This week I've done a little gardening, lots of baking and cooking. I've also enjoyed decluttering a cupboard or two then took some time to rest.
Here is my week of savings -
* I've been wanting to try to make my own muesli bars with ingredients I like. I'm not a fan of chocolate or yoghurt drizzled on muesli bars. So I found a recipe for crunchy muesli bars when I did a Google search. The ' glue ' in the bars is peanut butter and honey and I must say they are delicious. Of course I tweaked the recipe to suit the ingredients I had in the pantry. Darren has been taking them to work and he's super impressed. I'll share the recipe shortly when I've fine tuned it.
* We used our thermos each day for breakfast and morning tea cuppas. If there was any water left at dinnertime, I used it for cooking potatoes or rice in a saucepan.
* I dried the washing outside when the weather allowed. Otherwise it was put on clotheshorses over our ducted heating vents.
* I cleaned out one of our ovens with kitchen detergent, water and a cheap version of the magic eraser. On the oven racks I used a steel wool pad. I haven't used oven cleaner on these ovens since they were installed back in 2016.
* Our curtains were fully open on the sunny days even if it was a little cold outside. Our family room gets the full morning Sun from about 7.30am. As soon as I open the curtain, I'm met with waves of warmth.
* I donated a few bags of unwanted items to Savers and received 20% off discount vouchers in return. I always have a quick look on the shelves and this week I picked up a few presents for Christmas ( minus the discount ).
* I gratefully received about 12 potatoes leftover from a catered dinner. I've used them to bulk out a soup as well as for a few dinners.
* I picked feijoas, beans, pears and silverbeet from our garden. With vegetable prices still being too expensive, we are trying to eat silverbeet 3 times a week.
* I made a big pot of vegetable soup using zucchinis from our garden, the blessing of potatoes, 250g of beef mince, corn, pasta, 1/2 a tin of tomatoes, carrots and seasoning. From that pot I portioned out 15 serves. We had some for dinner that night and the rest went into the freezer for lunches and dinners.
* I made up a spray bottle of laundry stain remover. Years ago I received 8 bottles of an ' in wash ' stain remover. through a charity. It's quite thick so I dilute it down with water and pour it into a spray bottle to target stains before I put the washing on. I still have 3 or 4 bottles left and with the way I dilute it, they'll last for many more years.
* I baked choc chip biscuits twice this week for morning teas using dough from the freezer.
 |
| Look what's growing in a flower bed |
 |
| A ray of sunshine |
 |
| I dilute this down |
 |
| Using a recycled spray bottle |
 |
| Muesli bars before baking. |
Your muesli bars look amazing, looking forward to the recipe. Melanie
ReplyDeleteThose bright yellow flowers are so vibrant and cheerful, Wendy, and your muesli bars look yum! I make an oat and choc-chip bar for my son's lunchbox. I do a lot of home baking of things like oat bars and granola to replace store-bought boxed cereals and bars. Last night, after a really long day at work, I thought how easy it would be to grab takeaway on way home but we had simple toasted sandwiches and carrot sticks instead and that was quick and easy to make, filling, tasty and cost a lot less. Other frugal things:
ReplyDelete* made a big pot of vegetable soup last weekend, using some soup mix with lentils, split peas etc. I had this for lunch with slice of bread and butter or a homemade muffin all week. We also had enough for a dinner one evening too.
* made large pot of pasta sauce using tinned lentils, grated carrot and zucchini to make more and stretch the small amount of beef mince I used. This made two large serves and several single serves went in freezer.
* we were gifted some scrumptious salted nuts as a thank you and also received a bag of limes from a friend. Really appreciated this generosity.
* picked some young kale leaves and some perpetual spinach leaves from our small veg patch for breakfast omelettes.
* hung washing out in the sun or on racks when weather showery.
* bought a set of flanellette sheets from Aldi.
Have a lovely week!
Meg
Managed to snag a few clearance bargains on paper towel and dishwasher tablets this week at the supermarket so don’t need to buy dishwasher tablets for a year now or paper towel for at least 3 or 4 months.
ReplyDeleteThose muesli bars look delicious, I shall definitely make some when you share the recipe x
ReplyDeleteI make a similar soup to yours but use half that amount of mince and add a tin of cheap tomatoes and soup mix. Makes for a hearty winter soup.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were married (50 years ago) the recipe came with a namco pressure cooker. It was called Hamburg soup and my grandchildren nicknamed it hamburger soup.
My husband and I both enjoy reading your blog.
Those Muesli bars look delicious. I can't wait for the fine tuned recipe.
ReplyDelete