Gosh it's been cold here in Melbourne this week. I think our average daily ( high ) temperature has been 12 or 13 degrees Celsius ( 53 - 55 Fahrenheit ) and the morning temperature has been hovering around zero.
We've added a thick blanket to our bed and I've been known to wear a coat and scarf inside just to keep warm. Yes we've had the heater on, but when it's that cold outside, it's still feel cold inside. If it gets any colder I'll be digging out the heat packs.
I've added netting to our potato patch to help prevent frost damage and it seems to be working. The only other vegetable growing is silverbeet which thrives in the cold.
Here's how we've saved money this week -
* I made a bulk amount of tuna pasta bake. From 2 large tins of tuna, 600g of pasta, one tin of tomatoes, one jar of Aldi's garden vegetable pasta sauce and a few other bits and pieces I was able to stretch it to 14 serves. We ate some for dinner that night and the rest went into the freezer. When we want to eat it again, all I have to do is pull it from the freezer and defrost it in the fridge overnight. When it's dinnertime, I pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes.
* We saved lots of kitchen water and drink bottle water and used it on some pot plants outside.
* I made a batch of muesli bars for Darren. I found rice bubbles on clearance in Coles and added them to the muesli bars as requested by Darren. He said they turned out great.
* I gratefully received lots of lemons, oranges and mandarins from a couple of friends. I've been busy juicing the lemons and freezing the juice in icecube trays. Some of the oranges have been blitzed in the food processor and frozen to make whole orange cake throughout the year.
* I've been drying rosemary from our bush over the last couple of months. On Wednesday I turned it into rosemary powder. I love to use this powder on roast vegetables because it sticks better than the leaves.
* We were gifted potatoes, pumpkin and yoghurt.
* I ducked into Savers op shop for a quick look and found more pieces to add to our everyday dinner set. I paid $12.99 for 17 pieces.
* I baked three loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.
* Darren picked the one pumpkin that was growing in our garden. We think a bird dropped a seed sometime late last year. Darren also picked lots of silverbeet to add to the tuna pasta bake meals.
* We enjoyed homemade ANZAC biscuits for our morning teas.
* Butter was on sale for $4 for 500g blocks at NQR. I managed to get 5 blocks and Megan picked up another 5 for me. This was a great bargain and I'm grateful that I had some money in the food slush fund to pay for it. All the butter is in the freezer for future baked goodies.
* Darren emptied the compost bucket into the compost bin outside.
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| Gifted fruit |
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| New to us dinner set. |
I feel you on the cold Wendy. We're in Armidale NSW and just got our power bill which was a bit higher than last year. We only run the reverse cycle for an hour or two in the morning and a bit at night. The electric blanket for 1 hour only at bedtime. Use the air fryer and slow cooker as much as possible. I thought we'd done better than last year but our usage was slightly up. Will be adjusting our habits again after getting this bill. Will keep adjusting things and other HH savings habits as want to go to Scotland next year for my 50th. Always make our bread, baked goods, fruit and veg as cheap as possible, stretch meals out with pulses and veg, take my own brewed coffee to work, walk everywhere (including to work)as much as possible to avoid using the car etc. Always finetuning things as always so much more to learn. Will be moo'ing mustard next as our fave Beerenberg hot mustard is getting too expensive. So are so many other items. Time to do more moo'ing on top of normal moo'd items.
ReplyDeletewow ... $4 for butter? That is a blessing!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great price for butter, Wendy! We've had cold, wet weather up here in Brisbane, so we've been layering up in warm clothes and blankets too. Here's what we've been doing at our place:
ReplyDelete* picked perpetual spinach and thyme from the garden and made a large tray of green macaroni cheese with it, topped this with a mix of homemade breadcrumbs and grated cheese. Extra serves in freezer.
* made large pan of stir fry using 2x large packets of heavily discounted pre-cut veg that I found at supermarket. Added handful of beef strips and noodles. Extra serves in freezer. Also made large pan of fried rice using up veg from crisper.
* made large pot of split pea and veg soup, extra serves in freezer.
* chopped and froze remainder of celery I bought last week.
* baked pear and choc-chip muffins for afternoon teas; blended up a tinned of pears from pantry in the recipe.
* added tin pears ($2tin) , granola ($3 large bag) and one large tin pineapple (for pizzas) $3 to pantry. I bought these at a discount store.
* shopped half price at supermarket, then used monthly 10% off. I bought items like oil-free face scrub, normally $18 a tube, I got it for $9 and the extra 10% off.
* hired a suit, rather than purchasing a new one, for a formal event. Had to purchase shoes but managed to get 20% off, I checked all the op-shops and stores like Big W and Target first but had no luck. This was next best option.
* turning off lights in any room not being used, not using heaters, saving shower warm up water for wash machine, using tank water to fill bird baths and water pot plants.
* saved, dried and crushed egg shells to sprinkle over soil in garden, added veg scraps to compost and worm farm. Brought home a bag of shredded paper from my work to use in compost bins and worm farm.
* saved lemon and orange peels, from gifted fruit, and have them soaking in vinegar to make a citrus cleaner.
Have a lovely week!
Meg
Hello Wendy & Family. Hope all is well. It sounds like you've been pretty productive. I love reading your blog posts. I've been a fan for years. You are my source for money saving tips and budget living resources. Thank you for sharing. Hope you are blessed too.
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy. Do you use a Bread Machine for making loaves of bread or do you make the dough by hand and then use baking tins? Could you please put your Bread Recipe in the recipe section, as I don't think it was in there?
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. Tania
Hi Tania. I use a stand mixer for the bread dough and do most of the kneading by hand. The bread recipe is called Wholemeal Bread With Extra Goodness.
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