Lose weight, save money and reduce waste with friends

Our group of friends have learned there are many more benefits to being health conscious than just losing weight! We first started getting together to try and lose weight after Christmas. My friends went with the keto diet and I chose intermittent fasting. Of course, everyone needs to make sure they are medically safe and that whatever you choose suits you, as well as being mindful that children have different needs.

Having company certainly helps with motivation as we meet for coffee most mornings and compare notes. A bonus from this however, aside from losing weight and feeling much better, is that our grocery bills are a fraction of the usual. I am so pleased to see money left in my account on pay day! One friend reported that for her and her husband the usual spend at Harris Farm was over $200. Now it is under $40. I am single so used to spend around $100 a week on groceries and another $100 plus going out. Now I am down to $60 a week all up!

The other issue for me was waste. I would regularly buy whatever took my eye and it would go off in the fridge. Now I make a list (amazing how that works) and only buy enough for my meals. For example, I buy one zucchini instead of a bag full. I find grating some colourful veggies such as carrot, zucchini, yellow squash and red capsicum makes the meal interesting and seems bigger somehow. I get the ALDI salmon OR the chicken thighs - not both like before! - and either of these will last me for over a week.

Buying fresh produce is much cheaper and better than packets. The diet has reduced my appetite, so I can afford to buy smaller pieces of meat of higher quality. It takes some organisation but is so worth it. Training yourself to eat less certainly helps the budget. There are some good resources on intermittent fasting on the Internet and Dr Michael Mosley's book. My friends are using The Power of Protein. I also found a guy who appeared on The Doctors, who has created the Snake Diet, although that's a little extreme for me!

Dishwashing liquid breaks down hard to remove stains

I have found a cheap and effective solution for tough laundry stain removal! Stains such as fats or body odours can be notoriously hard to remove. Normal washing powders may be made for getting out dirt and stains but not for breaking down fats and body fluids. To combat the problem, I simply add a squirt of dishwashing liquid to the wash, along with my normal powder and soaker and it works like a charm. After all, it breaks down grease and fatty food residue when doing dishes, it makes sense for it to work on clothes too!

A platter from 'nothing'

This hint was a saviour during our last $21 Challenge.

The girls were looking for lunch and complained there was nothing to eat, so I found a large plastic platter and put the following treats on it:

A leftover BBQ sausage, thinly sliced

Two slices of leftover bread, buttered and cut into quarters

A diced kiwifruit

Four strawberries

A small piece of cheese, diced

1/4 tin corn kernels in a lettuce leaf

A muffin, cut in quarters

Four leftover chicken nuggets, cut in halves

A dob of cream cheese with a little corn relish mixed in

Four cucumber slices

Four cherry tomatoes

One Vita Wheat, halved

I gave the girls and myself a saucer each, plus a cocktail fork and everything was eaten and enjoyed. Now we often have 'platter parties' for meals and snacks. A novel way to serve up a meal when you have 'nothing' to eat!

Garage sales changed my life

We are retirees. We eat well, dress well, and live in a modern house, with an interesting flower and vegetable garden. Our income would probably be classed as poverty level, but we live like kings, because we have one shared vice. We are garage sale fanatics. Little in the house has been bought new. Older furniture has been restored, as my husband has clever hands. Once a year he sells the surplus at a huge garage sale, and it usually pays for a holiday.

We buy books, linen, furniture, new clothing, garden plants, sewing material and cottons, timber for building toy boxes and hall stands at garage sales. Our kitchen TV cost $25. The little one in the bedroom is 25 years old, so I bought a video recorder for $5.00 and can now get all the channels through the video. My three telephones and the answering machine are all from garage sales, as are my kitchen crockery, blankets and the beautiful satin embroidered bedspread that cost $5.00.

I am like a centipede with shoes as I buy good brands that have been tried on in the shop and are as new. It is the only place I can find the good comfortable shoes I favour. Likewise, many of my clothes are top brands. I bought a $168 pant suit for $10 because the lady's husband didn't like the colour.

The deep freeze, the two coolers, bed lights, beautiful big mats are all from our Saturday morning treks. We list the sales and use a street map to plan a route to save petrol.

Sometimes tinned food or home-made sauces are available, and if the vendors have fruit trees they sometimes sell the fruit by the plastic bag - picked yourself.

Nothing is sacred at garage sales, and provided you need the items there are some real bargains.

How about our home security system for $2.00, because the seller couldn't work it? A little investigation on the Net yielded full instructions.

My computer came from a government auction at one-third of the price quoted for a second-hand model at our local shop. Needed a bit of study to set it up, but I love puzzles, and so had it running with the Windows 98 program I bought for $10. I also keep the grandkids in Playstation games, and my daughter has been married for 20 years and has never bought any linen as I have kept her supplied with good quality buys.

My hobby started after my divorce when I found myself with an old 50's house to renovate and little furniture. So I started to buy 50's vintage furniture as well as renovating materials - paint, wallpaper, timber, doors, curtains.

Along the way I met a widower with the same ideas, so garage sales have provided a lot of rewards - a good life, enough money to enjoy ourselves, and a multitude of associated hobbies and friends.