By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
JUST after Wendy Gower and her husband lost their jobs in the same week, the born again Christian stood in her backyard, looked to the sky and prayed to God.
“I was at the clothes line just after my husband told me and I’m looking up at the sky saying ‘Lord, why us?’” Wendy, the mother of two, said.
“We’ve never had much.
“Look, I felt a bit better after I counted the pieces of meat.
“Most people would check their bank account first, we already knew how much was in there, other people might check their credit cards and all that sort of thing, but we just checked our meat to see how we’d go.
“It sounds silly and people think it’s so funny.
“We had enough for a couple of months.”
The Gowers from Narre Warren, dubbed ‘Australia’s tightest family’ by A Current Affair, featured on the program last week, allowing Wendy and husband, Darren, to share their scrupulous saving tips first implemented in 2005 after the pair found themselves jobless and faced with a mountainous mortgage.
“It scared the living daylights out of us.
“We had made a huge mortgage payment the week before, because we were trying to pay it off and we didn’t have a lot of savings left by doing that,” Wendy said.
“We just had to cut everything and when Darren did get a job we just continued the frugal life because it scared us so much that we thought we were going to lose our house.
“We thought ‘right, we’re going to get rid of it (mortgage) as quickly as we can’.
“We’ll just be extremely wise, without being stingy, and that’s the story we’re trying to get across to people.”
The Gowers have a combined income well below $40,000 a year and currently budget for $270 worth of shopping expenses a month.
Bill expenses are collated separately, while Wendy and Darren spend $300 a year on clothes and shoes from Savers for each family member.
With daughters, Jessica and Megan, aged 17 and 14 respectively, the Gowers receive the family tax benefit but nothing else.
Wendy’s saving secrets include living below one’s means through incorporating savings into the family budget, menu planning, cooking in bulk, buying in bulk when items are on sale, and knowing the difference between an essential item and a luxury item.
The Gowers, who regularly go on holidays but keep them inside Australia, also ensure only two lights are on in the house at one time to save electricity, re-use water, attach pumps to bottles for “portion control”, and purchase presents all year around.
“We’re all on board. My husband and I are on the same page with everything and you have to be to make it work,” Wendy said.
“We don’t hide credit card statements from each other; we always work towards our goals together.
“The girls, they’re teenagers, they do want the same things as what their friends do but it doesn’t mean we say ’yes’ to the things.
“We’ve just taught them all along that you have the things you need.
“You’ve got a roof over your head, you’ve got good food on the table each night, you’ve got lovely clothes to wear and you’ve got a loving family around you, and they’re the important things in life.”
And while the Gowers are never completely free of the occasional critical jibe of their saving habits, Wendy reiterates how happy her family is to live the “good life”.
“We stick up for ourselves because we know that we don’t have debt, we don’t have any money worries and generally the people that criticize us are the ones that have got the money troubles,” she said.
“We just say to them that we’re living the good life and we have no worries about where our next meal’s going to come from.”
