Home Made Life - budgeting

I wanted to do a little life updates of sorts, which is probably going to verge on the edge of being too hippy but now that I've put the disclaimer out there it's your own fault if you read on :p

So a month ago I quit my job, I actually liked my job I had lovely disabled people to look after in my support worker role but my supervisor was giving me grief. I won't go into all the details but after 4.5 years in my position I felt horrible undervalued - so I quit, no back up plan just a desire to want to live my life in a happier way. I feel like my outlook on life has changed and how I want to take more control of it. My goal in life is just to be happy but how I'm able to do that has been changing in little ways. Okay here is where is probably starts to get a bit too hippy...

Since I now have a massively small income from my creative endeavours, I've had to get real smart about how I spend money with most of it going to rent and food. Rent is out of my hands but food you can work on reducing costs. I've learned to appreciate our garden and supplement it by going to the fruit markets just as they're closing and ready to give away food!

I can take zero credit for the garden btw which is run by my other housemates but if I was on my own I would definitely start my own.

Fresh herbs - amazing.

We also get eggs from our chickens and I've started making my own bread from this recipe here

It is seriously the easiest bread ever - it's name is 'the no knead bread' which should be a giveaway on it's simplicity. I picked up an oven safe pot from the thrift store for a few dollars; I mix the bread mixture up the night before, let it rise and I have fresh bread the next afternoon - so simple :) I've also started making my own naans too and just can't believe I didn't make them before.

My room mate has taught me how to make kombucha - might save that for another post but it's a great and cheap way to have a refreshing drink available on a super tight budget.

My eating has definitely become a lot more simplified and I'm really grateful for that. I make my own bliss balls, which are essentially just ground up dates, nuts, honey, and cacao powder but they are super yummy!

Actually my hunt for non dairy delicious alternative came from a forced necessity - again probably too much info for this post - but it's been challenging and eye opening. 

I've had to say goodbye to milkshakes (that's Ben's on the left and my smoothie on the right) and hello to watermelon sorbet! Okay so maybe going out and drinking smoothies and eating sorbet isn't on the budget friendly list but life would be a little sad if you didn't have splurges! treat yo self people!

I was going to fill this entry with all the other little changes I've been doing but it's going to be way too much writing, so I'll save those thoughts for another week. I want to inspire or at least show people stuck in heavy work loads that maybe you don't need to be (I know people have very different lifestyles and money commitments than me) but maybe just a few changes could lead to a different way of living if you want it to or currently feel stuck where you are. I'll eventually pick up a few shifts myself to supplement my income - going on holidays or having money for emergencies is always essential but for now I'm really enjoying being creative, in charge of my own destiny and not being controlled or devalued :) (told you I was going to get hippy on you!)