We've been away on a mini break during the Winter School Vacation here. And home made lacy crepes with sugar and lemon weren't the only indulgence to be had.
We spent some time at the beach as the Winter here is so mild (mostly!), that beach time is perfection. Look at this crystal clear water, will you? And warm, to boot!
I don't know about you, but we are excruciatingly boring when on holidays. We pretty much don't vary too much from our normal routine. We don't eat out a lot, we don't spend up big on stuff, and we don't act as though we've never seen a shoe/bag/high fashion store before. Our holidays are not about acquiring, they're more about creating memories.
We rise early and get to the beach before the crowds. We walk, we paddle, husband swims, daughter and I read and sunbathe in the gentle morning rays. By 10am we're heading back to the house, just as the mad holidaymakers start arriving, lugging kids, towels, umbrellas, balls and goodness knows what else, to keep their little 'uns amused. We only ever take ourselves, a chair, a book and a towel. The beach is there for the asking. Why do folk feel they have to fill that time up with 'things'? Each to their own I guess. Maybe I was a lazy mother...lol!
Upon arriving home, we enjoy a breakfast of poached eggs on gluten free toast, with a few asparagus spears and some crumbled feta thrown in for good measure. Home cooked price? Around $5 for 3 serves. Café price? $60 for 3 serves. Really. Not to mention the fact that I had ours on the table in 10 minutes flat. Try getting your cooked breakfast in ten minutes in a busy café`!
We survive without all kinds of comforts when we are away. No cappuccinos, no Netflix, no computers. We read, we snooze, we walk, and we talk to one another. If you want a coffee, it's instant, if you want entertainment, the bookcase is full, and the book exchange a short drive away, and if you need connectivity, well...that's too bad. There is none!
Meals are simple, and we focus on buying as few ingredients as possible. Who wants to end the week by lugging home bags of unused groceries, or having to discard uneaten food?
Turkey rissoles one night, were topped with a 2 ingredient relish, made simply by roasting cherry tomatoes and a red capsicum, peeling the capsicum once roasted, and dicing them together. The roasting carmelises the veges, and gives them an inbuilt lush sweetness. No sugar required, and not a single other ingredient necessary. Likewise the turkey rissoles were simply turkey mince, shaped into rounds, and pan fried. No egg or breadcrumbs or seasoning required. Keep it simple.
Some of the Winter woollens we leave stored at the cabin, looked a bit sad and sorry. Just pilled and old looking. I hate the family not looking their best, so what to do? In preference to discarding what were still perfectly lovely things, I found this clever little tool. It's basically a shaver for your woollies or anything prone to generating all those annoying little balls of lint on them. $30 spent, saving about $200 on replacing cardigans, sweaters and other warmth inducing garments. I have to say that daughter and I had a fun afternoon 'shaving' lint balls from our stuff. Gotta laugh!
Do you read? I don't read much in my normal home life, but when on holidays, the quality of the holiday is measured by how many books I read. This one was super thick (about 1500 pages), so I didn't even make it half way through.
I did however, have time to paint my nails, saving $35 on a salon manicure. Win!
Balsamic Onion Confit was magic-ed up on the last day upon finding we had 3 onions left. We ate that with bacon and cheese fritters, using up some other odds and ends. Waste not, want not, right? This one was simply sliced onions, balsamic vinegar and sugar. If you wanted to get posh, you could do worse than try making my Famous Onion Confit. You might know it as Onion Jam.
Upon arriving home, we discovered we'd had some significant rainfall in our absence. Husband is obsessed with his rain gauge, and always proudly reports how many inches of rainfall we've had while away. This explains the joyful abundance of French Lavender currently displayed in our back yard!
I'll be using it to make Lavender Water, and to create bouquets like this one, sadly not mine, but one gifted to a friend recently. A loved this presentation and how simple this would be to replicate!
So whilst that's not a Holiday Saving, it's certainly a future saving on floral gifts!
Between eating at home, treating our holiday as a break and not a shopping spree, retrieving the new-ness of our Winter woollies with the lint shaver, and just relaxing as you're meant to on holidays (or we think so anyway), we kept at least $500 in our bank account. The bonus of potential Lavender bouquets was a joy to which we returned.
We felt truly blessed.
How do you save when on holidays?
