Why wait for the new year?

Helping with the weeding... 

Busy little bees today...

The washing was up on the line at the crack of dawn (well, before 9am ~ it is the holidays still!) and the first known expense has been identified. We need new pegs. Urgg ~ how I hate spiders and the ones remaining on the washing line were full of them!!

While the boys slept in ~ a leisurely breakfast of muesli's was eaten reading the local paper from last week. Bit behind on the news, but not any more!  I didn't realise the Base Hospital volunteers had ended their 40year run ~ I loved seeing those ladies as I went in for tests, to A&R with bunged-up kidlets, to visit friends in the maternity wing. They will be missed!

Today was a day of de-clutter. With the weather finally warming up, Husband and SmallBoy attacked the carport and so much of the rubbish has just gone! At last ~ somewhere to put the items for the garage sale without adding more to the chock-a-block garage. What's more, some of the stuff from the garage can move over to the carport for easy access. Yay!! When it came to the weeding ~ even one of the chickens decided she could be a help! She did a great job.

Most impressive was the tidy up in SmallBoy's bedroom. Having a new doona for his big bed left a lot of single bed sized doonas, blankets and sheets with no home, no place to be other than the floor, chair or under the bed. Why? Not sure ~ laziness and disorganisation mostly. It's good to see these gone from the room and remembering what the carpet looks like.

Financially

Yes, I know ~ it's financial update day. Honestly ~ we've not used any money, spent any money, earned any money so the only cash flow has been the incoming of the pension and the outgoing of the bills on direct debit. Don't know if it is balanced, having an ostrich moment because life and the universe is all a little overwhelming at the moment. 

This new year is going to be about spending as little as possible on the necessities and nothing on anything else. Ideally this will mean more can go into the debt than ever before. We hope to start the year off with 'the' garage sale - the second week of January sounds good to me. We'll have SmallBoy's outgrown school uniforms so that should count for $20...

Besides, reading my stars, this is the best way to be going at the moment.

SCORPIO (30 December NZ/Australia) 

With Mercury in retrograde motion in your income sector and with no backup, you can be forgiven for thinking that you're going nowhere fast. In reality Mercury has turned back to help Venus, who lagging behind is now just 9 days ago. Confident that the planet of money is on the way Mercury turns direct today, creating a real mental shift when it comes to your income opportunities. Instead of looking back, you're now looking ahead.

With the screening of the first episode of the documentary House Of Food Obsessives, emotions are a little scrambled. It was great to have so much commentary from friends, strangers even. One of my sisters watched and posted on Husband's FaceBook, noting my funny little ditty. I knew she'd watch and get a buzz. I hope she enjoyed the programme, knowing it was only a snip of almost two months of filming.  Sadly, the rest of my family has made no comment ~ but this might be a good thing. Knowing it was on, I can only guess they decided it was not worth the time to watch or if they did had nothing to say. Again, possibly a good thing. Who knows? I don't *sighs*
If you missed it or are not in the viewing area, you can watch online here:
http://www.sbs.com.au/documentary/program/houseoffoodobsessives

Food fun

Looking for a pasta machine ~ I've had three of these puppies over the years. Used one but it seems to have disappeared in the last move, plus I lost my mojo and had no desire to do anything fiddly while waiting for my back op, more so after. I won two so re-gifted one and gave another away on FreeCycle. I love FreeCycle.  Here's hoping we can find another because I think I'd like to give it a go again, now I've got some energy back and the strength is increasing each week ~ especially when the warmth gets through to my bones.

Don't need one. However, as we plan to move off the grid in the next two years, I'd like to know if I can use one with the same joy & passion of 4-5 years ago.

Tonight's dinner used up some marked down pork strips from the freezer ~ from $7.36 to $2.49 for 500g ~ half an old cauliflower, the last of the beans and some frozen peas. Somewhere along the past three years a sachet of pre-made butter chicken simmer sauce appeared, so it was added and I tell you ~ delicious. 

That's about it for another day ~ hope you've had a great one.  Off to bed now and should catch up with you all tomorrow. Loving the opportunity and comments. Here's to getting some regular swing going and more people visiting for savings tips, low cost hints and extra help to fill up our spare change jar which we are putting on our debt.

Should mention the spare change jar is looking a little empty so if you've any to spare, please feel free to send it our way *all gratefully accepted*