Getting a VA (Virtual Assistant)

So my friend put me onto The Four-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris, and one of the main highlights of his book it to outsource your life. This is were a Virtual Assistant (or Online Personal Assistant) comes in.

I love this concept for many reasons. One - I like to live out my "eccentric billionaire fantasies" as suggested by Tim. I now have someone do things for me like find out if the organic shop home delivers. Maybe I'm not that eccentric yet, but give me time. Two - I can pay someone to do the time-consuming things I need to do to get this online business up and running such as research and writing content. Sweet. My VA can also find me a web-developer and do some book-keeping for me should I ever make any money from this. I'm also getting her to manage my Google Calendar and appointments and do errand-type things (online of course) that annoy me.

My VA's name is Maria and she is from the Philippines. Her going rate is $1.39 per hour. I have hired her for 30 hours per week (less than $42). I feel a bit guilty about paying her so low but she told me she is thrilled to have steady full-time employment and can't believe I have included 4 weeks paid annual leave into her contract. I don't think she cared so much that I said her hours were mostly flexible. But dw, I will give her bonuses and pay rises frequently as incentives for performing well (which I expect she will).

I like the book because it talks about Lifestyle Design, something people often overlook, and it was time for me to redesign mine. It also shows you how to set up a remote and fully-automated business online, something I will attempt. I'll keep you posted. I would love to be able to still help people and their health, but do it from any location I choose at whatever time of day I choose etc. This is what I want for my lifestyle.

Other ways my life is now outsourced - I use MyBudget.com.au to look after my bills and budget etc. I haven't found anything as good as them and I'm happy to keep paying the $25 per week. I have also just hired a house cleaner. I have been considering this one for awhile. Firstly, I kinda hate paying for someone to do something that I can do myself, however I have reconsidered that point since reading the book and now realise that, although I don't mind doing housework, not having enough time to do it at times is the source of about 50% of all the stress in my day-to-day life. That is worth $30 per week to remove. I have also found a good cleaner which makes it even better.

Natural deodorant recipes

I have become slightly obsessed with my coconut oil since purchasing it. I never expected something natural to work much better than a store-bought product containing many ingredients.

I'm now searching for deodorants, soaps, and shampoos to add to my beauty-routine collection.

Here are two recipes for making natural deodorant. With both, you can add essential oils for a scent. These deodorants will not prevent sweating but will kill the odour-causing bacteria.

Coconut oil
2 parts baking soda
2 parts starch (arrow root, corn starch etc)
3 parts coconut oil

Vodka
1 part vodka
1 part water (distilled)

The coconut oil recipe will be solid at room temperature, so you may want to make small "bars", and the vodka recipe is a liquid which you may want to store in a jar and dip a cotton ball into to apply.

Coconut oil for hair and skin (and general update)

I bought some raw organic coconut oil from the organic grocers the other day. It's the stuff which is solid at room temperature. I bought it to ?cook with ...even though I'm trying for 100% raw...anyway, I bought it and I used it in my hair as an overnight treatment (well, originally I thought I rinsed it out but it needed shampooing out the next day) and it worked amazing - better than any other salon treatment I've ever used, and I used to be a hairdresser. I tried massaging some into my scalp and it seems to have helped my dandruff for sure.

As I was in the bath, some got onto my skin through it rinsing in the bath water and my skin looks amazing too, so I thought I'd put some just on the dry patches on my face, and they looked and felt amazing too. So I thought I'd put it all over my face and neck last night and I woke up with beautiful skin. So this morning I "washed" my face in the coconut oil and I am loving it. I never have nice skin.

I'm also currently using beetroot as a blush (the fresh stuff, not canned) and I love that too. The mixed blackberry and spirulina powder works good as an eyeliner and ok as a mascara. I got these tips from Megan Elizabeth.

Perhaps my skin is looking so good because I'm at the end of my fives weeks off work, I went to Bali in the sun and surf, or that I've been eating 100% high carb raw vegan for a week (minus one big mishap yesterday afternoon which I'm leaving in the past). Probably all of these combined I'd say.

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I've bargained with myself that if I get >1500 words of my assignment written today I'm allowed to go shopping for an outfit to wear this weekend for the BF's birthday. I'm trying to reward myself as bargain for eating well as I can usually study no probs, but on annual leave from work I'm finding it painful to be at the home desk instead of...anything else!

I wouldn't normally buy a brand new outfit for an occasion, especially not form a high street retail store, but the BF requested it so instead of arguing my case I've decided to "let go" of being right and instead by loving.

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Med school update: I've requested a deferral from OUM so I can figure out what I'm doing. I'm still waiting on a letter of recommendation to finally submit my application to IUHS. It's unfortunately all come down to finances. I'm so glad that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel re my finances so it will be a matter of re-grouping and going again. I'm really super-keen, but I can't do what I can't do and I still haven't won the lottery....

I've now purchased the Dr Najeeb videos as they are currently on sale, so I will be doing those at work daily when I go back next week.

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Fitness it on the back-burner right now but I'm hoping it will make a come back soon as the weather improves along with my heath.

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Container house: we have our first one on our land now! Yay! It needs some work but I'm hoping to start semi-living in it shortly when I'm at the BF's farm.

That is all and I better go finish this assignment.

Fresh

My potted herbs in my kitchen.

Our Container House

About 6 months ago the BF and I started thinking about building a second house. He has some land classified as rural living and is about 5 acres. What we really want is to work towards living a simple life that is fairly self-sufficient and low-cost and virtually debt-free. A massive mortgage is not what we want. We want to be able to take time off work and travel whenever we need to and not feel the stress of making enough for mortgage repayments. Living consciously and ethically with the environment in mind is also part of the plan. Renting out the one I'm currently in to ensure ourselves another asset for financial security.

 We started looking around at housing ideas and funnily enough we both we interested in the concept of converting shipping containers into homes. Containers are generally a standard shape and size (the come in 6m and 12m, and special heights too) and are designed to be modular, stackable, weather and vermin proof, cheap to manufacture, and have the strength in their corners thus allowing for doors and windows wherever. It is recycling of old containers and is extremely affordable. More and more people are doing it, and even in our shire, which makes is easier for us to convince the local authorities of our plans.

 So, just this weekend, the BF bought our first container! We will be using 12m containers of standard height, beginning with one and expanding as we go to eventually about 6-8, and maybe another for storage (shed). Our first container is partially converted into a dwelling already. It is roofed, floors, insulated and plastered, wired, plummed, partially painted, and has the kitchen carcas installed. We need to do a few things such as the kitchen doors and bench top, cooker, the entire bathroom, and the electrical switchboard, and then we're ready to move in! We want at least a second one before fully moving in and with timing of everything we may have am a bit more progress before we move in.

 So today I'm designed the finally layout and working backwards to our modular plan so we know where to position the first container, and then the second and so forth so as minimal changes need to be made once we've already done some work, ie we don't want to be ripping up the tiles we just laid a few months earlier. Also, I have the feng shui bagua to help me with the plan.

Home-made

Here is a photo of the spice box I made and one of the lunch bag my sister made for me.

Taking my lunch today...

Tight-ass home-maker tips

I just managed to score some curtains, railing, and rod from the local op-shop.  I'm so impressed.

The "good" op-shop (the big one with furniture) is only open 11am-1pm Fridays and Saturdays. If I'm passing by I often stop in to have a scout around.  I'm convinced that if you have a small wish-list in the back of your mind it's easier to wait for what is suitable/affordable than trying to find it straight away.  It's easier if you can accept that you can live without curtain netting until you find the right stuff.

All my windows came with blinds but I put up curtains in the bedrooms to block light creeping in through the cracks on the sides.  They were very cheap, light-weight ones from the cheapie shop ("The Warehouse"), in just simple charcol and gold.  In Cambodia, I picked up two matching massive king-size bed sized silk fabrics which I converted into curtains and look great. 

I've had my eye out for some netting for months. There are three windows in my house that could use netting for privacy but it seemed so expensive from the shops.  I found some that were acceptable in design/colour (not too old granny), were in good condition, and the right width and length.  Excellent.  There was also a good rail I got for $2, and I asked and they managed to find my a curtain rod tucked away in the back. Excellent.  Everything cost me a "donation" as they are moving locations - so I just gave them $8.

I'm currently washing the curtains and I look forward to putting them up when I have some time. I'll put up some photos when they're done.

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Edit: If you have trouble deciding what looks crappy old op-shop and what looks ok vintage, try looking at modern versions and think about what you like about them.  For example, my dear friend has top-of-the-range netting curtains at her house. I was checking what made them look modern and expensive, compared with the granny-flat ones I see at my patients houses. Some things to consider are:

• Colour - some colours look more tired than others, for example some cream colours can look like white that has yellowed with age, but some whites can look cheap too. Complimenting the rest of the room is a good way to have things fit well into a room.
• Texture - I'm really into the tweed-like textures atm. Consider whether a finer or coarser texture would look best to you in the different situations.
• Natural or synthetic - one of the best things I like about the bigger netting I just bought is it appears to be made from natural fibres, ie a wool/cotton blend.  This gives a sense of luxury and can be a real find in op-shops as it was the preferred material a few decades ago. Now it's all cheap nylon and synthetics.
• Pattern - a modern or classic pattern can be a world of difference from a daggy 1980's/90's one. I'm really into the deco era and shudder at the sight of anything I had in my house when I was growing up.
• Less is more - A few op-shop pieces, even curtains of furniture can looks good if they are maintained in a good condition. Having your whole place decked-out like students accommodation where you display everything you have every owned gives a slightly different feel. 
• Condition - as above, a well-maintained item is essential.
• Be brave - so what if your $4 curtain doesn't look so good when it's up? You only lost $4, not $240. Unless you're expecting a visit from Home Beautiful magazine this week, try again, get creative, express your artistic side, and try again.

Good luck.

Home-made marmalade

Before I moved out to this little town you could say my motto was something like "Can't cook, won't cook".  I even considered doing one of those bachelor's cooking night courses at the uni. Out of shear necessity of needing to eat more than just 2-minute noodles I started cooking (occasionally).  Cookbooks drive me mad.  I don't like to stick to set volumes and times, but I do draw inspiration from recipes I find online or wherever.  I prefer to improvise and get creative.  I think that's what I like about rural and remote medicine - you don't always have every latest and greatest test or piece of equipment at your disposal.  But I digress.....

Here is my recipe for home-made candied burnt-orange marmalade I made (made-up) yesterday instead of studying.  A lot of the recipes I saw add pectin, but I did not.  I used citric acid as a preservative, and lemons, but I have no idea how long they will store for.  I'll be keeping mine in the fridge until my preservative skills improve.

Candied burnt-orange marmalade
Ingredients:
10 oranges
2 lemons
1 cup of water
4 teaspoons of citric acid
1 cup of castor sugar
Saucepan
Jars for storing - wash well in hot water to minimise bacteria and allow longer storage
Labels
Makes only about 500mg - 4 tiny baby-food jars.  Double recipe as required.


Thinly slice four oranges and two lemons with their rind still on.

Cut up the remaining six oranges but discard the rinds.  Cut the flesh into chunks about 1-2cm cubed.

Places the oranges and lemons into a non-stick saucepan.

Begin to cook on a moderately high heat and begin adding some water so they don't stick.  Continue adding the water so the oranges and lemons reduce but don't dry out too much.  Stir as necessary.

Add the citric acid and stir-in well.

Add the castor sugar and continue reducing the juice and water on low heat and mix in well.

Keep a good eye on it now as it will start to candy and burn.  I've got no idea how long this takes - maybe 15-20 minutes.

Once everything looks jam-like and there is no runny juice or water allow some of the rinds to just burn a little on the pan and then remove from heat.

Put into jars.

Can be used as marmalade on English muffins, or as I prefer in cocktails or ice-cream.

Burnt-orange cosmo
30mL vodka - any, seriously.  The cheap stuff is fine.
30mL Cointreau (or Chambord for a bit more berriness)
Cranberry juice (or pomegrante juice, or even ginger beer for the "mule" version)
Candied burnt-orange marmalade
Chilled martini glass

Mix together and enjoy responsibly!

Keeping it simple

Having a simple-life, a relaxed home-life, down-shifting, living frugally, living green, and living ethically can sometimes all share a similar thread.  One of the most important things to do, in my opinion, is to de-clutter.

When you de-clutter your home you begin to know exactly what you have and where everything is.  The things you already have you can take more time to look after and repair rather than replace.  You can enjoy and actually read the five novels you have instead of the five-hundred, for example.

I find the food in my pantry is much more likely to get eaten before it expires if I know exactly what I have in there, can see it all, and it is kept nicely in their packets or those plastic containers.  The same goes for the fridge, the wardrobe, the sewing cupboard, etc.  For some reason I buy less new stuff when I am more aware of the stuff I already have.

I'm not a de-cluttering expert, but this is how I do it;

Rubbish - junk that is no good to anybody

• Finally get to use those plastic shopping bags in the kitchen draw.  Take one (or two - for some reasons all mine have holes in the bottom, so I double-line) into each room in your house and don't leave that room until it is full.  I'm forever filling mine with paper and mostly empty tubes and containers of stuff which is well-and-truely past it's use-by date and I'm continually asking myself "Where did all this crap come from?"  The normal answer is that is accumulates over time somehow.
• Take bags straight to your bins and sort into recycling and rubbish, thereby full-filling the minimum green obligations.  If you don't have a recycling service for some reason, dispose of the rubbish in the best way you can.
• Repeat the top two steps as frequently as necessary.

Junk - junk that may be useful to somebody

• Boxes would be handy here. I collect and save cardboard boxes that stuff gets delivered in at work.  The other option is the local supermarket.
• Get those old books you are seriously never going to read because you've had them for 10 years and haven't even read the blurb and put them into boxes and take them to the local op-shop.  
• I tend to keep reference books, like "Vegetarian Nutrition for Athletes" and "What Flower is That?".  These have their own small bookcase.
• Other junk, like crappy old crockery when you already have 20 dinner plates.  Exceptions - keep old cutlery for picnics, keep jars for homemade chutney.  These will be coming posts!  Old bottles can also be handy too. If you do decide to hang onto bottles and jars, it's best to put them in their own box out of the way yet where they can be found when the time comes.  The garage or laundry are good places.
• Childrens' toys - as much as I love my Hello Kitty manicure set, it might be time to give that to the op-shop.  If the toys are too dirty and embarrassing to give to friends/relatives, don't under-estimate the op-shop.  I forever see children leaving there with a new toy.
• Things in this category also might go well at the local trash 'n' treasure market.  I've done a few, but the goal is to get rid of everything, even if someone offers 20c for it.  It's junk to you, remember!

eBayable - junk that probably has some value to somebody on eBay

• Have a look at what stuff you have and never use and ask yourself if you'd rather have it cluttering up your home or $5.
• Things I have found that eBay really well are textbooks (medical and scientific go well for me), Nintendo games (Wii and DS) and some DVDs especially TV series.  I'm guessing other textbooks or well-known books might do well, as would other video games and some DVDs.  I had the Grey's Anatomy series and they sold very well.
• Anything with a brand-name that is normally expensive to buy new seems to do well. I got rid of all my genuine Pandora charms in a flash!
• Things that I find don't sell well are old clothes (unless they have a designer label) and other things that should really be in the above category and taken to the op-shop.
• Remember that eBay charges a small fee (unless you list it without a gallery photo for 99c reserve price) and there is time involved in putting up an item for auction and then organising posting it.  Also, some buyers can be really annoying.  Overall, I've had a good experience on eBay.

Valuable items - things that definitely have an intrinsic value

• Valuable items don't normally fall into the clutter group, but if you find yourself with something that definitely has value, such as gold jewellery or a very nice antique, either display them, store them appropriately, or sell them at the right place such as a jeweller or antique store.  eBay may be appropriate in some instances.
• Taking the time to display something nicely shouldn't clutter your home.
• If you decide to store something should only be for certain special circumstances such as heirlooms.  If you do decide to stare a few things then pack the item appropriately and label the box clearly.  Don't forget you have it!

By now you should be feeling much better.  You might be surprised at how often you have to repeat this process!

Things I like to keep in mind while I'm de-cluttering;

• When did I last use this?
• If this got stolen from my home, would I even notice it was gone?
• If I had to move overseas, would I bother paying to ship this with me or to put it in storage?
• Does this thing enhance my life, or make it more cluttered?

There are some exceptions to the rule, but try not to get trapped here.  For example, I like to reuse sewing fabrics, buttons, and bits and bobs.  I have a sewing/crafting section of my cupboard.  I keep it fairly organised.  I also like to re-use envelopes (I keep the ones banks forever send me junk in and re-use them for my mail - just takes a bit of sticky-tape and white-out) and scrap paper.  I also keep these very organised in their own draws in my study.  I have a friend that is a farmer and keeps old motor parts in his shed, just in case, because he generally uses them eventually.  If you do some of these practices then you need to keep this sort of junk organised or risk getting cluttered. It might be best to set yourself limits such as one draw, one cupboard, or one shed!

You might want to de-clutter a room a week, or I like to do a plastic bag in each room and a box on one of my days off before I start the housework.  The important thing is to start.

Once everything is de-cluttered you can start to organise your remaining stuff!

Good luck!

Down-shifting

I've just started reading a new blog - Notes from the Frugal Trenches, amoungst others from Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op blog.  I was reading about "downshifting", as the thought of it pretty much dominates my mind atm.  I thought I'd just reflect on my own downshifting journey over the past few years.

(YA = years ago, MA = months ago, ie in the past from where I am now).  I've tried for chronological order;

10YA - Lived on a 33ft yacht for about a year.  Realised how many more stars there are in the night sky away from cities, pollution, lights etc.  Got nostalgic for the days when I used to be able to see the Milky Way from my suburban home as a child.  Realised I hadn't seen many stars at all in the city for years.  Quite a shock.

9YA - Did my Army preventive medicine (environmental health) training living on-base for a few months out in the sticks.  Really enjoyed my lifestyle there and how good I felt, particularly my afternoon 5km run around the base through the trees on a dirt track and some grass, the fresh air, and the lack of traffic.  Decided at this time I wanted to move out of the city but would still want a good career, which I didn't have on the yacht.  Looked at the Army full-time, decided on becoming a paramedic.

7YA - Began becoming a paramedic.  This included some clinical placements in rural locations which I really enjoyed.  Started narrowing down where I would want to move to. 

4YA - Got my first full-time ALS paramedic job in a rural city.  Had quite a culture shock as my normal forms of entertainment were either not available at all, not readily available, or not of the same standard.  At that time these were fancy dinners at restaurants, cocktail bars, Gold Class cinemas, and live shows/gigs, as well as a membership at a nice fancy gym with a eucalyptus steam room and aromatherapy room to name just a few.

3YA - Transferred my job and my life to a small rural town.  Another culture shock again. No shops except the op-shop and a small supermarket which didn't contain any fancy products. Searched the supermarket shelves and couldn't find rice milk or tofu (they are now available). No free-range chicken, no fresh organic food.  No takeaway food and the one and only restaurant at the pub was terrible.  No gym at all.  And my roster involved being on-call a lot.  Had to begin shopping on-line which helped me decide what I really wanted and less impulse (still some impulse buying).  Had to learn how to cook and how to use more staple ingredients. Bought a Nintendo Wii and set-up home gym and bought Tracy Anderson workout DVDs.  Go for an occasional run in the fresh air around the paddocks - reminds me of the good ol' times on the Army base.

1.5YA - Bought my house so I could finally do things like install solar panels, put in a vege patch, plant some fruit trees, and get my non-existent gardens in existence.  Already had some nifty devices like those standby power switches.  Water tank already insitu.  Grey-water hose from washing machine to vege patch in place since renting as we were ina serious drought then.

8MA - Decided I was going to go frugal. Rearranged my budget as much as possible (with more help from My Budget with who I have been with for a few years now). Reduced as much as possible.  Shopped around for cheapest insurance, internet, phone etc.  Simplified.  Convinced myself to only travel overseas once per year instead of up to 4 times at one stage!

6MA - Found myself the perfect house-mate to take up some of the ridiculously large amount of space I have in my house and to contribute rent.

4MA - Started reducing the amount of overtime I work.  Enjoy my days off.

2MA - Finally getting my feed-in sorted for my solar (so the electricity company buys-back any excess I generate thoughout the day).

1MA - Started seriously looking at rural acreage for my (hopefully) final transition to as rural as I want to go.  Planning to rent my rural township house out (I wont sell it as I need a city or town house as an asset as my acreage house will firstly be my forever-home so I can freely design and do with it what I wish without worrying about resale, and secondly it will not increase in capital as dramatically as my township house, and thirdly my plan is to have a number of small-mortgage houses with people renting them off me and to never have a large mortgage to which I am chained to as per the advice from a few of the older people I'm friends with).  Am still currently in the planning phase or the acreage house.  Projected period of planning is 12 months, projected period of construction/moving is another 12-24 months after that. V. excited.

Recently - Bought my first few shares! They were in a co-operative wind farm!  V. cool.  Hoping to receive my first few small dividends in the next year.  Joining some local sustainability groups.

So now I've started a new post category - the "simple life" which I hope share the more time I intend to spend on my down-shifted, frugal, green, simple life. 

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I'm hoping to still keep up with modernity, though.  I love technology and I have no intention on rejecting modern life and living like the colonials.  I'm just trying to cultivate that part in my bio that says "find the time to stop and smell the roses....."