Checking in....

It's been quite some time but with two part-time jobs plus home-keeping (another whole fulltime job in my view) I have been kept very busy.

Just wanted to note outcome of my using bicarb soda venture - I'm sure my salt/bicarb mix whitened my teeth quite a bit which was a huge bonus other than the money saving side of it BUT I found with continual use that the roof of my mouth would get sore (a little skin would peel off) or I would end up with an ulcer if I didn't rinse my mouth properly which was more my fault than the bicarb's. I was so upset about this because I loved using it. I really got use to the taste and feel of it and it made my mouth and teeth feel especially clean. I have read contradicting things about the harshness on teeth - some saying dentists reckon it will damage teeth and others saying it it just fine. So, armed with all this info I have decided to try using the bicarb/salt mixture once or twice a week tops and toothpaste for the other times and see how that goes.

I also liked what it did for my hair - felt like it had more body BUT again, I started to have breakages along the front of my hair line and that was enough for me to stop that little experiment :(

Love to use it for cleaning though. My DH cleaned out my oven the other day using the vinegar / bicarb trick and some steelo it came up a treat - thanks DH!

Next Challenge!

Okay I'm really hoping that bicarb soda is okay for you - not only am I using it as shampoo and to clean my whole house with we have been using it in our homemade toothpaste!

I cannot remember where I got the recipe from but we just use a mixture of bicarb soda and salt - six teaspoons bicarb to 2 teaspoons of salt.  It takes a little getting used to but in all honesty I think my teeth and mouth feel cleaner after using this mix.  In fact, I normally have a slightly yellow tinge to my teeth (yuck, but it's genetic I'm afraid) and I think my teeth actually look whiter after using this!

I was looking for a container at the shop the other day to keep my bicarb soda in seeing as I'm buying bigger boxes these days LOL!  It was about $6.95 to buy a glass jar from Coles that would have been a suitable size.  I decided to drop into the op-shop instead and I'm very glad I did.  I found a lovely white Maxwell Williams brand one for $3.99!  (container on right)

Although I bought it for bicarb I ended up putting my bicarb in the salt container which is kept in the cupboard and the salt in the new one as this is kept out on display.

The salt pig (I think that's what they were called!?) on the right was also from the op shop and only cost $2.99 - it is also a Maxwell Williams brand.  This is what I keep our homemade toothpaste in on the bathroom bench.  We just wet our toothbrushes and dip lightly into the mixture.

There are lots of different toothpaste recipes out there with oils, etc in them but I find this to be perfectly acceptable once you get used to it which really did not take long at all.  Happy brushing!

I've been slack!

Oh my goodness, I've been so slack lately.  I've been fighting a sore throat for what seems like weeks now but I think it has finally gone but now my asthma is playing up!  I went through and thoroughly cleaned out my bedroom just in case some dust was setting me off!

Well, I'm up to Day 18 without using shampoo!  I must say I haven't really noticed a difference in my hair other than perhaps, more so in the beginning at least, it has a bit more body but I'm hoping that is due to it not being coated in goodness-knows-what from the shampoo and conditioner and not because it is damaged from the bi-carb soda!?  LOL 

When I washed it with shampoo I had to do it every day.  I make my hair go every second day now (will just tie it up if it's not looking too crash hot).  I have not really had to deal with "greasies" thankfully!

So for now I am going to keep on going with the bicarb (1 tablespoon disintegrated into cup of water and thoroughly rubbed into scalp) and rinse with Apple Cider Vinegar (1 tablespoon mixed in cup of water and poured over after).  Will keep updating progress.

I have done absolutely nothing in the vegie garden.  I'm really letting it all just die off now ready to start again.  My DH is going to take some holidays in March and that is when we will really get stuck into it again as well as all the other jobs that need doing around here.  Why does there seem to be so many of them!?  I'm hoping we may be able to get our chicken house built then too :)

Bye for now!

Day 5 of No 'Poo

I can't believe I've made it to Day 5 of not using shampoo!

I didn't use anything yesterday - not even bicarb/vinegar as I had read that it is best not to use the bicarb every day and as I spent the day mostly at home I thought it would be a good day to give it a rest but by the end of the day it was feeling pretty yucky though it didn't look as bad as I thought it would.  I mean, I managed to endure it!  (When I told my husband what I was doing he said he hadn't even noticed and that it didn't look too bad at all).

I washed it with bicarb again this morning but this time I disintegrated it first in a cup of water as suggested elsewhere which made it easier to distribute.  I also used the vinegar rinse for the first time just on the ends of my hair.  I must admit although it doesn't feel clean when washing it like it does with shampoo, once it is dried it actually looks fine.  And I'm not sure whether it is my imagination but I feel it actually has a tiny little wave in it (you got to understand, my hair is so straight that even using a curler is a waste of time!) so this is encouraging me to persist with this!

So onwards I go in great hope that I will eventually be able to get rid of another product off my shopping list that isn't particularly good for me anyway!

No 'poo

I have heard about other people going the no-shampoo route.  I cannot stand to not wash my hair every day - because it is so fine, it looks very lank if I don't so I was not really tempted to give this a try.  But this site has motivated me in the direction of giving it a go:

http://www.naturemoms.com/no-shampoo-alternative.html

I also have straight-as-a-board and fine hair so it was good to read that this type of hair coped well.

I'll let you know what I think!

Needing a kick....

Oh what is wrong with me?  I know I am sick to death of this hot weather - I feel so frustrated because I can't get outside and work on my vegie patch where everything is pretty much dead except for the capsicums and one sick cherry tomato bush!

And I have lost all interest in my housekeeping or anything for that matter.   I feel frustrated and tired and I feel like I need a holiday (which is not going to happen for at least another year).  Does anyone else have times like these??

School Lunch Ideas

I don't know about you but I am always trying to come up with new ideas for kid's school lunches.  It's boring having sandwiches day in and day out (I am not even very keen on sandwiches myself!

One of my kid's favourites is Cheesymite scrolls.  I just whip up a batch of bread dough in the bread machine.  Roll it out a bit and top with grated cheese and vegemite.  Roll up like a scroll and slice.  Sprinkle with extra cheese and bake in a moderate oven for a while.  Of course you can put any toppings on you like.  I used to do bacon or ham and cheese ones too.

My kids also like mini pizzas on English Muffin bases but all the ones you purchase from the shops have horrible preservatives so I tried this recipe here  http://www.recipezaar.com/English-Muffins-Bread-Machine-Method-63244

and made my own.  I divided the dough into 6 largish portions (which will later be divided into two - so you end up with 12) as I wanted them to be a good size so they would fill them up!

I didn't have much in the way of toppings as I was just using up some leftovers but here is the finished result:
They turned out really nice and are very yummy.

It was really easy and will definitely be making these again because I like easy!

Worms are on the move!

I bought a Can O Worms bin today costing me a hefty $74.  The one we had set up down the side of the shed (which was free I might add) was working very well but the problem was accessing it. The bushes down there kept growing over it too fast so getting to it was a job in itself. Despite that, it was still getting too much sun and with the hot weather we have been having I was concerned what it would be doing to the worm population.  I couldn't move it to the patio area as it would be in a very visible spot and it was not a pretty thing by any means!

So I finally bought one and now it sits right out the back door.  It is located outside a window that is kept slightly open and the evap cooler blows out this window so hopefully will help keep the worm's home cool and  I don't have to fight a jungle every time I want to feed the worms.  The liquid should also be much easier to access as well.

It took two of us a good couple of hours to sit and sort through the dirt to get all the worms out and into their new home.  I was covered in dirt from head to toe and was surrounded by lots of wriggly worms - who would have believed I would ever be doing this!

More shade structures

My dearest husband kindly put some more shade structures up over my recently made vegie beds. I just need to purchase the shadecloth, sew up some seams and slip them onto the pipe. They really are quite quick and easy to make.

These are the three beds I would like to alternate the chicken's home in, perhaps alternating every 3 months or so (with some time in between those months on the lawn area if need be). The grass keeps growing up into the beds (blessed cooch grass) so I'm hoping the chickens will make short work of that! Everything is looking very sick and bare due to the horribly hot weather - the shade structures should have been put up long ago. Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Chicken Update

Okay, so I've been doing some research and asking around. Apparently having a silkie bantam together with an Isa Brown is not a good idea. Isa's supposedly don't accept other chickens from other breeds very well and would probably pick on the silkie.

Now I am a little uncertain which way to go. I really like the Pekins but they don't appear to be much better egg-layers than the silkies. It's a matter of finding a good layer that will happily live with a silkie.

I was visiting someones home today - she keeps her home and garden immaculate - although it's nothing fancy, everything is neat and tidy and clean. She even had cushions on her outdoor chair! We get the easterly winds quite strong where we are located and everything outside gets covered in a fine layer of dust (cushions would not last long in our patio area!) so it's hard to keep it clean looking. Spiders also seem to love our house and we have webs everywhere even though I get rid of them on a regular basis. I couldn't help but think wouldn't it be lovely to have a nice, neat, organised yard like that - what the heck am I doing thinking about getting chickens??!!

It really comes down to the matter of lifestyle choice doesn't it?

I suppose I could look at it like this: Well, my yard/patio never looks tidy anyway because of the constant blowing in of dust and leaves, so I might as well go the whole hog and get the chickens too! LOL Can that be classed as 'positive thinking'?

To chicken or not to chicken....

That is indeed the question. I am considering purchasing a couple of chickens - the main reason being my DD9 is really keen to get a silky bantam as a pet (her friend has one) and I thought I could get another chicken that was a good layer for a companion and to get some eggs. Plus I could end up with some lovely free fertiliser.

It feels like a big step though. I mean, what do we do with them when we want to go away? We can't take them with us so then you have to start asking people to come and mind them for you and it all gets quite difficult.

Then I was worried about the smell, the flies, lice and worms and diseases (I've been reading - can you tell?) I have been speaking to other chicken owners on the Simple Savings site and they have calmed my fears about these issues a little.

Oh, to chicken or not to chicken......it's my little quandry at the moment.

Vegie update and decluttering the home...

Nothing much is happening in the vegie patch - with this horribly hot weather we are having everything is taking a bit of a beating. One of my patches has shade but the other ones don't. Although my bush cucumbers in the sun seem to be surviving better than the ones in the shade fortunately so I will need to remember that for next year. I picked a cucumber today and it promptly got eaten by my DD9 and her friend! I wonder what it tasted like?! The capsicums do not handle the sun at all - even the ones in the shade house cop some of the late afternoon sun and have scorch marks on that side!

I just cut all my spring onions down and chopped them all up and froze them. They are already starting to re-shoot for my 'free' second batch. The beans have pretty much had it - I'm not sure when I should chop the bushes down. I think I remember reading somewhere they should be dug back into the soil? so I will do that when it cools down (ha! we are heading for 40 deg C in 2 days time - ugh, I hate the heat!)

So I have been spending time inside decluttering. For some strange reason I find it very freeing to do this. I threw out all my DVD cases and put the DVD's into DVD holders so instead of having a drawer full of them, I have managed to put them into 2 small DVD holder cases and freed up practically a whole drawer - so much more neater and manageable!

I have been very good this week, as far as not being wasteful goes anyway. I waste too much food - I forget things I have put in the fridge, I don't use them up before the expiry date and, the one I do a lot, throw out vegies because they have turned bad before I got to use them. Well, this week I dug them all out of the fridge before they got to the point where they needed ditching and made two pots of soup - a chicken and vegetable soup and a Cream of broccoli soup. My DH has been taking these for lunches. Now I just got to remember to do it again next time!

Happy New Year

I cannot believe how fast 2008 passed by and that we are now in 2009!

New Year Resolutions - do you make them? What are they? One of mine is like everybody else's - more exercise! I spent some time away after Christmas on a beach and went for some lovely walks and even broke out into a jog every now and then and I must admit I felt a lot better for it. Now walking down a suburban street isn't quite as nice as on a beach but nevertheless, if I take my MP3 it shouldn't be that bad and if it is too hot I don't have the excuse not to walk as I have a treadmill!

Another area I want to work on is our finances - in particular, sticking to a budget. Why oh why do we find this sooooo hard?? I have worked out a budget which unfortunately doesn't leave us anything for 'sanity' money, that is pocket money, for ourselves. I can't see where we can cut our budget to allow for this at the moment though either. I think we will just have to see if we can live on the budget we have set first and then try and determine where we may be able to cut back.

My DD's are in private schools which takes a rather large chunk of our money each year but we feel it is well worth it as they are lovely schools so education is a very big expense for us at the moment.

I try and not buy any meat costing more than $10 per kilo. We try and have a meatless meal each week (though this will normally include a little bacon) such as a quiche. I no longer buy much in the way of cleaning stuff and sanitary products. I only use half strength detergent in the dishwasher and washing machine and always wash in cold water. I grow my own vegies (well, I'm trying too!!) and have a couple of fruit trees, all of which by the way is struggling in this terribly hot weather we are having. I always menu plan around the specials and I stockpile the specials too.

DH has just started to brew his own beer which is a big, big saving and well worth the effort. He thinks it tastes just as good, if not better, than bought beer. After all, as I understand it, it's the same as what you can buy except doesn't have the preservatives - win, win situation all round I reckon!

And now this is all down in writing it will act as a reminder throughout out the year of my resolutions.......unless of course I choose not to read it!!

Floor cleaning the enviromentally friendly and frugal way...

I really gotta stop talking about cleaning - what is the problem with me??
'But I just had to mention my one other favourite cleaning tool - my microfibre mop.

I find this to be the most environmentally friendly way to clean my floors - I use only about a cup of water to clean all my floors (and I have 'mop-able' floors throughout my house) with not a single drop of any type of chemical / cleaner and my floors always look shiny and clean.

But the very best thing, it is the most simplest and easiest and cost-effective way.
And you can't beat that!

I have had a big clean-out of my DD's rooms - sorting out outgrown clothes, school books and stationary for next year and just general junk! I often declutter their rooms and it is getting easier by doing it fairly regularly.

I'm a huge fan of de-cluttering and trying to keep the clutter down as it makes cleaning soooo much easier.

Now I need to finalise the last of my Christmas shopping and work out what I'm cooking for Christmas day so I may not be around for a while.

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Soil Fixing

Thanks to Gavin at http://greeningofgavin.blogspot.com/ I am hopefully on the way to fixing my soil problems. I've watered it with detergent/water mix to try and help it to be a little less water repellant and the next day I watered the Powerfeed in.

I will see how this goes before I try testing the soil with a PH kit as they approx $16 from Bunnings which was a bit expensive so I'm kind of hoping I won't have to resort to that.

If this crop doesn't end up thriving, I may count my losses and concentrate on working in our homemade compost which should be good enough to use soon - I think and I hope!?

Thanks again Gavin for all your help.

Soil Problems :(

I am very disappointed with the soil in my new vegetable beds. Nothing is thriving and it is very water repellant. So I have some work ahead of me to try and fix it now.....humph!

The plants are not thriving and are very yellow so it seems to be very deficient in something.














This is my sweetcorn - they are actually a lot yellower than they look in this photo :(

And the lettuces are not doing much better...

(Again, they look a lot yellower in real life!)
I planted the chives on the left the same time as the ones on the right which were planted in a different bed. You can certainly see the difference.

Whereas my SFG bed is doing very well and everything grows so much better in it. I have heaps of tomatoes and will probably need to find some recipes to use them up in! Though I have heard that they can be frozen by just directly placing them in the freezer. Of course they are not suitable for salads as such, but great for spaghetti bolognaise, etc type dishes (a staple in our household!) so I will definitely be trying that.

I am very pleased with the beans - we have several nights worth of meals in the freezer now. I have also planted bush beans to compare them to the vine type.

I have little baby capsicums everywhere - they are so cute!! So I can hardly wait for them to mature. The cucmbers are doing well though I have noticed powdery mildew growing on them - possibly due to rain we have had lately? I know last year I sprayed them with a milk and water mixture though I have forgotten the ratio so will have to look that up too.


Growing vegies is certainly proving to be a huge learning experience for me! Off to do some research again....

Christmas decorations!

I love putting up the Christmas decorations - not the taking down and putting away part so much though!

Other than the Christmas tree, which has fairy lights, these are my favourite decorations because they have fairy lights too - I have a 'thing' for fairy lights - love 'em, love 'em, love 'em! They add such a magical feeling to the room. Probably not very frugal nor environmentally friendly but I can't resist them and we only have them on for such a short time.

This idea came from my sister. We bought the garlands on special at Myers and I decorated mine with fairy lights, tinsel and baubles and they look absolutely wonderful at night....

This is also a craft my sister created and I copied! I probably must stop doing that....

This JOY was cut out of wood (thanks to my Dad) though you can buy these from scrapbooking shops or Spotlight and I then modge-podged scrapbooking paper onto them, painted the edges and wha-la! Unfortunately I did mine when I was rushing so I was a little disappointed but it still looks okay - just hope my sister doesn't see it up close! LOL

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner and sneaking up fast - are you ready??

Cleaning....again

Whilst on the subject of cleaning, I cannot recommend the microfibre cloths enough. If you haven't tried them yet, you just got to! I cannot believe how many kitchen sponges I went through before changing to microfibre cloths. The sponges would get stinky and disintegrate whereas the cloths can be washed again and again and again. And a lot of the time you don't need to use any cleaners with them. You may have to try a few different ones though because the one that I love my Mum doesn't like much at all whereas the one she loves I don't like because I think it goes 'slimy' quickly!

I have also found that using the netting from orange bags works fantastically as a scourer and again, can be used over and over - the best bit of course is it is 'free'!

I also use a homemade general purpose cleaner for most of my cleaning now. This is the recipe that I use:

1 litre water

200ml white vinegar (I use cleaning vinegar)

40ml dishwashing detergent

few drops eucalyptus oil

2 dessertspoons washing soda

I pretty much clean everything with this other than the inside of the toilet and I use it together with bicarb soda to clean the shower recess - I spray it on, then wipe over with some bicarb on a microfibre cloth, then wash off.

I love walking past that cleaning aisle!

Cleaning.....ugh!

Cleaning is not a favourite word of mine and certainly not my favourite thing to do. But I have found a way to actually make it a little more enjoyable. I have been downloading things to my MP3 to listen to whilst I work.

Lately I have been listening to some interesting sermons from www.sermonaudio.com by Dr John Barnett which I know wouldn't be a lot of people's cup of tea but nevertheless I feel as though I am achieving two goals at once - getting the cleaning done and learning something. And the best thing is sometimes I have to FIND extra things to clean or declutter because I have finished cleaning before whatever I have downloaded has! LOL.

Now I am sure there are lots of interesting MP3 downloads out there in internet land on living frugally, being green, etc so if you know of any please let me know as I haven't had time to really have a good look!

Happy Cleaning!

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

At last, my tomatoes are finally beginning to turn red. I did not think it was ever going to happen!














Rhonda at Down-to-Earth blog picks her tomatoes green and ripens them inside so I am going to experiment and do just that.


I have noticed a little green stink-bug type looking thing on them lately which has me most concerned so I need to go and look up on the internet what he might be up to on my tomatoes. I've go my suspicions it's not anything good!

I am very impressed with these bush tomatoes - each plant has at least 30 tomatoes on them so I should end up with a minimum of about 180 tomatoes! Yay. We love tomatoes - DD's eat them for snacks. They are just the Sunnyvale First Prize tomatoes and I will be definitely be growing these again (as long as they taste good of course!)

Now off to do some research on those bugs....