What do you have planned for the weekend?
Today was a 'day off' for me, with no uni or work. I did a very early run (5.40 am!) with puppy and came for breakfast and coffee once he was good and tired. Tidied the house, checked over my grocery list one more time and hit the markets.
The butchers had a lot of great markdowns, so I stocked up a little. I got two packs of chicken mince, two packs of lamb, herb and garlic sausages, slow cooker steak, a grade rump steak and some dog bones. For $22! We are so blessed to have such a place around the corner.
We are also very blessed to have already learnt some of these frugal ways, because my partner lost his part time job since my last post. We are both still studying, and receive centrelink payments, so relying heavily on those and our part time jobs. He is currently doing his thesis in his last year of uni and is finding it difficult to find a graduate job is his electrical engineering field, so I fear that we may not have even seen the worst yet....
In the meantime, we are sticking strictly to budget, he has cut out all the little extras he was allowing for himself before... We will make the most of free entertainment out and about and at home, hone our skills further and I will be stashing any extra money away in my savings account. Thankfully we both have a little over $3000 each from saving hard recently.
Christmas is coming up, I will be buying him a playstation game as a combined anniversary, graduation and christmas present. His gift will be there only gift I am buying - last year I gave homemade christmas gifts and my family/his family begged for me to do again, I am only too happy to comply! It makes christmas such a more meaningful time when you see people enjoying your gift (and the astonishment on their face when they realise it's homemade).
So we are trying to keeps our chins up and work hard in the mean time. I am quite a stressy person and he is a bit of an internaliser so we're trying to have regular chats to keep things ok.
How is everyone's weekend looking?
I have work in the morning, and then we will need to vote of course. The afternoon will be taking up with some studying.
Sunday I will run early, then my friend wants me to do a gym class with her and then go shopping (not my thing really and I don't wish to spend any money so I will stay strong).
Have a lovely weekend everybody
Aimee xx
Friday 6 September 2013
Thursday 22 August 2013
Fridays are days when I feel Content.
.. This is because they are my day off from uni, study and work. Yippee :)
Today started with a walk with our puppy nice and early, then home for breakfast, I made some washing powder (recipe here), put a load of washing on, and then did the groceries.
And if you haven't heard of these places - now's the time to pay attention!
Swansea St Markets are around the corner from where I live, and when I discovered this place when we first moved here, it cut out grocery bill IN HALF. We could never get it below $100 shopping at Coles or Woollies; now on our average food shop is $50 a week. Sometimes higher when we buy meat/flour/grains in bulk, some weeks only $20 or $30 when we only need milk and fresh fruit and veg.
The markets do not have a website so I will give you a run down of where you can find them and what you can find there
Address: 176 - 178 Swansea St E, East Victoria Park, WA, 6102
Phone number: 9361 6234
The 'market's consists of
A butcher, selling ALL sorts of products. Goats, crocodile, kangaroo, as well as all your normal animals and cuts, with seafood and choices of some free range as well, which is excellent.
The groceries section is where you can buy bulk bread flour/mix, all baking needs, oats, cereals, beans, rice, spices, nuts, dried fruits.... Pretty much anything you could need. There is also a wide array of tinned and canned products such as vegetables, preserves, sauces, curry pastes, pasta sauces, dried pasta etc. I regularly buy wholemeal bread flour, 12.5 kilos for $25 ($2 per kilo) white bread flour for $1.90 per kilo, oats for $2.50 per kilo. In this section is also your fresh fruit and veg, at brilliant seasonal prices, bread, eggs, dairy, tofu, fresh noodles, gelato ice-cream, etc. All produce is labelled with where it came from which I love, because I love to be able to support local suppliers.
As you leave there is an amazing deli, salads, meats, baguettes, cakes, sweets, pizzas, hot chickens, pies, sausage rolls, etc. Very old fashioned Italian products and friendly service.
This is where we do our weekly food shop and it's my favourite place to go to :)
Another place which we have recently discovered is Bremmera WA. You can find their information here. They are a family run business with offering deli products, locally produced meat, frozen seafood and fruit, cheese, sauces, eggs, all sorts of delicious things. The best thing is that it is 'wholesale, direct to the public', and the prices sure do reflect this! We go there about once a week for small things like eggs and butter, and grab chicken, pork belly, bacon and beef when it goes on special! Going there is like popping by a friend's house, they are so welcoming and lovely and always willing to help.
So those two places are our 'secret' to being able to eat so well on so little. If you live around Perth, I'd strongly recommend checking them out!
At the moment I have some wholemeal bread dough on the rise, as well as some wholemeal english muffin dough on the rise as well.
My day will include baking those, vacuuming the house, and researching worm farms!
Have a great day everyone,
Catch ya later
Aimee x
Today started with a walk with our puppy nice and early, then home for breakfast, I made some washing powder (recipe here), put a load of washing on, and then did the groceries.
And if you haven't heard of these places - now's the time to pay attention!
Swansea St Markets are around the corner from where I live, and when I discovered this place when we first moved here, it cut out grocery bill IN HALF. We could never get it below $100 shopping at Coles or Woollies; now on our average food shop is $50 a week. Sometimes higher when we buy meat/flour/grains in bulk, some weeks only $20 or $30 when we only need milk and fresh fruit and veg.
The markets do not have a website so I will give you a run down of where you can find them and what you can find there
Address: 176 - 178 Swansea St E, East Victoria Park, WA, 6102
Phone number: 9361 6234
The 'market's consists of
A butcher, selling ALL sorts of products. Goats, crocodile, kangaroo, as well as all your normal animals and cuts, with seafood and choices of some free range as well, which is excellent.
The groceries section is where you can buy bulk bread flour/mix, all baking needs, oats, cereals, beans, rice, spices, nuts, dried fruits.... Pretty much anything you could need. There is also a wide array of tinned and canned products such as vegetables, preserves, sauces, curry pastes, pasta sauces, dried pasta etc. I regularly buy wholemeal bread flour, 12.5 kilos for $25 ($2 per kilo) white bread flour for $1.90 per kilo, oats for $2.50 per kilo. In this section is also your fresh fruit and veg, at brilliant seasonal prices, bread, eggs, dairy, tofu, fresh noodles, gelato ice-cream, etc. All produce is labelled with where it came from which I love, because I love to be able to support local suppliers.
As you leave there is an amazing deli, salads, meats, baguettes, cakes, sweets, pizzas, hot chickens, pies, sausage rolls, etc. Very old fashioned Italian products and friendly service.
This is where we do our weekly food shop and it's my favourite place to go to :)
Another place which we have recently discovered is Bremmera WA. You can find their information here. They are a family run business with offering deli products, locally produced meat, frozen seafood and fruit, cheese, sauces, eggs, all sorts of delicious things. The best thing is that it is 'wholesale, direct to the public', and the prices sure do reflect this! We go there about once a week for small things like eggs and butter, and grab chicken, pork belly, bacon and beef when it goes on special! Going there is like popping by a friend's house, they are so welcoming and lovely and always willing to help.
So those two places are our 'secret' to being able to eat so well on so little. If you live around Perth, I'd strongly recommend checking them out!
At the moment I have some wholemeal bread dough on the rise, as well as some wholemeal english muffin dough on the rise as well.
My day will include baking those, vacuuming the house, and researching worm farms!
Have a great day everyone,
Catch ya later
Aimee x
Wednesday 21 August 2013
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
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
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