Saturday 16 June 2018

This Week's Frugal Tasks Saturday 16th June 2018

Have you ever wondered how I get so many frugal tasks completed each week ?  I have a little secret to share.  My personal goal is to complete two frugal tasks each day.  Some are big and save us a good amount of money over a year.  Some are so small it hardly seems worth doing.  But every little bit counts.  I'm a list and goal oriented person and two tasks a day is achievable for me.  Here's my list for the week -

*  We had a family outing to the football on Monday.  To save money we carpooled and pitched in for the parking fees.  We also took all our snacks and bottles of water.  We did purchase lunch as a rare treat.

*  Cleaned the inside of kettle with citric acid.

*  Jessica and I found some great bargains in Kmart.  Seasonal clothes and dvds were being reduced.  We did pick up some dvds for birthday and Christmas presents for well under $10.

*  Gratefully received a $5 voucher from Snickers to replace a share bag that had opened chocolates inside.  Unfortunately Snickers wasn't on sale in Coles so I picked up a bag of Picnics and Crunchies for the $5

*  Sold a few hand towels and soaps to a friend.

*  Found a great recipe book for $3.99 and a bag of craft stamps also for $3.99 in Savers op shop.  The recipe book looks new and will become a present.

*  Put a pump on a newish bottle of detergent and diluted it.  The brand in the photo is quite thick so diluting was needed otherwise it just drops into the water and sits there.

*  Reused and washed a couple of snap lock bags.  I try not to use them too often but sometimes a bag can be a space saver in my handbag.

*  Made a big pot of beef,  veg and tomato stew in the slow cooker with discounted beef.  All leftovers were frozen and the pot yielded 8 serves.

*  Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.

*  I cut Megan's hair a couple of weeks ago.  Since then she has given herself a long side fringe.   Megan doesn't trust hairdressers with her hair.  She's only been twice and didn't like the end result.  Over the years I've saved hundreds of dollars by cutting both girl's hair.

*  I only used the clothes dryer for bed sheets this week.  I've been putting a clothes horse over the ducted heating vent in the bathroom and closing the door.  Jeans and jumpers are put on coat hangers then hung from the shower rail.  With the door closed and the heater on,  it's amazing how quickly things dry.

*  Saved the shower warm up water for the washing machine.  Drink bottle water was saved and put on the mango trees.

*  Fed bread crusts to the chickens.  Fed the compost bin with kitchen scraps.


Bread making

Diluted dish washing liquid

Proofing the bread dough over the ducted heating.

My tin stockpile.

Flowers from Jessica's birthday.

What's on your frugal task list this week ?

Do you set yourself frugal goals ?


10 comments:

  1. Your bread is beautiful! And this sounds like a very productive and full week for you. Thank you for sharing.

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  2. I was gifted a heap of citrus this week, lemons, oranges and mandarines, all home grown. We are eating the mandarines, and I made a lemon Delicious pudding last night, but today I will juice up the remaining lemons and oranges, and freeze it for later use.

    I loved hearing about your lists and goals approach.

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  3. Dear Wendy, Thank you for sharing your secret tip with us. That's a great idea and it's easy to achieve .
    My week included:
    I gratefully received 3 meals and some pea and ham soup from my parents.
    I shared a meal with my mum when we went out as we are not huge eaters and the serves are very generous at the cafe we went to.
    I received free medication as I am now on the safety net and will receive free medication until January first 2019.
    I had my usual subsidised cleaning and meal prep and social support and compared to using a private company I have saved a lot .
    I topped up my foaming hand wash pump with a tiny bit of hand wash refill ( which was bought for
    $ 2.40 for 500 ml about 2 years ago and has lasted this long doing refills) it ends up costing me about 15 cents per top up/ refill of my foaming hand wash pump.
    I made most meals at home this week.I line dried washing where I could .
    I froze a meal to be used next week and I have enough bolognese pasta bake for at least two more meals in the fridge. So including my dinner last night that's four meals for myself out of about 400 grams of beef mince and some veg and a little bit of cheese and a few other ingredients including a cup of pasta.
    I think that's all Wendy, it's all I remember anyway!..
    Thank you for another great post .
    Love Barb W.

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    Replies
    1. You have a wonderful list Barb. You should be very proud. The meals sound lovely too.

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  4. That's very disciplined to have a daily goal for frugal tasks, Wendy. No wonder you achieve so much! I worked the entire week again, as a relief teacher, so some extra $. I've had lots of this type of work lately so have had less time to really think through frugal things. This is what I did do:
    * stitched a clip back on to a lovely cardigan I found at op-shop for $3 and then wore that out for dinner with friends I hadn't seen for long time.
    * skipped buying dessert when out for dinner as there was already birthday cake to share (It was delicious!)
    * mended a rip in a skirt and was then able to wear that for work days.
    * had meals from freezer most nights
    * bought a bbq chicken one night and stretched that out by having with lots of roasted veg one night and then having as toasted wraps with freezer soup next night. Was able to make two lunches from it as well.
    * used hot water bottles and extra layers rather than heaters on cold nights
    * made breadcrumbs from crusts and froze those for later use in meatballs.
    * donated two pairs of last year's school shorts to uniform sale and got a pair of near new ones in next size up for free:)
    Now, Saturday has arrived and I've just come back from library with some books and two dvds I've borrowed for my son who has a yukky head cold and is snuggled up on lounge feeling miserable but happily reading. Have a lovely weekend! Meg:)

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    Replies
    1. Your list always looks good Meg. Mending the clothes saves an absolute fortune. So many people would just throw the clothes out and buy new ones.

      The library is a wonderful free resource. My daughter's boyfriend just discovered he can borrow 20 dvds for free. He's in dvd heaven

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  5. Your bread looks delicious. Homemade is always better. Glad you are able to get so much done. Lunch out every once in a while is a nice treat. My week is here: https://mcoia.blogspot.com/2018/06/my-frugal-list-week-of-june-11-2018.html

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  6. I enjoyed reading your list. I'm not as frugal as you but I have a particular dislike of food waste. Last week I cleared out my freezer toIf d all the bits that needed using up. It's made for a couple of slightly odd meals but now I can see what I have and have been able to plan this week better.

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