I woke up about 6am again even though it is the weekend. The cats rose also and joined me. Hubby kept sleeping – this is his luxury sleep in, he has to go to work later in the day. This morning I created a new spreadsheet which now accumulates each category of spending on a yearly basis so that I can also see how our annual spending is going, not just our weekly and monthly spending. There are a few categories that seriously need to get reduced if we are to slow our spending down to cope with my resignation- will have to have ‘that chat’ with hubby when he is in a good mood. Watched the week’s round up of Business Review – how crazy is it that the Christchurch earthquake can cause so much havoc in people’s lives but will end up improving NZ’s GDP. The way we measure ‘wealth’ is seriously screwed. Spent the rest of the day cleaning with white vinegar as a few girlfriends are coming around for drinks before we go out to dinner – haven’t told them yet about resigning. (Can’t really afford to go out to dinner either!) Mother in law dropped around with some onion seedlings and fresh lemons – I traded with lettuces, my porch is absolutely covered with lettuces at the moment, all of them are ready at the same time as they all grew from self-seeding. There will have to be a lot more planting over the next few weeks to help with food. My mum has spare soil – I might take over some of my seeds and seedlings and plant them in the empty spots in her garden.
September Recipe
Every month I like to try and find a new recipe to add to my tried recipe file. This month I found a chocolate chip recipe on Chocolate Chip Biscuits – New Zealand Quick & Easy Recipe at KiwiWise. Lots of people on the site have made them and have various suggestions about altering the recipe. I reduced the amount of white sugar and chocolate chips (below is the iriginal recipe) and froze my unbaked dough in long thin rolls. It freezes really well and the biscuits still came out lovely once cooked. The cookies spread quite a bit when cooked so I made my rolls with quite a small diameter – about 2cm – I prefer lots of average sized cookies given the amount of butter and sugar that is in the recipe.
1 cup of butter (225g), 3/4 cup white sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs,2 teaspoons vanilla, 2 1/4 cups plain white flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 cups chocolate chips.
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease an oven tray.
2. Cream the butter, white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs into the mix one at a time, and then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, then stir into creamed mixture.
3. Fold in the chocolate chips. Place rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared baking tray.
4. Bake until light brown, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes and then transfer to rack to cool.
1 Day after my resignation
Even hubby bounded out of bed today – I think even he was excited about my resignation. We were all organized and on the road by 6:30am. There is something exciting at the beginning about breaking the rut you have been in. I got the official letter back today accepting my resignation – in my job I have to give eight weeks notice so it will be a while before I am officially jobless. It is now time to start pulling our belts in even more though – came home and planted more lettuce and pea seedlings. Cooked dinner with chicken left over from the night before – no takeaways for a while and smaller portions. Rang the local newspaper to put in a classified advertisement for tutoring over the next few weeks as students are starting to rev up for their exams. Hubby still felt we should stop and get a lotto ticket – I guess he feels we need it even more now! And then as a reminder of reality my visa and electricity bill was in the post when I got home.
0 Days after my resignation
Well I’ve finally done it – I handed in my resignation today. Still not sure if I’m crazy, only time will tell. My reading material the last couple of weeks has been “What Should I DO with my Life?” by Po Bronson. His book was on the New York Times No. 1 bestseller list a few years ago now. I got to the end of the book a few days ago and decided it was now or never – my job has been dragging me down for over a year. My mother almost had a heart attack when she first heard the news today but she has just rung me back this evening and has calmed down a bit! It probably is the most insane thing I have ever done given we are in an economic recession but I think I will learn a lot from this experience. I am planning to document my day to day journey over the next few months, hopefully I won’t sink into a pit of depression along the way.
Animal Welfare Amendment Bill
Most of us are horrified to read in the news stories of cruelty to animals but it is happening every day to certain farmed animals. To help protect the rights of animals NZ has the Animal Welfare Act. Unfortunately there are loopholes in the act through an exceptional circumstances provision. Through this provision practices such as sow crates and battery caged hens are allowed and are the norm in NZ. Sue Kedgley’s Animal Welfare Amendment is due to be debated on September 21st. The aim of her private members’ bill is to ensure that farming practices which breach key principles of the Animal Welfare Act are no longer allowed to continue. Countries such as Britain have banned sow crates since 1999. So many of us are proud to be New Zealanders but NZ has many shocking skeletons in our cupboards that we have no reason to be proud of. You can do something by emailing/writing a letter to your local MP or to David Carter. Animals can’t vote – they need our support.
Bob Kerridge : Buyers want end to barbaric farming methods – Environment – NZ Herald News
Meatballs and rolled oats
Our new recipe for this month was smart shopper smart shopper meatballs made by replacing breadcrumbs with rolled oats. Hubby didn’t even notice the swap so is still blissfully unaware that his wife is fiddling with his food. A bonus to the recipe is that rolled oats are great for your health Why you should eat: Oats — Healthy Food Guide — News/articles so including them in as many recipes as you can is a positive move.
700g beef mince, 1 large onion finely chopped, half a cup rolled oats, 2tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 egg, 1 tsp paprika, quarter cup tomato sauce, salt and pepper, 1 can chopped tomatoes, 1 tbsp oregano, quarter cup water.
Mix the mince with onion, rolled oats, Worcestershire sauce, egg, paprika, tomato sauce and 1 tsp salt. Heat oil in frying pan, shape mince mixture into meatballs and fry, carefully browning on all sides. Cook in batches and transfer to a casserole dish when browned.
When all the mince mixture is cooked into meatballs add the flour to the pan and cook for 30 seconds. Add the can of tomatoes, the oregano and a quarter cup of water. Season with half teaspoon salt and bring to a simmer.
Tip the sauce over the meatballs and bake in a preheated 180oC for 30 minutes.
Treasure in the garage challenge – Week 2
This second week of the challenge I resurrected three items from the garage. Item 1 – a very old TV remote control. It doesn’t belong to any of our TVs but noticing it was the same make as the TV in the bedroom I cleaned it up, found some rechargeable batteries and hey presto it worked (despite hubby’s protests that it wouldn’t). Now when hubby is watching TV while I am sleeping he can turn down the ads which are always louder than the actual programme. Item 2 – a surge protector which we had put away a few years ago into storage before the renovation. Another clean up and it is now in place in the lounge protecting our electronic devices. Item 3 – a new pair of earplugs for my MP3 player – I have absolutely no idea when I purchased these but it would easily be at least four years ago. All of this goes to show that I don’t need to go shopping to buy new things – I have more than enough items to resurrect and reuse right down the end of the corridor in the garage, my own personal shopping mall! I wonder what next week’s ‘shopping’ trip to the garage will uncover.
Butter Prices
I almost had a heart attack this morning when I went to Pak n Save. 500g of butter was $5.27 and $5.11 – Rolling Meadows and Anchor I think. Luckily Tararua was on special at $3.88 for 500g. Seemingly according to Stats NZ our butter high price was in May 2010 with the price of butter falling 5.3% in July 2010. I obviously missed the whole thing! Butter has a very long fridge life (over a year) so when it is on special I stock up. I haven’t bought butter in ages and because we shop with a list we don’t stop to look at anything else so hence my surprise. The guy next to me at the supermarket also had a heart attack so I kindly pointed out the cheaper brand while we lamented over the price of butter. Coming from an agricultural country it seems obscene to be paying this much for what we have always considered a basic household staple item.
Treasure in the garage challenge – Week 1
Browsing through old magazines last week I came across an article which talked about the Buddhist philosophy of accepting what you have to work with in life. Inspired I went out to the garage and started to look through some of our items stored out there. First thing I came across was a long forgotten answer machine which died on us a few years back just before we began to renovate. Rather than throw it out I had put it away with everything that went into storage while we rebuilt our house. An hour on Sunday tinkering saw it come back to life and we now have a ‘new’ answer machine just in time for hubby and his business taking off. It has been lovely all week to come in after work and check for messages – you get the thrill of something new by reusing an item you haven’t seen in a long time. Of course there is also the bonus that every time I see it I am reminded that I was right to keep it and hubby was wrong when he wanted to throw it out years ago! So having started so well I have decided to set my own personal challenge this month – it is to uncover the treasures that may live in our garage and resurrect them. Why don’t you do the same – it doesn’t need to be a garage – it could be a spare room, even just one drawer!
Putting in the effort to change
Walking into the laundry this morning I had to smile at how much hubby has changed over the last year. There in the rag container was an old pair of hubby’s shorts that had basically fallen apart – before heading off to work this morning he had carefully placed his dead shorts into the rag bucket for reuse. He is out working today on a Saturday – he has been working very hard to build up his client base to improve our income. Hubby has branched out to maintenance work rather than just ‘builder’ to capture more work – he even mowed a lawn for someone last week, a task that is worse in his eyes than cleaning the toilet. Last week he de-cluttered our garage so that we can now drive into the garage for the first time in two years – no more frosty morning worries plus our van will last longer housed in a garage. Hubby has become such a big convert to free-range bacon that he came home yesterday and told me that he tried to get one of his clients to change to free range! He still is a terrible spender but change in people is about small steps. Lots of people think that somewhere out there is this amazing hint/piece of information that is going to change their lives and they hungrily keep looking. I think 20% of improving your life is about knowledge and 80% is being prepared to put in the effort to use that knowledge in order to change the situation you are presently in. Hubby is starting to appreciate the importance of that effort.