Frugal Friday

 Welcome!

Sometimes we can be naturally doing a lot of frugal things without knowing it. Maybe it was the things you were taught growing up that just come naturally to you. Or perhaps you have taught yourself lots of things over the years and are always on the lookout for more ideas. Maybe it's both, I think I fall into both categories. I am wanting to learn more especially in the everyday expenses as that is where a lot of our money can go.

Today I am going to share some ways that we do things frugally that just come naturally to us and also are part of our kiwi culture.

1. Shop your home instead of buying stuff to decorate.

 I love to rearrange furniture and ornaments. It seems to be a common thing in my family with my mum always moving stuff and some of my relatives also enjoy the art of decorating with what you have. I write that last sentence with a smile because my husband calls it a disease. Often he can't find something in the kitchen because I've rearranged it or sorted out a cupboard but to be fair things don't get moved that much!! But seriously, when you feel like a freshen up instead of shopping, look around your house and in your cupboards to see if there is something you can put on display in a different place or maybe turn the dining room table around and put a different tablecloth on with a vase of flowers. Freshen things up. Often it just takes a few little changes and you can feel different about a room or space. My sideboard dresser above is always having a facelift with different pottery and tins on display and I have fun changing it up.

2. Hang the laundry outside to dry.

This is something that is in the DNA of all kiwis I think and Australians too. Hanging your clothes on the line just makes sense. It saves money, the laundry smells beautiful and fresh. Climbing into bed at night with fresh sheets on the bed... devine! Many many years ago I went to the United States as part of a missions team outreach and one thing that I remember being pointed out to us, as we drove through a city looking into peoples backyards, was that there were no clotheslines. I just couldn't get my head around it. No clotheslines? I don't know if we even knew anyone growing up that owned a drier. But what about winter I hear you northern hemisphere people asking? Well call us crazy but we just either hang the washing out in between showers of rain when the sun shines through for 5 seconds or mostly we use indoor drying racks. It is more common to own driers now and I will be honest and say I do have one and I love it but I only try to use it in winter and mostly for big items like bedsheets, towels and jeans.

3. Cook and bake from scratch. 

This is the big one. We probably spend the most money on a regular basis in this area. The occasional meal out or take away meals are fine but on a weekly basis, it is easy to cook healthy meals at home. I find a lot of recipes I use don't take that long and most days I do enjoy cooking and trying new meals. It is always nice to sit down in the evening with my family and share our day while having dinner. I am often reminded when watching a documentary of other cultures and how much they value their food and cooking for their families. It is how they show their love for each other and to spend sometimes hours slow cooking something is just not a problem. When did the western world think that cooking is something to try and avoid and get through as fast as possible? I love to bake also and this is an area where it is certainly cheaper to bake your own than buy all the time. We have local bakeries that we love to support but not every week and not necessarily every month either. Homemade bread costs only a few cents, biscuits and muffins aren't expensive either. The peanut slice I made last night didn't cost very much at all to bake and was very yummy.

Peanut Slice that I made last night. I used natural peanuts which cost a lot less and I had all the other ingredients in my pantry.

Here I made homemade peanut butter with the rest of the peanuts.  It was super easy! I toasted the natural peanuts lightly in the oven, then blended them up in my food processor, added a pinch of salt and a tiny trickle of rape seed oil. I think the skins on made the peanut butter a little drier so a tiny amount of extra oil just helped to bring it to a better consistency. I am going to give a jar to my sister when I visit her this weekend so she can be my food critic. She is a baker anyway so love of food definitely runs in the family! We love to buy a good quality peanut butter which does cost more so I thought I would experiment making my own.

4. Use your library.

This is a really hard one for me. Why? I used to be a librarian so I naturally love libraries and encourage you all to use one if you have a library local to home. I love the quiet enviroment and we have our favourite librarians to talk to. However, I love to have my own book collection at home. It is cosy and comforting to me to look at books. But, they are free at the library and if you don't have money in the budget for books then the library is a fantastic place. I can get my favourite magazines for 50 cents a week each instead of buying for $11. You have to watch the overdue charges though, I'm aiming to do much better at that this year!

5. Shop secondhand.

I will be honest and say that we don't do this all the time but there have been occasions where I want some new clothes but I don't want to spend much because it is a want and not a need. I have never really had a lot of luck at finding clothes for the boys, there's never been a lot of clothes suitable for them but with three boys we have been able to do hand-me-downs quite a bit for our youngest which has saved a tonne of money over the years. Often we buy second hand books, the occasional piece of furniture and stuff for the house. 

6. Tackle projects and jobs yourself.

If possible do repair jobs, outdoor projects, redecorating etc yourself if you are able to. This summer my husband undertook a big job of paving the area under our clothesline which had lawn. It was always a problem area and we had been talking of doing it for about 5 years and finally just made it happen. In between weather and a busy work schedule it took a while to complete but my husband did a wonderful job and I am very happy with it. We think we saved a couple of thousand dollars. We also recently had a plumbing job to do in the kitchen and he tackled that himself too. It turned out to be a horrible job and took a few hours but it saved us a few hundred dollars that we would have had to pay a plumber. We always say that if there are jobs that we or should I say, my husband, can do, then we will undertake what we can and then pay for a professional for the things we aren't able to do.

Here is our new tiled area under the clothesline. It is much cleaner without dog poop and wet grass and makes the task of hanging out the washing much nicer.

It makes our whole backyard area much nicer to spend time in now.

I know there are so many more frugal ideas I could share here of things we do but they will be shared over time in other posts. I am not about extreme frugality, there are plenty of great blogs out there that cover that level of living. I hope this at least gives you some encouragement that you are already doing some great things and some ideas to do others.

Have a great weekend! And a great big happy birthday to my beautiful sister today!! Love you. 💝

Blessings, Fiona

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13