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3rd - Bargains and bling
6th - Up for discussion
10th - Stamping out bad habits
12th - Keeping up appearances
17th - Wot no bunny?
21st - Guess who's coming for dinner?
24th - Let me count the ways...
30th - Puppy power
Bargains and bling
Apr 3, 2006
How about this for savings this week? Remember how I began paying money into a weekly 'grocery fund' account several weeks ago? I am proud to report that in the last seven days, it has cost me just over $50 to feed the four of us for the week - seriously! By the end of the week I still had the princely sum of $150 left out of my $200 budget for living expenses, meaning yesterday there was more than enough in the kitty to enable me to buy ALL the food and drink we would need for this coming week and STILL have some left over, even though the next payment isn't due to go into my account until tomorrow! In other words, I am going to be able to put a whole week's worth of grocery money into savings - all $200 of it!
So how did I do it? Using two very simple tricks - menu planning and keeping an eye out for specials. Having gone into the joys of menu planning on more than one occasion already, I shall not go into details again, however even with all my Simple Savings knowledge, I am still a relative novice when it comes to taking note of current store specials. Shameful really, that I have continued to overlook one of the most basic money saving rules, however this flaw is finally being struck off my Sad Sally list. Before visiting the local shop yesterday I worked out my menu plan for the week ahead. I discovered that I would need to buy a grand total of 10 items to give me all the ingredients needed for a week's worth of family meals (this is including breakfast, lunches and lunch box fillers, baking and evening meals). I was already pretty impressed with this achievement, but happier still on visiting the store to find that I was able to buy every single item on my list on special, saving me $12.
That wasn't all though! I needed to buy some more hummus and only wanted a small pot. There were only two pots left in the store - a large one, which was due to expire that day and the small size which I wanted. Unfortunately this had expired the day before, but I was undeterred. I figured it would still be alright for a couple more days and took it to the counter with the rest of my shopping. I was pretty nervous about doing it, but I showed the expiry date to the checkout lady and told her I would be happy to take it off their hands at a reduced price. She went to check with the owner of the store and returned quickly to pop it in with the rest of my shopping. 'The hummus will be fine, but no charge', she said with a smile - which was of course the exact outcome I was hoping for. The thing is, I have been shopping at the same store for 10 years and would never have dreamed of trying to get anything at a reduced price before - I would either have said nothing and paid full price, or left it on the shelf for someone else. A small triumph, but nonetheless a victory for this shopper!
Also managed to solve one of life's small mysteries yesterday. After hunting high and low for Noel's watch and sunglasses for weeks on end, (both very necessary for his job) we finally gave up last weekend and ended up forking out a total of $60 to replace the two. I did warn Noel that as soon as we bought new ones the old ones would turn up, which is exactly what happened when getting ready for an evening out yesterday and I found the two missing possessions buried in my underwear drawer; they must have tumbled off the dresser and into the top drawer. Shame we had already spent $60 before we discovered this!
As mentioned, I did actually venture out for the evening yesterday - for the first time in longer than I can remember. I dragged Maxine along to our local hall social, where a live band was playing and the dress-up theme was 'bling'. (For the many who are still blissfully unaware what 'bling' is, think rap stars, big jewellery, diamonds and so on). Somewhat lacking in the bling department myself, I did the best I could, grabbing a shimmery silver outfit I had worn in a stage show several years ago, sprayed glitter in my hair left over from the kids' rock star party and dusted some shimmery powder on my face. It was ages since I had been out dancing and I was ready to blow out the cobwebs. We had heard the band was great and couldn't wait to strut our stuff on the dance floor. Imagine our surprise then, to find a half empty hall with a dance floor completely devoid of people and a country and western band doing their best to coax their audience into getting out of their seats. Now don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem with country music when in the appropriate venue, but for those of us expecting a funky bling-filled night of monumental proportions, it was a bit of a letdown. At least it had only cost me $10 for the evening's entertainment though; Maxine had somehow ended up being charged for two tickets when she had only asked for one! Still, being a bright side to everything, it wasn't long before we were unable to endure any more and we returned home. Not only did our husbands wonder if we were ill to be home so early, but we also returned with the majority of our BYO beverages intact, meaning there was no chance of a hangover the next morning. An unexpected bonus, but nevertheless a valuable saving!
Up for discussion
Apr 6, 2006
I am ashamed to admit that in my quest to keep constantly updated on new hints, I am often guilty of neglecting one of the Savings Vault's most interesting resources - the Discussion Forum. I am going to have to write myself a note to check up on it at least several times a week as it is such a fascinating read! This is the place where you can get fast and reliable answers about any Vault hints you may not be sure how to go about or are a little wary of trying out for the first time. Other members do their best to answer your questions or dilemmas and they are so helpful! It's great to see so many familiar names helping people on a regular basis too - these guys deserve a pat on the back!
For example, in today's visit I enjoyed reading some helpful (not to mention frank!) advice for a woman who was having issues with her daughter's fan heater chewing into the power bill. I found some awesome budgeting tips on cutting costs for a family of four, an informal review of Grass Roots magazine and someone mentioned a great hint about how they saved heaps on making winter sheets from polar fleece instead of buying new flannelette sheets for their children. Perfect timing too, as the chillier weather is definitely on its way in this neck of the woods and Liam helpfully pointed out a blooming great rip in the middle of his well-worn flannelette sheet this morning. So a new sheet was going to be the next item on the shopping list, but now I am going to shop around for some polar fleece instead! Further reading showed a new member looking for advice on planning a first mortgage, the best supermarket buys for the week and I am definitely going to try the Marshmallow Muesli Slice in the Cooking -> Children's Snacks section after reading all the great feedback! The Forum is another brilliant and extensive resource to compliment the Vault, there is always something new to read and I will definitely make more of an effort to visit it often from now on!
Another subject which is frequently discussed in Simple Savings is that of homeopathy. I know for some it is a controversial subject and I admit it is not something I was particularly aware of or had considered using until I was introduced to Fran's articles in the Simple Savings newsletters. However I am extremely grateful for the ways that homeopathic medicine has helped and continues to help my family. I have already mentioned in blogs gone by how homeopathic consultations with Fran helped Liam enormously after suffering severe trauma in our car accident. Ali was constantly ill with hugely enlarged tonsils and was on the 'urgent' list to have them removed. Months later his tonsils have reduced in size, he has enjoyed long periods of good health and has not suffered with tonsillitis once. He is no longer on the waiting list for an operation. More recently, Liam was referred to Fran again after having dreadful problems with nasal congestion. I first visited our GP who prescribed him an antihistamine nasal spray and told us to use it for a month. If there was no improvement after a month, he would make an appointment for Liam to have his adenoids out.
Upon hearing this news, Liam 'flipped his lid' and asked if he could try one of Fran's remedies instead. Why hadn't I thought of that before? A quick phone call to Fran and after a single dose of his prescribed remedy, Liam's weeks of nasal congestion had completely disappeared in a matter of hours. 'Phew, now I won't need that operation!' said a very relieved Liam. When we were all struck down with the flu a couple of weeks ago, this problem was to rear its head again. While the rest of us bounced back relatively quickly, Liam continued to suffer from dreadful nasal problems for almost two weeks, although the rest of his illness had passed. Every day he would come home from school in tears, the difficulty he had in breathing was making his life miserable and really affecting his schoolwork as he just couldn't concentrate. Apologies for the graphic description, but his nose was absolutely full of thick green 'glue'. No amount of blowing would shift it and every time we did try to blow his nose, it would bleed, causing even more distress.
So, off we went to the doctor again, to a different one, but I wasn't confident that he would be able to do anything and I was right. Luckily he didn't believe in doling out antibiotics if he didn't believe they were appropriate, but he told us that there really was nothing he could give us to treat it. This upset Liam even more to think he was going to be stuck with a green gluey nose indefinitely and once again asked me to contact Fran. 'Her remedies taste nice Mum - and they actually WORK', he told me pointedly. Lucky one of us remembered! So, I called Fran again, she recommended a dose of the same remedy as last time and literally within a few hours Liam was breathing easily and the 'glue' was completely gone - honestly, you had to see it to believe it! When the sniffles started again three days later, I just gave him another dose and that cleared it up for good. Liam was one very happy chappy! The remedy was one I already had in the house that had been successfully used on Ali months before (homeopathic remedies have a shelf life of 12 months) so all it cost me in the end to get Liam sorted was a phone call. Shame I had already spent $68 on doctor's visits and $28 on nasal sprays before we found the solution.
Amazed by the results she had seen in Liam, my Mum decided to have a consultation of her own with Fran before the winter. In her sixties she is 'young' for her age and loves to be active and independent, but with a weak immune system and debilitating osteoporosis she is often laid flat for weeks. Even with her annual flu vaccination, poor Mum somehow manages to get every germ going. Determined to try and 'sort her out' before the winter months, I made her an appointment. Unfortunately as the day of her consultation arrived she already found herself 'crook as a dog' with the flu I had successfully passed on. I had been dreading her getting this, as it was a particularly nasty one which had the potential to knock Mum out for weeks. Fran advised Mum to take her remedy anyway and report back to her in a few days. In just three days, Mum had made a remarkable recovery - in fact she recovered faster than the rest of us had with the same illness! Bearing in mind I am 33 years old, this was the first time that either of us could remember in as many years that an illness of Mum's did not result in her having a chest infection, days off work and at least one course of antibiotics. Mum was delighted and looks better than she has in a long time - an added bonus is that she is also finding herself with less back pain than she has had for almost two years. And believe me, she was pretty skeptical to start with!
After seeing first hand just how fast homeopathic remedies can work, I decided to treat myself to a homeopathic first aid kit. It comes 24 basic remedies with full instructions on dosage and how to find the most suitable remedy according to your symptoms. It had arrived several weeks ago but I had put it away and forgotten all about it until last weekend. I woke up on Sunday with a horrendous sore throat, I was hoarse and could barely talk. My ears were ringing and by lunchtime I had developed a migraine so bad that I had to go to bed for a few hours. Panadol had proved ineffective and Nurofen had also made no difference. By five o'clock it was time to think about putting my roast in the oven for dinner, but I could barely function and Noel was all set to go and get takeaway. Suddenly I remembered by new first aid kit! I studied the little book, chose the remedy I thought matched my symptoms most closely and took a dose. By the time my Mum arrived 10 minutes later, I was chatting as normal and standing at the sink peeling potatoes while I made her a coffee. Half an hour later I had no trace of a headache or sore throat at all and our roast dinner was on the table at the usual time. Even Noel couldn't believe it - especially when I told him how much it had cost for my remedy to put me to rights - six cents. Not to mention the money we had saved on buying takeaway! If you think of homeopathic treatments in these monetary terms, it is easy to see why Fiona includes them in the Simple Savings newsletter - and our family is very glad she does!
PS: If anyone would like to know more about homeopathic 'first aid kits' and where they can be obtained, feel free to email me
Stamping out bad habits
Apr 10, 2006
Another Monday and Noel has given up smoking again. The latest new batch of nicotine patches is on the bedside table (these ones are Nicorette, but there's still an unfinished packet of Habitrol from a couple of weeks before next to them). At least he's trying I suppose, but I wish he would just get on and do it! Every week it's the same, the woeful regaling of how much he hates his habit, how dreadful it's making him feel, how he's never been so unfit. 'I'm really going to do it this time!' he tells me at least once a month. 'I have to do it, I'm so sick of it'. If we're lucky he lasts through the first day, on the second day he's an obnoxious and argumentative so and so and by the third he's so unbearable to live with that the kids and I are breathing a sigh of relief when he finally gives in and goes and buys a pack of ciggies. Now I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but he forgets I've done it too - three years ago I gave up a 30 a day habit, so I do know how hard it is, but I just got on with it and did it once and for all. I don't actually have a problem with him smoking, I'm not a reformed radical anti-smoker or anything; he never smokes in the house and I don't really notice it. He's the one with the problem!
The way I see it is, if he REALLY wanted to give up, if he really hated it that much, he would stop talking about it and just do it. As it is, we have probably spent almost as much on stop smoking aids for him over the years as we have on the cigarettes themselves. We have bought the gum, the capsules, the books, the patches, the affirmation tapes and he has even been hypnotised twice to no avail. The most successful attempt I knew of was when Fran sent him some homeopathic 'Smoke Stop' remedy last year. He was so perturbed at the amount of sweat and odour that came out of his system, particularly at night, as the remedy flushed the toxins out of his body, that he stopped taking the remedy and started smoking again instead. Noel's latest bout of quitting seems to have been set off by a couple of triggers. Firstly he is a rugby coach and with the new season just a fortnight away he is not relishing the thought of keeping up with 20 boisterous 10 year olds for several hours a week in his current state of health. The other trigger is a lot more serious - one of his friends and colleagues has just been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at the age of 43. He is leaving behind his wife and children the same age as ours. If that's not an incentive to make our Noelie kick the habit, I don't know what is.
Mind you, if I were in the same position as Noel, I would pay a visit to the Vault before shelling out on yet more quitting aids. There is so much brilliant information in there from people who have 'been there and done that' and stuck to it. Plus, it has only cost them a fraction of the price, or better still, nothing at all. Just typing 'smoking' in the Vault search bar brings up 31 results and some of these are really inspiring. I have tried to steer Noel in the direction of the Vault, but he insists he can quit by himself. I'll believe it when I see it, but who knows, he may still prove me wrong!
I'll get off my soap box now as I still have plenty of habits of my own to keep under control. I confess to not being as stringent on the diet front last week as I was the previous week - I find changes to routine easily wreak havoc with my best intentions. Last week was a busy week workwise, with several meetings in the evenings and I was finding although I was sticking to my menu plan and cooking proper meals for the rest of the family, I wasn't actually getting around to eating myself. On one such day I ended up just about passing out at 5pm due to not having any lunch, so grabbed a packet of crumpets at the shop on the way home from the boys' rugby practice and promptly got home and ate four on the trot. Of course by the time I had done that I was too full to eat a proper dinner so I went to my evening meeting, came back starving again and finished off the other two crumpets in the packet! Hardly a great example of a healthy diet, but as both Liam and I ended up with a 24 hour stomach bug the next day and I was unable to eat anything at all, my crumpet binge kind of evened itself out. Liam was mortified when he jumped on the scales and found he had lost a kilo, but I was delighted to discover I had done the same!
OK, so losing weight through being ill was technically cheating, but I am now two kilos down and I have managed to keep it off. I have my healthy eating back under control and am keeping up the exercise. It's a great feeling that, even though I still have a long way to go, I can at least now do up my shorts again without the Velcro fastening giving way every time I bend or sit down! Maxine and I walk religiously every day and I have recently added a regular dose of Oprah to my exercise regime! Like most working people I don't get a chance to watch daytime television, but I really enjoy most of Oprah's shows, which are an hour long. So the last few weeks I have been setting the video to record her shows, then dragging my exercise bike in front of the TV and watching them later when it's convenient while I pedal away. I'm so engrossed in the programme that there's no chance of getting bored with my exercise and it's amazing how many kilometers you can cover in an hour long show!
I also checked out another weight loss website on the recommendation of another member (thanks Michael!) http://www.sparkpeople.com/ is a friendly and funky looking website which is 100% free to join and helps you develop your own personalised weight loss and exercise program. It has quite a lot of the features used in the Fitday.com website I mentioned earlier, but is more user friendly and not quite so full of technical jargon (however, it still told me in plain English that I was definitely overweight so there's no escaping that!) It also does more of the work for you, so you are not clicking all over the site wondering 'where do I go next?' My nutrition plan tells me all in the same place how many total calories I should aim to consume in a day, how many carbs, protein and so on - plus it also tells me I should aim to drink eight cups of water a day (compared to the current several cans of Diet Coke a day, with the odd bottle of V guarana blast thrown in) - ahem! Best of all (for me anyway) is the site will even provide you with a personalised menu plan that actually includes - joy of joys - a vegetarian diet, woohoo! No kidding, this site is amazing and you can find it in the Vault under 'Weight loss community support online'. One way or another, the Wise family is going to shape up!
Keeping up appearances
Apr 12, 2006
Do you ever find that you seem to go through phases where you’re either totally in control and super organised, or the complete opposite – a walking disaster area who can’t seem to keep on track of even the most basic tasks? I know I do; and it’s only ever one or the other, never anything in between. I call my organised times my ‘Destitute Gourmet’ mode and I have to admit that it’s largely thanks to the Destitute Gourmet I’m more organised on the whole these days anyway. I would be completely lost without my weekly menu plans – before them, cooking dinner was just an inconvenience, a chore which always got put off until the end of the day until by 5.30pm I was thinking ‘Heck, what are we going to eat tonight?’ These days not a weekend goes by without me stealing a couple of minutes to work out my meals for the week ahead.
Of course, even with the best intentions there are still times when I feel my domestic world is collapsing around me. Mornings such as the one I experienced last week are still regular occurrences – where I get up in the morning, go to the bathroom, tread in puddles of cold water on the floor from the kids’ bath the night before and soak my clean socks, drop socks in the laundry hamper and find that Ali’s playmate from the afternoon before has stamped the Hogwarts symbol from Harry Potter in red ink along the wall at the top of the stairs. On going downstairs I spy several small muddy brown handmarks on the cream wallpaper as I descend and arrive at the bottom to a kitchen in total disarray; the benches covered in last night’s dishes, included two burnt ones possibly now rendered unuseable, cooking oil all over the stove and up the wall behind it and a trail of dirty cat footprints wending their way across the breakfast bar. In the lounge room Ali has struck, leaving a dangerous and intricate obstacle course of toys and general Ali ‘stuff’ for all who dare to pass through. As I step gingerly across to draw the curtains back, I am treated to the site of numerous Liam-sized handprints on the windows. Upon taking a load of washing through to the laundry, I almost step on a mouse’s tail that one of the cats has thoughtfully deposited (thankfully without the rest of the mouse) on the floor and another has thrown up at the back door (thankfully also without the rest of the mouse). The kids’ waterslide has been strewn across the back porch and Ella is sleeping on it, I realise too late that I seem to have run out of milk and bread (somewhat essential for making the boys’ sandwiches) and Ali has left his school shoes in the rain.
The annoying thing about the whole scenario is that, like many who do the same on a daily basis, my little haven had been spotless just two days before, after spending hours cleaning it from top to bottom. Housekeeping can be a totally soul destroying job at times – not that I would be without my wonderful, busy, noisy and messy family for one moment, but sometimes the repetition of it all just gets to me. So, I decided to take matters in hand, claw back control and use some Vault hints to make the job easier. I found a ‘heavy duty cleaner’ hint to clean the stove and surrounds and soak my pots in and they came up as good as new. I am the worst window cleaner ever, but I quickly washed over my windows inside and out using a window cleaning Vault tip using a little methylated spirits and they dried totally streak free! I couldn’t believe it. Then I tackled the marks on the walls using another product which had been recommended by Simple Savings members – Chux Magic Erasers. They might be tiny but they really do the job! Just a gentle wipe with these babies and my walls were free of all marks – even the red ink was removed without a trace (it’ll be a while before I let that kid come and play again though, believe me!)
So, I had my house back to rights and was back in control – what a relief – and it started me thinking about the rest of me. I am a self-confessed frump. Frump is a dreadful word isn’t it? It even sounds frumpy – but that’s what I am. I never used to be, but years spent farming meant a rapid decline in my appearance. The 200-odd cows I milked every day for eight years certainly didn’t notice whether I had my hair done and my make-up on. If I did decide to try and tidy myself up a bit, people would always ask me where the party was – or worse still, if I was going to a funeral! So after a while, I ceased to bother. Then we left the farm and I have been working from home for four years, which I love, but again I can go for days without really seeing anyone – so there never seemed much point in making much of an effort. Heck, I can even work in my pyjamas! I thought about all the gorgeous make-up I had sitting in boxes and drawers. All the perfume I had been given but never worn. Everything was sitting unused, waiting for a special occasion that never came. It’s a bit like people in the old days isn’t it – keeping their best china and silver cutlery for best and then never letting them see the light of day. Except crockery doesn’t have an expiry date – make-up and perfume does.
I started thinking about my friend Maxine (she’s going to kill me for saying this, but it’s true!) who never steps out without her make-up and hair done and always looks lovely. It struck me that me saving all this make-up and stuff for a rainy day was just throwing money down the drain – if I didn’t start using it, I was going to have to chuck it out before long, wasting a small fortune. So I dragged out my industrial sized cosmetic box that even Max Factor himself would be proud of and made a vow to make more of an effort each morning and ‘put my face on’, even if I’m going no further than taking the boys to school and back. And you know what? I feel so much better for it! The only downside is that at first my face wasn’t used to having all this gunk slapped on it and my skin rebelled – but luckily I was prepared thanks to the truckload of concealer I already had waiting to be used in my box! I also noticed that if I put it on when Maxine and I go for our brisk walks it does have a habit of sliding off, but at least I have made the effort! It costs me nothing but a few moments in the mornings and I feel a lot more organised and confident. I am sure there will be many more days to come when the kids and animals do their utmost to shatter my domestic haven, but I’m sure I will be able to cope with life’s little messes much better from now on knowing that at least I look presentable – even if nothing else around me does!
Wot no bunny?
Apr 17, 2006
Sometimes in my attempts to be frugal, I do accidentally forget the odd little detail and end up getting caught out, as in the case of Easter this year. Usually a great one for celebrating everything from the cat’s birthday to the loss of a kilo, I’ll admit I have a real problem with all the hype surrounding Easter eggs. I’ll be honest, I’m not religious, but I do appreciate the origins of the occasion and have often wondered what on earth a monumental Christian event has to do with people rushing out to buy and consume copious amounts of chocolate. Hence my children know that Mummy does not believe in giving them Easter eggs - the Easter Bunny however still does. Or did, should I say. In my ‘bah humbug’ frame of mind and steadfastly refusing to spend money on Easter eggs myself, I totally forgot about the Easter Bunny’s part in the equation – until poor little Ali reminded me too late!
As it was school holidays and I literally couldn’t remember the last time I had bought the boys anything, I told them they could choose a small toy as they wouldn’t be getting an Easter egg from me. They still get eggs from their grandparents so are not totally deprived and I figured I would rather spend a similar amount on something that would last, which was fine with the kids. Ali in particular was having a very lucky week – he had finally lost his first tooth, graduated up to a ‘big boys’ bike and found a four leaf clover (in hindsight I should have probably taken him to buy a Lottery ticket!) so was pretty happy with himself. We found a Destitute Gourmet recipe for Hot Cross Buns and made 24 plump and delicious buns for less than the price of six in the supermarket. All in all, Easter Sunday was a pretty quiet and pleasant day, until in the middle of consuming his fourth bun, Ali pointed out ‘Hey! We haven’t had any Easter eggs!’ ‘What do you mean?’ I said indignantly, ‘I got you a toy, remember?’ ‘Not you Mum, I mean from the Easter Bunny!’ Ali went on. Ah – the Easter Bunny. In my miserly state of mind I had completely forgotten about his part in the day. A little light went on in Ali’s head and I could see I was sprung.
‘Mum, you know when we thought there was a tooth fairy and it turned out to be you?’ asked Ali. ‘Does this mean that you’re actually the Easter Bunny as well?’ Fresh out of likely sounding excuses, I sheepishly had to admit that this was true and I had forgotten to get any eggs on the Bunny’s behalf. My tooth fairy secret had already been discovered several months before when Ali was investigating a high shelf and found a secret pot containing half a dozen of his brother’s teeth. Luckily far from being distraught, the boys both thought this was hilarious and I have been known as the ‘Mum Fairy’ ever since. ‘Really Mum’ scolded Ali. ‘If you’re going to pretend to be the Easter Bunny, you should at least remember to get the eggs, or you’ll get found out!’
An update on the ‘no smoking’ front for Noel – it’s not going that great, the patches are off again but he has cut down significantly. At present he is making a pack of 25 last up to three days, so it’s a big improvement and he hasn’t been bad to live with either. One of the main problems is his job as a Livestock Representative. His work through the daytime involves driving around all day, so it’s hard to take his mind off smoking. Then at night he’s stuck in his home office on the phone until 10 o’clock at night, which can be pretty monotonous, so half the time he ends up smoking to take a break or to keep himself awake. I appreciate how hard it is for him but he is really trying. The first few ‘cold turkey’ days he was so vague that he left his work mobile at home, which normally never leaves his side, as he drove to a meeting two hours away. He had almost reached his destination before realising that his phone had been really quiet all the way there and saw with horror that there was an empty space where his hands free set should be. He really enjoyed the peaceful feeling of nobody being able to contact him all day but the blasted thing drove me mad with its incessant ringing!
As for me, I’m still trying too but it’s proving a bit of a slog these school holidays. Maxine and I aren’t always able to get out for our lengthy walks with four children in tow, but I was excited to get a phone call this morning from a friend of mine – do you remember the one I mentioned a little while ago who has a treadmill she never uses but didn’t take my frequent hints that I would be interested in borrowing it? I read a few Vault hints which mentioned about borrowing or swapping fitness equipment from friends and I asked her husband a few weeks ago if Karen ever got round to getting herself the exercise bike she wanted. He said she hadn’t but still wanted one, so I asked if she would be interested in doing a swap for a few months – she would borrow my exercise bike in exchange for her treadmill. Karen called this morning and said she would love to give it a go. I can’t wait! I would never have thought of the idea without the Vault. I still have to be careful with my leg and it’s going to take some time but I have never felt better than when I was running and with the help of my free treadmill, I just might get there!
Guess who's coming for dinner?
Apr 21, 2006
Rain, rain go away. Go away and don’t even think of coming back until Sunday, because I have 30 people coming to my house tomorrow night and I have no idea where I’m going to put them all! How did I get into this? It was only meant to be a small gathering after a discussion with friends a couple of weeks ago. Deciding it was high time we all got together, I volunteered my place. Pot Luck dinner, how easy and hassle free could that be? The date was booked, people were rung round, several more were added to the list for good measure and I thought little more about it. Until Noel overheard me reeling off the list of families attending and said ‘It sounds like an awful lot of people! Where on earth are they all going to sit?’ ‘Nonsense’, I scoffed and proceeded to do a head count – and discovered I had somehow invited a grand total of 18 adults and 12 children. It’s not exactly barbecue weather lately either – by the time everyone arrives it will be dark and no doubt getting on the chilly side. Still, I refused to get myself in a tizzy – after all, it’s a Pot Luck dinner, it’s not like it’s going to be any work or anything.
It wasn’t until I did a brief mental recap of my list that I started to feel a little differently. Eight families were due to attend. Presuming that they all bring one dish each as is the norm, I am going to be serving up eight dishes of food to 30 people. Unless they happen to be blooming large dishes, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that there ain’t going to be enough food to go round. Immediately visions of previous gatherings whirled through my head – Penny chained to the kitchen for two days beforehand, Penny cleaning feverishly and screaming at anyone who dared to get out one measly toy or transfer a single speck of dust from one room to the next. Worst of all, I remembered Penny with a trolley loaded full of a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of food and drink that would be consumed entirely in one sitting. Noooo! I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I gave myself a good talking to.
The party (as let’s face it, it seems to have morphed into one) is tomorrow. 12 children aged from 14 to one are coming to ransack my house. Hence there is absolutely no point scrubbing my home to hospital standard because they are not going to notice in their haste to drag everything out. In fact, there is no point cleaning the upstairs area at all because that’s where the boys’ rooms are. They are also not going to notice if I haven’t dusted the playroom downstairs because true to form every available surface will be covered in potato chips. Right – so that’s four rooms I don’t have to clean straight off. It’s going to be dark when everyone arrives, so the curtains will be drawn and nobody is going to look at my windows to see if they have marks on them. There are going to be far too many people crammed into the lounge and dining area to notice whether my ornaments need dusting and hopefully they will all be having too good a time to bother scrutinising my kitchen to see if I cleaned the oven beforehand. So, technically all I need to do is clean the bathroom and loo and vacuum and wash the floor. No point doing those until tomorrow or they’ll need doing again, so no cleaning today for Penny, woohoo!
I still have the small matter of coming up with a large amount of food, but once again I am unruffled. I refuse to make the same mistakes as before – rushing down the aisles with my trolley throwing in posh cheeses, sliced meats and ready made dips. I have been perusing the Vault and there are heaps of cheap, no fuss recipes in there to try. The most important thing is that they’re tasty and filling. I have learned from the Vault how do bulk out meat dishes with beans or vegetables to make them go further, so that’s what I’ll do! I’m making a huge pot of savoury mince accompanied by nachos (bought in bulk) and there are some great crockpot recipes in the Vault, such as French Onion Chicken (chicken pieces are on special in my local store at the moment) and I can throw them together in the morning and forget about them until I need them. Maxine is providing mini chocolate éclairs, which are also on special and with 18 in a box are economical enough at the moment to buy more than enough for everyone. Bread is a great filler and delicious crusty loaves are bought cheaply from our local bakery; crackers, cheeses and dips never get eaten because everyone’s always too full, so no point buying those. I always have enough vegetables ready prepared and in the freezer to make tasty vegetarian dishes for the three non-meat eaters, such as Cauliflower Cheese Surprise, which is cheap to make and makes heaps, not to mention it’s yummy!
Cauliflower Cheese Surprise:
2 tbsp oil
2 onions, chopped
115g mushrooms, chopped
4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or you can use drained, tinned tomatoes)
200g tinned sweetcorn kernels, drained
1 large cauliflower, cut into florets
600ml cheese sauce
4 tbsp dry breadcrumbs
½ cup grated cheese.
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add onions and cook over a low heat for five minutes until softened. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally for five minutes. Add the tomatoes and sweetcorn, season to taste with salt and pepper, mix and heat through. Meanwhile, cook the cauliflower in a saucepan of boiling water until just tender, then drain and keep aside. Stir 150ml of the cheese sauce into the mushroom, onion and sweetcorn mixture, then spoon the mixture into a large ovenware dish. Top with the cauliflower and pour over the rest of the cheese sauce. Mix the breadcrumbs and grated cheese together and sprinkle over the top. Place in the oven at 180C for 10 – 15 minutes or until browned.
That’ll do! What everyone else brings is up to them, it’s Pot Luck after all! I usually buy in heaps of fizzy drinks for the kids, but this time I’m just going to buy a three litre bottle of fresh orange juice on special and water it down 50/50 to make six litres. They don’t even notice and half of it always gets spilled anyway so it’s much easier to get out of the carpet. The adults can bring their own and if they drink enough hopefully they won’t notice we don’t have enough chairs and will happily sit on the floor! Right, sorted - I’m off to see how little I can spend at the shop this time!
Let me count the ways...
Apr 24, 2006
Am happy to say I survived Saturday night’s gathering – and so did my bank balance! There was enough food to feed an army (I haven’t had to cook dinner since!), my new French Onion Chicken recipe from the Vault went down a treat (it really does smell delicious while cooking in the crock pot, just as the lady says) and the kids happily guzzled their way through six litres of watered down orange juice without batting an eyelid. Best of all, there wasn’t even much mess to clean up when everyone had gone – what a bonus! My little homeopathic first aid kit ended up being an unexpected topic through the evening and was used on several guests, all of whom were surprised at the results. Maxine was keen to give it a go first to try and ease the painful neuralgia she had been suffering from for several days. A nurse herself, I thought she would take some convincing – especially when I joked that the remedy I was about to give her looked and sounded a lot like garden fertiliser, but she had got to the stage where she would give anything a go to try and fix the problem. Before she took her homeopathic dose, she had been taking Panadol every four hours for relief. Even she was amazed how fast the remedy worked and rang me the next day to tell me that she couldn’t believe how good she was feeling and hadn’t had to take any painkillers since! Another guest had laryngitis and had barely any voice to socialise with, so once again I consulted my little book and found her a suitable remedy, which certainly seemed to help her last out the evening. Next up was my Mum, who had been suffering from digestive complaints for four days and was really feeling grotty. It took her less than 10 minutes from the first dose to feel the effects and the second dose sorted her out completely. It’s amazing to watch the remedies at work! What with the guests dabbling in homeopathy and poring over my Destitute Gourmet books, it turned out to be quite a Simple Savings themed party!
Hard on the heels of celebrating my super low cost party, the TV decided to pack in. At least this time I knew what to do when buying a new one – the same method which saved me hundreds on buying a new aquarium last year! I went to the Vault and found Rob McGlinn’s hint entitled ‘Shortcut to the lowest price’ and followed his instructions to print out and fax a detailed quote request to various companies for the television models and sizes I was interested in. It didn’t take long for the faxes to come back with the completed quotes, and what a difference there was in price. It was just a bit inconvenient that the best prices were also the furthest stores away from us. We already thought we had made a decision on the best price and model and were about to set off on the hour long drive, when Noel found details of another store special on the same model in the newspaper – the same TV was $200 cheaper still! Remembering another Simple Savings tip, I had an idea. ‘Why don’t we go to our local store first and see if they will match this price? If they do, we won’t have to drive any further!’ Noel thought it was a good idea, so off we went to our local branch 20 minutes away. We were super polite and friendly and sure enough, they agreed to match the price – but only if we had brought the newspaper with us for proof. Noel groaned, he hadn’t thought of that – but I had! The deal was done and using Rob’s fax hint and the newspaper, we managed to save a total of $398 on our new widescreen television. On top of this, the TV wouldn’t fit in our car with all the family in it, so the salesman offered free delivery and no sooner had we arrived home than the truck followed us up the drive with our new purchase!
Noel was pretty impressed at my purchasing savvy and once again we were thanking Simple Savings for saving us a lot of money. It just goes to show how much of a mark-up these companies make on their items. Imagine how many hundreds of dollars extra we needlessly fork out through not opening our mouths and simply coughing up? I realised that my Simple Savings subscription was nearly up and thought about all the ways that I had learned to save money in the last year. Apart from the $834 savings I had already made on the TV and aquarium thanks to Rob’s hint alone, I went around the house and listed all the items I had managed to save money on using my Simple Savings knowledge in the last year. Ahem, how long have you got?
Handwashing soap, toilet cleaners, floor cleaners, washing powder, fabric softener, Spray n’ Wipe, clothing, stain removers, dog food, paper, printer ink, picture frames, books, magazines, Internet providers, phone and mobile, power and water, paint, plants, garden ornaments, petrol, toys, games, doctors bills, medicine, exercise equipment, gym memberships, videos, shoes, dishwasher powder, washing up liquid, rubbish bags, dumping costs, vet bills, entertainment, takeaway food, shampoo, conditioner, hiring a builder, plants, potting mix, decorating, storage solutions, impulse buys, make-up, perfume, school holidays, family activities, eating out, supermarket shopping, professional cleaning services, calendars, bank fees, Christmas and birthday gifts, greeting cards, wrapping paper, special occasions - the list goes on and on, not to mention the savings of at LEAST $100 a month I have learned to save on food and drink and I’m sure I have forgotten heaps more things. Most of all, the countless times I have trained myself to say ‘NO’ and put things back or not pick them up in the first place. My year’s worth of savings has run well into the thousands. A pretty significant profit on the cost of a Vault membership, don’t you think? At only $17 to renew I’m aiming for an even bigger saving next year!
Puppy power
Apr 30, 2006
My Mum has unwittingly thrown me a challenge! She keeps telling me I won’t be able to cope this winter without a tumble dryer since my old one packed up last year. I’m determined to prove her wrong! After all, people did without them for centuries before didn’t they? I’ve got a drying rack and spare washing lines strewn across the back porch, so what else do I need? Besides, I always find clothes are a dozen times harder to iron once they have been through a dryer, why make more work for myself? Nope, I’m determined to see through the wet months without rushing out and buying one. Although it’s not really the price I struggle with these days, you can pick one up fairly cheaply, but it’s the effect that dryers have on the power bill that I have issues with. Being a bit of a conservationist, I would much rather let my washing dry au natural than wasting precious resources on speed drying our family’s ‘smalls’.
Mind you, it’s not as if the budget would allow at the moment if I wanted to buy one anyway! What with the TV earlier in the week, $398 savings or not, it was still an unforeseen expense. To add insult to injury, would you believe that the blasted VCR decided to pack in the following day? I kid you not! On inserting our precious one-of-a-kind wedding video from 1994 for the kids’ benefit, the video recorder swallowed the tape and permanently refused to part with it, the door thingy first fell inwards, then off its hinges and now dwells somewhere deep inside the machine. On the positive side, the smiley salesman from the place we bought our TV has promised me a really good deal on a new model, but Noel refuses to give up just yet, until he’s ‘had a look at it’. The kids and I wait with bated breath, but you can’t rush these things…
To top off the week, I finally had enough of my slobbery Labrador Ella hobbling around on three legs and took her to get a second veterinary opinion. You may remember months back that we first thought she would need a costly operation on her leg, until our local vet scolded us that her lameness was simply due to her being overweight and we put her on a strict diet forthwith. Months down the track, the weight had fallen off, but Ella’s predicament only succeeded in worsening, until I could stand to watch her no more and took her to a vet further afield. Surprise, surprise – one look told us that she had what we had suspected all along; a ruptured cruciate ligament. At least the kindly vet did save us a further $80 on having to anaesthetise Ella twice; she had to get knocked out for extensive x-rays and the vet asked for consent to go and operate while she was still asleep if results deemed it necessary, rather than having to bring her round and then do it all again for surgery the following day. So at last count we are looking at $30 for three overnight stays, $280 for consultations and x-rays, plus a further $950 for surgery, painkillers and antibiotics. Of course I don’t have a problem with this, Ella is part of the family after all! What I do have a problem with, is that thanks to the stuff-up by the first vet, Ella will probably never be the same again. Because of the length of time her condition was left, she needed to have quite a lot of damaged cartilage removed. She will suffer from severe arthritis in her leg for the rest of her life, and will need regular injections and strong painkillers to help her cope with it. She will never chase rabbits, gleefully jump into the back of my car or take a flying leap into water troughs again. On the positive side, her strict diet has resulted in a massive 14kg loss. If only I could manage the same!
On the subject of animals, Ali’s birthday is coming up in a few months and we are on the lookout for a puppy. I know, sounds like it’s just what we need with our motley crew of canines already in residence, but if anyone deserves his own pet, it’s him. He has waited almost two years to be allowed his own puppy and he has his heart set on a Cocker Spaniel. However, finding one of the above is proving harder than we thought! What I am discovering on my search is the astonishing number of ‘designer mongrels’ for sale these days. I can’t believe it! What started out as a kind of cute novelty a few years ago has turned into a huge money maker for indiscriminate breeders. It all began with the accidental mating of spaniels and poodles, which launched a new ‘breed’ known as the ‘Spoodle’ several years back. In the last few weeks in my search for a likely pup I have managed to dredge up ‘Labradoodles’, ‘Cavoodles’ and even ‘Schnoodles’ all selling for $1000 or $1500 upwards. When I think of how a decade ago these types of puppies would have been lucky to fetch $50 at the local RSPCA, the greed of their owners makes me sick. Even the pet shops are jumping on the bandwagon. When visiting a local pet shop with Mum not so long ago, we were enchanted by some beautiful fluffy bundles whose take-home price was $1200. Needless to say at that price they had to stay there, but not before we asked the pet shop owner what breed they were. ‘They’re half Poodle, half Shih-Tzu’ the lady smiled. ‘Ahh,’ I smiled back sweetly. ‘So what breed does that make them then, a Shiht-Poo?’ Trust me, it didn’t go down well! At this rate, I’m thinking that the best place to find the perfect puppy for our little boy is at an animal shelter. Whatever breed we end up with, it’s going to be the best loved pet in the world and no amount of fancy breeding will change that!