Give Away Coming Soon - 2 Eco Mags

I have reached over 60 followers - wowie!!! I never imagined anyone would want to read my ramblings about my frugal eco life.

I blog as it keeps me somewhat on track as I am the most chaotic person I know.. but full of good intentions and good ideas. Plus I love reading about other peoples journey. I get so much from everyones experiences that they blog or comment about.

Anyway.... I will put up a little Giveaway Post of 2 eco mags sometime in the next 2 days. They have been gently read by me and now need to go to someone else who will enjoy them. All I will ask is for your Eco-Frugal Tip and Dolly will pull a random number out for the winner. So put your thinking cap on and come back soon to enter my little giveaway if you are interested in Eco - Sustainability issues.

Laundry Cut Backs!

My power bill has been creeping up and I've made conscious efforts to get it down again. One effort we have made is:

• Cutting Back on washing clothing from 7 loads to 3 a week.

Cutting back on washing clothing was a longish process. I've been brought up wearing something only once and then washing it. So to break this unsustainable cycle, we started to wear weekend clothes over 2 days and nightwear 5 to 7 days (I'm not talking about underwear here-that is daily). Between the Rambling Expat, Dolly and myself I found that just cutting back on the weekend and nightwear clothing saved us 1 load of laundry. So I extended this to work wear. The Rambling Expat and I try to wear trousers and tops/shirts 2 times a week (we work in air-conditioned offices). This has saved another load.

For the other 2 loads it's been a simple cut back on washing towels and clothes left on the floor/bed. We hang them up to air after our showers (sometimes in the sun). And we make a bigger effort to not put something on for a minute and throwing it down in a rush as this usually just ends up in the laundry pile.

Tackling the Expense of Dirty Laundry.

Being the messy chaotic people we are, this all takes great effort and the establishing of new good habit over bad habits. Our wash days now looks more like this:

• Saturday: Coloured clothing & 2 towels.
• Saturday: Black clothing and 1 black towel.
• Sunday: White clothing, light coloured business shirts and bed sheets.

I may throw in a 4th load which consists of one or more of these items: soft toys, dolls, shower curtain, canvas shoes, floor mats or picnic blankets. But as I do laundry consciously now, anything of 4 loads no longer applies in our house. I'm saving my sanity, precious time, money and planet by eliminating the waste that I was contributing to. However when the humid and hot wet season commences again my loads may go back up from 3 to 5.

Are your bills increasing too? Are you making any conscious decisions in your life to cut back on costs and damage to the environment?

Weekly Grocery Shopping

My weekly shop was way over my $100 budget by $37.51!! Ouch... but this is mainly due to purchasing 2 large boxes of cat food and 2 blocks of cheese for $40. Both items had a great special and even thought I don't need them for another week or two, they were worth getting ahead of time as they are saving me $15 in the long run.

This is $137.51; it doesn't look like much food once out of the bags.

I took time out to write my menu plan for the week. It's such a worthwhile exercise. When I don't write one because I'm time poor, I end up wasting time and feeling even more disorganised then before. It only takes me 30 minutes and it's a pleasant way to spend time (daydreaming about food).

These are the planned dinners this week for 2 adults and one 4 yr old child. And always enough for guests.

• Sunday: Quiche Lorraine (plus an one extra to take to work for morning tea).
• Monday: Spaghetti Bolognese.
• Tuesday: Left over Bolognese mince sauce with vegetables.
• Wednesday: A beef stroganoff type dish with veggies and spinach from the garden.
• Thursday: Baked potatoes with cheese, sour cream, grated carrot, spinach and ham.
• Friday: Left overs (gotta keep it out of landfill and save those pennies for the future).
• Saturday: Baked fish (The Rambling Expat caught) with steamed vegetables.

I'll use the tin of tuna and one loaf of bread for my lunches. There's plenty of left over fruit from last week for my daily fruit at the office.

How about you? Saving those pennies? Is menu planning on your To Do list?

Chaotic Mess Reigns In Our Home

I've always been a very messy person. My mum is a super tidy freak. She has clutter but it all has it's place and the floor is always spotless. I however am a drop and go type of gal. Drop it in the closest place and go go go... onto something more fun, exciting or important. But due to this I waste time looking for important documents, letters, keys, glasses and on and on goes the daily searching for stuff.

In the past 3 months I made a small change. I designated a new place for my keys, wallet and glasses. And I have found I stuck by this place about 80% of the time making a huge difference in my life. Immensely reducing my stress levels in the morning dash.

In the past week I have tried much harder then usual to not drop and dash. Eliminating any further mess and have also tried to concentrate on clearing up one tiny area each day. I feel I am making a little headway but the problem is nothing lasts with me. My bad habits are hard to overcome. However if my very bad spending habits have been eliminated over the past 4 years then maybe there is hope for me yet, to become the organised person I would love to be.

This is my chaotic lounge room today.

Disaster

I hope to have an after shot latter in the week of a much nicer looking room. But in the past I have tidied it all up to just make a mess again within 2 weeks. Why am I like this... I'm just too frustrating for words!!!! I wouldn't want to live with me, so how can my family cope?

The spare room is worst. The bedroom looks like a cyclone hit it. The kitchen has been a work in progress in the past 2 weeks and starting to resemble a kitchen. The hallway has a pile of children's books that the shelves can not house (time to declutter kids books).

Anyway due to my disorganised clutter I missed a very important annual Bodycorp meeting, where we make financial, maintenance and improvement decisions regarding the building. Only 1 person turned up out of the 6 units. To me that shows slackness in general, but on my part by not turning up I am not looking after my family's asset or maximising the potential of increasing our asset's value. That is wasteful and definitely not frugal. Aaaarghhhh.

How are you with your most important assets? Increasing their value with good care and maintenance?

Frightening

I'm feeling Guilty for not having blogged in over 12 days. I've been busy doing lots of different bits and pieces. I also fell off the bandwagon as I didn't menu plan last week or buy my lunches for the week, instead I went to the supermarket day by day. Feeling very frustrated with myself as I was disorganised and chaotic. And as I have said many times, disorganisation means wasteful tendencies. And so, I wasted, but it wasn't over the top.

Anyway to get back into the spirit of blogging I thought I would share one of the lovely activities I completed with Dolly at our bottom garden plot on the weekend.

Taddah!!! A gorgeous scarecrow girl. Not very frightening, but very entertaining.

Ready to Twirl and Dance.

I decided to create her with Dolly when my neighbour Mr T told me he had purchased new pillows and thrown out his old ones. So dumpster diving he went and we gave his pillows a second chance to shine. We looked around our home for items we could use to make our girl and found everything within 5 minutes. Old tights, 80's dress from dress up pile, old fishing hat, gloves that have been collecting dust (we live in the tropics) and an ugly purple thermal top that I wore in France January 2011 to keep from freezing. We filled it all with pillow stuffing and viola! Created a lovely girl to entertain the crowds and the birds.

Within 2 hours, I saw 3 visitors to the Botanical Gardens shoot photo's of the scarecrow with us and without us. So I was really feeling the 5 minutes of fame and glory :-)

Birthday Gift For The Teacher

Dolly's teacher had a birthday last week. Being the frugal Eco gals we are, we didn't want to buy a gift that would just be more landfill rubbish, clutter or cheap.

Dolly decided she wanted to give a homemade gift of Honey Cinnamon Butter that we saw on the Internet. During our op shop stints we searched for the perfect vessel and spreader, found our goodies for $2, took them home, gave them a soak in boiling water and a super duper scrub.

Dolly spent the last of her energy making her delightful spread with butter, honey, cinnamon and sugar. Once done she carefully spooned the spread into her little op shop pot and placed the cute tea cup spreading knife on top.

And voila her lovely gift to her super wonderful Teacher. Inexpensive in money, but luxuriously made with love.

Yummy

and as a Greenie bonus she also gave a bag of goodies she harvested from our Botanical Gardens plot.

Spinach, eggplant and ginger from the garden.

And our neighbour Mt T, received some leftovers which he ate quickly as it is so delicious.

Mr T - Loves good food.

Dolly is off to her 1st school mate birthday party tomorrow. I am having a mini stress about the gift... Not everyone are open to recycled, upcyclced - preloved gifts. And I don't want to make Dolly turn into the Wacky One.. So I may have to break my personal consumer rebellion commitment to myself of nothing new.

What do you do about gifts???? Feel free to comment, lots...  I love your comments.

Too Young For Promises! Entertaining Myself.

I love reading Blogs and watching You Tube. Just like a teen - I know, I know.

Anyway when this teen left a comment, so I went and visited her Blog and read about school socials, clothes and homework. She left me feeling lots of nostalgic moments for my teen years in the 80's. And with those nostalgic moments came the want to see some old music clips I would watch late at night on Rage after parties or nightclubbing.

This song and clip by Koo De Tah was one of my favourites that I loved listening to when those lovely boys got a bit too demanding on me and I needed to get some of my girl power back. Plus, I used to wear one diamante dangly earring just like her and feel gorgeous. Those were the days!



Any others out there miss some 80's moments? Anyone remember this song? Probably only Aussies and New Zealanders..

Hey this is about frugality... I'm entertaining myself on the cheap and getting teenage butterflies thinking about, Back in the Day :-)

Carbon Tax Discussion with Ross Garnaut

Two nights ago my mum babysat Dolly for a couple of hours so that The Rambling Expat and I could attend a Public Lecture on Global Warming and the Carbon Tax in Australia by academic, economist and policy advisor Ross Garnaut.

I was very lucky that a colleague at work sent me the details for the free public lecture as I had not heard about it (Thanks Jeff). Not reading the local newspaper and not watching television can put me out of the loop at times. The event was free and booked out quickly so I was thrilled to get 2 seats.

Thanks to the Rambling Expat who was less shy than me to take a photo up close.

The Carbon Tax is being heavily debated in Australia and I feel ignorant. If I feel something is important and I should know about it, I like to push myself to learn. This way I am better informed and able to decide what is best for me, my family, my country and my planet. So off to the lecture we went and so far I'm for the Carbon Tax in Australia.

In my limited knowledge and expertise I do feel that the large companies will rant and rave and make some noise as to not loose money by paying the tax, however they will pay and continue to create waste and carbon emissions at the same level or higher as they always have. I feel the tax will not stop them as they are rich and getting richer by the minute. However in my mind this is a good place to start and other initiatives and innovations will be created by those who feel hope for the future. And I dearly hope that inventions will be made so our finite resources stop being exploited at the level they have been, in the global race for more and more. I am deeply worried my Dolly will not have the luck I had to live on a beautiful planet. She will have to clean up our mess and live in uncertain times.

The lecture was at times difficult for me to focus on and understand. However I feel if I attend things like this I can only increase my knowledge bit by bit until I have a better comprehension and that, is a very good thing. Ignorance is bliss but knowledge is power. And I prefer to hold the power of my life and its choices.

You can read The Garnaut Climate Change Review Final Report by clicking here.

Do you push yourself to attend talks where you might learn something new and expand you knowledge? There are so many mind expanding talks available for free all over the world.

Do you have an opinion on Carbon Taxes in Australia or elsewhere?

Just had to share BENTO !

In a few weeks I will need to prepare a healthy snack box for Dolly's school morning tea. Some of these are just so cute. Wouldn't it be fab to have the time and skills to do this for your loved ones lunch boxes everyday!

Officemade Lunch Cheaper then Takeaway

Here's another week of groovy lunches in the office tea room with view on the sea.

Left overs from last week pulled out of the fridge.

Left overs good to eat.

New purchases I made in my Monday lunch break for $13.70.

Sweet, savoury and fruity too.

The lot grouped together makes fulfilling lunches with special treats to prevent those junk food purchases that I always crave and cave in to.

Satisfying food. A bit of healthy and a bit of junk.

And voila, my daily lunches this week will look somewhat like this for the tiny sum of $2.74 per day (I may need to buy one .60 bread roll on Friday).

$2.74!!!! That's a Bargain.

It's not hard to eat this way now that I have fallen into a habit and I'm enjoying the personal challenge.

• I search the specials and mark downs. 
• I compare ingredients (today I found the cheaper Coles brand juice has the same ingredients as the Just Juice brand juice). 
• It only takes me 20 minutes of my 60 minute lunch break to shop and pay once a week for my lunch ingredients. 
• Making my lunches with everything on hand only takes me 5 minutes (I have discovered not spreading butter is a great time saver).
• Stocking everything at work saves me from my forgetfulness.

I'm saving a pretty penny with this new way of doing my lunches. Previously I often forgot my lunch box at home quite and resorted to buying a quick fix lunch out of frustration. Doing all these little money saving life changes means saving for an earlier retirement and enjoying my life by spending on things that count to me such as paying off our mortgage extra early, travel, education and Dolly.

I forgot my shopping bags at home this time!! But... Drum roll please... I took my own pre-used plastic bag from my desk that once held a computer. Yeah!!!!

How are you going so far with your lunches this week? Are you avoiding takeout or falling prey? Do you have a love relationship with all things chocolate like me?

So Much to Chat About!!!

Thanks for all you wonderful comments about the Sustainable Living Festival and the dehydrator. I'm still buzzing from the excitement of it all and my weekend continued to be a hive of activity and will continue to be busy for the rest of this week.

Yesterday Dolly and I had another fun day at the Happy Yess Market. The market is growing into a very friendly atmosphere of hanging and chatting. People spend the day lying around in the grass making new friends. The Happy Yess Moles created a dress up area for young and old alike. Dolly had a fabulous time dressing in a feather boa and thick furry russia type hat in the tropical heat. She also did some hoola hooping with a skilled woman and painting with a environmental activists. My Dolly is a non stop chatterbox and I am so grateful the adults at the market accept her energy, encourage her creativity, play and chat with her.

Profit wise I made $73.50 (after taking out $26 stock, $14 stall and $8 lunch) selling my lovely goodies. Once again nothing to quit my job over but it's just so much fun hunting down gorgeous stuff and having a stall with it. It's like playing shop when your a kid. Anyway... $70 has gone into our Borneo Trip jar (to place into my online high interest account) and $3.50 into my jar for the garden plot. I also sold a 1950's crystal glass necklace for $30 that I purchased in a antique shop 6yrs ago for $30. So I popped that straight into my purse and did not count it in my sales.

Australian notes made of plastic - perfect for the beach.

Dolly made $7.50, selling ice cups, toys and a pair of outgrown shoes. Which I will help her divide into her 3 money jars;

• Saving long term for her future (home deposit?)
• Saving medium term for something special (Horse?)
• Money for spending (books, toys, frills and lollies)

Another four longggggg weeks until the next Happy Yess market. BooHoo. I'm thinking of maybe trying to squeeze another market stall in elsewhere as the weather is perfect and marketeering is so much fun. I'll need to spend another $25 on new stock. What FUN.. I still have plenty of stock left too. I only sold the Mazi skirt so far from last weeks stock.

Did any of you get stuff up on Ebay, Community Notice Boards, Gumtree, Graigslist, LETS, Swap, Barter or even Freecycle this week?

Sustainable Living Festival

What a jammed packed full day of fun and happiness!

We went to the Sustainable Living Festival in the Darwin Botanical Gardens. My family didn't have to pay (saving us $12) as we did a spot of gardening 1st and then made our way down to see all the exhibitions. After that we headed to the Community Garden Area to volunteer at the fundraiser.

I made frozen ice cups to contribute but had a problem with freezing, so I only took 12 out of the 40 that I had made. But we sold 10 which better then nothing. The others brought amazing cakes, biscuit and muffins and they all sold out very quickly bringing in a little over $200 which is so cool and the money will be used on something the group needs.

Final touches on another cake.

The Rambling Expat, Dolly and I, ate lunch at the Environment Centre Fundraising stall. Veggie burgers served on sustainable compostable bamboo plates and plant based BioCups.

Already half eaten veggie burger.

At the exhibitions we saw this amazing sustainable homemade dehydrator. The dehydrator uses sunshine to dry fruits and veggies. It's made of a wooden frame, wire racks and thick plastic walls. The front area is to place rocks which speeds up the dehydrating process by drawing in extra heat from the sun. The legs of the frame sit in containers of water to deter ants and the plastic prevents insects flying in. There is a opening in the back to allow air flow.

Super eco frugal. Once built no electricity is needed to dehydrate all your produce. I was very excited by the dehydrator so may try to make one this year with the Community Food Garden Group. Here are a couple of pics to inspire you too :-)

No Electricity Needed

Back of dehydrator

Some of our Community Garden members asked Costa for some gardening advice. I don't watch TV so had never seen him before or knew who he was, until a week ago. But I've since heard that what Jamie Oliver did for cooking and healthy eating, Costa did for gardening and sustainable living. Click here to watch some of his episodes.

Anyway... He was easy to talk to, passionate and has lots of knowledge that he loves to share. Plus he loved our little cake stall and spent some dollars so that's a gold star in my books.

Costa checking out plants that just aren't like they should.

Free Celebrity Advice

Being part of the Community Food Garden has been one of the best things in my life lately. I'm so inspired by my fellow gardeners and so happy to have found like minded people. It's a huge relief to discover I am not so different after all. And attending the Sustainable Living Festival is the cherry on top. Lots of things to see and learn and lots of people to bounce ideas off. 

Please comment. I love to hear what you have to say... What about the dehydrator - something you might think of building?

Overspent Again on Op Shopping

I purchased some items for my Happy Yess market stall coming up this Sunday. My budget was $25 but I spent $36 for the market stall and $10 on myself.

This is what I purchased for the market:

6 books at 50 cents each - $3
1 vogue magazine Oct 2010 - $1
Leather Colorado handbag - $6
Mazi skirt with vintage look flowers $6 (new skirts go for $59 to $89)
Brand new with tags, Joe and Paul Sister, silk top $8 (Retailed $240!)
Baby ring sling $4 (These retail for $25 to $35)
Pretty white cotton lace dress $5
Watch $3 (May have been an silly purchase as it needs a battery and I don't know if I can change it myself)

For me:
Edith Piaf 2 CD box set $6
Gorgeous book on paper crafts $4

2nd Hand Goodies.

As I was taking this photograph someone saw the Colorado handbag and bought it. I didn't want to make a profit from her but she insisted on giving me $10. A $4 profit that paid off the baby ring sling. I'm now down to $26 purchased for the market which is on Sunday. Therefor only $1 over budget... Yay :-)

As for the "me" purchases, once I've enjoyed the book and tried making some of the crafts I will sell it on at the market. The Edith Piaf CD may also go if I already have all the songs.

With secondhand shops selling such great items, I find there really isn't any reason to purchase items new. And if I was slim I would have fun dressing up in beautiful dresses everyday for a pittance.

What a crazy society we have become discarding items so readily. Do you buy new or are you green and frugal opting to only purchase others discarded lovelies?

Passion Fruit, Capsicum and Corn

I spent most of my $39.50 Happy Yess Concert Market Stall profits on garden items.

I spent $37.25 and this is what I purchased:

• 1 Passionfruit plant.
• 1 Green Capsicum plant.
• 2 Corn plants
• 1 Chocolate Mint Plant. (Dolly asked it it would grow chocolates - I wish...)
• 1 sturdy plastic garden digging tool for Dolly.
• 4 Bamboo stakes.

Chocolate Mint - It really does smell like chocolate mint, chocolate bars!

I'm so thrilled to have bought these without digging into my savings. If all goes well these items will bring us delicious food to the table without the hundreds of kilometres to get here. Plus I have $2.25 left over which is going into our Borneo Holiday Fund.

Can't wait to plant this one and reap the fruits.

Tonight we ate Baramundi that the Rambling Expat caught last weekend with raw Ceylon Spinach from my garden plot. Our food miles were low, the food healthy and it didn't hurt our purse strings. This make me happy after our monthly takeaway dinner last night, over packed in paper and plastic.

This weekend is the NT Sustainable Living Festival at the Botanical Gardens. I'm spending some time volunteering on a cake stall to fundraise for the Botanical Gardens Community Food Garden which is where my plot lives. It should be fun and I hope will also prevent me from having to purchase a $6 ticket to the festival.

What has made you happy lately?

Frugal But Not Eco, Luxury Lunch at Work

This week I spent $18.05 on 5 workday lunches.

I even purchased "luxury" items for my lunch such as the biscuits, orange juice, spiced cucumbers and savoury broad bean snacks as I have been feeling in need of a perk. In the aim preventing myself from craving and buying takeaway and junk food at hiked up prices.

I purchased a French Stick, Pears, Tomatoes, Carrots, Meat Spread, Broad Beans Snack, Biscuits, Spiced Cucumbers and a container of Juice. I had 2 left over kiwi fruits from the previous week, so they were also included.

My lunches this week cost $3.61 each. Much more frugal then takeaway even with all my additional goodies. However this is definitely not a eco lunch as everything here is imported to my region and has travelled many kilometres to get here. Plus there is nothing eco about manufactured meats, biscuits in plastic wrap and processed juice. It's hard to create a guilt free meal when trying to be kind to my environment and juggle the demands of full time work, a child and the many activities I am part of.

I may run out of bread and need to purchase a lone roll on Friday. One bread roll costs 60 cents so will still stay within my aim of lunch for under $20.

I forgot my re-useable bags at my desk once again!!! I had to accept a plastic bag as I had too much to carry and my handbag wasn't large enough to hold many groceries. I hold my head in shame. I will try harder next time to be the organised person I wish to be.

Being organised and prepared allows my brain to be more reflective, wise and eco. Are you eco and wise?

Stephanie @ Frugal Down Under.