Saturday 25 March 2017

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 25th March 2017

Here are our frugal tasks for the week -

*  Gratefully received a few capsicums from my friend Maureen and two large tubs of margarine from Joy ( of Miracle Spray fame ).

*  Gratefully received some pears from a friend at church.  .

*  Dried the most of the washing on the line.  We did have a few days of humid weather when the washing wouldn't dry. I had to dry 2 1/2 loads of washing in the drier because they were starting to smell.

*  Picked lots of raspberries and a few strawberries.

*  Made a batch of scones.  Some went to church for morning tea and the rest went into the freezer for treats at home.

*  Darren picked lots of tomatoes from our dying bushes.  He put them under the pergola to ripen for a couple of days.  I've cooked them up over a four days and portioned them into tins sizes ( 410 grams ) and frozen into takeaway containers.  When they are frozen I popped them out of the container and double wrapped them.  This saves some room in the freezer. I've cooked a grand total of 19 tin's worth so I'll be crossing tinned tomatoes off the shopping list for a few months.

*  Megan and I gave each other haircuts saving about $30.

*  Saved the shower warm up water and washing machine water.

*  Made up two bottles of diluted Dynamo laundry liquid.

*  Reused freezer bags for wrapping the frozen tomatoes.

*  Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.

*  Cooked all meals from scratch.

*  Fed the compost bins with kitchen scraps.  Fed the chooks a few weeds,  some grass and kitchen scraps.

*  Finally received a cheque of reimbursement  for the food we lost in our freezer melt down.  I'm now waiting for a great meat sale so I can start restocking.

* Sold one dozen eggs.

*  Stayed home as much as possible to save on petrol.  It's just too dear at the moment and taking a long time to drop in price.  When I do go out I've been combining errands.

My Nicer Dicer got a work out this week.

Lots of tomatoes ripening.

Megan cooked dinner one night.

Chicken tortillas for dinner

From the garden

Church morning tea


On Wednesday I did a grocery top up.  To view the dockets and food please click on this link.
http://myabundantlife07.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/my-grocery-shopping-list-march-2017.html


    What did you do this week to save time,  money and energy ?        

19 comments:

  1. WOW, look at all those tomatoes! It's been raining on and off here all week so I've got washing on racks and on the line in the garage and waiting in the wings too! I agree that petrol is ridiculously expensive, I filled up at $1.23 which was almost a 10c per L saving as every other petrol station was at $1.33 and counting! Your scones look delicious, I think I might make a batch too as perfect for this kind of weather. Meg:)

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    Replies
    1. It's been interesting weather hasn't it Meg ? We've had lots of rain too.

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  2. You saved money in so many different ways! The raspberries look delicious. It's still early-spring here, so the ground is frozen. No fresh produce yet. We saved time today by making our own lunches rather than eating out. It saved us about $20.

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    Replies
    1. Can you start to plant seeds in pots under cover ? Then you'll feel like Summer is even closer.

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  3. I found some pears on sale for $1/kg this week, I bought 3kg and canned them in my Ball Mason Jars and Water Bath method, I got 9 jars of pears for about $3.50!

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  4. The Nicer Dicer intrigued me .... off to 'sus' that out.

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    Replies
    1. I bought My Nicer Dicer from Big W a couple of years ago. It was $90 and is fantastic. Just don't buy the cheap versions. They don't work very well.

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  5. Hi Wendy,

    Well over the last week I have picked lots of produce from the garden and frozen some of it. I'm trying to dry some of my herbs to see if this works.
    I attended the card making day and received lots of goodies. I only purchased milk this week $6.00. I went through a box I had in the laundry which had tins of food in it that I would usually take to my Mums and put this back into the pantry.
    I Mooed bread, bickies, casseroles, muffins, ANZAC slice and we ate two freezer meals.
    I did a market research last week and received a $40..00 Coles gift card.
    Tried to save water where we could and gas and electricity as we received a letter stating our Feed in Tariff on our solar has dropped from 33.c to 6.5c per KW, Yikes!!!!!
    I cut my own fringe and last week coloured my hair.
    Refilled the Miracle spray bottles and swept the floors instead of using the vacuum cleaner during the week.

    What a great week you've had Wendy,

    Could you tell me what you do/add to your Tomatoes to freeze them as today I bought 4.5 kgs from the market cheap and I'd like to freeze them?

    Have a great week,
    Maureen

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    Replies
    1. Hi Maureen. I added dried onion flakes, tomato paste and dried garlic granules to the tomatoes.

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    2. Do you cook them for long? And do you leave tbe skin on?

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    3. Yes I leave the skins on and cook for about 1 1/2 hours until they have reduced by about 1/3

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  6. 1. Shopped at the bread thrift store and got 10 free items for a filled punch card.
    2. Did a big shop for staples at the cheapest grocer in this area.
    3. Today I am making homemade French salad dressing. Last week, I made homemade coleslaw dressing. We have eaten a lot of coleslaw since getting a head of cabbage for .18 lb.!
    4. My son told me his fiance made a batch of Miracle Spray last week!!! He picked a good one, LOL!

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    Replies
    1. Maxine, that's great about the Miracle Spray loving fiancé. Start them early and they'll save a fortune.

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  7. Hi Wendy and I'm glad I found your blog.

    Our daughter once saw the Nicer Dicer advertise on TV a few years back and always wanted one, I didn't know enough about them back then to spend the money on it however it seems you are very happy with it.

    Last week I made laundry liquid and shared with Mum, received herbs from Mum and Dad's garden, harvested zucchini, coriander and chives from our garden and now in the process of building a chicken coop using timber from the cubbyhouse.

    I also want to get back into shopping at Aldi before my trip to Coles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I waited until the Nicer Dicer was available in department stores before I bought it. Beware of imitations. They don't work as well and the blades are not very sharp.

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  8. Yes, the blades are super sharp. My husband used ours to make coleslaw, didn't use the safety tool and took the top of his finger off. Marie

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  9. Hello Wendy, what do you use that Nicer Dicer for? I have never heard of them. Is it like the old fashioned mandolins? Please could you tell me how I can contact you to send you photos of my cards? Your magnificent raspberries made my mouth water. Are you replanting your potted ones in the garden? Also, can you remember the name of the bush you planted near hubby's shed and what month do they need to be planted? I'm going to have a go growing them this year. Many thanks, love your frugal savings posts. Lorraine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lorraine, the Nicer Dicer cuts veggies, fruit, cheese, meat and other things in various sized cubes and slices. There is a new model advertised on the tv channel that sells all those exercise machines. Channel 93, 94 or something like that.

      You can send a friend request on facebook or post the photos on My Abundant Facebook page.

      I think we'll throw out the raspberry plants in the pots. We got plenty of fruit from the other bushes.

      The plant at the side of Darren's shed are raspberry plants we got from Bunnings. They need to be planted late Autumn early Spring.

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