About Me

Hi. My name is Sally Hall and I write YA. In 2019 I was shortlisted for the Varuna Publisher Introduction Program (I was also shortlisted in 2016). In 2014 I won a PIP Fellowship for a young adult manuscript. In 2013 I was awarded the CBCA NSW Charlotte Waring Barton Award which included a mentorship with Penguin Books Australia. I've had magazine and short stories published in various anthologies and placed in many competitions. I also write in a corporate capacity for my 'day job'. My website is www.sallyhall.com.au.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Rediscovering the Library

Beautiful beach days in NSW Summer
I recently cut my work days from full time to four days a week. I now have a day at home to write! Yay, right? It is pretty amazing and I'm so lucky to be able to do it. However, it does have a few drawbacks. The main one being a loss of income for a day a week. My pay took a reasonable hit (ahh derr... I knew it would) so in an effort to make up for the shortfall I have introduced a few cost saving measures.

1. I have been doing the family grocery shopping at Aldi on Tuesday's straight after work. I love Aldi! I should be paid a retainer for telling everyone how good Aldi is as I do it on a regular basis. They have the best cheese, it's quick as there's no looking up an enormous aisle to see which particular brand of tinned tomatoes is on special, they use recycled bags and best of all they sell cans of Sugar Free V!

Shopping at Aldi saves me something in the order of at least $100-$150 a week. Also doing it on a set day means I am organised. I look what we actually need and having food in the fridge means I am not tempted to buy take away which was previously a regular occurrence because there was never any meat defrosted.

2. I have re-discovered the library. I used to take the kids to the library every week when they were little but not so much lately, instead I was buying books for myself which is great for the industry but not so good for my budget. I still buy books for gifts all the time but for my own reading pleasure I have been visiting the library every fortnight.

For those of you who haven't been to a library lately let me tell you they are amazing. They have magazines, CD's, DVD's, audio books and millions of regular books. I have been borrowing magazines and a heap of books. I have reserved books that weren't in and picked up things I wouldn't normally read. My horizons are expanding because the books are free and best of all if I don't really like it I don't read it. That's right. It was free so I'm not going to persevere with it like I would with a book I paid for.

3. I am planning more activities that are free or don't cost a lot of money e.g. taking my kids to the beach. We go when the flags are out and I take one of my library books with me. Win Win!

Check out Aldi here.


2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the thumbs up about Aldi. Great that it is saving you $$$. You will succeed in your quest to become a published writer because you are talented, persistent and passionate. You have a wide circle of friends who are all wishing for your success. x x

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  2. I've just stumbled across this blog, and love it. It's got a bit of everything, from writing tips, book reviews, and excellent advice about Aldi. (Before I read this I thought Aldi was a very expensive car.) Thanks, Sally. Keep up
    the good work!

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