Essentials? Perhaps not...

First, an apology; I have been very slack with my blogging of late and for this I apologise. It’s a busy time of year, and I often find that by the time I get Little Lady into bed at night I’m ready for bed myself! Also, this will be my last blog entry for the year, as on Boxing Day we are headed off to Freshwater Creek for 2 weeks. So, I will not be blogging again until mid January. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a prosperous New Year. Thank you for following my journey over the past three months.

What are the essentials on your weekly shopping list? Bread, milk, toilet paper, washing powder, soap, butter, eggs? Those items that we use daily and always seem to be running out of. Over the past three months I have talked about a number of these items, and I will be discussing more in coming entries. Because, after all, if these are items that we buy and use all the time, then these are areas of our lives where we’d like to save money right? Today I’d like to discuss that most essential of essentials for mothers with young children like myself; baby wipes.

Take a look inside the nappy bag/hand bag/ pram/ stroller/ car of any mother with children under 3 years old, and I guarantee you will find baby wipes. Essential not only for nappy changes, but for sticky fingers, spills, spews, snotty noses and little accidents, let’s hear it for the humble baby wipe, friend to mothers everywhere! But with so many uses, baby wipes run out quickly and need to be purchased on an almost weekly basis by most mothers.

Personally, I buy my wipes in bulk. Cheaper in the long run, and it means that I only have to purchase them once a month. But, in the last few months I have discovered even better ways to save money when it comes to baby wipes.

The humble face washer for example. Everybody has a stack of them in the bathroom cupboard right? I have discovered that a damp face washer does just as good, if not better job, as a baby wipe. Well “duh!” you say? Sure, but did you know that by putting a damp face washer in a zip lock bag and popping that into your nappy bag or handbag, you’ll save on baby wipes when you’re out and about? A face washer will clean dirty hands and face, plus any spills on the pram or stroller, quicker and more efficiently than baby wipes, and it can be rinsed and used again. When cleaning up Little Lady after a snack or meal when we are out, I will easily use 3-4 wipes at a time. That’s money being tossed in the bin.

So, that’s one saving. But the main purpose of a baby wipe is for cleaning dirty bottoms, so they’ll always be an essential purely for this reason right? Maybe not.  Again, the humble face washer comes to the rescue.

A frugal friend of mine was telling me some months ago, how she made her own cloth wipes using flannel, which she used when money was tight. Buy a length of flannel or soft cloth, run a seam around the border and they can be dampened, used in place of baby wipes, and washed. Not being overly fond of spending hours on the sewing machine, I bought a couple of packs of thin, soft face washers from Big W which I now use in place of wipes. One pack of 12 is $5. I keep them in an old icecream container filled with water so they stay wet and put them through the washing machine with my cloth nappies.

These two changes have meant the purchase of baby wipes is no longer a weekly essential. I now only use them for nappy changes when LL and I are out and about. Cloth wipes can still be used when you are out of the house though, simply by damping them down and popping them into a zip lock bag.

However, if you are a user of disposable nappies, or you simply don’t like the idea of more pooey laundry, I have another solution for you. I was sent a link to the following blog, http://thehomemadeblog.blogspot.com/, by another lovely friend of mine. It contains a recipe for making your own baby wipes. The solution for the wipes can also be put into a bottle and simply poured onto a cloth.

So, there you go! Another supermarket essential, that doesn’t have to be an essential anymore!

Merry Christmas!

Recipe for Homemade baby wipes:

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Baby Shampoo

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Drops Tea Tree Oil (Or Vinegar)

2 Drop Essential Oil (Any Scent You’d Like)

2 Cups Water

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

2. Cut roll of paper towel in half. Pour 1/4 of the liquid in the container bottom then put the cut side of the paper towel roll into the container. Pour the remaining solution over top of the paper towel roll.

3. Let stand for ten minutes and then remove the cardboard center from the roll of wipes. Pull your homemade baby wipes from the center to start using.  

Cloth Vs Disposable

When Hubby and I first announced that we were expecting Little Lady, one of the first questions my Father-in-law asked was, will you use cloth nappies? Not the type of question that I was expecting since most people want to know things like; the due date, whether or not we were finding out the sex, our chosen hospital, what we were hoping for gender wise, how long I would continue working etc etc. However, it didn’t take much consideration before I answered his question with a resounding “No!”. Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything worse than puddling around in my child’s poo and as far I was concerned cloth nappies were only going to add to the mountains of washing that invariably begin to pile up when a child enters the household. So, disposables it was.

However, after a few months of buying box after box of expensive disposables, as well as numerous bouts of nappy rash and constant leaking, I began to reconsider.

Cloth nappies have come a long way since I was a child. The “modern cloth nappy” is designed to be super absorbent, made with natural fibres, comes already assembled and fastened with either Velcro or press studs, can be simply tossed in the washing machine, no soaking required and is available in a range of cute colours and patterns. Gone are the days of nappy pins, plastic pants and folding, scrubbing and soaking. They are also, in my opinion, a great money saver.

I was horrified when I started to calculate how much of my monthly grocery budget was going on nappies, not to mention wipes. Of course it’s not strictly necessary to buy the most expensive disposables available. There are, after all a number of “budget friendly” brands out there. However, after trying nearly all of them, I came to the conclusion that, in the case of my daughter, the “budget friendly” options generally turned out to be simply, cheap. They leaked, ripped or disintegrated and were not suitable for more than 2 hours wear, and I felt that I was simply wasting my money because I was going through so many. So, when one of my friends started a business selling cloth nappies, I decided to try them out.

One modern cloth nappy will set you back on average, $25-$35. Most brands also offer packages where if you buy a certain amount at once, the price per nappy drops. If you are prepared to wash a load of nappies every day, then 12 should be enough. Little Lady has 18, which means that I can wash every second to third day. To buy 12 cloth nappies will cost you about $300.

 A box of Huggies disposables (the only brand that consistently works for Little Lady) will set you back about $30 if you buy them on special, which gives you about 100 nappies. This will last you 2-3 weeks depending on the age of your child and the number of nappies they go through each day. Going by these calculations, it will take you 10 boxes of disposable nappies to make up the cost of 12 cloth nappies. The average child will wear nappies, full time, until the age of about 2 ½. This works out to be about 70-80 boxes of disposable nappies, costing you 2-2.5 thousand dollars. For one child.

It’s a contentious issue, Disposable vs Cloth. Everyone has their own opinion on which is ‘better’ and which is cheaper. There is no denying that disposables are convenient and easy to use. And many mothers find that the cheaper disposables work just fine. Cloth nappies are cheaper to buy in the long run, can be reused for subsequent children, and are better for the environment, but they require more effort in terms of washing.

So, which is more frugal? Cloth nappies. The savings are not immediate, but they will build up over time, despite the cost of extra water for the washing. Even if I purchase a few extra cloth nappies in preparation for baby no. 2’s arrival next year, and purchase a box of disposables now and then for emergencies, holidays and long days out, I am still saving money in the long run.

I have to admit, I haven’t always been so dedicated with my cloth nappy use. There have been times when I simply couldn’t be bothered with the washing, and Little Lady would spend weeks in disposables. But, for the purposes of this experiment, I had to get serious again. I wash every second day in my energy efficient, water saving front loader washing machine, I hang my nappies on the line or clothes airer and they are dry the following day. I don’t use cloth nappies when we go away, but, if you are staying somewhere with a washing machine, there’s no reason why you can’t. When baby number two arrives I know I will be washing every day. But, I am happy to do this for the sake of saving money. Plus, in my opinion, there is nothing cuter than a cushy, cloth nappied bottom!

There are other ways to save money when it comes to nappy change time. I will be covering these in my next entry.

Experiments in Baking

I’m afraid we’ve fallen off the wagon a little lately. Hubby and I recently found out that we are expecting our second child, and pregnancy has not been kind to me. We’re still saving money on our grocery bill, going to markets when possible and using our own laundry liquid etc. But constant nausea is not really conducive to hours in the kitchen baking, and when most of the food that you eat doesn’t stay where it’s supposed to, you tend to just buy whatever food is appealing.

As a result, we’ve slipped back into some naughty habits; buying take away and convenient snacks. Not only that, but all my Christmas planning has gone by the wayside, we actually had to buy supermarket bread because I couldn’t stand the smell of it baking, my vegetable garden is still unplanted (although it is fertilized and dug thanks to my darling hubby!) and the fabric for LL’s dress is still uncut and unsewn.

I have to be honest. We are not perfect. All of our good intentions are still there, but pregnancy has taken over my body so completely that my main focus has been to simply try and get through the basic day to day tasks of running a household and looking after a toddler.

However, a bout of gastro recently put all of this into perspective. Little Lady came down with it first and then I caught it. I have never been so sick in my life. For two days I quite honestly wanted to die. But since then, regular morning sickness doesn’t seem quite so bad. So, the time has come to “suck it up” and get back on the wagon again!

So, this week I have started baking again.

Firstly, I decided to try my hand at baking bread from scratch. As in, not using the bread maker. I found a recipe for a cob loaf on the “Taste” website. It was delicious! And actually quite a bit easier than I thought it would be. I did find it to be a bit cakey and it dried out quickly, so I prefer to eat it toasted. The only special ingredients that you need to purchase are a bag of bread flour and some yeast sachets. Should you wish to try your hand at this recipe, you can find it here http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/24208/cob+loaf

The other day I really had a craving for chocolate cake. Nice, moist chocolate cake with chocolate butter icing. I found a recipe in an old issue of The Australian Womens Weekly. This particular recipe is great because it uses cocoa instead of cooking or dark chocolate, making it nice and reasonably priced. It does call for buttermilk, but I tweaked it so that you don’t have to use it. I hate buying buttermilk. It’s not cheap and it never gets used before expiring. The cake turned out to be beautiful, exactly what I’d been craving, and I’ll definitely be making it again.

“Tweaked” Chocolate Cake recipe:

1 cup water

¼ cup vegetable oil

150g melted butter

1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted

1 ½ cups self raising flour

1/3 cup milk

3 eggs, beaten lightly

2 cups caster sugar

1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla exctract

1.       Pre heat oven to 180 (160 ff). Grease a 26cm square can pan and line base with baking paper.

2.       Combine water, vegetable oil, butter and cocoa in a medium saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until just boiling.

3.       Meanwhile, combine flour, milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl, stirring to combine. Whisk in hot cocoa mixture, mixing until mixture is smooth.

4.       Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 30-40 mins, or until cooked when tested. Allow to cool for 5 mins before turning cake onto a wire rack.

Choc icing:

125g of butter, softened

¼ cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup milk

3 cups sifted icing sugar

1.       Whisk all ingredients in a medium bowl until smooth. (I found an electric mixer was quicker and easier).

2.       Spread icing over cooled cake.

This cake is delicious on its own if you don’t wish to make the icing.

Enjoy!

A Dress for Little Lady

I’ve always told myself that I’m a crafty person. On further reflection though, I have decided that I’m more creative than crafty. I have good ideas and good intentions, but when it comes to actually making things, my skills are poor and my patience is low.

Last year I made all of my Christmas presents and it nearly killed me. The first cushion cover was fun. The other seven were just plain annoying. And, full of gaps in the seams, which I didn’t discover until I was wrapping them. I made a bracelet for my brother’s partner; it took four attempts before I finally created something that looked wearable. I made my brother a case for passports etc, as they were heading off to Scotland for Christmas; it was just a basic pencil case with a zip, that somehow ended up wonky and with a hand sewn zip because for the life of me I couldn’t get it to work on the sewing machine. The only gifts that I made that I was really proud of were; a patchwork quilt for my baby niece (thanks to lots of help from a lovely girlfriend) and some hampers of baked goods and jams. Everyone was gracious and full of compliments, but I quietly swore that I would never do it again.

And so, I think you can understand why my latest project feels a little daunting. I am going to make Little Lady some summer dresses. This time, however, I have help, in the form of my Grandma. Grandma is the daughter of a tailor and has been making garments for years.  All of my dresses when I was a child were made with love by Grandma. She doesn’t sew much now, but she’s willing to teach me.

So, last week we headed off to Spotlight to buy patterns and fabric. This is what I brought home:

The total cost of the fabric was $15, this is enough for two dresses, and the pattern was $10. Patterns are not exactly cheap, and this is a relatively simple one, but patterns can be re used. In fact, I already have plans to re-use this pattern and make LL a couple of pinafores for winter using corduroy instead of cotton.

This pattern is a perfect little dress for summer. It can be worn on it’s own on a hot day, or with a little blouse or tee-shirt underneath in cooler weather. I predict that LL will get lots of wear out of these dresses, and at $13.50 each, plus a little work, I’m quite happy with my savings!

So, why not try it yourself? Start with something simple, and ask for guidance from someone who knows what they’re doing. I’ll post some photos of the finished dresses soon..

A Very Frugal Christmas

It’s that time of year again! The weather is getting warmer, the thunder storms have started, plans are being made, magazines are full of festive recipes and Christmas crafts, and the shops are stocking up on turkeys, ham and other goodies. Christmas is on its way!

Anyone who knows me at all knows how organised I like to be. I have 2 diaries, I always know exactly what I’m doing each day of the week, and I am an avid list maker. I have lists for everything- shopping lists, appointments to be organised, phone calls to be made, errands to be run, jobs to be completed, wish lists for the house and garden, birthday and Christmas present ideas- you name it, I probably have a list for it. My list making goes into overdrive during the Christmas period. It’s such a busy time of year, with so much to organise, I have to get everything written down.

Last year, I have to admit, I bit off more than I could chew. I decided that I was going to make all my Christmas presents. This decision, on top of all our family Christmas dos, dinners, lunches, catch ups, concerts, visiting relatives, a heavily pregnant SIL and subsequent arrival of my niece, and general motherly duties with a 9 month old, meant that I ended up with too many late nights cooking, sewing and wrapping and ended up at the doctors, a week before Christmas, sick and burnt out. I saved money sure, and everybody loved their handmade goodies, but it wasn’t worth the stress and effort.

This year I have gone with a different approach. Knowing that I have a little added stress this year, hosting our traditional family Christmas lunch for the first time, hand made gifts have gone by the wayside. Instead, anything handmade will be in the form of baked goods in hampers and a delicious Christmas lunch. That’s it.

I love Christmas. It’s my favourite time of the year, but it does tend to stress me out. So, after much thought, I have produced another list; my tips for a very frugal, yet stress free, Christmas…

1.      Start planning early. Start your Christmas shopping as early as possible. Start in January! Buy things on sale and put them away in a cupboard. As an Advisor selling books and games for The Learning Ladder, I get a substantial discount. So, for the last six months I’ve been buying up presents for my family. I have most of my Christmas gifts already, stored in Little Lady’s wardrobe. Don’t leave your shopping until the last minute. You’ll end up stressed and cranky, wandering the shopping centres with other stressed and cranky people, you’ll overspend and end up impulse buying. If you still haven’t done any shopping for this Christmas, I recommend making a list, setting aside this Saturday for shopping, get the kids babysat and just go and do it. There are still sales on, and you still have time to shop around.

2.      Same goes for hosting any Christmas celebration. Plan early, make lists of the food and supplies you’ll need, pick things up on special and store them in the freezer or cupboard. I made my lists a couple of weeks ago and have been buying one or two Christmas items each week. That way you won’t blow your budget.

3.      Start cooking NOW! Bake and freeze. Make one thing each week and pop it into the freezer. Christmas cakes, puddings and mince pies are better when made in advance anyway. Another good idea is to make a few casseroles and other dinners and freeze them. These are handy for those nights when you race home only to race out the door again for another Christmas drinks party or supper. At least you know your family will be fed something healthy and substantial with minimum effort.

4.      You will save money by making your own Christmas presents. However, this will take a lot of time. Only attempt this if A. you are a crafty person and B. you are able to start early. Like, in June. Otherwise don’t bother.

5.      Two words- Kris Kringle. Every large family should do it. I’ll be suggesting it for next year.

6.      You do not have to provide all the food for Christmas get togethers on your own. Work out how much food you need and get everybody to bring one thing to contribute. For example; this year on Christmas Day at my house Grandma will bring the turkey (already cooked), Mum and Dad will bring potatoes for roasting and mixed berries as an alternate dessert, Pa will bring ham, Uncle 1 will bring salad veggies from his garden, Brother and Partner will bring cheeses and crackers, Uncle 2 will bring drinks. Which leaves me to make ice cream, shortbread, mince pies and some dips (which can all be made ahead of time) and some other roast veggies for the main meal. I’ll also make up 2 large bowls of punch, much cheaper than buying bottles of soft drink.

7.      Take your time, spend your money wisely and organise your time so that you’re not run ragged with other commitments.

And enjoy this special time of year!

A Sensitive Issue...

One thing Little Lady has inherited from me, is extremely sensitive skin. The poor little mite breaks out in red, flaking, itchy, bleeding excema if anything artificial or chemically enhanced touches her skin. This means that we have to be vigilant with body washes, shampoos, moisturisers, sunscreen and washing detergent. Most kids love a bubble bath. Unfortunately LL doesn’t get to enjoy these little pleasures, because it’s the foaming agents in soaps and body washes that affect her the worst. So, she has baths with essential oils, sulphate and paraben free body wash and shampoo, almond oil and paw paw ointment for moiturising and sunscreen specially formulated for sensitive skin.

Washing detergent is another matter. Luckily, we have a front loader, and front loader detergents have less foaming agents than top loaders. We also use one of the more natural detergents. However, LL always has a couple of patches of excema that we can never seem to get rid of. She also suffers from nappy rash.

When we started this experiment, I read about a recipe for making my own washing detergent. I started making it because I knew it would save me money. I didn’t realise that it was going to help LL’s skin as well. Her excema has almost completely disappeared, and the nappy rash is no more!

This Laundry Liquid recipe (thanks again to Rhonda Hetzel of down---to---earth.blogspot.com) works out to $4.50 for 10 litres. 10 litres of a leading brand detergent will cost you up to $50. That’s a huge saving!

I wasn’t sure how well it would work. After all, we have a toddler in the house! A toddler whose clothes are constantly covered in food, dirt and bodily fluids. Usually I add a scoop of Napisan to every wash I do. With my home made laundry liquid, I rub some into the stains, leave it for half an hour and then wash as normal. The clothes are coming out beautifully clean! Little Lady’s cloth nappies were the real test. I popped them into the washing machine, with half a cup of my home made laundry liquid and set it on a hot wash. They came out spotless!

Yes, it requires a little more effort on your part, in terms of finding the stains and treating them accordingly, but the effort is worth it for the savings! And the fact that it has cleared up Little Lady’s skin.

It’s not difficult to make and all the ingredients can be found in the supermarket. Take 1 cup of lux flakes OR 1 bar of laundry soap grated on a cheese grater, ½ cup of washing soda (not bicarb or baking soda!) and ½ cup of borax. In a medium saucepan add 1 ½ litres of water  and the lux flakes/ laundry soap. Stir over a medium heat until all the soap is dissolved. Add washing soda and borax and stir until thick.

Pour the mixture into a 10 litre bucket, then add another 8 litres of water. Stir to combine. Store the liquid in clean bottles and shake before each use, because the ingredients will separate. Use ¼ - ½ cup of liquid per load.

Results!

It’s official. The results are in. In less than a month of participating in this experiment, we have halved our grocery bill! Yes that’s right, halved it. How have I done it? Let me tell you…

The biggest savings have come from no longer buying convenient snack foods and frozen goods. Now, when I go to the supermarket I bypass all of the muesli bars, cookies, cakes, frozen chips, frozen veggies, and cake mixes. Instead I bake from scratch and make my own snacks for Hubby and Little Lady, cook fresh vegetables and make potato chips from actual potatoes. In fact, I got a lovely warm feeling when I looked into my trolley yesterday and realised that it was full of fresh produce and nothing else.

I no longer buy bread. Instead I make my own, saving myself at least $10 per week. That’s a lot to spend on bread, I know, but LL and I only eat the Country Life Rye, and Hubby will only eat Helgas or Abbots Village. So, I was spending at least $10-$12 per week on bread for all of us. Not anymore!

Buying my meat in bulk from the butcher has also helped with my savings. I gave an example the other week of how much you can save by not buying meat from the supermarket.

I’m also saving money on items like cheese, butter, and washing powder. I used to buy a small block of cheese for LL and a pack of grated cheese for Hubby and I. Now I simply buy a large block of cheese, and if we need grated cheese, I get out the cheese grater. I no longer buy butter for cooking and spreadable butter in a tub. Now, I simply buy block butter and put one block into a butter dish for toast etc. I’m also making my own laundry liquid, stay tuned for more details on this…

Overall, I am now saving $100 each week on my grocery bill. I am very proud of this achievement, but, as was pointed out by a lovely friend of mine yesterday, it is a scary thought how much money we were wasting every week, and how much rubbish we were eating every week. I have to admit, beside saving money, Hubby and I are feeling so much better now that we are eating more proper food.

Now, my goal is to only have to do a quick trip to the supermarket each week to buy essentials like milk, cheese, fruit and baking goods. Imagine how much money I’ll be saving when our veggie garden gets underway and I can get my fresh produce from my own backyard? Even better when we buy some chooks and I can have my own fresh eggs as well. I can’t wait!

Go Get Grubby!

This afternoon Little Lady and I were watching my favourite kids show on ABC- “Dirt Girl World”. I really love this program. The general opinion of most people I know is that this show is “really weird and freaky”, because the characters bodies are actors, but their heads are animated and quite large. Ok, so they do look a little strange, but I think if those people were to look past the characters “freaky” appearance, then they would see that this is an absolute gem of a show.

Dirt Girl lives in her own little world where she and her friends; Grubby the grub, Ken the weevil, Hayman the scarecrow and Scrap Boy, teach children about caring for the environment and encourage them to get outside and “Go get grubby!”. They grow vegetables, make compost, invent things using recycled materials, save water and care for all the creatures in the giant garden that is “Dirt Girl World”. Created by musicians Cate McQuilan and Hewey Eustace, every episode also has an original song. I love it for the music and for it’s focus on educating kids about sustainable living.

Sustainable living tends to go hand in hand with frugal living. Growing vegetables, saving water and electricity, reducing your carbon footprint, recycling and reusing materials are all great for the environment. And they’re also very nice on the hip pocket! I do have to admit that my frugal living experiment came more from a financial motive than an environmental one. But, it is nice to know that while I’m living frugally, I’m also helping the environment.

Anyway, it was while LL and I were watching “Dirt Girl World” that I remembered that we have a long weekend in Melbourne this weekend. Thanks to the Melbourne Racing Carnival, LL, Hubby and I have four lovely days to spend however we wish! And, after being inspired by Dirt Girl, who happened to be growing mushrooms and making compost in that particular episode, I have decided that it is time to get the veggie garden back on track! This will be my project for the long weekend.

Earlier this year I cleared a corner of our garden and started a veggie patch. I planted tomatoes, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, beans, carrots, parsnip and beetroot. My intentions were good. My knowledge was not. To begin with our soil is extremely sandy. I also chose to plant my vegetables where we used to have a large bed of agapanthas, so the soil was completely stripped of nutrients and I neglected to fertilize or compost. Add to that, an infestation of cabbage moths and my total lack of motivation when it comes to weeding and we ended up with two bunches of spinach, some very sad, severely undersized carrots and a whole lot of weeds.

This time will be better. After seeking advice from an avid gardener friend of mine I feel that I am ready for success! This weekend will be the first stage- weeding and preparing the soil. Saturday morning will be spent buying manure, seaweed solution, top soil and some organic fertilizer. I also want to price some compost bins. Then, with Hubby’s assistance, we will weed, and dig all that lovely goodness into the soil. By next weekend, we should be ready for planting!

Veggie gardens are not expensive to start. Growing from seeds is the cheapest way, but seedlings are not overly expensive, particularly if you can buy them from a farmers market. You don’t even have to have a large garden. Plenty of vegetables can be grown in tubs on a balcony or deck. Just make sure you ask the advice of a knowledgable person before you start. Otherwise you’ll be wasting your time.

There is nothing better than freshly picked, organic vegetables from your own garden. And you’ll save more money at the supermarket! So, what are you waiting for? Head outside and “Go get grubby!”.

The Little Things...

There is no denying it. A frugal lifestyle takes time and organisation. Baking from scratch, growing veggies, making your own cleaning products and making and mending clothes are all time consuming tasks. I spend more time in the kitchen now than I ever have before, and there are tasks every day that have to be completed to keep the house ticking over. In the last 2 days alone, I have made; scones, muesli bars, bread, orange jelly, an orange cake and gingernut biscuits. I’ve also weeded the veggie patch to get it ready for planting, cleaned out LL’s toys and clothes and re-organised her bookshelves, cleaned out the fridge and done an “inventory” of the pantry to ensure that nothing is being wasted. I’ve made numerous lists covering everything from the groceries that need to be bought, to errands that need to be run, to all the things I need to do for hosting Christmas lunch this year. And then there’s all of the daily household tasks- washing, cleaning, tidying, folding, ironing- and most important of all, being a Mummy to Little Lady.

This sounds like an awful lot of things to accomplish, I know. It sounds like I’ve been run off my feet and not had a minute to myself right? Yes, I have been busy, but the truth is, I really enjoy it. As a stay-at-home mum, this is my job. I don’t get paid, there are no holidays or sick leave, but I make our house a happy, comfortable place to live in by caring for Hubby and Little Lady, and helping to make the most of the income that Hubby works so hard to bring in.

However, living a frugal lifestyle does not have to be a full time occupation like mine. In fact, for a lot of people this is completely unrealistic. But, whether you work full time, part time, are married, single, childless or caring for a family, you can still make frugal choices and make the most of your money. It’s all about making the little things count. The little choices, the little changes. So, I have put together a list of some of the little things that you can do to start living more frugally.

-Buy REAL butter. We are a butter eating family. We don’t do margarine. But, up until a couple of weeks ago I would buy block butter for cooking and spreadable butter in a tub for eating. Butter like this is really no different to the block butter, except that it is specially formulated to “spread straight from the fridge”. It also costs twice to three times the price of a 250g block of butter. So, I purchased a ceramic butter dish for $7 and stopped buying the other stuff. Unless it happens to be an overly warm day, the butter dish sits on the bench and therefore is always soft and easy to spread.

-Make your own bread. It’s better for you, cheaper and there is nothing more delicious than a warm, freshly baked loaf. You can do this from scratch, or using a bread maker. Making bread from scratch is a little more time consuming, but still very doable, even if you work full time. However, if the idea of making bread from scratch scares you, get yourself a bread maker. They aren’t hugely expensive ($70-$100), but if you don’t want to buy one, I guarantee someone you know has one that they’re not using. Currently, I am using a bread maker that belongs to my parents. Making bread in a bread maker takes 5 minutes. You put in the ingredients, turn it on and leave it to do it’s thing. When it beeps, you take it out. Done. A bag of Laucke costs $12, and this gives you 10, 750g loaves of bread.That and water is all you need. It works out to $1.20 per loaf. I make about 2 a week.

-Learn to love Casserole. Cheaper cuts of meat are better when cooked slowly at a low heat. So, they are perfect for casserole. Fill it up with veggies and pulses, throw in some stock, some herbs and a bay leaf or two and let it simmer for a few hours. If you work full time, or are out a lot during the day, put it all into the slow cooker, set it on low and let it go all day. There is no better feeling than coming home and knowing that dinner is cooked. Add rice to make it go a little further, and you’ll have enough for lunch the next day. Healthy and yummy.

-Mince. It’s cheap and versatile. Pasta, hamburgers, chow mien, meatballs; there are entire recipe books dedicated to mince. Hubby makes a batch of hamburgers every few weeks and we freeze them for dinners and the odd lunch. They taste great with salad on a balmy Melbourne evening.

-Eat potatoes and carrots. Cheap, filling and always in season. Enough said.

-Make your own laundry liquid. Very easy, very cheap and great for sensitive skin. Any detergent or washing powder that you buy from the supermarket is ridiculously expensive and full of chemicals. The liquid I have started making makes 10 litres. Stay tuned for the recipe…

-Buy fruit that is in season. If there is nothing in season that is appeals to you, buy canned.

-Switch to cloth nappies. Disposables are expensive and bad for the environment. There are heaps of options available in cloth nappies these days, so you are guaranteed to find something that suits you and your child. Again, stay tuned.

-Learn to sew. Don’t waste your money buying new things when a little wear and tear can be so simply dealt with. Splits in seams and tiny holes in clothes are easy to fix, and they don’t take long.

-Read your “junk mail”. Don’t shop at the same supermarket all the time. Read through the catalogues that get dropped into your mailbox every week and work out which supermarket has the most items on special.

I hope this helps!

Just a little disclaimer; I know that I am lucky to have the opportunity to be at home with my daughter while she is young. There are mothers (and fathers!) out there who have no choice but to go to work, whether for financial reasons or for the sake of their own sanity. This does not make them bad parents. Parenting is a tough job whether you stay at home, work part time or work full time. We are all just trying to be the best parents that we can be and I am not judging anyone.

LAAAAAAMB...

Today was a great day. Momentous even. In fact, I’m sure this day will go down as one of the greatest days in this entire experiment. Because today was the day that I discovered CWB House of Quality Meat. And they are cheap.

I can’t take full credit for this discovery. This butcher was discovered by a lovely friend of mine who then passed the details onto me. They’re not exactly local, at least a half hours drive away actually, but they are worth the drive.

Today I purchased an entire side of lamb. That’s 7.710kg of meat, which equates to $6.90 per kilo. It’s fresh, it looks delicious, and better quality than anything you can get at the supermarket. For $53.20 I received; a 2kg roasting leg, 3kg of forequarter chops, 8 cutlets, 1kg of loin chops, some backstrap and 2 shanks.

Allow me to break down the savings for you. A 2kg roast from the supermarket or a regular butcher will cost you approximately $30; 3kg of forequarter chops will usually cost approximately $45; 8 cutlets, $20; 1kg of loin chops, $18; shanks, $10; and backstrap usually sells for about $38 per kilo. All up, according to Hubby’s calculations, what we purchased today should have cost us about $140 from the supermarket or a regular butcher.

We paid $53.20. Now that’s what I call frugal spending!

Buying bulk packs of meat, and buying up big when meat is on special is the best way to save money. Split it up into suitable portions and freeze it. Wholesale butchers like mine are everywhere, and they are worth it if you can find a good one, but not all are of the same quality, so don’t buy out the store on your first trip. When you find a good one, one trip every month or two should suffice. Take your esky and make sure you have enough room in the freezer!

I look forward to sharing some delicious lamb recipes with you over the coming weeks.

If you live in or around Melbourne, CWB House of Quality Meat is definitely worth a visit!

CWB House of Quality Meat 27 Booloora Rd, Springvale.

Back to the Dark Ages

The other day our microwave died. I didn’t think that this would be a huge problem when it happened. I fact, I naively thought that we could probably get by without it for quite some time. After all, I didn’t really use it that much!

Turns out our microwave is a big part of our lifestyle, particularly my new frugal lifestyle! Reheating leftovers and softening butter for cooking takes a lot longer on the stove top, as does making porridge for Little Lady’s breakfast. Ditto for defrosting. I can’t warm up any of my delicious scones and muffins that I’ve made without using the oven and waiting for ages, and cooking vegies and rice in a matter of minutes is no longer an option. I feel like we have returned to the dark ages!

Now, I know that frugal living is about getting back to the basics. I know they didn’t have microwaves when my grandma was raising her family, and she probably got along just fine without one. But, I don’t believe that frugal living should be at the cost of basic human comfort. There are frugal women out there who wash their hair with vinegar and baking soda so they don’t have to buy shampoo. All power to them I say! But it’s not for me. I think if I use my money wisely enough everywhere else, then I am entitled to a lovely hot shower using my all natural, sweet smelling, essential oil filled, indulgent shampoos, conditioners, cleansers and body washes. Even if they do cost a little more.

The fact is, frugal living is also about simplifying life, and my microwave helps me to do that. So, it’s off to the shops we go!

Before I sign off for today, I’d just like to do a few shout outs to some wonderful friends who have been so supportive and encouraging with my new frugal lifestyle. Jess, who has provided me with a long list of frugal recipes to try, and has also offered to let me steal some patterns for children’s garments so that I can try them out on Little Lady; Sarah, who has given me the details of a brilliant, cheap butcher where I can buy meat in bulk; Serena, who has given me some great advice on how to get my vegie garden up and running again; Liz, who has offered to take me to the South Melbourne market and show me the best places to buy fresh produce; my sis-in-law, who is full of tips and advice from all the forums she follows, and is always willing to share; and my own forum friends at Down to Earth. Thanks everyone! xox

Reducing Waste

How much food do you toss out every week? Are you a “user” or a “chucker”? Is your vegetable crisper a place where vegies go to die? Is your freezer full of half loaves of bread and crusts? Is your pantry full of open crackers that have gone stale, half packets of pasta, old lasagne sheets and canned goods that expired 2 years ago? Yes? Then let me ask you something else, do you enjoy throwing money in the bin every week??

If this sounds like your fridge/freezer/pantry, then you are not alone! Until very recently mine was exactly the same. Every week I would be chucking the old, dead stuff to make room for the fresh goodies I’d just purchased. Money in the bin every week, what a waste! And so, my next project is to change my habits, reduce the waste and become a “user” rather than a “chucker”.

Start by going through your fridge/ freezer/ pantry, work out what is salvageable and chuck the rest. That way you have a clean slate to work with .Those dead vegies will make great compost, and any that have sprouted can go straight into the garden! The crusts and half loaves of bread? Whizz them through the food processor and make breadcrumbs. Or, with summer coming, turn them into croutons for all those salads that will soon be on the menu. The half packets of pasta? Use them! Pasta bake, pasta salad, minestrone soup, who says you have to use the same shape shells for the whole meal? Or, if you have littlies in your house, pasta is great to play with. Dye the shells different colours and use them to make jewellery, sculptures, decorate boxes and picture frames, make pictures, or, like we did, have some fun with playdoh!

The next step is to build a workable shopping list. Go through what’s left in your pantry and fridge and start planning your meals according to what’s there. Canned goods will last for a long time, but not forever, so remember this. If you have an overubandance of vegetables or fruit, don’t let it sit until it has to be chucked. Fruit can be bottled and preserved, or even dried! If this seems too hard or time consuming, make up some fruit muffins and cakes and freeze them. Fruit can also be juiced and the juice frozen into yummy icy poles that littlies will love. Vegies can be peeled and sliced and then frozen for future use, or turned into soups, stews and casseroles.

This week I had an overabundance of oranges. Last weekend, Hubby, Little Lady and I went to a Framers Market in Tourquay. I LOVE farmers markets! They sell fresh produce (and I mean fresh!) at very reasonable prices. Among other things, I bought a huge bag of oranges for $3. Now I love oranges, but Hubby and Little Lady don’t share my affection for them. So, it became quite obvious this week that at least half of these beautiful fruit would be inedible before I could get through them all. Of course my new frugal lifestyle doesn’t allow for waste, so I made orange muffins and froze them for Hubby’s lunches, and a delicious orange birthday cake for my Dad who turned 53 on Friday. This was the most amazing cake, for such a simple recipe! And, as all good frugal recipes should be, there were no exotic ingredients that required special trips to the supermarket. I’ve also saved all the orange peels to make citrus bathroom cleaner. Details on that will come later!

So, today’s little piece of free advice? Be a “user” not a “chucker”!

Easy Orange Cake with Orange Icing:

Ingredients:
125g butter, softened
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice
2 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups sifted SR flour
1 tbsp orange zest

Icing:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar
2 tbsp orange juice (add more or less as desired)
1 tsp orange zest

Method:
Combine all cake ingredients and beat thoroughly for 3 mins
Pour mixture into a greased 20x10cm loaf tin or 20cm ring tin
Bake in centre of 180 degree oven for 30-40 mins
Turn onto wire rack and allow to cool
Combine all icing ingredients and beat until it reaches a suitable consistency
Spread onto cooled cake

*I split my cake mixture into two sandwich tins and baked for about 25 mins. I then sandwiched it with cream. YUM!     

Frugal snacking, the nutritious way!

There are a lot of changes that Hubby and I will be making over the next 6 months. I would love to be able to immediately begin my totally frugal lifestyle, and start reaping the rewards. My head is full of ideas and plans, and more crowd in every day, thanks to all the blogs and forums I’m now an avid reader of. But the fact is, it takes time and preparation to make citrus cleaner, learn to knit, buy chooks and grow vegetables. So, small steps. This week’s project? Hubby’s lunchbox!

I always thought that the fact that Hubby takes his lunch to work every day was not only highly commendable, but also very thrifty. I mean, buying lunch every day is expensive right? Well apparently, when a third of your grocery bill goes on snack foods, taking your lunch isn’t exactly cheap either!

I was shocked when I actually started taking note of how much money I was spending every week, trying to fill Hubby’s lunchbox. Every Monday I go to the supermarket and fill up my trolley with boxes of muesli bars, individual tubs of yogurt and fruit, Up n Gos, packets of biscuits, crackers etc. All individually packaged for his convenience, so when he packs his lunch of an evening, all he has to do is stick his hand into a box, or break off a tub, pop it all into his little esky and he’s done. The price that I’m paying every week for convenience sake is horrifying enough (and I don’t buy the expensive stuff!), but then there’s the issue of how much nutritional value he’s actually getting from all that food. All of it is packed full of preservatives, sugar and those nasty little numbered chemicals that Sixty Minutes is always telling us are poison.

The thing is, since Little Lady turned one, I have been doing the same for her. Until recently, every week I would buy the boxes of muesli and fruit bars, little flavoured rice bikkies and cheese sticks so that she had something to snack on during the day. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that, as each of those little boxes only contains 6 fruit bars, if she had one every day, it wasn’t even enough to get her through the week. Again, the wasted money is bad enough, but also, what kind of rubbish am I feeding my child?!

Now there are the obvious ways to save money here; stock up on large cans of fruit and separate it into small containers, rather than buying little snack tubs; buy LL a block of cheese and take the extra 5 seconds to cut her some slices, instead of buying a pack of cheese sticks; bake my own biscuits and cakes etc. But, Hubby and LL both really love their muesli bars, chocolate chip cookies and sponge cake are expensive to bake and not very filling, and neither has a very long shelf life.

So, what would my newest inspiration, the goddess of frugal living and author of down---to---earth.blogspot.com, Rhonda Hetzel do? She would start looking at ways of making healthy, filling snacks that can be frozen or kept in an air tight container for weeks on end while still remaining edible, and she would doing this with ingredients that are relatively inexpensive and purchasable in bulk.

And this is how I found myself in my kitchen yesterday, baking sultana scones and making home made muesli bars.

Sultana scones are cheap to make, absolutely delicious, filling, healthy and they can be frozen. One batch makes about 18, so if Hubby takes 2 to work every day that’s 9 days worth of lunchbox fillers! Unlike the packet of biscuits that barely lasts 3 days. Most of you wouldn’t even need to make a special trip to the supermarket to make these. All of the ingredients are staples that can be found in any pantry.

The muesli bars are a little more fiddly. They will require a trip down the health food aisle of your local supermarket. To buy all the ingredients will cost you about or just under $25. But, I estimate that you will get at least 4 batches of muesli bars out of it. And when each batch produces about 18 bars, that’s a fairly substantial saving! Buy those ingredients in bulk and you’ll save even more! Plus, there are no colours, no preservatives and no chemicals. Just wholegrains, seeds and dried fruit guaranteed to fill you up!

Let me break down the savings for you. 4 batches of 18 muesli bars is 72 bars. 72 bars at $25 for total ingredients, works out to be 35c per bar. Now, I admit, it is possible to buy the really cheap muesli bars at the supermarket for around 40c per bar. But, think about the quality. They are full of all those nasties mentioned above. You can’t buy quality bars like these at a supermarket. The closest I have found are the “Be Natural” bars, and they are generally between $6 and $7 for a box of six.
I have to admit, my first batch was not overly successful. For some reason my mixture ended up very dry and fell apart when I tried to cut it. But, I have discovered that by adding another ¼ - ½ cup of honey, they were perfect! As for the first batch, I added some dried apricots, sealed it all up in little bags and Hubby has been taking delicious trail mix to snack on at work.

The best part, is that LL lady is loving both the scones and the muesli bars, so I will no longer be buying her the little convenient snacks either. Frugal snacking, the nutritious way!

Sultana scones, fresh from the oven

The first, unsuccessful, batch of muesli bars

The good batch of bars J I recommend laying a sheet of foil between each layer when storing them, they will stick together.

SULTANA SCONES

Ingredients:

3 cups SR flour

2tsp Baking Powder

80g butter (room temperature)

¾ cup sultanas

1 ¼ cups of milk

Method:

Sift flour and baking powder together into a bowl.

Rub in butter with fingertips until mixture looks like bread crumbs.

Add sultanas and mix through with a fork.

Add in milk, I put the whole cup, mix with a fork or bladed knife, and add in the extra ¼ cup in small amounts depending on the dryness of the mixture.

Gather dough into a ball and tip onto a floured surface.

Knead a few times, but remember, scones are better with less handling.

Use a floured rolling pin to roll out to about 3 cm thickness.

Use a 5-7cm cutter or a good sized drinking glass to cut out as many scones as you can.

Put on a lined tray, touching.

Bake in 210 degrees Celsius for 15-20 mins.

 MUESLI BARS

Note, this recipe has already been adjusted as per my second batch.

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup dessicated coconut

1/2 cup wheatgerm

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

1/2 cup sunflower kernels

1 cup sultanas

125g butter

1/2 - 3/4 cup honey

1/3 cup brown sugar

Method:

Grease and line a 3cm deep, 16cm x 28cm baking pan with baking paper. Cook oats, coconut, wheatgerm, sesame seeds, sunflower kernels and pumpkin seeds in a frying pan over a medium heat, stirring for 8-10 minutes or until golden.

Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool.

Stir in sultanas.

Cook butter, honey and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until sugar dissolves.

Bring to the boil, reduce heat to low.

Simmer, without stirring, for 7 minutes or until mixture forms a soft ball when a little is dropped into ice cold water.

Add to dry ingredients, stir until combined.

Spoon mixture into plan. Use a large, metal spoon to press down firmly.

Allow to cool and slice into bars.

 Store in a foil lined, airtight container.

The experiment begins..

Hubby, Little Lady and I have just come back from a week away in a caravan. During this much needed family holiday, Hubby and I finally had the chance to discuss our financial situation. Hubby has a good job, and I am lucky to be able to stay at home with LL while she is young. We recently refinanced and as a result, have paid off the car and credit card and are now debt free (besides the mortgage of course!). However, this doesn’t mean that it’s all smooth sailing. Over the past few months in particular, I have noticed our grocery bill going up and up. Same goes for the electricity and water bills, and don’t even get me started on how much it costs to clothe the three of us! Also, we don’t intend for Little Lady to be an only child, so how much more expensive is life going to become when we add another bub into the mix? All this has been weighing on my mind.

Before we went away, anticipating some free time where I might actually get to read something, I purchased the October issue of The Australian Womens Weekly. In this months issue (and I urge you all to buy a copy and have a read), was an article on fugal living. The article talks about the difference between being “cheap” and being “frugal”.

“Being frugal is not the same as being cheap. The frugality movement, as it has been dubbed, has a deeper purpose than just suggesting ways to save money. It offers a new –or rather recycled- philosophy for living, which is to spend less, live more, reduce your possessions and increase your self-sufficiency…A cheap person doesn’t consider the full ramifications of his consumption and will consume things just because the price tag is low. A frugal person will consider whether he needs the item, rather than just purchasing it because it’s cheap. So, a good example is that if you eat at McDonalds, that’s cheap; if you make a home-cooked meal for your family and eat the leftovers the next day, that’s frugal”.*

After reading Hubby the article, we got into a discussion about our “unnecessary spending” and how we could possibly start reducing the amount of money that seems to “disappear” every week. It seems that all we ever want to do is make our money stretch further. So, this idea of living frugally, rather than cheaply, intrigued us.

Now, I never have considered us to be extravagant people. We live sensibly, within our means, and we don’t squander our money. We don’t buy designer clothes (Target, Kmart and BigW are our go-to stores!), drive a fancy car, take flashy holidays, own fancy furniture or participate in expensive hobbies. Hubby takes his lunch to work every day, I do a lot of baking, we rarely go out and we have takeaway on average, once a fortnight. But, as we thought more about it we realised that we were spending a lot of our money unnecessarily.

I started looking at the amount of money we were spending on things like snack foods, items for Hubby’s lunchbox and household cleaning products. I spent $200 at Target just buying Little Lady clothes for this Summer, and I know it’s still not going to be enough. Even things like nappies and baby wipes. I was amazed to see how much of my weekly grocery budget was going on items like these. But hey, what can you do? They’re all essential items right? Well yes, they are. But, as I am now discovering, with a little patience and creativity it’s not difficult to start saving money, even on these so called “essentials”.

And so, we come back to the idea of living frugally or living cheaply. For all of our life post children, so far,I believe Hubby and I have been living cheaply. We know we can’t squander our money, but we haven’t been realistically looking at ways to stretch it. The solution? An experiment. Six months of living frugally.

For the next six months Hubby and I have come up with ways to make our money stretch. No more snacky pre packaged “convenient” foods, no more expensive household cleaning products that are full of chemicals that aggravate both mine and LL’s extremely sensitive skin, no more store bought baked goods that are full of preservatives, and no more rip off clothes that stretch out of shape, shrink and are often bin worthy after one season. We are going to bake, stew, mix, preserve and sew our way to a healthier and wealthier lifestyle! Please forgive the corny wording, I’m actually excited by this!

This will be my record. All our observations, experiments, failures and triumphs will be recorded here, and in March 2012 we will see the effect that living frugally has had on our budget, as well as our health and well being!

It all starts tomorrow…

*Australian Womens Weekly, October 2011 Issue, page 40 “Why we crave the Simple Life” by Ingrid Pyne.