After my friend Kelly's recent post and link back to this blog about using bi-carb as deoderant I thought I'd better fess up.
I don't use deoderant. There we go, it's out there for the world to know. Only Matt, my mum and a couple of friends knew before today. I promise you I don't stink, well, no one has told me I do anyway!!!
I just got sick of trying every different brand out there and nothing working the way I thought they should, considering all the chemicals and nasties in them, not to mention the cost. Then I read (somewhere, can't remember now where) about using either straight bi-carb or mixing it with different flours, herbs, oils etc and I haven't looked back. It's probably been two years now and it really is just so easy, cheap and effective.
I keep it in a parmesan cheese shaker that I got from the grocery and then just shake a bit on after I shower. It seems to last for ages **warning: another confession coming up** if I haven't showered for a day or two, it's still fine.
So go on, give it a go. I dare you!!!
Showing posts with label Budgeting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budgeting. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Some Op-Shop Finds
In true op-shopping style, I went looking for one thing and came home with a few things I wasn't looking for! Oh well, we'll just have to go to some different shops another day and see if that perfect coffee/side table for our new verandah chairs just jumps out at me!
In the meantime we're having fun:
imagining with this steam train, which was only $2! Elliot was so excited when he asked the lady how much it was because I told him that if it is less than $10 we could get it. Hooray! Afterall, the thing we need around this house is more trains! :)
problem solving with some new puzzles
matching with this bingo game
I love the gamble that op-shopping is, some days it can be a gold mine, other days a huge disappointment. This trip was a gold mine!
I love the gamble that op-shopping is, some days it can be a gold mine, other days a huge disappointment. This trip was a gold mine!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Breaking Ground
Now that we are in our own place we can start getting serious about our food production. The rental we were in was good because it had a big weed-infested garden bed that we turned into our veg patch but now that we've got 2.5 acres of our own space the feeling is completely different. Overwhelming, exciting and daunting all at the same time. We want to plan things properly, taking our time and really thinking about where the chickens will go, what is the best site for the compost etc etc. Luckily for us the site for the orchard was pretty obvious.
The previous owners told us that they had great plans for the gardens and yard but simply did not have the time to devote to it (they are running their own small business). Luckily for us they spent some time (and money) on some pretty good garden infrastructure. There is a bore (that pumps up ground water) connected with underground pipes to many sprinklers (think big farm sprinklers) all over the grounds. This means that we'll be able to water gardens without using our precious rain water (We aren't connected to mains/town water) Two of these sprinklers are behind the house towards the back fenceline. Confusing I know. Sorry. Anyway, we're planning the orchard to be along the back fenceline, two rows 7 metres apart with the trees in each row 3 metres apart, then another row in between with trees 3 metres apart staggered to the outside rows. Even more confusing? It makes sense in my head!
There was one citrus tree already there so we're taking our spacings off that one. Saturday we planted a new mandarin (Emperor variety) and Sunday we planted a very sick Eureka lemon that we've had in a pot. My parents gave it to us for Christmas last year and unfortunately it hasn't been the same since it got decimated by grasshoppers a while ago. Hopefully now it's in the ground it will recover!
I've decided that I'm going to try and stretch my grocery/market/housekeeping money a little further and buy one fruit tree every fortnight, maybe two if they're a good price or need a friend for cross-pollination. After looking around the markets and a few smaller nurseries in town I found that the only place I could get a mandarin tree (it was Elliot's request) was Bunnings. Good for the budget because it was only $20, not so good for the ethics of supporting local businesses.
Oh well, you can't win them all.
The previous owners told us that they had great plans for the gardens and yard but simply did not have the time to devote to it (they are running their own small business). Luckily for us they spent some time (and money) on some pretty good garden infrastructure. There is a bore (that pumps up ground water) connected with underground pipes to many sprinklers (think big farm sprinklers) all over the grounds. This means that we'll be able to water gardens without using our precious rain water (We aren't connected to mains/town water) Two of these sprinklers are behind the house towards the back fenceline. Confusing I know. Sorry. Anyway, we're planning the orchard to be along the back fenceline, two rows 7 metres apart with the trees in each row 3 metres apart, then another row in between with trees 3 metres apart staggered to the outside rows. Even more confusing? It makes sense in my head!
There was one citrus tree already there so we're taking our spacings off that one. Saturday we planted a new mandarin (Emperor variety) and Sunday we planted a very sick Eureka lemon that we've had in a pot. My parents gave it to us for Christmas last year and unfortunately it hasn't been the same since it got decimated by grasshoppers a while ago. Hopefully now it's in the ground it will recover!
I've decided that I'm going to try and stretch my grocery/market/housekeeping money a little further and buy one fruit tree every fortnight, maybe two if they're a good price or need a friend for cross-pollination. After looking around the markets and a few smaller nurseries in town I found that the only place I could get a mandarin tree (it was Elliot's request) was Bunnings. Good for the budget because it was only $20, not so good for the ethics of supporting local businesses.
Oh well, you can't win them all.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Introducing Kenny ...
my new Kenwood Chef Mixer!!!
Actually, our Kenny is not the above model, he is the model below this one, but he looks exactly the same except white.
As you can probably tell, I'm very excited. Very, very excited. I have been wanting a stand mixer for ever and after much researching I decided a while ago that the Kenwood Chef was the one that best suited my needs. I needed something that was powerful, sturdy and could accomodate different attachments. If I was going to part with hundreds of dollars of my hard-saved money, I wanted it to be for something that I was going to get lots of use from!
My secret squirrel stash of savings has been growing slowly but steadily lately. I get a certain amount of money out every week for groceries etc and if there is anything left over at the end of the week it gets squirreled away. Some weeks it's $5, some weeks its $50, some weeks it's nothing at all, some weeks I have to sneak a bit out of the savings! When I started putting the money aside I said to Matt that I was going to spend it on something just for me. Not the boys, not the house, nothing that we needed, just a frivolous want. It's horribly selfish but I spend so little money on myself!
When we were at the shops on the weekend a big department store were having 15% off all their kitchen appliances. We looked, ummed and ahhed, looked again and then decided to have a look at a big electrical store across the road to compare prices. They had a better model with a free attachment on sale!! It was such better value for money than the department store lower model with no attachments and 15% off! So we made a completely spontaneous purchase, even though I've been saving for over a year and researching for a while too!
Now my secret squirrel savings is $0. I've got to think of something else to save for but as it took over a year to save the cash for Kenny, I think I've got a while to decide!
In the meantime, I'm not even taking him out of the box until we move in a month! I'll just go downstairs and look at his unopened box in the "ready to move" pile and dream of the cooking that will be done.
As you can probably tell, I'm very excited. Very, very excited. I have been wanting a stand mixer for ever and after much researching I decided a while ago that the Kenwood Chef was the one that best suited my needs. I needed something that was powerful, sturdy and could accomodate different attachments. If I was going to part with hundreds of dollars of my hard-saved money, I wanted it to be for something that I was going to get lots of use from!
My secret squirrel stash of savings has been growing slowly but steadily lately. I get a certain amount of money out every week for groceries etc and if there is anything left over at the end of the week it gets squirreled away. Some weeks it's $5, some weeks its $50, some weeks it's nothing at all, some weeks I have to sneak a bit out of the savings! When I started putting the money aside I said to Matt that I was going to spend it on something just for me. Not the boys, not the house, nothing that we needed, just a frivolous want. It's horribly selfish but I spend so little money on myself!
When we were at the shops on the weekend a big department store were having 15% off all their kitchen appliances. We looked, ummed and ahhed, looked again and then decided to have a look at a big electrical store across the road to compare prices. They had a better model with a free attachment on sale!! It was such better value for money than the department store lower model with no attachments and 15% off! So we made a completely spontaneous purchase, even though I've been saving for over a year and researching for a while too!
Now my secret squirrel savings is $0. I've got to think of something else to save for but as it took over a year to save the cash for Kenny, I think I've got a while to decide!
In the meantime, I'm not even taking him out of the box until we move in a month! I'll just go downstairs and look at his unopened box in the "ready to move" pile and dream of the cooking that will be done.
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