Here's our frugal list for the week -
* Made up two bottles of diluted Dynamo laundry liquid. The ration is 1 part liquid to 5 or 6 parts water.
* Made up a triple batch of laundry powder.
* Dried the washing on the line and on clothes horses.
* Cut up an old jersey knit top to use as cleaning cloths and rags.
* Cut up and used the food processor to blitz 8 bars of laundry soap to make laundry powder. I always like to have a small bucket of the soap blitzed up ready to make the laundry powder when it's getting low.
* Donated 31 items to Savers and received two discount stamps.
* Refilled the hair conditioner bottle and added a little water to the bottom to get the last bit out. I also had the bottle upside down for an hour of two to get every last drop out.
* Made up two big bottles of foaming hand wash solution using diluted shower gel. The ration is 1 part gel to 4 parts water.
* Saved the shower warm up water for the washing machine.
* Gratefully received a box of lemons, oranges and mandarins from a friend.
* Jessica mended a skirt, coat and a top.
* Gratefully received a Savers discount card ( with stamps on it ) from a friend who had too many cards.
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| A fruit blessing |
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| In the garden at the moment |
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| Cutting the soap before blitzing. |
You did great. I get lots of hotel soap from family that travel for work often. They won't use them but I will. i have made body wash with it. Saves me money!That was nice of your friend to give you all of that citrus. I'm sure you will put it to good use.
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy and what a lovely blessing was the box of fruit you received. I hope you are not working too hard outside of the house and are taking time out for yourself too :) .
ReplyDeleteOur Vicky challenge added up to $487.35 last week :).
Here is what we did to save money and feather our nest -
Finances and earnings -
- Banked more money into our home deposit savings account bringing us to 27.14% of the way there.
- Made $21.80 by selling capsicum garden seeds saved from the gardens and 100 g of dried organically grown thyme from the gardens.
- As both of our chainsaws gave up the ghost and I knew the owner of the repair shop wanted them for parts I organised a deal and he gave us $200 for both which recouped 55% of what we spent on our 2 new chainsaws :).
Gifts and blessings -
- A friend who owns a property nearby was being overrun with eggs from his chickens and gave us 3 dozen saving us $12 over buying them.
In the gardens -
- Harvested more French and English lavender and a lot of rosemary from the gardens as they needed pruning which we currently have drying.
- Separated 497 g of organically grown dried thyme picked from the gardens saving $73.55 over buying the equivalent amount in the shops.
- Picked 2.5 kg of cherry tomatoes from the gardens which we washed and froze in meal sized portions for the freezer saving $30 over buying them in the supermarket.
- Cut, collected and split 3/4's of a cubic metre of Ironbark firewood free from a friends property closeby saving $150 over purchasing it locally.
Have a great week ahead everyone :).
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
Question Wendy. Do you mix your laundry powder in a bit of warm water before adding to the machine as I often find bits of “undissolved” soap in my filter?
ReplyDeleteHi Janine, I had the same issue in my top loader and now dissolve in hot water prior to adding to the machine.
DeleteKind regards
Andrea.
No I don't dissolve it Janine. It's only on the odd occasion that I find a few bits of soap. Making sure you have the right water level or not overloading the machine should help.
DeleteHi everyone, Liz here, Lots of rain here, I know a lot of farms are in drought across the country, so we are very thankful here in SW WA! Wendy I have always hand grated the soap for washing powder, quite hard work, and your method makes much more sense. This week -
ReplyDelete* stayed away from the shops this week, with hubby popping into IGA for milk after work. He rang to say they had a whole rump there (the last one) for $6.99kg. I said to grab it and we sliced it up and got 9 meals (2 x stirfry, 1 x stew, 6 x steak) for $42, so $4.46 per meal for rump steak. Very nice and tender too!
* Spent some time researching whether to pay off the Investment Property loan quickly or at least quicker. Ran some numbers through an online mortgage calculator, so now have a specific figure to aim for, and a plan to achieve it.
* Put half of this months rental income off the Investment property loan and the other half saved for my youngest sons Ag College education fees.
* Cleaned with miracle spray and did the washing with home made washing powder. Very little washing needed now we are mostly empty nesters! Dried it all on the clothes horse by the fire.
* Cooked all meals from scratch as usual using home grown fresh and preserved produce.
* No petrol used this week as I've stayed home on the farm and hubby has a work car provided.
* Happy to say the rain water tanks are full, thanks to lots of wonderful rain!
* Used a hot water bottle in bed to keep warm, its freezing here!
Wishing everyone a great week ahead, regards Liz
I'm so glad you got lots of rain Liz. We've had a fair bit in Melbourne too.
DeleteYou are very organised, Wendy! It didn't feel like a frugal week here, I had to buy few extra warm clothes for our trip to Canberra. I had no luck at op-shops over past few weeks so I had to settle for new. I did get store discount though so at least that was something.
ReplyDelete* packing porridge for cheap, filling & warm breakfasts when in Canberra
* chose self contained apartment so I can cook meals and pack lunches easily
* organised teenager next door to walk our dog while away, costs less than professional dog walker.
* using up what's in fridge before we go
* hubby cut my hair for me this week - saves a fortune!
* water bill came in under the average for daily use for number of people in our household.
* found a throw blanket for sofa, a pair of corduroy jeans, 2xpairs kids jeans and a lovely pink cardigan at op-shops. All cost very little. We'll be wearing jeans while we are in Canberra. Cardigan goes perfectly with skirt I made recently.
Have a lovely week, Wendy! Meg:)
I do many of the things you have mentioned. This week I have tried to not buy things in plastic and it was a woeful fail. I am going to buy some tule and make some bags for produce. All our washing has been line dried and if possible hung up on hangers so there is less ironing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the foaming wash recipe. I have one bottle of this wash in the kitchen so I will be doing this.
Isn’t interesting how much these things are a part of your daily life and routine, but that there are many people who would not !
ReplyDeleteMy week has been relatively routine but included my day-to-day : washing, reusing ziplocs bags, giving veggie scraps/greens to my chickens, making dinners/meals/ snacks from scratch using ingredients already in my pantry.
I made a table runner for a long banquet table for an event in October that I’m helping with. Our budget was small, so we opted to buy a $1 yellow plastic tablecloth from Dollar Tree and I made the table runner from my fabric scraps to make it look more special! https://pin.it/g2unx2cjx525qm Frugal does not need to mean plain or deprived!
I also made a baby snuggler to help baby feel secure as they go to sleep. Miserably written pattern (but free) online that my daughter and I finally figured out and got one made for Just the cost of my time! All supplies were from my stash! https://pin.it/urqimaucgscjmq and https://pin.it/jmicfdr435tole.
I may market these.
I made 3 dozen chicken/ham/cheese wraps for lunches so that we have some variety without buying lunch out!
I pressure canned some of my dry beans- black, kidney and pinto, giving me 15 pints to replenish my stock on the basement shelves! I’ve always had dry beans as a part of my food storage, but only in the last few years have I pressure canned them in hot water , making them ready to eat whenever I need some in a recipe! Major savings in time and money!! https://pin.it/zvzwiokgfkovqa
So, like I said, just a routine week in the life of a frugal fan!!!
Dear Wendy, I agree. My grandparents were the original tree hugger generation, and an enormous influence on me. They didn't go around talking about it constantly, it was, as you say, simply a way of life. I love your list of tasks. It's always inspiring to see what you've been up to. Love, Mimi xxx
ReplyDelete