Seed swap and pineapples

A wonderful parcel arrived a couple of days ago. It was from my swap partner Tracy. As well as sending some great seeds, she also sent a Down to Earth hessian tote bag (!!!) and an Organic magazine. The seeds are long black radish, evergreen bunching shallots, moon and stars watermelon, climbing princess beans, lemon cucumber, red iceberg lettuce, giant Russian sunflower and dragon carrots. I am going to have a lot of joy planting and growing those plants and I'll have thoughts of Tracy on her sheep stud while I go about it.

Thank you Tracy. :- )

Don't you just love the names of the old heirloom vegetables. The hybrids are named by scientists, and it shows. They have names like L9 smooth or Kandy Kwik. pffffffffffffft. I much prefer climbing princess beans, dragon carrots, pink Brandywines and Turks Turban pumpkin. You just know those names come from the people who grow food and who often name the vegetable because it looks like its name or for someone they know. Their is a rich heritage tied up with vegetable seeds. I hope we don't lose it.

I have another drink recipe for you today. It's a drink for summer or winter - in the summer it's very cooling, in the winter, because it's high in Vitamin C, it's a good drink for the flu season.

I live in an area that grows lots of pineapples and when it's pineapple season - now - I take advantage of it and buy a local pineapple every week; they cost between $1 and $2. Pineapple crush contains a lot of fibre and vitamin C and some vitamin A, iron and calcium.

You'll need a blender to make this drink.

PINEAPPLE CRUSH

Cut the skin off the pineapple and test a small piece of the fruit for sweetness. Cut the pineapple in quarters, length ways, and remove the core. Then cut the flesh into chunks.

I chose this particular pineapple because it had three growing tops. I've cut them into the three tops and when they dry out a little, I'll plant them. Pineapples usually fruit in their second year.

Place half the chunks into your blender, if the pineapple is not sweet enough, add sugar to your taste. Our pineapples are always sweet here so I never have to add sugar.

If you're going to drink it straight away and it's summer, add one cup of water and one cup of ice. Blend the pineapple until it's pouring consistency. Pour into a glass, add more iced water until it's right for you, top with a mint leaf and enjoy.

In winter, leave out the ice but blend with two cups of water. Again, add more water to it before you drink.

This is a delicious and healthy drink that will add a lot of fibre and vitamin C to your diet. It's a great drink for children because there are no preservatives or colourings and if you don't add sugar to it, contains only natural sugars. It would probably also make a good icey pole treat for the children mixed with a little yoghurt, and frozen.

I'm at home all day today. :- ) I'm going to catch up on my cleaning, tidy the sewing room, do some laundry and check out the garden and the chooks. I'm also looking forward to reading the magazine Tracy sent while I sip tea on the front verandah. I hope you enjoy your day too.

Filling the void

After a few days writing about budgeting and money I want to balance the scale today on what really spins my world. I want to tell you about those things that make my life a total joy. I used to live my life creating what I then thought was happiness buying new things at the shop every week. That is a very hollow kind of happiness, if indeed it is happiness at all. It fills you up instantly, but quickly deflates, leaving behind a bigger space than there was before. I think that's why I kept spending. I was hoping to fill the void within me.

That emptiness has gone now. The space has been filled with optimism for the future, contentment with the present, and acceptance of the past.

In no particular order, here are the things that I'm really loving and grateful for this week.

As I drove home from work yesterday I felt a feeling of quite satisfaction after a very busy morning alone at the Centre dealing with people who needed help and someone to listen to them and an afternoon of paper work and a meeting with our volunteers. We have a fine bunch of people there and we meet to connect with each other, to talk about problems they may have had during the month and to do a bit of training on various procedures. It was a great meeting, I am ever grateful for the help the volunteers give and proud to be a part of their group.

My sister Tricia gave me a scented orchid a few years ago that is flowering now for the first time. When I come home, or when I wake in the morning and come into the kitchen where it is sitting, I can smell a subtle fragrance like the finest French perfume.

My sewing room is waiting for me.

Pippa, that is your namesake drinking from the bowl.

All those chickens in the backyard are a total delight. They have settled in well and are growing their gorgeous feathers and quirky personalities each day. Their favourite things now are sunshine and warm porridge. Which, when you think about it, is not a bad combination.

I am grateful to Tracy who sent me a wonderful parcel as part of the seed exchange. I will take a photo and show it tomorrow. Thank you Tracy. I will send you an email as soon as I finish this post.

I love the cool late Autumn weather and staying warm with nice clothes, lilac gloves and a good husband.

We have fresh eggs.

I love the thought of tonight's dinner, whatever it might be, because tonight I will look forward to the next few days here where I will garden, knit, sew, sit and think.

Our shed is holding a large haystack. :- )

I feel loved. I am blessed to have my immediate family and my two sisters Tricia and Kathleen.

I am grateful I have buttons, knitting needles, pure cotton and wool to knit with.

I'm pleased I discovered how to live well, and happy I can share those discoveries with you.

I am happy being green and frugal, and grateful I know why being so is vital and significant.

I suppose I could keep tapping away on this subject all morning but I will leave space for your input because I just know there are one or two thing you'd like to add about your world.

Last words on the budget

Hopefully this will be the last post about money for a while. Our budget is an important part of our simple life. It gives us a spending plan and organises us so that we don't overspend in one area at the expense of another. If you haven't written down your expenses yet, it's a very good thing to do. It's a bit scary being confronted with your real expenses but if you're to live an authentic life you need to know exactly what you're spending. I won't lie, it's boring doing it, and it takes a fair bit of time, because you have to go through all your receipts and bills from the previous year so you have a realistic basis on which to build your budget. But in the end you have your money map and that is just as important to you as your garden tools, your sewing machine, your transport and your recipe books.

I resisted making a budget for years, thinking it was a restriction, but it has proved instead to be a means of showing me what we're spending on necessities and how much of our money can be spent on wants - or put into a savings account. The good thing about making a budget is that you choose the categories. If your sewing, knitting, coffee, books are important to you, you have a category for it in your budget. You can then buy what you want when you know the money it there, without dipping into food or rent/mortgage money. Managing your money well will help you live simply.

There were a few comments on the 'vitamins' category in the last post. It's difficult to explain something with one or two words but the vitamins are in fact emu oil capsules and pure oil, Q10 capsules and a multivitamin. Both Hanno and I take emu oil and have done for years. I take it for arthritis in my ankle, Hanno takes it for the general aches and pains of old age and to lower his cholesterol. After he had his stroke, he came off Warfarin after a few weeks because his blood was being thinned by the emu oil. Emu oil is Omega 3, 6 and 9 oil so it does a lot of good for hearts, brains and skin as well and we will keep taking it, even though it's expensive. The Q10 was recommended by Hanno's cardiologist, it's almost $50 a bottle. I've been taking mutivitamins since my children where born. That was back in the day we used to buy fruit and vegetables from the supermarket which I believe have far less vitamins and minerals due to their long time in cold storage. I still take one a day for those times I don't eat properly and I still feel they do me good.

Renee, we have a general list of staple foods that we buy once a month. When we buy fresh fruit and vegetables, we buy what is in season. It's the freshest and the cheapest. We spend $250 a month.

The price of petrol in the UK is incredible! We filled up last week and it was $1.35 (.66 pounds) a litre. The taxes in the Netherlands are a good idea but I would hate to pay them. You seem to have very progressive laws over there. What does your government use that car money for? Is it an environmental tax?

I use an Excel spreadsheet for my budget but you can use any software you have or simply write it on a piece of paper.

I'll be returning to non-money subjects tomorrow and I'll breathe a sigh of relief doing it. ;- )

Budget - good news

Hanno and I spent two hours on our budget yesterday. We checked old bills and we had our little (solar) calculator running hot. We put 2 and 2 together, checked our answers, then checked again. We are spending LESS than we used to. Call off the hounds, our financial throats haven't been cut, we are doing fine. I'm sorry to alarm everyone.

Let me explain.

Our petrol costs have risen, our food and grocery costs have risen, but almost everything else hasn't, in fact, many of our costs have fallen because we're wiser and more frugal than we used to be.

Our new budget is listed below. The way we organise our money is that we have a certain number of costs that we keep in the back. They are in the first section below. Our other costs are paid in cash, so that money is withdrawn every month and put into my trusty zip lock bags. Each section has its own bag, for instance, we have a bag containing $125 marked 'Aldi', a bag containing $125 marked 'IGA', a bag containing $30 marked 'Chemist' etc. During the month, money is taken from these bags when we do our shopping.

GENERAL EXPENSES - STAYS IN BANK

(Per month)
Each bill is paid by direct debit when it comes in or kept in the bank until we need it

House and water rates 95.00
Insurance - house, car, health 225.00

Phone - Landline & Mobile 40.00
Internet 40.00
Electricity 53.00
Gas 15.00
Rego, tyres and maintenance 84.00
Vitamins 80.00
Clothes and shoes 20.00
Optical 25.00
TOTAL 677.00

CASH WITHDRAWAL FOR ALL BELOW
Money withdrawn from bank and put in ziplocks

GROCERIES
Aldi 125.00
IGA and markets 125.00
Chook and Dogs Foods 50.00
Bulk food/ flour 40.00
TOTAL 340.00

TRANSPORT
Petrol 150.00
TOTAL 150.00

HEALTH
Dental 20.00
Medical 25.00
Chemist 30.00
TOTAL 75.00

GENERAL
Garden Supplies 30.00
Pocket Money - HH & RH 80.00
Postage 15.00
TOTAL 125.00

TOTAL MONTHLY SPENDING $1367.00 or $342 a week or $49 a day

In our old budget we were paying more for various services so that is were our current savings are. Here is the old budget, this is the first part of the budget that we keep in the bank:

House and water Rates 156.00
Insurance - house, health, car 295.00
Phone - Landline & Mobile 95.00
Internet 40.00
Electricity 67.00
Gas 25.00
Rego, Tyres and maintenance 87.00

TOTAL = $765.00

As you can see, we've added $125 to that section and we're still $88 under our previous budget. We are also saving $100 a month on this budget.

We've decided to keep our food budget the same and try to stay within in for the time being. We'll review it again in six months time.

There is a lot to be said for small steps each day. They really do add up. All those small savings in electricity when we turn off lights and appliances at the wall - that's where some of these savings have been made. More savings were made by baking a few things at the same time, by cutting back on water, and being mindful of our phone usage - using emails more and the phone less. All small, almost insignificant savings, but when added up, have made the difference for us between make and break.

So yes, our fuel and food prices have risen but we can cover those rises with savings from other areas. I have to tell you, it was a surprise to both of us how much we'd cut back. The proof for us was in all those bills we looked at from the past year - they were all less than the previous years, even though the costs of utilities is rising as well. We are not living a lesser life because of those cut backs. We don't feel deprived. Quite the contrary, we feel enriched, satisfied and confident, knowing we can change for the better and stay within the meagre boundaries we imposed on ourselves.

I will go ahead with the Etsy shop and the extra writing and see if we can make a bit of money for our holiday and maybe some to be put aside for a new computer that we'll probably need in the next year or two.

To answer a couple of questions raised earlier:

• The trip to where I work is up a steep mountain road, a motorised bike would not be an option.


• I belong to no church but I like the idea of tithing. As someone else suggested, I give to my community with the work I do at the Centre.


• RachaelC, the hen and chicks are from Brazil. They were a gift.

Again I want to thank everyone for the thoughtful comments on our situation. We really have built a great little community here.

Re-evaluating and moving forward

There have been many emails and very thoughtful and helpful comments to my previous post. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Every comment made me think. We are doing a number of the suggestions already so I thought it might be helpful for you, and a good summary and reminder for me, to go through what we are doing here. I have got a reasonable idea of where we're headed so I'll get to that at the end of the post.

Hanno and I will write out our new budget later today so I'm not much wiser with my figures yet but I do know that insurance is our biggest expense. We were paying just under $2000 a year for private health insurance but few months ago we reduced that by $500 a year by agreeing to pay an excess when we use it. Hanno had a small stroke a few years ago and also goes to a cardiac specialist occasionally so keeping the health insurance is important. I'm confident we've got the best value for money with our car, house and contents insurance, so they're not being touched now.

We gave up pay TV a few years ago, we have one mobile phone that costs us about $10 every three months to run (yes, $10), our landline is one of the Telstra pensioner budget accounts. We get around nine kilometres a litre from our car. My job is in the next town so that's currently a 30 kilometre (19 miles) round trip three days a week. I'm cutting that back to two days soon but at the moment it's costing me $54 a month in fuel for my voluntary job. Yikes! Obviously the fuel bill will need to be talked about but I'm not going to give up my job which supports my simple living philosophy and has come to be an important part of my life.

Our vegetable garden, which includes potatoes and fruit, supplies most of our fresh food at the moment. It costs very little to keep it going, except the work to maintain it. We make our own fertiliser with comfrey, compost and worm castings, we buy seaweed extract and sulphate of potash a few times a year. We have two water tanks to store harvested rain water. They hold 15000 litres (4000 gallons) and we have enough rain fall to keep them going. They have very rarely been empty.

Our chooks keep us in eggs and soon, when they're all laying, we'll sell the excess eggs to pay for our dog and cat food as well as the chook food. We make our own dog food at a cost of about $5 a week for two Airedale Terriers (fairly big dogs). We buy tinned cat food at Aldi.

We don't eat meat, although Hanno does buy smoked meat about four times a year for his winter German grunkohl and sausage fest. If we buy fresh fish, we buy that from the fishermen's co-op down on the coast. The last time I bought fish it was about $20 a kilo for snapper/barramundi/coral trout. A kilo does us for about three meals. We buy fresh fish about once every six weeks. The rest of the time we eat vegetarian-type meals but this is something we did before we started living as we do now.

We have solar panels for our hot water so all our hot water is free. I wash up by hand, except when we have visitors here, I sweep the floor and only use the vacuum cleaner a couple of times a month. I make all our cleaning products, including soap. We still use toothpaste but we also use bicarb and salt. We've disposed of all paper disposables except tissues and toilet paper. I knit dishcloths, I've cut down dramatically on the amount of plastic wrap I use and probably now use about a fifth of what we used to use. I found a French pyrex glass container for cheese, I cover leftovers with upturned bowls. We have compact fluros light bulbs in every light socket in the house. I use a slow cooker. I am monitoring our electricity and water usage again by checking the metres every day but I already know we use a fraction of what is considered normal nowadays.

We spend about $250 a month on all groceries and food, including fruit, vegetables, milk and cheese, which I buy locally. I am not going to increase that as prices rise, we'll change and adapt as we go. Most of our food and grocery shopping is done at Aldi, what we can't buy there we buy at the local IGA. When we need fruit or vegetables we buy them at local markets. I buy all our flour, bicarb, nuts, seeds, spices, yeast etc from a bulk food shop. I bake our bread and always cook from scratch. I never buy pre-cooked or convenience foods. I always cook with the lid on the saucepan to retain heat, I cook with powdered milk, I use loose tea, not teabags, I always use leftovers. We preserve our excess and always make our own jams, preserves and sauces. Nevertheless, if there is one place I could cut back on costs, it would be in the kitchen. I used to fill a Thermos flask with boiling water but stopped doing that for some unknown reason, I'll start that again today. The kitchen and cooking is always a work in progress, because I am constantly looking for ways to simplify and cut back.

We gave up buying books and magazines. Hanno buys the weekend newspaper sometimes. We belong to our local LETS but rarely use it because most of the people listed now are offering products and services we don't need.

I will think about doing some sustainability workshops here at home - maybe a day long course that is hands on making bread, soap and laundry powder, lunch with the bread and salad from the garden, followed by an afternoon outside showing how to develop and maintain a vegetable garden as well as keeping chooks and worms.

I'm already writing regularly for Warm Earth magazine, I'll ask them if they'd like two articles instead of just one. I might also approach other magazines like Grass Roots and Organic. I'll think about the e-books again. My concern initially was that they'd be too expensive with the various exchange rates to make them worthwhile.

The biggest change is that I've decided to start an Etsy shop. It will take a while to make enough products to open, but I started working on it yesterday. I'll sell stitcheries, new patterns, soap, the e-books and a few small sewn things for the home. When I have loofahs, I'll sell soap and loofah gift packs. I think it will be fun but it will also take a lot of time. I might have to rearrange my days in small ways to accommodate the extra needlework.

I won't have advertising on my blog. I am hoping to encourage thrift, not spending. I will however, use my Amazon box again when I get around to it so I can get some new books for myself and Hanno.

Every simple life is a series of challenges - which begin with everyone telling you you're crazy when you start. I see this as just another challenge, a problem that can be solved with a bit of thought and change. I love being challenged, I love doing the best I can with what I have and I love taking charge of my life and doing things my way. This will be a time of change for Hanno and I but we look to it with enthusiasm and, as usual, we'll walk this path together, writing about what we find as we go. Thank you for your support, comments, emails and kind wishes, our lives are better for them.

We are cutting back ... again

We have come to the sad realisation that we are not makings ends meet. In the past month our fuel costs have risen from $120 a month to $150, and we are spending more on food. We have lived on our current budget for three years but in the past six months we have watched as prices rose, however, with a bit of juggling have been able to absorb those increases. But not any more. In the past, we spent less than our meager income and we had money left over at the end of most months. That money went to our emergency fund or our savings. We have been hoping for an increase in the pension but last week when our new Labor government handled down their first budget, that didn't happen. They increased the baby bonus to $5000, increased the day care allowance, gave tax cuts to families with young children, and taxed the rich, and for all those things I'm grateful, but we pensioners got nothing. We are a group who must live on a fixed income with ever rising prices.

Hanno and I will go through our budget tomorrow and work out how we can shuffle things around and what we can cut out. We're voluntarily living fairly close to the bone as it is. I guess I can now cut the "voluntarily" out of my simple living sentences. One thing is clear, we can't take anymore little trips out like our trip to the chook lady last week. We'll have to be more prudent with our car usage. I will also cut back on postage. I've budgeted $15 a month for that so when I get my current lot of postings in the mail, I might have to pull my head in for a while. We will need to concentrate more of producing food here, I will make sure we don't run short with our continuous planting and we'll be ever vigilant about what we can store for use later.

I'm going to set myself up again today for reading my electricity and water metres. I need to keep an eye on our usage and pull it back if possible. I'll read both metres this morning and check the metres every day - noting what we've done during that day like washing clothes and baking bread. I'll also have to cost out what we're spending on feed for our chooks, dogs and cat. There may be savings to be made there. There are a few things I can do in the kitchen to scale back our costs, I'll write about those in the coming weeks after I make sure all the changes actually work well.

I am so grateful to be debt-free and already living small. I am also grateful for our garden and that we have already reskilled ourselves for a situation like this. We will have to do without things we like, we'll not be able to go on the little driving holiday we planned for later in the year, but overall, unlike many others, we will be okay. We have some money in the bank and are definitely not about to be carted off to the poor house. My thoughts are with the many pensioners who are really struggling - paying rent or paying off a mortgage.

I'm going to see if I can earn some money from writing again. I did that for over 20 years so I hope I haven't lost my touch. If anyone has any contacts or ideas for me, I'd appreciate them.

Of course the real test in all of this is to cut back while still living life to its fullest. Now, more than ever, we'll find our joy with each other and in our home. There are many trials in life, and this is certainly not the most difficult one, so I don't want anyone feeling sorry for us. What I would like is your help with any new ideas about saving in these tough times. What have you done? Or what would you do if in a similar position?

Taking up the thread - UPDATED

I'm really pleased so many of you are interested in starting to stitch. It's a wonderful way to make beautiful gifts and it will help you create a 'uniquely you' home. These little stitcheries can decorate cushions, tote bags, quilts, aprons, dresses and cardigans as well as be made into wall hangings. They can be personalised by adding someone's name and you can add your favourite sayings by printing the text out at the right size from your computer and transferring that text to your fabric.

Stitchery is just a drawing on fabric that you colour by stitching the lines with coloured thread. If you're a good drawer, go ahead and freehand your pattern straight on to your fabric. If you need some help with design, there are some of my free patterns below that you can trace. Please modify them to suit your tastes too, I don't mind at all.

I have written about starting stitchery before, so please read this and be guided by the links for transferring designs onto fabric and how to do back stitch.

A fully equipped thread box will take a while to build up, but start with your favourite colours and slowly take it from there, adding new colours or different shades when you can afford them. Try to buy pure cotton or pure linen fabric. They are lovely to work with, sit nicely on other fabrics and will last a long time. If you're in Australia, I've recently found "handkerchief linen" at Spotlight. It's a very nice fabric and a half metre will do you nicely for a few projects. You will also need a backing for the fabric which helps anchor your stitches and gives a better finished result. If your local fabric shop doesn't stock this, you'll find it at your craft store.

When you choose your first piece of thread you'll notice the thread has six strands. You will only work with two strands at a time so you have to divide the thread, taking two strands for your work. You do this by cutting the required length of thread, don't make it too long, and then carefully pulling two threads away. Untwirl the main thread as you go.

The one stitch you'll use more than others is back stitch. Practise a few lines of back stitch before you start on your pattern. It's personal choice whether you use a hoop or not. I use one sometimes for smaller patterns, otherwise I just hold the fabric. Like everything else, this is about developing your own style and seeing how you work best with it. Learn the basics and then modify it to suit yourself.

Stitchery is a wonderful thing to do in summer or winter and it's very portable so you can take it with you when you go out. I hope you enjoy this very likeable past time. Like everything else in our lives, start slowly, buy the best quality fabric you can afford and be mindful of your work. People have been stitching for hundreds of years so with your stitchery you are joining the long tradition of handmade craft.

My patterns are here, here and here.

ADDITION: I've just found this wonderful embroidery tutorial on Purlbee.

If you know of any good free pattern sites, please share them with us.