down to earth

There are many of us who have known this day would come. We've been preparing for the changes a big increase in oil prices would bring - not just to the price of fuel but the flow-on cost to almost everything we buy. We've also been preparing, as best one can, for climate change. We bought tanks a few years ago, have solar hot water, have cut back on plastics and try to conserve and reuse. We have our systems in place here and although we always look for better ways or living on less, I feel confident, without being smug, that we have made a move in the right direction.

But what happens if you haven't prepared? What if you've been working on building your life and then you notice prices increasing, there is a downturn in business, you're paying off your mortgage, have quite a bit of debt and you realise you're in trouble. You or your partner might even have lost your job. You're living a life that needs those two pay packets. What happens now?

I received two emails in the past week describing exactly that scenario. This post is for those two families and for anyone else who needs another perspective on an all too common problem.

You need to change the way you live. I'm not a financial adviser but all is not lost. You can recover from this and go on to live a full and happy life. It won't be easy but it's better than going bankrupt and losing what you've worked for. There are tough times ahead for many people but while much of the mainstream media is still advertising 50% off sales (ironically for businesses closing down or struggling to survive) here in the blogisphere you will pick up some good tips that will help you recover from living a "normal" life in 2008.

The first thing you should do is to stop spending, work out a budget and track your spending. Those three things will give you the best understanding of your financial situation. It will be difficult to stop spending and live on less but you will benefit from it in the long run. Let's face this honestly, you need to change, and if you can tighten your belt and work at it, there is a new way of living waiting for you.

Stop spending - on everything except what you need to live. You should keep paying off your debts and buy food and fuel. Everything else is on a need to live basis. This strategy will help steady your ship and help you establish a plan.

Work out a budget - so you continue to pay off your debts and have money to buy food and get to work.

Track your spending - take a small notebook and pencil with you every time you go out. Every time you buy something - even if it's a pack of chewing gum, write it down. After a week you will have a vague idea of where your money is going, after a month you'll have a very good understanding and should be able to stop spending on many things and cut back on others. For example, you don't need two mobile phones, you may not even need one. You don't need pay TV, pizza delivered to your door, a second car, a new dress or golf clubs. You might want these things, but you don't need them.

If one of you have lost your job and you're now trying to live on one income, all is not lost. It is now the job of the person who is staying at home to save as much as possible through good homekeeping and being frugal. If you read through my blog, there are posts on different ways to shop, stockpiling to save money, cooking from scratch, looking after what you own, making your own bread, soap, shampoo and cleaners, and getting back to basics. You will need to reskill yourself in a number of ways, but you'll probably find the information on how to do that if you look through my blog or by clicking on many of the links on my side bar. Your blog neighbours are here to help you.

I grew up in much simpler times when people saved for what they wanted. We had no credit cards and if you didn't have the cash, you went without. We didn't feel deprived at all. It was uncomplicated and we were independent. We don't need to have everything instantly - saving and waiting for what we want is good for us. It makes us appreciate what we have. It's normal now to want something and to buy it immediately on credit. It's normal now to carry debt. It's normal now to have more than you need. It wasn't always like that - this is an aberration. Like spoilt children we have been given all we want. We are made dependent on our banks because we borrow money to buy our wants. We have been deskilled because we now buy food and clothes that don't require anything of us, except our money. We've either forgotten or have never learnt how to cook from scratch and how to make what we need. Having everything we crave hasn't made us happier. There is more depression now than ever before, more bankruptcies and more divorce.

We need to get back on track. We need to simplify our lives and realise that we don't need all that crap to be our true and authentic selves. It probably needed climate change and peak oil to make us look critically at what we have become. Now that time is here, let's make the most of it, and of ourselves.

I hope you come to understand that everyone must limit themselves. All of us can only spend what money we have, not what credit we have. If you continue to spend, banks are there to help you, until you are deep in debt. Take charge of your own life, rediscover your hope for the future and become as independent as you can be. The true test of this is if you are strong enough to take that first step and then to keep going. Be aware that many people are going through the same thing, you are not alone. Find a good book - Your money or your life is excellent, or a blog or website that keeps you on track and focused. Here are three websites I'm happy to recommend: AU Simple Savings, USA Dave Ramsey, UK Money Saving Expert

It will help you to stay motivated and swap stories with others who are dealing with the same tough issues. It won't be easy but it will be satisfying and I guarantee you this - when you come out the other end with your financial affairs in order, being able to look after yourself without having to buy everything you need to do it, you will feel stronger, wiser and happier than you were before your change.

Thank you for your comments yesterday. I'm quite overwhelmed by them. In the next few days I'll work out my plan of attack and write about it again later in the week.

We've had a lot of women sign up for the swap. Please remember the deadline for sign-ups is Thursday, June 12. Sharon and Lorraine are organising it and they will post the list of swap partners next Monday.
In the meantime, let's get back to reskilling ourselves.

If you're like us and enjoy fresh warm bread for lunch, or if you have a family who needs feeding NOW, one of your great frugal standbys is homebaked bread with butter. I have to confess, I like Vegemite on my bread and toast but I won't hold it against you if you don't. ;- )

I baked a soy and linseed loaf yesterday and when Hanno commented on the price of bread now I decided to do a little investigating. My bread cost approximately $2 to bake. Here is the breakdown: my soy/linseed flour cost $2.80 a kilo (2.2 lbs) or 43 cents per cup, white baker's flour costs me $1.52 a kilo, or 23 cents per cup. This loaf uses four cups of flour. All the following amounts are slight over-estimations: yeast 5 cents, salt 2 cents, sugar 2 cents, water 1 cent, butter 5 cents, oats and poppy seeds for the top 3 cents, electricity 50 cents. Total $2.

The Helga's soy and linseed loaf, which is the closest loaf to what I make, is currently listed as $4.73 online at Woolworths. A saving of $2.73 per loaf.

I made this loaf using the breadmaker to knead the dough. I then put the dough in a bread tin and cooked it in the oven. Making it by hand would slightly decrease the cost but increase the time spent on it.

I've been experimenting with spreads for or bread. I LOVE butter - and it shows. LOL! I'm trying to cut down on the amount of butter I eat and have recently been whipping the butter and adding water to it. It increases in volume, so it goes further and is cheaper, but it tastes the same. When you put whipped butter in the fridge it goes hard, just like unwhipped butter, so I've been keeping ours out on the bench so it's ready for use during the day.

You can't bake with whipped butter and if I put it on really hot bread, it makes it a bit soggy. I have to wait for the bread to cool down a bit before spreading the butter. On room temperature bread, it's fine.

To make whipped butter, have the butter at room temperature and place it in a bowl. Beat it with your electric whisk to soften it and break it up. To 1 cup of butter add a ½ cup of lukewarm water, little bits at a time and beat into the butter. To make it go even further, you could add some olive oil as well, about ½ cup. At the moment we are eating the butter and water mix but I've used the butter+oil+water mix over the past month and it's fine. Again, it's not suitable for baking, but excellent for sandwiches.

Make sure you put the butter in the fridge every night but it's perfectly fine to keep it out on the bench during the day - depending on the temperature at your home. If it's very hot, you'll need to keep it in the fridge all the time.

Winter in the subtropics. There is no better time or place on this earth.

I've had five days off to wander at will around our home. It's been a great time to relax, and work out a few things that I've been thinking about. I fiddled around with the blog yesterday; the new banner is a photo of the backyard looking out from the chook house, complete with the flowering choko vine. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on the change.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that I thrive on change. I become very uncomfortable when things stay the same for too long. Maybe that's one of the reasons I suit my lifestyle so well, everyday there is something new. There are many challenges and things to learn and although this life is slow, low energy, thoughtful and comforting, it's also dynamic and ever-changing. There is a moral force here that keeps us alive, interested and eager for the dawn of each new day.

One of the things I've been thinking about these past few days is whether I should try to get my blog published. Some of you will know that I wrote a book about simple living a couple of years ago and couldn't get it published. These are changed times now, I believe many people need to know a lot of what I write about and I wonder if there would be more chance for it now. Of course, the book has been absorbed into the blog over the past year but I'm sure there is enough here to make a book. I have all the photos and could add a bit to it to fill the gaps.

Do you think there is a chance for this blog to be re-worked and published as a book? Would you buy it? If there is a good response I will send this post and comments to the publishers, along with my covering letter. I need your help on this, please let me know your thoughts - whether they are for or against the idea. I will keep on blogging no matter what - book or no book. This blog is my window to the world and I can't see myself giving that up. I'd appreciate as many of you as possible letting me know your thoughts.

I'm staying at home today. I'm working on a manual for my organisation and I need peace and quiet to get it started, something that is in short supply at my desk at work. So I'll be popping in and out during the day to read your comments. I thank you for reading and being part of my day.

This is the view from the surf club where we had lunch on Friday. After lunch we watched the movie Then She Found Me, which we both enjoyed.

Recently, one of the men who read this blog asked for an interview with Hanno to get a male viewpoint on our lives here. That interview is below - I caught him between finishing off his gardening for the day and having a hot shower. He was impatient having to sit in the chair. ;- )

What are your thoughts on how you and Rhonda live now?It’s pretty uncomplicated. I have no worries. I enjoy it most of the time.

When Rhonda first told you her plan to give up work and live simply, what did you think?I thought it would be too difficult. I needed more convincing and I wasn’t sure in the beginning if we could do it. Now I know we can, I’m confident we can do it. We are doing it!

What is your role in your home on a day-to-day basis?
I feed the animals, tend the garden, ride my pushbike over to the shop to get a paper and pick up the mail. I do most of the outside work, but when I see something in the house that needs doing I help out there as well.

What did you do today?I worked in the garden preparing the potato beds. We are going to grow food in the front yard soon, so I pulled out the rosella bushes along the driveway and dug those beds over. I made sure there was enough food for the chooks and animals and filled the water containers. I washed the dogs beds after I fixed the outside washing machine with new brushes for the motor.

(Rhonda whispered: We have our 20 year old Asko washing machine on the back verandah plumbed up to the water tank. We wash the dogs blankets and duvets in it.)

What are the skills you use most days?Gardening, planning, mechanical, carpentry, plumbing.

Do you worry that you don’t have the skills you need to live as you want to?
No.

What do you enjoy most about the way you live?
The freedom to choose what I want to do.

Is there anything you dislike?
No, it’s all good.

What advice would you give to other men who are thinking of taking that first big step into a simple life?I'd say you need motivation and a plan. You need to have a rough idea of what’s expected of you. If you can’t fix what you have at home, look on the internet or books and learn as much as you can about repairing and building small things. I've never built laying boxes for the chooks before, but I've just built a little laying house and the chooks like it. Most things you’re afraid to do you’ll find can be worked out using common sense.

What do you think are the main problems you and Rhonda will face in the future?
The unexpected – there could be major house repairs that cost a lot of money. One of us could get sick and be unable to work as we do now. There are many things that could happen, but why worry now?

Do you have any words of advice for the men who read this?
I encourage anybody who has even the faintest hope to live as we do, to go ahead and do it. If you come up against any problems, you can usually work them out. Money is another thing – keep your eyes open to save money whenever you can. Sometimes it’s a pain and it looks like penny pinching but you really have to look after your money. And whatever you do, try to save something ever week. Even it is $5 a week, do it, and don’t spend it, be firm and keep it for your emergencies. Even if you think you have planned for everything, there will be some.

Don’t take on the impossible. For every job, make sure you can carry it out right to the end, otherwise it might cost you money to fix. I was in two minds about repairing our old washing machine. It cost $70 for the parts but it’s an investment in the future because it saves our indoor washing machine having to wash the big dirty items like the dogs beds.

Rhonda tells people to take small steps and that's good advice. You can start small just changing a few of the things you do, then when you get more confidence and know more, you can do more.

THE END - Thank you Hanno.

Following are the photos of the quark which I mixed up yesterday.

After a few days in the fridge ...

I mixed in the chopped tops of the Welsh onions, salt and pepper ...

and topped it with paprika.

We have about 300 mls of whey for baking during the week.

Hello all! Rhonda, Lorraine and I wish to announce a new swap. This swap will be a bit different than previous swaps in that you will be able to choose a project to swap. We have had many great suggestions for swaps, and have chosen two of these asour swap.

In keeping with our desire to simplify and green up our lives we have chosen to swap either pin cushions and a small sewing needle book, or a water bottle holder. Making the pin cushion and needle book reminds us how important the basic skills of sewing are today and each time you sit down to sew you will be reminded of your swap buddy. If you choose the water bottle holder, you will have chosen a green idea which encourages us to use a re-usable water bottle-either a plastic one or a metal one - but, please remember that many governments are now banning the old-style nagalene or plastic bottles that leech dangerous chemicals, so be very careful when you purchase a water bottle which you will be re-using!!

There are many great ideas out on the web teaching us how to make each of these items and I will leave a few links for ideas and tutorials at the end of this post.

We will have three months to complete and ship the chosen project-the deadline is the September 6, 2008, at which time we will announce a new swap for the holiday season.

I also wish to let you know that I will be off line for a couple of days and will be unable to respond to your comments until Sunday (US). I am having my computer repaired and it will take about 2 days to do the work. On Sunday, when I get back on line I will respond to all of you. Until then I am sure Rhonda or Lorraine will keep up with all the comments. I have added most of the tea cosy photos to our flickr group, so when you visit you now have many more photos to look at. I still have several tote bags and two tea cosy photos to upload.

When you sign up for this swap will you please give us the following information:

1. your name,

2. your e-mail address (spelled out),

3. your country,

4. whether you wish to swap internationally (many ladies still want to) and

5. which project you have chosen to make and if you would be willing to do either project just in case there is an odd number of swappers for a particular project, please let us know also ;).

The following are links for water bottle holders:

http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=1098

http://simpleknits.blogspot.com/2007/06/lacy-leaf-water-bottle-carrier.html

http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2007/07/28/recycled-plastic-water-bottle-holder/

http://pinkchalkstudio.com/blog/2006/07/10/whiplash-challenge-water-bottle-carrier/

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/crochet/water-bottle-carrier.shtml

http://www.ymib.com/daily-inspiration/creative-living/articles/make-it-water-bottle-carrier.html

The following are some links to pin cushion ideas :

http://tipnut.com/22-free-pincushion-patterns/

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_sewing_accessories/article/0,,HGTV_3321_4423942,00.html

http://www.purlbee.com/very-easy-pincushions/

When you go to our flickr site, which is linked to on the sidebar of this blog, you can also type in a search for photos of either pin cushions or water bottle holders and you will find hundreds of wonderful photos to give you ideas!! Have a wonderful week-end and happy swapping!!

I noticed in the delicatessen the other day that quark is now selling for $19.50 a kilo. Naturally I didn't buy any as I make my own but nevertheless, I was shocked by the price. Of course, any food linked to cattle - beef, milk and cheese - has increased a lot recently. I heard on the news the other day that food prices have doubled in the past couple of years. The price of the quark drove that fact home dramatically.

When my sons were little they drank a lot of milk and I wonder now how young families manage to supply milk to their children. I think if I had young children now, I'd mix powdered milk in with fresh milk to make a saving while still giving the kids a healthy drink. I noticed in Aldi last week their 3 litre (quart) milk is $3.19 - $1.06 a litre. Their UDL milk is $1.09 a litre, so there is not much of a saving there. Aldi powdered milk is $5.99 for 1 kg and you will get 7 litres of milk from 1 kg. That makes each litre 85 cents.

I buy milk from our local diary so I can support local business. Their milk is far superior to Aldi milk in taste and freshness and I usually buy 2 litres a week. It is from guernsey cows and is A2 milk. Last week I bought their 3 litre non-homogenised milk for $4.90 ($1.63 a litre), it's about 70 cents cheaper buying at the diary. We drink this milk, I have a glass occasionally, Hanno has a regular hot chocolate at night. I use powdered milk for everything else - in cooking, to make yoghurt and quark cheese and in all my baking. Using the powdered milk saves me 78 cents for every litre I use.

Last week I made yoghurt using powdered milk and a small tub of natural yoghurt I bought from the diary for $1. So 1 litre or 1 kg of yoghurt cost $1.85 to make. I've just checked online an the equivalent amount of Dairy Farmers traditional yoghurt cost $5.38 at Woolworths, a saving of $3.53.

I've written before about making yoghurt but it's timely now so here I am again trying to convince my younger and newer readers to try this. I've modified the way I make yoghurt and it's REALLY easy. All I did was make a litre - 4 cups - of powdered milk up according to the instructions on the milk packet. Heat this milk up until you see little bubbles appearing on the side of the saucepan, then take it off the heat and allow it to cool. When it's lukewarm add about 100 grams (about 3 tablespoons) of natural yoghurt and stir it in well. Put a lid on your container and put it in a warm oven. I used the oven about an hour after the bread had baked. Don't open the oven door again until the next morning. Then it should look like the photo below. If it's too runny, warm the oven up again and put it in for another eight hours.

The yoghurt may be eaten at this point. To sweeten it, add a little honey or jam. Adding plain yoghurt to your cakes and pancakes will give them a fabulous moistness and texture.

I am making this into quark cheese so I need to remove as much of the whey from the yoghurt as I can. Whey is the liquid part of milk. When the whey is removed, I use it in my baking. To remove the whey, place a strainer over a jug and line the strainer with a piece of moist cotton cloth.

Add the yoghurt to the strainer and cover it with the side pieces of cloth.

Put a small plate or saucer over the top and add a heavy jar or tin to press it down.

Place this in the fridge and leave for 3 or 4 days. When mine is ready, I'll take more photos. Toria has just posted another way to make yoghurt at home, here is her link.

And finally, this is what we had for dinner last night - vegetarian tacos. I also make this with flour tortillas but I needed to use these taco shells.

Take one tin of baked beans and one tin of borlotti beans - or any combination of beans - and mash them with a potato masher. If your beans have no tomato sauce on them, add a tablespoon of tomato paste and a little water. In a saucepan, gently fry one chopped onion, half a capsicum (sweet pepper) and some chilli. Add the beans, salt and pepper to taste, mix well and simmer for five minutes.

Add the bean mix to the shell or tortilla, then add whatever your heart desires. I added tomato and lettuce from our garden and a chopped avocado from a local tree (at work), with some homemade tomato relish and a dollop of light sour cream. Delish!

This candle, made of beeswax, was sent to me over the ocean by the lovely Niki at rural writings. Hi Niki!

We have a public holiday here next Monday so yesterday I brought home my work laptop and the new standards manual and I'm not going back to work till next Wednesday. At work I am interrupted with phone calls, meetings and people coming in to talk, so I'll get this project started at home, then go back.

I feel like I'm on a tiny holiday.

But today I'll get reacquainted with my home. I haven't seen the chooks since last week, nor been into the garden, so that will be my first priority this morning. There are also clothes to be washed, bread to be baked and the bed linen needs changing. House keeping is a great leveller. It doesn't matter how many people line up to see me at work, at home here I am the one who puts things to rights, I pick up, wash, clean and sweep, and get renewed in the process.

Generally I do my everyday chores when it is their time but if there is something unusual that I don't like doing, I try to do it as soon as I can. That gives me the satisfaction of completing an unwanted task early on and I don't have to work through the day thinking about doing something I don't want to do. It squares the unwanted out of the way and leaves ample room for enjoyment.

Hanno is still fast asleep now but when he wakes, we'll have breakfast and talk about what we'll do over the coming days. We may well go out! I have an idea forming about him taking me to lunch and me taking him to the movies afterwards. We haven't been out together since we picked up the chickens so it will be nice to take a day off and just float around.

On the crafting front, I'm still knitting dishcloths, I have a lot of work to do (still) on Shane's birthday quilt and I haven't yet started a winter knitting project. I have some lovely yarn to use so I'll have to get onto that soon. My thoughts are wandering to a cosy shawl. Does anyone know of a nice pattern? This afternoon I'll be drawing stitchery patterns for Liz A, Lightening and Ann so I'll check out their blogs first to see what I can find to include in their patterns.

As usual I'm behind in answering emails. I apologise if you're waiting for a reply, I hope to do some tomorrow morning. I also want to get back to the comments that I haven't answered. I read them all every day but often I don't have the time to reply. Again I apologise. I love the comments and I build up pictures in my mind of the people who comment regularly and each new comment adds another piece of the puzzle. So thank you for your contributions to this blog. The comments here really add a lot to the big picture of simple living.

This is the kind of recipe that should be in everyone's meal rotation. It's cheap, healthy, easy to make, delicious and can be eaten hot or cold. I am hungry just looking at this first photo because I remember so well the taste of it. This is our meal last Sunday night, we had leftovers on Monday night.

SPINACH OR SILVERBEET PIE

You'll need:

freshly picked silverbeet or spinach - maybe 20 leaves of silverbeet. If you use frozen spinach, and that is absolutely fine to use, you'll need two of those small boxes.
1 onion, chopped.
1 clove garlic, crushed.
1 tablespoon olive oil x 2 (one for frying, one for brushing the pastry).
5 eggs.
cheese - if you can use a few different varieties you'll get a better taste. I used 250 grams (½ lb) ricotta and about a cup of mixed cheddar and parmesan - grated. The ricotta is necessary, the others aren't, but add a lot of taste.
salt and pepper.
4 sheets filo pastry. If you don't know what this is, it's a low fat pastry that you'll find in the refrigerated or frozen section of your supermarket.

HOW TO... Chop up the silverbeet/spinach, onion and garlic and add to a frying pan with the oil. Cook on medium until everything is soft.

While that is happening. mix your eggs and ricotta together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Grate the other cheese and mix in.

Add the cooked silverbeet/spinach mix to the eggs and combine well.

With a pastry brush and some olive oil, take each sheet of filo pastry and brush the oil over it. Double it up and place it in a pie dish. Each sheet of pastry should have a light brushing of oil over it. Cover the base of your pie plate with all the sheets. You might like to fold the edges under or you can leave then out like I do. Work quickly when you work with filo as it dries out fast. If you need to leave your work station, cover the pastry with a clean moist tea towel.

Pour the egg and spinach mixture into the pie dish and bake in a medium hot over - around 180C (350F) until the top is golden. Don't overcook as it will make the eggs rubbery.

Serve with a salad or vegetables. You can eat it hot or cold.

We had ours with a salad just picked from the backyard and with another leftover birthday beer. We're living high on the hog this week, my friends. ;- )