What does your savings goal look like?

Product talk by Nuffnang

I don't believe that money makes people happy, but I do think it can make life a little easier and often less stressful. And having a family can be expensive (and I speak from experience). It's often a good time to sit down and re-evaluate your finances and goals. It can be really handy to put together a budget, even if you haven't done it before. There are extra expenses, often less income and a special little person or people who factor into planning your future.

My hubby and I are different in our approach to money and budgeting. Yes we have similar goals, especially now that we have a family, but I'm more of a spender and he is the saver.

But I will say, when I have a particular goal I am saving for I can knuckle down and save hard. When my hubby and I travelled overseas and saved for a deposit for our first home I had my goal and could see where I was heading. Once we had our home and mortgage, things changed a lot. Firstly, we didn't have as much disposable income and secondly, our big goal was to reducing the size of our mortgage while trying to build some savings.

I now have a new goal for my personal savings. I'm working hard to save for our first overseas holiday as a family. Once we had Miss S, I had visions of us heading overseas for a family holiday, similar to what we had done when we holidayed in the US for the first time in 2011. However after a 90 minute flight to Brisbane a couple of months ago when Miss S screamed for a large portion of the flight, I've had to rethink travelling with a child under two. So I'm now looking a little further into the future which means I have more time to grow my savings, bonus right!

I hope to travel to NY again, this time as a family 

Having a goal makes all the sacrifices and squirrelling away of money worthwhile. It's easier to forgo a new outfit or pair of shoes when the bigger carrot of a long, overdue holiday to a fabulous location is dangling over you. It's still a challenge to say no, but a little easier. 

A tool like myprosperity makes it easier to compile all your financial information and know its available in one place, making goal setting that much easier. If you're like me and have a few filing systems on the go, then it can be hard to keep a track of everything (tax time is lots of fun). Plus as everything moves online, I get so tired of having a zillion different logins and passwords all requiring strong passwords! Arrghh! 

So while I always have questions about the security of information and putting your details out there (definitely read the security policy and terms and conditions before signing up to anything), myprosperity can be a free handy tool to help you organise your financial resources and goals by category and hopefully help you reach them, big or small. Seeing where your money goes each week can help you find those spare few dollars each week to pop in a savings account for one of your goals.

Setting up a budget can be daunting and a bit overwhelming (all those spreadsheets and fancy formulas) but this is one tool that organises it all and not an excel spreadsheet in sight. And while a tool like this one will help organise financial information it won't take the place of investing your time and effort in knowing where you stand financially. It may prompt you to get your stuff sorted and head out on a bright new track and that's got to be a good thing right!

What are you saving for? Would a tool like myprosperity help you organise your finances and goals?

I can't resist...the royal baby

Well, things have been a little crazy around the purple notepad HQ with Miss S teething and not sleeping as well as usual, work and all those things that add up to keep me busy. As a result, my blogging time has taken a hit. But I'm back on deck, and I couldn't resist a quick post about the topic the whole world is talking about - the royal baby.

Wow, what a wonderful moment this morning (Australian time) to see the proud new parents leave hospital with their precious little bundle. While they may be the most famous parents in the world at the moment, it was nice to see them going through the same first moments all new mums and dads experience when they take their baby home for the first time. And it's nice to imagine them experiencing what all parents go through during their first night at home, (even if home is a cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace) the feeding, crying, sleeping, nappies and the blur that is the lack of sleep.

I was so impressed the Duchess of Cambridge chose to show off her 'mummy tummy' as some in the British media are calling it. She looked beautiful, glowing and all in a perfectly natural way. No tummy tucks or Photoshop, just a beautiful new mum.

And as much as I love seeing photos of the Duke and Duchess, I hope they can relax and enjoy the next little while together, away from the media gaze.

So that's my little post on the royal baby craze, a wonderful moment in history and so nice to see two become three! I wish them all the happiness in the world.

What do you think about the royal baby craze? Love it or all too much?

11,000 photos in one year...how to preserve those precious moments

For many of us, photos are among our most treasured possessions. They tell a story, capture special occasions and remind us of our moments from our past. For most of us, they are among the first possessions in our homes we would grab in an emergency. But times are changing and a lot of our photos now sit on computers, hard drives and mobile phones or even in the cloud.

I recently put together a digital slideshow to mark my dad's 60th birthday and I managed to track down a handful of his baby photos. I had Mum running around organising photos of my sister and I as babies and children to include as well. While working on this project it struck me how in just three generations the number of photos we take to capture moments in our lives -especially our first year of life has increased to a incredible amount. Instead of lugging a camera to celebrations, outings and events, most of us now have a camera in our pockets or handbags, a camera we take everywhere. We no longer capture just the momentous celebrations and events, but every day life. 

One of my current projects is to pull together the photos from Miss S' first year, something similar to the baby album my mum lovingly put together for me. Of course, my photos are all digital. I don't have to take a film into the store, have the photos printed and then place them into an album. I've chosen to organise mine into a personalised album online and order a hard copy. I have culled all of the photos from those first 12 months, from just shy of 11,000 photos, yes that's right 11,000 photos to a more manageable 1200. A second round of culling awaits. 

So in three generations, the number of baby photos in our family has grown from a handful, around eight of my dad in his first 12 months, to me, around 300, and to my daughter, now sitting at an astonishing and pretty impressive 11,000. 

The discussion then moves to what to do with them. An album is a beautiful way of presenting and preserving them, but what about the ones that don't make the cut. After sharing this figure with my workmates, their advice was to store them all on a hard drive (done) and then in the cloud (need to explore further).

How to choose the best digital album for your photos?

For me, this was a big decision. I love photos, I love designing with them and I love displaying them. We were lucky enough to find an amazing wedding photographer who designed an incredible magazine style album for us. It set the bar high and showed me how the professionals do it.

I spent quite a bit of time researching both online and checking out examples in store. Most of the big companies who print photos also print albums now. Personally, I'm not convinced about the quality of the images, but if you're putting together a simple album and the quality of the image isn't essential then they are an affordable way of displaying your photos.

My ultimate goal was to find an album that would be perfect to display Miss S' first year so I knew I needed to have a test run. A couple of thousand photos from our holiday to the US in 2011 were still waiting patiently in a hard drive. I set about culling them and organising them into an album. I managed to place the photos into two albums, of about 100 pages each. And while it was a time consuming project, I really did enjoy reliving our trip and designing the albums.

I finally chose albumworks as the company to design and print my albums. A couple of reasons:

• the quality of the album
• the fact I could download the album design program to my computer and design in my own time and in my own space. I didn't have to login to a company's site and run the risk I could lose my design
• the program is user friendly, offers plenty of design options and is easy to navigate
• an Australian company - based in Melbourne. I could call with my questions, or email them
• Price - not cheap but I was comfortable with the value offered
• Finally, I ordered my first album titled - New York. And I was really impressed with the final product. I have had lots of family members and friends flick through the album and comment on how fantastic it looks. 

I'd love to hear what you have done with precious photos, how do you store your photos and how do you present your favourites? 

The perfect Anzac biscuit recipe...soft and a little chewy

This is a personal favourite and one I have honed over the years to achieve (in my view) the perfect soft Anzac biscuit consistency. This recipe is more for a soft Anzac biscuit, not super chewy but not at all hard.

Now I realise it's not Anzac Day, but I like to enjoy freshly baked Anzac biscuits all year round and I can't imagine I'm alone. 

It's a simple recipe and it now takes me 15 minutes from pulling the ingredients out of the pantry to popping the biscuits in the oven. Miss S doesn't mind munching on them either. Always a good sign!

Soft and a little chewy Anzac biscuits

1 cup plain flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup Ward McKenzie desiccated coconut

3/4 cup brown sugar

125g butter (Western Star)

2 tbs golden syrup

1 tsp bicarbonate soda 

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the oats, coconut and brown sugar. 

Put the butter, golden syrup and 2 tbs water in a small saucepan. Stir over a medium heat until melted. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls. Place on trays, about 5cm apart. (If you have a little mixture left I highly recommend sneaking a taste test of the pre cooked dough - super yum)

Press with a fork to flatten slightly.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Set aside in the trays for 5 mins to cool.

Finally, enjoy!

What does your skin care routine look like?

I've spent many years and countless dollars searching for the perfect skin care products.

I have tried the expensive department store brands buying into the idea that it costs a lot so it must be good and I've tried the supermarket brands after realising expensive didn't equal brilliant. 

And you know what? It's tiring! 

So after years of this tooing and froing I think I have found a combination of brands that comes somewhere in between and does a pretty good job. As a mum to a one year old, I also want something that is affordable and fits into my busy life. 

For me, it's a combination of brands, but trilogy definitely outnumbers the rest in my bathroom vanity. It is a brand that seems to tick all the boxes.

• it includes natural ingredients
• it offers value for money 
• I can order the products online
• and delivery is fast - within a couple of days

Most orders also come with a freebie or two - sample sizes of products to try.

The other realisation I have come to, is that you don't have to use just one brand for all your skin care products. Mix and match and come up with your own suite of products. 

I'm able to combine a luxe brand or two with a supermarket purchase and a few middle of the range items to pull together a skin care regime that works for me. 

My skin would best be described as normal/combination. I'm oily down my t-zone and my cheeks can get a bit dry, I had quite a few break outs in my teenage years (not pleasant) but in my 20s and now early 30s my breakouts seem to coincide with my hormones. Although my dad still likes to comment on my chocolate intake when I have a breakout!!

So here is my little skin care routine.

1. Cleanser - trilogy cream cleanser

2. Toner - Clinique (only in the morning) clarifying lotion 2 for dry/combination 

3. Serum - Estée Lauder Idealist even skintone illuminator 

4. Moisturiser - Nivea daily essentials light moisturise day cream, normal and combination skin

5. Eye cream - trilogy face care eye contour cream 

6. Night cream - trilogy age proof replenishing night cream 

7. And then one night a week I replace my night cream with trilogy roséhip oil.

And finally, my day moisturiser includes SPF30+, a must for my skin. My foundation also includes SPF15+ and I think it's definitely worth buying products that include sunscreen, reducing another step in your skin care routine.

I also try to use a mask once a week - I have a couple that I rotate from Elizabeth Arden to the Body Shop.

And finally when time and budget allow, I love to book in for some pampering at my local day spa, Otford Valley Sanctuary Day Spa. Owner, Lisa is amazing and I highly recommend a visit. 

Please note this is not a sponsored post. I am a happy, satisfied customer of a number of skin care products and Otford Valley Sanctuary Day Spa; my local day spa.

I'd love to know what skin care products make the grade for you? 

What's your battle plan?

I've spent the night watching the events in Canberra unfold on tv and social media and I didn't know if this post would make it online tonight. But I've had enough of all the drama and so my latest post about the June toy sales feels a world away from political life (and my previous life as a political staffer) and I couldn't be happier about it. 

So 18 months ago, toy sales and laybying for Christmas in June were a whole other world and one I certainly wasn't part of. I like to think of myself as a veteran shopper with plenty of experience under my belt and a well honed ability to sniff out a good bargain. But toy sales, well I didn't know much at all.

So I received a hurried introduction in June last year and even managed to frighten myself at how I jumped straight in without my usual research and planning. Last June my little girl was still in hospital after arriving prematurely and toys were the last thing on my mind. My sister who was a new mum of two months had clearly done her research and she was all over the toy sales and what June meant in a parent's calendar. Had I missed that memo?

She gave me a briefing, made some useful suggestions and sent me off to Westfield clutching a shopping list in one hand, my smart phone in the other and my credit card warming up in my handbag. Now it's important to know that I had a very small window to do this shop. I was days away from bringing our little girl home from hospital and spending most of each day at the hospital as we worked at breast feeding. So after spending almost an hour trying to and then feeding Miss S, I had a 90 min window to get to the shopping centre, grab a bite to eat, shop and then get back to the hospital and find a park, all in time to feed Miss S again. 

So I hooned around Target throwing toys in the trolley, pulling them back out, checking my list and throwing them back in, all while trying to think of all the little people I needed to buy for - Miss S, my one and only precious nephew and my beautiful god daughter (wo was three at the time), quickly assessing the bargains on offer and calculating the dollars saved by buying items on sale (always a necessary piece of data to offer to my hubby when justifying a larger than planned spend). 

I screeched into the layby section, watched the numbers tick over, had a mini freak out but then reminded myself all of my purchases were put away and I wouldn't need to think about them for a good couple of months. I had probably bought too much, but I could deal with that later. Ahhh, time to breathe. And hey I deserved a little pat on my back for ticking that toy sale box. 

So June has rolled around again and I still find myself not at all organised to do the big shop and layby. My sister has her list ready and is after ideas for Miss S. It doesn't help that Miss S and my nephew are in that in between age of 12 months plus where they're a bit too old for baby toys but are a bit too young for a lot of toys that are 3+. Maybe I should just pick out a toybox to hold all of these purchases?

is it just me or is anyone else totally unprepared for the June toy sales? Any strategies on how best to tackle them from some battle weary veterans and experts? 

Happy birthday to my Mum

Today is a special day, it is my beautiful mum's birthday. Birthdays are always an occasion in our family, they are a chance to celebrate and spoil someone on their special day.

Sadly, my mum and I now live in different cities and states, so it means we celebrate with a card, a gift, a phone call and a FaceTime video call and the promise for a girls lunch next time we see each other.

Luckily the rest of the family is on hand to make sure she is taken to lunch and a birthday cake lit with the obligatory candles. I was also fortunate to see my mum just a month ago when we celebrated my Dad's birthday milestone of 60!

My Mum is someone I admire and adore and I'm blessed that we truly are best friends as well as mother and daughter. It's a special relationship that I hope to continue with my own precious daughter. Since becoming a mum, I appreciate even more the endless and often thankless things my mum has done for me over the years, all because she loves me.

So to my beautiful Mum, happy happy birthday! I love you so very much!

Sometimes thank you says it all

Since having our daughter prematurely at 26 weeks and becoming parents, life has been a rollercoaster. Our lives have been turned upside down, in the best possible way. However the first 12 weeks of Miss S's life were tough for all of us. It's very hard to describe what life is like when your days are spent in hospital and you want the days, weeks and months until you bring your baby home to pass quickly and painlessly.

My husband and I are blessed to have incredible family and friends, many of whom supported us through those gruelling weeks and beyond.

I have said thank you many times for many acts of kindness, some of which have stopped me in my tracks and made me realise how very precious our relationships are. I also wanted to thank many of these same people at my daughter's first birthday party, but my emotions got in the way and I ended up a blubbering mess. So to our precious family and friends, thank you. You know who you are. And to my husband, sometimes there are no words just a shared understanding and love; real, true love.

Thank you for listening through the tears

Thank you for our cleaner

Thank you for being brave and not showing me how truly scared you were

Thank you for spending the night beside me in the delivery room as we prayed I would be able to keep this precious little baby safe

Thank you for the care package - chocolate solves pretty much anything

Thank you for the endless hugs and I love yous 

Thank you for just doing without a second thought 

Thank you for travelling to visit and knowing how much we were craving a familiar face 

Thank you for telling us how beautiful our tiny baby was when it was hard to see her for all the tubes 

Thank you for the flowers to brighten our day 

Thank you for taking the time to cook us meals 

Thank you for accepting the good and bad and knowing we needed just a little bit of extra understanding 

Thank you for giving us the strength to make it through 

Thank you for just being you

So, what's your number?

We all have them, dozens of them choking up our wallets and spilling out every chance they get. I have so many I often forget what I have and never end up using them.

Yup, I'm talking store loyalty cards. 

It seems that every store from Myer and Priceline to the local coffee shop now offers yet another loyalty card with some appealing reason to sign up. 

After adding up my stash I have a total of 22 loyalty cards. And in my little wallet added to the credit cards, ATM cards, Medicare card, roadside assistance, drivers licence and all the bits and pieces I carry around it's a lot.

Why is it that if I don't agree to add another card to my bulging wallet each time I'm offered one at yet another store then I feel like I'm missing out on something or the potential to miss out. I love a bargain and love knowing my shopping might be adding up to a little reward in the future. However, I'm the first to admit that many of the loyalty cards choking up my wallet offer me little in return for collecting my shopping information and building a profile of me as a customer.

Sadly, after struggling to close my wallet, I decided the time had come to add a second wallet just for loyalty cards to my already mammoth handbag/baby bag. Crazy, uh huh!

Then, one day a kind saleswoman, obviously someone who had experienced the same frustration as me at carrying around so many cards and after watching hundreds of customers flick through said wallet and many other loyalty cards, suggested I use a smartphone app that I could just add the details to. Then I could just hand over the loyalty card numbers when making purchases or scan the membership number on my phone. Seriously, why had I never discovered this before? What rock had I been living under?

Well I downloaded Stocard app (I'm sure there are quite a few out there on the market) for my smart phone and while I have added all of my loyalty cards to the app, I must admit I'm still pulling out my cards when I shop (it might have had something to do with the 'are you serious look' when I pulled my phone out at my local supermarket to scan instead of my loyalty card - I promptly put my phone away and pulled out my card again). Argggh! 

Note to self - try this app again next time I'm out shopping. Don't let one sales assistant deter you from ridding your wallet of loyalty cards. 

I can definitely see some merit to having loyalty cards as long as you get some value as a customer and you limit the number you use and carry around with you. 

From my experience the best loyalty cards on the market include:

MYER one - one of the most used loyalty cards in my wallet. I shop at Myer a lot for a range of different things and I like knowing my shopping points are adding up to a gift card. Often it's just a $20 gift card every few months, but every little bit helps. 

Priceline - another of my more commonly used cards. I love Priceline for price, variety and location. I like knowing that my purchases will add up to a little reward every few months. A nice little surprise in the mail. 

Fly buys - possibly THE most used of my loyalty cards. I shop at Bilo and Coles a couple of times a week, so it gets whipped out each time no matter how small the purchase. I also use it at Target and when filling up the car at Coles petrol stations. For me, this offers good value. Points can be used to use Fly Buys dollars, so at times I have converted a whole heap of points and taken $50 off my weekly shop. 

Gloria Jeans - there paper cards rewarded you with a free coffee after purchasing 10 coffees. They now have a new system where you have a plastic card and you sign up online. Not sure what the reward is now? So jury's still out on whether this one will remain in my wallet. 

Bakers Delight - paper card offering a free loaf of bread or six rolls after five visits and spending at least $6 on each visit. Not bad value and no shopping data collected by Bakers Delight. 

Witchery - not the most used card in my wallet, but definitely one I have used a bit more lately and seems to be good value. It can also be used when shopping online at Witchery. I purchased some pants and a blazer recently online which came to about $200 and I received $15 to spend at one of their stores or online. I went into a store to use my $$ to avoid paying a shipping fee of $9.95 (it would have eaten up my reward money). I was also disappointed that the $15 reward had a use by date on it of about a month. Other loyalty cards that offer rewards don't usually have a limit on using the gift card which is always a big plus. 

The final one I have in my every day wallet is for my local pharmacy. They offer gift vouchers once you have spent a certain amount of money on items in store excluding prescriptions. I find this handy as  a mum as I'm usually stopping into the chemist at least once a week (I went through a period of a couple of weeks once where I was in there every day). So this one is good value. 

These are the loyalty cards that sit in prime position in my everyday wallet. They're easily accessible, purely because I use them so much and I can see value to using them. 

What's your take on loyalty cards, do you have any favourites and have they taken over your wallet?

Pint sized fashion

One of my purchases for
Miss S from Ollie's Place

Confession time - I love to shop. It's in my DNA and I find shopping quite relaxing and therapeutic, unless I have to buy something for an event or occasion and then it's all kinds of stressful.

So pre mummy days, I used to spend quite a bit of my time and hard earned money shopping. Usually to fill my ever bulging wardrobe. My husband was and is always astonished when I open my wardrobe to get dressed and exclaim 'I have nothing to wear'. So when Miss S arrived, I was on maternity leave and our household budget was significantly reduced, I think he remained ever hopeful that my shopping days were over or would drop to an absolute minimum and needs basis only.

But, as many mums do, I discovered online shopping was a much more appealing option than bundling a newborn into the car, packing bags of baby food, nappies, bottles, clothes, blankets, toys and all other manner of baby paraphernalia into the car, unloading it into a pram and then dragging it all around a shopping centre while attempting to squeeze into a change room with it all. 

So the lovely Australia Post delivery lady and I became great friends. Luckily my hubby as at work when all of my purchases arrived and his only clue was the credit card bill. That is, until he was home from work one day and three purchases arrived at once. Yep, what are the odds? Oops! 

Anyway, now that I'm a mum to a little girl, I find myself buying more and more pieces of clothing for Miss S. It's sad to say but I really do think she has a better wardrobe than me, definitely more on trend. 

We were recently at the Brisbane DFO and I came away with four shopping bags - three of them for Miss S (including this super cute hoodie from Ollie's Place) and one for me and yes mine was the cheapest! Poor hubby didn't even get a look in. 

Has anyone else experienced this change in shopping habits? Is this what the next 15 years or so will be? Or will I eventually be able to go shopping without wandering through the kids and baby section?