Today is the day our church is blessing our community. Darren and his team have worked hard all year to raise the funds to buy the goodies for the Christmas hampers and to hire rides and cook a sausage sizzle. Another large charity and our own church have provided the toys to give away to the needy. We've spent lots of time over the last few weeks sorting toys, packing hampers and decorating our church.
Here's what else we got up to this week -
* I baked and sold lots and lots of blueberry and white choc muffins to a cleaning client. I also sold two dozen eggs to her.
* Picked one punnet's worth of strawberries from our garden. The snails and other bugs have had a feast too so I've spread out the pet friendly snail bait and netted the two patches.
* Changed our doonas ( duvet ) over from Winter ones to Summer lightweight ones. This is frugal because we won't be putting the cooling on for getting too hot.
* Went to a second hand stamp and card making equipment sale. I purchased one set of stamps and some books. I also picked up some freebie catalogues to get card making ideas from.
* Used a Spotlight gift card to buy a butterfly punch at 30% off. This is used lots in card making.
* Saved lots of shower water and poured it into the washing machine. Saved all the washing machine rinse water for each next load.
* Sold a five items in my Etsy shop and mailed them off.
* Started another cleaning job this week. I'm feeling blessed that the work is starting to come back.
* Megan found a few items of Summer clothing at Savers and used a 15% discount stamp.
* Picked silverbeet to put in a spag bol meal to stretch it out. I also grated some carrot.
* Darren fed the chickens a silverbeet plant that was going to seed.
* Refilled all the cleaning spray bottles around the house with Miracle Spray
* Poured the water bottles onto pot plants.
* Portioned a tomato paste jar into an ice cube tray and froze.
* Made a few decorated hand towels for my Etsy shop. I'd sold out of the first batch with people buying them as Christmas presents.
* Used the dry mop mid week to sweep our bamboo floors. So much easier than getting out the vacuum cleaner.
* Cooked and baked all meals and snacks for the family.
* Used the clothes horses most of the week to dry the washing. I did use the dryer for the towels when it was quite humid.
* Mended a top for Megan. She purchased a new top recently but later found the seam had a hole in it.
* Sold two school text books and one school blazer.
* Made chicken stock in the slow cooker then made a chunky chicken and veggie soup.
* Gratefully received some train magazines I can use in card making.
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| A few of our Christmas decorations |
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| Gold, silver and cream Christmas tree |
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| It's Darren's job to put the star on. |
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| First strawberries of the season. |
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| The haul later in the week |
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| Card making catalogues for ideas |
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| Princess supervising the pizza making. |
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| Hand towels for my Etsy shop |
What was on your frugal list this week ?
Your days and week are so full! I get tired just reading about it all!
ReplyDeleteI've started getting into the habit of checking my dockets regularly, and received a free punnet of blueberries for my efforts this week. They were advertised at $3.50 a punnet, but scanned at $4.50, so I received them for free. Well worth the effort!
Your tree looks beautiful. Ours is going up this Sunday, and we are all just a bit excited about it!
We love Christmas around here.
Cheryl, I get tired thinking about all I do !!
DeleteYes it's good to check your dockets just to be sure the prices are right.
What a long frugal list, Wendy! Your tree looks beautiful:) I've almost finished my Christmas making and shopping too. I'm just sewing up some repurposed calico flour bags to put a few gifts in. They have a drawstring so the recipient can reuse them too...no wrapping paper. On the frugal front at our place this week:
ReplyDelete* All meals and snacks made here at home.
* Made mini-meatballs, rissoles and a pasta bake from half kilo of mince
- used grated zucchini and carrot and mushrooms to stretch that out.
* Picked lettuce, cucumbers that are crisp like apples and cherry toms
from our garden. A couple of small capsicums too.
* My son chose a small gift from present box for secret santa at school
* Watered pot plants with left over drink bottle water
* Finished off two more washcloths for gifts and made a few more gift
tags from old xmas cards
* Flushed out our wicking barrels and refilled reservoir in base of each
barrel. This cuts down watering and should mean plants in barrels fine
while we are on holidays.
This coming week, I will be baking up a frenzy because we are heading off for a holiday and I take most of our food with us. Our house will smell like chocolate chip cookies for a few days! Have a lovely week. Meg:)
You have a great list Meg. I love the smell of baking and cooking. I'm sure your family will be drooling over the biscuits.
DeleteHi wendy.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely long frugal list.
This week i baked some banana muffins. Bananas were black & needed to be eaten.
Cooked up some dog food with some mince, homegrown vegies, gravy powder, tomato sauce & minced garlic. The dog loved it & froze the rest in convenient portions for future meals for puppy.
I sold some succulents on gumtree.
Dried all washing on line or clothes horses.
Started watering down shampoo/conditioner, dishwashing liquid & shower gel.
Also started stock piling toilet paper, dishwashing liquid & toothpaste.
I am yet to make miracle spray or washing powder but will try making this in the new year once i have finished up what i already have.
Thank you for writing your blog. It has helped me pinch a penny here & there & i enjoy reading your blog every saturday morning.
Thankyou for your kind words. I love to stockpile toilet paper, dishwashing liquid and toothpaste. At the moment I have 22 bottle of dishwashing liquid and almost a year's supply of toilet paper.
DeleteHi Wendy I have just discovered your wonderful site and greatly admire your way of life. It is true that God does provide all that we need to live a full and happy life.I retired from work recently so know that I will have to watch the pennies and start a stockpile. I have always been a spender overseas holidays each year etc but I have made a conscious decision today that I am going to live a simpler life. I babysat my grandchildren today and instead of going to the movies and then shopping and milkshakes and donuts we stayed home.we played a board game together watched a nice Xmas DVD and baked some muffins. We had fun today and didn't need to spend money to be happy. I look forward to reading your great tips next year.thanks Barb
DeleteWhat a good week Wendy! The tree looks beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYour ETSY shop sounds like it is going really well! It was great also selling the blazer amd text books. And your cleaning jobs are great! What a help that must be.
The work your Church does is fabulous. Well done.
I hope you are having a good weekend and have another excellent week next week. Love Annabel.xxx
Thankyou so much Annabel. God is certainly providing our needs. xoxo
DeleteHi from the UK
ReplyDeleteI think winter is here we have had thick frosts but some of the annual flowers are still flowering.We do not have a harsh climate as we are only 7 miles from the sea with river esturies all around us. I like your tree, I have to admit we no longer bother to put up decorations as the family no longer come here our only concession to Christmas is a box of sweets.
This week I have:-
Dried all but one load of laundrey outside
Made Yogurt, bread and 2 fruit cakes
Harvested the Parsnips and put them in the freezer and started to harvest the Brussels as we need them
Started to plan next years garden and seeds
Had my watch mended
Refilled all the propelling pencils and found the pencill my hubby gave me on my 21st birthday 47 years ago
I did not shop on black friday but stayed at home putting the garden to bed for the year
Enjoy your spring sunshine
Chris
I'm glad your weather is not too harsh. We don't have really cold weather but it does get super hot in Summer.
DeleteYour putting your garden to rest just as ours is being planted for another year. It's weird isn't it.
I hope you have a lovely Christmas.
This week I made pikelets - double batch, then spread with butter and jam and sandwiched them for school snacks - wrapped in cling wrap and froze.
ReplyDeleteBought a hanging shoe organiser at the op shop which my DD will use for jeans/trousers/tops - she rolls them up.
She also found a new pencil case and highlighters at the op shop.
Sold text books to friends and bought one.
Bought some cardmaking supplies at a local supplier - 20 blank cards for $1 - good to have for making birthday cards etc.
Used silverbeet from the garden for a couple of meals - we like it steamed with a dob of butter and salt/pepper.
Bought meat pies reduced from Woolies and had those with veges for 2 busy nights.
Have a good week
Marie
It was Thanksgiving week in the USA. Other than the usual frugal stuff, this is what I did:
ReplyDelete(1) Early in the week I cut all of the leftover ham off the bone and froze it. I froze the bone, 2 packages of thin-sliced ham for sandwiches, and 3 two-cup packages of chunks to use in cooking.
(2) Then I cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving on Thursday. Since there were only 3 of us, I bought a 12-1/2 lb. turkey for .29 lb. with $50 purchase. The next day, I took all of the meat off the bones! I haven't packaged it yet, but will do so tonight. I also need to make stock from the turkey carcass. I also put an 18 lb. turkey in the freezer for .29 lb.
(3) I listed several items on craigslist a few weeks ago, and only one item had sold. Then, on Monday, somebody came by to buy the miserably uncomfortable folding chairs. I decided to take a new picture, cut the price by $5, and re-list the ski rack. It sold the next day! I made $115 on those two sales.
(4) Still using up cleaning products and repurposing the containers, when possible. Mixed up another batch of Miracle Spray.
Forgot to mention...I picked the last of the apples from our trees and made applesauce. DH peeled the apples and I made the sauce and canned it--6 quarts and 4 pints (ran out of quart jars) = 8 quarts.
ReplyDelete