Wow, spindoc. The anger!

I've implemented a few strategies quite recently.

The first is homemade yoghurt. I used to have a $20 a week yoghurt habit, but now that I make my own it costs me a bottle of milk, a tin of evaporated milk powder now and again and that's about it. The bonus is that I control exactly what goes into my yoghurt, too.

The second is paying myself for exercise. I have cut discretionary spending from my budget altogether - what I used to spend goes into savings. From there, I pay myself 50c for every kilometre I run and 20c for every kilometre on the bike. There are a few benefits here:
1) A chocolate bar costs me about 4km by foot, or 10km by bike. If I spend that money, it's gone and it's back to the road before I can spend it again. I have to really want that chocolate!
2) There's an incentive to exercise which, apart from equipment costs, gives hours of free entertainment.
3) When I REALLY want something, I have to work doubly hard for it. I earn my fun money twice - once at work and once on the road. There's generally a bit of a delay between the desire and the acquisition, which gives me more time to back out.
4) It's good for me!

It probably won't work for everyone, but it works for me ... so far.

Dear spindoc,

What a nasty personal attack - and why?
My husband and I invested in solar panels before it was "fashionable" to do so, we paid heaps for them - and what this has to do with you
I can't fathom. BTW - We're both still working and paying taxes -
are you?

Dear Hasbeen,

No worries. My freezer is full - but the food gets eaten up -pretty quickly on a weekly basis what with family and friends
to cater for. As for my staying slim? My daily evening runs around the park - plus the fact that my job entails my being on my feet all day, and walking a great deal. - Inter-acting with members of the public, school groups, mothers and children, students, all help keep me fairly fit.

Spindoc and hasbeen are different.
I invested heavily on solar in 2009, and glad of it. With solar hot water, and 2kw of pannels, the power co now owes me $ 980 in credit.
You have done the right thing Lexi. If there more of it around we would not need coal fired boilers to fuel generators to make power for power hungry Mc mansions.

Dear a597,

Thanks for that.
We don't regret having done it for a second. And now even our neighbours have started to invest in solar panels. The difference in
our electricity bills has been huge. I would seriously recommed them
to any one interested in renewable energy and in cutting their electricity bills big time.

Its funny, if I go back to the farm I find that I slip back into old ways (everyone uses the same bath water - cleanest goes first), keep the bread bags to use to wrap sandwiches, rarely use lights, put another jumper on, what is tv?, home-made everything. In my normal everyday life though, I am after speed and convenience.