Farmer Lyn Webster Photo: Supplied
"Pig tits & parsley sauce" Lyn Webster's mother used to say when asked what was for tea.
Lyn, a dairy farmer and sustainability advocate, borrowed this phrase for her website and best-selling 2013 book, recently reprinted with the new title Save. Make. Do.
Lynn Webster has recipes and budgeting tips on her website.
Over the last 15 years, Lyn has weaned herself off supermarket shopping and now lives by the motto "don't even go in there, make it yourself".
She tells Nathan Rarere that whatever she can't make herself, she buys from bulk stores and online.
And the more Lyn makes and uses her homemade alternatives, the less she misses the supermarket versions.
"When I used to spend a lot at the supermarket I chucked a lot out either as food waste or packaging. And that' [habit] is completely gone now and that makes me feel good… [instead] I think 'oh I have to use it'."
Photo: Public domain
Now when she does go to town, Lynn picks up flour to make bread and noodles (but not from the supermarket - from a food wholesaler or Bin Inn).
"Don't go into the supermarket for a tiny little packet of flour and end up spending $200 on other things."
Lyn encourages people to think about the grocery items that keep drawing them back into the supermarket, for many people, it's milk and toilet paper.
"Find different places to buy those things [so] you're not constantly wandering through those [supermarket] aisles and getting tempted by the marketing.
"What happens is you get all involved with the environment, as well. I'm into making [sustainable systems] so I use everything [that I buy]."
Photo: Penguin New Zealand
In the past, Lyn washed her clothes with Persil Sensitive – "it was about $12 a thing even back then" – but now makes her own laundry powder out of baking soda.
At first, she wasn't hopeful it would do the job but was then excited to find it worked well.
When the homemade baking soda washing powder ran out, Lyn admits she was tempted to go back to Persil. But then she remembered that was no longer an option.
'I'd gone round and told everyone that I was going to make stuff for myself so I'd dobbed myself in."
Lyn hasn't bought Persil Sensitive since.
More Lyn Webster on RNZ:
Read / Listen - Has butter become a luxury? (April 2022)
Read / Listen - Tips for saving and making do (January 2019)
Listen - Cutting your grocery spending (November 2013)
