Pinching Pennies - Planning Ahead

Elastic Mom-ness is an art that requires resource-stretching skills in many different areas of life. From making the available food in the home work for me, to using every last edible green thing in the garden, to careful wardrobe planning and more, it is all ultimately limited by the money on hand and how we use it.

At the beginning of every month I discipline myself to sit and tackle the dreaded budget. Yes, I know the B-word is a swear word in many homes, sometimes including my own.

Many years ago, I was taught a simple, clever tip that I always try to use when I plan my budget.

It is a PLANNING AHEAD tip so I can relax and enjoy the trip!

I take all my annual or quarterly expenses, such as children's extra lesson fees, school books, or memberships and licenses and divide the amount over the appropriate number of months. This monthly amount is then put in  separate savings account. When the lump sum is due to be paid, I simply pay from the funds in the savings account.

Managing my money in this way helps to even out the monthly expenses to a similar amount each month and takes the impact out of large, infrequent payments.

Area's where we have found this helpful over the years are:

# vehicle maintenance and tyre replacement

# school books

# annual licenses

# subscriptions and membership fees

# provisional income tax

# quarterly music and dance lessons

# extra courses

# family holidays

# unexpected doctor visits that are not covered my medical aid

# veterinary expenses 

etc

It's simple advice really, but really helpful to me.

Greening my Fingers - Nourishing the Soil

Nowhere more than in a vegetable garden to we see the principle of what you give is what you get.

After feeding our family all summer, the soil in our veggie tunnel needs nourishing. I want to spend as little cash as possible, using what I have to return goodness into this soil. Here is how I do it:

 Mulch, mulch and mulch again. Mulch keeps the goodness and moisture in the soil, suppresses weeds and also decomposes slowly to enrich the soil over the long run. I use old dried out grasses that are grown here. Mulch could be anything from leaf litter to wood chips and sawdust, to straw. Whatever you can find, without paying for it, is perfect. When we lived in the city and had one little raised vegetable box, we visited a sawmill and collected sawdust for mulching.

Living mulch, or green manure is wonderful for beds that are lying fallow over winter. If you look carefully below you will see the oats that I have sown a month ago. The bed is now covered with the lush green grass-like oats which will be dug into the soil to feed it before the oats go to seed. I might first cut some for my chickens.

 Worm farms are popular and provide excellent nutrients for the soil. Why go to the expense of buying a commercial worm farm when a homemade setup will do the job just as well? The open barrel is covered with a dry mulch to protect the worms from our chickens and to keep them moist. The new vegetable scraps go in at the top end of the barrel. As it becomes compost, the worms move out of it into fresh scraps of waste, leaving fewer worms in the rich compost at the lower end of the barrel. The open drainage hole at the bottom drips rich black 'worm tea' into the bucket. From there it is diluted and fed to my seedlings. The black bucket on the left contains comfrey leaves which decompose in water to make a smelly, but excellent potassium-rich fertilizer, especially good for tomatoes.

We have three compost heaps. The first, well decomposed, is being hauled onto the beds in barrow loads before they are covered in mulch for the winter. Below is the second compost bed in an old rusty feed trough. It was built up in summer with lots of garden refuse, manure and kitchen waste and topped with cut grass from the lawns. Now it is maturing, hopefully to be ready for springtime planting. The plank makes a great wheelbarrow ramp.

Our cows, Rose and Joy provide lovely manure pats which are collected and tossed into the newest compost pile that is growing in their nighttime pen. It helps to keep the compost as close to the source of manure as possible and also close to the vegetable tunnel.

 This new compost pile is quickly growing  as we clear spent plants and fallen leaves from the garden. We also throw wood ash from our winter  fires into the mix.

 Once a week, the chicken house is swept out and their dropping are also added to the pile. Back in the city, certain stables allowed gardeners to come in and collect manure and old stable sweepings for free, others sold bags of manure for a minimal cost. It all helps to enrich the soil.

So there you have it, wonderful soil nourishment that costs nothing except a bit of effort. 

USE IT - DON'T LOSE IT is my motto.

Every possible available thing is used to enrich the soil that in turn nourishes us. 

Beauty on a Budget - Keeping it Natural

My hair is streaked with silver. 

This does not fill me with feelings of delight and pleasure. Aging is something we would all avoid if we could. However, I have chosen to keep my hair colour natural as it slowly turns to shades of grey.

 My reasons for doing so are varied:

* Natural hair colour is free, and freeing.
*Colouring hair costs a lot of money if done in a salon, money that an Elastic Mom could put to better use elsewhere.
*I know that I can buy home hair-colouring kits and colour my hair myself, or get a willing friend to colour my hair, but that also requires a regular outlay of money. However, it still is a cheaper option than going to a hair salon.
*Once you start coloring, you have to touch it up every six weeks or risk looking cheap and nasty.
*Every time that I have coloured my long hair in the past, I have ended up cutting it drastically a few months later because it turns brittle and damaged no matter how gentle the product was supposed to be.
* Hair colorants have made my scalp tingle and had me nauseous for the next 36 hours after application. This made me question the toxins in commercial hair colourant.

*Mostly though, I believe in accepting myself as I am, and presenting my true self to the world. Something in me rebels against the facade of pretending to be younger than I am, or someone I am not.
* The peer pressure to colour my hair is enormously strong. So many well meaning people have suggested natural ways that I could enhance my colour. When in public, I am amazed at how many women colour their hair, last count was 95% of the women I saw. I am not afraid of being different.
*God designed our hair colour to fade as we age as a mark of splendour....Proverbs 20:29 says:

 "Grey hair is a crown of splendour..."

* Lighter hair as we age is softer and more flattering than dark hair which highlights wrinkles.

*I am secure in my husband's love and acceptance. I do not have to pretend to be younger than I am to maintain his attraction to me. My confidence in who I am makes me attractive to him. Anyway, he is balding, so we are aging together. When we were dating, we would often sing the Beatle's song, "When I'm Sixty-Four" to each other, and mean it. What a privilege to still be securely in love after 20 years of marriage and on right into old age.

* Although I can fight the natural process of aging, I choose to embrace this new season in my life.

There is more beauty in an inner smile than any amount of external adornment. 

Slow Living in April

Autumn has well and truly painted the farm in her russet hues and painted our lives in cozy shades of abundance. I love the Autumn landscape here as the grassland fades, the poplars yellow  and the last of the thunderclouds darken the sky.Take a moment with me as I remember the past month of April, inspired by Slow Living Essentials

Nourish
The maize harvest is coming soon, and I still have a bucket of kernels from last year, so out came my grinder and in went maize to almost everything - polenta, corn bread, my own maize porridge, and more.
Brinjal paté has been a hit, and so has turnip mash served with venison. We have eaten  lots of just picked salads made from the various green s still thriving in the vegetable tunnel.

Prepare
Our cherry tomato plants started dying off after our first frost, leaving a lot of tiny green tomatoes on the vines. I discovered Nigel Slater's Green Tomato Chutney recipe online, and made a few jars. It is delicious served with cheese. We strung up our sunflower heads to dry the seeds for our chickens. Lots of walnuts have been picked and stored too.

Reduce and Reuse
I used old tin cans and prettied them up with paper scraps to make strawberry pot plants for sale at our local farmer's market. I also set up labelled crates outside our back door to encourage more recycling. I repurposed glass drink bottles into vases filled with chrysanthemums all in a row on the sideboard. Old towels were cut up to make milking rags. They still need overlocking though.

Green
The girls and I made a batch of orange and lemon soap using lovely natural oils. Now the decision is whether to keep and use them, sell or give them as gifts. I have been scrubbing basins and baths with bicarb on a cloth. It works quite well.

Grow
My kind husband bought me a bay tree which I have planted in a half barrel in a new circular herb garden I am making. We sowed turnips, radish, beetroot, spinach, garlic and onions. We planted broad bean, red cabbage, celery and cauliflower seedlings. We are still harvesting a few green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and marrows as well as turnips, lettuce, rocket, bok choi, spinach, brinjals, piddly green peppers and herbs. Best of all, we picked our pumpkins., including an enormous bright orange giant.

Create
The first frosty weather inspired me to knit winter hats for two of my nephews. I am still forging on with the stripy granny blanket for my daughter.

Enhance
Living on a farm, our community is tiny, but I have been able to mentor a bit of soap making for my daughter and her friend. I also helped my farm friend by babysitting her adorable two year old for a day and night.

Discover
I have been rereading portions of John Seymour's The Complete Guide to Self Sufficiency book with the intention of making apple cider. I have also found it very helpful in planning my vegetable garden. His system of preparing the beds in blocks for rotation appeals to my sense of order.

Enjoy
My sister and brother in law visited us for a long weekend while my husband was away. It is always wonderful to get together with them. This time we reminisced about our childhood, had a waffle feast, watched Courageous, set up her new blog Be Creative and just enjoyed being together. My daughter spent time photographing the beaded African jewelry that she sells.

Our farm friends from Ethiopia have been visiting this month and it's been great to catch up with them again. It warmed my heart to see my daughter reading aloud to the girls as they snuggled in bed together.

Valuable Surplus

On a recent decluttering frenzy, I was surprised at my inability to toss or give away certain items that I no longer needed or used. This led to an assorted collection of books, toys, outgrown ballet clothing and other miscellaneous items collecting in a box in our study. A table at the local farmer's market proved to be the perfect outlet for these goodies and resulted in a few jingles in our pockets. The market bug bit, and my mind started whizzing at how I could exchange our unwanted excess for money in my pocket, preferably without spending a cent in the process.

Here are a few of my subsequent market makes from the past few months:

Cream cheeses made during our milk flood and marinated sundried tomatoes, all prepared and ready for a Valentine market, when deluges muddied the farmer's road resulting in a canceled market, and a delicious picnic for us. The only cost to me was the price of the tubs, and my time. Once Rosie has calved and is providing milk again, I hope to sell more of my cheeses.

Vigorous strawberry runners captured in recycled tins, then decorated with paper scraps look so pretty. Total cost for this venture was zero.

The options are as varied as my imagination and creativity.

I have some ideas for selling knitted items using wool scraps, but I am hesitant to compete with the grannies from the old age home. Their colour choices leave a lot to be desired, and I know my items would be popular. I just would feel awful if I stole their business.

I am thinking homemade soap, lip balm, and other delectable honey and beeswax cosmetics, or how about pickles, patés, breads and bakes. Fabric scraps could be turned into cushions, kids clothes, bags, beanbags, toys...

Toddler's dress made by my daughter

My daughter has also jumped on the market bandwagon with her delightful tutu's.

Enticing ideas leap into my mind, all I need to do is put them into practice. What do you have that is waste or excess to you, that will delight someone else? It doesn't have to cost you a cent, except your time.

Pumpkin Leaves

One of my mottos as Elastic Mom is USE IT - DON'T LOSE IT. So I am thrilled when I can learn new ways to stretch the use of my resources to their limit rather than wasting them. One such tip came from the beautiful Blantina. This lovely lady hails from Zimbabwe and when she saw the enormous pumpkins growing in my veggie patch, she decided to educate me in their traditional use of their leaves. 

If you like spinach, then read on, because pumpkin leaves are WAY more delicious.

ZIMBABWEAN PUMPKIN LEAVES
Pick a handful of hand-sized, young pumpkin leaves.
Strip the tough vein fibers down the stalk and off the back of each leaf.
Wash the leaves very well so that they are not gritty. I use salty water for this.
Chop the leaves like shredded spinach and cook them in a closed pot until they have wilted and released liquid.
Drain them well, pressing all the liquid out.

Melt a knob of butter in the same pot and gently fry a chopped onion and two to three tomatoes.
Once these are soft, add the drained pumpkin leaves and gently cook altogether.
Season to taste with salt and serve.

This savoury dish is so delicious, my mouth is watering as I type and remember the taste. It is traditionally served on a maize porridge, mieliemeel. I like to serve it as a side dish on it's own.

Apparently it is also good with a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter stirred in.

So there you have it, another way to make the most of the whole pumpkin plant, rather than just the fruit.

Slow Living in March

Two special ladies, Wendy and Wendy, have written beautiful posts motivated by Slow Living Essentials and have inspired me to record my March month. As the days slip through my scrabbling fingers, a pause to look back on tasks accomplished will hopefully reassure me of time well used.

Nourish
Muffins, pancakes, porridges and baked goods are standard breakfast items here. Soups and stews are slowly replacing salads. Brinjal moussaka, venison stew, homemade pizza and pasta bring comfort as our evenings turn cooler. Bean and lentil dishes have made their appearance too as I have been working my way through the pantry. Here is a delicious salad I made - potato, bean, walnut, rocket, sun dried tomato and chunks of my first gouda in a sun dried tomato vinaigrette.

Prepare
We have bottled apples and pears, dried cherry tomatoes and filled the freezer with many bags of cherry tomatoes just waiting so be popped into winter stews.

Reduce and Reuse
I have reduced my food budget considerably and am attempting to eat from what we have as much as possible. I converted a pretty pink T-shirt that had stretched out of proportion into a shopping bag and baby's bib. My daughter and I are reusing second hand books to create surprise gifts.

Green
All our lights were out for green hour because I was already sleeping soundly on my pillow, falling into bed just after sunset. Early nights under a warm duvet do a lot to save in terms of light and heating.

We have started a new compost heap with another one ready for digging into the garden and another maturing. Horse, chicken and cow manure all do their bit to nourish my garden. Our little worm farm produces buckets of 'worm tea' for the garden and our smelly comfrey tea also helps to nourish our vegetables.

Grow
We are coming to the end of our enormous marrow and tomato harvests. We still have lazy housewife beans, green peppers, brinjals and broad beans coming in. We have planted bok choi, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, carrots, beetroot, red carrots, parsnips, garlic, onions, radishes and turnips for autumn and winter. There are plenty of bright orange pumpkins lying around in the garden waiting for the first hard frosts to mature them before I pick them. Our vine on the verandah has produced copious amounts of grapes, lovely for snacking on. I was delighted with many small watermelons springing up in the garden, but I have a sinking feeling that they are actually tsamma melons - for fodder... and my cows don't like them.
The unborn calf, long awaited continues to grow in Rosie's belly.

Create
I am creating order in my study, sorting fabrics that have been boxed for many years. Seeing their inviting colors has stimulated my creative juices. I made a pair of urgently needed pot holders and I have many more ideas for all that lovely material. My challenge to myself is to create as many items as possible using what I have without shopping. I am still working on my daughter's stripy crocheted blanket. I am 75% of the way there. I hope to complete it before winter. I have also started knitting a cosy gift for my smallest nephew.

Enhance
I was given the privilege of sprinkling pretty pearly sparkling powder over the exquisite wedding cakes that my sister-in-law made.

The sunflowers that enhanced our entrance and back garden were splendid in their full blown glory. They fed the wild birds a bit, and we have collected the heavy heads for our chickens too.

Discover
My husband's family history has been researched and very carefully presented to us in charts and on disc by his generous aunt in New Zealand. It has been fascinating to discover his roots stretching way back to the 1600's.

Enjoy
We spent ten days of this month in Cape Town enjoying time with our extended family. It was my brother-in-law's wedding. Family time is always precious, and treasured even more now that we live so far apart.

The autumn cosmos lining the farm roads is breathtakingly pretty.