It’s been a year since I wrote my first entry. I can’t say it’s been an easy year at times, but it is satisfying getting to the end knowing that we are in a better state than we were a year ago. It’s not just financially that we are slowly getting better – having specific goals and plans means you can recognize when you are achieving your goals which in turn motivates you to keep continuing with challenges everywhere in your life. Wandering along aimlessly can be de-motivating and living beyond your means can cause huge problems that affect everything you do. Going into next year I’m not thinking about resolutions because I’m unhappy with what I achieved in 2009, I’m thinking about resolutions that will build on what I’ve personally achieved this year. I think that’s a pretty good place to be and is probably a first for me!
Parsley, Peas and Vinegar
Last Friday night was lamb roast at my mums. To say thanks we bought round a pot of parsley and some home grown pea pods – wow my life has really changed over the last year. Mum mentioned that she had been telling one of her friends about our use of white vinegar spray and her friend wanted to know what quantities to use. I smiled because I pretty much use trial and error with mine and don’t really get people who don’t just do the same but I went and looked up my guru book that I wrote about a few weeks ago – Reader’s Digest “Extraordinary uses for ordinary things” (2007). Their ‘recipe’ is 2 parts water, 1 part white vinegar and a few drops of washing up liquid. This is pretty much the quantities I use as well although I just throw it all in from sight. Our newest white vinegar use is in the rinse cycle of the dishwasher – leaves our glasses absolutely sparkling. Not sure what it will do long term to the dishwasher – will be able to tell you in a few years time!
Top Hats
Growing up birthdays in our household always involved the making of top hats. I have extended this to Christmas also and made the first Christmas batch a few nights ago for hubby. They are very easy to make with young children also.
Ingredients needed: Chocolate buttons (or a block of chocolate), marshmallows, pebbles, tiny little round paper cases.
Melt the chocolate (only need about half a pack of chocolate melts if you have a packet of Pascall’s marshmallows). Place about a teaspoon full of melted chocolate in a paper case – should be about half full. Place a marshmallow in the middle of the chocolate. Do this for all the paper cases. Then take a pebble and pop it on top of the marshmallow, attaching it with a little spot of chocolate. Place in the fridge to harden.
Traditionally we always made these with milk chocolate but hubby has been nagging me to make them with white chocolate so I gave it a try the other night. Definitely only to be tried if you have an incredibly sweet tooth!!
The cat who lost his meow
We noticed last week that our male cat had stopped talking. We have a black moggy who is incredibly vocal – when he comes in the cat door every one has to know he is there. In the middle of the night if he catches a mouse and we don’t get up to acknowledge his gift he is quite capable of yelling loud enough to wake the whole neighbourhood. After five days with no voice we decided we had no choice but to take him to the vet. Sixty eight dollars later we returned home not really much wiser as to the cause but with some drugs that we are going to give a try. Seemingly cats can also get allergies with increased pollen and it can lead to asthma so we will need to keep an eye on him. It is almost cheaper these days to go to the doctor than the vet – I don’t think my doctor knows much about cats though! So the cats have blown their cat budget this month – hubby and I have been working our way through the remnants of the freezer the last few days to make up for it a little. If you are thinking about getting pets this Christmas don’t forget to sit down and seriously budget the cost – separating our cats out with their own category in our finances has shown us that over the last 3 months our two cats are costing us $92 a month. For us that’s more than made up for by their affection but it is still a considerable enough cost that needs to be accounted for when you are working out your budget.
Inspiring Weekend Reading
I don’t usually read the property section of the Dominion Post as I’ve found it easier over the last few years not to look at house prices while they’ve dropped. However this weekend there was a double half page coloured spread about a young refugee couple from Myanmar who have turned the barren land of their housing NZ property into an amazing vegetable plot while sewing their own clothes and upholstering their own furniture. The article was a great reminder of what can be done when you have to and have limited finances. It made me realise that hubby and I still have a way to go in terms of reducing our spending even though we have come a long way this year. If you’re interested in finding out in being a refugee helper here is the link Volunteering with Refugee Services – Refugee Services
Another monthly challenge
The december challenge is to see if our household can refrain from buying any Christmas gift wrapping or Christmas cards this year. One family group is getting their gifts in a Santa sack and we will then reuse the sack each year to house their gifts. I received the sack as part of a present a few years ago and have never really found a use for it until now. Other family groups are getting reused wrapping paper from last year that was carefully flattened and put in our gift box. Some are (hopefully) getting gift bags that I’m going to make next week out of some left over wallpaper remnants. Small presents are going to be wrapped in lovely calendar pages that we’ve kept over the years given to us as gifts originally). Some of the Christmas cards we are using I recycled after Christmas last year, others are from the Christmas box – my collection of left over cards from card sets over the years. Will keep you posted on how it goes on the big day!
Novice Gardening Diary
Driving home today we passed an elderly couple at the end of the street, husband and wife were out gardening at the front of their property. It made me a little jealous as in my household I am the only one who gardens. I bought some more lettuce seedlings at the weekend – hubby was curious as to why when we already had lettuce plants? I had to explain to him how plants work and if you don’t keep planting them you run out! Hubby lives by the philosophy that he doesn’t do gardening but he has been happy to eat our lettuces especially in his favourite weekend treat of BLTs. My other lettuces that I am growing from seed in my toilet rolls are mostly an experiment – I don’t have too much hope that first time around I will actually get them through to full grown lettuces. It was an exciting weekend with my peas finally forming pods – shouldn’t be too long now before I can start eating them. My poor tomatoes are flowering but not sure how they will turn out in the long run as last week there was hardly a drop of sunshine to be seen and tomatoes need about eight hours a day. You win some, you lose some when you garden – it definitely isn’t a perfect science but it’s quite satisfying trying.
Christmas Survival
I find around Christmas time that the ‘I want’ feeling becomes even stronger. At the moment we are trying hard to keep away from shops unless we have a specific purpose for going. I have made a list of possible gift ideas for the various people in our lives with a max price. It has made shopping a lot easier as the rule is no matter what we see we can’t buy it unless it is under the max price we have set. When we go to a shop we go with our list just as we do with grocery shopping so we don’t get tempted. It’s not a perfect system but it is keeping our gift spending down and I’m hoping that it will mean we will get through December without blowing our budget and ruining all our great efforts this year. It is also reducing the shopping stress which is a bonus. I’ve been reading Phil Strong’s “Becoming Money Wise” book this week – his website is Achieve More With Your Income! | Wisemoney Foundation . One of the ideas in it from Jackie Gower I’ve been using the last few months. To keep impulse shopping under check whenever you see something you want don’t buy it – put it on your wish list. Then wait 24 hours and look at the list again. By then sanity will probably have set in and you can cross it off the list without buying it! The things that are still on the list keep them on there until there is a sale. My extra advice is also remember that there will always be another sale after that sale (unless the shop is closing down of course). I’ve been hanging out for a tallboy in our bedroom for the last year. The one I want has come up for sale at least 4 times in that time. Every time I see the sale I am so tempted but I just keep reminding myself of how many hours I would have to work to buy the tallboy and that helps me keep it on my wish list. In the meantime I just dream for free……….
Book of the Month
My favourite library book this month would have to be Reader’s Digest ‘Extraordinary uses for ordinary things’ (2007). It has 2209 ideas in it – the vinegar section which is presently my favourite section is 26 pages long! We already use white vinegar as our main house cleaner – spray and wipe, window cleaner, floor cleaner, toilet cleaner, bathroom cleaner, dishwasher rinse aid, stains on carpet, oven cleaner, stain remover …….. so I was interested in things that we don’t use it for. These are a couple of my favourites .
- Keep frost from forming on your car window when parked outside by spraying the outside of the window with 3 parts white vinegar to 1 part water. One coating should last for a couple of weeks. Won’t be able to test this one for a few months now.
- Pour 4 tablespoons of white vinegar into your bottle of washing up liquid and shake. Helps with fighting grease so therefore will need less. I tried this today on some incredibly dirty/greasy roasting pans (after having put most of the grease in the rubbish bin as you are meant to) and it was much more effective than just plain washing liquid.
- Splash white vinegar under your arms and let dry as an antiperspirant. I tried this one today – it worked pretty well. Still in it’s testing stages though!!
- Add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to cat/dog drinking water – will give your animal a healthier coat and deter fleas. I’m not sure about this one but won’t do them any harm to try?
This is definitely a great book if you are looking for interesting ideas for saving money or reusing things. Well worth a read.
Wonder Pots
I usually use whatever old plastic pots I can find around my garage for planting. My parsley has been happy growing away in an ice-cream container for the past few months. However having a newly renovated house with lovely new carpet I was a bit nervous about house plants in terms of water accidents and water stains. A few months ago I found these great plastic pots at the Warehouse – the pot has no holes in the bottom of the container. Instead they have a section at the bottom where the water can drain to and sit and then a small plastic bung in a hole on the side to let out excess water. They are great as you can water your plants in rooms like the lounge without any spillage worries. I don’t really use the bung much as I leave the water for the plants to use through their roots. The containers are a nice design and come in three colours – neutral, green and brown with a few different sizes. They are made in Malaysia which isn’t great for carbon miles but I imagine I will keep these pots for life as they have been so invaluable. The size below are the small ones and retail for $6.99 but every now and then you can get them on sale. I’m going to pot one of these up for one of my gardening relatives for their Christmas gift.
