Freedom or Financial Debt.

Hi Everyone,

I've been watching a bit of Ted lately and becoming inspired by people who are living or doing things I would like to try out. We don't have access to regular TV in our home so the net, blogs, You Tube and the likes are my relaxing evening entertainment. So while everyone else talks about the newest popular TV show and run out to buy the same lipstick as the main character, I'm watching something that is expanding my mind and encouraging me to not fall in those consumer traps.

Many of you living the frugal lifestyle will know of Adam Baker and the changes he made with his wife and baby for a simpler lifestyle - they aimed for freedom, to get off the financial debt round-a-bout. Well the exciting thing is you can watch him talking about his experiment or lifestyle change and how it worked out for them. So sit back and put your feet up for 20 minutes and enjoy!

Don't forget to let me know what you thought... Are you aiming for Freedom too?

Stephanie @ Frugal Down Under.

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!

Free Fridge From Freecycle

Our Snake Bean Community Garden group is looking at getting chickens very soon and also swapping produce with each other. As many of us garden at different times of the day and week some of us rarely (if ever), see each other. So we discussed trying to find an old fridge from somewhere - anywhere as to store eggs to buy, fresh produce to swap and stock fundraising sell-ables.

As all good things tend to come my way when I keep my mind and eyes open that is just what I did. Oooh Lucky Lucky me, I spotted a giveaway fridge on Freecycle within days of the group's discussions. So I emailed the lovely Lyell (Thank you) and was thrilled to be the lucky recipient. And even more lucky... The fridge was just a 3 minute drive from the garden so 2 of the staff headed out to collect it, as there is no way it would fit in my little city car.

Cleaning Racks and Compartments - Dolly Eating Malabar Spinach.

Today being Sunday, Dolly and I went to the garden with our eco cleaning products (bicarb, vinegar, eucalyptus oil, water and old rags). We cleaned it thoroughly and now have a gleaming working fridge waiting for it's 1st lot of goodies. Can't wait for the other gardeners to see it, another happy jiggy dance :-)

Will Be Loved By Many - Not Destined For Landfill.

Waiting to be Filled with fresh Produce.

I love Freecycle it keeps stuff out of landfill and allows you to take and give from like minded people. Tomorrow I'm giving away Dolly's porta-cot to a Freecycler. I've had an amazing week with lots of really good happenings, have a couple of Giveaways in the pipeline and have lots and lots to tell you. But for now I'm signing off and off to bed. Goodnight :-)

Did anything good happen to you this week?

Junk Food Dinner & Great Homemade Lunch

Hello everyone. Thanks for popping in and reading about my highs and lows in my frugal eco quest. I love comments and questions so feel free to click on the comment link. I enjoy Blogging, its a fun creative outlet and as for reading blogs - It's bordering on an addiction!!! But I learn so much from everyone and take on some peoples tips into my own life. So thanks for being readers and thanks also to those who have blogs, this is a very cool community to be part of.

Tonight we ate rubbish. We had McDonald's. We wasted our money and health. But we don't do this weekly as we used to. It's roughly a once a month affair now. I should put it on the calendar to keep real tabs on it and make sure I'm not tricking myself. Since we started the 40 minute clean up every night, better calendars and organisation are becoming possible and achievable.

Even though our dinner was rubbish we did have nice lunches to take to work and school. I make quick easy simple sushi in just a few minutes. I simplified the recipe and made it super basic. I just filled the Nori Rolls with rice (sprinkle of vinegar), tinned tuna and mayonnaise (with a dash of chilli for the adults). Dolly was so thrilled she said "No ones ever taken sushi to school in their lunch box! I'm going to be the first one ever!!!" I also added a snake bean and some berries from the Botanical Gardens for vitamin and colour in her sweet 2 tiered lunch box from Grandma.

Child size portion for Dolly.

Pleasing my family makes me happy. And pleasing myself with some inexpensive sushi for lunch is an extra bonus.

Any quick simplified exotic delights in your lunch boxes or dinner table?

Look! I Received a Wonderful Gift Today!

Hello lovely readers. Today is just another day. No birthdays or special reason to celebrate. However when I arrived home today I found this surprise on my doorstep...

Bananas, Zucchini, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Green Beans, Winged Beans, Okra & Home Made Chutney!

Today's gift made me very happy, thrilled me to pieces and gave reason to feel like life is one lovely celebration. It fits with my want of Eco, Simple, Frugal and Local. Thanks Kelly and Carl! The gift was useful, delicious and beautifully presented too. A really really really nice surprise!!!

To know their labour and skills went into producing all of the fruit, vegetables and eggplant chutney made it even more special. Have you received anything this great before? Or placed a surprise like this, on someones doorstep? It's now tucked away in my brain as a great gift giving idea.

Please feel free to comment about your gift receiving and gift giving experiences. It's so interesting to know what your thoughts are. Your comments can be in any language you want. I know I have lots of readers from around the world (including many from France). So don't be shy.

Have a great day everyone :-)

Sorting and Purging from My Home

Today I sorted our some of Dolly's clothing which she has outgrown. She has a lot of it as my mum LOVES the op shops and can't resist buying Dolly the cutest name brand dresses, tops and skirts for $1 to $3 most weeks.

I went through a suitcase of her outgrown clothing and created 6 piles. 

• 1 lot to give away to a 2 year old girl we know. 
• 1 lot to give away to a new  4 weeks old baby. girl
• 1 lot to sell at my market stall (This money will go to Dolly's college fund).
• 1 small lot of very damaged cotton clothing for the rag basket.
• 3 items for the rubbish bin. Elastic stretched out and unrepairable.
• 1 pile for the op shop; too good to throw out but not to my taste to hand-me-down or sell.

To sell.

For Baby (full red skirt, stripy playsuit, 2 dresses and over nappy pants).

For 2 yr old (6 dresses, shoes, 5 leggings and other stuff)

It's very satisfying to have sorted the full suitcase and to give away some of it to friends and earn some $$$ with the others to invest into Dolly's future. Also de-cluttering is so energising. Our homes are our sanctuaries from the world and yet so many of us make it unbearable with piles of "stuff" on every clean surface.

Have your been sorting and purging anything lately? Aim to get any money back on any of it? Please share - I love your comments.

Oh and here's Dolly's school morning tea for today: 2 Vegemite star sandwiches, 1 star cheddar cheese, sultanas and half a pear.

Tucker Time

Have a great day...  :-)

Sad Fruit & Veg Not Wasted

On the weekend I've been getting into a new habit of checking all my fruit, vegetables, salads and herbs left over from previous week, before I do my weekly shop. Anything looking sad, wilted, soft or browning goes into my blender and becomes a super healthy drink to kick start the day. It's a great habit, it's healthy for me and my family and has been preventing the high volume of waste I used to once have.

This morning I found a few items that needed to be used up, pronto.

• 1 soft pear.
• 1 browning banana my mum had given us.
• 1 small piece of cucumber from our garden.
• 3 wilting snake beans.
• 1 tangelo.

Soft and wilted fruit and veg.

I added a kiwi fruit and ginger that were still fine but add extra flavour, zing and vitamins.

Use it up before it goes to waste.

I blended it all up with half a cup of cold water, poured it in glasses and drank straight away. I like using a blender more then a juicer, as the fibbers are also blended leaving minimal waste. Washing the blender is also simple, just a quick rinse under the tap and I'm done. I'm enjoying my new habit and think it may stay with me for the rest of my life.

Healthy and Delicious.

Chin Chin :-)

Any new good habits in your life?

Weekly Grocery Shopping

My weekly shop was way over my $100 budget by $37.51!! Ouch... but this is mainly due to purchasing 2 large boxes of cat food and 2 blocks of cheese for $40. Both items had a great special and even thought I don't need them for another week or two, they were worth getting ahead of time as they are saving me $15 in the long run.

This is $137.51; it doesn't look like much food once out of the bags.

I took time out to write my menu plan for the week. It's such a worthwhile exercise. When I don't write one because I'm time poor, I end up wasting time and feeling even more disorganised then before. It only takes me 30 minutes and it's a pleasant way to spend time (daydreaming about food).

These are the planned dinners this week for 2 adults and one 4 yr old child. And always enough for guests.

• Sunday: Quiche Lorraine (plus an one extra to take to work for morning tea).
• Monday: Spaghetti Bolognese.
• Tuesday: Left over Bolognese mince sauce with vegetables.
• Wednesday: A beef stroganoff type dish with veggies and spinach from the garden.
• Thursday: Baked potatoes with cheese, sour cream, grated carrot, spinach and ham.
• Friday: Left overs (gotta keep it out of landfill and save those pennies for the future).
• Saturday: Baked fish (The Rambling Expat caught) with steamed vegetables.

I'll use the tin of tuna and one loaf of bread for my lunches. There's plenty of left over fruit from last week for my daily fruit at the office.

How about you? Saving those pennies? Is menu planning on your To Do list?

Officemade Lunch Cheaper then Takeaway

Here's another week of groovy lunches in the office tea room with view on the sea.

Left overs from last week pulled out of the fridge.

Left overs good to eat.

New purchases I made in my Monday lunch break for $13.70.

Sweet, savoury and fruity too.

The lot grouped together makes fulfilling lunches with special treats to prevent those junk food purchases that I always crave and cave in to.

Satisfying food. A bit of healthy and a bit of junk.

And voila, my daily lunches this week will look somewhat like this for the tiny sum of $2.74 per day (I may need to buy one .60 bread roll on Friday).

$2.74!!!! That's a Bargain.

It's not hard to eat this way now that I have fallen into a habit and I'm enjoying the personal challenge.

• I search the specials and mark downs. 
• I compare ingredients (today I found the cheaper Coles brand juice has the same ingredients as the Just Juice brand juice). 
• It only takes me 20 minutes of my 60 minute lunch break to shop and pay once a week for my lunch ingredients. 
• Making my lunches with everything on hand only takes me 5 minutes (I have discovered not spreading butter is a great time saver).
• Stocking everything at work saves me from my forgetfulness.

I'm saving a pretty penny with this new way of doing my lunches. Previously I often forgot my lunch box at home quite and resorted to buying a quick fix lunch out of frustration. Doing all these little money saving life changes means saving for an earlier retirement and enjoying my life by spending on things that count to me such as paying off our mortgage extra early, travel, education and Dolly.

I forgot my shopping bags at home this time!! But... Drum roll please... I took my own pre-used plastic bag from my desk that once held a computer. Yeah!!!!

How are you going so far with your lunches this week? Are you avoiding takeout or falling prey? Do you have a love relationship with all things chocolate like me?

Op Shopping Fantastica

I LOVE op shopping (thrifting). It's frugal, it's green and the chase is thrilling.

Many people think op shopping is "dirty and gross" but everything can be cleaned in some manner and re-used. There is always so much to go through to find your gems, but there is a lot out there and many wonderfully unique pieces too. Once you start op shopping regularly you will find you get used to running your eyes along the racks quickly and finding the good stuff.

I love being able to purchase items on a small budget and feel guilt free too. I see my purchase as saving stuff from landfill and preventing the over production of new stuff.

I op shop not only because it's frugal and green, but also because I'm Rubenesque meaning clothing shops with my size are ridiculously over priced and very limiting in range. So I'm very lucky I have Op Shops around me and even though I'm in a small town I still find many gems.

So don't be shy, go and browse your local op shop. My hints are; take cash as some op shops don't use cards, take a shoulder bag to keep you arms free for the items you want to check out, look carefully for stains and holes and have fun. 

Here is what I purchased in the past 2 weeks: TOTAL PRICE $14, all items in pics below.

• Novels in French for my partner: $2.50 for two.
• Professional development book for myself .50cents.
• A really cute leather headband for myself, $1.00.
• A book I really wanted last month but refused to fork out $45 for, and there is was... Urban Eco Chic only $3.00!!! I was so EXCITED... it's a beautiful book.

Books and Headband = $7.00

My Gorgeous Book!!! = $3.00

• Cooper Street dress with a teeny weeny burn. $2.00, purchased for sewing projects. (New Cooper Street dresses start at $159. The fabric is luxurious.)

Cooper Street Dress = $2.00

• A white wool beret for an up coming trip to France $1.00.
• Trial size make-up from Mary Kay $1.00 for a whole lot.
• Sewing hooks & eyes I needed for a sewing project, Lucky me! .50 cents.
• Salt and Pepper shaker by an Italian company $2.00.
• Maori doll for my daughter .50 cents.

Beret, Make-up, Doll, Salt & Pepper Shakers and Eyes & Hooks = $5.00

Do you Op Shop? What have you found lately?

New Passion for Frugality

Since having our child nearly 4 years ago, I have made many small frugal changes due to inspiration from Bloggers, Frugal / Eco websites and Books.

I live a chaotic and messy life but am trying to get this under control. I believe if I have made great changes in my spending and savings habits, then changes in how I manage my clutter, mess, aspirations and future can also be done.

To me being frugal means not spending all my earnings, but instead being careful and putting aside for emergencies, our future and our daughters future too. It also means living a more simple / greener life, being debt free (we do have a mortgage), taking advantage of community activities, purchasing 2nd hand most of the time, budgeting, menu planning and shopping carefully. We try to recycle, re-use, reduce or do without. We live below our means by choice and we do it happily as we have bigger goals to aim for.

I love being frugal and thinking of new ways to do things. So I will share what I do and I hope readers will share their knowledge and skills too. By no means am I saying that I am always on track or perfect. I'm far far far from it, sometimes I fall off the wagon and spend on new junk, toys, food, clothing and other unnecessary items that give me happiness for a very short time. But most of the time I try to stick by my personal ethics of being frugalistic and eco too.