

Family vacations cannot be undervalued. It is a time when the entire family gets to relax and enjoy each other’s company without being concerned with school or work or anything else for that matter. Being able take your family on a vacation is worth every sacrifice that is required for it to be possible. Whether you want to spend it in the United States, England, a Caribbean island or right here in sweet T&T, for some of us, sacrifices must be made. 

Instead of taking a loan and having to fit an additional financial obligation monthly for another year or two, why not start saving now for that worthwhile holiday? You can treat it like you’re repaying a loan now and every month set aside an installment towards your family “vacay”.

The benefit is, no interest to pay. Start saving to go to that destination you’ve always wanted to visit. Hit all the rides at Disney World in Orlando, visit family in England or take in all the scenes on that Caribbean cruise.

All this and more is possible with careful planning and diligent saving. So, give it a try and peak your interest without the intere$t.

What destinations have you been dying to visit?

Ital is Vital

Our main staples in Trinidad and Tobago are rice and flour. Most of our lunch menus are rice plus something with some form of meat or fish, and breakfasts and dinners are flour and a side. Producing your own staples can make a significant impact on the money spent on groceries each month by reducing the expenditure on rice, flour and other flour based products e.g. bread, bake etc.

This can be achieved by planting some root crops. These may include yam, cassava, dasheen, potato, sweet potato, beet root, just to name a few.

With very little effort you can have your very own self-sufficient staples garden in your yard. Here you will see all the crops that can be grown in Trinidad and Tobago.

For a detailed guide on growing different root crops you can click here and look under  “Root Crop Unit”.

I have already planted cassava and dasheen. Let us know what you intend to cultivate.

Tea Anyone?

We have developed the habit of buying processed tea bags for making our tea. Bags that contain the stuff that we as trinbagonians are so fortunate to have at our fingertips. Tea bags were designed for those who did not have access to natural leaves and herbs for making tea. Yet we who do, are using them more than the people it was designed for in the first place.

Cutting back on buying tea is yet another small step towards cutting back on that monthly food expense. The benefits of tea are endless from as basic as helping to get rid of gas to health benefits like reducing blood pressure.

Herbs and leaves that can be used to make tea locally are numerous. I’ve listed some of them below. Information on locally available tea plants is very limited so please comment with any additions that you may know of so that the list can be updated.

Tea can be made from; bayleaf, dried orange peels, soursop leaves, calabash leaves, ginger, garlic,

Do family budgets work?

The short answer is, Absolutely!

A lot of times we intend to do a budget and never get around to it. "I will do one next month"... sounds familiar?

I fell victim to this for many years and have suffered the severe consequences. Needless to say the benefits of a budget are numerous. Budgeting is used to gain control of available finances, assists in achieving financial goals, helps in making financial decisions in addition to others.

Within the last few months my family and I have been constructing monthly budgets and making every effort to stick to them. While it is often difficult to stick exactly to the plan, it still remains a good point of reference for financial performance from month to month. One important point worth mentioning is that a budget should be reviewed and adjusted regularly. My family does it on a weekly basis. Doing this reveals areas that require attention and helps to ensure that set goals are achieved.

Give it a try this month and let us know how it worked out. Click here to find a template for your budget.