Delightful day!

What a wonderfully relaxing day! This morning I joined 3 of my favourite ladies for brunch overlooking a gorgeous river. To the left you can see Woodbridge house, to the side of that (no, I didn't take my camera) is the coach house, which has been renovated and turned into the most delightful coffee house and restaurant. We sat on the verandah, watching the river flow, birds abounded whilst we sipped latte's and orange juices, brunch for me was a prawn cocktail entree and chicken caesar salad, the girls a mix of things. The food was cooked to perfection, presented beautifully,service was excellent and the companionship was the best! I love catching up with the girls, aka the "Evil Plant Buying Alliance", its always fun, I learn plenty and we share all sorts of things (you know us women, we have to chat!) The hot news today was 2 are going to have wee additions to their families come November....Congrats Cat & Lara! I was spoiled again, coming home with Giant Russian Sunflower seeds, a huge silvanberry bush and some pimento-thanks ladies! Thanks too Nat for getting me there....wasn't as difficult as I thought lol Next coffee & brunch is our house (hopefully we will have moved in by then!), where we can spend the day discussing the "blank canvas" I will have to work with lol. Hope you are all enjoying the weekend! Take care of you and yours:)

Making Do, Cutting Back, Living Leaner....

I've been rather lax lately, between work and organising for the move there hasn't been a lot of inclination to sit up late LOL. In addition, because I am not doing anything other than keeping the yard tidy for the soon to be new owners, and not planting, I don't have any pics of my latest plantings etc. I thought today I would post on the subject that is, I am sure, in the forefront of most minds....the current global financial situation we are all caught up in, and what we can think about doing...

Keep in mind that these worst possible case scenarios have a relatively small possibility of ever occurring. This massive global depression may never come to fruition. Don’t worry yourself into an early grave over what may or may not happen....prepare for the worst and hope for the best!

Having said that, if you are sufficiently convinced that this is serious and it’s real, then you may wish to take some measure of precaution to help keep yourself and your loved ones safe from harder times to come.

One big difference between families of the depression era and families of today are that backyard gardens were very common. It's true that in the middle of hard times we cannot depend on constant shipments of food to the stores.

Even if there is a supply of food, it is limited to about a 3 day supply and out of the price range that most families can afford when there is a run.

That is why I suggest you think about survival gardening. This is simple to do when one knows how. Hint - seeds sold in the store can be genetically modified generally unless specifically labelled heirloom open pollinated. Find some good gardening sites online, learn all you can about gardening and start practicing, even if it is with a few tomoatoes or pumpkins, some potatoes or a fruit tree....learn now whilst you have the luxury of time on your side.

Our grandparents and great-grandparents formed a lack of trust in banks and turned to burying cash in the backyard or hiding it under the mattress.

Our current economic downturn doesn’t yet call for such drastic measures but there are things we can learn from those who went through this challenging era and prospered.

Growing at least some of your own food can save a lot of money and provide the satisfaction that comes from eating local, really local. Consider starting a community garden such as the Depression-era community relief gardens, or the World War II Victory Gardens. Keep some chickens, rabbits or ducks etc for the proteing, fertiliser and bug exterminators.

In hard times, we can sometimes find a lot of pleasure in remembering to enjoy the simple things in life.

During the 1930s, games like Monopoly became popular because they gave people hope and allowed them to dream of a better life. Remember some of the board games from your childhood, and plan a low-tech outing with friends and family.

It will also help you remember that you don’t absolutely NEED every single gadget that hits the store shelves, and on top of that it will be a bit cheaper than spending the day at some theme park.

We all have different situations, and this is one of the most pressing issues facing our country and the world right now.

You might be just out of college and trying to make it on your own, or you might be paying for your child’s college now, but there are definitely lessons to be learned from the Depression.

In some cases, it may be beneficial to sacrifice a bit of privacy in the short-term in order to get back on track financially.

Rent an extra bedroom to a friend, have your child move back home if you are struggling to send him or her rent money every month, or downsize your home.

You don’t have to necessarily make a gut-wrenching decision overnight, but do yourself a favour and at least check out some listings on Craigslist for rentals, or have a real estate agent email you listings in a cheaper price range.

If a great deal pops up that piques your interest, you can at least bat around the idea with your family. If you are single, just go for it!

If you are looking for employment, you might consider looking for a position that is slightly below your ideal salary, but that seems to have the most potential for advancement.

If you are entrepreneurial, and perhaps have already fallen behind on bills, one positive thing about the current economic climate is that you are starting over at a time when many other people are also faced with starting from scratch financially, and perhaps you may even be in a position where you literally have nothing left to lose, which can be a great time for personal innovation and taking the risk to start in a new industry or implement an idea that’s always been in the back of your mind. It’s time for boot-strapping!

If you have credit available, you might be tempted to use it before the bank cuts the credit line. Don’t do it.

Going into debt will only hurt you in the long run. Instead, remember the words of your grandmother and heed this simple, age-old advice - “if you can’t afford to pay cash, you can’t afford it.”

When you simply have no money, it is easy to keep spending under control because it is impossible to spend. If, for example, you are getting hit with overdraft fees, you need to establish a barrier that you absolutely will not dip below (even if it means paying a bill late).

Take the cue from the 1930s and use cash rather than debit for your petty purchases, especially when you are close to zero in your account. This will help avoid paying $36 for that pack of gum if an unexpected payment goes through your account and causes an overdraft fee.

Gone are the days of disposability. If you have a shirt with a tear or a pipe that’s sprung a leak or a tire with a hole, don’t toss it. Fix it. If you don’t know how to, learn it. Back in the old days, everyone did their own basic home repairs and calling in a specialist was something reserved for those with a fat wallet.

These days, with do-it-yourself videos and sites all over the web, finding out how to do something should be snap.

Time to break out the piggy bank. Since you aren’t using credit, it’s time to start saving for big purchases (or emergencies). Maybe that’s throwing all your change in a jar or cutting out that overpriced coffee each morning.

Help yourself by keeping track in a savings book, just like grandma used to. Or throw it all into an online bank saving account and make that scratch earn a little extra.

We’re all in this economic drain-circling boat together, right? If so, if your neighbour is trying to impress someone, they’re only sinking themselves. So don’t worry about if they have a bigger boat or a fancier car. That just put them a lot closer to the edge than you want to be. Want to strike up a conversation with them over the hedge? Ask them about their 401k.

One of the best skills developed by folks in the Depression was learning to stretch their food supply as far as it would go. No leftovers for the microwave in 1939.

Instead garden veggies were canned for the winter, meat bones went into making soup and even grease was saved in a jar under the sink. Follow their lead by brown-bagging your lunch or seeing just how far you can make that rotisserie chicken last this week. Here’s another hint – smaller portions!

When you are looking for extra cash, check your ego at the door. During the Depression, men would do odd jobs, paint a fence, chop wood or work a farm. Anything for extra cash (like selling those apples). If you are in a bind, don’t let your impression resume stand between you and a steady pay cheque. The money from Pitza hut or tips from being a pizza delivery guy all spend the same as yours.

Finally, one of the great lessons of the lean times is that people often were able to give some help, even if it was hard. A man would be hired to pick the crop for a day and get a good meal when he was finished. People took in boarders or picked up someone who needed a ride. Those were more trusting times to be sure, but if you’ve got an opportunity, no reason not to pay it forward. Because..... it’s tough out there for everybody.

And just for fun, heres a few Depression Era Recipes

Vintage WW1 Eggless, Milkless, Butterless Cake 1 cup water 2 cups raisins 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. cloves 1 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup lard (shortening) 1/4 tsp. nutmeg 1/4 tsp. salt 2 cups flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. baking powder Place water, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar, lard (shortening), nutmeg and salt in a saucepan and mix. Place on heat and bring to a boil. Cook 3 minutes. Allow to cool, then sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir into cooked mixture. Place in a greased loaf pan and bake at 350F for one hour.

Ritz Mock Apple Pie Pastry for two-crust 9-inch pie 36 RITZ Crackers, coarsely broken (about 1 3/4 cups crumbs) 1 3/4 cups water 2 cups sugar 2 teaspoons cream of tartar 2 tablespoons lemon juice Grated peel of one lemon 2 tablespoons margarine or butter 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon Roll out half the pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate. Place cracker crumbs in prepared crust; set aside. Heat water, sugar and cream of tartar to a boil in saucepan over high heat; simmer for 15 minutes. Add lemon juice and peel; cool. Pour syrup over cracker crumbs. Dot with margarine or butter; sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll out remaining pastry; place over pie. Trim, seal and flute edges. Slit top crust to allow steam to escape. Bake at 425°F for 30 to 35 minutes or until crust is crisp and golden. Cool completely.

Chicken Soup Boil chicken and remove from bones. (left over roasted or baked chicken is fine) Heat broth until boiling and then reduce heat and sprinkle in corn meal. Whisk until thickened and stir in chicken. Add salt and pepper to taste. No measurements as the cooks long ago did not use measurments.

Scalloped Corn 1 can cream corn 1 egg 1/4 cup milk enough crumbled saltin cracker to make a semi-thick mixture when stirred into the above. Bake at 350 for about 30 min till nice and puffy

and a few more links:

GREAT DEPRESSION RECIPES

Great Depression Pork Stew

Depression Era Corn Chowder

Take care of you and yours:)

COMPACT FLUORESCENT LAMPS (CFL’S)

As state and foreign governments enact forced phase-outs of incandescent light bulbs, consumers are being kept in the dark about the many downsides of compact fluorescent lamps…..replacements being billed as an environmental and energy-savings panacea.

CFLs are all the rage. They are the spirally shaped, long-lasting bulbs everyone is being urged, cajoled and guilt-tripped into purchasing to replace Thomas Edison's incandescents, which are being compared to sports utility vehicles for their impracticality and energy inefficiency. However, there is no problem disposing of incandescents when their life is over. You can throw them in the trash can and they won't hurt the garbage collector. They won't leech deadly compounds into the air or water. They won't kill people working in the landfills.

The same cannot be said about the mercury-containing CFLs. They bear disposal warnings on the packaging. But with limited recycling prospects and the problems experienced by Brandy Bridges sure to be repeated millions of times, some think government, the green community and industry are putting the cart before the horse marketing the new technology so ferociously.

While CFLs arguably use less energy and last longer than incandescents, there is one serious environmental drawback – the presence of small amounts of highly toxic mercury in each and every bulb. This poses problems for consumers when breakage occurs and for disposal when bulbs eventually do burn out.

Most consumers, even those already using the CFLs, do not realize the long-term dangers the bulbs pose to the environment and the health of human beings.

So what happens if you break one? As a result of various studies, the cleanup guidance is as follows:

• Leaving the area/room and waiting 15 minutes after breakage before returning to begin cleaning up (mercury levels in the air will have fallen from their highest levels by then);

• Using a glass container, metal screw top lid with a seal, such as a canning jar, to contain the lamp pieces, powder, and cleanup materials;

• Immediately removing the lamp breakage from the home once containerized, especially if the homeowner did not have a glass container with a good seal;

• Continue ventilating the room for several hours;

• homeowners consider removal of the area of carpet where the breakage occurred as a precaution, particularly in homes with infants, small children or pregnant women;

• If carpet is not removed, the homeowner should consider ventilating the room during vacuuming for the next several vacuuming events;

• homeowners consider not utilizing fluorescent lamps in situations where they could easily be broken, in bedrooms used by infants, small children, or pregnant women, or over carpets in rooms frequented by infants, small children and pregnant women; and

• Avoiding the storage of too many used/spent lamps before recycling as that could increase the chances of breakage.

Mercury concentration in the study room air often exceeds the Maine Ambient Air Guideline (MAAG) of 300 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3) for some period of time, with short excursions over 25,000 ng/m3, sometimes over 50,000 ng/m3, and possibly over 100,000 ng/m3 from the breakage of a single compact fluorescent lamp. A short period of venting can, in most cases, significantly reduce the mercury air concentrations after breakage.

Concentrations can sometimes rebound when rooms are no longer vented, particularly with certain types of lamps and during/after vacuuming. Mercury readings at the one foot height tend to be greater than at the five foot height in non vacuumed situations.

Cleaning up a broken CFL by vacuuming up the smaller debris particles in an un-vented room can elevate mercury concentrations over the MAAG in the room and it can linger at these levels for hours. Vacuuming tends to mix the air within the room such that the one foot and five foot heights are similar immediately after vacuuming. A vacuum can become contaminated by mercury such that it cannot be easily decontaminated. Vacuuming a carpet where a lamp has broken and been visibly cleaned up, even weeks after the cleanup, can elevate the mercury readings over the MAAG in an un-vented room.

Elemental mercury is a liquid that releases mercury vapor at room temperature. This vapor can be inhaled into the lungs and then passed into the blood stream. Elemental mercury can also be absorbed through the skin and then into the blood stream. However, if this form of mercury is ingested, it is not absorbed by the stomach, and usually travels through the digestive system without being passed into the blood stream to a large degree. Symptoms of elemental mercury poisoning include the following: tremors; emotional changes (e.g., mood swings, irritability, nervousness, excessive shyness); insomnia; neuromuscular changes (such as weakness, muscle atrophy, twitching); headaches; disturbances in sensations; changes in nerve responses; and performance deficits on tests of cognitive function.

According to environmental agencies, elemental mercury can convert in the environment to the more toxic methylmercury and cause problems for wildlife as well as humans.Human exposure to methylmercury can cause long-lasting health effects, especially on foetal development during pregnancy. Mercury releases, whether as a discharge through wastewater discharges or in vapor form, deposit in waterways where some portion converts to methylmercury.

While environmental agencies are on the CFL bandwagon as a means of reducing carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, which it believes contributes to global warming; it also quietly offers advice on cleanup of broken bulbs that might give consumers pause to consider dumping those incandescents any time soon.

Most agree more energy-efficient light bulbs can significantly curb air pollution, but fewer people are talking about how to deal with them at the end of their lives, there is no plan to address air and water pollution concerns that could develop if consumers improperly dispose of the mercury-containing devices and just how many people do you know will put those burnt out CFL’s into glass jars before disposing?

Australia plans to ban all incandescent globes by 2010. That means I am going to be stocking like crazy for a while. In our home, we don’t leave lights on when leaving a room, use 40 watt bulbs in most places and actually don’t use lighting when watching TV or using the PC, in fact, I suspect we use a miniscule amount of light power compared to the average home. The small amount of lighting power we do use in our home is by far preferable to the long lasting damage created by lights containing mercury in my humble opinion.

Given the move is toward more LED lighting, I am going to continue to use the old fashioned bulbs for the next 3-5 years they propose before LED is the standard lighting.....what do you think?

SPREADING THE TRUTH

TODAY IN THE GARDEN

And here is the latest harvest....Apple Cucumbers! If you haven't tried them, it may be worth considering. Unlike the standard long cucumbers that give some indigestion, these are loved because they don't have you burping every 5 minutes! I am so glad we got to harvest some of these. I actually grew them for my Aunt who loves them, however son got to the few ripe ones first and ate them like apples LOL Here are a few more. And here's some info in case you are wondering about nutritional content: Calories 18 ( Kilojoules 75 ) Value* Total Fat 0 g Saturated Fat 0 g Trans Fatty Acids 0 g Cholesterol 0 mg 0% Sodium 30 mg Total Carbohydrates 3.8 g Dietary Fibre 2.3 g Sugars 1.5 g Protein 0.8 g Calcium 43.5 mg Potassium 150 mg Another just about ready for harvest, another week and it will be ready! For those wondering about the house....we are still waiting to move. It seems when our government decided to enhance the new home buyers scheme by increasing the grant by $7,000.00 every man and his dog decided to buy a house. The hold up in our moving is the backlog at the grant office (Keystart). The loan to the couple has been pre-approved, all we are waiting for is for them to find the paperwork in the mountain they are sifting through! And so.....we wait LOL. Now I am off to do some more garden tidy up...have to love a day off! Take care of you and yours:)

Today in the kitchen....

Aren't these gorgeous? I am trying to harvest as much as possible before we move, this was the result of the Chilli bush raids. There are 3 varieties there. And here they are dried, amazing how little they are reduced to when finished! I actually prefer them this way, finding it too hard to judge the amount I was addding to any recipe when I ground them. Our first harvested Loofah! I placed a slit in the side of the one I picked and hung it under the patio to dry out, cut in half, shook the seeds out to save and put into a bucket to soak and clean. I have about 6 more that just might make size for harvesting before we leave, I hope so, this really is simple, fun and they make for great bathroom and kitchen sponges. What I love best about the loofah is that once they become a bit daggy I can throw them in the compost and there is no pollution, no tip dumping, no footprint! I also harvested the soapwort plants, heated up the water, soaked the leaves, gave them a good stirring and poured the liquid into some squeeze bottles I have. One bottle is a gift to a friend who suffers from a skin condition (soapwort is a wonderful herb that assists with many skin conditions) the remainder will be used in our bathroom & laundry. Of course I forgot to take photos of these, and at this time of the night I can't be bothered, so you will have to wait until I do the next batch lol. Hope the week is going well for you Take care of you and yours:)

Naturally Clean

Good morning all, hope you are ready for a great week-end! I thought today I would take the opportunity to run over some of the cleaning methods I use around the home. The idea came to me last night when my sister (waves hello to Julie) enquired about natural cleaning products. It wasn't until some years ago when I was concentrating on growing as much food as possible to avoid chemicals that I suddenly realised it was a sham, here I was growing naturally because I wanted healthy food, yet was buying off the shelf chemical ridden cleaning products that were polluting my house inside! Research was quick and simple, there is a wealth of information out there.

The Five Basics for Non-toxic Cleaning

Baking Soda A commonly available mineral full of many cleaning attributes, baking soda is made from soda ash, and is slightly alkaline. It neutralizes acid-based odours in water, and adsorbs odours from the air. Sprinkled on a damp sponge or cloth, baking soda can be used as a gentle nonabrasive cleanser for kitchen counter tops, sinks, bathtubs, ovens, and fibreglass. It will eliminate perspiration odours and even neutralize the smell of many chemicals if you add up to a cup per load to the laundry. It is a useful air freshener, and a fine carpet deodorizer. Washing Soda A chemical neighbour of baking soda, washing soda (sodium carbonate) is much more strongly alkaline. It releases no harmful fumes and is far safer than a commercial solvent formula, but you should wear gloves when using it because it is caustic. Washing soda cuts grease, cleans petroleum oil, removes wax or lipstick, and neutralizes odours in the same way that baking soda does. Don’t use it on fibreglass, aluminium or waxed floors—unless you intend to remove the wax. White Vinegar and Lemon Juice White vinegar and lemon juice are acidic—they neutralize alkaline substances such as scale from hard water. Acids dissolve gummy build-up, eat away tarnish, and remove dirt from wood surfaces. Liquid Soaps and Detergent Liquid soaps and detergents are necessary for cutting grease, and they are not the same thing. Soap is made from fats and lye. Detergents are synthetic materials discovered and synthesized early in this century. Unlike soap, detergents are designed specifically so that they don’t react with hard water minerals and cause soap scum. If you have hard water buy a biodegradable detergent without perfumes; if you have soft water you can use liquid soap (both are available in health food stores). I prefer to use my own soapwort liquid and soaps in place of commercially prepared. You can do that too, just buy the plant and in a couple of months you can make your own soaps/liquids! Mould Killers and Disinfectants There are many essential oils, such as lavender, clove, and tea tree oil (an excellent natural fungicide), that are very antiseptic, as is grapefruit seed extract, even though they aren’t registered as such. Use one teaspoon of essential oil to 2 cups of water in a spray bottle (make sure to avoid eyes). A grapefruit seed extract spray can be made by adding 20 drops of extract to a quart of water.

Caution: Make sure to keep all home-made formulas well-labelled, and out of the reach of children.

And now for those promised links:

Frugal Living Recipes Gomestic Recipes Readers Digest Recipes Thrifty Fun Recipes The New HomeMaker Recipes

Hope you enjoy looking at these, the simplicity and effectiveness is often not believed until experienced.....try something from the lists, I bet you won't look back :) Have a super week-end ahead Take care of you and yours:)

STILL WAITING......

We are still waiting for a settlement date, it appears to be taking forever, apparently there are no problems, just the usual beaurocratic time machine *sigh* As you can see, the Easter Lily has flowered, I must remember to dig some of the bulbs up before we leave, they make such a delightful show! These chillies will be dried today, I have taken to drying whole after splitting down the middle and cleaning out. Much easier for me to gauge how much of it I am using when I break off pieces as opposed to using the powder I had ground. The photo really does not do them justice, they are the prettiest green, don't ask me what variety, I forgot to mark them! I will be saving the seed from these if they taste as good as they look! As you can see, the heat got to the Loofah vine! However it won't take a few minutes of watering and it will be back and holding its own. I now have about 6 of these growing from the vine, they really do appear to spring out of nowhere overnight, and they sprout in length at such an amazing rate each day! The Rosemary has flowered, so there will be no more cutting to dry for a while. Thankfully I took some cuttings that have taken nicely so I will be able to plant that out the front where I plan on putting a herb garden and natives. The house still looks like a bomb site, with even more boxes in every nook and cranny, the jumble is making me potty, I can't stand mess....I keep reminding myself that it's not for much longer though! The poor cleaner has been coming in for weeks and just shaking her head LOL. Time to get moving again, today it is collecting all the solar lights we have around the garden and boxing them, along with all the garden ornaments and knick-knacks.... Take care of you and yours:)

How's your weekend going? Mine has been spent seeing family (always enjoyable) and today sorting through yet more in the process of packing. I think I am going through withdrawals in relation to the garden. There is no point in planting out much right now when in 2 weeks we will be gone, and of course in the new place it is going to take me months to get the soil moving and into a condition worth planting into. It will probably be September again before I do any serious planting and that is really eating at me LOL. Still, with all that I am enjoying watching the fruits of my previous labour. Take this gorgeous sugar baby watermelon for example. We have already harvested 4 of them for our kitchen, given some to our work collegues and family, this one will be the next to pick in a week or so. They are super sweet, taste delightful but do contain a lot of seed. I might look at another heirloom variety if it comes with a flavour that is as good! The weather is slowly cooling down, the days of 40C+ appear to be gone thank heavens, it means all that gardening needed in the new place can at least be done in bearable conditions. Speaking of which, we have a few plans: -Put in 2 x 23,000 litre tanks -Solar pump to water tanks for garden drip system -Put in solar hot water system -Place wetback on fire to heat solar in winter -Have bricky add to existing brick BBQ base and change into an adobe oven -Composting Loo installed Hopefully we can complete all this by the end of the year, in addition to the garden....going to be busy days for a while! Hope you all have a super week ahead:) Take care of you and yours:)

THINGS ARE HEATING UP....

Today's dramatic action by the Bank of England underlines the worsening nature of the global financial crisis as credit markets remain frozen. The bank has dropped interest rates to 0.5 per cent and announced that it will create another 75 billion pounds ($166 billion) to tackle the UK's deep recession.

Put simply, the global banking system remains broken and little has changed since September last year when the Lehman Brothers collapse set the dominoes falling on Wall Street That's when the credit crunch exploded into the global financial crisis.

This week's reality check is the teetering state of the world's biggest insurer American International Group which posted the biggest quarterly loss in American corporate history. AIG is regarded as "too big to fail" and this week the chairman of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke acknowledged the collapse of the insurer would effectively crack the bedrock of the financial system.

While AIG's business is vast and complex, the ramifications of an insurance underwriting crisis would see business grind to a halt around the world. As one commentator remarked this week; "planes wouldn't fly, ships wouldn't sail, trains wouldn't run" without the confidence of insurance.

The fate of the US auto industry is also being closely watched, with at least one of the Big Three likely to fail or merge in the coming months. Today, General Motors shares dived 17 per cent after the company's auditors warned the automotive icon might have to file for bankruptcy. It's a far cry from one of America's best known advertising slogans " what's good for General Motors is good for the country".

Australian rates still relatively high

With Britain's official rate getting closer to zero after today's reduction, Australian rates remain relatively high.

The US rate is set between 0 and 0.25 per cent, Japan is close to zero and like Britain, the Bank of Canada has rates at 0.5 per cent.

The European Central Bank has also slashed rates today to 1.5 per cent although it is taking a more cautious approach to the zero option.

This week Australia's official rate was kept on hold at 3.25 per cent after falling four percentage points since September. But Wednesday's worse than expected GDP result for the December quarter of last year now has some economists taking about a 75 basis point cut in April. Even then, Australian rates would still be high in comparison.

So with worsening times ahead, Australia's Reserve Bank has the capacity to cut deeper as developments unfold or as the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd flagged this week, more shocks from the "global economic cyclone”. That’s why the RBA kept it's interest rates powder dry by staying on the sidelines earlier this week.

But as the global shockwaves keep coming, expect Australian rates to plunge to as low as 2 per cent by the middle of the year.

Worried Aussie consumers are paying down credit card debt, paying off mortgages and saving for a rainy day rather than spending the Government stimulus package according to the Financial and Consumer Rights Council.

The council's executive director, Richard Foster, told ABC News Radio people's attitudes towards debt have not changed. "What we're finding now though with the last stimulus package and with another one about to come to fruition is that debt is as much a priority as it ever was, it's just being retired a little bit better," he said.

Mr Foster deals with people burdened with debt on a daily basis. He says the priorities of financially disadvantaged people have always been about basic needs such as utilities, food and shelter. "These [stimulus] packages have made it a little bit easier for those people to deal with those sort of day-to-day burdens," he said.

"But I don't think those who are in financial dire straits really have the luxury of being able to look at whether or not they may buy the new plasma TV, or squirrel some away for a rainy day."

SOURCE

Keep that saving and storing going people, I suspect this is just the beginning.....

Take care of you and yours :)

POST PEAK OIL TRANSITION & BACKYARD GARDENS