Wow if you took all this pointless fury about a name (??????????????) and directed it towards slightly more important issues the consumer might actually be able to change things that would make a real difference to their lives. Who cares what name is on the label, I couldn’t tell you what is on the front of most products I buy – perhaps start pushing more for information about what is in the products you consume, not what it is called! Kraft dumps cheesy name – industries – business | Stuff.co.nz
Buying Second Hand
Every time I sit down to write my blog I am reminded of the value of second hand goods – I bought my laptop for $400 a few years back and it is still going strong, giving much pleasure. Our house is furnished with second hand furniture – dining room table, king size bed, wardrobe, bedroom mirror, hall table. Second hand clothes hang in my wardrobe. A new nephew is due to arrive in two months time – last week I picked up some lovely second hand toys for his arrival. We have never bought a first hand car in our lives. Although the last few years have definitely had an impact on my buying second hand I think that even when things ease a little I will as much as possible make it my first option over brand new. Ten things you should never buy new – Money Expert – Diana Clement – Financial Planning, Career, Investing, Economy, Property – MSN NZ. Sites such as Trade Me have made buying second hand a lot easier, a smaller site is Zillion http://www.zillion.co.nz/. You can also give away/get things for free – The Freecycle Network – about the Wellington Group is for those things that you can’t be bothered selling, but really don’t want to chuck away – I just joined up today. Come to think of it I even have second hand cats, compliments of the Cat Protection League!
Love Food Hate Waste (3)
Well our Love Food Hate Waste challenge continues this week. We are up to Day 5 past our normal grocery shopping day. Today I finished off the about to expire cream making a jelly cream whip for dessert for dinner. It was lovely, although usually I prefer the yoghurt one as it is a ‘bit’ healthier! (see below).
Berry Whip
1 pkt boysenberry jelly, 4000ml boiling water, 1 tblsp orange juice, 1 tsp finely grated orange zest, 2 x 150g cartons berry – flavoured yoghurt
Make up jelly with the boiling water and orange juice, place bowl in the refrigerator until almost set.
Add the zest and yoghurt to the jelly. Beat using an electric mixture until the mixture is frothy.
Spoon into 4 individual glasses, return to the fridge for 1-2 hours. Decorate with cream and seasonal berries.
Dinner tonight was spaghetti and bolognese with the left over put into the freezer for another meal. Tomorrow’s baking will include pikelets to use up the left over milk, with a little bit of cream to go on them! Half of them can go in the freezer for another day. Mmmm ……can’t wait for tomorrow to come.
Domestic Goddess Morning
I have a few days off from work at the moment so have the luxury of not having to race out of the house in the morning. I got a call today from a friend wanting to pop around so I had a quick look at what I could make. We are stretching our food at the moment so we are three days past our shopping day. The lemons were starting to look past their best so it was time to use them – 20 mins later a dozen Alison Holst Crunchy Lemon muffins were in the oven (some destined for the freezer) and all the spare lemons had been juiced and put into the ice cube tray so I can have lemon juice available for emergencies. Part way through mixing the muffins I realized I hadn’t cleaned the bathroom this weekend so quickly raced around with vinegar and baking soda, not a stressful job anymore as it can be sprayed on all surfaces – all ready for visitors! Rags went into the laundry- not a single paper towel used. Checked the fridge – cream, milk and mushrooms are getting close to their use by date so I grabbed a few slices of bacon, puff pastry and cheese out of the freezer – time to make some little quiches for lunch the next few days. Popped hubby’s work clothes into the washing machine to soak for a few hours in cold water to get stains out – saves on stain removal. Sat down to the computer to finalise the accounts for September and analyse our spending – looks like we’ve saved money this month again, this is slowly getting a little easier each month as changes in our lives become second nature. Think I deserve to put my feet up this afternoon after my productive morning!
Scrutinising health articles
I was sent this link yesterday from a colleague with guidance on how to read the kind of hyped up health articles that appear in newspapers with sensational headlines. Pretty basic stuff but a good reminder about the importance of scrutinising the information that we are fed through our media. http://www.bazian.com/pdfs/HowToReadANewsStory_vers03_26Nov08.pdf
Peas Please (2)
I looked out this morning and there were my peas with their heads just poking out of the soil for the first time. five tips for perfect peas : the kitchen garden. My mother – in – law, 20 mins down the road, doesn’t get our frosts so her peas are only a couple of weeks away from being able to be eaten. We also picked up a tomato plant going free this morning from the in-laws so I’ve just potted that up in another old pot I found in the garage. Next on our list for growing are lettuces as we spend a lot of money on lettuce from the supermarket and really only need a few leaves at a time with there only being two of us as the furry ones aren’t partial to vegetables. I’ve heard that rocket is easy to grow so may give that a go as well.
NZ Gardening Site
I found a nz gardening site last week – it has lots of good practical gardening information and has a forum where you can post gardening questions for others to answer. It has lots of contributions from people on the site regarding their particular garden projects http://www.mygarden.co.nz/
Yo-Yo Recycling (3)
We watched in amusement last week as our neighbours came up with the easiest way to deal with our city’s alternating recycling weeks. When their paper didn’t get picked up because it was can/plastic/glass week they simply left their recycling out all week until paper day came around once more! Now why didn’t I think of that?
They ripped me off again!
I was full of cold last week and didn’t check my grocery receipt that carefully. Looking at it this morning I realized that they had charged me twice for an item. At twice in three weeks that’s a 66% error rate – hopefully this is just a blip as I like shopping at our local Pak n Save. I’ll have to see next week if they believe me as I don’t really have any proof – how do you prove that they scanned something twice weeks later?
Peas Please
I finally planted my first lot of peas yesterday – Greenfeast. I’ve been waiting a bit as we are still getting frosts in our area – hubby has been a bit frustrated with having to de-ice the car each morning as winter has technically finished. As we still don’t have any useable land at the moment I went for planting the pea seeds in a big plastic pot I found in the garage. I’m going to grow some seedlings in toilet roll tubes as well – I can take those around to people to plant into their gardens in a few weeks time if they work out (can then also get free peas off people later). Seemingly you should sow pea seeds every month through spring to ensure a continuous supply. I woke up this morning hoping that my peas had miraculously grown overnight! I’m not the most patient of gardeners – it’s going to be a long wait………