The most wonderful time of the year

Christmas madness is upon us. I looooove Christmas. Adore it!
But due to poor planning on my husband's and my part we also have our children's birthdays in Nov and Dec. Plus my family has followed the trend so add another 4 to that between Nov and Feb.

It makes for an incredibly busy and expensive time of the year.

This year marks the first year my eldest has really been aware (and therefore into) birthday parties. 'It has to be at the riding bikes park mummy'. This was non-negotiable. Luckily the park has a community hall. Even better it only costs $10/hour to rent it. Given Auckland weather around this time of year (it's raining as I type) I wasn't keen on having 16 kids in my little house. So $40 outlay and some chips and wee people food. Entertainment will hopefully be the bikes and the park itself. If it's wet, balloons inside will hopefully suffice.
There is a barbecue, full kitchen with dishwasher and tables and chairs. Everything I need to keep it stress free.

If you are stuck for party venues I recommend looking into this option (assuming your kids are old enough that you can't get away with a small family gathering). Friends of ours were amazed at how cheaply they were able to rent the local community hall for their area. The bonus was there was a play centre attached and the play area was open for them to use. There are fantastic options that come cheaper than McDonald's or Lollipops if you do a bit of searching around your local area.

This year I don't have to host Christmas so that removes the expense of extra food. Present shopping for the kids has already been done months back during sales. This may be the last year I can do this as I suspect next year Miss 4 will have set ideas about what Santa needs to bring. Grown up pressies are proving to be a bit more of an issue. Mainly because my handy present list I used every year was stored in my old phone that got drowned by an errant cup of tea. (Moment of silence).

I've already been caught out with shopping without a list. A visit to some local shops last week resulted in a baby shower present, a birthday present and.... no Chirstmas presents :S

If you are crafty and need a bit of inspiration my new fun place to hang out is Pinterest
Instead of creating endless bookmarks of things that inspire you this allows you to 'pin' it with a picture to a virtual board. Think of it like a cork board on your computer. Lots of very crafty people share great ideas on here. Fantastic for those of you wanting to go the homemade route this Christmas.

I'm also carefully scanning the local papers for Christmas Events. Tree lightings, Carol services, markets; there's lot's of fantastic things starting to happen now.

Oh and for those of you wondering Kale does bolt. Apparently you just need to blog about it to set it off ;) But that's ok because strawberries and snow peas are already happening in our garden. Christmas and summer produce - who could ask for more?

Playing Coffee Roulette

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a coffee nut (or should that be bean?) . Like any coffee nut I'm pretty picky about the product. Especially when it costs upwards of $4 for a cup. It seems New Zealander's really aren't that fussed about good coffee - or else why are there so many terrible baristas (I use that term loosely) out there?

Now I'm no expert but if you get a sour watery coffee or one that tastes like someone has stubbed their cigarette out in it then it's no good. That's $4 of undrinkable coffee. Plus the cost of fluffies (that's steamed milk in a demitasse cup for the unitiated) for the kids.

I was lucky enough to be gifted an old coffee machine a year or so ago by friends of mine who had upgraded. It was small but it was beautiful and I loved it. It even came on holiday with me. Sadly it died this year and so I was left with the option to buy a replacement or play coffee roulette with bought stuff.

I managed to get a Baby Gaggia off TM at half the retail price of new. A very dirty, never been cleaned machine but still a good price. I did have to buy the cleaning brush, backflush disk, tamp (it came with a plastic one) and cleaning solution for it. Plus since I don't have a grinder, I have to buy coffee for it every week(To all the coffee drinkers shuddering at the thought of pre-ground; I know! I know! But I haven't been able to convince my non-coffee drinking hubby that we need a $600+ grinder -yet). Unlike my old machine she's a bit fussier and doesn't like the 'supermarket' grind. It has to be finer for my baby. So it costs $12-15/ week for the coffee but I get 7 or more cups from that.

So is it cheaper? Possibly not at the moment. Depending on how long the machine lives it may well be though. Is it better than bought stuff? Well it's better than a majority of it. I know a few places to get awesome coffee around here but only a few.

Consistent coffee every morning is worth the cost to me. Plus my cafe doesn't charge for fluffies :)

Labour Weekend

So this post is a bit late but of course Labour weekend is traditionally the time that the garden gets planted for summer. We didn't break tradition here.

The Kale are still in. I'm not really sure if/when they should come out. They haven't bolted so I have wee Kale topiaries around the boarder of my vege patch. Zucchini are in as are capsicum. I decided to try tomatoes this year - I've never had any success before but I thought we'd try a few cherry tomato plants and see how we go. I've planted a row of carrots but they have yet to germinate so I may have to redo that. Six snow pea plants are in too.

From my mum's seed stash (from last year's garden) I have planted broad beans and also rocket. That certainly lived up to its name germinating in a couple of days.

I have room set aside for more tender stem broccoli. I haven't managed to locate any yet but I am very keen to replant after last year's results.

The strawberry plants from last year have been fed and since then they've just thrived. There is already a decent sized, albiet green, fruit on one of them. The kids will be stoked!

In the herb garden I've planted parsley, basil, coriander (hoping it doesn't bolt as it isn't from seed) and a jalapeno pepper to keep the ever present mint company.

The onion and garlic are still happily growing. I'm really looking forward to the harvest. Already I can see that the onion stems are thickening. I have both white and red planted and the red stems are such a gorgeous colour near the base.

Really looking forward to this summer. It looks like it's going to be a good one.

When she got there the cupboard was bare....

Ah spring - the season I invariably get sick in. Two weeks of illness and I am out of pre-made stuff. I'm sad to admit that we had a few takeaways in the last fortnight.
So back into it today. Time to restock.

Chilli Con Carne, a staple in our house as it pads out cheap mince with kidney beans, has been made and frozen. Pizza bases are next on the to do list. With the breadmaker of course. Then if time permits some wraps and pita pockets will also be made and frozen.

I did manage some cinnamon scrolls last weekend. A couple for a lazy Sunday with the paper and a coffee (home made of course) and the rest are frozen. I freeze them before their second rise. Then it's just a matter of taking them out Sat night and leaving them on the bench to defrost and rise. Sunday morning they just go straight in the oven.

Hummus will also be quickly whipped up. It doesn't have a long shelf life but with two active kids it's a great snack with some carrot sticks. I also make a lamb pita pocket with it.

We've had a crack at home made curries over the winter using spice packs from the supermarket. You provide all ingredients and follow the recipe on the pack adding spices as instructed. It's not the cheapest of dinners but compared to bought curry it is much cheaper, plus you get more, plus it tastes as good as the best takeaway curry I've ever had (thank you Sigdi in Devonport) and you can control the fat content by adding slimmers yoghurt or lite cream. Of course it also makes a small bit of meat stretch much further.

The last few weekends in Auckland have been typical for early spring. 2 days of rain after 5 working days of sun. Not too much of an issue so far as I like to plant seedlings rather than seeds. So I have a few more weeks before the capsicum and zucchini need to go in. I should be planting out broad beans and peas now (they're already late) but that requires breaking more soil and I have not been up to that lately. I'll also plant carrots and parsnip from seeds next weekend and some kale (seedlings) and maybe some broccoli. The garlic and onions are still growing happily in their little garden. The red onions have started to get red at the base of their stalks which is very exciting :)

Christmas is fast approaching. Not sure how we're going to approach that this year. I would do home made if I was at all talented but I think a better approach is to make a list and work out a budget. Sadly my old present list was in my old phone which met its end earlier this year thanks to husband and an errant cup of tea.

Calling all gardeners

Ok so finally I ventured out to the vege garden for more than a quick harvest as the sun was setting (for dinner). It was a mess. Weeds everywhere. Snails and slugs hiding among it. Broccoli has well and truly bolted now - I managed to delay it for a while but it's really done its dash.
Beetroot looked lovely from the top side but when I pulled up the biggest one and it had a root no thicker than my thumb I pulled them all out and biffed them.

So anyone who is good at gardening - how do I get beetroot to grow? Also brussels sprouts. I managed to get about 8 bulbs off 6 plants - all the rest grew loose bushy heads that were no good.
I used a vege mix soil before I planted but I'm guessing the soil is probably the problem. I'd love some insights.

Leek and Potato soup was the winner in our house this week. Easy to make and the kids inhaled it. I added a bit of zing to the adult portions with some sliced chorizo.

There's another cold snap forecast this week and that will probably see most of our wood used. But barring a long winter it seems that the two cubic metres is sufficient. We'll definitely get more kindling with next year's order as buying it on an 'as needed' basis from the local supermarket is very pricey (plus the last lot was damp!)

Of concern this week is the possible hint at changes to ECE funding from the government. Tinkering with the 20 free hours has not been ruled out which could signal an increase in fees for a lot of parents. It will certainly impact on us as #2 child is chomping at the bit to start and will be attending from the beginning of next year.

I am a bear Grahhhhh!

The 'real' winter has finally hit and our family has been in hibernation mode. It's been so cold and wet lately that even my vege patch in the back garden has been too far to trek to. We live in suburban Auckland so trust me it's really not far at all.

I hadn't realised how neglected it has been until I looked out of our bedroom window this morning and spied beautiful yellow flowers in amongst the green. Yes, unthinkably I had let my loose head broccoli go to seed. A quick trip out between showers saw me harvesting a huge bundle of the heads which will go toward dinner tonight. This type of broccoli has been brilliant - only yielding a dinner size amount at a time and because they aren't huge tight heads we haven't had the previous issue of caterpillars that you only realise haven't been rinsed away when the vege arrives on your plate :p We will definitely be replanting again.

I also noticed my carrots are almost ready to harvest, Kale is still going strong, Bok Choy is ready to go too. The beetroot is still just sitting there - last time I checked there were no big veges on the end of the leaves and they've been in the ground for months now so I think we'll chalk that one up as a failure. Pity because I loooove beetroot.

The garlic and onions are already thriving so I'm hoping all this rain doesn't drown them. If this weather keeps up I may consider planting rice! ;)

Eating seasonally has been fantastic. I've discovered so many new veges and in turn so many new recipes. Our current favourite is Jerusalem Artichoke which I made into a gorgeous soup the other day. My husband was very confused when it came out of the Foodbox, wondering why we had been sent such a large quantity of ginger. Swedes and Leeks, things we used to walk past at the supermarket have now been integrated into many dinners. I'd love to say that we use Kale in many different recipes too because I know there are so many out there (being a staple of American cooking) but we can't go past the Kale chips. Hey, it gets the kids eating it and if it works I say go with it.

I must admit I did feel rather smug the other night when the news ran a report on the skyrocketing price of veges. They used Capsicum and Tomatoes as their examples - well of COURSE those are expensive! They're completely out of season! Yay me for actually knowing that. A year ago I would have been in the majority of the younger population who, thanks to a global market, has no idea what veges are grown in what season locally.

Almost Half Way

Time to put the garlic into the fridge for a week in preparation for planting. Yes I know I'm going to end up a week early from the shortest day but the following weekend looks busy already and I want to make sure I don't forget.

I can't believe we're in winter. It's unseasonably warm in Auckland. The mornings are chilly but most of the day is spent in teeshirts or light shirts. The sun still has heat. If it weren't for the shortness of days there'd be no indication.

So not a great litmus test for the woodburner vs. electric heater experiment really but I can tell you that the woodburner heats our upper floor completely and also warms the rooms faster than the heater that struggles to take the chill off just the lounge some evenings. The other night husband was lounging in front of the woodburner in just his undies because it was so warm in the room. Usually it only needs 3 or 4 pieces of wood too so it should take us a fair while to work through the woodpile. What a pity both of us suck at building and keeping the fire going. We wouldn't survive in the rough I'm sure.

I'm working on the husband to let me keep chickens. We go through about a dozen eggs a week and I figure laying hens would serve not only to keep us in eggs but also make good pets for the kids and help with pest control in the garden (so long as I fence off the actual veges). So far hubby has said no but I'm going to keep pushing the benefits.

For those of you interested and in Auckland there's a great site called Chickens at Home which sells many different breeds. There's also a few other sites which serve the rest of the country.

Winning!

I'm happy to report that we 'seem' to be on target for shops under $150. It's not an exact science because it fluctuates depending on what's on special. Bulk buying is definitely the way to go. Especially with Cheese and Butter.

Also I'm getting very good and cooking great meals from scratch with cheap cuts of meat. Tonight for example we're having meat pies. These are made with casserole cuts of beef because you stew them for over an hour before you make up the pie. Obviously it's much easier to manage the food budget if you have time - i.e. are at home - because you need lots of time to cook from scratch. I wouldn't recommend trying this if you have very young children unless you are supermum or have an amazingly chilled baby.

We have a log burner in our home so this year we decided to use it. So far we have paid $65 getting the chimney swept and $215 for 2 M³ of firewood and some kindling. Will it work out cheaper than power this winter? It will be interesting to find out. Last night we used 3 logs and heated the whole house to almost uncomfortably hot levels. It was still warm this morning. Mind you it was also cloudy this morning which probably helped.

The garden is well planted for winter. I finally pulled out the Capsicums (but they were amazing and I will definitely be doing them again next summer) and planted the bed in with red and brown onions. In a few weeks garlic will go in too. Can you believe it? Only a few weeks until the shortest day of the year. The brussel sprouts still haven't appeared but the broccolli is starting too show and the beets are looking good. The carrots are looking good too although there aren't very many as I had issues getting them to germinate for some reason. My kale is doing well too which is lucky because I have a new love - Kale Chips. Mmmm. If you get some kale and have a fan forced oven definitely give them a try. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Kale Chips courtesy of foodbox

Preheat oven to 160 ° fan bake
Remove stems from kale and wash thoroughly and pat dry
Lay on baking tray and drizzle over approx 1 Tbsp olive oil
Sprinkle with any favourite seasonings e.g. garlic salt
Bake at 160 ° for 8-10 minutes until crisp and lightly browned
Sprinkle on Parmesan Cheese (optional) and serve.

New recipes

Ah the Internet. Where were we without it? I remember the days of having to wait until the library opened to go and find something out. Or using telephones - to talk not write. Really showing my age here - I remember the old analogue dial phones. Anyway I digress...

I've been hunting out new recipes to use the food I have. That pumpkin that grew 'for us' made several containers of pumpkin soup and I had half left! So I did a little searching and my new favourite thing is - Pumpkin Scones!

For anyone not raised in North America or South East Asia the idea of pumpkin being used as a sweet is a bit foreign. Heck, in England it's considered only fit for pigs! But I encourage you to give it a try. Not only does it come out a beautiful golden colour, its consistency means that you use less butter and sugar.

I started with this basic recipe from Graham Weir (Published in the Australian Women's Weekly and sourced on the taste.co.nz website) and have since made variations with coconut, and ginger and dates.

Ingredients

60g butter

¼ cup (55g) caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1 cup cooked (440g) mashed pumpkin

2½ cups (375g) self-raising flour

pinch of salt

pinch bi-carb soda

milk, for glazing

Method

Preheat oven to 220°C fan-forced and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Beat butter, sugar and egg yolk together until combined; stir in mashed pumpkin.

Add self-raising flour, salt and bi-carb soda; mix until just combined.

Place dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly.

Roll or pat dough out to about 2cm thick.

Cut scones out using a 5cm cookie cutter and place onto tray.

Brush tops of scones lightly with a little milk.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

There are heaps of pumpkin scone recipes out there though - I chose this one simply because it had a cup measurement for the pumpkin rather than a pre-cooked weight and I had already cooked an pureed mine.

The other new project currently occupying (most of) my preserves shelf is Feijoa Chutney. I have several friends with feijoa trees and at this time of year they plead with anyone (even complete strangers I imagine) to take the damned things off their hands.

I already made a less than successful foray into Feijoa Jam - far too sweet and ended up more like Feijoa Honey, so this time I was determined to try something new and a little bit different.

The recipe below I found on a message board so hopefully they don't mind me reposting it here.

Ingredients

2kg feijoas, peeled and cut into chunks

600g sultanas

1kg pitted dates

1kg onions, peeled and cut into chunks

1kg brown sugar

50g ground ginger

50g curry powder

50g fresh red chillies, deseeded and finally chopped

20g salt

500ml water

Method

Dump all of the ingredients into a huge pot, mix, then bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 2 hours, then spoon into hot sterilised jars and seal according to your preferred method.

This makes a LOT of chutney but it is good!

And finally an update from the garden. More beetroot has gone in as well as brocollini and curly kale. The eggplant has fruit but I'm not sure if it will get bigger so I'm adopting a wait and see approach. My brussel sprouts were being attacked by cabbage white butterflies but my mother found a great solution via a gardening mag. Butterfly decoys. Apparently Cabbage Whites are quite territorial so a couple of decoys made out of plastic scraps and staked in the garden keeps them away. So far so good!

The capsicum are at the end of their days. Some very sad mutant fruit is still on the vine but gone are the huge capsicums we had when they were in their prime. The dwarf beans have started to flower but still no beans.

The carrots - the rows and rows of carrot seed tape I planted - have produced a few straggly seedlings half of which the cats have dug up while toileting (gggrrrr!). I will keep planting them but I don't hold much hope of a good crop.

Say Cheese!

This weekend is a great time to stock up on Cheese. Foodtown/Countdown is doing their $9.99/1kg block special on Mainland Mild, Edam and Colby.
I just bought 3 - expiry Sept 2011 - and saved $13.49. Yes almost another whole block of cheese in savings! (which just goes to show how stupidly expensive cheese is at the moment).

Autumn

Wow what a crazy old time we're having globally. My heart goes out to everyone affected by the Christchurch Earthquake and now the Japanese Earthquake and resulting Tsunami. Of course there is a run-on effect financially every time these events occur. Petrol, rent and insurance increases, and ingredients such as flour and fruit and veges also cost more as harvests and crops are affected.

It's interesting how many people I've come across lately who are making a conscious effort to save money in the face of all of this. Gardening and home baking seems to be on the rise. Which is nice. I like the idea of getting back to basics. Many conversations with friends lately have been swapping recipes and dinner ideas and offering surpluses from one garden crop in exchange for another.

Tracking my shopping goal is really difficult. I know overall I am probably saving money because I haven't done another meat shop since the last post and the fruit and vege and dry goods shops are pretty standard. But it's really hard to track it weekly. I think I'm going to have to average it out - I hope that's not cheating.

A few things that have helped lately. I've been collecting and using up all my samples. Most of the ones I have are for skin care and cleaning which are of course the most expensive part of any shop. So when I ran out of washing powder the other week I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had 5 washes worth of samples to use. That's a week of washing I didn't have to buy powder for.

I've also found it really pays to shop around when it comes to buying your skincare. After using a few samples I decided that Aveeno seemed like a great one to buy. I was surprised that The Warehouse sold it a full $2 cheaper than the local Foodtown. So definitely go and check out places like The Warehouse and K-Mart as well as the supermarkets if you're using a fairly ubiquitous brand.

I'm still harvesting huge (bigger than commercially grown) Capsicums and Zucchini from my garden. I've just planted in dwarf beans and brussels sprouts and also sown some more carrots (if they survive the cats that is Grrrrrr!). Once my lettuces go to seed I'll be replacing them with Kale for the winter.

I also managed to score a lovely big pumpkin courtesy of my neighbour's vine which grew through our fence and decided it liked our side better (although she had quite a few on her side too so don't feel bad). So this weekend I really must make some pumpkin soup.

Apple Butter update

I forgot to let you know in the last post how it worked out.

The first lot wasn't so good. I added half the amount of sugar recommended in an American recipe figuring I could add more to taste and it ended up so flippin' sweet that I will have to make pies with it with rhubarb or something else that's tart to balance it out.

The second lot was a lot better. I've only added a little sugar and some spices. I have still more apples to go but it's honestly a good way to use them up. Cut off the bad bits and peel and core them. Shove them in the slow cooker at night and in the morning sterilise the jars (30 minutes at 150° ) mouli out the lumps and pour it in. Easy.

I also was given some lemons in the last delivery so I turned it into lemon honey and gave a jar back to the apple donors in thanks.

Maybe I should keep my own cattle

Another grocery shop today. Yes I know! Already!

I would love to say that it was cheap but actually it was just over $200. BUT we did come home with a lot.

For example, we didn't need any meat but there were 4 mince packs on clearance. Down from $7/pack to $2.70. Since we have a freezer I grabbed them. There was also a bbq sausage and steak pack and a couple of packs of sausages also heavily reduced. So in they went too. Our freezer hasn't ever looked so healthy.

And then there was the toothbrushes (haven't figured out how to make my own ones of those) and there was a great special on cheese this week. Have you checked the best before dates on cheese before? This one was marked with a best before Sept 2011. I'm pretty sure I can eat it before then :) So in short, I stockpiled on things that were cheap.

So I felt a little smug as I unpacked our stacks of groceries into our pantry, fridge and freezer. Unfortunately that was short lived as I realised we had run out of nappies. Doh!

Also I looked at the price of powdered vs. fresh milk. Supermarket brand trim milk that makes 10 litres sells at a regular price of $9.99. So $1/litre instead of $1.77/litre for supermarket brand ready made stuff. I'm going to keep checking to see if that brand, or trusty Anchor brand goes on special and then buy that. I have the time to make up milk as we use it and really there is no difference at all.

One Bad Apple

I've spent the last hour peeling, coring and chopping cooking apples while in constant fear of what may crawl out of them. I'm feeling very much like a domestic goddess though because the apples are now in my slow cooker with a cinnamon quill and hopefully beginning their transformation into Apple Butter.

Apple Butter is something I've come across a few times on American websites. Apparently it's a very gooey mixture of well cooked apples with spices that you can then use as a sweet topping. It appealed (excuse the pun) because it can be preserved in jars and because having 2 young children I'm ready for a change from garden variety apple sauce.

I've googled Slow Cooker Apple Butter and found several recipes and what is in my slow cooker is going to be a hybrid of all of them. Sorry Martha Stewart but I don't have Apple Brandy. Sorry Annabel Langbein but I don't want to go and buy 750ml of Port just for this recipe.

So I'll let you know how it goes. If it's horrid and beyond rescue I can just bin it. The apples were donated by a friend and apparently 'there's plenty more where those came from'.

Shopping Day

Last night and today we did the big shop. We had no meat left in the house, one frozen meal, and were out of most of the basics including flour and toilet paper so it was a BIG shop.

The results:

Foodbox $33

Foodtown for non-perishables (and some venison meatballs on clearance) $190

Mad Butcher $102

But let me expand a bit on this. Firstly the Foodtown shop. Ok so it wasn't cheap. We had to buy night nappies for the eldest (Husband is not keen for us to brave the whole night just yet) and many many bits and pieces. But one thing I did notice was how many times I looked at things on special and thought ' what a rip! I could easily make that much more cheaply'. So no I didn't buy the Betty Crocker cake mix on special for around $5 and no, I didn't buy the burrito wraps on special for about $4 (seriously? They're just flour, baking powder, oil and water - go and see Bridie's blog for the recipe).

And the Mad Butcher? - Well this is the list of what I bought:

600gm Blade Steak (Left over from first meal can be frozen for a second one)

9 Chicken Breasts - 9 meals

12 Drumsticks - 2 meals there

18 Chicken Sausages - 3 meals there

750gm premium mince

4 Sirloin steaks - 2 - 3 meals depending on how it's used

1.2kg Pork Spare ribs - 1 meal (a treat because I loooove my spare ribs marinade recipe)

So I figure that while I'm nowhere near my weekly target of $150 if you add it all up for this week, I actually might not be that far off given that I should have enough food (apart from produce) to last for the better part of a month. Anyway we'll see how we go.

Also I thought I'd post a really lovely hummus recipe a friend of mine gave me. It's a nice departure from normal hummus - which you should make yourself at least once (and once you realise how easy it is I'm sure you'll never buy premade stuff again)

Hummus:

1 tin chickpeas

1 clove garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

1 TBSP sweet chilli sauce

1 TBSP lemon juice

A little salt and pepper

1 tsp honey

1 TBSP Tahini (optional but I prefer it)

1/8 cup olive oil - add more if you need to improve spread-ability.

Throw it all in a blender or what have you and blend together.

Done :)

Sickness and Slackness

Both my girls have had bad colds. I KNOW! In summer? What's that about?

Anyway the result is very bad nights' sleep for all of us. The flow on effect is that last night we had KFC for dinner.

Hardly a great idea when you're trying to be thrifty. The worst thing was I actually had chicken defrosted in the fridge but I couldn't summon the will power to cook it. I was bloody hot, I was bloody tired and I was over being a mum to whingy sick kids.

So what can we take away from this? Well being thrifty does take preparation and effort and when you're unprepared and tired it all goes out the window. So my aim now is to get to sleep earlier so I'm more productive in the early mornings before it gets too hot. Also this weekend I'm going to start stockpiling pre-cooked meals into the chest freezer so next time I can't be bothered cooking I can just re-heat something in the microwave.

In other news all the sales are on in the kids' clothing shops so the other day I went out and bought all the winter and next summer kindy outfits I need for my eldest. Everything was at least 40% discounted. Some much much more.

Out of control

Right now I'm breaking the cardinal rule of being thrifty - doing heaps of little shops. It's partly because we live within walking distance of the local supermarket and partly because our food is coming from several different sources (garden, foodbox, supermarket, butcher). But the end result is at the moment I don't have a good idea of what our weekly shop is costing. Not knowing is making me quite unsettled and it's something we're going to have to keep tabs on. After all how can I get to the end goal if I don't even know where the starting line is?

On the plus side I'm also breaking the rules when it comes to cooking. Recipes are getting new additions depending on what is in the pantry and fridge. Tonight's dinner for example is a tuna and sweetcorn quiche but it also has mushrooms and capsicum added. It's pretty tame in comparison to some of the experiments. Luckily my family loves me enough to try things (and my kids are picky anyway).

We're seriously considering switching from fresh milk to powdered milk. The savings will be quite a bit. My friend Bridie (see the link to her blog on the right) has been doing this for a long time and I know it makes sense. It's not the taste putting me off - it's making up the milk all the time. Curse my family of tea and milo drinkers!

Baking Day

Last night was horrid. We were home late anyway because of the dinner (which was lovely) and then youngest child was up 3 times culminating in a spew over her bed at 5am. :(

So today armed with a very strong coffee I am going to stay home and bake/cook. I've decided that if I'm going to make things from scratch as often as possible then I need to pre-make things when-ever possible. This hopefully will eliminate the temptation of fast food as a quick solution rather than a treat.

Over the long weekend I made pizza bases which are now in the freezer. Although all the recipes I've seen for making your own pizza don't tell you to pre-cook the bases, I've found that giving them 7 or so minutes at 180° before you freeze them means that you don't end up with chewy undercooked dough in the end result.

Today's undertaking is fairly simple; bread in the breadmaker - I'm using the last of a pre-mix we got on special, fruit muffins to use up the overripe fruit in the freezer/fruit bowl, and dinner for tonight. I can't do any bulk meals at the moment as I left my slow cooker bowl behind last night.

A word about bread pre-mixes while I think about it. If you are making your own bread for financial gain make sure you do the maths on the pre-mixes. Often when they are at their standard retail price they don't work out cheaper than buying ready made loaves. But on a good special I find whole-grain pre-mix does work out cheaper than whole grain breads such as Molenberg.

Finally in a brilliant boost to the savings plan my eldest daughter is finally toilet trained! I can't help but smile as I think of all the savings we're making by not buying as many nappies. :)

Birthdays and South East Asia

Today is my best friend's birthday and the celebration at her house tonight is a potluck dinner with a South East Asian theme.

Happily my bestie is also doing her level best to live cheaply (aren't we all) which seems to be a fundamental requirement when you work in Hospitality like she does. So the South East Asian potluck was her way of getting a Thai dinner party without the Thai restaurant price tag.

Amazingly I had all the ingredients for the dish I decided to make apart from the kumara so currently my slow cooker is busy cooking curried coconut chickpeas and kumara. (thanks Alison).

Unfortunately I do have to go out to the shops later to get her birthday present but I'm determined to get my retail fixes from 'must buys'. Plus I've already decided what I'm going to get her online so I won't be tempted to get anything else - well that's the theory anyway.

Now off to place my Foodbox order. We get the singles fruit and vege and at $33 it does our small family well and works out the same or cheaper than the local supermarkets with the added benefit of the quality being top notch.

In the beginning.....

there was a recession, GST rises, a formation of a Supercity with all the cost increases that brings, a rental shortage, and a family living on a single income in Auckland.

This is my journey to live on less. I hope that it will not only save us money but also be a great learning experience for the whole family.

One of the measurable goals I have is to get our food budget back to $150/week. This was achievable in 2008. Nowadays we're lucky to see change from $200.

I do have a few things to help me on our way.

A shiny new breadmaker that I got for Christmas (thanks mum) and a vege garden that currently has a lovely crop of capsicum, carrots and lettuce, a stand alone freezer, and a crockpot.

Other things that I find useful I'll add to the right of the page to share the love.