It's all about priorities

My mother heard an interesting saying which she relayed to me and as some sayings do it has stuck with me for quite a while. It goes like this:

You can't tell who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.

What does it mean? Well basically when things are going well in the economy it is easier for people to keep up appearances even if their income doesn't support it. But once things take a turn for the worst, as it has the last few years, those overextended people soon become quite apparent.

I think almost all of us have been guilty of being a bit careless with money in the past. Nothing like a 'good' Global Economic Crisis to pull us all into line.

We are by no means perfect when it comes to being frugal but one thing that I am proud of is that we do not overextend ourselves with HPs, overdrafts and credit card debt. Oh we did once. It took a year to pay off that consolidated loan. Lesson learned and never again!

Anyway the 'best' thing about the current situation (apart from ongoing low interest rates) is that people are starting to get creative. There's a new surge in home made clothes and crafts. I'm sure it's no accident that Pinterest is growing so exponentially. So many good ideas there. Gardening is taking off again. Old recipes are being unearthed. People are trying new tastes - especially protein sources such as pulses and beans. Nosh has even waged a price war with the supermarkets on the price of milk. (yes I know it's a loss-leader and don't even get me started on how wrong it is that there should ever be a cause for a war on such a basic commodity...)

And yet I constantly hear of people struggling because they don't prioritise. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate it is hard out there. I am not saying that people are struggling simply because of wrong choices (thanks John Key) but there are a few that could be a little smarter. Here's a bit of 'brain spew' from my completely unqualified noggin:

• If you're finding it hard don't go nuts on label clothing for the kids. Honestly I think clothing children (shoes excluded) is the cheapest part of having them right now. If you want new stuff buy on sale for the following year. Otherwise second hand op shop stuff is usually in pretty good nick and very cheap. The retail sector is struggling - there are sales everywhere. You should not have to buy stuff at full price.

• Make use of your garden. If you don't have a garden make one in pots and containers. If you don't have the time or this isn't an option then buy at your local market. We did it the other weekend and got an entire week's worth of produce for under $20. There were 4 vege stalls to choose from. Get friendly with your neighbours and swap unused fruit for some of the end result preserves that you are going to make.

• Learn how to cook some meals meat free. There are heaps of other protein sources. Also stop with the takeouts - they're stupidly expensive. (OK confession, we still do takeouts once a week).

• Plan your trips. Walk when possible. Petrol is expensive. Also in the same vein, car servicing when possible is important. It's more expensive to fix if you wait until things go wrong. Try and put money aside for this and do it annually.

• The horrid 'B' word. Make a budget. Go and see Sorted.org (link on the side)

• Don't let the banks keep raising your credit card limits. Stay on top of this. Try to only use your credit card for emergencies and only spend what you can pay off in the month.

• And the most important one - Learn to differentiate needs from wants.
  * SKY is not a need - we don't have it. We are still alive.
  * New couch on 24 months HP. Be very careful because there is no such thing as a 'free lunch'. Also I would strongly discourage anyone from buying items with a quick devaluation on HP unless they absolutely have to. That's phones, computers and definitely cars.
  *Cloth nappies. Yes you can have too many. You don't need a limited edition whatever. It's a NAPPY. It will not feed your children.
  * Just follow the golden rule - ask yourself 'do I really need this?' This doesn't mean never treat yourself. In fact I would recommend you put money in your budget for little treats. It would be a sad world indeed with no coffee ;) Just be sensible.

Most of this is not rocket science. Most of you will probably be doing this and more now. But you would be surprised the amount of people who are not managing simply because they are not prioritising needs and wants and still trying to live outside their means. Do yourselves a favour and live frugally - you will feel freer than you would running around in a unpaid for car, sitting on an unpaid for couch and looking for all the world like a million bucks.

Rain rain go away

Righto so we're in summer apparently. No one has told the rain that. It's completely f'ing the berry season up and down the country and at home my garden isn't faring much better.
I'm rather grumpy. My garlic has started dying back so I had an exploratory dig around the base of one. The bulb at the end is minuscule. Well not minuscule but certainly not decent sized. So disappointed. I'm not sure why they are so small. I want to blame the weather although that's probably not entirely it. I shall have another go next year and see how we go but honestly not cool.

My uncle used to grow awesome garlic here in Auckland so I know it's do-able. Unfortunately said uncle is now suffering from Alzheimers so I can't actually ask him for tips.

My brown onions look like onions but small pickling onions. I will leave them as long as I can but it is dependent on when the stalks start dying back which they look like they're going to. Red onions are only just starting to appear.

Beans are pretty pitiful. Mind you I didn't see many bees in our garden which I understand is a fairly common problem nowadays. I'm going to get some borage from Mum and plant that to see if I can bring more bees in next year. Borage is gorgeous when in flower though it does tend to take over gardens if you're not careful.

Tomato plant has gone nuts. 2 ripe cherry tomatoes so far but a plant that is taking over an entire bed. *sigh* I REALLY should have staked it.

Capsicums are starting to develop. We've had a few good courgettes too so far. But overall my garden has been fairly dismal. I really can't blame the weather too much. I was very slack at planting and tending over the summer.

The plum tree has just produced another great crop. I've just gone out with the broom and smacked down a whole basket. Stuff you blackbirds! These ones are mine.

We have some fat happy blackbirds here. The neighbour has plantain bananas which they love having for breakfast and they usually have a great lunch on my plums. I'm sure once the tomatoes ripen they'll be having a shot at adding those to their diet too.

Christmas overall was a great success. I'm getting very good at making food that looks tricky and tastes great (if I do say so myself) and are incredibly cheap to make. This year I provided the old reliable - cranberry and pistachio biscotti along with a new trial; Chilli chocolate florentines.

Now I'm busily preparing for a family wedding and looking out for clothes in the sales for the girls for next year. Luckily when it comes to winter stuff the rain is helping me get into the right mindset ;)

Oh and speaking of sales - the best bargains to be had at the moment are overseas. Especially in the UK. The exchange rate is reasonable and when the British do sales they REALLY do sales.

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.