This and That

Hi Everyone,

I haven't blogged as profusely as I tweak my new lifestyle with my finishing work at 2:00 pm instead of 4:51pm.

I find due to bicycling 30 minutes in the morning, then 30 minutes again in the afternoon and a 20 minute walk home from Dolly's school has made me hot and tired. I have needed 8 hours sleep a night, meaning blogging has been cut, cut and cut. As my fitness and stamina increases I hope to get back to a little less sleep to squeeze everything in I want to do each day. I need to eliminate clutter and be highly organised. It's a work in progress which I am currently trying to develop in myself.

Dolly turned 5 today. So I took a Recreational Day from work and spent the day in her class helping, participating and observing. It was interesting and I was able to put faces and personalities to names Dolly always mentions. It was lovely to see my daughter is very popular with kids competing to hold her hand. However... It was also frustrating to see she is a chatter box, like her mama with teachers reminding her to shush... often.

I put Dolly in a pretty dress and cardi (thrifted of course) for her special day. (Turning 5 is only once in your life you know!) However the school asked me to change her into a school uniform. I was taken aback. I asked Dolly if she would like to leave school for the day but she wanted to stay so I did as I was asked. Compulsory uniform wearing is newish to our state and I understand the theory behind it all but I don't back it.

I would like to remind my readers I am a French Australian and my culture is thus mix in this large multicultural country. Plus I'm pretty left leaning in many of my views. In France uniforms are not in public schools as many French are anti uniform. My views are in norm with this and I have strong feelings that it takes away identity, creativity and individualism of people. There is no proof that in puts children on equal footing and quite frankly schools sell them for such a high amount it's cheaper to buy clothes elsewhere. I hate that schools try to make children the same and become a commodity of the school by the uniform being an identitfyer. And if schools want to uniform kids why don't they uniform staff too? I'm sure uniforms is a topic that many of you will have an opinion to share and I look forward to reading your comments.

Anyway.. I had planned to blog just to show you quickly the cupcakes (from a packet mix) and the mice (from white fondant) that Dolly and I made for her classmates, teacher and teacher assistant. Dolly is becoming multi skilled as I teach myself many "know hows" and she shares the journey with me.

Dolly Hard at Work. Originally we were making Roses - but they were too complicated, so we made mice :-)

We made 24 of these Mice Cupcakes!

One last thing... I don't mean to offend any teachers (as the majority of my friends are teachers) regarding the uniform. I think you all do a hard job :-) that takes many hours from your own free time for little monetary reward. To me the uniform issue is on a social institution level.

Dont Buy Cards! Make Them!

I used to buy cards. Never the $5.95 cards, but pretty cards in boxes or from $1 racks. However you can make cards for a fraction of this. I started my adventures in card making last year with a few collaged images from vintage books. My confidence has grown to be a bit more creative as I arm myself with inspiring library books.

Dolly had a friend turning 5 in her class. So she made a pretty cupcake card to wish him a Happy Birthday over the weekend.

As for myself, one of my friends had a birthday too... a few weeks ago... and now I wanted to wish her a belated birthday with a gift voucher of my services for 2 nights of babysitting. Recognise the gold fabric? It's from this... There is so much of it!

Our cards only cost about 30 cents each to make. It doesn't take much time. You can use scraps, it's personal and it's fun. I also think it's great for Dolly's self esteem to give beautiful objects she has created.

How do you source your cards?

Pinata

Hi Everyone,

Dolly and I worked on TO DO craft project today. A Birthday Party Pinata. I was inspired by someones blog but I don't remember who - so forgive me for not linking. We used our memory, adapted their method and created our own mini version of a Pinata ready for filling with sweets and chocolate gold coins. It's supposed to be a crown - but I think it kind of looks like a castle. No matter, as kids have great imagination and itch to have fun. And this party will be fun :-)

This was our process:

Cut a cereal box down to size and shape.

Cut crepe paper.

Cover box in glue.

Paste crepe paper in layers.

Paste embellishments.

Cover any bits that you missed with crepe paper such as the top flaps and bottom.

And Voila one Pinata ready to be be filled and whacked.

So there you have it! This Eco Frugal woman has achieved one of her aims again. Using trash and saving money. The only cost was crepe paper we used 1/4 of a $2.40 packet and glue. So roughly 80 cents and less than 1 hour of our time for one Pinata in the shape to fit our Princess And Knight themed Birthday Party. (You could make these as an inexpensive birthday gift for kids or adults. Just fill it with trinkets or sweets).

We have more crafting to complete this week in preparation for the party in 2 weeks time. And.. cupcake making for the school classroom where I will attempt something I have never made before. This will be my year of challenging myself by making many things myself to save cash, be creative, include my daughter and prevent the buying of new or over packaged stuff.

How about you? Ready to Party in style but cut costs by being organised and making it yourself? Let me know any tricks or ideas you have..

Thrift Finds This Week

This week I went op shopping twice and spent a total of $7.50.

This is what I purchased:

• Trousers for work as my favourite pair is worn out and no longer suitable $1.00
• A fun pair of green trousers for weekend play $1.00
• A pair of gold metalic trousers (poor photo) for crafting or Dolly's birthday party (maybe for decorations) $1.00
• A pretty hair clip/brooch $1.00
• A silver tray for Dolly's birthday party food .50 cents.
• Free broken jewellery was given by the shop assistant as she knows we like to craft.

Amazing Stash for $4.50

A sweet white skirt for? I don't know - I just loved it too much!!! The lace, quality and sewing is beautiful $1.00
A pretty floral top for the fabric and buttons $1.00
A cute shirt for my market stall $1.00

Pretty, Pretty and Pretty for $3.00

Now I have to go and find the same or bigger amount of stuff to leave our home. I have some clothes that need to be ragged or tossed. They can not be on my clothes hangers anymore as they are beyond acceptable at work.

Did you obtain any thrifted, second hand or gifted goodies lately?

Sold My Old Uni Text Book

I sold 1 uni book this week on Fishpond.

It was an expensive purchase 4 years ago at $100. I only made $10 back on it and I regret not selling it on a uni noticeboard instead for $60. At least it's out of my home and no longer gathering dust.

Posted and Gone

Do you have any regrets about selling or giving something away?

Your Trash Our Cash

Hi Everyone,

It's been quiet here at frugal Down Under and I re-juggle my life with my cut back on work hours, biking to and back from work and picking up Dolly for school. It's wonderful and I will tell you more about it soon :-)

But today I want to quickly show you our cash made from the bottle and cans we have collected in the past 2 weeks. Yesterday he headed to the cash for cans depot and were rewarded with $30!

Dolly Counting and Dividing Money After Depositing Our Bottle and Cans.

Dolly and I split it in half. I placed my half in our family Borneo trip savings and Dolly then divided hers into 3. She placed $5 in the saving for a horse money box, $5 into her spending money box and $5 into her school banking for her future big ticket items (home, uni, car).

I started off with the initial pick out of the recycling bin. Then 3 units out of the 6 gave us their bottles and cans. Also every time I saw one on the footpath in front of our home I picked it up and added it to our crates instead of the bin. And my mum found another 20 of so for us. We gathered a total of 300 with no change to our lifestyle and now Dolly has a great little earner and our Borneo fund is building up again.

Did you make an extra cash this week?

Gift Box For $5.85

This is a gift box of goodies Dolly gave to her friend for her 5th birthday. Dolly crafted the card and assisted with some of the bag construction organisation. Dolly also guillotined the scrap booking paper into small cuter sizes.

$1.25 Box made from Rubbish & Op Shopped Calendar & Book. (I'm wearing a thrifted $1 top purchased in 2011)

The library bag and box was made op shopped items that were reused. The plastic Doll was unfortunately new from a department store but will be much love.

French Seamed Bag with Different Fabric Straps.

I Love the Pretty Floral Fabric. It's a Beautiful Quality Too.

Total Cost of the gift was $5.85
My labour was more at 7 hours, some of it fun and some of it very frustrating!

Crafted Box $1.25 (glue and bits of an op shopped calendar and book).
Crafted Library Bag $1 (piece of green op shopped fabric and a girls dress purposely purchased for fabric) (Letters are a piece of old damaged fabric needing using).
Crafted Card 10 cents (scrap paper and picture from a damaged op shopped book).
New - 10 Pieces of different Scrap Booking Papers 50 cents.
New - Doll $3 (Purchased at Christmas time for this very purpose).

I felt very satisfied putting this gift together and hope to keep building my crafted gift repertoire and skills to create from used items. This gives me eco pride and frugal satisfaction (as you can see from my face).

Have you made anything this week?

Looking For Lost Money?

There are many interesting sites that may help you find long lost money you no longer knew you had. I've given you a taste of some down below. Take your time to hunt around because each has different processes. I have just discovered my local medical clinic has just under $180 waiting for them to claim. I'll have to let them know :-) I have linked Australian, UK and USA sites.. but there are many options on the web.

AUSTRALIA

• Lost Super in Australia is at $18.8 million. There are 5.8 million lost super accounts! Is any of it yours? Find it HERE.

• Another $636 million in lost accounts and insurance! An old bank account lurking around you forgot about? Money magazine state their is on average $652 per person in Australia waiting to be claimed! Get Money Smart HERE on this useful website that will help you track down your Unclaimed Money.

• Worked hard for your money a few years ago? Wages and entitlements still due but boss couldn't find you? Then you better click HERE and take a look.

• Someone pass and left you a gift? Maybe you have some dividends, salaries, wages, cheques, trust money, overpayment's of sales proceeds? Click on Money held by state governments HERE and get luckier then Bingo. 

UNITED KINGDOM
By googling lost money UK I found these: HERE and HERE and HERE. Just make sure they are all legit.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
And then the USA try these: HERE and HERE and HERE. Once again make sure they are legit.

I had no idea about these type of sites!!! All those disorganised youthful party days may have left me a little penny... somewhere. I'm going on a treasure hunt.

Good Luck and think of me if you find your lost millions :-) If you do find any $$$ come back and tell everyone your story here.

Finding My Long Lost Motivation

Saving For Travel recently commented that I seem to be very motivated at present. I sure am!!! Much of this has to do with Dolly being in big school and arriving home exhausted. This means we have been keeping everything low key, eat early and in bed by 6:45 for 20 minutes or so of bedtime stories.

The Rambling Expat and I both lie in bed with her taking turns reading books. Once done she has been falling in a deep sleep by 7:15pm. I read my own books until 8:00pm (Current bedside book is - 7pm Bedtime) and then get up for a relaxing shower and tidy our home for 30 minutes. The chaos is slowly reducing as I rid of clutter and organise.

By 9:00pm I am sitting at my desk going through my paperwork, finances, bills, to do lists and so on that have been neglected for months. Each day something gets finished off and I feel amazingly energised and satisfied by the advancements I am making.

At 10:00pm I may work on a craft project or read my FREE magazines I have picked up from the library or giveaway shelves. At the moment my pile is high with investment, mortgage, gardening, home and money magazines. I tag articles I want to re-read, action or copy. I place copies in a folder I have named Frugal. I cut out real estate or jobs I'm interested in and paste them into a old 2007 work diary for future reference and knowledge building.

Getting Organised.

By 11:00pm I'm checking emails, blogging and visiting blogs until 1:00am. It's a new routine and I never stick to routines. But I would like this one to stick as I've been on it for 9 days and it's moving me forward. There is still a long way to go in my disorganisation but I'm hopefully getting to where I want to be.

So thanks to my sweet Dolly being so exhausted, I have uninterrupted hours to catch up with months of neglected TO DO LISTS.

How about you? Any new routines moving you forward? Any thing you want to share?

Looking at Options

Hi Everyone,

Tonight was another frugal night. I played my Santana CD from the library and read my Money magazine also from the library. I placed sticky tabs on all the articles I want to revisit, copy or action before I return it. Once that was done I looked at last months Real Estate newspaper insert and Employment opportunities.

Quiet Time Readings.

I'm not job hunting right at this moment however it's good to look once in a while to see what is out there and what skills, experience and qualifications are required. As for Real Estate prices, they have really risen in the past 4 years but my pay packet hasn't. And from the Money magazine I learnt that Australia's Real Estate is very high in relation to our salaries and comparing to other countries. Boo-hoo :-(

I gotta keep being frugal if we want that simple house and early retirement. So at 10:30pm I decided to make 1 more batch of Organised Castles' fish patties to use up left over rice, fish and a small piece of spring onion. Tomorrow all of our lunch boxes will have fish patties and I've put some aside for my mum too. (The Rambling Expat has caught another fish that we will need to eat in the next couple of days.)

Another 16 Fish Patties Made.

It's just past midnight now. So a quick look at my fellow bloggers and bed it is. Chat to you tomorrow. Have a great evening or morning or whatever... depending on the time you are popping in :-) Goodnight...

Thanks For The Advice!

Hello all my Wonderful Blogland Friends,

I want to thank everyone for all the great ideas for the men's shirts. I'll be making a few things and I'm glad I didn't toss them out. So stay tuned :-)

A few days ago we had Barramundi for dinner and there was plenty left over. Organised Castle said I should try making fish patties. At first I thought "Nah - I'm too busy and it just seems too labour intensive for me". However as I had 30 minutes spare to cook dinner I decided to get my hands dirty and give it a go. I also didn't feel like doing my Sunday weekly menu plan / grocery shopping and we had leftover fish that needed eating. To top it all off The Rambling Expat was out fishing so there was a high chance of more fish coming through the door any minute. There was nothing to do but get to it, as I had all the ingredients on hand.

Fish Patties with Tomato, Cucumber, Avocado and Lime Salad.

I tweaked the recipe by substituting lemon for lime and adding turmeric, fennel, spring onions and extra rice. I took me 45 minutes from start to finish as I am a beginner "chef" and they were superbly delicious! We all loved them, had second helpings and would like to make more this week. I have even popped 2 into Dolly's lunchbox for school at her request.

Have you outdone yourself with a delicious meal made of leftovers lately?

Do You Have Ideas For Men's Shirts?

My partner of 19 years, The Rambling Expat did a big clean out after I complained he was taking so much more clothes space then I did. In his sorting he found 12 work shirts he no longer wears to work because of ripped pockets, worn out collars or stains that will not scrub out.

Men's Shirts.

I don't want to be a hoarder and I am trying to declutter. However these are made of good cotton fabric. As many of my readers know, I'm aiming to not buy new and save more, spend less, so I'm having a hard time throwing these shirts out.

I'm thinking I will use some fabric to make 4 handkerchiefs for The Rambling Expat who often suffers from sinus issues and a runny nose. Now this will only use up 2 shirts. Then I was thinking I could make a 2 more shopping bags similar to the library one I made here for Dolly, so that's another 4 shirts, still leaving me with 6 shirts.

Do you have any other ideas for me? I'm looking for practical, easy to make stuff that we can use in our everyday life or even fun gifts for people in our lives. I don't need rags or cleaning cloths as I have many from other old worn out clothes. Come on, let your suggestions reign :-)

Kids Banking

Dolly received a info pack from a prominent Australian Bank at school today. This is well timed with our home financial education starting this week. I read the letter directed at parents/guardians to her and asked if she was interested in having a school banking opportunity. She is excited. I think it's a really good thing to incorporate peer based experiences in our financial education project.

The free pack had the sweetest little magnets that she can write savings goal with.

It also included stickers and images on token exchanges. Each time a child has deposited they are entitled to a token. 10 tokens allows them a goodie of their choice from the list.

Dolly will be ready to deposit money very soon. Remember when I wrote about cash for cans here? Well I have asked 2 neighbours for their bottles and cans so far. In the space of 6 days we already have about 100! That's $10 cash for cans and the collection starts on the 9 of February.

here's a link to the commonwealth bank kids area.

If you have any great links or book ideas on financial education for children please share in the comments section.

A Lunch Box

Just a quick photograph of a lunchbox for school.

Tuna, corn, avocado, mayo salad with cucumber. Bite sized pieces of pita bread and carrot stick.  Nectarine for recess.

I will be making sushi next week once I menu plan and grocery shop this weekend.

What was your lunch today?

Music That Makes Me Feel

Below is Lana Del Rey's (Lizzy Grant) song Born To Die. I listen to it constantly. After hearing it for the 1st time two weeks ago on You Tube, I purchased 2 of her songs for my iPhone. I listen to them over and over. I find them beautiful and haunting.

Previously to becoming a frugalista I used to spend easily $300 a year on CDs in one hit. Surprisingly in 2011 I abstained and did not purchase any music at all. I borrowed a few CDs from the library but that was it. This year I may treat myself to a few more songs for my iPhone but will cap my purchases at 1 song per month only. At $3 a song I think that's a inexpensive treat for myself if I'm good in other areas. However today was a spending shocker. I was disorganised and tired. This made me waste money on lots of chocolate and a cafe lunch. Ouch... $17 wasted. Tasted good though :-) Tomorrows lunch is left over pasta.

Anyway without further chatter I'll let you listen to Lana. As this is a Vevo clip it may redirect you to You Tube.



(If you read my blog via email you may need to click on my title link to watch Lana's music video.) Tell me what you think... I know she's a "manufactured music package" but I love her voice, haunting style and her good girl gone bad feel. Are you a big music spender?

This is not a paid review. I'm just giving my thought because I'm obsessed by her... It should wear off... I hope as I keep humming her songs in my brain.