How It All Began

Hi everyone!

I'm a university student, in my early twenties, living with my partner of six years. When we were first living together, I wasn't even getting Centrelink payments for studying or living out of home. I moved to Perth in January, and didn't find a job until October. Our food budget was around $75 per week, for 2 people. We were broke, struggling, but just thought it was how it was supposed to be when you were a student.

One year ago, we were told we had to move out of our rental property (it was around exam time). Cue panic! The rental market was crazy! How could we possibly afford it? We would have to outbid other students, sometimes 30-50 people at a time would be going to rental property viewings! We thought we were doomed.

Then, enter my parents. After working hard their whole lives and having only a small sum of money left on their mortgage, they decided they wanted to buy an investment property in perth. They said, what's the point of us paying someone else mortgage, when they could buy a place and we pay that instead?

They ended up buying a quaint little unit,in a small complex 6kms east of Perth city. We have three bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a small backyard and a small kitchen.

Yet, having this wonderful space to call out own, we were inspired to make the most out of our years here.

At the beginning of this journey to live a more peaceful meaningful, homegrown life, I stumbled across this amazing forum. It has literally changed my life, as has Rhonda's blog.

We have started to consume less; grow more; buy and eat local produce from amazing local places (more on those later); practice frugal ways; budget with spreadsheets; expand our home skills; and overall just try to live more peacefully and meaningfully, so that our days don't rush by in such a blur anymore.

We eat amazingly well on $50 a dollars a week for two of us which I think is very good. I know you can see American blogs on eating frugal and they are brilliant, but's it's a little hard to relate to, not only due to this differences in the dollar but also the products and shops available there.

I started this blog to hopefully help other students, young couples of families see that there is a way to empower yourselves, take control of what you buy, and what you feed your family, while being as good to the environment as possible and supporting local farmers.

And that you don't need to live on large properties to be able to live a simpler life :)

Until next time,

Aimee x