PIG TITS & PARSLEY SAUCE SHOW US HOW TO SAVE

Mid-June the Hutt City Council treated anyone who could make it to a free talk by          Lyn Webster of pigtitsandparsleysauce.co.nz & MAKE franchise fame. What a wonderful night out. I made a meal of it (literally) and went out for tea first with my girlfriends and then off to the free show.

Basically, Lyn is a solo mum of 2 girls and a share-milker in Taranaki. Getting into a bit of financial strife she needed to cut back her budget and she discovered that most spending was at the supermarket and the likes – no surprise to most of us! So she set a weekly shopping budget of $100.00 a week and they all had to stick to it – otherwise she risked losing her share-milking business.

Looking at ways to lessen her weekly shop costs she discovered she could actually make a lot of what was on offer at the supermarket. A bit of research on the Internet and she started to make her own homemade cleaning products, cosmetics (shampoo, moisturiser etc) and milking shed cleaner – buying the ingredients in bulk –  and the change proved to be a better choice for the environment. She has fine tuned the recipes and they are now available in a pamphlet form.

Needing to boost her income she offered paid lessons in her home demonstrating the making of various products to show how easy it was. Campbell Live ended up filming one of her  lessons! She also started writing a column for the local newspaper -Taranaki Daily News – about how she was cutting back her weekly budget. Oh, and she has been on Good Morning too. Bearing in mind, this was all while she was working a dairy farm, running a home and bringing up 2 girls as well! This is probably the reason she doesn’t subscribe to the excuse that people just “don’t have time” to make their own stuff.

Lyn has now cut her budget to $75.00 a week and admits that she often doesn’t pay for milk and they very seldom eat meat BUT the message is that you can make you own stuff, you can save money, make a better choice for the environment, not be a SLAVE to the supermarket and no longer be sucked in by clever advertising! She gets a smug sense of satisfaction as she by-passes the cleaning aisles each time she shops. The lack of need to go to the supermarket means she can often source fresh fruit and vegetables from small locally owned stores. Great for local businesses!

Lyn Webster is an absolute treat to listen to and her simple homemade recipes have  inspired me to actually get on and make some of my own products. The washing powder is brilliant and cheap – if you buy in bulk.

If you ever get a chance to go and see her live … I can thoroughly recommend it!

For those who didn’t see her – check out her website at www.pigtitsandparsleysauce.co.nz or Google “Lyn Webster”.