The No Buy Challenge is over, but Share Your World continues each week.
This week I have made one big purchase (new undies from Lunapads) but other than that I’ve stuck to my No Buy guidelines even though the challenge is ended. I knew before the end of the challenge that I needed to get new undies so it was a planned purchase. I think I’m going to keep trying to think through purchases for at least a day before making them if they’re over $50, if it’s less than $50 I’ll consider for at least 1 minute before deciding to make a purchase if it’s not an essential based on my No Buy guidelines. This should hopefully avoid any impulse purchases.
Share Your World – Week 17
When writing by hand do you prefer to use a pencil or pen?
I tend to use a pen, just because I don’t need to worry about sharpening. However, just because I usually use a pen, I’d actually prefer pencil because being left handed I always end up with ink all over my hand whenever I write.
What’s your choice: jigsaw, word, maze or numeric puzzles?
I’m not really a big jigsaw person but I do a combination of word, maze and numeric puzzles on a regular basis.
Do you prefer long hair or short hair for yourself?
I don’t really have a preference, or at least it constantly changes over time… I prefer either LONG long hair or pixie-style hair. At the moment, I’m trying to grow my hair out from a pixie cut over a year ago. It’s currently to my shoulders.
List five some of your favorite blogs.
I read quite a few blogs. At the moment I’d say my favourites, in no particular order, are:
Treading My Own Path. Lindsay writes about living and eating sustainably, minimalism, plastic free and zero waste.
Baby Steps Going Green. Candice has been blogging for almost a year now. She shares the simple steps she’s taking towards a more sustainable life. Like many sustainability bloggers at the moment, there’s a strong focus on zero waste and minimalism.
A Southern Celiac. Brittany lives with Celiac disease and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. She’s currently pregnant and has also suffered from Myasthenia Gravis throughout her pregnancy. I love hearing about her life with her husband Justin and the many animals they live with.
My Journey Thru ME. Jess writes about her life with ME/CFS. She shares what helps her and how she manages to pace.
Counting My Spoons. Julie provides information and inspiration for those of us living with Fibromyalgia.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
In the last week, I’m grateful for having the energy to help my friends and family with their moves, for a long weekend and more time with E.
In the next week, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. I don’t have much scheduled so I can take each day as it comes.
Over the last few months I’ve focused on building up my exercise levels to a point that I can maintain a consistent exercise regime including stretches, a relatively consistent step count, and regular bike rides on my electric bike. Moving my body with the aim of reducing pain levels and increasing energy.
I’ve also helped several friends and family members to move house. It’s been interesting to see the different ways people pack, how they prioritise what to keep, add or give away, and who they have to help them move. I am glad that although I physically couldn’t help much with any of the moves, I was there to support my friends and family.
My brain has been less foggy lately as well. Yes, I still have days that I’m crashed and everything is a struggle but in general I’ve had a clearer head. This has let me move forward on my projects, progress my study, and consider taking on new opportunities that fit my values and allow me to grow.
Everyone in life is moving in one way or another. In most cases though we’re all moving in many different ways all at once.
Physically, mentally and emotionally we’re always moving.
I was going to share how my first attempt at making sourdough went on Tuesday, but that post ended up so long already I decided to save my update until today.
Sourdough Update
Last week I let you know about the starter that I had made for homemade sourdough. I decided that I didn’t want to wait any longer to see whether I could eat it so on Thursday I began the long process of making my first 2 loaves of sourdough bread.
I followed the process used by the Zero Waste Chef but using flours I had at home (a white bread mix).
On the Thursday night I made my leaven from 200g of flour, 200g water and 35 grams of my starter that had been fed that morning. I covered it with a damp tea towel and a plate and put it in the oven (which I’d warmed up to the lowest temperature and then turned off) overnight.
At the same time I mixed the bread mix (1kg) with 750g of water and left it on the shelf covered with a damp tea towel and a plate.
The next morning (Friday) I combined half the leaven with the flour mix and put the bowl in a sink of warm water with a damp tea towel over it. After leaving it for 20 minutes I mixed in a little more flour mixed with water and seeds (sunflower, pumpkin and linseed). From that point I left it in the sink for around 4 hours turning the mixture every 30 – 45 minutes and topping up or changing the water if it got cold.
The dough after mixing the flour, leaven and seeds together.
After that rising period (it didn’t actually rise very much for me) I tipped it onto a silicon mat on the shelf with lots of extra flour and, after a quick fold to try and get it to stay in a reasonable sized blob in the middle of the mat, left it for around 20 minutes under a damp tea towel. I then used some more flour to shape my loaves. I made one round loaf which went into a towel and flour lined bowl to proof over night and a sandwich loaf which I proofed in the oiled baking pan. Once shaped, the loaves were covered with a damp tea towel and put in the fridge until the next morning (Saturday).
Bread having an overnight proof in the fridge (sandwich loaf on top shelf, round loaf on the bottom shelf)
The loaves were in the fridge for around 18 hours. I took them out when I put the oven on to preheat to 200C. I have since worked out I didn’t set my temperatures high enough so I’ll be trying hotter next time (250-300C).
Once the oven was preheated I tipped the round loaf into a large corningware dish (I don’t own a dutch oven which is what is recommended) and put both loaves in the oven. I have since worked out I should’ve preheated the corningware dish in the oven.
Ready to go in the oven…
I baked the for 30 minutes before turning down the heat (to 180C), turning on the fan, taking off the lid and baking for another 30 minutes. Again I’d keep the heat higher next time.
The finished product was actually slightly undercooked (thus the recommendations above about hotter temperatures, etc) and the round loaf didn’t really rise but they both tasted delicious. The round loaf was gone by the end of Sunday after lunch with Rach Saturday, and we’re half way through the sandwich loaf (the other half was frozen).
The finished products (should’ve cooked hotter to get a darker crust, more rise in the round loaf, and cooked right through)The obligatory crumb shot of my round loaf. The sandwich loaf rose a lot higher but only had little bubbles throughout it (none of the big bubbles like this).
Over the last week I’ve had sourdough pancakes twice (once during the week and once on Sunday) and had a large serve of the bread on Saturday, and smaller serves Sunday and Monday. So far, I have not had any adverse reactions. I’m hoping this means that I’m ok with the bread as it tasted delicious but I’m still taking it slowly to see how I go and will not just gorge on it.
Share Your World Week 16
If you had to have your vision corrected would you rather: glasses or contacts? Or what do you use if you need to have your vision corrected?
I wear glasses. My issue is more that the muscles are tired and sore so my glasses do some of the work of pulling my eyes into line so I don’t see double. I feel that I’d most likely react to contacts as I react to almost every other thing I put too close or in my body.
If you had to describe your day as a traffic sign, what would it be?
Yellow! I’ve been able to do more than normal this last week and haven’t had any major crash days (red light days) but it’s been over 3 years since I last had a green light day.
Was school easy or difficult for you? How so?
School was OK. Academically I did well and didn’t struggle too much but I struggled a lot with the social aspects and with feelings of not fitting in.
Would you rather take a 1 or 2 week vaction with an organized tour or take a cruise of your choice?
It depends on where we are going… In general we like to do holidays where we plan things out for ourselves. This allows me to pace things and rest when I need to. Organised tours are usually quite busy and full days of activity but they are useful if you’re going to places where it might not be safe to do things by yourself. I know that when we were considering an African Safari (before I got sick) we were looking at doing an organised tour for safety.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful that I’ve had the energy to do 2 workshops in a row! On Sunday I ran a fun workshop with children to make wearable art out of recycled materials as part of a ShareFest (like a swap meet) at the local Council.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
I then ran a productive workshop with Elected Members of another Council Monday night to progress the development of their Environment Management Plan. Apart from having a major struggle getting up Monday morning and having to take the first half of the day slowly I didn’t have too much of an increase in symptoms from these two events.
In this next week I’m just looking forward to seeing what happens. I don’t have too much booked in for the week so I’m going to take each day as it comes and see where I go.
We’ve reached the end of our 20 Week No Buy Challenge and over the weekend Rach and I caught up to celebrate our successes.
In keeping with the No Buy theme, we celebrated with a homemade lunch of soup and sourdough bread with a glass of sparkling wine followed by homegrown peppermint tea and homemade peanut butter cookies.
Celebrating the end of our 20 Week No Buy Challenge with homemade soup and sourdough and a glass of bubbles…
As we ate we discussed the challenges we faced during the 20 weeks and what we felt we’d learnt.
My biggest challenge was sticking to the rule of not eating out if I was alone. There were several days where I found myself out and about longer than I had planned to be and in a position where I was contemplating takeaway food. Luckily each time this happened I either made my way to my mum’s and ate there, or someone was available for me to eat out with so I didn’t actually break the rules.
My second biggest challenge was accepting that some things that at the beginning of the challenge I classified as non-essential became essential purchases during the 20 weeks. The t-shirt I’m wearing in the photo above was purchased during the 20 week challenge but it was an essential purchase as I lost at least 3 of my t-shirts and 2 dresses to old age (they became see-through or massive holes that weren’t worth repairing were made while carrying big loads of things into the house). I also gave away a couple of t-shirts because I wasn’t wearing them (they weren’t comfortable on me or they didn’t go with enough of my other clothes). Thus the new t-shirt in the photo above…
Having said that, none of the old clothing went into landfill, I have either cut them up for rags (the see through and holey ones) or I donated them to charity or someone I knew who would get more wear out of them than I was.
Lessons Learnt
I’ve struggled a bit with identifying the lessons I’ve learnt during this challenge, mainly because I didn’t find it all that difficult to comply with and because a lot of what I ‘learnt’ I already knew (the challenge just reinforced it).
The main things it reinforced for me were:
Always prepare for the unexpected.
I could have avoided the unexpected needs for eating out by always taking at least a small snack with me when I leave the house. I did do this most times and it saved me a few times from having to buy something. I also took my zero waste eat out kit (straw, cloth napkin, bamboo spork) everywhere with me and used it on several occasions to avoid using disposables and most trips I took my keep cup as well.
If you can identify your values, it’s easier to say ‘No’ to the things that don’t fit with them but it’s also important to be aware of other people’s values as well.
The No Buy Challenge fit well with my values of being conscious of the impact my actions have on the environment and the wider community. There were several purchases we made as a family (E wasn’t participating in the challenge) that, if it was just me, I would not have made but that were made because they fit with E’s values. There were other purchases we considered that I said No to because they didn’t fit well with my values and I couldn’t see any long term benefit for anyone in the family.
Each of us are individuals and we need to make compromises at times if we are to maintain healthy relationships. We need to set our own boundaries about what is acceptable and what isn’t.
Buying is the cultural norm and it’s difficult to move away from these habits.
Although I’ve never been a big spender, participating in this challenge made me more aware of the times where, in the past, I would’ve just made a purchase without really thinking about it. Even most of my few purchases during the challenge (the earrings early on, a duplo set and a few children’s books secondhand, and the t-shirt mentioned above) were made without much thought about them before hand. It was only after I bought them that I actually considered what they meant in terms of the challenge.
Rach had a lot more trouble with this than I did, there were several times during the challenge where she contacted me because she was considering a purchase and needed to discuss the options and whether they were actually essential. She also found that she enjoys shopping and for that reason alone it was difficult to stop.
Not buying new things makes you appreciate what you have.
Both Rach and I removed things from our houses during this challenge. Rach gave several bags of clothes to charity and took the time to assess what she has in her wardrobe. I, as mentioned above, lost several items of clothing to old age and gave away a few items that I didn’t wear.
We’ve both realised that we have enough, and for some things (clothes in particular) more than enough, in our lives. We are grateful that we live in a society where we have choices for clothing, shoes, kitchen appliances and other household items. We are not living below the poverty line and don’t need to struggle to meet our basic needs.
I like making conscious choices that align with my values.
Although it takes more time, during this challenge I’ve added several more homemade items to our lives. As well as the laundry liquid, cloth napkins, peppermint and fruit we already make or grow, I’ve been trying my hand at making my own sourdough bread (so far no reactions) and other ‘old fashioned’ recipes that are better for my health and the environment.
Although there are a few purchases I now need to consider making (new underwear and sandals to start with) I’m still going to be conscious of my purchases and my allocation of my time and resources. This No Buy Challenge has helped me to progress my larger challenge of living a simple, sustainable and meaningful life.
Did you participate in the challenge?
If so, what did you learn? If not, would you consider a challenge like this in the future?
I forgot to write about the No Buy Challenge in my last few posts and we’ve now got only one week left to go.
This past week I did ‘buy’ one thing that isn’t in my usual purchases, but I don’t see it as being something against the guidelines of this challenge as it was more of a charitable donation than a purchase…
On Saturday night E and I went to a progressive dinner at Monarto Zoological Park (our local Open Range Zoo). The dinner was great fun with each course being at a different location around the zoo and unique keeper talks at the Chimpanzees and Carnivore (Hyena and Lion) Platforms.
As part of the dinner there was a raffle draw and silent auction. We didn’t win the raffle but we did win a unique painting (painted by one of the chimpanzees) as part of the silent auction. The painting is framed and came with two photos showing the chimpanzees painting.
The painting and the photos that accompany it.A close up of the two photos…
The dinner itself was good. Hors d’oeuvres were served at the Chimpanzee platform. Being early evening they were just getting ready to sleep so while we drank wine and nibbled on dips and veggies (there were chicken nibblets as well but I mainly had the dips) we got to watch the chimpanzees make their nests and listen to the keeper telling us about each of the chimps and telling us (in very upsetting detail) about what happened with the recent births (one chimp and her baby died for various reasons, they have one living baby that was born a few weeks after the one that died). We were then taken to the carnivore platform for soup and listened to the keeper who gave out turkey necks as treats to the Hyenas and Lionesses that were out in their enclosures.
After entree, we were taken to the camp site for the main course. A sit down roast dinner during which the silent auction and raffle were concluded and then to the function centre near the giraffe’s for dessert, a wide selection of cakes, sweets, and fruit.
All the food was prepared by volunteers and they did a wonderful job of ensuring there was enough food for everyone and those of us with dietary requirements were catered for well.
Share Your World – Week 15
Name one thing not many people know about you.
I can’t think of what to say here, I’m sure there’s something but I’m so open and share most things that I’m really struggling to think of something…
If a distant uncle dies and you were always his favorite and leaves you $50,000 (any currency) in his will, what would you do?
I’d make sure E and I went on a nice holiday and then the rest would go towards paying our mortgage down sooner. The sooner we have no mortgage the sooner I’ll feel more comfortable with our current lifestyle. At the moment I can’t work that much so we’re pretty much a one income family.
Where do you hide junk when people come over?
I no longer need to hide junk when people come over thanks to my decluttering. In the past stuff tended to go into the spare room or in the shed.
Complete this sentence: I want to learn more about …
Homemaking. As much as I enjoy working when I have the energy, I’m finding I enjoy being at home and having the time to spend on tasks and activities around the house as well. Having such limited energy means that I have to prioritise and most of the time I now prioritise time with family or house related tasks over any other tasks.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for the time spent with family and friends. As well as the progressive dinner, we had a friend’s housewarming last week and many of my friends have helped me collect material for the workshop I have coming up this week.
This week I’m looking forward to running the ‘wearable art hats’ workshop for children at the Sharefest this weekend. It should be fun seeing what creations the children can come up with from the bottle caps, cardboard, ribbons, buttons and other recycled materials we’ve managed to collect this week.
Last week as part of Cee’s Share Your World post, I shared a list of my favourite childhood foods including Golden Dumplings. I was asked if I could share the recipe for this particular dish…
The recipe comes from an old cookbook my mum had at home, it was so well used that when a new addition came out a few years ago my sister and I both got ourselves a copy (and a new copy for mum). The book is the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s “NMAA Cooks Recipes for Busy Mothers“.
My copy of NMAA Cooks Recipes for busy mothers
And the recipe is:
Golden Dumplings Recipe, page 192 of the cook book
Since finding out I’m gluten and dairy intolerant I’ve had to experiment a lot with my favourites to see if I can adjust them to work without them. The dumplings do work reasonably well just replacing the flour with gluten free flour.
One food item I have yet to find a reasonable replacement for is bread… all the gluten free options I’ve found or attempted to make have not been anywhere near as good as their glutenous counterparts. In fact, the only way I like the gluten free bread is either fresh out of the oven or toasted.
E has been doing some reading and has found several research papers which show that people who are intolerant to gluten are sometimes able to cope with sourdough bread (not gluten free). The proposed reason for this is that the process of making the sourdough (if made the traditional way) breaks down most of the gluten proteins in the bread before baking making them easier to digest.
I’ve decided it’s worth a try if I can add something back into my diet but many of the commercially made sourdoughs are not made using the tradition long fermentation time so I’m going the home made route and making it from scratch.
I began my ‘Sourdough starter’ last Thursday and today I made pancakes with the discards from feeding it so we’ll see how I feel after them to see if I may be able to add sourdough bread into my diet…
The starter is really simple to make, you can check out a quick guide here at the Zero Waste Chef. It’s basically just flour and water and time… You start with equal parts flour and water and you “feed” it daily by adding more flour and water each day. I didn’t discard for the first few days, but starting this morning I’ll be ‘discarding’ (using to make pancakes) at least half of what’s there and feed the rest.
Making sourdough pancakes with my discarded starter.
Once I feel that it’s ready (see the Zero Waste Chef link above for what to look/smell for) I’ll store it in the fridge and take it out to feed it weekly when I make my loaf of bread.
Another home fermented item I started last Thursday is a Ginger Bug. A ginger bug is a way of making soda by fermenting ginger and sugar in water to make the fizz. Once it’s ready, you mix a quarter cup of the bug with juice, tea or other drink to make the drink fizzy. You follow the same process as for the sourdough starter, ‘feeding’ the bug daily until it’s ready and then storing it in the fridge and feeding weekly. I believe my bug is ready to use today, but I’m going to give it another day or two to be sure.
My sourdough starter and ginger bug last Thursday immediately after they were started.
Another simple to make at home item that I believe will get regular use in our house is vanilla essence. I started my bottle of vanilla essence just before Christmas and have been storing it in the back corner of the pantry. It’s basically just vodka with vanilla beans in it and all I need to remember to do is shake it occasionally. By the time we run out of the shop bought stuff this time it should definitely be ready to use.
The feature image at the beginning of this post shows the sourdough starter, ginger bug and vanilla essence as they look today.
If you could hire someone to help you, would it be with cleaning, cooking, or yard work?
We already pay someone to help with the cleaning so I guess that’s my answer. I like doing the cooking and, if I have the energy, stuff in the garden. Ideally, I’d also have someone help with the garden as it is too much for me most of the time.
What makes you laugh the most?
Right now I can’t think of anything… That’s strange, but it’s because of the fog in my head right now. Thinking back to the last few times I laughed I’d say E always had something to do with it, so for now I’ll say my husband.
What was your favorite food when you were a child?
I went through phases where I liked certain things so I’d have to say there are a range of things including:
melted cheese
porridge with soft brown sugar and cream
self-sauce chocolate pudding
golden dumplings
List at least five favorite flowers or plants.
sunflowers
our mulberry tree
Australian natives – bottlebrush, gum trees, hakeas
our herb garden – parsley, oregano, basil and chives
our orange tree
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
In the last week, I’ve been grateful for date night (afternoon) with E (we went and saw Batman v Superman on cheap movie Monday in town). I’m also grateful for my friends and family for helping me out with my training. I got 2 more units finished for my cert IV in training and assessment.
Liveken - my chronic life journey 