Lightening Online

Things that mysteriously made their way in to my trolley uninvited this week:

2 x Double Choc Tim Tams

1 x 10pk Bulla Splits

1 x 8pk Bulla Double Choc Ice Creams

1 whole pineapple (at least that’s 1 healthy “extra”)

In my defense, they were all on special!!!

Grocery spend for the week: $57.30

Amount now in grocery “kitty”: $157.40

I was going to wait until the end of the year to transfer my accumulated savings into my BHAG account but I think I might empty it at the end of this month (or maybe most of it) and start again. I don’t really like carrying too much cash around with me.

Menu Plan For This Week:

Monday - Homemade Pasties with potato wedges and vegetables

Tuesday - Chicken Pieces (haven’t decided exactly how I’ll cook them yet)

Wednesday - Fried Rice

Thursday - Roast Lamb in the Slow Cooker

Friday - Hamburgers

Saturday - Quiche

Sunday - Leftover quiche

Shopping List so far:

bread

milk

fruit & veg

margarine

We’ve been without power for almost 24 hours. Again!!! What a pain!

Anyway, on with todays post, albeit belatedly.

Here is my first weeks update on my BHAG progress:

1. Emailcash Cheque - $30.00

2. Interest on some long term savings we have (hadn’t been allocated anywhere else so I decided to “claim” it). Thanks Kin for the suggestion. - $239.68

3. Since I was so limited in what I could do today without power, I decided to clean out the top drawer of my bedside cupboard. It accumulates all kinds of bits and pieces plus coins etc that get swept into the drawer when I’m cleaning the top of the drawers. Found $100 in notes I’d shoved in there for one reason or another (and can no longer remember why) as well as some coins that have been added to my tin. Counting the $100 in the tally at the moment but not the coins as they’ll get counted all together later in the piece. - $100.00

Total $369.68

Not too bad for the first week! 

Image via WikipediaI have $130 in my newly labelled “Grocery Money” snap lock bag. The Challenge? To see how much of that I can hold onto between now and next Monday.

Including today, there are 9 Mondays left this year. That gives me $1170 in Grocery Money in total. I wonder how much of that I can hold on to? Quarter? Half? None? LOL. Better NOT be none!!!!

Bear in mind I have not been tracking my grocery spending over the past few months so I have NO idea how far $130 will go, even with my pantry/freezer challenge.

The Plan?

1. Menu Plan (see below)

2. Avoid Specials Brochures that encourage me to buy stuff we don’t really need anyway

3. Shop with a list and STICK to it

4. Don’t let DH loose in the supermarket!

5. Blog it to keep me accountable.

This Week’s Menu Plan

Monday - Spaghetti Bolognese (already in slow cooker)

Tuesday - Tuna Patties (have 12 tins of tuna I bought at $1 each to use up)

Wednesday - Tacos (makes use of the leftover spag bol sauce)

Thursday - Chicken Patties (no idea how I’ll make these yet - have chicken mince, will experiment)

Friday - Homemade Pizza

Saturday - Chops and Vegies (chops in the slow cooker with french onion soup mix)

Sunday - Pasties

Shopping List

lettuce

tomato

bread

milk

fruit

Already have: meat, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, frozen veg, pasta, cheese, taco shells, pastry, swedes

Image via WikipediaThis is one of those Big Hairy Audacious Goals (hereafter referred to as BHAG) like Suzie Cheel has talked about in the past.

After our discussions about our Big Trip budget, I’ve decided it would be mighty handy if I could come up with a bonus $5000 to contribute to the costs of the trip.

Kind of an “overflow” amount that can be used for things we don’t feel fit into our regular budget. Or if the projected budget doesn’t quite “make it” in spots.

Why $5000?

It seemed like a nice round figure and the rest of our budget is broken into $5000 amounts so it just seemed to make sense. It does feel like a reasonably “high” goal (ie. One I don’t expect to meet easily).

Setting things high inspires me to “reach for the stars” and put that little bit of extra effort into reaching for it.

That’s the theory anyway. That’s also why I’m classing it as a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal”.

How Do I Plan On Achieving This?

That’s a very good question. Here are some of my vague thoughts so far:

1. Sponsorship. In particular, selling advertising on 3 Kids And A Caravan. It’s still a small site in terms of traffic and search engine rankings so I need to work on this before I can expect any kind of sponsorship deals. I have another idea along sponsorship lines but not sure if it will pan out.
2. Writing articles for magazines. So far I have found one travel magazine that accepts (and pays for) reader submissions. Although I may not have too many articles I could write BEFORE we go away.
3. Putting $1 coins and $5 notes aside now ready for the trip ($1 coins for laundry and $5 notes for the kids weekly spending money). I’ll count this and add to the tally when it’s almost time to leave.
4. Using cash for our grocery shopping and spending as little as possible while I work on using up what we have on hand. Any surplus amounts can go toward this total.
5. Being frugal in general with our money between now and 31st January - anything left over can go toward the end tally. Last year we managed to live through January without any drawings (ie on surplus money in account from the rest of the year). If I can do this again, we’ll have $2000 (January Drawings) to put into the tally. Our spending has gone up considerably this year so I’m not sure if we’ll have much of a surplus but we’ll see. Even half would be a reasonably contribution to the overall tally.
6. Sell something. Ebay? Or make something to sell? No idea what.
7. Make better use of survey sites like emailcash and cash in on other reward points (eg flybuys, visa rewards). Small amounts but in my past experience, small amounts can add up if you have enough of them.

If you have any other suggestions, I’m all ears. I know many of you are mega creative when it comes to stuff like this so let me know if you think of something I can do/sell/create etc to help toward my final goal.

Time Frame

We’re hoping to leave in early July so I’m setting myself the deadline of June 30th 2009. That gives me 8 months to work on this goal.

Tracking My Progress

I will be blogging my progress but would also like to include some kind of widget in my sidebar so people can see my progress at a glance at any time. Unfortunately, all I’ve managed to find so far is a ticker bar, which works okay in my posts but won’t fit in my sidebar. If you know of any widgets that would work well in a sidebar, please let me know.

In the meantime, here is my lovely “treasure chest” ticker with my gold coin set firmly on zero. Hopefully not for too long.

Image via WikipediaA little while back when grocery prices started rising rapidly, I did the only sensible thing I could think of. I stopped tracking how much I was spending. I started to pay less attention to how much I was spending. Denial can be quite an effective coping tool. At least in the short term.

One problem with no longer tracking our grocery spending has been the amount of food accumulating in this house.

I have a chronic problem when it comes to food. I buy TOO MUCH. I hoard food. I think perhaps it has something to do with living so far away from shops. Or perhaps it’s just a sickness I have.

Last year’s “can I get the grocery spending under $100 a week on average” challenge was great for keeping my hoarding tendencies under control.

The good news about the cupboards, fridge and freezer overflowing with food is that our overall bill has obviously not increased quite as much as it would seem (not that I know exactly how much given I’ve been in denial for some months now).

The bad news is that the cupboards, fridge and freezer ARE overflowing and we’re going to see some food wastage going on here if I don’t do something soon.

If there is one thing I HATE, it’s throwing money into the rubbish bin (via spoilt food).

The chaos my overflowing cupboards are causing was highlighted the other day when I was berating myself for forgetting to buy icing mixture when I’d been shopping. I wanted to make lemon slice for morning tea on Sunday and knew I had used up the last of the icing mixture the week before and had planned to buy more when in town during the week.

Given the state of chaos my cupboard is currently in (a combination of too much shopping and a husband who shoves things in the closest spot rather than where it came from), I figured it was worth a little bit of a hunt in the back of the cupboard just in case a packet was lurking back there.

To my delight, I managed to find an unopened packet and the lemon slice was again on the menu.

Now for the confession part.

I actually found not 1, not 2 but 4 packets of icing mixture lurking back there. ROFLOL. I don’t think we’re going to run out in a hurry.

All of this to say…

It’s time for a PANTRY CHALLENGE!!!!

And a fridge and freezer challenge.

What is a pantry challenge?

Basically you buy as little as possible while focusing on using what food you already have on hand.

I made a great start today by spending $300 at the supermarket (*blush*). And yes, I’m having trouble finding places to put things.

So, I guess the challenge is starting tomorrow!!!

The great part of this challenge is it should help me with another challenge I’m about to start (which I’ll fill you in on soon).

So, who’s with me? Anyone else in need of a pantry/freezer challenge?

P.S. Ironically, I posted a post similar to this less than 2 months ago:

I’m No Mother Hubbard

*sigh* Wonder if I’ll get on top of it this time around?

From time to time I’ve made mention of the Simple Savings website. I’ve been a paid member there for some time now. In fact, it’s the ONLY paid website I am a member of. For the most part, I prefer FREE when it comes to the internet (don’t we all??? ).

What made me decide to TRY the paid section of Simple Savings?

They have an unconditional “money back” offer.

I figured I had nothing to lose and plenty to gain by giving it a go.

I gave myself 3 months to find enough ideas to save back the money I had spent or I would claim their “money back” offer.

It took me less than a week.

Now I renew without hesitation each year (it’s much cheaper to renew than the initial cost of joining).

I don’t even spend as much time there anymore (I used to be there every day but my time seems to be taken up elsewhere these days).

But it doesn’t take many new ideas or recipes for me to recoup the yearly membership fee.

Why am I telling you all this now?

Simple Savings is having a SALE!

Until 8pm 16th September 2008, you can join up for $33 instead of $47. A saving of $14!!!!

Since we all like to save, I figured I’d let you know about it.

If you’ve been umm-ing and ahhh-ing about joining, now might be a good time to give it a try.

If you’re still not sure about spending money, sign up for the free newsletter - it has lots of good value in it too.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of the Simple Savings website which means I get paid $11 for anyone who signs up via my link. While that isn’t my motivation for writing this post, I have included my affiliate link because, hey, that $11 may as well be in my pocket as their’s yeah?

Image by ciao-chow via Flickr This is a follow up post to Stop Food Waste. Make sure you read all the way through as there are some winners mentioned at the bottom of the post.

Your Ideas

Thank you to everyone who submitted their thoughts on this issue. I love reading through them all and we have quite a collection of ideas here.

Cook less, buy less, freeze food in smaller portions, mix appropriate leftovers into pet’s food (saving on pet food), buy less pre-packaged food and cook more from scratch.
Jayne

I give the girls small servings so that if they are not hungry there is little to throw out. They are welcome to seconds but must eat what they have on their plate first.
Marita

We try not to waste food in our house.. it is too expensive to waste. But I admit that sometimes I don’t plan so well, or the kids ask for food and don’t eat it…. At the moment that is what we are working on, trying to explain to the girls about wasting food and finding a balance between allowing them access to food and not having a million half eaten biscuits!
Kate

We have very little food wastage around here. For starters DH eats just about anything, so if the kids can’t finish their meal - he finishes it. I don’t actually consider peelings etc “waste”. The skins from onions and bananas etc are not meant to be eaten! (They do end up as chook food though). I also started serving smaller portions. If we are still hungry after dinner / lunch, we eat fruit or cereal or toast.
Gnometree

My Ideas

1. Compost

A few of you mention you already either compost or have composting worms (or both?). Composting is a great way to recycle food scraps back into earth rather than leaving them to rot en-masse. The resulting compost is fabulous for the garden.

One quick and easy way to compost food if you don’t have your own area for compost is to bury scraps in the garden. Jason Hodges was talking recently about how he does this in his own garden which doesn’t have enough room for a dedicated composting area.

I have to admit that we don’t really have ENOUGH scraps around here. By the time the chooks, cats and dog all get dished out scraps and leftovers, there is very little LEFT to be added to the compost. We do, however, have long term plans for making better use of our chooks as garden fertilisers. In the meantime, they are busy turning our scraps into eggs - so who am I to complain? The cats keep the mice down and the dog helps with the sheep work so they all earn their keep!!!

2. Menu Plan

This was listed highly by many of you as being THE most important way to avoid food waste. I completely agree. Menu Planning deals with food wastage BEFORE you buy the food. What you don’t require, you simply don’t buy. It also helps you to evaluate what you already have on hand and think about ways to use it up BEFORE it is too late.

3. Using Up Leftovers

We actually have very few leftovers in our home. Unless I actually plan it that way. However, here are a few of the ways we do use up leftovers:

• Fried Rice - this is a great way to use up leftover meat and vegies and stretch it into another meal. I usually cook 2-3 cups of brown rice for our family and add whatever meat/vegies I have.
• White Sauce - white sauce is a fabulous way to stretch a few leftovers. Add some cheese on top and you have a very yummy casserole for very little.
• Soup - soup is a fabulous way to use up small portions of meat, rice, vegetables and pasta. I use Passata (tomato puree) as a base for my soup and add whatever is on hand for a cheap and cheerful meal. Soup is also a great way of using up vegetables that are getting close to their “use by ” date.
• Gravy - any gravy or sauce can help stretch and revamp leftover meat and vegetables.
• Quiche - mixing a couple of eggs with a small amount of milk and any chopped up leftovers can easily turn those leftovers into a new meal.

Poll:

If you haven’t yet responded to the poll on food waste, please take a few seconds to do so (yes, if you’re reading in a feed reader or email, you will need to click through to the blog to do so). It would be great to get as many people as possible to respond to the poll and give me a good indication of the cross section of people that read this blog. It is totally anonymous.

Winners:

The following people have won themselves a copy of Notebook magazine (with a cover in my favourite colour!!!).

Cat

Bettina

Katie

These have been kindly donated as a thank you for helping them promote this very pertinent issue. If you could send me your postal details (use the contact form above or email lightening at lighteningonline dot com) and I’ll arrange to have your magazine sent out to you.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to respond. I believe we are ALL winners if we take a few steps to reducing food wastage and keeping those dollars in our pocket rather than landfill.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Managing Leftovers: Use It or Lose It
• Discouraged About Food Storage? Make a Plan
• Eating it All is Bad, Throwing it Away is Worse, What to Do?

We’ve just walked in the door from football/netball training and the smells that assailed us were absolutely divine!!!

I’ve been busy in the kitchen today.

First up, two practise batches of M&M cookies. I’m planning to make some for a fundraising opportunity coming up and wanted to decide which recipe.

I then made some pastie slice.

Then before we went out, I put some of our homegrown Jap pumpkin into the crockpot in preparation for pumpkin soup.

So the aroma’s as we came in the back door were a mixture of sweet and savoury. It was such a warm way to be welcomed home and reminded me that there are some things that money simply cannot buy.

I’m just having some of the soup now and it is DELICIOUS!!!! Even if I do say so myself. No two batches of my soup taste the same so it can be a lucky dip at times.

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I’m off tomorrow (Friday here) for a doctor’s appointment at which time I guess we’ll be making some kind of decision about my med reductions. The past couple of week’s have been a little bit rocky in terms of withdrawal symptoms (which was disappointing after what looked like a good start to this particular reduction). But things have started to improve in the past day or two so I’m feeling a little more positive than I was. Will keep you posted when I get back.

Image via WikipediaWe recently received notification from our electricity supplier that charges are about to increase. No suprises there. The cost of living is really putting the squeeze on the average household. BUT, we are not powerless (hee, hee - excuse the pun). Now more than ever is a great time to work hard on reducing our usage so that we can reduce the overall impact on such increases.

1. Build Healthy Habits

One of the biggest wastages of power is the habit of not turning things off when not in use. Cultivate the habit of turning out lights when you leave a room and turning off appliance (if you can reach the power point) when not in use.

2. Make Use of What Nature Has to Offer

In winter you want to open up the curtains (window coverings) on a sunny day and make sure you close them again BEFORE the sun goes down to trap warmth inside and not allow the night chill to enter the house through the glass.

In summer, it’s more important to keep the sun OUT during the day and open up the house at night to take advantage of the cooler night air.

3. Consider Solar Hot Water

Here in Australia we get quite a LOT of sun. Solar Hot Water systems are getting cheaper and cheaper (and there are now models available that will connect to your current hot water system). Consider not just how long it will take to recoup your costs at the CURRENT level of electricity cost but also the fact that prices WILL rise over the decade or more the system lasts.

4. Dress Appropriately

I think many of us are spoilt when it comes to temperature control. I hear stories of countries where it is normal to walk around in shorts and t-shirt in winter and just bump up the heat to accommodate. It is honestly not that HARD to wear clothing appropriate to the weather. Around here, if you’re not already wearing a jumper AND socks/slippers, there is NO complaining about being cold. The same goes for summer. Wear light-weight clothes and if you have long hair, pull it up off your neck. It’s amazing what a difference that can make.

5. Snuggle Up

Give everyone in the family a snuggle blanket for watching tv during the cold winter mornings and evenings.

6. Consider Using a Slow Cooker for Cooking Roasts

Despite taking longer to cook, the slow cooker will still cost you considerably LESS to cook a roast than the oven will. And it will taste DELICIOUS. Since starting to use the slow cooker for roasts, I’ve not returned to using the oven again. If you’re a fan of brown crispy outsides you can brown the roast before putting it into the slow cooker or finish it off in the oven.

7. Keep Things In Good Working Order

Simple tasks like cleaning the filters on vacuum cleaners, heaters & air conditioners, tumble dryers and exhaust fans will enable them to work at peak efficiency. If things get clogged up, the appliance will have to work harder to achieve the same job and therefore you’re likely to use more power, more time and lessen the life of the appliance.

8. Line Dry Clothes

This is actually a reasonably common practise in Australia, although with our lifestyle getting busier and busier it is becoming a lost art in places. Clothes dryers use quite a lot of power so hanging clothes on a line (inside or in a shed, under a verandah etc) can save quite a LOT of electricity/power over time.

9. Use Man Power

Have you noticed how we seem to have electrified everything these days. From can openers to slicers, dicers, peelers, graters and on goes the list. Once upon a time all of this work was down by HAND. Most of us (me included) have energy to burn so why not use our own instead of plugging in to some force that comes through the power point in the wall?

10. Phone Your Power Company

Give them a call and ask them if there is anyway they can suggest to reduce your bill. One quick phone call from us and we managed to secure an ongoing 5% discount. You won’t get if you don’t ask.

Over To You

Can you add 1 tip for saving on electricity/power that hasn’t already been mentioned either here or in comments already? I know there are hundreds of ways to reduce our consumption of electricity/power which is not only great for our bank balances but also for the environment.

I want to try and get back on track with our Friday discussions based around The Complete Tightwad Gazette. This week I’m looking at Home Haircutting.

I was a home haircut kid. Which actually worked out okay for me until the teenage years where had I had the benefits of a hairdresser, I might have discovered I have wavy hair a lot sooner than 18 (the first time I went to a “real” hairdresser). Given curly hair was preferred over straight hair in those days, that could have been a real advantage to me.

Farmboy is also a child of “home haircuts”. I’m not sure how he felt about that. Other than the fact that we decided as parents it wasn’t something we were going to “subject” our children to. It was also something I had no faith in myself whatsoever in terms of believing I could do it.

The one day Farmboy decided he wanted a razor cut (short all over) and bought himself a pair of clippers. I paid very little attention to what he was doing. Until he asked ME to cut it. ME? What if I stuff it up?????

Apparently it’s not all that hard to stuff up cutting hair with a set of clippers. But that didn’t stop me being incredibly nervous.

As things turned out, I didn’t stuff it up. And I discovered that I really quite ENJOYED it. Gaining confidence, I started giving Leighton (who was still pretty young at the time) a little bit of a trim up in between visits. I figured this was a good middle ground point. If I could stretch each visit out by trimming his hair myself, we could still get a well styled cut from the hairdresser (giving me lines to follow) and save ourselves some money in the process.

At around 7, Leighton decided he wanted a hairstyle like dad’s. “Short enough that I don’t have to comb it” was his comment.

One day, just before I was about to clipper his hair, I asked Leighton if he minded if I experimented on his hair. I knew that any stuff-ups would soon be removed by the clippers so I took the opportunity to see what would happen if I took scissors and a comb to his head.

It turned out okay. So the same day, I gave Trailer Boy a trim too. He was about 2 at the time and I was quite pleased with the outcome of my efforts.

Now I give each of my children the option each time they need a haircut. I’m not prepared to impose home haircuts on any of them. So far, given the choice, they’ve opted for mum to cut their hair rather than go to a hairdresser.

I do it more for the convenience than the money saving factor, although the money savings are certainly welcome. Cutting my children’s hair gives me one on one time with that child. We’ve had some great conversations while I’m cutting away. And I find it so much easier than having to ring up and make an appointment and either cart the kids in to the hairdresser or collect them from school for their appointment.

It also comes in handy when you realise the afternoon before school photo’s that your kids hair looks like a mop and it’s too late to book in for an appointment.

The Complete Tightwad Gazette has quite a bit of information on Home Haircutting, including some great instructions with pictures on pages 234-236.

In true Amy D style, lets look at some basic calculations here:

6 haircuts a year @ $15 per time = $90

8 haircuts a year @ $20 per time = $160

Not significant figures?

Let’s look at 4 family members (I’ll exclude myself for now although I do know how to cut my own hair as well. I like the “pampering” of a hairdresser visit although I am going to try my own method again soon as I haven’t been overly happy with how my current hairdresser styles my cut).

$90 x 4 = $360 per year

$160 x 4 = $640 per year

What if I had put this money aside over the past decade in preparation for our big trip next year? I would have somewhere between $3600 and $6400 to put toward our trip. Now, I haven’t been doing this for 10 years (yet) but it does go to show how a simple skill can go a long way toward making dreams come true.

We also have the benefit of the internet in terms of learning a new skill like cutting hair. Here are some links you might find interesting/helpful when it comes to cutting hair:

BASIC HAIRCUTTING & STYLING

Haircutting for Dummies

Haircutting Do It Yourself

Haircuts at Home

Home Haircuts

Search YouTube for Home Haircuts

As another interesting “aside”, as I type this post, I have a 4-year old hairstylist behind me very seriously giving me a “do”. Not with scissors thankfully!

What are your thoughts on Home Haircuts? Have you tried it? Do you think you might? Anyone cut their own hair? I hope you’ll take a moment to wade in on the discussion and share your experiences and thoughts.