Op-Shop Bargains and another Nothing New Month

I've been re-visiting a lot of the local op-shops (thrift stores for those in the US) lately, and found some real bargains. Like the cushion inserts above, at $3 each. Sure, I've seen cushion inserts in stores for $3 each, but not this size, these are about 20 inches square. Perfect for DD's reading corner. The white object folded up on the bottom is actually a thin, cotton quilt, in perfect condition, it was $7. The folded up flannel sheets were $1.50 each because they had slight marks/not in top condition, which is not going to matter once I cut them up for hankies!

Then in another op-shop (where I went to buy zippers for covers for the new cushions, which incidentally I found for 20 cents each), I found these shirts on the $1 rack. Perfect for cutting up to make some smaller shirts for DD.

I love finding bargains at the op-shops. It feels so good to not only get something cheaply, but to know that I'm recycling in the real meaning of the word. These objects, which would otherwise be thrown out, are being used again. And when I'm finished with them, they'll be passed back to be used again. We waste so much in our world, it feels good to stop even a little of that.

However, despite finding bargains and some great deals, I think I've been going a bit overboard on the buying. Things are piling up, and we need some more cleaning and organising going on here. I have more material than I have time to sew, and more things than I have places to put them. So DH and I have decided to have another Nothing New month this month. Yes, I know we're already into February, and to make it neat I should wait until March, but when the mood hits you, it's best to start while you're motivated.

The exceptions to the Nothing New will be a particular set of bookshelves, or a particular couch, if they come up second hand this month.

Nothing New November - Conclusions

Well, November was certainly a hectic month. I probably could have chosen a better time for my Nothing New challenge, seeing as I was completing NaNoWriMo at the same time, but then again, perhaps the lack of trips to the shops helped in that regard too!

So, I guess what everyone is wondering is, how did we go? Did we manage to get through the whole month without buying (or swapping or accepting) anything new? The answer, of course, is no, but I still feel that we've done pretty well. So onto the exceptions first, then I'll summarise what I feel we learnt from this challenge.

Well, I don't really count this one as an exception, since we had booked it before November, had the money put aside for it, and it was a non-negotiable essential given how badly our gutters overflow every time it rains, but we had someone come out and install gutter guard in November. It's brilliant. No more climbing up on the roof to clean out the gutters every week, or having water going everywhere because they're overflowing. And the roof looks heaps better because all the leaves/sticks are washing right off rather than gathering in the guttering and looking untidy.

And this one, I make no excuses for what so ever. I was at the markets getting our weekly fruit, and saw a stall with lots of old kitchenware, and thought "they wouldn't have....?" and they did, so I couldn't leave it there, even though it was $12! It's a very old bread knife like the ones we had when I was growing up. They just don't make ones like these, or anything like them anymore, and I know, because I have looked. See the metal out the side? That's the cutting guide, which allows you to cut an even and thin slice of bread. I was nearly ready to give up on home made bread simply because I couldn't cut it thin enough to wrap around a sausage, but not anymore. Now I can cut it perfect, every time. Well worth $12. When I mentioned it to my sister, she wanted to know if they had another one!

And finally, one of DH's workmates was wanting to get rid of this guitar, so DH bought it off him for $10. A bargain we couldn't pass up. DD loves it, and I think it's pretty cool too. I've always wanted to learn to play the guitar.

I'm afraid that I also fell down on my decuttering challenge of getting rid of 100 things in the month. I mean, in terms of actual individual items, which was my original challenge, I probably managed over 100. I've decluttered about half a dozen boxes of toys from DD's playroom, several bags of unwanted clothes, and much more from the rest of the house, but there is still so much to go yet. But I'm still pretty happy with how it went in the scheme of things. I think that trying to do two challenges in one month (three if you count NaNo as well!) was just a little too much!

So that's it. In the month of November we bought only three things other than food or medications. Not bad I don't think. We saved over $500 that we have paid off the credit card, $500 that probably would have otherwise been spent on things that we obviously didn't really need. We didn't feel deprived, didn't even really feel annoyed that we couldn't spend the money. In fact, in some ways it was liberating. No looking carefully through the catalogues that arrive in the mail each week, we just threw them out. No stopping to window shop somewhere, and no deliberating over whether we really wanted something or not. We just avoiding all that hassle.

Sadly, I don't think a month is really long enough to do this sort of challenge properly. There were many things that though we didn't go out and buy, we simply put aside to be bought at the end of the challenge. Like needles for my overlocker. The ones I have aren't ball points (required for sewing stretch, or the material gets damaged), so I couldn't finish sewing the t-shirts I am making for DD. I could, of course, have sewn them on my sewing machine (which has ball point needles, just not the right size for the overlocker), but I was too lazy. So in terms of changing our consumer habits, it wasn't a huge success (although I suspect we will be evaluating things a little more carefully in future), but in terms of saving money, it was definitely good. And for that alone, we'll probably try it again, though not this month!

I Did It!

Things are Growing

Well, the front garden transformation is moving along slowly. We've gone from this, to the photo above (which I will point out is taken from the other end of the garden), in less than two months. I posted my plan here, in case you want to have a look, although I have made a few modifications, which I shall comment on throughout this post.

Firstly though, here are the tiny corn seedlings I planted a month ago, haven't they grown? I really really need to plant the next lot, don't I? The bush off to the left is a golden nugget pumpkin, can't wait to get some of those coming along. My mum has one that's already fruiting (do vegetables fruit?), and it certainly has an overload of pumpkins, although they're not quite as flavourful as the old Jap's that I usually plant. They are, however, decidedly smaller!

Beside that garden I've prepared two more no dig beds so far. There is room for one more that I still need to build. Basically, for these, I've put down a layer of lucerne mulch (about half a bale), covered it in some freshly cut green grass, covered that in a variety of manures/bought compost (I just can't produce my own fast enough!), then another layer of lucerne (other half of the bale) over the top. I'm giving these a few weeks (or until I get around to planting them) for the initial breakdown to start, then I'll be planting them out, probably with some more corn!

I've also managed to fit in (and find bales for) two raised strawbale beds rather than just one. The second one is filled with everything I could find, from lucerne, manure, compost, grass clippings etc etc. It's full right to the top now, but I expect it will settle quite a bit over the next few weeks. Not sure exactly what I'm going to plant here yet, but I'm sure it will be something good!

The watermelons planted in the first strawbale bed are certainly doing great! They're growing pretty fast, and starting to try to escape from the bed. Looking forward to getting some watermelons from these, yum!

While I'm waiting for the new beds to settle, I've been planting out some seeds into old punnets I had lying around. The ones on the right are rosella's, ready to go into one of the beds along the fence (which all need serious work!), the top middle are cotton plants, for down the side fence, and the one on the left is a pigeon pea. I haven't had much success so far with the pigeon peas, although I have to admit that some of the seeds I was using were older. Will have to give it another go as soon as I get organised, because they will hopefully form the bulk of our hedging at the front and sides. I really should try to get these planted out soon.

The carrot seeds I planted in the planter box next to the raspberries were a dismal failure. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get them to come up, so instead I planted out that whole side with beans. I haven't had much success with beans here, despite them usually being one of the easiest plants to grow. I suspect that the soil is lacking in something, so I'm trying it to see if they do better here, where it is all compost and bought soil. So far they seem to be.

The potatoes in the strawbale potato cages are still growing like wildfire. You can see from the link how much they have grown in just a week! However, I discovered 3 of the dreaded 28 spot ladybeetle, the enemy of all attempted potato growers, and war had to be declared before this crop was curtailed as the last lots were.

Hopefully that should do the trick! Note, nothing new was bought to do this. The netting is from the mosquito nets that hung over our bed in the shed (that we no longer need now that we have screens on the windows), held up with some garden stakes I had lying around from my last lot of tomatoes.

As I write, there is a nice steady drizzle outside. It's been going on all day. Great for the garden, waters far better than I can ever manage with the hose. Hopefully it will soak right into the ground, and get those no dig beds really breaking down. If it lets up for a bit tomorrow, I might go out and poke some seeds in somewhere, best seed sprouting weather around.

For now, though, I still have 500 words to write before I go to bed.

Nothing New November

Well, I guess I've started November off with a bang. I got stuck into the decluttering this morning with gusto, and have so far taken 12 items to the donation bins (they don't count until they're OUT of the house!). A couple of bags of toys, several bags of outgrown or not worn clothing, and various kitchen items.

I had a few dilemma's this morning wondering exactly how to count things. I went through my cutlery draw, and got rid of the remains of the old cutlery set, but should I count each individual knife, fork and spoon, or count them all as one? Clothes were the same. There were so many that it seemed cheating to count them all individually, yet too much to count them all as one. I've settled on counting sets (such as cutlery) as one, and for larger things, like clothes and toys, to count each bag as one. Either way, I've removed nearly a (hatchback) boot full of things, and still plenty more to go!

NaNo is going slightly less well. At 1,465 words, I'm slightly under the daily quota of 1,667 words, but still off to a good start. I'm hoping to catch up the shortfall next week, when DH has 4 days off mid-week.

Gearing up for November

Things could be fairly quite around here for the next month, as most of my writing energy goes towards making my 50,000 word goal as part of NaNoWriMo.



I've made this goal for the last two years, but at that time I wasn't trying to garden or make all these things at the same time. But I will give it a go again regardless.

DH and I have also set ourselves a challenge for this month, we're not going to buy anything other than food and medications for the month. Any money saved will go towards our credit card debt (which was run up with building expenses).

This is more than just a money saving challenge though. Over the last 18 or so months, since we first packed up our unit ready to move, we've lived out of boxes, many of which are still not unpacked, meaning much of the stuff we have either DD has grown out of, or we just plain don't need. We are all feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of STUFF in our house (not to mention still in the garage!), and until it is under control, we don't want to bring anything more into the house. So this isn't just about money and spending, it's about not bringing anything new into the house full stop. Not from any source.

And as if that wasn't enough for one month, we're going to try to get rid of existing clutter. I'm hoping we can get at least 100 items OUT OF THE HOUSE (or shed). That's a little over 3 items a day. Think we can do it? I reckon we can.

So expect a lot of posts about how we've resisted bringing new things into the house (and hopefully found some creative and innovative solutions to anything that we are lacking), and updates on how many items we've gotten rid of. And, of course, some updates on my word count.