Marcia Francois's Blog, page 5

My 5 favourite travel tips

I’ve just returned from our annual beach trip so I’m fresh from thinking about things that worked and things that could use a tune-up.

I thought I’d share some of my top travel tips:

1. Know your travel style and live with the consequences

I used to be a traveller who liked lots of options and also imagined that my life while on holiday was far more exciting than it usually is, which is plenty of relaxing. As such, I had a bag with just books, and about two bags full of clothes. I’d end up with...

Declutter update on my projects – 6 months in

stationery

I did my last declutter update at the end of March. Read more here.

Another 3 months have passed and while, I’ll give you an update, I also want to add some thoughts about my feelings on this project.

General decluttering:

I have just finished batch 8 of 24 items – that’s 192 items that left my home. We’re on a net lighter item number because some of the things that left were lovely big things like a bed, a car seat and two booster seats, as well as all the other bits, mainly clothes,...

Why my reading’s going so well this year

I am having an exceptional reading year so far.

When you decide if a reading month, season or year is good, some people judge that based on number of books, some judge by quality of books and I judge it by these criteria:

Am I excited to pick up a book and read? (vs scroll my phone)Do I consistently have something to read next?Am I reading great quality books? (I would rather read fewer books but have them be 4 and 5 stars than many 2.5 – 3.5 star books)

A few things are influencing this ye...

An easy trick to help you let go of your stuff

I wrote  on Instagram recently that I had a watch from May 2008 and I finally had to let it go.

Suzanne’s mom reminded me in the comments that I bought it on the same trip to Scotland when I met Suzanne (we’d arranged to meet up half way around the world for the first time – read more here). In fact, we stopped at the Swatch store in Princes Street, Edinburgh, on our way to drive to Stirling, where we were to meet Suzanne.

 

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What are your money standards?

I shared last time that I am on a money kick since I subscribed to The Broke Generation podcast at the end of last year. I am not a millenial and do not define myself as broke – but I love the mindset and behavioural economics stuff she talks about.

Then I read that book in April and re-activated by 22Seven account (it’s an app!).

All this means that my money consciousness is raised. I also have my annual meetings with my non-life and life financial advisors (which I dread at first and then I’m...

Work habits and routines: monthly, weekly and daily

I shared some stories on my Instagram highlights many years ago (certainly, pre-pandemic) that still get comments and questions regularly. I’m not sure what to make of that – is it strange? is it helpful? – either way, I want to write it all down here too.

I have a few things I do as part of my work – some of these will not apply to everyone, but if it strikes a chord, do try them out and let me know how it goes with you.

Our performance discussions happen at the end of each financial year. I l...

Raising your money consciousness… with the 3 As

A little preamble before we start…

1. I stumbled upon an instagram account late last year; I don’t even remember her name but it was a very young girl in the UK (max 26 years old) who was a budget-influencer. Can we call them that? She inspires people to be wise with their money.

Anyway, as you do (as I do!), I went solidly down a two-hour rabbit hole reading everything she’d posted and watching plenty of her reels. In one of them she suggested a few money podcasts that had some year-end reflec...

5 steps to get back on track when life tries to derail you

We’re four months done with the year and things are getting a little bit boring in respect of pushing through with your goals, right? We’re all churning along with the same old goals we set in December/ January, still striving to figure out some stuff, and if you’re in South African, no loadshedding but plenty (PLENTY) of power outages, water pipes bursting and depending on solar like it’s your lifeline (it is!). Or you’re being majorly derailed. I wrote a few weeks ago about me breaking loose ...

{Money} What to do when you want to break loose from your goals

Two weeks ago I had a meeting that really irritated me. I can’t even remember now what it was about so it couldn’t have been that significant. However, I wanted to do something nice for myself (treat myself, if you want) and went to my nail polish stash to find a fun colour to cheer me up.

There was “nothing” in the same way we have “nothing” to wear.

I then remembered a colour I love (Rimmel’s Velvet Rose) which is discontinued and decided there and then to go to the shops after work for 30 mi...

Five Senses Portrait of Saturday morning Zumba

In Gretchen Rubin’s latest book, The Five Senses, she talks about putting together a five senses portrait of various things.

Example, as we were driving home on 2 January this year from our week-long holiday in Clarens, I did the five senses exercise with my family.

What are the things that remind us of the holiday in terms of sight, sound, taste, touch and feel?

I wish I’d recorded it because, of course, at the time I thought I’d definitely remember it and then I didn’t.

(This is now my mental...