The rest of the week was spent sewing, helping Megan organise a few baby related things and surviving Melbourne's latest heatwave. We've lived on salads, bbqs, cold meats and fruit with very little cooking done in the kitchen. Darren was thrilled to use HIS bbq many nights.
Here's what else we got up to this week -
* Sewed up some baby wraps for when Megan's baby is born. The leftover scrap material was sewn onto $3 Kmart towels I had on hand. Megan and Kurt were thrilled with all the goodies.
* Saved the washing machine rinse water and shower warm up water to reuse where I could.
* Baked four loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.
* Kept the curtains closed on the hot days and used the electric fans when needed before using the evap cooling.
* Stayed away from the shops as much as possible. I only went to Spotlight for material and the supermarket for needed groceries.
* Picked tomatoes and raspberries from the garden.
* Cooked all meals from scratch and ate leftovers a couple of nights.
* Avoided the need to get my sewing machine serviced ( $150 + ). I was sewing the baby wraps the other night when the sewing machine broke down. I Googled all sort of searches, watched You Tube clips and got onto a sewing Facebook group. After pulling the machine apart as much as I could, cleaning it again and putting it back together, it started working again. I see this as a miracle.
* Cooked a piece of silverside in the slow cooker, cooled and sliced it thinly to serve with salad and potatoes. The leftover meat was frozen for future meals. This worked out much cheaper than buying the meat from the supermarket deli.
* Emptied hotel bottles of shampoo and conditioner into our bigger bottles and gave it a good shake. I'm trying to use things up and make more room in the bathroom cupboard.
* Leftover flowers from Megan's baby shower cake were divided up into four vases to be enjoyed around our home.
* Completed extra paid cleaning work.
* Megan made a balloon garland for her baby shower which cost about $5. We were going to get helium balloons from Spotlight but they were far too dear. Megan probably saved $60 +.
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| Baby wraps I sewed up. |
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| Scraps of material sewn onto towels. |
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| Curtain netting used to bundle the wraps up. |
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| Ready for the baby shower |
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| Jessica made the baby shower cake. |
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| Jessica, Megan and I |
Hi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteJob very well done fixing that sewing machine! You have to love the internet for that.
I cooked all meals from scratch, I sold some lego on a FB site for $50 following a big clean out of my son's room, he's well and truely a teenager now, and has outgrown many boyhood things, I've got quite a bit of lego to sell, but it takes time, as I want to put each set together first to make sure all the pieces are there, I couldn't bear to sell something that was incomplete, I'll get there though, and the price you get for lego is well worth the effort. I picked up an extra/unexpected shift at work this week (today actually, being Saturday, the money is really good, and I'd better hurry up and type this and head off!) I'm picking passionfruit, chilli's, lime's, herbs and rocket from the garden, and setting them to good use. I was gifted a heap of recycled glass jars which is really good because next week, I'm going to make some more chilli jam, I might even sell a few jars, usually I just give it away, but people keep offering to pay for it, so maybe I will charge just a little bit to cover my costs, plus a bit extra ;) Oh and I bought 12 tins of milo on sale at Coles this week. I have NEVER seen milo so cheap, the unit price was 70cents per 100g, normally when it's on sale, it's best price is 90 cents per 100g, so that's why I bought so many!
Have a lovely weekend Wendy
Cheers Cheryl
Hello Wendy and it sounds like you had a wonderful week and I am glad Megan's baby shower went off well and she looks really happy too :) . Glad you were able to fix your sewing machine and make Megan some beautiful baby wraps. Fortunately we have had a wonderful week of much cooler temperatures here with lovely cool breezes which we are enjoying.
ReplyDeleteOur Vicky challenge this week added up to $1485.62 for the week and was more about what we are saving and reusing instead of buying it again.
Our savings last week added up to $1641.92 :).
Finances and listings -
- Paid an additional little over an extra fortnightly mortgage payment saving time and interest on our home loan.
- Listed 7 items free on a fee listing promotion on eBay saving $11.55 on usual listing fees.
Sewing -
- Made curtains for the food storage room and bedroom from fabric purchased on special for $4 per metre saving $52.35 over purchasing them in the shops.
In the kitchen -
- Made all meals and bread from scratch.
- Made 3 loaves of homemade bread in the bread making machine for the week saving $10.47 over purchasing them locally.
In the gardens -
- Dismantled 1 1/2 large wire enclosed garden beds as the uprights were termite damaged.
- We saved so far about 150 mts of 90 cm heavy duty chicken wire, 50 metres of 25mm galvanised threaded pipe, 40 galvanised pipe fittings, and 6 x 3 m fence posts saving $1579.10 in buying them again.
We will reuse most of this to build a fence to keep kangaroos out and shadecoth structure over our vegetable gardens when we rebuild them closer to our home and town water taps. What we don't use we will sell.
Water preservation -
- Used grey water from the washing machine and pumped from the grey water tank to water fruit and berry trees in our paddock and ornamental potted flowers instead of town water saving water costs.
- Used saved shower warm up water and dish rinsing water to water potted herbs and fruit trees.
I hope everyone had a great week :) .
Sewingcreations15 (Lorna).
Hi, I am a llong time reader, but I think this is my first comment :). I really like your blog, learn a lot and also like your positive attitude! It is a cheerful useful blog and I wanted to thank you for taking the time to write, when I am sure time is in short supply,
ReplyDeleteAlso loved the photo of you and the two girls at the baby shower, great picture, you all look beautiful!
Hi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post. Celebrations, handmade gifts, successful home repairs and all while doing it frugally. Megan's shower looks beautiful and I am sure she received some lovely things. It is such a huge help to receive presents for the baby. Your towels and blankets are gorgeous.
Our household continued our own frugal journey by sticking to our food budget, cooking all meals from scratch. I baked snacks for home and school lunches. We took our lunch to work. Used miracle spray for cleaning and filled our hand soap with diluted hand soap. Sound familiar :)
We have been blessed by our friend offering his very nice car to be used to drive our daughter and partner to their Year 12 formal, next month. Very exciting.
We have enjoyed some slightly cooler weather. We had 27 here one day and it was fantastic!! I see Melbourne is having another heat wave. It's just awful. Those cooler meals are a must. Stay cool and have a great week. Rachel :)
Wendy what beautiful baby wraps and such a great "makeover" to the towels,
ReplyDeleteproverbs 31:10,11+29 indeed xx
Hi Wendy, Liz from WA here, so glad the baby shower was a success, looks like you and the girls put a lot of effort into it. Great work with the sewing machine as well! My frugal week -
ReplyDeleteDid 3 extra days work filling in for someone who was off sick!
The days I worked no money spent as I packed home grown salad and hard boiled eggs for lunch in an esky and took a thermos and travel cup for my cuppa's.
Cleaned and did the washing with all home made stuff.
Harvested tomatoes, beans, lettuce, zucchini, corn, capsicums and chilli's from the veggie garden. Also basil, oregano and parsley from the herb garden.
Made 2 crock pots of pasta sauce at once with a huge excess of home grown tomatoes, which I packaged and froze.
Cooked all meals from scratch, even when I was exhausted from work and the temptation of take away was strong! Helps that we live 15km from town, just easier to cook!
I was gifted 8 avocado's and a huge bag of garlic from my neighbour, and another neighbour gave me a bucket of freshly picked Nectarines, too many to eat fresh so I bottled a lot in the Vacola Preserving Unit.
Was delighted that my claim for 'Isolated Children's Allowance' was paid this week and was pleasantly surprised that its doubled since my eldest received the allowance. They have completely covered my son's Ag College school fee's and boarding fee's worth $9000. All my savings over the years for his education can be put towards his higher education now!
Hubby achieved his dream of buying a 'Troopy' 4wd this week to take camping and fishing at remote beaches. He got a bargin price and took a mate who is mechanically minded and a great negotiator, so its a beauty! They got the beds included plus sliding drawers (worth $1500), solar panels and a fridge (worth $1200) all thrown in to the deal. It does need new tyres but after obtaining lots of quotes, found the local tyre place could beat them all by $100 and saves fuel travelling out of town.
A busy week but achieved a lot. Enjoy the week ahead everyone.
Jessica really did a beautful job of the cake! Just lovely. What a nice week. I remember being pregnant in a heatwave. It is awful! So I hope the weather cools and the next fortnight are not too bad as the last two weeks are a challenge anyway. Wendy I felt a bit nervous waiting for my dauhter to have both her first and second babies. When thry arrived safely i was so relieved! When waiting I keep busyand there is plenty to do. I made easy meals for ehen they came home and this seemed to be a big help. Life is about to get even busier! Xxx
ReplyDeleteWell done, Wendy! What a beautiful baby shower you hosted! And the gifts you made- practical but attractive! Who says the frugal needs to be equated with “deprived”?!! Looks pretty elegant to me!! And without the remorse later of trying to pay for the amounts you overspent! Really a great example to everyone!
ReplyDeleteThis week, through zero-ing out our bank balance when the new paycheck came in and another $147 in sales of our Soup Cozies and Scrappy Bags, we were able to deposit an extra $417 into our savings account and the same amount to pay down debt! Dave will retire in 90 day and so I am working hard to cut back on spending, bring in extra income and pay down our final debts! We have the goal to be completely debt free (except our home mortgage) by the time he retires June 1 and to pay off the mortgage within 3-1/2 years! Each week gets us a little closer!
We at3 all of our meals at home. Because I love convenience, I have many “ shortcuts” I use- mixes, precooked meats, dry meals in jars and homecanned meals. So this week, I replenished several my dry mixes- taco seasoning, Italian dressing seasoning mix, Ranch dressing mix, chili seasoning mix and in the morning because I made peanut butter cookies with the last of my cookie mix, I’ll be making a big batch of that!
By tomorrow I will have a T-shirt quilt top finished shed for a client and then next week I will quilt it up and get paid!
My chickens are still producing well and we love always having fresh eggs to eat! I just hardboiled a dozen of them in my instant pot for easy snacks . I do this once a week. It’s a good protein rich snack alternative.
I got a 5 pound bag of pre-chopped red bell peppers and dehydrated them to use later. 5 pounds only became 1 quart Mason jar! But that’s one more quart jar filled than I had a week ago!
Little by little things are getting done!
Thanks for sharing all your good ideas!
Hi Wendy
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful cake Jessica made for the baby shower. It looked like you were all well prepared, with the cooking done early. You must be one proud mum/Grandma. Megan seems to be glowing and I am sure she would be most gracious for the gifts that she received. Wishing Megan and Kurt all the very best for their journey into parenthood.
Last week with illness in the house it was trusty old chicken and corn soup that DP made up for DD8 and I to eat so we didn't have to fend for ourselves when he was at work. This was a big help to me. I guess you could also say I saved on groceries as I didn't have the energy to shop either so I am stretching out what I have until I find time to shop maybe later in the week.
Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead.
Take Care
Aly xxx