It has occasionally, in the last week, struck me as ridiculous; this game of buying nothing and making do, when so many many many people just do it because they have to.
But I'm keeping on, because it's interesting to me what we can do without.
We're not doing without much, just yet, having been kept afloat on the weekend by my sister Suzie who had us over for dinner and then minded the kids the next day while Adam and I drove down to Mudgee for Milkwood's field day (AMAZING - let me sort through the photos and come down to earth and report back on that tomorrow!)
We're almost out of fresh fruit which will be hard on the kids and I can stretch the fresh veggies out for another day or two - thanks to my gorgeous friend Leanne who waylaid me in the street today and handed me a bag of four fresh leeks! We had leek and zucchini frittata for dinner with the last of the lettuce. Delicious.
I didn't realise how central bread and milk were to our diet - might sound obvious but I'm out of the habit of making bread now that I don't actually have a kitchen in my house (I'm using Mum's kitchen next door) and I also can't just duck out for milk. It's time consuming, Armageddon. I realised tonight that I don't have enough milk to send a bottle to daycare tomorrow with Ivy, and the tanker would have already been to the dairy to collect tonight's milk. I have one carton of UHT milk in the pantry which was a gift from a friend last year (so I would never run out.) Bonanza. And I can get to the dairy after the morning's milking (with the last of the eggs!)
I took the second-last homegrown chook out of the freezer today so we'll have chicken and steamed carrot and broccoli tomorrow night, and we still have potatoes to roast. (And olive oil and rock salt and rosemary in the garden!)
Every day Adam and I wonder why we hadn't got around to putting in a garden here yet and are dreaming of lush peppery rocket and salads of brassicas.
When you're eating like this you do not crave processed food at all. I don't long for chips or chocolate like I do for a smooth creamy avocado or fresh asparagus.
We are down to our second last dishwasher tablet Adam solemnly reported tonight, cheek pale and brow furrowed. Yep, that's serious.
And the kids' lunchboxes were harder today, but I still had apples and grapes to add to a vegemite sandwich, the end of the rice crackers, some sultanas and a homemade bikkie. Tomorrow might be harder.
But grandparents and godparents have all sent handfuls of Easter eggs so the kids won't go without, and we still have, I think, a few weeks worth of food here.
I'd really like to see if we can make 30 days.
Which means I need to learn how to forage wild greens.
Why not.
xxx
