I have been writing about saving electricity

Washing Machines

Clothes Dryers

After 13 years with our old fridge, two repairs to the thermostat and it starting to freeze the food in the fridge again, we bit the bullet and bought a new fridge. We want to reduce our already low electricity bill with the help of our solar panels and hot water system, as well as the prudent use and choice of appliances. We did some research to buy a fridge that was eco friendly and settled on the Electrolux two door bottom freezer from their Eco Range. One of the reasons we chose this fridge is that is doesn't use hydrofluorocarbons and it is made in Australia.

We've had the fridge for a week now and I'm really happy with it. It has excellent inside configuration, and even though the space inside is slightly less than our old fridge, it uses the space better and we can fit things in very easily. I love the two small drawers just above the vegetable crispers. They're just the right size for holding nuts, seeds, coconut and small bits and pieces. The middle glass shelf can be pushed back so that anything tall could be stored on the lower shelf, extending up to the top shelf. 

The freezer is at the bottom, all in drawers. There is a twist ice dispenser with an ice holder and scoop just under it. I'll use that a lot in summer. You can even take the seals out and wash them.

I'm usually not an appliance junkie but I really like this fridge. If you're looking for a new fridge, I encourage you to look at Electrolux. We bought ours online through Price Pirate.  After phoning around the local shops, Price Pirate sold us the fridge for $500 less than our local store's price. It really pays to shop around.

I have noticed quite a few long-term readers have commented for the first time recently. It always makes me smile when that happens and I make a mental note of what has caused that comment after a long time reading without commenting. If you've ever blogged and written about your own life, you'll know that it can feel a bit like people lurking in the dark out there. When they show their friendly face to say hello, it does make a difference. Thank you for coming out of the shadows and making contact.

I read a report the other day that said the babies born for 15 years after 2010 (our grand babies!) will be known as Gen A, the Alpha Generation. Pffffft, as if we need more labels.  According to the report, these Alpha babies will start school earlier, get more formal training than ever before and then they're expected to work until they're 70 or 80. I can't imagine anything worse than knowing when you start work in your late teens or early 20s, that you'll still be at it 60 years later.

I don't want to spend almost my entire adult life in paid work. I want free time to do what I love without having to clock in somewhere or meet deadlines. Luckily Hanno and I are doing that, but I want our grandchildren to be able to do it, and I want you to be able to do it too. We are not here to keep big business in the black. According to the Dali Lama, the purpose of life is to find happiness (you have to think about that, it's not as one dimensional or simple as it sounds). How can you do that if your government relies on you and your contemporaries to work and keep the economy bubbling along until shortly before you die.  It's not fair.

Surely there are others out there who believe that the reward for working hard all through life, paying taxes, upholding the law, voting, raising decent families and building strong communities is that for a decade or two before death, when ambition and strength fade, we leave work behind and spend time doing exactly what we want to do. I am not saying that everyone will want to give up work, I'm sure there will be people who thrive on going to work and really enjoy it, but we need to have the option. It needs to be our choice whether we do that or not. Some of us want free time to get to know our grandchildren, learn a new language or how to play the piano, make the perfect loaf of sourdough,  travel, walk, swim, read or just sit under a tree and think.

There was a time in my past when I was quite happy to work hard and spend much of my money on buying whatever caught my eye. But no more. I woke up, I slowed down and I realised there is much more to life than work, spending and acquisition. When I realised that, I found more than I ever expected that made me happy. I found that not spending and being more aware satisfied me, and by making a lot of what I used, I replaced paid work with home-based skill building and production.

Many of your know Hanno and I are hard workers, and have been all our lives. We're working class, proudly so, and we understand the need to work. We also understand why it's healthy for our countries to have a sound and active working population. Work is good for us but we shouldn't work for pay until we drop dead. At the end of a long and productive life, we should be able to look forward to a gentle and free retirement of about 20 years. If we have worked all our lives, paid taxes to help support our economies, have paid off our debt and saved for our retirement, there is nothing wrong with leaving work when we choose to. I would like to see a government that encourages everyone to live within their means, to live simply and if they can support themselves, choose whether they remain at work or not. I'd vote for a government who encouraged us to live frugally, recycle, mend and sew and to work part time so we could have a better work-life balance.  I'd like a few leaders to realise there is no such thing as unlimited economic growth. 

I know a couple of Generation Alpha babies who will know there is an alternative to life-long paid work. There are a few gems of wisdom I hope to talk to my grandchildren about. Being self-reliant, confident and skilled enough to move life away from the mainstream is just one of them.

The Age - a report on Generation Alpha 

What a weekend! I feel like I'm back in my rhythm, ready again for whatever each new day brings. I had to go to the shop on Saturday morning to buy a soap thermometer because when I came to make soap, mine was missing. I took all my equipment to the neighbourhood centre recently and it didn't return. But a trip to the shop is always a sharp reminder for me to continue along our slow path. I bought the thermometer, had a look in the book shop, then came home; in and out in 20 minutes. The hard core shoppers were just starting to arrive. I feel sad for them. If they knew my story they might well feel sorry for me too and think of me as deprived. I guess history will be our judge, if one is needed.

Saturday morning was cold, with whistling wind, so I was pleased to drive through my gate again and close the door. It was warm inside, morning tea made for Hanno and I and we sat for a while on the front verandah. He'd been working at cutting down a very old and large camphor laurel tree. They're considered a weed around here so it has to go. I held on to it for 13 years because it provided shade and shelter for other delicate plants and ferns. But now, as we're getting older, we have other considerations - soon we won't be able to do this heavier work. A tree just near this one, a tallow wood, cost us $900 to have removed a few years ago and we can't afford that again. 

The camphor laurel, as well as being a weed, is too close to the house and a danger during storms. Hanno loves doing this kind of work, so before that ability goes completely and we have to rely on others, he's been cutting pieces off it. Luckily it has five main branches quite close to the ground, so he's cutting one off at a time. Then it's the laborious job of cutting that branch into a size that can be picked up and moved to the trailer. Each branch takes almost a day to cut up, then he packs the greenery into the trailer and it goes to the local dump to be chipped for their compost. We are hoping to give the logs to the local wood carvers.

So while he was outside, with a hot tea and cake in is belly, I started on my soap. I wanted to do a few batches but I only have one set of moulds, so I do one batch a day. I've made two batches so far and want to do one more and a batch of liquid soap. Some of this will be going into my shop that I'll be starting in a couple of weeks, the rest we'll use in the family. This is the best soap for baby's skin so I'm pleased to be able to supply good soap for Jamie and our soon to be born Peanut. 

There are two batches of soap here in my tidied laundry. One is drying on a rack, the other batch is still in the moulds and hardening slowly under some blue towels.

Soap only takes a short while to make so while I waited - first for the separate mixtures to get to the same temperature, then for the mixing to be done, I washed up. It felt good plunging my hands into that warm soapy water while I could hear the wind whistling outside. I started thinking about knitting and doing some lovely organic pink washcloths as soon as I finish a scarf. All fine thoughts while I washed up, and then the soap was made and packed warmly in the laundry, I moved on to the next task.

Scones for lunch with tea, washed up again, then I knitted and sewed the afternoon away. We had eye fillet roast for dinner; that was a real treat, part of the hind-quarter bulk meat order from a couple of months back. It was roasted alongside sweet potatoes, pumpkin, onions and carrots. The second half will be had tonight with herb mashed potatoes and kale cooked with bacon and onion. I made a mental note to make walnut biscuits during the week.

Over the weekend, one task blended into the next - when I got sick of doing something I'd go on to something new.  I'm not sure in what order I did it now but I also did some gardening, finished the tablecloth cupboard, tidied the laundry, made the bed a few times, swept the floor, cleaned the kitchen window sill, sorted through my stash to find fabric suitable for aprons to sell, made bread and a few pots of tea, organised my diary, researched my cheese making kit and replied to some emails.

    

I feel like I've returned to my home again and it feels right. Chores can be done or kept waiting, there is plenty of thinking and creating along with more practical tasks like bed making, cleaning and sweeping. There's no routine on weekends like this, just a list of things to be done and one by one they're mentally crossed off. There's no rush to get through it, no guilt if anything goes undone. My aim is to get through my work but to enjoy it too, even the seemingly dull bits. For every large, vital job and every small or dull task we do here is part of it - all part of the ever-changing mosaic that makes up two simple lives being lived next to a rainforest, with a creek running by, at the end of a one lane road.

I read a very interesting article the other day that confirmed what I think about Italian and Greek migrants in Australia. That their various abilities to grow, cook and preserve food and drinks made them not only wonderful Australian citizens but helped them live frugally and happily in their new chosen land. According to the article, compared to our UK migrants, Mediterranean migrants paid off their houses faster, even though they all worked equally hard to build their new lives. The difference was that the Italians and Greeks knew how to grow food in their backyards, and many of them did that as well as keep chickens and sometimes goats and pigs. They had preserving days with other families when they would put up sauce, salami, cheese and wine.  And all this meant they spent less on food while eating the diet they were used to - it helped them retain a part of their culture.

We can learn a lot from those immigrants.

In the article it stated that "A family growing a few vegetables could save the equivalent of, in today's terms, $25 to $50 dollars a week. Over the course of a 25 year mortgage this works out to between $32,500 and $60 000." I believe that is true, and it's serious money. So how would you save that kind of cash by growing food in your backyard.  Well, first you have to know what you're doing, but it's not rocket science, it's something most people can do. It involves work, developing whatever land or space you have available, getting your hands dirty and being consistent. Sometimes you'll have good harvests, sometimes you won't but over the course of that 25 years, you'll get better, particularly when you know the wide variety of food you can produce and the kind of savings that are there for the taking.

There is more than one way to make money. One is to get a job, the other is to save what you've already earned and to keep that money in the bank. If you spend less on food, clothes, utilities etc., while remaining healthy, happy and nourished, you can use your saved money to help pay off your mortgage or to save for a house deposit. When you've paid off your mortgage, it will be your choice to work or to cut back on work and pursue other interests.

If we can save that kind of money out in the backyard or in containers on the porch, what can we save inside over the course of a 25 year mortgage?  Well, there is laundry detergent. If you're currently in Australia and you're buying a litre of Dynamo a month, you'll spend $102 a year or, if we stay with today's price, $2550 over 25 years just for laundry detergent. By changing to homemade laundry liquid you'll keep $2500 of that in your pocket. If you start stockpiling, more savings, monitoring your electricity, gas, fuel, phone and internet usage, more savings again. If you bake at home instead of buying inferior bread, cook from scratch, recycle, make your own jams, sauces, pasta etc., it's not only going to save you money but you'll be eating healthier food too.  Looking after what you already own, turning your back on fashion, learning to knit and sew, mending clothes and household goods to keep them going longer - all these things will save you reasonable money in the short term and will make a real difference to your life over the course of 25 years.

To make these savings you need to switch from a convenience mode to a productive mode. If you have spare time now and are spending time on the computer or watching TV, or if you need to reorganise yourself to make time available, use that time to build a new kind of life. Instead of buying the convenience of someone else's skill and time, you'll do those things yourself and keep the money that you would have spent. We're not talking about a big time commitment for many of these things - it more a way of fitting them into your life and doing things differently.  For instance, if you want to stockpile, you'll have to find a space and then just shop in a different way - when it's all set up it will save you not only money, but also time. Cooking from scratch and baking will be easier once you've got your stockpile set up because you'll have your ingredients on hand - your part will be to remember to load the slow cooker in the morning, to find recipes for quick and easy mid week-from scratch meals, or to cook twice as much and freeze it when you have the time. Making laundry liquid will take no more than 30 minutes about once every two months, if you stop buying shampoo and use bicarb instead, it takes no more time at all if you already have the bicarb in the cupboard. You can do your knitting and mending while you watch TV in the evening. Much of this is working in a different way and with different materials - it's changing your attitude and making your mind up to do it, then doing it. It's not a huge life change.

The good thing is all these things are easy to do and you can start right now - today. Everything I've mentioned above has been written about in detail on my blog, many other blogs and in books available at your local library. I know not everyone will be capable of doing this,  but most will be. The only thing that will hold you back is you.