Hey guys,

I was looking back over the last year at the things that were good investments for me.

Things that I’m glad I spent the money on in my life.

Things that were in some way a game changer for me (sometimes in little ways and sometimes in big ways).

I wanted to share them with you…

Basically because I can’t keep my mouth shut at the best of times.

If there’s things in my head, they need to be shared.

#worstsecretkeepereverrrr

So we’ll start with the BIG one.

Last year we bought a Hybrid car. A Toyota Camry Hybrid, to be specific.

We needed a second car, so we went to buy one secondhand. They had a Hybrid there.

And I’ll be honest – as much as I was a hippy, I wasn’t thinking of buying one.

The idea just seemed really… foreign and strange to me.

Driving it for the first time was super odd too. They are so much quieter than a traditional car… they kind of glide effortlessly. There are definitely a different feeling to drive… and I wasn’t sure if I could adjust.

Chris ended up deciding to buy it, and I am SO glad he pulled decision-making rank on me.

I have fallen head-over-heels in love with it. So has Chris.

The fuel consumption is INSANELY CHEAP.

It saves us thousands of dollars a year in fuel.

Why the fuck isn’t everyone driving them?

We laugh everytime we drive it at how much driving range we have before we have to fuel up again.

Our other car is a mini-van, which is not a Hybrid or electric. There isn’t much in that size range that is.

Our plans are to keep the mini-van for the next 10 years or so (we don’t change cars very often), and hopefully by that time there will be more electric and hybrid cars on the market, especially in the 4WD category.

Plus… that Camry Hybrid is fast and powerful. It takes off faster from traffic lights than nearly every car out there – considerably so. I’m not really a speed demon or car-lover by any stretch of the imagination, but gosh it rocks to drive.

Hybrid + electric cars FOREVERRRRRR!

So, I got my first facial last year. And it ROCKED.MY.WORLD.

Since I was a teenager, I’ve always had rough skin around my jawline and over my nose. I’d tried exfoliating scrubs, but they helped very minimally. At my first facial though, they used a facial brush over me and it made my skin feel like a baby’s (non-shitty) bum! I naively thought it was something that only beauty therapists had… like it was expensive salon equipment or something.

I went to a few other beauty therapists for facials, and none of them had it, and none of them could make my face feel smooth again. I was addicted to the smooth feeling, so I went on an online hunt and discovered facial brushes!

They have gotten super popular, and are pretty cheap. I got one with a larger body brush and pumice stone attachments in addition to the smaller face brush. When it arrived in the mail I tried it out gingerly and quickly got obsessed. It leaves my skin glowing and feeling so very clean and smooth!

Even Chris loves getting a facial with it (don’t tell him I told you that… mwahahahahahaha)… it’s like a face massage and a cleanse all at once.

I’ve also used the pumice stone attachment on Chris’ dry heels and it’s worked a bloody TREAT.

Word of warning: being a typical obsessive Scorpio, I totally overdid my first effort… I brushed for so hard and so long that my face was sore for days. I was pretty sure I took half my nose off with it. Now I strictly follow the guidelines to only do it for 60 seconds. HA!

I’d heard a few mentions about Who Gives A Crap toilet paper before I jumped on board.

I’d heard from the outset that it was:

• eco-friendly toilet paper made from bamboo/recycled materials
• philanthropic – it supported a range of charities.

I definitely expected it to be more hassle than it was worth, and that it would be too pricey/annoying to do.

I looked into it further and realised it was actually a huge saving – almost 50% cheaper than store bought toilet paper, and it came with free shipping. I signed up as a subscription thinking I would cancel when me or Chris hated it, but we both thought it was super cool. And it’s ended up being super awesome to just get a big box of toilet paper turn up when they know you’re running low. (You sign up according to how many people you have in your house, and they seem to have their timing ratio pretty brilliant. Plus you can change the timing if you need.)

Anyways, we are a rabid fan. It’s so super cool!

A win on the wallet, a win on the environment, and a win for charity!

So, I’m not a fan of cooking. I mean, I used to do it just because it needed doing. And Chris shared the job with me. But mostly, it was something that was a total chore. And we didn’t always eat as healthily as we wanted, and when things got busy, we’d order takeaway.

I decided to just give it a go without telling Chris – just order some meals and see what it was like. He’s definitely the more risk adverse of us and finds it harder to give new things a go.

Once it arrived though, we were in seventh heaven! We are now devotees and have been using them ever since. They taste so much better than frozen meals, and they are much healthier. It’s freed up so much time – we don’t have to cook, and we don’t have to meal plan, and we don’t have to do much grocery shopping anymore, and we don’t need to run to the shops to get food. We just have a bunch of healthy food in the fridge. BOO YAH!

It also had some happy consequences we didn’t realise it would have:

It evened out our energy levels… we no longer had energy crashes in the afternoon when we didn’t plan out meals and either ate breakfast late or bought takeaway for lunch. I also started having so much more energy that I actually WANTED to do exercise (!!!!!)

And we both started shedding weight without changing anything else in our diet. It’s been about 8 weeks, and I’ve lost about 5kgs.

So, all positive changes all round!

We order from Youfoodz Canberra and Youfoodz is available in most Australian major cities.

And I’ve written before about these, but:

• Cleaners are still the greatest thing ever
• Nannies are still the greatest thing ever.

If you’re a mum business owner or a mum or a business owner… get onto it babe. You don’t have to be a superwoman. You don’t have to do it all. You absolutely CAN give yourself the support you need to thrive.

What’s more, you and your family will be better for it.

Hope this was helpful!

Let’s keep talking about ways we can support ourselves even more, and the good things we discover.

Sending you so much love and joy,