Do you buy your lunches?? or Pre-make them?

I used to be the laziest person out there and decided I would buy my lunch everyday at work. Now I cringe at the thought of spending up to $10-15 a day on crap.

I calculated at least $10 a day minimum of buying lunches at work. That's five days worth at $50 a day minimum thrown away on overpriced fatty foods. For what? For nothing.

Adopting a vegan diet has something to do with it also I guess. It's not very easy to find a vegan dish that will fill you up for a fraction of the price in a public food court.

I have fallen in love with a new website... well it's not "new" as such however it's fabulous for vegan lunch box ideas.
I recently bought a "tiffin lunchbox" type of container... it's stainless steel and keeps things either hot or cold for long periods of time. It's great and it would be perfect for those lunch ideas on that website.

I'm going to draw up a new plan and include alot more salads in my diet to get me through my frugal vegan weeks.

Wish me Luck! I'll write them up tomorrow morning before blogging them all up tomorrow night! Within my frugal budget of course!

NZ Quakes, St Kilda Scandal's, Frugal Bites

So much has happened today! Firstly I want to send love and hope to our fellow sister country New Zealand. Christchurch have had an awful earthquake with up to 65 confirmed dead and many more still missing. It is such a horrible thought to have lost alot all in a matter of 30 seconds.
I really want to donate - I have googled and found this. I'll keep my eye out for an onshore donation site for Australians to offer assistance.

Being frugal has its benefits. Benefits of helping others in a time of need. With just a week alone sticking to a rather frugal regime, I will able to donate more than I probably could have if I wasn't careful with my income.

It's just devestating looking at all the photographs online of the torn down buildings and all the people running through the streets lost and bewildered. It's just awful.

My heart goes out to the New Zealanders. Stay Safe.


On a ligher note, I wish this girl would not hog up the media! If you're in Australia and follow the AFL, you'll know who I'm talking about. She is grinding my gears oonly because she is plastered all over the media websites and social networks. You cannot escape her.

Despite all the bad news today, I still remained frugal and within my limits. Hmmmm...



Breakfast: Warm Soy Oats (Soy milk is starting to run out about now)

Lunch: Mashed Cauliflower and Brocolli rolled in with cooked rice and some grated radish... The mashed veggies kind of made it appetising by adding the milky effect to it. Quite tasty I might add (and very filling)

Dinner: Bananas, Oranges and Apples sliced and diced and thrown into a bowl with a sprinkle of cinnamon over the top of them. Oh that was such a lovely finish to the day.



My supplies are starting to run low... and given the amount that I have saved from this - I could probably allow my weekly spending to $30 in the future and get alot more out of the shopping lists and still save quite a bit.

I'm in the middle of writing up "Emergency Lists" of the vegan variety to have set aside for those "off weeks" when you really are running low on cash having to pay for the horror mobile phone bill, council rates or car registration. We've all been there!

What are your best frugal recipes?

With Thanks to Chef Chloe - Vegan Avocado Pesto

Om nom nom - Avocado Vegan Pesto on the Cheap


• 1 avocado

• 1/2 cup pine nuts

• 3 garlic cloves

• a bunch of basil

• 1/2 a lemon, juiced

• 1/8 cup olive oil

• SALT & pepper to taste :)



MMMMMmmm


Frugal Day's 6 and 7 to come tomorrow..

A new kind of Challenge?

I came across this on a friends facebook page. I could probably do this for alot less? I took into consideration that this would be for a family of four and it also incorporated meat, eggs and dairy.

That comes to a question I want to ask - How much would you spend per week and still call it frugal?

Days 4 and 5 of Frugality. Cheap Fruit and Vege in Melbourne?

I must admit - I wasn't home yesterday or most of today! So, I guess it didn't count as part of my project as people bought me food and the fact that I scored several pieces of free fruit as well! Eeek! back on track tomorrow.

So as for buying fruit and vegetables, where do you all go for that? As msot people know, Australia copped quite a bit of flack from the cyclones and flooding is Queensland. Most of our fresh fruits grow up there which smashed the banana and pineapple plantations. Everything mostly spiralled out of whack which is slowly starting to escalate our fruit and vege prices....
soo.....


Where do you shop in Australia?

I had a look here today - The Caribbean Gardens are generally cheaper than large chain grocery stores by about $1-$2 per kilo.

I know of this place quite well - The Queen Victoria Market has amazing food at low cost price. And if you are a meat eater - I have heard that meat is extra cheap here also. I wouldn't know though - I'm only going by word of mouth being a vegetarian!

If you're game - there is a place in Footscray as well, I found this market to be excellent if you want to buy spices by the gram. Sometimes a recipe only requires a dash of a particular spice and you don't want to buy a whole packet that you're not going to use.

Day Threeeee and still frugal

Day Three - I was feeling a little bit better today... I must have booted out the cold before it hit me which is a good thing.

I stuck to my frugal plan and somehow craved alot of green apples. I guess having them on sale at the local shops was a good thing? haha

Breakfast:
A bowl of oats warmed up with a dash of soya milk.
I was feeling particularly peckish this morning so I downed two green apples also! I was snacking all the way to work!

Lunch:
Pre-made wraps (made with flour water and a dash of salt)
It the wraps, were, home made lentil patties! they were SO DELISH. I think I owe a blog to deliver all of my yummy recipes!

Dinner:
Rice with Pureed spinach mixed in together - it was a light dish.... I love spinach.
I snuck in an orange for dessert.... it was so refreshing after such a hot humid day.

I could get used to this frugal living. I feel like it has forced me to plan ahead which is a good thing. It also allows me to spend that extra money if I needed to don a special spread or fork out for that extra special occasion haha... *cough* birthdays.

Stay tuned for Day Four of Frugality

Oh and a super book showing all the different uses of Bicarb soda and vinegar!!! It's a must read!

Buy books or your Local Library?

The subject of "frugality" and still having fun....I would like to ask you how many times have you read a book that you have bought?

That novel you bought for $29.95 has been read and placed back on the book shelf, only to be skimmed through again or lent out to someone else to read.

I used to do this ALOT. I love books, I hate e-books though! I love the smell of the pages, I love grabbing a book and laying down on my chaise to have a read before bed or during a warm afternoon sitting by the window.

I would have probably bought 2 books a month previously. A decent paperback novel from Borders set me back $29.95 to $34.95. With a book sitting at $29.95 for two books per month - that totals up to $718.80c for a year minimum! Crazy!

So I actually looked up where my local library was (it's sad that I did not know where it was). I walked in with my I.D and signed myself up to get a library card. The librarians were quite mundane about it (just another citzen wanting books) however I was excited like I was when I got my first ever library card at the age of 8.

I now make it a weekly trip into the middle of town to borrow 2 books and 3 or 4 DVD's to watch....for FREE.

This blog I will be updating regularly with the books and DVD's I have seen from the library. And I'll add the amount of what the book would cost to my "savings tally" to see how much I would have saved by not buying them.

Visit your local library today! There is so much stuff in there now that I had no even heard of prior.... I mean,, the latest film on DVD's! Foreign films! Awesome books! For no price whatsoever... actually.. I should say - it's priceless :-)


DVDs watched:

Turtles Can Fly
The Joy Luck Club
Paper Heart
Broken Flowers
The Heartbreak kid
Green Card
Bran Nue Dae
Ugly Melanie


Books read:

Riding the Bus with my Sister
The Diaries
The Terminal Man (this book is quite good!)

Day Two - Frugal Challenge

Breakfast:


Bowl of oats with soy milk (again)
Oats are actually quite filling....I'm generally filled to the brim until lunch which is odd for me!

1 Green Apple


Lunch:

Spinach and veggie mash-up - Oh boy this was VERY yummy.



Dinner:

I wasn't hungry tonight at all! :-/ And that is not good! I wasn't feeling so well so I managed to eat:

1 Green apple chopped up with sprinkled cinnamon I had from my pantry.


I drank water all day.... I wasn't feeling the best today which sort of screwed up my appetite. Nearly everyone is my office is sick with the flu. I'm trying to avoid it the best way possible by avoiding crap foods and drinking plenty of water!

Ugh Wish me luck!

Day One - how did I go?

Okay so day one was alright... I wasn't even hungry? However I DID eat!

Breakfast:
Bowl of oats with soy milk
1 Banana

Lunch:
Boiled Cauliflower and Brocolli mashed with a dash of soy milk
(This is actually my comfort food!)

Dinner:
Rice and Lentil mash up with left over mashed veggies from lunch.

It was rather an interesting combination... the food certainly was not pretty.... but tasty indeed!

I drank tap water via the filter at home and at work....allll dayyy long.

Wish me luck for Day Two.

Frugal Shopping List - Make or Break?

So today was the day I needed to work through a shopping list to keep it under $21 a week for groceries.
I thought that I would go over the limit... and having it based around a vegan diet was certainly a challenge within itself. And I'm afraid I'll starve? who knows, maybe I won't!

The List:
A bag of green apples - $0.91 <--- this was an absolute steal! safeway $1.29 per kilo, 700 grams of apples!
3 Oranges - $1.49 for 500 grams
3 Bananas - $1.56 for 500 grams
Bag of Coles brand Oats - $1.30 (On special at the local store)
1 litre of So Good Soy - $3.30
2 cans of lentils - $3.00 (this was a bargain too - coles brand)
1kg rice from the local indian grocery shop - $4.00 (I rarely buy rice so I don't know if this is cheap or not? I figured rice would make me fuller quicker and not make the meals so bland - argh)
Coles Flour 1kg - $1.32

With just that it is $16.88 so far.

I went to the local fruit and veg market to pick up the following:

Cauliflower, some broccolli, a bunch of radish and 2 cans of spinach - $5.97

Grand total of $22.85.

Okay so I didn't make the cut with my list however, $22.85 is not a bad amount to work with.

And I didn't even buy nuts! Crap.

_____________________________


A 7 day meal planner to arrive in my next blog tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

$21 Challenge? Is it for real?

I'd like to think I am quite frugal in my ways however I still have fun. There was something I have been researching for a while now and I'm not sure if it is really possible especially with a family of 4 or so...however I am willing to give it a go.

Have you heard of the $21 challenge? The challenge is to spend ONLY $21 for the weeks worth of food. The sad thing is that I used to spend that amount per DAY just for me! The thought was sickening. $21 a day down the toilet, every day, on crap.

I was scouring through the internet trying to read up on what it was all about because I wasn't going to pay the $24.99 to buy the book (ironic?), here is a forum back in 2009 that holds a negative discussion about the $21 challenge, and here is a partial success story featuring Fiona Lippey, and here is the book itself.

I want to give it a go. I mean how hard can it be right? I'm a vegetarian edging into the vegan world so this is going to take alot of planning.

My next blog will have my complete shopping list for under $21 (give or take) and the recipes to go with it!
I'll have to shop tomorrow and blog each day as I do it.

I'm just afraid I'll starve by Thursday or something!

I will be up to date!

I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for cleaning products.

I hate forking out big bucks for household cleaning products. I am also not a fan of cleaning haha however, in saying that, I would enjoy cleaning alot more if the cleaning products were cheaper and still did the job quite well!

Bicarbonate of Soda, is my friend... everyone should have a box of bicarb in their kitchen, laundry and bathroom.

I think the two most versatile products for household cleaning, cooking and washing would be both bicarb and white vinegar.

Here is a site that I like with the different uses of bicarbonate of soda.

Some of the favourite uses that I have bicarb for are: placing a bowl of bicarb in small spaces like in cupboards or closets. It can absorb any musty smells. I also sometimes drop a bit of bicarb into a pair of trainer jogging shoes after a sweaty smelly walk in them. I sprinkle a bit of bicarb in the front loader washing machine along with washing powder to spruce up old towels and sheets. It also makes my clothes alot fresher and brighter!

A box of bicarbonate soda usually sets me back a mere $1.98c for 1 kilo. And that's a pretty good price for something just so so versatile!


Now for white vinegar; I found this site quite useful and very interesting to say the least! It has quite a few very valueable uses for vinegar on its own. IGA, safeway and Coles sell cheap white vinegar. Home brand is sufficient! $1.32c for 2 litres last time I was at the shop!

My favourite use for vinegar at the moment is to place 1 cup of vinegar in the washing machine along with washing powder for towels that have gone hard and old over time. The vinegar softens them quite nicely.
It's a pretty cheap idea for a fabric softener! Normal fabric softners tend to be the culprits which are making our towels all hard in the first place!

So, buy bicarb and some vinegar! Always have them stocked in your home! I'm all for saving money and still having a clean home without the use of expensive chemicals.

Bicarb and vinegar used in the home and on floors for cleaning are most likely alot healthier to use around young children, new crawlers and indoor animals.

Eating on the cheap?

Does the following photograph make your mouth water? Well it should.

I mentioned a pet peeve of mine was food wastage. I love cooking in bulk and freezing portions to cook ahead. It is also quite easy for me as I'm a vegetarian. Vegetarian meals are easier to freeze long term and easier to defrost... there are alot of factors that you would need to consider with meat; like, how long it lasts when cooked in bulk and the dangers of re-heating it. And not to mention the cost! eek!



Hence I have never had an issue being a vegetarian at all.



And did I mention it is alot cheaper too!?



The following few recipes are a couple of my favourites and very very light on the budget - Later on I will blog on how to shop for a family of 3 or 4 on the cheap and vegetarian of course... surely you'd love to eat 3 healthy meals a day and not starve and not be broke either! Well that blog will come soon!



Anyhow, now for the recipes of my choice!


Lentil Mash Up


2 Tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 brown onion chopped finely
1 large carrot cut up in pieces
2 stalks of celery chopped into small pieces
1 can of tomatoes (safeway/coles price circa 89c per can)
150gram tin of red lentils (safeway/coles price circa 98c per can)



Heat oil in saucepan and cook the onion until softened, add remaining ingredients except for the lentils.
Simmer for a few minutes and then throw in 1 and a half cups of water and simmer for 45 minutes or so until everything is cooked and softened.
Keep the heat on simmering low. And then add the lentil and simmer for a further 10 minutes until everything is cooked.

Brilliantly yummy.

Serve with coucous or rice... or throw it all in a delicious wrap.


Linda's Baked Apple Dessert


1 Granny Smith Apple
1 teaspoon tapioca
1 Tablespoon of chopped nuts
1 Tablespoon of sultanas
Half a cup of apple juice
Pinch of cinnamon


Core apple and score the skin lightly to prevent it from bursting later on whislt baking.
Place the apple in a pan or in a dish large enough to hold it.
Sprinkle tapioca around the base of the apple (and not in the core).
Spoon all the nuts and sultanas into the cavity of the apple.
Any leftover fruit can be put into the bottom of the pan.
Pour juice over the apple and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake at 180 Celcius or at 160 Celcius if your oven is fan forced for 45 to 60 minutes.

Serve warm or cool topped with the fruits bits. MMMMmmmm

Can you guess how much those recipes cost to make??

The lentil mash up serves 3-4 portions and the total cost set me back a mere $2.97c AUD.

The apple dessert serves 1 person (or 2 if you love to share or don't eat alot!).

It cost a total of $1.89c to produce.

The rice wasn't included in that price but surely rice isn't all that expensive these days.

Can you see the slight example on what I am trying to show you? A quest to save money and live more all boils down to whether you use your resources well. Food is wholesome and most of it grows on this planet .. we pay for the packaging and the brand names that comes with it. We pay for the transport of the foods and the taxes on it...

TAXES on something that grows from the earth... We won't be able to avoid taxes however we can be smart with our foods, our left overs and what we choose to eat.

We can stop waste, save money and eat like royalty.

What is your meal for less than $3 AUD?

Frugal Valentines Day with Love

Go to this website!

Enter "FREELOVE" at the check out for a free, personalised Valentine's card. Just remember to press "Validate code".

For Australian residents only I believe?

However, it is a very cute way to save a buck and surprise your loved one!

Enough about wasting, so how much do you save?

You already know how much you can waste, you see it go down the incinerator or straight out the door in a garbage bag by the load....so how much can you save? or re-use?

There are so many household items that you can re-use, especially if you're a family or even a bunch of roudy housemates.

I had a look at the amount of water bottles I was putting in the recycling bin. I'm a massive fan of cheap bottled water... I love it. But I have thrown out countless bottles out into the recycling bins week after week.

I was sifting through the internet and I don't know why I hadn't have thought of this before however, this site is amazing, Zitta's creations from a PET bottle are simply incredible.

I have all the bits and bobs to make the purse, I just needs to acquire the 20cm zipper strip and I'm set.

I'm actually really excited to have a go at it - I'll post the success as soon as I do it!

So what other things around the house can you recycle? What about that old jar of un-wanted buttons? I mean, what would you do with them? You can't really sew them ALL on something.... or can you? Have a look at this incredible idea!

What other things can we re-use? I'm going to think of different ways to re-use, mend, save items around the house as much as I can. And for a useful purpose! It's just so depressing reading up on the amount of waste that Australians produce alone.

So what about you all? I want to hear what you save, re-use and recycle.

How much do you waste?

So... how much do you waste? How much crap goes out your door into the garbage bins?

Did you know that the average Aussie family bins about $600 worth of food a year? What a waste. And it is probably healthy food too.

As a nation, we waste up to 3 million tonnes of food each year and in my own state of Victoria, the statistics are sitting at an average of 700,000 tonnes of wasted food per year.

Disgusting? Where does it all go? Gross?

If that's Australia, I would hate to think hat some of the bigger population's statistics would be like in countries like China and in the USA.


Another quirky fact that you might be shocked with? Did you know that the average Australian accidently throws out $180 worth of 5 and 10 cent pieces when cleaning or emptying out the contents on their bags?

So it all comes down to, "How much do YOU waste?" and "How much can you save?". I thought about being frugal with my lifestyle. I have read articles on the internet about living "frugal" to try and stop myself from wasting so much crap.

Many would disagree with my views of "frugality".

Frugal
1.
economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful: a frugal manager.
2.
entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty: a frugal meal.

If you were frugal in your life right now? What could you cut down on? How much money could you save for yourself? How much space could you create for yourself? How much more simpler would your life be right now?