Filed under: Christmas, anti-consumerism, gifts, non consumer, simple living, simple pleasures | Tags: buy nothing, buy nothing new, Christmas, cutting expenses, simple living
One of my passions is food.
I am excited about the wonderful gourmet foods we have here in Australia.
I have been researching online local products such as wine, ( praise Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley and Margaret River wines!) marinated fetta cheeses, olives, olive tapenade, chilli dips, mustard, tomato rellish, antipasto, hand made chocolates, macadamias, chocolate covered coffee beans, dried fruit, quince paste, dips, camembert and brie cheese, pear paste and gourmet crackers.
I am so excited!
I am going to prepare some gift baskets and gourmet gift hampers for Christmas gifts this year featuring our great local produce.
This will support local boutique businesses.
Filed under: Clothing and accessories, cutting expenses, stop shopping, wedding | Tags: buy nothing new, cutting expenses, non consumer, saving money, wedding
No, I’m not getting married again.
If I did, it would be to Mr Techno again ( Hi Hon!)
On breakfast TV the other morning, there was a young woman who was talking about her “budget” wedding.
I cringe when I hear the words “frugal” and “budget”, its just me and how I’m wired, but it conjures up inferior or cheap quality.
I seek quality over quantity anyday.
But back to the story.
She was saying that she saw her “dream dress” in a shop and tried it on. It cost $2500.
She then went hunting on ebay, and bought the same ( or if not, very similar) dress for $8.60. It was in immaculate once worn condition.
Just think how many hours of after tax income she would have had to earn to purchase the dress in the shop!
She looked stunning in her wedding photos.
I think she should relist the dress on ebay and share the love!
Filed under: Clothing and accessories, My compact, anti-consumerism, buy nothing, clutter, cutting expenses, non consumer, saving money, simple living, stop shopping, use what you already have | Tags: affluenza, anti-consumerism, buy nothing new, compact, downshifting, non consumer, saving money
It is Planet Ark’s National Recycling Week in Australia, starting next Monday.
Willoughby Council is holding a Frock Swap on Thursday.
Women are invited to bring up to 6 new or lightly worn items of clothing or accessories to swap from 6.30pm to 9.30pm at the doughery Community Centre, 7 Victor St, Chatswood.
What a great idea, to get together a group of your friends and make a night of it! Click on the link below for details.
Filed under: Christmas, anti-consumerism, gift giving, gifts, non consumer, simple pleasures, stop shopping | Tags: anti-consumerism, buy nothing new, Christmas, non consumer, stop shopping
It is the first week of November.
Its time to start thinking about Christmas Gifts…….
We have cut down our gift giving so that now we only give Christmas Gifts to the following;
Mr Techno
Barbie Girl
Non Consumer Girl (me)
Mr Technos Mum
Mr Technos Dad
Non Consumer Girls Mum
Non Consumer Girls Dad
4 children cousins (under 18 years)
Teachers (Barbie Girl has 4 teachers)
That is 15 people to Gift.
I am going to try to give thoughtful gifts of experiences.
Here are some ideas….
music lessons for an instrument
yoga classes (me, hint Mr Techno, if you are reading my blog today!)
swimming 10 visit pass to local swimming pool
gardening store gift voucher ( this IS an experience for my Dad, he spends hours choosing his plants
carefully and they are usually vegetable plants he ends up purchasing)
theatre tickets
movie tickets
For the teachers, all of the parents in the class are putting $10 each in for each teacher, to give each teacher a $230 gift voucher. This is much more preferable to each person buying individually 23 children giving 4 teachers a $10 gift which is 92 gifts! Imagine how many resources this uses, and I’m sure a lot is not really wanted.
For Barbie Girl, I am thinking of buying her a bike, as she has outgrown her current one. Although this is will be an exception to my Buy Nothing New, it will be something that she will use a lot, and have lots of experiences learning to ride without training wheels, as well as be good exercise.
Filed under: simple living
Simply a miracle…hug your loved ones tonight….
go to youtube and type “baby pram train australia”
so much can happen in the blink of an eyelid
my heart stopped
hug your kids and remember to try to keep them safe….
as a safety message, please pass this on to every mother you know……if it saves one child’s life, this has had some meaning….
Filed under: organisation, simple living, simplifying my life | Tags: organisation, simple life, simplifying my life
I have just spent six hours today doing my husbands and my tax. A few weeks ago, I prepared both my parents’ tax return.
Despite working in Finance and being a CPA, I REALLY DISLIKE PREPARING TAX RETURNS.
I would rather eat my own hair.
One year, I decided that it wasn’t worth my life energy, so my husband and I went to a “Tax Agent”, who ended up not being very experienced.
Never again. It was a very unsuccessful experience which is another whole post.
Suffice to say, it took longer than me doing it myself, and cost a small fortune.
So, the bottom line is that I have to do it myself. Bummer.
Anyway, here are some tips to make it easy and quick to do.
Set aside a file (with subdivisions) for your tax and put all of your tax income and allowable deductions in there. Every week without fail.
When the time comes, all you have to do is pull out the file ( can be subdivided for the different categories if you like) and everything is in the one spot.
The only time you will spend is the time to actual fill out the forms, instead of rummaging through all of your past years paperwork trying to find your tax stuff.
So although I spent 6 hours of my life doing 2 tax returns today (EEWW!), it sure as hell beat sitting in an Accountants office on 2 separate occasions for about double the time!
I am looking forward to a few thousand dollars refund in about 10 days!
Simple.
Filed under: simple food, simple living, simple pleasures, simplifying my life | Tags: simple food, simple life, simple living, simple pleasures, simplifying my life
One of my favourite simple breakfasts is the banana smoothie.
I know there are all sorts of recipes out there for smoothies.
But when I wake up in the morning, it takes me a while before I can function properly.
No, its not that I’m getting older. I have always been “slow to surface”.
Not a morning person.
So I want something I can prepare through sleepy half open eyes, and I don’t have to think about, or read from a recipe book.
Here goes….
1 banana sliced
1 cup milk
Blend.
Simple.
