In an attempt to find some persuits that don't involve shopping, I've started taking the kids out several times a week to organised activities.

Yesterday, Monday, was Ladybird Library day at a local preschool. The kids read stories, do some craft and have morning tea and have an all round good time. Absolutely free- no membership or subscription at all! Talk about value for money.

Ladybird Library takes place on Monday, which means I only have the two girls and Wally with me. Tuesday is a local church's musical play morning, which costs $2 for the family and includes morning tea. The kids have a ball!

An introduction

I am starting this blog as the first step on what is hopefully a long journey for our family in an effort to live more simply. At the moment, our family has been living beyond our means and we have the credit card debt that goes along with that. We are a large, young family with five children under 6-- no multiples in there either! I believe that children are the gift of the Lord and I feel so blessed-- I just wish that I could spend my time enjoying them instead of being so stressed! We are lucky enough to live on a beautiful hobby farm, and one of my earliest frugal moves was to get laying hens. I adore them, they eat out scraps and make the most delicious eggs I've ever tasted! Interestingly enough, I have had intolerance to egg whites all my adult life but the eggs we produce offend me far less than the commercially produced ones, though I've got no idea why. Our next major move to frugality was embracing cloth nappies (diapers). I had never had any desire to use cloth with my older children, filled with visions of terry flats and bleach smelling buckets full of poo. We currently have three in nappies again after the arrival of DS2 and we change a staggering amount of nappies a day. We have always economised on disposables, only using the best Huggies at night and using the much cheaper Aldi brand in the day when they were getting changed more frequently. However, during my pregnancy with Wally, I was filled with an irresistible urge to acquire a stash of modern cloth nappies. More on this journey, and what works for us, later, but suffice to say that we have two children in full time cloth and another in part time. Where to from here? I would like this blog to be somewhere where I can trial frugal recipes, explore the possibility of a sustainable vegetable patch (got an area chosen near where I buried Wally's placenta after my 4th homebirth), ideas for cheap family entertainment and finally, a place to expose my purchasing in an effort to keep me on the straight and narrow as I recover from over shopping. I hope you enjoy our journey!