WHAT HAPPENED TO MARCH?

So much for me keeping up with blogging, March just went so quickly but I did spend more time fixing up the veggie patch.  There's still a long way to go but I've managed to get a bed ready to get some beans, cabbage, broccoli and garlic growing. 

After having my fingers in so many pies over the years, I'm really making an effort to get back to basics this year.  Our financial situation will be changing again at the end of the year and anything I can do now to set us up will be beneficial.  With teenage and adult children now it's so easy to get caught up with what they feel are needs not wants and this relates to not only clothing etc but food as well.  I've been so lazy when it comes to cooking from scratch, don't get me wrong, takeaway is something my family only gets a few times a year (the older ones that earn their own money seem to eat it a lot more) but convenience foods have made there way back into our home and it's because I'm not prioritizing our health.

I've looked very carefully at our budget and what we can change and for now it's cutting back on our food budget.  I made the decision to try something new a couple of weeks ago, for years I have done fortnightly shopping with the intention of buying more fresh food on the off week but every fortnight we go over because I am constantly at the shops buying bread, milk etc then adding more stuff that I see on special.  Two weeks ago I decided to slash our food budget and then halve it to do weekly shopping and it's working, the kids never stop eating and they were always running out of food, now for whatever reason, there's always food in the home.  I can only guess that I'm putting in more effort into cooking and simply not allowing myself to buy more, if we run out we can wait a few days until next shopping day.

So what have I been busy making?  First of all getting back into the swing of making daily bread is a huge saving.

Juice, now my kids drink this stuff like it's going out of fashion, but not anymore when they have to prepare it themselves.  We are saving a heap on store bought juice and to help out I pre-peel the oranges and pop in the fridge so it's easier for everyone. 

All of the orange peels are not wasted around here, they will be made into orange cleaner by simply popping them into a container and filling with vinegar.  Leave them for a few weeks and let the orange oil seep from the peels.

We have had unseasonly warm weather this past month and my kombucha scoby is going into overdrive, time to separate I think. 

Today I picked our Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples, our tree is small and tends to get taken over by our monster apricot tree but this year it was loaded.  There's coddling moth in some of the apples but I will be cutting that out and stewing and freezing the apples for winter.  This is the last of the cherry tomatoes and chillies so I can finally remove the beds they were in, I might make a chilli paste for  Darren tomorrow.

I will try and keep updated a little more frequently but for now I'm going to enjoy school holidays.