Cash Diet Challenge Update

It has been a little over 2 months now and I have purchased a majority of my consumer goods using only cash. As mentioned previously, the objective is to think of cash as a physical and tangible tool and if you can see it go, supposedly you will spend less as compared to other common transactions involving credit or debit cards. When I initially tried this, I decided to try working with a living budget of $75 per week. I excluded my rent, phone and a couple of other expenses that I pay directly online. Every week I would just use cash and it seemed to work out well. I found that I was put in a more conscious mood when making purchases. All of a sudden my daily coffee purchases turned into occasional weekly purchases and I would start using coupons and look at weekly flyers for discounts on product I normally use.

           

            I decided to continue this trend, as I believe it is important too have self control with your personal finances. Smart consumer habits will allow me to save money, invest wisely and assist me in reaching my future financial goals. I will have a better chance at buying a big item such as a car or qualifying for a mortgage or retire early if proper saving habits start young. As a result of this experiment, I was able to save $166.90 in just 2 months. That might not seem like a lot but that is over $1,001 per year in additional savings.  I was busy this morning rolling this money as most of it was loose change.

I hope that I will be able to save even more in the future with some reliance on a cash diet method. I think that my proportion of savings will continue to grow incrementally as my income goes up and my ability to live within means stays consistent I think it is true that using plastic to cover purchases is convenient and secure but we really don’t think about how quickly or money goes.

Air New Zealand: Communicating to keep the Sky Safe and Spicing Up Safety Demos

I fly quite often and it is the law for airlines to present a safety presentation prior to take off. Sometimes it is a pre recorded or rehearsed demonstration done by the cabin crew and it may be a video that is presented on your inflight entertainment screen. I typically find these presentations to be quite bland and boring. When I look around the cabin, I don’t even see the attention of other passengers and they typically look out the window or read the inflight magazine during the pre departure safety presentation.

For the safety of passengers on board, it really is at the best interest for everyone to follow and comply with safety procedures but your limited when you cannot force everyone to listen to the demonstration. As a result, the sender is not effectively delivered the message to the receiver. In this case, the sender is the airline or government body regulating the procedures and the receiver is the passenger. Recently, Air New Zealand completely changed their approach to inflight safety. Air New Zealand is a small airline in the South Pacific. Regardless of their size, they started a new advertising campaign called the “Bare Essentials”. It was given the name to promote bare bottom fares with no extra addition on prices. The commercial used humour appeal as every employee was completely naked but their company uniform was painted on them. In addition to the ad, the body painted cabin crew participated in a new company safety video. The video was very popular and is a great example of changing your message to attract viewers even during typically bland and regular events.

Photo Taken from the "Lord of the Rings" themed demo

Air New Zealand could have stopped with this viral campaign but they added variety to their safety videos. Keeping the same safety demo video could have caused negative perception as repetitive viewing and repetition for frequent flyer viewing may eventually burnout the message over time. Instead, the airline added new videos to the portfolio that featured videos not just with humour appeal but also with pop culture and reliable sources. Air New Zealand launched a Lord of the Rings themed video, All Blacks football video, workout themed video featuring Richard Simmons, retirement home video featuring Betty White and recently a Men in Black themed video.

Photo taken from Delta Airlines new 80's themed safety video

            While Air New Zealand pioneered the trend, Delta Airlines followed and started launching safety demonstration videos with humour appeal. I think that it is important to communicate safety. Typically demonstrations are very useful in saving lives. Aviation is typically safe but they are always unlikely rare instances where the difference of attention to procedures can make a world of difference.