Cheap Easy Vegan/Mcdougall Soup

Wherever you live, winter is coming...

This soup is made mostly of very cheap and available ingredients, with lots of room to add your own variety. 

Make lots and feed a crowd or eat for days or freeze for weeks...

Prep and cooking time: 1 hour+

Equipment and Ingredients

Large pot - 5L pictured
Food processor very helpful

Note: I use an electric kettle to preboil water for the pot but adding regular temperature water will eventually result in soup too.

• 1 to 3 brown onions
• 1/3 to 1/2 cabbage plus optional 1 cup of any chopped greens eg kale or dandelion leaves
• 3-5 large carrots
• 2c brown rice or barley (may substitute 1 c of rice/barley with 1c lentils)
• Optional - any other vegetables eg mushrooms, corn, peas, canned beans or vegetables
• Seasoning suggestions: stock powder, salt, turmeric powder, chili powder, garlic, bay leaves

Instructions

1. Peel the onions, grate in food processor, and add to pot to brown on med to high heat. Stir occasionally until soft and slightly browning - meanwhile grate the cabbage and carrots.
2. Add the cabbage and carrots to the browned onions. Stir and keep heating until the vegetables all soften. Any further browning is fine too.
3. Add water to fill pot at least halfway, stir well and heat back to bubbling. Add 1 tsp of salt or stock.
4. Add the brown rice, stir and simmer until rice has cooked. Add enough water if needed to keep soup very liquid and easy to stir.
5. When rice is cooked, add any optional vegetables like mushrooms, frozen peas or corn. Canned beans and canned chopped tomatoes are great quick additions.
6. Add more water to make a full pot and keep simmering.
7. Season to taste. This can be made Italian or curry style, or just lots of chili, garlic and stock.

Optional I usually add 2x servings of rice vermicelli at the end to make the goodness of the soup more appealing to the family. As seen in the pot pic. Omit and/or sub with grated potato or quinoa for McDougall MWL compliance.

Mother's best old-fashioned vegan oatmeal porridge recipe

The best thing about porridge is that you can add anything!

The best thing about becoming a mother is that you learn to go with the flow...

Morning Oatmeal 
(or whenever my day allows time for eating with utensils)

1. Boil the kettle.
2. Take kids' leftover bowl with some extra soymilk and cold cereal sloshing in the bottom.
3. Add random crumbs from yesterday's bags of kids' car snacks
4. Add organic wholegrain oats
5. OK, ran out of wholegrain oats. Add some instant oatmeal and some of that cornmeal I bought months ago when I was going to start making fresh cornbread.
6. Add some raisins, or shred some dates with bare hands, or just decide the soymilk will be sweet enough.
7. Cinnamon? Ginger? Nice if you have a few extra seconds.
8. Pour boiled water over the ingredients in the bowl.

• Cooking time - 1 shower, 5 answered emails and 1 shopping list (don't forget organic wholegrain oats!) 
• If in a super hurry, just add more soymilk to cool and eat right away as limp muesli

Bon appetit! Remember while eating that these are the best years of your life...

Secondhand Smarts - community works!

I haven't posted a Secondhand Smarts update for a while, but rest assured I get so many bargains from secondhand shops, TradeMe, etc, that I can hardly keep up.

An extra special nod must go to the bargains I got at last year's school fair. OK, I put in a lot of hours at the White Elephant sale where I got the goodies, but it was a great community event and raised much needed funds for the kids' school. And hundreds of people went away happy with their bargain finds!

Community and charity work can seem thankless at times, but as well as the reality of the help you're providing, you are also making connections that can sometimes reap more tangible rewards. Sometimes you need something and someone else already has exactly what you need. Like these...

Stepping out...

The boy needed some shoes. Look what I found!


Tevas. Good as new. In the right size. For a couple of dollars!

Frozen

Yeah, this attachment!

I love making frozen banana ice cream. It is pretty hard work for the S-blade on the food processor though, and we've heard that juicers and mincers do an even better job on the frozen bananas. I don't want another whole gizmo in my kitchen, but I have idly considered buying the mincer attachment for our mixer.


I almost let this amazing coincidence at the White Elephant Sale pass me by. I'd even shelved this box and moved it around a couple of times. But it wasn't until a customer said "there are bits missing from this" that we both realised it was an attachment, not a standalone machine. Just exactly what I needed for the machine we have at home, and luckily the customer didn't! $5, for an attachment retailing new for £38.


I can confirm that the banana ice cream product from the mincer is far superior - it can take the totally frozen banana chunks without strain and produce a really really cold treat instead of one that melts almost as served.

The icing on the cake

And cookies, and vegan cupcakes for the Vegan Society stall, and...

My sister's a decorating ace with all the equipment, but sometimes there's no chance to go borrowing. There were a couple of icing sets in the sale, and I knew I wanted to go home with one.

This one was pretty and compact, so it won the toss, and at $4 was quite the bargain. Especially when later at home, I found this was a collector tin retailing for $70.

Yes, there were even more bargains we got at the fair, but enough already! Secondhand is totally smart shopping.

Creative frugal energy at home

We have various commercial heating sources in our home: woodburner, heat pumps, portable heaters, solar hot water. We are lucky to get a lot of sun exposure. But we also have a natural cold spot in our house; unfortunately it is the bedroom.

In winter, we get 2 hours of a slanted afternoon sunbeam across one far corner of the room before the sun disappears behind the neighbour's house.

Many New Zealand houses like ours are poorly insulated. We go suddenly from "all windows wide open" to "treasure every sunbeam." And it is truly satisfying to set up our homemade sun reflector - made at the end of winter last year and now ready to serve us through a whole cold season.

Sun reflector inspiration

While the bedroom is dark all day, the fence opposite gets all day sun. So close! I knew we must be able to capture that somehow. I favour reuse where possible, so I envisaged hanging an old metal shower tray or several computer cases with some bracing to reflect and direct the light.

Design

Examples of solar reflector designs abound on the internet, but many focus on concentrating sunlight to a point for cooking, which was overengineering for us.

The builder (my husband) is pretty handy and felt my shower tray design was underengineered, so after various experiments and research we reached a suitable compromise (see end of post for full details).

He still wants to automate it to follow the sun. I am OK with resetting it every couple of hours during the day when I can. When it moves off the bedroom window, the ensuite window benefits.

Results!


The reflector hanging from the fence is not the most beautiful sight. The most beautiful sight is this warm beam of sunshine (bright enough to show how much our mirror needs cleaning)!

I can have this beauty and warmth from just after 8am until about 4pm.


I still believe in my shower tray design, for those of us without a master builder on tap.

But I also hope that more examples of what has been done will inspire more of us to try what works in our own environment.


Reflector Details (from the builder)

Board materials and Assembly

• Chrome Vinyl wrap (used on cars or signwriting)
• Coreflute board
• six 40mm x 18mm x 1.2m plank for framing support for coreflute board
• surefix screws
• staples + staplegun

1. Create a frame to support the coreflute board
2. Staple the coreflute board to the frame
3. Cover the coreflute board with the chrome vinyl wrap

Mounting materials and assembly

• 45 x 90 x 1500 H3 post
• 2 x "Gate hinge pin and strap"
• 1 x 150 x 25 x 1500 fence board

1. Attach the post to a fence with spacing to allow the reflector board to rotate
2. Install the hinge pins into the post ~1m  apart
3. Put the hinge strap on the pins
4. Mark one fence board to attach the gate straps at the correct spacing
5. Remove straps from pins and attach to fence board

Tilt materials and assembly

• 2 x 150 x 25 x 1500 fence board
• 2 x "garden Gate hinges
• Bolts and screws to suit

1. Attach a fence board to the fence board of the mounting to make the top of a "T"
2. Use the 2 x garden gate hinge to attach the third fence board to the top of the "t"
3. Lift the tilt assembly onto the mounting post gate hinge pins to test fit and remove.
4. Attach the reflector board to the third board.
5. Lift the assembly onto the mounting post gate hinge pins to test fit.

Tilt stay materials and assembly

• length of aluminium flat 15mm x 4mm
• two 20mm right angle bracket
• 15mm M3 or M4 bolt and 2xnuts (or 1 x nylock) and washers
• Stay clamp
• Captive nut and bolt
• piece of wood to mount the captive nut
• washers for spacing the mount from the

1. Cut flat bar to length
2. Round one end of the bar and drill 3mm/ 4mm hole for bolt in same end 
3. Attach right-angle brackets to back of reflector with space between for Stay
4. Attach stay to the brackets with the bolt and nuts
5. Drill hole in piece of wood to suit captive nut and bolt 
6. Insert captive nut
7. Install piece of wood on edge of upright of the tilt mounting, using screws at each end with washers to provide space for the stay to pass through. Ensure the gap between the washers allows for the stay to rotate, but not so large that the bolt that holds the stay cannot clamp the stay.

A similar stay assembly can be used for the yaw stay

The Moneyless Man - Review

You may already have heard of vegan Mark Boyle, the former businessman who vowed publicly to live totally without money for an entire year.

With my interests, this was a book I had to grab from the Librarian Recommended shelf. You can read about his experience in multiple interviews online, but the book really gets into the details.

The motivation

It sounds crazy to voluntarily give up all the comforts that his money can bring and live apart. Just imagine:

• No grocery stops
• No cafe trips
• No car
• No toilet paper
• None

Why? Mark had become disillusioned with our money system. The first simple role of money is as tokens in a bartering system. But we've left that far behind, and money games now include international currency trading, derivatives, stockholder profits, and more. The more complicated it gets, the fewer people can possibly understand the game and get a living share. 

Mark cites the impact of money on community, security, competion/cooperation and the climate as vital motivations for his drastic change.

The preparation

Going from a money-based society to surviving totally moneyless takes preparation to work well. Others have managed with less, but probably not by choice. Mark set up rules for his challenge:

1. No receiving or spending money
2. "Normality" (eg yes, Mark can eat a meal at a friend's house; no, he can't eat there for 2 weeks straight)
3. "Pay-it-forward" - help others without worrying about the reward
4. Respect - for other people (eg use the toilet when visiting others, not a hole in the backyard)
5. No pre-payment of bills (eg, paying an electricity bill for a year to get through the year)

Mark first discovered the vast difference between living frugally and living moneyless. He had to scrutinise every item he might consume, and he gave himself a small budget to set up his moneyless year.

On the night before his challenge would start, he got a puncture in his bicycle tyre, stranding him far from home and help - I was quite impressed that he solved this in the same DIY way he'd committed to begin the following day.

Shelter  - On Freecycle, Mark was given a decent caravan that was a burden to its owner.

In our world of overconsumption, there is an oversupply of still-useful products that are not in use. Networks like Freecycle help solve this problem.

And he bartered his labour to a farm to get a space to park the caravan.

Sanitation - DIY Composting toilet, solar shower. Drinking water from the farm.

Power - cooking: DIY rocket stove; light: windup torch; heat: DIY woodburner; electricity for laptop and mobile:solar panel (the biggest cash outlay)

Food - foraging, urban foraging (from commercial waste food), growing, and bartering. (Being vegan makes the food requirement that much easier!)

Transport - bicycle and trailer

Communications - mobile phone (incoming calls only) and internet (WiFi on the farm)

Buy Nothing Feast

On top of all of that, Mark successfully organised a free, moneyless feast for about 150 people for his first challenge day, Buy Nothing Day, 2008. (Remember, when things went wrong, he could not just spend his way out of the problem.) The success of the publicity overall meant that Mark spent a lot of his time early that year giving interviews!

Settling into moneyless life

Mark's typical moneyless day has exercise, wild foraging, personal grooming (with no purchased products), meal preparation, and online and farm work. After the day's work and dinner, he might cycle to a meeting and back (36 miles).

The book explains how he handled problems like the oncoming winter, keeping his bike in action, keeping in touch with friends, Christmas, international travel and doing everything the slow way. It also reveals a few facts worth knowing about the wastefulness of the "regular" way of doing things (eg: water usage from a plumbed vs composting toilet).

More challenges

Like any alternative lifestyle, one of the biggest barriers is interacting with the rest of the world. The media interest was fading, and he did his best to keep up with friends, but Mark's romantic relationship did not surive the strain of his challenge.

While Mark's general health was even better than anyone expected, he did have to find a natural remedy for his hay fever. He also had a tiny mouse visitor who became a big problem.

The moneyless community

Mark learned about other people around the world who also lived with little or no money, including Daniel Suelo and Heidemarie Schwermer. Heidemarie started an exchange group (Tauschring) to help people live without money, and Mark started the Freeconomy site.


Summer fun and food

Summer brought more ease to the moneyless life, and Mark describes how much food and fun there is available for free. Developing communities like Freecycle, Couchsurfing, etc, make it all even easier.

Autumn, almost there!

Mark found that the closer he got to the year's end, the less he was worried about ending it. He and some friends had a great wild-food foraging adventure, and Mark himself chose to spend a week in silence - probably a good preparation for the finish line and the renewed media attention.

Finished...?

He celebrated with an even bigger free "feastival" for hundreds of people, and handled media that brought a range of applause, curiosity, and criticism. And he made his decision that he was not going "back" to his regular life.

The book finishes with the lessons Mark wants to pass on from his moneyless year.

Mark chose to live this way for a year, as a statement and personal achievement. Hundreds of thousands of people in the US alone are forced into indefinite homelessness and poverty or zero-income.

Even if you have no urge to live moneyless, this book will open your eyes to the casual overconsumption our society is based upon, alternative choices you could use, and the people and organisations who seek a better way.

Mark's experience would have been quite different without the overabundance of products going to waste each day. However, without all that waste, everyone's lives could be richer.

Live simply so others may simply live. (Source debatable, intention admirable.)

Why we plant grass, kill dandelions and buy kale

I return from our summer travels to a garden invaded by tough shoots of invasive grass as the surrounding lawn tries to take over.

I walk down a street with sweeping square metres of berms planted with grass. Many animals eat grass, but of course they're not allowed here in the city suburbs, and mowing them has become a notable problem.

So what is it with the grass fetish?

History of Green Lawns

This comedy grass discussion with God highlights the insanity: GOD: "Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?" And much more.

The lawn as we know it today developed in Europe - then, as now, a quirk for people with enough money to maintain a purely decorative (nonproductive) stretch of land, with human labour. And apparently, we can also blame the Scots and golf!

Chickweed

It is common to poison dandelions, chickweed, and other "weeds" in the pursuit of a smooth homogeneous expanse of non-edible grass, regardless of the potential risk from the poisons.

Getting your Greens

You can't eat grass. But other dark green leafies are some of the most nutritious edibles around. The produce section of the supermarket is happy to sell you bunches of kale for your dinner. Garden centres carry out a thriving trade in salad green shoots of all varieties (to plant in dedicated gardens, not lawns, of course).

Kale is great (I have some in the garden), but those free pesky dandelion greens from the lawn compare very well with kale. Sure, dandelions have less vitamin C, but they have more iron, etc. And they grow even when you don't want them to!

And if you aren't convinced yet, in the supermarkets you can also buy bags of expensive mesclun salad...which will probably include dandelion greens.

Rethink Lawn Care

There are many alternatives to the traditional grass lawn. But even if you're not ready to dig it out and start again, next time you see a dandelion in your lovely lawn, go get some leaves instead of the weedkiller. And when you see a fluffy dandelion head, remember your childhood, make a wish, and blow.

 

• Edible Weed Photo Gallery
• Edible Weed Tips
• Edible Weeds - What not to do

Vegan Chocolate Crumb Brownies and 3 more frugal bread crust recipes

I love to transform food so it is appealing and doesn't go to waste.  

My family eats lots of bread, but not the ends. (Good luck with this trick to get rid of them. Let me know whether your kids are fooled.)

So we always have annoying frozen bread end collections. Here's how to use them up and enjoy it!

1. We're Bakin' Brownies!

I've totally transformed a brownie recipe so it's vegan, delicious, and uses up heaps of breadcrumbs...

• 2/3 cup nondairy milk
• 2 Tbsp nondairy margarine (opt)
• 1 tsp vanilla (opt)
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 6 cups medium-fine soft bread crumbs (made in food processor, mine were quite chunky)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 3/4 cups brown sugar, packed (or 1 cup + 2Tbsp molasses + 1/8 tsp stevia)
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts or desiccated coconut (opt)
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (opt)
• 1 mashed ripe banana (opt)
• 1 tsp cinnamon (opt)
• 2 egg (replacer equivalent)

They go quickly - here's one left!

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C) and (if not nonstick) spray a 8-inch square baking pan or similar (I used a round cake pan).
2. Melt nondairy milk and margarine and add sifted cocoa powder and vanilla - stir
3. In large mixing bowl, combine bread crumbs, baking powder, sugar and nuts/optional extras.
4. Stir in cocoa mixture and brown sugar; beat until combined.
5. In separate bowl, prepare egg replacer.
6. Combine with bread mixture until all ingredients are moistened. Add more nondairy milk or water if not moist enough to make smooth sticky batter (bread crumbs are hard to measure exactly).
7. Spread evenly in prepared pan. Bake 30 minutes or until done. Cool completely on wire rack.

Loved by the whole family (the brownies...and me, of course)!

2. Dipping Toasties

These are much quicker than croutons and make soup night a bit more special.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)
2. Cut at least 2 bread ends in half for each person eating
3. Spread with your choice of:

• Marmite or other yeast spread
• Vegan margarine or olive oil
• Refried beans
• Salsa
• Vegan cheese
• Hummus
• Herb/seasoned salt sprinkle

Place on oven tray and bake until just barely brown - keep careful watch as the edges can get burned easily

Serve with soup, spread with more goodies like guacomole....yum!

3. Vegan Fruit Pudding

This frugal pudding can be made with practically whatever you've got.
 

4. Vegan Stuffing

This savoury stuffing is great for the festive season or anytime it's chilly.

Beauty skin deep? 10 reasons for no makeup

This post is inspired by the popular Pinterest site, Don't Compare Yourself to Celebrities.

"To sell beauty products, advertisers must constantly convince you to fix, update, or conceal something about your natural look. This sends the message that the authentic you is repulsive. Problem is, the "perfection" in ads, catalogs, and movies is mostly computer-generated, always changing, and unrealistic...."

Check this site out; you'll learn a lot.

What I learned

Digital manipulation is insane and indefensible. We are being shown images that are not real, and deep inside our brain is filing away the data. But the photos I found most striking were the very few celebrities who were genuinely au natural - with no makeup.

Heidi Klum	Liv Tyler
Reese Witherspoon	Kerry Washington

They could be anybody on the street. They could be real people. Wow.

You're not stupid. You know Hollywood and the media are not real. But something inside you is probably still surprised to see it. You are constantly being shown images that are not real, and deep inside your brain is filing away the data.

Makeup is performing a low-tech version of the digital crime of airbrushing. It's a great reason to stay away from mass media, but it's been in everyday life for centuries too. We often don't want to accept that we look like that too. We are image-conscious - conscious of what we look like, captured in a media moment.

"fix, update, or conceal something about your natural look" "the authentic you is repulsive" 

• Your skin is not good enough the way you woke up this morning - cover it to make it look smoother.
• Your eyes are not big enough, add some colour to make them look bigger.
• Your eyelashes are not long enough, extend them. 
• Your eyebrows are not dark enough; shape and redraw them
• Your lips are the wrong colour...

Just Good Grooming?

I welcome all comments on this anti-social idea, but one I expect to hear is:

There's nothing wrong with looking a bit better with a bit of makeup - it's just part of good grooming. 

We all understand what we expect to see when a woman is "making an effort" or "is really well-groomed." The image generally includes makeup.

Strangely though, men are able to be well-groomed in daily life by being clean and tidy. Even when their eyes look just the same size as when they had breakfast. When their skin looks like their skin, instead of polished porcelain or smooth brown acorns. When their lips are...lip-coloured. All day. That's what we expect. (Shaving? Good point, related but separate issue.)

It's a complex issue, but in our society, when men wear makeup, they're often considered gay or vain. So since it's not only acceptable, but an improvement, for women to wear makeup to look really good, does that mean being vain is considered part of womanhood?

Makeup challenge

Would you go makeup free for a week?  

If that's too shocking for you and the world, would you go with less each day until you faced the mirror and the world with no makeup, beautiful as you are?

You may have many reasons why not. Here are a few great reasons to do it. 

Why? 

1. Save time
2. Save money and packaging waste
3. Save your skin - let it breathe
4. Save water and avoid chemicals required to clean makeup off daily
5. Save your clothes (and other people's) from makeup stains  
6. Kiss your loved ones without worrying about "your look" 
7. Live life actively - exercise, run and play with the kids - without worrying about "your look" 
8. Set a good example to your daughters, or other people's, about really being happy with yourself as you are. Walk your talk.
9. Set a good example to other women - don't raise the bar artificially on female beauty
10. Help the animals - vegans and vegetarians constantly seek beauty products that don't harm animals, and they regularly find that their favourite brand was lying or has changed their policy.

True beauty habits

With the time (and money) you save on makeup, you could adopt a daily habit that would change your health and your look from within.

1. Make and drink a green smoothie
2. Eat a fresh fruit or vegetable
3. Start some whole-grains cooking for later
4. Do a Fit Quickie or some yoga 
5. Meditate
6. Sit with your family for a few minutes - hug or talk
7. Just be on time instead of stressed and rushed... 

 That's a makeover you can keep.
 
Comfortable in your skin

When you are feeling confident, strong, happy, and engaged with your life, you are beautiful. The rest is just made up.

Weeding and eating

"You have some lovely dandelions," said my mother. "Yes," I thought, "the yard is full of them." "So, do you mind if I pick some for lunch?"

"Ummm, sure..." Have all the weeds you want. Weirdo.

But I think Mom would be proud of me now. I've discovered the joys of harvesting wild greens in my own backyard.

Chewing it over

Since I got braces, I can't indulge in my usual crunchy carrots, apples, or even a basic lettuce salad. I believe that food is best eaten in its natural state, but I've had to compromise on this one.

I got apple back on the menu in the mornings by processing a couple with a soft banana and eating the result like a lumpy pudding. That way, I still get the fiber as well as the juice. And then I remembered green smoothies.


I can eat so much bitter raw nutritious green stuff, with pleasure, combined with sweet fruit like apples, bananas, and oranges. I used storebought cabbage and garden kale and parsley. And when those started to run out, I looked outside the garden box and saw those lovely dandelions. Thanks Mom!

I can harvest a couple of cups full of dandelion greens any morning I choose - easily equal to a package of greens from the store. And I finally remembered I have mint growing wild in the backyard. It's not just good for free tea, it's a nutritious yummy green leaf.

As our local vegan nutrition expert said in our last Vegan 101 class, the biggest problem with greens in your diet...is eating them.

More wild greens

Resources for learning about gathering wild greens are as common as weeds - there's even one for New Zealand. Hey, we've got puwha growing in the shady spots!

Would you ever gather your backyard bounty?

Happy Vegan Hunting - 9 Frugal Secondhand Investments

I'm an avid secondhand shopper. Here are some winning vegan goodies that you can always find in the secondhand shops. For similar reasons, these are also items you might score from Freecycle - if you haven't signed up yet, what are you waiting for?!?!??

See how the jam looks like a cat?

1. Yoghurt makers

Yes, you can make your own soy yoghurt even more easily than dairy yoghurt. Soy yoghurt is so expensive to buy and so easy to make.  Since making your own is faddish for many, there are usually several varied yoghurt makers on the shelf.

I have had consistent success in my secondhand EasiYo by adding about 3 Tbsp of soy starter to 1 box of room-temperature original VitaSoy. Methods, tips, and tricks abound on the internet - search on making soy yoghurt.

2. Quality cookware

People used to cook more, and they needed great quality cookware.

Often, the younger generation doesn't know and doesn't care about those nested stacks of Corningware and cast iron, and off they go to the secondhand shop for you to find.

3. Quality storage

Lots of us frugal vegans buy and cook in bulk, and you need to keep your supplies safe.

I reuse some of the plastic containers I get from food (eg, Anathoth jam containers are BPA-free), but a quick look at the secondhand store will show you loads of great old-fashioned Tupperware at prices your Tupperware lady can't match. (Apologies to my Tupperware lady friends, mwah!)

Click-clack containers also roam wild on the secondhand shelves, as well as older-style glass or terracotta containers.

4. Popsicle moulds

Summer will arrive soon! If you didn't inherit your family's popsicle moulds like I did, it won't take long for you to find a set on the secondhand shelves.

Super cheap popsicle recipes:

• flavoured nondairy milk (flavour your own with cocoa, vanilla, fruit, or jam)
• fruit juice or puree (hint: tinned fruit comes in fruit juice or syrup)
• a banana (dipped in nuts or chocolate)
• ...or search the internet for cheap vegan popsicles

5. Chocolate moulds

We thrifty are just as gifty as the next person. But vegan gift chocolate has a hefty price tag. People love getting hand crafted chocolate and it's fun for the kids to help make! If the specialty chocolate moulds at the homewares stores are too pricey, look for secondhand flexible novelty ice-cube trays among the piles.

I just scored this cute orange-slice shaped tray - now I can make my own vegan chocolate oranges.   

6. Juicers

Want to try juicing, but don't know where to start? Don't splash out; these babies cycle through the shelves on a regular basis.

7. Pressure cookers

The best way to cook dry beans, pots of potatoes and free soup quickly. Watch your grocery totals shrink as you serve these super budget savers.

8. Sushi mats

This vegan takeaway standby is expensive to buy because it's fiddly to make compared to curry and chips, but you'll be rolling your own in style before long.

Making sushi

9. Gardening gear

Goodbye Garden World and Kings, because secondhand shops are blooming with planting pots of all sizes.

You can also find good garden tools if you keep hunting.

You could be overflowing with vegan goodness in your very own ground or container garden before you know it.

And more!

Of course you don't want to spend money and fill up your life with a lot of extra stuff you don't use. But making or growing your own is a backbone of frugality.

I want to hear about your best secondhand vegan finds...