$10 grocery challenge - how it went

I'm into the last week of my self imposed $10 grocery challenge. It's been fun getting creative with few ingredients,  not as difficult as you'd imagine, and has given me ample opportunity to reflect on my eating and spending habits.

I realised that laziness was costing me a lot of money. Our weekend vegetable markets are such good value for money. Sleeping in instead of shopping there meant a much less varied and healthy diet.

Cooking from scratch is also so much cheaper.  I was craving pasta this week and at my closest supermarket the budget brand was $1.20 a bag. Instead I grabbed a 99c bag of potatoes that were reduced to clear and made gnocchi just with the addition of a cup of flour. With a tomato and sausage sauce,  the gnocchi is enough for 4 meals with potatoes to spare for another 3 meals as a side as well as for soup. Yes, the gnocchi took much longer than boiling a bag of pasta, but it's delicious,  I learnt a new skill and it'll be a filling meal.

Something that suprised me was the difference in price and shopping experiences between supermarkets.  In my head, Moore Wilsons would seem like the most expensive option but their free range eggs and meat are great value. This week I'm dining on free range roast chicken courtesy of a singular 89c drumstick from their butchery counter. Pak n save is good for basics like grains. From here on in I'll be happy to split my shopping between the market and Moores.

I rediscovered how great pancakes are, for both breakfast and a quick dinner at work. I also discovered how cheap barley is. At under $1 for 500g I'm a little sick of it at the moment but it's so filling and versatile.

Mostly I've discovered a lot about my habits and character that will make sticking to a budget easier for the next 6 months.  I am lazy and don't do mornings. Thus packaging meals up straight away and having them in the fridge or freezer is the only way I'll avoid buying food at work. I'm best suited to spending my one night a week off in the kitchen and not have to cook for the rest of the week.

It's handy having a couple of back up meals stashed at work for when you do forget to pack dinner.

I also think challenges like this are fantastic for keeping me focussed - it's making a game out of budgeting.

From next week I'll give myself a little more room to move with a $15 weekly budget, give or take.  That will allow for more fruit and cheese - two things I have missed.

$10 grocery challenge

It's less than 8 months until I head off on my big OE, take two. I'm trying to cut back on expenses so my savings account grows a little faster.

Recently I went caffeine free for 4 weeks to nip that addiction in the bud. I love coffee, but it's definitely healthier for my budget to not need it and just to enjoy a good one every now and then.

My next challenge beginning today is to spend $10 on groceries a week for the next 8 weeks. Our flat account covers cleaning products so this is purely to be spent on food.

The fact I'm not starting with an empty pantry will help, but it's still going to be interesting coming up with varied, healthy meals on that budget.

Here's the basics I'm starting with:
● 1/2 packet milk powder
● rolled oats
● 1/2 packet rice
● 500g masa
● Dried kidney beans
● Flour
● 1x egg
● 1/2 packet soup mix
● Baking basics like sugar & baking soda
● Frozen spinach
● yeast
● Dried herbs & seasonings
● Leftover fruit and veg from last week - 2x persimmon,  1x tamarillo, onions, 3x cloves garlic, 2x purple carrots, 1x potato, 1x bag of yams

Week 1, Day 1:

Put some soup on at 3am before going to sleep. 1/4 packet soup mix, carrots, yams, potato. Baked 1x loaf on bread in the breadmaker.

Went shopping at the vege market with my crisp $10 note. Here's what it bought.

● 1/2 dozen free range eggs
● 1/4 pumpkin
● 4× broccoli
● 1x large apple
● 3× mandarins
● 3x golden kiwifruit

With $2 leftover to take to the supermarket for cooking oil.

It's going to be fun turning that into some interesting meals.

New travel blog

Though I've been slack with blogging this year, I have set up a travel blog ready for next year's big trip over at wordpress. The year is going by so fast - less than 10 months of work left. The bank account is still emptier than I'd like so from next pay day, I'm entering the serious saving, serious getting fit before hiking in the Andes mode!

Tightening my belt

With the new year, my travel savings budget has started.  I'm aiming to save $23,000 this year and hopefully I can meet that target - that is a huge amount to save for me as I earn a hospo income :-)

The first fortnight of this is a shock to the system.  I am not used to having an empty bank account a week before payday. For the next wee while my travel savings are going straight into paying off the Antarctica cruise and what I've saved already is locked up in term deposit. So there's no raiding my savings account between pays for lunch money.

I'm doing a year without buying takeaways, not buying yarn, no new dresses for quite a while, walking instead of taking buses more often and trying to do cheap or free activities on my days off.

I babysat on my last day off which was great as I got a free trip to the zoo and was kept entertained by a cheeky toddler. I have the biggest yarn stash to keep me occupied, been doing a lot of cooking for the flat (with the flat money) and reading. I'm also lucky to get free movies so that's my days off taken care of. It's easier to not spend money when working, especially now I'm not popping to the dairy for sweets.

The other thing that keeps me enthusiastic about staying on target is travel planning. It is my favourite thing to do, save travel.

I have already written a packing list. A year out! This is good though as now I have months to chip away at it, making it more efficient.  It also stops you making unnecessary purchases when you see how little you'll actually take on the road with you. It also means when shops have sales you can buy the things you do need, like thermals, rather than waiting 'til the last minute when they might not be in season.

I'm already splurging on Antarctica but looking into the feasibility of seeing Easter and the Galapagos too. The more research I do, the more I think I can find a budget way to do it. It really would be amazing to dive with sealions, mantarays and perhaps even hammerhead sharks!

A wee wine update

Last night I took my sister to one of my favourite restaurants,  El Matador.

Of course it wouldn't be dinner out without a glass of wine. I had the La Multa 'Old Vine' Garnacha 2011. It was the perfect match for my plate of sweetbreads.

Other wines drunk since New Year are an old favourite Lawsons Dry Hills Gewurtztraminer,  Rockburn Tigermoth Riesling,  Chard Farm Riesling, and Red Knot GSM.

Last month in Auckland we visited the Villa Maria winery near the airport.  It amazed me that it's right in amongst an industrial area but as you drive down the driveway past the rows of vines, you can forget you are within the bounds of New Zealand's largest city.

We tried several of their range - the Cellar Selection 2010 pinot noir (Marlborough), Syrah 2010 (Gimlett Gravels), Reserve Cab Merlot 2007 (Gimlett Gravels), Reserve Semillon Botrytis 2011, Methode Traditionelle (Pinot Noir grapes from Auckland, Chardonnay from Hawke's Bay), Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2013 (Marlborough), Reserve Chardonnay 2012 (Hawke's Bay).

That's quite a good tasting line up.

I was particularly taken by the chardonnay. It would be easy to drink without food. 100% maloactic fermentation resulted in an amazingly creamy, buttery wine. Exactly how I like my chardonnay.

The sparkling, too was surprisingly tasty - excellent balance - not too sweet nor dry and with beautiful fruitiness coming through.

However the two bottles I walked away with were ones I didn't actually taste.  I can't wait to try them. They were the Omahu Gravels Viognier 2010 and the Ihumatao Vineyard Verdelho 2011.

I took two bottles of Argentine wine up with me that were great but I can't for the life of me remember the names. One a malbec and one cab sav.

I think I'll keep a list of everything I taste from now on and hopefully by the end of the year I hit 300 :-)

Year of the selfie; favourite selfie of the year

Not like a took a heap, but this is my favourite selfie of 2013. Travelling alone, sometimes a selfie is the only way to get a photo with you in it! That, or self-timer shots, and I suck at those. This was taken at the top of a hill on day 3 of cycling alone around Savai'i, Samoa. I still can't believe I did that. Such a fun and challenging holiday.

Rosé

Rosé is quite often overlooked as a wine variety. There are some very average ones out there, as there is with any variety,  however the more of them I try, the more I realise that rosé can be really dynamic and interesting.

This is no official definition but my understanding of rosé is that it can be made from any type of red grape. The difference between a red and rosé is the time you leave the skins in with the grape juice to macerate - resulting in a more mellow flavour and colour. It seems you don't get those tannins either making it a very easy wine to drink without food.

Typically most rosés I've had have had that vanilla and strawberry flavour. Some of them have been really buttery, almost to the point of tasting like movie popcorn (looking at you,  Esk Valley malbec blend rosé).

This month one of my best friends who also loves wine, and I stumbled across a rosé tasting at one of our local wine stores.

We tasted a wide range from France, Corsica,  Spain, Lebanon (!), Central Otago and Italy I think.

They were the:
Domaine de Paris, Pettale de Rose, Hrieure de Montezargues, Conde de Valedmar, Terra Sangta and Domaine Fazi Corse.

I probably spelt half though wrong as they were scribbled badly in my notebook.

The one I loved and will definitely return to get a bottle was the Conde de Valedmar.  It is made from rioja. Utterly delicious.

The one I found most interesting but not exactly to my palate,  was the Domaine Fazi Corse from Corsica. It actually tasted really salty. I know nothing of the vineyard but I'm imagining it was from a vineyard by the sea.

The Lebanese one wasn't actually for sale, just to taste.  It was beautiful and quite different.  It really tasted like it had spent some time in oak. I know there is a vineyard in the mountains of Lebanon that does burgundy varieties and took out some French awards a while back. I wonder if it's the same one. In any case it was a nice suprise as when I think Middle East I don't think wine.

Terra Sangta was interesting.  The label was beautiful and the vineyard based on Felton Road. I was surprised I'd never heard of it before as Felton is not a long road. It was a beautiful pinot noir rosé, a safe choice for the kiwi palate.

My favourite way to drink rosé at the moment is in a Deepest Darkest Peru though.  That's a cocktail my friend made up for me that we now list.  I wanted something with pisco and passionfruit and he managed to slip rosé in it too. Not only is it delicious but also so brilliant because pisco, rosé and passionfruit are the first three things I think of when I think Peruvian drinks, but never in the same glass. Peru actually makes quite ok rosé near Ica in the desert south of Lima.

I'm looking forward to trying a few more rosés before the summer is done.