Recipe - Meatless Lasagne (AKA - I never thought my husband would eat lentils)

Last night, we had our traditional "meatless Monday" night. For health and budgetary reasons I try to put at least one meatless dish into our menu per week. It's not that hard - think spinach & ricotta lasagne, basic pasta dishes etc....

We have been eating this recipe for a few months - I have calculated that it costs about half the price to make compared to using mince, and it is in the oven in under 10 minutes. The white sauce is made in the microwave (I KNOW - how did I not know this could be done) and we serve it with a salad and perhaps some garlic bread if we have some. Due to the refried beans the recipe has a slight Mexican flavour - but it is still yummy - so much that we are tempted to serve it to friends to see if they realise that there is no meat in it! 

Note - when you make the lentil/bean mixture as per the recipe - it does look a little like dog food - but don't be worried (I was the first time I made it), as it will look different when cooked. 

Link to recipe: http://www.stayathomemum.com.au/recipes/i-cant-believe-its-not-mince-lasagne/

Let me know what you think! 

Review: Lust Have it

As we are mainly operating on one income, I have been aware of the need to keep expenses low. This has meant that luxury items are just that - a luxury. Although I have to say that for the last nine months I have been enjoying a monthly treat!

Although I am still not sure about the name (personally I think it sounds like I am purchasing "adult" type products), I have loved receiving Lust Have it beauty boxes. Earlier this year they had a promotion where I was lucky enough to buy a years subscription at a reduced rate. 

Each month I get a lovely box mailed to me (usually towards the end of the month). It generally contains about 5-6 luxury beauty samples, and often there is one or two full-sized products. It is a random selection, but there has only been one or two occasions where I have been unable to use a product (wrong colour/skin type etc). The cost is now $20 per month, and they have introduced some new boxes - a FAB box which includes accessories, an Eco box and a bridal box. 

I have received an email to say my box is on the way - so will give an update on what I get this month so everyone can see what I get! 

If you want to see the types of boxes they have - the email address is lusthaveit.com.au - Let me know what you think! 

The "B" word - BUDGETS! 

Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

With Christmas around the corner, like many people I am very aware of how much money is being spent. However this year I am a lot less stressed as at the beginning of the year I set up a budget and had money set aside, as well as a present budget. This reduced my stress enormously - as I always knew how much money we had, where it was going and what bills are coming up. 

Firstly - let's talk spreadsheets (let the accountants out there wipe the drool!). I created a spreadsheet and set about listing all of our expenses for the year, then dividing them by 26 weeks. 

Bills that are paid fortnightly were listed first. For example I pay our phone bill, water, gas & electricity bills fortnightly. I don't have an agreement with the company, I just pay an amount per fortnight as the billing account number does not generally change (this is set-up via online banking). The amount is based on the last 12 months of bills, then divided by 26 fortnights. Similarly, our mortgage is paid fortnightly, as are our school fees, health insurance etc..

Some bills such as my car rego, house insurance are paid annually. To get around this I have set up an account with my bank (accessible via online banking) to which a set amount is paid each fortnight to cover such bills. So then, when the bill comes in, I have the money waiting to pay. 

Presents/Gifts are also treated like a bill - I made a list of all family birthdays, Xmas gifts and an extra $500 to cover Xmas expenses. This was divided by 26 and this amount also gets put into the same savings account as annual bill savings. This money is discretionary, and the amount you spend should only be what you can afford - be creative, or shop all year to grab things on sale. It's not worth going into debt just so your kids can have the latest and greatest. 

Finally - discretionary expenses - I list these too on my spreadsheet - they include things like groceries (for example - for our family of five, plus three pets, we budget for $500 per fortnight for food and alcohol), eating out, takeaway, clothes shopping, petrol, household maintenance needs (eg gardening supplies/paint), sporting/family entertainment expenses.....  We go through periods when I am happy to leave it all in our account, but at times I feel that we are going out of control with our expenses - then we revert to a cash budget/envelope system - but more about that another day. 

At the end of the day, I make sure that we are spending within our means, plus try to put aside a bit of money each week into a savings account. We try to maintain enough in a savings account for unexpected emergencies (for example, our 15 year old fridge is on it's last legs), but can also dip into it if we get extra high bills. 

I will try to put up a copy of the spreadsheet that I use. When we are extra tight on money I track all expenditure on a spreadsheet (yes - EVERY dollar). 

Cheers x 

PS - We also have some spending money each - we pay ourselves $50 each fortnight each - to do what we want with (eg coffees with the girls, or after-work drinks). That way we can still have some play money. We sometimes slip up but we are human after all! :-)