Being frugal doesn't take a lot of time or effort. Even though I don't work full time, I still run our home, tend to the veggie garden ( and flower gardens ), help my Mum when needed and entertain our grandchildren.
Making a bottle of surface spray takes a minute, repurposing plastic bags takes another minute. Portioning and freezing leftovers takes 5 minutes. You get the idea. It's lots of little tasks with the occasional big task thrown in that saves us so much money. This helps us live well below our means and gives us freedom with our money.
There's no cost of living crisis in our home. Just a little pressure to find better deals and ways to save money.
Here's how we saved money this week -
* I picked all of the corn from our veggie garden. We didn't get the long hot Summer as promised so the corn didn't grow too well. Still, we did get corn. even if it was small and it's still a blessing.
* I did my monthly food shop in Monday. I spent $76 at Woolworths after the 10% discount was applied. I spent $3.60 at the fruit and veg shop on avocados for Darren. The remainder of my $140 food budget will be spent on milk and any other fruits and veggies we need over the coming weeks.
* Gratefully received leftovers from a function we attended. We made those leftovers stretch for 3 dinners and a couple of lunches. We are grateful for the blessing.
* Dried all the washing outside on clothes horses on the decking on rainy days. On the sunny days, the washing went on the line.
* I made a big pot of soup using 250g of beef mince, veggies from our garden, pasta, seasonings and 1/2 a tin of diced tomatoes. It was very tasty and filling. From the 250g of mince, we got 13 single serves of soup.
* All the kitchen scraps, paper and thin cardboard went into the kitchen compost bucket. It was emptied every couple of days into the compost bin outside.
* I picked raspberries every couple of days. At this time of the year they do slow down. All the fruit is frozen for jam making and baking muffins throughout the year.
* Gratefully received lots of supermarket brown paper bags from a friend. Even though they don't fit in our kitchen bin as bin liners, we are using them by hanging the bag up on a hook in the space where the bin usually is. So far, so good.
* Used the solar lanterns at night instead of turning lamps on in the loungeroom.
* I mixed up a quadruple batch of ANZAC biscuit dough. Some of it was baked and the rest was rolled into logs and frozen for future baking.
* After making all the ANZAC biscuit dough, I needed to make more brown sugar. This is easy to make in the food processor using just white sugar and a good squirt of molasses.
* I refilled the kitchen spray bottle and laundry spray bottle with cooled boiled water and a few squirts of dish washing liquid. This costs just a few cents to make and clean our whole home.
LINKS -
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| Homemade ANZAC biscuits |
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| Some of our corn |
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| A bits and pieces dinner with some of the leftovers |
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| Our Easter tree. |
Wendy I don’t always comment but always enjoy your blog. Love your decorations and hope you have a lovely Easter😊
ReplyDeleteThe boys did a great job. I think it is so sweet they would set up the Easter decorations. The corn looks beautiful. I love corn. The supermarket paper bags are useful for so many things. I seem to be carrying them and filling them all the time. It is nice that the weather has turned to really Autumn. I had a really busy week and today I need some rest.xxx
ReplyDeleteYour Easter decorations look lovely, Wendy. I put a small basket of hand painted eggs with a little felted rabbit on our dining table. I've done this since my son was very small. We cleared out our veg patch this afternoon and dug in some compost. I hope to grow more than we've managed over the Summer. Fresh corn is so good! We keep on being frugal in lots of ways:
ReplyDelete* cooking meat-free meals - cottage cheese and spinach 'pie', big pot of split pea soup, frittata with roast veg this week.
* stretching meals when I do use meat, e.g. I always add a tin of lentils to pasta sauce, along with grated carrots and zucchini. I made a big tray of lasagna with this and it fed us for several meals.
* always packing our work and school lunches at home, taking water bottles
* received a full bottle of a lovely shampoo from a friend - so kind!
* borrowed garden trimmer from our sweet neighbour - very grateful!
* bought a bag of granny smith apples and a butternut pumpkin at the fruit/veg shop - I am going to stew the apples and freeze them for crumbles in the Winter time and I am going to stuff the pumpkin with rice and lentil filling for another meat free meal.
* Split and froze a heavily reduced bag of 'yesterday's bake' wholemeal bread rolls from local bakery. These are good for making Sloppy Joes.
* bought two bags of little Easter eggs, discounted by 40%, for my son's Easter gift.
* Used 10% off at Big W when buying a new pair of long pants for my son.
* checking lights and switches turned off when not needed so we don't waste power.
Have a lovely week in the lead-up to Easter!
Meg
I really enjoy your blog! So calming and domestic, but with the prudence of a good steward with God's gifts. Thank you for your continued encouragement and ideas Wendy.
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