As I'm writing this post, Melbourne has dipped into a Winter freeze again. We are finding comfort in hot home cooked comfort food and warm blankets. Here's our frugal list for the week -
* Found a much cheaper supplier of padded envelopes on Ebay. I use these to send my shop orders to customers.
* Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.
* Kept the heater off when possible or lowered the temperature
* Saved the washing machine water for each next load.
* Juiced more lemons from our tree.
* Megan did a big cook up of work lunches. She made 18 plus serves. I'm very proud of her for saving money..
* Went to a garage sale of retired Stampin Up supplies. I was able to purchase 8 ink pads, 5 shape punches and a few stamp sets at a fraction of their retail value. I'd been saving my pocket money for quite a few months in anticipation of this sale.
* Sold a few more cards in my blog shop. Thankyou for the orders. I now have new stock and some crafts for sale with more stock to follow shortly.
* Froze lots of single serves of curried sausage casserole. The joys of grown children not always being home for dinner.
* Froze the last portion of tomato paste into ice cube trays
* Did my monthly shop and stuck to the list. Butter has once AGAIN increased in price so I only bought 2 x 500 gram blocks instead of the usual 5 or 6. I'll be writing a blog post about this topic shortly.
* Darren picked a few silverbeet leaves from our garden to be used in two meals.
* Froze lots of single portions of lamb casserole.
* Bought lots of Avon eyeliners at a bargain price.
* Diluted a bottle of white vinegar 50 / 50 with water.
* Found and bought two 5kg bags of washed potatoes for $2 a bag. I haven't seen potatoes this cheap for many, many months.
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| Salmon patties and salad for lunch |
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| Bread making |
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| Apple Sponge Dessert |
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| Magnetic Peg Clips for sale in my blog shop. |
I am shocked that butter has risen in price so much ($1 per 250g here) I think I will be looking to make more myself as cream doesn't seem to risen in price as much.
ReplyDeleteRosie
The latest price rise has increased butter to $4.39 for 500 grams. Late last year it was $2.59 and $2.79.
Deletebutter in New Zealand for 500grams is currently $6 a block..... we are a major dairy country too! Milk for 2 litres is around $4-5 a bottle too...
DeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteIt's dipped into winter weather here too! Perhaps it's the final cold snap before we start spring! Your Apple sponge dessert looks yummy. And well done to Megan who did all those lunches! You've taught her well! Here's what we got up to this week
- found some old shirts with holes in them, cut off all the buttons and put them in our button jar. The shirts will be rags
- found lamb cutlets for $5-$6 for a large tray, bought the last three trays
- took lunches from home
- had several no spend days
- earlier this week I bought clothes for myself online, 60% off and then managed to get a further 20% at checkout. I managed to get quite a few items for $50 including delivery.
- didn't use the dryer all week
- kept heater usage to a minimum
Have a great week!
Amy
Sounds like you got a great deal for your new clothes. Well done on the bargain hunting.
DeleteGoodmorning Wendy,
ReplyDeleteI always love reading your weekly frugal tasks, it inspires me to do more around my home.
This week I saved money by
Keeping the warm up water from the showers and using it to water the big potted figs at our front door
Made all meals from scratch
Hand watered our garden using tank water
Dried the washing in the sun
Cut up and froze some herbs that our son had bought while we were away on our holiday
Made a few bottles of kimchi to use up a small quarter of cabbage left in the fridge
Made a start on some spring cleaning using home made miracle spray to clean the skirting boards
Used homemade cleaners around the rest of the house
Picked herbs, Asian greens and kale to have with dinners
Planted out the left over base of a bought hydroponic coriander plant to see if it grows
And that's all I can think of at the moment. Have a lovely day.
Fi
I hope your coriander plant survives. Keep us posted Fiona
DeleteThose peg clips are just the cutest!!
ReplyDeleteMy DH has finally started working again. He lost his job 7 weeks ago so the first pay cheque this week was such a blessing. Im happy to say that while he was off we had money in our emergency fund to get by. We didnt need to use the credit card for any bills etc. Now its a matter of building it up again.
I went to Dandenong market yesterday for the first time. This will definately become a regular place to shop. Everything was so cheap!!
Im not enjoying this wintery blast. I have washing hung up everywhere in the house and a 14mo who loves pulling it all down!!
I'm so pleased your husband has work again Rebecca. Well done for having the emergency account to get you through.
DeleteHave you tried Hindustan Imports too > They are on Greens Rd Dandenong and well worth a visit for herbs, spices, dried fruit and nuts. You'll never buy these items at the supermarket again.
Hell-o, Wendy! I'll be interested to hear about your butter prices. I've been looking for months. The best I've found is 3.49 lb which I did not buy. I have two or three pounds in the freezer. If i don't see a better deal soon I'll have to pay the price. Eggs are cheap, cheese and milk are cheap. So, what's up with butter?
ReplyDeleteI love that you can save washing water from one load to the next. Did you have to do something to the washing machine?
To save money, I've been trying to stay out of the shops. I bought just a few things to get us by. I stocked up on tuna, at 69cents a can, and cheese at 3/4.98. My husband's hours can be light some weeks so I've been more careful lately.
Thanks for sharing your week.
Debbie
Debbie, butter prices have increased to $4.39 for 500 grams. late last year I was paying $2.59
DeleteI didn't do anything special to the washing machine. I bought a big bucket from Bunnings for about $10 They are about 60 + litres and I angle the water hose into it.
The bread looks wonderful, Wendy! Here's my list:
ReplyDelete* Baked a cake at home instead of going out for cupcakes. We had a coupon for a discount on the bakery we visit from time to time, but we did the math and figured we'd save so much more making it ourselves. Plus, we have leftovers.
* Made a facial mask with organic ingredients.
* Cooked a huge pot of stew, which resulted in five containers of leftovers. We froze three containers and have two (now 1.5) in the fridge.
* Saved money on hotel fees for an upcoming trip by choosing to stay with relatives instead.
* Purchased lots of bulk food and seasoning items for freezing to last several months.
* Used dried herbs to make my own oil and witch hazel infusions.
* Added leftovers from one meal to another to stretch food.
* Avoided buying things I didn't need, even when on a huge sale/clearance (so tempting).
Have a wonderful weekend,
Adina.
You have a wonderful well rounded frugal list Adina.
DeleteOoooh that apple sponge looks scrumptious.
ReplyDeleteThe link for the bread actually takes you to salmon patties. I did find the bread under your recipes tab but just thought you may like to know.
I hope the link is fixed now.
DeleteThe recipe for the apple sponge is coming soon.
They mentioned on the news a few weeks ago, that there would be a buttet shortage this year. Here in the uk, lidl butter has risen from 89p to 1.39p for 250g, in 3 months!
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine told me today that so much of our dairy products go overseas and we could be paying more because of that demand. It's so unfair for family grocery budgets.
DeleteI NEED a cow for the backyard !!!
Looking forward to that apple sponge recipe! Yum
ReplyDeleteI noticed the butter at Aldi in 500gm blocks is much more expensive per gram than the 250gm block. Weird for Aldi!! Haven't tried making butter, but I might have to give it a try.
I shopped some good specials at Coles for the stockpile. I spent $63 and saved $37.50 off the full price total.
This week we managed to:
Made all meals from scratch. Made pizzas for diner tonight. Froze enough dough for 2 more pizzas.
Dried all washing on the line. It was 33 degrees yesterday, here in Qld.
Took my lunch to work everyday.
Made a batch of washing powder.
Baked blueberry muffins for school lunches.
Filled soap dispensers with diluted liquid soap.
Filled the car with fuel at $1.09ltr. I'm concerntrating on driving smoothly to save fuel too.
Starting to keep an eye on half price specials for boxes of chocolates to add to Christmas presents.
Have a great week.
Rachel
My mum and I were talking about the increase in butter costs last night. It's increased dramatically in a really short time! I've just purchased a number of blocks of my favourite butter while it's half price ($2.75/500g). It's still quite expensive but as I only use it as a seasoning it will last a long time. I think I'll need to look for cream on mark downs to make butter to cook with (& for kids sandwiches). Melissa
ReplyDelete