There is another way of doing this

Years ago, my husband was made redundant -just after we took out a mortgage to buy this house. We were without his full time income for 18 months, a scenario we had not expected at the time. Money was very tight -we had two growing children and two cars and lots of expenses. 

I remember that in those days I had no idea that we could find alternates to many of the expenses we faced week by week. I felt quite desperate because there seemed to be no way out of all of this. We were going backwards! 

The first breakthrough came when I found that instead of buying a bottle of laundry detergent every week, I could make my own,  -and that, when used at the rate of 2 tablespoons per load, it would last for months at at time. All of a sudden I had more money for food! The wash is better because it doesn't have that smell that commercial detergents have. In Perth we can hang our washing out on the washing line to dry for many months of the year, which saves on drying costs. 

I learned to make other things -for example, I have an old spray bottle with vinegar and a bit of dishwashing liquid in it, which I use as a surface spray and general cleaner. I discovered that 'soap is soap' and that I didn't need a whole bunch of different cleaners to clean various parts of my home- any leftover detergents or soaps would clean most bathroom hard surfaces.  I discovered that I could use the waste lemon peels from squeezing lemons for a recipe, soaked in vinegar and make that vinegar cleaner smell nice and be even more effective.  That was more money saved! In the process I became smarter about what care each surface actually required -wood might need wax from time to time, toilets could be cleaned with bicarb or a combination of bicarb and vinegar. I don't use my vinegar spray on the marble surface of the main bathroom cabinet, however (don't want to have the acid eat the marble!) A microfibre cloth can clean most things with no additive except water -and you don't need to buy  expensive ones either!  

My sister in law gave me an old bread maker about 10 years ago, and I started learning how to make bread. All of a sudden wonderful home made bread was available to us for much less than the bakery price. Now I have a dough hook on my kitchen stand mixer, and make sourdough loaves for about $1.50 in cost -at the bakery they are about $7.50 each. 

I love finding alternatives to expensive items! For example, it was a recipe book by Hugh Fernlea Whittingstall which alerted me to the fact that pesto can be made with almost any edible leaf -and almost any nut! He has some suggestions here -but I have made pesto with parsley and cashews, and nasturtiums and walnuts. They are all very yummy indeed, served with pasta or in a sandwich! I would like to try his suggestion of using breadcrumbs instead of nuts -I keep any old bread in the freezer and make my own breadcrumbs.  I am also going to try to make it with peanuts, as they are so cheap (cashews at nearly $12 per bag, peanuts at $3), and see if I can tell the difference in taste. 

In the wake of the Covid19 pandemic we are often facing shortages of one kind or another.  It is helpful to know alternatives to the things we normally buy -so that we can be resilient and feel confident that we can get though these times. 

At that time, I was part of an online forum where people swapped stories about finding alternatives. One person was at home with an injury, so took it on as their task to find alternative ways to save money. She would study the ingredient list of something she was used to purchasing, and then go home and try to make it from basic ingredients -and without the transport, fillers, palm oil, corn syrup and preservatives she found that they were eating better and more cheaply. I have since used that idea for myself -and found that it is quite easy to create things like 'French onion soup mix" which I once used to buy regularly. 

Of course, it is not just food  alternatives which we have found.

• I have a shopping trolley so I can walk to the shop rather than drive for any small purchases -and save on car costs
• We don't have many subscriptions to magazines or entertainment channels. Our library supplies a lot of books and magazines if we want them, and we have lots of DVDs to watch should we feel the need. We actually don't watch a lot of TV -it feels like a waste of time. I did buy myself a one year subscription to PIP magazine recently -as a bit of a luxury. 
• For most of the year, our exercise is free -we walk at the beach, or work in the garden. My DH has recently taken up walking in the local pool to strengthen his knees and back, but when the summer comes we will be back at the beach. 
• I always look for second hand or op shop or tip shop items before buying new. This morning we found a gorgeous wooden toy bus with little figures in it, for just $10 at the op shop. My grand children will enjoy this. We always are on the look out for toys and clothes in particular. 

This week I have been trying to find a way of adding a couple of raised garden beds to the back garden. I want to make use of every available space, and my garden is certainly not full! Whilst we can grow straight in the ground, I like the raised garden beds as they define where it is safe to walk for our grand children, and I can concentrate soil building to those areas.I want to get more organised as to crop rotations. 

I took the dimensions but was having trouble finding anything which would fit -in size and also fit with my other raised garden beds in terms of colour and materials. There is a local business which could make me the ones I wanted -but this was quite a lot of money. We tried the tip shop for several weeks without success, we tried online markets, still nothing right. Eventually my DH sold two gas heaters we have no more use for -and suddenly we can get the raised garden beds we want! I have ordered them and they will be delivered in a couple of weeks. All part of the way we are building resilience in our food chain.  

If you have any ideas about alternative ways of doing things, please let me know! 

Here are some links for further reading

Our Power comes from acting without escape from our pain

Keeping tastes simple -Josh Becker https://www.becomingminimalist.com/simple-tastes/