christchurch earthquake

I was going to make a long post about my weekend in Nelson, seeing my family, showing Mrs Possum around and putting in an offer on a house down there.

But now, not so much.  65 people confirmed dead in Christchurch, they believe the final total will be 200-300.  My friend Rita lives in Lyttleton, where the epicentre was.  She was, mercifully, in Wellington for work and her partner was, mercifully, in central Christchurch.  They are both ok.  However, it's really scary for her.  Lyttleton is blocked off - no one can get in or out due to landslides and damage.  60% of the houses in Lyttleton have collapsed, they reckon everything else is badly damaged.  Lyttleton was described on the news as "unlivable." 

They bought a rundown cottage out in Lyttleton last year, and have spent 10 months rebuilding it.  They run their business from there, it's their home.  I can't imagine what it would be like to have no idea what is going on with your home, your job, your cats, your chickens, what you will do tomorrow.  She doesn't know if she can get back to Christchurch, or what she will do when she gets there.

It's truly unbelievable.  New Zealand has basically stopped.  We are all glued to the TV, celebrating each person alive pulled from the rubble.

I've just heard on the news now that there are residential areas that rescue services haven't even made it into yet.

and the next project...

To meet my goal of retiring by 40 has many different facets.  It seems as though I've been concentrating on the "saving money" and "growing my own vege" parts, but I have to remember all my other ducks I need to get in a row.  There's a list to the left ----------------->    of some things that weigh on my mind.

The most exciting thing that has happened THIS YEAR is that the funder approved my contract with the group I'm currently working for.  This means I have a steady stream of income up to 30 June 2012.  Oh yes.  What's more, I can work anywhere in the country for them (as long as I'm close to an airport). 

This means...I could get my Nelson house sooner, rather than later, now that I know I have income.  This has most excellently tied in with my trip to Nelson this weekend with Mrs Possum.  I have found some open homes that I'd like to drag her around to this weekend:

• this one has a garden
• this one has potential
• this one is fenced for the dogs, is close to the beach and has a lovely garden

So, if I want to move to Nelson soon, I have to get my Wellington house ready to rent toute de suite!  The bathroom is... nearly there.  The plasterer has finished, now just waiting for the builder to return to finish the cornices, skirtings and the electrical stuff.

The backyard is coming along nicely, all I need to do is rake over the dirt in the back, cover it with bark etc, and give the paths a good waterblast.  I can do that in a weekend.

There are two big projects outstanding - the exterior paintwork needs some touchups and a decent clean.  This will be time consuming, but I'll do it in patches.  I need to paint the exterior lounge windows, that's number 1.  They're stripped and ready.  I'll break the rest of the house down into segments and tackle one (or two) a week.  If I write it down here, then I have to do it.  Ha.

The other big project is the second / spare bedroom.  Currently, this functions as my toolshed, gym, office and room where I put things I have nowhere else for.  I could never have a guest stay in there, it's too embarrassing.  Case in point:

You can see the floor.  Give me some credit. I'm tackling this room with gusto. 

That's it from me, I'm off to Nelson!

things you never knew before

Today, I learnt the answer to these very important questions:

1. What is worse than cleaning your oven?  Moving it away from the wall and cleaning down the sides of your oven.  I recommend you do this more than once every eight years.  I have seen and removed things that no one should ever have to see or remove.
2. How badly does it hurt to get oven cleaner in a cut on your finger?   It hurts like you would not believe.
3. Where can I get huge watermelons for $2?  From Newtown New World, this week only.
4. Can you drink 4 beers in the sun in the afternoon and then take a Very Serious Work Call?  Yes.  But I wouldn't recommend you do it very often.
5. Can you use the sourdough starter you throw away each day to make bread?  Yes.  But even though it tastes like sourdough, it is not light and fluffy.

Using up the paint stockpile...

I think I'm getting obsessed by gardening.  Is it normal to check them all at least twice (often up to five) times a day to check they're not too thirsty, that the weeds are gone or whether there's been any growth?  It's scorching here right now and I'm worried for them.  I'm especially worried as I'm away in Nelson from Sat morning to Monday evening without an irrigation system.

Hmmmmn.  I've even tidied up my laundry to create a dedicated space for all the gardening things.  I love it, I'm a terrible tidier, so it's a minor victory.

Anyway, the parsnips went in the bath planter today, hurrah!  10 parsnip seeds went in, protected by another one of my excellent cobbled-together-from-free-stuff greenhouses (this one is thick plastic from my deliveries, duct taped to the back of the bath, propped up with sticks in the dirt to give it height and secured to the front by stones big enough to weight the plastic down).

It's an idea of how it looks, anyway :-)  The parsnips fill up half the bath planter.  I'm tossing up what to sow in the other half.   Broccoli?  I still have time to think about it.

There are many baby plants at the Monkey house:  radishes, more coriander, capsicums, silverbeet, more tomatoes, some beetroot, more beans, probably some others I can't quite remember :-)

The winter greens are perky.  Have I spoken too soon?

I've also recently been getting into  Centsational Girl, which I stumbled across while I was looking for some home DiY tiling hints (random tile splashback for the kitchen).  Anyway, Centsational Girl is kinda obsessed with spray painting old and tired things to transform them into new and vibrant pieces (perhaps I should get spray painted myself).   I was in a crafty kind of mood, so I decided that the time had finally come to rejuvenate the bedroom table I've had since university.  It's gloriously covered in pictures from magazines, with coverseal over the top and stapled underneath to make sure it doesn't come off.  The height of university chic.  [coughs] 

Anyway, despite my attempts to hold on to my fading youth, the time has come.  I pulled off the paper, gave her a quick wash and left her in the sun to dry.  A quick spray with white primer, then a coat of bright red paint on the top (found two whole tins at the dump 2 years ago for $10, have been waiting for the right opportunity to use them).  Finished it off with some French Vanilla ice cream coloured paint on her legs (again, half a tin from the dump for $3 from ages ago that I knew I would use one day)... and there she is.  Brand new table.  I feel so grown up.

Not grown up enough though to stop wearing converse trainers.  You can also see some of my extensive collection here.
Oh, and the bathroom plasterer was here this morning.  He may be back tomorrow.  I might not have been listening well enough.

Off to make dinner.  Chips and sausages.  I am easy to please.

weekend roundup

Another busy yet productive weekend at the Monkey hacienda - planting out some baby tomatoes, cauliflowers and starting to germinate some beetroot and Brussels sprouts seeds (best comment from Mrs Possum - why are we only doing 4?  what's the point of 4 sprouts?  cue some explanatory drawings from Monkey about how sprouts grow).  Oh, and painting the back wall. 

Perhaps it's best to do a pictorial tour:

Painted the back wall a garish purple-red colour I mixed together from leftover paints.  Mrs Possum's verdict - "it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

In my mind, it's an awful lot better than the half painted white monstrosity that was there before.  In this picture you can also see the bath planter that I've bricked in.  Parsnips are going in there, definitely.  I just need some potting mix and to create a cover-type thing to protect the seedlings and then we're all go.  Interesting fact I learnt this weekend - parsnips can't be transplanted well, you have to grow them from seed.  That's why you never see parsnip punnets at the garden centre.  I know, fascinating, right?

To the left I've planted in the tomato plants I swapped for one of my old used bikes:

Yes, there are many stakes. The back ones are actually to stake the tomatoes.  The front ones are an attempt to stop Meg from sleeping on them.  When I went out to check this morning I found her asleep in one of the plants.  Sigh.  I'll see how this goes!  Please also admire the retaining wall, I'm proud of it indeed.

Next to the tomatoes is my old lemon tree:

Old faithful.  At least a dozen lemons a year.  Not many, but enough for gin and tonic season.

Baby cauliflowers!  I love cauliflower, gotta be my favourite vegetable:

6 cauliflowers, could I BE anymore excited?   The black wire around them is from the free gutter guard I scored the other week.  It's attempting to serve two purposes - stop the snails and stop little Meg from sleeping on them.  Two are pretty broken already, I'm placing my faith in the gutter guard.

The mint continues with great gusto:

And the basil is off and away!

The zucchini made it through the weekend.  Fingers crossed, still:

Brick planters haven't fallen over either.  Yay!

Spinach is also excellent - well sheltered under their individual plastic bottle greenhouses.  Here's one, 11 more are happy as well:

The mini greenhouse might just work... about half of the greens have perked up, it hasn't fallen down.  Here's a sexy artsy shot I took looking inside:

The potatoes at the front are looking good - did my first lot of "earthing up" over the weekend.  I'm not sure how well they'll turn out, given I used regular old potatoes that were sprouting in my cupboard, rather than proper seed potatoes.  Anyway, they look pretty out on the front deck:

Today is Valentines Day.  Monkeys aren't very good at Valentine's Day, but it's a big deal to Mrs Possum.  Soooooo... I got her a feijoa tree that can live at my house.  This is a true gift of love as even though I can't stand feijoas or the way the fruit smells on the tree (like old socks, i tell you), they are Mrs Possum's favourite fruits ever, and they're kinda hard to come by in stores.  So, now I have a feijoa tree... outside my bedroom window as it's the best position for sun and access.  Sigh.  The devil's own fruit in my line of sight.

Here she is.  Mrs Possum has named her Felicity.  Sigh.  The bugger has even started to grow fruit buds:

And so... tonight for Valentines I'm making self crusting quiche and individual apple crumbles.  I hope this is a Good Thing for a Possum.

sunshine and awesome

It's been another beautiful day in Wellington... sun shining, cool breeze, just beautiful.  And Friday to boot.  Everything is great in my world today.

I spent most of the day in the garden - Mrs Possum and I managed to have about 4 dozen winter greens sprout into baby plants... I know, I know. Far too many and so they're all a bit sad and pathetic.  I planted out about 40 of them, then built myself a cloche from wire coathangers, old tent pegs and the thick plastic my potting mix was delivered in.  MacGyver indeed.  I was well proud, they sell for $30 at least.

Okay.  I admit it's not glamorous, but I'm hoping it will do the trick.  The greens were tiny, I'm afraid I'm going to lose at least half of them to "transplant shock."  This was definitely a learning opportunity about how many seeds to attempt to germinate in one go and the importance of one seed per germination pot. Never mind. You can also see to the left some soda bottle halves - these are protecting the12 baby spinaches I also planted out this morning.  I think these are going to fare a little better than the greens.  I reckon at least 8 will survive the transplant trauma.  That will be good!

The basil continues to grow, I'm thrilled.  Only one parsley plant has made it so far, but it's strong.  The peas, beans, courgettes and two tomato plants I've already transplanted are still holding on.  FINGERS CROSSED!

Saw a lovely old mate last night to sign his application form / statutory declaration for a new passport - realised mine expires next month, that was a bit of a shock.  Christ, I remember when I got it ten years ago that 2011 seemed like a lifetime away.  Perhaps it was.  Anyway, got a box of beer in return ($15), I am enjoying a cold one right now :-)

This weekend, I promise I'm going to put up the brushsticks along the back wall, get 54510945709 more bags of potting mix to finish off the back yard, plant the remaining 9 tomato plants and make my first batch of sourdough bread.  Would I lie?

sourdough, tomatoes and basil (my mouth is watering already)

Gosh, it's been a few days... that happens when Mrs Possum is here.

I have done many things.  Many, many things.  It's awesome.

First up, I finished the bath planter (will put in a photo when she's got her tomatoes in there) and had enough bricks (and brick bits) to build three small ones, perfect size for the courgette plants which were ready to plant out. (Using free bricks - 50c per brick x 50 bricks = $25)

Secondly, I finished building the retaining wall.  It was cheaper and easier than I thought it would be.  It took me more time to unload the retaining wall blocks from the car, then take them out the back than actually building the wall.  Best of all, it looks so much better than I thought it would.  My neighbours leaned over the back fence this afternoon and congratulated me!  (also, they were very impressed by the mint planter).

The beans, peas and courgettes are ready to plant out - all in bins in the front yard.  It looks great, I even managed to fashion a bean tower out of the packing tape I'd saved below.  Mrs Possum was like, yeah, I don't know, but I think I've convinced her.

From all the parsley seeds I planted, only 1 has come up.  It looks solid and strong though, so that's great. The mountain of basil seeds I planted is coming through like a dream.  Moar pesto FTW. 

I think the best score of the week is from a friend of mine, who's looking for a bike to take to uni.  I have a spare one in the garage I haven't used forever, so I said she could have it.  Well, yesterday, she came round to pick it up and in exchange left me some of her MAGICAL sourdough starter and ELEVEN tomato plants, which are huge and strong and ready for planting.  The sourdough starter is priceless, she made it herself as she was a chef in her previous life...  Tomato plants of that size and calibre in the garden store are $5 each... $55 dollars! 

And, finally... more free blackberries!  My secret blackberry patch has finally fruited, so I got about 250g of them.  I'll be back for more soon, maybe tomorrow.  ($3 there, I reckon).

Much excitement here. Nothing has happened on my bathroom in two days.  The plasterer will be "in next week."  I am hopeful and positive.

happy monkey

Gosh, what a long weekend!  I did manage to do some of the tasks I set for myself last Monday:

• put sheep pellets around the lemon tree
• get some potting mix for the mint plants
• plant out a heap of basil seeds
• pick up bricks from my friends on the way out to Martinborough

I was busy though, just not with the other things I said I'd do...  Mrs Possum and I drove out to Featherston to pick up around 60 bricks which I'm going to use to build in the old bath as a planter.  I'm hoping it'll look quite cool!  I lifted the bricks from the pile, into the car, then rearranged them in the car, then lifted them out of the car last night and this morning lifted them from the front all the way round to the backyard.  I have guns like Popeye now, I tell you.  Awesome!

The best part of the trip was on the way back, I made Mrs Possum pull over before we hit the Rimutaka incline so we could pick blackberries.  It was so much fun, and we got heaps:

A grand total of 1.3kgs worth.  I've picked them through and popped them in the freezer for now.  Some will become jam, some will end up in Mrs Possum's smoothies, some will be sacrificed into fruit pudding.  Either way, I reckon it's about 6 tins worth, a total of $15.  To be fair, I need to subtract the money I spent on buying Mrs Possum a noms on the way over there, so it works out as a $7 saving in the end.  Sigh.
Anyway, I'm feeling quite lovely today.  I picked up another contract which is quite nice.  It's been a long time in the making with a lot of too-ing and fro-ing.  I've signed my copy and returned it to them for countersigning.  I'm not getting toooooo excited until I get my copy back and the funder ticks it off at their end...

4 of the outside lettuces have started to shoot through the dirt, so that's exciting.  Also got two more mint cuttings from my friends the insane home gardeners, so waiting or them to root out in the kitchen.

Anyway, my bread's just finished so I'm about to get that and some soup down me.  I'm very excited about my soup - it was virtually free and made from scraps.  I call it my stalk and stock scrap soup - Mrs Possum doesn't use the stalks from broccoli or spinach, she says they're too "stalky" (so cute) so she saves them for me.  I bung 'em in my freezer and when I have enough I make them into soup.  We'd had a chicken over the weekend, so I made stock from the bones, threw in a cup of leftover pumpkin soup and voila - about 1 and a half litres of soup, made from throw out things.  Got to be $3 worth.

Homemade soda bread to mop it up.... nom.  I reckon it costs less than a dollar to make the bread, so that's got to be a saving too.

All in all, happy monkey.

where has my week gone?

Friday already!  The week has, as the title of this post suggests, flown by.  I'm not sure if it's because there's been plumbers and builders here from 9 to 5, or because I feel like I've achieved quite a few things this week, or something else completely, but I am sure it's gone already.

Hilariously, the promise that "the toilet will be in and out on Wednesday did not eventuate.  Last night I was using a bucket to flush the new one, as it had only been half plumbed.  I like to think I'm preparing myself for doing it tough when the zombie holocaust arrives.  The shower, apparently "usable by the end of the week"  still has only the liner in place and the floor waste plumbed in.  I'm no plumber but even if they move like the wind and get the door in ad hook up the shower taps etc etc... it still needs to be sealed and doesn't that take, like, 48 hours?

I will stop my grumbling now, because I have to remember that in this time in a week I will have a brand new bathroom.  I have saved for it for three years and I can therefore easily wait another week.

My biggest thrill of this morning has so far been my free lettuce:

 Mrs Possum brought round a hydroponic lettuce a few weeks back for a salady dinner, when we were done with it I noticed that it came in a little green plastic container keeping its roots safe and warm.  We'd used the lettuce pretty carefully, just pulling off the leaves, so the root structure was intact.  I thought to myself... self... can you grow this back?   I removed the plasticy bit carefully, put it in some mix and my lucky plant pot (all plants that pend time in this particular pot rejuvenate, dunno why) and sat it on my bedroom windowsill for the best sun.  And,as we learnt in third form French, tiens voila!  Free lettuce = $1.50

 This picture also serves to double as the view from my bedroom window (onto the street).  The elements in the picture are, starting to the immediate left of the lustrous lettuce:

1. baby marjoram plants.  This morning I have counted 12 that germinated out of 20 so far
2. river stones in my self built zen garden.  I dug each one out from the backyard, washed them by hand and put them out the front, after laying down some weedmat and relocating pavers to go around the outside.
3. big blue half shell planter, scored free from a friend last weekend, even had drainage holes in it for the plants!
4. lettuce seeds trying hard to germinate under their plastic coke bottle greenhouses
5. the buxus hedges growing in planters that hopefully one day will be big enough so I can plant them out for a "proper" border
6. the deck that my friend and I built a few years back (still okay-ish.  Has a board that could break soon that I'll get around to replacing.  soon. promise)
7. My black concrete planter that is exceptionally heavy and I haven't used yet because I can't work out where I'm going to commit to having it, because once I put it somewhere and fill it with potting mix, I fear I'll never be able to move it again.
8. My white window frames and sills I painted last December now I can work from home. 

And that's the tour of the view from my front window!  Not very exciting or pretty, but at least it's 24 degrees outside right now (and it's only 9.30am).

More potting mix is coming today - 6 bags of 40 litres each.  The Warehouse a doing a deal this week that gives you free delivery.  Excellent!  It mainly means that the delivery guys will have to carry it up the steps to my front door.  Which is, you know, awesome.  (plus I reckon $2.50 on petrol).  I need more because I used the last of it up planting out the mint cuttings I propagated from Mum at Xmas and the row of basil seeds I put in yesterday.

I think the mints look awesome:

I used an old wine rack as a planter - which had already been recycled from old discarded terracotta pipes, making this its third reincarnation.  [smile]  I have two spaces left - I'm seeing mum in a fortnight, so will get some more from her then to fill in the two spaces.  I'm surprised by how easy it is to propagate mint.  I'm learning new skills every day.   Mint plants are about $2.50 each, so 8 x $2.50 = $20. 

The basil seeds are less exciting, they just look like dirt right now :-)

Picture it as a heavenly smelling carpet of sweet genovase basil just begging to be turned into pesto.

productive day = happy monkey

I feel quite proud today. I have two work projects which have been niggling at me to complete.  They're not hard, I just couldn't start them.  Today, I committed and got one finished.  I was really pleased as I did it in such a way as to make it a template for future use, and also designed a system so that I could keep on top of the ongoing monthly maintenance required for the project.

I might start the other one tomorrow, depending on whether the plumber turns up and / or the weather is good.  I figure that doing one "backburner" project a week is fair enough.

To celebrate I made my favourite dinner - cheese toasted sandwiches with hot tabasco sauce! Nom.  I am a simple monkey.  Sadly, I'd spent the day glued to the laptop so hadn't made any bread... so I wandered down to the dairy and spent the grand total of $2.50 on a loaf!  Treat.

But... the most exciting news is that my home made ginger beer is ready!  However, I have had a learning experience about making ginger beer.  When the recipe says yeast, you need to use yeast, not bread improver.  Yes, it seems obvious now.  Anyway, I strained it through muslin, it'll do, it's drinkable, but it's not great.  Note to self - get yeast.  Yeah.

My herbs are coming along nicely - I planted some italian parsley seeds today, hopefully they'll come in.
The coriander seeds Mum gave me from one of her plants germinated like a charm:

They're even starting to get little coriander shaped leaves!  I'm so happy.  Mum gives me seeds when I go to visit her, for years I've just been using them as they are, ground up in curries etc.  All this time I've had coriander plants just raring to go.

The sage has also started to sprout:

This is especially exciting as they came from a free packet, an were supposed to be best before 2006!  Of the 8 seeds I planted, 7 have germinated.  Even with fresh seeds that's a good hit rate.

And the marjoram is looking good:

11 have come through out of the 20 I planted.  These are also from the free 2006 packets, so bonus! 

I've created a space for them all on the ugliest pot stand in the world that lives outside my front door and has all my herbs in it.

Also got some more potting mix, so tomorrow I'm hoping to plant a whole lot of basil - many many basil plants so I can have it year round.  Basil's my favourite.  I have my eye on a pinenut bush - imagine if I could have COMPLETELY homemade pesto whenever I wanted!  Frugal nirvana.

Happy Monkey.

working from home is offcially awesome

After much moaning about how much my work was sucking my will to live, I quit last October and started on my own as a consultant.  I landed a lovely little contract that pays me well enough to live on (even though it's less than what I used to earn) and lets me work from home.  LETS ME WORK FROM HOME.

I love working from home.

I'll say it again in case you missed it.

I love working from home.

Some people have told me that they couldn't do it - they'd be too distracted or wouldn't be disciplined enough.  I have none of those worries.  Having worked in offices for many years, I can truly appreciate just how brilliant this is, and therefore I am not stuffing it up by losing focus or taking it for granted.  I do have some discipline - I must have logged on to the email by 8.30am, and need to be out of my pajamas by 10am.  I thought if I set myself easy goals, then I'd achieve them... and I've yet to break either of them, so good on me.

The benefits from working from home are two-fold - I save money (which I'll catalogue later) but best of all, I have at least three more hours in the day to work on my house, or do other things. 

For example, I can be at home whilst the builders / plumbers are here all day and I don't need to use up my annual leave to do so (I need to be here or the dogs go mental.  Not because they want to attack the people in the house, they just want to play).   Because I don't have to get ready in the morning, then walk 40 minutes to work, I get an extra hour or so in the morning to do things like have breakfast, wash the dishes and walk the girls - things I never had time to do before work previously.  It also means that on breaks I can weed the garden, bake bread or cakes or put something on to slow cook for dinner.  In December, I painted my doors and window frames during my breaks - it was perfect because it allowed for drying time.   I can visit the bank / dump shop / garden centre / supermarket / op shop at lunchtime, rather than when everyone else is there.  At 5pm (or whenever I finish for the day) - that's it, I'm finished.  I don't have to walk home or get the bus and be grumpy and shitty about that... I just switch off the laptop (or put on Ellen) and I'm done.  I'm not tired or grumpy and home at 6pm and hating everything.  At 5pm I can go back into the garden or do some decluttering or WHATEVER.

I was worried when I left regular income that I'd be pressed for money, but you know what?  I reckon the amount I save by working from home makes up for it (and I'm not even counting the tax deductible stuff like office space rent / power / phone either, just purely things that I no longer spend money on.  I was thinking about it today (as I drove out to Mitre 10 Mega in Petone at lunch to pick up a towel rail)... I no longer spend money on:

• Breakfasts at work.  I wasn't usually big on breakfast, but I reckon I averaged 2 coffee and muffin combos at $5 per week.  Each week = $10
• Lunches at work.  I probably bought lunch 3-4 times a week.  Seriously.  I'm a little embarrassed by that now.  Each lunch would probably average around $10.  Each week = $35
• Snacks at work.  I would probably noms a chocolate bar or strawberry milk or coke or coffee (or get something for someone else) maybe twice a week.  Each week = $5
• Drinks out after work.  I tried to avoid this, but sometimes it's impossible.  Who knows?  Let's say each week = $10
• Fast Food because I couldn't be arsed cooking in the evenings after work.  Each week = $10
• Two loads of laundry each weekend.  I just realised as I hung out my washing today, that it had been a week since I'd last done any, and it was only one load.  So, that's not two drier loads and one whole less wash.  Each week = $5
• Stockings.  I bought the thick ones from the supermarket, the cheapest brand, but still $12 each.  I don't need to buy them now, the ones I have will last for the meetings I go to for ages.  Perhaps this saves me each week = $2
• Showering!  Don't hate me but now I don't need to shower each morning.  Maybe this saves me 50cents each time?  Each week = $1.
• I used to have two phones - a personal one and a work one.  I needed to charge the work phone at home all the time.  Each week = 50cents.
• Buying random crap.  Because I was working and hated everything, I would literally buy random crap to make me feel better.  It never did.  I'd buy wii games, stuff I didn't need from one day sale websites, shoes I'd see on sale, whatever.  It's hard to put a price on this per week, but I'll be conservative and say maybe each week = $20

So, that's about $98 a week I no longer spend by not physically going into work. 

But, I know I have to factor in other "at home costs" too, so that I can get a more accurate picture.  So...being generous:

• I have plunger coffee each morning, which I never did when I as heading out to the office.  A bag costs $6, I reckon it lasts me about a month.  So, let's be generous and add in powdered milk ($10 for a kg) and energy costs.  Each week = $2
• Breakfasts and lunches at home.  It's weird, now I usually just have one meal sort of at 11ish.  It's leftovers or homemade bread or toast, or soup or pasta or something cheap or out the freezer.  Each week = $4
• Electricity - computer, TV, oven... who knows?  Let's say each week = $5

So, that's $98 - $11.  I reckon by working from home, I'm saving $87 per week. I'll be adding in that amount each week to my running total, that's for sure!  I wish I could put a dollar value on my mental sanity, the total would be a heck of  lot more. 

my girls - tightwadding it up with mama

I have two sharpei dogs that are a big part of my life.  Basically, my tiny house is just a huge kennel now, what with the hair and the smell and the ongoing battle to remove the dog poo from the backyard...

First there is Madge, who'll be 7 in March.  I've had her since she was a puppy.  She's big, butch, dominant, hates exercise and loves to eat.  Mrs Possum says she's a lot like me. She might be right.  This is Madge, exhausted after a walk :

And then there is Meg.  Meg came to me 4 and a half years ago from the SPCA.  She'd been really horribly abused - starved and left outside by her owner.  She had mange, no hair, back legs and tail had been broken, and was severely underweight.  They weren't sure whether she would survive when they picked her up.  A friend of mine was a volunteer there, and when Meg got better my friend suggested to the SPCA that I might be able to adopt her.  So, I went down and fell in love with her straight away.  She was just adorable, and so loving.  I guess I hadn't factored in the difference that two dogs would make compared to one!  Anyway, Meg came home with me.  They weren't sure how old she was, but I was told that she was really sickly, and probably would only live for 18 months, that I should take her home and give her a good last year or so.  Luckily we've had at least three times that now.  Here's Meg.  We reckon she's probably about 7 or 8 (given the twisted stomach saga).  She's our lemo.  Mrs Possum loves Meg the most, i think she relates to her lemo-ness and passive nature.

I've been trying to involve them in my frugality exercise.  It's working!  I'm trying out some dog food combinations to see where we can make some cuts without compromising their health or nutrition.  They eat different things - Meg had a twisted stomach last September, so is only allowed "dry food", whereas Madge eats biscuits.

I had a look on some websites about homemade dogfood, to see if there's anything that would be good to make, cheaper or with ingredients that I can come by easily.  Nothing yet has inspired me (or them), until I came across something that suggested including rice in their meals would be good for them.

Previously, Meg used to have a tin of dogfood each day, about $2.60.  I've checked with the vet, and I can substitute half of that for rice.  We've been doing that for about 6 weeks, and it's really working.  She likes it, her coat is glossy and it doesn't seem to be a problem.  I but the big 2kg bags of rice, about $2.50.  I make it in big amounts which lasts for three days.  A bag of rice lasts around 10 days, all up.  So, before I was spending $18 a week on food for Meg, now it's $11.  Madge is on a diet, she's a fat bastard like her mama, so we've reduced the quantity of dry food we have by about a quarter.  She's doing well too!  Her food works out to about $2 per kg, we were having just over 5kg a week.  Now we're down to about 4.  So, that was $10 down to $8.

Total frugal savings for the girls = $9 every week.  It definitely adds up, I'll be putting that into my ongoing indirect savings calculator to the right each week, that's for sure!

men in my house and many lists

Well, right now I have many men in my house fiddling about in my bathroom.  To my untrained eye, they do not appear to be achieving much.  Apparently my shower will be usable "by the end of the week" and my toilet will be "in and out on Wednesday."  Fingers crossed.

It's funny to have them here, and to see how they interact with me.  I work from home, on my laptop which is on my knee in the lounge.  The bathroom is off the lounge, and so I'm in close proximity to them all day.  I think it disturbs them that I'm here, obviously they're used to working in empty homes where the owner's out all day!  Perhaps that's why they're attempting to look busy all the time.  Who knows.

It does mean that they get to have lots of cups of tea though, because every time I make one for me I feel guilty and offer them one.  Tea lady extraordinaire.  I make the best tea, you've got to use tealeaves or else it just isn't right.

As predicted, I spent the weekend shopping for bathroom things and shovelling dirt.  I have shovelled so much dirt that I have now decided bugger it, I'll just spread the dirt around thinly and try to grow grass on it instead of getting rid of it to cover with stones / pavers. It's cheaper, easier, and puts me in less of a grumpy monkey place.  The benefits are endless. 

So, this weekend I have:

• moved the bath planter
• dug out a whole lot of tightly packed dirt  
• got some adhesive to attach some old brushsticks to the manky back wall to disguise it's mankiness (brushsticks have been hiding in my garage for ages, also means I can declutter, excellent)
• collected a shallow planter for my winter greens out the front,
• planted heaps of lettuce seeds in said planter
• cut trellis to section off the two gardening plots in the backyard so the dogs don't sit on them.  They lurve to sit in the dirt, it is crazy. 
• worked out where I'm going to put my mint plants I propogated from Mum's cuttings at Xmas
• Dug around the lemon tree out the back and sectioned it off with some old pavers that were lying around

By next weekend I will :

• put sheep pellets around the lemon tree
• get some potting mix for the mint plants
• plant out a heap of basil seeds
• transplant peas, beans, lettuces and silverbeet in the two plots - we've germinated them from seed at Mrs Possum's house.
• attempt to glue on the brushsticks to the concrete wall.  Wish me luck and give me strength that i don't get angry and throw a tantrum because it is more difficult that I envisaged
• go to the Martinborouh Fair with Mrs Possum because it is a good monkey thing to do.
• pick up bricks from my friends on the way out to Martinborough
• use said bricks to wall in the bath planter

In other exciting news, half the sage and marjoram seeds I was given for free because the packet said "use by 2006" have started to sprout!  I have learnt a valuable lesson about the amazing power of seeds. 

So, my frugal savings since last time I posted are:

• two packets of free seeds @ $3 each = $6
• no longer getting rid of the dirt = $12 (plus an unquantifiable saving on my sanity)
• using old brushsticks on hand to make my backyard look better so I can rent it out = $70 for new ones
• free marrow from my neighbours = $1

Whoa, I just thought I'd lost this post and was about to get pissy.  I'm posting it now quickly before I lose it again!

i heart newtown

Beautiful morning when i woke up, so off to the plumbing supplier down the road to get a new vanity unit for the bathroom - the plumber will be ready for it on Monday, so I need it asap.  We'd been out looking last night, so we had a good idea of what was out there, and what would fit into the very specific space.

In the old days I would've taken the car, but hey, I'm on the economy drive, so footpower it is.  Well, it was really lovely.  I walked through Newtown, forgot how much I love it.  Only took me about 10-15 minutes, and excitingly I found not one but TWO apple trees on council land on my walk.

Free apples! I reckon they'll be good for picking in maybe 6 weeks?  Awesome.

In the old days I would've stopped for a takeaway coffee (best coffee in Newtown = People's Coffee) or even a coke but no, I'm being focused.

Got to the plumbing place - what a disappointment. They totally ignored me as I walked around, sadly I guess they didn't know I was a keen customer who knew what I wanted with a pocketful of cash ready to buy something there and then.  Finally got their attention, they grudgingly showed me a catalogue, only one unit in there (same as I saw yesterday).  I asked how much, it was more then the other one... and then they said that it would take 10 days to order it in.  WTF?  So, won't be getting it from there, will head back to the other place this afternoon with Mrs Possum.

Walked back through town the longer way and stumbled onto a new veggie market I didn't even know was there! Every Saturday in Newtown Primary School. 

Had a look round, no 99cents / kilo tomatoes, but ended up with 3 butternut pumpkins, a huge broccoli, a pound of green beans and half a pound of mushrooms for $6.  Happy Monkey.  I might make Mrs Possum mince and mushroom pie for dinner, she might like that.

This morning's savings... $4 no coffee, $3 no petrol, $4 cheaper veg.  $11 by not taking the car, with additional savings to come when the apples are ready.

buggered

I spent the first half of the day clearing up the bathroom mess and shovelling dirt from the backyard into 20kg bags, then carrying those bags 100 metres and unloading them into the skip bin.  The bin was 3/4 full when I could face no more.  It doesn't look like I've shifted much out the back, but I know I have.  I'll finish it over the next few days.

After that I went and looked at vanities for the new bathroom - finally found one that's 750 by 400.  It's exactly the right size, but I want something that looks a little less cheap and nasty.  Sigh.  I'm not usually fussy, but somehow I'm a little bit weird about this.

Mrs Possum came over for tea, I gave her the tour of the new backyard, showed her where planters and veges would go.  She wasn't as excited as I'd hoped, but she's got other stuff on her mind.  That's cool.  She's gone home... no shower :-(

I'm in bed now.  Buggered.  This weekend will involve more dirt and more shopping. 

I'm also on the lookout for bricks, to build in around the new planter...

Yes, it's my old bath that's been removed from the bathroom!  I have it earmarked for zucchinis. 

sundried tomatoes FTW!

I love to cook, I love to eat things I've made myself and aren't processed.  I think it just tastes better, and I get a real satisfaction from doing it. It's cheaper too, especially if you're organised.  I really enjoy preserving things when they're in season, so I can use them all year round or give them as gifts.  I've hoarded hundreds of glass jars for this purpose, as well as using my big chest freezer.

At the moment it's tomato season - they're 99cents a kilo at the Sunday morning market... so last Sunday I bought 7.8 kgs of tomatoes and turned them into:

Yep, that's a hella lot of sundried tomatoes.  I made enough for 11 jars - just did two for now, with the rest to go in the freezer in jar-sized packs to top up the jars when they're used up.  They're just in oil.  Two jars = 1 for me and 1 for Mrs Possum.  The rest are in my freezer, Mrs Possum has no space.  
Cost me $7.80 plus $5 for the oil.  Plus 20cents for the drying rack.  Plus probably $5 for all the gas it took to cook them.  Given that jars of sundried tomatoes are about $7 each, I've saved $59 on all these tomatoes.  I know you're thinking that I could just have normal tomatoes, and that would go a long way and so your calculation about saving $59 is a bit off... but me and Mrs Possum LURVE sundried tomatoes, and you only need a few of them for heaps of flavour. So I'm cool with that.

If they're still cheap next week, I'm going to get heaps more and make pasta sauce.  Courgettes are 99cents a kilo too, I'll get those and put them in the sauce for bulk.  Noms. What I'm really looking out for is cheap red peppers (less than $2 a kg) so I can make roasted capsicum sauce. It's like tomato ketchup, but tastes like roasted capsicums.  It's truly delicious.
 

day in auckland = $61

Well, I managed to get an earlier flight, which was great.  hooray!  Ate up large at the Auckland lounge so didn't need any lunch ($10 there I reckon.  Is this getting stupid?) I also secreted some more sprite ($3) and other bits and bobs.  Excitingly, on my way home I became the proud owner of another large plastic plant pot and a huge roll of gutter guard for free ($10).  I'm planning on using the gutter guard as either trellis for Mrs Possum's peas and beans.  Perhaps I may even use it as gutter guard.  Stranger things have happened.

So, final total for today = $38 + $23 = $61 indirectly saved by my stealth frugality.

In other news, the plumber is coming at 8am tomorrow.  8am!  Two early mornings in a row, I'm such a moaner.  This does mean that bathroom things are all happening, and happening really quickly.  Yay!  That is good, as Mrs Possum is not into the no-shower action.

She's talking a day off work on Monday to help clear stuff from the backyard (while the skip is here) and turn it into a veggie garden.  I'm really excited, but still a little unsure about how the dogs will cope.  At the moment it's their loo.  Hmmmn.

I should do a post on the dogs soon.  They're a big part of my life :-)

live from auckland

As the title of this post suggests, I'm blogging live from Auckland.  It's a beautiful sunny day, I'm outside right down by the quay killing time before my 11am meeting.  There was a time when I would've gone into a cafe, bought a coffee and read the paper to pass the time away.  Not now.  My awesome new frugality has meant that I'm drinking the free Sprite Zero I nabbed from the Wellington Koru lounge and enjoying the outdoors.  Auckland is definitely sunnier and less windy than Wellington.  On days like this it makes it hard for me to remember why I don't like Auckland.

This is the view from the board room where I had my meeting today.  You can see Rangitoto in the background.  Sigh.  I live in a beautiful country.

So, my free haul today consists of breakfast in the lounge, a can of drink, the Dom Post, the ODT, the healthy food magazine, some napkins I can use instead of handy towels back home and my in flight muffin, which I've secreted in my handbag for later (or probably freezing, who am I kidding?),  So, my total savings so far are:  breakfast ($2), free sprite not cafe coffee ($4) and the $32 worth of airpoints for this trip that work pays for, which I'll put to travel to Nelson at Xmas.  I'm not counting the papers and magazines, cos I would'nt normally buy them. 

Look at this - by leaving my home office for the day I've actually saved $38.   My return flight is at 5pm, maybe I'll score dinner out of the Auckland lounge as well!

Am I crazy?  Maybe obsessed?  I dunno.  I keep reading in all the other frugal blogs online that the little bits all add up.  I hope so.

no turning back now

The new bathroom started in earnest today, with the builder taking out just about everything, save the toilet and the handbasin.  It's kinda scary, but at least I can still brush my teeth and have a wee.  This is what it looks like right now:

The plumber and the builder are back on Friday (I'm away for work in Auckland tomorrow) and more will happen then.  Hopefully.  It's hard without a shower.  Mrs Possum is not staying until the new one is back in.  Fair enough.  I'll be washing in the kitchen sink tomorrow morning.  I might shave my legs now in the lounge in front of "Supernanny".

Having the builder in has been a learning experience.  I have learnt that when a builder is coming over, I should ask ahead of time if they have any plans to remove the rubbish left behind... because I now have this:

and this:

all up in my entrance way and front yard.  (There's also a bath that was taken out, but I have a cunning plan for that which I'll cover in another post). I'm kinda pissy because there's bits of plaster all mixed in with the woodchip path.  I think I'm going to have to pick them out by hand.  Yeah.  Awesome.  And there's dust EVERYWHERE indoors.

I should note that I'm getting this done for cheap, so I should stop my bitching now.

Anyway, the upshot is that I've got a big skipbin coming on Friday for a week.  It's $129, but I'll be able to fill it up with the bathroom rubbish and all the crap I've removed from the backyard.  Because I have the skip for a week, I'm going to make a really huge effort to get rid of all of the "Bad Dirt" in the backyard, so that I can replace it with yummy nutrient rich potting mix for the veggies, as well as getting rid of as many weeds as I can deal with.  At the moment I'm relying on Mrs Possum's benevolence to take me to the dump with bags of rubbish, but I should just do it now once and for all.

While the builder was here I spent the day with the dogs out in the backyard digging more dirt and sorting out river stones (that's another post too!).  It was productive, but I'm buggered now.  I was so busy that I forgot to have lunch.  This is not like me at all.  I'm a big girl who likes her noms.  So, I defrosted a huge container of pasta salad that Mrs Possum brought home from her work's Xmas do and has been in my freezer since. It was fantastic - pinenuts, smoked chicken, capsicum, spinach.  (I reckon at least $2.50 to make).  I washed it down with a beer.  Perfect end to the day.

And I found two more pegs.  God is providing.

new bathroom excitement

I'm getting a new bathroom put in, as my current one is in such a state that it would be hard to get good tenants in with a bathroom in that state.  I mean, I could use it for me (and Mrs Possum), but really, it needs to be done.  So, I took a deep breath and decided to JUST DO IT. 

I ordered a 900 x 900 shower (new) off TradeMe.  It arrived today.

Three boxes are sitting by the front door.  Shower doors, floor and liner.  $555 delivered right to my door.  Delivery is important as whilst I love Dolly, she is the smallest car in the world and not so practical.  I was looking at Bunnings over the weekend - they were over $850, plus delivery, which I guess at around $50.

So, in excitement, I took out the tiles surrounding the bath.  I tried to get them all out in one piece, so I could use them for something... it worked, sort of.  I have a bunch of semi-broken tiles now that I'm going to use to strengthen my home made garden border in the backyard, and maybe "crazy tile" the back door where the dogs have scraped it.  I need to think about it some more.

I also unscrewed the hand towel holder, it's still real clean and shiny and not chipped or manky, as good as when I bought it six or so years ago.  They sell new for about $15. 

I reckon that the shower mixer, elbow and head will be used again, because they're in good nick, definitely good enough for a rental.  They had basic ones at Bunnings for $90, if I remember right.

The builder is coming tomorrow morning.  I need to talk to him about a vanity and a new toilet - the current toilet is old and sometimes dodgy with blockage.  I might get them myself, could be cheaper.  I dunno.  Yeah, I need to talk with him.

The three boxes also arrived with about 3 metres of strong tape for ease of carrying.  I don't know it's proper name, but it looks like this:

I don't know what to do with it, all I can think of is keeping it to us when my plants are big enough to require tying up to stakes.  I've asked Recycle This for help, so maybe something exciting will come from cyberspace.

My total budget for the bathroom is $10k, including plans, building, design, hardware.  I've saved this much already, so I know I have this money and it's okay.  I'm steeling myself for when they get the stuff out and there's damp. 

I'll burn that bridge when I come to it :-)

dump shop glory

I love going to the dump shop out at Happy Valley.  Every time I go there I see so many things I wish I could take home and fix up.  I have to stop myself from doing it.  At the moment I'm looking for planters for the garden, and the dump shop did not disappoint.

This is my $8 haul.

• The green ceramic herb planter will be for Mrs Possum.  She was looking at one last weekend to grow her herbs in, it was $30! I am the best monkey ever for finding this. 
• There's also a teracotta pot in there which will fit into the ugliest pot stand in the world, which lives outside my front door and keeps my herbs happy.  I'm thinking marjoram in there, from the free packet of seeds I scored the other day.  Pot would be maybe $10 if it was new?
• 17 red tiles.  I'm collecting tiles that size in random colours so I can tile a splashback for my oven.  This now makes 81 tiles I've collected - I need 78, but I'll hold off starting it for now, maybe I'll fund some more colours...i also have to many projects on the go.  hmmmmn.  Tiles you can get on special this size (10x10) for $1 each... so it's like $17 worth!
• The white cube will make a flash planter for out the front.  I have heaps of plastic buckets, but they make my front yard look random.  I don't really want my front yard to look random, so this is nice and tidy.  These sell for $9.95 at the Warehouse.
• 2 ceramic saucers for under the plant pots.  These have never been used.  Will also make the front look less like a plastic bucket explosion.  I'd say they'd be $5 each at California Gardens.  At least.
• The big green tub at the back is one of the local council's recycling bins - managed to pick this up too.  They have holes in the bottom perfect for planting.  Mrs Possum has a courgette that's ready to plant out this weekend, this will do nicely.  I've put compost and potting mix in it already.  You can buy replacements from WCC for $10, I think.
• the other blue bucket is just handy.  More plants!  More buckets! 
• I also got 1.3 metres of embroidered ribbon for my ribbon box.  You know, for when you really need a piece of ribbon but can't find one.  I never have that problem.

So, I reckon this has saved me $80 all up.  Winner is me.

warehouse glory!

Made it around the warehouse without cracking open my wallet.  Nearly spent $2.99 on pegs to use with the clothes airer, but realised I'd dug up four from my backyard the other day and that would do. 

Avoided the electronics department to not be tempted by looking at wii games, avoided the kitchen department to not be tempted by kitchen porn.  I love kitchen porn.

I did find a big two door cupboard for $99 which I'll put in the new bathroom for towel / linen / random crap storage when the renovations are complete, so that's great.  I love storage.

In the end, Mrs Possum paid for 4 x 40 litre bags of potting mix and 15 litres of seed growing nutrients.  I would've put in for it but I was elsewhere.  Truly!

clothes dryer abuse

I've always been a lazy bastard with laundry.  Years ago, I took down the washing line out the back of my property because I didn't like the way it looked.  Things have been stuffed in the dryer since then, no matter what the weather.  I have had the dryer on even when it was 29 degrees outside.  But now - look at this!  I have a load out in the sun on the clothes airer I found cowering in the spare room.   

I think I remember reading somewhere that a dryer load costs $2.  So, I've saved myself $2 today.  Win!
This may be offset by going to the warehouse this afternoon with Mrs Possum to get potting mix and compost for vege gardening.  Sigh.  Mrs Possum is expensive.

First Post

So... retire at 40.  By my rough calculations, that's 4 years, 7 months and 20 days away.  Gulp.

There are many things I need to do before then - renovate my house so I can rent it out, buy somewhere cheap in Nelson (destination of choice) and save money like a demon over the next few years.   I've already started by quitting the job I hated and taking one that lets me work from home. I figure this saves me oney and makes me less likely to spend money on stupid things to cheer myself up!

Hopefully this blog can track my progress.  I want to talk about how I'm saving money, how renovations are going, searching for a Nelson home, what I'm doing to cut corners and related things. 

Penny pinching, frugality, general tightness with money.  Growing some food.  Recycling things to use again.  Getting stuff for free. Going without.

And the difficulty that this raises with Mrs Possum, who is into very few of these things, except for the gardening.

This could get embarassing.  Please don't judge.