While the weather here in Melbourne has been icy cold, the Gower Abundant Cottage has been cosy warm ( most of the time ). The draught stoppers are on the doors, the throw blankets are in easy reach in the loungeroom and an extra blanket has been put on the beds. The ducted heating vent deflectors are doing an amazing job of keeping the hot air away from the windows.
Here's how we saved money this week -
* As per usual at the start of the month, I cleaned the dishwasher using bi carb and vinegar. I run it on the longest, hottest cycle.
* I refilled the foaming hand wash pumps using cheap shower gel and cooled, boiled water.
* I descaled the kettle by using citric acid and boiling the kettle ( with water in it ).
* I used gifted supermarket paper bags for our household rubbish.
* My eyeliner was getting quite low so I gently pulled up the remaining amount from it's holder. I've made it last another 2 months with maybe another week or two remaining. I just forgot to mention it when I originally did this back in May.
* Darren and I enjoyed eating mandarins from our trees for the first time ever. Growing mandarins has been a long battle in our backyard. Originally we had a tree growing in the ground around 2012. It just didn't grow, then eventually up and died. In 2014 we planted another tree and that struggled too. It was over run by ants then eventually that died as well. Fast forward to maybe 2019 / 2020 and I decided to try growing mandarins once more but this time in big pots. I thought if I could control the growing conditions a bit more it might have a better chance.
That first tree seemed to grow well so I took the plunge and bought another. Now we have both trees fruiting and this is the first year the fruit is big enough to eat. One tree has over 40 mandarins on it. The other tree is soldering on and has about 5 mandarins.
* I froze the last of the gifted oranges. I ran out of time to juice or blitz them so in the freezer they went.
* I made a big pot of chicken stock from two chicken carcasses leftover from a lunch we had at our place last Sunday. I didn't have enough veggies to make it into soup so the stock was divided into smaller portions and frozen for future soup making days.
* I refilled the gravy powder jar and seasoned flour jar with ingredients I had on hand. I'm not a fan of the salty store bought gravy powder. I still have a packet of no name gravy powder to use so I include a couple of tablespoons of that, plain flour, onion flakes, celery powder, garlic granules, parsley and paprika ( for color ) to the jar and give it a good shake. The seasoned flour is made up of plain flour, mixed herbs, salt and garlic. The seasoned flour is used to coat fish, potato cakes ( made from mash ) and chicken drumsticks.
* I baked choc chip biscuits ( cookies ) for our afternoon tea. We also ate pumpkin muffins and whole orange cake ( made into little cakes ) from the freezer.
* Our cheapest meals this week were
- Chunky chicken and veg soup for a few lunches
- Spag bol with leftover bread stick made into garlic bread
- Darren's lamb pies ( made with meat on clearance ) and steamed veg.
LINKS -
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| Refilling the jars |
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| Mandarins from our tree |
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| Choc chip biscuits for snacks |
Wow the mandarins look amazing, worth keeping at it over the years when they are like this. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane
ReplyDeleteThankyou Kathy. They are delicious.
DeleteHi Wendy, just read your Saturday post and one thing stood out concerning your mandarin trees - when any citrus tree is overrun by ants or even a few ants, take a really good look at the tree and more than likely you will find the tree has scale - brownish small lumps along the stems that can be removed with your fingernail - the ants "farm" the scale as scale gives off a delicious to ants nectar, so the ants virtually protect the scale - when there are loads of ants then the tree has lots of scale which puts it in a precarious situation, but one that can be remedied with the right approach - a nursery will tell you how. So do remember to keep a close eye on your citrus - even in pots. You had a productive week. I do really enjoy catching up with your happenings every Saturday - makes me try just that little bit harder and gives me plenty of food for thought. Jenny
ReplyDeleteThankyou for the info Jenny. We'll be keeping a look out.
DeleteIt's lovely that you are now enjoying homegrown mandarins, Wendy. We have a tree in our garden that's quite old now and not looking so healthy this year unfortunately. We've not had fruit this year.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a busy week for us; one night we had frozen pizza from Aldi and I added mushrooms (crisper) and pineapple (pantry). I made a simple salad from veg in the crisper to go with it. While not homemade pizza, far cheaper than takeaway. Tonight I'm making roast chicken and veg and tomorrow I plan on making another big tray of lasagna. These will give us extra serves for the freezer. I boiled some eggs and we had those on sandwiches with lettuce and homegrown cherry tomatoes. I find it's far easier to be frugal when I'm organised! Have a lovely week.
Meg
I think you are very organised Meg. Homemade lasagne is so good. I find it stretches further when I add grated carrot, zucchini and shredded silverbeet.
DeleteAs you are freezing, we are roasting. We have been having heat advisories all week with temps over 37.7 and very high humidity. Icy temps sound kind of good to me right now.
ReplyDeleteAnne, it's not too bad here. I do prefer the cold to the blazing heat we get ( over 40 at times ).
DeleteOh goodness, will you please share the recipe for orange cake?
ReplyDeleteIt's in the recipe section under baking. Enjoy.
DeleteHi Wendy, I've just come across your blog & have read some great tips. I was unaware making your own bread was so cost effective & will be definitely giving this a try. I bought a bag of oranges recently which haven't been used, so I will now be freezing them until I use them, so they won't be wasted, another great tip. Thankyou!!!!.
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa and welcome. I have a recipe for whole orange cake in the recipe section. It's very yummy and a big hit when I take it to functions.
DeleteHello, new here and I love your tips and tricks. Can you please give me the measurements of your grace mix ingredients? You're right store bought is loaded with salt. Thanks
ReplyDeleteAre you asking about the gravy mix ? If so, I don't measure. It's a good shake of most things and a couple of tablespoons of gravy powder and beef stock powder.
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