This week we saw our bamboo flooring installed on Wednesday. Thursday the stone bench top went in and the plumbing was connected. We all stayed up very late to empty the three bedrooms ( except the bed ) and lounge room for the carpet to be laid on Friday. We've packed up our entire home and moved the contents around from room to room as needed and Darren has almost completed installing new skrtings throughout every room except the bathrooms.
We can see the home stretch before us. Next week the tiler will come and lay the soft apple green tiles for the splashback. We are hoping our second wall oven will be made shortly. If we have enough strength after all this, we might be able to pick up a paint brush and paint the cornices in the kitchen. The walls will have to wait until later.
Here's what we managed to do this week
* Gratefully received four avocados from a friend. Darren and Jessica are very happy about this.
* With all the packing and unpacking of our house contents because of the renos, we've been sorting as we go. I came across quite a few empty envelopes which I cut up to use in card making. I'm getting quite a stash.
* Continued to have the heater off for extended periods of time with tradies coming and going and Darren working hard on the new skirtings.
* Saved lots of shower water for the washing machine. I did less loads of washing and hand washed the dishes (in the laundry sink ).
* Took another bag of unwanted items to Savers and received a discount stamp. I'm sure the staff there either think we're hoarders or we have nothing left in our home.
* Lined our bathroom bins with bread bags.
* I've now put all the food back into the pantry. In my old pantry I had a couple of hooks to hang plastic bag holders. I didn't want to do this with my new pantry. I found a large cereal container out in my shed ( bought form Savers a little while ago ) and used that to store supermarket bags in to reuse. The container in now kept under the kitchen sink.
* Gratefully received two moisturisers from a friend
* Refilled the foaming hand soap in the kitchen and one bathroom. I used diluted shower gel and water..
* Mended a couple of socks.
* Picked a head of broccoli and some silverbeet for a couple of meals.
* Fed the chickens some grass and weeds.
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| First meal in the new kitchen - chicken pasta bake |
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| New bamboo flooring |
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| The view from our bedroom door |
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| The family room. Can you find Princess ? |
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| New carpet |
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| The dining room |
I'd love to see your frugal lists for the week. I'm sure you accomplished far more than I did.
Hi Wendy, WOW you must be exhausted! Big job there! But I can see it's all going to look lovely when it's finished.
ReplyDeleteI made a batch of your Miracle Spray this week, this is my second batch and I love it, of all the homemade cleaners I've tried, this works the best by far, and I think it has Miraculous powers too, because Hubby picked up the bottle and helped me clean the shower recess this week!! A rare event indeed!! LOL
I cooked all meals from scratch.
I made a double batch of your Orange Cake for the first time, easy and yum, one was eaten, one was frozen for later.
I saved all the "warm up" shower water for the garden AND even got the kids on it in their shower too.
Thanks to you, things are slowly morphing around here, and I thought I was pretty frugal to start with!
How exciting to have your hubby cleaning and the kids saving water. Every bit counts.
DeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteWow! You all must be exhausted but its all worth it and it looks fantastic. I love your flooring especially the floorboards as i love floorboards. Ah Princess! Site manager overseeing things, heeee.
Congratulations and can't wait to see the photos of the finished renovations.
This week was a great week, i picked capsicums, flowers from the garden and silverbeet. Used tank water and shower water for the washing. I washed out cereal bags and pits bread bags to use again.Also saved the cereal box and 3 stamps which came on mail that weren't stamped. Reused baking paper and butter wrappers in cooking.
Blessed to be given lots of lemons, 8 loaves of bread and scones. I mooed bread, pita chips, yogurt, jam drop biscuits, cupcakes, castor sugar , muesli slice and all meals from scratch. One meal had leftovers which was pur into the freezer.
I got an order for 6 more handmade cards this week and the lady who ordered these, wanted to load photos of my cards onto her Facebook page as she has a business and these photos woukd get lots of exposure. Opened up 3 online accounts in order to save up for different things at the one time ie: school fees and holidays etc.. I paid my credit card this week and i had lots of change so i put this into the machine at the bank but the machine left me short of 0.50c. So i let the bank clerk know and she opened the machine and pulled out all the loose change that had fallen around the inside of the machine and said i could have the LOT! ($18.00).Yeah! DS2 sold heaps of his Lego to a Lego shop and this was enough to pay for his new iPhone. He negotiated a great price and he said, i think Wendy would be happy with me. Had MIL's birthday last night and gave her handmade cards i had made and i gift i had won from a raffle which i knew she would like.
Hope things will get back to normal for you this week,
Blessings, Maureen
I love reading about your frugal week Maureen. Fancy the bank giving you money. Great news about the cards too. DS2 is quite a Cheapskate in his own right.
DeleteSpent the week mostly at home so had several days where I didn't spend anything. I made banana bread with some over-ripe bananas and even ground up my own almond meal to do it. I also made a yummy chicken and leek pie with leftover roasted chicken and veg from my garden. I've picked kale from the garden this morning and given some to neighbours and some I will use to make kale, potato and feta parcels for tea tonight. All ingredients on hand! I've diluted my handwash packs throughout the house. Thanks for that easily-implemented frugal tip! I can't wait to see your new kitchen. Meg:)
ReplyDeleteDiluting the hand wash can save quite tidy sum. I'll put up some photos of the kitchen this week Meg.
DeleteWhat a lot of work! We have had these times. A couple of years ago it was the kitchen... I thought I would never ever get out of that mess! This year two floors. And a bathroom to go. And painting. It never ends! But the results are great. It is just so much work!
ReplyDeleteIm glad you can see the home stretch! It will be lovey and I can't wait to see your new kitchen! xxx
Our home is almost back to normal Annabel. Just a few boxes to unpack, the kitchen cornice to paint, tiles to be laid for the splashback then waiting on the second oven.
DeleteYour floors are really pretty and I had to laugh at your cat perched up on top of the mattresses. :)
ReplyDeletePrincess has inspected all the tradies work, helped Darren with the skirting and checked out every new nook and cranny
DeleteFrugal tasks were few and far between this week. We're well South of our Qld home, on the outskirts of Sydney in our caravan. As we're free camping costs are kept low here, but that's where it ends. Washing at the laundromat cost $28, OMG! This was just the towels, sheets and fleecy clothes. All the rest has been hand washed.
ReplyDeleteOur son, DIL and new baby have had some huge upheavals and are about to go into a new home, so we have been hosting them and feeding them up as much as possible on good wholesome food, rather than the golden arches food they were resorting to.
The sink plumbing in the van ended in a waterfall in the cupboards and required lots of work and towels to dry out. Thankfully our son was able to do the work, with us providing the hardware. The step we have for the van was getting dangerous so a new two step ladder had to be purchased.
Once again I'd like to say we had a good frugal week but it really is not the case. Here's hoping everything goes to plan and we only have fuel costs to worry about in the next few weeks of our travels.
Yes washing in Laundromats can be quite expensive Jane. Maybe a review of your menu plan can help recoup some costs. Safe travels.
DeleteI think you are totally amazing Wendy and you're definitely an inspiration to many.
ReplyDeleteI recycle everything I possibly can and keep bread and veggie bags to reuse for many things.
Thankyou Sam. Every little bit helps to stretch the dollar further.
DeleteHi, it's Maxine here, in northern Idaho. We just got back from a week's vacation. A vacation is never cheap, but I think we did quite well.
ReplyDelete1. We went to visit my son and his GF. They live in a tiny apartment in one of the most expensive locales in the US (near Yellowstone National Park). We stayed 4 nights in a ski hostel (remember, it's summer here) about 3 miles from where they live. We cooked about 75% of our food at their house and had one big splurge dinner out to celebrate our son's birthday. I made an ice cream pie for his birthday in 5 minutes for about $6, which is about one-third of what Baskin & Robbins charges for the same thing.
2. We later went to visit one of husband's cousins, and ate and stayed in her home overnight. I gave her a $14 bouquet of roses from the grocery store.
3. We also stayed a night at the beginning of the trip in an uber-low-cost motel and the last night in a motel in a cheaper area. It cost about the same, but was nicer.
4. We took our dog with us, saving kennel fees and making her--and us--much happier. It also meant that most of the food we ate out was takeout, eaten outside, so we could have the dog outside, too. This wasn't cheap, but it was a lot cheapER.
5. I have new bifocal glasses. I have to wear glasses to see and I don't like prescription sunnies with just the distance lens. Before we left, I found a pair of $40 "fit-over" wraparound sunglasses that are less ugly than most (actually, much better than most), and have excellent optics. $40 wasn't cheap for sunnies, but they were a lot cheapER than the prescription altenatives. I wanted a lanyard to wear with them so I wouldn't take them off and forget where they were. My husband found a cute one at the dollar store for--you guessed it--a buck.
6. I'm about to mix up my second batch of Miracle Spray. BTW, don't get any oil of eucalyptus on any of your varnished wood furniture. Don't ask me how I found this out!
Hi Maxine. Yes you can't use Miracle Spray on anything timber. It's great for showers, sinks, laundry stains, walls ( test first ), toilets, to freshen a load of washing, removing stickers and general cleaning.
DeleteI love the discount stores. There are all sorts of bargains to be had.