Budget for dreamers

What to do when you are broke and don't know what to do...

If you have to flip over every 5o cents a hundred times before you spend it, then practice  teaching yourself a few basic habits. Most people have been poor at some time in their lives. I have slept on a  wooden floor in a room with no curtains in a flat, with no fridge or stove, and no money. It has taught me survival skills that I cannot do without. Don't fall into depression because you are broke. Be smart- it is sometimes a matter of knowing what to do and staying honest that matters the most.

• When you get paid, pay your rent first…always. Look for the cheapest, the smallest and the safest place to rent. Don't worry too much about space when you are starting out. Use it as an opportunity to get yourself set up for something nicer, later. Really, your friends won't care if you use boxes for furniture. 
• Practice different ways of budgeting if you haven't learned how to do this. Some people start out putting a small amount into envelopes and keeping them for bills and essentials. Plan to have a tiny amount of spending money and don't spend it if you don't need to. The mistake people make when they are used to being broke is spending every cent in a few moments as soon as they get some: really, when you put some thought to it, would you walk around a shopping centre and just throw your money at anyone that looks at you then go home? No. 
• Spend a bit longer looking at shelves when you are shopping for food. Larger supermarkets often keep lower priced items on the lower shelves. Cheap bread can be frozen. Trays of chicken wings and legs are often cheap and can  be divided up into 4 or 5 packets and frozen. Bags of apples and bags of carrots are usually very cheap. When you see macaroni and rice on special, get a couple of packets. Forget the biscuits and forget the confectionary section.  

Many large food stores will sell some of their fresh vegetables cheap after 4.30 , especially if it is the day before a public holiday. Remember…rich people also buy "no-mame brands". Things like no name brand serviettes cost about a dollar; no one is going to worry about your tissue box; items like rice, bread, sugar and nappy soak are often much cheaper. You can empty them into other containers when you get home and no-one will know or care. The trick is to spread your dollar as far as it will go. New home owners, travellers and multi-millionaires do this all the time. 

• Stay away from booze and smokes….they are going to make you poor and they are going to make you sick. They can go on your lists when finances are better. When you can afford it, instead of more expensive cans,  a large bottle of beer is about $1.50 and can be kept in your fridge.  
• When making meals, let your food "go the distance". Noodles, rice, potatoes, bread: any of these will make food for one into food for five. 
• Let your family and friend's mothers know that you'll accept furniture and kitchen containers as donations if you are just starting out. There will be someone who would love to give them to you.
• If you don't have furniture, make your own cushions and cushion covers…big ones, small ones, it won't matter. A couple of giant cushions are great. Hunt for cheap fabric (remember, brightly coloured lining is often aound $3.00p/m and some cottons are often quite cheap). Calico (we used to ask for"K-sheeting") is raw cotton: this can be used for anything, including curtains. It usually costs anything from $1.99 to $5.00. If you don't have a sewing machine, just hand sew them at home while you are sorting out your budget. K-mart and Big W have small, cheap cushion inserts at about $1.80. Experiment and you'll be inspired.
•  Look in old second hand shops: a Burmese friend of mine bargains and somehow always gets a couple of dollars off. Sunday morning car-park marts or "Swap-meets" are sensational. They have treasures for a couple of dollars…I have come home with silver goblets and wooden bowls for a pittance. You may be able to source old sari fabric, curtains, wooden boxes, ornaments and small tables. Make an offer: often the sellers just want to make a sale; they don't want to pack up thousands of things when they are leaving.
• Ask a friend if they've got yesterday's paper. Read the news and look for events that have free entry. Most libraries have a newspaper room. Night clubs advertise what time entry is free and there are many, many free art moments.
• You don't need to go to Gym to get fit. Walking up every flight of stairs is a great cardiovascular work-out; telephone books and small, heavy items can be used for resistance training if you want defined arms. 
•  Have a list of 'things to do when I am broke and bored'.  Make things. It keeps you smart... Build a ship from matches or grow some little succulents from cuttings and then use them later for a cool centre piece on a box in your lounge. Get someone to paint a Toucan or an exotic butterfly on your lounge wall. 
• If you are starving and it is 2 days until pay-day, remember…make a huge bowl of salty popcorn. It is really cheap and filling.and it will always make you feel better when you are broke.

Day 4: Tasmanian Devils on the Run....

On Tuesday, Genghis, Scratchy and Itchy, three baby Tasmanian Devils,  managed to break out of Peel Zoo, not far from Perth. Inside, I have been cheering them on. This is a true test of survival. Tasmanian Devils, one of Australia's rare and endangered species, are faced with extinction in our harsh but fragile environment. This little trio are, however, still babies and the perils of a major highway, where kangaroos, boar and other wildlife have perished, is only a single factor in their chances of staying alive in the wild. 


News report:

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/three-tassie-devils-on-the-loose-from-peel-zoo-near-mandurah/story-e6frg13u-1226498579759



* All three babies have now been recaptured: on three different days, in three different places...two of them in late night escapades.  Scratchie chewed up a bathroom wall; Itchy escaped an animal cage ; while Genghis returned a little skinnier and  a little bit wiser after a little bit of rain and a lovely, sunny day on a golf course.

CPR 5:1

5:1

 One day while working on the ward of an Australian country hospital (Collie), I heard a man calling for a nurse from the Accident and Emergency area. I walked out into the corridor and saw a man, clinging to the limp, pale body of a lifeless child. When I reached him, I took the child and hit the 'cardiac arrest' button. Between giving the child mouth-to-mouth breaths while walking quickly, I indicated for the father to follow me and I said to the nurse that had run down, "Call the doctor and tell him I am resuscitating a little boy". As soon as we reached  the examination room and I had placed him carefully on the bed,  I began CPR on the child. Another nurse came and we did what we had practised after lunch every Friday with Sylvia. 

The seven year old boy finally took a few quivery, weak  breaths and made a small movement after what seemed like an eternity but was probably a  long, tense twenty minutes or so. In the background, the distressed mother had told us that they had been enjoying a day at the Collie River and the kids were swimming while the adults relaxed after  lunch with a few drinks. She was in tears, distraught and preparing for the worst. When I told her that he had started breathing, she could hardly speak with emotion while we  had to concentrate on our job and  bite back tears of relief. She pointed out a  stranger, a dark haired man in his early thirties, who was in the waiting room. After hearing the alarmed parents calling for assistance, he had  had started mouth to mouth resuscitation out on the river-side without any hesitation. His face  looked tired and fearful.

The mother kept thanking us profusely for saving her son but  I remember thinking how scared they must have been. We had been scared too- not of the resuscitation but how to deal with failing to save him. If my whole career was based on saving a single  life: I wouldn't have that career if it wasn't for the many strangers that  had done exactly what he had done that beautiful, calm summer's afternoon, amongst people he had never met before, and in the most awful of circumstances. When the doctor had decided that the child was stable enough to go to the ward for observation, I was finally able to go out into the waiting room,  where the stranger was sitting on his own. I remember standing in front of him saying to the boy's mother, "We weren't the ones that saved your son….this man here saved him." Then I went home and cried and resolved never, ever to go through that again. 

We did go through that again but in more awful circumstances. A few months later, a car pulled up in front of the hospital and a distressed fourteen year old boy ran in saying that a tree had fallen on his father, crushing his chest. Somehow he had got his father from under the tree and into the back of the car. This would have been bad enough if four men had tried. Distraught, he ran somewhere in grief, to be alone...away from the hell that kept unfolding.  With Keith Meadows' help, a local G.P, I managed to climb in through the window and unlock the door so we could pull the boy's  father out of the back seat of the car. I started CPR while we pulled him onto a stretcher and ran in to A & E with him. I vaguely remember the weight of one of the wheels as someone drove the trolley over my foot while we were still running. After a long and difficult attempt at saving the man, we finally called for all to stop. That was a terrible day and that was one life we were not able to save. If my whole career was based on one single life: I wouldn't have that career if it wasn't for the boy that brought his young father  in so that we could try, at least, to save him.

If you are lucky enough to visit Alice (Alice Springs).

A few years ago, I was delighted to find some beautiful bars of Russian chocolates in a twenty-four hour shop in Claremont, Perth. Unlike the sweetness of Australian chocolate or the fineness of French chocolate, I was touched  by the beauty of the magnificent full-sailed ship pictured on the paper it was encased in. 

Some years ago, Andie, our one and only astronaut, didn't fit into his suit when the time came to return to our humble planet. After clever negotiation, the Americans were able to extend a government contract with the Australians and Andie was fitted with a new suit. If you are lucky enough to visit Alice Springs, you may be privileged to discover the reason behind the deal. If you are anything like me, however, you might consider hiding your photos under your house for a couple of years.

If you do travel to "Alice", there are many things you can arrange before you get there: this includes chopper flights across Uluru, transport and accommodation. One of the most wonderful things that you could do, though, is go ballooning one day. This time of the year is ideal. You will get picked up at about 4:00 o'clock in the morning in a small bus before,  out in the desert, in the dark, you find yourself unfurling equipment off the back of trucks. The sound of flames shooting across before you and the feeling of smallness as, one by one, the balloons drift off next to you into the cool, painted sky will grace you. When you get back, you will repay the ferryman by packing and folding the blood red coloured balloons up in the sticky, sweltering, unforgiving heat. 

The only thing that I can equate this journey to is a ride on a tall, majestic sailed ship, like the one on the chocolate I once found. It is quite likely, you will never have the chance to do it again. Be scared...be very, very scared.