Menu Planning and More!

Well, who would have believed that I had been on holidays all this week! I thought I would get heaps done and I did manage to achieve a few things, but not everything on the list in my head.
I did manage to fit in some exercise, a few swims at the beach, a couple of visits with my parents, helped a friend move house, visits from the electrician and the freezer seal guy and spend part of one day with my best friend (zoe's mum) for her birthday!
I also managed to lose 2.2kg :)
I don't feel so bad now I have listed all of that!

Tuesday I am back at work so I need to organise the following before then:
- Ironing school and work uniforms
- finish a scrapbook for a 40th I am attending tonight
- make sausage rolls for above party
- make biscuits/muffins for lunchboxes
- cook freeze up glut of veggies remaining from my shopping on Sunday (mainly zucchini, mushrooms & plums)

I did manage to menu plan and grocery shop, but since it is already 2.30pm and i really need to get the album finished I will blog tomorrow about it!
Hope you are all having a great weekend :)

Holidays

I'm off to Melbourne very early tomorrow morning and as I am working late tonight I won't have time to post. Once I get back on Monday night I hope to be able to update you on my travels and my shopping. I'm hoping to pick up a few items of clothing for my children as part of their Christmas presents. Not planning to spend a lot of money although I think I might be drinking a few cups of coffee at lovely seaside locations and just enjoying my mini break. I'll try not to get caught up in the buy, buy, buy mentality.
Take care of all of you and if you want to participate in shoestring Sunday - Mr Linky is still open on last weeks post.
Thank you all for your lovely comments and ideas - I love reading all your blogs and thoughts.

I'll leave you with this quote from Rhonda at down to earth which is my thought for the coming week.
"Simplicity is not a tea bag, it's a pot of tea and it needs time to develop it's full flavour."

Go read the rest of her blog, if you are not already a visitor there, she is a very inspiring lady!

Waiting...

I have spent the last few days waiting for a phone call. My best friends baby has still not arrived, seems she is not in a hurry to leave her warm watery home and frankly who would be? If nothing happens today she is booked into to be induced tomorrow. The wonderful people I work with have been great in allowing me to call them if I needed to leave work, even on their day off! Fortunately I haven't had to do this, but I want to say thank you anyway for your support and understanding. Rest assured you guys will be one of the first I ring :)

I have a few errands to run this morning, part of Sarah's bed had cracked so I need to drive back to the place of purchase to get the part exchanged.
The other night I managed to pick up some winter school tracksuit pants for Sarah for $7.50 a pair. I am going past one of the other stores in the same chain this morning to see if I can get another few pairs. The normal retail price is $25 - so they are good buying at $7.50! I am getting them a size bigger for next year :)
I do tend to buy plain items like jeans, t-shirts, windcheaters at the end of the season on sale, a size bigger ready for next winter! I do find it saves me money and I am very selective about what I buy, especially since my children are becoming more "fashion conscious" as they get older. I think as I said before the trick is to pick up the plainer items.
take care of you.

To market, to market...

After a yummy breakfast of french toast with berries and cream (Yes! I didn't make pancakes this morning.)

We headed off to check out the markets at Gepps Cross. For those who don't live in Adelaide they are held on the grounds of a drive-in theatre. My children were quite surprised at the idea of an outdoor cinema where you cold sit in your car. Both have asked if we can go one evening, I'll have to find a suitable movie that we might all enjoy and perhaps we shall.

It makes me seem old to remember that it was at the drive-in we saw all our movies. I can even remember going there as a young child, it was family friendly there would be a children's film on first then interval (where everyone lined up at the snack bar) and then as the children all fell asleep they would screen a film for the parents. On hot nights in Darwin we would sit out the front of the combi van on our bean bags and enjoy the warm evenings. I don't know how often we went but I can remember going quite often, but then there really wasn't a lot else to do on a Saturday night in Darwin.

Anyway enough reminiscing and back to the markets. There was quite a crowd to get in and the stalls are very closely packed together. About half the market is trash and treasure with the remainder being fruit and veg. i also saw people wandering around with bunches of flowers so i presume there was also a flower stall or two. I think we walked around for nearly an hour in total by which time my 11yr old had enough. In this time I managed to get through about half of what was there.

Knowing your prices in your local stores is always a bonus before you go and so everything i bought was less or equivalent to the prices in my local fruit and veg shops.

I got Bananas for $2.99kg; baby zucchini, red capsicum, Lebanese cucumbers & broccoli were all $2kg; baby eggplants $4kg, 5kg potatoes $2.50, 4 avocados for $1, bunch of celery $1, salad mix (leaves) $12.00kg ($1.20 per 100g), strawberries $2.80 punnet, blood oranges $1kg, sweet potato $1.49kg, leeks $2.50 lge bunch of 3. That was all my bargains for the day. i also bought some local (Adelaide Hills) Corella pears - I absolutely love these pears - they were $4 a kg but were so lovely and fresh I had to have them.

I will absolutely be going back as the prices were so good and everything seemed so fresh. They also seemed to have many bulk purchases available but as our car was a fair way away and the children were tired I didn't get to take advantage of any of these. I did see what looked like 10kg bags of oranges for $5 which would be great if you had a juicer! I also saw bulk bags of red capsicums and a lot of people seemed to be buying them so they mush have been a good price.

I'm planning to head back next weekend and hopefully get at least one of my friends to come with me. I might also talk to them about doing a few bulk purchases and then splitting them, which would make the prices even better! A veggie co-op of sorts:)

It has been a long day, so I am taking an early mark tonight :)

take care of you.

Update

It has been a few days since I wrote anything here, but rest assured I have been a busy little beaver. I did my menu planning for the next fortnight and it goes something like this:
1. spaghetti bolognaise
2. chicken schnitzel
(these two are my children's favourites so they are part of any fortnightly plan)
3. marinated drumsticks with cous cous
4. corned beef
5. burgers
6. roast pork (dry roasted in slow cooker)
7. salmon
8. beef pies
9.home made pizza
10. hearty beef casserole (from last f/nights menu that we didn't get to make for some reason)
11. green chicken curry
12. soup or toasted s/w

Why you ask are there only 12 dinner items when there are 14 meals to be prepared. Saturday night just gone we had a "scrap and salad" at my friend Mandy's house. 6 hours of scrapbooking with a roast lamb, salad and jacket potato to sustain us for the evening :) Also this coming week is my daughters birthday so we have a family dinner that night, which this year is at her Dad's house. I do have to make a cake appear but i am sure I will manage something :)

My back is recovering nicely, although I still need to get better at all the exercises my physio has given me! I did some house work today and then threw together a batch of muffins from the recipe on Rhonda's blog. I was expecting my best friend, her sister and parents over for afternoon tea so I wanted to have something warm and inviting. They were so good that there are none left! So none to photgraph...sorry....Did I say they were good?

Recap of Me time...

I really enjoyed yesterday, but at the same time i am quite tired today. My back is quite stiff and sore so i am thinking that the trekking around the markets and carrying my "bargains" didn't do me any favours.

In some ways I was disappointed in the Central Markets. Some things did appear to be cheaper but not many things that I wanted to buy were. My good buys for the day were - baby bok choy (3 for 80c), bag of beansprouts (70c), bananas (5kg), zucchini ($4.95kg), tomatoes (1.95kg), mushrooms ($5kg). I also went to the organic grocery stand and bought some salad greens $1.99/per 100g) which is comparable to the local non-organic grocers. I also bought 4 fuji apples they were $5.95 kg but look very nice. We shall give them the taste test later on. The only extravagant item I purchased was some home made quince paste which was $2.50, but actually compared tot eh pre-packaged item in the supermarket it was really good value. It will go nicely with the brie I bought last week, with leftover grocery money. It was a reward of sorts for managing to stick to my budget.

I also had a really nice lunch with my best friend Cathy. Only 2 weeks to go now, so one thing I must organise this weekend is a few things in a bag in the car so that when I get the call that she is in labour , I won't necessarily need to come home first. I also need to organise a few non- perishable snacks to go in there, in case we are there for a a long time.

This morning I am feeling stiff and sore and frankly I am over the whole sore back thing. I'd just like to go back to being myself. I'd like to be able to vacuum and sweep and mop my house. I'd like to take my new bike for a ride (I bought it on sale about 3 weeks ago and have ridden it up and down the driveway). I am determined to make sure I do everything the physio says so I can recover quicker.

Today we have soccer at 12.00, which is kind of an annoying time. It means we wait around all morning at home, so don't really achieve much. Then by the time we get home, have a late lunch the afternoon has mostly escaped. Another quiet night at home tonight methinks. My daughter is going fishing at Snowdens Beach with her friends and one of the other parents. Then she is having a sleepover. Tomorrow we are going shopping for her bed.
Hope you all have a great weekend.
Take care of you

Me time

Being a mum and a girlfriend and a workmate and a friend all takes time and effort. We all wear so many hats and try to do so much. I am ll for the slowing down and living in the moment. I don't want to be one of the people on their deathbed who regrets the life they had led.

Today I am having some me time. Time to do what I want to do. Admittedly I have a time frame in which to do but I can't totally neglect my responsibilities or my children. This morning after I finish my coffee I am heading off to the city. My first stop will be the Adelaide Central markets. I don't know how much I will actually buy today, more of an exploration of prices and the range of products available. I will be taking my price book with me as well as my own shopping bags so that I will not be carting home extra plastic bags or overpriced purchases.

After that I am dropping into my old workplace to say goodbye to one of the girls I have known there for a while. She is moving on to a new job. After that I am meeting my best friend for a quick lunch and will get a report on her latest visit to the ob/gyn. She only has 17 days till her delivery date. I am starting to get excited. After that I am off home to collect children form school.

Will hopefully report back tonight with my shopping adventures and any baby news!
Take care of you.

How hard really is it to be green?

Tonight I feel I need to stand on my sensible soap box for a few minutes. Today as I was picking up my reusable fabric shopping bag full of shopping I heard something that made me shake my head in wonder. The person behind me in line (who only had a small basket of shopping) was asked by the shop assistant if they would like their large 6 or 8 pack of plastic wrapped toilet paper in a plastic bag. See I don't get it...why do you need to put it in a bag in the first place? It is already in this case wrapped in plastic and I think easier to carry without a bag. After all if your hands are full with a bag each it is great to be able to tuck it under and arm. Even the paper covered recycled toilet paper I never find difficult to carry.

I've noticed a lot of people are generally thoughtless when it comes to things like this. I applaud companies like Bunnings and Ikea who actually charge you a nominal fee if you want your purchases in a bag. I look forward to the day that all companies do this. Unfortunately we may have to wait until 2009 before it becomes legislation, but until then we can all learn to say no.

"It is estimated that it takes the average Australian family four shopping trips to accumulate 60 plastic shopping bags. If everyone accepted one less plastic bag every time they went shopping, the number of bags used would be reduced substantially. " Go read some more about saying no to plastic bags here.

I'll stop now before I get too carried away, but I feel better for having said something.

Thank you for all the thoughts on my recovery. I can safely report I have not vacuumed, mopped or swept anything. Tomorrow morning I am going to catch up with a friend for coffee, before I start work at 1pm. The coffee thing is something I don't do as often as I would like, so I guess I really enjoy it when I do. While I am at the shopping centre I will also look for a doona/quilt for Sarah's soon to be queen size bed, although I will most likely get her a king size as I know I enjoy the extra width when it gets really cold. I also hopefully will spend the money I was given on Mother's Day on a new jacket/cardigan. I am hoping they have my size in the store tomorrow as I ordered it 10 days ago, but they never called to say it had arrived.

Friday will be busy as well but I will post more about my activities tomorrow.

Take care of you.

Budgeting for beginners...

Something I have been trying to do for a while is track where my money goes to see if I can save a bit more, or even pay more of my mortgage. So far my efforts have been a little slack, so after doing a bit of reading and surfing the net I have decided to try the envelope system (also known as the plastic bag system). It basically entails setting up an envelope/bag for each expense category with the amount to be allocated written on the outside. Then each week/fortnight/month (for my purposes I am going to try f/n) you withdraw the full total and allocate ti to each of the bags. If you want to read more about it head over to the Aussies Living Simply forum and read the thread on Living within your means :) Also another blog I've been reading had a nice explanation of her system and the categories she uses is busy woman at her blog A vision splendid.
I will do my first f/n withdrawal on Monday so will give you a progress report in a couple of weeks and let you know how it is going (or not!). Thanks also to Kez for her menu plan for the month, this girl shops monthly...I'd love to be able to do that one day :)

Anyways, my back has had another session at the physio so I am still not allowed to sit for long.
Off to collect children form swimming.
Take care of you.

Markets

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day here in Adelaide. Sunday was not as nice though, but as we had already planned to go to the Torrens Island Produce Markets, we just made sure we were dressed warmly.

Being my frugal self I had a list in my head of which fruit and veggies I ideally wanted, but first we went for a wander looking at prices. There wasn't a zucchini to be seen (they are currently over $10kg here ) and the only beans I saw were $8kg, which is similar to everywhere else. I ended up spending $19.30.
For my money I got
3kg of swiss brown mushrooms (locally grown in Adelaide) $6
1 large rockmellon (nice and sweet) $2
1 large cabbage $2.50
2 red capsicums
2 yellow capsicums
6 unwaxed red delicious apples (there were 99c/kg)
6 overripe bananas (to make a couple of cakes)
6 nice bananas for eating
1kg bag carrots

Apart from the carrots which were pre-packaged in a plastic bag and the mushrooms which were in a box, I managed to just carry everything on my hands to be weighed and paid, then slipped it into our bags.
The children enjoyed the experience and had fun helping me look for bargains.

I ended up spending less than I would have at my local fruit and veg shop and so was happy to share with my parents and my friend Mandy. I gave them each 1/4 cabbage, 1/4 rockmellon (the children ate the other half for afternoon tea) and 1/2 kg mushrooms. So I still have 2kg of mushrooms to work with. Will take another 1/2kg to give to my other friend Jo and the rest I am already using in various recipes.

After the produce markets we went to the Fisherman's Wharf markets @ Port Adelaide. My son is kind of obsessed with the "lego" shop there . The stall has a selection of new and mostly second hand parts and boards. Thomas is loving it and is finding a new way to spend pocket money.

Today Sarah has a pupil free day so after some housework and a physio appointment we are off to buy her some new runners for school etc. Her best friend Jess is also going to hang out with us too.
Take care of you.

Just thought I might do a catch up for the last few days. The school holidays started here on Friday. Saturday we had soccer to go to and Sarah went to Jo's to have her hair thinned and her blonde foils redone.

On Sunday we drove into the city (the weather wasn't the best so we didn't want to chance the train).

We visited the Rundle Street Markets for a bit of retail therapy. Then the boys headed off to Toys R us and we went to Target and Diva.

Sarah picked herself up a few pairs of bargain earrings from the clearance rack.

Then we sat and ate our sandwiches (home made) and I splurged on some McDonald's fries for us all to share and a piece of fruit each.We also had our water bottles that we brought from home.

Then it was off to the car park to drive home. (we managed to squeeze it all in under two hours, so our parking in Frome St parking was free).

On the way home we stopped off at the Fisherman's Wharf markets at Port Adelaide. Thomas thought he was in heaven when we showed him the LEGO store. All those little pieces that are forever getting vacuumed up were available by the piece, lots of men and little accessories! Thomas spent all his pocket money on bits and pieces, then spent the rest of the afternoon sorting out all our existing Lego @ home. (with a little help from Sarah & I)!

Yesterday was my trip to Memorial Hospital for Day surgery. Can I just say that all the staff were fantastic! So caring and helpful. Spent lots of time waiting around, but they had comfy couches, TV and magazines plus I met a few other really nice Ladies who were also waiting. We all had matching gowns, dressing gowns and little blue "shoes", but each of the surgeons patients had different little "shower" caps. All of Basil's patients had white with little tigers on them!

Suffice to say I feel a little battered today, like my abdomen has been a punching bag. More drugs and the wheat bag seem to be keeping it at a manageable level.

Take care of you.