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Debt, what a rotten word. Yet it’s what most of us have to sign up to, live with and work through if we are to own our own home. Let me say first that I know there are many ways to pay off debt. I’m writing about what worked well for Hanno and I. This is what I have experience in. Other methods may work equally as well but as I have no experience of other ways, I can't write about them.

As I said in the previous post, we paid off our mortgage in eight years. It was not easy, few things that are really worthwhile are ever easy, but we decided on our plan and we stuck to it. Yes we fell of the wagon a couple of times, but when we did, we got right back on and knuckled down again. We also had a healthy deposit when we bought our house.

If you’re thinking of buying a house, don’t wait until you buy it to start putting money aside. Work out how much you can realistically and consistently pay off a mortgage, and from that moment on, start putting that amount aside. While you’re looking around for your home, this money will be building up and when it comes time to pay your deposit, your nest egg is there. Add it to your deposit. Once you’re locked into the mortgage, pay as much as you can each month. Make extra payments if you’re able to.

If you have credit card debt, and have debt on a few cards, I like the snowball method of paying them off. First you make a list of your credit card debt, from the smallest to the largest debt. Then, before you pay anything from the debts, you save an emergency fund of between $500 - $1000 to provide a safety net in case something happens that you need money for. This will allow you to use your emergency fund instead of your credit cards in an emergency.

When you snowball debt, you pay off the smallest debt first, while continuing to pay the minimum payment on your other cards. When the lowest debt is paid off, you go to the second lowest debt and do the same thing. When you pay off the second card, you'll have more money for your payment because you'll have paid off one card, so you use that money to increase your payment on the second card, and so on, until you've paid them all off. Always pay the minimum payment on your other cards.

Be careful of temptation while you're in your period of debt reduction. The bank will write to you offering to increase your credit limit - they say this is your reward for being an excellent customer and for paying off your debts so well, but in reality it's to trap you in ever increasing debt that they reap huge rewards from. It is not in the bank's interest for you to be debt-free. So when they write you that letter telling you that your limit is increased, write back and say you want to decrease your credit limit. Decrease it so you don't face temptation.

Read more about snowballing debt here.

When you have your cards paid off you should keep ONE of them. That one card should have zero balance and a limit of about $500. This is what Hanno and I have now, we have had this card for many years, we rarely use it, but it's there, just in case. We find that paying for things with cash, feels like we are really spending money, whereas buying with a credit card doesn't. There is nothing like the feeling of handing over a couple of $50 notes to let you know you're really spending, and to be careful.

Now, this is the bit that I really wanted to share with you.

When you pay off your debt you have to be strong. It will be very easy to go the other way, say it doesn't matter, or your best friend has a new dress and you should have one too, or the car needs new tyres NOW. Don't betray yourself. Stay true to what you want to do. Stay on the path you've planned out and don't keep spending. If you do need a new dress or new tyres, then they should be saved up for, not whacked on the credit card. Please don't betray yourself. That is what you'll be doing if you keep spending.

I firmly believe that Hanno and I have such a strong marriage because together we decided what our shared values were and we worked as a team for what we wanted. Debt reduction was part of that. We decided that our days of being screwed by the bank were over, we wanted to be free of debt and the weight of carrying that debt around with us every day. Together we listed our debts, together we planned our escape from debt and together we worked towards it. It helped build our marriage because we were working towards a common goal and when we saw each other making the sacrifices necessary for our success that built into our marriage a feeling of pride, security and strength.

I can't tell you what it will take for you to pay off your debt, but if it's giving up your Saturday shopping sprees, selling your decluttered household items on ebay or cutting back on your spiralling grocery bill, do it; do whatever it takes. You and I both know it won't be easy but whatever pain, inconvenience or anxiety it causes will be forgotten when you come out the other end and live debt-free. Having no debt will give you freedom to live the way you want to live. So what's stopping you? Be brave, take a deep breath and dive in.
I had a lovely email from a reader today, an ex-New Yorker who has moved to PA. She's a writer and a contributor to the book Get Satisfied: How Twenty People Like You Found the Satisfaction of Enough. Apparently it's been very popular and is going to be made into a documentary. I checked it out on Amazon and it looks like a very interesting read. I've added it to my Amazon favourites.

Don't forget your aprons ladies. The swap deadline is next week, November 28. All aprons must be posted on or before that day.

I haven't been able to post about my kitchen yet. Let me just say that work has stopped and we have no kitchen. I'll update you when I can write about it without sounding like a mad woman.

Our six monthly water bill arrived yesterday. It was $44.85, with our discount we have to pay $40.36. We've worked hard to reduce our water consumption and as the price of water has been rising - from 78 cents/kilolitre in 2002 when our bill was $248.20; 78 cents in 2004 when our bill was $148.20; 95 cents/kl in 2006 when our bill was $101.65 to 115 cents/kl now when our bill is $44.85, we have been using less and getting the most out of every drop. We've done a similar thing with our electricity bill.

There are choices to be made when you decide to live simply and reduce your impact on the world. One of the choices we made was that reducing our use of water and electricity was something we could achieve that would make a different to our greenhouse gas emissions and to the amount we paid for our utilities. We worked on one thing but got two rewards for the work we put in. In many ways being frugal is being green.

We did a similar thing when we decided to get rid of our debt. We paid off our house in eight years. We did that by first making the conscious decision to do it, we made a plan on how we'd do it, then we did it. That last part was the most difficult. ; ) It's easy looking at something and knowing you need to work on it; making a plan is pretty easy too, but the doing of it. Well, that takes effort, perseverance and determination.

One of the things we planned for when we started on this path of debt reduction was to not worry about what our family, friends and neighbours thought. We had to have enough confidence to know, really know right down to our bones, that what we were doing was right for us. It might not have been right for our neighbours, or our friends, but for us, it was right - it would make our lives better. I'm not going to tell you it was easy, because sometimes it wasn't, but as we got into it and we saw our debt reducing every week, instead of going up or stagnating, it replaced the feelings of deprivation we sometimes felt when we decided against buying tickets for a concert, going out to dinner or going on holiday, with something better - we felt the taste of freedom.

Being in debt restricts you. It makes you play by someone else's rules. You have to work enough so you have the money to pay up every month. And the really horrible thing about having a mortgage or credit card debt is that often when you make a payment, you don't reduce the debt - or you only reduce it by a small fraction - often you're just paying interest to a bank.

But the purpose of this post is not to remind you of your mortgage or credit card bills, but to show you, by example, that reducing debt isn't just about your large bills. You can reduce your debt by cutting back on your consumption of water, electricity, gas, petrol and your phone. When you pay less for all these things, not only will you reduce your footprint on the earth, you'll also have more money to pay off your mortgage and credit cards. And, ladies and gentlemen, I guarantee that the day you pay off your mortgage will be a day you'll remember for a long time. There is such a feeling of relief and freedom that you'll be smiling all the way to the bank to finalise your account.

Tomorrow I'll write about ways to pay off debt.

Graphic from allposters.com
It's Thanksgiving Day in America today so I'd like to wish my American friends happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a wonderful day with family and friends.


Some of my tea making paraphernalia. I know I have too much of this but tea makes me happy, I enjoy making good tea for friends and family and I love having morning and afternoon tea. So for those reasons, I'm keeping all my tea gear, none of it will be removed in a decluttering frenzy in the foreseeable future. I think I have nine teapots. I can't check now because most of them are packed away somewhere. The little white teapot here I bought in the 60s when I first left home - it's a Finlandia. The blue and white tea/coffee pot is from the 1970s, it's an English Adams, not expensive, but my first blue and white set of crockery. The pot with "tea" on it is a 1930s set Made in Japan. I also have a set of canisters that match it which I bought off ebay about six or seven years ago. The little blue cup and saucer and milk jug are similar to ones my Mum had when I was growing up. They were also bought on ebay several years ago. Kettle at the back, tea balls and strainer at the front.


I was asked in comments and emails how to brew a good pot of tea, and thought it was an excellent idea for a post.

Tea is the second most popular drink in the world. Water is the most popular. Like most people, I've been drinking tea made with tea bags - I found a well priced organic black tea bag at Aldi and have been using that. But over the past couple of months I've gone back to real tea, and I say 'real tea' because tea bags are made with the fannings (the worst grade of tea) and tea dust. There is such a difference in the taste that I know if you've only used tea bags, tea made with loose leaves will convert you to making tea in a pot.

You'll need fresh water, a kettle, a china, glass or pottery tea pot, tea leaves, a tea cosy (if you're in a cold climate), tea strainer or tea ball (to stop the leaves going into your cup), and ...

Time. After your water is boiled, it will take about five minutes to make a pot of tea.

You must have fresh water from the tap to make good tea. Tea needs dissolved oxygen in the water and if you use water that's been sitting in the kettle for a while, that's not good enough.

While I'm sure there are many ways to make a good pot of tea, this is how I make it:
  1. Fill your kettle and boil the water.
  2. While the kettle is boiling, prepare your pot and the tea cups. If you're putting the tea in a tea ball, do that, making sure the tea ball is suitable for the size of the pot. Don't put the tea in the pot yet.
  3. When the water is boiled, pour a small amount into the pot and swish it around the pot to warm it. Tip that water out.
  4. Add the tea leaves to the pot. The usual measure is one teaspoon for each person and one for the pot. So if you're making two cups, you'd add three teaspoons of tea leaves and enough water for almost three cups.
  5. Pour the boiling tea over the tea leaves and place the lid on the tea pot. The water must be boiling.
  6. If you're in a cold climate, place a tea cosy over your teapot. The tea will stand now for a few minutes and it must be kept hot. I use a tea cosy here in winter but not in summer.
  7. Allow the tea to steep for between three to five minutes. I drink mine after about three minutes.
  8. If you take your tea with milk, it is added after the tea is poured, and although this is firmly adhered to in certain parts, (ahem England : ) ), it really doesn't matter when you add the milk. Some say you scald the tea when you add it first, I doubt very much that it matters.
  9. Sugar or honey is generally used to sweeten tea and some add a squeeze of fresh lemon. But don't add milk if you add lemon as it will curdle the milk.
I have my tea black with one spoon of honey. MMmmmmmm. Please don't flavour your tea too much, it masks the true flavour of good tea. All those vanilla, apple, apricot and strawberry teas, aren't the types of tea I'm talking about here. They are tea bags made with fannings and with (usually) artificial flavourings added. If you want to drink good tea for flavour and health, you'll choose a good quality loose tea, have it black or with milk and with sweetener or without. That's it.

TYPES OF TEA
All tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis. After the tea is picked, it is processed in various ways to produce the different teas we drink. Tea is generally named for the region it originates from.

Green tea: Tea that is dried immediately after harvesting.

Black tea: Tea that is dried and fermented, it's stronger than green tea. Black tea comes in various strengths and flavours. There is Darjeeling (my favourite), Orange Pekoe (which not orange flavoured), Earl Grey (black tea with bergamot oil added), Ceylon tea (for my fellow Australians, this is the tea that is sold as Billy Tea, Lan Choo, Bushells, King Tea etc.) Ceylon tea is my everyday cuppa.

TEA COSIES
You'll need a tea cosy if you live in a cold climate.
Tea cosy patterns here and here, Australian 1930s crocheted tea cosy and a vintage tea cosy. I wanted to show you my favourite tea cosy that Tricia made for me, a patchwork one, but I can't find it with everything packed away for the renovations. I'll try to remember it when everything is back to normal.

More information about tea.
The health benefits of tea.

I hope you all have the chance to make a pot of tea soon, and to sit and relax with the warming flavour of it.



This is the beginnings last night's dinner, prepared in the guest bathroom. There are cooked potatoes in the colander at the back, radishes, just picked, and pickled cucumbers. I'll write about this meal in a future post.

We are making progress. It might not look like it, but there has been movement in the right direction. Yesterday the dehumidifier was removed after draining something like 200 litres of water! Absolutely incredible. Today the floor goes down and tomorrow the kitchen is put back. But enough of my kitchen, if you're not bored with it by now, I am, and I want to talk about progress.

I think many of us, myself included, have been conditioned to believe that we should always have our desires met instantly. We are told not to save for what we want to buy but to have what we want instantly by using a credit card. Have it now! This happens in the home too. We have instant porridge, two minute noodles, instant soup, tea bags, precooked rice, we even have instant messaging. Why can't we wait for these things? I believe there are few nicer ways to start the day, and to think about what I'll be doing during the day, than to stand at the stove stirring porridge - real oats. I love brewing tea in a pot with tea leaves too. Tea needs time to develop flavour. Tea bags just don't cut it. Yes, I know tea bags take a fraction of the time a pot of tea takes. You will save about 2 minutes using a tea bag. But what do you do with those two minutes? Do you get what a pot of tea will give you - a sense of slowing down and the anticipation of good tea.

Sometimes you have to wait for progress to happen too. It's not instant, precooked, predigested or fast. Like your tea in a pot or good porridge, progress needs work invested in it, and occasionally it needs to be stirred before you realise something is happening. You might be focused on your simple life and doing some of the things we talk about here, but feel you're not getting anywhere. Progress is a strange phenomenon. It might happen quickly right before your eyes, yet sometimes you ache for it and you feel abandoned. If that is how you feel, don't give up, don't ever give up, progress is brewing in the background.

If you're feeling frustrated by a lack of progress towards the life you want to live, start stirring your porridge, so to speak, by learning more simple things you will need in your life. That might include reading more about budgeting, redoing your budget, talking to a friend or neighbour about keeping chickens or growing vegetables, decluttering a small area of your home or taking time for yourself each day to sit, relax and think. This small step will often stimulate progress to show itself in some way.

Sometimes you just need to wait because behind the scenes progress is bubbling away happily without you knowing it. When the time is right, you'll wake up to a brighter view of your life and you'll see you're closer to your ideal than you realised. Simplicity is not a tea bag, it's a pot of tea and it needs time to develop it's full flavour. And remember that you won't always see your progress, it sometimes creeps along too silent and transparent to be noticed.
Is this every man's dream? The fridge next to the armchair, facing the TV.
We survived another day without a kitchen, and with cupboards and appliances sitting on the back verandah. Actually it hasn't been too bad and the only thing I'm really missing is my filtered water tap. There is water in the tap but I never drink our unfiltered tap water. I thought we were preparing for two days without the filter, and filled the pottery crock Tricia gave me before the taps were removed. It's now less than half full. I thought we were pretty good with our water but let me tell you we are being even more thrifty with it now. We are pouring the remains in the water bottles into the electric jug and drinking full glasses of water; no drinking water is being thrown on the garden, into pot plants or down the drain. It has shown me that no matter how much you monitor your usage in a normal day, there is always room for improvement. I don't have to work today so later in the morning I'm going to boil some rainwater from the tank and add that to the crock.
Tea and toast bar.
When you think about it, you can cut back on the length of showers, turn off the tap when you brush your teeth, do less washing in an energy and water efficient washing machine, but you can't cut back on the amount of water you drink. We always try for two litres each a day, plus what we drink in our tea. So I guess we need about six litres of drinking water a day. While I was at work, I drank the spring water that's at the Centre. I also filled up my water bottle before I came home, but that's all gone now and soon we'll be relying on our rainwater to keep us healthy and hydrated.

Here is Rosie checking out the old oven which has been plopped next to the cupboards on the back verandah.
This is another instance where something unexpected happened and what we have stored here has seen us through. I think it was Lisa who asked recently about stockpiling water. Here is your answer, Lisa. It's essential.
The new stove on the left, next to the old stove, both sitting on the back verandah.
I prepared enough food for two days without the kitchen. Today is day three. I'll have to come up with something for us to eat today and tomorrow and although I have no doubt we'll eat well, I know I'll have trouble finding everything I need. That is another lesson learned - pack a box of easy to prepare foods, no matter now quickly you think everything will return to normal. Oh well, I'm sure we'll survive. At least we have food in the house, which is more than millions of people throughout the world can say. Lis and Christine suggested a post about what we're eating this week so when the kitchen is back and everything is back to normal, I'll write about it.

Thank you for stopping by today and welcome all the new people who are reading my blog.


I love it when the unexpected happens. It reminds me that no matter how much we plan things out, no matter how many people work on a job, no matter how much we want it to go smoothly, some things just take their own sweet time. Whatever will be, will be.

Work has stopped on the kitchen.

Yesterday I was dressed and had eaten breakfast before the workers arrived at 7am. My plan was to have everything done and my basket packed for work, and to write my blog after they arrived. My computer is away from the work area, no problems, I thought. HA! I said hello to all of them, organised my basket, and came in here to write. Then they turned off the electricity. : ) Plan B - I drove to work. I thought I'd do my post from there before everyone else arrived but I got busy straight away and stayed that way all day.

So, what happened in the kitchen? They removed the lower cupboards, then the floor, and found water laying under the floor boards on the concrete slab. A lot of water. The floor will dry out until Thursday, when the workers will return. Apparently the entire kitchen will be back in by Friday afternoon. It's now Tuesday morning. : )

I have to tell you how much I loved reading about the changes you've been making in your lives. The comments made on the previous post, and the emails I received, turned yesterday's ordinary day into a diamond. It's strange what motivates us to change. Behavioural change is supposed to be the most difficult and yet it's been achieved by reading words on a screen, and knowing there was the need. Of course that is too simple for what has happened here. Those changes made were the result of a number of things. I think my blog shows a life being lived. I try not to talk too much of why Hanno and I live as we do, I want to just show and tell the ordinary day-to-day doing of it, with sprinklings of what we get for our efforts. We all know we've used too much of our planets limited resources, and polluted our water, air and soils because of it. What we need to do is to peel back the layers of our lives, look at what we've got, and replace the layers with only what is absolutely necessary. (A bit like my kitchen.) We are all changing from being users to conservers, and when our layers are back in place, it will reveal a simpler life.

I hope my blog shows that we are all part of a profound and significant group. We aren't alone and we aren't weird to want to live this way. Simple living will help restore the planet to a more stable place and we are leading this revolution. We got into this mess by believing the lie that we can all have whatever our money can buy. It didn't happen overnight, it was a fifty year process to get to this point. It won't be reversed fast either but every mile we don't drive, every piece of plastic we don't use, every vegetable we grow or buy locally, every person we talk to about our lives, will help repair the damage. I am thankful for everyone who reads and everyone who comments because it shows that we are part of that simple revolution. The rest of the neighbourhood just doesn't know it yet.
This is what came from kitchen cupboards, there is more on the floor.

The day has arrived. Today we'll finish clearing out the kitchen in preparation for the renovation tomorrow and Tuesday. We worked on it steadily yesterday, packing things in boxes, putting aside unwanted items, throwing out unrecognisable pieces of plastic and cleaning out cupboards. This is the ultimate deep clean. The dishwasher is on the back verandah, today we'll move the fridge into the lounge room, table and chairs will go to the bedroom, the dresser has to be unpacked and moved and the stove and oven cleaned. Both the stove and oven will be replaced along with a new cupboard under the sink, benchtop and sink. We're having a new floor installed too, just in the kitchen/dining area, but to put the new floor down, the kitchen cupboards need to come out. I am so pleased I'll be out of the house at work both days the workmen will be here. Hanno will be here to supervise and will happily work alongside the men doing whatever he can and, no doubt, making cups of coffee. That reminds me. I'll have to make a comfortable area for the workers to have their lunch, and I'll see if I can find an ash tray.

I finished the hand stitching on my new curtains yesterday and hope to make them up today on the sewing machine. They'll be simple little curtains, hemmed top and bottom and attached using silver clips from Ikea. It shouldn't take me long to hem them and they'll be ready to hang when the kitchen is finished.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to post over the coming days. The workmen will arrive at 7am so before then I'll need to have had my shower, breakfast and be dressed ready for work. I'll just say I'll post when I can. I have access to the internet at work but I'm usually so busy when I'm there, I might just have the time to check comments.

In the meantime, I'd like to ask you all to do something for me. If this works, it will also provide some very interesting reading for everyone and it will give me some feedback. I often read that blog readers have been inspired by something I've done, or said, and by my life in general. I also get quite a few emails every week telling me this. I wonder if that inspiration has enabled you to change things in your own life, and if so, what changes have you made. Please make a comment and tell us of your changes, no matter how small they may seem to you, or how large. I am often inspired towards change by things I read and I would love to know who has been inspired enough to change, and by what. Thank you. : )
The tentative beginnings of a quilt. The centre panel is an old pillow slip I bought from Ikea, that is bordered by leftover fabric from my new curtains. The rest will be made up of bits and pieces of old fabric, never used. It's from old skirts of mine, tablecloths, pieces from Tricia and a couple of metres of blue tones bought specially for this project.

I'm a quilter! I never thought I'd ever utter those words and if the truth be know, I'm only on my second quilt. Ummm, and there is a gap of 27 years between the first one and what I'm doing now. LOL My first quilt was made using precut Laura Ashley squares. I made a single bed quilt so that my baby Shane could sit on something soft on the floor. All I did was sew the squares together, attach some wadding and a backing and that was my quilt. I still have it somewhere, I think Hanno has it packed in a box in the shed. Shane is now 27 years old.

My sister has been a quilter for many years and has made some beautiful quilts, one of which I use on my bed in winter. But I never really understood the quilt mentality - when my brother-in-law asked Tricia "why are you cutting up fabric and sewing it back together again?" I listened closely for the answer because I didn't know. Of course, Tricia didn't answer her husband because she thought he was teasing her. Maybe he was, but I wanted to know what her answer would be. Now I know.

Or think I do.

Making a quilt from pieces of fabric left over from other projects, or gifted to me, is the essence of simple living. It's the ability to make something functional, beautiful and necessary using the frugal remains of other projects. It's the motivation to use what we have, to make what we need.

I arrived at this pleasant rethinking of patchwork because three things worked together to convince me of the worth of a patchwork quilt. One was that I now have enough fabric - Tricia's overflowing basket full of scraps gave me the means. Secondly, I realised that what I made didn't have to be perfect. This was galvanised into my head when Tricia was here and I told her that I couldn't get my patchwork squares to line up exactly on their seams. "So?" was her answer. I loved that. I love knowing perfection isn't required. If it is, I always fall short. The third thing was after seeing Tricia's quilt I finally knew where my starting point was. I never knew that before and for someone as craft-dumb as I am, that is a really important step.

About a year ago when Tricia visited, she cut out a lot of squares for me in preparation for the quilt I'm now making. Over the months, I sewed lengths of them together (hence my shock when they didn't all line up) but I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing with the strips. I am an intelligent woman, but I can also be very stupid with things unknown to me. I could write a creditable magazine article in an hour, I could explain to you the life cycle of the worm or make a speech to a thousand people, but give me strips of fabric and I'm dumbfounded. Completely dumbfounded. Tricia's quilt showed me the way, I start from the middle and work out, that makes sense to me!

This quilt, like my first quilt, is for Shane, I plan to make Kerry's for his birthday in July. The symbolism of a handmade quilt can be quite powerful and it can echo meaning to family members over generations. I will weave several messages to my sons in their quilts, there will be symbols of their Australian, German, Irish and Swedish heritage, as well as secret messages from me to them, some they're recognise, some they won't. I hope the quilts show my sons their uniqueness, my unconventional nature, some of my humour and grace, as well as the values I've come to live by, and I hope they discover too - thrift, generosity, kindness and acceptance. I hope my sons recognise all the idiosyncratic elements stitched in piece by piece, because I want them to know their quilts are meaningful. But most of all I want them to feel the love I've stitched for them, and to be wrapped in that love as they sleep.


All these photos of the garden were taken this morning.

The garden is producing well at the moment so we've been able to cut back on what we buy at the shops. I thought it might be interesting to work out the cost of our food so far this week, including all meals and snacks, and see how the garden produce factors into those costs. I will also include the source of the food, from our garden, pantry, fridge, stockpile or shop.

I make a loaf of bread almost every day. This costs about $1.60 for a wholemeal, rye or white loaf. Between all of us - the humans, dogs, fish and chooks, we eat a loaf a day. When something comes from the garden, I am counting that as 0 - nil. While I'm aware that the seeds and water come at a price, that price is minimal, so I'll add $5 for the week's seeds and water. I'll add the cost of the bread and seeds to the overall cost.

MONDAY - my work day so morning tea and lunch eaten apart. DAY'S TOTAL = $1.64
Breakfast
Boiled eggs (garden - 0), homemade bread toasted (pantry), butter (10c), black tea (pantry - 10c), honey to sweeten tea (pantry - 6c). Total 26 cents.

Morning tea
None for me
Hanno - black tea/honey 8 cents, homemade biscuits - (pantry 5 cents) Total 13 cents.

Lunch Hanno
Salad sandwich on homemade bread (tomato, lettuce, cucumber from garden, avocado given to us - 0), homemade lemon cordial - 2 cents. Peaches (garden - 0). Total 2 cents.
Lunch Rhonda
Salad and cheese sandwich (cheese 10 cents, salad 0), black tea/honey 8 cents, peach (garden - 0). Total 18 cents.

Dinner
Vegetable lasagna and salad - eggplant, tomatoes, capsicum (peppers), chilli, silverbeet, lettuce, radishes, celery from garden - 0, onions (shop - 10 cents), pasta sheets (shop - 10 cents), cheese sauce - powdered milk (pantry - 20 cents, cheese (fridge - 50 cents), flour - (pantry 5 cents), butter, salt and pepper (10 cents). Dessert - fresh peaches - (garden - 0) Total $1.05.


TUESDAY - my work day so morning tea and lunch eaten apart. DAY'S TOTAL = $2.14
Breakfast
Toast with butter and homemade strawberry jam, butter (10c), black tea (pantry - 10c), honey to sweeten tea (pantry - 6c), jam (pantry - 10 cents). Total 36 cents.

Morning tea
Hanno - black tea/honey 8 cents, homemade biscuits - (pantry 5 cents) Total 13 cents.
None for me.

Lunch Hanno
Salad sandwich on homemade bread (tomato, lettuce, cucumber from garden, avocado given to us - 0), homemade lemon cordial - 2 cents. Total 2 cents.
Lunch Rhonda
Salad and cheese sandwich (cheese 50 cents, salad 0), black tea/honey 8 cents. Total 58 cents.

Dinner
Left over vegetable lasagne (0 cents) and salad - eggplant, tomatoes, capsicum (peppers), chilli, silverbeet, lettuce, radishes, celery from garden - 0, onions (shop - 5 cents). Dessert - fresh peaches (garden - 0) and bananas (shop - $1) - Total $1.05.


WEDNESDAY TOTAL = $7.88
Breakfast
Me - baked beans (pantry 25 cents) on toast - homemade bread toasted (pantry), butter (10c), Hanno - homemade quark (40 cents) on bread - black tea (pantry - 10c), honey to sweeten tea (pantry - 6c). Total 91 cents.
Morning tea
Black tea/honey - 16 cents, homemade pikelets - (flour, powdered milk, butter, whey from quark - $1) and homemade jam - 10 cents. Total $1.26.

Lunch Hanno
Salad sandwich on homemade bread (tomato, lettuce, cucumber from garden, avocado given to us - 0), tea/honey - 8 cents. Total 8 cents.
Lunch Rhonda
Egg and tomato sandwich (egg 0, salad 0), black tea/honey 8 cents. Total 8 cents.

Dinner
Spinach pie and salad - spinach (garden - 0), eggs (garden - 0), onion (shop - 20 cents), garlic (garden - 0), fresh ricotta (shop - $2.45), cheese - (fridge - 50 cents), homemade shortcrust pastry - flour (pantry 40 cents), butter (fridge - 90 cents). Salad (garden - 0). Dessert homemade yoghurt (fridge - $1), honey (pantry - 10 cents), blueberries (garden - 0) TOTAL $5.55.


THURSDAY TOTAL = $4.63
Breakfast
Me - baked beans (pantry 25 cents) on toast - homemade bread toasted (pantry), butter (10c), Hanno - homemade quark (40 cents) on bread - black tea (pantry - 10c), honey to sweeten tea (pantry - 5c). Total 90 cents.

Morning tea
Black tea/honey - 16 cents, homemade pikelets - (flour, powdered milk, butter, whey from quark - leftover from yesterday - 0) and homemade jam - 10 cents. Total 29 cents.

Lunch
Both
Salad and tuna (pantry - $2) sandwich on homemade bread (tomato, lettuce, cucumber from garden, avocado given to us - 0), tea/honey - 16 cents. Total $2.16.

Dinner
Leftover spinach pie (0) and salad (garden - 0).
Dessert
Poached peaches (garden - 0), syrup - vanilla (pantry- 50 cents), sugar (pantry - 10 cents) and Maleny Jersey cream (shop - 60 cents). Total = $1.20
Hanno - tea/honey (8 cents)

Snacks included peaches from the garden (0) and cashews from the pantry, I buy these in 1 kilo packs, so I'm guessing our snacks cost about $3. Salad dressing was made from olive oil , dry mustard, S&P (pantry) and lemon juice (freezer). I'm adding $1 for the dressing I made. Add the cost of the bread $1.60 x 4 = $6.40, the cost of gas for the cooking = $3 and various sundries I can't think of but I'll add anyway = $2.

TOTAL
Monday $1.64
Tuesday $2.14
Wednesday $7.88
Thursday $4.63
Cashews $3.00
Dressing $1.00
Bread $6.40
Gas $3.00
Chook food $2.00
Water and seeds $5.00
Sundries $2.00

TOTAL FOUR DAYS = $38.69 or $9.67 per day for two people.

This is the quark I made from my yoghurt last week. It drained for four days before I could get back to it, but that's fine as long as it's kept refrigerated. The cheese on the left is savory with cucumber, red capsicum (red pepper), green onion and salt and pepper. It's great on crackers or a sandwich. The one on the right is sweet with honey stirred through it. It's delicious on toast for breakfast. I also collected a small jug of whey that I'll use to make a cake and pikelets (flapjacks).

Housework never ends! You could work half the day just doing what needs to be done in your home, or you could work to a schedule and have your chores organised for the days during the week, but even if you stuck rigidly to your schedule, you'd still have to do it all again tomorrow or next week. Because housework never ends.

I used to struggle with this. I had real trouble coming to terms with the endless nature of it. How could you ever want to do any chore, and get joy from it, when it would never end? No matter how well I did what I had to do, there would always be something else to do tomorrow - or I would have to do the same thing, over and over again.

When I first starting living simply, this was the one thing that didn't just fall into place for me. If I wanted to live well, get joy from the simple things that made up my day and provide a good home for my family and myself, then I had to look at my chores in a different way. I am one of those women who, although I've worked outside the home most of my life, when I became a full time homemaker/housewife, I wore that badge with pride and wanted to live up to the true and full meaning of the name.

So I started thinking about the never-ending nature of housework, as that was the bit that bothered me the most. I didn't have a problem with most of the chores themselves. One of the things Hanno impressed me with early on in our relationship was his attitude of "It has to be done, I'll just do it." So I started with that and I just did what had to be done. I made sure I didn't do all the things I liked doing on the same day, and sprinkled them throughout the week so there were always days I did chores I liked doing - like cooking, baking, gardening and mending with things I didn't like so much - like cleaning toilets, ironing and vacuuming. That worked! But no matter how many times I packed the dishwasher or cleaned the shower, or how well I did it, it still had to be done the next day or next week. Hmmmmm.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. If housework never ends then I should get rid of that feeling that if I clean the fridge out or mop the floor, then that's done. Over with. Finished. Completed. All fixed. If housework never ends, then I never have to finish it. Eureka!

When I stopped thinking that I'd work through my chores, get everything finished and then they'd get messed up again so I'd have to start over again, and replaced it with I'll do the ironing, mopping, washing up, make the beds and bake today and if I don't have time for the mopping, I'll do that tomorrow, that made a difference. I continued working with chores I liked, mixed with those I didn't like so much, and that worked well for me. I also changed things to better suit the way I worked. I stopped vacuuming so much and started sweeping. I liked sweeping, so I could still keep the floors clean without the vacuum cleaner. Now I vacuum once a week and sweep the rest of the time. I stopped using the dishwasher and started washing up by hand, and found I really liked it. I stopped ironing everything we wore and now just iron my work clothes and the napkins, tablecloths and pillow slips that I like ironed. I stopped washing everything that had been used once and now only wash what is dirty or smelly - this helped reduce my washing to two or three loads a week. That made a big difference to the amount of housework I did and also cut back on our power and water usage. A big plus.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you want to live in a clean and comfortable home that you can enjoy with your family and friends, then housework is a part of your life. If it's inevitable then you should try to make the most of it. You might end up liking most of it, like I do. Rethink how you work. Just because you've always done something one way, it doesn't mean it has to be like that forever. If you can modify something to better suit how you work, do it. Streamline your tasks and don't aim for perfection. Take breaks. Do everything you do well and find the pleasure in it - it will be there lurking, you just have to find it. Be proud of what you achieve every day because you are providing a comfortable home for your family, you are making the most of the resources you have and looking after what you own. That is a good thing. And most of all, stop thinking that you'll never get through it all. Housework never ends, so don't try to finish it.
We started our Christmas planning yesterday. Not here at home, but at the Centre where I work. Our two main projects are Santa's Helpers and a Christmas breakfast. Both of them are a big part of this caring and open community and both require a lot of organisation.

Of course the end result of both projects is quite simple. Santa's Helpers enables us to give gifts of toys, books, games and clothes to children in our town who might otherwise go without, and we give a hamper of Christmas food, including ham and a few treats like coupons for haircuts and a box of chocolates, to their parents. Our Christmas breakfast is simply that. A breakfast that we cook for the town residents. Our local politicians come along to help with the cooking and we serve all who come along. We encourage those who are living alone or away from their families, and the homeless to join us, as well as town residents who want to meet and get to know people they otherwise wouldn't meet. Last year we served over 350 people.

And the best part is - everything, every toy, game, book, box of chocolates, bike, all clothes, bags, ham, drink, haircut, bread, salad, fruit, yoghurt, water, softdrink, eggs, croissant, and all the goodies that make up the hampers and the breakfast, is donated by the wonderful people in our town.

Christmas has always been a time of family get-togethers for me. But it can be a time of sadness and stress for a lot of people. We see that in the work we do at the Centre. Some people have too much and seem to drown in their excess and some don't have enough and feel guilty and sad because of it. We help redress those problems by encouraging those who can donate to do so, and we give those donations to people who really need them. The rest is used in a breakfast of celebrations on Christmas morning where everyone comes to sit and eat together. Often Santa calls in to have breakfast with us after he's finished visiting all the children in Australia.

Hanno and I are having a dinner with our sons a week or so before Christmas as they are both working on Christmas day. On Christmas day we will be up early to help set up for the breakfast, to cook, serve and clean up and to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas with the people we'll meet at the breakfast. It will be a very simple Christmas for us. We aren't exchanging gifts but we'll be richer for the experience of it.

What are your Christmas plans?

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I'm Rhonda Hetzel and I've been writing my Down to Earth blog since 2007. Although I write the occasional philosophical post, my main topics include home cooking, happiness and gardening as well as budgeting, baking, ageing, generosity, mending and handmade crafts. I hope you enjoy your time here.

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Making ginger beer from scratch

We had a nice supply of ginger beer going over Christmas. It's a delicious soft drink for young and old, although there is an alcoholic version that can be made with a slight variation on the recipe. Ginger beer is a naturally fermented drink that is easy to make - with ginger beer you make a starter called a ginger beer plant and after it has fermented, you add that to sweet water and lemon juice. Like sourdough, it must ferment to give it that sharp fizz. To make a ginger beer plant you'll need ginger - either the powdered dry variety or fresh ginger, sugar, rainwater or tap water that has stood for 24 hours to allow the chlorine to evaporate off. You'll also need clean plastic bottles that have been scrubbed with soap, hot water and a bottle brush and then rinsed with hot water. I never sterilise my bottles and I haven't had any problems. If you intend to keep the ginger beer for a long time, I'd suggest you sterilise your bottles. MAKING THE STARTER In a...
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