Saving Money. Making Money

It's common sense that the key elements of finacial freedom make up a  3 pronged approach.

Reduce Debt
Make Money
Save Money

Now reducing debt is closely entwined with making and saving money, but is deserving of it's own strategy of attack.

So what am I rambling on about. Well I've been totally inspired by        Kylie Ofiu who is aspiring to be a millionaire (cash and/or assets) by 30. I would love to be finacially free, so I've started pitting some of her thoughts and ideas into practice. 

Firstly I opened a high interest bank account and set up a direct debit. It's only $5 a week, but it is a start. 

I've drawn up another budget. This time I used an Excel spreadsheet that allows me to enter a months income/expenses. The single most important money tip (from my readings and experience) is to manage you finances with a budget.
I've brainstormed some money making ideas. Some a short term, some fit in the grand plan. One idea I'm really excited lover is 'The Rusty Geranium'. I'll do a proper blog post on it later, but basically I've started raising a variety of seeds with the view of selling excess stock over spring/summer.

Another area I'm homing in on is saving money. I've disconnected the landlind (saving about $700), I'm menu planning again (this saves a fair bit, my estimate is about $200 a month gets wasted when I don't menu plan). I've devised a plan to get solar hot water installed, thus saving on my energy bills.

Allow the saved $ at the moment are going into reducing debt and only a tiny bit into savings.

I've also pencilled in reminders into my organiser to spend time on this. Time is now set aside for budget, menu and income planning.

The $100 Christmas is also part of this plan.

It all feels refreshing and empowering. I might not get to a million dollars, but I'm giving it a go.