Feeling the pinch in Canterbury?
Lesandré Paris can help you out with MAKE cleaning products and cosmetics classes available. Check out her fantastic website, aparisaffair.co.nz, where you can buy ready made products and/or arrange a class to learn how to save heaps of money in the new year. Get together with a group of friends and Lesandre will even come to your place.
Read MoreI enjoy doing inspirational talks about our new fun and frugal lifestyle and have spoken to groups large and small all over the country. Recently Pauanui Probus group gave me a warm and positive reception. Interesting to see yourself through some one else’s eyes,so here is a summary of my presentation…. thank you Jill.
Read More‘Pig Tits and Parsley Sauce’ – The first heading Lyn Webster thought of when she was asked to write about her journey from single mother to Farm Manager and consequently TV and radio celebrity eulogising the benefits of using good old baking soda, washing crystals, yellow washing soap and white vinegar to save buying all those home cleaning products we keep under our sink. It was an entertaining romp through her life over the past five years and full of laughter and positivity. Her rise to fame started when Country Calendar asked her to do an episode showing her life as the first solo mother (of two lovely daughters) as a Farm Manager of 130 cows in the Taranaki.
As the economic downturn hit her and her family she decided to keep her food bill to $100 a week – including buying meat from the supermarket, then reducing to $75 a week with meat off the farm. She started a column in the local paper, did some classes to the locals and then was asked on to Campbell Live. It all exploded from there and she now has an excellent website, pamphlets, recipes and is starting to write a book.
Everyone was very impressed and are having a go at her recipes. However, our President Alan was not impressed with the taste of the toothpaste he reports but the washing recipe is said to be a success. I have to say I was not looking forward to her talk as it has taken me 20 years to convince my husband that I need more than $100 a week for food but I have explained to Rex that wine is not food.
We are doing OK so far, but I predict this may get tougher as the weeks go by and the supplies get used up… here’s what we got in week 1/2 spent just under $70. Then week 3 where loopaper and batteries gobbled up a huge chunk of the funds, but we stuck to the$35 limit…. don’t forget I get free milk and meat from the farm… so that is a big help.
This is just under $70 worth for groceries mostly from New World.
Ten bucks worth of loo paper put the pressure on week 3 (and I bought some batteries which didn’t help).
So we only had $20 left for food and this is what we got….
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Off grocery shopping today… with $70 to spend, hoping we will get most things on our wish list. Ham, bread, cucumber,butter,pasta, potatoes, wraps, raisins, salami, carrots, oil, cheese, eggs, fruit, creamed corn, and canned tomatoes. Some of those things in garden but not ready yet. I will let you know how we go.
The chickens were laying too many eggs so I let two of them sit on the eggs.Now the others have either stopped laying or are hiding them better than I can find, so I am buying eggs Grrrrrrr. Hopefully there will be some babies out of it????
Read MoreI update Facebook often with updates on our progress. If you are interested in seeing how we are going, visit our Facebook Page, and become a fan while you’re there.
Read MoreWe are trying to stick to spending $35 or less a week on groceries for two people. here are some examples of meals we had in week one. Day Four, hot chips and avocado dip for tea Day Five, snapper (yay) we were given a huge plate of freshly caught snapper. So we had it crumbed on day fiveand then fish pie on day six. The I finished it off for lunch on day seven.
One major rule of the low grocery budget is: never look a gift horse in the mouth (i.e. turn nothing down). Stevie made the banana cake so she had something for lunch using bananas that were looking a bit jaded (see Free Recipes). Day seven: steak and veges.
Read MoreOpening Balance $35. Groceries purchased: nil. Closing balance: $35. We easily survived week one using groceries/food we had on hand.
Day One – Breakfast, toast and cup of tea, snacks during day,home made bread bananas,Stevies lunch ham sandwich and fruit. Tea, pizza on home made bread (see free recipes above).
Day Two – Breakfast, chocolate self saucing pudding (see free recipes above), snacks during day, oranges from tree. Tea, macaroni cheese.
Day Three: here is a typical breakfast and we had left over macaroni cheese for lunch. We usually snack on fruit or nut and sultanas.
Read MoreHow low can we go?
It is just Stevie and me at home now so I have set a new low weekly grocery budget of $35. This will include all food and pharmaceuticals (hopefully not need much). Here is the plan. Starting today I will deposit the $35 into my EFT POS account and use that money of we need to get anything. I will post what we spend and what on and also have a go at putting up what we consume and what is it costing. I will also post any money saving tips and recipes. We have heaps of food in the house from previously so I don’t think we need to go grocery shopping just yet. I will try to hold off as long as possible and maybe even let the balance in the account build up… or maybe that is wishful thinking.
Anyway here goes on the $35 a week grocery budget….
Read MoreI am pleased and excited to announce I have a master franchisee launching MAKE Cleaning Products and Cosmetics, books by Vicki Lansky and Pig Tits and Parsley Sauce in Australia real soon. Franchises will be available for sale on Australia and we expect to see classes popping up all over the place soon, helping Australian families discover there are easy ways to beat the recession. We are in the process of personalising the ‘whole package’ – books, recipes and motivational budgeting summary – for the Australian market and planning to have the whole thing on-line and available for purchase before Christmas. Watch this space.
Read MoreEvery household should have a Baking Soda book. E-mail pigtitsandparsleysauce@gmail.com to buy 500 Uses for Baking Soda for only $20 + p&p. 400 Uses for Vinegar book is also a big-money saver so you should probably get that too. Click READ MORE for a photo and direct link to e-mail for ordering.
These books save you mega-$$$$$$$$ every time you go shopping.
Here’s me and Sarah Bradley (Good Morning TV One) with Matt McLaughlin who kindly allowed me to demonstrate using baking soda as shampoo and White Vinegar as conditioner on TV with spectacular results. Check it out by clicking READ MORE and following the link http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftvnz.co.nz%2Fgood-morning%2Fs2011-e181111-webster-video-4548907&h=8AQEIDQGMAQFMhJMYegM2n3G8D8fZC7ErtZAstOQw7_FGZA (or scroll down on the right hand side of the page under links).
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Classes in the Wellington region available now. Learn how to make cleaning products at home and save $$$thousands$$$. For $25 you can see common household cleaning products made and demonstrated. Get tips on where to source the ingredients and take home recipes and samples. Enrol now, classes fill up very fast. Click MAKE New Zealand Classes above for more info, contact details and links to enrol.
Read MoreDon’t be ripped off. We use baking soda for just about everything cleaning around the house and for personal hygiene. Baking soda has replaced toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant and soap in our bathroom as well as being used as an all surface cleaner and odour eater. Bulk stores like Bin Inn are a good option for smaller amounts of Baking soda, fill your own container for around $2-20 a kg. However if like us you want to enjoy the huge savings using heaps of baking soda brings, get it from a Rural Supplies store. I just got a 25kg bag of bi-Carbonate soda (baking Soda) from RD1 Waihi for $24-00. Less than $1 a kilo. That will last us for a year and we will not be buying soap, shampoo, toothpaste and deodorant to name just a few. It is good for our skin, chemical free and cheap. What a winner. It’s empowering how much saving can be achieved with a little bit of knowledge. I sell Baking Soda books on this website for only $20 which will give you the knowledge you needs to learn how to save heaps using baking soda. And by the way it is also kinder to the planet. Go figure!!!!!
Read MoreHere’s me in the Chatroom, Hawkes Bay TV (scroll down to links and click link below right to see video (Chatroom Interview). Or click READ MORE for a direct link. If you have time to watch this take the 24 minutes… it epitomises exactly how I feel about our low grocery budget and the opportunities everyone has to save money. Enjoy. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tvhb.co.nz%2Fmedia%2Fchatroom%2F2011%2F07_July%2FChatroom_11-07-11.mp4&h=fAQBj1UaUAQB6ONJ2QyFsI3GO-x5UseFihvmpH4wJMIShOg
Read MoreAfter missing the 6am flight to Wellington by about 30 seconds… I finally made it to Avalon to appear on TV One Good Morning. Talking about toothpaste,flowing soap,cloth nappies and the general benefits of making your own stuff. Checkout the link below right to see the video.
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