Budgeting - The $500 Challenge

On the Aussies Living Simply forum someone asked “Could you live on $400 a week?” The idea was that you had no mortgage or rent and there was just 2 of you. So you would have your usual bills of electricity, gas, phone, insurances, rego, fuel etc etc. Some people thought there was no way they could live on $400 a week. I think it is one of these things you could do if you set out a budget and regimentally stuck to it.

We are currently a family of 3 soon to be 4 with my mother coming to live with us to look after the baby when I go back to work in March.

I am going to set myself a challenge for the start of March for all 5 of us to live on $500 a week, that will of course not include my mortgage but will include the food, electricity, gas etc etc . While I have some spare time over Xmas and New Years I will go over our budget to see how much all the basics do really cost us and see if we can manage a $500 a week challenge.

Our most challenging thing will be trying to get our veggie garden in order so we can cut back on store bought vegies. Hubby and I cannot seem to get our timings right. This will be another challenge for me to be able to supply at least 50% of our veggies from the garden.

If only I could get my hubby to eat at least two vegetarian meals a week that would save us another few dollars. I also have a rather fussy 19 year old step son who doesn’t eat any of the good veggies either so this will be challenging. I think meal planning will definitely be the way to go.

If anyone has any frugal recipes they would like to share with me please leave a comment. If anyone else wants to join the challenge please let me know also.

Xmas Cookies

This weekend I thought I would make some simple xmas cookies. Mind I did have to make 2 batches, one for home and one for work lol I should stop telling people at work I'm going to do some cooking over the weekend it has some how become a tradition to cook enough for home and for work....

Recipe:

Cookie Dough
120gm Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Caster Sugar
1 Egg
2 Cups SR Flour, Sifted
3-4 Drops Vanilla Essence

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170 deg cel, Gas Mark 3, and lightly grease 2 oven trays
2. Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and castor sugrar until light and fluffy
3. Add the egg and mix until combined
4. Add the sifted flour and vanilla essence
5. Knead mixture to form a ball. Wrap dough in plastic film and place in fridge to rest for approx 20 mins
6. Use 2 sheets of baking paper and put one sheet down and place the dough on. Put the 2nd sheet of baking paper on top and with a rolling pin, roll the dough evenly until it is 4-5mm thick.
7. User cookie cutters to stamp out your shapes and place on prepared oven trays
8. Place in the oven and cook for approx 5 mins or until lighly golden.
9. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Icing:

I just made a basic icing using lemon juice.


I am not great at icing, but as long as it tastes good thas all that matters...