Saturday 30 August 2014

This Week's Frugal Tasks

Another frugal week has come and gone and although I've kept myself busy,  it wasn't as busy as last week.  Last week's frugal list was a long one  It's not usually like that.  To achieve all the things I do.  it's a family effort here.  If I'm busy doing some baking and the washing needs to be bought inside then my girls help me out.  Darren is an expert dishwasher unloader,  bathroom cleaner and bed maker.

I firmly believe in encouraging my family to learn new skills around the house.  We all pitch in together to get our jobs done.  Then we can relax.

Here's my frugal list for this week -


* Made pita chips ( again ) for snacks.  We've all taken a liking to homemade nachos after school.

*  Jessica saved the crumbs from the bottom of the wheat bix packet.  I crushed them even further and added them to my homemade dried seasoned bread crumb mix.

*  Made a couple of bottles of foaming handwash refills.

*  Made 16 bread rolls.  These will be used for homemade hamburgers. YUM  !!!

*  Made 2 bread sticks.

*  Made 4 loaves of wholemeal bread.

*  Baked some cranberry hootycreek biscuits.

*  Bought broccoli at the supermarket for $1.40 a kilo.  I bought eight large heads and cut them up into florets.  They have all been blanched and frozen for future meals.  I'll be cutting up the stalks with my Nicer Dicer and freezing them to go into stews and casseroles.  Nothing will be wasted.  I also picked the last of our broccoli.  I picked enough florets for two meals.

*   I cut lots of rosemary from our plant.  I'm drying it ( for the first time ) in paper bags.  It should be ready in a couple of weeks.

*  Made some yoghurt with a sachet and my Easiyo yoghurt maker.  From that yoghurt I'm making a sweetened vanilla yoghurt.

*  Arranged some dried roses into a posy.  I've had these roses drying for about a year.  Oppppsss.  I forgot about them as they looked ok drying on the side of a bookcase.  Now they look lovely in a ceramic jug in my kitchen hutch.

*  Baked an orange cake and muffins with some frozen pureed orange from last Winter.

*  Megan picked a small bunch of daisies from the garden


Flowers that Megan picked from our garden
 
Homemade bread rolls

Homemade bread sticks

The last of our broccoli
Strawberries I bought to make jam last week.
 
Dried roses from anniversaries and Valentine's Day


Whole orange cake and muffins

 

What frugal things did you get up to this week ?

14 comments:

  1. Hi Wendy, I have been busy this week :) I baked an afghan slice and chocolate brownies. I also found Lebanese bread for 89 cents at Aldi, there were 5 in the pack so 3 were for bases for homemade pizza and the other 2 were made into pita style chips and put in oven at same time so I didn't use the oven twice. We had some with dip and some in lunch boxes instead of chips. We have also been outside in the lovely weather gardening and planting heaps of veges! I have been researching chickens aswell. I have been lucky enough to get a FREE chicken coop and we will be getting 2 chickens very soon :) Heater has been on 20 degrees most of the time if on at all. TV has not been on too much either. NOT so frugal though has been my extra driving around and using a tank more petrol then normal for the month :( and also this week we bought dinner once and lunch once. So will try harder to not buy any extra takeaway this week and only driving when we need to. Kayla :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've had a great week, thought I'd share. I made a double batch of choc chip muffins and froze some, made castor sugar, breadcrumbs, yogurt, pita chips, strawberry jam, garlic bread, chicken snitzels, popcorn(instead of chips in school lunches), stewed apples, chocolate cake, double batch of pasta sauce-froze one, beef stew in the slow cooker for 3 meals-eat 1, froze 1, made pies out of another, and used the oven to make cakes at the same time. I didnt use the heater much this week, used the carpet sweeper, broom and clothes line and cut flowers from the garden for inside. I made airfreshner, washing powder and did a menu plan for the next month. Used the rinse water to wash the clothes in and used the water from the hot tap (when you are waiting for it to get hot) on the gardenand saved heaps on my water usage for this week as I check every week and this is the first week I have been under in years. I made use of off peak times for utilities(wash/iron/recharging things) on the weekends. I bought meat from Tasmans meats on special and portioned it out and I bought broccoli for $1.39 p/kg, blanched and froze. I had a friend who came over last night(instead of going out), and I made muffins and a cuppa. Today I bought cauliflowers for 0.85c ea and pumpkin for 0.69c p/kg and petrol for $1.35p/ltr with docket. Dh and 12 and 16 yr old boys are out making a chicken coop for us and I have a roast in the oven and cakes and making miracle spray also. I love your posts Wendy and I jump out of bed(well 45 yr old female jump out of bed) to see what you bave posted next, keep them
    coming. Thanks so much , you have changed our life, blessings to you and your family, xx Maureen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My goodness !!! What a busy and frugal week you've had. Your list looks just like my list does sometimes. It's great to look back on your week and know you've spent your time wisely.
      I'm about the same age as you Maureen. Although I don't jump out of bed I'm always excited to get up and get my list of jobs done. It was great to hear from you.

      Delete
  3. Hi Wendy, well ladies you have all done so well; like Maureen I also jump out of bed to see your post Wendy (I'm 43 so you can do that)! I made my own maple syrup, made pop corn, kept the heater at 19 deg or off more, made roast chicken and cooked in outside in the gas BBQ rather than run the oven, made chicken soup, made chicken wraps for dinner all out of the one roast chicken. Made lasagne and that made 2 meals for 4 people, made cookies, always run the dishwasher and washing machine at night, hung clothes inside line (lots of rain in Sydney this week) kept showers to an all time low, 4mins! Teenage girls are struggling with that one. Bought broccoli at $1.20 kg and 1kg bag of carrots for $1.00 this week, my shopping today came in at $142.95 for the weeks grocery,so big improvement. I hope you have a wonderful wedding anniversary this week Wendy and joy enjoy a lovely meal, maybe you will get the night off from cooking! Our wedding anniversary is this month as well. Have a wonderful week Simone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Simone. It looks like we are going to Hog's Breath as we have the discount cards.

      Delete
  4. WOW ladies!!! I must say your frugal lists are amazing! I will be using some of the ideas to better my frugal list this week. Also have budgeted only $120 for this weeks shop to cover the cost of our chickens :) I also jump out of bed to read your blog, well, roll out with eyes half open because of 6 hours of broken sleep with 2 young girls waking through the night lol Im 25, so wish I had the energy to jump out of bed in the morning!! Kayla :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Wendy, just wanted to add that off my weetbix crumbs I make a weetbix slice to use up all the crumbs and I just add and crush up one as well, it makes a really good base for a slice! Kayla, you do make me laugh! I remember broken sleep with small children and needing match sticks to keep my eyes open. You had a great week Kayla and thank you for your tips. Good luck with your budget of $120 for your weekly groceries. Simone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's my life Simone lol, matchsticks to hold the eyes open. I did my groceries and came in at $127 :) Massive improvement on my $200!! Whats the weetbix slice? That sounds amazing! I used cornflakes to make my afghan slice so weetbix sounds interesting :)

      Delete
  6. Hi Wendy,
    You've definitely inspired me into baking more and my 2 little boys love their healthy homemade snacks in their lunch boxes. A big hit. Even my husband loves it. I've also gone through my pantry with a big over due tidy up and really just focusing on using up what we have and then going more basic. So to with the bathroom "stuff" that will be used up, before bought and considered if we really need it again. Thankyou for your inspiring story on ACA and your blog. Could you also please put up the recipe for those buns, they look delicious! Tanja

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Tanja, Are you talking about the rolls ? If so it's the recipe I use for wholemeal bread. I posted the recipe about a month ago here. It's titled " Wholemeal bread with extra goodness ". You can delete the extra goodness for the rolls and you can make them as white bread. Just use all white flour .

      Delete
  7. Hi Kayla, the weetbix slice is delicious and so easy! I just use all the left over crumbs from the bottom of the bag plus maybe 2 more whole one and break it all up into a large mixing bowl and add 1 cup SR Flour, 1 Cup desiccated coconut and 3/4 cup brown sugar and mix, then add to this dry ingredients 125gr of melted butter then press into a greased lamington tray and bake at 160 deg for 15 minutes, then add a 200gr block of coles brand chocolate DOES NOT need to be cooking chocolate I use the coles milk chocolate for $2.60 or on special for $2.00 and Kayla you don't need to even melt in the microwave, I just break off squares at a time and put straight onto the slice base that has come out of the oven and in 2 minutes the chocolate squares have melted on top of the base and just spread with a knife! Very easy - Enjoy
    Kayla a massive well done on your $127 weekly shop, go you and I hope your kids are giving you a sleep in this week.. Simone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yum Simone! I will be making this one with the kids this week :) Thank you for giving me the recipe! Lol no sleep ins as of yet mayb il get an extra half hour on the weekend - heres hoping anyway :) Kayla

      Delete
  8. Hi Kayla, you're very welcome, I hope you get a chance to make it with the kids, my girls always made this with me on a weekend and it was great for an after school treat with a glass of milk! It really works, I hope your kids love it as much as my BIG girls still do!...Have a lovely weekend Simone

    ReplyDelete

This blog is designed to be a source of encouragement and inspiration.

Negative comments will not be published. Comments advertising businesses or goods for sale will not be published.

Please include your first name in your comment so that I can respond to you.

Comments are moderated manually. Please allow a few hours for them to appear.