In the $300 A Month Food Challenge at The Cheapskates Club I mentioned that I have too much food in my pantry. Normally this wouldn't bother me. Infact, I love having lots of food. But with the prospect of packing it all up for the new kitchen, I've realised we need to use up some of the food. So until the kitchen is installed ( early August ), I'll only be buying milk, fruit and veg each week unless I run out of something.
Here's what I managed to get done this week -
* Baked a batch of raspberry and white choc muffins to sell to a friend.
* Made a large saucepan of creamed rice. This was made from slightly over cooked rice that couldn't be use with a main meal. I know rice is cheap and I did consider throwing it out but the family really enjoyed it as a dessert over the next few days.
* We bought five new chickens that will give us eggs in about 9 - 10 weeks. They re a little younger than the last ones we bought. Megan is beside herself with happiness because they are so cute.
* Dried the washing on clothes horses. Only the sheets were put in the dryer.
* Kept the heater off on the milder days or when the sun was shining.
* Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.
* Made a batch of natural yoghurt. Then I used two tablespoons of the yoghurt to make vanilla yoghurt using this recipe.
* Megan gave me a haircut. I was tired of the rats tails at the bottom of my hair and didn't want to pay $20 $30 at the hairdressers. I think Megan did a fabulous job.
* Made some cranberry hootycreek biscuits for morning teas.
* Cooked a chicken curry in the slow cooker and froze three single serves of leftovers.
* Saved lots of washing machine water and shower water to put back into the machine for each next load. Saved water in the kitchen sink from drink bottles, washing hands and the warm up water. This was used to soak pots and scour dishes before putting the dishwasher.
* Picked silverbeet from the garden for two meals.
* Mended another shoe using shoe glue.
* Only spent $6.10 on milk and veg for the week. We had plenty of fruit left over from last week.
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| Our new babies. |
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| Trying to get them to keep still. |
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| Apricot tree |
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| Pear tree changing color. |
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| Picking my kitchen colors. |
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| In full bloom |
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| For a newborn baby |
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| Jessica's birthday flowers |
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| More of Jessica's birthday flowers |
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| Even more of Jessica's birthday flowers |
What did you get up to this week ?
Your kitchen colour is really great - I love it. Chicken normally lay at between 24-26 weeks old - such a powerhouse for kitchen scraps and their dropping make your compost heap into a amazing soil additive.
ReplyDeletePhil, we quite enjoy having chickens. The are so funny to watch.
DeleteWendy, we love our chickens! The 'baby' card is really cute! I know you are excited about your kitchen!
ReplyDeleteI'm very excited Patsy.
DeleteHi Wendy, Liz here from Bridgetown W.A. Your new kitchen sounds wonderful, how exciting for you all. Well this week we did the monthly food shop and actually shopped for 5 weeks. I still managed to reduce the cost again and saving my Flybuy points for Christmas. We filled our freezer with a couple of homegrown sheep this week, there a bit fat at this time of year so lots of trimming but fantastic to not have to buy roasts and alot of meat. We continue to cut firewood off the farm, an ongoing job as its freezing here. I swapped some eggs for a jar of homemade pickled cucumbers, yummy! Also finally joined the Cheapskates club as Cath is having a 3 day sale on memberships, so only cost $25 for the year. Hope everyone has a great week ahead.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to hear from you Liz. I'd love to be your neighbour and swap food. I'm so glad you joined The Cheapskates Club. Make sure you say hello on the forum. There are lots of friendly people there.
DeleteYour new chickens are beautiful! I so wish we could have chickens here in our yard but there are way too many neighborhood cats whom roam about and would terrorize them. I do love the colours you have chosen for your kitchen and can't wait to see the completed project. Isn't it nice to have someone in your home who can cut your hair? My husband and I do that for each other. I do the front part of mine and he does the sides and the back for me. His is an easy haircut that I can do with the clippers and it takes all of about 10 minutes to do here at home. Haircuts are actually on our "to do" list for this week. :)
ReplyDeleteDebbie, we have plenty of neighbourhood cats in our area but they seem to stay away. Even our own cat is scared of them. You can keep the chicken in the coop and let them out occasionally under supervision to eat the grass. We did that for over a year until Darren built and open area behind the coop that is fenced off.
Deletethis week I watered the pot plants with warm up water,
ReplyDeletemade a large batch of scones using the about to expire cream and soda water, plus a 3 ingredient fruit cake
dried most of the washing on clothes airers, though some needed finishing off in the dryer so that I could use the airers for the next lot of washing
washed a fleecy blanket at home, needed to use the dryer though but still saved money rather than use the laundromat, will do another one next week
provided the 3 youngest grandchildren with beanies and scarves at $2 each, the oldest got gloves and bedsocks which he loves, DD also got bedsocks. These things are more expensive in Brisbane, here they are all on clearance
due to the wet weather in Brisbane last weekend, we didn't go anywhere just stayed chatting at DD#1's all day, enjoying many cups of tea
picked some jonquils from the back garden
made use of flybuy vouchers to get 1500 points
saw the movie Spotlight for free
not bad considering I thought I hadn't done much
love the colour for the kitchen Wendy
Meg it sounds like you had a wonderful time with your family. I could imagine Winter clothes would be dearer in QLD.
DeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteMy frugal achievements this week are
Cleaned out the fridge and freezer of bits and bobs and made 8 jars of lime butter, stove top rice pudding, light and fluffy pancakes (used whey leftover from making ricotta) and blueberry and honey jam.
Rode to work every day, rugged up against the cold
Saved the warm up water and watered the figs out the front
Used 2 vouchers for pizza night
Cleaned and delabeled 4 more glass jars to add to my collection
Wendy the colours for your new kitchen are lovely. I bet you can't wait!
Have a wonderful weekend
Fi
Fiona, it will be wonderful to have a kitchen in my colors and style. At the moment our kitchen has the 80's look and is very tired. I'll post lots of before and after pictures.
DeleteDear Wendy,
ReplyDeleteHow exciting to have a new kitchen! I know what you mean about packing up your pantry, too. My husband and I are going to be moving soon and have only been buying milk and cream from the store so we won't have so much to pack. I'll be glad to fill up my pantry again though. Passing up deals on food is a difficult thing for me to do :)
I wanted to tell you that I watched your money saving videos for the first time. They were great, Wendy! You are an inspiration! Thank you for posting the links. I enjoy reading your frugal tasks each week, as well.
Have a lovely weekend!
Love from Texas, Kelsey
Thankyou for your kind words Kelsey. I have a few family friends that live in Sulphur Springs Texas. It seems like such a small world with all the technology.
DeleteI'm hoping nothing important comes on sale for the next 6 - 8 weeks. I too find it hard to pass up a bargain.
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ReplyDeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late post, we've been busy with DS1's 18th birthday which was yesterday and we were busy over the weekend.
Only living out of your pantry for the next couple of weeks, sounds like a great challenge for you. It will all be worth it when you have your new kitchen. Your baby chickens look so cute.
We took a day trip to Geelong last week, taking our own morning tea and drinks. We did buy some chips when we walked along the foreshore and had a treat of afternoon tea. Last week I did another market research and this time I received a $30.00 Coles gift card.
I did lots of sewing this week, mending.
Mooed Chicken curry with 3 meals leftover and same for the spag bolg.
Picked Silverbeet from the garden and watered the garden with either tank water or from the washing machine.
Have a great week, xxx