Awesome Op Shop Finds

As I have mentioned we are all for buying second hand when it comes to our baby due in October and last weekend my friend Sandra and I went Op Shopping to see what I could get.
I did have a bit of a list including some maternity clothes and baby stuff that I would be keeping an eye our for but have plenty of time to source including a nappy bag, baby wraps, and baby carrier.

Do you ever find that some days when you go shopping you can find everything you want and more and other times you cannot find a single thing?  Well it was the former for me last weekend.

In one op shop I came across this baby gym with all the bits and pieces, even the battery operated kick pad, included plus a few extra things (2 rattles and a couple of fabric books and a teething ring) that had been added to the bag.  I had thought we would not bother with one of these as they are not that cheap but this one was only$10 and in great condition.  It was only after I had decided to purchase it that I noticed the original price sticker was still on the bag, $129.95.  Yep bargain.

At another op shop I found a nappy bag that can be worn as a back pack, over one shoulder or hooked on your pram.  It fods out to be a change mat and is is an older version of this one which retails for $119.95 and I paid just $14.50. The only thing it is missing is the toweling mat to change on, no biggie.  Another bargain.

The same op shop delivered up a couple more bargains in the way of modern cloth nappies.  The blue pair turned out to actually be swimming pants but the others were nappies that just happen to be the brand (peapods) we have been looking at.  Both of these normally retail for $20 a pair so the $1.50 price tag was amazing. 

Back in the car and the next op shop turned up the biggest bargain of them all along with some of the maternity clothes I had been looking for.
A Caboo Close Carrier RRP of $139 was marked at $5.  Yep just $5.  It is made of organic cotton and does not look like it has even been used.  I suspect no one knew what this funny bundle of fabric and rings was, the staff had no idea and I had to explain it at the counter.  It was just stuffed on a shelf and is missing the very outer support that is optional to use if you still want to be using it between 10 and 15kg.  If I wanted I could make the additional support but we will not need it for quite a while and we may want to switch to a backpack by then anyway.

Sandra also managed to find me some great maternity clothes.  She found me some jeans $8, a merino jumper $12 and a polar fleece jacket $7.50.  Both the jumper and jacket are XL and I normally take a M - L so there is plenty of room for the bump this winter and the Jeans are a 16 and I normally take a 14 so I will just deal with them being a little baggy in the legs and butt (who knows I might fill them too).

At our final stop they were having a sale and I picked up a polo shirt and an elastic waisted skirt for the grand total of $3.

So for less than $60 I got over $600 worth of things which is an amazing haul and even though a nappy bag and a baby carrier were not on our radar to purchase just yet I could not go past these bargains.

Have you picked up any amazing bargains lately?

Changing The Way I Shop - Update

At the end of May I posted here about how I was going to change the way I shopped in order to reduce our spending due to me cutting back on my work hours so I could go back to uni.

Some things have worked well, some areas have been adjusted and there has been the odd overspend but all in all I am so far happy with how things are progressing and will continue to refine the process.

Things that are working well:

• Checking what is in the garden on a daily basis to see what can be added to a planned meal, can have a future meal built around it or can replace a planned meal so that it does not got to waste.
• Using any gifted or traded food in the same ways mentioned above.
• The new separation of "This Week" and "Future" on the white board has meant I know what needs replacing at all times but can make a judgement on the urgency of that replacement.

Things that have been adjusted:

• The budget has been increased to $70 per week.  This is now made up of my $50 a week plus and additional $20 a week for hubby to spend buying what he likes to take for lunch each day and to top up his milk supply during the week.  Most weeks this consists of 1 kg carrots, 2 kg bananas, 2 kg apples, 6 litres of milk (additional to the 5 litres I buy each week as he drinks over  litre a day) and a bag of some type of nuts.
• Making one of the planned meals each week a meal from the freezer.  This allows me to have at least one night off cooking a week, means nothing needs to be purchased to create the meal which means if we have more left overs than expected that we could create an additional meal from or there is a change of events for the week, we automatically have a meal we can drop from the menu plan with no waste created or budget overspend.
• I have discovered that tracking when I shop is also important as it means I do not end up with any 5 day weeks and know when I can spend a little more if it has actually been 2 weeks since I shopped.

Things that have not worked so well:

• For the first month I did not track when I shopped which meant that there was actually 5 shops in just over 4 weeks, this has now been addressed.
• I over-spent on the budget picking up vegetable specials one week.  Although they were good value that "special" impacted on the budget, meant vegetables in the garden did not get used and other items that were already planned to be used were purchased as well meaning they were not as fresh when they finally got used a could really have been put off until the next week.
• Just having a shopping list and not having a over view of the meal plan for the week with me when doing the shopping meant that I was not able to adjust my meal plan to take advantage of specials as I mentioned above.

Home made Salmon Flan using lots of eggs, silverbeet, spring onions and dill from the garden.

I am generally happy with the new system and these few refinements are making it easier each week that passes but I will continue to look out for other refinements that need to be made.

Have you changed how you shop?

What strategies do you use to stick to a meal plan or budget?

Changing The Way I Shop To Manage The Budget

I have previously posted about  how I use a small white board on the fridge to not only plan our meals each week but also our shopping.

In the past I have always just added items to the list as they ran out, as they were required for meals or as desired by the two of us.  The problem with this strategy is that I end up replacing things that I do not use that often and may not use again for a while.  This has meant that there have been some weeks where we spent more than we needed to get through the week.

So I have come up with a new strategy.
I have divided the shopping list into two sections. 'This Week' for the items needed for this weeks meals and 'Future' which is a list of items to be purchased in the future, that have been used up or are close to needing replacing.
This means that each week when I go shopping I am only buying what is required for that week yet I am not loosing track of what needs replacing.
If I know that the weeks shopping list is small and will not exceed our $50 budget I can add a few extra items off the 'Future' list.  Otherwise they will get purchased when they are actually needed for the weeks meals.

This week for main meals we are having:
Thai Beef Salad - Nothing needed as I substituted some of the ingredients for  others.
Devilled Sausages, potatoes and Broccoli (nothing required)
Spinach and Salmon Flan (nothing required)
Lamb Neck Casserole with Polenta (nothing required)
Chicken and Olive Tagine (tomatoes needed)
Pasta (tomatoes and tomato paste required)

So the food items on this weeks list were: tomatoes, tomato paste, bread, carrots, milk, cream, 00 flour, apples, peanuts and bananas.  Total spend $39.86

There are plenty of breakfast items on hand including cereal, toast and eggs.  For lunches Hubby takes leftovers plus carrots, apples and nuts and because I work from home I can have leftovers, salad, eggs on toast or what ever I feel like.

Our pantry is already bursting at the seams well stocked so we are in a really good place to be cutting back quite significantly on our grocery spend and I am looking forward to sharing with you some of the frugal meals I will be making.


What are you having this week?

How Little Can You Spend - Update

This month I set myself a challenge to spend as little as possible over the entire month and I thought I would update you on how the month has progressed.

I have found it easy to make many meals from our veggie garden, pantry and freezer with just a few editions. Breakfasts were not a problem at all and I was able to do enough baking to keep us well stocked in snacks and lunchbox extras, there were plenty of eggs and an endless supply of cherry tomatoes, silverbeet and herbs from the garden. 

Dinners were where I had to add purchased ingredients, which I expected, but what I had not factored in so much was the amount of fruit and carrots we would purchase over a month.  I am happy to eat the citrus from our garden or that I can get from a roadside tree for free but Hubby is not a citrus fan.

Every day at the moment Hubby takes 2 apples, 2 carrots and 3 bananas to work plus some leftovers, dried pawpaw or a birdseed bar and often a couple of boiled eggs.  That might sound like a lot but he works in a very physical job and works from 6 am till 5 pm so he needs a lot of food.  I am also glad he chooses to take such a healthy lunchbox too.  I work from home so I make it up on the day what I am having.

I was hoping to spend less than $50 for the whole month and here I what I have spent so far:

1 Cucumber:   1.20

4 x 1 kg Carrots    5.64

1 Red Cabbage 2.98

6 Free Range Chicken Drumsticks 4.52

3 x 3 lt Milk 9.00 (we used UHT milk from our stockpile for the rest of the month)

3.84 kg Granny Smith Apples 7.64

1.215 kg Brown Onions 1.93

1 Red Onion .44

1/2 Green Cabbage 1.49

Peppercorns 1.10

359 gm Mushrooms 3.15

2.45 kg Bananas 8.56

1.35 kg Potatoes 2.15

Dried Pawpaw 3.79

Total Spent so far: $53.59 and I am pretty confident we can make it to the end of the month with just a few more dollars on fruit for Hubby.

Some of the meals we have eaten during the month for dinners (and for lunches as left overs) are:

Roast Pumpkin, Quinoa, Feta and Bacon Salad

Quiche

Greek Salad

Home-made Lamb Sausage Rolls

Roast Chicken Drumsticks and Black Bean Salad

Vegetable Curry

We have really used up nearly every package of frozen meat from the freezer over the month and used up the last of our home raised beef which has allowed us to stick to our spending goal for the month.
While the challenge has helped use up some of the pantry staples that have been sitting around for some time (I used up a number of my jars of my preserved tomatoes and some preserved fruit from 2012) there are still quite a few items I have yet to use up including a heap of polenta (not sure why I have so much of it since we do not eat it that often - it must have been on sale), lots of dried beans, and things like my sushi rice and wrappers that need just a few things to make them complete.
So while I will not be repeating the challenge in the same way in September I will be focusing on using up these odds and ends and items I have lots of.

Now I guess I better look into how many ways I can use polenta.  Ideas anyone?

How Little Can You Spend?

I am setting myself a challenge and I would like you to join me.

For the month of August I am going to see how little I can spend on groceries.  For me this includes everything that I would normally buy at the butcher, green grocer and supermarket.  This means almost all of the shopping I do.  As we buy our dog food and chicken food in bulk I know that we have enough to get us through the month.

I thought that following on from plastic free July it would be a good time to do this challenge as it means that because I have avoiding single use plastic in July I was not adding to my stock pile.  This means that going into this challenge I am relying on what I have on hand.
This is also a good time to give the pantry a good spring clean by using up the odds and ends that are floating around and the ingredients that I purchased on a whim for a special project/meal.
I know that I am going to have to get creative and we may be eating some interesting meals over the month, but I already have a good system going for menu planning which you can read about here, which should make it easier.

I do not expect that I will be able to go the entire month without shopping but I am hoping to keep it really limited.

The things I expect I will have to buy are: milk, some fruit, some veg, and a small amount of meat since our cow is still not in the freezer.

I find that it is really easy to get into the habit of shopping for things you like to eat instead of using up the things you already have on hand.  We do not have a lot ready for harvest in the veggie garden or orchard but if all I have to buy are a small amount of these items I will be very pleased.

Over the entire month of August I would like to spend less than $50 and hopefully less than $30.  But that is just for the two of us so your target amount might be bigger than mine.

I have left this post until right at the end of July because if you are going to join in you will not have time to stock up in advance as that is not what this is about.

So is anyone else up for the challenge?  

How little can you spend this month?  What will your target budget be?

A Stockpile Challenge Pt 6

Well the month of February is over and so is the stockpile challenge so I thought I would share how things panned out.
The idea was to use up some of the things in our stockpile and really test how things would go if for some reason we were not able to get to the shops.
As I did not want to completely sacrifice fresh fruit and veg I allowed $15 per week but in the end we actually only spent $32.60.

We had watermelons in the garden and so many eggplants that they made it into most meals over the month. And we had lots of herbs, home grown garlic and chillies so there was always enough for a stir fry (even if most of it was eggplant.
Over the month I used up a number of things both from the pantry and freezer that were nearing the end of their storage life.  I also found some green split peas that were 18 months past their used by date, not that it would really have mattered since they were dried.  They are not something I really enjoy and since they were only 99 cents ( the price was still on them) they got cooked up for the chickens.
Other than the split peas nothing else had expired.
I also used up some frozen rosellas which have been a great addition to breakfast cereal, made plenty of bread instead of buying it and generally got a bit more creative with my cooking.

What did I learn?  Quite a lot really.

We waste food.  Not a lot but more than I am willing to accept.
I always thought we did not waste much food but I think there was a lot of blindness going on.  Little things like half tubs of yoghurt, some pesto, vegetables gone soft or mushy that sort of thing.  Part of the issue is that when we do a lot of shopping at once things get lost in the fridge.  And it is easy to be so spoilt for choice that things you intended to use up do not get used in lieu of more exciting meals.

We still have a huge stockpile.
You can hardly even tell that we didn't shop.

We spend too much on food
We still have a huge stockpile.  You can hardly even tell that we didn't shop.  Based on the amount of food we still have we are spending money we don't need to. There are just 2 of us and we spend about $70 a week on food.  Since this does not include meat very often (we have a freezer full of beef and chicken) I think this needs to be cut back to $50.

We need to change the way we shop.
I am not sure how we got to the point of shopping out of habit but some how we did, well I did.  Hubby leave it to me so I guess I have no one else to blame.

So I have made a decision.  For the rest of this year I am going to not only change the way I shop week to week, but I am going to plan another 5 months where we do the stockpile challenge.

So in March we will be cutting back to the new target of $50 a week and then in April if will be back to the challenge.

If you think you spend too much on food or want to join me in April to work through your stockpile then just leave a comment below.

A Product Review

This is the second time that I have blogged about a local product from Kin Kin Naturals.  

The first product of theirs that I blogged about was their dish washing liquid.  That was back at the start of October after using it for about a month, and I stand by what I said when I said it was a great product.  

We are still using that same bottle of dish washing liquid and there is about 1/8th to go, that's about 8 months so far.  

Now I don't want to deceive anyone here into thinking that I have some magic never ending bottle of dish washing liquid, as that is clearly not the case.  The truth is that we also have a dishwasher which we use once a day.  So as well as the load through the dishwasher we do one lot of dishes in the sink per day for the things that do not go in the dishwasher.  On top of that I often use a drop or two of dish washing liquid on my dishcloth to wipe the stove top, benches and on the cupboard doors.  

In the past I have gone through a lot more bottles in that same period of time so I know that spending that little bit more to buy the Kin Kin Naturals product works out cheaper in the long run, creates less waste and supports a family run local business.

The product I want to mention today is the other one of their products that we use in the kitchen, the dish washing powder.

We have tried a couple of other brands including Earths Choice tablets and 7th Generation Powder.  The Earths Choice worked out a lot more expensive as you would expect being in a tablet and although the 7th Generation powder was close in cost and as effective as the Kin Kin Naturals it is shipped all the way from North America so looses out on the carbon footprint by a long shot and is not supporting local business which is something that is really important to me.

The Kin Kin Naturals dishwasher powder advises that it will do approximately 70 washes but I am sure you get a few more that that as we have been using our current bottle since the end of February and are about to use the last of it in the next few days. 

I have a bit of email correspondence with Felix the owner of the company and asked about other products they are looking at doing in the future and I have also made suggestions about the things that I would like to see in their range such as refill bags for the dishwasher powder and dish washing liquid and a toilet cleaner.   Felix has always responded with enthusiasm to my feedback and suggestions and he has even asked for my opinion on packaging in return.  They have recently expanded their range to include an oxygen whitener so I will be including that on my "products to try" list when I next need some.

I would like to stress that I have no affiliation with Kin Kin Naturals and not received payment for my opinion.  I am just a regular consumer who is happy to be able to give a bit of a plug to a locally made product that I am happy to use.

Look at me Carbon Free

Over the weekend I got a new toy.  Isn't she lovely!

I have been looking at getting a bike for ages and I knew exactly what I wanted.

Must haves included a big bottom seat for comfortable rides, high upright handles so I can ride without leaning forward, a few gears to get me around the rural area where I live, a basket on the front and carry all on the back in case I get fit game enough to ride to town, and of course a pretty colour is important too (I got a mint green).

Bargains

Our local green grocer often has mixed boxes of over ripe and slightly damaged fruit and veg out the front and going cheap.  When ever I see these boxes I snap them up as even if you cannot use everything in the box (and some goes to the chickens) you still come out ahead.  

Yesterday for $3 I got:

1 Overripe pineapple, 2 over ripe mango's, 2 apples with marked skin, 800 gm of button squash, 3 small zucchinis, 7 carrots with their tips snapped off, 2 kg of onions that had lost all their papery skins, 2 kg of stone fruit that had small soft spots in places, 2 capsicums with soft spots and 11 Lebanese cucumbers.

I also got a second $3 box of apples, at a guess about 7kg in total. Most are starting to go a bit soft but they will all stew up nicely.

The one thing you have to do is be prepared to sort it all out asap.

So first thing was to juice the the pineapple served chilled over ice this made for a refreshing drink as I dealt with the rest.



Stone fruit shortcake



Stewed Apple

Most of the veggies went into tomato based pasta sauce for dinner and the cucumbers were made into bread and butter pickles.

I tend to shop on the same day each week so the green grocer knows that I will pretty much always take one of their bargain boxes.  Because of this if they have fruit and veggies that are just a little bit past it they will box them up for me and put them aside till I come in.  Last week I was also lucky enough for them to put aside 2 trays of very ripe mango's for me priced at $3 a tray.  Now I have containers of mango flesh in the freezer just waiting for smoothies, cakes or cheesecakes.

It just goes to show that it really does pay to get to know your local shop keepers and support the small independent retailers.    I would be very surprised if you would ever get this service from one of the big supermarkets.

Eating For Less - The $21 Challenge and the worst meal ever

This is something I have been thinking about for a while and so after borrowing the book from the library the time had come.
Rather than re-invent the wheel I will just use the information on the website to tell you what the challenge is all about, in case you have not heard about it.

It is also worth checking out the rest of the website for all of the other great info they have on saving money.

What exactly IS the $21 Challenge?

In a nutshell, it is a one-week grocery slashing marathon where you can save a big pile of money, de-clutter your pantry and learn new skills all at the same time!

How does it work?

Simple! For one week you try as hard as you possibly can to stay out of the shops.  Instead of going out and doing your usual supermarket shop you have to stretch the food you already have in your cupboard, pantry, garden and freezer to stay within your $21 budget.

It is a fun way to save $300 in one week!

You see, the average household of four people spends $320 per week on food. By completing the $21 Challenge for just one week you will have an extra $300 in hand. This means if you do a $21 Challenge once a month in your household, you can save yourself $3600 in one year.

Inside the pantry, and yes that is a window on the back.  This used to be the stove alcove and the window now looks into the laundry as the back of the house was enclosed.

 Now I have to admit that I knew that we would not have to make much of an adjustment to complete this challenge as we have a well stocked pantry and freezer, a vegetable garden, and a flock of chickens.
I have always been a careful shopper and when I see a product that I know we will use, has a long shelf life and is on sale I will buy a bulk amount.  The most recent examples of this are:
$4.99kg for chicken breasts but you had to buy 5kg min - This was divided into 11 lots and each lot will feed the 2 of us for 2 meals.
$1.99kg for Pitted Australian Dates - I purchased 2kg
.39c 400gm Baked Beans - Hubby takes these to work a few days a week so we purchased 36 cans.

First thing you have to decide is if your $21 is for all meals or just one or two meals, we decided all meals.
Then you do a stock take of what is in your freezer, pantry, fridge and garden. 
This was easy as I had just cleaned out the fridge, my freezer has a list on the outside of what is in there (it is a chest freezer and things get lost if you don't know whats in there) and I knew what was in the pantry.

The freezer list (note all the Pea and Ham Soup)

Then you do a menu plan based on what you already have with the idea of just adding a few extra things to make up the meals. 

So what did I plan for the week and what did I buy?

Meals

Sat - Pea & Ham soup (Not really soup season but it needed using)
Sunday - Home made Pizza
Monday - Thai beef salad with vermicelli
Tuesday - Zucchini slice
Wednesday - Penne Putanesca
Thursday - Chicken Stir Fry
Friday - Bacon and Eggs

Shopping

Coriander
Olives
Capers
Bread
Rump steak
Ham
Anchovies
Spring Onions

Total Spent $19.45

So how did it go?

It was a great feeling to walk into the supermarket with only 1 bag know everything would fit.  It was a challenge though not to buy anything else when you weren't literally only able to afford $21.

Would I recommend it?  Very much so.  In fact I intend to do it at least once a month so that I can use us things that I have surplus of or are getting close to their expiry date.  I really liked the challenge and it really makes you think about waste.  Waste of time when you are not organised, waste of money buying things you don't need, waste of money if you have to throw things out because they were past their used by date.

And what of the worst meal ever????

That would be the pea and ham soup.  It was awful!!!
Even my hubby who will pretty much eat anything said it was bad, and that means it was really really bad. 
I have no idea what went wrong and I am actually a pretty good cook.  But I can tell you that even though I am against wasting food I will be throwing out the other 2 lots of frozen soup in the freezer.  Thankfully it was cheap to make with a left over ham bone and the peas.  We ended up having toast for dinner it was so bad.

Oh well you live and learn, and at least that will free up some more space in the freezer.

Buying Local

Where I can, I like to buy locally made products or Australian products.

But the term Australian made can be deceptive and often you will find terms like : "Made in Australia, from Imported Ingredients" or "Made in Australia, from Local and Imported Ingredients".
Then I have to ask myself is better to buy something made in Australia with imported ingredients or something made with Australian ingredients but by an overseas company?

My hubby hates doing the groceries with me because I read the labels on everything I buy to see where it was made, who by, and are the ingredients Australian.   I find it much more relaxing if he leaves me to it as well so we have an understanding about it all.

I do not profess to know a huge amount on this subject but I do know that it makes sense to spend you money it a way that will have benefits for the community you live in rather than sending it overseas.  A fellow blogger who has been investigating food sources is Rose and you can read all about the Rose Marshall Project on her very informative blog.

According to Dick Smith's website 85% of the products in the average Australian grocery trolley are made by foreign owned companies. This results in $100 million a day going outside Australia. By comparison, in Japan, 98% of goods in supermarkets are owned by Japanese organisations.

There are two key reasons to support Australian owned companies – profits stay in Australia and jobs are created for Australians. If every Australian redirects $10 per week from foreign owned companies and foreign made items to Australian products, Australia would save $4 billion per year and create 100,000 new jobs. (Source: Ausbuy).  The Dick Smith's website has some interesting information about the ownership of brands/foreign ownership and is worth a read.

But lets face it the product also has to live up to our expectations and I believe that if it doesn't we should take the time to give that feedback to the producer so they have the opportunity to make changes and give the consumer what they want.

So today I would like to sing the praises of a product that is all the things I want it to be.  And better than that not only is it a good product, it is a GREAT product. Kin Kin Naturals dish washing liquid.

Our gas hot water unit is old and you have to keep boiling the jug to get the water hot enough, other wise things have to be washed a 2nd or third time.  So as you can imagine a poor quality dish washing liquid only adds to the frustration.  But the Kin Kin Naturals dish washing liquid is top notch and concentrated so you only use a very small amount.

11/5/2012 - Update
The dishwashing liquid is still going and we have about 1/8th left.

I would encourage everyone to look out for it and give it a go, and check out their website for all of the stores that stock their products.

So now I would like to know if you can recommend any true Australian products?

The Christmas Countdown - Planning Ahead

92 Days to go and counting.

I love, love, love Christmas! 

I love the food (the eating and the making) the family time, the time off work, the smells of cinnamon and cloves, Christmas carols and the drinking Christmas cheer. 
I also really enjoy the challenge of finding gifts for people that they will appreciate and teaming these up with handmade gifts or food gifts.

However as Christmas draws closer and the letterbox fills with junk mail I am dismayed at the excessive consumption that is encouraged.  And not just the usual suspect the gift giving department.

Every year we are sold on the "must have" colour scheme/theme for this Christmas and the nick knacks, table decorations and general fanfare that you just "must have to complete the look".  It seems to be all about spend, spend, spend with no concern for waste or excessive consumption.

It is reported that last year 6 million Australians received a gift that they did not use and later gave away.  In addition to this, one survey by the Australia Institute found that on quarter of Australians expect to give presents to people they would prefer not to, and about a quarter of these reluctant givers were unable to pay their credit card in full each month.

According to Clean up Australia Australians produce over 40 million tons of waste per year, much of which ends up as discarded rubbish and in landfill. Over this Christmas we will also purchase additional items such as Christmas trees, food, packaging and unwanted gifts.

Some ideas for reducing waste and cost are to give a gift that is hand made or home made, give an experience rather than a packaged gift like tickets to a concert, a massage voucher (or do the massage yourself), a lesson with a golf pro or an art class.  The options are endless.

If you are on a very tight budget you might consider offering your services on a home made gift voucher rather than purchasing a gift.  Offer to babysit for a few hours or a weekend so the parents can have some time out, cleaning, mowing lawns, or anything that you thing you can do that the other person would appreciate.

And for the person who has everything or if you would rather not accumulate more clutter this year,Oxfam Unwrapped offers a range of over 40 totally unexpected gift ideas that will also help transform the life of a person living in poverty.
When you buy an Unwrapped gift card, your donation helps support Oxfam Australia’s life-changing work around the world. Best of all, your family member, workmate or friend receives an extremely memorable gift card explaining how their special gift is helping others. It’s a way that those of us with a lot can help those with a little.  How about a goat? Or a chicken? Or a pig? Or a pile of seeds?

But if you really have to/want to buy a gift consider buying from a charity as many charities these days have a range of products they endorse in turn receiving part of the profit or choose fair trade.

In our house we have made the decision that all Christmas gifts this year must fall into the following categories:

Homemade or Handmade
Local (within 50km)
Sold by a charity

Yes this might limit our choices but let's just wait and see.  I won't post what I have purchased in case the recipient is reading but I will let you know of any good websites I find.

What plans do you have in place for a low waste Christmas this year?

Buying in Bulk

I think most people these days are well aware of the benefits to the hip pocket of buying in bulk.

If you are lucky there will be a store selling bulk goods not to far from home.

However if you are like me and the nearest bulk store is a 100 km round trip then you need to be smart about your bulk purchasing otherwise any savings gained could easily be lost in the cost of travel.  In addition there are other things that should be considered before buying any item in bulk.

Things to consider:

Is this an item you use a lot of it?

Will you use it all before the expiry date?

Can you store it?

Does the cost of travel to buy the item outweigh any savings gained?

There are also a number of things you can do to ensure that any savings gained from buying in bulk are not lost.

Can you divide the bulk purchase between more than one person?  This allows you to take advantage of the savings while still purchasing items with a limited shelf life.

Can you use the trip to complete a number of jobs so that you are not just making the trip for the few bulk items you might be buying?

Can you car poole and share the cost of the trip?

It is important to do your research.  Is the price actually cheaper than what you normally pay?  Is it cheaper than when the item is on sale locally?  Ask at your local store if they would offer the item to you at a cheaper price if you purchased a bulk amount?

And finally find out from your local stores what items they sell in bulk or are able to sell you in bulk.  Sometimes stores may not carry bulk amounts of every item they are able to get in bulk as there is not a large demand for it.  But by asking the question you may find they are able to order you what you want when they place their next order.

It is also wise to find out what products all of your local stores sell as I recently discovered. 

In researching what bulk items could be purchased locally I discovered that I could purchase Bi Carb Soda and Epsom Salts in bulk from more than one of the hardware stores.  Both items are things we use around the house and garden and have a substantial shelf life. 

I was able to get both at the cost of $1.00 kg if purchased in 25kg bags.  Now that sounds like a lot, but I have been working towards getting rid of as many chemical cleaners as possible from the house and using the good old Bi Carb and Vinegar combo instead, and we go through a lot of bicarb so this works out as a substantial savings for us.



Bulk Bi Carb



What do you/are you able to buy in bulk?

Is there somewhere that you found offering things in bulk that you never would have thought of?

What tips do you have for buying in bulk?

Op Shop Finds

Now like a lot of people I love a good forage around in an Op Shop.  There is something exciting about it.  It is not like going to a retail store selling new items where you pretty much know what you are going to find.

No, Op Shopping is like a treasure hunt and sometimes like a sport where rules apply and more than one person is after the prize and it is best done on a regular basis.
There are a number of qualities that make a good op shopper. 
You have to be patient and take your time to dig through, sort through and look high and low because little gems can be hidden between under and behind other items somewhat less appealing.
You have to know what is a bargain and what is not.
You have to be a good sport.  If someone else picks it up first it is theirs, but if they put it back on the rack/shelf it is any ones.  All savvy op shoppers know that if you want to think about it, keep it with your while you keep looking.
And finally, you have to know when to say no, this is by far the hardest of all.

Yesterday was our second wedding anniversary (cotton) and over the weekend we went out for lunch and while out I found some great little goodies.
The first 2 items were my husbands wedding anniversary present to me and very fitting.  They are something I have been keeping an eye out for over the past few months and thinking surely some will turn up in an op shop soon as I really didn't want to pay full price.
And there they were.  2 white cotton Valances, one for a queen bed and one for a double bed.  Both in perfect condition and made by Sheridan.  Total cost $9.95, thank you very much.  I haven' included a picture of these as they just look like a crumpled sheet at the moment.



My next little find was this Tupperware container used for beetroot, olives or pickled onions etc. I already have one of these but for $4 I will definitely have another.



Then I came across some Fowlers preserving jars 6 size 27 jars, 5 lids and 7 clips for $14.50. Bargin.

Then I found this lovely platter for just a cople of dollars, it has crazing but no cracks or chips and is very pretty and a good size at slightly larger than a dinner plate but not heavy.

And finally some old coffee jars in a rage of sizes for $1.80 for the 4.

Well I was pretty with all of my finds and I love the thought that not only did I not have to pay full price but I also get to give a new life to someone elses old things.

Have you found any bargins lately?