Saturday 13 July 2019

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 13th July 2019

This week we made a conscious effort to use up what we have and to make sure we didn't waste a thing in the kitchen.  Next week I'll be doing my first monthly shop with the $100 budget for three people plus our cat.  So far I only have 16 items on the shopping list.  All are ingredients and the cheapest brands available.  I'll be researching cheaper baking recipes especially ones that use less butter ( which is so expensive these days ).

Here's our frugal list -

*  Made 14 bars of coconut oil and olive oil soap.  Most will be used by Darren and I and a few will either be sold or given as presents.  This pays for all of the ingredients.

*  Made pita chips for snacking on.

*  Darren bought a few shirts using gift cards he received through Velocity points ( Midas car services ).  A couple of the shirts were on clearance so the gift cards went further than we thought.

*  Made pumpkin scones using pumpkins bought for 99 cents a kilo.  I've cooked,  drained and frozen the rest of the pumpkin to make more scones later on.

*  Wrote another cheap menu plan and focused on using up bits and pieces in the freezer.

*  Gratefully received more lemons and mandarins from a friend.

*  Cooked up a roast beef in the slow cooker.  The three of us had it for dinner that night.  The leftovers were carefully portioned out for another two meals in gravy and the rest went into a Massaman beef curry.  In total I got 15 portions from the roast beef.

*  Stocked up on choc bits on sale at half price in Coles.  I'll be looking for cheaper biscuit recipes that use less butter.

*  I drove my Dad into the city on Thursday for a doctor's appointment.  Our usual car park has changed it's rates and conditions of entry making it impossible to park there for a couple of hours.  We found a much cheaper option that charges $5 an hour instead of the usual $16 + per hour.

*  This week I only needed to buy milk,  potatoes and carrots.  My local fruit and veg shop had a managers special on brushed potatoes for $2 a 5 kilo bag.  I also purchased a 5 kilo bag of juicing carrots for $5.99 instead of the usual 1 kilo bag for $2.  I guess we are eating more carrots for the next few weeks.  I was quite surprised at the quality of the carrots.  They are just as good as the usual carrots.

*  Jessica bought a roast chicken to help out.  I made a big pot of chunky chicken and veg soup ( 7 portions ).  A container of chicken stock went into the freezer for more soup making later on ( will make 8 portions of soup ).  The rest of the meat was made into a chicken pasta bake and frozen ( 7 portions ).  In total I made the chicken stretch to 22 portions.

*  Froze leftovers of chop suey for 2 people.

*  Topped up our cars with petrol while the price is still reasonable.

*  Turned lights and standby lights off where and when possible.

*  Dried clothes on clothes horses over the vent in the bathroom ( and closed the door )





Do you freeze the leftovers from dinner ?

How did you save money this week ?


39 comments:

  1. I’ve been trying to use up bits and pieces from my freezer this week, it’s created some much needed space, and I’m getting all my containers back! I was getting low on those because they were all in the freezer!

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    1. Cheryl, that's exactly what's happened in our house. I've got an impressive collection of containers but so many are in the freezer. Some days I'm scrounging around for a container to put leftovers in.

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    2. Wendy, I so admire you and others for your resolve. Please help me know where to start. Thank you. Alison

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  2. This is a cake recipe I use. No butter or egg so quite low cost I just use normal sugar https://stayhomeinstead.blogspot.com/2018/03/no-mixing-bowl-chocolate-cake_7.html?m=1

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  3. I made egg cups in a muffin tray with lots of veggies like little frittatas easy to warm up for the weeks breakfast. Made banana muffins and froze some, cleaned out some of the kids cupboards, used movie vouchers, caught up on cleaning. Gifted some fresh spinach so I bought a kilo of ricotta and made two trays of canneloni, one lasagne and one egg plant ,( grilled thin slices of eggplant, filled with ricotta mix, rolled and baked in sauce)these are good when i go back to work. Making soup this weekend have some fruit to use up, so will juice or stew some so we don't waste any.

    Cathy

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    1. Cathy, it sounds like we should all participate in a use it up challenge. Enjoy your soup

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  4. That's fantastic Wendy.
    I gratefully received half a home grown pumpkin, rhubarb, lemon's and Mandarins from family and friends. Made up a huge lemon slice and have saved heaps of leftovers for future dinners. Unfortunately we don't have any cheap fruit and vegetable suppliers around here. I paid $2.69per kilo for pumpkin lately.

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    1. Sam, pumpkin has been dear here too. I have a friend over in Wantirna South who got the cheap pumpkin for me a couple of months ago at 99 cents a kilo.

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  5. It was a week of spending but for a good reason. Our grandchildren were here from out of state and they only come once a year. We budgeted to take them school clothes shopping and they are so good at shopping clearance racks and getting the most for the amount allotted to them. Our splurge funtime was going to the trampoline park. There is something there for everyone (8 yrs to 15 yrs.)
    We treated everyone to one big buffet meal but we had purchased gift cards earlier, at a reduced rate to cover most of the bill.
    We ate at home most meals and I still have leftovers, even with anywhere from 9 to 21 people eating. We've been eating on those leftover since the kids left Wed. I will give it one more day, tomorrow for the hamburgers or hot dogs (both grilled) or the chicken strips (baked) and then all that will be flash frozen and vacuum sealed. Dh will take some for lunches and some will become ingredients for other dishes and some for quick suppers during harvest.
    We used paper/plastic plates & silverware but reused cups. I didn't want to tax our well with more water usage than I had to. We purchased water to save on our RO system. I combined as much laundry as I could. We tried to keep the electricity at a minimum but they all need to use fans, lights or tv/radio/sound at night. Now that they have left we are going to make up for the extra expenses by not buying much for groceries and eating out of pantry and freezer, cutting back on the A/C & lights and doing full loads of laundry/dishes. I will do as little spending as I can to build back the monetary reserves.

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    1. That's a lot of people to feed Kay. You certainly are good at using up all the leftovers.

      We cut back on utilities after having guests stay with us too. It's like a mini challenge I have in my head that helps me feel better about the extra usage.

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  6. Good Morning Wendy, you are one amazing lady!! In regards to the spuds you bought this week,we had baked spuds one night which only uses two rashers of bacon, cream, cheese and beetroot, which makes a nice meal. Also potato bake with vegies makes a nice meal too.Best wishes, Robyn S.A

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    1. Hi Robyn. The potatoes are brushed ones so we can't really do baked potatoes but the potato bake will certainly go on the menu. I haven't made one for a while. Thanks for the idea.

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  7. I have travelled this week and unusually for us we stayed in a hotel. It made it difficult to have cheaper meals but I built experiences and that was wonderful.

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  8. Hi Wendy, I am really impressed by the way that you are always so able to adapt to changing circumstances with a positive attitude. I enjoy your blog and the great examples you give of how to realistically save money. Thank you for sharing and keep up your fantastic attitude :). Lauren

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    1. Thankyou Lauren. I try to do the very best with what we have. Our meals might be on the cheaper side but they are tasty, filling and healthy.

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  9. Wendy I am impressed with what you have accomplished this week and for so little cost. When circumstances are somewhat tight I do believe that God gives us eyes to see cheaper ways of doing things. With that lovely bag of carrots you purchased you can juice them or blanch and freeze them for many more meals in the freezer to last longer, I use this website, just scroll down to freezing instructions - http://pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm and I hope this link helps you.

    This week was a week of doing many little jobs which were time consuming and a few big blessings thrown in.

    Our savings last week added up to $216.50 :).

    Service -
    - DH and I helped a friend who was putting in a driveway next door to level out the gravel with our homemade leveling tools. This made it so much quicker to get the job done as they only had shovels.

    Blessings -
    - We asked a friend who was putting in a driveway next door if he could level and move all the soil with his tractor from our grape yard vineyard down the back over the fence to fill in near the creek on our back boundary and pull out a cemented star picket. We offered to pay him for fuel and time but he said "just shout me a beer" saving us many wheelbarrows of dirt and digging for us and also saved us $200 over hiring someone to do it for us.

    In the kitchen -
    - Cooked all meals and bread from scratch.

    Internet listings & finances -
    - On a free listing promotion on eBay I listed 10 homemade items saving $16.50 on usual listing fees.
    - We paid an additional payment of $175 off our home loan. Yay for 2 rate decreases making our variable rate home loan repayments less. We pay both our fortnightly payments and monthly interest broken into fortnight repayments to save time and interest on our loan. We are currently 5.9 months ahead on our mortgage that we started in January.

    In the gardens -
    - Cut all pipes for the drip irrigation system. We still need to buy some poly pipe fittings so we can set it all up.
    - Filled all 10 of the garden beds up with more amended soil as they had settled.
    - I weeded all of the ornamental flower beds around the home.

    Hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead :).

    Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).

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    1. Well done on making the extra home loan payments.

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  10. Hi Wendy,
    I make a carrot & cumin dip much like this one, I add a little honey to change it up https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/carrot-cumin-dip/48d9d61f-9737-4553-8c3a-1022f36eab5e

    quite few people have adapted biscuit recipes using oil instead of butter - most seem to use 1 cup of oil when recipe has 3 cups of flour

    kathy

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    1. Thankyou Kathy. I have rice bran oil I need to use so I'll look at ways of using it instead of butter.

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  11. Hello Wendy,
    thank you for some very good ideas to make meals go further. You did extremely well with the roast chicken to make that number of serves of home-made tasty sounding meals.
    I agree that butter has become quite expensive, even the supermarket home brands. I often use canola or light olive oil to replace butter in many baking recipes or look for recipes that use fruit or yoghurt instead of large amounts of butter.
    Good luck with the $100 monthly shop Wendy. I'm sure that with your wise and frugal outlook you will be able to make the money go as far as possible.
    Best wishes, Maria.

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    1. Thanks for your ideas Maria. Butter is the most expensive item on my shopping list so I want to use it wisely.

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  12. We had two ham bones in the freezer so out they came and I made an enormous batch of pea and ham soup, enough for twelve generous portions, just the thing with this cold snap. We will have some tomorrow and the rest will go into the freezer. Also a small batch of cream of celery soup which made four portions so that was lunch today and another meal for the freezer. Made three loaves of bread today and apple crumble using some apples I was given. Am working really hard on using everything and not throwing anything out.
    Wendy I agree butter has become very expensive so have been concentrating on recipes that give quantity and quality for minimal amounts of the expensive ingredients .
    Our grandchildren were here on Friday and we had buckwheat pancakes for lunch, one with bacon each and then one with maple syrup and cream (leftover from a family get together), I put blankets over the dining table to make a cubby house and they entertained themselves pretty much, they have great imaginations.
    The broccoli plants in the vegetable patch are looking good, we’ve not had broccoli for so long as $6.50 kg is more than my budget allows, thankfully cauliflower has been reasonable prices.
    I thoroughly enjoy your blog and hope that things pick up for you soon.
    Lulu

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    1. We love broccoli too Lulu but it's been too expensive. We have bought cauliflower when it's under $3

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  13. We are eating out of the garden and I always have frozen leftovers for some dinners, this week it was bean soup.

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    1. Frozen leftovers are great. The family can pick what they want.

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  14. Hi Wendy i made your chocolate ring cake over the weekend,it was really nice only when i went to take the cake out it broke maybe wasn't cool enough? another recipe for a cake with out butter is a quick sour cream coffee cake from the recipe file, its in the oven as i type :).

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    1. I always wait until the cake is cold. Then I use a plastic spoon to lift the cake away from the edge of the tin.

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  15. I always get ideas from your list, Wendy. I have been filling the freezer this week to restock it with homemade snacks and meal portions. Here's what I've done this week:
    * made chocolate chip cookies, choc & oat slice, Anzac biscuits, lasagne, chicken curry, bacon & pea soup and a chocolate cake. Much of baking used pantry staples I already had so only bought choc chips which were on special this week.
    * made a 'soup scone' to have with bacon & pea soup. Used up small amount of parmesan cheese when making this.
    * made a quick and creamy fudge for a gift - just condensed milk, choc chips and a teaspoon of vanilla - gifted it in a repurposed box that I had saved.
    * picked perpetual spinach and silverbeet from garden to add more to lasagne and to have shredded in omelettes
    * used end of older and thicker spring onions in stroganoff when I had no onion
    * filled up car at $1.23 pL before it jumped at some places to $1.60
    * been wearing extra layers and haven't used heaters at all so far this Winter. We bring an old doona out to lounge if we are watching tv of an evening.
    * borrowed lots of books and a DVD from local library. Free!
    * picked 6 juicy oranges from an old tree along area where I walk. I used juice of two of these oranges in choc cake I made in place of the cup of coffee recipe called for.
    * received abut a dozen limes in trade with a neighbour. I gave silverbeet and some extra fudge I had made.
    * used $20 off from my butcher shop loyalty card to get mince and sausages for freezer.

    I have also started on a little brooch to give as a gift to a lovely friend. I hope to finish that this week. Have a lovely week, Wendy.
    Meg:)


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    1. You have a well rounded frugal list Meg. Could you taste the orange in the choc cake ? Darren is always asking for a choc orange cake but I've never made one.

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  16. I have just cooked a big batch of brown rice which, once cooled, will be bagged and placed in the freezer ready for those midweek meals when time is precious. Last night I double batch cooked Jasmine rice. We ate half and the other half is already frozen. The only other meal I have managed to double batch cook this week was spag bol. Better than nothing!

    I have REALLY been enforcing our 50l rule for showers since the water restrictions for my area began.

    When changing the pet's water, the old water has been tipped out onto my strawberry plants, one of which has decided to flower despite the cold weather.

    During my yearly visit to the Optomitrist, I was advised to increase the strength of my lenses. Knowing they would cost a few hunred dollars, I decided to keep my frames and replace the lenses only.

    I claimed two free samples (taco shells and spinach leaves) and both have been incorporated into meals. Incidently, tonight is Taco Tuesday! I am using chicken mince instead of beef because I had some in the freezer that I purchased a few weeks ago when it was reduced.

    A neighbour down the street was selling mandarins for $1/bag. There was a good dozen in the bag.

    I have not been using the dryer and instead have hung clothes up inside in front of the fire place to dry or (now that the wind had disappeared) out on the clothesline.

    Purchased a lovely and in great condition woollen blanket from a local op shop for $5 to go under our bottom sheet rather than buying a new mattress protector.

    Fed the birds the leaves off the silverbeet and beetroot that were attacked by caterpillars.

    Keep up the brilliant work Wendy and Darren. xx

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    1. Hi Victoria, can I ask what the 50l rule is ?

      $1 a bag of mandarins is fantastic. If they came off her tree I'm sure they are delicious.

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  17. The kids are at camp, which normally means we would eat out. Instead, we had a nice meal at home on Sunday, and the leftovers yesterday. We will stretch it to tonight as well. I'll eat leftovers for lunch, and I'm working on sanding & refinishing a table, to help extend the life a bit.

    I also listed a bunch of stuff on eBay & other sites, and made about $40 yesterday

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    1. Well done for stretching the meal for three nights. What did you eat ?

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  18. Hi, I enjoy your blog! I was wondering if you could share where you got your living room suite - I'm in the US but it looks like just what I'm looking for - we have a smaller space living room - thank you! Katie

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    1. Katie, we got it from Fantastic Furniture. It's a well known store in Australia.

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  19. Hi Wendy great ideas, in place of butter I have been using solidified fat/oil/coconut oil. Solid fat had been the least expensive option and not changed the texture much. A pinch of salt and a dash of water in the creaming mix and no one noticed. Coconut oil works better for slices.

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