For those who did not see my post on Facebook, Darren and I announced we will be grandparents next March with Megan and her boyfriend Kurt expecting a baby. We are excited, a little nervous and suddenly feeling about 20 years older. I've made lots of trips to Savers ( ok, more than usual ) to buy up on baby clothes, a baby bath, blankets and other goodies. It's amazing what good quality things people donate and the cheap prices they are sold for.
Here's what else I got up to this week -
* Made up two bottles of diluted Dynamo laundry liquid. Usually I use my homemade laundry powder but work uniforms need something with a fragrance to cut through the grease smell.
* Made a whole orange cake using a couple of small oranges given to me last week. I'm hoping to freeze the rest of the oranges for future baking.
* Donated a couple of bags of goodies to Savers and received a 20% off discount stamp.
* Made up two bottles of diluted Windex window cleaner. It still works just as good as the full strength. The diluted ratio is 50: 50
* Made two bottles of Miracle Spray to sell to a couple of cleaning clients.
* Made chunky chicken and veg soup. First I made stock in the slow cooker using one drumstick, one wing and bones from a quarter of chicken. Then I made the soup on the stove top. There was plenty of meat and the soup made seven portions for the freezer.
* Froze leftovers from chop suey and spag bol.
* Fed weeds, Spring grass and bread crusts to the chickens.
* Picked silverbeet to add to two meals.
* Megan, Kurt and I went to Savers to buy baby clothes and maternity clothes. I was able to give them a discount card with 20% off on it. This saved them $16.
* Picked flowers from the garden to brighten up my kitchen.
* Sold two dozen eggs.
* Dried the washing on the line. I changed my wash days to suit the weather.
* Gratefully received more lemons.
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| From the garden |
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| Selling excess eggs |
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| Silverbeet added to chop suey. Yum |
Hi Wendy, thanks for another great post. I am a regular reader but rarely comment. Congratulations on your exciting news. We were blessed with our first grandchild in January and it is the most amazing experience, you and Darren will love it . Having a baby in the family has brought immense joy to us all. Sending best wishes from my family to yours at this wonderful time. Shelley x
ReplyDeleteThankyou Shelley
DeleteOh, congratulations on becoming grandparents! Grandparents are pretty special people. :) And I agree with you, secondhand is the way to go for babies and small kids. Let other people buy new and pay full price, and then jump in and buy it for much, much less when their child outgrows the item in a few months. That's the way we've always gone and not only does it save money, it's nice not creating a demand for new things to be produced. :)
ReplyDeleteThere are so many almost new or new clothes for sale at Savers.
DeleteCongratulations to everyone on the wonderful news! Grandchildren are such a blessing - we are expecting our third, a girl, in late January. I was a relatively young Nanny first time around at 43, but I think it helps with keeping up with them 😊
ReplyDeleteThankyou. I'll be able to roll around on the floor with the little bubby.
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ReplyDeleteWe having been living on our food storage the last couple weeks in order to use up and rotate some of our freezers and other food storage!,
When I started making my Scrappy Bags ( https://pin.it/feddcmppzizen2) as a way to use up some of my overflowing fabric stash, I had no idea that within two weeks, I would have made 36 of them and sold 28 of those already! That has given us an unexpected income of over $350 to put towards paying off hubs’ ablation surgery this year! We redid our website HandmadeinOldeTowne.com to make it more user friendly. So glad hubs and our son J are right here to help with tech issues!!!
I started up a blog because some friends had asked for a copy of the 20 Steps approach to Food Storage- The Ants Approach. I realized it would be cheaper to just send her all of steps/notebook online rather than to print it out and ship it to her. So anyone’s interested, the blog is : theantorthegrasshopper.blogspot.com
Did the usual things- packaged up leftovers to take for work lunches and labeled them, so they will be seen and eaten, made all meals at home!
I read a post somewhere online about a wat to take cuttings from a blackberry bush and root them to make more blackberry bushes! Can anyone help with instructions??
Sold a dozen eggs to one of Dave’s co-workers and hecput in an order for 2 dozen eggs a week from now on! We sell our eggs for $2.50/dozen so that’s just $5/week BUT that’s $130 over 6 months! So those little drive and drabs of extra income that others dismiss are means to accomplish our goals a little step at a time! We are happy to do that!!
Congratulations on the upcoming grandbaby!
Hope your exciting week relaxes soon into your regular routine soon!
Pat
Stock rotation is so important whether it's bottled food, tins, packets or fridge / freezer food.
DeleteI love your scrappy bags Pat and well done for selling so many.
Hi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Megan and Kurt. This is such an exciting time for your family! Good luck with it all
Ree
Congratulations! That is so exciting. I hope Megan is feeling well. I had morning sickness with all 3 of my pregnancies.
ReplyDeleteWe have been getting lots of leftover food recently. We are happy to eat it and prevent food waste. Mt full list is here: https://mcoia.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-frugal-list-week-of-september-17-2018.html
Thankyou. Megan has been quite well. I just felt sick with my two girls.
DeleteCongratulations! It will be such an exciting time welcoming a new little one into your family. Such a sensible approach too to look for things secondhand and at reduced prices. That will save a lot of money! On the frugal front here this week:
ReplyDelete* spent school holiday days mostly here at home, very little money spent and no petrol needed for the car.
* homemade pizzas, ice-cream and jelly for dinner when my son had friends sleep over.
* borrowed lots of books from the local libraries to read on the holidays.
* researched best prices for a few xmas gifts on our son's wish list.
* took two boxes of books and outgrown clothes to the op-shop.
* potted up a new succulent pot with free 'pups' from my neighbour.
* happily received some delicious chocolate brownies from a friend.
* happily received some salad veg from neighbours who cleared out their fridge before they left to go overseas.
* bought three small rope baskets from a little local craft collective. I am going to use them in my xmas gift giving.
Have a lovely week, Wendy.
Meg:)
Homemade pizzas are the best Meg. So yummy.
DeleteHi Wendy and congratulations future grandmother and to both Megan and Kurt. Yes I know the excitement of becoming a grandmother all too well :) .
ReplyDeleteWe have also had a really topsy turvy week as well so I know the feeling of being totally out of wack with usual routines.
Been a busy week for us here as we have seen 4 houses for sale from old churches on acreage to residential to rural. The old church sadly had seen better days with both wood rot and termite damage but oh what a magnificent 15 square home with vaulted ceilings. Probably suitable for a builder or tradie to repair and restore (you would need deep pockets to fix it properly). We went back and saw the home on half an acre in town here but it too has issues with the house sinking and needing restumping. The favourite so far is a house on 2.4 acres that is good with lovely wooden floorboards and 3 bedrooms but the soil is rather rocky for gardens but could be amended. We shall keep you updated on our continuing buying our home adventure :).
Our time at home has been limited this week but we have achieved a little.
Our savings added up to - $234.72 last week.
Finances & listings -
- Banked more money into our home deposit savings account bringing us to 28.58 % of the way there for a new home build or 41.57% of the way there for buying an existing home on land.
- Listed 18 items on eBay using a free listing promotion saving $29.70 on usual listing costs.
Earnings -
- Made $21.51 from the sale of a homemade 5 layer cotton eye mask in my eBay store.
Grocery savings -
- Used another $240 for $200 grocery e-voucher and with weekly specials on items we use regularly saved an additional $53.40 on usual prices.
- We stocked up above our usual stocking levels on 10 x cocoa powder, 8 tins of spam, 24 tins of smoked oysters and 1 x 32 pk of toilet paper.
In the gardens -
- Took 18 cuttings of English lavender we potted up and 10 cuttings of rosemary we have sitting in water until they develop roots saving $151.62 over buying the plants in the local plant nurseries.
Usual frugalities -
- Watered the house lawns with saved grey water from our showers and washing machine, watered fruit tree pot plants and vegetables with dish rinsing and shower warm up water, hung washing on the clothes line to dry and washed all laundry on a cold water cycle.
Have a great week ahead everyone :).
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
Lorna, I always love seeing you list. It's so well rounded. I hope you find the home of your dreams soon.
DeleteThank you Wendy and we are hoping we find our dream home soon as well :).
DeleteGlad you were able to find so many good quality baby clothing items for great prices. Having worked in op shops as a volunteer in the past I know many of the baby clothing is barely worn and in good condition.
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
Hi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteCongrats to all of you on your upcoming little family member. How beautiful.
Love Lisa xo
Thankyou Lisa
DeleteHi Wendy, such wonderful news, congratulations to you all. Babies are not as expensive to raise as big multinational companies want us to believe.
ReplyDeleteKind regards
Andrea
Congratulations on your soon becoming grandparents, and to the parents too. Babies outgrow clothing so quickly, you all are wise in buying pre-owned. I like my routines also, and when they get turned around, I am sometimes irritable. I did finish an afghan this morning before coming to work, and am now ready for the next "project". I think it will be crocheted granny square Christmas stockings - some for the nieces and their families, and some for sale. Food wise, nothing is going to waste as I have a policy that I will freeze any and all leftovers (veggies that will go into chicken or veggie soups, go in one container) and meats go separately. Bones go into a container also for stock. There are several bags of frozen rice in there too - can be thawed and eaten, combined to make fried rice, or added to soups when they are made. I don't buy white potatoes in bulk, because I am not supposed to have them. But I also only buy a couple of largish sweet potatoes at a time right now until the harvest is in and they go on a "super sale". Then I will buy them in 5 lb boxes, cook until done (I wash, poke them and use the microwave), skin and then mash and freeze for meals and for sweet potato pie. I check the sales like everyone and only buy what is on sale. It took me several months since my move to get back to that level, but I have made it, and will continue to "make it work". Have a great week. Norma
ReplyDeleteOh Wendy how exciting for you all. Congratulations xx
ReplyDeleteBabies are blessings... you are going to have so much fun being and grandparent.
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