Lyn Webster - Save Make Do: Slash Your Grocery Bill by Living Sustainably

When I first embarked on the $100 a week grocery budget my main focus was to save money. Over a decade later I am stunned at the doors that have opened simply by setting a low grocery budget and sticking to it. Yes, the money saving is significant, but the waste reduction, lowered environmental impact and health benefits are a massive unexpected welcome bonus.

We are entering an age where individuals are becoming more and more aware of the resources they are using and the impact they are having on the environment. Plastic free and zero waste are community issues that can no longer be ignored, as landfills overflow and recycling is no longer accepted offshore. Sometimes such problems seem too big to address personally, but you would be amazed by how merely learning to make your own food, cleaning products and cosmetics using simple ingredients as suggested in this book cuts down on such waste as plastic wrapping, plastic bottles and other containers, chemicals and household rubbish in general.

Personally, learning to shop more sustainably has been an interesting and fulfilling lifelong journey. The $100 a week grocery budget soon dropped to $75, which covered three adults, a teenager and a baby. As my children left home to start their own households the budget dropped again to $35 a week for my teenage daughter and me. Once Stevie left for university I challenged myself to do prolonged stints of staying out of the supermarket, which forced me to grow my own veggies and learn to make bread, butter and cheese. My latest project is the $1KYGS or one thousand dollar a year grocery spend its documented on my Facebook page, Pig Tits and Parsley Sauce, which has over 8600 followers to date.

When you first start out on the journey, asking yourself Could I make this myself? before every purchase, it may seem overwhelming. If you are accustomed to buying whatever you want whenever you like automatically, changing your habits is probably not going to happen overnight. However, please persevere, because any uncertainty or anxious feelings are quickly replaced by empowerment and confidence as you see your bank balance improve, your rubbish pile practically disappear and you realise that simple ingredients can get many household jobs done better than commercially manufactured products. There are no nasty surprises because you are in total control when you Save, Make, Do.

pigtitsandparsleysauce.co.nz

In 2008 I took my daughters Danni and Stevie on a family holiday. As the girls enjoyed the sun and sand at Opunake Beach Holiday Camp, they were blissfully unaware that a looming financial crisis was about to ruin my farming business and crush our future plans. As a self-reliant and independent single parent I knew it was somehow up to me to prevent this disaster.

A self-employed sharemilkers life can be busy, juggling relentless farm responsibilities along with raising a teenage family on my own. I was born and raised in the city but fell into dairy farming along the way and saw sharemilking as a positive and healthy way to raise my girls and earn a good living. It wasnt easy initially to get enough cash together to buy a herd of cows and the equipment needed to run an agribusiness, but somehow I managed to do it.

My sharemilking career has been a varied and interesting journey with some highlights, including winning Taranaki Variable Order Sharemilker of the Year in 2005 and being featured on New Zealands longest-running TV programme,