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SN2N: Day 21

21/1/2018

2 Comments

 
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! 

In the Kitchen....

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. 
I had a bunch of cucumbers I picked from the greenhouse, so I made a batch of our old favourite pickled cucumbers (a recipe also handy for excess zucchini), as well as batch of naturally fermented ones using a different recipe. The ones I made last week were just too salty and not as nice as I would have liked (apologies to anyone who made them and didn't like them - I should have waited to taste them before posting the recipe, as I normally would have!). This new recipe has been tested and tasted and is really nice! 

I'm having to remember to use smaller jars than in the past for most preserves, as we don't get through them like we used to!
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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! 
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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. 

In (and from) the Garden....

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. 
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I picked up more fallen unripe apples, and set about cooking them up for more jelly and applesauce. I cooked up the yucky bits too, separately, to feed the chickens. 

Unfortunately, just as the pot full of good stuff was finished cooking, the glass lid just completely crazed. No chunks of glass fell in, but I could feel tiny flakes of glass on the inside when I ran my finger over it, so rather than risk the possibility of any glass in the apples, I will triple-strain through muslin and a very fine sieve the liquids off them and make into jelly after careful examination, but discard the apple pulp, sadly. Ah well. 
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Picked the first cabbage, 3 small cauliflower heads, and first head of broccoli from under the mesh, 8 weeks after planting. Considering these plants normally take about 5 months to form heads, that's downright incredible! The cabbage weighs 2.5kg and will be made into sauerkraut. Homegrown cabbage is so full of moisture that its dead easy to make into kraut and requires very little effort to get the fluids flowing, unlike store-bought cabbage which is usually very dry by comparison. I've made some of the cauliflower into cauli rice, and will use the rest in a ferment. We ate the broccoli - YUM! This cauli looks a bit purple because I didn't notice it had hearted up, and it got a bit sunburned. But still tastes just as good.
I also picked more side-shoot broccoli from the greenhouse - these plants have been in since June and producing steadily for months. I'm contemplating ripping them out and putting a crop of dwarf beans in, as there is lots more broccoli under the nets coming on. 
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I have a box full of rat-tailed radish seed pods I need to shell. Rat-tailed radishes are grown for the pod, rather than the root. The long pods are very hot tasting but delicious when young and tender, and can be added to stir fries and other dishes. I was given some imported seed some time ago, to grow for more seed to share.
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.
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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. 
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Two days ago, I was rejoicing that FINALLY baby zucchini were forming as the first female flowers were pollinated. Checked them today, and they're baby marrows! Will pick them tomorrow.
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Spuds in buckets looking good. Meanwhile, a small bed of potatoes is dying off and will be ready to dig soon. In the buckets I have planted a wide variety of potatoes saved from last year's crops, mainly to perpetuate my seed stock of those varieties. They include Agria, Ilam Hardy, Urenika, Purple Heart, and a couple of others. 


I'm really pleased with my shallot harvest this year (below) I have never had them so big! These are bunching shallots - one plants a small shallot from last season, and it turns into a small bunch of 5-8 or so little ones (usually). In a year where garlic and onions were big failures, getting good shallots is extra nice! These ones were growing in my raised strawberry beds, which may have something to do with it. 
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Week 3 Spending...

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
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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

Observations....

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!
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SN2N: Day 14 Update

14/1/2018

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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
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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! 
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SN2N: A Luncheon for Visitors

14/1/2018

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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. 
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Menu:

Potato Salad
Rice Salad
Coleslaw
Mixed Garden Salad
Slow-cooked home-grown corned and smoked lamb
Homemade bread rolls
Cultured butter
Sliced tomatoes and cucumber
Chocolate and strawberry mousse
Chocolate crunch slice
Kombucha
​Fresh fruit (strawberries from the garden, melon the friends brought)
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Many of the recipes are linked in the menu above. 
The meat was a leg of lamb that we had asked our butcher to corn for us, but had mistakenly also been smoked (making it essentially bacon). I slow cooked this with some malt vinegar and an onion, the day before our luncheon, and served it cold and sliced. It's really delicious like this! 
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For the mixed garden salad: I took a bowl out into the garden to see what I could forage. I came back with: a couple of young rainbow chard/perpetual spinach leaves, some curly kale, some fathen (weed, also known as lamb's quarters), chickweed, stems of broccoli flowers, parsley, NZ spinach, nasturtium leaves, a few fat pea pods, flowers of calendula, pansy and nasturtium. To prepare, I washed everything, fairly finely diced the chard, perpetual spinach and kale, and tossed them together. I stripped the leaves from the NZ spinach and fathen, and chopped both, and added them together with the diced nasturtium leaves and parsley, and tossed. I then layered on the chickweed, brocc flowers (I stripped them because the stems had become tough, but I usually would add them whole or chopped a bit), and then petals of calendula. I sprinkled on the peas stripped from their pods, and garnished with the other flowers. 
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Bread rolls: I haven't made "normal" (gluten containing) bread in ages. Normally I would triple-rise it for best results, with the first rising overnight, but this time I chose not to. I should have, as the rolls were a bit denser than I would have liked, but tasty all the same. I'll post instructions for bread making soon. These were served with the homemade cultured butter, which was a hit.
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The posy of flowers were mostly edible or from food plants: I just picked bits and pieces in the way of small flowers from the garden. Included are flowers of: chives, potatoes, basil, roses, dahlia, cosmos (this one not edible), oregano, carrot, and some sprigs of mint. 
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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. 
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Is there anything nicer than fresh, juicy, sweet strawberries straight from the garden?
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SN2N: Day 11

11/1/2018

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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.

In the Kitchen...

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. 
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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! 
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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. 
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In the Garden....

My tallest sunflower has now surpassed 3m (I can't reach to measure any more) and is starting to form the flower to come. 
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Lots of pumpkins and squash are forming in the squash patch. This one is a spaghetti squash. 
The yacon are a couple of feet high now. I dug up part of one plant to share some crowns with someone who asked for them, and at the same time harvested a tuber for my dinner. I could see lots of baby new tubers forming under the plants already!
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The watermelon patch is growing rapidly. I can see a few baby watermelons forming - hopefully there will be plenty more coming! The zucchini behind it is finally starting to develop some female flowers, heralding the zucchini to come. 
It's time I started picking and hanging in bags some of the most mature of the carrot flower/seed heads, or there will be self-sown carrots all over my yard! 
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The first ripe tomato in the greenhouse has signs of blossom end rot. This happens when there is poor calcium uptake in a plant, which can be caused by a lack of available calcium, or uneven watering. I will give it a dose of dolomite tomorrow, as the plant looks like it could do with some magesium as well, as well as a general plant food. Blossom end rot is common in tomatoes, zucchini and squash.

Around the House.....

My shower drain was running slow. So I used some simple materials to clear and clean it at very little cost and no toxicity. All about how HERE. 
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Coming Up....

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! 

Today's Thrifty Tips and Handy Hints...

Jumbled towel cupboard no more! Do you have family members that love to dig their favourite towel out of your neatly folded stack, causing the pile to jumble and get messy? I fixed this problem by rolling my towels instead, and standing them upright in crates in the cupboard. That way everyone can grab the one they want, without messing up the rest. I even used two crates, and labelled them "Towels for bodies" and "Towels for hands" - the latter where I put the smaller towels we hang up for drying hands on. 
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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. 
Chicken pet mince is available from the Mad Butcher and is cheaper than canned cat/dog food or dog rolls. It's probably also a lot better for them, not having additives etc! Normally $2.99/kg, it is often on special for $1.99/kg, which is when I stock the freezer. Not for human consumption - contains ground up bones as well as meat etc (good for the pets). Feed a small dog such as a Maltese 1/4 cup pet mince plus 1/2 cup veges (any except onion or cabbage, and limit potato). Our large dog was healthy on 1 cup mince and 2 cups veges per day. A cat can have 1/3 cup mince, but hold the veges for them, as they're obligate carnivores. 
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SN2N: Day 7

7/1/2018

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The end of the first week! Today I made a yummy lunch from the garden, experimented with a chocolate crunch slice, and gathered storm fallen unripe apples which I will make into a couple of things. I also look ahead to the coming weeks and how I will be blogging about it, and total up how much I spent this week....

In the Kitchen....

Today I made lunch with bits and pieces from the garden. It was totally delicious! How I did it HERE. 

Real food like that is so satisfying! It's like one's body sighs with satisfication and says "Ahhhhh, now I'm really fed!"
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In the afternoon, I felt the desire for something chocolately and crunchy. Recalling the chocolate crunch slice my kids used to love, I wondered if I could make it gluten, egg and dairy free. So I experimented, substituting the flour for my own GF flour blend, switching butter for coconut oil (turns out it's NOT a 1:1 substitution!) etc. The results look great and taste pretty good, but not quite great enough for me to post the recipe just yet. So watch this space (or share your own GF, DF chocolate slice recipe! On the plus side, I used up the last of the icing sugar, castor sugar and ordinary cocoa here from back when my loves-to-bake daughter lived at home. So that's a bit more space in the pantry. :-) 
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At dinner time, I decided to roast up the rest of the pumpkin in the fridge, so I can combine it with the half I roasted the other day, and make up some good foods tomorrow. I baked a chicken thigh at the same time for dinner, and then found I was still feeling quite satisfied for lunch, and didn't want more cooked veges, so sliced up some carrots and celery to have with chicken and pumpkin. In the end I couldn't eat it all. Though I did find room later on to try a piece of the above slice :-). 
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In the Garden...

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The storm blew some unripe apples off the trees, so I collected those. I'm going to make apple jelly with some, and apple cider vinegar with the rest. Recipes to come. 
The Tumbling Tom tomatoes in hanging baskets that have been sheltering in my bathtub for the past few nights because of the gales from the storm were hung back out on the deck today. All those flowers will soon be lovely little tomatoes! Did you know that tomatoes are self-pollinating and don't need bees or insects? The flowers hang downwards, with the pollen borne high inside the flower, and dropping down onto the stigma which collects the pollen, fertilising it and thus producing the fruit. A breeze or a shake of the plant can help encourage pollen drop, as can the buzz of a bumblebee flying past, but mostly no help is needed for the plants to produce fruit. That's why I can grow them under micromesh against the psyllid and other pests, and still get tomatoes. :-) 
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This week's spending...

Today I purchased a bag of dog biscuits for my wee dog. I've finally found a brand he likes, having turned his nose up at the organic etc brands. It was on special at Countdown, so I paid $17.99 for the bag, which will probably last him about 4 months. 
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And that's all I spent in the past week! Leaving a kitty balance of $32.01 out of the $50 for the week. 

Of course, this is only week one, and I didn't expect to have much difficulty not buying any groceries. The coming weeks will be more interesting. 

Looking ahead...

Tomorrow I'm back to work in my role as advocate and advisor for home educators. This is about a 30+ hour a week job from home, though it varies from week to week. However, between that, housework, animals, gardening, cooking etc, I won't have a lot of spare time. Therefore I plan to post recipes as I can, and do blog updates about twice a week rather than daily. At the very least, there will be weekly updates on this challenge. 

Today's Thrifty Tips and Handy Hints...

Make your own nut meals and flours I find that purchased nut meals and flours often are somewhat rancid, or become rancid quickly. This is because the natural oils in the nuts are exposed to air when ground, and this can allow for fast deterioration. If you do buy ground nut products, keep them in the freezer to maintain freshness for longer. However, I never buy, for example, almond meal or flour these days - I buy whole raw almonds, and when I need flour or meal, I grind it myself. A simple food processor will turn almonds into meal easily. If I need a finer flour, then I transfer some meal to a coffee grinder and whizz it further. If I grind more of either than I need right away, I put the excess in bags and freeze. 
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A coffee grinder is very useful I don't drink coffee, but I do have an electric grinder, which I keep specifically for grinding nuts and seeds. I used it on seseme seed and linseed before putting in my muselis (they are more digestable when ground), and for making almond flour as above, as well as any other time I need to grind such things. Very useful in a lot of raw "cooking" and making health foods from scratch. I got my coffee grinder free with Flybuys points. 
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Write labels on jars in your pantry with a permanent marker - it will wash off with hot soapy water and a brush or cloth, leaving no sticky label residue to worry about. I label all my preserving as well as jars of products in my pantry this way. Works great! 
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SN2N: Day 6

6/1/2018

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I had to spend 4.5 hours on the road today, collecting my daughter from the airport in Wellington. This provided the opportunity to face down temptation! See what else I got up to....

In the Kitchen...

After another night of howling gales and not enough sleep, I kept things pretty simple today. I had cereal and a banana for breakfast, and salmon and tomatoes on GF toast for lunch. Knowing I would be on the road for a number of hours, and returning about 6:30pm, I knew that this would be a time when it would be easy to fall into the temptation to follow habit and spend money. After all, how easy to justify oneself: "I'm tired, I need to feed all the animals, it's just me for tea tonight, it's already late to start cooking, I've been good all week - to heck with it, I'm buying take aways!" Yeah, that's what it would have gone like in the past. So, anticipating this, I cooked up a batch of yummy meat sauce before I left for the airport, so that all I needed to do when I got home was put the kettle on while I fed the animals, then use the already hot water to cook some pasta in a pot while the sauce reheated, and dinner was pretty much ready to go. Faster even than getting take aways. :-) It also meant I could offer dinner to my daughter and her friend - but they were exhausted after arriving from overseas, so just took some meat sauce (which she loves) home in a container to eat later. And I have some more in the fridge for another day too. 
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​A couple of days ago, I was somewhat more strongly tempted, since that time I didn't anticipate it: suffering a time-of-the-month migraine, the idea of some coke and chocolate (strangely, that combo being the ONLY thing that helps those migraines) was tempting, as was not cooking dinner and buying Chinese. I didn't though. It helped to remind myself that "this too will pass" and that I only had a migraine because I had eaten things I shouldn't in the proceeding couple of weeks (over Christmas), so next month, if I behave, it won't happen. And probably the fact that I'm writing this blog also bolstered my resolve. :-) 

In the Garden...

I'm pleased to say that my garden has weathered two nights of howling gales relatively unscathed, though somewhat battered. I feel for all those up north whose gardens saw great destruction, and by comparision have nothing to complain about. 

This evening I popped out and picked a few things - some broccoli sprouts, a few cucumbers, sugar snap peas, and luscious strawberries. Will use these over the next couple of days. (Some strawberries and peas were the perfect follow up to dinner!)
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Today's Thrifty Tips and Handy Hints....

Get all the powder out! Laundry powder in a box with a tear tab and an inner and outer box like the one pictured often gets quite a bit of laundry powder trapped between the two layers. So, before you toss the empty box, up-end it over a suitable container, and shake out the extra - often enough for a scoop or two, depending how much tossing about it's had before it got to you. If you didn't tip it up, you'd never know this powder was there, and you'd be throwing away money.
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Hot Chocolate savings: If you have hot chocate drinkers in the family, it's much cheaper to buy it in bulk. A 400g pack of Cadbury's hot chocolate is $4.99 from the supermarket - or $1.25/100g. I buy it in a 2.5kg catering pack for $14.38 ($12.50 +GST), or 57.5c per 100g, which is less than half price. Catering size packs available from Gilmours, Office Max and similar places - I wait for it to be on special, which it is quite regularly. 2.5kg too much to use? Buy it together with friends and spilt it between you - sharing the savings.
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SN2N: Day 5

5/1/2018

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Day 5 of my Spend Next To Nothing Challenge - stormy, wet weather outside all day, so worked on various things indoors, and such things as making chicken stock, rearranging the freezer, a Price Book, making rice milk, turning pumpkin seeds straight from the pumpkin into a yummy snack, and a delicious vege dish.

In the Kitchen...

Our supply of rice milk for my husband is running low, so today I decided to make some up two ways - with cooked and uncooked rice - to see which turns out best. This morning I set up the raw brown rice to soak in water most of the day, and also cooked up some rice using the absorption method (incidentally, the way I always cook rice for fluffy, perfect results every time!). This evening I turned both rices into rice milk - HERE is how. 
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Since the weather is cooler with the storm howling outside, I decided today would be a good day to have a quick empty and rearrange of my big chest freezer, so make sure like items are together and I have a clear idea of what is in there, where. I hauled everything out, sorting into the three big bins I use as laundry baskets, then rearranged the boxes and baskets in the freezer, stacking things back in groups. I now have:

​3 banana boxes at the bottom of my freezer - one has all the frozen tomatoes I need to make into bottled products, organic tomato paste I bought in a bulk tin and split into useful sized packets, plus some packets of chicken meat for pet food, and some frozen whole nasturtium leaves for making dolmas. The second box is full of assorted bones for making stock - while I was at it I pulled out enough to fill my biggest stock pot, and cooked a load of chicken stock. The third box has various random meats I need to use up - a couple of goat legs a friend got hunting, some venison my son hunted, one of our roosters from a while back etc. Since most of these are in sizes too big for a meal for just the two of us, I'll either invite folk for dinners and use them then, or make into dishes that can be split, then frozen and used for several meals, or gifted to others.

I put packets of frozen beans and other veges into plastic grocery bags to sit on top of the boxes, so they can be collectively lifted out of the way when I need to get to the boxes. Containers of soup are stacked at one end, along with upright banker boxes of chops and more un-sausages. 

In the hanging baskets I put small quantities of meat, suitable for 1-2 people, so I can grab those easily for small meals. Another basket has GF bread in it (and one ordinary), and another has all the small packs of herbs etc chopped and frozen from the garden, and the fourth has containers of stock, ready to grab for use in various meals.
It took less than 30 mins for me to do this, and now my freezer is better organised, and I have made some notes as to what is needing using first. 
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Breakfast was my usual smoothie. For lunch I had baked beans on toast - a couple of cans were hidden in back of the pantry from the last time I bought them on a super good special back when there were still kids at home to eat them! I finished up the last couple of slices of the GF bread my son (who recently stayed) likes. Speaking of baked beans, they're really easy to make from scratch. I have a really nice recipe that my mum gave me that she had from way back when she was a farmer's wife living on an isolated island; I used to make it in bulk regularly and bottle it. I must make some up soon and share the recipe. 
For dinner I made a delicious courgette dish I invented recently. Except that tonight, I first sauted some diced chicken breast in a little coconut and olive oil, and set it aside, then made the courgette dish, then added the chicken in and simmered until heated back through. Yum!


I also roasted some pumpkin from last year's harvest that is taking up space in the fridge since I cut some recently - some to eat for dinner, and some to put on the fridge and make into soup. While I was at it, I scooped out the seeds from the pumpkin, and made a roasted pumpkin seed snack. Pumpkin seeds are very nutritious, as well as being a natural vermicide (anti intestinal worms). They can be cooked with their shells on and eaten as a very tasty snack - the method is simple and you can experiment with various flavour combos.
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I indulged in a dessert treat this evening - a few slices of peaches, a spoonful of So Good Almond Chocolate dairy free icecream, and spoonful of coconut yoghurt, and some chocolate hazelnut butter spooned over it. Yum! 
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In the Office....

A Price Book is a very handy tool that lets you know what the usuall prices are of the items you regularly buy, helps you recognise good prices and become familiar with periodic specials, and is invaluable if you want to tot up how much your grocery list will cost you before you leave home, so you can make adjustments. Having a price book helps you beat the supermarket at their own game - preventing you being hoodwinked into buying so-called "specials" that really aren't, and enabling you to stock up on things at a really good price, saving money. Read all about how to make your own price book and use it HERE. 

Today I revisited my own price book - it's been a while since I kept one, so I decided on a fresh start with a spiral bound address book I picked up from a $2 shop a year or so ago, and haven't really used (I have a much better system for addresses and telephone numbers!). I pulled out all the receipts I could find, and began writing in recent prices of regularly purchased items. I know that getting back into the habit of using a price book to advantage is one way to keep our grocery spending down in future! It helped me a great deal in the past.

Today's Thrifty Tips and Handy Hints...

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Defrost foods without worrying about flies in a hanging mesh food safe, such as the one pictured. I have one just like it hanging on a hook under the eaves of my verandah. It's the perfect place to put packages of meat (sitting in a dish to catch any drips) to defrost, and flies can't get to them. This is terrific in winter when the house is too cold for anything to defrost, but it's sunny or breezy outside, and in summer it keeps bugs away until the meat is defrosted and I transfer it to the fridge until I'm ready to cook the evening meal. It can also be used for drying harvested nuts, drying herbs, and other such things. I found mine at a Salvation Army family store for $8

Better laundry baskets: Next time your laundry basket needs replacing, get a big "fish bin" type bin from the Warehouse instead - they are much more robust than the plastic baskets with holes or slits around them, and hold more laundry too - perfect in a large family. They stack either on top of each other, or nesting for storage, and can be used for so many other things too - bathe the baby or a small dog, use when emptying the freezer, load with items that need transporting to a camp or picnic and so on. Currently $8 for a 42L bin. Mine are 54L ones, and cost $10
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Safely reuse ziplock bags in the freezer: If you use ziplock bags to store various items in the freezer, you can safely reuse them if you keep them frozen. I use large ziplock bags to store opened packs of GF bread, chicken carcasses for making stock, roast bones for soups and stocks etc. If I remove the contents without defrosting it in the bag, the bag remains essentially clean, and I fold the bags and put back in the freezer, then reuse them for the same kind of items again a few times. Keeping them frozen reduces any risk to nil, if stored items are then going to be removed and cooked throughly, such as bones into stock. Bags that have been used to store non-meat items (eg bread, herbs etc) I will wash in soapy water, dry, and reuse. Bags used for meat storage I do not reuse except as above - if they have meat defrosted in them, they become potentially unsafe. Today I emptied a bunch of frozen chicken carcasses from bags into my stock pot, tucked the bags back into one of them, and put back in the freezer. I will use those bags to store the next rounds of chicken carcasses until I'm ready to cook up a pot. Obviously, apply wisdom to how you utilize this idea. :-) 
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SN2N Day 4

4/1/2018

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Today I focussed on preparing for the coming storm, rest, and posting an update on my garden, which I haven't done in a while. And got some other things done too...

In the Kitchen:

For lunch I cooked up some left over herbed sausage meat from yesterday, that I formed into sausage shapes. I had these with some sliced cucumber, red cabbage, and homemade rich red sauce. Yum!
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I cooled, strained and poured the stock, which I started in the crockpot yesterday, into containers - 2 for the freezer and one for the fridge. 
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Dinner was lamb chops, trimmed and baked in a roasting dish with kumara and potatoes, and served with steamed broccoli.
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In the Garden...

A tropical storm is working it's way down the country, predicted to bring  lot of rain and strong gales. The first is sorely needed, the second of concern! So today I added extra support to my sunflowers, moved some pots, put away any loose items, and closed up the greenhouse this evening. 

​I also did a photo tour of my garden, and posted it HERE. 

I also found a hypothermic, sodden duckling in the chicken's water bucket when I went to feed them - it had managed to climb in but couldn't get out. Ducklings swim well of course, but also need time to warm up and don't spend long in the water at this stage. I brought it in, dried it off, and kept it inside my t-shirt for an hour or so until it warmed up, stopped shivering, and became feisty, then returned it to it's mum and siblings.
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Today's Thrifty Tips and Handy Hints

Save vege cooking water: Don't salt veges until after they've been cooked, and save the water they were cooked in and steamed over to either make soups, or to pour on the garden (cooled of course). The water contains nutrients very useful in either situation. 

​Prevent smelly trash bags getting ripped open by animals on collection day: Place all bones and such into a bag in the freezer, and pull out frozen bag on trash day and put straight in the rubbish bag. Animals won't be attracted to it, and you won't have ripped open bags spreading trash around. Also make sure you rinse bags and trays that have contained meat very well before putting in trash, or consider freezing them too.
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SN2N: Day 3

3/1/2018

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It was way too hot outside to do much except some watering, so today was spent mostly pottering in the kitchen....

In the Kitchen....

First I made up a green tea and sugar brew, and set it to cool, so that later in the day I could make a new batch of Kombucha. 
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I have a stash of bones in the freezer for making stocks, and have been wanting to get to doing this, so today I roasted some beef bones and got a batch of beef stock cooking away in the crockpot. 
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While the bones were roasting, I mixed up a banana cake with the two very ripe bananas and the last of the regular milk left from our visitors. My husband was happy to help by cleaning out the bowl. :-) I slipped the cake in the oven when the bones came out. 
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I decided to whip up a batch of raw freezer chocolate. I haven't made this in ages (the girls all used to love it) and the tahini I had last bought for it was sitting in the fridge, well past it's best before date. It had set into something of a solid lump at the bottom of the container, with the oils floating on top. It resisted stirring with a spoon, so I tipped it into the food processor and whizzed it smooth, then made up the chocolate. Delicious!
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Then my thoughts turned to dinner. In the freezer I have a couple of boxes of what I call "un-sausages." A while back, I had asked our homekill butcher to make me some sausages without additives - just the lamb meat put through the grinder and stuffed into casings, since I am allergic to so much. He looked doubtful, but complied. Frankly, they're completely tasteless and need a LOT of help! So most of them have just sat there...and I'm determined to use them up. 

So, I defrosted a couple of bags of sausages. Then I went out in the garden and picked some nasturtium leaves, rosemary, parsley, oregano, thyme and a couple of small (failed) garlic. I washed everything, stripped leaves off stalks, and peeled the garlic, then whizzed everything in the food processor to chop up. Inhaled deeply as I took the lid off - smelled SO good! 

Next I stripped the sausages out of their skins, and put the meat in the processor, and whizzed it until well combined with the herbs (added some salt too). 

Then, working with wet hands, I rolled the meat into large walnut-ish sized pieces, and used them to make Curried Sausage Pie - layered with onion, sprinkled with curry and sugar, spread with applesauce, and topped with mashed potato (I had some rather wizzened spuds to use up) and optional grated cheese. As I type this, I can smell it cooking, and it's smells WONDERFUL!

I've run out of energy for adventure in the kitchen, so it's going to be accompanied by simple beans and peas from the freezer, and some homemade rich tomato sauce. I'll post the recipe for that and the pie tomorrow. 
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Today's Thrifty Tips and Handy Hints:

Make instant gluten-free breadcrumbs: whiz a cup of cornflakes, a cup of ricies, and 1/2 cup quick cook rolled oats in a food processor. I used these recently to crumb weiner schnitzel (after dipping in rice flour, followed by beaten egg, then crumbs). Everyone raved about how good they tasted. Optional - add some chopped herbs and salt. 

Toilet roll tubes make great firestarters: Flatten three tubes and fold in half. Stack together, then slide them inside another tube. This saves space, and creates something with the right density (and air pockets) to burn well when starting a fire. I used to use toilet tubes for starting large seeds, but stopped after it seemed the manufacturers have included something in the cardboard that inhibits plant growth - they would germinate ok, then the seedlings would sit dormant and turn yellow. 

Eggshells: Eggshells are a great source of calcium, and useful in the garden, worm farm, compost, or fed back to chickens. However, they don't break down well when fresh, due to a natural protective coating. To overcome this, and make them easy to crush, dry in the oven. Spread shells on baking paper on a tray and bake for 10 mins at 100C. I discovered that if you recycle an empty dog biscuit pack, which are made from thick plastic, then this makes it super easy to do the crushing without hurting your hands - simply put the shells in the bag, then roll and squeeze it until they are all crushed. Sprinkle crushed eggshell in the worm farm, put some in a bowl for the chickens, add some to the planting hole before planting tomatoes, or sprinkle it around the garden - a thick layer is supposed to keep slugs and snails away from plants, but mine obviously have tough feet because they laugh at it! 
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SN2N: Day 2

2/1/2018

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Today I looked at breakfasts and fruit, turned cream into something else, and made progress in the garden and office. Plus, more thifty tips and handy hints below. :-)

In the Kitchen...

My most common breakfast is a smoothie. Which got me thinking....how much of my preferred ingredients do I have on hand? How long will they last? What about for making museli for my husband? And what about fruit in general?

So, I did a stocktake of breakfast ingredients, and made a fresh batch of museli.

And, a stocktake of fruit - fresh, frozen, dried and preserved. 
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I had a bottle of cream, a bit past it's best before date, which I bought for Christmas but didn't use. I decided to turn it into cultured butter and buttermilk - I will be using the buttermilk for some lacto-fermation in the near future. 
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Lunch was more of yesterday's rice salad and coleslaw, and I had a snack of some kale rice crackers and hummus. 
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In the fridge I found some left over cooked carrots, beans and broccoli. With the addition of a little of this and that, I turned them into a fresh, delicious vege dish for dinner, which I served with some steak.  Yum!

I had the last of the chocolate cake with some coconut yoghurt for dessert. 
I checked on the cucumber pickle ferment I set up yesterday - it was starting to bubble, and now the veges have softened slightly, I added a rock in a plastic bag to keep them below the surface. 
And I did some rearranging and set up a table out on the deck, where I will put my crockpot tomorrow with a batch of beef stock to cook overnight - that way it won't be attracting flies into the house. 

In the Office....

When I grocery shop, I use a Master Grocery List. This list is on my computer, and contains everything I normally buy. Before shopping, I use it to do a stocktake of what we need, and then refine the list for taking with me. (Full explanation and downloadable list HERE). Since I'm not shopping for a while, and am slowly checking over what I have in the cupboards, I decided this was a great time to update my master list and make sure it has everything I buy on it, and to remove anything I no longer get now the kids have left home. I am also ensuring that the items are in the most efficient order - grouping like items even more closely together. I started today by reworking the toiletries and fruit sections. 
I also spent quite a bit of time today gathering up and dealing with the accumulated piles of paper in my office. It's a new year - time for a new start and a catch up on filing, small to-dos etc. When I start back at my (from home) full time office job next week, I want a clear, fresh start! 

A clear desk and an organised paperwork system also helps us be more thrifty - bills get paid on time, avoiding penalties, needed papers can be easily retrieved, and one feels more in control, and therefore more relaxed. How about you, reader - how's your paperwork looking at the moment?

In the Garden....

It was very hot today - too hot to do much outside until evening. This evening I decided to make a start on clearing the jungle that'd grown around (and over) my poor little lemon tree - nearly smothering it in bindweed. I dug out docks, pulled up grass, and got down on my hands and knees with a weeding hook to remove as much bindweed roots as I could from around the tree. The bindweed (convolvulos) itself is most easily removed from a tree by cutting it off at the base, and then pulling the twining vines up from the TOP, not the bottom. I removed a HUGE wheelbarrow load of weeds, and how at least one can see the tree and find the lemons! It started to rain a bit - so will leave it to hopefully get a bit of a soaking (here's hoping!) and then sprinkle citrus food and water in before mulching with bark. Still some more bindweed on the fence to get - will get in there tomorrow.
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The tallest of my sunflowers is now 2.5m and still growing - I've never got them past about 2m before. It's way outstripped the trellis I planted them next to, so tonight I cable tied some bamboo stakes to the top of the trellis, so I could soft tie the sunflowers to them. It's possible we'll get some stormy weather in the next couple of days, and we regularly get high winds here anyway, and I don't want the sunflowers snapped off or blown down! Can't wait to see how big their heads will be when the flowers form! 
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Today's Thrifty Tips & Handy Hints

Take reuseable bags with you when shopping at New World: They will give you a 5c discount per bag off your grocery bill. Speaking of reuseable bags - those bags that the supermarkets and other stores sell are made with plastic-based materials; they are not biodegradable, and not as green as one would hope, being made from virgin materials in far off places. So if you're thinking about stocking up on reuseable bags ahead of the coming ban on plastic bags by the major supermarkets, look instead for ones made of natural materials such as cotton and jute, or make your own at home out of old t-shirts, cotton fabrics, or even re-fashioned feedsacks. There are lots of ideas online, and I may post a few of my own in the future.
Organise your freezer by grouping like items together, and use boxes to hold them in a chest freezer. I stack white bankers boxes upright, with a label written on the side (freeze things flat first, then stack packs of meat, chops, bananas etc in the boxes). I use banana boxes without lids in the bottom of my freezers to hold items (the lids make them a smidgen too long to fit), and stack a second box on top. This just fits under the baskets. Extra baskets are not very expensive, and help make good use of space too across the top. Do leave enough room to slide them to the side when you want to reach something underneath. Ask the manager of your local supermarket's produce department to keep a few banana boxes for you (make sure you collect them when you said you would).
Create your own Master Grocery List by making a list of every item you normally buy in your kitchen, bathroom, laundry etc, and then grouping them together according to where they are located in the store you frequent most often. A list will help you remember everything you need, aid in planning what you can afford, and help you avoid temptation or unnecessary purchases. 

Tomorrow....

Tomorrow I'll post the recipe for making wonderful stocks, and also the info about eggshells. 

I'll also be talking about kombucha and one form of homemade vinegar. 

We'll look at some good ideas for dealing with bones, and a simple recycling idea that will help start your winter fires. 
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