| The local newspaper last week reported a substantial | | | | you handle fresh food in its whole forms - for |
| increase in sales of sewing machines. The owner of | | | | instance,an orange rather than a jar of marmalade - |
| the business attributed this to the current economic | | | | the more interest you'll take in learning about nutrition. |
| downturn and its effects on households struggling to | | | | 4. Sew some of your own clothes. |
| meet mortgage and credit card repayments. She is | | | | If you don't already own a sewing machine, then this is |
| not the only retailer noticing a change in consumer | | | | one time to break my 'don't buy anything new' rule. |
| habits. Kitchen appliance outlets have seen an upsurge | | | | You will quickly become competent. I did it - and in a |
| of interest in the old-fashioned pressure cooker and | | | | time before the brilliant modern versions - so the |
| butchers are being asked more often for the cheap | | | | proverbial Drover's Dog could do it now. You can even |
| cuts of meat and large joints. These require longer | | | | teach yourself to draft paper patterns and save even |
| cooking times but can be bulked up with root | | | | more cash, especially on children's clothes. |
| vegetables to provide more meals from one cooking | | | | 5. Entertain friends and family at home. |
| session. | | | | The house you live in is the biggest investment you are |
| Anyone whose parents or grandparents lived through | | | | ever likely to make and you've no doubt put a lot of |
| previous global Depressions of the 1930s or 1890s can | | | | effort, time and money into enhancing it. So why not |
| tell you that wives and mothers hold the key to their | | | | consider it as what it really is: your own Day Spa, |
| family's survival. Here are 5 simple bits of wisdom | | | | vacation Resort, intimate restaurant, cinema, Botanical |
| handed down through the generations. | | | | gardens or whatever is fitting for the environment you |
| 1. Manage the money you now have. | | | | have created or dream of making out of what already |
| A 'no-brainer' is to pay off your debts in whatever | | | | exists. Your teenagers may want a nightlife scene |
| amounts you can manage but on a regular basis. | | | | that's beyond your capacity to provide and probably |
| Along with that, you simply do not buy anything new | | | | beyond your capacity to endure if it could be inserted |
| that you can do without. The new mantra is 'need, not | | | | into your home. If so, what's wrong with letting the kids |
| greed.' Form a regular habit of putting aside something | | | | earn the cash to take them into these nightspots? |
| 'For a Rainy Day.' It may be only a two dollar coin per | | | | Here is an Extra Bonus Point. |
| day - saved from a canned soft drink you did not buy | | | | If you've read any of the Tips above and thought 'Too |
| - but at the end of a month it is enough to pay for a | | | | Hard. I could never do that' then let me tell you a |
| visit to the specialist, if one of the family falls ill. | | | | Secret. Success in all of these areas comes mainly |
| 2. Don't pay for anything you can do or make yourself. | | | | from seat-of-the-pants experience, so don't let |
| With the obvious exception of electrical or plumbing | | | | yourself be put off by the bucket loads of expert |
| work that must be carried out by professionals, house | | | | opinion. The experts all got there the same way you |
| maintenance is usually within the capacity of any fit | | | | will: by trial and error. |
| person. Advice is often available from friends, family or | | | | Here is a Footnote for those interested in the historical |
| neighbours. If you have an Internet connection, use it to | | | | overview. |
| find websites offering free How To articles and | | | | The invention of the sewing machine is attributed to a |
| videos. With your computer and printer you can send | | | | London cabinet maker in 1790 but the first patent for a |
| lovingly homemade greetings cards for birthdays and | | | | sewing machine was taken out by an American, Elias |
| Christmas. | | | | Lowe, in 1846. By 1850, another American, Isaac Merrit |
| 3. Grow some of your food and cook it at home. | | | | Singer, had completed his design for 'Singer's |
| Until you start growing vegetables, you'll never know | | | | Perpendicular Action Sewing Machine' and patented it |
| how much pleasure comes from eating a tomato or | | | | in August 1851. Technically, this was an industrial model, |
| lettuce you planted, nurtured and harvested from your | | | | but by 1856 the advent of 'hire purchase' made the |
| own garden patch. Advice abounds in your local library | | | | invention available to professional dressmakers. As |
| or online at gardening or nursery sites. Cooking in your | | | | always, this technological advance was to have an |
| own kitchen is a pleasure and it can even help you to | | | | impact few people could foresee. When male tailors in |
| maintain your waistline and boost your overall health. | | | | Sydney went out on strike for thirteen weeks over the |
| The reason is that in enjoying the colours of fresh | | | | rates for piece-work, the David Jones emporium |
| produce and inhaling their fragrances, your brain | | | | replaced them all with ( lower-paid ) women operating |
| receives signals that equate to the satisfaction of | | | | the new machines. |
| eating before you've taken even a bite. Also, the more | | | | |