Budgeting, Planning, Decluttering.

Hi Frugal Gals and Guys,

I've been slowly working on my new 2013 budget and a updated 5 year plan. It's been a hard slog as it's hot here in the tropics and Australia in general. I've been lazy and procrastinating but it needs to be done NOW if I'm to get ahead and off the rat race merry go round.

The decluttering has also been a slow and painful process as I see use for everything however another bag left our home today and tonight I am busy listing Dolly's out grown clothes and other items on Gumtree and FB to bring in some extra pennies.

How are you doing with pinching extra money so far in 2013? Cutting back on anything? Selling anything? Working an extra job?

Would love to hear what you are up to.


Stephanie @ Frugal Down Under.

Events & Outings

There are many FREE events in our town. We go to some of them for inexpensive entertainment. This allows us to take part in fun activities individually or as a family while saving our money for mortgage, travel, retirement and the important things in life.

Recently we went to a Easter Egg Hunt and Fun Day offered by the City Council. This was so much fun for Dolly who was loaded up with chocolates, lollies, bandanna, wallet, stickers and other small gifts. There were craft stations, face painting, jumping castles, waterslides and outdoor play activities. We participated in many of the choices available. It was all FREE.

We spent over 3 hours at the event and kept our spending down by bringing our own packed lunch and water bottles. I wanted our lunch to be a treat too so I splurged on fresh baguette, smoked ham and cornichons. We had 1 large generously filled sandwich, a fruit each and a large bag of chips to share. The cost was $8AUS for the 3 of us. A bargain compared to the usual food available at community events and no waiting in long hot queues for greasy selections.

I'm interested to know are you taking advantage of FREE events in the area you live in? What about packed lunches? Do you find yourself going to events with your own food or buying something there because bringing your lunch is too hard or maybe you want to support small local businesses?

Remember to keep having fun, even in frugality :-)

Stephanie at Frugal Down Under.

Gardening to Keep Your Produce Costs Down

I spent some time in my garden plot over the weekend to check on 2 chokos I planted earlier in the week. Unfortunately they did not look too good. But there might be a little hope. I'm crossing my fingers as I love chokos with a dab of butter and sprinkle of salt. No one else has chokos in our community garden so I'm learning from books on how to grow them.

Here is my glorious harvest from the weekend which will be incorporated in this weeks meals to help keep within the weekly meals budget. I love organic, grown by me produce. It makes me proud to know I can achieve fresh produce from my own sweat and labour.

Pumpkin, 2 Varieties of Eggplants and Winged Beans.

Two years ago I would have never imagined that I could grow food for my own meals. But it's possible. And if it's possible for me - (a lazy, procrastinator - that likes things done quickly because I'm always getting bored and ready for the next thing) - then it's possible for anyone. If you haven't tried your hand at a bit of gardening, I say "Give it a go". Start with a few herbs in small pot plants to get your meals tastier, healthier and greener. And go from there. Get bolder, bigger and greener.

As always I am interested in your comments. Do you grown anything yourself? What do you have growing? What are your harvesting? Or even, what is preventing you from planting a few items to add to your meals?

Reading About Wealth Creation

We have been treading the frugal life since our daughter was born and more and more carefully in the past 2 or so years. At the time Dolly was born (5yrs ago) I was a 36 year old full time trainee student in Business Administration earning a low wage of $20,000 but receiving free education along the way. The Rambling Expat was a full time 40 year old university student completing a Masters on a 2 year scholarship of $50,000 and a fee waiver where he also had no educational costs. We were being paid to study and that was awesome!

Currently our only debt is our mortgage from our purchased home nearly 5 years ago, which we pay extra cash into on weekly basis. We are aiming for our unit to be paid off within another 3 years. We paid cash for our small economical car last year and never have problems paying the bills because we budget for everything. We used to spend spend spend - mainly on rent, going out, alcohol, magazines, restaurants, cigarettes, music, clothes and luxury food.

We have been frugal and careful to the point of saving a large sum to replace our windows and our own personal savings. Everything else is split down the middle except for groceries. He pays a little more as I have cut back work to care for our daughter which benefits us both.

So now has come the time to get our joint and personal finances organised. I also want to start developing myself to learn on how to create (passive) income by using my savings wisely. I am reading 1 to 2 hours per day from relevant books that will help my progress. This week I am reading Money For Nothing by Justine Davies from my public library. I'm finding it excellent with homework at the end of each chapter and budget sheets to work from. My focus this week is to rework my budget and start looking at our mortgage and see if we can get a better deal to lower our interest and Government owned portion.

I also purchased a book Ms Millionaire with my book credit for inspiration. The book has online tools and bonus at each chapter end which I am exploring. Each woman highly encourages personal and professional development as most found this was their turning point in creating changes, wealth and abundance for themselves.

It's all fun reading and motivating. I'm not a risk taker now that I'm a saver, so it's daunting to take even small steps. But as my knowledge increases and my confidence grows I will make a few financial investments that will benefit me and my family. Maybe it will take me quite some time to make that 1st step but I'm inching there. As for personal and professional development I'm making steps towards that too. I too think it can only be a good thing for me.

Do you invest time or money in your own personal and professional development? Do you invest any of your savings? I would love to hear your thoughts.

(The above books are very Australia focused - so my international readers may be inspired but may not find them as useful as a book from their own country).

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?

Op Shopping (Thrifting) for Party Goodies

As many of my readers already know I am preparing for my 4 year olds move into big girl-hood as she reaches 5! We are currently preparing for her party which is in 6 weeks time. I know... I'm getting in early... being organised and early on this one means having time to search for great items at prices I can afford. And it also allows me time to make things such as her invites, party bags, decorations and also turn to op shop shops (thrift stores/charity shops) and Freecycle for items I may want.

I'm aiming for a $80 party which will included food, decorations, crafts, pass-the-parcel and goodies. However I don't want the usual prominent stuff from the party area of Coles. And If I do get some of that stuff, I want it to be second hand and maybe upcycled.

This being my last week of the holidays, I popped in to my local op shop (only 5 minute walk from my home) to search for toys or trinkets for pass-the-parcel. I spent a whopping $22 from my $80 budget, but I did well. Take a look...

Op Shop Finds

I purchased 2 candle calabra's to decorate the table for $3 each, quality glass bead necklaces, bracelets and other lovelies for pass-the-parcel. Flower, sandalwood fan and 1 necklace are Dolly's, as part of her costume.

Here are close ups of the great items.

Quality Trinkets for Party Favours

Silver - Yes silver! With tiny animal charms.

Pretty in Pink Glass Beads.

Zebra Beads to Die For. 5 Of Them. I'm Dancing The Happy Dance.

Heavy Glass, Stone and Silver Beads.

Mini Guitar - We Have a Couple of Boys Invited. 

I am upcycling some items and re-threading beads.

The elastic on the zebra bracelet was damaged, it was also too big for small wrists. The Glass, stone and silver beaded bracelet was also far to big for little girls. I cut them and turned them into 4 bracelets fit for Queens with a few additions of spare beads from home.

2 Bracelets Re-threaded to Perfection.

As for the guitar, I made it a bit more fancy to be fit for a royal king. I just need to layer a little more gold glitter and maybe some ribbon.

Royal Music.

If you have any party ideas - let me know...

Have you been op shopping, thrifting, charity shopping?

Frugal Card - Invite Making

Many of our friends are artists, musicians, stylists, photographers and so on. The Rambling Expat himself is creative and works in a creative field. As for myself I'm the wanna-be-artists with no talent or skills in any of the areas. A hanger-on of the creative types. However the past 2 years or so of taking steps to be eco-frugal has lead me to to be more creative as a solution to stop purchasing the same old rubbish on offer at the shops.

This past year has seen me making a pillow, a soft toy owl, collaged boxes, yo yo necklaces, pretty chocolate wrappings, earrings, magnets and now party invitations. It's been a fun ride.

Dolly's fifth birthday is coming up and we are preparing for the Princess and Knight themed party. This afternoon we spent a couple of hours at the library where Dolly read and played while I found inspiration in 3 amazing card books.

Library Books To Gather Ideas.

Pages That Inspired Me On My Invitation Making Journey.

For the party invitations I'm using mostly resources from home dating back from the past 10 years such as pencils, stamp, card stock. Images are from a 50 cents op shop book. I did purchase 3 new items out of my FUN budget. A fleur de lys hole punch $4, a gold permanent marker $3 and a box of 50 gold pins for $2. They were not needed, these were wants however they will all last for years. Each invitation is costing me roughly 10 cents to make. I have 2 created and 8 to go. I'm enjoying this and finding it so much fun.

Kitch, Vintage Feel, Princess Invitations.

Kitch Princess Invitations.

I like my cards and how they are so different to the regular shop bought invitations. Each one will have a message on the pretty back (not shown), inviting a child to the party stating it's a Royal Party for a Princess being held in the Royal Gardens and please wear your Royal Gowns and Suits for Cake and Fun.

Is frugality making you more creative? If it is, do you enjoy it, resent it or even dislike it?

Bartering in the UK

John Durrant founder of UK based Bartering site Favabank commented on my Bartering Post. Since I have a high number of UK based readers I thought I should share his website with you. I'm all in favour of promoting sites I think are good for people.

Currently it's in testing phase however it will be launched soon. So become a member, give it a run/test and when it launches start bartering for Fava points that you can spend on services and goods you need/want.

http://www.favabank.co.uk

I love the cashless economy where money stays in the small persons pocket and not lining the big corporations coffers. It helps with family budgets and getting over some of the struggles of unemployment many have been facing.

Thank you for the bartering comments on my last post. They were interesting and made me think of a few other ways I can barter with friends, family and strangers too. Keep on bartering and let me know your successes and fails too as we can all learn from each other.

Pizza and Taxis

The Rambling Expat is on holidays for 4 weeks. We celebrated with bought Pizza (I was too tired to do any kitchen work in this heat). The cheapest pizzas were $10.95 each and we wanted 2. I found this was much too expensive so I searched online and found a voucher for $6.95. Then I decided to look another 3 minutes to see if I could find a better deal to really squeeze my dollar. And yep, another voucher code was found within a few seconds at $5.95 each.

If you have internet access I encourage you to look at getting better deals. It's just there at your finger tips and doesn't take much effort. Instead of paying $21.90 we paid $11.90. Thats a $10 savings! Now lots of people can't be bothered but $10 in my pocket is gold!

We took our pizzas and bottle of cold tap water from home and watched the sunset over the sea next to a playground. Something for all of us and a very nice way to end the day...

...except The Rambling Expat had to be at the airport at 11:00pm for his 1:00am flight to Sydney. We were booking a taxi as waking our 4 year old seemed too mean. However after spending $$ on pizza I really didn't want us forking out another $20 in taxi to the airport and another $20 on the return. Mentally torn I chose to get Dolly up. I lifted Dolly out of bed, popped her into her car seat, drove the 20 minute round trip and popped her back into bed. She slept through the whole process! It only took 20 minutes and we saved ourselves $20. I asked Dolly about the airport trip, she doesn't remember a thing. Tonight I think we will be picking him up to save ourselves another $20.

Had this been 2 years ago.. Pizza at full price and taxis wouldn't have been a problem in our eyes as we had the cash. But we now prefer to save that hard earned cash and put it towards the future. That $50 we didn't spend will be able to work harder for us in online saving accounts and extra payments into mortgage.

I'm aiming for those good things in life! What about you?

Local Produce

I went to the Rapid Creek Markets, to see what people are harvesting at this time of year to gain ideas for my garden plot and also to purchase good local produce with low eco miles.

This is my purchased fruits which is coming out of my usual weekly $100 grocery budget.

Total Cost: $9.50

Limes: $2.00
Chinese Plums: $2.50
Mandarins: $2.00
Dragon Fruit: $3.00

Sorry for the poor pic - I used The Rambling Expats camera which I am not used to.

Have you been buying any local anything lately?

Frugalicious Lunch

The party is over, the gluttony of the festive season has ended, The Rambling Expat had his birthday and now there are no more excuses until Dolly's birthday at the end of February and that will need to come from the weekly groceries budget.

Penny pinching does not mean unhealthy bland foods for us if we keep gardening. I want to show you the delicious lunch we had which cost us 1 cup of Rice, 1 table spoon of Olive Oil and 3 cloves of Garlic, the rest came from the garden.

The photograph is not magazine beautiful but the meal was an explosive taste of delicious flavours and extremely moorish. When I finished weeding, pruning and planting, I filled my basket with with just enough produce to make lunch for 3.

I stir fried in a little olive oil:

• garlic (shop bought)
• lemongrass (my plot)
• ginger (communal plot)
• chili (communal plot)
• chocolate mint (my plot)
• snake beans (my plot)
• brazilian spinach (my plot)
• basil (my plot)
• eggplant (my plot)
• malabar spinach (communal plot as mine has died)
• sweet potato leaves (friends plot)

Served on a bed of rice. (My rice bag was shop bought).

For dessert we had pawpaw with lime. The pawpaw was from the communal plot and the lime I found on top of our green waste pile. I don't know who threw it there or where it came from as I don't think there is a lime tree in the botanical gardens. But it was in perfect condition so I took it. And happy I was to do so, as I love lime squeezed on rice, fruit, veggies and in a glass of water.

Lunch for 3 cost about 50 cents and was delicious. Cutting back on food costs means we can still have a great lifestyle, be healthy and save for the important things in life such as Dolly's future education, retirement, cutting back on work hours and a house.

Are you doing some penny pinching too?

Pay Cut = More Gardening

I'm on recreational leave from work (3 weeks to go), then I return for 2 weeks at my regular hours and then... finishing each day at 2:00pm. This will cut back my pay by $233 a week. That is a lot of money!

So I am tightening my belt and keeping my purse closed so that we can keep paying off our mortgage, keep saving for travel and save for the future too. This also means I need to garden more so I can cut back on my grocery shopping, declutter to put things on Ebay and have more organisation at home.

Everyday this week Dolly and I have attended to our plot for 1 hour, pruning, weeding and preparing our beds for more plants. We started growing food less then a year ago and learning as we go. It's been a great deal of fun and I'm becoming more confident with each day.

This is what we have growing at present:

Jerusalem Artichoke - tubers growing under the ground.

Rosella for the flowers - but also the leaves which are tangy (Dolly LOVES the leaves)

2 types of eggplants - this is my favourite.

Lemongrass - makes nice cold herbal drinks and used for fragrant cooking flavours.

A small ginger root I planted 6 months ago popping up :-)

1 very sad capsicum - I've had no luck so far.

Red Pawpaw - I planted these 8 months ago. one each of female and male - Male now fruiting.

Peanuts - These will be ready for harvesting in 4 months - can't wait!

Basil and new long lebanese eggplants.

Brazilian Spinach - A happy grower all year round.

Prolific Snake Beans - I don't like them as much as the other ones I had. Will plant seeds of others this week.

This is not the best season for growing as everything suffers in the tropical monsoonal heat. However people in Bali (same weather) certainly don't stop growing and eating at this time of year, so I am interested in knowing what my ex-couchsurfing hosts are growing so I can try and replicate their successes.

What are you growing or cutting back on this year?

Australian Women Spend $3000 a Year On Clothes!

Apparently the average Australian woman spends $3000 a year on clothes and accessories. I guess I'm not average. In the past 16 months I spent roughly $300 on new & second hand clothes for myself.

Yes - I like Red, White and Black!

These are the new clothing items I purchased in 2011.

• 2 bras (far out! They are expensive pieces of fabric, lace and wire) 
• 2 pairs of work trousers (boring - yawn...) 
• 2 work tops (wasted money - cheap & nasty quality)
• 1 packet of knickers (much needed)
• 1 handbag in Paris sales (dud - doesn't like the tropical heat much)

This year I have an envelope with $180 tagged for clothes and accessories shopping for myself. I hope to have fun and funky it up a bit on this budget as I love quirky clothes with a bit of a twist. Maybe my new tentative steps in crafting will allow me to create crazy alterations to op shopped clothes. (My $20 a month budget for flipping and markets will not be part of my own clothing budget).

How much are you going to spend on clothes and accessories?

1. $3000?
2. Much less?
3. Nothing at all?

Tell all - spill your beans... hang out your dirty laundry...

FREE 2012 Simple Savings Calendar!

Here's the link to the FREE Simple Savings War On Debt Calendar. I printed mine out and am ready to tackle 2012 with more fabulous frugalness and saving madness.

Sure it says Australia and New Zealand! But hey! All saving money and the planet tricks and tips cross all borders don't you think. We all work of similar principals where ever we are   :-)

So what about you, are your going to squeeze each cent out of the dollar for a better life?

Are you going to think about all your purchasing actions carefully and see if they are good for your pocket, loved ones and planet?

Are you going to lead a less hurried and more thoughtful life?

Are you going to laugh more and enjoy your short time here on this wonderful planet?

I know I will try real hard, and those baby steps of mine are getting bigger, prouder and more definite. Here's to a wonderful 2012! Happy New Year!

On The Mend and We Did Lots

Today was like a new me. So much better. Still a little trembly but nothing compared to last night. This is a long post of all the lovely things we did today.

Once Dolly arrived home this morning we headed to a FREE Christmas Family Fun Day. Dolly crafted at 2 of the tables from many on offer, sang christmas songs and met Santa. She didn't want to rock climb, go on the jumping castle or have her face painted which was unusual, but she may have been jittery from last nights fright. (The Rambling Expat has photos so I will add these tomorrow).

We then headed to the dreadful Spotlight where I spent money on new stuff which will help me use old stuff. I purchased pinking shears for sewing and mod podge for my earrings, magnets and other projects. I also purchased plastic storage boxes for our beads and other treasures. These I ahhhed and ummed about, for ages - however I purchased them as we currently use a million different bowls, tins and jars. I just want it in one easy area for Dolly's items and another for me in the aim to reduce chaos and clutter.

Dolly's Storage Box.

1 large box for Dolly and 2 small ones for myself. I now regret not getting the same one as Dolly as her compartments can be extended while mine can't. We started to fill them and I was able to empty 3 containers to relocate our goodies. Nearly all items are sourced from hand me downs (Dolly has a huge pile of 70's plastic beads in her box), op shop beads and broken jewellery, bottle tops and soft drink tabs from neighbours, buttons from old clothes and the list goes on. The only new item in Dolly's box is some pink wire and the only new item in mine is some of the earring hooks. Even my new in packet items were sourced from neighbours leaving town and op shops.

Started to fill her up with all of Dolly's treasures to craft.

My Box is half the size of Dolly's.

Sweetest Op Shopped Creatures. Dolly's Butterfly 10 cents, My Ceramic Owl .50 cents. 

After our quick shop we spent the afternoon at home on the couch sewing little rose petal sachets from chopped up old clothing, fabric scraps and a vintage sheet. I purchased the rose petals in a organic health shop a few weeks ago. I wanted lavender but the price was too high so opted for the much cheaper rose petals. They are used for cooking and teas, but crafting is an option too. I mixed 5 drops of geranium oil to intensify the aromas. This is what we made for someone special to Dolly (not saying in case she reads our blog).

60's, 70's, 2000 and 2010's Fabric. Pinking Shears Tested :-)

Pretty Pressie Ready to Give. Cost $3.20 - Time 2 hours with Dolly.

One Extra For Another Gift.

Our funky party animal neighbour Jacinta turned 50 last week. She likes to live loud, wears bright op shopped clothes and isn't scared of creative types. So we also made one rose petal sachet, added a earring stand and a pair of earrings for her. Dolly was so proud giving these home made gifts. Costs: Rose Petal Sachet .80 cents, earring stand $1.50, earrings .60 cents = Total $2.90, pretty cool on the pocket and not too hard on our time as it's so much fun making these items.

Jacinta's Pretty Gift Cost $2.90

And that was our day. As you see I'm on the mend. We kept our meals very simple. Lunch was tinned tuna sandwiches and fruit. Dinner was rice and fish fingers bringing out the kid in the 3 of us. Tomorrow will be a new day and lots of veggies for dinner.

Oh - And I decluttered by Offering on Freecycle, lovely Nadia picked up a milk crate of clothing, hand bags and other bits and bobs to rummage through. I also gave away to another Freecycler a long warm vintage camel hair and wool coat from my Melbourne days. I've been here in the tropics 7 years so it was time for it to go.

Did you enjoy your day today?

Chaos and Wasting Money

I am at home off work all week sick. I thought I may get a couple of home jobs done but this virus has really knocked me about. The Rambling Expat is also feeling under the weather and getting himself to work and back without much energy for much more. That means our home is total chaos. It's always chaos but this time more then usual.

Last night I dragged myself to my daughters end of year preschool concert, get-together feast and disco. I had to muster all my energy to be able to go and watch her sing and have a good time.

I was unable to prepare any food for the event so purchased 4 pizzas with a discount voucher. I thought I would only have to pay $24 for the 4 pizzas but the bill came to $40+. When I said it was too expensive they brought the price down to $36. I left the store too tired to question why and frustrated at the big hole in my wallet.

Next week is our daughters last week of preschool so I wanted these last weeks to be extra special. She is growing so fast. It feels like it was only yesterday I gave birth to her. My little mermaid who swam the parameter of the birthing pool when she came out. The Rambling Expat said it was like she was aglow in the water with the darkened surroundings. Our own magical being :-) I need to get better to be able to make all her days happy and special. Luckily my mum has been keeping her until 7:00pm each night this week to help us out. The Rambling Expat picks her up, fed, washed and ready for bedtime stories and sleep.

Don't forget to enter my great GIVEAWAY it's open to everyone in any country.

Home Sick Odd Jobs

Hello wonderful people. A reminder to my Aussie readers to don't forget to enter my Giveaway - a $200 Coles/Myer voucher! I know what I would spend it on... groceries. And then place $200 from my usual grocery budget into my mortgage.

I stayed home sick today. I should have seen it coming. The sore ears, unbalanced and all the sleeping I've been doing. My nose is like a running tap and my ears are so blocked I feel like I'm under water.

I spent the day feeling hot and sorry for myself. Drinking lots of water and taking a couple of Panadol to ease the aches. Luckily the fridge was full of cooked food so no cooking had to be done - just heating up.

While I had a small burst of semi energy I cleaned and painted 2 small vintage wooden frames that I had sitting around for over a year. I had purchased them them for about $1 each, maybe $2, but no more then that. I placed inside them pages of a damaged 1966 children's book I purchased for 50 cents at the op shop last week. I think they look lovely and will make pretty presents for Birthdays and new babies. At $2.05 a pop these revamped old frames are looking fresh and sweet with a vintage touch. Plus I have many more pictures left to use. Each prettier then the next. Swoon.

Pretty as a Picture.

One other job that caught my eye today was the stack of medicines we had. So I decluttered the fridge door compartment where they all live. 6 items had expired in 2010 and 2011. So out they went. However the compartment still looks just as full! How does that happen?

I hope you are well and keep frugally fantastic.

Slow Cooker Left Overs

I'm back into some slow cooking for time saving and frugality due to cheaper cuts of meat working well slow cooked.

I prepare and place everything into the slow cooker by 7am. Dress for my busy working day and Dolly for her school day. Turn it on Low as we leave the house and dinner is ready when we return 9.5 hours latter. We plate up and eat. Easy and Fuss Free for a Busy Household.

I slow cooked a roast, a couple of small steaks and vegetables in one pot. After we ate dinner, I filled containers with left overs for 4 quick meals this week.

• Fall apart steak to serve with rice.
• Left over roast and veggies to eat with salad night 1 and pasta on night 2.
• Roast and veggies for Rambling Expats lunch.

Home Made - Take Away

I'm keeping within the budget of $100 a week shopping for groceries. My aim is to cut back to $80 the next 4 weeks and use up everything in the fridge and freezer to start the new year afresh with a nice cleared and clean fridge.

I'm tightening the belt again money wise and need to stop buying any frivolous junk food. If/When I go part time my wages will be slashed by 30%. That is huge and scary. How's your budget coming along? Does it need tweaking and reworking like mine does?

Note to my readers in Australia, Don't Forget to Enter my Air Wick Aqua Mist Giveaway HERE to go in the draw to win a $200 Voucher!

Op Shop Finds

I needed a shopping fix during my lunch break - because... like many people it's a kind of addiction and pure entertainment. A Want - Not a Need. Frivolous fun. Once upon a time I used to say to myself; I worked hard for my money so I deserve all my treats. Except all my treats meant lots of treats and I spent all my money. I had no debt but I had no savings. The fridge was always getting bare by the time the next pay came in and white rice with a dab of butter was common for dinner for a few nights before payday.

Now I'm careful with my cash, but still have a craving for shopping fixes. It's a treat, but also a waste of money. So I always have that promise to myself, I will not spend more then $5, but I can never resist the goodies. So with my intense need to itch my addiction, I headed to a city op shop and spent $7.

Another Stash

• Prettiest dress; to reuse the floral linen fabric $2
• Book of Aboriginal Portraits (photography) - For The Rambling Expat $2
• The softest chenille knitting wool for a X-mas gift project $1
• New, Ben10 Packet of Tattoos for either gifting or Dolly's next Birthday Party Goodies Bags $2

Tomorrow night I will need to find some items of the same size or bigger to leave our house in our decluttering attempt.

Do you shop for pleasure, addiction or entertainment too?