Our Frugal Lifestyle

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Passionate about eco-frugality. I used to party hard, clubbing my way from pay-packet to pay-packet. Never getting ahead, just getting by. Then came our much wanted baby with no savings in the bank - only an old car. Changes were made to our lifestyle and we didn't turn back. In the past 6yrs we purchased a flat, found employment, lived below our means, built an emergency fund, purchased a reliable car and saw the financial benefits of our frugal lifestyle. Our only debt is our mortgage. Our aim is to manage our cash flow wisely, pay off our home quickly and eventually work for pleasure, not necessity. Join us on our journey, share insights, tips and tricks to help us and others to get ahead while having a good time.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Working Mother Juggles Life.

Hi Everyone,

I've missed you.

Life has been a busy trying to juggle all the jobs working mums do and my blog writing dropped off as other things had to take priority. I am still a eco-frugalista, learning new things everyday and getting my hands dirty.

I've started Dolly in a new dance class to give her a chance to try something else, planted parsley for the 1st time, commenced new further education, decluttered more, shopped less, drink a fresh green smoothie every morning, menu plan with higher nutritional value and try to incorporate whole family fun activity into our week.

I will be very busy this month (May 2012) as I coordinate 2 fundraising activities for our community garden, go remote for work, go camping with my family and complete a few uni assignments. So I can't promise being here.. But boy do I miss it. Not being here is like trying to kick a very strong habit. But I've made it that my other jobs need doing 1st, then this is my reward.

To juggle it all I have been sleeping much more, fitting in 8 to 10 hours sleep a night but keeping a tighter ship on my schedule. I go to sleep at 7:30pm and get up anywhere between 3:00am to 5:00am. Mainly 4:00am. I head out the door at 7:20am on my push bike for work most days.

I start my day with any small items to tidy up, organise and then on to Dolly's lunch box for school. Her lunch boxes have consisted of anything from sandwiches, to rice salad, to noodles, to sushi, to blue cheese with biscuits. She has an impressive taste range for a 5 year old and I think it's expanded greatly with her helping in the garden. She has gone from not liking green leaves to munching on all kinds of greens I dish out.

Here's a recent nearly FREE dinner we devoured. My neighbour had changed his mind on cooking dinner and ordered pizza, so gave us his lamb chops which I served with kangkong from the garden cooked in ginger, garlic, chopped apple and a little soy. It was delicious and Dolly requested a second serving of greens.

From Neighbour.

Kangkong From Another Plot Owner at Garden.

Dinner is Served.


Love the nearly FREE dinner. My purse is very happy for it and in exchange I give my neighbour Mr T bits and pieces from my garden for him to eat or try his hand at growing. So we are both winners in our exchange deals.

Anyway, that is a quick catch up from me. Hope to catch up on all of you too. I didn't cook the Taro as I felt nervous and didn't have time to watch anyone prepare it. However my Filipino colleague made a couple of taro dishes as I gave him a taro. He was supposed to shoot some picks for us but forgot Boo-Hoo. Hopefully next time I'll get picks and a lesson from someone who will cook something basic for me to learn.

Have a Lovely Weekend - It's a long one here :-)

Stephanie at Frugal Down Under.

5 comments:

  1. Glad you are ok,you were missed
    x

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  2. I am so glad to see you are keeping well and are as busy as ever! Sounds like May is going to be pretty full on for you. What a great neighbour passing that meat on - you have got to love a free dinner! Thanks for the catch up!

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  3. glad things are going well and that you have just been busy. Sometimes life is like that. I bought some kang kong at our local markets and put some into a glass of water to see if it would root, and it has. I am pretty sure it needs to be grown in lots of water, so might have to find a container for that, but I don't want to attract more mozzies. I would be interested to see how you grow it there.

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  4. I've missed you, glad you dropped by xx

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  5. Missed your posts- glad all is well. X

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Thanks for commenting - I love getting feedback, sharing experiences and learning from you.