Let's Get Back To It ........

Winter is less than 2 weeks away and the air is starting to chill here in Tassie. It is an expensive time of the year in Australia's southern most state and it makes you start to think about ways to help the energy $ go further. So I thought it was about time that we started to talk about frugal living again. We have quite a long cabin style home which has an electric reverse cycle heating in one end and a wood fire in the living quarters.

I adore our fire but it is becoming increasingly expensive to run and of course does have some enviromental issues. We let it go out over night these days to economise on wood and keep it on low most of the time.

After seeing an article about lights and heating fans (our wood heater has one) burning the energy $$ I now prefer to just use a lamp of an evening to stitch under and put a quilt over my legs whilst I sit and stitch to keep that little bit warmer. I sometimes feel like the lighting police going around the house turning off lights but slowly the other occupants of this home are catching on........

Instead of using a hot water bottle you could always get one of these - A seat warmer who doubles as a sewing assistant.

Our mission over the past few weeks has been to save some $$ to take a trip on this the Spirit of Tasmania which does an overnight crossing of Bass Strait to Victoria. The girls have begged to go on it for ages and with 1/2 price fares at the moment we couldn't resist the urge to take them.



So towards the end of June we are off on a 5 day jaunt to Victoria and whilst we are there we are going to see my beloved Geelong play at the MCG.

To help fund the trip and to get the girls motivated we have been cleaning out cupboards of items we no longer need or use. The girls will be spending the weekend sorting their rooms. We have booked a market stall the Sunday before we leave and we will be taking along all of our unwanted household items to sell. Everything that is left will be donated to charity. The girls are quite excited at this becuase they will get to keep any $ raised from the sale of their own things to spend whilst we are away.


Trying to be frugal doesn't mean that you have to go without things like holidays. It just means that you are being a bit more careful with your hard earned dollar making it go further. We managed to save $600 on our fares making it very affordable for our family of 4. Airlines always have great deals if you shop around. Or try websites like Last Minute which offer fantastic last minute deals on flights, accomodation etc.

I have decided that throughout the winter I need to get a head start on my christmas gift giving - It is almost June so time is ticking away. I am designing a set of 4 embroidered coasters which I will make for some family members - I am not sure how I am going to finish them off yet - stay tuned.......

Do you want to start with your gift giving ideas too? Grab a pair of rubber gloves and stand by over the weekend and I will share a tutorial with you for a nice easy gift.



Until then,