It's been a busy week here at the Gower Abundant Cottage. All my cleaning jobs are back and some have needed extra hours to get the homes back up to scratch. Darren helped me with the cleaning which was greatly appreciated and much needed.
We made 2 trips to Gardenworld on Springvale Road to pick out some new plants for our garden. I cannot express how exciting it was to be out and about, looking at new plants and spending a little money. It was all planned and budgeted for too.
My frugal list is short this week due to the amount of cleaning work we've completed. Here is my oh so small list -
* Cleaned the diushwasher with bi carb and white vinegar.
* Cleaned the kettle with citric acid. It really does do a fantastic job and is much better than using vinegar.
* Made a big batch of pita chips for snacking.
* Refilled the shampoo pump bottle and diluted it by 25%. Refilled the conditioner pump bottle and diluted it by 1/3.
* Packed our lunch, water bottles and snacks when we took our grandsons down to Phillip Island for the day. Luka enjoyed running on the beach and climbing over the little rock pools with Poppy. Bryson stayed with Nanny ( me ) and cautiously dipped his feet in the water He then had fun filling the bucket with sand and knocking over my attempt at building a sand castle.
* Darren made blueberry, white chocolate, banana and peanut muffins ( his combination ) with Luka. Some were eaten fresh and the rest went into the freezer.
* Saved water around the house as per usual and reused it where possible. Tried to stick to the 2 light rule and sometimes only had one light on.
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| Our new hydrangea - Tea Time |
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| New plants for the garden |
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| Darren's multi combo muffins |
New plants for your garden sounds wonderful, Wendy. We've had beautiful rain here and so our garden is blooming. We have little cucumbers forming so that's exciting. We need to mow the grass this weekend! At our place this past week:
ReplyDelete* diverted rain water to our tanks
* chose much cheaper Vinca seedlings for area of garden rather than more expensive sun-loving impatients.
* picked native raspberries, lemon drop cherry toms and lettuce from garden
* made simple meals with salads, used two freezer meals on nights I was too tired to cook
* bought multiples of half-price grocery specials - pasta sauce, laundry liquid and dark chocolate blocks
* saved 10% off grocery order total + further $10 Rewards points off
* topped up fuel in car ahead of anticipated price rise
* received a bag of many beautiful fabrics from a generous friend 💜
* worked an extra day relief for a colleague so some extra $ which will be put towards xmas
Today, I am going to do some baking and borrow books from the library. Have a lovely weekend.
Meg
In short I haven't! Oh next week will be better.
ReplyDeleteHow awesome are your plants. Glad you are finally back to being able to be out and about and working. Grandie time is so special isn’t it.
ReplyDeleteJanine
Good morning hope the wild weather hasn't been too hard on your garden. I have found it a bit exhausting getting out in the world and back in routines, so having assistance and company would be much nicer BUT I'm not sure about that double/double combo in the muffins Darren! I do however looove raspberry and white chocolate. The colour of the hydrangea is gorgeous, I have just lashed out and bought two white ones to leave in pots this year each side of the front door. I will probably plant them in the ground next year if they get too big. Have a lovely safe week.
ReplyDeleteHow nice to have a splurge after all your hard work. Your flowers look beautiful. What could be better than a day at the beach with grandchildren? Muffins look good and loaded with goodness.
ReplyDeleteDo you have the new LED light bulbs? They use almost no electricity. We are all LED now; still turn off unneeded lights though. I like your two light rule. It's not just about saving money but also about not wasting resources, isn't it?
What beautiful flowers! Those will add such a nice touch of color.
ReplyDeleteI've been tackling larger projects, like cleaning and organizing my daughter's room, in 20-minute blitzes every day. It's a lot easier to work on these projects in 20-minute chunks of time than it is to dedicate an entire day to them. This way isn't so hard on my back, and it's really amazing how much work can get done in just twenty short minutes! It definitely saves time, energy, and my strength! :)