No Spend Year

After mulling it over, I have made up my mind to attempt a No Spend Year. The idea popped up on my Instagram feed (thanks Yarnder Woman). This led me to reading a sample of the year of less by Cait Flanders. She originated the idea. The concept gelled with me.

I would love to purchase the whole book, and it is a click of the button on my Kindle to do so, but that would defeat the purpose of the exercise. I have more books waiting to be read than I could read in a year, both hard copy and digital.

The idea is to stop all spending except on groceries, toiletries, cleaning supplies and petrol and basically use what you have for the rest. Obviously medical expenses will be covered and other essentials, but not clothing, shoes, decor, books, entertainment and hobbies etc. Use what you have, which is my motto already. So far I haven't been shopping yet this year and, after a bit of post New Year cleaning and sorting, have been belatedly motivated to clear out the old. When I say clear out, if often means use up rather than discard. This concept appeals to me. Waste in any form is disagreeable. My goal is to shop in the pantry, garden and freezer before adding anything to my grocery list. I recognise and appreciate that I am privileged to be able to do this and there are so many people that consider even this a luxury.

Yesterday I had leftover veggie tart for breakfast. Lunch for four was a tuna salad made from a can my sister left here over the holiday, pickled cucumber, that needs using, along with chopped roast veggies and mayonnaise. It was tasty on slices from the end of the loaf Decadent Dad baked the day before. We were invited out for dinner so I took along a bottle of champagne we already had and some fresh vegetables from the garden as a hostess gift for my vegetarian friend.

Even though I will buy groceries, I really do want to use up what we have. This morning I cleared the last of the leftover croissants out the freezer for breakfast with jams and homemade cheese. That marks the end of the block of cheese. It was homemade and tasty. I have about 5 or 6 rock hard, mature goudas in the fridge that I plan to grate finely to turn into our very own Farmesan. This will have to suffice in the cheese department until it is all used up which could take months.

On a mission, I baked three loaves of a fragrant bread, adapting a health loaf recipe, tossing in what I had in the storage jars on the kitchen counter. It included some chickpea flour that I never get around to, sunflower seeds, my zataar spice mix, a bit of the farmesan for extra protein and the usual mix of brown and white flour and yeast. We will eat them later with egg mayonnaise and the last of the cucumber pickle from the jar.  I usually try to plan my meals around what needs using the most in the fridge.

The bread took a while to bake so we had some orange, almond and chocolate cake for a late tea. I had traded with a friend, two cakes for some of my soap, for my son's 21st birthday in November but only one was eaten so I froze the other. It defrosted beautifully and we are loving it.



Tonight my son is having friends over for a movie night. We will grill two packs of sausages that were given to us and I will make a potato salad using dug up potatoes, serve more of the never-ending pickles and make a just pulled carrot and needs-using cauliflower salad as a type of coleslaw. I figure cauliflower will work instead of the usual cabbage. I can pick beets and made a beet and horseradish salad. That horseradish has been hanging around in the fridge for a while. Then there is the last bottle of last summer's apricot preserve which will be lovely with that box of custard my sister left here. We also have homemade cordial for drinks. Dinner sorted.

I don't expect Decadent Dad to play along with the No Spend idea. In fact I am not even sure he needs to know about it. He will do his usual thing and I will do mine and we will find a happy balance between us. He always treats me to Special Night on a Friday where he cooks dinner that he shops for, and he certainly isn't as decadent as he used to be.

So wish me well. I hope I will keep to my resolve. 

A New Day Dawning

New Year brings with it a chance to begin again. I love mornings, Mondays, birthdays, changing seasons and New Years Day. Today has to be my favourite day of the year. It is a day of hope. There are no external expectations placed on me regarding work, decor, food, gifts or traditions. My only goal today is to rest after a late night at the annual farm barn dance. My family will be taking it easy. There will be music playing in the house. There is always music.

My day is open before me with many options and yet the freedom to do nothing.

I have missed writing. Right now I choose this.

Bananas go soft before we finish the bunch. Baking them into banana bread is a tasty, yet time consuming, option. It is faster to just unzip them and pop them in the freezer. Then on lazy mornings, like today, we whizz up a few with milk, peanut butter and a dash of honey for a breakfast smoothie. Our sad honey jar had nothing to offer. A delightful alternative was a bit of leftover vegan coconut ice-cream.

The days after Christmas and around New Year, being conducive to purging and new beginnings, have awakened my desire to clear out, clean up, and organise my thoughts, routines, home and life. Hence the banana smoothie. Frozen bananas lurking in the freezer are conquered. 

The chickens gave an offering of four eggs at sunrise. The absence of bread for toast to accompany eggs, combined with no inclination to make a trip to town or to bake bread over the past week may also have contributed to our liquid nourishment. Yesterday we decluttered six croissant out the freezer and ate them with various jams for the same reason. Sometimes the things we purge can still spark joy.

Firefoot, our living lawn mower, shadowed me into the chicken run, hoping to eat the hen's grain. Then he sniffed into the dogs' bowls in the hope of some dog pellets. When I got around to giving him his own food he stuck his hoof into the bucket and tipped it upside down. The chickens were delighted. I topped up the bucket. Every time he sees me he nickers a greeting. He follows me too, breathing softly behind my back when I stop to fill his water bucket. Yesterday he tried to taste my braid. We have a swarm of bees living in our roof. Regular attempts to evict them have failed and they aggressively defend their home against lawn mowers and sweaty people pushing said mowers. Firefoot does almost as good a job at trimming the lawn apart from the weeds which now stand out as defiant flags. He also conveniently fertilises the lawn as he mows.

This new morning, day, month, year and decade has brought a few concerns over broken vehicles, looming university fees and a pessimistic budget which have contributed to my heart skipping a beat or two recently, all the more reason to have a slow day. Lavender tea, sipped quietly in my chair was a good way to start today. I do have hope and I know God will provide, he always does.

Herbal teas, picked from the garden are a gentle therapy that I love to use along with prayer, journalling and soothing fibre crafts. I hope to spin a little today. There is a challenge for January to spin for 15 minutes a day, but I have enough real challenges without imposing artificial pressure on myself. Maybe today I will spin. Maybe I will just sort and tidy my spindles and fibre and pretty up the entrance to our home where they live in baskets. The dust bunnies have bred indiscriminately and have overpopulated in every corner.

First, I will take a nap.