Our year of less: An update

The woodfire burns most days and every night now as our little valley moves into winter. Splitting wood is Wills job which he enjoys and the little boys usually collect the kindling. We don't use fire starters here. Just a bit of newspaper and twigs do the job. There is a pot of chicken broth simmering on the Aga at the moment using the bones from last night roast chook. It will be the base for a minestrone soup for a warm comforting dinner. Elsie is next to me snuggled up having a kick and a little chat.

A little while ago I wrote about our new year of less project.

I thought I would write an update on how we are going with it.

When I look on our "allowed to purchase" list I can now tick a few things off. We have a new kitchen and an LPG oven and these items are a huge blessing to our families life. I struggled with the idea of buying the cabinets new. We value using second-hand items where ever possible to minimise our environmental footprint, as well as saving money but I'm glad it's done and done well.

One of the items on the list was a 12V smart TV, as we only have satellite internet so all movies and TV needs to be streamed via the internet. We had been using our desktop computer but it died. Instead of purchasing a new smart 12V TV, we realised we could buy a Google Chromecast for $60 and stream to our old 12V TV. It was a simple, inexpensive solution utilising the TV we had so I'm really happy with the outcome.

We have had a whole bunch of stuff break down recently. It seems everything needs repairing, all at once. One by one we are taking things in to get fixed or ordering parts for Grant to fix things himself. From the ride-on mower, whipper snipper, quad bike, shockers on my car, tyres, generator, tractor hydraulics....the list goes on. It seems as soon as we fix one thing and another breaks down. But we are repairing whatever we can and fortunately, the repairs are mostly minor and Grant can do them himself.

Buys not on the list:

Top entry cat litter tray $25. We have two indoor cats and Aggie likes to eat the contents of the cat litter. It was not only disgusting but also unhygienic. We badly needed a new solution. Then I discovered one of the big chain stores had introduced deep top entry cat litter trays - genius! Two birds one stone. Now the cat litter doesn't get kicked on the floor and Aggie with her short little legs can't reach.

Rug $160. We only have yellow tongue flooring in the yurt currently. Getting vinyl flooring laid is on the list of jobs for later this year. But coming into winter the lounge floor needed a rug of some kind to help insulate the floor for Elsie who is beginning to kick and try to roll. I found a hard-wearing, circular rug I liked online then searched high and low for the best price.

During isolation, I struggled to source things second hand due to op-shops being closed. I also really struggled with feeling like I wanted to buy things. Perhaps because we were all spending more time online and I was being lured by beautiful advertising and pretty Instagram pages.

As a result, I bought a few bits and bobs new as needed when we ventured into town. There were some big glass storage jars for the pantry, a 4.5L enamel kettle to heat water up inside on the wood oven, (we still have no hot water in the yurt, only in the little makeshift temporary bathroom outside) there were a few replacement winter clothing items for various members of the family. These boys of mine are growing like mushrooms! These kinds of items were all necessary, but I still felt guilty choosing new over second hand. But I guess during a pandemic we can only do our best and I was at least able to choose natural fibres.

Whilst Australia was in partial lockdown, it gave me plenty of time to think about what we really needed and about what we were actually using as a family. As a result, I decided to sell my Thermomix. I love my Thermomix and if I lived on-grid I would have kept it. It's a brilliant, good quality machine. But off-grid I found it was sucking too much power and I was no longer reaching for it. There is no point keeping items that are not in use, so I have listed it on Facebook Market Place. I will be popping some of the money from the sale aside for a good quality rocking recliner chair as I have been in a lot of pain. (hopefully, second hand as my previous free rocking chair is about rocked to pieces.) The woman's health physio I'm seeing has strongly advised me on the best kind of chair necessary to help support my abdominal muscles and back to heal after being put on bed rest in the last stage of Elsie's pregnancy. The remainder money will go into savings.

Our aim to buy less this year was never intended to be about deprivation, instead, it is about mindfulness and moving away from the temptation of mainstream consumerim. The kind of consumerism that tells us we can achieve the life we want by buying the right kind of 'stuff' which is quite simply not true, despite what advertising fat cats might tell us.

A snuggle bunny I made Elsie from scrap linen and stuffed with wool.

With the arrival of Elsie a few new items have snuck into our home, though I'm pleased that 95%

of it, I managed to source second hand. I did buy a set of cot sheets, two lovely cotton blankets and two light stretchy wraps. Primarily because they were pink and had rabbits on them and the blanket was Elsies favourite to sleep in so I bought a second. (I love pink and rabbits, what can I say?) Then there were the usual things like dummies, a dummy chain which are not things to buy second hand! However, in my tiredness I found myself coveting Instagram worthy outfits and toys. Fortunately, my love of second hand, vintage and bargain hunting pulled me out of that rabbit hole. I mean really, babies don't care how 'on trend' they are. They care about being clean, warm, fed, comfortable and with the people they know and love. I managed to find some time to sew and made Elsie 8 pretty bibs from fabric scraps and spare terry cloth flats as well as a pink snuggle bunny from leftover linen and another terry cloth flat. Just the thing to get me back on track.