Lightening

Are You Lost?

2008-01-13T16:53:00.000+10:30

If you are still reading this in a feedreader and wondering where all my posts have gone, I have moved to http://www.lighteningonline.com . Please come over and join us!!!! :-)

pppssttt.....Lightening's Online.....pass it on.....

2007-12-06T20:40:00.000+10:30

If you've happened to notice a little bit of lack of substance (and reduced commenting) from me over the past few days, it's because I have been rather busy working on a new project......

I have TAKEN THE PLUNGE and moved my blog to a self-hosted site.

You can now find me at http://www.lighteningonline.com/ .

So, now I need you to:

1. Visit my blog and ooh and aaahhhh (via the comments of course) over how good it looks!!!! Not that I can take credit for that. Snoskred has been working very hard to get me up and running. Isn't she a saint?

2. SUBSCRIBE to my new site - it's very easy and fun to do. There's a big PINK button you'll be just dying to press when you see it!!!! :-)

3. Give me a housewarming (or should that be blogwarming????) present. How do you do that? It's so easy! And it won't cost you a thing! I need LOTS of linky-love right now. Can you add a link to my new site in your next post (it can be a tiny little mention right down the bottom or a whole post or whatever you like). You see, I NEED a little leg up into the internet world as I'm starting all over again at the bottom. (If you haven't yet claimed your own blog on Technorati - it's also a great idea to do that. If you're not sure what Technorati is all about you might like to read this post I wrote on Technorati for Beginners. It's not hard, I promise! :-) ).

4. Change my blog URL in your blogroll so that your readers can find me if they like (thank you so much to those of you who have added me to your blogroll).

5. Pass the word around: "psssttt....... Lightening's Online ......pass it on.....". I wonder how far we could get this around the webworld? :-)

Blogging Addiction

2007-12-05T15:46:00.000+10:30

81%

Which is actually a LOT better than I was expecting it to come out!!!! Want to have some fun and take the quiz yourself? :-) You know you do!!!

Thanks to Veronica at Sleepless Nights whose blog I ~~pinched this from~~ found this on. :-)

7 Weird or Random Things About You Meme

2007-12-04T11:14:00.000+10:30

Jenn at Jenn's Den has tagged me for this meme.

Here are the meme rules:

Rules:
1- Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2- Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
3- Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4- Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here goes with 7 things about ME:

1. My favourite soft toy as a child was named "Doggy Pussy". I was obviously a rather confused child with a severe lack of creativity or ability when it came to naming my toys. LOL. He was a very faithful friend though and has absorbed truck loads of tears in his (and my) lifetime. I still have him. He lost his nose and both arms have been resewn a number of times. The fur is almost thread-bare. But he has pride of place stuffed in the bottom of my wardrobe somewhere! :-/

2. I eat chicken chips (the "Arnott's" or "Smiths" kind that is - some of you may call them crisps) with ice cream. Yeah, I know it sounds disgusting but you have to TRY it before you ditch the idea. Don't ask me why but the two go together quite well. It has become a favourite Friday night dessert in our house. It took my DH a LONG time to convince me to try it but once I did - I was hooked.

3. I have a tendency to end up in the middle of a circle of people. Someone in high school pointed this out to me. I'm still not sure if it's because I like being the centre of attention or because I'm so short that everyone can just speak over the top of my head!

4. When my first child was born I made a conscious decision that I wanted to see him laugh at least once every day of their life. Not sure exactly where that came from or if it's even a reasonable goal to have. That particular child is actually growing up to be quite a comedian and has the ability to make people laugh - what a gift!

5. I hate those hard 100s and 1000s on fairy bread (I like the soft "dollar sweets" or whatever they're called) but still like freckles (they're a chocolate covered with the hard round 100s and 1000s). In fact, I'm eating some right now (which is why I thought of this).

6. My favourite movie is "Pretty Woman" which I find rather strange given that I don't agree with prostitution. My favourite part is where Vivien returns to Rodeo Drive with her hands full of packages to say "BIG mistake" to the stuck up boutique that refused to serve her because of the outfit she'd been wearing. I don't like the attitude that having money makes you a better person.

7. My favourite number is the number 7!

So there you have it. Some a definitely weird. Some are just random. I'll let you decide for yourself which are the weird ones. LOL.

Now for the hardest part, who do I tag? I know I've seen this meme on some other blogs so if I tag you and you've already done it, just let me know.

Tiffany
Trey
Christine
Kelley
FitCat
Kez
YOU (if you'd like to participate and haven't yet been tagged - please consider yourself tagged and let me know and I'll add your link here too! :-) )

The Party's Over

2007-12-03T15:20:00.000+10:30

AND WE ALL HAD A BLAST!!!! :-)

Plus I'm still smiling and the house is in tact - so it's all good! LOL.

The cardboard box Lightning McQueen cars were a real hit. It's such a simple idea and yet so effective. It provided an activity (making the cars), a game (racing around the track) and a take home gift. I think our biggest cost for these were the paper plates! LOL.

Here is a photo TJ modelled for me yesterday. We made his car up as a "prototype".

Here is an action shot showing some of the "racetrack" we set up using a couple of pieces of white rope. I was thinking of buying some of that white spray on stuff but this worked just as well and we already had it on hand. It's amazing how something so simple can work so well. The kids loved it! :-)

And here is the cake! Can't get much easier than a nice square cake. LOL. It really only took a few minutes to ice, decorate and assemble. I did purchase a brand new Lightning McQueen car for the top of the cake but the rest were toys from the cupboard (carefully washed or wiped over) and ingredients from the cupboard.

I think somewhere along the way, my journey into simple living has simplified the way I do kids parties. I kept the food simple, the cake decorating simple, the activities simple. Yet the kids all seemed to have a lot of fun, were stoked with their stash of items to take home and a couple of the mums seemed to think I should go into the party throwing business. LOL. All the while I was able to relax and enjoy the day as well (this is a BIG thing for me - usually I'm stressed out the whole time wanting it all to be "perfect").

I did a quick calculation this afternoon and think I've spent around $60 on this party for 7 children and 8 adults. That was without actually "trying" to keep costs down. It was only supposed to be morning tea but I know none of our family have needed lunch and there are plenty of other leftovers as well.

All in all I'd have to say it was a succesful morning. :-)

Now I feel like I can focus on Christmas......

Number 4 Birthday Cake

2007-12-02T21:20:00.000+10:30

Here is the first birthday cake I made for DS's 4th birthday. He chose what colour I put in the icing (yellow seems to be a favourite at the moment). The lollies on the top are little lolly cars. (Yeah, I know, they look like frogs don't they? At least, that's what DS thought they were lol). Chucking a few lollies on a number cake is my idea of a birthday cake - nice and simple! :-)

I had to include this photo as well (carefully edited to remove as much of my "first thing Saturday morning hairdo" as I could manage lol). Doesn't he look so excited when he sees the Lightning McQueen Beach Towel? :-)

I love kids birthdays - they're so much fun!!!! I'll be back tomorrow with some photo's from the party. :-)

The Button that Broke the Mumma's Sanity

2007-12-02T08:56:00.000+10:30

....... Or "The Consequences of Spending the Whole Week Finishing a Novel AND Planning a Birthday Party"..........

We have a Baptism to go to this morning. Not a problem. We're regular church goers so getting the family ready to go to church on a Sunday morning isn't a *new* idea to us. Mind you, this isn't our regular church we're going to so I don't feel like I can allow the kids to go with half done hair and unironed shirts with a shrug to my friends that we've had one of those mornings (we have a really great church that accepts us come what may).

WELL!!!! Remember that comment I made about 3 overflowing baskets of ironing????? Not a problem. I can iron a shirt or two (can you tell I'm a good flybaby that gets everything ready the night before????? NOT!!!!).

Only slight little problem...... I'm wearing a black skirt and only have black tops clean! I CAN'T wear all BLACK to a child's baptism!!!!!!!! Can I change? No! Most of my bottoms are currently too small (*sigh* let's not go THERE). This skirt is slightly too BIG but at least I can get oxygen into my system while wearing it!!!! I'm sure I read somewhere that oxygen is *GOOD* for you.....

Quick look at the clock. Think we have time to handwash something and throw it through the tumble dryer before we have to leave......(shhhhh...... don't tell anyone that I'm breaking my own electricity challenge here...... )

Eating breakfast.

Reading Blogs. (I like to multitask).

Avoiding Frogdancers blog so I don't cement up my laptop with weetbix I've sprayed everywhere. Come across a COMMENT left my frogdancer that almost makes me throw up my weetbix (something about a creepy crawly thingy with white stuff oozing out...... you get the picture). Interesting..... laughing makes the weetbix spray all over the screeen (cleanable) whereas throwing...... OK, I won't go there.

DH comes in. "Don't we have any good shirts for TJ?"

I look at him. "Heaps" I say confidently, sure that I've bought him at least 2 this season.

Look in the drawer. Nothing. Look in the ironing pile. Hmmmmm........ starting to wonder what IS in those 3 baskets of ironing cause it sure aint anything USEFUL!!!!!

DH finds a shirt hanging up in the wardrobe (well, fancy that - something hanging in the wardrobe!!!!!! Remind to tell you the story about my dad's shirts one day.....) Shirt that used to be his older brothers. That'll work.

Okay. It's missing a button. When you put it on him his belly BUTTON shows. But apparently that doesn't count as a replacement button.

No problem. I have HEAPS of buttons. I keep every single button that comes attached to clothing when you buy it. Half of them are still in their little packets even!!!!!

Tip the buttons all over my bed. There are trillions of them (well I'm sure there would be if I could COUNT that high).

Kids shirt. Sure to have a nice little clear of white button on it. Got plenty of those...... NO!!!! It's from a surf shop (BIL bought it in Queensland YEARS ago....) It's some fancy schmancy BIG button. Kind of creamy with swirls of brown through it.....

Looking.....looking....... DH doesn't look convinced that the pink button I found fits in quite nicely (in an eclectic kind of way). Right size. Even has some brown flecks throught it......

Back to the drawing boards.....or should I say cupboard????

TJ appears wearing one of the new t-shirts I bought for him. I don't even WANT to know where DH found it!!!!!

*sigh* Think I no longer qualify for "mummy of the year" award. :-)

4 Years or 48 Months?

2007-12-01T09:48:00.000+10:30

The BIG day has arrived. Today my baby turns 4!!!! It sounds so BIG, doesn't it? Last week I was talking with a friend of mine who also happens to be one of the staff members at my son's kindy (preschool) and she was sharing about a conference she went to which taught them to remember that the 4 year olds in their care were just 48 months old. When you put it like that, it doesn't really sound so old after all does it? I think it was just what I needed to hear at the time. :-)

My boy is SO proud of how big he is! It really is very sweet.

This year Lightning McQueen is featuring very heavily. For those of you not familiar with Lightning McQueen, he is a red racecar and the lead character in the movie "Cars". I LOVE the storyline as he learns what it truly means to be a friend and to have friends. And that "winning isn't everything".

We gave him a Lightning McQueen beach towel and wallet (he FINALLY has his own wallet!!!! A fact he is very proud of. We tend to start teaching money management to our children from 4 years onwards - that's probably a subject for another post). We also gave him a Leapster that included a Lightning McQueen game. Being the youngest, he is being introduced to computer games a little younger than the other two. DD now has a gameboy and our other DS has a Nintendo DS so this is TJ's very own "gameboy". They work out fantastic for travelling in the car - we drive quite a few km's a week living so far from everything.

His grandparents gave him his very own tool set (with REAL tools) - it came with a hat, goggles and toolbelt and he is ecstatic. So in many ways turning 4 has become a significant milestone for him becoming a "big boy".

On Monday he's having a few little friends over for a "Cars" Birthday party. To the left is a copy of the invitation we used as a base for our invitations. Gotta love the internet for being able to find HEAPS of great party ideas. :-) The children who have been invited are all quite EXCITED at the thought of a "Lightning McQueen" party. :-)

The plan is for each child to make their very own Lightning McQueen car out of a cardboard box (the kind you stand inside of). I've printed off some Lightning McQueen faces to stick to the front of the box and there's a red piece of paper with a "95" on it to go on the sides. Then of course the paper plate wheels and steering wheel. DH is going to mark out a track on the back lawn so they can "drive" around it

I think it'll be lots of fun. The cardboard cars will take care of most of the activity for the morning and also become part of the "take home" gift for each child. I have bought "Cars" party bags as well and in them will go a few lollies, a small packet of chips and a couple of "cars" colouring sheets I printed off the internet.

I'm hoping that by the time they arrive and settle in, make their car and race around in their car, there won't be a need for too much other organised activity. We also have a blow up tunnel type thing my parents gave our children for Christmas which DH will set up and the sand-pit. I do have some blow up egg and spoons they can play with and if need be we'll do an egg and spoon race or two and play a few games like Duck, Duck, Goose. I find the whole "winning/losing" issue with party games and prizes a hard one at this age so I simply solve that dilemma by avoiding those kinds of games.

We have a little boy coming who is allergic to eggs, milk, nuts and a few other things so I've worked on party food that he can have (usually his mum brings food for him but they're close friends and it'll be nice for him to be able to come to a party and just be "one of the kids" instead of being different). I feel very honoured (and a tad nervous) that I am one of the few people she will trust with the life of her child. His first sleep-over away from home was here.

Party Food will be:

* fruit platter
* popcorn with icing sugar
* iced biscuits with lolly faces (I know which biscuits he can have)
* plain potato chips (he can have Home Brand salt & vinegar but DH accidentally ate them)
* toobs
* pretzels
* jelly cups with jelly frogs in them (if I get around to making them lol)
* cordial (plus tea & coffee for the mums)

He can also have my Chocolate Fudge Cake so I'll make that for the birthday cake. I prefer to keep things pretty simple all up. There's nothing worse than spending hours making party food only to end up throwing a heap in the rubbish.

Today I have to make 2 birthday cakes. One for his family birthday tea tonight and one ready for the party on Monday. I'm planning on making a number 4 cake for tonight. The cake for the party is pretty simple (photo's Monday night hopefully). I've bought a toy Lightning McQueen to go on it rather than attempt to actually make and ice a Lightning McQueen (like I said, I like simple :-) ).

I don't think it takes too much to put on a simple little kids party that can be lots of fun without being TOO much work. If I make things too complicated for myself I tend not to want to go through all of that again. LOL. This way, we all have fun and I don't end up in a heap. :-) Having it during the school day means I only have the 6 kids who are coming plus 5 mums (2 kids are siblings) and DS and myself to cater for.

Our family tradition is to have a kind of party tea on the day of each child's birthday. Generally I let the kids choose what meal they'd like and so far they've always chosen a "party tea". LOL. Just like their mother really - that's what I used to ask my Grandmother to do when she would do a special birthday tea for my birthday. :-) So naturally, I'm happy to oblige. No party pies this time though (I don't have any at the moment!!!). But we will have "little boys" (cocktail sausages), fairy bread (an absolute must), cheese & bacon fingers (some people call them "toasties"), potato chips, salad platter and slices of watermelon. I've also bought some brandy snaps and cream as a bit of a treat. And of course, the birthday cake. I *might* make a few mini quiches if I get really energetic today while the oven is on - we'll see.

I think I'd best go write myself a "what needs doing when" list. More details and photo's will follow over the next couple of days. :-)

Goodbye November

2007-11-30T11:33:00.000+10:30

Phew! November is finally drawing to a close. And what a month it has been!!!!!

I succumbed to my internal desire (with some prodding from a few internet buddies) to join National Novel Writing Month, completely unsure of whether I could possibly write a 50,000 word novel in the space of 30 days AND still do justice to my blog! If you haven't noticed my quiet sidebar announcement yet, I am officially a Nanowrimo WINNAH!!!!! Yes, you may bow down to my brilliant ability to say a lot of nothing in plenty of words. :-)

In an effort to balance the scales and pledge my commitment to maintaining this blog, I also decided to join National Blog Posting Month. That sure was a LOT of fun and a great way to find new bloggers and make new friends.

I am curious though as to whether I picked up any NEW regular readers from participating in Nablopomo. I know I had many visitors from the website and the randomiser but I also know I have visited MANY blogs and have only returned to a few. So if you found me via Nablopomo in some way and have decided to become a regular reader - can you let me know? (curious minds and all that....)

I am feeling very proud of the fact that not once did I make a post along the lines of "I got nothing but have to post because of nablopomo". :-) Not that I'm criticizing anyone who did. I just thought I may have to resort to that myself so I'm pleased that the ideas kept flowing despite the pressure to post EVERY DAY.

It is interesting how it can change the dynamic within your own mind when you have an OBLIGATION to post every day. But I did get used to it after a while and settled back to my normal routine of posting whatever seemed to pop into my head.

Now, being the sensible person that I am, I figured writing a novel AND maintaining this blog was enough to do for the month of November. Yeah right? Instead, I thought it would be nice to start a
new blog. Something rather different from this blog and also an opportunity for me to explore wordpress just a little. I had no idea how familiar I'd actually become with blogger until I attempted to use and understand wordpress. LOL. But it's been fun and as much as I find it difficult learning technical stuff, I do enjoy learning and stretching myself. So it's been a worthwhile exercise.

Now, apparently as long as I THINK I am going insane, I'm not. So as long as I'm *aware* that starting BLOG NUMBER 3 , also during the very busy NOVEMBER, is kind of a crazy idea....I'm safe from the men in white coats (are there really men in white coats?????? I've always wondered that......) Now I will admit I'm fairly passionate about blogging and all that but I NEVER imagined I'd be someone to ever have more than 1 blog, let alone 3.

I'm sure by now you're all in awe of my brilliance!!!! After all, she's written a novel AND maintained not 1 blog, not 2 blogs but 3 BLOGS!!!! (yeah okay, only 1 of those blogs was posted on every day - this one is still my first priority). All the while still reading and commenting on other blogs, attempting to learn more about blogging, trying to attract new readers to her blog because her whole self esteem now revolves around whether people read and comment and LOVE her. LOL.

Not to mention cooking nutritious meals for her family (ummm...... shhhh.... don't tell anyone that her DH is quite handy in the kitchen), ............love her children to bits (yes dear, I love you...now can please go away....can't you see that mummy is BUSY), .......wrap Christmas presents (yes, wrapping 1 present qualifies me as having STARTED my Christmas wrapping!!!!!!), prepare for a birthday party, wrap birthday presents......do some Christmas craft with her kids.....

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's.......... "supermom" (note the Amercian accent there!) .......... LOL. As IF!!!!!!!

Wondering how all this could possibly be happening?????? You should see my poor neglected house!!!!! *sob*

Well, this is what my desk looks like. Actually that's not too bad a shot really, it can get a lot worse than that. Sadly, I don't work well in a cluttered environment and yet I continue to do so . Ooh, you can see my laptop in this photo so now you can kind of picture me typing away, talking to you! :-)

No, I didn't cheat and get Rufus to write my novel for me! He just looks a lot neater sitting on the chair than sprawled on the floor.......

Usually I have a mug and a cup and at least 1 plate there somewhere along with a packet of lollies, some dried apricots and almonds. I like to eat while I'm "thinking". Just like "umm...." in a conversation gives you time to think about what you want to say next, stopping to stick something in your mouth gives you time to think about what you want to type next.

I don't even want to THINK about what my weight is doing right now. If you ever make it to the bottom of my blog page - you may have noticed my weight loss ticker doesn't get updated much. That's because my weight is heading in the WRONG direction!!!!! I blame it on November really - too much sitting and EATING while typing copious amounts of........words (I was going to say crap but it hasn't really ALL been crap - at least I hope not!!!).

Here's another shot and to be perfectly honest, it was at least twice as bad as this yesterday. I'm cheating. These shots I took a couple of weeks ago with the intention of posting them in an effort to challenge myself into cleaning them up. Instead, I just kept adding to the clutter while ignoring the fact that my writing was keeping me from other more "domesticated" tasks. I should have taken another shot yesterday before I began to sort things out a little - that would have told more of the REAL story here. :-)

If I wanted to REALLY embarrass myself, I could go and take a photo of my laundry! LOL. But a girl has to have some pride!!!! I think there are currently 3 washing baskets with ironing in them and 1 with folding to be done.

What I'm trying to point out here is that yes, I did achieve a LOT during November and I'm quite pleased with that. But it did come at some COST. No-one can do everything!!!! (Well, maybe someone can....let me know if you find them). I'm kind of pleased to see the end of November and plan to spend the next few days trying to get my house back in order before it gets descended upon by 4 year olds on Monday!!!!!

Oh, and I've started a new feature on Lightening's Blogworld which mentions a few posts from this week that I really enjoyed. Hope you have time to stop by and take a look. :-)

Glass Deco

2007-11-29T14:49:00.001+10:30

Over the weekend as part of our "gradual" Christmas decorating, the kids and I made some Christmas stained glass window pictures with a Glass Deco kit I ordered through one of our preschools fundraising toy catalogues. On Saturday the kids had a great time making these and then on Sunday they were most excited as I peeled each one off and stuck them on our cupboard doors in the kitchen.

This first picture is the one done by my not quite 10-year old son. Each of them chose their own picture from those I had found and printed off.

DD chose an angel. No surprises there! :-) (She gets to dress up as an angel twice in Christmas performances this year. Once for school and once for Sunday School. She is very excited about that.)

The black outlines are done first. I did them throughout the week in preparation as they're quite fiddly to do. This meant that on Saturday the kids were able to fill in the sections with whatever colours they liked. The sparkly sections are done using a Glass Deco confetti kit (so the glitter is already in the paint). I think you can get glitter ones in some stores too but this catalogue only had the plain colours and the confetti.

This tree is my "turning 4 this Saturday" little mans efforts. How cute is it? :-) I had to stop myself from encouraging him to use colours that I thought would be best. He needs to be able to express himself in whatever way he likes. He is so proud of this and points it out every day.

These are really designed to go onto glass - windows, doors, jars etc but they stick to any surface that is reasonably smooth. Stuck to my kitchen cupboard doors (the floor to ceiling ones) they sure do make my kitchen look festive.

I love things that the kids can do instead of using only store bought decorations. At the moment I am making some different pictures to add to jars for some of my homemade Christmas gifts. I'm hoping to have enough paint left that the children can make another one each for us to add to our glass back door.

There are some great Christmas colouring pages available all over the internet. I found these particular pictures here . I'm planning to print off some more colouring pages for them to colour in when school lets out for the year. Only two weeks to go now!! (my children have tommorow off so today is the end of week 7 here). They have a little over a week between school breaking up and Christmas Day so it'll be helpful to have a few fun "Christmassy" type activities for them to do. :-)

Self Worth and Encouraging Others

2007-11-28T08:20:00.000+10:30

I was thinking some more about the issue of helping others that we were discussing yesterday. One thing I wondered was whether there is another factor at play here besides our busy lives that prevents us from offering a word of encouragement or some help to others. Our own self worth.

If we perceive another person as "having it all together" or at least doing better than us, does that make us reluctant to encourage them? Do we assume that they don't need any encouragement? Or do we assume that encouragement from little óle us wouldn't be worth anything to them?

One thing I have been learning recently is that how I perceive things is not always how they are. I guess this should be rather obvious to me given that not everyone views me the same way that I view myself.

Which makes me pause for a moment and consider the fact that other people may be the same. Perhaps I perceive them as "having it all together" when in reality they're just as unsure about themselves as I am. If I would really appreciate some encouragement, the occasional helping hand or note just to say "hey, just wanted to make you smile today", perhaps others would as well.

Then of course there is the fear of rejection or humiliation. If the other person laughs at me or rejects my offer in some way, is that only going to confirm my initial assessment of myself? Can my fragile self esteem handle an adverse reaction of any kind?

I wonder then if I have done that to others. In my striving to appear to "have it all together", have I pushed other people away (unintentionally of course)? There is a large amount of humility required to admit you need help and then accept help.

Do we sometimes deny people the opportunity to give? There is a great blessing in giving. Whether it be the gift of time, goods, services, a smile, encouragement.....and the list goes on. When we refuse to accept those tentative offers, are we denying that person the blessing that comes through giving?

I think I have a lot more questions than I have answers right now but this topic is certainly challenging me to think.

Does anyone else have anything else to add to the discussion on giving and receiving? It does seem appropriate at this time of year. :-) What kinds of fears or other obstacles stand in the way of you either giving OR receiving?

There were some wonderful comments made in response to my post yesterday and I plan on answering them once this post is completed. I would however, like to highlight one particular comment for those of you who perhaps missed it.

Beth said:

We have had some similar struggles and have taken a long time to recover. Life as we knew it to be became scary and unpredictable. For us it was about 2 years for life to reflect 'normal'. We have grown from this experience and look for joy consciously each day (we list 4 things each that were a source of pleasure for us). We also list 4 things each that we did to bring joy to someone else (a concept from 'Eat Mangoes Naked' by SARK). Our kids love this and it helps us to actively look for them. I actually make a practice to write mine down (they make me smile again later when I re-read my list).

You can read her 4 things in each category at the time of her comment by visiting the comments section of HELP. What greater gift can we really offer to one another than to make another person smile? I think by far it's my favourite because it doesn't cost anything, doesn't *have* to take a lot of time and is VERY contagious. :-)

What a wonderful thing they are teaching their children. To actively seek joy in each day AND actively promote joy in other peoples lives. I LOVE this suggestion. Thank you so much for sharing it Beth. I'm going to start this with my own children.

What are you going to do today to bring a smile to another persons face? Perhaps you'd like to add your suggestions to the comments section so we can all share our ideas. :-)

HELP

2007-11-27T10:03:00.000+10:30

I am REALLY bad at asking for help. It's a pride thing, I know. But I wonder if it's also a cultural thing. Once upon a time neighbours were more aware of people's situations and therefore their struggles and would automatically lend a hand at times. These days it would seem that a combination of our busy lifestyles and our desire not to "interfere" has made that sense of community gradually disappear.

Isn't it sad that our lives are so busy that we find it hard to fit in reaching out to another? Isn't it sad that our desire for privacy and "individuality" has caused us to shut others out of our lives?

What about help within a family? DH and I have been talking about this lately. We've been trying to work out why his parents seem to want to help his sister and her family and yet seem reluctant to help us out - even when it seems really obvious to us that we're in need of some help. At first I thought perhaps it was the son/daughter issue. BUT, he has 2 sisters and only one of them gets the attention and the help.

Is it that they're not interested in helping us? Do they love her more than they love my DH and the other siblings? Does she appear more "needy" than the rest of us?

Sadly, DH and I have come to the conclusion that the only way to get help from his mother is to basically "tell her" this is what's happening. Occasionally I have gotten to the point of actually asking her for help, only to have her turn me down. This was very perplexing to me as it takes me quite a lot to actually ask for help and when I ask, I'm really DESPERATE. Not that she would know that I guess.

DH has taken over the "asking" now and he basically says "we need you to have the kids.....". And 99% of the time that works out well. I struggle a little because I feel like we're being "demanding" and that we shouldn't expect anything from her. We should wait until it's offered. I guess we've waited for over a decade now...... It's not that she doesn't really want to help. It's sort of a case of "the squeaky wheel gets the oil".

I guess on reflecting on all of this I feel a great sadness. A sadness that we've all let our lives get so busy that we just don't have the time to reach out to others when they're in need. I know that before my breakdown I was as guilty of this as anyone. I also feel sad that many people feel they need to put on an act of "having it all together" and not opening up to others about how they're really feeling. Again, I'm really bad at this myself.

So many people have commented at how shocked they were when I had my breakdown. Nobody could even imagine that I'd be struck by something like depression. Even my poor DH was rather shocked by the whole event. Me, well.....I knew something wasn't right and that if things kept going the way they were I felt like I was going to collapse in a heap. To be honest, I did try to tell my DH about it. He thought he could "fix it". :-) He's Mr "fixit" himself. He and I make for a bad mix when it comes to getting help because neither of us is very good at admitting when we need it.

I wanted to tell someone. For months I had it in my head that if an opportunity would come up, I would say something to one of my closest friends. Sadly, the opportunity never came up. Maybe I was supposed to *make* the opportunity. Maybe I was so used to putting on a "front" that I didn't know how to let down my guard enough to show people the tank underneath had run completely dry.

When I saw a Psychiatrist for the first time in January of this year, he diagnosed me with having zero self esteem. Not "low" self esteem but "NO" self esteem. I remember sitting and talking with a friend about this (finally getting to the point of opening up and being more honest) and she was rather shocked. Her comment went something along the lines of thinking that no-one would EVER have picked that about me. Do people really see me so much differently to the way I see myself? Sometimes, I'd really like the opportunity to just sneak a peek at the way others see me. Curious minds want to know and all that.

It's ironic that now I sit behind a keyboard and spill my guts in such a very public way. Not that the whole world reads my blog or anything. But they could if they wanted to..... :-)

In 2006 I was out of circulation for many months. In that time I was sent 1 card. Just the one. If I had been in hospital, do you think I might have received more cards than that? Don't get me wrong. We weren't abandoned by our friends or anything like that. Many people from our church cooked meals and cakes for us. I did receive a few emails. And people were constantly asking my DH how I was going and sending their regards and love via him.

But just 1 person of all the people in my life took the time to actually sit down, write a card and send it. To be perfectly honest, that hurt me a little bit. I know my friends care. I know how busy they are. And it's challenged me to consider how often in my life I've stopped and taken the time to write someone a card. Just a note to let them know I'm thinking of them. Nowhere near often enough.

I have been as guilty as anyone else of filling my life up to capacity and then some. Running from one thing to another. Constantly on the go. Constantly running so close to empty that there's nothing left to give another person. The hearts desire might be there. But if I don't act on it, how can that person ever know I was thinking of them?

I think we all need to take a step back and really examine our lives. Are we too busy to help someone in need? Are we too busy to bake a cake for our own family, let alone find the time to bake a cake for a neighbour or friend? Are we so busy trying to tread water ourselves that we don't even notice those drowning around us? And if we do notice - are we in a position to help them without drowning ourselves?

This is a challenge I want to take on myself and I encourage any of you reading this to do so also. As we move into the busy, festive season and then in to a New Year. Do we really want to keep living this fast paced life where people don't matter enough to us? Can we pause a moment and take a step back long enough to look around us and see how others are doing? Can we pop a little note or card in the post telling someone how much they mean to us?

What can we do today to make someone smile? What can we do to make their day just that little bit brighter?

Some of you may have noticed I've changed the title of this blog. I felt the old title was rather long and cumbersome. The definitions I've posted underneath are my own. They're not who I AM but who I desire to be.

What can you do today to spread a little "lightening" in the world. :-)

Time For a Smile

2007-11-26T17:28:00.000+10:30

Blond Father

A blond guy and a brunette girl were happily married and about to have a baby. One day, the wife started having contractions, so the husband rushed her to the hospital. He held her hand as she went through a trying birth. In the end, there were two little baby boys.
The blond guy turned to his wife and angrily said, "All right, who's the other father!?!"

joke courtesty of http://jokes.comedycentral.com

WHAT was I Thinking?

2007-11-26T09:06:00.000+10:30

My internal stress barometer is pointing at "in danger of explosion" this morning. Usually I work "better" if I have a little bit of stress in my life. I remember when I was at school and tertiary study, the essays that wouldn't flow would suddenly start to on the night before they were due. I think I only ever once pulled an all-nighter though and that was the night before one of my year 12 Maths CATS was due (they were each worth 25% of my final mark). Problem was, staring at the page at 3am in the morning didn't actually make the answer magically appear. LOL.

Aaaaahhhhhhh....... why does my typing like to self delete part-way through a paragraph??????? That wasn't what I needed this morning.

Anyway, what I WAS saying was that since my breakdown I have been overly sensitive to even the smallest amounts of stress so we've worked hard to reduce any stress in my life to enable my recovery.

BUT, at some point I need to rejoin the "real world" and that has been slowly happening.

What's going on this week that's making my stress levels rise?

* Nablopomo final week. I've made it this far. I am NOT going to give up now. It's been interesting though. I tend to pretty much blog daily anyway BUT the pressure of *having* to do a blog post has changed the freedom dynamic just a little. I love the exposure (I have had a number of *hits* from the nablopomo randomiser) and the sense of community it brings. I've enjoyed meeting new bloggers and making some new friends. It's only a tiny amount of stress adding the "have to" factor BUT those tiny amounts can add up. Oh and can someone please tell me WHY I had this desire to start up 2 NEW blogs during November??????? At least I didn't register them for the Nablopomo challenge.

* Nanowrimo. I've hit another brick wall. Thankfully the email I received this morning tells me that this is quite normal. Only 9,000 words to go which *should* be a piece of cake. I just need some discipline to get the next couple of thousand words written and then I think the rest will flow. However, I feel acutely aware that I cannot simply procrastinate on this because it's the LAST week. There'll be no more racing to catch up next week like I've been doing the rest of the month. LOL. I'm aiming to get as close to finished as possible by the end of tomorrow to alleviate the pressure on the rest of the week.

* My baby turns 4 on Saturday. Waaaaahhhhhh!!!!! I am SO not ready for him to grow up. Once they start kindy it feels like the beginning of the end (of their "little" years anyway). I still need to finalise his presents, buy him something yummy to eat (like a bag of freddo frogs) and wrap the presents. Oh, and find the card I made for him back in around February. LOL.

* "Baby" is having a Lightning McQueen birthday party on Monday. At some stage I need to finish off all the preparations for that. Fill the party bags etc etc. It also means I need to make 2 birthday cakes. One for Saturday and one for the party on Monday. AND remember to shop for the party food. AND remember to buy something fun to eat Saturday night. Last night I had a dream that everyone turned up TODAY instead of next Monday and I hadn't baked the birthday cake yet! It's was a NIGHTMARE. LOL. There isn't heaps to do - just the awareness of it coming up is causing my stress levels to rise.

* Today is my cleaning day and Saturday I was busy helping the kids do some fun stuff so I didn't get anything done then (I usually split the cleaning between Saturday and Monday) so I have MORE than the usual amount of cleaning to do. Actually, that could be a *good* thing as the physical exertion of cleaning will help with the stress. :-) Planning to alternate a cleaning task with writing 500 words on my novel.

* This week of all week's I really NEED to have a menu plan. But I have a sad case of the "don't wannas" (yeah, there's resident 2 year old inside of me lol).

* DS has decided to make today a whingy-whiny kind of day. So kind of him. Kids have great timing with these kinds of things don't they? LOL. All he's wanted to do so far this morning is EAT, EAT, EAT. Who am I kidding? That's what he does most mornings. It's just that I'm finding it hard to disuade him from the things he wants to eat that mumma don't want him to eat. *sigh* I wonder if he's absorbing some of my stress and that's upsetting him a little.

*DEEP SIGH* Apparently they are great for releasing stress. Whenever I sigh during a counselling session my counsellor tells me I should have another one. Oh yeah, have a counselling session tonight too and so far this week I have written just 1 journal entry. Ooops.

Gotta stop whinging now and go and start cleaning. LOL. It does help to get it all out on "paper" though. Well, virtual paper anyway. At least then it's not all rolling around in my head driving me crazy and making novel writing all but impossible!!!!

Hope you're all having a great Monday and that your week is a little more relaxing than mine feels. :-)

Christmas Countdown

2007-11-25T14:54:00.000+10:30

Well, whether you like it or not, the Christmas Countdown is ON. :-) We're now exactly one month away from Christmas. I hope that makes you smile and not freak out. LOL.

It certainly makes me smile. :-) Did you notice my Christmas Tree widget with the countdown to christmas on it? That makes me smile too. No idea if it's in Australian days or US days but oh well, close enough will have to be good enough for now. :-)

I was thinking this morning about the fact that the US Christmas Season begins in earnest the day after Thanksgiving. What an awesome way to get into the "Christmas Spirit" than having a festival with the emphasis on being thankful. :-)

So today, I'm having my own little Blog Thanksgiving. That is, I'm wanting to be mindful of some of the things in my life that I am thankful for.

I am Thankful for:

* The birth of Jesus which ultimately led to me being able to have a relationship with my creator God.

* My husband who is the light of my life and I love him more and more each day.

* My beautiful children who make me smile more often than they make me tear my hair out. :-)

* My church family whom I adore. We go to the most awesome church that sits in the middle of nowhere all on it's own and is bursting at the seem with children. I was walking around in church this morning, no shoes on, rocking someone else's baby to sleep and I could honestly say there was no place I would have rather been right then.

* My extended family and friends.

* The fact that the sun rises each morning and sets each night.

* My blog where I get to have my say and through which I have made some wonderful new friends.

* My bed which is sooooo comfy and my pillow which I love! :-)

* Having a roof over my head. Not only a roof but a roof over a house I was able to design and choose colours for. A home that is also paid for. I am so blessed.

* A reliable car which enables us to move about and not be confined to a small area.

* My garden which makes me smile and gives me peace as well as giving us nutritious food to eat.

* Never having to go hungry or wonder where my next meal will come from. An abundantly stocked cupboard, fridge and freezer.

* The internet through which I have made friends and learnt so many new things.

* Chocolate. LOL.

* More clothes than I really need. Shoes to protect my feet and hats to protect me from the sun.

* The beach. We were able to take our children to the beach yesterday (about half an hours drive but we already had to go half the way for voting anyway) and they had such a GREAT time. It was an excellent reminder to me how much children really NEED in order to have fun!

* My knitting needles and loom which has brought me much pleasure, relaxation and created some useful items.

* That I have time to do things that I enjoy doing.

* That I live in a democratic country, even if I have my doubts about the outcome of that democratic process. :-)

* Freedom. I am free to have an opinion. I am free to believe what I like. I am free from fear of being harmed or persecuted in any way. I am free to be who I am.

* My books which are a font of information and a source of relaxation and escape.

I feel like I could go on and on and on here. My life is so blessed and I am surrounded by wonderful people and a LOT more things than I really have need for. It truly is amazing how content it makes me feel when I begin to list some of the things I have to be thankful for.

Do I really need anything more for Christmas? No, I don't. I really don't.

What are you thankful for? Perhaps you'd like to add it to the comments here or write your own blog post about it (for those who haven't already done so). :-)

Triple Chocolate Muffins

2007-11-24T11:28:00.000+10:30

I made this recipe the other day. It never fails to be a hit in this house or anywhere we go. Personally, I'm not that big a muffin fan. Unfortunately I quite like these (unfortunately because then I eat more than I should). I had planned to take a photo to post but got lazy I'm afraid.

Anyway, here is the recipe. It's a Tupperware one and I think being given a magnet with the recipe on it is once of the most useful freebies Tupperware have ever given me!!!! I always know where to find the recipe - stuck to the side of the filing cabinet. LOL. It certainly looks well used these days (the magnet that is, not the filing cabinet - you can't tell how well used that looks as it's covered in all kinds of crap).

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, the recipe:

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

3 cups plain flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups milk
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup dark choc bits
2/3 cup white choc bits
120g butter, melted
2 x 60g eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease 5cm muffin pan. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into bowl (they suggest "mix-n-pour" as all tupperware recipes are designed for making in their products - as you would expect). Add brown sugar & choc chips. Mix. Add butter, milk and eggs. Mix. 3/4 fill each of the muffin moulds, bake 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in the tin before turning out.

Some notes from me:

* This is a rather large mix. Yesterday I made up a double mix and it was too much for my largest mixing bowl (which is a largish stainless steel one). Well, it just fitted but I spilt a bit as I was trying to mix it.

* One of the benefits of using the mix-n-pour if you have one is that you can see if all the flour is mixed in. Muffins should only be mixed until just mixed (not continually stirred or beaten) but it's no fun to get half way through scooping the mix into muffin tins to find that the bottom half hasn't mixed properly.

* The Tupperware "mix-n-pour" is a jug that has a lid with a hole in the middle (it has a separate lid). This recipe fits just nicely into that jug - unless you double it like I did then you'll have no hope. LOL. It's okay, I didn't try to fit a double mix in the jug.

* If you're feeling lazy you can substitute plain flour for SR flour and skip the baking powder. No idea on the exact difference it makes as mine are never the same twice regardless. But I do know it works fine (that's what I did yesterday).

* I very RARELY bother sifting flours and I don't think I EVER have for this recipe. I'm a lazy cook.

* They taste good without the while choc chips (okay, maybe not JUST as good, but still pretty good). I just add a whole packet of generic choc chips instead. Having said that, when I made them yesterday I made them "according to the recipe" as I happened to have white choc chips in the cupboard.

* If you leave out the cocoa and choc chips and add cinnamon and cut up apple - they taste really yummy!!!! I've also made them with jam but the jam does make them a little heavier - would be better I think to add a dob of jam to the top of each muffin before cooking, rather than mix it through. Some jams would work okay with cocoa in the mix and some better leaving the cocoa out.

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Meat

2007-11-23T09:30:00.001+10:30

This post is part of a series I'm writing on how we reduced our grocery budget by approximately $3000 a year. If you haven't already read them, you might like to review the earlier posts:

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Two
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Three
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Four

My DH is a man who likes his meat. I'm sure that's a scenario many of you are familiar with. If truth be told, I quite like my meat too. Although, as a teenager I *hated* meat. If my parents had let me eat vegetarian, I would have. The problem was (and still is) that I NEED to eat a reasonably high protein and high iron diet. For a long time, these were the excuses I used to not even contemplate changing the amount I was spending on meat.

If you're faced with family members who are not 100% behind your efforts to reduce the grocery budget, please move SLOWLY with this. I know I've said it before but it's really important to have a long term view when it comes to reducing your grocery spending. Those tiny baby steps, if you keep at it, will start to yield results.

Now the first thing I did when I wanted to reduce our meat consumption was to very gradually increase the number of vegetables we were consuming with our evening meal. Again, I had to do this carefully and slowly to avoid being faced with a revolt (led my DH of course lol) at the dinner table.

I've always been someone who enjoys eating vegetables but when I met my DH his repertoire of vegetables he would eat willingly included potato, carrot, peas and corn. Full stop! He is a LOT better now and I think it helps that I don't boil the bejeebiz out of anything I cook. :-)

I'm telling you all of this simply to say that I know change isn't easy to achieve - which is why it's important to make any changes you want to make very slowly. Over time I gradually increased the portions of vegetables on the plate and reduced the portion of meat. This was as much to benefit our health as our bank balance but it was nice that the two things went hand in hand.

One thing DH and I noticed over time was that as we ate less meat (and consequently ate more vegetables) we weren't looking to eat as much meat. It was like the more we ate, the more we wanted but as our bodies adjusted to a slightly healthier diet, it no longer was looking for the larger portions of meat.

I now work on 2 green and 2 orange/yellow vegetables per meal and we're slowly getting around to adding a purple/red variety (which will usually replace one of the other coloured vegetables). Including potato, the "norm" in our house is a variety of 5 different vegetables per meal.

Another thing I did during this stage of attempting to reduce our grocery budget was to set myself a "limit" for our meat. I started with $5 per meal. This was supposed to be an average figure and therefore allowed me to spend around $35 per week or around $150 per month on meat. The good thing about having a figure like this is that it gives you a guage. So for instance, if you buy a roast that costs you $10 then you *know* you need to get 2 meals out of that roast in order to make it fit within your budget.

Initially, as I said, I was working on an "average" figure of $5 so spending slightly more than $5 on a meal of meat sometimes wasn't really a problem. I did however, challenge myself to spend under that $5 limit as often as possible. Once I began to do that, any meals which cost me under the $5 started to actually save us money.

Once I had a handle on that (remember, still taking one small step at a time here), the challenge became to see if I could get us the occasional "free" meal. For instance, could I make $10 worth of chicken breasts do us 3 meals instead of 2? Every time I managed to get us 3 meals for $10, we were essentially eating "free" for 1 meal. I found these kinds of challenges quite fun. If you can tackle the grocery budget from a "fun" angle, you're much more likely to be successful over the long term.

I think it comes back a bit to the "game" mentality. Setting small challenges and seeing what you're actually capable of. You might start off by only knocking $1 per week off your meat spending but if you play that game 10 times, you've suddenly knocked $10 per week off your budget/spending.

Another thing I did was start to buy 2.5 times the amount of meat I would usually use for a meal and make that stretch for 3 meals. This is one of the ways where buying meat in bulk amounts can really help. Say chicken breasts are on special, you buy up a number of packs and then sort them all at once. By shaving just a small amount from what you'd usually use per meal, you can end up with a couple of free meals without hardly noticing it. You've taken advantage of a good price but you've also taken advantage of being able to take lots of small "bits" and turn them into enough for an extra meal. When you buy only one meals worth at a time, it's harder to do this (doable but harder).

MENU PLANNING

When I first began menu planning I found it hard to get my head around WHY it seemed to reduce my grocery spending. I couldn't deny the fact that it did but I didn't understand HOW it did. Spending on meat is one category that can really benefit from menu planning. You do need to be a little bit deliberate about what you're doing when you menu plan though.

If your family has a favourite meal that is rather expensive, you don't have to strike it from the menu. But what about spreading out how often you have it. If you tend to have 1 expensive meat meal per week, can you stretch it so that you're only having 1 a fortnight. OR, if you really want to have that more expensive meal once a week, what can you do on another night to compensate for the extra cost? By having a plan you can really see what you're doing and look to change the patterns a little.

I'll give you an example here. We decided that for the sake of our health we really needed to make eating more fish a higher priority. This is a real challenge for the budget conscious as fish is one of the most expensive meats to buy. How I compensate for this is to alternate our fresh fish with canned tuna and also generic brand "cardboard" frozen fish. I get 3 meals of fish for under $3 and I know then I'm able to spend the extra few $$ on a meal of fresh fish once every 4 weeks. By looking at the overall picture, you can balance the scales a little.

Another thing I do with our menu plan is to plan at LEAST 1 frugal meal per week. We actually tend to have 2 frugal meals per week because Sunday nights is a fairly easy meal and tends to naturally fall under the "frugal" category (toasted sandwhiches, pancakes etc). Thursdays I try to plan a "low meat" meal. To begin with, I was trying several vegetarian recipes in an effort to reduce our meat consumption. One of the things I tried was vegetable lentil loaf . In the end DH decided that it would be much better if it had meat in it. LOL.

So I don't even attempt to make vegetarian meals anymore. I perservered for quite some time with various recipes but it just wasn't working out well for us. I decided that it was more important that we enjoy eating than achieve "vegetarian meal" status. Instead, I worked on having more "low meat" meals. If we eat 2 "low meat" meals instead of 1 regular meat serve and 1 "no meat" serve, the overall effect is the same really.

BACON is one of my best friends. I can add $1 or less of bacon pieces to a meal and that qualifies it as "having meat". LOL. Approximately every 6-8 weeks I purchase 1kg of bacon pieces and that will usually do us 6 or more meals. It's really a great stretcher in that you can get quite a reasonable amount of flavour from a very small amount. Sure, it's not the healthiest of meats, but I think I balance that out okay by not using very much.

WHAT ABOUT HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS?

This is a tricky one. Healthier cuts of meat do tend to cost more. Eating less meat per meal is definitely a healthy alternative so that's one solution.

Healthier mince (I think that's ground beef in the US?) is one product that many people will insist on paying more for. I hate buying mince because it is so hard to really tell what you're paying for. How do you really know that they "heart smart" mince is really any better than the "budget" mince? I prefer to make my own. If you have a food processor, it really is quite easy. I purchase budget roast beef when it's on sale for $5.99 per kg then dice it up and throw it into the food processor. That way I know exactly what is in what we're eating and it's reasonably low fat (I trim the small amount of fat from the outside of the roast first). Even with having to trim off a bit of fat, it's still costing me quite a lot LESS than the $12+ per kg charged for the "leaner" types of meat.

I also prefer to add my own additives to meat rather than buying things where they've been already added. Make up your own chicken or beef patties. It does take a little bit of trial and error to work out how your family like them but it's so worth it. Unfortunately I'm a "fly by the seat of my pants" type cook so it's hard for me to share with you what I do. One thing I do know is that over time I've been adding more and more vegetables to my meat patties and I think we like them more that way than when they were mostly meat.

Get aquainted (if you're not already) with beans and lentils. It's amazing what these can be added to. They're a fantastic source of protein and soooo cheap. I have sourced a place where they are almost half the price of what supermarkets charge so keep your eyes open (or do a search) for wholesalers, health food shops etc that might sell these types of things in larger quantities for a similar price to what supermarkets charge for a small bag. Dried is HEAPS cheaper than the tinned varieties. I simply soak a whole lot at once and then freeze them. All I need to do then is throw them in the slow cooker when I'm ready to use (don't forget though that kidney beans MUST be boiled to destroy something in them that our bodies react to). I do, however, keep some tins on hand as I figure it's still cheaper to use the tinned variety when necessary than to not use them at all.

I use beans and lentils in soups, casseroles, pie fillings, spaghetti bolognese, meat loaf/lentil loaf, patties, salads, on pizza.....they're pretty versatile really and it's just a matter of experimenting with the many ways they can be used. You're only limited by your own imagination! Just try not to get too carried away and add HEAPS the first time. I've found it's better to go slowly, slowly, adding more each time so the family gets used to the texture and their presence.

SPAGHETTI BOLOGNESE

I hope you've gotten the message by now that I think the best way to tackle any aspect of your grocery budget is to make the changes very gradual. :-) If not, I'll repeat myself. Take it very slowly. What's the saying "Rome wasn't built in a day?" LOL.

I'm going to use my spaghetti bolognese "recipe" (sorry, don't get excited cos there is no recipe) to show you what I mean here.

How did I used to make spaghetti bolognese? 500g of mince (let's use an average figure of $4) and a bottle of pasta sauce ($3). Total cost per meal for the sauce part of $7 per meal.

Let's assume I buy the mince on sale ($3) and the pasta sauce either generic brand or on sale ($2). My sauce has now cost me $5 and I have an extra $2 in my pocket.

Now I learnt from my friend that spaghetti bolognese tastes nicer with a "fresher" taste of tomato so instead of using the sauce I now use a large tin of tomatoes (85c) plus add a grated carrot and a few onion flakes (15c). Sauce has now cost me $4 and I have $3 in my pocket.

Playing around and experimenting, I figure out that if I add a few red lentils (20c), plus a few extra vegetables (50c) I can actually stretch my 500g of mince over 2 meals. So I spend $4 (from last figures) and add 70c to that so $4.70 for 2 meals or $2.35 per meal. I now have $4.65 per meal in my pocket.

Gradually going through the process of adding bits and pieces like lentils, beans, more vegies and so on and I eventually stretched that 500g of mince to 3 meals. Because of the beans and lentils, the protein value is still there, the fat level is lower, the nutritional level is higher and the cost is lower. It's a win-win situation all round.

Last night I made up a batch of bolognese sauce in the slow cooker. I'm guestimating that I ended up with at least 4 litres by the time I had finished. That will do us 4-5 meals. I use it for spaghetti bolognese, lasagne and tacos mainly.

500g premium homemade mince ($3)
soaked beans from freezer (30c)
red lentils (20c)
800g generic tomatoes (85c)
bottle passatta (90c)
few blobs tomato paste (20c)
couple handfuls oats to thicken (10c)
minced garlic (10c)
chopped shallots (garden - negligable cost)
parsley (garden - negligable cost)
bag frozen spinach (garden - negligable cost)
bag grated carrot (would have gone to waste if I hadn't grated and frozen from a bulk lot so really negligable cost but let's say 10c)
bag grated zucchini (given to me during summer - free)
diced frozen capsicum (10c)

I think I've remembered everything. Total cost $5.85 divided over 5 meals $1.17 per meal. I now have in my pocket $5.83 per meal for the sauce portion. Even if I only manage to get 4 meals from it, the cost per meal works out to $1.46 - a great improvement on $7.00!

Had I gone directly from the meat plus bottled sauce version - I don't think anybody would have liked it and I suspect the dog would have had a feast. By making the changes slowly, we've had much more success. Admittedly my DS made a comment last night about how ours is different from everyone else's because we don't have big lumps of meat. I was able to point out to him several pieces of meat at least. LOL. It didn't stop him eating it. In fact, there wasn't a scrap wasted and the kids ate in record time. DH commented how that it was the best I'd made so far. :-)

BULK BUYING

I could list off a heap of tips here about bulk buying, buying marked down meat etc but it's hard because everyone's situation is different and the resources you have around you will be different. I very rarely get to purchase marked down meat because we don't live near large supermarkets and our local supermarket doesn't do a lot of mark downs. Also, I'd need to do an extra trip into town on a Saturday to have any chance of finding any so the petrol costs would outweigh the benefits. Some of you may be able to take advantage of that as a way of saving costs.

Bulk buying can be a good way to purchase meat cheaper but it is important that you're clear on what you're getting for your money. For instance, when I purchase a 1/2 cow direct from the butcher, his quoted price per kilo is for before the beast is cut up. So I pay for around 90kg at that rate but only end up with 60kg. My $4.50 per kg is really the equivalent of $6.75 from the supermarket shelf. So it's important to be clear on what the quoted price is for.

I have purchased a 1/2 cow a couple of times and split it with a friend so we take 1/4 each. Just be aware that even 1/4 of a cow is a LOT of meat. One of the temptations when you have a large amount of meat like that on hand is to eat MORE meat and discount any savings. I guess it's a matter of coming up with a method that's going to work for you.

If you use a butcher, it might be worth asking what they can do for you. They might do up bulk packs with a variety of items in them as a deal for you. It certainly doesn't cost anything to ask. It is important though to know your figures as a lot of those packs use a combination of cheaper items like sausages and rissoles with fillers in them to make the pack look more attractive.

APPEARANCES ARE EVERYTHING

One of the great ways to reduce the actual serving size of meat is to consider how it appears on the plate. Fill the plate with a variety of different coloured vegetables and smaller meat portions don't look quite so obvious.

You might have guessed that we tend to be a "meat and veg" type family. We do eat a few "all in together" type meals but they are a smaller proportion of what we have. Those of you who do a lot of stir frys and casseroles or curries and that type of thing will possibly already consume much smaller amounts of meat. They are a great way to stretch the meat portion of a meal without it looking too obvious.

The hardest thing I think I find about all the tips and ideas out there is wading through to find the ones that will work for my family.

But regardless of what you eat, considering how a plate or bowl looks can go a long way toward how satisfied everyone will feel with what you're serving.

There are many other ways that make meat look like more than it is. My favourite is to add sauces. This is particularly good for leftover roasts and corned beef. My kids love to have leftovers cut up and served in a sauce or gravy and I find we need less meat for a meal of this style. Sauces can make a small amout of meat look like quite a generous serving.

Sometimes meat on the bone can work out cheaper than meat without bones if you're looking at a "per meal" basis. From what I can work out, the value for money in terms of actual meat you get may not actually be there. But by serving the meat still on the bone, it takes up more room on the plate and therefore can give the "appearance" of more meat.

Like I said before, the list of ideas can be endless and it really does depend greatly on your own personal situation as to what will and won't work well for you. I hope this has given you at least a bit of a glimpse into what I've done. I know these few ideas have made quite a substantial difference to our grocery bill over time.

What sort of things do you do to reduce the amount you spend on meat? Perhaps you'd like to share them with everyone in the comments section.

Free Blog Reviews

2007-11-22T11:08:00.001+10:30

I have decided to make my blogroll an active blog. Yeah, getting myself a collection of blogs - I know! So "Lightening's Blogroll" is now Lightening's Blogworld (same URL though) where I plan to blog about other blogs (hence the reviews) and also the bits and pieces I learn about blogging. I suspect the emphasis with be on "bits" since I know very little - but at least the types of things I blog about *should* be doable by the average person (on the premise that "if I can do them, anyone can").

If you would like to have your blog reviewed - pop on over there and say so in the comments section. It is going to be "first in, first served" to begin with. Over time I intend to review blogs "unauthorised" (meaning I'll review other blogs without being asked).

Other than that, I have no idea what might pop up on that blog! :-) Of course, the blogroll is still there and I do intend to add some more blogs to it soon - well, after my novel is done anyway. :-). It seems to be consuming more hours in my day than I can really spare right now (which is why I totally decided to add another blog to my list of things to keep up with! Doh!)

P.S. While you're checking out Lightening's Blogworld - be sure to stop and vote in my poll on blog advertising! ;-)

Electricity Challenge - Keeping Cool

2007-11-21T16:08:00.000+10:30

Well, as expected, the recent heat wave has seen our electricity usage jump up somewhat to an average of 22.6kWh's per day this past week. That's almost as high as our highest week a while back when we were using heaters in both kids bedrooms. So, I'm a little bit disappointed about that.

BUT, as they say "what goes up, must come down". LOL. So we've got some work to do on that. I would be extremely happy if I could manage to keep it down to around 20kWh's per day over the hotter months.

In contrast, our hot water usage is now back down to zero thanks to the long days of sun we've been getting (solar hot water). I can't ask for any more than 100% from it can I? :-)

So, how are we going to go about reducing our electricity usage over summer? We have a few plans. Some of them require capital investment so will take some time to achieve.

Recently done:

I finally got around to cleaner the filter on the reverse cycle air conditioner on Monday. It was FILTHY. We noticed a difference in the cool air coming out of it almost immediately. I *should* have gotten to it months ago. Never mind, it's done now.
We're noticing an improvement in how hot our floor gets now that DH has installed the base infill around the bottom of the house. Before that, hot air blew under the house and heated it through the floor. This will be our first summer since it was installed so I'm hoping it will make a difference.
Installed window coverings in office ($40 silver venetians from Spotlight) - I'm really happy with the way they look and they're definitely helping with the temperatures in that room.

Short Term Plans:

Purchase another blind from Spotlight for front lounge window to give a second line of defense from the hot afternoon sun (has curtains but they're not brilliant at keeping the sun out)
Add a door sealer to laundry door to help keep draughts out of main living area (have ordered - should arrive soon I hope).
Work on keeping air conditioner at 25C (77F). DH currently has it set for 23C (73F) so we'll see how we go. He feels the heat more than I tend to.
Turn dishwasher off before it goes through the air dry cycle. This is adding heat to the kitchen. Will also save on electricity being used for that cycle. I can't figure out how to do that other than manually so this will only work on days when it's run during the day and not while we're in bed.
Use crockpot (and solar oven when we get one made) for cooking to avoid heating up kitchen/living area.
Make use of fans as much as possible. Currently have a ceiling fan in lounge and our room plus 1 pedestal fan.

Medium Term Plans:

Install a ceiling fan in family room where we watch TV so that we're not as tempted to turn the air con on unecessarily.
Replace curtains in lounge with ones that are better block out and cover the window better (what we have are seconds curtains and they're not really the right size). Our lounge room is on the North West side of the house so bears the brunt of the summer sun.

Longer Term Plans:

Build pergola with laserlight to block some of the summer sun.
Install blinds to front verandah to keep the afternoon sun off of the house.
Install solar panels for electricity usage (or at least partial electricity usage).

I just did some research and an air conditioner of our size (around 2HP - think ours might even be 2.5HP) uses on average about 2kWh's of electricity per hour of usage. My goal to keep our electricity usage under 20kWh's per day average would only allow us around 2 hours of air conditioner usage per day. Which means I'm not sure if it's a realistic goal. Of course, it's rare that the air conditioner would be operating flat out so that may allow us a little longer. I guess I'll do some playing around and see how we go.

The Big 8 Meme

2007-11-20T08:55:00.000+10:30

Thank you Erin for tagging me for this meme. I thought it was going to be a nice easy way to fill in a post for the day. I was WRONG! It's hard to think of 8 things for each category! But it's fun and I enjoy reading other people's responses, so all is not lost. LOL.

8 Things I Am Passionate About

God (see my other blog.)
My husband (nearly 12 years and the passion is still growing!)
My children (*most* of the time lol)
Making people smile :-)
Music (it has the ability to move in a way nothing else seems to)
Reading (especially when I *should* be doing housework)
My Garden (when it's alive)
Food (and yes, chocolate IS one of the 5 major FOOD groups)

8 Things I Want to Do Before I Die

Get old!
Spend time with my grandchildren (assuming I have some)
See more of Australia (travel grey nomad style - only I aint waiting til I go grey - 18 months until our "big trip")
Learn piano (in the process of - but would like to get a LOT better)
Get back to 60kg (*sigh*)
Become more self sufficient - especially with the garden
Buy a sensational pair of shoes (preferably in pink)
Have something published (even if it's only a short article in a magazine)

8 Things I Say Often

Whatever
No worries
Yes (I say this TOO OFTEN)
No (according to my kids I probably say this too often too!)
I Love You
I need a coffee (followed by "I wish I drank coffee")
Are we out of chocolate AGAIN
I'm tired (and "I'm sick of being tired")

8 Books I've Read Recently

Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal by Sheri Rose Shepherd
Leave a Candle Burning by Lori Wick
Affluenza by Clive Hamilton
Once I was a Princess by Jacqueline Gillespie
Living in Dependency and Wonder by Graham Cooke
Finding Liberty by Blaine Staat (still reading)
Hope in the Midst of Depression (still reading)
White Chocolate Moments by Lori Wick (just started)

I have a tendency to have lots of books on the go at once. :-) There are about 3 others I'm part way through that aren't on this list either!

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over

I'm Gonna Fly by Amy Grant (my current theme song AND I now have it on CD!!!)
Here I am to Worship
That's What Friends are For
Wind Beneath my Wings
Butterfly Kisses
Have Faith in God
Because You Loved Me
Over the Rainbow

Hmmmmm......I think they're all rather "soppy" songs aren't they?????? I used to like Bon Jovi until a guy in year 8 personally sang "You Give Love a Bad Name" to me. *sob* I'm a nice person really....!

8 Things that Attract Me to My Best Friends

Gentle honesty (as opposed to brutal honesty)
Caring
Fun to spend time with
Thought provoking
They like me
They bring me chocolate
They like me
They bring me chocolate (hint! HINT!)

8 People Who Should Totally Do This Meme

Lis at Altered Cutlery
Kez at Kez's Blog
Kin at Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams
Snoskred at Life in the Country
Kate at Our Red House
Ali at Our Patch
Lisa at The Tin House
Cellobella at Sultana Blog

Well, I'd best be away to give these people the good news, or maybe they'll just read it here???? Nah, better go tell them. Wouldn't want them to think I was rude or something (or that I assume they read my blog lolol). Hopefully I've chosen people who haven't already had a go. If you're not on the list and you'd like to have a go.....TAG....you're it. ;-)

This Week's Menu

2007-11-19T09:24:00.000+10:30

I'm going solo this week. That is, not participating in the "Menu plan Monday" as such. I'm finding it too hard to get into the hosts website and I know some of you have had trouble too.

However, we still need to eat and at this time of year (with DH so busy) a plan is more important than ever!!! So, let's get to it......

Monday - Portions of fish lightly coated in herbed flour and shallow fried to a crisp golden brown served with coleslaw and a fresh garden salad.

Fresh garden salad meaning a combination of whatever I can find in the bottom of the fridge plus can scrounge out of the garden. LOL.

Tuesday - Slices of corned beef smothered in a rich creamy white sauce and accompanied by creamy mashed potato and lightly steamed vegetables.

Fingers crossed the white sauce *is* creamy and not lumpy. :-) I wonder if I can come up with a way of describing lumpy white sauce so that it becomes edible and maybe even...desirable????

Wednesday - Leftover corned beef diced and warmed in a cheese sauce, served with creamy mashed potato and lightly steamed vegetables.

Well, only if I cut the corned beef and not DH will there be leftovers for this night! He is getting better...... ;-)

Thursday - Mince, lentils, beans and vegetables combined together with a rich tomato based sauce and served over spiral noodles with a garnish of grated cheese.

Even I might be tempted to enjoy spag bol described like this. LOL. I don't really mind it the way I make it and the kids tend to gobble it up without complaints, despite all the *healthy* stuff hidden within! Mwaaahaaahaaa.....

Friday - Rounds of unleavened bread coated in a smooth tomato paste and topped with bacon, cheese and a variety of vegetables.

Well, DH and I will add vegetables, the kids prefer just bacon and cheese.....

Note to self: remember to plan dessert because the ice cream is all gone so you can't use that as a fall back plan (unless you actually remember to buy some this week!!!).

Note to everyone else: we don't have dessert every night (it's usually on an ad hoc basis really - if DH feels like dessert, everyone gets dessert) but Friday night's being "family night" AND "fake take away" night it's kind of become expected!

Saturday - Lamb chops slow cooked with a variety of herbs and served with roast potaotes and lightly steamed vegetables.

Yeah, we did have this last Saturday but the kids weren't here so they won't notice and DH used to eat lamb chops nearly EVERY night (blah) so he won't mind. And well, I gotta fit half a COW in the freezer soon so those bulky items just have to go!

Sunday - Homemade pastry encasing a warm mix of mince in a rich brown gravy.

This is of course based on the assumption that I'll be able to be bothered making the pies (mix is already in the freezer from last time). Back up plan - box of party pies left over from shearing. :-) Hmmmm.....wonder if I could get the kids to do all the pastry rolling and stuff.......

Okay, your turn now. Anyone else want to try writing up their menu plan ala restaurant menu? Go on, it's not as hard as you think. And if you want to give me some "linky love" (ie, link back to here) well that's always appreciated. :-) Don't have a blog? No prob! Just pop your menu plan in the comments section here. Go on, you know you want to!!!!! LOL.

Oh yeah, you might wanna miss the bits in red. I'm just in a silly kind of mood today and well..... there are only so many weeks in a row that you can pretend you're Martha Stewart before the *real* person tries to break on through the facade. LOL.

Christmas Decorating

2007-11-18T17:18:00.000+10:30

I have decided to do my Christmas decorating in stages this year. Sunday afternoons tend to be family time. DH is busy at the moment trying to get our crops reapt but takes Sundays off so this time of year it's often only Sunday afternoons that we're all home together. So I thought that each Sunday afternoon we could do a small amount of decorating as part of our family time.

I like the idea of spreading out our Christmas decorating. It makes it only a small task to do each week so it's not overwhelming. It also spreads out the fun of Christmas. Plus it will help mark the coming of Christmas. The closer Christmas gets, the more "festive" the house will hopefully look. :-) I'm planning on a similar approach to the blog. Adding something each week to signal the gradual approach of Christmas (yeah, I know I added 2 things this week but I did miss last week lol).

Last week we put out our Santa. This week we've put out the nativity scene. It's a nice reminder to us of *why* we celebrate Christmas and not *too* dazzling when we're still a number of weeks away from the big event. :-)

I looked for years for a Nativity Scene that I liked and ended up finding this one in a fundraising toy catalogue from the kindy. We've had it for a couple of years now. The youngest 2 kids have already had fun playing with it before it was put on top of my china cabinet. No doubt it will get moved and played with a lot more yet. :-) I like the idea of having a nativity scene that doubles as both decoration and a toy.

While we're on the topic of Christmas. Yesterday, I actually began my Christmas gift wrapping. Every year I plan to start early and get as many gifts wrapped as possible before December. But usually it arrives before I've even started and I have to cram all the wrapping into those last few weeks when we're busy with end of year and Christmas celebrations as well as school holidays. We also have 3 family birthdays in December (DS plus both of DH's parents). Which reminds me, I have no idea what I'm going to get them for their birthdays. Eeek!

I think I have nearly all my Christmas shopping sorted now. Not that everything is actually bought yet but I at least have a plan in my head of what I'm going to do. That always makes me feel much better (to have an idea of what I'm giving people).

I finally put my Identity Direct order in. Not sure why I kept procrastinating on that but it's done now. My nephew is getting a personalised Cars book from us with our kids names in them as well. I'm pretty sure he'll love it - he LOVES his cousins and he's a big Lightning McQueen fan. He's also getting a set of dinosaur stompers ordered from a fundraising catalogue. I also found a cute musical set in their catalogue for my niece to go with the musical DVD I have for her. I was stoked to find they had quite a range of items on clearance as well so I've ordered a few stocking fillers from their clearance section. Oooh, I can't wait until it arrives. LOL. I'm particularly happy to have my nieces and nephews presents sorted as I'm the kind of auntie who really likes to get the "perfect" gift so I have a bit of a tendency to stress until I've found something I'm happy with.

Here's a link* if you want to have a look at what they have on sale:

Just scroll down their categories list (usually to the top left hand side of the page) to find the clearance stuff. They're offering free freight on orders over $65 until November 20th (which is only 2 days away so get in fast if you want to take advantage of that). Since I needed to order more name labels for the kids as well as my Christmas gifts it wasn't hard to spend over the $65 and it saved me $8.50 in freight so I was a happy camper (or should I say shopper?). :-)

How is everyone else going with their pre-Christmas preparations? You might notice I've added a "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" decoration in my sidebar. If you visit A Juggling Mum (link is under the picture) you can find links to other peoples posts about Christmas and can add your own links too if you like. I think she's posting the "Mr Linky" on a Thursday each week.

* This is an affiliate link which means if you click through it and buy something, the company give me a small percentage of the sale. I'm using affiliate links *when* I want to talk about a company (if they're available) NOT mentioning this company because they offer an affiliate link. Does that make sense? LOL. Like I said, I have just ordered through them myself. :-) If you prefer not to use the link that's fine too.

Happy Bloggity Birthday to Us!!!!

2007-11-17T10:19:00.000+10:30

Today it is 1 year since I began this venture into blogworld! :-) *

Not including todays post I have written 232 posts in that time. Who'd have thought I'd find 232 things to talk about? LOL. Those posts are divided up in 52 different labels which I think indicates I'm not so great at sticking to 1 particular topic very often. LOL. By far my most written about topic has been frugality, followed by simple living. Given those 2 things are listed first in my description, I guess I'm kind of on track. :-)

Last November I wrote a grand total of 9 posts!!! So far this November I've written 19 and expect to write a minimum of 30 (if I'm to succeed in Nablopomo).

My lowest month EVER was February this year when I wrote only 1 post!!!! That's a pretty ordinary effort isn't it? LOL. But sometime in June I must have decided to commit to bloggging more seriously as I wrote 24 posts in June, 28 in July and have written over 30 each month since. :-)

If my calculations are correct there have been 1080 comments in the past year! Which is why I've titled this post "Happy Bloggity Birthday to Us" - because without readers and those who take the time to comment, blogging would be rather boring and lonely! So thank you very much for each and every one of those comments. I truly treasure each one!

My first comment ever came from Wendy (who has been very quiet of late - give us a wave Wendy :-) ). Followed closely by Kez (who is still a regular commenter - thanks Kez). The 3rd comment on my first post was by madmal74 (not sure if she's still reading or not).

If you've never read my first post you can find it here . It explains the "Lightening" title (and yes, Lightening is not spelt "Lightning" :-) There's an explanation for that at the bottom of the page if you've not already read it.)

The post with the most comments is On Getting Older which I posted on my birthday this year. It has 24 comments listed. All the kind birthday wishes are part of why I like this post but it also signifies for me the beginning of the emergence of the "real me". Here's an excerpt from that post that sums up why I really enjoyed it:

So, I'm 33 years young and for the first time in my life I feel like I'm truly celebrating the fact that I was born. So in some ways it's really my first true "birthday celebration". Does that make it my *first* birthday? Or perhaps my first *happy* birthday. :-)

Other favourite posts I've written would have to include my series on my journey into simple living:

Post 1: A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step
Post 2: Joe Dominguez
Post 3: Tracking Spending
Post 4: You Cannot Steer a Stationary Ship
Post 5: Living the Dream
Post 6: How Did This Happen?
Post 7: Words of Wisdom
Post 8: Fast Tracking Our Dreams

And also my series on reducing the grocery challenge (I think perhaps I like writing "series" type posts. LOL):

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Two

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Three

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Four

And my fairly recent post on The Spirit of Christmas . One of the most fascinating things I have discovered since the start of my blogging journey is how much I learn and grow myself through what I'm writing. If I sound like I "have it all together" then I'm not doing a good job of conveying the "real" me. I'm learning just like everyone else as I journey along the pathway of life.

Well, now I'm going to hand it over to you. Do you have a favourite post that I've written? If so, give it a mention in the comments section. If you've never gotten around to leaving a comment - now would be a great time to say hello. :-) Can we beat my previous highest comment number of 24?

* Photo used above was found at www.birthdaycakeideas.info

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Four

2007-11-16T15:19:00.000+10:30

I actually feel like a bit of a fraud posting on reducing the grocery budget at this time of year. I tend to find myself a little tempted and waylaid by all the fancy goodies the stores have out. LOL. I get a bit *too* festive and out the window go all my good intentions. :-)

Anyway, I will plow on with what we did in order to reduce our grocery budget and more than likely it'll be a good reminder to myself of what needs to happen. :-)

If you haven't yet read the first 3 posts in this series or would like to refresh your memory, you can find them here:

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Two
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Three

Now last week I think I promised to start giving you some actual suggestions on ways to reduce the grocery budget. What I want to write about today may not seem like a proper tip but in a way it's a really BIG tip that covers many categories. I want to talk about needs vs wants and my experience has been that acknowledging the difference between the 2 can make quite a big difference to the bottom line at the checkout.

This can actually be quite a confronting topic. Partly because the definition of a "need" vs a "want" can be quite a subjective and controversial subject. But mostly because I believe in western societies we have lost touch with reality when it comes to what we really NEED. (My apologies to anyone reading that isn't residing in a western society - I can't comment on your situation so you'll need to make up your own minds here).

Now don't panic on me here. I am not suggesting here that you *SHOULD* reduce your grocery spending to bare bones physical needs. What I am suggesting though is that we all need to take a good hard look at WHAT we buy and WHY and begin to recognise more just how blessed we are.

As human beings, we really hate to think of ourselves as being deprived. If we're feeling deprived, the temptation is to go out and spend more money in an effort to prove to ourselves that we're not "deprived". Then of course, we no longer have that money, something has to give somewhere else and in the end we become more "deprived" than when we first started. It's one of those vicious cycles that we really want to avoid if at all possible.

So I found that I needed to reduce our grocery spending without us feeling deprived (to avoid an unecessary spending circle). And let's face it, how many of us have really EVER been truly deprived? The great thing about understanding how blessed we truly are is that it can help with reducing spending across all of the budget categories (not simply food).

Understanding the difference between needs and wants was one major way that we accomplished reducing our grocery spending without feeling deprived. My current spending of $100 a week is not even close to being a "bare bones, only what we need" budget. I purchase PLENTY of wants as well. Like I said, I'm not necessarily asking you to not purchase ANY wants. Just identify them and be realistic about what you're choosing to do. Be real about calling a want, a want.

Another way in which our family worked on this was to put up pictures of our sponsored children and some other projects we have supported on our family room wall. Every time we come in our back door, we have a visual reminder to us of how much we really do have. It has been a very effective strategy for us in increasing our thankfulness and awareness of how many things in our life are wants rather than needs. And how many people in our world struggle on a daily basis just to meet their basic needs.

Please don't think this is about guilt. I don't believe in giving out of guilt. To me that is the same as obligation (see my post yesterday for my feelings on giving out of obligation ;-) ). It's about awareness. And it's a great way to encourage contentment. Contentment is a hard emotion to grab hold of, but when you're there - it truly is one of the most worthwhile feelings you could ever experience. I'm sure if you could bottle it, you'd make a small fortune. LOL.

So that's my suggestion for the next stage in reducing your grocery budget. Go through your shopping trolley (or supermarket docket) and identify how much of what you are spending is on needs and how much is on wants. Start to identify how blessed you really are and see if it makes a difference in how you view your shopping trolley and what kinds of things you put in it.

Now on occasion I have mentioned in my posts a website called Simple Savings. You can join their free newsletter at their website. They also offer a paid section to their website. I mostly tend to avoid websites where you need to pay in order to get information. It seems almost counter productive to frugality to me. And there are plenty of websites that will offer great ideas for free. For some reason I decided to pay the membership fees for this particular one. I think because they have a money back guarantee with their membership. I'm actually really glad I did. It gives you access to a vault but the most valuable part of it I have discovered in recent years is the forum where members get to discuss ideas on how to save money and support one another in all kinds of ways. Membership fees are $47 for the first year and then $17 to renew each year after that. The reason I am mentioning them now is that they have a sale on until 11pm Sunday 18th (Australian time - I'm assuming EDST but not sure) for $35. So if you've been contemplating taking out a membership, now is a great time to do so. My apologies to those non-Australian readers. This is an Australian website and may not be of as much interest to you (I'm sure you'd be welcome to join though if you wanted to).

If you don't wish to purchase a membership, I'd still recommend you sign yourself up for their free newsletters with great tips. After all, you can't go wrong with free. :-) Here is a link to the website:

(Disclaimer: This is an affiliate link. There is an explanation of how affiliate links work in my sidebar. My comments however, have no bearing on the fact that it is an affiliate link. If you are concerned about this, go directly to their website http://www.simplesavings.com.au/ rather than via the link above.)

Over the coming weeks I want to work my way through the categories I listed in my original post on this topic. Non Food, Fruit & Veg, Meat, General Groceries and Treats (have I covered them all?) Does anyone have a preference for which category you'd like me to start with?

A list of other Frugal Friday participants can be found at
Biblical Womanhood.

The Spirit of Christmas

2007-11-15T11:33:00.001+10:30

THE SPIRIT OF GIVING

With an emphasis on gifts, the spirit of giving is an obvious one at Christmas time. Unfortunately it's also the one that commercialism has exploited the most. But there are so many great ideas out there that involve giving without adding to peoples clutter and that still fit well within the ideals of simple living.

One of my favourites at the moment is the wide range of charity gifts that are now available and becoming more well known as each year passes. Last year I used Oxfam Unwrapped and World Vision Smiles Catalogue. This year I've used TEAR useful gifts. For those of you not in Australia, I'm sure there are similar projects available overseas.

These make great gifts for those "hard to buy for" type people. I also enjoy using them to go with a smallish handmade gift. I love the way the charities have set them up so that there is a great range in prices (and they don't usually include how much you've paid on the gift card they send so it's more like a "regular" type gift and there's not the pressure to spend "more" in order to impress/not feel cheap). I enjoy choosing things that I think the recipient will appreciate and writing a note to go with them as to why I've chosen that particular gift for that particular recipient (therefore making them more personal).

For example, last year my grandparents moved into a retirement village. They had always enjoyed a large garden and giving away lots of produce from that garden. So I bought them a vegetable garden for a family living in poverty and expressed how much I appreciated their giving spirit and that I thought they'd enjoy knowing they still had a garden somewhere and it was feeding people who really needed it.

This year I have bought $5 student packs for each of my child's teachers and will include that with some homemade goodies. I'm hoping that given their passion for education, they will enjoy the thought that a child somewhere in the world is being given an opportunity to learn. It doesn't need to be a lot of money to make a big difference and with LOTS of people making small contributions, BIG changes can be made in our world. :-)

Extended family are getting train a farmer packs (since DH is a farmer). We really LOVE the programs that give people skills and resources to go on and "help themselves". We also have started a tradition of purchasing something for our own family - to help our children maintain an awareness of others that don't have all that they do. This year I've purchased a vegetable garden pack because our children are so interested in our own vegetable garden at the moment.

I have had so much fun browsing online and selecting these gifts. It's such a "simple" way of Christmas shopping and truly embraces the spirit of giving.

I'm venturing a little more into homemade gifts this year. I've done some things in the past and at times have struggled with the concern that people would feel this is me being "cheap". At that point in my life, I didn't really place a high enough value on my time. Now that I understand a bit more about the value of time, I feel more comfortable in myself about giving homemade gifts.

One thing I am learning as I make this journey toward a simpler lifestyle is the fact that all time isn't created "equally". Many people would argue that the time it takes to make something really isn't worthwhile. That it would be better to go out to work, earn the money and purchase the item. I've been thinking about this one lately as I'm in the process of knitting a dress for DD's barbie doll. My intention was to knit a couple of items to use as a gift for her at Christmas time. I think I've lost count of the number of hours it has taken me so far. Yes, I will save a few $$ over buying something. But that isn't really the point is it? There are many, many hours of love poured into that tiny little garment. And while I've been knitting it, not only has love been poured into it, but the love in my heart has grown. It's been an interesting experience really and not at all like I expected it to be. There is also the factor of how much more I'm enjoying it than I could ever imagine enjoying working to earn the money saved, then having to go out shopping to buy a product that might be cheap but also wouldn't be as nice (I hope). But the way the love interaction has worked - that I didn't expect. It's not something that money can buy.

There are an almost endless number of ideas out there for homemade gifts. You only have to do a search on the internet to find many more than you'd ever have time to use. LOL. I will mention one of my favourite websites though (no doubt many of you have already seen and/or used it).

Organized Christmas

I particularly like the printable labels they offer - it's a way to make your gift look that little bit more "finished" (unless you're incredibly creative and can do your own - which I'm not really).

Giving doesn't stop at gifts though does it. You can give the gift of time. There are plenty of charities and community organisations out there desperate for an extra pair of hands at this time of year. Sadly time is something that we all seem to be short of these days, especially at this time of year.

You can give the gift of a smile. How many people do you see rushing about the stores wearing a smile. I wonder what would happen if you were to wander through a crowded shopping centre just giving people the gift of a smile? I remember when I was in year 12 and having a particularly stressed out day. I went down to the library to "study" (or attempt to lol). We had a section of the library set aside for the year 12's to use during their free lessons. I walked into the library and the librarian gave me the most wonderful smile. He didn't have to say anything. I very much doubt he would even have known my name to say hello to. But he gave me something very special that day. So much so that I wrote a poem in my English journal (yes, it was study - lol - we were supposed to write in our journals every day). I won't frighten you with my version of poetry (lol) but here we are more than 15 years later and that experience was so profound for me that I've never forgotten just how powerful a simple smile can be. It certainly turned my day around that particular day.

I'm sure we could come up with quite a list of ideas for giving. Feel free to share your own ideas in the comments section (or feel free to blog about it yourself and link back to here if you like). Interestingly enough, as I was reading my regular blogs yesterday I came across this post on A Bootyful Life . There are some wonderful ideas listed for ways in which we can give. Perhaps some that you haven't thought of. I know there were some that I hadn't really considered as ways of giving.

THE SPIRIT OF FORGIVING

This one isn't an easy one and is such a complex subject that we could probably fill a novel on the ins and outs of forgiveness. There seems to be something about Christmas that can make us that little bit more open to the idea of forgiving one another. I guess perhaps it has something to do with the love that abounds at that time of year (sometimes ;-) ).

I won't go into great depth about this but just wanted to share a couple of quotes with you.

"When I chose to forgive, I realised a prisoner was set free...and that prisoner was me!" (Debbie Morris: Author of Forgiving Dead Man Walking - at 16 she was kidnapped by 2 men and raped repeatedly over the course of 36 hours)

"Forgiveness does not remove the fact or event of wrongdoing but instead relies upon the recognition of the wrong having been committed, in order for the process of forgiveness to be made possible." (Joanna North, "Exploring Forgiveness" p17)

"Forgiveness is another way of saying, 'I'm human. I make mistakes. I want to be granted that privilege, and so I grant you that privilege'." (Philip Yancey)

"What is annulled in the act of forgiveness is not the crime itself, but the distorting effect that this wrong has upon one's relations with the wrongdoer and perhaps with others". (Joanna North, "Exploring Forgiveness" p17)

Is there someone you could extend the "spirit of forgiveness" to this season?

THE SPIRIT OF "YOU MEAN SOMETHING TO ME"

Sadly, Christmas seems to have become for some the "season of obligation". The feeling of dread over family get togethers and all the family politics and conflict that may arise (or just be an undercurrent of tension the whole day). The "I HAVE to buy a present for so and so" type issues. And of course, the dreaded Christmas card list. :-)

I'm not condemning anyone for having those feelings. Most of them have come about for a very good reason. Families do often have tensions - add some alcohol into the mix and some very hurtful things can be said. Present buying out of obligation really isn't much fun at all. And there is some validity to the whole "Christmas cards just add to landfill" argument.

I see a couple of issues that seem to get in the way of the Christmas spirit here. One of them is the spirit of "me". We look to Christmas for what we get OUT of it rather than what we could GIVE. The other is the spirit of obligation. If you give because you feel like you HAVE to rather than because you WANT to, the spirit of giving becomes overwhelmed by the spirit of obligation.

This year I want to challenge you (and I'm challenging myself in this one as well) to take the time to tell someone how much they mean to you (or have meant to you at some time in the past). How often do people touch our lives and we never tell them? I know there are plenty of people in my life that I've failed to tell them how special they are and/or were to me. It's easy to assume that people don't want to hear how much they mean to us. Perhaps that's too mushy or too personal. Perhaps we think that it wouldn't mean much to someone that appears to have it all together. Let me tell you, it matters. It makes a difference.

Are Christmas cards simply landfill? If they're written with a sense of obligation, yes. If they're written with the intention of reaching out to others, then I say no. I have to admit that I'm often not all that great with sending out Christmas cards. It gets put off until it's too late. But just sending 1 card with heartfelt meaning will mean more than sending out 50 hurriedly written "out of obligation" cards.

So there you have it - just a few thoughts from me on the "spirit of Christmas" :-)

Simple Living during the Silly Season

2007-11-14T07:35:00.000+10:30

This time of year is not nicknamed the "silly season" for nothing is it? Here it is, the middle of November and already I'm finding my calendar is getting out of control. This is particularly challenging for someone like me who is recovering from a Nervous Breakdown. The temptation is there to really push my boundaries and "make things happen". Or at least - make myself do things.

I'm finding myself gradually returning to the state I was in before where everything seemed important and I couldn't decide what not to do. It's not easy to maintain a simple, low stress lifestyle in todays culture.

I guess we can't blame the approach of Christmas on all of our busy-ness. Perhaps because our lives are often already full, the extra burden of Christmas activities are what tips the scales. Here in Australia, with it being the conclusion of the school year, we have "end of year" activities added in as well.

My DD had a wind up for her kindermusik classes yesterday, which is why I guess I'm feeling like the pressures of the "silly season" have begun in earnest. For someone who is really only up to going out once a week at best, needing to go out 3 times in the one week is a little too much. Today is my "regular" day for going out. Tomorrow just happens to be the day my DD's class is hosting the primary assembly (her first time ever of being involved in hosting) and so the extra kindermusik break-up yesterday was an activity that tipped the scales in favour of "too busy". So, it's not really "Christmases fault" after all - but poor old Christmas gets the blame.

One thing that has saddened me recently is reading about how some "simple livers" have decided to avoid Christmas altogether. That they're celebrating the fact that they're free from the "burden" of Christmas. To me that's saying that if you take the commercialism out of Christmas, there is nothing left.

How incredibly sad that commercialism has so sucked the life out of Christmas that people don't seem to be able to see any other reason to celebrate it. Now most of you know that I am a Christian and so for me, there really IS so much more to Christmas than spending more money than you can afford on gifts people don't really want, clogging up storage space with way too many Christmas decorations and eating so much unhealthy food that you then turn around and have to pay money to try and lose the weight you gained doing so.

What about those who don't have a "religious" reason for celebrating Christmas? Is the commercial side of Christmas all there is? I don't believe so. The sentiments of "peace on earth" and "goodwill to men" are awesome things to be celebrated.

I have an online friend who claims that her family no longer celebrate Christmas. They've decided to do away with the commercialism that Christmas seems to be closely associated with. I respect their decision to do that. BUT.... here's the thing. Their decision as a family has been to donate a portion of what they would normally "waste" during the "silly season" and donate that money to a charity of their choice. In my mind, they ARE celebrating Christmas. The REAL Christmas. The true spirit of giving.

So, if you're starting to feel a little overwhelmed with the whole "commercialism" of Christmas. Consider that you don't really *need* to cancel Christmas altogether. Instead, let's get back to the true meaning of Christmas. Let's uncover that spirit that has been deeply buried in wrapping paper, tinsel and copious amounts of food and find the spirit of giving. The spirit of forgiving and reaching out to friends, family and maybe even strangers.

To me, Christmas is the perfect time to embrace the concepts of Simple Living. To consider that less really is more. Less overspending leaves us with more money to give to those who really don't have anything. Giving to those less fortunate than us helps us to grow and understand how much we truly do HAVE and how blessed we are. Forgiving others frees us from the bonds of hurt, anger and bitterness. Showing love to others allows us to grow in ways that are beyond our comprehension. Taking time out to get in touch with and/or spend time with friends and family - not because we *have* to but because they're special to us and we want them to know that.

This year, let's have the courage not to "cancel" Christmas but to celebrate in the true spirit of the season! :-)

(I have more I'd like to say on this topic so come back tomorrow for part 2....:-) ).

Electricity Challenge - Update 10

2007-11-13T09:40:00.000+10:30

Week 10 of our electricity challenge!!!! Wow!!!! How did we go this week? Well, over the weekend, DH had the air conditioner running so I was expecting to be up a little this week (note to self - *must* get around to cleaning the filter on the air conditioner to make sure it's running efficiently!!!!). I tend to be more of a cold frog so don't need the air conditioning but he runs hot (ooh yeah! lol) so I can't blame him really. A man has to be comfortable in his own house! :-)

So, our average daily usage ended up being 16.80 kWh's which I was actually pretty happy with given the use of the air conditioner. When you consider our average daily usage over winter was around 40 kWh's per day! Of course, winter is a LOT higher usage for us than spring.

I've just worked out our overall average daily usage for the past 10 weeks and it works out to 16.14kWh's. I had *hoped* to get it down to around 15kWh's per day (which would be an average of 3kWh's per person in our household) but perhaps that was too lofty a goal for us right now.

Comparing that with our "test" week figure of 18.45kWh's, we seem to have succeeded in dropping it down by 2.31kWh's per day. It'll be interesting when the bill comes to see what that says in comparison with our overall usage for the same time frame last year.

Our hot water usage this week was back down to 1.44kWh's per day. I must remember to check with DH as to whether he has turned the overnight boost off again. If we leave it on during the warmer weather we end up using electricity we don't need as it heats it overnight (after the night-time showers) and starts the day off all heated off which we don't really need when the sun is going to heat it throughout the day.

Our average hot water electricity usage for the past 10 weeks works out to 2.03kWh's per day which seems pretty good to me.

I think my next task will be to do a "keeping cool" audit of our home in preparation for the warm weather. :-)

Menu Plan Monday

2007-11-12T08:17:00.000+10:30

Well, it is *that* time of the week again and I have to admit, I'm enjoying menu planning weeky instead of monthly now. In fact, I seem to be enjoying it a lot more full stop. So I guess perhaps the "creative" touch is helping after all.

I have planned a very easy menu plan this week. It's shaping up to be quite a warm week which means DH will be rather busy with harvest.

Last night was quite an exciting night in our family. ALL of our vegetables (other than the mashed potato) were picked fresh from our garden. This is the first time we've had enough to make a whole meal with. The kids thought it was great. We tried steamed fresh beetroot for the first time but it wasn't all that nice really. At least we can say we tried.

Anyway, here's what I'm planning to serve this week:

Monday: Lightly crumbed portions of fish fillet served with oven baked french fries and a side serving of freshly prepared salad.

Tuesday: Mouthsize morsels of chicken breast meat, lightly crumbed and toasted to a golden brown served with crunchy oven baked potato wedges and lightly steamed fresh vegetables.

Wednesday: A mixture of ground beef steak in a rich brown gravy, encased in a light pastry shell. Served with crunchy homemade potato wedges and a selection of steamed vegetables.

Thursday: Tasty grains of brown rice gently stir fried with an assortment of vegetables, tiny morsels of bacon and lightly scrambled egg.

Friday: Beef patties served in a crisp golden bun with cheese, tomato, lettuce, cucumber and egg.

Saturday: Slow cooked lamb chops served in a rich french onion sauce with a side order of mashed potato and lightly steamed vegetables.

Sunday: Cafe style toasted sandwiches with the filling of your choice.

If you'd like some more ideas for menu planning, visit www.orgjunkie.com .

Santa Claus is Coming to Town.....

2007-11-11T17:50:00.000+10:30

Actually that title isn't strictly correct. Cos Santa is in our front paddock relaxing with a drink! :) Yesterday was the Credit Union Christmas Pageant which heralds the arrival of Father Christmas in our state. Today Father Christmas arrived here (he usually arrives in our front paddock the day after the state's major Christmas Pageant).

This is our third year with Santa in our front paddock (and consequently our 3rd Christmas here in our own house - yippee!!!!). The first year he was seated up on an very old open cab tractor. Last year we put him in the old Fire Truck . This year he's reclining in a rather relaxed manner, surrounded by hay bales and merrily waving to passers by.

He's something of a community "legend" these days. LOL. The kids on the school bus have already been talking about whether the hay bales stacked in the front paddock have been set up ready for Santa. They've been there over a month now (I think) - since DH had some hay baled in that paddock. Hopefully they'll all enjoy seeing him set up there tomorrow.

Setting up Santa out the front has become quite a fun Christmas tradition in our family. I bought the suit from Cheap as Chips for $8.95 a few years ago and we made a paper mache head together. The poor old thing is just about ready to retire which is okay as I managed to find another suit this year (Spotlight this time for $9.95). The first time I've come across one since I bought the original so that'll be popped away in the cupboard next year.

I also picked up some solar powered bud lights this year so Santa is draped in 1 set of those and we've got the other set around our sign at the front (that says who lives here). It'll be interesting to see how well they work!!!!

Well, the Christmas season has officially begun.... I'm soooooo excited!!!!! Might have to start wrapping presents soon..... :-) Ho....Ho....Ho.....!!!!!!

What's Growing in My Garden?

2007-11-10T11:16:00.000+10:30

Given I list gardening as one of the things you might find on this blog, I thought it was about time I did a post about my garden. I seem to have finally graduated from only being able to grow lettuce in the garden. LOL. Which is nice.

I HAVE to start with a photo of my very first strawberry. And yes, I did get to eat this one myself. In fact, I ate both of the first 2 that were ripe. LOL. Don't tell the rest of the family! I've lost count of the number of times I've attempted to grow strawberries without success. At our last house the soil wasn't great and we were still very much novice gardeners. I managed to get a few growing but nothing of much value. Last year I was determined to grow some but my chooks had other ideas and scratched them all up again!

Well, this year I seem to have finally had some success. These are growing in pots on the front verandah. Away from pecking chooks! I'm not sure how clear it will be in this photo but I counted 30 strawberries on 1 plant in this pot. This is my most successful plant and I bought it as a single, more mature plant. Those that I bought as smaller plants have struggled a lot more and while those that survived seem to be going better now, I think paying the extra for a more mature plant might be the way to go.

Here is the garden bed we set up at the beginning of August. It looks a bit different now to how it looked back then . It's not easy to tell from the photo but a number of the "empty" sections have seeds in them which have sprouted. Unfortunately I was a bit slack when I planted the seeds and didn't record what went where. So being a novice gardener we may have to wait until the "fruit" appears before we can tell which plants are where. LOL. Oh well, I don't mind a bit of a surprise. :-)

This is a view from the other angle. We have lettuces and silverbeet growing like crazy to the left and some beetroot plants to the right. Some of the beetroot is ready to be pulled and eaten. Fresh beetroot will be a new experience for the family. The yellow-ish colours you can see dotted around the plot are Marigolds I planted from seeds my Grandma collected. I'm hoping they'll work well as companion plants amongst the tomato plants I've planted.

Here are some seedlings I purchased yesterday. I decided to just "go nuts" and buy a heap of seedlings. I am having some success growing things from seed but I do find with a lot of plants, it's fighting an uphill battle with bugs to get them to a healthy seedling stage. Those I've started as seedlings have thrived a lot better in the garden. The store was kind enough to give me a seedling tray to hold my seedlings while I was choosing (and to take them home in too). I think that worked out in their favour because I ended up deciding I may as well fill it up so the seedlings would make the 2 hour trip home a little better.

I bought 3 punnets of sweetcorn. DH LOVES his fresh sweetcorn so crossing my fingers we can grow a bit for him to enjoy. Then 1 punnet each of celery, apple cucumber, jap pumpkin, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, strawberries and zucchini. Now I just have to grow at least $35 worth of food from that lot to recoup my investment. Most of these will be planted in my first garden plot where the peas, lettuces and broccoli are just finishing.

I honestly never expected that I would *ever* grow much of a garden, especially a vegie garden. It just didn't interest me at all. But now that my life has slowed down a little, I'm finding the time to potter in the garden and it is a wonderfully renewing experience. I'm afraid I may be well and truly addicted to growing our food now. LOL. It's so exciting watching things grow and then being able to EAT them. The rest of the family seems to be enjoying the process as well. :-)

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Three

2007-11-09T18:22:00.000+10:30

This is the third post I have written in a series about how we reduced our grocery spending. If you haven’t already had a chance to read the first two, or would like to review them, you can find them here:

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Two

So, we’re up to part 3 and we’ve yet to really touch on the big “B” word – the budget. How do you decide what a realistic budget is for your own unique situation?

Well you START with what you’re currently spending. That’s one of the reasons WHY it is so important that you KNOW what you’re currently spending. Because that is your starting point for your new grocery budget.

THEN you start to play the grocery budget limbo. Now, I’m pretty sure I read about this idea at http://www.cindysporch.net/. Unfortunately I cannot find a place on her website that refers to this exactly. Nonetheless it’s a website that is well worth having a read when you get the time. She has lots of great ideas that I have found helpful in my quest for frugality and home organization (yes, it definitely is an ONGOING learning process lol).

The grocery budget limbo is quite an easy game to play. Now I’m assuming you all know how to play limbo? You know that game where you have a broom handle or similar held up nice and high and you all take turns going under it without touching either the handle or the floor (and without bending forwards). If you break any of those conditions, you’re out and the game continues with each round the broom handle being lowered slightly.

So the grocery budget limbo works much the same way. The goal is to lower your spending a little bit each week/fortnight/month. How much you’d like to lower it by each time is completely up to you. You can choose a percentage or a dollar amount. And yes, it can be $1 a week if that’s what you’d like. :-) If there are just 1 or 2 of you and you already have a reasonably tight budget, $1 might well be the most appropriate starting place.

If you have a family or feel that you spend plenty on your groceries, I would suggest starting with a nice round figure like $5 or $10. You can get more adventurous than that if you'd like but my experience has been that if I take smaller baby-steps, I'm more likely to make changes that will LAST. Biting off too much at once can lead to getting overwhelmed, frustrated and ultimately giving up and resorting to "whatever I spend I spend".

To give you an idea using my own figures. It has taken me 3 years to move from spending $140 per week to spending $100. Under ordinary circumstances (ie. if I wasn't trying to reduce our grocery budget) we increase our grocery budget each year by 5%. This has been to allow for both increasing food prices and our growing family (growing in both number, from 2 people to 5 people and also in appetite as our 3 "little people" grow into "bigger people"). So in essence, our spending has decreased over that 3 year period from what *would* be $160 per week down to $100 per week.

I guess I'm sharing these figures to encourage you that it can take a while to really see changes in your grocery spending. I haven't spent the past 3 years completely focused on reducing our grocery spending either. I prefer to challenge myself for a short time and then have a break from focusing too much on the figures. I still prefer to record all my spending all of the time - I like the security of *knowing* where our money has gone. However, if I were always focusing on getting our grocery bill lower, I think I would find that too boring. It works for me to focus on it for a time and then give myself a bit of a break. The breaks also help me to see if the changes I've made have become "habits" (and therefore stick even when I'm not specifically trying) or whether things blow out as soon as I'm not watching carefully.

I have found that tracking our spending has been the most significant change we've made to managing our finances since we chose to take the path of more frugality and a simpler lifestyle. There is more information about how I do this in my Tracking Spending post that I wrote a little while ago. Basically I do it by starting with my "budgetted" amount and subtracting anything I spend from this so that I always know how much I have left in a given category at any time. You can achieve a similar thing with using cash and some kind of bag or envelope system as well (as long as someone doesn't move cash from one spot to another.....).

So, back to the "how low can you go" game/concept. How do you know when it's time to stop trying to lower the bar? Best not to keep going until you fall flat on your back. ;-) I think it's helpful at this point if you can understand a little of your own personality here. With my budget amounts, I prefer to allow a little bit MORE than what we *really* need. I personally find that if I have overspent on our budget, I'm more likely to throw the towel in and spend more. All the time that I'm comfortably under budget, I seem to find it easier to spend less. Some people have a tendency to spend every last cent so if they allowed a "buffer" amount in their budget, they would always spend that. If you're that kind of person, adding a buffer amount into your budget is only going to encourage you to spend more.

Don't be afraid to have a bit of a play around to find what works for YOU. There is no perfect system out there that suits every single person. There is no "magic" figure out there for the "perfect" grocery budget. Take some time to just observe what is happening with your spending and how that makes you feel, react and so on. The same applies to whether you use cash, credit card (that is paid in full - I'm not advocating credit for groceries if you can help it), debit card and so on. We could debate for hours on whether or not you'll spend more using one method or another. The only way you can really find out what works for YOU is to try a few different ways and see what happens.

One thing about budgetting in general that I have found really hard to get my head around is allowing some flexibility. When I decide what our budget will be for various categories, I usually do so for a 12 month period and during that time things can change. I'm not so good at dealing with change. I much prefer things to stay the same. :-) One way I do get around this is by allowing some "buffer" in my grocery budget. Like I said before, that will work for some and might not work so well for others. Just be aware that you need *some* flexibility when it comes to budgets (without giving yourself permission to just spend whatever you feel like! LOL).

What you really want to avoid as much as possible is frustrating yourself. If you feel like you're somehow "failing" in your attempts, it's more likely that you'll give up. That's what we want to avoid. :-) If you expect to be able to decide on a budget without allowing any flexibility along the way, there is a real danger of that happening.

I hope I'm explaining myself clearly enough here. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask by using either the comments section or the "email me" section of my profile. :-)

Next Week : I'm planning to begin writing some suggestions for ways to cut those grocery budgets. :-) If you haven't yet started tracking what you're spending on the groceries - now's the time to get started so that you have some way of knowing whether or not you're actually succeeding.

A quick note....

2007-11-09T07:28:00.000+10:30

....to let you know I haven't forgotten my next post on grocery budgets. Today is a frantically busy day and I did attempt to write it yesterday but it's only half done. I'm hoping to get it finished and posted later in the day (or worst case scenario - first thing tomorrow). :-)

Hope y'all have a great "Frugal Friday"! :)

J

Apologies from the Management...

2007-11-08T17:13:00.000+10:30

The staff and management at "Lightening's thoughts, musings and happenings enterprises" would like to sincerely apologise for recent technical glitches experienced by some of our loyal readers.

Staff.... now there's a thought..... If I had staff then I could have made them put together my blogroll then yelled at them for mucking it up and made them go through and test them all. LOL. Gee, I'd be a GREAT boss to have wouldn't I?

Instead, I've been painstakingly putting it together MYSELF with only MYSELF to blame for the errors and just ME to fix and test them all. LOL. Yes, I'm being a drama queen. It's cos I've had to move sl-ow-ly today with not too much activity and now I have too much pent up energy.

Anyway, the point of this post is to let you know that I *do* now have a blogroll and I *have* just gone through and tested each and every link on there and they ALL now work (at least I hope they do :) ). Some weren't working....but I *think* I've succesfully fixed them.

So, if you want to know what I do with all my spare time, you can have a little lookie on my blogroll. Can't see it? Well, if you look to the left there's 2 little words in my sidebar that say "Lightening's Blogroll". I went and pinched an idea I saw at http://www.treymorgan.net/ (hope he doesn't mind cos I never actually asked if I could pinch his idea - just went ahead and did it. Is that bad netiquette?) and set up a second blog to put my blogroll on.

Yeah, I know. If I had a wordpress blog I wouldn't need to do that. Oh yeah, I *do* have a wordpress blog. But it's NOT this one. LOL. So the blogroll for this one is on another blog, linked to from this one and now I'm going round and round in circles. *deep breath* Aaaaahhhh....that's better.

Now, if I've missed listing your blog on my blogroll, please don't cry..... I never meant to hurt anybody. :( Please don't abuse me or run away and never read my blog again either. Just let me know and I will rectify the situation as soon as I get the chance.

Thanks for reading. :-)

P.S. Thanks for your kind thoughts re my current state of health. I seem to be improving slowly. NO fainting today - yah!!!! And I've written about 2,000 words on my novel which isn't enough to catch me up but is enough to keep me in the game. :) And now I have that High School Musical song about keeping your head in the game going through my head......

P.P.S. Is anyone having trouble with my blog downloading too slowly? I noticed since I added the picture in the header that it's downloading slower for me. If you are, can you please say so and I'll see if I can make changes that might speed it up (or remove the picture if that's what I need to do).

Writing

2007-11-08T09:26:00.000+10:30

With nanowrimo AND nablopomo in full swing, I guess you're reading a fair bit about about people's frustration with their writing efforts. You won't mind me adding mine will you?????? LOLOL.

My novel has advanced itself by 500 words in the past 3 days. Hmmmm...... Not a great effort. My body has decided to play "funny buggers" with me and I keep fainting. I think I should have sent my body a memo stating that November was not a good month to decide to do this!!!!! When I'm not fainting, I'm getting lovely head spins and all kinds of dizzy-ness which leads to nausea and well..... I won't go into anymore detail than that.

Yesterday I finally gave in and took myself to the doctor. Actually, I didn't take myself because when I walk, I keep veering off to the left..... so I figured driving might not be a good idea. Too many places to the left of our road lead to quite a big drop and I'm scared of heights......

So, apparently I have viral labirynthitus (no idea if I've spelt that correctly) and my instructions are to take things easy and slowly and not to bend down. Do you realise how much in my regular day involved bending down????? A LOT more than I'd ever realised. And SLOW????? They took that word out of my vocabulary before I was even born.

But, I'm hoping that means that I can spend the day today writing..... I can be upright to do that and as long as I'm not feeling dizzy or nauseous, I *might* come up with something outrageously witty to write in my novel (or not.....). (Note to self.....writing a *funny* novel when you're in the midst of recovering from a nervous breakdown and struggling with depression was NOT the best idea you've had). Add to the mix PMT and yeah.......I don't think this novel is going to be quite as funny as I'd hoped.....

One thing I have been thankful for so far this month is the fact that I know how to touch type. What an awesome and USEFUL skill that has turned out to be!!!!! Unlike algebra and all that useless stuff they attempted (without success I might add) to fill my brain with during my high school years. I can still remember my early typing lessons in year 8. We had those archaic (they were archaic even THEN) manual typewriters where you needed a black belt in martial arts just to get a mark on the page. And the teacher banging his pen on the desk and calling out "a a a space....." while you typed in time. LOL.

When I got to have *some* say in what I learnt at school the following year (new school, less archaic typewriters), I thought to myself "typing, that was a great BLUDGE subject....let's do that again". Kind of ironic really to think that the subject I chose for a "bludge" has turned out to be one of the most useful things I learnt my entire school life! LOL. (speaking of "bludge" subjects.....one day I might tell you of my home ec nightmares where I was paired with 3 guys who took home ec for the "bludge" factor).

Anyway, I think I will be thankful for my touch typing skills over the next few days as I'm around 6000+ words behind at the moment...... aaaarrrrrrhhhhhhhh.

Nablopomo (the blogging one) on the other hand is turning out to be quite a useful PROCRASTINATION tool....... :-) So useful in fact that I've started a SECOND blog. Yes, I am a little crazy although I was sane enough NOT to register that blog for Nablopomo as well!!!! So, I'm not necessarily writing every day on that blog - although as it turns out I have something to say over there most days. Funny that..... LOL.

I always thought it was rather odd that people would have more than 1 blog. Who has time to write for 1 blog, let alone MORE than 1. Eeeekk.... But as I've been blogging, I guess I've come to understand more the role that readers play in a blog (like, if you don't have any....you just wanna cry......). I *could* have written everything I wanted to say on the one blog but this second blog has a definite theme/niche. I imagine there'll be some overlap between the readership of the 2 blogs but perhaps each of them will have their own unique readers as well.

Have I got you completely curious now? Okay, well if you'd like to have a look at my other blog, you can find it here http://lightening74.wordpress.com . If you like it, please leave me a comment to let me know. If not, well, just come back here..... :-)

I'd best sign off now and see if I can't add a few words to my novel......

Humble Beginnings

2007-11-07T12:15:00.000+10:30

A number of week's ago, I made the comment that I would post some pictures of my very first home. It probably has to be seen to be believed. LOL.

Yes, it looks a bit like a tin shed and in essence, I guess it was. A lined tin shed. Inside, it looks very much like a regular house.

You can't really tell from these photo's but this is built in somebody's backyard. A lot of places in Whyalla can be accessed by a back lane and it was quite common for a smaller dwelling to be built and lived in while the larger dwelling was then built on the front of the block.

Here is the view of the "front" door (it only had 1 external door). Standing at the front door you'd be looking at the back of the main house (with a fence in between the 2 yards in this instance). This actually made the perfect first home for me as I knew the people that lived in the main house. They were my landlords but also my friends (and their eldest son was page boy in my wedding). I *think* my rent was $45 a week back then (around 15 years ago). I was getting just over $200 a fortnight from Austudy so money was tight but I LOVED my little house.

Here is a shot of the lounge room. You came in the front door to a largish room that served as both a lounge and dining room. The lounge suite and coffee table were my parents cast offs. The TV and TV cabinet were mine - bought with some money my parents gave me out of my grandparents estate.

This is the dining area and you can see the doorway into the kitchen in the background. Lovely orange chairs!!! Again, cast offs from my parents.

As I was looking through my photo's, it struck me how almost everything I owned was second hand. Even the tablecloth and chair cushions you can see in this photo were second hand. :-)

The photo of the kitchen (which I haven't put here because I'm in it - and it's not a great shot of me lol) shows a towel pegged up to the window to keep the warm sun out. LOL. Obviously my solution for "make shift" curtains at the time.

Yet I didn't ever see what I *didn't* have. I didn't come home each day and see a tin shed filled with an eclectic mix of cast-offs. What I saw was HOME. MY HOME. My little place in the world. It's interesting looking back and confirming the fact that it isn't fancy stuff that makes a home. A heart is what makes a home.

I truly loved this little place and it's filled with many wonderful memories. I'll always treasure the time I had here. It was the only home I've ever lived in alone. I was 18 and a half when I moved into this house and it really was a great decision to do so. I'm really pleased to be able to look back on my life and remember with fondness this humble little abode. :-)

Electricity Challenge - Update 9

2007-11-06T08:45:00.000+10:30

Can you believe that we have been doing this electricity challenge for 9 weeks now!!!! That time seems to have gone so fast! I don't expect it will be real long now before the meter will be read and we'll get the next bill in the mail. Fingers crossed we'll actually be able to *see* some results for our efforts. :-)

This week has been a challenging week as it has been COLD and WET most days.

However, we have successfully managed to avoid using the TUMBLE DRYER! Yah us! LOL. Washing is a tiny bit behind but not too bad all things considered. I lost count of the number of times I thought I would have to give in and use the dryer. But it didn't happen! Yah! Can you tell I'm excited about this? LOL.

We also managed to avoid using any heating - despite being VERY tempted. Thankfully the kids are all well so didn't require heating in their rooms overnight. I have discovered 2 rather handy hints when it comes to staying warm.

1. Wear your dressing gown over the top of your clothes during the day. LOL. When my family came home from being out the other day it looked like I was still in my pj's. Until I took the dressing gown off and I was fully dressed underneath. :)

2. Wear thick socks AS WELL as ugg boots. It takes 2 people and a sledge hammer to get the ugg boots on but once they're on your feet stay nice and toasty!!! LOL.

So there's two very handy hints for those of us heading into summer. LOL. Me thinks the weather is a mite confused of late.

We've really noticed the difference in our passive solar positioning of the house. When the weather acts "out of season" the house doesn't cope anywhere near as well. For instance, we get virtually no sun in the northern windows at this time of year. Which means the house is very COLD on cold days. We have the reverse problem if we get a very warm April as sun is coming into those windows (as designed to warm them up during the winter months) and the house gets very HOT. There is only so much you can plan for and the unexpected isn't one of them.

And the final figures for the week?

General Electricity: averaged 15.67kWh's per day. Originally I was hoping to get our average down to around 15kWh's per day. Currently overall it's hovering around 16kWh's per day so any week we're below 16kWh's I'm considering a good effort.

Hot Water: averaged 4.34kWh's per day which is well up on what we've been using. Given the weather this week the solar system needed a lot of help to get the water up to temperature so this isn't surprising. That's our highest usage since we started the challenge (even higher than our first "test week").

Menu Plan Monday

2007-11-05T10:17:00.000+10:30

Well I had an interesting week with our menu plan last week. I forgot to check what ingredients I needed so we ran out of a couple of things. LOL. Oh well, we still ate well. Having another go this week and hopefully we'll do a bit better. :-)

Monday - Golden Brown fillets of garfish coated in a light, crispy batter. Served with creamy mashed potato and a selection of brightly coloured steamed vegetables.

Tuesday - Slow cooked lamb chops served in a rich french onion sauce with a side order of mashed potato and lightly steamed vegetables.

Wednesday - A mixture of ground beef steak in a rich brown gravy, encased in a light pastry shell. Served with crunchy homemade potato wedges and a selection of steamed vegetables.

Thursday - A delicious pasta dish filled with finely diced vegetables and covered in a tomato based sauce. Topped with a generous serving of lightly browned cheese.

Friday - Portions of deliciously cooked barbecued chicken served with crisp golden fries and salad. Followed by a Friday night treat of ring shaped buns topped with icing and sprinkles.

Saturday - Homemade Turkey Rissoles served with creamy mashed potato and a selection of steamed vegetables.

Sunday - Cafe style toasted sandwiches with the filling of your choice.

If you're in need of some inspiration for your own menu plans, you can find more at I'm An Organizing Junkie .

Value Adding

2007-11-04T12:43:00.000+10:30

My DS has been busy this week playing with items that I've bought in preparation for his 4th birthday party. The party is still about a month away and the items are just sitting in the box waiting. That might sound very organised to some but with shops so far away from us, I HAVE to be prepared ahead of time.

Watching him playing with this stuff has been quite interesting and thought provoking. We're not talking mega exciting items here. A tablecloth, some party hats, loot bags, a box of tissues, a couple of bags of lollies (okay they are exciting)... He keeps getting them out of the box and looking at them, *knowing* that they're for his party. *Knowing* that he has a party to look forward to. :-)

Now he has started to create games using these items. Yesterday he got them all out and used them to build himself a "cubby" by lining them up next to each other in a circle around himself (amazing imagination and creativity that kids have). What really struck me though was the extra VALUE I was getting out of these items. Not only were they going to serve their purpose at his actual birthday party, but they've already provided hours of entertainment for him (I'm keeping my fingers crossed he doesn't damage them in the meantime lol). It's almost like getting "2 for the price of 1". LOL.

I think that delayed gratification can work like that too. There is value in the "looking forward" to something that we miss out on when we purchase what we want straight away. We live in a "want it and want it right now" world and I think we're missing out on something when we are like that. We miss out on the enjoyment of thinking, planning, saving and looking forward to an event or purchase. Those things ADD value to how we're spending our money.

In contrast, to have it NOW we not only miss out on the added value, we also SUBTRACT value from the purchase. It's not a lot of fun having to pay for something AFTER the event. So that begins to become a burden and SUBTRACTS value from our purchase. Add onto that any interest payments and the overall cost has risen - again reducing the value/fulfilment vs $$ spent equation.

I'm the kind of person that likes to get as much value for my $$ as possible. So I'm actually feeling quite chuffed that DS is getting so much value out of my small purchases. Each time he gets these things out to play with (which are still in their packets by the way), he's actually increasing the value per $$ I've spent. :-)

It's All a Matter of Perspective Really

2007-11-03T11:17:00.000+10:30

My DH and I have days where we tear our hair out at the state of our 6 year old daughter's bedroom. Admittedly it is nice that she plays with so many of her toys. It's just a pity she seems to need to have them ALL out at once. And a pity she doesn't seem to be capable of packing them away when she's finished with them.

Saturday mornings the kids are supposed to tidy up their bedrooms and do a couple of other small jobs around the house. It doesn't happen *every* Saturday morning but most weeks it does.

This morning she got her room all tidied up to a passable level. We don't "insist" on it being immaculate but it is nice to be able to get further than the door.

Now that they've finished doing their "Saturday jobs", the kids are back into the business of playing. :-) DD says to her younger brother, "come into my room". The 2 of them play really well together *most* of the time.

As they both walk into her room, DD has a look around and then announces "well, this is BORING!" LOL. When we walk into her room, we see a huge mess. Obviously when she walks into her room, she sees an ongoing game. Perhaps that is why she doesn't seem to pack things away when her game is finished. The game is NEVER finished.

So, is her room a *mess* or is it simply *in use*? It's all a matter of perspective really. LOL.

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Two

2007-11-02T07:04:00.000+10:30

This is part 2 in a series I'm writing on how I reduced our grocery budget. If you haven't already seen it, you might like to begin with part one.

Reducing the Grocery Budget-Part One

How did we go with keeping track of what we spent this week? Any major surprises, pleasant or otherwise?

I want to give you a couple of warnings this week (okay, well 3 actually which I guess is 1 more than a "couple" but you get the idea right?).

1. Be careful that you're NOT reducing your grocery spending by simply eating out of your cupboard and pantry without replacing it. You might keep your spending low for a few weeks but you won't have made any long term changes. I know when it's all new and exciting you want to see results STRAIGHT AWAY. Just be aware that reducing the grocery spending is a LONG term project. It has taken me 3 years to get to the point I'm at now. On the other hand, don't be too discouraged for now if your spending doesn't go down straight away. The most important thing right now is that you KNOW what you're spending on groceries so that we have something to work from.

Now, using on your reserves/stocks/whatever you want to call it is NOT a bad thing in itself. If you're a chronic hoarder like me, it could actually be a GOOD thing. It's just important to realise that you may not have actually reduced your spending all that much - instead you're making use of money spent in the past. Of course, if you're a chronic hoarder like me then you may also find that what you spend on groceries is actually *too much* which gives you room to move down a little without too much hardship. :-)

I found when I first started out doing this that my grocery spending went down for a short time (because I was using up on stores), then it went back up again and I wondered what I was doing wrong. Then for a while it stayed the same - and that can be very frustrating. Rising food prices and growing children can really put a dent in our efforts to reduce the grocery spending. Understand that keeping your spending the same IS actually reducing your grocery budget. I found for a while that all my efforts were doing was keeping up with inflation. In other words, as I learnt new ways to trim the grocery budget, those savings were eaten up by price increases.

As I continued to learn new ways to cut my spending and developed new habits, eventually my efforts started to show. My savings started to outweigh those price increases and the spending gradually started to come down.

2. Beware the news articles blaring "food prices to increase". I *hate* these kinds of reports. What do they really do to help the consumer? In my opinion, nothing. It gives supermarkets some leeway to increase prices without consumer backlash AND it causes people to spend unnecessarily. If you *expect* your grocery spending to go up - believe me, it will!!! To me spending is like an untrained puppy. Let it off it's leash and who knows where it might end up.

Yes, price increases are a fact of life. Yes, the drought *has* to have *some* effect on our prices. BUT, I think if we were to look back through history at the changing grocery store trolley. I think we would see a lot MORE than simply "a loaf of bread has gone from 10c to $10" type scenario. PART of the increase in grocery spending has to do with WHAT is in the trolley - not simply inflation, effects of drought and so on.

So, allow *some* leeway in your budget and expectations of what it is going to cost to feed your family. But be aware that "food prices are on the rise" isn't an excuse to simply cut loose and spend more money.

3. There is a HUGE temptation when you're trying to cut your grocery spending, to want to compare what you're spending with what everyone else is spending. I know because I've been there done that many times. :-) It's not that is doesn't have *some* merit in giving you an idea on what is *possible*. It's just that it is very hard to compare apples with apples. Everyone's situation is different. Things like amounts of food consumed, whether or not they have a separate take away budget, do they eat at grandparents house once a week, do they have an Aldi, do they live on a farm and get very cheap lamb..... The variations as so endless that it really is hard to make an accurate comparison.

If you feel the need to *compete* (as many of us seem to lol), then compete with yourself. And compete AGAINST the grocery stores. I once read a great article about grocery shopping being a game. Unfortunately I can't remember where I read it or who wrote it so I can't give them appropriate credit. Instead, I'll just steal their idea, paraphrase it and write it here so you can all think I'm an absolute genius. LOL. No-one gets a choice as to whether or not they'd like to play the game. If you EVER buy anything, then you're already a player whether you like it or not. It's quite a simple game really. You keep money in your pocket and you WIN. You spend all you've got and then some and the grocery store WINS. So next time you're doing the grocery shopping, make use of all that competitive energy and KEEP some of your money. :-)

Having said all that, I am now going to give you my grocery spending figures for the month of October. LOL.

My total spend for October ended up being $472.73. With 5 Wednesdays (my usual shopping day) in October, I needed to keep it under $500 in order to maintain my $100 a week average spend. So on the surface it looks like I've done well this month. But I've chosen this month to make a few faux-par's, just for educational purposes of course. ROFLOL. Not really, it was fluke but it sounds good, right?

Bear in mind that I have been tracking and analysing my grocery spending for 3 years now (does that make me sound like an analy-retentive, obsessive-compulsive, has no life looney-toon?????) so before I even looked at my figures I could tell you a few things about our current position:

* I've overspent on treats (made evident by the fact that my jeans are too tight at the moment)
* I bought very little meat and what I did buy was "chuck in the oven cos you can't be bothered cooking" crap (for a very good reason of course - DH is busy with harvest or he would be if the weather were right).
* Fruit and veg spending will be up a little because I've bought fresh pineapple (twice), strawberries and grapes (both not really "in season" quite yet), more than normal amount of frozen veg (see comment about "can't be bothered cooking" above) and my fridge is currently still full of fruit and veg.
* I can't have done *too* badly because well, there IS food in the cupboard, fridge and freezer.

So, let's look at the nitty gritty's of my spending for October:

Fruit & Veg - $118.08 That's good. Up on what I've spent some months but still well below budget and I *know* we've been eating a fair bit of fruit and veg. Gotta love those cheaper fruit and veg stalls (when you can get to them). We have started to eat more out of the vegie garden so maybe that's starting to show a little in the spending. Now I just need to make some choices about whether I *want* those savings to be eaten up by buying a few of the more expensive items (a very valid choice as long as it is a CHOICE and not just something happening that I'm not paying attention to) or do I want those savings in my pocket.

General - $297.31 As I said in my last post, I no longer track meat separately but I did have a quick look through my receipts and I *think* I spent just over $40 on meat. Which means this figure is a little higher than I would like it to be for the month. We've been using on our stockpile of meats and there isn't really anything left in this category to cover that.

Treats - $38.33 Well up on what I usually spend and definitely overbudget.

Non-Food $15.73 Most of that was toilet paper. LOL. No, we don't spend $15 a month on toilet paper but I do stock up when it's on special and it just so happens there were a couple of specials this month.

Now for any of you "maths scholars" out there (do any maths "people" actually *read* blogs? wave if you do).... my figures don't add up. There is a $3.28 *gap* cos I spent $3.28 from my hospitality category. I wasn't going to admit that as I thought it made me look really "inhospitable" to spend such a measly amount. LOL. But then the perfectionist in me couldn't let it go in case *someone* happened to notice.

So, have you had a look at your spending figures? Do they reflect where you want your money to go or is there some tweaking that could be done? This week, keep writing down what you're spending on groceries (yeah, I know last week I said you only had to do it for 1 tiny little week....I lied, okay? You still only have to do it for 1 week.....just 1 week at a time. :-) ).

What are you thinking right now? Will, she hurry up and get on with revealling the *secret formula*? Or at least start making suggestions on how I can buy $500 worth of food with just $50. LOL. (no, that aint gonna happen).

Okay - here's the "secret formula" (or at least *part* of it). When you build a house you start by preparing a good foundation. If you don't take the time to build a good foundation, at the first sign of stormy weather, you might find yourself in a little bit of trouble. Building a "you beaut" house without first preparing a firm and solid foundation is really not a wise idea.

Dealing with something like the grocery budget is the same. I could give you a whiz bang list of ideas on how to get more for your money. But if we don't start by taking the time to build a good, solid foundation, at the first sign of stormy weather, your grocery budget may well fall in a sodden heap. :-)

Next Friday I want to talk about how to figure out the "right" budget for your groceries. Until then, happy shopping (and eating) everyone. LOL. Don't forget to keep recording what you're spending.....I promise you it'll all be worth it in the end. At least I hope it will...........

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post in the comments section. Or you can contact me via email if you prefer some privacy/anonymity - just click on "view my complete profile" about half way down the left hand sidebar (currently under the little green "technorati" button) then click on "email" near the top of my profile on the left hand side.

Crockpot Chocolate Cake

2007-11-01T18:53:00.000+10:30

Well, I think I have redeemed myself. Here is todays version of my "bake a cake in the slow cooker" experiment.

A MUCH better outcome wouldn't you agree?

Here it is all iced with the most buttery, chocolatey icing.......

It took around 2 hours to cook in the slow cooker using a combination of high and low settings (high for 45 minutes then low until done). Test for "done-ness" with a skewer. It is hard to tell from looking at it as some moisture condenses on the glass lid and drops on to the top of the cake, making it look "uncooked" when it is in fact cooked. As long as you plan on icing the cake, that small amount of moisture won't affect the outcome of your masterpiece. :-)

This time I sprayed the crockpot/slow cooker insert with oil, then lined with baking paper and then sprayed that with oil before pouring in the cake mixture. Might have been overkill but at least it didn't STICK!

I used a double quantity of the following recipe:

CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE

1.5 cups SR flour

3 Tbsp cocoa

1 cup castor sugar

1 cup water

1 tsp imitation vanilla essence

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Chuck everything in a bowl together and mix until there aren't *too* many lumps. LOL. You can mix until smooth but I'm a lazy cook. :-) You don't want to overmix it either.

This is a fudge cake so expect it to be a heavier, fudgier type consistency than a regular cake. I just tasted a bit and I think it tastes even better having been cooked in the slow cooker than when I cook it in the oven.

I love the oval shape as well. It would have come in handy a few years back when I made a football oval for DS's birthday cake!

DH is happy because now I'll be able to bake cakes while we're away on our "big trip" in the caravan. :-)

Mission Accomplished!

It was his idea that I attempt to cook a cake in the slow cooker in the first place. LOL. Works for me. Now I only have to use 4c electricity to bake a cake as opposed to around 36c. And bake in summer without heating up the house!

Blogrush

2007-11-01T08:55:00.001+10:30

You may (or not) have noticed a new widget appeared in my sidebar a couple of weeks ago. I had intended to post about it to let you know what it was but just after I joined they started to do some alterations to the program so I was waiting for those to finish before I talked about it.

Since then, there has been a bit of negative "buzz" around the blogworld as to how good they really are. To be honest, I don't know. For me as a teeny, tiny little blogger it's not really all that relevant. I think the biggest issue for the larger blogs is whether they're worth taking up space on their blog (as opposed to say other advertising).

Anyway, all that aside, what is it all about? Well, firstly, it's a FREE service. Gotta love free lol. It's kind of an "exchange". You list peoples blog posts on your blog and in return, somewhere out there in the blogosphere, your blog post headings get listed in someone else's blogrush widget. It's about giving you exposure in places you might not normally get exposure. This all happens automatically once you have the widget in place on your blog.

Will it work? I don't know yet. I think it's still early days. BUT, I have found it helpful just for myself - occasionally I click on one of the blog posts mentioned in my own widget (as far as I know they let you actually click on your own which is nice for a change) and find an interesting blog that interests me.

My category at the moment is "home and garden" so the blogs you see in the widget are likely to be topics related to that. I don't get any benefit whether you click on the posts listed in there or not.

Anyway, thought I'd better explain to you what it is all about. I have moved it up in my sidebar at the moment just so that you can see what I'm talking about. It'll get moved down a bit soon. If you want to know more about blogrush, you can click on the bottom part of the box and it'll take you there. I don't get paid if you do that but if you sign up from that click then I do get some kind of bonus "points" or something.

It's not about money. It doesn't cost anyone anything and as far as I know, money doesn't change hands at all. To me it seems to be all about bloggers helping other bloggers to find blogs that might interest them. Will it work? I'm not sure. But you can take the widget off your blog again at anytime so I've decided for now that it's worth a go.

If you want to get one of these widgets for yourself and need help, just let me know. My email address is listed on my profile page - or put a comment here and I'll see if I can help.

Electricity Challenge - In the Laundry

2007-10-31T08:23:00.000+10:30

Today I have ventured into my laundry to see what I can learn about our electricity consumption there.

TUMBLE DRYER

Well, obviously I'm trying to minimise our usage of the tumble dryer. They're known to be high energy users.

According to the energy rating label on my 5kg Tumble Dryer it uses approximately 4.5kWh's per load. At a rate of 18c per kWh that adds up to around 80c a load.

I've always worked on a rule of thumb figure of $1 a load because that figure is going to be very approximate and well, saving $1 each time I hang a load on the line *sounds* so much better than 80c. :-)

I decided to do a small amount of research using http://www.energyrating.gov.au/ to see whether tumble dryers have improved in technology (in terms of electricity efficiency) since ours was bought (about 10 years ago now) and was surprised to find that there hasn't been much change at all in this area. The *most* energy efficient 5kg load dryer I could find used around 3.9kWh and the equivalent to ours (by brand) uses 4.4kWh's.

I then did some playing around with figures to see if different sized dryers made a difference by calculating how many kWh's it would take me to dry 10kg of clothing. I used only vented dryers and used the calculations for the most energy efficient dryer so these results are approximate and would vary from brand to brand.

Here's what I came up with:

3.5 kg 8.08kWh
4kg 6.8kWh
5kg 7.8kWh
6kg 7.9kWh
6.5kg 7.1kWh
8kg 8.15kWh
9kg 9.24kWh
10kg 8.52kWh

My conclusions? When my dryer needs replacing I'm going to look into purchasing a 4kg dryer rather than a 5kg dryer. Of course, the figures may have all changed by the time I'm in the market for a dryer but it's interesting to consider that not all SIZES come out evenly when it comes to overall electricity consumption. And when it comes to tumble dryers, bigger isn't necessarily better.

Not having a tumble dryer at all is possibly a better option again but I prefer for now to concentrate on making changes that don't create too large an inconvenience for our family. There are times when it just seems to be "necessary" or at the very least "very helpful" to own a tumble dryer.

WASHING MACHINE

When we made the decision to move to this farm, we also made the decision to go out and purchase a front loader washing machine. Thankfully these days they actually work out cheaper than top loading machines. When we originally bought our top loading machine they were still MUCH more expensive. We didn't have the luxury in those days of purchasing for "later savings" (ie. we were broke) and really weren't as aware of environmental factors as a factor in purchasing decisions at that point in our lives.

Like I said in my Blog Action Day post, "when we know better, we do better".

Now the BIG advantage of front loading washing machines is their lower use of water. Here in Australia that is an even MORE important consideration than electricity consumption. If you need more convincing, you might like to read an article written by Snoskred called Humans Let Us All Waste Water .

They also use less detergent, don't wear out clothes as quickly and strangely enough tend to use less electricity. I say "strangely enough" because their wash times are longer. I did a bit of investigating and I *think* the energy savings come in when you wash in warm water. I guess because you use less warm water so less costs involved in heating a larger quantity of water.

Regardless, I am really pleased that we have a front loading washing machine. Ours costs us around 11c per load (0.63kWh) in electricity. Only a small savings if we can reduce the number of loads we wash but small savings can add up to become bigger savings.

IRON

Using the iron costs around 11.9c per hour to run (based on 15c per kWh so more for me as we pay a little over 18c per kWh here). A simple way to solve this energy usage would be to not iron. LOL. I still can't get my head around the fact that some people *really* don't iron.

Apparently it's most energy efficient to do the ironing all in one hit as the iron then only has to heat up once. In all honesty, my iron seems to take about 1 minute to heat up and I often start ironing with something that doesn't require quite as much heat so I think the difference would be negligable and I do prefer to iron in smaller stints of 15 minutes (sound familiar? LOL). I guess that is still preferable to ironing each garment individually.

Running the iron on steam setting is supposed to use more electricity but then you have to weigh that up against possible taking longer to iron garments. I have to admit I do like my steam.

So, have we learnt anything from all of this? I just did a quick calculation and at 7 loads of washing per week and about 3/4 hour of ironing, my laundry is responsible for about 5kWh's of electricity per week. Not as big a draw on our power as I was expecting it to be really.

If you were to add just 1 load of tumble dryer in per week you'd double that usage to around 10kWh's per week. If I dried all 7 loads of washing in the tumble dryer (that would be almost 50kg of clothing so 10 dryer loads) we're talking around 50kWh's per week (with only 5kWh's of those being NON DRYER appliances).

It's certainly very easy to spot the culprit in the laundry when it comes to electricity consumption!!!!

Memo to My Children

2007-10-30T11:07:00.000+10:30

From: Mum
To: My Children
Date: Tuesday 30th October 2007

Re: Taking Sick Days on a Tuesday

This memo is a request to my school aged children that you pleeeeaaaassseee do not choose Tuesdays as a sick day.

My reasons are as follows:

* If you are sick on a Tuesday (this applies only if you are BOTH sick) then my little baby has to take the bus to kindy all on his own. :-( And 3 is MUCH too young to be going on a school bus on your own. I know he's almost 4 BUT that's still too young!!!! Okay, I know he had a huge smile on his face and didn't seem the least bit perturbed at the idea..... BUT HE'S MY BABY!!!!!! Waaaaahhhhhh........

* Tuesday is my "home alone" day. I figure if I have to suffer through the torment of waving goodbye to my BABY then I should at least have a nice quiet morning to look forward to. You know I love having you around but well, the thing is, the point of being home alone is to be, well....home. ALONE.

* I've paid good money for those music lessons and if you miss them well.... I still have to PAY. For NOTHING.... And well, no one likes paying for something they don't get.

* You miss library day and the library will send me nasty notices about those books you found under your bed that you borrowed last TERM...... plus we'll get to tomorrow and you'll be saying "we need to BUY more books mum cos there's nothing to read".

If you really *have* to fall sick on a Tuesday, could you please:

* Choose a Tuesday when your father isn't about to disappear into the vortex of harvest, leaving me as a single mother for who knows how many weeks.

* Choose a Tuesday on which your mother has actually had some SLEEP on the Monday night prior to.

* Co-ordinate with one another so that there is only 1 of you home at a time. At least that way there'll be half the whining and zero fighting (unless you've actually figured out a way to fight with yourselves - which is entirely probable).

* Learn to drive so that you can make yourselves useful by picking your father up from the paddock. At least that way I wouldn't have to do it!!!

* Make sure you're sick enough to lie on the couch SLEEPING.

* Not knock 65 times on the bathroom door while I'm trying to shower in PEACE. Sheesh.... how much can really go wrong in a teeny, tiny few minutes?????

* Not ask me every 5 minutes when the computer will be free. There is only room for 1 internet addict in this family and the position has been TAKEN!!!!!

Failure to adhere to the guidelines set out in this memo may result in ~~wages~~ pocket money being docked. Yes I know that half the time I forget to even give you pocket money but you do realise that only makes it EASIER to remember not to pay you?????? That doesn't make sense? It doesn't HAVE to make sense! Why? Cos I'm the MUM, that's why!!!!

Love you heaps,

Love Mum xxxxxxxxxxoooooooooo (yes, you really do have to give me that many kisses and hugs. After all, I am your MOTHER!!!!!)

Picture Me Meme

2007-10-30T06:55:00.000+10:30

Thank you Lisa for tagging me for the "Picture Me" Meme.

According to Kate at Our Red House.....the Picture Me Meme rules are thus: post a picture of yourself on your blog. Post the picture, tell us the story behind it, copy the logo, and tag three others (without forgetting to tell them that they have been tagged!).

So, here goes. This is a photo of me on my wedding day. I apologise for the quality of the photo. It's a scanned photo and I can't seem to get the quality any higher. It's not one of our "official" photo's (unfortunately) as they're all glued into an album. So this is a snapshot of me on the day, taken at my parents home before the wedding.

What I mostly want to talk about is my wedding dress. Trying on wedding dresses was a LOT of fun but it quickly became apparent that we weren't going to find a ready-made dress that would suit my shape. I am short-waisted (have long legs for my height) and with a slightly swayed back, ready-made dresses hung off me in ways they weren't designed to do.

So my mum decided perhaps she would MAKE my wedding dress. Now my mum is the kind of person who can do ANYTHING she puts her mind to. Problem is, she is also notorious for not quite finishing things. So it kind of disturbed me a little that she wanted to make my wedding dress. I had images of the night before the wedding and a dress that was half finished. Thankfully that didn't happen. :-)

Aside from the issue of finding a dress that fitted my shape, I had another problem with finding a wedding dress. When I was 18 I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and at this stage I was still struggling with lack of energy as well as struggling with a lack of strength in my muscles from not being able to use them as much. So the sheer weight of a wedding dress with all that fabric was too much for me to bear.

At the time my Aunty was head designer for a lingerie firm and she suggested we make the dress with lingerie satin which is a whole light lighter than regular satin. She was also able to source this for us at Wholesale prices - gotta love a bargain!

I also desperately wanted to have a train but again, the weight issue (of all the extra fabric) was a problem. So mum made me a long veil instead of a train. We decorated it with several pieces of lace (which I hand beaded myself, as well as the piece of lace on the front of my dress). The beauty of this was that we removed the veil before the reception and I wasn't encumbered by all that length of fabric for the whole day.

My wedding day still stands out to me as the best day of my life. I'm the kind of person who stresses out easily and yet somehow I managed to make the decision to relax and enjoy the day "come what may" and I really did. Even when a few spots of rain fell just as I was entering the church (knowing that we had an outdoor reception).

All of my life I had wanted to have an "Anne of Green Gables" style wedding. When her friend Diana (I think that was the name - it's been a while) got married they had the most beautiful reception outdoors with white tablecloths, fingerfoods etc. That's the kind of wedding reception I wanted. Casual yet elegant. Kind of an English "high tea" type finger foods. Because of the casual setting, we didn't have place names. We just set out tables and chairs for people to use and had a number of food tables dotted around. Like most brides, I didn't get to eat much though which was a pity because I was STARVING. LOL.

We got a lot of comments about what a nice atmosphere it was on the day. There were still speeches and all the usual formalities. It just wasn't a sit-down meal. Interestingly, according to our caterers, it was a more expensive option than having a sit-down meal because of the types of food you serve with finger foods as opposed to having say a roast with meat and vegies. Not that that mattered as it wasn't a cost consideration that made me choose that style of reception (not that my parents had a lot of money either).

So there you have it. Me in my wedding dress on my wedding day. I have no idea of the hours of love that were poured into that dress. I know it took me literally hundreds of hours to do all the beadwork.

Ooh, I couldn't stop at just 1 photo. Had to add this one that shows some of the lace and beadwork on the back of my veil. Not sure how clear it will be but it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. Oh, and of course, this one has my very handsome hubby too! He looks like he's just left school doesn't he? LOL.

It's funny isn't it, how 21 can seem so OLD when you're there but over a decade later it seems so young. :-)

And now I need to *tag* 3 others to take part in this meme. I always find this the hardest part because well, who do you pick? Nevertheless, this time I'm going to tag:

1. Susan at Simply Living . Do you think this will encourage her to get back to blogging again? And no, this doesn't mean you have to post the pic I sent to you!

2. Kelley at magnetoboldtoo cos we all want to see pics of her SHOES!!!! And not just the desktop pic (which reminds me, I haven't forgotten that desktop thingy Kelley, I just need to revisit when I think I can follow the instructions - sooooo technical for me lol). P.S. You don't *have* to post pics of your shoes. You get to choose for this meme. Perhaps I should start a "my favourite shoes" meme. LOL.

3. Rachelle at Seek First His Kingdom . Rachelle I have only recently had the pleasure of meeting through the Nablopomo pages. It's nice to meet new bloggers from around the world isn't it? :-)

Have fun everyone!!! :-)

Menu Plan Monday

2007-10-29T15:14:00.000+10:30

I didn't write up a menu plan for October simply because I knew it was going to be a messy month and I wasn't sure when we would be home and when we wouldn't. I have to admit that as much as I dislike menu planning, I dislike NOT having a menu plan even more. I find it soooo much harder to decide on the actual day what we're going to have. And it's so much easier to grab take away or eat a meal that is less than ideal nutritionally.

So, today I decided enough is enough, I'm going to at least menu plan for this week. I decided to have a bit of fun with it, just to create a more interesting menu plan.

Monday: Lightly crumbed portions of fish fillet served with crunchy potato wedges and steamed in season vegetables.

Tuesday: Melt in your mouth Roast Lamb gently cooked in the slow cooker and seasoned with fresh organic chives, parsley and garlic. Served with roast potatoes, carrots and sweet potato as well as freshly picked silverbeet and broccoli

Wednesday: Light chunks of lamb gently warmed in a rich brown gravy and served with creamy mashed potatoes and lightly steamed vegetables.

Thursday: Tasty grains of brown rice gently stir fried with an assortment of vegetables, tiny morsels of bacon and scrambled egg pieces.

Friday: Homemade Pizzas on pita bread topped with tasty tomato paste, bacon, vegetables and a sprinkling of cheese.

Saturday: Homemade Turkey Rissoles served with creamy mashed potato and steamed vegetables.

Sunday: Homemade vegetable soup served with freshly made crumpets topped with a dollop of butter.

I can't take credit for this idea. It was first suggested to me by Mrs Catherine one time when we were discussing ideas for getting out of my "menu planning funk". I still don't rate menu planning up there as one of my favourite activities but it makes for a nice change to occasionally get a bit more creative with my descriptions.

And for a change I thought I'd try participating in Menu Plan Monday hosted by I'm An Organizing Junkie. You can find a list of participants with LOTS of menu planning ideas if you visit her blog. You can also find details there of how to participate yourself, should you wish too.

Thanks also to kin as I got the idea for participating in this from her blog. She participates regularly in "menu plan Monday".

** I promise I won't make a regular habit of posting 3 times in the one day. LOL. I seem to have a LOT to say today. :-)

Electricity Challenge - Update 8

2007-10-29T10:27:00.000+10:30

I think I may have *made it* when it comes to being a TRUE farming woman. This morning I went out to read the electricity meter wearing my flannel jammies (which my SIL's inform me are "passion killers" LOL), socks and thongs. :-) DH told me I look like the shearers when they rock up. Apparently it's quite common for them to turn up wearing socks with thongs (they have moccasin's they change into once inside the shed). So I've got the "country" look happenin'. LOL. No, the shearer's don't rock up in their jammies! I would have taken a photo to show you but I hadn't done my hair yet. LOL. I still have to maintain *some* sense of dignity.

Yeah, we do live out in the middle of nowhere BUT we also live on a main highway so it was a bit of a *risk*. Not enough to get me changing before I went out to read the meter though.

So, now I've scared you all away with that ghastly image, I should get down to the business of the day.

We did okay this week. Our average daily usage came out at 16.01.

I need to figure out how to do one of those snazzy little graph thingy's so I can show you our overall progress throughout the challenge (not that it's over yet).

I'm particularly happy with that figure as:

1. We've been home ALL week (well the kids have had school but we haven't been away at all).
2. I've had some extra loads of washing due to being away last weekend.
3. We had a couple of days of shearing which means electricity use in the shed PLUS extra cooking PLUS the fridge in the shearing shed being opened numerous times.

So, all in all a good week. Depsite inclement weather we haven't yet had to resort to using the tumble dryer. They're forecasting a cool, wet week this week as well so we'll see how we go with that this week.

Hot water usage was 0.68 average for the week. Up a little on last week's 0.0 average due to the inclement weather (had to use electricity boost).

I want to delve into the laundry for my electricity audit this week. That should be interesting.

Frugal Aussies

2007-10-29T08:53:00.000+10:30

Every now and then I mention the group "Frugal Aussies" when I'm talking about my journey toward a more frugal lifestyle. They were a HUGE influence in helping me work our finances so that we could buy a home WITHOUT me having to go back to work. In saying that, I'm not advocating that all women NEED to be stay at home mums. The thing is, that's what I REALLY wanted to be able to do and they helped me to achieve that.

We're just about sharing ideas with each other and supporting one another along the road to getting more value for our $$$. It's a yahoo group and so FREE to join. :-) None of us are "experts". We're just a group of friends with a common goal. Our ideas vary a lot so you can at times get some interesting discussion happening. ;-)

If you're interested in joining us, you can find this group here:

Frugal Aussies

I know some of my readers are also on that group. You might want to add a little "hi" or make a comment about how you find the group to give other readers an idea of what it is like. I do allow anonymous comments (although it is nice if you place your name or initials or a nickname at the end of your comment) so you don't have to be a member of blogger in order to leave a comment here. Just click on "post a comment" and another window should pop up where you can do that.

I will be back soon (ish) to post about this week's electricity challenge results. :-)

Love Is.....

2007-10-28T09:29:00.000+10:30

I received this in an email yesterday. I must admit that I'm not one to generally forward on these kinds of emails. Simply because I'm too lazy. But you do find some interesting and heart-warming things circulating the world-wide web. I have no idea if it's fiction or non-fiction but it does make for a nice read regardless. My apologies to the author. Since I don't know who you are I can't give proper credit. Thanks to Jodie F who forwarded this to my inbox. Hope you don't mind me posting it here. :-)

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."
Rebecca- age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."
Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."
Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."
Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"
Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"
Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."
Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."
Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody . You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."
Elaine-age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt."
Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones."
Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image)
Karen - age 7

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
Jessica - age 8

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
"Nothing, I just helped him cry"

I have cut out the "forward this on to X friends......" but the rest is as I received it.

Not what I had originally planned on blogging about today but that'll keep for another day (or later today depending on my mood.....) :-) Hope it made you smile. I sure do love seeing the world through a child's eyes.

Christmas Stockings

2007-10-27T08:21:00.000+09:30

I am one of those people who have 2 feet firmly planted in the "I LOVE CHRISTMAS" camp. To me it really is "the most magical time of the year". :-) I know it's still a little way off yet but well, with November set to be a very BUSY month, it will be here before I know it. So it's nice to get a few *little* preparations out of the way early.

For as long as I can remember, I have been a HUGE fan of Christmas stockings. I wonder if it has anything to do with my primary love language being gifts? All those little bits and pieces.....very exciting!!!! :-) In fact, I seem to remember my love of Christmas stockings causing my mum a certain amount of grief. All those little bits and pieces can sure add up when you're on a tight budget.

Not that I find filling our kids Christmas stockings too bad. I often add things that I would have bought anyway like sunscreen, lipbalm, toothbrush, toothpaste, hair ties etc. Somehow getting all these things in a stocking makes them more exciting. Not that my kids are all that old yet (eldest being not quite 10). Sometimes I have freebies that I've collected through the year that go in there. Calendars and stationery passed on to us from various local businesses (although these things seem to be getting less and less each year). Last year DS got a calculator that had been sent as a freebie with a catalogue order I had placed.

What works for me is collecting bits and pieces through the year and then topping them up with a few practical things and some edible things. Can't have a Christmas Stocking without chocolate coins now can you? :-) My biggest problem seems to be collecting too many things and they don't all fit in the stocking. LOL. DH likes to tease me about this.

During my "spendaholic" years I solved this problem by buying BIGGER stockings. DH likes to tease me about that as well. :-) At that time we only had 2 children though so I ended up with 2 large stockings and my youngest used one we already had which was considerably smaller. Not a problem when they're a baby. But this year I think he's old enough to notice the difference in size.

Our stocking stash consisted of 2 stockings my mum gave DH and I just before we got married, one smaller stocking that I think we bought when our first DS was born, then the 2 larger stockings I bought for our older 2. After looking around the past few years for a 3rd "large" stocking for my youngest and not finding one the same, I decided that this year was the time for 3 new stockings.

Before our firstborn was even thought of, I remember seeing those kits you can buy where you cross-stitch a personalised stocking. I liked the idea of something that I had actually *made* for our children as well as the idea of having their names on the stocking. Great idea in theory but seriously lacking a "roundtoit" in practise. They're not cheap either at $60+ per stocking. I'm sure my children will have left home by the time I managed to actually cross-stitch 3 of them!!!

Then I saw some lovely ones in an identity direct catalogue and wondered if they would be the way to go. Personalised and all, and not relying on my "roundtoit" in order to be completed. Still at $40 each they still seemed like a hefty investment for something that is pulled out only once a year.

I then began to wonder if I could find a stocking to buy and then add the kids names myself. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of it before but I guess making those felted bags with names on them for my nieces gave me the idea and confidence to give it a go. In Coles a few weeks ago I found some stockings I liked for just $2.98 each. Nice and blank on the top cuff just waiting for a name to be added.

I'm really happy with how they have come up. They still give the kids the "mum made this especially for me" factor without being either a high time outlay or a high cost outlay. And of course, it'll make it much easier for "Santa" to remember which stocking belongs to which child. With the only difference in the past being silver decorations or gold decorations, poor old Santa was left scratching his head a few times. LOL.

My "mathematically minded, extremely frugal" 9 year old was very quick to calculate the savings on buying personalised ones from the identity direct catalogue he'd recently been browsing (because there is a chance to *win* $10,000 so he wants to know if I'm planning on ordering anything....which I am but NOT to win $10,000 LOL. Just cos there's something in there I want to get for my nephew for Christmas). I spent $9 on 3 stockings plus $4 on gold glitter fabric paint. So $13 all up (is it bad that I just had to use my fingers to add that up???? *blush*). 3 personalised stockings would have cost around $120 (that's $40 x 3 isn't it???). Forget the cents.....that's just too complicated for me!!!! So I SAVED a grand total of $107!!!!

I didn't get into the fact that I didn't *really* save $107 because I NEVER would have spent $120 on Christmas stockings. Did I say never? Well....maybe I *might* have once upon a time but not anymore. No, I didn't get into all that. I was too busy enjoying the fact that I was a hero in my 9 year olds eyes. It doesn't happen very often so you have to enjoy it while you can. :-) I wonder how much longer NOT spending money will make me a hero in his eyes? Do they stay like that or does adolescence kind of *ruin* them?

And if you're still groaning about the fact that she's talking about CHRISTMAS already..... I guess you don't want me to mention that there is LESS than 2 months to go????? And 2 months isn't really all that long when you consider how frantic December tends to be. And of course with all the writing that will be happening during November.... well, some of you just RAN out of time. LOLOL. Why am I laughing? Some of you includes ME!!!!!

Oh well, I still LOVE Christmas. :-)

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One

2007-10-26T08:25:00.000+09:30

Throughout my grocery challenge, many of you have made comments such as "I don't know how you do it". So, I thought I'd do a series of posts outlining the "hows" of how I got to where I am with our grocery spending.

So, where do we start? I think the very first step is to believe that you CAN do this. One thing I really struggle with is people saying they desperately *need* to reduce their grocery spending but they've done ALL they can to do so. It's as low as it will go. I am yet to meet someone who actually *has* gone as low as they *could* go. I'm not talking here about people who are content with their level of grocery spending. That's fine. I *could* make ours lower. I'm well aware of that. Right now I am happy with our level of spending. For $100 a week we eat well with a wide variety of healthy foods as well as a few treats.

I have learnt a LOT in the past 3 years. Sure, finding new ways to reduce our grocery spending has slowed down a lot in recent times in comparison to when I first started. But, I am still learning new things. I don't actively seek new ideas quite the same anymore. But, I am open to the fact that there are ideas out there that I don't know about yet. There is *always* more to learn. If you have it in your mind that you've "arrived" as far as grocery budgets go - you're less likely to find those new ideas and miss opportunities to make the $$ stretch further.

So, your mind is now open to new ideas. Good. You believe you CAN do this. Excellent. LOL. What's the next step? Do you know how much you currently spend on groceries? I'm not talking "oh yeah, we budget around $200 a week" type knowledge here. I'm talking, last week I spent $123.62 at Woolworths, $25.00 at the Fruit and Veg shop, $6.35 at the corner store and $2.50 at the Petrol station. That kind of knowledge. (Those figures are completely made up by the way.)

Some people think that they are better off not knowing. Well, knowledge is a VERY powerful thing. When I first started on this "frugality" journey, we budgetted $140 a week for groceries. That was a GREAT budget. In fact, that was already lower than what most of our friends budgetted (those that budgetted). But I have NO IDEA what we were actually spending. The budget was completely useless. It didn't *tell* me anything. It wasn't really great at all. :-)

According to the above figures, "I" have spent $157.47 for the week on groceries. Some people would get to the end of the week and say "I spent about $120 on groceries this week". Going only on the approximate figure they spent at Woolworths. Already they've *lost* $37.47 of their money. That alone is $1948.44 a year!!!! Can you see what I'm getting at here?

If you have the time, I'd encourage you to take this one step further. Sit down with all your receipts for the week and break things down into categories.

Here are the categories that I started with:

* Treats - very important. You need to know how much of your money is going on "non nutritious" food. I think it's *very* important (unless you do want to get down to a bare bones level of spending) to allocate at least a small portion of money to treats. It helps with the whole deprivation/poverty mentality issue that often makes you spend more money rather than less. What do you include as treat items? Well, that's up to you. I tend to include cordial, ice cream, chips, lollies/chocolate, desserts (that are non fruit) and sweet biscuits in mine.

* Fruit and Veg - When you start trying to cut your grocery budget, it can be tempting to skimp on fresh fruit and veg. I find it helpful to keep a separate category so that I can keep an eye on this. I've also heard it said a LOT of times that it's more expensive to eat healthily. I guess that all depends on what you were buying before but so far I haven't found this to be the case myself. Having it there in front of you what you actually *do* spend on fruit and veg is a good way to see what is happening. I also include frozen vegetables and tinned fruit and veg in this category (so things like tinned peaches, beetroot and so on).

* Meat - I no longer keep my meat spending separate from my general grocery spending. But when I was first starting out I did. Mainly because meat is one area where most people *can* cut back on their grocery spending. I know we were consuming way too much meat for what is considered a "healthy portion". Because I was working hard in this area, it was good to be able to see the results of my efforts in dollars and cents.

* General Grocery - In this category I include all food items that aren't covered by the above 3 categories.

* Non Food - These are all the bits and pieces like toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, deodorant, cleaning products, cleaning cloths etc. It's up to you what you do and don't include here. Things that I DON'T include are make up, larger household items like mops, toilet brushes, batteries, socks, toys, stationery etc that can be bought at the supermarket. Those things have their own separate categories.

One of the benefits of breaking down your grocery receipts is that if you have bigger items like those above, it can really upset the balance of your grocery budget. I subtract them from my total and enter them elsewhere in my budget book. If you don't have a "budget book" (see Tracking Spending for more info on this), that's fine. Just subtract these items from your total spend (unless you *want* to cover these within your grocery budget).

What categories you use is completely up to you. I also have a category for "hospitality" where I allow extra money to accumulate and be spent when we have friends coming over.

What about TAKE AWAY? Do you include that in your grocery budget? Some people don't have a separate category for their take away spending. They work on the principal of "if there's anything left in the grocery cash at the end of the week, we'll use it for take away". Like I said, we're all different and you have to do what works best for you.

Here's why I DON'T do that. I find that the best way to get the *most* out of my grocery $$ is by NOT spending the same amount each week. Some weeks I'll spend $25 and other weeks I might spend $200. Part of that is because of my location and the way I shop. BUT, I do tend to find that some weeks a LOT of what we eat is on special when other weeks very little is on special. Particularly when it comes to meat. If on the weeks I only spent $25 on groceries, we then spent the remainder of our budget on take away, that extra money wouldn't be there to stock up in the weeks when LOTS of stuff is on special. Does that make sense?

We nearly always eat out of the cupboard and freezer and my shopping then replaces those items. It would be really easy to *blow* money on take away that we really *couldn't* afford and then I'd be left with an empty pantry and be *forced* to pay a higher price for things. That can be a very nasty spiral. You get less for your money. Then you get frustrated and depressed and buy take away as a bit of an "escape"..... and so the spiral continues.

I am NOT advocating buying no take away. I just personally prefer to have a separate budget for our take away and to keep this cash separate. No cash=no take away.

Well, if you've made it this far you can probably see why I've decided to do this series in parts. Here's a bit of a summary:

BE OPEN - to new ideas and the fact that you CAN reduce your grocery budget if you want to.

BE HONEST - you don't have to show anyone else your spending figures. But be prepared to face up to them yourself.

BE REAL - if you only spend $25 this week on groceries, you *know* that it hasn't *really* cost you that little. You're eating off reserves you've paid for in the past. Great idea, just make allowances for the need to replace that food at some point in the future.

BE DISCIPLINED - yeah, I know it's *almost* a swear word. LOL. We're not born with discipline (just ask my high school maths teachers lol). It comes with practise. Believe me, a few minutes here and there of keeping track of what you spend could add up to hours of work you don't have to do in order to earn the money being wasted (or could add up to that holiday you've always wanted to take....or new shoes.....or *add your passion here*........)

STAY TUNED - I'll post my next instalment on reducing the grocery budget next Friday.

In the meantime, keep a record of what you spend on groceries over the next week and break it down into categories. Just try it for 1 week.... For me? LOL. (I need a little puppy dog face emoticon to go here lol). :-)

Note from Lightening: Since writing this post, I have continued with this series. You can find more posts from this series at the following links.

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Two
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Three
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Four
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Meat

Do NOT Try This at Home.....

2007-10-25T20:04:00.000+09:30

Here lies the sad attempts of my slow cooker cake experiment. :-( LOLOL. It actually tastes quite nice (other than being a little burnt around the edges). BUT, it stuck (even though I did spray oil in there first). Me thinks some greaseproof paper or alfoil lining the pot might be a good idea.

The good news is that I did indeed bake a cake in the slow cooker. :-) I need to do some experimenting and fine tuning with the high and low settings to see if I can in fact bake it without burning the outsides. Otherwise, we can just trim those bits off.

I do have a reason for attempting this *other* than electricity cost (and being able to bake in summer without heating up the house). When we do our 3 month trip in the caravan, we are not likely to have an oven (oven's aren't common in caravans these days and we'd prefer the cupboard space). I would like to take my slow cooker with me anyway (since it provides such easy, fuss free meals) so this would be a bonus if I could bake in it.

Funnily enough, this reminds of some of my disasters when I was a new bride. My DH had a single mate who would drop in from time to time and I'm sure every time he came I would have some kind of disaster in the kitchen. One time I attempted an apple cake in the microwave (my 1 and only attempt to bake a cake in the microwave) and it was sitting on the bench looking a little like the photo above (only not brown) when he dropped in one afternoon. It's a bit of a joke between us. I can cook....honest!!!! Just not everything I make turns out quite how I'd planned.

As for the above disaster. DH turned it into a masterpiece by making some chocolate sauce, heating it up and serving with chocolate sauce and cream. Waaaayyyyyy too yummy for my waistline! :-) The kids don't seem to mind eating up the rest of the *bits* either. So, not too much will go to waste (only to waist).

To tie this back in with my kitchen electricity usage audit posted earlier today - total cooking time in the slow cooker was around 2 hours so cost approximately 4c. To bake a cake in my oven would have cost around 30c (plus heating up the house).

IF I do better with my next attempt, I'll be sure to proudly show off my efforts. If not, you may never hear me say another word about baking a cake in a slow cooker. :-)

Insanity Gone Crazy!!!!

2007-10-25T14:09:00.000+09:30

Is that even possible???? Anyone else find it hard thinking up interesting titles for their blog posts? Maybe it's just me. No, I haven't really gone crazy but I have signed up for Nablopomo which I *think* is a spin off from Nanowrimo. I'd not heard of it until I saw the little icon thingy's popping up on blogs all over the place.

So, what is it? Basically you make a commitment to make a blog post every day in November. No crazy minimum words or anything like that. Just a commitment to continuous posting. Well, if you haven't already noticed, I tend to post *nearly* every day. So I'm thinking I *should* be able to pull this off without too much hardship.

Why did I decide to sign up? Well, I wanted to make a commitment to myself and to you (my readers) that I would continue to blog throughout Nanowrimo. My biggest reservation about participating in Nanowrimo was that my blog would suffer. Now I have as much incentive to blog as I do to write my novel. :-) That makes sense, right? So maybe I'm not insane OR crazy afterall. I might be by the end of November though. :-)

As an interesting and somewhat unexpected bonus, I have had a few visits from other Nablopomo participants. A big WAVE to anyone dropping by. Please feel free to give a little hello in the comments section, even if this blog isn't to your taste and you don't expect to come back again. It's nice to know you were here. :-)

Oh, and if you haven't signed up yet but would like to - click on the little thingy that says Nablopomo in my sidebar and it *should* take you there (I think). Yes, technical as always.... lol. Don't forget to mention in my comments if you're a part of it.... other readers might want to drop by your blog too (if they don't already). :-)

Electricity Challenge - In the Kitchen

2007-10-25T07:07:00.000+09:30

I figured the most logical place to continue my electricity audit would be the kitchen. After all, the kitchen is the central hub of the home...appliances. Nearly everything in the kitchen uses electricity!!!! Have you ever noticed that?

Here's a list of the things in my kitchen that use electricity:

* fridge
* freezer
* microwave
* oven
* grill
* hot plates
* fish tank.... which has *nothing * to do with eating I assure you
* breadmaker
* kettle
* rangehood
* dishwasher

Those are just the things that are on or plugged into power all the time!!!!

Then you have:

* toaster
* electric frypan
* foodprocessor
* popcorn maker
* donut maker
* sandwich maker
* pie maker
* hot dog maker..... mmm.... think we have too many "makers"?
* slow cooker 3 lt
* slow cooker 6 lt
* kenwood mixer
* juicer
* George Foreman grill
* egg poacher

Scarily enough, there is probably 1 or 2 items I've forgotten we even own. So it's not surprising that the kitchen is responsible for a reasonable chunk of the electricity that we use.

Eating really has a LOT to answer for doesn't it? How often have you heard people say we'd have plenty of money and time if we didn't have to eat? Of course, life would be a lot less fun too!

I have been doing some research into what certain appliances are costing us (approximately) to run.

A 600L fridge costs somewhere around $0.06c per hour to run. A 450L freezer costs around $0.03c. This isn't something I can change but keeping them full is supposed to help with their efficiency.

We're also *trying* to train our children NOT to stand in front of the fridge for half an hour while they decide what they'd like to eat. Perhaps I need to keep a list on the front of what is in there that they can have so that they don't do this. Hmmmm.....there's an idea. Note to self: make a laminated A4 sheet for the front of the fridge.

Come summer, I also plan to keep cold water in one of those esky coolers with a tap so that everyone isn't going to the fridge for cold drinks all the time.

Boiling Water:

I did a little *test* this morning with boiling enough water for 2 cuppas which is around 4 metric cups.

Kettle took almost 2.5 minutes to boil. @ 0.45c per minute (27c per hr) that cost 1.12c.

Microwave took 5 minutes. @ 20c per hour that cost 1.67c

Stovetop took 8 minutes. @ 18c per hour that cost 2.4c

Obviously the kettle is the way to go (which we all knew anyway). I also timed the kettle boiling with double the amount of water and it took just over 4 minutes. So you don't double the time to boil double the quantity of water.

Something else I noticed with the kettle was that I could hear it boiling for almost a minute before the automatic cut-out cut in. So I could save myself around half a cent by manually turning off the kettle each time when I hear it boiling.

One thing I could be doing is boiling water in the kettle for things like pasta and rice rather than simply putting cold water into the saucepan. It's one more step for me but would be quicker as well as use less electricity.

Cooking:

To cook a 2kg roast:

Oven takes around 2 hours + (well, mine does anyway) so @ 36c per hour that is 72c

Microwave on convection only takes 2 hours so @ 24c per hour that is 48c

Electric Frypan takes around 2 hours so @ 20c per hour that is 40c

Microwave on combination (part microwave and part convection) takes 1 hour so @ 24c per hour that is 24c

Slow Cooker takes around 4-6 hours so @ 2c per hour that is 8-10c

The slow cooker beats everything else by miles in terms of cost of cooking. Which is great as I much prefer most of our roasts done in there anyway. It's so much easier and my oven is painfully slow for some reason.

My next project is to attempt to bake a cake in the slow cooker. Has anyone already tried that? I wonder if I need a special recipe or whether my usual recipes would work the same?

I do have another plan for summer cooking though. DH is going to help me make a solar cooker! You can find some examples of solar cookers here . When it comes to cooking, well you can't really beat *free* can you? :-)

Washing Up:

Here's one I'd rather not know about. A dishwasher costs around 36c per hour to run (on average). Our cycle is around 90 minutes so that's around 54c a day (we run it once a day). Generally all our cooking dishes are washed by hand so the dishwasher takes all the cups, plates and cutlery for the day. I'm not quite ready to give up the convenience of the dishwasher though.

* Figures based on Country Energy: Energy Wise Guide. All are approximate and will vary depending on the actual cost per kWh from your energy provider as well as the number of watts the individual appliance actually draws.

Community Blogger Award

2007-10-24T20:16:00.000+09:30

Thankyou kin for passing this award on to me.

This award was created by Cellobella who states:

The Community Blog Award celebrates people who reach out and makes the blogger community a better one.

For those of you who have a blog, you'll understand how wonderful it is to interact with readers and build up friendships with them. I feel so thankful for those I have had the opportunity to know through my blog and other blogs.

I would like to pass this award on to Rhonda Jean. I really love the way that even though she is busy and gets lots of comments, she takes the time to respond to those comments. The whole discussion within the comments section of her blog really contributes to the atmosphere of community created by her blog. :-)

Free Rice

2007-10-24T15:44:00.000+09:30

If you're like me and desperately *NEED* another internet distraction, you might like to visit free rice . Somebody from the Simple Savings forums was sharing this the other day so some of you may have already seen it.

Basically, you have to guess the meanings of words and for each answer you get correct they donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

The website does come with it's own warning though.....

"WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance..." LOL.

And for those of you who are competitive (unlike me lol), I had a play for about half an hour the other night and reached level 41 (can't remember how many grains of rice it ended up being). Naturally I have to have another go and see if I can better that!

So if you'd like some help with procrastinating.... that will help someone else at the same time..... AND help improve your own vocabulary, give it a go.

Oh, and don't forget to let us know in the comments section how you did (and how many grains of rice you donate).

Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

2007-10-23T18:16:00.000+09:30

That's kind of a silly post title because I'm certainly not someone you'd describe as being "mighty". And I'm certainly not one to describe myself as "mighty". But I can't help but feel like I'm falling.......into the great abyss of words! 50,000 words to be exact!

Oh yes, it's almost time for nanowrimo . For those of you not familiar with the word. Nanowrimo is short for National Novel Writing Month (even though I'm pretty sure it's an INTERnational event - ?????). A month during which many "wannabee" writers make a pledge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. What I love about it is that there is NO expectation to actually write a "good" novel. You just go ahead and write with reckess abandon - a "wannabee" writers dream. For 30 whole days you get to pretend you've fulfilled that lifetime dream to *be* a writer. :-)

I did participate (and succeed) in Nanowrimo in 2005 and 2006. Sadly, both novels have disappeared into the great wide abyss of dead computer land. Actually, I'm not so sure it is sad. It's probably for the best. LOL.

As November drew nearer, I was kind of "aware" that nanowrimo was coming closer. BUT, I figured this year I would give it a miss. After all, I have the blog now. There's another "wannabee" writer's dream. AND, to my surprise, a few people actually READ my blog. That's kind of like being a writer isn't it? I don't have to write another novel now, right? I can be satisfied with blog writing attempts.

So, I "pretended" that I didn't know about nanowrimo. I even changed my email address so they couldn't send me those "are you going to do nanowrimo 2007?" I thought I was SAFE! Until I read THIS ! Okay, so someone who's blog I enjoy reading is doing Nano. So what right? I can do this. I can say no. I have my reasons (the blog.....etc). Just cos he's doing it doesn't mean I have to right? Of course not.

Then I read THIS and I'm thinking "oh no, maybe I should just stop reading blogs until November is over". LOL. I'm no sheep. Just cos they're going to do it, doesn't mean I have to right? Besides, by this time last year I already had an idea for what I was going to write. How can I attempt something like this without an idea????

Well, while we were away, a bit of an idea started forming in my mind. BUT, just because I have an IDEA doesn't mean I HAVE to do this, does it? LOL. Of course not. I don't HAVE to do anything. Problem is that part of me WANTS to do this.....

I'm still toying with the idea, trying to convince myself that perhaps I could just give it a go. After all, it wouldn't matter if I signed up and didn't make it would it? It's not like I'm a PERFECTIONIST or anything!!!!! It's not like I'd be totally devastated if I FAILED.......

.....okay, I would be totally devastated if I failed. :-( Failure just cannot exist in my world. Failure is not an option. I subscribe to the theory that it's better off to never try than to try and then FAIL!!!! *Gasp* After all, it is a 4-letter word starting with "F".

But today when people on the Simple Living Network forums were talking about the fact that they had signed up and how excited they were......

...... I COULDN'T TAKE IT ANY LONGER!!!! I folded and signed up for the 2007 Nanowrimo.

I know..... I have NO willpower!!! LOL. But really, what's the worst that could happen?

1. I'll turn into a crazed lunatic! Oh yeah, that already happened so I guess no-one will notice.

2. The kids will have to go to school wearing dirty uniforms because no washing will get done. But hey, literacy..... school..... that's okay isn't it?

3. My blog will get severely neglected and all my readers will abandon me. Sob, sob! Yeah, that really would be awful.

4. I'll f..... f..... f-fail.................. and not meet the 50,000 words in 30 days.

5. I'll breeze through it all with all the housework kept up to date, the blog posted to daily AND the word limit reached with days to spare. LOL. Oh yeah, and it'll be so fantastic the publishers will be banging down my door to publish me. ROFLOL. Yeah, a girl can dream can't she?

So, what's done is done. I have made the COMMITMENT. Let's hope it doesn't lead to a commitment of another kind. :-)

I guess this won't be the last you'll hear from me about Nanowrimo. Alright, hands up - who's with me? Who thinks I'm a lunatic? No, don't answer that one. LOL.

Food, Glorious Food

2007-10-23T08:32:00.000+09:30

I find one of the most satisfying feelings in the world is knowing we have a fridge full of fresh, healthy fruit and vegetables. That can prove to be a challenge out here where fresh anything is hard to come by. Of course, the vegies in our garden rarely make it to the fridge. I prefer to harvest them right before cooking or eating. So I hope the time will come when a fridge full of fresh vegies is less of a satisfaction than a garden full of fresh vegies. But for now I'm very much a novice gardener so I have to settle for the next best thing - being able to actually buy fruit and veg that is reasonably fresh.

While we were away we were near some market gardens and I've found a little shop that seems to hold lovely fresh produce at reasonable prices. So I did quite a big spend up. Even bigger than last time when I spent almost $50 there. This time the total was closer to $60 but I did buy a few "treat" items so that would easily account for the extra $10 spent.

"Treat" items were:

* punnet of strawberries for $1.99
* a whole pineapple - this is the first time I've ever bought a whole fresh pineapple. I hope it is nice - it sure smells nice!
* seedless red grapes (price wasn't cheap but was okay and the kids really love them)

My biggest bargains were:

20kg carrots for $3.80 - I usually pay nearly $2 per kg. These are "juicing" carrots but we often find they taste nicer (sweeter) and I don't mind having the less "nice" looking carrots when they're so much cheaper. Now to find ways to use up 20kg of carrots! LOL. I'm thinking I'll grate a heap and freeze to add to spaghetti bolognese sauce etc.

Bananas for $2.20 per kg. Cheapest I've paid for bananas in years!

Apples - bought 8kg and they ranged from $1.50 for 2kg to $1.90 for 2kg. Here I pay $5-$6 for 2kg usually.

What else did I buy:

* 20kg desire potatoes. The lady at the shop tells me that these last longer than white potatoes
* 2 large sweet potatoes
* whole cauliflower
* 2 large zucchini
* 2 head broccoli
* 1kg bag tomatoes
* half a dozen lebanese cucumbers
* 4 lemons (at DS's request - he eats them like they are!)
* 2 cobs sweetcorn

Think that is all. Anyway, it seemed like quite a lot of food for just under $60. Thankfully we had the camper trailer with us - couldn't have fitted those large bags of carrots and potatoes in any other way!

Now I just need to make sure I use it so that it isn't money wasted.

Electricity Challenge - Update 7

2007-10-22T19:17:00.000+09:30

I'm happy to say that this week we had a MUCH better week with our electricity usage. With the kids back at school, no coughers and splutterers requiring night-time heating and being away over the weekend, it certainly SHOULD be. :-)

Soooooo........drum roll please (just kidding).

Our average daily usage this week worked out to 13.37kWh per day!!!! :-) I'm pretty happy with that.

BUT, there is even BETTER news!!!!

Our hot water electricity for the week...... 0.0kWh for the WHOLE week, giving us an average daily usage of ZERO for hot water. I thought that was pretty awesome. Until DH told me that of course it would be that as the electricity boost for our solar hot water system is currently turned OFF! LOL.

Still, I do like my "hot water free from the sun". :-)

All in all, I think we're doing okay.

Travelling home today my DD (who is not quite 7) made the comment that they shouldn't use their gameboys too much as it will use up the batteries and then they'd have to use electricity to charge them. :-) I thought that was quite sweet. We explained to her that it is okay to *use* electricity. What we're trying to achieve with our electricity challenge is to make sure we're not *wasting* electricity. And of course, looking for ways in which we can reduce our usage (without feeling deprived). Often overuse of electricity (at least in our case) is more about habits than anything else.

AWOL

2007-10-22T17:55:00.000+09:30

My head is still spinning with changing plans. Sick kids meant we had to postpone a planned trip away during the second week of the school holidays (hence me posting a gazillion posts when I said I wasn't going to post many). Then hot weather has brought our harvest forward so our postponed trip also got brought forward a week (postponed for 2 weeks then brought forward a week netting a postponement of 1 week - LOL. See, I can do maths!!!!). Did you follow all that? :-)

We've just been away for a very last minute 4 days away. Bit of shopping, catching up with rellies and so on. Thankfully, years ago we decided to buy a camping trailer for the very reason that farming can be so unpredicatable. It enables us to chop and change our plans without having to worry *too* much about finding somewhere to stay.

So, I'm back. And this post is really one of those "nothing of substance" posts. LOL. Just wanted to let you know I haven't disappeared completely and I'll be posting another electricity challenge update soon-ish.

Better go unpack and feed the hungry hoards. :-) Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Meme

2007-10-18T08:17:00.000+09:30

Well I've been reading a few of these on other blogs and have always wanted to do one. So when snoskred posted one to her site and invited any of her readers to partake, I decided to go ahead and do just that. She has a great blog. If you haven't already visited, go and have a look. I love her "thoughts for the day". And reading her posts about blogging and HTML has gotten me trying things I never thought I would try.

The word "meme" is an interesting word. For starters, how do you pronounce it?

Is it "me-me"?

Or "may-me"?

Or what about "me (e as in egg) - me"?

I always pronounce it the third way, using a hard "e" in the first syllable and an "ee" sound in the second syllable.

So I decided to look up the word in wikipedia , the online authority in all things unusual. If you're keen, go ahead and follow the link. I didn't read it all - too over my head and not quite what I was looking for.

So I followed a link from Wikipedia to wiktionary . That even gives a pronunciation - if you can understand it! I *think* they're saying it is pronounced "meem". I think I like my own pronunciation better! LOL. How do you pronounce it?

Here is one of the definitions that Wiktionary offers:

"Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity."

Are you any the wiser now? No, me either. I'm guessing it has something to do with being passed from one blogger to another and therefore becomes a "repeated action". I don't know. Anyone, feel free to enlighten me here.

Alright, enough with the boring research. Let's get on with the actual Meme.

The Actors Studio 10 Questions Meme -

1. What is your favorite word?

"No worries". I know, that's 2 words. And it's not actually my "favourite" word. It's my "most used" word (okay, phrase). Which is really stupid because most of the time that I use it, it's not even true!!!! Maybe I say it to convince myself?

I also like using the word "absolutely". It has such a strong feel to it.

2. What is your least favorite word?

"Whatever!" My kids use it all the time when they want to dismiss what I'm saying to them. Funny thing is, it's catching and now I use it on them as well. Which *really* annoys them. I don't use it to annoy them. I just catch things really easily.

3. What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?

Worship music

4. What turns you off?

People who are constantly absorbed in their own problems. I'm not talking people who are "sometimes" absorbed by their own problems. I'm talking people who never seem to notice that they're not the only ones doing it tough.

5. What sound or noise do you love?

The sound of the ocean. I could sit and listen to it for hours.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?

My kids fighting with each other.

7. What is your favorite curse word?

Bugger. It always makes me laugh because of the ads. And I guess I view it as a *soft* curse word (if there is any such thing). The funniest thing is that I *caught* it from my DH who hardly EVER uses curse words. He went through a brief phase of using it. I *caught* it and he stopped using it and I not only started, I haven't been able to stop.

When I was a teenager we used to use the names of fruits to *swear*. Because you go to say the "f" word and instead say "fruit". So then we started using apples, bananas and oranges as our own "curse language". Meant we could swear without getting into trouble.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Counselling. I've always liked the idea but one of my year 12 teachers told me that it would completely destroy me. He was right. But now that I'm going through the process myself, I think I'm becoming stronger and it's something I'd really like to try. I really like the idea of helping people.

9. What profession would you not like to do?

Secondary Teaching. I always wanted to be a Primary Teacher (I'm not) but the thought of all those teenagers and the stuff we used to put our teachers through..... especially the poor student teachers! I doubt I'd even make it through the student teaching placements to actually become a secondary teacher. I do admire those who do it though.

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

Heaven does exist! I think it's going to be so awesome that I'll be so happy to be there, words won't matter. :-)

Now I *think* the idea is that I now "tag" people to do this Meme on their own blog.

So I pick

Lisa

Scott

Emma

Kez

Kelley

Ali

Precious_1

Kin - except that she has already done this so I won't make her do it again. :-)

There must be an easier way to do this than having to visit all of these blogs to copy and paste all the links. HELP snoskred ! If you haven't already done a blogpost on that - I might need you to. LOL.

If I haven't tagged you, it's not because I don't love you (you know I do), it's just taking me forever to copy and paste links. LOL. Plus, I thought I'd better leave a few people to be tagged by someone else. :-)

So, copy and paste the questions below. Answer them on your own blog and then you can tag others (if you want to).

The Actors Studio 10 Questions Meme -
1. What is your favorite word?
2. What is your least favorite word?
3. What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?
4. What turns you off?
5. What sound or noise do you love?
6. What sound or noise do you hate?
7. What is your favorite curse word? *
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
9. What profession would you not like to do?
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

*If you do not wish to use the curse word on your site that’s ok and understandable - try and find one not so offensive instead, if you can, or alternatively star out some of the letters.

Electricity Challenge - Update 6

2007-10-17T15:05:00.000+09:30

With all the excitement of Blog Action Day on Monday, I didn't get around to posting this weeks results for our electricity challenge. Okay, it wasn't so much that I didn't get "around" to it as I was putting it off. I didn't want this post coming *too* close to my blog action day post.

Why? Ummm...... well, we didn't do so well this week. :-(

I was expecting our usage to be a bit higher this week. After all, with school holidays we were ALL home ALL day for the WHOLE week. That has to make a difference right? Plus we had oil column heaters running in both bedrooms for a couple of nights when 1 child had croup and 1 had asthma.

BUT, things were even WORSE than I expected. *sob* *sob*

Our average daily usage for the week ended up being 22.9kWh!!!! I was kind of hoping for 20 or lower. Our goal is 15 but we only seem to achieve that if we're not home!!!!

On a brighter note, we only used 3.8kWh's of hot water this week - for the WHOLE week!!! Which works out to 0.54kWh's per day. Obviously we're getting a bit more solar power from the sun as the days get longer. And perhaps the shorter shower times are slowly getting there. Oh, that's right, we didn't bath our kids for the whole week. LOL. Just kidding! :-)

So, I've been doing a bit of research into how much electricity certain appliances use. I found an excellent resource online by clicking on one of my google adsense links. Um ah.... you're not supposed to do that (click on your own links). It's okay, they don't pay you if you click on them but you're still not supposed to click on them which is a pain in the you know where because there have been several I wanted to click on. Apparently you can get some kind of preview mode for checking out the links yourself but it was all a bit technical for me. *sigh*

Anyway, back onto what I learnt in my research.

Our oil filled column heaters are costing us around 23c per hour to run. So for a 12 hour night it's costing us $2.76 per night (per room) to keep warm!!!! Interestingly enough, our small fan heater costs the same amount to run. I wouldn't leave that going in the kids rooms but I had always thought the oil heaters were cheaper to run than fan heaters. It would appear not.

Obviously these figures are only a rough guide and the heater clicks on and off through the night so it's unlikely it is costing us quite that much per night. Still food for thought. Something we really need to do before next winter is purchase Econo-Heat wall panels for the kids bedrooms. In contrast they cost around 8c per hour or around 96c for a 12 hour night to run. I think they would be safer as well as they don't get quite as hot to touch.

I also found out that a single electric blanket costs around 1c per hour to run. How's that for economical? Now I have the perfect excuse to spend the day in bed during winter - I'm being "economical". LOL.

THE FOX IS BACK! THE FOX IS BACK!!!!!!

2007-10-17T07:52:00.000+09:30

I'm off in another world watching the beauty of a waltz on "Dancing with the Stars" last night when my 9 year old calls out to me from the other end of the house. "Mum, can you tell Pip to stop barking?" Pip's barking? OH NO!!! THE FOX IS BACK!!!

"Honey!" I call out to my DH. "Pip's barking, I think the fox is back". Naturally the MOTH (Man of The House) is where all men tend to be when there is a crisis - the throne room! Galantly he finishes "early" and charges outside to see if my babies are safe.

So much for the "mark your territory" theory!!! The fox is at the chook enclosure RIGHT where DH marked his territory just hours before!

Close inspection of the enclosure shows dig marks all along one side. Right where my darling had added concrete. Hah!!! We've outfoxed the fox. He can no longer find his way in *that* way - he keeps hitting a ~~brick~~ concrete "wall".

In this day and age of tight gun laws, it's not so easy for our "hero" to simply *deal* with the dratted fox. But the fox is persistent. It's not going to be scared away easily. There he sits in the headlights of the ute, unperterbed by bright lights, a dog barking and a human interfering with his efforts to get to those chooks. He WANTS those babies. He NEEDS those babies. You can almost see the drool dripping out of his mouth as he stares at those young, tender, chickies.

The MOTH decides he's going to go through the rigaramole of fetching his gun, even though he suspects the fox will be long gone on his return. Off to the shed. Find the secret hiding place for the key to the gun cupboard. In the dark of course. Get the gun. Find the secret hiding place for the key to the ammo cupboard (keys, cupboards, guns and ammo all have to be kept separately). Unlock the cupboard, get the ammo and load the gun. Yeah, it only takes about 25 minutes to grab the gun and do away with a pest on a farm these days. That's assuming you don't accidentally drop the key in the dirt in the pitch black and have to scrounge around on the ground looking for it. LOL.

"KABOOM!" (Yeah, the 22 doesn't really make that sound but I used it for "dramatic" effect LOL). The fox is still there and the MOTH gets off a single shot before the fox darts away. There's a slight "thud" so he knows he's hit his mark. Unfortunately not enough to stop the fox running away, but likely enough of a hit that he won't survive to return again. Maybe he'll survive long enough to tell all his mates not to mess with the chookies cos they have one *mean papa*.

Awwwww......my HERO!!!! Daddy has saved the day! :-)

Note: I do support the gun laws. I'm not a big fan of guns myself, even though they are a necessity out here in the *wild*. But I'd rather protect people above all else. And we do prefer not to leave an animal in misery. Even a blasted sly fox. But when it comes down to 8 chooks vs 1 fox, well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Whatever he can to protect his babies!

Onwards and Upwards...

2007-10-16T19:35:00.000+09:30

Well DS had a very good first day at kindy. When he got home, he peeked his little head around the corner and gave me this cute little smile. I got up and held my arms out and he just ran into them. So we had a HUGE cuddle which was really nice.

Apparently now that he's been to kindy, he can go to school "tomorrow". LOL. I think we might have told him he has to go to kindy before he can start school so he's figuring now he's been to kindy, it's time for school. :-) At this rate he'll be finished year 12 by Christmas!!!

He couldn't stop talking about the day and all the things he'd been doing with his friends (a stark contrast to my firstborn son who'd always answer "nothing" or "I don't know").

And he tells me that going on the bus was "really fun". :-)

Biggest laugh of the day though was when I asked him whether he'd used the kindy toilets. Naturally mum's worried about him not knowing where the toilet is or not getting there in time. He quite matter of factly shakes his head and tells me he just went "outside on the grass". ROFLOL. Oh dear. Yes, mum was also worried that he might do that too! :-)

Last thing before he went to sleep tonight, he informs us that he will be going to kindy on the school bus "tomorrow". It's going to be a loooonnnnggg week until kindy day rolls around again. :-)

My Girls Have Arrived

2007-10-16T13:45:00.000+09:30

It's a very exciting day!!!! :-) We did get 8 chickens but I couldn't get them all in the one photo. LOL. They don't pose quite like my children do.

I was a bit unsure how I would feel having lost our old chooks just the other day. I haven't even been up to the chook enclosure since that happened. And I was a bit reluctant to get too attached to the new girls. That lasted all of about, my first glance. LOL.

They're very easy to fall in love with!!! Especially when they're still at that "cute stage". These are about 9 weeks old I think.

Here they are pecking at a few of our scraps. I could sit and watch them for hours. That's not very productive though is it? LOL.

DH has put some more concrete around the edge of the enclosure so we're hoping no more foxes will get in.

I was also told (I think it was by someone on the Aussies Living Simply forum) that male urine will help deter foxes. So I told DH he had to do his "civic duty". LOL. Not sure if it *has* to be male but you sure won't get me squatting out there!!!! LOLOL. DH seems to think it might be a bit of a "mark your territory" type thing. Not sure if he's planning on obliging me or not.

So, not sure how long until these little babies will be old enough to lay. I'm guessing at least a month. We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime they can get themselves nice and settled in to their new home. :-)

My Baby's Go-one.........

2007-10-16T07:42:00.000+09:30

....and I'm all a-lo-one.........oooh. I've got the "my baby started kindy today and insisted on going on the school bus even though it's his first day bloo-oos".

Ya don't have to be able to sing in tune with the blues do you? No? Oh good! :-)

Actually, I'm not feeling all that sad. Does that make me a bad mummy? I should feel sad shouldn't I?

Okay, well he only goes half a day a week this term (it's kind of a transition term to kindy and kindy is the year they do pre-school here for those not familiar with our system - which is most of you since Australia doesn't have a common system across the states). So maybe that's part of the reason I'm not feeling sadder.

And it has been almost 10 years of having kids at home. I think I'm ready for a change. I'd better not get too used to it though. He'll be home at lunch time! LOL. And I imagine all I'll get for the next week is "is it kindy day yet?"

The house is kinda quiet though. It's almost a "first day of term" here day today. Even though school went back yesterday, we had to take DD to an appointment out of town so only DS went to school yesterday. Now, all of sudden, they're all gone!!!! After having them ALL home for the past 2 weeks.

Today I need to start searching for my house underneath all our stuff!!!! :-o

Mindless Consumerism

2007-10-15T15:40:00.000+09:30

Well, the day has finally arrived. Blog Action Day!!! And I've remembered. LOL. Okay, it was easy once I'd posted a reminder to myself on my own blog. :-)

I have to admit that I haven’t long been an advocate for environmentalism. Hey, are you impressed with my use of big words there? That's me just trying to distract you from my admission. :-P It’s not that I didn’t really *care* about the environment….. actually maybe it is that I didn’t really *care*. :-(

I like to think that it was more I didn’t really understand the impact my mindless consumerism was having on our environment -rather than I didn't really care. At the end of the day though, the results were the same.

What’s that saying? When you know better, you do better. I hope now that I *know* better, I’m doing better.

Rather than looking at things from a global perspective, I want to blog today about my own journey into understanding more of my impact on the earth. I'm sure someone else can and will cover things from a political and a global perspective.

I think my awareness of our impact on the environment really increased when it started to become *our* problem rather than someone else’s problem. One of the things we really noticed when we moved from the town to the farm was a lack of rubbish collection. Apart from the fact that it would accumulate in my laundry until DH had a chance to remove it (which wasn’t often enough for my liking), it wasn't simply a matter of putting our rubbish out on the kerb and forgetting about it. It remained our problem to deal with from start to finish.

Now I’m the first to admit that back in those days I was a consumer extraordinaire. I wasn’t considerate of the amount of landfill being created. In fact, I LOVED Christmas Day because it meant that all the packaging on the new toys could be removed from my home and annoy me no more. The fact that that packaging had to go *somewhere* didn't even enter my mind.

The biggest impact for me came one day when I went with DH for a drive to our other farm. The farm where he had dug a hole to bury our rubbish. There, staring me in the face was around 12 months of our own rubbish. Believe me, there is NOTHING like coming face to face with your own waste to make you really THINK about the impact you’re making on the earth. One garbage bag doesn't seem like all *that* much but when you add garbage bag upon garbage bag to a pile (or a hole in the ground in our case) plus a few major clean outs - you get quite a LOT of garbage. I began to wonder how long it would take us to run out of room in the scrub.

To multiply that amount of waste by the number of people living in Australia alone was mind boggling. I couldn't even begin to fathom multiplying it by the number of people in the world (not that all cultures are quite as bad as us). Would there be enough acres to house it all? The simple answer is NO. It was at that moment that I realized I couldn’t continue on with my “consumer extraordinaire” lifestyle.

We had a similar experience when it came to water consumption. The farm we are now living on (which isn’t the same one we originally moved to) has no piped water. All of our water has to be caught and stored in rainwater tanks or carted in a truck. When you have a FINITE supply of water it really makes you aware of what you’re using.

The fact of the matter is that we all have a FINITE supply of water. We all have a FINITE amount of land in which to store our waste. But by outsourcing these problems, I wonder if we’ve made them too “out of sight, out of mind” for people. They’re not MY problem – someone else can deal with that.

I wonder if it would make a difference if we were all brought face to face with the effects that our choices make? If it were made *OUR* problem once again (like it would have been in Pioneering days). Do you think maybe we'd all wake up to ourselves and change some of the choices we make? I wonder if it would help us to switch from "mindless consumerism" to "mindful consumerism"?

Well, one thing I do know. I have a long way to go before I can even begin to consider myself “green”. I only hope that as I learn more and know better I can do better.

It's so easy (and I'm as guilty of this as anyone) to stick our heads in the sand and hope the problem will go away. To think that it's too large a problem for "little óle me" to deal with. But just like those small parcels of rubbish can add up to a very LARGE pile of landfill, so can our small babysteps toward "doing better" add up to a big difference when it comes to minimising the damage we're making to our environment.

It's a topic that we could debate for days - the whys, hows and whats. I just want to leave you all with 1 challenge. What tiny baby step are you going to take this week to lessen your impact on the environment? If you have time - put your baby step into my comments section. That way we can all get some "babystep" ideas from one another. :-)

Here's one from me. We had to go to a regional centre for an appointment today and I resisted the urge to "browse" the shops and just stuck to my list. I'm a terrible one for purchasing items that I didn't even know I needed (or wanted) just moments before. And I didn't set 1 foot inside Toyworld even though I know they're having a 25% off sale. Believe me, kids toys are my biggest weakness so that was quite a feat for me! :-)

Results for My First EVER blog Competition!!!!

2007-10-14T15:04:00.000+09:30

Alrighty, it's time for the big REVEAL!!!!! The answers to my "How Well Do You Know Me Quiz"....... I can say they've been checked and double checked as I had some trouble with this post (did anyone get a sneak peek of the answers when I accidentally posted this half way through writing? Tis okay, no more entries were received after that time so everything is all above board! :-) ). So I had to delete this post and start again. Then along the way questions and answers kept accidentally deleting on me. LOL. DH came in to see if he could help (I was abusing the poor computer).

BUT, you don't want to know about my afternoon dramas. So let's get to the BIG *REVEAL*.....

1. How many children do I have?

a)3 - We have boy(9), girl(6) and boy(3 - who is still eating broccoli in an attempt to grow bigger so he can do stunts on a motorbike lol).

b)4 - I always thought I'd like 4 but DH told me back before we were even officially engaged that he wouldn't want more than 3 as he didn't want to have a car with a bench seat in the front. LOL. Great reason darling. However, we now own a Pajero which is 7 seats (without a bench seat in the front) but I'd have to choose between another child and shopping...... Tough one. LOL.

c)2 - When we had a boy and then a girl we briefly considered stopping at 2. That idea didn't last very long though.

d)1

2. Which state of Australia do I live in?

a)Victoria - Well I did live in Melbourne for 6 wonderful years. With the rivalry between SA & Vic I find myself torn at times. I love both states!!!!

b)New South Wales

c)South Australia - I was born here and lived here until I was 12 before spending my 6 years in Melbourne and returning when I was 18.

d)Western Australia - I've never even BEEN to WA. Looking forward to visiting one day.

3. I was born in
a)1973
b)1974 - Not much else to say really. I was born when I was. Except to say thank you Kelley for such kind comments about my appearance vs age. LOL.
c)1975
d)1976

4. How many $ per week do I spend on groceries?
a)$100 - So far so good. Even though my challenge is over, I can't help but want to keep under the $100 mark for as long as possible. Not sure how much longer we'll succeed - we'll see.
b)$120
c)$150
d)$180

5. My favourite part of the school day was

a)recess - yeah, I made this one a tough one. Recess won out as I was very much a "the gangs all here" kind of person and the most common time for us all to be together was at Recess.

b)lunch - lunch did come a close second to recess but had a number of things going against it. Firstly, I often didn't have any lunch to eat. Secondly, our group was often split with meetings, seeing teachers yada, yada, yada. Then thirdly, there's those lunch time maths detentions that we won't mention. LOL.

c)end of the day - I actually enjoyed school (for the social aspect mostly) so heading home at the end of the day wasn't always all that great. Especially during year 12 when I had to catch 2 trains and then a tram just to get home.

d)maths - LOL. Alright, fess up. Who said maths? I had a maths teacher once (for 2 years running - poor guy) who said I would end up being a maths teacher. *shudder* I wonder if he was hoping for some kind of "karma" to return upon me. But really, if you're going to tell my parents the reason I don't understand the work is because I don't get your attention when I need help, you can only expect me to climb up on the table in order to get your attention. And I did say a-ttention not d-tention.

6. My favourite chocolate is

a) white
b) milk
c) dark
d) all of the above - What can I say? Chocolate is chocolate is chocolate. And don't go telling me that white chocolate isn't *really* chocolate. If it says "chocolate" on the packaging, it's good enough for me. :-) Unless of course someone ruins it by *gasp* adding coffee!!!! Blergh!!! Which chocolate I prefer at any given time does depend on my mood (and what I can find stashed in the cupboard).

7. My favourite TV show is

a)Australian Idol - Well I have been watching some of it. This is the first series I've seen. What the.....?????

b)All Saints - I don't mind watching it but really, there's already enough *real* drama in my life. Plus I'm jealous cos they have HEAPS of doctors and we have NONE. *sob*

c)It Takes Two - Yah!!!!! My biggest issue with this show is that it isn't on often enough!!!!

d)Home and Away - This used to be my favourite show. I can remember the very first episode. Awwww....cute little Sally. Any yes, I was totally in LOVE with Alex Papps (hope I've spelt that right). LOL. Can't say that I've never missed an episode though as we didn't always have an available TV set. A number of people tried to convince me it was bad when I was in my later teen years. So of course, I kept on watching it!!!! They watch X-files and try to tell me Home and Away is bad????? X-files was just too creepy for me. Now watching Home and Away through a parents eyes, I decided to stop watching it because my kids were watching too (and the story lines do just cycle around and around and there are only so many "Summer Bay disasters" you need to see in a lifetime). So, it's no longer my favourite show.

8. I moved out of home when I was:

a)18 - Moving out of home was a TOP decision. I moved into this little house that resembled a tin shed (I must see if I can dig out a photo or 2 for you). All my furniture and furnishings were second hand. I even had bright orange chairs (handed down from my parents). But I sooooo LOVED my little house. Me and my 65 soft toys had a blissful existence in that little pad. I was totally BROKE! And I mean TOTALLY (I don't know HOW they expect you to live "away from home" on the Austudy living away from home allowance). But I didn't care. I didn't even mind spending most of my money on rent and bills. Cos it was MY money and MY bills for MY home.

b)20
c)17
d)22

9.I prefer my egg yolks to be

a)hard - YUK!!!

b)runny - Mmmmmm..... I love it when we go camping and DH makes me a bacon and egg sanger with yolks so runny you have to lean over the ground so you don't get egg yolk all over your PJ's (who gets dressed before breakfast when you're on holidays?). Licking egg yolk off your fingers -mmmmm.

c)somewhere in between - I *will* eat them like this if I HAVE to. After all, I wouldn't want to offend anyone. BUT, only if it's in a hamburger or something like that. Couldn't eat egg like that on its own.

d)I hate eggs - eggs are one of the foods DH has convinced me I like. I used to *hate* eggs, especially on their own. BUT, farm fresh, free-range eggs are a WHOLE different experience. I still *hate* eggs on their own if I have to buy supermarket eggs. *sob* I miss my chookies. :-(

10. When I get excited I

a)laugh too loud - you *might* get me to laugh loudly IF I'm feeling very relaxed and somewhat tired AND I actually *get* the joke. :-) Most of the time though I prefer not to draw attention to myself (which is why I put my thoughts and feelings on the internet for ANYONE to read ?????).

b)bounce up and down - Apparently this is what I do. So they told me on my wedding day (along with all the wedding guests etc). DH now points it out to me occasionally so it *must* be true. In reality, well, I'm too excited to notice how I behave. :-)

c)dance - It's best for all concerned if I don't dance.....ever......

d)cry - I cry when I'm happy, I cry when I'm sad. I cry when I'm frightened and I cry when I'm mad. But I do NOT cry when I'm excited. At least, I don't *think* I do......

So, there you have it. The answers for my first ever blog quiz. How did you go? Do you feel like you know me just a little better now? Anything in particular surprise you?

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for.......*insert drum roll here*...........

The winners of my first ever quiz AND my first ever competition on this blog are.......

Ali
Precious_1
Emma.jean

Congratulations!!!! Could you lovely ladies please email me with your full names and addresses so I can send you your prize. You may have to be patient with me as my 3rd Christmas dishcloth is still on the needles!!! :-)

Thanks to everyone who had a go and a special thanks to those who posted their answers in the comments section. :-) I hope you all had as much fun as I did.

Right Brain vs Left Brain

2007-10-13T12:40:00.001+09:30

This was shared on the forums at the simple living network . It's an interesting test to see whether you are left or right brained. I have no idea as to the authenticity of this. I am *lightening* after all. :-) My gullability ratings haven't improved all that much in the past 20 years.

But, accurate or not, it has still created a lot of fun. The idea is to see whether this dancer is turning in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. That's supposed to give you an indication of whether you are "left brained" or "right brained".

So far it has caused much debate in our family. I can only get it to turn in a clockwise direction. No matter what I have tried, I can't see anything else. I got DS to have a try, thinking that he would be "right brained" (being so good at maths and all) and would therefore see it turning anti-clockwise (which is supposed to be the most common direction seen). He started off seeing it turning clockwise and then found it would randomly change directions as he watched.

Well, DH got home and we all crowded around the computer monitor. He also found it would change the direction in which it was turning as he watched. Of course he, in all his wisdom, kept insisting DS was wrong if he claimed it was going in a different direction to what DH thought it was going in. *sigh*. Took me a good few times of telling him it wasn't *wrong* it was just their brains viewing it differently. Perhaps I needed a piece of 2x4 to whop him up the side of the head. Of course how he sees the world is how everyone should!!!!

So, DH and DS can both see it changing directions. I can still only see it turning clockwise. How about you? Let us know what you see when you view her. :-)

Introducing.....

2007-10-13T07:23:00.000+09:30

....the newest addition to our family. And my new "best friend" (well, almost "best" - after all, he can't quite replace my DH now can he?). :-)

This is Rufus (I think that's what I'm going to call him). Everyone wave and say "hello Rufus". LOL. My DH bought him for me. After being together 13+ years this is the first teddy bear he's ever bought me.

Now before you go "awwww....your DH is so sweet" (which he is by the way) I should tell you that he bought me this teddy because I asked him to. LOL.

When we met I owned about 65 soft toys. I imagine he thought I didn't need anymore. Well, in a way he'd have been right. Throughout my teenage years, my soft toy collection seemed to grow exponentially. Some were gifts from friends and family. Many were from those soft toy machines (have you seen them? With that claw thing you have to grab them with?). I had a boyfriend who was very adept at getting things out of those machines. I even had one that had been won in a sideshow at the Royal Melbourne Show (by a different guy). That was in the days before they fell apart in the first 24 hours.

Now a couple of HUGE garbage bags of soft toys isn't so bad when you're on your own. It even isn't too bad when you have a husband to share a house with. As the kids arrived and started being given their own soft toys, I decided it was time to part with some of my own. I had to do it as a gradual process as they really were true friends to me and parting with them wasn't easy.

I also wondered how healthy it was for my marriage to have so many soft toys given to me by other males so it seemed fitting that I gradually let go of those. The fond memories remain of course. But it was time to allow those memories to be a part of my past and not my present.

A number of weeks ago it suddenly occured to me that my DH had never bought me a soft toy of any description. I turned to him and said "you've never bought me a teddy". I think he wondered where that had come from. I continued the conversation with "I want you to buy me a teddy".

One thing I've learnt about males in my almost 12 years of marriage is that if you don't tell them what you want (in a nice way of course), they have no idea. It's not that they don't care or they're not thoughtful. They just don't seem to *know*. Well, that's what my DH is like anyway.

So, did he rush out and buy me a soft toy? No. He promptly forgot all about the conversation. LOLOL. So the other day I said to him "you haven't bought me a teddy yet" and he admitted that he had forgotten. One thing my mental health issues have taught me is to have more compassion for people who forget things. I've always had a good memory and have found DH's lack of memory at times quite frustrating. Of course, I've also found my own lack of memory in recent times quite frustrating. :-) But at least now I understand that he doesn't mean to forget.

Well, the other day he remembered. I hadn't given it another thought since our conversation (during which I also told him a great place to go would be the Post Office) so when he turned up with this teddy, I was still surprised in spite of the fact that it was all my idea in the first place. LOL. This teddy is quite a bit bigger than what I had in mind. But he is incredibly soft and oh so cuddly. Just what I need when DH isn't available to give me a *real* hug. :-)

Another thing that has really helped my communication and relationship with my DH has been understanding a little about the five love languages. My primary love language is the giving and receiving of gifts. For a long time I struggled with the fact that I was so "materialistic" when in fact, it was simply that "gifts" is my primary love language. A flower picked from the garden can have as much meaning to me as an expensive diamond ring when it comes to the expression of love that I feel upon receiving it.

If you've never heard of the 5 Love Languages, I would encourage you to click on that link and have a read. It can really make a massive difference to your relationship. To give you a quick overview, the 5 love languages are said to be:

* Words of Affirmation

* Quality Time

* Receiving Gifts

* Acts of Service

* Physical Touch

My DH's primary love language is words of affirmation. As this rates fairly low on my own list, I wasn't giving him the words that he needed. It's not easy to express love in a love language that isn't your own. It takes quite a lot of effort and retraining the way you think. But it is so worth it if you want to take your relationship to a whole new level of understanding and depth.

The love languages are also so important when it comes to our children. If we don't speak love to them in their own language - they're not going to hear the message "I love you". So far each of our children has had a different love language - different from each other and also different from us. In fact, if our youngest child, whose love language is difficult to determine yet, turns out to have the love language "Acts of Service" then we'll have all 5 love languages within our family.

It's not always easy to determine what you or your loved ones love language is. For instance, my top 2 are very close. The second one for me is "acts of service" and it took a while for me to even decide whether is in fact was "gifts" or "service" that was my primary love language they were so close. Over time, I've come to the conclusion that "gifts" is actually a stronger love language for me than "service".

The easiest way to determine your primary love language is to pay attention to the way that you most automatically express love. I enjoy doing things for people. But I LOVE to give gifts. Big gifts, little gifts, whatever. I just get a LOT of satisfaction from giving things to people. My DH likes to tell me how much he loves me. If I give him gifts and he tells me he loves me, we're both speaking our OWN language but what it means to the other may not be the same as what it would mean to us. Of course, now that we understand each others primary love language, it is also easier to understand the love that we're trying to speak to one another (even if it isn't our own preferred method of receiving love).

When I talk about a primary love language, it doesn't mean that the rest of the languages don't exist for us. In fact, we all give and receive love in all 5 of those ways at different times. And it is important that we do receive love in all of those ways. It's simply that 1 or 2 of those "languages" will speak to us more loudly than the others.

The website www.fivelovelanguages.com is a great resource with lots of information to read. Dr Gary Chapman has written a number of books on the topic but you'll find quite a lot on his website as well.

Now back to the teddy. It took me a long time to get to the point where I was comfortable with telling my DH what I wanted. I always thought that if he loved me enough, he would just *know* what it was I wanted. It just doesn't work like that. His not knowing is not a reflection on how much he cares about me. It's just who he is.

So if your DH is the kind that never buys you the right present (or any present), consider coming right out and telling him what you would like. If you like surprises for Christmas - don't be surprised if your surprise is no present. Instead, why not ask him if he'd like you to write a list of ideas for him. After a number of years my DH has worked out that "stationery" is always on my list. So he'll now tend to get me stationery if he needs a gift idea. But he didn't come to that conclusion on his own. He had to have it written down in black and white in front of him for a long time before it etched itself into his brain. :-)

Unless your DH or any other male in your life is an exceptional being, he aint gonna figure it out by hints and whining. In fact, I think males might have one of those tune out sensors when it comes to the whine. LOL. Just use a pleasant voice and come out and tell him what you would like. And you may have to do it more than once - if he's anything like my DH, he will forget. LOL.

Well, out of all the teddy bears and soft toys that I have owned in my life, Rufus is by far the most special. It hasn't mattered one little bit that I had to prompt my DH to buy him for me. All that matters is that he's been hand chosen by the most important person in the world to me. And I won't be decluttering either of them! :-)

Pyjama Day

2007-10-12T17:31:00.000+09:30

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm taking the idea of "reliving my adolesence" a little too far. This morning I.... well I didn't really see this morning. I slept until lunch time. Unless of course, you count the wee hours of the morning when I was having trouble sleeping. Oh yeah, having trouble sleeping wasn't something I had a problem with as a teenager so perhaps I'm not reliving those days after all.

It's now 5.30pm and I'm yet to get out of my pj's. Now that's something I haven't done in quite a loooonnnngggg time (unless you count sick days). But it is kinda cool to stay in my pj's "just cos I wanna...." LOL.

I must have been tired though as I ended up having a sleep this afternoon as well. Afternoon sleeps were something I *definitely* avoiding when I was an adolescent. They were strictly for babies and old people!!!! It's taken me a long time to appreciate the merits of them. :-)

I think these school holidays have taken quite a lot out of me. So a rest day will do me the world of good.

I'm hoping tomorrow to introduce you to my newest best buddy...... until then, keep smiling. :-)

R.I.P my Sweet Ladies

2007-10-12T14:03:00.000+09:30

It's a sad day today in our household. Last night a fox attacked our chookies. There were no survivors. *sob* *sob*. The thing that upsets me most about a fox attack is that it is so senseless. At least if they were eating the chooks you could put it down to the whole "circle of life". Still, I guess they're only following their own instinct. Whatever that is.

The one saving grace in all of this is that we are due to pick up new chickens on Tuesday. So we're really thankful this attack happened yesterday with only 2 casualties rather than next week and having 8 casualties. DH will get busy and concrete up the small gap that the fox found where he could dig into the enclosure. And he'll take some time to do some fox hunting as well.

It's good to have some plans in place to try and make sure this doesn't happen again. But it doesn't stop me feeling sad..... It's amazing how attached we can become to our animals isn't it?

Just Cos I Wanna.....

2007-10-10T11:24:00.000+09:30

I coloured my hair this morning just cos I wanna..... :-) I picked up a packet of hair colour for $1 on the Coles bargain shelf last week. It's one of those that wash out in 6-8 washes. Loooooonnnnnnggggg time since I've used one of those. In fact, it took me back to my teenage years when it was about all I could afford in the way of hair colour on my $3 a week allowance. LOL. And they were more than $1 even back then!

As I was standing in the bathroom adding chemical goop (yeah must research more natural forms of colouring) to my hair, I was thinking about the contrast between me as a teenager and me as a mother. As a teenager it seems to be quite "normal" to do things simply because we "wanna". As a mother it's easy to go to the other extreme and not do ANYTHING simply cos we "wanna".

So, is it okay to do things simply because you feel like it. Or is that considered selfish? I guess I was of the opinion that it was selfish. Not consciously. I just thought it was the right thing to put myself last. WRONG!!! In putting myself last, I ended up in a state that made me of no use to anyone.

It comes down to a matter of balance doesn't it? We can't really all go back to our teenage years of all fun and no responsibility (not that I was ever *really* one of those). But does that really mean we can't have ANY fun? Nah!!!! I just forgot how for a little while.

So I'm feeling really proud of myself today for doing something that really had no purpose and took up time that I really *could* have spent doing something else. Instead I chose to do something "just cos I wanna". :-)

I've decided it's time to relive my adolescence (is that called a mid life crisis? lol). Not all of it, just the fun bits. After all, my definition of maturity even back then was "knowing when it's appropriate to be immature". :-) We don't have enough FUN anymore. It's time to have FUN!!!!! Are ya with me?????

How Well Do You Know Me?

2007-10-09T13:17:00.000+09:30

Alrighty, time for a little bit of fun. Here's a little quiz about me. I'll make it multiple choice so it's not toooooo hard. At least you'll have a 25% chance of getting it right! Write your answers down somewhere (or pop them in my comments section if you want to stay accountable).

1. How many children do I have?

a)3
b)4
c)2
d)1

2. Which state of Australia do I live in?

a)Victoria
b)New South Wales
c)South Australia
d)Western Australia

3. I was born in

a)1973
b)1974
c)1975
d)1976

4. How many $ per week do I spend on groceries?

a)$100
b)$120
c)$150
d)$180

5. My favourite part of the school day was

a)recess
b)lunch
c)end of the day
d)maths

6. My favourite chocolate is

a) white
b) milk
c) dark
d) all of the above

7. My favourite TV show is

a)Australian Idol
b)All Saints
c)It Takes Two
d)Home and Away

8. I moved out of home when I was:

a)18
b)20
c)17
d)22

9. I prefer my egg yolks to be

a)hard
b)runny
c)somewhere in between
d)I hate eggs

10. When I get excited I

a)laugh too loud
b)bounce up and down
c)dance
d)cry

Let's make this even more exciting. I will give a prize to the person (or persons) who gets the highest score. There is a catch though - you have to put your answers into the comments section in order to be eligible for the prize (just the letters will be fine). Gotta keep you honest! LOL.

What's the prize? Dunno yet. LOL. Answers will be posted around 5pm Sunday so that gives everyone a few days to get their answers posted. :-) Have fun!!!!

Electricity Challenge - Update 5

2007-10-08T16:40:00.000+09:30

Well, more interesting results with our power usage this week.

Our average daily usage was 11.27kWh, down from 16.27kWh last week.

Hot water average daily usage was 1.97kWh, down from 3.3kWh the week before.

BUT, it wasn't as low as I thought it might have been. Not that I had a figure in my head but I just expected a more dramatic drop than that with us being away for 5/7 days this week.

I did a bit of a rough calculation and subtracted 2 days at last weeks average daily usage then divided the remaining figure by 5. My theory being that this should give me a rough idea of what our household uses when nobody is home. Did you follow all that? LOL.

So, from my figurings, we used around 9.27kWh per day (give or take) when we weren't here. I didn't expect it to be quite that high.

One of these days I'll remember to take a reading before we leave so I can get a more accurate figure of what electricity is used when no-one is home.

DH did point out to me this morning that he has an small old fridge running in the shed which would use some extra power over and above "normal" household use. It holds his vaccines and vitamins etc for the sheep. So not all of our usage is household.

I have found some shower timers online. There's a store called neco that have lots of great things for saving power, water and generally helping out the environment. If you want to check them out there is a link in my sidebar. In the interests of full disclosure, I don't get paid for you to click that link. They do give me 5% of anything you might spend there though (if you click through that link). If you'd rather they didn't, that's fine. I just figured since I wanted to mention them anyway, I'd put in an affiliate link to make them easier to find. Any money is a bonus and not what I want this blog to be about.

They also have an interesting kit called "clear comfort insulation" where you create a similar effect over your windows to double glazing and therefore reduce the transfer of heat and cold through the glass. I just need to get DH to have a look at how they're installed as you need to create a gap between the glass and this film. It would be fantastic though - I'd love to add it to the kids bedroom windows. I'm sure it would keep their rooms warmer in the winter - especially at night.

My biggest problem at the moment is what I want to buy first. LOL. Sounds very "un simple living" doesn't it? But I do love the fact that many of their products pay for themselves over time in reduced running cost. Plus of course, the benefits to our environment.

So another week down. Four weeks to go in this challenge.

Did I tell you that my 9 year old wants to use any money saved to buy a Playstation 2? LOL. I think he figures that's a much better use of the money than wasting it on electricity we don't even need to be using! At least he's also decided that a Playstation 2 is better value for money than a Playstation 3! :-)

I Wanna Pretty Blog :-(

2007-10-08T13:14:00.000+09:30

If you've been trying to read my blog today - who knows what you might have had come up on your screen. Sorry if my playing around caused an inconvenience for anyone.

I found the most perfect blog layout for me but alas, it is written for the old blogger and while I can get it to load - I can't work out how to use my blog (adding stuff etc)!!! Boo, hoo!!! Then I found one that was okay (better than plain) and written in the new style - but I was having trouble with that one too!

So, I'm back to a plain, boring blog. :-( But I was tired of pink so I hope you don't mind the change in template - even if it is from boring to boring. LOL.

I will post the next update for the electricity challenge before the day is out - but right now I'd better go and do something other than stare at a computer screen!

HTML and Exploding Braincells

2007-10-07T16:56:00.000+09:30

Alright, now she's done it. She's gone completely stark raving mad!!!! She's even talking about herself in the 3rd person. It must be bad! Aaaarrrrrhhhhhhh......

Perhaps I should begin by making a teeny, tiny confession. I HATE COMPUTERS!!!! Always have and maybe always will. Why? They make me feel like an incompetent idiot. I've always thought they were stupid - but apparently computers can't actually BE stupid, only their operators can!

In fact, I hate computers so much that I was VERY proud of myself when I managed to go all the way through high school without having to do a single computing lesson. Okay, it did have a little to do with switching states and schools and all sorts of reasons. But the end result was that I didn't have to suffer through computer classes at school. I'm old enough that computers in primary schools were a rare commodity but young enough that pretty much all of my peers did at least 6-12 months of computing classes.

Okay, there was 1 lesson at school where I did have to use the dreaded machines. Have you ever noticed how common it is for mathematics teachers to also teach computing? *sigh* If there is one thing I hated MORE than computing - it was maths. I didn't have a lot of hope of avoiding that through high school though! In fact, I seem to remember spending too many lunch-times doing maths as well. *SIGH*. So, my year 9 maths teacher thought he'd be really tricky and teach us maths on the computers!!!! Yeah, that made maths so much more appealling - NOT! Thankfully it lasted the whole of 1 lesson. Phew!

Yes, I know. Computers do have their usefulness. Yes, I'm using one right now. Yes, I wouldn't have made so many wonderful online friends if it weren't for computers. You would have to say my computer and I have settled into a somewhat comfortable love-hate truce. I love to use it but hate it when I can't figure HOW. LOL.

When DH and I bought our first computer, the salesperson assured us that they are completely "idiot proof" and that we couldn't really do anything to our computer to *wreck* it. He was WRONG!!!! Okay, maybe you can reformat it or whatever it is they do but you can certainly lose a lot of STUFF by pushing the wrong buttons. Yeah, I need to do more backing up. Not that he was the *best* of people to give advice about computers - when ours needed fixing it turned out I had more idea of the problem than he did (even though it took him 2 weeks before he'd agree with me). There was a scratch on our disk - see, not everything about computers is *technical*.

Now, where was I heading with this post? That's right. HTML. It does stand for something but I've already forgotten what. LOL. Not that it really matters. All I know is it's some kind of language you can make use of when blogging. Alright, I couldn't stand not remembering so I went back to the post I was reading and it stands for HyperText Markup Language. Yeah, it's all so much clearer to me now! NOT!!! LOL. Well, at least I got the language bit right.

It's all the blogs fault really. At first I was satisfied with actually figuring out how to start a blog. I figured if I could work out how to post what I wanted to say - I'd be happy. WRONG. That kept me satisfied for a while. Then I wanted to add photo's and links etc etc etc.

Now why can't I just be happy with that? Nice and simple right? Fits well with my simple living journey. But NO.... now I want to learn how to use HTML.

And yes, I do blame Snoskred and yes, you can all applaud now (I hope) cos I just typed in my own HTML code (or whatever you call it) to do that link. :-)

I read some of Snoskred's posts about blogging and think "wow, could I do that?" LOL. Recently she did a wonderful post about basic HTML. You can find that post here . Ooh, I just found out that you have to get your "<" around the right way or the link thingy does NOT work. LOL. Or it works but you just get a highlighted full-stop or something that doesn't look quite right. :-)

Well, I think I have just completed my very first HTML lesson. And my brain didn't actually explode. Well no more than usual anyway. :-)

Now - can anyone help me with a simple way to shift my blog page from 2 columns to 3 columns? I've heard it's just a simple matter of changing some HTML. HA!!! That might be simple if you *speak* HTML. But I'm not quite that fluent yet. LOL.

If you notice some strange goings on with my blog in the near future - you'll know I'm going crazy trying to figure out new weird and wonderful things with my newly emerging language. LOL.

Just need to try one more thing.

If you don't have a clue what I was doing - just trying out the way to centre/center text. :-) Yah me! I can do 2 things now. As long as I don't lose the piece of paper that I wrote down Snoskred's instructions on. Of course, that's one of the reasons I had to put the link to her post on here - so I can find it again!

Lot's more to learn but that's enough for today. :-)

You Make Me Smile! :-)

2007-10-07T14:42:00.000+09:30

You all make me smile! So I'm not sure why I'm the one receiving a "you make me smile" award. :-) Nevertheless, here it is:

Thanks very much Kelley for passing this award on to me. You girl, make me smile (and laugh) a LOT!!!! :-) Sorry it' s taken me a while to post this!

I was thinking today about the whole world of blogging and the amazing way in which friendships form through sharing on blogs. It made me wonder what prompted me to blog in the first place. I had to go and read my own first post in order to find out! LOL.

Here's a couple of excerpts from my first post :

"I never thought I'd be one to begin a blog - and yet here I am. (It might take me a while to get used to this whole process so please bear with me.) I have been reading other people's blogs and finding it so wonderful to share in a small part of their journey in life...

...Laughter is such a gift - I think it does us all good to be able to laugh at ourselves. No one can know everything after all...

...I think we could all do with a little more "light" in our day at times. A smile from a stranger. An encouraging word. A hug from someone we love. Life can weigh us down some days can't it? How easy is it to get so busy in the day to day tasks of life, that we forget to live it and enjoy it as we go? Barely holding it together ourselves, let along having the time or energy to reach out and improve someone else's day.

Each day I want to ask myself. What can I do today to shine a little "light" into someone else's life? "

I really want to give this award to everyone who has ever commented on my blog. You all make me smile. Thank you so much for taking the time to do so. So if you've ever left a comment and would like to post this award on your own blog - please feel free to do so. I know this is kind of "cheating" but at the same time, my readers are truly those who make me smile.

I will mention one specific blog as she's fairly new to blogging and I'd love to direct some traffic her way. The way she views the world and expresses it makes me smile.

http://dancingwithfrogs.blogspot.com/

So, if you have time. Please go and visit Lisa and leave her a little comment. I think she's due back from her trip soon and I'm sure she'd be very excited to come home to lots of wonderful comments. After all, we bloggers live for our comments, don't we? :-)

I hope you all have a reason to smile today!

BOO!

2007-10-06T16:05:00.000+09:30

Just popping by to give you all a little wave!!!!

This past week has been frantic with the older 2 kids having private swimming lessons.

And I've been doing lots of "bits" of shopping. Lots of bits is often much more dangerous than 1 big shop. It's amazing how those little "bits" can add up! So, some time in the next few days I'll have to do some work on the finances and find out if I've done much damage. Shouldn't be too bad - it was mostly needs based, like underwear and shoes and boring stuff like that (don't frown Kelley - boys shoes are definitely boring! LOL).

Can't wait to read our electricity meter on Monday - with 5 days away, it should be a GREAT reading. LOLOL. I guess that doesn't really count though does it?

I can see the next few days will be spent conquering Mt Washmore, Drymore, Foldmore and Ironmore. *sigh* Can you tell laundry is my least favourite task? :-)

My Op Shop Finds!

2007-10-01T17:06:00.001+09:30

Alright, as promised, here are some pictures of my latest op shop finds.

A pair of capri pants and a pair of shorts for DD. Both a tiny bit big but she'll grow. :-)

A short sleeve top and a 3/4 sleeve top for me.

A jumper for DS

Some books for DS - a couple I need to read first to check if I think he's old enough for them yet.

Some gardening magazines for me. They're in excellent condition. I bought the ones relevant to the next few months. Don't want to get too far ahead of myself. :-)

This last one is my favourite. A pattern book for knitting dolls clothes. And some yarn!!!! :-) I'm going to try my hand at making DD some clothes for her dolls. Last year she asked for dolls clothes and I couldn't believe how expensive they were - more expensive than the dolls in most cases!!! Might provide a bit of a challenge to my knitting skills. Only I don't have the right size needles so will need to keep my eye out for some of those. Or I might just try using the size I have and seeing if it works out okay (I'm guessing it might make the garment slightly bigger - is that right?).

I have no idea what the yarn is (acrylic, wool, mixed or whatever) or what ply it is. But since I'm planning on using it for dolls clothes, I'm figuring it won't matter too much. At the very least, I get to have a cheap play. :-)

Quite a satisfying days shopping for a grand total of $5.50!!! :-)

Electricity Challenge - Update 4

2007-10-01T07:51:00.000+09:30

Well, this is really our first "normal" week since we began our electricity challenge. We had one week where we were all away for a couple of days, one week where my parents were here and one week where DH and I were ill and the kids were away a couple of days.

So, how did we go this week without all the changes to our "normal" routine?

Our average daily usage for general power was 16.27kWh (down from 18.45 in our test week).

Hot water average daily usage was 3.3kWh (down from 3.8 in our test week).

So we're heading in the right direction. :-) Ooh, we did have some shearing this week so the farm used a little bit more power than a "regular" week - I don't imagine it used a lot of power, but would have used some.

On Saturday DH did some switching around of light bulbs. He found 2 energy saver ones in the cupboard (gee, they're really doing a good job in there lol) and he's put lower wattage ones in some of the lamps that won't take energy saver ones. Go DH!!!! :-)

I haven't had a chance to do any more auditing of our electricity usage this week but I will get back to that eventually. I'm finding it quite an interesting process.

There'll be quite a few days in the next fortnight where we won't be home but I will keep recording our usage regardless. More to keep us all in the right frame of mind than anything (I had to turn both the kids bedroom lights off this morning when I got up :-( ).

September Groceries

2007-09-30T16:44:00.000+09:30

I was trying to work out how many days this month had this morning over breakfast and couldn't remember if we were coming to the end of August or September. LOL. Maybe this year is passing a little too quickly for me. :-)

I know I'm no longer focusing on my grocery challenge but I wanted to blog about my grocery spending this month anyway. It has turned out to be quite an interesting month.

I was a little alarmed when I got about half way through the month and discovered that I had already spent nearly $300. I figured finishing my challenge was going to result in a reasonable blow-out in our grocery spending.

Well, I have just added up my total grocery spending for the month and it comes to $364.90!!!!! I think that might actually be my lowest total so far this year. So, go figure??????

What happened was that I did a bit of a stock up early in the month when I had an opportunity to (including $50 of fruit and veg). For the last 2 weeks I have only needed to do much smaller shops.

That total also includes $10 that I spent on Tim Tams for the teachers at my kids school (a little thank you for their efforts putting together the school festival recently).

So there you go! An unexpected yet welcome outcome. Perhaps I have made new habits when it comes to what we buy at the grocery store. I will continue to track my grocery spending (as I do all my spending) and see what happens in the upcoming months. It will be interesting to see.

Thank God It's Friday

2007-09-28T14:59:00.000+09:30

Well, it's been a HUGE week for me. So much has happened and I've now been out 3 days in a row!!! Which is some kind of mega record for me. Today's outing wasn't planned but DH needed to go to the town my favourite op shop is in so how could I not jump in for the ride? :-) I will post on my bargain finds in the next couple of days (hopefully).

It's funny to think that not that long ago (well about 18 months or so) I'd think nothing of running here there and everywhere all week. I must admit I'm quite getting used to and enjoying a slower pace of life where I actually STAY HOME a bit more. :-) The challenge as my health improves is to find the right balance and not get caught up in the busy-ness of life too much. Our lifestyles these days are anything *but* simple a lot of the time.

The school bus has just pulled up at the front gate which means that School Holidays have officially begun. :-) I will be in and out a bit over the next 2 weeks so my blogging may get a little sporadic. Please bear with me and I assure you I will get back to regular blogging in a fortnight's time.

I do need to post about the "you make me smile" award that Kelley has passed on to me (thanks Kelley - I'm getting there) and I want to post about my op shop finds. So I will be blogging over the next fortnight - it's just not likely to be every day. :-)

If you're bored in the meantime, you might like to browse through my archives. :-)

The End of Procrastination?

2007-09-27T13:07:00.000+09:30

Some of you will have already seen this quote but I HAD to put it up here anyway as I LOVE it!!!! It was put up on the Simple Savings forum a couple of days ago.

"Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. You may find that you like it and then you can do it again tomorrow".

Do you like that? It certainly made me smile. The only problem I'm having is that I've cleaned the toilets before and if I didn't like it then, why would I like it now? I do like playing on facebook though - so does this mean if I do that today and again tomorrow, I'm no longer a procrastinator? LOL.

Okay, perhaps this won't bring an end to my tendency to procrastinate. A friend of mine once said to me "Jodi, you're the Queen of Procrastination you know!" :-) I don't think he meant it as a compliment either but I figure it's better to be the queen of something than the queen of nothing right? LOL.

Yes, you may bow if you like. But I do prefer chocolates and flowers!!!!! :-)

The Dreaded "P" Word

2007-09-26T09:32:00.000+09:30

Some of you might be thinking the dreaded "P" word is "perfection". Especially if you're a good little flybaby (um...I was going to say like me but it's actually "unlike" me lol - I'm not a *good* flybaby). Nope, not this time. This time the dreaded "P" word is PAST!

Hmmm.....well, like or not, we all have one (a past that is). I'm 33 (and a bit) years old so I have 33 (and a bit) years of a past. Actually, according to some schools of thought, I have more than 33 (and a bit) years of past - if you include my time in utero. I guess it doesn't matter how many years of it there are, the fact of the matter is that we all have a PAST.

Well, this has been quite an interesting week for me in more ways than one. I brought some of my past crashing into my present. That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, in one instance, it's been quite a fun thing - sharing memories and prompting one another's memories. I won't give too much away about that one just yet.... but stay tuned. ;-)

Some other parts of my past that have cropped up in my life have brought up some very painful memories. Things that I *thought* had been sufficiently dealt with and left behind. WRONG! They had simply been stuffed deep inside of me, deep enough that I could pretend they didn't exist. Not deep enough that they weren't still affecting my life in some way (albeit subconsciously).

Somewhere along the line of my childhood, I became rather good at burying my feelings deep inside of me. It was a surprise for me to learn that about myself. You see, I always thought I was a fairly open person. What I didn't realise was that that was a facade. A facade that even had me fooled for many years. And under that carefully placed facade was a miriad of pain buried so deeply that I thought I'd successfully made it go away. I was wrong. All I had succeeded in doing was putting off the inevitable for another day.

I've mentioned before the fact that I had a nervous breakdown in May 2006. Physically it was the result of struggling with post natal depression for a couple of years. I was emotionally bankrupt. What was unexpected about this was I no longer had the emotional strength to keep all that stuff buried deep inside of me. Who knew that all these years I have been wasting valuable emotional energy holding all of this rubbish deep down inside me and trying to pretend it didn't exist?

In actual fact, this whole year has been a journey of me attempting to deal with those buried emotions and hurts. And it's been sheer hard slog. Not a lot of fun at all. Most of the time I desperately wish I could wave a magic wand and it would simply disappear. That my past wouldn't even exist.

Not only does it NOT work like that, it's important that it DOESN'T work like that. We can't erase the past anymore than we can pretend it doesn't exist. Whether we like it or not, it has played a part in *who* we are today.

BUT, we do have a choice about how our past affects who we are. Hard times suck. Hurts are hurtful. Let's face it, human beings have a great capacity to hurt one another. There is only 1 person I know who ever walked this earth that will never let you down and that is Jesus Christ. He was perfect then and he's perfect now. Every other member of the human race faces a huge struggle with imperfection. And as a result of that imperfection we are going to hurt one another and let each other down from time to time.

I have 2 internal struggles with this being a fact. The first is that I have very high expectations on myself. I am a perfectionist. I would very much love to be perfect (oooh, there's the other "p" word). And I tend to be very hard on myself when I don't live up to my own expectations. I'm particularly hard on myself if I let someone else down or cause them hurt. I find forgiving myself extremely hard to do.

The second internal struggle is that I have very high expectations of others. I rely on them not to let me down or hurt me. And when that happens, I find it very difficult to deal with. BUT, I don't tend to blame it on that person. I blame it on myself - that there is some part of me lacking that has caused that person to hurt me. Neither of these options are great. The fact of the matter is that most times when this happens, it's just a part of the imperfections of life. People change, people move on, people make mistakes..... Like it or not, it happens.

I have discovered something about myself this week as I've been reflecting on things. I am the kind of person who doesn't let go very easily. When something or someone means a lot to me, they mean a lot to me for LIFE. I'm not sure that all personalities are the same with this. I think some people move on from their past much more easily than others. Or perhaps some people have a greater tendency to simply forget things than others. A good memory is not always a blessing.

You know what? I'm not really all that sure where I'm heading with this post. LOL. I guess I want to point out the fact that like it or not, we all have a past and we can run all we like, but the past runs with us. Because it is inside of us and it is a part of us. But even if parts of our past (big or small) are bad, it doesn't mean that the bad has to stay with us.

You know the saying "that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger"? It's so true. I'm not saying I plan on putting myself out there to get deliberately hurt. But if we can make our way through hard times and hurts, we can use those experiences to grow in wisdom and understanding of our own humanity. I do want to point out that there is a difference between strength and bitterness. Strength brings with it an ability to see things from a new perspective. Bitterness will eat you up from the inside out and leave you with a hollow shell of a person.

I do think there is a balance that needs to be found. To some extent we need to move forward from our past. It isn't healthy to continue to live in a time that is now gone. It's also not healthy to deny the things that have happened in our past. If you feel like there are hurts in your past that need to be dealt with, I would encourage to find someone to walk this path with you. I have a wonderful counsellor who is helping me work through issues. I think without her I would be in danger of drowning in my own grief and pain some days.

Interestingly enough, I have heard the term depression to be described as being deeply repressed emotion. Since I have been diagnosed with having clinical depression, I have been amazed at the number of people out there who struggle with a similar condition. While I'm not for a second trying to play down the physical causes of depression, I can't help but wonder how many of those who struggle with it have a past that has been shoved so far down inside of them they can hardly acknowledge it existed.

I think I need to finish this post by pointing out the fact that I am in no way an expert when it comes to all things emotional and psychological. Our minds and emotions are very complex things. And each one of us is different. My hope in sharing some of my own journey is that it might encourage others out there who are struggling, to work on coming to terms with their own past and their own imperfections. Out of this acceptance I believe comes true love. Love of ourselves which in turn gives us freedom to love others more completely.

Sending you all ((((HUGS)))) just cos I feel like it. :-)

Jodi

In the Shearing Shed

2007-09-25T12:54:00.000+09:30

Well I spent the morning in the shearing shed this morning. The above photo isn't actually our shed but gives you an idea. DH wanted to take a photo of me with a fleece for the blog but I vehemently declined. :-) It wasn't our main shearing, just a half a day he and a neighbour were doing so I was just helping skirt fleeces (pull all the yukky bits off from around the edges) and sweep the board.

You'd think having been a farmer's wife for over 11 years now, that being in the shearing shed wouldn't be all that unusual for me. But it is. I'm definitely NOT a "boots and all" farmer's wife. As my DH puts it, I'm not a "farmer's wife", I'm simply married to a farmer. I'm still pretty "citified" when it comes to all things "farm". :-) I do usually cook for the shearer's but I don't work in the shed.

Of course, my DH has a very good reason for insisting that I'm not a "farmer's wife". The very first time we met, in general conversation, I happened to mention to him that I had no intention of ever becoming a farmer's wife. The very thought horrified me. Not that I really had an understanding of farming life as it is today. Other than the distances between houses and a lack of traffic, our lifestyle doesn't vary that much from anyone else's.

I have to admit, I quite enjoyed it. It did help that the guys threw their own fleeces onto the table for me. Otherwise I might not be able to even type this blog post right now. I'd need to build a lot more upper arm strength to be able to throw fleece after fleece. It's interesting though. You have to pick it up by certain parts in order to get a decent throw (I did attempt one) and have everything spread out on the table where you need it.

I think there is definitely something "simple living" about skirting a fleece. There's something about working closely with natural fibres that appeals to me. I really enjoyed the pace (which admittedly was slower than it would have been with our regular shearers). And I was able to just let my mind wander as I pulled apart pieces of wool and sorted it into different sections of the shed. Plus I've given my hands a very natural moisturising treatment. :-)

So I learnt something new today. And I think I'll add it to my "101 things I thought I'd never do" list. Perhaps I should post that list so I can keep a track of where I'm up to. LOL.

Electricity Challenge - Update 3

2007-09-24T08:54:00.000+09:30

Woo Hoo! We had a better week this week.

Here's a quick summary of our average daily usage over the past 4 weeks:

Wk1 18.45
Wk2 15.68
Wk3 19.01
Wk4 14.45

I am SO excited!!!! Can't wait until the kids get home and see this! I slept in a bit this morning (which was much needed) so the reading wasn't done before they left for school.

To be honest, I was expecting it to be a little lower this week. There were a few days when the kids weren't home due to DH and I both being sick. I didn't do any baking and there were a few less meals cooked.

Then again, there were other factors due to us being ill that could have affected things in the opposite direction. Like DH being home more than usual and the TV running more. We *could* have resorted to using the dryer with all the washing we had but didn't.

So, all in all, I'm just feeling darn proud of our efforts! :-)

I got up this morning to no-one being home (DH and DS out checking sheep) and as I walked through the house there was only 1 light I needed to turn off!!!! That is a minor miracle because usually there are half a dozen. LOL.

Hot Water usage is also looking good:

Wk1 3.8
Wk2 2.6
Wk3 3.4
Wk4 2.1

I intend to continue on with my "electricity audit" this week. It'll be interesting to see what else I can learn about our electricity usage. :-)

My First Knitted Afghan

2007-09-23T15:05:00.000+09:30

Well here it is - my first afghan, knitted using one of my circle looms. Boy, I sure have a better appreciation of the investment of time placed in hand-made items now. I lost count of the number of hours it took me to knit this. And a loom is the fast way of producing a knitted item. I hate to think how long it would take me to knit using needles. :-) But I had a LOT of fun doing it so the time doesn't really count does it?

How do you knit an afghan on a circle loom? Well this one is done in 5 separate strips which are then sewn together. I've done it in Crows colours for my little Crows fan.

I love the pattern that using 2 strands of the same coloured yarn produces on the loom. All I used was the basic e-wrap stitch (well that's about the only stitch I know how to do so far lol).

It seems to be a hit with my 9 year old. Usually you can't go wrong with anything in his football teams colours. Now my 3 year old wants me to make him one. Only I don't have enough yarn left to do that. Maybe I'll do something for him after summer (ready for next winter).

If anyone wants to try making one of these and needs further instructions, just let me know.

There Was an Old Woman....

2007-09-22T18:49:00.000+09:30

...who lived in a shoe (that bit isn't me). She had so many children she didn't know what to do. That's how I feel some days. LOL.

Now according to our local hospital records, I have given birth 3 times (as long as they don't mix up my records with the other person in the district that has the same name as me lol). Yet some days it feels like many, many more.

Well, today the lounge floor looked like I had many many more children. Literally!

Look at all those babies!!! :-) One of them even cries. My youngest two had a great time playing together today. They made a HUGE mess but at least the "feralness" seemed to settle down a bit after a rough start to the day.

Oh yeah, the "Old Woman" bit isn't me either. LOL. At least I hope not! :-)

This afternoon they were playing "hairdressers". I cut both the boys hair this week so it would seem "haircutting" is a bit of a theme at the moment. I was a bit concerned about this game but they assured me that it was only pretend and they wouldn't really cut hair. They used a red castanet (2 round circles joined at one point that clack together as a percussion instrument) as the clippers which I thought was quite inventive of them. :-)

Stress

2007-09-22T09:51:00.001+09:30

So far today I'm having a tough one. Going out still takes a lot out of me and I went out last night to the kids school festival. I actually coped really well being out. Then I had a night full of nightmares. They seem to come when I've used up my emotional energy by being out.

This morning the kids are feral after being all sugared up last night (and before breakfast this morning - oops). I'm hiding in the office but it's not working - they keep finding me!

My 9 year old just stuck his head in the door and I almost lost it so he left again. Only to return a minute ago and quietly hand me a soft red ball (I think he may have won it last night). It's a stress ball. It made me laugh and he said "see, it's working already".

Now I'm crying. Cos I honestly don't know what I did to deserve a kid like that. :-)