The owner- Adrienne Bogatie

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The owner
This is me Adrienne


This page is all about me, my name is Adrienne Bogatie

Who is Adrienne?

I was born a nurse, I have been a qualified nurse since 1989. I am a wife and mother of 4. My favourite past-time is reading and I can happily loose myself in a book for hours at a time.

I have all the abilities of what was considered the perfect housewife in the 1800’s. I can sew, I can cook, I can knit (sort of), I can crochet. I know how to run a home efficiently, and I am really good at knowing how to make money last, but knowing how to do something and actually doing it are two different things.

In the beginning

Over the years life has presented me with many challenges. Some I have met and conquered.  Two challenges I have met, ignored and then been defeated by them on more than one occasion.

CHALLENGE 1

The first is money, saving, budgeting, all things in those categories.  When I first started earning what I considered a proper salary, I was easily able to budget. I paid my rent, my petrol, my medical aid and my clothing store cards (all 3 of them) – my mom had to sign surety to open these as my salary was so low.

25 + Years of marriage

Then I got married to a man who had never had to budget, or price watch, and some of that rubbed off on me!  Actually, I think most of it rubbed off.  We had money to spend and did!

I underwent 4 years of fertility treatment to have my first child. This is where I lost control of my money brain. Medical aid covers almost nothing of this treatment; you pay for procedures with no visible results.

I once worked out what it cost us at the time 1996! It came to nearly the same amount as a low to a mid-range new car would cost at today’s prices. Worth every penny!

Please G-d, every parent should be blessed with a child like my first born. We have been blessed with 3 more wonderful children (daughters), each one a blessing and without fertility assistance.

The reason I blog. My blessings, the photo is from my parents 50th wedding anniversary. L to R are AY,ZS,LB,AT
My blessings, the photo is from my parents 50th wedding anniversary (2015). L to R are AY,ZS,LB,AT, they are the reason I blog
What a difference a year makes. 2016, ZB, AYB, AB,LB
What a difference a year makes. 2016, Zs, AT, AY,LB

I spent the years since then, either ignoring our lack of budget, or stressing till I got heart burn over it but never facing it, or trying to conquer it, Until 2015. This is when I posted my first blog post!

Since then I have done a lot of research, found the gurus and tried to follow their advice. Two years ago I took what I had learned from them, adapted them to the South African way of life, and I can say that finally I am managing my money rather than my money managing me.

CHALLENGE 2

Challenge number 2, is the clutter in my house.  My husband is a mild hoarder (he says not), I too am not blameless but my hoarding is more to do with my hobby than the fact that I might need it someday.

This is my bead collection, or at least some of it. I used to blog about it
This is my bead collection, or at least some of it. My first blog was about beading

My husband collects magazines, invoices, electronic equipment and tools. A couple of years ago I got a bee in my bonnet and did a fairly large clear out of the magazines, some as old as 5 years, still in their sealed plastic sleeves. I found invoices and service records for cars that he, or a member of his family, had from before we were married.

At this stage we had been married about 15 years.

We have tools enough to start a handyman service, if only they were used! I do have to admit to being grateful for this on more than one occasion when I have needed a specific tool to fix something!

I once I needed a screwdriver that fit into an odd space where I couldn’t get my hand. Voila! I dug in one of the tool boxes, and there it was. So the plan was to just organise them and get rid of duplicates but that is all. This is still a work in progress.

My husbands hoard, I blog from experience
My husbands hoard, hence the decluttering topic in my blog, taken in June 2015
December 2015, with the help of the Sweep South Team
December 2015, with the help of the Sweep South Team
My home office
New and improved office space (2016 clutter free, mostly)

My laptop is old and the keyboard is now missing a few keys, dig in my husband’s dump site and a working external keyboard is unearthed. Problem solved. This does however, create a new problem, as in, “See, I told you we might need it someday”. Another topic to blog about http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2015/12/31/it-is-out-there/

I finally got my own laptop, second hand this means I no longer have to compete with the children for computer time.

It’s contagious

My problem of holding onto things began when we decided to have baby number 3. After 3 years of trying and being told I would need to go back to the clinic if I wanted more children, my husband and I decided we were satisfied with the boy and girl we already had.

I got rid of the baby stuff and 3 months later I was pregnant! Then 2 years later I was pregnant again. At the time of this post, 2015, my youngest was 11 years old. I had thankfully lent my cot, high chair and changing table with bath to a friend who had triplets. My pram broke so we had to buy a new one for baby #3.  That first fancy, expensive, pram didn’t make it through two kids!

I got rid of my high chair only 2 years ago (2014) when I gave it to a family member.  My pram left the house only this year (2016). The cot was thrown out when it broke.

I still have one or two things in a cupboard that need to go but out of sight out of mind.  These include the double pram that made it through all four kids and which I later used to bring groceries from my car to the house before I discovered online shopping.

As of November 2016 the double pram is no longer in my home!

Update: 2020 slowly our hoarding is earning us some much needed money. I am selling items as I find them on FB marketplace.

My beads and jewellery tools do take up a lot of space.  I have been very good and not gone shopping in quite a while. They have been packed away and I am probably, maybe, I am not sure, going to sell them.

I used these beads and tools all the time, as I made and sold jewellery, as well as teaching a class one night per week. My shop was on Etsy and it ran for 6 years. I even tried to blog about it! (It wasn’t a successful blog, I am not sure if it was because of the platform I used, or that I was just not as passionate about it). I lost my creative inspiration, so I no longer bead.

All of it is sitting in boxes, waiting for me to stop procrastinating. I must either start making jewellery again or sell everything.

Update 2020: It is still in boxes waiting to be sorted for sale.

More of my bead collection. I should go back to this blog!
More of my bead collection. I tried to blog about my teaching, it wasn’t great.

While some things are good to keep, like your matric certificate (thanks, Ma), your birth certificate and any legal documents, the rest is clutter. You do need to keep bank statements and relevant documents for tax purposes for a minimum of 5 years.  http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2016/01/10/the-paper-round-magazines-and-newspapers/http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2016/02/23/file-space/http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2016/01/17/manuals-warranties-and-passwords/

Every now and then I make a stab at getting organised.  A couple of years ago I drew up a cleaning schedule for my house, I bought myself a book on housekeeping and I even tagged the pages that I was going to use. I bought a couple of books on budgeting and how to get out of debt. Money well spent, I thought, but nothing really came of it.

How Clean is your house and Suze Orman
How Clean is your house and Suze Orman. The first inspirations for topics in my blog

At the beginning of the year (2015)I got fed up with me, my house and my life, I decided to do something about it.

This is when I began reading blogs about cleaning your house. I signed up to follow blogs on saving money and read them all. However, working 12 hour shifts are not conducive to having the energy to put the things I learned from these blogs into practice. Added to this was the fact that they were all American, which made it more difficult to use the information. In January 2016 I started a group on Facebook for this https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingsorted/ , though I am not very active in the group I do post my monthly house cleaning schedule there and on my FB page.

Help wanted

I started looking for blogs for South Africans.  I could find lots of cooking blogs, 1 or 2 decluttering blogs and the only budgeting advice I could find were the occasional pieces put out by financial institutions.

Then, in March 2015 I changed jobs, and started working normal hours; I am home at the latest 6 pm but most days I am home by 5:10 as I work within walking distance of my home, so driving is instant.

It changed everything! From what food we had for dinner, as I was now home in time to make supper every night (so no more pasta and bottled sauce every night) to having the energy to start tackling my challenges.

All I need to do is to fight my procrastinating nature. I am great at planning, not so great at follow through!

Welcome Meal Planning

We have started slowly.  The first thing I changed after taking over the cooking was the way we did grocery shopping.

I began online shopping. I was a little wary at first as my house is strictly kosher and I had heard horror stories. The first month I did have to return about 8 items that they had substituted with non-kosher.  I learnt to request ‘no substitutions’ on some items and others I just requested that it must be kosher.

My last order only had 1 item that needed exchanging.  My monthly shop is down about 6%. I buy milk, bread and vegetables weekly,  as I don’t have enough freezer space and fruit mostly can’t be frozen.

http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2016/02/02/the-first-time-really-hurts/

I also got into menu planning. We have a school lunch menu, an after school lunch menu and a dinner menu. I make my shopping list according to my menus and what is left over in the cupboards from the previous months.  My husband, my eldest daughter and I, have all lost weight! We didn’t go on diet; we just changed our eating habits! I didn’t cut out sugar or carbs either.

Menu planning on a magnetic board and stuck on the fridge, so everyone knows what's for dinner
Menu planning on a magnetic board and stuck on the fridge, so everyone knows what’s for dinner. You will find tips throughout the blog

The menu planning is time consuming in the beginning but stick to it and you will find it worth it and if you keep a record of the meals the family liked, then you can make it again a few weeks later. I even offer 1:1 meal planning coaching.

 http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2016/02/26/a-taste-of-menu-planning/

http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2015/10/08/menu-planning-advice-from-the-dark-ages/

http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2015/07/30/10-things-you-need-to-know-when-drawing-up-a-menu-plan/

Lightening the load

Next step was decluttering. Here I know I needed assistance. For all that I write about how to declutter, I have two rooms that just overwhelmed me each time I tought about it.

I have decluttered my entrance, my dining room, our bedroom and my clothes (see the posts – Cutting through the clutter, Cleaning up your schedule or Scheduling your clean up and the Konamari method of decluttering .

In my kitchen I decluttered old dishes and utensils that haven’t seen the light of day in forever. I went through my grocery cupboard (see my post – I own my kitchen). http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2015/06/30/i-own-my-kitchen/

This is part of my grocery cupboard all tidied up
This is part of my grocery cupboard all tidied up. check out the blog post for this Adventure
My very neat pantry
My Pantry cupboard is still the most organised place in my house

Getting rid of the clutter in my home is an ongoing battle that I am not sure I am winning but I will keep trying!

My Money

Lastly, but probably the most important, is re-looking at my budget. The month just always seems too long for our salaries!

I think I have gone about this the wrong way, but it is still making a difference. I have always practised a form of envelope budgeting https://kasheringyourlife.co.za/5-steps-to-successful-envelope-budgeting/, with more research I have now done an audit on my budget https://kasheringyourlife.co.za/auditing-your-budget/ and I have done an income and expense exercise. budgeting/,http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/index.php/2015/08/23/can-you-keep-track/

After having a discussion on a Facebook group I belong to, I decided to share my learning experience with others. A lot of people are struggling, no matter what they earn.
I now help parents take control of their debt and shift towards becoming financially stable. I have a FB group for this https://www.facebook.com/groups/financialystable. I host monthly webinars on getting out of debt and have 1:1 mentorship programs available.

In South Africa our lives are different. Almost everyone has some sort of domestic help, whether it is full time, part time or just once a week. Our banking rules are different.  We don’t have couponing like we see on TV https://kasheringyourlife.co.za/couponing-south-africa/ to help us save. Maybe if the right people read my blog, we can change this.

South Africans needed a blog just for them. Menu planning is apparently something the American’s do normally, possibly because there is no full time domestic help in most homes.

My advice has been featured in SA People magazine. Jewish Life Magazine, Jewish report Newspaper and the North Eastern Tribune.

My advice on saving money in SA People Magazine in Sept 2015
My advice on saving money in SA People Magazine in Sept 2015

Kosher on not?

When something is referred to as being kosher, it usually means it is okay. I have heard people say “this is not kosher” they are not referring to the Jewish kosher, which means suitable to eat, they are referring to a situation that doesn’t seem right. Shady schemes are but one example.

Kashering something means making it right and hence the name Kashering Your Life. It is about taking what you feel is wrong in your life, whether it is your budget, your kitchen, or your home, and fixing it to make it right for you.

I found a gap

I hope this long essay gives you an idea of what makes my blog the right one for you. This blog is for all South Africans and people everywhere. I would like to think that what I post helps make a difference in the quality of life we all live here, in the most beautiful country in the world. That it is making living life easier.

Sincerely

Adrienne