Planning Ahead

Over the past month I have gone back to cooking a lot of meals on the weekend so that they are there when we need them. I found we were eating too many take-away dinners. Not all ways in the "McD" sense but often grabbing a cooked chook and salad from Coles on the way home from work - or something of the sort.

This has added quite a lot to our food budget as you can imagine, every trip to the supermarket is $20-$30. And on an already (I think) generous grocery budget this had become a major expense.

Hence the reason I have started planning again. I have made and frozen meals such as chicken fried rice, rogan josh, chicken biryani, lasagne, casseroles (all sorts), curried sausages and savoury mince. All of these are easy to cook, can have as many veggies as you want in them and defrost very very well, making dinner quick and cheap. Cheap as now I am not doing a full grocery shop and then doing another in bits and pieces throughout the fortnight. Lovely.

Do you freeze ahead? What recipes have you found that freeze and defrost well?

Fun & Free

I have been searching for some fun, free or cheap things to do with the kids during the year and came across - Geocaching.

You can sign up here at http://www.geocaching.com/, a basic membership is free as is the iPhone app. There are literally thousands of caches waiting to be found. Located in rural and urban areas, you could easily break up road trips for a little treasure hunting!

We had our first go yesterday, it was a more urban cache and totally fun! The GPS took us straight to the cache site but it took us a while (about 30 mins) to find it as it was quite small and since it was our first go we weren't a 100% sure what it would look like.

In each cache there are also little trinkets, you can take one and replace it with another. In our first one we put in 2 old coins and took a glow in the dark star.


A treasure found!

Today we found another, this one only took about 5 mins to find! But it was hidden in a lovely location.

Gorgeous view on a very hot day

Next time we go geocaching I am going to pack a picnic and make a day of it. Other than any fuel it is a free fun family activity which makes a great change.

Roly Poly

I was looking for a jam roll recipe when I came across this from Wesley's Grandma's Recipe Book -

A roly poly. I have only seen it before being made by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall and that one had suet in it and was being steamed. This one is baked in the oven and has butter instead of suet.

This recipe has only 4 ingredients and one of those is water! How thrifty is that??? It's easy too. Stirring 100g of grated butter (freeze it before you grate it) through 1 1/2 cups of SR flour, then pour 1/2 cup of water in and when it starts to clump together bring it into a ball, roll out into rectangle, spread jam over (I used homemade plum jam) and roll up. Bake for 30 mins at 180 deg Celsius.  Easy and did I mention delicious?!!

I took it out to Mum and Dad's place where we had it with a bit of custard. Mum told me that the last time she could remember eating it was as a child though she did think they may have made it in Home Economics at high school.

In a baking mood yesterday morning I also did a loaf of bread to take out and these Banana and Caramel Choc Chip Muffins. Yum but not healthy.... well it does have banana in it so maybe..... yeah probably not!

I am planning to make sure I have more time to cook, bake and sew. Doing the things I really love doing, in between all the things I have to do will definately make my life more rewarding.

What's your favourite homey thing to do?

New/Old Bikes

We have been pretty lucky this week in being given four bikes for free! They all need to have tyres pumped and checked for punctures and the chains need a good grease but other than that they are all in pretty good condition.

Here are three of them, the other is red so will obviously go faster!

They were languishing in a garage that a workmate of Dave's is cleaning out. They were his kids bikes but were barely ridden and now his are all grown up and they have found a new home!

Don't cha just love free stuff? And in fact I will have a few other free or cheap spoils to show you soon!!

Making a Birthday Present

Today has been a productive day. I have a friends birthday coming up this week and I was able to get the majority of it squared away.

I made this eco bag -

My sister gave me the material and I got the pattern from Zaberry's blog, you can get it here.

See? It rolls up!

I also made her a coin purse and have a jar of homemade jam and a bar of homemade may chang soap to add. All going well I will finish her scarf tomorrow night and be able to pop it all in a recycled bag for Thursday!

And speaking of birthdays, mine was early this week and I want to share the fabulous mixing bowl my parents got me. I have been after a massive bowl for ages and all I could find topped out at a 4L max, but behold this baby which holds a whooping 7L!!!! And it red and pretty!

And I have to wrap an arm around it... Oh I love it!

Soft Soap

I did a batch of soap up yesterday afternoon and I used a higher than usual vegetable oil content, as I was just using up the odds and ends of what I had.

It took at least 4 times as long to get to trace and when I turned it out tonight it was softer than usual. I am just going to leave it a few weeks more than normal, it smells and looks cute. I am going to have to put in an order for more smells, they all sound so great that if you don;t check yourself you could go waaay over budget!

In other news today for $2.50 I got a linen tea towel, a book and this fab linen table cloth from Vinnies! It shows all the sights of the Gold Coast but not one theme park!

It depicts a more quaint Gold Coast with people having dinner being labelled "night life" and highlights being walking on the beach and fishing,  a little 60's snapshot!

One More Cushion

I think I could easily become obsessed by doing these cushions!! Here is the original tea towel;

A lovely 1985 Women's World Bowls souvenier, turned into my new cushion!

Still loving it.

Retro Cushion

Ages ago I spotted a really great project in a Gass Roots mag and thought one day I am going to make that - it is this one;

After finding out that Mum had some of the tea towels I was looking for (let's face it I think everyone had these at one stage - and everyone pretended that they liked recieving it as a souvenir)  I made it today. I picked a "Barossa Valley" one, greens, mustard and purple on a yellow background!

Don't it look cute??? I love it so bad that I can't wait to make the next one. That one is going to be one of those "Wildflowers of Australia" ones!

Here are a couple of pics of it all done. I will have to get a better insert though.

This is my new favourite thing!!

Stockpiling

This is something that I have been meaning to do for a while but hadn't until this week. I read about stockpiling originally on the Down to Earth blog and have seen it mentioned on a lot of different websites and blogs since then, it just seems so sensible and would definately put a stop to any supermarket dashes before dinner.

I cleaned out three shelves in my laundry cupboard and have just started filling them up. Still have a heap to put in but took a pic anyway to give you the idea of what mine is going to look like.

This should really help so I don't run out of anything, isn't it frustrating when you want cook something and one irreplaceable ingrediant is missing? Irritating, especially since it is your own fault you don't have it. So I am going to spend a little each shopping day on my stockpile.

Incidentally, I have about $15 of free money to spend next shopping day. I have $10 to redeem on my Flybuys and I did a Coles survey and printed off a $5 thank you voucher (though you do have to spend over $100 to use, but not a problem for us), you can actually do the survey once a month, printing off a voucher each time. $60 of free groceries over a year, thats not too bad. I am earmarking the $15 for my stockpile.

I also made a lovely frugal frittata for lunch today. Total cost was $2.90 so it was 73c a serve, not bad at all and it tasted really nice. I got the inspiration from here, though I changed it to suite what I had!

How was your long weekend?

Stocking up on Gifts

At the moment I don't really have any gifts in the cupboard. Usually I have a few small things that can be added to or just given in a pinch, but not at the moment. So talking to my frugal self I have taken the first step of restocking and I made 4 purses. My sister has dibs on one - mind you this will be her THIRD purse (greedy!!!) - as she likes different purses for different things. She is getting my favourite crayon one. I love that.

The plan is to make a few peg aprons as well. I have to unpick mine anyway as it needs a little reconstruction so will use that opportunity to make a pattern to use too. I just need to think of some older kid and some boy gifts that I can keep so they are there when I need them...

Any suggestions?

Crossing off the To Do List

This morning I decided to be very industrious (for a change) and write a 'to do' list. Just so I could make sure at least some of the jobs got done.

And it did it's job very well.....

Here is bub's bunting all done and ready to be sent so that it can then be hung above his cot.

And the dishcloth is ready fto use.

I was having a discussion with my Mum about how much some people get done in one day. In particular after reading all the comments on Down to Earth blogpost about what people do during their days - you can read that post here. I really need to go back to my daily lists, when I use them I can get montains done which frees up time to do other things. So from today I am back to list writing!

Are you a list writer or do you just do what strikes your fancy or do you have a mental checklist?

A Frugal Gift

Here is a present that I have put together for a 6 year old girl. I really didn't know what to go with and at one stage was going to resort to the money-in-a-card back up but and this is the but, I love getting presents. Don't get me wrong I still appreciate any money-in-a-card or gift cards I get but is there anything better than actually recieving a gift? And even better a homemade gift with all the thought and time spent there? I think not!

This is a compromise. All up it cost me $4.50 - that was for the notebook (LOVE a good notebook, actually when I think of it I pretty much love stationery - hmmm weird) and the pencils which are a different colour at each end. I made the bag with leftover material from other projects and I have a roll of musk lollies to put in there too.

Is there any other colour for a 6 year old girl? I wish there was....

I would like this present and Amelia has put her 7 year old girl stamp of approval on it too! Hopefully today I will get the new bubs present finished so that I can post it before he cuts his first tooth! LOL!

What's one of the best frugal gifts you have given?

Changing Our Spending

Dave and I have had quite a few talks about our finances of late and have finally agreed upon a new strategy (for us anyways). Basically we will live off Dave's wage and about 35% of mine with 65% of my wage going to the house. At the moment that will be paying for the painting but after this it will be going directly to our mortgage.

I was keen to live off Daves plus about 5% of my wage, but Dave pointed out that we needed to have savings separate from the mortgage as we don't want to be in the position of having to redraw the loan everytime we have a big unexpected expense.

We should eventually be able to put about 80% toward the mortgages once we have built up a separate savings. Once we have that buffer in place we will be able to go higher. I hope! If this actually works we *should* in theory have our mortgage paid off in about 8 years-ish. More if we are really vigilant or have a income increase or a rate drop.

I just want to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's quite inspiring to read other bloggers who have managed it! It feels a little like an impossible dream but from next payday this is the plan.

One of the reasons for our rejigging is we were discussing the term "lifestyle inflation". This is the term for when your income increases so does your expenditure. We have done that. We have somewhat relished in it after being on quite a low single income then going to pretty good dual incomes. We've realised we are just spending alot of our disposable income sometimes thoughtfully, sometimes not. So that is where all this started and I can see it as a fairly common situation as well, I don't have to cast my very far to see we are not the only ones. Hopefully there is now one less!

*Image from Cimexus

The Great Kilowatt Challenge

Gavin from The Greening of Gavin is hosting The Great Kilowatt Challenge! I would suggest for everyone to click on the above link and participate. You will learn how to read your meter so when you put some energy saving actions into play you will be able to see how much you are saving!

Gavin explains it far better than me so pop over and have a squiz!

Jam

Strawberry jam is done. Smells and tastes delicious, I wonder if it tastes even better because we, as a family, picked the fruit ourselves this morning? I think so! I love jam making so much and can't understand how anyone could not. It is fun, rewarding and easy. And as long as you are using seasonal produce its pretty cheap too! Love It!

Done and Finally Done!

I have finished off one of my Xmas presents. It is the blue and green half apron.

Wes kindly modelled for me as long as I didn't put his face on here in the apron! Ha! I am sure he will happily be modelling on Tuesday afternoon when his braces come off!

And here is the fruit and vege bags that I was going to make...oh about a YEAR ago! I have had the mesh since then patiently waiting for me in the cupboard. They are really light - 4 to 9 grams depending on the size and much stronger than the plastic bags provided in the stores. Looking forward to using them this week!

Check Your Receipts

I saved $42.90 today just by checking my receipts!

Went to a surf shop to get Wes some new shorts for summer, one "good" pair and a few wear anywhere pairs. If you have a teenager you will know that brand clothing is not cheap, hell it's not even good value for your money, it is an unadulterated rip off. That said I got the shorts 50% off so now they were only a slight rip off. I paid and checked my receipt and found they had charged me twice for a $40 pair, so I got that back in a flash. They were apologetic but I am glad I checked.

Second receipt was from Coles. I had to do my groceries and they had some 1L milk reduced to 95c, the first one went through ok but the second came up as $2.89. I didnt notice as I was still packing the stuff onto the checkout but I did check before I walked away. They refunded the $2.90 and gave me the milk for free - Cheering!!

It certainly pays to check. Last fortnight Dave spied our checkout operator putting our apples through at $4.29 per kg instead of $2.99, she just didn't know what type of apples they were and had had a guess! Makes you wonder how many times it happens when you DONT catch it.

Save Power Kit Results

The results were actually pretty good overall. The fridge/freezer was more energy efficient then the specs said, though this is winter so it would be interesting to see the results when its working a lot harder through summer. Both the fridge and freezer temperatures were set at the optimum for efficiency.

The biggest user was the tv system in the lounge. We have a tv, dvd and austar hooked up. We think it was the Austar box that was the big sucker, we had been turning the whole unit off every night and then only putting it on the next evening but then the Austar people told us they update at night so its best to leave it on. Well not anymore, over a quarter the cost to run it on standby and to actually use it came to more than $60. Thats more than 10% of our last bill. Wow! So we are now turning the whole thing off every night.

Surprisingly Wesley's tv/Xbox system didnt use much at all, the microwave is now being turned off when not in use after we read that over a year the digital clock can use more energy than the actual microwaving.

Draft wise it wasn't too bad but we definately need heavier curtains in our bedroom as the infared thermometre dropped quite a lot when it hit our curtains, which isn't good when your having -7 nights!

We will get the kit out again in summer and check everything again. With the recent 17% increase in electricity rates we are hoping that the combination of being more pedantic with turning everything off and our solar hot water, we will see a decrease in our power bill. Hopefully.

Op Shop Finds & Saving Some Moola

We went to a Vinnies garage sale this morning and we got us some loot! I love love love a bargain!! We got a Holly Hobbie butter dish, which says Good Company is a Special Treat - how cute! And a cut glass bud vase, a decanter, 2 sherry/port glasses, a pretty rose plate, a glittery box and a coffee plunger.

And we got 2 pairs of cuff links and a nappy stacker for Megan. All for the princely sum of $5.80!!! BARGAIN!!!

As for saving money, this week I have done something rather radical (for me) and given my debit and credit cards to David. I got my spending money and that is it. Its not as though as I was wasting money on rubbish but rather that I would see things on special (eg socks, undies, tea towels, groceries) and get them, thinking that I had better get them now rather then later at full price, whether we needed them or not. So I am card free - only cash for this girl.

We also have emptied our drawer freezer and turned it off. The seal isn't working properly so its always running. We can squash everyintg into our fridge freezer so thats what we've done until we get the seals re-done. I thought this would be a good idea after reading that after the hot water system, refrigeration is one of the biggest electrical users.

At the library today we put our names on the list to get there energy saver kit to borrow. It has a tester that allows you to check the efficiency of all you electrical appliances. I hope our turn comes soon.

Lastly here is a pic of the material I put over a bit of the garden, its frozen solid! Wes spotted it when we were hanging out the wash on Friday morning. I checked the outdoor thermometre and it was minus 1. You can see a bit of the frost in the background. Brrrrrr!

Wayne Swan and Me

Who would have thought we would have so much in common! We are both putting forth our budgets tonight. Of course I am pitching mine only to Dave but still... lol! Though I am hoping we will get back to surplus (other than our mortgage) before 2013.

Dave and I kind of go in cycles of spending, for a while we will be very aware of our money then we slide in to Mr & Mrs Spendy Pants. I think we are heading the spendy way again, so we are focussing on the budget again. Focussing on sticking to our menu plan. Focussing on saving.

I am also going to do a spend diary for the next fortnight. I am writing down every cash, eft and any bank transfer from thursday. I am hoping for a few no spend days in there too.

It so easy to spend. You see something and suddenly you can't imagine life without it. Or you see a little thing that only costs a few dollars so you get it and then you see another liitle thing that's only $4 or $5 and then your at the till forking over $20! I find this happens to me a lot when I go into Coles. I will buy stuff that I don't need plain and simple. I got to stop it!!!

BTW the federal budget doesn't really effect us in any immediate way though it may trickle our way in time.

That's my money jumble for tonight!