Signs of new life

I have had a lot of signs this week that life is in full bloom and no matter what I do - it carries on regardless.

Looking out my window one morning, I was so excited to see all my marrow plants sporting bright, yellow flowers. Yippee - that means they will soon be bearing green, soft marrows for the pot. But I also think they will have lots of insects drawn to the flowers, - so will keep you up to date on any unwelcome visitors and how we ask them to leave gently but firmly.

There were also other surprises from the "new life fairy" (no, she is no relationship to the frugal fairy). Without any warning and bundled in secrecy, a little boy blessed our small maplotter community. Sandra is my home assistant, and now also mother of a newborn. Why she did not tell me is still a mystery, as I must have asked her 7 times if she was pregnant. I think they should have called him "NO", but instead they chose to call him Sibosiso. He is tiny and born almost 2 months early.

I have been a busy girl (which is not the same as a good girl) - and have completed 5 orders for dishcloth sets. What fun it is to make these - I love it! Please let me know if you want some, it gives me a great outlet for my creative side. Just like little newborn babies, I give them names and send them off to loving parents willing to adopt them.

Summer garden Range

Christmas range

Fresh as a daisy range

Cottage range

I also revisited my milk shop with the cow on the roof, and here are some more pictures for your entertainment. And I also misrepresented them in my blog - they do NOT sell pasteurised milk, it is all fresh! Like fresh, fresh! Contracted to a cheese company, they refill the tank each day with fresh milk. What is not sold on that day gets turned into sour milk to make sure the milk sold in the shop is always fresh.

They have more certificates than me against the wall, so they must be brilliant!

Their yoghurts are DIVINE - thick like expensive face cream and only R15 a big tub.

Tomorrow is 1 December, and I have received a few challenges - so will be posting them on this site.

Hilda - using old cloth patterns for wrapping presents
Shahista - using something I got for free to create 2 different Christmas decorations
Nicolene - the mystery box

Talk to you soon - about ice-cream specifically!!!
Lovies
Lizette

How to run a feeding scheme in your house (without anyone ending up in hospital)

We have been trying to save money on groceries - and so far we have had some success stories, some drama's, a few horror stories and then some very sad stories. I would like to share them all with you so you can either avoid, see if you can do better or enjoy seeing someone else suffer.

Must say, this is not as bad as I expected, the trick is to treat it like a game of tennis. The shops/retailers are my different opponents, my budget is the net, and pricing options are the different balls we play with.

Now my tennis court is situated in the wonderful rural paradise of Delmas/Sundra/Rietkol. For those of you who do not know, it means I live on a smallholding, in a community with 4 shops (a petrol station, the cafe at the petrol station, the bottle store at the petrol station and a factory chicken outlet). If I feel adventurous, I drive another 7 minutes to play in Sundra. Sundra is a village (but with non of the villagey imagery you would associate with a typical village). It is a gritty, dusty, under-developed stretch of tar, with arbitrary shops hanging on to its crumbling edge like ticks on a cow.

And talking about cows, this is where I discovered my first jewel of a shop - allowing me to save money on milk purchases. The milk is fresh, pasteurised, ice-cold and if you take your own bottle, it costs R15 for 2L of full cream milk. They even have a slogan, which I think is a bit wasted on the passing traffic, but the cow is very attractive.

I will introduce you to the other shops when I have more courage, and enlighten you on all the little treasures they offer the concerning shopper with little money.

But getting back to the tennis game, if I want to play at a provincial level, I take the super-highway enxt to the train tracks and drive for a full 10 minutes to Delmas. There is another Delmas in Europe, but this one is in Mpumalanga - and I only go here for special occasions. Like weekly grocery shopping, visits to the pharmacy, when I feel the need to drive in traffic, to buy the best soft-serve for R5-00.

So now I have my game, my opponents, a choice of tennis courts - my next step was to organise ball boys (David my son and Matthew my other son). I like to win, so decided that I will be a player as well as the referee.

And this is how the game goes. Armed with a notebook, a pen, comfortable shoes, loose clothing and 2 eager ball boys, we scrutinised, compared, noted, weighed, calculated and pretended to look normal for 3 Saturdays this month. Before I provide you with a full economic white paper on the most cost -effective cauliflower, I will do a bit more research and play a few more games in other towns. So keep a look out for this much-anticipated research work.

So we get cheap milk, but how do you make 4 T-bones last for 2 days between 4 hungry people? This was my first challenge to my son, as I asked him to make supper on the Sunday night, then gave him a rude awakening with 2 pieces of the tough T-bone meat that no-one really wants to eat on the Monday morning. His challenge was to turn this.........

into a lovely and filling supper for 4 people. So my ball boy turned chef and made us a supper for R37 inclusive!!! That is less than R7 per person. Here is the recipe, and the left-over T-bone can be replaced by any left-over meat I guess.

OK - you got me, there is no real recipe, just a putting together of the following ingredients in any order you feel is good.
2 x carrots cut into small cubes - R0.50
1 x onion cut into small cubes - R0.80
1  x leek cut into slices - R2.50
2 x cloves garlic - squashed-up - R0.20
1 x Green pepper in cubes - R1.00
2 tablespoons each of chutney and tomato sauce - R2.00 (we use no name, bad name, cheap name when we put it in stews and stuff)
1 big baby marrow (would they then be called a teenager marrow?) in slices - R1.00
Left-over meat - R0.00
1 tin chickpeas - R 9.50
1 tin tomato and onion mix - R 10.00

Pick & Pay sell bread dough for less than R10 a pack, so he made traditional vetkoek with the stew inside. It was njam, njam, najm. Oh yes - and a tangy coleslaw on the side.

So yes - it can be done, we just need to more creative as a family. Everyone got 2 vetkoeke, so I ate 1 and packed the other one for lunch the next day.

Just a note to say how thankful I am that my hubbie has both his legs. There was a 40-60% change that one leg would be amputated, but the doctor as well as the drugs worked well - and happy to report he has 2 legs, 1 tokkelosh and still full of nonsense like before. And no - that is not the tokkelosh lying next to him - but his loyal canine partner Philip who never left his side during his 3 months he had to spend in bed. He also has 2 legs, a tokkelosh and is full of nonsense!

The most beautiful picture of Les' feet, and I love them both very much as well as the great man they belong to

The festive season is creeping up on us - and I would like you to please send me challenges. I want to be challenged on wrapping presents in a cost effective way. So please email me or send me ideas to use for wrapping presents with. i will take up these challenge, try my best to come up with a workable solution, and post it on my blog. (do you have lots of newspaper, plastic bags, toilet paper, old gift paper, magazines?) Anything you can think off - send to me and let's see how I measure up in using these materials in a creative way for wrapping presents.

Have a lekker weekend

Lovies
Lizette

Frugal Fairy grants 3 wishes

Today is an exciting blog for me - as we have completed our first "something for nothing" project. Now being a frugal fairy, there is a big purple bubble floating around me - warding off any feelings of shame and embarrassment when asking for freebies, scrounging for treasures, looking for free stuff. Sure, sometimes a little tear in the bubble allows a sliver of shame/embarrassment to attack my ego, but then I quickly use my frugal fairy magic wand to repel or destroy this in-bred prejudice against asking for free stuff.

As a frugal fairy i will need to be a waste warrior - honing in on items going to waste, not being used and trying to get them for free or as little as possible. This is part of the adventure and a skill I need to practise and excel at.

So I have had 3 amazing adventures over the past week, and will include a short tutorial one each so you can follow the same journey if you so desire.

Usually fairies give you 3 wishes, so let me stick to that theme:

1) "I wish I had a beautiful bench to sit on in the garden and sip wine with my loved one (Les - that is you my sweetie pie)"

As with all wishes, I did have a picture in mind, and just to make 100% sure, I also had a picture from a book.

Most of us have had the terrible experience of going to a "hairy fairy" to get the most amazing hairstyle ever! You know precisely in your head what it should look like, and to make 110% sure, you also have a picture from a magazine of some famous/beautiful creature with the desired hair-do. And then what happens - the "hairy fairy" swings her scissors, her colour brush and her blow-dryer, and like magic - you look the same but with an unfamiliar hair-do that now requires some magic tricks of your own to keep it looking good (read special potions, lotions, techniques, clips, bows, hats, etc)

 So I put my bubble in place - asked for some free pallets and got my 2 elves to do their own magic after the Husband Wizard has drawn up all the templates, sizes and instructions.

This bench is so comfortable - Lucas and Edwin did not want to get up, so I had to put some of my dogs on them (hie-hie-hie)

So I could either leave it in its raw state, or I could paint it to go with my herb garden. You decide which one looks the best!

2) OK - so wish one done - I had to go for wish 2: A scullery with enough place to pack the dirty dishes, so they do not stack up in the sink, threatening my sanity and scaring Sandra when she walks in every morning. Somehow when they are spread out in a more horizontal position, dishes are not as intimidating as when they are stacked vertically!

And I remembered Mirilene offering my an old piece of timber that is lying around her house. So floating forth in my purple bubble- I phoned and asked her to deliver on her promise, and now her old piece of timber is a stunning workspace where I fill the dog's dishes, and pack the dirty dishes. And this all for free!

Thank you Miri - I know that you will be happy that you helped me serve up 7 dishes of dog food every night on your old piece of wood. (Korrels are in the ugly container, water in the silver dish, dogs on my bed!)

3) And lastly - wish 3. I wish oh I wish for a organising unit for my sewing room. Something to show me what fabric I have, to store all the millions of balls of wool that i never use but will one day when I am an old lady. And then I saw her. She was hiding in a dark, wet and smelly alley - next to some other suspect characters. Her shoes and feet got wet from standing there for so long, and she was ready to give up and fall down - just about dead on her feet.

So I made an offer, got her included with a bunch of other alley orphans, and she basically came for free as the other items will cover the expense of R500 I had to fork out.

We made her new shoes, got her back in balance, and so I made all my own wishes come true.

 

 

I challenge you to ask for something for free - and do not be surprised if the answer is YES!

 

Lucas and Edwin agreed to the following:

- if you supply the pallets (7 in total) and paint, they will charge you R500 to make the bench

- if you want us to source material for you, the bench will cost you R1000

 

If you want some BUNTING like the the example in my scullery - Melida will make it for you in your colour scheme, with vintage hand sewing detail for R100 a meter.

 

If you want my dogs or my husband or my elves - tough luck, they are not for sale

 

Talk to you tomorrow about saving money on milk, and how to make a chicken last for 3 meals (without getting food poisoning or getting divorced)

 

Lovies

Lizette

 

ps - i just LOVE my bench, so here it is again!

 

 

 

 

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A DISHCLOTH
A short-story about the tragic life-span of kitchen cloths

I LOVE dishcloths!! I especially LOVE NEW dishcloths!! I buy them and then I hide them. I hide them in dark corners in my walk-in pantry. I hide them between my out-of-season linen sets. I hide them in the back of kitchen drawers. But ALAS, someone always find them and use them and abuse them and then they look sad and septic and then I HATE them.

I have tried various methods to revive old dishcloths. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation does not work, the Bleach-of-life just makes them look worse (see below), and no amount of effort, tender-loving- care and soothing words can bring them back to their former glory.

My budget does NOT love dishcloths. The good ones are super-expensive, and I would rather buy a lekker bottle of wine than spend between R30 and R40 on a new dishcloth that will look like an old rag in a few weeks time.

 

I have tried the cheap option - even sinking as low as buying dishcloths from China-town. Now at first glance these look like the real thing, until you want to wipe something with them. They just glide over any wetness as if  it is none of their business. So instead of a small spot of liquid on your counter top, you now have a large wet surface where the "make-belief" dishcloth refused to absorb even one drop, but wickedly spread the wetness all over your work surface like warm butter on a slice of bread. Then starts the dabbing action - where I scrunch it up and dab-dab-dab, trying to get rid of the liquid. I then usually go to extremes such as wiping more furiously, wiping in the opposite direction, turning the cloth around as if the other side has some magical properties that will appear like a genie from a bottle if i just rub it enough. Last resort is talking in Chinese, throwing the offending cloth in the corner and grabbing a big towel to clean up the mess left by my sub-standard dishcloth.

 

So it happened one morning when I shuffled out the scullery door on my way to sing to my pumpkins. Lo-and-behold - the tragedy was staring me right in the face.

 

 

So I made a plan. I could not get it over my heart to bury these poor, brave souls, but they did go to dishcloth retirement village to clean floors and other acts of hard labour. And I made myself some beautiful, gorgeous, super-absorbent, colour-coded, fluffy dishcloths. They are white so I can bleach them to my heart's content, boil them till the point of no-return, tumble-dry them for extra fluffiness, dry and wipe and clean and do all the dishcloth-activities I love so much.

 

 

OK - they are not perfect but they are better than anything else. So if you want to order some from me (I can whip a set of 3 up in an evening with 3 little cloths to use instead of those slimy, dirty, unhygienic sponges) - please let me know.

 

 

 

The options are:                                                                                                                                      1) You give me old towels and I cut them up and make them pretty (upcycle) - R 10 a dishcloth

2) I buy the towelling and make it pretty in your colour scheme - R20 a dishcloth

3) You order a set of 3 dishcloths with little washing squares in your chosen colour - R50 a set

 

Oh and yes - I am a bit obsessive, and because I absolutely LOVE dishcloths, I also made a set in matching curtain material (recycle baby, recycle)

 

A set like this to mathc your colour scheme will cost R80-00, and this money will go to Melida and her baby Mary. She lives on our property and can earn additional money by hand-sowing the material to the cloths. Look how pretty-pretty it is! (I still need to tidy the edges and the corners - but could not wait to share with you!!!)

 

I got so carried away by the dishcloth saga - there is no time for recipe's or food tips. One tip from Gavin to help me with Drop-Zone is worth mentioning here, as I know very few of you would be able to walk past a little fallen dove without trying to nurse it to adulthood.

 

Hi Lizette
Please save yourself all the trouble with your little bugger, Get a big syringe, I think the chemist calls it an enema syringe A piece of soft plastic tube about as thick as a pencil about 5 or 6 cm long. Attach to the syringe draw up about 20ml porridge and gently push the tube down his throat and depress slowly into his crop. 2x a day and also do the same with a little Luke warm water a couple of times a day Hope it helps you
Regards
Gavin

 

And as I promised, the "broekies" for my hanging-garden of Sundra. The firs pic is Edwin's effort, but I quickly showed him that these eight-wonder of the world does not deserve concentration camp bloomers, but sexy little Hessian g-strings.

 

Talk to you tomorrow

 

Lovies

Lizette

 

Herbal Sherbal.....and meet my new child

This is so easy:

Step 1: Collect every garden pot you can find
Step 2: Collect any other piece of rubbish lying around
Step 3: Paint it whatever colour makes you happy
Step 4: Fill pots with sand/gravel/soil
Step 5: Plant your herbs and enjoy

But why in pots?

Reason 1:  You eat the stuff and this prevents the dogs peeing on it
Reason 2:  You can move them around if a specific herb does not like sun or would rather be shady
Reason 3:  You save water as you only have to water the pots and not a whole bed
Reason 4:  It cleans up your garden/shed/garage by putting all orphan pots and pieces of interesting rubbish in one place
Reason 5: It looks lovely, and you can change the colour of the paint when your mood changes

And here is my new little baby - his/her name is Drop-Zone. He is such an active little bugger, no wonder he fell from his nest. I am sure many of you have tried to feed a little forsaken dove - it is not easy. And it is even worse when your mouth is paralysed on the one side like mine.

Let me explain: I take a spoon full of baby porridge in my mouth (Nestum maize, no sugar, just water - uggghh). Then I pretend to be a mommy dove by flapping my arms (by the way, I am over 50 so I have flapping arms anyway), making what I think is dove noises and then putting this poor soul's beak into my mouth.

He is quite sharp and have worked out that if he sits with his head in this dark hole with his beak open - some food will get pushed down his throat. The problem is that half the porridge goes into his crop, and the other half not only dribbles out of my mouth on the lame side, but also cover his little head with a white, grainy coat of porridge. So it is feed one, wipe one, feed one, wipe one. (he refuses to wear the bibs that I made him).

Eye and feathers stuck together - but mommy will clean me just now

Thank you for all the comments and tips - I will be publishing them soon so everyone can benefit. Here are some of the upside-down comments from yesterday's blog:

Zet

Sjoe maar julle het gewerk!!! Alles lyk so oulik. Dis nou net jy wat so iets sal aan dink. Ons sal groente by jou koop. As jy butternut het vat ek n hele sak.Laat weet as die groente reg is en neem fotos van dit –as jy bottles nodig het laat weet-ek dink jy is nou moeg vir bottles!

Ek dink die lekkerste is as mens sien hoe die groente groei. Davi is seker baie in sy noppies. Se vir hom ek se baie geluk dit lyk ammmaaazzzzing!!! Hy gaan lekker pampoenkoekies en pampoentert maak. O ja en nog pampoensop.

 Liefde en sterkte-onthou om met die groente te praat….

Ananda Gush

 

 

Awesome !!

 

Love the use of the old plastic bottles to grow stuff in & learnt something new in that, you can grow stuff upside down J

Probably how my armpit hair manages to survive but never quite figured you could get plants to do that 2

Inspiring read, thanks for sharing J

Colin Deacon

 

 

Anelda wrote: "Welcome back Zetta! Love ..just love reading your blogs."

 

 

Mirilene wrote: "Heeehaaa! She is back! Yaaaay!"

 

 

Please continue to send me comments, tips and saving advise. Tomorrow's post will have some cost effective meals, as well as a story about "The tragic live and death of a dishcloth"

 

Lovies

Lizette

 

Njam, njam, njam. As a family, we devour a lot of food. We like to eat, we like to celebrate, we like to cook, we like fillet. Enough said!

So I thought an easy way to save would be to tackle to grocery bill. And I would like to dedicate this blog today to all the brave and super-creative people who earn very little money, yet manage to feed their whole family every day. (...and I am ashamed to confess that the money we spend on food every month is almost double than what some people earn in a whole month)

But no more!!! We came up with a 4-prong approach. Like a fork - a four-prong fork; and that is what we eat with; - and that is njam,njam, njam. Sorry - see how easily my mind is distracted by the thought of food.

Prong 1:   Spend less on groceries so we can become richer and Pick&Pay can become poorer
Prong 2:   Produce as much of our own food as possible
Prong 3:   Become more creative with recipes and meals
Prong 4:   Waste less & re-use more

First let's have a paradigm shift to another 4-prong fork (no najm-njam-njam here)

So armed with this approach - we tackled the vegetable garden. David is a wonderful vegetable garden creator, and have planted a massive garden full of the most wonderful veggies. But I also want to try other, more economic ways to grow veggies for the kitchen, so stumbled (literally) over the big plastic bag containing some long-forgotten empty bottle I was going to recycle during one of my other phases. At the same time I also stumbled (figuratively) onto a website with tips on growing upside-down veggies in empty plastic containers. 2 Stumbles do not make a genius, but it did ring a creative bell - and viola - we now have a very ugly, but promising hanging-garden of Sundra.

The bottom bit is our lovely little tomato/green pepper/aubergine plant, and then the mystical top device is the watering system. The biggest danger with the upside-down world of hanging veggies are that they can dry out so quickly. So now we have made little holes in the "proppie", then we fill the top bottle with water, and viola!!!! Drip-irrigation!!!!!! This waters the plants all day - but tonight I am putting little panties on all the watering bottles to serve as filters, as leaves and goggos fall into it and then they block the little drainage holes. Will take a pic and show you in the morning.

 

I also went a bit bananas over pumpkins, so have planted pumpkins everywhere!!!! Wherever there is a little bit of soil and a ray of sunshine, a little pumpkin/marrow plant got deposited. Every morning when I have my first cup of coffee, i go outside and sing to all my pumpkins. Luckily our nearest neighbours is 500m away, otherwise i would be eating hospital veggies in an asylum by now.

 

The most amazing thing I learned from the pumpkin-planting episode, is how scared people are of pumpkin plants. There was a type of mass-hysteria in our household because i planted them so close to the house, and do I know how big a pumpkin plant gets and how vigorous it grows and it is going to come and invade the house!!!!! I was the only calm one, as I am in possession of a secret weapon called a SPADE, and as soon as these little buggers dare push their creepy fingers over the concrete - off with their hands!

So please people - do not be scared of pumpkin plants, they are kind, joyful and natural explorers. But remember you are in charge, so do not take any shit from them. On the other hand, they would appreciate a little bit of shit from you.

All they need is a sunny spot, soil, water when they are dry and a firm but loving hand to guide them towards glorious adulthood and then - - - njam, najm, njam.

I have lots of pumpkin and marrow plants left over, so please let me know if you would like to buy one for R5. (I will obviously be advertising pumpkins in this blog at a later stage, as there is no way on earth we can eat all the pumpkins and marrows I have planted)



Note the recycled garden/pumkin table, as well as recycled pumpkin pots

What else is green, get used in the kitchen and is very fashionable? This will be the topic of my next blog, and no dopeheads - you are wrong.

 

Lovies

Lizette

Where does all the money go?

I am back! A bit worse for wear, but stronger and crazier than before. And I have a new challenge. Instead of lots and lots of little silly challenges, I now have only one big silly challenge!

To try and live on as little money as is possible. I am a natural spender, consumer, money-wasting, immediate gratification type of girl. The money comes in - I make damn sure it goes out!

I even find it difficult to say my challenge is to SAVE money. It is just so BLAH!!!!

But maybe blah is were I need to go, especially for the following reasons: (tick where appropriate for your own situation)
- trying to buy a property for old age (Maplotter Place)
- need to have help in the home and the garden (just cannot work all day then come home to do the garden, clean house, do washing, iron, feed chickens, cook for the dogs, etc. etc.) OK - I can but I do not want to.
- hubbie got very sick, and medical aid was not so much an aid as it was an obstacle - read lots and lots of medical bills and a few kilograms of medication per month.
- I have 7 dogs and I refuse to give even 1 up
- my only child is still living at home - 28 years of age (I cannot chase him away as he is one of the helpers I mentioned in second point above) AND I love him very much. AND he is a wonderful chef. AND he comes with Matthew who is a sweetie pie. AND he is in charge of the vegetable garden. AND he helps with hubbie when I am at work.
- we are a one-income household in a multiple-income world
- I have borrowed and begged for money that I now want to pay back - imagine living debt-free!!!
- having no money stresses me out big-time. Having lots of money also stresses me out but not as much as having NO money. I need to find a peaceful place between no money and lots of money.
- I do not have a real plan for my old age. Yes, there is a provident fund, a policy or two, but no secret hiding place that I can dig up and say - "Hoorah! This is my nest-egg for old age.". I do hope I can still dig when I am old, as I am planning to have quite a few secret treasure burried away within the next few years. (Paul Kruger - eat your heart out)
- we live beyond our means, struggling to make ends meet every month, living well for one week after pay day, then suffering for 3 weeks before teh next pay day.

So over the next few days, weeks, months - I am going to give it a try. I am going to be a 'tightwad', a 'frugal fairy', a 'scrooge'. and because I do not want to suffer alone, I will be sharing my experiences in this blog. I hope I can inspire you to try some of the ideas, test some of the recipes, laugh at the funny bits and cry during the sad parts.