Living well and with style without breaking the bank: "Orchids on your budget"

After an adventurous year with a new city, new career and many new challenges, I've been reflecting on what simple living means to me now.

The importance of living well on a budget, setting money aside to save for future goals and rainy days, is as important as ever. The career move I made last year meant moving to a more expensive city at the same time as taking a significant salary cut in order to 'start again' at entry level. Budgeting has become more challenging.

At the same time, the opportunities that this move has offered me in terms of building relationships and seeking new experiences - growing and developing as a person professionally, intellectually, creatively and emotionally - are immense. I want to take full advantage of them, of this moment in my life, but I have even less resources (time and money) at my disposal.

Many of the examples, blogs and books I have looked to in the last years demonstrate the importance and value of taking time out of the 'rat race', the value in reconnecting with the slower rhythms of the natural world rather than the rapid movements of popular culture. But much as I am drawn to many of these, and can often find elements to incorporate into my approach, it's hard to get away from the idea that they don't quite fit the moment I am in life. 

I know I'm oversimplifying, but it often feels that I am looking at a model of 'leaning out' of modern life - a move from urban to rural, from ambitious careerism to putting work second, an emphasis on time-intensive crafts and home-cooking. In a word, old-fashioned (and I don't mean that at all pejoratively, but as an approach which rediscovers and celebrates what sometimes forgotten or abandoned skills and tasks can offer us today.) 

What I am increasingly looking for is a model of simple living that enables me to 'lean in' - follow my professional ambitions, enjoy the best of city life without losing touch with country pleasures, and to live not just inexpensively but also with style. I want to be able to enjoy the high cultures of the city and the sports of the countryside, to present myself well at the office and enjoy feeling chic in my down-time, and to enjoy international travel today without making it impossible tomorrow.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have found a book which exactly bridges this gap. Which reaffirms the importance of budgeting, living below your means in order to save, and of exploring inexpensive pleasures. And which also argues it is possible to do all of this, and still have 'orchids', or rather to incorporate some luxuries into your life. 

"Orchids on your budget; Live smartly on what you have" was written in 1937, advising the ladies of New York that a reduced income doesn't mean they have to give up all hopes of being well-dressed, of entertaining in style and having the occasional orchids. The author, Marjorie Hillis, was assistant editor of Vogue and seems to have been a fascinating woman.

In many ways the advice offered is not new, and will be very familiar to many of us. Focus on big expenditures like what you pay for your home, and prioritise either size or location, but not both. Down-size and declutter as much as you can. Decorate using second-hand items, homemade bits, finds from thrift stores, and make it chic using a simple colour scheme. Look after your clothes, make sure they are properly maintained, cleaned and mended. Learn to cook well using inexpensive, local or seasonal ingredients.

The difference is that she focuses on style, panache, glamour. On building a wardrobe that is easy to maintain and chic, for example. She advises reading fashion magazines as you would an exam textbook to distil the key trends and using that to add a few inexpensive touches (eg an accessory rather than a full suit) to a capsule wardrobe so you look up to date without spending much on clothes you won't get much wear out of. 

Most of all, I loved the tone of the book, the witty and acerbic voice of Marjorie Hillis advising me to make good use of what I have, rather than complaining that I can't have more. My favourite quote is on her advice that everyone should have a hobby, should seek interesting things rather than waiting for them to find you: "Be a Communist, a stamp collector, or a Ladies’ Aid worker if you must, but for heaven’s sake, be something." For another taste of her 'voice', there's a good article on her earlier book "Live alone and like it" here. 

I enjoyed the independent, forward-thinking approach to women in the workplace - Marjorie Hillis also wrote a guide to 'spare women' on how to 'Life alone and like it', and urges women to see how they can earn something to support themselves or help the household budget go further, whether by going out to work or making use of their skills and resources in the home. One chapter is entitled 'Can you afford a husband?' - her sense of humour is apparent throughout.

She argues a lot is in attitude - the importance of enthusiasm, of creating fun for yourself and others rather than dwelling on what you wish you had, comes back again and again throughout the book. It's a fantastic complement to what has been written about slowing down, budgeting and 'making do and mending', but with added glitz. For anyone worried that living on a budget means giving up too much, this is a great source of tips for living glamorously on a shoestring.

Eat well for less

When starting to think about eating more frugally and simplify food shopping, I think most of us discover just how freeing it can be to plan meals and create a shopping list, and how much we can save by cooking from scratch. Such a simple change but it massively helps bring down food spending and food waste, and cuts out last-minute trips to the shops to get "something for dinner". 

Now these pearls of wisdom are being brought to a new audience with a fantastic new programme from the BBC called "Eat well for less". A tv chef and grocer help a different family every week to cut their food bills and eat better. They invade the family's kitchen and replace their normal food shopping with unbranded food. Some is swapped for cheaper food, such as dried pasta instead of fresh, or supermarket own-brand products. Some is their normal food without the packaging. Some is even more expensive but better quality.

We watch them nervously try the various foods and try to guess what is swapped and what is the same, and then there is the big reveal, we learn the identities of the products and the savings on each item. It amounts to thousands of pounds saved over the year. And most entertainingly, the families often like least those items which weren't swapped - once the packaging is removed, turns out they don't really it!

They also have a dietician looking at the amount of sugar in different brands of pasta sauce, and comparing the nutritional value of different tins of baked beans. They do blind tastings of yoghurt, tea and orange juice (among others) in the general public and see whether the most expensive is also the most popular.

It's made us look again at our own spending, and we've started trying some cheaper brands to compare price/quality. We've also switched from buying bags of pre-prepared salad to preparing our own from a head of lettuce and a punnet of rocket. 

It's a really interesting programme, and for those outside the UK, the episodes are available on youtube. 

The sinking fund

I never used to be very good at saving money, and through much of my student years I lived at the very edge of my means. At the time I don't think the concept of paying back my student loan had really sunk in, but I didn't take on credit card debts as many other students did, partly thanks to my parents helping me out with rent.

But even though I didn't save anything during these years, I was very aware of the value of having a small cushion in the bank. I vividly remember my astonishment when, at my first full-time job in the first year of full financial independence from my parents, I discovered that one of my colleagues (now a good friend) was living from paycheck to paycheck. She was upset because the salaries were taking an extra day or two to enter the accounts (I think owing to a delay in authorisation somewhere in the chain) and she was worried about paying the rent. I was confused - can't you just pay it from last month's salary, or your savings? But she didn't have any, and a delay of even 24 hours caused her huge stress and worry.

On the narrow boat we used to share with other families, there was a sinking fund. This was a tupperware which everyone paid into when they came onto the boat (so it was directly linked to usage) and this pot paid for any repairs that were needed - ie when the boat is sinking, you have the funds to deal with it.

My boyfriend and I both have sinking funds - in fact we have three, a joint one to cover repairs to the flat or other unexpected joint expenses, like the washing machine gives up the ghost and needs replacing, and one sinking fund each. We have enough that if we both lost our jobs tomorrow, we could live for a year with no income, which gives us a cushion to find other jobs or failing that, sell up and move elsewhere. I think it's definitely a good goal to aim at - a 12-month cushion against whatever may come, to give you time to deal with a crisis, to take stock of where you are and to take action before you find yourself pushed to take on debt or make rushed decisions that will have additional costs further down the line.

This cushion was really not so difficult to build up - I have worked out a budget allocating portions of my monthly income to mortgage payments, bills, food, social/hobbies, travel and savings. I set up a monthly standing order from my current account to my main account, so that the savings account grows almost without me noticing. I have still not perfected the art of sticking to a budget, and every year find I have forgotten something, but at the end of the year I usually find I have added to my sinking fund. (This was not the case last year - there were a number of family health issues and I dented my savings to travel back to the UK several times at short notice. I was grateful to have the sinking fund there to dip into for this unplanned expenditure).

My sister is about to take the step to full financial independence this year. She lives with my mother at the moment and is about to make the leap to renting her own place. I've been rather unpleasantly surprised at the advice she got from my parents on saving money. I suggested trying to save even ten pounds a month, as it all adds up, with interest. My mother agreed - 'then at the end of the year you have enough to buy a new coat!' My father urged her 'not to be like your sister and save so much money'. I doubt she would be able to build up a 12-month cushion any time soon, as living costs are much higher in London than Brussels, but I think my sister will find that life is less stressful if she has a growing sinking fund in the bank, even if it's just one week's rent, and I hope she'll be able to give saving even a small amount a try. I have to say that I think she has been far more sensible with her money, and far more disciplined about sticking to her budget in flat-hunting, than I was a few years ago, so I think she'll be just fine.