Today Google asked me if I would like to make a slideshow of recent photos from my phone to share with others.  It displayed a selection of shots, of which only one was actually mine.  The rest were photos that friends and family had sent me – extraordinary European scenery and architecture, bundled up skiers on snow-covered mountains and a proud little girl cuddling her darling new-born brother.  Mine was a photo of a large pumpkin – on a chopping board, on my kitchen bench.

It is mid-July here in New Zealand and the weather is blah.  It is cold – that damp kind of cold.  The sky is grey and the rain outside is forecast to continue well into next week.  There are plenty of puddles on the footpaths and the grass is muddy to walk on.  We have overseas guests staying in our AirBnb unit for the next two weeks.  I feel a bit sorry for them really.  But I guess it is winter after all.

The shorter days and chilly evenings have found us spending more time catching up on our favourite YouTube channels.  We’ve tuned into a few since our return from France last year.  They are all people who have bought run-down properties in various places throughout Europe and we’ve been following their renovation stories with interest.

Last week we came across a new channel featuring a Kiwi couple who fell in love with France during a holiday there and decided (after the first two weeks) that this was where they wanted to bring up their family.  They returned to New Zealand, finished renovating their own house, sold up a year later and then returned to France, buying an abandoned maison de maître and longère.  Watching them tackle the renovations, whilst wearing jandals and Katmandu t-shirts,  and speaking Kiwi has been a real treat.

Clive’s Australian cousin and his wife are also currently renovating a maison de maître in France.  It’s been so exciting to receive updates of their progress.  Somehow, seeing fellow Kiwis and Aussie cousins follow through on their French dreams makes the whole thing seem more of a possibility for us.  At least it was seeming that way, until Clive lost his job at the end of May.  Hmm, a slight glitch in our plans.

We knew it was coming – the company he was working for had gone into voluntary liquidation a couple of months earlier.  Since that time, he had been searching for a new job.  But it’s tough out there and many others are also in the same position.  

Clive definitely brings in the larger percentage of our joint income so, having no idea how long he would be out of work, we did as much cost-cutting as we could.  To be honest, we live pretty frugally already (one of my loving nicknames for my husband is Mr Squeaky), but I did feel quite inspired by an article written by a New Zealand woman who claims she can feed her family on a budget of $40 per person a week.  She shared a few helpful tricks to achieve this and I was determined to take up the challenge.  Normally, I have a rough idea of what meals I will make when I do my weekly grocery shop.  But, with my new challenge set before me, I began to meticulously plan each meal in detail (you’d be proud of me, Annie), buying only what I would need and substituting expensive ingredients for cheaper ones where I could.  The process took a lot more time, in the planning and in the cooking.  And you might assume that our meals became less appealing and the cooking more of a drag.  Surprisingly, it was quite the opposite.  Despite working with food all day, I would look forward to cooking when I came home.  I have found a new joy in putting effort into meals that are delicious, nutritious and sneakily affordable.

And that is where My Big Pumpkin comes into this story.  Shopping in season is a great cost-saving tip and a big steaming bowl of golden pumpkin soup together with homemade bread is definitely welcome on gloomy winter’s day (and at $2.50 a pumpkin – who can complain?!).

Clive began his new job last Monday (thank you to all those who were praying for him).  So things are back on track.  But I am keen to stick to my new food shopping routine.  Each dollar saved is a dollar more towards our dreams.  Before you know it, I’ll be bottling fruit and making chutney!  And of course it’s very French to immerse oneself in all things food.  So it’s good preparation really.  Right, time to plan this week’s menu…

If you’re interested in checking out that Kiwi couple in France, you can find their channel here.

À bien·​tôt.