Here's my frugal list for the week -
* Saved as much shower water as possible and poured it into the washing machine.
* Dried the washing on clothes horses and the clothes line.
* Darren planted out the vegetable seeds last weekend.into little green houses. He bought these on clearance when Sam's Warehouse closed down. The seeds were left over from last Spring so we didn't need to spend any money this year. He planted corn, tomatoes ( three varieties ), zucchini, mixed lettuce and beans ( climbing and dwarf ).
* Juiced more lemons and froze the juice into ice block trays. These will be stored in containers in the freezer to make lemon butter, lemon chicken, lemon slice and for pouring over fish.
* Picked another basket of lemons. These will be juiced in a week's time when they are slightly softer. I find if I leave them for a week the insides relax, the skin thins out and I get more juice from them.
* Cleaned the dishwasher with bi carb and vinegar. I gave the inside of the door and seals a wipe over with Miracle Spray to get rid of finger marks and any gunk. The filters were given a good scrub and rinse too. I try to do this at the start of each month to keep it in good working order.
* Made more laundry powder.
* Darren and I had our wedding anniversary on Tuesday. To celebrate we went out for dinner to Hog's Breath. We used our 20% discount cards to make it more affordable. We went to the movies and used a gift card that was given to us last Christmas.
* We've had the heater off a few times during the day.
* Made a chunky chicken and sweet corn soup that was eaten over two meals for the four of us. I used homemade chicken stock from the freezer. It cost about.$2 per meal to make.
* Picked more broccoli florets. I thought the broccoli had finished growing but these florets just keep coming. I'll keep picking as long as they keep growing.
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| Chunky chicken and sweet corn soup. |
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| Vegetable seeds in the green house tray |
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| Bean seeds popping out of the soil |
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| Our dwarf peach tree has just started to bloom. We only planted it a couple of months ago. We are not expecting any fruit for a few years but the blooms are so pretty. |
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| The broccoli florets just keep coming. |
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| Lemon ice cubes. |
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| Laundry powder. |
Do you have a frugal tasks list to share with the other readers ?
Hi Wendy. This week as gastro has run rampart in my home, I've considered how much I have saved by having made my own toilet cleaner. I had kept an old bottle of generic toilet cleaner (the toilet duck shaped one), which was really cheap to begin with but have found no name pine disinfectant concentrate at Safeway for about $1.12 for a 250ml bottle in which, I dilute into my bottle. I put 10ml in the toilet duck bottle and fill the rest with water. It's not as thick as the original product but it still is disinfectant and with 3 toilets that I am cleaning daily, I am sure to have saved a small fortune, with all our bugs being channelled there! Thanks Wendy for your posts which I thoroughly enjoy. It is also inspiring to read other peoples' ideas and get inspiration from them too. It's like we are all journeying through life together and as life has become broader and more global, this forum seems to reduce the global into a comfy and cosy simplicity which is becoming easy to manage and fun. Regards, Liz.
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy The weather has been lovely this week hasn't it Just wondering if you could share your recipe for your chicken and corn soup at some stage It looks really nice
ReplyDeleteI'll make a note of it for future posts. i'll start a list as I've been asked for a few things. Just want to give what my readers want. :)
DeleteOh no Liz I hope you and your family get well soon!! My frugal tasks this week are, being outside in this beautiful Melbourne weather which means no TV on during the day, no heater on during the day either. I also did my groceries to my weekly menu plan and only spent $127!!!!!!!!!!! Normally $200! I baked jam drop biscuits and banana loaf to use old bananas. I also ordered our 2 chickens (girls wanted one white and one brown to call them Elsa and Ana off Frozen lol) so have to wait 2 weeks for them to be ready to come home but they will be 16 weeks so nearly egg ready :) I also planted some more seeds into our vege patch, we did zucchini, cucumber, carrots and potatoes. Our seedlings we planted have now tripled in size so we are very excited! And we have been collecting snow peas off our plants that I completely forgot about down the side of the shed! Girls have had such fun picking them and eating them and even asking for them in lunchboxes! We also put them in a stirfry :) Need to do more baking today as my sister who is also pregnant came over yesterday and polished off my bikkies! I filled the car up at $1.38 per litre so saved about $10 just by picking the right day to fill up. Not frugal now but made a very hard decision to change our daughters school this week so she will start there next term, it is closer though so can walk there which will make it frugal as we wont need to drive for 20mins every morning and afternoon. I think that's all my frugalness for this week. Kayla :)
ReplyDeleteMaking Lemon Cordial, and then after that will use the pan to make Lemon Sago. Dessert tonight and then I will pot up for lunch box treats this week. Topped with home made custard.
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy, This week I did alot of frugal tasks: Roasted one big chicken and used it for several meals and stock and used the oven to make cakes and Cranberry hootycreek bickies, yum! I made pumpkin soup aa pumpkin is so cheap at the moment, homemade Tortillas, and used celery, snkw peas, silverbeet and herbs from the garden. I made the Miracle spray and diluted one bottle of vinegar to make to bottles. Grated the block of cheese to make it go further and saved the wheet bix crumbs (thanks for that hit otherwise they would have been binned) . I used the rinse water again and washed and ironed on the weekend. Brought Cauliflower for 0.85c each so blanched and froze and also used heater less. Today we are going to start sowing our vegie seeds and have Father in law here for dinner(normally we would go out). Fathers day tomorrow, we are off for a picnic and a drive. Congratulations on your wedding anniversary (what is the discount card?) Thanks again for all your tips, Maureen
ReplyDeleteYou can get a Hog's Breath discount card after getting six stamps on a form they give you. You get one stamp per full priced meal. Then once you get the discount card you get 20% ff.
DeleteHi Wendy, this week I
ReplyDelete- Made my own laundry powder
- Made my own Miracle Spray
- Avoided the motorway so I dont pay the toll (so many in Sydney)
- Baked cookies and made protein balls for my daughter
- Dried my washing on the clothes airer
- Took my lunch and morning tea to work every day.
- Filled up on cheap Tuesday
- Downloaded a recipe for dishwasher tablets from Cath's site
- Brought everything on special (half price or more) for daughters upcoming birthday party
Just the beginning for me but every little bit helps.
Have a great week
Deb
Hi Wendy, and everyone! Wow you have all done so amazing with all the tips and tricks to a frugal week, I have made my meals somehow stretch this week and still have a mince sauce for my lasagne left and a whole roast chicken still to cook, just somehow the other meals were stretched over two nights and thus leaving me with meals still in my supplies, so I guess I want need so much on this weeks shop! Yay that is a big frugal saving in our house. Like Kayla we have also made a decision and pull our youngest daughter out of a school and into another one, even though she only has 3 years left to go, believe me this will be a big saving, my older daughter is not at school at the moment due to illness, so now between the two girls there is a big saving, it has been a big decision. My husband and I went through our budget for the month and things are on the way up, food was way down, petrol bill for the month was way down, any many more savings were made.
ReplyDeleteWe have also dropped our temp control for heating down to 18 deg, not sure how much of a difference it will make, but hopefully something. Have a wonderful week everyone Simone
Thanks Wendy for the Info on the discount card, love discounts. Just finished filling up my car and got petrol for $1.30 with the docket, so everyone, if needed, fill up now while its cheap. Maureen
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy, some great inspiration through your frugal ideas, thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMy frugal efforts this week were;
Preparing garden beds for zucchini, cucumber and lettuce seedlings to go in. Have dug out some tomato and butternut pumpkin seeds from last season to put in our little greenhouse container.
Collecting home grown eggs from our chooks. We have two new baby chicks and another broody girl. We sell our excess eggs to cover costs. Our wheat is free, but pay for laying pellets and bran.
Picked up some free sourdough bread from the Salvos, and fruit bread from Woolies for 75c each.
Squeezed our own juice from oranges, mandarins and grapefruit from our trees. I am going to try your idea of freezing whole whizzed oranges for making orange cake. Never thought of doing that before. I have some excess lemons here that I am going to squeeze and freeze.
Picked our quandongs and stewed them and put them in freezer.
Dried our clothes on the line.
Made some of your yummy Cranberry Hootie Creek biscuits for afternoon tea today.
Hubby dyed my hair and I cut his.
I stayed away from the shops as much as possible.
Cleaned my house with homemade cleaners.
Used free collected rainwater to water plants. Also saved water from my hot water bottle for watering.
Burned free collected wood for the cold nights.
Have been looking for more frugal ideas from internet sites. And visiting Cheapskates and Simple savings more.
Hubby (with the help of our electrician son) has installed some LED floodlights outside. We had five 100 watt floodlights and they have been replaced by seven 10 watts and two 20 watt LED's. That means we have gone from 500 watt lights down to 110 watts so that will be a saving on our electricity. A saving 390 watts :)
Have a great week :)
xTania
What a great list Tania. I bet you feel happy knowing you've done so many frugal things.
DeleteWe sell some of our eggs too. It pays for the feed and bedding material. We've also been able to put a few dollars away to buy new chooks in a few years when ours stop laying. Plus we don't need to buy eggs..
Contact your local high school's Agriculture department; the students often hand raise chicks up to point of lay and they are reasonably priced and very friendly! Regards, Marguerite.
Deletehello wendy,
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing your frugal tasks.
here is my frugal list:
dried our clothes on the line
picked and froze 2 kilo blackberries
picked 4kilo tomatoes and made tomatosauce for the freezer
made applesauce from the windfall apples
picked and froze four zucchinis
bake a plumcake with streusel,
made zucchini gratin,leek quiche,and a lot of stirfrey meal with veggies from the garden
i bought 20 kilo potatoes at 0,20 euro pro kilo
i bought 10 kilo onions at 0,20 euro pro kilo
i found apples for 0,66 euro - kilo
wish you a wonderful week,
regina
What a great week you had Regina. It must be great to pick your own blackberries.
DeleteYour dwarf peach tree might just surprise you Wendy! My dwarf stone fruit trees set fruit even in their first year, which was such a welcome surprise :) We've been busy in our garden (as always), busy replanting at the moment... always lots on the go out there to feed my growing kids! I'm really enjoying watching what you guys are planting!
ReplyDelete