This week has flown by and I sometimes wonder what I did with my time. In my spare time I'm tending to our veggie garden as needed. A little weeding here and there, tying up plants, watering and sowing where seeds haven't popped up. Our Summer has been a mild one and everything is struggling to grow. Still, we are grateful for the blessing our garden is to us.
Here's what I got up to -
* Fed the compost bin with kitchen scraps and ripped up paper.
* Made a double batch of raspberry and white chocolate muffins to sell to a friend. The batch made a few extra so they became our morning teas for a few days.
* Donated a couple of bags of goodies to Savers and received another 2 x 20% off discount vouchers. I have a few months to use them so I'll be on the lookout for material I can use in my crafts.
* Saved the shower warm up water and washing machine rinse water and poured it all back into the washing machine.
* Used a bucket in the sink to save more water and used it to water a few pot plants.
* Used the solar lanterns each night instead of turning on a lamp in the loungeroom.
* Made 3 loaves of wholemeal bread with extra goodness.
* Reused plastic shopping bags ( given to us ) a few times over then they became bin liners.
* Upcycled a couple of picture frames using paint I already had.
* Used the coffee grinder to blitz up all the rosemary leaves I've been drying for weeks. Blitzing it into powder makes it easier to stick to potatoes before roasting.
* Painted a cheap tray from the op shop and lined it with contact paper on clearance in Kmart.
* Picked raspberries, beans, a few tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden.
* Cooked all meals from scratch using what we had on hand. Even the tiniest bit of leftovers were eaten as lunch the next day on toast.
* I found new to us dessert bowls at Savers op shop. They were $3.99 for 4 bowls less 20%. I was able to buy a total of 8 for $6.38 or 79 cents each. They are current stock in Provincial Home Living ( fancy, expensive homewares store ) and sell for $13.95 each. I think I go the bargain of the year. They look like they've only been used once so maybe someone bought them to use at Christmas and didn't like them afterwards.
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| Our solar lanterns |
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| Op shop picture frames before painting |
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| Newly painted frames |
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| Painted and decorated tray |
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| My op shop bargain 79 cents each. |
Great score with the bowls Wendy! And I like your upcycling.
ReplyDeleteDon’t the days just fly by.
We have had some hot weather of late so my veggie patch has struggled. Gratefully receiving lots of cherry tomatoes & cucumbers from my MIL, and a neighbour gave me zucchini’s and eggs.
Just made a batch of peach muffins with homegrown peaches from the deep freeze.
Trying to eat down the freezers at the moment and get creative with meals.
Enjoying my daily morning walk, free fitness and have noticed my Christmas kilos are starting to fall off!
Had a builder out to quote work on our house. One of the things I was looking into was reconfigurating our laundry into a 2nd bathroom, and moving the laundry into another room. He said off the top of his head it would cost over $40,000.
Which I was not willing to spend for that! So had a good think and have rearranged the rooms, bought myself a cheap double broom cupboard from the local hardware store for the much needed storage, and am so happy with the results. Cost me $175 for the cupboard and have some more frugal ideas to zhoosh it all up. Sometimes all we really need to do is stop, think, think some more and dive in and get stuff done yourself.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Amanda
Hi Wendy, with a husband with cancer I have limited time to do any thing. However I do like to read what you and others achieve. In these days of constant rising prices, it good to see what you create from op shop treasures.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing Wendy. Those dessert bowls are lovely. What a score!
ReplyDeleteWe are still trying to be as intentional with our spending. I had my sunglasses break during the week, and realised I was able to fix them with supa glue. Saved us $50. I’m in no rush to replace unless we really can’t mend, fix or even have something professionally repaired. We thought our old fridge that was given to us, had finally given up and at $1200 to replace, we decided to get in an Appliance Repairer. Turns out we had to replace the motor for $300. The kind repairer said we’d get another 10 years at least and it now runs more efficiently. We can get by quite well with what we have and live a comfortable life.
Have a lovely week.
Rachel
Love your creativity Wendy, your upcycling had lovely results.
ReplyDeleteWe had the great petrol hunt. In the end I saved about 45 cents a litre.
ReplyDeleteI have been using cold water washes as the tap water here has been so hot.
My son loves to shop at a certain supermarket. This week he wanted a particular product and I told him would be saving a significant amount by shopping at the store across the way. Next thing he had his phone out and checking where to buy the best deals.
Lovely to have you back blogging Wendy. God bless.
ReplyDeletehi Wendy, lovely to have you back! Was wondering where you bought your solar lanterns from please?
ReplyDeleteThe lanterns came from Bunnings. I think they were $12 each.
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