Savings Tips for the Mamas and the Papas

I’ve never been the best with money, though, like a good cheddar, I’m improving with age. And a CPA husband helps (though he does have a shoe fettish – hey - we all have our Thing).

So when it comes to dealing out ‘advice’ during FebuSave, I can’t say I’m the Be-All and Know-All of the Financial Savvy Kingdom. I do, however, know how vital it is to turn off the lights and skimp on the $4 lattès if I aim to add another handbag to the collection or pay a little something called school fees. It’s all about necessity, is it not?

So, in the spirit of FebuSave and stacking away the cash for something more vital to the spirit than lattès (like peace of mind and/or school fees), here are some ideas and thoughts and tips on things parents of kids: Read more

Book Review: How to Make Money on eBay

My first ever eBay find was a duo of Coles Funny Picture books – and I’ll never forget staring at the eBay screen in wonder and elation when I found these titles after a totally unexpectant search for the precious books my grandfather had once left me – books that mysteriously disappeared in the haze of many house moves, along with an impressive vinyl collection (records, not flooring).

After staring at the eBay screen and clicking ‘Buy’, I was hooked. Very soon after receiving my precious books in the mail, I began a long buying relationship with eBay that has not only secured me a plethora of highly-desired items, but has – many times – provided me an income.

I became a two-bit seller on eBay ten years ago. Sometimes I’d sell a little, sometimes a lot and I still sell the odd thing here and there. For the most part, it’s a profitable and pleasant experience and far outstrips the garage sale in terms of bang for seller buck.

Read more

Ethical Aussie Fashion from High in the Himalayas

The wonderful thing about the internet is that you can stumble headlong into incredible people doing fascinating and even life-changing things any day of the week. Stumbling over and ‘finding’ wondrous folk is so probable nowadays, it’s as common as picking up a litre of milk from the corner shop.

It’s not likely I would have found my latest inspiring find at the corner shop but rather the top of the world – in a teensy village called Dharamsala, at the foot of the Himalayas in northern India, the home of the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government. A place you would usually need a donkey and ten days’ rations to find anything. Read more

FebuSave Has Healed My Back Pain

I have a curious correlation between money… and my lower back. You may not believe what I’m about to tell you but it’s absolutely true.

I was born with a hairline fracture in my sacrum (due to a fused L5 vertebrae joint) that has proved a little tricky in the pain stakes over the years. Having found an osteo-chiro who was quite seriously sent from the Gods to heal me, I manage this problem really effectively – but something curious happens to this teensy crack when my thoughts turn to money – or more accurately – monetary lack.
When my husband and I bought our first house and schlepped a toddler and new baby into it, there was many a pre-payday Wednesday night resplendent with a baked bean dinner and a single nappy to get Riley through the night. Let’s just say I was first in line at Coles on payday Thursday, with a wet, stinking baby, a toddler desperate for fresh fruit and a mother with a pain-riddled lower back. Read more

Book Review: I Lost My Mobile at the Mall

I honestly think author Wendy Harmer could turn her hand to any genre of writing, so delectable is her style – so honest, raw, contemporary, full of the delectable wit she’s famous for – and stacked with just plain fun. In her very first teen novel (read: young adult but totally PG), Harmer embarks on the funnest, coolest teen book I’ve read in ages. No brooding, vampiric, psychotically-driven saga is this – and neither is the book resplendent with inconsequential fluff.

I Lost My Mobile at the Mall: Teenager on the edge of a technological breakdown takes modern teendom and lays it bare like a Facebook profile. The profile picture is of a young girl – the adorable Elly Pickering – who is absolutely, positively certain her life as she knows it is about to cease – either by parternal-, maternal-, BFF-, boyfriend- or self-strangling.

Why? Because she lost her mobile at the mall, that’s why. Derr.

Read more

Book Review: The Little Book of Australia

Having only just celebrated yet another gee-they-get-bigger-every-year Australia Day, it was timely to peruse this new little home-grown tome during a hefty fireworks/pavlova hangover. A compilation of fun and fascinating facts and figures, you’ll forgive me if I review The Little Book of Australia: A Snapshot of Who We Are with more than a little patriotic pride.

I mean, who doesn’t like to read about themselves? And yes, each and every last one of us is featured in this little book, resplendent to our last ockerism. But truth be told, this is not a book that relies on the irritating stereotypes that so painfully label the typical Antipodean Terra Australis. This book is indeed a well-researched compilation of what comprises our countrymen – our attitudes, our idiosyncrasies, our predilections.

Author David Dale, one of our country’s foremost commentators on Australian psychology, began his fact-seeking mission back in 2006 with the publication of Who We Are: a miscellany of the new Australia, which was updated in 2007 – Who We Are: a snapshot of Australia today.

Read more

Book Review: I Know How to Cook

One of my greatest culinary desires is to own Julia Child’s iconic cooking collection, along with that of Margaret Fulton, Nigella Lawson, Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer and Martha Stewart. I’ve already put a major dent in the latter author but the rest are shamelessly under-represented in our house.

On second glance at this highly desirable wish-list, it’s dawned on me there’s not a single white male amongst them. Nor brown, black or yellow male, for that matter. This is probably because these categories are already well-represented. I have Gordon, Jamie, Bill, Luke, Rick and Nhut – even Gérard Depardieu in my house, yes I do.

But over the years, I’ve gradually risen like a well-oiled soufflé and begun to desire lighter, more delicate, more ethereal culinary exposure. Something, I suppose, more feminine. Read more

Healthy Eating in Children – A Parent’s Choice

Recently, I did a blog post on encouraging healthy eating amongst children. The post started out innocently enough – a mother posting on why she thought offering a healthy and varied diet to children was actually a very easy thing to do. I posted this with vim and vigour and my typical love for children.

What I didn’t expect was the barrage of negative comments that quickly ensued (along with lots of supportive comments, of course).

So how did this debacle begin? Well, I posted about a child who came for a day-long playdate last week – a child I found impossible to feed, unless it involved highly-processed, trans-fat-saturated or sugar-laden food – with not a vitamin or mineral in sight. I offered him a barrage of options for lunch but without white bread, he wasn’t going anywhere with sandwich ideas (we don’t have white bread in our house and never have – no, not even the stuff hiding ‘extra fibre’).

I instead tried offering a variety of – gasp – fresh foods. Carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, fruit, yoghurt, boiled eggs, slices of cheese (a no go because we didn’t have ‘wobbly’ cheese). “I don’t like that,” was the constant refrain.

So, I switched to canned and pre-packaged goods – baked beans? Tinned spaghetti? Soup? Ryvitas or crispbreads with a variety of delicious spreads? Tinned fruit? No go. Didn’t like any of them. Sheesh. What did this kid actually eat?

Read more

Book Review: Princess Party Cookbook

Not being a overtly ‘pink’ mother of a nine-year-old daughter, I’m ever skeptical of anything ‘princess’, unless it’s done a little tongue-in-cheek or with extreme originality. It was with a smidgen of royal scepticim, therefore, that I opened the new Princess Party Cookbook, preparing for a sugary overload of tizz.

Happily, the book is not only something little girls will swoon over dreamily, mums and the more creative of dads will raise their eyebrows pleasantly at all the magical recipe and party ideas contained therein (pink notwithstanding).

Author and kiddie foodie Annabel Karmel of The New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner fame, has penned a book that’s definitely high on pink fluff, but also resplendent with beauty, quality, delectable recipes, fun party ideas and comsumate style.

Read more

Back to School Planning Tips

I know, I know – it seems like the school holidays have only just begun, but like most years, January will evaporate like a salty ocean droplet on a surfer’s shagpile head. Suddenly, you’ll be staring down the barrel at your sunburnt children with their hoofers crammed into too-small-school shoes, toting scuffed book bags and a rainbow of pencils worn down to the nub.

Best get planning.

These nifty Back-to-School planning ideas should help you get the pencil cases snaplock fresh and the school shoes gleaming.

Read more

Next Page »