My simple life

I made a yummy batch of scones today. Such a simple recipe SR flour, butter, sugar and milk. They were divine with a bit of strawberry jam and cream. I would rather my girls have a scone with jam and cream or honey rather than pre packaged food full of preservatives.

I wanted to write a bit more about my simple life.

We brought a little old wooden house on a 733sq m block in a small rural town of 500. A bigger town of 18,500 is only a 10 minute drive away so we aren't exactly in the middle of nowhere.

Our house was rather cheap [under $200k] which is cheap these days but very run down. However we wanted to get into the property market so we decided we would slowly do it up. And other than the peeling paint on the outside inside is rather nice and homely. We replaced all the carpet and lino, painted the whole interior, replaced the kitchen [still havem't finished the splash back yet though], built back steps, built a sand pit for the kids. It's going ok so far.

I only work 3 days per week. I have always worked full time even after the births of both of my girls however 12 months ago my anxiety got worse and I needed to cut back and spend precious time with my kids before they grow up too quickly.

My DH only works 2 days a week [sometimes more]. We live on a low income of only $915 a week. Out of this we pay our bills, and all of our living expenses. After bills are paid including mortgage etc we have $376 left over. We sometimes scrape by and other times have money left. Our goal is to have lots of money left.

We don't grow our own vegetables or have chooks [thanks to my rather large dog not liking them] however we only buy food we will eat, never waste any, we use every last drop of everything we have, we have all second hand furniture and appliances and we don't want to 'keep up with the Jones' so to speak.

We live on about $100 a week for groceries, we don't have pay tv, or Iphones and we never buy anything we don't need. I guess we live quite simply.

My goals are to make our own soap and washing powder, hand soap etc.

Last year I stopped shopping for the sake of it. Now I make a quick trip to get groceries and necessities and that is it.

I also started using environmentally friendly home made cleaning products. I use vinegar and water to clean the shower, basin and windows and vinegar and hot water to mop the floors. I scrub with Bi carb soda if I need extra scrubbing. I avoid using the dryer and have cut down our shower times to 3 mins each. I wash up twice a day to save money and only do 1 load of washing every two days.

The kids borrow books from the library and so do I.

I have stopped buying pre packaged food and try and make as many of the kids snacks as possible as well as letting them have plenty of fruit and vegetables. We also cook from scratch where possible.

Other than our motgage we have no debt at all. No credit card debt, nothing which I am proud of. We do have two cars as DH drives for work and I work also but we try and drive my small car more often and other than DH's work days his larger car isn't driven at all.

I am looking back at this thinking my life isn't so simple however I look at friends who have everything and more and are up to their eyeballs in debt and spoiling their kids with plastic toys they don't even play with and then i realise we are quite simple.

Ella goes to the local school which is about a 3 miniute walk away which we try and encourage her to walk [with us of course] rather than drive.

Not only is my life simple this way but IO hate clutter and live clutter free. I get rid of stuff I don't need and keep a clean and organised, clutter free life.

I'd better sign off now as I have an early start tomorrow for work.

Tomorrow I will write more about my routine and how I structure my days :)

Cioa