It looks like I’ve not been posting. But I’ve been adding nuggets of information every few days to my pantry challenge entry in this blog. Take a look here: http://www.bargainbetty.co.nz/2010/07/16/how-to-cut-your-grocery-bill-1/
I’m still going strong and have avoided spending at least $600 in the past four weeks.
I’m off to the dentist tomorrow morning. I really see NZ dentists as wallet-gouging. I’m hoping my dentist (who incidentally is the Eastern European mentioned in Deborah Hill-Cone’s article, Now Lie Back and Open Your Wallet) hasn’t read my articles, because she will no doubt double the bill If I need anything serious done I’m going to book a week in Thailand. No joke. I’ll report back tomorrow on my experience and the pain caused to my wallet.
Friday 13 August: I didn’t actually have my appointment last week. I turned up for my appointment (I always book the first appointment of the day because I hate waiting) to find the dentist was drilling someone else’s teeth. After 20 minutes I left. I went back today (and was the first customer), had my teeth checked and cleaned. Amazingly the bill for half an hour’s work was only $95. Not bad considering she had two members of staff working for her (receptionist and dental assistant). The Herald is writing another big rip-offs piece. Will be interesting to see what they have about dentists.
My son’s soccer boots have lost yet another stud. Replacement studs only cost $1.80. But now that my supply has run out, I have to go up to Takapuna again (read $3-$5 petrol + my time) to get some more. Or do I?
Last night I went into the loft and got down a pair of boots I have in reserve for next year (that’s another blog posting) and simply removed a stud from one boot and put it on his existing boot.
That of course leaves me with a stud missing from next year’s boot. So today, I picked up a pair of second hand little kids soccer boots for $1 – and have removed the studs. So now I have 12 spares, for $1 in total, and less time/petrol that it would involve going to Stirling Sports.
DVD rental shops seem to be living much longer than the digerati predicted. You’d think they’d be dead by now thanks to Sky movies, iPods and illegal downloads.
My friend Pip pointed out in another posting that she loves to sit down with a glass of wine and a DVD on the weekends. I emailed back to check that she does get them out on $1 night.
Tuesday night is “video” night in our house. We go down to Civic Video to get a $1 DVD out each. We’ve been doing this ever since I cancelled the Sky subscription and bought a Freeview box. It’s really nice to have a good movie to watch on the weekends. To get even better value out of my $1 DVDs, I often pass good ones over the road to my neighbour, who watches them before returning them.
Even if you can’t get to Civic Video on Tuesdays (or whatever day the half price day is in your area), there are some pretty useful discount vouchers on Vouchermate.co.nz. The five weeklies for $5 is a good deal – albeit slightly more than the $3 a week we usually spend on DVDs.
I do love the idea of belonging to a postal DVD hire service such as Fatso.co.nz. But I can’t justify the cost.
Yesterday I wrote again about rip-offs in my NZ Herald column. Unsurprisingly my inbox is full of comments this morning. Usually people only bother emailing journalists to complain. 🙂 But this time it was people agreeing with me.
Rip-offs in New Zealand are big news, following an opinion piece in this newspaper by UK sports writer Peter Bills.
It’s an issue that anyone who keeps an eye on their personal finances ought to be thinking about. We do get soundly ripped off in a large number of areas.
The full text of the article is here:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10660816
This topic of rip-offs in New Zealand is really polarising people.
One of our family “traditions” is to have pizza on Friday nights. The kids invite a friend over, they watch a movie and then eat pizza for dinner. It would never occur to me to buy pizza. It’s such a no-brainer to make it. Pizza is incredibly easy to make. I just chuck the pizza-base ingredients in the breadmaker about 1pm, and by 5pm it’s light and fluffy. The ingredients only cost a few cents, compared to several dollars to buy horrible bases from Third World (New World) or ready-made pizza’s from Pizza Hut or Hell’s Pizza (the two local chains).
Then it’s a matter of popping the oven on, rolling out the dough and adding cheese and a few toppings. You don’t need much on a pizza. Currently I have an excess of tomato sauce (bought by accident) so will use that instead of pizza sauce (which is usually pasta sauce anyway, because it’s reasonable).
Hey presto. A wonderful dinner costing next to nothing.
The Bills article in the NZ Herald has fired the ire of many a Kiwi. It has even been discussed at cabinet level I read.
Bills has a followup this morning entitled Don’t Shoot the Messenger Guys: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10659895
I’ve found myself in the past that if you daresay anything that’s not ra-ra about New Zealand you get roundly criticised. But my role as a journalist isn’t to be a cheer leader for my country.
I’m writing my own followup about rip-offs in New Zealand for the Weekend Herald this Saturday:
This morning’s NZ Herald has an interesting article about New Zealand being 100 per cent pure rip-off by international journlist Peter Bills. It reminds me of an article I wrote on my return to New Zealand after 12 years away:
Most of the things I said in that article five years ago still stand:
Last year I updated these thoughts following a huge amount of feedback to my weekly MSN article:
More of New Zealand’s biggest rip-offs
One of the best ways to cut your grocery bill, at least in the short term is to simply not go shopping. As an exercise I’m doing just that. I’m going to miss my next two shopping excursions and eat the food from my cupboards and freezer. I’m feeling quite nervous about it and keep worrying about running out of all sorts of things.
Most of us hoard food – it’s natural human behaviour. In reality most of us wouldn’t starve if we cut out the weekly shop for a couple of weeks. I spend around $180 – $200 a week on food. I don’t know exactly because I do one weekly shop at the supermarket, but buy meat and vegetables elsewhere.
Update: Monday 19th July: It’s astounding how scary the idea of not shopping for food is. I keep worrying I’m not going to be able to find something to eat for dinner. Yet my cupboard and freezer is still packed with food. That natural human urge to hoard food is really hard to fight against. I’m still wondering about what “basics” are and whether I should stock up on them. I’ve decided that fruit and milk are necessities. But I can’t get my head around whether eggs are. I can make cakes and biscuits with eggs for the kids lunchboxes.
Update: Tuesday 20th July: My cupboards are full enough to survive a nuclear winter. I’m not one to throw food away. But when non-perishables are on sale I tend to buy up large. At the moment this exercise is more about eating down the oversupply of various foods. Having said that, I keep having a panic about not going shopping. Tonight is my usual supermarket night. I’m only going to get milk. I originally decided that milk and fruit were the only basics I would top up during this exercise. I don’t want my children going without fruit. I realise having seen the first comment from a reader that toilet paper is an essential. Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind I remember using newspaper when toilet paper ran out at home. Perhaps my mother didn’t want to go shopping. I’m not sure how 21st century children would cope if given newspaper. I’m still toying with the idea of whether eggs are basics. I can do without them. But as we run out of snacks, I might need them for baking. Butter is also an essential for baking, so may be replaced. I don’t, however, want to fool myself. I came across this:
Mastercheap: the $25 shopping list
As the exercise unfolds, I’ll add more to this blog. All comments appreciated.
Wednesday July 21: I’m not going to update this every day. But last night was shopping night (Tuesdays). It was great to nip into the supermarket and only come out with milk and bananas. There were only two of us for dinner last night, so I didn’t “cook”. Maia had instant noodles (despite my fears that I might be causing her long term nutruitional damage by feeding her something like that 🙂 ). I steamed some vegetables and pulled out a Gits brand Paneer Tikka Masala package from the pantry. I often buy Gits brand products from Moshims one of my regular grocery shopping haunts. That reduced the pantry food by a minute amount.
Thursday July 22: My neighbour just turned up with some parsley and eggs (both from his garden/free range chickens). I was a little concerned that this is cheating. But he reckons it’s “foraging” which is okay. I would usually have parsley in the garden, but my guinea pigs ate it – along with anything except for the Rosemary in my veggie/herb garden. Must fence it off….
Friday July 22: Came across my first real problem last night. I was baking a “plate” for an event I was going to and found to my horror that I had less than 1 cup of icing sugar for the chocolate icing. My initial reaction was to send Maia across the road to “borrow” a cup of icing sugar. But I stopped and thought and managed to extend the icing by adding Nutella. I was wondering later if it’s possible to make a peanut butter icing by adding sugar syrup and cocoa. I discover this morning that there are plenty of such recipes. See http://tinyurl.com/29suxdx I have two containers of peanut butter, so could have done this. It just shows how easy it is to be resourceful.
Monday July 26: We’re six days overdue for shopping and there is remarkably very little on the shopping list. I always write things on when we run out of them. Currently the list is:
It’s this last item cheese, which is vexing me. I still have 1/3rd of a block of Parmesan, which can be used in place of cheddar. But I’m not sure what’s going to happen on Friday. Friday is pizza night in our household.
I’m wondering whether I’m allowed to buy one semi-essential item a week – such as cheese, butter, or vegetables? Is this cheating I ask myself? I’m not sure.
Wednesday July 28: Missed my second week’s shop last night. I only bought the essentials of: 5L of milk and a bag of apples ($2.99 for 2kg, which wasn’t bad. I rarely buy fruit in the supermarket as it is much cheaper at Simply Fresh and other such fruit marts). I made the decision to buy one “semi-essential”. That was cheese. I only bought this because Friday night is pizza night and it’s pretty difficult to have pizza without cheese. I know it’s possible. But I’m not sure what the children would think. Maybe this Friday I’ll make one of the pizzas with no cheese and find out.
Late last week food writer Virgil Evetts came over and we emptied my cupboards, fridge and freezer of food and took an inventory. He will be writing next week on www.foodlovers.co.nz about the food in my pantry and what could be done with it. Virgil has promised me his Baked Bean Cassoulet recipe. Personally I view baked beans (and yoghurt as well) as kiddie-food and don’t particularly like them. But this is a great way to make them into a family meal.
I’ve actually been pretty creative myself. We have a cup-cake maker (lots of fun for the kids and I bought it with Fly Buys points) and I’ve been making cup cakes for afternoon tea. On the first day instead of using milk, I use the rest of a chocolate mousse that the kids wouldn’t eat. I’m running short of butter and decided to weigh out oil, instead of using up the precious butter.
Friday July 30: I’ve now missed three weeks of shopping. Cooking is starting to get a little challenging. I wanted to make some ginger icing last night for my Weetbix ginger slice, which we had for pudding last night. I ran out of icing sugar last week. Instead I used the remainder of my brown sugar. That worked well. One of the challenges that I hadn’t mentioned previously is that I have a member of the extended whanau living with me. I don’t feel that she should suffer from my challenge. So I’ve been trying to ensure she is well fed – hence the dessert last night. We’re long out of ice cream, which is the usual dessert around here. I’m also baking bread – although we still have Vogels in the freezer. I will be out of vegetables (fresh and frozen) by week 4, which might mean a mini shop on Tuesday. Even so, I can see the experiment lasting another two to three weeks.
Monday August 2: it’s hard to believe that I’m still going strong – having missed 3 weeks grocery shopping. I’ve been adapting well to my creative dinners. On Saturday I cooked up some yellow split peas I had. Three-quarters of the cooked split peas went into the freezer to make dahl sometime this week. The remainder were cooked into one of my home-made lasagnes (I make the pasta myself, it’s easy) along with the very last of the premium mince. I made ricotta cheese from1L of milk, and used a pottle of Greek Yoghurt instead of white sauce. It went down well. Out of salad – except for a very small amount of mesculin in the garden, I grated carrot as an accompaniment.
Last night we had pasta again. I still had one pack of bought fresh Tortellini. It wasn’t enough for three adults and I poked around the fridge/freezer for a little while wondering what extras I could put in (eg bacon, chorizo, hot dog sausages). In the end I chopped up two onions, and added some Aria brand lamb strips, grated cheese and almost the last of my sour cream. It was a little of an odd mix – Chicken Tortellini with lamb strips. It tasted quite good. I nearly added half a can of pineapple, which was in the freezer. But my friend the chef called just as I was about to defrost it and completely freaked out. Ironically my dinner guests said they would have liked pineapple in it.
I’ve been knocking all sorts of deserts together – using whatever ingredients I still have in the baking cupboard. Sometimes it’s biscuits or slices. I’ve also managed to make some hot desserts. I’ve got the ingredients to make this (with a little chopping and changing) : http://www.weetbix.co.nz/apricot-dessert-slice.aspx. We also have a recipe for “little puddings” from the Edmonds Children’s Cook Box, which we’ll make sometime this week.
Supermarket night is tomorrow night. I’ve decided to add a couple of extra items to this week’s absolute essentials. Otherwise I’ll be missing yet another supermarket shop. My 4th. Tomorrow I’m going to buy milk, eggs, one green veg (I’m out of fresh and frozen), and something to make salad with. That’s double what I have been buying. If it was only me I’d do without the veg and eggs, for the sake of the experiment. Said chef is emailing me a recipe for egg free cake (for either lunch boxes or dessert). But I’m actually starting to run short of cooking oil, which could prove a problem.
Interestingly, even with no shopping I’ve managed to give food away twice in the past week- to people/organisations that needed it. I couldn’t have imagined being able to do that after three weeks of no shopping. As an aside, even well off areas such as the one I live in have food banks, which rely on ordinary people to make donations.
Thursday August 5.
My challenge is still going strong – although I’ve topped up on a few fresh items (salad and one head of broccoli). My friend Virgil Evetts has written his take on my pantry challenge over at Foodlovers.co.nz. Take a look and please come back and post here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’m actually starting to get over the psychological need to food shop. I realise that I can still cook from what I have. I’ve only bought fruit and veg (small amounts) so that we remain healthy. To be honest, if an earthquake hit we could do without these for a few weeks if need be. But I’m not taking the challenge to that extreme.
I should have added that I had a brainwave a few nights back and mixed the lamb strips in with some chicken tortellini, along with sour cream and a few other ingredients. It turned out to be a real hit – even if it was a strange mix. I was about to put some tinned pineapple in it when my friend the chef called by coincidence and persuaded me against it. Oddly enough my two guests for dinner that night said they would have quite liked pineapple in the mix.
Update: Wednesday August 11. The experiment is over. I’ve done half a shop. We got down to the point where I had no flour (incl wholemeal and rye), no butter, no veg, no baking powder, no tomato (fresh or canned), no potatoes, and no meat. I can honestly say that we could have survived another two weeks with no shopping and had it just been me and the kids (not a boarder as well) I may well have continued eating our way through bland pasta and baked beans. It astounded me that I could miss four scheduled supermarket shops four weeks in a row and still produce well rounded meals. In fact in some ways we ate better because I did a lot of baking. It’s also liberating not to have my cupboards and freezer so packed full of food. I’m going to start shopping fortnightly instead of weekly (that was an improvement made two years ago, before which I went when I felt like it). I may even move my main shop to monthly and do it online. It will be interesting over the next week to see how the small amount of supplies I’ve bought affect the way we eat. I’d still like to finish eating down the remainder of the basics, which I haven’t replenished for five weeks, such as: oats, dried spaghetti and a small amount of Rizzoni, tinned baked beans and tinned tomato soup, two maggi soup packets, and about eight two litre plastic packs of home pickled olives. 🙂
I still have to try out Virgil Evetts baked-bean cassoulet recipe, which I’m really looking forward to. I haven’t been able to because we ate the chorizo and bacon up before he gave me the recipe. Here’s the recipe:
Virgil’s baked bean cassoulet recipe:
Ingredients
2 tins baked beans
4 cups hot stock (chicken/beef)
Bacon
Kransky-roughly chopped
Chorizo- roughly chopped
1 onion-finely chopped
3 cloves garlic crushed
2 tablespoon butter/margarine
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried sage Or 3 fresh sage leaves
Vegetable oil
Breadcrumbs
Method
Preheat oven to 200c
Sauté the bacon and sausages in 1 tablespoon of the butter/margarine and a little oil until browned. Add onion garlic and herbs, sauté until soft and fragrant. Add beans and stir until simmering.
Now add the stock. Bring to the boil and reduce to a low simmer. Stir frequently until reduced and thickened. Use a wooden spoon or potato masher to crush some of the beans. This greatly improves the texture of the sauce.
Adjust seasoning to taste.
Transfer to a suitable oven dish, sprinkle liberally with breadcrumbs and stud with little knobs of butter/margarine. Bake until golden and sizzling or stir in crust and add more breadcrumbs and butter/margarine and bake again.
Serve with crusty bread and plenty of rough wine.
I’ve passed through Sydney airport with time to kill twice recently. The airport train costs $30 return (even if you only go one stop) and the inter terminal shuttle is $5.50. Both seem like daylight robbery to me. So I set about finding cheaper ways to get in and out of the airport. The information desks don’t make it easy. One couldn’t show me a map of the airport and the other kept claiming that the official airport transport was the only way to get around. If I hadn’t been an expert at asking questions I never would have found out about the 400 bus. This is a local bus at local prices that passes through the airport, stopping at both terminals. You can use it to get from terminal to terminal or to head North towards Bondi Junction or south to Rockdale. You could just jump on it to the nearest train station (but beware that it’s not one on the expensive airport line) and swap to a train. Here’s the timetable info:
http://www.sydneybuses.info/uploads/File/pdfs/regular_timetables/400_410tt.pdf
And a route map:
http://www.sydneybuses.info/uploads/File/pdfs/regular_route_maps/400_410map.pdf