Saturday 24 November 2018

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 24th November 2018

Rain,  rain and more rain.  That's how our week looked here in Melbourne.  The weather started of in the 30's early in the week and today it's meant to be 16 degrees Celsius.  Summer dress one day,  jeans and jumpers the next.  We do feel very blessed with the amount of rain Melbourne has received.  It's certainly saved me some time I would usually spend watering the veggie garden as well as the new daisy plants I've been nurturing.

Here's how my week looked -

*  Darren activated a Flybuys offer that gave us an extra 6 cents per litre off petrol.  Combined with the 4 cent discount fuel docket and cheaper petrol at the bowser,  it's been a welcome relief to my budget and we've all made the most of the offer.

*  When doing my monthly grocery shop in Coles on Monday,  I found four trays of mince reduced by 15%.  I needed mince so grabbed all four trays and divided it up into 250 gram portions for the freezer.

*  Donated a couple of bags of unwanted items to Savers and received a couple of discount stamps on my card.

*  Saved water in the washing machine,  shower and kitchen to reuse where possible.

*  Thinned out the lettuce seedlings,   I planted them a few weeks ago but didn't know how many seeds fell into the soil.  Thankfully most of them took and we'll have lettuce by the abundance in about 4 weeks.  Within an hour of thinning the seedlings,  the heavens opened up and rain fell for the next few days.

*  Bought a few pairs of track pants at Savers to wear to my cleaning jobs.  I used a 15% off discount stamp to get them cheaper.

*  Gratefully received some mangoes and craft papers from a friend.  The mangoes
will be cut up to freeze for smoothies.

*  Gratefully received muffins leftover from Jessica's work.  We froze some and also blessed others with the yumminess.

*  Purchased chia seeds,  oat bran,  bay leaves,  parsley,  chives,  sunflower seeds and walnuts from Hindustan Imports.  Their prices are much cheaper than supermarkets.

*  Picked lettuce,  our first strawberry of the season and silverbeet from our garden.

*  Fed weeds,  grass and kitchen scraps to the chickens.

*  Gratefully received extra cleaning hours at two cleaning jobs.

First strawberry of the season

Saving water from the washing machine


Lettuce seedlings

How did you save money this week ?

Have you received rain this week ?


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7 comments:

  1. Yes we've had rain this week but as we are in the UK we expect it now. I made miracle spray for the first time and am pleased with the result so thank you for that.

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  2. How do you lift that bucket of water without it spilling, well done with the lettuces, snails always seem to get mine.

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    Replies
    1. I use a smaller bucket to scoop it out. The bucket you see in the photo is about 60 litres.

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  3. Hi Wendy and first of all I would like to thank you for saving me a fortune on herbs spices, yeast and beans with you mentioning for Hindustan Importers. We make our own bread, buns and pizza bases and my previous supplier of yeast, herbs and spices shut up shop being Pantry Packer. I have placed a large order for us also today.

    Wendy great savings on your fuel costs and your tracksuit pants too. It has to be asked who is going to get the strawberry ? as we fight over them here they are so yummy :).

    Our savings added up to $175.29 last week :).

    Finances -
    - Listed 10 items on eBay saving $16.50 on usual listing fees.

    Purchases -
    - Purchased 6 months worth of prescription dental dry cat food on eBay using a 5% off voucher saving $40.68 on buying it at the local veterinary clinic.
    - Using items already on special and coupling them with a $10 off voucher on eBay I earned from reaching a certain sales target I purchased 2 x ankle, 2 wrist and 6 knee supports for $1.32 saving $10.
    - Purchased 2 x 3 x 3.6m heavy duty trailer tarps already on special and couple that with a 20% off voucher on Ebay saving another $71.60 over usual prices in the local hardware stores.

    House organisation -
    - Moved 2 loads of firewood to the farm.
    - Packed another kitchen pantry into labelled boxes.
    - Had a friend come over to load our manure into the trailer with his tractor free of charge saving us around $22.

    In the kitchen -
    - Cooked a double batch of coconut queen biscuits saving $14.51 over purchasing the equivalent quality in the supermarket.

    Have a wonderful week ahead everyone :).


    Sewingcreations15 (Lorna)

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  4. A few months ago I told my mother no more water collecting. It hurts so much and I always spill the darn stuff. II have admiration for those who manage to do these tasks.

    My frugal ways seem insignificant and humdrum. I am plugging away at gifts from my fabric stash. So that should make Christmas a little more affordable.

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  5. Lovely to have such good rain down your way, Wendy. We have been on the edge of a couple of storms so have had some rain too. On the frugal front this week:
    * filled up both cars at lower petrol price
    * bought large bag of salad mix, greatly reduced price, and used as basis for salads we've had for lunches and with dinner
    * sewed a top for my son's graduation from fabric I got on sale at Spotlight
    * found a $7 pair of little strappy black shoes at op-shop and wore them to graduation
    * divided clump of peace lilies from garden and potted up the five plants to give as Xmas gifts
    * bought a tray of mangoes, chopped and froze for smoothies. Also gave a few to our neighbours too:)
    * happily received a nice dress shirt for my son from a dear friend - her son has outgrown it
    * gratefully received some choc-chip muffins from my mother-in-law, froze those.
    * dried all washing out in the hot sunshine we've had during week
    * baked little friands and a banana bread for school snacks this week.
    * Used up half tub of plain yoghurt and a granny smith apple in lazy apple pancakes
    In two weeks time, our school drives up and down the highway will be over. This will be a significant saving every week in petrol and we are looking forward to saving that money. Have a lovely week, Wendy. Meg:)

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  6. Debby in Kansas, USA27 November 2018 at 02:21

    That strawberry made my mouth water!!

    We had a very windy snow day yesterday. Not a lot of snow, but it was blowing like crazy. COLD!! It'll melt off quickly today because the sun is out, but no warm weather.

    When we lived in Southern California, it was very desert-like. My friends lived in an area where they had to have water trucked in. They hooked their washer, dishwasher, & showers so the water went out into the garden. Is that common there? They had to use special soaps so as not to damage the growth of plants, but I was always impressed with the way it all worked so good! We save warm up water to flush the toilets here, but not the washer water. Water isn't nearly the problem here, but I still feel like the more that's saved, the better. I always think of a comment made by a visitor from South America. He said he couldn't believe we used fresh, clean water to flush a toilet. That always stuck in my brain.

    Well, for savings this past week...

    * I used the crock pot a lot. We were painting so it was easy to start it in the morning and have dinner ready to go at the point we were exhausted. We just did sandwiches, pita chips, & hummus for lunch. I bought the paint 3 months ago during their bi-annual sale of 40% off. I just took it in on Friday to have it shaken up again. I got the new bedroom comforter for 50% off in summer. I'm going to do some curtain moving around so I only need to buy one new set, but will end up changing the looks of 3 rooms.
    * Used fuel points from the market to get .30 cents per gallon off on gas for the cars.
    * Got the max allowed (5 of each) on some market deals. Butter sticks for $1.99 lb., 28 oz. pasta sauce for .99 ea., variety of crackers for .99 ea., and freebies of a small candle and a little jar of seasoning.
    * Keeping the thermostat on 60 during the daytime when it's sunny and just putting on an extra sweater.
    * I bought a wood desk for my sewing machine at a rummage sale for $10 and I lined the drawers yesterday for free. The last time I went to the paint store, I asked if they had any old wallpaper sample books I could have. They gave me 4! Beautiful, free pages that work great for liners. I just use a little two sided tape in the corners to keep them down.
    *I repaired 5 items of clothing
    * Watched 2 great movies over the weekend for free. Checked them both out of the library.

    ReplyDelete

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