Hi everyone. We've had an eventful couple of week lately. Two weeks ago Darren and I flew to Mooloolaba Queensland for a week long holiday. The weather was just beautiful with daily temperatures ranging from 28 - 31 degrees Celsius. The water temperature at the beach was 25 degrees - just perfect for swimming. Our accommodation was three minutes walk away from the water's edge and two minutes from many cafes and restaurants facing the beach.
While we were in Mooloolaba we visited Australia Zoo where we saw all three of the Irwin family. We even sat near Terri and Robert in the crowd. Darren and I also went on an all day Fraser Island Adventure Tour. We did lots of 4WD trekking in a purpose built bus, drove along the beach, had a bbq lunch in the rain forest and swam in the fresh water Lake McKenzie ( simply stunning ).
The same day we flew out, our girls flew to Hamilton Island Queensland ( further up the coast ) with my brother, sister in law and family. They had an amazing time swimming, kayaking, snorkelling, eating and driving a golf buggy. Our cat Princess went on a holiday to the local pet resort where the workers love her.
This week we've spent time unpacking, doing loads and loads of washing and tending to our garden and chickens. It was back to work on Monday for three of us. Tuesday I was baking and doing more washing. Wednesday was spent in the garden pulling out bushes and pruning.
Unfortunately Thursday morning saw Jessica and myself with gastro. I spent the rest of the day sleeping and watching tv. I was aching so much I felt like a little old granny every time I moved. Darren came down with the gastro Friday morning. By tea time he was up and about feeling a little better. Megan is fine thankfully.
Here's what else we got up to over the last two weeks -
* Washed and reused a few snap lock bags.
* Collected lots of pumice stone from a fresh water creek on Fraser Island. Now we won't need to buy any for years and years to come.
* Baked four loaves of
wholemeal bread with extra goodness.
* Saved the shower warm up water for the washing machine or pot plants.
* Picked a couple of handfuls of raspberries and a few strawberries from the garden.
* Kept the curtains closed on hot days and turned the cooling on low just before lunch.
* Gratefully received a couple of fuel discount dockets in the mail. Thankyou Tania.
* Bought home the little shampoo, conditioner and shower gel bottles from our holiday accommodation.
* Darren emptied both compost bins into one of our veggie garden beds.
* Darren mowed all the garden clippings and added them to the compost bins. The grass clippings went into the chicken run. The chickens had fun scratching and pecking at the grass.
* When we were in Mooloolaba we used our saved Flybuys dollars to buy all our groceries for the week. We even had plenty of money left over.
* We carried water bottles wherever we went on holidays. This saved us approximately $60+ dollars for the week based on $3 a bottle and consuming three a day ( we probably consumed four between us ). We also carried snacks with us on our outings.
* Decluttered some of our clothes. I took two big bags to Savers op shop and received two discount stamps.
Stunning Lake McKenzie. It's a fresh water lake with extremely fine white sand. The light colored water went up to my neck. Where the water darkens, the depth increases significantly.
On a rain forest walk on Fraser Island while our bus driver cooked our bbq lunch
The purposed built 4WD bus for our Fraser Island tour.
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| The colored sands on Rainbow Beach |
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| At Australia Zoo |
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| Look what bloomed in our garden while we were away. |
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| My garden work on Wednesday. Yes I puled it all out. |
I'll post more photos of our holiday some time next week.
What did you do this week to save money ?
