Saturday 3 September 2016

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 3rd September 2016

Where did my week go ?  I know I've been busy but I can't remember what I was busy doing.  There's always housework,  cooking,  baking,  food shopping and the general tidy up.  Here's what else I got up to -

*  I made four trays of zucchini slice using zucchinis bought last week for $1.49kg.  Two trays were cut up into single portions and frozen.  Yes I used both ovens at the same time.

*  Picked and juiced lots of lemons from our tree.  The juice was frozen into ice cube trays.

*  Diluted a new bottle of white vinegar by 50%.  This is used for cleaning and making Miracle Spray.

*  Started drying the washing on clothes horses again.  Now that my home is back to normal by about 95%,  I have the room to put them over the heating vents.

*  Froze three leftover portions of chicken curry and two of chop suey.

*  Lined my bathroom bin using recycled bread bags.

*  Made another 8 cards to sell ( very soon ).

*  Made a double batch of pumpkin scones using cooked pumpkin from the freezer.  Most of the scones were frozen for morning teas.

*  Fed a few broccoli stalks and leaves to the chickens.  Unfortunately most of my broccoli went to seed while my kitchen was being built.  Not wanting it to go to waste I thought the chickens might like a feed.

*  Saved the shower and washing machine water.

*  Recycled and reused lots of plastic shopping bags and freezer bags for different uses around the home.

*  Made a couple of fridge magnets to hang the family calendar on the fridge.  I used magnetic strips saved from an old fridge seal from years ago and some card making bling.  Before the kitchen renos the calendar hung on the wall under the clock.

*  Made the most of Vista Print having a 50% off sale and ordered business cards for my blog.  I also ordered a couple of stamps that say " Handmade by Wendy " etc for the cards I make.

*  Gratefully received a free mobile phone from Telstra in the mail.  It's all to do with the network upgrades.  This saves me buying a new phone in a couple of years.

*  I purchased a new dishwasher control panel and fitted it myself.  The part cost $77 but  I saved at least $200 - $250 on a call out fee if I'd rung the company to fit it for me.


Lemon season
Double ovens in use - zucchini slice
Peach tree blossoms
Chicken curry
Spring growth on the feijoa tree
21 years of marriage on Friday

How frugal were you this week ?    

8 comments:

  1. Hi Wendy. I've just checked out recipe for Miracle Spray and will try that soon. Thanks! My main frugal thing was to get up early this morning and do up a menu plan (I am not the world's most consistent menu planner...sigh!). My grocery list is very small today because there's so much in freezer I can use. Other frugal score this week was filling up our car at 92clitre at service station when others around it were up to $1.25per L. I've also planted out some seedlings for salad veg (got them on a special at 4punnets for price of 3) which will save us money when harvest time comes. Always lovely to eat from our own garden. Meg:)

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  2. p.s. And happy anniverary...21years is a wonderful thing!

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  3. Hi Wendy,

    Love your Zucchini slice, it was such a lovely surprise.

    This week I had tt attend the Osteo for my care plan so i get 3 visits for free and i also had my eyes checked as my glasses needed updating. As i have a HCC , you can use the school of Optometry and get discounted lenses and frames. I've never used this before and was very surprised at the reduced cost, maybe an option for some out there.

    I made 6 cards to sell, bought a stamp, business cards and labels so i can sell my cards. Also used Vistaprints 50 % off. Bought some craft items from Ebay which i saw on special and have been wanted for a while.

    I did my monthly shopping and came in under budget, bought petrol before it went up, purchased Tea bags i love on special enough for a year and a BBQ chicken on special which was enough for 14 serves. Ds2's school was having a Subway lunch on Friday but when they put in the order, it's made the day before, yuk. So, we went into the store on Friday morning and purchased it fresh and as we came in between 8-9am, we were given a free cookie all for the same price as what the school was offering. We were also given bread and cake.

    I mooed breadcrumbs, biscuits, all meals from scratch and some meals like the Chicken chop suey had less than 200gms of chicken in it and i still had a serve leftover for the freezer. I made hamburgersand used free bread rolls we were given and we had savory rice one night then with the lleftovers, i made fried rice which did us for 2 meals. Topped up milk with the powdered milk to stretch it.

    Diluted shampoo and handwashing soap and refilled them up. Dh bought me a big shot for my birthday and i bought blinds for our back doors on special and used a voucher i had for $10.00 off from Spotlight. Dh finished chook shed and I've organised FIL's fathers day present, chocolate (bought on special) and homemade bickies. Also DH's present all bought on special, chocolates, PJ's, deo and bickies.

    Hope you had a lovely wedding anniversary,

    Maureen

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  4. Hi from the UK.. Glad you are now getting back to usual, how is the kitchen working out, ovens obviously works OK.
    It is raining this evening the first rain for a month, my garden has cracks I can get my hand down, hopefully it will rain all night. The garden is slowing down now.
    This week I have harvested carrots , beetroot ( very small) , cucumbers, corgettes and a few runner beans. I will let the remaining beans dry on the plants. I am clearing the garden ready from the workmen to put up the greenhouse.
    I stop dead heading the flowers on the 1st september so hopefully I can harvesy lots of seeds.
    I have harvested the lavender.
    I have dehydrated the last beans and corgettes.
    I have made 2 loaves of bread , 2 carrot cakes and a bread puddingand cooked al meals from scratch.
    I have line dried the washing, and used as much of water from washing and dish washing for the garden
    The nights are drawing in now so I have cleaned all the windows, light bulbs and shades, all light is becoming welcome and if it saves 5 mins of electricity it all helps, I will do this on the 1st of each month through the winter.
    This week I must look at the winter list and start to stock pile food for the winter, hubby is unsteady on his feet and does not like going out if it is icy
    Chris

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  5. Hello again from Maxine in northern Idaho, USA. This has not been a particularly frugal week, but I can take credit for the following:

    (1) Stocked up on meat, weekly (holiday) specials and things we were out of for $90. This is a big spend for me, but I have a lot to show for it.

    (2) We have to water our lawn in summer or we wouldn't have one. I cut back on watering times and intend to cut back more tomorrow. Also, I turned off the sprinkler system for two days when it rained. We spend a lot on water in summer, so every bit helps.

    (3) We splurged on a rotisserie chicken last weekend, but I got 3 meals from it plus a big pot of chicken vegetable soup.

    (4) The most non-frugal thing we did all week was to buy a 7-month-old West Highland white terrier puppy (our other Westie needed the company). He is the first dog we've ever bought. However, we discovered he has knee problems and the breeder refunded our money. Of course, we will spend way more than this over the course of his lifetime. This little guy has got heart, and deserves a chance. As my husband said, "What the h***, we haven't got grandchildren--we'll see this through." Getting the refund brings our lifetime dog count (in 44 years) to 3 giveaways and 2 actual rescues.

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  6. Hi Wendy hope you had a lovely wedding anniversary! Great new oven and kitchen. Sorry your cleaning job dried up have you considered setting up a stall and selling jam etc at local market? Would be an extra bit of cash,? Also there is a lot of work around for home care workers which pay well. Since you seem a kind warm person who cleans well I think you'd be good at it. You also sometimes just make a basic lunch for the elderly client or make a bed. I find it helps me feel I've given to someone isolated all day and get $$$ for it. My other job is corporate hospitality in private suites looking after some big clients like qantas etc doing banquets, beverages etc, again easy work if you're a people person like me. I also think Wendy you'd be great at writing a book !!

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  7. Happy wedding anniversary and thanks for your blog. You are inspirational. It's so nice to read your posts. Your positive light shines through and reaffirms that life IS wonderful and living simply and gratefully is the way to go.

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