After not doing any regular grocery shopping since before Christmas due to my Spend Next To Nothing Challenge, it was time to shop. But a funny thing happened...I pulled out my Master Grocery List and started checking stock in my kitchen, bathroom etc, marking items I needed to buy. And I found myself saying, nope, don't really need any of that. Or that. Or that - to the things I would normally purchase because they're getting kind of low. And for other things, well I have alternatives to eat....etc

When I finally left to go grocery shopping, my list had a meagre 14 items on it. And I actually only ended up buying 8 of them. The others either weren't at a price I liked, out of stock, or I decided I just don't need them after all. 

I would seem that my SN2N challenge has really shifted my perspective.....

• made me more aware of how long certain items last (I used to just stock up)
• made me more conscious of what else we could use instead, that we already have
• made me even more unwilling to pay full price for things I know will be on special sooner or later, that we can live without for now
• made me more than ready to run out of some things so I can make simpler versions at home 

Before I made my list, I fully expected to do a "proper" grocery shop and spend around $400. Nothing unusual in that for a fortnight's groceries (taking into consideration multiple food intolerances, and my lack of adjusting to all the kids being gone). Instead, I spent......$58.99. And $10 was basically "treat" food (I really wanted some mushrooms and cashew nuts so I could make THIS yummy dish again.) The pic below shows what I bought. I really, really couldn't think of anything else we needed! (My husband says there's STILL too much food in the fridge lol). 

​The linseed, allspice and molasses are ingredients for museli and preserving that I had noted I was runnnig low on. The ziplock bags...I want to get where we don't use any such bags, but I'm not quite there yet. Conditioner...because I'm not in the headspace to experiment with alternatives for that right now. TP - obvious ;-). Some pain relief for our medicine cabinet - also something I would like to permanently eliminate down the track. 

The days ahead will be interesting! Especially as I have a new challenge in mind - starting tomorrow!

Eight weeks without any normal grocery shopping...I'm utterly amazed at what I HAVEN'T run out of! I've decided to wrap up the Spend Next To Nothing Challenge here, not because I can't carry on, but because I want to focus on other things for a while. Though I'll carry with me a number of realizations which will no doubt cause me to continue to spend a lot less in the future. :-) 

Not actually a lot else to report in the kitchen this week - I've been mostly cooking the same things I've posted about before, and didn't have time for any experimentation. 

The seasons are definitely turning! February started off cold, but then has had some hot days again. This past week though it's been noticeably colder. I've been tempted several times to light the fire! Well, this past summer started off earlier and hotter than it has in some years, so I guess it's only natural that autumn would follow on without delay. The beans have slowed down, the squash have all suddenly got mildew - both sure signs that the end of the season is here. My thoughts are turning to cosy fires, stores of pumpkins and squash, knitting for my soon-to-be-born second grandbaby, warm soups, shorter days.....but in the meantime there's still a lot to be done!

A sea-change in the pumpkin/squash patch. It went from very lush and green to mildewed and dying in the space of only a few days. This is normal for this time of year - the weather cools, and the plants declare "I'm about done!" My first season in the garden, I spent time googling powdery mildew on pumpkin plants when this happened, and read all this advice that said it would affect the flavour and storage of the pumpkins, and that I should remove the worst affected leaves and spray the rest with a baking soda/milk combo. Which I did. Total waste of time! Since then I've accepted that this is a normal part of the progress of the seasons; happens every year, and every year my matured squash are just fine! Yeah, there may be a few fruit that had gotten started late that will never properly mature, but that's no biggie. There's plenty of good big pumpkins and squash in there! In fact, that's the exciting thing about when this starts to happen - I start to get a glimpse of just what the harvest is going to be like! 

Probably time to start harvesting some of the squash - will take a closer look tomorrow. I need to start picking the grapes too!

Apples are ripening, and the first of the Chilean Guavas are ready to pick. Just LOVE the fragrance and taste of the Chilean Guavas - and best of all, the birds ignore them. 

The cucumbers in the greenhouse have found a new lease of life since I fed them with some Thrive (they were dying off), and there are lots of new cucumbers forming. 

This week I bought:
5 ltr malt vinegar for bottling $8.18
2 ltr milk $3.43
4 boxes tissues $4.00
Dishwashing liquid $2.69 (organic - my husband doesn't like the homemade one as it doesn't cut grease well enough for him - fair enough; will keep experimenting)
Almond/coconut milk $3.99
16 rolls extra long toilet paper $11.98
Spaghetti pasta $0.99
2 ltr tomato sauce $5.09
GF bread x2 $13.41
Total: $53.76

Balance forward:          $16.26
This week's allowance: $50.00
This week's spend:        $53.76
Balance:                         $12.50

When I set out on this challenge, I wasn't sure how long I could keep it going. I hoped that I could maintain the spend less than $50 approach for 2-3 months, and that has been no problem for the last 2 months. I could clearly keep going longer. But I find I really need to focus on other things, so am winding it up here. I still intend to carry some of the ideas forward though....

Meanwhile, I'm quite surprised that in spite of not buying any since before Christmas, I have not yet run out of: laundry powder, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, moisturisers, deodorant, autodishwasher tablets, dishwashing liquid (almost - still have some left, but have now made one batch of my own, and just bought a bottle of another to try this week), cleaners, ziplock bags, bin liners, gladwrap, baking paper, or foil. I honestly thought a lof of these would have run out sooner, forcing me to experiment. Oh well - I still plan to experiment with home made versions of many of these in due course, and will post successful recipes or alternatives. Now, it's good to have stock of frequently used items on hand and purchase when on a good special, but this has been an eye-opener on just how much less of all these things we use these days, since the kids left home (remember, I'm still adjusting from having gone from a family of 7-8 (with boarder) to only 2 in quite a short space of time).

I have succeeded in working my way through most of my frozen stock of bananas, tomatoes (turned into bottled products), a lot of bones now made into stock, and some of the meat etc. With a bit of sorting, I can probably compact most of what's left in one freezer into my other one. Which is good - as the butcher is coming soon; we need to reduce our sheep numbers, and I'll need some room for frozen meat. We've got some more ducks and a couple of roosters we need to process too. 

Going forward, I intend to continue to focus our meals around what is available in the garden. I'd really like to get to where we only need to buy a very few food items, and can live almost entirely out of the garden/homestead. That isn't just about money, but about eating fresh, healthy, wholesome foods.

The main downside of this little challenge has been that I've done baking I normally wouldn't. Which meant I ate it too. Which meant I put on a few kilos. Sigh. Time to reverse that!

On the plus side, I have shown myself that I can spend a lot less than I have been, and still eat well. I need to go back to regular meal planning, and planning my shopping more closely, buying only what we really need. This spend next to nothing challenge has been great for recalibrating my shopping and spending! 

Did following along inspire you to try anything different or change the way you do anything? Do tell me about it in the comments if so. :-) 

Seven weeks since I did any significant grocery shopping (actually longer since the last "normal" shop was before Christmas! Last night my daughter remarked, "How come your (very large) fridge is still so full with only two of you here now?" and my husband added "Yeah, especially since you haven't been shopping in nearly two months!" My response: "Well, the garden just keeps producing food...."

In terms of spending nothing, this week has been a bit of a write-off due to a series of unforeseen circumstances (more on that below). I still spent very little at the store, but did end up with some takeway meals. Sigh. Ah well, chalk it up to one of those weeks and get back on track!

Due to injuring myself (see below) I've done very limited anything in the garden, but the harvesting must go on! 

More pickings from my two little Silvery Fir tomato plants - these had split due to rain before I got to them, but that doesn't matter - they still turn into delicious soup, sauce etc! I'm very impressed by the size of a lot of them. This heritage variety is very meaty and delicious. Growing under wondermesh this year, they've done better than every before. I think next year I'll do a whole row of them under the mesh.

Two weeks ago, I showed you a pic of my zucchini plants. All three were infested with aphids like I've never seen on zucchini before, and were quite frankly dying. It's hard to see in the pic, but the leaves were slowly turning black and shrivelling. Every leaf was totally coated in aphids. Normally I would not bother to treat, as usually if a plant gets infested with aphids it's a sign it is weak; strong healthy plants seldom do. But since I had only had two zucchini so far and don't have other plants, I decided to give these a go with a spray of silverbeet water (from cooking silverbeet) and a glug of dishwashing liquid. Well! I can't believe the transformation - there is huge new growth on all three plants, they're looking healthy, and producing new fruit. Yay! I intended to spray again last week, but haven't, so will do that this evening, hopefully. 

A few pickings while prepping dinner last night....

Last Monday, as I was just finishing off writing the last SN2N post, I dashed outside to snap one last pic for the post. As I stepped out the door, the doormat was crooked, and I landed on the edge, my foot folded under me, and I went down in a heap, injuring the other ankle and my knees while I was at it. After a few minutes of deep breathing, I got up, hobbled out, got the pic and came back to finish the post (the things I do for you guys! ;-) ). By the time I'd sat long enough to do that, when I tried to get up I realised I could not weight-bear on the (folded) and very bruised foot. My husband was gone for the evening, so I had to call upon my wonderful eldest daughter to come over and feed all the critters, bandage my foot (she's an ambulance officer) after I'd iced it and get the crutches out the shed for me. I had her put away the duck I'd meant to cook for dinner, and pick up some Chinese I ordered, which I divided up and used for dinner for two nights until I could walk a bit again. 

On Wednesday we took an unplanned look at a property for sale. I cooked dinner (duck) that night. The next day we ended up in negotiations to buy said property, and in the midst of it all I completely forgot to get meat out for dinner. It was also Valentine's Day, so we made the decision to get some takeaways and relax with a movie that evening. 

On Friday, I had chicken out to cook for dinner. The afternoon was spent talking to the bank about finance and then on the phone with an insurance company. The latter dragged on and on, to the point where I ran out of time to cook dinner and make it to a meeting in Palmy that night. So I grabbed some Burger King on the way to my meeting in the 10 minutes I had to spare. Sigh. The chicken made a nice meal the next night though, with lots of fresh veges. 

Sunday we ended up having to stay in town longer than expected to help our daughter acquire a washing machine....Subway for lunch before I came home to cook the birthday dinner for our other daughter.

Well, some of these I could have avoided with some preplanning, but I'm choosing to count my blessings that I did have these options, even if they are less than desirable. 

As for actual groceries:
I had my husband pick up a loaf each of gluten free and regular bread while I was injured, to make lunches simpler, and some almond milk since I couldn't make more ($15.33).
A bottle of milk ($3.43)
I picked up some potatoes for the birthday dinner, since I was running too late to dig some, and got some kumara on a really good special ($3.99/kg) while I was there ($12.90)

Total spending this week: $116.46. Yup, fast food is expensive!

Balance Forward:       $82.72
This week's budget   +$50.00
This week's spend: - $116.46
Balance:                     $16.26

Vinegar tenderises meat and removes gamey tastes: Add 2  TBSP vinegar to a dish of tougher cuts of meats (eg stews) and the resulting meat will be much more tender, and without noticeable gamey flavours. Especially good for duck, venison, wild pork, etc, as well as tougher cuts of beef. You won't taste the vinegar either.

Deodorise with Baking Soda: Place a bowl containing baking soda into a smelly cupboard, fridge or bin, close and leave overnight - it will absorb odours and freshen the offending area. Don't throw the baking soda out - use it to clean a drain or similar that needs it. :-) 

A bit spendy this week, as there were some things we needed....but quite a lot achieved. Read on.... 

I turned one of my newly made jars of pasta sauce into a small batch of spaghetti bolognaise. Oh my word, that stuff tastes soooo good! (Completely forgot to take a pic, but the ones on the recipe page will give you the idea). This time it was just 400g mince, a half-size agee jar of pasta sauce and some home made tomato sauce, served on spaghetti pasta. Optional sprinkle of cheese on top.

I had a hankering for burgers, and fresh bread, so made up a batch of bread, partly wholemeal, and turned it into a plaited loaf and some burger buns. The burger buns got tucked in the freezer for a few days until we had homemade burgers one night (below). 

Here's a dinner one night from the fridge when I didn't feel like cooking as such (and why bother with such a feast on hand?!) - vege nut stuffer, cabbage leaves, Curdito, pickled cucumber, fresh tomatoes, pickled cucumber, and a bowl of reheated left over bolognaise sauce, mixed with the scrapings from a can of tuna, and rice crackers to dip it up with. The flavours! The textures! Sometimes real food just makes you want to drool! ;-) 

I wanted to use up some old carrots and celery from the fridge, and clear more bones from the freezer, so made up two big batches of rich, flavoursome stock - one in the crockpot overnight, and the other on the stove for about 4 hours. I was in the kitchen making the tomato soup at the same time...man it's hard to describe the aromas of fresh bay leaves, oregano, thyme, parsley, and basil from the garden being prepared or chopped, alongside of the garlic and onions, tomatoes and other fresh veges. Cooking real, fresh food is so much more than just making a meal - it's a smell and flavour explosion, a complete experience for all of the senses from start to finish. And I reckon all that freshness and fragrance as well as flavour actually is healing for the body and mind in a way beyond simple nutrition, though that's also at it's peak with these foods!

Burger night! Homemade buns, homemade Best Beef Patties (they're AIP, so NO allergens in them), some sliced young rainbow chard for greens, grated carrot, sliced tomatoes, pickled cucumber, pickled beetroot, homemade tomato sauce, and some honey mustard dressing, plus fried onions. MMMMMMM! 

Tonight's dinner, something fairly quick and simple after being out all day - baby new potatoes, baked in a little chicken stock, homemade sausages, sweetcorn, Curdito, leftover carrots and tomatoes from burger night, and my tomato sauce. YUM! 

These are the potatoes I dug up with my hands on night. I put aside the largest of each variety to replant. Why do most people plant tiny seed potatoes, and then expect a large harvest? Because that's what the commercial companies have convinced us is normal, since they want to sell us little wee "seed potatoes" at inflated prices, ones that are too small to sell for other purposes. But there is a law of sowing and reaping - "As you sow, so shall you reap." If we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly, but if we sow generously, we reap generously. The seed potato is what feeds the new plant as it grows and begins to reproduce. The more food, the better! If you want bigger crops, trying planting bigger potatoes. (Though, yes, it is possible to grow potatoes from small potatoes, potatoes cut into pieces, and even potato skins). All my potato crops this year are grown from potatoes I replanted from last year; last year I planted some new varieties from purchased seed potatoes. They didn't do particularly well, and psyllid was a big problem. I replanted the best of them, and this year's crops are much better. Even more interestingly, psyllid appeared on a couple of plants, and I expected it to sweep through the rest in short order. But instead, they disappeared. These potatoes were dug up from under the psyllid-affected plants, and as you can see in the pic above of them cut up, they were undamaged! 

The Damson plums are ripe....my small tree is in it's second year of cropping - it was grown from a root sucker gifted to me. It's proved to be an excellent cross-pollinator for our other old, and until last year unfruitful, tree. I was told Damsons are only really suitable for cooking and jam making, being quite tart, but if properly ripened, I find them sweet and delicious! They are small plums, with a yellow flesh and small stone. I've saved some stones to grow and produce new trees to give to friends.

Blueberries, strawberries and runner beans are in fairly constant supply at the moment. I out-clevered myself with the beans this year though - remember those sunflowers I planted? I sowed them next to a trellis so they'd be easy to support, and planted beans under both, so that the beans could climb the trellis and the sunflowers, giving them extra climbing space. My sunflowers don't normally get much over 2m, so easy to reach for picking. But this year the sunflowers grew to nearly 4m, and so now the beans have too! I can't safely get a ladder to them, and no way can I reach that high! Ah well, the upper beans will just have to dry and be used for dried beans and/or seed. I'm growing Blue Lake Runner (green) and King of the Blues Runner (purple), but stringless and sweet - yummy raw or cooked.

Despite the storms and gales we've had blow through, my sweetcorn is still upright :-). I put steel hoops over the bed when I planted it, with bird netting to keep the birds off. When the plants got tall enough to be vulnerable, I added some soft-tie around the outside and through the middle of the hoops, to give some gentle support. These plants are also well rooted - they were planted in firmed soil at a depth of at least 5cm, and watered deeply no more than weekly, to encourage strong, deep roots. You can feel how firm they are compared to normal when you shake a plant. The more mature half are now in the process of pollinating the forming cobs. Roll on new sweetcorn! 

One of the things I love seeing most in the garden is a vista of different foods growing in a pleasing array, interspersed with flowers. In this pic there are yacon and dahlias in the foreground, then cosmos, marshmellow, and sweetcorn at the rear. There are also cornflowers tucked around to the left, and potato plants self sown among the yacon. 

I know I posted a pic of my lemon bergamot last time, but it's so pretty, here's another :-) 

This Sunday I spent a pleasant couple of hours with fellow gardeners from the Manawatu Gardeners group, an offshoot of the NZ Vege Gardener's Facebook group, which is THE best FB page ever! I joined as the 500th member about 3 years ago - and there are now over 55,000 members and growing! Growing your own food is certainly alive and well in NZ, and folk are keen to learn from each other and share knowledge. A very supportive, fun group. :-) Our local group try to get together from time to time and visit each other's gardens, share seeds and plants, and have a good chat. Thank you Michelle for sharing your wonderful lifestyle block and gardens with us this time! :-) 

With preserving season in full swing, I'm going through quite a lot of onions, celery, garlic and sugar. I also needed more green tea for making kombucha, and there were a few other things I wanted to add to recipes and experiments. So this week I bought:

Balance forward:        $122.46
This week's budget:     $50.00
This week's spending: $89.74
Balance:                      $82.72

Another week of the spend next to nothing challenge has flown by! This week I made plum jam, cooked up some delicious meals, and checked on progress in the garden....

This week has been mostly about just keeping the food rolling - doing some preserving, using what's already in the fridge, and cooking meals as they come. 

Did you know that Dahlias are super easy to grow from seed, perennial, and the tubers are edible? And of course, bees love them! So many pretty colours to choose from too - and different sizes and forms. Reputedly, some taste better than others, so if you want to try eating them, some experimenting may be required!

All I've purchased was 2 bottles of milk for my husband  - $6.84.
On Tuesday night, after spending the morning butchering and then still needing to put in a full day's work in the office, on little sleep the night before, I decided to heck with it - we're having takeaways for dinner! So we had fish and chips - $13. I could have avoided this, but I simply didn't want to. And very occassionally, that's ok. 

Balance forward:      $92.30
This week's budget: $50.00
Spending:               -$19.84
Balance:                  $122.46

(This one's for the butchers and hunters among you)
Got a load of bloodstained clothes? Chuck them in the washer with a cup full of baking soda, and put through a normal, cool cycle (no detergent). Pull out and spot treat any stains you can still see, or give them a rub with Wonder soap. Chuck back in the machine, add detergent, and put through normal cycle. Easy peasy, and very effective!

Don't thow out any glass jars or bottles, or their lids - they can all be washed, and reused for preserving! Jars and bottles are precious - ask your neighbours for theirs, check out op shops etc, and build up a collection. Buying brand new preserving jars is expensive. I built up a collection of second hand "proper" ones through garage sales etc, and the rest of mine are reused salad dressing, pickle, jam and cordial containers. 

Four weeks down on the Spend Next To Nothing Challenge, and I feel like I could continue for quite some time yet! I *almost* didn't spend anything at all this week - but at the last minute decided to get some extra veges I needed for the preserving I wanted to get done. Updates below.....

This week I carried out a number of successful experiments in the kitchen, as well as doing some old-favourite preserving etc. 

I made up a batch of coconut milk, as well as some more almond milk. Both are easy-as and taste good! I especially like to combine them in cuppas or on porridge/cereal. For smoothies, I use straight coconut milk. For baking I often use almond milk. 

This week has been super busy in the office, so the garden has been mostly about some harvesting, a little watering, and a bit of admiring :-). I really need to get cracking tomorrow night and sow some seeds for the next batch of vegetables!

I picked a 3.5 kg cabbage, my first two kohl rabi, and some broccoli (all of which were used as shown above). I also pulled out a cauliflower plant that was completely covered in aphids - normally aphids attack only weakened plants, and so I decided this one could just go. Another cauli is hearting up nicely, so I bent some of the leaves over it to protect if from sunburn. 

The lemon bergamot (pink flowers below) at the front of my watermelon patch is flowering. Another first for me. The bees love this stuff. In fact, both the bergamot and the watermelon flowers are attracting lots of bumble bees, honey bees, wool carder bees, and drone flies currently. All great pollinators. 

And I've been steadily picking plums, blueberries and strawberries. The first of my purple climbing beans are ready. I suspect some of them will be a challenge to pick, as they're climbing up the sunflowers, the tallest of which topped out at 3.85m!

Balance forward:            $56.52
This week's allowance: +$50.00
This week's spend:        -$14.22
Balance:                          $92.30

Clothing pegs: Keep a small jar of spring pegs in the kitchen - they are a quick and easy way to seal up opened packs of food. 

Easy to see, clean recipes: I keep my personal recipes in sheet protectors in a binder. When I want to use one, I take it out and hang it using two pegs onto a stretchy wire such as is used for net curtains, which stretches across my kitchen window at eye level. The recipe is right where I can see it while working, and it doesn't get any splatter, or is easily wiped clean if it does. 

Best ever drying rack: If you have high ceilings, suspend a rack or the side of a child's cot on pulleys from the ceiling. It's the perfect place to dry laundry in winter, or hang up herbs, seed heads etc to dry in summer. Easily lowered into reach to load, and then pulled up out of the way to hang in the warmest part of the room - near the ceiling. 

The end of the third week. It's been interesting to reflect on how much NOT going shopping affects spending in other areas of life too! 

I managed to do some preserving this week, and try out some new recipes, but didn't get as much done in the kitchen as I had hoped. 

A leg of venison that has been languishing in my freezer since my son got it probably 2 years ago was turned into a delicious slow-cooked balsamic shredded roast dish. I'm looking forward to trying it again using a mutton roast. Beef would be excellent too. The first day I served it on rice with broccoli. My husband had some leftovers for lunches. And then I finished off the rest tonight, reheated together with left over cabbage and cashews, served on cauli rice made with cauliflower from the garden. YUUUUM! 

Quite often dinner is just something simple, like a chicken thigh or some lamb chops roasted in the oven together with whatever veges are handy - potatoes, pumpkin, kumara, yacon, beetroot etc, and served with greens or a salad. You'd probably get sick of seeing the various permutations of that, so I am mostly just posting different meals that I make with recipes I want to post. Some nights I can't be bothered cooking at all, so we eat left overs, or soup from the freezer, or just a collection of chopped fresh veges with maybe some crackers and hummus or toast or whatever is handy that we feel like.

I also made some almond milk - next will be coconut milk. And a friend who was visiting gave us some of his wife's green tea kombucha. It was very, very yummy, and different than mine. So I got all the details, am brewing some up now. In a couple of weeks when I get to try it, I will post all the details if it works out right. 

It's getting hard to keep on top of picking and using things as they're ready! Lots of growth at this time of year, and we finally have had some rain, which has really helped. 

My pumpkin and squash patch in the front yard has exploded! The plants have filled the space, and are now climbing trees, clambering over rose bushes, trying to run into the driveway, and escaping into the paddock. I will probable have to cut back some parts of it. I don't mind how rampant they are (except over the driveway) - just hoping for lots of squash when all is said and done. 

My tallest sunflower, now over 3.5m tall (I can't reach to measure it now), is finally opening. The climbing beans planted on the trellis and up the sunflowers are starting to flower, so there will be fresh, sweet beans soon. I would really like to find some sunflowers that bear multiple heads and don't grow over about 2m, so I can easily support and net them and save the seed from the birds. It's fun to grow super tall ones, but not terribly practical.

The lemon bergamot, watermelons and zucchini have put on enormous growth since the recent rain. Watering with tap water just isn't the same! Nasty chemicals in town water aside, rain water has dissolved nitrogen from the atmosphere in it, and this causes lots of growth in plants. 

This week I bought some items specifically for preserving, as well as a bottle of milk for my husband, and some toilet rolls because they were on a really good special when I went in for the other things. The ginger, raisins, cardamon, dill tips, mustard seeds and chillis are all for preserving recipes. The yoghurt is to make into cream cheese and whey (the whey to be used in natural pickles). These cost $36.14

I also bought a 2 litre bottle of sunflower oil (to make vegan "butter" spread) for $6, and a pair of nail clippers $4.25 when ours broke. 

On Friday we had a date night, and I bought the first junk food/treat items of the past three weeks - a bottle of coke and a small bag of M&M's each. These came to the ridiculous total of $15 (I wasn't paying attention at the time). I wasn't going to count them in these figures, as they're not part of our normal grocery budget, but then I decided I would, after the fact, for the simple reason that they have to be paid for from somewhere, and usually such things would end up coming out of the housekeeping one way or another. Note to self: make a more conscious decision ahead of time in the future and don't get ripped off!

We were in town today much longer than expected, and I hadn't taken any water with us - it was very hot, so we bought 2x $1 bottles of water from the Warehouse.

So total spend for the week: $63.39

Kitty total brought forward: $69.91
This weeks allowance:     +$50.00
This week's spend:           -$63.39
Balance:                             $56.52

One of the things I've really noticed about the last three weeks is how little I've spent in other areas as a result of not spending on groceries. Because I'm not popping in and out of the local grocery store during the week, nor going to the bigger stores in the other towns for my regular shopping, I've spent waaay less on petrol than I usually would. I also haven't spent money on the things other than groceries I normally go shopping for while I'm there. When I usually go shopping, it's once a fortnight or so, and I usually have a long list of errands to do, so it takes most of the day. Which means I usually end up buying lunch as well. So that's another savings.

When I DO go to the supermarket, I've now gotten into the habit of taking my reusuable bags with me. That 5c/bag credit New World is giving on reusable bags really helped me get around to finally making it a habit. Now I do what I meant to do all along - keep a selection of bags tucked inside another one right by the door, and some extras in the car. I've been using reusable bags for my main shopping for a long time (as I generally shop at Pak'n Save), but it's remembering them for those shorter or impromptu visits locally that has been more of an issue up until now. 

Side note - my supply of plastic grocery bags, which I reuse at home to package veges in the frige or to line bins is now running extremely low. Will have to get used to other ways of doing things! It's important though - those grocery bags are a major environmental hazard and do need to go. It's just hard to change our collective habits - though harder in our heads than in reality.

I have so many ideas and so little time - to do them, or to talk about them. I really want to write posts on menu planning, the $21 Challenge, the best books for savings ideas and motivation, and lots, lots more recipes, articles about growing various foods etc. I have a lot more pickling and preserving I need to do, and lots of jobs I need to get done in the garden. Ah well, each day is new, and one can only do what one can do. I'm not into messing with humanity, but if I were, a few clones of myself would be very tempting about now!

I've also noticed that a lot of those things that I've been posting about as handy hints and thrifty tips are things I do without thinking about it. I have to notice myself doing them, write myself a note right then, or I forget when it comes time to writing the post. Like now. I know I've noticed several share-worthy things this week, but right now I can't think of a single one! Next time! 

I hope you all have a wonderful, thrifty week!

I've already posted some recipes and about yesterday's luncheon. I have more recipes to come, but right now just a quick update on spending so far in this Spend Next To Nothing Challenge. 

I have set aside $50 a week to use for essentials or those ingredients that enable me to make something of what is on hand, if necessary. In the first week, I spent $17.99 on dog food, leaving $32.01 in the kitty. Here's what this week looked like:

Balance forward:                            $32.01
Sold a dozen fertile eggs:             +$10.00
Found change around the house: + $3.20
This week's allowance:                 +$50.00
This week's spending:                  -$25.30
Balance:                                        $69.91

What I bought this week:
5 cobs sweetcorn (on special, and just yummy, so a treat - my own corn is still very small) $5
7 onions $1.96
2.5kg flour $2.89
Dry active yeast $3.99
Icing sugar $1.39
2 litres milk $3.72
2kg fresh carrots $5.49
Castor sugar $1.89
​

It could be noted that the flour, yeast, icing and castor sugars were bought basically because we were having guests, and I wanted to make some extra things with them in mind. We could have done without them. Old habits die hard! Ah well - upward and onward! They will all be used for other dishes in the future, as I only used a very little of each on the weekend. 

It's been super hot, and I'm very tired, so will sign off there....a new week starts tomorrow! 

We invited some guests for lunch on Saturday, and I decided I wanted to make a really nice summer meal with a variety of dishes. I thought I'd share them to inspire your own creativity :-). Everything was homemade, and the majority of the ingredients were homegrown. 

Many of the recipes are linked in the menu above. 

Kombucha: My current kombucha is made with green tea, which tends to yield a sweeter result than with black tea. My husband and one of our visitors enjoyed it served hot (mixed with hot water), while I had a cold glass of it. 

Other: Slices of fresh cucumber and tomato rounded out the meal nicely. I could have served various pickles too, but we had more than enough food. It was all greatly enjoyed!

​So nice to share our blessings and bounty with others, and to enjoy fellowship over a meal of good, real food. 

It's been a busy week so far, juggling various jobs about the homestead, office work, preserving, and housework. Let's look at what I've been cooking, how I cleared my shower drain easily and almost for free, what's coming up, and some more hints and tips.

Those who have been checking out the recipes I've posted this week will know that I have made an easy pumpkin soup that will scare away any bugs, a yummy stew which also used up some left overs from the fridge, and I posted a delicious chocolate slice recipe made without gluten, diary or eggs. My 18 yo daughter couldn't tell the difference, and my husband says it tastes just as good as the original. 

Other dinners this week so far have been fairly simple: 
​Spaghetti bologanise on Monday, when I was super grateful I had some left over meat sauce in the fridge and could whip this up quick and still make it to an evening event I had forgotten about, where I got to hear a speaker from Germany describing his low-till, deep mulch horticultural system - very interesting. 
Baked chicken thigh and kumara on Wednesday, along with this totally delicious, incredibly simple dish I made up. It was so good, the chicken and kumara I'd been looking forward to paled in comparision!
And tonight, some roast yacon and new potatoes, both straight out of the garden, a fresh corn on the cob, and a fried chicken breast. Yum! 

I've also done some bottling of applesauce, apple jelly, and pectin, all made from windfall unripe apples, as well as some blackberry jam from berries in the freezer. 

We're having guests for a meal this weekend - folk who haven't been here before. It will be fun to prepare a variety of dishes for them, mainly from the garden/homestead. 

I am going to be building some new compost bins as I need to make lots and lots of compost for the garden. 

I need to preserve some cucumbers, and am thinking about making some kimchi. I also want to make a batch of tomato sauce soon, and more beef stock. 

I've got some beautiful pink chive vinegar I made to show you all, and will use it to make some salad dressings. I also need to decant the red clover flower tincture I've had brewing. 

It's also time to review the basic materials for homemade natural cleaners, and start making up some batches. 

And I'm going to clean my oven using three simple ingredients. 

Pictures, recipes and more on all this coming soon! 

Baking soda is the number one useful product for naturally cleaning your home (and body). It's also stupidly expensive if you buy it in little 400g containers from the supermarket. ($7.48/kg) Fortunately it's easy to buy cheap in bulk. Just get it from your local RD1 farm store - 20kg sacks are around $20 - or $1/kg. They may need to order them in for you, so call or plan ahead. A sack will probably last you a year - and you can use it for all kinds of cleaning. Note, this is NOT food grade baking soda (as it's sold for use with stock), so don't use it in your cooking; I do use supermarket b.s for that. You will also want a suitable big bin to store your bulk baking soda in, ideally one that is airtight.