* Kept the curtains closed on the warm days.
* Picked raspberries, beans, tomatoes, corn and silverbeet from the garden.
* Gratefully accepted some sausages left over from a charity bbq. I've frozen them and they will be made into sausage casserole at a later date.
* Darren bought home more bread bags from the charity BBQ. I've decrumbed them, dried them out and stored them for future use as bin liners and for storing food.
* Supermarket specials I bought this week were - Shapes biscuits for $1.47 a box ( IGA ), Grapes for $2 a kilo, Fountain tomato sauce for $1.19, Palmolive shower gel 500 mls for $3. The shower gel has been put away as Christmas stocking fillers for my girls.
* Dried all the washing on the line and clothes horses. I can't remember the last time I used the dryer.
* Made muesli bar slice for school lunch boxes and morning teas. It doesn't last long in my house as we all love to eat it.
* Made a triple batch of Anzac biscuit dough for the freezer. I baked some biscuits as well.
* Saved all water from the washing machine for the next load.
* Saved the shower warm up water to water my mango plants and other fruit trees.
* Refilled and diluted the shampoo and conditioner bottles in my girl's bathroom.
* Made all meals and snacks from scratch.
* We had a Valentine's Day dinner at home. Jessica picked a bunch of flowers from the garden for our dining table.
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| Valentine's Day flowers from the garden. |
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| Muesli bars slice |
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| Raspberries from our garden. |
Not the most frugal week. I indulged in some DVDs from the op shop, and got some more clothes for the child going to University. Found a new dress from Gap for $2 - she loves it
ReplyDeletePaid $85 gas bill and $140 Telstra bill. And paid the credit card in full.
Made biscuits and emptied some pantry items, was able to wash the Tupperware containers so are all clean for fresh supplies.
Soaked some fruit for a cake - and used up some dried fruit. Now I need to bake the cake. K
Love an op shop find.
DeleteHi Wendy
ReplyDeleteI have been very happy with myself this week. I did have to go to town twice (Thurs & today) but knowing that I was going in twice I decided to split my groceries into two. So I did all non refrigerated on Thurs and the refrigeration today and fruit and veg....not sure why but this saved me money almost $50 so this was a win for me
*shopping at Woolworths I was just looking at the toys and stationery for DD4's friend and I found some glitter globes. Normally the starter kit is $15.00 and the sets are $10 well I picked them up for $3.75 for the starter kit and $2.50ea for the set so I snaffled them all up for gifts. I ended up with 3 starter kits and 6 of the sets. There are 3 birthdays done for under $10 each....yay
*used the nudie food containers for DD4's lunches
*reused zip lock bags were possible
*saved veg scraps for friend and got a half dozen eggs in return
*get DD4 canteen lunch for free as I am convenor and this allows me to do that and have a free lunch for me (this will add up over the year) lucky it is only open once a week
*pre done meals each day to save me time
*used my plain water in the soda stream just to have a fizzy water
*line dried everything
*bought my favourite coffee on special in a big jar and then transferred into smaller jars and have hidden 2 jars for emergency stock
*purchased water on special (no drinking our town water yuck!)
Not so frugal have to have air con on today as it is 42.5 degree right now
Your muesli slice looks so inviting.....hmmm good with a coffee
Enjoy the week ahead everyone
Aly
Awesome list Aly. Muesli bar slice recipe is coming soon I promise.
DeleteHi Wendy. This week has been good in saving some cash. I bought some school supplies really cheap for my children for next year. Made a chocolate mud cake, cafe style banana bread and donuts. Made all meals from scratch. Reused saved bread and vege bags as I portioned out cheaply bought bacon that I wanted to freeze. We were blessed with a panettone, eggs and homemade honey. I made toilet cleaner and ant deterrent. And I put in my empty butter container butter from Aldi's as it's cheaper than buying butter in a tub that's on sale. Hope you and your readers are feeling good about their week too. Regards, Liz.
ReplyDeleteLiz, does the ant deterrent work ? Could you share the ingredients with us please ?
DeleteHi Wendy
ReplyDeleteI'm finding that a lot of my savings are now everyday tasks which I'm not concsious of :)
This week
- I saved the ribbon from DD's flowers she got from her boyfriend for Valentines Day (their both very good savers and he got them from the rose farm, much cheaper and really beautiful) the ribbon was about a mitre long !!!
- Stuck to my menu plan.
- took lunch and morning tea to work each day
- baked biscuits and muffins and froze some for later
- dried all washing on the line
- Hubby and I had a free meal from the freezer, leftover silverside and vegies
- used up some old dishwasher powder to clean the elements on my stove top, they now look brand new.
- used microfibre cloths to clean my house.
- made homemade pizza and popcorn for movie night last night.
Have a great week.
Deb
Deb, I save all ribbon that comes into my home. You just never know when you can use it.
DeleteHi Wendy, I love reading your blog and everyone’s comments.
ReplyDeleteFrugal Living for this week:
Made 2 ½ jars of lemon curd from a bag of lemons given to me from a friend. This was my 1st attempt at making lemon curd and oh my goodness it’s just divine and so super easy and it doesn’t take long at all.
Made 4 loaves of bread. Proved dough in my bread machine but baked the loaves in the oven in proper bread tins. My bread maker makes those super high odd shaped loaves.
Made lasagne using zucchini and tomatoes grown in vegie garden. I sliced the zucchini length wise thinly and then dry grilled and then used these zucchini strips instead of lasagne sheets. I did add one layer of lasagne sheets on the bottom. I used the tomatoes in the meat sauce we layered over the zucchini. We had a super large zucchini that had been hidden in the garden to use so it made good size zucchini strips.
Picked beans, tomatoes, capsicum, zucchini and cucumber from the vegie patch.
Planted some lettuce, beetroot, baby broccoli, mini cabbage and spring onion seeds.
Fed all vegie scraps to chooks.
Made my own laundry powder using your recipe Wendy. I love it.
Got roughly 4kg of mince on special. I have frozen it in 500g lots so it will do us for a while.
Made 12 coffee scrolls( no icing- too sweet for us) for snacks – Over cooked them so they were a bit on the dry side, Ok for the 1st few days but the chooks had a feast with 5 of them this morning- yes they are well fed, they even get treats lol
Made 2 loaves of banana bread that were cooked just right.
I made yogurt for the 1st time with my yogurt maker I received for Christmas with an easio sachet that I got on special. When my son asked what kind of yogurt it was I asked why and he replied because it's yummy!
Made a menu plan for the next fortnight- we have been sticking to it and have had very minimal waste.
Made a shopping list and stuck to it- this has been very hard for me but I am trying very hard. Ran past lolly aisle without stopping, chocolate is my biggest weakness!
Bought only groceries for the next fortnight from shops this week, no other things. So spending is well down and money saved growing Shopped at Aldi for most things. Just topped up with a few groceries on special at Woolworths that we required or I could stock pile.
Have started to buy fruit and veg from green grocer as its way cheaper than supermarket.
Diluted body wash and poured into soap on tap dispensers, it foams beautifully. I have been doing this for a few months and no-one has noticed, win, win.
Didn’t use air con instead kept blinds down and used ceiling fans.
Reorganised hubby and my clothes drawers, so had a good sort and purge of things that are beyond repair and things that no longer fit. I have discovered a new way to fold and store clothes (Konmari method) to help assist in not having to rummage through a stack of t-shirts/jeans/undies etc to find that special one I need. Will see if this improves how long they stay tidy. I can see at a glance what is in the drawer. Will do the kids clothes next week.
So all in all a very productive week. Sorry for the long post.
Cheers Donna Z
That's an impressive list Dona.
DeleteI like your idea of using zucchini in the lasagne. We get big zucs sometimes. I normally turn them into veg soup.
Hi Wendy
ReplyDeleteI have been planing 3 days away next month, it's a much needed holiday!!! So have purchasing items to take away with us.
Our local Aldi is closing next week for renovations so I bought extra in my shopping this week to get us through the week a head...
Used your Raspberry and white chocolate muffin recipe, split the mix into three and was able to make blueberry muffins and chocolate chip muffins as well, there was plenty of variety!!
I also made Anzac biscuits they were gobbled up straight away!!!
My supermarket saving this week at woolworths are: Abbotts Village bread $2.60, Heinz baked beans or spaghetti for 90 cents and Pepsi 1.25 litre for $1.00..
I only made one loaf of bread this week..
Your Raspberry and white chocolate muffins were absolutely delicious!!!
Hope you have a great week...
Glad you liked the muffins Annette. They are a favourite in my house.
DeleteWendy the colour of those pale pink roses is just gorgeous! You had a great week even though you were extra busy.
ReplyDeleteI had a great week and today was really good. It was hot here so I got stuck into some things inside as my husband had office work to do. Well, it was just one of those days I got so much done. Then we had a BBQ dinner. Great day. Hot again tomorrow but hopefully the new week will be mainly cooler. It is my brothers birthday and his main present from me is a lovely dark fruitcake as he really enjoys these. At the same time Im making my husband one to hide away fro his birthday cake. This is his favourite cake,
Aly that is a good idea with the soda stream, yum.
Have a lovely weekend and great week next week,xxx
Annabel decent fruitcake.....yummy. I have not had a decent one since my Nanna passed away over 8 years ago. Oh how I miss her
DeleteAs for the soda stream, well sometimes plain water gets....well boring so I just use ordinary water and just give it a gas and often put a slice of lemon or lime in the water.
Aly
Jessica did a great job of picking the roses for us.
DeleteHi Wendy; Boy, you girls are sure energetic! I am afraid I had a very non productive, lazy week. It is winter here and there is a lot of snow on the ground. It was 27 below 0 F. yesterday so I stayed indoors all day. I did one thing for myself, I met a good friend for lunch at a nearby tea room. We had such a lovely lunch and drank lots of tea and of course talked and talked. Luckily it was the day before our latest storm hit. I am looking for canning jars as I go about the stores, hoping to can some veggies this summer. There is one thing I try to do and that is to keep 2 or 3 already prepared meals in the freezer. For those busy days, or when I am not feeling up to par. I so appreciate having these. Have a good week end everyone. Hugs, Doreen
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong with a lazy week every now and then. At my stage in life, I'm grateful if I get a lazy hour or two.
DeleteVery exciting week for us as we have paid off our house so now totally debt free. Even more determined to save now however as we want to buy a farm one day. Been making all our bread from some sourdough starter plus yoghurt, milk keffir and kombucha. Busy harvesting and preserving food and nearly all meals have come from garden, chooks or freezer. Made two batches blackberry muffins with apple purée base instead of any fat- delicious! Going to pick some wild growing apples to bottle more applesauce to make more. With homegrown berries they cost about a dollar a batch. Finally have three babies in nappies but using cloth for the eldest two. Everything line dried. We are on our own water
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on paying off your house......what a great accomplishment for you.
DeleteAly
How exciting that you paid off your house. Well done. I remember the feeling - it was such a relief.
DeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteYou have had a busy week!!!
This week I made Yoghurt.
All clothes dried in line.
All meals except 2 made from scratch. Birthday takeaway and daughter shouted us out for dinner.
Stuck to shopping list .
Used present from gift box for present. ( I bought a pair of Reserve men's pjs from Myer long pants and t shirt type for $5.00 a few weeks ago. Also at same time I bought a pair of shorty mans pjs for $1.00) couldn't believe my luck at the time.
Cut flowers from garden to decorate table for afternoon tea.
Made biscuits from frozen dough.
Made hubby individual salad lunch boxes for lunch .
Wendy, just wanted to know is there any specific brand of disinfectant you use ????
Have a good week all.
Thanks for muffin recipe as well Wendy, will give it a go.
Kathryn
I use Pineocleen in the kitchen when the benches need disinfecting and in the washing when it smells a bit. I always buy it at 1/2 price at $2.49 a big bottle. I'll buy 2 or 3 and it last me about a year to 18 months.
DeleteIt is amazing how God provides and I certainly do have an abundant life. This week we were given a beautiful cooked turkey which we had in 3 meals (including delicious home-made pizzas using Lebanese flat bread $1 for 5 and home-made Napoli sauce). I also froze the extra left over’s and turkey stock into batches for other meals.
ReplyDeleteWe celebrated a birthday yesterday in our home, and I prepared a budget. So excited that we stuck to it and there was more than enough food (BBQ & nibbles) and drinks to be shared. Wendy, your pasta salad was a hit with the crowd! I also had some lovely loaves of left over bread, and shared it with some visitors with a newborn & busy schedules to be enjoyed.
Instead of rushing out to buy a new outfit like I normally would I went to my wardrobe for something to wear and found a lovely skirt which felt new because I had hardly worn it!
We are on track with our budget this month – yay. I have so much food in the house with this new style of shopping that today is Sunday and I’m not running frantically around the groceries like I normally would be. It is time to relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Have a great week! Christina
How exciting to be blessed with a free turkey. God really does provide.
DeleteHi Wendy, just popping in to let you know that IGA have the Easiyo Youghurt Maker on special for $14.99 at the moment and thought that your followers may want to know this as I will NEVER buy yoghurt again since I purchased mine a few weeks ago and make it myself using your recipe. I'm so grateful to have found your blog and have put into place many of your frugal ideas including this one. It's the best yoghurt I have ever tasted and it's so cheap to make it yourself. Regards, Sue
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the Easiyo special.
DeleteHi Wendy, looks like you have had another good week. Your roses are lovely and pretty.
ReplyDeleteThis week I
*Line dried the washing.
*Used left over rinse water for watering trees in this heat.
*Saved pre dishes water for pot plants.
*Made two batches of yoghurt using your method
*From my garden I picked tomatoes, capsicum, zucchini, kale, beetroot, rhubarb, celery, spring onions and rock melon.
*Stocked up on a heap of mince and chicken breasts while on special at Foodland.
*Baked two cakes.
*Bought three cartons of almond milk (we drink this instead of dairy milk) for $1.79 instead of $3.59 each carton.
*I am eating vegetarian meals using veggies grown in the garden, so saving some money.
*Cooked a couple of frugal meals including Cath's Frugal Haystacks.
*Cleaned out and organised fridges and freezer.
*Closed the blinds to keep out the heat.
*Sold excess eggs. (we are trying to catch a snake in the chook-house at the moment as he killed one of our hens yesterday :(
*Cleaned the bathrooms using vinegar and water and miracle spray.
*Cleared some more clutter from kitchen drawers and bathroom cupboard.
*Made your noodle salad, a great hit with the family.
*Saved leftover meals for hubby's work. They are now in the freezer.
*Made homemade pasties for lunches.
*Made leftover bread into breadcrumbs.
Have a wonderful frugal week Wendy,
xTania
Very sad to hear you lost a chicken. i hope you catch that snake soon.
DeleteHi Wendy,I Haven't been able to post as much over the pass few weeks as we've had a family issue which has taken most of my time and energy, but now to get back on track. So over the past few weeks I have: Made Miracle spray, Brownies, Lemon and orange cakes, double meals(freeze half), Cream of anything soup mix (as I had trouble trying to find cream of celery etc...), Bulk Hamburgers and froze, home made pizzas, pancakes and yogurt.
ReplyDeleteAs things were very stressful here, freezer meals were a blessing. Tried not to use the cooling during the day, kept things closed up. Used the shower water and rinse water on plants or in the washing machine. To off set the cooling being on a bit more, we turned more lights off (watched TV in the dark) and used either the broom or carpet sweeper.
Gratefully received Bread, scones, cakes and donuts from a friend at church.
Got a bargain for my DS2 for Christmas, Lego Advent set was at Christmas $60.00, paid $12.00. Also bought some Microfibre cloths as I haven't used these before from Aldi's. (Not sure how to wash these?)
Sorry for the late post, Must be off to do the monthly shop, Blessings Maureen
Hi wendy,
ReplyDeleteI haven't been able to post or ask many questions either :(
Having a few health issues at the moment with being pregnant on top of that as well (baby is good it's not pregnancy related) I started a good few weeks ago at making bread that saved a lot of money my daughter thought it was great made your recipe for brownies made a decent amount of miracle spray and a whole 4 pack soap box of washing powder haven't needed to worry about buying it for a week now :)
I'm trying my hardest to de clutter as well as juggle work and children
I have an odd smell in the fridge I can't seem to get it out I've left bi carb in there but it doesn't seem to be doing its job! Do you have any tips for me? We've also been picking cherry tomatoes off the tree the girls eat them as snacks and Ruby takes them to school for play lunch. Is it possible to use the corn I grew in the garden as seed for the next lot that I want to plant? I've got them dried out. Also do you grow your veggies seasonal? And what veggies do you grow all year round?
Thanks in advance xxx anne
Have you pulled all the shelves and drawers out of the fridge ? Something could have spilt down under a drawer. Some people wipe with vanilla essence.
DeleteI haven't grown corn from saved kernels. I'm not sure if it needs to be a heirloom variety or not. It would also need to be picked in peak condition.
The only veggies I grow all year round are silverbeet and lettuce. In Summer I also grow tomatoes, beans, corn, zucchinis. In Winter it's broccoli and cauliflower.