Making Ends Meet – Eat What You Have

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Posted on December 12, 2013

In response to my challenge a few days ago, Sarah posted this list:

As far as what’s on hand that’s fresh in the fridge/freezer
– stale brown bread (homemade, not sliced)
– bowl of baby spinach
– grated cheese
– one mushy pear
– some shallots
– ginger
– 2 carrots
– 1 zuchini
– 1/2 red cabbage
– 1/2 butternut pumpkin
– 1 onion (maybe)
– miso soup paste (would love to use this up)

In addition she added this link to her post about the contents of her pantry which is very well stocked.

Sarah also added that she always had access to eggs and milk.

Whenever you are trying to use what food you have on hand, it is important to look at the perishable items first. These will go rotten or become unusable soonest so it is important to use them.

The first meal that comes to mind is Cheese Souffle. This is a recipe that my mother would make, probably when ingredients were a bit thin on the ground but I really loved it and do make it from time to time. Here is the recipe.

CHEESE SOUFFLE

2 eggs
1 cup soft breadcrumbs
½ cup milk
1 onion – finely chopped
1 cup grated cheese
Pepper

Soak breadcrumbs in milk. Separate eggs. Beat egg yolks. Add all other ingredients. Beat egg whites until stiff and gently fold into mixture. Pour into greased ovenproof dish and bake for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees.

I would shred some of the cabbage and grate a carrot. Toss together with ‘French Dressing’ made from oil and lime juice whisked together.

Since the oven will be on to cook the souffle I would make sure a least one other item is cooked as well to get maximum value for money.

You could make Pear & Ginger muffins for snacks. Using the gluten-free flour and other baking ingredients from the pantry make a basic muffin mix and add grated ginger and the mushy pear. HINT: Remove the seeds but you can roughly chop the pear up including the skin. You could also add a few sultanas or chopped nuts for interest.

The night before you make the Cheese Souffle you could soak some lentils and then cook them ready to use.

Make a lentil and vegetable lasagne using the prepared lentils, sliced zucchini and the remaining carrot grated. Cook the lentils, carrot and canned tomatoes with preferred herbs/spices. Make bechamel sauce using milk, butter and flour. Layer these with lasagne sheets and slices of zucchini and grated cheese. Top with grated cheese and bake in the oven. This can be refrigerated and reheated for a meal the next night. You can also divide it into portions and freeze.

The remaining lentils could be mixed with some cooked pumpkin, finely shredded cabbage and chickpea flour to make vegie burgers. These could be served with sweet chilli sauce on a bed of wilted spinach.

I am not familiar with miso soup paste but from my research I would make miso soup and perhaps add some udon noodles for added substance.

Tuna mornay is another meal that comes to mind. Flour, milk, butter, grated cheese and the tin of tuna form the basis of this meal which is served with rice. I generally add frozen peas and corn kernels to the mixture.

Since Sarah does not keep meat on hand or have a great deal of fresh fruit or vegetables at the moment there is a limit to what can be created without compromising her nutritional status. Contrary to popular opinion, fruit and and vegetables are not outrageously expensive. Remember, to only buy what you need and buy what is in season where possible. Make a plan using as many ingredients that you have and only buy exactly the quantities that you need to create the meal.

Remember to use the basic ingredients in the pantry to extend the meat and vegetables. I have done this with the lasagne and also mornay mixture. Other options could be crepes or pies where you could stretch the filling to feed extra mouths.

Another option for the stale bread would be to slice it and make bread cases for pie or mornay filling.

Would you you have done something different with the listed ingredients?

Making Ends Meet – The Essentials

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Posted on December 11, 2013

In an earlier post I identified the essentials for life as shelter, food and clothing.

I talked a bit about food and how you can immediately reduce your costs by creatively using what you have on hand and also the importance of not wasting precious food.

Now for the other 2 essentials before we move back to food.

Shelter

I know it is unwise to assume, but for the purpose of this exercise I will make the assumption that you currently have somewhere to live. This means that you will most likely have the expense of either rent or mortgage payments. These need to be your first priority when you are accounting for money and if you are unable to meet this payments then your situation is very dire. You should seek financial counselling as soon as possible.

It is not a good idea to try to sell or move to another rental property when things are really tight as there are costs associated with moving house, so, if it all possible, it is best to see if you can possibly maintain your current location by cutting back in other areas. If it is absolutely essential that you move, you could consider moving in with other family members as a temporary solution or sharing with another couple or family to reduce the costs. All of these strategies have been done before, and whilst not perfect, they are better than ending up homeless.

Clothing

“It is interesting, because I often don’t think of clothing myself as an essential. When I was trying to save for a deposit for a house, that’s the category I set to zero (save for a three week holiday I budgeted for overseas, and within that budget I was allowed to buy whatever, which happened to include lots of clothes!). Admittedly, most people have clothing, so can skimp for a while. And there’s free clothing, through hand me downs, swaps and freecycle. Or there’s op shops. Still, very interesting reading!”

This was a comment in response to my post where I placed clothing in the ‘essential’ category. Having clothes to wear is essential – we are not in the Garden of Eden – but buying new clothes is definitely not essential! In fact, like Sarah’s comment, in tough times the clothing budget should be set to zero.

Think about this: You had enough clothes last week and nothing has changed so there is no need to go and buy more. Children’s clothes can be let down, patched and created from refashioned adult items. Check out websites and you will find many references to challenging yourself to buy no new clothes for a year. It can easily be done.

A final tip: Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without.

In my next post I will look at what meals I can create using the list of contents of Sarah’s refrigerator and pantry.

Making Ends Meet – Emergency Action

6 Comments

Posted on December 9, 2013

As I mentioned in my previous post, these are the things that you can do immediately that will make a difference.

1 Eat from what you already have

We have all heard the cry, “But there is nothing to eat!” If you are living in a developed country it is very, very unlikely that this is the case. In fact many of us do the grocery shopping out of habit as much as for the real need of buying food. The other thing to consider is that in the UK, USA and Australia research shows that somewhere between 20 and 40% of all food is wasted. Imagine buying 5 bags of groceries and throwing 1-2 bags full straight in the bin. It sounds ridiculous but that is essentially what is happening.

The first step is to make an inventory of what you have – in the refrigerator, freezer and pantry. Then plan as many meals and snacks as possible from what you have. Trawl around the internet and you will find literally hundreds of sites offering ways to create meals from limited ingredients.

2 Stay away from the shops

If you are not there you cannot spend money. It is simple really. Shopping is not entertainment.

3 Curtail your car usage.

Walk or cycle everywhere that you possibly can.

4 Minimise your heating costs

Wear more clothes at home. Put a beanie on. It may not look glamorous but a disproportionate amount is lost through your head.

Do all of these things for 2 weeks and you have immediately saved the equivalent of what you would normally spend on:

Food
Incidental purchases
Fuel
Heating

Try it and see how you go.

If you would like to send me a list of what is in your freezer, refrigerator and pantry right now I will do a menu plan for a week (at least) and use it as the basis of an upcoming post. Just let me know the number in the family and ages of children. You can email me at the address in the ‘About Me’ tab at the top of the page.

Making Ends Meet – Expenses

2 Comments

Posted on December 8, 2013

We all have different expenses and priorities but I will try to cover them all using some broad categories. Not all categories apply to everyone and please add any of your own. Please feel free to let me know what I have omitted.

The necessities are really shelter, nourishment and clothing. There are lots of other things that we see as essential in Western cultures but if we strip it all back these are the bare necessities so we will start with them first.

Mortgage repayments or rent
Food
Clothes

Other ‘essentials’

Debt repayments
Transport costs – car and/or public transport
Utilities – water, electricity, gas
Communications – telephone, internet
Heating, cooling
Education costs
Health – including health insurance
Other insurances – house, car, life

The first thing you need to do is to know how much you are spending in each of these categories at the moment. Some, like rent or mortgage payments will be easy as it is a set amount. Decide on a timeframe such as weekly, fortnightly or monthly and then work out how much you are spending in each category for the specific timeframe. I would recommend weekly or fortnightly, however, monthly is an option if you are paid or receive benefits as your major income source on a monthly basis.

Now, you need to add up what you are spending on the essentials and what income you have. Is you income enough to cover your essentials? If not, you will need to work out how you can cover the shortfall. Increase income? Reduce costs? Even if you have calculated that you have enough income to cover the essentials, now is not the time to be feeling smug. Remember, there is no allowance here for gifts, treats, outings, birthdays, Christmas, haircuts, coffee, snacks or eating out. If you think this sounds extreme, it is, but it can be done.

Read this link from Frugal Queen’s blog. http://www.frugalqueen.co.uk/p/our-story.html I began reading this blog about 3 years ago and it is absolutely inspirational. Froogs pulls no punches about what has to be done to improve your financial situation but she leads by example and we would all do well to follow her lead. Once you have read the previous link, I would strongly suggest that you take the time and read the blog from the very beginning. You will not do it all in one sitting but you will start to see that by taking some fairly drastic action you will see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some things will be relevant and others will not but the message is clear – take responsibility for your own financial position and do something about it now! Cut your spending to the bone. There is no use mincing around the edges and wailing that you can’t do it. You can and you must.

Tomorrow I will cover what I refer to as ‘Emergency Action’. These are things that you can do right here and now that will make an immediate difference. You will not necessarily be able to continue such drastic measures long-term but it will help to kickstart your journey to balance the budget.

Making Ends Meet – Be Honest

Making Ends Meet

4 Comments

Posted on December 5, 2013

The Duke and I have begun planning and booking for an overseas trip in August 2014. It has been a considered financial decision for which we have budgeted. This is in addition to our day-to-day household budget, debt repayments (mortgage and personal loan) and savings (superannuation).

On the face of it, everything looks pretty rosy financially at the moment which is in stark contrast to some other stages of our lives. But everything could change in a blink if one or both of us were to be made redundant from our jobs. We do not really expect that to happen but nothing is 100% certain. We just have to make the best of what we have at the moment.

As I mentioned earlier, there have been times when making ends meet has seemed almost impossible. Unfortunately, there are many people in this situation. I read their stories every day in newspapers, online and in magazines. I see it being played out in cities and small communities all over the world. Sometimes it can be a problem of long-standing (spanning generations) or may be a small blip on the radar due to a temporary change in circumstance.

Whatever the reason, there is a problem when expenses exceed income.

I deliberately left that line by itself because that is the crux of the matter. Read it again. When expenses exceed income. It does not matter what way you dress it up, if you spend more than you earn you will have a problem. One day the credit card will reach its limit, you will not be able to get more credit and the house of cards will come tumbling down.

Enough of the problem. We are looking for solutions. There is no magic bullet and this is going to be hard work. I plan to write a series of posts over the coming days to focus on each of the following points in more detail. If you have personal experience, suggestions or comments please leave them here or you can email me directly at the email address in the ‘About Me’ tab at the top of the page.

1 Be honest

2 Create a list of expenses

3 Sort essentials from non-essentials

4 Make a plan

5 Accommodation

6 Food

7 Utilities

There will be other topics and the structure may change as the comments unfold. However, the purpose of this will remain. It is designed to share collective wisdom from all sources in order to help and support each other.

I look forward to hearing your stories and tips, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. What are the little things you do every day that save you money? Remember, this may make the difference to someone else’s life.

Until tomorrow.

Culling the Cookbooks

6 Comments

Posted on November 24, 2013

Today I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and seriously consider what cookbooks I really needed to keep. I did not have a large collection but I knew that there were some that had survived previous attempts to reduce the collection.

I did not photograph the shelf before I removed all of the books but here they all are on the kitchen bench.

I sorted through and recycled lots of loose sheets of paper – scribbled recipes or ripped out of magazines. If I had not made them up till now it is unlikely that I will. Most did not fit with our current eating plan which is mostly gluten-free. Quite a number of the books were very easy to let go of as they were quite dated and the recipes are simply not to our taste any more.

The pile on the right are ready for the op shop bag. The 3 books on the left each have 1 or 2 recipes which I would like to try, so rather than keeping the whole book, I am going to type them into my recipe file on the computer and then the books will be added to the op shop pile.

I keep two binders with plastic sleeves which are for loose recipe sheets but even these had go a bit out of hand so I spent some time refiling them into the plastic sleeves.

The remaining cookbooks have been returned to the shelf.

Some of these books have barely been opened, let alone actually used so I have promised myself that I will use them. In order to achieve my goal, I am going through each book and making a list of the recipes that I would like to try and the relevant page number. I plan to create a spreadsheet of all of the recipes with a reference back to where I can find it. Today I went through 4 of the books but still have quite a number to go. It will be an ongoing project.

The Duke suggested that I just scan the recipes that I want to keep and then get rid of the books completely. That may be an option for the future but at the moment my goal is to actually try out some of the recipes instead of having a shelf full of books that I do not use.

I have a new cookbook on my Christmas wishlist. It is a gluten-free cookbook. I have made a couple of recipes from it and if the rest are as good it will be a worthy addition to my pared-down bookshelf.

Woodshed – Finished

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Posted on November 17, 2013

As you know, we demolished the old chicken run a couple of months ago but left the woodshed which was attached to the end of the run. There was only chain wire between the coop and the woodshed and this was removed during the demolition process, leaving the woodshed without a side wall. We had plenty of Colorbond sheeting which we salvaged from the demolition and yesterday The Duke created a side wall. We also had to add a narrow strip to the roof and then finished it off with some metal angle, also salvaged.

The finishing touch was to plant a climbing vine that we bought yesterday. It is a Richmond Birdwing Butterfly Vine. I have been meaning to plant one for ages but have not really had the right spot.

I finally finished tidying and sorting all of the wood in the shed. The wheelie bin is also full of kindling. All of the wood is now in one place instead of various spots around the garage and under the house as well as the woodshed.

This is the area where the chicken run was so we are planning on extending the area which is planted with heliconias, gingers and bromeliads. These are currently on the embankment to the left of the photo and we will extend it into the vacant space. I plan to move some rocks to create a defined edge to the area . The ground has lots of leaf litter as well as chicken manure and composted vegetable scraps so I don’t think we will have any trouble getting them to grow.

Just to let you know that starting from tomorrow I will be doing a series of posts about the practical applications of having a smaller selection of clothes. Please join me then.

Furniture Restoration

3 Comments

Posted on November 16, 2013

I do not have photos of each piece but The Duke and I have been busy today, working on 3 different pieces of furniture.

The main piece is a silky oak chest of drawers/dressing table which we finally got around to beginning to stain. We bought it unrestored a couple of years ago and the Duke worked hard to strip all of the paint and sand the individual pieces. The oval mirror which attaches to the top has been dismantled and that was what was holding us back. We needed to have it resilvered and there always seemed to be something more pressing to do. The Duke searched on the internet and found that a large glass and mirror business in the city no longer do resilvering as it is cheaper, easier and more accurate to cut a new one, no matter what the shape or if there are bevelled edges. We will have the frame stained and take it with the old mirror next week to get a new mirror cut and fitted into the frame. Once it is finished it will replace the current pine chest of drawers that I am using.

On the left-hand side of the photo is what was originally our TV cabinet which was used by our daughter for a few years and then found its way back home. Today we have sanded and undercoated it and the finish will be gloss white enamel and it will go in the guest (Air BnB) bedroom instead of the small decoupage desk which is there at the moment.

Finally, there is a pine blanket box standing on its end in the background. We plan to use this as a storage box on the verandah. It will hold BBQ supplies and tools and will be painted ‘Woodland Grey’ which is the colour that we will be using for a lot of the exterior trim as well as all of the fenceposts. We have had this box for over 30 years but it has been superseded in our bedroom by an antique cedar chest. It had heavy rope handles which we removed and are replacing with metal handles. We bought them some time ago from Paddington Hardware along with all the new handles for the chest of drawers. The holes where the rope was attached needed to be filled so I sanded a piece of an old broomstick and cut it into pices to plug the holes. We overfilled them with Plastibond and tomorrow will sand the box including the Plastibond.

It may take us a couple of weekends to finish them all but I am looking forward to taking photos of the finished articles to show you.

Make & Mend – Shelving

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Posted on November 15, 2013

My latest project is something completely different. I designed and made a piece of furniture. ‘Furniture’ is probably a slightly too grand to use as a description for the rustic shelving unit which is made from vintage wooden crates and lengths of undressed pine.

This creation is the culmination of much discussion over a number of years. When we first moved into our home in a country town in South Australia we discovered that the large shed held numerous old treasures that had been collected, perhaps even hoarded by previous owners. Amongst these items were 5 solid wooden crates which had been used to hold explosives. This was evident from the markings on them.

Over the years we have moved house twice, downsized and decluttered many things but the crates, which were someone else’s cast off stuff always managed to make the cut. The Duke would vaguely suggest that we could use them for shelving and they have often been simply stacked one on top of the other and used to store various things in the workshop. I had always had a rough idea of a design for shelving which would make the best use of the boxes that we had. After (yet another) clean-up in the workshop the other weekend my plan finally became clear. I found 2 identical pieces of undressed pine in amongst the odds and ends of wood. The Duke said that they were part of the packaging on the roll of fencing wire we had bought when we were building the chicken run. I needed 8 matching pieces for my planned shelving so I asked at the local farm supplier from whom we had bought the wire. He was happy to give me 6 more pieces that were sitting on a bench out the back of the shop. The pieces of pine would make the ends and legs for the unit.

The Duke trimmed the pine to the length required and we then set about assembling the shelving unit using my design which I had roughly sketched on a piece of paper to convince him that it was feasible.

The only cost was $7.00 for some screws. Some were from our stash but we needed to buy more to complete the project.

The shelves will provide some additional storage in the workshop and were a practical way to use the boxes which had been deemed as too good to throw out. By the way, I checked on eBay and found that similar ones were for sale at between $20 and $60 each. What is my designer original shelving unit worth? I would say that it is priceless!