* Made pizzas for dinner using up bits and pieces from the fridge and freezer. We used this recipe to make the bases. So yummy and far better than anything we've had in a restaurant or from takeaway.
* Decorated a few department store gift bags so I can reuse them for birthday present giving. I'll put a birthday or other occasion stamp on them when it's time to use the bags.
* I packaged up the last batch or handmade soaps to sell at a craft / garage sale. The ribbons tied around them were saved from gifts over the years.
* Gratefully received extra cleaning work at one of my jobs. The client wanted his business shirts ironed and extra Spring cleaning done.
* Bought a few packets of nappies form Coles at half price. The packaging is changing so they need to clear out the old stock. I'll keep one packet here and the others will be for Megan's baby.
* Found a few more goodies at Savers op shop. Baby coat hanger bundles for $2, pasty cutters for $2, a Bob The Builder doona cover for $10 in it's packet and a waterproof cot sheet for $5 also in it's packet. I also used a 10% stamp on my card.
* Picked a couple of bunches of iceberg roses from the garden. They are so elegant in recycled jam jars.
* Picked silverbeet for two meals.
* Ate from the freezers as much as possible including morning teas of muffins and pumpkin scones.
* Froze a couple of serves of leftovers.
* Took morning tea snacks, water bottles and lunch with me when at my cleaning jobs.
* Purchased a few Christmas and Mother's Day presents when The Body Shop had a 20% off their online store.
* Used up a few samples of body wash and face cleanser.
* Darren did some online research to get a better deal on my car insurance. He saved about $130.
 |
| Decorated bags |
 |
| From the garden |
 |
| Morning teas |
 |
| Samples to use |
 |
| Homemade pizza |
This week I decided to make some Microwaveable Soup Cozies from my fabric stash to continue my Use-it-Up challenge in my sewing room! I had the thought that if I marketed them at a crazy good price that people would prefer to buy them rather than to DIY them! I was right! In less than 48 hours, I’ve sold over 22 sets of two!!! That’s added some unexpected money into our budget! After we pay our business 20%, we tithe on the balance and then divide the remainder of the money in half! 1/2 goes to savings and 1/2 goes to reducing our debt! They may seem like little dribs and drabs, but it’s amazing how the savings account is increasing so quickly and our debt is reducing!!
ReplyDeleteI got 9 three pound containers of chopped tomatoes, 11 baskets of raspberries, 10 pounds of shredded carrots and 5 pounds of chopped onions all for $12! I canned 16 pints of Rotel and 14 quarts of tomatoes, dehydrated the shredded carrots and will make more raspberry jam! I’ll freeze the rest of the onions!
Got eggs from our chickens all week.
Pretty awesome week! We have
I saw your microwavable bowls on Facebook and thought they were a great idea. I'm so glad you sold so many.
DeleteHave you made beeswax wraps to sell ? They are the latest craze in Australia and lots of people are making them to sell. Just a thought as I know you have a great fabric stash.
I went through my present cupboard and also have most done... I have a few gifts to get and took care of two of them this week. Also I made Christmas cakes and several will be gifts. That takes care of another three! I think homemade pizzas are the best! xxx
ReplyDeleteI always love to hear about your present cupboard. You make so many lovely things Annabel. I'm using the green tea towel you edged. It's so pretty in my green kitchen.
DeleteI really enjoy homemade pizza and just thinking about it makes my mouth water !!!
Hi Wendy and I am glad you are getting some produce from your gardens to add food to your household and got some more cleaning work to add to your families budget. Your cooking looks divine :).
ReplyDeleteWe have completed our Christmas shopping and this year was the most expensive in all our years of marriage as we purchased ourselves our forever home for Christmas :). Still of course we have to pay off a small mortgage though.
Our savings added up to $206.45 last week :).
Home organisation -
- Packed almost 2 complete rooms in the house into boxes with the contents and which room they will go in when we get to our new home.
- Decluttered and threw out a lot of rubbish.
Earnings -
- Made $10 from the sale of 50 g of organically grown English lavender picked and dried from the gardens.
Purchases -
- From eBay we purchased a 12 pin - 7 pin trailer adaptor, a 50mm tow ball and and tow ball cover for the new to us Ford Territory saving $66.70 over purchasing them locally.
In the gardens -
- Harvested 15.25 kg of broad beans saving $106.75 over purchasing them in the shops.
- Saved a few plants with lots of broad beans on them and are drying the beans for seed stocks to take with us to our new home.
- Harvested a lot of thyme we currently have drying on a drying rack.
- Separated 100 g of organically grown thyme from thyme we picked and dried from the gardens saving $23 over purchasing it.
- Weeded 2 x 9 mt garden beds.
Have a wonderful week ahead everyone :).
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
Lorna, you certainly did receive an enormous Christmas presents ( but a good one though ). Back in 2008, I bought my first ever brand new car. Darren says it's my birthday and Christmas present for the next 20 or so years - giggle giggle.
DeleteI love how entrepreneurial you are with your garden. If we had the space we'd do the same thing. We do grow tomatoes and I make relish from them. Some to keep, some to give as presents and some to sell to friends.
Thank you Wendy for your encouragement and it could well be the case with the house being birthday and Christmas presents too :). In all seriousness though our mortgage repayments are $134 less per fortnight than what we are paying in rent currently though. We plan to pay off the amount we pay in rent each fortnight now cutting the mortgage repayment time down by 9 years and will throw in any extra earnings we get from DH's gardening work and my internet selling making it even a shorter time.
DeleteThe second car we paid cash for (and I haggled down the price by $550) and is a 2004 model Territory but will be good for towing manures, firewood and picking up bulk groceries as we will be a bit further out of town than we are now.
For an idea dried herbs also sell well on the internet if you grown them in your gardens too.
Have a great week :).
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
Your mortgage will be gone before you know it. When we were paying ours off in record time , Darren did a spreadsheet and we put all spare dollars onto the mortgage. It was great to see it drop.
DeleteWhat a wonderful week you had Wendy.
ReplyDeleteI also got a few packs of the old brand Coles nappies, they are great and I actually like them better than the more expensive nappies.
I used the Huggies newborn nappies and then moved to the Coles brand from the size 2.
We received an astronomical electricity bill for this quarter it was very unexpected. It was $1500 for my partner and I and our 8 month old. I just don't understand. My partner thought because we had the oil heater on in our daughters room for most of winter. Our bills are normally about $500.
We called AGL and they gave us 23% off which is a saving but still crazy. So any tips anyone has please send them my way. I am going back to work in Jan so hopefully that will help with the bills.
Other than that I did some market research for $50 and today using up a restaurant gift card before it expires.
When is Megan due?
Will she find out what she is having or will it be a surprise?
Have a lovely weekend Wendy, The sun is shining in Sydney I hope it is the same for you down in Melbourne,
Regards,
Samantha
Hi Samantha. I'm glad to hear about the Coles nappies. They were just ok when my girls were little. I had both girls in cloth but used disposable at night and when out and about. Huggies were a luxury for us and I was so glad I was given a few packets as baby presents. Baby Love was the brand I used the most. I've since found out when Huggies upgrade their technology,
DeleteBaby Love gets Huggies old technology.
Megan is due in March and is having a boy. I didn't want to find out until it was born but it's hard for the young ones to keep a secret.
Hi Samantha I do have a couple of good tips for you with saving on groceries if you have a Woolworths store close to you there.
DeleteOn Ebay under the nickname woolworthssupermarkets they have e-vouchers once every 3 months with another lot due to be put up in beginning to end of November. We choose the $240 e-voucher for $200 which gives you the largest discount of 16.66% off the normal price of groceries. You have to pick up your order instore though after you put your order in online, but they have your grocery order a trolley and waiting for you at your chosen time, you just have to pack it in your BYO bags.
Of course then what you do is use the already great discount and buy all the things you normally buy when they are on special which gives you a greater discount again.
My husband and I have been using this way of grocery shopping for about a year now and it saves a lot of money.
Also if you are a member of RACQ you can also get 5% off fuel and groceries by buying their e gift cards at www.racq.com.au (under shopping rewards) which are delivered to your email address and then you just print them out to use.
I hope this helps.
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
We love homemade pizza here too, Wendy. Definitely better than shop bought any day! I worked a lot this week, relief teaching for some extra $. On the days I didn't work:
ReplyDelete* made banana bread from over-ripe fruit in the fruit bowl
* made a big batch of granola for breakfasts
* made all meals here at home, used some freezer meals on busy nights
* did some hand sewing for Xmas gifts
* borrowed books from the library
* sent a birthday parcel in time to avoid express post fees
* sourced cheapest petrol price I could find
* resourced an art lesson I taught using material I already had here at home.
I need to make some pizza bases for the freezer before we can have pizza again. Must do that tomorrow. Hope you are having a lovely weekend. Meg:)
You had a very productive week, Wendy! I always enjoy your blog.
ReplyDeleteI hemmed a pair of slacks for work this week, which was made so easy by finally setting up my sewing machine in a spare room and keeping it set up. Wish I would have done that years ago; sewing a quick seam or two is so easy now.
I still need to prepare more for Christmas, but I have a few good purchases tucked away already. I am almost done with another flannel baby quilt. They are fun to make and this one cost zero pennies; it is made entirely from scaps and it’s every bit as lovely as any other quilts I have made. No cost gift! (Well, except for my time, but it is so fun to make, and as I sew I pray for my friend’s baby, so it’s a very special time and results in a meaningful gift too.)
Love, Teresa
You got some lovely bargains at Saver I so love that shop! I need to save a very large amount of money so any saving at the moment is a good one. Mums 90th birthday is the week before Christmas so I bought the soft drinks I need this this week. I bought mostly food on special and worked our meals around what we have and what is cheap. I to am decorating store bags for Christmas gifts I just realised that jelly boxes are the perfect size for some personalised Christmas decorations I bought so another revamp is in the works. Still trying to get things going in the garden. I go out once a month with some friends for a catch up, I buy a fruit drink in a very pretty bottle it is $4.00 but I bring the bottle home as well as a friends. I wash them do a nice label and I am planning on drying my herbs to fill them this year I am really trying to stop using plastics so a perfect solution. I made spaghetti sauce this week I used sliced tomatoes from the freezer, leftover tomato soup and I rinsed out a tomato sauce bottle. So almost free except for the mince. Using up leftovers, samples, and hotel room toiletries making a baby blanket from wool I have on hand and saving money from whatever I can think of. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend the weather here has been lovely. Leanne.
ReplyDeleteI went through everything for Christmas too. I know what I have and what I still need. It must be that time of year.
ReplyDeleteThe pizza looks wonderful. I love having homemade pizza. Saves us so much over buying. My list for the week s here:https://mcoia.blogspot.com/2018/10/my-frugal-list-week-of-october-22-2018.html
Those are all nice thrifty saves.
ReplyDeleteYou are always so very creative with your money saving ways. Love it.
ReplyDeleteI have been working fulltime in recent months and can see that I have taken a few short cuts just to keep in front of 'life'. However, I have managed in the past week to dry clothes outside or inside on the clothes racks, shopped from the pantry and fridge first, taken back control of the three light rule and taken my own food to work for morning tea and lunch.