Saturday 1 October 2016

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 1st October 2016

Darren and I spent a lovely weekend away at Corinella Country House in Greenhill last weekend.  We had a family wedding to attend in Malmsbury just down the road from where we were staying.  The farm we stayed at was lovely and peaceful and the fresh air and gardens were just delightful.  I'll post a couple of photos below and write a blog post shortly about  our stay.

Here's what else we got up to this week -

*  Made four loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.

*  Made a batch of diluted Dynamo laundry liquid ( great for smelly washing ).

*  Bought home any leftover food from our stay in Greenhill.

*  Packed bottles of water,  dinner for the first night and snacks for our weekend away.

*  Saved lots of shower water for the washing machine.  I also saved the rinse water for each next load of washing.

*  Dried the washing on the line and clotheshorses.

*  Used the dry mop on the bamboo flooring instead of getting out the vacuum cleaner.

*  Gratefully received a card making magazine and stamps from a friend.

*  Saved a couple of gift bags given with presents this week.

*  Bought two Summer tops from Savers and used a 15% discount stamp.

*  Picked silverbeet from the garden to go with two meals.

*  Darren filled up his car with petrol bought at 99 cents a litre.

*  Turned the heater off for a couple of hours each day when the sun was shining through our windows,

*  Fed the chickens an old lettuce plant every few days.

*  Cut of the ribbons from my new tops.  These will be used in card making.


We have peaches starting to grow.
Cherry blossoms on Darren's cherry tree.
The raspberry plants are growing fast.
Miniature teapots on my kitchen dresser
The cottage we stayed in.
In the garden around the cottage
The view of our cottage from the garden.

What frugal tasks did you complete this week ?

8 comments:

  1. Some of our most favourite holidays have been in old cottages on properties - I love the effect of horizontal corrugated iron for the exterior wall cladding too. Lovin' the tea pots.

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  2. The old cottage you stayed in looks lovely, Wendy. Very rustic! My main frugal task this week was to menu plan, which I'm now on track with. Today, a friend invited me over to pick mulberries from her tree again so I'll make two mulberry and apple pies for the freezer with my free berries. I made two stir-fries with veg from our garden too. I mixed up my own ice-cream too. I stocked up on a few special from supermarket this morning including toothpaste. I had enough to buy 8 tubes at half price! And we got petrol for the car at $1.03 per L which is cheapest we've seen in our area this week. A good buy I think. Meg:)

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  3. Happy Birthday Wendy, I hope the family are spoiling you.
    This week we were out for lunch 3 times, so dinner was toasties one night, the other 2 we had a baguette and some pate, both bought with DH's pocket money.
    All washing dried on clothes horses, the heater thermostat was turned down a couple of degrees during the day, still cold here most days.
    Bought 3 card for $2, these are sympathy cards and would be hard to make until I get more card making equipment.
    I have also got into the mindset of considering what I buy in the $2 shops, lots of money can be spent there if you aren't careful
    I have written a list of what I need from the op shops to redecorate the spare/craft room, I will also be repurposing some items I already have.

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  4. Hi Wendy,

    A very Happy Birthday again, xxx
    Wow Petrol for 0.99c fantastic, it must be cheaper over your way.

    This week I made lots of cards for an order I had and for Etsy.
    Cleaned out the freezer and did an inventory.
    Mooed bread and all meals this week.
    Blessed to be given bread and cake this week.
    Did lots of gardening getting ready for spring.
    Saved the shower water and had the heater off some days.

    Have a great week, xxx
    Maureen

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  5. A bit slack this week. But I got a heap of old bricks for free which I will use as pavers. Also a doona cover for $5 in purple (favorite color).

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  6. Hi from the UK,
    We have at last had some rain this week about 1/4 inch but its a start, most of this week has been about emptying the greenhouse I now have 14 green peppers and a very large cuecumber which might be good for seed.

    We have ordered the tiles for the kitchen which will be delivered on tuesday, the greenhouse man starts on tuesday and the new greenhouse arrives wednesday.

    I have shopped at Aldi as usual,

    I have finished off making jam with the last lot of plum

    I have made yoghurt and 1 loaf of bread.

    I also finished my cardigan, it was meant for the summer but never mind.

    I also demolished the duck house which has not been used for at least 10 years, it can go in the skip with the glass

    I dried all my washing outside.

    I need to plant some flowers in the garden but it is still to dry.. I am putting all the grey water from the kitchen on the fruit trees to keep them alive.

    I am glad you had a nice holiday,
    Chris

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  7. Thanks for sharing your lovely pictures!
    I'm finally building my pantry back up after having to "eat it down" in order to move. I found meat and coffee at clearance prices and snapped up as much as I could. I'm also purging some clothes and household items we no longer need and either giving them to friends or donating to charity so others can benefit and we can have the space in the new (smaller) house.
    Have a lovely week!
    Blessings, Leigh

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  8. Hi from northern Idaho! Other than the usual frugal stuff, this is what I accomplished last week:

    Last year we put in a retaining wall and filled it with soil (free from a neighbor, who even delivered it). The raised bed it created is about 3x40 feet along a sloping driveway to our backyard. In the spring I planted a blueberry bush that I got for 50% off, and left room for two more bushes. I also planted about 75 strawberry plants, all free. We planted about 40, waited for them to put out runners, and planted the runners. In a curve, we left some of the runners to tumble over the wall.

    Last week, we added divisions of candytuft on either side of the steps that lead down to the driveway. Then we planted 50 Pink Impression tulip bulbs from Costco that cost $12. We edged the bed by planting sweet alyssum at the top of the wall. We hope it will grow and tumble over the wall. Then we sowed blue forget-me-nots all around the tulips. I got all of the seeds for .05 packet on clearance at Wal-Mart (I bought 17 packets for .85). I don't have the best of luck sowing flower seeds directly in the ground, but my friend does, so we can hope. At the end of the tulips, there was an open space between the tulips and the strawberries. I divided some white and yellow Siberian irises and planted 5 small clumps. I have about $18 total in this border and it is quite a large area. I also have 8 pkts. of .05 sweet William and cosmos seeds left to plant and hope that they overwinter (it's fall here).

    I also canned applesauce made from apples from my own trees. So far I've canned 3 quarts and 8 pints and I plan to make and can another 8-10 quarts. Something I did that you're not supposed to, but it worked 100% of the time: I reused canning lids. I discovered this by accident when making jam and so far have not had a failure. I used new lids for canning pears, but I've reused lids for jam and applesauce (things I could easily freeze if the lid didn't seal).

    ReplyDelete

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