Saturday 5 November 2016

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 5th November 2016

During the week I spent lots of time in the garden pruning, weeding,  feeding plants and doing a general tidy up.  My aim is to have everything neat and tidy before Summer hits.  Here's what else I got up to this week -

*  Poured the water from drink bottles into the watering can.

*  Dried the washing on the line and clothes horses.

*  Took up the hems of three pairs of work trousers for Darren.

*  Made a quadruple batch of laundry powder.

*  Sold two dozen eggs to our neighbour.  Another neighbour now wants to buy our eggs too.

*  Made a bottle of diluted Dynamo laundry liquid.

*  Ate leftovers for dinner one night ( we added a few extra things to make the meal complete )..  These leftovers were from a Cup Day bbq held at our place.

*  Collected a few paint swatch cards from the hardware store to use in card making.

*  Cleaned the dishwasher using bi carb and vinegar.  Cleaned the kettle using citric acid.

*  Refilled the kitchen detergent pump with diluted liquid.  I also put water in the empty bottle,  gave it a good shake and will use the contents for a couple of days.

*  Fed the compost bin with shrub cuttings

*  Used a $10 off coupon for Chemist Warehouse when you spend $50 or more.  I took this opportunity to buy hay fever tablets and eye drops that I desperately needed

*  Redeemed a $5 off  coupon for Telfast hay fever tablets  

 
Feijoa flower

In the garden

Under the pergola

Boysenberry flowers 

Crafty Mums Co op cards for charity

How did you save time,  money and energy this week ?

10 comments:

  1. Wendy, you're preparing your garden to grow and produce and we're putting ours to bed for the winter! Your flowers are beautiful and your cards are nice! I've spent the better part of the week inventorying my pantry and doing a bit of decluttering and re-organizing.

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  2. I had an okay week. We had my Mother in laws funeral on Wednesday which meant using more fuel than we normally would have because she lived 2 hours away.
    However I have continue to declutter our house. I have a doona cover I brought at a garage sale and it didn't have any pillow cases to match so I went OP shopping to look for some. As I couldn't find any I purchased some material and I will make some to match.
    I have been blessed with free uniforms for my daughter Caitlin who is changing secondary schools next year. Even though I will now have school fees she will be better off in the long run as they have a very supportive program for VCE (year 11 and 12).
    I cooked all meals at home or ate leftovers.
    I cooked some of the kids snacks or purchased them on special.
    Dried most of the washing on the line and made more washing powder. do you dissolve it in warm water first as I have found powder residue on the dark clothes if I don't?
    I am starting to get on top of the bills since going casual and I am starting to get the budget in check.
    I am still to get the vegie patch in order because of all the wet days but I hope to do that this week and then I will start on my front garden.
    We have decided to do the Samaritan pulse this year and whilst doing this we decided that we would look at the things we need and purchase them this year for each of us. So the girls will get something they need for school, something to wear, something to love (or they will love)and something special.

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  3. I think Summer came early here today, Wendy. 35degreesC and hot! Isn't it lovely how a garden responds to care and work and offers up food. We're eating beans and lettuce and first of cucumbers from our garden. Your flowers look lovely. This week, I did some relief teaching so was busy but still managed some frugal things:

    * Defrosted pumpkin/feta muffins from freezer for lunches with salad.
    * Made a Weet-bix slice for school morning teas
    * Filled up car at $1.04per L which was cheapest price I could find.
    * Made large lasagna with several portions making it to freezer:)
    * Bought ingredients (some on special) to make a batch of small Xmas
    cakes that will be neighbours gifts this year.
    * Helped my son make white choc rocky road to give to his Dad for
    birthday.
    * Gave two work friends little bunches of flowers from my garden here.

    And, rather nervously, I cut my husband's hair for the first time using clippers...it looks okay too. Whew! That saves $15 a month!

    Meg:)

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  4. I have just noticed all the wild blackberry bushes in flower along the sides of the roads recently.....blackberrying time at some point in the future me thinks

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  5. This week we upcycled an old large chest of draws we have had for a long time that my hubby found on a junk clean up, sanded them back and restained them to replace the ones in my littlest daughters room that are falling apart

    Hubby made a wall hanging for her room out of some drift wood and shells we collected on our recent beach holiday

    Today i made a batch of red velvet cupcakes, i ended up having leftover icing so put leftover into a snaplock bag which i froze for later use i can just snip the corner off once defrosted and pipe onto another cake

    Made ice cubes for nice cold drinks on hot days

    I had 8 small rashes of bacon so used 4 to dice into tonights potato bake which we had with sausages and salad, the other 4 went into a quiche Lorraine i made from scratch for tomorrow nights dinner as i will be at work.

    The kids were bored today and i was very busy cooking and doing things around the house so i made lunch and we had a picnic in the lovely sun under the shade of our beach umbrella in our backyard on a picnic blanket.

    Printed over 100 photos at a local photo store taken at my cousins wedding last weekend opting to pick up next day to save $$ to make a wedding album as her wedding present.

    Made a menu plan for next 4 weeks

    Lots of other things i cant think of right now lol

    Btw wendy your flowers are beautiful, i read your blog daily it is very informative and helpful keep up the great work.

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  6. Thank you for sharing your lovely flowers! Have a great week!
    Blessings, Leigh

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  7. Hi Wendy,

    Your flowers look beautiful and as for the Boysenberry plant, maybe jam making ahead...

    I had a great week, got myself really organised and it paid off.
    Did a menu plan, shopped and updated my budget as a few things have changed. DH and I had a lovely day out in the country and found all the OP shops we could and got some bargains like work pants for DS1(Hard Yakka) for $4.00. We also we to the movies for free as we had vouchers to see Sully. DS1 was away for 4 night and so was DH so less food, electricity etc was used.

    Mooed Bread, Air freshner, castor sugar, Blueberry muffins, choc chip bickies, Noodle sauce Mix, Brownies and Muesli slice. I had run out of cup cake liners so I used two silicon muffin trays I had bought for soap making but hadn't yet used and they came out fantastic. I also picked Lettuce from the garden.

    Didn't use the heater very much this week, used the tank water for the washing and the shower water for the pot plants. Charged my mobile in the car and threw lots of things in the compost. DS1's sunglasses broke so I took them back to where we bought them from and they fixed them for free and while I was there, I asked if I could change the size of the nose pads on my glasses(I hadn't bought my glasses from there), and they also did this for free. I made a wedding card and I received another order for another Wedding card.

    I diluted the shampoo and vinegar , cut roses from the garden, used the carpet sweeper instead of the vaccy and used the oven to cook bulk things all at the same time. Also changed DS2 over to a better plan for his mobile.

    Phew!!! that's it..
    Have a great week,
    Maureen

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  8. Hi from the UK. I am sorry for the absence, my life got really busy.
    This week I shopped at ALDI and line dried all but 1 load of washing. I put my visitors towels along with the household towels in the tumble drier and this blew the electrics for the house so this load ended up on the airer in the spare room. Now I have to look at the tumble drier.

    This week I made bread twice, the first loaf I forgot about and cooked it for 2 hours, I could have used it as a house brick, what a waste.

    With the second loaf I also made and cooked 2 Apple cakes, 2 Fruit cakes, 2 Bakewell tarts and a treacle tart. Most of this is now in the freezer.

    I have almost finished the Christmas shopping in case hubby gets called in to hospital, we give most of the adults money but the children like something to unwrap.

    The greenhouse base is now finished hopefully another 2 weeks will finish it.

    Not a very frugal week I am afraid.

    Best wishes
    Chris

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  9. You have been busy :)

    I try to use water left over from vases, soaking, boiled egg and any other left over to water some plant or pot outside...every little counts

    Mr Homemaker...yum fresh ripe Blackberries are the best :)

    A pile of Left over bread rolls baked in oven with cheese and BBQ sauce...tasty snack

    Jazzed up some brown rice salad which was left over with spring onions and baby tomatoes added

    Making tasty Kale salad instead of buying ready mixed

    Make own foaming hand wash by refilling foamy bottle with one third body wash or even less and topping up with warm water then a good shake

    For washing machines I just use a fraction of the cheapest coles wash powder for each wash
    A question...how did you make the diluted dynamo laundry detergent ....did you just dilute

    I use Aldi degreaser prewash which I find is better even than the Sard prewash spray for grease spots and collar grime

    Because I keep all my receipts I was able to return a skirt as I had found similar brand new at the op shop plus more great finds for a trip all new and great quality.

    Frugal is not hard . Quite often we do it even without thinking.
    When small grandies come round they have the best fun with us without spending a cent...time well spent and giving us great memories and laughs

    Alexa-asimplelife x

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  10. My week was pretty usual, so I won't bore you with the details. However, I soaked in vinegar a pair of pliers (and currently a pair of wire cutters) that had rusted and scrubbed the rust off with an SOS pad. Then I sprayed all of the screws and moving parts with WD-40. Everything's good again. I also cut rags from a couple of holey bath towels. I hemmed the one raw edge...I know it sounds like I have too much time on my hands, but a terrycloth rag will last for years if it doesn't ravel away first. I also posted on your next post about buying used books for Christmas gifts. Of course, if it was something I was going to read, I would have gone to the library!!

    ReplyDelete

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