Passing On Frugal Thinking

We as a family have just finished watching the BBC documentary ‘The Men Who Made Us Spend‘. If you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worth having a look at, as it documents many of the PR tricks of the trade that encourage or trick people into buying and spending.

This is something we have been aware of for a long time through reading consumer advocacy magazines like CHOICE or watching comedy shows like ‘The Checkout‘. For us, they were a great ways to raise our awareness of the psychological enticements and tricks used by almost all businesses.

And that got me to thinking about the ways I have trained my brain to try and reduce the influence of these techniques. This is something that was taught to me by my mum, and it is knowledge that I try as much as possible to pass on to my children.
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Dinosaurs and Concrete

School holidays have just finished here in Victoria, which for us meant that there were a lot of wonderful holiday activities designed for kids on during what would be normal school hours (you know, the hours when it’s daylight and you can do something). Usually these activities are so flooded with kids and parents that the noise level is more than C can handle – or that I can handle, truth be told. But none-the-less we braved the holiday crowds to do two awesome activities. And they’re both within spitting distance of each other. Continue reading “Dinosaurs and Concrete”

Campervanning Across New Zealand on the 2e Bandwagon: Strewing Education

Campervanning Across NZ on the 2e Bandwagon, yellowreadis.com. Image: Lake with mountain in background

One of the greatest experiences about visiting NZ was a chance for all of us get some hands-on learning that would not be available in Australia.

Knowing my kids and their preferences and attention spans, I had to carefully select what we visited – so good-bye long guided tours, talking heads or demonstrations. We would need something a little more hands on. And being science people, there was naturally a focus on science education. And boy was it fun.

Here are some of the great places we visited – in roughly the order we visited them.
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