Best investment ever. The footstool

I originally bought this stool with a 70s ‘lazy-boy’ design, waaaay back when I came home from Melbourne. Since then I’ve constantly lambasted anyone who’ll listen with the tale of the one that got away, a matching armchair and stool. Now, this is mostly because it is extremely comfy, and only cost $15, an absolute steal.

Since that time, i’m come to regret it more. This is because this stool has become the most oft-used piece of furniture in the apartment. In addition to serving as a footstool, it has been:

• a seat for parents watching a wee man in the bath
• a seat for parents feeding a wee man at his high chair
• a spare chair at the dinner table when people come over

And, most importantly:

• A zimmer frame for a wee man learning to walk about the house.

So why is this on Frugal Me you ask?

Because today I saw a walking-toy for boddlers (babies who aren’t quite toddlers), for a whooping $120!! And I asked myself, why in the hell spend that money when you have the superfootstool hanging about the place?

Again – the best damn investment I ever made.

Making your own cottage cheese

Following hard on the heels of Stephen’s now-famous yoghurt-making antics, I thought I’d try out making cottage cheese, and see if the savings were enough to get me into the paper as well. I didn’t think that one would work twice, and thought I’d make do with the kind of crazy google hits were going to get off the frequent use of the word cottage.

If there is anything that makes me think of the 1970s it is cottage cheese. That and bean sprouts. But because around here we mostly stick to seasonal vegetables, getting greens for sandwiches is tricky, so sprouts it is. Likewise, with cheese being at times unreasonably expensive, cottage cheese is a good fat-and-protein addition to liven up lunches.

So how to make it? Easy. Put a litre of milk into a pot and apply heat, when it’s tipping 80-odd degrees, put one 1/4 cup of white vinegar into the mix and stir gently. The milk will curdle, and you strain the hot mixture through a muslin. And…. voila. Cottage cheese, or paneer, depending on your background.

I keep the whey and continually try to find uses for it, but let the curds cool in the fridge, mash it with a fork, and moisten it with some of that home-made yoghurt (you can’t use the whey, doesn’t work well). This makes it, to coin a phrase, just like the bought one.

And the savings. Well, I bought a litre of milk for this costing $2.09, and made 250g of cheese. 250g at the supermarket cost $2.35 the last time I checked. We’ll call that one “not a substantial saving”.

However, there are some key differences. My cottage cheese is incredibly simple to make, and is not time consuming. It is also without unnecessary packaging, and hasn’t been transported half-way across the country or world to my fridge (ignoring the packaging/transport of the milk, which I buy in bulk). Also, I know exactly what’s in it, something the me who has worked in food manufacturing knows is very, very important.

All in all you’d need decent access to a ready supply of cheap or free milk to make this one work well. But, there is satisfaction in making your own food, and in knowing that it has a low carbon-cost. Plus, you get to try celery sticks stuffed with raisins, and topped with cottage cheese! 1978 par excellence.

Sneaky, sneaky b-tards

Here’s a word of warning if you’re shopping at New World.

Something that’s happened to use a few times in the past week (at both downtown New Worlds) is that items have big signs on them stating 2-for-$XX!! This is usually a good deal, so we buy them, only to get to the cashier and discover that it is some other brand entirely that is on sale.

When I wandered back to check it the label did indeed say “Molenburg”, but the bread under the sign was Freyas. So technically the supermarket isn’t actually doing anything wrong. The sign and the bread are different, therefore I am not paying enough attention, and it is my fault that I end up with more bread than I need, at a higher cost.

But another way to look at it is: these sneaky, sneaky b-tards are fooling me into buying more, in the expectation that I will not kick up a fuss, and socially embarass myself, at the cashier.

However, no amount of grumpy people in line, or sending cashiers off to sort this out, will deter this curmudgeon from getting his $3.50 saving…

Greening the Nation’s bottoms

One thing most parents seem to share is dread at the cost of nappies. These things are seriously expensive, and if you chose the wrong option, then you’re talking several thousand dollars over the duration. One friend commented specifically that their grocery bill plummetted after their 2nd child graduated.

To address this dreadful expense my partner and I talked over our options before the wee tacker was born, and settled on re-useable nappies. And he being 8 months old tomorrow I thought I’d give a progress report.

In short: Not so bad.

We thought that things might become… different… when he moved to solid food, but we’ve been lucky and the reusables options has worked out well. The principle of the nappy is that it has a waterproof cover, an absorbent cloth, and a disposable liner. The liner is supposed to act as a “catch-all” that allows you to easily dispose of any offending solids. And that’s pretty much exactly what it does. You just gather up the liner and flush it. Since there are no solids heading in the wash cycle the need for a rigorous soaking/washing sterilisation process is less, and a decent warm wash followed by sunlight by kill any bacteria.

And that’s the next issue. Hot washes. We’re still tracking the power bill compared to last year, but it’s being complicated by bad billing in 2008 (a topic for another day), and this winter being so much more cold. But initial figures suggest it’s not too bad, and it includes the additional washing needed to keep on top of grubby baby clothes (feeding is messy!). Total power bill for 2008 was $1021, and this year to date is $633 (6 months). Mind you, we are only using warm washes, but it seems to do the trick, and every few months we spend a week doing spanking hot washes, just in case.

Meanwhile, costs for cleaning are not substantial. Our entire detergent bill last year was $58 (seriously…), and cost to date (January to July), is $50. That includes concentrate, baking soda (bleach), and white vinegar (disinfectant), the latter two bought from Moore Wilsons, the former from the Warehouse in 5kg bags.

Pretty good right?

But! I hear you say. But the initial cost of he nappies!! It’s a killer!!

Well, total cost of nappies including disposables (used at night or when/if we travel), is [drum roll maestro]… $602.

Compared to the cost of buying disposable nappies that is a fairly big saving. We figure the boy will run through a minimum of 6 nappies a day (not skimping and making him wear them for longer), but at least 8. A 20-nappy pack costs a minimum of $10 on special, but more usually $12. Wolfram Alpha tells me that we have 243 days between 4 December and 4 August. This gives us a potential consumption of 1944 nappies, costing us a minimum of $972. Of course this is in reality likely to be higher.

And, we can change the boy as many times in a day as we want. The most water we ever need use is the minimum setting on the washing machine, so 8 nappies or 15 nappies makes no difference. Plus, the disposable liners are actually good for a couple of washes if they have only been peed on! Another saving!

We’re thinking that we won’t have to make the outlay for the next size up nappy for several months (his growth has evened out at around 11.5kg), so the next $180-odd so a little way of, meaning that from here till then the only cost is cleaning and purchasing additional liners ($10 for 100, cost to date included in the $602).

The final word? Well worth it.

Going large to save cash – Bulk Buy Bonaza

It occurred to me today that the world has moved on sufficiently if I can buy 5kg of flour and not have to worry about it being infested with weevils.

For starters I’d wonder how in the heck the little blighters got into the apartment, and second we’ll likely keep most of it in a plastic container.

The only real hassle will be using it quickly enough.

However, as long as we do use it all then the savings on this bag of flour are pretty good. This 5kg cost me $7, when a 1.5kg bag from the same place, Moore Wilsons, would have $3.88. So we save roughly $5 buying in bulk.

As I say, this is only an actual saving if you’re going to use the product in good order. But, with this winter being as damn cold as it is, baking seems to be the best way to get decent warm food in us while also heating the place up!

I’m planning three primary dishes for this flour. Mini muffins, scones, and, if I can get the yeast to rise, Bread.

Squeezing out every last cent

One of the downsides of handy modern packaging is that it’s sometimes hard to get out that last little bit of something.

And this is an example. This hand sanitiser, in short supply currently because of people worried about swine flu, is no useless. This is because the level of the gel contained in there has dropped below the level of the tube that sucks it up into the dispenser. As a result, we’re out money because we can’t squeeze out those last few drops.

Now, some people would throw this away now because it is, after all, only a little amount of gel. Other more sensible people will unscrew the cap, and wait a minute or so for the gel to drop all the way to the cap end, and then use the remainder. But, that’s at least a dozen or more uses of that gel in there, and unscrewing the cap and waiting for it to trickle down involves an interminable wait when you have an infant on the changing table giving you hell about, well, anything.

So what to do?

Well, we’ve put the boffins here at Frugal Me onto this one, and we think we may well have an answer.

1. tip the now-useless dispenser bottle of gel upside down until all the gel runs to the cap end.
2. unscrew the top carefully, so as not to get gel all over yourself, and tip the remaining gel into the new bottle of gel you bought to replace the old one.
3. relax in the knowledge that you probably saved 50c, while also not telling those manufacturers get the better of you.

Awesome.

How to Pimp Ur Ride

Kids. One things kids are not is cheap. The mountain of crap you need to keep them in all the stuff you need to keep them in is immense.

And one thing the suppliers like to ensure is that you spend a heap more than you need to.

Queue: the introduction of the Mountain Buggy, Urban Elite.

This is a pretty good pram. There’s one on TradeMe as I write this selling for $310 (with two bids). It has a lightweight frame, a mobile from wheel, sunshade, rain cover, nice wide berth and high riding position for the baby who is both urbane, and elite.

Brand new they retail for around $800. Which I would not pay. And not only because the website makes me a little sick in my mouth… But because it is daylight robbery.

Second Chef, bless her frugal heart, found this buggy in a second-hand place for a whopping… $50. The only trouble is, it needed a little love.

But a whole lotta love we got. Number one issue was that the canvas on the seat area had started to give way, and the metal frame of the sun cover had worn through. So, we got in touch with the very nice man at Hurry Up Shoe Repair in the bottom of the State Insurance Building. He was able to whip up some patches and have the whole deal fixed for $18, as depicted.

The next problem was that the tyres had pretty much worn down, and were likely to pop unexpectedly causing both crying and shouts of exasperation from respective family members.

So, a quick trip to Capital Cycles, and for $30 they sold us two new tyres and put them on for free.

Finally, new sun/rain covers to keep the wee guy happy, which were a whopping $90 all up…

And there we go. One pram restored to former glory for under $200.

Verdict? Excellent. The pram is larger so the not-so-small man is happier. It’s lighter so it’s easier on Second Chef. And it has an adjustable handle so those of us taller folk don’t have to stoop to push it, and it therefore preserves the back.

A win.

Getting good sox

Now this is a serious matter. Decent socks make all the difference this time of year, especially when your best chance to recover from a cold is to stay warm (it’s also a good way to avoid them. It’s called a cold for a good reason.)

The trouble is though, the majority of socks on the market these days at the low end are made of acrylic/cotton blends with minimal amounts of wool. This makes them cheaper, but they wear out really rapidly. This results in the need to buy more socks, and you might just as well have bought flash woolen ones.

I’d solved this conundrum by going the middle ground but for one fact. The art of darning socks seems to be rapidly disappearing. Certainly I could condemn myself or my partner to an hour of sock-darning, but seen as neither of us is skilled in this matter it’s simply not worth the needle-pricks.

But… +$30 for a pair of something like Norsewool is just so damn much. Especially when you need at least 3 pairs to get through a week of sitting in shonky office airconditioning.

Tips? On either decent value socks? Or on getting darning up to scratch (including on the cheap Farmer’s ones)

It pays to check

For a fair while now my spread of choice has been Olivani. It’s a good product, is reliably on the shelf at the supermarket, and always seemed reasonably priced compared to petro-chemical random-oil-based alternative like margarine. The main reason for eating it though is the lack of dairy.

Dairy being evil and all.

Ok, I admit that I’m a teeny bit lactose intolerant. But not enough to complain about. The main reason is to keep healthy. Why eat fats when you can eat oils?

Consequently I have to come clean and admit to performing the slavish behaviour I’m quick to criticise others for, and just buying a product because I’m in the habit. Now, not only is this bad, it’s downright stupid.

You can imagine my chagrin to discover yesterday that there is in fact a competitor on the shelf, and it is called Olivite. And… that it’s $2 cheaper for the same weight.

My name is Che, and I am a bad and stupid slavish consumer.

Briscoes Sale! Get on down there!

As part of the weekend entertainment of the wee tacker I popped out for a walk, and we happened past Briscoes.

They have a Mothers Day sales on that has a few useful things for sale. Some items are pretty much marked down to prices you would find at the Warehouse…

But! Much of the cookware and bakeware is up to 50% off! That you certainly can’t sniff at.