Do-it-yourself

I didn't know whether it put this here or under domestic goddess....

Anyway, how much do you make yourself at home? I guess it's from a budgeting point of view but it's also a pride thing too I guess.

All our dinners are home cooked. I've just started to make our own bread. Any biscuits or cakes are home made. Most jams and cordials are home made. Our family makes the passata ( tomato for pasta sauce). Sausages and salamis are home made.


Where else can we be self sufficient?

Does bulk buying save? Where do you find the best deals?

For house cleaning I mainly use vinegar and microfibres, so there aren't large expenses there.

I'm interested in how you budget? How do you save on household costs?

I made my babies.

That's about it, of late.

Not exactly DIYing, but we have an overflow pantry cupboard specifically so I can buy in bulk when things are on special. It's a bit counterintuitive to spend more money in order to save, but it does work provided you only buy bulk/multiples of core items that you *always* use. For us that's things like favorite tea & coffee, rice, pasta, oats, wine (!), chocolate (!), dunny paper, kitty litter, shampoo, deodorant, etc. A deep freezer lets you buy bulk meat, but that's not something I've gotten organized to do (yet).

Other tip is to always shop during the catalogue period that doesn't have the government pay day in it. The non-gov pay catalogues have more discounts on basic food items, but the gov-pay ones have more specials on processed, value added, discretionary items. Also shopping earlier in the week can get you more specials than on Thur, fri, sat.

I make my own bread, biscuits, cakes etc. We grow our favourite veggies & herbs. We also have a selection of fruit trees. I also make 95% of our food from scratch.

I wish we had room for a couple of chickens for yummy eggs.

We have an upright freezer in the shed & buy our beef in bulk & I also check out the "quick sales" in the meat department and freeze any bargains :)

A milking cow?

Grow potatoes and make vodka?

Grow loofahs for toilet tissue?

Make soap?

Lol sorry in a silly mood. Stuck in bed sick! But seriously sounds like you are doing amazingly already!

Our vege garden is good and pickles and passata made from our own stuff is good.
When I was growing up we always killed on the farm and mum and dad butchered. They'd usually share a beast with the neighbours then they'd take the next one from their herd. Worked out pretty well. The freezer was always full but sometimes dinner was interesting if mum didn't read her hand written labels right :)
We always had a house cow and for many years house goats, which by the way are much better as you can milk them for longer than cows and the production (as long as you don't want to make too much cheese) is more realistic for a smaller household.
As we usually had pigs we had plenty of use for extra cows milk and we always separated the milk for cream so made our own butter.
Mum made quark cheese quite often too and yoghurt.
I must say I'm thinking of getting milking goats again once I get a horse sold so I might be back to milking daily again :) (it was often my job growing up)
Chooks are a must I reckon and a good vege garden improver too!
Making your own pasta is easy and waaaaay yummier than bought stuff and heaps cheaper.
Good luck

Keep your ears open to factories that have open day sales. We have one near us and you can get enough soap, hand creams, shampoo etc to last 6 or 12 months. Depends on whether you want to go twice yearly. A lot of it is natural so well worth the $50 a box.

A veggie garden can keep you going all year, we have potatoes all year. Pumpkin can be cut up and frozen for use later on for soup or mashing.
Buying in bulk is great but you have to make sure it is stuff you WILL use. Also butchers or wholesale meat suppliers do some great packages which you can save heaps.

Depending on where you are, if you hear someone is going to a certain region ask if they can bring you back a case of fruit. My mum does this and them makes jams and sauces for the next week or so non stop :)
Eggs from your own chooks are far nicer and fresher and if you have any extras you will be able to sell them to friends or family.

Fruit trees are great but if you have possums or alot of birds you have to net them or you will get nothing from them, well you will get apple cores hanging on the tree :)