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Review of My spending and goals for 2007

December 14th, 2007 at 09:05 am

As I start my new annual budget each year around now.
I am reviewing my past spending and goals before I start posting my goals and plans for 2008.

As you may have read, I had a spending spree this year.
New Front Door & Security Door, 3000L Tank, Water Hot Tank, New Mower, New Computer & Printer etc, Digital Camera plus extras, Holiday Interstate.
All bills paid on time throughout the year
And credit card at Zero balance at end of each month.
Best of all I’m still under my pension income and things are looking good for next year goals.

My goals & plans for next three months ~ December to February.

~ No Spending but for planned items. (If I have an item in the house or can borrow it, then I’m to use that first.)
~ I have only two gift vouchers for Christmas to buy as all other gifts have been bought.
~ Saving as much cash I can for a new stove & oven later in the year.
~ Have my credit card at Zero balance by end of the each month.
~ Come under budget. (Only if you don’t count major project)
~ Deposit into the online accounts.
~ Pay All Due Bills on pension days or ahead of time. (As my budget is now in Excel, I can see a working model of these figures. When due and approx amount needed for each month.)
~ Chiro visit (one every 4 weeks)
~ Known outings to budget for in December - February –dining out 5 times
~ Live off my Bulk Food Assets & Storage Assets
~ Gardening Mowing & weed back garden & put water saving techniques in place.
~ Cull & de-clutter computer files not in use.
~ Downsizing storage areas and clean these areas (zones 9, 10 & 11)
~ Lay a load wood chip that our neighbor hood (10 households) got for FREE, so far I have moved 30 Wheel borrows full for my garden. Still wheel borrows more to go.

My Last Refund Arrived

September 9th, 2007 at 10:22 am

During the last week my last refund for my tank arrived, $500. Bring the total to $1500, therefore the water tank cost $90 out of my own pocket, and it’s full with rainwater as we had rain in the last few weeks.

I have been saving money with my medical bills also, as I have been to a number of different specialists and have had a number scans. So far as I’m on a pension and most but not all doctors do charge a different rate. It has just cost so far $105 out of my pocket, but without these rebates & Medicare on these services would have cost over $1000.

I will have to get back to writing more regularly as then I will keep to being on track a lot better.

Finally my lawn mower died!

August 19th, 2007 at 10:36 am

So today, I went to Bunnings our major hardware to check out the prices. About 3 years ago I was thinking that I had to buy one then, so I had worked out which one I was buying and how much I would pay for it. You can get many cheaper lawn mowers but as this one I hope will last one I will be buying if it last as long the last one. It was coming up to about 30 years plus, and it came with the house when I bought it.

I had motor fix a few years ago hoping it would last around 10 years that was about 6 years ago. I decided when I had to pay any more money on this one it was dead. It has been breaking down and pieces falling off over that time.

As I just went in to look as I was there on Monday was a friend, and saw that brand on special for $419 so I went back today to see which one it was! It was not the one I wanted but one down from it, so I check the price on my chosen one and found it was $50.00 off the price since I last price it six month ago. I had set my mind that was close to what I would have to pay for it around $500, so I did buy it today for $449. I got one made in Australia too! The company is planning to make them in China next year. Three years ago they were around $489 so something has come down in price. I had to put it on my credit card but I will have it paid off before bill comes in. I have save for this lawn mower three times then had to buy some else so I just got it, as it would has cost between $35 - $ 50 to pay someone to mow my lawn every three weeks just to mow weeds. I spent some more money on a few odd & ends that I found there for my garden too!

Weekly Main Meal Menu
Sunday ~ Pea & Ham Soup with toast
Monday ~ Chicken Mustard with Rice.
Tuesday ~ Garlic Chicken Schnitzel with Tomato Salsa & Steamed Vegetables.
Wednesday ~ Hot Beef Curry with Rice.
Thursday ~ Chilli Con Care & Corn Chips
Friday ~ Sweet & Sour Fish with Rice (Pineapple & Vegetable.)
Saturday ~ Scramble Eggs on Toast

My Spending today $489.00

Water Tanks

July 8th, 2007 at 06:41 pm

I have been very busy this week so
Here a link to pictures of water tanks. More to be found on the links too!

Text is Pictures & information on water tanks and Link is http://www.enviro-friendly.com/water-tanks-australia.shtml
Pictures & information on water tanks

Mine is a round one 3250L and not pictured here as it’s a Bushmans one. But you will get an idea want it looks like from these.
I will try and update later in the week.

Whose kitchen taps still leak!

June 17th, 2007 at 08:36 pm

Well I did spend some money this week.

My kitchen taps have been leaking if not turn very hard, My handyman friend drop by, said he would have a look at them last week. Today he came after he finish for the day as he had to work this morning on a job. They were very dirty under the handles and the swindle parts need new o- ring washers and new o- ring on water faucet part too! That I didn’t have in fix it drawer in kitchen so we had to go the hardware this afternoon and buy set of washers and a new garden tap that was leaking too! There was two kinds garden taps to choose from on sale 1st one $10.90, 2nd one was $5.87 just made in different countries. Price different for a taps that will not be used too much until we are using hoses again, so I bought the cheaper one. Costing $8.35 all up. Saving $5.00 on that choice.

On the garden front, we pruned the Gardenia in the front garden so it’s not so stressed, as don’t wish to let it get to high.

Weekly Main Meal Menu

Sunday ~ Minestrone with Toast
Monday ~ Chicken Mustard with Rice.
Tuesday ~ Garlic Chicken Schnitzel with Tomato Salsa & Steamed Vegetables.
Wednesday ~ Hot Beef Curry with Rice.
Thursday ~ Chilli Con Care & Corn Chips
Friday ~ Sweet & Sour Fish with Rice (Pineapple & Vegetable.)
Saturday ~ Scramble Eggs on Toast

My Spending today $8.57
Any Savings today $5.00

Major Project on the Garden – Landscaping part of backyard.

June 12th, 2007 at 10:07 am

Owing to the rain my ground was soft enough to work on last week. So I start tidying up the pumpkin patch area. When my handyman friend arrived and started to help out. I had three wheel borrows of dirt from putting in the tank area plus two other piles of dirt. So we got to and clear this area and mowed the whole yards lawn. My mower is about to be replaced very soon. So will need to put as side about $500 for a new one. I may get three more mows out it if I am lucky I had plan to replace it last year so its not to bad that I got another year out of it. It was bought in mid 70’s so it time for a new one, I hope the next one will be my last one.

On the first day we worked on getting the ground cleared and lawn mowed. The 2nd day we made two gardens area. Still need to do a third area. We recycled all the soil and ran it through a sieve that I had too! I had bought a few years ago some garden edge that were never used. So had that also five bags of potting mix to replace the soil in the large pots that I have a Neen, Bay, Curry Trees in, these can’t go into the ground but must stay in pots. They are on a cement slab so the roots will not go into the ground as they will grow too high for the area that I have here. Another problem is next door has Cocos palms that’s a weed in our area, I have to keep on the look out for these as I don’t wish to pay a fortune to have them cut out in the future. I did find four young plants when we were clearing the areas too! I the new garden I have used only plant that I had in my garden taking some from others area and cutting of other plants. Any plant that dies before the drought end will be not replaced. On the three day I work on my own planting all the under plants using want I had around the place, Iris, tee tree native, rosemary, geraniums, a lot of bromeliads, gladiolus bulbs (that I had laying about) & snowflake. All have lasted in my garden as well as the crotons that I have in the front yard for many years with very little watering at times. So there is one more area to work on and the pruning in late July of the trees & the hedge until this time next year when I will need to clean up again. I don’t do any gardening but mowing in summer and our summer starts around late October temperature wise. We got a first cool weather after the 1st June this year until then it was over 28 C everyday.

Four days of no spending days here.

A Bit Lazy or Down this last week & Menu

June 11th, 2007 at 09:21 pm

I have been a bit lazy with this blog of lateas I have been watching the Big Brother program here, too much TV anyway. I will try get a little more with it and blog a bit more often and I will post a full update tonight.

On the rain front, we end up getting one & half days of good rain here. My tank & all the tanks that were in stalled are now full. But elsewhere in the country (NSW) have been in trouble with a low of the coast and flooding and tanker running a ground in the height of the storm. A whole family of five was washed away when a road gave way. Another couple lost their lives when a bridge gave way, such a lost too! Just before that we had train crash in Victoria with eleven people dead when a semi-trailer ran into a train at a level crossing.

Weekly Main Meal Menu

Sunday ~ Vegetable Soup with Toast
Monday ~ Chicken Mustard with Rice.
Tuesday ~ Devilled Sausages with Mashed Potato & Peas
Wednesday ~ Pasta with Pasta Sauce & Tuna
Thursday ~ Beans Rissoles & Salad
Friday ~ Poached Fish with Steamed Vegetables
Saturday ~ Garlic Chicken Schnitzel with Tomato Salsa & Steamed Vegetables.



It's raining here!

June 6th, 2007 at 11:52 am

For the last 24 hours it's been raining on and off all day & night. Still more to come for next two days.

This is enough rain to fill our new tanks up and enough soaking raining around the dams that any more rain will start to run into the dams. It's needs over 50mm of rain each time for this to happen at the moment as the ground is SO DRY. Some areas have had over 100mm, around here over 50mm so far.

I went out last night and was in the city when the rain started. No money spent but I had free food. In mall, I saw the down pipe working in full force. We have roof on one the covers there, that make a water fall when it rains. The pond at the bottom was empty last time I saw it now it full then drains into water tank. They have made a large storage water tank under this area so that it can be used to water the gardens in the Mall.

Well I have done it!

May 22nd, 2007 at 10:44 am

I just paid off, the last payment for my doors of $400 as my handyman friend has returned from his holiday this week. Call in to do a little bit of work around the place too! Hood cover for my tank’s motor. He also put extended the pipe into my sunken pit area in my yard. All excess rainwater heads there before sinking into the ground. It’s nice to have such a good friend and all these small jobs he did today, I had in my workshop the materials for each job I never spent a thing. It's great when you can do a job and not have to run to the hardware for this screw or that right bolt for each job. No wonder my friend’s think I have a gold mine at times. I didn't have the right tools in something’s but what I didn’t have he did. I made him, his morning tea and lunch then we went to the bank to get the money thatI own him. He is going to price sand blasting job for me for those three wrought iron chairs I bought a few weeks ago. They do need to be sandblasted. I will have to pay for this to be done. He will take it to sandblaster for me. I went into the supermarket while I was out and only bought some eggs & candy $3.39.

My Spending today $403.39

Going Shopping My Style

May 6th, 2007 at 09:39 am

I am making a habit of going shopping with others and not buying at all or very little. They are the ones who are doing all the shopping. Today was no exception as I went with DF-M daughter, from interstate. First off, we went to Bunnings Hardware to buy some things for DF-M. Then came home then went off to buy shoes. After 2 hours Shopping, she spent money on shoes but I didn’t buy anything. After visiting five shoes stores. To find her size 35 (3.5 size) was the most difficult part of this exercise. As only one store had her size and they had a sale on too! So she end up buying them for $30.00 off the RRP. All I ended up buying was a special tap handle for my garden tap $14.95, that allows me to leave the tap with no handle but I can use it with a special key.. After I had lunch with them at DF-M house before I came home.

Weekly Main Meal Menu

Sunday ~ Macaroni Cheese with Fruit
Monday ~ Beans Rissoles & Salad
Tuesday ~ Chicken Schnitzel with Tomato Salsa & Steamed Vegetables.
Wednesday ~ Omelette with Tomato Salsa
Thursday ~ Devilled Sausages with Cheese Risotto & peas
Friday ~ Poached Fish with Steamed Vegetables
Saturday~Curry Mince on Toast

A Antique store closing down sale.

April 23rd, 2007 at 09:53 am

I end up buying three wrought iron patio chairs that need a little TLC. Rose style for $30.00 all up, I did look up the price new about $79.00 each. Four new wrought iron patio chairs in a rose design with a table in England was price at 399 pounds, that’s about $1000 here.

DF.- D bought a top of glass bookcase that she will put on top of cupboard that as already own. This is the third one she had bought in the last few weeks. Her house is an early 20th century style that has this kind of furniture in it, she love a bargain so will buy something she likes and can use for the right price. I went to pay for a book that I found in this store and was given it for Free. Yes, it’s a cookbook ‘Esquire Cookbook’ (1956). Its making very interesting reading as it’s written for men. I did buy one other item today a 12-inch high Arab boy figurine with a tray on his head for $10.00. I don’t think it’s antique for one moment (more like reproduction) but in that style and I like it. Costing $10.00. I think the value would be around $50.00 – $100.00 as that is what we are paying stuff like that here. The quality finishing on it is like more expensive pieces that I have seen.

I did Phoned about tank installing date today. It’s now around the early May before they can install it at my place. I will not pay anyone until it has been installed on my property. The people that have supplied the tank have sent an invoice but I will not pay this until I got my tank. They don’t know that I haven’t received the tank yet! If I get a reminder letter then I will phone them because then I will know that other two companies involved (deliver & installer) have not done they job.

Today’s Full price Tally $287.00
Today’s Savings - $247.00
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $11411.46

No Spending Day

April 22nd, 2007 at 10:20 am

Well I may get a few no spending days this time, as today is another one.

The most important thing I did today was watering my garden after 4pm until 7pm. It is taking about 70 –80 minutes to water my whole garden beds with a bucket or watering can. I trying to use as much grey water that I have each time I do water. I do like to have it finish before the daylight goes but soon it will be dark at 5pm here. Some parts of my garden don’t have any lights so will need to do these areas first in the future.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Pumpkin & Carrot Soup with bread & Hummus spread.
DINNER Spaghetti Bolognese Coffee




Fruit trees in my garden

April 21st, 2007 at 10:11 am

I went to visit my Greek neighbor’s place for morning tea and chat. I had some Greek Easter bread that was leftover from Easter. I don’t go as often as I do to my other neighbors.

After I came from to work in my computer as always doing something and exploring Internet after over 7 years on net. Other than picking some fruit off my Persimmon tree, I have been eating them as my fruit for weeks now, and I am on my third tree. DF-M has two trees and has had every large crop this year but the bugs did get to it so you couldn’t give many away but I ate them any way. Mine have been netted since December so the bats & bird are still keeping away, it has about 30 Persimmons on it these are different variety more like a Fuji fruit from DF-M. They sold here for around 99c to $2.00 each. My Meyer lemon tree has a lot of lemons on it but it under stress so I am pruning it a bit so it will have less stress on it. I also have passionfruit vines but they are only now starting to flower & set fruit.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Crackers with Ham, Hummus & Tomato Fruit Coffee
DINNER Curry Ground Beef top with Mashed Potato in Shepherd Pie Style

No Water for 40% food producing areas

April 20th, 2007 at 10:14 am

Today I did very little in the way of saving money. But I did tidy up my garden and start pruning a few trees & shrubs in the front yard. The way I look at it, the less branches & leaves the tree has to feed the better. As we have very little water too water our gardens. I am doing my best to use only grey water.

Now by June 2007 Federal Government (Canberra) is going to stop allowing irrigation of our food crops in Murray Darling Basin which runs from north of Brisbane to all of NSW, Victoria & (South Australia which is they main water supply.) Only water for humans allowed.

Here are two links on this topic.

Text is Food source in drought and Link is http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=262081
Food source in drought (now working)

Text is Irrigation cuts could fuel a rate rise and Link is http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=262079
Irrigation cuts could fuel a rate rise

What will happen if we don’t get drought breaking rain before Summer (December) 2009?

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Turkish Bread with Hummus Lettuce Tuna Marinated Feta with Marinated Peppers
DINNER Poached Fish with Salad Coffee

Lunch at Hungry Jack’s

April 16th, 2007 at 12:01 pm

I did the washing today saving all the grey water that I could. Using every trick that I have mention before in other post so that I could to get every drop. This routine does take a little of more time (around 1½ hours for two loads and one load of hand washing) than when I can just leave it to go down the drain.

After I did drive up to the Hungry Jack’s for lunch. They were having a two for one deal again so I had a Spicy Chicken Baguette for $5.25 for both. Using my senior card I was able to get two cappuccinos for free saving $4.90 and I bought a cone for 40c. So as I only ate one baguette at lunchtime I will have the second one for my dinner, as I was able to refrigerate it before it was unfit to eat. Less than two hours is the limit we have been told here. Four elderly people have died in a nursing home from food poisoning just last weekend and over twenty are very ill. This was in Victoria but the risk of food poisoning here is high because of our hot climate so we maybe more watchful.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH lunch out *
DINNER 2nd Spicy Chicken Baguette Grapes Coffee

Today’s Full price Tally $10.55
Today’s Savings - $4.90
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $10612.51

Watering the garden at Level 5.

April 15th, 2007 at 09:57 am

I have always watered in the early morning at dawn. Now I have to water only after 4pm until 7pm with a bucket only. But I can water at anytime if I have grey water or tank water. As my tank has not arrived yet! We had no rain for a month now, so it will have no water in it until it rains next when does arrive. We are on a odd & even house numbers as before. So now I have to change my jobs around so I can water in the afternoon before sun goes down, that only gives me about one hour to water the whole area. Some plants only need watering once per week so I will do them on the odd day. As I only water twice per week now. I will have to change my strategy on which plants to water and when. With the view that we may not be able to use buckets or water our gardens at all when we get to the next level in about September at 15% dam water level. My daily water use is only 129 litres per day. So I am saving money on my water bill. $12.50 for 3 months is not bad!

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Macaroni & Cheese Fruit Coffee
DINNER Stewed Lentils & Tomato Sauce & coffee

Good Friday

April 6th, 2007 at 10:02 am

I limited my chores to a little bit of gardening today. As we go into level 5 this coming Tuesday I charges some of my fence plants to drought loving succulents. As I like to have some plants on my brick wall so that they can’t be stolen so easily I have them in bricks with no bottoms if you move them off. I have lost plants before this a few years ago now! There were some ivy geraniums there but there were starting to look awful. Other than visiting s few neighbors this morning and saying Hi to others. I have had a very no spending day. Next week will be different I will be spending up then I hope!

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Turkish Bread with Hummus Lettuce Tuna Marinated Feta with Marinated Peppers
DINNER Poached Fish with Salad Coffee

Recycle Grey Water

April 3rd, 2007 at 08:19 am

Today list of chores was washing and some ironing. This is saving money as I am saving every bit of water for my garden in the backyard. As some of you may have read that I do save first suds load to put back into the machine for the second load thus saving 80L of water each wash day to start with. I am saving as much recycle grey water that I can now we are at level 5.in a few days time. I am getting around 240L of grey water each washday. In doing so now I am saving the second suds load too! This is for plants that if I lost them it will not matter that much. So far I am able to water for two days with water and spot water the pot plant with tap water on the days that I am allowed to use potable water. I am hoping that my tank arrives soon & we get some rain so that I can fill it somewhat! We are coming into our dry season I do think it will have not much water to fill it before next spring. It’s over month that we in the city have had any rain here and almost 2 years in catchment area, now my grass is a just a lot of weeds and dry grass with dirt patches. I will still have to mow as the weeds are still flowering. That’s on the list for next week.

I did do some of my friend business shirts today also some of my own ironing that was still to be done. I did go for a walk around the block for some exercise today.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Macaroni & Cheese Fruit Coffee
DINNER Stewed Lentils & Tomato Sauce & coffee

Doing a bit of Shopping

April 1st, 2007 at 09:04 am

Early this morning it was time to do a bit watering in the garden. We have a limited time to water and only on certain days too! In a few days time we can only water two days per week, at the moment it’s three. Mine will be Sunday and Wednesday. This is what I have been doing along with a pot plants top up on Friday’s. I still doing it mostly with recycle water but I can use tap water on these days at curtain hours in early morning. Lucky I have lights that I can use, as it is still dark when you can water at 4am to 8am and first light in winter here is after 6am.

In went shopping today using my car and bought some fruit & vegetables and groceries that were on special. Saving $3.40 here.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Tuna and Cranberry Sauce Sandwich Apple Coffee
DINNER Beans Rissoles & Salad Coffee

Today’s Full price Tally $20.30
Today’s Savings - $ 3.40
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $10476.41

A day of rest after mowing the lawn

March 7th, 2007 at 10:45 am

Well I mowed my lawn today to cut down on my weed flowers. Saving $35.00 on DIY.
After towards I had to have a good rest as it was very hot mowing here temp in the 30C.
My power & phone bill arrived today will need to pay them next pay. So I didn’t get much done today after all!

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Crackers with Cream Cheese & Herbs Fruit Coffee
DINNER 2 Egg Cheese Omelette and Pasta Sauce & Grilled Peppers Fruit Coffee

Today’s Full price Tally $35.00
Today’s Savings - $ 35.00
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $10,298.47

No spending day

February 10th, 2007 at 09:01 am

Well it’s another no spend day all I did today was the lawn again it did rain here a bit but it was no drought breaker though, and the weeds have grown. I mowed until the mower stopped then have up just a small part not mowed. It’s where my pumpkins are growing so I may leave it to them.

At lease the weeds are down around here and no seed that my main aim in mowing in a drought. I get dew each morning so may grassy weeds and some grass is a bit green in most parts some bare brown patches in parts too!

Today’s Full price Tally $35.00
Today’s Savings - $ 35.00
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $ 9882.02

Buying Paint & Saving Money

January 27th, 2007 at 08:05 am

My handyman friend came by so we went off to buy the paint for the door project. It’s my job to do all the painting which I like doing. So the doors are new and have never been painted before I will just varnish them and let the natural wood show through no straining before hand. This look does take me back to my childhood days. Why does wood needs to be strained so you have a fake wood colour of another wood? As I do like to have the best paint I can afford when I do paint and good brushes etc. This is an area I don’t try to cut back on. I did get a 10% discount off with a voucher on total of the docket. Saving $4.83.

My friend had taken my Free wheel borrows, wheel away a few months ago to fix it and return it today. So that job is now done. As he wouldn’t take any money for it so saving $15.00 on that cost. Now I have 3 wheel borrows but one is for cementing jobs only as I can’t move it when full so I had to buy a new one 15 years ago that I could move. Now I have a 2nd one that I can use in the garden. If I had to wait for someone to come over to move it the jobs would never get done. So everything that I buy, I must be able to use and not have to wait for someone else to do it for me! $$$ Another Strategy

Today’s Full price Tally $ 48.35
Today’s Savings - $ 19.83
2007 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $9538.86


Bird Net & That Ironing Project

January 9th, 2007 at 08:01 am


I did a rack of ironing today, that was the business shirts for my neighbor’s son so I am ahead on time. As this was only thing required before his mother comes home in eight weeks time but I am planning to have it all done and out of my house before he comes home in two week’s time.

My other project for the day was to get the bird netting repaired & the extra piece added to it. There is a trick to put it together too! First you do needed to repair any holes from the last time it was used. I did this by laying out the bird net on the ground then getting some clothes pins/pegs and putting them, where the hole is so I could fix all the holes at the same time.

So here is my steps for this project.

Step1 Find the hole, tag with clothespin then look for more until all found.

Step 2 Get a safety pin or bobbin using a thick NYLON string (50m roll I had bought last time I fixed it at $2.00 store). Thread the nylon string around the holes one row past hole making a circle then pulling the thread tight & tie off that hole with a knot. As so on until all holes are done. My bird net had about 15 holes to fix this time.

Step 3 Using the same nylon string, I sat in the backyard on a stool looped & knotted every 2 inches, the extra 4 x 4 metres on the old bird net. Making it now over 8x5m long with the other piece added to it.

Step 4 Now I need to get it back over my Persimmon fruit tree, which by the way is now over 6 metres tall. I do have a special long pole that I recycled a few year’s ago. That I use to lift the bird net over this tree. The Flying Foxes (Bats) to still can get at the fruit but only the ones nearest to the net. We have a large 100,000 Bat colony near where I live. $$$ Another Strategy

Catching up with my washing today!

January 6th, 2007 at 08:06 am

Well have finish my entire neighbor’s washing, it’s time that I did some of my own.

I have left it a bit long in doing to its time schedule but just by a few days. I did do two loads a little larger than normal this time. My going out clothes for Christmas & New Year are in this lot for hand washing. I do hand washing, as this does save on wear ‘n’ tear on good clothes and helps with not going into a third load as I only use one-eighth of the water in hand washing. As I did kept one bucket of sudsy water for hand washing from the first load and use some of rinsing water from the first load also. $$$ Another Strategy Ways of save water in a drought. I did water the garden while I was washing as I was using recycle water this was allowed.

It’s a no spending day here. A very quite day just work on my computer and resting.

Gardening - Stage Two

January 3rd, 2007 at 10:09 am

Well have I finished stage two of my gardening project, that is put all the cane mulch, along with digging and fertilizer the soil beforehand. This did take a few hours so it was done in two 2 hours lots over the course of the day. Then clean up the area and put away all the tools.

I have a strip bed garden that was laid out by my father over 35 years ago. Some of the plants were in the garden when we came here then or in neighbor’s gardens at the time. Seven large Crotons which take up most of front strip beds and is only 24inch wide,(these shrub should not grow there but they do) you only have a few feet between each for any others plants as my father had planned was to make a hedge of them. I have a liking for Geraniums and have five different dark reds & pinks colors and ivy geraniums two different colors in pots. These grow between the Crotons and in colors that blend with them. Also there are two Azalea, one is Red Wings. In one part of the front garden the crotons are have meet so I have bearded iris growing under them. I have a few gladiolus growing, I just leave them in the ground as we do have a warm climate here.

There are other bulbs in there too, Yellow Callas, Hippeastrum and Snowflake. I do let Italian Parsley grow wild if it take hold between weeding’s. In this area I have four small beds with one very old Gardenia that came from a neighbor’s yard when they going to make a office carpark of the backyard it was very sick at the time, now I have the best one in the neighborhood and ixora chinensis ‘Prince of Orange’ which came from this garden also. There are other plants in pots on the front porch including orchids and my herb garden.

As I don’t water the garden very much at time, just a light water once a week if it doesn’t rain and mainly its recycle shower water. These plants are the one that seem to grow well in this area without too much trouble as we will be going into level five water restrictions soon! I would like my water tank in before then as this the garden that I will keep going as it will be NO Watering with town supply. I hope you can still use rainwater Tank water & recycle water only. If it gets too bad than I will have to see what will be left in the end. The crotons have keep growing even when they were never watered. I like my Crotons as they do make a beautiful color show with all those red & yellow leaves and they are over six feet tall.

My New Year’s Day

January 1st, 2007 at 08:23 am

I had a quite New Year Eve and end up going to bed around 10pm. As I was going to sleep at the computer while watching TV. I have a TV beside my computer, I can see some of the programs that I may miss at times.

I did a bit of gardening this morning not much, but an hour of trimming the edges with scissors as I have more energy at 5.30am than any other time of the day. No power tools allowed before 7am and 8am on Sunday and public holidays a local council by-law. Don’t want to wake the neighbor’s do we!

This afternoon my DS & DIL arrived to go shopping at Target in my local centre. But it was closed so we went of, to the city Target store that was still open. They just bought some marked down Christmas cards @ 50% off. You can get a better range if you do buy some at 50% off mark down price, than waiting to buy it all at 75% off markdown. Here most is junk or broken packaging items or very slow selling lines when it gets down to that price. $$$Another Strategy

I didn’t buy a thing, so another No Spending Day for me.

Happy New Year to all.

Another spending spree

December 31st, 2006 at 09:25 am

I wanted to go the Hardware store here, to get some bird netting for my persimmon tree. I need to make it larger as the tree has grow bigger now, the one I got is to small so I will need to add more netting to it. 4m @$2.76 =$11.04. I got some recycle bags with three bags in each. RRP $3.96 x 3 $11.88 I paid $1.00 each =$3.00 saving $8.94. Also bought a 60L rubbish bin it was not on the docket when I got home. So saved $10.00 here. I saved $18.94 at hardware store.

I went off too the supermarket on the way home. I had a look the Christmas special there. Not much but some Christmas bags. I bought Grapes, which were on special costing $2.78 and only one item at full price for $1.11.

8 small @ 49c & 4 medium Christmas Bags @ 79c each. $1.00 off each so I saved $13.00 here Christmas Cake $3.49 …saving $3.50
Calendar 99c saving $1.00
Frypan $7.99 … saving $4.90
4 x Easyo Slimmer Yoghurt $1.33 each …saving $3.42
Le Rice $1.40 …saving $1.39
Complete Family Salad $1.10 …saving $1.18
Sweet Corn $1.30 ….saving $ $1.15
Sponge cake $2.00 …saving $1.98

Total cost $34.40 but saving $31.52 on RRP before Christmas.

Today’s Full price Tally $116.32
Today’s Savings - $ 50.46
2006 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $8842.61

Gardening stage one

December 30th, 2006 at 08:07 am

Today is working in my front garden, first stage. As I don’t have a lot of energy no job or project is completed in the same day, if it take more than 2 –3 hours to do. I can do a few tasks in one day but not a lot. Gardening is one that needs to be done in stages. Weeding and mulching my front garden will take more then a few hours.

So today is the stage one. Pulling out all the Italian parsley that has gone to seed and save some seed heads. I put all this green mulch into my compost bed. Rake off all the dry leaves and rubbish from the beds as they have eight large scrubs, which do drop leaves and when I don’t feel like weeding these beds, I put all the leaves on top to kept in all the moisture. This is a drought garden in that most of all the plants that grow in this area grow quite well with minimum of watering and grey recycle water at that. As I am not much of a gardener I only weed these beds once or twice a year and only too put on cane sugar mulch, along with digging and fertilizer the soil beforehand which will be stage two of this project next week. I will save all the recycle water so I can water to soften the soil so it can be dug up. We are coming into the hottest time of the year from January to April and it should be wettest time too! If the rain fail at this time of year we will not get much rain before next summer. So I plan to add more mulch on this area as it breaks down too! I will have to think of name of the plants that are left in these beds and post when write about stage two.

Visited my friend in hospital

December 4th, 2006 at 09:04 am

I walked down to the bus that goes to the hospital so that I could catch just one bus there. While at the bus stop I bought a meringue (A small sugar & egg white cake that’s baked slowly) I will find a similar recipe a post here for you.

After the visit I caught the bus on to the city to pick up some photos that I put in last Thursday, of the photos of my garden project so far. Saving $6.00 here then photo shop costs. While in the shop I bought yoghurt mix as they sell in packs of 3, saving $1.97 here.

I bought an off-peck day-tripper bus ticket so I saved $1.90 on fares.

I was given a plate of fresh cherry today about $5.00 worth free.

BREAKFAST Muesli & Milk Coffee
LUNCH Soup & Toast Coffee Cherries Coffee
DINNER Devilled Sausages with Garlic Focaccia Bread Coffee
SNACK Grapes

Today’s Full price Tally $35.07
Today’s Savings - $ 14.87
2006 Total $-t-r-e-t-c-h Savings Tally $8144.31

December / January Goals & Planning Ahead

December 1st, 2006 at 09:37 am

December / January Goals & Planning Ahead

~ Have my credit card at Zero balance by end of the each month.
~ Come under budget.
~ Deposit into the online accounts.
~ Pay All Due Bills on pension days or ahead of time.
~ Chiro visit (one every 4 weeks)
~ Known outings to budget for in December / January lunch out 4 dinner 2
~ Live off my Bulk Food Assets ~ (On Going)
~ Make up another eight meals OAMC. Out of Bulk Food Assets.
~ Gardening Mowing & weed front garden & put water saving techniques in place.
~ Install the water tank, paid and apply for rebate.
~ Cleaning and painting garage before the tank is installed.
~ Cull & de-clutter computer files not in use.
~ Downsizing storage and clean these areas (zones 2, 4 & 5)

Review of the last two months.

October / November Goals & Planning Ahead

~ Have my credit card at Zero balance by end of the each month. ~ (No but not paying interest!)
~ Come under budget. ~ YES
~ Deposit into the online accounts. ~ Yes
~ Pay All Due Bills on pension days. ~ Yes
~ Chiro visit (one every 4 weeks)
~ Known outings to budget for in October / November lunch out 3 dinner 1
~ Live off my Bulk Food Assets ~ (On Going)
~ Make up another eight meals OAMC. Out of Bulk Food Assets. ~ Yes
~ Gardening Mowing & repotting all pot plants using water saving techniques. ~Yes
~ Cleaning and painting garage before the tank is installed. ~ On going
~ Downsizing storage and clean these areas (zones 1 & 3) ~ Yes


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