Over the last week there has been absolutely no new strategies to save money, but with $707 to go I am starting to think - lets get this job finished. As mentioned before we have shifted away from re-vamping the bathroom as we are about to head off on a red dirt experience. They money we have saved is put away, and maybe we will spend it while away, maybe it will be there when we get back. I am still keen on a new bathroom by xmas, but an awesome holiday rich with experiences is the priority now.
So how have I saved over the last week:
#65 - the strategies of being super organised when it comes to lunches and snacks is still a major $$ saver. On my largest work day I literally dont have time to even drive through a drive through - so being organised is essential.
Last week I think I saved about $15 avoiding the bakery
$12 on being organised with drinks
$20 on avoiding the Friday takeaway for the kids
$10 on picking the kids up from care, just before the o'clock, rather than just after
So that makes about $57.
So that brings my balance down to $650.
Over the next few weeks we are going to 'eat down' the larder. Is this a saving? The food has already been bought - surely it is not a saving. I would argue that it is! We will try new meals, from the ingrediants that we have, and 'make do' more than we usually do. Previously I said that one of my strategies for saving money was just not going in the supermarket - I always spent more than intended - the specials always got me in - always!
Anyway - this week is potato week - the spuds I dug earlier in the year are starting to seed - so eat them or throw them out - that's gotta save $$!
Saturday, 30 June 2012
a pot of vegetable curry - for a week of lunches
I dont know too many people who got fat eating too many vegies - this way, atleast!
1 cup cubed potato and pumkin (or sweet potato)
1 cup cauli, 2 big leaves of silver beet
green beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1-2 onion
2 tabs curry paste (i used red curry paste today)
1 cup beef stock
yogurt - 1/3 cup
1/3 cup sultanas if you like them in your curry
1: peel and cube potato and pumpkin, boil 4 mins, add cauli, silver beet, beans - cook a further 2 mins - drain.
2: gently fry chooped onion 1 min, add curry paste, stri and cook a min or 2. Add tomatoes and stock. Cook 1 or 2 mins, add the other vegies.
3: Pop the lid on and cook a few more mins. Add yogurt and sultanas and it is ready to eat!!
1 cup cubed potato and pumkin (or sweet potato)
1 cup cauli, 2 big leaves of silver beet
green beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1-2 onion
2 tabs curry paste (i used red curry paste today)
1 cup beef stock
yogurt - 1/3 cup
1/3 cup sultanas if you like them in your curry
1: peel and cube potato and pumpkin, boil 4 mins, add cauli, silver beet, beans - cook a further 2 mins - drain.
2: gently fry chooped onion 1 min, add curry paste, stri and cook a min or 2. Add tomatoes and stock. Cook 1 or 2 mins, add the other vegies.
3: Pop the lid on and cook a few more mins. Add yogurt and sultanas and it is ready to eat!!
Thursday, 28 June 2012
sweet potato soup - with magic secret ingrediant . . . .
It took me a week of eating every day to get through the minestrone, so now I am on to my lovely sweet potato soup (with magic secret ingrediant)
1 fresh leek from the gardem (he he the leeks are magnificent right now)
about a half kilo of sweet potato
3 or 4 little spuds - or 1 biggie & about the same amount of pumpkin
2 teas garlic
2 teas vegie or chicken stock
a little red chilli - like a teas (pref rescued from the hothouse in the vacant house next door)
and the secret magic ingrediant . . . .
lightly fry leek and garlic in a little oil, add the spuds, pumpkin and sweet potato, 3/4 cover with water, add stock and chilli - and cook til soft - 20-30 mins. Now the house smells awesome!
turn off heat and leave to sit / infuse
Later, wiz it (I usually mash but the leek and chilli need wizzing) in a blender or food processor. Back to the pot - add the magic ingredient - 100-200 mls of low fat (or regular if you dont give a rat's . . . )coconut milk or coconut cream. Greek yogurt is an excellent option, or sour cream. Try the coconut milk though - it really is delish! Season (salt and pepper). Add a little parmeson if it needs more soul.
Then, take all the vegie scraps and peelings, clean out the fridge and add food scraps that ought to have been eaten by now - old biscuits, cooked rice, wednesdays pikelets (its friday as I write this), crusts that wont be eaten, vegies left over when Brooke fell asleep before eating her tea. Put it all in a big pot and gently boil and then leave it on the stove top with the lid on. Feed it to the chooks tomorrow morning.
1 fresh leek from the gardem (he he the leeks are magnificent right now)
about a half kilo of sweet potato
3 or 4 little spuds - or 1 biggie & about the same amount of pumpkin
2 teas garlic
2 teas vegie or chicken stock
a little red chilli - like a teas (pref rescued from the hothouse in the vacant house next door)
and the secret magic ingrediant . . . .
lightly fry leek and garlic in a little oil, add the spuds, pumpkin and sweet potato, 3/4 cover with water, add stock and chilli - and cook til soft - 20-30 mins. Now the house smells awesome!
turn off heat and leave to sit / infuse
Later, wiz it (I usually mash but the leek and chilli need wizzing) in a blender or food processor. Back to the pot - add the magic ingredient - 100-200 mls of low fat (or regular if you dont give a rat's . . . )coconut milk or coconut cream. Greek yogurt is an excellent option, or sour cream. Try the coconut milk though - it really is delish! Season (salt and pepper). Add a little parmeson if it needs more soul.
Then, take all the vegie scraps and peelings, clean out the fridge and add food scraps that ought to have been eaten by now - old biscuits, cooked rice, wednesdays pikelets (its friday as I write this), crusts that wont be eaten, vegies left over when Brooke fell asleep before eating her tea. Put it all in a big pot and gently boil and then leave it on the stove top with the lid on. Feed it to the chooks tomorrow morning.
Friday, 22 June 2012
How to save $3,000 . . . sooooo close to the end!
As I mentioned before, it's getting hard to keep adding new and innovative ways to save money, but instead now I have some firmly intrenched habits that are keeping us within budget - and saving in ways we never did before
So here's a bit of a recap:
Tip #61 - each and every week I save money by not going into the bakery with kids, I cook our own bakery delights, and this saves = well it varies - I'd say $20 a week is fair. By buying bulk cans of fizzy I save $3 a day - most days - this week I was out and about a bit more - I think its fair to say I saved $15 by buying and taking with me fizzy drinks (gotta love a bit of fizz). I sold a doz eggs, $4 (what a bargain) - total week savings $39
Tip #62
I hate closing down sales - I really do - especially when its a shop in your local community, and they have supported your kids school through various fundraising ventures. But closing down they are, and I have purchased the netting for my desired netted area in the garden at half price - so I saved $60.
Tip #63
Bought 2 kilos of meat - usually $15 / kilo for $10 - its winter and therefore slow cooker time. Saved $10. Incidentally - I had a massive work week and hubby came home with hungry kids 3 times this week, late, with nothing for tea prepared - we both left too early to put the slow cooker on!! This week we will be better organised! A friend and fellow foody has suggested that we both do a slow cooker meal and swap half for half, so we both have something different and equivalently yummy for those kind of nights - for next week. I think its a great idea and I'll share more about this down the track. Tonight we had slow cooked ginger beef (thanks for the recipe Sonia)
Tip #64
Hubby rings on his way home - "I'm exhausted - can we have takeaway" - "Nope I say - tea is a cooking" - Saved half of what the takeaway would be - maybe $12
So that's another week gone and another $121 saved - $707 to go - soooooo close!
So here's a bit of a recap:
Tip #61 - each and every week I save money by not going into the bakery with kids, I cook our own bakery delights, and this saves = well it varies - I'd say $20 a week is fair. By buying bulk cans of fizzy I save $3 a day - most days - this week I was out and about a bit more - I think its fair to say I saved $15 by buying and taking with me fizzy drinks (gotta love a bit of fizz). I sold a doz eggs, $4 (what a bargain) - total week savings $39
Tip #62
I hate closing down sales - I really do - especially when its a shop in your local community, and they have supported your kids school through various fundraising ventures. But closing down they are, and I have purchased the netting for my desired netted area in the garden at half price - so I saved $60.
Tip #63
Bought 2 kilos of meat - usually $15 / kilo for $10 - its winter and therefore slow cooker time. Saved $10. Incidentally - I had a massive work week and hubby came home with hungry kids 3 times this week, late, with nothing for tea prepared - we both left too early to put the slow cooker on!! This week we will be better organised! A friend and fellow foody has suggested that we both do a slow cooker meal and swap half for half, so we both have something different and equivalently yummy for those kind of nights - for next week. I think its a great idea and I'll share more about this down the track. Tonight we had slow cooked ginger beef (thanks for the recipe Sonia)
Tip #64
Hubby rings on his way home - "I'm exhausted - can we have takeaway" - "Nope I say - tea is a cooking" - Saved half of what the takeaway would be - maybe $12
So that's another week gone and another $121 saved - $707 to go - soooooo close!
Jo's hearty minestrone- and the hero of the dish is . . . . .
You need
a few carrots
2 onions
2 cloves / teas garlic
3 sticks celery
3 med spuds
2 small zucchini
a handful of green beans
1/8 cabbage
a little oil
2 tabs butter
5 cups water
3 beef stock cubes
canned tomatoes (2 x 400gr)
310 g can cannellini beans
salt and pepper to season
fresh shaved parmeson cheese (the hero of the dish)
chop all vegies
lightly fry in this order, onions and garlic, carrots, celery, zucchin, spuds (diced), beans, shredded cabbage. Add at 1-2 min intervals. Add water and stock and canned tomatoes (undrained). Boil, then reduce by covering and simmering 1+1/2 - 2 hours - it should now be a bit thick. 15 mins before serving add the cannellini beans. Add shaved parmeson on serving.
This will make heaps!! - like serves 6
a few carrots
2 onions
2 cloves / teas garlic
3 sticks celery
3 med spuds
2 small zucchini
a handful of green beans
1/8 cabbage
a little oil
2 tabs butter
5 cups water
3 beef stock cubes
canned tomatoes (2 x 400gr)
310 g can cannellini beans
salt and pepper to season
fresh shaved parmeson cheese (the hero of the dish)
chop all vegies
lightly fry in this order, onions and garlic, carrots, celery, zucchin, spuds (diced), beans, shredded cabbage. Add at 1-2 min intervals. Add water and stock and canned tomatoes (undrained). Boil, then reduce by covering and simmering 1+1/2 - 2 hours - it should now be a bit thick. 15 mins before serving add the cannellini beans. Add shaved parmeson on serving.
This will make heaps!! - like serves 6
Sunday, 17 June 2012
How to create a 'no dig' potato patch
June 18 2012 (that's winter where we are)
Today I put the spuds in, they'll be ready by xmas, perhaps a bit before! We are still eating last years spuds - they are all out of the ground and stored in a dark dry box in the kitchen.
Step 1 - find a patch - it can be lawn, or weedy, or in this case I let the chooks get into it and they have scratched most of the weeds away.
You will also need sheep poo, and cardboard or newspaper to lay across the weeds, and a few bails of hay (and seed potatoes). My cardboard is party broken down as its been sitting out side for months. If it isnt its not the best thing to use as it wont drain as well as newspaper. This will probably result in rotten spuds - not your intention! I had a bag of seaweed collected ages ago, and some half composted garden refuse that has been heaped against the rear fence for about a month. I am ready - first I cleared the half broken down garden waste that was against the fence.
Now lay down the cardboard (saved since xmas - everything gets used . . . eventually), and wet it down and spread the spuds about 60 cm apart - this patch is almost 3m x 3m.
Cover with straw - it drains well - I used 2 bails and they were fairly sodden (forgot to cover them when we bought them). It ended up about 40 cm tall - at this point I added 1 bag of sheep poo and the sea weed, and then the half mulched garden refuse. I put old sleepers around 2 sides and the fence and some wire around the other sides - to keep it contained (should the chooks get it). Then I added a second bag of sheep poo. Much of the garden waste had horse poo mixed into it. Hose poo isnt a great manure for the garden - but if its on offer it's one of the many things I add to the mix.
It should be watered in - but rain is no doubt only days away so I'll wait.
You can see how high the straw is by looking at the rear fence - its quite deep. Now there's nothing to do but wait until they grow - they dont need extra watering or they are likely to rot. Once they have been dug up (Feb / March) this patch will be loaded with earth worms and the soil will be magnificent and ready for the next crop. Here's what the patch looked like after last years no dig potato patch - just loaded with worms
Today I put the spuds in, they'll be ready by xmas, perhaps a bit before! We are still eating last years spuds - they are all out of the ground and stored in a dark dry box in the kitchen.
Step 1 - find a patch - it can be lawn, or weedy, or in this case I let the chooks get into it and they have scratched most of the weeds away.
Now lay down the cardboard (saved since xmas - everything gets used . . . eventually), and wet it down and spread the spuds about 60 cm apart - this patch is almost 3m x 3m.
It should be watered in - but rain is no doubt only days away so I'll wait.
You can see how high the straw is by looking at the rear fence - its quite deep. Now there's nothing to do but wait until they grow - they dont need extra watering or they are likely to rot. Once they have been dug up (Feb / March) this patch will be loaded with earth worms and the soil will be magnificent and ready for the next crop. Here's what the patch looked like after last years no dig potato patch - just loaded with worms
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
5 cheap things to do with kids in the holidays - ages 3-11
My kids get on pretty well together, but still how does one keep them all entertained - here's what we've been up to that has kept every one happy
1: New Norfolk park (Tyndwald) - a big safe space to ride bikes, kick a ball, roll in the autumn leaves, swing on the swings - there is something for everybody! My kids spent almost an hour timing themselves around a track - on the bike, walking, running, silly walks - we also had MapMyRun app on my phone so they could see their distance, speed, course and calopries burned!! It all made for interesting discussion!
2: Total Movie Experience - DVD's out, pop corn machine on, surround sound up, room darkened, feet up and everyone comfy - we even managed to find DVD's that held everyones interest!
3: make it - break it - wood + nails + hammer - go for it - why does everything have to look like a gun - even for your 3 year old sister!
4: play date - kind of obvious - but when I asked the kids what they could think of that they wanted to do in the holidays that was cheap - they said play dates and sleep overs (and mum and dad if you get rid of all of us you can have some time to yourselves!!) So thoughtful!
5: Cooking - there is always a job for everyone - even if it is just tasting!! Charlies effort icing a cake in front of my friend whose husband is an incredibly talented cake decorater left her laughing and on a sugar high!! How thick can you make sprinkles!!??
So what have your kids been up to??
1: New Norfolk park (Tyndwald) - a big safe space to ride bikes, kick a ball, roll in the autumn leaves, swing on the swings - there is something for everybody! My kids spent almost an hour timing themselves around a track - on the bike, walking, running, silly walks - we also had MapMyRun app on my phone so they could see their distance, speed, course and calopries burned!! It all made for interesting discussion!
2: Total Movie Experience - DVD's out, pop corn machine on, surround sound up, room darkened, feet up and everyone comfy - we even managed to find DVD's that held everyones interest!
3: make it - break it - wood + nails + hammer - go for it - why does everything have to look like a gun - even for your 3 year old sister!
4: play date - kind of obvious - but when I asked the kids what they could think of that they wanted to do in the holidays that was cheap - they said play dates and sleep overs (and mum and dad if you get rid of all of us you can have some time to yourselves!!) So thoughtful!
5: Cooking - there is always a job for everyone - even if it is just tasting!! Charlies effort icing a cake in front of my friend whose husband is an incredibly talented cake decorater left her laughing and on a sugar high!! How thick can you make sprinkles!!??
So what have your kids been up to??
How to save $3,000 - I'm on the home stretch!!
Alrighty, we are on the business end of this saving $$ mission - after last week which was the beginning of the school holidays I thought this always blows out - but not this time - for one thing my regular casual job meant no big excursions, and I've got the kids doing the maths on how much it costs just to buy one take away drink a day (or more to the point how much we save if we dont). They are good little mathematicians - added up the numbers / day / week / month OMG they exclaimed - all that money just on a drink!
Here's my efforts over the last 10 days
tip # 56 - I bought 3 second hand school uniform items - in great condition - but a third of the cost, so saved around $100! maybe even more!
tip #57 - filled the cupboards with yummy cooking - biscuits, muffins - it gave the kids something to do and meant we never needed to waste money on expensive takeaways - saved $50
tip #58 - bribed the boys to sit quietly while I took an exercise class instead of going into care for one hour - saved $8.80. Then we went swimming and usually we'd buy lunch there - fortunately or unfortunately the car park man wont give you a minute over 3 hours - so instead of having a lunch at the canteen (which I was more than happy to do - except for the drinks bit) we had to run like blue arsed flies to move the car before we got a $50 fine!! It was a great day for exercise, and no hot chippies this time - and the kids didnt even complain! - Saved another $12 I reacon!
tip #59 - skipped some yoga in stead I did swimming - which is free for me - saved $16
tip #60 - started saving seeds for the summer garden. So far I have pumpkin, broccoli, marigold, and another bright and cheery annual. Hopefully this will be fruitful and save $20 or so - seeds arent cheap!
So thats $206 of savings added to the $1966 already saved - making a total of $$2172
$828 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's my efforts over the last 10 days
tip # 56 - I bought 3 second hand school uniform items - in great condition - but a third of the cost, so saved around $100! maybe even more!
tip #57 - filled the cupboards with yummy cooking - biscuits, muffins - it gave the kids something to do and meant we never needed to waste money on expensive takeaways - saved $50
tip #58 - bribed the boys to sit quietly while I took an exercise class instead of going into care for one hour - saved $8.80. Then we went swimming and usually we'd buy lunch there - fortunately or unfortunately the car park man wont give you a minute over 3 hours - so instead of having a lunch at the canteen (which I was more than happy to do - except for the drinks bit) we had to run like blue arsed flies to move the car before we got a $50 fine!! It was a great day for exercise, and no hot chippies this time - and the kids didnt even complain! - Saved another $12 I reacon!
tip #59 - skipped some yoga in stead I did swimming - which is free for me - saved $16
tip #60 - started saving seeds for the summer garden. So far I have pumpkin, broccoli, marigold, and another bright and cheery annual. Hopefully this will be fruitful and save $20 or so - seeds arent cheap!
So thats $206 of savings added to the $1966 already saved - making a total of $$2172
$828 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!
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