Frugal school holiday ideas..

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Who’s New Years resolution was to save money in 2012? Then this is the blog for you. My (growing) family and I have been living frugally for almost 4 months now. There have been a few stumbles and hiccups along the way, but hey, nobody’s perfect. The point is, we are doing our very best to use our money wisely and save where we can, and the results are beginning to show! I am excited to see what 2012 brings, especially as this is the year our family expands from three to four. A new baby will no doubt bring more financial pressures, so our living frugally experiment is sure to be very helpful.

Over the Christmas/ New Year period Little Lady and I spent two weeks at our church camp at Freshwater Creek, at the gateway to Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. Hubby was working, but came up to join us when he could, and we all enjoyed some beautiful weather and much needed relaxation time. The day after arriving home however, Melbourne turned on it’s best performance and we were shrouded in a week of winter-like conditions. This meant no outside play, no beach, no walks, no playground, and also meant that Little Lady and I caught horrible chesty colds. After two days of this, the weather took an even further turn for the worse, which resulted in a 6am trip to the emergency room with a very sick little girl who ended up getting croup. So, with a sick toddler in the house, that also meant no more visitors. Little Lady perked up after 24 hours, but, still being under house arrest meant that I had to get creative with activities suitable for entertaining my very active almost-two-year-old.

This got me thinking about all those other mothers out there suffering through the schools holidays, trying to keep their children entertained and busy. Going to the movies, bowling, aquatic centres and the zoo are all great activities, but the cost adds up. Fast. And thus was born my latest list; Holiday Entertaining for The Frugal Family.

1.       Visit your local library. Remember books? At the library you can borrow them for a whole month. For FREE! They also have DVDs and audio books available. For FREE! Just make sure you return them on time.

2.       Get online and check out what’s happening at your local shopping centres. Over school holidays, most shopping centres run activities for kids at a minimal cost. Some of them are even (here’s the magic word again) FREE! These could be craft activities, shows featuring popular TV characters, petting zoos, interactive dance demonstrations and gardening workshops.

3.       Cook. With the evolution of shows like Masterchef, every kid wants to cook right? And there are so many child friendly recipes available now. You don’t even have to buy them! Everything’s available online. So put on aprons and start cooking. The ingredients don’t have to be expensive, no matter what you make, I guarantee the kids will love it.

4.       Make popcorn, close all the blinds, get comfy and have a movie day at home. Borrow DVDs from the library for free, or for a minimal cost from your local rental place. Again, make sure you return them on time.

5.       Have a water fight. Gone are the days where we could run under the sprinklers, but a few buckets, some water pistols and some water balloons can be just as fun.

6.       Build a cubby. Indoor or outdoor, it doesn’t matter. Some chairs, a table, some old blankets, or a big tree in the backyard are all you need. Bring the dolls and teddies and have a picnic. Or, bring out the water pistols and nerf guns, and the cubby becomes a fort. Hours of fun!

7.       Make playdoh. Cheap and simple, I have a fool proof recipe that I have been using for years. Some rolling pins, cookie cutters and plastic cutlery, and your littlies will be happy for ages.

8.       Craft. Paint, draw, glue, make pasta jewellery, sew, knit, make puppets, paper mache, clay, beads, stickers, the options are endless! My personal favourite is emptying the recycle bin and constructing various things with masking tape and glue.

9.       Visit the local playground, kick a ball and play hide and seek.

10.   Visit your local botanic gardens, have a picnic, go for a walk and feed the ducks.

11.   The beach. Always a winner.

12.   Lego. I bet nearly everyone has a box of lego lying around somewhere. Combine it all and build a mega city.

13.   Ride bikes. There are safe bike tracks everywhere. Take a picnic.

14.   Invite some friends over and play board games.

15.   Sensory play. Rice, shaving cream, sand, “slime” or coloured water. One for the littlies, but I bet a lot of bigger kids will love it too.

School holidays need not be expensive. These are just a few ideas that I have come up with. There are so many cheap things to do if you get a bit creative. Just remember, parental involvement is mandatory for most activities. So, embrace your inner child and enjoy yourself!

PLAYDOH RECIPE:

2 cups plain flour

4 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 cup salt

2 cups boiling water

Food colouring

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. If necessary, add extra flour until you reach desired consistency. Store in a plastic bag.

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.