Welcome back to my frugal tasks post. It's been a few weeks since I've posted how we've saved money. During this time both Darren and I have been home sick and all work cancelled for almost 2 weeks. We've also had a family member rushed to hospital a couple of times resulting overnight stays. us packing hospital bags and looking after children. Thankfully we are now well ( or at least getting better ).
During our illness, I was very glad for my stockpile of everything. We had plenty of pain relief, tissues and cough lollies. I had a small freezer full of all those cooked meals I often talk about. That really kept us going on the days when I couldn't get out of bed. By the time I got sick, Darren was starting to recover so we took it in turns of looking after each other.
So the following list of frugal tasks is what we managed to get done since the 20th of May.
* I depilled a scarf using a fabric shaver. It came up looking almost new again.
* Made choc chip biscuits for morning teas using dough I'd made and frozen previously.
* Dried most of the washing on clothes horses over the ducted heating vent in our spare bathroom. The vent in this room is quite strong so the washing dries within 24 - 36 hours.
* Sold some kitchen stools / chairs we got dirt cheap a few years ago. They were secondhand when we purchased them and had planned to use them on our decking area outside as extra seating. Then the great lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 happened and we just couldn't use them. So I popped them on Marketplace and sold them for a profit.
* Made wholemeal bread with extra goodness a couple of times over the last few weeks. It's great to have ingredients when you are stuck at home unwell.
* Darren had the opportunity to receive a big bag of chicken feed for free. The day Darren picked it up was the same day he was planning on buying a bag at the feed store. This wonderful blessing saved us about $25 - $27.
* Made up a big bottle of heavily diluted Dynamo laundry liquid.
* I made 10 wholemeal bread rolls for Darren's work lunches.
* We splashed out and bought a piece of roast beef for about $28 to cook up as a treat. I cooked it in the slow cooker and we had some of it for dinner that night with roast veggies. I portioned out enough meat for another roast dinner for the two of us. The next day with the remaining meat I made a beef stew in one slow cooker that gave us 7 portions. I also made a Massaman beef curry in the other slow cooker that gave us another 11 portions. So for $28 we got 22 single portions. This is $1.27 per portion for meat.
* Gratefully received lemons, passionfruit and mandarins from a friend.
* Picked a handful of blackberries and a couple of mandarins from our garden.
 |
| Freezer meals. |
 |
| Lots of freezer meals. |
 |
| Homemade choc chip biscuits. |
I'm glad you are both feeling well again, Wendy. It's hard when everyone is unwell at the same time. Freezer meals do come in handy then! I usually have a few freezer meals too but this is one area I'd like to be more organised with as they dwindle quickly here when I get busy with work. Here's my frugal list of late:
ReplyDelete* bought a Winter dress and long-sleeve top at the op-shop for $15. Both in very good condition. Saves so much money!
* bought a large cotton blanket at op-shop for $10. This will go on our lounge, along with some other blankets, for when we want to watch tv on cold nights.
* made large pot of stew with small amount of meat, veg stock, lots of veg and herbs from our garden. We've had serves of this with brown rice, with sourdough I got reduced at supermarket and as shep pie with mashed potato on top.
* made large pot of split pea soup - made many serves.
* bought a sponge cake reduced to $1.80 with fresh cream and jam from supermarket. We had slices for dessert for several nights in a row.
* made lots of choc-chip cookies, two slices and a sweet potato chocolate cake for school snacks.
* made my own lavender room spray and also citrus vinegar - I had soaked peels from lemons and the mandarins from our backyard tree in vinegar for weeks then strained into clean bottles. Smells so fresh!
* borrowed lots of free books and magazines from the library. Tucked up under warm blankets, reading, so no need to put reverse cycle air-con on when temp dips at night.
* watched a favourite show on ABC iview - free!
* ran dishwasher during daytime when sun on our solar panels.
* mended the collar on my son's cricket shirt.
* received two little lavender plants from my kind and lovely neighbour.
We are coming up to school holidays soon and I'm looking forward to having a rest and enjoying some slower-paced days. I'm going to do some sewing and try to get ahead with some gifts for latter part of year.
Have a lovely weekend,
Meg.
Thankyou Meg. If we didn't have the meals, someone would have needed to do some shopping for us and perhaps buy those ready made freezer meals.
DeleteIt sounds like you got some great bargains at the op shop. I recently found a few presents ( new items ) at Savers.
Your cooking and baking sounds lovely. A real money saver. Well done on a great week.
Glad you are all on the mend! Been crazy busy here with lots of unexpected situations popping up that have caused our plans to change rapidly and drastically! And that’s exactly the reason for a well stocked pantry and freezer!! Not for any cataclysmic global event, but rather to glide through any personal “bumps in the road” as they come out without having to spend money and time to obtain at the last minute!
ReplyDeleteHad a funeral to help plan food for and I was able to us a half price boneless ham that I bought on a free app on my phone that is connected to 2 large grocery chains in my area.
Hubs and I have been unwell too and didn’t need to run to store; we could just choose from the many frozen meal options or pantry meal options that we had prepared much earlier!
What a blessing!
Gardenpat in Ohio