How to live a money-less life by Mark Boyle

Costco Opens in Canberra

Costco has been open in Canberra for about 8 days now from memory. My son has been over there twice. It is at the airport in the old DFO building from what I can gather. He got a card for membership, and with that my other son gets one for free because they live in the same household. So if I go visit I'll just bring my son with me to pay and I can pay him back. I wanted to see if they had any American things for my pantry. We were cooking from a blog a month or so ago and had to adapt recipes that had chipotle in them. My son went to David Jones in Sydney and found this for me.



I buy three dozen eggs each fortnight in my online fruit and vegetable order, that is kindly brought here 1 1/2 hours drive. So Costco having eggs for about $5 for 30 eggs sounds really good. I also used to buy cheese in 1kg packets from Murray Goulburn, Costco has 2lb packs which is handy. The yoghurt apparently is very very cheap. One of my online friends says her friend swears she saves heaps of money shopping there. My son wasn't going to get a membership until he researched the savings which he did I think.

I found another blog that has more pictures and here.

Are Black & Gold and other brands really cheaper?

The last couple of times my husband went to the shop to finalise some details on our fortnightly spending, actually one was our afternoon tea, pre shopping day I think, we have a couple of days overlap. He found the biscuits I think, Arnotts cheaper than the cheap ones, and today the Saxa salt was cheaper than the Black & Gold.

So here is the question? If you buy some or all your things plain label, do you check the price or just throw it in the trolley? Do you think they were just hurrying up the older stock because it was a smaller shop than say Coles? Or do you think you just have to be on your toes, as they are getting quite a few cents more out of you if you don't check the price.

Stinging Nettles

I was driving around a large sheep farming area on Thursday, and I'm sure I had my chance to pick some stinging nettles. Usually they are under a tree as they are on sheep farms. I should know I grew up one one. But these were on the roadside, maybe the soil washes there. It is a time of year where they are lush. I also remember what stinging nettles look like. I probably had gloves in the car and a bag, but as always, having another 2 hours or less to drive dampened my enthusiasm. I wonder if I will be going by next year?

My Mum had some sheep a few years ago before she moved into town again. We had some soil from there in pots and some plants came up, but we weeded them then thought better of it. The last little plant we didn't look after.

I couldn't choose which photo to publish with it. Not sure if they are the same the world over. Have a look at these fantastic photos.

Weisswurst Adventures

I think I have cooked my goose this time. I have bought two packets of Weisswurst, that confirms I am definitely living in a German area, and have found no recipes to make them into something. I know you are not supposed to do that, but that is what I want to do. I went to the shop for milk and bread. Our freezer is still at the new house, so we don't have bread stocked up as usual. Saw the Weisswurst and bought it. Always on the lookout for meat.


Main Dish:
How To Cook And Eat Bavarian White Sausages

I feel like I shouldn't ruin a good weisswurst and perhaps should make these pretzels, or ask the family to take it on. Maybe even buy the mustard.

A new fruit I found in Coles

Yesterday I bought two Mangosteens. Who would have thought they would be like they are inside!


Dining Etiquette:
How To Eat A Mangosteen

It will be fun eating them. Glad I found this video before we tried to eat them.

Roadside Bounty

You may like all of these pictures, the wildlife have been at the tree. But really we got some good apples. The one that was damaged by the cockatoos, was a huge apple, and it is possible a gravenstein cross? Crossed with something larger perhaps. It is a beautiful apple to eat.

We also came across a beautiful plum, and some rosehips.

What is that awful stuff at the base of the tree, evidence perhaps of a roo who came recently to eat from the lower branches.





Read more about it here, down a bit.

Robur tea anyone?

This photo is from a 1930s Leader book, called The Leader Spare Corner Book. It gives an idea about Australian's tea tastes. Although we have a couple of old books like that (see photo below), we would only use them for ideas about preserving etc. Or maybe try to find some recipe like lettuce salad.

The idea to use recipes without preservatives is excellent, but I find there are very inventive simple recipes on the Taste site. They can be preservative free, or only use stock cubes, and always seem to work. I imagine they have less fat than the traditional recipes.

However, I'll eat quite fatty things, some I enjoy more than others.

Don't you love that kettle? I imagine it was simmering away on the back of a wood stove.

The above photo is situated in North East Victoria and you can click for the photostream.

I found out to take more photos of vintage books there is a setting for text and to compensate for the angle.

What does "Prep Something" mean?

I often use a page on Independence Days when I am doing the Back to Basics Challenge (Back to Basics home) on my other blog. However, I always come up against understanding this section.

"Prep something. Hit a yard sale and pick up an extra blanket. Purchase some extra legumes and oatmeal. Sort out and inventory your pantry. Make a list of tools you need. Find a way to give what you don’t need to someone who does. Fix your bike. Fill that old soda bottle with water with a couple of drops of bleach in it. Plan for next year’s edible landscaping. Make back-road directions to your place and send it to family in case they ever need to come to you - or make ‘em for yourself for where you might have to go. Clean, mend, declutter, learn a new skill. Independence is being ready for whatever comes."

Hmm, lets see. I'm still not sure what it means in a rush, but it does bring to mind some things that we have been doing.

"Find a way to give what you don’t need to someone who does."

The car. On Tuesday, while my husband was away at our hometown running errands, I took our youngest who is seven to her swimming lessons. When I got home a man was waiting for me outside to speak to me. We have a car that has some problems, but basically with those few small problems fixed, like a gas (LPG) tune, a battery that type of thing. Basically some things that weren't essential to get fixed and should have. Problems with age, but not mechanical.

We like to run it on gas, but one day it stopped working. It takes awhile to get to the gas tuning place, and we tend to fix our other cars and leave that one. It is extremely economical and we have had it for years. We want to give it to our son, but not sure it is it safe enough to give to another person, you know, because modern cars are "safer".

So anyway we will see what happens when the man comes back. His daughter had a van and she was involved in an accident and she needs a car. We may have need of it ourselves to keep costs down when we move house and have to travel for work. Sometimes, we can't decide things very well. We got a newer car last year because it was more tidy.

Purchase some extra legumes and oatmeal.

This morning I went to a bit of trouble to replenish our bonito stock. What is bonito stock. Well, it is stock naturally that you use to make miso soup. You use another paste as you would tomato paste for the soup, add some particular vegetables and ten minutes later you have a nice soup. It has been awhile since we ran out but I think this is the recipe I use, at least for the vegetable ideas.

I bought mine from this shop, however, I am unsure where I bought it from originally as the docket was taken out of the window on the box.

Pride and Grocery Buying Habits

This is an interesting thing that came up when I was reviewing my post about convenience foods, like bagged salads and cooked cakes. I mentioned when I started buying these items if ever and why.

I had mentioned how my Mum has always bought pre-cooked chickens. Well, at some point after we left farm life when I was a teenager she did this. I'm wondering now if she bought cooked chickens while she lived on her hobby farm in recent years, as she had chooks for eggs again. She also buys things or did, like fresh buns or bread rolls, even back in the 60s bought kabana and nuts for dinner parties.

Then I mentioned my Nana's rustic cake racks.

Both these people are house proud. Mum's is slightly different, I am not sure that she does rustic except maybe in a subtle way. Mum's house to me on Christmas Day was like a resort. It isn't an expensive house, very decent though, nothing is out of place. The difference between the two people is that Nana kept her purchases to a minimum, so the gold tasseled new cushions on Mum's couch were very "her".

How does that relate to food?

Do people that spend a lot of time making sure their person and their house look good tend to buy more convenience foods? Do the convenience foods help keep up their standard of showing themselves off? Chicken was in the 70s vaguely a status symbol, it is getting harder to remember now. Cold chicken perhaps. Or is it purely about entertaining? Mum's new husband was very much into entertaining when she met him, but Mum as always had dinner parties.

Nana took no short cuts. She did enjoy buying cooking chocolate to make special slices or bars or tray bakes.

Maybe it is not pride, but hospitality? Can frugal people still be gracious hosts? Does all good entertaining have to involve glamous foods? Are you able to read Table magazine and not find it full of consumerism? Can you read an Australian Woman's Weekly these days and not find it full of consumerism. Has my cutting back gone too far?

To be honest, I have looked at a particular dip on the supermarket shelves all year. Mum had this dip, with nice crackers, grapes, a nice cheese and cashews on a plate when we arrived from our long drive after an early start. It was very much appreciated. I will definitely be buying the dip myself. It was chili and it had cashews in it, a red colour.

Just as interestingly I enjoyed a forum post this year from a friend who talked about garlic scrapes or whistles and her favourite dip. So I guess there are different ways of doing the same thing. My friend made garlic scrape pesto.