A Hoarders Treasures

When my friend came around and told me of a house that a wonderful elderly eccentric and artistic man recently lived in was about to be demolished with all his collections, I had to go and see... before it all disappeared for another "glossy apartment block".

I put on my sturdy Doc Martens and took a nice big torch. And off I went with my old buddy from my teenage years. He, like I has become Eco-Frugal so a perfect partnership in foraging and hunting for treasures. I also hoped that I could get a glimpse of this interesting mans life.

We were bad - very bad... We secretly jumped the fence and searched through the house for a few hours. While we did so my emotions were mixed. I felt sadness for the invasion of privacy that and elderly man could no longer control. Anger and disgust at the system that had not respected this mans wishes. My heart was thumping with fear of rats jumping onto my face as I opened cupboard doors. And a HUGE ANGER that of all of this; will now go into LANDFILL! No sorting... no recycling... just bulldozed into large skip bins and tossed into the earth.

The gentleman who lived in the house was an interesting hoarder. There were books everywhere on art, philosophy, electronics, animals, countries, history, cultures and religions. His bathroom had toiletries from the 1960's. I found a pile of new American shoes, women's and men's from the 60's and 70's still in their original boxes, unworn. Vintage heaven but too damaged by the years of tropical weather to be wearable.

Letters and photos strewn on the floor. Clothes and fabric. Hundreds of broken watches and test tubes. He was a thinker, tinker and experimenter. My eyes told me he was a very interesting man and that I would have liked him. I kept a few small items but I was overwhelmed by it all. Now with a refreshed mind I wish I could go again and pick some parts off his old pushbikes that would have made our pushbikes more charming, quirky and original. I would love to look at his books again and salvage some of his letters. Mementos of him - but would that make me a hoarder?

I did gather a few small items in moments of calm when i wasn't overwhelmed with emotion and fear. Here is my list:
Dirty and scratched camera lenses from the 60s, 70's and 80's for The Rambling Expat.
"Cereal" toys from the 70's but far too damaged from the tropical heat.
A lovely small portrait photo of a lady in the 1950's and 2 other interesting photo's.
A cinema ticket for the Darwin Film Society in 1968 (which I should donate to a public institution that collects NT history).
I gathered 2 books from the 60s, 5 Aboriginal Flints, 1 fossil and a couple of old maps.

For my friend's wife who loves beautiful historical elegant things; I kept boxes of slide photographs, 2 boxes of artist pencils, a couple of art pads from the 1960's (gorgeous thick paper) and a vintage box of porcelain dishes filled with dried cracked Japanese inks. She is artistic and creative. So I thought she might use them.

Such an interesting adventure. I felt young again, taking risks, being naughty, breaking rules, spending quality time with my friend and celebrating a mans life. Best of all it made me reflect deeply about our lives, our interests and what we leave behind when we die.

Treasure or hoarding - it an interesting world we live in with many different people and their personal stories.

Stephanie @ Frugal Down Under.

Car Accident - Our Car is A Write Off

As I noted a few times already it was a VERY challenging week last week. We were nearly flooded which caused great anxiety. I missed cheap tickets to france due to my fear of flying. I've been called to Jury Duty preventing me from organising my next 4 weeks at work and lunch break chores. But worst is...

My partner was in a car crash. He is okay, but there was a scare of a spinal injury as his shoulder, head and back were sore and his arms numb-ish, so he was taken to the hospital by ambulance. After 6 hours in a neck brace at our FREE public hospital, with thorough checking and X-ray he was discharged with nothing major wrong. A huge huge huge relief.

Friends drove me to the accident, another friend took full charge of our car as I climbed into the ambulance and my mum took our daughter home with her so I could focus on my partner. This made me think a great deal about those who don't have support networks in their lives. For example the child I babysat the other night comes from a family who are new to Australia and haven't built their networks yet. Imagine her distress if something happened to her parents and she was cared for by a stranger or worst.. forgotten. 

Anyway my partner The Rambling Expat has a sore neck and shoulders, but no major damage that is evident at this time. He took 2 days off work to rest as it has caused him to be exhausted and sore.

The mechanics have deemed our car a write off... The back is fully smashed in, too damaged to be worth fixing. The labour and parts would cost more than the $5500 value of the car (Capitalisms compared to Eco-ism). The back panel is not just smashed in but also split in a couple of places. The wheels are affected and the doors and windows on the driver side refuse open any more.

My Brave Transporter - Bruised and Battered - Ready For The Trash Heap.

We are not insured but since it's deemed as the fault of the other person, his insurance company will need to pay our claim. So now starts the paper work and negotiations. 

The Incident: The Rambling Expat slowed down to 40 kms to allow a Blue Tongue Lizard to cross the road. He saw the car behind was about 30 meters away, but before he knew it, the big 4WD smashed into the back of our little city car. The Rambling Expat's head went forwards and then backwards fast and hard. Luckily we are real squares when it comes to seat belts.

We expect to received: 

$5000 for the car.

$75 for towing to mechanic.

$75 for towing to wreckers.
Storage costs for car sitting in mechanics yard.

We hope we will also be able to claim:

$150 for baby seat/child restraint as I will need to purchase a new one.

$300 (?) for ambulance fees. (Will definitely get a yearly $60 family membership now).

$33 for taxi home from hospital.

We now have to purchase a new car and babyseat to get by as our town does not have fantastic public transport. They have made great improvements but it's still not super duper yet. Riding our pushbikes in the monsoon season is not something I'm willing to do with a 3 year old on the back. The rains get too heavy to see properly and drivers often think they're urban cowboys. Just too risky. My mum is helping us out with the loan of her car at times and her service as our chauffeur for work drop offs.

I feel certain we will be at a financial lost and finding a new car is just not something I want to do. But it must be done and life must go on.

Ever been in a car accident or had your car written off? Any advice?

A Bit of Christmas Sillyness

A bit of sillyness never goes astray when life gets tough. I'll share with you all, my big drama that ended the week in tomorrows post. You'll then know why it's been a extra challenging week.. so stay tuned. However for now here is a silly picture of ME!

Ho Ho Ho Sillyness All The Way.

We have been working on our workplace Christmas card that we email out to about 200 staff in 170 schools from city to bush to desert. I decided to go silly instead of sensible or pretty.

Personally I don't usually celebrate Christmas. I was brought up travelling a great deal as a child and most of my Christmases were spent in Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu countries. My mum would give me a small gift and usually a tin of condensed milk (LOVE IT!!!). I am not religious so I don't follow Christianity, however I am celebrating a little bit of the season festivities for Dolly who loves Santa and the magic of it all. I would like to incorporate other cultural festivities in our lives too.

Do feel free to tell me how gorgeous I am  :-)

Neighbour Bond Clean

My gorgeous neighbours work as cleaners. They spend many hard hours cleaning other peoples mess. But instead of taking a cut from working for a company they created their own business. No longer does the middle man take the bulk of the payment.

Every once in a while they do what is called a Bond Clean. This occurs when people move out of the unit or house and the empty home is cleaned thoroughly before being rented out again or goes up for sale on the real-estate market.

Sometimes when they do these Bond Cleans, tenants have left many good useable items behind. And recently I was on the receiving end of those goods. My neighbours brought home all the food items that were sealed and unused. They kept the items they would use in their Thai cooking but gave me everything the felt they wouldn't use and I was excited to accept such a useful and money saving gift.

All the food will allow me to save on my grocery budget on items that I regularly purchase such as tinned tomatoes, tomato sauce (ketchup) and jam (jelly). The other stuff is a bonus that I will find ways to use up.

Look At All The Goods I Received!!! Including Dishes, Containers And Gift Boxes.

I have found people are generous when they know you are open to accepting hand me downs and unwanted items either food or other goods. As I have said in my previous post it's been a challenging week for my family. Acts of kindness and the feeling of community in my block of flats is a wonderful experience that I know is rare indeed.

By the way! I did a babysitting stint over the weekend. I saw an add for babysitting not far from my home for after 8pm. I answered the add and was booked for the job. My daughter usually sleeps by 7pm, so I knew this would not affect my time with her. I babysat for 6 hours and the child slept the whole time. I took a DVD from home and book to entertain myself during the 6 hours. I earned a nice $70 which I have put towards my daughters dance classes. This will pay for nearly 10 classes.

Happy to accept useful gifts and happy to earn a little extra for those out of school activities.

Stephanie @ Frugal Down Under

It's Been A Busy Week

I've had a stressful busy time in the past week.

We were very close to flooding as the tropical rains came down and the drainage in our area is not adequate. The excessive building of apartment blocks, the removal of lawns for cement and the lack of new drains has caused us to be the receivers of the neighbourhoods water flow. This time last year we were flooded with dirty muddy water ankle deep in our flat. Fortunately we didn't have much and most of our furniture has steel legs so nothing was overly damaged except (expensive) university text books.

But in the space of a year we have accumulated way too much stuff and I was worried and frantic. As the rain poured I was at work making call after call. I organised my partner to go home and prepare our home, notified my neighbour Mr T who raced home to prepare his home, spoke with a home-maintenace/garden shop for sandbag solutions, got my mum to purchase, pick up and deliver sand bags and called the local city council for them to do something about it NOW. The stress brought me to frustrated tears.

The drain is near the 1st tree - instead of taking in water it expels excess water.

The water rose over our garden area... but the rain stopped and the water went down quickly. We were lucky this time. The council rep rang me soon after (from my street)... and told me the workers started working on building new drains half an hour after my call. A promise they had made 1 year earlier and was only actioned as we flat owners were at breaking point and threatened to take them to court for their broken promises and misleading information. The council also told me they had sandbags for our building's use. So being frugal as I am, I took my sandbags and docket back to the shop and was refunded my $89 without hassle or query.

I hope the new drains further up the street will stop the problem once and for all. Concrete jungles are on the increase and sadly lovely green lawns are becoming a thing of the past in my neighbourhood. This gives little chance for water to be soaked up by the soil.

The cyclone season is upon us and this year is predicted to be a strong cyclone season. We are updating our cyclone kit and cleaning up our home and yard.

What kind of challenging times does your region have due to weather at this time of year?

Do you prepare yourself, pets and home?

Menu Planning and Grocery shopping.

For roughly a year now I have menu planned for the week and grocery shopped accordingly. I have found it saves me time and stress. Instead of wasting time trying to think of what we will have for dinner each night, I have planned it ahead of time and have the exact groceries needed for the dish at home. My grocery budget is $100 but I have been going over that a bit more lately. Prices have gone up and I need to either shop smarter or increase my budget.

This is how I do it:

1. I sit with pen and paper and write out a 7 day menu plan with a supermarket specials catalogue for guidance on what is super cheap or in season.
2. I then write my ingredients for each meal and check to see what I have at home (shop at home 1st).
3. With the ingredients list I am able to write my shopping list under headings of the areas the items are in; for example Deli, Fruit n Veg, Dry & Tin, Frozen etc. 
4. Having my list categorised alleviates the need to browse the aisles and make impulse purchases.
5. I allow myself to stray from my list if I see a cheaper item that can be replaced for another item in my menu or a not to be missed deal and I always allow for a few special treats to prevent corner shop splurges.

My Groceries for this week came to $76.36

My shopping list had leek but I purchased celery as it was the same price but nicer looking. The mushrooms, yogurt and turkey slices were marked down by 66% so they were must have deals. The chocolate was from my treat category.

My menu's are pretty flexible, if we don't feel like a dish on a particular night then it's not a problem to cook something else. However I like all our meals to be simple to make as my kitchen is tiny and pathetic... It drives me crazy!

I do have a problem of going into the supermarket most mornings to purchase breakfast (fruit, bread or sweet stuff) as I arrive at work 30 minutes early most days. I want to stop this habit so I will need to plan my breakfasts carefully.

My Menu Plan for this week was:

• Vegetarian Pasta. (Vegetables chopped up small, tinned tomatoes and dried Italian herbs placed on a bed of spaghetti.)
• Chicken and Vegetable Soup (Left over roast chicken cooked with vegetables.)
• Curry and Rice (Cheap soup bones meat, vegetables, tined tomatoes and lots of spices. Rice on the side.)
• Omelet and Salad. (Eggs, cheese, bacon bits and a green salad on the side.)
• Vegetable Stir Fry with Rice. (Vegetables marinated in olive oil, ginger (from garden), garlic, lemon grass (from garden), oyster sauce and soy sauce before being tossed in hot wok. Rice on the side.)
• Roast with Vegetables and Salad. (Small roast pork cooked with vegetables and apples. Green salad on the side.)

Left overs or sandwiches for lunches. 3 fruit for each of us each day. I still had plenty of fruit and mangoes in the fridge. An apple, a generous slice of watermelon, handful of grapes or 3 strawberries is classified as 1 fruit in our household.

The Rambling Expat went fishing today, he spent $25 on fuel and nibbles and caught 4 tuna fish. So our weekly menu will change, some of these meals (which I already batched cooked) will be frozen to allow for lots of fish eating this week. Click HERE to see the Tuna he caught!

How do you shop for your food items?

An Outing To The Cinema

On Wednesday night we headed out to the cinema. My mum had been given 2 tickets in exchange for a completed survey. She in turn gave them to us. She babysat Dolly for us while we went out to see Eat, Pray, Love.

Have you been to the movies in Australia lately??? The Candy bar prices are totally over the top. For a large coke and popcorn you need to fork out $15. Two lots = $30. I don't know if the prices are this high in other countries, but I know I don't want to waste that much money for cinema nibbles!!!

However I do like rubbish snack food... and know I will be tempted by the candy bar, so I always plan a quick supermarket shop and a big handbag to stash food before going to the cinema. And this time was no exception. I purchased a bottle of sarsaparilla and chips (crisps) for myself and a bottle of ginger beer and bag of lollies (candy / sweets) for The Rambling Expat. The total cost being $6.88. There's a huge difference between $30 and $6.88, and I prefer that difference in my pocket!

Supermarket Junk Food Cheaper Than Cinema Junk Food.

When I go to the cinema I always use my FREE loyalty card. After 10 movies are logged onto my Events card I get a FREE cinema ticket. They not only log sessions you have paid for but also tickets that were received as gifts or in competitions. I also use my VISA card for all my purchases. I know frugality usually means no credit cards, but I jump on the net every few days to pay it all off, so I never get the fees, but I do get the points which I then redeem for supermarket vouchers. I also use my FREE Flybuys card for my Coles purchases (not in this pic) and once again redeem my points for supermarket vouchers.

Make It Work For You!

I make it all work for me as much as possible and as best as I can. I used to be lazy, disorganised and unworried about it all. I would pay for parking, get cinema tickets and buy up big at the candy bar. But now my mindset has changed and I want to save for future goals such as holidays, study, Dolly and retirement. All these small frugal steps allow me to save pennies here and there, growing my pool of cash larger and larger. I am still disorganised though! If I was better organised I would be much further ahead of the game in all areas of my life.

How about you? Are you organised? Or a big entertainment / junk food spender? Are your cinema candy bar prices just as crazy as those in the NT in Australia? Please feel FREE to comment  :-)

I Went Away For Work

I have just come back from a road trip for work. I left Monday morning and came back Wednesday afternoon.

Lush Green Wet Lands.

I feel I was very lucky to be able to go, as I enjoy going to the different schools in the Northern Territory to see staff, help out and have an understanding of their remoteness. I speak with people on the telephone every day and I love to see them face to face when I get a chance. Some areas are very remote and and extremely isolated.

This week I went to the Kakadu region. So I snapped a few photos of the beautiful scenery on the drive for you all to enjoy. 

On The Road Again, Packed My Bags, I'm On The Road Again.

Majestic Rock Formations.

Double Danger: Flowing River and Crocodiles Galore.

I'm Nervous Of River Crossings. I Wouldn't Want To Jump Out To End Up Croc Food.

To keep the trip's entertainment frugal for myself I made sure I packed four of my FREE magazines and cheap DVDs I had gathered from op shops. I also took my lap top, a packed lunch and 3 litres of frozen water.

Free Mags. Out Dated By A Couple Of Months: But Fine For Me.

However I do get a generous travel allowance of $85 per night so I bought dinner on both nights at The Miners Mess. The Miners Mess wasn't open to the public. It's only for staff and contractors from the mines but I went in and paid and no one said anything to me. The buffet and steaks were only $13 and it was delicious. The food was varied and different on both nights. I had 2 plates of vegetables and meat dishes, then a plate of salads and then a plate of desserts!!!! Yes I put on lots of kilos in 3 days, but life is for living out loud and that is what I am doing  :-)

The super perk on the trip was having a little "me time" as Dolly had to stay home, the second perk was the gorgeous hotel room just for me, paid for by my employer. A big bed with fresh white sheets! 

Lovely Hotel Room.

I planned to laze around in the bathtub after work as I don't have a bath at home. I also aimed to swim in the pool to cool down. However I worked late each day and started super early each morning making me too exhausted to pamper myself in the bathtub or luxuriate in the swimming pool. I did watch some mindless TV, which was fun. And even though I was working each day, it felt like a mini holiday as I had no cooking, dishes or laundry to do. Also not having Dolly constantly chatting to me allowed me to rejuvenate myself and think a few things through.

Ready to Eat Out - No Floating In The BathTub.

So all in all, I kept my trip frugal and have left over travel allowance to pay for more important projects in my life. The work was a nice change from my office work and I have returned to the office feeling refreshed and much happier.

How about you? Been on any trips lately? Where did you go and how did you stay frugal?

My Frugal Funday - Sunday.

Today I woke up over stressed with my mind racing ahead and unable to settle. So with tense and frayed nerves I asked Dolly to get herself ready for a beachy outing. I thought a morning at the beach might ease and calm my soul.

So in the car we jumped with a handful of toys, a bucket of mangos and our water for a 10 minute drive on a quiet Sunday morning. We parked easily in a 2 hour for FREE car park and headed to the FREE salt-water Lagoon, which is netted, to protect us from box jellyfish and crocodiles. We played and splashed in the sea water from 9am to 11am and my stress just melted away. We sucked on our FREE juicy mangos and enjoyed the beauty of the sand and shells. A perfect start to the day.

The Lagoon - Fun and Free

We then had a quick FREE eco shower on the grassy picnic area of the lagoon. I was very impressed and surprised to see a sign noting "no soap or shampoo allowed". Yeah for advancements in protecting our environment! Then home it was to drop of Dolly before I headed out to purchase a second hand Ikea chest from my moonlighting job Boss Lady, as she is moving house and de-cluttering in the process.

I've been trawling op shops (thrift stores) for a while trying to find a chest to purchase but have not had great success. I live in an area where furniture shops are over priced and limiting in choice. So when I found out she was selling her simple Ikea piece for $80 I jumped at the opportunity to buy it from her.

So Easy to use - Dolly Loves Her New Chest of Draws

But I got more then just the chest!!! I was loaded up with food from her cupboards and fridge. And given lots of other goodies for myself, my family and to sell at my market stall.

Gift of Food, Full Containers, Dutch Pancake Maker and Super Cute Ikea Rug for Dolly!

Gift Of Clothes, 2 New Boxed Drinking Flasks, Mugs, Bag, Beauty Products and Lollies :-)

This was really a lucky day for me, as I still had my weekly menu planning and grocery shop to do. On Sundays my cupboards are always verging on bare. But due to this generous gift I am able to hold off the shopping for a few more days!

My neighbours Thai Lady and Thai Niece collected some green pawpaws from our communal garden and made my favourite Green Pawpaw Salad. And we were lucky to receive a plate which Dolly, The Rambling Expat and myself shared sitting on the ground in the backyard with 3 forks. Yum!

Pawpaws In The Garden

Spicy Green Pawpaw Salad

I then found in my cupboards a tin of tomatoes, some olives and herbs to add to the pasta, parmesan cheese and pine nuts Boss Lady had given me for our quick and easy cheap dinner. My stressed out morning became a super lucky frugalistic funalistic day. I feel ready to start another week of work, refreshed and peaceful.

Fast Food - Quick, Easy and Cheap.

Today made me think about how lucky I am yet again. Did you receive any helpful/generous gifts this week? Tell me all about it! I'd love to hear your stories!

Educating My Child Through Story Time.

Dolly is growing up in a fast modern world where buy buy buy and branding is at every corner, every T-shirt, every TV Show and even in many story books. I hope to influence Dolly in being eco and frugal and to look at all this advertising with healthy questioning.

My mum was frugal but I didn't see the reason behind it until I was an adult. I had no real concept of money and how to use it wisely and make each penny you own grow bigger. I knew my mum saved and had no debts except a small mortgage, but I had no idea of how much she earned, how she managed her money or how she planned for bigger ticket items. My mum did well bringing me up on a small single income. She was proud and frugal, however not educated enough re: $$$ as her small savings never worked hard for her. They sat in accounts earning 0.01% interest. Shame on the greedy banks.

I've had no financial education in either home or school. I started to teach myself in recent years via self development and business books. These are the tools that taught me about assets and liabilities, savings, bank interests, retirement, home loans and many other interesting information. It's a slow process as numbers confuse me, but I'm getting there baby step by baby step.

I want to be more transparent and open about money with Dolly. I want to teach her what I do with my savings and to encourage her to expand her knowledge much further then mine. I want to teach her to budget, invest, save and think creatively.

I wanted to talk about this because in the Fairy books that Dolly borrows at the library each week, the main characters purchase clothes and gifts regularly. They hang out in shopping centres and or other places they can purchase goods. It frustrates me, that young children are already being influenced by children's books to shop shop shop to you drop.

But... I found Billy-Bob Tales by Enid Blyton in an op shop for 1$. It has been a wonderful resource to talk about money, eco-frugal living with Dolly. Billy-Bob and his sister Belinda go on a new mini adventure each chapter. Each chapter teaches the simple morals and pleasures in life, such as; kindness, charity, sharing, helping others, earning pocket money, making gifts, looking after things you have, home gardening and many other simple/frugal living activities.

My Op Shop Find.

We are not religious and these books do not mention any gods, so they sit well with me in this area. The only issue I have which I discuss with Dolly is that the character roles are highly gendered as the book was first published in 1938! Therefor father goes to work, mother stays to care for the children and cook. But other from that I am very happy to read a chapter a night to her and open the communication channels about many simple living ideals.

Billy-Bob Reuses Scraps and Makes a Doll House and Furniture for his Sister's Birthday.

Billy-Bob, Belinda, Mother and Friends Take Simple Food, For An All-Day Picnic Just Walking Distance From Home.

Is money private business in your home or are you open with discussing money with your friends and family? I would love to hear your opinions.

Fish Fish and More Fish for Dinner.

I am pleased that my man The Rambling Expat quit the big spend lifestyle and joined me on our frugal adventure to a better future. I am so happy he is no longer a drinker or smoker. He does have a hobby which can be a tad expensive. But in the long run it's cheaper and healthier then going to the pub with the boys and he brings home the "bacon" after his adventures so to speak.

The Rambling Expat loves to fish. On the weekend he went off with a friend who has a boat, for 2 days out on the wide blue seas. He spent $90AUS in boat fuel, gear, bait, ice and nibbles. Which broken down to an hourly rate is dirt cheap. But the best thing is my hunter man brought back 5 various fish for us to eat. We had Tuna, Snapper and Mackrel.

Snapper (with fork for idea of size).

Last night we had Tuna and tomorrow night will be Snapper. I gave a fresh fish to my mum and also some cooked Tuna. I gave a fish to my neighbour Thai Lady because she has spoilt me a lot lately with lovely Thai dishes and that free massage. And I have frozen a smaller fish with big teeth for a Aboriginal Man from the desert area of the Northern Territory. He asked me to catch him a sea fish as he never gets to the sea. I told him in exchange we would like a invite to his community and a stint of traditional fishing with him in his river, he said okay...

To read about The Rambling Expat's fishing adventure and 1st ever Tuna caught click HERE.

Do you hunt or fish in your part of the world? Please share what you do and how you do it. It's very interesting how different people and cultures hunt and gather food sources in various ways. I would love to hear about your methods, modern or traditional.

Give Away Winner!

The Winner of my book Give Away: "The Richest Man in Babylon" was Jeremy for entering a porkalicious frugal tip!!! The book will be with him shortly and I hope he will enjoy it as much as I did. Congratulations Jeremy!!!

I decided to send Melissa of Cloth Work a runner up gift for her Op Shop frugalistic comment. Melissa will receive from my bookshelf the "Women's Weekly Easy Cupcakes by Colour" book.
A big thank you to both for their frugal tips.