A Joyful Keeper

Hosted by Biblical Womanhood

Yesterday my baby boy turned 10! He got a lot of birthday money from family, and asked if we could go to the shops in the morning to spend it. While the kids looked at toys, I looked around at the other areas in K-Mart. I don’t think I’d been there for months… in fact, I can count on one hand the times I have been to any shopping mall since we got back from being overseas. As I looked around me, I observed some very interesting things….

First of all, I noticed that it was still busy, busy, busy. I have been wondering when the rising prices of fuel and commodities would start changing people’s lifestyle. Now, maybe everyone  there had a good reason for being there, like us - spending birthday money, or buying presents, or buying clothes that they needed. I am not out to judge here… But the point was, that it was still very busy and people are still spending money regardless of what they are spending it on (like us!).

I noticed that there were many, many sale signs. Buy one toy from this brand - get the second one half price. Buy any item of clothing, get 70% off the second one. Sales on books, sales on household items, sales on everything. Of course it is nearly the end of the financial year for us, and so there would be lots of stocktake sales at the moment too. So in fact it is a good time to spend, if you really need some of these things. However, there were also many sales on things that I would call luxuries - dvds, books full of twaddle, etc. I was tempted by the cheap prices! Buy three dvds for $30, or one for $12.95! Now you know what the better price is, don’t you?! But did I need 3 dvds? No, there was only one I really wanted! I suppose if I had kept looking I would have found some others that would do…and I could have spent $30 just like that.

It’s funny, isn’t it. While the shops are “helping us” by giving us these great sales, they are also encouraging us to spend more. Elizabeth desperately needs winter clothes. I was going to sew some for her, then I saw the sale signs and went to look if there was anything appropriate for her. In no time my arms were reaching for numerous items, because after all, the second one was going to be 70% off! I ended up putting most things back and buying her two tops, which I still could have made cheaper myself, but I figured she needed something to wear while I was sewing! LOL!

When we got home, I thought about the whole shopping experience. Because I haven’t been to any malls for so long, I had a brief thought that since there were so many great bargains, I should go back without the kids and just browse…. That thought was very brief! Things are tight in our household at the moment. I have more stuff in my house than I could ever need. I know that if I went for a browse through the mall I would be tempted by the things I see.

I do not work outside the home and earn money, but I save it. The old saying “a penny saved is a penny earned” is my motto. My pennies are not taxed, they’ve already been taxed and now they are precious. I could say I saved $8.85 by buying three dvds instead of buying them individually. But I spent $30 to do this. Is this a saving? No, I saved $30 by not spending it in the first place!

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying don’t buy dvds! I am saying that I am learning to really ask myself whether I need these things before I buy them. The time is coming, if not already here for some of us, where every penny or cent will count. For myself, I am happy not to go to the malls and be tempted by all those specials. I am happy to use what I have, when I can. Because for me, the best way to save my money, is not to spend it.

NB I did go and buy patterns for half price and marked down fabric to make some clothes for Elizabeth! More on that another day! 

It’s Saturday morning but I didn’t get a chance to post this last night. Since I did sew this on Friday, I thought I’d still post it.

Last night we had a special “Hats off to Mothers” evening at church. It was for mothers and daughters, and we all needed to wear a hat. Elizabeth didn’t have one, so I remembered that I had a pattern somewhere for girls hats, and amazingly enough, I found it! It was one that had either been given to me, or I got from the opshop:

I had never tried it before, so I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to do it or not. But I really wanted to give it a go and make a special memory for Elizabeth. We chose a pretty white on white from my stash and made a start:

There were a few bits that gave me some trouble. I always find it a challenge sewing circles to bands and avoiding tuckers. In the end, it worked out fine. Phew! Elizabeth found some pretty ribbon in our ribbon box to tie around it, and also made some ribbon flowers to put on the front.

Alls well that ends well! And one of the best parts is that because I had all the materials already, I didn’t have to spend a cent. So I guess this would class as a Frugal Friday post as well!

For more sewing ideas go to Waiting for Him 

For more frugal ideas go to Biblical Womanhood

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While I was at my dmil’s, we had an interesting discussion about spending and frugal living. I said how I was frustrated by the government encouraging the people to keep on spending. Apparently Australians spent 36.5 Million dollars in the six weeks before Christmas. If that isn’t bad enough, after Christmas sales were phenomenal as well. What did they spend their money on? According to the article I read, a lot of the spending was on on technology - ipods, laptops & plasma tvs…..

Back to my dmil. They have been farmers all their lives, but not the types that did everything themselves. They hired others to do the shearing, cut the hay, fix the tractors. She thought I was commenting on this, and defended herself by saying that they put money back into the community. They paid the laborers who then spent money in the town, etc, etc. This is not what I was saying, however. It is great to put money back into the community, and I also do this as much as I can. I like to buy local when I can, support the little shops in our town, but is this what everyone was doing in the Christmas sales?

I came across these posters at this site, and it just highlighted the difference in the governments gone by and the ones we now have.

Now I am not an economist. I didn’t do well in economics at school. I know people say we are supposed to spend to keep the economy going. But correct me if I’m wrong - how can putting “things”, (that are mostly imported, which means our money is going overseas) on our credit cards (because I am sure much of that Christmas spending was not cash!) be sustainable. Credit card money is not “real”. Look at the posters above:

“Grow a Victory Garden!” During the war, people were encouraged to grow their own.

“We’ll have lots to eat this winter, won’t we Mom?” Canning and preserving was not looking down on. It was part of a nation wide effort to grow things yourself, can them and take responsibility.

“Use it up - Wear it out - Make it do!” Not the things we are hearing today. We are hearing - spend, spend, spend. New is better. You must have this latest gadget…. your children need the latest toys….

To me the posters above are the essence of old fashioned thrift. Growing as much as you can yourself, even if it is in pots. Canning food is not only frugal (if you grow it yourself), but it is also healthier. You know exactly what has gone into the food you are eating.

Using what you have, and using it until it is worn out.. it’s a different mindset. It speaks of contentment - I am happy with what I have. It may not be the latest fashion or model, but it does the job. It speaks of creativity - now that this is worn out and can’t be used for its original purpose, what else can I use it for? Can it be fixed? Can it has a new lease of life? Can I turn it into something else?

Being old fashioned is frowned upon and mocked in today’s society. But one day things are going to come crashing down around us, and those of us who know how to be old fashioned will find the changes we need to make less difficult.

Practically, what can you do in light of the old fashioned frugality encouraged in the posters above?

Grow it yourself:

Even if you don’t have a big garden you can grow things in pots. Herbs are easy to grow on the window sill. Instead of flowers, plant veggies in your garden beds. One zucchini plant, a few lettuces and a tomato will give you soups in winter and salads in summer.

Can it or freeze it:

Freeze your zucchini’s for soups in winter. You can grate zucchini and freeze it in portion sizes for recipes that call for grated zucchini. No need to blanch it. Buy vegetables like pumpkin on special, cook them and freeze them as well. You don’t need to grow it yourself to can it. I buy big boxes of tomatoes from the veggie shops and can them if I don’t have enough in my garden. It still saves me money and I know it is healthier.

Use it up, make do…:

Use what you have and what you are given. I have a friend who gets me cheap flour, sugar, etc. I try to use that as much as possible. My clothes are not the latest fashion, and I have been wearing them for the past… um, er,… ok, years…! I love hand me downs for myself and the children. I love to find a different use for the clothes we have, if they are too worn out to pass on to others (see my post on using old jeans). I can’t bring myself to cut up perfectly good clothes, however, because I know there are people out there who need them. Clothes that are too tatty to use for anything, become rags.

Making do is a big thing in today’s society. I fall in the “want” trap so often. It is so easy to see something new in the shop, even if it is something I already have, but a nicer color, or a better style, or whatever. Making do and contentment run hand in hand. Being content with what we have and what we have been given.

Old fashioned thrift…. I know that if we could go back in time to the 50’s, we would learn so many things from the older women who practiced all the things in the above posters. Thankfully there are women today who are going back to old fashioned thrift, and I’d like to say that they are a great encouragement to people like me. I still have a lot to learn in this area, but just visiting other frugal blogs and looking at how it was done years ago are so motivating. I hope this motivates you as well, and I’d love to hear some memories of your grandmothers and how they practiced thrift in their daily lives.

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Yes, the challenge is on! I’ve been thinking and planning about our financial goals this year. I do not work outside the home, and never have, so my main goals in our finances have been in the area of stretching the income my husband provides. The one area I have most control over is the grocery budget. I used to be really good at this! I can say this because it really is a case of “used to be”!!! Over the past five years or so, I haven’t been as diligent as I used to be, and this year that is going to change.

Now we all know to make very specific goals…. my goal was to spend as little as possible on groceries this year! Not specific enough. I’ve been umming and ahhing about what my goal was going to be. I have $200 a week in our budget, but that was just pulling a number out of the air. I know I can do way better than that. So I thought of $150 a week. But that is not low enough to prove a challenge to me - LOL! So I have come up with $100 a week.

Just in case you think this is another totally random number, let me tell you how I came up with it:

Firstly, I know this is possible to do in Australia because Lightening can do it! Check out her blog for a series of excellent posts on how to reduce your grocery budget.

Secondly, I grow as much as I can myself, which, although it is not much at the moment, still does help. At the moment this is just salad veggies. I hope to soon have chickens so that we can have lovely fresh eggs, and we will also be growing our own lamb soon. At the moment we get our lamb from the in-laws farm, which either costs nothing or very little.

Thirdly, I buy a lot in bulk. A lot of our expenses in the grocery budget over the past years has been from buying ready made things, like cookies, pasta, mixes, etc. With the great prices I get for our bulk staples, and with just a little effort (or a lot!) I KNOW I can reduce my grocery budget drastically.

Last, but not least, it is motivating to set a lower challenge, as long as it is still somewhat realistic. $50 a week would definitely be unrealistic!

With all this in mind, I also plan to make grocery savings part of our whole family life. I want the children involved in this as well. They too easily look at the specials catalogues and say, “Look Mum! Chips are on special! We need some!” (Note the emphasis on NEED!!!) We should all be a part of watching what we spend. I want to teach the children that it is cheaper (and nicer) to bake our own cakes and cookies - from scratch - which will cut down expenses and also the waste that comes with all that packaging.

The grocery budget is the main area where we keepers at home can make a big difference. Do you know how much you have been spending on average on groceries? Will you join with me in setting a goal for 2008 to spend less than last year? The first key in spending less is to set yourself a target amount that you will aim for. Remember the saying, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it.”

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There is nothing more frugal than FREE!! And this is my gift to you this Christmas… I made these simple Christmas notebooking pages and want to give them to all of you this Christmas Season.

This ebook is especially for those of you who homeschool. Feel free to pass the link on to others. Just go HERE to download your copy!

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We all know it. We all tell ourselves we should cut down on it….. IT being take-away or fast food. Our experience coming home from my in-laws just rammed it home once again.

While we were in the Middle East we ate out a lot. Sometimes it was social - after being isolated all day we just wanted to get out with other people and be “normal”. Often it was because the Turkish food we could get there was just plain YUMMY and cheap to boot! And there were those times where I just couldn’t be bothered cooking. Yes, that does happen with me! But most of the food over there was cheap, which in my mind justified it a bit more (rightly or wrongly!).

Back in Australia it was a different matter. I told my friends who were picking me up from the airport that the first thing I wanted to do was go to McDonalds and have a Bacon and Egg McMuffin! (No pork allowed where we lived in the Middle East.) So after they picked us up from the airport we dropped in at a McDonald’s on the way home. I made my order and it came to about $16. I said to the girl behind the counter,… “Are you sure?” She immediately thought she had overcharged me, while I was trying to tell her it sounded too cheap! My friend was at my side saying, “That’s dollars, Joy, not ****!” Ooops! Yes, I quickly converted it and realized that it wasn’t cheap, it was… expensive compared to where we had been!!! Needless to say, after two years of converting the local currency back into Australian dollars for comparison (oh, that is sooo cheap, only x dollars!), I needed to do the opposite.

So on to our weekend away. My father-in-law kindly gave us two sheep - dead ones for the freezer. He paid $52 for each one. A friend killed it and we helped him cut it up. I was so pleased! There is heaps and heaps of meat there and will last us quite a while. What a blessing!

Anyway, we were planning to get away just after lunch, but things happened and we weren’t ready until about 5pm. (It is just over a three hour drive home.) I had planned to take out some chops and whack them on the BBQ when we got home, that is, if we left as planned. But we didn’t, so dh said, “Don’t worry, we’ll just grab something on the way home…………….”

McDonald’s was way too busy, which was my choice, so we went to KFC, which I really don’t like much but anyway… choices were limited! We ordered and dh paid, and the bill for a family of 5 came to……… $50!!!!!! That is the same price as one sheep!!! And that one sheep will give us….well, at least 20 meals!!!!!

I think the comparison between the sheep and the one meal really hit me. In the past I might have said, “Oh well,…” but this was just such a classic (and timely) example of how much fast food really costs.

Our actual weekend with the inlaws was also a great example to me of homemade cooking vs take-away. My dmil cooks simple meals, but she never buys take-away. I guess as farmers they just didn’t have the money, and for many years they didn’t have the take-away shops in their small town. They used what they had on the farm, which was a lot of lamb that they grew themselves. I am always reminded when I eat my dmil’s meals, that even though they are simple, they are yummy and quick to make. So often the recipes in the magazines and recipe books these days are so complicated, with so many ingredients. No wonder we want to go and get fast food!

I have strengthened my resolve to cut down on take-away. Whenever I am tempted, I will think of our lamb vs KFC experience, and I hope I will head for the pantry and freezer real quick!

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Savings in the kitchen can add up to a lot. As I have been looking at the sales catalogues, what has struck me most is they are full of… Yes, the catalogues are full of “specials”. But what are they specials of? Let’s see, things like: packets of lamb stew mix - just add it to your meat, veggies and stock and you have a wonderful casserole. It’s packaged nicely with a beautiful picture…. but all it is are some flavorings in a bag. Frozen lasagne - don’t make it yourself, it’s too much work. Just pop it in the oven and dinner will be ready in no time. Pieces of chicken, covered in breadcrumbs, oven ready. Garlic bread, oven ready….

Most of the specials in the catalogues are convenience foods. The staples like flour and sugar are hardly ever on special. I am not saying we shouldn’t buy any convenience foods. I will sometimes buy a pre-made lasagne (I can count the number I have bought on one hand….) - it is cheaper than take away. I will sometimes buy frozen breaded chicken… But, it is so much cheaper to make these things yourself. Yes, it takes time. But it saves money and is usually healthier.

Why do you think the catalogues are full of processed specials? Because that is where they make their money. I can buy a packet of white sauce mix for a dollar on special, and sometimes I have. That’s not bad, is it? But I can make it myself for less than 10c. If the shops make money on the end product, then I can save money on making things myself.

Yesterday I practiced what I am preaching and Elizabeth and I had a day of baking and making mixes. Elizabeth made her favorite sugar cookies and three batches of hot chocolate mix!

Just for fun, I used my new coffee stencils that a friend and I bought on a shopping trip a while back:

Hot chocolate in a cup with two hearts on top!

I made four batches of white sauce mix. I then measured and bagged the amount I would need for one serving. I don’t like using all those plastic bags, so I tried to see if I could freeze the mix as ice cubes. I’m not sure it will work since the mixture is crumbly, not liquid. I’ll have to see how it goes. Any suggestions? In any case, now I have a freezer drawer full of white sauce mix.

I am doing some of these things now while I have a large kitchen and in preparation for when we move house. I can make a quick Tuna Casserole with the white sauce mix from the freezer. Once we move it will be nice to just sit down in the evening with a hot chocolate, the mix already made and in the pantry.

It saves time to make a double or triple batch of these things while you have all the ingredients out. All the dishes can be done at the one time, you can have a long break from having to do it again, and when you are all done, you feel like you really achieved a lot - not to mention having saved some money in the process!

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I am not the best at using leftovers, but I am trying hard. I usually plan for leftovers - ie, I make sure I have enough for two days. It’s the leftovers from the leftovers (if that makes sense!) that I often end up wasting. Little bits of food in little containers in the fridge that get pushed to the back and then start to grow…..

I am collecting recipes so that I can deal with some of those leftovers as we go. Here is one that I had at a friend’s house years ago. She had this beautiful cake for our morning tea, with such a pretty bright color. I was surprised to learn that it had pumpkin in it, because I couldn’t taste it. But of course it explained the color. It is quick and easy to make, and oh so yummy!! It’s also a great way to use up a little bit of leftover pumpkin.

 

1 cup mashed pumpkin

8 oz margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup sultanas

1 cup Self Raising Flour

1 cup Plain Flour

lemon essence

Cream margarine, sugar and essence.

Beat in eggs.

Add pumpkin, the flours and sultanas.

Bake in moderate oven for approx. 50 mins.

Using leftovers wisely can stretch the grocery budget little bit by little bit. Do you have any great recipes for leftovers? If you do, I’ll love to hear about them!

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As I was making my own homemaking notebook, I came across some great sites that I’d like to share with you. There are lots of clever ladies out there who are sharing their ideas and some of their notebooking pages.

Tiany has a great series of posts on her own household notebook. Just look on the left sidebar under “My Daily Binder Helps”. She also sells a complete “Orderly Moms Notebook” which judging from all her posts, is absolutely fantastic! But, if you don’t have the money to buy it, she still gives you lots of hints, tips, and resources to make your own. What a blessing that is! Thanks Tiany!

Then there is THIS binder from CafeMom. There are LOTS of photos and examples of what is it her binder. If you wander around her site, you will also see her holiday binder and her son’s chores binder. Heaps of interesting reading here!

Now for sites that offer free pages for your household notebooks. Check these out:

Holiday Grand Plan

Organized Christmas

Donna Young

Chart Jungle

All Free Printables

There are just a few. Some of the sites have ads that I don’t necessarily agree with, but I ignore them.

With regards to homeschooling, I found some neat nature journal pages here:

Teaching Mom

And I also love the quality of the pages made by Notebooking Nook.

Last but not least, check out some of the things I have made for my family. They are FREE, so help yourselves!

A Joyful Keeper Freebies

Thanks for dropping by today and I hope that you have found something useful here! If you do use any of the printables from the above links, be sure to drop the authors a thank you - I know they will be encouraged!

Hosted by Biblical Womanhood

I was so pleased the other day! I visited one of my favorite Opshop’s (Thrift Shops). It was in the town where we used to live and where an opshop still sells things cheaply.

I got:

• 5 circular knitting needles
• 5 pairs of regular knitting needles
• 4 baggies of lace
• 1 pair of jeans
• 1 knitted sweater

And all of this for just $5! Now that is a bargain!